Worthless till the very end:
FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, a CNN investigation has found. These items, stored by FEMA, were meant for Katrina victims but were given to state and federal agencies.
The material, from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities, sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s giveaway to federal and state agencies this year.
James McIntyre, FEMA’s acting press secretary, said that FEMA was spending more than $1 million a year to store the material and that another agency wanted the warehouses torn down, so “we needed to vacate them.”
***Martha Kegel, the head of a New Orleans nonprofit agency that helps find homes for those still displaced by the storm, said she was shocked to learn about the existence of the goods and the government giveaway.
“These are exactly the items that we are desperately seeking donations of right now: basic kitchen household supplies,” said Kegel, executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans. “These are the very things that we are seeking right now. FEMA, in fact, refers homeless clients to us to house them. How can we house them if we don’t have basic supplies?”
Just fucking worthless.
If you want a Katrina-related story that will cheer you up, go here.
Notorious P.A.T.
Can we fucking give away that piece of shit Bush? I know, no one would take him.
nightjar
The Bush Administration to the victims of Katrina.
SHUT UP AND EAT WITH YOUR FUCKING FINGERS!
Brachiator
What angers me the most about these revelations are the conservatives who read this and instead of admitting that Bush fucked up, instead say lame shit like “See, this proves that big government doesn’t work.”
w vincentz
This explains why there was no responce regarding the golf clubs and yachting wear that I sent to the relief effort.
LanceThruster
Please think before posting subversive propaganda such as this (its truthfulness only amplifying its disheartening effect). If we continue to second guess the Imperial Bush Administration, then the terrorist hurricanes will have won.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Not when the Republicans are in charge, that’s for goddamned sure.
dbomp
Whatever happened to that ice that FEMA was trucking around the country that fall and winter?
Ted
Dispatches from the Myiq2xu front:
And so we carefully pick up the phone so as not to appear threatening, and call the local psych care facility.
DougJ
Things will be very different in a McCan administration.
laneman
Things will be very different in a McCan administration.
cbear
God, it just never ends, does it?
I wonder:
As an American, how will we ever regain our sense of values, of community?
As a Democrat, who in the fuck heads the congressional committee with oversight on this?
As a man, I want to beat the living fucking shit out of somebody.
As a human being, how do you even respond to something so unbelievably egregious?
Below would have been a more accurate news account.
Fixed. Goddamn cksucking, mfcking goopers.
laneman
ok, well I messed those tags up. reverse the blockquote and my comment :o
Zifnab
Seriously, I give it five minutes between a wingnut reading this and coming up with a way to blame Ray Nagin or former Governor Blanco.
The horrible thing about Louisiana politics is that you have no good options. You’ve got the corrupt as fuck incompetents and the slightly less corrupt as fuck incompetents. The GOP just seems dead set on rivaling for the first position.
Ted
I’m completely lost to incompetence-fatigue. No new stories of Bush administration incompetence make me outraged anymore. If I let that happen, I’d be outraged so constantly I’d be Michelle Malkin.
laneman
Zif, I’ve read enough of your stuff to know you’re not a bonehead. You know they’ll just make shit up.
It’s a no win solution.
When did YOU stop beat your wife?
South of I-10
I will see your household goods and raise you no ice. FEMA doesn’t seem to think anyone might need a little ice in the 4000 degree, 100% humidity, no breeze, no electricity delight that is the next few days after a hurricane. Cause you know, even if I freeze my own ice pre-hurricane, it does have a tendency to melt. It’s really hard to make it with no power, believe me, I’ve tried.
Oh and Go Saints!
cbear
I thought I was too, but some things just hit too close to the bone. This story isn’t about incompetence—it’s about evil. Pure and fucking simple evil.
I’ve lived in a lot of third-world countries and seen firsthand how corrupt their leaders and politicians can be, but they at least allow some of the aid to get through to their people.
Kevin
For some reason, when I first looked at that, to me it read “Mighty Concrete Building”, which kind of makes sense, if you think about Myiq hunkered down in his concrete bunker.
Loviatar
John,
Once again, why did you vote for these guys?
.
And more important
.
