FEMA, Slow to the Rescue, Now Stumbles in Aid Effort

[ShadesOfGrey]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: zendari

Yeah that would help! DUH!!!! I know, how about setting up euthanasia atations for the uninsured. Or maybe the US could build a plant like in Soylent Green. We could ship all the uninsured there and turn them into food for the hurricane refugees.

Euthanasia stations cost money.

In your case they'd be worth every penny.

Amen

Wow. just wow.

Just when you thought people couldn't stoop any lower - they go and stoop lower.

Disgusting.

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: ShadesOfGrey

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: zendari

Yeah that would help! DUH!!!! I know, how about setting up euthanasia atations for the uninsured. Or maybe the US could build a plant like in Soylent Green. We could ship all the uninsured there and turn them into food for the hurricane refugees.

Euthanasia stations cost money.

In your case they'd be worth every penny.

Amen

Wow. just wow.

Just when you thought people couldn't stoop any lower - they go and stoop lower.

Disgusting.

Other than the costs involved, young Zendari seems to have no problem with euthanizing Americans. And you call us low.

:roll:

To my way of thinking, anyone who expresses no opposition to mass euthanisition of other human beings should be made first in line.

 

[BBond]

Check this out, dated January 6, 2005.

Letter to Dennis Hastert From Association of State Floodplain Managers, Inc.

 

[BBond]

And check this out too.

Why hasn't Bush fired Chertoff???

September 19, 2005

Chertoff AWOL As Katrina Strikes

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

News from the DNC:

Washington, DC - Hurricane Katrina tested the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to respond to a major national emergency. Unfortunately, the newly created agency failed miserably, as thousands were left stranded in the Gulf Coast. The agency?s failed response raised serious questions about DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff?s role as the tragedy unfolded. Concerns have been raised that Chertoff's inaction stalled the deployment of desperately needed federal resources to the affected region.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on the White House to release Chertoff?s schedule in the days leading up to and after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast:

?Every day, it becomes clearer that Secretary Chertoff and his agency dragged its feet as thousands of Americans remained stranded. The agency?s failed response also raises serious questions about our nation?s ability to respond to another large natural disaster or terror attack. To answer these questions, the White House should release Chertoff?s schedule so that Americans can begin to learn why their federal government let down so many in the Gulf Coast. Democrats also renew our call for an independent commission to fully investigate the response, at all levels, to our nation?s worst natural disaster."

See below for a new document from DNC Research:
CHERTOFF TO NEW ORLEANS: GOOD LUCK!

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was responsible for leading and coordinating the federal response efforts to the biggest natural disaster to ever hit the United States. President Bush finally took responsibility for a botched federal response, which left thousands stranded in the convention center and ignored thousands of others begging for help. While thousands suffered, Chertoff stalled the deployment of federal resources by waiting until days after Katrina struck, and days after a state of emergency was declared, to enact the National Response Plan his agency had created. Chertoff repeatedly ignored the warnings, shrugged off the pleas for help, downplayed the horror and devastation, all the while praising FEMA. We know that President Bush was at the ranch in Crawford and Vice President Cheney was vacationing in Wyoming while Katrina was raging on the Gulf Coast. But, where was Secretary Chertoff?
WAY BACK WHEN... 2004

"Hurricane Pam" Exercise Documented Threat to New Orleans; Did Chertoff Even See The Report? The AP reported, "Under FEMA's direction, federal and state officials began working on the $1 million Hurricane Pam project in July 2004, when 270 experts gathered in Baton Rouge, La., for an eight-day simulation. The so-called 'tabletop' exercise focused planners on a mock hurricane that produced more than 20 inches of rain and 14 tornadoes. The drill included computer graphic simulations projected on large screens of the hurricane slamming directly into New Orleans -the storm eerily foreshadowed the havoc wrought by Category 4 Katrina a few days later, raising questions about whether government leaders did everything possible -- as early as possible -- to protect New Orleans residents from a well-documented threat.' Former FEMA Director Michael Brown said he was kept abreast of Pam planning from the onset... Brown assumed the Pam report was sent to DHS, 'but can I put it in the hands of Secretary Ridge or Secretary Chertoff? No.'" [AP, 9/10/05]

