Well, Well, Well How the tangled web he wove. Now FEMA has the same egg on their face that they had all along and this helps prove it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9765601/ Ann

Good post....I'm afraid we will being hearing more stories like this on all levels for years to come...One can only hope to learn from it....~Raddy~

Hi Anne! It's nice to see you. This article is a pretty explosive indictment of Michael Brown's ability to manage FEMA, although not necessarily of FEMA itself. Some excerpts: The 19 pages of internal FEMA e-mails show Bahamonde gave regular updates to people in contact with Brown as early as Aug. 28, the day before Katrina made landfall. They appear to contradict Brown, who has said he was not fully aware of the conditions until days after the storm hit... As Katrina?s outer bands began drenching the city Aug. 28, Bahamonde sent an e-mail to Deborah Wing, a FEMA response specialist. He wrote: ?Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast.? Subsequent e-mails told of an increasingly desperate situation at the New Orleans Superdome, where tens of thousands of evacuees were staying. Bahamonde spent two nights there with the evacuees. On Aug. 31, Bahamonde e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands of evacuees were gathering in the streets with no food or water and that ?estimates are many will die within hours.? A short time later, Brown?s press secretary, Sharon Worthy, wrote colleagues to complain that the FEMA director needed more time to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge restaurant that evening. ?He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes,? Worthy wrote. In e-mails, Bahamonde described to his bosses a chaotic situation at the Superdome. Bahamonde noted also that local officials were asking for toilet paper, a sign that supplies were lacking at the shelter. ?Issues developing at the Superdome. The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about two hours and are looking for alternative oxygen,? Bahamonde wrote regional director David Passey on Aug. 28. Bahamonde said he was stunned that FEMA officials responded by continuing to send truckloads of evacuees to the Superdome for two more days even though they knew supplies were in short supply. In an Aug. 29 phone call to Brown informing him that the first levee had failed, Bahamonde said he asked for guidance but did not get a response. ?He just said, ?Thank you,? and that he was going to call the White House,? Bahamonde said. On another (comical) note, I was struck by how poor his press secretary's spelling was. You'd think someone in that position would be able to spell.

Hi Abby!!! Hi Raddy!!! On another (comical) note, I was struck by how poor his press secretary's spelling was. You'd think someone in that position would be able to spell. My thoughts exactly...hehehe Take you two ;-) Ann

All this talk and critical charges that Nagin and Blanco were less together before, during and after Katrina...and yet more facts are surfacing about how Brown and FEMA supported both Blanco and Nagin. This is shameful. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9912186/

"All this talk and critical charges that Nagin and Blanco were less together before, during and after Katrina...and yet more facts are surfacing about how Brown and FEMA supported both Blanco and Nagin. " ----------------------- Ann, I don't see anything on that website that reflects anything about Nagin and Blanco's actions. I don't understand how what Brown was doing or not doing exhonerates them for what they were doing. Could you please explain your logic on this? That is, if you have any.

If Brown was such a screw-up, then how come it took 164 declared disasters for his ineptitude to show up? Under Secretary Brown has led Homeland Security?s response to more than 164 presidentially declared disasters and emergencies, including the 2003 Columbia Shuttle disaster and the California wildfires in 2003. In 2004, Mr. Brown led FEMA?s thousands of dedicated disaster workers during the most active hurricane season in over 100 years, as FEMA delivered aid more quickly and more efficiently than ever before. Source: http://www.fema.gov/about/bios/brown.shtm Then you have things like this: While he was in college, from 1975 to 1978, he handled "labor and budget matters" as an administrative assistant to the city manager of Edmond, Oklahoma. His White House biography states that he had emergency services oversight in this position. However, the head of public relations for the city denied that Brown had oversight over anybody, and explained that "the assistant is more like an intern." Brown disputes this characterization of his position, and the city official cited by Time Magazine in this quote claimed on a local news broadcast (Oklahoma City's News 9) that the remark was taken out of context. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Brown Gee, imagine that.. people who are not exactly star quality finding their way into government service. Let's execute them all... Oh wait, if we do that there would be no politicians left. lol I haven't read where anyone on this board said Michael Brown was the God of Emergency Handlings... however FEMA and the Feds had no time to screw up when Nagin and Blanco began the finger pointing.. those two pretty much balled up the works pretty efficiently. lol

I think Ann confuses media dribblings with good information. We all have agendas on the board and we all have our perspective. The media plays into our weaker mindset to build "virtual realities" that do not in fact constitute news. Ann, if in fact you can prove strategically that there was criminal intent on FEMA's part and not confuse leadership with organizations I could read your posts and understand what you are trying to say. Where is the line of criminal actions on the part of the government. Where are the responsibilities as defined in documents and keep those in mind, then you can validate your positions better. In the documentation drawnup by NO, state level, there were huge assumptions. Assumptions cause blame. FEMA has assumptions and those cause blame. Root cause is not it is one or the other, it will be a refinement process and not a witch hunt.

to finish...unless you enjoy witch hunting, in that case, you are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I am not sure whether Ann is a wannabe spin doctor or if she is just into the liberal mindset... but I take no offense at her for she is generally cool enough about things to suit my tastes. I'm used to having people around that don't see things the way I see them. lol I suppose we do all have agendas on this board, besides the agenda of wanting to speak out and be heard and I definately have my perspective - if you haven't noticed by now. lol People, in General, need to realize that alot of the information we get is taken out of context and that can alter the whole view of what happened.

