From ABC News:
Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a local congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings  even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.
On Friday, Sept. 2  five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast  Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken.
Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A 5-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News that during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson’s initial request.
Jefferson defended the expedition, saying he set out to see how residents were coping at the Superdome and in his neighborhood. He also insisted that he did not ask the National Guard to transport him.
[…]
The water reached to the third step of Jefferson’s house, a military source familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up onto Jefferson’s front lawn so he wouldn’t have to walk in the water. Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.
Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.
Two weeks later, the vehicle’s tire tracks were still visible on the lawn.
“I don’t think there is any explanation for an elected official using resources for their own personal use, when those resources should be doing search and rescue or they should be helping with law enforcement in the city,” said Jerry Hauer, a homeland security expert and ABC News consultant.
Jefferson said the trip was entirely appropriate. It took only a few minutes to retrieve his belongings, he said, and the truck stayed at his house for an hour in part to assist neighbors.
“This wasn’t about me going to my house. It was about me going to my district,” he said.
Oh. Well then that’s that, then. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Reached for comment, recently resigned FEMA head Michael Brown refused to “engage in the assigning of blame” or “the second guessing of state legislators”—though he did note that in his limited experience dealing with them they were “all a bunch of big, silly tools.”
(h/t Robert Hayes)
PARTISAN!
I AM NOT AN AUTOMATON!
I guess we should be thankful he didn’t file a claim later for ‘damage due to improper loading’…
Powerful Ways & Means Committee, Fuck Yeah!!
I just got done watching Nightline air the scoop. Koppel also asked the mayor what he thinks of the use of military resources in this. The response paraphrased, “Well, you’ve kind of hit me with this cold. That certainly isn’t how I’m handling things.”
Not reported in the excerpts above, a Coast Guard helicopter that had just rescued 4 people saw the truck in distress and flew over, sent down a diver by cable to the upper story balcony who then broke into the house to get down to the truck below. The congressmen refused to be taken up by the helicopter. The helicopter ended up spending 45 minutes there before it ran low on fuel and had to stop its rescue missions.
Ken, Sandwichman, Ghandi…where are you when we need you?
I have a sneaking feeling that this will end up being blamed on the JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS.
Where is Cynthia McKinney when we need her?
TW: Left…I got nothin’.
Christ it must have pissed Koppel off to have to finger a Democrat. Oh no, wait… did he perhaps just refer to the clown as “Congressman Dickweed” and forget to add the D-word in front?!! Betcha.
Torque wrench…many a dem have more than a few loose bolts.
TW: felt. He felt that he was entitled to help himself, as all good politicians do in Louisiana.
Okay, first we had LA Dem Sen Landreau make the news helicopter go see her “camp,” to check it out. Now, we have an LA Dem Congressman having the NG take him to his district with just a “quick” drop-by his house to pick up a few things.
I never knew that Louisiana’s governmental officials were so caring….about themselves.
tw: air. Apparently what’s between the ears of Lousiana’s government officials.
Air? No, most Louisiana goverment officials have a vacuum in their heads.
They suck.
TW: north. Ask anyone from north Louisiana (particularly Shreveport) why they sometimes want to secede and join Texas.
Hold on there, Shreveport. You ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Torque wrench…many a dem have more than a few loose bolts.
…and many a Dem has HUMONGOUS BRASS BALLS.
Just for shits and giggles, I’d like to know what Texas Congressperson Sheila ‘Hurricane’ Jackson Lee thinks about Hurricane “Katrina.”
wait tex, wouldn’t we gain a casino?
This is a total fucking outrage.
Don’t know about Ken and Ghandi but here I am, corvan, honey.
What are you saying, sammichboy? That he had a motive (the laptop) for getting back into his house to fetch the computer and other (potentially incriminating items)?
Or is it more like this:
HE WAS SET UP! THE NATIONAL GUARD, IN CAHOOTS WITH THE FBI, ENTRAPPED JEFFERSON BY MAKING HIM ASK FOR TRANSPORT IN A HEAVY VEHICLE, THEN, USING AN ADVANCED MANCHURIAN-CANDIDATE LIKE SUGGESTIVE TECHNIQUE DEVELOPED BY DOW, MADE HIM STOP AT HIS HOUSE TO FETCH HIS SHIT WHILE PEOPLE WERE STRANDED ON ROOFTOPS!
