FEMA troubles no shock to previous chief (Joe Allbaugh)

[sabra]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/100105dnnatnuhurrallbaugh.20b5f8a9.html

FEMA troubles no shock to previous chief

Allbaugh says agency suffered in move to Homeland Security

WASHINGTON – President Bush's first director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says he's not surprised it's become mired in controversy.

"FEMA has been broken for quite some time," Joe Allbaugh said in an interview Thursday.

The FEMA that he directed did a good job responding to the 9-11 terrorist attacks four years ago, he said. But now it suffers as one of 22 agencies rolled into the new Department of Homeland Security.

"Functions have been moved out of FEMA. Budgets have been cut and used elsewhere," he said. He added that moving FEMA into Homeland Security had added a "couple of layers" of bureaucracy.

[Eugene]

1. Allbaugh himself helped wreck FEMA.

He oversaw the agency's conversion back into
a hiring hall for BushCo cronies.
Dismantling FEMA as a disaster response agency
was an intentional Bush administration policy.

He placed Brownie at the top of his organization.

Privatizing disaster management to connected
contractors happened under his watch too.
Allbaugh then left FEMA so that he could
milk it from the private sector.

Joe Allbaugh help create this disaster.
He is just covering his ass.

[mcctatas]

2. Isn't he the asshole that called FEMA another "bloated entitlement

program". He was for privatizing it all along so we could switch entitlements from the victims of disaster to Halliburton et.al. Either the repukes have no memories or no shame!:puke:

*edited to correct freeperlike spelling errors

[Demoiselle]

3. Yup, he's the asshole. (eom)

[Divernan]

4. Bush put Allbaugh in FEMA to gut it; only 9/11 stopped that plan.

Allbaugh brutalized and terrorized FEMA's civil service professionals from day one and succeeded in driving many of them out of the agency. One reason he left FEMA , in addition to making big bucks as a terrorism consultant/profiteer, was that he had to clear stuff through the DHS czar. Whatever good work FEMA did while Allbaugh was Director was done despite Allbaugh, not because of any leadership on his part. His violent and explosive temper (similar to Bush's) meant that FEMA professionals avoided running any decisions by him as much as possible.

[Lindacooks]

5. Remember this: 9/11 response was President Clinton's FEMA.

Katrina response was the chimp's.