Free Republic

HOUSTON — Juan Martinez has seen drivers doze off from fatigue while he's taking a bus from Houston to his hometown in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. "This is very dangerous," Martinez said, waiting with suitcase in hand in front of Autobuses Lucano, one of the many smaller bus companies that offer service from the United States to Mexico. But Martinez and the thousands of riders, mostly Mexican immigrants, looking for a cheap way to get home aren't deterred by recent crashes and the recent drug smuggling indictments involving several of these bus companies. "There is just no other way for...

Seat belts debated The state has rejected them as too costly to place on school buses By Alexandre Da Silva adasilva@starbulletin.com The crash of a public school bus carrying Kahuku High water polo players Thursday is renewing the debate of whether students should buckle up. The Legislature will likely consider a resolution next week to urge the Board of Education to require seat belts in school buses, said state Rep. Marilyn Lee, vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee. Historically, calls to install the restraints have failed, here and nationally, largely because of the cost to retrofit school buses, which...

MEXICO CITY – Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city's packed public transportation system. Millions of people cram into subway trains and buses in the Mexican capital, one of the world's largest cities, and women have long complained of abuse from men taking advantage of overcrowding to sneak in an inappropriate grab. “One time a man stuck his hand up my skirt. They grab your butt ... It's gross,” said 27-year-old office assistant Lourdes Zendejas, who waited 20 minutes during the evening rush hour to catch...

Jimmy from Jerusalem writes: Arabs in FIRST class in Democratic Israel, literally To Arab lobby’s Jimmy Carter’s ‘Apartheid slur‘:Young [horny] Arabs in the front, elderly Jews & pregnant women in the back! You have already heard about the Israeli courts that favors Arabs over Jews. You have already heard about the Israeli security that favors Arabs over Jews in access to holy sites like temple mount & Hebron’s ancient Jewish tomb.. You have already heard about the Israeli military that favors Arabs over Jews in “illegal� squattering, like in Jerusalem, Hebron, etc. You have already heard about the Israeli universities...

BATON ROUGE, La. -- One phase of the state's emergency evacuation plan is still not complete. A new report said the state has not hired any buses to help with an evacuation this hurricane season. According to the report, the state has received bids for the contract but has not decided if it will accept one or open a new round of bidding. The state-endorsed hurricane plan insists the buses will be there if needed.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A six-year-old New York boy remains hospitalized after a school bus dragged him along a road for about 60 feet. They say the bus doors closed on the boy’s backpack, and the driver drove away without realizing the boy was stuck. The bus finally stopped when other children on the bus alerted the driver to the situation

Armed youths today hijacked and burned a bus in Paris on the eve of the anniversary of the riots which tore through France last year.Around ten hooded men, five of them carrying handguns, put a weapon to the head of the driver and forced him and his passengers off a bus heading to the eastern suburb of Montreuil in the early hours of the morning. The gang then drove off in the vehicle before setting it alight in the second incident of its kind in Paris within a few hours. In the other attack in the suburb of Nanterre around...

LONDON (AFP) - One in six people in Britain's capital have admitted moving seats on public transport to avoid a passenger they think is Muslim, according to a survey published. Some 35 percent of travellers in London said they had felt nervous or uncomfortable in the last year because someone of south Asian or north African appearance had got on their underground train or bus. Of that number, nearly half said they had moved seats or sat down away from them, the survey, by pollsters YouGov for London's Evening Standard newspaper, suggested on Tuesday. On July 7 last year, 56...

In the small town of Paron, you have a lot of upset people. Many say the decision to close the middle and high schools was a poor one because they say it was made without the voice of the people it is going to affect. “That's why this state's got to get vouchers so the parents can say 'Here's my money, I'm going here,'" says Dan Carlson. Carlson says he moved his family from Benton to the Paron area because he was looking to put his kids in a school with smaller class sizes. Carlson says, “We can come out...

