Sep 07 2005
Katrina’s Legacy Of Ill Will
UPDATE:
I have corrected my timeline based on the timeline established by Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House – I was off by 12 hours regarding levees failing. But the 36 hours to act is still valid.
To underline how far out on a limb the media and democrats have gone let’s review two news items that just happened to be the topic of Rush’s show today (I was driving for hours so ended up listening on one of those rare occasions). The first is this arrogant piece by Dan Balz in the Washington Post where he fantasizes a little dream of finally having Bush fail and the Liberals win the PR fight with the American people:
But when Hurricane Katrina hit last week, the opposite occurred, with Americans dividing along sharply partisan lines in their judgment of the president’s and the federal government’s response.
The starkly different verdicts on Bush’s stewardship of the two biggest crises of his presidency underscore the deepening polarization of the electorate that has occurred on his watch. This gaping divide has left the president with no reservoir of good will among his political opponents at a critical moment of national need and has touched off a fresh debate about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.
Balz only wishes this was the case. In fact, being one of Bush’s critics, his lie about ever having any reservoir of good will for his personal nemesis Bush is laughably transparent. What great divide could this be? Well it is the far left liberal fringes finally going over the cliff. As I highlight below, it is the Condescending Nattering Nabobs (CNN) and their compatriots in the national democrat party who have taken a natural disaster to the point of marginalizing themselves. Right now these mindless leftwing nuts are as mainstream as David Duke. Why the comparison to the KKK?
Both movements are based on fear and loathing of fellow Americans, fellow human beings, that is so strong they have become consumed by it. Fear and loathing of others is their politics – nothing grand or great or of promise for the future. Fear and loathing.
Dick Durbin felt the taste of political isolation from America when he compared GITMO to the Nazis – recall the 20-80 polls against him then? I wondered in this post, at that time, could the liberals ever repeat the act of total isolation from mainstream America. Apparently the left’s talent for self destruction exceeded my expectations – as shown in this new Gallup Poll:
Who do you think is MOST responsible for the problems in New Orleans after the hurricane — [ROTATED: George W. Bush, federal agencies, (or) state and local officials], or is no one really to blame?
2005 Sep 5-6
13% — George W.Bush
18% — Federal agencies
25% — State/local official
38% — No one
6% — No opinion
By 13 – 81 people do not buy the leftwing lunacy that Bush is responsible (6 percent have no opinion). That is amazing. 31 – 63, or 2:1, people do not blame Bush or the Feds for Katrina’s death and destruction. Folks, if the left wants to take the stand Bush and the Feds are to blame then maybe we should just let them. Those kinds of numbers in statewide and national polls would spell the end of any semblance of the democrat party.
As with Cindy Sheehan and her rabid anti-Israel, anti-American views, the democrats and leftwing media have chosen which side of the issues they are on. And the American people have chosen as well. The great divide in this country is between the far left and America.
America is better without them. Why do we need this division right now? Why do we need people to who make a bad situation much, much worse? We don’t need them.
I really would have preferred not to point out all the mistakes made by state and local officials in their run up and response to Katrina. I am sure everyone who has had to deal with the death and destruction will second guess themselves and wrack themselves with guilt over what could have been done differently.
But the liberal media and liberal pols decided to tear this country asunder in our darkest hour. They got their wish. They are no longer a part of America’s core – they are the irrelevant fringe margins.
END UPDATE
I was called away to deal with something the last few days and have not had much time to post. But watching the democrats and media take a national catastrophe and try and turn it into a self serving political issue is repulsive. Just plain disgusting.
Louisiana and New Orleans reacted badly and continue to react badly. They sap the will of people to help when they get out there and point fingers at others for their mistakes. If it was not for the innocent people hurt and in danger many of us would turn away and tell Louisana’s democrat pols looking for political cover to deal with it on your own. The fact that humanity is more important to most of us than Blanco and Pelosi is one of the bright spots in this mess.
20% of New Orleans’ population stayed in the path of Katrina after being warned to evacuate. The fact that so many, with water to their rooftops, still want to stay in the toxic waste hell hole shows the lie that many of these people were trapped. But if they were trapped it was by incompetent state and city leadership.
