Team Bush spins the crisis (barf alert)

Wow, the media sucks.

There is not one single mention of state or local governments in this story at all.

Congressional hearings into the response to Katrina are a certainty this fall, as the list of critics - both Republicans and Democrats - who say the feds were a no-show for days want to know what went wrong.

"If a country knows they're going to be attacked whether by Mother Nature or by terrorists, they must be prepared and it's obvious that the federal government was not prepared," Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens) said.

Looks like Rep. Ackerman doesn't need no stinkin' hearings to know who to blame.

From article:

Still, with critics fuming, Team Bush tried to emphasize some benchmarks, highlighting that the Coast Guard has saved 9,500 victims, evacuated another 25,000 people, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has delivered 6.7 million liters of water and 1.9 million field rations. Amtrak also will soon run four trains a day out of New Orleans.

And how many of those rescues are due to the fact that the wheels on those buses weren't spinning before the storm hit???

It's the NY Daily Snooze that's "spinnin' the crisis" for comrades, Blanko, Nagin and Landreiu. When incompetent 'RATS screw up, blame the Republicans. That's what this article is all about.

Halliburton made it.

Bush doesn't have to spin this story. In fact, 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, Aug. 27) 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,"

What's disturbing about all of this is how Mayor Nagin ignored most of his own "Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan" (A. Evacuation Time Requirements): "Using information developed as part of the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task Force and other research, the City of New Orleans has established a maximum acceptable hurricane evacuation time standard for a Category 3 storm event of 72 hours." Katrina was already a Category-3 hurricane, predicted to hit New Orleans from late Friday. Continuing with Nagins emergency plan:
"The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and "feeding" facilities as needed...special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance." Hmm...yet we have all see the pictures of school and city buses sitting useless in drowned-out parking lots. What makes this all more deplorable is that neither of these public officials had ordered "mandatory" evacuations until after hearing from the President on Saturday...and that was already within the 72-hour window.

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.

In fact, according to a report from the Washington Post: "A power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). 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, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday. 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..."

What makes matters worse is that this governor failed to even use her own National Guard for the purposes of law enforcment, something granted to her under Article IV, Section 5 of the State Constitution. This was also 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 day. 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. How could they now even establish order after dismissing this criminal activity under a "need to survive." Is it any wonder why cops walked off the job? Not only were they not getting the support they needed, their own leaders were helping to perpetuate the chaos that followed.

What's Ironic, is that these people even had almost a 24 hour window to start cleaning up this mess (and evacuate) and establish order after the hurricane passed...and before the levees broke. I was stunned to learn that not only did some bars stay open, but more reopened by late Monday afternoon. You could see the celebratory attitude of some, as they relocated from their balconys in the French Quarter to the streets below...exhaling over another near-miss. Even Sheppard Smith (Foxnews) who would later become a vocal critic, was breathing a sigh of relief. Sadly, city officials also dropped their guard, as other city dwellers did, all thinking they got away with another close call.

While we all understand the need to survive, the lawlessness that was allowed to break out immediately after the hurricane passed would only complicate rescue and recovery efforts.. 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...especialy since many in her own administration were dismissing this activity. 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.

Unfortunately, this security issue would also impede the arrival of any external support. It should be noted that FEMA is not in anyway an armed response team. In fact, as part of their mission statement, it is understood that their response time for such crisis is generally 3-5 days...and this is under the best of circumstance. I know, because I live in Florida and witnessed it firsthand as they didn't role into town for a couple days.

Before we start blaming FEMA and the federal government, I think there are some very serious questions that need to be asked and answered. The reason that FEMA is not a first responder is because it is assumed that both the state and local officials could at least handle things for a few days. Not to mention that unlike local governments, the Federal government has to transport, scout the area, clear any debris and setup their own mobile operations....something the state is at least expected to do to help alleviate problems.

Let's just forget the hurricanes for a moment and ask how it is that a city living below sea-level, with a risk of a levee break or torential rainfall at ANY time, was in no way prepared to even feed or cloth those that may be left behind for 3-5 days? How is it also that a city as big as New Orleans only had one shelter "of last resort" for the poor and elderly. Granted, there were other less publicized locations and we did learn the Convention Center would later become a defacto shelter, but how it is that supplies weren't designated for these shelters when even after Ivan last year they were warned of this inadaquacy?

The mayor promised that he would establish a more orderly evac/refuge system after Ivan last year. And this is very relevant when we look at the security issues and the federal response that had to follow. In fact, one of those immediate problems was the Convention Center itself, which was never designated as a refuge by the state, yet became home for up to 30,000 residents. As Mike Brown from FEMA noted on Friday, he and his team weren't even aware of this location until Thursday, Sep. 1.

