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FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self and Agency

By Last Night in Little Rock, Section Huricanes Katrina and Rita
Posted on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 07:47:41 AM EST
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by Last Night in Little Rock

FEMA Spokesperson and former Director Michael Brown is presently before a House Committee, reading from a script about what a great job FEMA did and that the local officials simply bickered and couldn't get their act together.

The first questioner, however, is Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA). It is getting interesting. It is on CNN, MSNBC, and C-Span. FoxNews, however, isn't covering it.

Even the CNN talking heads aren't buying this dissembling and blame shifting.

Update: CNN reports that all but two Democrats are boycotting the hearing, thereby, in their estimation, depriving the Committee hearing of some counterpoint, apparently expecting the Republicans to throw softballs. One Representative from Mississippi who lost his house was working Brown over, and Brown wasn't answering questions very well. The NY Times has posted a story with a link to live video.

If this were a trial, the jury wouldn't be believing any of it. My opinion is that he wasn't well prepped, if it was possible in the first place.

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    FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self and Agency | 30 comments (30 topical)
    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Brown -- "i'm just telling you what I saw -- the system worked for smart Republican governors but not for stupid democrats and the only people complainig are democrats ..." what an ass

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Perhaps Brown will testify how he and FEMA helped deliver hurricane-ravaged Florida for Bush in 2004. For the details, see: "FEMA: The Florida Election Management Agency."

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#3)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Cripes. How did Jefferson get in on this act? Maybe he'll explain why he had the National Guard take him to his house so he could pick up a few things.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#4)
    by Dadler on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    A tiny d*ck to the end. And he expects us to believe that the federal government's emergency management agency just couldn't act because those actually IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DISASTER were too dysfunctional to let him do his job??? What a friggin' sack of Arabian horsesh*t! His hands were tied by underlings, as were the President's, this is basically his rationale. Those poor powerless federal officials. Give. Me. A. F*cking. Break!!! Would he be arguing this had the hurricane instead been a terrorist attack?? He'd argue his mother was at fault if his ego required it. Abondanza!! Pizza for one!!

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#5)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    He wasn't defending himself so much as blaming Blanco and Nagin (again).

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#6)
    by Kitt on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Maybe he'll explain why he had the National Guard take him to his house so he could pick up a few things.
    Charley, Trent Lott had a Nat'l Guard chopper fly him in & out a few days after Katrina to specifically check damage on his private property. Not defending Jefferson's actions - he, at least, had the displaced sense of waiting until he & the Guard were there at the same time which turned into this pitiful fiasco, huh - Quaker. Talk Left - you're not talking about Chip Pickering, are you? (R-Mississippi)

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Charley... Loosyanna corrupt? Say it isn't so! You obviously don't understand.. The only reason the 'other' states did better than La. is that Bush wanted them to. Wattsa matta u?

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    "You're doing a heckuva job, Drownie." Some Repub takes on Brownie, from the hearing: “I’m happy you left,” said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. “That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren’t capable of doing that job.” And in a testy exchange, Shays compared Brown’s performance unfavorably with that of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks “So I guess you want me to be the superhero, to step in there and take everyone out of New Orleans,” Brown said. “What I wanted you to do is do your job and coordinate,” Shays retorted. Republican Rep. Kay Granger of Texas told Brown: “I don’t know how you can sleep at night. You lost the battle.” Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cautioned against too narrowly assigning blame. “At the end of the day, I suspect that we’ll find that government at all levels failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast,” said Davis

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    wow blame the victims in full effect this thread. the reason other states affected by storms do better is that they haven't gotten hit with a storm the size of Katrina. On another point, I do think that if the Democrats want to challenge this, not showing up isn't going to help.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#10)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Not for nothing, Louisiana officials have to be held accountable by the people of Louisiana. Mike Brown has to be held accountable by the whole nation. Glad to hear some Republicans are putting his feet to the fire. The Dems should have at least shown up under protest.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Not at all Charley. Get a shovel and dig out your own damn walk. However, if there's a snow storm that drops 20ft of snow (instead of a storm surge) on several states, don't you think the Feds ought to take the lead? Or is that too fine a distinction for your wee troll brain to discern?
    “At the end of the day, I suspect that we’ll find that government at all levels failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast,” said Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va.
    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Or is that too fine a distinction for your wee troll brain to discern?
    Thanks for answering my question. Sorry you can't wrap your head around a simple fact that in a Federal system, it simply makes sense for the Feds to assume responsibility for coridinating and carrying out a response to a multi-state disaster. Your "snowstorm" example isn't really comparable either. Unless your talking about a storm that drops 15-20 feet of snow over several states, and renders hundreds of thousands homeless. If you think responding to that is solely up to the locals, I'm damn glad you aren't running anyone's emergency response team. Then again, GOP talking points, and the infected carriers thereof, don't do nuance. And as I've said before, troll-boy, if I lived in LA. I'd vote to throw out Nagin and Blanco. I don't. I do live in the US and have a serious problem with a political hack with NO disaster experience being put in charge of FEMA.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Charley: You're not the same Charley in this book, are you? Flowers for Algernon

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#14)
    by kdog on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Shorter Charley... Joe Hack (D)...Always wrong. Joe Hack (R)...Always right. How can you debate such people?

