The sad thing is that we'll still be battling all this misinformation when the next election rolls around. Three years after it's all been thoroughly discredited, libs will still be spewing in righteous anger over Bush's racially-motivated failure to save New Orleans despite his powers to teleport aircraft carriers and his enormous budget surplus.

OT - Ace, did you see Traffic Santa's latest swipe at everybody's favorite gobsmacker?

Under water (click) Under water (click) Under water (click) Under water (click) Under water (click) Under water (click) . . .

Ace (and all reading), Landrieu won Louisiana (over an equally abominable Suzanne Haik-Terrell) simply by carrying Orleans Parish.

Tack onto this a released off-camera comment by Blanco saying (I'm paraphrasing, but you may be able to find the comment) "I should have called for military in the first call, but I didn't want to put good people at risk". What precisely is that supposed to imply?

I think, after watching the broad view of what's happening with the media coverage, is that the Dems are now panicking at the stories coming out of particularly Houston, where people in shelters are saying, "I've got nothing to go back to in New Orleans, and the opportunities here are boundless." Translation- the fulcrum of power, the largest population center in Louisiana, is apparently going to leave Democrat control. (okay, all of you quit weeping)

Like you said, Russert made Nagin his bitch yesterday, and Chris Wallace (God, I love that guy) laid a serious beating on Landrieu. Blanco refuses to get anywhere near a talk show, knowing full well that the few remaining journalists out there will annihilate her. So the remaining answer is to initiate the "Star Trek" defense- it works on TV, why doesn't it work here? Maybe President Martin Sheen, with his dropout doctorate in I-know-how-to-run-the-world can tell us...

BTW- time to tip the cap to some extremely gracious and wonderful Carolina Panthers fans in Charlotte yesterday- they did raise nearly $200K for relief efforts, and gave away about 350 tix for displaced Saints fans. The ovation they gave the Saints coming on the field was quite generous.

No rubbing in Saints and LSU victories today. Ace, I apologize in advance of next week if you're a Giants fan.

tmi3rd

Sorry, almost forgot- yes, Landrieu is an idiot. Her brother Mitch, the lieutenant governor, has had the good sense to stay waaaaaaaaay the hell away from cameras after the first couple of days- where, in fairness, he got out there and started pulling people out of the water.

She also gets extreme negative points because she was a major-league bitch to my wife when she was interviewed on our previous employer's station... but hey, that's personal, right?

BTW- their dad, Moon Landrieu, was a long-time mayor of New Orleans... for all the good it did us.

I swear I'll shut up for a while after this one- one of our colleagues interviewed Blanco within about a year after she was elected, and made the following remark, more or less... "My God, that may be the single least-intelligent person I've ever talked to. She couldn't respond to a single question on her own, without looking to her press secretary. God help us if something major ever happens to the state."

Irony, thy name is prophecy...

tmi3rd

I was living in NOLA in 1996 when Landrieu won her seat.

She only won (with less than 1% margin of victory) because she was up against a Republican (Woody Jenkins) who unfortunately was certifiably insane. You'd think that she would have done better against a guy with an obvious severe mental impairment and all, but there it is.

During their big debate on TV, at one point Jenkins changed the subject from whatever the hell it was they were talking about, looked straight into the camera and said (I kid you not), "That's very interesting, ma'am, but that doesn't explain why your husband was sneaking around my house last night!"

The way he delivered the line, I think he expected the Vincent Price/soap opera heavy organ music to be cued up. Dum-dum-DUUUMMM!!

Landrieu was genuinely confused, as were the rest of us.

"My husband was not sneaking around your house last night," she said. Her deadpan delivery made it even funnier.

"Well," Jenkins continued, "I saw him out there, outside my house, and I don't know what he was up to ..."

I wish the blogs had been around back then, because the incident didn't get any national play, though it clearly deserved it. It was a surreal moment, even by Louisiana standards.

I'm more than halfway serious when I say that I could listen to y'all's crazy storeis about LA politics all day long.

"... sneaking around ... scaring our children ..."

Bush sighed, People fried

"Sneaking around our house last night?"

Sweet heavens, that guy sounds like comedy gold.

Up here, we have some entertainment value from the Green party. During the last gubernatorial election, the green candidate ran an ad that suggested the Democratic candidate, John Baldacci, was in the mob.

Sample from the ad:

"You wanna roll the dice and trust Baldacci?" the narrator in the ad asks. "If he flipped, he can flop - bada-bing, bada-boom - know what I mean?"

The phrase "bada-bing, bada-boom" can be found in many organized crime-inspired movies and is also the name of a strip club in the popular HBO series "The Sopranos." As the ad closes, the narrator concludes Carter would never support casinos at any time, "not now, not ever. Never. In other words, fuhgedaboudit."

The phrase "fuhgedaboudit" - also featured on the "The Sopranos" - is then superimposed across the screen.

It was hilarious stuff.

The exchange would have been funnier if it hadn't also killed my hopes of watching another crooked Louisiana Democrat (but I repeat myself) go down in defeat.

