Former Sen. John Edwards said at a Hurricane Katrina conference he would propose what he called “Brownie’s Law” requiring that qualified people, not political hacks, lead key federal agencies.
“It’s an absolute travesty to have people who are essentially political hacks in a very responsible position,” he told the audience at the University of New Orleans.
“Brownie” refers to Michael Brown, who was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency when Katrina struck the United States on August 29, 2005. He resigned shortly after President George W. Bush, who appointed him to the post, told him publicly, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” as chaos reigned in the devastated city.
We’re just about at the 2-year anniversary of the Katrina disaster. Most published reports estimate the various government efforts have accomplished little more than 20% infrastructure recovery. Pitiful scorecard for the richest nation in the world.
This has been a political decison of the bush admin.They don’t want a vibrant strong New Orleans because it is democratic.Without N.O. the state is almost completely republican.
Oh bullshit Billabong. Saying things like this just shows you are a conspiracy idiot. A Dem Governor and Mayor had at least as much to do with the original problems and the problems with the aftermath as anyone in the Bush administration.
As for the “Brownie’s Law,” last time I checked the Senate confirmed the heads of most departments of the federal government and that hasn’t stopped idiots from being appointed by either party.
Is the law going to spell out the required qualifications for each and every department head? It seems like while the Constitution would allow the Senate to apply such rules to anyone they are to confirm it would be a serious breech of the separations of powers for them to require the President to not put who he desires up for the job.
This is just an example of somebody yelling, “There ought to be a law.”
You can’t get elected without granting a lot of favor. All politics work this way, in every country past and present. Less face New Orleans and Louisiana has always been infamous for corrupt politics. That did not aid the federal blunders.
You guys need to think bigger. Edwards isn’t a Senator anymore, he’s running for president. This is a subtle way to attack Hillary and get himself that nomination.
4. I think this only makes sense, I dont care who says, ‘well its always been done that way”. Thats just bullshit. Edwards is definitely right on this one.
If you don’t want crooks, morons and hacks running the government you shouldn’t elect one. QED.
“….that hasn’t stopped idiots from being appointed by either party.”
Brownie. Rumsfeld. Gonzo. Harriet Miers. L Paul Bremer. Claude Allen. David Safavian. Cheney.
Now: name one hopelessly incompetent department head appointed by Clinton.
One essential difference between conservatives and progressives is this: conservatives despise government generally and feel it cannot address the needs of the country and its populace. (Grover Norquist’s ‘drown government in the bathtub’ comment is a perfect example of this thinking).
That’s why you have party aparatchiks appointed to head government departments, rather than experienced and competent people. Because holding on to power is paramount; actually running the government is way down on the list, because what’s the point anyway? Government is just a bunch of ‘burracrats’.
As for the ‘conspiracy idiot’ part, well of course you’re right. We all know that there have never been any conspiracies in the history of the USA. That’s real tinfoil-hat stuff.
Edwards hit a home run with this one, and based on what happened to the President after Katrina, he’ll have a lot of agreement out there.
#7 Janet Reno
#7 CIA Director Tenet comes to mind along with just about everyone else who was involved in the national security related jobs during his administration.
Oh and BTW. Cheney was not appointed he was elected twice.
>>Janet Reno
Hoo boy, Steve-O, if that’s the best (or worst) you can do, you better keep trying. Certainly, not everybody liked Janet Reno, but she DID take care of Timothy McVeigh, the Montana Freemen, the Unabomber, the World Trade Center bombers, the Olympic Park bomber, the CIA headquarters shooting, and filed suit against Micro$soft.
To compare her with bumbling political flunkies like ‘berto or Brownie or Harriet boggles the imagination.
In the newspaper polls (even right-wing bastions like the WSJ) “What do you think Alberto Gonzalez will be best remembered for?” the choices include the US attorney firing debacle, warrantless/ illegal wiretapping, committing perjury, or having his tongue so far up Dumbya’s ass he lost his taste buds.
>>CIA Director Tenet comes to mind
OK, so Clinton made a mistake with Tenet. Nobody’s perfect.
At least he didn’t keep the guy on and give the guy a Presidential Medal of Freedom after his colossal fuck-up over 9/11 and Iraq’s imaginary WMDs. Well after it became evident that the guy was a complete loser, Dumbya was patting his back, giving him medals, and generally treating him just like the brown-nosing, mind-numbingly incompetent dimwit that he is.
Face it, if you want to have a bake-off over inept, corrupt, perverted, hypcritical, unqualified, inadequate, political hacks, Dumbya will take that prize without even breaking a sweat.
