Ex-FEMA Chief Blames DHS For Katrina Response

One of the big stories here in Washington today, is the testimony of Michael Brown, the former administrator of the Federal Emergency Response Agency (FEMA). It is well known that Brown resigned from his post at DHS in the first few days during the response to Hurricane Katrina. Upon arriving at home this evening, I turned the tv to CSPAN, and what do I find, but the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Reform Committee's hearing on the response to Hurricane Katrina and Michael Brown was testifying before the committee. I watched about 15-20 minutes of the testimony before I turned it off. DHS and the White House have made Brown the scapegoat for their failures during the response effort. Brown blames DHS and the White House for ignoring his warnings about the hurricane. Who should Congress and us as citizens believe?

During Brown's testimony, he specifically mentioned the fact that DHS is more concerned with responding and preventing terrorist attacks and that FEMA is the stepchild of DHS. I think there very well may be some truth to this statement. Being a homeland security contractor, I have noticed a focus responding to terrorist attacks. This is understandable considering the September 11th attacks. However, there is something to be said of putting all your eggs into one basket. Even on DHS' website, their mission statement is: "We will lead the unified national effort to secure America. We will prevent and deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and hazards to the nation. We will ensure safe and secure borders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors, and promote the free-flow of commerce."

Nowhere in this mission statement does it state anything about natural disasters such as hurricanes, although, I suppose you could infer that responding to hazards could be loosely interpreted natural disasters. In my opinion, I don't think I can infer that their mission statement includes natural disasters. But if you look a little deeper on DHS' website, you can see their strategic goals. One of their strategic goals is response. This includes: "Lead, manage and coordinate the national response to acts of terrorism, natural disasters, or other emergencies." This is the only section that refers to natural disasters.

You would think that with FEMA being absorbed into DHS, courtesy of the Homeland Security Act, in 2001, that one of DHS' missions would be to lead the unified national dffort to respond to natural disasters that occur within our borders. To me, DHS should take more of a concerted effort to put as much effort into preventing and responding to terrorism into our response to natural disasters.

I see this as growing pains for a new government agency. So many government organizations were forced to merge into one larger organization, organizations that, in the past, had a very limited history in working together to achieve a similar goal. This integration is obviously going to take time, and it was clearly on display for us during Katrina.

In order to be effective, DHS needs to ensure that they are prepared in the future to respond to natural disasters so the effort that was put forth during Katrina is not repeated. This means, DHS should concentrate just as much on natural disaster response as they do to preparing for responses to acts of terrorism.

Caps vs Penguins Tomorrow Night!

Tomorrow the Caps take on the Penguins of Pittsburgh at MCI Center in Washington. This will be the Pens first visit to Washington this season. I am looking forward to seeing Sidney Crosby play in person to see all the hype that has been generating around him for the past year. From what I can tell, the game is close to, if not, sold out tomorrow night. Good thing I'm a season ticket holder so I don't have to worry about this sort of thing. Because I'm a season ticket holder, I have taken advantage of a unique perk of being able to upgrade my tickets to the lower level for two games free of charge. Back in December, I decided I wanted to sit in the lower bowl for this game tomorrow night. Tomorrow I will have the opportunity to see the game up close as I will be sitting in Section 101 Row P, that is center ice closer to the side of the ice the Caps shoot twice. I hope it will be a great game tomorrow night, it has been in the past against the Pens. Hopefully the snowstorm we're supposed to get tomorrow won't cancel the game nor keep me from making the trip to Washington to attend. LET'S GO CAPS!

Domestic Spying

Domestic spying isn't anything new. Of course, it is being made a big deal of in the news since shortly before the President's State of the Union Address last week. The media, of course, had made a big deal about it, that's what they do. However, what NSA and the President has authorized is nothing new. The NSA has been doing this sort of work since their inception. However, what is at stake is if the President can authorize monitoring/spying on citizens international calls without a warrant. Should the President be allowed to act without a warrant? I truly believe the president should secure a warrant before eavesdropping on Americans' international calls. This is a fundamental privacy issue. There are many citizens that have normal dealings in the international arena and this sets a bad precedent.

I heard, flipping through the channels, on Foxnews the other day, that Republicans in the Senate, I believe, are ok with what the president is doing, they just want oversight over this particular issue. To me, this is pretty cut and dry. Should Congress allow the President the authority to eavesdrop without a warrant? My answer to that question is no. If President Bush is able to keep going on his current path, what is there to stop him from beginning this with just regular run of the mill calls between friends, spouses, colleagues? It sets a bad precedent, and plain and simple, it's a violation of presidential power, and of people's privacy.

