Talk:Ray Nagin/Archive 3

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Archive This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Contents

Restoration of current commentary

Restored RECENT TALK comments that should NOT be hidden in archieve the SAME DAY they are written. TALK is where consensus and respect is given to differing points of view.Kyle Andrew Brown 16:42, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Mayor Nagin's Responsibilities - for Consensus

I saw this section some time ago and it cleared up a lot of questions for me. I've added a bit to it with Gorgonzilla's help. He provided me a link to the federal plan that further defined and reinforced the state plan's elucidation of Nagin's responsibilities. Yet a few here who seem to think these verbatim quotes sourced to official government documents are POV and should not be included. I still don't understand their "logic." They have blanked this complete section several times. Please take a look at the section and give me your opinion on what changes should be made and/or why this section should or shouldn't be included in the article: Thanks --DKorn 05:19, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Mayor Nagin's Hurricane Katrina Responsibilities

Mayor Nagin's responsibility during Hurricane Katrina was to act as chief parish administrator in ensuring the responsibilities of the parish under both the federal plan, called simply the Federal Response Plan,[1] and the state plan, called the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan [2] were properly accomplished. Chief among the Nagin's responsibilities was to manage designated evacuation shelters and ensure the evacuation of those who could not evacuate on their own.

The federal plan assigns the evacuation responsibility to the local level with this language (p. FSF #8-13)[3]:

"Arrangements for medical transportation should be made at the lowest levels possible. Normally, local transportation requirements are to be handled by local authorities. If it is determined by regional ESF #8 that State or local resources are inadequate to meet the requirements, a State request for Federal medical transportation assistance will be executed at the national ESF #8 level by use of the NDMS patient evacuation component coordinated through the NDMSOSC. Patient regulation will be the responsibility of TRANSCOM’s GPMRC."

The state plan cites the Mayor's responsibility in the following language (Part 1 Section C2b and Part 1, Section D7)[4]:

"The parishes will designate staging areas for persons needing transportation, if necessary"
"Conduct and control local evacuation in parishes located in the risk area and manages reception and shelter operations in parishes located in the host area."

Other critical paragraphs (Part 2,Section B5 and Part 2 Section B12):

"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."
"Risk area parishes will not normally open shelters for a catastrophic hurricane, with certain exceptions. Officials will direct residents to evacuate out of the way of the storm surge. Public shelter located outside risk areas will be needed for large numbers of evacuees."

A statement in the plan that defines the Governor's responsibility toward Parishes is (Part II Section B17):

"As a hurricane causes the need for a mass evacuation from the Southeastern area, the Governor will declare a state of emergency that will require host parishes outside the risk area to open designated shelters."

The plan bears the signature of Nagin's predecessor certifying Orleans Parish's agreement or acceptance of this responsibility and the signature of Governor Kathleen Blanco indicating the Governor's agreement or acceptance.

It should be noted, the Governor's responsibility notwithstanding, the Superdome (in a risk Parish), was the only designated shelter for residents of the city of New Orleans.[5] "

Regarding criticisms of Nagin

I think it hurts the credibility of both the Wikipedia and Nagin if criticisms of him are simply omitted. These criticisms are being made, and so they should on some level be presented here, regardless of whether we consider them valid. Instead, we are simply acting as a sounding board for the mayor's own opinions, rather than providing a neutral perspective on the controversies surrounding him. Moreover, I happen to think that most of the criticisms weighed against Nagin are invalid, and by neglecting to mention them, we have the additional effect of perpetuating them. On the other hand, if we balance out all of the unverified claims with statements to the effect that "the accuracy of this claim has not been verified", etc., we avoid the possibility that people will suspect the Wikipedia of sharing these unverified claims. This seems to me, the much better approach.

And to say that the neutrality of the article is not in dispute is ridiculous. It clearly is. 65.241.152.139 21:24, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

DUDE, all anyone is asking you to do is 1) SOURCE YOUR CLAIMS 2) ATTRIBUTE YOUR CLAIMS TO SOMEONE


this does not include crap generalized statements like "Nagin has been criticized for not providing..." ID the critic, and provide source! --Jentizzle 16:05, 28 September 2005 (UTC) (my sig was deleted for some reason)

DUDE, I've read this article and many articles in the history. It appears a very well sourced (to an official Louisiana Document) section on Nagin's responsibilities under the evacuation plan keeps being deleted. There was a comment I read that this came from a Right Wing blog yet the truth is the section came from the official document. Why is that section objectionable?? Criticism of Nagin, sourced or unsourced, makes no sense unless what he was supposed to do is explained. I'm clearly stating here and now that's why I'm re-adding the section. If you or anyone else removes it or reverts to an article without the section, I expect you or they to clearly state why that has been done. Or do rules only apply to certain people? --DKorn 01:14, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

It is relevant to link to the plan, but selected quotations and the POV interpretation of it is not acceptable. The plan in question is old, from 2000. There are other plans on the web site which are more recent, in particular there is a plan that lists out the agreed federal response [6]. It is for the commissions of enquiry to decide what the governing plan was and whether operational decisions to deviate from the plan were justified or not, it is not the place of Wikipedia editors to do so. That is personal research and highly POV. The text objected to has been removed from the article by 6 separate editors. It seems something of a coincidence that the first edit you would choose to make in Wikipedia just happens to be to revert the article to the version favored by a editor who was banned for revert warring. --Gorgonzilla 04:04, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
Excerpts are necessary to isolate the Mayor's responsibility from the many other responsibilities defined in the plan. There is nothing in the federal plan that modifies any of the Mayor's responsibilities. in fact, the federal plan reinforces the state plan's assignment of evacuation to the Mayor by saying (p. ESF #8-13:
"Arrangements for medical transportation should be made at the lowest levels possible. Normally, local transportation requirements are to be handled by local authorities. If it is determined by regional ESF #8 that State or local resources are inadequate to meet the requirements, a State request for Federal medical transportation assistance will be executed at the national ESF #8 level by use of the NDMS patient evacuation component coordinated through the NDMSOSC. Patient regulation will be the responsibility of TRANSCOM’s GPMRC."
If you think there is something in the federal plan that modifies the Mayor's responsibilities please add whatever text you find that you believe is relevant. What comments do you consider POV? If there are such comments (and I don't agree there are) they should be modified for neutrality, but the section should not be blanked. Hiding relevant facts, or cherry picking only what you want an article to say as you appear to have done, expresses POV and pushes personal spin. If you believe using excerpts can only impart a POV why have you used excerpts from Nagin's comments? Wouldn't your "logic" if not hypocritical require your deletion of those excerpts as well? And why are you answering for Aquillon? He accused me of being a "sock," yet with your answer for him it seems this was a case of projection. I'm restoring the section in the hope that you or your "pal" Aquillon will make the necessary changes to the "POV comments" and add the relevant section from the federal document that will make the section "neutral" in your POV. But I expect your and your friend Aquillon's POV suppression of relevant facts to end forthwith. ----DKorn 17:14, 17 September 2005 (UTC)


GORGONZILLA, I'd like to remind you of a Wikipedia policy I just happened upon and you have apparantly ignored [7]

== Avoidance ==
The best way to resolve a dispute is to avoid it in the first place.
Be respectful to others and their points of view. This means primarily: Do not simply revert changes in a dispute.
When someone makes an edit you consider biased or inaccurate, improve the edit, rather than reverting it. Provide a good edit summary when making significant changes that other users might object to. The Three Revert Rule forbids the use of reverts in repetitive succession. If you encounter rude or inappropriate behavior, resist the temptation to respond in kind, and do not make personal attacks.
Writing according to the "perfect article guidelines" and following the NPOV policy can help you write "defensively", and limit your own bias in your writing. For some guidelines, see Wikipedia:Wikiquette. Also placed on your talk page. --DKorn 18:47, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
I would like to direct everyone's attention to the recent edit history, particularly this, where this user apparently accidently posted without logging in, exposing his well-known IP (209.247.222.89 (talk · contribs)), then logged in as his DKorn sock and attempted to correct it. 209.247.222.89, if you want people to listen to your arguments, you have to make them in good faith; stop creating sock puppets and using them to support your arguments and avoid blocks. It is against policy and can get you permanently blocked. Aquillion 19:01, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

In other words, you would like to MISdirect everyone away from the issue of Nagin's responsibilities and toward a personal attack. My ISP is ATT Worldnet. It is shared by millions of others. I am not the person you claim I am. However, even accurately making such a claim is in direct violation of Wikipedia's rule prohibiting Presonal Attacks. Here is that rule (2nd item in the list)[8]:

==Alternatives==
Instead, try:
  • Discuss the facts and how to express them, not the attributes of the other party. This does not mean that you have to agree with the other person, but just agree to disagree.
* Never suggest a view is invalid simply because of who its proponent is.

Your personal attack has been reported and your refusal to defend your edit here before you chose to make a personal attack has been noted. Comments also placed on Aquillon's talk page. Aquillon has yet to reply on my talk page as per Wikipedia's strongly suggested practices. Has this place always been a sewer? --DKorn 19:21, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

Long John Silver, calm down. There are several comments you made while logged-out below; your IP address is clearly visible in them. Anyone can see that it matches the one you revealed in the accidental post I referred to above. Your IP was blocked recently for 24 hours, and you immediately used two other sockpuppets, which you discarded when they were blocked. In each case, you completely discarded your previous identity when moving on to a new one, created a completely new account with no other edits, and consistantly attempted to revert to the same version; this makes your actions fairly transparent even without the blunder that exposed your IP.
The section that you are trying to revert to in this case violates Wikipedia's no original research policy; you took some carefully-selected documents, compared them to what happened, arranged it to support your interpretation, and attempted to add it to the article as a way of inserting your own POV. That's not how Wikipedia works. If you want to include criticism of Nagin, you need to quote the specific sources where those criticisms originate. Aquillion 21:33, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

WRONG. Not Long John Silver, but more importantly your thesis is wrong as well. My referencing two official government documents isn't original research. Anyone can follow my sources and find the same things I used in my edit. I not only provided links, I provided page numbers and sections as well. Original research is something that can't be verified, such as if I were to post my statistical study on the effect of Hurricanes Ivan, Jeanne, Francis and Charley on the Atlantic Kingfish populations. In the latter case, you would have no access to my raw data and therefore could not verify my conclusions. Once published I can link my study as a reference as it will then be available to all. Capice?

Didn't you even read what you linked? It clearly says:

the only way to verify that you are not doing original research is to cite sources who discuss material that is directly related to the article, and to stick closely to what the sources say.

My quotes were verbatim excerpts of the official documents (I even used Adobe's C&P feature on the federal one) available to all just one click away. Not original. --DKorn 22:03, 17 September 2005 (UTC)


Your quotes were verbatim excerpts; your conclusions weren't. You wrote that section and selected those quotes to lead the reader to a specific conclusion. That conclusion is the result of your original research, not something present in any of your source documents. Aquillion 22:14, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

I didn't issue any conclusions in the section. I merely provided what the documents define Nagin's responsibilities to be and added one of Blanco's responsibilities that impacted upon Nagin. That's not a conclusion. A conclusion would involve an analysis of whether Nagin successfully accomplished his responsibilities. That clearly wasn't in the section. --DKorn 05:36, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Writing a conclusion explictly is not the only way to put one into an article. The section is clearly written to guide the leader to a specific conclusion and to convince them that Nagin failed his responsibilities. That opinion is not widely-held and cannot be placed in the the article--not even in that subtle form--without framing it as a quote from the specific people from whom it originates and identifying their political connections. Aquillion 17:18, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


Beyond, CLEARLY STATE WHAT YOU ADD AND REMOVE TO AN ARTICLE. If you edit parts about criticism AND when the requests for federal assistance came, SAY SO! As a heads up, people (or maybe just one person) have been routinely replacing whole sections of the article, removing lots of properly sourced info and then neglecting to mention it.

This is a huge deal with regard to removal of 1) citation of Governor Blanco's press release of request for federal assistance on August 27 2) FEMA's supporting press release 3) NOLA.COM's supporting press release. Stop it, while I'm still asking you nicely. --Jentizzle 22:27, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
As has been said before, it is not enough to assert "these criticisms are being made." Who is making them? Occasional bloggers? A dog? Random Wikipedia posters? Karl Rove? Anyone who wants to quote criticisms in the article has to prove that they're being made by finding such sources; and they have to properly attribute those claims to the people who are making them. Wikipedia editors cannot include their own criticisms in an article; they can only report criticisms that are being made by others, with proper attribution. The fact that after several days there is still no source for any of those criticisms indicates to me that they are either the original research of Wikipedia authors; or that the sources of these criticisms have so little credibility that the people who want them in the article are embarassed to admit where they're coming from.
The article itself cannot criticize Nagin. Period. Encyclopedic articles are not the the place for such criticism. They can, and should, report criticism made by others when it comes from a noteworthy source and is relevent to the article (as we are reporting Nagin's criticism); but they cannot have any criticism without reporting who it is coming from. Aquillion 22:49, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
The Evergreen Foundation is a Scaife front that has been putting up several comentators to recycle wingnut blog theories in the mainstream media. I much prefer to have the wingnut theories out in the open and examined. The problem is though that a comment on Powerline (not even an article) is not exactly a credible source. The Wall Street Journal article appears to have all the claims. BTW the claim that Bush begged before the storm is a little hard to reconcile with the fact that he stayed on holiday for three days and spent his time giving out cakes and strumming guitars. I don't think that that particular claim is part of the Rove talking points. --Gorgonzilla 01:50, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

If your criticism of Mayor Nagin is based upon your vast knowledge of the Mayor and New Orleans as so conveyed by the national media since Katrina, then you are as unqualified to give commentary as the reporters calling the I-10 bridge the Causeway, stating that water flowing over a levee at one point was flowing into, rather than correctly out of, the city, calling the 9th Ward "a section of the French Quarter". Let the story play itself out and the let the chips fall where they may. But you will see in the end that Ray Nagin did an excellent job given the hand he was dealt, and nobody who's sole source of information has been the national media at this point has any business whatsoever in casting stones at the Mayor.

All this talk about "preparing the Superdome" to be an evacuation center is ridiculous. Any New Orleanian knows it was a "shelter of last resort" and knows it was a place to seek self-supplied refuge from the elements and knows it was meant only for those who had absolutely no way out of the city. Who had no way out of the city you may ask. Not the poor. New Orleans is a driving city. A perpetual summer heat index of 115 degrees makes it so. Everyone either has or knows someone who has a car. Too poor to pay for a hotel? Shelters are always available and, though they may not be the most pleasant environment, they are as comfortable as the school buses people suggest having been used. It's just too bad hurricanes don't cause profuse sweating days in advance, maybe people would have used their cars to get out of the city and Nagin would only have had to deal with the people who genuinely could not have gotten out.

Then regarding his supposed delays for evacuation, did any of you actually see the press conferences before the hurricane or is it just what you heard was supposedly said via the media? Did any of you hear him begging people to leave, telling them this is a killer storm, telling them he could not order a "mandatory evacuation" solely because of legal reasons but that you have absolutely no business being here despite this formality. Does anyone realize that Orleans Parish has its own set of laws seperate from those of its neighboring parishes which very well could have caused him to not act as they did. Does anyone here know about the details of the contraflow plan mandating an order by parish of evacuation. I didn't think so.

THIS IS A PRO-NAGIN ARTICLE

I'm getting the idea now. This is a pro-Nagin article. Any link that criticises Nagin is insufficient. Anyone that criticises Nagin is a "sockpuppet" or a pawn or any of the other names that people here are called. And now, we are being told that "Encyclopedic articles are not the the place for such criticism"? Fine. Will the George W. Bush article be changed to reflect that? Of course not.

