[Vision2020] 09-01-05 NY Times: Waiting for a Leader

[Andreas Schou]

The parts of this catastrophe which I do not lay at Mother Nature's door, I 
lay at George W.'s. A short chronology, cribbed from Kevin Drum:

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of 
FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush 
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh 
confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal 
disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement 
program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be 
involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an 
appropriate level.

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the 
three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.

December 2003:<http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/12/16/allbaugh.resignation/index.html>After
less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start
up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. 
He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no 
previous experience in disaster management

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into 
the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting 
acts of terrorism

2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and 
planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and 
Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery

Summer 2005: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding 
requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would 
think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program 
called for. We were more than qualified for it.

June 2005: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New 
Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter 
Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the 
president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I 
suppose that's the price we pay.

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is 
the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after 
the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany 
parishes.

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush 
mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark 
Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. 
When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding 
disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, 
defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.

The Bush administration knew that a disaster of this scope was possible, 
even inevitable, adn they were criminally neglegent in not taking safe, sane 
precautions against it. They filled FEMA, one of the most important agencies 
in the federal government, with political hacks and untested contractors. 
This is, pardon my language, a fuck-up of truly epic proportions, one that, 
in the end, is going to make 9/11 look like a drop in the bucket. It might 
not have been able to be prevented, but when Bush got on TV today and told 
us he didn't know the levees would break -- he's lying. Outright. Through 
his teeth. And he's lying to save his ass.

-- ACS
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