Statement of Governor Kathleen Blanco

Governor Kathleen Blanco released approximately 100,000 pages of documents to Congress and to the working media through a web based document management system at the Louisiana Department of Justice in attempt to show how she did everything right during Katrina, and how it was all George Bush's fault. Her website says In order to gain access to this system, please send a public records request on your news organization's letterhead including your name, address, telephone number and email address to the Governor's Press Office via personal delivery (4th floor, Louisiana State Capitol), email (pressoffice@GOV.STATE.LA.US) or fax (225-342-6003). Once the authenticity of the letter has been verified, you will receive an email from the Department of Justice giving you instructions on the next step which includes receiving a personal pin number for clearance.

If these documents really exhonorate the governor, why are they not available for public inspection, like the New Orleans Disaster Plan here (which they ignored), and the State of Louisiana Disaster Plan here and here (which they also ignored).

From the reports on the news, it sounds like she sent Bush an email the day the storm hit saying send us everything you have. That sounds like she was already in a panic, and such an ambiguous request is hard do respond to. President Bush is Commander in Chief of the nation's military. Was she asking him to send the military in, and if so had she signed the proper documents to satisfy Posse Comitatus? President Bush's Justice Department includes the FBI. Was she saying that the Louisiana Justice Department and/or the New Orleans Police Department was unable to maintain public law and order, and was she offerring to turn things over to the FBI? She should have been much more specific with her requests.

The news reported that early on she requested 500 buses. What about the 600 school buses Mayor Nagin had at his disposal, and did not use to evacuate people prior to the hurricane's arrival. Why did she and Mayor Nagin send people to the Super Dome and the Convention Center, when they knew they had not made arrangements to have food, water, medical care, and portable toilets there?

If these documents really show she did the right things at the right time, they should be made available to the public, so we can see what they show.