Katrina And The Beast

Dick Meyer Applauds Skillful Wildfire Handling As A Rare Feat For Big Government

(CBS)  This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

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The big news headline for the fires now called The Beast is this: "Few Die In Massive Southern California Wildfires."

It is that rare thing, a good news headline, if only in a silver-lining kind of a way. It is also the polar opposite (and, yes, I know the poles are melting and that’s why we have wildfires and floods, etc.) of the news headline that flooded out of Hurricane Katrina: "Many Die, Suffer In Massive Katrina Flooding Due To Local, Federal Failure."

One possible lesson from this is that all levels of government learned the hard way from Katrina that they can’t blow the big ones. After the disastrous handling of that disaster, there was a flood of punditry proclaiming that "competence" would become the primary demand made by political consumers. The idea was that the polarized and schizophrenic vox populi might stop arguing over whether government should be big or small and focus instead on making it minimally able to do the basics. Candidates would emphasize that management function and steer away from ideology and high-flying rhetoric.

That, of course, did not come to pass. Yes, President Bush learned enough to act involved and he headed to California right away. But that is stagecraft not statecraft. It is politics not governing.

Ray Nagin was re-elected mayor in New Orleans. Republicans did lose their hold in Congress, but because of the Persian Gulf not the Gulf of Mexico. None of the major presidential candidates in this cycle are campaigning on government competence and efficiency more than usual. Office-seekers always promise clean and able government. This Congress has passed little substantial legislation and has not addressed the deficit, entitlements or tax reform.

The amorphous beast known as Government - state, local and federal - is no more or less competent than usual in any generalized way. The truth is more prosaic. Most of the time large organizations face a crisis the response is chaotic and the outcome is neither failure nor success, but somewhere in the middle. The more organizations that are involved, the more chaos ensues.

The disaster of Katrina was exacerbated by political corruption in Louisiana and Mississippi, cronyism at FEMA, chronic under-funding of infrastructure maintenance and emergency preparedness. But a response that was deemed a stunning success would have been an anomaly, a shocker.

That is all good reason to be especially attentive to and grateful for the more skillful handling of The Beast. Over the next few days and weeks, there will be investigations and news stories that will uncover acts of stupidity, ineptness and bureaucratic bone-headedness. I would suggest focusing on the stories of bravery, ingenuity and cooperation instead.

The team that looks good on paper does not always win, as the Colorado Rockies have proven so perfectly this year. Part of what makes a winner is confidence, guts and attitude. We the voters, the political consumers of America, have allowed a generation of politicians to de-motivate and degrade government and public service.

It is not just an issue of small budgets and pork-barrel politics, though that matters greatly. Candidates get elected by declaring that "government is the problem, not the solution." And they attack each other relentlessly. We in the news business rarely are willing to cross the street to find an example of public servants who aren’t in the military doing something well. I’m guilty as hell of this myself.

And in this period of political climate change, we -- the spoiled, litigious and generally ungrateful citizens - expect sacrifice, perfection and accountability from our public servants. We resent our tax bills and berate not just politicians but government workers. When things go wrong, we are shocked and outraged and want scalps.

This no way to create a winning government. We’re like George Steinbrenner and our government plays like the Yankees, not the Rockies.

Good behavior in government and in bureaucracies is rarely rewarded, especially in public. The fact that so few people died amidst a "perfect storm" of fire and the evacuation of over a million people is astounding. It’s the headline.

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E-mail questions, comments, complaints, arguments and ideas to
Against the Grain. We will publish some of the interesting (and civil) ones, sometimes in edited form.

[ssspushpdia]

I LIKE YAU MEHAK RAJORIE

[ssspushpdia]

I LIKE YAU MEHAK RAJORIE

[alanrobisch]

Lets see because you are in effect talking behind their backs its okay to lie and insult them. also fascism was musolinni and hitler. If you had made the comments you made about the potus or the veep in a fascist state you would be dead or in jail

[alanrobisch]

Our disagreement about the nature of fetal "life" will have to wait for another post.


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Posted by Quatrops at 08:06 PM : Oct 25, 2007
+ report abuse

If you can come up with a scientific view that demonstrates that a child in utero is not a human life I''ll eat my hat

[alanrobisch]

ps
Maybe we should acknowledge that natural disasters are going to occur that we cannot prevent or survive and that katrina and San diego have one esential thing in common. They both have built where natural disasters are almost a gaurantee. We humans tend to do this. See the flourishing Italian cities around vesuvius. it is very possible that a repeat of Pompei could happen again but there is no serious plan to evacuate the area if an eruption occurred

[alanrobisch]

Here is another, disasters whose victims are predominantly non rich and "white", will always receive less than their fair share of aid.


