2005

Oberweis on Immigration Again

ArchPundit September 13, 2005 No Comments

Greg’s got my take so I won’t repeat it….

Chuck Sweeney tells us that Oberweis is a big fan of the Real ID Act

Oberweis, an Aurora businessman, said Sunday at a Greater Rockford Airport news conference that if he?s elected governor, he will strictly enforce the new federal REAL ID Act, which would render the matricula cards useless.

Under the terms of the REAL ID Act, the state of Illinois has until May 8, 2008, to become fully compliant? with the law?s provisions, Oberweis said.

?Some governments have complained. Others have stated they will disobey the new law. Let me assure you this: In an Oberweis administration, the state of Illinois will move as quickly as possible to adopt the mandates of the REAL ID Act. The safety of our people demands that we do this,? he said

The REAL ID Act is a disaster waiting to happen. The basic requirements aren’t that much different from current Illinois rules as I remember them

A photo identity document (except that a non-photo identity document is acceptable if it includes both the person?s full legal name and date of birth)

Documentation showing the person?s date of birth

Proof of the person?s social security account number (SSN) or verification that the person is not eligible for an SSN

Documentation showing the person?s name and address of principal residence

The kicker is this

Before issuing a DL/ID, the state shall verify, with the issuing agency, the issuance, validity and completeness of each document to be presented

Now, the SoS office is dramatically better than in years past, but can you imagine how hard it will be for the Driver’s License facilities to confirm each piece of identification with a utility, credit card company, Social Security, and/or the County where you were born?

Jim Oberweis wants you to sit in uncomfortable chairs for long, long hours.

And while I’m reluctant to give advice to the other side, he has some good advice for Republicans on how to deal with health care.

Responsibility

ArchPundit September 13, 2005 3 Comments

Bush has made a statement:

President Bush says he takes responsibility for the federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Details soon.

Accountability doesn’t stop with that statement, but I think it gets the country on the right track to have a serious discussion about how to improve performance in future disasters.

I don’t blame Bush for the levees. That was a long standing problem with wide blame to go around. I don’t think anyone meant to screw-up or meant to have such s disproprotionate impact on the poor and African-American. I do think that we have as a whole failed the poorest amongst us and when it’s a slow catastrophe that plays out in our inner cities every day squelching hope of young people brought up often in tragic circumstances, we don’t pay attention. And we didn’t pay attention to what would happen in the case of a crisis in New Orleans or any other major city.

One part of moving on from that is admitting there were real problems and then engaging people how to address those problems. Given the past with this administration I have little trust that the evaluation of the incident will be full and honest, but I do applaud him for taking this step and hope for more in terms of a serious discussion on these issues.

Now, if we can get Blanco to explain the call-up of the Louisiana National Guard….

DFA Endorsement Time! David Loebsack

ArchPundit September 13, 2005 1 Comment

I know, there are a couple Illinois Candidates out there too, but, frankly, they weren’t my advisor in College.

So go vote for David Loebsack to be the first DFA Endorsed Congressional Candidate of the cycle!

Not Done With the Blue Language Yet

ArchPundit September 13, 2005 20 Comments

I’m not linking to them, but let me say one thing to the homophobic asshole who runs Illinois Family Institute

I urge all other bloggers to join me in this salute to Petey LaBarbera, or if you prefer to keep it cleaner, your own salute to the idiot.

I’ll Place Bets on The Time-Picayune as the Pulitzer for Breaking News

ArchPundit September 12, 2005 1 Comment

If they don’t get it, it would be a sham

The daring escape to paper delivery trucks was an amazing story in itself, but more fascinating is how far ahead of the story they were compared to national news which was ahead of FEMA, DHS and the President for some bizarre reason. For the first several days I was primarily reading NOLA.com updates and watching WWL TV streaming and the picture of what was going on was radically different from what the national media was covering–for one thing, both organizations dealt with facts and did what big media can do better than anyone–collect facts and report them to the public.

Beyond the regular reporting, the story above mentions the message boards–which were literally flooded with requests for people to check on individuals who might have been left behind.

