Watching New York Times columnist Paul Krugman plumb the depths of depraved Bush bashing is getting close to becoming something of a guilty pleasure; sort of like viewing pornography but without the edifying inclusion of the undraped model’s vital statistics to offset the charge of prurient behavior. After all if, as Justice Potter Stewart famously said of it, pornography is something I recognize when I see it, then certainly the former Enron consultant Krugman’s scribblings will be immediately identifiable as the product of a smutty and lascivious mind, the likes of which haven’t been seen since the Marquis de Sade was writing his paeans to the grotesque and unnatural.
Krugman is the best fulminator in the business. No other columnist seethes with as much irrational spite. No other liberal commentator can work himself into such hysterical paroxysms of revulsion over his ideological opponents. He has accused conservatives of wanting to kill liberals. He has just recently been taken to task for blatantly lying about the results of the 2000 Presidential recount by a consortium of media outlets, saying falsely that the study – in which his own paper participated – showed Al Gore winning the election.
And now, Krugman has written a column so chock full of omissions, falsehoods, and outright lies that I’m going to break my promise made just three days ago not to play “the blame game” and give some well deserved rhetorical slaps to The Fulminater’s gigantic ego and minuscule wit.
The title alone should warn the reader off. “Killed by Contempt” is an interesting concept but one that belongs in the realm of exaggeration rather than serious thought. This is par for the course for surely, Mr. Krugman wasn’t being serious when he wrote this:
Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I’m not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.
Never mobilized? A partial listing of federal resources not only mobilized but in place less than 24 hours after the hurricane hit make Krugman out to be either a sloppy, ignorant journalist with no business writing for a major newspaper (even if it is th New York Times) or a prevaricator of monstrous proportions.
Federal assistance in place by Tuesday afternoon:
FEMA deployed 23 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, seven search and rescue task forces, and several hundred tons of supplies for stricken residents.
Department of Transportation had 390 trucks full of millions of MRE’s, millions of gallons of water, millions of pounds of ice, as well as millions of pounds of other disaster supplies.
The Coast Guard had 30 ships and 40 aircraft carrying out operations the minute that Katrina’s fury had passed.
There were 4,000 National Guardsmen assembled and deployed in Louisiana alone.
This doesn’t include assistance mobilized from other agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense and government coordination with the American Red Cross. And most of those listed assets were in place before Katrina even hit.
Then, just to prove he likes to kill his readers with contempt for their intelligence, Krugman contradicts himself:
Here’s one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday – without patients.Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a “strange paralysis” set in among Bush administration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousands died.
I can’t be the only one who sees the total disconnect between his charge of the feds not mobilizing resources and his depiction of a fully staffed hospital ship off the coast on the day of the storm. The fact that it stood empty was the result of necessity. A trip to the ship by helicopter would take nearly 1/2 an hour from the Superdome. A trip to the airport (where medical cases were brought) took 10 minutes. Perhaps we should ask Mr. Krugman if it was his life at stake where minutes counted, would he like to take a nice, relaxing half hour trip to a hospital ship or have the helo make a mad dash for the airport where medical assistance available. And relying on Newsweek for a characterization of an attitude regarding how the Bush Administration reacted (“strange” paralysis? Is there any other kind?) is just plain batty.
Here’s where Krugman deserves to be cast into the outer darkness:
What caused that paralysis? President Bush certainly failed his test. After 9/11, all the country really needed from him was a speech. This time it needed action – and he didn’t deliver.
It would be interesting indeed to know what Dr. Krugman’s prescription for America would have been following 9/11. Alas, given the shallowness of his critique of what the President did in the days and weeks following the attack, we’ll never know. Krugman’s diagnoses since that awful day have usually been so far off the mark that if he was a doctor he would have been jailed for negligence and run out of the medical profession for incompetence.
But the federal government’s lethal ineptitude wasn’t just a consequence of Mr. Bush’s personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn’t forthcoming?
Actually, the government response to the disaster somewhat proves conservative’s point about bureaucratic incapacity. But Krugman’s laughable summation of conservative attitude toward government reveals an unseriousness of thought when it comes to the conservative ideal of federalism. It’s not government conservatives hate. It’s government held hostage by do gooding lickspittles like Krugman who wish to use it’s power as a club to affect behavior and foist a stultifying sameness on the rest of us. It’s bad government conservatives hate. It’s incompetent government conservatives criticize. And for Krugman to say that conservatives hate all government is worse than simplistic; it’s moronic.
Mr. Krugman then turns his less than insightful gaze on one of the most useless Federal agencies around; the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Several recent news analyses on FEMA’s sorry state have attributed the agency’s decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters. But that supposed change in focus misses a crucial part of the story.For one thing, the undermining of FEMA began as soon as President Bush took office. Instead of choosing a professional with expertise in responses to disaster to head the agency, Mr. Bush appointed Joseph Allbaugh, a close political confidant. Mr. Allbaugh quickly began trying to scale back some of FEMA’s preparedness programs.
You might have expected the administration to reconsider its hostility to emergency preparedness after 9/11 – after all, emergency management is as important in the aftermath of a terrorist attack as it is following a natural disaster. As many people have noticed, the failed response to Katrina shows that we are less ready to cope with a terrorist attack today than we were four years ago.
