I just want to bring this article to people's attention:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/09/05/hurricane_track_record/index.html
I've just finished reading it and found the comparisons it makes more than fascinating (and disgusting). FEMA was apparently falling all over itself doling out money to victims, including "victims" in Miami-Dade (virtually untouched since it was over 120 miles north of landfall for the particular hurricane in question).
It covers some of Mike Brown's background including people within FEMA recommending him for the position of DHS Secretary as a reward for his Florida assistance helping to deliver Florida in the election.
Two choice excerpts below the fold:
Writing last November for GovExec.com, which touts itself as "the independent business magazine of government," Charles Mahtesian noted, "Now that President Bush has won Florida in his 2004 reelection bid, he may want to draft a letter of appreciation to Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Seldom has any federal agency had the opportunity to so directly and uniquely alter the course of a presidential election, and seldom has any agency delivered for a president as FEMA did in Florida this fall."
and
The Miami-Dade financial windfall came courtesy of President Bush who, following the request of his brother, declared the county a disaster area as the hurricane began to strike the coast. But Miami-Dade officials never even asked for disaster designation, for a very simple reason: Frances came ashore 120 miles to the north.
This isn't an election year and New Orleans isn't made up of the GOP demographic.
More grist for the mill.