“Brownie, You’re Doing a Heckuva Job” — The Sequel
Out of all the incompetent unqualified negligent pusbags who disgraced George W. Bush’s administration — one particular dickwad stood head and shoulders above the rest. And now He’s Baaack.
Former FEMA director Michael Brown — famous for his thumbs-up-his-ass deer-caught-in-the-headlights “response” to Hurricane Katrina — is back in the news. After being the personification of everything that sucked about Bush’s presidency, you’d think he’d stay under his rock 'til he died. Some people must thrive on being the laughingstock of the country.
Yesterday, Brown accused President Obama of purposely doing nothing about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill until after it got out of control. This would give Obama an excuse to shut down offshore oil drilling.
He said:
“The delay was this. It's pure politics. This president has never supported big oil, he's never supported offshore drilling, and now he has an excuse to shut it back down. This is exactly what they want, because now Obama can pander to the environmentalists and say, 'I'm gonna shut it down because it's too dangerous.’”
This brilliant statement gives the inbreds something else to grunt and go "huh huh huh uh uh" about. From the rest of us:
Heckuva theory, Douchebag.
Labels: “Brownie, Michael Brown FEMA, You’re Doing a Heckuva Job”
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:07 AM
25 Comments:
That bastard is lucky he's not doing jail time. Opening his mouth on this just reaffirms all that we thought about him.
Hmm where's Cheney hiding on this one,oh yeah, he is Halliburton who might be prosecuted for cutting corners.
Regardless of Brown's incompetence, are you saying that Obama WON'T shut down or at the very least make offshore drilling far more difficult?
I can't believe, half a decade later, you hippies are still discounting his Arabian horse experience as having laid the groundwork for such a speedy response to the horror that was Katrina. Ungrateful mommy staters.
Say what you will, but the PeBO administration was slow on this and miscalculated the damage big time.
1 week to respond! Eh, you tell me....
Oh come on, it is really hard when you are talking with your head up your ass. TP, I hope he does after all this mess don't you? All because a little 500k would have had to be spent. Um BP was slow on the uptake telling people what was actually happening. I am certain PO doesn't have a body glove, wetsuit, swimming around the oceans looking for oil rigs that MIGHT explode. I can't be sure though, someone can double check for me.
Damn, we really do have some really stoopid people in this country don't we? I keep giving people the benefit of the doubt but then you get, well he didn't do enough because he was not snorkeling right in the area when it happened. Blow it our your asses.
Consider the source. I've read the timeline of the Obama administration response. It was a little slow at first, only because BP misinformed them about the size and scope of the disaster. Since then, it's been better than anything ever dreamed by Bush and the GOP.
Tim: Michael Brown has to be one of the most disgraceful political appointees in recent history. The only way he can ever live down his Godawful reputation -- gradually -- is to STFU. He's gonna be in a hole for the rest of his life; the least he can do is stop digging.
TP: I hope he does.
Randal: Ah yes, the Arabian horse expert, who was appointed by a former baseball team owner, who had been appointed by the Supreme Court justices whom his father had appointed...
Joaquin: I won't deny that Obama could have done this differently or better. But for Michael Brown, of all people, to be talking about it. And I agree with TomCat's comment below.
Jess: Don't hold back now :)
No, I'm afraid the Drill Baby Drill crowd isn't fazed by this. Hey, accidents happen, get over it, we need the oil NOW.
And if Obama put on some SCUBA gear so he could help out first-hand with the oil spill, his detractors would be screaming "Look at that! He's going swimming instead of working at the White House!"
TomCat: That's how I remember it too. It wasn't until a few days after the explosion that the news reports were suddenly "Oh My God, the leak is worse than we thought! Oil is spreading everywhere!"
"And if Obama put on some SCUBA gear so he could help out first-hand with the oil spill, his detractors would be screaming "Look at that! He's going swimming instead of working at the White House!"
If nothing else you just gave me a big laugh. Like the whole, if he cured cancer, they would blame him for oncologists being out of work and so on. Oh and people like the ones I am responding to need to be told, without any holding back. Some are just too stupid to realize PO is one man and is not that sky daddy others rely on for all answers to all things.
"Oh and people like the ones I am responding to need to be told, without any holding back. Some are just too stupid to realize PO is one man and is not that sky daddy others rely on for all answers to all things."
Jess, on the contrary; I will gladly give President Obama credit when it is due and I will criticize him when he acts contrary to common sense or the Constitution.
That being said Jess, I think you are onto something, although by accident. To many on the left, Obama is exactly their "sky daddy" and expect him to take care of them with health care, cash-for-clunkers, home-mortgages, college loans... everything.
