It was good that President Bush stepped up during his speech Thursday and acknowledged that the federal government failed to properly respond to Katrina. But where the government may have blown it the most was before the hurricane hit. Leo Bosner, who is in charge of the FEMA unit that alerts officials of impending crises, sent a report to Michael Chertoff, Michael Brown and other top officials Saturday morning, Aug. 27, warning them that Katrina could become a major emergency. He told NPR that he expected the officials to immediately begin mobilizing National Guard troops and evacuation buses, and was shocked when that didn’t happen.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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22 Comments
One more time. Let’s beat up on the gummint!
Put your trust in big daddy gummint and you get nothing. Doesn’t matter who runs it, it just doesn’t have a way to get past the inevitable bureaucracy and patronage pukes.
Oh yah, patronage pukes. They’re everywhere. Don’t kid yourself and don’t think there were fewer under any other administration.
Interesting how ABC couldn’t get the black folks in Houston to beat up on the gummint. Even they know what’s up, better than ABC anyway.
Now Rhonda, bless her dour heart, wants us to give credibility to some gummint drone named Leo. Shocked, SHOCKED! he was.
Poor bastard! The ignominity of it all! They ignored his standard issue, bland, weekly, unremarkable, one-size-fits-all “watch out for rainwater, wildfires, and earthquakes” message.
Geez, what a drone.
When will gummint drones learn that crying wolf daily in bland bureaucratic language is not the same as warning anybody about anything.
Not even close.
So, Paul attempts to exonerate President Rove with the ‘everyone does it’ defense of political patronage.
Don’t be such a jerk-off, Paul. The employee in question is a career civil servant rather than a patronage hire. He has been with FEMA for 29 years–since its inception as an agency. Civil servants are professionals with expertise. Patronage appointments come and go–the civil servants remain. Or, as the CIA is finding out, they don’t.
OF COURSE every Administration employs patronage as an incentive for its political allies. No duh, Paul. But when this one touts itself as the only one that could possibly keep America safe, the bar is a little higher.
Paul, frankly, you’re ignorant of the history of FEMA and its present sad state. Wasn’t always this way, Paul. Time was, this agency was highly able to respond and was run by political appointees with experience in disaster relief and not in litigation concerning Arabian horses.
Frankly, your Grover Norquist ’starve the beast’ disdain for ‘big gummint’ is pretty untimely, given that the American public EXPECTS that the central function of government is to protect them. W is sure paying the price for letting down the American public, don’t you think?
One thing I’ve wondered is why the media never noticed nothing was being done. Some members of the media and Kyra Phillips from CNN is one that comes to mind. She was talking up Brown as everyone else was talking ow incompetent he was.
I’ve wondered about the silence or zealousness in our main street media on the government. I found an article that discusses why this is.
I’d love some discussion on the subject and what it means.
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/43/deadline-finke.php
I finally agree with the people who say I’m wasting my time.Compassionate conservatives will always believe making money is more important that someone’s life.When faced with proof of incompetence they will always try to blame another non conservative. shame on us for believing our own eyes and facts rather than the talking points.
Let’s be fair. The magic word is “could.”
” Saturday morning, Aug. 27, warning them that Katrina could become a major emergency.”
Substitute the word “will” for “could” and just another hurricane becomes a disaster for sure.
If the ones in the know aren’t willing to make the call, then where’s the threat?
Good grief, Phillip, how many times do you want to flog this dog? This is cruelty to animals. Libs are going to bash, cons are going to knash teeth. If I want reruns, I’ll watch the tube.
Sum1–Hehe, I read that article too. Funny isn’t it, when a big company like GE gets huge contracts in Iraq, and GE owns NBC, how that Iraq war suddenly becomes a good thing . . .
*****
Here’s an interesting clip–
“when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It’s enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it… jump to certain conclusions.”
BTW, Paul, if gov’t “can’t do anything right,” then you must oppose the war in Iraq.
I’d have to agree with you there.
