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September 04, 2005
New Orleans Mayor Nagin -- Two questions, sir.
This is what mayor Nagin said Thusday, 9/1
Mayor Ray Nagin's voice cracked with anger and anguish Thursday night in an interview with New Orleans radio station ...Point of order, Mayor Nagin? Would you explain for us please why these 205 buses of YOURS (and these are the ones we know about)"I need reinforcements," he pleaded. "I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. This is a national disaster... I've done it all man, and I'll tell you man, I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming, that is coming. And my answer to that today is BS, where is the beef? Because there is no beef in this city ... Get every Greyhound bus in the country and get them moving."
Click for larger images
... are just sitting in their parking lot, now being a source of pollution? Which 16,000 people were not evacuated because you didn't use them?
Oh. I see. It's a plot by Karl Rove. check
hattip to Junkyard Blog via LGF
Posted by Darleen at September 4, 2005 10:20 AM
Comments
- I in no way intended to evade the full metal jacket cluster fuck of every local official, from the Mayor all the way up to the Governor in my previous post.
As a matter of fact, there is talk of putting Ruddy Guilliani in charge of the entire recovery task force. FEMA can't find its ass with both hands, and the Office of Homeland defense seems to think theres only a handfull of cities in America, so they're useless also. Maybe that was New Orleans bad luck in the first place. Not having a Ruddy that knows how to lead at the helm.
At any rate, the mess on the ground seems to have quickly turned around with the arrival of significant troop strength and evac teams, troops with the legal right to enforce law and order. Just too bad it didn't get going 6 days ago.
Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at September 4, 2005 04:04 PM
Darleen,
This is the first I've read anything about spare buses. But I would ask -- it isn't so much the buses that Nagin needed, it was bus drivers. Where was he supposed to get 500+ drivers when in the first two-three days he only had 1500 police and 200 national guard on hand just to try to secure the place?
Posted by: Brad at September 5, 2005 07:27 AM
If this is the 'first you heard' then, Brad, you help make my point that this is more about Get Bushie! than understanding the facts on the ground.
It seems Nagin ignored His own city's evacuation plan. BUSES were assets to be used to clear the city "The evacuation must be completed before the arrival of gale force winds."
He left at least 200+ buses (which obviously can bed operated even by a 13 y/o) sit idle. And he has the chutzpah to scream "is not MY fault, it's Bushies!"
Posted by: Darleen at September 5, 2005 08:22 AM
You really are going to blame this whole disaster on local officials, aren't you? Pathetic, Darleen. Pathetic.
Posted by: Brad at September 5, 2005 01:59 PM
Jesus Fucking Christ, Brad.
You want to stand there and tell us that Bush and Rove HELD A FUCKING GUN to the head of Gov Blanco and Mayor Nagin and FORCED them to ignore THEIR OWN evacuation plan? That it was Bush and Rove that caused 2/3 of the NO PD to DESERT? That it was Bush and Rove that left HUNDREDS OF BUSES idle in parking lots, even as the evac. plan specifically cites them as assets to be used to evacuate the city BEFORE GALE WINDS ARRIVE (did you even read the FUCKING plan?)
God Godfrey, Brad...you are whining that Bush didn't act like a fucking dictator and seize the power illegally from the state government before Katrina arrived....
You are fucking whining about Bush not being the DICTATOR who ignores the CONSTITUTION that you have always accused him of being!
Have there been some FEMA fuckups? More than likely, but the basic fact on the ground is that the local government is SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for all evacuation/disaster preparedness. BUSH had to BEG Blanco and Nagin to get them to start MANDATORY evacuation..and Nagin blew it big time.
GOD, Brad, stop being such an ass.
Posted by: Darleen at September 5, 2005 05:26 PM
- Sorry Darlene - Love yah like a sister but the "dictator" arguments for this massive cluster fuck just isn't even close. Any freshman Government studies student knows that the "State representatives, Congressmen and Senators, acting in congress can give the president the neccessary emergency powers to act in the event of any national tragedy, war, or natural disaster". Bush had no obsticles to taking those steps, via emergency congressional session, in the first 48 hours, let alone 5 or 6 days after the fact. No stepping on any constitutional toes was required. Think about what would have happened in the South in Selma and Miss. if Johnson would have refused to kick that Governors ass out of the doorway of that highschool. You don't ask people who are litterily up to their asses in alligators to make rational life or death decisions. I can tell you I absolutely hate, hate, hate that the left and self appointed race baiters like Jackson, will use this tragedy to the hilt to premote every manner of self serving rubish. But as dumb assed and opportunist as all that may be, the fact remains, Bush jumped the shark. The Governor and the Mayor were basically useless, and Bush, or at least His advisors, should have seen this very quickly once the levies broke, and taken charge. FEMA's reputation is spiraling down faster than a prom dress in the back seat of a Chevy. Stories coming out now of aid that was turned away, is making this huge Federal bueracracy look like some kind of massive clown car. Now just to take it to OMG proportions, they're talking about taking it out from under the Office of Homeland defense, a virtual model of uselessness itself, and making FEMA autonimous, with a Cabinet position in the lead. Funneling all the Federal aid through there. We appear to be reacting to the disaster by throwing buckets of kerosene on the blaze.
Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at September 6, 2005 12:06 AM
In case you aren’t familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsiblity for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:
1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President
What did each do?
1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)
3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.
4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them
5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.
Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt (democrat) government going all the way back to Huey Long.
Funds for disaster protection and relief have been flowing into this city for decades, and where has it gone, but into the pockets of the politicos and their friends.
Decades of socialist government in New Orleans has sapped all self reliance from the community, and made them dependent upon government for every little thing.
Political correctness and a lack of will to fight crime have created the single most corrupt police force in the country, and has permitted gang violence to flourish.
The sad thing is that there are many poor folks who have suffered and died needlessly because those that they voted into office failed them.
For those who missed item 5 (where the President’s level of accountability is discussed), it is made more clear in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article dated August 28:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin
Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.
The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. (emphasis mine)
The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin’s court to carry out the evacuation order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his administration f**ked up.
Mayor Nagin and his emergency sidekick Terry Ebbert have displayed lethal, mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina.
As for Mayor Nagin, he and his profile in pathetic leadership police chief should resign as well. That city’s government is incompetent from one end to the other. The people of New Orleans deserve better than this crowd of clowns is capable of giving them.
If you’re keeping track, these boobs let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans–in one trip–get ruined in the floods. Whatever plan these guys had, it was a dud. Or it probably would have been if they’d bothered to follow it.
As for all the race-baiting rhetoric and Bush-bashing coming from prominent blacks on the left, don’t expect Ray Nagin to be called out on the carpet for falling short. You want to know why? Here’s why:
It’s more convenient to blame a white president for what went wrong than to hold a black mayor and his administration accountable for gross negligence and failing to fully carry out an established emergency preparedness plan.
To hold Nagin and his administration accountable for dropping the ball amounts to letting loose the shouts and cries of “Racism!”. It’s sad, it’s wrong, but it’s standard operating procedure for the media and left-wing black leadership.
Mark my words: you will not hear a word of criticism from Jesse Jackson Sr., Randall Robinson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or Kanye West being directed toward Clarence Ray Nagin Jr. Why? Because he is just another black politician instead of a responsible elected official who happens to be black. In the mindset of more-blacker-than-thou blacks, black politicians who are on their side can do no wrong.
Posted by: Colonel at September 20, 2005 10:15 AM