FEMA Director Incompetent

[Nickdfresh]

IN KATRINA'S WAKE
FEMA chief fired
from previous job
Michael Brown oversaw horse shows, had no significant disaster experience
Posted: September 5, 2005
2:24 p.m. Eastern


© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com (http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46155)


FEMA Director Michael Brown

The Federal Emergency Management Agency official in charge of the New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.

And before joining FEMA as a deputy director in 2001, Mike Brown, the Republican Party activist, had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position. But the Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.

"I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' a furious Gov. Mitt Romney told the Boston Herald, calling the response "an embarrassment.''

Even President Bush, after touring the devastated area, said he was "not satisfied'' with the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation. Members of Congress predicted there would be hearings on Capitol Hill over the mishandled operation.

Brown – formerly an estates and family lawyer – this week has made several public admissions, including interviews where he suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.

"We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. "This was his full-time job ... for 11 years,'' she added.

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

"He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time.

Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign.

The White House last night defended Brown's appointment. A spokesman noted Brown served as FEMA deputy director and general counsel before taking the top job, and that he has now overseen the response to "more than 164 declared disasters and emergencies,'' including last year's record-setting hurricane season.

As WorldNetDaily reported, New Orleans' local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, is blasting President Bush for his handling of response to Hurricane Katrina, and is calling for heads to roll within his administration.

"Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially," the paper stated in an open letter to Bush in its Sunday edition.

[DrMaddVibe]

Nick, you're incompetent but yet you still post here.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
Nick, you're incompetent but yet you still post here.

Dance for me my little BitchhVibe...;)


BTW, at least I know how to provide links to whatever I post...

[Warham]

Can we fire the mayor of New Orleans, as well as the Governor of Louisiana?

[DrMaddVibe]

I put this in another thread...but so more people see it...



Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 11:38 p.m. EDT

Mayor Nagin: Gov. Blanco Delayed Rescue

After days of blaming the federal officials for not responding quickly enough to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised President Bush on Monday - and charged that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had delayed federal rescue efforts by 24-hours.

"I'm so happy that the president came down here," Nagin said of Bush's Friday visit to Louisiana in an interview with CNN. "He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action."

But Nagin had harsh words for his state's leaders, telling CNN: "What the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate."

The New Orleans Democrat said he urged Bush to meet privately with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the visit. The meeting took place aboard Air Force One, he said.

After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

[Nickdfresh]

Well the governor deserves to go down...

The Mayor, I dunno.'

But those levees should have been built strong enough to withstand a Cat 5....And that was ARMY CORP of ENGINEERS.

P.S. Or actually the people that failed to fund them...

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
I put this in another thread...but so more people see it...



Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 11:38 p.m. EDT

Mayor Nagin: Gov. Blanco Delayed Rescue

After days of blaming the federal officials for not responding quickly enough to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised President Bush on Monday - and charged that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had delayed federal rescue efforts by 24-hours.

"I'm so happy that the president came down here," Nagin said of Bush's Friday visit to Louisiana in an interview with CNN. "He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action."

But Nagin had harsh words for his state's leaders, telling CNN: "What the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate."

The New Orleans Democrat said he urged Bush to meet privately with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the visit. The meeting took place aboard Air Force One, he said.

After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

Maybe you can actually post the link? Because I actually saw that interview, NAGIN didn't "praise president Bush" although he did place a lot of blame onto the governor...

He also said BUSH's people like RUMSFELD, BROWN, and others on his staff were liars that failed to tell him the extent of the disaster. I noticed they left that part out as they try to place all the blame on the local and state politicians...

Say MaddVibe, seriously, do you think you FL state and locals are geared to handle a disaster of this magnitude?

[DrMaddVibe]

You afraid I cut somethoug out or added something?

Here...

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/5/234033.shtml

As far as Florida goes...69 feet below sea level in the gulf region...its not rocket science. Andrew was a wake-up call to builders here in Florida.

Live and learn...also we take evacuations a little more serious than inventing a new cocktail and throwing a party.

They've had decades to repair or rebuild the levee system. Nobody wanted to pay for it. Especially from the local and state government!

[Nickdfresh]

Clinton: Government 'failed' people

Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 9:49 p.m. EDT (01:49 GMT)

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/09/05/clinton.katrina/story.clinton.jpg
Former President Bill Clinton spoke to CNN on Monday.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/clinton.katrina/index.html)) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure." (See interview -- 2:32 )

He and former President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help raise money for those left homeless by the storm. (Full story)

Clinton is just the latest in a long line of critics who have blasted the federal government for not moving fast enough to help people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast one week ago as a Category 4 hurricane.

He said that the utmost priority was saving people now -- and evaluating the mistakes in the months to come.

"We've got the departments on the ground, we've got the military on the ground, we've got a chance to do it right now, and we should do it right," he said. "And then in an appropriate time we should analyze what went wrong and why and what changes should be made."

As with the 9/11 commission charged with looking at the events leading up to and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Clinton suggested a bipartisan Katrina commission be formed. It would investigate what went wrong and determine "what is the best structure and what are the best personnel decisions" to make in emergency management, he said.

The elder Bush echoed Clinton's sentiment, telling CNN's Larry King that he is "not satisfied" with the handling of the hurricane's aftermath.

Nonetheless, he defended his son's performance.

"What can he do? He can just go out and do what he's doing today, showing that the federal government's involved, has been involved, will continue to be involved ... He cannot listen to every critic from the editorial page of The New York Times," the elder Bush said.

[DrMaddVibe]

http://twistypassages.com/media/nagintranscript.html

(The following is a transcript of an interview between WWL radio's Garland Robinette and New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin. The very beginning of the interview is cut off. I apologize for the crappy MS Word html. I spellchecked it in Word and by the time I was done I was too tired to format it into more readable code so I just left it the way it was.)



