That's insane. You really have a case of low expectations for the government.

If you actually expect FEMA to sit on their hands and do nothing, then why do we have this agency at all?

Sounds an awful lot like the whole pussy/dick/asshole metaphore. I don't see how classifying everyone into two groups(g&p) is very grey. Sounds like black and white, right and wrong, something I do not subscribe to. It also makes me wonder what the place of the IRA is in that analogy, especially with the peace deal. Are they wolves or just misguided sheep? How about the 7/7 bombers sheep or wolves? If they are wolves. Were they always wolves? Did they change teams?

"We limit the power of the federal government, as those of us fortunate enough to have spent time in Civics, rather than Self Esteem classes, are aware."

Well, I'm glad to know that the "big government conservatives" did not go to civics class. You know, the ones who supported the Homeland Security Department which contains FEMA. That explains quite a bit.

Well, sheepdogs, I'm part of a tribe too. It's called the American people. And frankly I care a lot more about them than I do peoples of any other country or any political faction or the fate of any politician. I think there is more than enough blame on both sides to go around here. You should never place your faith in government, even if your faction built it and is in control of it.

i agree..his dichtomy which has clinton and sharpton vs. condi and bush as the pinks and grays seems fairly retarded, particularly in the context of Katrina. Bush was the press conference President, while Condi went to alabama to take pictures with people at brunch. then clinton and bush 1 were picked to get money, which apparently was the only thing that could help anybody.

"... right and wrong, something I do not subscribe to ..."

Now there's a telling statement.

George and his buddies at the DHS now have primary responsibility for operations like responding to Katrina -- And they dropped the ball.

Not that no one else dropped the ball, but the team captain showed up a week late and then proceeded to fumble every snap for days, blocked contributions from others that might make him look bad and interrupted essential parts of the game to pose pretty for photos. And now he and his frat buddies are trying to claim that it was everyone else's fault.

From the DHS website
"In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America's families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS."

DL, I have the lowest possible expectations for government. That's why I'm a conservative.

Vincent, anyone that bombs civilians, for whatever reason, is a wolf.

Von Bek, while I recognize your 'conservatives aren't really conservative' rant here, I have no idea what you're talking about. We're all Americans. We all care about other Americans. What's your point?

Fool, how many times are liberals going to copy and paste that into comment sections? We get it, DHS failed. I was against there even being a DHS because I'm a conservative and never want to expand the size of government. I guess liberals feel the same, huh?

What an ignorant statement!

While leaving a drowning city to save itself might be the ideal response of the federal government in the fantasies of small government conservatives, in the real world that's not how the system is set up. When the President declares a disaster, it's FEMA's job to manage it. (The wacky liberal theory behind this being that the states might not have the resources to deal with major disasters.)

And the President declared a disaster on Saturday before the storm. From the White House release:

"The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of..."

"Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.

"The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. “Quite frankly, if they’d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,” said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly."

The federal government can't take over when the state governor refuses.

I agree there's plenty of blame to go 'round. But liberals don't seem to want to fix any on the Democratic Governor of La., who refused to call up the National Guard or federalize the cops and etc., or the Democratic Mayor of NO, who let 600 city buses sit idle rather than having them running through his own neighborhoods picking people up and getting them to safety.

If a liberal would acknowledge this explicitly, rather than vaguely referring to "more than enough blame to go around" without naming any cultprits besides George W. Asmodeus Bush, I'd tend to take him more seriously.

To every liberal attacking Bush as well as the message in this post:

WE ARE GOING TO WIN IN 2008 TOO!

Now, the whole Katrina mess, if we are going to blame anyone, is the fault of the local government. One must "take care of their own", and the local government did a terrible job evacuating their own citizens.

Karol,
I agree with you. I just don't agree with the analogy. When does a person become an enemy? Using such a simple analogy does not do more than provide simple satisfaction from knowing you are not one of the weak.

We now know that government with W and Rumsfeld in power will take 72 hours to respond to ANY man made or natural disaster(time it took Fema AND Military to get to New Orleans).

This means that foreign powers like Russia or China can effectively TAKEOVER most of the west coast with a 72 hour battle plan.

The high paid Republican management team with W and Rummy have now exposed the West Coast to ANY country that wants to take it.

I'm a loyal Texas Republican and this 72 hour TAKE WHAT YOU WANT policy kinda concerns me.

"Von Bek, while I recognize your 'conservatives aren't really conservative' rant here, I have no idea what you're talking about. We're all Americans. We all care about other Americans. What's your point?"

It's actually the 'Republicans and Trostkycons are not necessarilly conservative' rant. I'm talking about I'd rather see things settle in New Orleans before the parties and their respective skullions, minions, henchmen, lackies, fans, loyalists, spinedonors, activists, volunteers, patronage slaves, enthusiasists etc. kick and scream at each other over whose fault it is. I also think the simple tribe definitions are silly and do nothing to bring the people of this republic together at a time when it is sorely needed. There are some things that are more important than politics. This is one of them.

alarming news

In light of the quotes presented here, it is so obviously clear that FEMA did not react in accordance with the purpose for their existence. FEMA was aware of the situation prior to, during and after it occurred--as we all were, thanks to the news media. It was pretty obvious that the local officials did not have the ability to take care of all of the issues presented to them with this catastrophe. Why should FEMA officials sit back and wait for someone to ask them for help? While there are so many examples of help needed, the Super Dome situation was so appalling--it was publicly announced that this location was designated as a shelter to be used to ride out the storm, and then that this huge group of people were not able to leave due to the flood. We all witnessed the distressing situation first hand, seeing what was happening just by watching the TV. What were the people paid to help our citizens in time of trouble thinking when they saw these scenes and heard about the conditions? Can you imagine being charged with the responsibility of handling emergency situations for this country and intentionally sitting on your hands doing nothing until you were asked to do so? Anyone working for a private corporation who blatantly ignored the primary responsibilities of their job would not be around long enought to make unexcusable excuses. The same should apply to the government officials that we pay so dearly for. President Bush is a dirty, under-handed individual, with a history of using self-rewarding motives in reacting to most situations/decisions he has any say in. I pray for those storm victims and for hope for their futures--but not to the same God that GWB prays to.

