Michael D. Brown - Wikipedia

First some disclaimers: Mike Brown didn't cause the hurricane. And no, FEMA is not the only agency responsible for helping disaster victims. (But with a disaster of this size, stat and local resources get tapped pretty quickly.) Ok, no let's look at some interesting facts from the Wikipedia article.

Before joining DHS/FEMA, Brown was Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association (IAHA) from 1989-2001, a position from which he was forced to resign after an onslaught of lawsuits over disciplinary actions.

The IAHA was in such dire financial straits that they were forced to merge with another horse-type organization.

After President Bush entered office in January 2001, Brown joined FEMA as General Counsel. He was hired by his old friend and college roommate, then-FEMA director Joe Allbaugh[7], who also ran George W Bush's election campaign in 2000.

So Allbaugh got the job because he helped run the 2000 campaign and Brown got hired into FEMA because he was a pal of Allbaugh's.

On September 1, 2005, Mike Brown told Paula Zahn of CNN that he was unaware that New Orleans officials had housed thousands of evacuees in the Convention Center.

From what I understand, the Convention Center and the people housed there had been all over the news for about 24 hours by this point.

In January 2005, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler publicly urged President Bush to fire Brown, citing reports that FEMA disbursed $30 million in disaster relief funds for Hurricane Frances to residents of Miami, Florida, a city which was not affected by the hurricane. Brown admitted to $12 million in overpayments, but denied any serious mistakes, blaming a computer glitch.

Perhaps the shortfalls in FEMA aid are part of a larger pattern. You know, the kind of pattern that you get when you appoint an incompetent horse judger as the Undersecretary of Homeland Security.