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2005
CHERTOFF IS AWARE OF POTENTIAL KATRINA HOLDS BEFORE IT HITS LAND

Chertoff Assured Alabama Governor "Any Assistance" Needed Before Katrina Hit. Alabama Governor Bob Riley spoke to Bush and Chertoff before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. In a statement pre-Katrina, Governor Riley said, "I've spoken with President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff, both of whom have assured me they will offer any assistance we may need to recover from this devastating storm." [States News Service, 8/28/05]

Chertoff Briefed on 'Potential Deadly Effects' of Katrina, Warned of Levee Break. "Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told the Times-Picayune Sunday afternoon [8/28/05] that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff in advance of Hurricane Katrina slamming Louisiana and Mississippi--and were advised of the storm's potential deadly effects." Mayfield later told the Times- Picayune, "We were briefing them way before landfall...It's not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped." [Editor & Publisher, 9/4/05; Times-Picayune, 9/4/05, emphasis added]
MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005
AS KATRINA AND POUNDS THE GULF

By Early Monday, At Least 55 Reported Deaths By Hurricane Katrina Throughout Gulf Coast. "Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Gulf Coast on Monday morning, its fierce winds cutting a 125-mile swath of destruction stretching from coastal Alabama across Mississippi to the French Quarter and the Superdome. At least 55 people were killed. The storm's leading edge, wielding winds up to 145 mph across the Gulf of Mexico, made landfall as a fearsome Category 4 hurricane at 7:10 a.m."[Washington Post, 8/30/05]
BROWNIE WAS DESPERATELY SEEKING CHERTOFF

FEMA Director Frantically Sought Leadership from Chertoff. The New York Times reported, "hours after Hurricane Katrina passed New Orleans on Aug. 29, as the scale of the catastrophe became clear, Michael D. Brown recalls, he placed frantic calls to his boss, Michael Chertoff. 'I am having a horrible time,'" Brown said he told Chertoff [New York Times, 9/15/05]

Katrina Wreaking Havoc, Bush Called Chertoff...About Immigration Policy. While Katrina was wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast, Bush was in Arizona, fielding questions on immigration policy: "I spoke to Mike Chertoff today. He's the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration policy], so -- we got us an airplane on Air -- telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are. That's the most effective way to do things, is to work with the state and local authorities." [Federal News Service, 8/29/05]
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005
CHERTOFF BELATEDLY ENACTS NATIONAL RESPONSE PLAN

Chertoff Failed To Start The National Response Plan Until Days After Katrina Hit. "The National Response Plan, issued by the department in January, allows federal assistance before a disaster strikes. The plan states that a federal response 'can be partially or fully implemented in the context of a threat, anticipation of a significant event, or the response to a significant event.' The plan generally requires the federal government to react to emergencies that exceed state and local capabilities. Chertoff did not declare Katrina as a nationally significant incident until August 30th, a day after Katrina hit. Chertoff's memo came three days after President Bush's Aug. 27 declaration of a state of emergency in Louisiana, in advance of the storm and four days after Governor Blanco said in her letter to Bush that the severity of the storm would overwhelm Louisiana's resources." [Houston Chronicle, 9/14/05; Blanco Letter to Bush, 8/26/05, emphasis added]

Chertoff's Delay in Declaring an Incident of National Significance Meant a Delay in Federal Resources. "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff delayed declaring Katrina an 'incident of national significance' - a designation that would have triggered a quick and massive federal response - until a day after the hurricane hit, even though weather forecasts predicted the storm would cause widespread destruction." [Houston Chronicle, 9/15/05]
BLANCO CALLS SITUATION HEARTBREAKING...

