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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Tbertruss@aol.com
href="mailto:Tbertruss@aol.com">Tbertruss@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=pcnisbet1@hotmail.com
href="mailto:pcnisbet1@hotmail.com">pcnisbet1@hotmail.com</A> ; <A
title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, September 11, 2005 5:18
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] RE: Homeland
Security Dept. Failure!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR>Phil et. al.<BR><BR>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:<BR><BR>Consider Phil's comments on 9/03/05 subject headed "Of Deltas and
CO2:"<BR><BR>"The response of the Louisiana Governor was not to have
pre0positioned her <BR>Guard assets, except for a few and she also failed to
call on additional <BR>assets by pre-declaring state of Emergency and
disaster." <BR>-------------------------<BR><BR>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:<BR><BR><A
href="http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973">http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973</A><BR><BR>Friday,
August 26 declaration of State of Emergency by Louisiana Governor
Blanco. This declaration did activate some Louisiana National
Guard.<BR>-------------------------<BR><BR>And again from Phil's post on
9/03/2005 subject headed "Of Deltas and CO2:"<BR><BR>"The law is pretty plain,
the Governor has to ask the Feds to step in. She <BR>did not do so until
Tuesday, by which time it was darn difficult to get into <BR>the area.''
<BR><BR>------------------------- <BR><BR>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:<BR><BR>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!<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976">http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976</A><BR><BR>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:<BR><BR><A
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard</A><BR><BR>>From
the news story above:<BR><BR>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<BR>-------------------------<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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. <BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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?<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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?
<BR>--------------------------<BR>PM Thursday, September 1, 2005 <BR><BR>New
Orleans Disaster: Where’s the National Guard? <BR><BR>NANCY LESSIN, <BR><BR><A
href="http://by106fd.bay106.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&a=a7e5a3abeb5b6a0625bb45e354a7149a28f23d809928c8561c13bb3cff1229bd&mailto=1&to=mfso@mfso.org&msg=DD6AE9EC-0DD1-44B0-BB9B-44D17E8CE82C&start=0&len=6763&src=&type=x">mfso@mfso.org</A>
<BR><BR><A href="http://www.mfso.org/">http://www.mfso.org</A><BR><BR>Lessin
is a founder of Military Families Speak Out. She said today: <BR><BR>"The
numbers we have are that there are 11,000 National Guard personnel <BR>from
Louisiana, of whom about 3,000 are in Iraq with most of the heavy
<BR>equipment. This included generators and high-water and other vehicles
<BR>which could assist with the rescue effort."
<BR>--------------------------<BR>V2020 post by Ted Moffett<BR></FONT>
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