FEMA Head To Michael Brown: 'Better To Be Fast Than To Be Late'

On Tuesday I posted an interview with Michael Brown, BushCo's head of FEMA, who botched the Katrina disaster and now has the gall to criticize Obama's quick response to Sandy's devastation.  My personal views aside, the current head of FEMA, no longer the gutted agency it was under Dubya, responds to Brownie's comments today.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate dismissed criticisms of President Barack Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy lobbed by Michael Brown, who oversaw the disastrous Bush administration response to Hurricane Katrina.
"Better to be fast than to be late," Fugate said in an interview on NPR Tuesday morning.
Brown, whom President George W. Bush infamously praised for doing a "heckuva job" in the aftermath of Katrina in 2005, told a Denver paper that Obama had acted too quickly in mobilizing relief for Sandy.
"Here's my concern," Brown told Denver's Westword on Monday, suggesting that the prompt official response was actually making people complacent. "It's premature [when] the brunt of the storm won't happen until later this afternoon."

Fugate also addressed the role of FEMA, which has been a hot topic since Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said he wanted to abolish the agency so that states would have direct responsibility for disaster response.

His campaign later clarified that he would not eliminate FEMA.

"Governor Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” said campaign spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

But as Fugate explained on Tuesday, this is exactly how FEMA already works.

"We're a federal government; we're not a national government," he said "Disasters are local. Through state constitutions, the governors are the primary incident commanders for the entire state response in support of that. And the role of the federal government is to support the states when the disaster exceeds their capabilities. And when it's this bad, we work as one team. But we are in support of the governors, as they are in support of the local officials. It's a federal system of government."

Read the rest and listen to the NPR interview HERE.

And so it goes.
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R.I.P. Ray Bradbury

Mr. Chronicles Man!  And one of my fave Sci-Fi writers, though he really wasn't.  Remember Fahrenheit 451?  The Martian Chronicles was an early favourite, and the TV mini-series wasn't disappointing.  It also had a great cast.

From NPR - with links to audio interviews and more:

Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, died Tuesday. He was 91. Bradbury was known for his futuristic tales — but he never used a computer, or even drove a car.
Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Ill., in 1920 and grew up during the Great Depression. He said it was a time when people couldn't imagine the future, and his active imagination made him stand out. He once told Fresh Air's Terry Gross about exaggerating basic childhood fears, like monsters at the top of the stairs.
"As soon as I looked up, there it was, and it was horrible," Bradbury remembers. "And I would scream and fall back down the stairs, and my mother and father would get up and sigh and say, 'Oh, my gosh, here we go again.' "
Bradbury dove into books as a child. Wild tales from authors Jules Verne and H.G. Wells captivated Bradbury — and made him dream of becoming a great author. So he started writing, churning out a short story every week during his teens. After his family moved to Southern California, he would escape to the basement of the UCLA library. There, he'd focus on his craft.
"For 10 cents a half-hour you could rent a typewriter," Bradbury recalled. "And I thought, my gosh, this is terrific! I can be here for a couple hours a day. It'll cost me 30, 40 cents, and I can get my work done."
Bradbury made his mark in the literary world with The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories released in 1950. During the height of the Red Scare, he set off a warning flare about censorship with his signature work, Fahrenheit 451 — and he did so in a controversial new magazine: Playboy. The story was later printed as a novel, and in 1966 director Francois Truffaut introduced movie audiences to this bizarre society Bradbury created: one in which firemen burned books to keep the masses completely ignorant but couldn't extinguish their curiosity.
"Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which book paper catches fire and starts to burn," explains firefighter Guy Montag.
Oscar-nominated director Frank Darabont wants to bring a new version of Fahrenheit 451 to the big screen. He was inspired by the outlaws in the book — the people who worked desperately to preserve literature and pass wisdom along to future generations. Darabont wants to do just that — deliver this author's lessons to today's youth.
"Bradbury takes us into a journey to the core of the human heart and glories in the potential of humankind," Darabont says. "That's a great message to get at a time in your life when you're looking around and seeing that the world kind of sucks."

