Replies

If Nagin and Blanco were not willing to protect the FEMA people, then maybe the President should have invoked the "Insurrection Act" under the clause that says the President may invoke it if the local and state authorities are not willing or able to protect their citizens.

NO what it says if the State is in DEFIANCE of local authority or NOT functioning. It WAS functioning. You can claim it was NOT but that is YOUR opinions not one that fits the legal standard. Bush is in the perfect Catch 22. The Media is NOT interested in reporting the facts so American STILL remain totally ignorant of what a President CAN and CANNOT do. So suppose Bush makes the wild leap of intuition all of you are demanding last week and says "They arn't cutting it send in the troops." The very next day The Black Congressional Caucus and Ms Nacy Pelosie would draw up a Bill of Impeachment and bring it to the US House floor. They would be screaming to the "News Media" "That Racist Sexist cowboy Bush just committed a crime and ran roughshod over a Black Dem Mayor and a Female Dem Gov's LEGAL authority." What is really, really frighting is how so many American think the President is some sort of despot that can just do what ever he wants, when he wants. HE CANNOT. We still are a Nation of Laws even in the midst of disaster. I am also curious why you are so eager to give a complete pass to the total incompetence of the Local and State Gov to shift responsibility onto the THIRD responders? BTW, Bush DID ask the Gov to turn over responsibility to the Feds this weekend. According to the Sun Sept 4 Washington Post, she said NO. He DID get her to accept regular army combat and support troops FINALLY. So how is this ALL FEMAs fault when Blanco was, and IS, still in command? Why is everything going so well everywhere BUT NO? If you want to argue the SYSTEM is broken and we need to change the laws fine but quit pointing fingers NOW. We cannot change the law on a whim. Why do we have local and state Govts at all then if everything is the Feds Fault? Why have we given billions in Federal Homeland Security money to the City of NO and the State of Louisiana since 9-11 to help them prepare for just this sort of disasters? You are aware that the damage zone is an area the size of Great Britain? Why is Mobile AL not having all these problems? Why is Mississippi not having all these problems? Have your heard they have shot at Rescue workers and construction crews in NO? In all honesty, can ANYONE of thought that was a LIKELY response to RESCUE WORKERS?? If the City needs help, and it surely does, the Gov had MORE then enough NG troops on hand if she was willing to use them. Why did she not send in MORE then 300 Armed troops on Thursday? If this "All Bush's fault" why all the foot dragging from the State of Louisiana in turning over responsibility to the Feds?

John Gibson blamed FEMA and said Bush should fire him so I wrote him the following e-mail:

I normally enjoy your show and especially "My Word." Today, you were totally off base. Do you really think that FEMA should operate on the expectation that half the local police force will walk off the job in a disaster? And that others will exploit the disaster and join the looters?

What federal official do you think Bush should have fired if on 9/11 half of the NYPD walked off the job, and others were taped looting the scene?

I do not fault FEMA, or *any* federal agency, for the disgusting and disastrous performance of the New Orleans Police Department.

If the New Orleans Police Department was not such an abominable disgrace and had an effective police presence at the designated shelters (Superdome and later Convention Center), many of the problems would not have existed.

(By the way, you might be interested in knowing that many of the deaths were of sick people who were respirator dependent, and died when the electricity and generators failed. Which federal official should be fired for that??????) Get your facts straight. You usually do, but you disappointed today!

Everytime I hear a report from MS, Biloxi, Gulfport, etc., they too are complaining about the slow repsonse of FEMA.

Fox this afternoon highlighted a story of a coastal community that had seen no FEMA people yet, and some ladies had driven in from Alabama with a van full of supplies, distributed them (I think it was in Pass Christian) and then seeing how great the need was, returned to Pass Christian reloaded their van and returned again to distribute the goods.

I think the scope is so broad that FEMA is having a hard time. In south Florida FEMA would set up a headquarters and people had to get to the headquarters, but after this storm no one has the cars or gas, if they do have cars, to get to the FEMA staging areas.