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E-mails from former chief of FEMA eye-opening
theadvocate.com [Baton Rouge, LA] ^ | 11/03/05 | GERARD SHIELDS

Posted on 11/03/2005 9:17:12 AM PST by caryatid

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Charles "Charlie" Melancon, D-Napoleonville, released e-mails Wednesday that former FEMA Director Michael Brown wrote during Hurricane Katrina focusing on everything from concerns about Brown's attire to finding a dog-sitter. Melancon, a member of a special House committee investigating the federal response to the hurricane, called the e-mails evidence that Brown was out of his league in addressing the hurricane and its aftermath. The e-mails were part of 1,000 provided to the committee.

"The e-mails of former FEMA Director Michael Brown provide telling insights into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina," Melancon said in a statement.

"Many of the e-mails address superficial subjects -- such as Mr. Brown's appearance or reputation -- rather than the pressing response needs of Louisiana and Mississippi."
...

(Excerpt) Read more at 2theadvocate.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: brownie; fema; femadirector; hurricane; katrina; la; louisiana; michaelbrown; neworleans; nola
Our public servants at work ... narcissism, and symbolism/style over substance.

Is this man still on the payroll ... ?

1 posted on 11/03/2005 9:17:12 AM PST by caryatid
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To: L.A. Woman; abb; HoHoeHeaux; Ellesu

* FEMA e-mail / Michael Brown ping *


2 posted on 11/03/2005 9:18:22 AM PST by caryatid (Way down yonder in New Orleens ...)
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To: caryatid

Brown still looks like a superstar compared to Blaco and Mayor Noggin'


3 posted on 11/03/2005 9:18:46 AM PST by frankjr
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To: caryatid
Our public servants at work ... narcissism, and symbolism/style over substance. Is this man still on the payroll ... ?

Let's see - out of 1,000 emails, they cherry-pick a few.

How much background clutter is in your inbox?

4 posted on 11/03/2005 9:19:04 AM PST by dirtboy (Drool overflowed my buffer...)
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To: caryatid

A bunch of cherrypicked emails... sorry I have a hard time getting worked up over this.


5 posted on 11/03/2005 9:19:45 AM PST by rhombus
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To: frankjr

thats true


6 posted on 11/03/2005 9:19:46 AM PST by wallcrawlr (http://www.bionicear.com)
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To: caryatid

Give it a rest. There is nothing out of line there.

Perspective is our friend.

Jovial banter during the course of the work day, is common interaction......


7 posted on 11/03/2005 9:21:26 AM PST by hobbes1 (Hobbes1TheOmniscient® "I know everything so you dont have to...." ;)
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To: frankjr
Brown still looks like a superstar compared to Blaco and Mayor Noggin'

Agreed.

8 posted on 11/03/2005 9:29:26 AM PST by caryatid (Way down yonder in New Orleens ...)
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To: dirtboy

I agree. It is bullshit.

Anyone think it wasn't a little stressful for whoever the FEMA director would have been during that period?

His mistake was writing it down to make a joke to try to reduce his stress. These people are a-holes. Instead of focusing the light on the REAL problem, local governmental reaction, they want to discredit an already discredited Republican appointee.


9 posted on 11/03/2005 9:34:45 AM PST by rlmorel ("Innocence seldom utters outraged shrieks. Guilt does." Whittaker Chambers)
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To: hobbes1
Give it a rest

I am just the messenger ... posting an article. I posted at the outset, even before Brown resigned, that I considered him the designated scapegoat.

The whole point of this is that public officials need to learn not to leave an embarrassing [or worse] e-mail trail.

10 posted on 11/03/2005 9:57:23 AM PST by caryatid (Way down yonder in New Orleens ...)
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To: caryatid

I see the LA politicians are still playing the blame game.


11 posted on 11/03/2005 10:05:22 AM PST by sportutegrl (People who say, "All I know is . . ." really mean, "All I want you to focus on is . . .")
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To: caryatid

What about Brown's "Constitutional right to privacy"?


12 posted on 11/03/2005 10:11:38 AM PST by ChessExpert (Protect the first amendment separation of school and state; support vouchers)
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To: ChessExpert
Sorry, Chess, I am not a legal expert. I can, however, direct you to www.nolo.com for a discussion of the topic:

Email Privacy

If you want privacy, don't count on email. Here's why.

