Brown’s Revisionist History
Today, answering questions before a special congressional panel set up to investigate Katrina, Michael Brown tried to resuscitate his reputation. The facts didn’t back him up so Brown engaged in some revisionist history.
BROWN CLAIM: “FEMA doesn’t evacuate communities.â€
FACT: Brown Said FEMA Was Engaging In Evacuations During Katrina
If there is still floodwaters around there, they shouldn’t be trying to evacuate those patients by themselves. The Coast Guard, FEMA, all of those continue to do those rescue missions and we continue to do those evacuations and we’ll certainly continue to evacuate all of the hospitals. [CNN, 9/1/05]
BROWN CLAIM: FEMA Was Stretched Beyond It Capabilities
“Mr. Chairman, this event stretched FEMA beyond its capabilities. There’s no question about that. It did it in several ways. One is FEMA, over the past several years, has lost a lot of manpower. At one point during my tenure, because of assessments by the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA has lost — at one point, we were short 500 people in an organization of about 2,500. You do the math. That’s pretty significant… FEMA has suffered from the inability to grow to meet the demands.”
FACT: Brown Said FEMA Had All The Manpower It Needed
BLITZER: Are you ready? Is FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ready to deal with this new hurricane?
BROWN: We absolutely are. We have all the manpower and resources we need. President Bush has been a very great supporter of FEMA. [CNN, 9/26/04]
BROWN CLAIM: “I can’t discuss with you my conversations with the president’s chief of staff and the president.”
FACT: Brown Spoke to New York Times About Conversations With Chief of Staff
“Hours after Hurricane Katrina passed New Orleans on Aug. 29, as the scale of the catastrophe became clear, Michael D. Brown recalls, he placed frantic calls to his boss, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and to the office of the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. … ‘I am having a horrible time,’ Mr. Brown said he told Mr. Chertoff and a White House official — either Mr. Card or his deputy, Joe Hagin — in a status report that evening. ‘I can’t get a unified command established.’” [NYT, 9/15/05]
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Keep on talking Brown.
This guy is a real work. I am glad that word is getting out that Brown was hired back on as a consultant. America breathed a sigh of relief when this guy resigned (should have been fired). America needs to see his rehiring as exactly what it is…..a slap in the face to Americans everywhere.
“You’re doing a helluva job Brownie.”
What a fvcking joke.
September 27th, 2005 at 2:28 pmIt’s disgusting. Drownie sat there and read from his prepared notes (prepared by whom?), like he’s got half a brain. May the ghosts of New Orleans haunt his dreams forever.
September 27th, 2005 at 2:33 pmFlippity Flop
September 27th, 2005 at 2:34 pm“Fema doesn’t evacuate communities…”
Please see Goal 1 of FEMA’s Strategic Plan:
“1. Reduce Loss of Life and Property… Fema will work with its partners to…prepare when the opportunity to reduce loss of life and property is greatest - before disasters strike.”
Mabye Brown should have read his own strategic plan.
http://www.fema.gov/ pdf/ library/ fema_strat_plan_fy03-08(no_append).pdf
Andrew G.
September 27th, 2005 at 2:34 pmLafayette, LA
GOP Liver Oil
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/27.html#a5122
September 27th, 2005 at 2:55 pmMichael Brown, an outstanding white poster boy for affirmative action. Incompetent and unqualified getting jobs over qualified minorities and whites.
September 27th, 2005 at 3:00 pmWell, not only does Brownie sound like Super Dave Osborne, I do believe he secretly wants to be him based on this quote over on CNN:
“I guess you want me to be the superhero that is going to step in there and suddenly take everybody out of New Orleans.”
September 27th, 2005 at 3:04 pmIs it the plan to have this man present himself as an arrogant and driveling fool that he is, and therefore have all the blame fall on him and none on Bush? Is that why he was given a new consultant contract with FEMA — was it a payoff? Is Rove behind this? With this group in power, I look at everything with suspicion.
September 27th, 2005 at 3:08 pmDrownie was the source for the Enquirer article about Bush’s drinking….
http://atrios.blogspot.com/ 2005_09_25_atrios_archive.html#112782398498529541
Make sense now?
September 27th, 2005 at 3:19 pmNew Orleans is going to RISE UP much faster than Bush imagines, they are going to arrive en mass to DC and kick the DAMN doors off the Oval Office. So let Michael Brown keep covering his a$$ in front of a bogus Republican only Congressional hearing!
