Tried to help!
Meet The Press- Emotional Interview With Aaron Broussard — More bad stories about FEMA’s botched job. A great interview highlighted by the following new information:
“Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA–we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, “Come get the fuel right away.” When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. “FEMA says don’t give you the fuel.” Yesterday–yesterday–FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, “No one is getting near these lines.” Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America–American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis.”
He also talk about how FEMA came in and physically cut emergency communication lines. The Sheriff had to put armed guards on the spot to keep FEMA from doing it again. I find that one hard to believe. But listen to the guy yourself..
These two (head of FEMA, head of DHS) will be cited for their great work and given a medal, guaranteed. Yet another press conference will be called.
direct link to the video HERE!
Complete Transcript of show here.
What the f&ck is going on down there?! Like I’ve said before, either something is going on or it’s gross incompetence on an unimaginable scale.
I realize that FEMA is run by a FOB, but surely there are people IN the organization who know how to operate the system? Is it incompetence all the way down to the lowest FEMA employee?!
Maybe the incompetence is related to the “faith based” approach Bush uses to solve problems. John has written about this before:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/index.php?p=583
Basically, Bush and his supporters have an aversion to the facts. They have an aversion to collecting data. They have an aversion to assessing situations. They don’t care about the how or the why, they create a plan based on instinct and follow it through.
If the Feds used that approach here it’d certainly explain a lot.
Survivor: “People are suffering we need help.”
FEMA: “I’m sorry, but ‘suffering’ is not a part of the plan.”
Survivor: “People need water.”
FEMA: “I’m sorry but ‘need’ is not a part of the plan.”
Survivor: “Well what IS the plan?”
FEMA: “Giving work to our good friends at Halliburton.”
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I hate walmart as much as the next person, but come on Paul they sent water when it was most needed and got turned away by FEMA morons. How is that their fault?
This many people complaining about Fema from the source of the disaster can only stand to strengthen the case against them. They can’t all be wrong.
Man the last part of that video sucks. I feel real bad for that person and his poor mother đ
FEMA is a bunch of blowhards.
“there is NOT enough evidence”
What universe do YOU live in? The head of FEMA didn’t know about the terrible situation in the Dome until Thursday. Heck, I read about it on TUESDAY!!! Turning away water when an entire city was dehydrated. Telling rescue volunteers they’ll be arrested if they attempt to help! CUTTING THE COMMUNICATION LINK!!!!
How much f*cking evidence do you need?! FEMA f^cked up!!!
The White House and Republican spin machines while have this thing whirling so hard in another week everyone will be dizzy. A few officials may resign at the alter of the Presidency, but the same people that voted for him, in the end will stand by him. Locals will end up with the lion share of the blame, at least from white middle class Americans unaffected by Katrina. Watch out for a certain white democratic female Southern Governor getting slammed. They dare not hit a black elected official too hard.
So according to Broussard, Red Cross is lying when it says:
Paul
The most sickening think is the knee jerk protection of a man who is obviously not qualified to run ANYTHING. I mean he was asked to resign his last job where he was suppose to run an Arabian horse advocacy group and was given an assist dir job at FEMA by his old collage roommate.
This man is directly responsible for muffing this whole rescue effort – it doesn’t make him evil – just too stupid to be left in charge. This is why during a situation like this we need to access blame so the incompetent get canned.
If this would have happened during Clinton’s watch – the neocons would have been 1000 times more divisive and vicious in their criticism.
The measure of any societyâs worth is how it takes care of the least of its citizens.
America, as a whole, spends more money killing people in foreign countries, or preparing to kill people in foreign countries, than it spends on anything else. Our military budget, the amount we spend outside of that budget, the interest we pay for not sticking to the more than generous budget, and the amount we spend in âaidâ packages that include worthless shit like F16s for Israel, or help for the mudjahadeen, etc. eclipse all social spending.
This is why shit like this happens. Why build a new levy, when we can build a new class of nuclear weapon? We are rotting from the inside out.
A storm will always happen, but I can *mail* a fucking package to New Orleans faster than the most powerful superpower in the world can send food and water.
If our federal government canât take care of its own citizens, its totally fucking worthless.
We murdered qaddafi âs daughter at home, but we canât rescue an old lady trapped in her attic for days on end.
This has nothing to do with a fabricated dichotomy of left versus right. Stories like this are the symptom of a decease that has plagued this nation since we stole the land from its natives, and built it up with slaves.
This is the new Rome, and the faster it burns the better. Bush is fiddling right now so…we wonât have to wait long.
FEMA would be doing good work today if the Bush crew had not gutted and knee-capped the agency. They killed the personnel, budget and rolled them into Homeland (in-)Security (just another line item there) and they ignored or wiped out all the persons in FEMA who had put in real preparedness work. And don’t forget hurricane Ivan last year which amounted to a full dress rehearsal under real conditions (Ivan changed course at the last minute, away from NOLA last year, same time). And don’t forget all the budget cuts from this administration which could have provided better infrastructure and planning.
The only thing these thieves are doing is gutting and plundering the country at large for corporations – which are the new feudal lords (forget ideologies or specific-incidents, think power niches). They really keep pushing like any criminals who keep getting more and more brazen with each crime and won’t stop until they are stopped.
Paul T: You have to realize that there is a certain amoun of pent up frustration with the Bush administration, and this disaster has opened up the dialog. They have had mostly a free ride since 9/11, and have used that event to launch a war in Iraq, manipulate public discourse, influence elections, and administer the government with a radical ideological bias. What this event does is expose that underlying bias to some extent, and also reveal the bald incompetence that is usually masked with strong words, images, and public relations.
Even with all that, the backlash will be slight. I agree with Dvorak: these incompetent political hacks who have front line responsibility for this mess will either be awarded medals or else be designated as sacrificial lambs to divert attention from the executive managers who should be stepping up.
