doing what it does best
NOTHING!
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
Pinging 'Mom to bring her material over here...
ROTF!
Her last name says it all about her mental capacity: blanko!
She didn't win in a landslide. It was a pretty close race except for NO and I believe maybe the Shreveport area. She did not carry her home parish.
Stuck on stupid.
Wanted: Votes..Dead or Alive.
She's no Scarlett O'Hara, is she?
The media highlighted the worst of the worst in the state. Most of the state is pretty resourceful and aren't like inner city NO at all. In fact it's fairly conservative everywhere else.
I live in the Southwestern part of the state, we did fine for Katrina, Rita may be another story though.
And to think how close we came to having Bobby Jindal as governor.
Keep the evacuees from NO out of state for a couple of election cycles. ;) That and keeping the spotlight on the corruption of the Louisiana Democratic party. One of the most crooked politicians, former Gov. Edwin Edwards, was convicted and sent to prison for racketeering. It took many many tries but he eventually was given his just reward. He was a very popular democratic governor and many did not think he would ever be convicted. He was.
This woman is in WAY over her head.
I remind my lib dem sister every chance I get since this fiasco. He had a plan for Louisiana and dipsticks like my sister and the voter fraud in NO elected someone who said she would contact the media when NO would be facing the worst case scenario. Well they got what they voted for.
“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.”
Just stunning. This isn't your typical political non-answer, this is rambling from someone who doesn't sound like they know what's going on at all.
She asked specifically for "waterlogged buses," however, there were none available prior to the storm and they only became available at some point after the levee-break.
"With the NG under her "command" she could have ordered the guard members to drive the busses and coordinated the evacuation with Nagin. That would have solved the driver problem."
Sure she could have the National Guard to drive the busses but Why when there were already capable drivers in the City of New Orleans. It could have been more efficient and much quicker to have had a well coordinated effort using city drivers. Obviously there was no previous plan to evacuate the city by the Mayor and the Governor. With the inherent problems in New Orleans there should have been.
It will take lots and lots of $$money$$ and a ton of public petitioning of the Recall Ballot to get a recall election rolling. And, it is the opinion of some Louisiana political pundits, that if a recall were unsuccessful, it would make the imcumbant only stronger.(although, this may be hard to believe in this governor's case.) The offical end date for the term is January 14, 2008! The gubernatorial election is scheduled for November 2007. Twenty-five months left to go! See Louisiana State Constitution RECALL
http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Documents/Constitution/Article10.htm#§26.
If KBB were to decide to step down, Lt.Gov Mitch Landrieu (D-NO)would step up and into the Governor's Mansion.
If a recall election is called it would be like California's Recall of Gray Davis. Every one and their monkey's uncle will try to get on the ballot. The endorsements would finalize at some point and another Democratic candidate would likely win. Remember this is politics in the State of Louisiana, the citizens of this state prefer democrats over republicans to hold political office time after time after time... no matter how incredible this may be to the rest of the nation. The last Republican governor who held office was one of the most ineffectual officials the State had ever seen... and, as we all recognize, Louisiana has seen many governor's buy their way into office before.
Besides, the GOP in Louisiana has not even made any audible noise yet about the strategy for the 2007 elections and probable candidates or any kind of an impeachment exercise. It's time for the R's to pony up the big bucks and run a viable candidate.
If Congressman Bobby Jindal(R), a Harvard Rhodes Scholar, could not win in the previous run for governor due to the myopia of the northern sectors of the state along with a very well- synchronized, power punched, over-played lying TV campaign by Blanco's marketing team, perhaps, the GOP may reconsider him as a prospective candidate once again.
Don't forget... the "mobile home" sub divisions to move thousands and thousands of voters back into the state may prove to be another blunder on the part of the powers that be. Only in Louisiana can you sit back and watch the the comedy of errors of the entrenched political system repeat and repeat the same refrain, "Laissez le bon temp roulez!"
I continue to wonder about how the people of Washington state feel about their female governor Gregoire, (who only won the election by re-counting and manufacturing sufficient votes), in light of Katrina.
Wonder how secure they feel about her ability to handle a catastrophe in their state.
Hard to trust a cheater...
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