MEMO TO BUSH: FIRE MICHAEL BROWN

MichelleMalkin.com ^ | September 4, 2005 | Michelle Malkin

[wildwood]

MEMO TO BUSH: FIRE MICHAEL BROWN

By Michelle Malkin · September 04, 2005 08:17 AM 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.

READ MORE!!

[inquest]

Perhaps the original article can be addressed now......?

Miracles have been known to happen. :-/

[hosepipe]

I say fire the head of the FCC who allows the MsM total seditious freedom.. hes useless.. His 300 million dollar budget must be purely for putting asses in seats..

[wildwood]

Michael Brown was not responsible for the lack of communication

yeah, i know. the problem is that he is a POLITICIAN and it is a POLITICAL job.

he has to handle the crap with skill, or he makes his boss look bad.

that's the point.

[wildwood]

wildwood flower

ah, i have been discovered...i see your educator roots have surfaced once again, without anger.:>

[sinkspur]

FEMA looks great in NYC after 9-11 and great in Florida after 5 Hurricanes.

Exactly. Brown was praised by all the Florida state officials, and has been praised for the response to the flooding that took place due to Katrina on Aug. 25.

The difference? Florida has a great state emergency responsiveness plan, they've got a governor who works closely with FEMA and who knows what his responsiblities are in emergency preparedness.

In fact, Brown was managing responses to four hurricanes simultaneously last year, something never done by any FEMA director.

When the shake down of events takes place, Kathleen Blanco's office is going to be shown to be the weakest link in the response.

[Lawgvr1955]

Did you look at the NO emergency plan? It directed that municipal buses would be available for those without private transportation.

Couldn't plans have been made for the week end to have drivers outside the NO area drive the buses? Couldn't the bus drivers take their own families out with them?

Who the hell are you, the mayor of NO? Why have a plan and publish it if you aren't going to use it?

[oldbrowser]

Although the delay was not entirely the fault of the Bush Administration

The Bush administration was way ahead of the curve with their responsiblities.

The happy talk is for the public, behind the scenes I'm sure butts are being kicked, where appropriate.

[oceanview]

I am sure that Landrieu and the Democratic machine now are coming up with their witness lists for these so-called "hearings". they will be coached and very well organized.

[Oztrich Boy]

Why weren't people complaining about Micheal Brown after Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances, Hurricane Ivan, Hurricane Jeanne, and Hurricane Dennis?
FEMA looked brilliant then.

I guess the plan was for the local authiorities to do the work and empty suit Brown to take the credit.

[firequarrel]

Everyone is playing into the hands of the media and the left by pointing fingers. Yes, it was a friggin' disaster. The flood in NO exacerbated the situation. Thugs made the situation worse. But if you look at the Hurricane Disaster Supply Kit made available by NOAA and constantly referred to each year by local news organizations in the hurricane zone, you'd see it says prepare for 3 to 7 days--the typical time frame it takes for help to arrive. Help arrived within that time frame.

[wildwood]

the question is this: is michael brown too much of a liability for the bush administration, given shooting his mouth off the way he does.

the question is not fed involvement.

[Oztrich Boy]

Maybe out of this Bush or Congress needs to get created a "Delta Force" type team for domestic terror or disasters, with doctors, snipers, helos, medical equipment, etc....it might cost some bucks, but I'd feel better if such a dedicated team were in place if/when AQ strikes here in a major urban area.

I can only speak for myself, but I don't want any more feral gummint.

Just the view of an UnAmerican, but you should consider it as falling under "provide for the general welfare" committment that holding to the strict it's not mentioned it's not allowed view.

You could even have a socialist government run it. I don't that it's necessary to go that far, but even that worked.

Just put a former soldier in charge, instead of a suit.

Hurricane Katrina and Cyclone Tracy the view from a British blog.

[Oztrich Boy]

Yeah right. Malkin is nothing but a shrill for the anti-Bush crowd.
huh? you don't know who she is, obviously...

Soemtimes I think Freepers need to take irony supplement pills.

[ForGod'sSake]

Just the view of an UnAmerican, but you should consider it as falling under "provide for the general welfare" committment that holding to the strict it's not mentioned it's not allowed view.

No thanks. I'll stay away from the verbiage the Dims conveniently roll out to justify(in their constituents simple minds) unconstitutional legislation.

FGS

[WOSG]

"I dont care who it is, now's not the time nor place, when we have a disaster to confront, to go about canning people. Let's deal with the situation and fix it.

