Decius wrote:

And I think everyone knows that. If the partisan blame game started back up on Katrina, everyone would loose. Its mutually assured destruction. So instead we're focused on other things.

My position is, that would be a good thing. Expose the screw ups. Find what went so horribly wrong in the political system that a) created a situation where this could happen, and b) made the aftermath into such a god-awful nightmare.

Understanding a) isn't that hard. In general, people don't take the steps that preparedness asks for. Never have. Chicago has some of the strongest fire codes in the country after half the city burned to the ground 135 years ago, but they still don't work that well (the town hasn't burned down, but...). San Francisco has stong construction laws on trying to quake proof buildings, but as the Series quake proved, they weren't enough. New Orleans levee system was rated to handle a cat3, but failed because of some poor design and some cost cutting. The bottom line is that in the long run, preparedness is cheaper than recovery (see Clinton, Iowa in the flood of 1993, they were largely flood free but the areas that did not build a 500 year floor levee system like they had got creamed), but no one wants to go to that expense because there are other things that need doing now that have more immediate and tangible benefit.

Understanding b) is a hell of a lot harder, and fixing b) would go a long way towards dealing with a).

Thanks also for sourcing Powerline. Those oxygen thieves are the problem. It's always "us vs. them" over there which means they'll never produce anything of any value whatsoever. Assrocket and company would be doing the world a favor if they went for a long drive in a short garage.

RE: For Conservatives, It’s Back to Basics