The comparison between the TLC showered on Florida last year and Bush’s initial "What, me worry?" response to this year’s disaster no doubt will go unnoticed by the amnesia patients in the corporate media.
Back to Main
September 4, 2005
WB: Where There’s a Will
Comments
great post! you have the bushcorps pegged rather well. now if only a few hundred millions others would catch on.
Posted by: lenin’s ghost | Sep 4 2005 6:37 utc | 1
once people get over the aftershock of the last week, this is what will be the glaring focus, the separation, the disconnect, great post, as usual you say it first, and best.
Posted by: annie | Sep 4 2005 7:04 utc | 2
Please don’t forget that after New Orleans was flooded as a result of the present regime’s siphoning the levee funds to their “adventure” in Iraq the emergency aid was not delivered because FEMA had been taken down and its functions nominally assigned to regime cronies in Baton Rouge.
There’s no reason to assume that the rest of the Department of Homeland Security would work any better than FEMA presently does (not).
The regime has broken everything it has touched since it seized power, and five years on its had its hands on every part of “our” government.
They, like the multinationals that put them in power, have no allegiance to America or Americans. We and our country are just a revenue stream to be skimmed and a collection of assets to be mortgaged, or stolen outright.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Sep 4 2005 7:59 utc | 3
These guys are not only heartless, they are incompetent. It is just amazing how completely imcompetent they are, as they turn America into a third world country. It really boggles the mind that they are still in office.
Posted by: steve expat | Sep 4 2005 10:42 utc | 4
NYT Sept 3 story on Michael Brown the head of FEMA:
“The public first saw Mr. Brown’s folksy manner when he led the response to the 2004 Florida hurricanes. FEMA was later criticized
for giving millions to undeserving residents.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/national/nationalspecial/03fema.html
Posted by: MDoyle | Sep 4 2005 10:53 utc | 5
No coordination, no advance planning, no marshalling of materials, no standby of personnel and equipment; perfect.
Posted by: ken melvin | Sep 4 2005 12:55 utc | 6
My most generous opinion of the Bush Administration is that, to it,
the only measures worth pursuing are those that will augment and
secure its political power. Whether the nation’s debt burden
is shifted away from the wealthy; or Basra gets potable water or New
Orleans gets a higher, thus stronger, bulwark; or the national
grasslands aren’t chewed up and worn out, is secondary or irrelevant.
Does it line the proper pockets? Spending money in a city full of
“icky Democrats of color,” as Dick Cheney might say, isn’t nearly as
helpful to the GOP as gutting the Estate and Gift Tax. And, it’s
really hard to couch a new floodwall or a long-term, vigorous, and
land-and-oil development-inhibiting (a comical imagining) Gulf Coast
bayou and wetlands restoration project in Periclean or Churcillian
terms. Not gonna get Peggy Noonan to write about an insurance
salesman, which is what Bush would become, as a “steely-eyed rocket
man.” No magic dolphins podding, there, no matter how long the threat
has been appreciated. Victor Davis Hanson will not wax Herodotean.
So, yeah, it seems that money wasn’t spent in New Orleans to raise the
lip of the bowl that was projected to be spent, and that this money
went AWOL in favor of military expenditures. Nothing was
done to restore the natural barriers that weaken hurricanes
approaching the Gulf Coast. I don’t know whether these exact
improvements would have made a difference, but the former probably,
while the latter is too long-term a project to get much help from now,
but essential. More troubling, it seems that FEMA was turned over to
Bush croney Joe Allbaugh (who will today be happy to help you grab a
juicy US gubmint contract in Iraq) in 2001 so that Allbaugh might
recast it as a patronage and privatization franchise, then diminished
in mission and authority (without replacing it with another agency)
after it was folded into the Department of Homeland security.
What happens next? We’ve just spent $8.8 billion of Iraqi money, and are continuing to
spend a Congressional appropriation of (IIRC) $19 billion in Iraq in a
regulatory environment legislatively and administratively engineered
to regard the act of getting a receipt as an unecessary restraint on
the efficiency of government contracting and purchasing. Right now,
someone is auditioning to be the Jerry Bremer of this Gulf Coast, USA,
farce, or work for him in a capacity in which much public money can be
plundered without the mildest threat of accountability. I doubt that
the gubmint reconstruction work to salve the Katrina wound will total
less than $28 billion, and I also don’t doubt that the current
big-gubmint conservatives who run the GOP are planning to see that,
first and foremost, the money slides neatly through the pockets of
stalwart GOP supporters on its way to…well, that wouldn’t matter to
them, really.
