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The DOJ has shown its self to be incompetent.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ri...
http://gov.louisiana.gov/index...
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...

See for yourself at:

http://www.doa.louisiana.gov/lpaa/auction.htm

Declaring a state of emergency does not equal requesting Federal help.

The issue has been widely debated -- she issued the necessary declaration. Nagin was at best wrong, and, at worst, lying.

"first you people are bitching about Bush not handling Katrina (A duty that, BY LAW, IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS)."

The state government formally requested federal aid 2 days before landfall:

http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp =detail&articleID=862

Bush had already declared a state of emergency in Alabama and Florida under the Stafford Act (http://www.fema.gov/about/stafact.shtm), but couldn't be bothered to do it for Louisiana. If the FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency isn't responsible for helping out during an emergency when requested to do so, then I'd like my tax dollars to be reallocated to paying someone to kick you in the balls for being such an ignorant fucking douchebag.

"And now, this law is enabling the president to respond to public emergencies by deploying appropriate authorities to restore order,"

It's called the Stafford Act, and the appropriate authorities would be FEMA. Don't get your panties in a wad because your hero Bush couldn't appoint someone competent to head up the Katrina effort, douchebag. A true conservative would use the laws already on the books instead of expanding government in a transparent power grab.

"the USAPATRIOT Act was passed almost UNANIMOUSLY in the Senate (98 to 1)"

Please use a reliable dictionary to look up the definition of "unanimously," douchebag.

Speaking of which, it looks like Firefox 2.0's dictionary doesn't include "douchebag." That's a shame. It's such a versatile word.

Most major cities have camera networks or are in the bidding process to get them. Wilmington, Delaware has them all over the city; Philadelphia is going to get them soon (they are used in only certain areas now and are monitored by a 3rd party but have feeds to police command centers). They help people every day: they can assess the field situation seconds after a call to 911 and give proper intel (needed medical responses or more officers to catch and track robbers in the act). They do detect and deter crime.

For those curious about what weather cameras have to do with national security see The Role of Weather Information in Disaster Response and Recovery.

FEMA and the Federal government wanted to be there quicker, but the Constitution prevented them from acting.

You sir are a

fucking
brain-washed
moron.

The last link is to an article published by the Washington Post that repeats lies from an anonymous senior White House source that the Democratic governor Blanco was slow to declare a state of emergency. But the Washington Post was forced to issue a retraction that you can see at the top of the page.

The White House total fucks up the disaster relief ( Google "golden 72 hours"), then publicly denounces others for playing the "blame game" while an anonymous White House source spreads lies blaming the local and state governments.

Now almost a week later you are trying to spread the same lies on Slashdot. Shame on you!

Hundreds of them. Sitting in New Orleans. Unused to evacuate the city.

According to the State of Louisiana's Emergency Operations Plan:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

Think those poor folks left behind in New Orleans are going to be stupid enough to vote for Nagin and that dumbass governor again?

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.

Funny that there's a letter
from Blanco requesting aid (in great detail) dated SUNDAY...

NAGIN: And this was after I called him on the telephone two days earlier. And I said, 'Mr. President, Madam Governor, you two need to get together on the same page, because of the lack of coordination, people are dying in my city.'

S. O'BRIEN: That's two days ago.

NAGIN: They both shook -- I don't know the exact date. They both shook their head and said yes. I said, 'Great.' I said, 'Everybody in this room is getting ready to leave.' There was senators and his cabinet people, you name it, they were there. Generals. I said, 'Everybody right now, we're leaving. These two people need to sit in a room together and make a doggone decision right now.'

S. O'BRIEN: And was that done?

NAGIN: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, "No, you guys stay here. We're going to another section of the plane, and we're going to make a decision."

He called me in that office after that. And he said, "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor." I said -- and I don't remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.

S. O'BRIEN: You're telling me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?

NAGIN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in?

NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the -- I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places.

S. O'BRIEN: And the governor said no.

NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn't happen, and more people died.

"I have taken appropriate action under state law and directed the execution of the State Emergency Plan on August 26, 2005, in accordance with Section 401 of the Stafford Act. A State of Emergency has been issued for the State in order to support the evacuations of the coastal areas and the remainder of the state to support the State Evacuation and Sheltering Plan."

- LA Governor Blanco, letter to President Bush and FEMA, August 28, 2005.

The hurricane struck on August 29, and the city flooded on August 30. A week later, and federal support is still just arriving.

