FEMA Director Mike Brown is a Horse's Ass

I heard a news report last night (KNX Los Angeles-CBS) that it was rumored that one of the reasons for the delay in aid reaching New Orleans was because the Bush administration and FEMA wanted Governor Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin to turn control of the disaster management over to the Feds, so that they could in turn point to a "failure" of the Democrats to manage the disaster.

Anyone got any links to that story? Can't seem to find anything online right now.

Thanks.

The horses ass was asked if he had the qualifications to be the head of FEMA. He stated he went through hurricane season last year. Is this the reason the debris was still there 10 months later when Hurricane Dennis hit them this year?

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security

like it's some kind of federal program."

- George W. Bush in a debate in St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000

From LA Times - Why FEMA Was Missing in Action

.... Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff acknowledged in interviews Sunday that Washington was insufficiently prepared for the hurricane that laid waste to New Orleans and surrounding areas. But he defended its performance by arguing that the size of the storm was beyond anything his department could have anticipated and that primary responsibility for handling emergencies rested with state and local, not federal, officials.

"Before this happened, I said … we need to build a preparedness capacity going forward," Chertoff told NBC's "Meet the Press." He added that that was something "we have not yet succeeded in doing."

Under the law, Chertoff said, state and local officials must direct initial emergency operations. "The federal government comes in and supports those officials," he said.

Chertoff's remarks, which echoed earlier statements by President Bush, prompted withering rebukes both from former senior FEMA staffers and outside experts.

"They can't do that," former agency chief of staff Jane Bullock said of Bush administration efforts to shift responsibility away from Washington. "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility…. The federal government took ownership over the response," she said. Bush declared a disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi when the storm hit a week ago.

"What's awe-inspiring here is how many federal officials didn't issue any orders," said Paul C. Light, an authority on government operations at New York University....

Full Article here

[...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR200509...

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 6, 2005

BATON ROUGE -- After a tragically incompetent beginning, the effort to give urgent care to the multitudes from New Orleans whose homes and livelihoods have been obliterated is finally in high gear. The problem now is that nobody knows where it's headed.

At the top, things are still hopeless. Federal, local and state officials who perform for the cameras here at the Louisiana State Police complex, headquarters for the relief effort, still spend an unconscionable amount of time debating who's in charge. Is the president the ultimate authority, or is it Blanco, Nagin, Chertoff, Brown or the generals? The answer seems to vary from hour to hour, depending on who's holding court in the hot, stuffy briefing room or outside on the portico, where visiting luminaries get mobbed by microphones.

Fortunately, the finger-pointing follies don't matter much on the ground and in the water. Military, police and civilian relief units did what had to be done and emptied the New Orleans basin of Hurricane Katrina's bereft survivors. They are being fed, sheltered and clothed. They can't be described as alive and well, but they're alive.

Now what?

Hundreds of thousands of evacuees are scattered around Louisiana and neighboring states in a sudden diaspora, and no one seems to have any idea what to do with them next. The evacuees bristle at the word "refugees," which makes them sound as if they don't belong in this country. But whatever you call them, they won't be able to go back home -- and won't have a home to go back to -- for months or even years.

Baton Rouge, perhaps the best example, has swollen like the Mississippi River in an epic flood. The people here have been generous and good-natured to a fault. Down by the river, at the convention center, the Red Cross is housing about 5,000 evacuees; another big shelter is being opened across town, and smaller shelters are being organized every day, many by local churches. It's impossible to count the families who have opened their homes to relatives, friends or needy strangers.

At the big shelter here in Baton Rouge on Sunday, some student volunteers from Louisiana State University took a group of children outside to get some air. The kids were using sheets of cardboard as sleds and surfboards, zooming down the grassy levee next to the Mississippi River and then scampering back uphill for another ride. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the scene warmed your heart. But those college students are going to have to go back to their classes, and then how will those kids from New Orleans spend their days?

And from one of their own websites, no less...

http://www.gop.com/Blog/BlogPost.aspx?BlogPostID=1167#3334

You assume a state can plan effectively for every emergency. There are some catastophes such as this one that are just beyond the resources (financially and other)of the state. 60% of the police in many areas did not report back to their job. If that a planning failure?

