This Disaster was Politicized the day Bush cut the 71 million for the levees.
It was politicized the day Bush diverted National Guard troops to Iraq instead of protecting our Nation.
At Eschacon someone made a very insightful comment. The Bush Administration likes to bend time after they fail to react. Watch for it and don't let them get away with it.
The reason they are so slow on disasters? Because they loath doing anything that looks like what Bill Clinton would do, "We hate that 'I feel your pain' shit." So when they are slow to react they try and pretend they are "gathering data."
The don't do policy, the do politics. Policy is prep and response. Politics is prespin and re-spin until the narrative they want is out. They will use all their resources to push the blame elsewhere until they finally get their act together.
Watch for them as they pull the "We couldn't have known, it's an act of God" shit. Well guess what. Bush and Fema have access to the most sophisticated weather forecasts in the world. Global Weather Central is used by the military to provide the best weather info money can buy, because troops lives depend on it. They KNEW and didn't DO. If they didn't know then the are so incompetent they should all be fired and impeached. No Medals of Freedom. Handcuff and manacles.
Do you think that any other President in our history would have been goofing around during the run up to this storm? Is it because they don't believe in science?
I heard some asshole call up ESPN and try and blame the people for not leaving. Fortunately the SPORTS reporter had head some FACTS about the resources of the people and questioned the caller. "Sir, do you have a car?"
"Yes, but these people...
SIR these people don't have cars.
But if I was there I would have done whatever to get out of town
SIR do you have money to get of town,
Yes, but...
Disgusting.
4,164 troops from the National Guard of LA are in Iraq. Do you think that they and their resources might have helped.
Instead of letting "The Market" decide what to do about Gas prices why doesn't the Government say, "Caps on Gas for the duration."
No construction profiteering.
As the most wonderful Athena said over at First Draft, this would require leadership and an admission that Government is good for something. That is what they do not have and will not do.
At Eschacon someone made a very insightful comment. The Bush Administration likes to bend time after they fail to react. Watch for it and don't let them get away with it.
The reason they are so slow on disasters? Because they loath doing anything that looks like what Bill Clinton would do, "We hate that 'I feel your pain' shit." So when they are slow to react they try and pretend they are "gathering data."
The don't do policy, the do politics. Policy is prep and response. Politics is prespin and re-spin until the narrative they want is out. They will use all their resources to push the blame elsewhere until they finally get their act together.
Watch for them as they pull the "We couldn't have known, it's an act of God" shit. Well guess what. Bush and Fema have access to the most sophisticated weather forecasts in the world. Global Weather Central is used by the military to provide the best weather info money can buy, because troops lives depend on it. They KNEW and didn't DO. If they didn't know then the are so incompetent they should all be fired and impeached. No Medals of Freedom. Handcuff and manacles.
Do you think that any other President in our history would have been goofing around during the run up to this storm? Is it because they don't believe in science?
I heard some asshole call up ESPN and try and blame the people for not leaving. Fortunately the SPORTS reporter had head some FACTS about the resources of the people and questioned the caller. "Sir, do you have a car?"
"Yes, but these people...
SIR these people don't have cars.
But if I was there I would have done whatever to get out of town
SIR do you have money to get of town,
Yes, but...
Disgusting.
4,164 troops from the National Guard of LA are in Iraq. Do you think that they and their resources might have helped.
Instead of letting "The Market" decide what to do about Gas prices why doesn't the Government say, "Caps on Gas for the duration."
No construction profiteering.
As the most wonderful Athena said over at First Draft, this would require leadership and an admission that Government is good for something. That is what they do not have and will not do.
9 Comments:
The casual indifference that Bush showed and the fake photo-op he finally posed for (looking weirdly 'concerned' in the fly over and posing in front of borrowed equipment in another hugging rather light-skinned black women) will not save this man's ass.
People do not forget the smell of rotting bodies. This has gone way beyond forgiving and forgetting.
Maybe that's why the race card is being played rather heavy-handedly. Bush and Rove must be panicking.
Yo Spocko where are your ESCHACON photos?
Did you check out N-Todd's you are featured....
Yes Bush must have summoned up a hurricane and hurled it against his enemies in New Orleans. And they say lefties don't believe in God.
Seriously,- what a bunch of nonsense- as if- "if only the budget hadn't been cut by Bush". Well as this article shows- Clinton spent Tons of money during his terms http://eurota.blogspot.com/2005/09/us-left-all-straws-clutched-every.html
Reduced to a nutshell:
0 cut-1995
303 Million 1996
106 Million 1999
unknown from search but reduced from the proposed amount- 2000
from Times-Picayune 5/2005
"In its aftermath, Congress created a new role for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and federal and local governments spent more than a half-billion dollars to widen and line drainage canals, bury culverts bigger than cars and beef up pumping stations.
But not even those improvements could prevent massive flooding if a storm of similar intensity were to strike today."
Did the local government just get surprised by the hurricane? Hardly, from Civil Engineering Magazine: http://www.pubs.asce.org/ceonline/ceonline03/0603feat.html
"For the most part, New Orleans does not have places for people to go. The American Red Cross no longer provides emergency shelters in the city because its officials cannot guarantee the structural integrity of the locations. There simply are not enough buildings in the area that could withstand the forces of a category 4 or 5 storm.
During the past 10 years Marc Levitan, a wind and structural engineer and the director of LSU’s Hurricane Center, has been involved in hundreds of building investigations throughout New Orleans to determine if certain structures could be used as so-called refuges of last resort. “With the vast majority of them, if you really do an analysis, you really wouldn’t want to use them,” he says. “They all have some sort of deficiency.”"