"I'm curious if this is also your response to the many fingers here on FR that are being pointed at the state and city governments."

I'm not agreeing that we should fire or can *anyone* at this time, is my point. This is true even of the state and local officials who've performed much more poorly than FEMA has. Even if some people have screwed up, now is not the time nor place - mid-crisis - to make it worse. The suggestions to fire the FEMA head now are absurd and wrong-headed.

Bush's approach has been 100% correct. He didnt point fingers he simply called the disaster response as of Friday "unacceptable" and said and did what was needed to FIX it.

"See post #67 for the REAL STORY."

"#67 doesn't address the points that Malkin raised."

It puts in perspective. Malkin whines about some inaccurate comments (whereas facts shows FEMA responding appropriately overall), yet ignores who is doing the *work* of providing relief and who *did* and *didnt* do their part in recovering. The nitpicks of FEMA head's comments should be classed under 'fog of war' as no more inaccurate than the majority of statements made in crisis environments when communication is incomplete.

The 'weakest link' is not at the Federal level.
case in point: Malkin links to a New Orleans State rep begging for busses ...

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076163

Just great ... we now know the city of New Orleans on Sunday and Monday cluelessly let *300 busses* get waterlogged, even though they had *plenty of time* to get them to higher ground a mere mile away.

It gets even better ... as another poster noted, the
New Orleans disaster recovery plan directed that municipal buses would be available for those without private transportation.

That was the plan. It wasnt FEMA that screwed up, but the state and local Governments, failing to live up to the plan and do obvious things to be prepared.. Malkin knows this and so do you. Had NO and LA done *their* job, there wouldnt have been as many starving people traumatized for days in New Orleans, trapped, and there wouldn't be the scalp hunt over FEMA. The disaster is overwhelming enough as it is, but fingerpointing makes it even more so.

[latina4dubya]

oh--i get it! i took my irony supplement pills awhile ago... they just kicked in... ;-)

actually, i should have followed more closely...

[Cardhu]

My post simply pointed out that busses in a flooded parking lot are not evidence that they could be used. An emergency plan for a disaster of this sort that relies on the assets at ground zero is somewhat flawed.

I suppose the evacuation destination was also in the plan, although these matters were still being worked out on Friday.

Couldn't plans have been made for the week end to have drivers outside the NO area drive the buses?

I am sure they could but remember even the Red Cross was not allowed into New Orleans.

Couldn't the bus drivers take their own families out with them?

If they and their families could get to the bus station, the breaching of the levee put all plans in jeopardy.

[George W. Bush]

Just the view of an UnAmerican, but you should consider it as falling under "provide for the general welfare" committment that holding to the strict it's not mentioned it's not allowed view.

Actually, I enjoy reading the views of our foreign FReepers on this and many other topics.

When you realize that the port of New Orleans was one of the five largest ports in the world, how vital it is to Red-state farmers, that 25% of the fuel we love so much comes through ther, then at what point can you deny that, whatever failures there were at the local level, it was vital to our entire country and economy to protect this vital port? Gee, and protecting the port would have protected the citizens too.

Anglosphere bump.

[George W. Bush]

That was the plan. It wasnt FEMA that screwed up, but the state and local Governments, failing to live up to the plan and do obvious things to be prepared.. Malkin knows this and so do you. Had NO and LA done *their* job, there wouldnt have been as many starving people traumatized for days in New Orleans, trapped, and there wouldn't be the scalp hunt over FEMA. The disaster is overwhelming enough as it is, but fingerpointing makes it even more so.

The failure of local officials, certainly a huge problem, simply cannot dismiss all the failures in the response to NOLA and the area.

When you compare how much was done in Florida and how quickly during the 2004 presidential election season (and in Jeb's state), there is no comparison. In Florida, FEMA was very clearly in high gear. We're going to see a lot of comparisions between the 2004 FL hurricanes vs. the 2005 Gulf hurricane.

[inquest]

The nitpicks of FEMA head's comments should be classed under 'fog of war' as no more inaccurate than the majority of statements made in crisis environments when communication is incomplete.

You're making it sound as though Brown was busy at work in the middle of five different things, when a reporter was pestering him for a few quotes, and he just said something off the top of his head in response. Doesn't happen that way. People in his position make it a part of their job to make time to talk to the press. These were deliberate statements, and if he misspoke, he's had plenty of opportunity to issue a clarification. I simply don't buy the argument that he didn't mean what he said.