Nagin: - to give me executive powers. To authorize me to dictate and manage military resources down here and Ill fix this for you. You call him right now and you call the governor and you tell them to delegate the powers that they had to the mayor of New Orleans and we'll get this damn thing fixed. It's politics man and they're playing games and they're spinning. They're out there spinning for the cameras.



Garland: Can't they just, if, if nothing else look at 25% of their energy coming from the state is not flowing through the pipelines. We're on the verge of anarchy. Can't they understand if nothing else that they're going to be hurt politically?



Nagin: I don’t know what they're doing. I mean their air-conditioning must be good because I haven't had any in five days. And maybe there's some smoke coming out of the air conditioning units that's clogging some folks' vision.

Garland: Have you talked to the president?

Nagin: I've talked directly with the president. I've talked to the head of the homeland security. I've talked to everybody under the sun. I've been out there man. I flew these helicopters, been in the crowds talking to people crying don't know where their relatives are. I've done it all, man and I tell you man, Garland, I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming. That is coming. And my answer to that today is "BS". Where is the beef? Cause there is no beef in this city. There's no beef anywhere in southeast Louisiana and these god damn ships that are coming - I don’t see them.

Garland: What did you say to the president of the United States and what did he say to you?

Nagin: I basically told him we had an incredible, uh, crisis here and that his flying over in air force one does not do it justice and I have been all around this city and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect. You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics man, old ladies, when you pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and there standing in there in water up to their freakin neck and they don’t have a clue what’s going on down here. They flew down here one time, two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras AP reporters, all kind of goddamned, excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.


Garland: Did you say to the president of the United States, "I need the military in here?"

Nagin: I said I need everything. Now I will tell you this, and I give the president some credit on this: he sent one John Wayne dude down here that could get some stuff done and his name is General Honoré and he came off the goddanged chopper and he started cussing and people started moving. And he’s getting some stuff done. They oughta give that guy, if they don’t want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done and we can save some people.


Garland: What do you need right now to take control of the situation?

Nagin: I need reinforcements. I need troops man. I need five hundred buses man. They’re talking about, you know, one of the briefings we had you know they were talking about getting uh, uh you know public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here. I’m like you gotta be kidding me! This is a national disaster. Get every doggone greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans. That’s, they're thinking small man, and this is a major major major deal. And I can’t emphasize it enough man. This is crazy! I’ve got 15 to 20 thousand people over at the convention center, its bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines parish, they’re air-vacing people here over to New Orleans. We don’t have anything and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines parish. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s awful down here man.

Garland: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding news conferences on it, but can't do anything until Kathleen Banco requests him to do it and do you know whether she has made that request?

Nagin: I have no idea what they’re doing but, uh, I will tell you this: you know God is looking down on all this and if they’re not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price, because every day that we delay people are dying. And they’re dying by the hundreds I’m willing to bet you. There are, we're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart from people saying, "I’ve been in my attic I can’t take it anymore. The water is up to my, up to my neck. I don’t think I can hold out.” And that’s happening as we speak. You know what really upsets me Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th street canal issue. We said please, please take care of this. We don’t care what you do. Figure it out.

Garland: Who’d you say that to?

Nagin: Everybody. You know, the governor, homeland security, FEMA. You name it we said it. And you know they allowed that pumping station next to it, pumping station 6 to go underwater. Our sewage and water board people (**I could not make out this name**) stayed there and endangered their lives. And what happened when that pumping station went down? The water started flowing again in the city and it started getting to levels that probably killed more people. In addition to that we had water flowing through the pipes in this city. That’s a power station over there. So there’s no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans parish so a critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.

Garland: Why couldn’t they drop the 3000 pound sandbags or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just couldn’t be done?

Nagin: They said that there were some pulleys that they had to manufacture but, you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative. You figure out ways to get stuff done. And they told me that they went overnight and they built 17, 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys on them and they were going to drop 'em. I flew over that thing yesterday and it’s in the same shape that it was after the storm hit. There was nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning and people are dying down here.

Garland: If some of the public called and they’re right that there’s a law that the president, that the federal government, can’t do anything without local or state request, would you request martial law?

Nagin: I’ve already, I’ve already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.

Garland: Did the governor do that too?

Nagin: Uh, I don’t know. I don’t think so. Uh, but we called for martial law when we realize that the looting was getting out of control. We redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dirt...dead tired from saving people but they worked all night because we thought this thing was gonna blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources and we held it under check. I’m not sure if we can do that another night with the current resources. And I am telling you right now, they’re showing all these reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff and they are doing that, but people are desperate and they’re trying to find food and water. The majority of them. Now, you got some knuckleheads out there and they are taking advantage of this lawless...this situation where we can’t really control it and they are doing some awful, awful things but that’s a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive. And you’ve gotta, one of the things, nobody's talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me. And that’s why we were having an escalation in murders. People don’t want to talk about this but I’m going to talk about it. You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix. And that’s the reason why they were breaking into hospitals and drug stores. They’re looking for something to take the edge of their jones, if you will. And right now they don’t have anything to take the edge off and they’ve probably found guns. So what you’re seeing is drug starving crazy addicts. Drug addicts that are wreaking havoc and we don’t have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we are not overrun.

Garland: Well you and I must be in the minority because apparently there’s a section of our citizenry out there that thinks, uh, because of the law that says that the federal government can’t come in unless requested by the proper people that everything that has been going on up until this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.

Nagin: Really?

Garland: I know you don’t feel that way

Nagin: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did they go through a formal process to request? Uh, you know, did Iraq, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important? This is, you know, I'll tell you man, I, I'm probably gonna get in a whole bunch of trouble. I’m probably going to get into so much trouble it aint even funny. They probably won’t even want to deal with me after this interview is over –

Garland: You and I will be in the funny place together.

