FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions in False Claims to Help Bush Win Fla. Votes

[Ice4Clark]

Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to published reports.

“Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections,”according to a May 19 Washington Post story.

Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown “and his allies him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.”

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims.

read the rest here.........

[Melodybe]

1. kick

[Clark2008]

2. Sadly, this does NOT surprise me.

:hi: ice, baby.

Nice to see you over here.

[Ice4Clark]

3. Thanks

n/t

[DawnneOBTS]

4. Too bad it didn't come out sooner. n/t

[Donna Zen]

5. FEMA looters

...Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king.

[Skink]

6. They still needed Diebold n/t

[Erika]

7. W's Bushdom is coming crumbling down n/t

[guruoo]

8. And now they want the money back...

FEMA Asking 7,300 Recipients to Return Payments

April 19, 2005

More than 7,300 people in areas hit by hurricanes last year, all of whom received payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are beginning to receive notices asking them to pay back money they should not have received. Residents are able to appeal the notice to repay FEMA.
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FEMA has begun mailing letters to residents in effort to recoup the overpayments, which make up about 1 percent of the more than 600,000 people who received aid from the federal agency after Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, Bill Carwile, FEMA federal coordinating officer told the Associated Press.

Many of the problems stem from FEMA providing money for items that were later covered by property insurance policies, more than one person from the same household applying for benefits and processing errors.

The amounts typically are hundreds to a couple of thousand dollars, Carwile said. The average amount residents received from FEMA was under $5,000.
<snip>
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2005/04/19/53982.htm

And then, from the comments:

Subject: Rumour
Posted On: April 19, 2005, 2:18 pm CDT
Posted By: Tooth Fairy
Comment:
there is no truth to the rumour that I came along and gave out the extra money. Please return it to those good hearted FEMA people.

[NVMojo]

9. can these fools do nothing honestly???