Katrina the Saga Continues
A day doesn't seem to go by that I'm amazed at the ineptitude of the aftermath of Katrina and I don't mean what the storm did, but what our government does or rather doesn't do.
We've just had a GAO report come out that reports that FEMA wasted untold millions of dollars. Untold because they are still counting it up. A soon to be released investigative report from the House of Representatives has already let slip that virtually everyone who had any sort of leadership during the storm failed at providing that leadership. Surprising the report that was conducted by Republicans was honest and direct at passing the blame around to include much of the administration.
From the GAO report one appalling aspect was that in Hope, Arkansas right now sit nearly 11,000 mobile homes that are basically sinking into the ground as they await FEMA's disposition. FEMA won't allow them to be placed in a flood plain (somewhat understandable) but apparently will let them sit on a field that can't support the weight of all those homes. The price of these homes? $301.7 million. Meanwhile evacuees are being put out of their hotels, in many places into homeless shelters while the mobile homes sit empty and sinking. Note to FEMA, mobile means they can be moved!
As far as the Congressional report plenty of criticism goes to Homeland Security (does anyone believe those two words belong together anymore?) Director Michael Chertoff. I've believed this as well since days after the storm hit. Chertoff it will be remembered decided that giving a speech in Atlanta the day after the levees broke was more important than getting involved in Katrina. Today Chertoff is to be hotly questioned before a Congressional committee. I wonder what bullcrap he's going to use to explain his lack of leadership.
I watched most of Michael Brown's testimony last week and came away with two major impressions. First, that although he was responsible for some mistakes and has admitted so, he has until this point in time been the "designated scapegoat" as one senator put it. The other thing that caught my attention was that he testified that he was in contact several times to the Bush ranch in Crawford where Bush was vacationing at the time. It is rediculous for the president or the White House to claim they didn't have any information about the levee problems and flooding.
Bufoonery! If there was any reason that trumps others to impeach Bush, the handling of Katrina is it. And considering the massive disapproval Bush received across the country and around the world in the days and weeks following Katrina you would think that they would be spending much time on ensuring more acts of stupidity don't continue as the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast attempts to begin. Yet, that doesn't seem to be the case as noted above with the mobile homes sitting unused. As well, the rebuilding has been going slow and we're a few months from hurricane season again. It was recently reported that only about a third of the refuse has been carted away in New Orleans, might as well wait for another hurricane to come along and blow those huge heaps away. And forget about levees, they've got no chance to improve them to category 5 hurricane for this season.
New Orleans will never be ready for another hurricane this coming year, there has been too much running in circles led by the inept White House with a Vice President busy shooting his friend while hunting. Oh, wait, I just remembered something. Didn't Bush put Dick Cheney in charge of the Katrina rebuilding? He did, I certainly remember Cheney in one of those photo-ops pointing at a pile of wood looking so concerned and interested. He was photo-oped around for a few days and hasn't been back since. The shooting occured near Corpus Cristi, Texas which is sort of in that region, but I guess he was just too busy spraying his friend with birdshot instead of checking out the Katrina zone for progress. Dick Cheney is just a complete buffoon in the house of buffoonery.
We've just had a GAO report come out that reports that FEMA wasted untold millions of dollars. Untold because they are still counting it up. A soon to be released investigative report from the House of Representatives has already let slip that virtually everyone who had any sort of leadership during the storm failed at providing that leadership. Surprising the report that was conducted by Republicans was honest and direct at passing the blame around to include much of the administration.
From the GAO report one appalling aspect was that in Hope, Arkansas right now sit nearly 11,000 mobile homes that are basically sinking into the ground as they await FEMA's disposition. FEMA won't allow them to be placed in a flood plain (somewhat understandable) but apparently will let them sit on a field that can't support the weight of all those homes. The price of these homes? $301.7 million. Meanwhile evacuees are being put out of their hotels, in many places into homeless shelters while the mobile homes sit empty and sinking. Note to FEMA, mobile means they can be moved!
As far as the Congressional report plenty of criticism goes to Homeland Security (does anyone believe those two words belong together anymore?) Director Michael Chertoff. I've believed this as well since days after the storm hit. Chertoff it will be remembered decided that giving a speech in Atlanta the day after the levees broke was more important than getting involved in Katrina. Today Chertoff is to be hotly questioned before a Congressional committee. I wonder what bullcrap he's going to use to explain his lack of leadership.
I watched most of Michael Brown's testimony last week and came away with two major impressions. First, that although he was responsible for some mistakes and has admitted so, he has until this point in time been the "designated scapegoat" as one senator put it. The other thing that caught my attention was that he testified that he was in contact several times to the Bush ranch in Crawford where Bush was vacationing at the time. It is rediculous for the president or the White House to claim they didn't have any information about the levee problems and flooding.
Bufoonery! If there was any reason that trumps others to impeach Bush, the handling of Katrina is it. And considering the massive disapproval Bush received across the country and around the world in the days and weeks following Katrina you would think that they would be spending much time on ensuring more acts of stupidity don't continue as the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast attempts to begin. Yet, that doesn't seem to be the case as noted above with the mobile homes sitting unused. As well, the rebuilding has been going slow and we're a few months from hurricane season again. It was recently reported that only about a third of the refuse has been carted away in New Orleans, might as well wait for another hurricane to come along and blow those huge heaps away. And forget about levees, they've got no chance to improve them to category 5 hurricane for this season.
New Orleans will never be ready for another hurricane this coming year, there has been too much running in circles led by the inept White House with a Vice President busy shooting his friend while hunting. Oh, wait, I just remembered something. Didn't Bush put Dick Cheney in charge of the Katrina rebuilding? He did, I certainly remember Cheney in one of those photo-ops pointing at a pile of wood looking so concerned and interested. He was photo-oped around for a few days and hasn't been back since. The shooting occured near Corpus Cristi, Texas which is sort of in that region, but I guess he was just too busy spraying his friend with birdshot instead of checking out the Katrina zone for progress. Dick Cheney is just a complete buffoon in the house of buffoonery.
posted by jon at 11:01 AM
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