Come Back Brownie!
Come back, Brownie, all is forgiven. There are some intriguing re-thinking out there about who really screwed up the Katrina response. The video releases of the past few days suggest we might have been too harsh on poor Michael Brown.
What we see in the video is that Brown is the guy who actually has his hair on fire about the impending disaster for New Orleans. Meanwhile, his two bosses -- Michael Chertoff and George W. Bush-- sit around like clueless lumps.
Anyone who buys into the manufactured mythology about the Prez being Mr. Resoluteness needs to rewind the video and play it back one more time.
How has Chertoff survived this?
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:38 am
W is the President and so W is responsible for anything that happened or happens on his watch.
On New Orleans he failed miserably, objectively, absolutely.
Got anyone to elect and occupy the Presidency for the next 4 to 8 years? Go right ahead.
March 3rd, 2006 at 4:23 am
The government response to the natural disaster named Katrina was exactly what I expect from the large, bureaucratic federal operation responsible for such things. Likewise, the state and regional response in preparation of the storm’s landing.
If we really want to take advantage of the clarity of hindsight then we must admit that New Orleans should have been completely evacuated. And the levees should have been built stronger. And the President should not have trusted Chertoff and Brown to do their jobs. And Bush should have forced Nagin and Blanco to move more quickly – and considered sending in troops if they didn’t do so.
Clearly our government should have acted on the most dire predicitions rather than relying on the uncertain forecast (see video) which suggested the levees would be overrun rather than breached.
March 3rd, 2006 at 7:47 am
It’s nice to see Bush and his alleged band of competent executives demonstrating they couldn’t organize a one-horse race. If they really were businessmen, we’d be in Chapter 11 (which, in a way, we are). But let’s also remember that Brownie was busily trying to figure out how he’d look on camera and sending joking e-mails. Lincoln telling a joke to try to get his mind off of the Civil War was one thing, but Brownie joking about personal stuff in the midst of all of that meteorological carnage was quite another.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:22 am
It’s what the real big government party Republicans always give you: friends employed qualified or not. Homeland Security is a joke, a massive agency completely unnecessary. FEMA used to work under that other president.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:45 am
FEMA never had to deal with anything the likes of Katrina.
March 3rd, 2006 at 11:45 am
Too many steves –
Many of those levees were massed earth levees. If they are overtopped, the flowing water will erode the back and they will breach completely in short order. This was well-known before the hurricane. This is what it looks like:
http://wizbangblog.com/2005/09/23/the-levee-breach-name-game.php
So, I don’t think the “overtopped” vs. “breached” difference is worth making much hay over.
***
I think the root problem here is that the administration has swallowed its own anti-government ideology so deeply that it believes all government programs, except the military, are ipso facto a waste of money.
If you really do believe that government can’t do anything right, then why not dump incompetents into these jobs and give away the budgets of the programs to cronies? Why not treat the federal government as a play toy?
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:17 pm
I believe government can’t do anything right because of its size, although I would use the words: efficiently & effectively.
I don’t mean to make too much of the topped versus breached distinction – you make a good point. Interestingly, the Army Corps of Engineers, who had been working on the levees since the impetus for their improvement, hurricane Betsy, hit New Orleans in 1965.
This is what government does:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d051050t.pdf
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050901corps,1,7189346.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
You depend on it at your peril.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
“FEMA never had to deal with anything the likes of Katrina.”
Again steve lives in a major metro area and is totally dependant on government for everything.
The record for responses was better than this. In fact it didn’t really fail until Charlie so your one straw man ahead of yourself. Look closer.
March 3rd, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Re-Thinking Michael Brown…
As I noted in an earlier post, Michael Brown is looking better all the time. And I’m not alone in that thought….
March 3rd, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Give a source for a natural disaster that had a more devastating impact than Katrina – in the United States.
Here’s one list:
http://www.eas.slu.edu/hazards.html
But that list is focused on economic impact and there’s only one from the US (Katrina at #2).
Let’s look at a list that ranks based on the human toll:
http://www.nbc10.com/news/4030540/detail.html
Or you could just go on hurling insults, as opposed to arguments, when, in fact, I agree with the basic premise that Bush, as President, is ultimately responsible and that the Government failed miserably to anticipate and react to the disaster.
And if we’re talking about strawmen – the fact that I take advantage of government services has nothing at all to do with my experience and expectation that government is ineffective and inefficient.
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Right that’s why your services are always delivered, yet it doesn’t affect your opinion about them. Amazing. Republicans made this agency, and delisted FEMA. Brown is right about that. The agency performed well in the face of Andrew and other major hurricanes. The idea that because this is bigger because of the levee failure is not disputed. Your claim is nothing could have been done: Katrina trumps all and only the size of the disaster is the key and the former FEMA model would also have failed because it’s still a government agency and they all fail. This isn’t true as we’ve seen. It fails on its face.