President Bush had to push and cajole Blanco (can’t you just see her blank stare in your mind?) into calling for a state of emergency and evacuation in the first place. Because of his concern 80%, or 390,000 souls, were able to get out of harms way. 390,000 people owe their good fortune to President George W. Bush for pushing Deer-in-the-headlights Blanco to act.
But that is not where it ended. Of the 20%, or 90,000 people, who stayed behind there are no doubt many who wanted to evacuate. 50,000 or more ended up at the Superdome and convention center at some point! Mayor Nagin’s evacuation plan calls on his and his city to mobilize all those swamped buses we see picturs of to get those unable to leave out. They got them to shelter, those who wanted it. And up to this point it is hard to fault Nagin.
But then he blundered big time. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, some 16 hours after the storm’s eye brushed New Orleans, The levees began to fail Monday morning when the eye of the hurricane passed New Orleans. At this point Nagin needed to act. He needed to get those public buses rolling to the Superdome and Convention center and to start moving those people to dry ground. It some cases that was only 30-60 minutes away. Nagin needed to move those people out to reduce the scope of the human emergency facing his resources by HALF!
UPDATE:
Is this important? To some [warning: graphic image] it was life or death important. Every death at the Superdome and Convention Center was probably avoidable if they had been transported out of harms way before the water crested.
END UPDATE
Estimates are 90,000 people stayed in the city, and half of those were in the Superdome and Convention Center. Nagin had buses he could have used when the levee broke. 36 hours later they were uselessly under water. It took until Wednesday Tuesday to fill the city with water. That gave Nagin all day part of Monday and Tuesday to act, and he failed. It gave Blanco all day Tuesday to act, time to act. as well, and she needed 24 hours to make a decision – just enough time to completely trap 50,000 downtown.>. She waited until aftewr 10:00 PM on Tuesday to order the superdome evacuated, without any plan or resources to do the job (according to Rck’s timeline). That is 36 hours after the first levee breach.
The media has been hysterical, immature, hypercritical, politically driven, inaccurate, insensitive and self serving in their coverage. Like all watchers from the side lines, they think they can do better than those doing all the work on the ground. Example, Wolf Blitzer (one of the dumbest people on TV today) asked why weren’t the fire fighters using the large water drop buckets to put out the fires, why were they using the small buckets? He was being smug, arrogant and condescending – typical for CNN (now the Condescending Nattering Nabobs). Did he feel like an idiot when someone pointed out that that much water would take out a row of houses and any one in them?
No, he just wanted it all fixed just like he wants his lackey’s to respond to all his needs. The pampered egotists on TV got the perfect example of what they truly are like when Sean Penn set out with a photographer in an unplugged boat to save people. Once someone told them how to plug the drain hole and they bailed out the toxic soup in their boat – the engine would not start. They had to row out to get their photo ops amongst the stranded and dying.
Tucker Carlson idiotically wondered why was it they could get into New Orleans with the media vulture crews and FEMA couldn’t (ask Blanco why she waited to decide what to do)? Like getting some fool with a microphone and cameraman to a disaster is the same as saving people.
Well, thank all the selfless people from all over the country for (a) not finger pointing and (b) accomplishing this: 182,000 more souls rescued:
Highlights as of 1 p.m., Sept. 6, 2005, of the federal rescue effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to information released by the Department of Homeland Security.
Rescues performed 32,000
Shelters 559
People housed in shelters 182,000
FEMA responders 7,000
U.S. Coast Guard personnel 4,000
National Guard personnel 43,000
Active Duty Military 15,000
MREs provided (meals) 11.3 million
Water provided (liters) 18 million
Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
On the Net: www.fema.gov.
That is what it means to be an American. Only Euro-wannabes stick their noses up in the air and nitpick these brave, hard efforts while sitting opulently in air conditioned studios while their lackey’s run them specially chilled mineral waters during commercial breaks.
The news media’s drain plug is open, and their reputations are sinking fast into their own toxic mix of partisan opportunism and unfounded arrogance.
Some interesting articles on Louisiana Politics…….. We should not be surprised by the action of the Mayor and the Governor. I hope Landrieu don’t punch me!
