Truth trickling out......

[obby]

Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 11:38 p.m. EDT

Mayor Nagin: Gov. Blanco Delayed Rescue

After days of blaming the federal officials for not responding quickly enough to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised President Bush on Monday - and charged that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had delayed federal rescue efforts by 24-hours.

"I'm so happy that the president came down here," Nagin said of Bush's Friday visit to Louisiana in an interview with CNN. "He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action."

But Nagin had harsh words for his state's leaders, telling CNN: "What the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate."

The New Orleans Democrat said he urged Bush to meet privately with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the visit. The meeting took place aboard Air Force One, he said.

After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

[rhythmburn]

interesting....

[mdamon7278]

Very Interesting, now time for a red bull..

[Timmmaaayyyy]

Timmmaaayyyy!

:peeright:Katrina

[obby]

A SAD STATE OF CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT LOOKING FOR A HAND OUT.

Subject: Politics over duty

This is a post from a fellow over in Merritt Is, FL, a reporter who's been

researching what went on before the storm hit.

I think all of Nagin's pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in the

near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming to

light.

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.

And hopefully, the people of Louisiana will elect more competent people in

the future.

[obby]

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 11:38 a.m. EDT

Ray Nagin: School Buses Not Good Enough

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin garnered a ton of publicity with a profanity-laced interview he gave to WWL radio last Thursday, where he blasted President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for not coming to rescue his city in time.

However, Nagin's most newsworthy comments - where he explained why he didn't use hundreds of city school buses to evacuate his city's flood victims - went almost unnoticed.

Turns out, Nagin turned his nose up at the yellow buses, demanding more comfortable Greyhound coaches instead.

"I need 500 buses, man," he told WWL. "One of the briefings we had they were talking about getting, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here."

Nagin described his response:

"I'm like - you've got to be kidding me. This is a natural disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

While Nagin was waiting for his Greyhound fleet, Katrina's floodwaters swamped his school buses, rendering them unusable.

[digital7]

Isnt this Current Events?

[mdamon7278]

This will go down in history as the worst disaster and the worst response by the government, plain and simple

[digital7]

This will go down in history as the worst disaster and the worst response by the government, plain and simple

worst natural disaster.. otherwise, I agree with you 100%

[funketeer]

The technical definition is "Historic Blunder"

[sotuorlando]

No he did it, no he did it, noooooo he did it, nooooo he did it, no it was his fault, no it was his fault, no it was her, no it was him!

[funketeer]

No he did it, no he did it, noooooo he did it, nooooo he did it, no it was his fault, no it was his fault, no it was her, no it was him!

Just a new york conversation, gossip all of the time

Did you hear who did what to whom, happens all the time

Who has touched and who has dabbled here in the city of shows

Openings, closings, bad repartee, everybody knows

[mp3some]

I hate to politicize things here, or keep playing the he did, she did game of pointing fingers, but I have to Point Out the facts.

The Bush administration and its policies are at the HEART of what has happened in NOLA and the rest of the Gulf coast. They systematically cut funding for the Army Corps of Engineers despite warnings from within his own executive branch that the levees could not hold against a powerful storm.

They consistently slashed funding for FEMA despite the fact that it had performed beautifully in past natural disasters and without any regard for how FEMA's many talents were to be spread or replicated in other departments. They have nearly eliminated programs such as IMPACT - a pre-disaster prevention initiative - that brought Federal Emergency Responders and Local Authorities together to design strategies on how to deal with this type of situations. They have placed inexperienced incompetents at the head of critical agencies, including FEMA, and continue to refuse to hold them - or anyone else - accountable for what is INARGUABLY a major failure of America's disaster response network.

This is NOT "manipulating tragedy" for political gain. This is demanding that criminally incompetent people are held to account for their failures.

[koky]

bush still sucks !!

[mister ben]

like father like son

[drlogic]

I hate to politicize things here, or keep playing the he did, she did game of pointing fingers, but I have to Point Out the facts.

The Bush administration and its policies are at the HEART of what has happened in NOLA and the rest of the Gulf coast. They systematically cut funding for the Army Corps of Engineers despite warnings from within his own executive branch that the levees could not hold against a powerful storm.

They consistently slashed funding for FEMA despite the fact that it had performed beautifully in past natural disasters and without any regard for how FEMA's many talents were to be spread or replicated in other departments. They have nearly eliminated programs such as IMPACT - a pre-disaster prevention initiative - that brought Federal Emergency Responders and Local Authorities together to design strategies on how to deal with this type of situations. They have placed inexperienced incompetents at the head of critical agencies, including FEMA, and continue to refuse to hold them - or anyone else - accountable for what is INARGUABLY a major failure of America's disaster response network.

