The Blame Game...

UPDATE: Guys, the point here was to vent your blame and then offer a solution to at least part of it. I see you have the blame part down...any ideas on the rest? Or do you all think we just let it all work itself out...no suggestions on how to...anything?

Check out the site Nurse Judy put in the comment section...lots of fun!

OK, let's play the Blame Game. Seems to me, that if we are going to invoke the phrase so often that there should absolutely be a game to go with it. So, I'm making one up.

Here are the rules:

You can assign blame to any of the following people.

Just because one person receives blame, doesn't mean that there isn't blame for others.

You can assign blame by percentages or by issue. Here is an example:

Joe is to blame because he stole money from the levee project

or

Joe is 98% to blame because he stole money from the levee project.

You should, out of fairness to other people playing the game, state your reasons why you are assigning blame to a person or group.

Here is the kicker. Once you get to the end of assigning blame, you have to offer a solution. You have to take the situation of LA and what happened as it is--not as you want it to be--and offer a solution.

You have to answer the following questions:

What do we do now?

• Regarding rebuilding the city
• Regarding the displaced citizens living in temporary housing
• Regarding the situation that led to the breaking of the levees and the failure of the evacuation plans to any aspect of the political and structural situation that led to the disaster.

I specifically extend an invitation to WMD, (here is one of their blame game posts) Bulldog and the guys over at ABP (responsibility post), HardCore from over at MyDD--if you guys haven't broken his spirit and sent him packing for good :), Shari, Imp, USMC Steve,Doc, LT, JFH, Nurse Judy, Rita, Drewsmom and all of our regulars here at TwoBabes to get in on the game. I'd like to see if after venting your spleen we all can work together to develop a plan to fix it--a plan to prevent things like this happening again and a plan to have the best National Emergency Plan we can have.

There are people over at Blog For America who are demanding accountability for Katrina. I'd like them to vent and then help us fix it too.

Here are others who have spoken of the blame game that I would like to hear from on how to fix it...if you click on the link you can read their posts on the blame game.

Chris

BlackFive, Michelle Malkin, Blogs for Bush

Comments

[Bombtruck]

It's for sure the blame game is made a whole lot worse by people like Mary Landrieu who pop up on the talk shows saying out of one side of their mouth 'I don't want to finger point' when problems with state and local officials are brought up, but out the other side she never hesitiates to blame President Bush for everything short of building New Orleans under sea level(give that one another week). That kind of stupidity is why the blame game even has to be played to begin with.

BTW, Chris, didn't you already have this thread before?

[chris]

The real point of it is to figure out how to make it better. No one in their discussion of who is to blame has talked about what our obligation is to invest in infastructure...if state x knows that its bridges will fall down--what is the obligation to fix them and is there a federal obligation? Every time someone talks about the levees they either say that Bush didn't fund them--or they says so what Clinton didn't fund them--ok so no one funded them--but what is the obligation to do it and how do we insure that the money gets spent the way it is supposed to...

What do you want to do with the displaced citizens? How do we cope with them?

There are major ramifications of this situation. Instead of blaming--lets fix it. How do we do that? There is this idea that the bloggosphere is and can be part of truly representative government--there is this mentality that the politicians can't get it done and that we can do it better...just asking everyone to put their energy into the solution rahter than the bitching...

[Matt Hurley]

Well, I don't want to speak for my writing colleague who wrote that post, but since you called us out...

We're dealing with a multitude of issues and I doubt I'll hit them all, but I'll play...

51% of the blame for the deaths belong to Gov. Blanco. She failed to proactively and reliquish control to the federal government in a timely fashion. She failed to call up the national guard in a timely fashion.

48% of the blame for the deaths goes to Mayor Nagin. He failed to execute his city's disaster recovery plan. He let 2000 busses get flooded rather than use them to get people out.

.75% of the blame for the deaths goes to former FEMA head Michael Brown for not doing SOMTHING that he did the previous four hurricanes that happened under his watch. What exactly that is, I dunno.

.25% of the blame for the deaths goes to I BLAME BUSH! Because, let's face it...the Chimperor was damned if he did and damned if he didn't so, I say, "Grill Him!"

Now, let's deal with the blame for the destruction which occured because of the levee breaks.

99% of the blame goes to Congress and the local officials who moved money to pork projects rather than the serious business of protecting New Orleans.

1% of the blame goes to the lobbyists who gave the aformentioned reasons to do so or excuses to delay those projects that would have strengthened the levees.

But seriously folks...100% of the blame for all of it goes to Hurricane Katrina and Darth Mother Nature.

