FEMA chief: Victims bear some responsibility

[steve2470]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/katrina.fema.brown/index.html


this is vile stuff by baghdad brown. read at your own risk.

[demnan]

1. What a shit fest!

These people didn't have cars, what the fuck could they do to get out town. I hate, hate, HATE our racist, classist Government fascist officials!!!!!!!! :nuke:

[Rude Horner]

32. I don't know what more I can add to this

What a totally fucking stupid thing to say. And so typical of what is going on right now - blame the victims.

This is the same kind of attitude that Bush has. That all freepers have. They just think that everybody can pile into their SUV and drive away to a hotel somewhere. They can't even fathom that there are people out there who are poor, who have no choice but to stay. Why can't they fathom them? Because they don't ever see them and they don't want to see them. Seeing them spoils their wonderful little flag-waving, soccer-watching cocoon of a life that they've created for themselves. And if they ever see poor people on tv, they flip the channel. Either that, or they just accuse these people of being lazy and living off the government because they want to.

When the flood waters recede, this administration - EVERYBODY - is going to pay dearly for this. Remember the thing you see about 9/11 once in awhile? - "We will never forget?" Well, the same thing can be said for this - WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!

[The Doctor.]

68. The last thing I want to do is to defend insensitivity...

But we have all been guilty of 'insensitivity'.

To inject a little BOTD here;

He was more likely referring to the numbers of able-bodied and resourceful individuals who were just plain foolish enough to try to 'weather it out' and get a notch on their belt.

And you know there were a few of those.

Call me altruistic, but I can't imagine if the guy knew there were people who had no means of escape he wouldn't at least qualify his statement.

That means he's simply ignorant... not evil.

In which case, perhaps he ought not to be the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

[krkaufman]

88. "He was more likely referring to ..." -- -- No, he wasn't...!

See my post below, here. He reiterated that it was a choice, immediately after being told that most had no means of transportation -- or the ability -- to get out.

[The Doctor.]

99. Holy fuc#ontoast...

Just read it.

If he really said that (and I see you adequately sourced it), then he's far more of a dipshit than I gave him credit for.

[SammyBlue]

103. I don't have to read

All of this is making my entire family cringe! I am physically ill reading this shit.

[TankLV]

98. This is the same logic from the people who are trying to set up medical

savings accounts as a solution to the high cost of drugs and medical care!

They just don't have a clue!

How the fuck are people with NO savings and MINIMAL income who can't even afford FOOD AND HEAT at the same time expected to SAVE any fucking money - especially with all the CREDIT CARD debt and all those "pay day loan" centers?

These people are fucking clueless!

[Booster]

101. Whenever he or Bush says something like that, the reporters

should throw it back at them and say you expect the people to know how bad it was going to be, but you guys say "no one could imagine it could be this bad". Typical Republicans, trying to have it both ways. Totally incompetent, inept, ignorant, unintelligent asswipes.

[AuntiBush]

55. On CNN/MSNBC: Many said their CARS were UNDER WATER!

And, not everyone has somewhere to go.

I seen the elderly, disabled, the very sick, the poor and where do these people go? They can't afford to fill-up tanks at the price of gas, much less afford to go (?) where? An out-of-town motel, hotel?

DEMNAN, let me repeat your words with a few of my own:

I hate, hate, hate our racists, classiest, "arrogant," "valueless, "no morals whatsoever" gov.t!"

I'm shamed by what's running, no ruining my beloved America. A country I no longer recognize. This isn't the America I grew-up in. No. In less then the time he was re-elected less then 1 year ago, we've spiraled down-wards like never, ever before!

[krkaufman]

90. Of course, that (cars underwater) was *after* the hurricane.

I'll at least cut this bastard some slack, in that he was referring to getting out of NOLA *before* the hurricane struck -- on issuance of the "mandatory evacuation order."

Now, before you go off on me for defending this soulless ghoul, please see my post within this thread expressing my take on his CNN comments, here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4566584&mesg_id=4569255

[ClintonTyree]

111. Careful....

I opined the same sentiments the other day and had the post deleted. There were many that did CHOOSE to stay when they COULD have evacuated. Many interviewed on the media have even said so, that they wish they HAD evacuated now instead of "riding it out".
Many COULDN'T evacuate and for those people this is doubly tragic and yet another case of the poor getting the shaft,as usual. Hell, it's tragic for everyone no matter what their reasons, but for those who CHOSE to stay when they COULD have evacuated, :wtf:
This will probably be deleted as well. :eyes:

[mzmolly]

2. FIRE that SOB. Do the hospital victims bare responsibility? How bout

those who couldn't afford to leave?

