It will be interesting to see how his myriad critics respond to Bush’s assumption of responsibility for the federal government failures in response to Katrina.
As if that isn’t enough, now the President has to appear in front of the UN whose unctuous Secretary General has already thrown down his corruption-infested gauntlet. As Claudia points out, in an interview with The Independent, Kofi Annan issued the following not-so-veiled threat to the US: “They are the host. You cannot be a host and destroy the party.”
Bush said: “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.“
If I were one of the dithering, blithering idiots responsible for the failures – the real failures that cost people their lives rather than the failures that kept them uncomfortable, frightened, or angered longer than a more perfect response would have – I’d take the above as a veiled threat.
I can only hope it was designed for that purpose.
It will be interesting to see how his myriad critics respond to the “Thank you. Thank you,
you glorious Americans” by the President of Iraq
from the White House press conference today.
Please get the transcipt – don’t let Katrina just
be the story. He was practically hugging G.W.,
telling him what a man of courage he was.
It was unbelievable. He burst out “We have all
kinds of Democracy now” refering to the courts,
voting rights, freedom of religion etc.
Priceless – don’t let Katrina and Roberts have this slip thru the cracks into the chasm that the
Left Stream Media has as their “safe keeper”.
Priceless!
Knuck,
The President did the right thing.
Again.
If I were Blanche “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers” Blanco or Mary “Moon’s Girl” Landrieu I’d be updating my resume. Nagin’s already determined that his future lies in Dallas, TX rather than NOLA. The DeMSM spin will focus on the President’s “I take responsibility” but the investigation is going to provide some very good fodder of the “don’t trust your lives to the corrupt Dems” variety for use in next years elections.
The DeMSM is still buying their playbooks from Arlie K. Evor of Acme Political Consultants. They need to pay a bit more attention to Wily Coyotes fate every time he opens a box from Acme.
We’re not destroying the party, we’re just saying after 50 years, it’s BYOB.
Norway just had an election, the lefties won, they’re handing out more goodies from their oil wealth.
They can afford to up their contribution, same for a lot others.
So far, the press reaction has been, “Bushitler says he’s to blame for EVERYTHING! Complete list at 5, 11, and updates around the clock as we think of more things to blame him for!”
This should be good. So far the moonbats haven’t laid a glove on the president and don’t think they will this time either.
o/t but not too far off, what does anyone think of Reynolds taking this moment in time, when Bush is being bombarded with outrageous charges including being indifferent to black people’s suffering and dying, to reveal his long held belief that Bush is only an adequate president?
Took me by surprise.
Here’s the transcript from the press conference larwyn mentioned above.
Anyone suppose it will get any play in the international MSM? I wouldn’t wager a knickle on that given that it contains words like:
erp,
If someone judges Bush to be merely adequate, well, I’ll take that over inadequate. His primary complaint, if I read him correctly, is that Bush is not libertarian enough and, oddly for a Libertarian (if he is a card-carrier), that he isn’t doing enough about illegal immigration. Well…
What were the choices available to the American people? Al Gore who is reprising his award winning, but election losing, Raging Moonbat role. And John Kerry – enough said.
Adequate is a long way from what we would have had otherwise. For those who believe “we deserve better” all I can say is be glad we didn’t get the alternatives.
Once again Bush is taking enormous heat for his failure to be a great speaker rallying the nation. In my lifetime there have been:
Ike – too young to recall anything about him but I can’t think of any accounts I ever heard describing him as a rousing speaker.
Kennedy – gave good speech
Nixon – hardly a rousing speaker
Ford – hardly a rousing speaker
Carter – hardly a rousing speaker
Reagan – deservedly known as the Great Communicator
Bush I – hardly a rousing speaker
Clinton – he get’s points for being a good speaker but there was precious little substance
Washington was apparently a decent, but flawed speaker
Adams – terrible
Jefferson – even worse
We could go on and on through all the POTUSes and we’d find precious few who were great speakers even in the days since they had an ability to reach out via broadcast technology.
FDR – good speaker
Truman – I doubt it
How has the republic survived? Which candidates, even the ones who have lost, were particularly good speakers?
Somehow I think we’re just going to have to muddle through. Speaking skills would be a big plus, but we don’t get them much.
I’d prefer Bush were more visible and spoke more often but there’s precious little coverage even when he does. What’s the answer? How does he get in front of us more and talk to us more when the MSM is so openly hostile? How does he influence those who’s only source of information is the MSM?
