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FEMA Director Brown's Resume Full Of Lies
When President Bush nominated Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003, Brown's boss at the time, Joe Allbaugh, declared, "the President couldn't have chosen a better man to help...prepare and protect the nation." But how well was he prepared for the job? Since Hurricane Katrina, the FEMA director has come under heavy criticism for his performance and scrutiny of his background. Now, an investigation by TIME has found discrepancies in his online legal profile and official bio, including a description of Brown released by the White House at the time of his nomination in 2001 to the job as deputy chief of FEMA. (Brown became Director of FEMA, succeeding Allbaugh, in 2003.)
Before joining FEMA, his only previous stint in emergency management, according to his bio posted on FEMA's website, was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." The White House press release from 2001 stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him." Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. "Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/09/fema-directoras-resume-_n_7068.html
Under the "honors and awards" section of his profile at FindLaw.com — which is information on the legal website provided by lawyers or their offices—he lists "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University". However, Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," says Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University).
Under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw, Brown states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond. However, a veteran employee at the center since 1981 says Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here."
The FindLaw profile for Brown was amended on Thursday to remove a reference to his tenure at the International Arabian Horse Association, which has become a contested point.
Stephen Jones, a prominent Oklahoma lawyer who was lead defense attorney on the Timothy McVeigh case, was Brown's boss for two-and-a-half years in the early '80s. "He did mainly transactional work, not litigation," says Jones. "There was a feeling that he was not serious and somewhat shallow."
What does Brown, or his mouthpiece have to say?
"According to Mike Brown," she says, "a large portion [of the points raised by TIME] is very inaccurate."
Andrews says that Brown has never claimed to be a political science professor, in spite of what his profile in FindLaw indicates
http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=25236
Now, Time magazine is questioning the validity of Brown's White House biography in an article identifying several alleged discrepancies.
That bio and a White House news release says Brown worked for the city of Edmund, Okla., overseeing its Emergency Services Division.
But Carolina Miranda, a reporter for Time, tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler that doesn't appear to have been the case.
"His bio, the White House press release, and a number of sources list him as assistant city manager in Edmund, Okla.," Miranda says. " When we called the folks in Edmund, they told us that, no, his position in fact had been assistant to the city manager, which is a purely administrative job, a very different job. He was an administrative assistant. It's sort of an entry-level, intern-type job for somebody who's interested in learning about government. …When he began that job in 1977, he was still a college student. He didn't graduate with his B.A. until 1978."
Miranda says she isn't sure who is responsible for that type of error.
"That, we'll have to wait to see and find out," Miranda says. "But the fact is, it's an error that's been repeated a number of times, on his FEMA bio, the White House press release. It's the kind of thing you'd think somebody would have caught it by now but, clearly, nobody has."
More
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/09/earlyshow/main829303_page2.shtml
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/09/fema-directoras-resume-_n_7068.html
Under the "honors and awards" section of his profile at FindLaw.com — which is information on the legal website provided by lawyers or their offices—he lists "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University". However, Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," says Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University).
Under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw, Brown states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond. However, a veteran employee at the center since 1981 says Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here."
The FindLaw profile for Brown was amended on Thursday to remove a reference to his tenure at the International Arabian Horse Association, which has become a contested point.
Stephen Jones, a prominent Oklahoma lawyer who was lead defense attorney on the Timothy McVeigh case, was Brown's boss for two-and-a-half years in the early '80s. "He did mainly transactional work, not litigation," says Jones. "There was a feeling that he was not serious and somewhat shallow."
What does Brown, or his mouthpiece have to say?
"According to Mike Brown," she says, "a large portion [of the points raised by TIME] is very inaccurate."
Andrews says that Brown has never claimed to be a political science professor, in spite of what his profile in FindLaw indicates
http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=25236
Now, Time magazine is questioning the validity of Brown's White House biography in an article identifying several alleged discrepancies.
That bio and a White House news release says Brown worked for the city of Edmund, Okla., overseeing its Emergency Services Division.
But Carolina Miranda, a reporter for Time, tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler that doesn't appear to have been the case.
"His bio, the White House press release, and a number of sources list him as assistant city manager in Edmund, Okla.," Miranda says. " When we called the folks in Edmund, they told us that, no, his position in fact had been assistant to the city manager, which is a purely administrative job, a very different job. He was an administrative assistant. It's sort of an entry-level, intern-type job for somebody who's interested in learning about government. …When he began that job in 1977, he was still a college student. He didn't graduate with his B.A. until 1978."
Miranda says she isn't sure who is responsible for that type of error.
"That, we'll have to wait to see and find out," Miranda says. "But the fact is, it's an error that's been repeated a number of times, on his FEMA bio, the White House press release. It's the kind of thing you'd think somebody would have caught it by now but, clearly, nobody has."
More
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/09/earlyshow/main829303_page2.shtml
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JAMES GILL: FEMA hack is better for horses than humans
Posted Friday, Sept. 9 at 4:41 p.m.
Not a single Arabian horse has been reported killed by Katrina, so maybe FEMA director Michael Brown's work experience came in handy after all.
That humans have been less fortunate is hardly surprising. Neither Brown nor any of his top aides knew beans about disaster relief when they were handed jobs after the 2000 election. Evidently, Brown has not learned much since, and by Friday not even the Bush administration could maintain the pretense that he was up to snuff.
Brown was apparently no great shakes in his nine years directing the International Arabian Horse Association before he joined FEMA when his old friend, President Bush's campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, was named director. Nobody in Congress or the media seems to have been paying much attention when Brown replaced Allbaugh a couple of years ago. Why a man who made a hash of running horse shows should be entrusted with the public welfare was the great unasked question.