[brentspeak]

6. They chose to remain sick and infirm during this disaster

[blondeatlast]

25. UI heard Ed Scultz talking to a nurse from Charity Hospital; she said the

NURSES were having to GET iv's, not just give them.

Un-fucking-conscionable.

How do these people sleep at night?

[howmad1]

85. As I recall, Ed Schultz was spouting the same BS a few days ago.

[Cha]

53. How about the airlines who wouldn't

go down to New Orleans to pick up their passengers and ABANDONED THEM?

Could they sue the airlines if they had tickets, already?

[philarq]

3. He chuckled and laughed through the part of the press conference I saw

[killbotfactory]

4. who the fuck does this guy think he is?

jesus fucking christ

[brentspeak]

5. Apparantly, this Brown clown has spent much of today doing interviews

or press conferences. That's doesn't leave much time to coordinate rescue efforts, though.

[teach1st]

7. According to the Bush doctrine...

..the main function of government is to promote itself.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Not just today

I have seen this ass on every TV network reporting from the disaster site this week. Of course, he's not there. But the media is. What does that tell you?

[walldude]

8. Excuse my language but this motherfucker better

pray he doesn't meet me in the streets. I'll kick his flabby little lilly white ass.

[osaMABUSh]

67. If he was NO he would be shot

[KittyWampus]

9. why people didn't leave means nothing. it's totally irrelevant.

unless you want to talk about those who didn't have means to do so.

where was the public transport?

I probably would have walked out... but able bodied single women with no kids and in their prime can do stuff like that.

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. Someday, he'll get dragged before a Congressional Committee

And get the reeming of a lifetime - I can only hope.

[meow2u3]

11. Outrageous!

That's like telling a rape victim she's partially to blame for being overpowered by a monster twice her size. :grr::grr:

[punpirate]

12. Classic...

... it's "no time to point fingers," but he does manage to get in a dig to blame the victims.

These people are scum.

[Cha]

59. This asswipe makes it clear..

"it's no time to point fingers at me and my masters but I'll point my damn finger at the poor people who couldn't or wouldn't get the hell outta New Orleans.

[tjdee]

13. Damn them for being poor!

Apparently, this FEMA director is a dumbass.

[bluethruandthru]

14. who is this asshole?

What is his background? Does he have a clue what he's doing? We need to demand he gets fired! Obviously he's been given the repub talking points about "those that chose to stay"! Creep!

[BQueen]

29. I read that he was an estate attorney

really makes him qualified to head up FEMA, right?

[lectrobyte]

35. Yeah, I heard something like that too. Got some links or anything?

Thanks.

[BQueen]

48. DU Thread with links

here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4552397&mesg_id=4552397

and
Kevin Drum's timeline just says "no experience"
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007023.php

[chomskysright]

49. yES: HERE: estate attny and legal representative for Arabian Horse Org:

yes: you heard me right:

head of FEMA was an estate planning lawyer and represenative for the Arabian Horse Association: www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/ 002458.html.

[lectrobyte]

70. Thanks.

[LoZoccolo]

15. This is run-of-the-mill Republican philosophy.

And yet I'm still surprised an official actually went out and said it. Usually they'll just imply it in vague terms or have someone else do it.

[shraby]

18. There needs to be a congressional

investigation into the colossal failings that happened. Heads should roll over this one. It is a case of criminal negligence and incompetence on so many levels.

[Hekate]

80. Callousness and corruption is now so naked among the GOP...

...it just beggars the imagination.

I do not expect there to be any real effort on the part of the GOP-dominated Congress to bring anyone to justice. Oh, maybe the odd looter, but not the head of FEMA ( who I am sure is a Bush appointee) and certainly not anyone from Big Oil.

The GOP has corrupted the process beyond belief, and I think there's a broad concensus at DU that the only chance we have of restoration is to sweep the lot from office next year. However I am not holding my breath.

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#

[Bouncy Ball]

16. Oh my God.

I literally think I will be sick.

"Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans -- virtually a city that has been destroyed -- that things are going relatively well," Brown said.

Nevertheless, he said he could "empathize with those in miserable conditions."

