Posted on 09/04/2005 6:13:51 AM PDT by smittyhere
At the Washington Post, in a story with a headline that gives no indication of the important information it contains, we discover that federal officials were desperately trying to get Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco to do something about the disaster in New Orleans—but she refused to act: Thousands Remain To Be Evacuated.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Does go back to the The Posse Comitatus Act?
What isn't clear in the WaPo article is whether the preisdent asked Blanco to federalize the evacuation on August 26th or September 2nd.
In government, it is more important to cover your butt than to take action that will save a thousand lives.
Do you have the date when Blanco officially requested help from the federal govt? Didnt see it in the article.
Sounds like 9/2 - although it would be great if it were 8/26.
ping
Regardless of the spin, there will be hearings and Blanco WILL BE FORCED to testify why she refused to order an evacuation until the very last minute, despite the pleas of the National Hurricane Center, FEMA, etc.
pretty good proof of political games while people died...
WHen you say "last minute", do you have a date?
We are already getting letters to the editor of our local papers blaming Bush for not sending the NG in sooner. I would like to be able to refute them with a date.
Anyone here have a document or article citing the date?
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 effortProtect her independence ... means she still has independence which further means she kept the reins. The hiring of Witt was on 9/2 so that gives the timing. I need to research this but I'd swear the initial posting of the article was clearer and IMHO I'm now looking at a rewrite. But that could just be my pre-coffee eyes. In any event, Blank-o HAS control and therefore responsibility.
This is what I was trying to explain on the other thread.
Blanco didn't do some procedures to include federal assistance.
This is what caused this press conference from Chertoff that implemented Incidence of National Significance to insert the Federal Gov into the equation.
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4773
The words in bold seem to say it all.
---"In Baton Rouge, Blanco acknowledged Saturday: "We did not have enough resources here to do it all. . . . The magnitude is overwhelming.","---
Parking lots full of school buses, you having two days to evac, parking lots full of city buses...failure to follow own state's emergency preparedness plans in case of something catastrophic (such as a catastrophic hurricane), failure to provide for those who could not evacuate, failure to provide evac for people with disabilities, life threatening conditions in the case of diabetes, dialysis, etc, failure to provide proper resources at the shelters, failure to inspect the levees right after to determine whether they would hold or not, didn't they hold for a while before finally budging? Failure to declare a state of emergency until this Saturday when she had an emergency since Tuesday, prevented and hindered search and rescue operations, failure to deal with her one of her city's mayors in case where she has legal authority to go in and deal with it, failure on the part of the mayor to enforce the evacuation and providing transport...she is not only a liar, but a cryer, and she's crying because she knows her political career is about as dead as New Orleans.
"met for two hours with NAACP President Bruce Gordon, National Urban League President Marc H. Morial and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus."
Quit wasting time on these plantation masters. Half are commies and all are incompetent race-baiters.
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.Correct me if I'm wrong but what I highlighted is the best example of what I call "RAT mirror-speak" that I've seen in a long time. If the "mean ole Republicans take" away our control then they can blame us??? Hey, nimrod source, if you have control then you have the blame because you kept the responsibility!!! I'd think they would jump at the chance to tag Bush with the ongoing responsibility given that there is going to be no win coming out of this. Here we have proof-positive that liberalism is a mental disorder!!!
That's what doesn't make sense. If the matter was federalized and went wrong, then the feds would take the blame, of course.
And also, if this article is referring to Friday the 2nd of September, isn't it a little late for NO officials to be worrying about blame? I can see them worrying on the Friday before the storm, but it's clear today that despite the media's attempt to portray the story otherwise, the leadership within LA is to blame.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/12494991.htm
Posted on Sun, Aug. 28, 2005
Katrina's threat was so acute that President Bush joined the chorus of officials who urged New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation, issued Sunday morning after lower-lying areas outside the city were cleared Saturday.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/12494991.htm
Leon Moore, 55, the left side of his body paralyzed for the past 12 years because of a stroke, pulled his weathered red truck up to the Superdome and angrily decried Mayor Nagin. "The mayor of the city didn't make preparations for the handicapped," he said.
The criticisms of Nagin came from above as well. Numerous officials urged him to evacuate the city, but he worried about the legality of ordering people out when New Orleans has few safe hurricane shelters for them to evacuate to. Also, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield in Miami called Nagin at home Saturday night and told him: Get people out of New Orleans.
"I could never sleep if I felt like I didn't do everything that I could to impress upon people the gravity of the situation," Mayfield said. "New Orleans is never going to be the same."
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