How many of Bush's other political appointees have done the same? It's part of the culture of lies that prevaids this administration....beginning with Bush's National Guard record.

This country had been placed at risk by this practice. Will any of us survive their next bungled response to a national crisis? Are they taking any of the warnings of the scientific and intelligence experts? Do any of us still believe we are safe with them in charge?

The President and the federal government's first responsibility is to protect the country. Bush isn't doing it. He ignored the the 9/11 threat and now he's even ignored the weather reports and the Army Corp of Engineers warnings.

Ben Franklin said the people would get the kind of govenment they deserve. Well, 49% of us don't deserve it. We voted for the guys with the brains the last two elections. Leave the blame for these failures and the resulting shame to those that voted in these incompetent, greedy, and prejudiced jerks.

PLEASE, know Rove's style.

This "Brownie" resume stuff is smoke and mirrors. Sheer diversion. A breadcrumb placed on the path for the hungry media birds to find. (This woll not ruin Brown; the Bush Cabal takes care of its minions--even gives them medals when they complete their missions (which we see as failure, but Bush&Co see as success).

Another investigatory commission? Has everyone forgotten the last commission for 9/11 was half-baked and we still haven't seen all the data reviewed or requested?

Has anyone considered this could all be planned to do another CIA-style overhaul, wherein this nation's emerency services could be turned into the largest, privatized military force on earth?

Bush's FEMA botched the management of the Gulf Coast relief, and the rescue started a week late. It is a failure resulting in untold, and unphotographed, numbers of dead. But did FEMA show up a week late to the hurricane sites in Jeb Bush's Florida?

A disconnect like this makes it necessary to consider if the rescue management capability of FEMA is not so much inadequate as it is being withheld by orders from above. But for what purpose?

An undisclosed purpose might explain the totally unsubstantiated, illogical, continuing attack on the local and state agencies after they did all they could and followed the rules and still were ignored by Bush.

The Bush Team doesn't care about the facts. This much we know.

So what is in it for them? Is it about setting up a new perception, a way to further castrate the federal government, a way to facilitate profiteering? Maybe they don't want the federal government to do control relief efforts at all. Privatization (all the better for private interests to pick and choose which real estate they will protect)? Or is it a combo of scams? Do they want the states and locals to do it all alone amongst themselves? Or is it a way to "cleanse" the system so only "LOYALISTS" have positions of power all the way from small town to the Pentagon? Whichever, it's the same pattern again! Will we see a scenario reach reality like the "cleansing" of pincipled career professionals at the CIA?

Just as the Bush Gang set up the CIA to take the fall for the 9/11 and WMD scams, they've set it up so somebody else, maybe FEMA, but most certainly somebody (maybe its state and local interface agencies) is going to take the fall for the Gulf Coast Hurricane and Flood Disaster rescue failure -- and it won't be Bush&Co.

Bush&Co are not very creative, just repetitive; just the same, we are suckers for their scams every time.

Fool us once, shame on them. Fool us twice, shame on us.

Don't be sucked into another castrated commission that doesn't even use its full subpoena powers! Just go straight to impeachment and do the discovery and fact-finding that way.

Don't waste precious time and dollars on another commission. Go straight for impeachment before we lose the republic.

While I certainly agree we shouldn't get caught up in a diversion when the real culprit is Bush himself, I do seem to remember a simple rule of employment that applies here... Lie on your resume, get fired.

There is nothing to discuss here.

It's very easy to pin the blame on any situation on one person. It's totally ridiculous in a situation like Katrina to make one person a scapegoat. By nit-picking Mr. Brown's resume and background, we are losing focus on the important stuff. He was FEMA's Deputy Director, and the General Counsel prior to his appointment as Undersecretary. Why weren't we Democrats nit-picking his resume four or five years ago? It's just as ridiculous right now to propostition that folding FEMA into Homeland Security is the reason for this fiasco. I wish it was that simple. One reason the City of Houston was able to take in so many evacuees so quickly and efficiently, according to the Harris County judge in charge of the operation, was city officials took the recommendations Homeland Security distributed a couple of years ago, practiced them, and were ready for the situation. Many, many people, Democrats and Republicans alike, are responsible for the chaotic and slow response to the hurricane and flooding disasters. One person, or one department, is not responsible. Let's not waste our time trying to single out a couple of people, or a department out of the many who could be blamed. Remember where the buck stops at some point, although, I don't even want to go there right now. Let's pull together, do what we have to do, and learn from our collective mistakes. Let's rise above the political fray and all be AMERICANS.