Why did you continue to vote for them?
.
cricket>
SamFromUtah
…when I first looked at that, to me it read “Mighty Concrete Building”…
Me too, and your image is spot on.
SGEW
Kanye really nailed it, didn’t he? I thought it was, well, sort of hysterical at the time (they wouldn’t actually let all those people die and then sit there and rot, just because they’re fucking that evil and racist could they?!?), but it’s pretty clear to me now.
Yep. They’re really that fucking evil. Pretty much nothing will surprise me at this point.
Incertus
Thanks for the link, John, and for the corresponding story. Just a reminder–while New Orleans and the surrounding areas were drowning, McCain was celebrating his birthday on the tarmac with a cake brought by King George the Lesser. Fuck those guys, both of them.
passerby
Laneman: As a charter member of the International Inverse Blockquote Club (American Chapter), I bid you welcome.
T
passerby
Being a native New Orleanian and having spent 3 months in post-storm clean up mode, I’m all commented out when it comes to fuckinfema, fuckincorps of engineers and fuckinpoliticians.
Absolutely fuckintoxic.
T
Conservatively Liberal
A good Obama campaign spot would start out with news reports of the coming storm and where it was predicted to hit, and then cut to news reports as the storm slams into the coast. Follow that with the horrible images from NO and the surrounding areas showing the people struggling to navigate the flooding and damage with rowboats, and shots of the dome and the people who were essentially abandoned there.
Then put a question like “And what was Senator John McCain doing while this disaster was unfolding?” on the screen, and cut to the birthday cake and other news clips/pictures that show McCain doing everything except working to help the people who were abandoned by their government.
Maybe add in the FEMA supplies screwups, the trailers that were full of formaldehyde that hundreds of million of taxpayer dollars were wasted on and all of the other FEMA screwups too numerous to list here.
That would be a powerful message.
Mike
And “That’ll teach those lazy howcum-white-people-can’t-use-the-word-I-want-to not to sit on their lazy asses waiting for a government handout.”
gex
The sad part is that deep down, I believe the GOP was glad of the chance Katrina gave them to show FEMA to be inept. After all, Americans have a positive view of FEMA in action during the previous Administration. Lord knows you can’t allow anyone to like anything government does (unless it’s bombing other countries).
gex
S/B “had a positive view…”
Dennis - SGMM
Remember when FEMA was rolled into DHS so that it could better provide aid in case of a major terrorism incident? I’m guessing that if such a terrible thing were to happen FEMA would FAX out instructions for sewing your own burqa.
SGEW
Sounds like a set up. What was Sen. Obama doing on that day? I have no idea, myself. If he was doing anything other than saving people with his bare hands (which, at this point, wouldn’t surprise me too much), it’ll be hard to really push the point.
After all, it’s not a Senator’s job to deal with that kind of thing, if it’s not their state. That’s why we yell at Bush, and the Federal Gov’t.
The fact that Bush was celebrating Sen. McCain’s birthday in bone-dry Arizona is just irony, really. Or the opposite of irony. (Or something. I can’t tell anymore!) It’s not really an indictment of McCain: there’s not much he could have done at the time* (as compared to, say, the POTUS). It’s McCain’s voting record over the years on Katrina that’s the problem, not his reaction on the day of landfall.
*[Actually, he could have said: “Hey, George? Shouldn’t you be doing something else right about now?” But that’s just being stupid and lazy, not evil]
Wilfred
Nobody otherwise inclined to vote for McCain is going to be put off by his disinterest in anything other than his own overblown persona. He’s almost as much a narcissist as the Clintons, but with a fouler temper.
Voters won’t vote for the mean-spirited asshole IF they get a chance to see him as he is. Keep provoking him and he’ll snap.
Jon H
“What was Sen. Obama doing on that day? ”
Solving Fermat’s Last Theorem, in rebus form.
The Other Steve
See you can’t trust the Government.
Vote McCain – Government you can believe in.
garyb50
I’m with Ted.
And GWB can kiss my ass.
rawshark
Didn’t something similar to this happen after Hurricane Andrew? I thought I read that areas unaffected by the hurricane, republican voting areas (rich white neighborhoods), received lots and lots of aid.
