Comments on: More FEMA/Katrina Blindness

By: BrianOfAtlanta

BrianOfAtlanta — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:45:05 +0000

Well, assuming that Brown had actually been doing his job, then frequent updates to the Whitehouse would have hurt the relief effort, not helped.

By: a

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:51:05 +0000

I think you’re setting the bar a little low. The issue isn’t whether Bush “ignored” the threat, it is whether he took affirmative steps to make himself informed at the time. He’s the President. Why should he wait for information to filter up to him? Why couldn’t he, as the storm approached, told Brown that he wanted to be updated every hour on the hour, or something like that. He could have demanded information, and we would have received it. Particularly in a crisis situation, and particularly because Bush knew that he had not stocked FEMA with the best and the brightest, he should have been more assertive. I’d rather that he had made mistakes of action than mistakes of inaction.

By: reader_iam

reader_iam — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:50:16 +0000

Of course, I still fall in the camp that the majority of “blame” (however useful that is, at this point) goes to state and local authorities for much of the initial chaos and poor response. That’s not at all to let the feds off the hook, but I think it’s important to keep everything in its place and in perspective.

By: reader_iam

reader_iam — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:48:22 +0000

Yes, I think you’re ultimately responsible for how they carried out their jobs. However, I don’t think it’s reasonable for you to be held responsible for what you said based on incorrect information. (In other words, it would be unfair to call you a liar, for example, or a deliberate dissembler.) No one, not even the president of the United States, can be expected to be a mind-reader.