Send in the Browns

The Washington Post reports that 45 officers and six civilian employees of the New Orleans Police Department were fired Friday for abandoning their posts during the Katrina disaster, and sheds light on the fate of those who left.

Some of the New Orleans police officers accused of abandoning their posts have reportedly tried to get work at law enforcement agencies in Texas and Georgia, but officials there have refused to take them.

At the federal level, former FEMA Director, Michael Brown, continues to receive federal pay and criticism, currently for accepting an extension to his post-resignation FEMA contract. See David Mark's comments for JABBS (republished on Blogcritics). UPI reports that Brown planned to resign even before Hurricane Katrina struck.

Indictment in CIA leak case

At a federal court house in Washington, the news media have learned of the indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libbry, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, in the CIA leak investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

The indictment consists of five counts, including perjury, making a false statement, and obstruction of justice according to a special broadcast by ABC News, just before 1 pm ET. In a follow-up broadcast, at 1:10 am, ET, ABC News reported that Mr. Libby had resigned.

The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com) notes that "Any trial would shine a spotlight on the secret deliberations of Bush and his team as they built the case for war against Iraq."

A stitch in time saves billions

Failing to make proper and timely repairs to the levees in New Orleans resulted in damage that will cost U.S. taxpayers billions. According to the Washington Post, the Corps of Engineers estimates it will cost $1.15 billion just to restore the levees; however...

The law says FEMA must only restore facilities to their previous quality, which the Corps expects to do for New Orleans levees. But state and local leaders say that evidently is not good enough for the flood-control barriers.

If unchanged, the federal government's policy will set the stage for second catastrophic flooding of New Orleans, and more loss of life. State officials estimate it will cost another $2.3 billion to repair damage to state facilities, including the Superdome, writes the Post. These are just a fraction of the total cost for reconstruction of homes, businesses, and the environment, debris removal, health care, relocation, and other expenses.

From New Deal to Raw Deal: Americans Abandoned in Hour of Need

President Bush is pressing for aggressive federal spending cuts, reports the New York Times, and the cuts fall most heavily on the nation's children. This follows numerous other examples of Administration parsimony toward vulnerable citizens - the poor, the sick, the elderly, and disabled veterans - perpetrated as part of the Bush doctrine of "personal responsibility," a doctrine that seems to apply to everyone except the Administration.

Meanwhile, the wealthy continue to receive giant goody-bags of tax cuts. The Sarasota Herald Tribune describes a little known provision in the Bush hurricane relief bill that gives the rich an opportunity to deduct up to 100 % of their income if they donate to almost any charity.

Lack of expertise undermines preparedness

Today's New York Times takes an overdue hard look at Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's qualifications and handling of hurricane Katrina:

Serving as a federal government point man on hurricanes is hardly a role that Mr. Chertoff, 51, a former federal prosecutor and federal appeals court judge, expected when he took over at the Homeland Security Department in February. "I'm not a hurricane expert," he said recently. But in the aftermath of the widely criticized response to Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Chertoff said he fully realized that expert or not, the buck stopped with him.

The Times article echoes and supports observations of Deep Harm in Chertoff Speaks (October 19), and notes that Chertoff's ability to manage the huge department is now being questioned by some members of Congress, although he still has support from President Bush.

Flawed levees symbolize flawed policies

In today's Washington Post (Investigators Link Levee Failures to Design Flaws), Joby Warrick and Michael Grunwald examine why three New Orleans levees collapsed within a 15-hour period in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Preliminary investigation findings, they report, suggest design flaws were a key factor in the levee failures, resulting in flooding that submerged 100,000 homes and caused most of the 1,000 deaths in Lousiana. Surprisingly, the hurricane is now believed to be have been no more than a Category 3 storm by the time it blew through New Orleans - a blow the levees should have withstood.

Ultimately, the people of Lousiana will have to make some hard decisions: whether to rebuild the city as it was, using engineered structures to fight a hostile and ever-changing environment; or to create a very different city, compatible with natural processes. The rest of the nation has a stake, also, in the decision making. The cost of Katrina has reached into the pockets of taxpayers far from Jackson Square, and there will be many storms to come.