1st FEMA; then maybe the DOE or how about the ATF?

A day of two ago I wrote about they "bipartisian" senate panel to scrap FEMA. I then wondered if the Department of Education might be next. Well maybe the reticle is on to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (and explosives) - the ATF. (pun intended)

The image on the left is a T-shirt from Those Shirts, a right wing T-shirt maker. While the website has a "disclaimer" of humor, it is a window on how conservatives and neo-cons, the Republicans think.

So would scrapping the ATF be far fetched? Once we thought ending FEMA to be a far fetched idea too.

So make a list, what programs, agencies, etc. do the Repblicans hate? What might be on their hit list? They've had 5 years to undercut, make impotent, "bureaucritize," these agencies and programs. Five years in the oven, maybe it's ready to show the end result. Maybe it's time to yet again feast on the bread of social neglect the Republicans are so good at cooking up.

There is another T-shirt about journalists. Considering how hostile many of them complain the enivorment is now, do you think they are laughing?

FEMA, the first to GO

The neo-cons, the face and blood of the new Republican party, had a plan. Take good, functioning programs and departments, in some case "jewels in USA's crown" and mire them in red tape, lack of funding, incompotent cronyism, political hackery, bureaucracy. Then have it falter under either the added weight of this new load, or so unworkable as to frustrate and cause abandoment of it, add in a trillon dollar debt so that there is additional pressure and voila! departments/programs will be abolished.

The first for this recommendation is FEMA "Senate Panel Recommends Abolishing FEMA"

Describing FEMA as a "shambles and beyond repair," Collins said the overall report "will help ensure that we do not have a repeat of the failures following Hurricane Katrina."

Well it wasn't before the Republicans took over... it worked well and was a jewel we proudly pointed to.

It [panel] proposes creating a new agency, called the National Preparedness and Response Authority, that would plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters. Unlike now, the authority would have a direct line of communication with the president during major crises, and any dramatic cuts to its budget or staffing levels would have to be approved by Congress.

It would also oversee efforts to protect critical infrastructure such as buildings, roads and power systems, as well as Homeland Security's medical officer. But the inquiry calls for keeping the agency within Homeland Security, warning that making it an independent office would cut it off from resources the larger department could provide.

But didn't FEMA have that during Clinton? Didn't FEMA WORK under Clinton? Wouldn't FEMA and the US taxpayer be better served if it were once again a separate stand alone agency, with compotent people at the helm.

What will be next on the chopping block? The Republican long despised Department of Education?

I seriously had one Republican lawyer tell me that his group does not believe the government should nor has an obligation to educate it's citizenry.

It Worked, So They Fixed it

"We are so much less than what we were in 2000," said an unnamed "senior FEMA official" in a Sept. 1 Washington Post article. Another FEMA veteran said, "It's such an irony I hate to say it, but we have less capability today than we did on Sept. 11."

http://www.altweeklies.com/gyrobase/AltWeeklies/Story?oid=oid%3A150167

Yes, it's the common answer to departments and agencies that actually work in government. "Fix" it.

On Sept. 5, the Los Angeles Times carried these remarks from Morrie Goodman, a Clinton-era FEMA official. "They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers. These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing."

Yeah, like people who've only run equestrian organizations. Why would you hand something as important as managing an emergency, saving lives, dealing with comincation problems, and an exteremely fuild situation of a disaster to someone who actually knows what they are doing, has actual experience?? It's not like there's anything important at stake; like lives, property, security and international reputation.

But there is support out there for Brown and recognition that he was, in some way, doing "a heck of a job." Just read this quote from former Miami-Dade emergency management chief, Kate Hale:

“He’s done a hell of a job, because I’m not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm,” *

Wow! You know she's right. To this date I have not heard of any Arabian horses being killed in Hurricane Katrina. So maybe he has done a bang up job in one area.

But remembering Brown's problems last year and his seeming "out of touch" responses in the first few days of the disaster there might be something more at work here. He might have some here-to-fore unknown learning disability like dyslexia. Or his seeming confusion and "out of touch" responses about the help the gulf region and NOLA was and was NOT getting may all be due to the need of a geography lesson.

