[Rhodes22-list] Katrina Update

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Ed,
 
Your right, people who made government bureaucracies work had names  like 
Stalin, Hitler, and Mao; they also had names like Washington, Jefferson,  
Lincoln, Roosevelt and Churchill.  The difference is that Stalin, Hitler,  and Mao 
coerced, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Churchill and Roosevelt rallied  and  
led the bureaucracies.  It may surprise you that I’m not  embarrassed at all to 
be aligned with Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Churchill  or Roosevelt. 
 
The sheep that you allude to pay good money every April 15th for government  
services, seems to me they have a right to expect some return on that 
investment  at the local, state, and Federal level.  Yes we expect the Federal  
government to move in and facilitate a solution (this includes FEMA, CoE, HHS,  and 
the entire panoply of trigraphs) because we paid them for that  service.  We 
expect the response to be coordinated and effective, we accept  mistakes but we 
expect a “best effort”.  We expect somebody to be in charge  and held 
accountable.  What happens when the sheep's expectations aren't  met?  Review the 
results of the mid-term elections they are a harbinger of  things to come.
 
And yes, when a disaster takes down 2 states I expect the president,  whoever 
he is at the time, to get involved immediately - not as a photo opp  but as a 
chief executive.  I expect him to do his darndest to help in every  and any 
way that he can.  The claims that the public rebuilding is  tied up in red tape 
are nonsense, total nonsense, the president or his  representative can waive 
all that red tape by executive order and that  will take less than the morning 
of 1 day.  I expect him to do whatever  it takes to encourage and facilitate 
getting those citizens and that  region back on their feet and to track and 
insist on progress.  
 
I am not expecting problems to be fixed overnight, but overnight happened a  
long time ago - it’s been a long time since Katrina hit.  There’s no reason  
in the world bridges and roads shouldn’t be rebuilt in a matter of months.   
Without the infrastructure of bridges and roads it's difficult for the rest  of 
the rebuilding effort from the private sector or public sector to kick  in.  
Ask Brad, I gather he does infrastructure.
 
I never said the damage was Bush’s fault, but not getting it fixed in a  
timely manner is his fault.  He’s supposed to be the nations chief  executive, his 
job is to make it happen.  It hasn’t happened.  My  constructive suggestion 
was to put Cheney on the job, maybe he could focus  on the task and make it 
happen.
 
Finally, it’s real interesting to watch Brad dance away from the Bush  
administration after years of defending him.  Henry's gone quiet,  Brad's now 
posting "Bush was never a conservative", you may be the  only person left on the 
board defending jr and the neocon  follies.
 
Dave