It Is Not Only The Liberal Press That Is Critical Of The President And The Feds

[jyl]

I want to point out that it is not only liberals/Democrats who are criticizing the federal government and President Bush along with the state and local government.

I am seeing this criticism from conservative sources as well. Just as an example, here is a story from FOX, which our right-wing friends always call the most fair and balanced of the mainstream news media.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168732,00.html

[snip]

"Despite decades of knowing what a Category 4 or 5 hurricane could do to New Orleans, for example, local officials failed to have an adequate evacuation plan in place. The dispossessed were shuffled off to the Superdome with no security, and little food or water. There was no effort at organization, dissemination of information, or order. The state government failed to amass state resources to aid in the evacuation of people with no means to get out. Inexcusably, both state and local officials made the exact same mistakes they made in response to Hurricane Ivan, just a year earlier. And they'd made similar mistakes in 1998, with Hurricane Georges.

The federal government's shortcomings have been widely reported. They include the symbolic: After the storm hit, President Bush strummed a guitar at a fundraiser, invoking comparisons to Nero. He couldn't cut the last few days of his five-week vacation. Vice President Cheney returned from his vacation six days after the storm hit.

They include cronyism: FEMA Director Michael Brown was brought into the organization after having been fired from his previous job directing horse shows. He had no emergency management experience, and seems to have been hired because he was the college buddy of President Bush's pal Joe Allbaugh (who now runs a firm that consults companies on how to win contracts from FEMA and other federal agencies).

And of course they include incompetence: The inexcusable ignorance of FEMA and DHS officials about events that had been in the news for days. And have a look at this chart. It's the power structure of the federal government's emergency response system. Is it any wonder why it took days to get help to people stranded in floodwaters?

Much of that chart was in direct response to Sept. 11. And many of the changes in response to Sept. 11 — including moving FEMA under the auspices of DHS — exacerbated the government failure last week. If after four years of preparation, this is the DHS response to a disaster that was foreseeable for years, and that it had days to prepare for, one shudders to think how the agency will respond to a surprise terrorist attack.

The Army Corps of Engineers began the task of shoring up Lake Ponchartrain decades ago. Administrations and Congresses controlled by both parties had ample opportunity to ensure the task was completed. They had other priorities. When the federal government took over the responsibility to protect New Orleans, it effectively shut out any private or local efforts that may have emerged to upgrade the levee system."

[snip]


I'm pointing this out because much of the rhetoric here is suggesting that daring to criticize Bush, the Administration, and the federal government for the Katrina response makes you a liberal moron or suchlike. Anyone who dares, even a fellow conservative, is castigated.

[dhoward]

Wrong.
What is being said here (again), is it's not ALL Bush's fault.
Most of the failure here lies squarely on the state and local governments.

Instead, we place the blame for everything from levee engineering to water bottle delivery on the man.

THAT'S where the issue lies....

[jyl]

dhoward, have I said the fault is ALL Bush's or the federal government's?

Brian, I think FOX leans to the right-wing side.

[Matt Holcomb]

When the President declares an emergency, then it becomes his responsibility.

"On Sept. 3, the Washington Post, citing an anonymous "senior administration official," reported that Blanco "still had not declared a state of emergency." Newsweek published a similar report. Within hours, however, the Post published a correction; the report was false. In fact, Blanco had declared an emergency on Aug. 26 and sent President Bush a letter on Aug. 27 requesting that the federal government declare an emergency and provide aid; and, in fact, Bush did make such a declaration, thereby accepting responsibility. Nonetheless, these facts have not stymied White House aides from their drumbeat that state and local officials -- but curiously, not the Republican governors of Mississippi and Alabama -- are ultimately to blame."

[rrpjr]

Sounds like a fair and balanced account to me.

CNN, the broadcast networks, the NY Times (in particular), et al, have been predictably and preposterously freighted with the Bush-slept-while-New Orleans-sank ledes. Now comes Fox with a reasonable and unbiased conspectus on the story. Interesting.

The problem, which is attaining the absurdity of a Road Runner cartoon, is the frustration of the major media in their efforts to find, at last, the totemic spirits of Watergate willing, the one story that brings down the presidency. They keep hoping. One can almost see the mad glint in their eyes: this is it, and I'm going to be the Bernstein! The BBC's false story of ginned-up intelligence (costing them their CEO), the non-stories of Richard Clarke, Victoria Plame, Bush's National Guard records (which, in fact, became the very un-non-story of Dan Rather's demise. And you could certainly see the glint in his eyes!). But, those plucky fellas, like Wily E. Coyote, they keep flailing away, and each time taking one more hit in their credibility. If the NY Times keeps it up they won't have a reputation left, and if the LA Times keeps it up, they won't have a circulation left (except to west-side liberal acolytes of Robert Scheer).

If all they just sat back, took a deep breath, and did their jobs, then let the people decide. Hmm. "We report, you decide." That might work.

[Mulhollanddose]

jyl, FoxNews is not the gold-standard of conservativism...Yes they have some conservatives, but they have many liberals too -- many more than the liberal networks have conservatives for sure...Their news reporting is down the middle, which makes them look right-leaning because the rest of the media is so wacked left...That said, the ineptitude in typical Democrat form corruption, in New Orleans and leadership of Louisiana, makes this complicated situation hard to sift through. I see the argument that Bush was a few hours too late, or a day too late, when the first responders should have easily handled that time plus more...Louisiana and New Orleans really fuqed up, failed to put action behind their words and failed to prevent this long before predicted eventuality...This chorus of "blame Bush" is as hollow as the liberal actors/media/politicians who are shouting it -- from allegations of racism to global warming -- the whole rush to judgement only makes those making the accusations look guilty, as they are.