Former Gov. Blanco says public deserves full story of Rumsfeld role in Katrina response

Source: Times Picayune, New Orleans

Former Gov. Kathleen Blanco today issued a statement regarding Robert Draper's article, "And He Shall be Judged," featured in the June 2009 issue of GQ magazine.

In the article, unnamed White House staffers say that stalling in the week following Hurricane Katrina between President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld delayed federal troops being sent to Louisiana until Saturday, five days after the hurricane made landfall.

-snip-

"I repeatedly asked for federal troops to handle logistics in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and believed we were going to get them -- and we should have. With American citizens dying, we should have had federal troops pouring in immediately. I always said it would take years to accurately write the history of Katrina, and sure enough the true story continues to come to light.

Unfortunately, this article reveals yet again the larger picture of why the national response was delayed while our people were in danger -- the administration was not fully engaged in the situation until it went beyond the level of a crisis.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/05/former_gov_blanco_says_public.html

:scared:

...neither one wanted to help with the NOLA victims if the other got the credit.

Bush asked Blanco to cede control of the situation for political reasons, which was reprehensible. However, Blanco should have put the needs of the victims above politics and taken the federal assistance - even if it meant giving Bush control/credit for the rescue efforts.

Both have a special place in Hell awaiting them - if you believe in that sort of thing - if only for their political responses to the Katrina aftermath.

The federal government's "official version" of events was suspect from the getgo. It just doesn't stand up to critical reasoning. How can a president, no matter how insulated, be completely oblivious to the largest natural disaster in our nation's history?

Also--I've always suspected that the Bush admin was the source of those rumors that were floating around Baton Rouge and the rest of the country the week of the storm, about gangs of armed looters raping, pillaging, and wreaking havoc on Louisiana.

I think the admin was hoping that by leaving New Orleanians helpless for days, they were hoping that these events would take place. When they didn't, they just started the rumors they wish had happened. I have no proof of this, but it sure reminds me of their torturing detainees to try and get one of them to verify the version of the truth they were hoping for.

The rumor mongering was very strong that week, and seemed to be concerted. The "welfare state" talking point about New Orleans was being pushed before rescue missions even began. Which makes me wonder---was the talking point that "government can't do anything right" in place before the failed response?

they wanted Blanco to give up powers she had as a Governor before they gave her help.

With all those people sitting for days in their attics and rooftops in 98 degree weather, just watching the water rise.

As flawed as you could say Blanco and Nagin were during the storm, Bush and now Rummy were shown to be the cruel, obstinant ones.

and we were in the thick of it.....

Then they could help the whites carry all the stuff they were "finding." As it turns out the people that were supposedly shooting at the National Guard helicopters. That was people using shotguns to blast holes in their roofs so they could get out of their attic. Thank God Blanco didn't give him control. It would have been a blood bath.

Fox wasn't carrying the story. :eyes:

They wanted the minorities out of that area....they have for years but legally they couldn't do it. Katrina was their chance to take over the land....

It's always about money with the Repugs.....lives mean nothing to them.

I watched a Documentry the other day from individuals that were there and they taped everything.....it was devastating to watch.

the Housing Projects were demolished after Katrina - to be replaced with high end condos. Shameful.

Really, the longer the Repugs were in office -- the wider their scope --

the more damage they were able to do.

They are destroyers!!!

the first part of the book is about how they swooped in to create charter schools in N.O.

I wasn't paying a lot of attention immediately presuming that rescue was held up --

but then it became clear these people were the enemy --

The rumors were a further complication -- and was happy to hear finally that it was

all faked. But, certainly influenced many in the meanwhile, I'm sure.

Look at the post-Katrina treatment of these people -- !!!

All separated -- very typical of what they do when something wrong goes down in military --

they separate them and ship them out.

Shameful -- and I agree there is much much more to be told about this story.

they came up with BS about security - they let people die - on purpose - they wanted to shift them out of NO - this was genocide

They ignored over 60 clear warnings, then sat on their asses even while it was happening. D'oh.

America must have been cursed to suffer Bush and the Republcion Homelander FAIL Cronies.

This was MIHOP

I don't know if you listened to the police scanners that week, but they were going to let the Superdome burn with people in it when a fire broke out in a garbage chute. It is my firm belief that if it hadn't been for the refusal of the NOLA fire chief to leave, the nat'l guard would have locked those people in and let it burn.

I wish I could share a story about someone who moved to my city from NO after katrina, but I don't want to reveal identities. The things written on this thread they had mentioned. I did something to personally memorialize the "response" so to speak, and this person broke down and sobbed when they saw it because they were suffering from PTSD.

I was so revolted that these * admin zombies were so eager to show the world how totally morally abysmal they are. Remember they rejected foreign help also!

Government failed under the Bush cabal leadership on this one.

