Mike Brown, former head of FEMA, says Bush administration downplayed severity of Hurricane Katrina

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

The man George W. Bush praised as doing a "heck of a job" during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, now says the administration tried to downplay the severity of the massive storm.

Mike Brown, the embattled former head of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency), said Friday there was a "disconnect" between what the White House said and the actual situation on the gulf coast.

"There was a mentality in Washington which says you put the best face on everything," Brown said on the "Today" show.

-----


He maintained the information his agency gave was accurate, but "we never put it in context."

"I think it's a huge failure of government to fail to trust the American people with the actual facts of what's going on."




Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/08/27/2010-08-27_mike_brown_former_head_of_fema_says_bush_administration_downplayed_severity_of_h.html

[deminks]

1. I don't/won't believe a word out of that idiot's mouth.

Bushco knew what was happening, going to happen during Katrina. Cheney was watching out for the pipelines. Best face my a**. They did what they could for their 'base', then screwed and scattered the rest. The 'best face' was a coverup. And this a**hole knows it.

[Raster]

7. You must remember, when dealing with bushco*, there were several quite separate entities.

The first was ol' alibi in a box himself, the National Village Idiot. When anyone talks about bush* and disconnect, believe it. The second entity was the controlling power structure: Darth cheney*, rumsferatu* and various other nefarious individuals recycled from Bush the elder and Ronnie the Raygun. And thirdly, the true money and power behind it all: the Texas-American Petroleum Mafia and the Military/Industrial/Intelligence Complex.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Too bad his insight is 5 years too late.

doesn't matter what Brownie has to say NOW.
He just admitted being complicit in covering up the truth of Katrina.
He gets NO brownie points for being semi-honest years later.

[KamaAina]

3. Heckuvajob, Brownie!

[jwirr]

12. A perfect photo-shop. Tells it all.

[madmom]

4. Gee, ya think????

[LynneSin]

5. Did you think of checking http://www.weather.com/

:grr:

[xultar]

6. Really?

[ixion]

8. And Brownie helped!

and should have faced charges of criminal negligence along with the rest of the Bush Cabal.

[dave29]

9. put the best face on everything.... you mean like hire an equestrian "expert" to run FEMA?

k.

[jwirr]

10. I definitely agree with the last paragraph. What does any president

of the USA gain by keeping the truth from the people? If we do not know the truth we cannot act in an appropriate way to face it. Paternalism is not attractive in any form.

[Dappleganger]

11. There's plenty of blame to go around...

way to rub salt in the wound, Brownie. Stop saying "we" and "government", and say "I" for a change.

[rocktivity]

13. Candidate for this year's "You Call This NEWS?" award

Believe me, Brownie--we noticed.

:eyes:
rocktivity

[sakabatou]

14. Ya think?!

[alp227]

15. Hey Mr. Brown! We knew about it way before it you loser!

I'm searching online and find articles from way before that prove Brown's not-so-shocking point:
Geoffrey Lean, "". The Independent: SEPTEMBER 4, 2005...around a week after Katrina hit.
Luis Martinez, "Documents Show Katrina Warnings Ignored". ABC News: JANUARY 24, 2006!!!
"Video shows Bush got explicit Katrina warning". Associated Press: March 2, 2006 (link includes video report from NBC Nightly News)

Bush's former campaign man and strategist Ken Mehlman admitting he's gay is much more surprising and newsworthy than coward Brown's belated admission.

[newscott]

16. Wait a minute!

I hate to sound like I'm defending Bush here but isn't that supposed to be Brown's job anyway?

WTF?

[tanyev]

17. It was a huge failure to trust Brownie the fashion god with FEMA.

"Can I quit now? Can I come home?" Brown wrote to Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, the morning of the hurricane.

A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, "I'm trapped now, please rescue me."

Melancon said that on August 26, just days before Katrina made landfall, Brown e-mailed his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, about his attire, asking: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."

On August 29, the day of the storm, Brown exchanged e-mails about his attire with Taylor, Melancon said. She told him, "You look fabulous," and Brown replied, "I got it at Nordstroms. ... Are you proud of me?"

An hour later, Brown added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god," according to the congressman.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/03/brown.fema.emails/

[ProgressiveEconomist]

18. What an unintentionally revealing, self-serving statement! Whose job was it to MAKE

the White House aware of the severity of the situation?

Brown sounds still clueless five years later. Apparently, he was a clueless bureaucrat hunkered down in his office and trying desperately not to bring his bosses any bad news.

But in an "interview" today, Bret Baier of Fox "News" called Michael Brown "totally vindicated".

[Hepburn]

19. No shit, Brownie...

...and your role in this was...??? <Like we are not aware already...>