Email feels like a private, one-to-one conversation safe from prying eyes. But as many folks can tell you (Bill Gates for one), email is about as confidential as whispering at the White House. Your messages can be intercepted and read anywhere in transit, or reconstructed and read off of backup devices for a potentially infinite period of time.

If you're sending email at work, your boss can legally monitor it, and if your company becomes involved in a lawsuit, your adversary has the legal right to review it. If you send email from home, anonymous hackers can intercept it, and if you are suspected of a crime, law enforcement officials with a warrant can seize your electronic correspondence. Even your Internet service provider may legally be able to scrutinize your email.

What all this amounts to is simple: Unless you take affirmative steps to encrypt your messages -- a process that uses sophisticated software to garble your words and then allow the recipient to unscramble and read them -- don't count on email as a confidential method of transmitting information.

Email at Work: No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy On your first day of a new job, you may be asked to sign and acknowledge some form of employer email policy. This policy will probably inform you that email is to be used only for everyday business purposes, the computer systems at work are the property of your employer, email may be monitored and you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in your use of email.

A written statement like this, signed by an employee, creates a contract

For a continuation of this article see:

Email Privacy

13 posted on 11/03/2005 10:35:47 AM PST by caryatid (Way down yonder in New Orleens ...)
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To: caryatid
n Monday, Aug. 29, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. on the day the hurricane struck, Brown exchanged additional e-mails about his attire with Cindy Taylor, FEMA deputy director of public affairs. Taylor wrote Brown: "I know its early, but … My eyes must certainly be deceiving me. You look fabulous -- and I'm not talking the makeup!"

Brown's reply was: "I got it at Nordstroms. … Are you proud of me?" An hour later, Brown added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."

Several days later, Brown received yet another e-mail about his attire. This time, Worthy instructed Brown: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt … all shirts. Even the President rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this cris[is] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working … ROLL UP THE SLEEVES."


If I didn't know better, I'd say he was a democrat.

In his e-mail to Taylor on the morning the hurricane struck, Brown wrote, "Can I quit now? Can I come home?" A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, "I'm trapped now, please rescue me."

Definitely sounds like a democrat here. Why did President Bush (or whoever) appoint him to head FEMA, and even though I don't know the man's past and probably shouldn't judge him, he doesn't exactly sound like he comes from an emergency/crisis management background.

Was he one of the leftovers from Clinton's era? i.e. Some junior pencil pusher who came in under Clinton and moved up the ranks once one or two of President Bush's appointees retired/left.
14 posted on 11/03/2005 11:29:07 AM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: caryatid
The whole point of this is that public officials need to learn not to leave an embarrassing [or worse] e-mail trail.

The lesson we should take from this is - how many more inept Clinton-era bureacrats are around?

I probably should Google around, because if he came in under Bush, I'll look foolish for thinking he was a democrat and/or came in under Clinton.
15 posted on 11/03/2005 11:31:35 AM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: af_vet_rr
Why did President Bush (or whoever) appoint him to head FEMA, and even though I don't know the man's past and probably shouldn't judge him, he doesn't exactly sound like he comes from an emergency/crisis management background.

Brown was merely the scapegoat. He did a tremendous job with several previous hurricanes and had several years successful experience in FEMA dealing with many issues. Putting FEMA under the new Homeland Security just added a new layer between him and the President.

16 posted on 11/03/2005 11:48:17 AM PST by AmusedBystander
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To: af_vet_rr
...if he came in under Bush, I'll look foolish ...

Michael D. Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush as the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security in January 2003.

Brown replaced Joe Allbaugh, who had been George W. Bush's Chief of Staff when Bush was governor of Texas and National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000. Beginning February 2001, during Bush's first term in office, Allbaugh served as director of FEMA.

"Allbaugh left FEMA in March 2003 when the agency became part of the Department of Homeland Security and he was passed over as secretary in favor of Tom Ridge.

Clinton's FEMA director was James Lee Witt, who is now under contract as an advisor to Gov. Blanco of Louisiana.

17 posted on 11/03/2005 12:30:15 PM PST by caryatid (Way down yonder in New Orleens ...)
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