Things are going RELATIVELY WELL? RELATIVELY WELL? Tell that to all the parents watching THEIR CHILDREN DIE you motherfucker.

How can he EMPATHIZE? I don't see him with cracked lips and sunken eyes? I don't see him with a fear of impending death on his face? I don't see him desperate for insulin or dialysis or heart medication.

Oh and he totally LIED, too. Compare:

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.

Then later in the article:

Asked later on CNN how he could blame the victims, many of whom could not flee the storm because they had no transportation or were too frail to evacuate on their own, Brown said he was not blaming anyone.

Oh really? Let me repeat it here: "residents who chose not to heed warnings...BEAR SOME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR FATES."

If that's not the coldest motherfucking thing I've ever heard come from a US government official's lips.

Of course you know he's just covering his boss's ass, right?

[Catchawave]

19. Is anyone keeping a list......

This whole administration must GO ! How treasonous !

[Pepper32]

50. Yes, and checking it twice! (nt)

[NorthernSpy]

20. the storm happened before pay day

A lot of people simply did not have enough money to leave. What the hell should they have done -- stolen enough gas to get to Texas? Wouldn't that have been Loooooooting?

:eyes:

[nosmokes]

21. this is the same jackass that claimed the feds had no

knowledge of the thousands of people in dire straits at the NO convention center until late mornng today. he's obviously as competent in his job as rummy is in his...

[chomskysright]

51. "MALEVOLENT NEGLECT"

[hippywife]

109. If you are talking about the NPR interview on ATC,

that was Michael Chertoff, Sec. of DHC-Homeland Security.

[chomskysright]

117. didn't catch that: link? trying to map MALEVOLENT NEGLECT as...

social phenomenon. If you can map something, describe something, you can 'innoculate' against it, be prepared, put a name to it.

[hippywife]

120. Here ya go!

:hi:

Should be in this segment of yesterday's program:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828771

He was a bumbling idiot who was so obviously out of the loop. John Burnett, the NPR reporter on the ground in NO, come on the line after the interview and really painted a graphic picture of what he was seeing and refuting Chertoff.

[blondeatlast]

22. He's a simpering, lame-duck ass wiping coward and he needs to go now.

How the hell does that man sleep at night?

[1932]

58. Class warfare, with the first America defeating the second America,

[bloom]

23. He should have to go live at the convention center.

Maybe he would get a clue.

[jobycom]

24. But, no one could have imagined that the levees would fail, so why should

they leave? (that's called sarcasm, dear)

SOmeone in the Bush administration is always right because they continuously make completely contradictory statements. The people who didn't head the hurricane warnings are mostly working for FEMA or are pretending to run the country from their pig farm in central Texas.

[txindy]

26. Well, of course

How dare those people not know how to drive? How dare those people not have a car? How dare those people, stuck in unmoving traffic on the way out of NO before Katrina hit, actually listen to the police and turn back into NO for shelter from the storm? How dare those people be elderly and in wheelchairs? How dare those people let the airlines cancel flights? :sarcasm:

Good. God.

[Fleshdancer]

27. Because in America....

you have no business being poor, disabled, old, or young. :grr:

[BrklynLiberal]

28. What a complete and total asshole...

[itzamirakul]

30. Brown is a political appointment...his job is repayment for supporting

Bush in some big way. I bet the bastard has never run a charitable organization before in his life.

When I saw and heard him begin to blame the victims for complaining that they needed food and water, I knew then that these poor folks were going to get no sympathy from him (or Bush).



I was such a big Clinton supporter...now he disgusts me - sucking up to the Bushes so he can stay in the limelight. How can he see this devastation and then say, "Oh, we are going to raise money." They need to get their million dollar suit wearing asses out on the ground and help out physically like Carter does.

[boddhi]

31. then sue all the hospitals

and the nursing homes for any increases in illness or death since they heedlessly disregarded the government's warning to evacuate and since the government wasn't prepared to help them either, it must be their fault....

[boddhi]

33. CNN's mad

I've been watching for the last couple evenings. They're the only ones who have enough reporters to send to something like this. They're embedded. They're mad as hell, and I don't think they're going to take it much longer....

[Hekate]

87. Good. Someone in the MSM should be

I was flipping back and forth between MSNBC and CNN for awhile before I ran off for my appointment to donate some blood. I think it was Ron Reagan who was allowing long cuts of film to keep rolling that had honest to god people talking about their ordeals, and shaken reporters describing scenes they said they knew would not actually shown.

