[Ninong]

No wonder Brownie didn't know there were 25,000 people at the Convention Center in New Orleans for several days without food or water or security even though the TV news shows had been talking about it for days. This incompetent political hack doesn't even know that Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes are located in southeastern Louisiana!

So, what's the big deal?

The big deal is that Brownie testified UNDER OATH that Gov. Blanco's August 27th. request to the President for a federal emergency declaration excluded Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes. I would be tempted to call that an outright lie but that would imply that Brownie actually knew what he was talking about and that's a stretch to say the least. More likely he was simply clueless, as usual. No wonder they fired him! Why they then decided to hire him as a "consultant" to study his own failures and make recommendations for future improvements is totally beyond my comprehension.

Here is the exchange that took place between Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) and Michael Brown, former FEMA director:

BUYER: So I’d like to know why did the president’s federal emergency assistance declaration of August 27th not include the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines?








BROWN: …[i]f a governor does not request a particular county or a particular parish, that’s not included in the request.

BUYER: All right.

Orleans Parish is New Orleans. I was listening to my colleague, Mr. Jefferson’s, questions about when they talked about, you know, they asked for this assistance for three days and then president responded the very next day, not the day that it was made — the request — but the governor of Louisiana actually excluded New Orleans from the president’s federal emergency assistance declaration?

BROWN: Again, Congressman, we looked at the request.The governors make the request by…

BUYER: Let me ask this. Since you went through the exercise in Pam, was that not shocking to you that the governor would excluded New Orleans from the declaration?

BROWN: Yes.

BUYER: When that request came in excluding these three parishes, did you question it?

BROWN: We questioned it. But I made the decision that we were going to go ahead and move assets in regardless because we have the ability to add those parishes…

I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing. The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area... -- Gov. Blanco's request, which was posted to the state's website on August 27th: http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Rel...ail.asp?id=976






Doesn't FEMA have maps? Aren't there any maps available to congressional committees? "All the southeastern parishes" certainly includes Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines. Why did this conservative Republican congressman from Indiana say that he would like to know why Gov. Blanco's request did not include those parishes?

Why would Brownie think that it was "shocking" that Gov. Blanco had "excluded New Orleans" from her request? Why are the Republicans holding this circus of a hearing in the first place if their staff isn't going to prepare them? What was Rep. Buyer trying to do with this line of questioning? Was he deliberately trying to shift blame from Brownie to the governor of Louisiana?

Did either the distinguished Republican congressman from the great state of Indiana or the former director of FEMA know what they were talking about? If they did, they were liars! If they didn't, then they're both incompetent!

OK, I'm done. Time for my nap.

[yankeebobo]

I have had a very similar discussion with myself about this and swore I wouldn't get into a public discussion over it.

But - on a side note, there is speculation that George Steinbrenner is going to hire him to replace Brian Cashman as GM.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by yankeebobo

But - on a side note, there is speculation that George Steinbrenner is going to hire him to replace Brian Cashman as GM.

Cool!

That should be interesting. He needs somebody that he can hire and fire and re-hire and re-fire three or four times so that he can break his record with Billy Martin.

[Ninong]

Brownie also testified that Gov. Blanco did not order evacuations until the day before Katrina hit. That's not true and he knows it, or at least he should know it. Evacuations were ordered for all of the southeastern parishes two days before the storm hit. The distinction is that they were mandatory in the lower portions of Jefferson, Plaquemines, Terrebonne, Lafourch, etc. and voluntary in the rest of those parishes and in Orleans. There was a reason for that. It was to get the people in the most vulnerable coastal areas out first. A mandatory evacuation order for all of Orleans parish and the rest of the other parishes was ordered early in the morning the day before Katrina hit. In fact, the mayor of New Orleans stated in an interview the evening before that it was his intention to make the evacuation order mandatory the next morning, which is what he did. Whether he should have been able to provide transportation for some 80,000 people who lacked the means to evacuate is a good question. Even if it was his responsibility, it was certainly beyond the means of the city but not beyond the means of the federal government. This is an area that needs to be considered for future major disasters.

The city of New Orleans had never before been under mandatory evacuation orders. Not for any of the dozens of hurricanes in the past. Not for Betsy and not for Camille. Houston had never been under a mandatory evacuation order before Rita either. There is little distinction between a voluntary evacuation order and a mandatory evacuation order under present law. Neither can be enforced, so you might as well call both of them voluntary. The main distinction is in the legal responsibilities for reimbursement of certain consequential damages that insurers are obligated to pick up if the order is mandatory. For example, I believe business interruption insurance may require a mandatory evacuation order to kick in if it turns out that the premises did not sustain substantial physical damage. There are other distinctions that affect government agencies and government licensed entities, such as health care providers, but even hospitals can be given (and were given) waivers to ignore the mandatory evacuation order.

The "attempted" evacuation of Houston was proof that more needs to be done in this area if we expect to meet future catastrophies more effectively. One thing that could have been done in the case of New Orleans, if it had been started 72 hours before landfall, would have been to use the rail lines to move people north by train. Something like that would have required federal intervention to provide enough trains to do the job.

