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By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press Writer 45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000

Michael Brown, director of the

Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged Tuesday the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.

Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."

The initial responses of the government and Brown came under escalating criticism as the breadth of destruction and death grew.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Brown had positioned front-line rescue teams and Coast Guard helicopters before the storm. Brown's memo on Aug. 29 aimed to assemble the necessary federal work force to support the rescues, establish communications and coordinate with victims and community groups, Knocke said.

Instead of rescuing people or recovering bodies, these employees would focus on helping victims find the help they needed, he said.

"There will be plenty of time to assess what worked and what didn't work," Knocke said. "Clearly there will be time for blame to be assigned and to learn from some of the successful efforts."

Brown's memo told employees that among their duties, they would be expected to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public."

"FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the department and as we know, one of yours," Brown wrote Chertoff. He proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees within 48 hours and 2,000 within seven days.

Knocke said the 48-hour period suggested for the Homeland employees was to ensure they had adequate training. "They were training to help the life-savers," Knocke said.

Employees required a supervisor's approval and at least 24 hours of disaster training in Maryland, Florida or Georgia. "You must be physically able to work in a disaster area without refrigeration for medications and have the ability to work in the outdoors all day," Brown wrote.

The same day Brown wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (news, bio, voting record), D-Md., said Tuesday that Brown should step down.

After a senators-only briefing by Homeland Security Secretary

"What people up there want to know, Democrats and Republicans, is what is the challenge ahead, how are you handling that and what did you do wrong in the past," said Schumer, D-N.Y.

Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, said the administration is "getting a bad rap" for the emergency response. "People have to understand this is a big, big problem."

Meanwhile, the airline industry said the government's request for help evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon. The president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland Security Department called then to ask if the group could participate in an airlift for refugees.

___

On the Net:

Federal Emergency Management Agency: http://www.fema.gov

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov

The memo from FEMA Director Mike Brown to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is available at: http://wid.ap.org/documents/dhskatrina.pdf

Okay, aggravation. Still have dail-up. Had appt. to have cable hooked up tomorrow morining they just discovered today they don't run cable where I live, which incidentally is only about 3 miles out of the nearest town!

Typing in Meditech via Citrix metaframe. Due to current with delay from dail up I am typing body of report in Word and pasting into Meditech which has speeded things up a great deal.

I was planning to have satellite hooked up next week. Before I chunk out that money, I know satellite is very slow with a VPN and that the Citrix metaframe may work similarly.

Anyone out there working in Meditech via Citrix Metaframe ON SATELLITE without problems. I read that it can slow it down 50-75%?

Just wondering if I'm the only crazy fool. My younger son took on a paper route and then lost interest. I helped him with it for a while. My older son used to do the same route and it became available again.

I'd been trying to get motivated to walk in the morning and would always turn the alarm off. When I helped my younger son, I saw him counting his cash and thought "okay, I walk for an hour every morning and make $85.00 or more a week while I'm doing this."

Only drawback is that it is 7 days a week 364 days a year (no paper at Christmas) and you have to be up at 4:30 a.m. When my older son did the route, he would get over $500 in Christmas tips.

Maybe I'm trying to convince myself to keep it up? I do know that I feel great and am in much better shape than I was even a few weeks ago.

Please, if any of you out there who are working today (Thanksgiving) would you please validate me, or let me know if I am imagining this: Working on Thanksgiving is very nice, but it seems that the very worst dictators are the ones covering the holiday! How about working third shift on the holiday...(moi). I did 3 reports in 2 hours albeit long, they were some of the worst 2 ESLs I have in my long career ever encountered.

Please, I need a little hand holding, or a shock into reality that this is every day, I am just noticing it now! LOL. Thanks in advance for your comments.

