Boy, the Katrina hearings make clear why the feds couldn't act...

[FormerRepublican]

What a bunch of well paid chickens running around with their heads cut off. I'm actually a big supporter of the military, but these two whacks currently talking on CSPAN are pretty lame. It's also clear that there is a cultural difference between FEMA and DHS, which is what Brownie was talking about. The scapegoating of Browning is obviously still ongoing...

THIS is who we're trusting to keep Americans safe in a terrorist attack or disaster? THIS is what we spent billions upon billions of dollars on?

I'm not defending Brownie, but what the HECK did they think would happen if they put someone incompetent in a situation he wasn't capable of handling?

[JeffR]

1. Same thing that happened when SCOTUS put

Preznit Pud in the Oval Office.

[LisaM]

2. But then why did he take the job? They're all culpable

I don't think we should let incompetent people off the hook for taking jobs they're unqualified for. I wouldn't, for example, take a job driving a semi truck because I know there's no way in hell I could do it and it would seriously put a lot of other people on the road at risk. I would blame the truck company for hiring me, and take blame myself for accepting a job I couldn't do.

[Coastie for Truth]

4. I could turn Brownie into a competent FEMA Director

1. Eight weeks at Coast Guard Boot Camp in Cape May NJ - running around the grinder at "double time route step" with an M1 over his head - about 4 hours a day.

2. Twenty weeks at Coast Guard Leadership (Officer Candidate) School next to the Academy.

3. Six months at "Saint Florian's College" (the slang term for most cities' Fire Academies) followed by six months as a Probie - with release time to work in the local trauma center.

4. Three semesters to try to get a Master of Public Administration in Disaster Service Management at San Jose State (program run by San Jose's former Deputy Fire Chief and Director of Emergency Services).

Bein a horse show guru don't mean crap. Try pulling corpses out of the water.

[wtmusic]

3. No one wanted DHS, including the FBI and CIA

It was window dressing and a big pain in the ass. Nothing that the other departments couldn't handle more effectively on their own.

[donkeyotay]

5. The boy king was against DHS until he realized it was the best cash cow

ever. They have no interest in anything until they realize how they can profit. That loud sucking sound you hear is our nation's wealth being vacuumed up by bush's cronies. I have no confidence that they can/will "keep us safe." And, as the LA terra revelations show, whether you believe Pretzel Boy or not, it is indisputable that he has a credibility problem. I don't believe anything he says. I assume that all his corrupt cronies are selling me out. If this were a parliamentary govt., we'd be calling for a vote of no confidence. No confidence. None. Credibility washed out with the storm surge.

[Igel]

6. The more evidence that comes out,

the harder it is to produce any sort of principled defense of anybody involved in disaster mitigation, management, or relief.

The only folks that managed to not get it wrong, sometimes horribly wrong, were those with very narrow, circumscribed and specific goals. Want to get x bottles of water to location y--and that's all you're responsible for--ok. Need to get person x to pumping station y, and that's all--ok.

Anything larger or more complicated gets into decisions (sometimes easy, sometimes hard) or turf battles ... bleah. A pox on all their houses.