Preacherman
Member
Has anyone wondered why Louisiana handled the post-Katrina relief effort so badly, prior to massive Federal aid arriving on Friday? For the answer, look no further than this article in the Washington Post. It's very revealing if you read between the lines.
What Governor Blanco and her cohorts are trying to do is to maintain State control of the whole relief effort. My interpretation is: if the situation is Federalized, then FEMA and other agencies will control the billions upon billions of dollars in Federal aid that will flow into Louisiana. If the State government (historically one of the most corrupt in the USA) retains control, it can direct those funds according to its own priorities. Can anyone spell "boondoggle"? Can anyone say "patronage"? I smell several very large and hairy rats in the way Blanco is handling this... Note the "blame game" by several local officials in the second excerpt below, and you'll see that they're all trying to blame the Feds whilst weaseling out of their own responsibilities.
Note, too, that the governors of both Mississippi and Alabama had declared states of emergencies BEFORE Katrina hit, and were thereby able to mobilize federal assistance much more quickly and efficiently.
The article is four pages long, so please click on the link to read the whole thing if you're interested. I've taken two excerpts from it:
This also goes some way to explaining the barrage of anti-Federal-Government and anti-Bush propaganda in the mainstream media. The latter is entirely supportive of the Democratic government in New Orleans and Louisiana, and anything that will deflect a true analysis of the massive shortcomings of the latter institutions in this disaster will be siezed upon eagerly.
Makes me sick, quite frankly.
What Governor Blanco and her cohorts are trying to do is to maintain State control of the whole relief effort. My interpretation is: if the situation is Federalized, then FEMA and other agencies will control the billions upon billions of dollars in Federal aid that will flow into Louisiana. If the State government (historically one of the most corrupt in the USA) retains control, it can direct those funds according to its own priorities. Can anyone spell "boondoggle"? Can anyone say "patronage"? I smell several very large and hairy rats in the way Blanco is handling this... Note the "blame game" by several local officials in the second excerpt below, and you'll see that they're all trying to blame the Feds whilst weaseling out of their own responsibilities.
Note, too, that the governors of both Mississippi and Alabama had declared states of emergencies BEFORE Katrina hit, and were thereby able to mobilize federal assistance much more quickly and efficiently.
The article is four pages long, so please click on the link to read the whole thing if you're interested. I've taken two excerpts from it:
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.
In a Washington briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said one reason federal assets were not used more quickly was "because our constitutional system really places the primary authority in each state with the governor."
Chertoff planned to fly overnight to the New Orleans area to take charge of deploying the expanded federal and military assets for several days, he said. He said he has "full confidence" in FEMA Director Michael D. Brown, the DHS undersecretary and federal officer in charge of the Katrina response.
Brown, a frequent target of New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin's wrath, said Saturday that "the mayor can order an evacuation and try to evacuate the city, but if the mayor does not have the resources to get the poor, elderly, the disabled, those who cannot, out, or if he does not even have police capacity to enforce the mandatory evacuation, to make people leave, then you end up with the kind of situation we have right now in New Orleans."
New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas acknowledged that the city was surprised by the number of refugees left behind, but he said FEMA should have been prepared to assist.
"Everybody shares the blame here," said Thomas. "But when you talk about the mightiest government in the world, that's a ludicrous and lame excuse. You're FEMA, and you're the big dog. And you weren't prepared either."
In Baton Rouge, Blanco acknowledged Saturday: "We did not have enough resources here to do it all. . . . The magnitude is overwhelming."
State officials had planned to turn to neighboring states for help with troops, transportation and equipment in a major hurricane. But in Katrina's case, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were also overwhelmed, said Denise Bottcher, a Blanco spokesman.
This also goes some way to explaining the barrage of anti-Federal-Government and anti-Bush propaganda in the mainstream media. The latter is entirely supportive of the Democratic government in New Orleans and Louisiana, and anything that will deflect a true analysis of the massive shortcomings of the latter institutions in this disaster will be siezed upon eagerly.
Makes me sick, quite frankly.