Matt Drudge Blasts N.O. Mayor Nagin

[Robbie Michaels]

I went to Drudgereport.com a few minutes ago, and look at what I saw on the left-hand column...

WHY DIDN'T YOU DEPLOY THE BUSES DURING THE MANDATORY EVACUATION, MAYOR?...

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

http://www.drudgereport.com/

The photo above the caption is the AP photo showing the flooded school buses. Never mind that this ingrate will literally throw anyone under the bus to cover the ass of the POTUS.

All I have to ask is WHO IS GOING TO DRIVE THE BUSES? They can't drive themselves, and we cannot expect the regular riders (schoolkids?) to drive.

What a stupid question to ask. But what else can we expect from a self-important partisan hack who is no better a journalist than you or I.

[Zynx]

1. Vehicles present. Logistical plan to implement - not present.

Not sure whose fault that was, but it's not as simple as just "starting to use busses."

[marshall]

8. Like Shakespeare said

at the end of Romeo and Juliet---all are punished! I think there's enough blame to pass around to everybody. Hopefully cities large and small across the country will look to Galveston and Savannah and other cities that have a workable evacuation plan (beyond "get em in cars and buses). Or we will decide as a country that it is something that is just beyond state and local authorities and we will just pass the power completely to the federal government and the military.

[bribri16]

26. Talking point from Rush and Hannity to deflect criticism from Bush.

It's a fucking pattern with these idiots.

[xultar]

2. OK So like I don't go to Drudge for a reason. Why do people post

his shit here?

I HATE DRUDGE!

[CatWoman]

4. besides -- that shit was there two days ago

[still_one]

5. I don't go to drudge either

and pretty much feel as you do, but I do understand that some people believe we need to know what the enemy is doing

[still_one]

3. drudge is a a front for the neocon echo chamber

[Spazito]

6. LOL, Drudge is SO full of it

He wants to save his guys ass so bad he is desparately trying to point elsewhere, won't work. You are better off to stay away from his site, he only takes your money and feeds his readers shit.

[Zen Democrat]

7. That "plan" was dated January 2000.

This was before there was a Department of Homeland Security. That changed everything. Now Homeland Security has full authority for natural disasters - evacuations included.

[Robbie Michaels]

28. Glad You Pointed That Out

I know it's revolting at times to check out what the "unenlightened" half of the country is doing, but if you want to combat their talking points it requires seeing what they're up to.

That's why I go to Drudge. He has a radio show on Sundays and you know the bootlickers listening in will have their talking points on Monday morning.

Not to mention the crap Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity will spew Monday or Tuesday morning as well.

[RSchewe]

37. Sorry but you are just giving weight to his crap n/t

[Igel]

30. There's another thread saying that *'s legal team prepared

a memo and presented it to gov. Blanco late Friday asking that control over the evacuation/NOLA be turned over to the Feds.

That thread's properly turned into an anti-* shitstorm, as you can well imagine.

But if DHS has full authority, doesn't that mean that the memo was pointless, since Blanco had no authority to turn over?

[Historic NY]

9. Drudge is such an asshole...........n/t

[libhill]

17. Not to mention

pond scum and fecal matter. I don't waste time on the wind bag. I'd sooner drink snake venom.

[Scurrilous]

10. Bill O'Reilly:

"I just want to tell everybody that Matt Drudge is smoking crack - right now, in South Miami Beach on Washington Avenue.."

[clmbohdem]

11. Freeper land was chewing on this lastnight

This maybe the next round in the blame game. It will be interesting to learn who/why chose the Superdome over a huge bus convoy. I was under the impression that FEMA is in control of the actual evacuation.

[qanda]

12. They are ABB, Anybody But Bush

Blame anybody but Bush.

[klebean]

13. Harry Connick jr reported on CNN's fundraiser

that one of the Neville brother's daughters found a bus and evacuated people out.

This issue should be investigated. I hope it is not Nagin's oversight, as the freepers
assert. IMO there was obviously too much bureaucracy.