September 27th, 2005 at 3:47 pmThe “F” in FEMA doesn’t stand for “futile” or “fvcking around”, Mr. Drown.
September 27th, 2005 at 3:54 pmYour Tuesday Double Dose
Second big posting of the day. Multiple updates from multiple bloggers on the issues of the day.
September 27th, 2005 at 4:12 pmJust the latest installment of Banana Republicans.
September 27th, 2005 at 4:25 pmPam Lie
Brown and Buyer(sic?) claimed everyone was supposed to be evacuated from NO in the Hurricane Pam scenario. This is not true
“In advance of such a storm, officials expected evacuation to be only half successful. According to the Pam scenario, only a third of the population would leave New Orleans before the storm hit. This was a recognition of the city’s poor population, with upwards of 100,000 living in households in which no one owns a car. ”
http://www.globalsecurity.org/ security/ ops/ hurricane-pam.htm
There was also the claim that Blanco didn’t call for states of emergency in NO itself - http://fpc.state.gov/ documents/ organization/ 53576.pdf
September 27th, 2005 at 4:34 pmGeorge Bush doesn’t care about black people.
Neither does Drownie.
–
September 27th, 2005 at 4:47 pmSen Buyer asked Brownie why Orleans Parish wasn’t included in the Presidents LA Declaration of Emergency.
Brownie was “astounded” that the Governor didn’t include Orleans Parish in her request for Federal Emergency Declaration. He said he later had to add that Parish, but didn’t remeber when.
From Blanco’s request: The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor
September 27th, 2005 at 4:47 pmYou know, I wouldn’t call it “revisionist history.” He’s UNDER OATH, he’s LYING to CONGRESS, a FELONY!
September 27th, 2005 at 4:54 pmrandi rhodes is playing his recorded lies and reading the reports to refute his statements…amazing…why would he lie so blatantly when the facts are so easy to ascertain???
September 27th, 2005 at 4:55 pmWow. I bet the show horse owners were never this tough with him. Oh wait… they fired him!
September 27th, 2005 at 5:06 pmWhat else did anyone expect Michael Brown to say. He said what he is being paid to say.
September 27th, 2005 at 5:16 pmFor the most part this is a dog and pony, or should I say HORSE show, in which Brown is to deflect from the rest of the Bush administration thier commplicity in this matter.
If Bush were testifying, it would be exactly the same. Everyone is responsible but me me me me.
September 27th, 2005 at 5:16 pm#15
September 27th, 2005 at 5:26 pmThat’s far too limiting. Bush and his cabal don’t care about POOR people… of any race. They can’t stand them. They don’t see them, they don’t feel for them, they can’t comprehend them. Duhbuhya can’t get out of his gentrified NorthEast mindset to see how a sizable chunk of the population (and growing thanks to him) is. It’s totally not a racial issue. It’s purely economic. They are equal opportunity haters. Remember Duhbuhya said himself who his base was in the last election… “the have’s and have-more’s”
Great job guys and gals. Keep up the good work!
Your work is spreading from coast to coast.
Now you just need brave and courageous citizens to take the message to the soapbox and campaign trail about the lies of this administration.
Solutions to problems are very important, but telling the truth in the first place is a good start towards reaching real solutions.
September 27th, 2005 at 5:33 pmi can’t (yes i can) believe that Brown is trying to push back towards the city / state govts. - sayings its basically all their fault. I seen some of the hearing on c-span, and it appears clear that he feels he couldnt have done anything better…which I disagree with.
I think the Federal Govt is at fault partially for the pre-hurricane madness…but they definitely take most, if not all, of the blame for the post-hurricane madness
After watching the hearing, I do wonder why they waited until Sunday to announce a mandatory evacuation, when the hurricane hit Monday morning…18-20 hours later. Not sure if this wouldve helped anyone (cause lots of people had no means of leaving), but the fact remains.
September 27th, 2005 at 5:44 pmA question from someone who did not see the hearing: Did any legislator have the decency/sense to ask Brown to describe what role the National Response Plan assigned to FEMA?
You just know that he wouldn’t know; he has no clue as to his actual job. Not to mention that any answer would almost have to highlight the fact that the NRP is so vaguely written and poorly constructed that you could read it 20 times and still not have a SPECIFIC idea of who does what.
September 27th, 2005 at 5:52 pmto the right of you
Katrina quickly gained strength on Saturday and Sunday morning. And I believe the Weather Service was predicting this and trying to get everyone’s attention on Saturday. Looks to me, the evac could have been moved up by maybe 12 hours at most. Here’s the timeline:
Katrina is upgraded to a Category 3 Saturday, Aug 27, 2005, 5 a.m.
