Another Question

... to the Bush apologists. If the LA and NO emergency plans were so horribly planned, why did FEMA sign off on it every year as required by law?

And additionally, under the new order of things, no, FEMA does not need state authorization (even though Blanco did authorize fed involvement on August 28th). Under the new homeland security rules, the president does not have to get State authorization anymore. And even before that, state authorization was not really needed.

Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-5

(4) The Secretary of Homeland Security is the principal Federal official for domestic incident management. Pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Secretary is responsible for coordinating Federal operations within the United States to prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. The Secretary shall coordinate the Federal Government's resources utilized in response to or recovery from terrorist attacks, major disasters,


or other emergencies if and when any one of the following four conditions applies: (1) a Federal department or agency acting under its own authority has requested the assistance of the Secretary; (2) the resources of State and local authorities are overwhelmed and Federal assistance has been requested by the appropriate State and local authorities; (3) more than one Federal department or agency has become substantially involved in responding to the incident; or (4) the Secretary has been directed to assume responsibility for managing the domestic incident by the President.

All the president needs to do is say the word and Homeland Security takes over with or without state authorization. Stop apologizing for Bush. He did no better than anyone else in this.

And for the sake of arguement that it was illegal... do ya really think Blanco would have sued? Think about it.

Homeland security