More on FEMA mismanagement as demonstrated in New Orleans

Kevin Drum provides links to more articles describing the mismanagement by FEMA and of FEMA itself. From the Knight-Ridder article Kevin references:

WASHINGTON - The federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday.

The experts, including a former Bush administration disaster response manager, told Knight Ridder that the government wasn't prepared, scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters to fighting the global war on terrorism.

The disaster preparedness agency at the center of the relief effort is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which was enveloped by the new Department of Homeland Security with a new mission aimed at responding to the attacks of al-Qaida.

"What you're seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels," said Eric Tolbert, who until February was FEMA's disaster response chief. "All three levels have been weakened. They've been weakened by diversion into terrorism."

Read the whole article for an indictment of the incompetent Bush admininstration.

Then go look at the second article Kevin referred to. It is entitled "Disaster in the Making." It describes the lack of preparedness of FEMA and was published by Independent Weekly September 22, 2004. The problems of inexperienced political appointees trying to run the agency, it's budget cuts of critical programs and its inability to coordinate large operations were all recegnized at least a year ago!

Next we get the report of the Canadian Urban Search and Rescue team and supplies that were requested by Louisiana officials and then stopped at the border by the Department of Homeland Security adn not allowed to enter the U.S.! Get this:

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of "mass confusion" at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.

This is what happens when Republicans who do not believe that government should exist in the first place are elected to try to run the government. They wind up doing more work to collect bribes and provide jobs to their inexperienced supporters than they do to actually make sure government functions when it is needed.