How history repeats itself.

[babylonsister]

Last night PBS had a couple of excellent shows about Hurricane Katrina and the mis-administrations of both Bushes.

Do you remember the name of the FEMA director for Bush 41? I wrote down the name Stigmy, but googled it to no avail. Can history actually be scrapped? Brown and James Lee Witt's names are out there, but nothing on Bush 41's selection, and nothing on FEMA's website. Odd that a few years are just skipped over...:wtf:

Do you remember it took our government 5 days until troops arrived to aid the victims of Andrew? Andrew Card was front and center in 1992 to spin the belated response.

How history repeats itself.

On the second program, PBS briefly went through FEMA's history. They maintained that FEMA has been a dumping ground for political appointees under both Bushes, while Clinton reformed FEMA and actually made an effort to hire James Lee Witt, someone with a background equipped to deal with the many and varied issues surrounding a natural disaster.

How history repeats itself.

[Lannes]

1. Saw most of it ,was watching last Nightline as well

Didnt see them bring up the infamous "Im a fashion God" e-mails to Brown when they interviewed him.The asshole was still trying to blame everyone else for his failure.

[LisaLynne]

2. Why do I always miss the good stuff??!?!?

I swear I am setting my TiVo to just record PBS nonstop. That really sounds interesting. I'm going to check their site --maybe you can buy the DVD or something.

Like father, like son. THey both saw/see the government as a big corporation where you can give your friends important and well-paying jobs and nothing really bad is going to happen. The trouble with the government is that people do actually rely on those people to do things -- like save lives. So, when you have incompetents in high positions, people die.

When will we rid ourselves of the BFEE??

[baldguy]

3. Only Stickney had been confirmed as FEMA director

Julius Becton Jr Nov 1985-Jun 1989 (Reagan holdover)
Robert Morris (acting) Jun 1989-May 1990
Jerry Jennings (acting) May 1990-Aug 1990
Wallace Stickney Aug 1990-Jan 1993

[babylonsister]

4. Thanks, baldguy. Stickney, not Stigmey!

He was apparently as talented as Brown. :eyes:

[baldguy]

5. I just googled the guy and found this:

The red tape was aggravated by old-fashioned incompetence. FEMA was, in the words of former advisory board member and defense analyst Lawrence Korb, a "political dumping ground," a backwater reserved for political contributors or friends with no experience in emergency management. President Bush, for example, appointed Wallace Stickney, head of New Hampshire's Department of Transportation, to lead FEMA. Stickney's only apparent qualification for the post was that he was a close friend and former next door neighbor of Bush Chief of Staff John Sununu. Throughout his time there, Stickney was nearly invisible, except for regular trips to Capitol Hill to defend the agency against its many critics.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0509.franklin.html

[justabob]

6. It was chilling to hear the responses of 41 and 43 played....

almost word for word the same, and defininitely the sentiment behind the words was the same.