But the downgrading of FEMA continued, with the appointment of Michael Brown as Mr. Allbaugh’s successor.
There is not one shred of evidence that the establishment of FEMA in 1979 has led to the saving of a single additional human life. Prior to the creation of this monster in 1979, each state was responsible for disaster response, a job they were well suited for given their proximity to the tragedy. If the state emergency managers needed help, they called on the Federal government to supply it. The thing is, they didn’t always call on the feds for help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. And for really big cataclysms like devastating earthquakes or hurricanes, the governors and local officials on the scene knew best what they needed and either placed a call to Washington where the resources were then dispatched, or for longer term help, got their Washington representatives to pump the federal spigot for funds.
FEMA was originally seen as a paper shuffling agency. FEMA reps would show up after a disaster with federal forms for the stunned and reeling survivors to fill out in triplicate and a check would then be forthcoming; a redundant but relatively harmless activity for which they were perfectly suited.
What happened in the intervening years has been a textbook case of bureaucratic turf building. From a budget of $250 million in 1979 to its current bloat of nearly $6 billion, FEMA has taken upon itself the role of disaster nanny, horning in on local and state control of disaster resources until disaster management itself has now been pretty much placed in their hands. By duplicating many of the resources that states utilize in the management of natural calamities, FEMA sows confusion and the kind of turf wars mentioned by Governor Blanco.
FEMA has since been moved into the Department of Homeland Security where the President hoped to scale back its disaster management efforts in favor of local DHS officials who would be better positioned to get what they need from Washington. Since one of the first rules of bureaucracy is all good deeds – such as trying to reduce a layer of unnecessary government control – are punished severely, it appears to me anyway that some of the problems associated with this disaster can be attributed to a system in transition.
All that said, even if Mr. Krugman’s criticism of management were valid, he inadvertently makes the point that local and state officials usually know what they need and should be trusted with asking for it without having to fight the Michael Browns of this world who today probably wishes he was back running horse shows.
Finally, Krugman reveals a childlike faith in government that is so misplaced as to put his entire critique in the realm of fantasy:
That contempt, as I’ve said, reflects a general hostility to the role of government as a force for good. And Americans living along the Gulf Coast have now reaped the consequences of that hostility.The administration has always tried to treat 9/11 purely as a lesson about good versus evil. But disasters must be coped with, even if they aren’t caused by evildoers. Now we have another deadly lesson in why we need an effective government, and why dedicated public servants deserve our respect. Will we listen?
Of course! Government as a force for “good.” Jeez…I thought that went out with the 1960’s. Government, of course, is neither good nor evil. It just is. It’s as close as you can get to being a man made force of nature.
And the “lesson” we might learn from this tragedy isn’t that we need effective government but rather effective local government. While Krugman dreams the dream of all good government liberals, the truly insidious nature of government is revealed. Just because good people want good things doesn’t mean that government will deliver them. The law of unintended consequences – as we’ve seen over the 25 year history of FEMA - knows no morality other than it’s own, relentless logic when it comes to bureaucracy.
8:04 am
FEMA wasn’t useless in the mid to late ‘90’s.
Gee, I wonder what changed?
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003458.htm
8:25 am
Jack or Paul? Or am I missing something?
8:27 am
That’s what I get for having “Odd Couple” and Jack Klugman on the brain!
Sheesh…what a dope I am!
8:44 am
I admit I was wondering who was going to figure as Felix to his Jack—maybe John Roberts?
11:19 am
There is an essential moral bankruptcy in collecting billions of dollars in taxes every year for Homeland Security and then pointing to local officials when there is a poor response to a tremendous catastrophe.
11:33 am
And there is an essential idiocy in believing that the federal government is the best entity to handle local disasters.
Each disaster we’re faced with, we say “We’ll do better next time.” We never do. We continue to pile more and more responsibility on the feds all the while ignoring the facts of life – proven again with Katrina.
Those facts include unless supplies are prepositioned, no significant help will arrive until the roads are clear. In this case, damage from the storm extended 150 miles from the coast. Even though DHS had a convoy of trucks that stretched from just outside NO to the Texas border, there was only one bridge capable of supporting truck traffic into the city. And the road to that bridge was strewn for miles with fallen tree limbs, lightposts, and utility lines.
When the investigations are complete, I’m pretty sure FEMA will be skewered. I’m absolutely certain that Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco, and Director Ebbert (local DHS) will come out looking criminally negligent. The feds didn’t lose control of the city – the mayor did. And the governor’s sluggishness in deploying the remaining Guardsmen will I’m absolutely sure come in for some scathing criticism.
Besides, when the same officials who are at fault are going on TV and saying the feds don’t care, do you expect the feds to just stand there and not point out THEIR shortcomings?
THere will be plenty of blame to go around here. But get off your high horse about “moral bancruptcy” and recognize that fact.
12:34 pm
From Mr. Moran:
“And there is an essential idiocy in believing that the federal government is the best entity to handle local disasters.”
Hurricane Katrina is a local disaster?
“Those facts include unless supplies are prepositioned, no significant help will arrive until the roads are clear.”
Helicopters can fly 300 mile round trips.
“THere will be plenty of blame to go around here.”