It appears that all of the looting in New Orleans was not done by private citizens.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-money17sep17,1,5736422.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Louisiana has been ruled by leftwing democrats for 60 years. This is what the people of New Orleans get for voting as they do.
All hail Government.
Well we’re out in force today, aren’t we? We lead off with a republican playing the same old conservative line – don’t blame the “gummint”. Paul, are you taking speech lessons from JM?But you’re right Paul. No sense in blaming the “gummint”, they are morons, they is us.Of course the usual from Libmeister CF who seemingly has an endless supply of tirade and vitrol for the Right. No need for the rest of us to suffer, let CF suffer for us. He’s good at it. CF, you’re an old-timer on this blog, and one of the most voluable. Question: With all your ramblings, how many people’s minds do you think you’ve changed? I’d bet the answer is “None”. Why do you carry on so? Is it because it’s easier to get your opinion printed here than on Opinion Line? Poor guy, doesn’t have anything better to do than write long posts and sit there in front of the computer and admire his own handi-work. Over and over and over.Then we have Sum1. Give her credit, she’s the only one who offered anything interesting with her link about how media is owned by business. Sum, why does that seem to surprise you? Why did you think a business (News) wouldn’t be run like a business? It’s all about the money. Everybody worries about Democrats or Republicans, but it’s business that you really need to worry about. That’s where the real power and money is. Sum, find a boyfriend. You have too much time on your hands.And we have Ed. Today he’s on his meds. You can always tell when he’s taking his meds when he isn’t bashing the Jews. Smart enough guy, but totally unhinged.What thread would be complete without a contribution from JM? Crusty old conservative masking as a Libertarian, one of the very few on these pages that has a sense of humor, warped as it is.
Brownlee, how successful would you say this blog is? By the time you discount the multiple name users, there’s about 10 people who post on the blog all the time. The Eagle is a business, too. How does it work out to provide a site for 10-12 people to occasionally post an opinion, but mostly tear at each other’s throats? I just don’t see the point.
Puny? Is that you?
You left me out, dammit. If you’re going to ridicule all the “lefties,” I demand to be ridiculed too.
If you think posting is a “waste of time, nobody reads them” etc. etc., hey, stop posting . . .
Don’t go away mad, Mal, just go away, far away.
and then we have Hal…who seems to have all the time in the world to sit in judgment of others while at the same time castigating them for spending so much time on this blog, even suggesting to one person to find a boyfriend.
*sigh*….not sure what is worse, the rambling posts or the person who sits in judgment…
Mal White (never get that one!),Excuse me? Where did I say don’t blame the government? Pull your collective head out and don’t read into posts things that just ain’t there.”JM? Crusty old conservative masking as a Libertarian”. Crusty indeed, and damn proud of it. Conservative? Don’t insult me, boy….and then we have Mal White, masking as Galahad, Vlad, masking as innumerable more. The only one I’ve read here who hails his own writing. Now THERE is a sense of humor. Meds are supposed to help multiple personalitiy disorders:-))
Mal – I guess my mixed terminologies gave the idea I was saying that the gummint shouldn’t be blamed.
My whole comment (with the exception of the words about the hilarious ABC fumble of it’s anti-Bush agenda) was about gummint patronage and bureaucratic drones, and the uselessness of the universal bureaucratic tendency to always claim the sky is falling.
Always having bad news and predicting the worst — that’s how the gummint drones make themselves feel important; but it is also why their bosses learn to ignore them.
Did you read the link in Rhonda’s blog? It truly is a bland, one-size-fits-all, regularly published doomsday report about weather, wildfires, and earthquakes. Nobody who saw it would necessarily read it. No one who read it would necessarily think much of it, other than “There goes Leo again – ‘the sky is still falling everywhere’ “.
The report also details (in typical bureaucratic jargon) how FEMA is already at work on a broad front making necessary preparations before the hurricane hit Mississipi and Louisiana.
So Leo tells his bosses that the sky is falling but FEMA is already working on it. What exactly is Leo’s contribution here? Nothing.
