Home > Fiasco uncovers Bush administration as fool’s paradise
Fiasco uncovers Bush administration as fool’s paradise
by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 4 October 20057 comments
Posted on Sun, Oct. 02, 2005
MICHAEL BROWN
Fiasco uncovers Bush administration as fool’s paradise
It is said that if someone thinks you’re a fool, better to keep your mouth shut than open it and remove all doubt. Speaking of Michael Brown...
The ex-FEMA chief testified on Capitol Hill last week about what went wrong with the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Even House Republicans shook their heads in disbelief.
GOP Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut was beside himself when Brown announced, “I am not a superhero.” Brown also pleaded for guidance and asked, “What would you have me do?” This was truly strange.
Brown first was relieved of his FEMA responsibilities in the disaster zone. He said then that he looked forward to going home and having a margarita. Then, under pressure, he resigned. As Brown drowned his sorrows in tequila, Katrina victims were drowning in the flooded cities of the Gulf Coast.
The hearings were as close to the woodshed as Brown had been since President Bush praised his Katrina work with, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” Another “Mission Accomplished”?
At the hearing, it was difficult to tell Republicans from Democrats. He found no friendly faces in the crowd.
Brown said Louisiana was “dysfunctional” and that his main mistake was in not getting the New Orleans mayor and governor to coordinate evacuation efforts better. To that remark, Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, remarked, “You can try to throw as much as you can on the backs of Louisianans, but I’m a witness as to what happened in Mississippi. You folks fell on your face.” Has Brown ever heard of Gulfport?
Some lawmakers were surprised to learn that Brown was still on the government payroll as a consultant. Fellow Americans, as you dig deeper into your shrinking wallets to help displaced Katrina survivors, the Friends of Bush are using your tax dollars to heal Brown’s bruised ego. These guys are shameless.
Brown is “Exhibit A” for political cronyism by GOP powerbrokers who put an unfit man in charge of an agency that held lives and property in the balance. It gets worse.
Brown came to FEMA in 2001 through a college friend, Joe Allbaugh, who ran Bush’s campaign and became head of FEMA. When Allbaugh left FEMA, Brown took over. As part of a reorganization, Bush put FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security, headed by Michael Chertoff.
Chertoff isn’t a fool, but he seems to be trying to fool people about something. Chertoff’s slow response, along with leaks about the administration’s questionable role, should have Republicans joining Democrats in insisting on an independent inquiry.
In 2003, President Bush made Homeland Security responsible for natural disaster and terrorism recovery. As much as was expected of Brown, even more was expected of Chertoff. Yet, as Brown moved into the limelight during Katrina, Chertoff moved into the shadows. Why?
Brown offered some clues, including that the White House may have been more hands-on than it seemed. He told lawmakers last week that as Katrina advanced, he spoke to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. “I remember saying to Andy at one point that this is going to be a bad one. They were focused about it. They knew it,” Brown recalled.
It took Chertoff 36 hours to declare Katrina an event of national significance even though the National Hurricane Center and others alerted government officials of the devastation to come. This made no sense. At the hearings, Brown, who seemed to blame everyone else, easily let Chertoff off the hook. Why?
The public and lawmakers learned recently about a memo from Chertoff’s office suggesting a more intimate White House role before and during the disaster. If Brown truly couldn’t manage down to local and state officials because he lacked skills and Chertoff couldn’t manage up to White House officials because they resisted, that may explain the chaotic response.
Brown said he was “happy to be a scapegoat...if it means that the FEMA that I knew when I came here is going to be able to be reborn and we’re going to be able to get it back to where it was.”
Making FEMA part of Homeland Security, cutting its funding and staffing since 2001, Brown said, led to the “emaciation of FEMA.” Whose bright idea was this again? Rhymes with tush.
Speaking of the president, The New York Times reported that business has been good for “Friend of Bush” Allbaugh, formerly of FEMA. Companies he represents, including Halliburton and the Shaw Group, have received lucrative government contracts since Katrina. Reportedly, more than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion contracts through FEMA were awarded without competitive bids. The FOBs are making a killing from Katrina, just as they are from the war in Iraq.
Brown may be a fool, but he’s their fool.
Rhonda Chriss Lokeman’s column appears on Sundays.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/12794328.htm
Forum posts
4 October 2005, 07:05
It doesn’t really matter, but because the American society has degraded itself to a military industrial complex under Jewish slavery law, has driven out any expertise or engineering mastership.
You American are just a joke and even in your daily life the inability to do anything useful is obvious.