Nagin: - but we authorized 8 billions dollars to go to Iraq lickity quick. After 9-11 we gave the president unprecedented powers lickity quick to take care of New York and other places. Now you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique - when you mention New Orleans everywhere around the world everybody’s eyes light up - you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying everyday that we can’t figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man. You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly. And I don’t know whose problem it is. I don t know whether it’s the governor’s problem. I don’t know whether it’s the president’s problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out. Right now.

Garland: What can we do here?

Nagin: Keep talking about it.

Garland: Ok, we’ll do that. What else can we do?

Nagin: Organize people to write letters, make calls to -

Garland: Emails

Nagin: - to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous. And I don’t want to see anybody do anymore goddamned press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don’t do another press conference until the resources are in this city and then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can’t even count. Don’t tell me 40,000 people are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something! Let’s fix the biggest goddamned crisis in the history of this country.

Garland: I’ll say it right now: you’re the only politician that’s called and called for arms like this. And if, whatever it takes - the governor, the president, whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes - I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.

Nagin: Well, I hope so Garland. I am just...I’m at the point now where it don't matter. People are dying (Nagin’s voice cracks). They don’t have homes. They don’t have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same in this time.


**Here there are several seconds where neither man speaks. Quiet crying can be heard.***

Garland (openly crying): We're both pretty speechless here. Yeah, I don’t know what to say.

Nagin (voice breaking): I gotta go.

Garland: Ok. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.

http://www.zen41771.zen.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/WWL-AM%20Interview%20Nagin.mp3

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
"I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' a furious Gov. Mitt Romney told the Boston Herald, calling the response "an embarrassment.''



Yeah, no shit.

:gulp:

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Warham
Can we fire the mayor of New Orleans, as well as the Governor of Louisiana?

Yeah, no shit.

:gulp:

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
I put this in another thread...but so more people see it...



Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 11:38 p.m. EDT

Mayor Nagin: Gov. Blanco Delayed Rescue

After days of blaming the federal officials for not responding quickly enough to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised President Bush on Monday - and charged that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had delayed federal rescue efforts by 24-hours.

"I'm so happy that the president came down here," Nagin said of Bush's Friday visit to Louisiana in an interview with CNN. "He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action."

But Nagin had harsh words for his state's leaders, telling CNN: "What the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate."

The New Orleans Democrat said he urged Bush to meet privately with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the visit. The meeting took place aboard Air Force One, he said.

After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

That damned mayor is a piece of work. Blaming everyone but HIMSELF.

What an ass. He did NOTHING to get those people out before the Hurricane struck. What a boob. I'd have more respect for the guy if he wasn't casting so many lightning bolts at everyone else. His police department wasn't exactly a role model for others to follow in this crisis.

:gulp:

[FORD]

This was posted at Democratic Underground. And I couldn't say it any better myself.......


Denali Democrat Donating Member (260 posts)
Mon Sep-05-05 11:33 PM
Original message

Fuck you George, you sonofabitch

I work for the Corps of Engineers. I have advanced degrees in toxicology and environmental science. I work for my government because I want to make a difference. I try hard to clean up the environment. I try to make the right choice, not the popular choice. I try to use my experience and education to guide my decisions, and I look for imput from those around me. This is how I serve my country.

Fuck you George Bush. Fuck you for cutting our budget. People in my office have gone to Iraq, Afgahnistan, and we were there to help out at the tsunami. We are not perfect, but we try. You cut our budges to $.20 on the dollar.

Fuck you George for making me attend stupid meetings were Army Generals try to recruit us to go to Iraq for a $5,000 temporary raise while your cronies at Haliburton get $900 per day. Fuck you for letting my countrymen die so you could finance your vanity war.

Fuck you for trying to "outsource" my job, and making me PROVE to you that I can do it cheaper. I am not on the take. I will never be rich. I do not have aspirations to be. You make me waste taxpayer dollars doing this shit when I should be cleaning up the environment.

Fuck you George for passing the buck. You are a coward who has hidden in daddy's wallet and behind momma's skirt your entire life. You are not a cowboy. I grew up around cowboys, you are not one of them. You are priveledge youth who spent their youth and most of their adult life indulging in drugs and alcholog and all other sorts of illicit behavior. I am self made. No one ever gave me a damned thing except a hard time. What I have, I earned.

and finally........

Fuck you George for pretending to be a man of God. You are greedy, you are lazy, you are arrogant, and you are vain. As I see it, you are ripe with four of the seven deadly sins. You mock my God every time you invoke his name. You are nothing like the Christ in my Bible, you lack compassion, humility, and meekness. You should pray for your own soul, that the Lord have mercy on it when the time comes, because you have failed.

I am a federal employee. I serve my country proudly and to the best of the abilities God has given me. I will not sit by quietly and take the blame for your shortcomings.

Fuck you George.

[Warham]

If that guy works for the Army Corps, Lucky works for the CIA. ;)

[Angel]

I HATE what your administration has done to your poor citizens! What the fuck are you guys going to do about it?

Are there any other non-US citizens willing to volunteer to help the poor if, God forbid, a civil war was to break out? My family has already been told that I'm down there in a second to help my American brothers and sisters!

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Angel
I HATE what your administration has done to your poor citizens! What the fuck are you guys going to do about it?

Are there any other non-US citizens willing to volunteer to help the poor if, God forbid, a civil war was to break out? My family has already been told that I'm down there in a second to help my American brothers and sisters!

Geez. :rolleyes:

Give it a rest already.

:gulp:

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by Warham
Can we fire the mayor of New Orleans, as well as the Governor of Louisiana?

Yes.

It occurs in what we call ELECTIONS

Try Google ;)


Now, instead of dodging the TRUTH as you usually do, why not just come right out and ADMIT it.


You are ASHAMED as the rest of us at FEMA and the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity.

Just admit it. THEY FUCKED UP BIG TIME.