Amen, brother. Putting tens of thousands of people in the Superdome and N.O. Convention Center w/o food and water stockpiles-local and criminal. Louisiana Governor – hand flapping incompetence. FEMA - what, are we supposed to do something? Bush – hey, handlers were out of town. I get a mulligan. Conservatives – starve the social service aspects of government because it doesn’t fit our agenda – impact will now be remembered at the ballot box. Liberals – singing Kumbyya, Bush bashing and longing for the good ole days doesn’t help a single soul. Forget the 60’s – figure out how to be relevant NOW.
2:03 pm
“... make Krugman out to be either a sloppy, ignorant journalist with no business writing for a major newspaper (even if it is th New York Times) or a prevaricator of monstrous proportions.”
Or?? Please!
2:23 pm
To paraphrase one of my favorite essayists, Bill Whittle, in his current effort entitled “Tribes”...after 9/11 people were wearing NYPD and FDNY caps to honor their first responder heroes, not ones that say FEMA.
2:26 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, here.
The crux of your argument, Rick, is that anyone suggesting that our response to the disaster was inadequate just needs to look to the inadequate initial response for proof otherwise.
Forgive me for thinking you’re an unabashed apologist. To claim that criticisism is just leftist propaganda, is incredibly lame and clearly partisan. One just needs to turn on the television for 10 minutes, press the mute button, and look at the human toll to know this.
2:39 pm
Frank:
You’re wrong. I think FEMA screwed up. But WTF is going on here when we treat this Nagin fellow as a goddamn hero when there were millions of gallons of water and millions of MRE’s within spitting distance of where his fat ass was sitting on Tuesday and Wednesday and he doesn’t do a damn thing to distribute them?
That “human toll” is a direct result of the incompetence of local officials letting a horrible situation become tragic. 500 police officers walk away from their jobs. More than 500 busses underwater because someone didn’t move them to higher ground or, better yet PUT PEOPLE IN THEM AND GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF THE CITY!
Director Brown is a penis. But the Mayor of NO is criminally negligent.
3:10 pm
I suggest we demote Louisiana to a territory and remove their star from the flag. After they elect new management, they can re-apply for union membership.
And yes, if Jeb Bush screwed up this bad in the Florida I would be saying the same thing.
3:22 pm
“It’s bad government conservatives hate. It’s incompetent government conservatives criticize.”
Then conservatives get elected and prove both.
6:49 pm
Today I wrote a letter to my mayor informing him that he had better perform his duty by securing and protecting his people and for him to take a long, close look at Mayor Nagin and the subsequent disasters created by inept leadership or I will be taking my tax dollars to a city and state with elected leaders who WILL perform their offical duties.
7:27 pm
Good 4U, Susan!
Rick, would it be too trite to simply compliment you on this post? A homerun even after reading the first paragraph, and it gets better. You know this schmuck like Rush knows liberals. (And I bet you know every inch of your lovely naked body as well as Rush knows his, too.)
7:33 pm
There was a perfectly good evacuation plan in place in NO. But, as anyone who has managed a large project knows, its hard to come up with a plan, but its still much easier than managing to it. Assuming that the management of the plan was actually to assigned to anyone(s), which seems doubtful.
7:36 pm
Uh, Boy Howdy, best know what you’re talkin’ about.
All the local and state officials in LA. are liberal Democrats, NOT conservatives.
7:41 pm
NYC took an enormous hit by foreign terrorists and NYPD and NYFD worked tirelelssly, 24/7, for months to handle the devastation. Of the ten most costly storms in US history, Florida had 4 in 2004 alone. Alabama is reeling, but managing. There are those from NOPD who helped themselves to the Walmart post-storm specials and NOLA is giving NOPD paid vacations to Las Vegas after less than a week.
Rudy, Jeb, Haley work(ed) round the clock to manage their crises and save their locales. Nagin and Blanco play finger-pointing games while their people die.
8:15 pm
Your fulminations about Krugman are as confused as his. You say,
“It’s bad government conservatives hate. It’s incompetent government conservatives criticize,”
while, at the same time, appearing to argue that government agencies operated well enough here, when obviously that is just not the case.
8:47 pm
“appearing to argue that government agencies operated well enough here”
No, he’s saying that the Feds were OK (not perfect and in need of criticism/correction); that FEMA is inherently unable to deliver results commensurate to its budget, whereas Krugman would like to increase that budget; and that there were massive failures on both the tactical and strategic level by the Mayor of NO and the Governor of La, which are being ignored as some journalists attempt to paint them as heroes.
It wasn’t hard for me to figure that out, and I imagine you’re at least as smart and capable as I am.
8:48 pm
Still A Liberal Moonbat
THE FULMINATEREach day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I’m not letting state and…
9:18 pm
Don’t you watch the X-Files? FEMA exists to cover up the alien conspiracy, not provide help during disasters.
9:41 pm
You know, when we have tornadoes in Kentucky, the first people on the streets, besides the individual homeowners, are the cops and fire departments, city workers clearing trees, ambulances, power companies, etc. FEMA doesn’t really play into very highly. I realize the scope of the disaster at the Gulf shores is of an extremely higher magnatude, but unlike twisters, they had a long lead time… the local and state officials KNEW it was coming (they couldn’t predict how bad, but they knew what it could be) and it appears they sat on their hands and hoped for the best. This blaming FEDERAL government for not smacking the local and state governments aside and taking over shows what little some of the comment writers understand of chain of command and viability of response. I think Krugman is just willfully stupid, or maybe a complete dumbass can work for the NYT… who knows?
