E-Mails Portray Ex-FEMA Chief As Image Conscious

[struggle4progress]

<snip> In one e-mail, a FEMA public affairs official tells Brown his outfit looks "fabulous," to which Brown replies, "I got it at Nordstroms," then adds, "Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?" <snip>

http://www.thejacksonchannel.com/news/5237404/detail.html

[JJackFlash]

1. He had wanted to quit before Katrina

too bad he didn't ... not that his replacement would have been any better.

[jwirr]

2. Someone should tell him that the best way to keep

a positive image is to do your job.

[99Pancakes]

4. I thought he looked best when he was gone.

Beat the Dumb as Dirt look he had when he was pretending to be head of FEMA

[schmuls]

17. ha ha ha...excellent point!

[Canuckistanian]

3. Yes, you can quit now

And take all the losers with you....

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. My fucking lord

many a times I came home with a uniform that looked like crap and smelled even worst!

I guess I was working, huh?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

[tanyev]

6. "I am a fashion god"

From a more complete article discussed here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2218786

If only New Orleans had been having a fashion crisis. He would have been Brownie-on-the-spot.

[Shallah Kali]

7. Lawmaker: E-mails show Brown 'out of touch' during Katrina(Can I quit now?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/03/brown.fema.emails/index.html

"In the midst of the overwhelming damage caused by the hurricane and enormous problems faced by FEMA, Mr. Brown found time to exchange e-mails about superfluous topics," including "problems finding a dog-sitter," according to Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Louisiana, who posted the e-mails on his Web site.


snip

In an e-mail he sent the morning of the hurricane to Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, Brown wrote, "Can I quit now? Can I come home?" A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, "I'm trapped now, please rescue me."

snip

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt all shirts. Even the President rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."

snip

An hour later, Brown added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god," according to the congressman.

[UpInArms]

10. "you just need to look more hard-working"

Need to look??????

How about really doing the work????

I hate these photo-op "specialists".

Appearances are everything - reality is nothing.

:banghead:

:argh:

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Maybe the freepers can tell us again how it's all Nagin and Blanco's fault

The man accepted by their minor deity George W. Bush was totally out to lunch (or dinner, as it were, you know it takes twenty minutes to get a table!), or playing runway model at the middle-age Dad's Nordstrom's fashion show.

What a fucking disgrace. Blame game? Someone should indict his ass for negligent homicide.

[Lochloosa]

9. And WE are stilling paying this a**hole $150,000 a year

[jseankil]

11. 'Can I quit now?' FEMA chief wrote as Katrina raged

Rep. Charlie Melancon, whose district south of New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane, posted a sampling of e-mails written by Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown on his Web site on Wednesday.
..............

On September 12 Brown resigned, 10 days after President Bush told him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Brown took over FEMA in 2003 with little experience in emergency management. He joined the agency in 2001 as legal counsel to his college friend, then-FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, who was Bush's 2000 campaign manager. When Allbaugh left FEMA in 2003 Brown assumed the top job.
............

The e-mails Melancon posted, a sampling of more than 1,000 provided to the House committee now assessing responses to Katrina by all levels of government, also show Brown making flippant remarks about his responsibilities.

"Can I quit now? Can I come home?" Brown wrote to Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of public affairs, the morning of the hurricane.

A few days later, Brown wrote to an acquaintance, "I'm trapped now, please rescue me."

"In the midst of the overwhelming damage caused by the hurricane and enormous problems faced by FEMA, Mr. Brown found time to exchange e-mails about superfluous topics," including "problems finding a dog-sitter," Melancon said.

Melancon said that on August 26, just days before Katrina made landfall, Brown e-mailed his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, about his attire, asking: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."

On August 29, the day of the storm, Brown exchanged e-mails about his attire with Taylor, Melancon said. She told him, "You look fabulous," and Brown replied, "I got it at Nordstroms. ... Are you proud of me?"

An hour later, Brown added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god," according to the congressman.

-full article-
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/03/brown.fema.emails/index.html

[xultar]

12. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[jseankil]

13. FEMA Chief Michael Brown , Brought to You By George W. Bush /nm

unreal

[triguy46]

22. another example of what * views as 'most qualified.'

his track record is horrible, if not criminal. Let there be no quibbling about Scalito being a terrible choice. The proof is that * chose him. Thats all that is needed to know.

Regarding "heckuva job brownie", my hope is that this man will be ridiculed and belittled for years to come. He is a carpetbagger the likes of which we haven't seen for decades until * stole the election. Unqualified, vain, insensitve, incompetent, out of touch, elitist if not a royalist, whiner, snob, ineffectual, ineffective, too clean, too well pressed, too well fed. Time for him to crawl back under the rock where they found him.

[Ian David]

14. I had to double-check to make sure it wasn't The Onion saying this!

This is way beyond insane!

[schmuls]

16. Ha ha ha ha...truth is stranger than fiction!

[Ian David]

26. I just keep getting more and more angry the more I learn

Brownie did a heck of a job on "Operation: Drown the Negroes."

[triguy46]

23. Yes a "life imitating art" moment, albeit a true nightmare...

a shining example of what cronyism will get you.

[davidinalameda]

19. criminal charges should be brought against him and the administration

for gross negligence

can you imagine the lawsuits that are going to spring out of this

[gorgan]

15. this one gets me

Two days after Katrina hit, Marty Bahamonde, one of the only FEMA employees in New Orleans, wrote to Brown that "the situation is past critical" and listed problems including many people near death and food and water running out at the Superdome.

