Comments Posted By Eric
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Tom G.
If the copter's came from Bataan I was unaware of that. The ship still didn't seem to be used as a medical facility though. Nor did it's fresh water get to people who were dehydrated in the city. Nor do the copter's change teh fact that not enough was done.
Whatever action was taken, it wasn't enough. It was obviously not enough on tuesday morning. That's the point. No matter what the goverment claims to have done, no matter how many of their talking points you swallow, it was not enough. They had the ability to do more and yet they didn't for no other reason than lack of leadership.
"Given the fact that law and order had completely broken down in New Orleans, it’s ridiculous to blame FEMA for not getting help to the city sooner"
That's completely untrue. There was some looting and such but to say law and order "completely broke down" is absurd. The news crews where at the superdome and convention center for days. We have film footage for days. The people weren't rioting, they weren't setting buildings on fire, they weren't tipping over police cars. There was a very typical amount of looting and not much more.Aside from that, Tom, it's the goverment's responsibility to maintain order. Even if your point were true, that order completely broke down, it's the government's job to maintain order. The local resources were obviously and immediately overwhelmed by the size of the disaster so it was the Federal goverment's responsibility to restore order.
That's what government's are supposed to do first and formost. Everybody knows that. It's absurd for the people tasked with maintaining order to complain that there wasn't any order.
Comment Posted By Eric On 6.09.2005 @ 09:54
This post is absurd. This guy doesn't defelct any of Krugmans points. He quotes Krugman 6 times and 6 times he either misses the point or writes an ideological rant.
Point 1: Never mobilized?
Yes never mobilized. Whatever the Federal goverment mobilized it plainly was not enough. The Feds had more resources that could have been mobilized but wasn't. Regardess of what was mobilized it wasn't enough and krugman's point stand. The Feds had enough to make a differnce and it didn't use what it had.Additionally, the article Mr. Moran links to is nothing more than a newspaper reporting what the White House *says* was mobilized. That doesn't make it true in any meaninful sense. The word "mobilized" in Brown's FEMA might simply mean that Form 1239A-3 was filed with the appropriate people. It doesn't mean those people were on site helping people. It doesn't mean anything.
Point 2: hospital ship
The fact that the ship was there but wasn't used simply proves Krugman's point. Mr. Moran makes the flaccid argument that it was a shorter trip to the airport ergo everybody should go to the airport. Absurd.The ship could have been used simply to house people who were merely stranded but not really hurt. It could have been used for people who were hurt but were not in any danger. The ship could have been used to do nothing more than churn out water for people who were dehydrating. Instead it seems to have been used for nothing.
The ship was in the area, it was not mobilized in any meaningful sense.
Point 3: paralysis
No real point here. Krugman thinks Bush is a poor leader and Mr. Moran would gladly follow him into hell. It's a difference of taste. Some people like grinning empty suits and some people do not. It's not a point that can be discussed factually.Point 4: bureaucratic incapacity
Mr. Moran thinks the whole incident illustrates conservative's point about bureaucratic incapacity. Mr. Krugman thinks it illustrates Mr. Bush's poor leadership. Given the facts of the case Krugman appears to be obvious correct on this point, but it's a subjective point. Mr. Moran doesn't land any hits on Krugman's point, in fact he doesn't even really try instead moving to what he thinks is Krugma's underlining point.Moran's rant is all over the place at this point but in essence his belief is that conservatives are only against bad government, inefficient government, or intrusive goverment controlled by lickspittles like Krugman. Moran is obvously wrong. He goes on to say things like:
"[Fema is] a textbook case of bureaucratic turf building."
"There is not one shred of evidence that the establishment of FEMA in 1979 has led to the saving of a single additional human life."If the "textbook" case is one where an agency engages in bureaucratic turf building without fufilling it's mission (saving lives in FEMA's case) then what does that say about the textbook conservatives are reading from? The textbook case sucks in their world view. Moran is proving what Krugman says.
Was it a conservative who said: "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub?" I think it was. Conservatives aren't anti-bad goverment, they're not even anti-government (as the mammoth bloat under Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II prove), conservatives are simply against using goverment for the things liberals want to use government for.
Liberals want the full force of goverment brought to bear to crush discrimination and conservatives want the full force of goverment brought to bear to crush privacy rights. Both sides are big goverment, they just have different goals. That should be obvious to anybody who hasn't had their head rammed up their ass for the past 30 years.
Point 5: FEMA’s sorry state
Krugman's point is that FEMA is less effecient now because it's leader is a political hack and it's been swallowed by an organization that isn't primarly concerned with natural disasters. Moran doesn't even address this point, perhaps because he can't because it's pretty obvious Brown's a political appointee hack.Instead Moran writes a rant that basically boils down to: FEMA BAD. It's his right to have the opinion but he doesn't address what Krugam said.
Moran does make an interesting, but very bad, point near the end though. He says:
"All that said, even if Mr. Krugman’s criticism of management were valid, he inadvertently makes the point that local and state officials usually know what they need"That's merely Moran's opinion. Krugman's criticism just as easily could make the point that the leadership was bad. Does Moran really believe that leadership at FEMA is meaningless - that nobody could have made a difference? It sure sounds that way. Obviously that's wrong. Some people lead better than others, manage better, run things better. Brown is a boob, a non-boob in charge of FEMA would have helped. Having somebody, anybody, in washington that could make decisions would have helped. Leadership at FEMA would have helped, claiming otherwise is silly.
Leadership always helps.
Point 6: Force for good
Again Moran doesn't address Krugman's position. Krugam talks of the goverment being a "force for good" and not good. It's as important distinction as "the love of money" being the root of all evil and not money itself.Krugam doesn't says goverment is good, especially not in the theological sense that Moran pretends, he merely says it can be a force for good - a point so obvious that it shouldn't need to be defended in a serious discussion. I'll only say that the US goverment defeating the Nazi's and standing up to Communism were examples of the goverment being a force for good.
Considering Moran was replying to Krugman and had every advantage, Krugman really kicks his ass.
Comment Posted By Eric On 6.09.2005 @ 00:54
Randy Says:
August 20th, 2005 at 7:27 pm
That’s a lot of lame finger pointing for someone who’s never served a day in uniform.YEAH! What Randy said! And... And...
that's a lot of finger pointing for someone who's never bitten the head off a live chicken...Or...Or...blasted heroin in their nutsack! YEAH! In the Nutsack! You never did that a freaking day in your sissy ass life. Have you?! Well then...what right do you have to any opinion WHATSOEVER.Truth to power Randy...speak it bitch.
Comment Posted By Eric On 21.08.2005 @ 01:15
SO MUCH FOR THE "PUBLICATION BAN"
Am I on TV? Can CNN see me? ::::wavin::: Over here! HI MOM!!!!!!
Comment Posted By Eric On 7.04.2005 @ 17:49
Hiya SuperDuper!
Comment Posted By Eric On 3.04.2005 @ 18:08
