.....:)
Posted on 09/06/2005 9:59:35 PM PDT by WJHII
Who is to blame for New Orleans?
By William John Hagan
Houston Home Journal Print Edition 09/07/2005
David Vitter, a United States Senator from Louisiana, estimates that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina could reach 10,000 people. The reality is that a true death toll will never be known but 10,000 dead may just scratch the surface. Large-scale casualties in a natural disaster such as Katrina in unavoidable but the fact that the world’s most advanced nation had days to prevent such a massive number of deaths makes these numbers even more unacceptable. In the coming weeks politically-motivated accusations of blame will begin flying from the Bijou to the Beltway.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush will be the prime targets of these attacks. I suspect that those with a vested interest in attacking the President, everyone from anti-war activists to Hilary Clinton, will attempt to place the blame on his shoulders. Unlike, Nagin and Blanco, the President has admitted that he should share in the accountability for the poor response to Katrina. Last week, President Bush readily admitted the actions of the federal government were “not acceptable”.
Bush’s primary failure was that he did not force Gov. Blanco to request federal help sooner. Bush was powerless to federalize the situation and Blanco failed to request help until August 26th. Given the track records of incompetence of both Blanco and Nagin, the administration should have publicly demanded that Blanco authorize help prior to the 26th.
The reality is that Bush was powerless to even order an evacuation of the city. As of Sunday the 28th neither Blanco nor Nagin ordered people to leave the city. President Bush was forced to request this action after the mayor and governor failed to act. The delay of this mandatory evacuation order by Nagin resulted in the death of thousand of poor residents. New Orleans is a city where one does not need a car; most of the poor don’t own them so, by Sunday, they had no way to get out. Days earlier Gov. Blanco should have confiscated every school bus in the state to begin an orderly exodus and request that the air force assist in an evacuation. Instead, she did nothing until Bush suggested she take action.
As a do-nothing Governor, Blanco bares the majority of responsibility; while, Mayor Nagin has simply proven that his is far too paranoid to run a major city. This week, rather then worrying about those dying throughout New Orleans, on two occasions he has told the press that the Central Intelligence Agency is trying to kill him. He told a reporter for the Associated Press: "If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened." He said this prior to telling CNN that, the "CIA might take me out." Clearly this man is mentally ill and should not be allowed to lead New Orleans during this period of crisis.
Now that Gov. Blanco has given Bush the power to deal with this disaster, it is important that he take the immediate action of appointing a leader who can manage this catastrophe and save New Orleans. There is only one man for this job and, love him or hate him, we all know who he is: Rudy Giuliani. According to Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, “Martial law has not been declared anywhere in the United States of America. That keeps continually being erroneously reported.”
If we plan to save New Orleans, then President Bush has a moral responsibility to declare martial law in the state of Louisiana. He should then, promptly, strip both Blanco and Nagin of their power and turn it over to Giuliani as Temporary Military Governor of Louisiana. This would be a similar action to the temporary roles Patton and Macarthur played as Military Governors of Germany and Japan following World War II. With the complete powers of the state and federal governments in the hands of a man with a proven track record for crisis management, New Orleans can be saved and then rebuilt.
Letters to the editor of The Houston Home Journal may be e-mail to:mailto: rgambill@evansnewspapers.com (Please Include Your Name and Location)
William John Hagan can be contacted directly by e-mail at:William_Hagan@excite.com
or he can be visited on the wed at: http://williamjohnhagan.blogspot.com
Good one.
.....:)
LOL!!! Hadn't heard that one!
If we plan to save New Orleans, then President Bush has a moral responsibility to declare martial law in the state of Louisiana. He should then, promptly, strip both Blanco and Nagin of their power and turn it over to Giuliani as Temporary Military Governor of Louisiana.
Nice thought, but it'll never happen. Bush is perfectly happy to play whipping boy.
Plenty of blame to go around, but really, the Mayor and the Governor demonstrated typical liberal compassion and they ought to be impeached.
Maybe the only thing Bush could have done differently is go on TV Friday or Sat and shame the gov to start evacuations. That way she would have had no choice.....
The irony is moonbats are always accusing Bush of being a fascist dictator, blah blah blah. Then they complain when he doesn't act like one.
Blanco
Nagin
Chertoff
Brown
All should be fired.
Also: Drug addled thugs.
When exactly did Blanco call for a mandatory evac?
Blame the French. They're the ones who stuck a city in the middle of a swamp.
I think they started Sunday...but I may be wrong...does anyone know for sure.
Plus, she NEVER had the interstate south bound blocked to all 4 lanes going north....NEVER!!!!
The Leftists would have howled that Bush was bullying Blanco and was trying to seize control of the state of Louisiana in violation of the Constitution (like the Leftists even respect our Constitution...ha!). Bush would have been demonized and Blanco would have been propped up as the victim.
Just like what's happening now.
