Tranquil Madness

Hm. Wonder if the mayor and govenor could have used these to help with the evacuation of all those poor people. Oh, but that would take most of the blame off of Bush, wouldn't it? Oh, and isn't something like this generally the purview of the local and state governments first? I thought we wanted less interference from the top levels? Ah well. Clearly the whole thing is Bush's fault.

Now, now. Let's not get hostile.

The problem with response to Katrina is far from just a federal problem. The state and local governments had their own screw-ups.

However, that does not change the fact that the response from the federal government was absolutely abominable.

Tell me, does this give you any confidence at all in the federal government if another terrorist attack happens? I'm thinking that if FEMA can't handle a disaster they knew was on its way we have no hope of help from them if it comes out of the blue.

I have full confidence in the federal government if another terrorist attack happens. I thought the emergency response to 9/11 was excellent. But you know what the key difference was? The local and state authorities. In New York, they did smashingly. Not so much in the Big Easy.
Ok, everybody's response was abominable. Randy, I've seen you oppose big government, and now you're saying they should have done more. Which do you want?
And I don't care too much about the media not being able to use those pictures. I highly doubt they would be used for anything but sensationalism and blame placing. "Look at all these dead people. They are his fault!" "No, his fault!" and so on. Explotation of both the dead and the living. I have no confidence in any media source (this includes FOX News) to actually care about the dead as anything more than another story and some ratings. Forgive my cynicism.

Some good points, from both of you . . . Obviously no one can really be the scapegoat here, no matter what the timeline may or may not imply. However, every single other item on the timeline aside, I was disgusted, as usual, by Bush's abuse of the "photo-op." He, like (to be fair) most (all?) presidents since the beginnings of mass media, is an absolute publicity whore. If he and his people expended as much effort on hurrican relief as they do on making the president look like something he isn't, I wonder how many more people would be getting relief now?

No, Sharpton, I am not saying they should have "done more." I'm saying that should have done the damn job they were supposed to do. According to the FEMA website, their job includes helping, even before the disaster hits.

What did FEMA do? Well, Brown, the director, requested help be sent that way over three hours after the hurricane had landed. The massive mishandling of the organization continued long afterward. Three days after the hurricane, FEMA had not even organized a command center to distribute federal aid. Brown even had the nerve to later comment that "this storm is much much bigger than anyone expected."

Bush didn't organize a "task force" for a "federal response" until two days after the hurricane had hit. On one of those days, he was still on vacation, and both of those days were filled with various photo-ops.

The local and state governments had its own faults before the hurricane hit. However, after the hurricane hit and there practically was no local government anymore, the federal government does have a responsibility to help its own people. The way the federal government handled this disaster is disgusting. Disgusting.