I would like to take a minute to point out that FEMA worked just

[cornermouse]

fine under the Clinton presidency. The fact that FEMA no longer works is due to Bush and cronyism; offering positions based on political affiliation rather than qualifications. FEMA can be fixed. We don't need or want any more agencies. Unfortunately, the fact that Leiberman is apparently part of this new idea doesn't surprise me.

[rodeodance]

1. Chertoff does not want to move boxes around-he has fixed already. I

doubt if anything major will happen

[rusty charly]

2. Susan Collins was repulsive today

these guys are just chomping at the bit to say this about every agancy they don't like: "we're gonna dismantle it and put it back together... OUR way"

Miss Collins? you guys already proved you have know idea what you're doing. please back away from our government and let the grownups handle it.

[madame defarge]

3. Excellent point...

It was when they decided to put it under DHS and ignore it that it failed. Go figure.

Ah, but I forgot: this regime is never wrong about anything and never takes the blame...

998 days*...

*unless he's impeached first...

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Which is why ** changed it, that and croynism as you stated.

[Island Blue]

5. I couldn't agree more.

A great deal of northeastern North Carolina was flooded during Hurricane Floyd, and folks began receiving help immediately. (FEMA also worked perfectly fine during other storms during the Clinton administration.) It all starts at the top with the leadership skills and attitude of the president. Period.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. During the Grand Forks, ND flood in '97, I saw FEMA people at work

and at least from what I saw, they really did do a heckofa job. But that was during the Clinton administration, when government actually worked pretty well sometimes because it was managed by people who didn't hate government. If FEMA sucks now, we know why.

[BellaLuna]

7. It worked the way it should after the Northridge earthquake

People got the help they needed immediately and long term. Funny how all of a sudden it can't get the job done. It is only as good as those running and funding it - I guess that means it's incompetent and ineffective.

[magellan]

16. It sure did

FEMA were brilliant in '94. What's changed since then? Hmm.....

Well said and welcome, BellaLuna! :hi:

[BellaLuna]

21. Thanks for the welcome

:hi:

[Beaverhausen]

17. James Lee Witt was in CA that very afternoon

And earthquakes don't come with 3-4 days notice. They helped here a lot.

[BellaLuna]

22. That's right.. we didn't have a couple days notice when it hit

That makes the response even more impressive.

[pitohui]

8. bush the elder also effed it up during andrew

the bushes are incapable of learning from their own stupid mistakes, tho it's clear that bush I's eff-up w. hurricane andrew is a primary if not the primary reason why he was not re-elected

they are too stupid to learn, all they care abt is paying off incompetent cronies w public jobs

drownie brownie should be in prison, as should bush, there is no excuse for appointing an unqualified man to such a post and clearly the only reason he was appointed was cronyism, pay-offs, racketeering -- whatever you want to call it, it's a federal crime and should have been prosecuted as such

how many more whores w. white house press passes, how many more horse judges w high-paying public "service" jobs?

they should all be in jail but more, those who accepted the bribes and put them there in high office, they should be in jail

[Swamp Rat]

9. I think the Bushlers are more sinister than incompetent

:yoiks:

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Sinister ... Incompetent ... OH GOD IT'S SO HARD TO DECIDE !!!

Actually, I've been through all that before. I now accept that they are either/both, as the occasion demands. Call it 'flexible failure'.

[IowaGuy]

13. Good point about Andrew & Bush I...

Whats really kind of bizarro is how things were changed around just a few years later during the Clinton admin.

During the floods of '93, FEMA was begging people around here to apply for more help. They had more resources available than people really needed. There was FEMA staff standing around just trying to find something to do. How odd that things could see-saw back and forth so much between administrations.

Not to get my tinfoil hat on, but you almost got to be trying to screw things up that bad. It obviously is not something that was endemic to the agency or they would not have done such an exemplary job during the Clinton admin. The common thread in the ineptitude, incompetence or just plain criminal negligence, however you may define the failure...is "Bush"!

[neoblues]

10. So true...

But they get to spend more money if they re-invent the wheel every five minutes (of course, they also have to spike the wheel to cause it to fail before they re-invent it, thus providing an excuse--at least they're still pretending to need an excuse).

[tulsakatz]

11. I heard someone say that...

FEMA is fine, it's Homeland Security that needs to be done away with!! That sounds like a good idea to me!

Homeland Security was created (supposedly) to make communication easier between the various govt agencies. It looks to me like things are just as fucked up now as before!!

[Ready4Change]

18. DHS has screwed up many things.

It has added a layer of bureaucracy that slows response, muddles issues, confuses those in the chain of command, costs extra money, and as a result endangers, rather than protects, American lives.

Stories abound. I know pilots afraid to fly into the DC airspace, as they've talked to controllers and other pilots with horror stories. Pilots who've done everything right, yet still nearly been shot down due to DHS incompetence.

All the departments now under DHS functioned MUCH better, and communicated with each other much better, before DHS was put in place. DHS should be abolished. Doing so will save money, and doing so will protect the USA.

[iamahaingttta]

12. Totally destroy government and privatize everything...

That's been the agenda all along, this is just one more step in that direction. Their Global Free-Market Capitalist Utopia can only succeed if everything on the planet is owned and operated by and for private entities.

[omega minimo]

20. "How can you govern if you don't believe in government? You can't"

And they think Mericans are too stoopid to figger out THEY DESTROYED FEMA ON PURPOSE AND DESTROYED NOLA ON PURPOSE?

What happened to the Pottery Barn Rule?

[zbdent]

14. Wasn't FEMA working well during the 2004 hurricane season?

When they "devastated" Florida, and Dumbya flew down there immediately and promised help ?

[TheBaldyMan]

23. that year Dubya was up for reselection n/t

[tanyev]

15. "Hundreds of vacant positions"

Paulison and Chertoff said they were working to fill hundreds of vacant positions at FEMA. The agency is now at 80 percent in terms of all full-time employees and intends to reach 95 percent by June 1.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/06/fema.ap/index.html

That's what happens when an agency created to help people is so politicized. The competent people get to a point where they can't take it any more and finally leave. FEMA may indeed be broken beyond repair, but a new agency under the same regime won't solve the problem.