Mary, Mary, Quite (To The) Contrary

InvestorsBusinessDaily ^ | 9-9-05

[STARWISE]

Politics: Louisiana's senior senator, whose brother is lieutenant governor and whose father was New Orleans' mayor, is blaming President Bush for "the staggering incompetence of the federal government." Come again?

It's understandable that on the Sept. 4 edition of ABC's "This Week," Mary Landrieu said of President Bush, "I might likely have to punch him — literally" if he or members of his administration made any more disparaging remarks about local authorities and their pre- and post-Katrina efforts. Some are and were family.

Brother Mitch Landrieu is lieutenant governor of Louisiana. Father "Moon" Landrieu was not only mayor of New Orleans, but also later became secretary of housing and urban development under President Carter.

(snip)

Despite Landrieu's complaints of budget cuts and paltry funding, the fact is that over the five years of the Bush administration, Louisiana has received more money — $1.9 billion — for Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects than any other state, and more than under any other administration over a similar period. California is a distant second with less than $1.4 billion despite a population more than seven times as large.

(snip)

The problem was at the local level. The ambitious plan fell apart when the state suspended the Levee Board's ability to refinance old bonds and issue new ones. As the Times-Picayune reported, Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores no-bid contract laws." Blocked by the state from raising local money, the federal matching funds went unspent. By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one-tenth of one percent, or $1.98 million, was dedicated to New Orleans levee improvements. By contrast, $22 million was spent that year to renovate a home for the Louisiana Supreme Court.

[hosepipe]

[ What a snakepit ... Mary Landrieu and her LA buddies need an excorcism. ]

An exorcism!.. LoL... by Count Von Bushula and the Bushbats..
Dream on...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Can't wait for the "hearings"...

[dfwgator]

Landrieu may even be more culpable than Blanco.

[claudiustg]

I see an indictment in her future.

[carlr]

I wish someone in the LA government gets sick of seeing the obstruction,incompetence and politicization that has gone on in the last 7-10 days and comes forward and says enough is enough.
It would be interesting to see what the first messages from the DNC to the Governors office said and when they were sent.

[STARWISE]

Would this have happened and would the aftermath have been so bad if New Orleans was actually New England?

Ophelia could make this guy eat his slimeball words this week ..ya never know .. God does work in mysterious ways.

[STARWISE]

[manwiththehands]

I believe that's why the Left/MSM "blame Bush" spin machine is in full force. The Democrat incompetence at the local level was so blatant they have to come out swinging to obfuscate the truth. It's called "damage control".

[pankot]

And idiots still vote for the Dems.

[ModelBreaker]

Nine months before Katrina, three top Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness officials were indicted by a federal grand jury in Shreveport and charged, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana, "with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation opportunities throughout Louisiana."

The suspicious ModelBreaker thinks that this is the reason the state didn't want the feds to take over the recovery effort. There's too much corruption in NO and Blanco and Nagin were scared that if the feds got control, they might just look into the corruption more closely. There were records to shred, hard drives to erase and so on before the feds could be allowed in.

It's hard to explain Blanco's actions any other way (except of course the incompetant deer caught in headlights explanation, which, in less suspicious moments, is my preferred explanation).

[maggief]

Then there's Aunt Phyllis Landrieu...

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050124/ai_n10176385

New Orleans School Board works to boost Superintendent Amato's salary
New Orleans CityBusiness, Jan 24, 2005 by Deon Roberts


New Orleans Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Amato is close to receiving his first raise in nearly two years on the job.

Recently inaugurated School Board members are urgently working to boost Amato's $200,000 salary to compete with job offerings reportedly being made by other school systems.

Phyllis Landrieu, the new District 5 Board member, wrote to state Attorney General Charles Foti in November asking whether an outside individual or entity can contribute to the financial package for the superintendent.

(snip)

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-09-14/news_scut.html

SCUTTLEBUTT 09 14 04

Endorsement Ruckus

By Allen Johnson Jr

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, state Attorney General Charles Foti, and Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan -- and other elected officials -- apparently violated a state law banning elected officials from endorsing Orleans Parish School Board members, local attorney C.B. Forgotston says.