Actually, I’d say a host cand destroy a party quite easily. Only an idiot would think otherwise
So let’s give Mr. Annan an educational demonstration. PNG every delegate to the UN, eminent domain all UN property in the United States, and end our contributions to the budget.
Dear Kofi Annan has just hit the nail on the head when it comes to revealing his preconceived notions of what the United Nations stands for, a “party”. It is time he and his cronies were thrown out with the empty beer bottles and were sent packing back to their third world enclaves. It is time for an Organization of Democracies, or whatever its moniker goes by these days and leave the rest of the world scrambling for visitor passes.
Bush is now prejudice against dead people-and guilty of prioritizing the living(!?)
The updated Louisiana numbers were released as the Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at the federal government, accusing it of moving too slowly in recovering the bodies. The dead “deserve more respect than they have received,” she said.
Blanco Blasts Bush on Bodies
Sixteen minutes ago..
Wow-the sun also rises-Blame Bush.
Knucklehead, to be perfectly fair to Prof. Reynolds, he has also been critical of the Bush Administration for not reining in government spending enough. I would wager that there are some old Reagan Republicans who feel that way, too, although I think we can also safely say by now that Bush’s tax cuts were helpful to the economy.
I am a strong supporter of President Bush.
That said there are a number of issues on which I disagree with him
The top two are his signing of the McCain Feingold atrocity, his lack of action on illegal immigration.
I also wish he was charismatic and well spoken enough to convert all the LLL to capitalist loving patriots. But………
I don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
GWB is, IMNSHO much more than adequate, and much less than perfect.
I guess somebody has to assume responsibility, but so far Kofi and Blanco and Nagin have not done the same..now have they?
I think the Democrats may regret the day they used Katrina for politics. I know I am glad Indiana has a Repubican governor. I would be worried the next time the river gets out if the Demcorats were running things. They might let me drown just to bring down some Republican’s poll numbers.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Blanco will run again, or maybe even take a shot at Senator herself.
You cannot shame a Democrat. They are incapable of the feeling.
No offense to Prof. Reynolds, but his reputation as a “linker, not a thinker” is well-warranted. To pass judgement on Bush as “merely adequate” indeed shows the kind of spoiled, whiny attitude one of his readers accused him of.
Knuck
Thanks for the link to the Talabani transcript! I watched it. He was a little hard to understand sometimes with the accent. That seems to have messed up the speech to text conversion. He said 50 million, not 15 million.
Foxnews picked it up as 15 million too and put it in their scroll.
————
“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.”
MEMORIZE this, folks. There will be the usual suspects who will attempt to distort the words.
————-
I have no words re Kofi.
Don’t need any.
As I said, memorize that quote.
It’s already started. I went to that sh*thole and sure enough someone had posted a thread with the quote as:
“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability…the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.”
arrrghhhhhhhh
Here’s my reaction
I see Glenn Reynolds has bizarrely turned it into some point about Iraq. The mind truly does boggle. I don’t know what to say anymore. I just don’t get it.
And yes, I realize that Talabani was there and it meant important and heartening things about Iraq, but Bush does so few press conferences this is the only shot that reporters have to ask him about everything, so it’s understandable that there would be Katrina questions.
Geez–With respect to Glen Reynolds–I love his blog but his personal opinions are just that. Will still start my day with instapundit.
Why in the world the president took responsibility for the Katrina response, which was demonstrabably the best federal response to any natural disaster in this country on record, is beyond me. But I have always been a combative as*h*le, so I guess the problem is mine.
I am still waiting for anyone to tell me what is an acceptable time for a federal response to disaster–I have yet to hear that.
I think George W Bush is a good and decent man–I am less sure about some his counselors.
I’ve noticed for some time that bloggers who self identify as small ‘l’ libertarians have been distancing themselves from the right. This shift in attitude was slow to start. Just a jarring phrase here and there from various voices I had come to respect, but now that Reynolds seems to be damning Bush with faint praise, others will be hot on his heels.
In my opinion these libertarian bloggers have never felt uncomfortable being lumped in by the media with Conservative blogs, but they threw in their lot with Bush because they realized that only Bush’s determination stands between us and the victory of Islamic terrorism.
The left understands very well how instrumental the blogosphere was in re-electing Bush and would like to undermine that network and break up what was a very winning team. To that end, they’ve been bringing bloggers into the mainstream by putting them on television, quoting their blogs and featuring their articles on the editorial pages of major newspapers.