Just wanted to share thiss email I received today
GOOD NEWS

Today, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and 31 other representatives will introduce a bill to exempt victims of Hurricane Katrina from the harsh new bankruptcy law set to come into effect on October 17.

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DON'T MISS
VIDEO: Vice President Cheney runs into trouble with the locals during his visit to Mississippi.

CONGRESS: Only five senators showed up to Michael Brown's confirmation hearings.

MEDIA: NPR's Mara Liasson: "[A]ny time there's a contentious exchange in the White House press room, it makes the press look bad."

DARFUR: On one-year anniversary of genocide declaration, Darfur crisis "eclipsed but not forgotten."

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DAILY GRILL
"From 1975 to 1978, Brown worked for the City of Edmond, Oklahoma, overseeing the emergency services divisions."
-- White House statement announcing the nomination of Michael Brown to FEMA, 12/3/01

VERSUS

"[A]ccording 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.'"
-- Time, 9/8/05

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAILY OUTRAGE
Despite multiple reports warning the federal government of lax oversight, the $5 billion effort to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks was so loosely managed that it handed out millions in low-interest loans to undeserving businesses, including a tanning salon in Louisville, Kentucky, and a Colorado Quiznos sandwich shop.

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ARCHIVES
Progress Report

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STUDENTS

Politics with an Attitude: Everyone from Barack Obama to Stephen Colbert talks to Campus Progress. Right-wingers seem scared of us. Find out why here.



by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, and Christy Harvey

September 9, 2005
KATRINA
Brown, More Unqualified Than You Thought
KATRINA
Bush's Poor Managerial Record
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
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KATRINA
Brown, More Unqualified Than You Thought

Astoundingly, FEMA Director Michael Brown is even more unqualified for his job than previously believed. The reason: he's been lying on his resume. A 2001 White House press release states that "from 1975 to 1978, Brown worked for the City of Edmond, Oklahoma, overseeing the emergency services divisions." Brown's official government biography says he served "as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." Time Magazine contacted Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond and got the real story. Deakins revealed that 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.'" It's just one of several fabrications Brown has made about his professional experience.

BROWN FALSELY CLAIMS HE WAS NAMED "OUTSTANDING PROFESSOR": In a profile on Findlaw.com, Brown claims he was named "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University." Charles Johnson, a member of the university's public relations office, said Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here." (Johnson added, "'He may have been an adjunct instructor' ... but that title is very different from that of 'professor.'") Johnson said the chair of the Political Science Department at CSU was not aware of the "Outstanding Political Science Professor" award.

BROWN FALSELY CLAIMS HE'S A DIRECTOR AT A NURSING HOME: On his Findlaw.com profile, Brown "states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond." An administrator at the home told Time that Brown is "not a person that anyone here is familiar with." The nursing home doesn't have a board of directors anymore and when it did, no one remembers Brown being on it. According to a veteran employee 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."

BROWN'S CONDUCT MAY JEOPARDIZE HIS LAW LICENSE: Brown is a member of the Oklahoma State Bar. According to the "Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct," conduct involving "dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" is a violation constituting "professional misconduct." Oklahoma state law specifies that "any lawyer violating these Rules of Professional Conduct shall be subject to discipline." Discipline includes "disbarment, suspension of a respondent from the practice of law for a definite term ... public censure or private reprimand." Note to other members of the Oklahoma State Bar: According to Rule 8.3 of the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct, "A lawyer having knowledge that another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct that raises a substantial question as to that lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer in other respects, shall inform the appropriate professional authority."

