Disarray Marked the Path From Hurricane to Anarchy (MSM marriage to Blame Bush/Excuse Blanco meme)

NY Times ^ | September 11, 2005 | ERIC LIPTON, CHRISTOPHER DREW, SCOTT SHANE and DAVID ROHDE

[SolidSupplySide]

The governor of Louisiana was "blistering mad." It was the third night after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans, and Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco needed buses to rescue thousands of people from the fetid Superdome and convention center. But only a fraction of the 500 vehicles promised by federal authorities had arrived.

They were an obvious linchpin for evacuating a city where nearly 100,000 people had no cars. Yet the federal state and local officials who had failed to round up buses in advance were now in a frantic hunt. It would be two more days before they found enough buses to empty the shelters.

The official autopsies of the flawed response to the catastrophic storm have already begun in Washington, and may offer lessons for dealing with a terrorist attack or even another hurricane this season. But an initial examination of Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11 attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.

Instead, the crisis in New Orleans deepened because of a virtual standoff between hesitant federal officials and besieged local and state authorities, interviews with dozens of officials show.

[SolidSupplySide]

I lived through TS Allison. I don't recall federal search and rescue teams. FEMA only came to buy up property that routinely floods. Have the rules changed to make FEMA a first responder, or has it always been that way? Even if it has always been that way, why are state and local officials given a pass even though state and local officials have taken the lead in every tropical system that I've had personal experience with?

[Tarpon]

Did Gov Blanco think to ask the Mayor of New Orleans to dry out the buses he stored in the lake? Did the NY Times wonder what all those AP pictures of the sunk buses were about?

[golfisnr1]

It is not FEMA'a job to evacuate andthis article is dead wrong. Disgusting article.

[Parley Baer]

Yep another worthless lying article to try and cover up the total incompetence of Louisiana officials from top to bottom.

[keithtoo]

"...only a fraction of the 500 vehicles promised by federal authorities had arrived"

Unbelievable. Ignoring the 1000+ buses that Blanco and Nagin did not mobilize from New Orleans.

UN*&*&*'ing believable

[mtbopfuyn]

Bush can't be everywhere at once. They mayor and the governor are the ones responsible for their people and get the buses running. Does the NYSlimes and the mayor and governor expect him to hold the tp for them too?

[John Jorsett]

These stories are an attempt to post-facto change the mission and procedures of FEMA. New Orleans had an evac plan that it didn't implement. FEMA's big mistake was assuming that N.O. authorities would actually put it into effect, and not end up deserting in large numbers.

[angry_dad]

Unbelievable. Ignoring the 1000+ buses that Blanco and Nagin did not mobilize from New Orleans.

UN*&*&*'ing believable

Don't forget this nugget, glossed over in the NYT's amazing attempt to elevate Blanco to hero status:

"Greyhound Lines began sending buses into New Orleans within two hours of getting FEMA approval on Wednesday, Aug. 31, said Anna Folmnsbee, a Greyhound spokeswoman."

Two hours! FEMA had buses rolling in within two hours of their request, and Blanco and Nagin had some 1000 non-waterlogged on Sunday and Monday. And FEMA is taking the heat here? I've got to go punch a wall or two.

[Zacs Mom]

This is yet another intentional distortion and misrepresentation of facts by the NYT! They, along with others of the MSM continue to willfully publish misinformation and disinformation and count on the public being naive and/or stupid enough to buy into their BS!

The above Joseph Pulitzer quote appears on an inscribed plaque visible to all upon entering the halls of the Columbia School of Journalism.
*See this article from 2003 by William F. Woo ~ 'Journalism and Serving the Public Trust'

Most of what Americans read in their papers and see on television is the product of only a handful of giant corporations and the situation in NOLA is but the latest example of dishonest and blatantly incendiary "reporting" by agenda driven representatives of these mega-corporations. Reporting specifically intended to undermine national and international confidence in President Bush and his administration.

A review of the outrageously provocative "coverage" of Hurricane Katrina and NOLA serves to underscore the extent to which the "MSM" has joined forces with the radical left in an all out effort to overthrow a standing president. Such a review clearly demonstrates that these "Guardians of the peoples right to know" are not merely complaisant in this assault on the presidency of George W. Bush but that they, in fact, active participants!

