FEEBLE

FEMA sucks. Now, I know I'm not as bad off as some, but it's been what - four weeks? five? - since they promised us rent money and I still haven't gotten it. I'm okay without it for now, since my mortgage is deferred until December and my landlord didn't double my rent or evict me (an all-too common situation around here), but once December comes, I can't afford both the mortgage and rent, so FEEBLE better get their act together. A couple of weeks ago, I tried calling (it took hours to get through) and the woman on the other end of the line didn't know what I was talking about when I asked about the rent assistance, then complained that I kept cutting out and told me to stop moving or call back on a land-line. I explained I was A) sitting quite still on my porch and B) no land-lines were working in New Orleans. She had no explanation for why I wasn't getting the assistance, though I don't really think she ever understood what I meant, and when I kept asking questions, she told me to write a letter to FEMA. I then had to explain to her that there was no mail service in New Orleans. To this, she brilliantly responded, "Oh." Since she had absolutely no answers to any of the questions I asked, I said, "Thank you for being no help whatsoever," and hung up. My friends have had no better luck. One was even told that if she got angry, FEEBLE wouldn't help her at all. But she got his name and his supervisor's name, so I hope the son-of-a-bitch gets fired.
Speaking of FEEBLE sons-of-bitches, if you didn't see in the news the latest on Michael Brown, let me inform you. This FEMA representative, Marty Bahamonde, testified before Congress last week and was the only person from FEMA in New Orleans during the hurricane. I'll let the fact that he was the only FEMA person in New Orleans as the hurricane was approaching, which directly contradicts Brown's claims to have had teams of people here, pass without comment. Anyway, Bahamonde repeatedly sent Brown news of just how bad things were on a Blackberry (apparently the only line of communication that worked). Brown never responded to any of them, though Bahamonde did produce an email he got from Brown's press secretary saying that Brown needed time to dine at a restaurant "of his choice" (I particularly love that part) and that since traffic in Baton Rouge was so bad because of evacuees, it would take longer than usual. Bahamonde sent a response that read "tell him I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome with 30,000 of my close friends," so Bahamonde could certainly understand Brown's worries over dinner.
In all seriousness, can't we arrest Brown and charge him with something? Negligent homicide springs to mind. I know it won't stick, but I'd at least like to see him arrested and charged so he would have to defend his actions in court, and in the meantime hopefully he'll get some choice of food in prison before crapping on camera with thousands of his close inmates.