Bye-bye Brownie!

[Happy Monkey]

He's baa-aaack...

[warch]

Ahhhhh! the "consulting" gig for $70 per hour. May I suggest that we be given the legal power to pay him less than the prevailing wage...

[Happy Monkey]

Actually, a "consulting" job would have been the perfect patronage job for him before the disaster. Especially if everyone was under strict instructions not to actually consult him. But it ought to be too late for that now.

It just goes to show that the only ethic the Republican leadership recognizes is loyalty, and the only loyalty they recognize is to the Republican leadership.

[BigV]

For $70/hr, we get this: Not my fault.

Fema ex-chief blames 'dysfunctional' Louisiana
By Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: September 27 2005 19:19 | Last updated: September 27 2005 19:19

katrinaThe former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency sought on Tuesday to shift the blame for the weak response to Hurricane Katrina on to “dysfunctional” state and local governments in Louisiana.

In his first testimony to Congress since stepping down from as head of Fema, Michael Brown launched an attack on Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, saying his main mistake had been “not recognising . . . that Louisiana was dysfunctional”.

“We can't deny the point that it worked in the other [affected states of Alabama and Mississippi] and it didn't work in Louisiana,” he said. “I was unable to get [Governor Kathleen] Blanco and Mayor Ray [Nagin] to work together.”

[Troubleshooter]

As a Louisianian who has first hand accounts of the thievery and ineffectiveness of FEMA I can say only one thing.

Fuck FEMA.

“We can't deny the point that it worked in the other [affected states of Alabama and Mississippi] and it didn't work in Louisiana,” he said. “I was unable to get [Governor Kathleen] Blanco and Mayor Ray [Nagin] to work together.”

Yeah, works great in places that didn't have levees that the Federal Government refused to repair. Uhmm hmmm

FEMA - In case of emergency, its not our department.

So, Wolfie, when you taking up the reins of power? This country NEEDS you!

[tw]

When the top man claims plenty of blame to go around, then 99% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. Two articles from ABC News on 27 Sept 2005:

Fact Check: Michael Brown's Testimony
Michael Brown, the outgoing head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said while testifying to a House panel today that local officials were more to blame than he was for a failed relief effort in the days following Hurricane Katrina. He suggested much of the chaos in New Orleans could not have been anticipated.

But a draft of a comprehensive hurricane plan prepared for the United States government foresaw almost everything that happened in Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Katrina. While the plan never became official policy, it surely put everyone on notice at FEMA about what could happen if a big storm hit New Orleans.

Brown lays the blame at the feet of Louisiana local and state officials for being confused and inefficient as Hurricane Katrina hit.

"My biggest regret is not getting the governor [of Louisiana] and the mayor of New Orleans to sit down and iron out their differences," Brown told the panel.

The response capabilities and resources of the local jurisdiction may be insufficient and quickly overwhelmed," the document reads.

Brown Shifts Blame for Katrina Response
An angry Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance Tuesday before Congress. In response, lawmakers alternately lambasted and mocked the former FEMA director.

A shame is that he will not be prosecuted for criminal negligence - for causing the deaths of so many people. His defense would be obvious. He was doing the best he could do. And in that, he is correct. It explains why he was trained as a lawyer, why he was so unqualified as to have only gotten his job through political influence, AND why he would be quick to blame others. These are characteristic of MBA management - either who the man is OR how his boss makes decisions.

[Troubleshooter]

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=13051

(Emphasis mine - TS)

Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes

Release Date: July 23, 2004
Release number: R6-04-093
Printer friendly version icon

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Hurricane Pam brought sustained winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of southeast Louisiana and storm surge that topped levees in the New Orleans area. More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings. Emergency officials from 50 parish, state, federal and volunteer organizations faced this scenario during a five-day exercise held this week at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge.

The exercise used realistic weather and damage information developed by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the LSU Hurricane Center and other state and federal agencies to help officials develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana.

"We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts," said Ron Castleman, FEMA Regional Director. "Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies."

...more...

[warch]

Seems like I saw a lot of Mississippians without timely federal support as well.

[wolf]

You still fuck up after have a successful exercise.

Let me revise that ... you always fuck up after a successful exercise.

I've been to WMD and Mass Casualty exercises that go flawlessly. When the real deal happens, you lose two firetrucks in a "puddle" that turned out to be 15 feet deep.

[Troubleshooter]

I spent four years in the Navy, I'm well aware of that, but it's one thing to mess up an ostensibly workable plan and quite another to do what they did here.

They stole food, fuel, supplies and services from both civilians and civil authorities until they started operating under the radar or with armed guards.

And they still managed to do nothing more than sit on it.

[tw]

Also find Hurricane Greg. That exercise was so ridiculous that much of what was 'learned' was disposed. But then everything in FEMA is about curing the symptoms of management mistakes.

Funny. When the George Jr administration came to power, everything was still about Cold War power positioning. Anti-terrorists were demoted or literally driven out of government. Specific terrorist warnings presented to the President were completely ignored - not read. Then Afghanistan sponsors an attack on the US. Suddenly everything is only about terrorism. And so we attack a sovereign nation on lies about terrorism. Why? To correct an earlier mistake made by the same people more than 10 years previously in Iraq.

Meanwhile hurricanes attack the US. Again, we must correct the mistake made by the same people 4 and 15 years ago. Good thing that we replaced those emergency management people with political appointed lawyers - trained in terrorism. We will solve Andrew and we will solve terrorism. FEMA drill also includes multiple terrorist attacks.

At what point do real threats take precedence over political agendas and fears of the old mistakes? At what point, when the president is told of a danger, does he address the problem rather than worry about his previous mistake? Oh. George Jr did. He said no one expected the levees to be breached. Since he took 5 days to admit a Tsunami occurred - and few complained (except me), then simply do same - take 5 days - before sending food, water and transport for LA/MS/AL.

So what do we do next? Clearly levees are the major threat to America. We must build bigger levees. We must throw even more money at the problem. Just ignore the real problem - people living where they should not be living. Top management who denies a failure until it exists - and then takes five days to make a decision (George Jr's people are reported to have made a DVD movie before George Jr would admit there was a problem in LA/MS/AL).

No problem. New forms of terrorism will be solved by Office of Fatherland Levee Construction - a new cabinet position. Are we to assume these bigger levees will also keep terrorists out? Clearly that reasoning is consistent with George Jr management decisions since 2001. Did we not attack Iran because terrorist might be hiding there too? And since Hurricanes were not a threat there, then they too would not be a threat to the levees in New Orleans.

They had to make a DVD before George Jr would admit to a problem. At what point does anyone praise the intelligence of George Jr - whose people run the Hurricane Greg drill with terrorist attacks, a nuclear power plant leak .... and did they forget to include in that drill the second coming of Christ?

[xoxoxoBruce]

They are more concerned that Katrina ruined the last three days of W's vacation.

[BigV]

Well, yeah, get and keep, y'know. A job is a long term deal, wouldn't you agree?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not for the politically connected, they move from one appointment to the next at their own level of incompetence. Can you say, musical teats?