fema

Cantor: Missouri Can Suffer Unless We Cut Spending

An EF-5 tornado leaves most of Joplin, Missouri in rubble.

When all the news was turned to the flooding Mississippi, there was a big rumor going around the right wing media that the federal government wouldn't offer any aide. Of course that was a flat out lie and FEMA is still expanding the financial aide.

This week Joplin, Missouri was hit by the worst tornado in it's history. The entire town was basically flattened. So is our federal government ready to help there? Well not if Eric Cantor has his way:

The No. 2 House Republican said that if Congress doles out additional money to assist in the aftermath of natural disasters across the country, the spending may need to be offset.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said “if there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”

Finding ways to offset disaster relief funds could be a significant challenge for House Republicans and would put their promise to cut spending to a true test.

One Month Until Hurricane Season

And we don’t have anyone running FEMA yet. But don’t blame the President or Democrats for that:

A Louisiana senator is stalling Florida emergency management director Craig Fugate's nomination as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Fugate had sailed through his nomination hearing and Monday cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote. Republican Sen. David Vitter said, however, that he'd blocked Fugate because of concerns he has with FEMA.

"I have a hold on the FEMA nomination because I sent a list of hurricane recovery questions and projects to FEMA, many of which have not been adequately addressed," Vitter said in a statement. "I'm eager to get full responses and meet with the nominee immediately."

Perhaps if FEMA was allowed to have a boss, then they would have someone to answer the questions Vitter has. Of course that makes sense and we are talking about a hooker loving, airport screaming hero of the right here.

Fixing FEMA

There is so much damage control to be done from eight years of total incompetence running our country that we end up forgetting where all the broken pieces are. Well Barack Obama hasn’t forgotten and he is working to fix them. One big piece is FEMA:

The Federal Emergency Management Administration, a tragicomic disaster since Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 -- and even before then -- looks to be getting a facelift under the Obama administration, sources tell us.

First off, the likely plan is to break off the agency from the Department of Homeland Security, a move that would in itself help restore the pride FEMA folks felt when it was an independent agency.

Second, there's increasing talk that former director James Lee Witt, who took over the then-troubled agency at the start of the Clinton administration and left it eight years later with a much enhanced reputation for getting things done, is coming back in from retirement to run FEMA for maybe six months to a year and whip it into shape.

After Katrina we heard how there would be major restructuring of FEMA. Congress even said it should be totally rebuilt. Bush ignored it. President Ego once again thought he knew best. Of course FEMA hasn’t been really tested since Katrina, so a well thought out restructuring is the only way to help insure they are ready to respond. Breaking them off from Homeland Security is an excellent start and brining back James Lee Witt will help make it all possible.

Bush's Great FEMA

And it's too late to blame Brownie for it:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency manipulated scientific research to play down the danger posed by formaldehyde in trailers issued to hurricane victims, according to an investigation by congressional Democrats.

FEMA "ignored, hid and manipulated government research on the potential impact of long-term exposure to formaldehyde" on Katrina and Rita victims now living in FEMA trailers, said a letter written by Democrats on Monday.

Democrats on a House Science and Technology subcommittee wrote the letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. FEMA is part of the Homeland Security Department.

This is another case where the left would bring it up and the right would shoot it down as "conspiracy". Well it doesn't look so much like a conspiracy now.

Rudy's Got A New Ad

These are becoming ridiculous

Josh has a nice summary of the ad

Okay, we've got another Rudy ad out and it's reaching the point of true pathos as Rudy tries to extend his 9/11 brand to anything else that is actually relevant to voters' lives. In his latest attempt, which you can see below, Rudy explains how among the Republican candidate only he's brave enough and tough enough to come out for a national catastrophe fund ...

There is something else I noticed in this new ad. A possible subliminal message:

Lessons Not So Learned

Here is the White House's "Lessons Learned" from hurricane Katrina, with one key part:

The National Response Planâ€™s Mission Assignment process proved to be far too bureaucratic to support the response to a catastrophe. Melvin Holden, Mayor-President of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, noted that, â€œrequirements for paper work and form completions hindered immediate action and deployment of people and materials to assist in rescue and recovery efforts.â€4 Far too often, the process required numerous time consuming approval signatures and data processing steps prior to any action, delaying the response. As a result, many agencies took action under their own independent authorities while also responding to mission assignments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), creating further process confusion and potential duplication of efforts.

The same line of thought is now being applied to the Walter Reed scandal, as Bush said on March 30th:

The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures. The system failed you, and it failed our troops. And we're going to fix it.

With all these "bureaucratic" failures, you would think the White House, ran by a President who is part of the party of "smaller government" would remove all that fat that has proved so catastrophic to our nation. You sure as hell would think they would add another level of bureaucracy to something like the war on terror or Iraq. Or will they?

