The Louisianna Gov. is a piece of work!

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Miniv

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Because of the Louisianna Gov. --

*The state national guard were NOT put on standby before the hurricanne hit and then NOT called up immediately after it hit.

*She declined the help of school buses to remove evacuees from the New Orleans dome prior to the flood waters coming in. (By the time she gave her okay, one of the buses was flooded and not operational.)

*She declined Federal assistance for over 48 hours as they stood waiting on the state border.

*She is now not requiring mandetory evacuation of New Orleans to those who remain even though there are still snipers shooting Rescue and Repair workers....AND....the flood waters have been tested TEN TIMES ABOVE the lowest safety standards.

(I am not blaming the Mayor of New Orleans because the moment the storm hit, his entire communications system went down.)

I try to find the positive in each and every person.....but this person I can't! What ROCK did she come out from under???? She is SCAREY.

MA
 
The Red Cross announced today that they were ready to go in the first day after the hurricane and the Gov. would not allow them in.

Robin
 
Read this.

Fran

Louisiana Officials Could Lose the Katrina Blame Game

By Jeff Johnson

CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer

September 7, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -- The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for "the big one" that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding.

In December of 1995, the Orleans Levee Board, the local government entity that oversees the levees and floodgates designed to protect New Orleans and the surrounding areas from rising waters, bragged in a supplement to the Times-Picayune newspaper about federal money received to protect the region from hurricanes.

"In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection," the pamphlet declared. "The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects."

The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the "few manageable gaps" in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature's waters "will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection."

But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws," according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency.

Blocked from financing the local portion of the flood fighting efforts, the levee board was unable to spend the federal matching funds that had been designated for the project.

By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one tenth of one percent of that -- $1.98 million -- was dedicated to levee improvements in the New Orleans area. State appropriators were able to find $22 million that year to renovate a new home for the Louisiana Supreme Court and $35 million for one phase of an expansion to the New Orleans convention center.

The following year, the state legislature did appropriate $49.5 million for levee improvements, but the proposed spending had to be allocated by the State Bond Commission before the projects could receive financing. The commission placed the levee improvements in the "Priority 5" category, among the projects least likely to receive full or immediate funding.

The Orleans Levee Board was also forced to defer $3.7 million in capital improvement projects in its 2001 budget after residents of the area rejected a proposed tax increase to fund its expanding operations. Long term deferments to nearly 60 projects, based on the revenue shortfall, totaled $47 million worth of work, including projects to shore up the floodwalls.

No new state money had been allocated to the area's hurricane protection projects as of October of 2002, leaving the available 65 percent federal matching funds for such construction untouched.

"The problem is money is real tight in Baton Rouge right now," state Sen. Francis Heitmeier (D-Algiers) told the Times-Picayune. "We have to do with what we can get."

Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennen told local officials that, if they reduced their requests for state funding in other, less critical areas, they would have a better chance of getting the requested funds for levee improvements. The newspaper reported that in 2000 and 2001, "the Bond Commission has approved or pledged millions of dollars for projects in Jefferson Parish, including construction of the Tournament Players Club golf course near Westwego, the relocation of Hickory Avenue in Jefferson (Parish) and historic district development in Westwego."

There is no record of such discretionary funding requests being reduced or withdrawn, but in October of 2003, nearby St. Charles Parish did receive a federal grant for $475,000 to build bike paths on top of its levees.

Democrats blame Bush administration

Congressional Democrats have been quick to blame the White House for poor preparation and then a weak response related to Hurricane Katrina. U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, joined two of his colleagues from the Transportation and Infrastructure and Homeland Security committees Tuesday in a letter requesting hearings into what the trio called a "woefully inadequate" federal response.

"Hurricane Katrina was an unstoppable force of nature," Waxman wrote along with Reps. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). "But it is plain that the federal government could have done more, sooner, to respond to the immediate survival needs of the residents of Louisiana and Mississippi.

"In fact, different choices for funding and planning to protect New Orleans may even have mitigated the flooding of the city," the Democrats added.

But Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) suggested that Waxman "overlooks many other questions that need to be asked, and prematurely faults the federal government for all governmental shortcomings; in fact, local and state government failures are not mentioned at all in [Waxman's] letter."

Davis wrote that Waxman's questions about issues such as the lack of federal plans for evacuating residents without access to vehicles and the alleged failure of the Department of Homeland Security to ensure basic communications capacity for first responders might "prematurely paint the picture that these are solely, or even primarily, federal government responsibilities.

"This is not the time to attack or defend government entities for political purposes. Rather, this is a time to do the oversight we're charged with doing," Davis continued. "Our Committee will aggressively investigate what went wrong and what went right. We'll do it by the book, and let the chips fall where they may."

The House Government Reform Committee will begin hearings on federal disaster preparations and the response to Hurricane Katrina the week of Sept. 12. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is schedule to hold hearings on the economic recovery from Katrina beginning Wednesday morning.
 
i watched live interviews with her when it first happened and at the time all i could think was "this woman is incompetent!!! even the reporter interviewing her was shocked at some of her answers. Such as why she still had not called in the nat guard (this was day 3) She was frazzled, confused and almost incoherent. This is not leadership material!

She should be immediately removed and someone put in place that can take on this huge job.
 
You know the situation is bad when a politician uses profanity in a politically correct manner to get ASSISTANCE, i.e. New Orleans Mayor!
 
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Well, all I can say is that if a recall petition is started, I hope I get to be one of the first to sign it.

You keep hearing people ask "where is the President?", but here in Louisiana we keep asking "where is the Governor?". We have seen Pres. Bush much much more than we have seen Gov. Blanco. Also, so many keep asking why FEMA isn't doing this or that, and so much of what needs to be done is the state's responsiblity, not FEMA's, but the state officials sure don't want to set people straight on that point.

But please, don't let this stop you from opening your hearts to the victims of this storm - don't let the few bad apples turn you away from the whole barrel. And remember, although what has happened in New Orleans is horrific, there are many more people affected in other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi - many, many who also lost homes, careers, family, still are without power or running water, etc. Please keep all these people in your thoughts and prayers as well.
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