i can't EVEN comment on this one

FEMA Says No to Ice For Hurricane Survivors

Under New Policy, FEMA Says Ice is Not Its Responsibility

MEGAN CHUCHMACH
Hurricane survivors are being put at risk in Texas and other hot weather states because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is no longer providing ice in relief situations, say watchdogs, relief workers and local leaders in Hurricane Alley.

"It's frustrating that the government can deliver $85 billion to bail out AIG, and they can't deliver ice in Texas," said Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project (DAP), a nonpartisan organization that monitors the nation's disaster response system.

In fact, while the federal government can deliver ice to disaster areas, it's chosen not to, under newly-revised FEMA rules. Instead, individual states and local governments are now tasked with purchasing, delivering and storing ice, even though they face tough logistical challenges in doing so, according to critics of the new policy.

"FEMA is effectively saying we can't guarantee you ice," said Mike Womack, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency......

is this report really

badly written or researched? ORRRRRRRRRRRR are there things in the report that are TRUE the administration wants to discredit? we all know what i believe
Delay Of Report Is Blamed On Politics
Document Suggests Public Health Risks Near Great Lakes

By Kari Lydersen Washington Post Staff Writer
CHICAGO -- The lead author and peer reviewers of a government report raising the possibility of public health threats from industrial contamination throughout the Great Lakes region are charging that the report is being suppressed because of the questions it raises. The author also alleges that he was demoted because of the report.
Chris De Rosa, former director of the division of toxicology and environmental medicine at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), charges that the report he wrote was a significant factor in his reassignment to a non-supervisory "special assistant" position last year.
The House Committee on Science and Technology is investigating De Rosa's reassignment, in light of allegations that it was related to the Great Lakes report and his push to publicize the possibility of a cancer risk from formaldehyde fumes in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers housing victims of Hurricane Katrina. ...........

where's brownie when ya REALLY need 'em???

we STILL haven't helped these people but we're funneling in millions and billions to OTHER countries for goddess only knows what. pakistan? india? iraq? what the hell are we giving france now to be our best buds?

Lawmakers Criticize FEMA's Handling of Hazards Posed by Trailers

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
Nearly four months after the Federal Emergency Management Agency promised to study the risk of formaldehyde in trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina survivors, none of 52,000 occupied units have been tested, and FEMA has warned its employees for their own safety to stay out of 70,000 similar trailers in storage.
"This double-standard is wholly unacceptable," Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said in a written statement, accusing FEMA of hiding the extent of trailer contamination and leaving "American disaster victims exposed to a whole new nightmare." .............

he's NOT getting the job

afterall
but remember, if they didn't get caught HE WOULD HAVE HAD THE PROMOTION
that's how it works afterall
Fake FEMA Briefing Costs Official New Assignment
Missteps Too Common At Agency, Critics Say

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's director of external communications was denied a post as senior spokesman for Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell yesterday, becoming the highest-ranking casualty of a fake news conference staged by FEMA last week to publicize its response to California's devastating wildfires.
The flap is not the first time FEMA or its parent Department of Homeland Security has been on the wrong end of a public relations move that backfired. Rather, it fits a pattern in which domestic security officials have mismanaged the public presentation of their efforts, whether those efforts are going well or poorly. .........

the more you lie,

the higher up in king george's court you get!
Fake FEMA news conference director gets promotion
David Edwards
CNN reports that John "Pat" Philbin, the Director of Public Affairs responsible for FEMA's recent faked news conference, is effectively receiving a promotion. PRNewser was notified by an email which said that Philbin's new job was an "amazing opportunity to head the communications shop at ODNI."
Philbin is slated to become Director of Public Affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

one of our favorite organizations (member brownie???) has done it again!

they didn't learn their lessons. they never cared to. why bother?
this speaks VOLUMES

FEMA Meets the Press, Which Happens to Be . . . FEMA
By Al Kamen
FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.
Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices. ...........

.................And so I think what you're really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership," Johnson said, "none of which were present in Katrina." (Wasn't Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness.
Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin. ..............

so this administration that is SO TOUGH ON TERROR

is actually creating more chances for terror to occur (effed up or what)? funny (not funny ha ha of course) isn't it? i really can't think of ONE good thing king george and his court have done. i'm sure there has to be ONE thing but it's not easily forthcoming to me

believe me, i wouldn't want to take one of the open positions under this king. perfect for a scapegoat i must say

Job Vacancies At DHS Said To Hurt U.S. Preparedness
A Fourth of Top Positions Not Filled, Report Says


By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security, creating a "gaping hole" in the nation's preparedness for a terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional report to be released today.
As of May 1, Homeland Security had 138 vacancies among its top 575 positions, with the greatest voids reported in its policy, legal and intelligence sections, as well as in immigration agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Coast Guard. The vacant slots include presidential, senior executive and other high-level appointments, according to the report by the majority staff of the House Homeland Security Committee.....