Posted on 09/04/2005 3:46:09 PM PDT by traderrob6
It's not often I disagree with the first lady of the blogospere but Michelle Malkins rantings concerning the firing of FEMA director Michael Brown couldn't be further of the mark. Her arguments:
-He admitted that he didn't act more aggressively because as late as last Sunday he expected Katrina to be a "standard hurricane" even though the National Weather Service in New Orleans was already predicting "human suffering incredible by modern standards."
- He proved himself utterly clueless about the disaster unfolding in New Orleans. He claimed that the federal relief effort was "going relatively well" and that the security situation in New Orleans was "pretty darn good."
- He blamed the flood victims in New Orleans for failing to evacuate on time, even though local authorities failed to make municipal vehicles available to residents who could not drive or did not own their own cars.
Granted he made some ill advised statements that may actually be accurate but would be better left unsaid. Does she suggest that everyone in beltway who has done the same also be fired? That would leave Washington pretty much a ghost town.
I have yet to see Michelle or anyone for that matter actually point to a legitimate bonafide screw up by anyone in the Bush administration that adversely effected the NO operation. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but to date I have seen no one produce it.
It's human nature to asign blame whenever sonmething doesn't idealy go as it should. Sometime blame is warranted as it appears to be with both Nagin, Blanco and some other local authorities (for which evidence of bonafide screw ups do exist) sometimes it is not. If anyone needs to be fired it's several people in Bush's press and PR office. Their performance is dismal and has been for the better part of Bush's entire Presidency. That however, I'll leave for another day.
This sort of half cocked, knee jerk reactionism is usually reserved for the likes of the MSM and the Ted Kennedy wing of the Democrat party. To see it exhibited by the usual right thinking Michelle Malkin is both disturbing and perplexing. Conservatives are known for giving people (of either party) the benefit of the doubt. Why she has suddenly donned her cheerleading outfit and jumped on the blame Bush bandwagon has this humble blogster bewildered.
Assuming that Michelle isn't suffering from Arianna Huffington Syndrome, my advice to her and all clear thinking conservatives.....take a long deep breath and think with your brain not your adrenal glands. If anyone in the Bush administration is culpable for less than acceptable performance it will come out in due time and thoughtful appropriate action can be taken. Untill that time let's remain coherent and leave the hyper emotional breast beating to the crackpot left.
It's not Browns fault...this is what we get for lumping FEMA in with Homeland Security...it was a MISTAKE. This mistake better get fixed.......fast...Al Qaeda is taking notes.
Another Republican Senator is criticizing FEMA's performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, CNN reports:
Sen. Trent Lott berated both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and his own state's emergency management, MEMA, for being mired in red tape at a time of urgent need given the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.Lott said he has been trying to get FEMA to send 20,000 trailers "sitting in Atlanta" to the Mississippi coast, and he urged President Bush during a meeting Monday to intervene. He said FEMA has refused to ship the trailers until contracts are secured.
Sen. David Vitter (R-Lousiana) has expressed similar sentiments.
Update:
Ben Morris, mayor of Slidell, La.:
We are still hampered by some of the most stupid, idiotic regulations by FEMA. They have turned away generators, we've heard that they've gone around seizing equipment from our contractors. If they do so, they'd better be armed because I'll be damned if I'm going to let them deprive our citizens. I'm pissed off, and tired of this horse$#@@.
Authorities say they are speeding up relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but 80 San Diego firefighters and paramedics sent to the Gulf Coast are languishing in Houston, a fire official said Sunday."We're there, we're ready, it's up to (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to decide where we're needed," said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire Department.
***
Previous:
Nagin and Brown: peas in a pod
FEMA fraud alert
Memo to Bush: Fire Michael Brown
People in these positions are rarely leaders but rather managers and bureaucrats. What "specifically" was his fireable offense.
Michelle is right, as usual.
Brown is a big nothing who got his job by being the ex-college roomie of Alspaugh. Patronage job, pure and simple.
A politically expedient politician, Oh pshaaww. As I stated earlier I'll wait to see bonafide evidence of screwups rather than anecdotal accountings and heresay before advocating the firing of anyone.
As leader of a government run disaster aid organization looking and sounding like a complete fool in public during a natural disaster and casting 'his boss', President Bush, in a negative light.
Percentage of blame:
25%, socialist welfare state mentality
20%, people who did not evacuate
20%, Mayor of New Orleans
20%, Governor of Louisiana
10%, thugs and criminals residing in New Orleans
3%, FEMA director and his non-leadership
2%, everything else
You have to have a former leader in the military as head of a disaster relief organization. Michael whatever his name is might be qualified to operate the copier somewhere in the basement of a building.
You obviously have faith in President Bush as I do. If he feels there is sufficient reason to fire Brown I won't second guess him. If evidence comes to light that Brown mismanged FEMA's resources I will jump on the bandwagon as well. With the exception of one of those two things happening, I will avoid hyperventilating and reserve judgement.
Political nepotism is rampant in Washington. Does it exclude someone from being capable, of course not. If he screwed up I'll scream louder than anyone for his head. I have yet to see EVIDENCE of that. Certain people in a position of prominence ought to hold their water untill the facts become a bit more clear.
Michelle Malkin is decorative, but I otherwise gave up on her long ago. Her opinions are rarely fully thought-out.
What were his qualifications? He was president of the Horse Show Association, for Pete's sake.
Brownie, indeed!
That appears to be an argument against his appointment rather than a reason for his firing.
