The governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans are liberally slathering blame on the Federal government for its alleged failures but there are a number of inconvenient facts that make Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin look absolutely horrible in their reactions to the Katrina disaster:
(1) The federal system and its allocation of authority places primary authority in the hands of the governor of the state that declares the emergency. Jeb Bush and Haley Barbour have successfully handled major disasters in Florida and Mississippi; Blanco's performance is an abject failure.
(2) Blanco has been resisting Federalization of the evacuation and assistance of New Orleans for political reasons (see article in link).
(3) Even though New Orleans ordered an evacuation, this picture shows no less than 200 schoolbuses in a flooded lot in New Orleans -- as DRUDGE notes:
Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00
'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.'
(4) Compare what we know about Louisiana and what we know about Mississippi, which was hit just as hard by the storms: looting = Louisiana, WIDESPREAD; Mississippi, minimal; government services = Louisiana, poor to middling and needing a LOT of help from Texas; Mississippi, fairly efficient. The difference: Haley Barbour doing a VASTLY better job than Kathleen Bianco.
Time to put some serious blame on the heaving shoulders of Louisiana's weepy governor, and saddle Barbour with some hosannas.
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