Free Republic

President Bush and his federal government are to blame. Yes, conduct your investigations. Do all the after-action analysis, but Bush and his federal government are to blame. Forget the fact that an epic act of nature ripped across the Gulf Coast and breached New Orleans' levees. Ignore the fact the Hurricane Katrina response involved officials at every level of government in three states. We know Bush and his federal government are to blame. In their new book, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner discuss "conventional wisdom." It's a term coined by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who held that it's always...

I just got done reading the entire Stafford Act, as well as other laws. Here's the skinny: Bush never needed Governor Blanco's nor Mayor Nagin's consent to do [b]ANYTHING[/b] in New Orleans. Posse Comitatus Act of 1878: Basically says that the Army, Navy, Air Force, etc. cannot be used to police a city "except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress" As it's been explained to me, the NG operates under the Governor's control if they're used domestically, unless they're federalized (however...

Hurricane Katrina has left the Gulf coast devastated. Thousands are feared dead, homes are destroyed and lawlessness has gripped New Orleans. The tragic situation on the Gulf Coast, however, cannot be blamed on nature alone. The dominant political ideology in this country has exacerbated the problem. This ideology is not racism, hate or greed. I am talking about good old Ronald Reagan conservatism. This ideology has permeated our country far too long, and as we now see has weakened our national cohesion and our ability to meet the needs of all Americans. Conservative ideology promotes disregarding and alienating the poor...

 He's been called an idiot, an incompetent and worse. The vilification of federal disaster chief Michael Brown, emerging as chief scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, has ratcheted into the stratosphere. Democratic members of Congress are taking numbers to call for his head. "I would never have appointed such a person," said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Let's bring in someone who is a professional," urged Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. A more visceral indictment came from closer to the calamity. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans, said the bureaucracy "has...

The three top jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes, the Daily News has learned. Even if Bush were to fire embattled and suddenly invisible FEMA Director Michael Brown over his handling of Hurricane Katrina, the bureaucrat immediately below him is no disaster professional, either. While Brown ran horse shows in his last private-sector job, FEMA's No. 2 man, deputy director and chief of staff Patrick Rhode, was an advance man for the Bush-Cheney campaign and White House. He also did short stints at the Commerce...

This site has photos of the Army Response. This photo and caption on the bottom right (last photo). National Guard multi-purpose utility truck brings supplies to the Super Dome in downtown New Orleans, La., on Aug 31, 2005. Tens of thousands of displaced citizens sought shelter at the dome, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, but have been forced to evacuate as floodwaters continue to rise throughout the area. Department of Defense photo.

Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans with a double blow when it made landfall Aug. 29. First, storm surge waters from the east rapidly swamped St. Bernard Parish and eastern New Orleans before the eye of the storm had passed the city around 9 a.m. Within hours, surge waters collapsed city canal floodwalls and began to “fill the bowl,” while top officials continued to operate for a full day under the mistaken belief that the danger had passed. --Snip-- Sometime Monday morning, the 17th Street canal levee burst when storm surge waters pressed against it and possibly topped it, Corps officials...

Dyslexia, the learning disability thought to affect one in 10 Britons, does not exist and is no more than an emotional construct, education experts will claim in a television documentary to be aired next week. In the programme, which looks at the causes and treatment of poor reading, at least three academics call into question the value of separating those with difficulty in reading into dyslexics and "ordinary poor readers", when the treatment is the same for both groups. Experts say many children are being diagnosed with the condition to save embarrassment over their reading skills and in order to...

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for a broad investigation that would explore questions such as “How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation

“People inside were literally dying,” ABC News correspondent Chris Bury told The Observer over the phone. He was talking about the New Orleans Convention Center, where he spent the day on Friday, Sept. 2, and from which he filed an impassioned report on the evacuees from the sinking city who had sought refuge there and found horror. “When you’re confronted with American citizens who are doing the right thing and are neglected and abandoned, it makes you mad. It made me mad.” Mr. Bury and a Nightline crew had ridden out the storm in Biloxi, Miss., and arrived in New...

