Posted By: American Woman on 2005-11-25 In Reply to:
Ex-FEMA Head Starts Disaster Planning Firm
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses — because that goes straight to the bottom line — then I hope I can help the country in some way, Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.
Brown said officials need to take inventory of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.
In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation.
The lawyer admits that while he was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mistakes were made in the response to Katrina. He also said he had been planning to quit before the hurricane hit.
Hurricane Katrina showed how bad disasters can be, and there's an incredible need for individuals and businesses to understand how important preparedness is, he said.
Brown said companies already have expressed interested in his consulting business, Michael D. Brown LLC. He plans to run it from the Boulder area, where he lived before joining the Bush administration in 2001.
I'm doing a lot of good work with some great clients, Brown said. My wife, children and my grandchild still love me. My parents are still proud of me.
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You guys know that Mike Brown is an old cronie of GWB don't ya? Isn't that SCARY? He appointed his buddy, who had no experience in disasters what so ever as HEAD OF FEMA! Great job Brownie!!!! GAG
Heckuva job, Brownie!
Pubs lined these positions with very "qualified" ppl............
I can blame him for heckuva job brownie!
He screwed up. He was like a deer in the headlights the same way he was when reading "My Pet Goat." Useless. How come he did not insist on any oversight for the BILLIONS they gave to the banks that no one knows what happened to it? The whole state of Louisiana was involved in the 60 mil fiasco - not just Ray Nagin. Racism doesn't count as fact.
He was paid, the firm wasn't. SM
Either way, he could have said no and he didn't. Mind you, I have a limitation on what I think gay rights should extend to, but I won't go into that here because I will get slaughtered.
I am a firm supporter of the military, but --
My exhusband was a soldier the entire 20 years we were married and is in fact in Iraq right now; my son, whom I love dearly, is graduating from basic training on Friday. I support the military wholeheartedly, but that does not mean I have to support McCain.
I don't believe that our soldiers should be where they are and I don't believe they should have ever been where they are. And I believe that when they come home, they should have better support and better care than they are getting.
But I have the utmost respect for the military and their families and would always hope and pray the best for them. They did after all fight to give me the right to disagree on who their commander-in-chief should be.
That being said, I also do not think that serving in the military should be experience that counts in running the country. Just because McCain is a a war hero and former POW does not make him entitled to be the leader of the United States of America. That would be the same as saying my ex-husband could have that job; he has just as much experience in the military as McCain, not as a POW, but he has served many more years than McCain did.
He did not take the case pro bono. The firm he worked for did. SM
You might want to check that out. I could be lying.
ok, here goes - I know I'll get flamed, but I am firm on my stance. SM
Well over 50% of the American population is either Hispanic or African American (I am being conservative because it is probably higher). This population IMO voted for Obama because of his skin color, without researching his view on major issues that revolve around being capable of tackling the presidency of the U.S. I think it is only a matter of time when this will come back and kick all who voted for him in the "you know what." It's not about our ethnicity or religion, but rather about a candidate who is experienced enough to tackle the job. I just cringe at the fact that someone as inexperienced as Obama is now running this country.
And add Republican Mike DeWine and his Swift Boat ad firm
DeWine sticks with firm that bungled 9/11 ad
By Bret Schulte
Posted 7/20/06
Ohio Republican Sen. Mike DeWine is sticking with the political advertising firm that doctored images of the World Trade Center to make it appear as though the footage came from the September 11 attacks. The video was used in a 30-second campaign spot that has aired throughout Ohio since last Friday, accusing his opponent, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown, of being weak on national security. An investigation by U.S. News revealed that the images, which show the south tower ablaze and the north tower untouched –– contradicting the chronology of the day's events –– were bogus.
The firm that produced the commercial has been the subject of controversy before. Alexandria-based Stevens, Reed, Curcio & Potholm produced the famous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads that challenged the war record of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry in 2004. Still, the DeWine campaign has no plans to ax the ad agency. Stevens, Reed, Curcio & Potholm is a nationally recognized firm, and they will continue to do media consulting for the campaign, said DeWine spokesman Brian Seitchik.
