Katrina Accountability-"Chain-Saw the Totem Pole"

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Well, what I'm about to post here is the transcript from Meet the Press this morning.

Guests:

Secretary of Homeland Security: Michael Chertoff Governor of Mississippi: Haley Barbour
President of Jefferson Parish: Aaron Broussard

The questions that have needed to be asked, have been asked. It was standard fare, until Aaron Broussard came on the screen. What he said riveted me in chair -- and then he broke down relaying the events about a co-worker's mother....he was hysterically crying and trying to tell this story -- I will never forget his face until the day I die. I sat on my couch with tears streaming down my face -- I still can't get his voice out of my head. Here's an excerpt from that:


MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...

MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.

MR. RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President. While you gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

Here is the video of Broussard. (Click the arrows on the video selector to #4)

This was the most powerful thing I have ever witnessed. These people are beyond the point of what humans can be expected to take. I just heard, not 10 minutes ago, on CNN... that police and firefighters are committing suicide now (from the NO police chief)-- because they try and try -- but their efforts are for nothing. They CAN'T rescue these people. The death toll now is in the thousands, health agencies estimate.

Here is the complete transcript

[ September 05, 2005, 15:33: Message edited by: Spellbound ]

 

Powerful stuff, Spellbound. Thanks.

 

Wow... I'm in shock. I didn't see it, but I can imagine it.

Living in a place like Melbourne, you can never comprehend the nature, scope and human impact of such an event, because it doesn't happen here. That people are working non-stop and feeling as though what they are doing is fruitless is even worse, because the management of this relief operation has been incompetent, to say the least.

It's easy to judge in hindsight, of course. But this is something which was predicted, that contingency plans were developed for. There's no excuse in saying "Who could have foreseen this?" because (1) it was foreseen, and (2) FEMA did not have the organisational and operational capacity to do what was necessary. Hell, it's their ROLE to be able to react to things like this!

That part about chain-sawing the totem pole brought it home to me very hard; from reading this, it seems that everyone in charge of running the show doesn't have the first clue about how to do it. FEMA apparently hasn't got the resources to do it, and yet it's turning back offers of help and refusing to communicate properly with other groups, to take a lead role in co-ordinating a relief effort?

That's not even taking into account the evidence that shows the erosion of FEMA, the knowledge that such an event was likely, the reports which indicated what would be needed to fix things in New Orleans. This isn't all GWB's fault, but an administration that knowingly ignores all the evidence, history and requirements for dealing with a predictable disaster of this magnitude on home soil is at least negligent, and at worst, significantly culpable in the deaths caused by its ineptitude.

I'm sorry if I've overstepped the line here; it just seems so hard to believe that the people charged with fixing the problem could be so woefully inept.

 

Non-Sequiter -- Here is the video of Broussard. (Click the right arrow on the video selector to #4.) And no apologies necessary. You hit the nail right on the head. Unconscionable, incompetent -- there are so many words that come to mind. Negligent, and even bordering on criminal.

They will answer for this, I'm quite sure. Congressional hearings begin next week I believe. Perhaps what irks me MOST about this is that we didn't even hear "gee, we screwed up" -- take fault where it lies, for god's sake....and stop trying to pretend it was satisfactory...that they did their jobs well. THAT'S what we're all waiting to hear.

[ September 05, 2005, 15:34: Message edited by: Spellbound ]

 

The footage and comments of Broussard were all over the Australian media last night and this morning. They cut away from him just as he finished his story about his co-worker's mother's death, but even that was terrible to watch. You could see the strain on his face from the last week, well before he started to break down.

Thanks again, Spellbound.

 

This is too good to pass.

From the press conference by McClellan (the White House spokesman) :

The whole stuff here

Good to see the press finally getting a spine

 

Oh, God. Even Bush must have made a huge effort to find someone as terrible as Brownie for the head of FEMA.

A Time investigation shows that he also lied on his resume. He pretended to have been "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight". Instead, he was "assistant to the city manager", with no authority over other employees,"more like an intern". Also, he called himself "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University", while he was just a student there.

