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Dean
Jack Kelly notes that the Federal response to Katrina was faster, more timely, and stronger than any response by FEMA in history. Yet the consensus of most Americans seems to be the Feds did not do enough, fast enough. This raises the question: how shall we reform FEMA, and what powers shall we grant to it that it does not have now, and what precisely should we make their mission?
In a somewhat-related vein, Paul Mirengoff notes the progress made in the war on Terror in the last four years, and notes the critics who say it is not enough. Raising a nearly-identical set of questions.
Sorry, but that's the way it is.
Whats interesting is if they "means test" such a capability, where municipalities and state agencies in Florida appear to have their reaction teams well coordinated, as opposed to the failures in Louisiana. Imagine a Federal agencies grading each city above a certain population as to whether they are adequately prepared, with the result of a low grade meaning in the event of an emergency, they get pulled out of the chain and superseded by federal authority.
This is what Democrats appear to be demanding, yet I imagine they'd be extremely vocal in fighting against such an intrusion.
We sure could give the Federal government more powers to step in and override the State and local governments, but I suspect very strongly that the costs would override the benefits.
The nearness of the Katrina hit, and the spectacular incompetence of the NO and (less so) LA governments produces an understandable emotional impetus to "make FEMA do it all and do it better", but I think that same emotional effect makes the danger overstated and the remedy's importance over-estimated (and the remedy's costs and dangers under-estimated).
(In other words, John is right.)
Of course a terrorist attack in New Orleans likely could not have done the level of damage that Katrina did... unless they set off a nuclear bomb or poisoned the water supply.
So, at what point does this question become a national defense issue? At what point should we be saying that incompetent or overwhelmed local authorities need to be superceded, purely on national defense grounds?
It's not an easy question, but perhaps it needs to be asked.
Polls pretty clearly show the American people expects the Feds to ignore state and local government, screw the niceties of any of that, and get their asses johnny-on-the-spot whenever there's a major crisis.
Thus it would appear that we need to frame when and where that will happen. Because it's clear that's what most people want. And on national defense grounds, maybe they're right.
I *expect* a leader to put his career on the line in order to save the lives of the people of New Orleans or any other city, if that's what it takes.
It didn't happen here, and that's a big part of why i'm pissed.
Therefore, what you are suggesting is that the President, on his own initiative and without any Constitutional or legal limits, should act to tromp state and local authority as long as, in his judgement, there is a national emergency. Yes?
If that's what you want, okay. But if we do not give our leaders clear guidelines on what is acceptable, we run the risk of establishing a precedent: any time a President thinks there's an emergency, he should ignore the Constitution and the rule of law. Based entirely on his own initiative as a leader.
Is there to be any check on that power to unilaterally declare emergencies that you want to put on the President? And that doesn't just mean this President, because your answer will affect all future Presidents.
What is the shape, and what are the limits, of your "he should just do what he knows is right regardless of the law" proposal?
What happened in NO, particularly the Superdome and convention center, was a manufactured disaster (unintentional). A large group of people were stranded because the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. The Feds thought LA&NO were going to follow their own evacuation plans, but they didn't; the convention was not even a part of it. And whoever decided it would be a good idea to let prisoners out of jails to roam freely and fend for themselves should be shot!
The press focused, of course, on this microcosm of the calamity while barely mentioning a peep about what was going on in the rest of LA, not to mention MS and AL.
It will always be the individual and the local who must be prepared and willing to respond. The Fed is too bloated and bogged down to be there first and with everything, yet it seems everyone wants to add more.
One still must remember, however, that a strong Category 4 hurricane, which had just been downgraded from a Category 5, slammed into the Gulf coast of the US, subsequently causing a major levee to break. I don't think that point can be emphasized enough, no matter how much we think we are prepared.
I think that's exactly the question that needs to be asked. It's important to note that like the 9/11 attacks, Katrina is an event that's had national impact; it's not just about the states that were directly hit. It's created a ton of refugees who have spread to neighboring states; it has already significantly affected the economy and could have more longer-term consequences. Simply put, it wasn't just a local disaster. So why should the burden of response be on the region?
The blamegaming is pointless - and I say that as someone who's engaged in it somewhat - and needs to go away before we'll see any significant progress. As long as people consider this a partisan issue there will be enormous hostility and defensiveness on all sides.
That said, the solution to finger-pointing isn't to just tell people to stop taking sides. Someone - and I hope it's the president - needs to come forward and take leadership in creating a solution that can start to unify people.
And yes, at the risk of sounding self-contradictory, this is true as well. We are a federalist nation and we do need some federalist guidelines. I don't think anyone really wants FEMA to be an intrusive organization. I do think a lot of people want it to be faster and more efficient, however.
Therefore, it won't do to say that it's entirely a local problem and local failure.
So, okay, again: we need to be talking about what the shape of an acceptable policy is. "The President should just do what he knows is right and damn the consequences" is not a standard I'm prepared to defend for any President no matter how much I like or dislike him.
I don't know FEMA's policies much at all, but I do think they're the place to start. I think it is entirely reasonable for taxpayers to demand a policy revision with the outcome that response time is faster without unnecessarily trammeling the rights of local governments.
I'm still not entirely comfortable with that but it would be a hell of a lot better than "just do whatever you want whenever you think it's called for," anyway.
President Bush was stuck because facing the rabid opposition he does, if he had stepped over the state and local governments and took direct control from the beginning (the only way the outcome could have been improved, all other factors remaining the same), he would be facing a very legitimate grounds for impeachment, with no guarantee that sufficient numbers of his fellow party members would stand up for him.
Another solution would be an opt in/opt out clause, where local and state governments have the predetermined choice to turn over control. Let them decide ahead of time, preferably during an election year, if their contingency planning is sufficient to be the first response, and stand by that.
Didn't she though. . . got to wonder if Katrina may wind up cleaning up Louisiana politics after this. Now people have a good idea what it means when their local (state included) officials are empty suits. Might not be so hasty to waste their ballots next time around. (D) or (R), we'll see candidates stepping forward touting experience in planning and leadership. Let's see if the local media AND bloggers are on their toes to vet these people.
In view of the polls showing what appears to be a lack of confidence in the President, I would like to take a survey to see if people feel he ought to resign.
If you think that Bush Should Resign, please reply by comment to the link.
Thanks
No, we should not allow the President to just step in whenever he thinks a State or local government is screwing the pooch in a crisis - the answer to this sort of thing, ultimately, lies with the people of the State and locality...it is they, the voters, who determine who is in charge. What the citizens of New Orleans and Louisiana have done over the decades is keep in power people who have no business exercising power - if the people of New Orleans really want to locate the responsible parties, then the mirror is a good place to start.
What can the Federal government do additional to what it is already doing? Well, the only thing which comes to mind for me is to beef up whatever section of the FBI is charged with investigating government corruption - I believe that the FBI has broad powers in this area, and (at any event) since all local and State governments get massive amounts of federal money, we can certainly work up a case against the corrupt local and State officials...keep investigating and indicting until the local and State political class is cleaned up...at least to the point where they pay attention to fundmental problems like weak levy's, etc.
As for the desire on the part of the American people for massive and "screw the law" federal action to take care of the problem - a natural reaction given the horrific pictures seen out of New Orleans...and yet another reason for the continuing campaign to convince all and sundry to never, ever look at television news...it just distorts reality.
Does anyone know of evidence that a large number of people died because they were stranded by the hurricane (as opposed to being killed by the hurricane itself)?
Because all I heard so far was how crappy (figuratively and literally) things were in the Superdome, which is pretty darn bad, but not so bad that Bush would be saving lives by sending the military in there.