One young mother was holding a very floppy 7 or 8 month old baby; she said "Look at my baby! she's getting really hard to wake up! This isn't about poor people or rich people, it's about people!" She was absolutely frantic but articulate, and spelled out what people need most -- but looking at that sick baby I just cried, because I'm thinking dehydration and heat exhaustion, and that just cannot be allowed to go on for much longer.

Inside the Dome, no plumbing or water. Outside the Dome, dead bodies starting to be deposited, at least one in a wheelchair.

It's times like these that I think there must be a special place in Hell for powerful people (and I think we know who a lot of them are by now) whose callousness and unmitigated greed cause such heartbreak on such a vast scale.

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#

[LittleClarkie]

34. So what if they do, thought I think not

I think many tried to get out but the roads were clogged, and many don't have cars.

But so what if they do. Does that warrent a death sentence. WTF!?

[NVMojo]

36. the bastard has obviously never had $20. til payday when a disaster

hit. Shame on him.

[goclark]

37. I just saw him on MSNBC

That piece of crap that heads FEMA was almost in tears after seeing Zabado's (spelling) interview on MSNBC.

He was still trying to make people think that they just found out about the convention center today.

He looked like a Bush Mouth piece and he is doing NOTHING - LIHOP.

[wildeyed]

38. Can we put him in jail when this is over?

Brown pleased with effort: 'Things are going relatively well'

What kind of crack is he smoking?

[Pepper32]

40. Their plans are to let them die. So yes it's "going relatively well"

nt

[osaMABUSh]

76. Relative to what? 9/11? Tsunami?

[wildeyed]

112. Armageddon?

Nagasaki? Dresden?

[KamaAina]

39. Chose not to heed the warnings?

Or didn't have a car? Or money for a hotel for who knows how long?

Blaming the victim is the classic Repuke trope. This evil bastard has raised it to an art form.

"And to find people still there is just heart-wrenching to me because, you know, the mayor did everything he could to get them out of there.

What did you do to get them out of there, you scumsucking worm? What about the 475 buses that you magically now have access to? Where the hell were they last week?

Oh, and by the way, either you have a really ugly rug or else a nutria got loose from the swamps and is sitting on top of your head. :-)

[Sparkman]

42. Day Late & A Dollar Short....Just imagine the level of relief pre-Bush?

Why the f do so many disasters come at us during the last 5 years?!!!

[kestrel91316]

41. Newsflash to FEMA chief:

IIRC, the 2000 US census showed that over 100,000 households in NOLA were WITHOUT TRANSPORTATION. So exactly which government agency offered these people bus or train transportation to safety?

I'm still waiting for an answer.

Still waiting.

Uh huh. That's what I thought.

[AgadorSparticus]

43. Hugo Chavez nailed it on the head. You tell people to get out

but don't tell them HOW. Don't provide a way. What a bunch of %^$%&*# asshats. He needs to be held accountable.

[Strelnikov_]

44. Of All The Shit I Have Heard From GOP/DINO Criminals Today

This is truly the bottom.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.

. . .

Asked later on CNN how he could blame the victims, many of whom could not flee the storm because they had no transportation or were too frail to evacuate on their own, Brown said he was not blaming anyone.

"Now is not the time to be blaming," Brown said. "Now is the time to recognize that whether they chose to evacuate or chose not to evacuate, we have to help them."

[Tace]

45. There's An Irony That They Believe In Survival Of The Fittest...

but not the rest of the theory of evolution.

[chomskysright]

46. We're seeing a social psych experiment: MALEVOLENT NEGLECT

There's a phenomenon going on here re: lack of federal assistance in N.O. and what took place prior to 9-11. I'm using the phrase (as psychologists are prone to assign something a descriptor as a kind of short-hand) "Malevolent Neglect."

We now have 2 BIG instances of Malevolent Neglect: 9-11 and New Orleans.

Both are associated with information voluminously parlayed to Bush's administration prior to the event. This is established.

Back up: get away from the smoke: what do you see: 2 events with massive warning, should've-been-planning, finger pointing during which nothing goes into the US Cabinet and little impact on the U.S. Congress.

I keep thinking back to Stanley Milgram's experiments; to Zimbardo's prison experiment. There are big archetypal forces being examined in all of these settings: sadism and torture.