Blanco Calls Situation "Untenable." Nagin Declared Martial Law. "'The situation is untenable,' Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. 'It's just heartbreaking. The devastation is greater than our worst fears.' New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared martial law Tuesday afternoon and ordered everyone still in the city -- including police officers not considered 'central emergency personnel' -- to leave. But evacuation routes were blocked by flooding and debris." [AP State & Local Wire, 8/31/05; Orlando Sentinel, 8/31/05]
CHERTOFF SAYS NEW ORLEANS "DODGED A BULLET"

Chertoff Downplayed Damage, Learned of Levee Break and Devastation. Chertoff on "Meet the Press, recalled, "Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers, and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet,' ...Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. It was on Tuesday that the levee -- may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday -- that the levee started to break." No major newspaper printed a headline that literally said New Orleans "dodged a bullet," as Chertoff claimed. [Meet the Press, 9/4/05; Wall Street Journal, 9/12/05, emphasis added]

Brown Called Chertoff Tuesday Evening Begging for Chertoff's Help. "Guys, this is bigger than what we can handle... This is bigger than what FEMA can do. I am asking for help." [New York Times, 9/15/05]

Chertoff Claimed He Didn't Know The Storm Would Be So Big. "It wasn't until comparatively late, shortly before, day, day and a half before landfall that it became clear this was going to be a category 4, 5 heading for the New Orleans area," said Chertoff. But, the national hurricane center was warning of Katrina's growing danger four days before landfall. [CNN, 9/4/05]
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005
BLANCO ASKS WHITE HOUSE FOR MORE HELP IN RESCUE EFFORT...

Blanco Asked White House For More People To Help With Rescue Effort. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asks the White House to send more people to help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop out-of-control looters. [AP, 8/31/05]
CHERTOFF SAYS EFFORTS "GOING WELL"

Despite Blanco's Assessment, Chertoff Says Situation At Superdome Secure. Blanco's "remarks contrasted with those by Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, who said yesterday that the Superdome, where thousands of refugees sought shelter, 'is secure' with the help of 'several hundred' National Guardsmen and city police. His statement was belied by police at the scene, who described the situation as extremely dangerous." [Baltimore Sun, 9/2/05]

Chertoff: "Efforts Going Well," "Extremely Pleased with Federal Response." Chertoff claimed in media interviews that relief and evacuation efforts were "going well," and he declared himself "extremely pleased" with the federal response to Katrina. [CNN/Aaron Brown timeline report, 9/5/05; AP 9/6/05]
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005
CHAOS AND DESPAIR... BUT CHERTOFF SAYS THINGS AREN'T SO BAD

Things Weren't as Bad as They Seemed. Time Magazine reports, "In a conference with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and five congressional leaders, when chaos and despair reigned in New Orleans, Chertoff insisted things weren't going as badly as media reports suggested, adding that he had spoken to local law-enforcement officials in the past hour." [Time, 9/19/05]

Chertoff Learned of Situation in Superdome, Reporters Were "Exaggerating." "Chertoff first learned--from an NPR anchor in Washington--that there were thousands of people stranded, starving and in some cases dying in the New Orleans Convention Center, a story that had been all over the media that morning. Again, Chertoff suggested reporters were exaggerating. 'If you talk to someone and you get a rumor or you get someone's anecdotal version of something,' he said, 'I think it's dangerous to extrapolate it to all over the place.'" [Time, 9/19/05]
CHERTOFF'S FEMA MIA, CHERTOFF THREE DAYS LATE ASKING FOR HELP

Homeland Security Did Not Ask for Help Evacuating Storm Victims Until Thursday - Three Days After the Storm Made Landfall. "The airline industry said the government's request for help evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon [September 1st]. The president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland Security Department called then to ask if the group could participate in an airlift for refugees." [AP, 9/6/05]

Superdome Evacuation A Louisiana Operation: FEMA Not Involved. "Watching the slow procession from the Superdome, an angry Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans' emergency operations, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency response was inadequate. 'This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control,' Ebbert said. 'We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans. We have got a mayor who has been pushing and asking, but we're not getting supplies.' He said the evacuation was almost entirely a Louisiana operation. 'This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy.'" [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 9/2/05]

