Posted on 09/08/2005 6:57:07 PM PDT by sissyjane
Edited on 09/08/2005 11:37:58 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
>> WHITE HOUSE MULLED SEIZING RELIEF MISSION // Invoke the Insurrection Act? Bush's senior advisers debated last week whether the president should seize control of the chaotic hurricane relief mission from the governor so that active-duty combat troops could be sent to enforce order... Developing
Update******
Political Issues Snarled Plans for Troop Aid
"WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, President Bush's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor.
For reasons of practicality and politics, officials at the Justice Department and Pentagon, and then at the White House, decided not to urge Mr. Bush to take command of the effort.
Instead, the Washington officials decided to rely on the growing number of National Guard personnel flowing into Louisiana, who were under Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's control. The debate was triggered as officials began to realize that Hurricane Katrina exposed a critical flaw in the national disaster response plans created after the Sept. 11 attacks. According to the administration's senior homeland security officials, the hurricane showed the failure of their plan to recognize that local police, fire and medical personnel might be incapacitated and unable to act quickly until reinforcements arrive on the scene..."
".. To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Governor Blanco would have resisted surrendering control of the military relief mission as Bush Administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established. While troops can conduct relief missions without the legal authority of the Insurrection Act, Pentagon and military officials say that no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges......."
The truth is NO MATTER WHAT he did, no matter what is does the left will take the opposite tack, lie and decieve and come up with a stragedy to condemn his every move.
If he took charge he was grandstanding, if he waited he was indicisive, if he deferred to the First Responders he was weak, if he took over he would be branded a criminal.
The Governor of Louisiana ordered that no food and water be brought to the Superdome and Convention Center. Through its Homeland Security Department, the state claims it didn't want these locations to become a "magnet for people".
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This is what is so absurd. The convention center and SuperDome became a people magnet the mintue Nagin told them to go there! Which leads me to believe there was no LA local(state) funds to stock pile water and MREs for a hurricane preparedness emergency. There was no money and no supplies in case of a mass emergency shelter hold up for the population left behind. It's why Nagin was recorded saying to shelter people, "bring your own water and food." End of case
Blanco could not run a lemonade stand. I also think Hilary would be just as bad.
Tough one in a way. The Declaration of Independence, a federal document says life is an inalienable right. Therefore can the feds supersede in a case where many lives are at stake.
Would the federal government supersede if a state government was actively killing innocent citizens. I would say yes. The only thing different in New Orleans was that the state government was passively killing its citizens.
In most cases it would be mute insofar that a competent state government would accept the help from the feds when the state was over their heads and needed resources etc. The nation has never seen such incompetence on such a grand scale. Katrina was the natural disaster. Louisiana politics are the national disaster. Truly is incredible.
"I want to know what has happened to the rest of the State of Louisiana? New Orleans, and the outlying parishes are just a small portion of the state. Why didn't people from Baton Rouge, and the northern parishes come to the rescue?"
This comment needs to be repeated:
To: All
September 02, 2005
Subject: FW: New Orleans rescue effort thwarted
My name is Jason Robideaux, I am an attorney from Lafayette Louisiana and have dealt with all of the various law enforcement agencies in Louisiana during the past 18 years. Although I have had a positive relationship with law enforcement personnel throughout the State for many years, I regretfully have a story to share that will shake your head in disbelief about the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries.
A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The “flotillia” of trucks pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.
The State Police waved the flotillia of trucks/boats through the barricades in LaPlace and we sped into New Orleans via I-10 until past the airport and near the Clearview exit. At that time we were stopped by agents of the La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. A young DWF agent strolled through the boats and told approximately half of the citizens that their boats were “too large” because the water had “dropped during the night” and that they should turn around and go home.
We were pulling a large (24ft) shallow draft aluminum boat that can safely carry 12 passengers and had ramp access which would allow the elderly and infirm to have easier access to the boat. We politely informed the DWF agent that the local and national media had consistently reported that the water level had “risen” during the night which contradicted his statement to us that the water “was dropping” and no boat over 16ft. in length would be allowed to participate in rescue operations.
We then specifically asked the DWF agent that we (and other citizens in the flotillia) be allowed to go to the hospitals and help evacuate the sick and the doctors and nurses stranded there. We offered to bring these people back to Lafayette, in our own vehicles, in order to ensure that they received proper and prompt medical care.
