Doesn't Bush's appointment of inexperienced cronies to life-and-death jobs like this constitute dereliction of duty?

I normally vote Green every chance I get, because the Dems haven't exactly been leading the way on climate change, holding corporations accountable, etc. That being said, a Democratic congressional candidate might be able to get my vote by pledging to begin impeachment proceedings on Day 1 of the next congress.

The cronyism exhibited in the Bush administration is a modern-day Republican version of the Democratic corruption under the likes of Tammany Hall and Boss Pendergast. It is not very likely that the reigning oligarchs of the Democratic Party will do much better than the GOP. The Dems have some good progressive people with potential, but the oligarchs will probably reject them and work against them as they did with George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Howard Dean. After all, the top people in the Democratic party are in the same bed as the Republicans and their corporate backers.

And, let's not forget the American people in this. Bush has made the preposterous proposal of leading the investigation into how his administration handled Katrina, but almost half of the American people and more than half of Congress will find this acceptable.

IS FEMA ORCHESTRATING A FRAUD?

Over the course of the past few days, I've become aware of a number of truly ominous facts. Not to jump to conclusions, but rather to present these to you for your own analysis, I will provide the following:

1) FEMA orders first responders to “not respond”. 2) FEMA redirects helicopters away from emergency levee repairs early Tuesday, before massive flooding inundates New Orleans pumping stations, well before total flooding occurs. 3) FEMA cuts emergency communications circuits in Jefferson Parish, misdirects relief supplies. 4) FEMA prevents evacuees from crossing bridge away from the squalor of New Orleans to relief in Jefferson Parish. A de facto imprisonment in hellish conditions is imposed. 5) Senator Mary Landrieu makes accusations of FEMA footdragging in an number of instances. 6) FEMA’s response to the Florida hurricanes in 2004 was astonishingly different from the N.O. debacle.
7) FEMA failed to order National Guard to secure commercial gun caches in New Orleans.

1) On Sunday, August 28, FEMA issued what can only be called a “stand down” order to first responders:

"First Responders Urged Not To Respond..." http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

2) An agreement between Mayor Ray Nagin and FEMA is violated early Tuesday: http://www.wdsu.com/weather/4917809/detail.html Quote: “Mayor Ray Nagin said the sandbagging (to close a breeched canal wall) was scheduled for midday, but the Blackhawk helicopters needed to help did not show up. He said the sandbags were ready and all the helicopter had to do was "show up." He said after his afternoon helicopter tour of the city, he was assured that officials had a plan and a timeline to drop the sandbags on the levee breach.

He said he was told that the helicopters may have been diverted to rescue about 1,000 people in a church, but he is still not sure who gave the order.”

3) On NBC's Meet the Press this Sunday, Jefferson Parish President stated the following:

"Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/

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4) On Friday, the orderly flow of propaganda from the Fox News Network was interrupted by urgent pleas from two Fox reporters in New Orleans. Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were pleading for the citizens of New Orleans who appeared to them to be imprisoned in New Orleans in absolutely hellish conditions. Why? Because FEMA was preventing their exodus. Video is available at: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/02.html#a4763

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5) Senator Mary Landrieu has several accusations of FEMA’s intentional destruction of New Orleans: http://landrieu.senate.gov/releases/05/2005903E12.html "I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency. "But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.

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6) Blogger Billmon has examined the differences between FEMA in Florida before the 2004 elections, compared to today’s fiasco. He provide copious examples in this post.
“the Bush family is prepared to spend almost unlimited amounts of federal money on preventative measures -- that is, on efforts to prevent them from losing an election. “It's instructive, on that score, to compare the current response to Hurricane Katrina (in which the Three Stooges apparently have seized control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a bloodless coup) with the administration's efforts on behalf of the voters of Florida following last year's triple storms -- Charley, Frances and Ivan. “True, the 2004 disasters didn't completely take down a major metropolitan area by turning its urban center into a bowl of shit soup. But the difference in the federal goverment's performance before, during and after those storms had passed is stlll rather striking.” <continues…> at http://billmon.org/archives/002125.html

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How about motivation? One is left to only speculate on what is being carried out at the highest levels of government. But the facts seem to speak for themselves. Just as Shepard Smith tried to tell the Fox News audience. I did come across one unverified, speculative type answer to the question, why? . Here's that link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3548

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Before dismissing such a speculation out of hand, it would be instructive to recall the history of the Great Flood of 1927. In that catastophic event, the City of New Orleans was also flooded. In order to drain the city, engineers were instructed by the city's bankers, not its elected political leadership, to blow the levees that would drain the water in the city into an adjoining parish. Against the howls of those who were about to be flooded, the bankers signed contracts stating that they would compensate any victims of this water diversion. In the aftermath, the bankers reneged on their promise and denied compensation. Those who were flooded took their case to state court, and on appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court, the victims lost. It turned out that Supreme Court was basically owned by the banking interests of the City. American Democracy in action. NPR interviewed a historian, John Barry, who wrote "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4831423 The salient part of the interview strarts at Minute 3:25. Book URL: http://tinyurl.com/9egro

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An old aphorism come to mind here: Quis cusodient ipsos custodes? "Who watches the watchmen?" --Juvenal's Satires

It is stories like this that cause me to loose all hope for our great nation. The US has become a garbage can in which GW likes to kick. It is completely embarrassing.

Mr. Duray's comments are made most compelling by the fact that there is no other rational explanation for the consistent failure demonstrated by the federal government, on seemingly every single aspect of the Katrina disaster.

Based on current reports, the number of people who died in New Orleans is equal to about 20% of the American lives lost in the Vietnam War, over its nine or so years. How many of those people died more than 24 hours after the levee broke? How many of these people could the country's firefighters and random volunteers saved if the President had been truly engaged; enough so to tell his people to put these skilled rescue workers to good use?

It's such a parade of incompetency, I simply cannot believe it to be true. This is so far removed from the America that I was raised to know. God help us, each and every one.

We'll need it.

Wayne Morse of Oregon was one of the few voices raised against the Vietnam War prior to its outset. He was correct and lived to see the rest of the country accept his view.

Tom McCall got Oregon thinking about the environment and public beaches and recycling, and, lo and behold, the rest of the nation began to catch on.

Barbara Roberts showed how compassion and service in government don't have to be oxymorons...

Something about breathing the fresh air and drinking the clean water here in Oregon, keeps some of us thinking clearly and seeing things as they are and as they should be...

Will the cry for impeachment start right here in Oregon and reverberate across the nation? Do we have leaders brave enough today to say to the world that our Emperor has no clothes? That fraud and deceit cannot solve a national emergency? That gross incompetence will, ultimately, drag us all down?

When the Captain of the Ship of State is a fool...and a buffoon...who reacts "slowly" to disasters because he, himself, is slow...dim witted...a boastful "C" student...with a failed foreign policy in Iraq and a failed domestic policy at home...isn't it time we DID something as a nation? Nixon resigned before he could be removed from office. Georgie...we know you aren't intelligent enough to see the truth...you are disconnected....in a constant state of denial...so I guess it is up to the Congress. So brave Congressional leaders, are you up to the task?

This country is reaching a boiling point. The conditions faced by many of our citizens shame us all and the people doing the so called "leading" can only rationalize and make excuses. I consider myself a political moderate and actually fiscally conservative but I am so sick to my stomache right now I feel it's time to spit on my hands, slap them together and start chopping off heads (figuratively speaking). We need a political enema and 2006 can't some soon enough for a start.