Everybody's Got a Price to Pay

What's becoming clear from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is that there was a massive failure of government at a variety of levels. There's been a lot of bashing of President Bush, Homeland Security director Chertoff, and Brownie (FEMA director Brown), which I feel is very apt criticism--these are the guys who are supposed to be managing the next 9/11-style tragedy and they totally dropped the ball, the baby, the bathwater, everything. I don't know enough to comment on the actions of Louisiana Governor Blanco or New Orleans Mayor Nagin, but there's a story that's making the rounds on FawksNews and Rush that it was the Louisiana State Department of Homeland Security that denied Red Cross access to the Superdome and Convention Center in the stomach-churning days of anarchy after the levees broke.

My Mother-in-Law heard this on Rush during a drive home from a meeting to see what his current talking points were (she's a brave soul--I could never do that) and heard him echo this, and wondered if I'd seen any evidence of this. I remember seeing a Red Cross FAQ on their web site last Friday noting that Homeland Security had indeed prevented them from entering the city (they'd obviously been getting a lot of queries), and I revisited it and noticed that it does indeed note "state Homeland Security Department":

Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans? Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders. The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city. The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents. The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.

What I'm curious about is the make-up of this "state Homeland Security Department" and who gives them their ultimate marching orders--federal government or state governor. As I've said before, much as I like to point out mistakes made by this incredibly incompetent administration (and it's really a full-time job to do that) and with as much of an arsenal of fact that I can already point to the federal agencies and the top levels of the BushCo administration, there are others down the line of command and down the levels of state and local government that will need to answer some serious questions. And I wholeheartedly agree with this post from Kos at Daily Kos:

The right wing bloggers are running with claims by the Red Cross that state officials kept them from going in too soon. The geniuses at Powerline conclude: The Democrats may need to re-think their calls for an investigation. See, that's the difference between us and them. They put their party above the country, and would rather stiffle a real investigation than be forced to shoulder any blame. We say, "investigate away", and let the chips fall where they may. If any Democrats share the blame, then so be it. We need to know what went wrong, who f'd up, and how we can prevent this sort of thing from happening again. If Blanco or another Democrats gets fingered in this epic screwup, that's okay. But the wingers don't see it that way. "Rerthink their calls for an investigation"... Jeez. Talk about projection, as though our motivations are the same as theirs. As though we look at the Gulf Coast and think, "hmmm, how can we best protect Democrats who may have had a hand in this mess..." Unlike them, we place country first, party second.

Lemme know what you think in the comments below, or if you have more information on Louisiana's Homeland Security department, by all means enlighten me.