Let’s give the screwups more power

Josh Marshall made a good point on his blog:
“Then there’s the president’s great line from the speech: ‘It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.’’’
“No, it’s not. Actually, every actual fact that’s surfaced in the last two weeks points to just the opposite conclusion. There was no lack of federal authority to handle the situation. There was faulty organization, poor coordination and incompetence. . . .
“You don’t repair disorganized or incompetent government by granting it more power. You fix it by making it more organized and more competent. If conservatism can’t grasp that point, what is it good for?”
Right at this moment, I think it’s hard for a lot of people to come up with an answer for that one.
Posted by Melissa Cooley

12 Comments

  1. Sudden Sense
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 12:36 am | Permalink

    Coooool. The fever swamp is now calling for less government. Gawd, I love this!

    Those guys have gone so far left, they are now finding themselves to the right of Libertarians!!

    The world IS round!

  2. JUSTA GUY
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 5:47 am | Permalink

    Organized and competent government! Come on Melissa get back in the real world. Pork is what keeps the rails greased for government.

  3. J M Walker (aka one other guy)
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 6:28 am | Permalink

    Let’s see…organized…competent…government. Whats wrong with this picture?

  4. Joe Williams
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 8:20 am | Permalink

    Why are people calling it a failure? Yeah! Some things went wrong, there were incompetent people, there were delays, but I don’t think this has anything to do with Democrats or Republicans having a government that is more organized. I mean, New Orleans and Louisiana are very Democrat dominated governments, yet they should escape the blame game? Only the Federal government and the Military should be at fault?

    I don’t know. I think they all did, along with the private sector, the best they could have done in the present situation. It could have been a lot worse.

    It’s like winning a football game, yet blaming the players for doing a lousy job because they should have scored faster.

  5. Ray Thomas
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 8:56 am | Permalink

    Joe–

    That is exactly what I have been saying all along. Failure? Does anyone remember Hurricane Charley last year? It took the same amount of time to launch a massive relief effort in Punta Gorda (which, by the way is still ongoing) as it did to get relief to New Orleans. Yet nobody claimed failure or racism last year.It is simply not possible to put together tens of thousands of people and tons of relief supplies overnight. Anyone happen to have a convoy of medical supplies waiting in their garage?

  6. Damoon
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 9:00 am | Permalink

    Organized, competent government? That’s an oxymoron for sure.

  7. Nathan
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 4:03 pm | Permalink

    When you ask a faulty question based on a false premise that is purposefully desgined to skew the truth…

    then yeah Melissa, I suppose it would be a difficult one to answer!

  8. Joe
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 4:47 pm | Permalink

    Shame on you Milissa.

  9. dr
    Posted September 19, 2005 at 5:27 pm | Permalink

    I am waiting for this plan for organizational competence…..tap…tap…tap

    Oh yeah, you don’t really have one….you were just wanting to cry about something.

  10. Jed
    Posted September 20, 2005 at 4:31 am | Permalink

    Hey Ray,Did you happen to see Nightline? FEMA’s bureaucracy was actively stopping aid from getting into NO until all the forms were in order- a matter of days lost getting doctors and medical supplies to those who needed them! This transcended incompetance. It was a power play for control of aid, and immorality won!Everybody at FEMA needs to be fired, as well as most of those at Homeland Security. NO was a demonstration of how the government reacts to an emergency, and it failed in all respects. The only branch that was at all effective was the Coast Guard, and they succeded only because they didn’t wait for orders from on high!Now, do you feel secure? You shouldn’t!

  11. Galahad
    Posted September 20, 2005 at 8:18 am | Permalink

    I love seeing the right-wingers spin this as a good thing for Bush.

    If he nominated his dog Barney to the Supreme Court, the right-wing would praise his efforts at diversity . . .

  12. Jed
    Posted September 20, 2005 at 1:35 pm | Permalink

    Hey Galahad,If Barney’s on the short list, he’s the only one without an ideological agenda. Of course he’d have to recuse himself if a suit involving Ralston-Purina was heard, but he’s still the most intellectually qualified and trustworthy of any Bush appointee. Let’s hear it for Barney!