Page [[Page D872]]
"Nominations Confirmed: Senate confirmed the following nominations: By unanimous vote of 98 yeas (Vote No. EX. 205)"
"Michael D. Brown, of Colorado, to be Deputy Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
Who is Mike Brown?
I think it was by Unanimous Consent, but I am trying to find a decent source.
Unfortunately they are right. The top 3 people at FEMA had little or no experience when they were appointed or hired.
Looks like he was confirmed. This site has a bunch of info on the guy (all negative).
To tell the truth, if half of what this site says is true, I really wonder why and how he got the FEMA job.
I have also wondered about the confirmation process on Mike Brown.
The media is totally wrong to be trashing this man and I don't intend to jump on their bandwagon any time soon. If ever.
As far as I can tell, the appointment of Mike Brown to head FEMA will be President Bush's greatest area of vulnerability in the Katrina tragedy.
Okay, I was wrong. He did go through Senate confirmation.
http://blog.mises.org/blog/archives/004054.asp
The calls to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown—his full bureaucratic title is Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness & Response—have been escalating today. Much is being made of Brown's thin credentials in emergency management. It would have been nice, of course, if Brown's record had been scrutinized before he was handed the keys to FEMA, but when Brown faced Senate confirmation hearings in 2002 as FEMA's deputy director, there was wide bipartisan support, and the then-Democratic controlled Senate approved Brown on a voice vote. (I cannot find any record of Brown's Senate confirmation to his current position; there may not have been a second confirmation hearing.)
I've uploaded the transcript of Brown's 2002 confirmation hearing transcript so everyone can make their own judgments. You can download the transcript at this link:
http://www.voluntarytrade.org/newsite/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=11&lid=28
Ask howlin'. She a human political info machine!
Page [[Page D872]]
"Nominations Confirmed: Senate confirmed the following nominations: By unanimous vote of 98 yeas (Vote No. EX. 205)"
"Michael D. Brown, of Colorado, to be Deputy Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency."
At the suggestion of writer Michelle Malkin last Friday, I have cobbled together a blogsite called Texas Clearinghouse for Katrina Aid to serve as a clearinghouse for refugee efforts in Texas.
Texas is getting more refugees than any other state -- that's fine, we'll take them all -- but we need help providing them with food, clothing, and shelter.
If you are a refugee, you can information that will help you find relief. If you want to donate or volunteer, you can find someone who needs you.
Right now the site mostly covers Houston and Dallas but I will add various churches, schools, and other charities in San Antonio and Ft. Worth tonight. My wife is down at Reunion Arena in Dallas as we speak handing out care packages and otherwise ministering to the refugees as a representative of her employer.
There are a lot of churches and other organizations in Texas that need help in dealing with the problem and I would be most appreciative if you would get the word out.
Many thanks,
Michael McCullough
Stingray blogsite
LA Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness
Mr. Arthur Jones is the Division Chief of the Disaster Recovery Division.
Mr. Jones works closely with FEMA Region VI Officials
http://www.loep.state.la.us/hlspersonnel/jonesbio.htm
Mr. Sean R. Fontenot is the Division Chief of the Preparedness Division.
http://www.loep.state.la.us/hlspersonnel/fontenotbio.htm
http://www.loep.state.la.us/homeland/hls-main-StateReady.htm
FEMA is a bottom up organization too. Anybody who knee-jerk focuses on Brown is being simpleminded.
>>> A lot of my liberal "colleagues" are screaming about cronyism <<<
Check out the following FR post for a bio and arguments (pro and con) about Brown. I believe he is well qualified. I am also of the mindset that the left-wing and their media have been trying to get Bush to fire someone -- anyone -- since he took office. See:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478939/posts
My sister is a flaming, hopeless, left-wing nut-job. She thinks Brown's only job prior to FEMA was with the Arabian Horsebreeders Association, and that he was asked to resign for ineptitude. She would never hear of the fact that the Association is an international subsidiary of the national governing organization of the U.S. Olympic Committee, that Brown served 11 (ELEVEN) years as its Commissioner, and that he was very tough on rule-violators. As the chief rule enforcer, I am certain he ruffled a few feathers.
She would most certainly never believe the following from Brown's bio:
"Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Brown practiced law in Colorado and Oklahoma, where he served as a bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility for the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a hearing examiner for the Colorado Supreme Court. He had been appointed as a special prosecutor in police disciplinary matters. While attending law school he was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman."
Did you see that last sentence? He has emergency services experience.
Brown worked for FEMA in several positions prior to be promoted to the top job. The following relates FEMA under his leadership:
"Under Secretary Brown has led Homeland Security response to more than 164 presidentially declared disasters and emergencies, including the 2003 Columbia Shuttle disaster and the California wildfires in 2003. In 2004, Mr. Brown led FEMA thousands of dedicated disaster workers during the most active hurricane season in over 100 years, as FEMA delivered aid more quickly and more efficiently than ever before."
Another argument used by the left (and those who are under its spell) against Brown is cronyism -- that he and the former FEMA director were college roommates. While that may or may not be a conflict, it does seem remarkable that former college roommates never attended the same college.
you should tell your liberal friends to eat worms.
Read the following for more info on Michael Brown.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1479540/posts
Mr. Chertoff also expressed confidence in Michael D. Brown, a Homeland Security undersecretary and the Federal Emergency Management Agency director, who has coordinated federal efforts at the scene.
Mr. Brown has come under fire from critics of the federal government's hurricane response, who describe him as a political appointee who had no disaster experience before joining FEMA.
Though he once worked as a municipal official in Edmond, Okla., Mr. Brown's major previous job was as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, from which he resigned under pressure in 2001 after a controversial 10 years.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/national/nationalspecial/04fema.html
Mike Brown Fiddled While Louisiana Drowned:
"They Let Them Die on Their Roofs and They Let Them Die in the Water"
CNN has finally got camera crews into St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes, and the news and images are devastating.
Last night, Gary Tuchman reported that the lower two-thirds of Plaquemines is underwater. As of last night's report, the only rescue and relief workers the people there had seen were members of the New Mexico National Guard.
Now there's this account, from more of Katrina's forgotten in St. Bernard and Plaquemines:
Homes were chopped open, a Baptist church's steeple ripped off. Water gurgles and spurts in places from leaking natural gas.
"I can't even imagine trying to rebuild this," said Kevin Cobble, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer from Las Cruces, New Mexico, who has been looking for survivors.
As relief efforts sputtered in the days after the storm, Verlyn Davis Jr., an out-of-work electrician, took charge. He transformed his parents' bar and seafood restaurant, Lehrmann's, into a shelter where he dispatches people to clear roads, hook up generators and help in the disaster relief process.
About 20 people have been staying there these days. On a boarded-up window out front is a blue spray-painted sign: "ABOUT TIME BUSH!"
"The governor and the president let thousands of people die and they let them die on their roofs and they let them die in the water," said Davis, 45. "We got left. They didn't care."