Janice Karpinski, Meet Michael Brown
It's the fourth anniversary of the tragedy of 9.11. I had planned to do a little write-up on our progress in the so-called war on terror, but I'm finding that task more difficult than expected, given the fact that we've actually made no progress in the so-called war on terror.
In Iraq our mishandling of detainees has only increased the anger both Muslim fanatics and the Iraqi people have felt since we invaded their country. As for fighting terrorists there (so we don't have to fight them here) we've not only failed to win a decisive victory there, we've allowed the Bush administration to dismantle (or disfigure) the very agencies that are supposed to protect us should a terror attack occur here at home.
There's a very simple reason for this: in both Louisiana and Iraq people who were woefully unqualified and inexperienced for highly visible and important tasks were selected to oversee operations that, if handled badly, would inevitably result in disastrous consequences.
At Abu Ghraib prison and in New Orleans the failure of appointed individuals to foresee, manage, and curtail major disasters was not only expected by the Bush administration, it was welcomed.
Torture at Abu Ghraib prison, while under the command of Janice Karpinski, was practically designed to produce the nasty, twisted, sexually perverse abuses we saw in those gruesome photos. It was a foregone conclusion. The first step toward the inevitable occurred when Alberto Gonzales, then legal adviser to the White House, spearheaded a little campaign to interpret the law in such a way as to essentially rewrite it, giving the President the authority to detain people without evidence. In other words: if the president says a person is an enemy combatant, then we just have to take it on faith that he is.
Next, the new laws gave the President the authority to bypass the torture prohibitions outlined in the Geneva Conventions by excluding so-called "enemy combatants" from that protection. At the same time, the Pentagon suggested that humiliation based on Muslim taboos against sexual gratification and interaction with women would be a good thing because it would serve to "break the will” of detainees. And finally, a woman with no prior detention facility experience, or war-time service was appointed to oversee the prison. The writing was on the wall.
And now we have an even more massive failure in New Orleans: enter, Michael Brown. Brown's most notable career prior to being named head of FEMA was manager of the International Arabian Horse association. You see the pattern, yes? Hire the unqualified, inexperienced and incompetent.
According to Time magazine, Brown's resume also says he was the Assistant City Manager of Emergency Services Oversight of Edmond, Oklahoma. In fact, he was merely an administrative assistant to the City Manager--as one person put it--"essentially an intern."
Brown also claimed to be the Director of Christian Nursing Facility in Oklahoma, but an administrator of that facility has been quoted as saying "he wasn't a person anybody remembered."
Brown's academic credentials are equally suspect. Brown claims to have won a prize as Outstanding Political Science Professor at some institution or another, but a spokesperson for that institution has apparently gone on record as saying Brown was only a student there.
Meanwhile, in the disastermath of New Orleans, we hear that the head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, and our President got the news about the levees breaking from the TV. Even after the flood, the President remained oblivious to the vast array of problems created by FEMA (yes, they actively reversed progress made by creative, hard-working, people who stepped in to help when FEMA was nowhere in sight).
Several days after the city flooded, Bush was so totally out of touch with reality that he went on camera and announced to the press, "Brownie, you're doing a great job!" I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll have reason to say it again: "The emperor has no clothes" is inadequate to describe what's happening here. This emperor isn't just naked--he's masturbating publicly.
Since the massive failure of FEMA, the citizens of this country, the non-profits without official ties to FEMA and the Red Cross, have had to work as hard at preventing FEMA from impeding their progress as they have at rescuing the living and removing the dead.
So in hindsight, it's kind of hard to imagine this same president has ever understood anything that's actually been happening, on the ground, in Iraq. He can't even keep tabs on Louisiana, when he's in Louisiana.
Now maybe that's Michael Brown's fault. You know, just like Abu Ghraib was Janice Karpinski's fault. Brown is the head of FEMA. Maybe he was supposed to notify the President and the head of Homeland Security when the levees we all thought would break finally did. Maybe Brownie is the one who dropped the ball. Makes sense. But Bush had to know that was going to happen.
Bush knew Michael Brown's career past, even if Brown's resume was a pack of lies. Bush appointed Brown to lead FEMA, based on the recommendation of someone who'd known him, personally, for years. Perhaps some inexperienced and inept White House admin could get away with failing to check Brown's references, but Bush was in close personal contact with him.
I can't help but wonder how the White House will attempt to deny responsibility when confronted with the obvious fabrications on Brown's resume. (We'll likely be treated to yet another press conference during which Scott McClellan will waste no time accusing the questioners of playing the "blame game." )
Apparently, among all the other definitions that the White House has rewritten, we can now add another: accountability is no longer the process of understanding cause and effect while calling attention to the people responsible. Accountability is now synonymous with blame; blame is a bad word; the White House doesn't use bad words. (Except when Vice President Dick Cheney uses them to insult a Democrat). Most of the time, however, bad words are strictly avoided. Hence, no accountability, for anything, ever.
As of this posting, Chertoff has moved Brown out of Louisiana, where he is, no doubt, preparing to fuck up his next task. He hasn't got the guts to admit that he pulled Brown out because of the public outcry; rather he continues to insist that Brownie is "needed elsewhere." And I'm sure he is. Wherever incompetence is needed to implement a plan to fail the American public for the convenience of the administration, I guess that's where he'll go.
But take heart, contrary to popular belief, the Bush administration is capable of learning from its mistakes. In fact, Janice Karpinski taught them a really important lesson after she publicly announced that she was the administration's scapegoat: if you set somebody up to fail, you need to make sure it's somebody who's loyal enough to take the fall without complaining.
