Michael Brown, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) director said :
"Those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates."
I guess what he means is that the indigent poor in New Orleans, those stupid bastards who voluntarily chose not to own any means of transportation of their own, when informed of the advent of the hurricane, should immediately have rushed to the bank, obtained loans for buying new cars, sold off all their worldly possessions in order to buy gas for those cars and left for someplace else, without knowing where the fuck they were going, or where the fuck they were going to stay. Boy, those suicidal idiots really deserved to die.
Later, on being asked the exact same question by reporters, although in polite terms, he backed off from his earlier douchebaggery by saying :
"Now is not the time to be blaming," Brown said. "Now is the time to recognize that whether they chose to evacuate or chose not to evacuate, we have to help them."
Jesus, thanks Michael, we are really grateful you feel that way, considering, you know, that is actually your fucking job.
But Michael Brown's incompetence in that respect is not really surprising. He's just one of President Bush's appointees who benefited from this administrations often followed protocol of chronyism. According to the Chicago Tribune, before ascending to this most important of positions as head of FEMA, which is responsible for being the first to respond to every kind of disaster, right from hurricanes to terrorism, Brown was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association (Wtf?), a Colorado-based group that organizes breeders and horse shows, a position from which he was asked to resign.
"He didn't follow the instructions he was given," then-IAHA President William Pennington confirmed Saturday"
Funnily enough, Brown's own resume posted on the FEMA website omits any mention of this period in his professional career. Not that I blame him. Who amongst us hasn't fudged our resume here and there? Although to be fair, none of us resume-fudgers would be responsible for saving thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of lives in case of a catastrophe. But the real tragedy here is, knowing President Bush's Seinfeldian policy of promoting people who fail miserably at their jobs, I guess for Michael Brown's career in public service, the sky's the limit.
Update : Time magazine corroborates my theory that Brown's resume was fudged and gives more instances.
6 comments:
Friggin' spammers.
Someone needs to keep a list of every politician, every gov't official, who had the nerve and audacity to lie to the public about this tragedy, so that when we get done sorting out the relief efforts, we know who to demand the resignation of.
If anyone of them had any shred of integrity they'd resign so that we can replace them with someone competent.
I can't even believe these people are saying they couldn't have known the levees would break, or they didn't know people were trapped in the convention center ... lies, damn lies. This administration has been shirking responsibility for anything and everything ... its time for the American public to demand accountability of its elected officials.
gawker
great incisive poist. didnt know that he was such a bastard useless asshole. after reading what u write, i did a quick googl(i)e on him and came up with a lot of disturbing news.
Where do they pick such assholes from. Even some of our Indian politicians who are otherwise very bad would be better than these suited booted dumbasses.
Its funny that the US has so much accountability in the professionl and corporate sector...but zilch when it comes to public life and public service. It baffles me.
The President is dumb, the VP is a crook, many in the White House (Karl Rowe)would be labelled criminals in most societies, and the american people still elect them.
oops...sorry for the typos.
Its funny that the US has so much accountability in the professionl and corporate sector
I don't believe we have a lot of corporate accountability. This administration has resisted efforts to impose greater penalities for corporate malfeasance even in the wake of Enron, Tyco, Arther Anderson, WorldCome, AOL-Time Warner, and most recently KPMG.
Heck, the energy bill had a provision funding the start-up of a new energy company by three former Enron execs which leaves the tax payer with the bill if the company defaults on its loan.
money (or pursuit of, etc) seems to be the only thing to be accountable for these days.
arzan : thanks. As hume's ghost said, in this poisoned atmosphere, there is virtually no sphere of human activity in which there remains any semblance of accountability.
DD : Whats funny is that the president's approval rating hasn't been affected by this.
lumi : yeah ... although the big fish never seem to be held accountable for anything
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