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Mojorabbit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 12:48 PM
Original message
Help me refute this email from my brother
Chain of Responsibility

In case you aren't familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsibility for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans
is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of
the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a
mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to
provide transportation for those without transport even though he had
hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for
a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the
Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political
appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS
BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal
troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be
ready when the Governor called for them

5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster
State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance,
should the Governor decide to use it.

Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the
local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT.

The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt
(democrat) government going all the way back to Huey Long.

Funds for disaster protection and relief have been flowing into this city
for decades, and where has it gone, but into the pockets of the politicos
and their friends.

Decades of socialist government in New Orleans has sapped all self reliance
from the community, and made them dependent upon government for every little
thing.

Political correctness and a lack of will to fight crime have created the
single most corrupt police force in the country, and has permitted gang
violence to flourish.

The sad thing is that there are many poor folks who have suffered and died
needlessly because those that they voted into office failed them.

For those who missed item 5 (where the President's level of accountability
is discussed), it is made more clear in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article
dated August 28:

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a
mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists,
would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for
people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the
city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines
had already cancelled all flights.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said
President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for
the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. (emphasis mine)

The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin's court to carry out the evacuation
order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all
services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city
emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing
to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his
administration messed up.

Mayor Nagin and his emergency sidekick Terry Ebbert have displayed lethal,
mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina.

As for Mayor Nagin, he and his profile in pathetic leadership police chief
should resign as well. That city's government is incompetent from one end to
the other. The people of New Orleans deserve better than this crowd of
clowns is capable of giving them.

If you're keeping track, these boobs let 569 buses that could have carried
33,350 people out of New Orleans-in one trip-get ruined in the floods.
Whatever plan these guys had, it was a dud. Or it probably would have been
if they'd bothered to follow it.

As for all the race-baiting rhetoric and Bush-bashing coming from prominent
blacks on the left, don't expect Ray Nagin to be called out on the carpet
for falling short. You want to know why? Here's why:

It's more convenient to blame a white president for what went wrong than to
hold a black mayor and his administration accountable for gross negligence
and failing to fully carry out an established emergency preparedness plan.

To hold Nagin and his administration accountable for dropping the ball
amounts to letting loose the shouts and cries of "Racism!". It's sad, it's
wrong, but it's standard operating procedure for the media and left-wing
black leadership.

Mark my words: you will not hear a word of criticism from Jesse Jackson Sr.,
Randall Robinson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or Kanye West
being directed toward Clarence Ray Nagin Jr. Why? Because he is just another
black politician instead of a responsible elected official who happens to be
black. In the mindset of more-blacker-than-thou blacks, black politicians
who are on their side can do no wrong.



Is there a timeline somewhere I can reference?
Thanks
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NYCGirl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 12:49 PM
Response to Original message
1. Timeline right here:
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kwassa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 12:55 PM
Response to Original message
2. Nagin had no five day window
that is complete nonsense, he had at most a day to two days warning.
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ComerPerro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 12:59 PM
Response to Original message
3. The "Not my problem" President
Why is it ok that Bush can just shirk off responsibilities because its "not his problem"? Is that enough for conservatives? A President who does the bare minimum, and only cares to do anything if its directly his problem?

Why didn't he even bother to get off of vacation until Wednesday, after all the damage and a lot of death? Why was he fundraising Monday and Tuesday?

Frankly, I find it pathetic that these sycophantic losers don't demand more from a leader, especially from a US President.

Such apathy and such a "not my problem, get someone else to deal with it" mentality that Bush is displaying really indicates that he is severly unqualified for the job.
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politicaholic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 01:03 PM
Response to Original message
4. It looks like your brother spends a lot of time justifying...
It also sounds as if he's regurgitating information.

I would recommend that he leave the investigative journalism to the professionals. Scott McClellan is doing fine.

As a republican your brother probably knows a great deal about not talking politics to avoid confrontation. This isn't the time for him to change that policy.
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SlackJawedYokel Donating Member (446 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-09-05 01:07 PM
Response to Original message
5. They successfully evacuated close to 1,000,000 people.
I'd say their plan worked.
This disaster happened *after* the hurricane passed.

There is no point in evacuating a city the size of NO less than 48 hours prior.
In fact, I can tell you the *only* reason so many people evacuated when they did was because Katrina was a Cat 5 hurricane.
If it had been Cat 3, hardly anyone would have left... even if it had headed right at the city.

The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
I had to laugh when I saw the photo going round that had a picture of the Superdome and those supposed 150 buses "not far away".
Who was supposed to drive the buses?
Who had the keys?
Were they all fueled and ready to go?
Lets say that they were and you got enough drivers... what kind of logistical nightmare would it have been to get 100 people on each bus and leave people behind?

I wanted to post the Google Earth pic I took of the 5 car dealerships even closer to the Superdome than that bus depot and point out that they'd been better served using those instead.
Ha.

The rest is just wrong and easily provable.

And has anyone else heard that a NO city councilman toured his district by helicopter and commented on a barge being used to repair the 17th street bridge... not far from where the 17th street canal levee broke?
I've heard speculation that this barge broke free and waves pounded it against the levee possibly causing the breach.
This makes sense to *me* because the levee in question is concrete topped... not an open earth levee as I first thought, and therefore not as susceptible to breaching.

Cletus
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