Please Help Refute This Freeper E-mail re: Katrina.

[rbajai]

I have my own response to the idiocy within this Email, but I wanted to get a second opinion before I respond back. Namely, how hypocritical it was for the author to say at the end "we shouldn't point fingers" when his whole E-mail was based on doing just that. But I wanted to run it by DU to see what you guys thought of it. The more ideas I can gather for a response the better.

Note: Paul Harvey is NOT the author in question. The author is acutally a high-level manager in the Energy Research department at
Banc of America Securities LLC in Houston.

-------------------------------------
Subject: As Paul Harvey would say, "now you know the rest of the story".

On Friday night before the storm hit, Max Mayfield of the National
Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Nagin and
Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of NO and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was
destroyed.

President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his
advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act).

Just before midnight Friday evening, the President called Governor
Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal
government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call
up. He was told that they didn't think it necessary for the federal
government to be involved yet. After the President's final call to the
governor, she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political
ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they
allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed
so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.

Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and
Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal
assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin
mandatory evacuation. After a personal plea from the President Nagin
agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory
evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations.

Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were looking into the
ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional
requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal
government can move into state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the disaster.

Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO for
levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a
marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that
will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the
federal government for funding and published on the city's website was
never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of
gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the
organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or
coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they
were.

The suffering people of NO need to be asking some hard questions as do
we all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the
multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which
further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining
states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should
have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his disposal to use between the local school busses and the city transportation busses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.

This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but
been destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of
thousands more suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local
corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in the future. As Paul Harvey would say, "now you know the rest of the story".
---------------------------------------

[Hobarticus]

1. I'd just ask them for proof of their statements.

Apparently he has insight as to how levee money was spent, and what Bush's daily agenda is. I'd ask to see it.

[dave123williams]

2. Canards...

"but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame"

It never seems to be the time to find out who's responsible for this administration's fuckups. The idea that we as a country can't simultaneously work to correct incompetence and cronyism, while managing a disaster, is just fatuous.

Reading this post, you'd think Bush and his lackeys are to be held blameless in all of this, that Mike Brown did his job.

The whole world knows better; except for the cocktail party set in Houston, that is.

[Bridget Burke]

3. Make Snopes.com your first stop in refuting garbage...

www.snopes.com/katrina/politics/blanco.asp

It saves a lot of research...

[VolcanoJen]

20. Good one, Bridget!!

Excellent Snopes entry!

[DS1]

4. Insurgency Act?

:wtf:

And Paul Harvey, I'm sure, would have loved nothing more than seeing a few thousand dead blank people floating down the river. Oh wait, he did.

[skids]

5. This is pretty old.

Even snopes (mild right bias) marks it as false...

http://snopes.com/katrina/politics/blanco.asp

....however, there was a much better rebuttal posted here on DU a couple of weeks back that tore it up piece by piece. Even the part about the "buoy" being destroyed is bullshit.

[rbajai]

10. Excellent! Thanks!

[EstimatedProphet]

17. You think Snopes is biased?

I strongly disagree

[skids]

18. Yes, I do.

Been over it before.

The bias could be more due to them allowing themselves to be manipulated by freeper "lobbying" via their email submissions system, but it is there. It's subtle. For it to be obvious you have to watch as they post articles and watch them evolve.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. I see

I haven't seen them updating articles like you say, so I never noticed anything.

[skids]

22. One example...

...one they left untended. In the Condi shoes article appears this text:

As many other readers have pointed out, although one might direct criticism towards government officials such as the President of the United States, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response for failing to coordinate adequate response to large-scale emergencies within the U.S., such efforts are largely outside the purview of the Secretary of State. Dr. Rice's primary duties are advising the President in the determination and execution of U.S. foreign policy, conducting negotiations with foreign representatives, and providing instructions to U.S. ministers and consuls abroad, little of which directly bears on coordinating disaster relief within the U.S.

...this exculpatory text ignores what Condi did the moment she got back from vacation:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/52478.htm

...so obviously she had a rather important role to play.

Now this would normally be "just an oversight" except that I personally emailed them about this and was promptly ignored.

[wurzel]

6. The President called the Governor to "plead"? Yeah Right!

The President's "final call"? You mean he made more than one? Where from? Where was Bush actually located during this "Friday before the storm" meetings? Who was at these "meetings"? Why the anxiety on Bush's part to militarize the situation? No mention of FEMA or Homelamd Security in the entire memo! Sounds like total BS to me!

[Catrina]

7. Wow

They really are bound and determined to blame anyone but themselves. Ask him why he forgot to mention Bush's video conference on Sunday, 28th?

Ask him for dates, times etc. of when Bush supposedly 'begged' Gov. Blanco to 'sign papers'. Because the facts are available, looks like he doesn't bother with facts.

Ask him why, if Bush, on Sunday, thought all this was so important, he spent the next two days partying and never even mentioned it until 5.00 on Tuesday, after the media shamed him into it.

Oh, and why did he leave out that Bush was in a video conference on Sunday and does he have some proof of those other video conferences he mentioned? There IS video of Bush's, although it doesn't seem to have done much good.

