Public Employees Pensions Will Sink California

Good summary on the forthcoming (or current) State of California pension crisis by Pepperdine University professor Gary Galles.

"In California, the political solution has been to reward the influential generously, but dodge public scrutiny by deferring the big bills until retirement. When the deferred obligations become due, politicians hope to have moved on or, at worst, to be able to hide behind the fait accompli with "there's nothing we can do now."

"The first line of defense is the claim that public employees are underpaid compared with private-sector counterparts, so retirement benefits must be sweetened to compensate. That may have been true once - although one would look in vain for a private-sector counterpart with similar job and wage security - but those days are in the past for most government workers, many of whose salaries also now exceed salaries in the private sector."

Read the whole article here.

The New Breed of Anti-War Protesters

Bridget Johnson reports on who is actually against the Iraq war (or is it against America).

"No reports of signs decrying homicidal al-Qaida maniac Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's campaign for civil war in Iraq or active campaign of terror. No reports of protests against al-Zarqawi sawing off Nick Berg's head. Also no reports of signs bearing pics of bloodied kids' shirts being pulled out of Saddam's mass graves in sites dotting the Iraqi landscape."

"In the 2004 documentary "Celsius 41.11," an opening clip shows a protester hollering into a camera that if a dictator provides schools and health care, "I like that dictator!" The film cuts to footage of Saddam's goons chopping off a person's fingers."

Hence my favorite protest participants are the Protest Warriors, a group of mostly young men and women who dare to introduce the opposing viewpoint on crisp signs here and there at anti-war and anti-Israel (often one and the same) demonstrations. When they calmly step into the scene, they're usually ordered to leave by those who profess to value free speech; they're usually met with screaming or violence from "peace" protesters.
The group's very first sign read: "Except for ending slavery, fascism, Nazism and communism ... War has never solved anything!"

Wal-Mart To Replace FEMA

According to the New York Times, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott should be the next director of FEMA:

''This was the only place we could find water those first days,'' said Rashan Smith, who was shopping with her three children at Wal-Mart on Saturday. ''I still haven't managed to get through to FEMA. It's hard to say, but you get more justice at Wal-Mart.''

"That's the same assessment you hear from public officials in Louisiana, and there's even been talk of letting Wal-Mart take over FEMA's job. The company already has its own emergency operations center, where dozens of people began preparing for the hurricane the week before it hit by moving supplies and trucks into position."

"In 1997, Congress gave FEMA $500,000 and ordered it to develop a comprehensive plan to evacuate New Orleans. The agency passed on the money to Louisiana, which used it instead to study building a new bridge. "

Read the whole article here.
If you subscribe to the TimesSelect feature of the New York Times, go here.

Pete Wilson On How California Dealt With Past Disasters

From a lengthy editorial in last week's Wall Street Journal.

First, I quickly exercised the extraordinary emergency powers conferred upon the governor of California by the state Government Code. I suspended the operation of statutes and regulations that would have required the protracted public hearings called for before environmental impact reports could be filed and acted upon, and I suspended other normally demanded procedural hurdles. The elimination of these legal requirements drastically reduced purposeless delays that would have impeded recovery and compounded the injury inflicted by the quake.

Second, we took a page from the book of private-sector incentives for accelerating performance. We told contractors bidding to repair the bridges that they must submit bids that specified not only the cost but the date of completion, and that they must agree to an added condition: For every day they were late, they would incur a penalty of $200,000; and for every day they were early, they would be rewarded with a bonus of $200,000. The winning bidder, C.C. Myers Inc., put on three shifts that worked 24/7. In order to prevent any delay in the work, they hired a locomotive and crew to haul to Los Angeles steel sitting on a siding in Texas. Myers made more on the bonus than they did on the bid.
Incentives work. The reward to the contractor in this instance was well worth the reward to the public in achieving restoration of critical infrastructure two years early.

Read the whole article here.

Federal Response Reality Check

According to Jason van Steenwyk of the Florida Army National Guard:

"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."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm

Bureacracy Killed People

Big inefficient goverment is the primary culprit for the horrible Katrina rescue and relief efforts.

" ... days after the disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 1,400 firefighters from around the country who had volunteered to help in New Orleans sitting in a conference room in Atlanta undergoing eight hours of training that included a sexual-harassment class."

"... at the end of the day, FEMA is a close cousin to your local DMV, which you would never want to trust with your life."

Read the whole article here.

The Katrina Blame Game Explained

This is a precise, accurate and important article by Bob Williams from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation that I've published here in it's entirety.
Try this link if the above link doesn't work.

Blame Amid the Tragedy

By BOB WILLIAMS
September 6, 2005

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?

As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property.

Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible -- local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his/her emergency operations center.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.

In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved.

A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.

The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.

The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.

The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure.

Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed, in these facilities. Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans. Now he wants to blame Gov. Blanco and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an emergency the first requirement is for the city's emergency center to be linked to the state emergency operations center. This was not done.

The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.

In addition, unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. The plan clearly gives the governor the authority for declaring an emergency, sending in state resources to the disaster area and requesting necessary federal assistance.

State legislators and governors nationwide need to update their contingency plans and the operation procedures for state emergency centers. Hurricane Katrina had been forecast for days, but that will not always be the case with a disaster (think of terrorist attacks). It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response."

I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response. Congress and the president need to take corrective action there, also. However, if citizens expect FEMA to be a first responder to terrorist attacks or other local emergencies (earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes), they will be disappointed. The federal government's role is to offer aid upon request.

The Louisiana Legislature should conduct an immediate investigation into the failures of state and local officials to implement the written emergency plans. The tragedy is not over, and real leadership in the state and local government are essential in the months to come. More importantly, the hurricane season is still upon us, and local and state officials must stay focused on the jobs for which they were elected -- and not on the deadly game of passing the emergency buck.

Mr. Williams is president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a free market public policy research organization in Olympia, Wash.

The Katrina Problem is Government Itself

Unorganized, uncooperative, non-communicating & slow moving government agencies are the problem with the Katrina relief effort as explained by Daniel Henniger today.

"We know what to do, but we aren't good at doing it".

"We fail to use well what we know because we rely too much on large public bureaucracies. This was the primary lesson of the 9/11 Commission Report. Large public bureaucracies, whether the FBI and the CIA or FEMA and the Corps of Engineers, don't talk to each other much. They are poorly incentivized, if at all."

"Big public bureaucracies are going to get us killed. They already have."

Read the whole article here.

Using Katrina to Exploit Global Warming Fears is Unconscionable

Excellent article by James K. Glassman can be found here.

The global warming fearmongers have no shame.