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
“From Andrew the death toll was ‘only’ 26, but the property damage added up to (what was then) a staggering $25 billion.”
Since Katrina was 30 in insurance claims, we aren’t that far behind.
March 3rd, 2006 at 6:13 pm
There are thousands of little Katrinas brewing throughout the U.S.—little sociological hurricanes waiting to explode in all our major and rural cities. America is rife with poverty. Unemployment is running rampant, like a bacteria that is out of control. Nothing new, you might say, there has always been poverty.
Yes, that is true but why has it recently been so exacerbated? Why is it becoming as sharp as a precipice ready to lacerate our country? What is causing this problem? Is it because a cadre of “wealthy fraternity boys†who are “drunk with power†are in control?
Yes, maybe that is our problem –PUNKS ARE CONTROLLING OUR COUNTRY! Punks who give their friends tax write-offs; punks who cut off social programs; punks who give away government contracts to cronies; punks who lose nine billion dollars of our tax money in Iraq, that no one can account for; punks that out source good paying jobs and replace them with minimum wage positions; punks that could care less about health care, education and our environment. PUNKS THAT ONLY CARE ABOUT THEMSELVES!
And let’s look ahead, at their future plans. We know they already squandered 300 billion dollars in Iraq. Now let’s see what tax dollars they plan to misappropriate in the gulf coast. The former Director of FEMA Joseph Allbaugh, who was responsible for bringing Michael Brown to FEMA, has subsequently formed the Allbaugh Company with his wife. This company is a consulting firm that advises other companies, on how to acquire lucrative disaster relief government projects. His clients are: Halliburton; a wireless phone company; Shaw Group an engineering and construction company and UltraStrip a company which manufactures water-filtration systems; etc…
They have all the bases covered. Why else would any of these punks work for the federal government, unless they could eventually make a fortune. If there is over 200 billion at stake for the restoration of the Gulf Coast, it is mind boggling to think how much money will mysteriously disappear.
The gulf cost might become a financial Bermuda Triangle. Now you see the money and now you don’t!
We can only hope some money reaches the poor survivors who truly deserve it! But hope might be the only thing these survivors have.
However, our government is planning well. They are thinking non-stop about how to: suspend wage labor laws; suspend environmental regulations and how to cut additional taxes for their wealthy friends–all in the name of facilitating the restoration of the gulf coast. These punks know how to squeeze lemons from the poor, so that they can drink the lemonade!
March 3rd, 2006 at 7:53 pm
“Unemployment is running rampant” Not if you go by the numbers it isn’t. Now what that means is another measurement we generally don’t get. Right now I’m not counted and haven’t been since October. In April I will when I can file a claim.
March 3rd, 2006 at 7:57 pm
“suspend wage labor laws”
They wanted to but it was retracted.
March 3rd, 2006 at 9:58 pm
“It’s what the real big government party Republicans always give you: friends employed qualified or not.”
….and as well all know, Democrats never do that. No, Bill Clinton never hired his campaign donors for plum jobs in Washington. No, its only Republicans who do that.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Personally, Marc C., I’m not in any hurry to pin any medals on Michael “fashion hound” Brown, who felt it pertinent to sit behind his computer and email colleagues about his hair and wardrobe while people were suffering.
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Dear Michael Brown: I Was Wrong (UPDATED)…
(NOTE FOR SATURDAY: This ran yesterday but since some other weblogs have joined in on this issue, we’re moving it from yesterday’s blog and reposting it today. We will continue to add links of blogs on this issue. Scroll down because NEWER posts……
March 4th, 2006 at 6:50 am
When it comes to Hurricane Katrina the American public was Oprahfreyed by Old ‘stuck on stupid’ Media.
March 4th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Everything to-many-steves said.
March 4th, 2006 at 9:48 am
“No, Bill Clinton never hired his campaign donors for plum jobs in Washington.”
It’s a question of competence. I would be glad to look at the two job by job. Love to. Start with Interior: Babbitt v. Norton, the latter a mining polution lawyer. Steven Griles, mining lobbyist. Forest Service: Mike Dombeck v. Dale Bosworth. Fish biologist; Forester. Mark Rey undersecretary of Agriculture, a timber lobbyist. He replaced a Yale ecology professor. It’s an open and shut case of competence and unqualifed incompetence. Do the math.
April 5th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Excuse, and what you think concerning forthcoming elections?
April 9th, 2007 at 2:48 am
cool blog!
April 18th, 2007 at 12:11 am
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June 28th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
federal preparation tax…
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June 29th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
preparation tax…
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