Documents Show Katrina's Political Storm

[journalist3072]

Documents Show Katrina's Political Storm

By CONNIE MABIN, Associated Press Writer
20 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - As Hurricane Katrina roared ashore and began its assault on homes and lives across Louisiana, a political storm was brewing in the Louisiana governor's office and the White House, newly released documents show.

Memos, handwritten notes, e-mails and phone logs turned over late Friday to congressional committees investigating failures in the government's disaster response shed more light on what happened behind the scenes in the frantic days surrounding the Aug. 29 storm.


-snip-

The 100,000 pages of documents that Blanco sent to Congress on Friday include a series of letters starting with one Blanco sent President Bush a day before the hurricane hit.

"I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote.


Read the entire article at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051204/ap_on_re_us/katrina_documents

[HeeBGBz]

1. There ya go

"I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote."

Didn't they say help was not requested from the state?

[journalist3072]

2. Yes, and Michael Brown purgered himself before Congress.

He claimed that Blanco never declared a State of Emergency for "Orleans Parish," which we all know is New Orleans.

And we also know that was a lie.

[HeeBGBz]

11. I remember hearing something on the N.O. news

The day prior to the storm that some government person requested federal assistance in anticipation of the disaster-to-be.

[journalist3072]

15. She declared a State of Emergency for the entire state....

On August 26, 2005.

http://www.gov.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=776

[bluestateguy]

23. Perjury stopped being important to Republicans since January 20, 2001

The real criminals are the people who put porn on the net, remember that.

[flordehinojos]

3. does the snarler in chief ever tell the truth?

i am beginning to think that his jaw which we often see swishing from side to side when he speaks is due to the psychological warfare which must be going on inside of him...that jaw knows he is lying, lying, lying and snarling the truth. that jaw wants to straighten things out and tell the truth and he won't let it!

[Selteri]

6. Might as well be written in blood for how telling it is. NT

[uppityperson]

8. They didn't request specific enough help...

Exactly how many ounces of water in what size, type and brand container would be needed exactly where and when. What specific food, amounts, brand, etc, .....

They lie. They deceive. I hate them.

[SpiralHawk]

4. "You're doing a heckuva job, Bushie. Screwing up. As usual." - NOLA

Appointing incompetent cronies, and staying on your record-breaking 5 week vacation. What a failure Bush is.

[drm604]

5. K&R Vote up the Yahoo news article! nt

[Debau2005]

7. Now on ABC news website.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1370201

[...of J.Temperance]

9. I've just sent you to the Greatest Page...the more people that read this

The better.

[journalist3072]

10. We need an informed electorate, for sure

Sadly, too many people get their information in 30-second or 60-second soundbites for liars like O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, et al.

[...of J.Temperance]

13. You know something

I get a majority of my news from DU. The articles and whatnot that are posted, if people here didn't take the time to post these things, I wouldn't know half of what was going on.

I certainly don't see this stuff on the TV or hear it on the radio.

[journalist3072]

14. Well, you happen to live in the reality based community. But....

Too many people don't.


Unfortunately, a lot of people get their news from talk radio, while driving the kids to soccer practice or something. And they get these 30-second or 60-second soundbites from the right-wing that are full of lies (i.e. "John Kerry inflicted his own wounds in Vietnam.")

So that's a problem.

[kliljedahl]

12. Finally

The Crime of the Century



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Pirate Smile]

16. WP:Blanco Releases Katrina Records-La. Gov Seeks to Set the Record Straigh

Blanco Releases Katrina Records
La. Governor Seeks to 'Set the Record Straight'

By Joby Warrick, Spencer S. Hsu and Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 4, 2005; Page A01

Thousands of documents released by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Friday night shed new light on clashes between state officials, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the Bush administration as they struggled to respond to Hurricane Katrina.

-snip-
We need everything you've got," Blanco is quoted in a memo as telling President Bush on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall. But despite assurances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that 500 buses were "standing by," Blanco's aides were compelled to take action when the FEMA buses failed to materialize, documents show. "We need buses," Andy Kopplin, chief of staff to Blanco, said in an e-mail to Blanco staffers late on Aug. 30, the day after the storm hit. "Find buses that can go to NO ASAP."