Chertoff to New Orleans: "Good Luck." In a briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff insisted that the government was doing all it could do. In his remarks, he stated that "All of us wish, I know, Godspeed and good luck to those who are suffering." [Homeland Security Press Briefing 9/1/05; Orlando Sentinel, 9/2/05]

Brown And Chertoff: Residents Bear Responsibility for Climbing Death Toll. FEMA Director Michael Brown said those who ignored the city's mandatory evacuation order bore some responsibility. "I think the death toll may go into the thousands and, unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," he said. Chertoff voiced a similar opinion saying, "Some people chose not to obey that order. That was a mistake on their part." [CNN, 9/2/05; NBC Today, 9/1/05]
FRIDAY, SEMPTEMBER 2, 2005
CHERTOFF TOUTS PROGRESS, PRAISES FEMA

Chertoff Accompanied Bush to Beleaguered Coast, Touted Progress. Before heading down to the devastated Gulf Coast, Bush told reporters, "Secretary Chertoff and I just finished a meeting with Secretary Rumsfeld, General Myers, other members of my Cabinet, as well as General Honore, Admiral Keating, in charge of NORTHCOM - General Honore is active duty general on the ground in Louisiana - and Mike Brown, who's the head of FEMA... There's a lot of aid surging toward those who have been affected: Millions of gallons of water, millions of tons of food. We're making progress about pulling people out of the Superdome." [AP, 9/2/05]

Chertoff: FEMA Doing "Magnificent Job." "Terry Ebbert, New Orleans' homeland security chief [said] FEMA's response to the disaster has been an 'embarrassment.'... Yet, back in Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CNN Thursday that he believes FEMA and other federal agencies have done a 'magnificent job' under difficult circumstances to deal with the unprecedented disaster, citing their 'courage' and 'ingenuity.' Insisting that aid is coming as fast as possible, Chertoff said, 'You can't fly helicopters in a hurricane. You can't drive trucks in a hurricane.'' [CNN, 9/2/05]
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2005
CHERTOFF POINTS FINGERS AND SUPPORTS BROWNIE WHILE...

Chertoff Says State Responsible For National Guard Response And Says He Has Full Confidence In Brown. Chertoff told CNN that "[t]he traditional model for recovery and -- response and recovery involves having the federal government come into support the first responders, who are the first on the ground... our constitutional system really places the primary authority in each state with the governor." Chertoff also said he has "full confidence" in FEMA Director Michael D. Brown, the DHS undersecretary and federal officer in charge of the Katrina response. [CNN, 9/3/05; Washington Post, 9/4/05]

Chertoff Claimed Situation In Louisiana Was Improving. "The situation is improving hour by hour, nevertheless we are not satisfied," Chertoff said, adding that the unexpected double whammy of a hurricane followed by flooding in New Orleans had shattered the government's emergency plan with the force of an 'atomic bomb.'" [Agence France Presse, 9/3/05]
BLANCO IS FORCED TO LOOK TO OTHERS FOR HELP...

Blanco Brings In Experienced Emergency Management Official To Advise On Relief Effort. Blanco created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort. [Washington Post, 9/4/05]
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2005
CHERTOFF PLAYS DUMB; SAYS GOVERNMENT IS IN CONTROL...

Chertoff Claims The Levee Breaks Were Unexpected. Chertoff repeatedly spoke about the hurricane and the break of the levees in New Orleans as if they were separate events, another unpredictable one-two punch. "A devastating hurricane followed by a second devastating flood." Chertoff admitted FEMA knew the levees around New Orleans might be overrun by a category 4 hurricane however - Chertoff defended, "The collapse of a significant portion of the levee leading to the fast flooding of the city was not envisioned." [CNN, 9/4/05]

Chertoff: No Amount Of Planning Could Have Prepared Them. "So no matter what the planning was in advance, we were presented with an unprecedented situation." [NBC's Meet the Press, 9/4/05]

Chertoff Assured the Government Had Control of the Situation. "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Sunday the federal government is in control of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans after days in which authorities failed to reach stranded refugees and evacuate the city." [AP, 9/4/05, 9/5/05]
BUT BLANCO STILL LACKS RESOURCES