I'm absolutely fine with everyone's "spin" as long as we all realize it is in reality "disposable" and incomplete. Pretty much garbage over the long haul. inclding mine.

LOL I view it the other way, Moogie, what we say in these forums have no merit but anyone can add a vital piece to the solution. It takes all kinds to make the world. :) Darn I am getting more positive as I get older.. I wonder how that happened? LOL

Think Tanks never worked :)

LOL Hesitantly I say I agree with you.

I'm not sure it's all garbage, Moogie. I have learned a lot from many here on this board (YOU included :)) Sharing our perspectives both widens our knowledge base and our viewpoints. This is a good thing. :) BTW, I read Brown's emails, and the one thing that stood out beyond everything else was his directive to evacuate the pets with the people. He understood that people would be reluctant to leave their pets, and that there was a collective responsibility for pet safety as well as people safety. I really appreciated reading that. Other than the directive about the pets, there was nothing in those emails that either proved his performance was stellar or a complete failure. I would expect public officials to have some concern regarding their wardrobe and appearance; I don't fault Mr. Brown for that.

most of this is disposable, in that, when we learn something new, we dispose or grow or move on. I did not mean that people don't matter, not at all, but that our ideas come 'n go. Or I am more jaded than most. (I program in a bank in a ruthless environment...oh to win powerball and just rescue>) There are basics in life that have nothing to do with circumstances or events or media dribble or hurricanes. Those things I hold near 'n dear. The personalities of all the posters some of which remind me of the island of misfit toys and some should be teachers and mentors. I belong on the island along with some other yahoos. I think you and others are good mentors.

Moogie, you don't belong on Yahoo Island at all! No way, no how! You have steadfastly provided good information about disaster preparedness, personal responsibility, and have continuously championed animal welfare. I've learned things from what you wrote - things that matter. We don't always agree - I'm more liberal than you are politically, but that's ok. I always respect what you have to say and enjoy reading what you write. And you often bring up points that I've overlooked. It's good to have ideas and viewpoints that continue to change. That means we're growing and learning - it makes us dynamic instead of static. It's one of the benefits of being able to communicate with many people, from different places and different walks of life, with different viewpoints. Thank you for your kind words about me. I think you're a teacher and a mentor, too.

I agree, Abby, but I go a step further... Anything involving Brown in the Katrina situation was neither stellar nor a complete failure. I keep going back to the fact no one gave Brown or FEMA time to fail or excel before the fingerpointing started. Almost every critic of the Fed response out there expected the Feds to be there as soon as the Hurricane passed with everything they needed.. or with in 12 hours after the Hurricane passed.. and that just isn't feasible when the feds were not allowed to put things in place before the hurricane struck. I can appreciate the pets aspect myself, however moving pets with people can be filled with alot of problems and sometimes we must realize that people are more important than our animals. What I mean is if it comes down to someone taking their dogs or someone's kids being saved.. guess want.. the animal loses out. I would feel bad about that but there are such things as priorities.

I appreciate your point of view, Outlooker, BUT i disagree. Pets, people can all go...we should not even encourage an infrastructure that cannot manage both. I believe that you build the infrastructure and that decision to abandon pets won't even be an issue. At all. It's time we took care of all our own and not everyone else in the world. I believe if they are going to hate our guts overseas, let's pull financial support and put in pet caravans for all I care. Again, I am a realist.

No one is saying to encourage the infrastructure to not be able to manage both in most, or even the vast majority of, cases. What is being said is sometimes the situation will dictate the circumstances and determine what is practical to do and not do. Our pets are our responsibility and if we have our own vehicles to use during an evacuation then by all means every pet owner should make room for their own pets. If a person cannot fit their pets in their own POV then perhaps they have too many pets, or the wrong type of pet. In addition pets involve more than dogs, cats, ferrets and even gerbils. Some people have birds, ferrets, snakes and even fish as pets. Are we to make demands upon our cities and states to provide a means to transport these pets as well? If not where do we draw the line. In order to make a system where pets can be evacuated you have to have rules that people abide by. The owners of these pets should have an appropriate carrier for each pet they have, for one thing. We can't demand that our cities and states have billions of pet carriers of all varieties just in case people show up with little fido on a leash or Sydney the fighting rooster in their arms. That is unrealistic to expect our government to plan for every contigency and need. If the pets are properly packaged then it wouldn't hurt for the local entities or the State to supply vehicles to haul these pets with. Another thing is every pet should come with it's own 3 day supply of food.. we can always get water from where-ever the pets go. We've only just begun the logistics in insuring a No pet left behind plan and we can already start to see the cost involved, and some of the problems. The major thing is that we cannot endanger human life for the sake of some animal. If people wish to volunteer to face danger for animals that is fine, they can do that.. but we have to keep our priorities in perspective and the number one priority is that little Janie or Jimmie is more important that King the wonder dog.