The DeWine campaign learned of the faked video when contacted by U.S. News Wednesday evening. DeWine promised to immediately replace the video in question with a still image of the World Trade Center taken before the attacks. The campaign says the spot, now modified, will not be pulled anytime soon, despite ongoing controversy that has threatened to drown out the commercial's message. Long before yesterday's revelation, Democratic critics were lambasting the ad as an attempt to capitalize politically on the terrorist attacks. Republicans have made similar charges about the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's use of images of flag-draped coffins in ads criticizing the war in Iraq.
Still unclear is why DeWine's advertising firm would doctor an image of the twin towers when numerous photos and video accounts of the actual event are available. A source with some knowledge of the ad called the entire commercial graphics based, with the computer-generated smoke just another part of the mix. Stevens, Reed, Curcio & Potholm did not return phone calls requesting comment. A source says no one has been fired from either the campaign or the ad agency as a result of the fallout.
Brown's campaign, already enraged over the ad, called the doctored images shameless. Brown has seized this opportunity to question DeWine's character. Mike DeWine has always run campaigns with attack ads and distortions, Brown said in an interview. For his part, DeWine insists it was an honest mistake that doesn't detract from the message of the ad. The fact is we stand by the ad. Sherrod Brown and I have very different views and approaches to the defense of this country, DeWine said.
Brooks Jackson, director of the watchdog publication publication FactCheck.org, expressed mostly bemusement. This seems to be a case of incompetence on the part of the media consultant, Jackson said, not an attempt to deceive voters.
on talking about the war in Iraq, per se, but more about the war on terror.
Does this mean he's targeted another country to "spread freedom" to? With 74% of the American public thinking Iraq was a mistake, I'd LOVE to see him try to sell another war to this Congress, after all his lies the first time.
Having 9/11 being an inside job is only a notch or two lower than using that tragedy to promote his own personal war against Iraq, so I don't think it would surprise me.
I don't know if I can stomach watching him or not, so I haven't decided yet.
and during the last debate he said a bunch of times "when I am president"
Goes both ways.
When somebody starts regurgitating that
stereotype envisioning Obama supporters as rushing to the mailbox for a welfare/tax stimulus check and waiting around to get their mortgages paid off and gas in their tanks, what color of supporter do you suppose they are conjuring up in their warped delusions?
Fat lady starts her song!
You know it has to be pretty darned bad when virtually all you see on the left-wing blogs is searing criticism of Democratic congresscritters. And I have to say, I absolutely agree with them. I'm still partial to progressive values but let's face it, elected Democrats are worthless, and have been since 2000, if not long before.
I have to wonder if that's been part of the plan all along, and if there are not much larger forces than the RNC focused on literally destroying America, her political system, her people and her former glory. With Alito's confirmation it's a done deal. The right can yuk it up all it wants and assume a smugness off the scale - but they don't appear to be aware that it's their nation too that is being dismantled. What is their powerful, pushy, money-grubbing and quasi-criminal majority party without a strong minority to watchdog it?
There's only one answer, and it is bad news 99% of the American people.
So let the fat lady sing over America's flag-draped coffin. Enjoy the song, enjoy the carnage, pop the champagne corks - it's all one big party now.
Such bad, bad taste! Such a disrespectful man! (I forget...what are the other names he's been called by his honor-challenged haters?)
Dinner Honoring McCain to Be Hosted by Obama
Saturday, January 10, 2009; 2:30 PM
President-elect Barack Obama will host a dinner honoring Sen. John McCain, the Republican he tromped in the election, the night before his inauguration, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced yesterday, saying the gesture demonstrates Obama's "commitment to bridging the bipartisan divide."
The dinner will be one of a series that night: Gen. Colin Powell and Vice President-elect Joe Biden also will be feted.
"In these times of great challenge and great change, leadership requires rising above the same old narrow partisanship," Obama said on the PIC Web site. "Each of these distinguished Americans has spent his life in service to his country, at each and every moment placing the interests of America before issues of political party."
Congressional leaders from both parties will attend the dinners at the National Building Museum, Union Station and the Hilton Washington.
The first time, they rented a truck and tried to knock the towers down by detonating it in the underground parking garage.
When that failed, they regrouped, formed another plan, and meticulously set it in motion. Took years, but they accomplished their objectives, save for that heroic United flight.
The problem with Americans is that they have very short attention spans. They think if the war's not over in 2 or 3 years, it's 'old news' and they move on. If it's not on their TV screens every night, with flashing lights and music like an MTV video, they can't process the information. Out of sight, out of mind. Like the victims of 911 and the noble men and women fighting the war on terror. All forgotten, for the most part, by an impatient, clock-watching public.
