The Problem That Won't Go Away

by DemFromCT

For those of us concerned about avian flu, one has to shudder when we see how the press handles a past disaster, let alone a potential one. Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News have been broadcasting from NOLA but the rest of the press has moved on. Still, echoes of the recent past keep surfacing. These are from media-access only public records:

Thousands of documents released by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Friday night shed new light on clashes between state officials, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the Bush administration as they struggled to respond to Hurricane Katrina.

Among the more than 100,000 pages of newly released records, which ranged from after-action reports to hand-scrawled notes written at the height of the storm, are memos showing Blanco frustrated and angered over delays in evacuations and the slow delivery of promised federal aid.  ...

Tensions between state leaders and the White House seemed at times near the boiling point. At 3:49 p.m. on Sept. 2, after spending three hours to appear with Bush at a Mississippi news conference, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) wrote Blanco's staff, "I am returning home to baron[sic] rouge in hoping I can accomplish something for the people I represent other than being occupied with PR."

He added that Bush's "entire effort on behalf of the federal government has been reflected in his and his people's nonchalant attitude to the people of LA. You may give him this to read."

That last para sums up the past 5 years. This is a President who can't be bothered to govern. It interferes with his vacation, his work-outs or his nap. He appoints people like Michael Brown who are more concerned with their appearance and protected dinner time  than the lower 9th ward and everyone near them.

Have we fixed all of that? Have we addressed mistakes and incompetence and cronyism? Anyone have any evidence we have? Is anyone accountable for anything? Anyone been fired in this Administration besides Brown? Anyone?

Comments

[DemFromCT]

Bush's job ratings seem frozen in TIME.

[k2]

Brown wasn't fired, exactly. He was given 30 days to find another job. When that wasn't enough, he was given an additional 60 days. So, to be precise, NO ONE has been fired by the Bush administration for incompetence. The only firing offence in this administration is telling truth that does not directly support the administration's position on absolutely everything.

[LindyH]

Nope. No one's accountable...not in government, not even in the insurance companies who are PAID to be accountable.

[DemFromCT]

Re Enron and Arthur Anderson: Even the accountants aren't accountable. They can't even account for themselves.

[RonK, Seattle]

It's not just a personnel problem -- it's a philosophy. BushCo's corporate culture holds a nihilistic view of the essential role of government in civilization.

That's why post-conquest Iraq went to hell. Anything that Govenment should have attended to was either ignored, or outright vandalized.

That's why post-Katrina NOLA is going to hell. BushCo rejects the idea that Government could exert leadership ("start here, do this first, then do this"), much less impose burden-sharing and build infrastructure.

On a larger scale, BushCo told the global response to global warming "go to hell".

The problem is not that Bush can't be bothered to govern. The problem is that the idea of governing -- and government, and governance -- bothers him and those who came into power with him.

[viget]

Essentially, it boils down to the Republican slogan:

"As long as I've got mine" (props to anyone who can come up with a catchy Latin translation for this as one would see on a seal of an organization)

Nothing else matters to such people as long as their bubble-world seems perfect. Which, of course, is a self-defeating philosophy, eventually the ills they've inflicted on those lower down the socioeconomic ladder will bubble up into their sphere of influence when the loss of human capital in mission critical jobs in New Orleans (ports, oil infrastructure, transportation, etc.) decidedly hits home economically.

I for one am not surprised that New Orleans continues to be the story that won't go away. The effects of Katrina are just now starting to ripple through the economy. Here we are, almost 90 days out, the mortgage companies are going to start wanting payments on the displaced's homes, what will happen when 1 million+ can't make those payments? Will the whole house of cards start coming down?

The new year's going to be VERY interesting.

[RonK, Seattle]

In other Reconstruction News, "Esmatullah Muhabat, a former militia leader elected to parliament in September, was shot dead in a gunfight that apparently erupted during a dispute over firewood". If we wanted to roll back terrorism -- especially fundamentalist Islamist terrorism -- we should have tried to make Afghanistan a showcase for modernist reconstruction.

And via TPMCafe, a concise, market-based description of why "the market" can't reconstruct NOLA.

[jonnybutter]

New Orleans continues to be the story that won't go away

Sure it goes away! Just watch teevee and it goes away almost completely (except for B. Williams this week, to his credit).

But seriously.

The Bush management style ('that's mah style') imposes itself over vast continental areas. Huzzah. Sala bim.

They are getting so screwed down there. I like to read some of the blogging from NOLA, for instance, the budding pol and bloomed humorist Oyster (who I just happened to already read before Katrina). It's just heartbreaking and jaw clenching. This administration creates pus, and plenty of it.