Yes, your stock market is booming, but your infrastructure, educational system and manufacturing is wrecked and sold out to China.
Russia is helping Boing by providing engineers. Johnny sixpack and G. W. Bush rule the country.
Enjoy!
4 October 2005, 12:52
"Yes, your stock market is booming"
What goes up, must come down.
4 October 2005, 17:23
When you infer Jewish influence would you explain or clarify for me:
1) The difference between Christian Zionism and Jewish Zionism.
2) The difference between ordinary Jews and Christians.
3) Why the majority of Jews and Christians are against this war in Iraq.
4) Each group are comprised of elites, do they speak for the majority.
5) In America is there greater danger from Christian or Jewish Zionists.
cheers, jt.
4 October 2005, 18:18
All of us citizens find ourselves disenfranchised by our so called leadership which has combined forces with corporate power to keep us out of the loop and out of any decisions made. The election fraud since 2000 shows that even our vote makes no difference.
We are like hostages who find ourselves bound and gagged while we watch the captors destroy our nation.
Only by uniting en masse and refusing to support their business with our work and buying power can we ever break their hold on us.
The lower recruiting numbers for the military are a good sign that some are already refusing to cooperate with their power play.
Just a comment here about the constant reference I see to ’Jewish’ complicity in this. Being a Jew does not make one a Zionist just as most Muslims are not Terrorists and most Christians are not on the Evangelical Right. There are plenty of Jews in Israel and in the US who deplore what their governments are doing and find themselves as confounded by the loss of power to combat it as anyone. I am not Jewish but I am offended by any group of people being branded as one thing or another when individuals in the group are likely to have many diverse points of view.
4 October 2005, 19:35
Thanks 216/193 you’ve helped 72/19 on his way to answering some of my questions.
That’s if hes prepared to qualify his fallacious negative inferences regarding Jewish people.
Refusing to enlist, using ones buying power are good ideas.
What are the chances in your country of getting a third party.?
Seems like your long over due.
cheers, jt
4 October 2005, 21:19
Dear jt,
Third parties have a very hard time getting on ballots here. In addition to that, we don’t have ’run off voting’ in most states. With run off voting the voter gets to choose his/her top 3 choices. If no candidate gets 50% of the vote, the second choice or third choice votes go to the named candidates until someone has 50% of the vote.
Since we don’t have that system, many people here are afraid to ’waste their vote’ on a third party candidate for fear it will leave the undesired candidate with the majority of votes. This leaves the Dems and Republicans firmly in control of the situation. Another problem is media coverage. In the last election C-Span was the only tv network to carry debates among the third party candidates and some of them were very good! If the public does not know who you are and what your platform is, it is very hard to get votes. We also have a 50% non voting population. If those folks could be roused to vote for a third party candidate it would be a ’slam dunk’ to change the face of Congress and shake up the status quo. The problem is that as long as life is working okay for many people, they fail to see the true effect that government has on their every day lives and consider voting pointless. They think that what goes on in Washington is the same old same old and is far away and does not impact them and their family at all. I’m concerned that by the time things disintegrate to the point of no return and the actually feel and see the effects of governmental policy impacting them negatively, it will be too late for all of us. Any suggestions?
Thanks for your comments.
5 October 2005, 18:59
The people in the US like many in western democracies have become apathetic, disillusioned and distrustful of elected officials.
Regardless of the country I believe the main root cause is fear.
This fear has two faces, first the individual one in which concern for having just basic employment has intimidated (self-censored) many from demanding an adequate wage, health benefits etc, not only for themselves but for the millions living in poverty.
The second fear is more pernicious and difficult to tackle.
But taking it on, is at the core of any significant or qualitative change and not only in the US.
Fortunately this site has just put up an article by Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Bolder. It is to be found under the title of "Where Fear Can’t Take US,’ -March 4-tomgram .( primarily concerned with the US)
But on a much wider scale; The Power Of Nightmare, a four hour prize winning British Documentary, will tell you perhaps more than you might want to know.
I would not be surprised if you have not seen it.
It has not been shown to my knowledge on the US mainstream media nor on PBS, TV.
’Interest groups’? have shown it to small gatherings in local settings. This is a powerful documentary, if your not familiar, google it.
I understand the challenges of your electoral system but until more people get informed and outraged by this information, and challenge elected officials at ever turn. little will change.
In times such as these I sometimes ponder Gandhi’s comment " Whatever you do will be insignificant but it is important that you do it.
cheers, jt.