THE PROGRESS REPORT
by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, and Christy Harvey
September 7, 2005
KATRINA
FEMA's Failures
KATRINA
Bush Pledges to Investigate Himself
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print
KATRINA
FEMA's Failures
The more you know about the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, the worse it gets. Last night, the Associated Press reported that FEMA Director Michael Brown "waited hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security workers into the region to support rescuers." According to internal documents obtained by the AP, Brown specified that part of the workers mission would be to "'convey a positive image' about the government's response for victims" to the public. While it was sent five hours after the storm hit, Brown's letter lacked any sense of urgency -- he requested the workers arrive within two days. The letter politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities." Last week, President Bush praised Brown's efforts, telling him "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."
TOP FEMA DEPUTIES MAKE BROWN LOOK QUALIFIED: Before joining FEMA, Brown "spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado." (Brown was forced out "after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.") Brown's top deputies, however, make him look qualified. The number two at FEMA, Chief of Staff Patrick Rhode, was an event planner ("advance man") for Bush's presidential campaign. He had absolutely no emergency management experience before joining FEMA. The number three at FEMA, Deputy Chief of Staff Scott Morris, was a press flak at the Bush campaign. He previously worked for Maverick Media, the firm that produced TV spots for Bush's campaigns. Morris also has no emergency management experience. In contrast, the top deputies of Clinton-era FEMA Director James Lee Witt ran regional FEMA offices for at least three years before assuming senior positions in Washington."
FEMA DIVERTS VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS TO SERVE AS BACKDROP FOR BUSH: Responding to an urgent plea from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, more than a thousand firefighters volunteered to travel to Louisiana to help out. The firefighters thought they were "going to be deployed as emergency workers," but FEMA decided to use them as "community-relations officers." Many of them spent their time passing out fliers with the FEMA phone number. (Shelly Miller, a Mississippi resident whose trailer was severely damaged in the storm, said, "We tried calling FEMA. You can’t get through on the phone lines.") For 50 of the firefighters, their first assignment was "to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas." Many firefighters expressed their disappointment with their role. FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak said any firefighter that criticized the agency should "revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country."
FEMA COVERS ITS TRACKS: FEMA's slow and incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina put thousands of people in danger. The agency doesn't want the public to see the human devastation. An agency spokeswoman said, "We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media." FEMA also rejected "journalists' requests to accompany rescue boats searching for storm victims."
KATRINA
Bush Pledges to Investigate Himself
President Bush announced yesterday that he will conduct an investigation into "what went wrong" with his own administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Though "the call for an investigation was unusual coming from a president who rarely admits mistakes," many saw the announcement for what it was: a public relations stunt meant to relieve the administration from the "relentless political fire over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina." Bush's remarks led to concern that the White House self-analysis will merely be a form of the "blame game" that the White House publicly rebukes -- that is, an effort to place blame on state and local officials for the slow response.
BUSH PLEDGES TO INVESTIGATE HIMSELF: Press Secretary Scott McClellan, following up on the president's comments about investigating what went wrong, said, "We're going to have a thorough analysis of the response efforts." The White House's announcement amounted to little more than a public relations stunt, given that McClellan was unable to provide any specifics as to how the investigation will be conducted. In fact, the White House was able to provide more information about actions that will not be taken. McClellan tamped down any expectation that the "thorough analysis" would be conducted anytime soon; he said, "now is not the time to do that." Also, "McClellan was unclear about whether Bush would look into his own actions and vague about ... how the investigation would start, and rejected questions about whether the president should fire anyone responsible for the problems."
WHITE HOUSE PLAYING ITS OWN BLAME GAME: The White House continued to suggest that blame for the "woefully inadequate" response to Hurricane Katrina lies at the feet of state and local officials. Last weekend, the New York Times reported on an orchestrated effort being led by Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett that "sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials." The Financial Times reported that Bush took a step in that direction yesterday, suggesting "'bureaucratic obstacles' from state and local officials were partly to blame." But when the questions turned to White House accountability, Bush said he refused to play "the blame game" that others want him to play (and McClellan repeated that talking point at least six times at the press briefing). CNN commentator Jack Cafferty cut through the spin: "Why are we talking about the 'blame game' -- there are thousands of people dead because government officials failed to do what they're supposed to be doing. That's criminal behavior. I mean, that's no game."