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Posted by brianbwb at 02:04 AM : Oct 26, 2007

Baloney You are making racist comments and assuming what you don''t know. New Orleans was its own worst enemy with a disaster waiting to happen. Ray Nagin a black mayor failed to create escape methods for the poor and did not have a plan set when it happenned. Maybe just maybe it was ineptitude on his part.

Governor Blanco dem a white woman did not run for reelections because of Katrina. its apparent too that she was not ready to deal with the disaster.

Louisiana is one of the most corrupt if not the most corrupt state in the Union. It used money needed to solve these problems by lining there own pockets and not hiring competent individuals to solve the problems.

It is also obvious that if you have the money and the proper planning the results of a disaster can be mitigated. I might note that Katrina caused enormous damage to not so poor neighbors along the gulf coast and they also are still digging out. Was it racism that has made it difficult to dig out.

[knyghtwolf]

bush sez, "Born inna sewer, raised in a cave, destruction of the world, and total corruption is all I crave. " Nuff said....okay, georgie, play nice or you will have to go home.......REAL soon.

[andor3]

Article is flawed start to finish. No one is calling these fires "the Beast." No one. I think that is a roller coaster.

And this article continues the attempt to plant and nurture the idea that "big government" (whatever that means) can never--or rarely--do anything right.

[brianbwb-2009]

That failure to help the victims Katrina was a result of blatant racism was proven by Babs Bush''s comments, laughing and taking pleasure in the plight of "those people".

California gets service because the vast majority of those affected were rich people, combined with the fact that Bush''s party couldn''t stand to be labeled a failure twice, and so close to an election.

Here is a prediction, there will be disasters in the future, and they will be handled exactly the same as these two, depending on the economic and racial status of the victims, and the proximity of an election.

Here is another, disasters whose victims are predominantly non rich and "white", will always receive less than their fair share of aid.

[rickstas]

You said: "The disaster of Katrina was exacerbated by political corruption in Louisiana and Mississippi, cronyism at FEMA, chronic under-funding of infrastructure maintenance and emergency preparedness." You forgot to mention that it was much further exacerbated by the Lousiana Natiional Guard being in Iraq instead of Lousiana where they were supposed to be. If they had been there, we would not have had to depend on Chertoff and Bush.

[quatrops]

You''ve learned the neo-con lesson well, Robisch. Framing the question or defining the terms to their advantage is ALWAYS step #1 for them. Rove was unmatched in his ability to do this.

Discourse, in my dictionary, implies an exchange of ideas. I''m not exchanging ideas with Bush/Cheney (nor am I likely to), so I will call them whatever I choose. I''ll still attempt to be civil, but you DO make it difficult.

Re Cheney as a fascist: Dictionary defines fascism as "a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, supression of opposition through terror or censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism or racism." One has only to look at Cheney''s words and revealed actions vis-a-vis the extra-constitutional "unitary executive" mindset, his gothic attitude about torture etc. etc. to understand the appellation is not far off the mark.

Rove and other neo-con masters of diffusion (see above) have co-opted the term "liberal" to the extent that many of us prefer the "progressive" label.

So YOU have decided that abortion and homosexual marriage are not "moving in the right direction", so those of us who are pro-choice and are not threatened by the political activities of the homosexual community may not call ourselves "progressive"? That kind of effrontary is becoming less surprising to me.

Our disagreement about the nature of fetal "life" will have to wait for another post.

[alanrobisch]

What most progressives are complaining about is a lying, incompetent President (who, too often, has appointed incompetent party hacks to responsible positions) and a Vice-President who is as close to being a fascist as I hope this country ever sees.


Posted by Quatrops at 12:26 AM : Oct 25, 2007

Lets see in your civil comments you called the vp a fascist and the president a liar. If this is civil discourse I don''t want any. Btw what is a fascist and what makes him a fascist? also are only liberals like you progressives? I thought progress in a positive direction was characterized a progressive. The changes such as legalized abortion homosexual marriage are not changes in the right direction. Therefore imho you are stealing the term progressive to avoid the now often perjorative term of liberal. but the famous phrase that a rose is a rose no matter what the name will smell as nice fits here with liberals aka progressives have the same agenda but change their name to try and avoid the negatives of being called a liberal. Much like pro chice which I''m sure you are but you care for poor and those without power yet you advocate the right to kill the unborn who have no power.