DON’T YOU SEE? HE WAS FRAMED! ABC NEWS IS IN ON IT, TOO!
(wow. now that I think about it, maybe Katrina itself was simply a government ploy to gain access to Jefferson’s hard drive. Developing…)
Oh, Jeff, how immature. Looks like the guy’s a crook to me. I’ve got less use for Democrats than you do, silly.
Not so quick, sammich. I think you might be on to something. I’ve seen the Parallax View enough to know what Republicans are capable of.
True, flooding a whole city seems a bit extreme. But man, Attica? Kent State? What was that shit about?
The member didn’t want anyone to see the pictures you sent him, Jeff-o.
Easy guys, I’m sure there’s enough blame to spread around here.
TW: Thinking. As in: I’m thinking that I still don’t have my pie and… and, I could burn this whole site down.
Jeff,
You miss the whole point of the story.
Fact: If it hadn’t been for the no/slow response of the Federal government in 1) building effective flood control measures to protect low-lying (poor, Democrat) New Orleans neighborhoods, 2) accurately warning the residents of New Orleans of the storm’s impending arrival and the potential for wide-spread damage, 3) ensuring adequate survival supplies were in position before the storm hit, 4) ensuring New Orleans and Louisiana authorities authored a viable evacuation and disaster response plan, 5) monitoring New Orleans and Louisiana authorities to ensure they implemented that plan effectively and efficiently, 6) Federalizing the LA National Guard and taking over all responsibility for local and state law enforcement in New Orleans at the first sign of looting and civil disorder, 7) monitoring on-the-scene media sources in order to pin-point the areas that had the greatest need and rushing aid to those identified, then there would have been absolutely no need to divert resources to meet Rep. William Jefferson’s needs. If all the above had happened there would have been enough trucks and troops to evacuate all his furniture and personal effects without having to tear up the lawn!
If this clear example of federal incompetence doesn’t cement in your mind the utter failure of Bush and Puppetmaster Rove, well then, you are simply lost, Bushboy.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Katrina’s disappearing flood-waters will reveal top-to-bottom corruption in Louisiana, where graft is a way of life. I honestly believe that’s what caused Mary Landrieu’s facial tic on Fox News Sunday. The subject could support an entire blog.
I can’t help but see the name “Landrieu” and not interpret it as “Landru”. Landru, guide us, etc. From “Return of the Archons” on the original Star Trek.
Then again, I’m a major geek.
We’d like to think the corruption in LA would be revealed by the receding flood waters, but I doubt that will happen. There is so much corruption in NY city and Chicago, and yet no one seems to care.
I’m also a major cynic.
Sandwichman,
I’m appalled. You’ve made a judgement, and without egregious references to competing narratives. Do the other arbitrators know? Will they toss you from the fold and invent a new super secret handshake now?
Slightly OT: Blanco – find those bodies!
Does it strike anyone as morally reprehensible and just plain bizarre that the one person who is arguably most directly responsible for the death toll in New Orleans is now screaming that not enough bodies are being found?
Is the world upside-down or is it just me?
I agree with Senator Kennedy that it is an outrage that Bush has not come out an apologized for William Jefferson’s actions. Clearly, Bush’s rampant failures in stopping the hurricane from destroying New Orleans forced Represetative Jefferson to take drastic measures to save his property.
Interestingly enough, Barbara Boxer disagrees with Senator Kennedy, opining that Rep. Jefferson was forced to return to his home, due to Bush’s inherent hatred of black folks who own property and his wish to see them all destroyed by water or fire.
“Heart”- If Bush HAD a heart, he’d have used his helicopter to fly Rep. Jefferson to his home to recover his property. However, as we know. Bush hates black people and wishes all of them would choke on their collared greens and thus, he refused to assist Rep. Jefferson in his time of need.
Fortunately the American public is freed from the burden of ‘presumption of innocence’.
This is in Louisiana.
We get to presume guilt.
Once again, as the spouse of a former Chicago resident, I’d like to point out that there is a huge difference between “corrupt but competent” and “corrupt while INCOMPETENT.”
Under the first mayor Daley, the denizens of Chi-town would have been taken care of in a disaster of this magnitude. After all, Chicagoans had, in the voting booth (over and over and over) taken care of Daley.
