Legal Expert-Blanco was legally in charge of Disaster Relief

Fox News | Sat 9-10-05 | ME

[MNJohnnie]

Just watched a legal expert on Fox go thru the disaster event by event. Based on the Law Gov Blanco is legally liable. If lawsuits are filed, there is no way she can duck it. In addition, when Bush went went down there, he offered her immediate deployment of Reg Army troops, she told both him and Nagel that she "needed 24 hours" to decide. This is DC politics. As everyone from Bush to Clinton to Carter learned, Washington Politics are a whole lot tougher then local politics. Blanco is toast. EVEN if the National Dems get the "Independent Commission" there is no way to rescue her based on the Law. I suspect that is why Mayor Nagel has been so quiet. He found out last Fri just who was holding the knife in his back, and it wasn't Bush

[MNJohnnie]

Infocats, you are so fond of selectively quoting things. Please explain this away.

FEMA press release: 'First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities' http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470 Quote: Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. Five hours after the hurricane hit, FEMA chief Michael Brown asks Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for approval to send 1,000 Homeland Security workers within 48 hours to the Gulf Coast to provide assistance.

[WHBates]

LOL, you are a hoot.

Try to understand the differences between the CG, NG and the regular Army/Navy/Air forces. It's only you, the MSM, leftest and some people that do not understand the government we have, and how it is suppose to work, that are saying that DHS and FEMA weren't doing their jobs from the first day of this event.

The NG who you were seeing, in the first two days, work for the LA Governor. To the extent that the NG air components were delivering food and water, they got this stuff from FEMA assets.

There are all of these divisions because of two reasons. Congress set it up that way and the Constitution requires that the Federal Government stay out of a State's affairs unless there are extraordinary circumstances.

[MNJohnnie]

No one in the MSM seems to have done any homework regarding disasters.

I sent this email out to about 100 "professional journalists" last week. Just shocking how totally ignorant about 99.9% of them are on this topic. The fact that they ACTUALLY had no clue about how this works did NOT stop them from gleefully respewing the Moveon.org propganda lie. Real problem is AP. They all use AP as filler and AP's primary Political Reporter is Jennifer Loven who is married to a DNC Member and Democrat Party activist. The conflict of intrest is so glaring, yet AP refuses to do anything about it.

I am going to bring this to your attention since their seems a unwillingness to ACTUALLY report the facts. There is all this blame being spun by supposed "Objective" Journalists at President Bush. Apparently the "News" media does not understand at all how the lines of authority work in this situation. President Bush is prevented by Federal Law, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, form sending in the military to restore order. President Bush CANNOT send in the National Guard. HE has NO authority over it unless it is called to Federal Service THEN as part of the regular Army, he CANNOT deploy it in a domestic law enforcement role unless one of two things happen. The Governor of the Sate ASKS for it or the State Govt is in defiance of Federal Authority. In 1956 Eisenhower deployed US troops to Little Rock AR to end a State Govt open defiance of a Supreme Court ruling on Segregation. In New Orleans the Governor of Louisiana has STILL not asked for Regular Army troops or Marine. SHE has finally ordeedr a grand total of 300, THREE HUNDRED Armed National Guard troops to restore order. She, Governor Blanco, NOT President Bush has the authority to order in the Guard, ask other states to send Guards or ask the President for Regular troops. There is all this screaming "why is it taking so long, why does Bush DO something". He is. Exactly what the Fed do. Moving the resources in for all over the USA to help with the recover. The LOCAL and State authorities, the one SCREAMING loudest about Bush, are the REAL culprits here. They have been given BILLIONS in Federal Aid since 9-11 to prepare their 1st responders and develop their crises contingency plans. Plans that were suppose to address this VERY disaster. It is the city and State's responsibility to manage the saturation from the point of disaster until the Feds get there in about 72 hours. There IS a reason we have State and Local goverments you know. So what real objective journalists SHOULD be asking is "why did the City of New Orleans and the State of Lousiana performed so poorly? Why did they not follow their OWN disaster plan as published on the City's website. Why are all the Public Transit assets of the City of New Orleans sitting under water in neat tidy little rows instead of being used to evacuate the poor and disabled? I suspect if anyone ACTUALLY has the courage to do their journalistic JOB, they are NOT going to like what they find lurking under the surface. Just because the people at the local and state level have the politically correct Democrat party label is NO excuse for the "news medias" role in helping covering up the malfeasance that cost THOUSAND of New Orleans citizens their lives

[SunnySide]

"Because he didn't want them so comfortable that they didn't want to leave!!"