Because of this lack of planning, we now had appx. 60,000 refugees just between these two shelters alone. And because there were no provisions for either food and water...or adequate security, we "immediately" had a chaotic situation. The very reason you need numerous, smaller shelters are so you can allocate resources and control more easily. And while others may have existed, the Superdome (and Civic Center) were allowed to become the primary refuge site for an entire city, without thinking about the consequences. And as with everything else, this was not a new problem as Hurricane Georges in 1998 showed the city they weren't prepared to even handle 14,000 people.

Unfortunately, these circumstance meant that the very food and water drops that people expected to see, couldn't happen at that time. As many Guardsmen and military people have now noted, you cannot just drop a "limited" amount of supplies into a large population that is already hungry and chaotic. And that doesn't even include the logisitcs of getting this support into a floded, ravaged region. The images of Somalia and Afghanistan prove this to be true as people fought, shot and killed each other to reach the supplies.

This action had the potential to create even more deaths...especially since security and law enforcement presence was very limited at these locations. And while before this event I may have conceded that Americans would never behave in this manner...it took only a day for me to realize that I was wrong. The fact is, the very security and lawlessness that the mayor and governor dismissed as "people needing to survive" was the genesis of why things couldn't get done in a timely fashion. Even the normal responders such as the Red Cross refused to enter until their safety could be assured. All of this was a result of the lack of preparadness and leadership from those in state and local government.

What's also missing from this discussion is that the Federal government not only had New Orleans to deal with, they still had the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even parts of Florida...a total land mass of something like 90,000 square miles. Think about that, because from what I heard today, that is almost the size of Great Britian. And than think about our supposedly "limited" government that is being asked to act like a first-responder within days to a region that is the size of some countries. Why have a state/local government with elected officials, if all they are going to do is moan and groan, after the fact. All of these issues are the responsibility of the state and local officials...and I didn't see ONE thing they got right, making everything more difficult from the start.

This is also another perfect example of how dependency on the federal government has created an attitude of entitlement, were people can't even plan for their own survival if needed. Tuna and tapwater doesn't cost alot...even for the poorest among us. Three to five days is what was required of the state under the best of circumstances...and neither them or some citizens could handle that. Add the fact that these people have always lived in a fishbowl, below sea-level, knowing what could happen at any time, simply astounds me. It wasn't Katrina or George Bush that destroyed this city...it was the local politicians.

And how did team Blank-o do?

...of course not. In the liberals' eyes, Its' All Bush Fault....They da' NO Mayor and the La. Governor refused to organize a (the HSD $$$$ were misspent) timely relief effort.

Sadly, this situation reflects another of FDR's socialist legacy: the federal government is responsible for taking care of everything and anything that occurs. People are taught this in school, at home, and regardless of what you tell them or show them, that's what they believe. Sad. Tragically sad.

Thanks, Excellent post. :)

Who are you? Great post!

Ah, the blame game has just started.

Get used to it folks. We are now all going to witness the biggest government blame game wars we have ever seen.

When the media is helping the Democrats red-line the spin machine it can be quite difficult for them to see that the Bush Administration isn't spinning at all.

If the media believes leaders should be held responsible then they are proving that Democrats do not deserve to be called leaders.

Spin this, Nagin.

As mayor, Nagin was responsible for establishing evacuation centers, controlling first responders and keeping local order. Yet apparantly there were no meals ready to eat (MRE's) stored at his designated evacuation center - the Superdome. There was no water purification equipment on site, no chemical toilets, anti-biotics or anti-diarrheals stored for a crisis. The mayor had not designated any medical staff to work the evacuation center. The city had not established a secure sick bay within the Superdome.

Considering the current state of New Orleans, I propose the hurricane be renamed to latrine-a.

What Bush & Co. need to do in a big time way is to respond to critics bashing the Fed's assistance and to point out the complete utter incompetence of Blanco & Nagin coordination (or lack thereof) efforts. Both of these DemonCRAPS have failed miserably in their leadership roles.

Plus I see an article on Newsmax that states that Blanco still has NOT declared Louisiana to be in a state of emergency, because she doesn't want to turn control over to a Republican-led administration or relief effort.

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/4/124905.shtml
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.

Gov. Blanco's office rejected the request, the paper said - concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.
The Louisiana Democrat has also failed to declare a state of emergency - in marked contrast to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, who both issued emergency declarations before Hurricane Katrina struck.

State and federal officials also told the Post that Gov. Blanco did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday - more than 24 hours after breaches in New Orleans levee system had flooded the city and killed thousands."

And how many of those rescues are due to the fact that the wheels on those buses weren't spinning before the storm hit???

Liberal news media response to your question:

The Press lies, the Bush administration states the truth. Nothing new in that sense.

The American people don't seem to be buying the MSM's take even according to their questionabl polls, even though they don't know the full details yet, and have been assaulted by the press unrelentingly.

Keep spinning MSM, the Truth has the President's back and we're here to make sure it spreads.

Thanks. I'm just a member who has been watching this thing from the start and documenting as much info as I can. I wanted to sum up some of the most basic of info that the media has ignored.