Have a seat folks.



We have gotten to see the Ying of this horrific event in the structure of the United States governmental bureaucracy. This is NOT a new or unique condition that is indicative of any country, political party, administration or to democracy itself. Patronage is just part of rewarding the political faithful and has long been a big chunk of any political system. While I have some major issues with current Federal actions, this is a state of affairs that is imbedded at all levels of State and local government as well. The reality is that it will always be part-and-parcel of government, by nature and function.

The topic here is not that people will be given rewards and jobs as a function of the system, (well, it IS an issue with me, but not the top one of the moment ) but that they are put in positions of authority without any degree of ability or know-how. When private business has the brother-in-law that needs a job, he is put in charge of light bulb repair kit inventory, NOT production control. All levels and departments of our government are filled with completely incompetent and ignorant people, but my exception is that they are at the top. The dedicated and knowledgeable people that have chosen to serve our society should not have to devote most of their effort at working around them. Responsibility, authority and accountability MUST always be the three balanced components of any job.

Do we have the chance to demand the Yang of review and adjusting of our executive government positions to be staffed with someone that has a minimal amount of competence, experience and management ability? Finger pointing and ass-covering is well underway now that functional people are doing their part to help those in distress. I’m looking for a way to keep the pressure actually focused on improving the necessary evils of ALL the bureaucracies and minimize the antics of the political circus that I believe is going to take center ring. The shroud of complacency and faith was blown away by Katrina and I think we have an opportunity to truly makes the major improvements that only come in the face of such a calamity.

Do you think there is room for meaningful change to any aspect of your government, regardless of where you are? Who and how are you going to contact, not with your complaints and condemnation, but with your desire and demand for improvement? What are you going to DO to make something happen?




I need that oxygen now Lixy. :wobble:

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Whoa..... my friend. What a major can of worms you do speak of. I've been involved on the local level of emergency management here in my small town/county and it's gotten to political blows about everything. The day we have common sense seep into the position appointing I'll be shocked as hell! My baby brother has been a firefighter and EMT for years now and he's one of the most devoted people I've ever seen about his choice of career. He had a fire chief try to hang him with a bunch of wrongdoing. Fortunately, chief discovered, not all small town boys are dummies. Baby brother had everything documented and promptly dumped the turd back in chief's plate. Having to go through a suspension and court proceedings pulled some of the wind from his sails though. I haven't heard from him lately but I'm betting he's somewhere in the hurricane zone working his ass off now. After 9-11 he went to NY on his on.. his crew decided not to send anybody so Bro' said "Fuck Y'all then... I'm on vacation!" LOL He went with another crew on his own time. I know there are highly trained competent people involved, we just have to figure out how to get the pol;iticians to see that and let THEM run the show.

OK, pass the oxygen... or Lixy...that works too

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As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will. He will be sure to repent - Socrates

Love is not looking in each other's eyes, but looking together in the same direction - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

I do agree, except the problem with total ineptitude is even greater at the local and state level. What I've heard and seen infuriates me.

Seeing two hundred buses that could have evacuated people ... almost 20,000 ... but didn't. A shelter estabished, but without any provisions. Delayed for almost a week in even beginning serious preparations for the hurricane.

Then, learning the state government rejected an initial federal offer to position people closer because they were afraid it would reflect poorly on them ... seems incomprehensible to me. I think the governor and mayor should also resign as being unfit to hold a position of responsibility.

If these things are true (and I've seen the pictures of the school buses .. now flooded and needing replacing) ... I think dorkedness is more widespread than just the federal level.

No one (read politicans) seemed to have the guts to do what was required ... most of all those closest to the disaster.

By the way, the people lending a hand are SUPER! They deserve the credit in spite of their leadership.

Interesting that you used a "brother-in-law" as the example. Rarely do we hear that someone has pushed their mother, sister, aunt, daughter, sister in law, grandma, into position of authority for which they are not qualified. Truly a "good Ol' BOYS" network.

Let's see, my state HoR has 119 reps. Maybe I should take that^^^^^ complaint to them....oh there is only 27 women in the state HoR. I guess I'll get no where there.

Sorry this was about a different sort of ying yang

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If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
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PF my responce to all this is a goverment for the people by the people, most of the country is uneducated ( at least in my area)in any manner let alone politics, the only way to change that is to change everyone. And to put on my little rant is if people don't take care of themselves and expect someone else to do it they will get their lesson while those of us who see the brighter side will be moving on. That's the reason why the boys club works so well if these people can't blame themselves they have good ole' Billy Bob Jethro and his 20,000 family members that will be there as a figurehead.

*slumps away* sheesh thinking gives me a headache lol

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"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts." - John Steinbeck

PantyFanatic,

You’re quite right about ineptitude not being limited. Back in the ‘80s, there was an enjoyable sitcom which ran on the BBC titled Yes Minister

How about this quote:

"…needed to know was not known at the time that the now known need to know was known, and therefore those of us who needed to advise and inform felt that the information that we needed as to whether or not to inform the highest authority of the known information was not yet known, and therefore there was no authority for the authority to be informed because the need to know was not yet known, or needed."

Sounds eerily familiar…

Political change in democracies is traditionally brought about via elections. The limitations exposed by Katrina in the various governmental agencies are perfectly good reasons to vote for change – provided that one or more candidates offer such change.

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Eudaimonia

The only real problem is that one idiot is just as bad as the next idiot.


Sorry I mean politician, did not mean to demean the town idiot.

dream on PF in a couple of months it will be back to the norm. An old man like you should know by now that it not how hard you work or what you know it's who you blow that gets the job.

