Posted on 01/23/2007 3:54:01 AM PST by Ellesu
WASHINGTON — Gov. Kathleen Blanco called on Congress on Monday to create a bipartisan commission to see if Republican Party politics factored in the federal response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Blanco’s call comes just days after former FEMA Director Michael Brown said the White House considered politics while planning to deal with Hurricane Katrina.
Brown said Friday that the White House was considering federalizing Louisiana because Blanco was a Democrat. Similar measures were not considered for Mississippi, which was headed by Gov. Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, he said.
On Monday, Brown wouldn’t name who made those comments.
“But I was on Air Force One when this all was being discussed,” he said.
Brown said Blanco was on Air Force One that day, but was in a different part of the presidential jet and didn’t hear the conversation. The plane was in Louisiana during one of President Bush’s trips to the state after the storm.
Blanco’s statement Monday presses the issue of White House politics.
“All of us were sickened to hear that while thousands of our citizens were suffering during Hurricane Katrina, political operatives in the White House were playing party politics,” the statement says.
To allow for “a full recovery and more adequately respond to future disasters,” Blanco called on Congress to:
Create a bipartisan commission to investigate the immediate and long-term federal response to what she called “the largest and most-catastrophic natural disasters in U.S. history.” Investigate the role of the White House political advisers throughout the two hurricanes. Buffer the Federal Emergency Management Agency from “political agendas and partisan politics.” Achieve parity in distribution of federal recovery dollars through standard criteria based on actual damage and need. Blanco and U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who also has called for an independent commission, have complained about recent federal funding allocations to the state.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the state would receive $86.6 million or 49 percent of the money available for hospital and health care grants. Neighboring Mississippi received 38 percent. Landrieu noted that Louisiana suffered 70 percent of the damage.
Likewise, state delegation members complained last month when FEMA proposed that almost 70 percent of the $388 million in money available for alternative disaster housing go to Mississippi while Louisiana suffered three times the housing damage.
But Blanco and Landrieu are unlikely to get their commission hearings.
U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., has said he will not pursue White House documents sought last year in the 21 Katrina hearings held by the committee he now chairs, the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
The panel accumulated more than 820,000 pages of documents, heard testimony from 74 witnesses and interviewed 290 more.
Likewise, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal., isn’t likely to create a special panel, instead allowing each of her committees to conduct what her spokesman Drew Hammill called Monday “necessary oversight.”
For example, the House Financial Services Committee already has announced that it intends to look into insurance coverage in the wake of the storms.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., dismissed Brown’s comments over the weekend, calling him “an idiot and a failure.”
U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon, D-Napoleonville, sat on the House Katrina Task Force, which also held dozens of hearings on the federal government’s response to the storms.
Melancon would like to see more probes into how the government handled the emergency.
He is “not looking for a witch hunt or to assign blame,” Melancon’s spokeswoman Robin Winchell said Monday. “He just wants to find out what went wrong in the federal response to Katrina so it doesn’t happen again.”
The busses in this picture alone could have transported a minimum of 8,400 people in one trip without exceeding seating capacity. What gross incompetence. I don't doubt that stupidity was considered in the Federal Government's decision.
Has it ever occured to her yet that SHE is the government?
The mere fact that Blanco and Nagin are still employed in leadership roles is testimony to how screwed the Sate of LA and City of NO are.
It's hard for me to have any sympathy for NO when the dumbass electorate chose to put this bigot and moron Nagin back in office. If Dr. King was still alive today, I'd bet he would b-slap Nagin for his 'chocolate city' comments.
Please by all means do yourself a favor and go to the Library and "READ" some history books that tell the truth.
Better yet, go to the Holocaust Museum and there you will find a plethora of information that will help you understand the history of the Holocaust.
This may help you...http://www.ushmm.org/
Vichy France.
Now you go read some history. You're the one who's appallingly ignorant on the subject.
L
Maybe there should be a probe into why Katrina, and only its effect on New Orleans, is the ONLY hurricane still cried over, documentaried, second-guessed, opined, whined, and speculated on nearly a year and a half afterwards.
She had better be careful - she may not like the results of what she's asking for - ESPECIALLY if there is any objectivity in the probe . . . . . . she and the Chocolate City man won't come out lookin' too good.
Ah yes, Margaret Sanger and her ubiquitous Planned Parenthood just trying to 'improve the breed' and all that.
Listen sweety, tens of thousands of non-Germans quite gleefully shoved Jews into box cars so that Arbeit could Macht 'em Frei.
There were French collaborators, Dutch collaborators, Polish collaborators, Austrian collaborators, etc etc ad infinitum ad frigging nauseum.
Last time I checked, all those countries were in Europe. Come to think of it, a couple of the more infamous Death Camps weren't even located in Germany.
FDR sat back and watched all the while knowing what was taking place with the Jewish people
For all of FDRs faults, and he had many to be sure, he didn't send American troops to shove Jews and other 'untermenschen' into boxcars. France did.
So you go on with your little myopic view of history you got from a website darlin'.
Some of us have relatives who lived through it and tell stories even today.
L
Deflection
She's looking for something to cover up her miserably poor performance.
This is all about the upcoming race for Governor of Louisiana!
I think the people who watched TV coverage of the storm and didn't have sense enough to get out deserve some credit.
I didn't wait for some "government voice" to tell me that I needed to leave home when Rita was headed in my direction.
Let's go there, Gov.
A year and a half? Pffft! FEMA has to keep telling our Katrina evacuees in Houston that the FEMA funds are just for temporary help, not for long-term maintenance.
The K people have been protesting and demonstrating once again because they've gotten yet another 6-month extension and they're saying it isn't enough, they need 18-month extensions.
Main reason? Their homes in New Orleans aren't fixed yet!
FEMA has paid $800 million to K people in Texas!
No it isn't.
off the cuff remarks accusing me of supporting France
No hon, I didn't accuse you of supporting France. I accused the Vichy French government of aiding and abetting the slaughter of millions of Jews.
Their Karmic reward is thousands of mohamedens setting fire to cars every night of the week. Payback's a bitch.
but do not use revise history to do so.
It's you who is 'revising' history. The Germans were the masterminds of the Holocaust but by no means did they act alone.
I find them humorous but yet insulting.
Then my work here is done.
L
This woman seems to require the spotlight like Dracula needs blood.
Every time she opens her mouth, something more stupid falls out.
This was and is a STATE problem. The Federal taxpayers have dumped BILLIONS of $$$ into that area for the hurricane problem, and at the end of the day, nothing seems to be at a status Blanco and Nagin will be thankful for.
I have no sympathy for either of them. Blanco diddled in making decisions, while the floods grew. Nagin let hundreds of busses sit and rot instead of using them to move people out. Both of them represent fully the worst of politicians in the USA.
This is totally disgusting. Anyone thinking such a thing should not be in office. Pathetic.
Here's what should be investigated. This is what she was sworn to do in case of emergency............
5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Controversy_over_whether_
New_Orleans_Mayor_failed_to_follow_hurricane_plan
Too bad it wasnt election day, demokkkrats ALWAYS send out the buses to pick up them folks on that day.
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