http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Katrina-Brown.html?hp

From what I've seen, I think this is a good decision. He didn't seem to have much solid experience in the emergency relief field, and his background has been put into question (which shouldn't happen at times like these.) More and more interviews with this guy brings up more questions than the answers he gives. A victim of the "blame game?" Maybe. But I think the role of directing and managing the country's major emergency agency is terribly important. And when a disaster hits the nation and a whole mess over unacceptable response delay over federal aid hits the public, Michael Brown doesn't seem quite up to the job. And plus, I don't think he can focus on the pressing matters when he is becoming more and more of the "scapegoat" as days go by.

If you disagree, *please* be civil.

He should be replaced by Walton Simons.

That was my exact thought when I read this thread title.

I can't believe how easy you're going on this guy!

Too bad this didn't happen sooner, that guy was a moron. Saying crap like "We didn't know people were in there" about New Orleans and such on reasons why the national guard and such wasn't in there sooner. He should be charged with murder as no doubt people died due to his inaction.

For the last few days I've been calling him "New Orleans Bob" after Baghdad Bob.

"You take another step forward, and here I am again, like your own reflection
repeated in a hall of mirrors."

Or Richard Simmons

He should be charged for murder because he didn't rescue some people? Jesus christ that's a fairly stupid statement.

Anyways, I didn't follow this that closely. In fact, I haven't followed the media on this situation at all except what I hear from NPR on the way to school in the morning.

I don't really know for sure what the deal is. I mean at best he could have had people ready to go, but cirsumstances didn't exactly allow for relief people to go into New Orleans right after the strom due to continuing rising waters after levees broke. I think that might have been the biggst problem, that efforts weren't being mobolized as the storm was approaching. I think this is more a move to quite some political heat than anything else. However, having emergency management experience should be a prereq for the job.

brian williams was on the daily show last night. he spoke to this guy on wednesday or thursday. he asked him why he didn't have helicopters in there yet? his response was, 'i can do that?'

nice.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]He should be charged for murder because he didn't rescue some people? Jesus christ that's a fairly stupid statement.[/QUOTE]

Jesus christ, that's a fairly stupid understanding of my statement. Where did I say it was about him personally saving anyone?

He should be charged for murder because he waited to send in aid almost a week afterwards on obviously bull**** reasons "we didn't know what to bring", "we didn't know they were there" (regarding the people who didn't leave) days after Katrina hit. Alot of people who could've been saved died because of his inaction of getting the aid out there. He denied the Red Cross access TWICE.

The coast guard was there immediately after Katrina hit because they weren't under his command. They went in their on their own choice and saved people because of it. While all the finger pointing has been at Bush for the lack of aid in New Orleans, it's the jackass Michael Brown's fault.

Hopefully the good thing that will come out of this is people will learn what the purpose of FEMA really is. Seems to me many people are just as confused as the previous poster about their true function.

It's not the government's responsibility to save you. But it sure is really ****ing nice that they do. Trust me, I understood your statement just fine.

I think it's hilarious how, not even a month after the incident, people are already pointing fingers. People who probably don't have anywhere near the amount of information they should have to be pointing fingers ANYWHERE.

He needs to go to jail. He was the stupidest, most incompetent retard to lead a rescue operation. I think the blood of the people he ignored for a week is on *his* hands. I still remember when he pulled that "people are in the convention center?" ****. What the **** was he doing? That had been on the news for days. I guess no one in FEMA thought it was a smart idea to watch the news. But then I guess that's what happens when you put a horse guy in charge of a disaster relief organization and stuff it with inept Bush's hand-picked men for loyalness...

edit:
Oops...

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

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

heh, I nearly punched a hole in my wall when Bush said that. I still don't get why we willingly elected a retard as president.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]It's not the government's responsibility to save you.[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree. In the case of New Orleans, it is exactly the government's responsibility to save you. That's part of what federal and state taxes are for.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]It's not the government's responsibility to save you.[/QUOTE]
Wolfy's right. It is. That's why people are angry over this. The feds did not respond quickly. Tell me, would you do nothing if you knew a catergory 5 hurricane was heading towards a large city with poor people who don't have the means to get out? Or would you have disaster relief on hand when the hurricane hit? Or even better, would you make sure those who couldn't evacuate could get out before the hurricane hit?

I disagree. It's not their responsibility to save every last person. If people die, they die, it's not because of government inaction. What I meant was in no way is the man responsible for deaths if he at least did what he could. You guys think it's easy to be saving people all day in a federal organization...you forget about beauracracy, federal restrictions, the fact that you're dealing with a disaster on a massive scale. I don't think it's the government's responsibility to save every last man, woman, and child, and if a few die because of inefficiency well...that's sad, but no one should have to get murder charges on them because of that.

Seriously.

And Ifrit, I hope you know you've just discredited ANY political view you ever have, at least for me, for quite a long time.

[QUOTE=Ifrit Zero]Wolfy's right. It is. That's why people are angry over this. The feds did not respond quickly. Tell me, would you do nothing if you knew a catergory 5 hurricane was heading towards a large city with poor people who don't have the means to get out? Or would you have disaster relief on hand when the hurricane hit? Or even better, would you make sure those who couldn't evacuate could get out before the hurricane hit?[/QUOTE]

You do realize that the feds were virtually the only ones being proactive in the New Orleans situation, don't you? Of course you don't. The Mayor and Governor involved failed to follow established plans, take the threat serious, and hindered the feds from action. Of course the truth doesn't matter so we will blame FEMA who was denied the permission they needed from the state.