I don’t believe in evil. Because of that in my opinion the problem is even worse. These fucks actually feel they are doing the right thing. They aren’t sitting around twirling their moustache’s watching brown people die. They think that by not getting the fed involved in ‘local problems’ (losing a city is a local issue to the wingnut) they are doing the right thing overall for the country.
I actually got a full on verbal whipping one time about how it was all the fault of Nagin and Blanco and there were fields and fields of unused buses. All I asked was how Mike Brown could be put in charge of FEMA. The amazing part is that most wingnuts, when they go off on their rants as a way of response to your question, they are actually making your point for you. The long list of grievances about local gov’t incompetence is the reason we need a federal responder.
I’d use a different word than ‘glad’ but otherwise I agree. The fact that they didn’t put a competent manager in charge is evidence enough. Of course they don’t put competent people in charge of federal agencies they want to be rid of. That would be counter productive.
tofubo
no, different, the victims of any future hurriMccain will have to give the gov’t the supplies needed to fill those warehouses
YellowJournalism
Giving his wife a slap on the ass?
Just Some Fuckhead
Why the fuck won’t the beautiful and pure free market magically deliver those supplies and make the world a better place?
Just Some Fuckhead
How about Ambassador to Iraq after we pull out? He can single-digitly keep his finger in the dike and ensure freedom wins out over terra.
Dave_Violence
Calm down, you assholes. This is the kind of shit that happens between agencies at the Federal and State levels no matter who is in the White House. Read it: Just to store the shit it cost $1 million. And what’s stopping some up and coming twat from making a name for herself (Dem or Rep or other) by saving the agency a cool million. And then, see, someone needed the warehouses torn down. This is Catch-22 style bureaucracy at it’s finest.
Why don’t you brainiacs all quit your high-paying day jobs and join the government work force so you can right all these wrongs, eh?
demimondian
You do realize that a number of us did work for the government in one capacity or another, and left when the Republicans started cutting our jobs away?
Or, maybe, you didn’t realize that?
Ninerdave
Bullshit.
jake
You big silly! Because the ponies that were supposed to deliver them are all in Iraq.
SGEW
Evil. Unethical. Immoral. Criminally negligent. Criminally responsible and punishable. Reprehensible. Deserving of retribution. Fuckin’ nutzo batshit wrong. It’s all semantics, no?
DougJ
You were probably a welfare mom living in a housing project…so this is all working out very well for you.
crw
Yes. Instead of eventually acknowledging the disaster, he’ll find the one dry neighborhood and boldly strut around showing America how everything is fine. Nevermind the off camera flotilla needed to ferry him over.
SGEW
Fuck you. Hard. Even if it is spoof or snark. I care not.
w vincentz
Balloon juice…there when ya need it.
All in this thread.
Good stuff!
Dennis - SGMM
Bush should be sent on a victory tour of Iraq in an open car so that he can better receive the gratitude of the Iraqi people for liberating them. It’s been over 1900 days since “Mission Accomplished” so he should be perfectly safe.
DougJ
Safer than he would be in Detroit or Chicago or Revolutionary War era Philadelphia, all of which have or had much higher rates of violent crime than Baghdad.
SpotWeld
Does anyone know how to start the rumor that Bush, after ending his term as President, will be taking up a long-term position in Iraq’s Green Zone to take a key role in the diplomatic construction effort?
I know it’s not going to happen, but it’d be kind of fun to see the White House deny it.
Dennis - SGMM
He’s going to be Director of Cowering.
AkaDad
In an act of bipartisanship, Obama should appoint Bush to be Ambassador to the Netherlands.
hamletta
Y’know, I had this vision…of Bush in 2009, being sent as a special envoy…to Sadr City…with his arm splinted so he can’t bend his elbow, and his straightened arm duct-taped around his head so it sticks straight up…
…and his finger painted purple.
Le sigh. Sadly, justice is God’s job, so we don’t get to watch it in real time on CNN.
I wouldn’t want to see it, anyway. Anything that even approached payback for what he’s put millions of people through would be too vile for mere humans to witness.
rachel
Don’t you mean “counter-unproductive?”
