Zak@DaarkSyde.ca wrote:

White House Shifts Blame
Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation
from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state
and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a
failure of the country's emergency management.
.....
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials
tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
(D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her
a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover
of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's
emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration had sought control over National Guard units,
normally under control of the governor. Louisiana officials rejected
the request, noting that such a move would be comparable to a federal
declaration of martial law. State authorities suspected a political
motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull
off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed
everything on the locals," said the source, who is an adviser and does
not have the authority to speak publicly.

Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from
the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the
state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management
Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the
relief effort.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Full url is
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html

Did you catch the bit about the Bush administration telling a baldfaced
lie to the reporter? In the story, a senior Bush admin said:

"As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the
senior Bush official said."

Yet, at the top of the article, the Washington Post made a correction
after looking into it and finding that the Governor had, in fact,
declared a state of emergency on August 26 - days before Katrina hit.

That's the Bush administration in a nutshell, isn't it? Lie your way to
more control. Sick.

Woods

Zak@DaarkSyde.ca wrote:

White House Shifts Blame
Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation
from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state
and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a
failure of the country's emergency management.
.....
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials
tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco
(D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her
a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover
of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's
emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration had sought control over National Guard units,
normally under control of the governor. Louisiana officials rejected
the request, noting that such a move would be comparable to a federal
declaration of martial law. State authorities suspected a political
motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull
off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed
everything on the locals," said the source, who is an adviser and does
not have the authority to speak publicly.

Unbelievable.

BTW, it turns out that Walmart was able to get tractor trailers full of
supplies in while FEMA was claiming that there was no way into New Orleans.


http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076771
(formerly a conservative newspaper).

Woods

Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from
the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the
state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management
Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the
relief effort.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...