Beating a dead horse

[vernard]

The City That Bush Forgot

I'm blaming Bush because its his job to be the guy at the top to get blamed when bad stuff happens on his watch. Sorry, but that is the way it is if you are going to be the "leader of the free world" so to speak.

Its enough to make me want to go into politics to fix this kind of stupid stuff.

EDIT:
This is what I get for cutting from a Windows machine and trying to paste into a Linux window *sigh*. I just turned the blasted windows box off like I should have to start with :-) Unfortunately I can't find the link that I was origianlly peddling. To summarize, it basically talked about how there was actually NO actual evacuation plans for the city of New Orleans. There was reference to a university professor that had evidence of the inadequacy of the levees, some really body cronyism regarding the folks that were contracted to actually design and distribute the evacuation plan and of course the actual knowledge of when the levees broke. Lots of smoking guns. If I do find it, I'll definitely post it.

EDIT 2: Thanks to st_darwin for finding the link to the article for me. Now I preface this with the fact that this is a finger-pointing type article that is not kind to Bush at all so make sure to have your salt-shaker close at hand when reading it. Also make sure to read the responsezx by st_dwivian and st_darwin as well as they both point out even more useful and interesting facts about the situation as well.

Comments

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

Bush should fix metaphors?

[dwivian]

This is his way of saying Bush is at the top of the tree, and thus isn't rotten. I think we may be witnessing "drunk posting", since I'm pretty sure that's not the opinion V normally espouses...

[vernard.livejournal.com]

It was a mispast. I'll see if I can dig up the original article on the web. Its a good read even when you through out its obvious anti-Bush spin.

[dwivian]

I know.... was being silly....

I read the lower article, if it is the same one.

It's woefully deficient. FEMA's plan is for evacuation assistance. The road redirections for interstates, stationing food depots, getting fuel delivery in place, etc. All of that DID exist, and worked (though somewhat badly, honestly).

Specific evacuation plans for cities are the responsibility of the state's DHS division (for Louisiana, the LEMA group), and they claimed to have a plan. Alas, the plan was never propogated, so when it relied on bus drivers that had already left town (because they didn't know to stay), it was destined for failure.

The fault for New Orleans's evacuation woes lies at Mayor Nagin's and Govenor Blanco's feet, first. After that we can get up to the federal level. The primary fault fell on Governor Blanco for failing to do a pre-emptive declaration of disaster (standard operation in every other state) so that the Federal government would be authorized to start staging relief efforts.

As much as the anti-Federalists moan, it is amazing just how much authority still resides in the office of the Governor for each state. Act without their request and you commit major political gaffes. Can't you imagine the "Bush ran roughshod over the FEMALE governor! Sexist!" message that would have been trotted out immediately after, just as the "Bush doesn't care about black people" one that was after moving into New Orleans when Nagin delayed?

Now, having said that -- FEMA is a farce, and it got that way not because of Bush, but because of the Republican Congress that gutted the budget and made it a child of DHS. Daft, I tells ya!

[st-darwin.livejournal.com]

Speaking of sadly deficient...

Blanco declared a state of emergency on August 28, three days prior to Katrina landfall. Also interesting that you ignore the Republican tradition of putting disasters in charge of FEMA, instead of disaster professionals.

[dwivian]

Yes, woefully deficient -- FEMA was mobilized on 26 August, and was stuck waiting on Blanco. Blanco declared the preliminary disaster only three days before landfall (when threats were seen a week out, and other states declared at that time, which is why FEMA made their mobilization start on the 26th, including medical deployments on the 29th, two days prior to landfall).

There is no Republican tradition for FEMA. There is a FEMA tradition of failure, yes, but it isn't "Republican".... FEMA has been mangled as a result of how it exists after the realignment of regional Civil Defense system (I used to work as a First Responder in this system, back in the day). The realignment began under the Democrats and continued under the Republicans, who really screwed it when it got stuck under DHS. There will be no difference in FEMA under the Democrats, I fear, as it is so far down their radar as to be a non-issue. The continued failures won't become a "Democrat" tradition at that point, but merely be another chapter in the mess that arose when centralization of planning was attempted to handle what are, by definition, regional events.

[nisie.livejournal.com]

I'm a government employee for one of the divisions of the department of labor. I'm low level, but I do authorize the spending of tax payer dollars and the work of others on my team. If there is a mistake on my watch, I am first responsable, then my boss is, and then her boss, then her boss, and then another boss, and then Micheal Thurman... unless, because I use federal taxes, you want to go from her boss to the committee, that over sees the function, then to the department the supervisor of auditors, then to the department of labor, then to the cabinet member and then to the president.

But I made the mistake and all the finger pointing in the world doesn't erase my mistake.

[st-darwin.livejournal.com]

Looks like a mis-paste, here's an article named "The City That Bush Forgot, don't know if it's the one V was thinking of.

There's a lot of blame to go around, but Bush deserves to take heat for what happened during Katrina and afterward. On the other hand, we haven't heard a lot about New Orleans from the Democrats, but hopefully that will change soon. Well before the next hurricane hits the area, I hope.

[st-darwin.livejournal.com]

V, is this Greg Palast article the one you were thinking of?

[vernard.livejournal.com]

yes, thanks for finding it for me!

Dude. You need to either come down to Atlanta soon or I need to head up that way. Its been way too long since we've had a chance to sit down and catch up .

[cookingwithgas.livejournal.com]

You have my vote.

[jumanji-jo.livejournal.com]

watch the 'Daily Show' - they constantly point out these inadequacies with the perpetrators' own words... why has the Bush administration forgotten- when someone films you, it doesn't go away!