O’Toole’s Commentary to Murphy’s Law
Sitting through Dr. Tara O’Toole’s confirmation hearing this morning, I was struck by the first time I heard of “O’Toole’s Commentary” to the infamous Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”) which says that “Murphy was...
DetailsAn Easy-Lift FEMA Hearing; Tough Questions Remain
Craig Fugate made one of his first journeys to Capitol Hill today as FEMA Administrator to present and defend his Agency’s FY10 budget request. The 80 or so minutes of the hearing were free of fireworks and some...
DetailsFor New Cyber Adviser, Success or Failure Might Be a Question of Authority
President Obama had barely announced plans to appoint a White House cyber czar before experts suggested the position might be doomed by a lack of real power.Obama’s announcement on May 29 sounded good, experts said, but it was missing...
Details“Call Me Craig”
Notes and Observations from the Bloggers Roundtable with FEMA Administrator, Craig FugateAfter rushing back from meetings at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, MD, this morning, FEMA Administrator W. Craig Fugate held a Bloggers Roundtable in which I was...
DetailsPSD-1: Organizing for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
From www.FederalNewsRadio.com:The White House is making big changes to the organizational structure of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council. Three people critical to the restructuring - Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John...
DetailsRight Words, Missing Ingredient
Last Friday, the President confirmed what has been an open secret for months. America is getting a Cyber Czar to look after the country’s most complex, interdependent and increasingly vulnerable infrastructures.All the right words were spoken. All...
DetailsCosts of War: Fixing National Security
One of the most serious allegations leveled against Bush’s war on terror was that it broke Washington’s national security policymaking structures. Obama is trying to fix them, Shaun Waterman writes for ISN Security Watch.Last week, on the day he...
DetailsDesigning the National Security Staff and the Resilience Policy Directorate
The President’s statement on the creation of the new National Security Staff references standing up a White House Resilience Policy Directorate. In their remarks at the Homeland Security Policy Institute the co-chairs of the PSD-1 study identified this...
DetailsCatalyst Partners’ Randy Beardsworth Speaks About the New White House Organization For Homeland Security Counterterrorism
Yesterday, the George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) hosted John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Randy Beardsworth and Dr. Michele Malvesti, the co-chairs of Presidential Study Directive-1 (PSD-1): Organizing for Ho
DetailsAn Unacceptable Reality to Address
Last week the American National Standards Institute’s Homeland Security Standards Panel (ANSI-HSSP) released a sobering, frustrating and frankly embarrassing report that should give pause to emergency managers, public safety personnel and for that matter all Americans. The report,...
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