[Mavdog]

Originally posted by: LRB

The emergency plan called for 72 hours to evacuate New Orleans, why did Nagin wait until it was too late to get everyone out before issuing the evacuation order? Why did Nagin consistently forgoe using mass transit (buses and trains) to evacuate people? Why did Nagin wait on buses from FEMA to evacuate after Katrina when he had hundreds of city and school buses he could have used?

The initial evacuation order was issued close to 72 hours (Friday morning) before the hurricane hit (Sunday night).
The City does not control the school buses (owned by the Parish I believe).
Why wait on FEMA? That's what FEMA does..

IMO the order of accountability should be as follows:

1. the victims themselves.
2. the Citizens of New Orleans and surrounding areas.
3. The mayor and legislative bodies and other elected officials of local government
4. the appointed local government officials
5. the governor, state legislature and other elected state officials
6. the appointed state officials
7. the citizens of the US
8. the President, Congress, and Senate of the US
9. the appointed federal government officials

So when accessing blame we should start at the top of the list and work our way down instead of the other way around. Yeah there may well be some blame for FEMA, but I think there is a hell of a lot before you get to them. No one who should get a free ride who has made serious mistakes, but the higher up the chain of accountability, the more serious the mistakes are. Some may not have done anything wrong, and they should be absolved of blame. But I'm completely against using the Democrat model of accountability:

1. Bush
2. Bush appointed officials
3. Other elected Republicans
4. Other appointed Republicans
5. Other republicans in general
6. Big Business
7. Rich Americans
8. White Males
9. White Americans

This is pure stupidity IMO.

well, you conjured up this list, and as it truly is a product of your own mind, if you want to call it "stupid" you certainly have the right....