FEMA's Michael Brown is OUT

[what_the_doofus]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_brown

[Qdrop]

the first, Best move i've seen so far.
the majority of the FEDERAL blaim really lies with this inept idiot.

next, there should be an intense investigation on the local gov't officials and thier responses- from the mayor of NO on up....

If people just think that trying to chop Bush's head off for not cutting his vacation off earlier and playing golf will solve everything...and stop this from happening again.....
you're insane.

something like this requires a grand *purging*....from the ground up.


i would like to know who was directly responsible for putting M. Brown in this position in the first place, with his embarrassing lack of experiance....
if you tie Bush to that...THEN you really have something.

[Monsieur Decuts]

i think that's already been done, on this board.

[valvano]

govt employment attracts those who can not cut it in the real world for the most part

face it, were else can you work with kick ass benefits and hardly any accountabilty, if something screws up you just blame another department..and only about 50 paid holidays...and basically no chance of being fired or laid off...

[Qdrop]

i think that's already been done, on this board.

that Bush appointed and/or approved him?
where....
i'd like to see that....

[synch]

http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=56386

One of the quotes. Considering the source...

No direct link though.

[enree erzweglle]

I don't know anything about Michael Brown other than to have heard some interviews that he gave during and right after Katrina. He seemed unsympathetic, cold. Completely uncaring, uncompassionate. Blameful. Could be that he was tired and stressed out over all of this and over having to defend himself and his organization, but yikes, he came off all wrong in those interviews.

[Dr Deaf]

This announcement doesn't surprise me at all. The American people can feel like justice was served.

Micheal Brown did an excellent job for the adminstration. He was hired to be a bumbling fucktard that would postpone, delay and disrupt all relief efforts to maximize the death tolls and human suffering.

He did all that and then some. I'm sure he'll get a bonus this year and another less public position within the administration for the duration of GW's term.

[Running_Beastie]

Bush did appoint Brown. The Director of FEMA is always named by the President. Before being director of FEMA, Brown was in charge of overseeing Arabian Show Horse Competitions. He was fired from that job, so Bush appointed him to head FEMA because Brown was the college roommate of Joseph Allbaugh the previous Bush appointee as director of FEMA. Allbaugh got the position because he was a lobbyist that worked a lot with the Bush administration.

[infidel]

Joseph Allbaugh is also considered by many to the person who made sure bush's National Guard records were permanently "lost".

[Medellia]

that Bush appointed and/or approved him?
where....
i'd like to see that....
Since Katrina, blame for FEMA's blundering has zeroed in on the agency's director, Michael Brown. His failure should not have been a surprise. He had almost no experience in disaster work before he was appointed in 2003 by President Bush, and confirmed by the Senate, to lead the agency. Before joining FEMA as its counsel in 2001, Brown, a friend of the FEMA director who hired him, worked for nine years as a commissioner at an Arabian horse association.

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050908/edit08.art.htm

[synch]

When it was his turn to talk, Bush congratulated the governors, then turned to FEMA Director Mike Brown and said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090202215.html

[infidel]

Originally Posted by The Washington Post on Saturday, September 3, 2005
When it was his turn to talk, Bush congratulated the governors, then turned to FEMA Director Mike Brown and said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."bush accidently let that one slip, for once he really did know what he was saying.
For junior things being totally fucked up is the goal, it means more money in he and his cronies' pockets.

[yeahwho]

ugh.....this Brown guy is really all about supressing information. Here is a blurb of his on his being relieved of his duties,

"I don't mind the negative press (well, actually, I do, but I try to ignore it) but it is really wearing out the family," Brown wrote. "No wonder people don't go into public service. This country is devouring itself, the 24-hour news cycle is numbing our ability to think for ourselves" link (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Katrina%20Brown)

I'm thinking for myself when I say this guy is really fucked up. If I were him I would be worried too....with his qualifications he should of just said, "No" to his post. Of course the fellow who appointed him was smarter, right? He went through all the criteria needed to appoint, spit or swallow.

[Documad]

Wow. This whole "did Bush pick the head of FEMA" thing shook me up. I sure hope that US citizens get how the US government works.

The federal government is a group of agencies with responsibility for certain things, transportation, health, housing, etc., including FEMA which handles natural disasters. These agencies are manned by an enormous group of federal employees, most of whom get to stay when the president changes. But the heads of most of these agencies, and other top people in the agencies, work at the whim of the president. The president picks the head of FEMA like he picks the head of all the other agencies. Most of these jobs go to people who worked hard on the president's campaign--it's how you pay back political favors. That's how you get a clown like this guy running FEMA. (Your state government is a group of agencies that is much the same, with your governor picking the head and top staff of each.) These people all change when the president changes. This is why the policy shifts dramatically with the election of a new president. Bush picked a head of the EPA who won't protect the environment, he picked an attorney general who doesn't care about suspects' rights or personal privacy. The president is responsible for what his agencies do. It's where his enormous power lies.

On the federal side, Part of what FEMA does is plan for what to do when the shit hits the fan. They're supposed to sit around and think about what could happen, in worst case scenarios, and how they will handle it if it does. On an even more routine basis, they identify areas that have flooded and are likely to flood throughout the US. Once they do that, local and state governments can't do anything in those areas re water without FEMA's approval. The army corps of engineers is another federal agency that controls some bodies of water. State and local governments are important, but in the flood control arena and in many other areas we count on, the federal government rules the roost.

