Katrina Aftermath 2006

If this ain't an appropiate photo, what is?

AP bit on this

The problem now is that we have so many fuck-ups to confront Bush about that it's almost hard to focus.

Collins told Chertoff "I remain perplexed" about his decision to designate Michael Brown, then chairman of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, as point man on coordinating the government's response to Katrina.

Brown, widely criticized for his performance, resigned under pressure soon after. He later accused others in the administration, including White House officials and Chertoff, of dragging their feet and ignoring his warnings of widespread flooding in New Orleans the storm hit.

Chertoff said there was "no reason to doubt his commitment."

"If I knew then what I know now about Mr. Brown's agenda, I would have done something different," Chertoff added.

He reiterated earlier statements that he did not realize that levees in New Orleans had been breached on the day of the storm — despite Brown's claims to the contrary.

"When I went to bed, it was my belief ... that actually the storm had not done the worst that could be imagined," Chertoff said.

See the buck, see the buck passed.

The other day a read an MSNBC article that took the tone of "FEMA wasted TOO much money on aid! They bought more trailers than were necessary, and then those black people bought hand guns and diamond rings with their 2k checks!" But when I tried to find it the next day it had been reined in (although, while it mentioned that there are unused FEMA trailers "sinking in the mud" somewhere, it didn't specify that there are people out there that are still waiting for their temporary housing).

Right now, I would much rather be reading articles about plans for the levees or rebuilding than about blame.

There two censuses (?) done on the bodies which were recovered. 874 bodies were found (the number did not include people found to have died in hospitals), and there's something around 6,000 still missing. The still missing number is due to a whole bumch of stuff: some of them are probably dead, others simply haven't reported themselves found and others would probably choose to not be found (outstanding warrants, child support payments, taxes, etc). There were a lot of interesting things found in the census: for instance, the only statistical outlier of victims is that they were typically elderly (which is to be expected in virtually any disaster). Blacks also did not die disproportionally to whites, nor did rich people die disproportionally to poor. In fact, according to Knight Ridder's census (based on roughly 500 victims), 44 percent of those killed by Katrina were white. Only 36% of the population living in the area before the hurricane were caucasian.

No census has been done on those missing, but given the general rules of polling, one would assume that a sample size greater than a 1/10th (assuming every missing person died) would find similar results.

Here's an article on the census(es?) following their release last month:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/13531514.htm

or is he eternally fucked as a seriously unqualified guy who lucked into a cushy yet critical public job, and never took it upon himself to leave due to that lack of qualifications?

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060308/capt.293965a70c664280b21589277431a857.bush_mscd106.jpg?x=380&y=311&sig=eHlb3BUnR_vDg7NjqvLATA-- http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060308/capt.3dc61e5050094f8bafa4aa09d7e9f6ea.aptopix_bush_mscd102.jpg?x=380&y=259&sig=jMox4jeXwuT2oDV13AwqTg-- http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20060308/capt.460c5837e966495fb462f02d077abe3d.bush_mscd101.jpg?x=380&y=253&sig=bx0h._4IcNkgQf2eUHzF5Q--

P.Krug: Broken Promises

Last September President Bush stood in New Orleans, where the lights had just come on for the first time since Katrina struck, and promised “one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.” Then he left, and the lights went out again.

What happened next was a replay of what happened after Mr. Bush asked Congress to allocate $18 billion for Iraqi reconstruction. In the months that followed, congressmen who visited Iraq returned with glowing accounts of all the wonderful things we were doing there, like repainting schools and, um, repainting schools.

But when the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was running Iraq, closed up shop nine months later, it turned out that only 2 percent of the $18 billion had been spent, and only a handful of the projects that were supposed to have been financed with that money had even been started. In the end, America failed to deliver even the most basic repair of Iraq’s infrastructure; today, Baghdad gets less than seven hours of electricity a day.

And so it is along our own Gulf Coast. The Bush administration likes to talk about all the money it has allocated to the region, and it plans a public relations blitz to persuade America that it’s doing a heck of a job aiding Katrina’s victims. But as the Iraqis learned, allocating money and actually using it for reconstruction are two different things, and so far the administration has done almost nothing to make good on last year’s promises.

