Failure of Bureaucracy
by Marie
That’s how Bu$hCo is framing this one. It’s brilliant really. 9/11 – Failure of Imagination. WMD – Intelligence Failure. Destruction of New Orleans – Bureaucratic Failure.
Fits right in with the established meta-frame that government is not a solution.
This country is being run by a bunch of paper pushing “strategists” that are so disconnected from how real work gets done that there formulas can’t work. (A major problem in corporate planning in America, as well.) Like all white collar strategists that didn’t grow up in an industry, beginning at the lowest ranks and learning how things operate and things get done, they are clueless. Their idea of a good plan is one that limits costs at the bottom – where the work is done. At least the liberal intellectual elite snobs know how to get things done unlike the Republican intellectual elite snobs who have never done an honest day’s work.
Thus invading and occupying Iraq only requires 100,000 troops. Troops that need nothing more than what they are already equipped with. Energy plan – give their pals tax cuts. The destruction of New Orleans – leave it up to the official resources of the City.
Bu$hCo knows how to do one thing – stand on a pile and rubble and declare, “We’re in charge.” If all the local government people that do the work perform well, Bu$hCo gets the credit for a job well done. If they screw-up, then they get the blame. But Bu$hCo never actually does anything.
FEMA immediately assumed control of New Orleans. Couldn’t do anything other than wait for orders from on high and make sure that nobody not approved from on high could enter the disaster zone to help. GWB is the “help is on the way POTUS.” And those in the military fell for it in 2000, mostly because they had learned to hate Clinton and by extension Democrats.
“Help is on the way” was the message to tens of thousands in hell-holes in New Orleans last week. Nagin wasn’t supposed to break ranks and scream, “Where the fuck is the help? People are suffering and dying!” Broussard wasn’t supposed to get on TV and tell the country that the daily “help is on the way” promise didn’t materialize and people drowned days after help should have arrived. The people were supposed to become so desperate that they would forget their days of suffering and instantly love those who had sent the help when it did arrive.
Nagin screwed-up and couldn’t control the situation. Blanco screwed-up and didn’t get the additional resources to Nagin the New Orleans lacked. Only when it was obvious that the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana were so hopelessly incompetent was it necessary for GWB to step in and “save the day.”
On the surface the storyline is bizarre – the federal government isn’t the solution but the federal government is also the hero. But that is not the story they wrote. Theirs is “government is not the solution, but GWB is a hero.” “Texas, GWB country, is a hero.”
If not for all those people on the ground with cameras, it might have worked. If not for the daily images of people suffering that prompted anger, shame and disgust in the minds of many American throughout the country, it might have worked. We’re not so dumb not to know that ordinary citizens would have taken it upon themselves to get there and save people. Or that our national resources for men, women, transportation equipment and emergency supplies cannot be mobilized quickly. We knew that the order for that never came from the one man with the power to do it – George W. Bush. We don’t expect him to be bright enough to know what needed to be done, but didn’t he tell us that he didn’t need to be smart because he has a special talent for hiring the best people.
Don’t buy the latest “leaks” from unidentified WH sources that there was bureaucratic infighting at the WH that delayed the response to Katrina. This is planted to reinforce the frame – bureaucracy sucks. And it’s all Al Gore’s fault because he was charged with “streamlining the federal government.”
GWB and the GOP are the problem. Way to many people have died in the four years that they have been running things. They have bankrupted our treasury. Are destroying every part of our federal government as quickly as they can. And America want to leaves these incompetent, greedy assholes in charge for over three more years? Are we insane?