Two days later, on Sept. 2, Blanco complained to the White House that FEMA had still failed to fulfill its promises of aid. While cloaked in customary political courtesies, Blanco noted that she had already requested 40,000 more troops; ice, water and food; buses, base camps, staging areas, amphibious vehicles, mobile morgues, rescue teams, housing, airlift and communications systems, according to a press office e-mail of the text of her letter to Bush.

-snip-
Blanco has been struggling to repair her image after being widely criticized for the state's initial response to Katrina. In contrast to reports that she was indecisive and overwhelmed, the new documents portray her as assertive, if somewhat beleaguered. "I believe my biggest mistake was believing FEMA officials who told me that the necessary federal resources would be available in a timely fashion," Blanco wrote in one memo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301480.html

edit to add the NYT article on the LA documents:

In Newly Released Documents, a View of the Storm After Katrina

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - It was Thursday, Sept. 1, three days after Hurricane Katrina had ripped across the Gulf Coast. As New Orleans descended into horror, the top aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana were certain the White House was trying to blame their boss, and they were becoming increasingly furious.

"Bush's numbers are low, and they are getting pummeled by the media for their inept response to Katrina and are actively working to make us the scapegoats," Bob Mann, Ms. Blanco's communications director, wrote in an e-mail message that afternoon, outlining plans by Washington Democrats to help turn the blame back onto President Bush.

-snip-
In the documents, Ms. Blanco and her advisers, as well as some outside allies, defended her decision to reject a request by the Bush administration to take control of the National Guard forces.

"If Bush and FEMA couldn't deliver meals after 5 days how could LA expect them to take over our Natl Guard and do better job????" John B. Breaux, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana who is now a Washington lawyer, wrote in an e-mail message to Mr. Mann.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/national/nationalspecial/04blanco.html?hp&ex=1133672400&en=051f8193d8c7dcef&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Both articles include tons of details.

[fearnobush]

17. Republicans - Fuck You, She was right all along.

This makes me want to rip out their tongues.

[Atman]

18. I second that. FUCK YOU republicans.

Fuck all of you to hell.

[mermaid]

21. I Third That! FUCK YOU, Republicans! Fuck You All...SIDEWAYS!!

Fuck you all to the deepest pits of helll, you fucking cold-blooded, murdering bastards!

[bluestateguy]

19. Anybody who criticizes the governor hates Louisiana

(this is the kind of rhetoric that we need to use in campaigns).

[deminks]

20. OK, Now is the time to point fingers,

and guess where they are pointing?

(snip)

He added that Bush's "entire effort on behalf of the federal government has been reflected in his and his people's nonchalant attitude to the people of LA. You may give him this to read."

[mermaid]

22. "Nonchalant Attitude"

No, it only appears to be nonchalant. Deep down inside, they are all cold-blooded murdering bastards! Nothing nonchalant about it.

They just didn't care because it was poor black people that were doing most of the dying. In other words, the people doing most of the dying were people that would never in their right mind vote for a Republican, so who gave a fucxk about them?? Who gave a shit if THEY died...after all, they'd never vote for anyone in the current Administration!

Yes, I really do believe this, too. they let those people die, because they knew damn well that those people didn't like them, and didn't like their politics. I believe these people in NOLA were allowed to die because they were poor, non-white DEMOCRATS!!!

[Marie26]

24. La. Governor releases Katrina records

Washington Post, Sunday, December 4, 2005;

Thousands of documents released by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Friday night shed new light on clashes between state officials, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the Bush administration as they struggled to respond to Hurricane Katrina.

Among the more than 100,000 pages of newly released records, which ranged from after-action reports to hand-scrawled notes written at the height of the storm, are memos showing Blanco frustrated and angered over delays in evacuations and the slow delivery of promised federal aid.

