9/7: The Beltway Blame Game
(The Blog welcomes SHS alums D.H. and C.A. -- www.candersen.blogspot.com)
D.H.: U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (10th) was inundated with phone calls late last week. Constituents were super angry to the point of blaming Bush for New Orleans being under sea level. (Nevermind the 18th century French!) The media coverage accentuated the public's outrage. We'll find out --in the end-- that the media engaged in outright embellishment and sensationalism.
D.L.: Buy the rumor sell the fact! We need young leaders like D.H. and C.A. to learn the lesson from this disaster and dedicate themselves to doing it better next time.
E.T.: But there wasn't even a plan.
N.H.: There was a plan that had been practiced. The state and local authorities just chose to ignore it.
D.L.: But there is always a difference between the plan and how the plan is executed in the middle of crisis.
A.C.: What bothers me is the apparent glee that Democrats seem to take when speaking of how Bush is getting blamed for mismanaging the Katrina aftermath.
D.L.: There is a German word for this...schadenfreude ...delighting in someone else's misfortune.
C.A.: That's not fair to the Dems.
A.C.: But it's the reason why Americans don't trust the Dems on Iraq. Demcratic Chair Howard Dean says that he wants us to win the war. But we know Dean takes delight in seeing bad news come out of Iraq because it hurts Bush.
D.L.: Churchill said, "The only thing new in the world is the history you do not already know." To follow the D.C. blame game you have to know how federalism works in terms of what the feds should be doing. What did the feds do in past disasters compared to the role of state and local officials? The media has just begun to touch this subject but will likely ignore the tough facts.
A.C.: And that is why www.citizenu.org has grown a national audience of government students who want the latest in political chatter.
posted by CitizenU @ 2:00 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Hey all,
I miss our informed class discussions. There is a girl in my math class who didn't even know about Katrina until 3 days after it happened. I guess I have to deal with the typical American public now.
Anyway...I have a question:
FEMA and every other federal response agency was placed under the Dept. of Homeland Security, right? So why was NYC able to get federal help faster after September 11 when we knew nothing in advance (well, that can also be debated) about the attacks, yet the NWS predicted that Katrina could cause this much damage? Wasn't the DHS supposed to make everything more efficient in terms of disasters and intelligence? And this was "intelligence" that everyone knew or could find out. I don't think that Howard Dean finds delight in watching people die because of poor planning--I'm sure he would rather Bush have an affair with a White House intern, lie about it to the public, be impeached, actually be found guilty, and then look bad for the American public. However, I think Dean (and the other Democrats, and apparently some Republicans) are questioning why we spent millions of dollars to create the DHS and why it's not working.
In terms of Federalism, I heard that because of the changes for DHS, no one knew who to ask for help. The local person in charge of disasters went to the state person who said go to this person who said to go a different person, and no one knew who was in charge. Perhaps there needs to be better communication between local, state, and federal officials. Maybe they should all sit around a campfire (not in New Orleans of course), introduce themselves, where they went to school, what their major was, and what they do in terms of emergencies.
There. I'm done.
Undoubtedly some of the blame lies with the Federal government but I would say just as much lies with the local and state. Considering 4 hurricanes went across the state of Florida and there were no major breakdown in authority tells us that though FEMA is not perfect it has managed with crises before and was able to react efficiently. Thus, it leads us to consider was New Orleans simply overlooked or was the local government simply unprepared?
W.
True, however, remember who the governor of Florida is...
It would appear the media no longer informs but titilates and tattles. Deciphering between tabloid and table talk is almost impossible.
FEMA was not saddled by DHS back on 9/11. Let's compare apples to apples, however. During 9/11 the essential infrastructure of NYC was intact. Tragically a couple of city blocks were lost on that day, life in the rest of NYC went on as usual. In Mississippi and Louisiana life as we know it came to a shocking halt. No plan could have saved the day.
Think how prepared Stevenson would be during a fire? We have a plan, and we even practice evacuating. My hunch is that if the fire was real...many of the staff would be heading for the exits first. Leave no child behind?
Speaking of FEMA, they are currently spending an estimated $700 million a day in relief management. We may not know who is to blame, but we know who is paying the bill...the federal government (which means you and I). I wonder how much longer we want the feds to take responsibility?
In January of 2005, there was a program on channel 11 WTTW, explaining the effects of a hurricane on New Orleans. Nothing was done still. If we knew this than why wasnt anything done.
Yes yes. Federalism is to blame. Forget the 44% reduction in funding for improving the very same levees which broke. Forget the 300 billion spent attacking Iraq instead of protecting our homeland. Forget the fact that the governor asked for emergency aid and was delayed 4 days. Forget the fact the President stayed on vacation for 3 days into the hurricane, the VP was out shopping for a house and the Sec of State was watching plays on broadway while people were dying. Forget that FEMA was put under the Department of Homeland Security and stacked with politcal apointees who know nothing about disaster relief.
Oh yeah, and of course lets forget that Canadian DART rescue teams were immediately mobilized but refused entry in to the country help the poor people of New Orleans.
It's probably all Dean's fault anyways.
:-)
the media will do anything it wants and they seem to dislike Bush and his efforts. So pretty much all the media will be doing is a repeat of what Kanye West did.
j. addison....how many times has there been a fire drill or otherwise when the faculty weren't told about it?? i can remember at least 2, and my teacher certainly didn't leave our class behind...
sorry about the confusion...i meant that FEMA was placed under DHS AFTER 9/11....so it is reasonable to think that because our government wants to make the first response more efficient, placing FEMA under DHS would improve the quality of response given to the people of LA, etc. FEMA (as well as the local and state emergency agencies) should have taken the NWS predictions into account...
It seems once again that bureaucracy has caused a bigger gap instead of closing the gap...what else is new???
Practice may not make perfect.
Federalism's inefficiency may be the price we pay for countering tyranny.
Plato wrote: "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
Will we ever take civics education serious? Please! Our future is at stake.
J.Addison
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