Posted by: Brian C.B. | Sep 4 2005 13:09 utc | 7
Wow! An amazingly pissed-off Joe Scarborough (former R-FL) rips Bush and the administration in this op-ed!
Reporters were there – where was the government?
Posted by: Ensley | Sep 4 2005 13:37 utc | 8
anybody see Aaron Broussard on Russert?
Broussard was a prophet: PLEASE go here (from June 2005) and send the link everywhere:
http://www.americaswetland.com/article.cfm?id=241&cateid=2&pageid=3&cid=16
Broussard v. Bush
then see how hard it becomes to blame the locals and not the feds
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 4 2005 16:20 utc | 9
Realistically, I think Chenery/Bush & Co.’s vulnerability is not only the present white-hot anger, but longer term consequences of this catastrophe.
Bush and most of his minions will be faced with this issue everytime they appear in front of a reporter, camera, or a crowd for the next three to six months. Thats got to be wearing on a guy who wants to “get on with his life” and go bike riding during workdays. The Republicans thrive on the media and the public forgetting & moving on to the next topic du jour. Well this ain’t goin’ away for a long, long time.
Josh Marshall in TPM wrote yesterday about the problems of rebuilding with Halliburton and the usual corrupt Rethug cronies in charge. But unlike Iraq, NOLA is going to be front and center of the national consciousness and media coverage won’t be as restricted. (Hmm…could that be one of the reasons Bush sought a federal takeover of the whole area yesterday–so the feds could restrict media coverage the way they do in Iraq?) As a result the boondoggles that they’ve gotten away with in Iraq will be harder to hide.
Posted by: yearzero | Sep 4 2005 17:10 utc | 10
Good point yearzero, we shall see, we shall see.
“Even the legally blind can see the Rovians are serious about the essential functions of government. It’s just that in their value system, funneling federal money to sympathetic interest groups while simulatenously redistributing the tax burden away from those same groups are the two essential functions of government.”
– billmon
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 4 2005 17:43 utc | 11
I’m not so sure BushCo will be able to sweep this one under the rug. I spoke with a physician yesterday who told me he voted for Bush and that he was ashamed of himself for doing so after seeing this fiasco in New Orleans. He told me his assessment is that the American people aren’t going to vote for Republicans “for a long, long time to come.” I’ve also (a week or so prior to Katrina) spoken with secretaries in a very Republican medical office, who spoke about how George Bush and his cronies were stealing America’s money, lying to the public, and lining their own pockets. One man talked about the $150 it took to fill up his pickup truck with gasoline. He told me he was disgusted with how George Bush and his father and rich cronies are all buddy buddy with the Saudis and how they were at least complicit in 9/11. He informed me that George Bush, Sr. was having breakfast with a member of the Bin Laden family on 9/11. And he appeared to feel incredibly betrayed. This is coming from the red, conservative folks in a red state. I haven’t been keeping much eye on the news lately, but I can tell you what my finger on the pulse of the people in my red state community is telling me – and it’s telling me that Diebold best get things rigged good for 2006 or BushCo is fucked!
If Americans want this country back we best start fighting on every level to get rid of paperless electronic voting.
Posted by: Gabby | Sep 4 2005 18:00 utc | 12
As pointed out by AmericaBLOG, Cherkoff just said on live TV that he found out that the levees broke on Tuesday morning reading a newspaper. The levees broke Monday morning. Videos are here (the second is best).
Starving dogs are feeding on human cadavers in the streets of New Orleans.
Greedy conservatives have been feeding on America for five long years.
Posted by: Antifa | Sep 4 2005 18:32 utc | 14
Something to keep an eye out for:
People in Louisiana are asking why the people who are being deported to Texas, rather than elsewhere in Louisiana.
