Brian....remember states rights....the Federal government does not have all encompasssing powers......

You are falling into the leftie propaganda trap there Brian...

Legally the request must be made by the State Governor before he can order in FEMA...

If he just marched in he would have violated federal law....and the libs would have been screaming about that.

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I don't. I just have the threads here. I'd like to learn more about it as well, but, I don't have the time to do the research on it.

If I find anything I will post it here. It sounds to me like the classic liberal vs. conservative views of state's rights.

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Actually, I support the position where the state is required to ask for help prior to the Feds doing anything.

But, in this suituation, the argument is somewhat moot. If I am the Feds, and I understand the gravity of the situation 48 hours prior to the event (which is eminently reasonable given the available data at that time), I get my people and my equipment mobilized for action before the arrival of the storm. Now, granted, you can't move them into the theatre prior to the event, but, I get the sense that GWB and company didn't fully grasp the magnitude of the disaster and didn't get the machinery started until late Tuesday.

My thought is that the coordination between the Feds and the Goverrnor could have happened on Monday and the Feds could have been ready to go prior to the storm's arrival. This would have resulted in a fairly large response on Wednesday.

I simply don't buy the argument that the Feds were sitting there waiting for a telephone call, otherwise nothing could be done. The phone call is a formality in a tragedy of this magnitude.

On the issue of state vs. Fed, where does national security enter into the equation? I would think that given the fact that this was a major point of entry into the US with massive amounts of cargo passing in and out each day, not to mention the refineries and fuel, that this would trump any state issues. There was a potential disaster that could have taken out a huge portion of our fuel supply.

Seems to me that the Feds should have been in charge of the levies from the beginning. New Orleans can be in charge of the evacuation (although we saw from the evacuation of the gulf from Rita that a full scale evacuation is a joke) but the levies in this case should have been taken care of by the Feds.

As far as the after math is concerned, the Feds should have been on standby at the very least. Give the destruction and carnage that took place they should have been ready to go right after the fact.

Did the mayor and governor have a plan? Obviously not. Did they screw up? Yes. Would it have made much of a difference? Give the cluster F that happened evacuating Houston and the surrounding areas, I have to wonder.

I think Louisiana government screwed up but the Feds screwed up much much worse and as a result, caused more damage than was necessary. Bush may not have been the start of the problem but he nor anyone of his appointees recognized that there was a problem in the making. If he is going to take credit for things that were started out side of his administration, then he also gets to get tagged with the crap that may have started out side his administration as well.

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Since this thread was last posted, lots of things have come to light, none of them especially favorable to any entity that has direct responsibility.

First, the NOLA emergency preparedness document says that local authorities are teh first responders and will call-in state help when teh mayor deems that the event is too great for local responders.

The state has a similar document.

So does the Fed.

In this instance, the Mayor and Governor had been having a power struggle for several months and were not on good terms. Nagin was more than reluctant to call for help and Blanco was concerned that if she stepped-in too soon that it would become another political struggle with the mayor. Niether the mayor nor the governor informed FEMA (much less the president) taht tehre was a communication problem.

So FEMA is waiting for the gov to do something and the gov is waiting for Nagin and Nagin is waiting for FEMA. Finally, FEMA gets a whiff of what's up and calls Washington. The President calls Blanco and Blanco says everything is okay--don't want to air dirty laundry to a Republican president. FEMA gets word from Washington that everything is cool.

Nobody in NOLA mobilizes mass evacuation of the folks who have no car. NG is not called. Police around the state are not called. Neighboring states are not called.

In contrast, Mississippi is fully mobilized, its NG is activated, police throughout the state are alerted and the public is ordered to evacuate, warned of extreme destruction. Hurricane Camille lingers and so, most people leave. FEMA is in close coordination with the state and local emergency preparedness.

Back in Louisiana, the storm passes and everybody (except the Corps of Engineers and NOAA and a few other agencies) think they dodged the bullet. The levees break.

It takes about 2-3 days to activate and mobilize the NG. On Monday they were activated. On Thursday they were in convoys headed to the city. On Friday they were under FEMA's direction and FEMA command was a freaking mess (personal observation on the ground).

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The Constitution trumps everything.

That's why we call it, "The Constitution" rather than, "The Suggestions."

In other words, no matter what Bush does, its wrong, according to you. Maybe PRESIDENT Bush should send you a personal letter and apologize for having ever been born.

Someone speak their mind at all times? Hell, look at Bill Bennet, he said something, then the liberal media took it TOTALLY OUT OF CONTEXT and tried to destroy the man....now I wonder why politicals never speak freely...

Im also wondering, how many of those staff at the nursing homes were black people????? If so, and they left white people to die, will we ever hear anything about racism on their part?????????

WOW,,,,,,,,,,thanks for that link....

wonder if Farahkan is gonna jump on that congressman, oh, thats right, he is black, blacks can do not wrong according to Farakhan

In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Democrats will continue to try to blame President Bush,,

I think the ONE picture that will always stand out about this disaster, is those buses,,those damn buses, flooded, stranded, empty, unused,,

Bush is the F'n antichrist...

Anyone who can't see past his corruption by now must be on some serious meds...

period end of story....

This ass has not only screwed this country but has screwed up alot of the world.

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Im impressed with your footnotes, articulation, facts of evidence and downright neutrality while reporting on this issue !

Yea, were all screwed (although I was finally able to afford to buy a home)