INCOMPETENCE AT FEMA RUNS DEEP: The Washington Post reports that "[f]ive of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters." The top three officials -- Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- "arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation." Because of high turnover in recent years, "nine of 10 regional directors are working in an acting capacity." The result: "[E]xperts inside and out of government said a 'brain drain' of experienced disaster hands throughout the agency, hastened in part by the appointment of leaders without backgrounds in emergency management, has weakened the agency's ability to respond to natural disasters."

KATRINA
Bush's Poor Managerial Record

The fallout of Hurricane Katrina has served as yet another example of the poor leadership and faulty management Americans have witnessed from the Bush administration over the past five and a half years. According to a CBS News poll, 58 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of Katrina; only 38 percent approve. A Pew Research Center poll showed Bush's approval ratings slipping to the lowest levels of his presidency, with only 40 percent giving Bush a favorable evaluation. "The CBS survey found that almost half the country has little or no confidence in Bush's ability to handle a crisis." The Financial Times writes that a majority of Americans are questioning Bush's leadership skills, and with good reason. After years of witnessing repeated high-profile, mismanaged failures from the administration, the American public is seeing the Katrina catastrophe as just the latest example.

9/11 FAILURES SIMILAR TO THOSE IN KATRINA: The former chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Gov. Thomas Kean, said, "The same mistakes made on 9/11 were made over again, in some cases worse.... Those are system-wide failures that can be fixed and should have been fixed right away." Despite Bush's pledge that he would not "forget the lessons of 9/11, September 2001," Kean and former co-chairman, Rep. Lee Hamilton, cited parallels between Katrina and 9/11, such as emergency communications problems and a failure to target resources at communities facing the greatest risk. As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches this weekend, Kean warned that changes in leadership need to be made. "There was nobody in charge.... There have got to be clear lines of authority because if there isn't somebody in charge, it costs lives."

RECONSTRUCTION OF IRAQ HAS BEEN POORLY MANAGED: Yesterday, the top U.S. official in charge of auditing Iraq reconstruction funds said extra funding will be needed to finish key Iraqi reconstruction projects because the U.S. has spent more money than expected on security. Shortly after the invasion of Iraq occurred, U.S. Agency for International Development Director Andrew Natsios said only $1.7 billion would be needed to reconstruct Iraq. Paul Wolfowitz claimed that Iraqi oil money would be able to pay for the country's own reconstruction. The Bush administration then doled out high-dollar reconstruction contracts to close allies and lobbyists until the deteriorating security situation drove away many of the contractors. The Bush administration continued to bungle the reconstruction effort by not spending the appropriated funds at a time when the security situation was becoming more and more untenable. The latest announcement that more money will be needed is the fallout of a poorly managed effort by the administration to reconstruct Iraq.

PRESCRIPTION DRUG BILL ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BUSH'S POOR MANAGEMENT: After initially ensuring the nation that its prescription drug bill would cost $400 billion, the administration's 2006 budget revealed that the cost will actually be $913 billion. With no guarantee that seniors will be afforded competitive drug prices, the plan may end up benefiting drug companies more than those who need it most. U.S. News reported, "White House officials are nervous that the elderly will be disappointed when they focus on the new Medicare prescription drug plan that the president is promoting."

BUSH REMAINS OUT-OF-TOUCH WITH THE PRIORITIES OF MOST AMERICANS: While Bush has dedicated most of his second-term agenda to privatizing Social Security, that plan now appears to be "off the radar." And despite the negative impact that Katrina recovery efforts will have on the nation's deficit, the White House and its right-wing allies have demonstrated a steadfast commitment to keeping tax cuts on the table. The recently passed energy bill, in the wake of Katrina, is demonstrating that it is of little help to Americans who are seeking relief at the gas pump. Most Americans believed the economy was heading in the wrong direction prior to Katrina -- now the need for better economic leadership is more pressing than ever.