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Posted by GregZ: "wow blame the victims in full effect this thread." No, charley the troll blew all four of his daily posts in this one thread, and he hasn't even had a chance to attack HOMOsexuals. Poor economy, that. Chertoff must resign. BUSH MUST RESIGN.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    Lab 13- Please don't insult one of the greatest literary characters of the 20'th century like that. ;) kdog- You can't. But you can get them to show their true colors to the lurkers and those that just drop by blogs and the like. It's kind of fun giving them the rope, and then standing back to watch.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#17)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:21 PM EST
    “At the end of the day, I suspect that we’ll find that government at all levels failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast,” said Davis
    True that, and the one big question no one wants to answer is WHY the system didn't work. The short answer is because it puts profits ahead of people. And none of the politicians have an answer for that one.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:22 PM EST
    Paul-lol. good point. Ah yes Katrina was just like a bad snow storm, I mean all they had to do was gather enough firewood right charley?

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:22 PM EST
    Charley, I guess you haven't been keeping up with current events (or historical ones, it appears). Before you go a bragging on the Texas evacuations, take a look at this. And this. Pay attention to Perry's comments. And this. Yep, I'm concerned. I have a real problem with all the no-bid contracts being given out by the Federal government. Congrats, Charley. In one day you've proven that you are a vile human being more interested in trashing your political opposition of choice than in the death of a toddler at the hands of the state. You've also shown that as far as web trolls go, your not even close to being as effective as a JR. Heck, you've got a long way to go to even reach ol PPJ's level. You're certainly no troll. You hardly qualify as a little pixie.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:23 PM EST
    Charley- Thanks for confirming the last point in my previous post. You make it far too easy. Of course, that's what I expect from someone more concerned about pointing fingers at the left, than the death of a toddler. BTW I don't have a "side". I'm pretty sure that I've voted for moderate Repubs at least as often as I've voted for moderate Dems. If Texas did such a great job, then why did Houston Mayor Bill White say this, regarding the evacuation? "BILL WHITE: Everybody knows that it was just totally unacceptable and that there was not adequate fuel supplies stashed around the state." Tiredly awaiting Charley's RNC talking point response (Yawn):

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:23 PM EST
    Brownie's performance is shocking but not at all surprising. As for the GOPers raking him over the coals, it's pretty obvious that he's the guy who'll take the federal portion of the fall. That Brown was given his job at all is prima facie evidence of gross incompetence on the part of the hiring authority. Anbody raking any coals in that direction? The Dems are right to stay away from this thing and continue to demand an investigation by an independent commission.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#22)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:23 PM EST
    Why isn't mr charlie banned? He has violated every rule of the site, and yet he spews on an almost hourly basis.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#23)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:23 PM EST
    Nagin and Blanco are LA's problem. They can vote them out or remove them through local politics. Brown's ineptitude and the idiot who appointed him are our problem.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#24)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:24 PM EST
    Brown committed perjury during his testimony:
    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: Yes.
    Here's the actual request:
    August 27, 2005
    [...]
    Dear Mr. President:

    Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, 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 and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting the thousands of citizens evacuating from the areas expecting to be flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
    (emphasis mine.)

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#25)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:25 PM EST
    Brown committed perjury, that counts as corruption to me. Et al, instead of taking the gov't's word that rita was sooo much better, try googling news articles what the residents think about the Feds response. Here's an example: Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need, FEMA officials closed a relief center early on Wednesday after some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-digit heat. and here: Residents of Port Arthur, Texas, say they know who to thank for help in the wake of Hurricane Rita, and it's not the federal government.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:26 PM EST
    Troll charley: "the response was obviously better-have you heard reports of hundreds, no, thousands of bodies/mass rapes of young babies from Texas?" There is NO EVIDENCE Of any of that happening in Louisiana either. It was propaganda, spread by racists, in order to further their effort to LET THE BLACKS DIE, with the cameras turned off by Presidential edict. The cameras went back on, and now we have the police report, and they found no evidence of any of it. But, since you were one of the racists spreading that filth, here you are again, doing it again, and again and again. And then you go get drunk every night. It's not much of a life.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#27)
    by roger on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:26 PM EST
    "Cannibalism"?!?! Charley, where do you get your material?

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#28)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:26 PM EST
    What about cannibalism?
    Well mr charlie ... I guess always thought you should eat yourself, but I'm not sure that counts as cannibalism;-)

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#29)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:27 PM EST
    There was a filmclip of an African-American at the Superdome who spoke of rumors of cannibalism. What the troll charley doesn't seem to understand is that PLENTY of people who are in shock after nearly losing their lives, and who haven't had a decent meal in 48 hours, and who have little idea where their children are, tend to hysteria. When someone is hysterical due to trauma, they are not particularly in a good mood to talk to a tv camera. But a lot of Americans saw (and were shown on purpose) this one guy (WHO HAPPENED TO BE BLACK) making an absurd claim. WE saw a poor man who was torn to shreds by this nation's largest hurricane. What charley and the directors at Fox saw was a poster boy for their Ku Klux Klan media.

    Re: FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self a (none / 0) (#30)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:04:27 PM EST
    Here's an excerpt from an email I got today from "Rita Land": Lots of people have lost everything. Louisiana is now a very sad state to live in. Luckily, the people here are just crazy enough to want to rebuild and party on. If you want to help, there are thousands here in need of help, please SUPPORT THE SALVATION ARMY. DO NOT SEND MONEY TO THE RED CROSS. Their income far exceeds their output. The Red Cross is just about as useless as FEMA and took them about as long to help. The locals say the response to Rita has been every bit as slow and disorganized as with Katrina.

    FEMA's Brown Before the House Defending Self and Agency | 30 comments (30 topical)