Bush cites authority to bypass FEMA law

Bob Schieffer just mentioned this on 'Face The Nation'. Unbelieveable hutzpah!

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/10/06/bush_cites_authority_to_bypass_fema_law/

Bush cites authority to bypass FEMA law
Signing statement is employed again

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | October 6, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush this week asserted that he has the executive authority to disobey a new law in which Congress has set minimum qualifications for future heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Congress passed the law last week as a response to FEMA's poor handling of Hurricane Katrina. The agency's slow response to flood victims exposed the fact that Michael Brown, Bush's choice to lead the agency, had been a politically connected hire with no prior experience in emergency management.

To shield FEMA from cronyism, Congress established new job qualifications for the agency's director in last week's homeland security bill. The law says the president must nominate a candidate who has ``a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management" and ``not less than five years of executive leadership."

Bush signed the homeland-security bill on Wednesday morning. Then, hours later, he issued a signing statement saying he could ignore the new restrictions. Bush maintains that under his interpretation of the Constitution, the FEMA provision interfered with his power to make personnel decisions.

The law, Bush wrote, ``purports to limit the qualifications of the pool of persons from whom the president may select the appointee in a manner that rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office."

more...

paraphasing-----you'd think Bush after all the Browie stuff would know better.

K&R for his LATEST outrage. I'm sure another will come along in a few minutes. :kick:

He needs a "psychophant" in that position?

A psychophant for a psychopath! :spray:

Now he doesnt even have to follow the ones he signs into law? Could someone in Washington please get out the constitution and let George read it?

If the media was not concentrated in just a few republican hands then they would be reporting all these signing statements bush made all over the country.

Nothing bush has done in heading himself down the path to being a dictator has been reported in the MSM. Nothing he has done has really been reported.

I LOST A HOME IN THE NORTHRIDGE EARTHQUAKE.. it was an expensive home ..as homes are expensive in the LA / valley area..

WE HAD moved from Kansas City to LA and went through sticker shock of housing prices..but we bought in the Valley ..

when we bought there was a moratorium on earthquake insurance..from a previous earthquake that was the landers quake we were told...

we had structural engineers check the home for retrofitting the foundation for earthquakes..we were told by a team of engineers the foundation was beautiful and they recommeded not retrofitting as they said the foundation was so well built that it has withsttof all
this was an old home..

we then went about gutting the inside of the home and doing a total rennovation..kitchen, bathrooms , flooring ...it was under construction for over a year..it was completed Dec. 8th that year..

on Jan 17th..our home was destroyed by the northridge earthquake...

and we were in the ride of our lifetime...

we only could buy $100,000. of insurance when we bought the house the year before..in march of the year of the earthquake the moritorium would have expired and we had planned to buy the insurance we needed on our home...

but the earthquake came sooner than we could up our insurance..
and we were screwed...

by laws, by insurance companies who decide what you can and can not buy ..they are the gatekeepers ..and the tiger they are gatekeeping is themselves!

but i will say this as i have said before..we lost most everything..but we survived it..with great life lessons...

but we had a FEMA that worked...we had SBA that worked ..and we had a president that gave a damn!

we had a president that made the insurance companies do the right thing...

we had fema people walking down our streets in less than 24 hours..checking for safety and the health of our seniors and children..

we had a fema that got tent cities set up asap..to house those who could not get a new place to live right away..fema set up incredible areas for helping us get water, and food..

they got on our streets and helped us in every way..

if you think this can not happen to you..you are sorely mistaken..

our home was over a 2 million $$ home..disasters do not just hit poor areas...they do not distingush who they hit..they just hit..either earhtquakes , hurricanes tornatoes, fires , floods..

in 1994 it was me who learned this..tommorrow will it be you??

last year it was the people of the gulf coast..

and what have all of us done to demand accountability of our government??

have you written letters?? have you made calls..have you worked as hard as you can to get a change in our government...

i am asking where is the outrage??
i am asking where are the Americans i used to know, that would never have tolerated this ...

and i ask you to ask yourself..what would you do if it was you ..who went to sleep, as we did in 1994 and thought we had the world by the tail..only to see our world collapse ..to be homeless..sleeping on mattress's in our back yard , and going to the bathroom in buckets..and learning to cope with our world destroyed...and to be dependant on your government, and to be at the mercy of your government...a government that used to work ..and that has now been gutted...and is now deliberately broken..

and yes it is deliberate!

the system Clinton left * for fema worked..was it perfect..no..but it worked for people through disasters..it helped our own people, when they need the help the most..and when they need hope..it worked under James Lee Witt and Clinton...and now * has broken it for profit reasons, and theft reasons..and cronism..and to use fema against us..because Fema has in it's laws the trigger to put this nation into martial law..


please wake up Americans..this is too important to ignore..it is imperative that fema remain independant..and free of any presidents signing statements..

this is a lwa all of us must fight this white house over..

get mad..now. and do something now...the next disaster may be headed your way...

fly

this, we'd get a twofer, Foley and Katrina back in the news.