10:36 pm
Large swaths in Mississippi still have yet to see aid….
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050905181009990002
10:43 pm
They are STILL waiting for aid in Waveland Mississippi!
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050905181009990002
How come everyone on the planet can rely on the US, except it’s own citizens?
11:02 pm
Are these supposed to be examples of successful Federal Programs?
“The interstate highway system, the public Internet, the FDA, SEC, and FCC.”
The Interstate highway system, although conceived and funded (largely) through federal dollars, was executed at the state and local level. Still, I wonder if those driving through traffic here in Atlanta, or LA, think this is a terribly succesful program.
The public Internet? I am not sure we can give the Federal government too much credit for the Internet, other than their willingness to fund DARPA and their (so far) ability to keep their hands off it. It’s pretty much a public/private partnership, and anyone with a semi-technical background would understand that the Internet isn’t some wonderful huge network that the Feds maintain and we all connect to.
The FDA? Please!
The SEC? You seem to not like Enron or WorldCom, and yet, this is an agency held up as a success?
The FCC? The agency that presides over the current cable monopoly system. I hardly call them a success.
In all those cases, the free market, yes, with it’s focus on unyielding efficiency and maximization of profit, would provide better solutions than any of the aforementioned examples.
In the case of N.O. though (returning to topic), the one successful, federally-managed organization to be able to have a success here, is the all-volunteer, US Military. The one time people we cheered in NO was when these guys arrived, for they knew that someone who knew a little something about operating in duress was there.
Were Blanco and Nagin nearly criminally incompetent? Yes. Nagin couldn’t hold his police department together, and his constant complaining only painted him as a poor leader who could do little other than complain. Blanco failed to aggressively bring the Louisiana National Guard into the city and declare martial law (in fact, both had to be pressured by GWB to issue the mandatory evacuation order).
Was Bush slow to respond? I am not sure, the levees didn’t break until late Monday, and he was over the city on Tuesday.
The bottom line for us politically is that this disaster shows that Liberals want the Federal Government to be an all powerful nanny state, taking care of our every need, while conservatives still believe that which governs closest, governs best, and governs least. Interestingly, we saw that in MS and AL, and in FL last year in most cases.
11:19 pm
The fate of New Orleans was sealed by the incompetence of state and local government. Though the federal response was not perfect, it was swift and, compared with that of the state and local idiots, a model of efficiency.
A cursory glance at the timeline shows how childish it is to argue that the Bush Administration did not act fast enough. Given the immense complexities involved in deploying, say, an Army aviation battalion into an area ravaged by a category 4 hurricane, we should be applauding the response. It’s perfectly stupid to argue that such assets ought to have been prepositioned in the disaster area. Katrina would have blown them away. Far more sensible to wait for the storm to pass before deploying them. I marvel that the critics have overlooked so elementary a precaution. We can thank our lucky stars that they weren’t running the show.
Uninformed cretins whose main purpose for living is to bash Bush may rave and rant about the 82nd Airborne & etc., but grownups know the score. May I suggest that the thumb-suckers of the Left retreat to the nursery and let the adults clean up this mess?
11:41 pm
Bill:
If you’d like to resubmit your comments without the F-bombs, they will be published.
Otherwise, in the immortal words of James T. Kirk…
“Go climb a rock.”
12:00 am
I may be missing something here but as I understand it the US government cannot intervene in a state’s affairs without a request to do so by the gov. Having said that it is clear that the gov and mayor were clearly inept.
As time goes by more information and data on the disaster becomes available. Ignoring idiots like Krugman helps clear the air for we know he will never say anthing about the rampant corruption of the Lousiana and New Orleans government and their handling of the crisis.
The main question I have in the event of a nuclear or WMD attack by terrorists we should now allow the Federal government to run the show. Local problems caused by nature should remain in the realm of the states and local authorities.
12:13 am
One minor correction: the USS Bataan isn’t a hospital ship—it’s an amphibious warfare ship.
12:54 am
This post is absurd. This guy doesn’t defelct any of Krugmans points. He quotes Krugman 6 times and 6 times he either misses the point or writes an ideological rant.
Point 1: Never mobilized?
Yes never mobilized. Whatever the Federal goverment mobilized it plainly was not enough. The Feds had more resources that could have been mobilized but wasn’t. Regardess of what was mobilized it wasn’t enough and krugman’s point stand. The Feds had enough to make a differnce and it didn’t use what it had.
Additionally, the article Mr. Moran links to is nothing more than a newspaper reporting what the White House says was mobilized. That doesn’t make it true in any meaninful sense. The word “mobilized” in Brown’s FEMA might simply mean that Form 1239A-3 was filed with the appropriate people. It doesn’t mean those people were on site helping people. It doesn’t mean anything.
Point 2: hospital ship
The fact that the ship was there but wasn’t used simply proves Krugman’s point. Mr. Moran makes the flaccid argument that it was a shorter trip to the airport ergo everybody should go to the airport. Absurd.
