Conservative Michelle Malkin on FEMA Michael Brown

I could not agree with you more FTR

 

Before you make unsubstantiated claims about Tsunami relief you might check the following chronology:

Edited only for fixing link for browsers - LE </font>[/QUOTE]What unsubstantiated claims are you referring to? We mobilized in less time after the tsunami than we did after Katrina.

As far as the socioeconomic statement, it was purely speculative. I just wonder if things would have been different. </font>[/QUOTE]You are incorrect and obviously did not carefully examine the link. We had already started mobilizing before the hurricane hit, moving relief supplies into the upper parts of the states.

Also it is worth noting that the original offer of aid to the tsunami victims was $15,000,000. this was, I believe, eventually increased to $350,000,000. I don't know the value of the pre-Katrina relief moved into place but Congress has authorized 10.5 billion as a starter.

 

From the above link.

" As of January 1, there are 25 USAID/DART members on ground in the affected areas." The Tsunami occurred on December 26.

 

I believe he will force him to resign, but not immediately.

This president does not yield to outside "political" pressure when it comes to running his Administration. When HE decides it's time for Brown to go, it'll happen. It'll be on his timetable and no one elses.

 

NY Times 9-5-05

While rescuers were still trying to reach people stranded by the floods, perhaps the only consensus among local, state and federal officials was that the system had failed.

Some federal officials said uncertainty over who was in charge had contributed to delays in providing aid and imposing order, and officials in Louisiana complained that Washington disaster officials had blocked some aid efforts.

Local and state resources were so weakened, said Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, that in the future federal authorities need to take "more of an upfront role earlier on, when we have these truly ultracatastrophes."

But furious state and local officials insisted that the real problem was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Mr. Chertoff's department oversees, failed to deliver urgently needed help and, through incomprehensible red tape, even thwarted others' efforts to help.

"We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."

Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans expressed similar frustrations. "We're still fighting over authority," he told reporters on Saturday. "A bunch of people are the boss. The state and federal government are doing a two-step dance."

In one of several such appeals, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, called on President Bush on Sunday to appoint an independent national commission to examine the relief effort. She also said that she intends to introduce legislation to remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restore its previous status as an independent agency with cabinet-level status.

Mr. Chertoff tried to deflect the criticism of his department and FEMA by saying there would be time later to decide what went wrong.

"Whatever the criticisms and the after-action report may be about what was right and what was wrong looking back, what would be a horrible tragedy would be to distract ourselves from avoiding further problems because we're spending time talking about problems that have already occurred," he told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" on NBC.

But local officials, who still feel overwhelmed by the continuing tragedy, demanded accountability and as well as action.

"Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired?" asked Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans.

Far from deferring to state or local officials, FEMA asserted its authority and made things worse, Mr. Broussard complained on "Meet the Press."
When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said.

One sign of the continuing battle over who was in charge was Governor Blanco's refusal to sign an agreement proposed by the White House to share control of National Guard forces with the federal authorities.

Under the White House plan, Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré would oversee both the National Guard and the active duty federal troops, reporting jointly to the president and Ms. Blanco.

"She would lose control when she had been in control from the very beginning," said Ms. Bottcher, the governor's press secretary.
Ms. Bottcher was one of several officials yesterday who said she believed FEMA had interfered with the delivery of aid, including offers from the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, and the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson.

Adam Sharp, a spokesman for Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said the problem was not who was in command. FEMA repeatedly held up assistance that could have been critical, he said.

 

The Mayor is blaming the feds and the state.
The state is blaming the feds and the city.
The feds are blaming themselves and the city and the state.


The only ones accepting any responsibility for anything are the feds.

Is something wrong with this picture?

 

Have you been reading or listening to the same news as I? The city and state are blaming the feds not each other. The feds are also placing some of the blame on themselves. Will you please just accept this fact and move on. I really do not understand your obsessive compulsion to prove the feds did nothing wrong. personally I admire Bush for stating there were problems. Does that really make him any less of a leader? How can we learn from the situation if we just keep trying to shift blame? Ultimately FEMA was unprepared and hindered relief efforts. Brown himself stated that he was not expecting the damage and devastation of Katrina.

 

I wish that everyone would put the energy used into finding fault with others and pray for the people that are in this mess.

I have always been told that the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. I am sure that the leaders are taking notes.

 

Brown's will likley be one of the heads that eventually rolls, as it should.

But there is plenty of blame to around for every level. Per one report, state and local municipalities are expected to have plans in place to care for themselves for 72 hours.

NO might have IF:
1)If evacuation orders had been made mandatory sooner. (State/Local)
2)Sufficient guard troops had been calle dup by the governor as soon as the area was declared a disaster area on Saturday. (State)
3)Adequate evacuation planning and procedures were in place. (Local) For example...When one knows that 30% of his city lives below the poverty line, when one knows that as many as 20% of his population relies on public transportation, when one knows that a huge number of his citizenry have literally become wards of the state after 40 years of failed social policies, then one MIGHT consider doing more than merely warning them to get out.

The "new" FEMA has proven inadquate for its task. But so have Nagin and Blanco's offices. "Leadership" breakdowns occurred at EVERY level. Only pure partisans would argue otherwise.

As far as all the race and socioecomonic comments are concerned, I would simply like to direct people's attention to St. Bernard Parish and its primarily white middle class demographic. They've been completely overlooked by the race-baiting national media and politicos. Meanwhile, many still waited on their rooftops Friday and Saturday and FEMA has been virtually invisible there.

Incompetence is not racist.

 

How true.