What a game tonight

So, I just finished watching the Caps game this evening against the Rangers. What a great game it was. I felt the Caps outplayed the Rangers the entire game this evening. The Caps penalty killing was on, however, the power play was not, giving up a short handed goal and not converting on any of their opportunities.

It was classic the way the Caps got a measurement on Jagr's stick this evening at the beginning of overtime. I can't count how many times, when Jagr was with the Caps, his stick was measured and we went shorthanded because he was using an illegal stick. Well, he got burned again tonight, still, didn't convert, but it was great nonetheless.

The shootout went 15 rounds this evening. I'm still not convinced I like the shootout yet, but this evening, it was exciting, and that move by Marek Malik to put the nail in the coffing was tight. A great move, at least the Caps got a point this evening out of the hard effort.

Another complaint about the game tonight, I don't see how anyone that subscribes to MSG can watch Ranger games. The feed was awful this evening, not sure if it was just a bad camera angle, or there was a different crew working, but I can see better from my 400 level seats at MCI Center. I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow against the Sabres.

Odds N Ends

I cannot believe that I'm still up right now. It's now 1 am my time, and I'm still up working on my project for my organization theory and design class. Thought I would take a quick break. This is a group project, and we need to have the inputs all in by the 5th, as I am going out of town for an exercise on Thursday, and this will give us time to get it to the grad school's writing center (professor's requirement). Somehow, I got stuck with one of the largest sections of the project. I'm still not entirely sure how I got suckered into that, but it's too late for that now.

I also took a little time for fun for myself this evening, and I made my way up to MCI Center for the final Caps pre-season game. I must say, for the first two periods, the Caps ROCKED! However, the Flyers took over in the third. It turned out to be a Flyers win in an OT shootout. Hopefully our young team took a very valuable lesson from this loss tonight. Time will tell, there is still a lot of time left to development and learning, so this will be a continuous process for not only this season, but the next two as well. At least they didn't mail it in.

Ok, back to work on the project.....

Last Night At MCI Center...

Last night I was MCI Center for the first time since April 2004, the final Capitals home game of the 2003-2004 season, which was an OT loss to the Rangers. Last night was the first home pre-season game. It felt different being back. For the first time since I started going to Caps games, I could not pick up who was who because of all the new players during this rebuilding effort. Sure, Olie, Witt, and Halpern were on the ice, along with the kids, Ovechkin, Aulin, Schultz, but I did not recognize their numbers. The affair was a penalty haven. Everything was called in accordance with the new rules the NHL has adopted for this season. Hooking, clutching, grabbing, the Caps spent a lot of the first period short-handed. Of course, we got thumped, 4-0, but the Sabres did not play much better, they just had luckier bounces. They also demonstrated the new shootout, which, we lost as well, but at least Alex Ovechkin scored. I hope to see many more goals from him in the future. =)

It was also different because this is the first season where I'm going to be attending games solo. David relocated to Phoenix since the Caps played last, so it's going to be different for awhile. Sometimes, change is good, sometimes not, time will tell.

I do know this is going to be a long year for my favorite NHL team, we probably won't even break the 20 win plateau this year, but, hopefully, the guys will play with a lot of heart and will pull one out every now and then. It's good to have hockey back, let's hope the Caps can successfully rebuild.

What A Day Yesterday Was

Yesterday was such a great day for our family. Yesterday my father's retirement ceremony was conducted, outside, in Alexandria, VA. What a beautiful day for such a ceremony to take place. I would have to say aroune twenty-five people showed up for it. The only life I can remember my father ever having was that of being an officer in the air force. Now that is all over. My father will now begin his post-military life tomorrow when he starts his new job. He's going to be a beltway bandit like my brother and I are. I for one, could not have been prouder yesterday morning. My father has accomplished a lot in the military, served during Vietnam, Desert Storm, and now during the 'War on Terror.' He's going to do just fine out here. Welcome to the club, dad.