Have you listened to the recent interview with the New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin? It was one of the best interviews I have heard. Frank and to the point. He raised many valid questions concerning federal aid. Why has a week gone by and STILL the 40,000 troops promised are not in the area? Where are the food drops? Where are the water trucks? Why did it take us days to respond to Tsunami victims half a world away and even longer for those on our own soil?

Not only did the local governments realize the probable impact of the impending storm, everyone watching KNEW what the probable outcome was going to be. The federal government should not have "waited" for a request from the state before humanitarian assistance efforts began. They could have been moving resources while the storm was enroute.

Don't misunderstand me, I am a lifelong republican and fiercely devoted to my party, but if you can't take a critical look at yourself (as an administration and a party), then you need to find a different job. This is not going to go down in the history books as a "good" response.

Posted by NavyWings on Friday, September 02, 2005 9:53 AM

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/1/123536/7907

From my days in the Little Rock Boys and Girls Club and all through my years at West Point and the Army, I learned and taught that leadership means lifting people up; challenging them to push themselves to succeed where they before thought success was out of reach. That philosophy was captured well by our Army motto, "Be All You Can Be," which also means helping others to be all they can be. What we need to do as individuals and a party is to stand up and speak out to create equal opportunity for economic success. To treat others the way we want to be treated. To reach out and help those who are in pain. Most importantly, leadership means calling on others to do all these things too.

In short leadership is everything we are not getting from this White House. Instead of challenging us to push ourselves to accomplish great things, we get platitudes. We can do better than that.

I hope you had a chance to read today's editorial in the New York Times, called "Waiting for a Leader." If you haven't read it yet, please take a few minutes to do it. The Times is asking an important question. It's one I've been asking for a long time as well: Where is the leadership in America today?

With respect to Iraq, "stay the course" is only a slogan, not a strategy. What is our strategy for success in Iraq? Where is the leadership?

The president's own Republican party just passed an energy bill which has absolutely no effect on gas prices for now or the forseeable future, and moves us no further along the path to energy independence. Where is the leadership?

Every day American technology and manufacturing skills are sent abroad, along with American jobs. Where is the leadership?

Again, just this past week, there was at least 36 hours notice that a major hurricane was going to hit the Gulf Coast, including likely a devastating blow to New Orleans, which certainly came to pass. The President continued with his regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday in California, Arizona, and Texas to hold some staged Medicare events and enjoy more vacation time, while finally returning to the White House yesterday. The joint task force including National Guard set up by the Pentagon failed to be on the scene in New Orleans in a timely manner to stop the looting and assist in the evacuation. Where is the leadership?

Then just this morning, the President claimed that no one could have anticipated the levee breaches we've seen in New Orleans after Katrina hit. That's not leadership, that's an excuse. In fact, people have predicted this kind of disaster for many years, including President Bush's own FEMA in 2001, when they ranked hurricane flood damage to New Orleans among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America. Instead, funding was significantly cut back, leaving key engineering projects on hold. Instead, this Administration focused on the war in Iraq, tax cuts, and private sector economic growth without asking the American people to make needed sacrifices for the good of the country. Again I ask you, where is the leadership?

You've got to keep asking that question. What I learned about leadership is that you have to give people challenging goals and work with them and inspire them to reach them. You've got to have the courage to set goals and make a difference.

Leadership for America starts with the leader's vision of where you want the country to be. And that's the problem we have in America today. We need visionary leaders who can see the promise and potential of our country and take us there. We can find those leaders again -- and we must.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9148526/site/newsweek/

As Katrina forced President Bush to cut short his vacation, the White House is facing a perfect storm of trouble at home and abroad.

By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey

Updated: 7:30 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2005

Aug. 31, 2005 - On Tuesday, President Bush called an abrupt end to his five-week “working vacation” at his Texas ranch and announced he would return to the White House two days early to oversee federal response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. “These are trying times for the people of these communities,” Bush said Tuesday during a visit to a naval base in San Diego. “We have a lot of work to do.”

For the White House, it was interesting timing. Over the last month, administration officials have deflected criticism of Bush’s monthlong stay at his Texas ranch by making the case that technology has made it possible for Bush to run the country from anywhere, even the so-called Western White House. Indeed, the Bush ranch is equipped with highly secure videoconferencing equipment and phones, and, according to White House officials, Bush has made use of them just about every day this month to talk to senior aides back in Washington and other administration officials scattered throughout the country.

