One of the mantras of modern conservatism is that private industry can do it better and that government always gets in private industry’s way.
Hmm, maybe they are right. Here’s just a short list of how FEMA blocked various efforts of private industry and individuals to help out in New Orleans (hat-tip to ShakesSis):
And finally, care of Cookie Jill, here’s a (possibly incomplete) list of the stories being reported about what can only be described as FEMA’s obstructionism during Katrina’s aftermath:
FEMA won’t accept Amtrak’s help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won’t let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
FEMA turns away generators
FEMA: “First Responders Urged Not To Respond”
It would be callous, cynical, and downright jaded to think that nobody could be this incompetant. Only a true paranoid tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist could believe that federal officials wanted this sort of devastation to occur.
But, really, the incompetance of the Shrub Maladministration does stretch the bounds of credulity, doesn’t it?
