Bipartisan Senate investigation wants to disband FEMA

[killerbush]

According to tomorrow's NY Times, a bipartisan Senate investigation, lead by the chairman of the Homeland Security dept. Susan Collins, and the ranking Democrat Joe Lieberman, will urge strongly that FEMA be disbanded. Both will say that the utter failings of FEMA during and after the storm left the American people with no confidence that the agency is prepared, or would be prepared if another Katrina like storm would hit in the future.

The title of the report is "Hurricane Katrina, a nation still unprepared".

If it were up to me, the feds should have left FEMA alone, and entirely seperate from Homeland Security in the first place. It worked a hell of a lot better in that capacity.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Senate_investigation_of_Hurricane_Katrina_says_0426.html

[unblock]

1. something stinks here

i'm always suspicious of ANY reorg move from these criminals, although collins is not the usual rw lackey.

but the premise is wrong. people blame brownie, people blame shrub; katrina did nothing to harm fema's image that new leadership can't fix. when the next disaster comes along, all the have to do is GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME and their image is restored.

but what could they gain from a reorg?

might it have anything to do with the idea of turning disaster management over to the military and quasi-military type organizations?

[serryjw]

3. I think that is what Susan is telling us

They can't get it right. They do an ok job on small Florida hurricanes BUT the Catastrophic hurricane or other they will never be prepared.....WE ARE ON OUR OWN!

[quaoar]

9. Here is the AP story

By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s disaster response agency should be abolished and rebuilt from scratch to avoid government failures exposed by Hurricane Katrina, a Senate inquiry has concluded.

Crippled by years of poor leadership and inadequate funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot be fixed, a bipartisan investigation says in a report set for release Thursday.

Though short on specifics, such as funding levels, the report sets forth 86 proposed reforms, suggesting the United States is still woefully unprepared a disaster of Katrina’s magnitude.

[Blaq Dem]

21. Bush wants to PRIVATIZE it

Wait and see. The GOP likes to privatize everything.

It's good to know they admit THEY can't fix it even though FEMA is fixable.

[ribrepin]

2. That's the ticket--get rid of emergency services completely

And lieberman's right in the thick of it. Color me surprised.

Are they planning anything to replace it? Or are we gonna fight hurricanes over there so we don't have to fight over here?

[serryjw]

4. NOW that's funny!

Welcome to DU! We need some satire humor here.

[orleans]

35. (smile) n/t

[demswin06]

5. This is crazy!!!!!!!

WE do not need to disband FEMA. Granted,FEMA was a horrible failure under Brownie,Chertoff and Bush and was clearly over matched and under prepared for the ravages of Katrina,but FEMA did work when someone such as James Lee Witt,who knew what the hell he was doing under someone else who knew what he was doing,Bill Clinton. Yes,FEMA didn"t have a Katrina to deal with,but Brown,like Chertoff is nothing more than an empty bureaucratic suit. If anything needs to be disbanded it is Homeland Insecurity. It is nothing more than a money wasting,fear mongering,Bush useless tool to frighten and scare Americans. FEMA needs to be put back as a separate entity and put back in the hands of people who know how to respond to disasters,not used as a political tool. x( :wtf: :thumbsdown: :puke:

[54anickel]

12. Very true. FEMA was wayward prior to Witt and Clinton. Then they

gave it a purpose and much of their work became pre-emptive in nature. I believe FEMA was fine before it got rolled into that behemoth bureaucracy known as DHS. Well, as fine as could be under an incompetent pretzelnut and his lacky appointee Allbaugh. Then again, everything this mal-admin touched has turned to shit so far.

[sandnsea]

23. 1993 500 year Mississippi River flood

Oh yes they did have a Katrina to deal with. The Mississippi flood was every bit as horrific as Katrina, and it lasted from April until October. 1,000 watches and warnings were issued, whole towns were flooded when levee after levee broke. Why don't we remember how horrible it was? Because we only lost 50 people. This was every bit as bad as Katrina, it was just managed so well that people have already forgotten it.

[Sinti]

6. They want to call it something else and give it more power

"The new agency, which would still be part of the Department of Homeland Security, should be more powerful, with additional components that would give it a budget twice as big as FEMA's, the report recommends."

FEMA had unbelievable emergency powers, if it needed them, i.e., control over your modes of transportation, food systems, monetary system, water, the ability to force people to register and move them around as it saw fit, every damn thing you can think of. I can't imagine what more power it would need.

All that was required was the desire to actually do your job and assist people in emergencies. The old agency worked great under James Lee Witt. This smells.

:banghead:

[IndianaGreen]

7. Lieberman is the puke that wanted the creation of Homeland Security!

Why should we listen to him and his ideological clone Susan Collins?

