Govenor Blanco and Mayor Nagin

It's beginning to look like the hysterical reporting by the MSM is beginning to calm down and we are starting to see where the actual failures pre and post-Hurricance Katrina lie.

Mayor Nagin was on CNN this morning in a taped interview, he sure has a lot of time to do TV interviews, and in the interview he says that the Govenor of LA and the President met privately on Air Force One on Friday during the President's first trip to the area. According to the mayor President Bush told him that he gave the Gov two options and one was that he was ready to move in with federal troops and relief immediately, the feds were ready to take over the evacuation and relief effort that day but she requested a 24 hour delay to make a decision. She did not want to relinquish her authority. If this is true than the mayor is placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the state.

S. O’BRIEN: What has Secretary Chertoff promised you? What has Donald Rumsfeld given you and promised you?

NAGIN: Look, I’ve gotten promises to – I can’t stand anymore promises. I don’t want to hear anymore promises. I want to see stuff done. And that’s why I’m so happy that the president came down here, because I think they were feeding him a line of bull also. And they were telling him things weren’t as bad as it was.

He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action.

And what the state was doing, I don’t frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn’t adequate.

And then, the president and the governor sat down. We were in Air Force One. I said, ‘Mr. President, Madam Governor, you two have to get in sync. If you don’t get in sync, more people are going to die.’

S. O’BRIEN: What date was this? When did you say that? When did you say…

NAGIN: Whenever air Force One was here.

S. O’BRIEN: OK.

NAGIN: And this was after I called him on the telephone two days earlier. And I said, ‘Mr. President, Madam Governor, you two need to get together on the same page, because of the lack of coordination, people are dying in my city.’

S. O’BRIEN: That’s two days ago.

NAGIN: They both shook – I don’t know the exact date. They both shook their head and said yes. I said, ‘Great.’ I said, ‘Everybody in this room is getting ready to leave.’ There was senators and his cabinet people, you name it, they were there. Generals. I said, ‘Everybody right now, we’re leaving. These two people need to sit in a room together and make a doggone decision right now.’

S. O’BRIEN: And was that done?

NAGIN: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, “No, you guys stay here. We’re going to another section of the plane, and we’re going to make a decision.”

He called me in that office after that. And he said, “Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.” I said – and I don’t remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.

S. O’BRIEN: You’re telling me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?

NAGIN: Yes.

S. O’BRIEN: Regarding what? Bringing troops in?

NAGIN: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the – I was abdicating a clear chain of command, so that we could get resources flowing in the right places.

S. O’BRIEN: And the governor said no.

NAGIN: She said that she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn’t happen, and more people died.

So Nagin is saying that the reason for the delay in getting troops in to the region to expedite the evacuation is because the Govenor couldn't make a decision for 24 hours. I also find it interesting how he is trying to portray himself, grandstanding, as the one calling the shots in the meeting with the Bush and Blanco by instructing them to sit down and "get in sync." That is supposedly when the Govenor says she needed 24 hours to make a decision.

Some interesting news from Fox News Radio's Tony Snow concerning when FEMA actually got into New Orleans; (courtesy )JunkYardBlog

"We first got in on Tuesday night," a FEMA pilot, who identified himself only as "Randy," told Fox News Radio's Tony Snow this morning. The 17th Street levee had begun to give way late in the evening Monday. Well into Tuesday, city officials were celebrating reports that the brunt of Hurricane Kartrina had missed the Big Easy.

By the time the scope of the impending tragedy became known, however, FEMA rescue operations were already well underway.

"We were one of two helicopters with night vision goggles," Snow's caller explained. "They wanted to start evacuating Tulane Hospital, which is right next to Charity [Hospital]."

Shortly thereafter, however, the mission ground to a halt. "We were being shot at by various snipers around the city," chopper pilot Randy said. "So the military, Eagles Nest 1, basically called all helicopters out about 10 o'clock that night."