They aggressively propagate malicious falsehoods and knowingly lie by omission, they willfully disseminate misinformation and disinformation and they go out of their way to facilitate and legitimize every radical entity's Bush-hating promulgations.

One has only to review the speeches given at the cRATconvention in 2004 to realize that this orchestrated effort to undermine/discredit/impeach President Bush is an ongoing vendetta against George W. Bush for having "STOLE"the Presidency in 2000 and the "Fourth Estate" is the means with which to "reclaim what is rightfully theirs" regardless of the cost!

IMHO, we cannot afford to simply try to ignore these attacks! We must all be on the offensive to loudly expose this for it is at each and every opportunity!

[Use It Or Lose It]

a city where nearly 100,000 people had no cars...

Will someone tell me what all those 4-wheeled vehicles are in the streets of NO? Yeah, the ones floating in the water or stuck in the muck.

Recalling a conversation Noggin' Naggin' Nagin had with a reporter last week - he said he didn't use the school buses because they were for kids and "you can't put adults in them things!"

[GoLightly]

There's something on the site where Blanco's Executive Orders are posted. She issued two EO's calling for buses, one on Sept 2nd #KBB 2005-25 and there's another one lower down on the page, dated Sept 1st, KBB 2005-31.

Check it out:

http://www.gov.state.la.us/2005excecutiveorders.asp

Her press release page shows something about KBB 2005-31, dated Sept 1st. Why would she jump some numbers & then go back to those missed numbers in later releases?

IMO, since Grayhound said they sent buses per a FEMA request, FEMA acted before Blanco formally asked them to act.

In a letter to President Bush on Sept 2nd, she claimed to have asked for things before that date, but I don't see it on any of her posted paperwork.

http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=998

Her initial Stafford request was dated Aug 28 (send money) & there don't seem to be any additional Stafford requests to account for the news coming out from her, about those additional requests per her letter to the President.

[GoLightly]

There's something on the site where Blanco's Executive Orders are posted. She issued two EO's calling for buses, one on Sept 2nd #KBB 2005-25 and there's another one lower down on the page, dated Sept 1st, KBB 2005-31.

Check it out:

http://www.gov.state.la.us/2005excecutiveorders.asp

Her press release page shows something about KBB 2005-31, dated Sept 1st. Why would she jump some numbers & then go back to those missed numbers in later releases?

IMO, since Grayhound said they sent buses per a FEMA request, FEMA acted before Blanco formally asked them to act.

In a letter to President Bush on Sept 2nd, she claimed to have asked for things before that date, but I don't see it on any of her posted paperwork.

http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=998

Her initial Stafford request was dated Aug 28 (send money) & there don't seem to be any additional Stafford requests to account for the news coming out from her, about those additional requests per her letter to the President.

[backhoe]

The Left responds...

Like Rush says, "nice try," but we have tons of evidence:

-HURRICANE KATRINA- archive of links -

Just a "for instance," examine these files and their links:

Bush Urges People to Flee Hurricane (August 28th)

Gov. Blanco Received Multiple Calls From President Bush before, during and after Hurricane to help. -- As they try to change history, it is time to reflect on what Governor Blanco actually stated on the day of the flood...

 Governor Blanco's Letter To President Bush 8/27/05 -- This is backdated. The crooked LA Officials are re-writting the truth

If we can prove that we can have another Dan Rather moment here, and on the anniversary too...

New Orleans: Special Emergency Transportation Planning and Massive Evacuation - March 2004 -- the concrete proof that the Mayor should have been responsible, rather than the Feds.  Good find. Nagin thought with the server floating in water no one would ever see this again...

Documentation of Louisiana Officials Blocking Aid to New Orleans

---

The most cogent single summary:

SPEAKING TRUTH TO HYSTERIA

[maggief]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1478905/posts

Minutes From June 5 Meeting Of Orleans Parish School Board: Using School Buses In Evacs
Orleans Parish Shool Board ^ | June 5 2005 | None

Posted on 09/06/2005 8:19:29 PM CDT by angkor

Found this in the Google cache, the minutes from a June 5 meeting of the Orleans Parish School Board.

The Board members had a very specific discussion about releasing school buses to the City Of New Orleans for hurricane evacuations.

Sorry for the length, but it does provide some valuable insights, e.g., what took the City so long to conclude this deal? They'd been talking with the School Board for at least a year.

