The money-quote from a Bloomberg article:
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said U.S. President George W. Bush ``asked me to please ensure that there's a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.'' [snip] Bush signed a emergency declaration for Mississippi this morning, after a similar declaration yesterday for Louisiana, freeing up federal disaster aid.Or, from an AP story carried on August 28th by the Times-Picayune website:
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.
All of this proves... nothing, really. I wasn't there to overhear the high-level phone calls or read the inter-agency directives. But there's some gale-force finger-pointing raging among newspeople and politicians. And there are some truly vile accusations being tossed about. Ray Nagin did lots of finger-pointing this week, and that's what makes the parked-bus photos so... interesting.
That said, I hope the sauce didn't scorch -- it sure doesn't help to have this type of blog-jousting raising temperatures to such extremes. Soon enough we'll be back to talking mostly about food. And digestion. Somehow, our conversation always strays into issues of disgestion. Digestion and beyond.
When Mastandreas make conversation, their sentences are most often punctuated by colons.
UPDATE: Just saw Airport Guy's latest post, and I agree with him that people should think carefully before rebuilding. Unfortunately, it would be political suicide for anyone to say "well, maybe we shouldn't try to have a city below sea level in a hurricane alley." The reflex is very unlike here in NYC where no one can agree on what, if anything, to build at the former WTC -- even though the quickest and easiest answer might be "rebuild them just as they were... only a bit more fireproof." Somehow, that option has been off the table all along. Never understood that.