Posted on 09/03/2005 7:52:14 PM PDT by jmc1969
Bush administration officials blame state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management.
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration had sought control over National Guard units, normally under control of the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request, noting that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. State authorities suspected a political motive behind the request.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You know, they don't tell you in the article whether it was this most recent Friday but Friday a week ago. The subsequent paragraph suggests they're talking about 2 Fridays ago....Or is it late and I'm missing something? If I'm not, I'd say this ommission of date is intentional.
The National Guard is under State control in these types of situations. Bush was trying to federalize the relief efforts to keep the utterly incompetent Louisiana government out of it. Look, are they having these kinds of problems in Mississippi and Alabama? Can you point to another natural disaster in this country where relief has been handled this incompetently by the locals?
Actually it isn't. It ends the blame game and places full responsibility where it always belonged--the state and local authorities.
The Post couldn't bear to title the article truthfully.
bttt
Yeah LA is really a poster boy for that concept. Look, I don't argue the philosophy BUT it is obvious that LA cannot govern itself right now. All they are doing is screwing the pooch and blaming the feds for the pooch being ugly.
Whoops indeed!
If I were Bush, I would have tongue lashed Blanco on the air, assuming this is all true. She would have been road kill when I was through with her.
: ) glass half full.
Please add that she hired her own FEMA director. America's wasn't good enough for her purposes.
I would have too. I would also have sent active duty Marines the MOMENT Nagin got on the tube Tuesday and essentially gave the looters a free pass and relieved him of his duties.
So..
Torie...
Don't hold back, tell us what you really think.
Torie, I'm not convinced that if that mayor had put his foot down on Thursday and demanded that everyone leave, and had provided buses, that more than a small percentage of people who didn't leave would have gotton on a bus.
The people who stayed behind were convinced that they knew better. I saw a number of them interviewed and they owned up to it. "I was sure wrong..."
Do I think the mayor and governor are inept? Yes. Right now people need confidence that things are going to get better. Infighting isn't going to induce hope. With the media we have, any positive aspect of Bush publicly taking over, would be nullified as much as was humanly possible.
I'm just not convinced there's much to be gained by going public, if behind the scenes work is accomplishing the task. In the last day or so, I think the national effort has come up to speed and is changing things for the better across the board.
They had a plan. It is becoming very obvious that they didn't follow it. Probably because they were afraid that if they evacuated they would have looting and then law suits because of the looting.
DO, that mayor is now telling the press that the CIA may take him out because they don't want him talking. This guy is over the edge.
I have never been so thankful for Haley Barbour.
President Bush has had his plate loaded like few others since Lincoln
Or a crackhead. That's doper talk.
Mo1 -- I've read the article twice but am on pain killers and not operating at full throttle here.
When the article states that Friday the White House sent the Governor a memo, do they mean last Friday or yesterday?
I do agree with you on that matter
But I also want a Governor and State Officials to recognize that they are in over their head and temporally hand over the reigns in a situation like this
Blanco needed the Feds to take care of this mess and she choose power instead of the lives of the people that elected her
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