Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Interview With Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans

Posted on September 2, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Harrowing audio (.mp3) of the WWL radio interview with Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans. Not for the faint of heart, nor those who swoon at “bad” language.

Posted in Unspeakably Awful (Katrina) | 63 Comments

Worse Than A Crime

Posted on September 2, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

“Worse than a crime—a blunder” describes so many of the major decisions of this administration. It's odd, however, to see popping up on a mailing list of law professors the query as to whether the current failure to plan for or to provide disaster relief might be grounds for impeachment.

Personally, I think mere incompetence, even gross incompetence, is not a “high crime and misdemeanor” as the Constitution understands the term, so were I in office I would not vote to impeach for that. Furthermore, I have some trouble seeing what impeachment would accomplish given that the person who'd take over is probably making many of the key decisions now anyway.

On the other hand, lying to the people to take us to war…

Posted in Politics: US | 7 Comments

Lake George

Posted on September 2, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

It’s bad:

Sadly, No!: Op-ed: The combined strength of the DHS and FEMA, the National Guard, and the Presidency and its powers, not only allowed a disaster to happen as though in slow motion, while warnings shrieked through the press; but even now, days later, they CAN’T EVEN GET IT TOGETHER TO DELIVER SUPPLIES into a major American city. They CAN’T FIGURE OUT how to put boxes on trucks or in planes and drop them off. For days, as the city sinks deeper into chaos. With bodies eaten by rats in the streets. This is our homeland security.

And while I’m afraid the actual causes of the above are systemic, I do like the explanatory economy of this little piece of analysis:

On another blog, I read that Dick Cheney is strangely missing — on vacation in Wyoming, with no expected date of return. Perhaps he’s ill; that would explain why no one in the Executive Branch seems in charge, or even paying attention.

Here’s the actual Washington Post quote on what Cheney was doing while New Orleans drowns:

Vice President Cheney, who has spent part of August at his home outside scenic Jackson, Wyo., remains there today [Wednesday, two days ago] — although
his spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, doesn’t call it vacation. “He’s
working from Wyoming today,” McBride told me this morning.

And when is he coming back? “He will certainly be coming back. I’m
not able to tell you the day right now. I don’t have that handy.”

Once again, though, facts get in the way of a cute theory: it appears that Cheney did return to DC on Thursday, as my brother reports:

Cheney Watch

Vice President Cheney, who had been spending part of August at his home in Wyoming, returned to Washington yesterday, his spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, tells me.

P.S. My brother also passes along this jem:

Blogger Wonkette
yesterday launched a meme that is spreading through the liberal
blogosphere: “A tipster informs us that down in New Orleans, they have
a name for the flood waters that have invaded the city: Lake
George.”

I like it.

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | 3 Comments

Kos: Where Were They?

Posted on September 2, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Daily Kos: Left Behind

The common televised theme is of reporters traveling to hard hit areas in New Orleans or the smaller communities, and reporting no FEMA presence, no National Guard presence, no food, no water, no help — and this is day 5. “Where is the government?” has been the predominant theme of the day. Apologists are being met with barely concealed disgust, in more and more quarters. Bush administration cuts to the levee system are being widely reported. FEMA inaction is being roundly criticized by ever-more-urgent live feeds from disheveled media figures with stunned expressions.

The Convention Center situation appears to be horrific, with deaths of elderly and infants due to dehydration already now occurring. It’s not clear if anything can be or is being done tonight, or how many will die between now and the morning, or what will happen then.

The lawlessness is rampant. It’s important to note, however, that the lawlessness wasn’t rampant on Monday. It wasn’t rampant on Tuesday. We heard only twinges of it on Wednesday. Today, from the sounds of the reports, a city devoid of all hope devolved into absolute chaos.

Posted in Unspeakably Awful (Katrina) | 1 Comment

A Total Disaster

Posted on September 2, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Mostly just links, because I’m too depressed and horrified to do anything more.

Hell on Earth

The situation is so bad that the Press has grown a spine, however temporary:

  • On NPR: Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff wasn’t aware there were people in the Superdome without food or water.
  • I heard a similar thing on NBC-TV (which can be heard on the radio in Miami): First they summarized a Chertoff statement saying that the administration would be stepping up efforts to evacuate everyone from the Superdome, but these efforts were being hampered by more people turning up. It would be better, he said, if people would go to the many other areas in the city where food and water were being provided. Then NBC went to its man on the ground, who said, (1) that there were no communications in N.O. so that no one would get any of the messages from Chertoff or Bush or anyone else; (2) there were no public officials telling anyone anything; (3) he’d driven “all over town” and he hadn’t seen any sign of any attempt to communicate to the public what it should do, and (4) on those drives all day he had not seen any sign of a single of Chertoff’s supposed areas where people should go, nor of the food and water. If they were there — and it was pretty clear he didn’t believe a word of it — they were not visible to anyone.
  • CNN has a spine — see the video in which Sen. Landrieu mouths platitudes and gets clobbered for it by a reporter who’s just seen reality.
  • My brother has had a spine for some time, but it’s nice to see that recognized.

FEMA follies

Ugly talk by people who should know better

People who do know better

The root cause of the problem

Posted in Unspeakably Awful (Katrina) | 5 Comments

Helping Out (Law School Edition)

Posted on September 1, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Eric Muller writes,

I have set up blogs for the Loyola-New Orleans and Tulane Law School
communities to use over the coming days and (if necessary) weeks and
months. The idea is to give the communities a message board — a
place to post information of common interest that community members
can access (as they are able). People can post to the blogs by
emailing me at the below addresses, or by phoning me at (919)
962-7067 and leaving a message with the content of what they’d like
posted.

For Tulane:
URL = http://www.isthatlegal.org/tulanelaw
email (for posts) = tulanelaw@isthatlegal.org

For Loyola-New Orleans:
URL = http://www.isthatlegal.org/loyno
email (for posts) = loyno@isthatlegal.org

And the IT director at Tulane writes an open letter saying,

We appreciate the efforts of all of you to assist those of us at Tulane Law
School as we put in place methods to communicate with one another.

Our efforts will be helped immensely if all were to put links directing
people to the “official” Tulane Law School website, which is being hosted
and co-developed by our colleagues at Emory:

http://tulane.law.emory.edu

Meanwhile, from the lawprof mailing list I learn that law schools around the country are making arrangements with the deans of the affected schools to take on their law students, for as long or short as they need it. Indeed, our associate dean sent a note around that we’ve taken on a few who had taken refuge with relatives in the Miami area. And one turned up in class this morning, looking a little shell shocked, as well one might.

And, Billmon posts a great list of charities

Posted in Law School | 1 Comment