CALL FOR INDEPENDENT COMMISSION: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate government lapses in an effort to ensure the proper lessons have been learned. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) echoed the call for something "comparable to the 9/11 Commission." Former 9/11 Commission member Tim Roemer said the federal government's response was "inexcusable" and similarly called for the formation of "a commission to look into the mistakes." The White House initially rejected calls for the creation of a 9/11 Commission, proffering a familiar complaint that it would become a forum for "finger-pointing," as Ari Fleischer stated in the 10/11/02 White House press briefing. Similarly, Bush is again resisting calls for the creation of such a Katrina commission out a desire to avoid "finger pointing or politics," but is instead dispatching Vice President Cheney to the Gulf Coast region to relieve concerns that lessons are being learned. Bush said that deploying Cheney (who has been missing in action), a move which the Los Angeles Times sarcastically heralded as a sign that now we know Bush is serious, will help him determine whether he is meeting his goals.
Under the Radar
VALUES -- SANTORUM JOINS THE LIST OF NON-COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES: In a weekend interview, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) said Hurricane Katrina victims who stayed behind may need to need to be subject to greater penalties than they are already experiencing. Santorum said, "There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving." Santorum failed to understand that many who stayed behind lacked "a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time." Yesterday, Santorum amended his proposal for tougher penalties, suggesting those who lacked cars or other resources would be exempt. Santorum's lack of compassion for hurricane victims is the latest in a line that has come from right-wingers, including Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Hastert, Michael Chertoff, and Michael Brown.
IRAQ -- NUMBER OF AMERICANS FAVORING DISENGAGEMENT CONTINUES TO GROW: Two separate Gallup polls show Americans continuing to sour on the Bush administration's "stay the course" mantra. "Perhaps most revealing," Editor and Publisher writes, "was a new poll which asked 1,007 Americans, 'If you could talk with President Bush for 15 minutes about the situation in Iraq, what would you, personally, advise him to do?'" The poll found that 41 percent said they would tell him to pull troops out of Iraq and end our involvement there -- more than double the second place choice (18 percent), which was to "to finish what we started or be more aggressive." Another Gallup poll "found that 53% of Americans favor a reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq," including 26 percent who prefer withdrawing all troops.
ADMINISTRATION -- "OPERATION BLESSING" IN DISGUISE: Americans who visited FEMA's website in search of relief organizations last week found the group "Operation Blessing" listed right below the American Red Cross. Operation Blessing is the "aid" group run by televangelist Pat Robertson. As one might guess, the group's reputation is as respectable as its figurehead. "Back in 1994," the New York Sun reports, "during the infamous Rwandan genocide, Robertson used his 700 Club's daily cable operation to appeal to the American public for donations to fly humanitarian supplies into Zaire to save the Rwandan refugees." Relief supplies weren't the only thing the Operation Blessing planes were ferrying. "An investigation conducted by the Virginia attorney general's office concluded in 1999 that the planes were mostly used to transport mining equipment for a diamond operation run by a for-profit company called African Development Corp." Operation Blessing was removed from FEMA's website a few days ago.
IRAQ -- EUROPEANS' HEARTS AND MINDS ARE UNCHANGED ABOUT BUSH POLICIES: The Washington Post reports that President Bush's fence-mending efforts with Europe in his second term have not achieved many results. Despite making four trips to Europe, a new poll taken in 10 European countries finds that "Bush's foreign policy is just as unpopular across the Atlantic as it was a year ago." The survey, conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, indicated 62 percent of Europeans disapprove of Bush's foreign policies and 59 percent believe the U.S.'s leadership in global affairs is undesirable.
