And to think we'd never have noticed without God pointing it out.
FEMA's braintrust
by kos
Tue Sep 6th, 2005 at 12:26:30 PDT
So we now Mike Brown, disgraced horse lawyer, was given his job at the head of the US' chief disaster response agency because he was a former roommate of Bush's 2000 campaign manager -- strong credentials in an administration where party trumps the Stars and Stripes.
Well, the rest of FEMA's braintrust is little better:
The Chief of Staff is a guy named Patrick Rhode. He planned events for President Bush's campaign. Rhode has no emergency management experience whatsoever. From Rhode's official bio (PDF):
His first position with the Bush Administration was as special assistant to the President and deputy director of National Advance Operations, a position he assumed in January 2001. Previously, Mr. Rhode served as deputy director of National Advance Operations for the George W. Bush Presidential Campaign, in Austin, Texas.
The Deputy Chief of Staff is Scott Morris. He was a press flak for Bush's presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush's campaign commercials. He also has no emergency management experience. From Morris's official bio (PDF):
Mr. Morris was also the marketing director for the world's leading provider of e-business applications software in California, and worked for Maverick Media in Austin, Texas as a media strategist for the George W. Bush for President primary campaign and the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.
With credentials like those, is it any wonder this was the gang that couldn't shoot straight? And who appointed these jokers to their respective positions?
Ahem, the guy who now wants to "lead" the investigation into his own incompetence, ol' Dubya himself.
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Very nicely put.
From Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, very nicely put.
SECAUCUS — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."
Well there's your problem right there.
If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.
The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.
But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever be symbolized by one gaffe by of the head of what is ironically called “The Department of Homeland Security”: “Louisiana is a city…”
Politician after politician — Republican and Democrat alike — has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were — congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.
And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded — even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.
But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.
No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.
But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?
I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."
For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."
In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.
As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.
Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.
SECAUCUS — Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said it all, starting his news briefing Saturday afternoon: "Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."
Well there's your problem right there.
If ever a slip-of-the-tongue defined a government's response to a crisis, this was it.
The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay.
But no. The incompetence and the ludicrous prioritization will forever be symbolized by one gaffe by of the head of what is ironically called “The Department of Homeland Security”: “Louisiana is a city…”
Politician after politician — Republican and Democrat alike — has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to shut off the "I-Me" switch in their heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were — congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a supermarket.
And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment. The focus needed to be on the efforts to save the stranded — even the internet's meager powers were correctly devoted to telling the stories of the twin disasters, natural... and government-made.
But now, at least, it is has stopped getting exponentially worse in Mississippi and Alabama and New Orleans and Louisiana (the state, not the city). And, having given our leaders what we know now is the week or so they need to get their act together, that period of editorial silence I mentioned, should come to an end.
No one is suggesting that mayors or governors in the afflicted areas, nor the federal government, should be able to stop hurricanes. Lord knows, no one is suggesting that we should ever prioritize levee improvement for a below-sea-level city, ahead of $454 million worth of trophy bridges for the politicians of Alaska.
But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?
I don't know which 'we' Mr. Bush meant.
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."
For him, it is a shame — in all senses of the word. A few changes of pronouns in there, and he might not have looked so much like a 21st Century Marie Antoinette. All that was needed was just a quick "I'm not satisfied with my government's response." Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have foreseen," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."
In forgetting that, the current administration did not merely damage itself — it damaged our confidence in our ability to rely on whoever is in the White House.
As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.
Somewhere, in the City of Louisiana.
Monday, September 5, 2005
Nobody could have anticipated...
Here's an amazing paper trail.
And more warnings.
But this is not time for finger-pointing...unless we can find a way to blame it on Clinton, then oh will the fingers point.
They kind of sicken you don't they. Politics has a price. They always seem to think they're using plastic chess pieces with the war or the political campaigns that leave the opponent burnt & smeared. it's a zero-sum game for them, but it's real people that are affected, not plastic chess pieces. They still see no human face on all this. Perhaps, depite the idea being bashed as threatening and unamerican over the last twenty years, compassion will become hip again.
