Re: Re: By the way, Bill

Sloth,

Where did you read that she had declared a state emergency?  The last 
article I read (I'll try to find it) stated that she had NOT declared it.

There's an offhand mention of it in this article 
(http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/05/D8CEBED81.html)

> Blanco has refused to sign over control of the National Guard to the 
> federal government and has turned to a Clinton administration 
> official, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee 
> Witt, to help run relief efforts.

Another vague reference to it from the American Red Cross website:

> Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local 
> authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply 
> cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

Had an emergency been declared, it would be under FEMA (i.e. national) 
control.

I did find this blurb ...

> 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 sought unified control over all local police and 
> state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana 
> officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, 
> concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal 
> declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state 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 does not have 
> the authority to speak publicly.
>
> A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal 
> authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil 
> disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to 
> unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the 
> Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
>
> Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for 
> assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As 
> of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the 
> senior Bush official said.
>
But then I saw someone post on a website that she finally declared a 
state of emergency Wednesday (three days after the other governors did) 
... she STILL refuses to turn over the National Guard to Federal control 
as is customary and as the other three states have done.  Red tape is 
what is slowing the response, as the blurb from the Red Cross above 
seems to hint at  ... I still haven't been able to locate a story that 
clarifies it.




-- 
Bill Highfield
St Cloud, Florida, USA!

Top Choice Videos and Music
~12,000VHS ~4,000DVD ~2,000CD in stock!
We special order & We ship ANYWHERE!
Visit one of our online stores!
http://stores.ebay.com/topchoicevideos?refid=store
http://www.amazon.com/shops/topchoicevideos




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page
http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/7tRolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->