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Criminal Negligence Started at the Top: Firing Mike Brown is Not Enough
Firing Mike Brown is Not Enough
Calls for firing Michael Brown are understandable. Aptly described as "the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA" by columnist Maureen Dowd a few days ago, he's an easy and appropriate target.
President Bush met with Brown last Friday and publicly told him: "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie."
In the grisly wake of the hurricane, Brown's job performance cannot be separated from Bush's job performance. To similar deadly effect, the president has brought to bear on people in New Orleans the same qualities that he has inflicted on people in Iraq -- refusal to acknowledge basic realities, lethally misplaced priorities, lack of compassion (cue the guitar), and overarching arrogance.
The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week.
Estimates of the death toll in New Orleans are now in the vicinity of 10,000 people. Whatever the number, many would be alive today if the federal government had given minimal priority to evacuation of those who had no way of exiting the city.
Now, key issues involve accountability and decency.
We should force a genuine national debate on whether George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are fit to be president and vice president of the United States. They should be held accountable.
And we should insist that the country deserves to be governed with decency.
Last Saturday, a headline on the front page of the New York Times summarized a nationwide outlook: "Across U.S., Outrage at Response."
But unless it finds avenues for full expression, outrage is apt to dissipate or implode. The many people across the country who are sickened by the Bush administration's actions and inaction -- before, during and after the hurricane -- need adequate and immediate ways to respond.
Donations to charities for relief efforts are necessary but insufficient. Traditional political structures offer labyrinths with many twists and turns of cooption. Only independent political activism has a chance to prevent conventional political wisdom from reasserting itself.
http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon09062005.html
President Bush met with Brown last Friday and publicly told him: "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie."
In the grisly wake of the hurricane, Brown's job performance cannot be separated from Bush's job performance. To similar deadly effect, the president has brought to bear on people in New Orleans the same qualities that he has inflicted on people in Iraq -- refusal to acknowledge basic realities, lethally misplaced priorities, lack of compassion (cue the guitar), and overarching arrogance.
The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week.
Estimates of the death toll in New Orleans are now in the vicinity of 10,000 people. Whatever the number, many would be alive today if the federal government had given minimal priority to evacuation of those who had no way of exiting the city.
Now, key issues involve accountability and decency.
We should force a genuine national debate on whether George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are fit to be president and vice president of the United States. They should be held accountable.
And we should insist that the country deserves to be governed with decency.
Last Saturday, a headline on the front page of the New York Times summarized a nationwide outlook: "Across U.S., Outrage at Response."
But unless it finds avenues for full expression, outrage is apt to dissipate or implode. The many people across the country who are sickened by the Bush administration's actions and inaction -- before, during and after the hurricane -- need adequate and immediate ways to respond.
Donations to charities for relief efforts are necessary but insufficient. Traditional political structures offer labyrinths with many twists and turns of cooption. Only independent political activism has a chance to prevent conventional political wisdom from reasserting itself.
http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon09062005.html
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Mr. Solomon:
You are sorely mis-informed. Or, not informed at all.
Partisan politics aside.
Mayors are responsible for emergency planning and response when disaster hits. BY LAW--SIR.
FEMA can not save lives absent a quick and proper local response.
The problem here with disinformation is that in this instance, lies impacts lives that may be lost in the future.
If partisan politics keeps lies going regarding accountability and responsiblity for public safety--the mayors all across the nation will get a pass---and they and citizens will be led to believe they are NOT responsible. Mayor Nagin should not be getting a pass by the media simply because he is black.
You are helping set up for lives to be lost in the future.
Get informed, learn EM laws, and then work to educate the citzens--all disaster and response happens and begins at the local level. Your mayor, city council, and city managers are responsible by law.
G. Klein, Texas
You are sorely mis-informed. Or, not informed at all.
Partisan politics aside.
Mayors are responsible for emergency planning and response when disaster hits. BY LAW--SIR.
FEMA can not save lives absent a quick and proper local response.
The problem here with disinformation is that in this instance, lies impacts lives that may be lost in the future.
If partisan politics keeps lies going regarding accountability and responsiblity for public safety--the mayors all across the nation will get a pass---and they and citizens will be led to believe they are NOT responsible. Mayor Nagin should not be getting a pass by the media simply because he is black.
You are helping set up for lives to be lost in the future.
Get informed, learn EM laws, and then work to educate the citzens--all disaster and response happens and begins at the local level. Your mayor, city council, and city managers are responsible by law.
