Could this be true?

[Tommy]

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
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.

http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm

[fishingpox]

It as also come out that the Red Cross was there before the hurricane hit and had enough food and water to supply the people in the Astro Dome and some convention center, but the LA. dept. of homeland security would not allow it due to they were scared that people would come by the thousands more

[fiddlefarter]

I am not against anyone nor am I on anyone's side. I would just like to know for my own personal use (ie: in conversations and discussions with people I know) where you saw/heard about this story so that I can research it and determine if it is from a reliable source. I am not trying to offend you. I would just like to know before I tell someone something, true or false. And I reckon the South will be blamed for causing this, because the gov't is scared of the repercussions of invading individual states like they did so many years ago. Personally I think the responsibility was upon the hands of the mayor to ask for a mandatory evac. then the governor should have said "no everybody get out now". Which didn't happen showing the bad side of States Rights. Of course had the federal govt./military went ahead and took over, they would possibly show that state leadership is powerless and residents of states could choose to ignore local and state laws and guidance in future instances. But there could have been less loss of life and that is what upsets me. Either way it sucks but I have a hard time being critical of any one official because it was a storm created by nature not an attack from an invading military.

[fishingpox]

If you are refering to me,it was Major Garrett on what ever news channel he is on CNN, or Fox News.

[Roberta]

I can understand the governor's hesitancy to turn over what remains of her National Guard units to the Feds. Keep in mind that most of the states that are regulary hit with hurricanes have had as many as 90% of their Guard and Reserves shipped overseas. To add insult to injury, the equipment that could have been used in New Orleans was left behind In Iraq. Louisiana had lost 80% of its units to deployment and I'm sure Gov.Blanco wanted to keep a few people on hand for her state, and frankly, I don't blame her for that.

The mayor needs to stand up and admit that he should have made a greater effort to evacuate the people who could not get out on their own. Buses would have at least saved some folks, though not all. Where he would have bused them is anybody's guess and maybe that was in the back of his mind.

The Feds really fouled up when they moved FEMA over to Homeland Security, then made the error even worse when they ignored warnings of levee failure and moved spending earmarked for improvements in that area to DHS.
Then you have Bush, who opened his mouth and inserted his foot when he said, "No one expected the levees to fail." He must have been the only guy who hadn't been listening to the Army Corps of Engineers, because this disaster was no surprise to anyone else. - Roberta

PS - It came out in this morning's paper that the funds from 9/11 have been grossly mismanaged and businesses all around the country and even in the Virgin Isles have received money to "rebuild their busineesses affected by 9/11". Incompetance from top to bottom.

[fishingpox]

The power outage was due to an employee cut a electrical line. However, they need to build more nuke plants out there to keep up with the population. Maybe the low sulfer coal is a place to start.

Brown resigned today! I heard a TV commentator say that this is what happens when FEMA is stacked with political hacks as a reward for working on a campaign.

Lets hope that the power outages in LA is not the prelude to another attack on a major US city by Al Queda.

We have already seen what can happen to a city when the power goes out.

[slabbatical]

Just a point of order...it seems from one comment above that the governor was requested to turn over the guard to the feds. In fact, the governor owns the guard and can activate them at will. It is true that if the feds were brought on, command and control could go to them for safety and effectiveness. But it also means alot more resources (active military and reserves) could be brought to bear.

However, this discussion is generally spot on. Bottom line, the federal govt rarely will "take over" for a state due to posse comitatus. The state must first request it. And yes, thanks for validating the source of all this info.

[Eager Beaver]

People keep saying that the Govn. didn't ask for help, But she did ask on friday when the hurricane was a level 2. and was predicted to go higher. Most of the people that was still there didn't have the monotary means to evacuate. I know that is hard for some people to fathom. Not everyone has a credit card and can do whatever and whenever they want. Just ask Mrs. Bush. Talk about somebody that doesn't have a clue.

[mudwitch]

Moose,You lost creditability when you said Chris Mathews

[gooch]

People keep saying that the Govn. didn't ask for help, But she did ask on friday when the hurricane was a level 2. and was predicted to go higher. Most of the people that was still there didn't have the monotary means to evacuate. I know that is hard for some people to fathom. Not everyone has a credit card and can do whatever and whenever they want. Just ask Mrs. Bush. Talk about somebody that doesn't have a clue.

Mr Beaver my best freind of the past 10 years is down in New Orleans right now seeing the action first hand. He assures me that all but a small minority of folks had the means to leave the city. Most of those evacuees that I have spoken with that are in our area shelters have indicated they could have gotten out but they didnt think it would be that bad. If those that were to lazy to leave or to stupid to leave had actually left as ORDERED we would not be having this discussion. Yes there still would have been innocent lives lost but not as many as the rescuers and relief workers would have just had to evacuate those that could not have gotten out.

I see you live in the fine state of Nebraska. Can you imagine if they announced this Friday that a Cat 2 tornado was comming and it was going to be a cat 5 by Sunday when it hit Lincon. Do you think there would be 100,000+ folks that hung arround to see if the weather men were right? Again I realize there were probably ten's of thousands that didnt have the means to leave but we can handle evacuating 10 or 20 thousand of them if we didnt have to also evacuate those that made a concious decision not to leave. Obviously the thousands of looters and rapist and the few snipers didnt help either.
I guess the good news is that the local officials that you state did ask for help stated that they are planning to have Mardi Gras this next year. Now isnt that great news. Mabey the feds will have time to help them plan there little party.