William Rivers Pitt: Wake of the Flood

[norml]

William Rivers Pitt: Wake of the Flood
Monday, 5 September 2005, 12:10 pm
Opinion: William Rivers Pitt

Wake of the Flood

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
From: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090205Z.shtml
Friday 02 September 2005

All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin' about my baby and my happy home.
-- Led Zeppelin, "When the Levee Breaks"This will come as no surprise, but columnist Molly Ivins has again nailed it to the wall. "Government policies have real consequences in people's lives," Ivins wrote in her Thursday column. "This is not 'just politics' or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies."

Try this timeline on for size. In January of 2001, George W. Bush appointed Texas crony Joe Allbaugh to head FEMA, despite the fact that Allbaugh had exactly zero experience in disaster management. By April of 2001, the Bush administration announced that much of FEMA's work would be privatized and downsized. Allbaugh that month described FEMA as, "an oversized entitlement program."

In December 2002, Allbaugh quit as head of FEMA to create a consulting firm whose purpose was to advise and assist companies looking to do business in occupied Iraq. He was replaced by Michael D. Brown, whose experience in disaster management was gathered while working as an estate planning lawyer in Colorado, and while serving as counsel for the International Arabian Horse Association legal department. In other words, Bush chose back-to-back FEMA heads whose collective ability to work that position could fit inside a thimble with room to spare.


snip


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0509/S00031.htm

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Bravo Will

I like your final suggestion best:

Better yet, they should be air-dropped into the center of New Orleans and made to see and smell and touch and taste the newest disaster they have helped to create.

The idiots at NRO want to have the 2008 republican convention in New Orleans. I say, "why wait?". Give them their wish RIGHT NOW.

:applause:

[mcscajun]

2. I'll help carry a rail...no sweat.

"The whole pack of them should be run out of Washington on a rail. Better yet, they should be air-dropped into the center of New Orleans and made to see and smell and touch and taste the newest disaster they have helped to create."

Damn right! Dropped in the Lower Ninth Ward, for certain!

[TheFriar]

3. was there ever a Bush appointee who WAS qualified?

This administration's record of cronyism and incompetence is beyond comprehension.

Thank you for so eloquently recounting this example.

[SharonAnn]

4. No, apparently there are no competent Republican donors.

It's surprising. I mean, who would've thought there were one?

I know that many of those jobs are patronage jobs, but really. There are no Republican sycophants who are competent?

Shocking!