Wednesday, October 05, 2005

The Curious Case of the New Orleans Buses

Paul of Wizbang appears to come across pictures that are even more damning than those of the Mayor Nagin Memorial Motor Pool. They show a school bus depot within the control of the Mayor that escaped flood damage and yet those buses went unused throughout the entire crisis at the Superdome. He asks why - and proceeds to proclaim the Mayor an even bigger idiot than first imagined.

Now, there is some confusion over the timing and location of the photos, as Rusty at the Jawa Report initially pointed out. People who aren't familiar with the locations could be confused into thinking that these buses weren't New Orleans school buses. Or, they could be confused because of when these pictures were taken.

After reading both sites, I think there's only one conclusion that can be reached.

Mayor Nagin may be criminally negligent in carrying out his duties as Mayor. Even two days after the storm hit New Orleans, he had the ability to get people out of harms' way and did not do so. There were buses that were not damaged by the storm and could have been used to evacuate people who couldn't get out of New Orleans on their own. Yet, the Mayor did not use them.

And one has to wonder why the mainstream media hasn't bothered to do any research on this matter and present a definitive story or narrative about what happened with the buses? It's not like Rusty or Paul relied on secret documents, or photos that were unavailable to anyone else. They both utilized publically available government obtained photos from the NOAA and satellite imagery.

The newsies could have run with this story, but they haven't. Are they trying not to go after this story because it could be even more damaging to the Mayor than the photos of the buses in the memorial motor pool? Even if you don't ascribe any bias to their noncoverage of the story, it seems strange that no one in the newsroom has tried to flesh out the bus story.

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