Before we start pointing any fingers of racism, first note FEMA's attempt to reach the urban demographic through the universal communications tool of rap.
And more warnings.
But this is not time for finger-pointing...unless we can find a way to blame it on Clinton, then oh will the fingers point.
They kind of sicken you don't they. Politics has a price. They always seem to think they're using plastic chess pieces with the war or the political campaigns that leave the opponent burnt & smeared. it's a zero-sum game for them, but it's real people that are affected, not plastic chess pieces. They still see no human face on all this. Perhaps, depite the idea being bashed as threatening and unamerican over the last twenty years, compassion will become hip again.
Before we start pointing any fingers of racism, first note FEMA's attempt to reach the urban demographic through the universal communications tool of rap.
Sunday, September 4, 2005
Finger a Politician Monday
"This is not a time for finger-pointing or playing politics."
-Scott McClellan
Yeah, that's what I'd say too, I mean what else could you say when everyone notices the Emperor has no clothes all at once.
My dream press-conference:
McClellan: This is not a time for finger-pointing or playing politics.
Reporter: Why?
McClellan: Because it makes us look bad.
They weren't prepared to spin something this massive and this embarrassing, I wish them luck, all I know is when they do come up with their co-ordinated talking-points and release them we'll all know because all of our Republican friends will talk the same for one day, and probably be more verbal about it. Any day now...they'll all have a point to make and it will all be the same point.
Karl Rove > RNC > the press-release > conservative talk shows > fox news > america > the water cooler.
From Think Progress:
On this morning’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert asked Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff whether “heads will roll” after the bungled response to Katrina. Chertoff’s response:
The question I would put to people is what do you want to have us spend our time on now? Do we want to make sure we are feeding, sheltering, housing and educating those who are distressed, or do we want to begin the process of finger-pointing? I know that as far as I’m concerned I have got to be focused on, and everybody else in this government and the President has made this very clear, we have got to focus on moving forward to deal with some very real emergencies which are going to be happening in the next days and weeks.
In other words, attempts by Americans to hold their government officials accountable will somehow prevent us from “feeding, sheltering, housing and educating those who are distressed.”
You’re either with the administration or against the hurricane victims. Unreal.
-Scott McClellan
Yeah, that's what I'd say too, I mean what else could you say when everyone notices the Emperor has no clothes all at once.
My dream press-conference:
McClellan: This is not a time for finger-pointing or playing politics.
Reporter: Why?
McClellan: Because it makes us look bad.
They weren't prepared to spin something this massive and this embarrassing, I wish them luck, all I know is when they do come up with their co-ordinated talking-points and release them we'll all know because all of our Republican friends will talk the same for one day, and probably be more verbal about it. Any day now...they'll all have a point to make and it will all be the same point.
Karl Rove > RNC > the press-release > conservative talk shows > fox news > america > the water cooler.
From Think Progress:
On this morning’s Meet the Press, Tim Russert asked Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff whether “heads will roll” after the bungled response to Katrina. Chertoff’s response:
The question I would put to people is what do you want to have us spend our time on now? Do we want to make sure we are feeding, sheltering, housing and educating those who are distressed, or do we want to begin the process of finger-pointing? I know that as far as I’m concerned I have got to be focused on, and everybody else in this government and the President has made this very clear, we have got to focus on moving forward to deal with some very real emergencies which are going to be happening in the next days and weeks.
In other words, attempts by Americans to hold their government officials accountable will somehow prevent us from “feeding, sheltering, housing and educating those who are distressed.”
You’re either with the administration or against the hurricane victims. Unreal.
Friday, September 2, 2005
When politics kills
1/26/05
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown's management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away.
In his letter to Bush, Wexler wrote: "According to several news accounts by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 'FEMA has written checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and thousands of televisions, microwave ovens, stoves, air conditioners and other appliances.' In addition, the Sun-Sentinel cites that FEMA paid $4,500 for one resident’s funeral, even though the county medical examiner recorded no storm-related deaths. Another Sun-Sentinel article stated that two residents received aid for 'dental treatments due to dental injuries received during the disaster.' In six other cases, FEMA reimbursed residents for damage caused by 'ice/snow.'"
