What a snivlin little weasel

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/27/katrina/main886469.shtml

What a snivlin little weasel of a man. Pointing fingers when he knows he was in charge and failed to do his job. Was FEMA and the feds totally responsible for the mismanagment of Katrina? Of course not, but to point fingers at others without humbling yourself to your own ineptitude is simply weasling

If he had an oz. of intelligence, he would have simply responded by say "we f---cked up - we will try better in the future, I take full responsiblity for any mismanagment in the agency I headed" period.

Congressman Shays (R-Conn) said it right "we are glad that you are gone". He should have been fired - disgrace is usually the best way to handle weasels like this!

 

Why weasel?

Why does everyone pick on the weasel? They make good pets and seem very clean. Then people use them as a derogatory term for others. I say it's not fair to the noble weasel.


Anyway, I agree Brown handled his hearing very badly. However, he is by no means as guilty as many would have it and I would hate to be in his position. He made a lot of very valid points which got lost in the trash being spoken by many people. For Rep. Jefferson (of New Orleans) to, of all people condemn him, was over the top. Let he who is innocent be the first to cast a stone....

 

I'll put Rodentia over Reptiles

but in the end, they are all vermin.

I thought the LA Gov. did well to ignore Brownie's comments.

 

Is it a weasel that becomes an ermine in winter when its coat is white?

 

Correction, before you science buffs get me...

Weasels EAT rodents, but are carnivorous mammals...so yeah, I agree, we have to stop maligning the misunderstood rats...i mean weasels.

 

The Ermine is often called Short Tailed Weasel

The weasel and ermine are members of the mustelides family.

 

Chris Shays is one of the best members of Congress and one of my favorite Republicans. Wish he'd seek the presidency.

Now, Mr. Engineer, think about this. Neither Mississippi nor Alabama, both states had severe damage, failed in helping their people. Only Louisiana, with Democrats in the governor's chair and in the mayor's chair, failed their people.

Governor Barbour and Lt. Gov. Tuck of Mississippi and Governor Riley of Alabama (all Republicans) took the steps characteristic of leadership.

 

Re: Re: What a snivlin little weasel

I admit.... It IS sad to see the leadership failure of Democratic politicians in the state of Louisiana. We need more "general types" these days in the party - I can assure you they exist, just not in elected office in Louisiana.

But Jimmy..... puhleeze. When we talk about lack of leadership, let's not forget our glorious and fearless leader who took days to come to his senses about the magnitude of the domestic disaster that had fallen into his lap. And even then, his response was more about photo ops than any true sense of "on the ground" command presence.

 

Sooo, if weasels and ermine are in the same family, what's a stoat?

 

Not the president's job

Hugging victims isn't what I hired the president to do. If Clinton had done less of it maybe we wouldn't be in the position we are today. The president is the leader of our country and I expect him to lead. Handling regional disasters is why we hire governors. Of all people you should know that.....

 

Aren't stoat's....

Aen't stoats mustalides too? Are stoats lower class to weasels like weasels are to ermine?

 

Re: Re: Re: What a snivlin little weasel

Hey buddy,

Didn't you start a thread complimenting Bush for taking responsibility?

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: What a snivlin little weasel

Hola amigo,

Yes, indeed I started a thread to compliment Bush for saying publicly that he took responsibility for the Katrina disaster response failures. That was an example of leadership, although it could hardly be categorized as either decisive leadership or responsive leadership given the timing of his speech (literally DAYS after it was obvious to the entire nation that something was going terribly wrong in New Orleans during that awful week immediately following landfall).

One incident of good behavior does not easily erase dozens of previous transgressions. Since that time it has become well known that Bush appointees to critical homeland security related leadership positions are at best incompetent, and always owe their positions to extreme patronage of the worst sort (see Time Magazine - current edition). And what damage has our nation incurred from the ill preparedness of the federal government for a disaster of this nature? Damage no doubt furthered by having 30'ish inexperienced political baboons at the helm of key posts in the chain of command?

TRUE leadership would not have permitted this type of fumbleocracy to emerge, much less flourish.

Another small step towards true leadership that Bush could take right now would be to turn his current administration upside down and weed out political hack incompetent appointees and replace them with seasoned professionals. If those professionals just so happen to be loyal to the corporate/conservative aristocracy that supports and funds the Bush family then all the better, but if not at least the nation would be served by having world class leadership across the administration.

Whaddya think Jimmy? Make sense?
Carl

 

Lets not forget my favorite weasel from when I was a kid, Bobby "The Brain" Heenen, from the WWF.

 

Part of the problem is that the name 'Federal Emergency Management Agency' is a misnomer. People expect FEMA to rush into any disaster and immediately take charge. But despite the agency's name, that's not FEMA's function. It exists to back up and support state and local government, which have primary management responsibility in disasters.

I suppose that federal legislation could be passed that would federalize all state and local disaster response and put Washington in charge.

But that's a pretty dramatic change. (Is it even Constitutional?) There would be all kinds of questions, such as how bad a disaster has to be before it's federalized. And since disaster response is in some part a function of preparation, wouldn't federal emergency mangement necessitate federalizing disaster response before disasters strike?

Is this really what we want?

 

A stoat (mustela erminea) is an ermine. Or, to be more terminologically correct, an ermine is a stoat who has changed coat colour for the winter. A weasel (mustela nivalis) is a fellow mustelid, but is about half the size and doesn't have the black tail tip.

Gorgeous creatures, both of them. There were thriving colonies of both at one of my childhood homes and it was always great fun to see them scuttling around in the dusk or early morning. Not so much fun for the rodents or the baby birds, of course.

Angela

 

Great post Bill. People always want local control but then complain when the federal government doesn't slap down the locals who screw up. Seems to be they want it both ways.

 

Maybe a moderator..

Maybe a moderator could split off the interesting mustalide discussion from the FEMA one?

 

Naw. Weasels is weasels.

 

Speaking of Weasels ...

I thought that perhaps this thread was referring to another type of weasel ...
http://www.breyerstate.com/resume-john-dovelos.htm