This is NOT "manipulating tragedy" for political gain. This is demanding that criminally incompetent people are held to account for their failures.

GET SUM!!!!! I don't mean to politicize this act of God in New Orleans, but the facts are the facts and it would be a tragedy if you were allowed to marinate in such patently false and intellectually dishonest preceptions which are somehow being sold as facts. Since you are so eager to GET THE FACTS, GET SUM!

ATTN Sen. Landrieu: Where the hell were you, and where the hell was your daddy, Moon Landrieu, and where was your little brother? They've all run that state, and they've run that city for who knows how long. I want to see the bill, Senator Landrieu, in which you got Senator Daschle and your colleagues to vote for billions of dollars to build a levee system which would stand to cat five. I want to see the legislation that you proposed. You've been there since the Clinton administration. I'm not talking about money for the levee system. I'm talking about money to build a cat five levee system. Senator Landrieu, Louisiana is number one in Army Corps of Engineer funding. The Army Corps of Engineers gets more money to spend in Louisiana than any other state in this country. Where is the cat five levee system?

It is time to investigate your whole party, it's time to investigate Louisiana to find out why all the money that was sent down there somehow didn't reach the levees.

How can it be that you, as the senator from that state, didn't do a damn thing about it if everybody knew? Where was your daddy? Where was your little brother? Where's the legislation you introduced to Tom Daschle when he was the majority leader to get this done? Everybody says, "Yep, they'll handle a cat 3, but nothing higher, certainly not a cat 5." Where was the legislation to fix these and move them up to a cat 5? We need to investigate Louisiana, Mary Landrieu's family, and the Democratic Party down there. From the Washington Post today, here's the headline: "Money Flowed to Questionable Projects -- Louisiana leads in Army Corps spending, but millions had nothing to do with the floods. Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic. Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing. In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large. Much of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon. For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations," so that the money would get spent.

Can I read this to you again so you understand this? Mary Landrieu cooked the books. "After a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations." In other words: Cook the books so that the cost-benefit analysis works, because we want the money.

"The Corps also spends tens of millions of dollars a year dredging little-used waterways such as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Atchafalaya River and the Red River -- now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, in honor of the project's congressional godfather -- for barge traffic that is less than forecast." Not only over the five years of President Bush's administration has Louisiana received far more money for the Corps of Engineers civil projects than any other state, 1.9 billion, "overall the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood control projects for the past five years were higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years. Lieutenant General Carl Strock, the chief of the Corps, has said that in any event, more money would not have prevented the drowning of the city, since its levees were designed to protect against a Category 3 storm, and the levees that failed were already completed projects. Strock has also said that the marsh-restoration project would not have done much to diminish Katrina's storm surge, which passed east of the coastal wetlands." They buried the lead of the story! I am halfway to the second page of the story, and the lead of the story is that Bush in his five years spent far more on these projects down there, flood control projects, than Clinton did in his last five years. We also know that the Corps of Engineers gets more money for Louisiana than any other state. We now have learned that Mary Landrieu cooked the books on the $194 million deepening project that flunked a cost-benefit analysis.

So senator, it seems to me you're going to have a real hard time making the case that George Bush didn't do enough. It seems to me, senator, you're going to have a real tough time blaming President Bush for this. It seems to me, senator, that what you ought to really be worried about is somebody investigating you and your daddy and every other Democrat that has run that state, that has willfully accepted all of these dollars and not spent them where they were targeted. And again, Senator, I'd simply like to ask you, where is the legislation that you sponsored to upgrade the levees from category three to category five? Where is it? Is Bush supposed to have done that, too? Yeah, everybody's reading all these articles written years ago about the dangers of what could happen, and, yeah, they look awfully prophetic. Well, you could have read them, too. The mayor could have read them. That governor down there could have read them. And you all could have demanded that something be done about the levees, lifting their capabilities from cat three to cat five, but I don't see anybody producing legislation saying, "See? We asked for it, and we didn't get it." I see you getting more than any other state gets on these types of projects, but I don't know how, senator, you can go from where you are to blaming President Bush for this, and somehow portray yourself as an innocent bystander. You're a member of the US Senate. You did nothing.

