Posted on 09/20/2005 11:35:05 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
The US military has categories of stupidity. The highest is “gross public dumb.” But a higher category is needed for moments like the “bus interview” by Louisiana Governor Blanco. It is spectacularly stupid. You’ve got to see this to believe it.
Interview of Governor Blanco by John Hill of Louisiana Gannett News, 19 September, 2005
“GANNETT: In hindsight, what would you have done differently in the first response?
“BLANCO: Well, I would have placed less confidence in a structure elsewhere (the Federal Emergency Management Association) and depended more on ourselves. As an example, when buses were not delivered in a timely fashion, we had already started gathering school buses ... and buses of any kind ...
“We gave ourselves a false sense of confidence when we were counting on 500 buses that FEMA had ordered that did not come in until Wednesday night. So ...we would depend more on our own resources.”
Is this a stupid statement? To quote Elizabeth Browning, “Let me count the ways.”
Louisiana and New Orleans were supposed to use their OWN buses. So says the Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan, 1 January, 2000. Was Governor Blanco aware of the Plan? Apparently not. But for any Governor of Louisiana, isn’t dealing with the occasional hurricane part of the job?
She refers to “confidence in FEMA.” Did she think FEMA had magic buses which would run with their engines under water? Did she think people could board those buses from the attics of their houses, hiding from flood waters? Hasn’t she seen the aerial photographs of 500 local buses flooded where they were parked before Katrina hit? Hellooo.
In the past she knew how to roll the buses. When she was running for Governor, she got the buses rolling in New Orleans Parish, with signs and Dixieland bands to turn out voters for Blanco. Which is the higher priority – getting votes for Blanco, or saving lives? Hellooo.
Was FEMA “late” in helping New Orleans? Let’s review. Katrina is the worst hurricane measured by square miles of territory wiped out. The second worst was Hurricane Floyd in 1999. It lingered over North Carolina, wiping out roads, electricity, gas lines, letting loose millions of gallons of sewage and agricultural waste on the eastern third of that state.
In 1999, the Governor did not retire to his fainting couch to “think about it” for 24 hours as Floyd approached. Yet FEMA’s response to Floyd (a smaller destroyed area) was slower than its response to Katrina now. Blanco has to know this, because her hired gun for the political aftermath of Katrina is James Lee Witt, Director of FEMA in 1999. Hellooo.
Asked about her comment which CNN taped that she “should have specifically asked for more troops," she said:
“BLANCO: Well, that was at a point in time when we were wondering if we were getting any significant federal aid. I guess because of the dynamics of the situation, when I asked for help, then I started getting bombarded with, ‘Did you ask specifically for this, that or the other.’ .... When people ask me for help, I know what kind of help I can get to them, and I can get it to them pretty quickly... Nobody bothered to ask me those questions.”
Note that last sentence. If nobody asks her a question, she doesn’t even think about that subject. Should any executive in or outside government ever act like this in an emergency? Hellooo.
Asked about the “breakdown... between state, federal and local people,” she replied,
“BLANCO: “I think the breakdown was at the point of not being able to get (buses) there on time. ... We had one mission in those early days, and it was search and rescue. Get people out of the water.”
No, Mrs. Blanco, the FIRST mission was to get the people out BEFORE the water got there. Hellooo. This woman is unfit to run a lemonade stand. She would have a gross lack of sales because she thought someone else was bringing the lemons.
I’m not picking on Governor Blanco as a Southern woman and Democrat. In three generations of women in my family, most are/were Southerners and Democrats. None of them, in a crisis, ever dithered or worked themselves into a swivet. They sized up the situation and did the best they could. No one was harmed because they couldn’t act..
But people did get harmed, people did die, because Blanco became Governor, clueless of her duties whenever the next major hurricane hit New Orleans. That goes beyond the high standard of gross public dumb.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
I dasn't say it, but any fool that voted for this empty dress got just what they deserved....NOTHING !!! What a load this woman has, if her pantyhose start swelling up, get away fast....or you will die!! (kind of like those poor souls in New Orleans, huh?)
There was not a single bus-size-pontoon in the entire FEMA response.
It's Bus....you get the idea.
When the Gov gets rid of all the gas she has, believe me, it ain't the vapors that broad is sufferin' from...she has a terminal case of the "stupids"..but what is it about this dummy that reminds me of the Senator from New York?? No, not Chuckie-pass the buck-Schumer, but ol' Hillary what's-her-face!!!Scary...the two of them!!
Are those quotes you posted from Mayor Nagin real? If so, he is dumber than Governor Blanco. I had suspected that all along. But it is such a high standard to achieve. There is greatness in all human endeavors, including stupidity.
John / Billybob
If, as I suspect, these students do BETTER elsewhere, regardless of their traumatic personal circumstances, than this will be rock solid proof, if more be needed, that the NO schools are a waste of educational time and money.
John / Billybob
stupid is as stupid does - Forrest Gump
lmao
If wishes were horses,
Beggars would ride.
In this case, being stupid and irresponsible seem to provide an airlift of their own, right into the ether.
She seems a master at confuso-speak.
Despite wrongful claims of his lack of intelligence (you have to be pretty stupid to get elected president of the United States?), President Bush would recognize a request for the National Guard, even for something such as buses, from Louisiana *when* he heard it. She always tries not to admit what EXACTLY she asked the president for.
I do not know how the nursing home operators can be charged with negligent homicide and the mayor of NO and the governor of LA aren't.
I know that during the last gubernatorial race Jindal had commercials running about Orleans Parish VALEDVICTORIANS failing the state exit tests some as many as 5 times. The school system "misplaced" 45 million dollars last year. The powers that be there did not want their constituents educated so that they could maintain the status quo.
LOL
Rule number one for all mayors in future hurricanes is to tell all drivers in charge of driving buses that evacuate evacuees not to leave town ahead of the evacuation! Seems like someone else could have thought of that before now.
Big time bump.
Cities and parishes are political subdivisions of the state of Louisianna. The city of New Orleans, a gulf port city, much of it below sea level, between a giant lake and the Mississippi River, had a police department that only owned three powered boats. Two were "out of service" at the time of the hurricane.
Let the Good Times Roll.
So what do you think the chances are of Ms. Blanco actually being recalled?
Isn't that "Orleans Parish"?
With the NG under her "command" she could have ordered the guard members to drive the busses and coordinated the evacuation with Nagin. That would have solved the driver problem.
Impeach or recall - hey, if California can do it, I hope the good people of Louisiana can do it. And if my three years living in New Orleans taught me anything, it's that the REAL people of Luzianne have gumption and then some.
I was married to a Cajun - and if she's pissed off her own, there's no help for her.
CajunConservative - trust you and yours came through okay. Sonny Landreth is playing in S.F. Friday night - I can't WAIT!
Used to be a professional proofreader, among other duties.
Good article, hard-hitting, funny.
Now, what can we do to help you and the people of LA get rid of Blanco and Sister Mary Landrieu?
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