September 7, 2005
KATRINA
FEMA's Failures
KATRINA
Bush Pledges to Investigate Himself
UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print
KATRINA
FEMA's Failures
The more you know about the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, the worse it gets. Last night, the Associated Press reported that FEMA Director Michael Brown "waited hours after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast before he proposed to his boss sending at least 1,000 Homeland Security workers into the region to support rescuers." According to internal documents obtained by the AP, Brown specified that part of the workers mission would be to "'convey a positive image' about the government's response for victims" to the public. While it was sent five hours after the storm hit, Brown's letter lacked any sense of urgency -- he requested the workers arrive within two days. The letter politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities." Last week, President Bush praised Brown's efforts, telling him "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."
TOP FEMA DEPUTIES MAKE BROWN LOOK QUALIFIED: Before joining FEMA, Brown "spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado." (Brown was forced out "after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.") Brown's top deputies, however, make him look qualified. The number two at FEMA, Chief of Staff Patrick Rhode, was an event planner ("advance man") for Bush's presidential campaign. He had absolutely no emergency management experience before joining FEMA. The number three at FEMA, Deputy Chief of Staff Scott Morris, was a press flak at the Bush campaign. He previously worked for Maverick Media, the firm that produced TV spots for Bush's campaigns. Morris also has no emergency management experience. In contrast, the top deputies of Clinton-era FEMA Director James Lee Witt ran regional FEMA offices for at least three years before assuming senior positions in Washington."
FEMA DIVERTS VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS TO SERVE AS BACKDROP FOR BUSH: Responding to an urgent plea from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, more than a thousand firefighters volunteered to travel to Louisiana to help out. The firefighters thought they were "going to be deployed as emergency workers," but FEMA decided to use them as "community-relations officers." Many of them spent their time passing out fliers with the FEMA phone number. (Shelly Miller, a Mississippi resident whose trailer was severely damaged in the storm, said, "We tried calling FEMA. You can’t get through on the phone lines.") For 50 of the firefighters, their first assignment was "to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas." Many firefighters expressed their disappointment with their role. FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak said any firefighter that criticized the agency should "revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country."
FEMA COVERS ITS TRACKS: FEMA's slow and incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina put thousands of people in danger. The agency doesn't want the public to see the human devastation. An agency spokeswoman said, "We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media." FEMA also rejected "journalists' requests to accompany rescue boats searching for storm victims."
KATRINA
Bush Pledges to Investigate Himself
President Bush announced yesterday that he will conduct an investigation into "what went wrong" with his own administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. Though "the call for an investigation was unusual coming from a president who rarely admits mistakes," many saw the announcement for what it was: a public relations stunt meant to relieve the administration from the "relentless political fire over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina." Bush's remarks led to concern that the White House self-analysis will merely be a form of the "blame game" that the White House publicly rebukes -- that is, an effort to place blame on state and local officials for the slow response.
BUSH PLEDGES TO INVESTIGATE HIMSELF: Press Secretary Scott McClellan, following up on the president's comments about investigating what went wrong, said, "We're going to have a thorough analysis of the response efforts." The White House's announcement amounted to little more than a public relations stunt, given that McClellan was unable to provide any specifics as to how the investigation will be conducted. In fact, the White House was able to provide more information about actions that will not be taken. McClellan tamped down any expectation that the "thorough analysis" would be conducted anytime soon; he said, "now is not the time to do that." Also, "McClellan was unclear about whether Bush would look into his own actions and vague about ... how the investigation would start, and rejected questions about whether the president should fire anyone responsible for the problems."
WHITE HOUSE PLAYING ITS OWN BLAME GAME: The White House continued to suggest that blame for the "woefully inadequate" response to Hurricane Katrina lies at the feet of state and local officials. Last weekend, the New York Times reported on an orchestrated effort being led by Karl Rove and Dan Bartlett that "sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials." The Financial Times reported that Bush took a step in that direction yesterday, suggesting "'bureaucratic obstacles' from state and local officials were partly to blame." But when the questions turned to White House accountability, Bush said he refused to play "the blame game" that others want him to play (and McClellan repeated that talking point at least six times at the press briefing). CNN commentator Jack Cafferty cut through the spin: "Why are we talking about the 'blame game' -- there are thousands of people dead because government officials failed to do what they're supposed to be doing. That's criminal behavior. I mean, that's no game."