Bandits on the Bayou – public officials – corruption – Washington Monthly, April, 2001
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_4_33/ai_73828220#continue
…. With its gumbo of impoverished residents and rich oil reserves, Huey P. Long’s home state has never been a model of good government. Corrupt politics is as much a part of Louisiana as crawdads and kudzu…..
The big sleazy? – politics in New Orleans, Louisiana National Review, Dec 23, 1996
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n24_v48/ai_18971883#continue
…. New Orleans politics is dominated by a handful of black political organizations with acronyms like BOLD and SOUL; the mayor’s is called LIFE…..
….. “we can tell by about three o’clock whether we won or lost an election.” By early afternoon on November 5 exit polls showed Mary Landrieu trailing Woody Jenkins by about 4 points. So, Miss Landrieu piled into the back of a red convertible with Morial for a final push through the New Orleans projects. “We hooked up a motorcade to go through those areas where we knew there to be pro-Landrieu vote,” Tucker says. The parade would briefly stop, workers in surrounding vehicles would jump out to pound on doors in a six-to-seven-block area, then the motorcade would reassemble and move on to the next neighborhood…..
….. The Jenkins camp suspects massive “vote-hauling” in New Orleans (illegally paying drivers to take people to the polls), but has turned up its hardest evidence in rural areas. One teller at a bank in Coushatta, La., reports that a woman cashed a $50 check from the Democratic Party on November 5 and explained that it was given “to me to haul my kind of people to vote.” Two other $50 checks from the party showed up the next day…..
….. Jenkins investigators in inner-city New Orleans say they regularly hear stories of people voting multiple times, of poll commissioners pulling the lever for candidates during slack times at the polls, of people voting on behalf of dead voters. (The federal motor voter law, which requires the states to leave “inactive” voters on the rolls, creates opportunities for this kind of malfeasance.)….
…. “It’s very important, you’ve got to have money to feed the troops and give them a little stipend out there,” says one black politician. “If you don’t pay them, they don’t show up.”…
Nagin has star power………….
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5012/is_20_20/ai_87743240
…. Nagin won in New Orleans with 82 percent of the white vote because he was “anointed” in front-page editorials by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, represented a business platform that appealed to whites and “had an image and a record that was marketable,” according to Xavier University political consultant Silas Lee…..
….. If Nagin is perceived as making New Orleans government run more efficiently, removing corruption and improving both the image and the quality of life in the city, then he could be the African-American with the best chance of winning a statewide office, Lee said…..
It is easy to see why the New Orleans Times-Picayune is now attacking our President!
Wrong Priorities, no, just Wrong Focus.
“Angry state officials accuse the White House of ignoring warnings that it’s focus on terror left the nation unprepared to cope with natural disasters”
Oh, yeah,….like I said here, the MSM is circling now, blood in the water ….
“Damn it, …
Balz’s comment:
“about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.”
is absurd.
Tell me how you prevent a hurricane!
LJ
I posted a longer version on CQ yesterday. Look at our favorite local blame newspaper (Times-Picayune) and their reporting timelines on Wednesday (Aug 31):
So we now know that the LANG were not sent into NO! How many LANG were actually sent and when? Tell us Gov Blanco!
…. “The last of the group arrived around dusk on Tuesday, when the flotilla ceased operations for safety reasons, but the last National Guard truck left at about that same time, and as of 10:30 a.m., no more had arrived.â€â€¦
…. Wednesday began with TV and radio coverage of live prayers by the governor and a collection of holy men. By the time New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas joined Cohen and Chris Miller on WWL in mid-afternoon, the things he’d seen in the streets were going to be literally unforgettable…..
….. With cable news carrying pictures of the USS Bataan (NYT missed this) steaming into position to provide a command center for the relief effort, it was hard not to frame the day in Biblical context…..
…… At one of the rare high spots in the lower 9th Ward-Bywater area, the approach to the St. Claude Bridge over the Industrial Canal at Poland Avenue, several hundred residents stood in the street amidst shattered glass and plastic bags containing their belongings Wednesday morning, waiting for transportation to the Superdome or elsewhere. All had been plucked from rooftops and balconies the night before after water had risen to the eaves of their roofs…..
The Army COE status briefing probably influenced the local/state officials that the worse was over (bad mistake)!
