1000 Firefighters Not Deployed! Some told 2 STAND BESIDE BUSH On His Tour!

[theearthisround]

http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1010

As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

.....
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.

(more)
http://www.informationliberation.com/index.php?id=1010

[CatWoman]

1. oh, no!!!

oh hell no!!!

HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!

[BlueJac]

2. Sorry shit

[sakabatou]

3. WHAT. THE. FUCK?!

[ananda]

4. They actually agreed to this?

Whatever happened to the concept of mutiny, rebellion, I won't take no for an answer?

Sue

[Lars39]

12. I don't get it either.

[babylonsister]

5. I hope senators and state reps get this info;

I'm seething at the ineptitude!

[katinmn]

6. They should refuse the refuse.

[Liberty Belle]

7. Firefighters from El Cajon, Calif. were kept out by FEMA for a week!

I'm a journalist. I interviewed the PR person today. This is a professional search and rescue team led by a Captain who helped with search and rescue during 9/11, with a canine crew. They had "several tons" of medical supplies and rescue gear, plus boats that could have saved people. But they were forced by FEMA to cool their heels in a Texas hotel for nearly a week -- over safety concerns, supposedly. Today is the first day they've been allowed into New Orleans.

[theearthisround]

10. Wow, thats shocking....

:wtf:

[seaglass]

8. My husband is there. FEMA did ask the 2 man teams to do

community relations.

http://www.iafc.org/news/katrina.html

I'm not saying there isn't a reason for frustration because I know there is but I also know my husband went down there with the intention of helping in any way he could.

[phusion]

9. Community Relations?!?!

THESE FUCKING ASSHOLES!

And there was no fucking safety issue - three kids from Duke made it to the fucking convention center in a Honda Fucking Civic!@#@#

AGGGGGGHHHHH

[Lars39]

11. Are these people incapable of critical thinking?

Where the hell is their gumption? Absolutely shameful. :nuke:

[Roland99]

13. Here's the source link for that:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3004197
Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA

[donco6]

14. What good does a phone number do?

If the people who could actually DO something are put to work doing something completely different? It makes no sense.

[girl gone mad]

16. I heard about this last night...

but I didn't believe it.

Something about FEMA handing out fliers with phone numbers to people who were waiting in line for food and water, and when people called the phone number they were asked to provide an address that FEMA could ship supplies to.

Insane.

[donco6]

20. I reminds me of that South Park episode - Starvin' Marvin.

Where the missionaries are in the village with starving Africans - where they're handing out Bibles and people are trying to eat them.

[Cooley Hurd]

15. Why am I not shocked?

My one, supreme hope is that all of these stories make their way onto the MSM nightly news. Sure, I'm delusional, but a guy can HOPE, can't he?:grr:

Bush is a fucking fucktard-fuckwad!:grr::grr:

[dcfirefighter]

17. I turned down the opportunity to do the same

I know quite a few firefighters that would go, in a heartbeat, as long as it was doing something more than handing out fliers.

A few of us think that FEMA is trying to take advantage of our desire to help, and the public appeal of firefighters in general.

[theearthisround]

21. True, unfortunatly FEMA turns away most of the help, its bizarre...

[progressivebydesign]

18. I'm kicking this. It's outrageous! n/t

[highplainsdem]

19. kick

[nicknameless]

22. Damn. I saw a photo like that but now I can't find it.

Bush walking with a group of very unhappy looking firefighters.

Kicked and recommended