Me, well I don't need Obama for my messiah. I would very much like for the federal government to FOR ONCE IN MY LIFETIME FULLY ABIDE BY THE CONSTITUTION! (and this goes for both parties!)
I don't want the government taking care of me and everyone else in the country that is too damned lazy, stupid, or stoned to take care of themselves and decide that they can take 40% of my salary in taxes to do it. (and then have the audacity to call me greedy for wanting to keep a little more of the money I EARNED!)
Not exactly the hope and change I can believe in, sir.
Also, like it or not, we need oil for energy in our country. By creating even more regulations you are going to guarantee that the cost of oil production, extraction, and refinement domestically goes up in cost.
This means that we STILL have to get oil for our nation until we have a viable replacement energy source, so we will end up buying oil from Middle Eastern dictatorships, Venezuela or other such places that do NOT have our best interests in mind.
Fine the hell out of BP, by all means, and make them pay for the clean-up, environmental impact, and loss of livelihood for those affected... if you can force a foreign company to do so.
Don't penalize all oil companies with ever more burdensome regulations though simply to assuage your need for vengeance. Ultimately, the oil companies will not pay that price; they will pass it on to us consumers in higher costs... just so you folks on the left can feel like you taught them a lesson. (affecting the poor most of all, I might add.)
Now THAT is truly stupid.
Has anybody forgotten that Brown lied on his Resume to get that FEMA job?
And I wonder how many of these People who are now effected by the spill were at the Republican Convention screaming "Drill Baby Drill!"?
T. Paine Obama also pointed out in the campaign that the oil companies already had plenty of approved leases and could have drilled on them any time they wanted - why were they asking for more?
Erik
One would think that someone who fucked up as badly as this asshat fucked up would keep his ass in hiding for the rest of his life.
One would think.
Fuck him.
The Bush administration would have forged some documents blaming the whole thing on Iran, and started a war there. The funny thing is the whole "Keep Government Out Of Business" crowd wants a laissez-faire approach to government until one of their fuck-ups causes a disaster then suddenly the government isn't doing enough.
TP: Jeez, you just can't seem to let go of your favorite stereotype, that leftists are a bunch of stoners who just want to lie around all day and let the government do everything for them. I'm not saying there aren't people like that, but you keep conjuring up that image whenever you try to make a point.
As far as oil drilling goes, it's obviously not gonna stop any time soon. But we need to switch to renewable energy sources ASAP, and this keeps not happening. America's oil addiction is sort of like your stereotypical welfare hippie, lying there saying "I'll look for a job tomorrow, or next week." The first oil embargo in 1973 made it crystal clear that we need to develop other energy sources and practice conservation as well. Oh well, we'll take care of that tomorrow, or next year, or maybe by 2030. In the meantime, Drill Baby Drill.
Erik: I did forget about that. Everyone was so appalled at his massive Katrina fuckup, I guess lying on his resume kind of fell through the cracks.
I did several posts during the summer of '08 about oil company leases; how they're holding millions of acres of leased land they could drill on. But they'd rather point to some environmentally protected area where they're not allowed to drill and yell "We need oil. If it wasn't for those F$%^&!# treehuggers we wouldn't have an energy crisis!"
Bee: Damn right, I couldn't believe he actually poked his head out from under his rock and spoke.
J: And the horse he rode in on.
By accident my ear. I am speaking of the invisible sky daddy that gets the credit when things go right and the blame when things go wrong with these words, works in mysterious ways. Oh and in case you don't know, Jess is not a sir name. I am all the way female, or I was last time I checked. When I see you and some of the other right wing posters here, give PO any kind of credit for ANYTHING, I might change my attitude, till then, I will say it like it is, and you can't say a damn thing about it to change my mind.
We are not taxed nearly enough for the services we have. When corporations are taxed at the same rate we citizens are, then you can start moaning and groaning about how high you think your taxes are. I'm guessing you won't be turning on your tap water to take a shower, since big government regulates the cleanliness of that water and how it gets to you. I'm also guessing you will be sprouting wings to get to work and not using government funded highway projects, or going into a building that could possibly have had, gasp, government inspectors inspect said building.
We need those taxes for the welfare of everyone. If you want to complain and moan about how high your taxes are, I suggest you look into places like, hmm Somalia where they have none, see how long you last in that environment. Here's the deal, I and many others survived commander cuckoo bananas and the dark Lord's administration, you and many others will survive the dark lord from Kenya's administration too. In the words of a righty to me many years ago, we won, you lost, now get over it. Oh yeah the old "welfare queen" righty talking point. Damn, this is like such an old, old ass point, you really need to come up with new ones. Especially since the welfare right now is going to corporations and people are being left out in the cold.