In a Jan. 24 news release, Wexler added: "On Monday, January 11, FEMA held a news conference acknowledging that they made $12 million in overpayments to 3,500 individuals — blaming these overpayments on a 'computer glitch.' FEMA, however, continues to deny additional systematic problems and cites the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions in Miami-Dade. Yet, according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA has refuted the weather maps FEMA claims to
have obtained from them. As the head of FEMA, Under Secretary Brown oversees federal disaster response and recovery operations, and it is negligent of him to refuse to accept responsibility for its agency mistakes."
“Rather than taking responsibility for FEMA’s mishaps and moving expeditiously to correct the
problems, Under Secretary Brown has further undermined his agency’s reputation by stymied
investigations and inquiries into fraud allegations," Wexler added. "FEMA’s massive misallocation of recovery aid is a gross waste of taxpayer monies, which must be immediately addressed by the Bush Administration,” Wexler said.
But other than that little glitch Michael Brownwas qualified for the job, right?
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown's management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away.
In his letter to Bush, Wexler wrote: "According to several news accounts by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 'FEMA has written checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and thousands of televisions, microwave ovens, stoves, air conditioners and other appliances.' In addition, the Sun-Sentinel cites that FEMA paid $4,500 for one resident’s funeral, even though the county medical examiner recorded no storm-related deaths. Another Sun-Sentinel article stated that two residents received aid for 'dental treatments due to dental injuries received during the disaster.' In six other cases, FEMA reimbursed residents for damage caused by 'ice/snow.'"
In a Jan. 24 news release, Wexler added: "On Monday, January 11, FEMA held a news conference acknowledging that they made $12 million in overpayments to 3,500 individuals — blaming these overpayments on a 'computer glitch.' FEMA, however, continues to deny additional systematic problems and cites the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions in Miami-Dade. Yet, according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA has refuted the weather maps FEMA claims to
have obtained from them. As the head of FEMA, Under Secretary Brown oversees federal disaster response and recovery operations, and it is negligent of him to refuse to accept responsibility for its agency mistakes."
“Rather than taking responsibility for FEMA’s mishaps and moving expeditiously to correct the
problems, Under Secretary Brown has further undermined his agency’s reputation by stymied
investigations and inquiries into fraud allegations," Wexler added. "FEMA’s massive misallocation of recovery aid is a gross waste of taxpayer monies, which must be immediately addressed by the Bush Administration,” Wexler said.
But other than that little glitch Michael Brownwas qualified for the job, right?
Short-Haired Fuzzyco Friday
Look how short Dan Izzo's Hair is.
Anyone in the Wrigleyville area, tonight at 9pm I will be one of the cameramen for The Neutrino Project at the Improv Kitchen. If you're unfamiliar it's an improvised movie that unfolds for the audience while it's being shot just outside The Improv Kitchen. Four teams record four short films and have their tape sent back to the restaurant and are played in turn while the other segments are being shot. It's a damn cool idea with many chances for chaos! If you do come and don't know which film is my team keep in mind I love including unwitting passesby into the movie. CHAOS!
Anyone in the Wrigleyville area, tonight at 9pm I will be one of the cameramen for The Neutrino Project at the Improv Kitchen. If you're unfamiliar it's an improvised movie that unfolds for the audience while it's being shot just outside The Improv Kitchen. Four teams record four short films and have their tape sent back to the restaurant and are played in turn while the other segments are being shot. It's a damn cool idea with many chances for chaos! If you do come and don't know which film is my team keep in mind I love including unwitting passesby into the movie. CHAOS!
In the wake of the distaster...
I think it's time we all come together and enjoy a short-haired chick.
Bryce Dallas Howard, strange name, short hair, hot chick
Bryce Dallas Howard, strange name, short hair, hot chick
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