I'm wondering if I should use the IQ's of the Mayor, Governor, and Senator as my Pick 3 numbers today? BTW, Rush is playing the Russert/Nagin clip now.

Those 250 MPH aircraft carriers are whites only, too. I'm surprised Nagin didn't mention that.

Favorite bit from that MthePress interview was this (paraphrasing from memory):

Russert: "Mayor Nagin, between 2002 and 2005, $XX million of federal funding was spent to study hurricane preparadness ... how was that money spent?"

Nagin: "Now you have to remember Tim, I've only been mayor for 3 years, so I wasn't around for all of that ..."

"preparedness"

Landrieu was genuinely confused, as were the rest of us.

Seriously, there's a difference between confused and stupid.

Confused is insisting that "plipifity" is a word in a scrabble game because you remember hearing it on Hollywood Squares 30 years ago.

Stupid is eating your scrabble pieces because you think they look like M&M's.

Ace, a little secret-- OF COURSE our aircraft carriers have warp drive. Only problem is, when they engage them, odds are you're gonna get sailors fused to the decks. Nasty stuff.

Oh, and our carriers routinely travel backwards in time to face the dilemma of stopping the bombing of Pearl Harbor before it occurs. Hell, it happens so often, they practically made the whole "paradox scenario" S.O.P. for Nimitz-class carrier commissionings.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm sure she's dumber than a sack of wet mice, but in this case, the loyal opposition had a chance to swat her down but they put up a freaking loon.

Martin Sheen or no, I love that stupid movie.

Must. Learn. To close. Tags....

Amazing how local and state politicians could get away with so much years ago.. it bugs me that Bush isn't very articulate, but that isn't the same as stupid. I know Reagan got the same knock about being "dumb" (anybody that saw him debate William F. Buckley on Firing Line on whether or not we should turn over the Panama Canal would haev dismissed the dumb charge right then and there).

Texas has a pretty good crop of real dumb Republicans... two that come to mind are Bill Clements (former governor and member of the board of regents at SMU when he admitted on camera they knew SMU football players were getting paid - oops), and Clayton Williams, who got burned by his big dumb mouth until he gave away his clear shot at the governor's mansion.

Michael Brown just resigned.

that my fundamental assumption was get as many people to safety as possible, and that the cavalry would be coming within two to three days, and they didn't come.

The cavalry showed up late Thursday and in force Friday. Gee, that seems like 3 days to me. 72 hours is a damn good response time for the Feds and is about what you can expect from a major hurricane.

The Mayor is bad enough but Sen. Mary "But They Were Underwater" Landrieu is just an idiot.

"(Sorry, Megan, she did.)"

It's okay Ace, I'm starting to feel a little exasperated with my dear darling aunt as well. Oh nevermind, it's just politics, we're going to ignore this at Christmas as usual.

I hope they have Landrieu and Blanco doing TV interviews a lot! It shows us how dumb Democrats are, and how dumb female Democrats really are. Hillary for '08?

So, if you're not going to move as many folks as possible to shelters outside of town with the buses, (not enough drivers?),

Why not use the bus drivers you can get to move the buses to higher ground in case they are needed?

Meh. I guess foresight isn't big with that crowd.

Why not use the bus drivers you can get to move the buses to higher ground in case they are needed?

Clearly, it didn't take a rocket scientist to operate a bus since a kid stole one and drove peopl to safety. I'm sure the mayor could have found someone willing to help get people out.

First, it was that he wanted Greyhound buses to come. Now, it's not enough bus drivers. What will it be tomorrow?

Hell, I didn't even know aircraft carriers came in fleets. I am so out of the loop...

I'm sure the mayor could have found someone willing to help get people out.

*gasp* I bet some of the people who were going to be on the bus might have been willing to drive it.

Die in a hurricane? or learn quick and escape?
Die in a hurricane? or learn quick and escape?
Die in a hurricane? or learn quick and escape?

Its a trick question right?

The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles (the Earth isn't perfectly spherical; it's bigger at the equator than between the poles).

A knot is a nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is 6076.12 feet, or 1.15 statute miles.

Now, Mayor Nagin tells us that "the United States... can move whole fleets of aircraft carriers across the globe in 24 hours[.]" Assuming that he means the carrier fleets move from one side of the globe to the other (rather than circumnavigating), this means that it takes no more than 24 hours for the carrier fleets to travel one-half the globe's circumference, or 24,901.55 / 2 = 12,450.78 statute miles.

Now, I don't know if these carriers are constrained to major waterways, of if these are those famed "land carriers" we've heard so much about from the boys down at DARPA. So, let's assume the fleets cruise right over, say, Africa, without loss of speed. 12,450.78 statute miles = 10,819.42 nautical miles. If the fleets can cover that distance in 24 hours, they must average (assuming a favorable wind, tide, and current) a minimum speed of 450.81 knots.

