Mayor slams Blanco for stalling [Rats with pointed fingers]

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | September 7, 2005 | By James G. Lakely

[libsl]

I'm not sure what Bush could have done to force the governor's hand when she stalled like a deer in headlights. Declared an insurrection by the state government and sent in troops? The Democrats would have declared another civil war if something like that happened.

What was required of the city and the state by FEMA was to have an effective plan which included evacuation if needed. Then the federal government must have confidence that the state and local government will follow that plan. They had such a plan but did not implement it. The federal government should not be held responsible for the fact that the people of New Orleans elected an incompetent mayor (who was probably nonetheless more competent than past mayors) and an incompetent governor (who was probably much less competent than any past governor).

[mwl1]

My money has the two of them openly turning on each other by the beginning of next week.

I hope you are right, and it's entirely possible if the Administration plays this right, but I am more concerned that Susan Collins is gonna let the RATS and the media roll her in the Senate hearings. Thank God she is not up for re-election next year.

[July 4th]

After referring to the President with his full title, "Mr." is appropriate usage in the rest of the article.

[July 4th]

Someone needs to go down for this. It would be nice if the Governor actually got the blame for the mess that she put the feds in. Instead of having to deal with one crisis (the flooding), they had to deal with two (the flooding, and the people whose lives it threatened).

[johnny7]

It's obvious she was thinking about the big check... more than fufilling her committment.

A lot like my ex-wife.

[hombre_sincero]

Responsibility begins with the INDIVIDUAL.

The Mayor bears full responsibility for "his" city.
The governaor, for "her" state.
The president, for the nation as a whole.

Let's see the heads roll in THAT order!

[hombre_sincero]

I NEVER want to lay eyes on that communist loving America hating bastard carter again!

Even his momma agreed!

Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself: "Lillian, you should have remained a virgin."

-- Lillian Carter (mother of the 64th president, Jimmy Carter)

[HamiltonJay]

I hear NAGAN has been busy over the last 2 weeks speaking with Carville.... one would assume to plan his spin strategy to save his own hide....

[johnny7]

Thanks for that tidbit... learn something new here everyday.

Carter was always my choice for worst-president-ever even though Rapist42 keeps nipping at his lead.

[jos65]

Thanks,but I'll wait for the facts to come out.

[DorisCCC]

"If they ever put the word "assclown" in the dictionary, Nagin's picture should accompany it."


Best laugh I've had in a long time.

[johnny7]

Choose wisely.

[Doogle]

...surprise surprise..some media outlets are changing their tunes this AM in the northeast (NJ). I've heard several reports on a few radio stations indicating the blame game isn't working. I guess the fact that a few billion people watched the developments unfold BEFORE the hurricane hit, and the current crisis all points in one direction.
The bus photo's crushed any excuses about local responsibilities. The decision to send 30,000 people initially to a location with no food,no water,no beds,no security and the resulting chaos...(viewed by billions world wide)...isn't helping the dems game plan.
The criticism of President Bush isn't working (per their own polls). The existence of emergency procedures that were not followed, both locally NO, and by state government, thus hindering federal emergency response falls on those local governments.
The MSM is starting to realize once again...they have to regain what credibility they have left after another case of misdirected accountability.
They had better start thinking about this illustrious Mayor testifying before congress and the questions that he'll have to have translated so he can answer. (no words over 7 letters)


Doogle

[StJacques]

For everyone who is wondering about Blanco and where she really went wrong and how it should be playing on the national scene, not that the mainstream media would ever allow it, let me give you my view. And for the record I live in Lafayette, Louisiana -- Blanco's home town -- and I have been actively involved in the Katrina relief effort and I have dozens (literally) of relatives and in-laws who have been practically wiped out by Katrina and the flood that followed it. My viewpoint is both informed and personal.

The single biggest mistake that Blanco made was to wait until Thursday, four days into the crisis, to order members of the Louisiana National Guard and other Guard troops she requested from President Bush, to go to New Orleans and establish a police presence. She even stated on Larry King's show on Tuesday Aug. 30 that she was not going to move to stop the looting. This allowed the situation in New Orleans to fall apart completely as gangs began organizing "on the fly" to take advantage of an insecure city and begin looting. By Wednesday, once their numbers grew, they became more bold and attempted to overwhelm several of the major hospitals and health clinics so that they could seize their drug inventory. Acadian Ambulance Service, right here in Lafayette where I live, had been tasked to evacuate critically ill children and others from several of the New Orleans health institutions and had their drivers attacked and an ambulance turned over. I'm not making this up, pop up and read the article at this link to see more.

The violence that erupted in New Orleans completely ended the hopes for early relief from private persons and organizations that could have had an impact in the first few days, before the federal effort began arriving in force late Thursday. Not only did it deter sensible relief workers from bringing supplies to the Superdome and the Convention Center, it also convinced the Louisiana State Police to prevent some very courageous groups of people who were determined to go in anyway from making it to the city, as General Honoré himself acknowledged.

So the first question Blanco must answer is, given that she had the Louisiana State Police cordon off Orleans Parish (we have "parishes" instead of "counties" in Louisiana) in the aftermath of the hurricane, which is a normal precaution taken to prevent people from returning before it is safe, how did those state troopers come to the point where they were not only discouraging relief efforts, but actively preventing them before the arrival of the National Guard? Was this a decision the state police made on their own or were they ordered to prevent and discourage relief workers from entering the city?

The second question Blanco must answer is, since she went on Larry King and announced on Tuesday evening that she would not be moving police into the city from elsewhere in the state to control looting and establish a security presence, why did she wait until Thursday to dispatch Louisiana guardsmen to the city, in addition to requesting other National Guard troops from the President? Her own state police were discouraging and preventing relief efforts from making it to New Orleans because of the violence there, how could she fail to act immediately to secure the situation? This was a horrible mistake!

And a third question that may be the most troubling of all comes as a corollary to everything I have discussed above. Since the state police roadblocks not only prevented relief efforts from reaching the city for the first few days of the crisis but also prevented displaced citizens of New Orleans from leaving by foot -- which those at the Superdome and the Convention Center could have done by walking across the I-10 bridge into Gretna, located less than two miles from where they were -- can we not consider the decision to encircle New Orleans by roadblocks and the manner in which the State of Louisiana maintained them to be the single greatest act of defamation and segregation of African-Americans in our history, since the overwhelming majority of decent people among that minority population were unfairly tarred by the violence committed by a very small group of thugs who happened to be black and kept in that degraded condition because of fears that the violence was both unmanageable and that it could spread?

Blanco has much more to answer for than people realize. But the mainstream media is intent upon focusing attention on the Bush administration and is giving the Louisiana Governor a pass because she is a Democrat. It is an outrage.

[johnny7]

This has all been MSM driven... just like Cindy Sheehan and Bill Burketts forged memo's.

I fear that the only thing that will straighten these info-nazi's out is an angry mob equipped with plenty of rope!

[smonk]

take the high road, W. sooner or later, people will realize that the stupendous failure happened on the state and local level, and then the fireworks will really begin.

[dfwgator]

But we can do better than we did in hurricane Katrina.

With hindsight, anything is possible, let this be a textbook reminder of why individuals should never place their lives in the hands of government. Katrina was just too big for the government to handle, even if they did the best possible job they could.

[dfwgator]

Carter may have been the most incompetent, but LBJ did a hell of a lot more damage to this country than Carter.

[dfwgator]

take the high road, W.

Don't worry, he is.

[johnny7]

... and Republicans went along with most of it also.