I'll elaborate. Americans don't care about arcane bureaucratic turf battles when they are used as explanations for not achieving desired results. They just want the job done.
Totally wrong. I want control to remain at the local level as our founding fathers intended. I never want the federal government taking control of anything where locals have responsibility.
Responsibility and capability are two different things. When you have huge national disasters spaning many local jurisdictions and states, the feds must take control. A major attack (nuclear, chemical, or biological) on this country or a major earthquake affecting major metro areas need to addressed, the founding fathers not withstanding. Katrina will cost well over $100 billion in federal assistance. We all have a stake in this.
In this case, the feds had to take over because of an incompetent mayor and governor. This should never have to happen again and I don't want to see precedent set here.
As far as I know, the feds have not taken over. The state and city are still in control. Blanco refuses to federalize the NG.
While I see some communication and coordination problems on the federal level, they were not supposed to be the initial responders. They actually got in there when they were supposed to and did a totally magnificent job. I, for one, am proud to be an American when I see what we did in New Orleans this past week.
I agree that the Feds have done a fantastic job considering the magnitude of the disaster. No country on earth can respond as well as we have. Still, mistakes were made, which cost lives. I think we are making a mistake, politically, when we offer excuses like FEMA couldn't do anything until the Governor or Mayor requested it. Rightly or wrongly, the public believes the buck stops in the WH.
Then we need to re-educate the public. We can't completely reorganize the purposes of FEMA, Homeland Security and local/state responsbilities and capabilities to satisfy the wants and desires of people who want the federal government to do everything for them.
I want the job done, true. But I also want to know why the locals, states and even the feds communications didn't work as they should have. Personally, I would rather that we had waited before the finger pointing began, but when dems use this disaster to trash our president (which hurts the national security for all of us, among other things), then we have to speak up.
While I agree that the feds have more responsibility now than they should because they do have the capability and because NO and LA are run by completely incompetent people, I do not want to see this become policy. It should never happen again. I will not have the wisdom of our founding fathers undermined because of idiots on the ground in LA.
To believe that the buck stops at the WH for this kind of disaster is wrong-headed thinking that foreshadows the doom of our great country. Yes, the feds have significant responsibility as they should. They should NEVER have first responder responsbility or capability. I do NOT want to be a police state.
It's easy to sit back and say "Bush should have done more" or "the Feds should have moved faster" after the fact.
However, take a look at what Bush's record over the past five years and tell me that he isn't proactive or motivated to help people in a time of crisis.
Knee-jerk reactions aren't needed here. Take a look at all the factors that caused this and see that NO was a disaster waiting to happen and when the disaster hit, the state and local leaders did nothing to help their citizens. And to take this a step further, it's up to the people of LA and NO to take a little bit of PERSONAL responsibility for their own lives and the lives of their children.
If you live in a city that is built BELOW sea level, and there's a hurricane coming, and you don't have a car, and you can't get a ride out of town, and you can't get to a shelter, and you have half a brain.... go to the store, buy $20 worth of bottled water, some peanut butter, crackers, batteries, and whatever else you may need to make it through a few days without electricity or water.
Damn, I live in PA, at the top of a hill, nowhere near a flood zone but when there's a bad rainstorm or snowstorm coming, I make sure we have enough supplies in the house so that we don't starve if we can't get to the store.
Common-friggin'-sense. If you ignore the threat, you aren't a victim, you're an idiot.
Perhaps the "minority" of the public believes that, and they would like to thank you for fighting so diligently to promote this wrong thinking.