Nagin and Blanco keep saying this yet how did they expect the people to leave when they wouldn't allow anyone in for days with transportation and the stranded had no transportation out.

Liberals are crazy forked tongued nut cases. They exist to confuse and deflect at all cost.

[FreedomCalls]

They wouldn't. Nagin didn't have the legal power to use that part of the emergency plan. Blanco's government (state level) was needed to trigger its use, because the agreements with other states are handled at the state level.

Why would another state need to be involved? They could just as easily evacuate to another city in Louisiana like Baton Rouge or Lake Charles.

[Anita1]

From an evacuee:

"I have to get out of here," said Albert Bryan, 58, shirtless and wearing all his jewelry. On Sunday, he was heading out of Metairie toward Houston in a two-car convoy with his wife, sister, two sons, daughter and three grandchildren. He was stuck in horrific traffic, going nowhere, and "the radio made the Superdome sound pretty good." In they came.

"None of this has been planned," he said. "Not a single elected official has come down here in days to talk to us and tell us anything, not the mayor, not the police chief, nobody. On Sunday the colonel said his main objective was to protect and serve, and that has been a mockery. No one has materialized to do anything. I'm a social worker, and I can tell you, no one thinks about the human aspects."

Another one:

"This is mass chaos," said Sgt. Jason Defess, 27, a National Guard military policeman who had been stationed on a ramp outside the Superdome since Monday. "To tell you the truth, I'd rather be in Iraq," where he was deployed for 14 months, until January. "You got your constant danger, but I had something to protect myself. (And) three meals a day. Communications. A plan. Here, they had no plan."


http://miva.sctimes.com/miva/cgi-bin/miva?Web/page.mv+1+local+81459

[MNJohnnie]

Federal Government stay out of a State's affairs unless there are extraordinary circumstances.


Called the Insurrection Act. White House Lawyers looked it over when Blanco refused to turn control over to the Feds and decided that in a case where the State has a FUNCTIONING Govt (Criminally incompetent but functioning) and that Govt is NOT in definace of Fed Authority, they may NOT have the authority to seize control. Instead of just quoting sStatue like the Hysteric Left, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt because they would of also looked at the case history. Since they have access to info I do not, I am guessing they made the right call.

[PigRigger]

Nicely done....

Honestly, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure this all out...it just takes professionalism that is not tainted by political ideology....

Trust me, the MSM knows the facts...they just don't wish to report it....they understand how damning this is to Dems...and their cause.....IMHO

[MNJohnnie]

Fort Polk is in LA. Where does the LA NG train? Lots of places. Funny how when the Feds were finally allowed to bring them out, they found places to take them. Remember State DHS REFUSED both the Salvation Army and the Red Cross PERMISSION to go into NO "cause we want those people to come out of there". (Both CNN and Fox have reported this)

[GoLightly]

All of it is coordinated at the state level, so I believe Nagin would need to get the go ahead from the state to put anything into action.

Before any emergency has been triggered, states make agreements with each other about taking in people & sheltering them, but consider, some of the states LA had the agreement with were battening down their hatches too. If the storm had tracked just west of NO, instead of east, which state would be ready to accept evacuees would need to change, which is why that sort of thing isn't written in iron. Also, what if all of the resources made available to LA were used up by another LA parish? See why this sort of thing has to be handled at the state level?

Which sharing agreements are going to be accessed & how many people are to be sent to which other state is gonna require state to state communication. Blanco declaring the emergency is what empowered the state to put all of it into action. Bush declaring the state of emergency empowered the state to access federal resources.

[MNJohnnie]

Trust me, the MSM knows the facts...they just don't wish to report it....they understand how damning this is to Dems...and their cause.....IMHO

Yep that is why I stay on them. "Professional Journalists" live by faith. Shake the faith of average citizens in "journalists" an the Dinasour's ability for mischief is seriously weakened. That is MY personal way of serving my country since the US Army will not let me carry a rifle any more.

[zbogwan2]

I watched Gov. Blanco on Fox on the 8Th of September and she said she would have to test the water to see if it was La. water or toxic. Again on the 9Th. she said she would have to wait for test results before she would be on the same page as the Mayor. God, everyone if wearing masks, experts are commenting on the toxicity of the water etc. and this dumdum gov. is still waiting for her own personal water tests.

