The 'Hard Bigotry' of Incompetence at the NY Times

Today (25 September) the NY Times ran an editorial, “The Hard Bigotry of No Expectations.” It excoriates the Bush Administration for two principle “failures,” the bad response to Hurricane Katrina and the defective Iraq Constitution. Instead, the Times demonstrated that its entire staff is incompetent.

Regarding Katrina, the Times opines, “Four years after 9/11, Katrina showed the world that performance standards for the Department of Homeland Security were so low that it was not required to create real plans to respond to real disasters.”

The Times has dozens of its reporters and editors working on various aspects of hurricane coverage. Apparently, none of these crack “journalists” have yet discovered what the blogosphere has known for two weeks. There WAS an existing Evacuation Plan for Southern Louisiana. It was dated 1 January, 2000. It required (paragraph 5, page 13) the use of “public buses” for those citizens who “do not have, or cannot afford” private transportation.

How can any supposedly reputable newspaper claim that there was no “real plan” for evacuation, in the teeth of this fact to the contrary? There is only one answer. It has been made clear to the entire staff of the Times that facts to the contrary of its established political views will not be tolerated. This is “hard bigotry.”

Concerning the proposed Iraqi Constitution, which recent events show will be approved, the Times opines, “Among other things, the constitution drafted under American supervision does not provide for the rights of women and minorities and enshrines one religion as the fundamental source of law.”

As one of the nation’s leading champions of group rights, rather than individual rights, the Times must be aware that the Iraqi Constitution reserves one quarter of the seats in its new parliament for “women.” Having women in such a strong position is uniquely revolutionary for any dominantly Islamic country in history.

And, if one looks at the United States, women have NEVER reached that level in either the House or the Senate. Women are close to that level in the states, “22.6%, of the 7,382 state legislators in the United States.”

Since it took this country lawyer approximately 15 seconds to Google the percentages of women in public office, surely at least one of the hundreds of “journalists” who work for the Times could have done the same.

Again, the Times is aggressively ignoring facts which undercut its intended political point. Again, this is “hard bigotry.” Isn’t anyone at the Times the least bit ashamed of their shoddy work product?

With all due respect, I have to disagree with you on one point, John. New Orleans did have a "plan" on paper. However, that plan was utterly pathetic. Their lack of a real plan resulted in far higher casualties than necessary.

On September 12th, I posted the following to the thread here on Free Republic: School-buses Showdown: Mayor Nagin v.s Russert:

" 'Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation.'

Anyone who's ever done any real large scale planning realizes that this "plan" was a joke, a sham. The tipoff is this line: Special arrangements will be made. You can't make special arrangements after the fact. The arrangements have to be made beforehand. Prior planning! Everything has to be planned out in as much detail as possible BEFORE the disaster happens. This "plan" has no details at all, and that is what caused hundreds of people to die. That one little paragraph begs dozens of questions.

Who, exactly, would drive the buses? Every bus in the city should have had a primary and two alternate drivers, assigned by name to a specific bus.

Where, exactly, would they go to pick up evacuees? Every bus, regardless of its normal use, should have an emergency packet inside it saying where to go to pick up passengers in case of an evacuation (ie, "Report to the Superdome.") There should also be maps, etc. in the packet.

Where would they fill their gas tanks prior to departure? The city should have pre-arranged with local gas stations for fueling.

How would they account for the people on each bus?

What about the sick and injured? Could some buses be designated as medical buses? If so, do they go to different locations where the evacuees can get medical help? Where?

How many people can each bus take, assuming two bags per person?

Where would they take the evacuees once the bus is loaded?

Would the buses shuttle back and forth from the pickup and dropoff points? If so, what arrangements could be made to backhaul supplies into the hurricane zone from the unaffected areas?

Where do the buses refuel along the way?

I've come up with these questions in five minutes, as I've written this post. Whoever wrote and approved this plan should be held criminally negligent in the deaths of many of the evacuees."

So, although you are technically correct in saying that New Orleans had a plan, what they actually had was just some eyewash.

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