Be sure to tip your server. I'll be here all week.

[Matt Hurley]

My Solution?

1. Pass a law that outlaws pork spending.

2. Make it illegal for incompentent people to hold public office.

3. Make a daily sacrifice to Mother Gaia.

Since nonse of that will ever happen in the real world, I'm not sure I was much help...but that's what I would do...

[JFH]

Okay, here's a couple that I haven't heard enough of:

I blame Katrina, if she hadn't gained strength to a Cat 4 or 5 there would be a lot less deaths and displaced people. I'm only slightly snarky here.. IT'S a frickin' hurricane, folks, damage and death is gonna happen. How can we avoid future hurricanes? We can't... that's just one of the risks of living on this planet

Related to the second of the two inevitabilities of a hurricane, I hate to do it, but I place SOME blame (25-50%) on MOST of the victims. If you live in a hurricane zone, you have the personal responsibility to take care of yourself and your family. Did anyone these people think of an evacuation plan for themselves; did they store enough supplies (at a minimum water) to survive for 4-5 days without assistance.

The solution here is EDUCATION! Let's use the local media to reinforce keys points to NOT dying in a hurricane every year.

[chris]

Well, ok so we stop hurricanes and stupid people--what do we do now with the people who are displaced for at least 6 months and maybe longer--what do we do to help them--later we can have a conversation about how we help Houston recover from their generosity but for now what do we do about them

[JFH]

Chris,
I'm a little confused when you discuss the issue of "displaced people" especially as it concerns the "blame" game. It appears to me that this situation is being handled very well by a matrix of the generosity other cities and states, individual people, charities AND the federal government.

The pragmatic (but, I sure completely unacceptable) solution is for most of these displaced to move on with their lives in they're newly adopted cities and states (Much like was done with displaced Vietnamese after Saigon fell). Make New Orleans a smaller city and don't rebuild the heavily flooded areas.

[chris]

So thats it? Hand them a box of clothes and send them on their way? I'm thinking Houston will have trouble absorbing that many people into their economy, housing markets and schools--I would think that was an unfair burden on TX

[Shari]

2. Make it illegal for incompentent people to hold public office.

***

Matt,
You are talking about a hell of a lot of people! (g)

This from John Cole, which when read by me, caused me to go immediately & buy a new keyboard.

"I guess what depresses me is watching bright people, and having just read the Ginsburg testimony, reading these bright people be subjected to questioning from this motley collection of morons. If I were a Senator on the Judiciary Committee, I would do everything I could to make these hearings as short as possible to keep the public from finding out how stupid our elected leaders really are…"

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=5601

[Matt Hurley]

Chris,

I think the people situation in Houston will take care of itself eventually. Some people will stick around. Others will leave. Supply and demand being what it is...and it works, so why mess with it with a government program or some other lame tax payer funded bon fire of cash.

Shari,

You better believe that is a lot of people. Government is ripe with idiots and stupid people. And this is coming from a guy who considered himself a politican back in college...

[Lisa]

Some things are just not fixable.

[chris]

Lisa: That's the good ole Republican spirit...let's not even try...

[Matt Hurley]

Ahh...the great Democratic spirit...let's all visualize something positive and we can make it happen!

In the real world, some things can't be fixed. It is just a fact of life.

Does that mean we should stop trying? No...but we should realize that there are some challenges that just aren't meant to be achieved, but rather strived for.....kinda like increasing the depth at the shallow end of the gene pool...it's a good idea, but it just ain't feasible...

I apraphrase Reagan: Government isn't the solution. It is part of the problem.

Truer words have never been spoken...

[chris]

I have just one little suggestion...how about if we make sure that the first responders at the local and state and federal level all have radios that work and can talk to each other in these situations. That isn't over reaching here, is it? It isn't expanding the roll of government into areas where it has no business, is it? How about after 9/11 and now after KAtrina we make sure the damn radio and communication systems work...call me crazy but that seems like a little thing that we could do.

[Pappy]

OK, getting everyone on the same Frequency is not that difficult. The problem is that in a situation where there has been an impact by a category 2/3/4 hurricane, there won't be reliable COMM until portable antennaes etc can be brought in to replace those blown away. Cell towers, radio antennaes and wire fed phone lines will probably be down for some time.
Saw it 4 times last year.

First responders have to have set routines and procedures in place so that they can accomplish their primary tasks, at least initially, with limited COMM capability. Satellite equipment is a good choice but it is dependant on being able to acquire a satellite through cloud cover etc.