David Brooks, for instance, traded in his Conservative credentials for a seat at the NYT table, no doubt a very heady table it is.
RogerA:
All Bush said was that he would take responsibility for any failures at federal level.
He did not say the feds did a bad job. He did not say the locals did a good job and he did not say he was resposnbile for the hurricane.
He just assumed responsibility for that over which he has control. What are the chances the LA officials will do the same?
I think it could be a plus because it makes him look like a grown up and it makes them look like the nimrods that they are.
Will the press spin it? Sure, but if he did not do something like this they would spin that as well.
RogerA,
He’s setting the table for the investigation. The investigation is going to give W a couple of pin pricks and then blow Blanco right out of her job. With a bit of luck, it will finish Landrieu as well.
What type of job do you think Nagin has been offered in Dallas? My dark side leads me to think that his starting salary will be tied to the truthfulness of his testimony before the investigating committee. The whole truth is all anyone will ask but he’s going to have to deliver every bit of it. Including the discussions between Landrieu and Blanco to which he was privy.
Rick:
I have had the same questions. I think that people really got upset with the image of Americans wanting food and water. I know Bush was not the one who stopped them from getting it and I know the Constitution makes it plain the feds are not to take priority over the state…but Brown should have been out there telling people they were doing the best they could considering what they were dealing with.
Bush is just acknowldging that not everything went right, but then it never does.
Contrast that with bitching and moaning and finger pointing and ass covering from Blanco and Co.
We are in a war. And, no, not the WOT. We are in a war with ourselves. We are in a war with the fifth column. This is the war that will determine victory or defeat. It pains me to say it, but blogs are yet but a pin prick on the toughened hide of the DeMSM. What, 70, 80 percent of the American people still get their daily dose of ‘reality’ through the MSM. No, GWB is not perfect, no where close, but even so, where in the hell would we be without him? It disturbs me that those who know what the true danger to this country is, islamofascism, would begin to weaken in their support of the one person who has had the nerve in the last 40 years to try and do something about the dangers we face. Now is not the time for domestic politics to override the greater mission. Sorry for the hurrah BS, but we need to keep our focus.
At first, I wondered why Bush was taking responsibility for something that was clearly not his fault, and wasn’t he just giving ammunition to his enemies. But I think Rick Ballard is right, that this is just setting the table for the investigation down the line. As usual, he’s playing 3-D chess while his opponents are trying to figure out how to play tic-tac-toe.
It also kinda reminds me of when Reagan stood up and took responsibility after Hezbollah bombed the Marine barracks in Beirut. Did I take him literally? No, of course not. But I thought it took more guts to direct the heat at himself than to take the only other alternative coursesó either dancing around the subject or blaming subordinates.
There’s a story about Richard the Lionheart from his Crusading days that goes something like this: Upon receiving a report that an English foraging party was beset by Saracen cavalry and in serious trouble, Richard immediately prepared himself to ride to their rescue. When one of his entourage argued against it on grounds that the King should not put himself in danger, he replied, “I sent those men. If they die without me, may I never be called King again.” Was Richard literally responsible for those men’s lives? Well, kinda, but not entirely. Did it take some serious balls to assume that responsibility at that moment? Most definitely. That sort of thing made Richard a legend.
Luther,
My support for the President is unwavering. I believe that he was a little slow off the mark in his public response to Katrina. He is recovering from that very well.
I also am smelling a peculair but familiar stench emanating from the Blanco/Landrieu quarter. I really hope that the joint committee gets their hands on their phone logs from Friday and Saturday night because I believe that their phone logs plus Hilary’s would make for very interesting reading. This is just a bit too much like Janet “Roast’em” Reno’s excellent Waco adventure. Blanco’s adjutant general’s duty was to inform her about the necessity for signing compacts with the other governors who would provide NG troops if she really wanted them. It was also his duty to inform her as to the necessity to cede control to the Feds if she wanted Regulars operating in LA. I imagine that he fulfilled that duty. Why didn’t Blanco act on her adjutant’s advice? Who else was advising her?
Wrt the WoT – it will be won or lost on Capitol Hill in the Halls of Congress. Which is precisely where Vietnam was lost. We face exactly the same enemy that we did in ’74 but the enemy is in a greatly weakened state. I agree with you that the blogs are not as yet powerful enough to make a truly significant difference (although they will be by ’08) but cable TV and especially talk radio are carrying the ball quite well. The DeMSM is in decline and I believe that decline to be irreversible. They will finally expire from the application of the steady pressure of facts and truth. Our task is to provide the facts as quickly and concisely as possible in order to efficiently erode their falsehoods.
Adequate?
Pretty broad word where a presidency is concerned.
We were still around after eight years of Clinton. Set up for 9/11, sliding into recession, and watching the collapse of any semblance of “process” where middle eastern peace was concerned, but I guess he was “adequate” for leaving office with only furniture, paintings ,china and “w” keys in his valise.
If in ten years, or even twenty, there are democratic governments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran,, plus a few more in Africa, and if we survive Europe’s coming economic collapse without getting sucked into a war on that continent, and if we are able to defeat China’s coming attempt at military adventures re Taiwan without having to go strategic, I think that history will judge him as more than “adequate”.
A man is measured by his successes. As far as I can tell, Bush has delivered (within the bounds of the constitutional process) on every campaign agenda he set as a priority.
Every one.
He’s on record saying that Iran will not become a nuclear player. He’s also said that Taiwan will be defended. The Iranians probably aren’t rational enough to wait out the next three years; playing games with the EU isn’t slowing down democracy in Iraq, and that’s a lot more relevant to their politics than any appeasement from Brussels ever was. It’s increasingly clear that our own Left is incapable of doing the same thing – looking beyond the present – since they’ve committed every column inch and second of video at their command to destroy Bush even though he’s beyond any election. I’m fairly convinced the Chinese have already thought the situation through and decided to wait for another administration with which to play hardball.
They know they’ll lose if they try it with this one – even if some people think it’s only “adequate”.
Rick Ballard,
He’s setting the table for the investigation.
Comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one who figured that those simple words so many saw as “self damning” most likely sent a cold chill up the spines of some other people.
Consider, for a moment, this AP Report carried by Netscape News. Within it we have:
“Sins of Ommission”, murder by inaction, is a tough case to make in a legal sense (and rightly so). It can, however, be made.
Since so many struggle with scope and scale I’ll grab onto the simplest example that jumps to mind. As a coach of a recreational ball team full of youngsters it was my responsibility (and that of the umpires or other officials) to exercise a level of due dilligence to ensure that the playing field did not contain hazards beyond those normal to the game.
It was my responsibility to scan the field for such hazards. Some years of experience taught me that this was not an exercise to be taken lightly. Broken glass and sometimes inexplicable holes (aliens?) were not uncommon finds.
To extend the example, were I to exercise due dilligence to my responsibilities and miss some shard of green glass in the outfield and some player was injured I would not be legally liable. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t intellectually hold myself responsible to some degree or that the parents of the child might believe that I did not exercise sufficient due dilligence and hold me fully responsible.
If, on the other hand, I failed to exercise due dilligence and, therefore, never even looked for the smashed six-pack lying out there by the fence and some child were injured, I’d have a tough case (and a deservedly guilty conscience) on my hands.
There will be many, many, people who are discovered to have failed to exercise due dilligence to responsibilities that were rightfully theirs. I will be astonished if among such people in the Cascading Case of Katrina we do not discover the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana.
Terrye and Rick–I surrender–youre assessment was much better than mine.
Prof Reynolds links to an interesting article by James Pinkerton what talks about the MSM striking back–and I think Pinkerton’s assessment is pretty much on target.
When we have reached the point where we have the MSM as an active political force in this country, we have some serious problems.–If you havent read the Pinkerton piece, I recommend it. http://techcentralstation.com/091305G.html It will infuriate.
RogerA,
The article makes some excellent points but there’s an aspect of Katrina’s aftermath that hasn’t even come into play yet. That aspect is the criminal and, in particular, the Money Blame Game. Our erstwhile legions of attorneys will see to it that that we have not even begun to see the headlines and apportionment of blame.
The flailing of the MSM with every weapon available to them may, indeed, have overwhelmed their opponents’ ability to effectively parry, but that is only temporary. The lawyers will, soon enough, overwhelm the MSM’s ability to spin everything.
Responsibilities are a cascading phenomenon. Determining who is legitimately responsible for what, however, does not even begin in ernest (or to any level of sensibility) until people decide that their own wallets need protecting – or are empty – and, therefore, payments due need to be extracted from other wallets. Opportunism will, of course, come into play; lawyers are enormously fond of Other People’s Money.
