Stop passing the buck

Truman had a sign "The Buck Stops Here" in his White House oval office when he was president. Will we ever have another political leader with the strength and integrity to accept responsibility?

I am so dissapointed that I could just curl up in my room and cry. I was so optimistic about the future of New Orleans. There was Senator Frist volunteering his medical services in New Orleans, the Governor of New Orleans making heartfelt promises of reconstruction, and the administration seemingly admitting mistakes.

That's where I was wrong. Wrong to think that the President of the United States would take any responsibility for the excruciatingly slow federal relief process. Wrong to assume that the President will acknowledge the lessons to be learned. Wrong to believe that this administration CARES about this country enough to stop passing the buck:

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - New Orleans began the gruesome task of collecting its thousands of dead on Sunday as the Bush administration tried to save face after its botched rescue plans left the city at the mercy of Hurricane Katrina......

Battered and sickened survivors made no attempt to disguise their anger: "We have been abandoned by our own country, " Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press.

"It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans," Broussard said. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now."

But that isn't the most absurd part:

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Bush administration officials were blaming state and local authorities for the disaster response problems. The newspaper said the administration was rebuffed in an effort to take control of police and National Guard units reporting to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat.

Yes, they're blaming the LA Governor for exerting control and trying to establish order because the federal government wasn't doing ANYTHING to help immediately after the devastating hurricane and flood.

Maybe you can't understand my outrage until you've read this from the Guardian Unlimited (UK):

WASHINGTON (AP) - Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck - a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday......

With many states' Guard units depleted by deployments to Iraq, Katrina's aftermath was almost certain from the beginning to require help from faraway states.

Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress are just beginning to ask why one of the National Guard's most trusted roles - disaster relief - was so uneven, delayed and chaotic this time around.

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said the situation has shown major breakdowns in the nation's emergency response capabilities. ``There must be some accountability in this process after the crisis is addressed,'' he said.

Oh, God... PAPERWORK?!?!? A historic city is underwater but state officials can't do anything until Washington processes all of their paperwork?

I do not mean to say that Governor Blanco was absolutely flawless in her leadership after the event. But if I may say so, she did one hell of a job. She ordered evacuations. And with the limited resources, tried to cope as much as possible. The fact that her authority was greatly hindered by the federal government who's only answer to pleas for help seemed to be "not now." She sought outside help. She tried to assume control over the chaotic situation, only to be rebuked by the administration- who just wanted to assume control themselves.

Frankly, I'm not a fan of emergency-state governments. They're too military and depend too much on the leader. But somebody had to do it, and Gov. Blanco seemed to be on the right track. Did the Bush administration REALLY think they even DESERVED to take control of the situation?

There were, and still are, a LOT of things the President and his administration could have done. He should've come out stronger against gas consumption and price inflation. But of course, a president funded/elected by the oil industry isn't going to do the most obvious, sensible thing:

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe oil and gas companies are gouging consumers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina but offer mixed reviews of President Bush and the government's initial response to the deadly storm, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

This is ridiculous coming from a president that won re-election shamelessly associating himself and his party as the Party of the Patriotic.

This WaPo article headline sums it up best- "Storm Exposed Disarray at the top":

The killer hurricane and flood that devastated the Gulf Coast last week exposed fatal weaknesses in a federal disaster response system retooled after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to handle just such a cataclysmic event.

Despite four years and tens of billions of dollars spent preparing for the worst, the federal government was not ready when it came at daybreak on Monday, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former senior officials and outside experts.

So get over yourself and stop passing the buck. This isn't another election... and DEFINITELY not time for spinning a tragedy into the GOP favor.

"You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" - Joseph Welch, to Sen. Joseph McCarthy