So does this mean Bushturd is off the hook?

[thereismore]

He authorized FEMA on Aug. 27. Can they say it's all FEMA fault and Bushturd is off the hook?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html

[teach1st]

1. Bush broke FEMA

With cronyism, privitazation schemes, and funding cutbacks.

Under Bush, FEMA Reverted To Pre-Clinton Status As One Of The Worst Agencies. Former President Clinton appointed James L. Witt to take over FEMA after its poor response to Hurricane Andrew. Witt adopted recommendations and FEMA was described as an agency reborn: “transformed itself from what many considered to be the worst federal agency to among the best.” But FEMA under the Bush administration has destroyed carefully constructed efforts. After the 9/11 attacks the agency’s inspector general in 2003 criticized portions of FEMA’s response, citing “difficulties in delivering timely and effective” mortgage and rental assistance to those in need. USA Today, 6/1/2005

On edit: USA Today quote added

[still_one]

2. and removing it from a cabinet level position

and making it part of homeland security

[stray cat]

3. Mr "commander and chief" is ultimately responsible

[Julius Civitatus]

4. Bush UNDERFUNDED FEMA for 4 years...

...then underfunded the Armey Coprs of Engineers, and the maintenance budget for NOLA levee system.

His fingerprints are all over this mess.

[nyhuskyfan]

5. FEMA is run by "Brownie"

His appointee. His administration also made FEMA a non-cabinet level position and put it under the Department of Homeland Security, greatly reducing its effectiveness.

This article was written last year for "The Best of New Orleans" -- so it isn't Monday Morning Quarterbacking. I highly recommend it.


Within FEMA, the shift away from mitigation programs is so pronounced that many long-time specialists in the field have quit. "The priority is no longer on prevention," says the FEMA administrator who asked not to be identified. "Mitigation, honestly, is the orphaned step-child. People are leaving it in droves."

In fact, disaster professionals are leaving many parts of FEMA in droves, compromising the agency's ability to do its job. "Since last year, so many people have left who had developed most of our basic programs," Mann says. "A lot of the institutional knowledge is gone. Everyone who was able to retire has left, and then a lot of people have moved to other agencies."

There are at least two reasons for the exodus. On the one hand, FEMA, like the rest of the federal government's civil service, is hitting a demographic brick wall. Its staff of veteran managers, most of them baby boomers, is reaching retirement age. But another factor is at work: disillusionment at the agency's new direction under the Bush administration.

In February 2004, the American Federation of Government Employees surveyed 84 FEMA personnel about the state of things at the agency. The results showed a dramatic downturn in morale: 80 percent said FEMA has become "a poorer agency" under DHS, and 60 percent said that, given the chance to move to another agency and make the same salary, they'd do so.

For some, quitting the agency has become an especially attractive option, since FEMA is outsourcing more and many former employees have found work with contractors. It's an understandable choice, Mann says. "They're saying, OK, I can't develop my career here any more, so I might as well cash out."

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-09-28/cover_story.html

[w13rd0]

6. I authorize all my bills to be paid in full...

...but if I don't have the money to pay them and I appoint Enron accountants to manage my checkbook, that authorization doesn't mean shit.

[applegrove]

7. Bush has a pattern of putting "function-nots" at the helm of governance

Bush has a pattern of putting function-not at the helm of governance organization. When Bolton refuses UN reforms..and UN beings to fall apart..can Bush say he was for the UN? Nope.

Watch what he does..not what he says "in writing, in speeches, in titles of programs".

He puts incompetents and poison pills in positions of leadership and then eats away at the organization, governance, the idea of governance as time goes on. This is what it is about. The overall pattern is to diminish governance & government expertise..so that corporations can step into the vacuum.

The vacuum Bush created on Monday, Tues, Wednesday really did great things for Bush. It was a purposeful vacuum. (The scientific meaning of vacuum is something that keeps any wind from blowing or movement of air or any particles from an experiment - in other words..Bush did not go on the compassion and adrenaline the whole country was feelings. He stood everyone down, he didn't break through bureaucracy to get things done, he shut up, stopped taking calls, and let things get worse).

Then corporations could step up to bat & save the day.

Bush is responsible for his actions..even if his paper trail says he asked for help from FEMA - he put someone not qualified and drinking kool-aid in that position - and like with Rummy and not planning a war in any conscionable way - it killed many.

[applegrove]

8. Look at the overall pattern of who Bush puts into positions. It is about

diminishing government institutions so people will begin to believe they cannot deliver. This is a repeated pattern.

And boy will gun companies be doing brisk business in the next few weeks. I bet you the market for guns gets up and running in Hurricane affected areas before the grocery stores or the other businesses.

[demgrrrll]

9. I think this is just the begining. A MIlitary person was interviewed on

the BBC and told the inerviewer that Bush had to sign the papers for them to go in and he did not sign them for days? I need to find this interview. That lack of action puts this mess squarely in his lap.

[formernaderite]

10. I said early in the week that by sunday they will have removed

the humans, the press will look elsewhere for news and the initial tragedy will be forgotten. The public will now hear more reports on rescue efforts of people refusing to leave their water ridden houses, and how people in the cities the evacuees have been brought to are concerned about the criminal element...highlighting everything the public officials were harping about during the first four days. In the end....if we don't see true unified democratic leadership...Bush will come out unscathed.

Me and a couple of guys and their families from work, do a little labor day weekend barbeque. One of my work buddies is a black guy from the islands...we are always having discussions on how the press photographers and videographers will always take pics or film of the most ignorant looking poor black people, preferably with their mouths hanging open. We both discussed the way the cameras seemed to be concentrating on really fat people, or really uneducated people. He feels the press is continually trying to lump all black people into one class...and is insulted. I am sure there were plenty of well spoken people they could have interviewed...but as usual to reenforce their own stereotypes they found some black folk who spoke as ignorantly as our Pres.