The rest is HERE. Enjoy.

A little sadder tonight by his passing, but knowing that I can read his works again on my Kindle.

And so it goes.
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NPR Drops "World of Opera"

Because they couldn't get its host, Lisa Simeone fired after she took part in an "Occupy" event.

I dumped NPR months ago once their reporting became increasingly slanted to the right.  Here's the story from David Swanson via DU:

Yesterday, NPR's PR flack was haranguing me on the phone about how NPR had nothing to do with getting Lisa Simeone fired from an independent program called Soundprint. This was despite NPR having gone public with its concerns over Simeone's "unethical" participation in democracy, and Soundprint's referencing of NPR's "ethics" rules in firing Simeone. It was also despite NPR's clear intention to get Simeone removed from our airwaves.

I have no evidence that NPR contacted Soundprint, but "World of Opera" is a different story. Today I read that ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/npr-dumping-op... ) NPR has dropped distribution of "World of Opera," a program produced by WDAV which contracts with Simeone to host it. NPR's original frantic email and blog post had read:

"We're in conversations with WDAV about how they intend to handle this. We of course take this issue very seriously." (The issue of participating in a democratic society and not backing a corporate agenda like bigshot NPR hosts who opinionate on Fox, in op-eds, and at big business speaking events for big bucks.)

Lisa was told to be on a phone call with NPR and WDAV Thursday morning, but NPR canceled the call without telling her, as she waited by the phone. NPR's Anna Christopher Bross tells me that NPR spoke with WDAV about how to handle Simeone. She says they went through many possible scenarios, and that NPR has been completely transparent. I asked her what any of the scenarios were, and she refused to say. I asked if one of them was the only one anyone has discussed, namely firing Simeone, and she wouldn't say. But the announcement by WDAV was "Ms. Simeone remains the host of World of Opera." The decision was not to fire her. NPR announced "Classical public radio station WDAV says Lisa Simeone will continue to host World of Opera." The decision was not to discontinue her.

Now, unable to get Simeone fired, a decision which NPR would have carefully blamed entirely on WDAV, our public radio thugs have taken the only approach left to them if people who condescend to supporting the political efforts of the poor are to be kept out of public sight: NPR has dropped the program.

Clearly Soundprint deserves its full share of condemnation in all of this, and WDAV merits strong support. WDAV will be distributing "World of Opera" on its own and should have our backing. But NPR has lowered itself to the bottom rung of our communications system. Mara Liaason can opinionate on Fox News while providing an objective god's-eye view on NPR. Scott Simon can publish opinion columns in corporate newspapers while reporting the facts. Cokie Roberts can take corporate speaking fees that could cover most people's mortgages without being perceived as in any way tarnished. But Lisa Simeone cannot introduce operas while having taken the unforgivable step of supporting a nonviolent movement on behalf of the lower 99% of us. Despicable.

NPR will not receive one penny from me anymore. I counted myself a member of our local stations, having supported their efforts for over 10 years, but that's over. 

And so it goes.
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Curse You , Delmarva Power, Curse You!

Scene: doghouse, Snoopy at the typewriter.  It was a dark and stormy night...

And that it was, too. Rain and high winds (up to 50 mph) broken only by moments of sun through breaks in the clouds battered this little beach town without mercy yesterday. Down limbs and whole trees were ripped from the ground.

I had 2 urgent errands to run before work so I decided it would be wise to drive the car to work and avoid getting drenched and possibly sliding into a relapse of the nasty thing I am just now slowly getting over. I am so glad I did.

Following a fairly brisk lunch crowd I enjoyed my a-s cocktail then headed home. Was just changing out of the work drag when I heard a loud "BANG" like a gun shot...then all went dark. Either due to downed power lines, or (what I feared most) a transformer exploded. Put in a call to the power company to have my worst fear verified.  Transformer. At least 4 hours before service could be restored.  Key word here, "could" be restored.