I find it hard to believe that this is the first you are hearing of these facts, which are simple, indeed intuitive. Instead, I believe that you'd rather repeat the lies Bush is saying to cover his ass from this unforgiveable failure.

1. School buses are designed for more than 10 passengers.
2. School buses have a GVWR of greater than 10,000 pounds

That's pretty funny, but I think it's true that lawsuits (or the fear of them) played a role in this disaster too.

The city of New Orleans had 400 municipal buses and 2500 school buses, enough to take 100,000 people to Baton Rouge in a day and a half. The only one that was used was commandeered by a 20-year-old civilian, Jabbar Gibson (bless his soul), and driven to Houston with 70 strangers aboard. The rest were not only unused, but now lie destroyed by the flood waters. Why?

The answer could be simple ignorance and incompetence on the part of local Democrat politicians (at the risk of being redundant). However, the buses were part of the official State of Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan: see page 13, paragraph 5:

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

I have a more likely theory to explain this appalling failure on the part of the local pols: I bet the Mayor and Governor were afraid there would be a traffic boo-boo, and everyone aboard would sue the city for millions.

(Especially if the evacuation turned out to be a false alarm. Which is why the incompetent Democrat schoolmarm of a Governor went out of her way at the Aug. 28 press conference to state that she and the Mayor were only evacuating the city at the express urging of none other than President George W. Bush.)

If you are a lawyer, you had better think long and hard about the damage your profession is doing to the American way of life.

-ccm

These same people are now sayuing "screw new orleans bunch of savages". Sure there are scumbags causing trouble there

Many of those scumbags are in local and state government. The governor didn't call out the national guard until days after the hurricane. Why?

The governor/mayor didn't order a mandatory evacuation until Bush called and asked for one. Why?

There was an official evacuation plan. It wasn't followed. Why?

NO public transit and school buses weren't used to evacuate people who lacked the resources to leave. Why?

FEMA has fucked up big time, but blame sits primarily at the state and city government.

The Governor flatout stated ...I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilties of the State and the affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance will be necessary."

The assistance was dismal.

The citizens of the USA have just witnessed the complete failure of government on all levels, from local to federal. At every stage of this disaster there has not been a single competent person orchestrating the rescue efforts.

As a result of years of cronyism, privatization, classism, and racism, this has become an unmitigated disaster that one would expect to encounter only in the impoverished third world.

And here is the kicker: it will happen again and again if the public does not rise up and demand a clean sweep.

The entire system needs to be overhauled, from the very foundation of democracy -- secure, honest voting -- to the very notion of government's role in ensuring its citizens have access to shelter, food, and safety at all times and in all situations.

The time to act is now. You should be very angry and you should be demanding accountability and change. Do something before it happens again.

Louisiana is in a state of emergency rather than a state of martial law. Should someone be apprehended for violating the law in one of the areas for which this state has been declared, will that person be tried before a civilian jury or by military tribunal? Certainly this state of emergency has some aspects of martial law, such as suspension of habeas corpus. But until you show me civilians being hauled up in front of military tribunals for civilian crimes, I don't think that what is going on in New Orleans counts as martial law. At most, the US military can hold individuals without charges. We won't be seeing any military tribunals in Louisiana.

Your point about Lincoln is misplaced. It was only after the Civil War that the Supreme Court placed further restrictions on key aspects of martial law in the US. Chief of these restrictions is that the US military is only allowed to resort to military tribunals in the absence of functional civilian courts. Given that civilian courts are functioning within the state of Louisiana, I don't foresee the possibility of martial law in the near term.

But, then maybe you're speaking of Marshall Law rather than marital law.

where is French the primary language?

Don't forget the last french department you stole from us: Louisiana. And to give you nightmares: Codofil (we're coming to take it back ;)

Our voting machines are awesome in Louisiana. In my parish we use the AVC model. You go in and press buttons and then hit "cast vote" and it goes "doo doo doo" and it gives me great satisfaction.

I think it does have a paper trail and I've never heard of any vulnerabilities for it, and we have no hanging chads. Completely electronic.

Chris

Our voting machines are awesome in Louisiana. In my parish we use the AVC model. You go in and press buttons and then hit "cast vote" and it goes "doo doo doo" and it gives me great satisfaction.

I think it does have a paper trail and I've never heard of any vulnerabilities for it, and we have no hanging chads. Completely electronic.

Chris