Anyone care to look at this Wall Street Journal article "Blame Amid the Tragedy - Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed their constituents" [9]? I quote, "Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation."

"...even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them"

Oh, I forgot - no link is sufficient to claim that the phone call existed, or that the school busses were under water. Even Yahoo pictures are insufficient, huh?

"Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed"

Has Gorgonzolla violated the 3RR rule? How many times has he violated it?

I'm beginning to get the picture, and I NOW understand Wikipedia. The purpose of this is to present biased and prejudiced political opinions. Anyone that questions those opinions is attacked.

It cracks me up now that some of the same documents I originally referenced - documents such as the New Orleans evacuation plan, and Bianco's letter on her .gov website - are now being referenced by CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. Corwin8 00:36, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

The 3RR does not apply when reverting a serial vandal like the Navy troll who has reverted several hundred times and refuses to take any notice of the discussion in talk. If you care to look at the logs you will see that I have actually put criticism sections in to the article several times. Each time the Navy troll decided they are insufficiently POV and replaces them with his crackpot theories which are then deleted or reverted. I suggest you add the WSJ quote in the article, it is the first time a mainstream media journal has been cited. --Gorgonzilla 00:58, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't know what you don't understand. You don't actually have to prove the accusitions against Nagin; Wikipedia isn't a place for arguing over which political claims are right and which are wrong (if it was, every political article would just be an endless revert war.) You just have to say where those accusitions are coming from. All you have to do--all you ever had to do--is edit the criticism section to say that "commentator X has accused Nagin of Y" or whoever you're getting your criticisms from, and report it in a neutral fashion. Then the article is true and neutral regardless of whether the claims are true or not. It's not hard. As long as you're not coming up with them yourself, you just have to think back to the places you've heard them from, and indicate in the article that those are the people doing the criticizing. We can't do it for you; we don't know where you're getting these criticisms from. But it shouldn't be hard for you to do it. Aquillion 01:31, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

O.K., Aquillion, maybe I mispoke. If, for example, I wrote something like: Reporter John Smith remarked that Mayor Ray Nagin failed to put the toilet seat down.[10] Is that the proper format? Corwin8 05:46, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

POV deletions

The POV deletions I have made do not imply that the content deleted is inaccurate. However, as an encyclopedia article content must be constructed that refrains from appearing to be the opinion of the writer. The article can state that an individual said ____ regarding _____. But the content cannot make conclusions based upon those statements. The statements must speak for themselves. Deletions do not imply a bias against Nagin. Deletions are an indication to writers that content must be factual and not opinionated. When, for example, the Governor is quoted as saying "I think the mayor..." that is her opinion and is appropriate for inclusion in the article. To begin the quote saying "The mayor flip flopped when he" is an opinion by the writer of the action. However, to state, "When the mayor did ___ then ____ was the result" that is a statement of fact. Journo 101.Kyle Andrew Brown 07:11, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Inane Dueling Criticisms Section Removed for POV

This is the "Dueling Criticisms" which has been removed from the article for POV:

Thats alright, we have all seen it again, and again and again and again. Long John Silver keeps reverting to the version of this article he wrote several days ago and has been rejected as POV by every single other editor apart from his sockpuppets. It isn't even repeating GOP talking points (which would be notable even if POV) it is his own set of personal theories based on rumours he read on Powerline and Little Green Footballs. --Gorgonzilla 14:05, 8 September 2005 (UTC)


How to quote criticism

(summary of earlier debate) It is really quite simple. If you want to report criticism of the article simply state who is making the satement. 'Some people say' is not an acceptable citation for partisan criticism in a dictionary. The Evergreen Foundation has been circulating most of the blog conspiracy theories to the mainstream media including the Wall Street Journal and CNN. So this is not all that hard. A comment in Powerline blog is NOT notable criticism --Gorgonzilla 14:49, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

(Response to Corwin8) by KAB: The POV deletions I have made do not imply that the content deleted is inaccurate. However, as an encyclopedia article content must be constructed that refrains from appearing to be the opinion of the writer. The article can state that an individual said ____ regarding _____. But the content cannot make conclusions based upon those statements. The statements must speak for themselves. Deletions do not imply a bias against Nagin. Deletions are an indication to writers that content must be factual and not opinionated. When, for example, the Governor is quoted as saying "I think the mayor..." that is her opinion and is appropriate for inclusion in the article. To begin the quote saying "The mayor flip flopped when he" is an opinion by the writer of the action. However, to state, "When the mayor did ___ then ____ was the result" that is a statement of fact. Journo 101.Kyle Andrew Brown 07:11, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Avoid weasel terms

I've noticed that all of the criticisms of Nagin so far just state that "people" have criticized him, or that he has "faced criticism". This is unencyclopedic; criticisms need to be traced to a specific source before they can be placed in an enyclopedia article. Likewise, if they don't have a specific source, they can't be here--people can't just come up with their own criticisms of Nagin and put them in the article. Aquillion 20:51, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

The School Buses Claim

What is wrong with AP & Reuters photos backed with an NBC report from a veteran NBC reporter? Especially after certain editors here have readily accepted LW blog BS from only one extremely biased LW blog. That bit of maniacal "selectivity" clearly seems like biased POV. Is there some kind of organised group of LW morons here? I'll wait exactly 2 hours for someone to convince me why the 3 mainstream media sources, including a veteran reporter, all saying the same thing are somehow illegitimate while lunatic leftist blogs aren't. Then, if you fail to convince me, I'm going to re-ad the section I've posted for comment/consensus just below. After that point, if it's removed again, I will report the vandal. You have already been warned against vandalism right inside the article. Apparently some editors here have refined repeated vandalism to an artform.

Here is the section:

NBC's veteran reporter Lisa Myers reported local authorities had not used New Orleans' school buses or Regional Transit Authority (RTA) buses to evacuate the city's stranded poor. The city authorities also parked those buses where they were flooded after the levee break according to Myers.[11] The Associated Press and Reuters have both captured images of the flooded buses.[12], [13] and [14] According to Myers, "A draft emergency plan, prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and obtained by NBC News, calls for '400 buses to ... evacuate victims.' Yet those 200 buses were left in Katrina's path." Myers reports Mayor Nagin refused comment on the matter.


--JimmyCrackedCorn 03:28, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

As was pointed out to you the first time you brought that story up, the problem encountered with regards to the bus plan was never a lack of busses, but a lack of drivers: [15]. Because of problems like that, an article about lost busses cannot be automatically be taken to be significant or worthy of inclusion in and of itself; a source with interpretation is required to explain how it relates to the article's subject. If you used a source in which Nagin was being directly criticized for the loss the of busses--as opposed to one which merely notes that they were lost--it could be included regardless of accuracy or significance, but as it stands saying that busses were lost, sans context, once again implies your own interpretation. Finally, any inclusion of the story on Wikipedia would still have to indicate that it originated with Drudge, as that is essential context in any case. Aquillion 04:34, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

This is the first I've been here. Even an idiot should know any driver suffices in an emergency including an evacuee and Hurricane Katrina was clearly an emergency. School buses even have automatic transmissions. There was also even a young man barely out of his teens who stole a school bus and successfully drove several evacuees to the Astrodome. [16] He is a hero. So don't give me that red herring.

As for your other very weak objection - that this isn't a criticism because no one says "I criticize the Mayor" in the article - you should be reminded the section I added the paragraph to is called "Criticism of Relief Efforts." It is not called "Criticism of Mayor Nagin." Myers very clearly criticized the relief efforts in her article. But in the spirit of concillation I've decided to accept your "point." To remedy the problem you have claimed exists, I will make the Mayor's failure to use the school and RTA buses that were later flooded their very own section in the Nagin article. Do not delete it again or your vandalism will be reported. If you wish to make minor modifications to the new section bring your discussion on the topic here before you do. Someone here posted a Wikipedia rule I've repeated above. See that you don't "forget" it again.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dispute_resolution

== Avoidance ==
The best way to resolve a dispute is to avoid it in the first place.
Be respectful to others and their points of view. This means primarily: Do not simply revert changes in a dispute.
When someone makes an edit you consider biased or inaccurate, improve the edit, rather than reverting it. Provide a good edit summary when making significant changes that other users might object to. The Three Revert Rule forbids the use of reverts in repetitive succession. If you encounter rude or inappropriate behavior, resist the temptation to respond in kind, and do not make personal attacks.

--JimmyCrackedCorn 05:10, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

This is an article about Mayor Nagin. His criticisms of relief efforts are clearly relevent; and sourced criticisms of him are relevent. General criticisms of the relief effort as a whole are not. The approprate place for that would be Hurricane Katrina or someplace similar. Finally, I remind you once again that it is quite common to assume that a group newly-registered users who suddenly appear in succession, making the same argument and reverting to the same version, are sockpuppets of each other; if you don't want people to assume that you are a sock puppet of another user, then don't act like a sockpuppet of another user. Aquillion 05:54, 19 September 2005 (UTC)


Aquillon, are you actively disagreeing with the editor who often appears to be your sockpuppet? I've moved "his" summary to just below this text. As you can see in the article's section on buses, I provided 2 well linked Major Network News sources with a mainstream veteran reporter and even 2 corroberating News Wire services. I've also linked an Official Government Document. All these sources are in agreement on the buses matter. Your "friend" Gorgonzilla says only 1 Network News Source needs to be produced for the bus story to be valid for inclusion. There was no personal opinion in the section I wrote, but if there was I encourage you to point it out here on the discussion page and make whatever minor edits are required to eliminate it. My sourcing goes well beyond your/his requirements. Why are you so worried about people knowing the truth that you would make requirements for inclusion of this section a moving target? Could it be you can't reasonably divorce your Wikipedia edits from your own extreme LW POV? --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:08, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

GORGONZILLA's TEXT: (summary of earlier debate) Its really quite simple, just find a notable (i.e. top 10 blog, major national newspaper, cable news, network news) source for the claim and do not insert personal interpretation into the statement. The Hurricane is a major news story, the number 1 news story since it occurred. If a theory stands up it will be reported by a notable source somewhere. I suspect the reason the story is not being quoted is that as Mongo points out nobody predicted in advance that it would take FEMA 5 days to arrive at the Superdome. The superdome was expected to weather the storm in one piece. --Gorgonzilla 14:49, 8 September 2005 (UTC)


Both Gorgonzilla and myself have more than 500 edits apiece and registered some time ago. By comparison, you, JimmyCrackedCorn (talk · contribs)} have 32 edits, almost all to pages related to one debate (perhaps you edited more anonymously, if you'd care to point them out?), and first edited two days ago. DKorn (talk · contribs) has 51 edits, likewise first edited two days ago, likewise devoted virtually all his edits to this one debate, and magically disappeared when you arrived. With this edit, DKorn gave himself away as 209.247.222.89 (talk · contribs) / 209.247.222.99 (talk · contribs), who was earlier temp-blocked and likewise vanished when DKorn appeared. When 209.247.222.89 was temporarily blocked, user 66.43.173.74 magically appeared to continue reverting to 209.247.222.89's preferred version, and was actually blocked as sockpuppet of 209.247.222.89 for this; they outed themselves as Emay (talk · contribs) with this edit, and (along with Red_Ryder (talk · contribs)) appeared and made just a single edit while 209.247.222.89 was blocked, naturally reverting to 209.247.222.89's preferred version with edit summaries in the same terms that 209.247.222.89 used originally and you have used since. Likewise, today Swamp Foxx (talk · contribs), who registered just hours ago and has made a total of three edits, helpfully appeared just as soon as you had used three reverts on this page, making one revert for you with no comments on talk and then promptly disappearing. While of course not all of these users are necessarily sockpuppets of each other, the similarities between them and their brief, consecutitive stays before rapidly being replaced by the next in line makes it fairly clear that most of them are. Under such circumstances, accusing longstanding editors with more than 500 edits each of being sockpuppets of each other is fairly disingenious.
To get back to the subject, however, between Gorgonzilla's comment above and the version you are arguing for now, you made one significent change. You rewrote the paragraph so that instead of quoting criticism of Nagin--which both Gorgonzilla and I requested a source for--it simply states criticism, effectively using unrelated sources to make your own personal argument. That is unencyclopedic. Aquillion 21:20, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

Your number of edits means nothing more than you and Gorgonzilla have been sockpuppets of one another for a long time. As for your allegation that I changed Gorgonzilla's paragraph, I changed nothing. I'm not going to say you are a liar. Even though you haven't honored wikipedia's policy of assuming good intentions I'll just say that you and Gorgonzilla are both very prone to make very similar "mistakes" that are all in your favor. Here is a link to the very discussion page edit where Gorgonzilla first put the paragraph in the buses section I cited. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ray_Nagin&oldid=22844375 and here is a link to where Gorgonzilla adds the line about Mongo. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Ray_Nagin&oldid=22845990 I'll let others determine you are a liar after going to the links. --JimmyCrackedCorn 17:40, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

You misunderstand. You made one significent change to the version of the article that you are arguing now, not to Gorgonzilla's comments, which were on the article's earlier version. Gorgonzilla was commenting on a paragraph that explictly listed criticisms people have made against Nagin; but you rewrite it so that it effectively presents those criticisms and their implications as fact. That is unencyclopedic. Aquillion 20:51, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

Follow the link. Gorgonzilla clearly places your requirements under the section of talk labeled "The School Buses Claim." That means you and your sockpuppet will accept the school buses claim as long as someone just find a notable (i.e. top 10 blog, major national newspaper, cable news, network news) source for the claim and do not insert personal interpretation into the statement. I've well exceeded that. So honor your word. Or explain why my 2 Network media sources, 2 news wire sources and an official Government Document aren't as good as your foolisf LW extremist blog - DailyKos. I'm replacing the section and also removing any claim about Nagin's Party affiliation until you or that other vandal finds a source. This article has been junk since your/Gorgonzilla's very first edit here. I've read the history. --JimmyCrackedCorn 22:15, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

That was when you were attempting to add it under the section for criticism. Criticism can be added without analysis; you just have to find a notable critic making the accusition in question and quote them. Since then, however, you removed a well-sourced section quoting the mayor's critics, and instead are attempting to make their arguments within the article yourself, without revealing where they are

coming from. That is not the way an encyclopedia works.

The mayor's political affiliations are common knowledge, and have been in the article since its inception, long before any of the current controversies. It is mentioned on any detailed biography on him, such as this one, which describes him as "a married Republican with three children." Aquillion 00:32, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Don't be a clown. You were the one who whined about the buses being in the criticism section. That was why I granted you special consideration and made it it's own section. Are you now saying you or your sockpuppet made the "mimstake?"

The mayor's party is not "common knowlege" and you have no source. Find one and I'll let the edit slide and even protect your claim against vandals. Don't find one and it stays gone. Clear? I have had a source for everything I've written here. It goes. It is not of sufficient quality for Wikipedia and you should examine your own capabilities. Most of your edits seem to be of insufficient quality. --JimmyCrackedCorn 00:46, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

I objected, and still object, to the busses being included as criticism without citing a critic. Moving them out of the "criticism" section does not change this objection. Likewise, I linked to a source for the mayor's political affiliation above. Finally, I am curious as to why you want to remove his picture from the article. Aquillion 00:59, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

NBC's Lisa Myers is clearly a critic as was the evacuee Connie London. Since bizarrely you claimed Myers was not criticizing the mayor, I accomodated you by moving it to a new section that didn't mention criticism but only gave a staid explanation of the facts. But we both know your real objection is to having the truth about the situation appear in the article, don't we? The mayor was responsible for the evacuation and it was the mayor's charge under the state plan to evacuate the poor using school and other buses. That is clear from the state plan. As such it is clear as long as a Hurricane Katrina section appears in the article, the section about the buses belongs. The fact Nagin didn't arrange evacuation is easily balanced by the fact that Gov. Kathleen Blanco nver arranged for Nagin to send evacuees in non-risk parishes. Nagin is as much victim as villian, IMO. I'm sure Blanco was none to happy with his anti-corruption campaign.