Question for anyone who has been with them long enough to form an opinion! How is work availability and pay scale? Do they offer vacation time? If not, do they allow you to take a week off (unpaid) for vacation. How flexible is scheduling? How are the QA people? I have checked the archives and cannot find a whole lot. Maybe a fairly new company? TIA!

with working as an MT, the ebb and flow of the business of IC working from a pool, being a mother of a 10 year-old and a wife. How do you find the time for a well balanced family and work life? Finding time to be with your growing children, teaching them values, finding time for your relationship with spouse so that all of your family are happy, working as and MT at home. I find I work way too long although I am still in the learning phase of my company just starting full time. I find my daughter is growing up and I barely have time for her or for my husband. I want to provide a happy home and I want my daughter to learn values. She is having trouble at school and at home with her attitude.

Due to finanancial difficulties we had to move in with my mother-in-law and father-in-law and it really is not the best situation but could not be helped. I am slow as an MT. I just have a hard time finding a good balance for my family and working. I wondered how some of you out there do it and are happy with your work life and family life raising children and finding time for a well-balanced relationship with your spouse. My huband is trying to find a job now working as a cook in a hospital. He just has to wait for the hiring manager to contact him.

I have heard the following soooo many times, and I have been very guilty of this in the past myself, namely:

Fear of booting out one client and going after new clients who are professional - ones who are amenable to actually working with an MTSO/IC as a partnership so to speak, realizing that it takes the individual dictator AND the MT to produce an accurate report, and both will mutually benefit in ways too numerous to count?

Why is it that some ICs will continue to work with a client that they know is a gigantic pain in the tush and will never give them heave-ho, no matter how how bad they become and how good the IC is and no matter how many hoops she jumps through versus just going out and getting a new account?

I have had this fear myself, but thankfully, my self-confidence has taken over this fear and my common sense has directed me in the right path, and do not think I'm slamming anyone because I'm not. I'd just like to know. What makes us - ICs - tick in this regard?

I posted this on the classifies, but thought I would post here as well to have a better chance at finding a copy.

I am interested in purchasing a copy of Instant Text V with license that can be transferred to me or where I can register it.

When you dispatch a dictation with attached transcribed Word file, is it automatically encrypted? I'm new to Express Scribe. I read the "help" files, but it didn't say one way or the other. Thanks!

I am curious about production with editing as I have been offered a position with Focus and am exploring other companies as well.

What is your average lph with transcribing vs. editing and what is the pay for each (if you don't mind sharing)?

Also, do you have anything to comment on about doing editing - nice change of pace vs. boring, etc., etc. etc.?

I have gearplayer- serial foot pedal. I purchased new computer and have only one port for the serial which my monitor is hooked up to. I now cannot plug my serial foot pedal up since there is no port. Is there any adapter connector that I can use to go from a serial to a USB so I do not have to buy a new foot pedal. I thought I read somewhere that this could be done. I would hate to purchase a new foot pedal just because I have port to install. The foot pedal is only 3 months old when I had to use when I was in school five years ago and have been doing tapes all this time for my local Docs and may now go to a national where I have to use the wave pedal.

Does anyone know of a web site with surgical report samples and EMG reports? I've searched google for hours and can only find informartion ABOUT them, not actual reports....

I've been hypo for about 10 years and have always had a large thyroid gland. For the past 10 days, I was getting tingling sensations in my face, heads and hands. Finally broke down and went to a doc. Now, my regular doctor is out of the country, so I went to a doc I am unfamiliar with. She seemed pretty convinced that the reason for the tingling was the enlargement of my thyroid gland creating pressure on a nerve.

This sounds reasonable, as I had already self-diagnosed (you know how we MTs are about these things!) as some type of nerve issue because it goes away if I lie down for a while, etc.

Has anyone ever experienced anything similar to this? Of note, my dose of Levoxyl was cut in half about 3 months ago. I'm slated to have a thyroid profile done this week. Thanks for any input!

Cell phone numbers going public tomorrow

REMINDER....all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls.

....YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:

888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time
It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.
It take about 20 seconds

I've always used Expanders already built in to program, but making a change and need to purchase an Expander (Word-based platform). So I don't know much. Please enlighten me. Which do you prefer?

I would like to know if anyone has had a problem using a wireless keyboard with a Belkin KVM switch and Microsoft wireless keyboard. I am trying to connect two computers to one monitor, one keyboard, and mouse and it does not seem to work with the wireless keyboard. I would appreciate any help with this. Thanks.

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