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 compact 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.

How it is that so many on the left can call Bush a dictator and yet also blame Bush when he doesn’t take powers that the Constitution doesn’t allow him to take is beyond me.

VE lays the smack down.

Nicely written my friend.

that was good. 

Prediction from the left:  This argument of the vacation will not be used anymore (and treated as if it were never used in the first place), just simply ignored, (Except by Moore and other extreme liberals who prey on delivering misinfromation to the ignorant enough to buy it).

Thank you for that post, viruseater.
If there is anything that is tiresome (if not absolutely bloody irritating) is the finger-pointing culture we live in. Instead of examining a problem carefully and objectively and owning up to our own faults there is instead blaming this or that person. None of it is factual and none of it is constructive. Feed the hungry now and worry about Blanco after.

Prediction from the left:  This argument of the vacation will not be used anymore

Never happen.  They will assume (correctly) that 95% of America will never see this picture and continue their invective.

If there is anything that is tiresome (if not absolutely bloody irritating) is the finger-pointing culture we live in. Instead of examining a problem carefully and objectively and owning up to our own faults there is instead blaming this or that person. None of it is factual and none of it is constructive. Feed the hungry now and worry about Blanco after.

This was Jim’s attitude for the first few days, but despite the call for reason the “blame Bush” vitriol continued, which has led to the snap you are now witnessing.  I’m not saying I agree with it, I’m just saying he went the high road and no one was too interested in fairness and reason at the time.

Come-on! You see the way he’s leaned back in his chair like that?! He’s practically relaxing while the Hurricane rushes towards land!! Why isn’t he doing something!! I bet that piece of paper he’s setting down on the table is the final paragraph of “My Pet Goat” that he didn’t get to finish reading on Sept 11th. If those were white people in New Orleans Bush’s posture would be straight and attentive. This picture finally proves the truth that Kanye West so courageously brought to light last week: Bush hates black people!

/moonbat off.

I bet that piece of paper he’s setting down on the table is the final paragraph of “My Pet Goat” that he didn’t get to finish reading on Sept 11th.

Well, it’s a compelling read, and he wanted to find out if the goat killed Dumbledore.

Don’t be silly.  Obviously he’s trying to figure out where Louisiana is.

How it is that so many on the left can call Bush a dictator and yet also blame Bush when he doesn’t take powers that the Constitution doesn’t allow him to take is beyond me.

These are the people that have made an entire political philosophy out of hypocritical double-talk.

Bush is a moron, but he’s utterly cunning and plotting.
Bush doesn’t actually run the country, his handlers do, but it’s all his fault when bad stuff happens.
Bush hates to work and is always on vacation, and he also wants to rule the world with an iron fist.

I think their extra-small brains allow there to be enough room in their skulls for them to do all that whipping-around without getting dizzy.

A request, VE…

Can we get credible links to support your argument, please?  I want to be prepared when the true shitstorm hits and have all the evidence that I can.  Thanks!

Sir Not Appearin In This Film

Bush had his Hollywood buddies construct the set of the Crawford War Room to fool the American people into believing he actually works--just like when he faked all those Apollo moon landings to make the Ruskies think we had more space technology than them…

These are the people that have made an entire political philosophy out of hypocritical double-talk.

Oh, I realise that. I just can’t comprehend HOW one is able to do that.

Oh, those poor people on the left.  I guess the only argument they have left is that Bush didn’t fund the levees.  Oops, I forgot about the article in the Washington Post today that says:

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.

And, my favorite part:

But overall, the Bush administration’s funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration’s for its past five years. Lt. Gen. 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.

Poor liberals, it must really suck when the facts contradict your opinions.

Great article, Furious.  I found this little nugget in that article:

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.

Wasn’t it Landrieu who recently said that if Bush blamed Louisianna she’d literally punch him?  Today’s doves seem a might violent, and willing to pass a war spending bill as long as it brings some bacon home…

Today’s doves seem a might violent, and willing to pass a war spending bill as long as it brings some bacon home…

Nothing at all in a surprise about that. Trudeau or however you spell that pompous ponce’s name, the guy that does Doonesbury, has insulted, attacked, and railed against the Iraq war and everything about it or connected to it since before it even began.
He was also hocking packs of “Iraq’s Most Wanted” playing cards on his website as popups.
Which, of course, is the beauty of capitalism. However, it’s pathetic because his pocketbook obviously comes before his convictions, and his obvious adoration for socialism/communism anyway.

I see m_luv’s moonbat goggles are still working at 210%.