mismanagement

America’s Worst Idea?

by Iain Murray on July 16, 2009 · 2 comments

in Culture, Environment, Private Conservation, Zeitgeist

I’m very sorry to see that Ken Burns’ new film series is to be entitled The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. As I detail extensively in my book The Really Inconvenient Truths, the nationalization of so much wonderful scenery has led to appalling mismanagement and environmental degradation.  When the Parks Service and Forest Service spent hours in 1988 debating whether or not a fire counted as “natural” because it started from a lighning bolt striking a telegraph pole, large areas of Yellowstone National Park burned to ashes.  Another park service biologist, Don Despain, saw the flames raging towards his research area and urged them on with the words, “Burn, baby, burn.”  These are the tales I can’t imagine you’ll see in Burns undoubtedly beautiful film, but they’re as much a part of the National Park story as the scenery.

For more detailed critique of the National Parks idea, see work by RJ Smith, such as this testimony, where he says:

For decades we have known about the deplorable fact that the National Park Service was far more interested in following a path of ever more land acquisition, and that caring for the lands they had was at best an afterthought. The administration of President Ronald Reagan and Interior Secretary James Watt attempted, mainly unsuccessfully, to stop additional land acquisition until the government could demonstrate that it could be a good steward of the lands it already owned.

Despite their beauty, the National Parks have not been an unalloyed good.  For the very reason that they explicitly reject private stewardship, they may even count as one of America’s worst ideas.

FEMA — Fraudulent Emergency Mismanagement Agency

by Jonathan Tolman on January 15, 2009 · 1 comment

in Odds & Ends, Politics as Usual

President Bush has declared an emergency in the District of Columbia for the inauguration of his successor. This unprecedented move will allow FEMA to reimburse state and local governments. In reality the DC government doesn’t really view the inaugural as an emergency so much as a reason to throw a giant 5 day party. In December the DC city council passed emergency legislation allowing all bars, restaurants, and nightclubs to serve alcohol until 5 am and to stay open for 24 hours from January 17th through January 20th.

Given the number of people expected to attend the inaugural this is pretty much a security nightmare for the metropolitan police. Since this is a larger than usual inaugural, the $15 million that Congress has already appropriated to the DC government is already spoken for. Which means the DC government is on the hook for paying the triple overtime for the police, fire and ambulance services that they would need so people can keep drinking and partying into the wee hours of the morning. By declaring an emergency FEMA can now reimburse DC for security, public health and safety related expenses (at 100 percent federal funding) during the emergency. And guess when the declared emergency is? January 17th through January 21st. Coincidence? I think not.

Now I have no problem with DC wanting to throw a big party. I just don’t think that the American taxpayers should foot the bill. Bush declaring such an emergency is beyond the pale.