Fema Dumps Brown

[Mello Mello]

Finally.



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<A HREF="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050910/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_washington">link</A>

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[Whattup Doe]

Good shit but....

Don't be fooled....Now everyone is being sidetracked by the media on this FEMA didn't do their job business...which is true, but the the real mission should still be to get rid of bush....hes the true culprit that allowed the system to get this way

[QueEx]

<font size="5"><center>FEMA director says media made him a scapegoat</font size>

<font size="3">EXPERIENCE QUESTIONED: OFFICIAL DENIES CHARGES;
HE SAYS ALL HE WANTED WAS `TO HELP THESE VICTIMS'</font size></center>

By Ron Fournier
Associated Press
Posted Saturday, Sep 10, 2005

WASHINGTON - A beleaguered Michael Brown said Friday that he didn't know why he was removed from his on-site command of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, but he did know the first thing he would do upon returning to Washington.

``I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep,'' Brown told the Associated Press. ``And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims.''

The Federal Emergency Management Agency director spoke from Louisiana before the move was announced by his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Critics called for Brown's resignation after government agencies seemed sluggish in their response to Katrina.

Friday, allegations surfaced that Brown had padded his résumé. He angrily denied those charges and contended that the White House and FEMA had erred in their descriptions of two of his past jobs.

``This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit, and now we have to help these victims,'' Brown said. ``That's all I've wanted to do.''

Brown said he would still oversee FEMA, including housing, victims' assistance and other aspects of Katrina recovery efforts. But he may not be there for long, according to two officials close to Brown who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss his plans.

They said the FEMA chief had been planning to retire after the hurricane season, and Friday's action virtually assures his departure.

In the interview, Brown praised his on-site replacement, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, but said the switch was Chertoff's idea.

``You'd have to ask Secretary Chertoff why he made that decision,'' Brown said.

At a news conference later, Chertoff suggested the change came as the Gulf Coast efforts entered a new phase, and that Brown might be needed to manage other potential disasters.

Asked if he was being made a scapegoat, Brown said: ``By the press, yes. By the president, no.''

He heatedly denied suggestions by some news organizations that he had padded his résumé, answering some charges point by point:

• He was assistant to the city manager in Edmond, Okla. ``I have no clue'' why the FEMA Web site says he was assistant city manager, an important distinction, he said. Either way, Brown noted that the city's former mayor, Carl Reherman, has vouched for his involvement in emergency planning. Indeed, Reherman told the AP that Brown ``worked hard at everything he did,'' including planning for disasters.

• A 2003 White House press release incorrectly says Brown was executive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors, which has headquarters in Virginia. Brown said he worked for the group's Denver chapter, and he didn't know why the White House suggested otherwise. Terry Moreland, the group's Rocky Mountain chapter chief, said Brown was in the post for about six months in 2001, just before he went to FEMA. ``People hardly got to know him.''

• Denying allegations to the contrary, Brown said he regularly attended meetings of an Oklahoma retirement home's development committee.

While waiting for his military flight back to Washington, the FEMA chief accused journalists of rushing to judgment and passing rumors off as fact.

``I'm anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies,'' he said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/12610176.htm

[Brown Pride]

Good shit but....

Don't be fooled....Now everyone is being sidetracked by the media on this FEMA didn't do their job business...which is true, but the the real mission should still be to get rid of bush....hes the true culprit that allowed the system to get this way


As long as Bush is kkkillin Arabs ,these kkkrackkkas will follow Bush into heel,he's got carta blanche and shit and kkkan do no wrong in their eyes. :eek:

[vitrifier]

lol

I like how conservatives blame everything on how they are portrayed in the media, but will never concede that the media treats black people unfairly...

[Greed]

conservatives always stereotypes us as never the victim.
liberals portray us as always the victim.

which one is most attractive to you? neither one thinks the media treats us unfairly.

[vitrifier]

well, you're changing the issue now. This isn't about whether liberals or conservatives consider blacks to be victims or not. It's about conservatives considering themselves to be victims of the same thing they believe is nonexistant in any other instance. That's like me saying I can't dunk a basketball because of gravity, and then telling everyone else that they can't dunk because they are athletically non-gifted.

