I Am, Therefore I Think: Wow, That Was Fast!

Wow, That Was Fast!

(Get it? Mardi Gras, Lent, fast. Ha ha. Okay, bad pun.)

The Michael Brown interview hyped on NBC Nightly News has already been discredited, and it hasn't even been broadcast in its entirety. It looks like the blogosphere now moves faster than the speed of light!

Some simple facts:

FEMA is a management agency, not a response agency. State and local agencies, not FEMA, are supposed to be the first responders in a large-scale emergency.
Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco told President Bush, incorrectly, that there were no confirmed reports of levee breaches: "We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time."
The levees were built by the Army Corps of Engineers. The state of Louisiana was responsible for their maintenance.

Conclusions:

Kathleen Blanco was supposed to know more than Michael Brown about the condition of the levees, because her state's government was responsible for them.
Michael Brown acted improperly as FEMA director, by treating it as a first responder in Hurricane Katrina.
I find it difficult to hold President Bush culpable for making any judgment call, based on information from people who were so obviously out of their depth, figuratively and literally. The only fault I can find against Bush is that he nominated Brown in the first place.

The MSM have latched onto the story already, only to find it DOA. It doesn't help when Margaret Ebrahim (Mary Mapes' partner in crime) is banging the wrong drum again. Her BDS runs pretty deep.

(H/T: Drudge, Little Green Footballs)

Posted on 03/03/2006 at 02:44:44 AM EST.

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Technorati Tags: fema, hurricane katrina, kathleen blanco, levees, michael brown, president bush

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The Soapbox

Shamoo
03/05/2006 at 12:53:38 AM EST

I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to find a smart, even wise way to adress the, uh-hum, B.S.
of the advice goddess or goddess of advice, whatever she calls herself at pajamasmedia.com. So, I used a quote from you. I also copied and pasted http://gus3.typepad.com/i_am_therefore_i_think/2006/03/wow_that_was_fa.html with my post.
Then I told her that as long as people keep letting the media keep covering-up for Blanco & Nagin, so they use their own CYA tricks, the longer those people are going to prolong the lies. (not an exact quote, since I can't remember exactly what I said.) Anyway, thanks for the ammo. It's always easier to fight such crap with smart facts. K

gus3
03/05/2006 at 08:12:40 AM EST

Thanks. A URL would have been nice. Don't worry, I found it:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=2566

Your own bullhorn (approval required to counteract spammers)

Wow, That Was Fast!

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