The Brown Memo

Now that the memo has surfaced* Bush might want to think about immediately removing Michael Brown, or at least putting someone in at FEMA who is above Brown's head. This is if Bush does not want to spend the rest of his presidency doing damage control.

Anyone who saw Oprah Winfrey's show yesterday knows she is fit to be tied about what happened in NOLA. I saw more dead bodies during her one hour show yesterday than I saw televised during the entire Iraq invasion. And these were not covered bodies; the surgeon examined the bodies in front of the camera. Winfrey is beyond caring if she whips people up.

There will be a second show today although it will be about other regions hit by Katrina; yesterday's show focused greatly on NOLA. I sure hope someone in the White House tunes in to watch Hurricane Oprah.

The question is the replacement on short notice for the head of FEMA. If Bush can get Rudy Giuliani to step in, that would work. A reader suggestion: Colin Powell on a temporary basis. That would also work; keep Brown on to advise Powell about details and until crisis is bridged.

If Bush nudges Brown aside he can spin it by saying this is not about people, it's about familiarity with complex systems under extraordinary circumstances. That's a good spin because it's the truth.

The only registry system that FEMA has for the evacuees is an 800 number that evacuees call at their own initiative. Red Cross has only a partial list. Even with full registration, there are not enough vaccines available to immunize people exposed to the kind of infectious diseases the NOLA residents were exposed to. Now those people are scattered across at least 30 states.

The high pressure system has been upgraded to tropical storm that threatens to bring heavy rain to Florida but the storm's path is very erratic.

So right we need someone at FEMA who can chew and walk and give that person great authority. Later for dealing with Blanco/Nagin. Get that blasted FEMA agency working right, this very day.

* For those who haven't seen the news about the Brown memo:

By TED BRIDIS, AP
WASHINGTON (Sept. 7) - The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the region - and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged Tuesday the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.

Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."