Spot The Difference In (Non-Partisan) FEMA Management, And Spread It Around.

[TrollBuster9090]

Spot the difference in FEMA management.

REPUBLICAN: Michael Brown. A patronage appointment. A lawyer, and political hack with absolutely no qualifications for the job, other than being a loyal Bush fundraiser and organizer. Experience before joining the Bush Administration? Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Brown


DEMOCRATIC: Craig Fugate. A professional disaster management guy who used to work for JEB BUSH as his Florida disaster management officer. Experience before joining the Obama Administration? Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Craig_Fugate


That's it, in a nutshell. Now the details:


Why was Katrina a much bigger disaster than it should have been?

Because (in public) the Republican philosophy on government is that Government is inherently evil, has no positive role to play in the life of a Nation, and should be eliminated wherever possible. IN PRACTICE (when elected), however, they never actually reduce the SIZE of government. They simply:


A) USE it as a cash cow to reward their friends and cronies by "PRIVATIZING" it. (aka- chopping it up and selling off the profitable parts to friends and cronies as a political reward, while sticking the taxpayers with the losing elements. aka "Lemon Socialism&quot

B) USE IT as a source of POLITICAL PAYOLA by appointing political hacks to government jobs as a payback for help or donations during campaigns. That's the only reason why we ended up with a Swiftboat financier as Ambassador to Belgium and an Arabian Horse judge as the leader of FEMA. The only problem, of course, was that unlike The PostMaster General (for example), FEMA is occasionally IMPORTANT. Like...say...oh I don't know...like when there is AN EMERGENCY??? and,

C) Regardless of size, make sure Government can't actually DO what it's SUPPOSED to do. That's how we ended up with an IRS that never audits high income tax returns, thus giving the wealthy a free ride on tax evasion, and sticking the middle class with the bill because they can't fight back. (Remember Phil Gramm gutting funding for the IRS in the 1990s, with the resulting layoffs of the highly paid auditors who specialize in high income tax returns?) That's how we end up with an SEC (charged with regulating the stock market) not even being able to afford PHOTOCOPIERS, never mind the staff to check up on Bernie Madoff.

In practice, this ends up being quite a racket. You campaign on the philosophy that government is useless, and every time you're elected, you MAKE SURE it is.

[Rain Mcloud]

1. I figured Katrine was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The RW would like for us all to believe that government has nothing to offer anyone,anytime any where.
By making FEMA out to be a scapegoat they were to capitalize on this nonsense.
They may subsidize the media with commercials but they do not yet own our minds.
I am pretty sure that Turdblossom was genuinely surprised that people were pissed off and could not believe that the brainwashing had come un stuck in the aftermath of Katrina.
This,i believe was the emperor's new clothes moment in the Bush administration for those too lazy to keep up on daily affairs.

Good post,Rec it heartily!

[TrollBuster9090]

5. And Turdblossom was probably also surprised that, despite the best efforts of Bobby Jindal,

people STILL blamed the incompetent Bush Administration for staffing FEMA with incompetent political hacks, rather than 'government itself.'

That must have hurt, given that they worked so hard to plant the narrative that Katrina happened BECAUSE government is useless.

Ronald Reagan was famous for saying:

"Government IS the problem."

To which any logical person answers:

"Government isn't the problem, dumbass. BAD GOVERNMENT is the problem!"

The bottom line is that, once we can get people to realize that once in office REPUBLICANS DO NOT shrink the size of government...there are only two choices. One party that believes government should be big and GOOD, and another party that believes government should be big and BAD.

[Rain Mcloud]

8. Agreed.

Let us not forget that dubyuh grew the government pie size by 25% and created the deficit from surplus with two unfunded wars and tax cuts for friends of the Bush family.
So what would Willard do to top that?
I think i would rather shit in my hat than find out.

[Rain Mcloud]

10. I just remembered this jewel.

I hope i am not hi jacking here but this was too good to pass up.
A video that summed up my feelings at the time:
[link:

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[DonViejo]

2. Dubya tried hiring Fugate as Director of FEMA after

Browne was purged. Fugate declined but accepted President Obama's appointmtnet

[TrollBuster9090]

6. I'm guessing it's because Brother JEB refused to let him go.

And Fugate probably didn't want to be seen as a feckless political hack by virtue of being appointed to a job by an Administration that was FAMOUS for appointing feckless political hacks to that job.

[DonViejo]

9. Here's an interesting article about Fugate:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251188917

[central scrutinizer]

3. At the time of Katrina, LA had a Democratic governor

No reason to help a state full of the opposition

[LTR]

4. It was still a reliable red state

[TrollBuster9090]

7. I think one of their deliberate goals was to make Blanco look incompetent for a day or two,

then have her sign over complete control of the disaster relief operation to the Feds, so they could be seen as riding to the rescue.

It BACKFIRED.

BIG TIME.