The issue is conservatives blame their own woes on the media. The media didn't all of a sudden change Michael Brown's resume. They didn't make him and FEMA not show up in NO in a timely manner. They didn't make him incompetent. He deserves to be fired, and it's too bad that it took this mismanagement to bring light to his incompetence.

[Greed]

no, at most i changed your change of subject. every time someone black in america identifies the conservative as something negative, they are only identifying half the problem.

this wont be resolved between us because we would have to argue whether or not the news media is liberal and misrepresents what conservatives are about.

the right wing commentators misrepresents liberals and the liberal news agencies misrepresent the right. my assessment.

and since its all white they both misrepresents us.

anyway brown doesnt deserve to be fired, he deserves to have never been hired. just like most bureaucrats. the hiring system is the same no matter whose president. i'm not going to waste time with brown when there are 1,000 browns in the government. either complain about the process or leave it alone.

actually, i dont even know whats the point of this thread. the guy didnt even get fired he was relocated to washington to still dictate how shit will get done. what the fuck are people celebrated for?

[vitrifier]

The point of the thread was to inform. That's all. I don't really see anybody celebrating. Brown shouldn't have been hired, you're right. Being that he was, and it possiblyresulted in the unnecessary loss of life, this should mean someone could be criminally negligent.

If I designed a chemical plant and made errors, and it killed a hundred people, it would be my fault. If I was in that position, and I lied on my application, it would be my fault. If my employer knew I lied, and hired me at that position anyway knowing that I was not competent, it would be their fault.

Someone should be in trouble here. More than just firing.

[Greed]

you dont have a point because none of that is considered taboo when it comes to political appiontees.

i personally dont think 90% of them are qualified to do the job any president nominates them for and are approved for with 95-0 votes.

please tell us what firing brown will do when the next guy will be just as unqualified, and the guy 20 yrs down the line with be just as unqualified.

i view people that advocate focusing on a person rather than the system as people that prefer style over substance. its alot of that on this board. whether its snoop is all of a sudden positive for black people because he started a football league or a presidential candidate is for us because he goes to black churches.

which is also why i brought up your habit of only acknowledging the dirt you see out of your right eye and ignoring the splinter in your left.

[vitrifier]

Ok, since you want to believe I have this huge anti-conservative agenda based only on my innate hatred of conservatives, I ask you,

Who is to blame for appointing Brown?

Simple. Don't sit there and spin this to make it look like we're picking on conservatives. Simple questions.

Who appointed Brown? Who fucked up? Who appointed someone with no expertise?

The system is what it is, it's only bad when it's misused. And here it was misused, and people suffered. Why should I not be outraged?? Am I supposed to ignore this, a major fuckup, because he's a conservative?

[Greed]

the system is at fault. the system which allows bush and all president to appoint their friends to positions of authority regardless of their past.

this is why its obvious you have an anti conservative bias. because you dont want to acknowledge that there are unqualified liberals that are political appointees. you dont even want to think about it.

in my opinion the system provides and encourages such things. i dont like it at any times. you dont like it sometimes. gee, i wonder when those times are?

in my opinion unless a career agency/department employee is appointed to head it then the guy is unqualified. when does that happen? ummmm, all the time.

being outraged at brown doesnt solve the problem. it only makes you feel better about a fucked up situation.

you might want to check but people are never happy about fema's response in hurricanes. its always been inefficient, except this is the most high profile fuck up. but not a rare fuck-up.

maybe if people focused on changing the system of appointment 10 years ago rather than changing the person in charge the people in louisiana would be in better shape today.

just maybe of course.

[vitrifier]

Like I said, the system is what it is.

When do you think they will decide to change it? It's been like that since forever. The system is no different in any other arena or business, and it works if the people in charge make good decisions. When the system doesn't work is when people abuse it. And when they abuse the system, and innocent people are hurt, the abusers of power are at fault.

I can't really believe that you are saying the system of appointing personnel is at fault. That is ludicrous, the more I think about it the more ridiculous it is. Really.

When a manager hires his brother who is incompetent, that manager's ass is on the line and he hopes to his lord that nothing major happens. Its like that in every area where people are chosen for a job. And depending on how big the fuck up is, the firings go right up the ladder until someone can justify their position. That is the system, the other part of the system that is designed to make sure that leaders are appointing competent personnel.