All the people who have been rescued and taken to Texas will be cash poor. Those with deeds to property in NO may get a little extra assistance from Texans in the form of some money in their pocket to help them get out of the refugee camp conditions and make a fresh start elsewhere.
Of course, they will not be carrying their deeds. Does anybody know anything about the conditions of the records in New Orleans. Have they been automated and are there backup copies anywhere? Does Choice Point by any chance have a copy of them?
Posted by: eftsoons | Sep 4 2005 18:46 utc | 15
I watched in rage, my wife in tears, Broussard live on Russert – the video linked to by b above.
Beauracray can’t be tried for murder. Bureaucrats can. Thus my question/point on the other thread: this must really trump all other angles of the story, many though they may be.
Posted by: mats | Sep 4 2005 18:47 utc | 16
correction:
… asking why people are being transported to Texas rather than ….
Posted by: eftsoons | Sep 4 2005 18:48 utc | 17
Starving dogs are feeding on human cadavers in the streets of New Orleans. Greedy conservatives have been feeding on America for five long years.
As someone who likes dogs, I really resent the comparison — the dogs are just trying to survive. Conservatives do it because they LIKE it.
Posted by: Billmon | Sep 4 2005 20:46 utc | 18
People are speaking of Repugs not being voted back…blah…blah…
You forget one thing. That’s how the system was designed by Miltie Friedman to work. Read his book that came out summer before Fascists came to power in ’80. Plan is for Repugs to Bankrupt the Treasury, so that when they were thrown out by voters’ disgust, JackAss Party would be forced to slash all the programs that benefit their constituents, thus ensuring they would be voted out & Repugs wouldn’t have to take the blame.
Repugs couldn’t have gotten thru NAFTA or have eliminated welfare. So, the Republican on the Jackass Party ticket, Clinton, did that. Now Repugs can’t wreck Social Security on it’s merits, but they’ve so Bankrupted the country infuriating everyone in the process, that the table is now set for another round of this. Jackass Party will be brought back to eliminate it – a female would be even better – and take the blame.
Posted by: jj | Sep 4 2005 22:18 utc | 19
Rep. Wexler urged Bush to fire Michael Brown as FEMA head in January
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown’s management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away…read on”
Foreshadowing!
10:40:28 AM postCount(‘4751’); Comments (34)Comments permalink
Keeping up with Jewish officeholders
Fire Michael Brown as FEMA head, Rep. Wexler urges President Bush
jewishsightseeing.com, Jan. 26, 2005
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla) has urged President Bush to fire Michael Brown as undersecretary of the Homeland Security Department in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Wexler cited reports in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that FEMA under Brown’s management inappropriately gave away $30 million in disaster relief funds to people in the Miami, Florida, area even though they were not affected by Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away.
In his letter to Bush, Wexler wrote: “According to several news accounts by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, ‘FEMA has written checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and thousands of televisions, microwave ovens, stoves, air conditioners and other appliances.’ In addition, the Sun-Sentinel cites that FEMA paid $4,500 for one resident s funeral, even though the county medical examiner recorded no storm-related deaths. Another Sun-Sentinel article stated that two residents received aid for ‘dental treatments due to dental injuries received during the disaster.’ In six other cases, FEMA reimbursed residents for damage caused by ‘ice/snow.'”
In a Jan. 24 news release, Wexler added: “On Monday, January 11, FEMA held a news conference acknowledging that they made $12 million in overpayments to 3,500 individuals blaming these overpayments on a ‘computer glitch.’ FEMA, however, continues to deny additional systematic problems and cites the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions in Miami-Dade. Yet, according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA has refuted the weather maps FEMA claims to
have obtained from them. As the head of FEMA, Under Secretary Brown oversees federal disaster response and recovery operations, and it is negligent of him to refuse to accept responsibility for its agency mistakes.”
Rather than taking responsibility for FEMA s mishaps and moving expeditiously to correct the
problems, Under Secretary Brown has further undermined his agency s reputation by stymied
investigations and inquiries into fraud allegations,” Wexler added. “FEMA s massive misallocation of recovery aid is a gross waste of taxpayer monies, which must be immediately addressed by the Bush Administration, Wexler said. Donald H. Harrison
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 5 2005 4:08 utc | 20