IMPEACH BLANCO
It's becoming clearer by the day that most of the relief problems New Orleans has experienced originate with Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. She failed to issue orders or even make decisions when it was her job, she consistently bollixed things up, encouraged looting early on and generally served as a poor and even deceptive interface between the city and the federal government. She has acted to preserve her own control over relief efforts at the expense of the people who need help the most, causing of all things a sort of union to develop between Mayor Nagin and the Bush administration. It's by now beyond clear that Blanco is a menace, more interested in politics than in saving lives. Read several of the posts here and check out the timeline linked below in the "Round Up" to get a sense of just how bad her performance has been.
Now, a reader tells me that she is even countermanding Mayor Nagin's mandatory evacuation order--the one that superceded the other mandatory evacuation order from last week--in order to test the floodwaters first. Or something. She appears from this vantage point half a continent away to be delusional.
People of Louisiana, please do yourselves and the nation a favor and impeach your governor. Your governor's poor decision making--when she even bothers to make a decision--has contributed directly to the deaths of thousands of your fellow citizens. She has shown no composure and a great deal of madness in your crisis. It's in your best interests to get rid of her, asap.
UPDATE: Details:
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (search) seemed at odds with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (search ) Wednesday, hours after the mayor ordered the mandatory evacuation of the crippled Crescent City by force if necessary.As floodwaters caused by Hurricane Katrina (search) began to slowly recede with the ruined city's first pumps returning to operation, Nagin late Tuesday authorized law enforcement officers to force the evacuation of the estimated 10,000 residents who refuse to heed orders to leave.
But in a Wednesday interview with FOX News, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (search) said she had not signed off on the decision.
"The mayor certainly has ordered that but the governor, and that would be me, would have to enforce it or implement it. We are trying to determine whether there is an absolute justification for that," she told FOX News.
"I think the most important thing driving that decision would be the possibility of disease. If indeed the disease problem is evident, is inevitable, we'll have to move to the next stage," she said.
"The governor, and that would be me...." Sheesh. We know you're the governor. That's the problem.
As for the "possibility of disease," how do five more deaths sound? That's how many people are known to have died so far just from contact with the fetid ooze in New Orleans. There will be more deaths. How many will it take for Gov. Blanco to grow a conscience, do the right thing, and leave?
IMPEACH. KATHLEEN. BLANCO. NOW. UPDATE: "They apparently wanted people hungry, thirsty and anxious to leave":
The Fox News Channel's Major Garrett was just on my show extending the story he had just reported on Brit Hume's show: The Red Cross is confirming to Garrett that it had prepositioned water, food, blankets and hygiene products for delivery to the Superdome and the Convention Center in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, but were blocked from delivering those supplies by orders of the Louisiana state government, which did not want to attract people to the Superdome and/or Convention Center.
So....they didn't want to attract people to the designated shelters? Where did they want to attract people to, then?