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In fairness, I am not always sure what to expect of some elements of our federal government, diminished and underfunded or not. How big is FEMA? How many full time staff would it take to *really* take on Katrina's aftermath aggressively? Are we willing to pay for another 50,000 FEMA staffers who hang out between disasters? Hey, maybe we could cross-train them with the TSA!


It's about priorities, Jim. FEMA has lost its cabinet-level status, and is now withering away and dying underneath the DHS umbrella. At a time when money for "Homeland Security"* is flowing like the very water that's caused so much anguish, it is scheduled to lose its disaster relief role entirely. And, despite the fact that a hurricane hitting New Orleans was #3 on FEMA's list of threats to our country (the #1 being their dead-on prediction of a terrorist attack on NY), funding for the SELA project to refurbish the levies has been consistently gutted.

Now, if anyone thinks this is Monday morning quarterbacking, and why weren't people up in arms about these issues before, the simple fact is our Government is there to be right about these things. I don't believe they're infallible, regardless of what side of the isle they're on. But the thing that absolutely infuriates me is when beaureaucrats ignore, dismiss, and in many cases cover up the things that their subordinates are uncovering because it doesn't fit their agenda. Do I believe that securing our cities, airports, seaports, etc. from terrorist attack needed to get more funding? Of course. But to totally put all of your eggs in the terrorism basket and ignore the "sh*t happens" principle is an absolute deriliction of the responsibility we entrust our leaders with.

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This would have been very, very bad in any event -- think of the thousands of people who are now homeless. Good grief, what are the thousands of people who escaped doing? Where are they sleeping? But so much more disheartening -- complete inability of the bureaucracy to even begin to offer some solace to most prominent concentrations of tragedy. The convention center, for example. I didn't see people there beating up or shooting reporters. I saw a bunch of overheated, tired, poor people screaming "Help!"



The scariest part about this is that, with a few exceptions, the response to this situation is a good indicator of our preparedness to respond to a terrorist attack. Suppose this were a suitcase nuke instead of a hurricane. The physical results may vary, but the net effect is dead people, refugees, and mass chaos. With the *staggering* amount of money that's been poured into these things, I would think that 4 years after 9/11 our response would be better, even if you grant them the flawed assertion that this was "unpredictable" and "unprecedented."
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- Tony C
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