The ship could have been used simply to house people who were merely stranded but not really hurt. It could have been used for people who were hurt but were not in any danger. The ship could have been used to do nothing more than churn out water for people who were dehydrating. Instead it seems to have been used for nothing.
The ship was in the area, it was not mobilized in any meaningful sense.
Point 3: paralysis
No real point here. Krugman thinks Bush is a poor leader and Mr. Moran would gladly follow him into hell. It’s a difference of taste. Some people like grinning empty suits and some people do not. It’s not a point that can be discussed factually.
Point 4: bureaucratic incapacity
Mr. Moran thinks the whole incident illustrates conservative’s point about bureaucratic incapacity. Mr. Krugman thinks it illustrates Mr. Bush’s poor leadership. Given the facts of the case Krugman appears to be obvious correct on this point, but it’s a subjective point. Mr. Moran doesn’t land any hits on Krugman’s point, in fact he doesn’t even really try instead moving to what he thinks is Krugma’s underlining point.
Moran’s rant is all over the place at this point but in essence his belief is that conservatives are only against bad government, inefficient government, or intrusive goverment controlled by lickspittles like Krugman. Moran is obvously wrong. He goes on to say things like:
“[Fema is] a textbook case of bureaucratic turf building.”
“There is not one shred of evidence that the establishment of FEMA in 1979 has led to the saving of a single additional human life.”
If the “textbook” case is one where an agency engages in bureaucratic turf building without fufilling it’s mission (saving lives in FEMA’s case) then what does that say about the textbook conservatives are reading from? The textbook case sucks in their world view. Moran is proving what Krugman says.
Was it a conservative who said: “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub?” I think it was. Conservatives aren’t anti-bad goverment, they’re not even anti-government (as the mammoth bloat under Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II prove), conservatives are simply against using goverment for the things liberals want to use government for.
Liberals want the full force of goverment brought to bear to crush discrimination and conservatives want the full force of goverment brought to bear to crush privacy rights. Both sides are big goverment, they just have different goals. That should be obvious to anybody who hasn’t had their head rammed up their ass for the past 30 years.
Point 5: FEMA’s sorry state
Krugman’s point is that FEMA is less effecient now because it’s leader is a political hack and it’s been swallowed by an organization that isn’t primarly concerned with natural disasters. Moran doesn’t even address this point, perhaps because he can’t because it’s pretty obvious Brown’s a political appointee hack.
Instead Moran writes a rant that basically boils down to: FEMA BAD. It’s his right to have the opinion but he doesn’t address what Krugam said.
Moran does make an interesting, but very bad, point near the end though. He says:
“All that said, even if Mr. Krugman’s criticism of management were valid, he inadvertently makes the point that local and state officials usually know what they need”
That’s merely Moran’s opinion. Krugman’s criticism just as easily could make the point that the leadership was bad. Does Moran really believe that leadership at FEMA is meaningless – that nobody could have made a difference? It sure sounds that way. Obviously that’s wrong. Some people lead better than others, manage better, run things better. Brown is a boob, a non-boob in charge of FEMA would have helped. Having somebody, anybody, in washington that could make decisions would have helped. Leadership at FEMA would have helped, claiming otherwise is silly.
Leadership always helps.
Point 6: Force for good
Again Moran doesn’t address Krugman’s position. Krugam talks of the goverment being a “force for good” and not good. It’s as important distinction as “the love of money” being the root of all evil and not money itself.
Krugam doesn’t says goverment is good, especially not in the theological sense that Moran pretends, he merely says it can be a force for good – a point so obvious that it shouldn’t need to be defended in a serious discussion. I’ll only say that the US goverment defeating the Nazi’s and standing up to Communism were examples of the goverment being a force for good.
Considering Moran was replying to Krugman and had every advantage, Krugman really kicks his ass.
1:04 am
Something just about everybody is missing.
Planned evacuations involving somebody else’s jurisdiction are expected to reimburse the various agencies at the other end for their costs to provide that support. After catastrophe support is usually provided out of the goodness of the provider’s humanity and is not reimbursed.
So.
Nagin refused to use the 400+ busses (255 school busses, 155 NORTA busses and 13 busses of unknown provenance all within a couple of miles of the Dome)at his disposal and so avoids reimbursing the cities and other agencies at the other end for the costs they are incurring to help the residents of his city. (that and avoiding paying for the gas and driver’s wages to operate those busses) Oh, and it is all Bush’s fault.
1:22 am
A nice fisking and none are more deserving, but I do wish you had spelled fulminator correctly…
1:32 am
FEMA wouldn’t let the Red Cross in. People starved to death.
According to FOX News, FEMA wouldn’t let people WALK out.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA is in charge of disaster relief, overriding the locals. They failed.
4:08 am
“FEMA wouldn’t let the Red Cross in. People starved to death.”
FEMA doesn’t have any guns, they do not man any security points. Also, people cannot have starved to death this soon. It is biologically impossible.
“According to FOX News, FEMA wouldn’t let people WALK out.”