Let's expand it into an overall discussion here that does not impact the Democratic Party well. Let's stick to New Orleans. You're exactly right. All these evacuees are not going to go back to New Orleans. They're all Democrats. They all vote Democrat. You know they vote Democrat, 99% of them vote Democrat, and a lot of them are not going to go back, and one of the reasons they're not going to go back is because after all this aid gets spent they're going to have nicer places to live than they had when they lived in New Orleans, and they're going to have more opportunities for jobs. New Orleans was a demonstrable failure for these people, and that's why I think there needs to be an investigation of liberalism down there. Far from creating a utopia, look at what they created. So these people don't go back. So there's a significant number of Democrats not voting in Louisiana, and it could be. I mean, how many people have been evacuated, 182,000? I don't know how many of those are going to go back, but let's say 90,000 of them don't, that's 90,000 votes that are not going to be voted for Democrat candidates in Louisiana. Mary Landrieu barely, barely eked out the last two elections, and it took Bill Clinton making phone calls down in New Orleans to get these people out to vote, and it was razor-thin.

You hang around where liberals run the show, where liberalism is unchecked, and you do not get utopia. You don't get anything. You get a welfare state. You get a welfare state on top of a welfare state. We got the federal welfare state, then you got the one the liberals set up in these states. So you got redundant welfare states that these residents are paying for on both ends. And there's no thought given to whether the next tax increase can be afforded. They just levy it, and if you can't afford it, too bad. Well, people are finally saying too bad for you because we're leaving, and what could the Democrats do to stop it?

this is Annex One Hurricanes Preparedness, City of New Orleans; Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan; Part two, Evacuation. This thing is huge. It's typical of something a bureaucracy would produce. No wonder nobody read it. Nobody probably can. You probably need a library to house the whole thing, but I've got here just annex one, hurricanes, part two, evacuation. Roman numeral I, General: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." That's capitalized, CEMP. "The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation, and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points and the establishment of the management team that will coordinate not only the evacuation but which will monitor and direct the sheltering and return of affected populations are the primary tasks of evacuation planning. Due to the geography of New Orleans and the varying scales of potential disasters and their resulting emergency evacuations, different plans are in place for small scale evacs and for citywide evacuations of whole populations.

"Authority to issue evacuation of elements of the population is vested in the mayor. By executive order, the chief elected official, the mayor of the city of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane. Evacuation procedures for special-needs persons with either physical or mental handicaps, including registration of disabled persons is covered in the standard operating procedure for evacuation of special needs persons, which is a different annex of this report. Major population relocations resulting from an approaching hurricane or similar anticipated disaster caused the City of New Orleans Office of Emergency Preparedness to develop a specific hurricane emergency evac standard operating procedures, which are appended to the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The standard operating procedure is developed to provide for an orderly and coordinated evacuation intended to minimize the hazardous effects of flooding, wind, and rain on the residents and visitors in New Orleans. Standard operating procedure provides for the evacuation of the public from danger areas and the designations of shelters for evacuees." Paragraph Roman numeral II is Concept of Operations, and it is quite detailed in what it says. Here's a paragraph I highlighted: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed. When specific routes of progress are required, evacuees will be directed to those routes. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." None of this was done.

None of this was done, folks! You can sit there and you can blame FEMA. FEMA is not a first-response organization anyway. They're not an early responder. Go read what FEMA's charge is. You will not find her first on the scene. That's not what they do. There is so much misinformation apparently that's out there on this, and again, forgive me. I just assumed that this would be widely known by now. Let me read this again. "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures needed." All this, by the way, comes under the authority of the mayor, as specified from what I'm reading. It's kind of sad when you go through this, and we learn now that on Sunday before the hurricane arrived we have the president begging the governor to declare an emergency and get people out of there, and she dithered for 24 hours. By the way, this is not White House spin that tells me that, it's an Associated Press story, folks, where the president made this phone call. Under paragraph three, evacuation order, Roman numeral A: "Evacuation Time Requirements: Using information developed as part of the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task Force and other research, the city of New Orleans has established a maximum acceptable hurricane evacuation time for a category three storm of 72 hours. This is based on clearance time or is the time required to clear all vehicles evacuating in response to a hurricane situation from area roadways. Clearance time begins when the first evacuating vehicle enters the road network and ends when the last evacuating vehicle reaches its destination."