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it's only kinky the first time

it's not the orgasm but getting there thats fun

a shot in the bush is worth two in the hand

whip me, beat me, tie me up, break my arm, but please don't break my heart

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid people are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" -Bertrand Russell

That show and the one following when Hacker became Prime Minister is one of the best satires on government....it is still on reruns in Canada.

since we're on a hijacking binge anyway, I'd like to report a minor step foward (or backward, depending on one's outlook) for gender equity...FBI has run a sting called "Operation: TN Waltz" that caught several state lawmakers taking outright bribes...& there was at least one female legislator snared in the trap...

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Plug me into somethin'

If the theory does not conform to the facts, then the facts must be discarded.

No good deed ever goes unpunished

Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level, & beat you with experience.

Bravo! I hadn't heard that, but !

(The bravo is for the sting operation in general!!)

Just felt it was timely to bring it up in the since that TN has been very much the home of the "good ole boys" network from the early days...

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Plug me into somethin'

If the theory does not conform to the facts, then the facts must be discarded.

No good deed ever goes unpunished

Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level, & beat you with experience.

The sad aspect of this is graft and corruption are so much a part of political structures, we don’t bat an eye when the few blatant and total bunglers are caught, but give a chastising nod without any sense of shock or surprise ……… because there is no sense of shock or surprise. It’s par for the course.

The problem with outrage at corruption is that it is itself a political tool. My is not regarding the character of the politician as if it were unknown. It’s concerned with the squandered use of the power we’ve vested them with, that now is plainly not being used to even bring people capable of responsible action to position. We now have more like themselves in those critical posts. Katrina blew the roof off of the chicken coop and we are seeing the chickens come home to roost.

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Let me begin by saying that I am a Hurricane Andrew survivor. I know what it is like to have your world turned upside down in a major way.

Katrina has taught me to look HARD for things to be thankful for. Yeah, we were thankful to be alive and for our house to still be standing...even if a good part of the roof was trashed. But we also had dry land under our feet. I cannot imagine how much worse things could have gotten had we the flooding that the folks in Gulf got.

It took FEMA and the other state/local agencies time to get assistance to those in need after Andrew hit. They were maybe a day faster than they were in New Orleans...no water to deal with may be reason they were faster...but they also had a smaller geographical area to deal with.

I'm NOT a FEMA apologist. People died in the aftermath of Katrina, people that would have been saved if there had been help sooner.

BUT THE TIME TO HAVE SAVED THEM WAS BEFORE THE STORM HIT. Once all hell breaks loose, it is just too damned hard to get to everyone who needs help all at once.

In the case of Katrina, just take out a detailed map and look hard at it. You'll get the shivers just trying to comprehend how to help that many towns and ALL OF THE PEOPLE IN THEM in a reasonable period of time.

A nuclear bomb wouldn't have impacted that much land.

IMO, a more comprehensive EVACUATION PLAN is what's needed...especially for those without the means to flee. Also, a BETTER flood prevention system...local officials are to blame for that colossal failure, not FEMA.

As for those taking shots at the President for the slow relief, some of it is fair, some not. Unless there's more to the story, Mike Brown is seriously underqualified. But the President is not a racist, as idiots like Kanye West and Al Sharpton have claimed. Outrageous comments like that are simply the stuff of radicalism and are not helpful.

Americans (and maybe the world) need to come to grips with the fact that this is one of the great human disasters in history. Was anyone truly prepared for it? No. Could anyone be truly prepared for it? I don't know.

After what Andrew taught me, I just don't know....


rabbit

Peeps...PEEPS! Love is like oxygen. Ya get too much, ya get too high. Not enough and you're gonna die!

/me passes out the love in small doses and makes everyone consume it and then go get back in line!

Damn PF! So YOU got my soapbox, eh?

Let me start by quoting a most famous cliche'..."Hindsight is 20/20"...and everyone on this planet should make a conscious effort to have the necessary hindsight BEFORE the disaster (pick one...any one) happens!

ANYONE can be an armchair referee or a Monday morning coach! What "we" have to realize is that we HAVE to learn from our mistakes/tradgedies or we are doomed to repeat them!

Blah! Enough with the cliches'...I'm sure you get my drift.

*sucks up some oxygen...ie: PF* (<---you all know he's gonna have a field day with that statement)

I think this thread is mostly about trust and indifference. If I'm wrong...I'll eat my bra!

We have/had information as to what a cat4 hurricane could do to La. Did we trust the scientists who made a mock-up, via computer enhancement, of the destruction such a force would yield? NO! Why? Indifference of what "could be" as opposed to what we aready trusted "always was" in the past. Do we ever truely believe something bad is going to happen? NO! We trust that we have capable minds and hands at the ready for any given situation that arises.

That leads me to PF's reference of jobs going to the one who isn't necessarily qualified. We have to start at the highest level and understand the trickle-down effect. If you vote for Mr./Mrs./Ms. X (yes...I didn't mention him by name on purpose)...you vote for all the idiots (<--personal opinion) he/she knows and owes...and it's YOUR fault that they have the job cause you didn't do your homework and find out who his/her associates are and who might "get in" when he/she was elected! I feel NO GUILT for the current administration because I didn't cast my vote for any of um! I must admit...I have had guilt (in hindsight) in the past fore voting for some of the peeps who eventually trickled down a collage of idiots...but that's another era! Anyway...therein lies the indifference I spoke of earlier. Ya like a candidate but you're indifferent to who he/she might drag into his/her administration! You can't bitch if you didn't do your homework!

So what are we left with? Well...as usual, we pick up the pieces and we go on about our merry way of trust and indifference. Or, we earnestly learn from our current mistakes and vow to take charge and change the future!

I can't say as I know who will actually do that and I can't say as I know how to tell them to do it...EXCEPT to say...

Do your homework BEFORE the election...NOT AFTER THE DISASTER!

WHEW!

*jumps down off the box and passes it to the next in line*

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~