Repeat. FEMA doesn’t have any guns, they do not man any security points. The only people block I have read about is the parish where the looters sacked a mall, set fire to it when they were done, and opened fire on the Fire Dept when they showed up to try and put it out. How many N.O. units stayed at their posts? That Parish’s local Police blocked the bridge (or bridges?) and will not allow more potential sociopaths from N.O. another chance to hurt them like that again. (I suspect that they are going to catch a lot of crap over this, but I can’t blame them too much.) Their primary responsibility is to that parish and allowing another sacking wouldn’t help. Neither would a large body count opposing the next attempt.
“According to the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA is in charge of disaster relief, overriding the locals. They failed.”
I would reread that claim and the actual Congressional mandate. DHS’s authorities were allocated and constrained by Congress. I doubt that they handed away that much.
4:52 am
new york slimes have proved they are as un-American as you can get and I am amazed at all the posts on this great piece by this writer, amazed cuz no blame here for the inept of the no mayor or the govenor?
I’m pretty much in shock to hear and read such riduculous comments – most people are just going by what the msm is spewing from their open sewers.
Also, as usual, I am so glad we decided. the msm and all the news outlets, to let the terrorists cells already in our country know, once again, where ALL our weaknesses are—all they have to do is flood us out and the local gov’t will crumble before the Feds can get a chance to do much—I feel we’re pretty much doomed with the nyslimes and libs wanting back in power so much that they’re just about willing to do or say anything.
re
6:25 am
Steve in Houston Says:
“No, he’s saying that the Feds were OK (not perfect and in need of criticism/correction)”
That is exactly what is wrong. The Fed actions were most assuredly not “OK.” Many attempts to deliver rescue, aid and supplies were turned back by FEMA. FEMA turned back WAL-MART trucks filled with food and water, they prevented the Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel, they refused to let in the Red Cross, they turned away expert search and rescue firefighters from Houston. The DHS refused entry of an expert Canadian search and rescue team—a team that was involved in WTC rescue operations—for two days. This team was invited by the Governor.
I can’t begin to imagine what what White House press releases are being read by folks here, but you need to expand your reference material. For a start, try the Financial Times:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e2511c8.html
None of this was “OK.”
7:27 am
It’s interesting to note how logic-proof the Bush bashers are. In the face of plain evidence that the primary responsibility for what happened in New Orleans falls on the shoulders of the local and state governments, they go right on peddling their outrageous lies.
For example, it is pointed out that Krugman was plain wrong in his claim that the federal government did not mobilize resources in advance. The response from the hate-Bush goofballs? It’s along the lines of this gem:
“The ship was in the area, it was not mobilized in any meaningful sense.”
As a matter of fact, the Bataan’s helicopters—the most valuable asset it possessed—were heavily utilized.
As far as FEMA’s “poor leadership” is concerned, it may be true that it dod a poor job but the jurt is still out. Given the fact that law and order had completely broken down in New Orleans, it’s ridiculous to blame FEMA for not getting help to the city sooner. Just how was FEMA supposed to do that? It was (and is) the responsibility of state and local government to maintain law and order. They failed to do so, a failure that hugely complicated all other relief efforts. But of course, the Governeor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans are Democrats, so the hate-Bush mob is more than willing to let them off the hook.
7:31 am
It’s probably also worth mentioning that the claim made above (“According to the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA is in charge of disaster relief, overriding the locals. They failed.â€) is a complete lie. FEMA has zero authority to override local authorities.
9:54 am
Tom G.
If the copter’s came from Bataan I was unaware of that. The ship still didn’t seem to be used as a medical facility though. Nor did it’s fresh water get to people who were dehydrated in the city. Nor do the copter’s change teh fact that not enough was done.
Whatever action was taken, it wasn’t enough. It was obviously not enough on tuesday morning. That’s the point. No matter what the goverment claims to have done, no matter how many of their talking points you swallow, it was not enough. They had the ability to do more and yet they didn’t for no other reason than lack of leadership.
“Given the fact that law and order had completely broken down in New Orleans, it’s ridiculous to blame FEMA for not getting help to the city sooner”
That’s completely untrue. There was some looting and such but to say law and order “completely broke down” is absurd. The news crews where at the superdome and convention center for days. We have film footage for days. The people weren’t rioting, they weren’t setting buildings on fire, they weren’t tipping over police cars. There was a very typical amount of looting and not much more.
Aside from that, Tom, it’s the goverment’s responsibility to maintain order. Even if your point were true, that order completely broke down, it’s the government’s job to maintain order. The local resources were obviously and immediately overwhelmed by the size of the disaster so it was the Federal goverment’s responsibility to restore order.
That’s what government’s are supposed to do first and formost. Everybody knows that. It’s absurd for the people tasked with maintaining order to complain that there wasn’t any order.
10:13 am
Tom G.
If the copter’s came from Bataan I was unaware of that. I also disagree that the copters were it’s most valuable resource when it can churn out fresh water and people needed, and didn’t recieve, fresh water, but that’s not the point. The point is: whatever action was taken, it wasn’t enough. It was obviously not enough on tuesday morning. That’s the point. No matter what the goverment claims to have done, no matter how many of their talking points you swallow, it was not enough. They had the ability to do more and yet they didn’t for no other reason than lack of leadership.
