Comments on: Technocrats

By: Winds of Change.NET

Winds of Change.NET — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 12:47:14 +0000

What Didn’t Happen

Who owns a disaster like Hurricane Katrina? In a way, it’s a silly question, or perhaps a subtle one. But from my viewing of NBC InfoTainment News and reading my local Tribune Co. newspaper, the…

By: David Lawler

David Lawler — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 09:06:35 +0000

A better analysis I have not seen. I see the same problem at my company, and believe this is a continuing problem for any large organization (which the US Government is the largest). Process and process improvement are wonderful concepts, but all those technocrats out there forget that both were created for one reason…to improve our actual response to problems. All too often, both devolve into what I call “process for process’ sake” with a complete disregard for whether the response is actually improved (hell, whether there’s any response at all!). How often have you heard the phrase “We need to get the process moving again”? The need for any results/response gets forgotten in the orgy of planning and control. Had we had a few more people in State and Local government down in Louisiana and New Orleans who believed more in action than planning, we would have had much less of a problem even if nothing had “gone to plan.”

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 08:53:41 +0000

Coyote, you suck. I never get linked by Glenn.

By: California Conservative

California Conservative — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 05:42:26 +0000

Good analysis. Truth is: federal government only bears a margin of the blame. First responders are the most vital measure of effective action. Furthermore, we’re still just wondering why race is being played up as a big issue? It’s almost as though Democrats were putting politics above people. Is there an election coming or something?

By: Neolibertarian

Neolibertarian — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 00:33:02 +0000

Krauthammer on Katrina

As usual, Krauthammer provides a nice broad picture of the problems behind the response to Katrina. It seems to me the biggest problem is that the Mayor and Governor di…

By: Winds of Change.NET

Winds of Change.NET — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 14:08:55 +0000

What Didn’t Happen

Who owns a disaster like Hurricane Katrina? In a way, it’s a silly question, or perhaps a subtle one. But from my viewing of NBC InfoTainment News and reading my local Tribune Co. newspaper, the…

By: enormous iNCoNgrUiTieS

enormous iNCoNgrUiTieS — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 17:13:09 +0000

Failure of Bureaucracy

…the cause of the failure to provide timely disaster relief will be fairly obvious. The added burden of the bureaucracy of Homeland Security, along with the over-zealousness of the security precautions (think toe clippers), brought disaster relief gr…

By: Chicago Boyz

Chicago Boyz — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 02:46:54 +0000

Risk, Hindsight and Mass Evacuations

A. Scott Crawford made some good points in his comment on Shannon’s “Critical Failure” post. A lot of commentators seem to assume that governments can just order people to leave and that they will do it. A lot of them…