By the way, it also stipulates that "for people who have no transportation, that city municipal transportation, school buses, public buses, will be used to get them out of the city." Remember, these people were told to walk to the Superdome or to get there on their own, however they could get there, to bring their own food. This is their local government that was promising them all these years to take care of them. "Bring your own food. Use the hoof express. Get yourself to the Superdome. By the way, we don't expect the electricity to last all night because this is a bad storm. So we know the bathrooms aren't going to work." You know, you can talk about all day long about the horror we saw of whatever numbers of people could not get out of there after the flooding and after the hurricane, but what about this whole document that specifies how they are to be gotten out of there before this happens? And evacuation before this happens is far simpler, easier, and more sensible than trying to evacuate survivors. You've got to get rid of everybody when this storm is coming. You can't deploy the military to sit there and take hits. You can't send FEMA down there to stand there in the middle of the storm so they're on the scene when the storm passes. You get everybody out of there and then as soon as you can get people back in, you do. "Clearance time also includes the time required by evacuees to secure their homes and prepare to leave. The time spent by evacuees traveling along the road network and the time spent by evacuees waiting along the road network due to traffic congestion."

In other words, 72 hours because they anticipate traffic jams, they anticipate all the problems that can come with an evacuation, so it's supposed to start 72 hours before a category three. Now, we know there have been previous storms to hit New Orleans and they didn't hit or if they did hit, it wasn't that bad, "Ah, if we get hit it won't be that bad." Yeah, that's what the normal person is going to say. The leadership of the city has got to say, "Un-uh. We're getting outta here, a cat three / cat four is headed our way. We can't take a chance." Now the mayor was on television begging people to leave. I'm not denying that, and he said, "This is not a test. This is not a drill," but there was no implementation of this plan whatsoever. Here are the time frames: "Precautionary evacuation notice 72 hours or less, special needs evacuation order, eight to 12 hours after the precautionary evacuation notice is issued, and the general evacuation notice, 48 hours or less. So the first 24 hours of an evacuation are designed in this manual to get people out of there who can't get out on their own. The others who can get out, and it says here, "primary responsibility for evacuating will be yours, the citizens, getting out in your own transportation." You have to provide it. For people who can't, first 24 hours we're going to pack them up on city buses and get them outta here. This did not happen. Now, again, I'm sorry, I thought I was going to start out by keeping it simple, stupid. I just assumed that a lot of people knew this, which is why I said that what we had down there was an eminent failure of state and local government. We had incompetence in the mayor's office, incompetence in the governor's office, and we had the utter illustration, total illustration, the utter failure of entitlement mentalities from government on down. Just stand by after the break. I mean, it gets even better than what I've shared with you so far.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Monday called for "every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: 'Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.'" But the Times-Picayune published a story on July 24, 2005, barely a month and a half ago, stating: "City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: 'In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own.'" So six weeks ago the New Orleans Times-Picayune runs a story intended for the population of New Orleans, (paraphrasing) "Hey, major storm comes your way, city, state, and federal emergency officials are apparently telling you that you're on your own."

"Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported some seven weeks before Katrina: 'In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation. In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.'" This is seven weeks ago! I'm reading to you from a New Orleans paper. Seven weeks ago the city leaders said, "We can't get you out if something happens. You are on your own." And yesterday the same newspaper demands that everybody at FEMA be fired.

You are responsible for your safety, says this video, and you should be responsible for the person next to you. If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you if you can get yourself outta here on your own. So seven weeks ago pretty much admitting that they could not implement their own evacuation plan, and so now that it happens -- and guess what? Guess who it is to get blamed? The federal government, FEMA, you name it. It's strictly pass the buck. More from the evacuation plan. "If an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm or left in an area impacted by toxic materials."

They knew what was going to happen, and they were prepared for it and they were worried about the fact that if they gave an evacuation order, and some people couldn't hear it, or read it, because they didn't have newspapers or television and radio, then we were in deep doo-doo. They knew all of this, and I can't get over the picture of all those school buses and municipal buses flooded and basically ruined trying to get people out of there. All of this, by the way, let me just read to you again. "Due to the sheer size and number of persons to be evacuated, should a major tropical weather system or other catastrophic event threaten or impact the area, specifically directed long-range planning and coordination of resources and responsibilities efforts must be undertaken. The clearance times facing Orleans Parish for a severe hurricane will necessitate proper traffic control and early evacuating decision making. The evacuation must be completed before the arrival of gale force winds. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, and the establishment of the management team that will coordinate not only the evacuation but which will monitor and direct the sheltering and return of affected populations, are the primary tasks of evacuation planning." Again, authority to issue evacuations, the population is vested in the mayor.