(Turing word: my husband’s first name. You’re scaring me.)
On Friday, Sept. 2  five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast  Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken.
You are an editor of a major MSM news organization. A staff writer sends you the above copy as part of the multiple redundant layers of fact-checking built into your award winning news operation. You immediately spot an error. What is it?
You rock, Cardinals Nation.
Magic number: 2
On Friday, Sept. 2  five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast  Rep. William Jefferson, who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee….
What do I win?
We have a winner!
B Moe, you have just won –
An
all-expensetaxpayer paid, five hour, round trip helicopter tour of —Your upscale neighborhood!!!!
Emote with the best of them on this grand tour of your neighborhood (provided by the good folks at the Louisiana National Guard). Check out the damage to your palatial estate. Use the pilot’s sat phone (no radio for you, that’s for taxpayers) to call your insurance agent even as you circle overhead!
Plus!!!
A safari tour of downtown New Orleans! Accompanied by a detachment of the Louisiana National Guard and equipped with the latest in riot gear technology, you’ll tour the devastated wilds of downtown New Orleans in complete comfort and safety. Looters, dead bodies and the cries of the homeless will inspire in you awesome wonder at the Circle of Life. See the wonderful architecture of the ancient city of Naw’leans (what’s left of it anyway). Stop by your residence to gather a few belongings. And then be !whisked! back to the comfort of your Hilton luxury suite in Baton Rouge with not a drop of toxic stew on your Brooks Brothers suit. Yeeeesss, this can all be yours because….the price is right!
OffergoodfortodayonlyGoodonlyforcorruptLouisianapoliticiansNosubstitutionsSorryBMoelookslikeyouregettingbupkis
CN: wild applause. But you did forget to mention Iraq. Minor point, really.
Game’s up anyway. Bush today:
Four years, two wars and billions of dollars after 9/11, despite virtually demolishing US civil liberties and international law, Bush cannot even claim that the USA is now prepared for another major disaster:
Freakin waste of space, I think Katrina has answered that question; not while there still is paperwork to be filled in. But thank you at least for taking responsibility.
Now can we all just stop arguing ang get some sleep?
Frabjous day! Wadard is back! Bringing tidings of woe and dread for the US President from the far side of the globe!
Wadard, here’s my first question you’ll ignore and not answer. It is: you make the claim that Bush has “virtually demolished US civil liberties”. Care to back that up with even ONE example? One thing we cannot do today that we could before 9/11 or before Bush took office? One simple example is all I ask.
Time to knock up another few quick posts, Jeff. The thread is obvious.
Oh, and look up the definition of “Responsibility”, then look up “Blame”. You’ll find that while they’re similar, they’re not quite identical.
Bush clearly meant that he’s accountable, not that he’s going to be the fall guy for mistakes made. He’s not stupid, as much as you’d like to think he is.
To make the claim that Palestinian suicide bombing is resistance to occupation.
But that is not my point – the point is Bush sucks in a crisis, as he has just admitted. The agenda that he has been running does not support the country under acute stress. He is surrounded by yes men, amen men, and that is no way to manage a catastrophy.
Wow, that is pretty nuanced – you going european on me just because you leader is running around like a headless chook?
Uh, Wadard, that one thing that you said couldn’t be done here in the States since the wholesale stripping-away of our civil liberties? You kinda just…. did it, on a forum emanating from the United States.
What other things can we not say or do that can be said without recrimination on a U.S. forum?
Wadard evidently thinks that a civil liberty is the right to be free from criticism.
Which is typical of his silliness.
I agree – NO was a pretty corrupt city, but the lid is also going to be lifted on the Feds – that’s what you guys all seem to be missing. Only the US is going to be inersted in a state’s corruption, but the whold world will be fascinated to find out how FENA was turned inside out and outsourced and privatised, and the jobs for the emergency management boys is going to have a whole big lid lifed here as well.
I think this might explain the pissed off Canucks we been getting lately. I’m still puzzeld by the Aussies, what did you steal from them, JG?
You said one thing so that is all you are getting. Sorry. Anyway – my spelling – I’m off to bed. Ciao.
You’ve made the world less safe by globilising terrorism, I’m afraid. And if you can’t stand a bit of heat .. too bad.
