Posted on 09/20/2005 11:35:05 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob
The US military has categories of stupidity. The highest is “gross public dumb.” But a higher category is needed for moments like the “bus interview” by Louisiana Governor Blanco. It is spectacularly stupid. You’ve got to see this to believe it.
Interview of Governor Blanco by John Hill of Louisiana Gannett News, 19 September, 2005
“GANNETT: In hindsight, what would you have done differently in the first response?
“BLANCO: Well, I would have placed less confidence in a structure elsewhere (the Federal Emergency Management Association) and depended more on ourselves. As an example, when buses were not delivered in a timely fashion, we had already started gathering school buses ... and buses of any kind ...
“We gave ourselves a false sense of confidence when we were counting on 500 buses that FEMA had ordered that did not come in until Wednesday night. So ...we would depend more on our own resources.”
Is this a stupid statement? To quote Elizabeth Browning, “Let me count the ways.”
Louisiana and New Orleans were supposed to use their OWN buses. So says the Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan, 1 January, 2000. Was Governor Blanco aware of the Plan? Apparently not. But for any Governor of Louisiana, isn’t dealing with the occasional hurricane part of the job?
She refers to “confidence in FEMA.” Did she think FEMA had magic buses which would run with their engines under water? Did she think people could board those buses from the attics of their houses, hiding from flood waters? Hasn’t she seen the aerial photographs of 500 local buses flooded where they were parked before Katrina hit? Hellooo.
In the past she knew how to roll the buses. When she was running for Governor, she got the buses rolling in New Orleans Parish, with signs and Dixieland bands to turn out voters for Blanco. Which is the higher priority – getting votes for Blanco, or saving lives? Hellooo.
Was FEMA “late” in helping New Orleans? Let’s review. Katrina is the worst hurricane measured by square miles of territory wiped out. The second worst was Hurricane Floyd in 1999. It lingered over North Carolina, wiping out roads, electricity, gas lines, letting loose millions of gallons of sewage and agricultural waste on the eastern third of that state.
In 1999, the Governor did not retire to his fainting couch to “think about it” for 24 hours as Floyd approached. Yet FEMA’s response to Floyd (a smaller destroyed area) was slower than its response to Katrina now. Blanco has to know this, because her hired gun for the political aftermath of Katrina is James Lee Witt, Director of FEMA in 1999. Hellooo.
Asked about her comment which CNN taped that she “should have specifically asked for more troops," she said:
“BLANCO: Well, that was at a point in time when we were wondering if we were getting any significant federal aid. I guess because of the dynamics of the situation, when I asked for help, then I started getting bombarded with, ‘Did you ask specifically for this, that or the other.’ .... When people ask me for help, I know what kind of help I can get to them, and I can get it to them pretty quickly... Nobody bothered to ask me those questions.”
Note that last sentence. If nobody asks her a question, she doesn’t even think about that subject. Should any executive in or outside government ever act like this in an emergency? Hellooo.
Asked about the “breakdown... between state, federal and local people,” she replied,
“BLANCO: “I think the breakdown was at the point of not being able to get (buses) there on time. ... We had one mission in those early days, and it was search and rescue. Get people out of the water.”
No, Mrs. Blanco, the FIRST mission was to get the people out BEFORE the water got there. Hellooo. This woman is unfit to run a lemonade stand. She would have a gross lack of sales because she thought someone else was bringing the lemons.
I’m not picking on Governor Blanco as a Southern woman and Democrat. In three generations of women in my family, most are/were Southerners and Democrats. None of them, in a crisis, ever dithered or worked themselves into a swivet. They sized up the situation and did the best they could. No one was harmed because they couldn’t act..
But people did get harmed, people did die, because Blanco became Governor, clueless of her duties whenever the next major hurricane hit New Orleans. That goes beyond the high standard of gross public dumb.
About the Author: John Armor is a First Amendment attorney and author who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Is anyone likely to challenge Banco in 2007? Incumbent governors in LA usually win again without much fuss. As far as Nagin is concerned, he did NOT support Blanco in 2003.
Politicians need a different standard of dumbness than the military. Would Blanco be Patty bin Murray dumb? Barbara Boxer dumb? Turban Dick Durban dumb? Or merely Mark Dayton dumb?
How about "Darwin Award by proxy" dumb?
I wonder who is going to pay for all of those underwater buses. Maybe they will just dry them out, crank them up and drive them until they become rusty old crates. Maybe they could pawn them off to an unsuspecting foreign country, say Aruba? Most likely Uncle Sugar will get them brand new shiny ones and the water log old crates will end up cluttering some junkyard somewhere.
It is said that the difference between genius and stupidity is that there are limits to genius.
Those of us who collect arcana would really be grateful if you'd publish the full "dumb list".
Honestly... the more I hear coming out of this woman's mouth.. the more I'm convinced she ran for office because of all the great parties she'd be invited to....and could get "really neat stuff". Sigh. She could star in her own version of the movie "Clueless".
In trying to educate myself on when the feds could, or could not step in, a poster on another site said the feds didn't have to wait for LA's request.
They cited 42 USC 51709, and 42 USC 5192(a) as the authority.
I tried to link to the gov site without success, I guess due to demand.
Your take on these two cites?
Gov. Blanco only has to be as smart as 51% of the voters in Louisiana. I think a few more of them have gotten wiser.
You have obviously been offered a couple of cites to cherry-picked clauses in the US Code, who is ignorant of the general pattern of both the law and the Constitution. Anyone can verify what I've said by going to any national or state website for the "National Guard."
John / Billybob
Great column, thanks for posting it!! When will we get a film along the lines of.....
"Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd" (actual Jim Carrey movie)
now what we need is:
"Dumb and Dumberer: When Mayor Nagin Met Governor Blankhead"
Governor Blanco is most definitely STUCK ON STUPID!! As is Nagin and Senator Mary.
When the Dems screw up, the MSM goes out for cocktails.
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