You’re right, there are no winners in a natural disaster. But imagine for one minute what would be the tone on Fox News if this had happened while Clinton was president. They’d be burning crosses on the White House lawn.
Unfortunately, the buck has to stop somewhere, and W has avoided handling it his entire presidency. He can spend some time with the buck in his hand, and we’ll get to see what he’s really made of.
Where to begin? It’s obvious that some facts are being conveniently ignored. It’s the responsibility of local and state governments to provide an initial emergency response (see http://www.randomjottings.net/archives/001790.html). Instead of a disaster plan, we had a last minute mayoral decision to cram people into the Superdome with no planning for how they’d survive longer than a day. The governor had 500 school busses ready to evacuate people who didn’t have the means, yet it took until September 1 for her to mobilize any busses for evacuees (http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=991). The bottom line is that the citizens’ first line of help just wasn’t there. State and local officials depended on the federal government to do their jobs. The feds certainly have more resources, but they’re less agile and can hardly address localized issues as well. Local entities (unless they’re wiped out) can always move faster – as long as they have a plan. So Clinton is right: government did fail the people.
How much Homeland Security money has Louisiana received? Last I heard, it was something like $700 million+. Think a little bit could have been spent on levee improvements to protect the city? Or maybe addressing the barrier island and silt erosion problems? I mean, they’d only know about these things for a few decades.
Paul T:
According to the polls, I guess most of the country is now “lunatic fringe”.
Unbelievable!
If the BUSH Administrations completely BOTCHED response to Katrina doesn’t wake Americans out of their post 9-11 haze nothing will.
Here is an administration that claimed (post 9-11) to ready for anything! Of course most people believed that the US government could now respond immediately to any type of terrorist attack or natural disaster!
WRONG!!!!
Never mind the fact that the BUSH administration had more then a week to prepare for a response… hell even I watched the weather channel a week before Katrina smashed into New Orleans and thought well at least they have a chance to evacuate and prepare a response… boy was I wrong.
What if Katrina had been a bioweapon attack or a dirty nuke. Wow!
BUSH needs to be physically removed from office before he plunges the North Amercia into an irreversible spiral to distruction!
Does anyone know what the terrorism colour is today? Exactly!
Thanks Paul
I gratefully accept being part of the “lunatic fringe”.
In turn please accept my awarding you the “Neocon Blow Hard of the Blog” award. This is in recognition of your continual knee jerk defense of the worst administration since James Buchanan, your keen grasp of nonsense neocon talking points (no doubt mastered while watching your only news source, FOX news) and your obvious inability to read my post. To save you the effort of scrolling up to the origional, here is the repost. My appologies to those of you who read it properly and answered pro or con effectively, such as comment 17 by Steve.
The most sickening think is the knee jerk protection of a man who is obviously not qualified to run ANYTHING. I mean he was asked to resign his last job where he was suppose to run an Arabian horse advocacy group and was given an assist dir job at FEMA by his old collage roommate.
This man is directly responsible for muffing this whole rescue effort – it doesnât make him evil – just too stupid to be left in charge. This is why during a situation like this we need to access blame so the incompetent get canned.
If this would have happened during Clintonâs watch – the neocons would have been 1000 times more divisive and vicious in their criticism.
I challenge you to find one inaccuracy (please back it up by references) in my statement of the current Head of FEMA’s background or demonstrated competence. I doubt youâll directly answer the challenge though. Instead you will do what I like to call the âNeocon squirmâ.
The Neocon squirm is a little dance done by every neocon when they are confronted by facts contrary to their views that canât be ignored. Neocons (as opposed to Republicans or true conservatives) usually start obfuscating the truth by making âstatementsâ (usually pulled from out of nowhere) that are really bald-faced lies about a topic. When this fails then the good old name calling pops out such as âliberal rantingâ, and the like.
The last squirm is usually when the neocon falls into a mode that the mental health professionals call denial. This is the phase where the neocon pretends that entire problems, or problematic statements caught on film donât exist â as evidence look to the press conference (recorded) )where Bush stated that he would remove any member of his administration that was involved in outing that CIA operative. When it ended up being Rove suddenly is was Convicted, not involved, yet there was film to the contrary. The old âNeocon squirmâ.
I love it when a neocon squirms.
sounds the alarm…..I love your posts. They always make me smile.
Go get ’em.
Uhhh, as for the lunatic fringe….please, can I join? I’m so sick of the “defenders” of Bush that it’s making me sick.
Hey guys…..decisions were make to rape and pillage FEMA and, more importantly, the NATIONAL GUARD. We aren’t supposed to need to deploy the defense Military….because we have the NATIONAL GUARD. Get it? National Guard?! So, where are the generators, the communications equipment, etc etc……the National Guard, stationed in Iraq have been making noise about that. Evidently it was “borrowed” and somehow got shipped to Iraq. Hmmm, wonder who’s bit idea it was to get it there? Certainly NOT the mayor of NO, or any other LA gov. Please, someone explain that to me. Who made the decision to ship NATIONAL GUARD equipment and troops to Iraq?
Sounds the Alarm:
Wait don’t tell me. Paul T’s comments would fall under the last category of squirm: denial, since he didn’t address any of the issues (accuracy of your facts).
Do I get a prize?
Paul
Now I actually liked your last post. Telling me to go to hell (not in those words of course) and providing reasons – that I can respect. Please keep posting brother.
Robert
In fact I have a prize for you. There has suddenly appeared on the market some land in the Mississippi delta region that I can get to you for a discount. Water wings sold separately.
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an enviornment where there are fewer hurdles.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the industry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.
The coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to this::Sam Walton’s WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.