"Angry state officials accuse the White House of ignoring warnings that it's focus on terror left the nation unprepared to cope with natural disasters"
Oh, yeah,....like I said here, the MSM is circling now, blood in the water ....
"Damn it, we got 'em, we got that Bush!"...
Isokoff and Hosenball rehash the same/lame story of the week, that this catastrophe is all the Bush administration and that "horse trader" FEMA dolt Michael Brown's screw up.
"It's true, just ask Mayor Ray Nagin!"
You know, If it weren't so sad, it would be comical.
Since last I've been hammering away at the inept response -first and foremost of the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisianna (who still can't get on the same page) for their utter incompetence in the preparation, and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The Democratic chorus of the usual suspects of Senators Leahy, Nancy Pelosi and the rest, putting on their respective emotional acts on in front of the camera today, notwithstanding, let's not forget the whole idea of a Department of Homeland Security was their idea - not the Administrations.
Be careful what you ask for.
Actually in the beginning the last thing the Bush administration and most Republicans wanted was a big Government "White Elephant". Only after Democrats bitched and moaned did Bush and the Replican's relent and the Law was signed in 2002 creating the Department. In fact, you want to get techical, Senator Hillary Clinton voted to put FEMA into the the Department of Homeland Security - a move she now criticize.
But while they would have you believe it's now broken and needs fixing and want yet another "Commission" (Like the 9/11 commission fixed anything) to look into things, let's stop yet again and reflect for a moment.
FEMA isn't broken.
The fact is that last year as four Hurricanes swooped through Florida, things went relatively smooth. I know, I lived through them all. Sure, there were a few problems - mostly dealing with FEMA paying fraudulent claims, but overall things went rather well. FEMA was on the ground and stay ahead of the game.
Yet something different happened in New Orleans with Katrina. Something went seriously wrong. So wrong that before Katrina cleared Tennessee and dissipated, Democrats and the MSM were laying the blame game on the Bush administration/FEMA.
From the get-go I found that, well, suspicious.
In the days that have followed I have studied every timeline, every article, every commentary I could get my hands on. I have tried to be objective as possible. Yes I'm a Bush supporter, but I've also been a Law Enforcement person, an Army Person where in both cases I actually was on the ground working during many different natural diasters over the years.
I wanted to know "What happened".
My conclusion is as I have said before, This was a major screw up, but not at the Federal level, but from the local and state level the magnitude of which we haven't seen in recent memory.
In a word, it was a "Clusterf_k!.
Believe me, if I could find one MAJOR problem with the Administration I would have called them on it, but the simple fact that aside from the asinine rantings of both reporters and some liberal and even conservative bloggers most of which have never had anything more serious happen to them than a dirty mouse pad, the truth is that in in a disaster of ANY magnitude the first responder AND the first responsibility is with the Local and State Government, of which at both level, in this case Democrats were in charge.
And they screwed it up BIG time. Can you imagine what went through the Democratic mind as events unfolded?
Echos of Karl Roves, "Liberals don't get 9/11" still dancing in their head.
You could almost hear a collective , "Damn it to hell, those two morons blew it!" coming straight from the DNC. "Quick, grab the "Bush on Vaction, Cheney /Halliburton, Abu Grab" cheat sheet talking points and let's get moving!"
Because of the inept "Moe and Larry" duo in Louisiana the Democrats have pulled out all the stops to throw the blame towards Bush through the use of a bias and compliant MSM.
"Deflection", or blame the other side before they find out you did it, is an old political trick, and it's very obvious. According to the polls taken so far, the public seems to be on to their game as well.
Otherwise there is no other possible explaination for the MSM completely missing the "real story" here, for missing the criminal incompetance shown by Nagin and Blanco, for missing all the obvious signs of a major screw up.
However, not all are missing it. Even day more and more is coming out ...
Even as I speak there is a story that Fox News's Major Garrett reported tonight that while all those people were trapped in the Superdome and the media and local and state governments were screaming at the Federal Government, "Where is the help?", it turns out it was there in the form of the Red Cross. It was RIGHT there -the food, water, medical supplies, BUT the State of Louisianna Homeland Security Department would NOT allow the Red Cross in.
Not FEMA, not Bush, not Rove - but the State of Louisiana - Governor Blanco's territory.
First Nagin doesn't get them out via those buses. Then the Governor denies them food, water and treatment. If that's not gross incompetence, the word doesn't exist.
For a good timeline on events visit AJ's Strata-Sphere. Also here.
UPDATE: I just found this little tidbit, the "outsourced NOLA Disaster Plan" from June of 2004. Happy reading! My comments to follow, but just a cursory glance, the City and State again - shall I say it? Screwed up!
Filed under Katrina disaster relief new orleans emergency response FEMA
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