I’ve changed my mind! The facts are in, and despite of a lack of a paper-trail and the ability of people to demand accountability through the votes … the real problem here is that Jeb _IS_ in cahoots with George – and both to control the minds of WMR’s like myself!

And worse, they’re using misspent FEMA funds, I now realize both have done conspired to make make sure I’m always putting you down! I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize this until your last posts! How could I have been so blind?!

Guys, seriously I lament, repent and have seen the light. Could you please spare me some of the tin foil from your caps … I promise I’ll use it properly.

Indeed, Jeb Bush was right. YOU have to take care of yourself. Waiting for Mommy and Daddy to hold your hand and lead you out of the house is for children.

In Cobra’s world, we brown people need protecting from the big bad Whites. Give it a break…

Again, you run away fraidy-scared from the FACTS and QUOTES of White Male Republican Governor of MS. Haley Barbour and White Male Republican Governor of Florida Jeb Bush.

I can only assume that you have no defense for these White Male Republicans, and will simply parrot the same “blame it all on da’ wimmen and da’ coloreds” strategy that right winged hate radio and Fox News relies upon.

It’s a feckless, shameless tactic without any merit whatsoever.

Checkmate, Dean.

–Cobra

No amount of obfuscation and blustering on your part – nor calling me out like some high-school bully – changes the fact that the primary cause of the post-Katrina problems in New Orleans was mismanagement at the state and local level.

(did he really write bring-it-on? ooooo, I tremble)

>>>”MOREOVER, what you’re suggesting that FEMA has superceding authority of State and Local agencies with regards to their disaster planning and implementation.

I realize that Federalism v. State Rights was resolved some 1409 years ago, but I didn’t think said powers were so entirely encompassing.

You also continue the ignore the impact the State and Local management had on other agencies and authorities to help … just as the Red Cross.

Now I’m sure you have some final word – and you’ll dig up or blame shift in some other way – but bottom line is, Katrina should be a wake-up call to people at the local level should no more put all their eggs into the Federal basket than individual citizens should put the entirety of their retirment funding in the care of the Social Security Administration.”

Like I said before Dean, it’s 2005. With the internet people can READ FOR THEMSELVES what occured, and make their own determinations.

If you believe that local citizens in the HUNDREDS of towns up and down the Gulf Coast should fend for themselves as far as natural disasters, pandemics, or terrorist attacks are concerned (the area of FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT), then what is the point of having a “nation” in the first place? If you think that the people of New Orleans are the ONLY people who have a problem with the way BUSH’s Federal response was to this disaster, you’re either seriously ill-read, or just CHERRY-PICKING data that will support your argument (a common conservative trait lately.)

>>>”The U.S. Congress must send more money to Mississippi to kick-start efforts to rebuild the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Governor Haley Barbour told a congressional committee.

“We are at a point where our recovery and renewal efforts are stalled because of inaction in Washington, D.C.,” he told a panel investigating the botched government response to the storm, which hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. “It is taking the starch out of people who’ve worked so hard to help themselves and their neighbors…
…”“We have to have assistance from the federal government,” Barbour said. “That important federal responsibility in the response to Katrina is needed terribly and it’s needed now.”

Mississippi emergency officials testified about the need to better coordinate the distribution of ice and food to survivors and improve communications among state, local and federal workers responding to the storm.

Others appearing before the committee include Brian Amy, a state health officer, William Carwile, a former coordinating officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Robert Latham, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency; Tommy Longo, mayor of Waveland, Mississippi; Gulfport Mississippi Mayor Brent Warr; Benjamin Spraggins, director of the Harrison Emergency Management Agency; and Bobby Strahan, director of the Pearl River County Emergency Management Agency.”

White Male Republican Governor Begs for Federal Help

And look down that list, Dean. You’ll find a whole mess of OTHER white male Republicans who joined Barbour, one of the pro-white Council of Conservative Citizens favorite politicians.

Need more, Dean?

How about the President’s brother?

>>>”Three days after Hurricane Wilma stomped through the region, essential supplies remained scarce Wednesday, government officials apologized for the slow response, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency offered financial relief to individuals…
…”Government officials reminded the public that disaster plans recommended that people stockpile enough food and water for at least three days.

“People had ample time to prepare, and it isn’t that hard to get 72 hours worth of food and water, to do the simple things we ask people to do,” Gov. Jeb Bush said. The governor bristled in response to criticism of FEMA.

“If anyone wants to blame anybody, blame me,” he said. “I’m not going to criticize anybody and I’m not going to let anybody criticize FEMA for something we accept responsibility for.”

Bush acknowledged that early relief efforts could have been more efficient. “This is a chaotic process. We did not perform where we want to be.”

White Male Republican Governor takes one for Dubya, blames citizens, but takes Federal Help anyway

If you want to, Dean, we can walk down the 9/11 funding corruption in New York, a city and state run by more white male republicans.

