Posted on 09/07/2005 3:35:54 PM PDT by NickatNite2003
Just heard on FOX that Blanco refused to allow supplies to be brought to the stadium, "Because they wanted all those people to leave, and they didn't want to create a magnet to bring others there, by bringing in food and water!"""
"Don't let 'em eat cake"
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005 10:18 p.m. EDT
Louisiana Officials in Flood-Money Scam
Nine months before the Hurricane Katrina disaster, three Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness officials were indicted for obstructing an audit into flood prevention expenditures.
In a November 2004 press release, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced:
Story Continues Below
"A federal grand jury has returned two separate indictments charging three members of the State Military Department with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation activities throughout Louisiana.
"The two emergency management officials were senior employees of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Both were charged with conspiracy to obstruct a federal audit."
Gov. Kathleen Blanco told Louisiana's News-Star at the time that she was disturbed by the indictments. She said the National Guard is cooperating with the investigation "as I expect them to do."
Reports of rampant corruption among Louisiana's state and local agencies have been cited in recent days to explain why officials were so ill-prepared to deal with the Katrina disaster.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/6/222032.shtml
It's Brit slang. "Gob" basucally refers to the mouth.
As in: "Shut yer gob!"
Being "gobsmacked" refers to someone who is so surprised and shocked by something, that it is as if they were hit in the mouth, and unable to speak from the shock of it. (whatever caused the stunned amazement.)
Or, *actually* hit in the mouth...
:o)
Well .. if the Gov told HS not to give them food and water - then why wouldn't HS have told the Red Cross - the Gov doesn't want food and water there - in order to encourage people to leave.
My question is ..: If they wanted the people to leave so bad - they should have taken the idle buses and MOVED THEM. Good grief. No common sense was used in over a week.
You're probably right, however I think the Bush team is up to the challenge they face from the Clintons/Carvills etc. For some reason the dims are stuck on "Bush is Stoopid" when time and time again he's blown the competition out of the water. They're still hitting the same drum and the polls show it's falling on deaf ears. People aren't buying it anymore. The more they try, the more insignificant they become.
It's always good to stand back and determine if what was done can be improved upon. Katrina is so large in scope, and that makes it all the more important to review and revise the approach. But when the light illuminates the failures it won't be GWB & Co taking the big hits. It'll be local and state officials along with the MSM that will have the dirt on their hands...
......Those 'rat female politicos are manly-girls.....
They feel they were slighted at birth. If they actually thought about it they would have a better gender attitude.
yesterdays WSJ has a long article on the three breaks in the levee, worth reading
ping
The residents themselves tried to block the rising waters, after the (state-paid/medicare-paid) bureacrats/nurses/aides responsible for the trapped victims (er, patients) fled the rest home in fear of THEIR lives.
"As you said, "This is a BLUE DRESS MOMENT."
Yep, and going into attack mode while so much heavy lifting has to be done is disgusting.
They're having another WELLSTONE FUNERAL MOMENT
We can't let that happen. We need to keep posting every bit of information about the TRUTH.
I do hope someone makes Oprah aware of this. She has spent the last two programs lambasting "the federal government that allows this to happen" and even had on the Rev. Jack$on for a short prayer of sorts.
(let it be known that watching Oprah was pure accident, I am normally quite sane :)
With the dems, it's all about lies, bribes, and fraud at the polling booths.
A night in the Superdome: 'This is the best I've eaten in a while'
05:23 PM CDT on Thursday, September 16, 2004 By MARY FOSTER Associated Press
They sat just yards from the high-tech football field. A shabby crowd in high-priced seats, huddled together, cold and miserable. Rather than a football team, they cheered the news they would get a hot meal, that blankets were on the way, that there was an area where they could smoke.
These are the last people anyone worried about. The poor, the homeless, the aged, the infirm. People with nowhere to go and no way to get there. Stranded and frightened, they finally found shelter in the Louisiana Superdome and rode out Hurricane Ivan in a joyless night, uncomfortable, but at least safe.
"This isn't the place I want to be, but it's the place I'm very grateful to be," said Leonard Cooper, a homeless man.
The Red Cross, which once set up shelters in New Orleans, will no longer do so for storms ranked higher than a Category 2. The organization ruled the city, which lies well below sea level, unsafe for bigger storms and said evacuation was the only sure was to survive such hurricanes.
