[percy-l] Countdown to a Meltdown
Ken Armstrong
armstron at ohiou.edu
Sat Sep 10 08:25:53 EDT 2005
--On Friday, September 09, 2005 6:04 PM -0400 Tommy Armstrong
<tfa at brickengraver.com> wrote:
>
> But no matter how you look at it there was an incredible "cluster
> screwup" as a good redneck would call it. Blame is everywhere to be
> found--but to rest it solely on an incompetent administration is only
> looking at the tip of the iceberg. The 80% of the iceberg that remains
> below water are local and state authorities, criminals, incompetents, and
> mostly just unprepared normal people.
You're in denial. If the 800 pound federal gorilla had done the right
thing, it would have dwarfed the 60 pound state chimp. Those with the most
power and the huge resources needed to step up, dump the rules, and move
immediately. Not only did they not take the action the situation called
for, they stood on bureaucratic procedures, saying incredibly stupid things
like the people in the superdome weren't a fact until they became a fact
through bureaucratic procedure. The niceties that you delineate may be
perfectly true, but are largely irrelevant in relation to the federal
"response" to actual events. Everyone was incompetent? This is true and
needs to be acknowledged. But to those with the greatest resources goes the
greatest responsibility. Thanks to the character of the oversight provided
by Michael Brown, the federal response was retarded, and this situation
could not tolerate a retarded response.
Ken Armstrong
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