Katrina damages more than just lives and property

[radfringe]

Lives have been lost - various reports put the body count between 10-40 thousand. Million+ people have had their homes destroyed, jobs lost. It's going to take years to recover.

What also has been damaged by Katrina indirectly is the credibility of the Federal Government. Katrina didn't destroy credibility - but rather the Federal Government's response destroyed it.

in the days following September 11, 2001 -- the Republican Congress and the bush* administration ran around and slapped together the patriot act and homeland security for the purpose of "making us safer"

how many times during the 2004 campaign did you hear the talking points about bush*'s policies making us safer. True, Katrina was no terrorist attack - yet part of homeland security's task is to also deal with natural disasters - and it failed miserably.

While Mama Bush "marvels" at how better off the "underpriviledge" are in a make-shift shelter, and bush* laments that he no longer has Trent Lott's porch to sit on -- they forget that people no longer have homes or even a porch.

Scotty-dog McClellan dodges questions by calling it a blame game.

It's not a blame game -- it's called accountability, it's called taking responsibility.

at the moment the highest priority of the bush* mis-adminstration is not the Katrina clean-up -- it's saving bush*'s butt.

watch for these talking points:

-- responsibility starts from the bottom up (i.e. it's the local officials fault)

-- people are responsibile for evacuating themselves (i.e. they got what they deserved)

-- nothing had been done to fix the levees for years (i.e. it's Clinton's fault)

-- We have to focus on getting New Orleans and other effected communites back on their feet - now is not the time for an investigation that will divert people from doing their jobs (i.e. public has short term memory, put off an investigation for awhile and they'll forget about it)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. The real reason why we cannot play the accountability game is

because it runs straight to the top once again... what are we at, accountability dodge number five? Six??

I found this to be an interesting post, it is right on the mark.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/blog/pitw/archives/00000565.shtml
In defense of the blame game

Posted by Chris Neal (09.05.05, 1:18 PM)


A few points about the admonitions currently flying around to avoid "playing the blame game" with the federal government's allegedly dithering response to Hurricane Katrina...

A few points about the admonitions currently flying around to avoid "playing the blame game" with the federal government's allegedly dithering response to Hurricane Katrina.

1. If not now, when? The most common argument against assigning blame is that it's inappropriate to do so while the emergency is still ongoing; that there will be time enough to demand accountability later. Trouble is, that's the same argument we heard after 9/11 and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction (and other debunked rationales) after the Iraq war -- and four and two years later, respectively, there has been no accountability for those intelligence blunders. (In fact, there have been bird-flipping Medals of Freedom for a few of the blunderers.) If accountability is not dealt out now, it never will be -- in a few weeks the media will be back to fretting about Natalee Hollaway, Congress will still be in Republican hands with no burning impetus to investigate and the current pungent sense of urgency will have dissipated along with the flood waters.

2. It cuts both ways. If it's inappropriate to blame Bush, FEMA's Michael Brown or any other federal authorities for what happened, it's also inappropriate for the feds to blame state and local officials, as they're eagerly doing. If you condemn one, it's incumbent upon you to equally condemn the other.

3. It's not a game. Assigning blame isn't merely "playing politics." It's about ensuring the same mistakes aren't made again. Could even the most partisan Republican truly want to see this man in charge of the next natural disaster? Hurricane season ain't over, folks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. I don't think their excuses and spin will really work this time

except for the small group of Kool Aid drinkers who still think Bush is the Second Coming. Too many folks are looking at the mess and thinking, "If a terrorist set off a bomb where I live, would this be the response?"

[radfringe]

3. If a terrorist set off a bomb where I live, would this be the response?"

heh - that's exactly what people are thinking....

we've had 4 years of "booga-booga" terra-lerts, been reassured a gazillion times that we are 'safer' with bush* -- NOW, HOW SAFE DO YOU FEEL?