If you thought the government response last year to Hurricane Katrina was bad, stay tuned.

Blogger and Washington analyst Christian Beckner is predicting more trouble ahead, as the Bush Administration continues to ignore domestic needs and divert domestic funding while pre-emptively blaming state and local governments for impending disasters.

The Seattle Times notes a growing list of failures.

British oil company BP announced this month that severe corrosion would close its Alaska pipelines for extensive repairs. Analysts say this may sideline some 200,000 barrels a day of production for several months.

Then an instrument landing system that guides arriving planes onto a runway at Los Angeles International Airport failed for the second time in a week, delaying flights.

Those incidents followed reports that the National Security Agency (NSA), the intelligence world’s electronic eavesdropping arm, is consuming so much electricity at its headquarters outside Washington that it is in danger of exceeding its power supply.

“If a terrorist group were able to knock the NSA offline, or disrupt one of the nation’s busiest airports, or shut down the most important oil pipeline in the nation, the impact would be perceived as devastating,” Beckner said. “And yet we’ve essentially let these things happen — or almost happen — to ourselves.”

Wait, there’s more.

The Commission on Public Infrastructure at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said in a recent report that facilities are deteriorating “at an alarming rate.”

It noted that half the 257 locks operated by the Army Corps of Engineers on inland waterways are functionally obsolete, more than one-quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete, and $11 billion is needed annually to replace aging drinking-water facilities.

So how does our courageous leader respond? Does he step up to the plate and do the hard stuff? Has he ever?

President Bush, asked about the problem during a public question-and-answer session in an April visit to Irvine, Calif., cited last year’s enactment of a comprehensive law reauthorizing highway, transit and road-safety programs.

“Infrastructure is always a difficult issue,” Bush acknowledged. “It’s a federal responsibility and a state and local responsibility. And I, frankly, feel like we’ve upheld our responsibility at the federal level with the highway bill.”

What Pres. “I’ve Never Made a Mistake or At Least Taken Responsibility for It” is saying kinda sorta worked when he tried to defend himself for blowing it during Katrina. It gave the rightwing pundits something to harp on, the idea that maybe local officials were really to blame for the multi-state disaster. And as we know, if a dodge kinda sorta worked once for this idiot, he’ll trot the same horseshit out again and again.

The only problem with all the talk and no action is that in the meantime, our country is at risk. And CYA is not a policy.

“I just wish the President could have another term in Washington.” — Vaccarella, above at photo-op with Pres. Bush

Note: See UPDATE at end of this article for more on Vaccarella’s political history.

History will record that it was Pres. Bush’s egregious reaction to the Hurricane Katrina disaster that caused him to lose, and never regain, favor among voters. With the anniversary of the disaster upon us, the White House is in full damage-control mode, trying to deflect the public’s attention away from the memory of bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans while the president flitted about the country campaigning and joking around with a guitar.

Yesterday the Bush political team staged a photo op in which a “Katrina victim” who drove his FEMA trailer from St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana to Washington was “allowed” a brief audience with the president.

As Rockey Vaccarella embarked on his trip earlier this month, he infused his sojourn with dramatic tension by speculating with reporters about whether or not the president would see him when he arrived in D.C.

But as cliffhangers go, the outcome of Rockey’s trip was all too predictable. Dear Leader did break away from his busy schedule to give an audience to his loyal common, albeit a hurried handshake in front of cameras outside the palace. For this momentous occasion, Vaccarella made a statement that might strike a cynical observer as having been written by a White House political operative:

You know, it’s really amazing when a small man like me from St. Bernard Parish can meet the President of the United States. The President is a people person. I knew that from the beginning. I was confident that I could meet President Bush.

Rockey concluded with this chilling aspiration:

…I just wish the President could have another term in Washington.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Rockey’s visit was thoroughly stage-managed by the Bush team, with dinner at the White House and other appointments for Vaccarella scheduled well in advance. It also shouldn’t surprise us to learn that other than being a “small man…from St. Bernard Parish,” Vaccarella is a wealthy business man and erstwhile Republican politician.

Will Bunch at Attytood has this great play by play of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the White House political machine grinding its gears — and one doltish CNN reporter gobbling it up, hook, line and sinker:

[…]

I think Katrina — the response to Katrina was effectively the end to the President’s presidency in the sense that people all of a sudden saw the small man behind the curtain.

People in America and throughout the rest of the world for a long time have believed that Americans can fix anything, that we’re better organized and better managed — managed better than anybody, and that if something really awful happens, call on the Americans.

And for the first time in our lifetime and in the world’s lifetime, since World War II — since before World War II — we suddenly saw an American president just descend into failure.

And I don’t think he’s ever recovered from that.

– DNC Chair Howard Dean on CNN today

“Diamond” Pat Robertson has had a “come to Jesus” on global warming:

Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson said on Thursday the wave of scorching temperatures across the United States has converted him into a believer in global warming.

“We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels,” Robertson said on his “700 Club” broadcast. “It is getting hotter, and the icecaps are melting and there is a buildup of carbon dioxide in the air.”

