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......."
For this particular issue, I'm pretty sure that political and practical reasons would have had a very significant overlap.
Amendment X:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The Tenth Amendment makes no reference to "Rights", but only to "Powers". The Ninth Amendment uses "Rights" in context with "the People" and never with the "State". These terms, "Rights" and "Powers", are never used interchangeably by the Founding Fathers throughout the Constitution. In short, "States may only have the "Powers" that are granted to it by "the People". A "State" has no "Rights" at all. None!
This use of the language was noted by the Bush Department of Justice in proffering its opinion that the Second Amendment, as it was worded, was an "individual right".
Most Americans confuse "Rights and Powers". "Rights" are inalienable and pre-existing, like gold. "Powers" are conditional upon the will and permission of the people and are created like currency. When the bogus notion of "States Rights" is finally gone from the public discourse, America will have more freedom and less governmental abuse.
"States Rights", when one really ponders the meaning of that construction of words, is actually Marxist. It places the State above the Individual.
"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."
Good luck on getting such an act passed with the Rat Senators and Congressits serving today.
Maintaining order in the aftermath of Katrina would have required U.S. military forces to do things in New Orleans that the enemies of this administration WOULD NEVER PERMIT THEM TO DO IN BAGHDAD.
I am wondering if one reason that Nagin did not use the buses was because Blanko refused to allow state resources to be used. She also put a kink in the mandarory evacuation by not opening up enough shelters to house these people. I do remember Nagin mentioning that with a mandatory evacuation there had to be a place to put them.
The school board had agreed to allow the buses to be used in transporting/evacuating N O er's w/o transportation in June of this year.
Minutes From June 5 2005, Meeting Of Orleans Parish School Board: Using School Buses In Evacs
http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?p=board+minutes+orleans&sm=Yahoo%21+Search&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8&vst=0&vs=www.nops.k12.la.us&b=21&u=www.nops.k12.la.us/content/board/minutes/2005/bmin060905.pdf&w=board+minutes+orleans&d=5F4C71D064&icp=1&.intl=us
Meeting Minutes June 9, 2005
Hurricane Preparedness Ms. Bartholomew: President Sanders indicated that he wanted this on the agenda because of the Hurricane season. Last year when schools needed to be closed, department heads were unclear because a lot of our school records are still in paper format and not in electronic format. So they didnt know the proper procedure to follow with maintaining records. In addition, President Sanders also indicated that the City would like us to work with them. If a hurricane should come to the City in order to save the school buses, those assets, the City had asked if we would loan the school buses to be utilized for those persons in New Orleans. A lot of the citizens of New Orleans do not have transportation and have no way of evacuating from the City if a hurricane should come this way. He had been talking with Dr. Kevin Stephens from the Health Department because the Red Cross said that they would not commit to opening any shelters in the City of New Orleans if a hurricane comes this way. It would be all for naught.
They wanted to utilize school buses in order to transport those persons out of the City. I believe that the City had agreed to indemnify and hold harmless the School Board if any of those persons got hurt on the buses because that was one of my concerns. But after
speaking with Ms. Bowers, who had spoken with certain persons at the City as well, they indicated they would release us of any liability. He wanted the Board to be aware of what the City is doing with hurricane preparedness and I guess initiate the proceeding
for the Administration to start taking steps now before we get on the door steps of a hurricane.
How are we going to preserve students records? If you cannot come back to the City, the children will need those records to go into new schools in other States
or other Parishes. She is here now; he can speak to it. Mr. Sanders: I first noticed that this current policy, 3651R, a 16 page policy, looks like it was drafted in July 1989. I dont know if it has been reviewed since 1989 but it probably could withstand review on that sake along. It has a lot of titles in here Committee of the Whole Meeting Minutes June 9, 2005 12 in terms of people in positions and I wonder if those same titles and positions are still operable. The larger issue is not with the records and that is a major issue.
The children are even more important in terms of making sure they are safe. We know many of our children and families dont have transportation and even though it is a City responsibility to plan for emergencies and hurricane preparedness, we need to look at working even more cooperatively or seeking a more cooperative relationship with the City on behalf of the students that we serve. I did talk with Dr. Kevin Stephens in the Health Department of the City. It is our interest to get buses and other vehicles that we may own out of the City in the event it is being evacuated. So those buses should not be empty.
