While Bush fiddles, New Orleans dies

Newsday ^ | September 4, 2005 | Jimmy Breslin

[Dr.Deth]

Tedrall: In the end, the only difference between people is whether or
Tedrall: not they have money.

Dr Deth: In the end, the only difference between people is whether or
not they earn money.

[Travis McGee]

No doubt.

[gitmo]

I have it on good authority that Bush can't fiddle.

If you wanna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band.

[ckilmer]

The Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan specifically stated that people without private transportation were to be transported on public buses. Here is the original post of the plan

There were not just "200 buses". There were 200 buses in just one photo and Freepers studying the post-Katrina satellite images have counted over 400 buses altogether at other city parking.

At 70 people per bus that is 28,000 people per round trip that could have been taken out of the storm surge area in the 48 hours prior the Katrina striking.

After the storm hit, what makes you think that buses sent from outside of New Orleans could drive through the flooded mess any better than the 145 New Orleans city buses that were parked 1.2 miles away from the Superdome?

Was Scotty supposed to beam the outside buses to the Superdome and them beam them back out so that they would not have to drive through impassable roads?

The time to evacuate those 200,000 low-income people on public buses OUT OF THE STORM SURGE ZONE was BEFORE the Category 4 storm struck.

That was what the Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan for New Orleans specifically called for.

The Democrat Governor and the Democrat Mayor did NOTHING to carry out that portion of the plan. They left 200,000 low-income resident abandoned and they now blame the Federal Government for not having Scotty beam down a massive logistics effort after a human disaster of their own making.

[gitmo]

Somebody had a thread earlier today based on an article from a year or so ago. The article told how many buses New Orleans had. I wish I had bookmarked it, because I can't find it now. It counted school buses + city buses. I seem to recall it was in the thousands, but I could be suffering brain fade there. Hopefully, we can get that number again.

[ckilmer]

I've seen that number too. It may be posted at this link

[RGSpincich]

In a world where there is a law against people ever showing their emotions, or ever releasing themselves from the greyness of their days, a drink is not a social tool. It is a thing you need in order to live.
--Jimmy Breslin

If you call walking around in a cloud living. This boy can't handle his mud.

[M1911A1]

Well, if you look at it in a shallow sort of kid way, the second kid really has some insight.

"Clinton would have screwed up just as bad, but at least he would have made them feel good while he did it."

Let's apply the famous Clintoon parse to this: "Clinton would have screwed up just as bad"... Clinton would have had as much effect as Bush on the initial response (first couple of days). True, the President of the United States is not the Mayor of New Orleans nor the Governor of LA, and as such had little to no effect on that time period, so it matters not who was in the White House as far as the speed of federal response goes.

"...but at least he would have made them feel good while he did it.": True. Clinton would not have the rabidly hostile legacy media blasting him, and the same idiots who are howling "It's Bush's fault!" would be mollified by the image of Clinton biting his trembling lower lip has he announced that he felt the pain of the region.

I dislike Slick as much as anyone, but there is something in his makeup that might have been an asset in all this. President Bush, if he has erred at all, appears to have made the mistake of expecting some competence in the local government of the state of LA and the city of NO. President Clinton, if his pollsters caught any hint that the incompetence of the locals might reflect badly on him, would have dealt with them rather harshly, I think.

This would not really have any effect on the pace of disaster relief, but we would be spared the continuing statements being issued by Blanco and Nagin. If this would balance out the grandstanding of Clinton that we would have to endure instead is hard to say.

[M1911A1]

Ping to #40, a good summary, I think.

[aworldtrader]

Yep

[MindBender26]

I wonder how many buses departed with the driver and his/her family only?

One guy was smart enough to steal one and evacuate his neighborhood!