The disaster at the St. Rita’s Nursing home in St. Bernard was relayed through message boards where one man was asking loved ones to write him to get an answer since he didn’t want them to find out on a electronic message board. I wonder what happened to many of the messages because the system seemed to have purged them as the day went on during the height of chaos.

Strange Column on How “good” the response was

ArchPundit September 12, 2005 4 Comments

Jack Kelly writes a column about how the Hurricane Response was the best ever, which only counts if you rule out any decently handled hurricane. His poster children are

The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne.”

Of course, Hugo and Andrew were before James Lee Witt had professionalized the department and the pressure from Andrew was a big reason. Frances and Jeanne were under the new Bush administration. And the Federal response for Iniki under Bush I was actually faster than any of the above–the administration put a priority on getting that one right after the Andrew debacle.

What he doesn’t mention are the hurricanes handled under Witt which did actually have federal help there in much faster periods of time. The aid was prepositioned and actually delivered it fast. Certainly, after the immediate crisis there were problems, but throughout the 90s the aid was far faster and better planned than before. Yet, Kelly’ uses a source that happens to skip over that and ignores that Iniki had aid in 48 hours. Not always National Guard troops, but FEMA help was there—and afterall the entire premise of the above is a bit odd since any fault for the Louisiana local National Guard is a state problem as was Mississippi’s late response.

Kelly then demonstrates that his editors really suck for not catching blatant falsehoods in his article:

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

A better question — which few journalists ask — is why weren’t the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?

Of course, buses didn’t have to come from Houston, though some might well have. Buses were a part of a registry with FEMA that apparently wasn’t activated quickly for some unknown reason. Further there weren’t 2000 buses in New Orleans to use. Scroll down for more on buses and evacuation.

This is just shoddy reporting

UPDATE:
Media Matters further deconstructs the whole deal.

Stock Up on Water

ArchPundit September 12, 2005 No Comments

Bull Moose made the suggestion and I agree. Since Brown is gone, it’s unclear who will take his place, but an August 1st Washington Post article suggests Patrick Rohde was being groomed.

Mr. Rhode’s experience with disasters

Before joining FEMA, Mr. Rhode was associate administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration and White House liaison for the Department of Commerce. His first position with the Bush Administration was as special assistant to the President and deputy director of National Advance Operations, a position he assumed in January 2001.

Previously, Mr. Rhode served as deputy director of National Advance Operations for the George W. Bush Presidential Campaign, in Austin, Texas. His other professional credits include serving in communications and public affairs roles in the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and Entergy Corporation. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rhode was an anchor/reporter with network affiliated television stations in Alabama and Arkansas.

Let’s hope some priorities are revisited in terms of who should be leading FEMA

My Illinois readers should feel only partially comforted that the Regional Director is actually an emergency management professional because he’s actually holding down two positions. They guy for Missouri is a career fire fighter and at least decently prepared for his spot.

UPDATE: They went with a professional—give credit to the Trib’s article that explored the background of several FEMA higher ups for getting an actual professional in there.

Otis White on Katrina and other cities

ArchPundit September 12, 2005 1 Comment

I hate it when I look up a bunch of stuff and someone did it before me:

It will take months and maybe years to fully comprehend what happened to New Orleans on Aug. 29, as Hurricane Katrina battered the city and the levees were breached. Nothing quite like it has ever happened to a major American city. New Orleans hasn?t merely been evacuated for a week or so; it has, in the words of one headline, been ?left for the dead,? perhaps for months to come. But as we struggle to understand the lessons of Katrina, here are two places to begin: It?s important how we get people out of threatened cities, and it?s equally important how they come back.

Katrina was different from other great hurricanes like Andrew, which devastated Miami in 1992, because the hurricane?s winds and rains did not ravage New Orleans as much as its aftermath: the breaching of the levees, which flooded the city with water that, in some neighborhoods, rose at the rate of a foot a minute. It was the flood, not the wind and rain, that made New Orleans uninhabitable.