(snip)

[RedEyeJack]

There is a question that needs to be asked...

Who was designated in the New Orleans evacuation plan to drive the buses to evacuate the population without transportation? I suspect the breakdown was that there was no one to drive. If they planned to use the regular drivers then they made a huge mistake by assuming that they would not be among those that evacuated their families. Buses without a viable manning plan equals buses under water.

[dolphin558]

I am assuming that in the Sunday edition part 2 of this article will focus on the failures of local and state authorities.

[AliVeritas]

Please tell me Nagin didn't say that on the record? I must have it!

[AliVeritas]

Did she ever include the letter the president wrote to her first? Guess not. The site changes constantly... but they forgot to do the executive order to match. The memo on the site has different numbers than page 3 of the pdf.

[AliVeritas]

Who are these guys the Pravda version of the Wiggles? This is so blatantly false it's ridiculous. MSM is out of control... dangerously so. We have to jump all over this.
Well, let me search all the archives. I will be calling every one of these sissies personally... will post the number.

[Laverne]

public@nytimes.com.

It never hurts to send an email complaining about their blatant lies. They don't really care, but it should be done anyway.

[AliVeritas]

As we speak, has she asked for mandatory evac yet? With all the health risks? Is she's waiting for the military to die next or what?

Ecumenically(not), I request an exorcism/fatwa for MSM and dems... some republicans too while i'm at it.

[TheSpaceCoyote]

Hey Freepers! I hope this link is helpful. When the Libs say, "Even Geraldo knew how bad it was in there, Brown *should've* known." Remind them that Brown doesn't get status updates from Geraldo, he would get them from Nagin or Blanco.

So what did Nagin tell Brown AFTER the storm? Maybe that they won't need the Feds for 4 or 5 days

Hope this helps!

[Zacs Mom]

But ...

[Anti-Bubba182]

Looks at this crap!

"..Instead, the crisis in New Orleans deepened because of a virtual standoff between hesitant federal officials and besieged local and state authorities, interviews with dozens of officials show..."

The Times can barely write a sentence without injecting bias. If Clinton was President now, in the exact same situation, would the sentence be the same?

[Use It Or Lose It]

He did. It was a television interview. Am attempting to locate a transcript.

[angry_dad]

The request for 1000 FEMA workers within 48 hours is one of the most intellectually dishonset non-scandels to come out of this entire event. The fact is that on Monday at 11AM, when Brown landed in Baton Rouge, the majority of the people in NO proper were going to be back in there homes within days and the work to repair the city's infrastructure was to get underway. There was damage to the city on Monday morning, but to pretend that Brown should have forseen what was to happen late Monday night/Tuesday morning is a digusting abuse of hindsight.

[RedMonqey]

And planning to send in women to drive the bus into what amounts to be a combat zone.

I guess the feminist "I am woman, hear me roar" NOW members didn't get there in time to "grind gears" in N.O.

[Smartass]

LOL, good grief Zacs Mom -- That is a big un!!!

[GoLightly]

I've looked for the PDF you're talking about, but can't find it.

This one has some FEMA reference numbers to previous hurricanes, to show LA wasn't pulling amounts out of thin air:

http://www.gov.state.la.us/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf

Is there another PDF I'm missing? And you're right, Blanco's site doesn't have any letter(s) from President Bush *to* her.

[Lady Jag]

That is one gorgeous bull!

[AliVeritas]

Audio: City planned to use Superdome for days, mayor says
http://www.startribune.com/stories/124/5584335.html

Somehow I missed that Nagin (rant audio) also asked that letters be written to the governor as well as Bush, feds and representatives:

http://www.anklebitingpundits.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=17426

Flashback to that wonderful levee board:
http://www.torontofreepress.com
http://www.bestofneworleans.com
http://www.nola.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Rightwing Nuthouse Timeline (compare):
http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/09/04/katrina-response-timeline/

You'll love this video:
A man being interviewed said “just give us what the fuck we deserve”, referring to the Katrina relief effort.

http://thepoliticalteen.com/video/fword2.wmv

[Shortstop7]

You can't be serious? He couldn't put adults on the buses? That is his defense?

Sick sick sick.

[Shortstop7]

Thanks......I fired off at letter!