Brown Should Go

I join the chorus: Michael Brown needs to go.

But will President Bush fire him?

I doubt it. This is, after all, a president who tends to reward failure, demanding loyalty over competence.

Kudos to the media for not dropping the ball on this one...

News item: FEMA rejects Amtrack's offer to help in evacuations.

News item: FEMA to Wal-mart: "We don't need your help."

News Headline: "Homeland security won't let Red Cross deliver food"

News Headline: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas"

More on FEMA's incompetence Sunday on "Meet the Press" (Via Andrew Sullivan):

TIM RUSSERT: "Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

AARON BROUSSARD (President, Jefferson Parrish): . . . Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, (they said) "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis."

Those are just a few examples of the complete and utter failure of the federal response to this disaster. Many have already brought it up, bit I'll repeat it: Why, after 9/11, is the federal government so damn slow to respond to a large scale disaster?