We saw a few more quotes from Michael Brown's testimony regarding the Katrina debacle, and we just wanted to respond to them. We picked these up from an AP story carried by ABC News:

"I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," Brown said.

To paraphrase Burgess Meredith, you can "think you do a good job" in one hand, and crap in the other, and see which one fills up first. By the very fact that we can't even come up with "150 presidentially declared disasters" since Brown took office two years ago, we can only surmise that these "disasters" really weren't all that disastrous. Perhaps they were "disasters" like lost golf balls...or needing a bathroom break during a boring United Nations meeting...?

As it turns out, we weren't that far off. Compared to Katrina, the rest of the 2005 "Major Disasters" listed on the FEMA web site are pretty minor. We can speak specifically to one of them — the April 19 "Severe storms and flooding" in New York and New Jersey. Some of our members lived in counties impacted by this "disaster," and they can recall that it really wasn't all that bad. Now, that's not to say that some isolated areas of these states weren't hit harder than others, but to compare it to Katrina would be way beyond ridiculous. So, what do you say, Brownie: maybe you're okay at handling the minor Major Disasters, but not so good when it comes to something that's actually a major Major Disaster?

[Committee Chairman Tom] Davis pushed Brown on what he and the agency he led should have done to evacuate New Orleans, restore order in the city and improve communication among law enforcement agencies.

Brown said: "Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications."

Brownie, you fucking idiot; let's step through what the letters in FEMA stand for, shall we? It's the Federal Emergency Management Agency. See that middle bit? Management? No one expected FEMA to strap on guns and badges and patrol the streets; however, they did expect FEMA to manage the deployment, cooperation, and organization of those who do respond to such emergencies. For shit's sake, you don't know even know what your job was supposed to be, and you're trying to argue that you didn't fuck it up?

Why don't we check out FEMA's own mission statement:

FEMA Mission
DISASTER. It strikes anytime, anywhere. It takes many forms &nmdash; a hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado, a flood, a fire or a hazardous spill, an act of nature or an act of terrorism. It builds over days or weeks, or hits suddenly, without warning. Every year, millions of Americans face disaster, and its terrifying consequences.

On March 1, 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). FEMA's continuing mission within the new department is to lead the effort to prepare the nation for all hazards and effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates proactive mitigation activities, trains first responders, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration.

So, Brownie, where were those "proactive mitigation activities"? Do you think that FEMA effectively fulfilled its mission to "lead the effort to prepare the nation" for Katrina, and "effectively manage federal response and recovery efforts"?

Here's a hint, Brown: shut your pie hole before you dig yourself in even deeper. And, for the record, this is the kind of shit that happens when cronyism is used to fill positions burdened with actual responsibilities and not just, say, ambassador to Belgium. Thanks a heap, Dubya.

[Comments have been closed on this post due to the fact that it seemed to attract unimaginable waves of spam — Ed.]

Well then.... what do you think of Michael Brown as a candidate for the last US Supreme Court seat? Not as Chief Justice, of course, but as a regular ol' Supreme Court judge? Yes? No?

Justice Brownie? Hey, judging horses...judging people...what's the difference?

See? There you go.

what does all that mean in english?

[The comment you were referring to was spam, GOD777. We have removed it. Sorry about that — Ed.]

Justice Brownie? Hey, judging horses...judging people...what's the difference?

Okay, two questions: Why did the SPAM to which GOD777 was referring get deleted but not the Cialis ad above it? Why did Master quote The Two Percent Company's post from 2005.09.30 (Fri) 16:08 verbatim without adding anything to it?

TimmyAnn — we delete SPAM based on e-mail notifications that we get containing the comments that are left on our site. The SPAM you mentioned that escaped deletion was left on January 23rd. As you no doubt recall, we were in the midst of our huge surge in traffic at that time due to the Sylvia Browne link on AOL. As a result, some SPAM notifications certainly escaped our attention, and remained in place. This was one of them.

We have deleted the comment in question — thanks for the heads up.

Oh, okay, that answers one of the questions, thanks.

Wow, this thread seems to be a favorite with SPAMMERS! This one isn't even in English!

More fucking SPAM!! What is it about this particular thread?!?

Why is only the first three comments on the actual topic and the others are SPAM or talking about SPAM?!!

Because this particular thread has, for whatever reason, become a favorite target for SPAM and the actual rant is from September of 2005, I guess.

Must be something about the letters B,R,O,W,N that act like spam magnets, especially this weekend.
Sylvia's been getting some action over in her thread too (http://www.twopercentco.com/rants/archives/2006/08/sylvia_browne_o_1.html).
Sorry, but I don't have a relevent comment to make on a topic this old.
Kind of like a car crash, I saw the latest posts in the side bar, I knew what those posts would be based on what I could see, and yet I still had to slow down and look...

This one makes sence "One's first step in wisdom is to kuesstion everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything."

Exactly the skeptical stance: Question everything.

From what I've seen, woos question very little, even though they like to claim they're 'just asking questions.'

Not that they actually make any effort to answer them.