Leo Bosner

Leo Bosner is a FEMA official whose job it is to keep track of crises and alert his bosses to the need for action. He was on NPR Morning Edition today talking about the urgent messages he was sending to Brown and Chertoff three days before Katrina struck. The messages were sent to Chertoff's and Brown's emails and Blackberries. Their response: nothing. The fire alarm sounded but the firemen slept and vacationed on.

It's pretty obvious that any civil servant getting on the radio to provide compelling evidence against his political bosses, especially in the supremely vindictive Bush era, has sacrificed his career, but the American people owe him a debt of gratitude for letting some of the truth out.

What in the hell was Chertoff thinking? Or why was he so evidently not thinking?

Bush is easy to understand. The small-minded and nasty tyrant who surrounds himself with sychophants terrified to tell him the truth is an all-to-familiar character type. But Chertoff looked like a guy who knew which way was up. Clearly he wasn't.

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