{"id":2174,"date":"2005-09-08T16:59:31","date_gmt":"2005-09-08T21:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=2174"},"modified":"2005-09-08T15:01:01","modified_gmt":"2005-09-08T20:01:01","slug":"bobby_speaks_hi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2005\/09\/08\/bobby_speaks_hi\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby speaks his mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congressman Bobby Jindal weighs in on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial section<\/a> (thanks for the tip Olinda<\/a>).  The man ain’t happy:<\/p>\n\n

There have already been a number of instances in which an overly inhibitive bureaucracy prevented an appropriate response to the disaster. For example, on Wednesday of last week a company called my office. With only three hours before rising waters would make the mission impossible, they were anxious to send a rescue helicopter for their stranded employees. They wanted to know who would give them a go-ahead.<\/p>\n

We could not identify the agency with authority<\/strong>. We heard that FEMA was in charge, that the FAA was in charge, and that the military was in charge. I went in person to talk with a FEMA representative and still could not get a straight answer. Finally we told the company to avoid interfering with Coast Guard missions, but to proceed on its own. Sometimes, asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission.<\/blockquote>\n\n

The first half of his op-ed seems to rail against big government and bureaucracy.  It’s hard to accept a Republican doing that when his traditionally government-hating party has been in charge for so long.  Maybe this means we should cut even more taxes to make the government even more efficient.  I agree with the other side in believing that years of undermining the importance of the federal government in the lives of people (especially the poor) is what contributed to a disastrous response.  <\/p>\n\n

Spending my days on the ground in Louisiana last week, I did not see much television. But I understand that some media let the violent and destructive acts of a few overshadow the many acts of compassion and heroism.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the pictures you may have seen, the vast majority of New Orleanians did not take to the street with weapons<\/strong>–far more risked their own safety to help neighbors and strangers.<\/blockquote>\n\n

I’m glad he set the record straight.  This past weekend while on a long car ride, I had the misfortune to listen to AM radio.  Every conservative crackpot radio show host seemed to be obsessed with the “widespread crimewave” in New Orleans.<\/p>\n\n

As I struggle to explain to my 3-year-old daughter why her prayers that the hurricane spare our hometown were unanswered, we as a nation must make sure that we learn from our initial mistakes and cut through the red tape to help people rebuild their homes, their hopes and their lives.<\/blockquote>\n\n

Ahh the obligatory reference to their young child.  A politician wouldn’t be a politician without this trademark.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressman Bobby Jindal weighs in on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial section (thanks for the tip Olinda).  The man ain’t happy: There have already been a number of instances in which an overly inhibitive bureaucracy prevented an appropriate response to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}