Spokespersons for Landrieu, Foti and Jordan all say the law is unconstitutional and should not be enforced; Forgotston says the law should either be enforced or repealed.

Foti, Jordan and Landrieu all appear in campaign ads endorsing School Board District 5 candidate Phyllis Landrieu in the Sept. 18 primary election. ...

(snip)

http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/profile-pf.aspx?act=industries&year=2003&in=48

384) Phyllis Landrieu Landrieu Public Relations LLC

http://www.publicintegrity.org/lobby/profile.aspx?act=firms&year=2003&lo=L002036

Lobbying Firm
Landrieu Public Relations LLC
Rank: 1287th
Lobbying 1998-2004: $1,580,000

[popdonnelly]

Louisiana politicians are above criticism? I'm sure Mary and her cohorts would love to blame it all on Bush. I sent Mary an e-mail reminding her that she helped put Blanco in office.

[sinclair]

Actually IMO New Orleans was becoming a better city under Mayor Nagin's leadership. In perspective he is the least corrupt mayor in a long long time  

[popdonnelly]

The Dems are just totally incapable of figuring out that the Governor is incompetent. And that is the major difference between Louisiana and other States.

[yoe]

With all the money pouring in from every where, who is going to oversee these quick-withdraw thugs? This is just amazing.....Nine months before Katrina, three top Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness officials were indicted by a federal grand jury in Shreveport and charged, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana, "with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation opportunities throughout Louisiana."

Mayor Nagin told whoever would listen and the MSM did, that at least 10,000 people had lost their lives - "the authorities" ordered 25,000 body bags on Nagin's word. I wouldn't take his word for directions to the nearest bathroom!

Blanco, Landrieu, their fathers, brothers and cousins – nepotism is the name of the game in Louisiana – run by the Democratic Party for over 40 years and no one wants a change…why would they with all the gravy these political despots keep handing their less than thoroughbred constituents. What makes the President or the congress think that pouring billions of dollars into those city coffers will fix canals, levees or build affordable housing for people on welfare…are they going to build some more “keep-‘em-on-the-plantation” housing projects for the same hapless people? Is a new and better Superdome in the works? If these citizens of New Orleans have no intention of firing Mayor Nagin for his completely bungled job before, during, and after Katrina….if these people like the way law, order and politics are run in their town and do nothing about cleaning up the corruption and patronage, then I think the money allocated for homes should be first after bulldozing and burning the wreckage. To do anything other than that is money down the Louisiana black hole where untold millions and millions have been disappearing for years and there is no actual accounting as to where an astonishing amount of U.S. taxpayer money really went.

I am a little testy with the attitude of "oh, that's just how things are done in Louisiana".

[sinclair]

Silly rabbit! What you describe as incompetence is actually viewed by the dems as an attribute. The more they believe the government will steal from the "evil rich" (that means anybody actually earning their money) and give to them the better their chances of being elected here or anywhere else for that matter..   

[ohioWfan]

I am always curious as to how the mind of a person works who, in the face of the evil deeds of the left, can only think about his own (erroneously) perceived wrongdoing of those who are good.

How does your mind twist and turn like this, hosepipe?

I mean, that you can see this evidence of graft and corruption of the Dems, and still manage to bash the President with it?

[ohioWfan]

In perspective he is the least corrupt mayor in a long long time

That's quite a distinction for him. :)

[ModelBreaker]

Actually IMO New Orleans was becoming a better city under Mayor Nagin's leadership. In perspective he is the least corrupt mayor in a long long time

I've heard that. I was actually talking about Blanco's decisions more than Nagin's. I am told by those who ought to know that the NOPD is the most corrupt big city police dept in the country. I'm sure it is a huge contributor to rats throughout LA. If the graft and protection schemes are made impossible by the presence of troops that answer to the DoD rather than Blanco during recovery, how much does that cost the LA rats? I'm thinking a lot of money. And that's just the police.

I still suspect that removing incriminating stuff was the real reason Blanco delayed the feds by several days.