Caterina Bonci, a 38-year-old religion instructor described as a "leggy, long-haired blonde," has caused a major sensation, getting axed by the Catholic Church from her position in state-run schools. Bonci says authorities decided she was simply too attractive and dressed too sexy to teach about God after 14 years on the job. "They shouldn't treat me like this after 14 years of teaching," Bonci said. "It's pure nastiness."

A RETIRED 71-year-old vicar yesterday became the first pensioner in England to be jailed for failing to pay his council tax on a point of principle. Alfred Ridley arrived at Towcester Magistrates’ Court carrying his toothbrush after refusing to comply with a court order that he repay £691.15 in arrears that he owed to South Northamptonshire Council. He was jailed for 28 days. “We have been very patient with you,” John Woollett, a magistrate, told him. “As you have failed to pay we have no alternative but to enforce the suspended prison sentence.” Mr Ridley replied simply: “All right,” but...

FEMA director arrives in BR Monday, August 29, 2005 FEMA Director Mike Brown arrived at the state Office of Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge shortly before 11 a.m. and joined a conference call with Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other federal and state officials. Brown will hold a press briefing with Blanco at 3:30 p.m., although state officials could also provide more information after a noon conference call with local officials who are tracking the storm damage. Researchers watching the storm from Baton Rouge have gotten reports of 6 feet of water at Jackson Barracks in the Lower 9th Ward, as...

Bloated blowhard Michael Moore says George Bush is a racist and intentionally delayed Hurricane Katrina relief because he hates blacks. The remarkably wealthy and obese Moore, who makes more money during lunch than most Americans make in a month, refuses to take some of his scores of millions and mount a rescue and relief effort for the very blacks he claims to love and care for. Self-proclaimed scientist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says Bush created Hurricane Katrina because he wouldn’t sign off on the Kyoto Accords. He fails to mention that the Accords came about during the Clinton years and...

RUSH: Don in Clarkston, Michigan, welcome to the program. CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. RUSH: Yes, sir. CALLER: I thought "no attack ever fed a hungry child." RUSH: (Laughing.) I love it! CALLER: If I'm not mistaken, sir, wasn't Senator Leahy on vacation the same time as Bush? RUSH: Yes, under the apple tree up in Vermont there, reading about John Roberts, trying to destroy his career. CALLER: Well I'd like to go after Patrick Leahy for being on vacation while this was going on as well. RUSH: Well, I'll tell you what, I was going to get to something else...

Democrats are always harping on the 'right to choose'. It is the underage childs 'right to choose' to have an abortion. It is the woman's 'right to choose' to have an abortion. When it comes to choosing to serve in the military, that 'right to choose' is not legitimate in liberals eyes. Those that choose to serve are called by liberals immature, children who do not know what they are choosing. Children who are 22, 24, 20 years old are too immature to make that decision, but young girls of 14 are obviously mature enough to make the decision to...

November 29, 2004 (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE) THREE STATE OFFICIALS INDICTED FOR OBSTRUCTING FEDERAL AUDIT Shreveport, Louisiana . . . A federal grand jury has returned two separate indictments charging three members of the State Military Department with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation activities throughout Louisiana, United States Attorney Donald W. Washington announced today. Two of the individuals charged, MICHAEL C. APPE, 51, of Mandeville, Louisiana, and MICHAEL L. BROWN, 61, of St. Francisville, Louisiana, are senior employees of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Both...

The Red Cross has confirmed to Fox News Channel's Major Garrett that they had requested permission to take food and medical supplies to the Louisiana Superdome in the hours immediately after Hurricane Katrina's landfall. That request was denied by none other than Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.Garrett appeared on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio program this evening to discuss the shocking revelation.MG: Well, the Red Cross, Hugh, had pre-positioned a literal vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items. They're not really big into medical response items, but those are the three biggies that we saw people at the New...

QUESTION: The Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has called for your resignation and I'm wondering if you have a response to that. BROWN: The president is in charge of that, not me. QUESTION: Have you offered your resignation? BROWN: Pardon? QUESTION: Did you offer your resignation... (CROSSTALK) BROWN: I serve totally at the will of the president of the United States. QUESTION(MSM reporter): FEMA has three charities listed in a press release that they sent out. One of them is Operation Blessing. Can you tell me why that charity is on the list and who put it there? BROWN: I'm sure...

