Text 15009, 122 rader
Skriven 2005-09-06 22:43:26 av Gary Braswell (1:123/789.0)
  Kommentar till text 14853 av Stan Hardegree (1:379/1.2)
Ärende: More bad news for democra
=================================
Stan Hardegree -> VERN HUMPHREY wrote:
 TR>>> The one thing he did `not' explain was how the wide screen
 TR>>> televisions, ster set ups worth thousands of dollars, personal
 TR>>> computers, and firearms blacks are seen taking from stores,
 TR>>> are `necessities of survival'.

 VH>> The lesson is the mayor should have declared martial law
 VH>> earlier and secured the stores.  Then food could have been
 VH>> doled out in an orderly fashion.  Far less would have been
 VH>> spoiled and hogged, and people too weak to compete with the
 VH>> looters would have got their share. --- Platinum

 SH> 1.  First line responders in this situation (police, fire, rescue) are
 SH> under the operational control of Mayor Ray Nagin, but I don't hear
 SH> anyone criticizing him for anything beyond losing his temper on
television.

Oh I did. He was supposed to have made sure the pumps were working. He
did not and only one was working. He did little to nothing.


 SH> 2.  Second line responders (The Louisianna National Guard, Louisiana
 SH> Emergency Management) are under the operational control of Governor
 SH> Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and I've heard little criticism of her.

I did. Her declaration of an emergency and not following through on the
process, being vague on what help the state needed, not calling out the
Guard early enough.


 SH> 3.  Third line responders (FEMA, the Army, Navy, etc.) are under
 SH> operational control of President George Bush, and I have heard nothing
 SH> *but* criticism of him both from democrats and from idiots within my own
 SH> party.

My main worry about Bush which I have state here before is his governing
style. He has flat out said he delegates out, does not read newspapers
or watch TV as he has people to do that. He places his being informed
totally at the feet of others who may have their own political goals.

In this case, Chertoff had a TV on his desk and did not watch any of the
news coverage. He was unaware of the seriousness of the New Orleans
crisis because he chose to go the bureaucratic level and just talk to
people placed in charge of various things, who were equally out of
touch. When he was openly challenged on why he did not have the media
monitored, often the 1st on this kind of scene and often the only ones
with communication, he said he would have to study why this happened.

Fucking turn the TV on, moron. Sorry, the man is a hard core bureaucrat.

FEMA and Micheal Brown. This guy should be fired. It was not until 5
hours AFTER the hurricane hit that Brown sought approval from Chertoff
to send 1,000 Homeland Security personnel to the region AND he gave them
two days to get there!

Brown also put down for these people's duties was to portray a positive
image of the government response to victims. In his request to Chertoff
he chacterized the hurricane as a near-catastrophic event. But it lacked
any other urgency and ended with some schmarmy thank you for your
consideration.

Instead of rescuing the people and feeding them, his memo stated the
personnel would help them find what they need. How vague can you be?

 SH> I believe that the response to this situation was so delayed because
 SH> there is no template for dealing with a Cat 5 hurricane striking a
 SH> below-sea-level city.  The levees that failed were not designed to
 SH> withstand a Cat 5 storm for reasons that date back 40 years or more.
 SH> Based on the probablility of a Cat 5 storm hitting the city (.05 from
 SH> what I have read), political leaders and planners chose to fund the
 SH> construction only of Cat 3 levees.

Without a doubt the scale of the whole thing took all 3 levels of
government off guard. But even as it began to set in, they still did
little to nothing.


 SH> But you've got morons in here criticizing President Bush WHILE the
 SH> operation is underway.  These morons don't understand the lack of a
 SH> template that I mentioned, and they fail to realize that a rational
 SH> examimation of events AFTER the fact will go a long way toward creating
 SH> a template.

Bush is very loyal to his people and often stands beside people who do
him damage and this country little good. I agree with Gibson on Fox, he
should learn to say you are fired.

The template you speak of is actually the problem. Homeland Security and
FEMA had been carrying out scenarios of national and regional emergency
which numbered in the hundreds. They had chosen communities around the
country to practice out these scenarios. The problem is that out of the
several hundred scenarios, only 2 dealt with natural disasters. One of
the two was carried out in New Orleans. The disaster, a powerful
hurricane. In fact the reason why 80% of the city was able to quickly
evacuate was due to the very scenario in question.

The rest of the problem was the local, state and federal roles beyond
the initial evacuation was too slow to be implemented. They failed to
carry out the plan.

There is more than enough blame to go around here, from the local to the
 federal leven and even to Bush.

Is he responsible for the catastrophe? Of course not. But he does bear
part of the blame for the lack of response. The people he put in charge
and he trusted to inform him and get the job done, failed.

Thank God for the US military. They cleared the whole damn mess up
pretty damn quick.

Had they only been allowed in on Tuesday instead of Friday.


 SH> We don't put spit spewers like Sakowski in charge of anything important
 SH> for a reason.

Considering the performance of some of the people in charge in this
mess, I think Bob could have done no worse and certainly either one of
you would have done more out of sheer common sense.

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