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What part of "FEMA is not the 1st responder" do you not understand? FEMA works with the local government. They do not take control of the local effort. This case is an exception due to the magnitude of bungling by lack of local leadership.

What part of "unprecedented national disaster" do you not understand? The people on their roof tops and in their attics don't care a tinker's damn whether FEMA is a first responder or not. You can be right legally and process-wise and wrong about the bottomline--saving lives. FEMA stopped private individuals from going in with boats to save people.

How many years has the city had to prepare for this inevitable storm? Why did the mayor not have an effective evacuation plan? Why were hundreds of school buses allowed to be destroyed instead of filling them with people (at gunpoint if necessary) and moved?

Good questions. The blame game is fine, but it doesn't save lives during this crisis. The Feds should have acted sooner, i.e., immediately after the Coast Guard helos were shot at and the chaos at the Convention Center and Superdome were known.

You have a total lack of understanding of basic US government and how it is set up and where responsibilities lay. My children understand better, but that is not amazing since I took the responsibility of schooling them myself and did not put them in a public school.

No matter you being upset, the feds can not take over unless asked. Republican governors in Mississippi and Alabama did not have trouble giving control of their state over to the feds the Democrat governor did. It is just that simple. It still took time to get into place in those states, the facts of logistics.

You can be right legally and process-wise and wrong about the bottomline--saving lives.

I agree with you. BUT what you are arguing for is essentially that President Bush should have FORCIBLY seized authority from "Governor" Blank-0. Instead, he tried to negotiate it.

Can you imagine the uproar from the media and feminsists and the Left (sorry, redundant) if he had done "seized the day," as you put it?

We'd be hearing hysterical cries of "CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS" and "BUSH IS SHREDDING OUR CONSTITUTION" again and again and again.

So Bush is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't.

Yes, you're right that he should've erred on the side of saving lives. But there would've been huge political cost.

You might listen to Gen. Honore.
He said those "first responders" might well have been victims ALSO had things been allowed to run amok.

You might learn the facts before REACTing reflexively as is typical MSM and liberal tendencies.
FEMA had supply stations set up BEFORE the storm even hit.
Bush begged the state and local officials to evacuate.

"The blame game is fine but doesn't save lives..."
Liberal talking points in response to questions of LOCAL & STATE incompetence, as they drone on blaming Bush.

I agree it took Bush a little long to realize just how incompetence things really were at the state level. Generally he trusts people in leadership to act like leaders. Big mistake in NOLA!!!

"FEMA stopped private individuals from going in with boats to save people."

I, personally had secured a flat bottomed boat, extra fuel and several friends to help in search and rescue the day after the storm hit. The state police, NOT FEMA, turned us away because they could not guarantee our safety due to "shots being fired"...

TS