Gov. Blanco seems like a total ZERO in all aspects of this disaster, no ans ifs or buts!

[1L]

The original poster's point is either hyperbole or exaggeration. There is usually immunity for civil servents doing their job, and even in cases of negligence where immunity might not completely apply, I have little doubt Louisiana has some sort of Tort Claims Act that lessens or eliminates liability altogether. That leaves federal civil rights suits, and those won't come close to flying.

[FreedomCalls]

He lives in New Orleans and said that one nightmare scenario people had worried about is if they had thousands of people on busses headed out of town, stuck in traffic, and then hit by the hurricane

Which is why the disaster plan calls for the evacuation order to be issued 72 hours in advance, not 24 like Nagin and Blanco did.

[MNJohnnie]

Which again focuses attention on the LA DHS office which refused Red Cross and Salvation Army to go INTO NO "Cause we want those people to come out of there" and said that decision was made "AT the Gov's office". LA DHS also has 3 officals facing trial on obstruction of justice charges because of their attempts to stifle an audit. Yep. WE REALLY want an Indepent Investigation of all this. Only we are NOT going to let it be "on the Federal Response" as the Dims are screaming. Rudy Giulliani based on his stature from 9-11 and his expereince as a Prosecuter is the PERFECT choice. Even the Leftists pundits were screaming for him last week. Going to be tough to claim "Republican Coverup" if Rudy runs the show.

[gitmo]

A good post, MNJohnnie.

FEMA is precluded by law from entering a state without authorization (actually without an invitation) from the state. Brown was trying to prevent an incident here.

Typically, states will send aid to a striken state without checking to see if the state in question has requested help, simply because states in trouble always ask for emergency help immediately.

For some inexplicable reason, Blanco failed to do so for almost a week. Even after President Bush personally requested permission to send rescue assistance to Louisiana, she refused to accept it. I wonder what she feared.

[GoLightly]

Parish to parish agreements are allowed & encouraged, but they are limited to asking for another parish to send aide & aide workers *into* an area to help, but there is nothing in the state law that allows them to negotiate offering evac centers to each other. That is a state level authority.

[FreedomCalls]

However, they are also charged with "before the fact" mitigation"

What source are you using for that assertation?

Federal authority always supercede local authority in disasters of this magnitude

That is flat out wrong. Unless the governor cedes control or has it taken from her under the Insurrection act, she is in control. FEMA and the National Guard said that as long as there was one functioning New Orleans municipal policeman they were still subordinate to his authority and would do what he said.

[infocats]

"Infocats, you are so fond of selectively quoting things. Please explain this away."

As long as we're on the topic of selective quoting, I have always maintained that FEMA did a better job than could reasonably be expected under the circumstances in responding to Katrina...AFTER the FACT.

What I have tried to point out, however ineffectively, that under federal law, FEMA's first responsibility was to act BEFORE the FACT in ensuring, to the extent possible, that a tragedy such as this didn't happen in the first instance.

Once a national disaster is declared, the fed has every authority to go in and take charge under law, with or without the invitation of local authorities. That Mike Brown chose not to exercise his authority in this regard is a reflection of his appalling lack of leadership in addition to his poor judgement.

I would suggest that in many instances, the fed has authority to act long before an emergency is declared. For example, the fed controls air and water quality standards. If your local community couldn't or wouldn't meet E.P.A. standards, they could insist that a water filtration plant be installed, or that your water system be shut down entirely.

The same is true with your local businesses or public institutions not meeting A.D.A. standards. They could both be shut down for lack of compliance.

It seems to me to be rather self evident that the understandings between the relationships between state and fed that existed under the 13 colonies with a population of perhaps 100,000, no longer apply in a vastly more complex society with a population of 280 million.

Municipalities generally don't have the resources, and more often than not lack the expertise, to deal with problems of this magnitude, nor should they realistically be expected to do so in an effective manner.

[gitmo]

Homeland and FEMA did drop the ball - had they acted as swiftly as the United States Coast Guard, we would not have any problem.

They didn't have the authority. States' Rights is a fundamental concept of this nation. We don't inject Federal forces into states' business without invitation. (Well, OK. Lincoln did.)

Your "ABOUT" page only has 2 lines on it:

Extremism in the Pursuit of Liberty is No Vice.

Moderation in the Battle with Tyranny is no Virtue.

That is what this is about.