Had Katrina fizzled somewhere south of the U.S. coast, Michael Brown’s shocking lack of qualifications to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency might never have been exposed. At least members of Congress are trying to show they learned something, by publicly questioning whether 36-year-old Julie Myers, a Shawnee native, is the right boss for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a crucial agency with 20,000 employees and a $4 billion budget. Maybe her experience as a federal prosecutor and an associate to Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr is apt; she’s said to know a lot about money laundering and drug smuggling. But especially post-Brown, it’s hard not to suspect that two other credentials made her Bush’s pick: Her uncle is Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and she just married the current chief of staff of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff (also her former boss).
Posted by Rhonda Holman
link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901930.html?referrer=email
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- donndublin on Open thread 11/24
- Phantom on Open thread 11/24
- JimJohnson on Open thread 11/24
- donndublin on Open thread 11/24
- ANTI on Open thread 11/24
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/24
- Regular on Open thread 11/24
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/24
- Regular on Open thread 11/24
- Pleefer on Open thread 11/24
23 Comments
Hey, the girl is just getting a leg up from family and friends.
This is nothing new…the political hacks in DC have taken care of their own for a couple centuries now. It is common around the world as well, from Belize to France to Nigeria. This does not excuse it or validate these actions by both parties. In the interest of fairness, remember this is nothing new or unique to one party.
True, Ray. The difference is that Democrats don’t hate government and think that it causes more problems than it solves.
Bush seems to be intent on PROVING their theory.
Galahad! Democrats hate businesses though.
Utterly not true, Joe.
In fact, Democrats are the ones that actually enforce anti-trust laws so that a small businessperson has SOME chance of competing against the giant monopolies.
Dear Barbara Bush: Although we do not normally take in white, racists bigots, please be advised that we would be willing to open our spare bedroom if you and your husband lose your home in Houston. Sincerely, Danny Newland
On September 2, CNN’s Miles O’Brien pressed Blanco to explain when she called for federal troops to ride to New Orleans’s rescue:
O’BRIEN: Did you ask that the Pentagon deploy troops? Because that is a very specific request that a governor needs to make of the federal government.
BLANCO: We had troops being deployed. We had the first wave of troops being deployed at the level of 12,000. But before we even got to 12,000, I asked for 40,000.
So you know, I saw that we needed a greater capacity.
O’BRIEN: When did you make that request, though?
BLANCO: Miles, I’m lost in the days.
O’BRIEN: When did you make that request?
O.K.
BLANCO: I don’t even know what today is.
O’BRIEN: On Wednesday morning…
BLANCO: I made that request perhaps Wednesday.
So, in Blanco’s own words, she did not request federal troops until Wednesday, August 31, the day after the 17th Street Canal floodwall broke, drowning New Orleans; two days after Hurricane Katrina roared in from the Gulf of Mexico; three days after she and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, on President Bush’s insistence, ordered the city’s mandatory evacuation; and four days after the president, in response to a letter from Blanco, declared a state of emergency along the Gulf Coast.
Blanco is worse than Bush. You thought Bush was a bad public speaker. Blanco is sad! And it is really hard to top Bush’s public speaking blunders.
Rhonda posts an obvious start to a classic Bush Bashing thread. I guess she expects Bush to appoint some Kerry supporters? Even the Bushes can’t know enough ‘experts’ to populate all the high government positions. He has to rely on other folks for advice and they cannot be antibush democrats. Expertise and loyalty is essential and hard to come by. The major problem the president suffered in his first term was leaving disloyal Democrat appointees in place too long.Sorry to bother ya’ll. Let the bashing continue.
Hey Joe,When an administration has no expertise except the political kind, it needs people in the various agencies that have at least some idea of what they’re doing. Unfortunately, Bush’s only requirement seems to be loyalty. What he needs are experts; for loyalty he’s already got a dog!
