perfidy

Mayor Bloomberg: nebbish. But an instinctive nanny of a nebbish in charge of a huge bureaucracy. (Kee-rist... I could be auditioning to be Spiro Agnew.... nattering nabobs of something something).

But this is even better (worse). Instapundit has noted that the website for the Department Of Homeland Security, who have been working feverishly to position themselves as the Can-Do Go-To Guys for large-scale emergencies of this very sort, still, as of 11 AM the day after the event, has NOTHING about the blackout on its homepage. Nada. The big story is still the MSBlast virus, which is like, sooooo Tuesday morning. So glad they're on the case.

[update, 4 PM] 24 hours have now passed since the blackout began. Has the Department of Homeland Security updated their website with instructions, news, tips, or an acknowledgement? You get one guess.

What's most remarkable to me is that New Yorkers aren't fazed by anything anymore. September 11th 2001 was a day when millions of people had to invent personal crisis management strategies. It was almost the worst thing that could happen to the city short of a mass-destructive event, and it seems that the hard lessons have sunk in.

Remember what happened in 1977 when the power went off in New York? You could see the fires in the Bronx for miles. Thousands of people took to the streets to loot and rampage. Crowds rioted. It was chaos. It was Detroit.

So what happens in 2003 when the power goes off? Millions of tired, confused and possibly terrified New Yorkers take to the streets in 90 degree heat and. . . deal with it. The news last night showed hordes of people. . . walking home. Thousands of stranded commuters with no way to get home. . . found a piece of sidewalk. Three guys looted in Brooklyn-- they're with the police now. All in all, a remarkable testament to the ability of humans to show some adaptability. Douglas MacArthur Shaftoe would be proud.

The Department of Homeland Security cost billions and did nothing to respond to an emergency that immobilized parts of ten states. Mayor Bloomberg can offer nothing but wildly improbable pledges to restore power within the next ten minutes and some tender hand-holding in the meanwhile. So millions of people with terrible memories of the last time things went wrong did what they have learned to do: get on with it.

There's a lesson here somewhere but darned if I can find it.