[krenz4]

alosmarmo: You are soooo right! You let all of Oakland burn down and you will see no services or squalor like the poor people caught up in Katrina saw. These Californians actually had live music, and massages for pete sake! The fed says they "learned" from Katrina and thats bull. Did they have to "learn" not to send people to a shelter that they were not providing any services to? What a joke They wanted the poor and the black out of New Orleans and thats just what has happened. Those same feds will be rebilding Mcmansions in Cali so fast it will make all of heads spin!

[andor3]

The reason the response has been successful is because Californians still (to some degree) have faith in governement, still believe it makes sense to pay taxes and expect services, still understand that there are things that need to be provided by pooling all citizen resources and not for profit.

Any successful government operation is a huge setback for Bush&Co and their elite friends who want the government seen as incompetent. Of course they need votes too--must suck to be them right now.

[drivelphobe]

alomarsmom...

You are right, and time will prove it. I may try to rent a guest house from some rich guy so I have a better chance in the event of a disaster.

[alomarsmom]

When the rich people had a disaster the government sprang into action. When the poor people had one no one in authority cared. If something happens in a poor part of California things will be very different I am sure.

[drivelphobe]

Katrina hit an area full of poor, uneducated blacks, with a corrupt mayor, obviously incompetent and self-serving. No one cared much about the residents and they had very little political clout, if any at all.

The California fires have hit areas of wealthy, educated white people, with adequate resources and heavy political connections.

Both are disasters of great magnitude, but the bottom line is, there was little concern for the residents of New Orleans and the surrouunding affected areas, while there is much concern for the population affected by the California fires.

Poor populations have less, get less and are easy victims. The news printed the image in our minds of an over-weight, black woman, with several boxes of new shoes she had just looted from a store, wading through filthy water and claiming her actions were justified as survival behaviour.

In California, the news shows hundreds of volunteers and nothing but orderly management of evacuees.

It is a hard life when you are poor, uneducated and living on entitlements, but that''s the way it is.

[quatrops]

Perception5 at 9:03:

1. You, and others keep harping on the failures at the local & state level in Louisiana vs. successes of same in California. That Louisiana politics has a decades-long history of incompetence is a given. California, under both parties, has been more fortunate. The POINT is that the FEDERAL RESPONSE to Katrina was INCOMPETENT, INADEQUATE, and MISMANAGED! Even the majority of Republican politicians in Washington admit to that!

2. You complain about the "110 do-nothing Democratic congress". With a veto (S-CHIP) or threat of veto, NO narrow-margin opposite party congress has EVER made significant accomplishments. Why don''t you discuss the failure of the 2000, 2002, and 2004 failures of congress to provide significant legislation?

3. What does "diversity your liberal staff" mean? Assuming you meant "diversify", explain the preponderance of articles from NRO and Weekly Standard on CBS. Tell me about diversity on talk radio or Fox News.

[perception5]

Mr. Meyers their is a reason why this situation is different from the Katrina situation.

Number 1: In California we have a Republican Mayor in San Diego and a Republican Govnernor in Arnold.
With Katrina we had a Democrat Mayor who refused to evacuate the poor people in the DAYS before Katrina hit and a Democrat Governor that told our President that the levees were fine when in fact they weren''t.

That''s the difference Republican know how to "manage" things much better than Democrats.

I simply point to our 110 Do Nothing Democrat Congress for another example to prove my point.

Mr. Meyers its long past time that America''s corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack press STOPS propping up their close pals the Democrat Party and provide Americans will the truth and hard facts.

Our liberal wolfpack press should be calling "balls and strikes" not "pitching" the game.

Diversity your liberal staff at CBS (Corrupt Broadcasting Station).

[jowand]

As for the Beast, this time it was local and the state and city authorites have done an amazing job. Only one death, too many volunteers, too many supplies at the "Q". You have to give it up to Mayor Sanders, first for cleaning up the Red Cross in San Diego, and for keeping everyone informed. TV and radio in San Diego delivered up to the minute and accurate public safety information.
Posted by koko98 at 02:33 AM : Oct 25, 2007

You can''t compare San Diego and N Orleans, N Orleans had a totally incompetent mayor and the governor of LA was a clown.