Fox News' Brit Hume: First, the focus of all of the attention has been FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency, what is FEMA? Fox News' Major Garrett: Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2,500 full time employees, 4,000 stand by employees. The mission statement very simple: prepare, respond, help, recover, reduce risk. How does it do it? By coordinating with state and local entities and other groups The Salvation Army, Red Cross, dedicated to helping the needy when disaster strikes. Hume: So FEMA is relatively, it isn't very labor intensive it mostly works through other agencies? Garrett: It works through other agencies. But...

At 8 a.m. on Wednesday, as New Orleans filled with water, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. called an emergency meeting of his top lieutenants and warned them he did not want a "measured response" to the hurricane. Wal-Mart's response to Katrina -- an unrivaled $20 million in cash donations, 1,500 truckloads of free merchandise, food for 100,000 meals and the promise of a job for every one of its displaced workers -- has turned the chain into an unexpected lifeline for much of the Southeast and earned it near-universal praise... Wal-Mart is being held up as a model...

The Red Cross Blocked The Fox News Channel's Major Garrett was just on my show extending the story he had just reported on Brit Hume's show: The Red Cross is confirming to Garrett that it had prepositioned water, food, blankets and hygiene products for delivery to the Superdome and the Convention Center in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, but were blocked from delivering those supplies by orders of the Louisiana state government, which did not want to attract people to the Superdome and/or Convention Center. Garrett has no paper trail yet, but will follow up on his verbal confirmation...

A Muslim woman who wanted to wear a veil in her driver’s license photo must follow a Florida law that requires a picture of her full face, according to a state appeals court. The Fifth District Court of Appeal on Sept. 2 upheld a 2003 ruling by an Orlando judge that Sultaana Freeman’s right to free exercise of religion would not be burdened by the photo requirement. "We recognized the tension created as a result of choosing between following the dictates of one’s religion and the mandates of secular law,” Appellate Judge Emerson R. Thompson Jr. wrote in the 15-page...

US TV reporters and newscasters are covering Hurricane Katrina and problem-plagued relief efforts with a sense of outrage and antagonism many thought had long gone out of fashion in broadcast journalism. In numerous testy exchanges played out over the airwaves during the past week, the news media has challenged public officials who sought to downplay the crisis or defend an initial disaster response widely seen as having been fumbled. Media watchers say journalists were empowered by their own first-hand reporting and by the grim images showing thousands of hurricane victims left for days to fend for themselves amid the rising...

As it happened, my youngest son, Rudy, was in New Orleans as the storm approached the Gulf Coast, so I was acutely focused on what actions were being taken to evacuate the city. On Aug. 27, with the hurricane gaining force in the Gulf, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for a voluntary evacuation of the city....

Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday devoted the first of two shows to the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying: "I think ... this country owes these people an apology" – referring to the survivors for their treatment after the disaster struck and to those who were left to die as help failed to arrive. "This makes me so mad. This should not have happened," said a tearful Winfrey, who wore a gas mask inside New Orleans' now-vacated Superdome, where she was overcome by the stench. "Nothing I saw on television prepared me for what I experienced on the ground," she said on...

MARY PFLUM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the city of New Orleans, there are hurricanes, and then there are hurricanes. JOE SUHAYDA, LOUISIANA WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE: At the extreme, if a Category 5 hit, there's concern that the city would not be recoverable. PFLUM: And that's because New Orleans, plagued by a history of substantial floods and cited by the World Bank as one of the planet's most vulnerable cities, is essentially a big bowl, surrounded by levees which separate it from the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchatrain. Most of the city is eight feet below sea level and sinking...

Douglas Maher - All Headline News Staff Reporter Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A report on Fox News from correspondent Major Garrett Wednesday night reveals a major break into what exactly went wrong at the Louisiana Superdome in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck the city. An American Red Cross representative tells Fox News that the Louisiana State Homeland Security Department refused the relief organization permission to take food and water to the Superdome because they did not want to "encourage people to go there." They State office of Homeland Security wanted to get people out and were afraid that providing...

Geraldo Rivera might sue The New York Times Posted Sep 7, 2005, 9:44 AM ET by Bob SassoneFiled under: Talent, News, CableA lot of people are beginning to say that the whole "Geraldo rescues woman" story wasn't what it seems. One of them is Alessandra Stanley at The New York Times. She reports that Rivera "nudged" an Air Force worker out of the way so he could be shown on camera helping a woman in a wheelchair. But Rivera went on The O'Reilly Factor and showed videotape that proved that's not what happened. The NYT has not issued a retraction,...

