From Ed Fitzgerald’s unfutz I learned that:

• Michael Brown, who recently resigned as FEMA head in ignomy, has been rehired as a consultant to the organization to assess the disaster response. Ed comments, “Now, in the abstract, this is not a bad idea, making sure you get the value of an employee’s experience before they leave to go elsewhere. In this particular instance, though, one has to think What experience? ” If I am not mistaken, this is what is usually called a ‘golden parachute.’ However, in this case, it is not gold but excrement-brown.
• The bus which caught fire killing twenty-three nursing home evacuees during the Houston evacuation was from a company which had had numerous difficulties with regulatory authorities in Texas and, according to a whistle blower, more serious problems with meintenance of its vehicles. “The bus, run by Global Limo of McAllen, Texas, was taken out of service in July after its registration expired. It was allowed back on the road because of a waiver signed last week by Gov. Rick Perry intended to make available as many commercial vehicles as possible for the hurricane evacuation.” Ed places this rightly in the broader context of Republican officials’ eagerness to set aside regulatory restrictions on business at any opportunity, which may be a bit of a reach here.