Official Homeland Security Committee Brownie Bake – Thread 8

[Sydnie]

Thread 1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=378137&mesg_id=378137

Thread 2

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=378593&mesg_id=378593

Thread 3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=378909&mesg_id=378909

Thread 4

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=379113&mesg_id=379113

Thread 5
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=379372&mesg_id=379372

Thread 6
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=379649&mesg_id=379649

Thread 7
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=380079&mesg_id=380079

[rodeodance]

1. did i just hear B. say chertoff was watching TV on Monday?

[rodeodance]

2. again--saying brown should have contacted Chertoff.

[rodeodance]

3. Joe needs to be more forceful--Brodrick is covering for Chertoff and he

is just letting it slide.

[Sydnie]

5. Perhaps in round two if they keep them there long enough for a

second round. This is very dry testimony compared to Brownie's. They may not keep them after one round.

[flyarm]

7. wow i guess i missed that typing,,,lol..i thought he was credible...

i better quit typing and watch more closely

[liveoaktx]

50. IF YOU MISSED, some Videos of the hearing on CanOFun

Link to Videos by date, so if you look tomorrow, the Brownie vids may be lower down on the page

[flyarm]

4. one report in morning one in evening..brodrick ..unacceptable..

this guy is ripping them a new asshole!!

you can tell he was dismayed and really upset..and he is pissed!
this guy is so credible..much more so than "brownie"...

fly

[CornField]

6. Very good question, Lieberman!

I've been to the operations center and saw all the people sitting around there, getting information from all types of sources. Why didn't any of those people come to you?

Broderick: I can't really answer that... We didn't get any information out of Louisiana from Brown (paraphrase)

[movonne]

8. What a cute dog...is this your dog?? and is that oil on her or he???

[Sydnie]

9. that is a dog that was rescued in NOLA after the hurricane

Not my dog but my heart goes out to him just the same.

[rodeodance]

10. these two men are paper pushers sent to protect Chertoff.

[rodeodance]

12. Mr. Chertoff's charmed life (posted on Du elsewhere)

ri Feb-10-06 12:31 PM
Original message
Mr. Chertoff's charmed life


Edited on Fri Feb-10-06 12:31 PM by Algorem
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2...

Article published Thursday, February 9, 2006

POLITICAL and civic reputations have taken a great tumble since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, but one official has escaped responsibility for the federal government's miserable response to a widely predicted and surely preventable event - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Oh, for the days of Harry Truman, who kept a reminder on his Oval Office desk that "the buck stops here." Mr. Chertoff fired the luckless Michael D. Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, even though Mr. Brown reported to the secretary...

The General Accountability Office, an independent investigative agency, said in a preliminary report that Mr. Chertoff had failed to move quickly to mobilize resources despite advance warning that Katrina was likely to be a devastating storm.

Yet there was Mr. Chertoff, beaming at President Bush as he and other Cabinet officers awaited the State of the Union message, which devoted almost no attention to hurricane reconstruction. Why does this high-ranking official have such a Teflon shield in the face of one of the worst federal disaster responses in U,S. history?...

[Sydnie]

14. I love the Toledo Blade

they never seem to back away from any story. Great article, btw.

[Nothing Without Hope]

48. Thanks for this - the link you gave didn't work for me but this one did:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060209/OPINION02/602090312&SearchID=73235256800547

[CottonBear]

49. "Oily Dog" was finally rescued from the bridge & has a good home now. n/t

[CornField]

11. Akaka - wondering why geo-spacial information wasn't used

to see the extent of damage in NOLA (satellite pictures)

Broderick said it wasn't used until Tuesday (Because DHS didn't know how bad it was until Tuesday)

[rodeodance]

16. The Senate hearings have had a partisan tinge,

....The GAO said Mr. Chertoff was slow to designate Katrina as a "catastrophic event," which might have lit a fire under federal agencies, and that he had failed to establish a clear chain of command. "Neither the DHS secretary nor any of his designees filled this leadership role, which serves to underscore the immaturity of and weaknesses" of federal disaster coordination, the agency report said.

Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around at the local and state levels as well, and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin - both Democrats - may not escape electoral retribution for their roles either. Mayor Nagin seems to have answers to all the questions thrown at him in congressional hearings and other forums, but many of those answers sound like alibis.

The Senate hearings have had a partisan tinge, not least because the White House has been stonewalling and claiming executive privilege in response to requests for information by congressional investigators. Hurricanes are one kind of threat to homeland security that electronic eavesdropping cannot deter.

The public has already formed its opinions on Mr. Bush's Katrina performance and before too much longer may conclude that he has no clue about what to do in such cases, much less give leadership to recovery efforts. And that goes for Mr. Chertoff as well, if the GAO's report is any indication.

[Nothing Without Hope]

24. got a link to that GAO report? I've got the earlier reports but not

that one.

[tenshi816]

32. This makes me crazy -

how could the DHS not know how bad it was until Tuesday? We knew; it was a huge topic of discussion on DU. If they truly did not know when posters on a political forum knew about it, then the entire organization dropped the ball.

