“To file a claim online at FEMA’s Individual Assistance Center, where citizens can apply for government help, the browser must be IE 6.0 or later with JavaScript enabled.

That cuts out everyone running Linux or the Mac operating systems, as well as Windows users running alternate browsers such as Firefox or Opera.”

Fema Site Blocks Access.

This is just another example of the pathetic gaps and failures in FEMA. Just a small crack – but it keeps out firefox and linux users who need help. (Amoung other people, as cited above- those two in particular hit home since that would be me; and, given my current site statistics, about half the viewers of Open Journal.) Inaccessible government and aid websites are really close to criminal, if you ask me.

Bush’s attempt to improve the functioning of government bureaucracies by bringing them all under centralized control may be well intentioned, but it certainly has proven disastrously ineffective. You can’t hold all the cards yourself and still play a good game. You can’t hire from only the shallow pool of your peers and people you already know and expect to get a fair hire and the most qualified individuals in place. (Some might say you can’t hire promoters and events managers and expect them to do anything with emergency response besides worrying about image…)

“The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to “convey a positive image” about the government’s response for victims.”

Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would focus on helping victims find the help they needed, he said.”

…

Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, the airline industry said the government’s request for help evacuating storm victims didn’t come until late Thursday afternoon. The president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland Security Department called then to ask if the group could participate in an airlift for refugees.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050906/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/katrina_disaster_response

http://feeds.dailykos.com/dailykos/index.xml?m=735

I’m also quite concerned about this suggestion of biased reporting at MSNBC- if you know anything else about this kind of behavior I’d be interested to hear it. Even small distortions caused by the Microsoft news network seem terribly sinister following the above technically exclusion of distaster survivors.