Posted on 09/14/2005 8:25:34 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon
-snip-
In his first extensive interview since resigning as FEMA director on Monday under intense criticism, Mr. Brown declined to blame President Bush or the White House for his removal or for the flawed response.
"I truly believed the White House was not at fault here," he said.
He focused much of his criticism on Governor Blanco, contrasting what he described as her confused response with far more agile mobilizations in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as in Florida during last year's hurricanes.
But Mr. Brown's account, in which he described making "a blur of calls" all week to Mr. Chertoff, Mr. Card and Mr. Hagin, suggested that Mr. Bush, or at least his top aides, were informed early and repeatedly by the top federal official at the scene that state and local authorities were overwhelmed and that the overall response was going badly.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I would hardly call what occurred in NOLA before the storm anything approaching successful. Where were the plans for the hospital patients? There was no sane reason to wait until 48 hours prior to landfall to begin suggesting evacuations, and Nagin checking with his attorney late Saturday night to see whether he had the authority to implement a mandatory evac.
one word: voodoo
You have outed yourself now...
Loyal Repub here. Worked by butt off for tons of Repub candidates in the past and will do so in the future. I put my number of doors knocked on against most people any time. I just an average Louisiana guy that wants the problem fixed and thinks alot of these blame game on all sides isnt going to help me or this state very much but just employ a bunch of lawyers and journalist to cover a hearing that will be a great waste of time and become a partsian hack fest
Yeah the hospital nursing home problem is one thats tough. The problem is during past evacs when the hurricane missed alot died ibecause of the transit. Because its rare that there will every be a fleet of a thousand ambulances on stand by I dont know the solution to that.
Gee...after the storm and the floods, there were hundreds of choppers mobilized to move thousands of people off rooftops and from hospitals. Think, man, think.
Brownie, you did a heck of a job.
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Yeah I don't understand why:
1. The administration did not defend him using the three FL storms of 2004 and the AL/FL Ivan experience of 2004 and the Mississippi and Alabama experience with Katrina? Certainly Alabama was much less affected but still the administration is allowing the Dims to continue their dim voters are more important that the rest of us tactic.
2. The administration has given the local officials such a pass?
Know I havent and it shows your ignorance of LA politics. Mike Foster was often viewed as a Rhino. In fact he made a clever little move to where he put all his people on the Repub State Central Committee. The problem was that they never showed up and and thus they couldnt get a qurom to conduct business. he neutered the State party while he increased taxes all over the place among other things. If you want to do a little research start googling Suzie Terrell and Mike Foster. Suzie could have defeated Ktriana Landriu but did everything to get the Repub defeated.
You are the one promoting Blanco's remarkable job throughout this catastrophe, not me. You are the one who dragged the speculation of the prior governor's failure if faced with the same situation - all of this after you said you didn't want to get into a blame game. That spoke volumes.
I am not saying Blanco did a wonderful job and has no criticism. But its time for a reality check. THere are public servants both Repubs and Dems that are involved on the local level. I here to point out that perhaps that the "everyone screwed up story" portrayed by the press doesnt really seem to help alot. Esp since I have seen alot that went right but because reporters dont get past Baton ROuge they dont see it. That goes to all levels of govt.Did Blanco mess up in part sure. But I am willing to wait until we have all the facts before criticizing every one.
I totally disagree with you. Mike Foster would have taken control and lead those underneath him much better than Blanco. He also would have known when to give control over to the government and he would have done it without hesitation.
We are talking about south Louisiana here. There are very very very few Republican officials involved in this at the local level.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, . . . .
I still smell a TROLL!
Yes, I've heard that. What this means is that he did know the gravity for the three hurricanes that hit Florida, did know the gravity of the hurricane damage in Mississippi, did know the gravity of the situation in Alabama, but just couldn't muster an understanding of the gravity of the situation in Louisiana. I'm not buying it.
This guy has been skewered by an incompetent governor and mayor, their lap dog press and the democrat machine.
How did all those people wind up in other states? Did Louisiana fund that? Did they facilitate it? FEMA facilitated it.
Nah, I'm not buying Brown's failure for even a split second. It was decided that someone had to take the fall, and he bowed out. When we give in to the MSM and democrat spinners, we screw ourselves right into the ground.
I am wondering what kind of information Brown was receiving from Blanco's people. They were responsible for giving Brown all of the information possible so he could know the "gravity of the situation. Since Brown was not made aware of the people in the convention center, what else were they failing to inform him about? Why was he being kept in the dark and why the poor cooperation? As Rush was saying today, "follow the money." I suspect people were focusing more on how much money they could get control over rather than how many people they need to help.
Too big, too important, too full of frustration for Mike Brown -- or any other human.
Give the function back to the states and private agencies where it belongs. They will do a better job, and won't get that false impression the federal government will bail them out if they don't perform (it doesn't anyway).
Hurricane Andrew should have been enough to convince even die-hard FEMA boosters that it can't manage its way out of a paper bag. It's gotten worse since.
Nagin and Gov Brown can even decide on what is best for people of New Orleans since Katrina. It's no wonder they didn't have a plan for getting the people out before the hurricane hit.
I don't understand why they didn't even try to get the people out. People were waiting to help these people get out and the Governor wouldn't let them. And Nagin drove a bus of tourist out of the city past those on the bridge. Those who lived in his city. Most likely people who voted for him.
And he carries no blame? No of course not it's President Bush's fault. "He cause the hurricane!" says Cindy Sheehan
I love that tagline! It's so true.
I cannot believe the people that don't know this. They think the Federal gov is the answer to all problems. And owes them.
Just sickening how the media is trying to help the dems impeach Bush by planting false information and refusing to publish the truth.
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