FOXNEWS: Mayor Nagin intervened to help tourists escape New Orleans before people in Superdome

Fox News - O'Reilly | September 2, 2005 | nwrep

[hole_n_one]

CNN ran a little clip "speculating" as to why so many in NO that found themselves in the situation they were in are black.

They mentioned the racial makeup of the city, the lowest lying parts of the city were the poverty stricken regions, and the simple fact that some stubbornly did not heed the call to evacuate.

But, the one that caught my ear was when the narrator said that perhaps they would not be in the dire straights they find themselves in if they would have only voted differently and/or more often.

[Fred Nerks]

"Mr McNeil claimed African Americans in the Superdome had abused foreign tourists and demanded they be rescued ahead of them from the crowded football stadium, where conditions were stifling..."

your comment....And it will be AMERICA that gets the black eye, not New Orleans or even Louisiana...unquote

No, I don't think so. Not while the MSM shows the photographs and identifies the perpetrators, as has The Australian newspaper...Japan, Singapore, Korea and Australia aren't PC enough to hide the truth, are they?

[Eva]

The fact is that many of the locals don't have cars, as is the case in many of the older cities across the country. Public transportation is more than adequate. The buses should have been running before the storm hit.

[RGSpincich]

Nagin did something right.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Yes they should and loaded with people headed away from the storm.

[chuknospam]

Perhaps he feels a certain amount of liability because he exempted hotels & motels from the evacuation order.

www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?base/news-18/1125239940201382.xml&storylist=louisiana

[swheats]

Some would argue that's just good old southern hospitality looking out for visitors and strangers in their midst.

[combat_boots]

The Mayor put his family on a plane on Friday/Saturday, it seems, but told the hotel folks they could stay......................

[airedale]

Actually it makes sense. The tourists have homes to go to and once out of the city won't require support. If they stay in the city they have to be supported by the already strained resources.

[satchmodog9]

he has really stepped in it

[festus]

Nagin is a loser. He'll be defeated next election.

Somehow I don't think they'll be much left to be mayor over even by then.

[claudiustg]

The picture of the school buses sitting in water speaks volumes about the leadership in the state of Louisiana. Yet what we hear from Koppel and others is that Bush somehow should have magically sent a fleet of buses before the storm! These dimwitted liberals are a plague right out of Night of the Living Dead!

[Alberta's Child]

I don't blame Nagin for getting the tourists out first. Since they don't know their way around the city and are lightly-equipped by definition, they can be an enormous liability from a safety standpoint.

[TheForceOfOne]

The Louisiana Superdome turned into a hell hole with many acts of violence reported. With lawlessness comes racial tensions warranted or unwarranted. Whether or not it was the correct thing to do or not is debatable without first hand knowledge of the situation.

A majority of those left inside the city of New Orleans are poor blacks who chose to stay or couldn't afford to leave and they're angry at everyone, the local government, the state government, the Federal Government, and those around them as the survival instinct grows stronger with every passing minute in hell.

I would bet that the racial classes have separated in the chaos with the minority being the whites that are looked upon as more privileged and they're resented. I'm sure some were looked at with the thought that they have had much better lives and with no authority to keep the peace racial paybacks were delivered to these whites who did nothing wrong except for not leaving before the storm.

The more chaos and anarchy the more primitive and tribal the situation will become, reminds me of the the novel "Lord of the Flies"

As hard as we try the human race is still not as civilized as we would like to believe and always one step away from destruction.

This would occur in any similar situation, the fact that it is blacks and whites or Brits is irrelevant. It is not too hard to believe the lives of these Brits were in serious danger from the swarming masses of desperate victims from the hurricane.

[combat_boots]

"Jabbar Gibson(18) took one from that lot, loaded it up with people(70) and drove all the way to the astro dome."

I saw Greta interview him. The folks on the bus took up a collection for gas. They stopped 3 times. There were about 80 people on it.

The kid's got moxy. Moxy.

[festus]

That looks like the upper decks of a parking garage where the busses are located. I don't think the busses could be parked there due to low clearances common in most parking garages.

Your point of course still stands that the busses could have been staged and used, just not where you have them pictured.

[dfwgator]

Now that's a perfect example of Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. The kid would make a good Marine.

[arjay]

They don't blame Nagin. They will always blame Bush regardless of the evidence.

[plain talk]

So what? The tourists knew less of the risk and should have been put to the head of the line. Hardly any of them would have had cars. Heck. All of them should have been evacuated before it hit but that's not what we are talking about here.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Nagin should show up to the Convention Center. He would be lynched by his constituents.

Dream on. It's Bush they blame for this mess. He'd be the one lynched. All across the country people are watching these 24 hour cable networks and wondering why Bush hasn't used the combined resources of all 50 states to fix this mess. They don't blame the Nagin or Blanco. They see this as way too big to be the responsibility of Nagin and Blanco. Above their pay grade, so to speak-- and that's logic that everyone understands and applies because so many people work in a hierarchical structure.

Listen to the politicians in Louisiana. Who are they blaming? You know the answer is Bush. I bet politicians elsewhere are doing the same. I'm really curious to see Bush's approval ratings after this next week. If it were at 35% I wouldn't be shocked. I'm not saying it's fair or justified, just what the perception is. I've talked to family and friends who live all over. They all say the same thing. "Why doesn't Bush fix this? He's the President. He can fix this. He has the power to do it."