Bush Still Wants His Cronies

Is the President an idiot? That was the question that caused a bunch of heat when Joe Scarborough asked it a couple of months ago. Well consider Bush's latest signing statement and then do the math:

President Bush this week asserted that he has the executive authority to disobey a new law in which Congress has set minimum qualifications for future heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Congress passed the law last week as a response to FEMA's poor handling of Hurricane Katrina. The agency's slow response to flood victims exposed the fact that Michael Brown, Bush's choice to lead the agency, had been a politically connected hire with no prior experience in emergency management.

To shield FEMA from cronyism, Congress established new job qualifications for the agency's director in last week's homeland security bill. The law says the president must nominate a candidate who has ``a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management" and ``not less than five years of executive leadership."

Bush signed the homeland-security bill on Wednesday morning. Then, hours later, he issued a signing statement saying he could ignore the new restrictions. Bush maintains that under his interpretation of the Constitution, the FEMA provision interfered with his power to make personnel decisions.

So Bush wants to be able to hire another Michael Brown to head FEMA. A smart man would take Congress' advice and make sure that the person they hire is qualified for the job. Not in Bush's mind. I guess since he is not a smart man, then he must be an idiot.

The GOP Still Hates The People

Of course Bush would take his weekly radio address to try and prop up his image on Katrina:

Nearly one year after Hurricane Katrina created a humanitarian and political crisis, President George W. Bush said on Saturday the storm showed the government was unprepared to respond to a disaster of that magnitude and revealed "deep-seated poverty" in America.

Political fallout from the hurricane, which killed more than 1,000 people and displaced tens of thousands, was severe for Bush last year, sending his public opinion ratings to new lows amid widespread criticism the government's response had been too slow.

He returns next week to the scene of one of the worst natural disasters in American history to meet with local residents and officials to review progress in rebuilding New Orleans and communities along the Gulf Coast that were flooded and destroyed.

His trip to Louisiana and Mississippi comes as the election season heats up with Democrats trying to seize control of Congress from the president's Republican Party in November congressional elections.

"One year after the storms, the Gulf Coast continues down the long road to recovery. In Mississippi and Louisiana, we can see many encouraging signs of recovery and renewal, and many reminders that hard work still lies ahead," Bush said.

"We will stay until the job is done," he pledged in his weekly radio address from Maine, where he was visiting family.

So what has Bush and the Republican controlled congress done this year to address these problems Katrina "showed" us? Well let they tried to cut taxes for the wealthiest 1% of this nation again. They enacted the new Medicare program that ends up costing the poorest of our seniors more than it did before. They tried to ban gay marriage and flag burning.

FEMA Gag Order Gets Some Local Level Attention

While the media has been strongly focused on the Middle East, a bombshell was set off last week with Hurricane Katrina. I posted about FEMA not allowing citizens in their trailer parks access to reporters. The only way they can talk to reporters is if a FEMA official is with them (sounds like the old Saddam "minders"). This not only infringes on the first amendment of the victims, but also the first amendment protection our free press and the very fabric of our society.

Well the story is starting to get a little more notice and even has some law makers in an outrage:

Members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation said Monday that FEMA’s policy restricting media access to residents living in FEMA-managed trailer parks is absurd, outrageous and denies park residents their rights as American citizens.

“FEMA just strikes you as a bureaucracy that’s out of control,” said U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner. “You don’t lose your fundamental rights just because you’re living in temporary housing. It’s an outrageous pattern of behavior.”

Jindal was referring to a July 15 article in which The Advocate detailed an incident in a Federal Emergency Management Agency-operated trailer park in Morgan City where a reporter and photographer were ordered off of the site.

The two had been invited into a trailer occupied by resident Dekotha Devall and her family. But during the interview a security guard ordered the reporter and photographer to leave.

The security guard called the police after the reporter attempted to give Devall a business card, an act the guard said was forbidden

Katrina Victims Kept From The Press!

First they get victimized by the Government's inactions during Katrina. Now they get their Constitutional rights shredded by FEMA:

Residents of trailer parks set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house hurricane victims in Louisiana aren't allowed to talk to the press without an official escort, The (Baton Rouge) Advocate reported.

In one instance, a security guard ordered an Advocate reporter out of a trailer during an interview in Morgan City. Similar FEMA rules were enforced in Davant, in Plaquemines Parish.

FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Rodi wouldn't say whether the security guards' actions complied with FEMA policy, saying the matter was being reviewed. But she confirmed that FEMA does not allow the news media to speak alone to residents in their trailers.

"If a resident invites the media to the trailer, they have to be escorted by a FEMA representative who sits in on the interview," Rodi told the newspaper for its July 15 report. "That's just a policy."

This is absolutely ridiculous. These people have gone through hell time and time again and this is how our government treats them - like some communist nation! The Democrats in Congress need to put this out in the public more so and take action to stop this censorship. This shows the type of government we have when Republicans are in charge.

