Who is YOUR regional FEMA chief?

Do you live in an area that might be hit by a major natural disaster or terrorist attack? Sure, we all do! Do you know who your regional FEMA head is, with responsibility for Federal response in your area? Ours is a no-talent diploma-mill hack appointed by patronage! Better check out who yours is!

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002484649_pennington10m.html

Summary: The Pacific Northwest's FEMA chief, John Pennington, has a degree in Business Administration from an unaccredited correspondence-course school that the GAO has identified as a diploma mill selling diplomas for a flat fee. Despite being in charge of FEMA in four states (Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Idaho), he has no real disaster relief experience. He is, however, a former Republican legislator and headed local Bush-Cheney election campaign efforts. He was appointed by President Bush in 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, with the help of Representative Jennifer Dunn.

I would assume from this that FEMA here will do no better than FEMA in the Gulf Coast. Which leads directly to my take on the Federal response to Katrina and NOLA:

The Federal Government has demonstrated - that's demonstrated, as in by its actions - that if you are not politically important to the current administration, you will be left to rot. FEMA will hamper local relief efforts, which will already be screwed up on their own but will be made significantly less effective by Federal ineptitude. In the critical hours and days after the event, you, your neighbourhood, your city, your town - you are on your fucking own.

The more I read about the FEMA response and the more I hear from people who were there on the ground, the more angry and disgusted I get. The response was (and is) un-fucking-believable, and is every turf-fighting bureaucratic responsibility-avoiding not-my-job imperious blame-the-victims fucktard nightmare imaginable. It is surreal. It is like parody.

I hope people who read me regularly will take into account the fact that I don't make shit up and that I don't generally go hyperbolic in my public journal. I'm angry here, but I'm not amping this to amp it. As far as I can tell, it really is that bad.

The best news I've heard is that President Bush yanked FEMA head Michael Brown back to DC. Now he needs to be fired and maybe prosecuted. But recalled is a good start.

Seriously, I barely know what to say. Four years of work to prepare specifically for things like this. Four years of massive taxpayer cash, of expanded government power, four years since 9/11 to prepare for a list of most-likely terrorist scenarios that specifically included a breach of the NOLA levee system, and FEMA is dramatically less capable of responding to a major hurricane than it was in 2001.

This is ineptitude to the level of criminality. Yes, locals fucked up too. Some of them very seriously. But FEMA is an example of taking a reasonably effective bureau and degenerating it into a botchfest busily making things worse. They broke it.

And sadly, President Bush prizes loyalty above everything else; as they say about this administration, no failure goes unrewarded. Because of that, I don't think it will get better until the next government, if not long after. I hope I'm wrong. I hope this administration will break from its normal responses and seriously clean house. I have written urging it to do so. But I don't think it will.

So until then - for the next five years or so, at least, counting restructuring time - assume that if we get hit with a major terrorist attack or natural disaster like this, you're completely on your own. Be ready to help yourself, to help your neighbours, help your city or town, and otherwise to wait it out without coordination or aid. You might get some - and hopefully it'll be more help than hindrance. But the odds are pretty damn good that you won't get help, or that if you do, it'll just be in the way.

The incompetent hacks are the ones throwing the party. That's where we seem to be now. And I have no other words for it than that.

sometimes

I haven't had a day off in weeks. I'm glad I mostly took one today. We woke up and it was misty and raining and foggy and autumnal, and the trees had shifted a couple of shades towards yellow virtually overnight and it was cool and cozy and wet outside and I was just pleased. Then I went downstairs and noticed a shower of water on the front stairs, so, before breakfast, I got out the step-ladder and put on shorts and shoes and this poncho-like overcoat someone left here (we think) once upon a time and cleaned out a bunch of the front gutters, which turned out really to be pretty fun. I think because it's not very difficult and there's a high and immediate reward for work. Plus, Zoe's right; moving water is cool.

Then after breakfast and feeding the birds and cleaning up a bit in the kitchen - in particular, the stovetop needed its weekly scrubdown - the rain lightened up and it turned partly cloudy, and I dragged out the furnace filter to hose it clean, and worked on getting moss off the roof and cleaning the rest of the gutters I could reach that I hadn't gotten before. I'll have to do it all again later, I suppose, once the leaves have fallen. And the furnace filter says to check it once every three to four weeks. What the hell is up with that, anyway? That just sounds like crazytalk to me.

Still, I found the energy efficiency sticker - and sadly, they didn't shell out the extra money for the higher-efficiency units, so that's going to be painful. I should do what I can to get the most I can out of it.

After that, I attacked some of the oncroaching blackberries. Those bastards are relentless. But tasty! So I ate a bunch of berries while cutting back the vines.

Then spazzkat put on Real Genius, which he'd gotten from Netflix, and he and annathepiper watched the movie while I fixed my moccasins again and futzed with paperwork and mail. And that's been about it for my day so far. Yay, easy day. ^_^

Here's today's flower; I saw it while waiting for the bus back from Murksouth, on 25th Avenue NE:


Pink Bells

( Also, a big leaf )