Mood: Unsurprised?
Music: Cities in Dust, Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Game: World of Warcraft, Planetside, Auto Assault Beta, Dungeon Siege II.
Book: The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand.
Muffin: Blackberry-Raspberry.
Michael D. Brown resigned as the head of FEMA yesterday.
Ask me if I'm surprised. Traditionally, when someone in government fucks up as badly as he did, they resign shortly afterwards. Of course, in this case, the fuck up might be considered criminally negligent, and in that case, he needs to be arrested. Of course, our completely out of touch president had his arm around him last week saying "You're doing a Hell of a job, Brownie." Yeah...if Hell of a job means that the entire scenario reminds you of Hell.
Brown says he's resigning because he wants to "avoid distracting the agency at a time when it faces a major challenge." These are the words of someone who knows he's not qualified to do the job. The words of someone who IS qualified to do the job are "We did the very best we could given the circumstances, and we're going to continue to get better as we move on. Let's focus on getting these people and this city the help it needs. If you feel the need, feel free to rape and second guess me as you will anyway."
He wasn't qualified. Not even for a moment. He knew it. So did everyone else. If it weren't so, can someone please tell me why, after he was pulled from the area, they immediately had a Coast Guard senior officer lined up for the task...a task that CG Officer had performed many, many times before? Can someone tell me why he wasn't doing it in the first place?
Then, after Brown resigns, they manage to find a former Chief of Fire Rescue for Miami-Dade, who'd spent his entire career in rescue operations before joining the government in 2001 as head of the US Fire Administration. Hm...guy who has no emergency experience at all, and he's head of FEMA when we have guys with 30-40 years experience in emergency rescue and operations in the government. Is it time to ask why the hell this guy was in the job in the first place?
No. Because truthfully, it'll never get asked or answered by this administration.
This administration never addresses criticism directly. Never responds to point blank questions...instead it brings up irrelevant issues, throws mud, discredits the questioner, or calls the act of demanding answers "unpatriotic."
It's like they KNOW they're wrong, and instead of answering honest questions with rational answers, they need to obfuscate in order to avoid answering. But that couldn't be, could it? I mean, why would the government work CONTRARY to the public good? Didn't we elect these fools?
Well, no...I didn't. And I suspect that many of you didn't either. But for those of you who keep saying things like "How could the president have expected a hurricane of this magnitude?!" As if somehow, the criticism blames anyone for the hurricane. The criticism blames the administration for inadequate preparation, and a thoroughly inadequate response to a crisis. The answer to that is always "Well, if those Democrats...." As if politics play a role in rescuing people.
FEMA is claiming they didn't have permission from the governor to go in. It's the freaking United States. You don't need permission to rescue people. We never needed permission to go into Iraq to kill people, why the hell are we stopping in Louisiana?
I don't understand people sometimes. I just don't.
Quick Addendum:
Posted by Glenn at September 13, 2005 10:00 AM