"That's where we sent people as a shelter of last resort. When that filled up, we sent them to the Convention Center. Now, you tell me what else we could have done."

Food and water would have been nice.

Some minor thought to having power?

Moving all of your transportation assets to a place they might not have been flooded out?

Calling for the evacuation a day earlier?

Having some communications and government continuity plans in place so you don't look like a clueless fool?

That sort of stuff. You know, the kind of thing that's *in your plan*.

Empty New Orleans Buses - Editorial Cartoon

This is amazing. I'm glad the mayor was so candid. It's obvious that the Governor has some serious questions to answer. I would love to know what the MSM would've done if this happened in Florida under Gov. Bush. I've been floored at the lack of media attention on the local and state governments culpability in all this. They knew for decades this was going to happen. It will be interesting to watch all of this unfold.

I said the mayor was candid, I forgot to add CLUELESS

cirby, you are an idiot!

Try reading a history book and you will realize why your comments show complete ignorance.

True that some of the blame for this fiasco falls on the city level; but, your comments are those of a 3-year-old.

P.S. History is a school subject. You did go to school, didn't you?

I am fairly confident that the timeline will show that the evacuation was going fine and that the damage that the hurricane itself did, did not require a stepped up effort. However, that the buses in question were out of commission and the city flooded while people slept and in the early hours of the morning when the 17th St Canal dikes broke, the damage was too swift to move those buses - not that they had been needed up until that point.

In other words, the same thing that necessitated the use of the buses destroyed the buses before they could be used.

I'm linking more and more to you guys. Excellent post.

However, you need to change your transcript (not sure if this is your transcript, or one you obtained elsewhere).

Nagin does not say he was "abdicating" a chain of command (though that was surely what he was doing), but rather that he was "advocating" a clear chain of command - no doubt one that put someone else at the top.

But, truly powerful linkage.

Cobb, the buses should have been used before the hurricane landfall because there was significant chance that NOLA would take a direct hit from a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane, whose storm surge would have flooded NOLA and drowned a lot of people who stayed behind. People should have been evacuated before the hurricane hit.

coonrod23:

Not that I'm defending cirby (I doubt if he/she needs my help), but just what history books are you referring to? Or are you just another mindless Bush-basher, come here to throw around empty insults with nothing to back them up?

Fatman, don't be stupid. You KNOW the answer to your question. Of course he's "just another mindless Bush-basher, come here to throw around empty insults with nothing to back them up" -- how could you have any doubts?

Sheesh, fatman, I've come to expect better from you.

J.

Maybe this is not directly pertinant to the question, but I did a little experitmet this past year. I live in a tourist area where there are families from all over the US who visit. I asked about 50 high school graduates if they could recite the preamble to our US constitution. I havn't found one yet. What does that tell you about our school system?

Oh, noooes! Someone has called someone a bush-basher! Game over, man! You are a mean, mean man, and your opinions are completely invalidated because they were against someone.
Forget that the person is the most powerful man in command of the most powerful nation, with the most powerful economy and most powerful military. Bush is responsible for nothing but taking it easy, baby. No, not the Big Easy. Let that hole die, I'm talking vacation time, golf and guitars.

The time has come for responsibility. People are dying and you bastards are still playing politics. Running interference for the one guy that had to say something to get anything done. The Mayor and Governor could only have helped things before. Everything after, lays on Bush's shoulders. America will not go for this pathetic whitewash.

Jay Tea:

I crave your pardon. I can only plead lack of sleep, throw my self on your mercy and plead for another chance.

As for you, AnonymousCoward...ahhh, the hell with it. I really do need the sleep and some things just aren't worth the effort.

Hmmmm.

"Forget that the person is the most powerful man in command of the most powerful nation, with the most powerful economy and most powerful military. Bush is responsible for nothing but taking it easy, baby. No, not the Big Easy. Let that hole die, I'm talking vacation time, golf and guitars."

Looks like someone is ignorant of the Posse Comitatus Act and the Stafford Act.

But then again I've come to expect that from liberals. God knows how many times I've written essay long posts trying to educate liberals.

I should get paid for this. :)

Well, ed, having tried to educate people, I know it's a thankless job. However, in Bush's America, there's accountability, and I don't think people get paid for no results.

As for Native American -- well, I can =sing= the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. The problem with kids today is that they have too many entertainment outlets, and thus didn't get subjected to Schoolhouse Rock every week alongside crappy Saturday morning cartoons...(Also, I've got a pocket guide to the Constitution that a friend gave to me, which has some capsule bios and short descriptions of 20 important Supreme Court cases)

Ed, I was just going to bring that subject up myself. It appears that the President has responded as expeditiously as he was able once posse comitatus had been waived by the governor. The military has the means more than anyone to perform the large scale rescue/relief operations warranted in New Orleans. I am anxiously awaiting AnonymousCoward's upcoming post where it will be spelled out exactly how he would have handled this situation if he were President.

Haven't you guys figured it out by now? Bush is GOD to the left. He's in control of everything, up to and including the weather. I mean, for someone that can spawn the most destructive hurricane ever to hit the U.S., saving a few poor black folks should be child's play--if only he cared. Obviously, with that much power, any and everything bad that happens is his fault, through either action or inaction.

Attempts to counter that mindset with actual facts and logic are excercises in futility.

