Mr. Brownie Goes To Washington

Michael Brown is scheduled to testify before Congress again today.

Unless the White House instructs him otherwise, he is prepared to tell all...

CNN.com: Ex-FEMA chief: I may tell all about Katrina

Michael Brown asks White House if they want him to stay quiet

Former disaster agency chief Michael Brown is indicating he is ready to reveal his correspondence with President Bush and other officials during Hurricane Katrina unless the White House forbids it and offers legal support....

What is there to reveal? Well, for starters, there's this-
White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm (NY Times)

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

An examination of documents shines a new light on the government response to Hurricane Katrina.
But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

I highly, highly recommend reading this. It details all that went wrong, at federal and local levels.

And Brownie states now that he did personally inform the White House of the situation-

Michael D. Brown, who was the director of FEMA until he resigned under pressure on Sept. 12, said in a telephone interview Thursday that he personally notified the White House of this news that night, though he declined to identify the official he spoke to.

But far be it for such news to cause our leaders to cut their vacations short...

But the alert did not seem to register. Even the next morning, President Bush, on vacation in Texas, was feeling relieved that New Orleans had "dodged the bullet," he later recalled. Mr. Chertoff, similarly confident, flew Tuesday to Atlanta for a briefing on avian flu. With power out from the high winds and movement limited, even news reporters in New Orleans remained unaware of the full extent of the levee breaches until Tuesday.

The federal government let out a sigh of relief when in fact it should have been sounding an "all hands on deck" alarm, the investigators have found.

Let that one sink in, folks.

I mean that doesn't sound like anything to be concerned about, right? After all, don't major American cities get drowned all the time? [*hits head on desk*] It was the Florida classroom all over again... This, THIS, is the supposed party of national security? These are the people who claim they are the only ones who can protect us? If they can't protect people from a storm and poor levees they knew about far in advance, can any sane person trust them on the terror front?

Remember, Americans: Homeland security begins at home. These people failed when it mattered most. There needs to be accountability for this.

The anger I felt that week remains. I won't forget New Orleans.