I remain convinced they did know, but they just didn't give a damn.

[CornField]

13. Broderick -- believes the military needs one bellybutton to

organize the response

[Sydnie]

15. I caught that too.

A military bellybutton, no doubt.

[Nothing Without Hope]

21. Exactly -their power grab again. They will not stop trying to use

the hurricanes to militarize all US "emergency" response - including to anything the Prez thinks is an emergency - like dissent.

Power grab all the way. "We'll make you safe if you give us unlimited power."

But they ALREADY had full power and clear responsibility through the DHS National Response Plan, which gives full authority in emergencies to the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security under the President:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4668155

Chertoff delayed making the key triggering declaration for DAYS in the Katrina response, and it was CLEARLY his responsibility to do so:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4777642

They already have their "belly button." What they want is a police state under the military and without any limits.

[Vinca]

17. I just got home - has anything happened to connect the White House

directly with the incompetence? Poor wording. When Bush was strumming the guitar, did he already know New Orleans was under water?

[CornField]

18. According to Brown - Yes. According to DHS officials - No.

[Sydnie]

19. according to Brownie, he certainly did n.t

[rodeodance]

20. the morning testimony-yes: but now--these are Chertoff's boys.

[rodeodance]

22. it is day and night, yes and no, morning vs afternoon.

[Vinca]

29. Thanks. I wonder if we can believe Brownie.

Who knows what or who to believe anymore.

[rodeodance]

34. brownie was trying to save his but. He was squeeling imo.

[CornField]

23. Dayton reading correspondence from FEMA officials

Broderick: Those were email messages sent in the middle of the night...

Dayton: No, they weren't... right here... 9:27 p.m. and 11:05 p.m.

Broderick: mumbling at first.. "I would think, if it was an emergency, someone would have picked up the phone."

----

Well, that kinda blows the whole "we didn't know -- Brown didn't tell us" out of the water.

[CornField]

25. Now Dayton is asking why they didn't turn on the television

LOL!

[rodeodance]

26. HA--turn on the TV--Dayton, Dem said that!!

[rodeodance]

28. chertoffs boys setting it up for brownie to be scrapgoat but Dayton is ont

o them!!

[rodeodance]

30. geech. how long does it take for these boys to 'get the picture:!!

[rodeodance]

33. seems to me that they are just making fools of themselfs to be loyal to C.

[speedoo]

27. Dayton/Lieberman just blew these DHS toads out of the water.

Dayton asks why Brown's e-mails were not sufficient notification to DHS, when the phones were out.

[rodeodance]

42. Chertoff's little toads. Chertoff is the big Granddaddy toad.

[CornField]

31. Now Stephan is saying they had too much information

"We had everything from it's all okay to the sky is falling and we didn't know what to believe." (Paraphrased, of course)

[speedoo]

36. I can't believe this Stephan guy is ex-military.

He's a fucking cry baby. Acting as though the communications situation in NOLA was just peachy. If he was getting such conflicting information, what exactly did he do to clarify it?

[rodeodance]

39. Chertoff is his commander!! --get the picture now?

[rodeodance]

37. gurss they had a good sleep Mon. night as they keep saying when we

came in Tues. am. all hell was breading lose.

[LiberalAndProud]

47. But he didn't read his e-mail...

They should have foned home, cuz Stephan didn't bother to monitor his e-mail?

So who didn't tell him fones were down? hmmm?

[CornField]

35. Dayton is handing them their ass

"You can set up any structure you want... but if people aren't communicating, nothing is going to get done."

[CornField]

38. It must make them pee in their pants each time Dayton brings up 9-11

[CornField]

41. LOL -- now Lieberman is doing it too

And showing them the satellite pictures their department took which showed the levee breech

[rodeodance]

40. they are sitiing at their desks wringing their hands.

[Mind_your_head]

43. Lieberman showed 2 pics of broken levees and flooded NO

taken by a helicopter flyover on MONDAY around 5:30 pm .... clearly showing the damage. Lieberman cites lack of situational awareness!

[CornField]

45. I like how he did that after Akaka had asked them if they used satellite

photos. Those were taken by DHS on Monday at 5:30 p.m. (roughly) -- how can they blame Brown (or anyone else) for that incompetence within their own department?

[Sydnie]

44. Gavel down

Amazing. They seemed to be no further along than they were when they entered that room. If they were, their comments were kept close to the vest.

[ChiciB1]

46. I Had To Leave For A While...

Is IT OVER???

[DoYouEverWonder]

52. Back on now

Isn't anyone else watching/listening to Brownie dance his way around the bs.

Didn't know the SuperDome was a shelter until WEDS! Did I hear that right?

[izzybeans]

51. this administration is by their own admission the least informed

administration in our history.

It's all "we never recieved that information", "bad intelligence", "in retrospect had we known that"

A No-Nothing Presidency.

[DoYouEverWonder]

53. Coleman just smacked Brownie down

I guess Brownie is now officially out of BushCo.