Mayor Ray Nagin…issuing a voluntary evacuation, 5 p.m., search for “Nagin followed”, State Police activated the state’s redesigned contraflow plan Saturday at 4 p.m.
Katrina escalates to Category 4 strength Sunday, Aug 28, 2005, 2 a.m.
Hurricane Katrina intensifies to Category 5, 7 a.m.
Nagin orders first-ever mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, 9:30 a.m.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:10 pm“It’s totally not a racial issue. It’s purely economic. They are equal opportunity haters. Remember Duhbuhya said himself who his base was in the last election… “the have’s and have-more’s—
Unfortunately it’s both. While I believe that mainly it’s a classist issue at this point, I’ve heard too many racist comments from republicans to believe it’s not also racially oriented. Some of the trolls on here had the balls to post white supremacist literature attacking the supposed criminality of black people! I guess they forgot about all of those Meth arrests and murders in the redneck red states…
September 27th, 2005 at 6:11 pmGive Brownie some credit, NO ARAB HORSE died at the superdome.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:27 pmReply to Lee Russ:
The only references I saw and heard to the National Response Plan during the hearing (and it was not referred to as such) were in the context of an Incident of National Significance.
In his opening remarks, Select Committee Chair Tom Davis (R-VA) made the distinction that Rita was declared an Incident of National Significance two days before landfall, but Katrina was not designated as such until two days after landfall.
Bill Shuster (R-PA) asked Brown directly if in hindsight and in light of the exercise “Hurricane Pam” Katrina should have been desinated an Incident of National Significance before landfall.
Believe it or not, Shuster said he had conflicting information that Katrina was either the first time the designation had been used or if the last Presidential inauguration and the Super Bowl had been designated as such. (WTF?)
Shuster appears to have been confusing National Security Special Events (NSSE’s) with an INS. It was a surreal moment for me during the hearing. Having dealt with idiot congressional staffers in the past, I was able to put that bizarro world exchange in some proper context.
Brownie stated he “truthfully did not think” making the INS designation earlier would have made any difference.
Shuster said he disagreed and inquired who had the authority and responsibility to make the designation; Brown correctly replied the Secretary of Homeland Security and that was pretty much the end of the inquiry except for a bizarre discourse from Brown on how he wasn’t a big fan of the PFO system…Brown was either getting into some of the esoterics of the NRP or was talking completely out of his backside.
The NY Times is in the process of making a transcript available online and I will be looking at the Shuster/Brown exchange to try to figure out where Brown was going.
At any rate, there was very little in the hearing today on the NRP. Disappointingly so.
There were several areas touched on today where I want more follow-up, but I doubt we’ll see them in live hearings, if at all.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:43 pmMayor Nagin was responsible for the people in the Dome and at the Convention Center. It’s not FEMA’s job to evacuate a city’s people, it is that city’s job.
Louisianians failed Louisianians.
September 27th, 2005 at 7:46 pmMore for Lee Russ:
Rep. Jefferson (D-LA) referred to the NRP in a comment:
“…the national response plan talks about proactive federal response.”
September 27th, 2005 at 7:46 pmLyle,
Have you read the National Response Plan?
The DOD was involved in evacuating special needs residents of Beaumont, Texas before Hurricane Rita.
In your rationale, shouldn’t that have been the responsibility of the city of Beaumont?
September 27th, 2005 at 7:50 pm“Mayor Nagin was responsible for the people in the Dome and at the Convention Center. It’s not FEMA’s job to evacuate a city’s people, it is that city’s job.
Louisianians failed Louisianians. ”
Search and rescue after a disaster is FEMA’s charter - or did you skip that part on your way to the republican blame game?
What resources would a mayor have to provide this after his infrastructure has been destroyed? Or had that never dawned on your pea brain? The reality is that FEMA as a national organization is chartered with sending in relief, supplies and rescue from the outside, with the assumption that all local resources are either damaged or unavailable. That’s the whole point of a FEMA organization you stupid dingbat!
September 27th, 2005 at 8:14 pmYou should look here to see the actual role of FEMA, clearly you watch too much faux news!