As far as blame, the good Governor continues to dig herself deeper and deeper into a hole she won't be able to get out of. For two days prior to landfall she appeared on TV and wrung her hands and dithered over what to do. Afterwards she did the same thing. Certainly no leader. Yesterday, she ranted and raved over why FEMA was not collecting bodies. FEMA answered that the state had claimed responsibility for that activity last week. She acts like she couldn't find her own backside with both hands, a flashlight, mirror and a map. That being said I'll assign her 50% blame.

Mayor Nagin gets 40%. His critical leadership/judgement failures sealed the fate of those left in the city. He has begun to backpeddle and reassign some responsibility on Go Blanco but it was his job to look to the safety of the citizens of his city.

10% we can spread around. Put it on the FEDS if need be. Something had to have gone wrong. Anytime human hands are involved there will be mistakes. I will say again though that FEMA has done a pretty good job in the last 13 months. 6 major impacts prior to the LA/MS gulfcoast landfall and none of the problems attributed to FEMA now. I can't see that they all of a sudden got really stupid over two or three days.

To specifically address the issues raised by Chris:

1. If I had to rebuild the city, especially the residential sections I would mandate that they had to be built (living quarters)at least 10 ft above sea level.

2. Displaced folks will be living in temp. housing for some time to come. Still are in Florida. Some will move on, stay where they are or hang in until they can get back into the city.

3. Make the levee projects completely federal. Don't piece the money out to the locals. Don't let corruption get another hold on things. (probably not doable. I can hear the screaming over that) Put specific mandated emergency plans in place. Mandate that they are exercised and updated at least annually.
Get the coastal states working together on some sort of grand mutual aid program. Through that they can share resources, ideas, etc.

[chris]

Hey Pappy,

Thanks for playing...where did we find you?

I like your answers...but are you telling me that there isn't a way to fix this radio thing...I get the antenaes, but we can put people on the moon and we can't figure this out?

How does the military talk to guys in the middle of no where where cell towers are very few--can't we do it with satellites or something--as you may have guessed I'm not a science whizz...

[Lisa]

Chris...

Money has been given to that area for many years. You're not going to get rid of the politicians there because the same citizens who voted them in before will vote them in again. The same politicians will continue to waste the money given to them by the federal government.

You want my solution... here goes.

Stop giving them money until they can account for every penny. And of course, they will never be able to do that.

[JFH]

The major problem with comms at least for the NOPD occurred because of NO backup power supply to their transmitter sites... Chris, all the coordination on common frequencies ain't gonna work if the local government doesn't treat emergency comms with the respect that private companies do with their computer networks and data.

[Shari]

Radios - They had no backup power because they let the generator FLOOD, for gosh sake.

[Nurse Judy]

You have to see this web site:

www.impeachblanco.com

"Give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot"

-- Aaron Broussard , President, Jefferson Parish

It spells it all out, everything she did wrong by one of her own constituents, and yes I blame Blanco for 99% of what went wrong.

[Matt Hurley]

"all the coordination on common frequencies ain't gonna work if the local government doesn't treat emergency comms with the respect that private companies do with their computer networks and data."

ME: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...don't hire the IT department where I work...

[Nurse Judy]

Oh no, the impeach blanco web site is for sale, too bad, he had some great stuff on his site. I think his closing remarks say it all about what the solutions are--"Unfortunately, I don't have the energy left to follow through."

I feel the same way, like I'm beating my head against the wall. I cancelled my Newsweek subscription when I saw their "Bush Blew It" cover.

There is one ray of hope, however, the evacuees in my area are very hopeful for a new start and a new life. They intend to stay in this area and take advantage of all that is being given to them and done for them. They are happy to be out of the strangle-hold of the gang bosses and the poverty, and they see this as a chance for a new beginning.

Catholic charities helped put on a big job fair tonight, and many of the evacuees already have new jobs. Some of the Catholic schools are taking the kids in tuition free for this year.

It is the private sector who will help these people start a new life, not handouts from the government.

[Reaganite]

I think the people of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana got the government THEY elected and THUS the government they deserve.

[Rita]

OK first help the people who still do not have homes after Hurricane Isabel two years ago.

[Nurse Judy]

I would correlate blame for Katrina with this analogy.

A car runs out of gas and the driver is standing on the side of the road screaming at the car. Who would you blame for the car running out of gas:

*The driver for not putting gas in the car? (Blanco and Nagin)
*The gas? (Brown)
*The car? (Bush)

Res Ipsa Loqitor.