Since you don't agree evacuation was Nagin's responsibility, who do you claim was responsible for New Orleans' evacuation? What is your basis for that claim? Do you have a link to anything beside a lunatic left wing blog that supports your position? Your source for the Mayor's party affiliation says nothing about his switching sides to the Democrat Party, so I still consider his party affiliation unsettled. Here is what your source says about party: "A married Republican with three children, Nagin says a conversation with one of his kids made him want to lead New Orleans. If he succeeded, a mountain of headaches and $110,000 per year awaited." As for the Mayor's photo, it was removed in error, but it is an unflattering photo. But I'd rather it stay for now until something a bit more distinguished can be found. --JimmyCrackedCorn 03:45, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Neither Myers nor London are quoted in the article as saying that they think Nagin is responsible for the bus situation; London, in fact, specifically blames the state government for the busses, not the city. In light of that, taking those quotes, combining them with some photographs, sections of the evacuation plan, and unrelated stories about buses and using them to make a case against Nagin yourself constitutes original research, a problem that you continue to misunderstand. Aquillion 06:42, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
As for Nagin's political background: Here in the profile on the left, here in a paragraph further down, here, once again further down the article. Aquillion 06:42, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Hurricane Katrina#Evacuation and emergency shelters already makes specific mention of the school bus situation. Would it make sense to merge with that?

Also, the claims of vandalism here are rather silly. Vandalism, by definition, involves bad faith. What's happening here is an edit war. --Jasonuhl 07:11, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

That makes sense to me. Aquillion 07:19, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
You're kidding, right? It's pretty obvious that the editor making these edits that are being (correctly) called vandalism is acting in bad faith and contrary to WP policies. I don't see it as anything but vandalism.—chris.lawson (talk) 11:47, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

If the school bus section is left here also it makes sense to bring the section with very credible references there too. In fact, I think I will. It clearly belongs in the Nagin article too since, as the section points out with reference to official government documents, Nagin, as head of the parish, was responsible for the evacuation and had the authority to use the parishes school buses to execute his charge. --JimmyCrackedCorn 22:54, 20 September 2005 (UTC)


The school bus photo with caption ran under the Associated Press. That Matt Drudge or the New York Times has referenced it, makes it no less credible. It needs to stay. --HazeGray138.162.0.46 15:32, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Matt Drudge posted a link to this pic with the very accusational headline "WHY DIDN'T YOU DEPLOY THE BUSES DURING THE MANDATORY EVACUATION, MAYOR?" It should be noted that the school buses apparently aren't owned by the city but by a private company called Laidlaw which runs some 40,000 school buses across the United States, as well as owning Greyhound. I was only able to find this information, after lots of searching, in an article in the Chicago Times. [17] Rabit 02:52, 2005 September 5 (UTC)
So what's your point? Is your point the mayor is absolved of his responsibility for providing adequate evacuation vehicles because the mayor decided to contract out school bus services and didn't require the buses to be stored on high ground in the contract? If yes, that is a very weak point. If no, what the hell are you talking about? Whether Drudge references the Associated Press photo or not, the photo is clear and the Drudge question is yet more evidence the mayor has been criticized for his failures. -- Long John Silver 209.247.222.81 16:43, 5 September 2005 (UTC)
My "point" is contained in the above comment. Nothing more, nothing less. Point of fact based on an article in Chicago Tribune. Don't like facts, don't use Wikipedia. There are plenty of better places for opinion. Rabit 19:15, 2005 September 7 (UTC)

Someone (won't make any assumptions here) attempted to re-insert the "unused" school buses theory in the article, in much the same manner as LJS, using the very same .jpg as the Drudge Report which I believe LJS did as well. THIS PHOTO DOES NOT SUBSTANTIATE THE THEORY. --Jentizzle 17:49, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Those buses were parked in the normal city "yard" which is not at one of the lower sections of the city. My thoughts are, yeah, Nagin probably should have sent the buses out to get people on them...yeah, more supplies should have been available at the Superdome...etc. But the reality is that no one expected the morons that run FEMA to take 5 days to get to the Superdome and water and food could easily have been transported via helicopter to hold those people over while they tried to get buses in there...the city buses might have taken one or two trips and gotten 2 or 3 thousand people out...but that is if they were willing to go and to where...well, Nagin couldn't say hey Houston, I'm bringing 30 thousand people to the astrodome.--MONGO 17:56, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
Also my understanding is that the school buses were not his to commandeer - i.e. the school board does not fall under the control of the city. --Lee Hunter 20:20, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Somebody quote big article here, i shortened it. --C.levin 23:41, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

MONGO, In this article which deals with Ray Nagin, it is appropriate to include his actions, which describe his mindset. For example: " Nagin said the city would open the Superdome as a special-needs shelter today at 8 a.m. He advised anyone planning to stay there to bring food, drinks and other comforts, such as folding chairs, as if planning to go camping.

Citizens must call 568-3200 to verify that they qualify for admittance to the shelter, city officials said. Phone lines will be open at 7 a.m.

Nagin spokeswoman Tami Frazier stressed that the mayor does not want citizens to plan on staying in the Dome -- instead, they should make arrangements to leave the city if possible.

"We don't anticipate having to turn people away," Frazier said. "But (staying in the Dome) should not be a situation that you're counting on."

Nagin added, "No weapons, no large items, and bring small quantities of food for three or four days, to be safe." (http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1125213007249320.xml?nola)

So, what was meant by "bring (...) food for three or four days"? It reflects Nagin's mindset in regards to the population of New Orleans. Do you read in that statement, that he was expecting FEMA help within that time slot? If not, why didn't Nagin say, just go to the Superdome if you don't have transportation? FEMA has hot meals and showers ready. A quote from the above article should be included in this article. Whyerd 10:04, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Posse Comitatus

(summary of earlier debate) The claim that Posse Comitatus prevented action by Bush has been disproved by reference to the Wikipedia article which clearly states that the act can be waived by the President in times of emergency. Anyone wanting to resurect the claim should discuss here in talk first. --Gorgonzilla 14:49, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Misc. Blogosphere Theories

The following theories have floated around the blogosphere but are not considered notable for the reason given:

  • Nagin beleives CIA attempting to kill him This turns out to be sourced to the World Net Daily News which is a Web tabloid similar to the National Examiner. [18]
  • Blanco failed to declare state of emergency Actually she declared the emergency before the huricane struck, see archive
  • Bush begged Nagin to evacuate This originates from a comment on a Powerline blog article. It has been disproved (Bush called after the press had already been told to attend the press conference to announce a mandatory evacuation)'. it is in the article because it was repeated on CNN, MSNBC and the WSJ.
I think these miscellaneous junk theories should be included in the article, at least to correct any popularly held misconceptions. I would like to comment that I do remember that CIA comment, but I don't think it was meant seriously.--220.238.233.226 17:13, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
After a quick Google search, this is probably the article that it probably comes from. Notice that it's an article about how he's feeling "much better" about the response. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300300.html--220.238.233.226 17:23, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Workshop Time

The Extended comments by Bush and by the Governor are candidates for shortening. This article is not a debate forum in the sense that we are not here to bring the "evidence" of who is right, who is wrong, who gets blamed, based upon lengthy "transcripts". The transcripts are entirely appropriate as external links that the reader can go to which also have the advantage in their original form of being unfiltered. As they are now presented in the article they are POV filtered. That just does't fly.

Again, its totally appropriate for the article to frame that there is a controversy between the White House and the Governor and the Mayor about responsiblity. However, it cannot be framed using opinionated modifying language juxtaposed next to the quotes. The goal as a content provider is to not let the reader be pointed to the writer's personal POV. If a writer has POV - and any journalist worthy of the name does have a POV, then present it with facts, attribution. Let the other side do the same. Then the reader can weigh the facts presented - and that is their right as a reader of an encyclopedia. If I want to convince you that the President, the Mayor, the Governor is at fault for something then I will turn to another media forum where is is perfectly acceptable to do that.

This is not FOX News or the Madison Capitol Times, oppps, sorry, that's POV sockpuppetry. I apologize.Kyle Andrew Brown 16:54, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Replace quotations from interview with transcript

The quotations from the sep1 interview are excessive. A representative quote and a link to the full transcript would be more appropriate. --Gorgonzilla 19:08, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Long John Silver - one guy, 1826485505 different aliases

Had to give up basically guarding this article with Gorgonzilla for a bit to study for exams. Long John Silver's signature tabloid-news reporter style is so obvious after he's re-written an article it really doesn't matter what alias he uses, does it?

I've told quite a few admin's about this loose cannon rewriting entire articles without a shred of evidence e.g. the sources don't support claims he makes, takes quotes out of context, etc. and worst of all, the way he uses the talk page not to reach consensus with other users but as a soapbox for his whacked theories. Perhaps I'm getting a bit mean now, but this is the sum total of major problems I have had (as well as many others who voice their opinions above) with user's HORRIBLE edits. I can only hope some admin sees this and blocks the MANY different IPs he posts from. --Jentizzle 02:15, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

deuling criticism expansion

I think that it will inflate the size of the article beyond what is appropriate, but the one sentance I have been trying to correct from the nagin criticism portion, the part about the superdome not being supplied, keeps returning.

would a point by point pro/con list be acceptable, e.g.

    • Arguments involving the mayor, and the humanitarian response to hurricane Katrina**

point 1: federal response

pro: [statistics on federal response] e.g. FEMA's response included: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18461 "FEMA’s Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) and Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) are also staged for immediate response anywhere in the region. The funding and direct federal assistance will assist law enforcement with evacuations, establishing shelters and other emergency protective measures.

FEMA has deployed USAR teams from Tennessee, Missouri and Texas to stage in Shreveport, LA.. USAR teams from Indiana and Ohio are staged in Meridian, MS. Two teams each from Florida and Virginia and one team from Maryland are on alert at their home stations.

A total of 18 DMATs have been deployed to staging areas in Houston, Anniston and Memphis. There are 9 full DMATs (35 members per team) and 9 strike teams (5 members per team) in these staging areas."...

"Eighteen Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) and 3 Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) task forces have been deployed to the region for further dispatch when needed."

by the 31st "More than 1,700 trucks have been mobilized through federal, state and contract sources to supply ice, water and supplies. These supplies and equipment are being moved into the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible, especially water, ice, meals, medical supplies, and generators. It may, however, take several days for supplies and equipment to reach all victims because of damaged and closed roads and bridges." http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18497

[nagin]con: the federal response to the most dangerous natural disaster in U. S. history was not what could be called "shock, and awe", rather it was seemingly reluctant, disproportionally small, and in many cases put on hold for usually half a week because of red tape when hours and minutes decide the fates of the people unable to escape the path of the hurricane. Nagin has been one of the central figures in the public outcry over the federal government's relief effort.


point 2: superdome (preperation of)

[nagin]pro: stocked with seven truckloads of Meals Ready to Eat, and three truckloads of water

cons: sanitation, underestimation of the number of people to prepare for, lack of generators, airconditioning, national guardsmen, transportation. Supporters of the Federal response have been decrying what they describe, as the local government's failure to properly prepare the superdome, and other shelters for the hurricane.

point 3: superdome (handling of crisis)

pro: after something like a week, they were evacuated

[nagin]con: ignored for days by federal authorities. Nagin has been criticised federal government's assistance with regard to the situation in the superdome

point 4: Local, and State Response

[nagin]Pro: for the most part described as over and above all previous state, and local responses to hurricanes ever before.

cons: republicans from drudge to the President are dumping blame on a group often referred to as "anyone but the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive branch of the U. S. Government". Many republicans have lashed out at Nagin, though few have admitted that they're following the adage that a good offense makes the best defense.

point 5: mass transit

[nagin]pro:  ???

con: many critics believe, that, in retrospect, that the use of Mass Transit, especially busses, should have been explored to improve the mandatory evacuation effort that was delayed by uncertainty in the mayor's office. this harsh criticism is also one of the points Republicans make to deflect criticism of the Bush Administration's handling of hurricane Katrina.

--66.92.144.73 03:00, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

Thats all very well but the criticism should be cited or people end up deleting it for using weasel terms. The section I added on the Evergreen guys criticism has stayed because it is sourced. I am pretty sure that you will find that the guy has sourced most of the criticisms you are refering to here. --Gorgonzilla 03:32, 9 September 2005 (UTC)


here's what I think is a good candidate:

Arguments involving the mayor, and the humanitarian response to hurricane Katrina

points(federal response, Superdome(preperation of), Superdome(handling of emergancy), Local and State response, mass transit)

(1)federal response(1)

Pro: FEMA's response included: [19] "FEMA’s Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) and Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) are also staged for immediate response anywhere in the region. The funding and direct federal assistance will assist law enforcement with evacuations, establishing shelters and other emergency protective measures.

FEMA has deployed USAR teams from Tennessee, Missouri and Texas to stage in Shreveport, LA.. USAR teams from Indiana and Ohio are staged in Meridian, MS. Two teams each from Florida and Virginia and one team from Maryland are on alert at their home stations.

A total of 18 DMATs have been deployed to staging areas in Houston, Anniston and Memphis. There are 9 full DMATs (35 members per team) and 9 strike teams (5 members per team) in these staging areas."...

"Eighteen Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) and 3 Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) task forces have been deployed to the region for further dispatch when needed."

by the 31st "More than 1,700 trucks have been mobilized through federal, state and contract sources to supply ice, water and supplies. These supplies and equipment are being moved into the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible, especially water, ice, meals, medical supplies, and generators. It may, however, take several days for supplies and equipment to reach all victims because of damaged and closed roads and bridges."

(Nagin)Con: the federal response to the most dangerous natural disaster in U. S. history was not what could be called "shock, and awe", rather it was seemingly reluctant, disproportionally small, and in many cases put on hold for usually half a week because of red tape when hours and minutes decide the fates of the people unable to escape the path of the hurricane. Nagin has been one of the central figures in the public outcry over the federal government's relief effort.

(lifted verbatum from the earlier article) On September 1, 2005, Nagin expressed his frustration and anger at the response of other government officials and the lack of aid to the city of New Orleans in an emotional interview with Garland Robinette, on radio station WWL:

   You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."

   [...]

   And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives. And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people.

   [...]

   So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.

   [...]

   There is nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.

   [...]

   I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

   [...]

   But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

   Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

   [...]

   Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

Expanding on his statements, he added:

   The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people. [20]

Mayor Nagin again voiced his criticism of the state's response to the crisis in a CNN interview on September 5, "...what the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate." He further defended his response to Katrina in stating, "Look, I'll take whatever responsibility that I have to take. But let me ask you this question: When you have a city of 500,000 people, and you have a category 5 storm bearing down on you, and you have the best you've ever done is evacuate 60 percent of the people out of the city, and you have never issued a mandatory evacuation in the city's history, a city that is a couple of hundred years old, I did that. I elevated the level of distress to the citizens." [21]

(2)Superdome(preperation of)(2)

(Nagin) Pro: The Superdome was stocked with seven truckloads of Meals Ready to Eat, and three truckloads of water . the national guard had supplies there to provide food and water for 15,000 people for 3 days on the august 28th. as for wether to believe quotes attributed to the deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Emergency Preparedness as reported by the times picayune.[22]

Con: "The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people."(Mayor Ray Nagin)[23] As to the human condition in the superdome during in the immediate aftermath, "One guy jumped off a balcony," said Charles Womack[24] a national guard soldier said, "We found a young girl raped and killed in the bathroom. Then the crowd got the man and they beat him to death." as reported by BBC.[25]

(3)Superdome(handling of crisis)(3)

Pro: After five days, the Superdome evacuation is complete.[26]

(Nagin)Con:[27]The initial governmental presence in the Superdome consisted of "about 200 other Guard members and a few New Orleans policemen, since Monday." according to the Washington Post. Society broke down in what was supposed to be a haven.

(4)Local, and State Response(4)

(Nagin) Pro: "When you have a city of 500,000 people, and you have a category 5 storm bearing down on you, and you have the best you've ever done is evacuate 60 percent of the people out of the city, and you have never issued a mandatory evacuation in the city's history, a city that is a couple of hundred years old, I did that. I elevated the level of distress to the citizens."[28] (cut and paste job from the nagin pro section of wikipedia article)

Con:(another cut and paste from wiki article)Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, criticized Nagin's preparation for the hurricane in a Wall Street journal op-ed claiming "Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation." [29] However, when asked to confirm the claim that Bush had allegedly persuaded Nagin to order the evacuation Whitehouse press secretary Scott McClellan stated that he had no information to this effect. In fact, the only reported conversation between Bush and Blanco regarding the hurricane prior to its arrival had taken place immediately before the mandatory evacuation was announced at a pre-arranged press conference [30].

Mr.Williams, a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, further raised questions about the extent to which state and city officials refined and developed evacuation plans for the city.

"The Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved."

(5)Mass Transit(5)

(Nagin) Pro: ???

Con: Many critics believe that, in retrospect, the use of Mass Transit, especially busses, should have been explored to improve the mandatory evacuation effort that was delayed by uncertainty in the mayor's office. this harsh criticism is also one of the points Republicans make to deflect criticism of the Bush Administration's handling of hurricane Katrina. "WHY DIDN'T YOU DEPLOY THE BUSES DURING THE MANDATORY EVACUATION, MAYOR?..." as the drudge report puts it.[31]

--66.92.144.73 01:38, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Regarding Governor Blanco's Letter of August 28

The statement: "However, in contradiction of the three sources cited above, a document which also appears to be a copy of the governor's request [6] is dated August 28." (in the "Hurricane Katrina" section of the entry) is misleading. There were two letters sent by Governor Blanco, and thus no contradiction. Careful readers of the White House response of August 27th will note that this letter of authorization specifically mentions a number of parishes, but does not mention Orleans Parish or several of its surrounding Parishes. Blanco's second letter to the White House specifically mentions these Parishes which were omitted from the White House authorization. I have no idea why the White House omitted these Parishes in its initial response, or chose to name any Parishes at all rather than simply the state of Louisiana, but I would surmise that the Governor sent the second letter as a clarification, in case the White House had made a mistake.

I'm not editing the entry itself, as I've never done that before, and I'm sure there are other people who could do it more quickly and efficiently (and phrase the edit more effectively) than I could. Whyaduck 03:21, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, there is another simpler explanation. The original request on the 27th asks for $9 million in aid. The pdf asks for $130 million. So it is fairly obvious that the first request was essentially to get the emergency support to kick in, the second was a revision asking for additional sums of money &ct. This is absolutely normal in a situation like this. --Gorgonzilla 03:43, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for the swift edit and clarification. (I didn't start using a computer until I was well into my 50s, and, sadly, using the various codes and whatnot still confuses the hell out of me. I think I'll stick to the discussion pages here, where any mistakes I make won't show up for the general public, and let the more technologically adept users decide what, if any, of the information I have makes it into the entries themselves.)Whyaduck 04:07, 9 September 2005 (UTC
thanks Whyaduck! Was wondering about that weird *seeming* discrepancy. --Jentizzle 04:22, 9 September 2005 (UTC)


Why is this POV?

"Also, the news journal Editor & Publisher has criticized several conservative politicians and journalists regarding what it perceives to be their reluctance to place blame on the Bush Administration, or comment on the aftermath Hurricane Katrina at all. [19]"

Critic is cited, criticism is phrased as what news journal "perceives" to have happened. --Jentizzle 15:07, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

The thing is that any group is reluctant to blame their chosen leaders on anything. This is just stating the obvious to further discredit Nagin's critics (even though much of what they say is wrong anyway). Also the critisism of criticism issue has already been addressed in the GWB page; it doesn't belong as it would set a precedent that would clog up articles with the critics of the critics, and the critic's response, and then the critic's critic's response...and so on and so fourth. So it is in part POV, but mainly just unnecessary. Sorry for the response delay, its all deleted by now anyway :).Voice of All (talk) 18:51, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

Lengthly quotations and transcripts

Whatever their content, this article section on criticism is loaded with long excerpts from sources. It's fully understandable that the content supports various positions on the Mayor. But I would suggest that it reads like a newspaper article and that the work of preparing a summary based upon facts and placing the long excerpts in links has not been done. It gives the article the appearance of one big POV - and I'll be honest I did not wade through it to determine just which POV viewpoints were presented.

I just don't think this article should be prepared as a newspaper report and I suspect it's not going to hold up. The huge transcript of the Mayor in an interview just doesn't look like it should be presented that way.

You wont see me editing, deleting, reverting it. But it needs to be done. This is not how biography is done in an encylclopedia. It's how its done in a book.Kyle Andrew Brown 15:59, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Clean Up

I noticed the clean up tag on this page. I've been watching the talk page as well. We should come to an agreement and have someone edit this page so we can remove it. I'm not sure if no one has had time to fix it, or that they are afraid to with all the problems it's had. Anyway, I just thought I'd say that Davidpdx 9/11/05 9:03pm KST

It is difficult to invest time in fixing the article while one individual keeps reverting it at every opportunity to a version that claims Nagin tries to eat raw babies for breakfast every morning and only George W. Bush's personal intervention stops him. The problems the article has had are mostly due to that one individual who is clearly only interested in providing an alibi for George W. Bush regardless of what the facts might be. He seems oblivious to the fact that most people consider the federal govt. responsible for public safety regardless of who the local mayor might be, I would not want my safety to depend on the nincompoops we elect to the local council. --Gorgonzilla 13:13, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

The whole evaluation is changing during the blame game. Just to comment: I think local "nincompoops" know a lot more about the abilities and disabilities of the town or city population, and the w2ays out the area than politicians thousands of miles away. Gorgonzilla's point about someone "eating babies" is not far off par considering that Randall Robinson stated: “It is reported that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive.” Deranged racist crap. Whyerd 18:33, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Well the latest information is that the neighboring city posted armed police to stop people walking out via the interstate. Nagin is real pissed about it and with good reason. It is pretty bizare the number of officials who were paralyzed by fear of lawsuits and legal implications then there are people taking completely illegal actions that kill. Oh and it turns out that FEMA was refusing to allow supplies to be delivered because they didn't have a ticket number, not because they were needed elsewhere. --Gorgonzilla 21:19, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/12/103905.shtml Whyerd 17:52, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

POV flag?

Someone has asserted POV without putting any comment here in talk. Is this just LJS with yet another sockpuppet account?

Aritcle is a Disgrace and is Regularly Vandalized

The extreme POV here is nothing short of what could be expected in a Michael Moore movie. That in looking at the history any change has been repeatedly vandalized including POV and quality warnings is yet further evidence of this. That anyone issuing an objection on this discussion page is regularly attacked on this page is yet more evidence of that extremism. How that EL_C? --66.43.173.74 01:31, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm far from satisfied with that comment (or the one bellow), nor with your rather minimal participation in the discussion here. El_C 01:32, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
Calm down. You need to recognize that criticism of Nagin is fairly limited, and has come almost entirely from a handful of conservative political blogs and think-tanks. While it is worth mentioning that some of the Administration's defenders have started attacking Nagin since his statements, that's hardly a major part of his story, and expecting this article to be rewritten into duelling pro-and-con views is unrealistic. We can't devote significent sections of Wikipedia to following every silly hit-piece manufactured by NewsMax or WorldNetDaily. Aquillion 03:50, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Don't be deliberately obtuse. Even the Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco has criticized Nagin. With her claims the evacuation was handled poorly. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1102467&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 --66.43.173.74 13:09, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

The article you linked doesn't have a quote from the Governor. It quotes Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation again, which would seem to support my assertion that the only criticism of Nagin is coming from political advocacy groups attempting to defend the Administration. Aquillion 20:20, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

What article were you reaing?? This is very clearly criticism from ythe governor's office:

"Shortly before Katrina hit, she sent President Bush a request asking for shelter and provisions, but didn't specifically ask for help with evacuations. One aide to the governor told ABC News today Blanco thought city officials were taking care of the evacuation." --JimmyCrackedCorn 04:13, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

That is criticism? It sounds like miscommunication to me, but feel free to shift blame wherever you want. Of course, such a point of view (read: editorialising) has no place in an encyclopedia article.—chris.lawson (talk) 04:16, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

"That anyone issuing an objection on this discussion page is regularly attacked..." Anyone? Really? It's plain that you had AT LEAST TWO or more sockpuppets and posted under different aliases. Manufacturing consensus isn't a particularly efficient or honest way to utilize talk. Frankly speaking, if I knew for certain that wiki prohibited use of different aliases to garner support in talk, I would've reported this to an admin already. I think it would've done more for your credibility to stick with one name, argue your points, and let others take issue with what you've said. This means not appearing as as Long John Silver one minute, criticizing someone's edits, then :showing up under another alias and agreeing with yourself later. --Jentizzle 04:22, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree with Aquillion here. And the sockpuppets here are really pathetic.Voice of All (talk) 04:29, September 13, 2005 (UTC)
The only editor on this page that wants to skew the article towards his POV is LJS/Homest Abe/Swamp Foxx/New IP. It is obviously the same person, the wording of the comments is almost identical. He seems to have tried a somewhat subtler approach this time, making a number of minor edits before mass reverts to his POV --Gorgonzilla 13:45, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
criticism of Nagin is fairly limited, and has come almost entirely from a handful of conservative political blogs and think-tanks such as CNN, CBC News, and The Washington Times. (SEWilco 19:58, 15 September 2005 (UTC))
All of those criticisms trace back to the same handful of sources. For instance, between the three links you listed, only a single specific critic is quoted: Jesse Lee Peterson, a conservative activist who happens to be, among other things, a WorldNetDaily columnist. Aquillion 20:17, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Problem is, (and bear in mind that I support most of Nagin's commentary), that the City of New Orleans had an evacuation plan which included using mass transit and school buses, which were not used. Now, taking everything into consideration, I don't know how important this is, but it probably does deserve mention as those images of the parking lots full of school buses is fairly damming evidence that the evacuation plan wasn't fully followed. However, if we do this, it needs to be noted that as a Mayor, he didn't have the authority to tell neighboring states that he was bringing his city to their city or jursidiction.--MONGO 20:32, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

You are right that Nagin didn't follow the evacuation plan and that it was difficult for him to evacuate anyone without shelters in non-risk areas to bring evacuees. That's why mention of the Governor's responsibility to find shelters in non-risk areas for Nagin's evacuees is critical to understanding the problem and providing a neutral POV and balance. It's also critical for that balance and NPOV to mention that Governor Blanco's director decided the Superdome would be New Orleans only evacuation center. It wasn't Nagin's fault exclusively. It was the fault of state and local government up and down the line. Nagin was as much victim as villian, IMO. --DKorn 22:25, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
criticism of Nagin is fairly limited, and has come almost entirely from a handful of conservative political blogs and think-tanks and people from New Orleans; those which ABC's Dean Reynolds spoke with at the Houston Astrodome after Bush's speech are similar to many others. The next election will be interesting. (SEWilco 05:03, 22 September 2005 (UTC))

Cleanup of talk

Now the revert war/sockpuppet problem is comming under control we need to cleanup the article. In particular I would like to see the long extracts from the radio interview paraphrased, I don't think that two weeks out they really look like they stand the test of time as Nagin's definitive critique of the Federal efforts.

I would like to suggest that people look through the talk to see what they feel is still relevant to ongoing development of the article and copy them below this comment. Then we can archive all the rest. --Gorgonzilla 21:41, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Very POV Criticism section moved here for discussion

Oddly even the above text by Gorgonzilla calls for this clean-up. Nagin "expressed anger and frustration" is clearly POV, the selective edit of Nagin's qotes when he has both criticized and sided with Bush. And the lack of reference to Nagin's criticism on the Governor is clearly POV. The text is below. Please suggest non-POV changes. Thanks. --DKorn 21:29, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

You can't just remove an entire section of text because you think it's biased and then admonish everybody else to "suggest non-POV changes." The onus is on you, as the person who removed the text, to suggest what you would like to see done to it. What, specifically, do you want changed? · Katefan0(scribble) 21:42, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
It somewhat stretches credibility that a user account created today is attempting to make the same set of edits as LJS, has the same attitude and is not LJS. --Gorgonzilla 22:43, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

Apparently you can if the rules apply equally to all. At this link we see that an entire section of text was removed by Gorgonzilla for POV[32] at least according to Gorgonzilla. My suggested changes were implicit above, as were Gorgonzillas. Did you read what I said? Here again is what I said:

Nagin "expressed anger and frustration" is clearly POV, the selective edit of Nagin's qotes when he has both criticized and sided with Bush. And the lack of reference to Nagin's criticism on the Governor is clearly POV.

This means the characterization of Nagin's mood should be removed, a reference to his siding with President Bush needs inclusion, and Nagin's criticism of the Governor's failures need to be added. Clear now?


Criticism of Relief Efforts

On September 1, 2005, Nagin expressed his frustration and anger at the response of other government officials and the lack of aid to the city of New Orleans in an emotional interview with Garland Robinette, on radio station WWL:

I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."
…
You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."
…
And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives. And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people.
…
So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.
…
There is nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.
…
I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.
…
But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.
Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.
…
Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

Expanding on his statements, he added:

The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people. [33]

Mayor Nagin again voiced his criticism of the state's response to the crisis in a CNN interview on September 5, "...what the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate." He further defended his response to Katrina in stating, "Look, I'll take whatever responsibility that I have to take. But let me ask you this question: When you have a city of 500,000 people, and you have a category 5 storm bearing down on you, and you have the best you've ever done is evacuate 60 percent of the people out of the city, and you have never issued a mandatory evacuation in the city's history, a city that is a couple of hundred years old, I did that. I elevated the level of distress to the citizens." [34]

On September 4, President Bush responded to Nagin's criticism by blaming state and local authorities for their response to Katrina, stating that the latter's magnitude "created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable." [35].

Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, criticized Nagin's preparation for the hurricane in a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming "Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation." [36] However, when asked to confirm the claim that Bush had allegedly persuaded Nagin to order the evacuation, White House press secretary Scott McClellan stated that he had no information to this effect. In fact, the only reported conversation between Bush and Blanco regarding the hurricane prior to its arrival had taken place immediately before the mandatory evacuation was announced at a pre-arranged press conference [37].