I would love to strap Kate Winslet to the bow of that sucker at full speed. "I'm flying!" Yeah, that's what you think, until the blood starts pouring out of your eyes.

Gosh what group of people have experience driving large vehicles and you could ORDER them to drive buses? HMMMM??? Could they have perhaps??? Just maybe??? Asked politely??

THE NATIONAL GUARD TO DRIVE THE FREAKING BUSES???

Might as well have asked for Santa and the elves - these morons were in the grips of a serious tunnel vision mental vapor lock.

Most buses are fairly easy to drive, since most have automatic transmissions these days. Anyone who has driven a large pickup truck or a large van could probably manage okay, as long as they were careful and had people directing them in tight spaces, which I imagine would be handled easily. The major issue would be liability because the driver doesn't have a class B (or is it C?) license.

Let's face it, that kid managed just fine. The only excuse is incompetence.

Jesus. It sounds like she was channeling Rosie the Wonder Retard. Was she wearing a wacky t-shirt? Did she keep saying Ex-uh-lunt?

Nagin and Blanco were not only incompetent, but they seem to be saying that the feds should have know they were incompetent and planned accordingly. And in this, they are completely correct: Bush should have recognized that they were complete fools early on. However, he had a high-functioning idiot of his own over at FEMA, so maybe his hands were already full.

As I keep saying: what a jackass festival.

What I want to know is why he didn't decide to evacuate immediately when all of his bus drivers said 'screw you, we're leaving before the hurricane gets here.' I mean come on, when the people who are supposed to drive the evacuation busses evacuate before you can make up your mind to call for an evacuation, then you have the wrong job.

What a great headline: "Press throws Nagin under the bus."

Let's see: the sum total intelligence displayed by Landrieu, Blanco and Nagin is?

To use a great phrase from the "Get Fuzzy" cartoon strip, "Call M.I.T. We've found absolute zero!"

Ah, yes, Dave,' the Philadelphia Experiment',
reference. Of course, one recalls the cloaking
device/time warp generator, could only travel
between Philadelphia and Los Angeles, not to
the Gulf Coast, doesn't everyone already know
this.

Show any Democrat the photo of the buses and
expect comment not unlike these:

Q: Do you see this photo? What do you have to say about it?

A:"A Halloween dunking tub of Butterfingers in cider"

Q: No, they are buses, buses now sitting flooded and
ruined in New Orleans.

A: "Oh come on, Good N' Plenty must have changed their colors from pink and white to yellow and white. Did they change the flavor too?"

Q: You don't see buses?

A: "Sir, I know what I see. Butterfingers or Good n' Plenty."

Q: If the mayor has trouble getting people to work on
sunny days and rainy days, where can I send my resume?

A:" To the mayor."

Q: Does the Governor have the same trouble, cause I'd sure rather work in Baton Rouge.

A: "Oh, I'd certainly send a resume to her too. You'll
fit right in. What a joker you are. Buses! That's a good one."

"...the 49% of Americans who have been complaining for five years about George W. Bush being a dictator are now vexed to the point of utter incoherence because for the last fortnight he has failed to do a sufficiently convincing impression of a dictator."

http://www.two--four.net/weblog.php?id=P1878

I remember picking up a blonde, big boned chick named Mary at a Mensa meeting in New Orleans in 1984. She was about 30 so the same age...

Naw, it couldn't have been that Mary... at a Mensa meeting?

Did he really say they "wove a tightrope..."? See, that may be part of the problem right there. I would look for the mayor to implement an evacuation plan, but apparently this guy was taking Adult Education classes from an aging hippy who reeks of patchouli.

Mayor Nagin said: "But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans."

The plan clearly addresses the use of buses to be used for evacuations (Supliment 1A (Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan) :
=====

"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."

The Louisiana State Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) further states, (and it is common boilerplate evacuation procedure within a state or local jurisdication) that state and local employees and other resources from unaffected or lightly affected areas can be utilized to help out in heavily affected areas.

There are your buses and your drivers Nagin and Blanco! Where were your brains? Where were your hearts?

They did not follow their own plan to save lives in a time of disaster. In my book, that is criminal negligence.

"Ah, yes, Dave,' the Philadelphia Experiment', reference. Of course, one recalls the cloaking device/time warp generator, could only travel between Philadelphia and Los Angeles, not to the Gulf Coast, doesn't everyone already know this."

Nope, wrong movie. The reference is to the movie "The Final Countdown", starring Martin Sheen, Katharine Ross, and others. Somehow an aircraft carrier gets transported back in time to just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They first have to figure where (and when) they are and then have to figure out what to do about it. I think (I'm not sure) that they have one of those "should we interfere" type discussions about changing the course of history. I remember they do shoot down two Japanese pilots and interrogate them. I think one of the characters stays behind to be with Katharine Ross and at the end of the movie they are an old couple (maybe he's become a senator?)that meets the carrier at the dock after it comes back through the time portal. Everyone on the ship is the same age (more or less) as they were when they left but Katharine Ross and her husband have aged 30 or 40 years.