Beware Media Overload
Saturday, September 3rd, 2005 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flwydChief Justice William H. Rehnquist died tonight.
With John Roberts's confirmation hearings set to begin on Tuesday, things are about to get interesting. Already we've witnessed our dear leader's skill in quickly taking charge of the situation (lethargic), his compassion for those unlike him (badly forced) and his organizational planning skills (where were all the busses and military personnel before the hurricane?). Now we'll get to see how well he can multitask.
This is a president who was supposedly "strong on national defense." But most of the $427 billion for the Department of Defense is actually used for offense. And when FEMA was moved under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, planning for disasters and mitigating possible situations was removed from its charter and they changed into a response-driven organization. When pressed on NPR, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said "FEMA has plans for every conceivable tragedy. On Sunday, they started..." The time to prepare for a hurricane is not while the wind picks up.
Planning for a hurricane didn't require wiretaps, FBI/CIA cooperation, or secret detentions. Katrina didn't sneak past airport security, and there was no use asking for a passport. Hurricane effects have been known for a long time. The risk to New Orleans from massive amounts of sudden water has been raised as a concern many times in the last several years. The fact that New Orleans has the lowest rate of car ownership of any major city in the country should have come to mind. I'll try to put this in terms Bush can understand -- you aren't strong in defense if you don't rush the quarterback and rely purely on your secondary.
I wonder if, four years later, the country would do any better handling another successful terrorist attack.
The folks coming back from Burning Man on Monday will have some intense culture shock...
With John Roberts's confirmation hearings set to begin on Tuesday, things are about to get interesting. Already we've witnessed our dear leader's skill in quickly taking charge of the situation (lethargic), his compassion for those unlike him (badly forced) and his organizational planning skills (where were all the busses and military personnel before the hurricane?). Now we'll get to see how well he can multitask.
This is a president who was supposedly "strong on national defense." But most of the $427 billion for the Department of Defense is actually used for offense. And when FEMA was moved under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, planning for disasters and mitigating possible situations was removed from its charter and they changed into a response-driven organization. When pressed on NPR, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said "FEMA has plans for every conceivable tragedy. On Sunday, they started..." The time to prepare for a hurricane is not while the wind picks up.
Planning for a hurricane didn't require wiretaps, FBI/CIA cooperation, or secret detentions. Katrina didn't sneak past airport security, and there was no use asking for a passport. Hurricane effects have been known for a long time. The risk to New Orleans from massive amounts of sudden water has been raised as a concern many times in the last several years. The fact that New Orleans has the lowest rate of car ownership of any major city in the country should have come to mind. I'll try to put this in terms Bush can understand -- you aren't strong in defense if you don't rush the quarterback and rely purely on your secondary.
I wonder if, four years later, the country would do any better handling another successful terrorist attack.
The folks coming back from Burning Man on Monday will have some intense culture shock...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-04 11:32 am (UTC)