Why is FEMA turning away necessary aid?

[Gomezticator]

This is an issue that isn't getting addressed. Fine, the state should have done more for its impoverished citizens. Fine, the Feds have been slow to respond. OR HAVE THEY?

The now infamous quote from Jefferson Parish prez Aaron Broussard:

Sir, they were told like me. Every single day. The cavalry is coming. On the federal level. The cavalry is coming. The cavalry is coming. The cavalry is coming. I have just begun to hear the hooves of the cavalry. The cavalry is still not here yet, but I have begun to hear the hooves and were almost a week out.

Three quick examples. We had Wal-mart deliver three trucks of water. Trailer trucks of water. Fema turned them back, said we didn't need them. This was a week go. We had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a coast guard vessel docked in my parish. The coast guard said come get the fuel right way. When we got there with our trucks, they got a word, FEMA says don't give you the fuel. Yesterday, yesterday, fema comes in and cuts all our emergency communications lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in. he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards said no one is getting near these lines.

The guy who runs this building I'm in. Emergency management. He's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said. Are you coming. Son? Is somebody coming? And he said yeah. Mama. Somebody's coming to get you.. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday. And she drowned Friday night. And she drowned Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The Secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For god's sakes, just shut up and send us somebody.—Aaron Broussard

[Citizen Jane]

You can get the whole transcript for REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER online but here is a portion of it...with guests, Dr. Mary Frances Berry, Bradley Whitford, and Michael Eric Dyson.


http://www.safesearching.com/billmaher/print/t_hbo_realtime_090205.html



MAHER: The Federal Emergency—

DYSON: [overlapping] But, Mary, but not only that – look at this: FEMA was downgraded from a Cabinet position—

MAHER: Right.

DYSON: --and folded into Homeland Security, number one. So, first of all, they didn't even respect it. Secondly, he got two successive guys to run it who had no experience in disaster management.

MAHER: Right.

WHITFORD: [overlapping] They were, like, buddies from college.

MAHER: His cronies.

DYSON: They were cronies. [applause]

MAHER: If you don't – let me just tell – if you don't know who these are: Joe Albaugh – this is a guy he's known since college. The rumor is he's the guy who cleaned his records when he was needing—

WHITFORD: Right.

BERRY : Oh…

MAHER: --that in the National Guard. The guy – okay, I don't know. That's a rumor. I happen to believe it. [laughter] [applause] It's one thing to appoint your old buddies to be the ambassador to Liechtenstein .

DYSON: Right, right.

MAHER: Every politician does that. But to appoint them with no experience as the head of the disaster management agency?

DYSON: And then his successor was what – Michael Brown, who was his deputy, who had no experience. And the first guy went to start a company to exploit the economic spoils of Iraq . So methinks there's something terrible in Denmark , and it's nasty. And check this out: isn't it interesting that the Republicans – the Republicans who are always talking about “standards, let's keep up the standards,” are here engaging in cronyism and reverse affirmative action for the people who look like him—

MAHER: Yes.

DYSON: --and as a result, the truly qualified folks can't even get a word in edgewise. [applause]

[Gomezticator]

So this raises the question... how much good are donations doing if FEMA's turning away incoming aid anyway?