DHS publishes 315-page book honoring Chertoff’s ‘Select Speeches.’
DHS publishes 315-page book honoring Chertoff’s ‘Select Speeches.’
The Department of Homeland Security recently sent out an entire book honoring former Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “Select Speeches” from 2005-2008. The 315-page book contains 36 of Chertoff’s speeches and press conferences (many of which — if not all — are most likely available online). ThinkProgress recently obtained a copy of the book and contacted DHS to find out how much taxpayer money was spent on the book’s production. However, we received no response. But Michele Nix, a former top official for former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, told ThinkProgress that this homage seemed to be exclusive to Chertoff, as the department did “nothing” similar for her former boss. Let us know in the comments section if you remember any of Chertoff’s speeches being particularly memorable.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Awwww… the memories. :)
January 28th, 2009 at 4:05 pmWho?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:05 pmLet us know in the comments section if you remember any of Chertoff’s speeches being particularly memorable.
Maybe I was too busy shouting at Chertoff whenever he was on the TV machine, but I don’t remember anything particularly memorable about them. Hell, I wouldn’t even classify his TV appearances as “speeches” – and he made 36 of them? Whodathunk?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:06 pmStupid Git, thanks, I remember that crap now. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of a single thing he had said.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pmWas Secretary Napolitano aware of this waste of taxpayer money? Will she make sure no more of our money gets wasted on glorifying Bush Administration officials (like Alphonse Jackson and Dirk Kempthorne)?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:11 pmI hadn’t realized someone could take 315 pages to say nothing. I guess I was wrong.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:11 pmI especially like the one he was working on when Katrina hit NO.
Remember?
He didn’t ‘have time’ to get involved with Heckuva job, Brownie,
because he was at home working on a speech.
My other favorite was the one where he explained how being a double agent for the Mossad while serving the Chimperor had made him an extremely wealthy man.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pmMust have used large print.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pmI’ve got nothing for ya on his ‘memorable’ speeches, but I do think of Skeletor when I think of Michael Chertoff, however.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pmI’m still waiting for Homeland Security to answer my 2 1/2 year old questions:
Why did the White House Lessons Learned report omit the hospital with the highest patient death toll after Hurricane Katrina? Memorial Medical Center lost 34 patients, 24 died under the care of LifeCare Hospitals. LifeCare rented a floor in Memorial. Which corporations benefited from this omission?
LifeCare-The Carlyle Group
Memorial Medical Center-Tenet Health
Bush served on the board of a Carlyle affiliate in the early 1990’s. A year after the sorry Lessons Learned report hit the shelves, Jeb Bush landed a spot on the Tenet Board of Directors.
Homeland Security, I’m still waiting…
January 28th, 2009 at 4:12 pmThis tome will be in the $1 stores by Friday.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:13 pmDHS must be such a happier place now. Nothing kills an organization faster than a bad boss.
This country has a lot of re-building to do to make up for the intentional damage of the Republicans and neo-Cons.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:13 pmAre the speeches color coded by threat level?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:14 pmHoly cow. Here’s an admission by Chertoff in his December 18, 2008 speech where he appears to be telling us he and the Bush Cabal were in on the 9/11 attack:
And then he goes on to say that no one could have predicted that another attack WOULD NOT happen on US soil thanks to the efforts of George Bush. Of course, Chertoff refuses to admit that the largest attack in the history of our nation occurred under he and Georgie.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:15 pmGee, do you suppose the book includes Chertoff defending his decision to fly to Atlanta for an avian flu meeting the day after Katrina? Or claiming he had no knowledge of the Convention Center being used as a shelter until the afternoon of Sept. 1st (the storm hit early morning on August 29th and the levees collapsed a few hours later). That’s three days, folks! Well, to answer my own question, I’m quite sure these kinds of statements are not included in his wonderful book. Atrocious!!
January 28th, 2009 at 4:19 pmI do think of Skeletor when I think of Michael Chertoff, however.
KayInMaine, me too, which might be part of why I tried not to pay any attention to him.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pmWow!!!! I MUST rush right out and buy one!!!!!!!!!
Not.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pmI thought there was a new sheriff in town…
January 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pmWhy is Skeletor still around?
LOL Leftside Annie! Me too! *pushing Jane E. Schneider out of the way to be the first out the door* ;-)
Jane, Skeletor scared us in more ways than one.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:24 pmMaybe he’ll give one to George for the library.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:24 pmjust like the crappy “books” of angry trannie annie coulter, tokyo rose malkin etal., this “work” will end up in boxes mouldering in some storage unit in spokane while the repukes claim success.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:27 pmSo Republicans whine about spending tax dollars on family planning, STD prevention, etc. and think this is a wise expenditure of our money?
To produce stroking material for Chertoff to take into the bathroom with him?
F***ing sick GOP scum.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:29 pmLet us know in the comments section if you remember any of Chertoff’s speeches being particularly memorable.
