Katrina Revisted

[Msterbeau]

Still think the Bush administration and their conservative supporters aren't at least partially to blame for the disasterous aftermath from Katrina?

Think again:

"In June 2004, FEMA privatized its hurricane disaster plan for New Orleans, contracting the work to the Baton Rouge, La., firm Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) whose motto is 'Managing Risk in a Complex World',"

http://www.ieminc.com/Whats_New/Press_Rele...atastrophic.htm

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/28/1342209

http://orbis-quintus.net/blog/?p=2324

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2005/09/pol...shyness-of.html

This one is particularly damning. The Bush administration tossed out an emergency preparedness program developed during the Clinton administration which was widely praised. Why? Because it was "not effective". In other words... They didn't invent it so it couldn't be good. FEMA blew it completely. They failed multiple years in a row to provide New Orleans with funds for the pre-disaster needs that they themselves had identified as necessary for emergency preparedness and response. Oops:

http://cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-3485 (There's a lot to wade through here but it provides good backround for the overall effectiveness (Or lack thereof) of FEMA under Bush's admin.)

Just for a little extra perspective:

http://www.gregpalast.com/madhouse/index.php/46

In summation: FEMA and IEM knew what the problems were well in advance and still failed in both planning and performance of their respective responsibilities. Hundreds of people died. What the fuck were we paying these people to do?

And before any of you open your mouths about who else is to blame.. I'm not absolving Nagin or governor Blanco of their respective shortcomings. I'm just tired of hearing them as scapegoats when the federal government under GW Bush blew it in so many ways.

[Soulrev]

Yeah, yeah. If if's and but's were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.

Personally I don't care. I really don't. Build a city 8 feet under sea level right next to the ocean and expect it outlast everything mother nature could throw at it. Lol.

[Guest Game of Chance]

Why? Because it was "not effective". In other words... They didn't invent it so it couldn't be good.

That's the problem with bipartisan politics in general...but now i'm thread drifting...

[Msterbeau]

Build a city 8 feet under sea level right next to the ocean and expect it outlast everything mother nature could throw at it. Lol.

Well.. That's a reasonable point, BUT ... the fact is things could have been handled way better if plans had been drawn up and implemented and money provided to implement it. None of this happened.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I like to think of myself as fairly centrist. But i really think "the worst natural disaster in U.S. history" is going to be a little outside the normal rulebook. There are all sorts of doomsday scenarios that we can prepare for. Unfortunately we don't have unlimited resources or total clairvioance.

I think that its inevitable to find things that could have been handled much better, but i'd like to see that as constructive , rather than especially condeming.

It is important to hold people accountable, and i wouldn't want to suggest otherwise. But often i think some of the katrina negative criticism is a bit to harsh for the context. The media puts bread on the table by reporting and i think to often almost creating extremes, reality i think is more toward the center. Unfortunately the media is slowly having more and more impact on reality.

Were there screw ups? Hell yes there were. But overly negative armchair quarterbacking is , i think unfair.

Although at least their covering something that i think has national importance. Rather than wasting our time with endless coverage of some single small town murder or some other sensational "human interest" b.s. Oh look over there .. cute bears.

whoops.

Oh and as a seprate idea i dont quite have the balls that soulrev does to state something like the above but im on board with that line of reasoning.

Gene pool gets cleaned out one way or another eventually. The whole planet is gonna take one for the team if we dont eventually prepare and its gonna take a long time to prepare. (think generations)

[Msterbeau]

Troy... I think your being far too nice. They modeled the whole scenario a year before the event and came up with frighteningly accurate results. Why didn't they have a plan together? Why did they deny funding for preparedness three years in a row? Where was IEM's plan that we paid $500,000 for? I think in this instance, the media got it right. Government at all levels, but in particular, the federal government screwed up royally.

What's worse... they're still doing it. I was listening to a story yesterday about dead bodies being left to rot for weeks. No one did shit. Every agency that came upon one particular body denied responsibility for dealing with it. This was weeks after the storm and weeks after someone notified authorities about it.