| Subject: FEMA |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 18:05:31 09/05/05 Mon
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "FEMA: Accusations start to fly" on 17:56:44 09/05/05 Mon
The survivors of New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport and other coastal cities are now refugees in their own country. Many others are dead or dying. Americans are rallying to help, and brave emergency workers are performing miracles.
President Bush must now aggressively use the tools of government to save lives.
This obvious need for government action counters the belief, proclaimed by Ronald Reagan, that "government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." Today's loudest spokesman for that anti-government view is Grover Norquist, an ally of the president who has said his goal is "to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub."
Norquist's careless words are now a tragic metaphor. Because events unfolding on the Gulf Coast are a reminder that government often
can — and must — provide the solution.
As citizens and taxpayers, we grant government the power and financial resources to protect us from natural and manmade disasters. Nothing could have prevented Hurricane Katrina. However, could government have minimized the impact? What have billions in homeland-security "preparedness" dollars given us? Why didn't the president take massive, early action as a devastating storm approached? Why was federal funding cut for improvements to the levees protecting New Orleans? What was the plan if terrorists had blown up those levees?
On Thursday, back at work after "cutting short" his month-long vacation by two days, the president said his "first priority is to save lives." Then he ate lunch with Alan Greenspan.
Meanwhile, hungry people in New Orleans watched their city descend into chaos. The elderly died in their wheelchairs. Others drowned in attics. Looters and criminals overwhelmed relief workers and police, turning the city into a war zone. The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, blasted federal inaction and issued a desperate S.O.S.
The victims, mostly poor and black and without the financial resources to evacuate before the storm, are people who have never been on President Bush's radar screen. (In related news, the Census Bureau announced this week that the nation's poverty rate rose for the fourth year in a row.) Indeed, he chose unconsciously revealing words when he told ABC's Diane Sawyer, "I just can't imagine what it is like to be waving a sign saying 'come and get me now.' "
The word for such imagination, sir, is "compassion." You may remember it from your campaign speeches.
Hours later, a clueless Michael Chertoff denied that anyone was suffering at the New Orleans Convention Center, and said his Department of Homeland Security was doing "a magnificent job." In fact, thousands at the convention center had gone without food and water for days.
Why such ineptitude? Because for years, President Bush has staffed his administration with cronies and political hacks. He regularly appoints people who have no relevant experience but who will be loyal foot soldiers in the fight to roll back government. The result of this ideological, anti-government approach is now tragically plain.
Joe Allbaugh, a longtime Bush political advisor, ran the Federal Emergency Management Agency before leaving in 2003 to parlay his high-level access into lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts. As its director, Allbaugh helped bury FEMA inside the new Department of Homeland Security. (Under President Clinton, it was an independent Cabinet-level agency run by James Lee Witt, an experienced crisis manager.)
The current head of FEMA, Michael Brown, was tapped by the president to manage the federal response to Katrina. His relevant experience? From the FEMA Web site: "Prior to joining FEMA (in 2001), Mr. Brown practiced law in Colorado and Oklahoma, where he served as a bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility for the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a hearing examiner for the Colorado Supreme Court."
Defending FEMA's response in New Orleans, Brown callously blamed the victims — the poor and infirm, and yes, a few who foolishly stayed behind when they could have left. Then, as desperation enveloped New Orleans, and the National Guard was told to "shoot to kill," Brown took a page from the Iraq playbook and told CNN, "Things are going relatively well."
Calling Brown incompetent would be too kind. He should be fired now.
Finally, it's hard not to notice that when President Bush orders military action abroad that takes human life, his supporters cheer him as a bold leader. But when called upon to take rapid action to save thousands of lives here at home, it's clear that this president is not a leader at all. Instead, he is a man embarrassingly out of his depth.
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