WASHINGTON — U.S. mass transit systems should remain alert against possible terror attacks, the Homeland Security Department said in a new warning that highlighted suspicious activity at unnamed European subway stations last fall. Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said Wednesday there is no specific or credible intelligence to indicate U.S. transit systems are being targeted, and he described the notice, sent Tuesday, as a routine reminder for transit authority operators, state security advisers and police to remain on guard. In Chicago, transit authority spokeswoman Sheila Gregory said the nation's second largest transit system had not received any information or warning...

State lawmaker questions use of buses at rally By Jeff Commings arizona daily star Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.12.2006 The use of buses to transport students from a protest back to school and a speech by a prominent activist has made a local school district the continued target of a state legislator. And more schools are likely to be criticized this week for their actions during recent student demonstrations against proposed immigration laws. Rep. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican, sent a letter to Tucson Unified School District officials last week, questioning the use of employee time and pay to send...

... Almost seven months after Hurricane Katrina, the Nagin administration still dickers over details of a contract that would gradually rid the cityscape of these vehicular eyesores -- at a cost of $23 million over another six months. Which makes it of more than passing interest to discover that the largest car crusher east of the Rockies, K&L Auto Crushers of Tyler, Texas, offered in October to do the job in 15 weeks and actually pay the city for the privilege of hauling the junk away. How much? How about $100 per flooded car. With an estimated 50,000 vehicles on...

Starved for cash, the New Orleans school district is taking a long shot and hoping to sell its flooded, unsalvageable school buses on eBay. Some submerged to their roofs in the black flood waters, the yellow school buses were widely photographed in the days after Hurricane Katrina and have become an icon of the city's devastated school system. School officials acknowledge the sale of the buses on the Internet auction site may puzzle some people used to more traditional school fundraisers like bake sales. "There's no shame in it. Not one bit," said school board president Phyllis Landrieu. "This is...

Navy took Dome buses for family, panel told Stranded residents of New Orleans weren't the only ones trying to get out of Dodge after the floodwaters began overtaking large sections of the city. A Louisiana National Guard official said that Navy officials, pretending to be contractors, appropriated buses that were on their way to the Superdome the Thursday after Hurricane Katrina struck. The buses were used to rescue family members of Navy personnel hunkered down at the Fairmont Hotel. "The bus would come up to the checkpoints, these people, who weren't supposed to be taking the buses, come up and...

January 5, 2006 Policy Analysis no. 559 A Desire Named Streetcar: How Federal Subsidies Encourage Wasteful Local Transit Systems by Randal O'Toole Randal O'Toole is director of the Thoreau Institute and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. Executive Summary The nation's mass transit system is a classic example of how special interests prevail over the needs and interests of voters and taxpayers. Total inflation-adjusted subsidies to transit?buses and trains?have more than doubled since 1990, yet total ridership has increased by less than 10 percent. Train ridership has dropped dramatically while automobile use has skyrocketed. Prior to 1964, when...

Blanco: Netherlands trip could help with future flood protection U. S. Congressman, William Jefferson, D-La., right, pauses during a press event at Kurhaus in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006. At left are, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., center. (AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski) BATON ROUGE, La. Governor Kathleen Blanco says a trip to the Netherlands to study the flood control systems for the below sea-level nation showed Louisiana officials engineering marvels that could be used in future flood protection for the New Orleans area. Blanco returned a day earlier from her visit to the country...

Gov. Kathleen Blanco left for Holland on Monday to learn how the Dutch created the huge flood-control system that protects a land much farther below sea level than Louisiana. The trip means the Democratic governor will miss President Bush's visit to New Orleans, scheduled for Thursday... The governor was among more than 40 government, business and education leaders - including Sens. David Vitter and Mary Landrieu ... Landrieu said the ambassador told her about that country's flood of 1953, when 1,800 people died. "He said, `Why don't you all come over and see what we've done since then?'" Landrieu recounted....

BATON ROUGE -- Two days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of people were trapped in the city without food, water and medical care and growing increasingly desperate for rescue. But a top aide to Gov. Kathleen Blanco sent out an e-mail informing his colleagues that his staff had stopped calling for the buses needed to evacuate people from the Superdome and other places of refuge. "NO MORE CALLS FOR BUSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ty Bromell wrote Wednesday morning, Aug. 31. "My people are not calling for buses now." Bromell, who heads Blanco's Office of Rural Development, said he had gotten word...

