http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/27/brown.fema/index.html


Brown told congressional investigators Monday that he is being paid as a consultant to help FEMA assess what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a senior official familiar with the meeting.

Fox in the hen house?

I'm sure his vast experience working as an intern in that podunk town in Oklahoma, as well as for the Arabian Horse Association, should serve him well in his efforts to determine 'what went wrong' during the disaster, although simply watching the television during the first 48 hours of the disaster might have served him better ;).

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, but hopefully his paid 'consultancy' is simply welfare for the now-unemployed Brown, as he had no disaster management experience prior to his appointment and was oblivious *during* the disaster itself...

Regards,
Nydia

I thought Fil was quoting a Leno or Letterman monologue at first:rolleyes:

Just shows that those folks will maintain the good old boy network and make sure each is taken care of, regardless of what we unedjamacated folk think.

He's just hanging in town until he gets his Medal of Freedom.

People people, think like politicians! Now our Pres and his head of Homeland Security can have Brownie say stuff, then proudly proclaim they "didn't play the blame game."

Odd they didn't give him a golden parachute to be the fall guy. I suppose neocon hubris truly does not know bounds.

Excerpts from Brown's testimony this morning before the congressional committee meeting investigating the mishandling of the Katrina disaster are up on CNN, the BBC, and numerous other places. He came out swinging, blaming local and state officials for not 'coordinating a response' to the disaster, but particularly telling/ironic are the quotes where he was asked what his major mistakes were in handling the disaster. His reply:

"First, I did not set up a system of media briefings which I should have done as that would have required less of my time than responding to all the requests for interviews.

In other words, he failed to adequately manage the public's *perception* of the disaster, allowing himself to be caught with his pants down and/or in blatant lies on national television (and I'm sure he's smarting about Jefferson Parish's Sheriff reconnecting their emergency communication lines (destroyed by FEMA) and guarding them at gunpoint as well). It's curious that he ranks this ahead of, you know, actually authorizing and coordinating offers of aid coming in, seeing that, in his own words to the committee this morning, "FEMA is not a first responder, but a coordinating agency".

"Second, I regret not being able to persuade Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down and coordinate their response."

I suppose the three days notice he received, via request from Jefferson Parish (and authorized by President Bush the following day)*before* the hurricane made landfall, as well as the repeated requests for help while he was on vacation and the entire upper tier at his agency was apparently unaware that thousands of people were stranded in the flooding city, didn't give him adequate time to 'coordinate' a response with them, or that by the time he woke up and asked for that 'sit down" the local officials might have been a bit busy, as they had been trying to handle deteriorating conditions for days in a vacuum and with no leadership? What about *his* agency's response? It's pretty obvious that he *still*, even at this late date, has no clue what his job, nor the job of the agency which he headed, actually was.

Here's hoping that something constructive comes out of those hearings, but I'm not holding my breath...

Regards,
Nydia

What an ass.
That's about all that comes to mind to describe him. Here's to hope!

No surprises-

Everyone involved (local, state and federal) will be pointing the finger at everyone else when incompetence was rife in all three.

If I were a citizen of NO I would be voting for a different mayor, governor and president next election for sure.

I can't find the quote now, we were reading it off Yahoo news at work where I can't post. My favorite moment has to be where Brown calls the officials of LA dysfunctional. Not that they didn't bear responsibility as well, but...that's just a funny thing for him to try to peg on someone else. Why is this idiot still getting air time?

Simple. He'd being paid to take the heat.

no, he's being paid to try to divert the heat. He's been appointed by FEMA and is still on their payroll. His job is to find out what went wrong with FEMA's response. Why don't they just give this fucker a mirror and quit paying him. He obviously wasn't qualified for this job especially with such a huge disaster.

I think sitting in front of a Senate inquiry and being yelled at might be called "taking the heat." Heh.

Brown is off the hook (http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2005-09-20-wacky-weatherman_x.htm)

An Idaho weatherman says Japan's Yakuza mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge itself for the Hiroshima atom bomb attack — and that this technology will soon be wielded again to hit another U.S. city.

Haha, I read that the other day. He recently left his job at the station he's been employed at for 8 or so years (voluntarily, according to the Idaho Falls station he worked for) to 'pursue his theories about weather full-time'...

No mention as to whether his 'special research facility' has padded walls or not ;).

Regards,
Nydia

http://www.weatherwars.info/

Definately not poor Brown's fault, if that's the way you want to go. :) Doesn't really get good unless you read the section on Soho, get to about page 3.