Bush's Failing Foreign Policy Highlighted In Today's WaPo

So how bad are things on the international front? The Washington Post gives us a great view:

From deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Somalia to mayhem in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and eroding relations with Russia, the White House suddenly sees crisis in every direction.

North Korea's long-range missile test Tuesday, although unsuccessful, was another reminder of the bleak foreign policy landscape that faces President Bush even outside of Iraq. Few foreign policy experts foresee the reclusive Stalinist state giving up the nuclear weapons it appears to have acquired, making it another in a long list of world problems that threaten to cloud the closing years of the Bush administration, according to foreign policy experts in both parties.

"I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously," said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations. "The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it."

Yes and whoever that President is will have to deal with this and with a budget that is out of control and other messes Bush has made (ie. FEMA). This is what happens when you get someone who would rather play President then be presidential. Bush has the most dangerous of egos - thinking he is right on everything. That ego has cost America more then it will ever know.

More Guilt By Republicans

Now why doesn't this surprise me?

Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's.

He entered the pleas, one to a violation of the city charter and the other of the city administrative code, in a Bronx courtroom before Justice John P. Collins and was sentenced to a total of $221,000 in fines. He was accompanied by three lawyers and three supporters for the proceeding, which lasted about 10 minutes.

Speaking in a quiet voice, Mr. Kerik admitted that he had accepted renovations to his Bronx apartment from a company he believed to be "clean."

Remember - Kerik was Bush's pick to head Homeland Security. He pulled out after his background came under heavy scrutiny. Chertoff is Bush's second pick to this criminal. Now is there any question why FEMA is so screwed up?

Incompetence?

When you can't manage situations, then you must throw money at it. That seems to be the Republican way of dealing things and it causes a big mess and a bigger burden for the U.S. tax payer:

Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion.

A hotel owner in Sugar Land, Tex., has been charged with submitting $232,000 in bills for phantom victims. And roughly 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.

There are the bureaucrats who ordered nearly half a billion dollars worth of mobile homes that are still empty, and renovations for a shelter at a former Alabama Army base that cost about $416,000 per evacuee.

And there is the Illinois woman who tried to collect federal benefits by claiming she watched her two daughters drown in the rising New Orleans waters. In fact, prosecutors say, the children did not exist.

So what has this lack of oversight on the part of our government cost us? Take your blood pressure medicine then read on:

The estimate of up to $2 billion in fraud and waste represents nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as of mid-June, or about 6 percent of total money that has been obligated.

Idiotic Statement Of The Week

This is truly an absurd quote from the Governor of Florida:

Tropical Storm Alberto, pushing a dome of sea water toward shore, quickened its assault on North Florida this evening. Officials urged coastal residents to swiftly evacuate the area.

''Its arrival on our shores will be much quicker than we were anticipating a few hours ago,'' Gov. Jeb Bush said shortly after 5:30 p.m. ``They need to get to high ground and they need to get safe.''

The 2006 hurricane season is just 12 days old.

''Good God, who would have thunk it,'' Bush said.

Gee who would of thunk it? I guess only the people who pay attention to the warnings and what is happening with our climate - that is "who would of thunk it".

Who would have thunk this? We are into a new hurricane season with the first one getting ready to hit land and still have not corrected any problems exposed during Katrina. Instead of spending last week trying to come up to solutions with the broken FEMA and DHS, Republican leaders in Senate decided to argue about gay marriage. Hell even the Republican Senator from Louisiana, Dave Vitter, had this profound statement last week:

"I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one," said Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. "I think this debate is very healthy, and it's winning a lot of hearts and minds. I think we're going to show real progress."

I am sure the tens of thousands still displaced or still mourning the lost of loved ones happen to disagree very much with this insensitive asshole.

Will The Democrats Know How To Respond?

Hopefully this will send a message to the Christian right that their support for the gay marriage ban is less than expected:

The Senate on Wednesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, dealing an embarrassing defeat to President Bush and Republicans who hoped to use the measure to energize conservative voters on Election Day.

Supporters knew they wouldn't achieve the two-thirds vote needed to approve a constitutional amendment, but they had predicted a gain in votes over the last time the issue came up, in 2004. Instead, they lost one vote for the amendment in a procedural test tally.

Wednesday's 49-48 vote fell 11 short of the 60 required to send the matter for an up-or-down tally. The 2004 vote was 50-48

This could end up going either way. The Republicans could use it to motivate the base by saying they need to get more control in Senate or the base could end up not paying attention to it and letting the issue die until 2008.

The Democrats, on the other hand, need to really push and motivate their base even more. They need to make the 40 and under crowd well aware that this would not have even been brought up for debate if the Democrats held control on the Senate. This could be a great booster for a 2006 platform - "We feel it is more important to debate issues such as health care, FEMA, oil prices, Iraq and a host of other issues facing this nation than it is to argue about gay marriage".