Brown's gotta get fired right?

[Spoke]

Are we really so sure the terrorists aren’t behind this whole Katrina business? We have good intelligence (trust us) that the Syrians have been working on weather-based weapons.

[Johnny_L.A]

@spoke-

Are we really so sure the terrorists aren’t behind this whole Katrina business? We have good intelligence (trust us) that the Syrians have been working on weather-based weapons.

Why do you think the Middle East is so dry? It’s because The Terrorists have been stockpiling the wet weather for just such an attack on the U.S.! :mad:

[Guinastasia]

@Fear Itself

He was a college buddy of the previous director, Joe M. Allbaugh, who himself got the job because he Dubya’s campaign manager in 2000. The Bush administration is rife with patronage jobs bestowed on unqualified cronies and campaign contributors.

So instead of “restoring honor and dignity to the White House” we got Tammany Hall?

[OttoDaFe]

@Guinastasia

@Fear Itself

He was a college buddy of the previous director, Joe M. Allbaugh, who himself got the job because he Dubya’s campaign manager in 2000. The Bush administration is rife with patronage jobs bestowed on unqualified cronies and campaign contributors.

So instead of “restoring honor and dignity to the White House” we got Tammany Hall?

Actually, I have a feeling that both Boss Tweed and Mayor Daley would be honored to kneel at the feet of The Master.

[kaylasdad99]

@OttoDaFe

Actually, I have a feeling that both Boss Tweed and Mayor Daley would be honored to kneel at the feet of The Master.

If they could properly identify him. I swear, some days I’m not sure whether the homunculus is being operated by Rove, Cheney, or some more shadowy figure who’s never even shown his face.

[wolf_meister]

When was this Director of FEMA job advertised? I didn’t see it in the classifieds.

Well maybe Mike Brown will have to be reading the classified ads soon when he has to do a job search of his own. :rolleyes:

Maybe he’ll be lucky and get a job for which he is equally qualified:
Dubya: “I’m proud to present our next Surgeon Generable - Mike Brown”

Hey, there’s always a chance he could get nominated to the Supreme Court too.

[MovieMogul]

The New Republic had a great article on how Brown has done almost nothing his entire career. Some excerpts:

Brown’s biography on fema’s website reports that he’s a graduate of the Oklahoma City University School of Law. This is not, to put it charitably, a well-known institution. For example, I’ve been a law professor for the past 15 years and have never heard of it. Of more relevance is the fact that, until 2003, the school was not even a member of the Association of American Law Schools (aals)–the organization that, along with the American Bar Association, accredits the nation’s law schools. Most prospective law students won’t even consider applying to a non-aals law school unless they have no other option, because many employers have a policy of not considering graduates of non-aals institutions. So it’s fair to say that Brown embarked on his prospective legal career from the bottom of the profession’s hierarchy…

…In any case, despite the claim of Brown’s fema biography that he practiced law for 20 years prior to his 2001 appointment as fema’s general counsel, it appears that, by 1987, he had already more or less abandoned his nascent legal career…By 1991, he had moved to Colorado, where he became commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association (iaha). This position, which never made his fema bio, was Brown’s full-time job from 1991 to 2001, and it had nothing to do with the practice of law…

…What, then, are we to make of the claim in Brown’s fema biography that, prior to joining the Agency, he had spent most of his professional career practicing law in Colorado? Normally, an attorney practicing law in a state for ten years would have left a record of his experience in public documents. But just about the only evidence of Brown’s Colorado legal career is the Web page he submitted to Findlaw.com, an Internet site for people seeking legal representation. There, he lists himself as a member of the “International Arabian Horse Association Legal Dept.” and claims to be competent to practice law across a dizzying spectrum of specialties–estate planning, family law, employment law for both plaintiffs and defendants, real-estate law, sports law, labor law, and legislative practice. With all this expertise, it’s all the more striking that one can’t find any other evidence of Brown’s legal career in Colorado…

…When Brown left the iaha four years ago, he was, among other things, a failed former lawyer–a man with a 20-year-old degree from a semi-accredited law school who hadn’t attempted to practice law in a serious way in nearly 15 years and who had just been forced out of his job in the wake of charges of impropriety. At this point in his life, returning to his long-abandoned legal career would have been very difficult in the competitive Colorado legal market. Yet, within months of leaving the iaha, he was handed one of the top legal positions in the entire federal government: general counsel for a major federal agency. A year later, he was made its number-two official, and, a year after that, Bush appointed him director of fema.

