The definitive list of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's "genuinely heroic" decisions

On an earlier FR thread, we learned that the BBC has determined that Ray Nagin, mayor of the devastated city of New Orleans, Louisiana, has "genuinely heroic" qualities. I've started this thread to make it easy to keep track of those decisions of Mayor Nagin that can only be described as heroic. The list begins in post #1 below. Feel free to continue it if you find that I've overlooked any of Mayor Nagin's stunningly courageous and far-sighted decisions.

I also noted that there were references to turning all the highways to outbounds and the plan stated it wasn't necessary and would NOT be done in the event of a major evacuation call!

I kept seeing references to the "contraflow" - that is turning inbound lanes to outbound - but EVERY webcam I checked, every news report I watched, every image I saw of the highways NEVER showed that actually being put into effect. I saw bumper-to-bumper traffic outbound and totally empty lanes inbound. This is more evidence that the evac plan was not enacted. Where was the mayor? Where was the governor? Where was the Emergency Management Coordinator?

Here's another to add to your list:

From CNN Miles O'Brien's Hurricane Blog

7:36 PM ET Sunday, 28 August: "New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin told folks to make sure they fill their upstairs bathtubs with water, and in case of real trouble, make sure you have a way of hacking through your roof -- so you are not trapped by rising water. "

Here's another from the same Blog:

7:30 PM ET Sunday, 28 August: "Mayor Ray Nagin, on WWL-AM a few minutes ago, says: "Seventy-five percent to 80 percent of people have evacuated -- 30,000 people have evacuated to the Louisiana Superdome [the primary evacuation site]. Last bus left for dome at 6 p.m. local time. If people still need to get there, they will accommodate. "We are in lockdown mode now."

So, the Mayor only used the buses to take people to the Dome of death and then stopped that buses at 6:00PM. The hurricane didn't hit until at least 12 hours later (time that was lost collecting more people from the dangerous areas). How heroic.

Here's the big picture:

The behavior of the LA pols has been very perplexing; from the Mayor's bizarre out-of-control accusatory frenzies, to his paranoid claim that the CIA wanted to Wipe him out," to paranoid state officials who suspected an attempt by the feds to get control of the evacuation before Katrina hit was some sort of "political trick," to the wholesale attacks on Bush/ the Feds for an "inadequate response" by every stripe of LA politician.

What we are witnessing, these frequent and widespread allegations by LA pols of "criminally inadequate federal reponse to the disaster," is nothing more than a well-orchestrated pre-emptory attack, so that when the FEDS try to start a criminal investigation into the malfeasance and corruption and embezzlement of Federal Emergency/Terrorism Funds in LA and New Orleans, these LA pols will be able to howl: "it's a politically motivated smear campaign on our integrity because we pointed out the failure of Bush to properly handle this disaster! People died! They were black! Bush is a racist criminal! Waaaaaaa!!!"

They are on the preemptory offensive because they fear the inevitable: an investigation that will uncover massive corruption/embezzlement of tax dollars by pols all over LA. The only way the can defend themselves is the same way Clinton got off the hook: make the investigation/prosecution of their crimes appear to be politically motivated retribution for their "whistle-blowing."

I knew I had smelled this stench somewhere before, and now I know what it was: the Clinton administration's machine for handling anyone who dared make any accusation against it; from bimbo eruption suppression to smearing Starr and his team in the Independent Prosecutors Office, we are once again seeing corrupt pols premptorily attack their enemies in order to innoculate themselves against criminal prosecution.

So now I see an article that shows how LA hired Clinton's ex-FEMA director, who set up his own Emergency Management firm in Baton Rouge, and which had a contract for a half a million dollars to develop a comprephensive Emergency Response Plan for Southeast Louisiana. The stench of the Clinton minions is all over this, same criminality; same modus operandi; same techniques for suppressing criminal investigation into their wrong-doing.

That's what this is all about. That's the big picture.

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