Destroying FEMA

[pop goes the weasel]

I posted about this in a different forum, but with all the attention on FEMA, I figured I should post it on its own.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901445_pf.html

Destroying FEMA

By Eric Holdeman
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; A17

SEATTLE -- In the days to come, as the nation and the people along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response.

Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.

Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness? Given our country's long record of natural disasters, how much sense does this make?

What follows is an obituary for what was once considered the preeminent example of a federal agency doing good for the American public in times of trouble, such as the present.

[Erika]

1. Bush has sold us down the river (hurricane)

His priority is corporate globalism, not our national security.

[wli]

2. He wants to kill as many of us as possible along the way, too. n/t

[xxqqqzme]

3. grover norquiist must B so proud!

Katrina's gonna drown it all for him.

[Old and In the Way]

4. What's a bigger problem...terrorists or mother nature?

We should have declared peace with the environment instead of declaring war on a tactic.

[achtung_circus]

5. "homeland security borg." says it all. nt