Echo chamber pot

Yesterday's serving of David Brooks argued that New Orleans's emergency preparedness plan was rock-solid and therefore was not the problem last week. (Shockingly, he then took the opportunity to zing liberals and their cries for a government that actually protects people. You'll have to pardon me, but after recent events, isn't that a bit like having your children die because you skimped on safety windows and then dissing a critic whose beliefs suggest that they would've sprung for safety windows?)

Okay, so, while Brooks was busy pumping the New Orleans preparedness plan to make the case that....ta-DA! they were too prepared -- too bureaucratic, the Wall St. Journal was busy ripping apart the administration's emergency preparedness plan.

From Taegan Goddard:

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"Internal documents and emails from FEMA reviewed by the Wall Street Journal 'show the extent to which the federal government bungled its response to the hurricane. The documents highlight serious deficiencies in the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Plan, a post-Sept. 11 playbook on how to deal with catastrophic events...'"

So, if we're to understand the spin correctly, the feds bungled this thing horribly. The local agencies were, cough, over-prepared, and the fault falls on nobody. It's "natural" right? Please. A fourth-grader would come to the conclusion that a lack of federal support and preparedness had a major impact on the ability of a local agency to carry out its plan. And sometimes that's all it takes; a fourth-grader.

Ask the average American: do you want your federal taxes to help you when disaster hits your family or not. Go on. Ask them. (Taegan Goddard)

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