Following the revelation that two key FEMA posts were awarded to Bush Florida 2000 recount aides, Time magazine has discovered numerous, serious “discrepancies” in FEMA director Mike Brown’s resume:
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.” … [A]n 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.”
Time further finds that in 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”.
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). … Carl Reherman, a former political science professor at the University through the ’70s and ’80s, says that Brown “was not on the faculty.” As for the honor of “Outstanding Political Science Professor,” Johnson says, “I spoke with the department chair yesterday and he’s not aware of it.” Johnson could not confirm that Brown made the Dean’s list or was an “Outstanding Political Science Senior,” …
It was Catnip, by the way, who gave me the link to the Time story. She says that this report was “breaking news” on CNN a short time ago. (And I’m watching Aaron Brown interview the Time reporter.) The fudging by Brown goes on:
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. But an administrator with the Home, told TIME that Brown is “not a person that anyone here is familiar with.” She says there was a board of directors until a couple of years ago, but she couldn’t find anyone who recalled him being on it.
He was “somewhat shallow” …
Brown’s FindLaw profile lists a wide range of areas of legal practice, from estate planning to family law to sports. However, one former colleague does not remember Brown’s work as sterling. 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.” Jones says when his law firm split, Brown was one of two staffers who was let go.
It is customary, in every place I’ve ever worked, that fabricating key information on a resume is grounds for immediate firing. What in the hell does Allbaugh owe this Brown character that he’d reward him so lavishly with a job he’s not qualified to perform? Why would Allbaugh risk vetting a man with a questionable background? Does the White House ever seriously vet its nominees?
He needs to be fired NOW. If I call my Senator Boxers one more time they will have me arrested for Stalking. Pro-Torture Lieberman is gonna be dragged into this as he was chairing the group that approved him. Chalk up another fuckup for our Benedict Arnold. Regardless…Brownie is toastie.
to one of the most important jobs in American. Shame on Bush and the whole Republican cabal that is sending American down the drain. Each day, I think I cannot get more pissed and then something new pops up. This fools are so dangerous it is frightening. I am sick of this. Sick of it.
Torture, wars of aggression, screwed up intelligence, outright lies to the nation, cronyism, corruption, violations of human rights, killings hundreds of thousands of people, and killing tens of thousands of Americans at home. My God. All of this in just a few years? George Bush is a very bad person, to say the least.
He needs to resign or get impeached. Pronto.
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Four months before it happened, I described for a New York editor, in detail and with stunning accuracy, the tragedy that is now unfolding in New Orleans.
I say this, not to sound especially visionary, but to add my voice to the chorus demanding accountability from President Bush. Like everyone else this week, I’ve seen the images of people on rooftops waving signs that beg for “Help”.
I am particularly interested in hearing from Asa Hutchinson, a candidate for governor, who took a top job at Homeland Security back in January 2003. Specifically, Hutchinson was put in charge of Borders and Transportation Security. It was a post he held until March of this year, when he returned to Arkansas to run for governor.
<click on pic for bio>
I’d like to know what “transportation security” meant to Mr. Hutchinson, if it did not include the concept of evacuating a stricken city, or protecting its great port, or safeguarding the third of our nation’s fuel that enters by way of New Orleans?
If a reporter in Little Rock, with nothing more than Internet access, a car and a telephone, could predict almost hour-by-hour the horror that Katrina would unleash; what were Hutchinson and his cronies at Homeland Security doing, with all the assets at their disposal, and nearly $40 billion in funding?
NEW YORK (BUSINESS WIRE) Aug. 17, 2005 — Homeland Security Stocks.com (HSS) – GVI Security Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB: GVIS) announced the introduction of their Mass Transit Intelligent Video System (MTIVS) that brings new levels of sophistication and performance to the rapidly growing mass transit homeland security market, which has been jump started in the wake of the recent London attacks.
The introduction of MTIVS gives a powerful boost to GVI’s Homeland Security focus. On a daily basis, the New York City transit system alone, carries more than twice the number of passengers as the entire US commercial airline industry. Potentially, the spending needed to fully secure mass transit could exceed the billions spent on airline security.
Asa Hutchinson, the well known former Under Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), recently joined the GVI Board of Directors in a clear vote of confidence for GVI’s homeland strategy by one of the foremost names in Homeland Security.
R.I.P. May all these brave Americans meet their creator and rest in peace.
Their deaths demand accountability and Justice!
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Well,.. I’m an internationally recognized and award winning satarist, artist and poet… oh… and a Democrat… is that important?
Oooo… had the job right up to the Democrat part, didn’t I?
Let’s face it folks. The ONLY requirement required to be part of this administration is the ability to lie.
Rice”Mushroom cloud”
Powell “Chemical weapons lab”
Bush “Uranium from Niger”
Cheney”No doubt Saddam has WMD”
Brown”Bio”
Chertoff”We didn’t know they were at the convention center”
Rummy”You can’t always go with the Army you need, you go with the Army you got”
Bush”National Guard record”
Bolton”I never chased melody Townsell down a hall”
If you are a lying fuck up you are in.
WAKE UP AMERICA!!
Several things strike me…
Such is the state of our nation…
sigh.
There are vast numbers of appointees the Senate must consider every year. Senators have staff and so do committees, but the bulk of Senatorial staff simply runs interference to let the Senator do legislative work (e.g. answering phone calls from constituents, arranging capital tours, handling problems with government agencies, vetting military academy applicants, scheduling town meetings, etc.). A typical Senator has maybe half a dozen people seriously devoted to legislative duties who have to collectively advise the Senator on the entire range of issues facing the Senate.
The result is that the time available to investigate each appointee is modest, and much of that time is devoted to permanent court appointments and higher ranking jobs. It isn’t pretty, but it is the truth.
Given the extreme mendacity of this administration, and the fact that this is not the first time they have failed to check references or fully vet a nominee, what do we really know about John Roberts?
Is he, in fact, a graduate of whatever law school he claims?
Is he, in fact, a member of whatever bar association(s) he claims?
Did he, in fact, do the jobs–internships, clerking, law practice–claimed for him in the polished resume sent grudgingly to the Senate?
In an administration that is all hat, no cattle, we need to check him out. Now.
He is indeed a member of the Colorado bar. The records check.
I just saw this on the morining news today. They were ripping apart Brown’s resume. Saying that DHS was a way to funnel jobs/money to Red Regimes pals.
Bush – you are going DOWN!!!!
Resume dishonesty is certainly grounds, by itself, for firing him, and probably grounds for disciplinary action related to his Colorado bar membership as well.
What would have happened to Mr. Brown, if he had submitted a similarly tainted resume to… Oh let’s say… an NCAA Division 1 University for a position as… OH I don’t know, maybe HEAD COACH OF THE FOOTBALL TEAM!