"“New Orleans is right there,” Dokka (geology professor at LSU and the head of the Louisiana Spatial Reference Center) says, pointing to a graphic illustration of his research on a computer screen. “But I guarantee you that won’t last, because the ocean is right there on both sides, and any kind of storm is going to take out that area.”
Such dire predictions would seem to favor a drastic solution, such as the Coast 2050 Plan. But Dokka is not easily convinced. “They’re not going to dump freshwater on the areas where people live,” he says. “Even if they haul up the flag of victory and save the wetlands, these areas where people live will not be saved.” "
As far as blaming the feds goes- FEMA is an assistance agency- they help manage the assets available - including federal. The people of New Orleans knew this could happen and chose not to prepare for it. I can't find ANY references to a request from the state of LA for help with preparedness funding. If the state chose not to prepare why is FEMA supposed to pick up the slack? They have the whole country worry about. Louisiana had 1 city that was known to be in trouble during hurricane season. It's sad what's happening down there but it's certainly not the federal government’s fault- past or present.
More info- Here's a link the the City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
A plan that the mayor NEVER enacted.
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26
For those that were told that they should walk to the superdome- the mayor had promised something different:
"The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed. When specific routes of progress are required, evacuees will be directed to those routes. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed. "
It's true what they say- fail to plan- plan to fail. All the planning in the world is useless if you never follow the plan.
Jim: Thanks for posting. Yes I agree, Karl Rove didn't use his weather control device to gen up a storm. I mean his is powerful, but not THAT powerful...
However this is about the response. I'm out of town just now, so I can't go through your comments. You are right there is plenty of blame to go around. Just as the state and city share responsibility so does the Federal Government. For example if Nagin isn't a good emergency services guy, where is his? In SF we have two great Emergency services people. I've worked with them, but even they know when an emergency is out of their scope. One of the things they set up was NERT so that the people in the Neigherborhoods can takecare of each other until external help arrives. New Orleans could have used that, but then again as they say, "No plan survives the first moments of battle."
I'd like to recommend you check out Keith Olbermann for some points that made sense to me.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/
When local governments are overwhelmed they need professional help. Right now FEMA is staffed by unqualified political appointees.
In SF, where I live, they also try and prepare for a disaster, but sometimes it takes the outside help.
People always like to quote Harry Truman "The Buck Stops here", but I don't know if people realize how radical that was at the time and how rare it has become in this government. The first impulse with politicians is NOT to take responsibility. This applies to MOST politicians, but again as Olbermann states, this admin has been touting that they are the ones that can handle this, "The Grown ups." Grown up take responsibility, they don't blame the kids for not knowing how to do everything perfect.
Also, you need to be aware of the political talking points that are being placed out in punditsphere. They are pushing the blame locally.
They are Starting to bend time (see Newsweek's error) and pretending they couldn't have known.
This is not surprising, what is surprising is the media actually were out there asking tough questions before the spinners got in place.
Also, they will try and change the subject as quick as possible.
I pay attention to these trends in spinning. When I saw the switch to Chief Justice for Roberts I thought, good one, Karl!
Again, thanks for posting. I wish I had more time to discuss your comments and consider them. I'm back in town next week.
LLAP
Spocko
Hey Jim
Yeah, Clinton spent money alright, on things that worked.
This has been coming down the tubes awhile, and face it, boyo, he cut the budget against the recommendation of the Corps of Engineers for the flood wall.
Bush propagated a war to enrich his oil buddies, and diverted the National Guard to do the dirty work.
He hired the FEMA and DHS clowns that enjoy throwing their weight around more than doing their jobs.
He fired the competent military and promoted sycophants instead.
He didn't conjure up anything, but he's actively suppressed the NOAA's attempts to educate the nation on global warming and the need to develop non-fossil fuel alternatives.
Bush is the head of the worst criminal syndicate in American history.
That's a fact.
Spocko,
Although I disagree with your posts (they are not logical), I do appreciate your skills as a moderator (Sarak would be envious if he could feel envy). Having lived in Orleans Parish and across the lake, what happened was not unexpected. This time New Orleans did not get lucky. The danger of a direct hit has been well known in Louisana and nothing has been done about it. Federal matching funds have gone unused due to lack of state interest in funding levee projects. Since Hurricane Jorge (1997? 1998?), the city has known that about 112,000 people have no way to evacuate, and yet it appears that no plan was put in place. The Superdome was used before as a shelter with poor results, an yet no supplies were stockpiled for the people who sheltered there. I will not disagree that the federal response could have been better, but the added burden of poor city and state planning drew relief away from the other hard hit cities in Louisiana and Mississippi. By the way, Karl Rove would not have wasted his weather machine on New Orleans, the state is reliably red, and the ones who had no way out do not vote in large numbers. Karl tells me it would not have been logical (he is targeting Minneapolis).
Kelley B,
Things that worked? If 20 feet of water is your definition of worked, well OK. After half a billion down the drain, so to speak, I don't think that what the enginneers wanted would have helped.
The war and global warming et al are off topic so I won't respond other than I disagree.
Spocko: I agree that when a local government is overwhelmed it should be able to ask for professional help. However in this case, when the feds saw that the local response was inadequate and offered help, the governor said no. I don't think the government is obligated to offer( they should wait for a request)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050906-093817-7790r.htm
As well, don't ignore the news story developed by Fox News that the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security (State, not Federal) would not allow the Red Cross to provide pre-positioned supplies of food, water, and hygene kits to the Superdome and convention center. The supplies may not have taken care of all of the needs at those locations, but they would have helped. I understand, but have not checked, that supporting information is on the Red Cross website.
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