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The sequence of events before and after Katrina hit New Orleans.
For decades, Federal funds have been given to the City of New Orleans, but have been diverted to various places. Some have suggested that there has been a high level of graft in Louisiana and in New Orleans.
EXAMPLE: In the wake of Hurricane Betsy, which struck New Orleans in 1965, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed building flood gates on Lake Pontchartrain, like those in the Netherlands that protect cities from North Sea storms. In 1977, the gates were about to be built, but the Environmental Defense Fund and Save Our Wetlands sought a court injunction to block the project.... U.S. Attorney Gerald Gallinghouse told the court that not building the gates could kill thousands of New Orleanians. Judge Charles Schwartz issued the injunction despite the evidence refuting claims of environmental damage. ~ Walter E. William
1995-2005: Bill Weiler wrote: "... over half the federal aid of the past decade to New Orleans for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were."
Washington Post--Before Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had already launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a huge new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic.
Except that barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing.
In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times as large. Michael Grunwald
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702462_pf.html
2000-2005: An unprecedented amount of Federal money had been given to the City of New Orleans during the Bush Administration years for rebuilding the levees.
2000-2005: The City of New Orleans had chosen to divert the Federal money, that was meant for levee repair, to other pet projects.
In July of 2005, New Orleans Mayor Nagin prepared DVDs warning that, if the city ever had to be evacuated, residents were on their own. An article appeared in The Times-Picayune on July 24: "Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation." "You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you."
President Bush began to communicate the extreme emergency to the Governor and the Mayor days before the storm hit. President Bush asked the City Mayor to declare a mandatory evacuation but the Mayor refused. President Bush urged the Governor to sign the papers needed so that he could order the Federal personnel into position to help. He even made out the paperwork for the Governor, but the Governor refused to sign it, making it illegal for President Bush to help those poor people in New Orleans. The Governor apparently saw it as a kind of political power struggle.
Friday, August, 26th: Bill Weiler wrote: "President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet. After the President's final call to the Governor, she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. The Governor decided that if they allowed Federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed the Governor decided that the Feds would not be invited in."
President Bush declared a disaster State of Emergency so millions of dollars for Federal assistance would be available, but without the State Governor's approval, the President had to wait.
The New Orleans Mayor waited to proclaim a mandatory evacuation even though he had 5 days prior notice.
Friday, August, 26th: "On Friday night before the storm hit, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of [New Orleans] and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was destroyed." Bill Weiler
The idea of having an emergency plan has been discussed for 50 years, but the locally appointed New Orleans local director of Homeland Security still didn't have an effective plan.
At this time, anyone could have evacuated the flood areas using a public bus for about the cost of a bottle of water.
Friday, August 26th: President Bush preemptively declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing. This act authorized FEMA to enter Louisiana. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
Friday, August 26th: The Federal Director of Homeland Security began to set everything up so as to be ready if the Governor would allow it.
Saturday, August 27th: National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield becomes so worried about the storm hitting New Orleans that he takes the unprecedented action of calling the Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin. http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/30/State/For_forecasting_chief.shtml
Saturday, August, 27th at 5 p.m.: Mayor Nagin ordered a voluntary evacuation of New Orleans.
Saturday, August, 27th: Two days before the storm hit, Governor Blanco asked President Bush to set aside $9 million and to declare a state of emergency. This authorized FEMA to enter Louisiana, but not Federal troops. http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976
Saturday, August, 27th: Bill Weiler wrote, "Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation. After a personal plea from the President, Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did, so he could legally begin some advanced preparations. Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal government can move into state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the disaster."
Sunday, August, 28th: Finally, just twenty-four hours before Katrina hit New Orleans, Mayor Nagin declared a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.
During all this time, the mainstream media mostly ignored the event.
Monday, August, 29th: The storm, Katrina, hit New Orleans.
Monday, August, 29th: New Orleans police were told not to come to work this day in order to save money in the City budget.
Tuesday, Aug. 30: The levees broke.
The levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain. They were not the responsibility of the Federal Government, though Federal money had been given for their repair. New Orleans officials had chosen to divert that Federal money away from the levees and into such projects as gambling casinos.
The City Mayor is the one who provides transportation for those unable to transport themselves. The President or Governor can't do that.
The New Orleans Mayor, with hundreds of buses at his disposal, didn't provide transportation for those who needed it.
Wednesday, August 31st: Two days after the storm hit, the Louisiana Governor finally allowed Federal troops, FEMA, and aid to come in, although President Bush had repeatedly asked her to sign the permission days before the storm hit. (There are some notable liberals who are still debating this.)
One source said, "This morning I had an opportunity to talk with someone from the State of Florida Emergency Evacuation Team regarding the problems with FEMA. I was stunned to find out that FEMA did not receive the Louisiana Governor's Executive Order requesting help till Wednesday, and FEMA (by law) could not enter New Orleans to help without that order."