Blanco Praised General Honore But Was Disappointed He Didn't Have More Resources In Tow. "Honore quickly became a media darling and the take-charge face of the federal government in New Orleans, barking out orders to surprised National Guards members who aren't even under his control. Blanco said she liked Honore's style, but was surprised that he arrived with only a few aides in tow. 'He didn't bring any resources,' Blanco said. 'I just kind of expected, based on my conversations with the White House, that we could be getting a surge of equipment and we did not.'" [Newhouse News Service, 9/5/05]

Former DHS Inspector General: Devastating Indictment Of Department's Performance. "This is what the department was supposed to be all about," said Clark Kent Ervin, DHS's former inspector general. "Instead, it obviously raises very serious, troubling questions about whether the government would be prepared if this were a terrorist attack. It's a devastating indictment of this department's performance four years after 9/11." [Washington Post, 9/4/05]
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2005
CHERTOFF FINALLY VISITS REGION, MAKES OUTRAGOUS COMMENTS

Chertoff Made Trip to Region. On Monday, September 5, President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Secretary Chertoff traveled to the Gulf Coast. [CNN, 9/5/05]

Chertoff... How could you? After claiming to have no warning of a possible levee break and stalling the federal response by not putting into action the National Response Plan until days after the hurricane hit, Chertoff finally visited the devastated region and plainly stated, "We are going to uncover people who died, maybe hiding in houses, got caught by the flood." [Houston Chronicle, 9/15/05; Meet the Press, 9/4/05; Chicago Tribune, 9/6/05]
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2005
CHERTOFF BRIEFS CONGRESS, GIVES OVERLY ROSY VIEW OF EVENTS

Chertoff Briefed Senators: "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said efforts now focus on rehabilitating the battered coast and helping displaced residents find housing, education and jobs. 'I think what we have to offer the people of all of the afflicted areas now is hope,' Chertoff said after briefing senators. 'There is a tremendous amount of work to do.'"[AP 9/5/05]

Chertoff Under Fire. Chertoff visibly upset members of the Homeland Security Committee by taking a laissez fair tone, minimizing the suffering and anguish of evacuees at the Superdome and insisting the federal response had been far better than the media portrayed. Ranking Committee member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said of Chertoff's remarks, ''He was the first speaker, and it sort of went downhill after that. People felt we are not going to get the truth here.'' Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, became increasingly frustrated by what he heard. ''The picture was being painted that things were not as bad as they appeared to be'' in news reports, Mr. Cummings said in an interview. ''It reached the point where the answers didn't add up.'' [New York Times, 9/8/05]

Chertoff Called Superdome Crisis a "Small Soda-Straw View" of What Happened. NBC's Mike Viqueira reported that in the closed briefing Cabinet officials gave House members last night, homeland security chief Michael Chertoff contended to members that what the members saw on TV from the Superdome "was a small soda-straw view of what was going on" in terms of the crisis, and not representative of the true situation. Per Rep. Elijah Cummings (D), after Chertoff said that, some members got up and walked away. [MSNBC, 9/7/05]

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

 

[conjur]

At least Maine has plenty of ice

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/050920ice.shtml

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: conjur
At least Maine has plenty of ice

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/050920ice.shtml

There was a report on this last week on one of the major TV news shows. FEMA is so mismanaged they're still ordering ice and paying millions to divert truckloads all over the USA.

Bush probably has a major contributor in the ice business.

 

[BBond]

Frank Rich of the NY Times excoriates Bush over his inaction on Hurricane Katrina.

Mr. Rich hits every nail right on the head.

Message: I Care About the Black Folks

By FRANK RICH
Published: September 18, 2005

ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.

The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.

In the chaos unleashed by Katrina, these plot strands coalesced into a single tragic epic played out in real time on television. The narrative is just too powerful to be undone now by the administration's desperate recycling of its greatest hits: a return Sunshine Boys tour by the surrogate empathizers Clinton and Bush I, another round of prayers at the Washington National Cathedral, another ludicrously overhyped prime-time address flecked with speechwriters' "poetry" and framed by a picturesque backdrop. Reruns never eclipse a riveting new show.

