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


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)


Former President Bill Clinton spoke to CNN on Monday.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- 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]

Re: FEMA Director Incompetent

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.

[BigBadBrian]

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

Yeah, no shit.

[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.

[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.