The mainstream media tried to paint the people of New Orleans as helpless and having no self reliance.
The reality is that many of the people are fine, capable people who bravely overcame in the worst of circumstances. Many did profess that they knew that they were supposed to leave, but they thought that surely someone from the Government would come and take care of them. These are, obviously, people who have been deeply hurt by U. S. socialism. Some of these people had been disabled by social programs to the point where they actually shot at those who were trying to help them, reasoning that the help didn't come soon enough. Yes, some have been incapacitated by the socialist programs of Government, but many of the people were able to help themselves and others.
The mainstream media portrayed the people of New Orleans as being mostly criminal, murdering, raping, and so on. Though they were trying to accomplish the political objectives of bashing President Bush, creating racial hatred, and promoting socialism, they ended up bashing African Americans in the process.
The reality is that the majority of the people are good upstanding citizens. There were some looters, but the majority of the people were helping each other.
The National Guard and FEMA came in to help flood victims--to provide supplies and logistics help..
The National Guard didn't come in for law enforcement. That is the job of the local police, but the local police decided not to do their job.
Many police officers didn't work after the storm.
Looters were allowed to loot. The police either didn't stop them or joined in with the looting.
"News reports in the aftermath of the storm put officers at the scene of some of the heaviest looting, at the Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. Some witnesses, including a Times-Picayune reporter, said police were taking items from shelves."
"He [Police Superintendent Warren Riley] said incidents in which officers took Cadillacs from a dealer's lot were not looting because the officers patrolled in the cars."
"Earlier this week, the city's police superintendent, Eddie Compass, resigned after weeks of criticism about the department's conduct during Katrina and its aftermath. On the same day, the department said about 250 police officers could face discipline for leaving their posts without permission during the crisis." ADAM NOSSITER, Associated Press Writer
The liberal mainstream media repeatedly said that murders were out of control in New Orleans, implying that somehow President Bush was responsible.
Murders did not increase after Katrina, even though the mainstream media said that they did.
It should be noted that New Orleans, on a normal day, has a lot of murders per capita. The city has a corrupt government. Some people consider New York a dangerous city, but New York had 570 murders last year with 8 million people. If New York had had New Orleans' murder rate, New York would have had 4,200 murders last year.
The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security refused to allow the Red Cross to bring in food and water while Local officials scheduled press conferences in which they accused and cursed the Government for not being faster in bringing food and water.
The Red Cross tried to intimidate Churches from helping, but Christians throughout the world sent money and goods. Many Christians came to help with the work.
Within days of Hurricane Katrina, while dead bodies were still being found, Mayor Nagin ordered about 60% of the police force to get some R&R in Las Vegas and Atlanta.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin blamed everybody but himself. He got on National TV, using fowl language and accusing President Bush for the problems that Mayor Nagin had created.
Bill Weiler said, "I think all of Mayor Nagin's pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in the near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming to light." The sad thing is that the MSM elite never checked the many wild tales that they heard. They simply repeated them as if they were facts. It appears that their political fervor got the best of them. http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/41876/view?viewtype=
The liberal mainstream media began accusations early and continuously. They accused the President Bush of racism. They deliberately failed to report the real reason that FEMA was late in coming in--because Governor Blanco refused to allow them to come in. The deliberately tried to stir up racial hatred by accusing FEMA and President Bush of being late because of racial prejudice. Knowing that they were lying, they continued the chant day after day in every form of media. Even the liberal comedians got into the act.
The liberal mainstream media used a technique of weaving indisputable fact together with total fiction, a method that they have been using for decades. The fact gives the fiction seeming validity and they get away with it.
The liberal mainstream media reported 200 dead in the Superdome.
Actually, 6 dead were brought to the Superdome (4 died from natural causes, 1 from a drug overdose, and 1 apparent suicide)
The liberal mainstream media reported 40-50 murders inside the Superdome.
There actually was a murder in the Convention Center, but none in the Superdome. These inflated reports or atrocities were used by the liberal mainstream media to try to incite racial hatred.
Hurricane experts Barbara Streisand and several liberal politicians agree that hurricanes are caused by global warming in contradiction of the real hurricane experts. (note: all real scientific evidence suggests that there is no long-term global warming, the global warming is cyclical and periods of intense hurricanes are cyclical, and that there is no link between global warming and industrialization)
The MSM rumor mill, at its peak, was churning out "news" such as:
...news of unspeakable acts poured out of the nation's media: People firing at helicopters trying to save them; women, children and even babies raped with abandon; people murdered for food and water; a 7-year-old raped and killed at the Convention Center.
Police, according to their chief, Eddie Compass, found themselves in multiple shootouts inside both shelters, and were forced to race toward muzzle flashes through the dark to disarm the criminals; snipers fired at doctors and soldiers from downtown high-rises.
In interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Compass reported rapes of "babies," and Mayor Ray Nagin spoke of "hundreds of armed gang members killing and raping people" inside the Dome. Other unidentified evacuees told of children stepping over so many bodies "we couldn't count."
The picture that emerged was one of the impoverished, overwhelmingly African-American masses of flood victims resorting to utter depravity, randomly attacking each other, as well as the police trying to protect them and the rescue workers trying to save them. The mayor told Winfrey the crowd has descended to an "almost animalistic state."
Look at who is starting and perpetuating the rumors and mass panic - the police chief and ever-incompetent mayor!! I have to ask- is this a case of racial self-hatred? Why was it so easy for those guys to feed hysterical rumors of "animalistic" black evacuees? I hardly need to say that if they had been white, such generalizations would've gotten them arrested for HATE SPEECH!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1492401/posts
When all the false news reports came to light, Police Chief Compass said, "The information I had at the time, I thought it was credible." He admitted that the information was false but didn't remember where he heard the false information. Mayor Nagin finally admitted that he didn't know what was going on in the Superdome: "I'm having a hard time getting a good body count."
Most of the people in the Superdome were good citizens. There were some problems, but most made the best of a tough situation. Guardsmen kept the peace.
The liberal mainstream media spread the rumor that guardsmen were randomly shooting people in the streets of New Orleans. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1492401/posts
Jesse Jackson came to try to stir up racial hatred. He said that New Orleans "looks like the hull of a slave ship," among other things.
The liberal mainstream media persisted in claiming that the Federal government failed New Orleans, though they knew that this was a lie. The liberal mainstream media persisted in spreading this lie though they were fully aware that it was the Governor Blanco and the Mayor Nagin who had failed New Orleans.
Louisiana Governor Blanco and her aids continued to blame the Bush Administration for all that had happened in New Orleans.
September 13th, Louisiana Governor Blanco said: "I really should have called for the military, I really should have started that in the first call." Blanco made this off camera comment while talking privately to her press secretary, but the comment ended up being recorded on a satellite feed. Of course, the mainstream media had known all along that Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin were at fault, but the mainstream media were ignoring the fact so they could follow their political agenda of Bush bashing. Now, this comment by Blanco had exposed not only Blanco but also the mainstream media's already well known bias.
September 14th, Louisiana Governor Blanco publicly admitted that she should have called the military. Governor Blanco further said, "The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility."
September 14th, Louisiana Governor Blanco does a 180 degree turnaround and stops blaming the Bush Administration, saying, "I want the people of Louisiana to know that we have a friend and a partner in President George W. Bush. I thank you, Mr. President." (note: some liberal sources, for instance, the following liberal claim made by snopes.com, still deny this. http://www.snopes.com/katrina/politics/blanco.asp)
The protocol for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is as follows:
New Orleans Mayor,
New Orleans (local) Director of Homeland Security,
The Louisiana State Governor,
Federal Head of Homeland Security,
The U. S. President
... in that order.
It is against the law for the President to step in unless the State Governor will allow it.
Was the Governor of Louisiana right in keeping President Bush from sending troops or FEMA to help in New Orleans? Some say that she was right. It's a matter of State's rights.
Perhaps the saddest aspect was the liberal Main Stream Media playing politics with this disaster--as they had increasingly done with every event previously and since. The mainstream media's was hysterical.
Katrina was followed quickly by a second hurricane, Rita. The mainstream media, while claiming that President Bush was to slow on Katrina, claimed that he was too quick on Rita. All the while, this same media had been distorting and emotionalizing the facts of what happened and concealing the fact that the President had no authority to act, but the Governor and Mayor did have authority to act. This can tell you something about the folly of putting hope in the dying political systems of this current evil age. They Kingdom come, Lord Jesus.
Lessons Learned:
In great disasters there are always great lessons to be learned, and Hurricane Katrina is no exception.
The first great lesson is that the temporary systems of this world are dying systems and untrustworthy systems. The Communist / Socialist systems endorsed by liberalism always end up in oppressive and abusive Fascism. The Free Enterprise system, usually associated with democracy is weak and divided, allowing political bickering to prevent reaping the benefits of careful planning and good intentions. In the Communist / liberal system, we have millions being tortured to death and there is no value given to human life because of the false Atheistic assumptions on which socialism is built. Safety of the citizens is unimportant as demonstrated by Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In the democratic systems, however, there is political jostling that results in ineffectiveness. The answer is that we need the Kingdom of God. We need the faith of God and not in these temporary systems. Yes, it's better to live in a free society rather than what liberalism proposes, but we need to pray, "Thy Kingdom Come; Thy will be done."
The second great lesson is that we need to avoid being fooled by worldly counselors. If there ever were a bunch of worldly counselors, it is the news media and the other liberal-controlled means of communicating ideas.
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