2. San Francisco

You have seen and will continue to see a persistent effort by politically-motivated right-wingers to discredit Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin. Part of that effort unfortunately was broadcast on Air America Radio the other day, as Rachel Maddow filled in for Al and Katherine and got kind of sideswiped by a bad guest.

One of the charges I've read today is that Gov. Blanco was more concerned with how the bureaucracy was going to work than how to keep people safe, that she refused help from the federal government because she didn't want to relinquish control. I haven't researched the charge's validity because it doesn't matter.

In December 2001, Houston Chronicle science writer Eric Berger reported that FEMA had warned that the top three crises the United States faced were: Earthquake in San Francisco, hurricane and subsequent flooding in New Orleans, and terrorist attack in New York. This report is now getting a lot of play, from Sid Blumenthal on down. Unfortunately, I can't find documentation of it beyond Berger's piece, and Berger himself on his blog says he doesn't have anything right now to back it up. Funny, FEMA doesn't seem to want to address it.

I believe Berger, but even without the FEMA report in hand, there's other evidence that we had a good ideer that this was gonna happen. The Post reports that national emergency workers were concerned about FEMA's tooth extraction under the new DHS. And, hey, President Bush should take in my favorite indy weekly, Durham's Independent. They took a look at FEMA nearly a year ago.

Regardless: Imagine you're the president, and your emergency management agency says that the top three potential crises your country faces are THESE. And then, shortly thereafter, one of THESE actually happens.

If you possess one scintilla of competence, you start working pretty hard on the other two, don't you?

You might, say, develop a strong working relationship with the governors of California and Louisiana and with the mayors of New Orleans and San Francisco. You might fly those people to Washington, D.C. once in awhile and have a meeting with them, and say, by the way, if one of THESE happens in your state, do you mind if the federales come on in and help you?

For that matter: If I'm President of the United States, and the United States has just been hit by one of the Most Disasterous Things To Ever Happen To Any Country Ever, I might consider the notion of trying to identify some OTHER possible disasters and to work on plans for those, too.

I'd especially want to do that if I was elected to office partially due to promises that I would keep the United States of America safe and the other guy wouldn't.

I admit fully that I am writing about these issues on a weblog that is politically driven. But this isn't about politics, and it hasn't always been about politics for me. I was proud of George W. Bush when he found his voice and threw it into the bullhorn in New York after September Eleventh. I felt profoundly the urgency of the French media's expression that now we were all Americans. Not Democrats, not Republicans. Americans. And I feel the same way now, but today, it is in a much different context.

I have recently been accused in this forum of offering a lot of whining and not a lot of solutions. For one, this is a load of crap. I offered my solution last year: Vote for John Kerry. Not enough heeded it, and now, here we are. So go out and vote Democrat in 2006 and in 2008. That's my first solution.

My second solution: Let us start pressing harder for a more proactive government. Write to and call your president and your congressmen and insist that they start laying down plans for an all-out evacuation of San Francisco during a level 8 earthquake. Insist to them that, after the ongoing hurricane relief, a plan for San Francisco is this nation's top priority. Suggest that the White House should retain a small staff of seismologists and other experts to plan hard for The Big One. If that list of three did actually exist, let's push our government to at least not screw up the third one when it comes.

While you're at it, you might ask them what's been done about the power grid. Remember the power grid?

The holders of power in the United States of America do not understand that we want them to be our eyes and ears and our goalies, first and foremost and no matter what the threat or the nature of the threat. They do not somehow grasp that Americans do not want to be beset by television images of crying, screaming, hungry, thirsty and dying old people, babies, and people in general, going on within driving distance, and that we consider this level of service from our government so essential that we did not previously think we had to tell them that it's what we wanted.

Apparently, we do. Look around. Think outside the box. Get downright paranoid for a minute. Think about what manmade or natural disasters await you and your community. Write down what you come up with. Then call your government and tell them that you want it fixed. I'm starting tomorrow.