Well, that explains it–the WMD misinformation campaign, the war without end in Iraq, 9-11 terrorist attacks, stock market drop from 11,000 to 10,375 after FIVE YEARS, historic high national debt and budget deficit, poverty rates climbing for the fourth year in a row, anthrax killers running free, Valerie Plame traitors, Enron’s non-prosecutions, Katrina’s non-response, 36 percent increase in federal DISCRETIONARY funding in the last four years, falling wages and incomes in Kansas and across the country.
It’s all the DEMOCRATS’ fault.
Thanks for totally counter-intuitive insight there, Joe C.
Well Galahad, you are finally understanding the problem. What little truth you spouted was fueled by disloyal dumocrat appointees. (maybe incompetant)
But, as usual you miss the point. How many Republicans did Clinton appoint? One? Maybe two?
Democrats enforce anti-trust legislation…and the suggestion is that Republicans do not? How about one case, the largest ever anti trust case that broke up the world’s largest and (at the time) most profitable corporation, the Bell System? That was dismantled under the Reagan administration. Modified Final Judgment was announced in December, 1983, the last year of Reagan’s first term. Computer Inquiry II was settled in June of 1985, during Reagan’s second term.
Largest anti trust case in history. First filed in 1974…let’s see, president then was..(gasp) Nixon, another Republican.
Nope…no monopoly on monopoly busting by either political party.
Ray, if you have to go back to Reagan to prove your points, you’ve already proven MY point . . .
As for how many Republicans Clinton nominated, I must say I don’t know.
But I know that when it came to FEMA, he appointed James Lee Witt, who is considered the best director the agency ever had.
If you want good government, don’t elect people who believe that everything government does is bad . . .
It’s BushCo who even now is allowing newspapers, radio and tv stations to get bought up by media moguls like Australian Rupert Murdoch (in violation of former regulations that prohibited it).
Say goodbye to locally owned stations and papers and hello to giant multinational “media,” with their built-in bias for giant corporatism (since that’s what THEY are) . . .
Nope…I don’t have to go back to Reagan to make a point..just liked the significance of the largest anti trust case in history.
Feds cracked down on MCI…under the Bush administration. No, not anti trust, but still going after big business. Bush administration lawyers prosecuted Kenneth Lay of Enron. Again, not anti trust, but still going after big business.
I just liked the enormity of the Bell case for an example…not at the time, tho, when I worked there. That pretty much sucked, tho.
Hey LiberalsAll I have seen on this thread is the usual lies from the daily liberal talking points. Rhondas’ topic is forgotten as soon as the Hate and Discontent crowd wakes up.
BTW James Lee Witt never had a 9/11 or a NO problem to face. He was great by only those who loved him.
I think Bush was also asked about Roe v. Wade recently. He misunderstood and said “Row versus wade? I don’t think it matters how you get out of New Orleans !”
Okay, Ray, I heard an author tonight read from his book: “Raising More Hell, Less Corn” on the industrialization of food production and the consequent serfdom of the once independent family farmer.
He said “anti-trust laws are for all intents and purposes DEAD under this administration.” While justice has in the past cracked down on a monopoly of sellers (like Bell Telephone), it ignores the monopoly of the BUYERS, the Tyson Foods for instance that buys virtually all the chicken and most of the turkey grown in the US.
But you’re right in the sense that both Reps and Dems get in bidding wars over who can send forth the most subsidies to the farmer, so he can then plow it back into pollution-producing herbicides, pesticides, industrial strength ammonium fertilizer, big machinery and diesel fuel . . .
Also, Ray, Ken Lay was indicted about three years after he bilked millions out of investors. And his trial will theoretically be at the end of 05 or early 06, another two years after that.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46680-2004Oct19.html
With appeals and Bush judges, Lay could keep this dog-and-pony show going until he dies of old age . . .
Dang, I hates politiks! Pass the BBq’d condor.
Didn’t Ken Lay do most of his nefarious deeds on Clinton’s watch?
Didn’t Clinton pardon Marc Ritch, the billionaire oil trader indicted for tax evasion and for dealing with Iran in violation of The US embargo during Carter’s hostage crisis?
Yes. Yes. Dems love money and oil, too. Surprise!!!