CALL FOR INDEPENDENT COMMISSION: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) called for the creation of an independent commission to investigate government lapses in an effort to ensure the proper lessons have been learned. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) echoed the call for something "comparable to the 9/11 Commission." Former 9/11 Commission member Tim Roemer said the federal government's response was "inexcusable" and similarly called for the formation of "a commission to look into the mistakes." The White House initially rejected calls for the creation of a 9/11 Commission, proffering a familiar complaint that it would become a forum for "finger-pointing," as Ari Fleischer stated in the 10/11/02 White House press briefing. Similarly, Bush is again resisting calls for the creation of such a Katrina commission out a desire to avoid "finger pointing or politics," but is instead dispatching Vice President Cheney to the Gulf Coast region to relieve concerns that lessons are being learned. Bush said that deploying Cheney (who has been missing in action), a move which the Los Angeles Times sarcastically heralded as a sign that now we know Bush is serious, will help him determine whether he is meeting his goals.
Under the Radar
VALUES -- SANTORUM JOINS THE LIST OF NON-COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES: In a weekend interview, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) said Hurricane Katrina victims who stayed behind may need to need to be subject to greater penalties than they are already experiencing. Santorum said, "There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving." Santorum failed to understand that many who stayed behind lacked "a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time." Yesterday, Santorum amended his proposal for tougher penalties, suggesting those who lacked cars or other resources would be exempt. Santorum's lack of compassion for hurricane victims is the latest in a line that has come from right-wingers, including Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Hastert, Michael Chertoff, and Michael Brown.
IRAQ -- NUMBER OF AMERICANS FAVORING DISENGAGEMENT CONTINUES TO GROW: Two separate Gallup polls show Americans continuing to sour on the Bush administration's "stay the course" mantra. "Perhaps most revealing," Editor and Publisher writes, "was a new poll which asked 1,007 Americans, 'If you could talk with President Bush for 15 minutes about the situation in Iraq, what would you, personally, advise him to do?'" The poll found that 41 percent said they would tell him to pull troops out of Iraq and end our involvement there -- more than double the second place choice (18 percent), which was to "to finish what we started or be more aggressive." Another Gallup poll "found that 53% of Americans favor a reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq," including 26 percent who prefer withdrawing all troops.
ADMINISTRATION -- "OPERATION BLESSING" IN DISGUISE: Americans who visited FEMA's website in search of relief organizations last week found the group "Operation Blessing" listed right below the American Red Cross. Operation Blessing is the "aid" group run by televangelist Pat Robertson. As one might guess, the group's reputation is as respectable as its figurehead. "Back in 1994," the New York Sun reports, "during the infamous Rwandan genocide, Robertson used his 700 Club's daily cable operation to appeal to the American public for donations to fly humanitarian supplies into Zaire to save the Rwandan refugees." Relief supplies weren't the only thing the Operation Blessing planes were ferrying. "An investigation conducted by the Virginia attorney general's office concluded in 1999 that the planes were mostly used to transport mining equipment for a diamond operation run by a for-profit company called African Development Corp." Operation Blessing was removed from FEMA's website a few days ago.
IRAQ -- EUROPEANS' HEARTS AND MINDS ARE UNCHANGED ABOUT BUSH POLICIES: The Washington Post reports that President Bush's fence-mending efforts with Europe in his second term have not achieved many results. Despite making four trips to Europe, a new poll taken in 10 European countries finds that "Bush's foreign policy is just as unpopular across the Atlantic as it was a year ago." The survey, conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, indicated 62 percent of Europeans disapprove of Bush's foreign policies and 59 percent believe the U.S.'s leadership in global affairs is undesirable.
posted by T. Scott Brineman | 9:27 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home