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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim S who wrote (50168)	8/27/2006 5:10:50 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 90947

"There is no question that there were mistakes on the local level but the state and local levels were not expected to be first responders. FEMA was. And FEMA did not begin to respond adequately. Mr. Bush even went so far as to admit it. Are you now calling him a liar?" Tejek, that's not correct. "First responders" are those local emergency people who are are already in place, the paramedics, cops, firefighters, etc. You can't expect the feds to have those people in place in every place a disaster may occur. First responders are the feds......why? Because local people are directly effected by the catastrophe and can't be depended upon to respond. This notion that local officials are first responders is something new promoted by the GOP. It does not make sense at all. Yes, FEMA didn't do all they could do -- but a major reason for that was the incompetent planning and structure that the state and local governments were supposed to provide. That contributed to the problem but the overriding problem was FEMA. The agency had gone through considerable changes under Bush......people who had no background in disasters were put in charge. Bush said he accepted responsibility (just like Reno after Waco) for things that didn't go properly at the FEDERAL level. He was trying to avoid a major finger pointing battle between the feds and the LA Governor and New Orleans Mayor. It wasn't a "lie," it was a conciliatory gesture. No, he wasn't......you either have a poor memory or you are trying to be nice. If its the former, then you need to go back and reread the articles from that period. There is good reason why the asst. director was fired.........Michael Brown. He was saying everything was fine when all hell was breaking lose in NO. It took DC and FEMA nearly a week to respond after everyone and their brother was screaming at the top of their lungs that things were bad. Meanwhile Mr. Bush was in San Diego strumming a guitar trying to raise money for the GOP. Very unpresidential IMO in a time of crisis. If its the latter, then shame on you for trying to cover for incompetence. BTW, you posts are becoming much more reasonable and less insulting. My compliments to you. Speaking for myself, I don't mind debates, but I dislike venom. And, apologies to you for my posts that were insulting to you. I only insult when I am insulted. That's a change from a few years back when I never insulted but was insulted regularly because I disagreed with Bush. Since then, I give back as well as I receive.