Revert warring by 66.43.173.74

Category:Wikipedia:Suspected sockpuppets of 66.43.173.74

Evergreen Foundation

Paragraph in question:

Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, criticized Nagin's preparation for the hurricane in a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming "Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation." [16] However, when asked to confirm the claim that Bush had allegedly persuaded Nagin to order the evacuation, White House press secretary Scott McClellan stated that he had no information to this effect. In fact, the only reported conversation between Bush and Blanco regarding the hurricane prior to its arrival had taken place immediately before the mandatory evacuation was announced at a pre-arranged press conference [17].

The only reason the Evergreen foundation is relevant here is that they are a partisan organization that is presumed by the networks to be delivering the WhiteHouse talking points. The organization does not list emergency response as a core competency. The organization website makes it very clear that the organization is partisan and the attempt to present their criticism as neutral and unbiased is deceptive and POV.

Since Scott McClelan's refusal to confirm the claims made by Evergreen the organization has not been heard from again on this matter. --Gorgonzilla 01:20, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

I have to agree this is POV and it is deceptive. If you look at their press release section, you'll see the other main issue they have advocated was in terms of the election in Washington where Dino Rossi lost a close election to Christine Gregoire. One of the stories they posted on their website claims felons vote in overwhelming numbers for democrats.

This seems to me to be another version of the highly controversial Swift Boat organization put in place mearly to smear. You will see that I added the paragraph in question to the talk page so that everyone can read it. I move that this come to a vote as to whether the content should stay or not. Davidpdx 9/18/05 2:00 (UTC)

As an addendum to my arguement above, let me state that I am advocate deleting the entire paragraph including the blog comments. The moment you allow POV stuff like this into articles on Wikipedia is the moment this place becomes a trash can (and yes you can quote me on that!).

Please do not put this section back in until a consensus is reached on the talk page. Davidpdx 9/18/02 2:11 (UTC)

Sorry for the miscommunication. I thought I was moving it here at the same time Gorgonzilla was apparently doing the same. As below I vote this straw man be deleted, LW blog sentences and all. --DKorn 02:56, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

LW Blog Nonsense

This paragraph needs to be deleted completely. Here again Gorgonzilla tries to make a point using bits and pieces only found on the most extreme LW Blogs. The section even includes a blog as a source. There is very little that can be done to remove the extreme LW POV beside shortening. The paragraph:


Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, criticized Nagin's preparation for the hurricane in a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming "Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation." [38] However, when asked to confirm the claim that Bush had allegedly persuaded Nagin to order the evacuation, White House press secretary Scott McClellan stated that he had no information to this effect. In fact, the only reported conversation between Bush and Blanco regarding the hurricane prior to its arrival had taken place immediately before the mandatory evacuation was announced at a pre-arranged press conference [39].

Could become:

Bob Williams of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a think tank that describes itself as "a private, non-profit, public policy research organization," criticized Nagin's preparation for the hurricane in a Wall Street Journal op-ed with several points. Among them Williams claimed "Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation." [40]

and that would remove all POV.

But I'd vote that it be deleted entirely. There are far more criticisms of the Mayor that can be included in the article. Among them was the Governor's public shoot down of the Mayor's plan to forcefully evacuate people who chose to stay in New Orleans flooded and polluted areas. --DKorn 02:35, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

You are forgetting why the quote is sourced to evergreen: the evergreen forum was reported on all the major news media and was simply recycling right wing blog theories. They don't seem to have been mentioned much since and at this point none of the news media are continuing with the blame game after Bush was reported as admitting he was at fault (though thats not what he actually said). --Gorgonzilla 03:31, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Should I understand by your "logic" a mix of Right Wing Blog and Left Wing Blog nonsense is balanced and therefore neutral and suitable for inclusion in a Wikipedia article? Would you also support inserting a theory that the moon is made of Green Cheese and an offsetting theory that it is actually a hollow vessel full of moon men? That's "balanced" and therefore neutral too, right? It's also as unbalanced as wanting both right wing and left wing blog items in the same article. I hope you are not really that unbalanced, are you? --DKorn 04:56, 18 September 2005 (UTC)


The term 'think tank' is in any case utterly untrue when applied to any washington DC outfit of that type. Any thinking is done by the people who pay them, in this case Scaife. --Gorgonzilla 03:33, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

That's even more reason to delete the paragraph that you apparantly included as a straw man just so you could knock it down. You made your logical fallacy a circus and lost credibility when you chose your pals in the extreme left wing blogosphere to knock it down with, however. It all needs to go lock, stock and barrel. --DKorn 04:56, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Just stop the pretense that you are not LJS, if you are as you pretend a new user you sure have become rude pretty quickly, accusing others of bias and extreme left wing POV every other sentence, just like 'LJS' used to. The section was added because you insisted on adding unsourced blogosphere criticism to the article. The evergreen foundation is the only group that has pushed these theories in the mainstream media and once they came out in the open they were quickly dismissed as nonsense. --Gorgonzilla 13:43, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

As I said I think the whole paragraph should go, both the reference to the conservative organization and the blog. Neither have a place in the article. Davidpdx 9/18/05 9:44 (UTC)

What's up with the bus ping-ponging?

Let's talk about this instead of edit warring. And the sockpuppets are starting to get annoying. Pick an account and discuss the problem here. If I keep seeing sockpuppets editing here I'm going to start blocking them all. · Katefan0(scribble) 14:46, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

They have been... at the blogs and similar places I mentioned above. Nobody seemed particularly happy with the idea of using places like those as a source, so I stopped doing it and switched to removing their arguments entirely. I wouldn't have an overall problem with a compromise version that removed its own interpretation and simply noted who the criticism originates from, with their political positions. Aquillion 16:02, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
Surely both points have been made somewhere, haven't they? · Katefan0(scribble) 15:36, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Certainly, but if that reasoning is being used to imply they don't belong here also it follows the consitution should not be mentioned in an article on US history if there is an article on James Madison that mentions the constitution. It's a non-sequiter. Mention of the Constitution belongs in multiple places as does Nagin's failure to exercise his evacuation responsibility. --JimmyCrackedCorn 17:35, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

The talk has been getting us nowhere. Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's little revert war has placed us where we are. I have reminded him may times of Wikipedia's policy to edit rathr than revert, that I've included yet again just below, yet still we see his recalcitrance. Template:Unsigned:JimmyCrackedCorn
Basically, my problem with the section is that it takes an argument that has appeared on numerous blogs and similar places (such as the Drudge Report and the Junkyardblog , where it seems to originate from) and makes it itself, without indicating where the criticism is coming from. The situation in New Orleans was chaotic, and deciding what the key parts of the disaster were, and who was responsible for them, is a matter of controversal interpretation. Using photographs, accounts, and excerpts from official documents to imply that the bus situation was a significent part of the disaster and that Nagin was responsible for it is original research; in a situation like that, that sort of claim should instead be sourced to someone who specifically alleges both those points. Way back when, there were people attempting to do that for the various controversies, but DKorn/JimmyCrackedCorn/209.247.222.** objected to it. Aquillion 15:24, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

The local government's inability (led by Ray Nagin) to exercise their charge in evacuating the locals without transportation some of whom died as a result is clearly a major part of the disaster. Unlike you/Gorgonzilla, I have never used a blog as a reference despite your canard above. I have confined my sourcing to NBC, ABC, Reuters, the AP, Official Government Documents, and Wikipedia itself whose source was NOAA satellite photos. You're very familiar with blogs, aren't you? But just because your DailyKos nonsense got the axe, that is no reason to continually blank my section sourced with major network sources, wire sources and official government documents. --JimmyCrackedCorn 17:35, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Can we please tighten up the noise-to-signal ratio here? As for you quoting policies about not reverting, it takes two to edit war. Have you followed your own advice? (A quick look at the history page says no.)
I've rearranged the discussion and deleted the enormous quotes you lifted from policies. It doesn't help and increases scroll here. A link is sufficient, or, perhaps one or two lines of quoted material, but not five or six. Also, try not to interrupt threads with items that are not directly related to the threaded conversation. Instead of reverting, why don't you come up with some better sourcing? I agree that quoting some random local TV anchor and then linking to some AP photos is not exactly the greatest sourcing in the world. Surely there's something better that wouldn't be so borderline questionable as regards sourcing requirements. · Katefan0(scribble) 17:43, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Better sourcing than a local TV anchor and an AP photo? If you were to take a closer look at my sourcing, you'd see I have provided 2 'national network (not local) news anchors who are both veterans - NBC's Lisa Myers and ABC's Dean Reynolds. I have also provided excerpts with links from official government documents, and I have provided clear photos from 3 sources - AP, Reuters and Wikinews. While your criticism of Aquillion's DailyKos blog source is somehow absent. Did Wikinews make my other sources invalid?;0) Also sent to your talk page. --JimmyCrackedCorn 22:52, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes. · Katefan0(scribble) 02:58, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
I did not find your sourcind adequate. Please don't use my talk page to discuss article content issues -- discuss them here. · Katefan0(scribble) 14:54, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

By "yes" are you saying my use of Wikinews as a source poisoned all the other sources, or are you acknowledging my rundown of the 6 sources as factual? Where did you get the idea I had only a local reporter and one AP photo, anyway? Also sent to your talk page. --JimmyCrackedCorn 05:03, 22 September 2005 (UTC)


I really haven't seen anybody criticizing Nagin specifically about the buses. The closest I found was this, an editorial written by David Reinhard of the Portland Oregonian. He doesn't name Nagin specifically but he does place blame for the flooded buses on local government. · Katefan0(scribble) 18:20, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Ten you haven't read my Lisa Myers' source or watched the Dean Reynolds video. Both contain clear criticisms of local government. That is the government headed by Ray Nagin. --JimmyCrackedCorn 22:52, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


this, from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, is more pointed. · Katefan0(scribble) 18:26, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
I'll try to come up with a compromise version of the school bus section encorperating that and some of the older sourced criticisms later today; a proper section for general critics of the article's subject seems to be the usual path for an article like this, as long as it cites specific people with criticisms. At most, though, one paragraph per criticism should be more than sufficient; there's no need to devote too much text to criticisms that are limited to a few blogs and editorial pages.
That sounds fine; I agree it doesn't need to be anything extensive. Thanks for your work andpatience. · Katefan0(scribble) 21:09, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


In the meantime, can something be done about the socks? DKorn (talk · contribs) just appeared after being gone for two days just to revert to JimmyCrackedCorn's favored version of this page after JimmyCrackedCorn had made 3 recent reverts; both accounts were made in the last few days, have edited almost only on the same topics related to the same issue, use very similar phrases and edit summaries, and even have similarly-styled names. I've made more detailed explainations of the various users who seem to be socks above. It is hard to seek a compromise or maintain good faith with an editor who appears to be acting like that. --Aquillion 21:03, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree that it's frustrating and hard to follow. Whoever you are, can you please just pick one account to use? · Katefan0(scribble) 21:09, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
Aquillon appears to have done just that. If you look at the edit histories for their account and mine I think it is pretty clear that there are two different people. I have not been posting for a while because I am travelling. It takes two to edit war but it only takes one person to make a highly POV article. it is obvious that DKorn/Jimmy is the same user who was banned for revert waring earlier. The comments on the reverts are the same, the attempted POV is the same.
There should be a section in the article headed 'Criticism of Evacuation Planning', there are many criticisms that seem to be justified here, for example many left wing blogs (i.e. likely to support Nagin) as well as right wing blogs have pointed out the fact that the evacuation plan left 135,000 people behind. The school busses criticism has been raised in the media and it is entirely dishonest to raise the issue without mentioning Nagin's response that the busses could not be used because of a lack of drivers, they had enough difficulty getting enough drivers to evacuate to the superdome. What Long John Silver is trying to do here is to dishonestly frame the discussion. [He has called me a liar and a NAZI so I think it is reasonable to use that term]
Finaly, this is an encyclopedia, not a news wire. The fact that some crackpot blogger has criticized Nagin is not notable. No encyclopedia would have that material. A newspaper might but a good newspaper would not publish criticism without first contacting the target and getting a response. There is a time issue here, Wikipedia should not be a dumping ground for the latest blog theories, if substantive criticism is being made it is not automatically notable, only when the lack of comment is in itself notable does the original criticism become notable. --04:30, 22 September 2005 (UTC)~

Edit line correction

Sorry, I misattributed the POV statement. It wasn't from JimmyCrackedCorn, but from an anonymous source. My apologies. -Yipdw 01:17, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Yipdw, I saw that as well. It looks like someone is again putting strong POV statements into this article. Maybe it's time the admins follow up on their threat of banning some people. Hell I got yelled at last week from threating to get someone banned. You think the least the admins (yes you know who this is directed at) could do is hold of up their end of the bargin and actually ban the people that are screwing up this article. Davidpdx 9/22/05 1:45 (UTC)

I protected the page. David, you might like to take a minute to review Wikipedia:Civility. · Katefan0(scribble) 02:59, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
So, was anyone banned for vandalizing the page? Why was material removed if it wasn't vandalism? (SEWilco 04:47, 22 September 2005 (UTC))
There has been an edit war. Protecting the page facilitates discussion and negates the need for banning anyone. Blocking is a blunt instrument and I personally do not use it if it tends to impede discussions, which I think it would in this instance. Editors on competing sides of whether the information should be included or how best it should be included should work out their differences here on the talk page. · Katefan0(scribble) 14:56, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Article is still a disgrace, sloppy, poor quality and Very POV

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla misuses the term coexists. The word is coextensive.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla has still not sourced claim the mayor flip/flopped his party alliance despite earlier discussion and his proven fraudulent claim the info was available in a source he provided. It wasn't. Until there is a source reference to Party should go.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla provides no source for Nagin's political contributions.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla provides no source for election results.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's Hurricane Katrine timeline is out of chronological order.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's claim Nagin expressed "frustration and anger" is personal POV

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's version completely obscures what Mayor Nagin's Hurricane Katrina responsbilities were under the city, state and/or federal evacuation plans. Without that, any reference to Hurricane Katrina makes no sense.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's version makes no mention of the unused buses being cited under the evacuation plans as available for evacuation.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's version makes no mention of the flooding of the idle buses.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's version makes no mention of Nagin's rejection of the idle buses or his demand somebody send him some Greyhound buses.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's version makes the unsourced claim the Evergreen Foundation is "conservative." Since neither the WSJ describes the EF that way, nor does the EF itself, the label can only be personal POV.

