9.09.2005

Gimme a Break...

First off, they lie in "Brownie's" biography saying he has experience:

Brown's biography on the Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site says he had once served as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight," and a White House news release in 2001 said Brown had worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., in the 1970s "overseeing the emergency-services division."

"The assistant is more like an intern," Claudia Deakins (city spokeswoman) told the magazine. "Department heads did not report to him." Time posted the article on its Web site late on Thursday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9266986/

Then they say this:

Brown "remains focused on helping Americans through the worst natural disaster in history," FEMA said.

Don't get me wrong - Katrina is bad, real bad. But we do not yet know the scope of the devastation (much do to the incompetence of the reaction by FEMA & the Bush Administration).
But, let's compare:

Pompeii - 20,000 dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii
Galveston Hurricane - 8,000 dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Hurricane
Indian Ocean Tsunami - 150,000 dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_tsunami
Krakatoa - 36,000 dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa
San Francisco Earthquake - 6,000 dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_earthquake
Mexico City Earthquake - 5-20,000 dead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Mexico_City_earthquake

Or, here's a big list of a lot of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters

The point is, before we inflate a bad situation by engaging in hyperbole to save someone's butt, let's rationally look at the situation.

If we let politics drive response instead of common sense, well, I guess we already see what happens. Let's stop it now.

But, hey:

Bush last week gave Brown a word of support, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

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