Reply #12: It was Friday September 2nd that Bush called Blanco you Republican idiots [View All]

[leftfish]

look at this Washington Post article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html(the one they had to add the correction to about when Blanco declared a state of emergency). Doesn't it seem the idiot who wrote this email is taking things that happened Sept. 2nd and claiming they happened the week before? The rejection by Blanco of federalizing the evacuation and recovery occurred a week after this purported phone call that never happened. Of course with the right wing's love of partial truths, since it happened on a Friday they consider it fair game to claim the call was made the Friday before. It really is pathetic.

"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."