[markomalley]

I wanted to highlight a couple of paragraphs on this:

---

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Blanco. Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, according to a source within the state's emergency operations center.

The administration had sought control over National Guard units, normally under control of the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request, noting that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.

---

That shows exactly how it must have gone down. Blanco wouldn't give up her power, letting her people die rather than allowing Federal control and coordination of the incident. Normally, I'd support that kind of position, but that would imply that the governor actually had at least minimal leadership skills...

[beyond the sea]

A young Guardsman put an arm around the stooped Kelly and said, "Good luck and God bless."

Same here.

[visagoth]

For anyone you know that still cant figure out how things work in the disaster response world... check out this quote from the WaPo:

Other federal and state officials pointed to Louisiana's failure to measure up to national disaster response standards, noting that the federal plan advises state and local emergency managers not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours, and base their own preparedness efforts on the need to be self-sufficient for at least that period. "Fundamentally the first breakdown occurred at the local level," said one state official who works with FEMA. 'Did the city have the situational awareness of what was going on within its borders? The answer was no."

[MNJohnnie]

Yep Want to blame the Feds but will not let the Feds take over. Dinosaur media spin lie "It's all Bush's fault, is going to look thread bear when people start asking"Why is President Bush having to ASK to take over on Friday night yet the Dinosaur media is telling that every in NO last week is "Bush's fault"?

[cardinal4]

Gov. Kathleen Blanco said she expected the death toll to reach the thousands, while Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.

What does this mean?

[gusopol3]

the MSM strategy becomes overt

[syriacus]

The "Please, Mother. I'd rather do it myself" Twins

[dawn53]

She's now hired her own "FEMA" guy...the guy that was FEMA head under Clinton.

That is just plain weird.

[Texas_Conservative2]

quote "as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management"


hm.. I want to know specifically who in the administration has blamed state and local authorities...

let me guess .... anonymous source?

[Admin Moderator]

Washington Post must be excerpted, even from other sources carrying the story.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005 12:47 p.m. EDT Gov. Kathleen Blanco: No State of Emergency

Though her state has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina and thousands are believed dead in New Orleans, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has yet to declare a state of emergency and refuses to cede authority over rescue efforts to the federal government.

"Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans," the Washington Post reported in Sunday editions.

[KC_for_Freedom]

I don't know when it was decided to move without support from the local government, but obviously after Bush looked things over and saw that nothing was being done he decided to send in the convoys. Somewhere along the way the Governor must have authorized national guardsmen (first without weapons, then later with weapons free). But it is clear that they don't want the Feds to have control, in fact they fear it.

[TASMANIANRED]

Total failure of local leadership.

[Mike Darancette]

I think the President told the Governor and mayor to get someone on the state team that knows what he is doing. Thus Witt was hired.

[Travis McGee]

I hope that sooner or later the MSM discovers that New Orleans did have a written emergency plan to cover the evacuation of the poor, but that the idiot mayor of New Orleans ignored it, and allowed the evacuation buses to be ruined by the flood, forgotten.

The city leaders had at least two full days to use these hundreds of buses to evac the poor, exactly as their own emergency management plan called for.

Here's the southeast Louisiana evac plan supplement, most recently revised in 2000. Go to page 13, read paragraph 5. It states:

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.

[G.Mason]

ping

[marblehead17]

ping

[Gator113]

The politics of the left is what killed those people. It must break their little hearts to know that many of their lib voters are now dead.......wait, for them it doesn't matter, dead people have the right to vote.

[tet68]

I have yet to hear anyone in the Bush administration
put the blame on the state and city. I sure have heard
a lot the other way though.

I think they doth protest too much!