"We need everything you've got," Blanco is quoted in a memo as telling President Bush on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall. But despite assurances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that 500 buses were "standing by," Blanco's aides were compelled to take action when the FEMA buses failed to materialize, documents show. "We need buses," Andy Kopplin, chief of staff to Blanco, said in an e-mail to Blanco staffers late on Aug. 30, the day after the storm hit. "Find buses that can go to NO ASAP."

Two days later, on Sept. 2, Blanco complained to the White House that FEMA had still failed to fulfill its promises of aid. While cloaked in customary political courtesies, Blanco noted that she had already requested 40,000 more troops; ice, water and food; buses, base camps, staging areas, amphibious vehicles, mobile morgues, rescue teams, housing, airlift and communications systems, according to a press office e-mail of the text of her letter to Bush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/03/AR2005120301480.html

[electricmonk]

25. Speechless

That's really all I can say because what's really on my mind would get a visit from the secret service.

[goclark]

26. Hark, I hear a knock at the door

Come get me Agent Mike.

[Up2Late]

27. O.K., this is bad, but if you want to know what REALLY makes me mad...

...and almost NOBODY has picked up on this? Guess who George H.W. Bush sent to Southern Florida in 1992 to straighten out the mess that FEMA made of the Hurricane Andrew recovery and relief efforts?

Then Secretary of Transportation, Andrew Card, who is NOW George W. Bush's White House Chief of Staff!!! If they ever try to claim confusion and inexperience, that's total BS. Andrew Card Managed the FEMA relief effort for Hurricane Andrew!!!

Below is a partial transcript for the November 22, 2005 PBS program FRONTLINE: The Storm. If anyone reading this missed that program, you should go to the links below, where you can watch this show online.

If you only have limited amount of time, make sure you watch Chapters 2 and 3, but 2 is where most of this comes from. Chapter 3 starts with a truly disgusting display by *, where he is shown trying to keep himself from busting out laughing as his newly appointed crony is excepting his appointment to head FEMA.

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/view/>

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/>

From the transcript of FRONTLINE: The Storm

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/etc/script.html>

NARRATOR: Andrew was compact, just 60 miles across, with ferocious 175-mile-an-hour winds. But it missed Miami.

BILLY WAGNER: The news media, the first thing they did was go to Miami Beach and around Miami, and they said, "Oh, yeah," you know, "it doesn't look too bad." And nobody even paid any attention to poor Florida City or even Homestead. I could tell when I got up there that nobody in the state of Florida could handle the situation.

NARRATOR: The storm had damaged or destroyed 125,000 homes. Thousands were stranded without food or water. Overwhelmed, local emergency managers waited for FEMA.

KATE HALE, Dade Emergency Mgr., 1988-'96: And we waited and we waited. And it became apparent that the outside world really didn't get what was going on, really didn't understand how desperate the situation was, and you're looking at people in your community dying as a result of it. We had people from FEMA telling us that they couldn't give us the resources cause we hadn't asked the right way.

JANE BULLOCK: We simply didn't get the resources down there in time. We had no relationship with the State of Florida, so we weren't sitting with the governor finding out what was going wrong, and we were dysfunctional, just as we— as FEMA was dysfunctional during Hurricane Katrina.

KATE HALE: At that point in time, it became apparent that we needed to do something extraordinary. We had nowhere else to go.

((1992)press conference) If we do not get more food and water into the South End in a very short period of time, we are going to have more casualties because we're going to have people who are dehydrated, who are without food, babies that need formula. All I know are a lot of people are saying why aren't we doing more. We're doing everything we can. Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one?

Within three hours, apparently, the switchboard of the White House was just absolutely inundated with calls from all over the United States. The Pentagon was activated in three hours.

REPORTER: Mr. President, do you, as president, bear some responsibility for the delay in federal help?

Pres. GEORGE H. W. BUSH: We're not talking about delays. The military was ready to move instantly— hot planning right from the very beginning.

NARRATOR: President Bush nudged his FEMA director to the sidelines and inserted his secretary of transportation, Andrew Card, as fix-it man.