The system is not to blame, it only works as well as the people in control. When used properly, it works extremely well. Leaders appoint who they trust, and who they think is best for the job. That's part of being a leader. When they mess up, it's their fault. Period, point blank.

[Greed]

we cant believe alot of things about each other and the latest for me is i cant believe you are comparing the private sector with the public sector.

their is accountability in the private sector.

can you honestly say there is accountability in government? the guys that were responsible for iraq intelligence for 3-4 yrs were given medals last year.

you cant compare the 2 like fucking up in both draws the same consequences.

obviously we have different definition of abuse. unqualified political friends being made into someone important constitutes as an abuse to me but not to you. i worry about it all the time because it leads to fuck ups all the time.

you worry about it when its a MAJOR fuck up during an administration you dont like. because it happens all the time those major fuck ups are inevitable. your solution is to fire brown, keep the system in place, and wait to complain when the next major fuck up occurs. hopefully, when its a president you dont like, so the righteous indignation will be more intense.

i'm against it in principle. the system doesnt change for the same reason alot of things dont change in this country, because people dont demand for change. they sit there and go, "well, its been like that forever...what are you going to do."

well, the first thing you can do is care worth a damn.

[Greed]

Brown Sent Candid E-Mail to Family
Sat Sep 10, 2:34 PM ET

DENVER - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown sent a candid e-mail to family and friends this week as he was becoming the center of criticism of the handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

"I don't mind the negative press (well, actually, I do, but I try to ignore it) but it is really wearing out the family," Brown wrote. "No wonder people don't go into public service. This country is devouring itself, the 24-hour news cycle is numbing our ability to think for ourselves," the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday.

Brown was relieved of his command of the onsite relief efforts Friday amid increasing criticism over the sluggishness of the agency's response and questions over his background.

"It's horrible," said Mary Ann Karns, an Oklahoma lawyer who once worked with Brown in the Edmond, Okla., city government and got the e-mail addressed. "He does not deserve this as a human being."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050910/ap_on_re_us/katrina_brown;_ylt=ApE5b5DzvqtqknCfdWxGm9VI2ocA;_y lu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[vitrifier]

you're putting words in my mouth. Again.

There should be accountability in gov't the same way there is in the private sector. The reason there isn't is because those in power don't hold their people accountable. That's a problem, and an abuse of the system.

I don't agree with appointing anyone who isn't qualified (where did I say that was okay?). It happens, all the time, in fact, but we don't know about it until it becomes a problem. It's always an abuse, whether a problem arises or not. However, when it is found that the system was abused, you have to hold the people who abuse the system accountable. Like Brown should be held accountable. Like Bush should be held accountable for hiring him.

I don't however believe that changing to a different system is gonna work any better. Those who want to abuse the system will always find a way. When they do, you have to call them on it and hold them accountable.

[Greed]

Ex-FEMA Director Defends Agency's Response
by Pam Fessler

All Things Considered, September 27, 2005 · Michael Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, vehemently defended himself in a Capitol Hill hearing on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Brown said limited resources and a lack of cooperation from state and local officials hampered FEMA. 6 min 45 sec (http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=27-Sep-2005&segNum=11&mediaPref=RM&getUnderwriting=1)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4866193

[QueEx]

<font size="6"><center>Aide Says FEMA Ignored Warnings</font size>
<font size="4">former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness
accounts by FEMA's only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane
Katrina had broken the city's levee system the morning of
Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding</font size></center>

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; Page A01

For 16 critical hours, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, including former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness accounts by FEMA's only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane Katrina had broken the city's levee system the morning of Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding, the staffer told the Senate yesterday.

Marty Bahamonde, sent to New Orleans by Brown, said he alerted Brown's assistant shortly after 11 a.m. that Monday with the "worst possible news" for the city: The Category 4 hurricane had carved a 20-foot breach in the 17th Avenue Canal levee.

Five FEMA aides were e-mailed Bahamonde's report of "water flow 'bad' " from the broken levees designed to hold back Lake Pontchartrain. Bahamonde said he called Brown personally after 7 p.m. to warn that 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater and that he had photographed a 200-foot-wide breach.

