<p>Back to Cheney:</p>
<p>since a sense of humor is a wonderfull thing-- I’ll opine that Cheney is working double overtime on getting Halliburton the Katrina cleanup gig.</p>
<p>Whatever the mayor did or didn’t do, the Feds still did a lousey job,or do some people believe that afterwards, that the Feds did a good job getting in food and water, talk about that for just a minute, did the Feds deal with what they were given well? After 4 days they get them water and food, and that is okay with you…those people should not have been there, but since they were, do you think the Feds had any kind of plan, since FEMAS main job is to deal with the aftermath of an evert, did FEMA have ti together to deal with the mess? With 100 people dying from dehydration outside of NO, you think FEMA and DHS did a good job outside of NO?</p>
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<p>See post 171.</p>
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<p>Apart from being a prospective Republican candidate for president, Romney has experience bailing out the Olympics out a financial mess and restoring its scandal-stained image. M. Brown has experience running the International Arabian Horses Association into the ground by his mismanagement.</p>
<p>There were a few things wrong with that Yahoo article Marite, the most glaring being that Richardson needed the OK from DC to deploy his Guard units–he didn’t. The paperwork Richardson was waiting for was that which guaranteed that the Feds would reimburse New Mexico. But Governor Blanco had 7000 of her own Guard available, including 3500 who had been called to duty…what did she do with them? And as long as we’re being critical of people’s CVs, maybe electing a schoolteacher governor in a state that has frequent natural disasters wasn’t such a good idea.</p>
<p>“since a sense of humor is a wonderfull thing-- I’ll opine that Cheney is working double overtime on getting Halliburton the Katrina cleanup gig.”</p>
<p>Actually, already did - Halliburton yesterday was awarded three contracts for the cleanup and restoration of naval bases in Mississippi.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/business/3335685[/url]”>http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/business/3335685</a></p>
<p>Job well done!</p>
<p>Best company for jobs of such magnitude. Contracts awarded because they won the selective bidding process two years ago. Imagine the griping there would be here if there weren’t a company in place to handle this, and we had to go through a long selection/bid process now.</p>
<p>Of course they are the best company! The Vice President used to be the CEO! (Maybe they can run Arabian horse shows on the bases to keep the citizens amused.;))</p>
<p>Driver:<br>
Good point on Richardson. But it does not excuse FEMA and Brown or make him any better qualified.</p>
<p>“selective” bidding process…yep…</p>
<p>if this was a terrorist attack, and it was totally FEMA and DHS, do you think they could handle it?</p>
<p>I sure don’t</p>
<p>Blanco Appoints Witt
<a href=“http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076582[/url]”>http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076582</a></p>
<p>For a profile of Witt, see:
Miracle Worker
Bush longs for James Lee Witt, the Clinton man he should have kept.
By Bruce Reed
<a href=“Miracle worker.”>Miracle worker.;
<p>Blanco should appoint Witt as Lt. Governor, and then resign. Reed is overly partisan in his piece; the White House, far from being “quick to point out that Tenet was a Clinton hold-over” at CIA after 9-11, actually came strongly to his defense, much to the dismay of his base. Keeping Witt and jettisoning Tenet instead would probably have been a good tradeoff–but did Witt want to stay? These questions are never as simple as the pundits make them out to be. But Witt couldn’t have done anything to lessen the massive failure on the part of the Louisiana leadership.</p>
<p>Agree, the Tenet reference was a cheap shot.
