Tuesday, September 06, 2005 Why the LA State/Local Govts ARE NOT at Fault While the WH & Rove spins the facts, Bush tries to blatantly ignore LA Gov Blanco during his tour of disaster areas & while praising relief workers, but there are a few FEDRL GOVT PLANS in place to consider when forming your judgement about who is to blame for the Katrina debacle. 1) Nat'l Response Plan PDF (NRP) which was accepted and implimented by Bush & Co in 12/2004: Pg 43 "Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events": In catastrophe situations where state/ local resources are overwhelmed, coordination for fedrl assistance is not to be delayed and the 1st priority is immediately deploy fedrl resources to save lives and protect infrastructure. And the procedure to coordinate with state and local govt should not be an obstacle. Read what ex-CIA agent Larry Johnson has to say when he examines the NRP at Talking Points Memo. 2) The State of LA Hazard Mitigation Plan (SHMP), that the FEDRL GOVT signs off on. See the entire PDF here. Who signed off on the LA Hazard Mitigation Plan? Mike Brown... the head of FEMA. The very same guy who is now trying to blame officials for implementing a plan that HE signed off on. The SHMP essentially demonstrates that the state officials were competent, their plans for pre & post-disaster response were in place and were not only adequate, but approved by the fedrl govt, as well. 3) The LA Gov's letter to Bush, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (PDF form) that was sent on Aug 28/05. Gov Blanco requested plenty of supplies & help from Bush (as she aludes to in her Sept 2/05 letter to Bush). All 3 of these were utilized by state and local govts during pre & post landfall of Katrina, so the next time a Bush Fan tries to blame the state/ local authorities, remind them of these, let them watch Olbermann's dead-on rant or read this from a meterologist who says FEMA chose to ignore warnings like these. |