"An abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare."

Scathing Katrina Report

A House select committee examining the federal response to Hurricane Katrina is preparing to issue a report Wednesday that blames the federal government for "an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare" — but the legislators who participated in the study are divided about how to address the lapse.

Assailing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as being detached from events — when New Orleans residents were clinging to rooftops, he traveled to Atlanta for a conference on bird flu — a draft of the report says he switched on federal response systems "late, ineffectively or not at all."

Specifically, the draft report, which runs about 600 pages, faults Chertoff for his failure to designate a principal federal official to coordinate relief efforts on Aug. 27, two days before Katrina made landfall, and to convene an interagency group to manage the crisis. It also describes his coordination with the Pentagon as "not effective."

If Chertoff had designated Katrina "an incident of national significance," the report said, federal agencies would not have had to wait for individual requests from overwhelmed state and local officials in order to provide help.

...as had been argued from the beginning of this forum.

I note with interest the following:

The committee that prepared the report was composed of 11 Republicans, led by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III of Virginia. Democrats refused to be involved officially in the deliberations, saying that the extent of the disaster mandated an independent commission similar to the one that investigated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

All Republicans!

Now, does anyone really feel we will change anything?

The $64k question is, how long does it take 11 Republicans to read 80k pages of documents?



There's no way they could consider all the evidence, right? I agree on the surface with their evaluation, but the amount of data we're talking about is significant.

There are so many cases pending, relating to fraud and misuse of federal funds, it boggles the mind. This event had repurcussions far beyond what anyone accounted for. The government is in the process right now of spending thousands of man hours a day investigating petty fraud relating to the $2k FEMA checks they were giving out by the bucketfull to anyone who asked. They dropped the ball and lost a bunch of taxpayer money, now they're wasting BILLIONS of dollars scrambling around in a circle trying to pick up pennies and assign blame to subordinates.

www.pogo.org...

$250k limits on government credit cards! Billions in contracts awarded without oversight!

The government couldn't squeeze a penny out of a dollar, even if they used both fists. They're a giant, goddamned money vacuum (well intentioned most of the time, sure, but they still suck)!

It's bad enough a bunch of people lost their lives because of poor preparation on all fronts, it got worse when there was no coordinated rescue effort, and it's in the process of getting worse still as billions of dollars are flowing into what amounts to organized corporate fraud.

Their initial incompetence, combined with their current expenditures, will probably increase the loses that can be reasonably associated with the Katrina aftermath, by a factor of ten or more. This is serious money.

These are the folks who assigned 100 ATF agents to work the Alabama church fires! The FBI is tripping all over itself trying to handle this enormous poo-storm of fraud, and they're spending much, much more in doing so than the damages of the fraud they're investigating amount to! They could better use their time investigating the more massive instances of fraud occuring at the corporate/government level.

They're doing a little of that, but not nearly enough. Too busy wasting 1000 man hours and countless thousands of dollars tracking down a homeless man in a hotel room funelling $2k checks to his buddy across state lines.

The only thing more economically devastating than the hurricane has been the government's attempts at remediation. It looks good for the economy on paper because money is moving from the government to the private sector, but the paper doesn't account for the grossly inefficient process or the rampant abuse of the contracting process. Basically, the money is getting spent by the BILLIONS, and we have little, if anything, to show for it.

$10k bucks can get you a freakin' house! What right do these jerks have to waste millions of dollars, let alone billions, funelling it into the pockets of their buddies and future employers (revolving door), while people are homeless and starving in this country?

It's a goddamned outrage. If we're going to crap on the poor victims of a natural disaster, can't we do it without spending billions of dollars ostensibly for their benefit! Is that so much to ask?

[edit on 13-2-2006 by WyrdeOne]

I happen to be a registered republican, and have been down south to help where needed.

How long would it take, for me 3 days if I wanted. So it shouldn't take 11 of them long to read it all, it's the note compareing that will get you.
But this is a conspiracy forum, and not a political one.

The conspiracy in this, can any one say Katrina Gate?

Advisor, you can't be serious! You can read 80k pages of documents in three days time? That's 1100 pages per hour! 18 or so pages a minute nonstop for 72 hours, that's a freakin' marathon.

My God, that's insane.

If you were serious, I stand in complete awe of your abilities. I thought I was a fast reader.

Reading the news just now I found another shocking snippet.

FEMA let 11k modular/manufactured homes rot in Arkansas fields, while spending outrageous amounts of money housing a small number of people in Alabama for the short-term. There were people who REALLY could have used those houses. :shk:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It would be quicker if we just posted lists of things FEMA did right during the disaster. It would probably only take a thread or two to cover them all. Doing it this way will take forever. Seriously, the Katrina aftermath will serve to remind us for a long, long time, what happens when you place greedy, self-interested, corporate-monkey ideologues at the head of any government for long.

The greedy corporate serving apes don't want to make the donated money work for the people, it might give you ideas about social safety-nets. Best let them squander and pocket it - that way your moral independence is safe from regret.

Originally posted by loam
All Republicans!

Because, as the source you cited said, all the Democrats refused to take part in it.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by loam
All Republicans!

Because, as the source you cited said, all the Democrats refused to take part in it.

LMAO - and the universe comes back into balance.

WyredOne,

I think ADVISOR was referring to the Cliff Notes version...you know the one that cuts to the summary:

FUBAR

I'm thinking 80,000 pages to state "everybody in every position of authority screwed up" reflects that skimming is sufficient. The details are most likely worthless. And if the recommendation is anything other than "fire everybody (that would be from Bush to Chertoff to Blanco to Nagin - and I'd be okay with them re-hiring Brown just so we could fire him again) and do away with FEMA"...it's worthless too.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by loam
All Republicans!

Because, as the source you cited said, all the Democrats refused to take part in it.

Then you utterly missed my point. (Hint: I'm not a Democrat.)