The mayor and governor dragged *** and the FEMA director is incompetent. Government in general screwed up in this situation.

I heard somewhere that the percentage of US citizens that still thinks the federal/state government/FEMA did a good job in this whole mess, is beyond reason. Who cares about facts? It's probably the liberals.

You're not disagreeing with Bush, are you?

I have no idea if they did a good job or not. It's been a very short time since the disaster happened, and I'm waiting to figure out what EXACTLY happened.

Sorry but I'm not exactly sure what your question/point is. Mine is that I understand the feds had no jurisdiction until the state authorized them. The state delayed doing so while at the same time perpetuating criticism on the feds. An example of this would be all the coverage of the Superdome debacle where there was all this rampant criticism and outrage over the fact that no supplies were brought in. Criticism, of course, of the feds. Now we find out the state blocked the supplies because they didn't want to attract more people to the Superdome.

FEMA is a management agency. Not an "action" agency. Louisianna virtually fought the feds by delaying and outright denying them access. Was the federal response perfect? I doubt it but it seems clear to me that outrage should be directed at the governments that directly failed their citizens. The state and local governments. Hell, other towns in Missippi such as Biloxi were hit just as bad if not worse. You don't hear the same criticism with respect to their response. Why? Because the incompetance of Louisianna and New Orleans wasn't involve there.

[QUOTE=Ifrit Zero]Wolfy's right. It is. That's why people are angry over this. The feds did not respond quickly. Tell me, would you do nothing if you knew a catergory 5 hurricane was heading towards a large city with poor people who don't have the means to get out? Or would you have disaster relief on hand when the hurricane hit? Or even better, would you make sure those who couldn't evacuate could get out before the hurricane hit?[/QUOTE]

I bet you're one of those people who thinks the president has a button on his desk that says "Send refief to NO" on his desk next to his phone.

Do you actaully have any idea what it would take to mobilze such a massive refief effort? Do you understand that there was now way that the refief could even get to the people until after the storm passes and the water receded? Do you understand that or are you just making a lot of noise because other people are? I'm not saying that there were mistakes made or that things couldn't have been done better than they were, but such a massive relief effort can't just happen overnight. It takes time to get everything organized and set up so that the relief teams canactually do their job.

YES!

That dude was badass.

Oh, Deus Ex rocks and still is teh bestest.

Avenger, I don't think alot of people understand the facts or care to. The vocal anit-Bush bunch are going to spout the same nonsense no matter what. Was the federal response perfect? I don't know. Possibly since we only seem to hear of problems from one area, New Orleans, where we KNOW the local response was beyond incompetent bordering on corrupt. That doesn't matter to the ignorant, though.

All I hear is whining about how it's hard work for them to do their ****ing job. If you can't manage a emergancy or organize a relief effort, why the **** are you in charge of the FEMA?

What's more, by removing the FEMA director from this disaster, the administration is even admitting they appointed an incompetent. Mistakes may have be made when the federal response was run by such a screwup he's replaced halfway though the disaster? No ****, sherlock.

Well it's not like this kind of thing happens all the time to test your character...

I know. The fact that FEMA focues more on rebuilding type projects, not actauly relief, doesn't matter much to them either.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]What I meant was in no way is the man responsible for deaths if he at least did what he could.[/QUOTE]

I agree with that, then. If a person fulfills his/her responsibility to its fullest, then...well, that's all that they can really do, isn't it?

Avenger: Your and Wookie's incestous circlejerk is kinda funny. Just so you know. That, and a quick overview of fema.gov shows that it is intimately involved in relief efforts, particularly once the "Federal Response Plan" has been "invoked" or whatever, as it was in this case.

Wolfy: No. If you're an incompetent political crony trolling for a patronage job, you could choose to leave the important positions open for qualified people, instead of, say, lying on your resume to ensure your hire.

The mayor of New orleans tried to do everything within his power. Our governor how ever is a ****ing tool.

What he did (or did not do) doesn't fit the definition of 'murder', so he cannot be charged. Could he be charged with negligence, or something along those lines? Maybe.


[QUOTE=Ifrit Zero]heh, I nearly punched a hole in my wall when Bush said that. I still don't get why we willingly elected a retard as president.[/QUOTE]

It's not like we had much to choose from.

Avenger and I are not related so our circlejerk is far from incestuous. Can two people really form a circlejerk? Anyway, your thinking that FEMA is responsible for the problems in New Orleans is kinda funny too. At least to the extent that ignorance is funny.

Wow. You're serious?

I didn't say the former director did everything in his power.

Wow. I guess you're just good at not reading/understanding what people actually say. I said FEMA is more known for work to rebuild after a disaster, most of it being flooding. That doesn't mean that they don't do any emergency relief work, does it. So you can just stop putting words in my mouth right now.

All this emotion, so little real understanding of the facts.

I'd suggest you show us what exactly the facts are, oh great master. Since you're all-knowing, you know.