Posted on 09/25/2005 11:06:16 AM PDT by grundle
My friend Ralph Peters told me his sources in the Pentagon told him lawyers for FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security spent the weekend before Katrina struck arguing about what they could or couldn't do -- the emphasis was on couldn't -- absent certain permissions from Blanco.
Former members of Able Danger, a military intelligence unit, have claimed they had identified hijack leader Mohamed Atta and the members of his cell more than a year before 9/11, and had tried to pass this information on to the FBI, but were forbidden to do so on the advice of Pentagon lawyers.
There are lawyers who can act promptly and decisively in a crisis (see Giuliani, Rudy). But they are the exception rather than the rule. By training and temperament, lawyers are more likely to flash a yellow light than a green one.
It is this fundamental characteristic, my friend Tom Lipscomb told me, that caused a young Donald Rumsfeld to argue that lawyers should be barred from holding public office. It was probably not helpful that both Michael Brown, the head of FEMA when Katrina struck, and Michael Chertoff, his boss at the Department of Homeland Security, are lawyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
My friend says he's right.
Bureaucrats. Following rules written by lawyers. Oh, and be sure to check the rules regarding "follow the money."
With juries awarding ridiculous, high-stakes settlements...you can't blame the authorities for exercising caution. They're damned if they do....
It's always easy to blame the lawyers, and often they deserve it. However, in this case, the real blame for untimeliness lies with that fool Blanco who failed to recognize, understand, and perform her responsibilities as governor. The feds have strict protocols in place legitimately to prevent federal interference with local government, so local government has to ACT!! They can try to shift the blame around all they want, but that's the bottom line.
For them, the paperwork is the product, and the actions that generate the paperwork are just an irksome distraction.
I have learned never to own stock in a company with a lawyer for a CEO and to never expect anything useful from a government agency run by one.
So9
Well, I'm not a lawyer, but we're talking about Constitutional Law 101. President Bush had no legal right to send in troops or other help unless and until Governor Blanco asked for it and authorized it. He prodded her to act, and she refused to declare a state of emergency or make the necessary requests.
I share the author's dislike of lawyers. I have a huge cache of lawyers jokes somewhere on my computer. But in this case, the lawyers were right. In a natural disaster or other large scale emergency, the buck stops at the governor's office. If the governor refuses federal help, that's his decision to make. If the governor is out to lunch, then the voters should consider carefully whether she ought to be re-elected. The Mayor and local authorities also have duties to perform, which they almost completely neglected to do.
Good grief. The media are either entirely ignorant of the negligence and stupidity of the state and local authorities in Louisiana, or more likely they are totally blinded by ideological hatred of George Bush. If they had placed the blame where it belonged, probably Blanco would have been forced to act or to get out of the way. As it was, the media helped her to delay the rescue by ignoring, in fact enabling, her incompetent leadership. The more she and the mayor screwed up, the more the media blamed Bush. That must have looked pretty good to Blanco and Nagin. "Gee, the more I screw up, the more Bush gets blamed! I think I'll screw up a little more, and the media will love me!"
First, kill all the lawyers...
And she is not a lawyer?
So are bureaucrats. It is called CYA and career protection. It is human nature but it is also what separates the leaders from the sheep. That trait is especially harmful when sheep become leaders, the natural progression in a bureaucracy.
That trait is also seen in the zero tolerance policy in schools. When the trite is punished equally to the serious, no prejudiced can be claimed nor will decisions be necessary. CYA and lawsuit avoidance is the strategy of the day.
Have many of us considered how many things we can no longer do because of the fear of lawsuits? Things just go away without notice. That is the plan. The arrangement between the lawyers, judges, and the lefists has given them more control over us than they can legally gain.
Wake up and call it what it is - another step in the advancement of Communism and the furtherance of their complete control.
Tell me, whose responsibility was it to order an evacuation?
The Mayor of New Orleans?
Louisiana?
Or does the President have to micromanage the states?
Please explain to me why the 'administration' has to decide things for the mayor and the governor.
In short, YES!
The Nation, the States, all local governemnts, and many business are run by the pronouncements of freakin' lawyers! A pox on them all.
"Well, I'm not a lawyer, but we're talking about Constitutional Law 101."
I am a lawyer, and I agree with you. And, BTW, I probably have an even bigger cache of lawyer jokes than you do - I love them!
What the media and other naysayers conveniently "forget" is that FEMA is not a first-responder. Their job is to support the state and local government in executing their contingency plans. If the govt. at the state and local levels are in disarray and their leadership is poor, then everything down the line is going to be screwed up.
I have no doubt that FEMA has a lot of problems, why would they be any different than any other fed agency? But the media is trying to lay this all at the feet of GW Bush and that just isn't right.
Absolutely. When officials think first of what won't get them sued and second what is the right thing to do, that is when you have bureacratic stupidity on parade. It happened during Katrina and during Rita. Whether it is flooded buses or slow to open contra-flow lanes, decissions where delayed because of the concern about being sued if someone gets hurt because of an official statement.
"Blaming the lawyers is really a rediculous statement."
But not ridiculous. In this "sue me-sue you" sort of environment, even the President of the United States has to be operating on egg shells. We're talking constitutional aspects of use of power, not everyday stuff.
Cool. Here's what we do next time. We make sure that the lawyers are the first responders when a hurricane hits. In order to make sure of this, we put them on the scene, directly in the path of the oncoming hurricane so that the people who get the brunt of the storm have their paperwork in order well in advance.
Cool. Here's what we do next time. We make sure that the lawyers are the first responders when a hurricane hits. In order to make sure of this, we put them on the scene, directly in the path of the oncoming hurricane so that the people who get the brunt of the storm have their paperwork in order well in advance.
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