Of Levees And Hummers And Ships That Have Sailed

Update (9-14-05): A Congressional report requested by judiciary Democrats--but compiled by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service--has been released that clears Louisiana Governer Kathleen Blanco of the charge that she did not call a state of emergency in time to save the stranded citizens of the city of New Orleans and surrounding Parishes. It states, in part:

*All necessary conditions for federal relief were met on August 28. Pursuant to Section 502 of the Stafford Act, "[t]he declaration of an emergency by the President makes Federal emergency assistance available," and the President made such a declaration on August 28. The public record indicates that several additional days passed before such assistance was actually made available to the State;

*The Governor must make a timely request for such assistance, which meets the requirements of federal law. The report states that "[e]xcept to the extent that an emergency involves primarily Federal interests, both declarations of major disaster and declarations of emergency must be triggered by a request to the President from the Governor of the affected state";

*The Governor did indeed make such a request, which was both timely and in compliance with federal law. The report finds that "Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005...that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to [applicable Federal statute]" and "Governor Blanco's August 27, 2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination...that `the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster."

Here's a link to the report. Warning: it's a PDF file.

And here's a decidedly PARTISAN statement released by Representative John Conyers of the Michigan 14th regarding the report:

"This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability by shifting the blame to the Governor of Louisiana for the Administration's tragically sluggish response to Katrina. It confirms that the Governor did everything she could to secure relief for the people of Louisiana and the Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time."

Thanks to the Daily Kos for the linkage.

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I attended a conference this past weekend put on by a local chapter of the RWA, and there I met a lovely young woman who works as an agent in the industry. This woman had many smart and savvy things to say about author promotion--how to present oneself to one's best advantage, and how to avoid the pitfalls of that same presentation.

One thing she strongly suggested was that an author not put anything in her blog that she wouldn't put in a cover letter to an editor, or a brochure advertising her work. No controversy. No overtly political opinions. Nothing that might turn folks off, whether those folks be potential editors, agents or readers.

Oopsy.

I guess, short of going back and deleting pretty much every one of my previous posts--except maybe the one about the lovely summer morning for which I was so grateful--that ship's pretty much sailed, huh?

I've been quiet over the last couple of weeks partly because I'm a little overwhelmed with work--both of the domestic and professional variety--but also because I'm so filled to the brim with anger and grief that I every time I sit down to post to my blog, I keep coming back to the same topic: the incompetent, inept, criminally bungled handling of Katrina and her aftermath. I don't want to keep hitting the same note over and over and, for example, OVER...but neither do I feel comfortable chatting amiably about what I'm writing or the imminent change of seasons or the latest cute thing my kid said. Plus, so many other people are doing such a good job of keeping the debate lively that I don't see much point in adding to the conversation.

I WOULD like to talk about the writing conference I just attended, and I'll probably do that tomorrow. In the meantime, I will simply drop in a link sent to me by Barb Ferrer, who got it from a friend of a friend. I found it fascinating reading.

KATRINA TIMELINE

I'd like to point out in the above timeline the entry under Sunday, August 28, titled:

LOUISIANA NEWSPAPER SIGNALS LEVEES MAY GIVE: "Forecasters Fear Levees Won’t Hold Katrina”: “Forecasters feared Sunday afternoon that storm driven waters will lap over the New Orleans levees when monster Hurricane Katrina pushes past the Crescent City tomorrow."

And also:

AFTERNOON — BUSH, BROWN, CHERTOFF WARNED OF LEVEE FAILURE BY NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center: "'We were briefing them way before landfall. ...It's not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped.'"

And another link to ADVANCE WARNING OF LEVEE FAILURE:

And finally, what President Bush had to say to Diane Sawyer on Good Morning, America on September 1:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

I'm not going to comment, except to say that I recall a lot of folks insisting the reason they came to hate Clinton was because he went on national television and lied to the American people when he said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."

The only difference I can see in this situation would be the loss of life involved. Far as I can tell, nobody drowned or died of exposure or had to be put down like a dog because Bill got a hummer in the Oval.

Yep. That ship is SO gone.