Patting Themselves On The Back

I'm watching clips of Bush & Co patting themselves on the back this morning, as if their expertise alone was responsible for Rita's weakening. Smiling faces announce that the lack of deaths related to Rita were because of the great communication between the local, state and federal officials. FEMA's response has been toted as exceptional with Rita.

Umm
Perhaps their memories are too short:

Elderly killed on a bus that had no certification/registration. Perhaps the arrogant Rick Perry forgot that HE approved the wavier that allowed that bus to run the evacuation route. Perhaps in his crowing he forgot about the people who were stranded on roadways with no gas. Perhaps he is so preoccupied he forgot the long lines of gridlocked traffic that made scant progress, some only 8 miles in 16 hours.

Perhaps in their zeal to paint the democratic mayor and governor of NOLA as inept the republican trio of White, Perry and Bush forget that FEMA actually hasn't done anything in relation to Rita, they didn't have levys that ruptured and thousands to be rescued from rooftops.

The only difference in the situation between New Orleans and Houston/Lake Charles area is that Rita drastically downsized before she hit and FEMA has not been pressed into service in the same capacity.

Comparing the two situations isn't apples and oranges. It's more major league vs a little league game that hasn't started. The ball hasn't been thrown yet.

Other random thoughts:

On Meet the Press this morning, Maureen McDowd made a comment that during Katrina, Bush's aides were afraid to tell him how bad Katrina was. My question was why should they have to tell him? Why wasn't he monitoring the situation? Where, again, was the president when the nation was in crisis?

In his meeting with his crisis team, Bush was told that the nation needed a plan *sigh* yet again for disasters. An example was cited of five helicopters answering the same rescue call. What the hell was FEMA suppose to be? A plan??? How's this for a plan: COMMUNICATE! Set up a central communications head quarters, give rescuers the ability to access the SAME frequencies and then coordinate. What we don't need is another layer in this quagmire that is federal government to stand between people and aide.

And on a good note:
The outrage of the animal owners made a difference with Rita. The mayor of Galveston urged her residents to take their animals with them to shelters, as did Houston mayor Bill White. They saw the problems FEMA had in NO. Now guardsmen are not being forced to turn away from the suffering and plight of the pets left behind. No one has ever suggested putting pets before people but turning a blind eye to the suffering of any creature should be beneath us all.