Just admit it this ONCE, war









Just this ONCE :rolleyes:

[Warham]

FEMA acted late in this case, and deserve plenty of blame, but I blame the city and state MORE. Democratic Party sanctuaries, I might add.

[LoungeMachine]

Gee, I wonder how FEMA and DOHS will do in case of a "terrorist" attack on a dam or another levee system.

Good thing Michael and Michael are on the job, eh Warpig?

If you're proud of how your REPUBLICAN APPOINTED Fema and Homeland Security "leaders" acted, then you're worse than I thought.

If that's possible....

[Warham]

I'm not proud of how anyone acted, but like I said, I blame the CITY and STATE more. They deserve the majority of the blame.

[Nitro Express]

With more of these wars and disasters, the United States may indeed fall into civil war. We already have some conservative religiouse kooks in South Carolina who want to separate from the Union.

If you look at the voting population, we are split right down the middle on political, moral, and religiouse ideology. All we have to do is get pissed off enough at one another to where the bullets start flying.

It might be fun though. I would like to see Ted Nugent and Gordon Liddy take on Michael Moore and Al Franken. I suggest a very high caliber weapon or a high powered bow for Michael Moore. He's so fucking fat you are going to need bucko penetration. I don't think Gordon Liddy would shoot Al Franken. They are actually friends; even though, they don't see eye to eye on political issues. The Detroit Madman would kill Al Franken and Gorden Liddy for being friend with the liberal smart ass. Heck, the nuge would probably make jerky out of both of them.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Warham
I'm not proud of how anyone acted, but like I said, I blame the CITY and STATE more. They deserve the majority of the blame.

I BLAME 'EM ALL! The difference is if a bomb goes off in my backyard, neither the NEW ORLEAN's city gov't nor the LOUISIANA State gov't is supposed to respond to it!

WTF was FEMA/DHS doing for four fucking days?!

[ELVIS]

"Religiouse kooks" ??


Teeheehee...:D

[Warham]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
I BLAME 'EM ALL! The difference is if a bomb goes off in my backyard, neither the NEW ORLEAN's city gov't nor the LOUISIANA State gov't is supposed to respond to it!

WTF was FEMA/DHS doing for four fucking days?!

Why can't the state respond to it? The Governor, not the President of the United States, has the call to bring in National Guard troops. First responders should always be state and local governments. What the hell are they there for, if not to respond?

I can see this might not go anywhere. You seem to advocate the federal government trampling all over states' rights, and interfering with state protocols in most cases. It's not really surprising though, it's not an idea that's foreign to liberals.

[DrMaddVibe]

Originally posted by Warham
Why can't the state respond to it? The Governor, not the President of the United States, has the call to bring in National Guard troops. First responders should always be state and local governments. What the hell are they there for, if not to respond?

I can see this might not go anywhere. You seem to advocate the federal government trampling all over states' rights, and interfering with state protocols in most cases. It's not really surprising though, it's not an idea that's foreign to liberals.


I can't wait to see nickeroo's tippy glass response!

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
I can't wait to see nickeroo's tippy glass response!

Here you go DickVibe. Your incompetent President hires liars to head Federal agencies;. albeit well-connected Republican liars:
http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2005/0509/fema_brown_bush0908.jpg
President Bush is briefed by FEMA chief Michael Brown in Mobile, Ala.
How Reliable Is Brown's Resume?
A TIME investigation reveals discrepancies in the FEMA chief's official biographies
By DAREN FONDA AND RITA HEALY

Posted Thursday, Sep. 08, 2005
When President Bush nominated Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003, Brown's boss at the time, Joe Allbaugh, declared, "the President couldn't have chosen a better man to help...prepare and protect the nation." But how well was he prepared for the job? Since Hurricane Katrina, the FEMA director has come under heavy criticism for his performance and scrutiny of his background. Now, an investigation by TIME (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1103003,00.html) has found discrepancies in his online legal profile and official bio, including a description of Brown released by the White House at the time of his nomination in 2001 to the job as deputy chief of FEMA. (Brown became Director of FEMA, succeeding Allbaugh, in 2003.)

Before joining FEMA, his only previous stint in emergency management, according to his bio posted on FEMA's website, was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." The White House press release from 2001 stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him." Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. "Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt."

In response, Nicol Andrews, deputy strategic director in FEMA's office of public affairs, insists that while Brown began as an intern, he became an "assistant city manager" with a distinguished record of service. "According to Mike Brown," she says, "a large portion [of the points raised by TIME] is very inaccurate."

Brown's lack of experience in emergency management isn't the only apparent bit of padding on his resume, which raises questions about how rigorously the White House vetted him before putting him in charge of FEMA. Under the "honors and awards" section of his profile at FindLaw.com — which is information on the legal website provided by lawyers or their offices—he lists "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University". However, Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," says Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University). "He may have been an adjunct instructor," says Johnson, but that title is very different from that of "professor." Carl Reherman, a former political science professor at the University through the '70s and '80s, says that Brown "was not on the faculty." As for the honor of "Outstanding Political Science Professor," Johnson says, "I spoke with the department chair yesterday and he's not aware of it." Johnson could not confirm that Brown made the Dean's list or was an "Outstanding Political Science Senior," as is stated on his online profile.

Speaking for Brown, Andrews says that Brown has never claimed to be a political science professor, in spite of what his profile in FindLaw indicates. "He was named the outstanding political science senior at Central State, and was an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City School of Law."

Under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw, Brown states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond. But an administrator with the Home, told TIME that Brown is "not a person that anyone here is familiar with." She says there was a board of directors until a couple of years ago, but she couldn't find anyone who recalled him being on it. According to FEMA's Andrews, Brown said "he's never claimed to be the director of the home. He was on the board of directors, or governors of the nursing home." However, a veteran employee at the center since 1981 says Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here."

