Don't Blame Bush for Katrina Christopher Ruddy Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 George
Bush and the federal government are not to blame for the disaster we have
witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, the primary responsibility for the disaster response lies with New
Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other local
officials.

Yet leading Democrats and their allies in the major media are clearly using
this disaster for political purposes and ignoring one obvious fact.

This fact - which needs to be repeated and remembered - is that in our
Country, state and local governments have primary responsibility in dealing
with local disasters.

The founding fathers devised a federal system of government - one that has
served us remarkably well through great disasters that have befallen America
over more than two centuries.

But if we believe the major TV networks, George Bush, FEMA and the
Republicans in Congress are all to blame for the current nightmare.

Let's remember that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was
created only in 1979. It was formed to coordinate and focus federal response
to major disasters - to "assist" local and state governments.

Common sense suggests that local and state governments are best able to
prepare and plan for local disasters.

Is a Washington bureaucrat better suited to prepare for an earthquake in San
Francisco, a hurricane in Florida, or a terrorist act in New York?

After the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center, no one suggested
that the Bush administration should have been responsible for New York's
disaster response or that federal agents should have been involved in the
rescue of those trapped in the buildings.

Last year, four major hurricanes slammed into Florida. Governor Jeb Bush led
the disaster response and did a remarkable job, with nothing happening like
what we have seen in New Orleans.

The primary response in disasters has always come from local communities and
state governments.

First responders and the manpower to deal with emergencies come from local
communities: police, fire and medical. Under our federal system, these local
departments answer to local authorities, not those in Washington. These
first responders are not even under federal control, nor do they have to
follow federal orders.

In addition to local responders, every state in the Union has a National
Guard.

State National Guards answer first to the governor of each state, not to the
president. The National Guard exists not to defend one state from an
invasion by another state, but primarily for emergencies like the one we
have witnessed in New Orleans and in other areas impacted by Katrina.

(See: http://www.arng.army.mil/about_us/or..._structure.asp)


"ndugu" wrote in message
...
To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it
feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were
attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main
qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all
due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown
for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start
ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of
the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and
liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye
and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse
show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or
catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of
Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and
just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse
show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have
zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man
with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men
die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how
to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off
for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to
private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for
politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the
federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA
and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR
BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the
rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of
thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by
how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off
the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The
wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in
America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United
States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr.
Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake.
A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he
had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All
this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his
jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2500 feet below him as he
flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before
a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven
minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This
was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director
Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock
of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame
those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today
every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny
morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural
disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight
Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where
one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a
coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the
hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and
build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will
be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really
want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left
alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the
filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who
wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the
job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans.
Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and
security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.