There is a social psychology experiment being played out here---either consciously or unconsciously. I think some of both, more conscious than not, with the related parties, particularly Rove I think, working the pieces onto the board and then whistling as he walks away into the dark of the night, knowing that sometime/ somewhere the levee will break, the terrorists will take over the planes, the London Muslims scrambling in their back-packs because they all of a sudden figured out what was up

[Pallas180]

107. "social psychology experiment being played out here" - same thought most

of today.

[chomskysright]

116. Krugman, NYT: also mapping out 'MALEVOLENT NEGLECT':

Mr. Krugman:

You stated:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02krugman.html

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.

I think what we are mapping out here is what I am calling 'Malevolent Neglect.' It has certain 'constructs' (psychologists map out the 'interior', if you will, of a phenomenon.) See below.

---------- Forwarded Message ----------


There's a phenomenon going on here re: lack of federal assistance in N.O. and what took place prior to 9-11. I'm using the phrase (as psychologists are prone to assign something a descriptor as a kind of short-hand) "Malevolent Neglect."

We now have 2 BIG instances of Malevolent Neglect: 9-11 and New Orleans.

Both are associated with information voluminously parlayed to Bush's administration prior to the event. This is established.

Back up: get away from the smoke: what do you see: 2 events with massive warning, should've-been-planning, finger pointing during which nothing goes into the US Cabinet and little impact on the U.S. Congress.

I keep thinking back to Stanley Milgram's experiments; to Zimbardo's prison experiment. There are big archetypal forces being examined in all of these settings: sadism and torture.

There is a social psychology experiment being played out here---either consciously or unconsciously. I think some of both, more conscious than not, with the related parties, particularly Rove I think, working the pieces onto the board and then whistling as he walks away into the dark of the night, knowing that sometime/ somewhere the levee will break, the terrorists will take over the planes, the London Muslims scrambling in their back-packs because they all of a sudden figured out what was up.

[lala_rawraw]

47. I think we need to write to ADL and let them know...

that, translation, the "black folk are responsible for their own problems"

get going with pens, pencils and middle fingers

[Sparkman]

52. He raids our Nations Treasury and our human resources: war/oil profiteer'g

The * neocons are entrenced now, but they've tipped their hand, and 2006 is 14 months away. NEVER FORGET, and take notes. If they last that long.

[kerryin2004]

54. emil address for baghdad brown?

anyone know it?

[Lori Price CLG]

56. ...the FEMA whackjob n/t

[AuntiBush]

57. I can't Stomach Reading that Fema Statement

Can't. It makes me that sick.

[starroute]

60. Brown and the use of FEMA handouts to buy last fall's election

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4567425

It seems Miami-Dade got $28 million to buy people new tv's after Hurricane Frances in an area that didn't get more out of the storm than some run-of-the mill thunderstorms -- and Brown was accused of having "stymied" the investigation.

[qanda]

61. Could you imagine him saying,

"The people who didn't leave the second tower, even after the first tower was hit, bear some responsibility."

[Up2Late]

62. He said something similar to this on NPR, Robert Siegel was pressing...

...hard for an WHEN are the people at the N.O. Convention Center where going to get some water and Food, and Chirtoff keep saying that the people needed to get to the "Staging Areas," like it was their fault they found the wrong high ground.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4828771>

U.S. Aid Effort Criticized in New Orleans

Listen to this story... by Robert Siegel

All Things Considered, September 1, 2005 · Days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall east of New Orleans, thousands remain stranded in the city, many without food or fresh water. The city's mayor has issued what he called an "Urgent SOS" for help.

Heavily armed National Guard troops evacuated people from the squalid conditions of the damaged Superdome; the evacuees are being bused to the Astrodome in Houston.

But it has now emerged that people stranded at the New Orleans Convetion Center -- about eight blocks away from the Superdome -- are in dire straights, lacking basic essentials and avoiding corpses and waste on the streets.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is overseeing the biggest recovery operation in U.S. history. President Bush is proposing $10 billion in relief for the area.

[aresef]

63. Do I hear a Conservative Idiot award? Yes, yes I do...

Most of those people either weren't medically able to leave, couldn't afford to leave, were afraid of looters, or simply had NOWHERE to go to. What a dick.

[Borgnine]

64. He needs to eat our shit.

Let me channel Mike Malloy and say HAVE I MENTIONED HOW MUCH I HATE THESE PEOPLE?

