When Bush came int office he promised to restore the dignity of the office.
Playing the blame game is not something the president should be doing.
I think the polls support the president.
bookmark.
Michelle is not from the South therefore she canot have a "fit of vapors".....even the title of this article is wrong!
I haven't decided what I think about Mr. FEMA. I have to get a collection of sources I trust first. At this point, they don't agree with each other.
The state is the 3rd tier, and it does appear that the state failed to effectively plan for what has long been known to be a worst-case natural fiasco for the country. For two days after the storm all I heard from the governor was how overwhelmed she was--she also failed as a leader at a time when leadership was most needed.
The local government is the 2nd tier, and planning and leadership at this level, in New Orleans, failed even more than it did on the state level. I heard that today New Orleans police finally iced some armed hoodlums interfering with relief efforts. Such action needed to be taken on Wednesday when looting first started. Failure to ruthlessly control looting from the outset helped foster a widespread sense of hopelessness throughout the city.
The 1st tier of responsibility for disaster planning--that of the individual citizen--failed the most. First, these people have aided and abetted failed local and state governments by putting them into place. You get the leadership that you vote for--now deal with the consequences. Second, it seems that most of these people didn't do the most basic of preparations. We now hear that the Superdome had laid in a good supply of food and water before the storm--enough for about 20,000 people for three days. I know there were a lot more than 20,000 people, but why can't most folks survive on light rations for a few days? Because these people--the vast majority of them--have no principles. Listen to the stories of the foreigners who were trapped in the Dome--they claim up to 98% of the people inside were subhuman.
We can't afford a national disaster response program that eliminates the need for personal responsibility and accountability. Those persons not willing to do their part should be sacrificed for the greater good of the nation. I'm beginning to think that we screwed up by not allowing the Darwinian consequences of this disaster to fully manifest themselves.
Another Republican Senator is criticizing FEMA's performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, CNN reports:
Sen. Trent Lott berated both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and his own state's emergency management, MEMA, for being mired in red tape at a time of urgent need given the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.Lott said he has been trying to get FEMA to send 20,000 trailers "sitting in Atlanta" to the Mississippi coast, and he urged President Bush during a meeting Monday to intervene. He said FEMA has refused to ship the trailers until contracts are secured.
Sen. David Vitter (R-Lousiana) has expressed similar sentiments.
Update:
Ben Morris, mayor of Slidell, La.:
We are still hampered by some of the most stupid, idiotic regulations by FEMA. They have turned away generators, we've heard that they've gone around seizing equipment from our contractors. If they do so, they'd better be armed because I'll be damned if I'm going to let them deprive our citizens. I'm pissed off, and tired of this horse$#@@.
Authorities say they are speeding up relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but 80 San Diego firefighters and paramedics sent to the Gulf Coast are languishing in Houston, a fire official said Sunday."We're there, we're ready, it's up to (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to decide where we're needed," said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire Department.
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Memo to Bush: Fire Michael Brown
Michelle is right, as usual.
Brown is a big nothing who got his job by being the ex-college roomie of Alspaugh. Patronage job, pure and simple.
Michelle Malkin is decorative, but I otherwise gave up on her long ago. Her opinions are rarely fully thought-out.