Send in the Browns

The Washington Post reports that 45 officers and six civilian employees of the New Orleans Police Department were fired Friday for abandoning their posts during the Katrina disaster, and sheds light on the fate of those who left.

Some of the New Orleans police officers accused of abandoning their posts have reportedly tried to get work at law enforcement agencies in Texas and Georgia, but officials there have refused to take them.

At the federal level, former FEMA Director, Michael Brown, continues to receive federal pay and criticism, currently for accepting an extension to his post-resignation FEMA contract. See David Mark's comments for JABBS (republished on Blogcritics). UPI reports that Brown planned to resign even before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of clueless administrators still in charge of emergency preparedness and other critical functions at federal agencies; so many, in fact, it was hard to resist writing a parody.

SEND IN THE BROWNS
(sung to the tune of Stephen Sondheim's “Send in the Clowns”)

Isn’t it strange?
Storm clouds appear
People and cities could drown
What do we hear?
Send in the Browns.

Isn’t it grim?
Aren’t we appalled?
Victims cry out to the world
Rescue is stalled
Where are the Browns?
Send in the Browns.

Trapped in the flood
No way to bail
Thousands unknowing
The levees were dangerously frail
Waiting for FEMA to bring
All appropriate care
Day after day
No one is there.

Now comes the show
After the shame
Every one trying to find
Another to blame
Subpoena the Browns
Quick, send in the Browns
Let's hear from the Browns.

“What a surprise!
Who could forsee
Horror, destruction and death
Played out on T.V?
It would take hindsight to know
What reporters foresaw
I’m just a hack
In shock and awe.”

Time to regroup
Rewrite the plan
Only the insiders know
It’s still a sham
Where are the Browns?
Quick send us more Browns
Don’t bother - they’re here.

CITED ARTICLES
New Orleans Fires 51 Police Workers , Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post, October 29, 2005
Brown planned to resign before Katrina, UPI, Washington, October 26, 2005
Brown Resigned Last Month In Disgrace..., David Marks, JABBS, October 26, 2005

Indictment in CIA leak case

At a federal court house in Washington, the news media have learned of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libbry, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, in the CIA leak investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

The indictment consists of five counts, including perjury, making a false statement, and obstruction of justice according to a special broadcast by ABC News, just before 1 pm ET. In a follow-up broadcast, at 1:10 am, ET, ABC News reported that Mr. Libby had resigned.

The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com) notes that "Any trial would shine a spotlight on the secret deliberations of Bush and his team as they built the case for war against Iraq."

The indictments did not cite violation of the law protecting identities of intelligence officers. But, Fitzgerald's handling of the investigaton sparked national debate, still unresolved, regarding the protection of whistleblower identities.

Read the ABC News online report, here.

A stitch in time saves billions

Failing to make proper and timely repairs to the levees in New Orleans resulted in damage that will cost U.S. taxpayers billions. According to the Washington Post, the Corps of Engineers estimates it will cost $1.15 billion just to restore the levees; however...

The law says FEMA must only restore facilities to their previous quality, which the Corps expects to do for New Orleans levees. But state and local leaders say that evidently is not good enough for the flood-control barriers.

If unchanged, the federal government's policy will set the stage for second catastrophic flooding of New Orleans, and more loss of life. State officials estimate it will cost another $2.3 billion to repair damage to state facilities, including the Superdome, writes the Post. These are just a fraction of the total cost for reconstruction of homes, businesses, and the environment, debris removal, health care, relocation, and other expenses.

The cost of failing to be proactive - to plan, prepare and mitigate the anticipated effects of a major disaster -can be staggering. But, even after Katrina, many managers in government and the private sector still are not proactive, and still do understand why they need a plan. The same managers probably would not dream of telling their daughters, "Don't bother to plan for the wedding, honey, - just tell everyone when to show up."

Rather than horse show executives and lawyers heading national preparedness programs, perhaps what the nation needs are a few good wedding organizers.

