"Brownie" relieved of Katrina duties.

[Midnight Son]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_brown

Director Michael Brown is being relieved of his duties in managing the Bush administration's Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery efforts, The Associated Press has learned.

Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.

Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad w. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.

Brown has been under fire because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to highlight his previous emergency management background.

Less than an hour before Brown's removal came to light, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Brown had not resigned and the president had not asked for his resignation.

McClellan did not directly answer a question about whether the president had full confidence in Brown.

"We appreciate all those who are working round the clock, and that's the way I would answer it," he said.

Brownie, as you know, was doing a helluva job.

It's pretty clear he'll be the fall guy but ultimately it's Dubya fault for promoting the clueless into positions of responsibility.

[Menzo]

It'll be a shame if Brown is tarred and feathered alone - state and local officials have a lot to account for in this one as well.

[Dirt]

The only thing Brown can look forward to now is a Medal of Freedom.

[Woolen Horde]

The people of Louisana will get their shot at their elected officials come election time.

Government appointees like Brown need to be fired, and the idiot who promoted them to those critical positions should be held accountable, as well.

[VegasRobb]

It'll be a shame if Brown is tarred and feathered alone - state and local officials have a lot to account for in this one as well.

The stage is being set for that scenario to happen.

[MatthewF]

<makes jon stewart-esque face of disbelief>

Acc...ount...ability? Has this administration gone mad?

[Moore]

I'm expecting him to get a supreme court nomination any minute now.....

[Midnight Son]

I'm expecting him to get a supreme court nomination any minute now.....

Bah, I already used this line. :lol:

[wildpokerman]

I'm expecting him to get a supreme court nomination any minute now.....

Bah, I already used this line. :lol:

Screw you both, I take credit for cracking this line first:

http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21252

[Brian Koontz]

McClellan did not directly answer a question about whether the president had full confidence in Brown.

"We appreciate all those who are working round the clock, and that's the way I would answer it," he said.

?

That's the way he would answer it if what? If it was raining? If a dog barked? If he deigned to answer it?

Directly answer? That doesn't look like any kind of answer. Its actually a barely related topic.

Its a simple question, even simpler for someone in direct communication with the president and Brown. Heck, even *I* can answer it, albeit with not as much certainty as McClellan could, or might, or would, if the sun rose in the west.

Lets compare McClellan's answer to mine:

Brian: The president has confidence in Brown's character. He doesn't need confidence in his competency, because he doesn't care if he's competent. Competency would be important if the conceived (traditional) results of FEMA were meant to be continued. Since Bush has little respect for those people expected to be benefitted by FEMA, he has little respect for the traditional identity of FEMA and sees little need for competent leadership (since in his eyes there is little if any gain through competency).

Bush continues to have full confidence in Brown. Unfortunately Brown might have to be sacrificed for political expediency, as distasteful as that is to Bush who enjoys strong shows of political force (against the American people). Brown might have to become a Neocon martyr, a man misunderstood by the ignorant and pathetic populace. Bush will shed a tear, woefully doing what he must to Brown, a good man, and blaming the American people for it. Starving pathetic assholes on TV made a good man lose his job! Goddamned media!

Maybe I should be the political spokesman for Bush. You can't say I would do a worse job than McClellan at the very least.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. I don't know. I'm thinking though that if you support the American people and are in a position of power, you MUST by duty answer questions important to those people as honestly and completely as possible. Furthermore you should OFFER information on processes the public has not seen that are important to them. Its *ok* to be proactive! Its *ok* not to constantly be on the defensive against America! Maybe someone should let the White House know this... they seem to be under some misunderstandings...

Isn't it treason against the American people to deceive them on important matters? I remain unclear about why stealing a candy bar is a crime, yet deceiving the American populace is not. Noone has explained this.

OK. So here we are. We have a White House that doesn't answer questions because those questions are irrelevant because it serves its own agenda and not that of the American people.

McClellan: "You're not asking the right question. You already know the answer to Bush and Brown. Why don't you ask what you REALLY want to ask, you fucking coward?"

We have a White House that is pushing the limits of language and behavior with respect to democracy. Its putting democracy in danger.

And actually, that's not even a bad idea. A litmus test for democracy in America. Interesting way to go about achieving it, not necessarily recommended, but effective certainly.

I'm confident democracy will prevail, if for no other reason than the Neocons are incompetent in presenting an alternative, maybe because they are not even trying to present an alternative.

The Neocons are really all about that test, setting up a paper tiger (Right-wing Fascism and Islamic Terrorism) and having it face off against democracy.

Don't get me wrong, the Neocons won't shed many tears if the paper tiger prevails. They don't really care either way. They definitely want a war though between democracy and whatever enemy they can provide for it.