FEMA worked fine until it was brought under Homeland Security. Let's pull FEMA out of that Gestapo monster and free it from the likes of Chertoff.

[struggle4progress]

34. They oughta abolish Homeland Security: it's the problem

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. HEY!

Remember when we had a National Guard that turned out in times of national emergency?

They were really cool.

FEMA, by the way - check out its history - has always been a boondoggle for political hacks and, mostly, a joke. Check out the sterling history of Louis Giuffrida, from the beginning, and note how wonderfully FEMA worked closely with Ronny Raygun and Ollie North in order to get them Nicaraguan Contras.

Bring our National Guard home. We've got resources that haven't been used effectively because Fuckface has been squatting in the Oval Office. We can do it without a money pit like FEMA.

[prairierose]

10. I have believed since the start of the Katrina disaster that...

the plan was for the department to perform so abysmally that people would begin to call for disbanding that and other federal agencies that no longer "work". If you remember what Grover Norquist said years ago, "My goal is to shrink government to the point where I can drown it in a bathtub"...or words to that effect. This just goes to show that the imposed incompetence has achieved the desired effect.
Which will be the next department that does not work effectively which they will try to disperse? Education, health and human services, ag department? Of course, you can be sure that the DOD Will not come under the same scrutiny or nor will we hear any calls for it to be disbanded. But everything else, yes, I believe we will hear more proposals like this for other departments.

[Kagemusha]

11. He shrank part of the government and New Orleans drowned instead.

And hey, there's been huge bloat of other parts of the government. Like the Dept. of Homeland Security.

[ribrepin]

15. I caught a few minutes Hannity today

He was plugging getting rid of the gas tax temporarily. Oh well, the roads to be toll roads in the hands of developers. Once they do away with a tax, it never comes back.

[The Wielding Truth]

17. Then we'll be in the same state as Iraq and Afghanistan --- helpless!

No central government,no substantial defense,basically an exploited crumbling fractured infighting working class controlled by carpetbaggers. It sure feels like it's being pulled out from under us as we get turned round and round by Rumsfeld's double speak and Rove's slimy reinventions of the truth.

Time to smash the lies and scream the truth.
Goodbye radical Earth rapists!

Could we have a mass firing of the entire administration, Pump up the Antitrust Laws and push a Statesman with some basic concern for this Country and the World up to speak for us?

Then maybe this nightmare of nonsense will stop and we can go back to complaining about why so many are dying of aids,cancer,and hunger.

I'm sick of being less than equal and having some frightened petty power happy scoundrels talking for me.How about you?

Man,I'm furious with these jokers.Fire Joey, too!

[leesa]

13. Lieberman is a Republican. What's bipartisan about it?

He's wanted the uber Homeland Security since the get-go...morte of that comfy dictatorship feel to him I guess.

[killerbush]

16. Stop with the Lieberman crap. This isn't about him.

It's about FEMA possibly being done away with. Put the Lieberman hating away for one night please!!!!

[IndianaGreen]

19. Lieberman advocated the creation of Homeland Security Department

and he wasn't alone, Gary Hart was there too!

Putting FEMA under DHS was the second biggest blunder, creating DHS was the biggest blunder.

[AnnieBW]

14. It's On CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/26/katrina.congress.ap/index.html

Funny, FEMA worked perfectly well when James Lee Witt was running it!

[IndianaGreen]

18. FEMA began to fail when it was put under Homeland Security

a department that was created at the insistence of people like Joe Lieberman and Gary Hart, of the Monday Morning Quarterbacking 9-11 Commission.

[killerbush]

20. Yeah, but he never wanted FEMA to be part of Homeland Security

[Dulcinea]

32. We have a winner! ding*ding*

FEMA worked fine when it was its own independent agency, before its budget was swallowed to pay for Bush & Cheney's oil war.

As always, follow the money. Who would it benefit to abolish emergency services like FEMA used to provide?

[orleans]

36. (yes, republicans--it was clinton's "fault" when fema used to work) n/t

[komuckway]

22. I agree.

It's proven to be pretty useless.
It's left the states staring at the Feds like kids to Momma.

Better for the states to work together.
Better for the states to get the funds.

If it (FEMA) doesn't work, and it hasn't, then dumop it and try something else.

[me b zola]

24. You've got it backwards

FEMA was proven to be very useful & effective--under a competent administration.

The conservative's desire to "kill" the federal government has left them blind to see that under the bush* cabal the federal government is larger than it was before bush* was installed by the Supreme Court. The difference is that they have reconstructed the government to no longer serve the people, but instead serves big buisne$$.

[opiate69]

25. FEMA worked just fucking fine under James Lee Witt, troll.

[Hekate]

26. FEMA used to be a fine organization run by competent professionals...

...before Bush, that is.