Katrina will remain in public play as a discussion topic for a long time. Slowly, but surely, blame will be apportioned. And as that happens people will be reading and listening even if only with one eye and ear. And they will see themselves and the people around them in the various characters in this long running drama.
Something much more closely approximating “truth” re: Katrina’s Aftermath will eventually filter down to the general public. Much of what is Conventional Wisdom today, a mere two weeks after landfall, will be abandoned to the point of those who once held it insisting that they never believed any such thing.
Slowly, but surely, the discussion will become one of “close to home” rather than one of nebulous and distant federal bureaucracies. Folks will stop wondering how the feds failed to save some grannies down in New Orleans and start wondering what the owners of the home Granny is in have planned should Mother Nature come knocking in a really bad mood.
They’ll eventually stop asking why the feds didn’t somehow manage to gather up 5000 buses and send them them to New Orleans and start asking their local leaders what their plan is for those school buses over there on the other side of town.
And, slowly but surely, local and state officials less prone to corruption and incompetence will start wondering how to protect themselves from becoming the legitimate targets of Sharks With Law Degrees and the answers they get will be exercise due dilligence – to develop a plan, make it as good as it can be, and then exercise it.
Well, since one of the subtopics of this thread has become Glenn Reynolds and Instapundit, here’s yet another href=”http://iwamatodjishi.com/posts/1126261551.shtml”>item linked from there.
What that article talks about will, IMHO, eventually filter down to some significant portion of the American public. None of it is in the interests of the Don’t you worry, Dear. Mommy and Daddy will take care of everything party.
Knuck–I have always been impressed with your ability to take the longer view–and I think you are right. The “truth” will come out and we will know what happened. Thats a good thing. My only concern is that the truth will not be noted by those whose attention span is limited by the last 5 minutes of a cable news show.
Well–I can only take a longer view myself–when more objective historians view this contretemps in 50 years, we will have a much better understanding. It wont affect current citizens; but perhaps it will inform our progeny.
When I was much younger, President Harry Truman was widely regarded as a dolt. I remember a professor of mine opining that “Harry Truman confirmed that anyone could be president.” Now that the moving finger, having writ and moved on, Harry Truman rightly deserves a better place in history–the minor carping of small minded critics notwithstanding.
RogerA,
I sincerey doubt I have any ability to take a particularly long view. The stuff I mentioned won’t require particularly long to come into play. The results of it will, of course, take longer.
For example, we had the first filing of criminal charges today (or yesterday, whatever). That is an indication of some stuff. If the charges were filed today that means somebody began preparing them at least a few days ago.
My initial response to that was along the lines of “don’t they have better things to worry about at this point?” The answer to that is, maybe not. Maybe things have reached the point where an AG’s staff is beginning to function for its original purpose again. Maybe they really are reaching the point where they can begin to prioritize and act upon the criminal prosecutions that will surely come about.
Then again, maybe it is a politician jumping on some opportunity.
Either way, this sort of thing will alter perceptions – the conventional wisdom. Once people start hearing about and pondering, to whatever degree, whether or not actions and inactions were “criminal” they’ll start thinking about stuff a little more rationally than the initial emotionalism of “why isn’t SOMEBODY doing SOMETHING to help those poor people!” Thoughts will start turning toward why some people did what they did or didn’t do what they were supposed to do.
That will not help Nagin or Blanco. People will forget that their empathy for “those who got wet” and start realizing that getting wet was insufficient reason to do or not do very real stuff.
And, BTW, let’s not forget that all politics are local. The MSM may not be showing us the gaping wounds Nagin and Blanco have taken but we can rest assured that their political opponents (and there are ALWAYS political opponents) and even some former allies who smell opportunity or recognize the need to abandon ship, are assessing the depth of those wounds.
The MSM threw itself into a fit of fury with, IMO, the full expectation that they could seriously wound the man and the political party they so deeply detest. Unfortunately for them and their plans, they are hostages to their business and it’s cycles.
The immediate death, destruction, and havoc of Katrina will pass – that is inevitable. The next phase will be the cleanup and recovery. As that gets going the criminal and civil liabilities will begin coming into play. Each of those will alter the story being told and the conventional wisdom as the news cycle changes.
Katrina as news will continue right up to, and even beyond, the next election cycle.
Things are happening even now that aren’t available for the public to see. Criminal prosecutions are beginning to be prepared and will be filed. The same for civil liability cases and the insurance catfight that is sure to happen.
