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Media Spins Stories - White House Doesn't
Anytime I write a political commentary my email box grows full. Such is the case with one article appearing here that was titled "Hurricane Katrina Response Shameful at Best." Timothy Bowers believes I was a little to harsh on our president.
For your information and education. It's funny how the media puts it's own spin on things.
Maybe this will help everyone understand the complexities of this situation. Also I believe
there is enough blame to go all the way around from top to bottom and bottom to top. The
question is not who dropped the ball, but why did the ball get dropped. IT SHOULD NEVER
HAPPEN AGAIN!
Last Fri. President Bush urged mandatory evacuation
Our Constitution provides autonomy for the State governors. They are the only ones now that
can mobilize their National Guards within their States to assist in their States, except in
the extreme situation where they themselves are defying a Supreme Court order (like 1954 in
Little Rock, Arkansas)
President Bush urged Gov. Blanco on Friday last to order a mandatory evacuation of New
Orleans. She called for a "voluntary" evacuation on Saturday afternoon, saying the President
Bush had urged her to evacuate. (I assume that was so she could blame him if the storm
passed them by) Bush declared Louisiana and Mississippi disaster areas of national
emergencies two days BEFORE the hurricane hit. That is unprecedented as far as I know, but
by doing that a lot of FEMA supplies and personnel could be prepositioned in those States to
assist. (But he first had to get the Governors to request that he make these declarations.)
On Saturday night the Mayor of New Orleans was still dithering with lawyers about their
liability if he should order the evacuation of New Orleans be mandatory. He and the lawyers
decided to have people sign forms refusing mandatory evacuation, and then Sunday morning he
finally ordered mandatory evacuation.
However, the Mayor of New Orleans didn't commandeer school buses and start hauling people
out. He pretty much left everybody to fend for themselves, as far as I know.
The country knows that New Orleans is one of our most corrupt cities, and Louisiana one of
our most corrupt States.
New Orleans has a Democrat Mayor, a Democrat City Council, a Democrat Chief of Police --
Louisiana a Democrat Attorney General, a Democrat Governor, a Democrat Lt. Governor, 24 of
39 Louisiana State Senators are Democrat, 67 of 105 Louisiana State House Representatives
are Democrat, there's a Democrat Representative in the House from New Orleans, and one of
two Senators in the Senate is a Democrat (The only Republican Senator was just elected last
year).
Governor Blanco did not ask for National Guard troops from outside Louisiana to be
prepositioned before the hurricane, and then was out of communication with her own troops
after the hurricane because of the disaster taking down all the communication systems.
She did not request assistance from the federal government for additional troops from
outside Louisiana till Wednesday. (Democrats are always very reluctant to use military,
especially in situations that involve African-Americans which composed 68% of the population
of New Orleans, but part of that was due to her not being able to get reports of conditions
in New Orleans due to communications being down.) Today, Friday, the National Guard rolled
into New Orleans.
Many people in New Orleans didn't leave because they had property they wanted to protect
from criminals, because they had elderly or sick relatives or pets that they stayed to care
for, or because their welfare or Social Security checks were due to come on Sept 1.
Taking all these and other things into consideration, I think we need to make new law
allowing the federal government to assume the leadership role in natural or terrorist
disasters. We can't count on each State having a "Giuliani" around to take charge.
There were disaster plans on the boards. Those plans called for mandatory evacuation of New
Orleans if threatened by a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. The Governor and Mayor simply didn't
do what they were supposed to do in a timely manner, despite urging from the President.
We also need a plan for gathering up the poor and the infirm and getting them out with their
ID, and for guarding their property in their absence as best we can, although the latter
part of that is a real challenge. We need a system for canceling any checks that are in the
mail and reissuing them in a timely fashion to shelters.
Certainly we need better communications networking with people on the ground in the disaster
areas. Bunkers for command and communications need to be built with generators and
satellite communications in some areas that are most likely to be wiped out.
Just as the feds have been for some time now not insuring people who build on the
Mississippi River flood plain, but are rebuilding their homes above the flood zones -- so do
we need to recognize that New Orleans cannot continue to live below the flood plain.
Email
Timothy Bowers
Posted:
21:22 9/7/2005
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