| CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of
| both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under
| the Bush administration. Read it and weep:
|
| o January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony
| from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous
| experience in disaster management.
|
| o 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."
|
| o 2001: FEMA designates a major **** hitting New
| Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic
| disasters facing this country."
|
| o December 2002: 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.
|
| o 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
| ****.
|
| o 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.
|
| o Summer 2004: 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."
|
| o June 2004: 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."
|
| o 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.
|
| o 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.
|
| So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as
| head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were
| slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three
| risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as
| part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to
| reduce the role of government. After DHS was created,
| FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
|
| Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a
| **** the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the
| slow federal response when it did happen was no accident.
| It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican
| policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan
| loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the
| Bush administration in a nutshell.
|
Wow, it amazes me how the government would want the people give their all to support it, then the government turn around and give mnimal support to its people.
Wow this Sh*t is crazy.....G Dub is an idoit. With all the information presented in front of him he slashes funding??? :x
Maybe, one day, you all will understand how politics work.
So do you think he was right for doing that?
Political redispersement. Every President does it with one huge fund or the other. Clinton with Nat'l Security, Bush Senior with Tax Breaks. And Bush Jr with subsidiaries.
It's a risk that's taken. And one which he lost. Is he wrong for it? No. Did he make a poor judgement call, yes.
So Clinton is to blame for the whole Somalia and Grenada situations? And also for the Embassy bombings? Those happened on HIS watch and due to the poor funding of National Security.
if he did his job which is to properly fund what needs to be funded
that wouldn't of happened
so yes it is his fault
he also sit back and did NATHAN to intervene with the whole Hotel Rwanda tragedy
USA can intervene in everyone elese's problems but when it comes to Africans- let them **** each other
You care more about black people than people all together. You deserve to have the skin ripped from your flesh and the muscle from your bone and be able to watch every agonizing second of it until your bones are scraped dry by little mexican chihuahuas eating your putrid corpse out of spite.