The FindLaw profile for Brown was amended on Thursday to remove a reference to his tenure at the International Arabian Horse Association, which has become a contested point.

Brown's FindLaw profile lists a wide range of areas of legal practice, from estate planning to family law to sports. However, one former colleague does not remember Brown's work as sterling. Stephen Jones, a prominent Oklahoma lawyer who was lead defense attorney on the Timothy McVeigh case, was Brown's boss for two-and-a-half years in the early '80s. "He did mainly transactional work, not litigation," says Jones. "There was a feeling that he was not serious and somewhat shallow." Jones says when his law firm split, Brown was one of two staffers who was let go.

— With reporting by Jeremy Caplan, Carolina A. Miranda/New York; Nathan Thornburgh/Baton Rouge; Levi Clark/Edmond; Massimo Calabresi and Mark Thompson/Washington

[Nitro Express]

We all know the govt. is incompetant as shit and with the ever increasing dishonesty in our society, it's worse than ever. All these govt. agencies do is provide jobs for beurocrats. The higher tiered jobs pay wonderful I may add. Actually accomplishing something is not the goal. The goal is to live well off the taxpayer's money.

So depending on FEMA (Fucked Emergency Management Agency) to save your life might not be the best alternative. You might as well shoot yourself before you die of dehydration, starvation, or are murdered for the bottle of drinking water or MRE you were carrying.

Is maddening as it is, the govt. is a fucking beurocracy. Oh they will have big investigations and argue until the next huge disaster. But nothing will really be done. Sept. 11 hasn't changed anything, why will Katrina? Oh, weren't we told that FEMA was better than ever because it was now part of the Dept. of Homeland Security?

So people, I highly suggest you look at where you live and stock the neccessary emergency supplies because your govt. will fail and fuck up again and next time, it may be your nieghborhood that is screwed.

[Cathedral]

Ok, from a visionairies point of view, it is really simple.

A Hurricane is coming at you, you're the Mayor or the Governnor of where it's basically heading.
Here's what you do for those who elected you:

1) Tell them to get the fuck out, NOW!

2) If they cannot get the fuck out, NOW, YOU are to assist them getting the fuck out, NOW! "I could use those few hundred buses we have, but Naaaaaa, They'll send nicer Greyhounds"
Why those buses didn't move....man, that is grade-A Bullshit right there.

3) Those that choose and are willing to fight to the death to stay are on their own, "Good Luck, May God Be With You!"...on to the next house.

But the reality......
"Hi, we're Red Cross and ready to get staged to help the people!"

Nagin and Blanco say, "You can't go in there, we don't want people flocking to the superdome"
Which by the way left 300 National Guard that were there overwhelmed by the people looking for their help, they had none.

They both claimed all day long, "We want those people out of there, not congregating at the superdome".

Yet, i think back to all these buses that simply never moved to higher ground.

When you blame someone for something it usually pays to blame the people who pull the trigger...Nagin and Blanco pulled the trigger on this mess, and it took them 24 hours to get it together...then, everything was two days or more in coming.

I don't need an investigation to tell me a damn thing. If their job requires us to cast a vote for them...they suck, and it was just proven by Nagin and Blanco!

Can i say here that i listened to Nagin's radio speech and that asshole is nothing near a professional.
He made several mistakes a politician should never make when he lost his composure and flew off at the mouth being vulgar and throwing blame all over the place.
He showed "weakness", and his political ship should be pretty much sunk after all of this settles down a little.

Blanco - Louisiana deserved better than her as Gov.

Bush - going on year 6, political attack #755, nothing charged, proven or prosecuted...WTF?

But i will say this, had I been Mayor of Louisiana those buses would have been moving non-stop for 3 days before the storm hit.

But that is apparently just a me thing, eh?
I get the deep seeded impression that all Nagin and Blanco were interested in was having the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT do it all so they could stand in front of TV camera's and look in-charge and come off as hero's.
Well guess what, Mother Nature doesn't follow a script.
They did nothing, not a damn thing, but when the ball did get picked up then it shifts to, "Well, it was too late".....and it was, and i don't hear anyone saying the response wasn't fucked and because of it, lives were lost.

Both of those dumbfucks are arrogant to their own detriment.

But pride doesn't get a pass on it either...Some people chose to stay, and that was stupid.
Now if the levee's boasted being able to withstand a Cat-5 storm, i'd understand the pride there.
But dude, it was a losers bet from the get go given all the info that was known of those levee's.

So the people also have to bear responsibility for their own choices and they have no right to hold the Government accountable for their mistakes, even if they cost lives.

I guess it just isn't my nature to sit around and wait for an official to tell me to leave, or even provide my means to leave.
My life is more valuable than that shit, and i don't own anything that can't be replaced except the lives of my family.

Gee, that's all the motivation a man needs to start trekking his familie's ass North, don't ya think?

Look man, when you go to the movies to see the new hit film, do you go a bit early to beat the rush, or do you walk in at the last minute and bitch because the movie is starting and you haven't even gotten popcorn yet?

Same principle, and people who wait for the Government always end up screwed over.
That's not a left or right thing either...It's the way it is, period.

[DrMaddVibe]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050908/REPOSITORY/509080380/1013/NEWS03

Corps efforts focused on shipping
Louisiana projects criticized as unnecessary

By MICHAEL GRUNWALD
The Washington Post
September 08. 2005 8:00AM

W
ASHINGTON - Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a massive new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.

Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing.

In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times larger.

Much of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives kept bringing home the bacon.

For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations.

The Industrial Canal lock is one of the agency's most controversial projects, sued by residents of a New Orleans low-income black neighborhood and cited by an alliance of environmentalists and taxpayer advocates as the fifth-worst current Corps boondoggle. In 1998, the Corps justified its plan to build a new lock - rather than fix the old lock for a tiny fraction of the cost - by predicting huge increases in use by barges traveling between the Port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.