Eventually we’ll reach the election phase and we can rest assured that those who want the jobs of people like Nagin and Blanco will not hesitate to make the case that Nagin and Blanco failed miserably.
Ultimately Katrina, despite today’s current wisdom, will hurt Dems more than Republicans. The trial lawyers will not let their political loyalties stand in the way of their income. They WILL attack the local and state governments and officials and they WILL bring the bigger story out into public.
And even the Dems in LA, a Dem bastion and stronghold, will not let their Dem loyalties get in the way of attacking their opponents.
Right now it looks as if Republicans have turned on Republicans and, to and extent, they have. But as this story unfolds it will be the Dems, and their biggest supporters, turning on themselves. This will go right down to every facet of local government. Just think of the races for sheriff and school boards and such.
Much of the south, and probably LA in particular, is always a Dem vs. Dem political situation. Even if they hold onto the local political scene they have to sacrifice their own to do it and it all will come to fruition BEFORE the next election cycle which, BTW, will be a news cycle when it arrives.
A short year from now the public perception, that all important CW, will be significantly different than it is today. Katrina moved on and right now she’s twirling her mayhem around the head of George Bush, but she’ll move on again and you can bet she’ll turn south away from Washington DC when she does.
This thread may have run it’s course. In case it hasn’t, IIRC there are some regulars here who are familiar with the techniques of polling. If any of y’all are so inclined, please comment on this potential red flag re: the WaPo poll claiming that all of American now hates Bush.
Knuck
re the WaPo poll. Urk. I think a trip to Polipundit is called for to get his take. He’s the expert I run to clarify this stuff.
Good for Bush. Good for the fact that he cares about his poll numbers. Good for fact that he has fired the hack he appointed to run FEMA, and that he has recognized that his party is getting its butt kicked politically on this issue. Good for the fact that he has ordered a bunch of different agencies and allied think-tanks like AEI to come up with free-market and other pet Republican ideas for spending the $61 billion appropriated so far. Some of the ideas may actually be good ones, along with the usual “repeal Davis-Bacon protections” Grover Norquist crap.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091300588.html?nav=hcmodule
By the way, Anne Applebaum has a great column this morning detailing a few instances of recent FEMA idiocy (for instance, requiring New York firefighters sent to New Orleans last week to first go to Atlanta for cultural sensitivity training – a story BTW originally reported by the DeMSM New York TImes). And she contrasts it with the more efficient response by private charity. THIS is a point that Bush and the Republicans should reinforce.
Applebaum is a smart conservative, I didn’t like reading her editorial, but I coundn’t help but acknowledge its truth: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301888.html
In contrast, many people here continue to want to blame the messanger, or the referee, whining about the “MSM” and about Democrats who allegedly are “politicizing the issue.” To which, I’ve found a reply that E.J. Dionne dubs “the Frank theorem”: “It’s a rule in American politics,” said Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), “that whichever side denounces the other for politicizing the issue is losing the argument.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090801859.html
Markus–if you havent worked with governmental agencies recently, there has been an increasing trend over the last 20 years to be culturally sensitive–this comes precisely from the politically correct folks within our legislative branches that mandate this sort of foolishness–So dont look to FEMA; look to the various “ethnic caucuses” who create the pressures for this mindless trivia.
Is the private sector more efficient than government in delivering resources? Without a doubt; regretably, we are stuck with what James Q Wilson calls the paradox of bureaucracy. We want it to be nimble and fast; but we also want it to be fair and in order to be fair you establish rules. In fact if you have ever worked with FEMA via the incident command system, one of the key staff positions in an incident command structure is the administrative/finance position. Congress requires accountability of fund transfers and reimbursements when the disaster is over and these have to be tracked and vouchered during the emergency.
Slow? no doubt. Stupid? agreed. But when congress (irrespective of which party controls) gets around in six months to apportion blame and talk about graft and corruption, these procedures are absolutely necessary.
Markus,
You might want to wait until something beyond round 1 before you make judgements on who is winning the “argument”.
All we’ve seen to this point is a flurry of activity in round 1 of a championship heavyweight bout scheduled for 12 rounds.
If I were you – take the advice or not as you see fit – I wouldn’t wager on the party whose national committee is led by Howard Dean and whose primary mouthpieces are the likes of Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, and Nancy Pelosi to be around to witness the end.
This one isn’t going longer than 9 rounds. The Dems will wake up about 6 or 8 minutes after it ends wondering what all the bright lights and shouting is about.