"For days, Bush's top advisers argued over legal niceties..."

[wakemewhenitsover]

"...about who was in charge, according to three White House officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the negotiations...."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179587/

[ananda]

1. Nagin was saying this on..

.. Sixty Minutes a little while ago..

.. that there was a problem deciding on which authority was to do what.

He said it was a bureaucratic nightmare.. and that they should have just thrown bureaucracy out the window and got people and aid in there immediately.

Sue

[Gloria]

2. This piece from GovExec. com shows what is supposed to

be the hierarchy....with regard to Northern Command. It talks about "dual roles" and other potential sources of confusion....notes the National Response Plan

htt://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0905/090205nj1.htm


snip

As Hurricane Katrina and the catastrophic flooding of New Orleans illustrate, however, some natural disasters can wreak havoc on a scale that quickly overwhelms local and state authorities. In such civil emergencies, the U.S. military has traditionally been asked to contribute its unique capabilities in terms of command-and-control, communications, air- and sealift, search-and-rescue, emergency medical response, and sheer manpower. Since the establishment of Northern Command, however, the Pentagon no longer offers such assistance ad hoc, or as an afterthought to the military's primary mission of fighting wars. As one of the Pentagon's joint, unified commands headed by a four-star flag officer, Northern Command has meticulously planned for homeland-defense and disaster-relief missions and held exercises. In July 2004, for instance, the command participated in a training exercise that simulated how to respond to a Category 3 hurricane striking New Orleans and producing a storm surge that crested the city's protective levees and killed thousands.

During a crisis, often the first question asked of NorthCom, a relatively new command, is the most fundamental and difficult of them all. "The first question we have to ask and answer, along with all the agencies we work with, is, Who is in charge?" said Navy Capt. Brad Johanson, chief of NorthCom's Joint Operations Center. If it's a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, FEMA is the lead agency, with Northern Command in support. In a wildfire, the Agriculture Department will typically take the lead, through its National Interagency Fire Center. In the case of a terrorist infiltration where military assets are helping to monitor the situation, the FBI will usually be in charge.

"On the other hand," Johanson said, "a homeland-defense event such as a catastrophic attack using weapons of mass destruction would likely be NorthCom's primary responsibility, because we have a lot of unique capabilities in that regard. We know where that equipment and capability is, we know where it would need to go, and we have the means to get it there fast. And until you practice these scenarios, and see how a situation can escalate and evolve, with the lead-agency role shifting over time, it's hard to know who does what to whom, and when."

To sort out the complex and shifting command arrangements, and to smooth over the various seams between agencies tasked with responding to disasters, the Homeland Security Department created the exhaustive National Response Plan, which runs to hundreds of pages. In the event of a terrorist attack involving nuclear weapons or a radiological "dirty bomb," for instance, the plan envisions DHS providing overall federal guidance and designating the Defense and Energy departments, among others, as likely "coordinating" bodies to manage the federal response.

more

[shraby]

3. The whole government is comprised

of people working under the Peter Principle.

[wakemewhenitsover]

7. Should be renamed the George Principle

[thinkingwoman]

12. Hear, Hear!

The George Principle--who ever is least qualified will be appointed!

[FormerDittoHead]

13. Suggestion: "The W Principle" sounds better... n/t

[msgadget]

4. Clinton fixed FEMA

to be a lean, mean, action machine. This administration's 'streamlining' has only created a geater bureaucracy just as we said when he was forcing it through post 9/11.

[montana500]

5. this post should be stickied

[wakemewhenitsover]

9. What does "stickied" mean?

[bettyellen]

as soon as the response was declared a disater they decided real quick-

it wasn't them.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. A good son of the South predicted it all...

..."If the Confederacy falls, there should be written on its tombstone: DIED OF A THEORY." Jeff Davis, January 1865.

[Hidden Stillness]

8. Disgusting--the People Who Knew Had to Turn to the Assholes for Help

This is one of the aspects of the thing that keeps sticking in my mind, making me disgusted all over again. Contrast the intelligence and competence of, for example, state and local Louisiana officials--who did not have authority to get things organized and solved, as emergencies of this type are Federal concerns--with Bush's refusal to even notice the disaster.

A couple of points on this: the first thing I heard about the Louisiana response to the hurricane was that the Governor, Blanco, had instructed her Attorney General to prosecute anyone price-gouging victims on any necessities; on the ball immediately. Second, after Bush destroyed FEMA by killing it as a Cabinet-level Department, adding it to that incoherent mishmash "Homeland Security" (I wonder which color this Alert is; assholes) and appointing a totally unqualified "friend" to "run" it, Gov. Blanco brought in, on her own, the former (and real) head of FEMA, James Lee Witt, to conduct a real investigation of the disaster, and how to solve it. She also started a foundation to raise money and distribute needed supplies to the victims. The National Guard was called in as soon as they themselves did not have to be evacuated for their own safety--by Louisiana request, that is.

State and local officials in all affected states were begging for help days ago, and Bush's FEMA director "just found out about it" a couple of days ago, that there were victims. When I think about how different the whole situation might have been, and the contrast between the competence of, for example, the Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, and the neverending stupidity of the cocaine-addled asshole Bush and the "take over the world" neo-con space cadets--and that the good people had to turn to the assholes for help; and wait--it is horrible and painful, but it makes an enduring moral lesson for us. We are the leaders, and when they lead--disaster.

[wakemewhenitsover]

10. Will James Lee Witt be able to conduct a truly independent investigation?

[rfkrfk]

11. some of this is hard to believe

if you need help from the Coast Guard,
and you call Fema on the phone, two possiblities,

one person answering the phone will tell you the
phone number of the CG,

someone else might try to pretend he is in command,
thus wasting the time till you figure out you can
call the CG yourself.

[bemildred]

14. This is butt covering, a less damaging cover story.

They did exactly what they were ordered to do,
in Bushworld obedience is expected at all times.