It’s bad enough when attorneys are named to government jobs for which their careers, no matter how distinguished, don’t qualify them. But Brown wasn’t a distinguished lawyer: He was hardly a lawyer at all. When he left the iaha, he was a 47-year-old with a very thin resumé and no job. Yet he was also what’s known in the Mafia as a “connected guy.” That such a person could end up in one of the federal government’s most important positions tells you all you need to know about how the Bush administration works–or, rather, doesn’t.

[El_Kabong]

With all this expertise, it’s all the more striking that one can’t find any other evidence of Brown’s legal career in Colorado…

[Cousin Vinny]

“Wait a minute, did you say Jerry Gallo? No, no, I’m Jerry Callo!”

[/Cousin Vinny]

[wolf_meister]

[Judge Chamberlain Haller]

Is that an accredited law school?

[/Judge Chamberlain Haller]

[Rufus_Xavier]

@ArchiveGuy

The New Republic had a great article on how Brown has done almost nothing his entire career. Some excerpts:

The first question this story brings to mind is: how the hell did this guy get connected? Just from working on the 2000 campaign? What did he do, give everyone hot oil massages?

[Maus_Magill]

@Rufus Xavier

The first question this story brings to mind is: how the hell did this guy get connected? Just from working on the 2000 campaign? What did he do, give everyone hot oil massages?

My first question after reading that was: how the hell did he get confirmed by the Senate?

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

Information coming out suggests that Brown lied about many things in his resume. I predict that the apologists on the right will start suggesting that Brown was given his position based on “faulty intelligence” as it were. “He was a good choice based on his history. How could the Bush admin have known he was misrepresenting himself.”

Just in case this spin is trotted out, keep in mind the degree to which FEMA has been stocked by people with similar qualifications.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802165.html

Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA’s top three leaders – Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler – arrived with ties to President Bush’s 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

[wolf_meister]

Brown’s the archetypal example of the Woody Allen quote:
“80% of success is just showing up”.
I used that quote a few weeks ago when I was pitting Dubya for the spectacularly unremarkable ways in which he “handled” Sept 11, 2001. :rolleyes:

It seems a LOT of other people associated with Dubya are equally “qualified”. :mad:

I wonder if this time the American people will fall for the crap about Bush handling this job well, “Mission Accomplished”, etc.

[Johnny_L.A]

CNN reports that Brown is ‘out’. ‘Out of the area’, that is. Of course, the President can’t fire him; but he can ‘call him back to Washington’.

[Fear_Itself]

Well, he’s a little closer to the door:

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief 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.

…

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.

[Merijeek]

@wolf_meister

I wonder if this time the American people will fall for the crap about Bush handling this job well, “Mission Accomplished”, etc.

Meh.

Get enough shots of Bush standing with groups of firemen while he tells them what a great job everyone has done and he’ll come through smelling of roses as usual.

-Joe

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Well, I don’t think Brown should resign.

I think he should be sent into the heart of New Orleans to help conduct the cleanup.

With a mop and pail.

In his skivvies and flip-flops.

And no water other than the stuff he’s wading in.

[Fear_Itself]

@Merijeek

Meh.

Get enough shots of Bush standing with groups of firemen while he tells them what a great job everyone has done and he’ll come through smelling of roses as usual.

-Joe

Done and Done!

Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.

Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

…
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

[Merijeek]

@Hentor the Barbarian

Information coming out suggests that Brown lied about many things in his resume. I predict that the apologists on the right will start suggesting that Brown was given his position based on “faulty intelligence” as it were. “He was a good choice based on his history. How could the Bush admin have known he was misrepresenting himself.”

Look, pal.

If you want us to keep cutting taxes we have to cut back on some things. What do you think we are, Democrats?

Obviously, we shouldn’t have cut spending on calling the references listed on resumes for top federal positions. But long distance calls are expensive. And the savings were, after all, passed onto you.

We’ve already got a new supplemental budget in place to address this problem*.

I didn’t hear you complaining that your taxes were lower this year. That makes you practically culpable. So how about a little less whining and a little more shut the fuck up?

-Joe

*Our new phone company is Phoniburton - the long distance is only $3.00 a minute

[SteveG1]

@Fear Itself

Done and Done!

Now that shows pretty well what the priorities are. Spin spin spin, while people need help. Am I the only one who finds this display to be an offensive bit of self serving politicizing???