[mermaid]

65. Victims Bear Some Responsibility Because They "Wouldn't" Leave??

How about SOME OF THEM COULDN'T LEAVE, Baghdad Brown??

What did you want them poor folk to do...grow wings and FLY out of N.O.?? It's not like they had CARS or GAS to get the hell out!!

[iamjoy]

83. Some Had Other Reasons

No money for hotel, shelter wouldn't take pets. Frustrated Lefty's (a DUer) wife was in the hospital, he wouldn't leave her.


What about hospital workers, police, fire, etc. Some of them had to stay and some of their families wouldn't leave them, they wanted to stick together. This party claims to be all about family values should understand that a woman wouldn't leave her husband, a daughter abandon her father, etc.

There are dozens of reasons that seemed like good ones on Sunday for staying put, even if you had a car.

Something like this I'd expect some fuck-tard like Rush Limbaugh to say, not a government official.

[lumberjack_jeff]

66. "What more can we do?" How about sending some fucking buses. n/t

[me b zola]

69. Tar & feather that bastard!!!!!!!!!!!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:


FUGWB!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And fuck every minion you have working for you!!!! :grr: :grr:

[neuvocat]

71. Geez, the fingerpointing has already started.

[enigmatic]

72. He's finished

This is disgusting; drop him in what's left od NOLA and have him fend for himself.

[Telly Savalas]

74. This is the fucking Bush Administration. Nobody gets fired.

They'll give the fucking asshole a medal.

[Maiden England]

73. Why, did some of them vote for Bush?

:grr:

[ktowntennesseedem]

75. This is so typical, at least among RWers I know.

All those who stayed behind and ignored warnings are either stupid or lazy or both. Oh, sure, they see all the poor people, but the RWers all assume that their poverty is caused by laziness or stupidity. So when you argue that because so many of the poor had no transportation available to get out, or they had no TV or radio to hear the warnings, or they are young or elderly or sick or physically impared and couldn't travel, it doesn't matter. You'd hear them argue, "If those poor people weren't so lazy, they'd all have jobs and make good money like me, and they could afford an SUV big enough to carry them and their belongings anywhere. And if they weren't so stupid, they would have heeded the warnings and figured out some way to get out." I've not heard anyone speak of this catastrophy in those terms (at least not until this bozo!), but I have heard similar thoughts expressed and am convinced that at least some feel exactly that way deep down inside.

They make me sick anyway, but tragedies like this really brings out the worst in them. Compassionate conservatism my ass!!!

[Pallas180]

77. Wondering how Brown comes to bush- here's his bio

Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response
Michael D. Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush as the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security in January 2003. As the head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Under Secretary Brown leads federal disaster response and recovery operations and coordinates disaster activities with more than two dozen federal agencies and departments and the American Red Cross. He also oversees the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration, and initiates proactive mitigation activities.

Additionally, Under Secretary Brown helps the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the effectiveness of emergency responders, and directs the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Integration Center, the National Disaster Medical System and the Nuclear Incident Response Team.

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.

Previously, Mr. Brown served as FEMA's Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel. Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Mr. Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks. Later, the President asked him to head the Consequence Management Working Group to identify and resolve key issues regarding the federal response plan. In August 2002, President Bush appointed him to the Transition Planning Office for the new Department of Homeland Security, serving as the transition leader for the EP&R Division.

Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Brown practiced law in Colorado and Oklahoma, where he served as a bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility for the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a hearing examiner for the Colorado Supreme Court. He had been appointed as a special prosecutor in police disciplinary matters. While attending law school he was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman.

Mr. Brown was also an adjunct professor of law for the Oklahoma City University.

A native of Oklahoma, Mr. Brown holds a bachelor's degree in Public Administration/Political Science from Central State University, Oklahoma. He received his J.D. from Oklahoma City University’s School of Law.

» Speeches by Under Secretary Michael D. Brown

Last Updated: Wednesday, 22-Jun-2005 11:25:20 EDT

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[PurgedVoter]

102. bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility?

Did I read that right?

[riverwalker]

78. all my emails to FEMA returned

"undeliverable"

[lebkuchen]

89. E-mail your senators and demand a regime change

[Pallas180]

108. Ttime to demand all reps, repug & demo, impeach the bastids? look

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/tips /

[e-mail]


WHITE HOUSE NUMBER 202 456 1414

Capitol Hill Switchboard: TOLL FREE 1-800-839-5276

CAPITOL HILL SWITCHBOARD - (202) 224 -3121 or [phone]


DEMAND THEY DROP MRE'S & WATER TO THE PEOPLE AT THE CONVENTION CENTER

[Donailin]

79. THEY ARE POOR! WERE THEY SUPPOSED TO WALK TO THE ASTRODOME???

OMG. I've run out of gaskets to blow.

