Remember for Tomorrow

From the American Progress Action Fund's daily email.
KATRINA
Remember Last September

Today, President Bush will make a quick visit to the Gulf Coast for yet another post-Hurricane Katrina photo-op. Last September, Bush made this pledge to Katrina's victims: "We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives." Over half a year later, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling the recovery and not enough is being done to provide for the storm's victims. "This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina," Bush promised. Yet, the nation remains unprepared for another natural disaster of Katrina's scale. Even former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged recently: "It's going to be really bad by September when we go back and have a one-year review and we realize how much of New Orleans is not fixed as of this coming September."
Republican Senators, misguided and optimistic (???) as they generally are, think trashin' FEMA is the way to go.
[Link] WASHINGTON - Hurricane Katrina turned FEMA into a "symbol of a bumbling bureaucracy" so far beyond repair that it should be scrapped, senators said Thursday. They called for creation of a new disaster relief agency as the next storm season looms on the horizon.
I hate to agree with this White House (and don't in the long run on the issue) but it really is a little bit late in the season to be dismantleing the agency which failed. Especially since it is empirically the people currently ruling from the White House which failed the agency.

We'll see what tomorrow brings on this one, as well.

Comments

  1. Hey Michael! I haven't been here in a while but saw you at Blue Republic. Welcome! So great to see you!

    Anyway, I think we, as a nation, let the people of that region down and we at least owe it to them to help them, learn from our mistakes (yeah, sure) and not let such a bungled mishandling ahppen again.

    Wonder what you think of the calls to eliminate FEMA? Is that the answer?

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  2. Thanks Elizabeth! I've got so many sites bookmarked, I rarely get to half of 'em, but The Blue Republic is in there somewhere. Thanks go to Anita and her new blog for reminding me (with a link) how good TBR is.

    As far as FEMA . . . I really don't know the present day details of that agency, but can imagine that, like any other aging and evolving administrative organization, it could use some seriuos restructuring.

    The real point, IMO, is that the Rethuglican Senators are choosing to deflect blame for the Katrina cleanup debacle away from its cause by blaming the agency instead of holding the Agent of its incompetence, George Walker Bush, responsible for his pathetic ineptitude and cronyism. Once again our leaders are refusing to acknowledge the reality that this man is a catastrophic failure. He lives and thrives on his incompetence and stupidity because, for every failure he achieves, from his "holiday" from the Guard, to his "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq and, now his imperialistic Iranian "Diplomacy", it is mainly some of his rich and powerful cronies who prosper.

    The failure of this Congress to forcefully retire this bafoon will surely be a turning point in History. I just hope that, somehow, it is one for the better.

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  3. Still think the main reason their dismantling it is so it's harder to trace all the "lost" many and is easier to explain away why so little has been rebuilt. Hated "Brownie" until I heard him telling Bush about what could happen in New Orleans and realized that the governor had in fact told him the levees were holding when they had in fact already broken. It wasn't all FEMA's fault, even though they bungled. Gore payed out of his pocket to send planes tp rescue people. I don't get why our government couldn't have done the same except that Bush wouldn't think of something so simple...

    ANyway, hope you feel better and hope you have a great weekend.

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  4. Thanks Kathleen. Hopin' your packin' and movin' is totall uneventful Lady. At least not in a bad way!

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