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. Save OUR little Georgie! Save our little Georgie!

Give it up. It's pathetic.

[Spazito]

20. That was one abandoned bus, it would not have helped

the hundreds of thousands that were needing help. Focus on the real culprit, Homeland Security and FEMA, they failed miserably.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Here's your answer, and a clue for Drudge

I count about 220 buses in the Drudge photo. Let's project high and say he had 400 buses. The emergency plan, developed in coordination with the state and FEMA, should have called for the use of those buses to evacuate people. Let's say 50 people a bus, and say that could have gotten 20,000 people out. The plan should have called for a mustering point in the Lower 9th Ward, and it should have called for the use of the Louisiana National Guard to flush out, sort, and prioritize evacuees by age and health status. That plan didn't exist, and that is the joint responsibility of the city authorities, the state authorities, and FEMA. That would be the optimal use of those buses. But even if that optimal plan were in place, you obviously would have had the problems of sorting and prioritizing, and you still would have left 100,000 behind. That's the rub. Even accepting full blame for Nagin on the buses, the catastrophe would have still happened, and the response from FEMA would have still been as pathetic. Suppose the plan is to evacuate the hospitals. That could have been done with the 400 buses, although you'd have to then reduce the number of people evacuated significantly, since you'd also have to move medical equipment and personnel.

The answer, then, is: Yes, the mayor, together with the coordinating agencies at state and federal levels, should have composed a better evacuation plan. True. I accept that. It's obvious that those buses should have been deployed. BUT.

1) There would have been a significant number left behind even if those buses had been worked into an evacuation plan.
2) FEMA and DHS would have had to have been involved in the use of those buses, since the city would not have the logistical resources to muster, sort, and prioritize people without the NG (imagine the panic of being among 10,000 fighting for the 400th bus!)
3) Even with that reasonable criticism of local officials, the federal government does not escape its responsibility for what DID happen in terms of a slow response. Because something different could have happened if someone else had acted differently doesn't make you any less responsible for what DID happen. DHS and FEMA proved themselves to be worthless in an emergency situation; the President stumbled about in indifference for several days as a major security situation escalated beyond control, and the federal apparatus - which has sold itself as the preparedness apparatus - proved to be unable to prepare.

Those are your answers. Go forth.

The truth is that the School Bus Claim mis a diversion from the major failing here: the inability to move quickly to save a major population once a disaster was imminent and escalating. No school bus picture buys the federal agencies - DHS and FEMA - out of that charge, and no school bus picture can wipe away the picture of the "security president" playing guitar and yucking it up while thousands of American citizens were drowning in their homes.

[Junkdrawer]

19. Excellent post !

:thumbsup:

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Well said!!

Don't forget the prez eating birthday cake with McCain on Tues.

[Birthmark]

15. I wonder where Drudge thinks those buses...

...should have dropped off all those people; and if those buses can carry 200,000 people in the time Nagin had; and if the City of NO could have afforded to do any of that?

'Drudge spouts bullshit to let Bush off hook' should be the title.

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. At 50 people a bus, they would have only needed 4000 buses

Funny, I only see about 220 in that Drudge picture. You'd also need 4000 drivers. Suppose you could load 50 at a time. Loading, say, 1 person on a bus every 10 seconds (allow for faster and slower), and giving a ten minute interval between buses (now, you're moving people from their homes, maybe forever, so you can see how generous this calculation is), and assuming you could load 50 buses simultaneously at a uniform rate. Each load of 50 buses would take 8.3 minutes (that's for 2500 people). You would need 80 loads, so that's 80 X 8.3 plus 78 X 10 (78 intervals) = 1444 minutes, divided by 60 = 24 hours. It would take 24 hours, with everything running smoothly, and 50 buses loading at a time, and 4000 buses available, to load 200,000 people on to buses and move them out of the City of New Orleans. let's cut it down to 100,000 people, and say 12 hours. This is assuming that you have everybody prepared and in one place and space for loading 50 buses, and lines that would allow 10 second per person loads, and no snags, difficulties, or conflicts. Let's even be reasonable and say that you can cut the number of buses by 25% through return trips. You've also gassed up your buses and encountered no traffic. You'd need 750 buses making flawless round trips and a population loading on at 10 seconds a person. And it would then take 12 hours.

