Quotes of the Morning: FEMA to be You and Me

“The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security workers into the region to support rescuers, internal documents show.
Part of the emission, according to the documents obtained by The Associated Press, was to ‘convey a positive image’ about the government’s response for victims.
Acknowledging that such a move would take two days, Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on August 29.”
-Associated Press, September 7, 2005

“Apparently part of the mission was to spread government propaganda. And who is this brave bureaucrat leading FEMA you might ask?..”
-Skippy

“The federal official in charge of the bungled New Orleans rescue was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows.
And before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a deputy director in 2001, GOP activist Mike Brown had no significant experience that would have qualified him for the position.”
-Boston Herald, September 3, 2005

"Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.
'We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. 'This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,' she added.
Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.
‘He was asked to resign,' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.
Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign."
-Boston Herald, September 3, 2005

“Former association board member Karl V. Hart of Florida alleges that in 2000 Brown improperly accepted a check for nearly $50,000 from a prominent breeder and put it toward his own legal defense for his work as commissioner. Board members thought this was improper because Brown already had protection, from the association's legal team, Hart said. Because of the money dispute, Brown was asked to resign, Hart said.”
-Denver Post, September 4, 2005

"He's done a hell of a job, because I'm not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm."
-Kate Hall, former Miami-Dade emergency management official, September 3, 2005

“And, should Mr. Brown meet with an unfortunate case of responsibility (hey, somebody needs to take the fall for this, and those documents didn’t leak themselves to the Associated Press), his Chief of Staff at FEMA is a man named Patrick Rhode. Who is Mr. Rhode?”
-Skippy

“His first position with the Bush Administration was as special assistant to the President and deputy director of National Advance Operations, a position he assumed in January 2001. Previously, Mr. Rhode served as deputy director of National Advance Operations for the George W. Bush Presidential Campaign, in Austin, Texas.”
-FEMA.gov, Bio of Patrick Rhode

“Huh.. Sounds like another political crony of Bush’s with no experience. He’ll never do. Who is in the third ranking position at FEMA? Scott Morris is the Deputy Chief of Staff. Here are a few words on him..”
-Skippy

“Mr. Morris was also the marketing director for the world’s leading provider of e-business applications software in California, and worked for Maverick Media in Austin, Texas as a media strategist for the George W. Bush for President primary campaign and the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.”
-FEMA.gov, Bio of Scott Morris

“The Number Three man in FEMA, the organization that should have been driving the emergency response in New Orleans, has experience selling software and making commercials for Dubya’s campaign. The Number Two man at FEMA ran part of Dubya’s presidential campaign, and the Number One man at FEMA liked ponies. This is who Dubya assigned to the task. His cronies.
You know, it isn’t just that these men are political cronies of Dubya’s. These kinds of jobs have been handed out as perks by presidents for as long as the US has existed. Its that they are incompetent political cronies. Previously when someone was put into that position they had a clue what they were doing, even if they only got the job because of connections. To put someone in that position with no background at all is criminally negligent and, as we have seen, costs lives. This from the President who was the one who was going to make us ‘safer’.”
-Skippy

“Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas."
-Salt Lake City Tribune, September 7, 2005