F'IN RIDICULOUS.

(As reported by Reuters)
The Washington Post reported on Friday that five of eight top FEMA officials had come to their jobs with virtually no experience in handling disasters. The agency's top three leaders, including Michael Brown, had ties to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or the White House advance operation.

Brown, a lawyer, was appointed as FEMA's general counsel in 2001 and became head of the agency in 2003.

Brown served as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association before taking the FEMA job.

Brown's biography on the FEMA web site says he had once served as an "assistant city manager with emergency services oversight," and a White House news release in 2001 said Brown had worked for the city of Edmond, Oklahoma in the 1970s "overseeing the emergency-services division."

However, a city spokeswoman told the magazine Brown had actually worked as "an assistant to the city manager... The assistant is more like an intern."

The work in Edmond is the only previous disaster-related experience cited in the biographies.

FEMA was supposed to be our first line of defense, until it was absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security.

This is not about politics. This is about holding government responsible, which is not the right of every citizen, it's the duty of every citizen.

We are in danger, and the people responsible for seeing us through are neither qualified nor prepared. Their jobs were given to them as payback for helping with an election effort. This makes me angry.

Personally, I believe this is grounds for impeachment. Government has willingly put civilians' lives in danger by failing to put qualified people in positions of power. We don't need another investigation. We need another administration.