…. Tidal shift Maj. Gen. Don Reily, head of the U.S. Corps of Engineers’ storm recovery operation, said at midday Wednesday that Lake Pontchartrain water level has dropped and has “equalized†with flood-waters in the city. That means water has begun to recede, flowing back into the lake, at a rate of approximately a half-inch an hour. The general said this should continue, except during a high tide “later in the evening.â€â€¦â€¦
Wednesday, 2:20 p.m.By James Varney Staff writer: Police are trying to set up command posts at several locations in the city. At one set up at the limousine entrance to the Harrah’s Casino, officers said they fed more than 400 police on Tuesday, and they have enough supplies to keep police fed for only another four or five days….
The NOPD thought they had the situation under control. This would explain why the mayor did not ask for more help!
Fuel shortages, security worry hospitals Wednesday, 4:38 p.m. By Jan Moller Capital bureau: …. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry has bought and delivered 110,000 gallons of fuel to power generators at hospitals and shelters in southeast Louisiana and is expecting delivery of another 70,000 gallons from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a top assistant to Agriculture Secretary Bob Odom said Wednesday….. Security, too, has become an issue at some hospitals as looting continues in New Orleans. But guards are tough to come by as the Louisiana National Guard, New Orleans police and other authorities are busy with search operations. “We’ve requested security for all of our facilities, but unfortunately we’ve almost tapped out our National Guard resources,” Smithburg said…..
It is becoming clear that they have problems and don’t have the assets (LANG) to bring order!
Thousands dead New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday there are likely thousands dead in the city from Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flood. City officials have not issued a casualty county, saying resources are being concentrated on rescuing those still stranded by the storm, repairing broken levees and moving the 15,000 to 20,000 people shelted in the Superdome to better facilities outside the city. Nagin estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people remained in New Orleans, a city of nearly half a million people. He said 14,000 to 15,000 a day could be evacuated….
Again, the mayor did not even know the status of his city! He was not crying yet?
Wednesday, 10:21 p.m. The underpass beneath the elevated West Bank Expressway near the Gen. de Gaulle Drive entrance ramps to the Crescent City Connection became a refuge from the heat Wednesday for frustrated New Orleans evacuees….
… About 100 adults and children had been allowed to walk over the bridge after being turned away at the Superdome, which had stopped taking in people for shelter.
Ann Watson McDonald, 45, of St. Bernard, is a security guard at the Hyatt. She and her husband, Arthur, and daughter Althile Watson spent Sunday and Monday nights in the hotel but left at midday Tuesday when the water started rising. They were able to get across the Crescent City Connection, back onto I-10 at Luling and then up I-55, to Tennessee…
“I was told I was considered essential personnel at the Hyatt because the mayor was staying there. So my husband, my daughter and I stayed at the hotel….. ….”It was horrible during the storm. It sounded like freight trains coming at you and you could hear the big booms from the glass breaking…. …. “But after the hurricane hit, my husband insisted we leave. The water was rising. He said you’re going if I have to drag out of here. “We were lucky. There were 1,200 people in the Hyatt and I don’t know how many of them are still there or in the Superdome…..
Why were there 1200 people in the Hyatt? How many others were in the hotels during the hurricane? Now note the below, they report only 3,000 in the convention center?
Desperation, death on road to safety Wednesday, 11:09 p.m. By Keith Spera Staff writer Times-Picayune 3,000 or more evacuees stranded at the convention center — and with no apparent contingency plan or authority to deal with them A man in a passing pickup truck from the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries finally directed Wallace and the 50 other evacuees under the overpass to the convention center. But they would find little relief there.
New evacuees were being dropped off after being pulled from inundated eastern New Orleans and Carrollton, pooling with those who arrived on foot. Some had been at the convention center since Tuesday morning but had received no food, water or instructions. They waited both inside and outside the cavernous building.
Update on Superdome evacuation Wednesay, 12:05 p.m. The 23,000 New Orleans evacuees who have been holed up at the Superdome with little air conditioning, food and water, will be bused 12 hours to Houston to be housed for an indefinite period at the Houston Astrodome, Gov,. Kathleen Blanco said Wednesday….
Note we still don’t have an emergency yet from Blanco!
….. Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson said the buses should start rolling later Wednesday. About 475 vehicles have been arranged to ferry the evacuees to Houston. State National Guard officials said the re-location should take two days or less.
