Imagine the situation on the ground if Jeb and Rudy were in charge five days before the storm hit.
FYI: A woman in Houston was on Fox today with a sign: WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED US RAY GAVIN?
I wonder if we will see it on CNN.
This is an obvious contrast and one the MSM should be discussing.
Have the names "Kathleen Blanco" and "Ray Gavin" been posted yet among the missing on the walls of the astro dome?
That's Ray Nagin.
UHHH...NO.
Neither will you see this:
From a Navy guy:
Haven't read much about this in the news .... but a Navy info source that I receive sent this out this morning.
Thanks to the Navy's new readiness model 28 ships were ready to get underway within 24 hours.
Bataan (a helicopter carrier) and HSV (High Speed Vessel) 2 Swift, out of Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, are off the affected coastline providing support. Four MH-53s (huge helos capable of moving 40-50 troops) and two HH-60s (capable of moving about 20 troops) off the Bataan are flying medevac and search and rescue (SAR) missions in Louisiana, and supporting the Coast Guard's 8th District. Bataan's hospital and staff has been augmented by an additional contingent from the Navy's Bureau of Medicine (BUMED), consisting of 85 personnel, including 12 physicians and 4 surgeons.
The Iwo Jima (large helo carrier) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) is sailing from Norfolk, Va. loaded with disaster-response equipment. The USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8 - an oiler, ammunition and stores (as in refrigerated stores)) is currently off the Gulf Coast. USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) (large helo carrier), USS Shreveport (LPD 12) (large helo capable troop transport ship), and USS Tortuga (LSD 46) (large, helo capable troop transport ship) are expected soon. A medical staff augmentation for Iwo Jima is expected to be en route tomorrow.
The hospital ship, USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), is departing Baltimore by September 3 to bring some 270 medical staff, capable of supporting 250 hospital beds, to the Gulf region. Project Hope has offered to embark additional medical personnel, and the Air Force's Surgeon General has offered to provide still further staff if needed.
USS Harry S. Truman (aircraft carrier) (CVN 75) and USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41) (same as Tortuga above) are sailing today for areas off the Gulf Coast in support to FEMA relief operations. Truman will serve as a command center and an afloat staging base, and will carry additional helicopters from Naval Air Station Jacksonville to support search and rescue efforts. Whidbey Island will bring to the region the ability to employ a movable causeway.
USS Grapple (ARS 53) (salvage ship) is currently en route in order to assist with maritime and underwater survey and salvage operations.
Military Sealift Command has transferred control of five of its ships to the Navy's Second Fleet to provide further support to relief efforts. USNS Bellatrix, Altair, Pillilau, Bob Hope, and Argol are in the Gulf of Mexico already (all capable of carrying lots of food stuffs, and supplies). USNS Arctic is also at sea in the Gulf and acting as a FEMA support ship and providing logistics services support for the other ships at sea.
Navy helicopters from Jacksonville and Mayport, Fla., are supporting relief efforts, and Navy Seabees from Port Hueneme, Jacksonville, and Norfolk are on scene or making preparations to deploy to assist in relief operations.
USNS Pollux is operating onboard dialysis equipment for the patients of a local hospital, providing diesel fuel for area hospitals' generators, and providing meals and berthing to relief workers.
Excellent questions. Let's keep asking, and asking, and asking them.
There is no question that Blanco is a sorry excuse for a governor. She's been MIA from the beginning.
From even before the beginning of this crisis, the Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Blanco, has treated this situation as a political issue. As I watched her last Sunday morning press conference, I was amused at how she invoked the presidents name on several occasions.
Blanco noted how she spoke to the president the day before (Saturday) and how it was Bush who called her to issue a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana. This was unusual since I know (from living in Florida) that it is usually the Governor who makes this declaration. But even more unusual was how Blanco noted that it was also the president who called her to insist and plead that she issue a mandatory evacuation.
At the time I didn't realize why she was turning all this responsibility over to the president...but than I realized why. Just a year ago when Hurricane Ivan barely missed the city of New Orleans, both the Governor and the city planners took extreme heat for the inconveniences they caused their population when hurricane Ivan didn't hit their city. Both state and local officials took criticism from all areas, including their failures to prepare for that hurricane.
Amazingly, that criticism led to the slow reactions we saw this past weekend as katrina approached the Louisiana coast. Each public official looked to the other to make the life-saving calls because they didn't want to be responsible for another false alarm. In other words, their was no leadership from the start. When President Bush called on Saturday to ask what the heck was going on, the governor finally took action because she now had her scape-goat should Katrina not hit the city.
What's outrageous about this is that we only have to go back to hurricane Ivan to see what this reluctance meant. From the beginning the mayor was warned of his inadequate city plans. This was even exposed in an AP report from September 19, 2004 by Kevin McGill titled "Ivan exposes flaws in N.O.'s disaster plans." Not only was the mayor warned about his problem of relocating the poor, homeless advocacy groups insisted he make changes.
