Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting(still no state of emergency in LA)

Washington Post ^ | 9-4-2005 | By Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu

[aft_lizard]

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 sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.

Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.

"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."

[Grampa Dave]

It seems like 100,000 to 200,000 were being discussed yesterday.

[_Jim]

This has the Democrat power structure (of which Harry Connick Jr.'s family is part) scared ****less.

Plain old stupidity, lack of leadership and FAILURE to execute the pre-ordained evacuation orders would simply explain ALL this too; NOW they have to duck, cover and obfuscate to cover their blunders ...

And after the fiasco with Ivan last year too, Katrina started out a sleeper, and NO ONE in NOLA was paying attention at the Mayor's office and the govenor wasn't checking up on him.

[filbert]

This is where I do fault GW. He should have relieved her of her duties and go with what his HSA folks were recommending. There is no excuse to allow an incompetent like her and a complete nutcase like Nagin call the shots.

Please review the concept of Federalism. The President has a lot of powers. Usurping a Governor's authority is not among them.

[pbear8]

Check the thread on it from when it happened - unbelievable!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476641/posts

[HIDEK6]

Did she actually issue this order last Friday, Aug. 26

Lot of backdatin' goin' on heah.

[Nam Vet]

I was wondering if it would hit 100,000. If that is exceeded by a significant number, I believe it will have quite a negative impact on people's opinion of both the local officials AND the general population.

Nam Vet

[kenth]

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. [from the President] "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

I wonder if that's it right there. In a convoluted irrational way, I wonder if they think that keeping control means they get to spin it any way they want. Maybe they believe they have documentation that would be uncovered that shows just how ill prepared they were, or documentation that shows funding being shifted to places other than disaster preparation.

They are approaching rescue and relief efforts with politics in mind. In a nutshell, they're playing political games with people's lives. Yet somehow, they think that this game will keep them from looking bad.

[Grampa Dave]

I have been saying the past week, that what happened in N O's could happen in any Blue City, county or state.

That is based on what you commented about re N O's and the same idiots in charge of other big Blue cities.

[Lijahsbubbe]

"Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,"

Idiots. That doesn't even make sense. If the feds had full control, they would take all the blame.

Heck, they're taking all the blame now as it is.

[kcvl]

ROFLOL!!!


"said he has been yelling at the President and the Governor, and for all he knows, the "CIA could wipe me out"."

[DB]

When this gets gone over with a fine tooth comb, all those screaming that its Bush's fault are going to be sorry.

They made it political.

There will be many bent on getting the truth out no matter what now.

There's going to be payback.

[_Jim]

Lot of backdatin' goin' on heah.

Howcome ALL the newspapers and some other reliable sources show Aug 26 ... never mind - suffice it to say it isn't that simple ...

[Grampa Dave]

I just got an email from a relative who lurks on Free Republic, and she heard that 500,000 La citizens not necessarily N O's people are in Texas.

This past Wednesday, my wife, who is a non political conservative and a great observer of human nature/behavior wonder why any of those trapped in N O's would bother to move back if they escaped.

They probably would have no homes to return to and the few who work might have no jobs. Her remarks went over my head at the time. Now with hindsight, she may have been on target as usual.

If the rat voters stay in Texas, Arkansas, Florida and other states, the rats will lose power in La.

[DJ MacWoW]

A Freeper posted some quotes from her in several papers where she stated that Bush called her and told her what to do.

[hole_n_one]

The W. Post's use of simply days of the week (Friday; Saturday; etc.) rather than the actual date that a particular event occurred is very sloppy and done in an effort to be intentionally misleading.

[kenth]

I sort of stopped mid thought in my first paragraph. I wonder if they are afraid that corruption at all levels of state government will be uncovered when the fed looks for resources that Louisiana should have, but does not due to said corruption.

Then again, it may be what some here have already said, that the governor is nothing more than a DU type that will do or say anything, so long as it is the opposite of what the President is doing or saying; including saving people.

[tophat9000]

bump

[World'sGoneInsane]

Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.

Is this woman paranoid or what? She's willing to spend money on a former FEMA director, rather than taking advantage of what is readily available to help her state. This move proves that she is playing political games at the cost of the lives of her constituents.

I wonder if anyone has checked the bank vaults in NO to see if anything is left.

[okie01]

Wouldn't you just love to find out who that politician is? I can't wait for that one to come out, and it will. That has to be the single worst advice anyone could have given to the Governor.

To speculate: Governor Blank-o just hired a Clintonista, James Witt, as a consultant -- tasked to work with FEMA.

[Eastbound]

Here's a list of the PR releases. The one is question appears to be chronologically in order. Check this page and look at the urls. They appear to be sequenced properly:

http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release.asp?m=8