Michael Brown Quotes (125 Quotes)

Clearly the evidence is there that we have young people under the age of 21 routinely buying alcohol in our bars. Let's be realistic about it, and that's not good. When you get to be 21 then you can be an adult and you can drink responsibly and be an adult. But right now we don't need to have people under 21 in bars.

I talked to the president twice today, once in Crawford and then again on Air Force One. He's obviously watching the television a lot, and he had some questions about the Dome, he's asking questions about reports of breaches.

There were five trucks arriving (Thursday) night to feed well over 50,000 people. There's less than that there. We're also diverting supplies to the convention center, which I learned about (Thursday). So I understand people's frustrations. But this has been an absolutely catastrophic disaster, and we're doing absolutely everything we can to get the supplies into those folks.

Based on the summer we had last year, with all the rain, the weather now has allowed a lot of our developers and builders to catch up a little bit.

I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true.

I think everyone in the country needs to take a big, collective, deep breath and recognize that there are a lot of people in this state, in Mississippi and Alabama who are living under conditions that, quite frankly, I doubt any reporter in this room is living under -- no food, no water, it's hot, it's sticky, their homes have been destroyed, they don't know where they're going to go next.

I don't need you to lecture me.

Unfortunately, he called me 'Brownie' at the wrong time. Thanks a lot, sir.

That's the president's decision. He assessed the situation.

To think that you could actually find something in our own solar system bigger than anything that had been seen in 150 years, just is sort of an amazing prospect.

in general, will show that this was a disaster of catastrophic proportions where communications were difficult at best, and communications were nonexistent at other times.

I hope to give them some publicity about the plight they're facing right now. They're in difficult straits right now.

I'm very excited to be joining Fulham and I'm looking forward to the challenges that this new opportunity brings.

We've worked closely with a major junior team since the halfway mark of the season to tune the system and improve the usability.

It's been very, very stressful obviously to be called a scapegoat, I know in my heart what I was doing, what I was trying to do and the tapes speak for themselves.

We're really good at coordinating, ... We're called the government's honest broker, and I think that's true.

There's about 36 hours for folks to get ready. Beyond that, it's just too late.

Certainly the sheriff has a right to endorse any candidate.

FEMA has pre-positioned many assets including ice, water, food and rescue teams to move into the stricken areas as soon as it is safe to do so.

And while my heart goes out to people on fixed incomes, it is primarily a state and local responsibility. And in my opinion, it's the responsibility of faith-based organizations, of churches and charities and others, to help those people.

I'm very concerned about people in Mississippi and Louisiana who have watched these storms the past two years hit Florida and Alabama and may have a little lackadaisical attitude toward this thing.

The concept is to get them some cash in hand which allows them, empowers them, to make their own decisions about what do they need to have to start rebuilding.

It's not mean-spirited humor, it's just good satire. I go in with my eyes open that they will do whatever they can to make fun of me. But I hope people see I'm human and a decent guy.

Paula, the federal Government did not even know about the convention centre people until today.

We have to keep a close eye on the manufacturing industry. That's really the bread and butter of the United Way.

We're going to need everything that we can possibly muster, not only in this state and in the region, but the nation, to respond to this event.

Yes, I learned about that, the federal government learned about that (Thursday), ... And that shows how difficult communications are in the situation where there was virtually no communications, except for our teams on the ground.

For a long time we've wondered why there is methane in the atmosphere of Titan at all, and the answer is that is spews out of the surface,

We're undertaking these actions in the interest of enhancing long-term shareholder value and to provide a strengthened foundation for our business in fiscal 2000 and going forward.

I just find it difficult to believe that we're not meeting a need if that need has been articulated to us. ... I think that must be getting lost in the chain of command there.

It's my belief that had there been a report coming out that said, 'Yes, we've confirmed that a terrorist has blown up the 17th Street Canal levee,' then everybody would have jumped all over that and been trying to do everything they could.

Prior to working as the head of FEMA, I was in charge of horse shows. I know that if you leave alcohol around large, warm-blooded mammals, the results are never pretty. We had to move quickly.

The total lack of communication. The inability to hear and have good intelligence on the ground about what was occurring there, ... We had to actually take teams out yesterday because of the dangerous situation they were in. That's very frustrating not only to me but those teams. Those medical teams want to help save lives and the thugs and the others that are causing the problem are actually making it more difficult. So we had to pull them out for a while. They want to go back in. They're going back in.

We're going to move an army of people down there to help Mississippi and Louisiana however we can.

I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and, maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep. And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims, ... This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit and now we have to help these victims.

I was still worried about it, because I knew what the potential was. But I think the president was speaking honestly at that point that he didn't really anticipate that they would be breached because of all this conflicting information.

Clearly on the conference calls that was being discussed, Max Mayfield made that clear to everyone.

I know what death and destruction is, so I don't expect you to lecture me.

I am having a horrible time. I can't get a unified command established.

What we have right now is a situation where, with my having access to the military, bringing in the National Guard troops, securing the area, we'll be able to continue the relief efforts that we have been doing over the last several days, ... We'll be able to ramp those up and continue the evacuation.

Given that these two businesses have very different financial models and compete in different market environments, they represent two distinct investment opportunities for shareholders,

He wasn't just a fire chief, he was a very good man, a spiritual person, very thoughtful. He certainly deserves this and, as the the mayor says, this is a person who came from the community and came all the way through this department to make it to chief.

The supply and demand balance just doesn't exist right now. I've been looking at the listing services to see where the market might be headed but there's no consistency.

Go ahead and do it. I'll figure out some way to justify it. ... Just let them yell at me.

There was a cultural clash that didn't recognize the absolute inherent science of preparing for a disaster. Any time you break that cycle ... you're doomed to failure.

I absolutely resent you saying I didn't have leadership.

We're doing everything we can to make sure it's safe to live and work in Lower Manhattan.

My point is that the court made a mistake in their analysis. The distinctions in the case were misunderstood and misapplied.

We've already started calling in additional troops that we have available to us like the Coast Guard Auxiliary, ... We have plenty of resources, plenty of people.

I believe that by judging EPA's actionsnot just our promise to do what's right, but our work in sampling and cleaning up whatever should be cleaned upthe community will recognize that we are worthy of their trust.