FEMA seeks immunity from suits over toxic trailer fumes

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked a federal judge today for immunity from lawsuits over potentially dangerous fumes in government-issued trailers that have housed tens of thousands of Gulf Coast hurricane victims.

Lawyers for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita accuse FEMA of negligence for sheltering them in trailers with elevated levels of formaldehyde, a preservative used in construction materials that can cause health problems.

But a government attorney told U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt that the FEMA's decisions in responding to a disaster, including its use of travel trailers after Katrina, are legally protected from "judicial second-guessing."

Click here for the rest. (And do avoid the comment section: it's full of idiot Houston rednecks engaging in one of their favorite pastimes, bashing hurricane victims. Fucking assholes.)

God, will this shit never end?

This wasn't simply a good faith mistake made in the heat of the moment; it was part of an overall pattern of White House negligence, incompetence, and general disdain. I mean, appointing Michael Brown, the horse lawyer, as head of FEMA was boneheaded from the get-go, but it was also part of a partisan spoils system played by the GOP on a scale that hasn't been seen since the early days of this nation's existence. That is, FEMA was treated as just another way to get some money to Republican loyalists. So, too, was the reconstruction effort, which has been in large part nothing but crony capitalism. Suspending the Davis-Bacon Act, which ensures that federal public works projects pay prevailing wages, and trucking in masses of immigrant workers to be paid at bargain basement rates was simply a gift to the no-bid pals of President Bush. Those jobs should have gone to displaced poor locals. Instead, much needed federal money has been siphoned off to well connected people like in some seedy banana republic.

The toxicity of these FEMA trailers is real, with real health consequences. And they were just another part of Bush's enormous effort to fleece the people of New Orleans and other devastated areas. A gigantic lawsuit is definitely in order, and granting FEMA immunity from it would be just another dick in the ass. I hope the judge here is a rational and moral person.

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