Two Week Road Trip & Odds 'N Ends

Today is my last day at home for the next two weeks. I'm heading on down to South Carolina for a couple of weeks. We are conducting a functional exercise in Darlington, SC, on Wednesday, and a full scale exercise in Columbia June 1-2. The highlight of this trip is going to be Memorial Day weekend, as I'll be spending that in Myrtle Beach. I hope it will be a good time, I've never been there before. It will be a long road trip, but hopefully, it will be a successful trip. Once these two exercises are over, I will be a happy camper, both have caused some undue stress, that, on days, I could've lived without. One thing is for sure though, it will be good to be out of DC for a couple of weeks. My hope is both exercises go well though.

On a different note, things seem to have gotten a little bit more interesting on the homefront. My brother is intent on marrying his girlfriend, which is all fine and dandy, I'm quite happy for him, as a matter of fact, however, the rents, in particular my mother, is showing their dissatisfaction with this course of action. I can understand why they are concerned, but I really think she should lay off a little, as my brother has already made his mind up on this matter, he truly wants to marry the gal, and I don't think she should be giving him so much grief about it. That's one reason that I'm glad that I'm going to be out of town for the next two weeks, so I won't have to hear too much about this, so that will be nice.

Grad School Has Begun

This week I started up with my graduate program to get my MBA. I'm taking a business ethics course as one of my undergraduate pre-requisites. It's going to be quite a bit of reading for the next eight weeks. It appears to be an interesting class, just based on what the discussion topics are going to be. The downside is that the class meets twice a week for three hours at a time. We got out early on Monday, so it iddn't seem too long. However, yesterday's class seemed to go by quickly, it didn't seem like we were even in there for three hours. I'm going to miss the next two weeks of class though, as I'm going to be out of town for work for two exercises in South Carolina. The plus side to all this is the professor is being quite accommodating to me in this regard. I'm going to be permitted to take the quiz that is next Wednesday when I get back into town, and she is going to permit me to turn my paper that's due on the 1st electronically and give my presentation the first day of class that I'm back in town.

Both exams are going to be administered online, and we can take those at home, and they are open book open note. Hopefully, with that being said, I won't have too many difficulties in getting an A in this class. We shall see though. I know, David, you're going to say that I don't have anything to worry about. This is my first class in five years though.

Great News!!!!

I know that I haven't posted anything in quite some time. I've actually been quite busy with work, I can't count how much I've been on the road the past 30 days. However, today is a day for celebration. I found out this morning that I got accepted into grad school! I will start classes up later on this month. I'm very thrilled about this prospect. Right now I'm enjoying the elation without worrying about how much hard work this is going to entail and how much it's going to cost. I'm just letting this soak in for a bit.

Baseball Is Here!

Finally, after a long winter, it's baseball season again. This winter has seemed longer than most, I think this mostly is a result of not having the NHL this season. It was noticeably missed by myself this season, and all the rest of the NHL fans and especially my fellow fans here in Capitals land. This baseball season is going to be special though. This season is the inaugural season for the Washington Nationals, known as the Nats here in the DC area. As a whole, people are very excited to have baseball back in our nation's capital. I'm one of those thankful people for baseball in Washington. Tickets to the home opener at RFK Stadium sold out an hour after they went on sale on ticketmaster. I didn't get tickets for the home opener because the day before I managed to come across opening day tickets for the Orioles. I'm really excited. The home opener is tomorrow, and I've never been to a season opener for baseball before. The game is at 3:05 in the afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it. Adding to the nostalgia of opening day tomorrow is the fact that the birds are taking on the Oakland A's tomorrow. This is a nice added touch as the first games I went to as a kid were to Oakland A's games when we were stationed in California in the mid 80s. I'll be rooting for the O's of course, but it will be nice to see my second favorite team in the AL playing tomorrow. Here's hoping for a wonderful season this year, Let's go Orioles and Let's go Nationals....

Home On A Saturday Night

I'm sitting here at home watching Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones on a Saturday evening by myself with my dog, Bismarck. I can't help but think though that there is something better that I could be doing on a Saturday night. I'm not sure if it's the combination of being on travel this week or that I've been working so much lately that I'm feeling fatigued and don't really want to go out and stay out late. At any rate, I think what I'm feeling most is that I'm here all alone, for the most part. Everyone seems to be gone, most likely for the Easter holiday. It's a mixed bag, however, it's good to be able just to relax. So I should be somewhat grateful for the down time.

On a brighter note, however, I have managed to acquire a ticket to the Orioles' home opener against the Oakland Athletics on April 4th. I've been wanting to go to the Orioles' home opener for the last several years and I have never been able to get tickets, but this year I have, and I'm so excited this year, especially seeing on how I think the O's are going to make things interesting in the American League this year. Well, back to my movie and paying attention to my pooch.

