That being said, I'm glad to see Karl Rove has his priorities set straight (heavy sarcasm).

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com…

The Terry Schiavo emergency!!!!!

The points I brought up are so basic, they are summarized in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Blanco

Kritt11,

You are making my point. If you and your liberal fiends would take the time to learn what FEMA is, what it’s suppose to do in emergencies and what it did in the Katrina affair, you would be better off.

Once you learn about how the country is organized, between federal, state and local governments and what the responsibilities and limitations of each one is, you will make a much more informed voter. The people in Louisiana didn’t realize prior to Katrina (and most still don’t) that Kathleen Blanco was the commander-in-chief of the Louisiana National Guard. She alone could ask other states to send in additional National Guardsmen, or she could request federal troops. If she asked for federal troops, she would need to relinquish command control because the Constitution doesn’t allow the president to give up control to anyone else.

When you learn the facts, you will take state and local elections much more seriously. These are the people you are entrusting your life and property to in an emergency.

FEMA has stepped in in the past during less serious hurricanes and delivered. Katrina was the worst natural disaster in US history. I won't pretend that Nagin or Governor Blanco performed well– they froze. But even past Fema director Mike Brown admitted that his agencies response failed the people of New Orleans.

After 9/11, when it was realized that fire departments couldn’t talk with the police and responders couldn’t talk with city or state officials, the new department of Homeland Security, congress and Bush passed the Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) Part 2. This act provided billions of dollars specifically for interoperable communications equipment, along with personal protective gear.

The HSGP bypassed the state and provided the money directly to local communities. This was done because previous programs where delayed by the state governments and the money was sidetracked to wages, supervision and consultants as opposed to equipment.

Some states immediately bought the needed equipment. Louisiana (in all it’s democrat glory) was mired in arguments on which system to buy – which would determine whose brother-in-law or cousin would be passing out the bribes.

It’s just so typical.

The city of Detroit been on the skids since it's last white mayor Jerry Cavanagh, the riots and white flight. The tax base and vacant/new homes have declined since JC.

I’m searching Google now for the body count of how many people died due to an overabundance of ice.

Let me know if you find it.

If he did, the commanding general of the unit ordered to go would have been well within his rights (and more importantly, would be doing his duty) to refuse. Bush would have been impeached within days – with the full support of the republican party.

There are very few specific things that are absolutely forbidden as outlined in the Constitution. One of them is sending federal troops into a state against the wishes of that state’s governor.

Kathleen Blanco continually refused to let Bush send help. Only after a meeting on Air Force One, along with an additional 24 hours for her lawyers to “check it out”, did she finally relent to brokered shared command agreement.

That’s the ticket, Kathleen. Let the people die while you worry about looking like a weak governor.

I love the 'minimal mistakes' meme, here's my favorite:

FEMA Ice Trucks Still Stuck In Portland
Drivers: 750 More Trucks On Their Way

PORTLAND, Maine — Hundreds of truck drivers are still in Portland, waiting to off-load the tons of ice they first hauled to the Gulf Coast at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA said it has more ice than it can use, so it wanted to put the ice into storage for use in a future emergency. Critics, however, said that paying truck drivers $800 a day to haul the ice across the country makes no sense.

The trucks began lining up outside a cold storage facility on Read Street in Portland over the weekend.

…

Read the rest of this entry »

But the truth is, we as a nation (and the world for that matter) just aren't prepared enough to seriously stop the damage of a major hurricane. We haven't the technological know-how to do much of anything except to react as best we can.

Sounds like a some kind of food commercial spoof. IT'S POSITIVELY WING-NUTTIEST!!

I took part in the Hurricane Pam exercise in New Orleans just prior to Katrina. I know who should have done what and when.

The federal mistakes were minimal in the greater scheme of things. Larger mistakes were made in Florida in previous hurricanes and the response still went like clockwork.

No, this was not a situation where there was blame all around of equal proportions.

There can only be one commander-in-chief in a disaster. Put the blame where it belongs.

How a person that has paid attention to the actions (and inaction's) of the Republican Party these last eight years can, with a straight face, accuse Democrats of being “petulant children” is the 'wing-nuttiest' thing I've heard in a long, long time.

Thank you… You've made my day!

About all the federal government can do now is assume that local government will not be able to function and will step in immediately so that the Democratic controlled local government cannot do any damage.

No! Both liberals and conservatives failed in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. And society in the Gulf Coast suffered much (and is still suffering) during a conservative administration (not saying a liberal administration would have done better). There was a failure at all levels of government with Katrina. Dem and Repub.

No offense taken. Far from it.

JWest:

NOLA and Louisiana officials certainly were not blameless. But to whitewash the federal role in the face of the historic record is darkly hilarious.

Because liberals refuse to understand how the country is organized, what the role of state and local governments are, why the responsibilities are arranged as they are and what actually happened before, during and after Katrina, people will die in future catastrophes.

The reason conservatives work so hard to be elected is because we know that when petulant children are in charge, society suffers.

Being aware of “thingifying” is literally the only remedy for the world to keep from justifying unnecessary violence.

So again, instead of attacking you, I was pointing out something that most people don't even realize. It had never occured to me when I started violence work that in my own life I routinely dismissed certain people as “things”. It is the root of prejudice as well. And I have to keep a constant vigil on myself to keep from reverting to that mindset that, no matter how small at first, can justify beating down another because “they don't really exist.”