Bush picked Cheney to be on his ticket. Heckuva job.
Reno was not a perfect AG but was independent from the WH, and has a sizeable list of accomplishments (see above).
I’ll grant you Tenet, though. But he was completely Bush’s boy on 9/11.
#10 MM I was only asked for one.
If you are going to quote Wikipedia then let’s not forget Richard Jewell or all the people in the compound at Waco (I’m sure that we can compare a firing of a few over paid attorneys and lying to killing a few dozen men women and children) and busting into a child’s room at night with firearms to send him back to Cuba.
Signed Stevo
>>et’s not forget Richard Jewell
Oh we’re not forgetting him, Steve-O. The media really fucked up by judging him guilty before he was tried. On the other hand, Janet DID send the dogs after Eric Robert Rudolph.
On the other hand, ‘berto’s greatest claim to fame is turning the Justice Department into a laughingstock with the endless YouTube videos of him repeating “I don’t recall, I can’t recall, Senator at this time I don’t recall” until his lips went numb.
The only thing more appalling than having that guy in charge of Justice would be having him on the Supreme Court. And of course Dumbya considered that. What better legacy to leave (besides the tens of thousands dead in Iraq) than having Pee Wee Herman determining the law of the land for the next 50 years?
If you are going to quote Wikipedia then let’s not forget Richard Jewell or all the people in the compound at [edit]
How about Joycelyn Elders for Surgeon General? She advocated teaching masturbation as early as kindergarten…
Or how about Les Aspin for Secretary of Defense? The man couldn’t make a decision. He kept the JCS as well as his civilian leadership locked up in the Pentagon during Clinton’s infamous Bottom-Up Review of the DoD the weekend before submitting the report – the only thing they got out of that little session was to change 3 words in the entire report.
Clinton tried to appoint Lani Guineri to the office of Attorney General – she’s a femi-nazi like no one has ever seen.
As to the Olympic Park Bomber in the Janet Reno example – She made an innocent man’s life a living hell because of a leak… tell me that isn’t incompetent. And let’s not forget the debacle that happened at Waco. Remember, McVeigh’s motivation for Oklahoma City was the events at Waco. Or Janet Reno deciding not to investigate allegations of illegal fundraising by the Clinton/Gore campaign…
The fact remains that these positions are staffed with idiots on both sides of the political aisle.
The Senate confirms Presidential appointments, but remember, the appointee serves at the pleasure of the President, not the Senate. To suggest this law is only self-serving as a campaign promise to be broken. Not only would Edwards veto the bill, chances are it would not stand up to a Constitutional challenge as it takes powers away from the President and transfers them to the Congress.
FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES: In the portions of President Clinton’s Jan. 17 deposition that have been made public in the Paula Jones case, his memory failed him 267 times. This is a list of his answers and how many times he gave each one.
I don’t remember – 71
I don’t know – 62
I’m not sure – 17
I have no idea – 10
I don’t believe so – 9
I don’t recall – 8
I don’t think so – 8
I don’t have any specific recollection – 6
I have no recollection – 4
Not to my knowledge – 4
I just don’t remember – 4
I don’t believe – 4
I have no specific recollection – 3
I might have – 3
I don’t have any recollection of that – 2 I don’t have a specific memory – 2
I don’t have any memory of that – 2
I just can’t say – 2
I have no direct knowledge of that – 2
I don’t have any idea – 2
Not that I recall – 2
I don’t believe I did – 2
I can’t remember – 2
I can’t say – 2
I do not remember doing so – 2
Not that I remember – 2
I’m not aware – 1
I honestly don’t know – 1
I don’t believe that I did – 1
I’m fairly sure – 1
I have no other recollection – 1
I’m not positive – 1
I certainly don’t think so – 1
I don’t really remember – 1
I would have no way of remembering that – 1
That’s what I believe happened – 1
To my knowledge, no – 1
To the best of my knowledge – 1
To the best of my memory – 1
I honestly don’t recall – 1
I honestly don’t remember – 1
That’s all I know – 1
I don’t have an independent recollection of that – 1
I don’t actually have an independent memory of that – 1
As far as I know – 1
I don’t believe I ever did that – 1
That’s all I know about that – 1
I’m just not sure – 1
Nothing that I remember – 1
I simply don’t know – 1
I would have no idea – 1
I don’t know anything about that – 1
I don’t have any direct knowledge of that – 1
I just don’t know – 1
I really don’t know – 1
I can’t deny that, I just — I have no memory of that at all – 1
>>FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:
Yep, that’s where I always go when I want impartial, unbiased information, to the voice of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon! Hoo boy.