Aquillion/Gorgonzilla's version labels the last paragraph "Critics of Nagin" in a clearly POV attempt to make the critics the focus rather than the criticism. This borders on a logical fallacy called poisoning the well. --JimmyCrackedCorn 04:57, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

This sort of litany against other users is not approprate in an article talk page. Nonetheless, to address your points: See the Evergreen Freedom Foundation entry on sourcewatch, which notes that:
Evergreen Freedom Foundation's beginning mission was to try to curb the Washington Education Association's (WEA) use of dues for political purposes. Much of Evergreen Freedom Foundation's work -- and its subsequent expenses and its fundraising – is tied to legal complaints in the courts and in Washington state’s Public Disclosure Commission. Evergreen carries on an agenda driven by its president, former Republican state legislator Bob Williams – an unsuccessful gubernatorial and congressional candidate -- and executed by Evergreen’s staff of active Republican political operatives and insiders.
Don't be foolish. This is a litany against POV, sloppy and incorrect edits not an editor. Hence my describing what was said and why that was wrong. You and your sockpuppet, Aquillion, are the only people directing text to the ad hominem level. Hence your section "Critics of Nagin" vice "Criticism of Nagin." --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
Jimmy, LongJohn, or whatever your name is today, stop accusing Aquillon and Gorgonzilla of being sockpuppets of each other without proof. If you have proof, provide it. Otherwise, you are advised to cease making personal attacks immediately. Is that clear?—chris.lawson (talk) 18:47, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

So in your fit of hypocrisy hypocrisy you've decided to accuse me of having a sockpuppet while claiming such an accusation is a violation of Wikipedia's policy, eh? Physician heal thyself. BTW - evidence is identical POV, identically spelled misspelled words, one answering for the other, and their posting/editing right after one another as Gorgonzilla and Aquillilon have both done and I have pointed out several times. --JimmyCrackedCorn 23:37, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

So you hypocritically did "original research" expressed just above after continuing to whine that is what I had done when, in fact, I havn't. That's called "projection". It is still your POV that uses an association member's political registration to characterize his organization. It is also your POV that says Republican=Conservative. I can tell you they are clearly not the same thing. Arlen Specter is a Republican (fact) and is also a liberal (my POV), get it? If you were an Optimist that would not necessarily make the Optimist Club an organisation comprised of a bunch of lunatic fringe left wing extremists. That Bob Williams is a Republican does not necessarily make Evergreen Foundation "conservative." --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Additionally this article describes them thusly:
Even the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based think tank, criticized raiding the general fund to keep transportation projects going while the state passed on collecting $270 million in gas taxes.


Then what you have is a liberal paper whose POV agrees with yours. Is anyone surprised? As you said below the appropriate Wikipedia way to use that is by saying "The Washington Daily News (circulation 36, 52 on Sundays) says the Evergreen is a "conservative" organization. It is not a given that Evergreen Foundation is conservative. It is a fact your LW extremist paper describes them as conservative. Do you understand the difference? My guess is no. You've never demonsrated much of a depth of comprehension. --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


Or this:
Leaders of the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation and some legislators, including Rep. Toby Nixon, R-Kirkland, expressed concern this week that the Secretary of State's Office has not appropriately implemented election changes in recent months.
Or, similarly, here. They are a conservative think-tank, and well-known as such; it's no criticism of them to say that.

Again a fringe liberal source labels something they think is to the right of them "conservative." and again that is clear POV. Whether or not their POV matches yours makes no difference. It is POV. --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

For Nagin's political background, I already provided numerous additional sources below: Here in the profile on the left, here in a paragraph further down, here, once again further down the article.

You had posted none in the edit despite my moving that comment here for discussion. Your sockpuppet Aquilion posted only one but one talked about Nagin as a Republican but never made clear he flip-flopped. IOW it made my case, not yours. Do I need to sort through these new sources to find out where your lie is wrt them now? --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


For the busses, criticism of an article's subject on Wikipedia is virtually always consigned to its own labelled section, especially if anyone disputes it; it rarely receives more than a few paragraphs to outline the relevent views. This avoids both POV issues and the problems of original research, which you introduced when you attempted to make arguments against the mayor yourself using stories of flooded busses, selected quotes, and excerpts from various official documents. The correct way to include criticism in Wikipedia articles is to cite examples of critics directly without going beyond their statements, not to type up a sourced critical essay yourself. Likewise, a lengthy analysis of Nagin's official responsibilities does not belong in an enyclopedica article, with or without documentation; it is enough to say that he is the Mayor and leave it at that.


Odd your "friend" Aquilion misspells buses the exact same way, eh? The way you spelled the word means "kisses." I DIDN'T criticize Nagin in the buses section. I outlined specific facts. Show me the sentence where I criticized him. I included and cited NBC's Lisa Myers' criticism, not mine. I also linked to an ABC Nightline video that shows an evacuee criticizing "local government." Not me. I did exactly what you accused me of not doing. Then you lied to Katefan0 about my sources, claiming I included only a local news anchor and one AP photo, when in fact I had 7 national sources all of which agreed with one another. Why do you and your sockpuppet lack the capacity to grasp this?" --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


Most of the other things you mentioned have nothing to do with me; I actually happen to agree with you that that "frustration and anger" could be better reworded into something else (saying that it was a "blunt" interview would make more sense.) The quotes there could also be shortened somewhat; it made sense to quote at length when that was front-page news and the main reason people were likely coming to this article, but it doesn't make so much sense now, and in general page-long quotes are unencyclopedic. --Aquillion 02:23, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


Please remember to add new comments at the BOTTOM of this page. · Katefan0(scribble) 03:07, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


I don't think that there is any point in this discussion, each time this 'editor' fails to find support for adding his personal 'research' into the article he simply changes his name and starts over. I have shortened the interview several times myself, I don't think that Nagin's comments given about third parties in the heat of the moment are notable. They are clearly being included because they are criticism of Bush, not because they are a notable wrt Nagin. The fact that Nagin gave a somewhat emotional interview during the relief effort is somewhat notable but the extended comments themselves are not.

There are very few times you and I agree but I'm agreed there is very little point in discussing things when you and your sockpuppet continue to use strawmen fallacies to effect your POV, refuse to consider that Nagin's duties are important in an article about Nagin, and falsely claim NBC's Lisa Myers' criticism is my criticism of Nagin. I've repeatedly said Nagin is as much victim as villian. He was clearly victimized by the Governess who didn't set up evacuation shelters in non-risk parishes. That sealed Nagin's and New Orleans' fate more than any sin of omission or comission by Nagin. --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Hey, why don't you take a breather from all the hand-waving and look down at the section called "Compromise language?" This was, after all, sort of done for you. Do you agree with the language? · Katefan0(scribble) 23:41, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
At this point the Evergreen comments are not notable either. Evergreen is a third tier 'think' tank, Katrina is an issue of national importance. For political comment to be notable on a matter of national importance it has to come from Congress or from major media outlets. Evergreen is less notable than the blogs where the criticism originated. They appeared on the talk show circuit made some wild claims which were disproved and have not been invited back since. --Gorgonzilla 03:40, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


That third tier aspect is precisely why you and your sockpuppet cling to using Evergreen as a source. What good is a strawman you can't knock down, eh? It's yet another reason why it's clear your composition is sloppy, poor quality and very POV. --JimmyCrackedCorn 18:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Gorgonzilla said, "I don't think that there is any point in this discussion, each time this 'editor' fails to find support for adding his personal 'research' into the article he simply changes his name and starts over."
Maybe it's time that both of you admit that you are in fact doing this. It's not just a one sided affair. I'm glad this article is locked, but I think it's a shame it had to come that in order to keep the article from turning into a piece of trash.
As for my lack of civility, someone needs to look in the mirror. Davidpdx 9/23/05 4:00 (UTC)
I'm still waiting for someone to provide even one scrap of evidence that Gorgonzilla and Aquillon are the same person. So far, all I've seen are allegations of sockpuppetry by an anon that include anyone who disagrees with said anon/Long John Silver/JimmyCrackedCorn/DKorn/whatever he's calling himself now. (These allegations have, at times, included me, which is why I find them utterly ridiculous. I didn't even know either of these users existed until I started watching this page.)
As for your civility, I believe Katefan0 is the one who called you on it, and I believe the reasoning was your language in this edit: [41]. Just FYI. I don't much have an opinion one way or another on that.—chris.lawson (talk) 04:15, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
Chris, my point was in terms of my civility (or lack of it) is the unability of the admins to do anything about the bs going on with this page. In fact, if you look back at the transcripts on here it wasn't until the post by Katefan0 on September 17th that an admin bothered to do anything reguarding the lack of civility in this article. It was only after my comment that the admin swooped in and admonished me that something was ACTUALLY done. Maybe they need to (in Ray Nagin's words) get off their lazy ***'s and do something. How's that for a lack of civility? Davidpdx 9/23/05 8:12 (UTC)
Stop attacking me, please. My page protection wasn't spurred by your incivility; I came here as a result of a report on an administrator noticeboard. I have dealt with the page in the fashion I thought best. You're welcome to put together something for WP:AN/I if you feel that it's not been adequately addressed and survey other admins' opinions. If not, get back to talking about content, which is what we're all here for. · Katefan0(scribble) 12:16, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


I'm going to respond to JimmyCrackedCorn's above posts (or at least the parts that seem to require a reply) here, since he posted them all at once within my comments and seems to have mistaken most of my comments for Gorgonzilla's as a result, repeatedly responding to me by referring to "your sockpuppet, Aquillion," which would be a neat trick if I could do it. Cutting up other user's comments by posting your own within them is very bad form and makes it hard to follow the discussion. For the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, I think that numerous mainstream media sources referring to an organization as "conservative" with no other sources disputing them is enough to call an organization conservative if we're ever going to call anyone conservative or liberal; but it's not necessary to include a quote from them if you seriously object to it or their characterization. I re-included it because the criticism section was otherwise focusing too heavily on one criticism, but other critics could replace it or it could just go. For Nagin's political background, I provided numerous sources above (and have provided them twice now); I assume that matter is no longer disputed. For the criticism section itself, you clearly cannot claim that a journalist's statements are criticism, then attempt to have them placed outside of a criticism section; nor can you attempt to "outline specific facts" supporting a critic, no matter how many sources you provide. Encyclopedic articles simply do not make arguments; they can only report arguments by citing the people involved. Finally, there is a compromise version of the criticism section being worked on below. I suggest that you take future comments on that there, and work to improve it. The purpose of discussion here, after all, is to provide a workable article, not to settle old arguments. --Aquillion 23:47, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Compromise language

Nagin's response to the disaster is obviously fair game for this article, including some mention of criticsm. The challenge is to mention it fairly without overdoing it. I propose:

Most Louisiana lawmakers avoided pointing the finger at local leaders. But Nagin was criticized by some newspaper editorial writers for not handling evacuation procedures properly. In particular, Nagin has taken heat for allowing hundreds of New Orleans' municipal buses — which were to be used for evacuating poor or elderly people — to sit idle in parking lots that eventually flooded. [42] On an appearance on Meet the Press, Nagin said the buses sat unused because there was no one to drive them.

I'm not wedded to this, but it's time to start proposing something instead of mudslinging. · Katefan0(scribble) 12:33, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Yah, we went over that, and it was all in the article at one time, but seems to have disappeared. I support the efforts of Nagin as I don't see how, even if he was able to order already evacuated bus drivers back into the city, that they could have convinced the tens of thousands of sometimes stubborn evacuees who didn't want to leave, to get ON the buses. Without the govenor to assign a destination (or another city/jurisdiction) to offer a safe haven for said evacuees, where was Nagin supposed to take them. I also heard on CNN a night or two ago, that indeed, the governor DID ask FEMA for buses and got only 10% of the buses they requested. I agree that the buses sitting in the parking lots needs to be mentioned and cross examinations are also fair. I say list ALL factual information and everyone should bear in mind that not everything needs a citable source as some information is common knowledge. Another point of question is why does a city surrounded by water, only have three police boats...I'm not sure if that has anything to do with Nagin, but it does say something about the lack of preparation the city had, and as Mayor, some discussion about overall emergency services should be brought to witness, without turning this into a hit piece on the Mayor, or a monologue.--MONGO 16:24, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
Well, why don't you suggest something? · Katefan0(scribble) 17:05, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
May just edit it in...problems with finding text to match voiced (spoken) reports is sometimes a pain...will try to locate reliable sourcing or will not include info.--MONGO 17:15, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't know anything about that one, but I'll try a new version of the suggested paragraph. I'm worried that the first sentence implies an interpretation ("pointing the finger" has negative connotations to me, and the sentence generally sets up a comparison between the Louisiana lawmakers and the editorial writers which isn't necessary.) Additionally I would prefer rewording it like this to avoid the passive voice:
Some newspaper editorial writers have critizied Nagin for not handling evacuation procedures properly and, in particular, for allowing hundreds of New Orleans' municipal buses — which were planned to be used for evacuating poor or elderly people — to sit idle in parking lots that eventually flooded. [43] On an appearance on Meet the Press, Nagin said the buses sat unused because there was no one to drive them.
How's that? --Aquillion 17:19, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
Looks good to me. · Katefan0(scribble) 17:20, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
Sounds fine to me too. Let's try to date the Meet the Press interview too. Also wanted to chime in that the page protection should be lifted in a day or less due to ongoing sitations...ie:Hurricane Rita. MONGO 17:23, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
I'll pull up a transcript and get the date. I'd be in favor of that, but would prefer to see how Mr. Korn likes our fiddling. · Katefan0(scribble) 17:32, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
Interview 9/11/05 here--MONGO 17:34, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
The mayor was offered school bus drivers, he insisted on Greyhound buses. On September 1 the mayor said "...one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here..."[44] (SEWilco 06:36, 24 September 2005 (UTC))
While your interpretation of the Mayor's statements and the events surrounding them is interesting, it isn't encyclopedic. If you can find a quote from a specific notable critic on that interpretation, it could be cited to them and included in the criticism section. Aquillion 07:27, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Don't be insipid. That Nagin said, "...one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here..." is a fact. Encyclopedias don't need a critic to say Nagin said that before it is included. Facts are facts and belong in an encyclopedia just as much as what critics say about people. --JimmyCrackedCorn 21:29, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

"The mayor was offered school bus drivers, he insisted on Greyhound buses" is an interpretation of that statement. An alternative interpretation, for instance, when taken in the context of his next statement (I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans. That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.") was that he was referring to the fact that simply calling in bus drivers from nearby towns wasn't going to be enough, and that it would be necessary to tap the busses and drivers from a national organization such as Greyhound to cover the gaps. Using the quote in a manner that supports only your own personal interpretation would be POV; to avoid that, we quote interpretations of such statements to specific figures. --Aquillion 21:52, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

No one stated your interperetation but you. You are again usng the same straw man fallacy you've been corrected on numerous times in both your Aquillon and Gorgonzilla personae. Borrowing from Russell Honore "Don't get stuck on stupid." --JimmyCrackedCorn 00:41, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I quoted SEWilco's interpretation above ("he insisted on Greyhound buses"), and indicated that that approach to Nagin's quote was interpretive by demonstrating the existance of alternative interpretations. If neither you nor him are supporting the use of his interpretation in the article, then there is nothing else to discuss; there's no need to look for additional things to argue over. --Aquillion 01:31, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

