Top Items:
Knight Ridder:
Brown is merely a symbol of the problems at FEMA, experts say — WASHINGTON - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, who on Friday was sent back to Washington, is the poster boy for what's gone wrong with an agency once lauded for its lightning reflexes.
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Time:
How Reliable Is Brown's Resume? — A TIME investigation reveals discrepancies in the FEMA chief's official biographies — When President Bush nominated Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003, Brown's boss at the time, Joe Allbaugh, declared …
Los Angeles Times:
A Barrier That Could Have Been — Congress OKd a project to protect New Orleans 40 years ago, but an environmentalist suit halted it. Some say it could have worked. — In the wake of Hurricane Betsy 40 years ago, Congress approved a massive hurricane barrier to protect New Orleans from storm surges that could inundate the city.
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Rod Dreher / The Corner on National Review Online:
THE COST OF CRONYISM — It would be very wrong, I believe, to let the ignominious Michael Brown be the scapegoat for FEMA's sins. Check out this front-pager from the WaPo. Turns out that a raft of FEMA's top leaders have little or no emergency management experience …
Discussion:
ProfessorBainbridge.com, Daily Pundit, Eschaton, EdCone.com, Unfogged, Talking Points Memo and ArchPundit
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Associated Press:
Gay advocates plan to post names of anti-gay marriage petition signers — BOSTON —Two gay activists are promising to post on the Internet the names and addresses of anyone who signs a petition that could lead to a statewide ban on gay marriage. — The move by Thomas Lang and Alexander Westerhoff …
RELATED ITEM:
La Shawn / La Shawn Barber's Corner:Two 'Tolerant' Homosexuals Try to Intimidate
Discussion:
Wizbang
Erin McClam / breitbart.com:
Death Toll May Be Far Less Than Expected — Alarming predictions of as many as 10,000 dead in New Orleans may have been greatly exaggerated, with authorities saying Friday that the first street-by-street sweep of the swamped city revealed far fewer corpses than feared.
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Associated Press:
Iraq hurt Katrina response, general says — Pentagon says it can handle both the disaster and Iraq war — BAY ST. LOUIS, Mississippi (AP) — The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops from Mississippi and Louisiana in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina struck hindered …
Tung Yin / The Yin Blog:
Law profs opposed to John Roberts: show, don't tell — The letter signed by 160 law profs that urges the Senate to reject John Roberts as Chief Justice is here. I'm interested what people think the letter is really designed to achieve. It strikes me that the letter is a perfect example …
CNN:
Coast Guard admiral to lead relief effort — Beleaguered FEMA chief Michael Brown sent home — BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) — Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown was replaced Friday as the man in charge of the Hurricane Katrina federal relief effort.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Stakeholder, Outside The Beltway and The Blogging of the President
Dave Astor / Editor and Publisher:
Conservative Pundits Reluctant to Criticize Bush's Katrina Response — NEW YORK The Bush administration has received a torrent of bi-partisan criticism for its initial response to Hurricane Katrina. But most conservative columnists have continued to go fairly easy on George W. Bush during the past week, according to an E&P survey.
Discussion:
mediabistro
San Francisco Chronicle:
Police made their storm misery worse — Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, two San Francisco paramedics trapped in New Orleans for five days last week, have a different story to tell than many of the tales that have come out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Hindrocket / Power Line:
DISMAL POLL NUMBERS — Republicans have taken some comfort from the poll numbers that have come out so far on Hurricane Katrina, which have suggested that most Americans aren't buying the Democrats' unfair attacks. — Think again. The AP/Ipsos poll numbers that came out today, and can be accessed here, are horrible.
Richard A. Serrano / Los Angeles Times:
Detention of Enemy Combatant Upheld — WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court ruled today Jose Padilla, the so-called "dirty bomber," can be held forever in jail as an enemy combatant and never allowed to defend himself at trial, although he is an American citizen and was arrested in this country.
James Gerstenzang / Los Angeles Times:
Embattled FEMA Chief Removed From Hurricane Relief Efforts — WASHINGTON — Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was removed today from a direct role in running the relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Michael Chertoff …
National Review:
Talking Their Way Out of the Scandal — AUTHOR'S NOTE: On September 7, Paul Volcker's United Nations-authorized Independent Inquiry Committee delivered its main report on the corrupt Oil-for-Food program through which the U.N. from 1996-2003 supervised oil sales and relief purchases for Saddam Hussein's U.N.-sanctioned Iraq.
Discussion:
Roger L. Simon
Associated Press:
Final base-closing report criticizes Pentagon — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon overestimated savings from base closings by $30 billion and some of its plans for streamlining the Army, Navy and Air Force might have made the services less efficient, a federal commission that reviewed the process said Friday.