[Vision2020] RE: Homeland Security Dept. Failure!

[debismith at moscow.com]

Pat, the Mayor of the city is a he, not a she. You may be talking about the Governor, who is a 
she. Once again, erroneous conclusions from lack of information and attention to fact do not 
an argument make....
Debi Robinson-Smith


 From:           	"Pat Kraut" <pkraut at moscow.com>
To:             	"vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject:        	Re: [Vision2020] RE: Homeland Security Dept. Failure!
Date sent:      	Sun, 11 Sep 2005 21:36:23 -0700

So, apparently you have not seen the interview with the Mayor who said she waited 24 hours 
before doing anything. No food, water in the dome, long waits before declarations these two 
people need to be out of office!


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tbertruss at aol.com 
  To: pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Sunday, September 11, 2005 5:18 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] RE: Homeland Security Dept. Failure!



  Phil et. al.

  Phil clearly demonstrates he is bending statements of facts, or not bothering to check his 
facts, to suit his agenda in his comments on Louisiana Governor Blanco's conduct regarding 
the Louisiana National Guard and response to Katrina, and the possible impact of the absence 
of Louisiana National Guard resources in Iraq:

  Consider Phil's comments on 9/03/05 subject headed "Of Deltas and CO2:"

  "The response of the Louisiana Governor was not to have pre0positioned her 
  Guard assets, except for a few and she also failed to call on additional 
  assets by pre-declaring state of Emergency and disaster." 
  -------------------------

  The above comment by Phil was/is flat out false!  The fact it is false was/is easily determined 
by a simple Google search, which is where I found the following documentation proving that 
Blanco did pre-declare a State of Emergency before Katrina hit:

  http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973

  Friday, August 26 declaration of State of Emergency by Louisiana Governor Blanco.  This 
declaration did activate some Louisiana National Guard.
  -------------------------

  And again from Phil's post on 9/03/2005 subject headed "Of Deltas and CO2:"

  "The law is pretty plain, the Governor has to ask the Feds to step in.  She 
  did not do so until Tuesday, by which time it was darn difficult to get into 
  the area.'' 

  ------------------------- 

  Really?  Blanco did not ask the Feds to step in till Tuesday?  Then consider this letter to 
President Bush, dated Saturday, August 27, before Katrina hit:

  Governor Blanco sends letter to President Bush requesting that he declare a state of 
emergency Sat. August 27, 2005.  This letter makes it very clear that Governor Blanco wants 
federal help, that the pending disaster may be more than state and local resources can cope 
with, and it even contains details on sharing funding, granting right of way, and release from 
damages to do requested work!

  http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

  And evidence that Blanco had already accepted National Guard troops from another state in 
direct contact with the governor of that state before Katrina hit further contradicts Phil's claim 
that Blanco was the bottleneck:

  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard

  >From the news story above:

  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his 
state's National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco 
accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until 
late Thursday
  -------------------------

  Again, as the info presented above demonstrates, Phil either did not check certain critical 
facts, or quoted them from unknown sources who were wrong.  Several other comments made 
by Phil in this post regarding local response to Katrina were false, but the errors I 
demonstrated above are enough.

  Mistakes were made at all levels of the Katrina disaster, from individuals who lived in the flood 
prone areas all the way to the top, President Bush. 

  But why did Phil seem so focused in his post (on 9/03/05, subject headed "Of Deltas and 
CO2") on blaming state and local officials with false statements of fact, and not the federal 
government, for the slow federal response time to this huge disaster?  A federal response that 
would have required massive assistance, even if the New Orleans's flood protection system 
had not failed, even if local and state officials had pre-positioned more critical assets for 
survival, even if they had evacuated more of the poor and disadvantaged with limited means to 
escape?  Even skipping New Orleans, the devastation of Biloxi, Gulf Port and other coastal 
areas in Mississippi required a rapid extensive federal response that many agree was too slow 
to materialize.

  And why is Phil so intent in that post on proving that the National Guard from Louisiana sent 
to Iraq, along with all the important equipment they took with them, could not have saved one 
single more life in this disaster, one single person who would have lived if the thousands of 
Louisiana National Guard, and all the critical equipment they took with them to foreign soil, had 
been at home in Louisiana?

  Phil has no proof that these Louisiana National Guard resources in Iraq could not have saved 
extra lives in this disaster.  In fact, it is more reasonable to assume the absence of these 
resources led to more lives being lost, than to assume this absence made no difference 
whatsoever.

  Is it not possible that the best and most capable Louisiana National Guard troops, along with 
the best equipment they likely took with them, were the troops missing from Louisiana when 
Katrina hit?  Or should we contemplate that we sent the worst of the worst of Louisiana's 
National Guard and their support equipment to Iraq?  
  --------------------------
  PM Thursday, September 1, 2005 

  New Orleans Disaster: Where’s the National Guard? 

  NANCY LESSIN, 

  mfso at mfso.org 

  http://www.mfso.org

  Lessin is a founder of Military Families Speak Out. She said today: 

  "The numbers we have are that there are 11,000 National Guard personnel 
  from Louisiana, of whom about 3,000 are in Iraq with most of the heavy 
  equipment. This included generators and high-water and other vehicles 
  which could assist with the rescue effort." 
  --------------------------
  V2020 post by Ted Moffett



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