You're much too kind. Were it up to me, they all would be up on charges of Depraved Indifference to Reckless Endangerment and Reckless Homicide with Intent to Commit Mayhem.
Were it up to me, they'd all be eligible for the needle in Federal Detention.
Katrina? Wasn't there a hurricane there last week?
"Also: Drug addled thugs."
These should be fired AT!
God called. Said He'd take the blame for Katrina if Nagging Nagin would just shut up.
I don't agree. President Bush would have benn vindicated after the levee broke.
I agree with the author. Good article.
The thing I can't understand about this whole thing is how can anybody in their right mind expect that, even with some preparation, a city of a half million people could ever be evacuated in say a weeks time?
The logistics about doing that are immense, and it would be an extreme task even with a working infrastructure.
The French settled this town 20 feet below sea level in (circa) 1751.
Many, many of the people who rode out the storm would not have left town anyway. It's a great idea, but at some time we have to face reality.
Wonder how many times your excellent point will be brought up during the investigation.
Stainman was impeached. Where did that get us? He's a pal with G.H.W. Bush doing Jimmy Carter worthless stuff.
"liberal compassion" is a most worthless trait. In fact it is a weakness.
Wait a second, I thought it has been settling (the river deposit soil) not that it was below sea level back when it started. So was it below sea level from the get go? How did it stay dry? I say hire some Dutch levee engineers.
bares=>bears
naw, sounds like he just got a moldy bong
Rudy would probably be rather useless now that most have been chased, plucked, or coaxed out of NOLA.
I can't answer your question. My wife spent a lot of time in the Netherlands when she worked for Texaco Oil. But she is not a geologist, nor a mechanical engineer. She is a math theorist and chemist who got involved in refining and manufacturing, and futures trading and marketing. Yup. She wore a lot of hats in her 35 year career at Texaco. BTW, she was a speech writer for Paul B. Hicks, President of Texaco, Europe.
Just nagged her publicly. Arm twistin' Texas style
They tried that in Ivan last year, it was a bust, it only moved the traffic jams a little further north. Also hindered necessary supplies from getting into NOLA. Shoulda been a 3-1 split.
No, no, no. Merely Aggravated Stupidity with an enhancement of Baseless Paranoia.
Whereupon the devil chimed in and said, no I am responsible for all the destruction in the world, bwahahahahahahaha....
Hurricane Katrina.
Did I win?
I wonder if she thinks Clinton/Reno ever showed any Royal tendencies in her eyes?
You make up your own mind!
In case you aren't familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsibility for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:
1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President
What did each do?
1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)
3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.
4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them
5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.
Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt government going all the way back to Huey Long.
Funds for disaster protection and relief have been flowing into this city for decades, and where has it gone, but into the pockets of the politicos and their friends.
Decades of socialist government in New Orleans has sapped all self reliance from the community, and made them dependent upon government for every little thing.
Political correctness and a lack of will to fight crime have created the single most corrupt police force in the country, and has permitted gang violence to flourish.
The sad thing is that there are many poor folks who have suffered and died needlessly because those that they voted into office failed them.
For those who missed item 5 (where the President's level of accountability is discussed), it is made more clear in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article dated August 28:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.
Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.
The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. (emphasis mine)
The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin's court to carry out the evacuation order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his administration fouled up.
Mayor Nagin and his emergency sidekick Terry Ebbert have displayed lethal, mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina.
As for Mayor Nagin, he and his profile in pathetic leadership police chief should resign as well. That city's government is incompetent from one end to the other. The people of New Orleans deserve better than this crowd of clowns is capable of giving them.
If you're keeping track, these boobs let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans-in one trip-get ruined in the floods. Whatever plan these guys had, it was a dud. Or it probably would have been if they'd bothered to follow it.
As for all the race-baiting rhetoric and Bush-bashing coming from prominent blacks on the left, don't expect Ray Nagin to be called out on the carpet for falling short. You want to know why? Here's why:
It's more convenient to blame a white president for what went wrong than to hold a black mayor and his administration accountable for gross negligence and failing to fully carry out an established emergency preparedness plan.
To hold Nagin and his administration accountable for dropping the ball amounts to letting loose the shouts and cries of "Racism!". It's sad, it's wrong, but it's standard operating procedure for the media and left-wing black leadership.
Mark my words: you will not hear a word of criticism from Jesse Jackson Sr., Randall Robinson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or Kanye West being directed toward Clarence Ray Nagin Jr. Why? Because he is just another black politician instead of a responsible elected official who happens to be black. In the mindset of more-blacker-than-thou blacks, black politicians who are on their side can do no wrong.
Bump
I certainly don't agree with the call for martial law. Things seem to be making good progress now.
It's also an oxymoron. The next liberal I meet with genuine compassion for anyone but himself will be the first.
Is he thinking that Generalissimo Peerot is going to run for President again ane wanting to be his running mate?
"They're coming to take me away, ha ha, hee hee, ho ho..."
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