Posted on 08/28/2012 10:09:30 AM PDT by mnehring
President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana (search) on Saturday because of the approach of Hurricane Katrina (search) and his spokesman urged residents along the coast to heed authorities' advice to evacuate...
...The president's emergency declaration authorizes the FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and to provide appropriate assistance in a number of Louisiana parishes, or counties.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
..and keep in mind, Obama had Bush's experience to go on and still waited..
Sadly, residents followed the recommendations of the Mayor of Chocolate City and paid a tragic price.
A key factor in Katrina a was Governor Blanco’s ignorance of how the Stafford Act works. The President issues the emergency authorization, but the Governor must ask for specific things (like boots on the ground, relief supplies, permission to use airports, etc). Blanco asked for practically nothing in her Stafford Act memo, so FEMA and other agencies had no authority to enter Louisiana. In most cases they waited at the border for someone to wise Blanco up. Which was not until Thursday of that week, meanwhile the press is having a field day telling us that Bush was doing nothing (legally he couldn’t). No “journalist” explained or even mentioned the Stafford Act.
It pays to look up Stafford Act and see how it works. Congress passed it after Reagan unilaterally activated National Guard troops in another hurricane emergency, and lots of states saw that as a power grab and illegal infringement. Basically it stops the Exec Branch from staging a power grab based on an “emergency”.
Thanks for this simple way to explain this to the Libs. They will probably be claiming how wonderfully Obama responded to the threat of Isaac. We need this reminder to put in their faces.
Hope this is ok to post a quote from the “Gulfnews”...
“President Barack Obama, no doubt mindful of the bungled handling of that tragedy by his predecessor George W Bush, declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, allowing federal funds and aid to flow to local authorities.”
No flippin’ bias there, eh?
Blanco had numerous democrats in the state telling her she would be political toast if she let Bush come in and take control of the situation. It wasn’t until the democrats saw people stuck on rooftops that they did a 180 - and then put the blame on Bush who was only following the law as you pointed out.
http://www.nola.com/katrina/view.ssf?/katrina/blancodocs/Governor_s_Correspondence_1.pdf
here is Blanco’s Katrina letter.
That before or after he told his unqualified FEMA head buddy Brownie that he was doing a heck of a job?
Brownie did a “heckuva job” in the Florida Hurricanes that hit before, but then he didn’t have Democratic governors sabotaging his efforts there.
Blanco was acting on orders from her DNC Masters in Washington.
Someone needs to post the picture of Katrina dude wading through water with Obamas head on him...
ROTFLMAO! Yeah and that’s why Bush fired him within days of Katrina hitting. -rolls eye- Sell crazy elsewhere.
Bush threw him under the bus because politically the Rats had poisoned him. Bush had no choice, they needed a scapegoat.
So what would you have had Bush/Brownie do, that wouldn’t have violated the Constitution?
There was a lot of criticize Bush for, Katrina wasn’t one of them.
“Blanco was acting on orders from her DNC Masters in Washington.”
I think so too, but it would be nice to prove it. From looking at her document trail, she could just be stupid.
Imagine letting people die in a flood and hurricane so you can falsely claim Bush’s Fault.
oh I dunno - maybe Dubya should have hired a FEMA director who had the requisite background for such work instead of an International Arabian Horse Association judge?
That doesn’t answer the question. Once the storm was clearly headed for New Orleans and Mississippi, what would you have had them do?
“That doesnt answer the question.”
Yes it does. Good leaders delegate responsibly to qualified administrators. Dubya was an idiot and his choice for FEMA director doomed the Federal response. The state and local actions weren’t any better but that’s another story.
How was the Federal Response “doomed”?
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