Last year FEMA paid out $31 million in aid to Miami-Dade County after Hurricane Frances. However, Hurricane Frances hit 100 miles north of the county. Miami-Dade County itself never had hurricane force winds ( sustainable winds for a category 1 hurricane begin at 74 mph http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml )

Maybe we should cut Brownie a break. He may know the difference between the front and the back end of a horse, but may need some assistance to do his current job at FEMA. And to do that well all he may really need is a map, a globe, or a geography class at the local community college!

Maybe then when the next disaster happens he'll be able to figure where the people who need assistance are and where to drop the water and the MREs.

* from http://www.denverpostbloghouse.com/washington/?p=149

My thanks to Alas (I'm putting these links here so I can find them quickly on my own blog)
www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/

http://constructiveinterference.blogspot.com/~/local-failure-caused-by-fema.html

Analogy Lesson

In some of my wilder moments, I have let the thought cross my mind that the ineffectiveness of DHS and FEMA was/is part of wider plot by Republicans/conservatives to make government responsiveness so ineffectual that the general public would clamour for offices/departments to be shut. I mean it was no surprise to me to hear that conservative youth taking part in the government leadership training programs believe that it is part of their mission to shut down the Department of Education. I heard this from conservatives some 10 years ago.

So it was interesting to come across this cartoon in Slate
http://cartoonbox.slate.com/nickanderson/2005/09/08/

If true, here is a possible analogy question:
Brown is to FEMA, as Watts was to __________

(answer: EPA)

Katrina, NOLA Timeline... FEMA KNEW. This is not the "blame game," this is ACCOUNTABILITY.

Today NPR's "All Things Considered" had basically what could be considered the Katrina Timeline. It shows that the local, state and federal government, including FEMA were all communicating as early as Thursday, August 25 about Hurricane Katrina.

On Friday Joe Suhayda, a scientist formerly of LSU, sat and watched the models he created and warned about, come true. Walter Mastrie, who has long been involved in hurricane preparedness, starting sending the alarm and warnings that non-alarmist, Max Mayfield, of the National Hurricane Center, gave him.

Through meetings FEMA was involved every step of the way. They can't claim other wise. This isn't finger pointing, this is accountability. This isn't myth and partisan head hunting, this is the truth. And really because of the spin and the cover-up this administration is trying to foster, it cannot be trusted to investigate itself. We need an independent commission.

Please listen, especially if you have doubts. To borrow a phrase; "If you aren't outraged, you aren't listening."

Katrina Timeline: Unexecuted Plans
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4839666

Katrina Timeline: Misdirected Aid
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4839669

Background on Joe Suhayda and Walter Mastrie:
Hurricane Risk for New OrleansSeptember 2002
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wetlands/hurricane1.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_neworleans.html
http://www.davidgalbraith.org/archives/000929.html

Bravo:
I tip my hat to State Senator Walter J. Boasso (R) for leadership by example (watch "Politics Aside" on ABC Nightline http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/)
http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Boasso/

Surreal account of refugee/detainee housing

Thanks to Alas http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/09/08/they-are-detainees-not-refugees/ where I saw this story first.

I'm not Christian and I applaud what the Southern Baptist Association of Oklahoma has offered and given. I'm appalled at FEMA continuing to mess things up (which I think they are here).

If even "W's" core constituents are taking a jaundice eye of how people were treated and are treated as they try and recover, how volunteers and donations are welcomed and treated ... remember Geraldo at the Superdome crying on Fox News saying "Let them walk out of here! . . . well then, one can only speculate.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/fema.html

Hopefully now that Brown is out of the way things will go better. But how do you get back to normal life or even rebuild if you are kept in domatories and are unable to come back if you leave to find places to live, jobs or find relatives, what if one day's search is fruitless. For the sounds of it, these people are being stuck in the middle of no where, and in sounds more like a prison.