The DWF agent did not want to hear this and ordered us home. We complied with the DWF agent’s orders, turned around and headed back to Lafayette along with half of the flotillia. However, two of my friends were pulling my other boat, a smaller 15ft alumaweld with a 25 hp. The DWF agents let them through to proceed to the rescue operation launch site.
My two friends were allowed to drive to the launch site where the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries were launching their rescue operations (via boat). They reported to me that there were over 200 DWF agents just standing around and doing nothing. My friends were kept there for approximately 3 hours. During that time they observed a large number of DWF agents doing nothing. After three hours had passed they were told that they were not needed and should go home. They complied with the DWF’s orders and turned around and went home to Lafayette.
Watching CNN tonight, there was a telephone interview with a Nurse trapped in Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She said that there were over 1,000 people trapped inside of the hospital and that the doctors and nurses had zero medical supplies, no diesel to run the generators and that only three people had been rescued from the hospital since the Hurricane hit!
I can’t come up with one logical reason why the DWF sent this large group of 500 boats/1000 men home when we surely could have rescued most, if not all, of the people trapped in Charity Hospital. Further, we had the means to immediately transport these people to hospitals in Southwest Louisiana.
On Tuesday afternoon, August 30, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee asked for all citizens with boats to come to the aid of Jefferson Parish. A short time later Dwight Landreneau, the head of the La. Depart. of Wildlife and Fisheries, got on television and remarked that his agency had things under control and citizen help was not needed. Apparently, Sheriff Lee did not agree with that assessment and had one of his deputies provide the Lafayette flotillia with an escort into Jefferson Parish.
Sheriff Lee and Senator Gautreaux – 1000 of Louisiana’s citizens responded to your pleas for help. We were prevented from helping by Dwight Landreneau’s agency, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. When I learned that Charity Hospital has not been evacuated and that no one has been there to attempt a rescue, I became angry.
The “turf-marking” by some minor state agency should never take priority over the lives of citizens!
Signed,
Bewildered and Frustrated,
Jason Robideaux
Attorney At Law
1005 Lafayette Street
Lafayette, La. 70501
165 posted on 09/07/2005 4:32:28 PM PDT by anglian
I need a source for this statement. Do you have one I could link to?
SCOTUS itself has held that the Constitution is not a suicide pact.
The racism comments may be correct; just aimed at the wrong party and person.
Honestly, I'm not trying to bait you here at all. How do you think this should have been played out?
I agree. Bush should have had his best people working on his speech by Friday, practicing it as the hurricane hit. He should have toured relief agencies and FEMA the next day.
His appearance two days late reading something that I could have written was pathetic. Other than that, I think that the administration has handled this well, and has a good change of coming out way on top.
When the reports of people suffering and dying from the likes of E-coli and other toxins become daily news,how long before the libs jump on that as Bush`s fault.
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Facts never ever play a part in the dysfunctional DNC dimension. Distortion is their game, everything else gets sucked into their mysterious SPINning black hole in outer space, the space generally seen floating between their ears.
I realize why it was ILLEGAl, and I wasn't condoning it. I was merely stating that if he had been able to LEGALLY do it, perhaps some lives would have been saved.
Where is that post from?
Is it FR?
The whole thing makes me sick.
???
Bush would have looked like a decisive leader and his job approval rating today would be over 65%.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4949823/detail.html?rss=den&psp=news
Colorado Liquor Stores, Hamburger Stands Get Post 9/11 Loans
AP Review Shows Lax Oversight Of Government Loan Program
POSTED: 1:24 pm MDT September 8, 2005
DENVER -- Jim Pasquariello says he was surprised to learn a $100,000 loan to help run his Aurora bakery came from funds approved by Congress to help businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks. Eric Kaplan said he had no idea the $130,000 line of credit for his Denver-area footwear stores came from the same program.
According to federal loan reports obtained by The Associated Press, 441 businesses in Colorado received approval for loans totaling $134.9 million from the Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief (STAR) loan program....
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I think that you summed it up perfectly...
I agree that the President should not invoke the Insurrection Act in a case like this but perhaps we need an Incompetence Act, to allow the federal government to come into a state to provide aid to suffering people whose state government has proven to be incompetent. Louisiana, with its long history of corruption is a prime example of incompetence.
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