Call to Impeach Blanco goes out...

[Gruenemann]

Looks like Roveco has enlisted some local slimeoids....email making the rounds...

Subject: If this is true, Blanco needs to be exposed, this should not
be answered

On Friday night, August 26, 2005 before the Hurricane hit,

Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the

unprecedented action of calling Mayor Nagin of New Orleans

and Louisiana Governor Blanco personally to plead with them

to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans 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 advisors 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, August 27, before the Hurricane hit, the

President again called Blanco and 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, Mayor 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 advisers 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 to use before the

disaster.



Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past

decade to New Orleans 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 New Orleans need to be

asking some hard questions as do we all, but they

better start with why Governor Blanco refused to even

sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents

until Wednesday, August 31, which further delayed the legal

deployment of National Guard from adjoining states.

Or maybe ask why Mayor Nagin keeps harping that the

President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound

busses to help him when according to his own emergency

plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses

at his disposal to use between the local school busses

and the city transportation busses - 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.

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