La. Wants FEMA to Pay for Majority of Damage to State Property. Spencer S. Hsu and Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, October 28, 2005, A14

From New Deal to Raw Deal: Americans Abandoned in Hour of Need

President Bush is pressing for aggressive federal spending cuts, reports the New York Times, and the cuts fall most heavily on the nation's children. This follows numerous other examples of Administration parsimony toward vulnerable citizens - the poor, the sick, the elderly, and disabled veterans - perpetrated as part of the Bush doctrine of "personal responsibility," a doctrine that seems to apply to everyone except the Administration.

Meanwhile, the wealthy continue to receive giant goody-bags of tax cuts. The Sarasota Herald Tribune describes a little known provision in the Bush hurricane relief bill that gives the rich an opportunity to deduct up to 100 % of their income if they donate to almost any charity.

Those unfortunate enough to fall upon hard times increasingly are being left to rely on the tax-break motivated generosity of the country's wealthy few. As a result of this policy, the nation is deep in debt to foreign lenders, including China. Of course, tax breaks cannot continue indefinitely and when they stop, those in need will have no where to turn.

We wonder if the Administration plans for millionaires to defend our shores from terrorists and potential invaders; for, if this trend continues, everyone else will be too sick and ill-equipped to do the job.

Lack of expertise undermines preparedness

Today's New York Times takes an overdue hard look at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's qualifications and handling of hurricane Katrina:

Serving as a federal government point man on hurricanes is hardly a role that Mr. Chertoff, 51, a former federal prosecutor and federal appeals court judge, expected when he took over at the Homeland Security Department in February. "I'm not a hurricane expert," he said recently. But in the aftermath of the widely criticized response to Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Chertoff said he fully realized that expert or not, the buck stopped with him.

The Times article echoes and supports observations of Deep Harm in Chertoff Speaks (October 19), and notes that Chertoff's ability to manage the huge department is now being questioned by some members of Congress, although he still has support from President Bush.

A broader issue, the lack of emergency management training among top officials at federal agencies, remains unexamined. Chertoff and Brown are only two of many examples of high level officials with emergency responsibilities who lack emergency management expertise, and many of those refuse to sign up for training. As a result, subordinates who do have appropriate expertise report frustration in getting management approval of needed improvements to preparedness.

We propose that Congress pass a law requiring all federal department secretaries, agency administrators and staff directors to complete, within 90 days of appointment, a government-provided program of instruction in all-hazards emergency management. Such a requirement would go a long way toward correcting deficiencies in federal preparedness, and could save countless lives.

National Security Chief Vows He Is Fixing What Hurricanes Showed Was Broken, by Eric Lipton, New York Times, October 25, 2005

Flawed levees symbolize flawed policies

In today's Washington Post (Investigators Link Levee Failures to Design Flaws), Joby Warrick and Michael Grunwald examine why three New Orleans levees collapsed within a 15-hour period in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Preliminary investigation findings, they report, suggest design flaws were a key factor in the levee failures, resulting in flooding that submerged 100,000 homes and caused most of the 1,000 deaths in Lousiana. Surprisingly, the hurricane is now believed to be have been no more than a Category 3 storm by the time it blew through New Orleans - a blow the levees should have withstood.

Ultimately, the people of Lousiana will have to make some hard decisions: whether to rebuild the city as it was, using engineered structures to fight a hostile and ever-changing environment; or to create a very different city, compatible with natural processes. The rest of the nation has a stake, also, in the decision making. The cost of Katrina has reached into the pockets of taxpayers far from Jackson Square, and there will be many storms to come.

Unless Americans are willing to accommodate repeated evacuations, relocations and reconstructions of coastal cities, new national and state policies are needed for land use in hurricane-prone areas. Otherwise, cities like New Orleans will effectively become "cities on wheels," constantly on the move, to escape the latest storm.

The economic, health and psychological impacts of multiple disasters argue for a paradigm change in land use and urban planning. And, while we're at it, why not take a hard look at regions prone to earthquakes and other disasters? The cost of Katrina is only a taste of the potential cost in dollars and lives of a major earthquake in Los Angeles or San Francisco.

As more Americans make their homes in hazardous locales, the odds increase that any one of us could be the next disaster casualty. With that in mind, a beachfront property may become much more appealing as a National Seashore than as a private - and temporary - residence.