Somebody needs to give New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin the hook.
Take him outta the game. Make him ride the pines. Bench him.
The man does not seem capable of making a sensible decision to save his life. Or others'.
He announces he's re-opening parts of the city.
- except the city has next to no fully-functioning hospital services available.
- what little police force he has left has no time to provide services to anybody.
- water supply is of questionable safety and is unreliable.
- the risk of infectious disease outbreak is considerable
- and oh yea... the coast is only half way! through the hurricane season, and even a relatively mild tropical storm could overwhelm the levees and pumps, wreaking more havoc on the poor, beleaguered city.
What was this guy smoking!
Fortunately, it appears the big boys upstairs read him the riot act, and the next day he decided to change his mind. My favourite part of that article is hearing him talk about how they're taking TS/H Rita "very seriously" and he's "requested 200 buses to assist in an evacuation". Of course, he's had to ask others for the buses, because he turned his own into Nagin's Navy the last time around.
I know there'll be lots of time down the road for the recriminations and punishment, and that now is the time to focus on meeting immediate needs, not partisan bitching, but somebody needs to get Mr. Nagin the hell out of the game before he causes a lot more grief and deaths. Almost inconceivable (and yes, I do know what that word means) ineptitude.
Good take on it, sir. Especially good for such a short post on someone with so many shortcomings.
Books will be written about the guy's mistakes.
How does Canada see the current blame game in the US of A? Does anyone up there see the incongruity of blaming a problem that has existed for the last 70 years on a President who has been in office just over 4 years?
Posted by: Rivrdog | September 22, 2005 at 01:11 AM
Uhhhh yep.. mistakes were made, but they were made when a city was built on water and sand at the "mouth" of the Mississippi River. Dang, that is a BIG River. If something with force pushes at it, me-tinks something might happen to that city. It was just a matter of time. The USA has been told that N.O. would be flushed away if a major hurricane came up on it{FEMA being gobbled up by Homeland "insecurity"!}. Unfortunately the mayor is just one link in a very broken chain. Should be interesting to see what happens now that REAL Rita is knocking on Pres Bush's door.
Posted by: Sallie | September 22, 2005 at 06:57 AM
Rivrdog... Unfortunately, politics here has pretty much devolved in the smae direction. Those with a brain who choose to analyse facts instead of just parroting dogma are fully aware that this disaster was generations in the making. I haven't heard/read many Canadians doing the "blame Bush" thing, but I'm sure they're out there.
Posted by: Light & Dark | September 29, 2005 at 12:18 AM