What to do?  I called to find out if the restaurant had also lost power. Thankfully, it had not.  I toyed with the idea of heading back there for a warm something for supper, but the rain and wind made me think twice.  Lit candles in each room, made a festive martini and considered the options. A search of the refrigerator yielded many options, but all required re-heating, except one.  Tuna salad made the day before was the evening special last night.

As the apartment began to get colder and colder, I decided to brush my teeth and crawl under the covers and call it a night. Annoyed that I had no hot water for a shower I kept the sweats on and crawled in. The flannel sheets are wonderful in cold weather.  No matter how one turns there is never a cold spot in the bed. Fell asleep quickly.

Rudely awakened by bright light at midnight meant that the power was back on. All clocks were blinking as I went to blow out the single candle I left burning in the bathroom JIC, and went back to bed as the heat began to bring the place back to life.

Woke at usual time (5 am) and realized I must have slept 10 hours last night.  I guess I really needed the rest and time off the computer - which I didn't miss at all. Seems the storm has passed and I enjoyed a coffee and the morning news on the local NPR station as I went about resetting all f**king clocks and timers all over the place. The only appliance without one is my blessed Senseo coffee maker.

Took a shower and while getting ready for work, checked email and the news blogs.  It appears that the top news story is the demise of the Hasbro Easy-Bake Oven.  No, I am not kidding. Seems that without the incandescent bulbs to heat the thing, little ones will never again get to taste one of those wretched, stinky cakes that came out of those things.

Secondary stories were of the union-busting attempts in various states, followed by unrest and brutality in Libya, Iran, etc.  Long live Easy-Bake!!! Yes. (sigh!)

Look at it this way; it's only 9 hours before I can sit down with a few olives.  In the meantime I get to enjoy the company of diners and regulars who will insure that time goes quickly.

More later.

News Legend Daniel Schorr - R.I.P.

Daniel Schorr was one of "Murrow's Boys" as in Edward R. at CBS, but his career goes back a long, long way. He was one of those reporters you instinctively knew you could believe and trust. He enjoyed a long career and even longer life. His commentaries on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon were were always honest, accurate, lively, and informed by history.  I feel blessed to have been taught, and enlightened to the workings of Washington - and the world - by him. From NPR:

Daniel Schorr, a longtime senior news analyst for NPR and a veteran Washington journalist who broke major stories at home and abroad during the Cold War and Watergate, has died. He was 93.
Schorr, who once described himself as a "living history book," passed away Friday morning at a Washington hospital. His family did not provide a cause of death.
As a journalist, Schorr was able to bring to contemporary news commentary a deep sense of how governmental institutions and players operate, as well as the perspective gained from decades of watching history upfront.
"He could compare presidents from Eisenhower on through, and that gave him historical context for things," said Donald A. Ritchie, Senate historian and author of a book about the Washington press corps. "He had lived it, he had worked it and he had absorbed it. That added a layer to his broadcasting that was hard for somebody his junior to match."
Schorr's 20-year career as a foreign correspondent began in 1946. After serving in U.S. Army intelligence during World War II, he began writing from Western Europe for the Christian Science Monitor and later The New York Times, witnessing postwar reconstruction, the Marshall Plan and the creation of the NATO alliance.
Schorr joined CBS News in 1953 as one of "Murrow's boys," the celebrated news team put together by Edward R. Murrow. He reopened the network's Moscow bureau, which had been shuttered by Joseph Stalin in 1947. Ten years later, Schorr scored an exclusive broadcast interview with Nikita Khrushchev, the U.S.S.R. Communist Party chief — the first-ever with a Soviet leader. Schorr was barred from the U.S.S.R. later that year after repeatedly defying Soviet censors.
He covered the building of the Berlin Wall as CBS bureau chief for Germany and Western Europe. In 1962, he aired a celebrated portrait of citizens living under Communist rule in East Germany.

