Help!! I got this email from a Repuke and need help refuting it...

[renie408]

This guy keeps sending me stuff blaming everything on the local officials. I KNOW I have read things here which refute that, but I don't have any facts on hand. I am sorry to ask, but can you guys help me come up with something to send back to this turd and everybody he is sending this stuff to?


>>This definitely needs to go around, truth has to be told.

(here in the email is an aerial shot of the school buses sitting in the water in NO)





An aerial view of flooded school buses in a lot, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, LA.

The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale)



Cost of 127 buses in a New Orleans parking lot………….. $ 6,300,000.00



Gas to fill their tanks ………………………. ………………$ 11,112.50



127 drivers to drive them all day August 26 and 27.. ………$ 152,000.00



Having a Mayor with the foresight to use them…………… Priceless



127 busses x 50 people each = 6350 people



60,000 people who could have been evacuated by the City of New Orleans on the above buses had the Mayor of New Orleans used the foresight he is accusing others of not using.



60,000 / 6350 = 10 round trip bus trips to evacuate people to higher ground prior to the storm hitting.



Instead, the buses sat, and the Mayor now complains about the lack of transportation, and blames those in charge of responding to the crisis for not getting him buses after the storm!<<

[skids]

1. discussed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4732652

[heidiho]

2. Mayor Nagin said today that there were no drivers

for these buses, they had all evacuated. The city HAD busses and drivers to evacuate. This is just another right-wing attempt to shift the blame back to the city and state level BUT

It Ain't Gonna Work!!!

[astonamous]

3. Simple...

Who's driving and where are they going?

[teach1st]

4. There's a new twist in this one...

127 drivers to drive them all day August 26 and 27

Apparently we're going to have to start bussing people in at-risk areas of the Gulf as soon as a hurricane enters the Gulf.

[ClassWarrior]

5. Don't let him set the debate. Tell him to prove it. To document...

...links or sources for the statistics he cites. Documentary evidence that the buses weren't used. A credit line for the photograph.

And then when he goes silent, pester him about it...

NGU.

[blondeatlast]

11. Exactly. nt

[CTyankee]

13. You are absolutely right

I pulled that on my brother in law. I told him he couldn't talk to me unless he backed up his assertion with cited sources. I looked him straight in the eye and said "You've gotta do better than that!"

Another helpful suggestion: tell the Repub. not to allow himself to be "dumbed down" by the Bush Admin. talking points. Most people, esp. guys, HATE to be accused of being robots not thinking for themselves. It puts them off when you point this out.

[nyhuskyfan]

6. The Mayor needs outside assistance...

He needs a place to send people to. The state government should assist there, but so should the federal government -- they are the ones that can assist with shelters in other states.

Moving people to higher ground is not a solution in and of itself. They also need shelter from a Category 5 Hurricane. When the Hurricane blows through with its 150 mph winds, would you rather be in the Superdome or sitting in a school bus in a New Orleans campground?

[Make7]

7. "I don’t think anyone anticipated breach of the levees...

...Now we’re having to deal with it, and will." - President Bush

Apparently no one knew the levees would fail, why is he blaming the Mayor for not anticipating the flooding?

-Make7

[peacetalksforall]

8. Keep this in the background. The right wing hates helping. They want

to stear away from all programs related to humanity (while all programs that make money for the right wing and all avenues of theft are OK). They don't want to have the federal government aiding in the way they have since Theodore Roosevelt, Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Carter . That is your premise. All they are doing now if poisoning the air and paper with their put down of needy people (killing them off to make a point) and excusing themselves while playing a blame game. They want people to rely on themselves because they don't want the money going to the people who paid for it through their taxes - just as they don't want Social Security and Medicare. Clinton helped them get rid of welfare as we knew it (mismanaged as well as helpful) and they are now on a roll. This is the premise behind the propaganda. Stick to facts - the timeline of who said what will give you plenty of ammunition.

[Celebration]

9. So where do they go?

You load a lot of people on the bus. Where do you take them? NO mayor has no jurisdiction outside the city.

And, a drop in the bucket--round trip to WHAT higher ground. You leave them all outside? No way to do that many round trips either. Nobody would have left that early anyway. Not warranted at that point.

This guy is nuts--completely whacko.

[Sparkly]

10. Snopes says it well

Whether this photograph truly represents a lost opportunity to have evacuated a substantial number of New Orleans residents ahead of Hurricane Katrina is difficult to assess. Such a claim presumes an availability of resources (e.g., experienced drivers, fuel) and workable logistics (e.g., sufficient means of notifying and getting residents to departure points, sufficiently clear roads for multiple trips out of town and back, adequate facilities within a reasonable driving distance capable of providing shelter, food, and water to a large number of people for an indeterminate period of time on short notice) that may or may not have been present. (There's no guarantee that all the buses shown in this picture were even in working condition.) And, given the particular geography of New Orleans, any such evacuation would have had to have begun well in advance of Hurricane Katrina to avoid exposing residents to the potential danger of being stuck in buses on traffic-clogged roads in the path of an approaching hurricane. Moreover, any type of evacuation effort would have incurred a substantial outlay of funds from local and/or state governments — while everyone agrees with the advantage of hindsight that would have been money well spent, many taxpayers might not have been left feeling so enthusiastic about footing the bill for an unnecessary evacuation had Hurricane Katrina not proved so damaging.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/buses.asp

[Skittles]

12. buses do not drive themeselves

also, none of this excuses bush in the least - the bastard defunded the levees, was on vacation etc. It is simply indefensible.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. School Buses were death traps

1. The traffic was so bad that some people had to return to New Orleans or risk being trapped on the road when the hurricane hit.

2. For the elderly especially, putting evacuees on un-airconditioned buses with no bathroom for many many hours? Three seniOr citizens DIED from being evacuated on one of these things:

http://www.wdsu.com/news/4909184/detail.html

This is why the mayor was asking for Greyhounds and drivers.

3. I am yet to hear anyone document the existance of a shelter to handle these evacuees

4. Round trips would have been unlikely because the major interstate highways were using all lanes one-way out of the area. The return would have to be on secondary highways.

5. Ordering the evacuation earlier was impractical because the NOAA Strike Probability forecasts were only 18-26% on Saturday when voluntary evacuation was ordered and 30-35% when the manditory evacuation order was given.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2005/KATRINA.shtml

[kiki]

15. Apologies if anyone here has ever done this, but:

Grown adult using a TV advertising campaign as a basis for "humour": Pathetic.

I frickin' hate those "Priceless" jokes. Not one has ever made me laugh (least of all this one, obviously). Barclaycard ought to be paying these retards who do their advertising for free.