The full article here .

 

It appears Newsweek is doing a bit of chain-sawing (as has many in the media outlets). Eleanor Clift has written a scathing indictment of how this may be changing the political dynamics of the administration:

I had completely forgotten about George I and Hurricane Andrew. It is quite remarkable to see the same mistake, since George II went right to work on FEMA.

Yes, such a great job that Brown has been sent home. I think the quote was that he has "big challenges waiting for him back at the office." One wonders what could be a bigger challenge than one of the largest natural disasters in the country's history. I guess Brown keeping his job, at this point, would rank pretty high up the scale.

I'm not convinced that Bush has seen the light, since he usually appears to deny anything requiring a change of heart, regardless of how large the blunder. And I'm not as optimistic here about the agenda as Clift is. That does not mean that Bush will get the agenda he wants - far from it. But he's a "stay the course kind of guy." Still, we can always hope.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9271481/site/newsweek/

 

But, fortunately, many others have. I'm quite sure he wishes he could sweep this all under the rug -- but it's grown too large. Criticism is coming from every quarter and he won't be able to hide from it. And I think it will grow much worse -- when the bodies start surfacing in the next few weeks and we get a final death toll. I can almost hear the bells start to ring -- for the fallen, and, hopefully, for our "President".

 

I have been complaning for years on this board and in other places about the rampant cronyism that has gone on in this admistration. Before anyone starts with "it happens all the time" I would like them to first consider the case before us. Bill Clinton had built FEMA into a formidable organization, only to have George II dismantle it and give away appointments to his cronies, which were nothing more than politcal hacks. Now the crows have come home to rooost - the proof is in the pudding. Good government is accomplished through hard work and competency, not the dalliance of amateurs and hacks.

[ September 12, 2005, 07:45: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Interestingly enough, most Republicans are for a smaller and less costly federal government. FEMA's inadequate response has led to decrease for support for it, and basically all state institutions who intervened were considered to have failed. On the contrary, the one organization judged to have acted correctly was the Red Cross, a private organization (from the last Zogby poll). Therefore, for all the cronyism and failure, the disaster might further Republican policies.

 

The facts, and the Republican performance, does not bear that statement out. Government is larger, more expansive and intrusive as ever under a full Republican government. They burn taxpayer money as if there is no end to it and the government debt is mounting sky-high.

There is a core of ideology that has contempt for anything that is considered an "entitlement" program, which is assitance that would go to individual Americans. But the new corporate welfare state has its own entitlements for those thousands of lobby hounds parading around K Street in Washington.

 

Depends if you use "conservative" as in "fiscal conservative" , or as in "conservative values" (having to do with religious matters, generally). The Rep. party pays lip service to the first ideea, but they cater mostly to the second type of crowd.

I would not call Brown a scapegoat. While it is true that the higher-ups deserve part of the blame (well, probably even a big part), he also screwed up royally.

 

I agree. Brown's screw ups were simply too numerous to be overlooked. Lying on the resume was the last nail in his coffin.

But we must reflect as well -- how fair was it to put a commissioner of Arabian Horse Association judges in the top position of an agency such as FEMA?? The guy was set up to fail. And for that I blame the "old boys network" -- with the Old Boy of Note sitting right on the top of the heap. Whether the resume was falsified or not -- Brown, in no way, shape or form, had the credentials for such a position. But it was allowed to happen.

 

Y'know, it never occured to me that that might produce a serious problem. It just didn't seem significant, in the face of everything else, and I didn't put much thought into the potential ramifications.

Goddamn me for being naive. And, perhaps, stupid.

Well, it isn't as though he had no choice in the matter; he could've quite easily said, "Yeah, um, I don't think I'm equiped to handle this job. I'll pass."

Still, you make a good point.

 

Well yea. I'm a bit surprised as well....however, not at the lack of the word "full" in the statement. "Sorta" is an apt description.