Mistakes were made at every level of government but the thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is the fact that FEMA was not prepared and not capable of dealing with a catastrophy on this scale. The other thing that sticks out is Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff announcing at a press conference on Day 3 that he was "extremely pleased with the response of federal agencies" to the Hurricane Katrina disaster and President Bush praising Brownie on Day 5 (the first day the president visited the disaster area) for doing "a heck of a job."

And one more thing: Everything that happened in Katrina was foretold in a special five-part series in the Times-Picayune newspaper three years ago and foretold in a government sponsored seminar just last year that addressed the problems that would be encountered if a Category 3 or stronger hurricane should make a direct hit on New Orleans. FEMA paid for that study but laughed at the presentations of the local hurricane experts who testified. Nothing that happened was a surprise. It was only a surprise to FEMA because they didn't believe the conclusions of the study they paid for.

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Ninong

OK, I'm done. Time for my nap.

Don't sleep too long.
You need to wake up "without DeLay"




Christmas came early!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Don't sleep too long.
You need to wake up "without DeLay"




Christmas came early!

Yes, it sure did!

Did you see where Denny Hastert is expected to appoint David Dreier to take over most of DeLay's duties? Are they expecting Roy Blunt to run into problems of his own or do they expect this to be a temporary assignment? (P.S. -- It seems like DeLay and Hastert wanted Dreier but the GOP right-wing wanted Blunt. Under the circumstances, Dreier was probably a better choice since he posed no threat to DeLay. Blunt has ethics problems of his own that will now gain more widespread attention.)

[Ninong]

I wonder why the Homeland Security Inspector General released a report critical of FEMA's response to last year's hurricanes in Florida the day after Michael Brown testified before Congress? This administration usually releases bad news late on Friday, not in the middle of the week. You don't think they're trying to make him a scapegoat, do you?




(09-29) 04:58 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Former FEMA director Michael Brown was warned weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit that his agency's backlogged computer systems could delay supplies and put personnel at risk during an emergency, according to an audit released Wednesday.

An internal review of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's information-sharing system shows it was overwhelmed during the 2004 hurricane season. The audit was released a day after Brown vehemently defended FEMA for the government's dismal response to Katrina, instead blaming state and local officials for poor planning and chaos during the Aug. 29 storm and subsequent flooding.

The review by Homeland Security Department acting Inspector General Richard L. Skinner examined FEMA's response to four major hurricanes and a tropical storm that hit Florida and the Gulf Coast in August and September 2004. It noted FEMA's mission during disasters as rapid response and coordinating efforts among federal, state and local authorities.

"However, FEMA's systems do not support effective or efficient coordination of deployment operations because there is no sharing of information," the audit found. "Consequently, this created operational inefficiencies and hindered the delivery of essential disaster response and recovery services," it said. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...sn=001&sc=1000

[almostdiva]

Blunt has ethics problems of his own that will now gain more widespread attention.)

I missed them... what's his problem??

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

I missed them... what's his problem??

His problems are similar to DeLay's. He has an unnaturally close relationship with certain lobbyists who are under investigation. Now that he has taken over the role of House Majority Leader (if not the physical office, which DeLay refuses to vacate), he will be more in the spotlight. Sorta like what happened to DeLay when he decided to lead the Terri Schiavo bandwagon.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...051601334.html

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509290006

[almostdiva]

Hmmm... almost as good as the growing Jack Abramoff pickle.

The latest person to come under scrutiny in that little dance is Deputy Attorney General nominee Timothy Flannigan, who was a lawyer for Tyco in 2003 and has said he won't recuse himself on cases involving Abramoff that might come before him.


Here's a nifty little article that puts a nice summary on things and names most of the players:

[almostdiva]

let's try this again...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abramof...mbling_Scandal

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

let's try this again...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abramof...mbling_Scandal

Rebecca,

That article is about Abramoff's Indian gambling fraud. It doesn't cover all of his other questionable activities.

As you probably know, he and his partner, Adam Kidan, were indicted on August 11, 2005 by a Ft. Lauderdale grand jury for bank fraud in the acquisition of SunCruz from Gus Boulis. Gus Boulis somehow ended up murdered by someone. Here's where it gets interesting. Just this week, three mob hitmen were arrested and charged in that murder. One of those men received a SunCruz check from Adam Kidan in the amount of $250,000 before the murder. At the time the check was issued, Kidan and Abramoff co-owned SunCruz.

Both Kidan and Abramoff have refused to explain the reason for the $250,000 check.

Abramoff also owns Signatures restaurant in Washington, DC. That's the restaurant where Tom DeLay, his wife and guests dined FREE OF CHARGE some year or more AFTER DeLay claimed that he had severed ALL ties with Abramoff. At one point (in happier days) Tom DeLay called Jack Abramoff his best friend in the whole world. Maybe someone can arrange for them to be cellmates?