Admissions of guilt
The Washington Post reports today that:
But these are not "mistakes" in the same vein as parking too far from the curb, or buying whole milk instead of 2%, or forgetting to pay the cable bill. In the words of Chertoff himself, the Administration's "mistakes" added to deaths and suffering. Homeland Security's "mistakes" are going to leave 12,000 displaced Americans without either a temporary home or a permanent one to go back to.
Now if you or I were forced, after thorough Congressional investigations, to admit to decision-making errors in our businesses which got people killed needlessly, we'd undoubtedly be out of our respective jobs. Possibly under indictment. Certainly not running the nation.
So how can these individuals be allowed to retain their positions any longer? American citizens died in the streets of an American city while the nation watched on TV, because of demonstrable negligence by upper management. On this issue alone, the Bush Administration deserves condemnation and removal from office.
And what I want to know is, why not right now?
The Bush administration acknowledged its mistakes yesterday and promised anew to re-engineer the nation's homeland security agencies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, scrambling to contain the damage from sharp criticism by House investigators and testimony by the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.As usual with this bunch, that sounds like too little, too late, a variation on "Let's pretend to take the lead in fixing this now that we've been busted for screwing it up!" The contrition didn't end with the White House, either. The Times continues:
[Homeland Security Secretary] Chertoff acknowledged that the government waited too long, until after Katrina made landfall, to mobilize troops, vehicles and aid needed to rescue and remove victims from New Orleans, adding to deaths and suffering...So here's where I'm confused, and I need someone to explain it to me like I'm a six-year-old. The Administration acknowledges making mistakes. The head of Homeland Security accepts responsibility for making mistakes.
"I am accountable and accept responsibility for the performance of the entire department, good and bad," Chertoff said.
But these are not "mistakes" in the same vein as parking too far from the curb, or buying whole milk instead of 2%, or forgetting to pay the cable bill. In the words of Chertoff himself, the Administration's "mistakes" added to deaths and suffering. Homeland Security's "mistakes" are going to leave 12,000 displaced Americans without either a temporary home or a permanent one to go back to.
Now if you or I were forced, after thorough Congressional investigations, to admit to decision-making errors in our businesses which got people killed needlessly, we'd undoubtedly be out of our respective jobs. Possibly under indictment. Certainly not running the nation.
So how can these individuals be allowed to retain their positions any longer? American citizens died in the streets of an American city while the nation watched on TV, because of demonstrable negligence by upper management. On this issue alone, the Bush Administration deserves condemnation and removal from office.
And what I want to know is, why not right now?
posted by Bob P @ 10:05 AM
2 Comments:
I'm with you. Long overdue, I'd say.
If one of the many mistakes that these newly accountable men were also guilty of recieving the pleasures of oral sex from someone other than their wife, then there would consequences, serious consequences.
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