It’s true that tens of billions have been spent on emergency relief and cleanup. But even the cleanup remains incomplete: almost a third of the hurricane debris in New Orleans has yet to be removed. And the process of going beyond cleanup to actual reconstruction has barely begun.

For example, although Congress allocated $17 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for Katrina relief, primarily to provide cash assistance to homeowners, as of last week the department had spent only $100 million. The first Louisiana homeowners finally received checks under a federally financed program just three days ago. Mississippi, which has a similar program, has sent out only about two dozen checks so far.

Local governments, which were promised aid in rebuilding facilities such as fire stations and sewer systems, have fared little better in actually getting that aid. A recent article in The National Journal describes a Kafkaesque situation in which devastated towns and parishes seeking federal funds have been told to jump through complex hoops, spending time and money they don’t have on things like proving that felled trees were actually knocked down by Katrina, only to face demands for even more paperwork.

Apologists for the administration will doubtless claim that blame for the lack of progress rests not with Mr. Bush, but with the inherent inefficiency of government bureaucracies. That’s the great thing about being an antigovernment conservative: even when you fail at the task of governing, you can claim vindication for your ideology.

But bureaucracies don’t have to be this inefficient. The failure to get moving on reconstruction reflects lack of leadership at the top.

Mr. Bush could have moved quickly to turn his promises of reconstruction into reality. But he didn’t. As months dragged by with little sign of White House action, all urgency about developing a plan for reconstruction ebbed away.

Mr. Bush could have appointed someone visible and energetic to oversee the Gulf Coast’s recovery, someone who could act as an advocate for families and local governments in need of help. But he didn’t.. How many people can even name the supposed reconstruction “czar”?

Mr. Bush could have tried to fix FEMA, the agency whose effectiveness he destroyed through cronyism and privatization. But he didn’t. FEMA remains a demoralized organization, unable to replenish its ranks: it currently has fewer than 84 percent of its authorized personnel.

Maybe the aid promised to the gulf region will actually arrive some day. But by then it will probably be too late. Many former residents and small-business owners, tired of waiting for help that never comes, will have permanently relocated elsewhere; those businesses that stayed open, or reopened after the storm, will have gone under for lack of customers. In America as in Iraq, reconstruction delayed is reconstruction denied — and Mr. Bush has, once again, broken a promise.

“I’ve seen nothing like this before,” says former FEMA administrator Michael Brown, now leader of his own consultancy. He visited Dyn-O-Mat on June 1 to consider possible joint ventures. “I think the potential is very intriguing,” he adds. “I think it deserves a further look.”

This is why you shouldn't come up with company names when you and your drunken buddies are sitting around playing xbox

The levees were supposed to check nature’s destructive power in New Orleans, and the Army Corps of Engineers has said that they failed due to (mostly) unforeseen circumstances

YA - WHO THE FUCK SAW THAT ONE COMING?!
So basically he's saying GW & NO were the victims of unforeseeable events.
And here i thought it was compete and total incompetence. Silly me.

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who lost his job because of Hurricane Katrina, said Tuesday his biggest regret a year later is that he wasn't candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.

"There was no plan. ... Three years ago, we should have done catastrophic planning," Brown said, charging that the Bush administration and his department head, Michael Chertoff, "would not give me the money to do that kind of planning."

As levees broke down at Katrina's strike against New Orleans and people were forced from their homes, Brown said he sought futilely to get the 82nd Airborne Division into the city quickly.

Appearing on NBC's Today show, he was asked about positive statements he had made at the time about how Washington would come through for the storm victims, rather than leveling with the country about how bad the situation actually was.

"Those were White House talking points," Brown replied. "And to this day, I think that was my biggest mistake."

Brown said that at many intervals during the week the storm hit, he found himself asking, "Where in the hell is the help?"

"I have to confess ... you want to protect the president when you're a political appointee," he said, "so you're torn between telling the absolute truth and relying on those talking points. To this day, that is my biggest regret. "

Brown said he had been made the scapegoat for the government's slow response "because I'm the low man on the totem pole." He said he thought that President Bush and Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, should have shared in the blame.

He denied that he lacked qualifications to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

I want to go home to Chicago!!!!!

Oh Kudlow, you japester.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/nfl/images/060513bush.jpg

So, how's that rebuilding process going? What?! - Resources are STILL tied up in that doomed war in Iraq? Oh, I see...