Many were shocked to learn that 20 percent of residents did not or could not heed the mayor?s mandatory evacuation order. But people who know about natural disasters weren?t surprised. While most families pack up and leave at first warning, a sizeable number don?t ? because they never hear the warnings, can?t leave due to infirmity or lack of individual transportation, or refuse to go because they fear leaving more than the storm.

Chillingly, in similar circumstances, other cities would not do much better than New Orleans. In the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, disaster experts watched the scenes from Louisiana with foreboding. ?A worst-case evacuation tells us 487,000 people in Hillsborough County [where Tampa is located] alone would have to seek shelter. Out of Pinellas County [St. Petersburg], 550,000 people,? one expert told the Tampa Tribune. ?Between the two counties … we?d put a million people on the road. Those pictures we saw of New Orleans, we?re looking at Tampa.?

And what about Tampa Bay?s aged, infirm and poor? At this point, Tampa wouldn?t do better than New Orleans at getting them out. Reason: It doesn?t know where they are. (There is an evacuation registry that people can sign up for, but relatively few do.)

One thing Tampa and other cities could do better, of course, is identify safe places in the city and have provisions for protecting and feeding people in those shelters. Still, getting people out of their homes and into the shelters with, at most, a two-day warning would be a logistical nightmare. And, again, not all would make even that short journey.

The other great lesson we?ll learn from Katrina will be how to repopulate a city. New Orleans will be rebuilt, of course; culturally and economically, it?s too important not to be. (Among other things, a port near the mouth of the Mississippi is crucial to agriculture and manufacturing. And then there?s the oil and gas industry.) But how many New Orleans residents will return after spending months elsewhere? And when they come back, will they bring their city?s culture and breezy attitude? We?ll know on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006, when Mardi Gras is held.

Monday 8/29 Interview With Nagin

ArchPundit September 12, 2005 No Comments

WWL TV did an interview on Monday night that described initial damage. It was devastating to hear. What’s most interesting in the interview are two points–the breach in the 17th Street Levee (remember, the one that didn’t break until after this interview according to Chertoff–but that Nagin knew was a problem during the hurricane). The other issue that really tells part of the problem with FEMA is that by the time the hurricane had passed, there was little time for a visual inspection of the City, yet FEMA did an initial assessment where he got much of the information from including

1) the Twin Spans being destroyed (anchors turned white)
2) Extensive flooding in nearly all parts of the City except at the CBD, Algiers and the French Quarter (both CBD and FQ would later have some flooding)
3) expectation of electricity out for 4-6 weeks
4) no clear path in or out of the City
5) St. Benards in worst shape–total devastation

What has never changed are his three objectives

1) Save Lives
2) Evacuate people–arguing with other parishes—indicates he’s referring to the blockade on the bridge.
3) Pump out water.

Here are some excerpts from his interview for those that don’t want to sit through the video which is about 20 minutes long.

“My heart is heavy tonight, I don’t have any good news to share other than the at some point and time the Federal government will be coming in here en masse. The City of New Orleans is in a state of devastation.”

“This is a briefing I got from a gentleman named Marty who is with FEMA. He’s the Undersec, the Director of FEMA and the FEMA Secretary is coming into town tomorrow along with our Senators and Congressional leaders to do a fly over.

“We have a list from FEMA that is our wishlist of what we want and we are going to continue to work“

“When this FEMA guy came back from his areal view, and we had a map and he started to lay everything out, it suddenly hit everybody, the impact of this awesome, awesome hurricane.

I asked the guy point blank–I said was this the worst he’d ever seen. He said absolutely. Absolutely, it’s the worst situation he’d ever seen. “

“Let me just give you a little bit of good news. Whatever good news that is. We have the highest levels of government in the United States including the President of the United States focused on this issue and ready to send resources. They have told us to put together your wish list. Put together whatever you might need to deal with this and they are basically telling us they will come down and help us rebuild.”

What’s clear is that Nagin was talking to FEMA, and the professional level of FEMA understood how serious this was by Marty saying it was the worse he’d ever seen. Why then didn’t the Head of FEMA and Chertoff know all of this? Furthermore, we know that Nagin made specific requests the day of the hurricane and continued made a second request the next day.