It was also his suggestion and call that they should be filled with families and children that may need a ride out of City and may perhaps designate certain high schools in different neighborhoods as staging grounds for families to go to should the need arise for an evacuation. The City is working on arrangements with different Civic Centers in Houma and depending on where the hurricane is coming from, where we need to go. They are making arrangements with institutions in those areas such as Baton Rouge, Mississippi, or Hammond to wait out the hurricane. I just wanted to bring that to your attention.
In the last two years we had evacuations and with
this season it is predicted to be another big one. With last years storm, Mr. Jerome Smith over in the Treme area said there were a lot kids who were just stuck there.
They were going to break into or were willing to get in one of our schools in order to be safe. We completely understand. I informed him that a school would not have been a good place to be if a hurricane did come. Only about four or five of our schools would really withstand a category three or higher hurricane. Using our schools as shelters is really not an option. Getting out of the City is the best option.
We need to find ways to facilitate that for the kids we serve. Even though it is not our primary responsibility, as such, we need to facilitate those relationships. Mrs. Landrieu: I just wanted to remind you that if we are going to include buses, which are not part of this plan, then we need to include the personnel and communication with personnel. Ms. Bowers: We have been meeting with City entities about the hurricane preparedness and we have talked to them about our buses. We still have not defined how many they
want. They have agreed to indemnify the School Board for using the buses. They said if our bus drivers volunteer then they will make arrangements to take the families of the bus drivers and offer them secure places. They are talking about having City Officers on buses also. There is a good bit of planning that is underway.
Benita Cochran and the head of transportation and the head of Security have been participating in these meetings, too. We are trying to stay on top it. This does need review. Ms. Cochran is reviewing the Facilities plan.
Not to mention giving his political opponents a trult impeachable offense to batter him with!
agreed, from a purely practical standpoint i would have federalized the instant the LA governor balked on something.
BFLR!
ping
Oh my gosh she hates Bush so much that she would allow children and the elderly (many ill) to linger for days in the heat with no food or water or bathrooms while she held HER STAND.
Very very frightening!!
The people who were stranded are better off being OUT of New Orleans-I pray they will find a better life now that they can see a better life than the danger in the projects with all the gangs and druggies.
Good catch. Just read that. They HAD the forsight and didn't act during the last 48hrs before the storm.
The mayor didn't order the use of the buses.
He was probably advised by the union thung leaders not to allow any bus to be driven by anyone but union thugs. Of course all of the union thugs had left town. So then his lawyers told him not to allow anyone else drive the buses.
That's where city/state cooperation and planning was crucial -- there needed to be inland shelters in schools and public buildings -- but if Gov. Blankhead ever thought of doing that she must have balked at the idea of trying to empty NOLA all over the state..... even though she had to KNOW that without a realistic evac plan the results would be just the sort of catastrophe we have seen. In fact, horrible as it was, this fell far short of the real potential catastrophe: Katrina could have remained a strong Category 5 and could have hit NOLA directly up the Mississippi and crushed the entire city immediately with a 25-30 foot storm surge. NOLA actually got 'only' a glancing blow compared to what could have happened, and 100,000 could have been dead due to the dereliction of the LOCAL and STATE officials.
It really could have been much worse for NO. It could have been done, not easily or cheaply but still possible if all state resources would have been used to shelter people. I honestly think that she didn't want to spend the money required to do so.
Hillary is halfway there (not brains).
Try that option on your liberal friends. They get the deer in the headlights look and start invoking posse commitatus. LOL
But he couldn't, of course - with the left obsessively looking for any crack in the legal authority of the administration to act in any circumstance. It is a dire situation for any of us. We, ordinary citizens, need to reconcile differences after elections and support the elected officials to the fullest in order to preserve our way of life. We must renounce the perpetual divisions fostered by the "craven political class" that weakens our national strengths, and come together to support those who we (for better or worse) put our future prosperity in the hands of. (sorry)
As if there is any action on any topic this President can take that would not be roundly criticized by the Party of Hate and their supporters.
He almost stepped into the Dem trap!
BLANCO'S fault since DAY ONE, she and anyone else that planned this out with her is responsible for the needless deaths. The Dems can reword this anyway they like but
the fault by law is that idiot Governor.
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