G. Klein, Texas
"Mayors are responsible for emergency planning and response when disaster hits. BY LAW"
Sure a myor is responsible for doing what they can but in this case it was obviously beyond the means of one of the poorest cities in the country. Nagin did a lot to try to get peopld and rescue survivors but the New Orleans PD wasnt up to the task, not because of any fault of Nagin but because the expense of cleaning up the city and housing survivors has been aroudn a billion a day which is much more than the yearly budget of the city of New Orleans. Drudge and other racists keep showing pictures of flooded out buses and trying to claim that Nagin had these buses while he was asking for buses from teh state and federal government, but he asked for the buses after the local ones were destroyed and when he was evacuating the city they had city buses all over the place trying to get people out (and there wasnt a shortage). Nagin is an easy scapegoat for American racists but you never heard anything similar when past disasters have occured; Giuliani was responsible for fire fighters goig into the WTC yet I havent heard anyobne accusing him of incompetence or neglegent homicide...
The reason FEMA rather tha Nagin should take responsibility is that FEMA has a huigve budget and the DHS was supposed to be organized to deal with disasters like this after 9/11. If a smallpox outbreak occured in a US city you could try to blame the local mayor for not having the resources of the CDC put I doubt anyone would play this blame game of pointing figures at a mayor for not being able to deal with a large scale disaster that obviously needed federal support. In any other country, the federal goverment would have been in saving lives and you would even have had UN agencies on he ground within justa few days, but here Republicans have gutted FEMA in a way that endagers the country to both future natural disasters and terrorist attacks (and they somehow did this in the name of "national security")
Nagin probably could have done things better if he could have predicted the future but his actual response so far has been better than Giuliani. City workers with the New Orleans fie and police department managed to save as many lives as the NYCPD and NYFD without losing nearly as many lives of their own. Giuliani fucked things up (also because he couldnt predict the future and the city had communications breakdowns) . Nagin did have warning but considering the total communications breakdown (which was much worse than NYC after 9/11) he did much better than Giuliani. One does wonder why Giuliani became man of the year while Nagin is being demonized by the right with Limbaugh even refering to him as "Ray Nager" (see http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1766296.php )... could it be because Republicans have no moral scruples and will play teh race card to demonize an African American leader to cover the asses of incompetent people whose entire jobs were supposed to be devoted to dealing with disasters live this (those at the DHS and FEMA)
Sure a myor is responsible for doing what they can but in this case it was obviously beyond the means of one of the poorest cities in the country. Nagin did a lot to try to get peopld and rescue survivors but the New Orleans PD wasnt up to the task, not because of any fault of Nagin but because the expense of cleaning up the city and housing survivors has been aroudn a billion a day which is much more than the yearly budget of the city of New Orleans. Drudge and other racists keep showing pictures of flooded out buses and trying to claim that Nagin had these buses while he was asking for buses from teh state and federal government, but he asked for the buses after the local ones were destroyed and when he was evacuating the city they had city buses all over the place trying to get people out (and there wasnt a shortage). Nagin is an easy scapegoat for American racists but you never heard anything similar when past disasters have occured; Giuliani was responsible for fire fighters goig into the WTC yet I havent heard anyobne accusing him of incompetence or neglegent homicide...
The reason FEMA rather tha Nagin should take responsibility is that FEMA has a huigve budget and the DHS was supposed to be organized to deal with disasters like this after 9/11. If a smallpox outbreak occured in a US city you could try to blame the local mayor for not having the resources of the CDC put I doubt anyone would play this blame game of pointing figures at a mayor for not being able to deal with a large scale disaster that obviously needed federal support. In any other country, the federal goverment would have been in saving lives and you would even have had UN agencies on he ground within justa few days, but here Republicans have gutted FEMA in a way that endagers the country to both future natural disasters and terrorist attacks (and they somehow did this in the name of "national security")
Nagin probably could have done things better if he could have predicted the future but his actual response so far has been better than Giuliani. City workers with the New Orleans fie and police department managed to save as many lives as the NYCPD and NYFD without losing nearly as many lives of their own. Giuliani fucked things up (also because he couldnt predict the future and the city had communications breakdowns) . Nagin did have warning but considering the total communications breakdown (which was much worse than NYC after 9/11) he did much better than Giuliani. One does wonder why Giuliani became man of the year while Nagin is being demonized by the right with Limbaugh even refering to him as "Ray Nager" (see http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1766296.php )... could it be because Republicans have no moral scruples and will play teh race card to demonize an African American leader to cover the asses of incompetent people whose entire jobs were supposed to be devoted to dealing with disasters live this (those at the DHS and FEMA)
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