Only as the body count began in earnest did the sleuths discover that the utter ineptitude of the Katrina response was presaged in the resumes of the head honchos at FEMA.
How many of the dead might have survived had these characters not been so clueless will never be known. But this is assuredly one example of political patronage with lethal consequences.
U.S Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who used to fancy himself presidential material, remarked at confirmation hearings that Brown had "particularly useful" qualifications because he had worked in Edmond, Okla., 30 years ago, purportedly as "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight."
A stickler might have demanded rather more from a man entrusted with the nation's welfare in times of crisis, even had Brown borne the responsibilities he claimed. But it turns out that he stretched the truth when suggesting he had been a big fish in a small pond. He was a minnow, his job in Edmond amounting to no more than an "internship," according to a city spokeswoman.
The best that his old boss in Edmond could say about Brown was that he was always on time and wore a "suit and a starched white shirt," which will no doubt impress the refugees clustered all over the Southern states.
But no experience of disaster relief should have been necessary to avert some of Brown's most glaring mistakes. No more than common sense is required to grasp that lives will be lost if the response is delayed.
He seems not only to have lost control but not to have known what was going on. He was even dumb enough to admit that he had been unaware of the hordes left stranded at the convention center, although they were shown on TV every few minutes.
The Bush administration was the last to recognize that Brown had to be removed. Vice President Dick Cheney had been in Gulfport, Miss., a couple of days earlier, declaring, "I think the performance in general at least in terms of the information I've received from locals is definitely very impressive."
Evidently the administration has become so adept at spinning fantasy in Iraq that Katrina presented no threat to its equanimity.
It is, perhaps, fair enough for a municipal official to hand out comfortable jobs to ward-heelers who helped in an election campaign. But political patronage at the presidential level is traditionally leavened with some degree of professional competence in positions that have a major impact on the public welfare.
And if Bush was determined to have an amateur in charge, at least he could have ensured that the upper echelons of FEMA included some experienced hands. Instead, politics dictated the choice. Brown's No. 2 man is Patrick Rhode, a former campaign staffer who later worked in the White House advance team along with Brooks Altshuler, who is now deputy chief of staff at FEMA. Neither had any experience in disaster relief. Lower down the management chain, it is the same story -- jobs for the well-connected.
Morale at FEMA has inevitably plummeted, and experienced disaster managers are reported to have quit in droves under this administration. Brown's removal from the Katrina effort came too late to help much, but it is a relief that he will be out of the way before the next storm approaches.
Posted Friday, Sept. 9 at 4:41 p.m.
Not a single Arabian horse has been reported killed by Katrina, so maybe FEMA director Michael Brown's work experience came in handy after all.
That humans have been less fortunate is hardly surprising. Neither Brown nor any of his top aides knew beans about disaster relief when they were handed jobs after the 2000 election. Evidently, Brown has not learned much since, and by Friday not even the Bush administration could maintain the pretense that he was up to snuff.
Brown was apparently no great shakes in his nine years directing the International Arabian Horse Association before he joined FEMA when his old friend, President Bush's campaign manager Joe Allbaugh, was named director. Nobody in Congress or the media seems to have been paying much attention when Brown replaced Allbaugh a couple of years ago. Why a man who made a hash of running horse shows should be entrusted with the public welfare was the great unasked question.
Only as the body count began in earnest did the sleuths discover that the utter ineptitude of the Katrina response was presaged in the resumes of the head honchos at FEMA.
How many of the dead might have survived had these characters not been so clueless will never be known. But this is assuredly one example of political patronage with lethal consequences.
U.S Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who used to fancy himself presidential material, remarked at confirmation hearings that Brown had "particularly useful" qualifications because he had worked in Edmond, Okla., 30 years ago, purportedly as "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight."
A stickler might have demanded rather more from a man entrusted with the nation's welfare in times of crisis, even had Brown borne the responsibilities he claimed. But it turns out that he stretched the truth when suggesting he had been a big fish in a small pond. He was a minnow, his job in Edmond amounting to no more than an "internship," according to a city spokeswoman.
The best that his old boss in Edmond could say about Brown was that he was always on time and wore a "suit and a starched white shirt," which will no doubt impress the refugees clustered all over the Southern states.
But no experience of disaster relief should have been necessary to avert some of Brown's most glaring mistakes. No more than common sense is required to grasp that lives will be lost if the response is delayed.
He seems not only to have lost control but not to have known what was going on. He was even dumb enough to admit that he had been unaware of the hordes left stranded at the convention center, although they were shown on TV every few minutes.
The Bush administration was the last to recognize that Brown had to be removed. Vice President Dick Cheney had been in Gulfport, Miss., a couple of days earlier, declaring, "I think the performance in general at least in terms of the information I've received from locals is definitely very impressive."
Evidently the administration has become so adept at spinning fantasy in Iraq that Katrina presented no threat to its equanimity.
It is, perhaps, fair enough for a municipal official to hand out comfortable jobs to ward-heelers who helped in an election campaign. But political patronage at the presidential level is traditionally leavened with some degree of professional competence in positions that have a major impact on the public welfare.
And if Bush was determined to have an amateur in charge, at least he could have ensured that the upper echelons of FEMA included some experienced hands. Instead, politics dictated the choice. Brown's No. 2 man is Patrick Rhode, a former campaign staffer who later worked in the White House advance team along with Brooks Altshuler, who is now deputy chief of staff at FEMA. Neither had any experience in disaster relief. Lower down the management chain, it is the same story -- jobs for the well-connected.
Morale at FEMA has inevitably plummeted, and experienced disaster managers are reported to have quit in droves under this administration. Brown's removal from the Katrina effort came too late to help much, but it is a relief that he will be out of the way before the next storm approaches.
For more information:
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/opinion/index...
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