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September 05, 2005

The Excuse Game ramps up

Scott Shane of the NYT has a very good article about the fallout after Hurricane Katrina devestated New Orleans and the absurdly slow and frequently counterproductive "emergency" response from the federal government.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff conceeded that in the future federal authorities need to take "more of an upfront role earlier on, when we have these truly ultracatastrophes."

State and local authorities insist that the problem was with FEMA, which is part of Chertoff's department.

"We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."

Meanwhile, Senator Clinton said that she intends to introduce legislation to remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restore its previous status as an independent agency with cabinet-level status.

For his part Chertoff tried to deflect the criticism of himself, his department and FEMA by saying there would be time later to decide what went wrong.

"Whatever the criticisms and the after-action report may be about what was right and what was wrong looking back, what would be a horrible tragedy would be to distract ourselves from avoiding further problems because we're spending time talking about problems that have already occurred," he told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" on NBC.

Hey, Asswipe... the hurricane season isn't over yet! The Gulf Coast can NOT afford a repeat performance of your department's Keystone Cops (not the least bit funny) comedy of errors!

On Saturday FEMA officials ordered the friggin' EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS PHONELINE of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans, to be cut. CUT!!!

The Sheriff of Jefferson Parish had to send armed guards to restore the line and to physically prevent FEMA asswipes from cutting it again, according to Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish.

Someone damn well needs to be fired and soon!

Posted by Kevin at September 5, 2005 11:04 AM