"I don't want the government taking care of me and everyone else in the country that is too damned lazy, stupid, or stoned to take care of themselves and decide that they can take 40% of my salary in taxes to do it. (and then have the audacity to call me greedy for wanting to keep a little more of the money I EARNED!)"
You talk about the Constitution being followed. Where in the hell were you when commander cuckoo bananas was waging war on countries that had nothing to do with anything? Where were you when Habeus Corpus was being screwed with, waterboarding of people was happening, torture. Where were you when there were "free speech" zones being set up because Bush Jr could not deal with differing views. Where were you when we were being told the Patriot act is a good thing? Don't be all crying about things now, if you did nothing when commander cuckoo bananas was doing it, because I for one don't want to hear a single solitary word about it.
You nailed it, Tom. Brownie should be afforded all the credibility he deserves, which is none. He didn't know what to do when he was FEMA director and he doesn't know what he's talking about now.
What the uninformed Obama-criticizers here fail to realize is that a President has NOTHING to do with the initial response to anything concerning the safety of navigable waterways, including hazardous materials release, marine casualties, and other marine incidents.
Responses to these types of incidents are immediate, and Presidents/administrations sure as fuck aren't the first in line to get notified by responding agencies.
Before you start running your pie-holes about how the administration was slow to respond, try doing some research into the policies and procedures that govern polution & incident response.
Fuck...I swear.
Jess, first my apologies to you for making the incorrect assumption regarding your gender. No offense was meant, ma'am.
Second, there is a point that many on the left make thinking that most right-wingers don't want ANY government. That is not so, as that would lead to absolute anarchy. What most of us desire is for LIMITED government under the constrictions of the Constitution.
Roads and transportation fall into those categories, as does arguably water quality. The federal government, however, should have no say in building codes. That should be left to the states or better yet the municipalities.
The federal government has no damned business common sense-wise or constitutionally to pass laws telling me how much water my toilet uses when it flushes and what kind of light bulb to use and other such foolish damned laws.
Further, America has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world behind Japan. Raising taxes on the corporations is NOT going to help matters.
All that does is make the cost of doing business more expensive for corporation, hence causing the large ones to re-locate in cheaper parts of the world, and taking their jobs with them.
The smaller businesses that can't relocate simply pass on the cost of those taxes to the consumers of their goods and services... you and me!
So by feeding that need to punish those greedy companies trying to make a profit, you end up hurting yourself with higher costs and job flight from our country. (Basic economics, although many in our country and certainly in congress don't seem to understand this.)
Government is seldom the answer to most issues, and is often the problem. A case in point, the Department of Energy was created during the Carter administration presumably to help us lessen our dependence upon foreign oil. Look how brilliantly that has worked out for us.
There is nothing quite as close to immortality on earth as a government program.
As per the tenth amendment, why don't we have the federal government take care of what it is constitutionally allowed to manage and leave the rest to the "states or the people" as was intended by our founders. I think we will find that government closer to the source of the problem is much more efficient and productive.
The Cheney family scriptwriters are working overtime on this one, they are all in a secret location scrambling for excuses they probably sent Brownie out as an advanced scout, to blame Obama and test the waters.
Exxon= billions last year in coin. Wanna know how much they paid in taxes? NOTHING, ZIP, ZERO Nada, niet, diddly squat.
There are others, but I have lots of homework to get to and can't be bothered looking right now, I will though and post it in another place when it is appropriate. If greedy CEOs were not making more than 400 times the lowest paid employee, cost of doing business would not be an issue. It is all about me, for the people that are the top 10% in this country for the most part. I know this, because I am in that top 10% of earners and I see people in my circle all about themselves because they have, so screw you(generic you) THAT is what it is about, we have ours so screw the rest of the people.
"A case in point, the Department of Energy was created during the Carter administration presumably to help us lessen our dependence upon foreign oil. Look how brilliantly that has worked out for us."
If I read history correctly, I was not here at the time. I was born in 81, so Carter had DoE set up. He started the whole, let's get solar on the WH as a test case and try with the energy saving. People laughed at him. Hmm, who was next in there that tore the solar off the roof of the WH. Ah, yes, father of voodoo, let it trickle down economics himself, old zombie Raygun. Then we have oil men in the WH, I am sure they really wanted to get off the oil tit since they would lose money right? Yep, didn't think so.
I will concede the lightbulbs and flushing toilets though, only because I am a tree hugger and I want to leave my yet to be born crumbsnatchers a nice planet. We could do that ourselves without any interference from big daddy.