Terrorists, on the other hand, know a little something about watching and waiting. In a religious war like they're fighting, time is measured in centuries.
So, I'm sorry, but your little theory just doesn't hold water, and was naive in the extreme.
The simple truth is that there has not been another attack on US soil since Bush has been in office.
Why don't you try to sound just a teensy bit thankful that your hide is safe, and not in a foxhole somewhere, or digging out of the rubble of a bombed-out apartment complex? A little dose of humility, and reality, goes a long way.
Aha! SPELLING POLICE starts again!
This is a sign that you feel in the weaker position. It was a TYPO, o.k.!
Everone who starts with grammar and spelling police, insults and bashing admits that he has been cornered and his weakness shows.
Playing grammar- and spelling-police is NOT tolerated on this Forum, read the rules of this forum!
Got it!
Disability is one thing...poor planning is another
I'm sorry for your situation, and I do believe people who cannot work due to a disability should have help. I'm not heartless. I'm really kind of stumped, because I thought employers and insurance companies could no longer deny/discriminate people a job and/or insurance because of pre-existing conditions. I know that you can't get disability insurance with pre-existing conditions, but again, it's my understanding that no one can be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. My husband has diabetes and has changed jobs in the last five years and has gotten ins. with no problem.
The problem with most socialized medicine is that if you have a serious condition, say like cancer, at some point they quit treating you. This is what is happening in the U.K. as we speak. So, in a round about way that's being denied health care altogether. You have to then seek it out of pocket, and most of the time you have to leave your home country to pay for it out of pocket.
Unfortunately, health care is not a right. It's a privilege. Again, the problem with U.S. health care is the government at it's core, and it will only get worse if the government is given full management over it. What part of my family planning is NOYB
Not worth drawing a single breath in response.
haha - like half the nation is planning on doing!
;)
She is a nice eloquent lady....until she starts...
with the "rabid Republicans" type comments. Not necessary to take potshots to impart information. Fact is, I like GP. We are from the same part of the country and have a lot in common, believe it or not.
As to Obama...look. I had concerns about him during the campaign. Those did not just disappear *poof* when he won the election. I still have concerns. I don't trust him. His first choice for his administration did not make any strides toward trust, in fact, made me even more concerned. I asked if the real Barack Obama would step up, and he has. Maybe the next choices will be better. Time will tell.
I have a nightmare...ongoing, starts Jan. 20th.....and for the next Whoohoo - change starts today!
President Obama is already beginning to undo some of the damage Georgie Porgie has done over the last 8 years, and not a moment too soon!
Building of New Trade Center Starts (see article)
Without Fanfare, Building of New Trade Center Starts
Published: November 4, 2005
When are they ever going to start building the new World Trade Center?
Yesterday.
Thirty-nine years after the first concrete was poured into the first trench for the first telephone vault for the first trade center, carpenters built a 168-foot-long wooden trough in a gentle S curve through the south tower footprint at ground zero. From this sinuous sprout, Santiago Calatrava's PATH terminal and transportation hub will emerge.
Carpenters prepared a wooden trough at the World Trade Center site Thursday.
Don't laugh; it's a milestone day, said Charles A. Gargano, vice chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site and is building the $2.21 billion terminal over the next four years.
Until now, milestones at ground zero have tended to be ceremonial.
There was not a hint of ceremony yesterday. Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, were nowhere to be seen in the 70-foot-deep pit. The Freedom Tower cornerstone of July 4, 2004, sat hidden under a blue plywood box.
But anyone looking out from a PATH train screeching around the corner into the temporary World Trade Center station would have seen a crew from the Beaver Concrete Construction Company of Brooklyn.
They're finally doing something with this big hole, said Anthony Martelli, one of the workers, standing inside the newly completed trough. It's about time.
It was Mr. Martelli's first day back at ground zero since early 2002, after a six-month tour cleaning up debris and pulling out pieces of steel. Yesterday, he was building again - he and Paul Klein and Frank De Guida and Robert Manella and Tonino Sacino.
Starting at 7 a.m., they built a trough 18 inches high and 6 feet 3 inches wide out of thick wood planks. Cagelike frames of steel reinforcing bars, or rebar, will be set into the trough beginning today. Then concrete will be poured over the rebar.
