Posted on 09/04/2005 1:54:35 PM PDT by Boston Blackie
For decades, New Orleans has been told that the city is sinking and that the old levees have to be rebuilt and modernized in order to keep the city from being flooded. Local officials have never done this nor have pleas to Congress for federal help been heeded. Congress has simply never seen fit to do this fully, whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans.
"Why did it take five days for Bush to help" has been the mantra voiced constantly by all the "Talking Heads" on TV. Here are the reasons....
(Excerpt) Read more at opinioneditorials.com ...
This is great, thanks for posting!
Got into it a little with a friend about why the troops weren't sent sooner, he thought they should have been, I said the Governer had to ask for them to be sent. He's getting this in his E-mail ASAP.
Great piece- thanks for posting!
If I didn't know better (and I'm not sure if I do anymore) I'd say the media is attempting to 1) Brainwash the public and 2) start a race war in our country.
bumping
Anything to kill a few more trees and give their stock holders profits, like any other corporation.
"Why did it take five days for Bush to help" has been the mantra voiced constantly by all the "Talking Heads" on TV. Here are the reasons.
1. It is against the law for any President to order troops into a city or across state lines without a request and permission from the Governor of that state.
John Armor, a First Amendment lawyer and one of my favorite writers, told me, "Federal law prevents the President from sending in the National Guard until the Governor gives the order. It is little known, but the Commanding General of the National Guard in every state reports to the Governor, not the President, until the Governor says otherwise. US military units (regular Army, not the Guard) cannot be used because of the Posse Comitatus law, until the Guard has been authorized."
According to some news sources, the Governor of Louisiana who knew the levees were weak, who knew that the city had been slowly sinking and who knew that a major # 5 hurricane was approaching her city did not call Washington for help.
2. The Mayor of New Orleans did call for evacuation over a loud-speaker, but did nothing to be sure that the police went door-to-door followed by transportation to pick up all those who did not have cars or any ability to leave. There was no other leadership practiced by the mayor as there had been in New York City during 9/11 by Mayor Giuliani.
3. The hurricane veered east and saved New Orleans, Brian Williams announced a week ago and all breathed a sigh of relief until, the levies broke a day or two later allowing the surrounding waters to pour into the city.
4. It was this predicted levee failure which had been ignored for so long that doomed the local people to be held hostage in their attics or on rooftops, not the storm. It was also the failure of the local bureaucrats and local elected leaders to maintain law and order and to have pre-arranged for complete evacuations of the city. It was only after a request went out to the President that troops could be sent in. Can you imagine the anti-Bush media screaming that Bush had invaded Louisiana as he had done in Iraq if he had done this before being asked? I can just imagine The New York Times headlining, "A Repeat of Shock and Awe by Bush!"
Bill O'Reilly was the only commentator that I heard who explained this on Fox News. All other network commentators seemed to allow the implication inferred by the viewers that this was all the fault of the Bush Administration. I guess the Far Left also works in mysterious ways!
General Honore (sp?) had a good statement about the military's situation. Both the Army and the Navy were watching the storm's progress very closely, but the Navy had to put it's ships out from the coastline so they wouldn't suffer damage. Similar situation with the Army. The helicopters, airplanes, troops etc were located hundreds of miles outside the path of the storm so that the equipment could be utilized if needed.
Call me nuts. But there will be a backlash against the liberal media for blaming Bush when he had absolutley nothing do with local democrats failures to lead.
The liberal medias slip is showing. There first reation to anything is to blame Bush.
He went beyond what is expected of the POTUS! He was urging mandatory evacuations to be done when it was clear that the democrat leadership of Lousiana was failing to do so in a timely manner.
The feds tried to implement a federal takeover of the evacuation but the Governor would have none of it..............
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html
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.
Hurricanes, ships and shorelines don't mix well.
The Lady C, one of 83 ships beached by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988.
Yes, he did. But who is going to tell that to the Sheeple?
Not the liberal news media.
FOX is better well except for Geraldo.
That's funny, this whole hurricane business has made me block Fox and all the over news channels. Fox has been just as bad.
Geraldo, after his screaming fishwife act of Friday, has been downright terrific the last two days. Haven't seen much of Tallulah Bankhead (i.e., Shepard Smith) for the last two days, for which I am eternally grateful!
There's no doubt that if Bush had immediately ordered in troops then he would have been accused of racism for unleashing the military on poor black people just trying to scavenge for food and water.
marking
Has anyone noticed that Fox and CNN and MSNBC are playing musical anchor chairs ? The players are becoming nauseatingly interchangeable.
Fox just gave up Rita Cosby and gets Bill Hemmer from CNN.
Now don't get me wrong, being a guy and all, but you have to admit Hemmer is a whole lot prettier than Rita - well, from the neck up anyways.
I get the feeling it's all about pretty faces and cosmetics anyway, because the pablum is all the same.
Thank the Lord for the 'reasoned oasis' of Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer.
Now if Fox could only snag Monica Crowley and give up Geraldo to the BBC or maybe Al Jazeera . . . . .
Oh it's up to five days now before President Bush did anything. By the end of next week it will be ten days.
I would think with all the BS down there it would float.
"Yes, he did. But who is going to tell that to the Sheeple? Not the liberal news media."
We will. Drudge is with the bus pictures. Talk Radio.
Guests on Fox. Blogs. We brought down Dan Rather. We got the goods out on Kerry and saved America from his presidency. We can do this too. The left is still a tough opponant when the MSM is stacked in its favor. But they are losing that crutch more each day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.