Posted on 09/06/2005 10:16:17 PM PDT by tallhappy
Too many sitcoms and Hollyweird fare viewed by MSM and the Shepple, everyone knows no problem goes unsolved for over an hour.
The MSM has done more to depress and demoralize America and smear our image at home and abroad than Katrina ever could. Nothing from the MSM 24 and 7 but negativity, ineptness and a uncaring federal government for the victims has been forthcoming from them. The MSM & left wing kooks could only not wait until the dead were buried before their sky is falling scream. They could not even wait for living to be rescued and helped or the dead to be found and counted.
The MSM has lost all sense of reality and rational thought. Either they have not grasped, or worse yet, are ignoring, the sheer scope and enormity of this disaster. They would pick out whatever was within their limited camera range and that became "their" world as they saw it. Then inserting their slanted, uinformed, all is bad verbalization, to then be transmitted for viewing around the real world.
It is impossible to seek out each victim, give them individual care, comfort and make their lives right again, within a matter of hours. In a disaster of this magnitude, it takes time, not in hours, but in days, to mobilize and move massive human assets and material resources forward, and then to put those entities into effective action where required.
Governor Blanco of Louisiana, under the constitution, is responsible for recognizing the problems and implementing their in place plans of action. If Bush had told her, go to hell, he was federalizing the operation. The same ones yelling the loudest about inaction, would now be screaming that by taking such action, he had usurped the powers from duly elected LA and NO state & local authorities. Bush was in a MSM catch 22 from the get go, damned if he did, and damned if he didn't.
The chattering class is in a wet cat tither about FEMA for not doing anything soon enough. FEMA does not have armed troops or security forces (those are for the governor to call up) nor helicopters, nor do they have a rescue mission. FEMA exists for arriving on scene after the shti has hit the fan, they can be awaiting in the wings, but they are not first responders. That is the role of the state and local officials to assess and identify problems, then to direct FEMA (national guard and other federal assets) to those most urgent areas where required.
This entire New Orleans nightmare could have been prevented with a firm, no nonsense order, do it now, preventive action evacuation of New Orleans by the state and local authorities, whom did absolutely nothing to take and implement any such action in that regard.
Please. I'm not making excuses for the left. Not for one damn minute. Who are you making excuses for?
You do know that the City of NO didnt set the Convention Center up as an evacuation center?
It was broken into, looted and then people flocked to it because it was in a dry spot.
You must have seen the reports of the little girls gang raped and murdered there?
If citing from fact is "making excuse", then I'm making an excuse for reality.
I guess you don't have a clue as to how the system works. It is supposed to be a collaboration. The locals tell FEMA how it can help because the locals know their situation better than FEMA ever could.
When the locals are clueless as was in this case, everything else falls apart. Why is it you MSM liberal listening people refuse to see the truth?
Come down here to Florida and stay a year or two. You'll see how it's supposed to be done. Or if you live up north, study how Guiliani handled his situation.
You will see that the only difference between the poor response in New Orleans and the excellent FEMA response in Florida is the professionalism at the local level.
If you think the federal govt should have absolute control in emergency situations, just remember what happens to anything the federal govt controls. Properly working local control with assist from the feds is always best. In this case the democratic locals were not up to the task. They deserve the blame here not Chertoff.
I don't buy that at all.
I simply do not think Chertoff was on top of this at all.
I take this as representative of what could happen in a major terrorist act.
FEMA and our people are great and the greatest on Earth. The decisiveness and leadership and attention and focus of the leadership of these great professionals is what fell short.
This is not partisan and should not be made partisan. The political looters are sickening. Nagin and Blanco in my mind bear more responsibilty for what went wrong. The other side is playing the blame game against Bush hysterically and insanely. They of course blame only anyone associated with the administration, absolving anyone with a D- after their name.
I do not, though, see legitimate criticism of Chertoff and Brown as attacks on Bush. Libs do, but just because the libs want to use this for partisan purposes we can't simply take an opposite side for political purposes.
The problem with the shrill dem attacks is that they make us defensive. Everyone becomes defensive in such circumstances which means we will not be able to objectively address the shortcomings. This is a matter of national security and political gain playing is counter productive. There is no way on Earth the libs will do anything other than play this way. It is up to us to address what happened because the dems won't.
Their culpability is obvious and greater than the feds. New Orleans itself and the State government is the main cause of the failures.
They, though, are not appointed. They should be voted out or better, removed from office via whatever mechanism exists.
That the MSM only focuses on the feds, for all the obvious hate-Bush and slam him at any cost reasons, and not on Nagin and Blanco does not mean the feds deserve exoneration.
The worst thing that can happen is to begin equating analysis or criticism of the leadership at FEMA and Homeland Security with support for Hillary or dems. If so we cut off our own ability to use this to learn and strengthen response in the event of future attack. Making this partisan is the worst thing to do for our nation's security in terms of actually doing something tangible and productive for future responses. The dems of course don't care and make it partisan. We ought not and not be provoked to response by their unfair and dishonest tact.
Nagin and Blanco deserve more blame. Of course.
This interview, almost two days after the levee broke, well before President Bush actually interceded and sped up the feds operations, is representative of how Chertoff did not understand the magnitude of what was happening at all.
Not having been to NO I'm not sure, but I've heard that the Superdome and the Convention Center are part of the same complex, separated by a walkway of 100 or 200 yds.
The Superdome is a mile or so away from the Convention Center.
They are not too far, but no. Not that close.
Yes, I agree: Chertoff is supposed to micromanage the street operations of search and rescue.
Jim, Isn't it in the job description of the Director of Homeland Security that he/she is charged with coordinating street-level operations of every search and rescue team?
Is he supposed to be clairvoyant? The incompetent city government didn't tell Chertoff about the people in the convention center
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He could have watched freakin CNN or Fox news. Instead he sat around with his thumb up his you know what. There's no denying that the city and state response was woeful. What's also hard to deny is that FEMA/Homeland Security's response was (and continues to be) a day late and a dollar short.
What about Mississippi? They have a Republican governor and parts of their Gulf Coast doesn't have a federal presence yet either. You can't blame THAT on incompetent local officials.
Well I can't speak for anyone else's motive, but I'm just trying to make sure some of the problems get fixed. Not just on the state and local level, but the national level as well. And there are some on the national level. Plenty of them.
In this case the democratic locals were not up to the task. They deserve the blame here not Chertoff
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It's not an either/or proposition. Just because the locals are guilty doesn't mean the Feds are innocent and vice versa. If this had happened under a Democrat Administration people here would be calling for Congressional hearings at minimum, and rightly so.
Don't turn a blind eye incompetence just because it happens when the White House is occupied by a Republican.
Wraong again. According to the article you posted they are 8 blocks apart. Check the second paragraph.
And a quick look at your recent posts show you have quite the hard-on for Chertoff and FEMA. Perhaps you should reccommend yourself for the job?
I'm sure they could really use an NPR-quoting arm-chair quarterback right about now.
That day will come very soon in the future. The day you will cower in fear of your own children who would gladly turn you into the thought police for thought crimes. It will be their duty to report you for hate crimes to the local NEA and teachers at the public indoctrination centers (schools) so that you can receive counseling and treatment for your conservative afflictions.
As a matter of fact, the IRS already knows everything about you now thanks to the 1099 reporting system. Thought crimes are the next wave of the future.
>>>His job and only job is to know such things...(?)<<<
And he only has 90,000 square miles of disaster area to cover. What is his problem, anyway? He should know everything that is going on in every square foot of the area at all times. If Bush is God who started the hurricane, I guess we should expect Chertoff to be at least a super-hero.
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