As people who have sheltered at the Superdome for several days are moved onto Houston-bound buses, new evacuees who’ve been stuck in their homes will continue to be brought to the Superdome for triage before moving elsewhere….
Note the state still was planning on sending more to the “Stinky Dome†as late as Thursday morning! Still no emergency for Blanco!
…. Blanco said President Bush authorized the use of military troops as well as military ships to help in the evacuation operations, said .Army Col. Anthony Daskevich He said Army, Navy and Air Force troops will be involved in the operation but could not pinpoint numbers…..
… This is one of the largest, if not the largest evacuations in this country,” said Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness….
We now know the rest of the story! General Cajun Rudy came in the next day and saved the people once he had the numbers to restore order first and then remove the thousands left behind by the local and state officials!
Re: post flood controversies:
1. We now know LA blocked Red Cross aid to NO
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011594.php
2. Here’s another huge story that the MSM doesn’t seem to understand. Why didn’t the evacuation from the Superdome and the Convention begin sooner? Answer: SECURITY.
Here’s Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum Chief National Guard Bureau on Saturday 9/3/05:
“We waited until we had enough force in place to do an overwhelming force. Went in with police powers, 1,000 National Guard military policemen under the command and control of the adjutant general of the State of Louisiana, Major General Landreneau, yesterday shortly after noon stormed the convention center, for lack of a better term, and there was absolutely no opposition, complete cooperation, and we attribute that to an excellent plan, superbly executed with great military precision. It was rather complex. It was executed absolutely flawlessly in that there was no violent resistance, no one injured, no one shot, even though there were stabbed, even though there were weapons in the area. There were no soldiers injured and we did not have to fire a shot.
Some people asked why didn’t we go in sooner. Had we gone in with less force it may have been challenged, innocents may have been caught in a fight between the Guard military police and those who did not want to be processed or apprehended, and we would put innocents’ lives at risk. As soon as we could mass the appropriate force, which we flew in from all over the states at the rate of 1,400 a day, they were immediately moved off the tail gates of C-130 aircraft flown by the Air National Guard, moved right to the scene, briefed, rehearsed, and then they went in and took this convention center down…
The delay was in, if you want to call it a delay. I really don’t call it a delay, I’ll be honest about that. When we first went in there law enforcement was not the highest priority, saving lives was. You have to remember how this thing started. Before the hurricane hit there were 5,000 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and 5,000 National Guardsmen — excuse me. Let me correct the record. There were 2,500 National Guardsmen in Mississippi and almost 4,000 National Guardsmen in Louisiana that were sheltered and taken out of the affected area so as soon as the storm passed they could immediately go into the area and start their search and lifesaving work, and stand up their command and control apparatus, and start standing up the vital functions that would be required such as providing food, water, shelter and security for the people of the town. So it was phased in. There was no delay.
The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans. Once that assessment was made, that the normal 1500 man police force in New Orleans was substantially degraded, which contributed obviously to less police presence and less police capability, then the requirement became obvious and that’s when we started flowing military police into the theater.
Two days ago we flowed 1400 military policemen in. Yesterday, 1400 more. Today 1400 more. Today there are 7,000 citizen soldiers — Army National Guard, badge-carrying military policemen and other soldiers trained in support to civil law enforcement — that are on the streets, available to the mayor, provided by the governor to the mayor to assist the New Orleans police department…
Q: General, you mentioned a disintegration of the New Orleans Police Department. Do you know how many officers are still on duty?
GEN. BLUM: I would rather not say. I think you’d be better to refer that question to the mayor of New Orleans. I have my own estimate. I would say they are significantly degraded and they have less than one-third of their original capability.
Q: So is it fair to say it is the National Guard that’s keeping law and order in New Orleans?
GEN. BLUM: No. As long as there’s one uniformed police officer in the city of New Orleans, we will send as many National Guard soldiers to augment, support and work in support of that lone law enforcement officer as necessary. So if hypothetically there’s only one left, who’s in charge? It’s still that lone police officer supported by the National Guard in their role as military support to law enforcement.
We are not in the lead. We have no need nor intention of imposing martial law or having the military police the United States of America.”
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2005/tr20050903-3850.html