tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post112568531152381495..comments2024-03-24T05:42:24.847-05:00Comments on Taking Wing: The Blame GameSam Weigelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126293883190489152005-09-09T14:24:00.000-05:002005-09-09T14:24:00.000-05:00Federal response to Katrina has been so craptacula...Federal response to Katrina has been so craptacular that FEMA chief Michael Brown has been granted unrequested vacation time. Maybe he'll get a crack at that new Presidential Six String. Perhaps he can resume Bush's Medicare tout tour, too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126146776702401222005-09-07T21:32:00.000-05:002005-09-07T21:32:00.000-05:00Great post, Sam. I agree. The blame placing and fi...Great post, Sam. I agree. The blame placing and finger pointing is annoying.<BR/><BR/>On another note, the response above ( Ah hah! The truth comes out! ... ) is a work of art.Aaronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05434575060281263500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126115692193603292005-09-07T12:54:00.000-05:002005-09-07T12:54:00.000-05:00Hmm. Not sure where the popup thing came from, did...Hmm. Not sure where the popup thing came from, did you do an accidental Ctrl-V in the middle of that?<BR/><BR/>If you want to debate how stupid and arrogant and greedy and insipid Bush and red-state america are, well, there are websites for that. Knock yourself out. I was making a point about prematurely blaming the feds, largely because of Bush-hatred, and I stand by it. <BR/><BR/>Back to better subjects like the #4 thrust bearing failing on the PW150A, and how close to heaven the peach cobbler at Chicken-N-More @ GEG is.Sam Weigelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126114839189283602005-09-07T12:40:00.000-05:002005-09-07T12:40:00.000-05:00Ah hah! The truth comes out! Katrina was the work ...Ah hah! The truth comes out! Katrina was the work of that evil chimp Hitler-wannabe country bumpkin village idiot of a President who, despite barely having the brainpower to pronounce three syllables correctly, is constantly plotting schemes to declare war on the world, steal all the oil and/or send gas prices up, enrich Haliburton, turn America into a theocracy, cut down all the forests, AND leave all those poor black people to rot in NOLA while he clears brush at the ranch with an evil chuckle. Luckily forne click out of 10 pops, I'll be doing good." I mean, come on. This has got to be one of the reasons people hate visiting websites. And then there's the popup stopper software people making money off the people who don't want the pops. Nothing like creating markets. All I say is, if someone could chill on the OCD popups. People that plan out 10 pops on one site visit. That's just a bit much. It's like this site on <A HREF="http://top-dvd-games-movies-and-players.info/dvd/ac3_dvd_authoring.html" REL="nofollow">ac3 dvd authoring</A> -- not one popup. Why can't the entire internet be like that?- not one popup. Why can't the entire internet be like that? after Saddam was ousted could have been ready.<BR/><BR/>On top of our embarrassing lack of planning and resulting mayhem, we lash out at those who don't support our hasty moves. <EM>Freedom Fries.</EM> The French have been US allies forever. They stood up for what they believe in, doing exactly what we in the US pride ourselves in doing, and we attack them for it. We call them cowards, and rename our toast and potatoes. It's ridiculous. I wonder why US-international relations are so strained... no seriously, I wonder.<BR/>all them cowards, and rename our toast and potatoes. It's ridiculous. I wonder why US-international relations are so strained... no seriously, I wonder.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126114761110356342005-09-07T12:39:00.000-05:002005-09-07T12:39:00.000-05:00Ah hah! The truth comes out! Katrina was the work ...Ah hah! The truth comes out! Katrina was the work of that evil chimp Hitler-wannabe country bumpkin village idiot of a President who, despite barely having the brainpower to pronounce three syllables correctly, is constantly plotting schemes to declare war on the world, steal all the oil and/or send gas prices up, enrich Haliburton, turn America into a theocracy, cut down all the forests, AND leave all those poor black people to rot in NOLA while he clears brush at the ranch with an evil chuckle. Luckily for us, Anonymous was on the scene and caught the bastard red handed! Bravo! Bushitler won't get away with it this time!<BR/><BR/>Okay. Enough silliness. I think there will be plenty of blame to go around, and FEMA will take it's share - Michael Brown in particular. But your comments betray a certain ignorance of the facts and an eagerness to parrot the blame-Bush crowd. <BR/><BR/>" The federal government, the only organization with the size, scope and resources necessary to respond..."<BR/><BR/>The federal government has the unlimited budget, but beyond funding their role is largely secondary to locals, particularly in first response actions. State and local governments have much more manpower and equipment in place. As such, they are *expected* to be the first responders, with federal assistance coming in later. In this case, the local resources were not used correctly - note Nagin's huge fleet of school buses sitting underwater. With last year's hurricanes in Fla, or even NYC on 9/11, ALL of the initial response was local. <BR/><BR/>"sat on its ass for DAYS"<BR/><BR/>Oh? Bush released FEMA funds and declared an emergency in LA a full two days before Katrina hit. The coast guard staged 40 aircraft and 30 vessels at a safe distance from Katrina on Sunday, and moved in almost as soon as Katrina was gone, rescuing over 3000 people by Thurs morning. Brown arrived in Baton Rouge at 11am on monday, as soon as the storm was clear. By Tuesday morning, the US military had massive convoys heading for NOLA at FEMA's direction. The Army Corp of Engineers worked all of Tuesday trying to plug the 17th street levee. The USS Bataan had their helicopter squadrons doing S&R that day. The locals decided to evacuate the Superdome on tuesday night; the feds arranged for 475 buses that started arriving midday Wednesday. Now: does this qualify as sitting on their asses? Keep in mind that in federal disaster planning guidelines, NO federal assistance is guaranteed for 72 hrs.