“Given the fact that law and order had completely broken down in New Orleans, it’s ridiculous to blame FEMA for not getting help to the city sooner”
That’s completely untrue. There was some looting and such but to say law and order “completely broke down” is absurd. The news crews where at the superdome and convention center for days. We have film footage for days. The people weren’t rioting, they weren’t setting buildings on fire, they weren’t tipping over police cars. There was a very typical amount of looting and not much more.
Aside from that, Tom, it’s the goverment’s responsibility to maintain order. Even if your point were true, that order completely broke down, it’s the government’s job to maintain order. The local resources were obviously and immediately overwhelmed by the size of the disaster so it was the Federal goverment’s responsibility to restore order.
That’s what government’s are supposed to do first and formost. Everybody knows that. It’s absurd for the people tasked with maintaining order to complain that there wasn’t any order.
It’s interesting to note how logic-proof the Bush fellators are.
10:46 am
Good one. Every Leftie I know shipped me Krugman’s piece over the weekend. Wait… Krugman hates BUSH
? Crap, someone notify the press!
11:07 am
Eric evinces a real lack of knowledge about local, state and federal responsibilities. He is also embarrassingly bereft of a basic understanding of how federal authority may be used. It is also evident that Eric was never in the military as every soldier, sailor, airman and marine who graduates basic training learns that members of the Armed Services are expressly forbidden to engage in any law enforcement activites. They cannot in any way attempt to assist LE resources in any capacity. This is the Posse Comitatus Act of 1870. So Federal auturities can’t just jump in and take over.
The basic facts are: – Bush personally implores Mayor Nagin to evacuate the city 48 hours before K hit town. – THe NO official disater plan requires the Mayor to evacuate the city 72 hours in advance of the hurricane…yet it took a call from the Pres to get him to act. – The Pres declared it a disater area BEFORE the storm hit – FEMA’s own protocols stipulate that local authorities need to be prepared for a 48-72 delay before Federal resources arrive. It is expected that the local PDs and FDs will provide first responder support and not engage in looting or just walk away. – The leveee broke Monday. Fed resources were there Tuesday. – Why didn’t NO have plans and training to deal with all the elderly, medication-dependent and handicapped folks? Why were the buses not used? This is local responsibility. – Why didn’t the Governor mobilize the LANG faster? – Why is MS, where the brunt of the storm hit and did terrible damage under much better control? Same federal response, different state and local responses.
Eric, like so many of your ilk you use ignorance to support your arguements.
11:56 am
I would hardly call widespread looting and armed gangs in the street “typical.” And the responsibility for this situation rested with the city and state governments, NOT with FEMA or any other branch of the federal government. Indeed, the US armed forces are barred by statute from participating in domestic law enforcement. The question that ought to be asked is: Why did the Governor of Louisiana not order the National Guard in sooner? Once the Guard did appear in force, the situation rapidly improved.
The Left suffers, as always, from Selective Memory Syndrome. In this case, the fact that such things as state and local governments exist seems to have slipped their minds.
4:54 pm
[...] perate as what I just wrote, above! I can’t see wasting time on Paul Krugman, but Right Wing Nut House felt the need to fisk him.
By: TheAnchoress @ 3:45 [...]
4:58 pm
Hey Rick! Could you should check out your commenting software. Here’s some of the comments that somehow got deleted from last night’s discussions. Don’t know how they got lost. If you need the URLs for these comments, let me know, I’ve got them.
———
f_f Says: 
September 5th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
“The responsibility,†of government, Churchill told the British Parliament “for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.â€
Regarding: “Federal assistance in place by Tuesday afternoon†from Jacksonville, Fla., to Houston. I guess it depends on what the definition of “in Place†is. It certainly wasn’t the Convention Center.
Regarding: “his depiction of a fully staffed hospital ship off the coast on the day of the storm.†Can you tell me what day the airport started accepting casualties? I don’t recall many Army helicopters moving people from the Dome or the Convention Center until Friday. (The Coast Guard copters were busy pulling people off roofs.)
“And for Krugman to say that conservatives hate all government is worse than simplistic; it’s moronic.†Grover Norquist wants to “drag government into a bathtub and strangle it.†Is this just a PR problem?
Didn’t Bush run as the security President?â€I’ll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Dieâ€
“The Global War on Terror will take a long timeâ€
After the Katina Federal response, I sure feel safer.
———
f_f Says: 
September 5th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
mistercalm Says: “This blaming FEDERAL government for not smacking the local and state governments aside and taking over shows what little some of the comment writers understand of chain of command and viability of response.â€
I understand chain of command. I’m a retired U.S. Army Officer. As a Company Commander, if one of my Privates lost his weapon, I could kiss my career good bye. The chain works two ways. The Private is responsible for his weapon. I’m responsible to make sure he never forgets it.
Sure, the city and state should have a great plan and execute it well. But it’s also FEMA’s responsibility to make sure it’s a good plan and “smack†them if there’s problems with implementation.
“viability of response?†Tell me, where was the fleet of Blackhawks parked that the Mayor needed to get food and water to the Convention Center?