Just heard on FOX that Blanco refused to allow supplies to be brought to the stadium, "Because they wanted all those people to leave, and they didn't want to create a magnet to bring others there, by bringing in food and water!"""

US politicians have called for the head of America's disaster management agency to resign for failing to respond adequately to the New Orleans floods. Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), waited until five hours after Hurricane Katrina had struck before putting out an appeal for staff to help deal with the disaster, it emerged today. In a memo to his boss Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, he proposed that the initial wave of 1,000 emergency workers would not be in place for two days, and that a further 1,000 would take a week to...

Michael D. Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush as the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security in January 2003. As the head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Under Secretary Brown leads federal disaster response and recovery operations and coordinates disaster activities with more than two dozen federal agencies and departments and the American Red Cross. He also oversees the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration, and initiates proactive mitigation activities. Additionally, Under Secretary Brown helps the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the...

Major Garrett is talking with Britt and reported that a Red Cross representative told him the LA state homeland security department refused them permission to take food and water to the Superdome because they did`nt want to encourage people to go there.They wanted to get people out and were afraid that providing support would be a "magnet" atttracting more displaced persons.To paraphrase,the state was looking to discourage people through hardship out of the Superdome.All the aid in the world wouldnt have gotten through.

Anguished Clinton and cabinet hold hands. Clinton hugs entire cabinet. Madeleine Albright reports that she was "moved". with Ted Koppel: Domino's Pizza delivery boy: "I can tell you that they're working very, very hard on this. They're pulling another all-nighter for sure." Koppel: "How do you know?" Delivery boy: "Well we usually deliver just three or four pizzas a week to the WH. But tonight we delivered twenty. And Ted?" Koppel: "Yes?" Delivery boy: "They were all double pepperoni!" Koppel: "Wow." Washington Post: Clinton in New Orleans, Hugs Individually 72,134 People. The New York Times: An editorial argues that the...

We failed you? No, oh brilliant creator of Exit to Eden, you failed. You might not think of it this way, but: Your leaders failed to upgrade the levees. You elected a bunch of weepers and blame-shifters who lost their head in a crisis. Over the past decades, your elected officials have let a criminal element incubate and grow until they ruled the streets, instead of the forces of law and order. In pop culture, a New Orleans thief is always a charming rogue with a devilish smile. In reality, they’re a bunch of thugs. If the number of residents...

At least one major media outlet has finally noticed that New Orleans had an emergency response plan for hurricances and evacuations that somehow never got implemented. ABC News yesterday asked why Mayor Ray Nagin not only did not follow the plan, but actively sent non-evacuees to a site that had no preparations to handle them: New Orleans' own comprehensive emergency plan raises the specter of "having large numbers of people … stranded" and promises "the city … will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." "Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport...

DISASTER ASSISTANCE Emergency management operations for disasters include three phases: preparedness, response, and recovery. In the preparedness phase, state and local governments administer emergency preparedness programs with ongoing activities to help ensure that they are ready to respond to disasters. The Louisiana Department of Emergency Preparedness is responsible for all initial damage assessment prior to federal involvement. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) partially funds disaster assistance and emergency preparedness programs. Victims whose immediate needs are not met by voluntary relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, can register with FEMA.

Before hurricane Katrina made landfall, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana appears to have been more focused on securing federal funds for post-hurricane relief than ensuring that necessary troops were deployed to carry search and rescue missions, deliver food and water, and protect the citizens of Louisiana against marauding street thugs. President Bush had offered the governor federal aid, including additional troops. He declared Louisiana a disaster area before Katrina arrived. To the dismay of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the governor told the president she wanted 24 hours to decide whether to accept the offer because Mr. Bush, as...

Some of the most heartening tales coming out of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are the tales of Americans standing up and taking responsibility for their own safety and survival rather than whining about “the government” not taking care of them. The Washington Post reports that in Popps Ferry Landing, a neighborhood near Biloxi, Mississippi, the local neighborhood watch is keeping an armed night watch to prevent looters from invading the neighborhood. Following the looting of the local Dollar Store, neighbors who very rarely spoke to each other, got together to protect their own. They’re not going out hunting down...