He doesn't know where those news reports of medical personnel being fired upon came from.

photo from near my home after I returned in 05

:silly:

re-directed to Houston, where they sat in a hotel lobby all day, doing nothing, frustrated as could be. A friend who was traveling ran across them.

A friend of mine who works in an animal shelter went down with a group of other animal shelter workers from all over New England to try to rescue stranded animals in NOLA; and they were re-directed. At least they were to other Katrina stricken areas, where they were able to help.

A friend who left the NOLA area before the storm to stay with family in Baton Rouge saw food shipments headed for NOLA re-directed to Baton Rouge, where they sat near where she was staying.

Water trucks headed for NOLA were re-directed to my state, which is--wait for it--Massachusetts. Once they got here, they had no idea where to go or what to do, so they parked on the street and slept in their trucks, charging overtime the whole time. That made the news here, but I never heard the ultimate outcocme.

So much evil. So much blood on their hands.

Special Prosecutor anyone? no, just look forward.

they had to have been looking for an "opportunity" like this --

had to have targetted the area in their minds and plans.

There's a saying . . .

"Everything happens first on a spiritual level"--

:kick:

I agree that we need the full story, but she should hardly be the one trying to lead a charge regarding any issues with Katrina. She was and is dangerously incompetent in any capacity that doesn't involve schmoozing.

I think Blanco did the best under the circumstances - she asked for help before Katrina hit - before.

She acted like a befuddled simpleton the entire time. Nagin wasn't incompetent, just negligent. The big difference between the two being that Blanco was in a position that was beyond her capacity to perform her duties adequately, and Nagin is smart as a whip but is an egotistical jackass who can't seem to keep himself out of trouble.

She was powerless in the face of LA's lack of NG toops and the lies of the Bush Administration. All of the Administration's efforts were expended in aid of a complete takeover of the State of LA for the pugs, looking forward to taking her down and replacing her with Bobby Jindal. God, was LA ever screwed. Kathleen was attempting to squeeze more money from our oil offshore and onshore, and they couldn't have that. She had to go. Katrina was convenient. Kathleen was stabbled in the back repeatedly until she went down from lack of support from the people of LA who believed the garbage that the Bush Administration was making sure poured out of NOLA.

She was a good Governor, as many who knew her will attest to. I have spoken to this good woman in my own home, and she never failed to impress. Unfortunately, the dems helped drown her, along with all of the victims of Katrina.

before I'd believe Bush/Brownie/Rumsfeld --

THEY were criminal in denying aid to NO

The public also deserves the full story on the federal funds intended for flood control and levee
maintenance projects that Blanco & Co. diverted and pissed away during her time in office.

For instance, where were these funds diverted to, and how much money are we talking about? As I recall, the allegations were that the Corp of Engineers, government controlled and funded, mismanaged the money and technology that could have prevented NOLA from being flooded.

for money ... The Levees Before, During, and After Katrina: A Failure of Leadership by the Bush Administration and do a bit of research before going all freeperville -

faulty -- even in rebuilding them it wouldn't have been sufficient according to

the plans. The Federal government was at fault here -- before, during and after!!

because political gamesmanship was more important to them. You can go back to threads at that time where it is all clearly documented. The Bush admin said they hadn't gotten the official request from Blanco for aid, but they had. And ships waited offshore for orders to assist that never came. Bush should have been impeached immediately for dereliction of duty.

Blanco requested federal aid for LA, especially for the southeastern parishes in Katrina's path. FEMA sent her a letter promising aid in the NON-southeastern parishes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4692732&mesg_id=4693271

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4700922&mesg_id=4701724

:headbang:
rocktivity

http://gustav08.ning.com/forum/topics/2294159:Topic:3334

I found this blog a little while ago when looking for info to debunk Bush administration history revisionists. It's a good walk down memory lane of some of the more egregious outrages.

and how they did, and STILL ARE, trying to do for themselves what the government did not do.

1) Without revealing a name, I know someone who was sent in by press to cover Katrina and got stuck there for some time. Acc. to this person, there were numerous private organizations who came into the city wanting to help but were turned away. One, an ambulance service, found a way to bypass the roadblocks (there were ways in and out but they were blocked by military and local law) and, along with a local doctor, set up an emergency medical facility in the Quarter.

1) I got curious about Jazzland, a Six Flags amusement park in NO East, and in looking up its connection to Katrina found footage of documentarians who were denied entrance in the aftermath. So they flew over. They discovered hundreds of unused FEMA trailers in its huge parking area, even as people were begging for them.

3) Watch the HBO documentary "Trouble the Water." You'll see people denied shelter at an evacuated navy facility by the military assigned to guard it from the populace.

4) Read "Heart Like Water" and "Nine Lives," astonishing accounts of people who survived in SPITE of our national, state and local governments.

And they wonder why we don't trust. Sheeit.

Haven't thought about all of this in a long time -- once crime after another

with Bushco --

Presumably they were pre-wired and knocked out?

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