#6 Critiquing the Press FEMA the Infuriating Monkeys

Critiquing the Press

That's WaPo if FYI

Arlington, Va.: The article you linked to about the FEMA staffer's Congressional testimony struck at my heart. I've become convinced that the worst blunders of this administration - including 9-11 - could have been averted or mitigated if Bush's people had listened to career staff. I'm not saying that the career staff are always right, but the information they provide should at least be considered.

It's hard to talk about without sounding like the crazy disgruntled employee, but I've seen those with technical or practical knowledge excluded from even attending decision briefings, and the briefings themselves have had key information stripped out as being "too detailed."

At my agency, I believe the torturous process of the Administrative Procedures Act will keep anything too horrible from happening, but for decisions that don't have those natural checks (i.e., going to war, planning for an occupation, interrogating prisioners, responding to disasters) excluding those who have devoted their career to thinking through this things has been disasterous.

Howard Kurtz: Here you have this lone FEMA staffer in New Orleans, making increasingly desperate calls and sending alarming emails to his bosses about the levees breaking, and the agency goes about its business and regards the information as uncomfirmed. It should make people's blood boil.

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Washington, D.C.: Re: Libby, Miller, Rove et al.: All I know is, after reading the piece on Patrick Fitzgerald and his tireless, detail oriented working methods in the Post this a.m., this is not a man I would want to try to trick or lie to. Interesting that buried in the piece was the first reference I have ever seen to Robert Novak evidently cooperating with Fitzgerald from the get go? Has this been common knowledge?

Howard Kurtz: People have widely assumed it -- why else would Novak not have faced the battle that Cooper and Miller did? -- but I've never seen it reported as fact until now.