Rome Again
Well I can tell you the first thing you should do is not announce it in public…. awwww…. too late!
Rome Again
I’m pretty sure counter-unproductive would be a double negative, which would mean “productive”.
Aaron
DougJ- Bullshit, Bullshit and so what.
Iraq is safe? Why don’t you go check it out? I promise Ill come to your funeral.
laneman
As noted above, WRONG, the current admin is radically different. It is truly diseased and has done serious damage to all levels of all agencies.
laneman
Aaron – check your snark-o-meter, I think it needs new batteries.
rachel
No, no. “Productive” would be putting people in charge of FEMA who actually do their jobs.
SGEW
Don’t worry. Aaron’s reply was obviously snark as well.
No one would go to DougJ’s funeral.
rachel
Or rather, “Yes, yes.”
Notorious P.A.T.
“Asked whether he’d be interested in Cheney had the vice president not already have served under Bush for two terms, McCain said: ‘I don’t know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah.'”
Link
Rome Again
Not if you’re Bush, Inc.
cleek
that’s not change i can believe in
Redhand
The household goods FEMA f*ckup is minor, IMHO, to the larger Bush Administration failure to attach any priority to re-building the “Chocolate City” after it was drowned.
Think of it: one of America’s landmark cities is completely destroyed in a natural disaster. Is there a major federal effort to rebuild? No. Is there even any priority attached to figuring out if the location can be made safe from a similar storm in future? Not to my knowledge: the levees are merely patched up again.
I hafta believe that N.O.’s been left to rot because it’s a black, Democratic town and because it’s politically expedient for the Administration not to focus attention on one of its biggest failures.
Meanwhile, we squander trillions on the Iraq war.
jenniebee
Here’s UNITY of Greater New Orleans, Kegel’s organization, if you feel inclined to make a donation that will actually, you know, get to the people in Nawlins instead of sitting in a warehouse rotting.
And if you haven’t seen this Salon piece on the politics of Katrina you should.
Also, Fox refers to Michelle Obama as “Obama’s Baby Mama”. As if DapGate wasn’t racist enough…
Dave_Violence
When exactly did this happen, you lying sack of shit? When was the great Bush layoff? I can’t find any reference to it via Google? What agency did you and the “number” of posters here work for prior to the layoffs?
Rome Again
Oh stop it, you know Republicans have absolutely NO line of attack against losing an entire city and never making any effort to rebuild besides the government just doesn’t care if anyone lives or dies, it’s just so unfair to use it.
/snark
but, seriously… why should we ever trust another Republican president after this crap?
Rome Again
I could be wrong, but I seem to remember a bunch of non-Repubs getting pushed out of the CIA because of loyalty issues.
Rome Again
rather, that’s not change… period!
Dave_Violence
Yes, you’re wrong. Though it depends what “a bunch” means. The old “USAJobs.gov” website is and has been very much alive and well during the “W” years. That is, the government was and is hiring.
…on top of that, would the “pushed out” CIA folks comprise the “number of us” (i.e., Balloon Juice posters)? That would be “interesting” to say the least.
Rome Again
Whoever said they weren’t hiring? People get hired and fired all the time, just because a company fires doesn’t mean it doesn’t also hire.
I never suggested that, you asked for a scenario, and I offered a possibility.
I’m not saying Demi is right or wrong, I often don’t take Demi very seriously at all. Demis argument is not my argument to defend. Take that up with Demi.
Rome Again
I think Sibel Edmunds and some of her colleagues would say I’m correct.
OriGuy
No, Belgium. Where the World Court is.
Blue Raven
Must. Restrain. Fist. Of. Rage.
Brachiator
Hopefully, this thread is still active.
I don’t know how many BJ folk may have worked for the gummint, but it is just plain fact that Bush turned FEMA and other agencies into dens of incompetent cronyism.
In addition, google is your friend if you know how to use it. “FEMA pushing out professionals” easily turns up this pre-Katrina September 2004 article (A Disaster Waiting to Happen):
And the rest, as they say, is history.
TenguPhule
The stupids are strong in this one.