Posted on 09/03/2005 7:55:04 PM PDT by loser_man5
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.
A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.
I love the smell of ozone in the morning
WOOO HOOOO IBTZ
A live one...
IBTZ
Little slow aren't ya???? Joe Allbaugh IS NOT THE HEAD OF FEMA, IDIOT!!!
You are a *ucking idiot
His name says it all!
IBTZ
ZOT!
FEMA coordinates with State and local governments and works with THEIR disaster plans...assuming that the City of State HAS a disaster plan and doesn't abandon the city to looters, and folks who shhot at rescue helicopters and assault emergency personnel.
Yes it does, he actually announces that he is a loser, and him and his party will continue to do so
Woohoo, I beat tha' ZOT!
You must admit his screen name is accurate.
Troll ahoy!
Someone needs to show thse photos to Mayor Nagin of NOLA, with the pointed question appended:
Mr. Mayor, here are some 250 buses in two New Orleans lots.
These buses were yours to deploy, Mr. Mayor, to provide transport to the indigent and the stranded during the mandatory evacuation of the city you were elected to safeguard, prior to the storm and flood, in accord with a longstanding evacuation plan for the city and its surrounding areas.
Mayor Nagin, why did you not make use of these, YOUR resources, to fulfill YOUR duty to YOUR charges?
hE WENT BYE BYE
I'm in before the ZOT!!!
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