In fact, barge traffic on the canal had been plummeting since 1994, but the Corps left that data out of its study. And barges have continued to avoid the canal since the study was finished, even though they are visiting the port in increased numbers.

Pam Dashiell, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, remembers holding a protest against the lock four years ago - right where the levee broke Aug. 30. Now she's holed up with her family in a St. Louis hotel, and her neighborhood is underwater "Our politicians never cared half as much about protecting us as they cared about pork," Dashiell said.

Yesterday, congressional defenders of the Corps said they hoped the fallout from Hurricane Katrina would pave the way for billions of dollars of additional spending on water projects. Steve Ellis, a Corps critic with Taxpayers for Common Sense, called their push "the legislative equivalent of looting."

Louisiana's politicians have requested much more money for New Orleans hurricane protection than the Bush administration has proposed or Congress has provided. In the last budget bill, Louisiana's delegation requested $27.1 million for shoring up levees around Lake Pontchartrain, the full amount the Corps had declared as its "project capability." Bush suggested $3.9 million, and Congress agreed to spend $5.7 million.

Administration officials also dramatically scaled back a long-term project to restore Louisiana's disappearing coastal marshes, which once provided a measure of natural hurricane protection for New Orleans. They ordered the Corps to stop work on a $14 billion plan, and devise a $2 billion plan instead.

But overall, the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the chief of the Corps, has said that in any event, more money would not have prevented the drowning of the city, since its levees were only designed to protect against a Category 3 storm, and the levees that failed were already completed projects. Strock has also said that the marsh restoration project would not have done much to diminish Katrina's storm surge, which passed east of the coastal wetlands.

"The project manager for the Great Pyramids probably put in a request for 100 million shekels and only got 50 million," said John Paul Woodley Jr., the Bush administration official overseeing the Corps. "Flood protection is always a work in progress; on any given day, if you ask whether any community has all the protection it needs, the answer is almost always: Maybe, but maybe not."

The Corps had been studying the possibility of upgrading the New Orleans levees for a higher level of protection before Katrina hit, but Woodley said that study would not have been finished for years. Still, liberal bloggers, Democratic politicians and some Republican defenders of the Corps have linked the catastrophe to the underfunding of the agency.

"We've been hollering about funding for years, but everyone would say: There goes Louisiana again, asking for more money," said former Democratic senator John Breaux. "We've had some powerful people in powerful places, but we never got what we needed."

That may be true. But those powerful people - including former senators Breaux, Johnston and Russell Long, as well as former House committee chairmen Robert Livingston and Billy Tauzin - did get quite a bit of what they wanted. And the current delegation - led by Landrieu and GOP Sen. David Vitter - has continued that tradition.

The Senate's latest budget bill for the Corps included 107 Louisiana projects worth $596 million, including $15 million for the Industrial Canal lock, for which the Bush administration had proposed no funding. Landrieu said the bill would "accelerate our flood control, navigation and coastal protection programs." Vitter said he was "grateful that my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee were persuaded of the importance of these projects."

Louisiana not only leads the nation in overall Corps funding, it places second in new construction - just behind Florida, home of an $8 billion project to restore the Everglades. Several controversial projects were improvements for the Port of New Orleans, an economic linchpin at the mouth of the Mississippi. There were also several efforts to deepen channel for oil and gas tankers, a priority for petroleum companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We thought all the projects were important - not just levees," Breaux said. "Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but navigation projects were critical to our economic survival."

Overall, Army Corps funding has remained relatively constant for decades, despite the "Program Growth Initiative" launched by agency generals in 1999 without telling their civilian bosses in the Clinton administration. The Bush administration has proposed cuts in the Corps budget, and has tried to shift the agency's emphasis from new construction to overdue maintenance. But most of those proposals have died quietly on Capitol Hill, and the administration has not fought too hard to revive them.

In fact, more than any other federal agency, the Corps is controlled by Congress; its $4.7 billion civil works budget consists almost entirely of "earmarks" inserted by individual legislators. The Corps must determine that the economic benefits of its projects exceed the costs, but marginal projects such as the Port of Iberia deepening - which squeaked by with a 1.03 benefit-cost ratio - are as eligible for funding as the New Orleans levees.

"It has been explicit national policy not to set priorities, but instead to build any flood control or barge project if the Corps decides the benefits exceed the costs by one cent," said Tim Searchinger, a senior attorney at Environmental Defense. "Saving New Orleans gets no more emphasis than draining wetlands to grow corn and soybeans."


By MICHAEL GRUNWALD

The Washington Post

[Guitar Shark]

CNN BREAKING NEWS -- FEMA director Michael Brown being sent back to
Washington; Homeland Security Director Chertoff to announce new leader for on-the-ground Katrina relief efforts, senior administration official tells CNN.

Watch CNN or log on to http://CNN.com and watch FREE video.
More Americans watch CNN. More Americans trust CNN.

[FORD]

FEMA chief relieved of Katrina duties
Move follows controversy over Brown’s qualifications, agency’s response
NBC News and news services
Updated: 1:36 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2005

WASHINGTON - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, government sources said Friday.

Government sources disclosed the move but spoke on condition of anonymity because the change hadn't been officially announced. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was expected to announce the change at a 1:45 p.m. ET news conference.

Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who earlier this week was named his deputy to oversee relief and rescue efforts.

Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, La. He was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster.

FEMA has been criticized for its response to the disaster, and Time magazine on Friday reported that Brown’s official biography overstated his emergency-management experience.

Brown's biography on the FEMA Web site says he had once served as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight," and a White House news release in 2001 said Brown had worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., in the 1970s "overseeing the emergency-services division."

However, a city spokeswoman told the magazine Brown had actually worked as "an assistant to the city manager."

"The assistant is more like an intern," Claudia Deakins told the magazine. "Department heads did not report to him." Time posted the article on its Web site late on Thursday.

