Re: The City of Louisiana

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 15:43:48 -0400, ing <ing.blueyes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>gekko wrote:
>
>> 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn,' Rhett was heard to utter. But ing <ing.blueyes@xxxxxxxxxxxx> had this to say in message <kXtTe.13096$I02.678106@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>
><.....>
>
>>> Gawd knows - but here's another eye-opener. A
>>> thousand highly trained firefighters from all
>>> across America, willing, able and prepared to do
>>> search and rescue to help out their fellow
>>> Americans in trouble -- conscripted by FEMA to
>>> hand out flyers to victims -- flyers with a phone
>>> number written on it. Seems they have to take a
>>> sexual harrassment course in Atlanta before they
>>> can do it.
>>
>>
>> Bureacracy is what happened.
>
>Sorry - a bit too passive a word for me.
>
>Allow me to be a bit cynical, and note that I have
>a strong gut feeling that if this major snafu had
>occurred under a Democratic Pres's watch - words
>such as "bureaucracy" would be banished and in
>their place, we'd have phrases like MAJOR FUCKUP
>being bandied about all over the place. Specially
>by GOP types. Just my opinion.

I love the way those hypocritically assholes are now whining about the
"blame game." One might almost imagine that they hadn't blamed Clinton
for Whitewater (whatever that was supposed to be), Travelgate,
Monicagate, Phonegate, and any number of mostly imaginary gates from
rape to trashing the White House.

>> Bureacracy, which is what a nationalized, federal system
>> creates as it works its fingers deeper and deeper into
>> locales.

I love to the way Republicans destroy agencies in the name of small
government and local control, and then say "I told you so!" when the
agencies downsized agencies can't do their work. It's utter nonsense
to suppose that localities can handle a disaster of this magnitude
without Federal assistance.

"The Bush Administration's emphasis on the role of state and local
governments and private charities 'is a recipe for disaster,' [Mrs.
Clinton] said. 'There was nobody in charge at the federal government
level and no one willing to take responsibility to work with state and
local governments'."

"Katrina exposed the weakness of planning for another terrorist
attack, she said. 'There is no plan, no overall strategy. We don't
have a seamless, smooth-running response machine'."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9230378/

>Come on, gek - your president co-opted *qualified*
>search and rescue guys - sent there to help out by
>their communities - for PHOTO ops, for heaven's
>sake! And you flip it off as "bureaucracy"? Good
>gawd.

>> And, in some cases, fear of litigation. Volunteer groups
>> who stood ready, but would not move until they got permission
>> from some bureacrat willing to take the chance that if they
>> fucked up, and got sued, there'd be pockets deep enough
>> to handle it.
>
>"would not move" or "*could* not move"? I've read
>loads of reports that it was the latter. I'd make
>a guess that, in the minds of those who came to
>help, the fear of being sued was microscopic. So,
>if they were kept back for that reason, it wasn't
>that they "wouldn't" move.

So have I. FEMA wouldn't let them do their jobs. Insane.

>> Rescue operations are quite underway ... they're even rescuing
>> pets! They had volunteers rescuing hospice patients within
>> the first few days,
>
>Yes, I heard. Were those volunteers with the
>hospice patients vetted by a bureaucrat who signed
>off on them, so in case they screwed up they
>wouldn't get sued? I'd bet not - they just let
>them in, in the first few days. But trained
>firefighters and rescue guys - they gotta take
>sexual harrassment courses before they're allowed
>in to *pose with the president*. Screwy eh?

>> while babies were still crammed into the
>> convention center and little girls were being raped.
>
>Re the rape thing -- from what I've heard, that's
>a myth - nobody's come forward to *anyone* on the
>record - nobody's found the victim yet ... the
>N.O. cops have no info on it.
>
>http://tinyurl.com/7aj6g
>
>
>> This is and has been a mess. Thanks to the bureacracy of
>> a bloated system that has not yet managed the simple concepts
>> of communication and smacking lawyers and insurance companies
>> into the ground.
>
>FWIW, I hadn't heard it was lawyers keeping out
>folks who had been sent to help. All reports seem
>to put it at FEMAs feet - and FEMA is under the
>direction of your President. You may have
>different info though.

If so, I haven't seen it either.

--
Josh

"This is a devastating storm. This is a storm that's
going to require immediate action now." -George W. Bush,
four days after Hurricane Katrina
.

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