[yeahwho]

Wow. This whole "did Bush pick the head of FEMA" thing shook me up. I sure hope that US citizens get how the US government works.
The president picks the head of FEMA like he picks the head of all the other agencies. Most of these jobs go to people who worked hard on the president's campaign--it's how you pay back political favors. That's how you get a clown like this guy running FEMA. his agencies do.

(y)

Both the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/national/nationalspecial/11response.html?hp&ex=1126497600&en=ce371f0e0587100b&ei=5094&partner=homepage) and LATimes (http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-scheer6sep06,0,7611861,print.column) have excellent articles on who is responsible today. Our fellow citizens were more than letdown, they became starving, thirsty, violent crime victims, dead. Fucking dead. Thousands were kids subjected to an observation/partaking of life as animals.

Plenty of blame to go around for sure, but you know what? Major media outlets were there. Billions of people watched. It's criminal.

[yeahwho]

brown

[Qdrop]

Wow. This whole "did Bush pick the head of FEMA" thing shook me up. I sure hope that US citizens get how the US government works.

The federal government is a group of agencies with responsibility for certain things, transportation, health, housing, etc., including FEMA which handles natural disasters. These agencies are manned by an enormous group of federal employees, most of whom get to stay when the president changes. But the heads of most of these agencies, and other top people in the agencies, work at the whim of the president. The president picks the head of FEMA like he picks the head of all the other agencies. Most of these jobs go to people who worked hard on the president's campaign--it's how you pay back political favors. That's how you get a clown like this guy running FEMA. (Your state government is a group of agencies that is much the same, with your governor picking the head and top staff of each.) These people all change when the president changes. This is why the policy shifts dramatically with the election of a new president. Bush picked a head of the EPA who won't protect the environment, he picked an attorney general who doesn't care about suspects' rights or personal privacy. The president is responsible for what his agencies do. It's where his enormous power lies.

On the federal side, Part of what FEMA does is plan for what to do when the shit hits the fan. They're supposed to sit around and think about what could happen, in worst case scenarios, and how they will handle it if it does. On an even more routine basis, they identify areas that have flooded and are likely to flood throughout the US. Once they do that, local and state governments can't do anything in those areas re water without FEMA's approval. The army corps of engineers is another federal agency that controls some bodies of water. State and local governments are important, but in the flood control arena and in many other areas we count on, the federal government rules the roost.

indeed.

now we have a hard link between Bush and Katrina...(this is what i was asking for earlier before i lumped a bunch of blame on Bush).

none the less....i really hope people don't get blinded by the "bush did it" mentality and let the other state and local gov't fuck-ups off the hook.

please don't sit there and pretend that the little local and state gov't were doing ALL they could, but the big bad Bush and Federal Gov't were screwing them at every turn.

this was a massive fuck up at EVERY level.

[Documad]

Okay, clearly, the New Orleans police fell apart. Yes, they were overwhelmed, but we've heard stories that make some of them sound criminal. I hope it's isolated incidents.

But I'd like to address a story I keep hearing. I've heard that emergency workers who don't usually work in New Orleans itself, but who regularly work in a more white community nearby, all quit their jobs rather than respond. I can sort of understand this given what we heard about the state of affairs inside the city in the early days. My friend with family there reported that when rescue workers finally arrived from Los Angeles, where they're used to dealing with poor and black victims, those rescue workers immediately charged in to help, with no fear for their own safety. She isn't usually a conspiracy theorist (and she used to be a firefighter), but she sincerely believes that the local response or lack of response was mostly a product of the everyday racism in the region. Did that stuff happen with local rescue workers? Is it racism? Do people employed as emergency workers get to decide what sorts of emergencies they will respond to?

Also, I've heard from someone who lives in Mississippi that some churches have been celebrating that it happened to New Orleans because it's a city filled with sin. Did that happen? (I heard someone here say Vegas is next, before it was clear how horrible it was.)

[ms.peachy]

Also, I've heard from someone who lives in Mississippi that some churches have been celebrating that it happened to New Orleans because it's a city filled with sin. Did that happen? (I heard someone here say Vegas is next, before it was clear how horrible it was.)
I was reading about this yesterday too. I forget where, NY Times online maybe? I don't remember now. But basically yeah, there were some eejits who were on the whole "this is god's punishment for the wicked sinners of New Orleans" trip. Niiiiiiice. I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what Jesus would do, right?

[infidel]

So if hurricanes are an "act of God" does that mean god only wakes up during hurricane season and we can fuck off the rest of the time while he's sleeping?

[Ali]

indeed.

now we have a hard link between Bush and Katrina...(this is what i was asking for earlier before i lumped a bunch of blame on Bush).

none the less....i really hope people don't get blinded by the "bush did it" mentality and let the other state and local gov't fuck-ups off the hook.

please don't sit there and pretend that the little local and state gov't were doing ALL they could, but the big bad Bush and Federal Gov't were screwing them at every turn.

this was a massive fuck up at EVERY level.It wasn't Bush's fault. Blame the system which allowed him to place incompetent cronies in positions of power.

I wonder what else this system has allowed him to do?

We'll find out soon enough.