Not only was she NOT right but doesn't know apparently that FEMA helicopter flights started rescue operations within a day after the levees broke. These continued until they were fired upon. Then Blackhawks came in to fly over. By Tuesday night C-130s were on the tarmac in NO, Chinooks and Blackhawks also. A FEMA pilot said "everything was there" by Wednesday morning.
MM screwed up badly with this unwarranted criticism and played into the hands of the Treason Media's Blame Bush Campaign. Weak, very weak.
MM screwed up badly with this unwarranted criticism and played into the hands of the Treason Media's Blame Bush Campaign. Weak, very weak.
Michelle's original posting regarding FEMA director Michael Brown (with links to comments by others). Classic Michelle Malkin telling it like it is... very, very, very strong with the independent thinking and analysis that makes Michelle one of the very best in the blogosphere.
============
During his visit to Mobile, Ala., on Friday, President Bush singled out Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for praise:
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Really? "Brownie's" job is to direct the federal response to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Let's review his public statements during the past week:
- He admitted that he didn't act more aggressively because as late as last Sunday he expected Katrina to be a "standard hurricane" even though the National Weather Service in New Orleans was already predicting "human suffering incredible by modern standards."
- He proved himself utterly clueless about the disaster unfolding in New Orleans. He claimed that the federal relief effort was "going relatively well" and that the security situation in New Orleans was "pretty darn good."
- He blamed the flood victims in New Orleans for failing to evacuate on time, even though local authorities failed to make municipal vehicles available to residents who could not drive or did not own their own cars.
"It took four days to begin a large-scale evacuation of people stranded in the Superdome stadium and to bring in significant amounts of food and water to an American city easily accessible by motorway," the Observer notes. "Relief agencies took half that time to reach Indonesia after the Boxing Day tsunami. "
Although the delay was not entirely the fault of the Bush Administration, Brown's complacency clearly didn't help. And his bumbling statements after the hurricane struck have not inspired confidence.
This is not the time to give a weak performer the benefit of the doubt. The FEMA director's role in the ongoing recovery effort is too important to be entrusted to a clueless political hack with such poor judgment.
Rather than praise Michael Brown, Bush should fire him.
***
Update, 9:15am: Brendan Loy has a superb post about Brown's failure to anticipate the enormity of Katrina (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds):
No one -- NO ONE -- who knows anything about New Orleans's geography and topography and levee system would ever have thought for a single moment on Saturday and Sunday that Katrina, if it followed the predicted path, was going to be a "typical hurricane situation." Jesus Christ!! For how many years now has this article been out there?!? And this one? And many more like them? Did Michael Brown never read them? Was he not familiar with the science? Was FEMA's director unaware of what has been acknowledged for many years as the #1 most serious natural disaster threat in all of America?!?
9:45am EDT: Brown is being criticized on FOX News Sunday. "He has a lot to answer for," says Bill Kistol. "He clearly did not know what was going on."
I do have complete trust in the ability of President Bush. My personal thoughts on FEMA director Brown are based on the news conferences that he called that were broadcast live on FoxNews. He came across as wishy washy and with the demeanor of someone not up to the job of leadership required in this particular case. Maybe he's qualified to handle category 1, 2 and 3 hurricanes... certainly not anything like this event with cat 4 Katrina and the aftermath.
President Bush could have knocked the ball out of the park by asking someone like Colin Powell to be the point man for the Federal disaster relief effort the second the levies broke.
We'll see what happens.
That want happens when you leave your Superman suit at home.
Michael's experience with logistics is making sure her hair doesn't get mussed in the limo on the way to the studio. She is a breathless nitwit at times so I can't say I am surprised by this.
But the FACT remains that the failure was at the state and local levels NOT the federal and that FEMA planes were on the ground at the NO airport, helicopters flying rescue until the thugs started shooting at them (yet another local failure.)
Michael's experience with logistics is making sure her hair doesn't get mussed in the limo on the way to the studio. She is a breathless nitwit at times so I can't say I am surprised by this.
But the FACT remains that the failure was at the state and local levels NOT the federal and that FEMA planes were on the ground at the NO airport, helicopters flying rescue until the thugs started shooting at them (yet another local failure.)
Read... READ... Michelle Malkin's comments again in her original posting that I posted earlier in this thread!
Michelle is pointing out Michael Brown's inept leadership.
Obviously some or maybe most of the folks in the FEMA organization did their job and some did not.
Oh I get it, resort to personal attacks on Michelle because she has the will and courage as a conservative to speak out, even against someone who President Bush appointed.
On issues like immigration reform, pork barrel spending and the FEMA director our President Bush is a WINO. W in name only.
you might want to check this pictoral timeline
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478997/posts
Anyone who attempts to distract from that shows that her head is NOT screwed on straight.
FEMA was on the ground by Tuesday night and flying rescue missions by the next day until the copters came under fire. Blanco STILL had not signed the Multi-state Mutual Aid Pack Activation documents until Wednesday. FIVE days after Bush pleaded with her to do so.
I disagree with your personal attack on Michelle.
As far as FEMA goes it turns out you were correct and I was wrong in calling for Michael Brown to be fired. With the breaking news that Major Garrett has uncovered over the past few days regarding Red Cross and Salvation Army relief being refused for the folks at the SuperDome and convention center proves that out in spades.
Listening to Tony Snow, Hugh Hewitt and Sean Hannity nationally over the past two days, and Mike Rosen here locally I've come to understand how FEMA operates and their partnerships with disaster relief organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army.
I stick with my opinion that Michael Brown doesn't come off as a leader of an organization when speaking in a press conference. That is based on my own observations of him just after Katrina made landfall. I still think the post of leading an organization like FEMA would be better served by someone with significant military experience.
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