[Bommer]

I'm sorry but where is the failure if your department is not allowed in? Where was the latency?

[Siena Dreaming]

Should FEMA really be under Homeland Security?

Aren't they more for storms, etc.? Isn't Homeland Security more for enemy attack and such?

Didn't Lieberman errantly put it there with Hitlery's help?

[Elyse]

I HATE freaking Monday morning quarterbacks! STHU! Admiral, you weren't there and don't have a clue what was going on!

[1Old Pro]

I'm sorry, America has states with chief executives called "GOVERNORS". The president, nor FEMA, nor Homeland Security nor the Defense Department should assume immediate control of a state until and when the Governor formally requests help.

[CharlesWayneCT]

This is more of the push to federalize disaster relief.

We should fight this.

Even if it costs lives, the freedom from federal government takeover would be worth the cost.

But in fact in most cases the federal government wouldn't be as good as locals.

Can you imagine the federal government being in charge in New York right after that 2nd plane hit? They would still be arguing over safety and environmental issues while the towers were collapsing.

The city knew what to do, and had people in place to risk and give their lives to save their citizens.

Almost every city's police and fire department are ready to give themselves for the cause.

New Orleans, where half the police apparently ran off and they couldn't use school buses because all the drivers "had families of their own to evacuate", is an extraordinary case, not normal.

IN most city and county, people would be pouring into the city to feed and rescue people, and their officials would be letting them in. In New Orleans the strongest either left, or stayed behind to loot and pillage, while the government spent its effort keeping their people IN and the aid OUT.

But that is the exception, not the rule. And the answer is for the EFFECTED CITIZENS to realise the mistake they made and correct it at the next election.

[vbmoneyspender]

"I would have expected the principal federal official [Brown] would have a once-a-day news conference down there,"

Is Loy really saying that one of FEMA's principal problems was that too many press conferences were being held by people other than FEMA and that FEMA wasn't a part of those press conferences?

[spunkets]

It's already been shown that the LA authorities prevented FEMA from operating effectively. This guy is either senile, or a partisan hack. Which is it?

[listenhillary]

You may be Tallhappy, but you're clueless.

[PISANO]

It seems that the CRYIN' from the mountain top, as all monday morning qb's do, is solidifying, with the mantra being THE FEDS should have said to hell with the LAW and the CONSTITUTION and just taken the seat of power from Nagin and Blanco.

Just screw the 10th Amendment, libs hate it anyway, and Posse Commitatus and the dozen or so OTHER MINOR LAWS and take care of business.

[MNJohnnie]

The plan allowed Brown to call the shots on how state and federal resources should be used, including the Defense Department

That's a fraudulent statement. Perhaps that is why this guy got moved out. It his OPINON they could do this. Most legal authorities I have read do not agree with this very broad interpretation of the Law.

[GladesGuru]

The religious charities could have done better for less. Their people are largely volunteers.

A very close friend of mine was the man who drove the first supplies to homestead for the first hot meals available after Andrew.

FEMA and the military were once again closing off everything, but he was a Mason, has a windshield sticker often sued by fellow Masons, and was waved through by the "authorities".

Result - hot meals. No posturing for the presstitutes for my friend because he says Masons avoid publicity. He even asked that I not mention his name, so I haven't.

America was written into existence by men who would have, had they been alive in our time, been busy driving more vehicles with my friend, rather than waiting and whining about "government" help.

Come to think of it many who signed the original documents were Masons. Do-ers, not talkers.

PS I am not a Mason, but I can appreciate individual initiative, and historically Masons have had it. In New Orleans, the religious aid groups were there and likewise had what it takes. They were were turned away by those who didn't have what it takes.