Can you imagine what they would do if New York got nuked?

I had always assumed they already have a plan in place in case this ever happens.

But now I assume they'll just think it up on the fly when it does occur.

Let's face it. Bush was playing guitar while New Orleans was sinking away.

Do I blame Bush for the hurricane? No. But I'm not giving him any credit for doing nothing either.

If we don't pay our politicians to actually govern, just what the hell do we need them for.

A must must must must must read.

Read. Learn.

Henrieta,

Very dumb. In case you haven't noticed, Bush isn't up for re-election. It's not some big conspiracy to get him support to get him re-elected, see?

Henrieta:

Conservatives did not cause this crisis, the left did:

It was the left that allowed the lawlessness in New Orleans to explode into everyday chaos that dominated the lives of anyone living in that city long before the storm.

It was the left who allowed a corrupt city government to become even more ineffective and corrupt long before the storm.

It was a left-wing city administration that abandoned the people and fled from danger even though they had all the buses needed to evacuate the people.

It was a left-wing governor who turned down Bush's offer of federal help a day before the storm and refused to ask for it until 4 days after the storm.

it was a left-wing governor who did nothing because of incompetence and cowardice.

A former employer of mine is heavily involved with OES (Office of Emergency Service) here in California. Here and in the equivalent agencies in other states the rule for how long it takes, minimum, for any meaningful Federal aid to arrive on scene is 72-96 hours. In other words, 3 to 4 days.

Up until then, states are expected to have the level of organization internally to hold things together. This includes little things like the state's Governor taking the initiative on a National Guard callup. The states each have their own NG for this reason.

The leadership in Louisiana and especially New Orleans failed badly in their planning for those few days before Federal aid could realistically be expected in force. The school and MTA bus fleets, although explicitly mentioned in the City's plans for emergency evacuations, were left standing idle with the school bus fleet now largely underwater. Even moving those busses to high ground could have saved lives by offering shelter beyond the overloaded Superdome and Morial Center. This is just one aspect of the failure.

Looting was a flashy news story but where was the legal looting? In times of crisis a government can commandeer vital supplies like food and water, especially when it is likely to be destroyed by flooding. Other than some cops and citizens taking the inititive I haven't heard of any official action in this regard.

Bottom line is that every level of government failed the people. The left and right can point fingers at each other like the good little flocks they are, but there are lessons to be learned from this and learn them we must.

Jake,

Most of your claims blaming "the left" for this tragedy are so vague and meaningless as to be irrefutable, but it's interesting that the one verifiable factual claim you make turns out to be demonstrably false.

You write that the Governor refused to ask for federal help until four days after the storm. However, the Governor's letter to the President asking for fedral assisstance on Saturday August 27 before the storm is a matter of public record.

From that letter: "I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal."

ummm...Jake, Governor Blanco may be a Democrat, but if a pro-life, pro gun, anti gay civil rights politician is a member of the "left wing," we've all got big, big problems. This is the South after all.

FoolMeOnce--

The passage that you quoted from the DHS website expressly does NOT indicate that the DHS will handle natural disasters; it says that the DHS will assume responsibility for ensuring that "emergency response professionals" are prepared. That isn't the same thing as "single-handedly saving a flooded city, after the mayor failed to properly evacuate it, and the governor dragged his feet on calling in the national guard." It has never been, is not currently, and will never be, the responsibility of the federal government to first-respond to natural disasters.

Tex Slim--

I find it extremely hard to believe that you are actually a Republican, but--in the event that you really are a Republican--it's important to remember that a hurricane is not a foreign power such as "Russia" or "China." If Russia or China attacked us with a "72 hour battle plan," we would obliterate their respective countries with nuclear weapons before they could say "McDonalds."

I am sick of Katrina. Let them all go to hell.

This means that foreign powers like Russia or China can effectively TAKEOVER most of the west coast with a 72 hour battle plan.

That's just stupid.

It takes 72 hours to reach a devastated area with supplies of food and water, rescue vehicles, engineers, and so on.

It takes a few minutes to scrable a squadron of jets and blow an invasion force to hell.

"We limit the power of the federal government"

-- Never in my life have I seen the federal government take SO MUCH power through the Patriot Act and the creation Dept. of Homeland Security. It has left those on the left arguing for state's rights. FEMA, however, a humanitarian relief agency, was gutted, put into the Dept. of Homeland Security (with the Coast Guard) and placed under an idiot who cannot even balance the books on a horse farm.

That's just moronic and wrong.

Toby--

The Left is not arguing for "states' rights"; it is arguing for non-existent individual "rights," such as the "right" to elude federal investigation for subversive activity, or the "right" to elude searches and personal inspections before boarding subways and railway cars. Those issues are not cases of federal power vs. the power the of the states; they are issues of safety vs. recklessness and, consitently, the Left comes down on the side of recklessness.

Cliff Notes version:

"People who are different from me frighten and confuse me, so they deserve to die."

Despicable twaddle...

Don--

As a rule of thumb, any time that you have to completely make up words to put into the mouths of your opponents, you have essentially lost the debate.

What are you talking about Dorian? "Twaddle" isn't a made up word!