If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!
What follows is a really long bit of political crap where I vent about fema and political appointees, who the fuck cares right?
What follows is a really long bit of political crap where I vent about fema and political appointees, who the fuck cares right?
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
From the FEMA website:
Michael D. Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush as the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security in January 2003. As the head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Under Secretary Brown leads federal disaster response and recovery operations and coordinates disaster activities with more than two dozen federal agencies and departments and the American Red Cross. He also oversees the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration, and initiates proactive mitigation activities.
Additionally, Under Secretary Brown helps the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the effectiveness of emergency responders, and directs the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Integration Center, the National Disaster Medical System and the Nuclear Incident Response Team.
From ABC news:
The body facing the most searing criticism is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the organisation's director, Michael Brown, facing calls for his resignation after he admitted that he wasn't aware that hurricane victims were stranded in the New Orleans Convention Center, even though they were directed there by local emergency officials.
Michael Brown is also attracting condemnation for some of the things he said during the crisis. There was his insistence that he knew nothing about the thousands of people stuck in the New Orleans Convention Center despite their desperate plight being broadcast around the clock on all the major TV networks.
Then there was his suggestion, that the people of New Orleans themselves were to blame for their predicament, because they didn't heed warnings to get out of the city as the storm approached.
This ignored the now tragic fact that the lion's share of residents simply did not have the means to evacuate and therefore had no choice but to take their chances with the hurricane.
Mr Brown has been accused of being way out of his depth. A political appointee, his last job before joining FEMA was as an official with the International Arabian Horse Association.
From the Boston Globe:
The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.
And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.
The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.
The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster.
``I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' said a furious Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday, calling the response ``an embarrassment.''
President Bush, after touring the Big Easy, said he was ``not satisfied'' with the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation.
And U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch predicted there would be hearings on Capitol Hill over the mishandled operation.
Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking 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, confirmed last night.
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.
ABC news :
Republican Susan Collins is the head of the Senate's powerful Homeland Security Committee.
SUSAN COLLINS: It immediately occurred to me that if our system did such a poor job when there was no enemy, how would the Federal, State and Local governments have coped with a terrorist attack that provided no advance warning, and that was intent on causing as much death and destruction as possible?
From the FEMA website:
Michael D. Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush as the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security in January 2003. As the head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Under Secretary Brown leads federal disaster response and recovery operations and coordinates disaster activities with more than two dozen federal agencies and departments and the American Red Cross. He also oversees the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration, and initiates proactive mitigation activities.
Additionally, Under Secretary Brown helps the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the effectiveness of emergency responders, and directs the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Integration Center, the National Disaster Medical System and the Nuclear Incident Response Team.
From ABC news:
The body facing the most searing criticism is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with the organisation's director, Michael Brown, facing calls for his resignation after he admitted that he wasn't aware that hurricane victims were stranded in the New Orleans Convention Center, even though they were directed there by local emergency officials.
Michael Brown is also attracting condemnation for some of the things he said during the crisis. There was his insistence that he knew nothing about the thousands of people stuck in the New Orleans Convention Center despite their desperate plight being broadcast around the clock on all the major TV networks.
Then there was his suggestion, that the people of New Orleans themselves were to blame for their predicament, because they didn't heed warnings to get out of the city as the storm approached.
This ignored the now tragic fact that the lion's share of residents simply did not have the means to evacuate and therefore had no choice but to take their chances with the hurricane.
Mr Brown has been accused of being way out of his depth. A political appointee, his last job before joining FEMA was as an official with the International Arabian Horse Association.
From the Boston Globe:
The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.
And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.
The Oklahoman got the job through an old college friend who at the time was heading up FEMA.
The agency, run by Brown since 2003, is now at the center of a growing fury over the handling of the New Orleans disaster.
``I look at FEMA and I shake my head,'' said a furious Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday, calling the response ``an embarrassment.''
President Bush, after touring the Big Easy, said he was ``not satisfied'' with the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation.
And U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch predicted there would be hearings on Capitol Hill over the mishandled operation.
Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking 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, confirmed last night.
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.
ABC news :
Republican Susan Collins is the head of the Senate's powerful Homeland Security Committee.
SUSAN COLLINS: It immediately occurred to me that if our system did such a poor job when there was no enemy, how would the Federal, State and Local governments have coped with a terrorist attack that provided no advance warning, and that was intent on causing as much death and destruction as possible?
Go check out Halsparks journal.
I said please
trying again
[Edited on Sep 10, 2005 8:28AM]
[Edited on Sep 10, 2005 8:29AM]
[Edited on Sep 10, 2005 8:46AM]
[Edited on Sep 10, 2005 8:47AM]