Piss Poor Planning

[jurph]

We can blame the Feds all we like for New Orleans, and I do blame them to some degree. Not sending the USS Comfort ASAP, cutting Army Corps of Engineers funding for the levees to pay for Iraq, etc., and the list goes on. But the Federal government is not the biggest bad guy out there. On NPR this morning they talked about New Orleans cops

Comments

[jurph]

I know this guy who got all the episodes off BitTorrent when they were airing, and burned them to DVD. I see him pretty often, so I could get the DVDs for you. I'm going to be working in Rosslyn for the next two weeks, so if you want to meet me for lunch or even drinks after work, let me know and we can make the handoff.

Also, the first season came out this week on DVD, so you can get the actual version from Netflix if you want, without the extra hassle. Your pick.

[jurph]

We should plan this - yea, verily, it should be planned. Erica doesn't dig the show, and apparently it's illegal to scorch animals on one's porch in MoGoCo, MD, so I submit your place as the best location. I'm not sure if I'm spoken for this Saturday yet.

[listless_autumn]

thank you for having a brain
about this. i found out about
the actuall happenings late
because i don't have cable and
don't have time to clickclick
on the interweb all day.

what i have heard and seen is
intense, but i really wish a
few more people looked at it
with a bit more knowledge
behind them.

anyway, j.r. i miss you. and i
would like to see you some time,
if ever. you are one heck of a
good relative. you know, being
my friend-like and all.

gosh. how's life ?

[listless_autumn]

actuall - l = correct spelling.

[jurph]

Life here is good. I'm sure you saw all the nonsense from Alabama - I had my own summer camp with obstacle courses and funny shirts. Now that I'm back I'm working on getting out of the Air Force. I come up to Philly lots of weekends, so we could do that even though you're at the other end of the state. Also gas is obscenely expensive but if you're all the way down in DC you should totally come by and sleep over. Maybe I could entice you with the National Book Festival? Donald Hall will be there. Also Tom Wolfe and Neil Gaiman. Holy Literatures! I'm going

[unprotoize]

An awful lot of the infrastructure that has failed is directly under the federal government's purview. The levees are a Army Corps of Engineers gig, maintained by federal funding (or not by federal indifference). The national guard and their gear are pretty much all in Iraq. Piss poor indeed.

From what I've read so far, many local politicians have been beating the "hello, help us get ready for this thing that's bound to happen any second now!" and been pretty soundly ignored. Local police can only do so much. The mayor of the city only has so much influence he can peddle against Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House.

It was light of last week's catastrophe, Bush's jokey indifference, Hastert's blasé attitude, that a sort of "blame the Feds" sentiment emerged. Today on the republican blogs, as some kind of feeble spin control, it's "blame the locals".

[jurph]

It shouldn't be a case of Feds or locals -- it should be both, and the state as well. Government at every level exists to secure the lives and livelihoods of its constituents, and government at every level -- from the first cop who said "fuck this" to our guitar-playing CINC -- should be ashamed of themselves. The shitty part is that there were so many fuckups that nobody owns enough of the blame to really fry for this disaster.

Every person who was supposed to lead, shelter, or evacuate the citizens of New Orleans basically failed in their duty. Everyone from New Orleans who got out just fine did so by getting in their own car and running like hell, rather than depend on any of the half-baked plans that their governments had assembled.

"Being in charge" is different from leadership. In the same vein, "you all should get out of here" is not a plan -- it's abdication of responsibility, and dereliction of duty.

[unprotoize]

Right on.

oh jesus h. fucking gilchrist..

[unprotoize]

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197