———
f_f Says: 
September 6th, 2005 at 12:49 am
Jay Says: “Was Bush slow to respond? I am not sure, the levees didn’t break until late Monday, and he was over the city on Tuesday.â€
Hmmm, a Google search says the levee broke before noon on Monday while Bush was sharing cake with McCain. Bush strummed his guitar and stayed in Crawford on Tuesday and flew over the Gulf Coast on Wednesday. Then the Army showed up on Friday, just as he was helicoptering into New Orleans.
Jay Says: “The bottom line for us politically is that this disaster shows that Liberals want the Federal Government to be an all powerful nanny state, taking care of our every need…â€
There have been references to Bush as another Churchhill. Mr. Bush, I knew Churchill and you’re no… “The responsibility,†of government, Churchill told the British Parliament “for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence.â€
Jay Says: “while conservatives still believe that which governs closest, governs best, and governs least. Interestingly, we saw that in MS and AL,...â€
Didn’t Lott, from MS, use to have a high position in the republican party? “In a sign of the political pressure facing Bush, Mississippi Republican Sen. Trent Lott, a former Senate majority leader, said he has been battling the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its Mississippi counterpart for help for his state and urged Bush to cut red tape. After a one-on-one meeting with Bush in Poplarville, Lott said: “I am demanding help for the people of Mississippi to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.â€
Tom G Says: “Given the immense complexities involved in deploying, say, an Army aviation battalion into an area ravaged by a category 4 hurricane, ... Far more sensible to wait for the storm to pass before deploying them.â€
Tom, babe, the hurricane passed on Monday. The first Army aviation showed up on Friday as Marine 1 was heading into town and LG Honore was rolling convoys to the Convention Center. Four days for a pre-flight check? Who was doing the thumb-sucking?
———
f_f Says: 
September 6th, 2005 at 1:00 am
TJ Jackson Says:â€The main question I have in the event of a nuclear or WMD attack by terrorists we should now allow the Federal government to run the show. Local problems caused by nature should remain in the realm of the states and local authorities.â€
TJ, when did you find out that the break in the levee was caused by the storm and not by an explosive/biochem bomb set off by an Al Queda sleeper cell?
After all Bush and Chertoff immediately said that no one could have expected the levees to break. Must have been an unnatural act.
———
9:34 pm
Little Pinch Sulzberger’s country club newspaper peddles in-crowd arrogance. Those of us who live in the real world, pay our taxes, pay our mortgages, raise our kids, and send money to Katrina relief organizations don’t belong to the country club and wouldn’t be welcome even if we wanted to belong.
Whether we like it or not, the Feds can’t be everywhere at once. The last hurricane I was in, FEMA took 4 days to arrive (just like they always do), and were pretty useless once they got here (just like they always are). People who didn’t prepare were not happy, but then people who live on the Gulf Coast KNOW that hurricane season is every year from April to November and residents better have provisions and contingency plans at the ready. As in: evacuations. BTW, Governor Blanco failed to sign the executive order declaring a state of emergency until Wednesday, nearly 48 hours after the levees were breached.
Poor doesn’t make people stupid. It makes them dependent on mass transportation. Louisiana officials left that mass transportation locked up in a bus yard, and the poor people locked up in the un-provisioned SuperDome. Both got flooded.
Louisiana’s people were sold out by their state and local politicians, who doubtless ran on a platform to repeal the law of cause and effect.
2:14 am
Fixing The Katrina Memes
I have to hand it to Hugh Hewitt, he was right. The Left’s reaction to Katrina, rather than being a bounteous outpouring of that famous liberal compassion, was instead the Wellstone Memorial redux.
Hugh advised that if your opponent is making a foo…
8:22 am
Aside from that, Tom, it’s the goverment’s responsibility to maintain order. Even if your point were true, that order completely broke down, it’s the government’s job to maintain order. The local resources were obviously and immediately overwhelmed by the size of the disaster so it was the Federal goverment’s responsibility to restore order
—-With whom Eric? The military? Um, that is illegal, you’re aware of that right?
—Your posts demonstrate an ignorance on the topic that is embarassing, yet you feel the need to comment.
Very unsure why….
7:41 pm
“Actually, the government response to the disaster somewhat proves conservative’s point about bureaucratic incapacity.” – ! No, it is about who was in charge this time (federally: Bush/Republican Congress.) It’s the perfect hack for the destroy-government crowd: underfund agencies and “staff” them with hacks. Then, when they screw up, say this shows that “government” doesn’t work, then cut funding more etc. It’s the perfect self-fulfilling prophecy, and gives Norquist Republicans a deliberate motive to do a poor job. Are you right-wing commentariat really that stupid, or just flacks? (or both?)
BTW, dealing with flooding of the Mississippi on such a scale is a Federal responsibility. For example, the levees are under the management of the Army Corps of Engineers, a point missed by the mindless localists around here. Indeed, the Mississippi delta is in effect a hydrological ward of the US Government.
7:30 am
I see that the Left is still engaging in lame and clueless attempts to pin total responsibility for this catastrophe on the sinister Bush and his nefarious neocon cabal. It’s hilarious, really. After five years of screaming that Bush is a fascist, a Nazi, a dictator, progerssives now have their knickers in a twist because Bush DIDN’T act like a dictator.
As far as the response to Katrina is concerned, compared with Louisiana state government and New Orleans city government, the federal response was a model of efficiency. To expect perfection is the demand of a child.
3:22 am
designer-purse