In New Orleans that leaves a large population of poor, those who rely on public transportation, and the homeless stranded when hurricanes threaten. "I wanted to evacuate," joked Fred Wilson. "But my chauffeur was off today."
The city opened part of the Superdome for medical refugees Wednesday morning. It opened up for general refugees between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Dome officials kept the doors open until 6:30. But that time 1,100 people were in the 72,000-seat stadium.
They were confined to one end zone and the concourse behind it. Although they were told to bring food, drinks and blankets with them, only a few families did. The majority of the refugees were homeless and had nothing to bring.
Superdome general manager Doug Thornton laid down the ground rules early: be polite, put trash in the bins, keep the restrooms clean, smoke only in the designated area.
The sheriff's office sent over spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. It was served with a slice of white bread. "This is the best I've eaten in a while," said Joe Maris, as he lined up for thirds.
Catholic Charities sent over a big supply of bottled water which was available in the concourse. There were also oatmeal bars, chips, orange juice, snack-size pudding and 8,000 packages of cheese crackers. Dome officials worried about the trash and decided to give each person a bag of food in the morning as they left rather than distribute it immediately.
The concourse was constant activity. People went in and out of the bathrooms, smokers headed in and out to smoke, children wandered around looking. A man with one shoe on walked up and down holding his enlarged stomach. An old man asked a National Guardsman if he could get a cane. "I lost mine and sometimes I fall over without one," he said. People smiled and talked. A woman helped the old woman next to her spread out a blanket. Another held a baby for the mother so she could eat.
At 9 p.m. Thornton got on his cell phone trying to get a doctor to come from the medical evacuation area to the general area. Two men were having seizures, suspected to be from drug withdrawal. Charmaine Wallace was worried about her 7-month-old baby, Charel. The baby had a 101 fever, was coughing and had a rash on her cheeks.
An hour later mother and baby were loaded into an ambulance and taken to Charity Hospital, just blocks away. The two men left in other ambulances.
Arthur Feldman left on his own. He didn't like the food and the Superdome was too cold. The temperature was 65 degrees. The building was being cooled for the Saints game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. "If we warm it up, we won't have enough time to cool it back down before the game," said Thornton, who was besieged by shivering refugees with questions about the promised blankets.
Thornton and Gen. Ralph Lupin began phoning the National Guard headquarters and the Red Cross headquarters, trying to secure blankets.
At 9:30 a representative of the Office of Emergency Preparedness agreed to deliver them if someone would take responsibility for making sure they were returned. The general and Thornton agree to pay for any not turned back in. The only other time the Superdome was used as a shelter, in 1998, people raided the luxury suites before leaving, taking furniture and televisions. This time 300 National Guardsmen were on patrol and there were no problems. At 11 p.m. the blankets arrived. By 11:15 people began finding places to sleep.
The lights were dim in the seating area. People there wrapped themselves in blankets and tried to get comfortable. Because the armrests don't move, people had to sit in one seat and drape their legs over the armrest into another. Others lay on the floor in front of the seats.
"I should have stayed home," said LaShone Johnson. "This is the first time I ever came to a shelter and I'll never do it again. A lot of these people haven't bathed in a while. It doesn't smell too good in here."
In the concourse the lights were bright. National guardsmen patrolled as people lay on the brick floor along the wall outside the restrooms. John Davis wrapped up behind the beer counter. "At least no one will step on me here," he said. Just down the isle, a man lay talking to himself in a loud voice as he has been all evening.
By midnight people had settled down. It was not quiet. Babies cried, mothers yelled at youngsters, sleepers moaned and shouted as dreams or discomfort prompted, a constant parade of people climbed up and down the steps going to the bathrooms.
The hours crept by until the National Guard started bringing in the breakfast bags and people began getting up, looking tired and uncomfortable. Blankets were turned in. Many of the homeless hurried off to the agency that hires temporary workers each morning. Families gathered their belongings and headed to the street, waiting for the buses to take them back to their neighborhoods. They were greeted by bright sunshine and gentle breezes, Ivan had bypassed the city.
"I'm glad we could come," said D'Artagnan Wilson, who came with his wife, mother-in-law and five children. "We wanted to evacuate, but we both had to work right up until yesterday. And my wife didn't think our apartment would be safe in a big storm. It was uncomfortable, but at least it was safe."
Hmmmmmm....where were their families?
You're absolutely correct. Gallup's still crying about 2004.
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