Kathleen Blanco: A Governing Failure
By Erick Posted in Democrats — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Last year, as Kathleen Blanco cried, Louisianians died. As she threw mud, New Orleans was hit by a flood. And if last year was not enough, Kathleen Blanco, the most incompetent governor to ever rule Louisiana, is fiddling around waiting for people to drown in the next hurricane so she can seem tough.
Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi have all gotten emergency plans in place for hurricanes, but Ms. Blanco wants to fight with Michael Chertoff.
Read on . . .
Mrs. Blanco's argument with federal officials is more about politics than preparedness, said Chad Rogers, publisher of TheDeadPelican.com.
"Her reputation was tarnished by Katrina, and she's putting on a tough guy act," Mr. Rogers said. "It's all about politics. She makes Homeland Security look competent."
In a letter to Mr. Chertoff, Mrs. Blanco complained: "We have received no indication from you that staffing, logistics and security for additional shelters have been addressed."
Ms. Blanco wants the state to be in charge of hurricane evacuation shelters, but she wants the federal government to provide the money for the shelters. Ms. Blanco has closed shelters around the state due to the fiscal condition she has dragged the state into and the Department of Homeland Security is insisting that all shelters be made available.
"Since these shelter spaces were available last year, we presume that their absence from this year's list is a reflection of local preference," Mr. Chertoff wrote to Mrs. Blanco in mid-July. "I am relying on your assurance that you will use all powers and authorities you have as governor to ensure state and parish governments will provide all available shelter space in Louisiana before we turn to other states for shelter."
How many more people are going to suffer before Ms. Blanco faces the fact that her incompetence and the incompetence of local officials in New Orleans had more to do with last year's castrophe than did a group of Washington bureaucrats?
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Kathleen Blanco: A Governing Failure 3 Comments (0 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
have ever lived in Louisiana as I did (1984-1988), you would know why they spend 6K per person in the budget, and nobody has anything.
Same reason the levee system was never upgraded.
From the advent of Huey P. Long, Thru Edwin Edwards (who never met a bribe he didn't like),
to the present day, there is NO STATE in this nation more politically corrupt than Louisiana.
Attorney General Charles C Foti in 1984 was Sheriff of Orleans Parish, responsible for the most overcrowded Jail in LA, and probably in the nation. The only lawyer I know that became a Sheriff. At least he went to law school.
Edwin Edwards took the bar exam under an old LA law that said you could challenge the bar exam after being a law clerk for 2 years.
Bottom line is if you have the right name/connections, you go a lot further in LA politics. Ask Moon Landrieu and his LT. Governor Son, and his US Senator Daughter.
Louisanians overall, at least the ones I met, don't seem to have very much political savvy. Just vote Democrat.
While Edwards was enduring his 2nd RICO trial, an aquaintance (a laid off shipyard worker) told me he supported Edwards because "he never took any money out of my pocket". Of course he got a real stupid look on his face when I said:
"YOU DON'T HAVE A JOB. IS HE PUTTING ANY MONEY
IN YOUR POCKET?"
We know where it is going, it is going into items that have little or no oversight and can be bled for bribes and graft. I would think that so much is being bled that it would take decades for all the graft from this year alone to come through.
What is needed is to take a couple of hundred (or a couple of thousand) of the bean-counters looking over the DoD books (and are experienced at tracking graft, bribes, and other fiscal illegalities) and track the Federal money and start procecutions.
A couple of dozen high profile trials would make the reat act much less greedy and some of the money might actually do some good instead of lining PTB's pockets.
...does not even begin to touch this woman's (and this government's) incompetence.
Prior to Katrina, Louisiana's annual budget was $18.7 Billion. Following Katrina, the government imposed "draconian" cuts to that budget (to the tune of $600 million [I know...wow]) and all of about 100 state employees were fired.
With the money being pumped into Louisiana by the feds, coupled with the increased sales tax revenue (due to all the purchases to replace that which was lost), the 2006/07 budget was...
drumroll please...
$26.7 billion (with a "B"). http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/3333271.html
The budget for the State of California for the 2006-2007 fiscal year is $131 billion (with a "B"). http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-budget1jul01,0,834820.story?coll
=la-headlines-politics
Ignoring the fact that at least 200,000 of Louisiana's population is living elsewhere (including 150K in Houston), the estimated population of Louisiana as of 2005 is 4,523,628. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22000.html
The estimated population of California as of 2005 is 36,132,147. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html
Thus, Louisiana's 2006-2007 budget represents an expenditure of approximately $6,000.00 per person.
California's 2006-2007 budget represents an expenditure of approximately $4,000.00 per person.
I can assure you that the citizens of Louisiana are not getting a "return" even remotely equal to what the citizens of California are getting. We are certainly not getting a better "return" to the tune of $2,000.00 per person!
Any guesses as to what they will do with the budget when the federal spigot dries up?