[Romulus]

Freepers who vilified democrat Gov. Kathleen Blanco after hurricane Katrina should reflect that she was very properly resisting a federal power grab. Notwithstanding her politics, I always supported her insistance on retaining local control of the National Guard. People not from New Orleans don’t get that government at all levels viewed the storm’s aftermath as an opportunity to mounvt a dress rehearsal for martial law. SAR was merely an excuse and byproduct. What y’all saw on tv was mostly a show. Here at street level I can tell you it was all about military and paramilitary units finding out just how unconstitutional they could be when attention is distracted. The answer is — very.

[Kartographer]

Yes Blanco did a wonderful job of keeping things in control.

[USNBandit]

Freepers who vilified democrat Gov. Kathleen Blanco after hurricane Katrina should reflect that she was very properly resisting a federal power grab.

Curling up in the fetal position in the immediate aftermath then blaming the federal government for inaction when it was her responsibility to request assistance is not worthy of praise.

[robowombat]

Bunko was no hero. She was just a typical Swamp State politician that wanted the feds to turn on the money spigot for the LA ANG and Air NNG and not ask any questions about how many drill pays were actually doing anything and what rh operations and maintenance billings really were for. Like every thing else in Louisiana a major disaster is viewed as an opportunity for political patronage. The AG of La at the time, Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau was sort of a poster boy for the complicit political enabler and court jester which is why he served under three different governor's. I regret that President Bush didn't simply declare south Louisiana ‘National Defense Zone’ due to the significance of the petro chemical industry, off shore oil port facilities and the port of New Orleans and declare marshal law and appoint a competent, not an affirmative action clown such as was eventually appointed as federal coordinating officer, general officer to control the chaos rampant in south Louisiana. The state and local governments displayed the Louisiana sickness of whining incapacity and psychological weakness to a florid degree and the Swamp State should have had its nose thoroughly rubbed in its governmental failure. Those who paid their taxes, bought adequate insurance, added prudently and functioned competently were the victims of mass governmental collapse and incompetence. Bush was far to kind to the local incompetent, weak kleptocrats.

[Kirkwood]

Blanco's stupidity and indecisiveness had nothing to do with resisting federal power.

[Kirkwood]

By the way, there is an incident command structure established in writing specifically for a Katrina event. All she had to do was say the word go and the entire script would have played out as written. Instead we got days of chaos in SE Louisiana because she had no ability to make a command decision. The more she dragged this out, the more politicized the entire event became.

[DBrow]

The Stafford Act was set up to limit Federal power in disasters, after Reagan mobilized the NG in Fla after a hurricane.

Blanco did not realize that she had to be proactive and specifically ASK for boots on the ground, temp housing, generators, mass casualty gear, and evacuation transportation. If you look at the Katrina paper trail, it is clear that she had no clue what to do. She definitely was not attempting to limit Fed involvement.

Naturally the press caught on and the meme became Bush’s Fault, while Bush could do nothing unless he risked impeachment for a clear and willful violation of Stafford.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Your assessment of what Guv Blanko (spelling intentional) in Looziana is perhaps the worst read of events I’ve seen this side of the Ed Schultz Show.