School Application In

Earlier this week, before I went to South Carolina for business, I mailed my application for graduate school. I was very happy to have gotten this done well in advance of the application deadline. The application deadline is April 1st. I should hopefully hear something in the next few weeks. It would be nice if I got in without any trouble whatsoever. I'm optimistic that I'm going to get in, but I'm wondering if I'm just going to get in provisionally with the condition of taking the GMAT. I'm prepping for the GMAT, but I really don't want to take it, for obvious reasons. The application is in, and that's all that's important right now.

Marine Corps Marathon Training Blog

As I have previously mentioned here, I am running the marine corps marathon in October. As such, I have decided to document this journey with its very own blog. You can view it by clicking here or by pointing your browser to http://usafbratmarathonrunner.blogspot.com

Thanks!

GW Is in the NCAA Tournament!!!!!

On Saturday, the GW Men's Basketball team received an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament by vesting St. Joe's University in the A-10 Conference Tournament final. All that remained was to wait until Sunday evening to discover when, where, who, and what seed the GW men were going to be. We received a 12 seed in the Albuquerque region. The Colonials will be playing Georgia Tech in Nashville on Friday evening. Hopefully GW will be able to beat GA Tech on Friday evening. Hail to the buff and blue!

At Columbia Airport and Being Reflective

What an interesting trip down here to Columbia, SC this evening. The line to check my bag at National Airport, of course, was quite long, but it didn't bother me too much. The flight here wasn't too bad at all, I can't complain, even though we left a few minutes late, but we still got here early, go figure huh? So I arrive here in Columbia to discover that my colleague's flight from Atlanta was going to be delayed due to mechanical problems. So I get the car and my bag, and then I come back into the terminal waiting area, and here I am now, connected to the net wirelessly on the airport's free internet access. It's something else, it runs quite fast here, I'm pleasantly surprised.

There is something that occurred today in Washington that was quite disconcerting to me. After such a wonderful day yesterday temperature wise, it starts to snow! Well, it started out as rain when I got to the Fredericksburg train station this morning, but by the time I reached Crystal City, it had turned to snow! Perhaps I'm one of those traditional sort of people who feel it really shouldn't be snowing in northern Virginia in March. Perhaps I've gotten spoiled over the course of the last 10 years I've been living here, I don't know. The last time I saw snow in March though, I was living in Oklahoma City, and even then, it only happened once in the four winters I spent in Oklahoma. I'm sitting in my office thinking, it's March, spring training is going on, baseball season is right around the corner, and it's snowing. I don't know, I guess it put something of a damper on the day today. It is my hope that it will be much nicer temperature wise in Washington when I return on Friday. I know the weather isn't exactly going to be nice and balmy here in Columbia throughout the duration of my stay here this week.

Speaking of spring training, I actually have some optimism for my favorite team the Baltimore Orioles. And no, I don't have these optimistic feelings due to the off-season trade we made with the Cubbies for Slamming Sammy Sosa. We already had a potent lineup before the addition of Sammy, for crying out loud, the O's led the league in hits last season. I actually think our pitching staff is going to be much improved this year. With Ray Miller, who I might add is a great pitching coach, not a great manager, for those of us in O's land, you know what I am referring to, but the pitching staff in the second half of last year made some great strides to becoming better, not great, but better. And hopefully Kurt Ainsworth will be over his injury, as will Erik Bedard. I would like to think that the O's will make the AL East race a little more interesting and give those ESPN types another team to talk about in the AL East other than the Sox and Yanks. The pitching staff has got a lot to prove this season, and I hope they have matured to the point where they are somewhat improved upon from last year.

Graduate School Application Process Update

I must say, after the past couple of days, I'm most pleased with how my application for graduate school is coming along. On Thursday, before I left for Columbia for another business trip, I managed to mail in the necessary form to GW to request copies of my transcripts. While I was in Columbia, I finished my goals statement for my application. I thought it came out pretty well, I had it proofed and it's now looking better than what it was when I originally wrote it. And then, this morning, I got the last recommendation forms filled out by my last recommender. As soon as I receive those transcripts, I can go ahead and get the first all important application in. I'm definitely going to get it in prior to the April 1st deadline. At which time, a few weeks from now, it is my hope, to proudly announce I will be beginning my graduate program in the summer. I hope this all comes to fruition. It seems that with everything going so well in my professional life at the time, that this will enhance that success even more. Just another month tops before I find out. It will soon be the waiting game.

