Political Games - Where the fuck’s the reset button?

Working off my last three entries [links to previous 2 contained there], I have yet another update… not so much an update as a recap. Karen Wehrstein over at DKos has a diary post up summarizing most of the during- and post-hurricane fuck-ups of the federal government, and asks whether or not it appears intentional. My thinking is that it isn’t “intentional” in that they’re actively trying to kill people; I think that there is such a derth in real leadership that nobody knows what’s going on and nobody knows what to do. BushCo is just flat-out incompetent and doesn’t really care about those suffering. But the reason I link to this post is to show why them not allowing the relief agencies in makes no god-damn sense:

6) Private relief agencies (Red Cross, Salvation Army) are prevented from working in NO, by FEMA. Reason given — a) — this would keep people from leaving the city. The idea, apparently, was to make conditions so unbearable people would be forced to leave or face death. But at the same time, no transportation was being provided them. This came via Kossack SteveRose who writes that he was cagily asked by his source if he was a member of the media — b). Red Cross website confirms they aren’t allowed to go in.

7) The military is now disallowing people to leave the city on their own via the only way out, at the same time that no transportation is being provided (Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera — Fox News). In these situations the military is directed by FEMA. [emphasis mine]

That is fucked up beyond belief. Who is in charge of this?!

FIRST UPDATE: This is not simply incompetence: It is dereliction of duty.

This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit….

While a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure. It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat� dithering on an administration-wide scale.

Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.

[snip]

While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat� episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death.

This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name. [emphasis mine]

Share This