Posted on 09/14/2005 8:06:42 PM PDT by OldGuard1
Nonpartisan congressional research report finds Louisiana governor took necessary steps
John Byrne
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report Tuesday afternoon asserting that Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government, RAW STORY has learned.
The report, which comes after a request by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to review the law and legal accountability relating to Federal action in response to Hurricane Katrina, unequivocally concludes that she did.
"This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability," Conyers said in a statement. "The Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time."
The report found that:
All necessary conditions for federal relief were met on August 28. Pursuant to Section 502 of the Stafford Act, "[t]he declaration of an emergency by the President makes Federal emergency assistance available," and the President made such a declaration on August 28. The public record indicates that several additional days passed before such assistance was actually made available to the State;
The Governor must make a timely request for such assistance, which meets the requirements of federal law. The report states that "[e]xcept to the extent that an emergency involves primarily Federal interests, both declarations of major disaster and declarations of emergency must be triggered by a request to the President from the Governor of the affected state";
The Governor did indeed make such a request, which was both timely and in compliance with federal law. The report finds that "Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005...that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to [applicable Federal statute]" and "Governor Blanco's August 27,2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination...that 'the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster."
The full report will be available soon on the House Democrats' Judiciary website.
At the very least, one can mention that it's now fact the Red Cross is confirming that the state, not the federal government, kept them out of New Orleans:
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html
CRS is populated by a bunch of academic liberals.
Closes the book BWWAAHAHAHAH. Rawstory as a source BWAAAHAHAHAHA
It's from John Conyers.
Nothing more to say.
I'll believe it when I see something independent, not from Conyers.
Conyers is a drooling, senile idiot. If HE'S associated with this, you can bet that it's bogus.
These people are clearly living in an alternative universe.
That was what made me suspicious. However, they claim to be quoting a report, so it'll be obvious whether they're making it up or not really soon.
The point isn't what Blanco did or didn't do to secure Federal disaster help, but what she didn't do to mitigate the aftereffects of the disaster using her own resources.
Wonder if "CRS" refers to Conyers' constant state of being... ;-)
Keep in mind, as well, that none of that in any way relieves state and local of their responsibilities as first responders.
Michael Moore made HOW many million off of the "obvious"
Conyers? Nonpartisan??!! HAH!
If you read it closely, they cite obvious fact, known to all and probably in a report, but then they add speculation and hype as filler.
Exactly. It's like a person holding a fire extinguisher who lets a kitchen fire spread throughout the house, then calls the fire department and claims to have done her duty (and then blames the fire department for not showing up soon enough).
Here's a blog on it ......
http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=2571
The fastest attempt at a whitewash I ever saw...
And CRS answers the questions that are asked. Far be it from Conyers to ask the right questions.
Funny thing is that Gov Bunko said today that the full responsibility for this fiasco was hers.
Yaaawwwwnnnnnn......the liberals were circulating "the letter defense" long ago. Yes, she submitted a letter -- but it only requested funds for post-Katrina recovery. There was no request made for additional troops or any other manpower and Blanco refused to allow the feds to take over the evacuation.
"Send money. Not troops, not law enforcement officers, just money." EXACTLY!!!! I can't believe any "non-partisan" group would come to the conclusion she did all that was necessary.
Even though I have been critical of ALL levels of response and also pointing out what went right at ALL levels of govt I agree I believe this is prob BS. How can there be an investigation of any sort when the people involved are still dealing with the crisis and cant give interviews or statements.
There's just no way a congressional report could have been issued on NO yet. Congress doesn't move that fast! On the other hand, some committee convened by Conyers consisting of his drinking buddies could write this report over a couple of beers.
Almost sounds like a paid press release ala 'U.S. Newswire'.
Raw Story Media chairman John Byrne graduated from Oberlin College in 2003. He has worked as a reporter for the Boston Globe.
Byrne founded two publications while still in college. Raw Story is his first online news venture.
Raw Story has been cited by the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Guardian, the New York Post, The Nation, the Toronto Star, the L.A. Weekly, Roll Call, the Hill, and myriad other newspapers.
