Posted on 09/08/2005 11:21:49 AM PDT by Birdstrike
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 Greyhound coaches instead.
"I need 500 buses, man," he told WWL. "One of the briefings we had they were talking about getting, you know, public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out of here."
Nagin described his response: "I'm like - you've got to be kidding me. This is a natural disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."
While Nagin was waiting for his Greyhound fleet, Katrina's floodwaters swamped his school buses, rendering them unusable.
'You can't make it up' What else is this guy hiding that's going to come out?
HAHAHAHA! Right, so because there are no bathrooms, its better to not use them and leave people behind to die...
BRILLIANT logic...
"If you're going to rescue me, rescue me in style and comfort or don't rescue me at all!"
Who says nobody learned anything from "The Great Society"?
..and those TVs better be working too!
Another aspect of the bus story needing more attention is to get a handle on the number of buses in the Baton Rouge School District and the number of municipal buses in the city of Baton Rouge.
There are likely 300 school and municipal buses in Baton Rouge that could have been used on Saturday and Sunday before the storm hit to evacuate the New Orleans residents.
Then on Tuesday those same 300 or so Baton Rouge buses could have first hauled the entire Louisiana National Guard to the Superdome and return with the people who had stayed in the Superdome.
If Nagin and Blanco had half a brain they could have handled the entire situation all by themselves.
Instead, I fear that those politicians who are enablers for the welfare class, become just like the welfare class they have created. Namely, these liberal politicians can no longer think for themselves, but instead wait for a higher level of government to tell them what to do.
I assume Mayor Nagin poses no threat To Mayor Guiliani in ths sales of books on leadership. The first response to any local problem must come from local authorities.
I have no problem agreeing with the fact that Nagin is negligent in not following the NO evac plan. I would, however, like to hear both his and the governor's rationalization for not doing it. I don't think we've heard it yet. I imagine it will be as lame as any excuse we've heard so far.
"...I fear that those politicians who are enablers for the welfare class, become just like the welfare class they have created. Namely, these liberal politicians can no longer think for themselves, but instead wait for a higher level of government to tell them what to do...."
Agree. And not just the politicians but the masses as well. The left gets this entitlement group-think out there all the time - and the right generally does a poor job refuting it. This story is such an example, and there are more.
Where are the Republican Congressmen taking to the floor of the House in "outrage" at the decisions of the Ray Nagins of this disaster?
Like the illustrious Mayor Berry of DC:
"The damn b$tch set me up!!"
"Uhhh, I mean that Katrina's b$tching a$$ set me up!! No way the DNC machine would hang my black a$$!! They promised me that would never g d happen!! Somebody needs to get off their f'n a$$ and do something!!".....(R. Nagin's ranting privately to his staff.) [img src = ??? Sarcasm on.]
There have been at least 3 different photos with buses sitting in water up to their eyeballs, with counts surpassing 570. That's just school buses. In addition, Don't-Blame-Me Nagin had authority to call on the 367 Rapid Transit Authority (around-town) buses, plus 36 "special needs" (handicap-equipped?) buses, plus 26 additional contract buses, all of which sat unused and flooded out. But none of them would be as plush as the Greyhound lines, certainly.
"I have no problem agreeing with the fact that Nagin is negligent in not following the NO evac plan. I would, however, like to hear both his and the governor's rationalization for not doing it...."
I would too. Too bad we can't find a MSM journalist willing to ask such tough questions. Yet they don't hesitate to broadside Bush with all kinds of curve ball questions. The CSPAN press conferences of the admin spokesmen have been brutal. Nobody in this administrtaion knows how to hit back.
Soft lights and cool jazz for hizzonor's hookah therapy.
You see, Hizzoner thought it would be cruel to make people ride an uncomfortable school bus for a few hours, but had no problem stuffing them in the Blunderdome so they could fight & fear for their lives from gang thugs and wade through pools of crap.
"You don't understand, man; New Orleans is a party town." They can't be troubled to be a little uncomfortable and ride in the big cheese to save their lives.
I guess Hizzoner never heard of rest areas on the interstate. And the last time I heard, Greyhound was a private company, not subject to the bidding of a government official.
It's not going to be enough to vote those leftist idiots out of office. Once off the public payroll they would simply find another gig until they felt that nobody remembered how stupid they were in this crisis. They would run for public office again and win again. The governor, the mayor, and all their cronies need to become wards of the state, as in inmates.
I work next door to our city's school bus yard and would estimate there are easily 200 buses parked there. This number takes care of the children of a city with a population of 50,000. With NO's population running near 500,000, it's feasible to think they had as many as 2000 buses.
BTW, I mentioned this premise to my husband the other day as he does work for the city school bus barn. He reminded me that many buses are parked at individual driver's homes to be closer to the start of their routes. He guesses we have at least 250 for a population of 50,000.
My prediction: Mayor for Life, just like our friend Marion Barry.
This exposes why Nagin is such a stupid jackass. He never went to school because he'd rather die than ever stoop to ride a school bus. He just naturally assumed that people stupid enough to elect him Mayor, must surely feel the same way.
I know what you mean. I can't watch them, the spokesmen are so overmatched. McLellan might be the worst press secretary I've ever seen. He has that deer-in-the-headlights look to him.
Let's not forget that with Bush declaring a national emergency before the storm that if Louisiana had also declared a mandatory evacuation on time they probably also could have ordered AMTRAK to send a train into New Orleans on Saturday and maybe even on Sunday to evacuate people.
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