Michael Moore Movie and Katrina

limerickman

Maybe this might explain part of why Bush failed to respond.



Michael Brown, the head of the Bush administration's disaster relief effort, was relieved yesterday of his role coordinating the response to Hurricane Katrina, after allegations that he had embroidered his professional record and had no emergency management experience.

In the 10 years before joining Fema, Mr Brown's job was to help run shows for the International Arabian Horse Association, but he left under pressure from management after the association was sued over his handling of some of its events.

According to his official biography, Mr Brown's only directly relevant experience was 25 years ago as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight".

However, Time magazine's online edition reported yesterday that in his three years working for the local authority in Edmond, Oklahoma (population 70,000), Mr Brown was "more like an intern", with oversight over nothing.

An Edmond spokeswoman, Claudia Deakins, said official records said only that he was employed as "an assistant to the city manager" - not an "assistant city manager".

Mr Brown was hired as Fema's deputy director in 2001 by an old college friend, Joe Allbaugh, who ran the agency until 2003.

Mr Allbaugh, Mr Bush's former campaign manager, was hired this year by Haliburton, vice-president Dick Cheney's former company, to provide advice on disaster relief. Haliburton has been awarded the first big reconstruction contacts in the wake of the storm.


Under "honours and awards" in an online legal directory, FindLaw.com, Mr Brown is listed as an "outstanding political science professor" at Central State University.

Charles Johnson, of the University of Central Oklahoma, as it is now known, : "The only thing I can tell you is that he graduated in political science in 1978. I do not have a record indicating he was a political science professor."

Yesterday, Mr Brown accused the media of bias against him and said his removal was Mr Chertoff's idea. He was "anxious" to return to Washington "to correct all the inaccuracies and lies".

just gets better eh ?

I wonder how many of those poor, old black people are members of the
IAHA ?

jhuskey

The media is full of crap Lim, I got three EMT's that work for me that just came from there. You don't want to hear the truth so why should I bother to tell you what really happned.
The poor old 20 and 30 year olds that have never left are the problem. They don't show them waiting in line for food and water with their shopping carts swilling beer. No that's not all they have to drink.
You guys need to go to Louisiana and see what is going on. The people in Mississippi are getting mad as hell that Louisiana is the only place getting attention.
I know the truth but why bother, you guys can watch the "all holy media"
and get the facts.
I give up!

__________________
Sobriety is over rated!

limerickman

JH is the media full of crap ?
I take on board what you're saying - as I know that you're not a spoofer.

But the images on our TV screens (and I happened to see different shots as I was travelling through France/Germany/Northern Spain on business - showing different images) invariably displayed poor, old and black people.

There were reports of what appeared to be looting (although I would argue that breaking in to shops to get food/water when you have none isn't looting)
but the majority of coverage displayed people who were stranded.

I agree I am all for personal responsibility and if someone could move it's up to them to get out of an area under threat and not wait for the local authority or the President to deliver them out.
BUT it appears that the people who were left behind neither had the means nor could they afford to leave the little they possessed.

Indeed, it seems that reason some could not leave - was in part - down to the institutionalised poverty that permeates that part of the world and has been copperfastened by a system which doesn't care about poor people in your country - the majority of whom just ahppen to be black.

wilmar13

Is it a system that doesn't care, or rather one that doesn't work? From some of the witness recounts (one of which is a freind from grad school) I have heard from the Astrodome of severe harrasment of volunteers and the unbelievable level of ungratefullness and by the "victims" I am disgusted (actually angered) by the situation. Fact is we have a segment of our country that is now totally dependant on the government and thinks that life is free and the purpose of everyone else is to give them what they don't have. How do you fix that? It is not a race issue either. You have plenty of whites in the same situation, but poor whites tend to live in rural areas. I guess my only point as it relates to this issue is that there are f*ckups on all sides and dealing with many of the "victims" in NO was not easy at all since they don't even want to help themselves.

limerickman

In our own media (in ireland) what you say about intimidation, violence at the Astrodome was widely reported.
An irish couple who went to the USA to get married were interviewed on their return and more or less stated that there was a state of anarchy at that particular venue.
They described what can only be said to be total lawlessness in there and they were literally terrified.
Same with the British people who came back and said that the men had to surround the women in their party for fear of them being raped.
So yes, I agree with what you say.

The point I made is that Louisiana is a poor state (compared to other states).
The federal and state authorities know that a large % of the population are disenfranchised as it is before katrina.
Katrina created a vacuum that allowed already disenfranchised people to run riot in some cases.
I cannot be persuaded that the authorities in the USA or Louisiana weren't aware that chaos would ensue.

wilmar13

Well I think the thug aspect is pretty well accepted, but actually what I was referring to was the non-criminals that were there and the total lack of reciprocated human decency. My friend told me about how he and his wife had to deal with handing out water to people who scolded them for not having soda, loud complaints of not having McDonalds and having to eat deli sandwiches, or how when a volunteer asked some people to help set up the beds they were lambasted with "I just lost everything and you want me to help!" followed by a lot of verbal and racial harassment... this was not by the 20-30 yr male thugs, this was from the helpless families you saw on your TV. These people are not really people, they are demanding cattle. As for whether the authorities were aware this would happen, I don't know, but even if they were, I have no idea how they could have dealt with it. Not trying to make excuses for their incompetence, but with regards to the "victims" in NO it was a losing battle no matter what. Why do we hear nothing of the "victims" from other affected areas, I doubt authorities there dealt with it any differently...

limerickman

I understand that Louisiana requested an increase in it's capital budget in prior years to fund the building and fortification of levees.

I also understand that the request for increased capital was rejected by goverment.

Instead of investing the capital necessary to build and fortify those levees, the US taxpayer will now have to fund the entire rebuilding of the areas wiped
out by Katrina.

Perhaps if the budget request had been approved previously, the US taxpayer might not have to fund what is now going to be a massive bill for rebuilding ?

limerickman

Whether a football team is located in a city isn't a scientific basis for assessing the relative wealth of one state vis-a-vis other states.

Virginia is far more prosperous than Louisiana.
That fact is documented.
So to suggest that Louisiana had the wealth/infrastructure commensurate with Florida or your part of the USA, isn't valid.

limerickman

Maybe not but the people remaining in the city, happened to be black, I'm afraid.

jhuskey

Most of NO is black and most chose to stay won't leave even now. I won't say there were not those that need help and didn't get it soon enough, but ther media is only showing selected views.
They have a cliche. " If it bleeds it leads".
I could write a book on what is wrong with the system from education,welfare,law enforcement,judicial system and on and on, but it is still a good system.
It just that there is corruption and incompetence on all levels. Not just in Washington.
From what I read of history, it has always been that way with every major society to some extent.
One of my part time EMT"s is filling in so Lenora, one of my paramedics, can go to Texas. She is Canadian and a little naive. She believes everyone is basically good and civilized.
She will get a good education on the way of the world in the next two weeks.
I do consider myself fortunate to live in what I consider to be a great state, in a nice house with good friends close by and I also know how quickly things can change.

On a high note the Fondriest is a sweet ride and The Tennessee Vols won over LSU in an upset.
No slam on Louisiana, after all it's only a game.

__________________
Sobriety is over rated!

limerickman

This topic is getting us nowhere.

I echoe what you say JH - it's only when you see how hard life is for other people in your village/town/city/country/abroad, can you realise how lucky one is to have ones health and enough wealth to get by.