Posted on 09/06/2005 3:38:52 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
BATON ROUGE - Even as teams of engineers worked to patch ruptured levees in New Orleans, a political breach opened between Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush over who is in charge of the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.
One flashpoint came over the weekend, when Blanco said she rebuffed an attempt by the White House to seize control of the mounting military presence in Louisiana, including thousands of state National Guard forces under her authority. Then Bush made an unusual return visit to the state Monday, just days after surveying the damage - a trip that members of Blanco's staff said caught them by surprise and caused a certain level of consternation.
"We had no idea the president was coming," said Blanco's communications director, Robert Mann, adding that the governor was forced to cancel a trip to visit evacuees in Houston so she could meet with Bush.
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In the game of political maneuvering for control between Blanco, a Democrat, and Bush, a Republican, the biggest chess pieces are the 13,268 National Guard troops from 29 states under the governor's command - with another 7,845 on the way - and the 7,000 active-duty troops who began arriving Monday under command of the regular Army and the president.
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Blanco said that when the plain-spoken, cigar-chomping Honore showed up in New Orleans late last week, she thought that her worries about a lack of federal troops and resource were over. Honore quickly became a media darling and the take-charge face of the federal government in New Orleans, barking out orders to surprised National Guards members who aren't even under his control.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Blanco and the mayor blew it big time and are simply trying to shift blame to the White House. And of course, the media are going along like so many sheep. But the hearings will bring all of that out.
I heard her. ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH! We have barely had one cup of coffee and we were screaming at her! She is pathetic! LSOS!
Did you hear what she said about the busses....Nagin told her he was going to snd them to the neighborhoods with police escorts...ha!
Yes, a kid can figure it out, but the Mayor can't.
BLANCO IS BLANKO~~~~PERIOD!
Blanco is acting guilty, like someone who's locked the door aginst police, while she's flushing the cocaine down the toilet.
Notice how Blanco is upset that she was left out of the loop, but gripes about having to go back into the loop.
She needs to be removed completely.
Blanco is completely out of her depth. She doesn't demonstrate any grasp of the depth of resources and political will necessary to conduct such a massive effort. A very subpar governor. Too bad for the people of Louisiana. Blanco should have been a school teacher.
Nagin told her he was going to snd them to the neighborhoods with police escorts...ha!
Hmm, this could get interesting :)
Doesn't have a plan. Doesn't even "know whose problem this is", to quote Mayor Nagin.
But feels free to criticize anybody else's plan or action.
She's a blackmailed feminist. The only friends she got are human life wasting abortionist ghouls, terrorists in other words.
She blocked Bush's help coz she does not want a man of the GOP to get the credit.
She is talking about attitudes coz she manipulates democracy by loot: her forces are motivated by rape and loot, and she sees a force in the army to exploit for evil ends of feminist terrorist sympathies rape and wasting of people.
Hi, Jonny....what a mess..Mike got activated yesterday and is heading down to this cess-pool tomorrow..
Hi, Buddy. I was wondering if your husband would be called. By your description of him, he sounds like exactly the kind of person they need down there :) God bless both of you.
Pass the popcorn.
"Something tells me that was a mistatement. If Blank-O is to shift blame to the federal government, she can't let it become widely known that the NG works for her."
Its in the article and she stated it on Fox and Frineds this morning, "Her National Guard".
She lied through her teeth, and the F&F crew let her slide -- especially on the quip about buses. That would have been the time to show the submerged bus barn slide.
That would have been the time for the F&F crew to show the pic of the submerged buses and ask, "Governor, you mean these buses?"
"Did you hear what she said about the busses....Nagin told her he was going to snd them to the neighborhoods with police escorts...ha!"
Replay the mayor's press conference he mentioned ten pick up locations. When I heard that I was wondering how do the people get to the locations?
The significance of all this is that the majority of the military build up, specifically in New Orleans, cannot be used for law enforcement. It is largely a symbolic "show of force." There will be some that might argue for a "work around" where a few Louisiana Guardsmen are imbedded within a "Title 10" unit and the "guardsmen" will do "the law enforcement." Civil libertarians could easily argue that this is at least a violation of the spirit of the Act. These very concerns are currently being discussed amongst my peers in which hypothetically an individual who is either "arrested" or worse injured, claims a defense of "unlawful" arrest in federal court. The successful defense of the accused is proving a willful violation of Posse Comitatus that could therefore result in the imprisonment of all the commissioned officers involved in the "unlawful arrest.".The Bush Administration attempted to invoke" The Insurrection Act" (Title 10 USC, Sections 331-335) in order to provide a strong viable law enforcement presence in Louisiana and protect military personnel (title 10) against possible prosecution. This act allows the president to use U.S. military personnel at the request of a state legislature or governor to suppress insurrections. However, the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana would have had to state on the record that they had lost control of the situation in New Orleans and that a state of "anarchy" existed. Obviously, the politicians of Louisiana were unwilling to pay that political price.
Very shortly, the Bush Administration will be accused of "pulling out the troops" before the job is finished. The "title 10" troops being sent to New Orleans fall under the Stafford Act. The story behind the story is that while the President may authorize Department of Defense resources for emergency work that is essential for the preservation of life and property, the period of the emergency work cannot exceed 10 days. While the "title 32" Louisiana National Guard troops can stay on state duty until the job is done, "title 10" forces will be departing very soon unless a creative work around is at hand.
Lastly, many now realize that the City of New Orleans had an emergency plan that specifically names who was responsible to do what. If they were unable to perform any of the listed tasks in their plan, they needed to truthfully state in their plan that they would be unable to do something. Federal authorities relied on the "integrity" of statements made in their plan. Had they been honest in their own assessment, they would have had planned for outside assistance early on and entered into "memorandums of understanding" with the state and federal government to obtain added support long before Katrina. I would highly recommend that the "emergency planners" employed by the City of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana take some of the no cost emergency management courses offered by FEMA starting with the introductory course where they will learn that "the primary responsibility for protecting citizens belongs to the local elected officials."
- Oak Leaf
The speculation of attempting to invoke the Insurrection Act is good - it maybe one of the two options that GWB offered to Blanco. I don't recall reading a post on FR that makes this one of the two options>
Also interesting is thatthe activive military, Title 10 troops have to be out in a 10 day span, when they are deployed under the Stafford Act. The author of the pice seems to know her onions - I haven't corroberated the cites or conclusions.
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