Cheap Shot for a Cheapskate

It is said that Nero fiddled while Rome fell. (The Populist)

This photo was taken on Tuesday 8/30/05. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz)

I can't believe it either. And, to boot, here is some more food for thought:

The assistant secretary of the Army, Mississippi's former U.S. Rep. Mike Parker, was forced out Wednesday after he criticized the Bush administration's proposed spending cuts on Army Corps of Engineers' water projects, members of Congress said.
"Apparently he was asked to resign," said U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the House Appropriations Committee's energy and water development subcommittee that oversees the corps' budget.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also said Parker was dismissed.

Parker's nomination to head the corps drew heavy criticism last year from environmental groups pushing to downsize the agency, calling its flood control projects too costly and destructive.

Parker earned the ire of administration officials when he questioned Bush's planned budget cuts for the corps, including two controversial Mississippi projects.

"I think he was fired for being too honest and not loyal enough to the president," said lobbyist Colin Bell, who represents communities with corps-funded projects.

Bell said Parker resigned about noon after being given about 30 minutes to choose between resigning or being fired. (TPM)

Now, if you weren't already sure that I am a TPM addict, check this question out:

Josh,
I have a question that no one has raised so far. Wouldn’t part of any homeland security preparation be the handling of refugees? Virtually any serious terrorist attack (explosion, nuclear, biological) would entail a large number of displaced persons. Wasn’t anything done along these lines? I would have thought we would have pre-positioned refugee resources (tents, MRE's, water purification, generators, emergency medical care) near major population centers in the event of mass exodus. Am I crazy?

JY

JY is not cray at all.

Also, check out buddy-o-mine Checkypantz.

And again, just so the blame for a delapidated FEMA isn't passed without objection: Read this.

The Tower View

Yesterday, I posted a little bit on how the Commander and Thief chastised the Clinton Administration for not being tough enough on terror. I called this hooey. I still think it is hooey. Now, in this time of post disaster we see this bit from the Knight-Ridder group:

Being prepared for a disaster is basic emergency management, disaster experts say.

For example, in the 1990s, in planning for a New Orleans nightmare scenario, the federal government figured it would pre-deploy nearby ships with pumps to remove water from the below-sea-level city and have hospital ships nearby, said James Lee Witt, who was FEMA director under President Clinton.

Federal officials said a hospital ship would leave from Baltimore on Friday.

"These things need to be planned and prepared for; it just doesn't look like it was," said Witt, a former Arkansas disaster chief who won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill during his tenure.

FEMA said some of its response teams were prepared. (TPM)

Clinton actually did something right? Clearly, Bush wasn’t tough enough on our home front. Isn’t the President the guy who is supposed to keep the nation safe? It would seem that the gulf coast part of our country isn’t safe at all. Looting is rampant and there are stories of rape in the Super Dome. (Tom) Security isn’t just taking the fight abroad. It is making sure that we are ready at home, too. FEMA’s ball drop aside, how are we doing on airline security? And what of the tsunami warning system plan? Is the nation so distractible and its POTUS so myopic that we are doomed to get completely broadsided by any other disaster or calamity that my happen our way?

Again, here is a tremendous opportunity for the President to show some civil humanity and admit some error. Can this buck please stop with him? My bet is that he will just stay in his vacation ivory tower and talk about how things must be twice as bad on the ground. How apt. I am sure he could say the same for our fighting men and women in Iraq.

So help me, if he or any of his flunkies try to dismiss this lack of preparedness on the prior administration… well, I don’t know what I will do. I am open to suggestions. Until I can think of something better to do I shall regard the Bush Administration's actions and invective as, by default, hooey.