2008 Woodie Awards
George makes yet another boo-boo
Jaclyn Cosper
Issue date: 9/15/05 Section: Opinion
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It never amazes me what President Bush will do next. Prior to Hurricane Katrina I was a die hard Republican. Now I'm like...umm...well...please, I'm almost ashamed of my political preference.
For those of you who don't know, Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, resigned on Monday. However, that is not what I am writing about. My beef is; why in the world would Bush appoint someone to be the director of an emergency management organization with no emergency management training. That is like expecting nothing to go wrong when giving the car keys to an infant and telling him to go get milk. How stupid do you have to be to not think there will not be a problem?
The fact that we are just now hearing that Brown has no experience in this field angers me even more. But of course, leave it to the government to cover everything up. Nothing out of the ordinary there, now is it?
Another thing that has me scratching my head is that five head officials of FEMA also have little or no experience in emergency management. In fact they only got their job by helping out with the Bush campaign. I say, "Screw college, give me a piece of that action!".
Okay, I will admit that with the past hurricanes Brown, a.k.a. Brownie (I wonder why), has done a good job handling the cleanup. In fact when Bush first visited the ruins of New Orleans he said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." This just happens to be very funny to me because the President is not saying a word, good or bad, about Brown now. Both he and Brown have tried to keep media attention on the crisis itself, not on the lacking experience of emergency management officials.
Now that Brown has resigned, the focus is now on the President and the rest of the government. While Bush is taking responsibility for the slow reaction to the disaster, he is not being taken very seriously. As you may recall this is the man who was the President during September 11, the one who lead us into a falsely reported war with Iraq, and now is having to defend himself for his poor reaction to Katrina. Also, a quick note, his approval ratings are at an all time low.
With Brown resigning, Bush has now appointed David Paulison as the new acting director of FEMA. Fortunately, this man has experience. Among other qualifications he has had a career as a firefighter and certified paramedic, he was among emergency workers responding to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades in 1996. He was also in charge of Dade County's emergency management office. He led FEMA's emergency preparedness force from 2003-2004, and has been in charge of the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security since December 2001. Obviously he is more than qualified. Lets just hope that he won't wind up with his head in the sand.
For those of you who don't know, Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, resigned on Monday. However, that is not what I am writing about. My beef is; why in the world would Bush appoint someone to be the director of an emergency management organization with no emergency management training. That is like expecting nothing to go wrong when giving the car keys to an infant and telling him to go get milk. How stupid do you have to be to not think there will not be a problem?
The fact that we are just now hearing that Brown has no experience in this field angers me even more. But of course, leave it to the government to cover everything up. Nothing out of the ordinary there, now is it?
Another thing that has me scratching my head is that five head officials of FEMA also have little or no experience in emergency management. In fact they only got their job by helping out with the Bush campaign. I say, "Screw college, give me a piece of that action!".
Okay, I will admit that with the past hurricanes Brown, a.k.a. Brownie (I wonder why), has done a good job handling the cleanup. In fact when Bush first visited the ruins of New Orleans he said, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." This just happens to be very funny to me because the President is not saying a word, good or bad, about Brown now. Both he and Brown have tried to keep media attention on the crisis itself, not on the lacking experience of emergency management officials.
Now that Brown has resigned, the focus is now on the President and the rest of the government. While Bush is taking responsibility for the slow reaction to the disaster, he is not being taken very seriously. As you may recall this is the man who was the President during September 11, the one who lead us into a falsely reported war with Iraq, and now is having to defend himself for his poor reaction to Katrina. Also, a quick note, his approval ratings are at an all time low.
With Brown resigning, Bush has now appointed David Paulison as the new acting director of FEMA. Fortunately, this man has experience. Among other qualifications he has had a career as a firefighter and certified paramedic, he was among emergency workers responding to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades in 1996. He was also in charge of Dade County's emergency management office. He led FEMA's emergency preparedness force from 2003-2004, and has been in charge of the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security since December 2001. Obviously he is more than qualified. Lets just hope that he won't wind up with his head in the sand.