Saturday, October 22, 2005
Protecting the ruling class
I wonder how it is possible that the general public is not aware of the president's past, in particular, the relationship between his granddad Prescott Bush and Nazi Germany. Any thoughts? Oh, you don't know about Prescott Bush? That's my point, so look it up and post your comments.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Right Over Your Head
Well, leave it to the WAshington crowd to continue saying stupid things. For those that didn't read about it, William Bennett, a secretary of education in the Reagan administration and drug czar in the first Bush administration, who is now a radio host, recently said, "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." He went on to say that would be a "morally reprehensible thing to do."
In his defense in todays New York Times he stated that his opponents make it sound like he supports such a monstrous act, which of course he doesn't. But what Mr. Bennett fails to recognize is that the fact that he doesn'tt "support" such a "monstrous" act isn't the point. The point, which went right over his head, is the racism that was inherent in the statement. It is scary that people like Mr. Bennett have access to the ears of so many Americans. The white house statement of, "it wasn't appropriate," was right up there with "your doing a heck of a job Brownie." The more I read the more frightened I become.
In his defense in todays New York Times he stated that his opponents make it sound like he supports such a monstrous act, which of course he doesn't. But what Mr. Bennett fails to recognize is that the fact that he doesn'tt "support" such a "monstrous" act isn't the point. The point, which went right over his head, is the racism that was inherent in the statement. It is scary that people like Mr. Bennett have access to the ears of so many Americans. The white house statement of, "it wasn't appropriate," was right up there with "your doing a heck of a job Brownie." The more I read the more frightened I become.
Catostrophic Disaster
During the almost four hours that I watched the Senate hearings involving Mr. Brown on C-Span, I waited for the senators to ask questions that never seemed to materialize. Time and time again Mr. Brown, the former FEMA director, insisted that we had to remember that, “this was a catastrophic disaster!” as though none of us were aware of that, or as though FEMA was just an accounting firm suddenly thrust into managing an emergency and everyone was being to critical of him. Isn’t emergency management the point of FEMA? Personally, I don’t have experience in emergency management; my point of view comes from my eighteen years owning and operating a small logistics/transportation firm.
Don’t get me wrong; it certainly was something like entertainment to watch Senator Taylor hammer home the point that Mr. Brown did a terrible job, only to then listen to Mr. Brown whine about being berated for not being Rudy. It would have been humorous if it (the hurricane) weren’t so tragic. But I don’t want to know why the buses didn’t arrive on time, but why they were the only option planned for in the first place. After all, it was already known (that the levies couldn’t withstand anything over a cat 3) that the city would be under water? Wouldn’t reasonable planning have recognized a need for a contingency plan?
The senators asked about the contents of trucks and the answer was simply that FEMA didn’t know the contents of many of the trucks, or where the trucks were. My little company in 1995 relocated four warehouses that contained 12,000 different types of items, that were transported within 250 trucks, using nothing more than a simple transport computer program, cell phones, and spotters. How could we have known where every SKU, pallet, trailer, and truck was throughout the 64-hour move within minutes of a request, and FEMA not even know what was in the trucks, let alone where they were? Of course FEMA had to deal with a hurricane, but FEMA’s problems began long before the storm arrived.
Mr. Brown in his lame defense has cowardly blamed the locals because they wouldn’t listen to him, which sounded more like a child whining rather than a leader charged with the responsibility to “manage” an emergency. At every turn Mr. Brown responded to senator’s questions as to why things weren’t done with a thundering, “that’s just what we did!” It was too little too late Mr. Brown. Winners cross the goal line: despite the broken play, missed blocks, or any other unexpected obstructions. But, in your case failure didn’t loose the game it lost lives. For FEMA to have moved the equipment and resources to within striking distance, only to fail at delivering it to where and when it was needed is equivalent to rearranging the deck chairs on a ship that is sinking.
President Bush for his part has again shown his bad sense of judgment in hiring Mr. Brown in the first place. But we’re stuck with this president for a while longer, so he needs to recognize that if FEMA is going to exist at all, it has to be able to coordinate – in a meaningful way – all the resources required to get the job done. I would submit that any small to moderate sized logistics firm could have performed better than FEMA during Katrina -- in both planning and execution -- and FEMA should look into contracting private fleets (that are not cronies of he administration) to provide supply line services in the future. Logistics management is best handled by those who have been in the trenches and can think on their feet; not the intellectuals that merely study logistics theory. If FEMA is at all like many clueless logistics departments of major corporations that I have worked with in the past, they could cut their budget by 10% and increase operational efficiency by utilizing the right contractors.
The loss of life in New Orleans and the Gulf states could have been avoided. We as Americans should expect and demand better. After watching C-span it became apparent to me that Kartrina was a bad hurricane and that is was FEMA that was the catastrophic disaster.
Don’t get me wrong; it certainly was something like entertainment to watch Senator Taylor hammer home the point that Mr. Brown did a terrible job, only to then listen to Mr. Brown whine about being berated for not being Rudy. It would have been humorous if it (the hurricane) weren’t so tragic. But I don’t want to know why the buses didn’t arrive on time, but why they were the only option planned for in the first place. After all, it was already known (that the levies couldn’t withstand anything over a cat 3) that the city would be under water? Wouldn’t reasonable planning have recognized a need for a contingency plan?
The senators asked about the contents of trucks and the answer was simply that FEMA didn’t know the contents of many of the trucks, or where the trucks were. My little company in 1995 relocated four warehouses that contained 12,000 different types of items, that were transported within 250 trucks, using nothing more than a simple transport computer program, cell phones, and spotters. How could we have known where every SKU, pallet, trailer, and truck was throughout the 64-hour move within minutes of a request, and FEMA not even know what was in the trucks, let alone where they were? Of course FEMA had to deal with a hurricane, but FEMA’s problems began long before the storm arrived.
Mr. Brown in his lame defense has cowardly blamed the locals because they wouldn’t listen to him, which sounded more like a child whining rather than a leader charged with the responsibility to “manage” an emergency. At every turn Mr. Brown responded to senator’s questions as to why things weren’t done with a thundering, “that’s just what we did!” It was too little too late Mr. Brown. Winners cross the goal line: despite the broken play, missed blocks, or any other unexpected obstructions. But, in your case failure didn’t loose the game it lost lives. For FEMA to have moved the equipment and resources to within striking distance, only to fail at delivering it to where and when it was needed is equivalent to rearranging the deck chairs on a ship that is sinking.
President Bush for his part has again shown his bad sense of judgment in hiring Mr. Brown in the first place. But we’re stuck with this president for a while longer, so he needs to recognize that if FEMA is going to exist at all, it has to be able to coordinate – in a meaningful way – all the resources required to get the job done. I would submit that any small to moderate sized logistics firm could have performed better than FEMA during Katrina -- in both planning and execution -- and FEMA should look into contracting private fleets (that are not cronies of he administration) to provide supply line services in the future. Logistics management is best handled by those who have been in the trenches and can think on their feet; not the intellectuals that merely study logistics theory. If FEMA is at all like many clueless logistics departments of major corporations that I have worked with in the past, they could cut their budget by 10% and increase operational efficiency by utilizing the right contractors.
The loss of life in New Orleans and the Gulf states could have been avoided. We as Americans should expect and demand better. After watching C-span it became apparent to me that Kartrina was a bad hurricane and that is was FEMA that was the catastrophic disaster.
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