09/12/2005
FEMA head Michael Brown resigns. Related: FEMA: What a Nightmare.
Posted 3:02 PM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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Back to the stables, Brownie.
Posted by: david | Sep 12, 2005 3:05:59 PM
Y'know, in a way I almost -- almost, OK? -- feel sorry for Brownie. He was just a crappy lawyer schlub looking for a new job, and he got handed the opportunity of a lifetime to play as an agency head. Sure, a man of integrity would have realized that he was patently unqualified and refused the job, but how many of us would have done that?
It's not Brownie I blame for all of this. It's Joe Allbaugh -- who hired him at FEMA; Tom Ridge -- who promoted him to director of FEMA; Michael Chertoff -- who kept him there; and of course, Dubya, whose cronyism and patent lack of giving a shit about actually making this country better led to all of the foregoing. The fish rots from the head, as they say, and this fish head's been stinkin' for a long, long time.
There ought to be other resignations to follow, but there won't, of course. So the best thing we can do is give Republicans a little assistance by voting their asses out of office. (And for my fellow NYC'ers, that starts this year with Bloomberg, dammit.)
Posted by: Glenn | Sep 12, 2005 3:13:54 PM
This is the old 'resign because focus should be on the disaster, not me...rather than resign because I'm vastly underqualified and I've been caught." It also takes some focus away from Bush. This is all policitally engineered, he's taking one for the team so to speak.
Posted by: Ian | Sep 12, 2005 3:47:29 PM
Bout freaking time...
This was going to happen the minute he was taken off the ground in the Katrina situation, but I don't think even this will be enough of a bullet to save the whole team.
Wanna bet Louisiana votes Democratic next election?
Posted by: Darren | Sep 12, 2005 4:03:30 PM
Now if only the rest will line up and do the right thing by also stepping down from positions they are incapable of handling. Far too many incompetents have taken positions of power solely because they are friends or family of others in office.
Just because your grandfather was a great musician does not qualify you for the orcastra.
Bear Acres, Florida U.S.A.
Posted by: Bear | Sep 12, 2005 4:49:41 PM
I think the relative speed of this resignation is cause for some guarded optimism. Is it a first step back towards a more normal, less evil government?
Posted by: ryan | Sep 12, 2005 5:07:20 PM
Wanna bet Louisiana votes Democratic next election?
Good idea. They should vote for the folks who left them there, exploited and attempted to profit off of them. That's a damn fine idea.
Posted by: ThatGayConservative | Sep 12, 2005 9:04:19 PM
Yeah, Gay Con, I can't imagine why folks in Louisiana wouldn't vote for the team that was finishing off a month and a half long vacation, or shopping for shoes in Manhattan while people in New Orleans went hungry.
Maybe you should check the lead external link on your blog to Rush and see if he can't explain why that won't happen.
Posted by: Chris in SF | Sep 12, 2005 10:53:19 PM
I find it funny that he resigned and Bush acted like he didn't know about it. Nobody gets fired in this administration, ever.
Posted by: brent | Sep 12, 2005 11:23:16 PM
You're absolutely right, Chris. The people of New Orleans would be much better off keeping on the party that denied them food and water and rescue. They don't need a mayor or a governor that would actually get off their elitest asses to do something. They need people who lead by sitting on said asses and blame everybody else. They're much better served by liberals who don't have a clue about what personal responsibility means. They need "leaders" who will shift the blame around when they screw the pooch. The people of New Orleans voted for leaders who would sooner fuck them over than piss on them and that's exactly what they got.
And maybe you can check with cokehead Franken to see if he can explain why the CBC, Rev. Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Chucky Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid etc. do nothing to help except to sit on their fat, elitist asses and bitch. Sure as hell didn't see them go down to show how it's done, did you? Sure as hell didn't see them do anything useful, did you? When did they get back from vacation? Think he can explain why Landrieu is running around doing "photo ops" instead of getting dirt under her manicure?
Posted by: ThatGayConservative | Sep 13, 2005 1:50:12 AM
Furthermore, Chris, maybe Cokehead can explain how there could be so many poor in New Orleans with "democrats" running the show there for decades. Maybe he can explain how the welfare state and LBJ's war on poverty are such complete failures.
And no, "It's all Bush's fault" doesn't explain a damn thing, so you can put that failed excuse to bed.
Posted by: ThatGayConservative | Sep 13, 2005 2:09:21 AM
To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:
On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel? How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?
That's right. Horse shows.
I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.
I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.
Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?
When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?
When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?
Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?
Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?
With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?
Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.
That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.
It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"
My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?
And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?
Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.
Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?
I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?
I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.
Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
Posted by: Bill | Sep 13, 2005 8:07:41 AM
Gosh Gay Con,
What awesome talking points you've collected there. Did you get them from Rush, or Bill O'Reilly ? Looks like both of those whackjobs are among your favorites.
With the very first link on your blog being Rush, and your fanatical support of Bush, it's simply hysterical that you'd want to label Franken a "cokehead". Newsflash, hon, both Rush and Bush have had a tawdry history with illicit/illegal drugs.
A gay fan of O'Reilly and Rush ? I'd ask if you're for real, but frankly the answer just scares me too much.
Love the "elitest" label. You need to throw that one around a little more, I'll write and let you know when it gets tired.
Pelosi's my Congresswoman. She called Bush out on his bungling. At least she's capable of recognizing failure, as opposed to, say,
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
Unreal.
Posted by: Chris in SF | Sep 13, 2005 12:54:44 PM
According to the Congressional Research Service, "Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government". Blanco 1, Bush 0.
Posted by: brent | Sep 13, 2005 10:49:46 PM
>>The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake.
LMAO at the picture of GROSSLY OBESE Michael Moore complaining about somebody eating cake.
What a visual!
Posted by: jay | Sep 13, 2005 11:43:55 PM