NEW ORLEANS — An Algiers man hailed by some as a hero for commandeering a school bus the day after Hurricane Katrina to take 60 stranded residents to safety in Houston has been arrested on drug charges where his bus journey began: the Fischer public housing complex. Jabar Gibson, 20, who garnered a movie deal and national attention as the renegade bus driver, was booked Friday with possession with intent to distribute heroin after police stopped his rental car for allegedly driving erratically, New Orleans police said. Gibson and another man, Gary Burnett, were traveling near the public housing complex...

Records, interviews reveal some of why storm relief took so long By MARSHA SHULER mshuler@theadvocate.com Capitol news bureau Where were the buses? No image of the post-Katrina calamity is stronger than the tens of thousands of urban storm survivors awaiting rescue for days. Stranded residents at the Superdome, Convention Center, a Metairie interstate intersection and a Chalmette port grew restless and combative as temperatures soared, people died around them and getting basic necessities -- food and water -- became a daily battle. "They wanted to know where help was. So did we, quite frankly," said Louisiana National Guard Maj. Ed...

Evacuation plans, Superdome use criticized 4 Sunday, October 23, 2005 By Gordon Russell Staff writer Managing what is being called the biggest natural disaster in American history is a thankless task certain to invite criticism. And Mayor Ray Nagin has certainly had his share since Hurricane Katrina came ashore. On a recent national TV appearance, presidential historian and Tulane professor Douglas Brinkley called him "a very lame, ineffectual, wrong-headed mayor for this time," adding for good measure that Nagin has "no leadership abilities" and suggesting that some of his failures in the wake of the storm were "criminal." Allan Katz,...

To some he is a thug, but to the 60 people on the school bus he commandeered as Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters rose, Jabar Gibson is nothing short of a hero. HOUSTON -- Across the street from the Astrodome, in the alcove of a motel where the night manager sits behind bulletproof glass, a young man leaned against a faded stucco wall. A grin crept beneath his wispy mustache when a stranger approached. "Do you know who I am?" he asked. His name is Jabar Gibson. The first bus to arrive in Houston loaded with Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans...

The Wheels on the Bus Go "Squish, Squish, Squish." It just gets worse for incompetent New Orleans Mayor Nagin. Paul at Wizbang! discovered Monday (10/3) that not all New Orleans buses went swimming in the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool. At least 60, maybe more, were above water and under Nagin's control across the Mississippi in Algiers, LA. According to Paul's estimates, which seem reasonable, Nagin could have completely evacuated the Superdome on his own by sundown the day after the storm, just by using assets under his control. But it doesn't end there, kids. Via Google Maps,we have this...

*** Wizbang Exclusive *** Remember this gut-wrenching picture? It was a picture of what was left of the Orleans Parish school systems bus fleet that was supposed to be used to evacuate the citizens of the parish BEFORE the hurricane. That picture was especially poignant because there where thousands of people trapped in the Superdome and the buses that could have saved them were ruined. But last night I found a picture even more tragic in Google Maps. On the left is the Superdome. On the right is the OTHER Orleans Parish bus barn (the Algiers Bus Barn at 801...

Which would you choose?

Bus firm faced prior complaints, violations12:42 PM CDT on Thursday, September 29, 2005Assocaited Press DALLAS - The firm that operated a bus that caught fire while fleeing Hurricane Rita, killing 23, was the subject of complaints by elderly passengers in 2002 who said vehicles reeked of fuel and were in disrepair, according to state records. One of the three complaints against Global Tours and Charters, now Global Limo Inc., led to a state investigation that found several violations. No enforcement action was taken, according to 58 pages of records released Wednesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety. No one...