Bring it on, my friend.

–Cobra

MOREOVER, what you’re suggesting that FEMA has superceding authority of State and Local agencies with regards to their disaster planning and implementation.

I realize that Federalism v. State Rights was resolved some 1409 years ago, but I didn’t think said powers were so entirely encompassing.

You also continue the ignore the impact the State and Local management had on other agencies and authorities to help … just as the Red Cross.

Now I’m sure you have some final word – and you’ll dig up or blame shift in some other way – but bottom line is, Katrina should be a wake-up call to people at the local level should no more put all their eggs into the Federal basket than individual citizens should put the entirety of their retirment funding in the care of the Social Security Administration.

My area was the hardest hit by Rita — remember that one? It’s the one that came three weeks after Katrina and was actually a more powerful storm than Katrina when it hit.

But you don’t hear too much about that storm or the devastation that it left behind in my part of the state. Why? Because we aren’t a bunch of whiners over here and we don’t expect the Federal Government to come over here and wipe our posteriors. We are simply rebuilding and sharing what we have with our next door neighbors until we can all get back on our feet.

So when you discuss the ineptitude that is so apparent from the Katrina mess, try to limit the focus where it belongs — New Orleans and surrounding areas and the boob in our Governor’s Mansion.

I also cannot agree with Clayton’s CEO analogy. The President isn’t the CEO of a disaster preparedness operation. Trite as it might seem, it bears remembering that we are a federation and states rights are preeminent. The only “control” the Feds have over the emergency preparedness of any particular state or locality is the extent to which it gives dollars to the state or locality to develop those plans. Remember the document that apparently Ray Nagin never realized he was really supposed to know and understand? The one that detailed what they were supposed to use when a hurricane had NOLA in its cross hairs? The one that he and his Office of Emergency Preparedness apparently used as a doorstop? They wrote that thing not because they ever thought they would have to use it, but because that’s what it took to get Federal money. It never occurred to those boneheads that the thing really was supposed to be a plan and a workable one at that.

As this drama unfolded in September — and as I am certain it will continue to unfold in the release of documents by the local, state, and federal entities involved — it will become increasingly apparent that between Nagin and Blanco they had no earthly clue what to do. I remember seeing early on criticisms being leveled at the Feds by our governor, something to the effect of “we need help and all they want to do is talk organizational charts.” She still doesn’t understand, apparently, the need to approach these disasters methodically and perceives attempts to organize and be clear on areas of authority as bureaucratic ridiculousness.

I do think that the President came off as being clueless of what to do or how to handle this. I do not, however, believe his confusion to be the result of incompetence. I think what we saw was him scratching his head in disbelief at the incompetence that he was encountering. Every photo op I saw with him and Blanco and Nagin made me think the president was doing everything he could to not b*#ch slap these idiots and scream “what the *#%^ are you thinking — or are you thinking at all????”

The Feds and FEMA can’t win this argument and they won’t be able to win the next one either. They have no authority to simply jump into the middle of a disaster and take over but get blamed for not doing it. It takes time to assess a situation to effectively manage what relief needs to go where to get the biggest bang for the Federal relief buck, but if the money isn’t there yesterday people scream. So when they attempt to make quick decisions to address a situation quickly (such as chartering two cruise ships to provide housing) and it turns out the decision wasn’t a good one, then they’re beat up for being stupid.

Maybe we should go back to having states and localities take care of themselves and quit expecting the Feds to do anything. Having said that, though, I would prefer that New Orleans secede from the state and Blanco be its governor so that those of us from Louisiana who have sense can continue to live here.

Such myopia that often compells a CEO reasonably and correctly fire the managers one or two levels below in favor of others capable of understanding the need for the effective delegation of responsibility and authority and how it plays into a healthier bigger picture.

You also seem to throw into it an implication that Bush should have somehow been involved in Nagin’s and Blanco’s disaster planning process.

Such micromanagement indicates that the delegation of authority and responsibility is either unwarranted, the energies of the chief executive misapplied, and/or the managers one or two levels below are incompetent.

Both scenarios indicate upper-level managers who are not team players and who likely do not understand their core responsibilities.

In the business world when you have a DR plan that fails due to inept people and processes. Those people all the way up to the CEO are fired. All the way up to the CEO, it rolls up hill when it is not our tax dollars. It is good to see you are proud of your federal government in disaster planning and execution.

Point is they didn’t. As a result, the put an undue burden on the citizens (which btw, was actually part of the published N.O. contigency plan) and maked the Fed’s job almost impossible because the people responsible for protecting their constituents did not create, NOR REHEARSE, an effective hurricane disaster plan despite their obvious geography.

Had Nagin and Blanco been more proactive, things would have been uncomfortable, as they were in other states, but at least manageable.