Under the Radar

CORRUPTION -- TOM DELAY'S POLITICAL COMMITTEE INDICTED: A Texas grand jury has indicted Texans for a Republican Majority (TRM), the PAC formed by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), on charges of taking illegal corporate money as DeLay helped Republicans win control of the Texas Legislature and Congress in 2002. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has also charged the Texas Business Association with four indictments for working with TRMPAC "in a complicated scheme to circumvent the election code by funneling massive amounts of secret corporate wealth into elections." While no charges have been leveled against the majority leader and his spokesman claims that he played only a "limited" role on the advisory board and at fundraising events, it may be just a matter of time and jurisdictional reshuffling before DeLay can delay no longer. TRMPAC documents show DeLay was indeed heavily associated with the organization, as the founder, adviser, and prominent fundraiser, staffing it with close allies (who are now being charged). TRMPAC has also awarded work contracts to DeLay's daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro.

PUBLIC OPINION -- AMERICANS ANGRY OVER WHITE HOUSE RESPONSE TO KATRINA: Thank goodness President Bush doesn't look at polls. An AP-Ipsos poll released today shows that almost two-thirds of Americans, 65 percent, "say the country is headed in the wrong direction — up from 59 percent last month." Only 39 percent approved of President Bush's job performance, the lowest rating since AP-Ipsos began measuring public approval of Bush in December 2003. President Bush also scored all-time low approval ratings (41 percent) in a Zogby poll released yesterday. The historic lows may a response to the public's frustration with the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Only 36 percent of respondents to the Zogby poll gave the president passing marks on his handling of the crisis. Additionally, according to a CBS News poll, Americans disapproved of his handling of the crisis 58-38 percent; more than two-thirds of respondents to a Pew Research Center survey said President Bush could have done more to assist the relief efforts.

POVERTY -- THIRD WORLD IN OUR OWN BACK YARD: "Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World," according the United Nations Human Development Report released yesterday. The study "reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years -- and is now the same as Malaysia," the UK Independent reports. "America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday." In "unusually outspoken language," the United Nations accuses the Bush administration of having "an overdeveloped military strategy and an under-developed strategy for human security," creating an "urgent need to develop a collective security framework that goes beyond military responses to terrorism." American Progress has produced such a strategy -- Integrated Power -- check it out here.

LABOR -- WHITE HOUSE USING KATRINA TO CUT WAGES: The Bush administration still has not learned one of the central lessons of Hurricane Katrina: Poverty and substandard wages hurt our nation. The 1931 Davis-Bacon Act requires federal contractors to pay at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is being conducted. Bush has issued an executive order to suspend Davis-Bacon and allow federal contractors rebuilding after the hurricane to profit at the expense of their workers. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, notes that Bush is "using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities."

GENOCIDE -- ONE YEAR LATER: One year ago today, the Bush administration declared that the horrors unfolding in Darfur -- the mass slaughters, forced displacement, and coordinated rape campaigns -- amounted to genocide. To mark the anniversary, faith and advocacy groups spoke out about the administration's attempts to help resolve the crisis: "It is time to move the Darfur genocide from a talking point to an action item. President Bush must put this issue on the top of his inbox," said Richard Cizik, vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. Experts believe the violence in Darfur has abated somewhat in recent months, though recent reports "have also indicated an increase in sexual assaults on women and girls in many of the camps where most of the African population in Darfur have been displaced."

CULTURALLY INSENSITIVE RIGHT-WING QUOTE OF THE DAY: Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) of Baton Rouge overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

This issue of "Brownie" may become moot now. The AP reports that he is being removed from any role in Katrina's response. ABC News says he'll be out soon. Those are Repug-inclined media sources, so maybe we can take this to the bank. Unfortunately, it's too little too late for the devastatees of Katrina.

There's been all kinds of dilution of the emergency management budget by spreading it around to buy the support of tax exempt groups. While the Red Cross still claims that all disaster relief is free, they too have been at the public trough-----

Red Cross Receives Homeland Security Grants

Written by Alison Baenan, Special to RedCross.org

September 19, 2002 — Recognizing the importance of a volunteer workforce in preparing for and responding to a terrorist attack or other disasters, Tom Ridge, White House Director of Homeland Security, recently unveiled the nation's first federal grants to involve citizen volunteers in homeland security efforts. The American Red Cross was among the organizations to receive a portion of the funds.

