What can you say about this mess, if Cuba can do it, just goes to show. Get rid of Bush
elect someone with some brains please 
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| Hurricane Katrina: live coverage : DEFCON 1 New Orleans http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=21850 |
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| Author: | steve_o [ 09 Sep 05, 19:26 ] |
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What can you say about this mess, if Cuba can do it, just goes to show. Get rid of Bush elect someone with some brains please
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| Author: | JimD [ 09 Sep 05, 21:30 ] |
| Post subject: | FEMA Chief Relieved of Katrina Command |
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer AP Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being relieved of his command of the Bush administration's Hurricane Katrina onsite relief efforts, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Friday. He will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts, Chertoff said. Earlier, Brown confirmed the switch. Asked if he was being made a scapegoat for a federal relief effort that has drawn widespread and sharp criticism, Brown told The Associated Press after a long pause: "By the press, yes. By the president, No." "Michael Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge," Chertoff told reporters in Baton Rouge, La. Chertoff sidestepped a question on whether the move was the first step toward Brown's leaving FEMA. But a source close to Brown, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FEMA director had been considering leaving after the hurricane season ended in November and that Friday's action virtually assures his departure. Brown has been under fire because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to exaggerate his previous emergency management background. Less than an hour before Brown's removal came to light, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Brown had not resigned and the president had not asked for his resignation. Chertoff suggested the shift came as the Gulf Coast efforts were entering "a new phase of the recovery operation." He said Brown would return to Washington to oversee the government's response to other potential disasters. "I appreciate his work, as does everybody here," Chertoff said. "I'm anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies that are being said," Brown said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Asked if the move was a demotion, Brown said: "No. No. I'm still the director of FEMA." He said Chertoff made the decision to move him out of Louisiana. It was not his own decision, Brown said. "I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and, maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep. And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims," Brown said. "This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit and now we have to help these victims." Amid escalating calls for Brown's ouster, the White House had insisted publicly for days that Bush retained confidence in his FEMA chief. But there was no question that Brown's star was fading in the administration. In the storm's early days, Brown was the president's primary briefer on its path and the response effort, but by the weekend those duties had been taken over by Brown's boss — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Also, while Brown was very visibly by the president's side during Bush's first on-the-ground visit to the hurricane zone last week, he remained behind the scenes — with Chertoff out front. Even before Chertoff's announcement, the beleaguered Brown was facing questions Friday about his resume. A 2001 press release on the White House Web site says Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing emergency services divisions." Brown's official biography on the FEMA Web site says that his background in state and local government also includes serving as "an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight" and as a city councilman. But a former mayor of Edmond, Randel Shadid, told The Associated Press on Friday that Brown had been an assistant to the city manager. Shadid said Brown was never assistant city manager. "I think there's a difference between the two positions," said Shadid. "I would think that is a discrepancy." Asked later about the White House news release that said Brown oversaw Edmond's emergency services divisions, Shadid said, "I don't think that's a total stretch." Time magazine first reported the discrepancy. Separately, Newsday reported another discrepancy regarding Brown's background. The official White House announcement of Brown's nomination to head FEMA in January 2003 lists his previous experience as "the Executive Director of the Independent Electrical Contractors," a trade group based in Alexandria, Va. Two officials of the group told Newsday this week that Brown never was the national head of the group but did serve as the executive director of a regional chapter, based in Colorado. A longtime acquaintance, Carl Reherman, said Brown was very involved in helping set up an emergency operations center in Edmond and assisting in the creation of an emergency contingency plan in the 1970s. At the time, Reherman was a city councilman, and later became mayor. "From my experience with Mike, he not only worked very hard on everything he did, he had very high standards," said Reherman, who also knew Brown when he was a student taking classes from Reherman, who was a professor of political science at Central State University. Nicol Andrews, deputy strategic director in FEMA's office of public affairs, told Time that while Brown began as an intern, he became an "assistant city manager" with a distinguished record of service. "According to Mike Brown," Andrews told Time, a large portion of points raised by the magazine are "very inaccurate." ___ |
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| Author: | JimD [ 09 Sep 05, 21:34 ] |
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September 09, 2005 csmonitor Unlike 9/11, when Americans came together, the hurricane's aftermath has intensified the polarization of the Bush years. WASHINGTON - As distasteful as it is to many Americans, the politics of hurricane Katrina have rushed in to fill the agendas of elected officials nearly as quickly as the floodwaters inundated New Orleans. For the Bush administration, the mantra this week became "no blame-gaming, no finger-pointing" as it sought to recover from the early perception of a slow response to the disaster. The message has been that this is an administration of action, not partisan bickering, and that the task at hand is to address the situation on the ground. President Bush sent Congress a request for $51.8 billion in additional hurricane aid. Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, toured New Orleans and the Gulf region Thursday, talking to local officials and first-responders. In reality, hurricane Katrina has become an anti-9/11 of sorts. Whereas four years ago people dropped their red and blue identities to rally around their leaders, Katrina seems to have exacerbated the extreme polarization of the Bush years. At his first Cabinet meeting since returning from vacation, Mr. Bush declared he would oversee an inquiry into the government response to Katrina, prompting an immediate outcry from Democrats that the government cannot investigate itself. Republicans in Congress quickly followed by announcing an investigative commission on Katrina, with GOP members to form a majority. Democrats cried foul, arguing that the model of the 9/11 commission - made up of nonlawmakers in a balance of Republicans and Democrats, operating with a goal of consensus - would be preferable. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, widely seen as a leading Democratic hopeful for president in 2008, emerged as a chief critic of the Republicans' inquiry plan and of the performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Before Katrina, Senator Clinton had lain low on national issues, focusing instead on reelection to the Senate. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also came out with guns blazing this week. "We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age, and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," he told the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday. "Politicization is very dangerous for both sides," says Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council. "If either party is seen as obstructing results, people will blame them. Americans are pragmatic, not ideological or partisan. Clearly, the administration has bungled this, but ultimately the American people want to see a restored New Orleans and these people's lives put back together." On Thursday, the liberal group Moveon.org organized a protest of hurricane evacuees at the White House to decry the federal response and to demand a meeting with Bush - suggesting almost a Cindy Sheehan-ization of Katrina victims. The Republican National Committee fired back in a press release, saying "Moveon.org Democrats play the blame game and politicize Katrina relief." For Republicans, a political danger lies in the fact that they control the White House and both houses of Congress - and the public will look to them for results. "The real danger comes on the administration's side, where if New Orleans becomes a metaphor for Bush policy in general, they're in real trouble," says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "If it reinforces that the comfortable are safe and do well, while the vulnerable are on their own, it could be a burden for Bush for the rest of his term." A Texas Poll released Thursday shows Bush's approval ratings in Texas, his home state, are 9 points below where they usually are, with 52 percent approving of his performance and 43 percent disapproving. Bush's job approval in Texas is typically10 points above his national average. Generally, the partisan polarization registered by pollsters during much of Bush's presidency - abating only in the aftermath of 9/11 - continues. The latest US polls show Bush's job approval among Republicans in the mid-80s and in the low teens among Democrats - a gap of about 70 percentage points. "He's the most polarizing president we've had in the 50-odd years we've been polling the question," says Gary Jacobson, an expert on this issue at the University of California, San Diego. This phenomenon reflects Bush's tendency to play to his base supporters, and bring over a few Democrats to his side as needed. During a major challenge, Bush's strategy of keeping his core of support on his side serves as a political protection, Professor Jacobson says. "He's lost the Democrats, period, and the independents are now closer to the Democrats than [to] the Republicans," Jacobson says. "What's saved Bush is that his base has stayed with him." |
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| Author: | JimD [ 12 Sep 05, 1:33 ] |
| Post subject: | Mercenaries guard homes of the rich in New Orleans |
Jamie Wilson in New Orleans Monday September 12, 2005 Guardian Hundreds of mercenaries have descended on New Orleans to guard the property of the city's millionaires from looters.The heavily armed men, employed by private military companies including Blackwater and ISI, are part of the militarisation of a city which had a reputation for being one of the most relaxed and easy-going in America. After scenes of looting and lawlessness in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck, New Orleans has turned into an armed camp, patrolled by thousands of local, state and federal law enforcement officers, as well as 70,000 national guard troops and active-duty soldiers now based in the region. Blackwater, one of the fastest-growing private security firms in the world, which achieved global prominence last year when four of its men were killed and their bodies mutilated in the Iraqi city of Falluja, has set up camp in the back garden of a vast mansion in the wealthy Uptown district of the city. David Reagan, 52, a semi-retired US army colonel from Huntsville, Alabama, who fought in the first Gulf war and is commander of Blackwater's operations in the city, refused to say how many men he had in New Orleans but indicated it was in the hundreds. Asked if they had encountered many looters so far, Mr Reagan said that the sight of his heavily armed men - a pump action shotgun was propped against the wall near to where he was standing - was enough to put most people off. Two Israeli mercenaries from ISI, another private military company, were guarding Audubon Place, a gated community. Wearing bulletproof vests, they were carrying M16 assault rifles. Gill, 40, and Yovi, 42, who refused to give their surnames, said they were army veterans of the Israeli war in Lebanon, but had been living in Houston for 17 years. They had been hired by Jimmy Reiss, a descendant of an old New Orleans family who made his fortune selling electronic systems to shipbuilders. They had been flown by private jet to Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, and then helicoptered to Audubon Place, they said. "I spoke to one of the other owners on the telephone earlier in the week," Yovi said. "I told him how the water had stopped just at the back gate. God watches out for the rich people, I guess." |
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| Author: | pikeylass [ 12 Sep 05, 1:36 ] |
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Ophelia is due to hit the N/S carolina coasts pretty soon |
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| Author: | Calrissian [ 12 Sep 05, 1:41 ] |
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Ophelia looks to be a relatively irrelevant storm now. A small 'cat'1, for the Carolinas. --- Cal: Cat'6 |
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| Author: | pikeylass [ 12 Sep 05, 1:42 ] |
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Wheres that ,cal....Last I saw was a 3??(NBC teatime) |
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| Author: | JimD [ 27 Sep 05, 22:03 ] |
| Post subject: | Leader of New Orleans Police Resigns |
NEW ORLEANS Sep 27, 2005 ABCNews New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass announced his resignation Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force came under fire for its conduct in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Nearly 250 police officers could face a special tribunal because they left their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath, New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass said. Compass plans to assemble a tribunal of four of his assistant chiefs to hear each case and sort the outright deserters from those with a legitimate reason for not showing up for work, he said in an interview published Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005, in The Times-Picayune newspaper. |
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