To defeat the Neocons then is to prevent that war from happening. The best way to do that is to strengthen democracy to a point where fascism or terrorism or whatever conceived enemy exists is not a PEER. Or, as I've said, Stop Being Afraid.

The current problem is that many people think they must be Warriors for Democracy, and fight agains the Neocons. People like this have already lost.

The Neocons do not stand for Fascism. They stand for a challenge to Democracy. They will opportunisticly continue to provide those challenges until they are stopped.

The Neocons do not just live in the White House and its allied outreaches. They live in many places uncertain about American democracy and are vulnerable to wanting to prove something to themselves by fighting a war against an anti-democratic force. The people who find themselves fascinated by Jerry Springer. The people who listen to Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken, the people who want to take aggressive action and who want aggressive action taken against them.

"How can you just sit there? Can't you see what is happening? Why don't you do something about it? You FUCKING COWARD!"

The Neocon: "Democracy has no enemy. Something with no enemy gets weak and listless. We are the spiritual force behind the American people".

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I'm all for Democracy to fight against something. Democracy and America have all kinds of weaknesses... ironically the Neocons favor democracy more than I do. While the Neocons are all about constructing a test for democracy, I'm all about finding *actual improvements* to human life, without regard to democracy. Democracy after all is just a means to a end, a point that began and at some point will end. I don't take democracy seriously, at least in the big picture.

I support any system of humanity that is better than democracy. Literally any. The problem with the Neocons is that they have NO SUCH SYSTEM. They don't even try to have something better than democracy. They just want to prod, poke, rile up, construct a phantom enemy, do whatever to create Democracy of Action, Militant Democracy, which is supposed to provide a spiritual boon to the people. They are FUCKING PATHETIC. Democracy is 1000 times better than the garbage they are constructing.

Do you think its a good idea for Democracy to fight against a Phantom? What does fighting a Phantom prove? That's you're pathetic enough to fight an invention is my answer to that.

Here's a newsflash for the Neocons: your constructs, your invented enemies, *do not allow* for honest warfare. They do not allow for honest conflict because the ENEMY is not honest! The enemy is not real.

In Neocon Land, even fear (especially fear) is an invention. I can say Stop Being Afraid because there is nothing to fear! The Neocon just shakes his head in sadness because he thinks he MUST be afraid because fear means conflict and he needs even a pathetic conflict to feed his otherwise miserable life.

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Anti-globalization is valuable partially because it maintains the human vs. human conflictual system that is established by human history. I'm all for *experimenting* with invented enemies... I'm sure as fuck not all for engaging in a large-scale war based on an invented enemy.

Anti-globalization will allow for easy experimentation... many many experiments which can then be expanded or retracted based on the results.

One thing I agree with McClellan about: Don't ask him questions you already know the answers to.

Stop Being Afraid of the Neocons. Stop feeding their inventions. Reject them, stop them, and eject them from power. Its ok to ask them direct questions, and I mean direct questions that you *don't* already know the answers to. Its ok to hold them accountable for giving you answers.

The Neocons are not worthy of being on the national political stage in America. America is better than what they are giving it.

A real enemy, or a respite until a real enemy arrives. Perhaps, I don't know, conceive of a system greater than democracy?

What kind of person do you ask questions of that you already know the answers to?

The kind that you can't trust to give you answers to questions you don't have answers to.

The Neocons may be desperate and sad, but strangely enough they are honorable and even trustworthy in their own twisted way. While they are still here, give them a chance to do some good.

Don't blame McClellan. Start asking him real questions and you might just get some real answers.

[Midnight Son]

I'm expecting him to get a supreme court nomination any minute now.....

Bah, I already used this line. :lol:

Screw you both, I take credit for cracking this line first:

http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21252

If I evah make the effort, I'll prove you wrong!

Plus: I take pride in my large penis.

Koontz: No, I didn't read it.

[MikeSofaer]

If I had been at that conference I would have asked McClellan "So Mr Brown is going back to Washington so he can continue to maintain FEMA's high standards of disaster readiness?"

[Jason McCullough]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002484649_pennington10m.html

John Pennington, the official in charge of federal disaster response in the Northwest, was a four-term Republican state representative who ran a mom-and-pop coffee company in Cowlitz County when then-Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn helped him get his federal post.

Before he was appointed regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Pennington got a degree from a correspondence school that government investigators later described as a "diploma mill."

[extarbags]

I'm expecting him to get a supreme court nomination any minute now.....

Bah, I already used this line. :lol:

Screw you both, I take credit for cracking this line first:

http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21252

That was on the Daily Show weeks and weeks and weeks ago, only about Rove.