[mnehring]

Just a reminder to everyone. Obama finally made the declaration a couple hours before Isaac is set to hit. Bush made the emergency declaration two days before Katrina hit New Orleans (Bush made declaration on Saturday, Katrina hit Monday).

..and keep in mind, Obama had Bush's experience to go on and still waited..

[Dahoser]

"We urge residents in the areas that could be impacted to follow the recommendations of local authorities," McClellan said.

Sadly, residents followed the recommendations of the Mayor of Chocolate City and paid a tragic price.

[DBrow]

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”.

[DBrow]

http://www.nola.com/katrina/view.ssf?/katrina/blancodocs/Governor_s_Correspondence_1.pdf

here is Blanco’s Katrina letter.

[KantianBurke]

That before or after he told his unqualified FEMA head buddy Brownie that he was doing a heck of a job?

[shotgun]

Someone needs to post the picture of Katrina dude wading through water with Obamas head on him...

[Delhi Rebels]

Katrina was a category 4 hurricane. This one was a cat 1. Big difference.