For pete's sake, the winds had hardly died down when the first accusations of Bush & Barbour's responsibility for the hurricane started flying. I personally didn't know that my governor had that much pull, but knowing that he does, there's a few favors I intend to call him about.

In their defense, however, the left actually does want an all-powerful federal government, and they have a long history of trashing the constitution for various purposes, so I suppose all of this drivel is actually perfectly aligned with their philosophy of government.

Bush bashers don't have a plan for anything-they just like to wimper, kiss ass and say lets talk about it before you cut off my head.

What do you expect? This guy is an elected leader of a constituency that has been indoctrinated to see themselves as victims and sees the whole purpose of the world as to solve their problems for them. He used this knowledge to get elected as mayor of a little kleptocracy and now he's doing the only thing he knows how - blame other people. In about 6 months he'll be suing Walmart for not removing the guns that were looted.

Meep,
"As for Native American -- well, I can =sing= the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. The problem with kids today is that they have too many entertainment outlets, and thus didn't get subjected to Schoolhouse Rock every week alongside crappy Saturday morning cartoons...(Also, I've got a pocket guide to the Constitution that a friend gave to me, which has some capsule bios and short descriptions of 20 important Supreme Court cases)"

I was not trying to point out that many of us who are beyond the age of graduation do or don't have a clue. I was pointing out the failure of our schools to educate our children. Please, when we are talking about a young person who just graduated from high school who cannot remember more than "We The People" to the preamble of our Constitution, I, for one, believe we have a failed school system. All of us can carry a pocket version of the Constitution, and I wish we all did, however, when you consider that I have asked 50 + high school graduates about our constitution and NONE of them could remember the preamble, I have to shamefully admit that we have failed in the education of our children.

Heh, I just graduated high school. I got "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union..." but then the preamble to the Declaration of Independence kept getting mixed in, so I gave up and looked it up.

Bushes political avisory team is in full metal jacket CYA damage control. I'm not giving him a pass on this one. The latest limp-wristed excuse is "he couldn't dictate to the state and local officials. More BS. The "dictator" arguments for this massive cluster f'k is just desperate rhetoric. 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 constitutional blocks 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 BS. 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 autonymous, 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.

The whole sorry tragedy is leaving a lot of Americans, including myself, who are staunch conservatives and have backed GW through every sort of babbling attack by the idiotarian left, wondering if theres anyone from either party in Washington that knows how to run a country.

The Mayor did not act as a leader. He was way over his head. He did not enact any type of evacuation plan. Now he wants to place all the blame on the Governor and the President. Step aside Mr Mayor you wanted the Fereral to take the lead and now they have. If I were that General in charge of the LA National Guard, I would tell the Mayor to sit your cry baby a-- down and shut up and stopy crying.

Bush had no constitutional blocks to taking those steps, via emergency congressional session, in the first 48 hours

Perhaps, only logistical ones. Unless you know how to get 10,000 guard troops to mobilize and deploy with a supply train behind them, and all the food and water necessary for themselves as well as the victims? Because the Army can't figure that one out. But you must be smarter than all the army supply people, so you better go help!

People love to say "we bombed Iraq in 24 hours) no we didn't it took 6 months of build up. Even before Afghanistan we spend months building up. You would be hard pressed to mobilize a SEAL team in 48 hours, and they train for that. But to get the LANG in 24 hours? Yeah right.

As the LANG general told Geraldo, "if we came in Monday we'd be victims too"

- Show me where I said I expected any actual ground action in 48 hours and I'll eat my words. Bush failed to act, even in getting the gears of a recovery operation under way. He waited 3 days and then made a speech. Just how is it a sign of leadership to wait 6 days to grab the initiative, when everyone whos ever had any experience in disaster relief, including yourself Plato's Dad, knows full well it takes time to ramp up any meaningful efforts. Bush didn't do his job, taking the lead, breaking the political deadlocks, and getting things moving as soon as possible, derelic precisely because it takes time. I'll ignore the personal attacks, since you very elequently made my point for me.

Collectively you and the entire republican party are the scourge of the modern world.

It's not enough for these fascist bastards to have allowed the suffering and death of 1,000s of poor people in NO but now as per Rove's spin the empty headed kool-aid drinkers start carrying the torch of "pin the blame on someone else".

"Republican" Mayor Ray Nagin just the other day was spitting fire at these bastards for doing nothing. Now in less than 24 hours from when Rove sent out talking points, Nagin gets on board to point fingers at a Democrat Governor. How convenient a time line.

You vile bastards will stop at nothing to gain political points. Understand, what you think you may be getting away with now you will indeed be answered for later.

Hell awaits you vile, fascist pieces of trash.

Now, on to the TRUTH and Rove's latest talking points spin!

http://tinyurl.com/bpqee

You can always tell the well thought out points on the left by the amount of unsubstantiated name calling. It's what passes for progressive thought.

I blame all of this mess in NO on that levee hillary clinton. If she had held up in the face of the rising water...oh wait...she's not a levee...she's a dike...nevermind....

JDC-your left wing talking points and buzzwords become more humerous by the day. You also show yourself becomming more divorced from reality every day.

Burning already, aren't you, "Judgement Day"?

I am NOT SURPRISED. Satan loves Demons.

jdc, you ignorant slut. You call Bush and those aligned with him "fascists" and then demand that he seize absolute power in the same breath. Were you born retarded or were you bludgeoned until you became that way?

The finger pointing started with those who