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One year after Hurricane Katrina, the United States remains unprepared for a major natural disaster, and the Bush administration has failed to learn the lessons of that catastrophe, former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown said on Tuesday. Brown led FEMA's response to Katrina when the storm devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after making landfall on August 29. It killed 1,339 people and caused $80 billion in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. But Brown was forced to resign from the Department of Homeland Security agency amid the disastrously slow government response, just...

WASHINGTON -- He learned his lessons, and now they're for sale. Ousted FEMA director Michael Brown, who was vilified over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, plans to make a fresh start in Colorado, selling his expertise about how emergency planning can go right or so very wrong. "You have to do it with candor. To do it otherwise gives you no credibility," Brown said Wednesday. "I think people are curious: 'My gosh, what was it like? The media just really beat you up. You made mistakes. I don't want to be in that situation. How do I avoid...

I posted this on my blog that is on a rather liberal-dominated site (basically to piss them off hehe). I thought I'd share it here: I’m very glad that I’ve held my tongue on the subject of Hurricane Katrina. I had a very long essay in my head that I had considered writing a few weeks ago, an essay about how the ‘true’ tragedy of the situation was the apparent inability of the un-evacuated population to act in a civilized manner during a time of crisis. Thankfully, I never wrote that essay. Thankfully, that picture of New Orleans in the...

White Liberal Racists Believed Rumors September 27, 2005 Download Windows Media PlayerListen to Rush Conduct Broadcast Excellence BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: This from the New York Sun today: "Responding to statements made last week by Rep. Charles Rangel, the Republican National Committee urged Democratic leaders yesterday to denounce the New York congressman's comparison of President Bush to the late Theophilus 'Bull' Connor, the Birmingham, Ala., police commissioner who came to symbolize Southern racism in the 1960s. The Republican request for repudiation, however, met with expressions of support for Mr. Rangel's statement, particularly from black Democratic leaders in New York. The...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi wasn't about to let former FEMA Director Michael Brown get away with blaming state and local officials in Louisiana for the failed response to Hurricane Katrina. "You can try to throw as much as you can on the backs of Louisiana, but I'm a witness as to what happened in Mississippi," Taylor told Brown during Tuesday's hearing by a House select committee set up to investigate the response. "You folks fell on your face. You get an F minus in my book." With House Democratic leaders boycotting the hearing while holding out...

“People inside were literally dying,” ABC News correspondent Chris Bury told The Observer over the phone. He was talking about the New Orleans Convention Center, where he spent the day on Friday, Sept. 2, and from which he filed an impassioned report on the evacuees from the sinking city who had sought refuge there and found horror. “When you’re confronted with American citizens who are doing the right thing and are neglected and abandoned, it makes you mad. It made me mad.” Mr. Bury and a Nightline crew had ridden out the storm in Biloxi, Miss., and arrived in New...

Mr. Brown said that in one much-publicized gaffe - his repeated statement on live television on Thursday night, Sept. 1, that he had just learned that day of thousands of people at New Orleans's convention center without food or water - "I just absolutely misspoke." In fact, he said, he learned about the evacuees there from the first media reports more than 24 hours earlier, but the reports conflicted with information from local authorities.

WASHINGTON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Monday named David Paulison, a top official in the Homeland Security Department, to replace Michael Brown on an acting basis as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Bush moved quickly to put Paulison in charge of FEMA after Brown resigned the position under fire for the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina that killed hundreds and displace 1 million people.

Since becoming FEMA director in January 2003, Michael Brown had organized the the relief efforts of 165 federally declared disaster areas, including the following hurricane and tropical storm emergency and major disasters (with initial dates and affected states): Year 2005 09/07    New Mexico     Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/07    Oregon         Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/07    Washington     Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/07    Dist of Col.    Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/07    Michigan     Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    Colorado     Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    Utah         Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    North Carolina    Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    West Virginia    Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    Florida        Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    Oklahoma    Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    Georgia        Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/05    Tennessee    Hurricane Katrina Evacuation 09/02    Texas        Hurricane Katrina 09/02    Arkansas    Hurricane Katrina 08/28    Alabama        Hurricane Katrina 08/28    Mississippi    Hurricane Katrina 08/27    Louisiana    Hurricane Katrina...

An September 9, 2005 article by Patty Miller and Lisa Shearer of the Edmond Sun, a newspaper in Mike Brown's old home-town, contained the following: Claudia Deakins, Edmond's director of marketing and public relations, was quoted in the Time article as saying that Brown was not a manager but more like an intern. Brown was assistant to the city manager in Edmond from 1977-80. However, this morning, Deakins disputes Time's quotes attributed to her. "I spoke with two reporters from Time Magazine Thursday. I answered questions about the City of Edmond, the organizational structure and role of the city manager...

While nobody is going to say that FEMA and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina has been a model of efficiency, what should be acknowledged, however, is why it wasn't. From FEMA's own Website: "SOME THINGS FEMA DOES NOT DO": - Physically rescue people or serve as "first-responders" in a disaster – that is the responsibility of local and state police, fire and emergency personnel. (This is exactly why FEMA notes that they won't arrive for 72-96 hours after a natural disaster passes). - Building dams or levees or activating sand-bagging activities – generally the responsibility of local/state officials and...

Some of Time's sources are revising and extending their remarks. An excerpt: Claudia Deakins, Edmond's director of marketing and public relations, was quoted in the Time article as saying that Brown was not a manager but more like an intern. Brown was assistant to the city manager in Edmond from 1977-80. However, this morning, Deakins disputes Time's quotes attributed to her. "I spoke with two reporters from Time Magazine Thursday. I answered questions about the City of Edmond, the organizational structure and role of the city manager and his staff. My comments were in the context of the organization as...

Anybody know what the vote was on Mike Brown's confirmation via the Senate? I've been trying to find this out. I think this guy will be the fall guy but that's not really why I'm asking. A lot of my liberal "colleagues" are screaming about cronyism and my guess is that this guy was confirmed by the entire Senate or damn close. Can't seem to find the information, however.

And you think you had a bad day. Michael Brown, the head of FEMA waiten until after Katrina had been pounding Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama for five hours before calling his boss to request authorization to send help. To add insult to injury, Brown decided that the 1,000 or so Homeland Security people shouldn't bother getting there too quickly-he gave them a timetable of 48 hours. While Brown's memo mentioned "this near catastrophic event" he plan for action was for something less than catastrophic. He finished the memo with "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our...

Mayor Ed Koch (fmr. New York City mayor) defends Bush on MSNBC tonight by asking "Where were the buses? What happened to all the hundreds of school buses? Public transit? Why weren't the poor evacuated with these?"

Bengals founder turning in grave Wed Oct 30, 8:31 AM ET Jon Saraceno USA TODAYOn Halloween eve, a missive from the spirit of the late NFL genius, Paul Brown, to the curator of that orange-and-black football mausoleum in Cincinnati: Dear son: I've hesitated contacting you for some time, but I can no longer bear my private pain. Please do not consider this to be a violation of the Carl Pickens loyalty clause, which forbids criticism of our Bengals. I do have a question, however: FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, WHAT IN THE NAME OF BOOBIE CLARK IS GOING ON DOWN THERE? I...