As seen on television
As it turned out, the federal government's attempts to respond to the storm and flooding appeared frozen by inadequacy and ineptitude. Thousands of people were stranded in their homes, unable to make a better escape than to their rooftops to wave for help and hope emergency personnel in helicopters might rescue them. Tens of thousands of refugees were holed up downtown in the Convention Center and the Superdome, yet FEMA was unable to bring in even food, water, or ice, not to mention buses to evacuate them. Touring the Superdome on Tuesday night, [Louisiana Governor, Kathleen] Blanco was disturbed by what she witnessed: in short, no federal assistance whatsoever. All she saw was the Louisiana National Guard and the Louisiana State Police -- certainly not enough of a law enforcement presence to be able to maintain order without additional guardsmen and troops.
...Despite his expertise being politics, the administration had made Rove a central player in the handling of the disaster. "A light switch in the White House didn't get turned on without going through Rove," says Adam Sharp, an aide to [Louisiana Senator, Mary] Landrieu. "It was clear that Rove was the point person for the White House on this disaster."
...Instead of supplying relief to the city, Rove had devised a scheme whereby he could blame the failure of government to take action on someone besides Bush. "They looked around," Landrieu says, "and they found a Democratic governor and an African American Democratic mayor who had never held office before in his life before he was mayor of New Orleans -- someone they knew they could manipulate."
This is the same pattern of dysfunction that gave New Orleanians their failed levees in the first place, institutionalized in the U.S. Army, specifically its Corps of Engineers: buck-passing, ass covering, avoidance of responsibility, propensity for placing blame as shame's cover-up, and spinning reality to fit what the boss wants to hear without any regard for truth. These were the core behaviors that led to the inadequately designed and poorly constructed levees in New Orleans, "flood protection" doomed to collapse. It's a cultural flaw, a systemic pattern, and therefore national, coming soon to a government project near you.
In fact, it's precisely how we were duped into a vanity war in Iraq, our treasury drained, our military hobbled, our precious defenders maimed and lost, their families deprived of what was theirs, an entire nation that didn't belong to us virtually destroyed, our place in the world horridly besmirched, and, ultimately, our safety compromised by a fey president's delusions, dysfunction writ large on a global scale, to predictably tragic results.
It was obvious to all thoughtful people who watched, as the events in New Orleans continued to unfold into days four and five and six and August turned into September in 2005, that when a federal government as powerful as ours did not provide any kind of rescue or relief to the unprecedented suffering, it could have only been because they chose not to do so. Looking at it objectively, reading Alexander's step by step account of how that evolved, it's clear that we've been scammed, conned with a top-down structure that's dirty, diseased and desperately in need of disinfecting. We've gotten what we asked for: faux leadership weaving their script, elegantly executed, as seen on television. Go. Now. Read. Vote.
Another case of when the Republicans talk about how government doesn't
work, they go out of their way to make sure it doesn't work. Every
department in the government needs to be vetted of those who unscrupulously
have assured that these departments haven't worked for the American people.
Homeland Security is the waste I knew it would be. The FDA has sold us
out to corporate America.
It's such a fiasco at the moment, as more people lose their jobs, and a
barrel of oil is over $136. As progression, I'm actually convinced that
Obama should be elected the nest Pres. We've had enough of both the Bush
family and Clinton family, and have to work to bring stability back to
Americans. I'm thinking this will be important election, not only because
of Obama's skin colour!
Thanks for posting the Salon article. For me it brought back all the anger
and disgust I felt about the government of our country under Bush.
A "top down disinfecting" is badly needed in every branch and department of
this government. Thanks for pointing out this article, Sophmom. It's
important that people know how bad government works so we can identify and
start to fix the problem.
Capt. you're right about DHS. FEMA actually functioned pretty well before
being folding into Homeland Security. Without properly functioning Federal
Emergency Managment, we most definitely less safe. *sigh* I'm with you on
throwing the bums in jail.
The thing that gets me is all the ideologues out there who just want to
believe they've been right all along. Never mind what a shambles
everything is; they're going to vote for McCain because they don't want to
admit that they screwed up in 04. As far as I'm concerned, McCain should
completely divorce himself from this administration's policies or fail to
receive so much as a single vote!
Our thoughts must be on the same wave lately. I just finished posting on
how nature reclaims it's own, man tends to look the other way. The
people effected by Katrina still suffer at the hands of our present
administration and yet when does the news ever remind anyone?
Beware the hero, if you elect Obama recognize that he is going to require
your help to straighten out the mess. It isn't going to be easy there are
players, powerful players, who like things just as they are. it is too much
to expect one man to fix what needs to be fixed.
Agree with JWL's comment. There's still going to be those who play behind
the scenes, such as in "The Wizard Of Oz!" "Don't pay attention to the man
behind the curtain!"
Paula, you've hit the nail on the head. I believe that one of the
underlying causes of this dysfunction that I've so poorly described is the
need to be right, an inability to examine one's own mistakes and change. It
permeates and infects the entire pattern. No amount of rationalization or
even delusion is too much. Whatever it takes.
Many fine points, Soph. As a consideration...if we have gotten what we
have asked for, then it seems that any disinfecting must begin with
ourselves.
Thanks, AF. I wish everyone in the whole country could read the article.
The mid-west flooding has opened some old wounds as ridiculous comparisons
are drawn. *sigh*