A former mayor of Edmond, Randel Shadid, confirmed that Friday. Shadid told The Associated Press that Brown had been an assistant to the city manager, and never assistant city manager.

“I think there’s a difference between the two positions,” said Shadid. “I would think that is a discrepancy.”

FEMA, White House response
Nicol Andrews, deputy strategic director in FEMA’s office of public affairs, told Time that while Brown began as an intern, he became an “assistant city manager” with a distinguished record of service.

“According to Mike Brown,” Andrews told Time, a large portion of points raised by the magazine are “very inaccurate.”

White House press secretary Scott McClellan referred all questions about Brown’s resume to FEMA.

McClellan said the White House’s earlier statements that Brown retained the president’s confidence remain true — but he declined to state that confidence outright.

“I’d leave it where I left it,” McClellan said. “We appreciate the work of all those who have been working around the clock to respond to what has been on the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history.”

Other work experience
Brown, a lawyer, was appointed as FEMA's general counsel in 2001 and became head of the agency in 2003. The work in Edmond is the only previous disaster-related experience cited in the biographies. Brown served as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association before taking the FEMA job.

U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut "Democrat" :rolleyes:, had cited Brown's Edmond experience as "particularly useful" for FEMA during a hearing in 2002.

Critics, including some Republicans, have blasted Brown for delays and missteps in the federal government's response to Katrina's deadly and devastating assault on the Gulf Coast last week. Some have demanded his ouster.

Bush last week gave Brown a word of support, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

This week, Bush put the U.S. Coast Guard's chief of staff in charge of the federal recovery effort in New Orleans and gave Vice President Dick Cheney the job of cutting through bureaucratic delays.

Other FEMA officials
The Washington Post reported on Friday that five of eight top FEMA officials had come to their jobs with virtually no experience in handling disasters. The agency's top three leaders, including Brown, had ties to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or the White House advance operation.

Former Edmond city manager Bill Dashner recalled for Time that Brown had worked for him as an administrative assistant while attending Central State University.

"Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt," Dashner told Time.

Edmond's population is about 70,000.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9266986/

[FORD]

"Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt," Dashner told Time.

Yeah, that qualifies him to manage national fucking calamities alright :rolleyes:

[ELVIS]

Good!

When this guy first appeared on TV while I was evacuating the nursing home, I knew he was clueless...

I could have done better...

[Nickdfresh]

CHERTOFF is announcing it now. Thank God this clown has been sacked. At least Pres. BUSH did the right thing here.

[ELVIS]

..as he often does...;)

[FORD]

Originally posted by ELVIS
..as he often does...;)

About as often as Sammy Hagar makes a decent record.

[Angel]

Originally posted by ELVIS
Good!

When this guy first appeared on TV while I was evacuating the nursing home, I knew he was clueless...

I could have done better...

Please tell me you WEREN'T working at the home where they left the patients behind to die...

By the way ELVIS how & where are you?

[ELVIS]

No, we evacuated all of our residents in plenty of time...

I'm in Lockport, LA. The nursing home is in Cut Off, a tiny town further down the bayou in a dangerous area...

We did great!

Everybody lived!

:D

[Angel]

Originally posted by ELVIS
No, we evacuated all of our residents in plenty of time...

I'm in Lockport, LA. The nursing home is in Cut Off, a tiny town further down the bayou in a dangerous area...

We did great!

Everybody lived!

:D

I'm SO glad to hear that! Otherwise, I would have had to come down there and torture you in the worst ways possible!

;)

[ELVIS]

Hmmm...

[blueturk]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usfema094417778sep09,0,3221751.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines

Dubious Resume
As calls increase for FEMA chief's ouster, new doubts come to light about where he did, and didn't, work

BY CRAIG GORDON AND DANIEL WAGNER
WASHINGTON BUREAU

September 9, 2005


WASHINGTON -- New questions surfaced yesterday about whether the White House inflated FEMA chief Michael Brown's past work experience when he took over the agency, where several of the most senior managers bring little or no disaster-response experience to their posts, including Brown.

The official White House announcement of Brown's nomination to head FEMA in January 2003 lists his previous experience as "the Executive Director of the Independent Electrical Contractors," a trade group based in Alexandria, Va.

But two officials of the group told Newsday this week that Brown, in fact, never was the national head of the group but did serve as the executive director of a regional chapter, based in Colorado, where Brown has lived.

And, Brown's immediate successor as the Rocky Mountain executive director, Terry Moreland, recalled that Brown held the job for less than six weeks before becoming FEMA general counsel in 2001.

Upon learning that the 2003 press release on the White House Web site states that Brown was the IEC executive director, the group's current top administrator, Larry Mullins asked, "Do you think I could get that taken down?" and said he planned to call the White House to have it removed.

At the same time, the January 2003 White House press release on Brown's nomination dropped any reference to Brown's main job prior to joining FEMA in 2001 - a decade-long stint with the International Arabian Horse Association.

FEMA spokesman Mark Pfeifle said last night that documents Brown provided to the White House stated that he was the interim director of the group in Colorado but "when it was written up in the public release, it did not contain that portion." Pfeifle did not know why, and the White House did not immediately return calls for comment.

With calls growing for his ouster, Brown's post with the Arabian horse association has come under much ridicule in the days since Hurricane Katrina. Brown's critics among Democrats have cited it as further proof that he lacked any significant qualifications to run the nation's disaster-response agency. The Denver Post reported that Brown resigned after group members questioned his handling of a $50,000 gift.

Brown is a Republican lawyer who is a longtime friend of former FEMA chief Joe Allbaugh, who himself took over after serving as President George W. Bush's campaign manager in 2000. Brown's only previous emergency experience was as an assistant city manager in the 1970s in Edmond, Okla., whose population in 2000 was 68,315, overseeing emergency services.

