Sunday, December 04, 2005

She's here, she's there . . .

She's EVERYWHERE!

Who? Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, naturally, according to the 100,000 pages of information SHE released to the House Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina. Did I read them all? Of course not.

The 33-page pdf Governor's Narrative Timeline (scroll down) was more than enough, and I couldn't even finish that.

See, Blanco has a person in her administration charged with the responsibility of letting her know each and every time a tropical depression even pops up, and as soon as she was advised that something (eventually dubbed Katrina) had hatched, she immediately started screaming, "Buses! We need Buses!"

After Hurricane Ivan the year before and "Hurricane Pam," to test their disaster preparedness, Blanco knew.

As the system strengthens and becomes Katrina, SHE's calling all the parish presidents telling them to get ready and those who will probably be most affected to begin evacuation procedures. Implementation of HER contra-flow plan to speed people out of harm's way begins.

Meanwhile, she's also be-bopping all over the place to lend her authority to the evacuation messages elected officials are sending out to their constituents.

One such stop was to New Orleans, where she added her voice to Mayor Ray "Naggin'" Nagin's very strongly worded suggestion that if it wasn't too much trouble, people should thinking about it.

At the same time Blanco is making television appearances in order to get the word out to anyone and everyone that they need to go door to door knocking on their neighbor's doors to encourage them to leave.

And she's calling "African-American ministers" telling them that they need to get the word out at Sunday's service to "Pack and Pray."

Meanwhile, Blanco somehow squeezes in a call from Max Mayfield. SHE then calls Nagin and tells him to call Mayfield. Nagin calls her back later and says he's going to order an "I really mean it this time" mandatory evacuation of New Orleans . . . the next morning.

Meanwhile, FEMA ain't sent no buses yet!

Blanco's calling up and activating the state's National Guard. She's calling other governors asking for help from theirs.

And, she needs buses. Lots of buses. Lots and LOTS of buses to transport the people out of New Orleans especially since even afterward, FEMA STILL ain't sent none. So, Blanco takes matters into her own hands.

Or something.

Digging through some of the paperwork submitted behind Blanco's Narrative Timeline, The Times-Picayune notes an interesting tidbit:

An e-mail passed on by state Sen. Robert Adley, D-Benton, complained that school buses sent to New Orleans to help rescue stranded residents were turned away.

"They were not wanted they were told because they weren't air conditioned or had toilets. Why? . . . I believe if I were a victim of this disaster, I'd be willing to take any conveyance that was offered," read the e-mail to Adley from Webster Parish's Valorie Boyles.
Blanco's Narrative might have mentioned that. I doubt it but I can't tell you that it doesn't.

I bailed out right about the time SHE -- alone, without another person anywhere doing a darned thing about anything -- was calling the Texas governor and several mayors in that state alone, trying to arrange emergency shelter and housing . . .

She's here! She's there! She's everywhere!

Somebody really needs do a photoshop of Governor Blanco wearing either Supergirl's or Wonder Woman's costume.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Images via Sacred Cowburgers.

3 Comments:

Blogger ABFreedom said...

I still say, and I'm way up here and don't know the full story, that a lot of it was her and the mayor's fault. The telling image was all the 100's of school buses under water, and the empty trains that left NO.

8:48 PM  
Blogger doyle said...

What I found most telling is it's supposed to be -- or I thought that's what it was supposed to be -- what the state did before, during and after, not Blanco. But it's:

"That morning, Governor Blanco woke up at 4 ayem . . .

"That morning, Governor Blanco woke up at 4:30 ayem . . . "

Sheesh.

5:02 PM  
Blogger GUYK said...

I would have to dig it out of archives but I wrote and gave a link to where she was caught on tape tellin a aide that she screwed up by not letting Bush have contol over the disaster earlier than she did. Politics from the socialist left as usual

8:33 AM  

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