A day in the life of Fox News

[Hauldren Collider]

Personally, I'm opposed to mindless opposition in all its forms.

Me too, but you can't deny that it's the system. And I mentioned (though gribbler conveniently ignored that), they are not always opposed. We often see perfectly bipartisan agreement on things--Israel, 9/11, Osama bin Laden....

The point is that in the general case the role of the opposition is just to oppose. You can't win an election by saying "I agree with the ruling party which is doing everything just great!"

[giblets]

Me too, but you can't deny that it's the system. And I mentioned (though gribbler conveniently ignored that), they are not always opposed. We often see perfectly bipartisan agreement on things--Israel, 9/11, Osama bin Laden....

The point is that in the general case the role of the opposition is just to oppose. You can't win an election by saying "I agree with the ruling party which is doing everything just great!"

Why the **** would you call it "the role of opposition" if you didn't mean to imply that the opposition is supposed to operate that way? So criticizing the opposition for mindlessly opposing whatever Obama does is in fact a valid criticism? Thank you.

[Tupac Shakur]

There is nothing wrong with insisting that if your party was in charge, it would have executed the same policies in a better fashion. That is different from mindlessly taking the opposite position on everything.

Yes, it's actually worse. Partisan opposition on the things politicians in Washington actually have a large amount of control over (plans, policies) is far more useful than partisan opposition on things politicians have little control over (the local execution of plans and policies). The latter is just grandstanding and doesn't help change or improve a thing.

[giblets]

There is nothing wrong with insisting that if your party was in charge, it would have executed the same policies in a better fashion. That is different from mindlessly taking the opposite position on everything.

Yes, it's actually worse. Partisan opposition on the things politicians in Washington actually have a large amount of control over (plans, policies) is far more useful than partisan opposition on things politicians have little control over (the local execution of plans and policies). The latter is just grandstanding and doesn't help change or improve a thing.

Are you claiming Bush was attacked for the actions of local officials instead of the performance of FEMA?

[Tupac Shakur]

He was attacked because of minor flaws in an otherwise very effective relief effort, an effort the President of the United States has little practical control over.

The opposition would've helped the people of New Orleans out a lot more by improving national disaster relief policy before Katrina rather than *****ing about the relief effort after the fact.

[Hauldren Collider]

Yes! Kathleen Blanco was clearly responsible for at least half of the cluster****. And what Drake said.

[giblets]

He was attacked because of minor flaws in an otherwise very effective relief effort, an effort the President of the United States has little practical control over.

The opposition would've helped the people of New Orleans out a lot more by improving national disaster relief policy before Katrina rather than *****ing about the relief effort after the fact.

Very effective?

[Tupac Shakur]

I already provided a link. Why don't you go read it?

[giblets]

What, so now it's just a link-posting contest?

Whatever, I'll post a link:

According to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina:[20]

* "The Secretary Department of Homeland Security should have designated the Principal Federal Official on Saturday, two days prior to landfall, from the roster of PFOs who had successfully completed the required training, unlike then FEMA Director Michael Brown. Considerable confusion was caused by the Secretary’s PFO decisions."
* "DHS and FEMA lacked adequate trained and experienced staff for the Katrina response."
* "The readiness of FEMA’s national emergency response teams was inadequate and reduced the effectiveness of the federal response."
* "Long-standing weaknesses and the magnitude of the disaster overwhelmed FEMA’s ability to provide emergency shelter and temporary housing."
* "FEMA logistics and contracting systems did not support a targeted, massive, and sustained provision of commodities."
* "Before Katrina, FEMA suffered from a lack of sufficiently trained procurement professionals."

Other failings were also noted. The Committee devoted an entire section of the report to listing the actions of FEMA.[21] Their conclusion was:

"For years emergency management professionals have been warning that FEMA’s preparedness has eroded. Many believe this erosion is a result of the separation of the preparedness function from FEMA, the drain of long-term professional staff along with their institutional knowledge and expertise, and the inadequate readiness of FEMA’s national emergency response teams. The combination of these staffing, training, and organizational structures made FEMA’s inadequate performance in the face of a disaster the size of Katrina all but inevitable."[21]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMA#Hu....E2.80.93_2005
Sounds like mindless opposition, of course.

[Tupac Shakur]

What, so now it's just a link-posting contest?

No. I'm trying to help you educate yourself.

[MrFun]

I took the time to read the article you linked to, Tupac. Very informative - I learned a thing or two.

[Tupac Shakur]

You're welcome. You might also learn something from this...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/05/high-speed_trains_0

[Barnabas]

Trains are nice, why do you hate trains?


trains

[Barnabas]

Once oil gets very very expensive, yanks will use the train more

[Tupac Shakur]

We will have invented something better by then.