It's Official.....

That's right, it's official..... I officially HATE DC traffic now. For those that know me, they know that this doesn't come as any surprise to them. This morning, just really irked me for some reason. For the last week and some change, while my brother was taking a vacation from work, I had been riding the train to and from work everyday. I found this to be quite a relaxing commuting option. The Fredericksburg VRE train station is about 10 minutes from the house, I hop on the train, grab a seat, and wait until we get to Crystal City a little more than an hour and fifteen minutes later. That being said, I decided to try this out for a bit longer, say, by purchasing myself a monthly pass for March to see if it just wasn't some sort of honeymoon.

Well, since I have to go out to Dulles International Airport to catch a plane this afternoon to Columbia, SC, for work, I had to drive in this morning. It didn't take me long to get around 35 miles up the road, however, about 10 minutes away from the 234 commuter lot, my father gives me a call to tell me that there have been 4 accidents on I-95. I'm thinking, swell.... I took it as a bad omen of things to come. When I dropped by the 234 commuter lot to pick up some slugs, there were no people and a line of 15 cars... Strike two...... After waiting about 20 minutes to pick someone up. Then, when I do get on the HOV lanes and get up the road about 10 minutes, the thing is slammed, both lanes, all the way up to the Pentagon.

HOV lanes in Northern Virginia are a fantastic idea, especially on I-95, it's HOV-3, and until hybrid vehicles started being mass produced, you could get up and down the freeway with smooth sailing. However, VDOT, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to grant an exemption to the HOV-3 rule to those who drive clean fuel cars, in order to give people an incentive to buy them. Well, guess what?!?!?!?! People are buying these things like hotcakes now. At the middle point of the year last year, VDOT, once again, in it's infinite wisdom, decides to extend the exemption until the end of 2006. Granted, this was a great idea at the time, but, when I see 5 out of 6 cars, like I did this morning, are hybrids with only 1 person in them, that gets me going. It tells me the exemption needs to be terminated.

This is just another great reason why I think I should continue to ride the VRE to and from work, so I don't have to put up with the wonderful traffic on I-95..... What a terrible morning to drive in.......

Marine Corps Marathon

For those of you who don't know, I decided a couple of months back, to run the 2005 Marine Corps Marathon. I'm in the process of training for it, and I'm happy to say, it's going exactly how I've been wanting it to go. I've been running quite a bit more than I have in the past several years. It took me quite some time to get over a few things, such as shin splints, but now I'm running without any difficulty or pain in my legs. I need to be running more than what I am currently, and I plan on rectifying that situation very soon. I'm going to see about running a few times a week now, so I can get even better. One thing I'm having some difficulty with though, is choosing a training program to sign up for. I was originally going to run on the multiple sclerosis team, however, they aren't putting together a marathon training program this year. So, I'm down to two choices, either the AIDS Marathon Team or the St. Jude's Team. Both are great causes, but I'm having difficulty choosing what I want to raise money for. Perhaps some of you out there might have an idea, or could even point me in the direction of some other teams. This is something that I definitely want to do this year, and I'm going to do it.... I'm also losing some of this excess weight I've picked up over the last couple of years so I can run a little faster. It's going to be grand, but a lot of work, work that I'm definitely looking forward to. I will keep posting updates with my training for the marathon.

Graduate School Application Process

My new year's resolution this year was the start graduate school. It's now been five years since I graduated from George Washington University, and I've had that itch to get back to school for quite some time now. I'm looking at getting into a local MBA program here in the northern Virginia area. It's definitely going slower than what I thought it was going to. I still have a few essays left to write, and I need to acquire my transcripts. I'm also preparing for the GMAT as part of the process. I'm a little more than half-way through prepping for the GMAT. I'm confident that I'm going to blow this test away, now that I know some good tips to get through the questions on the test. I think I might have some difficulty with the math portion of the test, but I'm taking extra time to prep for it.

I have one application deadline of the 1st of April. I'm confident that I'm going to meet that deadline. This is to start for the summer session. If I get into this particular program without a GMAT score, I'm going to go there, plus it's the closest program to my home here in Fredericksburg. I'm optimistic that I'm going to get everything accomplished on time, it's just slow coming, that's all.