That will form the footing of a seven-foot-high concrete retaining wall. The wall will hold about four feet of fill, on top of which ballast will be laid for a temporary PATH track, No. 6, alongside the future Platform D, the fourth and westernmost platform.
Currently, there are five tracks among three platforms, two of which occupy a corner of the south tower footprint, as they did in the original station. Platform D would take up more space in the south footprint and a tiny bit of the north footprint.
Once Platform D and Track No. 6 are usable, in early 2007, other tracks can be taken out of service temporarily to allow construction of the permanent terminal while commuters are traveling through the tubes to and from New Jersey.
The construction manager is a joint venture of Parsons Brinckerhoff, which counts the first New York City subway line among its earliest achievements, and the URS Corporation. A general contractor is to be chosen in the next few months.
Icanda was the contractor in 1966 when the first concrete was poured, at West and Cortlandt Streets. John M. Kyle, the chief engineer of the Port Authority, threw in a silver dollar, a 100-lire coin from Italy, a 5-franc coin from France and a British penny.
Asked about the absence of fanfare yesterday, Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman of the Port Authority, said: I think people have become so jaded by the inordinate amount of ceremonies that have occurred at that site - disproportionate to what's actually happened - that I didn't want to add to that. This is about actually building.
There is a potential snag, however. A lawsuit filed last month by the Coalition of 9/11 Families seeks to halt the project on the ground that it violates a federal law requiring that historic sites not be used for transportation projects unless there are no feasible or prudent alternatives.
Anthony Gardner, one of the plaintiffs, whose brother was killed on 9/11, said the authority had never justified the need for Platform D.
Our focus has always been to ensure the maximum preservation and access to the remains of the footprints for the American people and future visitors to the site, Mr. Gardner said yesterday.
The Port Authority and the Federal Transit Administration have yet to answer the complaint, he said. A spokesman for the authority said it would not discuss pending litigation.
But Steven Plate, deputy director of the priority capital programs department, did talk about the authority's sense of stewardship as he inspected the site, pointing out that the tower footprints had been covered by polyethylene liners and 12 inches of stone fill to protect them during construction. We're very committed, personally and professionally, to preserving the site, he said. Eighty-four of our own perished here.
I don't want to sound melodramatic, but there is no monopoly on caring for the site. This is the Port Authority's home.
In a March 17th interview with The Hill, Specter said he absolutely would not switch parties:
"[Democrats] are trying very hard for the 60th vote. Got to give them credit for trying. But the answer is no.
I'm not going to discuss private talks I had with other people who may or may not be considered influential. But since those three people are in the public domain, I think it is appropriative to respond to those questions.
I am staying a Republican because I think I have an important role, a more important role, to play there. The United States very desperately needs a two-party system. That's the basis of politics in America. I'm afraid we are becoming a one-party system, with Republicans becoming just a regional party with so little representation of the northeast or in the middle atlantic. I think as a governmental matter, it is very important to have a check and balance. That's a very important principle in the operation of our government. It's in the Constitution on separation of powers."
Thanks for the civics lecture, Arlen. Apparently this is just another one of those "inconvenient truths" that got to be more than you could actually live with, eh buddy?
FOR the second time in four years, the United States has been changed utterly by a previously unthinkable event. And just as was the case after 9/11, how this nation responds to the deluge that is sweeping New Orleans away will help define the nature of its character for decades.
Just as Rudy Giuliani said that the death toll from 9/11 would be more than any of us can bear, the same is already true of Katrina. Who can begin to take in the notion that in the United States in the 21st century, a storm could kill in staggering numbers?
At the beginning of the 20th century, something like 8,000 people perished when Galveston, Texas — unprotected from storm swells at the time — was hit by a hurricane. But when Hurricane Andrew leveled the entire town of Homestead, Fla., 13 years ago and became the most financially deadly storm in American history, it took only 15 lives.
Now we're talking about several hundred times that number in the literal swamping of one of the world's great cities.
There can be no doubt that the immediate response will be one of breathtaking generosity — financial, spiritual and personal. That's what we saw in the wake of 9/11, it's what happened after the tsunami in December, and it's what we will begin to see as the next few days pass.