SAN DIEGO -- Greyhound Lines Inc., the nation's largest intercity bus company, has threatened to fire employees who sell bus tickets to illegal immigrants under an internal policy that some Hispanic advocacy groups are calling an invitation to racial profiling. The "Transportation of Illegal Aliens" policy warns Greyhound's customer service employees to beware of people in large groups, moving in single file and traveling with little or no luggage. It says other telltale signs include people "trying to hide or stay out of plain view" or large groups led by a "guide" who holds everyone's tickets. Greyhound also says immigrant...

WILMER, Texas — A bus carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire and then was rocked by explosions early Friday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing as many as 24 people, authorities said. "Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman Don Peritz said. He said he believed 24 people were killed, but added that that number could change. The bus was carrying 43 people who had been traveling since Thursday from a nursing home or managed-care facility near Houston, Peritz said. Early indications were that the bus caught fire because of...

DEATHS: Bus carrying Hurricane Rita evacuees has exploded on Interstate 45 near Dallas...

...the agency had farmed the work out to a trucking logistics firm, Landstar Express America, which in turn hired a limousine company, which in turn engaged a travel management company...

Go see the update on Rush's website! He's got a GREAT comparison, in pictures, on the difference between how a Red state handles evacuation and how a Blue state handles it. A thousand words, my friends!

THE RIGHT WAY TO USE BUSES See here : http://powerlineblog.com/archives/011749.php

Rick Perry is going to show what a fool Blanco is. Commisioner of Harris County Texas will outclass lying Broussard. Texas will show how it is the corruption of Louisiana dem machine stupid.

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, Gov. Kathleen Blanco still wants one question answered. Where were the buses? Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes. Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, Gov. Kathleen Blanco still wants one question answered. Where were the buses? Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into...

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=1&load=~/PortalModules/ViewPressRelease.ascx&itemid=3157 City Of New Orleans Mayors Office of Communications 1300 Perdido Street, Suite 2E04 New Orleans, Louisiana 70112 504-658-4940 C. Ray Nagin MAYOR FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 19, 2005 Mayor Nagin Suspends Re-Entry Orders Evacuation. Rita Poses Potential Threat to New Orleans. (New Orleans, LA) Mayor C. Ray Nagin suspended re-entry and ordered an evacuation of New Orleans as Tropical Storm Rita moved toward the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is expected to become a hurricane. “Re-entry was going very smoothly this weekend. We made a decision, working with federal authorities, based on our ability to bring people safely back...

Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina raged ashore, Gov. Kathleen Blanco still wants one question answered. Where were the buses? Hours after the hurricane hit Aug. 29, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced a plan to send 500 commercial buses into New Orleans to rescue thousands of people left stranded on highways, overpasses and in shelters, hospitals and homes. On the day of the storm, or perhaps the day after, FEMA turned down the state's suggestion to use school buses because they are not air conditioned, Blanco said Friday in an interview. Even after levees broke and residents were crowding...

ABC News producers probably didn't hear what they expected when they sent Dean Reynolds to the Houston Astrodome's parking lot to get reaction to President Bush's speech from black evacuees from New Orleans. Instead of denouncing Bush and blaming him for their plight, they praised Bush and blamed local officials. Reynolds asked Connie London: "Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?" She rejected the premise: "No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in." She pointed out: "They...

What's the opposite of heroism? Maybe it's the spectacle of the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana trying to shift blame for the destruction of a 287-year-old city away from themselves onto the President of the United States, and finally onto each other. Instead, I think they should consider blaming Kofi Annan. After all, the UN was in charge of the world when the levee on Lake Ponchartrain broke and submerged New Orleans. That would be the same levee Louisiana politicians have resisted shoring up for the past decade. They took half the money Congress gave them...

Narrator: In A.D. 2005, weather conspiracy was beginning. Mayor Nagin: What happen ? Senator Landrieu: Somebody set up us the flood. (spoken in the Flash animation as Someone set up us the flood.) Governor Blanco: We get signal. Mayor: What ! Governor: Main screen turn on. Mayor: It's you !! ROVE: How are you gentlemen !! ROVE: All your bus are belong to us. ROVE: You are on the way to destruction. Mayor: What you say !! ROVE: You have no chance to survive make your time. ROVE: Ha Ha Ha Ha ... Governor: Mayor !! * Mayor: Take off...