Read the rest of this marvelous career HERE.
And so it goes.
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A Post Katrina Discovery.

From Thanks, Katrina.

After almost five years post Katrina, volunteers recently discovered a house that was washed into a marsh by the storm from Bay St. Louis' Second Street.

What follows is a recent piece on NPR about the house and family. Talk about "the never-ending story." Fascinating and tragic.

Read the entire transcript HERE.

More later
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DNC: "Enough of the Mob"

Listening to clips of various town hall meetings yesterday on NPR - not to mention their own stoopid running commentary - I wondered if anyone was going to go after these crazies. Then this arrived in my inbox last night.

Now, when are the 90 percent of those attending, who really have valid questions on the issues going to stand up and out shout them or have them ejected from the meetings?

We all know what this is really about. There is a black man in the White House and that is unacceptable. Plain and simple.

Maybe more later...busy week.

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Stand With Rep. Patrick Murphy on DADT

This just arrived in my inbox from the Stonewall Democrats and thought I'd share. He was also on the Diane Rehm show on NPR this morning and made quite a case for the reversal of DADT.

Dear ********,

Many of us have been closely watching our Democratic administration and Congress to see if they intend to live up to the promises they made on the campaign trail to advance pro-equality legislation this year.

On July 8th, Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy (PA-8) took a major step in the right direction when he became the official lead sponsor for H.R. 1283, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, the Congressional effort to overturn the military’s discriminatory policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Will you sign our message thanking Congressman Murphy for taking the lead on this important issue?

As the first Iraq war veteran elected to Congress, Congressman Murphy has taken a leadership role on issues of national security. His decision to step up and carry forward the legislative repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is encouraging. What’s more, his outspokenness and bold optimism is striking.

I signed the message of thanks. Do it if you feel so led.

More later.

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NPR Achieves Record High Ratings

To me, this is great news. I listen to NPR almost every day at work or at home. News and analysis from all sides of any issue without all the screaming or accusations. I am an especially big fan of the Diane Rehm Show. She's an icon and no one on her daily panel of guests gets away with falsehoods because she calls them on it and demands proof. I love her. Now this.
From today's WaPo:

At a time when newspapers, magazines and TV news continue to lose readers and viewers, at least one part of the traditional media has continued to grow robustly: National Public Radio.

The audience for NPR's daily news programs, including "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," reached a record last year, driven by widespread interest in the presidential election, and the general decline of radio news elsewhere. Washington-based NPR will release new figures to its stations today showing that the cumulative audience for its daily news programs hit 20.9 million a week, a 9 percent increase over the previous year.

The weekly audience for all the programming fed by Washington-based NPR -- including talk shows and music -- also reached a record last year, with 23.6 million people tuning in each week, an 8.7 percent increase over 2007.

While almost every news organization saw its audience spike during the political campaign last year, NPR's surge continues a trend that goes back to at least the fall of 2000, when the organization began aggregating audience data from hundreds of affiliated public stations across the country. NPR saw a big audience increase after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has added listeners since. Its audience has grown 47 percent since 2000, according to figures from Arbitron.

"When people discover us, they seem to discover us for good," Ellen Weiss, NPR's senior vice president for news, said in an interview yesterday. "They stay with us."

More than half of NPR's daily audience comes from its two "core" news shows, "Morning Edition" and the evening "All Things Considered." "Morning Edition's" average daily audience, 7.6 million, is now about 60 percent larger than the audience for "Good Morning America" on ABC and about one-third larger than the audience for the "Today" show on NBC.

The favorable audience data, however, hasn't spared NPR from the budget woes that are affecting almost every news organization in the nation. In December, NPR cut 7 percent of its news staff and eliminated two daily newsmagazine programs, "Day to Day" and "News & Notes."

On weekends there's a gardening show, and The Splendid Table for people who love to cook and eat, and of course, A Prairie Home Companion, among others. Read the rest at the link above. then tune in and if you like what you hear, consider becoming a member of your local station to help close the budget gap.

More later.
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