And what he has to say is no shock.
"I guess you want me to be the superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans."
In the Bush administration, apparently having minimal amounts of competence and experience is now akin to being a "superhero".
The medal is waiting...Bush was right..."Brownie" did do one heckuva job.
I read this crap so you don't have to. The article says, in short, that its all the fault of the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. That's not to say that Nagin and Blanco don't deserve some blame.
But, in disaster planning - ESPECIALLY POST 9/11, where all the media and the Preznit could talk about was catastrophic radiological, chemical, nuc-u-lar or other mass casualty attack - one likes to think that the federal government has a plan for when the localities, first responders, and local governments are completely overwhelmed - not just a little overwhelmed, but completely out of their league - the kind of situation where things ARE so catastrophic that the federal government needs to move in.
Instead, what we saw was the underbelly of American poverty, and a government that was completely unable to remove its citizens from the danger zone.
I don't fault FEMA for what happened on day one. In a sense, Brownie is right (despite his bs claims that FEMA was ready and standing by). The very concept of "first responders" implies local action.
However, the hurricane hit Monday AM early, and by the end of the day, we KNEW that the levee system was seriously compromised, and everybody KNOWS that (A) NOLA is below sea level and that (B) NOLA was prime target A for a flooding disaster because of its shape, levee system, elevation and pumping ability. So on Monday, we knew the levee was damaged and the city was badly flooding.
Lets assume for arguments sake that its all Blanco and Nagin's fault. What excuse did FEMA and the federal government have for taking a week before it would acknowledge that there was even a problem in New Orleans/Southern LA and southern MS?
Brown is being a good partisan. Notice how the blame for all of the disaster went to Blanco and Nagin, two Democrats, but not to the two Republican governors of MS and AL?
But Brown should also become the posterboy for what is wrong with the Republican party, who appoints the failed head of some arabian horse group to lead the country post 9/11 in disaster preparedness and response.
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