Nor can the president's acceptance of "responsibility" for the disaster dislodge what came before. Mr. Bush didn't cough up his modified-limited mea culpa until he'd seen his whole administration flash before his eyes. His admission that some of the buck may stop with him (about a dime's worth, in Truman dollars) came two weeks after the levees burst and five years after he promised to usher in a new post-Clinton "culture of responsibility." It came only after the plan to heap all the blame on the indeed blameworthy local Democrats failed to lift Mr. Bush's own record-low poll numbers. It came only after America's highest-rated TV news anchor, Brian Williams, started talking about Katrina the way Walter Cronkite once did about Vietnam.

Taking responsibility, as opposed to paying lip service to doing so, is not in this administration's gene pool. It was particularly shameful that Laura Bush was sent among the storm's dispossessed to try to scapegoat the news media for her husband's ineptitude. When she complained of seeing "a lot of the same footage over and over that isn't necessarily representative of what really happened," the first lady sounded just like Donald Rumsfeld shirking responsibility for the looting of Baghdad. The defense secretary, too, griped about seeing the same picture "over and over" on television (a looter with a vase) to hide the reality that the Pentagon had no plan to secure Iraq, a catastrophic failure being paid for in Iraqi and American blood to this day.

This White House doesn't hate all pictures, of course. It loves those by Karl Rove's Imagineers, from the spectacularly lighted Statue of Liberty backdrop of Mr. Bush's first 9/11 anniversary speech to his "Top Gun" stunt to Thursday's laughably stagy stride across the lawn to his lectern in Jackson Square. (Message: I am a leader, not that vacationing slacker who first surveyed the hurricane damage from my presidential jet.)

The most odious image-mongering, however, has been Mr. Bush's repeated deployment of African-Americans as dress extras to advertise his "compassion." In 2000, the Republican convention filled the stage with break dancers and gospel singers, trying to dispel the memory of Mr. Bush's craven appearance at Bob Jones University when it forbade interracial dating. (The few blacks in the convention hall itself were positioned near celebrities so they'd show up in TV shots.) In 2004, the Bush-Cheney campaign Web site had a page titled "Compassion" devoted mainly to photos of the president with black people, Colin Powell included.

Some of these poses are re-enacted in the "Hurricane Relief" photo gallery currently on display on the White House Web site. But this time the old magic isn't working. The "compassion" photos are outweighed by the cinéma vérité of poor people screaming for their lives. The government effort to keep body recovery efforts in New Orleans as invisible as the coffins from Iraq was abandoned when challenged in court by CNN.

But even now the administration's priority of image over substance is embedded like a cancer in the Katrina relief process. Brazenly enough, Mr. Rove has been officially put in charge of the reconstruction effort. The two top deputies at FEMA remaining after Michael Brown's departure, one of them a former local TV newsman, are not disaster relief specialists but experts in P.R., which they'd practiced as advance men for various Bush campaigns. Thus The Salt Lake Tribune discovered a week after the hurricane that some 1,000 firefighters from Utah and elsewhere were sent not to the Gulf Coast but to Atlanta, to be trained as "community relations officers for FEMA" rather than used as emergency workers to rescue the dying in New Orleans. When 50 of them were finally dispatched to Louisiana, the paper reported, their first assignment was "to stand beside President Bush" as he toured devastated areas.

The cashiering of "Brownie," whom Mr. Bush now purports to know as little as he did "Kenny Boy," changes nothing. The Knight Ridder newspapers found last week that it was the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, not Mr. Brown, who had the greater authority to order federal agencies into service without any request from state or local officials. Mr. Chertoff waited a crucial, unexplained 36 hours before declaring Katrina an "incident of national significance," the trigger needed for federal action. Like Mr. Brown, he was oblivious to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the convention center, confessing his ignorance of conditions there to NPR on the same day that the FEMA chief famously did so to Ted Koppel. Yet Mr. Bush's "culture of responsibility" does not hold Mr. Chertoff accountable. Quite the contrary: on Thursday the president charged Homeland Security with reviewing "emergency plans in every major city in America." Mr. Chertoff will surely do a heck of a job.