<BR/><BR/>"FEMA waited until well after landfall to even request permission (!!!) to dispatch staff to the region, and even then gave them 48 hours to do so."<BR/><BR/>Bull. Bush gave FEMA the authorization on Saturday, and FEMA had staff in place in the Gulf Coast by Sunday night...BEFORE Katrina hit.<BR/><BR/>"Meanwhile, our esteemed President, waited THREE DAYS, vacationing, eating cake with McCain, playing country music star and wanking himself over Medicare in the meantime, to even bring himself to survey the damage."<BR/><BR/>Is that so? Three days of vacation? Lessee. The massive flooding took place on Monday afternoon. Bush ended his vacation Tuesday afternoon. He surveyed the city via Air Force 1 on Wednesday morning on his way back to Washington, circling several times at an altitude of 1500-3000 feet. Okay, so he didn't actually step foot in NOLA until Friday morning. I don't think he was vacationing and/or "wanking off" in the meantime.<BR/><BR/>"Sure, there will be plenty of time later to assess blame, but it seems plainly obvious at this point that our federal government failed."<BR/><BR/>I would say government as a whole failed - local, state, federal. I would also say that those who lay all the chaos and suffering of NOLA solely at the feet of the feds are doing so because they detest the man who holds the office of President.Sam Weigelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126105063764077882005-09-07T09:57:00.000-05:002005-09-07T09:57:00.000-05:00The federal government, the only organization with...The federal government, the only organization with the size, scope and resources necessary to respond, sat on its ass for DAYS. FEMA waited until well after landfall to even request permission (!!!) to dispatch staff to the region, and even then gave them 48 hours to do so. Meanwhile, our esteemed President, waited THREE DAYS, vacationing, eating cake with McCain, playing country music star and wanking himself over Medicare in the meantime, to even bring himself to survey the damage.<BR/><BR/>Sure, there will be plenty of time later to assess blame, but it seems plainly obvious at this point that our federal government failed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126080552840625662005-09-07T03:09:00.000-05:002005-09-07T03:09:00.000-05:00Anon, reread my post. I wasn't blaming the victims...Anon, reread my post. I wasn't blaming the victims, I was simply saying that the Superdome refugees were a bit low on the priority list because their lives were not in immediate danger at a time when many people elsewhere were in need of immediate rescue. I wasn't blaming the Superdome folks for not setting out for Houston on foot. I was critisizing those who hold out the fact that they had to wait for help as evidence that the federal government was horribly negligent in its response.<BR/><BR/>FWIW, as more information is coming in, it seems that FEMA *did* do a less than stellar job in responding, but their failure pales in comparison to that of the city and state in both planning and response.Sam Weigelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06332414897030323612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1126064474547703572005-09-06T22:41:00.000-05:002005-09-06T22:41:00.000-05:00"Nothing prevented anybody from leaving the rank c..."Nothing prevented anybody from leaving the rank confines of the Superdome."<BR/><BR/>Except maybe a lack of food, water, transportation, etc. You're not an idiot. Think just a bit before blaming the victims.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1125695953866171902005-09-02T16:19:00.000-05:002005-09-02T16:19:00.000-05:00Note how the conditions (particularly the lawlessn...Note how the conditions (particularly the lawlessness and infrastructure failures) in New Orleans resemble the conditions we heard about in Bagdad during the first couple of months of the U.S. occupation. One situation was caused by a war, and one by a natural disaster, but in both cases it's clear that the U.S. and other first-world countries need to find ways to establish and maintain at least a minimum level of services and rule of law quickly in a broken-down city, before things get to the point that even APCs get attacked driving to the airport (Bagdad) or medevac helicopters cannot land because of snipers (New Orleans). <BR/><BR/>Traditionally, we've always tried to deal with the most pressing problem first (defeat the enemy, or rescue the survivers) and then tried to restore order, but I'm not sure that they work well in sequence -- the breakdown of services in Bagdad strengthened the insurgents, and the breakdown of law and order in New Orleans has crippled the rescue effort.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10991135.post-1125692878105017362005-09-02T15:27:00.000-05:002005-09-02T15:27:00.000-05:00I totally agree that this blame game is insane. An...I totally agree that this blame game is insane. And I think it's even worse here in Sweden, where media is totally left-biased and Bush-bashing as always. I feel ashamed on the behalf of some of my countrymen. <BR/><BR/>But you can rest assured that there are a lot of people here in Europe that are truly concerned about the situation and wish you all the best, even though that's not always the picture shown by media...matlihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00901198627805284600noreply@blogger.com