Presidents and their cluster-humps.
All your comparisons are apples and oranges
Mogadishu was not a major American crises. Compare it to Bush's Iraq fiasco
instead. It was started by Bush. And Clinton handled it a lot better
than Bush handled Iraq.
As opposed to Bush's _triple_ digit price inflation for gasoline? The worse
joblessness since the Great Depression? Hyperinflation of the national debt
and trade deficits? Borrowing boatloads of money from the Chinese Communist
government to finance his big tax windfall for the rich?
Odd and even gas days? Wear your sweater indoors?
You mean like when Bush just told everybody to conserve gas?
The hostage rescue in Iran?
The entire chain of disasters in Iraq?
LOL. We already KNOW how LBJ would likely have responded.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287435
Sept. 19, 2005 issue - In September 1965, a massive hurricane hit New Orleans.
By the next day the president, a Texan in a time of war, was in the city
visiting a shelter. With no electricity in the darkness there, Lyndon Baines
Johnson held a flashlight to his face and proclaimed, "This is the president of
the United States and I'm here to help you!" Almost precisely 40 years later,
when another horrific hurricane hit the city, the president was, again, a Texan
in wartime. But rather than hurry to New Orleans from his Texas ranch, George
W. Bush decided, three days after Katrina hit, to fly back to Washington
first.
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The disaster, as you imply, was unprecedented. Yet you cite LBJ's response
to "an ordinary hurricane" as precedent.
Yes exactly. LBJ was instantly on the ball during an _ordinary_ hurricane,
while Bush was cluelessly oblivious for 3 days to a much more serious crises.
I submit to you that most of the failures in Katrina were a direct result of
the "learned helplessness" and the resultant reliance on the "gummint" for
everything that redounded from LBJ's monkey-like tinkering with a formerly
great nation under the guise of creating his Great Society.
LOL. For anyone who prefers a competent government over an incomptent
government, an effective government over an ineffective government,
and a good government over a corrupt government, especially during a crises,
the very worst thing they could possibly have done was vote for Bush. By all
accounts FEMA was in very good shape before Bush gutted the budget, chased away
the experienced professionals, and installed personal cronies with absolutely
no related experience. The "learned helplessness" was the direct result of
Bush destroying every government agency with a culture of cronyism and
corruption. From FEMA to the CIA to the Treasury and State Departments, the
story is the same. Experience careers professionals have been purged and
replaced by incompetent personal cronies and political commissars.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The New York Times <
http://www.nytimes.com/>
September 5, 2005
Killed by Contempt
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of
federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the
hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made
all the difference, but were never mobilized.
Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S.
Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and
the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been
sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.
Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the
crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet
action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a
"strange paralysis" set in among Bush administration officials, who
debated lines of authority while thousands died.
What caused that paralysis? President Bush certainly failed his test.
After 9/11, all the country really needed from him was a speech. This
time it needed action - and he didn't deliver.
But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence
of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological
hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good.
For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling
us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should
we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't
forthcoming?
Does anyone remember the fight over federalizing airport security? Even
after 9/11, the administration and conservative members of Congress
tried to keep airport security in the hands of private companies. They
were more worried about adding federal employees than about closing a
deadly hole in national security.
Of course, the attempt to keep airport security private wasn't just
about philosophy; it was also an attempt to protect private interests.
But that's not really a contradiction. Ideological cynicism about
government easily morphs into a readiness to treat government spending
as a way to reward your friends. After all, if you don't believe
government can do any good, why not?
Which brings us to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In my last
column, I asked whether the Bush administration had destroyed FEMA's
effectiveness. Now we know the answer.
Several recent news analyses on FEMA's sorry state have attributed the
agency's decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland
Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters. But
that supposed change in focus misses a crucial part of the story.
For one thing, the undermining of FEMA began as soon as President Bush
took office. Instead of choosing a professional with expertise in
responses to disaster to head the agency, Mr. Bush appointed Joseph
Allbaugh, a close political confidant. Mr. Allbaugh quickly began trying
to scale back some of FEMA's preparedness programs.
You might have expected the administration to reconsider its hostility
to emergency preparedness after 9/11 - after all, emergency management
is as important in the aftermath of a terrorist attack as it is
following a natural disaster. As many people have noticed, the failed
response to Katrina shows that we are less ready to cope with a
terrorist attack today than we were four years ago.
But the downgrading of FEMA continued, with the appointment of Michael
Brown as Mr. Allbaugh's successor.
Mr. Brown had no obvious qualifications, other than having been Mr.
Allbaugh's college roommate. But Mr. Brown was made deputy director of
FEMA; The Boston Herald reports that he was forced out of his previous
job, overseeing horse shows. And when Mr. Allbaugh left, Mr. Brown
became the agency's director. The raw cronyism of that appointment
showed the contempt the administration felt for the agency; one can only
imagine the effects on staff morale.
That contempt, as I've said, reflects a general hostility to the role of
government as a force for good. And Americans living along the Gulf
Coast have now reaped the consequences of that hostility.
The administration has always tried to treat 9/11 purely as a lesson
about good versus evil. But disasters must be coped with, even if they
aren't caused by evildoers. Now we have another deadly lesson in why we
need an effective government, and why dedicated public servants deserve
our respect. Will we listen?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronald Reagan famously said
Ronald Reagan much more famously hyperinflated the national debt and
created more new government spending (debt interest payments and military
spending which is what most of your income tax money goes for) than any other
President until the current one.
"The kind of government that is strong enough to
give you everything you need is also strong enough to take away everything
that you have".
This is so damn idiotic I don't know where to begin. The government is
and always was and always will be 'strong enough to take away that you
have'. The GOP cutting FEMA's budget in the name of a 'smaller government'
doesn't have the slightest affect on the government's police enforcement
power. The only defense individuals have is their constituional rights,
which are under continual assault from champion of Big Brother Government
call the GOP.
