 18 Sep 2005 @ 11:10, by Max Tobin
Maybe they did not want to save anyone after all?
It seems more important who you know and not what you have done, rather what you claim to have done seems to be enough as long as there are friends in all the right places (see how they run away when the mud gets between the toes).
Until the manure hits the ventilator!!!! But then its merely time to be the sacrifical donkey (hey is that a tail you are pinning on me) and move on to even greener pastures. (I guess back to the Arabian Horse Association is one option!)
It would merely be a big joke if not for the millions dispossesed experiencing very real earth changes to help them remember the need for a greater harmony on the planet. And then along comes the Duct Tape Expert to finish the job?
As long as people feel so disempowered that they seek to control the rest of the world before seeking their own inner light /dark balance (integrity = internal integration), then we will continue to experience the balanced force of the oneness as beyond us and not to be understood. The Creator has not yet finished the work of creation and we humans are the engine of the dominant (domination and dominion have the same root) vehicle currently in fashion on Gaia. One wonders where this journey may take us next.
The lessons are like a massive layer cake piled one on top of the other, however, I sense that in the chaos of these events many will forget that there is no real nourishment in cake, but it tastes good while you reflect on the needs of the moment and ask the only (IMHO) real question that emerges, "What is for the highest and Best good of All" and we is talking about more than human needs now by George....
Read the Articles....
Disaster response chief quits after Katrina
13.09.05 12.20pm UPDATE
By Michael Christie
The director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency Michael Brown resigned today after being recalled to Washington amid criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
In an apparent nod to demands that Brown be replaced by someone with experience in emergency response, President George W. Bush replaced Brown with David Paulison, a veteran firefighter who now runs FEMA's preparedness division.
Paulison was also the Homeland Security official who urged Americans to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting in 2003 to protect against a biological or chemical attack, a recommendation that was widely ridiculed in the media.
Brown, who was widely criticised for a slow federal response to the devastating Hurricane Katrina, resigned effective immediately.
"Today I resigned as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency," said Brown, who ran the organisation since 2003. "As I told the president, it is important that I leave now to avoid further distraction from the ongoing mission of FEMA."
In an ABC News interview, Brown defended the agency's response to the crisis and said the United States needed to have a debate about FEMA's role in national emergencies.
"We're not a first responder agency. We're there to coordinate and help people prepare and coordinate in times of disaster. And so if the country wants us to be more, then we should have a great public policy debate whether that's true or not," Brown said.
Brown was pulled out of Gulf Coast operations on Friday and replaced on the ground with Vice Admiral Thad Allen of the US Coast Guard.
Bush had praised Brown for doing a "heck of a job" in the first days of the disaster that killed hundreds in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and displaced 1 million people. He later was pressed by Democrats and others to fire Brown.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush discussed Brown's resignation with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on the way home from visiting the Gulf Coast area.
"The president appreciates Mike Brown's service," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. "This was Mike Brown's decision. This was a decision he made."
Shortly after Brown's resignation, Bush named Paulison, the former Miami fire chief with 30 years of fire rescue service experience, as acting FEMA director.
Chertoff said Brown had done "everything he possibly could" to respond to the hurricane and flood in New Orleans. He also said he would name more people to senior positions at the agency in the coming days.
Brown was a close friend of Joe Allbaugh, the previous FEMA head who was Bush's chief of staff when he was Governor of Texas, and the National Campaign Manager for Bush's 2000 election campaign.
Brown served as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association before joining FEMA in 2001. He has been accused of exaggerating his background in disaster relief in his official biography and resume.
Democrats praised the change but said the administration needed to ensure that the country was capable of responding to another major disaster.
Republicans in Congress have initiated an investigation into what went wrong with the government's initial response to Katrina.
Disaster chief's experience overstated record, says Time
10.09.05
WASHINGTON - Top US disaster official Michael Brown, under fire over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, cited prior emergency-management experience in an official biography but his duties were "more like an intern," Time magazine reported.
Brown's biography on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website says he had once served as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight," and a White House news release in 2001 said Brown had worked for the city of Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970s "overseeing the emergency-services division."
However, a city spokeswoman told the magazine Brown had actually worked as "an assistant to the city manager."
"The assistant is more like an intern," Claudia Deakins told the magazine. "Department heads did not report to him." Time posted the article on its website late on Thursday.
Brown, a lawyer, was appointed as FEMA's general counsel in 2001 and became head of the agency in 2003. The work in Edmond is the only previous disaster-related experience cited in the biographies. Brown served as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association before taking the FEMA job.
US Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, had cited Brown's Edmond experience as "particularly useful" for FEMA during a hearing in 2002.
Critics, including some Republicans, have blasted Brown for delays and missteps in the federal government's response to Katrina's deadly and devastating assault on New Orleans and the US Gulf Coast last week. Some have demanded his ouster.
Bush last week gave Brown a word of support, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
This week, Bush put the US Coast Guard's chief of staff in charge of the federal recovery effort in New Orleans and gave Vice President Dick Cheney the job of cutting through bureaucratic delays.
BUSH TIES
The Washington Post reported on Friday that five of eight top FEMA officials had come to their jobs with virtually no experience in handling disasters. The agency's top three leaders, including Brown, had ties to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or the White House advance operation.
Former Edmond city manager Bill Dashner recalled for Time that Brown had worked for him as an administrative assistant while attending Central State University.
"Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt," Dashner told Time.
Edmond's population is about 70,000.
In response to the Time report, FEMA issued a statement that took issue with elements related to an unofficial biography, and described his job in Edmond as "assistant to the city manager."
Brown "remains focused on helping Americans through the worst natural disaster in history," FEMA said.
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