Jophiel wrote:
What reasons are there for blocking an independent investigation into one of the largest disasters in our nation's history and one that involved all levels of government?
Because they cost a lot of money? Because in many cases, and especially in a politically charged issue, "independant investigation" becomes another way to say "we're going to hire our own experts to come up with a conclusion that blames the other guy..."?
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Call me cynical, but the only reason I can think of is that someone decided the potential fallout from blocking an independent investigation would be less than the potential fallout from what such an investigation would dig up.
Call me cynical as well, but while you're undoubtably correct, that still avoids the issue as to whether an "independant" investigation is really synonymous with an "unbiased" investigation.
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When every Pubbie vote is to block an independent investigation and keep it in the hands of the Republican controlled Congress* to investigate the response and see where the blame fell on the Republican controlled federal level or on the Democratic controlled local/state level then, yes, I have a hard time believing it would be unbiased.
Ok. So now we're talking about bias. Here's the deal though. A Congressional investigation will undoubtably be handled in the same way that Congressional Comittee's are managed. There's equal representation of all parties, and the results are based on a consensus of that committee (or investigation in this case). Who has a majority in the congress as a whole has very little effect on the decisions made in the committees. That's the whole point. Since this isn't something to be voted on after the fact, the makeup of the entire congress really doesn't matter. It's the findings of those selected to be on the investiation committee that matter, and that will be bi-partisan.
What we're seeing is a classic bit of misdirection. And this is not a Liberal or Conservative issue. It's something that's always done in situations like this. The minority party always calls for independant investigations. They don't do it because the findings of an independant investigation are going to be any more accurate or any less biased, but because the mere act of requesting one gives them a political point to use against the majority. In other words, they're banking on people like you looking at the majority not wanting to do an independant investigation and assuming it has some special meaning.
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Given that the current commission has the ability to block any subpeonas requested by the Democrats, yeah I find it hard to imagine a nonbiased judgement.
It has the same power to block subpeonas from Republicans. What's your point? The fact is that the members of the investigation committee have the power to actually investigate while avoiding politicising of the issue, where an independant investigation may not. Or has it not occured to you that one party could flood an independant investigation with requests for subpeonas and testimony purely to muddle the facts and resulting findings as much as possible? Or just to delay and increase the cost of the investigation? Or just to use later as another point to show that the investigation wasn't fair? There are a lot of problems with so-called "independant investigations".
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Given that 76% of the public was in favor of an independent investigation, it wouldn't seem I'm in some far Left wing activist rabid Bush hating minority on this.
Sure. But the masses *always* want things that sounds more fair (sounding more fair being the operative point here). Just because the masses think something is better, doesn't make it so. 76% of the population would vote for everyone to get free ponies if that was put to them. That doesn't mean that's a good use of our government's resources...
The fact is that in most cases, an independant investigation is just a more expensive and time consuming way of arriving at pretty much the same conclusion. The ability of each "side" to unfairly influence the outcome is identical. If anything, it's more likely in the independant investigation since you can't see the political connections involved. In a congressional investigation, we can insist on equitable representation of all sides on the investigative panel. In an independant one, we have to trust that those put in place represent all "sides" of the issue fairly, but we don't have an easy way to know this (like counting up the number with an (R) after their names instead of a (D) for example).
And on an even more cynical note, let's flip it around. You assume that the Republican controlled Congress wants a Congressional investigation so that they can ensure that their guys are exonerated and the local Democrats are blamed. Ok. That's great. But that assumes that the Federal Government (mostly Rep run) really is to blame, and the local Democrats aren't. Ever consider the fact that it's pretty obvious that the locals screwed up big time, everyone involved *knows* that any fair investigation will show that, but the Dems are pulling out the "independant investigation" card purely because they know that's the only way they can possibly influence the investigation so as to spin the blame another direction? In other words, they know that in any fair investigation, they'll end up being blamed, so it doesn't cost them anything to try to change the investigators. There's at least a chance that they can manipulate an independant one, where they know they can't do anything in this case. And if they fail to get the indpendant investigation, they can always argue that they didn't get a fair shake in Congress...
Sorry. My money's on that explanation. It just makes more sense. From what I've seen so far, it's not like it's going to be a hard sell to proove absolute incompetance at the local level was the primary cause of the disaster (aside from the hurricane itself of course!). The Republicans have no need to cook the investigation. Everything is already pointing in their favor. The Dems have everything to gain and nothing to lose by *trying* to cook the investigation though. And an independant investigation gives them as shot at that...