But what we don't yet know is this: Are we going to try to look forward, to figure out how to save New Orleans and prevent another calamity of this sort there and elsewhere? Or are we going to begin finger-pointing, searching for villains among the debris?
Some of that villain-hunting has already begun, in the typically vulgar, unwisely speedy efforts made by overly assured ideologues certain that they can connect a cataclysm to a pet issue — whether it be the American failure to pass the Kyoto global warming treaty or making the claim that spending on the war in Iraq squeezed out the possibility of shoring up the New Orleans levees.
Here we see the stirrings of a spiritual divisiveness taking hold — in the form of a know-nothing populism that sweeps everything in its wake and brings everything into the courtroom.
What happened here was a natural disaster. But there will be the temptation to turn it into a human conspiracy of greed and selfishness on the part of oil companies, concrete companies, politicians, insurers, re-insurers, goonish cops and the like.
If the recriminations become the story of the next months, everybody will simply go to the usual battle stations. The tort reformers will take on the trial lawyers. The global-warming crowd will face off against American business. The politicians will scream at each other, scoff at each other, and try to find some cheap advantage that will turn the tide against one party or the other.
The good that will be done —person by person, donation by donation, community by community — will be in danger of getting swamped by the bitterness and divisiveness that characterizes contemporary elite politics. Rather than finding common ground, there will be ugly partisanship and a cold standoff.
The horror of a flood is literally, very nearly the oldest story in the Book. There have always been times that the water will rise higher than the walls men can build to contain it. The New Orleans system survived the battering of nature for more than 200 years — but it met its match and was overwhelmed by it.
The best we can do is comfort the afflicted, mourn the lost, and try to rebuild. The worst we can do is turn on each other.
So what shall it be? E-mail:
podhoretz@nypost.com
Not even interested in the architects of the 9/11 disaster. sm
They either have more lucrative interests in Iraq or are just bent on ridding it of Saddam or all of the above (too much history there), and we all know good and well there were no jihadist extremist there before America invaded that country, so this so-called War on Terror in Iraq was INVENTED.
What do you mean "what Obama disaster"
Haven't you been keeping up with the news. He doesn't need to take office for all the disasters that are heading our way. Unfortunately this is not going to be taken care of before he gets in the office and if you think things are bad now, just wait.
US MTSO's better start re-thinking their pay scales, because hopefully their 'sacred' cash-cow (India) is about to run out o' milk.
Palin's pending pastor disaster. As requested,
Thanks to Fox's Rev Wright feeding frenzy/orgy, the media now spotlights SP's religious upbringing. Here are some "legitimate" sources of info on the newest area of inquiry into SP's views, mentors, influences, etc., as we become more acquainted with JM's VP pick. A nutshell description might be politics based on the concept of manifest destiny. Most of these sources have often been cited by right-singers on this site. Keep in mind, these are only the early returns on this inquiry. Stay tuned.
http://www.wasillaag.net/
Due to the avalanche of inquiries, the Wasilla Assembly of God Q&A link has crashed and burned for the time being. Their Official Statement on Sarah Palin is posted here.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/sarah-palins-je.html
Statement from Senior Pastor Ed Kalnins on war, including "I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09032008/news/nationalnews/church_prayer_for_iraq_war_127206.htm
"Church Prayer for Iraq War." US soldiers battling terrorists in Iraq are "striving to do what's right" and are part of "a task . . . from God," Sarah Palin told worshippers at a conservative Pentecostal church earlier this year.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13098.html
"Jewish voters may be wary of Palin." After growing up in Wasilla Assembly of God, she switched to Wasilla Bible Church. This article deals with their views of Jews and Jews views of them. Visitors to the pulpit: David Brickner, of Jews for Jesus, who according to the Anti-Defamation League is “targeting Jews for conversion with subterfuge and deception,” asserts in essence that it's okay to bulldoze Palestinians. He goes on to say, "…terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity."
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2008/09/02/palin-said-war-in-iraq-gas-pipeline-are-gods-will/
"Palin said war in Iraq, gas pipeline are God’s will."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/02/by_juliet_eilperin_when_alaska.html
Palin Asks for Prayers That War Be "Task That Is From God"
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/09/palins_past_pastor_bushfoes_he.html Tribunes Washington Bureau
"Palin's Past Pastor: Bush foes Hell-bound"
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