Yet Bush usually hasn’t had to go far to reach his top aides. For the last month, Karl Rove, his closest political adviser, and Joe Hagin, Bush’s deputy chief of staff, have alternated turns living in a trailer just down the driveway from Bush’s main ranch house. Other officials have come to the ranch to meet with Bush face to face, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney. All three visited Crawford to discuss war strategy with Bush earlier this month. In other words, Bush’s days in Texas aren’t all that different from his time in the Oval Office, top aides say. Vacation or not, Bush is always running the country no matter where he is. “When you’re president, you’re president 24/7,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters Wednesday.

So why is Bush going back to Washington now? When asked yesterday what Bush could do in Washington for hurricane relief that he couldn’t do from his Texas ranch, McClellan told reporters no less than five times that it was the president’s “preference” to return to the White House. Asked if the decision was more “symbolic” than logistical, McClellan said, “I disagree with the characterization.”

New Orleans Times-Picayune Open Letter to President Bush

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

HuffingtonPost via Yahoo - 10 Katrina Items Of Which Conservatives Can Be Proud
Jim Lampley
Tue Sep 6, 1:10 PM ET

Karl Rove is right. The whole thing has really been a triumph of Bush Administration management, it's just that we liberals are too blinded by our prejudices to see it. Foolishly misguided as we are, we might have thought the priorities would have been to constructively save lives and property along the Gulf Coast. Distracted as we are by what we now opportunistically call massive and tragic loss, we refuse to see the shining moments which have emerged here for conservatives.

1. "Must be doubly devastating on the ground." The President powerfully and succinctly articulated the philosophy that ties rich conservatives together in America: "Wow, real life looks like a bitch! Good thing we don't have to touch it."

2. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Well, not anyone you'd want to know, Mr. President. After all, they're scientists, and therefore dangerous.

3. "Don't buy gas unless you need it." The emergence of a comprehensive new energy policy. Loosely translates to "Buy gas for the two SUV's and the F-150, but consider holding off on the lawnmower for a week."

4. "You're doin' a great job, Brownie." Landmark FEMA response demonstrates ideal background for chief executive is coddling rich horsebreeders. May want to next put Mike Brown in charge of Social Security Administration, to pump up argument on urgent need for reform.

5. Validates Bush environmental policies. If the globe were being warmed, it would dry us out, right? All that hubbub, and the stupid liberals haven't said a word about Global Wetting. Hah!

6. No shoes amid the chaos, but new slippers for Condi. While survivors fried their feet on the asphalt of New Orleans waiting for Federal help, Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice shopped at Ferragamo in Manhattan. Those poor people in New Orleans should have gone to Stanford.

7. $500 million more for Kellogg, Brown & Root. Halliburton subsidiary gets to begin collecting on natural disaster cleanup contract it "won" (tee-hee) from the Naval Department. May even do some work for the money.

8. Another happy AWOL moment for Barbara and Jenna. Bush daughters, who have chosen to express support for their father's noble Iraq War from afar, were again MIA. Good example for young people of America, who shouldn't let messy compassion get in the way of profit motive.

9.Should boost oil company profits. Why not? Isn't this the intended, unintended, happily serendipitous or mysteriously miraculous end product of just about everything this administration does? Higher prices in the short run, more anxiety about domestic supply and therrefore even less inclination toward silly environmental restrictions, some more useful assistance for the industry in the form of emergency federal aid-- it should all turn out nicely for big oil.

10. Underlines depth of commitment to Iraq. While thousands of conservative Christians prayed for help on the Gulf Coast, their Christian-committed administration was spending more money and attention on propping up Shiite-dominated conservative Islamic government in Baghdad. Important for insurgents to see we will not let the suffering of Americans at home get in the way of spending American resources to keep fighting them.

jrushton

I'm sorry. I didn't realize that that these blogs were private amongst a small group of you, I'm a little slow sometimes.

You've made it quite obvious at this point. You've also made it quite clear that you are quite young and that you are mostly male's with just a token girl or two that you tolerate.

Have fun talking without listening. God forbid that you learn anything.

Out of sight, out of mind:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/national/nationalspecial/03fema.html?t...