KATRINA, RITA and the WELFARE STATE September 2005
HOME PAGE Louisiana Democrats; Stuck on Stupid
RETURN TO TOPICAL GUIDE AMER POLITICS
02/15/06 Yesterday the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general each released audits, each still a work in progress, that attempt to document enormous waste and irresponsibility in the management and distribution of tax payer resources intended to support the recovery effort. No surprise here; this is big government in action. In the immediate aftermath of the event, the President said the right things about trying to support encouragement of private initiative in the recovery effort. What happened, real world, was that the political pressures for "immediate action" of any kind, coupled with the general climate of Bush bashing, collapsed the entire effort into a political circus. The only exception was the emergency performance of elements of the US military, including the Coast Guard. All of these events are a stand alone case study of the failures of GOVERNMENT, large and small, and the collapse of the principles of personal responsibility over many years of a citizenry so indulged. For more details, go to the following links:
www.gao.gov/docsearch/abstract.php?rptno=GAO-06-246T
www.HurricaneKatrinainformation.com
www.usdoj.gov/enron/pdf/katrinareportfeb2006.pdf
09/06/05 My inclination to respect the South on many issues does not extend to Southern acts of stupidity, and never has. The South has come a long way from the days of legitimate complaint about Reconstruction in the 1870’s to near total prostration to Washington D.C. in 2005, most extreme in the parishes of Louisiana. A long road indeed, and embarrassing to those of us who prefer Federalism, properly ordered. The ghost of FDR haunts Louisiana in particular, the idea of personal responsibility and self reliance trumped by the excuses of victimization. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, it seems, presides over a helpless kingdom, wandering aimlessly in an intellectual and moral fog. The experience of these recent hurricanes presents an excellent opportunity for private initiative to re-emerge if the recovery is properly managed. A time for a measure of benign neglect, aka tough love. Surely, even in Louisiana, there are those still left who know how to skin a rabbit. The President seems to have it right with his encouragement of private initiative in the recovery effort. The battle will be fought in Congress, and in the streets and countryside of that fragment of French North American history once proudly known as the Louisiana Territory. The American Taxpayer can only take so much.
It will take me time to develop this webpage to my own satisfaction, because what we have here is, writ huge, a demonstration of everything that has gone wrong with the welfare state in America.
Should we dissolve Louisiana, Congress, FEMA, or all of the above?
The lesson of this experience is for people to learn to think and look out for themselves and their neighbors first, and to quit expecting any level of government to be your nanny. Government is not your nanny, and never will be, however much politicians tell you what you wish to hear. Go buy some matches, water, canned foods and a rubber raft. Quit feeling sorry for yourself, and grow up, and accept any help that is given graciously, and not as a right.
Now the fact of the matter is that thousands of ordinary people, local 1st Responders and the US Coast Guard jumped right in when the levies first failed, and saved thousands. These were the people who were the real heroes, and perhaps the civil nucleus of a newly aware re-constructed Louisiana. Just try next time to be more discriminating in the selection of your state and local political leadership. JES
Qualified BLITHERING IDIOTS:
Mayors of New Orleans who: In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to insist on support from both state and federal resources to correct the city’s vulnerability to larger storms.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to establish practiced protocols and procedures for all possible contingencies, including a failure of state support.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, and advised days ahead of the fact that weather in excess of category 3 could possibly descend upon his city, fails to execute preparation and evacuation in an orderly sequence in advance of the maturity of the threats.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to manage the preparation of a professional and disciplined police force, with proper communications and command & control protocols.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to deploy school bus assets out of the reach of a worst case scenario.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to coordinate with Amtrak, and other rail companies, for the use of their assets to assist in an evacuation on a worst case basis.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to coordinate and accept, on a timely basis, significant offers of aid and support from certain disaster relief NGO’S (non-governmental organizations).
Governors of Louisiana who: In charge of a state that includes a city and major port facility assets 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to insist on support from vested private and federal resources to correct the area’s vulnerability to larger storms.
In charge of a city 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to establish practiced protocols and procedures for all possible contingencies.
In charge of a state that includes a city and major port facility assets 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to insist on the proper and legal allocation of previously appropriated federal funds, over a number of years, intended to improve dikes and other flooding vulnerabilities.
In charge of a state that includes a city and major port facility assets 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to accept on a timely basis offers of federal support and intervention in accordance with the law.
In charge of a state that includes a city and major port facility assets 12 feet below sea level, knowing for years that protecting dikes were engineered only to handle category 3 storms, fails to bring under control a city mayor running around loose and making a fool of himself, his city and his state.
Fails to coordinate and accept, on a timely basis, significant offers of aid and support from certain disaster relief NGO’S (non-governmental organizations).
Senators & Representatives of Louisiana who:
Have the nerve to come before Congress, and the American taxpayer, with an outrageous list of funding wishes and demands to suckle on the big tit of the federal government, as if by right.
Congressionally designed (by committee) Federal “Homeland Security/ FEMA” bureaucracies so bloated with funds and useless personnel that they probably can’t find their way to work in DC in the morning:
Now how do we expect this to work if the bad guys should happen to hit us with a big one, or two, or three, without warning?
Congressionally designed (by committee) Federal Flood Insurance Program which only serves to subsidize and encourage all the wrong decisions with respect to coastline “investment” in property. This whole pork barrel program ought to be eradicated, immediately.
Congressional failure to provide oversight of previously appropriated federal funds for construction and enhancement of federal navigation infrastructure.
An Army Corps of Engineers so skilled over the years in playing up to their commercial constituencies that they allowed themselves to fail at the proper design, execution and management of their own magnificent wonders.
You do not build a dam, levee, jetty or sea wall without artificially re-directing the flow of water. That is why these structures are built in the first place. Any time you do this, you consequently slow the flow, setting up the long term deposit of mud and silt. Where was the dredging to maintain the original river bottom levels? If New Orleans is ever to be re-built, the Federal price of support for the effort should require an elevation of 13 feet for all new construction, and restoration. The material to do this is in the bottom of the river, long since forgotten.
Over the years, the added cost of appropriate dredging has no doubt contributed to a mis-calculation of cost/benefit analysis of the value to the economy of many Army Corps projects. Now federal taxpayers will pay the price, and it is doubtful if any of the corporate beneficiaries will ever be billed.
The National Press: All the usual suspects reporting rumor and innuendo, unverified and unqualified, made useful in attempting to blame George W. Bush for the entire affair, including the hurricanes themselves (global warming, don’t you know, caused by Hummers).
Gulf coast residents: Perhaps it would be wise of each of you to buy an inflatable rubber raft. I do not intend this as a joke.
Also, regarding your neighbors: looting and shooting at rescue services does not inspire sympathy or concern on your behalf.
Qualified LEADERSHIP:
The United States Army, Navy and Coast Guard
Hopefully, you have noticed that the only institutional successes in this entire experience have been accomplished by these services. There is no politics in military government; a sobering thought for the future. The truth is that these hurricanes, and the response by governments at all levels, was a practice scrimmage in the war on IslamicFacism. At some point, Posse Comitatus will need to be re-visited.
Bottoms up, thousands of ordinary people, local 1st Responders and the US Coast Guard jumped right in when the levies first failed, and saved thousands. These were the people who were the real heroes, and perhaps the civil nucleus of a newly aware re-constructed Louisiana.
Lingering Notes:
-Billions in FEMA Hurricane Relief Funds are at rest (10/05), unused, awaiting political assignment.
-In New Orleans, bodies continue to be recovered (now over 1000- 10/05), and looting continues.
KATRINA, RITA and the WELFARE STATE