nabeepchen

….other than the fact that Michael Brown has been relieved of his command, there is other good news. Really good news in fact.

From the Katrina Blog:

12:40 P.M. - (AP) Authorities said Friday that their first systematic sweep of the city found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina’s death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.

“I think there’s some encouragement in what we’ve found in the initial sweeps that some of the catastrophic deaths that some people predicted may not have occurred,” said Terry Ebbert, New Orleans’ homeland security chief.

Let’s hope that we continue to hear more of the same.

Brown’s head has rolled. Yes, the twirp has been relieved of his command. Strange how his removal from the Katrina hurricane rescue comes only a week after Dubya complimented him on what a great job he was doing.

“You’re doing a heck of a job,” says Dubya, of Brownie’s efforts. So if he’s doing such a fantastic job, then why is he being relieved?

But we should not expect straight answers to ever come from the Bush administration, or to ever hear that anyone has made a mistake, especially a fatal one. Brown still hasn’t resigned, and is still the director of FEMA, but at least he’s no longer in charge of the Katrina operation. Thank God for small favors, although Chertloff is making it sound like the only reason that he has been relieved of duty is because he’s ”needed” back at the ranch to help prepare for other future hurricanes.

Please, spare us.

The Seattle Times reports that:

Asked if the move was a demotion, Brown said: “No. No. I’m still the director of FEMA.”

He said Chertoff made the decision to move him out of Louisiana. It was not his own decision, Brown said.

He also said that,” And then I’m going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims…

Oh please, Mikey Brown, you’ve already done enough to those victims. Anymore and they’ll all be dead. This is the best news that they’ve heard since the hurricane whipped through their homes, so do us all a favor, and just go hide under a rock. If you have any shred of dignity, resign. Accept the fact that you are a liar and incompetent. Maybe Dubya will take pity on you and give you a job as a cowhand on his ranch.

So now, we may ask, why is Brown still in charge of FEMA? I would prefer that my tax dollars do not go to pay the salary of that incompetent jackass, thank you. And Michael Brown is only the beginning. The first head to roll, but there are many others in need of scalping. Like our president. Perhaps he can explain the reasoning behind cutting funding to New Orleans so they could better fortify the place. I’d be very interested in hearing his explanation.

And his move to allow contractors in charge of hurricane clean-up to pay below minimum wages??? What kind of nonsense is that? Are they going to ship in truckloads of Mexicans who’ll work for $1/hr?

Come on, baby, it’s time for the heads to roll….

Imagine this. Suppose that a hospital executive hired his family members and other people that he liked to fill vacancies. That instead of nurses with licenses and training, he put Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Ernie and Grandpa Jed to work as nursing director and supervisors. The people actually giving care and pushing meds were none other than his daughters who played in a rock band, a bunch of unemployed adult children of some of his business associates, and cousin Dom who had just served time for first degree murder.

Would you like these “nurses” caring for you if you were ill? Would you like people with no training or experience to be in charge of your care while you’re sick and vulnerable?

I think not. And then you say, “Well, of course that will never happen. Nurses have to go to an accredited school. They have to sit for boards. They need a license. They have to show some degree of competence.” Very true. So then if a hospital just can’t hire whoever it wants to practice nursing (even if Aunt Thelma does look sweet in white), then why can our government do otherwise? Why can the government put the lives of millions at stake, by filling the ranks of an important office like FEMA with highly unqualified people?

From Reuters UK:

The Washington Post reported that five of the top eight FEMA officials had little experience in handling disasters and owed their jobs to their political ties to Bush.

FEMA director Michael Brown, already under fire for his performance as the disaster unfolded, came under further pressure when Time magazine reported that his official biography released by the White House at the time of his nomination exaggerated his experience in disaster relief.

So in other words, FEMA is being handled by people who have no experience in diasters, but instead, who made nice-nice to Bush, and this is their payback. Bush puts the health and safety of our nation into the hands of unqualified people.

Once again, we have been shown without a doubt how much he cares about our nation and its people. Now here’s another good one from Bush:

Bush also issued an executive order on Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of the hurricane to pay below the prevailing wage, drawing rebukes from two congressional Democrats who said stricken families need good wages to rebuild their lives.

So now let’s guess what federal contractor has secured the contract for New Orleans. Could it begin with an H? Does it sound like Halliburton? And I’m sure that all of the contracts will go to Bush’s friends, and now it is even sweeter because they don’t have to even pay minimum wage. They will profit nicely from the tragedy.

How can Bush get away with stuff like this? What is his official rationale (other than helping spur the greed of his friends) in saying that contractors do not have to pay minimum wage? That hasn’t happened in any other clean-up operation. One in five people in Louisiana live at or below the poverty level. The hurricane has made the situation that much worse for thousands of them. And Bush thinks that it’s okay to pay below minimum wage to people who were barely getting by as it is.

The man is excrutiatingly sickening. The man who professes to be the good and holy Christian, and the defender of life in the petri dish. Unfortunately, he has little regard for human life once it emerges from the womb.