Nope. Can’t think of a thing.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:30 pmThis will come in handy in front of the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:31 pmMy favorite part is the centerfold of Bin Laden.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:32 pmKay, I just knocked Wayne over trying to get to the door! The hell with the snowstorm! ;-)
On second thought, I think I’ll wait ’til it hits our little bookstore in town, maybe he’ll do a book-signing tour and I can meet Herr Skeletor in person.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pmOh, and hell no, I don’t remember any speech this jagoff gave.
Nor would I have tortured myself by listening to it had I stumbled across him giving one.
Well, maybe if I were in a drunken stupor or something and needed some help to make me upchuck.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:34 pmExcellent! The gubmint should send a crate of these out to broke seniors – they can burn them to heat their houses after utility company cuts off their power.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:35 pmThe egos on these people are truly astonishing. Bound copies of their speeches, huge photo galleries of themselves on the walls, endless slideshows of their accomplishments . . . I sure hope the civil servants working for them get paid a lot of money.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pmIsn’t he that other terrorist Bush imported from the Middle East?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pmJD, I like whales. Does that count?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm“…maybe he’ll do a book-signing tour …”
Look for him in airport terminals, after you’ve gone through security….
January 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pmChertoff’s most famous speech: Duh, what hurricane?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pmThe speech I’d like to hear is Chertoff’s story of how he didn’t manage to find out about the New Orleans levee breaks until many hours after I did. I was in Glacier National Park at the time, with no TV or Internet!
January 28th, 2009 at 4:39 pmI have a gut feeling no one is interesting in this and thank God we have a new Homeland Security Director who will follow the Law.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pmI’m so happy to know that the Department of Duetschland Surveillance is expending its time and energy so wisely to keep us all protected from turists and turist activity. Heckuva job.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pmput it in the outhouse…..they know what to do.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pmJ.Davis Says:
Let me ask you a question,how many of you consider yourselves democratic socialists? And fred,you are less than 25 aren’t you? You haven’t been involved in politics for over 2 pres.election cycles have you?
January 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
January 28th, 2009 at 4:45 pm~~~~
J.D. – use your manure to till into the soil and actually grow something edible.
They only speech that matters was the last words of the last one…
….’good bye’.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pmNo matter what was spent to publish this tripe by Chertoff, it is a disgrace that it was done at all.
Taxpayer dollars are often spent foolishly, but this wins the idiotic award for January.
I thought we were supposed to be curtailing unnecessary expenditures.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:56 pmJust because I disagree with you inane states rights obsession doesn’t make me immature!!!!!
I am 59 this year fyi. Obviously, as you have demonstrated, age does not necessarily develop into wisdom.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pmJust because I disagree with your inane states rights obsession doesn’t make me immature!!!!!
I am 59 this year fyi. Obviously, as you have demonstrated, age does not necessarily develop into wisdom.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:57 pmState, This fact was probably lost in the shuffle of all the failures of Katrina. There was likely no nefarious omission/coverup.
Im not saying that Carlyle isn’t pure evil. I used to work for them in a previous life. However, they have a LOT of holdings. Lifecare likely barely registers on their radar. It’s very doubtful that someone would go to the favor bank over such a minor asset.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:08 pmThere seem to be a lot of Bush appointees forcing their departments to go through grand butt-kissing exercises for them on their way out. It really seems to be suggestive of a similar mindset across the board.
PS: obviously J.Davis is old enough to actually remember the War of Northern Aggression.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:10 pmKind of expensive toilet paper.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pmAnother repug spending taxpayer money on self-aggrandizing drivel.
In the current economy, its about the same as Citibank buying a luxury jet at taxpayer expense.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:18 pmWell that was fast! I agree with post #47 “…repugnant spending taxpayer money…” yet they just are down right “obstructionist” and down right pissed at them self’s for loosing and pitty old men/women (most of them are, old) who need to line their greedy pockets and ego with propaganda/money on others/taxpayers expense!
They yearn for the good old days…?
January 28th, 2009 at 5:27 pmJane E. Schneider Says:
Kay, I just knocked Wayne over trying to get to the door! The hell with the snowstorm! ;-)
Jane! *throwing shovel!* We’re expecting up to 2 feet of snow. You?
January 28th, 2009 at 5:31 pmC’mon people! Memorable speeches! Wottar ya, lame? C’mon!
There was that one speech. You know, the one where…he…no, wait. That was that other bald-headed guy. Whatsisname. You know the one I mean. The guy. That government guy. Damn! What is his name? I totally know it; um…. Let me pull a Palin and “get back to you on that.”
January 28th, 2009 at 5:56 pmWell this will either make for some great bathroom reading material or emergency backup toilet paper.
Just saying . . .