[Amich]

81. my question was if it way manditory for people to leave,

why didn't the state start busing people out before the hurricane? the government knows that not everyone doesn't have cars,money or some place else to stay.red cross could have put up a shelter in texas or someplace else before this bs and averted alot of this disaster.

[krkaufman]

91. Good question. Especially given that photo I saw recently...

... of tens of school buses flooded up to their roofs. Why weren't these buses used to bus people out of NOLA? Why weren't the buses protected from the hurricane -- and probable flooding -- as critical assets?

[EC]

82. I'm tired of this whole administration

acting like children and shrugging off blame to the victims. HE should have had buses and vans down there on Sat. and Sun. to get them out, what did he think would happen?


This administration has been myopic about everything...it's past time to get them out...ride them on a rail...tar and feathers come to mind too...

[krkaufman]

84. Ummm... didn't anybody catch this excerpt from the story... CHOICE!

From the article... (seriously, this guy said this...)

Asked later on CNN how he could blame the victims, many of whom could not flee the storm because they had no transportation or were too frail to evacuate on their own, Brown said he was not blaming anyone.

"Now is not the time to be blaming," Brown said. "Now is the time to recognize that whether they chose to evacuate or chose not to evacuate, we have to help them."

Apparently, this dear fellow doesn't seem to understand the concept of "choice." The CNN anchor had just told him that these people had NO CHOICE; they had NO VIABLE OPTIONS for getting out of the path of a Cat-5 hurricane bearing down on them -- and they were given no aid by their government -- yet this souless ghoul persists in saying that remaining in their homes was a choice!

So, lacking transportation and the ability to perambulate their way out of the disaster zone before the arrival of Katrina, staying was a "choice" -- rather than the only option for possible survival. I suppose they could have just started marching, taking their chances, hoping to make it to some shelter or sanctuary before the hurricane hit.

[DollyM]

93. Evacuating was not as cut and dried as he would think . . .

My 25 year old nephew and his girlfriend packed up what they could in one car and left Saturday. They went first to Mississipi, hoping they could be close enough to get back to "their stuff" but had to keep moving farther north. After going through Tennessee with no power they decided to just keep driving until they ended up back in Illinois, where they are both originally from and they have a place to stay with family. They were able to leave but they also considered that if they left, there would probably not be anything left to come home to, no house, no possessions, no jobs. It was not an easy decision. This isn't like a fire in your house when you can grab your slippers and kids and head out the door and find another house in the same neighborhood or rebuild on the same spot. They had to walk away from the home where they have lived for the last five years, the city that they loved, their friends and so forth. How many of us could do that so easily? Just saying "you need to evacuate" doesn't even capture the turmoil that these people had to go through to pack up and leave. They are alive but they have lost everything they have worked so hard to achieve over the last few years. The decision to leave was not as cut and dried as Mr. Brown would like to make it. Perhaps if the people in N.O. knew that the levees had not been given proper attention and were very unstable, they would have realized they were done for if they didn't leave. But, they trusted that our government would have seen to have protected them in case of a worst case scenarios such as this. The people who could have left and didn't, were guilty of nothing more than trusting that our government had taken care of their safety in advance.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

86. Hey, Steve...are you keeping an eye on the eastern Atlantic?

[steve2470]

95. um no why ? lol nt

[steve2470]

96. eastern atlantic satellite

[stevietheman]

92. I noticed he modified his language for Nightline.

He basically said for whatever reason, people didn't or _couldn't_ evacuate. Isn't the "couldn't" new?

He was grilled quite a bit by Ted Koppel, esp. about why transportation wasn't provided in advance to evacuate everyone.

[newswolf56]

94. FEMA's blame-the-victim stance is merely a logical expression of the...

Bush doctrine that people are poor by their own choice: only because they are lazy or stupid or both. It is another wholly predictable illustration of the murderously savage ideology that motivates not only Bush but the capitalist oligarchy he serves and the Christofascist stormtroopers for whom he is der Fuhrer.

[young_at_heart]

97. Is he another of our Compassionate Conservatives?

One can only marvel at such major insensitivity!

