Need a teaser? How's this:
As the full horror of Hurricane Katrina sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if this is the end of George Bush's presidency. The answer is almost certainly yes, provided that every copy of the US Constitution was destroyed in the storm. Otherwise President Bush will remain in office until noon on January 20th, 2009, as required by the 20th Amendment, after which he is barred from seeking a third term anyway under the 22nd Amendment....
As the full horror of this sinks in, thousands of desperate columnists are asking if an official inquiry will shift the blame for poor planning and inadequate flood defences on to the White House. The answer is almost certainly yes, provided nobody admits that emergency planning is largely the responsibility of city and state agencies, and nobody notices that the main levee which broke was the only levee recently modernised with federal funds. Otherwise, an official inquiry will pin most of the blame on the notoriously corrupt and incompetent local governments of New Orleans and Louisiana.
6 comments:
I tend to agree, particularly concerning the second paragraph about emergency management. Many communities, even those here in the south who have and will always be the most vulnerable to these storms tend to put emergency management low on the list of priorities. One of the few exceptions is Charleston,which actually learned something from Hurricane Hugo and is constant in its proactive measures. It's a matter of whether or not communities have the foresight and political will to tackle the really tough issues.
Having said that, its a matter of comparing the administration's current response with its own past performance--such as last year in Florida, where they were johnny-on-the-spot almost immediately after both Ivan and Charley.
The fact is, there's enough responsibility as far as this Katrina debacle is concerned to go around on all levels-local, state and federal.
I'll be quiet now.
I hear a lot of complaining about a lack of federal response, but I haven't heard anything substantive. What do FEMA's plans say as far as how long it should take to get to a disaster area? How long did they take here, and how long did they *really* take last year?
Until I get more information, I'm inclined to chalk it up to partisan finger-pointing.
Glad to see you haven't yet made up your mind .-).
Phyllis, read the link contained in this post:
http://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2005/09/fisking-newsweek-about-katrina.html
The fact staring the MSM in the face is that New Orleans is the quintessential Democratic city.
Here comes the 21st century race pimp, Barack Obama:
Let’s see, senator. “Whoever was in charge of planning” was… a black democrat mayor and a white democrat governor.
Right--no partisan sniping, blame-gaming, name-calling or finger pointing here. Just reasoned analysis.
The President (whoever he or she is) sits in the big chair at the head of the table. And you and I both know when you're the boss, when you're a grown-up, sometimes you have to take a bullet that's not yours to take. Because that's what grown-ups do, they take responsibility, and sometimes they take it even when it's unfair or it will put them in a bad light. God knows in this instance there's plenty of it to go around.
Now I'll be quiet (famous last words).
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050914/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington
OK, so the President has now taken responsibility. Will the lefties quit harping? Shall I wait for the governor and mayor to take some responsibility?
And Phyllis, pulled quotes from another post of mine--quotes which included quotes from another blog, as well as a *comment* on that blog! What exact point were you making here, that *my* blog is politically biased? I've never tried to pass it off as anything but! But the quotes you pulled above--I think you can be snarky and reasoned at the same time.
Sometimes :-)
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