And while you're at it, better make it a man. We all know women talk too much.
In Iraq our mishandling of detainees has only increased the anger both Muslim fanatics and the Iraqi people have felt since we invaded their country. As for fighting terrorists there (so we don't have to fight them here) we've not only failed to win a decisive victory there, we've allowed the Bush administration to dismantle (or disfigure) the very agencies that are supposed to protect us should a terror attack occur here at home.
There's a very simple reason for this: in both Louisiana and Iraq people who were woefully unqualified and inexperienced for highly visible and important tasks were selected to oversee operations that, if handled badly, would inevitably result in disastrous consequences.
At Abu Ghraib prison and in New Orleans the failure of appointed individuals to foresee, manage, and curtail major disasters was not only expected by the Bush administration, it was welcomed.
Torture at Abu Ghraib prison, while under the command of Janice Karpinski, was practically designed to produce the nasty, twisted, sexually perverse abuses we saw in those gruesome photos. It was a foregone conclusion. The first step toward the inevitable occurred when Alberto Gonzales, then legal adviser to the White House, spearheaded a little campaign to interpret the law in such a way as to essentially rewrite it, giving the President the authority to detain people without evidence. In other words: if the president says a person is an enemy combatant, then we just have to take it on faith that he is.
Next, the new laws gave the President the authority to bypass the torture prohibitions outlined in the Geneva Conventions by excluding so-called "enemy combatants" from that protection. At the same time, the Pentagon suggested that humiliation based on Muslim taboos against sexual gratification and interaction with women would be a good thing because it would serve to "break the will” of detainees. And finally, a woman with no prior detention facility experience, or war-time service was appointed to oversee the prison. The writing was on the wall.
And now we have an even more massive failure in New Orleans: enter, Michael Brown. Brown's most notable career prior to being named head of FEMA was manager of the International Arabian Horse association. You see the pattern, yes? Hire the unqualified, inexperienced and incompetent.
According to Time magazine, Brown's resume also says he was the Assistant City Manager of Emergency Services Oversight of Edmond, Oklahoma. In fact, he was merely an administrative assistant to the City Manager--as one person put it--"essentially an intern."
Brown also claimed to be the Director of Christian Nursing Facility in Oklahoma, but an administrator of that facility has been quoted as saying "he wasn't a person anybody remembered."
Brown's academic credentials are equally suspect. Brown claims to have won a prize as Outstanding Political Science Professor at some institution or another, but a spokesperson for that institution has apparently gone on record as saying Brown was only a student there.
Meanwhile, in the disastermath of New Orleans, we hear that the head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, and our President got the news about the levees breaking from the TV. Even after the flood, the President remained oblivious to the vast array of problems created by FEMA (yes, they actively reversed progress made by creative, hard-working, people who stepped in to help when FEMA was nowhere in sight).
Several days after the city flooded, Bush was so totally out of touch with reality that he went on camera and announced to the press, "Brownie, you're doing a great job!" I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll have reason to say it again: "The emperor has no clothes" is inadequate to describe what's happening here. This emperor isn't just naked--he's masturbating publicly.
Since the massive failure of FEMA, the citizens of this country, the non-profits without official ties to FEMA and the Red Cross, have had to work as hard at preventing FEMA from impeding their progress as they have at rescuing the living and removing the dead.
So in hindsight, it's kind of hard to imagine this same president has ever understood anything that's actually been happening, on the ground, in Iraq. He can't even keep tabs on Louisiana, when he's in Louisiana.
Now maybe that's Michael Brown's fault. You know, just like Abu Ghraib was Janice Karpinski's fault. Brown is the head of FEMA. Maybe he was supposed to notify the President and the head of Homeland Security when the levees we all thought would break finally did. Maybe Brownie is the one who dropped the ball. Makes sense. But Bush had to know that was going to happen.
Bush knew Michael Brown's career past, even if Brown's resume was a pack of lies. Bush appointed Brown to lead FEMA, based on the recommendation of someone who'd known him, personally, for years. Perhaps some inexperienced and inept White House admin could get away with failing to check Brown's references, but Bush was in close personal contact with him.
I can't help but wonder how the White House will attempt to deny responsibility when confronted with the obvious fabrications on Brown's resume. (We'll likely be treated to yet another press conference during which Scott McClellan will waste no time accusing the questioners of playing the "blame game." )
Apparently, among all the other definitions that the White House has rewritten, we can now add another: accountability is no longer the process of understanding cause and effect while calling attention to the people responsible. Accountability is now synonymous with blame; blame is a bad word; the White House doesn't use bad words. (Except when Vice President Dick Cheney uses them to insult a Democrat). Most of the time, however, bad words are strictly avoided. Hence, no accountability, for anything, ever.
As of this posting, Chertoff has moved Brown out of Louisiana, where he is, no doubt, preparing to fuck up his next task. He hasn't got the guts to admit that he pulled Brown out because of the public outcry; rather he continues to insist that Brownie is "needed elsewhere." And I'm sure he is. Wherever incompetence is needed to implement a plan to fail the American public for the convenience of the administration, I guess that's where he'll go.
But take heart, contrary to popular belief, the Bush administration is capable of learning from its mistakes. In fact, Janice Karpinski taught them a really important lesson after she publicly announced that she was the administration's scapegoat: if you set somebody up to fail, you need to make sure it's somebody who's loyal enough to take the fall without complaining.
And while you're at it, better make it a man. We all know women talk too much.
posted by LA Fosner at 3:12 PM
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