9/2/2005
In my last post, I expressed a great deal of anger over the fact that partisans were politicizing the horrible tragedy which has been unfolding in New Orleans. As a matter of fact, I accused them of being worse than the looters themselves.
First of all, I stand by what I said. Those who are using this tragedy to score political points against the President are scum.
Secondly, it turns out that the Mayor of New Orleans and Governor of LA ordered the mandatory evacuation only after receiving a special request from someone the radical left loves to hate, President Bush!
Here is the AP story which detailed the event:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.
Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.
The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. [emphasis mine]
Okay, lets recap…
First, the President declared that whole area a disaster area before Katrina hit so that FEMA could move into the area and prepare for recovery efforts. Which they did.
Then, the President called to issue a personal appeal to the Mayor and Governor, asking them to order a mandatory evacuation, a major step, to get everyone out before the storm hit.
So, why hasn’t anyone in the MSM talked about this?
We already know the answer to that, don’t we? Liberals in the MSM are not interested in helping the President. As I’ve already discussed, their goal is quite the opposite, which is why this AP report remained conveniently buried.
Shocker!
*Hat tip to Power Line Blog.
David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com
4 Comments
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Comment by DrPat — 9/3/2005 @ 1:52 pm
I appreciate your posting this link. I was aware of the mandatory evacuation but not aware that President Bush had called for it.
It does bring up a question in my mind however, since he called for this, why was there not any assistance in enforcing it? I’m not talking about forcing people who didn’t want to leave out of their homes, I am talking about assiting those who wanted to leave and couldn’t because they don’t own cars or can’t afford enough gas.
(PS I am not a Bush basher just really saddened by the situation.)
Comment by Sara — 9/3/2005 @ 7:07 pm
The claim that Nagin had proceeded with the mandatory evacuation “only after President Bush insisted that he do so.” is ludicrous. But while numerous conservative weblogs had earlier made nearly identical claims, news reports indicate that Bush called Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco — not Nagin — on the morning of August 28 to ensure that such precautions would be taken. Moreover, Blanco stated that Bush called “just before” she and Nagin held a press conference to announce the mandatory evacuation.
Just because something is repeated ad infinitum, doesn’t mean it’s true.
Please check your facts.
Comment by sireninthesceendoor — 9/12/2005 @ 4:39 pm
[…] In previous posts (here, and here), I spoke out in very strong terms against political hacks who were desperately trying to turn the Hurricane Katrina disaster into “the perfect storm” of political controversy for the President. Many others have chimed in with me via their own blogs or on some of the conservative media sites around the web. […]
Pingback by Viewpoint Journal » The Pitiful Press — 9/27/2005 @ 1:23 pm