An interesting blog report about Brown’s showdown with the Congressional committee. He quotes from several different media sources and then offers some of his own analysis.

The Moderate Voice

Have some dignity, you may think. Have some pride. Just lick your wounds, cut your losses and quietly disappear.

But instead, former head of FEMA Michael Brown is now trying to prove his innocence. That the fiasco that occurred in Louisiana, and in the other affected states as well, had absolutely nothing to do with him. Indeed, the lack of aid and preparation is the total fault of the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans.

Now you may wonder how anyone could be as stupid as Brown, to actually stand before a House Committee and blatantly deny that he had anything to do with all of the screw-ups. He is actually making himself appear heroic, that he did everything possible to save lives and it was only the incompetents surrounding him that kept him from doing his job.

Duh, Mikey, if you were so competent and efficient, then why were you relieved of your post? Why did Bush replace you? Because you were doing a heck of a job? Gee Mikey, how is it that you had no idea that 25,000 people were sitting at the New Orleans Convention Center without food and water, when the news had already been reporting on it for a day? Why didn’t you send help immediately? Were you too busy trying to look busy, or did the immensity of the situation not compute in your pea brain?

I have already written quite a bit on this dork, so I won’t rehash here. But it is astounding how this jackass is trying to redeem himself and pass the buck. Mikey did a superb job, and everyone else fucked up.

Fortunately, the committee members, from both parties, were not taken by his inane attempt to clear his putrid name.

Committee members, however, took umbrage with Brown’s account of who was to blame, and leveled harsh criticism at him.

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), who lost his home to the hurricane, and Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.), excoriated the former FEMA head for his own failures in the face of the disaster.

Taylor took issue with Brown’s assertion that the disaster relief effort was far more effective in Alabama and Mississippi where, Brown said, the governors responded competently to the emergency.

“I was there, and I didn’t recall seeing you there,” a stone-faced Taylor told Brown.

Taylor said that local volunteers were forced to loot stores to get the food, water and clothes they needed, and then were forced to ration the stolen food as they waited for days for FEMA to arrive.

“You folks fell on your face,” Taylor said. “You get an F-minus in my book.” President Bush, Taylor told Brown, “made a very good move when he asked you to leave your job.”

Shays echoed that sentiment, telling Brown: “I’m happy you left. That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren’t capable of doing that job.”

I wonder if Mikey realizes what a fool he is making of himself. He is even denying that he embellished his resume, even though there is ample evidence that he lied about his previous experience. What is also astonishing is that he feels absolutely no remorse. None. Zip. That his lack of action and gross inexperience is possibly the cause of hundreds of death, and resulted in unnecessary pain and suffering of tens of thousands more.

Another man with a little more pride, decency and higher IQ would quietly vanish from the public eye, or go and turn himself into fertilizer. He should be held accountable for his crimes, and be charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence.

Michael Brown, it was bad enough that you screwed up so royally. And now you have the audacity to sit before a House Committee and blame everyone under the sun for the fiasco, except yourself. What a pitiful little twirp you are. I hope you get the same “assistance” if you are ever in need. In the meanwhile, do us all a favor and lock your pathetic self in your bathroom and never come out. Better yet, flush yourself down the toilet.

LA Times.com

I have managed to begin add the long promised links to my blog. And so here are my first few nurse blogs. More will be added as I scan cyberspace, searching for nurses who write interesting and frequently updated blogs about nursing, healthcare, and related topics. Personal stuff is okay, as long as the majority of the blog isn’t about their trip to Wal-Mart, or Sammy’s new tooth, or that Molly got wasted last night and woke up in bed with a strange man (actually, that might be interesting).

I am collecting blogs and links, and adding them is very simple. It’s just a matter of getting around to doing it.

Sort of a new twist on the military’s policy for gay recruits, only in this case, I’m talking about the FDA. They don’t want you to ask, and they don’t want to tell. Anyone who’s been keeping tabs on the FDA for the past decade or two knows just how low they’ve dropped on the integrity scale, but it seems that they are now scraping bottom.

Traci Johnson’s body was discovered on Feb. 7, 2004, hanging by a scarf from a shower rod in an Indianapolis laboratory run by the drug company Eli Lilly. The 19-year-old college student had been serving as a test subject in a clinical trial of the experimental antidepressant duloxetine. Investigators from the Food and Drug Administration rushed to Indianapolis to determine whether the experimental drug was related to her death. The probe was inconclusive.

This left researchers in a quandary: Was the drug safe or not? Could duloxetine trigger suicide, as some experts suggested? Or was Johnson’s death an “isolated tragedy,” as Eli Lilly claimed? When drug manufacturers fail to publish negative study results, as studies show is often the case, the best source of information about these questions is the FDA. The agency—which was rocked last week by the sudden resignation of Commissioner Lester Crawford—requires companies seeking approval for a drug to provide data from randomized controlled trials, studies in which some patients are given the drug and others are given a placebo. But when researchers and the press started asking about duloxetine, the FDA didn’t scour its database and go public. It kept quiet.

An interesting article on Slate.com not only delves into the FDA’s desire to keep undesirable information secret, but also chronicles a very frustrated journalist’s attempt to delve into the truth.

Good reading for a Tuesday morning. It will make you want to clear out all of your prescription drugs and chuck them into the garbage bin.