So, I mean, it's patently obvious here. I guess the mainstream press hasn't been talking about this all weekend, is that what you're telling me, You have not heard any of this on television? You didn't hear any of this on TV, Dawn? There's a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today by Craig Martelle, retired as a major in the US Marine Corps, lives in north Huntington near Pittsburgh. He recently launched the strategic outlook institute of public policy organization. He said, "Don't be so quick to pillory the federal response in New Orleans. Immediate emergency management is primarily a local and state responsibility. As one who has received training by FEMA in emergency management and also training by the Department of Defense in consequence management, I believe that the federal response in New Orleans needs clarification. The key to emergency management starts at the local level and expands to the state level. Emergency planning generally does not include any federal guarantees, as there can only be limited ones from the federal level for any local plan. FEMA provides free training, education, assistance and respond in case of an emergency, but the local and state officials run their own emergency management program. Prior development of an emergency plan, addressing all foreseeable contingencies, is the absolute requirement of the local government -- and then they share that plan with the state emergency managers to ensure that the state authorities can provide necessary assets not available at the local level. Additionally, good planning will include applicable elements of the federal government (those located in the local area). These processes are well established, but are contingent upon the personal drive of both hired and elected officials at the local level. I've reviewed the New Orleans emergency management plan. Here is an important section in the first paragraph." Want me to read it again, drive the point home?

"'We coordinate all city departments and allied state and federal agencies which respond to citywide disasters and emergencies through the development and constant updating of an integrated multi-hazard plan. All requests for federal disaster assistance and federal funding subsequent to disaster declarations are also made through this office. Our authority is defined by the Louisiana Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993, Chapter 6 Section 709, Paragraph B, 'Each parish shall maintain a Disaster Agency which, except as otherwise provided under this act, has jurisdiction over and serves the entire parish.'"

"Check the plan -- the 'we' in this case is the office of the mayor, Ray Nagin who was very quick and vocal about blaming everyone but his own office. A telling picture, at left, taken by The Associated Press on Sept. 1 and widely circulated on the Internet--" I guess this picture is only on the internet. I guess this picture has not been on television. Have you seen these pictures of all the school buses, Mr. Snerdley, sitting flooded? There must be hundreds of them here. A school bus park filled to capacity with buses under about four feet of water. If a mandatory evacuation was ordered, why weren't all the taxpayer purchased buses used in this effort, particularly for the people who had no way of getting themselves out. "The folks in New Orleans who are perpetrating the violence and lawlessness are not that way because of low income or of race, but because they personally do not have any honor or commitment to higher ideals. The civil-rights leaders should be ashamed at playing the blame game. The blame is on the individuals. The blame is on the society that allowed these individuals to develop the ideal that the individual is greater than the national pride he is destroying."

[drlogic]

I hate to politicize things here, or keep playing the he did, she did game of pointing fingers, but I have to Point Out the facts.

PART 2: Taken from CURRENT EVENTS::::::

As former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial told Russert, the disaster in New Orleans was "foreseeable."

In fact, New Orleans has long known that such a disaster could take place if a major hurricane hit the city.

The municipality even prepared its own "City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan."

The plan makes it evident that New Orleans knew that evacuation of the civilian population was the primary responsibility of the city – not the federal government.

The city plan acknowledges its responsibility in the document:

As established by the City of New Orleans Charter, the government has jurisdiction and responsibility in disaster response. City government shall coordinate its efforts through the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

The city document also makes clear that decisions involving a proper and orderly evacuation lie with the governor, mayor and local authorities. Nowhere is the president or federal government even mentioned:

The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

It is clear the city also recognized that it would need to move large portions of its population, and it would need to prepare for such an eventuality:

The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed. When specific routes of progress are required, evacuees will be directed to those routes. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed. ...

Evacuation procedures for small scale and localized evacuations are conducted per the SOPs of the New Orleans Fire Department and the New Orleans Police Department. However, due to the sheer size and number of persons to be evacuated, should a major tropical weather system or other catastrophic event threaten or impact the area, specifically directed long range planning and coordination of resources and responsibilities efforts must be undertaken. [You can read New Orleans' Emergency Plan for hurricanes at its Web site: http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26]

The city's plan also specifically called for the use of city-owned buses and school buses to evacuate the population. These were apparently never deployed, though the Parish of Plaquemines just south of the city evacuated its population using school buses.

The plan, written well before Katrina was even a teardrop in God's eye, was obviously never heeded or implemented by local leaders.

But why should the New Orleans mayor and Governor Blanco take responsibility when they can blame George Bush and the Republicans in Washington?

With congressional elections fast approaching, Democrats who are out of power in every branch of the federal government know they need to change the tide quickly.

