[W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about summs it up.]

[Paul Samarin]

Where'd you get all that?  B/4 Katrina, their website touted them as 
the lead agency for national disasters. All that's changed now, of 
course.

I note you didn't get around to answering the second question:

What was the President doing?  Was he just waiting by the phone?  Why'd 
he leave Crawford?  Oh sure, I know he snuck out of town under the 
cover of Katrina so he wouldn't have to face headlines that read:  
"Bush Refuses to Meet with Cindy Sheehan and Returns to Washington", 
but what is the party line reason for his return?  Does he have a 
better TV in DC to watch New Orleans fill up with water while he does 
nothing?

On Sep 12, 2005, at 6:54 PM, Dick Spellman wrote:

> Hi Paul:
>
> Let's start with the following:
>
> FEMA has no authority to do anything until they are asked and directed 
> by
> local government.

Directed by local government?  The Governor of LA asked and Bush sent 
an agreement for her to sign ceding all authority to the Feds.  That 
doesn't sound like the locals are directing anything.  The Gov refused 
to surrender absolute authority to Bush and Brownie.  (I sure hope we 
get to see that proposed agreement someday.)

Look, this is all about money, power and influence.  The Bush Admin 
refused to provide the funds the shore-up the levees because they 
didn't want the local Democrats doling out the patronage; they wanted 
to dole it out where they wanted to dole it out:  Translation:  Energy 
Bill Pork Special

Watch what happens next:  the Party Line will be that the locals cannot 
handle the rebuilding of N.O., so *now* the Feds will try to step to 
the front and take over.  *Their* cronies will get the patronage.

Meanwhile, as just one example of why we need a FEMA--Federal Emergency 
Management Agency--to take the lead (as they said they would, as they'd 
promised to do, as the President at least implied that he would when he 
flew back to DC) was the incident where folks tried to walk out of N.O. 
by crossing a bridge over the Mississippi.  The local cops on the other 
side forced them back at gunpoint.  The Police Chief over there said, 
essentially, "We aren't gonna let those looters into our town."  Now, 
that's a very harsh position, but taken from his point of view, he was 
protecting his evacuated city.  The question of who's in charge is 
*always* a problem in a major event.

That's why we're supposed to have a Federal Response.  We're going to 
learn about many, many instances of "the left hand not knowing what the 
right hand was doing."   One bureaucrat telling another to do the wrong 
thing or not to do the right thing...b/c in a big event things get 
confused.  You need one guy at the top to be in charge--when that guy 
is an idiot, you get chaos.

So, tell me why President Vacation returned to DC.  BTW, I didn't hear 
him say, "The Gov hasn't called and asked for help, so I'm gonna finish 
this round of golf."

Paul

>
> They will provide...
> To individuals:
> Provide temporary FREE housing
> Provide short term funds 'capped' and FREE
>
> To local government:
> Provide additional personnel to beef up existing security, fire and 
> rescue
> personnel
> Provide restoration resources (men, equipment and materials) to restore
> municipal power, water, and basic services
> Provide grants to local and state counties to rebuild local government
> Provide grants to rebuild the school systems
>
> Local emergency planning and communications is provided by the local
> authority.
>
> Dick