Arabian Horseshit

The political Kabuki theatre festival continued its run today with a stirring work starring former FEMA head Michael Brown as the Bush administration’s sacrificial lamb and scapegoat...

The Republicans, who have resisted an independent commission to examine the cluster fuck that was FEMA’s response to hurricane Katrina, began their “in house” investigation this morning.

I didn’t see the entire performance, but what I did catch was extremely entertaining, and, to some small degree, satisfying, considering I couldn’t be there live and in person to kick Brownie square in the ass.

If today’s theatrics didn’t convince congress to appoint an independent commission ala the 911 commission (which the white house initially resisted) to sort out what happened, who should be held accountable, and what needs to be done to improve the government’s disaster response to everything from storms to terrorist attacks, I don’t know what will. By the way, this needs to happen BEFORE we can “move forward.”

Since we learned yesterday that Michael Brown has been re-hired by FEMA as a consultant to help the government assess what went wrong, (truth being stranger than fiction), he was at least paid to be burned at the stake – the only thing missing was the long fork with the marshmallows. In his defense, Brownie blamed the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisiana, the White House, and the media, but stopped short of blaming Barbara Streisand. Don’t get me wrong, there is blame enough here to go all the way up, down, and around, but I think ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY and not being a sarcastic, arrogant asshole would have served Brownie much better.

One of the central problems here seems surrealistically simple – in a word – CRONYISM. One major thing Bush and his good friend Brown have in common, aside from criminal incompetence, is the volatile mixture of arrogance and ignorance I personally find so irritatingly insulting. A friend of mine pointed out to me today that there is ONE good thing that can be said about Bush - he takes very good care of his friends.

Adding further insult to injury is Bushie, back in the gulf region for the for the 7th time to date, ensuring he is filmed and photographed constantly in case anything even weakly resembling the “bullhorn moment” of 911, which has been the cornerstone of his presidency, should arise. Maybe he’s looking to work for FEMA when his term ends – he’s got some great credentials – after all, he IS a walking disaster.

Meanwhile, as President Chia Pet surveys the latest destruction and tries to convince us that he understands what’s going on, that he feels the pain of the victims, and that he’s learned the lessons of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, places like Beaumont TX, Kirbyville TX, Port Arthur TX, and Lake Charles, LA, (which are still in need of such things as CLEAN DRINKING WATER), are asking why Federal help is taking so long.

I guess the bottom line here is that the American people, most especially the ones who have found themselves in the eye of the shit storm that is this administration’s disaster response, deserve better, don’t you think?

Eagle1

With Respect for All

For the Lost
by L.F. Gerace

Why was I so lucky
allowed to remain
my life spared
unbroken

Helplessly watching
their desperate finality
burning, collapse,
devastation

Grieving for the ones
left behind to wonder
why the most painful questions
have no real answers here

Struggling to overcome the sorrow
indelible, inescapable, relentless
while trying to be present
in every moment
of every day

Living in a world
in such need of humanity
makes me wonder today
if hate might not be stronger than love

But live your life
and revel in the good…
the lost would not want it to end this way
_______________________________________________

I wrote this a few months after 911.
Sometimes it seems like there is no reprieve.

Is This Thing On?

"Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."

Michael Chertoff
Secretary of Homeland Security - (Saturday 9/3/05 newsbriefing)


"Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."

Aaron Broussard
president, Jefferson Parish, LA


At a school in Mississippi, it was First Lady Laura Bush defending the government’s response to Katrina. "I think we’ve seen a lot of the same footage over and over that isn’t necessarily representative of what really happened in both—in a lot of ways,” she said. “Overall, it was a very good response.”



"I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on NPR's "All Things Considered," Sept. 1, 2005


"I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.”

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sept. 6, 2005


"Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.' Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, blaming media coverage for his failings, "Meet the Press," Sept. 4, 2005


"We just learned of the convention center – we being the federal government – today."

FEMA Director Michael Brown, to ABC's Ted Koppel, Sept. 1, 2005, to which Koppel responded " Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting on it for more than just today."


The Washington Post's Dana Milbank previews the challenges facing newly minted State Department official Karen Hughes. Regarding international coverage of the Administration's handling of the hurricane, Milbank says, Hughes asserted that the problem "was not a failed relief effort but a foreign press that did not appreciate the federal government's good work."


"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans."

FEMA Director Michael Brown, arguing that the victims bear some responsibility, CNN interview, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)


"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

President Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, while touring Hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, Sept. 2, 2005


"It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level....It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Aug. 31, 2005


"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them."

Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005

"A DESPERATE S.O.S." - DISGRACEFUL!!

"I know people want everything to happen yesterday." - Bush - Good Morning America

"I don't think anybody anticipated a breach of the levies." - Bush - Good Morning America

President Bush on Wednesday flew over New Orleans and parts of Mississippi's hurricane-blasted coastline in Air Force One. Turning to his aides, he said: It's totally wiped out. ... It's devastating, it's got to be doubly devastating on the ground.” - NBC, MSNBC and news services

It seems in the past 24 hours I've gone from numbing sadness to abject rage regarding the incomprehensible aftermath of that rabid bitch of nature - Katrina.

THINGS ARE SIMPLY OUT OF CONTORL

Some observations:

Thousands of desperate people are at the convention center in New Orleans without security, food, water, medical supplies, or even any information about what is happening -this is shameful! Babies, old people have literally died where they were sitting. The dead left in wheelchairs - wrapped in sheets and left on the ground. An MSNBC reporter on Keith Olberman's show (I believe his name was Tony Zambado) spoke about these people having no support being left to fend for themselves. He spoke about people looting to survive and feed their children - people who followed directions - law abiding citizens - who went to the convention center - did what they were told - and were forsaken. He said there were 82 busses sitting outside New Orleans because it was felt that it was unsafe for them to go in to start evacuating people.

Lawlessness, chaos, fires, shootings - bands of armed criminals in the streets of New Orleans - the evacuation of the superdome had to be halted because there was a report that a helicopter was shot at.

People dying in hospitals without electricity or medical supplies - people dying while waiting on hospital rooftops because evacuations that were supposed to take place were arbitrarily cancelled - people firing on the helicopters. People firing on and looting hospitals.

The mayor of New Orleans has put out a "desperate S.O.S." to try to enlist more help from the federal government.

People trapped in houses since the storm hit on Monday without food water electricity, etc.

People wading through filthy oil and chemical contaminated water up to their chests awaiting rescue days after the storm.

IS THIS AMERICA?

WHERE IS THE PLAN? WHERE IS THE LEADERSHIP?

This isn't like 911 - WE KNEW at least a category four hurricane, with the possible capacity to breach and/or over spill the levee was coming days in advance. Even if it wasn't this past Monday - even if it wasn't this year - WE KNEW IT WAS COMING, and have known for YEARS.

Why then does it seem that the federal government was so woefully unprepared?

How can we have ANY faith that the Government is prepared for a terrorist attack after seeing these shocking images?

Meanwhile, the President, the Head of FEMA, Louisianasianna Sen. Landreu (D), and the like, are thanking eachother for their valient humanitarian efforts, rattling off lists of how many gallons of water, how many ready to eat meals, etc. are being sent, patting themselves on the back, and telling us that they are doing all that can be done while we watch the panic and chaos live before our eyes. Even in the wake of this overwhelming catastrophe, the political bullshit brigade continues without disruption.

There is a definite parallel here with Iraq (actually several).... We have our intelligence insulted by Bush who unwaveringly advises that we are making progress in Iraq and that everything is going well - while we watch and read about an unstable Iraq in the grip of carnage and chaos. Once again - WHAT WE ARE BEING TOLD DOES NOT MATCH REALITY.

It's important to note that the people who deserve thanks are the ones on the ground slogging through the floodwaters saving lives and putting their own lives in jeopardy in service to others - police, military and civilians alike.

Other countries besides Germany who have offered help include Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Columbia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, United Arab Emerates, Singapore, and NATO. Nato has also offered financial aid - as well as disaster relief expertise.

The leaders and the fools are making themselves known in the wake of this immense disaster - just as they did after 911.

I look into the eyes of the crying traumatized children, and not only wonder what they make of their plight, but who will help them deal with the psychological aftermath?

Ted Koppel's Nightline interview with the head of FEMA, Michael Brown, pretty much summed it up -

Koppel took him to task for grossly underestimating the number of hurricane evacuees, not knowing about the desperate convention center situation until Thursday, why supplies were not being delivered, why we are dispatching national guard troops instead of seasoned military personnel, why help was taking so long, for focusing on what will be done instead of what is actually being done, being surprised by how many people were unable to evacuate New Orleans, why trucks, trailers, busses, etc., were not dispatched by the federal government before the storm to evacuate the city - - - among other things. (I have always been a fan of Koppel because he is a deadly serious journalist who doesn't pander to guests in fear that they may not appear on his show in the future.)

I am appalled and disgusted. My heart is breaking.

God help these people.