My comments were about putting blame where it belongs, instead of the usual rep/dem bashing. Bureaucracies are awful, and are made better only by being made smaller. Smarter is smaller, and smaller is smarter, because no one is really in control of a huge, multi-faceted bureaucracy, whether gummint or a business.
WalMart and Home Depot are big, but avoid the worst of the bureaucratic stumbling by focusing on retail sourcing and distribution. They had their world class logistics systems working to make necessities available immediately as the hurricane approached.
The military has the same kind of logistics systems, so it is doing well in the relief efforts, too, though it is huge enough to also suffer buraucratic problems.
But the politico/desk jockey part of the gummint is something else. Overburdened with politics, it is about to unleash the biggest pork barrel money grab in world history. No doubt, not enough of that money will get to where it’s needed most.
Both republicans and democrats have a beef about their gummint. It isn’t responsive to the people. It just grows and grows, and it seems to have no idea that we have to work to keep paying for it.
So where were the “sky is falling” guys, Paul, before the debacle in Iraq?
Then, it was all, “this is gonna be GREAT!” 1900 dead Americans later and no exit strategy in sight.
A few nay-sayers might have been a good thing there, eh? Not that Bush would have listened to them either.
Mal is sort of funny with his/her/its long, rambling post about the pointlessness of long, rambling posts.
My goal isn’t to convince anyone. It is to make sure that my side of the discourse is represented, and to be sure that the other side doesn’t get the last word. And, where necessary, to be the voice crying out in the wilderness. And, it is worth noting, I have managed to find common ground with folks on the other side of the aisle, as my discussion with Tricia T about the intractability of poverty demonstrates.
All of us here post at the pleasure of the Wichita Eagle. As long as they’re providing the bandwidth, you can expect that I’ll be here.
Another thing, Mal White: I only ever post under my own name. I don’t try to cloak my views with assumed identities. If you don’t like what I have to say, you have only yourself to blame for reading it.
Finally, Mal White, all you’ve brought to the party is bitching about the other people posting here. If I may quote, ” I just don’t see the point..”
Mal White the yid lover. Of couse it was a yid hurricane. It killed people and drove the rest of the people off their land. Then left a mess for somebody else to clean-up and pay for in the billions.
{ All this while driving-up the price of gas by threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons on Iran }. It’s all right there in Haaretz, read your newspaper.
When did they let you out without your meds, idiot.
Merry Christmas.
Bush miss-buttoned his shirt for last night’s speech. He’s got two top buttons open instead of one. Being casual Friday, I suggest we all “rebutton” the wool over our eyes.
http://www.wfaa.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.kgw.com/091505_bush6.wmv
Everyone messed up with this. It was the first big test for homeland security and we failed miserably. Can any lessons be learnt from this? People have to be willing to look at what went wrong to know what to change for the next time. Nature or man made. There will always be a next time.As far as ABC putting on an “everything is rosey” front the article shows why unbiased reporting is a joke. You’ll never know the real news unless you’re there, seeing it with your own eyes.
Galahad you know that speech wouldn’t have made the same impression if it came from a different location. Where are your priorities?
At the least you have to agree this blog has entertainment value. The personal attacks, the mindless rants are sometimes sprinkled with thoughtful perspectives and a little humour.With the small sampling of people blogging on different subject there is a diversity.If gives you a better view of what the culture is here in Wichita as a whole.
Sum 1,Wow, good thing I don’t live in Wichita. To be associated with such a diverse group…why, I might fall off the fence.
Apparently, Karl Rove, who you may have noticed is among the unseen these days, was not there to dress Shrub for his photo op. C’mon out, Karl, we aren’t finished with you yet, either…..
I’ve always wanted to get a better picture of the man who pulls Bush’s puppet strings.Now that the puppetmaster (Rove) is in charge of rebuilding New Orleans we’ll maybe have a chance to see him in a more public role.Pity the poor people who live there
Geez