Less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina began ravaging St. Bernard Parish with 140 mph winds and a 20-foot storm surge, Coroner Bryan Bertucci made an urgent call to the owner of St. Rita's Nursing Home near Poydras. "I told her I had two buses and two drivers who could evacuate all 70 of her residents and take them anywhere she wanted to go," he said. But Mabel Mangano refused the offer. "She told me, 'I have five nurses and a generator, and we're going to stay here,'" Bertucci said. It turned out to be a tragic decision. On Wednesday,...

During the 2004 campaign our Executive Director contacted the candidates running for Congress from the 5th and 8th Districts to ask about their support for passenger rail. When he reached an aide to the Republican candidate for the 5th District seat, he received the answer, "We support passenger rail only if it pays for itself." Our Executive Director works with political figures day in and day out, so he's something of a diplomat. Had I been on the phone, I would have shot back, "When did I-90 ever pay for itself?" Hanging around conservative Republicans like I do, time and...

Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005 12:39 a.m. EDT Ray Nagin: Flooded School Buses Not My Fault New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Friday that it wasn't his fault city school buses weren't mobilized to facilitate the Hurricane Katrina evacuation he ordered. Appearing on NBC's "Dateline," Nagin was asked by host Stone Phillips: "What was mobilized? I mean were national guard troops in position. Were helicopters standing by? Were buses ready to take people away?" "No. None of that," the Big Easy mayor replied. "Why is that?" an incredulous Phillips asked. Nagin replied: "I dont know. That is question for somebody else."...

I was just watching Fox News Sunday interview Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and I couldn't believe what she was saying. Here's my transcript of part of it. Sorry if I've mangled any of the proper names; I'm not going to go to the trouble of looking them up: Chris Wallace: "Was it incompetent and insulting for Mayor Ray nagin to order a mandatory evacuation, but then to leave buses -- and we have a picture of them -- hundreds of buses idle so that they could be flooded instead of using them to get people out?" Senator Landrieu: "Well,...

Janice, an African American woman, age 55, is all fired up against the Democrats in Louisiana. Said "I bet you those buses were running on election day!"

I sent an email to Alvarez and Marsal (business managers of New Orleans Public Schools) and asked them why they did not make the school buses available to evacuate the citizens of New Orleans. Their answer: Thank you for your question. School buses were not used as all the NOPS transportation employees were also individuals who evacuated the city. Thanks. The answer is cryptic, but to the point.

much like other major stories of our time, we need to start collecting links... here is a great one, this is one of the SMALLER depots that was 1.8 miles from the superdome http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.959694,-90.084414&spn=0.020133,0.046518&t=e&saddr=3000+Canal+street,+new+orleans,+LA&daddr=1500+Poydras+St,+New+Orleans,+LA+70112&hl=en

The more this guy opens his mouth, the deeper the hole... Ray Nagin: School Buses Not Good Enough New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin garnered a ton of publicity with a profanity-laced interview he gave to WWL radio last Thursday, where he blasted President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for not coming to rescue his city in time. However, Nagin's most newsworthy comments - where he explained why he didn't use hundreds of city school buses to evacuate his city's flood victims - went almost unnoticed. Turns out, Nagin turned his nose up at the yellow buses, demanding more comfortable...

This AP photo shows scores of New Orleans school buses sitting in flood waters after Hurricane Katrina - sitting where they sat instead of being used to evacuate thousands of poor people before Katrina hit.

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005 11:38 a.m. EDT Ray Nagin: School Buses Not Good Enough New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin garnered a ton of publicity with a profanity-laced interview he gave to WWL radio last Thursday, where he blasted President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco for not coming to rescue his city in time. However, Nagin's most newsworthy comments - where he explained why he didn't used hundreds of city school buses to evacuate his city's flood victims - went almost unnoticed. Turns out, Nagin turned his nose up at the yellow buses, demanding more comfortable Greyhound coaches instead. "I...