[...]
On the East Coast, the Red Cross will develop “Disaster Resistant Neighborhood” programs across eight wards of Washington, D.C. Through the program, these neighborhoods will create disaster response plans. The Southeast Pennsylvania Chapter received a grant to create an alliance of more than100 nonprofits in the Philadelphia area to form the Southeast Pennsylvania Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster (VOAD) to help citizens prevent, prepare for and respond to disasters.

[...]
"The President's new National Strategy for Homeland Security makes it clear that the work of keeping our homeland secure does not rest solely with government,” he said. “Citizens can and must play an active role in protecting their communities.”

Since its creation, Homeland Security has provided states and localities with over $8.2 billion in State Homeland Security Grants for the purchase of specialized equipment to enhance the capability of state and local agencies to prevent and respond to incidents of terrorism involving the use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) weapons; for the protection of critical infrastructure and prevention of terrorist incidents; for the development, conduct and evaluation of state CBRNE exercises and training programs; and for costs associated with updating and implementing each states' Homeland Security Strategy.

[...]
Strengthening America's Readiness and Assets:

Strategic Communications Resources Effort (SECURE) Project: Over the last year, Homeland Security has installed secure videoconference capabilities, and secure phones and fax in the emergency operations centers of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, each state governor's office received a secure phone that allows states to transmit and receive classified information. In addition, the Department awarded $81 million in Emergency Operations Center (EOC) grants to those states that best demonstrated the need for the funding to reduce vulnerabilities and risk.

[...]
Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSST): Thirteen specialized units, called MMSTs, will be in place by September 30, 2004, to provide a rapid, deployable force to meet the nation's most serious port security threats. MSSTs provide a robust mix of maritime interdiction, law enforcement, and anti-terrorism expertise focusing on threats to critical waterfront facilities, high interest vessels, cruise ships, high value military units and major marine events.

What's a volunteer work force? It's people who are willing to accept big pay-checks, instead of having to be threatened with starvation.

This definition is tied to the assumption that people are poor because they don't want to work. All it takes is an act of will to be rich--a true perspective if you have no scruples about taking from the poor and giving it to your friends.

Brown is taking the fall...for the failure the Bush Administration, but not losing his job...unbelievable.

Brown is taking the fall...for the failure the Bush Administration, but not losing his job...unbelievable.

Posted by PeppermintLizzy on September 9, 2005 at 03:53 PM

You are so right, Lizzy ! And how about extending this failure back a year, to when FEMA finished their report on the fact that the levees and wetlands need immediate attention and Bush refused the money, instead sending it to Iraq for his Invasion!

I don't care what the mayor or Governor should or shouldn't have done, when it is clear, that this catastrophe Happened in the first place, because of Bush's refusal to fix the problem a year ago!!!

Let's pull together, do what we have to do, and learn from our collective mistakes. Let's rise above the political fray and all be AMERICANS.

Posted by Soozieque on September 9, 2005 at 01:42 PM

Sorry, sooz, but by harping on the Failures of this administration, it will help America and Americans in the long run, far better than shutting our mouths right now!!!!!

All I have to ask you people who are advocating that the Dems step down and do nothing is this!

What if a Terrorist Attack or Catastrophe of this size, destroyed YOUR city, killed thousands of people you knew, children separated from parents, etc.

Do you think you might feel a little more outrage at what these people let happen??? Do you think you would like to highlight the failures right now, and get those involved Impeached and fired?

Remember, since 1776, The American creed has been" Dissent is Patriotic". It is your duty to scream your head off about this.

This guy is due for about 3 Medals of Freedom from Bush.

so the scuttlebutt I heard was the brown got bounced upstairs to D.C. after president-vice-president cheney observed the tremendous progress that is being made in the area. I guess when dick doesn't say brownie is doing a heck of a job that changes things.

Pam,

I am disgusted...Brown says he is going home to hug his wife and dog, and drink margaritas and eat mexican food and then go to bed...

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE THAT DIED? WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE THAT LOST EVERYTHING AND CANNOT DO THAT??

and now Chris Matthews says the White House Staff says that they do not have a problem with MSNBC making a connection between Dickula and Brown.

