"Rex B" wrote in message
...

Subject: Politics over duty

This is a post from a fellow over in Merritt Is, FL, a reporter who's
been researching what went on before the storm hit:

I think all of Nagin's pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in
the near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming
to light.


The three dishonest talking points being spread by the GOP are these:

1) The Mayor of New Orleans did not follow the portion of the New
Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, which specifies
"Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to
evacuate themselves."

If this quote is taken in context, it is clear that it is referring to
evacuating people to an emergency shelter within the city, not
evacuating people to points outside the city. The Mayor did implement an
emergency bussing system that evacuated the city's poor and disabled to
the Superdome.

This can be verified by reading the plan at
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26


2) The Governor of Louisiana failed to request federal help in a timely
manner.

The Governor requested help on August 28, 2005 as can be easily seen by
viewing her official request at
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20...%20Request.pdf

The official White House response to this request is in the press
release at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0050829-2.html

In fact, the President declared a State of Emergency in Louisiana on
August 26, 2005 that technically made the Governor's request
unnecessary. This can be seen from the official White House press
release at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0050827-1.html


3) Federal Agencies were unable to respond in a timely manner because
the Governor did not request their help.

Actually, once the President declared the State of Emergency on August
26, 2005, it triggered something called "An Incident of National
Significance." According to the United States National Response Plan,
this has quite a few consequences, all of which are designed to put the
Federal Government in charge, eliminate delays based on paperwork, and
eliminate any need for local officials to ask for help. Here are some
quotes:

"The President leads the Nation in responding efficiently and ensuring
the necessary resources are applied quickly and effectively to all
Incidents of National Significance."

"Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited,
or under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of
an event of catastrophic magnitude."

The US National Response Plan can be found at
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interwe...P_FullText.pdf

There is quite a bit more, but those two quotes cover the major
points. By declaring a State of Emergency, the President officially took
charge of the situation, whether he realized it or not. And once it was
clear that Hurricane Katrina was an event of "catastrophic magnitude"
there should have been no need for FEMA, nor any other Federal agencies
to wait until state or local government requested help from them.

--
John R. Carroll
Machining Solution Software, Inc.
Los Angeles San Francisco
www.machiningsolution.com