re: Bush slow to go to New Orleans---Obama slow to go to the border

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I would vote for Bush again today over just about any democrat I can think of.

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Your first truthful statement in this thread.

Exactly HailHail to Michigan, soon to be democratic voters!!!!

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Ace Midnight can back me up.

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Partially.

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I was dating a Guardsman then. He was stationed at the Superdome. He was called up a few days before Katrina by Blanco.

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VB, you wouldn't have to be a lady would you? If not... (NTTAWWT) -

Yes, the entire National Guard was alerted on either Thursday or Friday (but, it was the normal thing we used to get for any major hurricane) - but on Saturday, it was "all hands on deck" to borrow naval parlance - every National Guardsman available was called to report to his/her unit.

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The helicopters Ace posted about were Blanco's doing.

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Some were, some weren't. LAARNG and LDWF helicopters, certainly, but there were USCG helicopters operating as early as Monday, August 29th. There were federal assets embedded with us from the beginning, including the FEMA people - and they take a lot of flak - their only real function in the planning - at least from the New Orleans perspective, was food and water.

They had a bigger coordination piece, but that didn't impact what happened in 504.

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Tell me, what could they have done that wasn't done. List what they could have done.

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Blanco could have declared martial law. Blanco and Nagin could have started a mandatory evacuation on Saturday rather than waiting until it was too late - unfortunately New Orleans was the victim of the "politician who cried hurricane" prior to that, and, while it is their responsibility (no one made them run for office), that part was not fully their fault. (Not Bush's, either).

Finally, to the "stupid decision" Blanco and Landreneau, upon some very, very poor advice, IMHO, left the national guard HQ in place at Jackson Barracks, rather than follow an excellent plan to displace them to Carville and, therefore, outside the immediate strike zone for Katrina.

What does that mean? It means I tried to grab my first bit of sleep in about 40 hours, at Building 35 at JB, and woke up to the sound of, "Okay guys - the ground floor is flooded and the latrines aren't working. If you need to take a pi$$, walk down the stairwell until you get to the water and go there. Otherwise....I don't know what to tell you." about an hour later.

We had power until the city turned off the gas to our generator. SO, we had to evacuate many of the decisionmakers (and flunkies like myself) for the better part of a day, from JB to the Dome.

They could have not made that decision and things would have gone much, much smoother on Monday and Tuesday.

More radios (cell phones don't work without towers), more high water capable vehicles, just better planning, management and leadership overall would have been great combat multipliers for us in the crisis zone during the crisis period.

AND - on Wedneday - when the battle at the Dome was still in question, we were ordered to stop what we were doing and account for ourselves and each of our subordinates going all the way back to Saturday, August 27 (so that Blanco could put out bull$hit numbers to cover her a$$ - you see, they play games with payroll and federal money all the time and it bites them in the a$$ when they get audited - Bush was getting ready to say - "Well, we paid for X number of troops, why weren't they available?"

And the beat goes on...

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Who were the idiots that turned the boat brigade back at LaPlace?

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I can't answer that, brah - lots of people were acting on their own authority - I don't want to second guess them, but there wasn't a lot of coordination or proactive measures being taken for a few days.

We (the Guard) were literally in reactive mode until sometime Wednesday afternoon - really Thursday, before we could become proactive again.

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a governor calls begging for help

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why did she reject Bush when he offered...twice?


btw...Bush authorized federal assistance two days before the storm hit moron

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exactly why VB has completely made this thread about Katrina

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And I'm sorry that I've helped him do that.

Disaster response should be state and local first, with federal backing.

Border/immigration issues - it should be reversed - the fact that the parties are flipped the wrong way for VB, a want, and Rex's agendas are why the discussion is skewed this way.

Not even apples to oranges. More like apples to cellphones.

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VB, you wouldn't have to be a lady would you? If not... (NTTAWWT)

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Gay as an Easter bonnet.

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Yes, the entire National Guard was alerted on either Thursday or Friday (but, it was the normal thing we used to get for any major hurricane) - but on Saturday, it was "all hands on deck" to borrow naval parlance - every National Guardsman available was called to report to his/her unit.

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They were in the Dome as Katrina hit.

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Some were, some weren't. LAARNG and LDWF helicopters, certainly, but there were USCG helicopters operating as early as Monday, August 29th. There were federal assets embedded with us from the beginning, including the FEMA people - and they take a lot of flak - their only real function in the planning - at least from the New Orleans perspective, was food and water.

They had a bigger coordination piece, but that didn't impact what happened in 504.

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Let me give you some facts about the Federal Response:

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1. Within four days of Katrina’s landfall on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005, then-President George W. Bush signed a $10.4 billion aid package and ordered 7,200 National Guard troops to the region. A few days later, he requested — and Congress approved — an additional $51.8 billion in aid.

2. Hundreds of firefighters from other cities who volunteered to help in the response were rerouted to Atlanta, where they sat through two days of presentations on sexual harassment and the history of FEMA before being sent to New Orleans.

3. FEMA Director Michael Brown, who resigned over his handling of the response, later told a group of students that the White House only wanted to federalize the response in Louisiana, where the governor was a Democrat, and not in Republican-led Mississippi in order to embarrass Louisiana officials. Brown said the White House believed they had a chance to “rub [Kathleen Blanco’s] nose in it.” The Bush administration denied political considerations played a role in the response.

4. The federal government didn’t waive the Stafford Act, which requires localities to contribute 10 percent of the cost of reconstruction and clean-up projects, until May. It was quickly waived after both Sept. 11 and Hurricane Andrew.

5. An investigation by Congressional Republicans, while placing most of the blame on the Bush administration, singled out New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for not ordering an evacuation of the city until less than 24 hours before Katrina’s landfall. Nearby Plaquemines Parish had ordered an evacuation a day earlier.

6. Then-New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered 200 members of his state’s national guard to help Louisiana the day the Katrina hit, but a letter from Washington authorizing the move didn’t arrive until five days later.

7. On Tuesday, Aug. 30, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff flew to Atlanta for a briefing on the avian flu, and President George W. Bush later said he thought New Orleans had dodged a bullet. In fact, the White House had been informed the night before that levees in New Orleans had broken and the city was flooding.

8. Vice President Dick Cheney’s office called a Mississippi electricity cooperative and ordered repair crews to restore power to a pipeline sending oil and gas to the northeast, delaying the restoration of power to two rural hospitals.

9. Before the storm hit, Amtrak ran equipment out of the city. With rooms for several hundred evacuees, they offered the spots to the city. Officials declined, so the train left with no passengers.

10. Five days after the storm hit, then-Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) was allowed through the military checkpoints and given a national guard escort in order to visit his house. Jefferson said he was on tour of his flooded district and trying to examine the damage.


Read more: LINK

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Local govt sucked in NOLA. No doubt.

DC sucked more.

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with a policy that allows for these people to become citizens and contribute to society.

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we already have a policy that allows that. it's called legal immigration

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it's called legal immigration

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Its outdated and doesn't work. plus it makes it nearly impossible for people who are here illegally to legally gain citizenship status

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These same cretins complain about low wages.

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thought you were talking about the immigrants at first and i was confused


i am not in that category even though i think there is concern with a wage inequality gap. I however think free markets will fix this gap and much of it has to do with policies of the government