WHEN there's money on the line, cronies always come first in this White House, no matter how great the human suffering. After Katrina, the FEMA Web site directing charitable contributions prominently listed Operation Blessing, a Pat Robertson kitty that, according to I.R.S. documents obtained by ABC News, has given more than half of its yearly cash donations to Mr. Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. If FEMA is that cavalier about charitable donations, imagine what it's doing with the $62 billion (so far) of taxpayers' money sent its way for Katrina relief. Actually, you don't have to imagine: we already know some of it was immediately siphoned into no-bid contracts with a major Republican donor, the Fluor Corporation, as well as with a client of the consultant Joe Allbaugh, the Bush 2000 campaign manager who ran FEMA for this White House until Brownie, Mr. Allbaugh's college roommate, was installed in his place.

It was back in 2000 that Mr. Bush, in a debate with Al Gore, bragged about his gubernatorial prowess "on the front line of catastrophic situations," specifically citing a Texas flood, and paid the Clinton administration a rare compliment for putting a professional as effective as James Lee Witt in charge of FEMA. Exactly why Mr. Bush would staff that same agency months later with political hacks is one of many questions that must be answered by the independent investigation he and the Congressional majority are trying every which way to avoid. With or without a 9/11-style commission, the answers will come out. There are too many Americans who are angry and too many reporters who are on the case. (NBC and CNN are both opening full-time bureaus in New Orleans.) You know the world has changed when the widely despised news media have a far higher approval rating (77 percent) than the president (46 percent), as measured last week in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

Like his father before him, Mr. Bush has squandered the huge store of political capital he won in a war. His Thursday-night invocation of "armies of compassion" will prove as worthless as the "thousand points of light" that the first President Bush bestowed upon the poor from on high in New Orleans (at the Superdome, during the 1988 G.O.P. convention). It will be up to other Republicans in Washington to cut through the empty words and image-mongering to demand effective action from Mr. Bush on the Gulf Coast and in Iraq, if only because their own political lives are at stake. It's up to Democrats, though they show scant signs of realizing it, to step into the vacuum and propose an alternative to a fiscally disastrous conservatism that prizes pork over compassion. If the era of Great Society big government is over, the era of big government for special interests is proving a fiasco. Especially when it's presided over by a self-styled C.E.O. with a consistent three-decade record of running private and public enterprises alike into a ditch.

What comes next? Having turned the page on Mr. Bush, the country hungers for a vision that is something other than either liberal boilerplate or Rovian stagecraft. At this point, merely plain old competence, integrity and heart might do.

 

[Kalbi]

Since when does Bush run FEMA 😕

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: conjur
At least Maine has plenty of ice

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/050920ice.shtml

There was a report on this last week on one of the major TV news shows. FEMA is so mismanaged they're still ordering ice and paying millions to divert truckloads all over the USA.

Bush probably has a major contributor in the ice business.

BFT

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Kalbi
Since when does Bush run FEMA 😕

Since he appointed his political hacks and cronies to run FEMA.

 

[conjur]

Texas mayors say FEMA didn't deliver on promise to do better
http://news.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/_wea_storms_fema

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas - The day after Hurricane Rita battered his town, Nederland Mayor Dick Nugent called the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a simple plea: Bring us two generators.

Instead, FEMA showed up with a four-stall temporary shower. No generators.

Throughout Jefferson County, where Rita downed power lines and trees, knocked out communications and damaged homes and oil refineries, mayors and local officials this week voiced similar complaints. They said FEMA failed to keep its promise to deliver emergency aid and avoid making some of the same mistakes that followed Hurricane Katrina.

"There was a lot of frustration on all our parts," said Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith, who spoke with President Bush on Tuesday when he toured the Jefferson County town of Port Arthur. "And hopefully our government will take a look so no American city will have to go through this."