[Melodybe]

100. Let me be the 100th person to say fuck that mother fucker

[hiaasenrocks]

104. This shitweasel was on Nightline tonight and...

thankfully Ted Koppel tore into him on a number of his answers.

[Dem2theMax]

105. Here is the phone number that is listed next to the jerks name on FEMA's

web site.

Brown, Michael D. Under Secretary US [phone]

If you happen to make a call, let us know, won't you?

[Pallas180]

106. Paula ZAhn called him on blaming victims..he backed up -

"I didn;t say that" but this isnt a time for blame

[NuttyFluffers]

110. To the Hague with him!

i'm tired of this shit. let the war crimes tribunals sort 'em out, then let god sort 'em out after that.

when in doubt about a conservative, send 'em to the Hague for war crimes. good rule of thumb.

[Fortunato]

113. Everyone just take a deep breath

I might fault the guy for discussing this so close to the event in question and while people are still dying. But I'd knock off with the hate speech -- it's not much better than what this forum is accusing this guy of.

The truth is that the government took the threat far too lightly and really wasn't concerned with Louisiana's problems.

The truth is that New Orleans was never "safe."

The truth is that government is only partly to blame.

The truth is that some people chose to live there, while others lived there because their roots were there -- just as any other city in the United States.

The truth is that some people evacuated the city when asked.

The truth is that some did not, some of them because they didn't believe the danger existed and some because they simply couldn't get out of the city in time due to congestion or lack of resources (i.e., the poor, etc.)

The truth is that, if more resources were dumped into this by private corporations (the mayor, for example, suggested sending fleets of public buses down there to get people to medical facilities), things could be resolved more quickly.

The truth is that people are still dying, and none of the energy spent by the media and public commenting on New Orleans and who might or might not be to blame is NOT worth as much as spending it on helping them in some way.

Let the other crap sort itself out after we've responded to the human suffering at hand.

[The White Tree]

114. It seems to me irresponsible to make the statement he made

How many of the able-bodied people in NO who didn't leave will be accounted among the dead versus the ones who could not leave?

How many who could not leave for whatever reason are now being helped to survive in some small way by those "able-bodied" people who didn't leave, many of them likely friends or relatives who could not abandon loved ones?

To discount them as responsible for their circumstances in trying to survive this devastating storm seems truly lacking in perspective and empathy.

[DirtyDawg]

115. Just when I thought...

...I couldn't hate these bastards any more than I already did, this shit ass comes along. Saw the prick - and I'm sorry for all the vile language, but since it's against the law to shoot 'em, I'll have to settle for cussin' 'em - in his earlier interview - before it was suggested to him that a lot of these folks didn't 'choose' to stay, they indeed had no choice - and wanted to reach through the TV, tear his head off and shit in his neck.

Hey geedubya, this is the kind of vermin and ineptitude you get when you populate essential government agencies with political appointees who's only experience is that they raised a lot of money for your campaign. And, of course, Brown's predecessor has long since made his way to Iraq cashing in on all the money to be made over there. Whataya bet that there's already some enterprising repig appointees that are calculating how they can make a buck out of the disaster that is Katrina's rape of the Gulf Coast. In fact, I'll give odds that even Hastert will come around as soon as someone suggests that Halliburton and Bechtel are the only companies large enough, and experienced enough to handle the rebuilding in the area - without bidding, of course. Privatization of the Army Corps of Engineers is the only logical response from the greedy bastards that populate bushco.

This is precisely what conservative republicans want...a Federal government that's only equipped to wage war and issue contracts (I started to say administer, but clearly the only administering they do is write checks). They decided to fundamentally change the role and capability of FEMA and forgot to tell the rest of us - including the states and local officials that were counting on them.

Did I say how I hate these slime balls?

[DirtyDawg]

118. And furthermore...

...I wonder what would have happened if all these folks had tried to hitch-hike their way out of NO last weekend? How many would have been given rides to where-ever?

[Talismom]

119. I wanna see this guy indicted and imprisoned ASAP! So pissed! n/t

[sescob]

121. I think I'm going to throw up!

This is someone high up with FEMA??? He doesn't 'want to judge why they didn't leave' but yet, he blames them for this disaster?

Where exactly do you go when you have no car and no funds to rent a car, buy a bus ticket or an airline ticket to get the hell out of town?? Or perhaps it's also their fault because they were old and sick and couldn't move?

This sickens me.