"FEMA headquarters knew at 11 o'clock. Mike Brown knew at 7 o'clock. Most of FEMA's operational staff knew by 9 o'clock that evening. I don't know where that information went," said Bahamonde, a 12-year FEMA staffer who has worked full time since 2002 as a public affairs official.

Testifying to a bipartisan Senate panel investigating the response to the hurricane, Bahamonde said his accounts were discarded by officials in Baton Rouge and Washington headquarters amid conflicting information.

His disclosures add significantly to public knowledge of how much information Brown and FEMA officials had about the damage Katrina caused, and how soon they were aware of it. The federal government has been widely criticized for its slow, uncoordinated response to the hurricane, which left 1,053 people dead in Louisiana, most of them in New Orleans.

President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Richard B. Myers, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have all said they were told that the city's flood walls did not fail until Aug. 30. They said they assumed that the worst was over during a day-long window when operations could have been launched to rush aid to the Louisiana Superdome or rescue more than 50,000 residents and tourists before streets and homes were flooded.

"This disconnect . . . is beyond disturbing. It's shocking," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is leading the investigation.

Bahamonde said he found it "amazing" that New Orleans officials continued to let thousands gather at the Superdome, even though they knew that the area around it was going to flood. Ten people later died at the Superdome.

"Urgent reports did not appear to prompt an urgent response," said panel Chairman Susan M. Collins (R-Maine). She asked "why the city continued to send people to the Superdome, when it appears they should have evacuated the Superdome?"

As recently as this week, Chertoff told a House Katrina investigation, "The report -- last report I got on Monday [Aug. 29] was that the levees -- there had not been a significant breach in the levees. It appeared that the worst was over."

In contrast, Bahamonde, who was dressed in a dark suit and spoke somberly to senators for nearly three hours, said: "I believed at the time and still do today, that I was confirming the worst-case scenario that everyone had always talked about regarding New Orleans."

In a series of increasingly dire, angry e-mails and phone calls, Bahamonde updated Brown, aides and top spokesmen for FEMA beginning Aug. 28 from the New Orleans emergency operations center and then from the Superdome across the street.

"Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen," Bahamonde wrote to FEMA Region VI spokesman David Passey on Aug. 28.

That night, 25,000 people were inside including 400 people with special medical needs and 45 who required hospitalization. The center was short of toilet paper, water and food, the last of which was adequate through Tuesday only because a Coast Guard helicopter crew found and broke into five abandoned FEMA trailer trucks at Bahamonde's direction, Bahamonde said yesterday.

About 7 p.m. Aug. 29, Bahamonde said, he called Brown and warned him of "massive flooding," that 20,000 people were short of food and water at the Superdome and that thousands of people were standing on roofs or balconies seeking rescue.

Brown replied only: "Thank you. I'm going to call the White House," Bahamonde said.

It is unclear what Brown told his superiors or the president's aides. He has testified to receiving "conflicting information" about 10 a.m. Monday that the levees had broken and at noon or 1 p.m. that "the levees had only been topped. So we knew something was going on between 10 and noon on Monday."

Bahamonde contradicted accounts by Brown that FEMA had positioned 12 staffers in the Superdome before the storm, that Bahamonde's reports Monday were "routine" and that FEMA medical personnel were on hand before Tuesday.

At 11:20 a.m. Aug. 31, Bahamonde e-mailed Brown, "Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical . . . thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water . . . estimates are many will die within hours."

At 2:27 p.m., however, Brown press secretary Sharon Worthy wrote colleagues to schedule an interview for Brown on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country" and to give him more time to eat dinner because Baton Rouge restaurants were getting busy: "He needs much more that 20 or 30 minutes."

Bahamonde e-mailed a friend to "just tell [Worthy] that I just ate an MRE . . . along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern."

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/20/AR2005102000858.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

[QueEx]

<font size="4">Ain't this a damn laugh ....</font size> :lol:

.

<font size="5"><center>Ex-FEMA Head Starts Disaster Planning Firm</font size></center>

Associated Press
Nov 24, 10:35 PM (ET)

DENVER (AP) - Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.

"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses - because that goes straight to the bottom line - then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.

Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation.

The lawyer admits that while he was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mistakes were made in the response to Katrina. He also said he had been planning to quit before the hurricane hit.

"Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is," he said.

Brown said companies already have expressed interested in his consulting business, Michael D. Brown LLC. He plans to run it from the Boulder area, where he lived before joining the Bush administration in 2001.

"I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients," Brown said. "My wife, children and my grandchild still love me. My parents are still proud of me."

[jblaque]

Bump!

[QueEx]

Bumped on 2nd Anniversary

[VegasGuy]

I was fixin' ta say!! Ain't this some old shit????

-VG

[QueEx]

BUMPING SELECTED THREADS - Katrina, 4th Anniversary. August 29, 2009

[QueEx]

<font size="3">I was fixin' ta say!! Ain't this some old shit????

-VG</font size>

Well, look likes there's "New Shit" from an "Old Shit Head" . . .


QueEx

[QueEx]

<font size="4">Brown Sent Candid E-Mail to Family</font size>
Sat Sep 10, 2:34 PM ET

DENVER - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown sent a candid e-mail to family and friends this week as he was becoming the center of criticism of the handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

"I don't mind the negative press (well, actually, I do, but I try to ignore it) but it is really wearing out the family," Brown wrote. "No wonder people don't go into public service. This country is devouring itself, the 24-hour news cycle is numbing our ability to think for ourselves," the Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday.







<font size="6"><center>Aide Says FEMA Ignored Warnings</font size>
<font size="4">former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness
accounts by FEMA's only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane
Katrina had broken the city's levee system the morning of
Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding</font size></center>

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 21, 2005; Page A01

For 16 critical hours, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, including former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness accounts by FEMA's only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane Katrina had broken the city's levee system the morning of Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding, the staffer told the Senate yesterday.

Marty Bahamonde, sent to New Orleans by Brown, said he alerted Brown's assistant shortly after 11 a.m. that Monday with the "worst possible news" for the city: The Category 4 hurricane had carved a 20-foot breach in the 17th Avenue Canal levee.

Five FEMA aides were e-mailed Bahamonde's report of "water flow 'bad' " from the broken levees designed to hold back Lake Pontchartrain. Bahamonde said he called Brown personally after 7 p.m. to warn that 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater and that he had photographed a 200-foot-wide breach.


<font size="5"><center>
Former FEMA Head Michael Brown Says
U.S. Didn't Tell Truth About Katrina</font size></center>


http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/large-image/MichaelBrown.jpg


By: Nsenga Burton
August 27, 2010


<font size="3">Ex-FEMA director Michael Brown finally acknowledged what we knew all along: <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Hurricane Katrina was much worse than the government let on to the American public</span>.</font size>
]
In an appearance on the Today show, Brown stated that <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">the government initially downplayed how devastating Hurricane Katrina was to the region in order to protect the country</span>. When the press discovered how bad conditions actually were in the region, it made all levels of government look inept, including government agencies like FEMA. Uh-huh. Is that Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams singing in the background? This information is too much, too little and way too late to matter

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/former-fema-head-michael-brown-says-us-didnt-tell-truth-about-katrina

[QueEx]

`

<font size="3">Ex-FEMA head: U.S. didn’t tell all on Katrina (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38878493/ns/today-today_people/).</font size>

`

[GET YOU HOT]

FEMA'S use of term 'federal family' for government expands under Obama


The phrase “federal family” has been used in connection with FEMA at least as far back as 1999.

Under President George W. Bush, FEMA officials sprinkled the alliterative euphemism into congressional testimony and statements. When former FEMA Director Michael Brown promised help to hurricane-battered Floridians in 2004, he vowed that “the federal family is dedicated to staying for as long as it takes.”

During the Clinton administration, Vice President Al Gore responded to 1999 flooding in Iowa by pledging that “the federal family is committed to providing the necessary resources to comfort every person and family devastated by this disaster and to help them return to their normal way of living as fast as possible.”

A Google search shows the phrase appearing 10 times on FEMA’s website during the Bush years. Since Obama took office, “federal family” has turned up 118 times on fema.gov, including 50 Irene-related references.





http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/femas-use-of-term-federal-family-for-government-1808751.html