FEMA's degradation, from one of the government's most admired agencies to a laughingstock, wasn't an isolated event; it was the result of the G.O.P.'s underlying philosophy. Simply put, when the government is run by a political party committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities are neglected; key functions are privatized; and key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out.
Earlier this year Mr. McCain, as part of his strategy of distancing himself from the current administration, condemned Mr. Bush's response to Katrina. If he'd been president at the time, he says, "I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally." Um, that completely misses the point. The problem with the Bush administration's response to Katrina wasn't the president's failure to show up promptly for his photo op. It was the failure of FEMA and other degraded agencies to show up promptly with food, water and first aid.
Um, that completely misses the point. The problem with the Bush administration's response to Katrina wasn't the president's failure to show up promptly for his photo op. It was the failure of FEMA and other degraded agencies to show up promptly with food, water and first aid.
To be fair, Republican plans to deal with Gustav by turning their convention into a "service event," perhaps a telethon to raise funds for victims, are a good idea. So is the Obama campaign's plan to mobilize its e-mail list to send aid and volunteers. But personal, voluntary aid is no substitute for an effective public response to disaster. What we really need is a government that works, because it's run by people who understand that sometimes government is the solution, after all. And that seems to be something undreamed of in either Mr. Bush's or Mr. McCain's philosophy.
What we really need is a government that works, because it's run by people who understand that sometimes government is the solution, after all. And that seems to be something undreamed of in either Mr. Bush's or Mr. McCain's philosophy.
key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out
Equally they deliberately held back from publication the work of other journalists who wanted to expose the extent of the FISA violations, as such would be politically damaging for the bush administration, the one they pretend they criticise now. Indeed the story was ready before the 2004 election, when such a revelation might have brought Kerry to office who might not have had an arabian horse trader in change of FEMA when Katrina hit.
So the NYT is entirely incapable of lecturing the republicans for ideological idiocies when it was they themselves that enabled and cheerled them. Equally, the NYT doesn't have the credibility to inform the electorate about the iniquities of the republicans because half the time they would have to resort to the 5th amendment to avoid admitting their own collusion. keep to the Fen Causeway
This is a common practice in the UK where writers who have ideological differences with a newspaper at least acknowledge the fact that the difference exists. keep to the Fen Causeway