WASHINGTON -- Negotiations to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons remain in limbo, but the North Koreans are giving hints they might be ready to end another long-lingering problem with the United States by returning the captured spy ship USS Pueblo. They are setting an unlikely condition, though, for the return, considering hostile U.S.-North Korean relations: A visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or another top- level American official. "It would be a gesture, but somebody needs to make a gesture," said Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea who brought home the offer after a mid-August trip...

But a real grifter. Ward Reilly, left, of Baton Rouge, La., and Andrea Garland, right, of New Orleans, light candles at their camp site on the side of the road near the ranch of President Bush, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005, in Crawford, Texas. The two are members of Cindy Sheehan's legal counsel and have been camping at the site with her. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Of course Ward Reilly's hate-America career did not start with Cindy Sheehan. He has been a longtime member of John Kerry's notorious Vietnam Veterans Against the War.Reilly is also a frequent contributor of numerous unreadable anti-American...

Themes: Leadership, Foreign policy (USA), Foreign policy (USSR and successor states), Conservatism, Autobiographical comments We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend. In his lifetime, Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend AmericaÍs wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk, yet they were pursued with almost a lightness...

The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn't do what the incompetent mayor of New Orleans and the pouty governor of Louisiana should have done, and didn't, in the early hours after Katrina loosed the deluge on the city that care and good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor, ordered a "mandatory" evacuation a day late, but kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground. The bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet of dirty...

KING: Governor Barbour said that the president wanted to visit Mississippi, he told him not to come. Does he want to come to Louisiana? BLANCO: Well, I've been in touch with the president. He's called often before the storm and after the storm. I know he's helping Haley. He's helping Louisiana. He's helping Mississippi. We're in desperate need. I've never seen anything like this. We've seen lots of hurricanes on this coastline here in Louisiana and Mississippi. We've got a lot of friends al along the coast, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. We know what it's like, but this is not...

I got this from Power Line. It's another great blog out there and it was also on Free Republic. The Freepers are doing great work on all this. "The New York Times is leading the shameless Bush and Republican bashing with respect to the response to Hurricane Katrina. One of its themes is that Congress didn't pay enough attention to flood control in the Gulf. But Donald Luskin reminds us of this bit of wisdom from the New York Times editorial page earlier this year." If you've been paying attention -- and I don't know how long you can before...

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - US troops staved off an even deeper calamity than the one which befell New Orleans, fighting off a second levee breach on the 17th Street canal in the critical hours after Hurricane Katrina. Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Mouton of the US Army Corps of Engineers told AFP Monday that had their bid failed to bolster defences on the west bank of the canal, double the amount of water could have been dumped on the city. The revelation came hours after Army engineers succeeded in sealing the 200 feet (60 metre) breach on the east bank,...

Hurricanes do not sneak up on people. Unlike tornadoes, hurricanes don’t just reach down out of the dark storm clouds to wreak havoc on humanity. Hurricanes are tracked, named, have warning flags dedicated to them, and all coastal cities have long-standing plans for dealing with them. Nearly everyone in the world knew Katrina was going to hit Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and yet so many have died in New Orleans. Why? Hurricane Katrina struck the tip of southern Florida as a category 1 hurricane and made a beeline for the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For three days...

One of the astounding aspects of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy has been the profound incompetence of Louisiana’s politicians. Never has it been more clear that winning an election and being a leader are two completely different things. From the run-up to the storm to the events since, Louisiana’s governor and New Orleans’ mayor have been useless, far more concerned with taking political advantage and misapplying blame than with saving people’s lives and doing their duty. And, with incredible gall, this pair has led the ungrateful and dishonest charge against the federal government and President Bush. They, along with various race-baiters...

Mayor Ed Koch (fmr. New York City mayor) defends Bush on MSNBC tonight by asking "Where were the buses? What happened to all the hundreds of school buses? Public transit? Why weren't the poor evacuated with these?"

Whoraldo basically excused Mayor Nagin's non action when specifically called on the "2000 buses" question from Hannity. He than said "We need to come together" when he was losing the argument...