[Vision2020] RE: Homeland Security Dept. Failure!

[Phil Nisbet]

Ted

It’s truly a sad state of affairs that you chose to brand me a liar in 
defense of your idealogical goals rather than read more deeply into 
information readily available to you.

First you google rather than read more completely and post the following as 
your source;

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

Ted, what you posted was Gov. Blanco’s Declaration of a state of Louisiana 
Emergency as provided for not under Federal Law, but under Louisiana law.  
Nothing that she did under that circumstance would mobilize a scrap of 
Federal aid anymore than Kempthorne’s actions in declaring the Grangeville 
area a disaster area due to fire a few months ago would.

Heck Ted, the City Council of Moscow could declare a state of Emergency for 
a stopped toilet in City Hall.  News Flash, the Homeland Security would not 
instantly drop toilet plungers from helicopters to unstop the john unless 
there was a proper call for the level of action required.

What you should have posted, Ted, was this;

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

That particular document was Gov. Blanco’s specific Request for Federal 
based assistance in the Louisiana State of Emergency and is quite specific 
as to what she is asking for.

“Pursuant to 44 CFR § 206.35, I have determined that this incident is of 
such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the 
capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that 
supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect 
property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a 
disaster. I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct 
Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, 
Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal.”

She states quite clearly in that letter that the only federal group she will 
need to accomplish her above goal is;

“The following information is furnished on efforts and resources of other 
Federal agencies, which have been or will be used in responding to this 
incident:
• FEMA ERT-A Team en-route.”

Bush, of course, responded immediately to this request and authorized her 
request.  But all that did was allow the Federal Government to pick up the 
Tab and to send a team of people to pay for the actions which the various 
designated Louisiana agencies were doing to work on the storms and its 
damage.

Under 44 CFR 206, Gov. Blanco was required to act further and request the 
specific resources of other agencies including Homeland Security and other 
National Guard’s of other States if she saw the need for those assets.  
Further, she could have made the call to have Homeland Security or FEMA or 
the White House manage the disaster.  She was urged to do so very early on, 
but refused to relinquish any authority to any Federal Agency, effectively 
tying the hands of many of the agencies to respond to assist her.

The trouble is, Ted, if you read what the law actually says, as opposed to 
your reliance on Google and press reports, under the provisions of 44 CFR 
206, the State of Louisiana is liable for 25% of the costs of all the 
actions which the Federal agencies will take.  If the Federal government 
acts on its own and frankly in contravention of Federal Law, they end up 
eating 100% of the costs.

As of 5 September, Gov Blanco was reported by CNN as having sent a letter to 
Bush stating that she would not allow federalization of the response.  This 
even though Bush in the following had offered to cover 100% of the costs;

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050829-2.html

Note the following in which it was not until the September 2nd that Gov. 
Blanco issued a State of Louisiana requirement that buses be made available 
for transporting evacuees;

http://gov.louisiana.gov/2005%20Executive%20orders/25EmergencyEvacuationbyBuses-ReplacmentEO.pdf

Further, though she had been offered state troopers from other unaffected 
areas much earlier, she did not sign authorization for them to be allowed to 
function in her state until the following;

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=994

By that time it was in essence impossible to get those extra police forces 
to the majority of areas where they would be needed because of flooding and 
disruption of transportation accesses.

It was also on the 2nd of September when Gov. Blanco first, as I previously 
stated, actually made a request for Federal assistance other than the 
initial FEMA ERT A Team;

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=998

Please note the following from that request;

“I request the expeditious return of the Headquarters of the 256th Brigade 
Combat Team as they have completed their mission in the Iraqi theatre of 
operations and they are urgently needed here at home. I request that you 
remission this unit to Louisiana where they will become part of the recovery 
efforts in their home state. As the remainder of the Brigade returns, I 
request that they be missioned by the Department of Defense to assist civil 
authorities in Hurricane Katrina recovery operations in Louisiana.”

On Saturday, September the 10th, the complete 256th was back in Louisiana, 
all 3000 of them back from Iraq as per Gov. Blanco’s request.

And if you had bothered to read what I wrote earlier, Ted, I had previously 
noted that (Much to Pat Kraut’s dismay I might note) Brown and his team at 
FEMA were remiss very early on.  The biggest failure in this drama was that 
the Emergency Response Plans of New Orleans and of Louisiana that Nagin and 
Blanco had drawn up were obviously not adequate and it was FEMA’s job to see 
that they were sufficient.  Brown has been fired for his sins.
I did not need to dwell on the Feds lack of an adequate response, Ted, you 
and Hanson and the rest were piling on.  I posted to the failure of local 
government in the Emergency, because not a one of you or your cohorts were 
doing so.

So please tell me, when you state that there were problems at the local 
level, why do you come rushing to the assistance of Blanco and Nagin?  I 
have posted what those problems were and you knee jerk and call me a liar.

I will answer the rest of your particular charges in coming posts, but next 
time you might just spend a little more time reading and a little less time 
accusing people of falsehoods.  The truth will out, as the Bard noted and 
one sided pictures as you and others on V2020 have tried to paint are a poor 
service to all of us.

Phil Nisbet

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/