Uh, right. Because before we attacked Afghanistan and Iraq terrorism was local?
I agree – NO was a pretty corrupt city, but the lid is also going to be lifted on the Feds – that’s what you guys all seem to be missing. Only the US is going to be inersted in a state’s corruption, but the whold world will be fascinated to find out how FENA was turned inside out and outsourced and privatised, and the jobs for the emergency management boys is going to have a whole big lid lifed here as well.
Maybe it’s just you that needs some sleep.
Four years, two wars and billions of dollars after 9/11, despite virtually demolishing US civil liberties and international law, ….
What business is it of yours how we handle our civil liberties? The hallmark of imperialists throughout world history is their predisposition to impose their own cultural and political narrative on the indigenous population. Are you an imperialist, Wadard?
Well, that wouldn’t be any stranger than some of the stuff on 24.
I’m hooked here, I gotta admit – what aspects of international law did we trash since 9/11? For that matter, would Wadard provide us with a working definition of the canons of international law, that would be acceptable to a majority of the world’s nation-states, including Australia? And how would said international law impact upon national sovereignty, not to mention civil rights and liberties at the individual level?
’Cause I’m just wondering, is all.
Waddard needs to take a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan (or Berkley, I imagine) – he would heard that (silly) sentence said over and over again. With not a jack-booted-thug-out-to-stifle-dissent to be seen anywhere
yeah, when i get bored sometimes i tell the authorities my neighbors said bad things about the president so i can watch them be carted off to jail.
Good night, Wadard. As a bedtime story, I can give you several specific instances of civil liberties that have been lost since 9/11:
– Airline hijackers can expect to be treated quite poorly, should they attempt any mischief on any US-based flights. Beaten to death with a laptop computer, garroted with a belt or mouse cord, disemboweled with an ink pen, suffocated under the combined weight of everyone that can comfortably sit on them in the aisle. That sort of thing.
– Should someone attempt to purchase large amounts of bomb-making materials, or rent crop dusting planes for unusual uses, or take flight training that doesn’t include takeoffs and landings, they can rightly expect a friendly visit from the FBI. Might put a kink in their ‘civil liberties’.
– Oh, and we have to take off our shoes for the airport screeners. If you have ugly feet, that might constitute some sort of civil liberty disaster, depending on your ability to handle embarrassment.
Damn Bush for denying us these important freedoms, which are now lost forever. Damn him.
I think we can safely rule out their innocence.
President Bush stifled my dissent. From half a world away. Oh, wait, it’s your dissent he’s stifling. Don’t you see the repression inherent in the system?
Or: I’m taking my ball and running home to mommy.
Or: The dog ate my homework.
Or: [insert non-sequitor question/accusation to avoid response to criticism of some prior moonbat question/accusation]
/Wadard
OK,
Wadretard has hijacked another thread. So lets try to get back to the two significant issues that emerged before his drive-by.
1. What does B Joe get as his prize?
Nothing! Nada! Zilch! He is a rich white man, who never did a days work in his life. He is the product of 100 generations of rich white guys who lived in lavish luxury on the backs of the less fortunate. It’s time he, and his people, stopped taking and gave something back. And even if B Joe isn’t white or rich, he posts like he is, and that’s enough proof!
2. Should Shreveport secede from Louisiana and join Texas.
No! Not as long as Texas does not have casino gambling. Shreveport must stay in Louisiana with citizens that act like Texans continuing to provide “gaming services” to me.
Yes, the bombings in Bali were the fault of the US, and NOT the terrorist scum who actually did it. Wadard, it is with great disrespect that I hope Dingoes eat everyone you love, and that you are tried and convicted for that ‘crime’. You are a terrorist appeasing scumbag who will always look past the first cause to the response.
It is people like you who give legitimacy to the murder of innocent human beings as a form of political dissent. You deserve to be flayed alive by a pack of angry baboons.
tw – chief, as in my chief complaint is that he is not here in the room spouting that sort of murderer loving crap.
Wadard – Chief propagandist for the 101st Appeasing Keyboardists.
Now calm down.
Shreveport last talked about that BEFORE they got gambling. Since I was from Texas (and am now back in Texas), I thought it was a good idea at the time. Particularly after paying Louisiana Income Tax.