More unseen toll from FEMA mismanagement of Katrina

Everything the Bush crime syndicate touches turns to shit. But whether it's the illegal war in Iraq, the crashing American economy, or the unconscionably bad response to Hurricane Katrina, what you hear about in the mainstream media represents only the tip of the iceberg. The long-term tragedies, like PTSD from Iraq, the massive cuts in municipal budgets, and the diseases brought on by FEMA end up hidden beneath the surface.

What's that about diseases brought on by FEMA? Oh, just that FEMA trailers are a dangerous health hazard.

[Fifteen-month-old Lexi Bouffanie of Bay St. Louis, Miss.], diagnosed with severe asthma, must inhale medicine from a breathing device.

Doctors cannot conclusively link her asthma to the trailer. But they fear she is among tens of thousands of youngsters who may face lifelong health problems because the temporary housing supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency contained formaldehyde fumes up to five times the safe level.

The chemical, used in interior glue, was detected in many of the 143,000 trailers sent to the Gulf Coast in 2006. But a push to get residents out of them, spearheaded by FEMA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not begin until this past February.

Members of Congress and CDC insiders say the agencies' delay in recognizing the danger is being compounded by studies that will be virtually useless and the lack of a plan to treat children as they grow.

"It's tragic that when people most need the protection, they are actually going from one disaster to a health disaster that might be considered worse," said Christopher De Rosa, assistant director for toxicology and risk assessment at the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC. "Given the longer-term implications of exposure that went on for a significant period of time, people should be followed through time for possible effects."

Formaldehyde is classified as a probable carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the Environmental Protection Agency. There is no way to measure formaldelhyde in the bloodstream. Respiratory problems are an early sign of exposure.

Young children are at particular risk. Thousands who lived in trailers will be in the prime of life in the 10 to 15 years doctors believe it takes cancer to develop.

What's it going to take to prosecute these bastards, to impeach the leaders and punish those responsible for this heinous dereliction of duty? At long last, America, haven't we had enough yet?

There is absolutely no excuse for the crimes committed against American citizens by the Bush maladministration with regard to Katrina and its aftermath. Somehow, some way, they must be brought to justice. Human decency demands it.

Don't you dare complain that New Orleans got more attention ...

Leonard Pitts' column in today's Miami Herald is a poignant reminder that hyperbole will get you nowhere.

The columnist wants your response to something that's been circulating on the Internet. It was supposedly written by an emergency manager in Colorado, though different versions carry different points of origin.

The e-mail describes how the area has just recovered from a blizzard of "Biblical proportions" -- 44 inches of snow, winds up to 90 miles an hour, utility poles down, roads closed, communities cut off.

And yet, says the e-mail writer, "George Bush did not come. FEMA did nothing. No one blamed the government. ... Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit. ... Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards. No one asked for a FEMA trailer. No one looted. We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks."

What's your response? Your response is to smile. A tolerant smile. A Lord-give-me-strength smile. You point out patiently, calmly, that no snowstorm compares to Hurricane Katrina. "When the snow melted," you say, "your city was still there, so you're comparing apples to transmissions."

But it is hard to stay patient and calm. It just gets to you, how niggardly, stupid and flat-out cold some of your own countrymen can be. Why, you ask, do they play this game of Whose Disaster Was Bigger? "What's the f------ point of that? We have a disaster and we expect help. Are we arrogant, are we wrong for expecting it? Why are you pissed off with us? What did we do other than ask for what anybody else would quite naturally ask for and in all likelihood get quicker than we did?"

People were not this nasty toward Miami after Hurricane Andrew. So what is it about you?

"New Orleans," you say, "has always been known as the place where anybody can come. You're an accountant in real life and you want to be Marilyn Monroe? Do your thing. We ain't gon' say nothin'. But what did we do to you that would make you turn on us, that would make you say something like, 'We had 10 feet of snow, f--- 'em.' What were we, other than citizens in a position where something happened to us same way something could happen to you?"

How dare anyone compare a snowstorm to the complete devastation of an entire city, indeed an entire region, a way of life? I just hope the e-mail in question was not actually written seriously by anyone, let alone an emergency manager. Clearly, whoever wrote that screed hasn't seen New Orleans, walked in the rubble, stood mouth agape, wondering how rebuilding can ever occur.

No, whoever wrote that is ignorant and stupid and thoughtless. And whoever wrote it should be ashamed, as ashamed as I am of their callousness.

The legacy of Brownie's "great job"

An audit of FEMA has revealed tens of millions of dollars of wasted funds, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Ineffective preventive controls have resulted in substantial fraudulent and improper payments," GAO investigator Gregory Kutz told a Senate hearing. "The additional examples of potentially fraudulent and improper payments in our testimony today show that our estimate of $1 billion in improper and/or fraudulent payments is likely understated."

He described FEMA's approach of "shooting money out the door" and recouping bad payments later as badly misguided since only pennies on the dollar are typically recovered. He estimated that tens of thousands of people sought to defraud the government after Katrina and Rita.

"I hope FEMA has learned the costly lesson," Kutz said.

Even if they've learned the lesson, we're going to be paying for the mismanagement of Katrina for many years, and it only serves to highlight the incompetence not only of FEMA specifically, but indeed of the entire Bush maladministration (see, e.g., Iraq).

Of course, Holy Joe weighs in:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who will become [Homeland Security] committee chairman when Democrats take control of the Senate in January, said the panel will continue to closely watch FEMA so that it improves its practices.

"The record is clear that, going forward, FEMA has much work to do before we can be confident that it is providing assistance to those who are eligible and who need it, while denying it to those who do not," he said.

Note that the MSM still refers to HoJo as a Democrat. I'm writing an e-mail - wanna join me?