A quote from the article notes: "They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya Hill, 57, said at the time. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."..."Even the ACLU criticized the mayor, noting, "If the government asks people to evacuate, the government has some responsibility to provide an option for those people who can't evacuate and are at the whim of Mother Nature," said Joe Cook of the New Orleans ACLU.
The mayor had a full year and yet nothing was done. And this is reprehensible since even the American Red Cross informed the mayor that they would no longer be setting up shelters within the city for hurricanes over category-2. They informed the mayor that is was just too dangerous and that his city was ill-prepared to handle the crisis. Others even warned that the Superdome was insufficient since it would turn into an island with thousands trapped. This all happened a year ago. Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Tanzie Jones responded to the criticism... "Our main focus is to get the people out of the city," she said. Hmm...yet we all see the pictures of school buses siting useless in drowned-out parking lots.
The politics didn't stop there. Every state governor has a National Guard at their disposal...not to mention all the State Police and law enforcement agencies at their call. Louisiana still retained 66% of their NG for a crisis just like this. In fact, having been declared a state of emergency by the president (last Saturday), the governor not only has the power to request federal resources, she can request the NG from surrounding states. She did neither before this storm.
But what makes matters worse is that this governor failed to use her own National Guard for the purposes of law enforcment. This was a political decision because she did not want to be the person giving orders that might result in the shooting of "poor, black people." Can you imagine the outrage come election time. This was made more difficult since not only did the mayor of NO...but also her own Attorney General, begin justifying the looting shortly after the hurricane passed. Ironically, these people even had almost a 24 hour window to clean up this mess (and evacuate) after the hurricane passed...and before the levees broke. Sadly, they dropped their guard thinking they got away with another near-miss.
While we all understand the need to survive, this lawlessness broke out immediately, with people taking everything in sight. As a result, chaos ensued and the governor, for political reasons, just would not take control of a situation that would surely destroy her political chances if poor, black people were killed. You could even hear the justification by some as if these people were owed these things. The sad fact is, there was a lack of leadership from the start. Is it any wonder cops were laying down their badges and walking off the job. It wasn't Katrina that destroyed this city...it was the politicians
the answer is simple....
Guliani, Pataki and Bush point there finger and tell everyone: "We're gonna do this!....and we're gonna do that!"
Meanwhile Nagin, Blanco and Landrui look at everyone, with their hands out asking, "Where is this??......and where is that???"
Very simple difference between the "can do" mentaility of being a Republican and the "entitlement- gimme, gimme, gimme" liberal approach!
This started down hill when the governor's mind went blanco. She was told by W to start an evacuation but she didn't. She could have called up her own Guard on Tuesday, but she didn't. She cried well but that didn't help, now did it? The jerk running N.O. turned out to be Bart Simpson in Black face. "I didn't do it man! It wasn't me!" The kid who grabbed the school bus and took people to Huston had more leadership than both of them combined. And he is willing to be arrested if they're stupid enough to do that. Yes a 19 year old kid is willing to face any consequences, but neither blanc mind or empty noggin will.
There's a lesson for Bush in this: Don't wait for a Democrat Governor to ask for help in a situation like this. They don't have a clue what they are doing.
When things settle down, there should be a recall for this governor. However, I think her term will expire before things are back in order.
Heck, compare Blanco (D-LA) to Barbour (R-MS), or Nagin (D-NO) to Holloway (R-Biloxi) in the midst of the exact same storm.
The difference is striking.
Don't forget governor Perry of Texas ... he's doing an amazing job with the relief efforts.
Easy, Jeb and Rudy are mature and competent leaders, the others are not.
Footnote: The former's attributes are hallmarks of Republicans and the latter's are deficiency hallmarks of Democrats.
Clearly, neither the N.O. mayor, not the La guv did their jobs. The mayor is the one who clearly blew it. FYI, here is site address of the City of New Orleans own Emergency Preparedness for Hurricanes document. Just about everything the mayor did NOT do correctly or at all are stated his or his city's responsibility.
www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid+26
Go about half waydown through the document to Annex I Hurricanes. Then, read the sections covering Warning, Evacuation (especially) and Sheltering.
When Jeb Bush was elected, one of his first priorities was setting up PLANNING commissions (for future state power needs, for handling hurricane emergencies, etc.) When Charley hit in 2004, Jeb stated that our worst scenario had occurred; a hurricane bisecting the state south to north...but that scenario HAD BEEN PLANNED FOR. Things did not go perfectly, but they went very smoothly compared to Andrew.
Which brings me to our "loveable" oaf demonrats in Louisiana...WHERE WAS THE PLANNING???
"Imagine the situation on the ground if Jeb and Rudy were in charge five days before the storm hit".
My sister - also a New Yorker and a democrat, has always blasted the praise Rudy got after 9/11 and said he didn't do anything different than any other mayor would have. I always replied that Rudy did everything a lot better! I doubt that this has changed her mind at all.
I hope the democrats are proud of themselves for teaching these people that they are completely helpless without the federal government's help! It certainly shows. Who will step up to the plate and say so?
liberals are like used car salesmen...good on the selling, but not so good on the after-sales service...