KATRINA AND THE AFTERMATH

OR - NEW ORLEANS; Never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainry.

Don't get me wrong, I am sorry for all of the loss of life and property. But, there was a whole lot of corruption going on in the Big Easy long before it got wiped out by Katrina. You know, stuff like diverting money for levee maintenance into marinas and casinos. Stuff like not ordering mandatory evacuations BEFORE the hurricane hit.

As is typical with liberals, they start yelling the loudest earliest. It was all FEMA and Bush's fault because they don't care about po black folk. To anyone who has uttered that, I say you are a JACKASS!

My Dad is part of a FEMA response team. He, along with many other resources, were staged well before Katrina made land fall. Obviously, they were not in the hurricane's path, cuz it won't do any good to have the rescuers and supplies wiped out by the same natural disaster. And, when all the democrats were screaming for heads to roll the second day after land fall, the Red Cross had staged several truck loads of food an water to go in to the Superdome. All they asked for was a National Guard escort. They were told by the compassionate governor that they did not want more people to be drawn to the Superdome. The focus would be on getting the people out of New Orleans. In short, the National Guard would not help them bring in food and water.

A lot of people suffered needlessly. Too many died. The suffering and the blood is on the hands of the idiot mayor, and the soulless governor. A MANDATORY evacuation should have been ordered at least 48 hours before the hurricane hit. I keep hearing the false claim that so many of the folk were poor and did not have a way to get out. If that is true, then dear Mayor Nagin should have ordered every single transit bus, school bus, and every city vehicle into service to evacuate those who did not have their own transportation. Those that refused should have been given Sharpie pens and told to write their social security numbers on their bodies so when they are found dead later, they could be identified.

Don't blame FEMA or Bush for the ineptitude and incompetence of the Democratic leadership of New Orleans and Louisiana. The suffering of the people belongs solely to Nagin and Blanco.

This is a post from Bill Weiler, freelance journalist, over in Merritt Island, FL, who has been researching what went on before KATRINA hit New Orleans (NO).

Politics Over Duty

I think all of Mayor 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 Mayor Nagin and Governor 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 advisers 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 Gov. Blanco and Mayor 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 advisors 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 o 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 buses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 buses at his
disposal to use between the local school buses and the city
transportation buses - 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.