Huh?? did I hear that right??

GAS is right:

MEDALS OF FREEDOM ALL AROUND!!!

I do have to say, Dems share SOME blame for not questioning this moron's abilities. THEN at least they could say, "WE TRIED TO TELL YOU! BUT NOOOOO YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN"!

I have a lot to be desired in my computer skills?
How do you send(e-mail) just one persons comments to someone? This first statement by Sandy H, I would like to send to someone by way of e-mail?

Has anyone figured out why the White House didn't just fire the guy? Could it be because he put out $31mn in "street money" dressed up as disaster relief in Miami Dade in Sept.Oct 2004. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-femacoverage,0,6697347.storygallery?coll=sfla-news-utility
Checks were issued within 72 hours.The only problem was Hurricane Frances never reached Miami Dade.
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sfl-fema15oct15,0,5278865.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines
What happened to that investigation? Had the press been doing their job after these guys were dumping street $ into Florida, maybe this clown would not have been at the helm when Katrina hit. Louisiana has had the added misfortune of not being as important on the electoral map as Florida.
How come none of you smart guys at the DNC are following up on this obvious point.Did you think that were keeping the guy on to tap into his vast experience in case any more potential disasters struck?

Lizzy,

Even right winger Jack Cafferty, was saying they should fire his sorry a** ! He reminded Wolf that we the taxpayers, are continuing to pay his Salary, while he goes back and does nothing!!!

Peppermint,

"WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE THAT DIED? WHAT ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE THAT LOST EVERYTHING AND CANNOT DO THAT??" Do you think Brown had something to do with that?

``I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep,'' Brown told the Associated Press. ``And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims.''

. . .

``I'm anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies,'' he said.--michael brown

Observations: He can multitask?
Is he going to correct the inaccuracies the way that o.j. is still looking for the killer?

Why is it the mean old media is out to get him.

Those who have the technology to do so, be sure you archive a copy of brown's street creds before they're changed.

Links on fema's florida response to ivan

Katrina caused no suspension of the rules in florida

here's what fema did for florida during hurricane frances

bush on charley and frances

SLIDE SHOWS

charley stuck on august 13, fema was in response mode on august 14

look at the order in the frances response. Interestingly fema had photographers in florida taking pictures of the preparations for the hurricane.

d*mn fema was right there in hurrican ivantoo!

All that is being said is bad, sad and true. Now if you really want to get burned, go to "Reuters-Business" and see how many "friends" of Bush and Chaney have already gotten contracts to rebuild New Orleans!

I don't care about Brown's @$#$#@$# resume! I want to see the Plan, the Plan's that the local, state and federal governments have in there files somewhere. I want to compare what was planned to what was actually done. Did anyone pull out the plan and actually read it let alone follow it? Were there ever any practice drills, training,etc? Any of you who work in healthcare know how many fire, evacuation and practice disaster drills we have to suffer through in a given year to meet requirements.

In the case of the nursing home with residents left to die. I am horrified that there could be any hint of blame to the care providers, that they abandonded them. WHERE WAS THE BUS SOME THREE DAYS BEFORE TO EVACUATE THEM TO SAFETY? Wasn't there a PLAN! Of course the care providers ran for there lives. It was a state of emergency and chaos.

Where is the plan!
We need acountability!

Ray Nagin interview fantastic!

The plan for all natural disasters is always to send in the Natinal Guard with all their equipment and training to handle the ensuing crisis.

Our National Guard was taken from their mission as the protectors of the homeland to dodge bullets for Halliburton in Iraq. Ask Congress why Rumsfeld is still allowed to compromise our National Guard's mission and over-rule the State Govenor's authority over these state militias.

Will the people believe the so called Christian right again? They told us after 9/11 we will be prepared the next time and be ready and waiting for them. WERE WE?
They said Homeland Security will be more effecient and ready to strike back with our(GOP) people in place? WERE THEY?
They said, President Bush is a brilliant CEO, he will appoint people that will respond like a shooting flame? DID HE? and DID THEY?