Any cretin knows that even this rosiest of scenarios is impossible on short notice, yet this is what the Drudgites would expect to have happened with those 250 (max) buses in their stupid little picture. Any fool knows that this is a laughable objection. Any child knows it. Not the Drudgites. Only reason and a 20 cent calculator is necessary, but the Drudgites lack the first, and the ability to use the second.

[Roland99]

18. Sludge took a paragraph OUT OF CONTEXT...Answer here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2059983


Also, we don't know when those buses were flooded or even if they're in Orleans parish.

[lynne]

21. I'm not necessarily a fan of Drudge -

- but he does have a point. Didn't a kid steal one of the buses and pick up people along the way, saving almost 100 people?

Even a half-assed attempt at using them would have saved many, many lives. Isn't it better to save some than to not try at all?

We can only hope that other cities take a lesson from this and make a better plan for emergency evacuation.

[madrchsod]

22. add this

were thre 220-400 qualified drivers?
how many buses may not have worked?
where were they going to go?
where were they to get fuel?
what kind of fuel?
how were they to purchase the fuel?
where were they to pick up people?
who was going to keep track of the buses?
and the list goes on......
drudge can go fuck fuck himself with his pocket rocket for all i care

[TheWebHead]

23. during the actual hurricane

there were only 10,000 at the Superdome, and they could have held over 20,000... If they weren't willing to go to the city to wait it out there, I doubt anyone would have been willing to take a bus probably as far away as Houston to avoid the hurricane. But the right is grasping at straws. Look at how the right was all over France last summer for the heat related deaths... Or even Faux blasting the police in Florida or those three kids who died in the trunk. The wingers all of the sudden are silent with the finger pointing when likely over 10,000 people have died despite a ton of warnings about NO

[LSK]

24. 800,000 people got out - FUCK YOU DRUDGE

WHAT GOOD ARE BUSES ON TRAFFIC JAMMED HIGHWAYS. THE DOME WAS A GOOD PLAN AT THE TIME. THE LACK OF FEDERAL AID ON MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY IS THE ISSUE!!!!!!!!!!!

[applegrove]

25. Now that the mayor knows that Bush was intent on standing down and

not sending any aid...that hadn't been asked for my him... because he assumed Bush had gotten the letter...and

GAVE A FUCK SO WOULD PUT THINGS INTO PLAY

.

Now we know!

[chalky]

31. Hey! What happened to, "Now's not the time to point fingers", Drudge???

:sarcasm:

[aikoaiko]

32. Its a fair criticism of the mayor.

people intent on exploiting this situation for political gain will only blame one side. people who really want to hold people accountable will hold the mayor and governor accountable for leaving the poor in NOLA and Shrub and the fed for not rescuing them afterward.

[chalky]

33. Did you read any of the other posts, such as post #14?

Might be worth a visit.

[aikoaiko]

35. yesm and there were plenty of buses and personnel statewide

to evac nola's poor.

it would have cost money -- thats the problem.

[aikoaiko]

36. It was possible to get more poor out and choices were made....

to not utilize statewide or citywide resources to get more poor out.

This is no way reduces the fantastic crap job Bush and his FEMA appointees performed after the hurricane hit.

[Sparkly]

34. Would that have worked, given what was happening on the highways?

I kept thinking, during the time people were trying to get out and stuck, that there should be a way to get planes in there and lift people out, BEFORE the storm hits. But iirc, quite quickly people could not get out by road. No?

[moondust]

38. Ask Drudge why FEMA didn't request use of those buses. eom