You characterized SEWilco's interpretation and embedded that characterization in quotes and are now claiming your characterization is an acceptable quote. That is not only a straw man, you have just been caught in an obvious lie, yet again. Lies, especially when in characterization of other's statements, are bad faith. See to it that you and your "friend" Gorgonzilla don't lie again. --JimmyCrackedCorn 01:43, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I characterized SEWilco's interpretation as an interpretation? I "embedded that characterization in quotes?" I claimed that my characterization was an acceptable quote? I no longer even know what you're accusing me of at this point, but I see that you seem to have accepted that SEWilco's language was interpretative, so I suppose the issue is settled. --Aquillion 01:53, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
"he was referring to the fact that simply calling in bus drivers from nearby towns wasn't going to be enough, and that it would be necessary to tap the busses and drivers from a national organization such as Greyhound to cover the gaps." You've inserted as facts that "bus drivers from nearby towns" were mentioned, and that this "wasn't going to be enough". The source and numbers of drivers is not mentioned, nor whether this unknown was not enough. You also imply that doing nothing is better than doing what can be done, which in this case is saving some people by getting them away from the hurricane. (SEWilco 02:42, 25 September 2005 (UTC))
The Mayor states that there were no bus drivers available and he also states that bus drivers were offered. Should only one claim be mentioned? (SEWilco 02:42, 25 September 2005 (UTC))
In the section of the interview you quoted, he stated that (at one of their briefings) they discussed the idea of getting school bus drivers, and his reaction was "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans. That's -- they're thinking small, man." The logical interpretation, especially from that last sentence, is that seems to be that the Mayor wanted as many buses and drivers as possible, not that he was for some unfathomable reason rejecting some buses in favor of others. In cases like that, we cannot argue for one interpretation or another in the article, or present the quotes in a context that would effectively argue for one interpretation or the other. If you could find a notable critic who has attacked the mayor over those quotes, we could quote them in response; but you can't put your own criticisms of his statements in the article. In any case, as mentioned above I favor drastically shortening (perhaps even eliminating, beyond one or two lines to indicate the bluntness and tone of the interview) the Mayor's comments; quotes at that length are not encyclopedic. Aquillion 03:02, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Because there is no indication that the Mayor used school buses (although the Governor did), indeed he states there were no drivers (implying he tried), why is the logical interpretation "as many buses and drivers as possible"? There were absolutely no drivers available among the forces in the city? (SEWilco 03:47, 25 September 2005 (UTC))
As I said above, the context in which he says it--talking about the limited scope of official plans and the inability of many of the people he was working with to understand the scale of the disaster--makes it hard to support any interpretation beyond "we need more buses." If you want to argue that it is beyond interpretation that that quote instead shows him (for some inexplicable reason) rejecting offered school buses and demanding Grayhound buses, you will need far better evidence for that than "there is no indication that the Mayor used school buses." Extreme claims require extreme evidence, and a claim that the mayor of a city facing a hurricane deliberately rejected potental buses for no discernable reason is certainly very much on the far side of extreme.
But, on the other hand, it isn't necessary for you to personally prove beyond contention every criticism made of a public figure; it certainly isn't approprate for you to try and prove it in an enyclopedia. If you want your claims and interpretations included, all you have to do is find a notable critic who has made them, and include it indirectly by quoting their words, with no interpretation of your own. Aquillion 04:20, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Katefan's text is not bad writing. I'd support it as long as it also included the reference to the state document that declares evacuation the responsibility of the local Parish and the item about the 16 year old without a commercial license who drove the 1st group of evacuees in a schoolbus to the Reliant Astrodome. The section should also make clear Governor Blanco did not set up evacuation centers in non-risk parishes for Nagin to take evacuees. --DKorn 20:34, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

The fact that Nagin was in charge of evacuation doesn't really belong in the criticism section. It could be better included earlier on, in the general section on Hurricane Katrina, by modifing the relevent line to something along the lines of "As the local head of evacuation efforts, Mayor Nagin issued a voluntary evacuation request on..." I don't think citing it is necessary; it can almost be taken as a given that a city's mayor is in charge of evacuating it. Analysis of his responsibilities, of course--who was specifically in charge of what, which parts failed because of who, etc--has to be confined to the criticism section and expressed as the words of specific critics. I'm not sure I see the relevence of the 16-year-old's story at all; certainly if you want to relate it to the bus story, you would need to quote a specific critic for that, too. Aquillion 21:38, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
I don't get it. A reference to a state document that declares evacuation the responsibility of the parish? What's the point? This seems to tilt the balance way too far to one POV. This is begging the question -- who would think otherwise? Similarly, if you want to write about a 16 year old that drove a bus, put it in the Hurricane Katrina article. It has nothing to do with Ray Nagin. If you have a source that criticizes Nagin and mentions this 16 year old, then maybe we can talk about including it. Otherwise, no. This article is also not about Blanco and whether she did or did not set up evacuation centers. All the items you mention seem to me only tangentially related at first blush. · Katefan0(scribble) 22:02, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Do you often bury facts you find inconvenient? That Nagin was responsible for the evacuation is critical to even discussing Hurricane Katrina under Nagin's bio. Above you claimed that Nagin was responsible for evacuation is tautology. Now you're worried someone might learn the truth and formulate an opinion you find unappealing. Make up your mind. Whould you bury the fact Hitler invaded Poland because that fact tilted to one POV over another? What's wrong with the truth again? A clear and mitigating factor in Nagin's refusal to employ the buses in evacuation was that the Governor did not provide him any evacuation shelters in non-risk parishes as required under the state evacuation plan. Including Nagin's responsibility without mentioning Blanco's would be clear POV. Omitting a description of Nagin's and Blanco's responsibilies is also clearly POV. According to someone I'm sure you admire, Molly Ivans, "The press' sins of omission are more flagrant than their sins of comission." --JimmyCrackedCorn 01:33, 26 September 2005 (UTC)


I agree wholehearedly that Nagin's responsibilities for Hurricane Katrina don't belong in the criticism section but elsewhere. His resonsibilities are a point of fact not criticism. I think DKorn tried to make the responsibilities it's own section several times due to such objections but Aquillon/Gorgonzilla reverted it out several times in their/his revert war. DKorn even brought that section here on the discussion page for comment. An editor called Jentizzle said naming Nagin head of evacuation was POV and an Admin type agreed with her. Therefore, that statement needed the support of the Louisiana evacuation document. Even if you and I think Nagin's responsibility to evacuate is obvious enough to be tautology apparently many don't see it that way. --JimmyCrackedCorn 00:41, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but your arguments don't convince me. The information you are seeking to add is too lengthy, improperly sourced and misinterprets source documents to your own uses. Three other editors agree with me on this, and we are now working on compromise language. You must now either work along with us, or prepare to accept the results of a consensus on the issue that is drafted without your input. · Katefan0(scribble) 16:43, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

bush phone call to nagin fabrication

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509070003

the truth of this assertion rests on Bob William's shoulders. whitehouse.org is mum on the subject. the only call that referances can be found to on google are the sun. sept 28th 9AM call to Gov Blanco.

this doesn't sound like something that belongs on wikepedia. --66.92.144.73 07:08, 24 September 2005 (UTC)


Well of course not. However, one editor with multiple personalities loves LW blogs like media matters and DailyKos. --DKorn 20:26, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps searching whitehouse.gov is more relevant than whitehouse.org. (SEWilco 02:28, 25 September 2005 (UTC))

humor

Nagin is now making the rounds via the humor-email network: http://www.ilovekarlrove.com/pix/print_blamegame.pdf

Forks

JimmyCrackedCorn recently created Mayor Nagin and the Evacuation By School Buses Controversy, a fork which contains only the disputed bus section. They then created Nagin (disambiguation), which linked only to that article and this one, and redirected Nagin to that disambig. Since disambiguation pages are not ment to be used for multiple articles on the same subject, but for articles on different subjects with names that have a potental to be confused, I went ahead and changed the Nagin redirect back and redirected Nagin (disambiguation) here. The fork is still there for now. --Aquillion 22:20, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your diligence, Aquillion. What's a couple more pages on the watchlist? A note to JCC: Don't be dishonest. POV in one place is POV in another place. Guess we get to have a polite discussion on Talk:Mayor Nagin and the Evacuation by School Buses Controversy too. · Katefan0(scribble) 22:27, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

You have yet to explain what is POV about well sourced facts appearing in either place. Care to take a "Crack" at it? --JimmyCrackedCorn 00:27, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

That has been discussed at length, but this deals with a more specific policy. When you are in disagreement with other editors it is not approprate to go and create a fork of the disputed article; that is called a content forking or, as that page notes, POV forking, and the page thus created is a POV fork. --Aquillion 01:57, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

So are you Katefan's mini me? She is capable of speaking for herself but neither of you are capable of explaining what is POV, inaccurate or even unsupported text in an article that has no such text. You share that trait of answering for others with your "friend" Gorgonzilla, don't you? It's not surprising you and your sockpuppet would have so much in common. --JimmyCrackedCorn 05:46, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

This is the same trick that 'Jimmy' tried with 'First Responder'. He is clearly demonstrating that his objective here is to peddle propaganda. He is projecting like mad, what he accuses others of 'lying', sockpuppetry and POV describes only himself. --Gorgonzilla 12:30, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

And he's trying it again on that page. I've wikilinked it in your text above, Gorgonzilla, for easier access.--chris.lawson 16:55, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
I've deleted Nagin (disambiguation), as there doesn't seem to be anything to disambiguate. Func( t, c, @, ) 17:21, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Sockpuppets

Apologies if this is not the appropriate place for this, but since it's come up so many times, and happened almost entirely on this page, I thought I should mention that I finally have more or less concrete evidence (or as concrete as anyone is ever going to get) that DKorn (talk · contribs) and JimmyCrackedCorn (talk · contribs) are the same person. The similarities in posting style, sequental appearance with a line of other socks and anons, recent registrations, and other behavioral things have all been discussed at length; but I thought I should bring people's attention to these diffs:

Recently, JimmyCrackedCorn accidently posted while not logged in. Note that they were logged in for the earlier challenge to KateFan0 they refer to there, and note that their other contributions while not logged in exactly follow what JimmyCrackedCorn was doing at the time. Therefore, JimmyCrackedCorn is 12.74.187.165.

12.74.187.** is one of the IPs used by Long John Silver, who (thankfully for us) never registered under that name and always posted while logged out, but signed his name and left his IP address visible: [45] [46].

More commonly, though, Long John Silver posted under 209.247.222.**: [47] [48] [49].

And when DKorn made the same mistake as LongJohnSilver and posted while logged out, what did we see? Surprise! DKorn is 209.247.222.**, aka Long John Silver, aka JimmyCrackedCorn. --Aquillion 02:23, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

To remove any lingering doubt, JimmyCrackedCorn has just been reworking his own statements here, alternately logging in and out as 209.247.222.** Aquillion 03:52, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Don't get stuck on stupid. I've already told you My ISP is shared with millions. I use ATT Worldnet as do several others here I'm quite sure. --JimmyCrackedCorn 05:43, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Might I suggest you bring an RfC against this user and his multiple sockpuppets, citing the evidence you've cited here? I think that will probably be sufficient to have him blocked for at least a little while.--chris.lawson 04:11, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
Actually, I think you should go ahead and bring it to WP:AN/I. After reviewing the information you have presented here, it would be enough to convince me were I reading such a report there (particularly when combined with the POV fork). But since I now am involved in what amounts to a content dispute with this person (persons?) over this article, I will recuse myself from using any admin powers in this instance. · Katefan0(scribble) 04:31, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

IOW you'd rather divert attention from the article's content to ancillary issues. How typically libertine of you. I'm going to guess you are on Aquillon/Gorgonzilla's buddy list. You seem to come a-runnin' whenever either of those two issue yet another whine. --JimmyCrackedCorn 06:17, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I'll be there too...this whole thing is really getting old. I appreciate you're "stepping aside" and have no doubt a suitable third party admin can be found--MONGO 05:59, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Gorgonzilla and Aquillion have answered for one another numerous times. They have both been caught in lies and both have identical POV's. If they aren't sockpuppets they are stooges of one aother. --JimmyCrackedCorn 05:53, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I first posted almost exactly a year ago. Gorgonzilla first posted almost two months ago. Both of us have posted fairly consistantly since our first posts, with over 500 edits each, and have never crossed paths on an article until now. For Gorgonzilla to be my sockpuppet, I would have had to have started long before Hurricane Katrina began to form and carefully used the two accounts at the same time to make unrelated edits without a single slip-up the entire time, while maintaining distinct communications with numerous people in each persona, just so I could bring them together for a single article. You, by comparison, came here posting anonymously after the article became controversal, got blocked for reverting too many times in a short period of time, immediately registered numerous new accounts and devoted virtually all their edits to pages related to this subject, then gave them away repeatedly by accidently posting without logging in. At this point, you match almost every standard of proof for sockpuppetry available, short of declaring outright that you are a sockpuppet; your response to this is to make implausible accusations against others. --Aquillion 17:56, 25 September 2005 (UTC)
I often post when not logged in. 204.52.215.107 22:34, 25 September 2005 (UTC), also known as Rickyrab

Another addition to this list: Kirby Morgan (talk · contribs). Not quote so sure about this one; I wasn't even going to mention it at first. They registered at about the same time as many of the socks listed above, and almost immediately came here and reverted during a period when JimmyCrackedCorn had just used 3 reverts, but they've been on a few other articles as well. The thing that convinced me was the edit history for Godwin's law, specifically these two edits: [50] [51]. Account Kirby Morgan is used to make an edit; someone else promptly reverts. Two days later 209.247.222.** arrives, with no other history on the page, and mostly reverts back to Kirby Morgan's version. Mainly bringing this one up because Kirby Morgan was used to vote on the Mayor Nagin and the Evacuation By School Buses Controversy AfD. --Aquillion 01:40, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Here's some more for anybody keeping track. Sarthen1108 (talk · contribs), Hornwood (talk · contribs), Longmans Run (talk · contribs) and Treehorn (talk · contribs) (who had a sockpuppet "award" given to it by 205.188.117.12 (talk · contribs) which I believe resolves to the same IP JimmyCrackedCorn has used. They showed up suddenly to desperately request where they could find the article about the "Ray Nagin and the School Buses Controversy" on WP:AN/I and WP:VIP. · Katefan0(scribble) 16:07, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
Add DEastman (talk · contribs) · Katefan0(scribble) 03:45, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

What is POV, factally inaccurate or even unsupported about this text?

Please explain what you think is POV about the text below. I'm already aware of the objection to placing this in a section labeled criticism and even agree with that objection. I'm looking for specific sentences that are wrong or POV in something akin to the bullet list I provided with what is wrong with the article in its current form. I'm not looking for general complaints or more personal ad hominem attacks. Please place your comments in the section just below. Thanks. --JimmyCrackedCorn 16:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)


Aerial view of flooded New Orleans school buses.
Aerial view of flooded New Orleans school buses.

City Government Responsibility

The Louisiana State Evacuation Plan [52] declares, "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" in Part 1 Section D. The state evacuation plan also assigns evacuation to each Parish with the language {the parish will} "Conduct and control local evacuation in parishes located in the risk area and manage reception and shelter operations in parishes located in the host area" in Part 1 Section D. The responsibility for carrying out the evacuation in Orleans Parish fell upon the Mayor of the Parish - Ray Nagin.[53]

State Government Responsibility

The Louisiana State Evacuation Plan [54] mandates the Governor shall find evacuation shelter in non-risk Parishes to accommodate evacuees from Parishes at risk (Part 1, section D1d) with the following language:

{The Governor} Authorize{s} and direct{s} the authorities of non-risk parishes to coordinate the opening and operation of shelters with DSS in conjunction with ARC, and to lend all possible assistance to the evacuation and shelter effort.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is responsible for assisting local authorities when requested by the state authorities to respond to natural disasters as a secondary or tertiary responder. State and local authorities are considered first responders.

Use of Buses for Evacuation During and After Hurricane Katrina

The mayor stated on September 1, 2005 that he rejected the use of school buses and insisted that someone provide Greyhound buses. Nagin said in a WWL radio interview, "I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had - they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans." [55]

Later, on a September 11, 2005 appearance on NBC's Meet the Press responding to a question by moderator Tim Russert, Nagin claimed 550 municipal buses and hundreds of additional school buses at his disposal sat unused because there was no one to drive them. Nagin said, "Sure, here was lots of buses out there. But guess what? You can't find drivers that would stay behind with a Category 5 hurricane, you know, pending down on New Orleans. We barely got enough drivers to move people on Sunday, or Saturday and Sunday, to move them to the Superdome. We barely had enough drivers for that. So sure, we had the assets, but the drivers just weren't available."[56]

However, the very first bus to arrive at the Reliant Astrodome with New Orleans evacuees was a New Orleans school bus driven by an evacuee, 20 year old Jabbar Gibson, who commandeered it. By that time most New Orleans buses were flooded after the hurricane and subsequent levee failure and unable to make the trip. [57] A story[58] that appeared in the Chicago Tribune indicates Laidlaw, Inc was willing to loan the city to help in the emergency but they also could not provide drivers. There is no indication Nagin ever sought volunteer drivers from among the evacuees.