Bush wrecked FEMA with his reverse Midas touch, the one that turns everything to s**t.

As with everything else this maladministration does, ask yourself "Who does it serve?"

Who does it serve to destroy a functioning branch of government and then claim it's broken beyond repair?

It serves: big corporations who profit by privatization.
It serves: ideologs who want government to provide only armies and roads, and no human services (including public education).
It serves: religious wingnuts who believe that the increase in human misery is a sign that Jesus is returning soon.

Bush-Cheney can't be impeached soon enough. It will take forever to repair the damage they've done.

Hekate

[Beware the Beast Man]

27. Well, there you go.

Typical mindset of this administration- "Well, it didn't work like it should have, therefore we should kill it rather than fix it."


:mad:

I knew this would happen. Fill cabinet positions with incompetent twits to destroy them from within and chalk it up to the fault of bureaucracy.

[bj2110]

28. AP/Yahoo Story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060427/ap_on_go_co/katrina_congress


Senate Panel Recommends Abolishing FEMA

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Hurricane Katrina's latest fatality should be FEMA, the nation's disaster response agency, a Senate inquiry concluded in calling for a government overhaul to avoid future failures like those the devastating storm exposed.
ADVERTISEMENT
<0>


Eighty-six recommendations by the bipartisan panel indicate the United States is still woefully unprepared for a storm of Katrina's scope with the start of the hurricane season little more than a month away.

The recommendations conclude that the
Federal Emergency Management Agency is crippled beyond repair by years of poor leadership and inadequate funding. They call for a new agency — the National Preparedness and Response Authority — to plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters.

Although the proposed changes do not place blame on any official or government agency, Sen.
Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., will offer "additional views" to the panel's findings in a statement accusing
President Bush of failing "to provide critical leadership when it was most needed."

[bj2110]

29. What a fucking stupid move. Just get it out of the SS Homeland Security...

[sampsonblk]

30. Abolish Homeland Security!

This is the first step to sanity.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

31. Just before the next hurricane season....real f'ing bright.

[Penndems]

33. That agency worked great until the Bush Administration came in

and replaced senior people with an incompetent bunch of political appointees (which is exactly what Bush 41 did, BTW). They downsized a workforce that had years of institutional experience, and turned over the rescue and relief duties to Junior's corps of corrupt, "faith-based" campaign contributors.

Now that the Bush people have run FEMA into the ground and completely eviscerated it, the Republicans in Congress wanna abolish an agency that James Lee Witt rebuilt (after Daddy used it as a dumping ground for his buddies) and turned into a showpiece. It was a well-oiled machine, ready to meet the needs of the American people whenever disasters struck.

Now look at it. What a disgrace. :mad:

[IndianaGreen]

37. Joe Lieberman does not speak for Democrats!

James Lee Witt, Clinton's FEMA director, lambasted the Collins-Lieberman proposal today saying that all that FEMA needed was for it to be taken out of Homeland Security Department, and to the FEMA director to report directly to the President.

Lieberman was an early advocate of an American Gestapo, Homeland Security, and now he wants to create another monster for the Bush dictatorship when all we needed to do is to reverse the mistakes of the past.

Joe Lieberman does not speak for Democrats! He is a Quisling, a Petain, a traitor, a Bush enabler and collaborator. Nothing he says or does has any value.

One example is when Susan Collins blamed Brownie for the Katrina response when the videos clearly showed it was Bush that was out of touch and disengaged. Collins did not point a finger at Bush, and neither did Lieberman!

[killerbush]

38. Indiana Green, your wrong about Lieberman

He did point a substantial finger at Bush. He blamed bush for the slow gov't response, and he also blamed him for not going down there right way. He did blame Bush, you just don't want to hear it.

[IndianaGreen]

39. Lieberman used a wet noodle to whip Bush, and you call that courage?

Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?

-- King Henry II

[killerbush]

40. I call it telling it like it is

You call it a hatred for Lieberman

[Penndems]

42. Huh? You talkin' to me?

:shrug:

I went back and re-read my post, and I don't see where I mentioned Senator Lieberman anywhere. It was an indictment of the Bush Administration's laxity and stupidity regarding FEMA.

Thanks for the input, though - appreciate hearing your viewpoint!

[zann725]

41. What's scarier is IF it remains,& is "re-designed" as outlined on MSM

yesterday. They said that the "new" Repug plan was to essentially appoint a "military chief of staff" (that was THEIR exact words) to head up FEMA, instead of civilian. And that "military chief of staff" would report DIRECTLY to Prez. for orders!

:wow:

So if there's an earthquake, or hurricane...it becomes a Military-Run (non-funded for "Relief" for victims)...answerable to Prez. for "timely" action?!!!

About all those Detention Centers......