"LOL. Yes, any disagreement with the President and critique of FEMA is verboten. There were no screw ups, everything was perfect"
Why does everything have to be 'perfect' for the President
to avoid blame??? You are going to blame Bush for the fact that weather happens? You think the biggest Hurricane to rip through the gulf coast ever would not overwhelm us at some point?
Coast Guard crews are doing 18 hour shifts saving lives, and conservatives have to join in the bashing of the Federal response? Gimme a break. Things can always be better; this is an awful situation and a high-pressure, life-and-death challenge for many many EMS, NG, coast guard, FEMA, etc. people. Not everyone is doing 100% but there have been thousands of acts of heroism done already.
" and the bureaucracy functioned in an impeccable manner."
if you fire bureaucrats who are not impeccable,
and you'll end up with a very small Government. :-)
"Unlike you, I saw a clusterF@@@ that was unbelievable in scale and it didn't even begin to be sorted out until President Bush PERSONNALLY flew down and told the bumbling buffoons that the effort was "not acceptable". I noticed a drastic improvement almost immediately."
Yes. But let the record show that the vast majority of the incompetence is on the state/local side. Mississippi didnt have this problem. Florida was in much better response shape last year ... same FEMA, difference local/state Governments ... note the pattern???
Most of the areas of 'we could do better' focus squarely on two facts:
1. The failure to control looting in New Orleans, which led to out-of-control situations that hamered rescue efforts.
2. The failure to evacuate from New Orleans in a more timely manner and the related failure to manage and care for the thousands at the superdome. (anecdote: Newspaper account noted that people were asked to bring 3 days worth of food and water with them ... newspaper interviewed one woman showing up with a diet cola saying 'oh, they'll be feeding us'. Let's get real. Clueless non-self-reliant people got desperate quickly.)
Problems fall squarely on the lack of seriousness and lack of coordination in the new orleans and louisiana state govt. There are many anecdotes of how Nagin and Blanco were not utilizing or coordinating as they should and not following disaster recovery plans already laid out.
If anyone needs to be fired in is La Gov Blanco.
But, no, let's go ahead and join the Liberals who are more interested in bashing Bush than seeing a better response next time.
its getting hard to fend off the freeper "FEMA quagmire" contingent - I mean, the city was flooded Tuesday, why wasn't this all wrapped up by Thursday or Friday? some of these people are unreal.
look at the small boat rescues on FNC this morning - people sitting in their homes surrounded by flooded streets still DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE. I guess that's Browns fault too.
FEMA could and should do a better job, regardless of the screeching on this thread stating otherwise. When the "Big Government" FEMA lovers on this thread are standing neck deep in water, or naked in a ditch after a tornado their attitudes will change drastically, trust me, I know.