Posted on 09/27/2005 7:05:46 AM PDT by SE Mom
Hearings beginning now on C-Span- Michael Brown will be grilled.
Have at it, folks:)
The entire country would be well served if agencies like FEMA, Homeland Security, and the Military had active internet/blog analysts in direct communication pipelines with the chain of command during crisis events. There is nothing else to match this resource of thousands and thousands of eyes/ears on the ground, plus gobs of intelligent insight from national and international experts and plain old smart folks. And I fear the government is trying to manage disasters the old way, as if none of this info was right there at their fingertips. They will continue to look dumber and dumber if they don't get with the program on this, and more lives and property than necessary will continue to be lost. I don't see the internet as a panacea, but it is clearly a new and powerful tool that cannot be ignored in these situations.
And I still say they are desperate to keep control to LIMIT the investigations.
I think the other 49 states ought tbe suing NOLA to get our dang money back.
I do like this Steve Buyer from Indiana.
I loved the comment about how a LA person who would have been handling this was under Federal Indictment.
Phantom NOLA cops and identifying slumlords may just be the tip of the iceberg.
They can try...
Buyer: So despite the governor excluding those three parishes, you went ahead and pre deployed anyway.
Brown: We put not only food and water but staff there.
Buyer: Did the president declare those three parishes emergency areas?
Brown: I don't remember.
Buyer: I'm not aware of any declaration on those three parishes.
Was there ever a conversation with the governors of Louisiana and Mississippi about federalizing the response?
Brown: Yes. With Blanco. I was trying to assist the governor and help her manage what was going on. One of my suggestions was that if we could federalize the disaster and take over the national guard.
I don't know whether she considered it or not but she rejected it.
Buyer: My colleague Mr. Jefferson. This is a report on operation Pam. Does the information show the infighting between the governor and mayor.
Jefferson interrupt. That is not quite what I said. I said that the idea that the plan contemplates extreme circumstances of no communication anywhere.
Buyer: What Mr. Taylor brought out about $$ spent on communications is important and a lesson learned on 9/11. Getting satellite phones out there that don't work. That's something we have to investigate. I am aware that the VA, for example, talk about self help -- you can't be the answer to everyone's problems. There are individuals who took leadership roles.
I was aware that the VA - their volunteers - in lower Florida - and they pre positioned their truck in Buloxi, Mississippi.
Brown: The Red Cross, The Coast Guard, etc., just show up and we couldn;'t survive without them.
In my informal polls, taken in the midwest, I'm having the same experience.
then why declare a FEDERAL disaster area BEFORE the storm hits? Isn't FEMA a FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY?
Where all the guard was has nothing to do with it.
It is, however, a great LIBERAL talking point; are you sure you're at the right web site?
I think you hit on something. It appears Brown was not informed.
Or skimming the top of the cesspool in this case :(
And I answered it. George County, county north of Jackson county
CSPAN IS LEAVING THE HEARING AT 12:30 TO COVER THE HOUSE.
$19,370,000 to Louisiana in 2004 for INTEROPERABLE (?) COMMUNICATIONS!!!!!!!
Twice more than Boston got.......more than Las Vegas!!
And clinton 500 new cops or whatever his mini-me program was did NOT FUND such hiring. My guess....the NO folks put recruits on the rolls for a short time, then let them go. But kept their SALARIES on paper in order to line pockets of people so corrupt they spit upon their own citizens.
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