Please, Point Fingers!
Today, I've heard a number of local officials from the Gulf Coast as well as plenty of pundits repeat the mantra, "Now is not the time to point fingers".
Are they getting their talking points from Chertoff or what?
We HAVE to point fingers now. The Bush administration is stellar at avoiding accountability. Let's not help them avoid this one by demurely declaring that now is the time to focus on the rescue and recovery. We're actually capable of doing more than one thing at a time. So let's figure where things went wrong - bi-partisan commission, whatever. Because I'm quite sure that while some responsibility is local, it's not the friggin' mayor's fault that the federal government failed in its fundamental job of protecting its citizens.
You're right. Exactly. In short, fuck that. Ask some of those folks that were stranded for a week in the Pooper-Dome if they think it's OK to point the finger ... the middle finger, at all the politician assholes who royally screwed-the-pooch on this one, or not! The buck stops at Dubya's desk. Don't allow anyone to forget it. Blog-On!
Posted by: DA | September 06, 2005 at 02:09 AM
You're right. Exactly. In short, fuck that. Ask some of those folks that were stranded for a week in the Pooper-Dome if they think it's OK to point the finger ... the middle finger, at all the politician assholes who royally screwed-the-pooch on this one, or not! The buck stops at Dubya's desk.
Posted by: DA | September 06, 2005 at 02:10 AM
I hope you both put this much energy and money into helping the people that need us. For now, that should be the most important cause.
Posted by: Matthew C. Aycock | September 06, 2005 at 08:57 AM
Matthew - as I noted, we are capable of doing more than one thing at a time. OF COURSE the priority is helping people. And the reason I'm not asking for heads to roll is that changing personnel in the midst of recovery would be a huge mistake. I'm not advocating that we pay more attention to politics than people. I'm suggesting it's a false choice - we can actually pay attention to both. And pointing fingers should ensure that local, state, and federal agencies helping with the rescue and recovery are committed to doing a great job from here on out.
Posted by: Kathy | September 06, 2005 at 10:58 AM
I see your point, but I still disagree. I think it is far more effective to support the assistance in every way you can. After it is done, review the ENTIRE process and determine where mistakes were made. At that point, your strategy should be to implement changes in current response plans to prevent these same mistakes from happening again.
Regardless of your motives, it is impossible to believe that you can learn everything our system until after it has run its course. Complaining too much now will give people that currently make decisions a lot of error room...as they can just blame it on initial response mistakes.
Posted by: Matthew C. Aycock | September 06, 2005 at 12:07 PM
I wish I had the confidence that our government would take a hard look at what's gone wrong. But precedence doesn't give me that confidence and I fear that if we're quiet then the problems will go unaddressed. I'd really like to be wrong about this because it shouldn't be a partisan issue. It should be about protecting our citizens. Unfortunately, everything is partisan these days.
Posted by: Kathy | September 06, 2005 at 02:27 PM
One has to wonder if by pointing fingers we're going to make some bureaucrat cry. Boohoo!
Posted by: Daniel K | September 06, 2005 at 08:27 PM
Daniel, it isn't about making a bureaucrat cry. It is about forcing him or her to answer to these issues NOW when they should be spending their time helping the victims of Katrina. If you are constantly hammering them while they are working, nobody is claiming that they are still sitting on their hands, then you are being counterproductive.
I will agree, Kathy, that if they were not currently doing something, yelling at them would be the appropriate method of challenge. Since they are now doing everything they can, I don't see the benefit. Do you?
Posted by: Matthew C. Aycock | September 07, 2005 at 08:57 AM
I'd be happy if they replaced Brown with DeWitt.
And I'm not asking them to stop their efforts and do an after action review. I'm asking them to take responsibility, maybe stop saying "gee, if only the state had done its job all these people wouldn't have died". Or maybe they can have some back office folks begin comparing the actual response to the National Response Plan. And if they stopped sending their luminaries to walk among the ruins - Cheney today? - that would be nice.
I never thought I'd say it, but I miss Guiliani.
Posted by: Kathy | September 07, 2005 at 10:33 AM