Posted on 09/03/2005 9:07:35 PM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping
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.
Lets see short term political future or the lives or your constituents, to democrats its power power and power.
Perhaps they mean "Had not declared a disaster area."
No, it means what it says. She has yet to declare a state of EMERGENCY because she THINKS the Federal government wants to take over Louisiana! DUH!
I am thibking you are right, they must have a misquote there.
Does anyone know how to determine when this PR actually appeared on the website??? Was it just recently, or did she really do this on Friday, Aug. 26???? Is this dishonest CYA, or simply more evidence that she knew of the threat and did nothing? Either way, she is cooked....
She is power-hungry and unwilling to give up any authority she may still have...now, THAT's a selfish bit@h.
Does anyone know how to determine when this PR actually appeared on the website??Here, validated by WWLT-TV (among others):
www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL082605blanco.b15272b7.html
Blanco declares state of emergency05:49 PM CDT on Friday, August 26, 2005
Associated Press
Louisiana kept a close watch on the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency, and a strengthening Hurricane Katrina moved further to the west.
Blanco ordered the state's disaster preparedness offices to start taking precautions, saying Katrina posed an "imminent threat." Meanwhile, emergency preparedness officers in southern Louisiana were mobilizing on their own.
"We were looking at it going up the East Coast two days ago and now it's looking like it will hit the central Gulf Coast," said Larry Ingargiola, director of the St. Bernard Parish Emergency Preparedness. "Like we always say, the only one who knows where a storm will go is the man upstairs."
More worrisome was that experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that the hurricane's track could move even further west, Ingargiola said.
"We just hope our people are prepared," he said. "It's kind of late in the year to be making disaster plans."
Walter Maestri, the emergency director for Jefferson Parish, said he was concerned about the movement west and how it was intensifying.
New Orleans City Hall spokeswoman Tami Frazier said officials were watching the storm, and had activated what she called the lowest alert level -- monitoring storm movements.
perhaps a computer savvy person would be able to determine when this link and announcement was placed onto the website:
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973
Press Release
Date: 8/26/2005
Contact:Denise Bottcher or Roderick Hawkins at 225-342-9037
GOVERNOR BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY
Thank you aft lizard for posting it and capitalist, if you have already read it - why did you stop by on it? Never mind.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005UPDATE ~ Louisiana "martial law" declarations clarified Bernard Hibbitts at 10:16 PM ET
[JURIST] The Louisiana Attorney General's office late Tuesday issued a number of clarifications concerning the "martial law" assertions made earlier in the day by local officials and law enforcement agents [JURIST report] in the wake of devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. According to the AG's office, no such term exists in Louisiana state law.
The declaration of a state of emergency [text] issued by Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Friday and set to continue for at least a month does, however, give officials power to suspend civil liberties in the process of restoring order, and the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993 gives the governor and heads of parishes power to commandeer property. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has more.
Furthermore, he would have been vindicated when the levee broke and politically in a much stronger position than the one he currently occupies.
In this instance, there is plenty of blame to go around and the President deserves some of it.
WHen posting a story from a newspaper, use the headline from the story as the title of the post.
Then, when you want to post from a newspaper, search for a few words from the headline. If you don't find it, post away, since it means either nobody else posted or those that did violated the guidelines.
Sometimes online version has a different headline than the print version. I suggest using the online version.
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