Krugman--All the President's Men (Bush has created many FEMA's)

[Gloria]

Krugman gives a nearly perfect rundown of what the Democrats could be focussing on....


"All The President's Men": Paul Krugman says Bush has created many
FEMA's

The lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina revealed to
everyone that the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
which earned universal praise during the Clinton years, is a
shell of its former self. The hapless Michael Brown - who is
no longer overseeing relief efforts but still heads the agency
- has become a symbol of cronyism.

But what we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline
and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other
government functions have been crippled by politicization,
cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals?
How many FEMA's are there?

Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from
some version of the FEMA syndrome.

The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental
Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane
Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of
experienced officials over the past few years. In particular,
senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the
Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental
law.

SNIP (he goes through Food and Drug Admin; Corp. for Public Broadcasting, Treasury, and FEMA in detail including Kerik, etc.)


The point is that Katrina should serve as a wakeup call, not just
about FEMA, but about the executive branch as a whole. Everything
I know suggests that it's in a sorry state - that an administration
which doesn't treat governing seriously has created two, three,
many FEMA's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/opinion/12krugman.html?hp

[snowbear]

1. Paul Krugman rocks...

~~~ :)

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. Now that's an attractive man, even if he's not Hollywood pretty

(This is an answer to another thread, I know. And completely offensive to those who only love Krugman for his mind.:evilgrin:)

[Totally Committed]

10. S'okay (shhhhhhh) ... I feel the same way about Joe Conason... n/t

TC

[Carla in Ca]

3. Sad to report...

As of Friday the NYT will be subscription only for all op-ed columnists. How will we get Krugman fix?

[MintOreoCookie]

5. What? I won't be able to read the editorials anymore unless I obtain

a subscription?

[Carla in Ca]

9. E&P have the story

<http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001097356>

[liberalla]

12. Whoa! I don't like the sound of this.

$50 bucks is HIGH for a brand new service like this. Excessive IMO.
Access to the digital archive is nice, but...

I don't like that this may signal a trend with other online newspapers.

[Carla in Ca]

13. Americablog had this to say

snip...

So what does the Times get out of this? Maybe some increased subscription revenue. Though their page views will decrease, so their ad revenue may actually decrease as well. It's a mixed bag. But I won't be linking to any "for pay" articles if the link takes you to the NYT pay-site. We'll just start summarizing articles, posting a few choice paragraphs like we always do.

And finally, if the Times' idea catches on, this really could be the beginning of the end of the current state of Internet news. Free news online has created an amazing and new dynamic in which people are more informed than ever before. If other news sites start to follow the Times' example, we jeopardize that. Again, I get why the Times wants to make money, they're not a public service, but still, I'm not sure their move will help them influence public debate, and isn't that part of the reason they exist?

[MintOreoCookie]

4. I absolutely love Paul Krugman. He is brilliant.

I read this article yesterday and loved it.

[ladylibertee]

6. I think I like Mr. Krugman

[MintOreoCookie]

7. ladyliberty, if you have not read him before, you should look for his

articles. He comes out on Mondays and perhaps Wednesdays. He is very practical in the way he addresses issues. I don't think I have ever disagreed with him. Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich are also excellent writers.

[Gloria]

8. Would it take a genius at the DNC to work this into a unified

message that all Dems could trumpet?? Is that asking too much????

[cosmicdot]

11. "the best and brightest have been leaving"

may Katrina be a catalyst for real, people-oriented common sense leadership vs. pseudo- corporate-oriented 'leadership', and a clarion call for a new deal to overhaul, improve, reform, etc., our national infrastructure for the 21st century

it's sad that our pleas to address these matters require disaster and tragedy to be heeded