But Brown is not the only member of FEMA's top management team who comes to the job with ties to the Bush administration but little or no hands-on emergency response experience, according to official FEMA bios.

Brown's No. 2 aide, Patrick Rhode, is a former Bush campaign staffer who later worked on the White House advance staff, which coordinates presidential appearances.

Scott Morris, FEMA's former deputy chief of staff and now head of its Florida hurricane-recovery office, also worked on the 2000 Bush campaign in Austin as a media strategist.

Daniel Craig, who took over FEMA's recovery division in 2003, was a regional official for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and active in Republican politics in Connecticut.

And FEMA's No. 3 official, Brooks Altshuler, previously also worked on the White House advance team.

Vice President Dick Cheney defended FEMA on a tour of the region, saying he believes that the Bush administration managed to "strike the right balance" between political appointees and career professionals to oversee the relief efforts.

FEMA long has had a reputation of being a political dumping ground - though former Clinton administration FEMA chief James Lee Witt generally won good marks for trying to bring more professionals into the agency. Now former FEMA union chief Pleasant Mann charges: "If you look at most of the people down [from the top], it takes you quite a ways before you find someone who got here because of emergency management experience."

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
As far as Florida goes...69 feet below sea level in the gulf region...its not rocket science. Andrew was a wake-up call to builders here in Florida.

Live and learn...also we take evacuations a little more serious than inventing a new cocktail and throwing a party.

All I know is, I'm not playin' around. If we're supposed to evacuate, I'm gettin the FUCK out of dodge. I'm sure as hell not leaving that clown jeb to take care of me!

canned food and shotguns!

[ODShowtime]

Bush last week gave Brown a word of support, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Do you guys see how easily this clown fritters away his credibility?

one week: "you're doing a heck of a job."

next week fired. :rolleyes:

[FORD]

Well, giving credit where credit is due, FEMA has now successfully evactuated ONE person from New Orleans....... Brownie.

[paulk1]

Question is : What can Brown do for you ? ;)

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by ODShowtime
All I know is, I'm not playin' around. If we're supposed to evacuate, I'm gettin the FUCK out of dodge. I'm sure as hell not leaving that clown jeb to take care of me!

canned food and shotguns!

Smart man, i'd be right behind you, or in front of you...one or the other and not in a sexual way, tee hee.

Just make sure you have shells for that shotgun, lol.

And for survival, nothing beats mass bags of Pinto Beans and mass boxes of Corn Bread.
Canned Veggies last forever too.

Oh, don't forget to throw a can opener in your survival kit, bro.

And say your stuff is close to expiring?
Rotate the stock and take the soon to be expired stuff to the homeless shelters and the Free Store, but get reciepts because you can deduct portions of those donations from your taxes to help replace the old stuff.

Security isn't free, but it doesn't have to be expensive either.

Roth On!

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by paulk1
Question is : What can Brown do for you ? ;)

Wipe its own ass after it abandons the chute.

[LoungeMachine]

Originally posted by paulk1
Question is : What can Brown do for you ? ;)

He shoots, He scores. :D

Great one-liner [which I may steal and claim my own elsewhere]

Not bad for someone who Avgs. 1 post every 12 days :cool:

That's worth a 5 vote alone.

[ODShowtime]

Originally posted by Cathedral
And for survival, nothing beats mass bags of Pinto Beans and mass boxes of Corn Bread.



Good tip! All I have is canned food. I'd be dying for some bread. I'm gonna git me some of that shit.

[Cathedral]

The Jiffy stuff works the best and i've made it with powdered egg and powdered milk...it worked out pretty well. it tasted pretty much the same but it lost some solidity and was prone to crumbling if you pawed it too much.
Fuck, any bean product will last 50 freakin years if you keep them vacume sealed.

That's survival eating that isn't bad at all, and healthy too.


You like yo corn bread ZESTY ?

Try this shit, but it wouldn't work in a limited water situation, lol.

[FORD]

Yes, sadly in a limited water situation, I would have to give up my love for the hot peppers, though I might have to try some of that "Ass Kicking Cornbread" before Junior fucks up the world any further.

[FORD]

I see it's a Cherokee company that also sells Fry Bread mix and "Salsa From HELL".... How the Hell haven't I heard of these guys before???

http://www.cherokeetrade.com/hotstuff.htm

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by FORD
I see it's a Cherokee company that also sells Fry Bread mix and "Salsa From HELL".... How the Hell haven't I heard of these guys before???

http://www.cherokeetrade.com/hotstuff.htm

I dunno, Ford, maybe you ain't the spicy customer you thought you wuz, lmmfao..

Try it though, the shit is good and I don't think it's all that hot, but then again i'm a huge Habanero fan. :)

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Angel
I'm SO glad to hear that! Otherwise, I would have had to come down there and torture you in the worst ways possible!

;)


What, actually let him see what you look like?

:rolleyes:

[Angel]

Originally posted by BigBadBrian
What, actually let him see what you look like?

:rolleyes:

You're right, beauty like this is hard to handle. :D

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by blueturk
Vice President Dick Cheney defended FEMA on a tour of the region, saying he believes that the Bush administration managed to "strike the right balance" between political appointees and career professionals to oversee the relief efforts.



Riiight.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Cathedral
The Jiffy stuff works the best and i've made it with powdered egg and powdered milk...it worked out pretty well. it tasted pretty much the same but it lost some solidity and was prone to crumbling if you pawed it too much.
Fuck, any bean product will last 50 freakin years if you keep them vacume sealed.

That's survival eating that isn't bad at all, and healthy too.


You like yo corn bread ZESTY ?

Try this shit, but it wouldn't work in a limited water situation, lol.

It's amazing how many people forget about basics like vodka, cigarettes and rubbers.

[Guitar Shark]

Apparently, Brownie isn't doing a heckuva job anymore.