Melancon, along with Republican Rep. Tom Davis, is leading the House Select Committee investigating the government response to Hurricane Katrina. The two representatives wrote to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in late September and requested DHH documents and internal communications from the weeks following Katrina's landfall. More than 900 pages of e-mails were released on Oct. 18, and Melancon and his staff analyzed the correspondence. What they found was shocking incompetence on the part of former FEMA Director Michael Brown ' and last week they posted the e-mails and analysis on Melancon's Web site for the world to see. More than 300,000 visitors requested or downloaded the documents the day they were put up.
"I'm not looking to go and beat up on anybody, but it's quite obvious [Brown] was not doing his job," says Melancon by phone from his Washington, D.C., office. "Some people are saying, 'Melancon's trying to hurt the president [with these documents]. But these are documents that the majority allowed to be released. My concern is that the people back home are only going to hear what little bit makes it in the news, and it's hard to cover everything in this matter. So I said, 'Put 'em up on the Web site.'"
In the e-mails ' written during the most critical phases of post-Katrina relief efforts ' Brown appears more concerned with his image, his clothes, and finding a dog-sitter. On the morning Katrina hit, a FEMA public affairs representative complimented Brown on a television appearance, and he e-mailed back, "I got it at Nordstroms. Are you proud of me?" An hour later, Brown e-mailed again to say, "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
In perhaps the most damning exchange, FEMA employee Marty Bahamonde in New Orleans e-mailed Brown the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 31. Bahamonde wrote, "Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical. Here are some things you might not know. Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes.
"The dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac [sic]. Estimates that many will die within hours. Evacuation in process. Plans developing for dome evacuation but hotel situation adding to problem. We are out of food and running out of water at the dome, plans in works to address the critical need. FEMA staff is OK and holding own. DMAT staff working in deplorable conditions. â?¦ Phone connectivity impossible."
Brown's response? "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?" The same day, Brown wrote another e-mail: "Can I quit now? Can I come home?"
Such correspondence hardly supports Brown's previous testimony before Congress about his job performance. "I get it when it comes to emergency management," Brown testified on Sept. 27. "I know what it's all about." Melancon says he looked at all Brown's e-mails to put them in context. "There's always some time for levity, and I could have looked at some of these e-mails and said, 'Well, the guy's got a sense of humor.' But I don't see him giving orders, and I don't see any leadership."
Brown's failures are undeniable, but questions remain about other federal government employees and agencies. Brown testified that he exchanged e-mails with White House officials ' including Chief of Staff Andrew Card ' but none of those e-mails have been turned over to the House Select Committee for Katrina response. Melancon and Davis have also requested e-mail communications involving Chertoff, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others, but the Bush administration has not complied with the request.
"We haven't gotten anything from the White House or the Pentagon, and Chertoff hasn't responded to the request," says Melancon.
Melancon notes that the request for documents ' with an Oct. 14 deadline ' also extended to the state level, including Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley. He says that Blanco has requested a 90-day extension to produce documentation, while Barbour and Riley have yet to respond.
The lack of cooperation at the federal level has been frustrating for Melancon, and he remains unsure whether the White House or DHH will ever release the documents. And he has other pressing matters at hand. "I have a thousand things going every day ' shrimpers' problems, oyster farmers' problems, sugar cane farmers' problems ' and this is a part-time committee that expires in February. Our focus should be on the disaster areas and getting people back on their feet."
MAY 17 Here's a column from James Gill, this time in the Advocate. Gill, who has jumped ship from the Picayune, writes about the absurdity of dueling polls in this post. The numbers are so wildly different, it is obvious that both sides are "cooking the books," he writes. In particular, he looks at Sen. Mary Landrieu, and how her recent actions in DC have been received by those polled. Gill's acerbic, amusing prose is a welcome addition to a paper so conservative as to be occasionally lacking in personality.
MAY 17 Blogger Tom Aswell continues delivering bombshells about the state education department and Gov. Jindal's education "reform" efforts. In this post, he reports that students in the Shreveport area have been signed up for a charter school without their knowledge or consent. Most interesting to Aswell is how this Texas-based charter (with ties to GOP types) got the personal student information it has, if the students didn't give it.
MAY 17 This post by JR Ball in the Baton Rouge Business Report is an interesting tongue-in-cheek look at recent Baton Rouge economic development efforts. Among the items he examines is the idea that gaining a Costco makes BR a "world-class city." (Really? All you need is a different brand of Sam's? MK!) This effort, and other recent ones, are all built on the taxpayer's back, with tax zones, tax incentives and tax rebates, Ball writes.
MAY 17 Blogger CB Forgotston is critical of the legislature's reliance on a revenue-estimating committee's decision to include projected tax amnesty income in this year's forecast. That's a problem, CB posts, because the deadline for these people to pay their taxes is June 30, 2014. So when do you think these people who haven't paid taxes in years are going to pay their taxes? Surely not before June 30, and that means the money won't be there for this year's budget, he argues.
MAY 17 Here's an interesting blog out of California by a Hollywood writer, attorney and academic named Brian Alan Lane. He blogs about higher ed, and was a whistle-blower in a scandal over false credentials. In this post, he takes aim at LSU's new top dog, King Alexander. It's convoluted and a little confusing, but it sure makes Alexander a lot more interesting than he was yesterday.
MAY 17 Blogger Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board's refusal to allow Dr. Fred Cerise to testify before the legislature about Gov. Jindal's plan to close down all the state's charity hospitals and dump the poor on the private system. It's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than Cerise to testify about that, so why would anyone try to prevent him doing so? Mann thinks it is because the powers that be aren't interested in hearing any truth about the plan.
MAY 17 This post on the Louisiana Sinkhole Bugle, a blog that notes developments in the Bayou Corne and Jefferson Island salt domes, talks about a proposed expansion of the salt dome storage under Lake Peigneur in Iberia Parish. Residents are working against it for several reasons, including two biggies: the sinkhole disaster in Bayou Corne and the continuing, unexplained bubbling on the surface of the Lake.
MAY 17 NOLA police arrested more people Thursday accused of either being involved in the Mother's Day shooting or hiding the suspect afterward, this Gambit story reports. The NOLA police chief said he suspects the whole thing was gang-related and throws out a challenge to the gangs: he's got informants now, he says, and he knows a lot more than the gangs want him to know. The people who live in the neighborhoods terrorized by gangs are ready to talk, he says.
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