Brown's entire response was: "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

Imagine calling 911 when your house is on fire, and the operator's response is "Thanks for the update, anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

[katty]

18. fashionistas...'fabulous'? Nordstroms?! da boys doin the girltalk

[Roon]

20. Brown joked in e-mail as Katrina churned

Ex-FEMA head’s correspondence shows banter, trivialities before storm

In the days leading up to Katrina, former FEMA Director Michael Brown sent jocular e-mails to colleagues about his clothing, finding a dog-sitter and asking if he could quit, an investigation revealed.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9912186/

[nini]

21. and yet.. he remains on the payroll

amazing.. simply amazing

[truthisfreedom]

25. i remember how bush complained... he'd have to give up his precious email

upon entering office. imagine the administration kicking themselves for allowing any of their cronies to use email for communications... permanent written proof of a complete culture of corruption and cronyism.

[xyboymil]

27. Brownie your doin a helluva job!

:eyes:

[SoCalDem]

24. Brownie , defined...(audio link)...take your pick

http://www.bartleby.com/61/wavs/38/A0473800.wav

http://www.bartleby.com/61/wavs/0/D0340050.wav

http://www.bartleby.com/61/wavs/88/S0418800.wav

[cedahlia]

28. "Image Conscious"? I'd say, they portray him as a FUCKING PRICK!

He sounds very much like the incompetent petulant child who hired him. What a surprise. :eyes: :puke:

[DisgustedTX]

29. More evidence of lifetime Bush homoerotics

Ashe/Brown/Libby/Mehlman

Filth.

[no name no slogan]

30. FEMA E-Mails Shed Light on Brown's Katrina Response

Former Director Discussed Clothing as Floods Ravaged New Orleans
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20051103071509990006

A House committee investigating the response to Katrina released about 1,000 e-mails as members complained that the Bush administration had failed to provide copies of communications among high-level officials, including White House chief of staff Andy Card and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Deputy White House press secretary Trent Duffy said, "The White House staff is working on that information collection."

The newly released e-mails depict an official who "made few decisions and seemed out of touch," said Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La.

Read and be OUTRAGED

[LiberalinNC]

31. I love the fact that this moron had to be told to roll up his sleeves to

look as if he was actually doing something. What a Blanton disregard for human life!

[99Pancakes]

32. Oh My God!

This should be criminal. I mean, people died while this dirtbag worried about "looking hard working". And then, he gets an e-mail from the one lone FEMA worker in New Orleans saying "Many will die"...and the moronic Shrub-lovin' twit asks if there's anything he can "do" or "tweak". Tweak? WTF does THAT mean? Fer chrissakes!

[Digit]

33. Can we start a campaign to get him off the payroll?

To keep paying this guy is a slap in the face to Americans everywhere.

[bahrbearian]

35. He's just another a Patriot trying to put food on his family.

It's hard work! Who else would do a Heck of a job if not Brownie.

[wordpix]

40. YES, let the campaign begin---why are we the people supporting this

insensitive, incompetent piece of shit with our hard-earned tax dollars? Let the bushit admin. explain, along with other answers they need to give about Rover, CIA leak, false pretnses for war, etc. etc.

[Pachamama]

42. Tweak? Tweak? WTF?

This is beyond criminal...its so sociopathic and detached I am beyond words...

I'm surprised this man wasn't throwing fake sweat beads on to make it look like he's "hard-working"...

Tweak? You "tweak" a piece of machinery to tune it up...this man was talking about the response to the death of 1000's of human beings and saving 10's of thousands more....you don't "tweak" something like that...

Compassionate Conservatism is sick....

If I were Brownie, I'd invest in some good plastic surgery so he's never recognized on the street somewhere in sometown....

:grr:

[Lisa]

43. you also "tweak" to make yourself look good -- not knowing what else to do

It's the kind of thing that a superfluous middle manager spouts, when it's evident that things were already running smoothly BEFORE he came on the scene (as we've seen, that wasn't the situation in New Orleans, so Brown is clueless 2 times over!). At least he's consistent -- he didn't seem to think there was a problem at all, in his other e-mails. I can't believe that anyone would be so lacking in observational skills, so it must have been deep denial. Didn't want to admit that he had no idea what he should be doing.

I've seen the situation where the manager-type stands around, not really knowing what to do, basically getting in the way of the workers. If the guy is smart enough to KNOW that he's not wanted and can't add anything, to cover his embarrassment he mumbles something about a few minor adjustments. "Tweak it a little", etc. (Hey, it's preferable to someone who stomps in and proceeds to wreck everything, because he thinks he knows better. For some reason I'm getting a mental picture of John Bolton.) But given what things were like after Katrina, both these approaches would add to the disaster.

[damntexdem]

34. Well, if he was that worried about how he dressed, too bad ...

he couldn't have joined Condi shopping for shoes. ;)

[no name no slogan]

37. "Does this disaster make my butt look big?"

what an asshat.

[Sugar Smack]

41. .

:spray:

as usual, you've nailed it.















PMming in 1 hr.

[silvermachine]

44. Well...

...it does make him look like a gigantic ass!

[Erika]

36. GOP elitism and insensitivity under this corrupt administration

I hope "Brownie" gets charged with negligent homicide.

[Whoa_Nelly]

38. Brown said: Louisiana is dysfunctional

Hey, Brownie! You are one totally dysfunctional fuck up! :mad:

Come on over....I would love to show you what "TWEAK" really means! :evilgrin: :rofl:

[oioioi]

39. "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie".