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Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
Here's the question everybody is starting to ask: FEMA has had billions of dollars pumped into it to prepare us for exactly this scenario. And FEMA has screwed the pooch on the whole operation. Mike Brown is going to be run out of Washington on a rail. But it goes beyond that. For the second time in this president's tenure, he hung out on an extended August vacation at The Ranch, ignoring growing disgust with the Iraqi stituation and not listening to the citizens about a looming Oil crisis. For the second time, his vacation has ended with a massive crisis (this time forcing him to leave The Ranch a couple days early, poor thing) in our nation that caught our government unawares and unprepared.
But this time, there is nobody to bomb. This time the fault lays squarely on Washington.
In the years before this hurricane The Army Corps of Engineers has been asking this President for $208M to reinforce the levees, because they were decaying and were in dire need of repair. The President authorized only $10M. Now we're having to pay $20 Billion (with a "B") for starters just to straighten out the mess that could have been avoided had the proper resources been allocated in the first place when the Corps requested it.
As for the here-and-now, I'm pissed on two fronts:
1) Where are all the relief workers? If the news networks can get their people, fuel, and security into the area, why can't the Federal Government?
2) Since the news media CAN seem to get into the area, why can't they put down their high-and-mighty objective coverage and actually get involved with the relief effort? If you're getting into the area to cover it, bring some damn food and water to share while you're at it. Don't just take pictures of people dying, do something to help them. These are your fellow citizens who granted you that first amendment. Journalistic ethics my ass -- what's ethical about a policy of non-involvement when fellow citizens are dying in front of your very eyes?
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Totally agree.