WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California.

The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency’s deputy director.

ON DEADLINE: More on the FEMA masquerade

The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous.

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response,” Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee.

Full Story Here:
FEMA workers posed as reporters

I would have gotten up from my death bed to write this, FEMA is a JOKE, a very bad, terribly mismanaged JOKE and we’re paying for it, you’re doing a heck of a job Brownie, words that have become synonymous with You’re fired…

I’m going to cover a few things other than just FEMA in this post but FEMA is directly connected in the entire topic, I am to the point that I have to vent, just a little…

FEMA, and the state of Louisiana showed the nation what incompetence truly looked like when Katrina hit the gulf coast, Bush didn’t rush right down to New Orleans and Mississippi like he did to California this week, federal money has been slow to go to Louisiana to fuel their recovery and everywhere I read I see people making comparisons to New Orleans and the So-Cal fires, well, there is NO comparison other than the fact that they are both natural disasters, right there is where ANY similarity in them ends…

I have seen many comments on the New Orleans Times-Picayune saying that Louisiana will continue to be ignored until they, the state of Louisiana, seat a Republican Governor, I see the same people saying that the reason So-Cal is receiving the massive response to their disaster is because they have a Republican Governor, and the truly terrible part is the ones, and there are MANY, screaming that it’s all about race, New Orleans didn’t get the response they needed because of New Orleans being a majority black city and because California is populated by rich, white Republican voters, and to that I say BULL SHIT!! Yes, there are some rich white folks in California but to the people throwing out the assumptions that this is the reason California is getting a bit more rapid response, I say again, BULL SHIT!!

FEMA messed up in their response to New Orleans but the root cause of that massive failure was the response made by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, she turned down an initial offer by Pres. Bush for IMMEDIATE federal help in the form of troops and the supplies that they could have almost immediately moved into the New Orleans area, but Blanco turned Bush down in her belief that Louisiana could handle the aftermath of Katrina all on it’s own and in what I saw as an attempt by her to prove that a FEMALE and Democratic Governor could seriously get the job done, and I think that Blanco may have forgotten that 3,500 members of the Louisiana Army National Guard were already under federal orders and in a period of out processing from Kuwait and making their return to Louisiana after having spent a year in Baghdad, and perhaps she didn’t realize that even if the 256/156 BCT had been able to return to Louisiana immediately, they were still under federal orders for a given period of time after their deployment…

Bush made mistakes in Katrina but the 1st responsibility falls on the state itself, NOT to FEMA or the U.S. military, and I know that many believe So-Cal got a much more expedient response, but their Governor was ‘Johnny on the spot’, he was all over this thing and he exhibited great leadership, and yeah, he did make a couple of off hand comments towards Blanco and the Louisiana response to Katrina but he only spoke the truth, Louisiana initially dropped the ball in New Orleans and FEMA quickly followed up with their own fumbling and bumbling, thus, in my mind at least, bringing to light the fact that we are NOT prepared as a nation, if FEMA and the Feds can’t contain a regional issue like Katrina and can’t respond in an honest manner, you know, like NOT hosting and populating their own press conference, how can we possibly hope that they could get this nation under control in the event of a massive attack or nationwide natural disaster and be what they are supposed to be, the one and only, Federal Emergency Management Administration??

We need a hell of a lot more than political spin, we need to lose the comparisons of disasters and we ALL need to work together to make this nation as safe and as prepared as possible, stop the finger pointing, stop the in-fighting, stop the politics and racial slurs, either get with the program and become a part of the solution or keep doing what you are doing and remain a part of the problem…

Demand that Bush remove incompetent managers within his administration, and the very 1st thing that could be done to help resurrect FEMA from it’s own pile ashes would be the immediate firing of Michael Chertoff, he can’t handle disaster, and that’s because he IS a disaster, his organization has NO scruples, as has been glaringly pointed out by this fake press conference, and that little character flaw falls directly on the man in charge of the agency itself, Chertoff, and yes, I know, many are going to say that Bush himself needs to be removed, and I could not agree more, but he could help his own cause by placing people in positions of authority that could actually DO a job the way it needs to be done, and by removing them and placing BETTER people in the position if they don’t, and by appointing capable advisers and then actually listening TO that sage advice…

God Speed California, you WILL recover, but PLEASE, do us all a favor will you?? Cut the damned brush so this crap doesn’t happen again, a snail darter or some desert rodent or some other little furry critter is NOT worth all this BS with the wild fires, it could be avoided by a little bit of land clearing, no point in being a tree hugger if all you’re going to have is a burned out tree to hug…

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NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana’s new governor-elect, Bobby Jindal, vowed to clean up corruption and embraced his image as a bureaucratic, methodical leader on Sunday, one day after voters here made history by electing the first Indian-American governor in the USA.

“If I go down as one of the more boring but effective governors, I’ll take that as a great compliment,” Jindal said at a news conference Sunday. “Our people don’t want to be amused by our politics anymore. We don’t want to be entertained.”

Jindal, born in Baton Rouge to Indian parents, won a crushing victory over 11 other candidates Saturday in the crowded race for governor, avoiding a runoff by winning more than 50% of the vote. At 36, Jindal, a Republican, is the state’s first ethnic minority governor since Reconstruction and will be the youngest current-serving governor in America.

At his acceptance speech late Saturday in the ballroom of a Baton Rouge hotel, Jindal said he will call the Legislature into a special session to address ethics reform and go after those “feeding at the public trough.”"They can either go quietly or they can go loudly, but either way, they will go,” Jindal said to raucous cheers.

Full Story Here:
Jindal pledges to end La. corruption

I want to extend my congratulations to Bobby Jindal on his victory, he faces a daunting task and I wish him much luck in this endeavor…

As many know, I am a native of Louisiana and I have never held back on my criticism of it’s corrupt politicians, and the way it corrupts every facet of business in Louisiana, that was the major reason I left the state 25 years ago and made Texas my adopted home…

Perhaps Jindal can get this under control and can instill a sense of RIGHT in Louisiana and the inherently corrupt politicians that have made Louisiana the laughing stock of American politics, it WILL help encourage legitimate business to think about returning to a state that is populated by a good hearted bunch of people, the folks that live in Louisiana simply need a good example set for them, they’ll figure it out for themselves if they actually see HONEST government in action…

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