They can waltz right in and take over as soon as they feel like it.

Then why was Gov. Blanco able to, for 5 days, refuse to hand control over to the Feds? She finally relented, but didn’t want to hand power over because she would appear weak. Why did it take Ray Nagin and George Bush trying to convince Blanco to turn the power over?

In fact, for the 90’s hurricanes, FEMA pre-prepared for the disasters by bringing the necessary supplies in ahead of time, and they didn’t wait to be asked to do so, either.

Yep, FEMA did this for Katrina.

FEMA’s response times were awful in comparison to the agency’s pre-Brown response times, particularly under director Witt. They were not better.

You are not contradicting me. I didn’t say that the Katrina response was faster than response times under director Witt. I said the Katrina response was faster than normal… i.e. average. Witt did a fine job. Witt should have the job now. His years represented the agency’s high point, after the agency miserable failure for hurricane Andrew in 1992.

I agree, the important part there is Federal. The Feds can’t just waltz in and save the day… they have to respect LA’s authority, which rests in the governor.

Actually, no they don’t. They can waltz right in and take over as soon as they feel like it. Just like the FBI can waltz in and take over a case from a local jurisdiction, they don’t have to wait for local permission to come in.

Waiting for permission is just being polite (and being polite in the case of a federal disaster is a case of misplaced priorities). In fact, for the 90’s hurricanes, FEMA pre-prepared for the disasters by bringing the necessary supplies in ahead of time, and they didn’t wait to be asked to do so, either.

Also note that the response to Katrina, while inadequate in the eyes of many, was faster and better than normal for the agency.

I know this has been said before by one of the other readers/respondents in one of the Katrina posts hereabouts: FEMA’s response times were awful in comparison to the agency’s pre-Brown response times, particularly under director Witt. They were not better.

I agree, the important part there is Federal. The Feds can’t just waltz in and save the day… they have to respect LA’s authority, which rests in the governor.

Also note that the response to Katrina, while inadequate in the eyes of many, was faster and better than normal for the agency.

These problems never seem to happen in Florida… we always manage to figure things out. I wonder why that is? The Federal involvement isn’t any different… it must be that our local government is just better at its job.

Now, I get it is ridiculous that people are blaming Bush for not evacuating people from Houston, because we know that’s not his job (though, tangentially, it is a bloody ridiculous mess down there, again). But we’re not talking about Houston; we’re talking about the absolutely deplorable federal response to Katrina, a good chunk of which can be traced right back to said cronyism, which is Bush’s fault.

(And I note I misspelled “responsible” in my prior post. Bah.)

Note the so-called four years of government reforms to make us safer from disasters and terrorists were also his responsibility, and we can see how well they turned out (because, you know, I feel so much safer now that the Bush government and its national disaster policies have actually been put to the test…that’s sarcasm, BTW).

I’d like to thank those who nominated my entry “Charlie Norwood (R-GA) Lays The Smack Down On Vicente Fox’s Offer Of Mexican Labor” for inclusion in the voting this week at the Watcher of Weasels. I’m in the running against…

First off…  any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here,  and here.  Die spambots, die!  And now…  here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council li…

Now, I’m with you on the ridiculous spending. I say we repeal that pork-laden highway bill and start cutting out presidential yachts and $250 million bridges to islands inhabited by 50 people. Federal spending is out of control, and Bush doesn’t seem capable of vetoing anything that increases it.

Let’s not even talk about how the disaster was foreseen from the beginning, despite the president’s mournful claims to the contrary in various public addresses. Oh, and rebuilding NO — no new taxes but $100 billion extra dollars out of an already broken budget. Right.