Here's a letter I got from an ignorant Freeper Friend

[pbartch]

Below the line is their letter. This is what I sent right off the bat:
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050906222709990005

FEMA Chief Waited Until After Storm Hit to Ask for Help
By TED BRIDIS, AP
WASHINGTON (Sept. 7)
=============================================================


I received this e-mail from Jim today. I knew there had to be a ton of buses (both school and city) stashed somewhere within New Orleans. What a damn shame that this tragedy has struck the very same city with lazy and inept leaders, such as the Mayor and Governor. Too bad the media hasn't brought this to the attention of the nation. This situation underscores the "Help me......" attitude that liberals find so easy to espouse. Locals could have saved a lot of lives ahead of the Feds.

XXXXXXX

Subject: Maybe New Orleans Mayor Nagin would like to explain this picture before he and the rest of his democrat fellow travelers continue to blast the fed's.

Pass this around. They had plenty of means to get people out. Their claims of “we had no transportation” are, to be nice, suspect.

*** Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005: An aerial view of hundreds of flooded school buses in a lot in New Orleans, LA. The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale) ***

As regards the National Guard troops and security, the Governor of the state of Louisiana always had the power to deploy the LA guard in the fashion that other state troops are being deployed today. It is her failure to do so that has prompted the President to get the help from other states.

The Mayor of New Orleans, who ordered all those people into the Superdome (yep, that was his big plan), had the power to bus them out of the city at the same time. The City of New Orleans moves many more children each day on school buses than were in the dome. Those buses were available and slated to be used for school the next day. He could easily have evacuated those people...but did not.

When ordering a mandatory evacuation you use what resources you have to move the people...he did not. If it was important and dangerous enough to order all citizens to leave, it was dangerous enough to help those people to leave Yet, they did not. After they failed to do so...the busses ended up under water and useless.

Their evacuation plan was non-existent.

Their evacuation plan was get out on your own.

They know where every school in the state is. Most of them have gyms.

They could have bussed out 100-200 people to each of those gyms 100 miles inland and left the city empty.

The Mayor failed. The Governor does not appear to have put the National Guard on alert prior to the storm.

Both of them sat on their butts and waited for the feds to do it all.

In the end, it was FEMA, after the local and state government's failure, that had to get the job done...but now under much, much worse and dangerous circumstances.

No, it is not Bush's fault or the fed's fault. We must place blame squarely where it lies at the feet of the local and state executives who had neither the desire nor the will to make those calls, irrespective of their political stripe.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Don't forget to mention that Fema and Homeland Security are the first

responders. It was their job to coordinate this.

------------------------------------------------------
Save the Gulf:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[AllegroRondo]

2. The Governor DID ask for FEMA help - on the 26th

Bush authorized FEMA to act on the 27th.

Why did FEMA wait until Sep 1st to move?

[Walt Starr]

3. An 80% evacuation rate from a major city prior to a direct hit from

a major hurricane is an UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS by any reckoning.

This is better than any attempted evacuation in history.

[txaslftist]

4. Hate to break it to ya... He's not your friend.

[pbartch]

5. First paragraphs in that link -- FEMA blows bigtime (Pls Read)

FEMA Chief Waited Until After Storm Hit to Ask for Help
By TED BRIDIS, AP

WASHINGTON (Sept. 7) - The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the region - and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.

Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged Tuesday the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.

Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as "this near catastrophic event" but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, "Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities."

The initial responses of the government and Brown came under escalating criticism as the breadth of destruction and death grew. President Bush and Congress on Tuesday pledged separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

<snip>

~~~~~~>> Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said Tuesday that Brown should step down.

After a senators-only briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other Cabinet members, Sen. Charles E. Schumer said lawmakers weren't getting their questions answered.

[MsTryska]

6. attach his background info

especially the republican stuff, and email it back, cc'ing everybody.

[chaska]

7. Since NO has never had a hurricane before....

they can be excused for not having a plan and not calling the proper federal authorities.

:sarcasm:

[KharmaTrain]

8. And Where Were These People Going To Go?

Even if they had evacuated every last poor little "refugee", where would they have gone as the storm was bearing down? Yeah, they sure knew where every gymnasium in the state was located, but do you think the locals...many who needed those same gynmasiums would be willing to share space? Didn't think so.

Oh, speaking of friendly Louisiana neighbors, ask your freeper friend to explain the Gretna, La. police who sat on the Crecent City connection with loaded guns not to allowing anyone to cross to the drier West Bank.

Also, ask why the hospitals, including several owned by churches (which I'm sure had busses as well) didn't evacuate their patients...something that would be a main point of a massive evacuation plan. Obviously these "faith based" organizations like the Catholic Church were negligent as well.

[driver8]

9. Hey -- I got an e-mail from a freeper that says exactly what yours

says! Boy, they learn the talking points quickly!

[Roland99]

10. Busing people 100-200 at a time would have taken WEEKS!

Morans.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

11. Ask him why the same thing happened in Mississippi and Alabama.

n/t