king of the molehill

some folks look for answers
others look for fights
—grateful dead, playin' in the band

the gop defense of bush by way of attacking mayor ray nagin seems to be focusing more and more on school buses that didn't get used to evacuate poor folk.

you know, it's really easy to toss out a sound bite or a talking point. you can make all kinds of assertions without presenting any evidence to back them up.

refuting them takes time and patience to assemble facts. the whole concept of equal time in a debate gets reduced to absurdity.

yes, the city had a lot of unused school buses, but some did get used and even returned for second loads but wound up stuck in the flood.

remember, on thursday nobody knew katrina was coming to new orleans. the emergency and evacuation weren't declared till saturday. the storm hit the area early monday (just past 7am). no more could be done till it passed, but after it passed, the danger seemed over. the first levee breach didn't happen till that night.

one problem was finding enough drivers on an august weekend.

another was tracking down residents without means to leave but who were willing to go.

another was getting the buses, the drivers, and the passengers together on sunday.

every step was time consuming, and time was very short.