Reply #384: 9/10 (orig 9/4) Bush Admin Peddling Blame Elsewhere

[snot]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4628630
The Bush regime doing what it does best: Peddle the blame elsewhere

White House shifts blame for Katrina response

Administration, embattled FEMA chief point to state, local officials
By Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu
Washington Post
Updated: 9:48 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management.

<snip>
Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."

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."

And FEMA Director Michael D. 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."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9189916 /