They have apparently seized on the Katrina disaster to harm the president politically.

Criticism of the federal government's response is fair and warranted. But putting full responsibility for this disaster on the Bush administration is way over the top.

Primary responsibility for this disaster remains with local officials like Nagin and Blanco, not President Bush.

[philippio]

Oh... did I mention...

Lust4House 8th anniversary featuring dj Heather

Saturday Sept. 10 @ BLUE!

[mp3some]

GET SUM!!!!! I don't mean to politicize this act of God in New Orleans, but the facts are the facts and it would be a tragedy if you were allowed to marinate in such patently false and intellectually dishonest preceptions which are somehow being sold as facts. Since you are so eager to GET THE FACTS, GET SUM!

Dear drlogic:

I suggest you prescribe yourself some of that so-called logic you come hear to preach, while I wait for the cliffs notes version of your plagiarized post. Please take a better look at the First lines of my post where it clearly says that the Bush Administration and its policies are at the HEART of what has happened after the storm hit; not Mr Bush himself nor the Mayor or Gov particularly. This does not releive the local and state agencies from complete responsibility, but an evaluation of the state of our ENTIRE EM systems is due after such a Disaster. This is certainly not an issue of conservatives vs liberals, it is a reality check for all americans.

Under the presidents own measure, one which he sold his whole campaign to the nation going for re-election, of making Our Homeland Safe-er; with a weakened and patched up FEMA, It is certainly clear that he has dropped the ball.

Political appointees in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's top rankings - among who knows how many other agancies of govt.- that displace qualified experienced individuals does NOT make our homeland any safer.

He has definitely dropped it...

[drlogic]

Dear drlogic:

I suggest you prescribe yourself some of that so-called logic you come hear to preach, while I wait for the cliffs notes version of your plagiarized post. Please take a better look at the First lines of my post where it clearly says that the Bush Administration and its policies are at the HEART of what has happened after the storm hit; not Mr Bush himself nor the Mayor or Gov particularly. This does not releive the local and state agencies from complete responsibility, but an evaluation of the state of our ENTIRE EM systems is due after such a Disaster. This is certainly not an issue of conservatives vs liberals, it is a reality check for all americans.

Under the presidents own measure, one which he sold his whole campaign to the nation going for re-election, of making Our Homeland Safe-er; with a weakened and patched up FEMA, It is certainly clear that he has dropped the ball.

Political appointees in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's top rankings - among who knows how many other agancies of govt.- that displace qualified experienced individuals does NOT make our homeland any safer.

He has definitely dropped it...

He?

Listen Scooter, there's the problem w/ your opinion. If only you showed equal disgust and elaborated your grievances w/ all parties involved, then I would have never felt the need to stop you from digging yourself any deeper. If the critics would only acknowledge that this NO problem is not a new one and last time I checked, LA and specifically NO has been run by democrats forever. Yet, when the crap hits the fan, all of a sudden, it' s the white republicans faullt? There's the rub guy! I just have a problem those who act as if they really care when what they say clearly show they're just being political hacks and tools! There were massive problems in LA, Mississippi and Alabama. The problem was not one persons problem or policy. Especially in LA which like I said has been run by demz forever. If you "sincerely" have issues w/ policies, then you might wanna look at who's been running the show down there. I know it's easier to just blame Bush, but that's just being intellectualy dishonest. Convenient and easy? Sure, but still wrong no matter how much lipstick you smear on that pig! So, that post of mine simply tries to put logic and perspective into an extremely politicized natural disaster. All the noise about cutting funding and taking too long completely gloss over the fact that this was not a new problem and local gov't bares the brunt of the responsibility for their lack of preparedness over the last 20 years(or so). The local gov't deserves the same tough questions the "haters" (aka-tools) demand from Bush and his admin. Congress deserves the same exact thing! They are not inoccent bistandards in this. The tone and pointed attacks from the "tools" do more to prove I'm right than to imply Bush is to blame. People believe what they want to believe. I just throw out facts I learn to help bring perspective to the table. Where were the local senators, city Mayors? Governor, if this was soooo important? The answer is obvious. Absent! Which clearly explains why the finger pointing began so soon. Deflecting attention from their obvious failings. CYA. Spin baby spin!

Nothing more than repugnant politics. So, like I said before, don't hate me for trying to bring perspective to the discussion about a catastrophic natural disaster. If the "tools" only acknowledged the failings of the local gov't (which just so happens to be liberal) along w/ their critique of FEMA, then fine. Since they don't, I take that as them not being sincere, hence, TOOLS.