ANDREW CARD: This is not a time to stand around and talk, it's a time to get busy, and that's what I'm down here doing.

NARRATOR: Card was immediately besieged with questions over why it had taken five days to send in the troops.

ANDREW CARD: As soon as Governor Chiles made the request for federal troops to come in and assist, we acted on that request.

Pres. GEORGE H.W. BUSH: I don't want to participate in the blame game, and nor is Governor Chiles....

<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/etc/script.html>

(more at link above)

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. Nice find 2Late!

Have you posted on this? If you did, I missed it.

I love DU. I learn something new every day. :)

[Swamp Rat]

28. Rate this story!

:mad:

[Up2Late]

29. Harry Shearer Le Show kick n/t

On now!

He does a lot of New Orleans News (He has a house and studio there)

<http://www.kcrw.com/>

<http://www.kcrw.com/grid/>

<http://www.publicradiofan.com/cgi-bin/program.pl?programid=60>

<http://www.harryshearer.com/active/leShow.php>

[DoYouEverWonder]

31. Dispute between Bush, governor delayed Katrina relief, state says

December 04, 2005

Baton Rouge, La.- President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco could not agree on key aspects of who would be in charge of military forces in the response to Hurricane Katrina, a crippling breakdown in relations with the White House that affected the rescue, peacekeeping and support effort during the week after the storm, according to information released by the state.

The two sides still can't agree on what was said during that time as the dialogue over military deployments unfolded.

Louisiana National Guard troops were being joined by guardsmen from other states during the critical days after the storm, all under the Democratic governor's control. Blanco was requesting federal troops from the Republican president, who kept control of those forces once they were deployed in New Orleans a week after Katrina hit.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1133699515311600.xml&coll=2

[faithnotgreed]

32. kick

[Pirate Smile]

33. WP:Documents Highlight Bush-Blanco Standoff(Vitter carried Rove's message)

Documents Highlight Bush-Blanco Standoff

By Spencer S. Hsu, Joby Warrick and Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 5, 2005; Page A10

Shortly after noon on Aug. 31, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) delivered a message that stunned aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who were frantically managing the catastrophe that began two days earlier when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

White House senior adviser Karl Rove wanted it conveyed that he understood that Blanco was requesting that President Bush federalize the evacuation of New Orleans. The governor should explore legal options to impose martial law "or as close as we can get," Vitter quoted Rove as saying, according to handwritten notes by Terry Ryder, Blanco's executive counsel.

Thus began what one aide called a "full-court press" to compel the first-term governor to yield control of her state National Guard -- a legal, political and personal campaign by White House staff that failed three days later when Blanco rejected the administration's terms, 10 minutes before Bush was to announce them in a Rose Garden news conference, the governor's aides said.

The standoff, illuminated among more than 100,000 pages of documents released Friday by Blanco in response to requests by Senate and House investigators, marks perhaps the clearest single conflict between U.S. and Louisiana officials in the bungled response to New Orleans's surrender to floodwaters and chaos.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120400963.html

[Rowdyboy]

34. The truth begins to seep out......Recommended

Its about time...

[Pirate Smile]

35. more details

"The next day, on a Bush visit, administration officials ganged up on Blanco out of the presence of staff members and tried to bully her into changing her mind, they said. Blanco requested 24 hours.

Ryder's notes report that on the night of Sept. 1, Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, advised Blanco, as an aide put it, "You don't want to do that. You lose control, and you don't get one more boot on the ground."

Later, Blum told Ryder he came "under political duress" for his opinion and used military slang to describe a useless, out-of-control situation, according to Ryder's notes.

-snip-
At 8:56 a.m., just before Bush stepped onto the White House lawn, Blanco called Card and aides faxed a rejection letter.
The president did not mention the dispute with Blanco in his remarks, and deployed troops using existing command structures."

[Pirate Smile]

36. whoops - dupe

[randr]

37. Gov Blanco is a true American Shero

[gulfcoastliberal]

38. I want to know what the dumb fatass Haley Barbour was doing!

His state got totally ravaged and it seems no one is interested with how he dealt with the situation.