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509080002#20050909
September 28th, 2005 at 1:17 amWhat an idiot Brownie is. Initally Katrina was suppose to make landfall on the Florida panhandle. By the time it’s path was able to predict acurately, evacuation was upon us. I just thank God that Katrina hit on a Monday which allowed people(myself included) to start evacuation on Saturday evening. If this storm had hit later during the week I truly believe that many more would have perished because employers, including some federal employers, would not have approved the time off until the last minute that they had to. The bottom line is way too important. More important than human life. And because our jobs are so neccessary to us we would have sent our families off and we would have been left behind to perish.
September 28th, 2005 at 1:33 amFisked.
September 28th, 2005 at 7:47 amBrown, “scapegoat”, thrown to Hungry Lions
Watch, read and listen on the web, as congress, republicans, democrats, the media and bloggers tear off Micheal Brown’s metaphorical limbs one by one: 5 News Sites The facts didn’t back him up so Brown engaged in some revisionist history.(Brown’s R…
September 28th, 2005 at 8:30 amGood thing he’s not lying under oath about a blow-job cause then he’d be in real trouble.
September 28th, 2005 at 12:56 pmRyan Neat,
I am from Louisian and I’m housing an evacuee right now. I know what has happened. I know who did what. The national media doesn’t have a monopoly on knowledge or what has happened here. Local and state officials failed. Nagin had no plan to evacuate the poor of New Orleans. Months before he even told the poor of New Orleans that they were on their own.
The Federal Government was slow in responding, but worse was Louisiana’s own lack of leadership and response. Blanco kept the Red Cross out of New Orleans. And Nagin had no intention to ever evacuate the poor of New Orleans.
If you simply keep blaming the Feds, you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.
September 28th, 2005 at 5:14 pm“I am from Louisian and I’m housing an evacuee right now”
From where?
“Nagin had no plan to evacuate the poor of New Orleans. Months before he even told the poor of New Orleans that they were on their own.”
Neither did houston. That’s why shelters were set up for them. That’s why it was the job of FEMA to come and rescue the people who were in the shelters and who couldn’t get out.
And by the way FEMA APPROVED the plan that Nagin and Blanco had. Perhaps if your cronies weren’t runing that incompetent fiasco of FEMA, they would have been able to come up with a better plan instead of rubber stamping what a local mayor did. After all, one would think the department of HOMELAND SECURITY would have enough of our billions to hire people that actually have expertise. And since NOLA was listed as one of the 3 MOST PRECARIOUS situations for a disaster, they would have prioritized this.
No matter how you slice it the blame ALWAYS points back to the failure of the FEDS.
September 28th, 2005 at 5:27 pm“If you simply keep blaming the Feds, you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Well that’s what you’re doing with Nagin - that’s called PROJECTION my stupid friend. The reality is that the federal government after 9/11 was made responsible for preparedness in situations like this. They were given a blank check to do so. And they screwed up COMPLETELY! To blame a local mayor for this level of incompetence is just stupid partisan hack nonsense! Wake up you dope!
September 28th, 2005 at 5:28 pmThis just in from http://www.scarppleface.com:
“Former FEMA Director Mike Brown told a House investigative panel yesterday that he takes much of the blame for the agency’s response to ‘a national disaster of horrifying proportions which continues to cause pain, heartache and devastating financial hardship for millions of Americans.’
“‘I should have come to Congress sooner to witness this tragedy in person,’ Mr. Brown told lawmakers. ‘As the government official in charge of coordinating disaster relief, I must take a large share of the blame for the dysfunctional organization, petty bickering, turf wars and massive amounts of wasteful spending that continue to this day.’
“The departing director acknowledged that the agency had been ‘overwhelmed by the scope and sequence of the disaster.’
“‘FEMA is set up to handle storms that blow hard, and pass quickly,” he said. “Congress has only one of those characteristics.’”
September 28th, 2005 at 7:01 pmBSR,
Too bad they were overwhelmed, because FEMA was aware of the scope, and if it had been competently run it would have been prepared.
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
The former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Congress Tuesday that the agency was beleaguered and beaten up by budget cuts and personnel losses during the past three years, and overwhelmed by the events of Hurricane Katrina.
the Office
of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such
as “Floods: A National Policy Concern” and “A Framework for Flood
Hazards Management.” Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt
Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.
In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from basing
policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of
choices based on ideology. If you’re wondering what the ideological
position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New
Orleans - it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do
anything.
Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the
devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana’s
National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10
soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down
significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they
join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.
The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-
water vehicles, Humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent
abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles
in Iraq?)
This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go
into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit
that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.
The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and
September 29th, 2005 at 1:04 amflooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter
Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on
June 8, 2004, “It appears that the money has been moved in the
president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq.