Granted the Louisiana leadership did not cover itself in glory, Witt could not have prevented its deficiencies, though I think he would have been far more proactive than Chertoff and Brown. Unlike 9/11, there was some warning and some time to plan and coordinate. Witt would not have sat back and waited to be asked.</p>
<p>The massive failure of the Federal Agencies is coming out, more every minute</p>
<p>Keep defending the Bush Adminsitration and never admit they have made a mistake</p>
<p>When soeone sees no errors on the part of an entity as large as our Executive Branch, one has to wonder about pbjectivity</p>
<p>If a person can not see that there have been problems with the Adminstrations handling of this disastor and that it has been to slow, well, what can I say…if this is good enough for you, the country is in deep trouble</p>
<p>Xiggs, Consider this: as a poster who was very disturbed about the shots of thousands lined up in the rain to get INTO the Superdome BEFORE the hurricane, I was lambasted by CC parents for that early questioning. Lambasted and told to get lost, in fact. Hence this particular thread.</p>
<p>Imagine what might have happened if more media outlets and more Americans leaders had been as outraged as I was at those initial shots? Imagine if they had moved at that moment to evacuate those poor souls? </p>
<p>Instead, as Jesse Jackson rightly pointed out, Americans have a high tolerance for black pain. No one of consequence did anything to redirect that early inhumane treatment and the consequences were more dreadful than we yet know.</p>
<p>Frankly, scolding and refusing to analyze is an aspect of anti-intellectualism that is NOT helpful in a crisis–though personalizing the blame (Big Bad Bush or Brown the Boob) is pretty useless too. Ultimately, help was delivered because the Mayor and CNN escalated the rhetoric, some of which contained blame. A crisis needs the best and brightest minds to delve into it. Immediately. So says me.</p>
<p>Obviously, there were huge failures across the local, state, and federal government levels. Plenty of blame to go around. Shame on U.S… That about covers it.</p>
<p>I found this on dailykos </p>
<p>From the Homeland Security website: </p>
<p>“In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. *The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America’s families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS”</p>
<p>Looks to me like primary responsibility belongs to Homeland Security which FEMA is now under- Not necessarily the governor or the mayor.</p>
<p>No, Liz. Then we would have all federal fire departments, police forces, and EMT squads. The primary reasons for state and local governments would disappear, along with our extremely effective volunteer organizations. That’s never been the intention of FEMA, Homeland Security, or the federal government, although they all certainly have a role.</p>
<p>“Shame on U.S… That about covers it.”<br>
Cheers, I do think that comment about covers the attitude of many who are fond of criticizing our country–not with any sense of constructive suggestion-- but with an inexplicable desire to damage our national psyche and resolve.</p>
<p>Oh, Driver, come on! My Party, right or wrong?</p>
<p>Saying that we can and should do better isn’t the same as saying “Shame on the U.S.” That’s the same crap we heard from those who blamed the US for the terrorist assaults on 9-11. I have no respect for, or patience with that point of view. </p>
<p>As has always been the case, there is a huge outpouring of funds and assistance to help the victims of NO, and yes, the victims in Mississipi and Alabama, whose state and local authorities handled their very severe situation with guts and maturity. I’m tired of the thumbsucking view that every time there’s a breakdown in civic responibility it’s the federal government’s fault. Our country is too large for that, and we are in fact capable of self-government at the state and local level. This isn’t Western Europe, just because the government of our local banana republic failed to rise to an important occasion.</p>
<p>The governor of Louisiana had the manpower and the resources to, at the very least, drop supplies off to the people who were stranded in publicly visible locations. And the federal agencies who were queuing up to come to the governor’s assistance had every reason to believe that she, the governor, could and would handle those needs in the first few days after the crisis appeared.</p>
<p>To all, particularly driver: The responsibility for preparing and responding to multi-state disasters is clearly at the Federal Door…much of what was once the states responsibility was moved to the Federal Government under HR5005 the Homeland Security Act. Here are some parts of sections that I find relevant.</p>
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<p>This is why I understand the relief effort was to be under the Federal Direction…there are sections of the bill which also say that they are responsible for building a Federal, State and local government system to deal with disasters. Could you tell me which portions of the bill I misread, I am always willing to learn… Most of the above quotes come from the Bill sponsors memo…it was easier than cutting and pasting the actual bill.</p>
<p>My Goodness, driver, you have not national pride, you want everything done on the state level, what is our government there for, What is the Presidents job, then? What is the DHS securities job then…WHy have any national government at all.</p>
<p>I get it now. Do you pay taxes? Do you use the airlines? Do you buy goods? Seriouslly, we are a nation that shares, and we are a nation that counts on each other. But guess you like your cave.</p>
<p>What state do you live in by the way? I live in California</p>