Also it points out certain realities that I am not sure any other State Gov would have been perfect with dealing with.
The Bush administration has been somewhat silent to all the badgering and finger pointing because they KNOW that when the laundry is hung on the line, his undies will be the whitest. (Poor choice of words...ooops, I said poor, bad choice of words.)
I really think the dems have backed off calling for a Commission because they know they will end up with "skid marks", especially when the dem leadership in LA and NOLA is put on the stand. Bush has telephone records, TV footage of the gov saying that, "JUST maybe I should have called for troups LAST WEEK."
This is gonna be fun.
No Shiat Dick Tracy. My Wife is currently vollunteering with the Red Cross. She is an RN and they have her at the Naval Air Station in Gulfport. She is dealing with patients who need a little first aid and some psyche work. These are the same type of patients she dealt with in urban Atlanta. Out of the 5 volunteer nurses who are stationed with her 4 are Republicans and 1 is an atheist DIM from N.J. Yeah all us conservatives are cold - hearted SOB's. ...
My dad, may he rest in peace, would have said it this way: "You can't get nine ladies pregnant and have a baby in one month." He was employed most of his life in the shipbuilding business, and I mean big ships. He delighted in pointing out that some things just simply can't be hurried, and I think help to the victims of a storm like Katrina is one of those. You can tweak the response, but the overall effort is going to take time.
Ya think?
bttt
http://redleg07.blogspot.com/
Battle of New Orleans
Assuming this is true, it is a powerful message to all the weeping, whining liberal Bush haters in the country. To the President's credit, unlike his enemies, he has chosen not to submit this data to the public at this time and further fuel the political furor. Every concerned American needs to see this message.
Subject: The Battle over New Orleans
Here is something else that Tim Russert forgot.
On Friday night before the storm hit, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Nagin and Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of NO and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was destroyed.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet. After the President's final call to the governor she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.
Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation. After a personal plea from the President Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations. Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal government can move into state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the disaster.
Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were.
The suffering people of NO need to be asking some hard questions as do we all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his disposal to use between the local school busses and the city transportation busses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.
This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in the future
Good common sense article.
Something the press rarely uses in it's National Enquirer style of reporting.