Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Dysfunctional Louisiana was the problem FEMA's Brown says

Washington Times:

Michael D. Brown, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Congress yesterday that Bush administration officials hurt hurricane relief efforts by rejecting his requests for more money, but his worst problem was a "dysfunctional" response from Louisiana officials.
He said he warned Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco days before Hurricane Katrina struck that she should order a mandatory evacuation, and he said it is not the job of the federal government or the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be a police or fire department or to provide food and gasoline to people in the hours and days after a disaster.
"FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications," Mr. Brown told the House select bipartisan committee investigating the response to Katrina.
Also yesterday, New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned after weeks of criticism about officer desertions and department disorganization in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Neither he nor city Mayor C. Ray Nagin would say whether he was pressured to leave.

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Some of the dysfunctional nature of Louisiana politics is described above in the Corruption as Usual post. Powerline also makes a good point on Brown's performance yesterday:

I've just watched the entire appearance of Michael Brown before the House committee investigating Hurricane Katrina--OK, not the whole thing, but they're taking a break now and it's all I can stand. On the whole, Brown did an excellent job. I don't suppose many people saw his appearance, but of those who did, most no doubt learned something about the division of responsibility in emergency management.

Of those who participated in the hearing, Brown was by far the most impressive. Democratic Congressman William Jefferson of Louisiana was his party's designated hit-man, but it was painfully evident that his opening speech was a filibuster. He didn't dare stop talking for fear that Brown would have an opportunity to answer his questions. But it wasn't just the Democrats; "Republican" Congressman Christopher Shays, too, was an ill-informed disgrace.

It is almost like the people on the committee were still watching the now discredited scense from the Superdome where TV anchors went wild with hysteria over false reports of murder and mayhem inside the Supermess. Why is it that these congressmen still do not comprehend that FEMA is not responsible for evacuation? Did not not watch local officials in Texas take responsiblility along with individual citizens to make sure that evacuation took place? These congressmen are compounding the disgrace of the national media in their handling of Katrina while trying to make Mike Brown and FEMA the scapegoat for the incompetance in governance of Louisiana officials.

Update: Baldilocks has an interesting analysis of why the media reportered the myths.

I think the professional media is quite liberal-to-leftist and regularly bristle as they proverbially pat us black folks on the head and say, “we’ll protect you from those evil conservatives.” But instead of jumping to lightly supported conclusions (like they often do), let’s sit up and think this thing through minus the emotionalism.

The media believed ugly rumors about black people told to them by black people: by the evacuees and by the (black) New Orleans police chief. And, in the media mindset, why would they say things to make other black people look bad unless it was true? That’s laziness (on the media's part), not racism.

No matter how much disdain many of us have for the mainstream media, we shouldn’t mistake sloth for malice.

Sloth is no virtue.