The Left Criticizes Bush Administration on Levee Funding and In General
Sigh.
Here we go. The Bush-bashers have another horse to climb on; that is, the difference in Federal funding and state requests for funding on the levee system in New Orleans. Apparently, funding from the Feds was only about 50% of desired in the last few years. Sooo...of course the Angry Left sees this as another Bush-bashing opportunity, hoping the intelligent and thoughtful reader won't look too deeply into the truth.
This cartoon by Horsey of the P.I. epitomizes what I'm referring to: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=1257
The truth is that the Feds have given La. less than they asked for for decades due to a variety of issues, including the inability of the state to match funds which is a requirement for that sort of funding. And, it appears, the parts of the levee that broke, ironically, are those that have been shored up most recently.
If that's not enough, the Left also insinuates that the Bush Administration is slow-acting because the majority of affected citizens are black (!) and Jesse Jackson has criticized the lack of minorities in the relief effort (overlooking the fact that the head of the military relief effort in the 3 states is black).
Conclusions:
I share the feeling on the part of most folks that the whole relief effort has been a clusterfuck. It has been so disorganized and chaotic that it's hard not to criticize the leadership for the ineptness. Words cannot describe the situation at the N.O. convention center.
OTOH, being the survivor of a major hurricane myself, I know how these things work. To me, it seems that the structural failures started at the city and parish level. There was no clean-cut evacuation plan and apparently no surefire shelter plan. The Superdome as a shelter was a quickly made decision with no pre-planning and I don't know what the hell happened with the convention center.
The city was unprepared and relied (relies, actually), on the Feds to come in and bail them out. The Feds have the resources but don't have the local intelligence to do it efficiently. The locals cry "where are they!" for the Feds but the Feds don't have the local emergency planning documents to go where they are needed they would have if the local officials had planned accordingly.
The individuals involved are working their guts out but the big picture was mishandled, and not - primarily - by the Federal government.
Blame Bush? Hah! No, blame the New Orleans and Louisiana emergency planners who never dreamed this could happen and didn't know what to tell folks when it did. FEMA is trying to help and gaining control of the situation little by little. But it would have been much faster if there had been a plan.
7 comments:
I'm not going to argue with you about FEMA. I'm less than thrilled at their response. I don't know where the falldown was - even if the head of FEMA is a brainless political appointee, you'd think there are experienced senior level managers who still could have done the job right.
As to the disruptions from Bush's trip down there - happens every time the President wants to visit a stricken area. I know; I remember the problems Bush Sr's visit to So. Fla. caused after Andrew. I cringe when I hear the Prez is going to visit from memory. Not a Bush specific issue; happens every time there is a disaster and the Chief wants to go hand-holding.
Keep in mind FEMA is chartered to work with the area's first responders. And we certainly know where the first responders in that area weren't.
The natural disaster overwhelmed them all there.
Let me say it stronger after reading the FEMA bashing posts here.
FEMA is charged with working WITH first responders in a stricken area, NOT in place of the first responders.
A potty-mouthed Democrat mayor and a mostly invisible Democrat governor didn't do what they were supposed to do and I am sure that FEMA personnel saw that indecision all along the way. And there was some FEMA personnel in there the day BEFORE the hurricane had landfall.
Of course, if FEMA has no first responders to work with, nothing in particular will get done. FEMA is NOT an army of police and firefighters that will take over all city operations from the existing local police and firefighter crews.
At least Mike Brown has finally been removed as the head of FEMA, whether it was needed or not.
He became the sacrificial lamb, and, after all the criticisms, probably not an unwilling sacrificial lamb. He's not only been relieved, he probably is relieved.
I should have said he was removed as head of the FEMA effort on hurricane Katrina relief. I don't know if he's no longer the head of FEMA.
Maybe they still give him some credit for doing a credible job last year through the four hurricanes Florida suffered through.
Lies? Rather a strong word with no real backing.
And why does this have anything to do with tax cuts? Unless, of course, you're one of the many knee-biting liberals who want to use this disaster to overturn policies that they don't like. For shame.
SeattleSusieQ,
I just now read your "posts".
It is too hard to respond to your irrational rants.
We stay on topic of this event and you wander into the weeds of Cheney and Halliburton and every other Bush bashing talking point on the list.
Get over all that and stay on topic.
No response beyond this is necessary, because I won't be drug into the weeds with you.
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