Why did Bush's aides have to make a DVD days after the hurricane struck, to 'fill him in on the awful tragedy that by then, the entire world (except Bush) had been witnessing?

These people are despicable. They care nothing for life, not even the lives of their own citizens.

[marbuc]

8. Nagin did use city buses

to evacuate people before the storm. Right or wrong, the city and state did what they had to do to keep their people safe for 48-60 hours, until FEMA was supposed to arrive with support.

Was this the wisest decision? Hindsight is 20/20, but the federal government is supposed to be the ultimate authority in multi-jurisdictional emergencies, and they failed, which left the locals high and dry. I suppose the locals could have predicted this failure (sarcasm), and planned to go it alone with probably better results. However, if FEMA, makes this type of crisis management decision, the locals follow orders, which they did in this case.

Incidentally, I don't know if any saw the Dateline "What Went Wrong" special, but at one point an analyst suggested that when the local response is analyzed, they will actually get high marks for what they were able to accomplish; that they were able to evacuate 80 percent of the city when the average during such crises is 60 percent. Obviously, this wasn't enough, specifically because FEMA wasn't there to pick up the slack.

[mcscajun]

9. Links here...

FactCheck's "Katrina: What Happened When"
http://www.factcheck.org/article348.html

Salon's "Timeline to Diaster"
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/15/katrina_timeline/index.html

[ComerPerro]

11. Two little words: Prove it

[kittenpants]

12. my father-in-law sent this to my husband under the title "What you won't

see on CNN" My husband said it was written by an author from rightnation.com and told his father-in-law that his source was biased. He (father-in-law) responded that CNN is biased (aahh the old "liberal media" defense). There's no use arguing with him as proving him wrong only makes him stick to his lies with greater desperation.

[EOTE]

13. And when has this administration worried about being "constitutional"?

This is the admin. that makes excuses for torture and detains people without representation or even a legal reason. It's laughable to think that anyone in this admin has ever concerned themselves with silly little things such as the Constitution.

[demo dutch]

14. Newsweek's article on how "Bush Blew it" is helpful for additional facts

link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/

[Whoa_Nelly]

15. A Katrina Timeline

Although there are other timelines out there, this one is good to use with a FReep because it has no political bias...just the facts.
So, go through it to find the info you need. I know it's there as I sent this one to a friend who had a FReep send her the same BS email you received:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hurricane_Katrina

Also, here is an article that is good to use:
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays-p/new-orleans.htm

[frankly_fedup2]

16. With Dumbya's record for compassion, this story is so "out there" it's

just not believable. Plus, who saw and heard all this happen . . . Karl Rover? Yeah, Blanco and Nagin were concerned about their political status above all else. I think that is a spin and it should be Bush was concerned for his "image" above all else.

1. Bush "pleading?" ROFLMAOLOLROFLMAO puhlease. That man doesn't know how to plead. (lie)

2. "She held meetings with her staff to discuss the political
ramifications of bringing federal forces." Hmmmmm. Who was sitting in on this meeting? Who was the person that told this story that Blanco was basing everything on whether it would hurt or help her politically? (lies)

2. Bush in Washington on a Friday night. ROFLMAO. Everybody knows that every weekend him and pickles return to Crawford either Thursday or Friday. (another lie).

3. Sounds like some BS from Limpball's site.

4. When the cops are running and leaving people stranded, I can see part-time bus drivers waiting around for a call from someone to drive a bus to evacuate people. They are going to take care of their families just like everyone else. (not believable).

[Igel]

19. It's going to take time for the dust to settle.

Half the debunking sites listed above have points bearing on the e-mail that conflict with the other half of the sites. A fair number of links are to dynamic sites, links whose contents are revised and therefore can't be used as supporting documentation.

Blanco did what she needed to in declaring the emergency. The feds did what they needed to in declaring the emergency. Some details I discount as irrelevant, even if true.

It was widely reported that Mayfield talked to the LA officials Sat. night, many hours before the mandatory evacuation was ordered; and it was widely reported on Sunday before Katrina's landfall that Blanco, in announcing the mandatory evacuation, said * personally appealed for it. (http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3775049&nav=EyAzdqAx) Nobody can defend calling for a mandatory evacuation as late as it occurred on simple factual grounds; all such evacuations are a risk--if you're wrong either way, you're probably screwed.

As far as I know, the use of buses in NOLA was to get people to the Superdome and other shelters; getting them out of NOLA by bus would have been a nightmare. Good if it happened, but I haven't seen reports to that effect, and at this late date I'd want to see pictures.

It's pathetic that either side of the partisan divide has taken an investigation of the NOLA disaster as a political game. In this case, a RWer's using NOLA's outcome for political points. The only result from that is likely to be deaths unless actual grown ups take charge: I can't think of a major player in the Katrina business that didn't screw up at some point, the only difference being the size of the maximum potential screwup. Nagin could only mess up things in NOLA; Blanco and Barbour only things in Louisiana and MS, respectively; * and FEMA, whole enchilada.