I just can’t stand it. Here I am, living in Baton Rouge because my job has temporarily relocated from New Orleans. I’m still sleeping on a matress on the floor of an apartment with no other furniture except a card table and four folding chairs. And I’m in good shape. A third of my co-workers are now homeless. And I wept for days while I watched citizens of my city suffer and die needlessly. And the national media will not expose this story that the White House is covering up: that the pre-disaster emergency declaration did NOT offer coverage for New Orleans, that the sluggish FEMA response for 48 hours after the storm hit was at Mike Brown’s specific direction, and that first responders who wanted to help us were expressly told to stay away because FEMA was in charge. This scam of a Congressional hearing is obviously designed to ease the concern of the mass of ignorant American voters who are more than inclined to believe the lies about the abilities of our local politicians. But there are clearly a lot of people with brains who do understand the problem. Please talk this one up and don’t let it go. Help Louisiana hold this administration responsible. Because if FEMA and this administration continue with business as usual, the next national disaster may involve wiping YOUR hometown off the map and they only thing they’ll do is cut you a check once it’s all over…
September 29th, 2005 at 4:28 am[…] MORE Hurricane Katrina timeline Brown’s Revisionist History […]
September 29th, 2005 at 12:30 pmHasn’t anyone else noticed that the second claim “refutation” that Think Progress cites comes from almost a year ago? 9/26/2004? I could see one typo in getting the year wrong, but a second one getting the month wrong as well?
Is it possible that Brown is referring to hurricane Jeanne, which made landfall at the end of Sept., 2004, and was only a cat 2/3 storm?
Is Think Progress always this slipshod and faulty in its research?
Later,
September 29th, 2005 at 12:46 pmI totally agree with this page! Like the feds should have come in at gunpoint and forced all of those poor people who ended up abandoned by the system to evacuate. If Brown had come in to help the brown peoples left behind then the thousands of people would not have died!
I am tired of hear about how blacks were responsible for this disaster. It is so plain to see that if Bush the murderer had wanted to get those people out he could have driven those busses that were left behind! But he left them in a parking lot to get destroyed! He WANTED those people to DIE!!!
I read about how Bush called the govenor of Louisiana three times before the storm to tell her that FEMA was going to help other places but not New Orleans! What an ass he is!
And I have been reading about how Bush planned this because he has increased every budget for everything the feds fund, except levie relief! Record deficits yet no money to protect black people! He takes money out of the public schools so that white bigots can go to private schools. He starts a war with innocent Iraqs by telling the same lies as every other world leader just so he can kill brown people, blows up levies to kill black people, ignores a massacare in Rowanda so that more blacks will die, and stops a war in Bosnia because those were whites dying! What a racist jerk!
I hate Bush and his power mad cronies!
Support Hillery and Rev Al!
THEY will not allow whites to kill blacks!
They will see to it that New Orleans is built properly! They will stop loggers from murdering trees!
They will stop corporations from exploiting poor workers for profits!
The ticket for the expoited, Hill and Rev Al!
Keep the christian bigots from taking over the country!
Make love, not war!
September 29th, 2005 at 2:10 pmPeace and love to all
Sham exposed
September 29th, 2005 at 6:02 pmWhy did Faiz take a year old comment about a totally different hurricane (claim 2) out of context to attack Brown?
http://nothingcouldbefiner.blogspot.com/ 2005/ 09/ think-progress-does-neither-while.html
Will we get an answer?
Later,
September 29th, 2005 at 10:43 pmNews alert! FEMA stands for Federal Election Management Assistance.
FEMA paid millions of dollars to people in florida that were not affected by the hurricane. To assure favorable election results.
Brown did work to make sure dumbya would be appointed as pResident. That put him on dumbya’s “be-holdin” list.
This so called administration never admits corruption, wrong doing or illegal actions. They lie to the public continuously and get away with it. They prop up their corruption with paid resistance. The american people are waking up and taking notice of this.
Brown should have been fired on the spot. Any legitimate Administration would have done so. Any legitimate Administration would have hired a competent person to occupy this position.
I get so upset when I see wing-nuts saying that the school buses should have been used for evac. I scream “the governor wanted to use them for evac. but FEMA told them no, as they weren’t air conditioned.”
Come on people, if it is life and death do you really care if you are cool and comfortable?
Back on to the backs of the feds…… they dropped the ball big time, and it is race and class that make the decision of life and death. You can not deny it!
October 1st, 2005 at 3:59 am