Editor and co-publisher Michael Rogers has held development and marketing positions with New York's Harvey Milk High School for lesbian and gay youth, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Greenpeace, and the Funding Exchange, a national network of community-based foundations supporting social change activism. Rogers was recently honored by Genre Magazine, as one of this year's eight Men We Love.
The "public record" must be the New York Times. We know that the US Navy was in New Orleans on the night of August 29, the day Katrina blew through.
"necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government"
Problem is, she and Ray Nagin did absolutely nothing to prevent or lessen the severity of the disaster. Nice try at covering their asses, but it just doesn't wash.
Well that does it for me. George Bush doesn't care about stupid lazy people.
Raw Story, the hot new liberal gadfly newsblog. Raw Story — which is edited out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, by 23-year-old John Byrne, who is also gay.
******
Raw Story, published by John Byrne, 24, who claims to have worked as a local reporter for the Boston Globe and as a Washington bureau reporter for the McClatchy newspapers, and seems to specialize in "outing" Republican politicians.
In a report based on an unnamed source, Raw Story reported (Scott) McClellan visited a homosexual bar March 19, 1995. Another anonymous source was quoted as saying McClellan regularly frequented Austin, Texas, "gay clubs." McClellan is an Austin native. His mother, Carolyn Keeton Strayhorn, former mayor of Austin is comptroller of the state of Texas and considered a contender for the governorship.
This report is not the touchstone of truth nor the measuring stick to determine culpability for the feds, the state , or the city governments. We will have a full scale investigation and have all of the timelines determined in good time.
LOL, I guess they forgot about Blanco being caught on tape admitting she forgot to request troops.
Congresspersons and those inside the beltway know that its pure bullshit, but it is used as a or PR to scam (sway opinions) the public.
...and if she used snail-mail to send it....
I think Blanky's office got together with Dan Rather....
Conyers name appeared. That is all you need to know. He should be deported to France for what he did in the lead up to the war.
Isn't Conyers a member of the Congressional Black Al Qaeda?
Asking for assistance and asking for troops are two separate things.
What I want to know is when did Gov. Blanco ask for anything specific? Throwing up her hands and saying "Help me!" and then going on TV to cry is not sufficient. What did she want the federal government to do?
It doesn't mention what she didn't ask for (and therefore didn't get) -- additional federal troops, assistance in evacuation, FEMA taking over the incident management, and so forth (all the things the libs are blaming on the feds).
Read it for yourself. (.pdf)
This is crap. She made a request for a federal emergency on 8/27, fine, the emergency was declared on the 28th. All that means is the federal government will assist the state government in responding to the emergency. It does not federalize the response, the state must still request specific resources from the govt. That is what she did not do.
It is NOT a Congressional report---It is a report from an organization calling itself the Congressional Research Service. Evidently, this is an orgn. funded and manned by liberals, if it is carrying water for John C.
Implicit in its title is that it is the Congress, itself.
vaudine
Larisa Alexandrovna is a journalist, essayist and poet. She is currently managing editor of Raw Story.
Larisa was born inside the iron curtain of the former USSR, in the beautiful city of Odessa, Ukraine. At the age of seven, she left, tracing an émigré trajectory through Austria, Czechoslovakia and Rome before settling in Cleveland, Ohio. Larisa got her BA in English and Writing at CSU and won a scholarship to the prestigious Imagination workshop, which included such notable writers as Diane Wakoski and Sheila Schwartz.
As a poet, Larisa maintained a strong friendship with the poet Alberta Turner until Ms. Turners death in 2003. She was the poetry editor for the Cleveland Review (out of print) through which she met Charles Bukowski. She has also translated work for the Russian poet, Zoya Falkov as well as other lesser known Russian writers.
Currently, Larisa is hard at work on a book of poems, titled "Oddesitka/Amreikanka", and two books: Odessa Mama, a historical fiction account of a man's journey across a continent during the Soviet occupation.
Everything she asked for in the formal requests, she got. The libs are hanging the President for failing to provide "everything" when in the phone call on Monday she said "I need everything you got."
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