He died tonight at his home in Virginia.
MORE: Jeff Jarvis was watching FoxNews when the announcement was made. Susan Estrich was on camera saying that Katrina changes the landscape, therefore, Bush is weakened and will be under pressure to appoint a minority to the court.
Puhleeze.
Any minute now we’ll hear the conspiracy theory that the announcement of Rehnquist’s death was intentionally timed to distract from New Orleans.
Heh.
(Thanks for the break from seriousness Ace)
While the relief effort continues in New Orleans, the local government is fighting a war of words against the federal government. It’s the age old game of blame, and nearly everyone in authority is running for cover. No one wants to own up to the bad decision, the bad call, the inaction, the ineffectiveness, or the absurdity that is New Orleans.
So for now, the media as messengers deliver one outrageous story after another into the public domain.
Guardsmen ‘played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official
A top New Orleans police officer said that National Guard troops sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city after Hurricane Katrina. W.S. Riley said that for the first three days after Monday’s storm, which is believed to have killed several thousand people, the police and fire departments and some volunteers had been alone in trying to rescue people.
“We expected a lot more support from the federal government. We expected the government to respond within 24 hours. The first three days we had no assistance,” he told AFP in an interview.
Riley went on: “We have been fired on with automatic weapons. We still have some thugs around. My biggest disappointment is with the federal government and the National Guard. We have people who died while the National Guard sat and played cards. I understand why we are not winning the war in Iraq if this is what we have.”
But Commander Riley failed to mention the other reason why the local police department had so much difficulty in the early hours after Hurricane Katrina hit the Big Easy. The National Guard expected to provide a supporting role to a full order of police officers, fire fighters and emergency rescue officials. But that expectation was clearly wrong. Two thirds of the New Orleans police force either left New Orleans before the Hurricane hit or turned in their badges and quit within the first 48 hours of the disaster.
“The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans,” National Guard commander, Lieutenant General Steven Blum told reporters in Washington.
“Once that assessment was made … then the requirement became obvious,” he said. “And that’s when we started flowing military police into the theatre.”
Since Thursday some 7,000 National Guard and military police had moved into the city. President George W. Bush on Saturday ordered an additional 7,000 active duty and reserve ground troops. Blum said any suggestion that the National Guard had not performed well or was late was a “low blow”.
“The initial priority of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard forces was disaster relief, not law enforcement, because they expected the police to handle that,” he said.
The anger burning in New Orleans over the past few days is justifiable. Refugees deserve an explanation.
But, their anger should not be directed at George W. Bush. Their anger should be directed at the criminals in their city, the drug addicts who held up their neighbors at gunpoint, the looters who stole from their neighborhood businesses, and the bad decisions, the bad calls, the inaction, and the ineffectiveness of their disconnected and dysfunctional local government.
MORE: Blanco refused to act.
UPDATE: Blanco delayed the response offer made by Bush for additional 24 hours.
Related: Delusional, Dysfunctional, Divisive, and Defiant
Could this be what Mayor Ray Nagin is really thinking?
I can’t imagine what it must be like for these people. Day 6 at the Superdome. 5,000 left, and again, they wait.
Superdome Evacuations Temporarily Halted
Buses taking Hurricane Katrina victims far from the squalor of the Superdome stopped rolling early Saturday. As many as 5,000 people remained in the stadium and could be there until Sunday, according to the Texas Air National Guard.
Officials had hoped to evacuate the last of the crowd before dawn Saturday. Guard members said they were told only that the buses had stopped coming and to shut down the area where the vehicles were being loaded.
“We were rolling,” Capt. Jean Clark said. “If the buses had kept coming, we would have this whole place cleaned out already or pretty close to it.”
Those left behind early Saturday were orderly, sitting down after hearing news that evacuations were temporarily stalled.
Of course they were orderly…they can’t yell anymore, they can’t cry, they can’t get angry. They’re the living dead. Zombies.
At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line – much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.
“How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?” exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.
The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, near the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The Hyatt was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out.
Mayor Ray Nagin has used the hotel as a base since it sits across the street from city hall, and there were reports the hotel was cleared with priority to make room for police, firefighters and other officials.
So there you have it. Mayor Nagin screws ’em again. Someone has to call this guy out. He’s the current media darling after his little on-air rant yesterday, but in reality, he’s nothing more than an executioner.
Janice Singleton, a worker at the Superdome, said she got stuck in the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything she had with her, including her shoes.
“They tore that dome apart,” she said sadly. “They tore it down. They taking everything out of there they can take.”
Then she said, “I don’t want to go to no Astrodome. I’ve been domed almost to death.”
Domed to death. That’s the truth.
Why?
There are 205 of these. 205 school buses that could have been used last Sunday to evacuate the poor and those without transportation out of the city. 205 buses that could have saved lives. 205 buses that could have stopped the atrocity at the Superdome. 205 buses that could have prevented the starvation, the dehydration, the stench and the death at the New Orleans Convention Center. TWO.HUNDRED.AND.FIVE.
Mayor Ray Nagin, why are you blaming and pointing fingers at the federal government? Why didn’t you save your citizens on Sunday?
Why are these buses under water?
All 205 of ’em.
Others who agree: Bill Hobbs, Brendan Loy, JunkyardBlog, Instapundit, David Frey, Cracker Barrel Philosopher
MORE: Blanco refused to act.
STILL MORE: Less than a mile from the Superdome, over a hundred NORTA buses sat, idle, each with at least 60 seats available.
UPDATE I: Blanco delayed the response offer made by Bush for additional 24 hours.
Gov. Blanco on FoxNews 09.06.05 – “The mayor told me he sent busses into the streets with police escorts and sirens asking citzens to evacuate.”
UPDATE II: Jon Christian Ryter – What Nagin should have done was commandeer all of the school buses in New Orleans and place them at strategic intersections in the city’s poorest sections to provide exit transportation for those who did not possess the means to escape the city. However, the buses were not insured for that purpose.
Related: Let the Peasants Die | Delusional, Dysfunctional, Divisive, and Defiant |
Rightwingsparkle is at the Astrodome helping anyone and everyone.