In southwestern Louisiana, FEMA appeared to be doing a better job distributing essentials such as generators, food and water, residents and officials said. But many people complained they weren't getting financial aid quickly enough.

David Passey, FEMA spokesman in Texas, on Friday defended the agency's efforts.

"Part of the whole week has been an understanding process for many of these mayors - understanding how the emergency management system works," he said.

Requests go to the state and then to the federal government, he said, and some requests for generators may not have gotten passed to FEMA.

In addition, he said, before installing a generator for a building, a team must make sure that the building is safe and that the generators are appropriate.

The mayors of Nederland, Port Arthur and Port Neches, all in Jefferson County, said they had encountered too much bureaucracy while trying to get basic supplies from FEMA in Rita's immediate aftermath.

Griffith said Thursday that FEMA workers were in the area trying to deliver aid.

"People are on the ground busting their tails off, trying to do as much as they can, and I believe supplies are starting to flow in, but there have been problems," he said.

Port Arthur Mayor Oscar Ortiz, who escorted Gov. Rick Perry and the president around his city, said he was upset at the lackluster federal response.

"FEMA has once again dropped the ball," Ortiz said. "They make a lot of promises that they cannot deliver, and then you have to go through so much bureaucracy."

Ortiz said he made personal requests for emergency resources, but his appeals were answered with demands for paperwork. He was told his town would get a "point of distribution," where FEMA would provide military meals, water and ice. Port Neches Mayor Glenn Johnson said he expected the same.

But the distribution points never opened, the mayors said.

Passey said FEMA now has 32 distribution points in Texas, at locations determined by the state. He said a distribution point has been established in Port Arthur, but he could not confirm whether the state has requested that any materials be sent to it.

"We recognize that every mayor would like to have a point of distribution in their community, but it's just not possible given a system that's designed to be supportive of state and local governments," he said.

Ortiz, whose home was destroyed by Rita, said Thursday that the most FEMA had done for the community was to deliver two truckloads of fuel, which he said was gone after six hours. He thanked Valero Energy Corp., a regional oil refiner, for helping with the city's fuel needs.

"I've had to call FEMA's director to help get my people food and housing vouchers," Ortiz said. " I mean, come on, I'm in the state of Texas and I can't feed my people."

"It's baffling," said Port Neches' Johnson, who also asked FEMA for generators that never showed up. "They want you to fax requests to them for the things that you need, and it's like faxing it to a black hole.

"I know they are out there doing things, and I don't want to play the blame game, pointing fingers. But obviously there's a breakdown in the system, and it needs to be fixed. I've given up on them."

The picture was better in southwest Louisiana, where many National Guard soldiers and federal troops, already staged for Katrina, were ready to distribute basic supplies to the few residents who rode out Rita, or the many evacuees who returned soon after the hurricane passed.

Residents and local officials said speedy handouts of food, water and ice were welcome in the days after Rita.

Jim and Barbara Allee arrived after the closing of the National Guard's supply point at the Lake Charles, La., convention center, but two soldiers hustled to stock them with food, water and all the ice they could handle.

The Guard's FEMA-aided distribution of food and generators to a shelter in Elton, La., and a VFW distribution center in Lake Arthur, La., impressed many living in those towns.

"They've been moving quickly out there," said 28-year-old Elton evacuee Raysean Marsh.

Not everyone found aid close at hand, however.

"We rode everywhere and couldn't find them," said Kasie Citizen, a 33-year-old activities director for an assisted-living facility just south of Lake Charles.

Those stories seemed to be few, however, said state Sen. Willie Mount, a Lake Charles Democrat. "No one really seems to be complaining," she said.

FEMA, however, is trying the patience of residents trying to get new roofs and financial aid.

Sulphur, La., lawyer Jim Hopkins said he was told that the wait for a temporary roof from FEMA was two weeks.

"This isn't Phoenix, Arizona," Hopkins said. "It's going to rain within two weeks."

FEMA still screwing up? And this coming from mayors in Texas? They must be liberal, freedom-hating mayors.