Just a couple of points:
TP: The federal government, however, should have no say in building codes.
Bee: Which building codes would those be? The Americans with Disabilities act, because state and local codes weren't cutting the mustard? So, which building codes are you referring to?
TP: the Department of Energy was created during the Carter administration presumably to help us lessen our dependence upon foreign oil
Bee: Carter actually had some good ideas on that. Guess who f'ed it up? Yep, Reagan, republicans and corporate interests ever since.
TP: All that does is make the cost of doing business more expensive for corporation, hence causing the large ones to re-locate in cheaper parts of the world, and taking their jobs with them.
Bee: Then riddle me this, Batman: Why didn't the prices go down on these goods and services produced with cheaper outsourced labor? By your "logic", they would have. But they didn't. So, anyway, that's that.
Jess, of the top 25 countries in the U.S., Exxon is number 2 and they paid $17.6 Billion in taxes at a 47% tax rate last year. (although you are correct that none of this was paid to American coffers).
Chevron and Conoco also had 40%+ tax rates for last year as per Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes_slide_3.html
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes_slide_4.html
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes_slide_6.html
This happens, as I explained, because a lot of the drilling for oil has to occur outside of the U.S. thanks to our enviro-whacko's out there that make the extraction of our own resources too damned expensive.
Why is it that the left typically demonizes the oil companies for making a 4% profit on a gallon of a gas and yet has no problem with the government that has done NOTHING to earn it, taxes that same gallon of gas at 15% or more?
Next, Carter was inept at everything he touched, Jess. Perhaps you would have a different view had you been old enough to see what his policies created with HUGE lines waiting for gas, double digit interest rates, and soaring inflation and unemployment.
They had to invent a new term due to Carter's mismanagement of the country; stagflation.
Reagan came and restored our military and our economy while puting millions of people back to work. Yeah, I suspect the history you were taught was probably the revisionist kind, my friend.
Finally, I am all for the protection of our environment as I am an avid outdoorsman who loves to fish, hike, and camp. That being said, we need to protect our resources and be sensible about them. We do not need economic legislation that will cripple our economy even worse than current levels because of falsified science saying the earth is warming.
BK: Prices perhaps remained the same because now you have to transport products from over seas back to the states. That costs money. The companies that moved will obviously have made slightly more profit, hence the move, but that doesn't necessarily mean that their cheaper production costs will be passed on to the American consumers, unless they need to do so to gain greater market share.
Make our corporate tax rates less expensive and more competitive here in the States, and we will all still have companies to work for here! The alternative is to continue down the path of higher corporate taxation, causing job flight when companies leave America, all the while you still have to pay the same for such products, or they pass on the cost of that higher taxation to us consumers.
T.P was Reagan not the one that raised taxes too while in office? I do believe he was. So why can we not go back to the tax rates, the the god of the right had in place, if it was ok then? Created jobs, yeah maybe, but he also started doing some union busting to get rid of those socialists, that were helping people get and keep a working wage did he not? I believe he started with the Air traffic controllers and since then, it has been a goal of the right to just do away with unions altogether right? Anything that benefits the poor, working or middle class is bad, benefits huge companies and the wealthy, then it's just all good.
For all this "drill baby drill" chant to get us off foreign oil. You do know that any oil captured off our shores, is put into the big pool and is sold just like the oil from the Middle East right? It does not go into our reserve to be held for us, it gets sold on the open market. So the only people getting money, not us I might add, are the big oil companies and most not from here. I do believe the taxes raised from the oil are used for infrastructure. Saying they don't do anything to get it though, kind of a stretch when it is OUR resources being tapped by multinational companies. Want to just give it away for free, don't see that happening. Oh no, please tell me you are not a denier of climate change. I don't think my brain can take that today.
At any rate, I think Tom has moved on to other subjects, so we probably should too, since we are just going to have to agree to disagree. I'm going to be little Ms, I want everyone to have the same chances and if that means a leg up so be it. You are going to go on with big companies will go away, if we don't let them extort us and keep things the way they are with no regulation. He is probably tired looking at these War & Peace posts anyway, right Tom ;)
". . .yet has no problem with the government that has done NOTHING to earn it, taxes that same gallon of gas at 15% or more?"
When I drive across the state and spend several days mixing it up in what would otherwise be a huge, impossible -- and I mean impossible -- traffic situation, I'm reminded in a big way of one of the things government does in return for taking in that money.
And that's just one example. Unlike business, government doesn't sell products up front and then give back a small fraction later, if sharp lawyers can't get it completely off the hook. No, government provides services people need and want, and charges going forward.
Work with it, Paine; it's not a hard concept.
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