Been thinking...

[Mythsaje]

With the number of drug interdiction equipment (cigar boats, swamp boats, helicopters, infrared capable planes, etc...etc...) certainly present on the Gulf Coast...not to mention the possibility of satellite imagery so complete they're said to be able to read print on a book being read on a beach somewhere, I am actually amazed that they couldn't call in those resources to help during the first several hours after the storm passed.

The idea of creating the DHS was to allow more interaction between member agencies to streamline operations. AT BEST, this has proven to be a completely erroneous assumption, since the increased bureaucracy seems to have simply made it worse.

At worst it was as bad an example of fumble-fingered government ineptitude as anything that occurred during any recent Democratic administrations. Carter, after all, was bolluxed by a failed rescue operation into Iran. Pretty small potatoes when you get down to it, compared to the preventable deaths caused by the conjunction of a horrific weather system and a new, intried, and ineffectual government bureaucracy.

Conservatives SHOULD know how ineffectual these sorts of operations are if they're run by committee. That's the reason for having a single person in charge of such an agency as FEMA. Or the DHS, for that matter.

This person is given the power to ACT on behalf of the citizens of the United States to the best of his ability, and take full responsibility for anything that goes wrong during the operation.

That's why these people exist...that's why TEN people aren't put in charge...there'd be no consensus, no action, and no accountability.

This is why we elect a President as well. Ultimately everything that happens while he sits in the White House is his responsibility. If his subordinates, particularly ones who are hand-chosen based on whatever criteria the President deems as worthy, screw up, HE accepts responsibility for the missteps of said subordinates.

Or that's how it should work. You know--"The buck stops here."

This buck doesn't stop anywhere.

Until it circles around to us.

This is OUR fault...oh, maybe not so much those of us who'd voted for a horny camel before we would've voted for Bush...but America's fault. Those Americans who chose this path, who chose to believe spin and illusion over the plain unvarnished truth, share some of the responsibility as well.

The time for us to remain silent has passed. The time to be polite is over. Our government has abandoned us, the people, to serve the faceless corporate Powers-That-Be and the first real battle of the Class War has been waged...and it was not the poor attacking the rich, but the rich attacking the poor.

Make no mistake. It was well within the government's powers to do what needed to be done. Forced evacuation could have been implemented, with a house to house operation to take the old and infirm, had the resources of the federal government been available from the beginning. The people could have been bussed out via military vehicles, school and city busses, and only the most stubborn left within the path of the storm.

It could have been done...If someone in this administration would simply make a goddam decision and take responsibility if it fails.

It's sure as hell better than pointing the finger around after the fact.