And although Slick Willie may have had a hard time keeping his willie in his pants, at least he wasn’t a bungling moron who can’t even master his mother tongue, much less make sensible decisions on how to be the Leader of the Free World.
And as to Jocelyn Elders advocation “teaching masturbation as early as kindergarten”, wtf? Did you get that from one of those Moonie papers? Everything I’ve ever read about her views on masturbation boils down to a single statement (in response to a direct question about whether teaching ABOUT masturbation [not TEACHING masturbation]) in order to divert sexually active young people from egaging in riskier behaviors. She said something like “it’s a normal part of human sexuality, and maybe it should be taught”.
Now maybe out there where people squeal like pigs, kindergarteners are sexually active and are at risk for engaging in dangerous sexual behavior that would be mitigated by teaching them about masturbation. Not in my neck of the woods though. Nuh-uh. We put people in jail for that around here.
“She advocated teaching masturbation as early as kindergarten…”
This is what happens when you get all your “facts” from Rush Limbaugh.
Never happened, prove me wrong.
Why NOT teach masturbation? Strikes me as kinda weird, and then I think “WhyNot?” Shows what kind of society I grew up in?
and further==aint no reason for Federal Funds to rebuild New Orleans unless that part of the country somehow raises itself up out of the ocean by about 50 feet? NO TAX MONEY should be spent on building cities below Sea Level. Now, any fine states or individuals who want to do so==have at it.
>>NO TAX MONEY should be spent on building cities
>>below Sea Level.
Does the same approach go for cities on a flood plain, or in the path of tornados, or along the banks of a flood-prone river, or where hurricanes are common? How about massive wildfires? Nuclear power plant melt-downs? If you restrict disaster relief funds to places that are absolutely danger-free, you’ve pretty much excluded the whole country.
Look at all the forces Dumbya mobliized for the remote possiblility that Hurricane Dean might hit the Texax coast. I realize that’s his “home” state (and he doesn’t give a shit about Louisiana), but come on! Those fuckers are living right on the ocean. The possibility of hurricanes is just a fact of life.
Or even in the path of a meterorite! Gosh. Mustard, sorry, your arguments does not hold water, he he. Big difference when the city has a disadvantage of being below sea level. You can weather out a hurricane, and I have several times, if you build right, people in the Caribbean do it regularly. But if the Oceans coming in, there isnt anything gonna stop it.
As if Edwards is competent to anything beyond hairstyling.
>>But if the Oceans coming in, there isnt anything gonna stop it.
Sure there is. The levees. If they had been built and maintained properly, we wouldn’t have had Brownie doing his Heck Of A Job. Check the Zuiderzee; that seems to work pretty well.
And we’re not talking about “weathering out” a hurricane, we’re talking about rebuilding in the aftermath. And if we should just let people’s lives be ruined, hospitals and schools go unrepaired, etc. Plenty of people “weathered out” Hurricane Andrew (to the tune of about 30 billion dollars), but I didn’t see the cheapskates and skinflints jumping up and down in 1992 saying “dumb shits, they live in Florida! Of COURSE they’re going to get hit with a fucking hurricane sooner or later. No disaster relief for them!”
>>As if Edwards is competent to anything beyond hairstyling.
Even if that were true, that would be one more useful skill he’d have than Dumbya and his entourage of buffoons, eh?
24. The reason for the 30 billion price tag in places like Florida, is because the building codes arent sufficient to withstand hurricanes. People who had insurance just figure they will pick up the tab after a disaster. Where I lived (and I still own a home in the Caribbean), the building standards are different. Example, my home is made of 12 inch stone with 12 in poured cement square supports with rebar inside, and the roof truss is set in a concrete ring around the perimeter. I am also 400 ft above sea level. I did this by design. Some of my neighbors built in the flood plane, and stick built, to them I say, take your chances. Most of them cannot obtain windstorm or flood insurance at any rate. The point is, you need to learn from past mistakes and quit doing the same stupid thing over and over.
24. Mustard, As I wrote that, I was knocking on wood, throwing salt over my shoulder, and doing a voodoo incantation. Just for luck.
#18
Mister Mustard – you just don’t understand, unless its about homosexual sex with a minor – neocons just aren’t interested!
Let me see – who was in the papers today for soliciting homo sex from an undercover cop – Sen. Larry Craig, Republican from Idaho – cum on down!
I’d say Ron Brown, only Commerce appears to be a playground for campaign fundraising. So I’ll go with Federico Pena and Henry Cisneros. Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright too.
I like the quote…
Richest nation in the world…
But.
WHO has all the money?