Posting while watching Bill O'Shitlips and drinking MANY Negra Modelo is probably a bad idea - something like calling old girlfriends on my cell phone after a hard night- but what the hell, maybe ill feel better after this is done.
I had a tough little bastard of a fire Captain a years ago tell me "an well run emergency is nothing more than a series of mistakes rapidly corrected". Through years of very big wild land fires, chemical plant fires, train derailments and all those "big deal" events you get to see as a firefighter with a large fire department, I really can't agree more.
FEMA fucking blew it, that is a fact. Every level of disaster dictates who is running the show. A large refinery fire can swamp local government in a matter of minutes, but they manage - some well, some not so well - but they know it is their responsibility and they work to solve the problem, hopefully correcting mistakes as they come.
But when you are charged with coordinating the efforts in a large or even a small scale emergency, as FEMA is for national disasters, you had better get to work. Turning the blame to local government, blaming them for bad decisions is an abhorrent act, the act of absolute cowards who should be busy working to correct mistakes, not adding to them. When FEMA institutes programs such as NIIMS (national interagency incident management system) and promises to assume the responsibility of leader in the event of a major crisis, you had better assume that responsibility when it comes. The only thing worse then backpedaling on that massive responsibility is passing blame as you back up.
I'm not saying things would have gone well if FEMA actually did what they said they would, in fact it's rare a major emergency goes well and escapes criticism. My problem is that FEMA said they would take charge, and did not. Now those that oversee FEMA, including BushCo. are so busy weaseling their way out of complete failure, that they are affecting the remaining aid efforts.
After years of preparation and hands on experience (please remember the space shuttle Columbia disaster and '00 Florida storms were major FEMA projects) FEMA should have been prepared. Local government has become less able to accommodate major emergencies due to first, direct budget cuts and elimination of grant funding from the feds. and second, the conservative movement to cut and drown local government on a national scale.
When local government is forced to cut budgets, where do you think they will cut first ? police? Fire? child services? - or local emergency preparedness. Cuts to local government mean an almost immediate elimination of services in the event of a disaster, even in areas that see regular large emergencies (Los Angeles and their yearly devastating wild land fires) cut from emergency preparedness first.
I'm pissed because I am part of this system. If emergency managers can just be rid of fucking worms like "Brownie" and bring on our most basic government functions to people with some responsibility and honor, we may be able to correct our mistakes. If FEMA and DHS remain under the umbrella of frat buddies and "ranger" level contributors, were all fucked. This is a time for professionals, not the sorry example of inept and bumbling bastards we see representing emergency managers today.