This week the heat index, the perceived temperature based on both air temperatures and humidity, reached 115 Fahrenheit in some regions of the U.S. East Coast. The 76-year-old Robertson told viewers that was “the most convincing evidence I’ve seen on global warming in a long time.”

It says everything you need to know about Pat Robertson that he was not swayed by years of scientific data, but rather by the thermometer outside his home in Virginia. (If there’s a record-breaking cold spell this winter, will he change his mind?)

Still, if he can convince the thousands of under-educated, easily influenced sheeple who send him 10 percent of their Social Security checks every month that the crisis is real, that is a net positive for the planet.

Whatever it takes.

Help wanted: Tropical Storm Alberto ushered in the 2006 hurricane season with a splash a couple of weeks ago, heralding the beginning of what will likely be an active period for tropical cyclones over the next five months. Alberto also marked the passing of an arbitrary deadline — when the Federal Emergency Management Agency was supposed to have a full complement of staff.

According to GoveExec.com, the agency has responded to missing its third deadline by announcing that it would no longer set deadlines for full employment.

In a briefing Friday with reporters, FEMA Director R. David Paulison said the agency has hired about 85 percent of the workers it needs. This is the same percentage he offered when asked by a reporter May 23 about progress toward a goal of reaching 95 percent of capacity before June 1, when the hurricane season began.

Initially, the agency set a mid-May deadline for meeting that goal. Paulison pushed that date back to June 1, and the agency further delayed it to July, according to a FEMA fact sheet given to reporters last month.

Paulison took responsibility for the delays even though he’s been on the job less than a month. But his taking the blame while offering no solutions didn’t sit well with the House Homeland Security and Government Reform committees, which recently assumed oversight of FEMA because of its continued staff vacancies.

“One thing that the Department of Homeland Security has kept consistent is its inability to be straightforward,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the homeland security panel’s ranking member. “We really have a case of ‘FEMA gone wild’ over there, if leaders can’t even give us a straight answer on how many people are on staff and when we will have an effective fully staffed FEMA.”

Well, if the goal is “an effective fully staffed FEMA,” don’t hold your breath. Heck, those of us who live in Hurricane Alley would settle for just an “effective FEMA.”

Hello Alberto: With the first hurricane of the season heading toward Florida’s west coast, representing, by the way, the first missed forecast of the season (they said it wouldn’t become a hurricane), the first of the “funny” e-mails has started circulating. While I don’t know the provenance of this (though it sounds like Dave Barry), it is at least mildly amusing — at least to us beleagured Floridians looking ahead at the next five and a half months.

Hurricane Preparedness

To: ex-Floridians, present Floridians, and future Floridians or those who know a Floridian.

We’re about to enter the 2006 hurricane season. Any day now, you’re going to turn on the TV and see a weather person pointing to some radar blob out in the Gulf of Mexico and making two basic meteorological points:

(1) There is no need to panic.
(2) We could all be killed.

Yes, hurricane season is an exciting time to be in Florida. If you’re new to the area, you’re probably wondering what you need to do to prepare for the possibility that we’ll get hit by “the big one.”

Based on our experiences, we recommend that you follow this simple three-step hurricane preparedness plan:

STEP 1. Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.

STEP 2. Put these supplies into your car.

STEP 3. Drive to Nebraska and remain there until Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, statistics show that most people will not follow this sensible plan. Most people will foolishly stay here in Florida. […]

Mystified at how the presidents of the United States and Exxon/Mobil can continue to poo-poo global warming in the face of conclusive evidence?

Well let’s think about this. For what would these greedy bastards be willing to throw away the planet? That’s right — money, money, and more money. The Week:

With average temperatures in the Arctic rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world, climate scientists predict the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by the summer of 2050…

The melting of the ice could shut down the Gulf Stream and wreak havoc with the world’s coasts and climate. It would spell potential disaster for traditional Arctic communities, for ecosystems, and for plant and animal species—polar bears would drown or starve, and the species could become extinct.

That sounds awful. But wait, there’s an upside. Or should I say, an angle?

The melting ice cap represents a colossal commercial opportunity. Russian icebreakers are already preparing to take tourists to the Pole for $30,000 each this summer, and the thaw could open up some highly lucrative shipping routes. A northeast sea route, north of Siberia, would allow shipping to sail from Europe to northeast Asia, cutting the journey by a third; and the fabled Northwest Passage through Canada’s Arctic archipelago could be open to shipping in a few decades, cutting the journey from Europe to East Asia (now routed through the Panama Canal) by 4,000 miles. The greatest profits, however, are likely to be found under the ice.

Hmmm…and what could they be?

Oil and natural gas. A quarter of the world’s untapped fossil fuels (including 375 billion barrels of oil) are thought to lie under the Arctic, and will become accessible as the ice melts. Industry experts now talk of a “black gold rush,” as companies such as BP Amoco, Statoil of Norway, and the Russian giant Gasprom all race to tap already discovered reservoirs in the region. The Arctic, says Moscow-based energy analyst Christopher Weafer, “is the next energy frontier.”

Oh, this is just too depressing. The writers go on to explain the standing whereby countries that border the North Pole — including us — will stake claims to all that treasure. Everyone has until 2009 to call dibs with the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.