January 28th, 2009 at 6:00 pmI do remember that time his eyes weren’t as dark and sunken in that he almost didn’t creep me out. Every other time he looked like some kind of junky that could only got his fix when he could steal and mainline more of my civil liberties.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:04 pmI feel Alert Green all over knowing Jerkoff is gone . . . but this book cannot be used for “wiping”, it’s already full of shit . . .
January 28th, 2009 at 6:11 pmI can’t really tell you what I thought of Chertoff’s speeches. Every time I’d hear his voice I’d hit the “mute” button.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pmKayInMaine, I feel like a wuss, we only got 4-5″, but then it turned to ice/freezing rain.
I keep feeling that, now that Obama’s in office, it should be spring…
January 28th, 2009 at 6:58 pm“or” fly back to Paultardia, Infowars, Lew Rockwell’s site, whatever.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pmAnd you sound like a teenager who just discovered Ayn Rand and Ron Paul. Stop bothering with these pathetic fallacies and actually say something of interest of fly on back to Paultardia.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pmJane, you’re not a wuss! Icy conditions suck to deal with. Very destructive. And yes! With President Obama in office, even on the -30 days, it’s warm. LOL
January 28th, 2009 at 7:14 pmNext time a Rep opens his mouth about the pork in the stimulus bill a Dem should throw a copy of this at him.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:36 pmDeebaser, Carlyle’s LifeCare faces 24 wrongful death lawsuits and benefits greatly from Fran Townsend’s silence.
Their lawyers blame the federal government, creating an innovative legal defense that patients became wards of the federal government as soon as FEMA evacuation teams set up in New Orleans. As a past hospital disaster chair, this defense is bull hockey.
Carlyle also wants their wrongful death cases heard in federal court, away from local juries. This is not an oversight.
Bush is on tape asking about hospital patients. The omission of the hospital with the highest death toll reeks of cronyism, or the worst possible incompetence.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:20 pmOn the day that New Orleans flooded following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall and the breaching of New Orleans’ levees, the FEMA disaster coordinator assigned to Louisiana said in the presence of a displaced New Orleans’ reporter at the FEMA command center in Baton Rouge that his orders were being blocked or the supplies and personnel he was trying to get into the flooded New Orleans were being redirected elsewhere. He was deeply frustrated.
On that same date, the Bush administration (Karl Rove) launched a vicious smear campaign against Democratic leaders in Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Early last year, former Gov. Blanco said that on the day New Orleans flooded and while she was with the FEMA disaster coordinator in Baton Rouge trying to get desperately-needed disaster relief aid and personnel into New Orleans, the phones rang off the wall at the FEMA command center as reporters inundated the center with calls in response to this White House (Karl Rove) coordinated smear campaign.
So, who was the person (or persons) in the FEMA command chain higher than the FEMA disaster coordinator in Baton Rouge who overruled orders and sabotaged efforts by this twenty-year FEMA vetera, undercutting the federal disaster relief mission in Louisiana?
You see, the Republican smear campaign against the Democrats in Louisiana wouldn’t have been as successful if emergency federal disaster aid made it into New Orleans in a timely fashion, saving lives and easing suffering, especially at the Superdome.
On the other hand, if the situation worsened in New Orleans and at the Superdome, then Republicans could blame the Democratic leadership in Louisiana, primarily Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin, blaming them for all the unfolding horror we witnessed on television, and presumably assuring Republicans of electoral wins in the next Louisiana elections.
The Republicans made FEMA part of the Department of Homeland Security, thus making Michael Chertoff, the head of DHS during Hurricane Katrina, the boss of the FEMA disaster coordinator in Louisiana.
Therefore, Chertoff, or one of his close political underlings, must have been the one blocking the FEMA disaster coordinator’s efforts to provide federal disaster relief to our fellow citizens in New Orleans, probably even going so far as to divert federal relief from Louisiana to the states of Mississippi and Alabama, two Gulf Coast states also in the path of Hurricane Katrina, but with Republican governors.
I hope Congress, along with so many other required investigations into Bush administration criminality, will open a full-scale investigation into what the Bush administration did (or didn’t do due to partisan political reasons) both during and after Hurricane Katrina.
We The People need to know if what I just laid out as happening on the day New Orleans flooded, and on the days immediately following, is true. Plus, we need an accounting of all the billions of taxpayer dollars thrown at crony Republican companies and individuals given no-bid contracts to handle post-Katrina reconstruction.
The criminals in the Bush administration MUST be brought to justice, or our democracy is no longer a democracy, but has instead become some kind of warped conservative Banana Republica, thus dooming our nation and the future of our nation’s children.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:56 pmWizard, for what it’s worth, I tracked Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend’s moves around Hurricane Katrina, via newspaper reports. It can be viewed at:
http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2008/04/open-sourcing-unscathed-fran.html
January 29th, 2009 at 8:40 amHague 2009!!!
January 29th, 2009 at 9:44 amTitle should be, “Orange Alert!”
January 29th, 2009 at 4:25 pm