NBC's veteran reporter Lisa Myers reported local authorities had not used New Orleans' school buses or Regional Transit Authority (RTA) buses to evacuate the city's stranded poor during the Hurricane Katrina emergency. The city authorities also parked those buses where they were flooded after the levee break according to Myers.[59] The Associated Press and Reuters have both captured images of the flooded buses.[60], [61] and [62] According to Myers, "A draft emergency plan, prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and obtained by NBC News, calls for '400 buses to ... evacuate victims.' Yet those 200 buses were left in Katrina's path."

The bus situation was not lost on at least one New Orleans evacuee, Connie London, interviewed by ABC's Nightline Reporter Dean Reynolds at the Reliant Astrodome. The evacuee cites the bus flooding as her major criticism of the performance of city and state officials in handling Hurricane Katrina.[63] Video (wmv file, 00:54 seconds)

However, as Jesse Jackson has pointed out on FoxNews' Hannity and Colmes September 13, 2005 there was nowhere the mayor could have sent the evacuees by bus. On the orders of Col Terry J Ebbert, Governor Kathleen Blanco's head of her state's Homeland Security Department.[64] the Superdome in New Orleans would be the city's only evacuation shelter despite the Governor's responsibility to establish evacuation shelters in "non-risk parishes" according to the Louisiana's Evacuation Plan (Part 1, Section D1).


I know at least one person thinks this doesn't belong in criticism. I even agree. The text here is point of fact not point of criticism, or in my opinion also not point of view. But please tell me what the POV text is in your opinion. I'm really trying to understand the objections here. --JimmyCrackedCorn 16:39, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but your arguments don't convince me. The information you are seeking to add is too lengthy, improperly sourced and misinterprets source documents to your own uses. Three other editors agree with me on this, and we are now working on compromise language. You must now either work along with us, or prepare to accept the results of a consensus on the issue that is drafted without your input. · Katefan0(scribble) 16:45, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for a response. Now can you provide specifics? How does this do any of what you allege? How for example do my Nagin quotes misrepresent Nagin's claims about why he didn't use the buses for evacuation as called for in the state evacuation plan? As for your general criticism - that it's too long for the Nagin bio article - I'd agree. That's why it needs a fork. Not a POV fork, but a fork. We need to remove any POV text that can be identified. That's why I'm asking what is POV or inaccurate about the text. --12.74.187.215 17:08, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Compromise language on the issue is being drafted at the above section called "Compromise language." You're welcome to contribute there to the compromise language being drafted on the issue. · Katefan0(scribble) 21:32, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

What you may still fail to comprehend from your activist paradigm is I am not making an argument, I am reporting a series of related and interrelated events. That you cannot provide any specifics on what you think is POV, inaccurate, or even unsupported about what I have written although you have labeled it as such speaks volumes. Given your track record what makes you think you have the requisite objectivity to facilitate compromise language?? --JimmyCrackedCorn 01:19, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

As Katefan0 said above, either work with other editors in the appropriate section to draft neutral language, or stop your whingeing. If you aren't going to help solve the problem, at least shut up so the rest of us can go about our business in peace.--chris.lawson 01:43, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

And I'm not surprised you can't provide any either. There is no POV, inaccurate or unsupported text in the article. --JimmyCrackedCorn 05:36, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Look, I don't mind compromise, but Katefan0's approach to it is a bit daft. Katefan0 and his/her fellow editors are being a tad exclusionist by stating "Take it or leave it" whith their information, forcing people to waste time reading a large amount of confusing scrabble in order to get anywhere with a contribution. This leads to such things as censorship. If information is pertinent, if information is useful, if information is encyclopedic, if the sources are cited, then information should be included in the article. People are too trigger-happy sometimes when someone they don't know edits "their" article, and this violates the spirit of Wikipedia - after all, we're supposed to be an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. This is Wikipedia's Ray Nagin article, not Katefan0's Ray Nagin article. That is the main reason I made the reverts that I did, regardless of JimmyCrackedCorn's attitude or the attitudes of those arguing with him/her. — Rickyrab | Talk 16:53, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Please stop. It is disruptive and unconstructive to revert an article simply to make a point. The problems with using official documents to make POV arguments within an article were discussed at length only a few weeks ago; asking other editors to retread the same debates again simply because you don't want to take the time to familiarize yourself with them shows disrespect to the time and effort that they put into the original compromise. If you have valid complaints to make, go ahead and make them, but don't revert just because you don't like the idea of referring editors to older discussions. --Aquillion 21:27, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Unprotection

I have requested that this page be unprotected, on the grounds that Mayor Nagin is involved in a current event or two (Hurricanes Katrina and Rita), even though there may be a dispute between editors about the main page. Agree or disagree? Answer below, please; I initially suggested Wikipedia:Requests for page protection and unprotection as a forum, but it appears they do not want that as a forum. Dang. — Rickyrab | Talk 23:41, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Why bother unprotecting it? Compromise language on the most controversial section is being drafted above. If you have other contributions to the article, discussing them here isn't going to hurt anything. Keep protected for now.--chris.lawson 00:44, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Do not unprotect, it will be vandalized again and again by the same individual who has already been given one 24 hour 3RR ban. It is better for a current event to be slightly out of date than containing every up to the minute POV theory from partisan blogs. Despite Rita there has been remarkably little new comment on Nagin lately. -- Gorgonzilla 03:10, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
It seems that it has been done; I can sort of see what Tony's talking about. Anyway, I went ahead and put in the things that people seemed to agree on on talk--putting in the compromise version of the bus criticism, removing the Bob Williams quote, and massively trimming Nagin's quotes. Although I imagine there will be some controversy over exactly how to characterize them and which parts to focus on, I think I got the bits and general tone that were why the interview made such a splash. It had to have been unprotected eventually, so we might as well see what happens. --Aquillion 04:01, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I'm sorry, I usually make a note on talk pages of articles I unprotect if a content dispute is at issue, but I seem to have omitted to do so on this occasion. In general, my dislike of protection is summarised in m:Protected pages considered harmful. In the past week or so, I've reduced the de facto maximum protection period of normal articles on this wiki from nearly a month to around four days, with no adverse consequences. We rely too much on protection. For the most part, our editors deserve far more trust than we extend to them. --Tony SidawayTalk 13:11, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
'LongJohnSilver'/'Jimmy' has repeatedly demonstrated that he he will abuse every trust. Would a more sensible admin reprotect? --Gorgonzilla 13:53, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Page protection of an ongoing event doesn't make us look like we are very open minded, or receptive to new information...in fact, it makes us look like we're saying :hey everyone, here is the Wikipedia approved version...and then spoon feed that to the rest of the world. I agree with you about this Longjohnsilver character, but there seems to be enough of us around to revert him/her relatively quickly. You'd be hard pressed to find a sysop more sensible than Sidaway. Just for the record, I'm not a big fan of page protection, period, so my viewpoint may be biased.--MONGO 15:31, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I agree that page locking is the wrong mechanism. A much better way would be to allow a time delay to be imposed on propagation of updates. So that changes might only take effect 1hr after the last change. This would allow rapid updates to current events articles while denying vandals the gratification of seeing words like 'poophead' appear in the published article or turning the article into a platform for peddling a POV --Gorgonzilla 15:54, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
poophead — Rickyrab | Talk 19:15, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

I would not normally consider this article a candidate for protection, even if it were not related to an event in the news. There seems to have been some squabbling about content shortly before protection was imposed, but no significant revert warring. One IP number inserted a POV comment about Nagin's leadership abilities. This is really par for the course. I don't understand why there is so much venom on this talk page, or precisely at whom it is directed. Couldn't we have a little assumption of good faith, please? I think you're all doing just fine. --Tony SidawayTalk 17:57, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Tony, do you really consider 50 reverts in 4 days by one individual to be 'no significant revert waring'? The 3RR report alone described 16 reverts over a 36 hour period. WP:FAITH is not a suicide pact. When a person is using an obvious sockpuppet and attacks the suggestion that it is a sock there is clear evidence of bad faith. When a person creates a POV fork as JimmyCC has done there is clear evidence of bad faith. JCC has called me a liar repeatedly and a 'National Socialist'. He attacks all editors who do object to his insertion of POV statements in ways that are clearly intended to intimidate and to discourage participation by being as unpleasant as possible. --Gorgonzilla 21:13, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Well, in any case, nobody is reverting it now, and that's what matters. --Aquillion 21:50, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

It's rhetorical questions like Gorgonzilla's above that make me wonder if we're looking at the same article. The report on WP:AN3 is from 13th September, the article was protected on 22nd September. What you say about a certain editor's behavior may or may not be entirely true, but it doesn't explain why you think the article should be reprotected now. If he's such a bad egg, wouldn't it be giving him undeserved attention to go to the extent of protecting an article that isn't under attack, just because you think that he might do so? --Tony SidawayTalk 22:06, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I agree that it was probably time for the protection to be lifted. There are enough editors paying attention to this article now that as a group, you should be able to enforce the consensus reached here and subvert any attempted sockpuppetry. · Katefan0(scribble) 22:19, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
The report was filed on 13th september but no action was taken for several days and when it was the user simply created a string of sockpuppets and continued the revert war until the article was protected. JimmyCrackedCorn is obviously the same individual as Long John Silver, DKorn, Honest Abe and a string of other socks. As Aquillon points out he is not reverting now but it has been less than 24 hours. --Gorgonzilla 22:21, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
I just found the answer to the question why isn't he doning it now, see [65]. Perhaps you wouldn't mind locking down that First Responder to be a redirect to Certified First Responder rather than the Long John Silver/Jimmy Cracked Corn diatraibe about Katrina. --Gorgonzilla 22:30, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Ah, that's only a few reverts... and First responder will be on everyone's watchlists now that you've mentioned it, too, so it should settle down fast. Protection is supposted to be a last resort; you shouldn't request it so quickly. Plus, if it's just one user it's probably better to follow dispute resolution, going through RfC and even RfAr if necessary. It doesn't make sense to lock down whole articles just for them. --Aquillion 22:55, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
And perhaps add First responders, the plural, to those watchlists too. --Aquillion 04:42, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
Good catch, I had forgotten about that one, and lookee here, this is the 'information' that he chose to put there: A breakdown in command and communications among the local and state government first responders after Hurricane Katrina and subsequent levee failure and flooding in New Orleans on August 29, 2005 led to local civil problems and a desperate situation in await of secondary and tertiary national responders . Putting that type of screed in a factual article that has nothing to do with current affairs is pur POV propaganda.

Cruft in Hurricane Katrina section

As far as I can tell, the whole following bit doesn't really relate to Nagin; it would belong on Blanco's page, Hurricane Katrina, or someplace similar, but is, I'm sure, already covered on all those places. Nagin's name isn't even mentioned anywhere, though, and it seems to have to do with state/federal discussions rather than anything related to the city. The only reason it became as long as it did, I think, is because it was at the center of arguments that spilled onto this page from elsewhere. Does anyone have any reason why these paragraphs...

On August 27, 2005, Governor Blanco issued a request for federal assistance and $9 million in aid to President Bush, which stated, "...I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal." Also in the requesting letter, the governor stated: "In response to the situation I have taken appropriate action under State law and directed the execution of the State Emergency Plan on August 26, 2005 in accordance with Section 501 (a) of the Stafford Act. A State of Emergency has been issued for the State in order to support the evacuations of the coastal areas in accordance with our State Evacuation Plan and the remainder of the state to support the State Special Needs and Sheltering Plan."[66][67] [68]
The White House issued an authorization of aid by President Bush on the same day. [69] FEMA also issued a statement that President Bush authorized the allocation of federal resources, "following a review of FEMA's analysis of the state's request for federal assistance." [70]
On August 28, Governor Blanco sent a letter to President Bush, which increased the amount of aid requested to $130 million. [71]

...shouldn't just be removed from the article? --Aquillion 06:40, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

I went ahead and removed it, since nobody objected. --Aquillion 02:54, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

What the hell is the point, really?

If the army of liberals that run this site are only going to candy coat everything, what is the point of having an encylopedia that anyone can edit?

A bunch of us include quotes that Ray himself, actually said.

Imagine this: I'm a space alien, and I land on this planet, and want to learn about Katrina and Ray Nagin. I go to Ray's entry, and read.

"Wow!" I think. "What the hell is wrong with that American Gov't!? Nagin did all he could, and that lousy GOP-led government screwed over everyone with total mismanagement".

But in FACT, in documented, widely-accepted fact:

Ray Nagin had no experience in handling these disasters Ray Nagin did not follow his own city, state emergency plan Ray Nagin did not use the 215 buses he was SUPPOSED to use Ray Nagin screamed, ranted and raved like a lunatic

No person would learn these historical FACTS if they read the Nagin entry here.

So again, I ask: What is the point?

Why dont' you libs just make up whatever nonesense you want, work your iMacs into a frenzy, and simply rename the site: Libipedia. At least that way, everyone will know that this place is the liberal view of the world.

This has nothing to do with a "liberal" or "conservative cabal trying to POV the issues. There is a section that discusses the issues you demand...but let's talk more about this...there were, ah, 100,000 people left in the city when the levees broke...even if Nagin used the buses for 48 hours prior to and immediately after the levees burst, they seat about 50 people...so they put 50 people in each bus, times 250 buses (approximately) equals 12,500 people...so they travel at 50 miles and hour and drive 200 miles north to drop off the people and then return, picking up another 12,500 people....so in about 8 round trips, they could have gotten all those anxious people out of there. Remeber, there were lots of folks that wouldn't leave even after ther levees had burst and they were reduced to living on the second floor of their homes...so what makes you think that prior to the levees bursting Nagin could have convinced more than a quarter fo the folks to get on school buses, and drive north or west to destinations unknown? Most of the people that were trapped in the city had no intention of leaving until it was obvious that they had no choice due to no place to live, no water, food, electricity. --MONGO 20:03, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
So you're saying it is OK to not bother moving people away from a storm. Or is it OK if you can't prove that you can move all of them. Do we have to wait until we have a full count before trying to save anyone? Perhaps it is not fair to not save the first person in line if you can't guarantee that you'll also be able to save the last person in line. (SEWilco 20:11, 3 October 2005 (UTC))
This line of discussion is really not very helpful. Talk pages are for discussing changes to articles. This isn't Usenet or a forum -- our opinions about whether someone could've gotten out of New Orleans, or how fast the buses could be loaded, etc., are completely irrelevant. · Katefan0(scribble) 20:15, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
The line of discussion is helpful and surmises why the whole topic of using buses or not using buses is ridiculous....many of those that stayed behind did so by choice, at least initially. Those that kept up on the events would have seen that the vast majority of those still in the city had decided to ride out the storm, so in all liklihood, Nagin could have sent 10,000 buses there and still only gotten a relative handful of persons out. We are discussing what belongs in the article and what doesn't so I have no idea what you're talking about.--MONGO 20:31, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
Discussing what belongs in the article or doesn't is great, but our personal opinions about whether people had time to get out or not isn't criteria for establishing whether something belongs or doesn't. · Katefan0(scribble) 20:42, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
Then what is the criteria...that it must fit your politics? It is in there, and is mentioned and I was merely trying to show that further elaboration is POV.--MONGO 02:16, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
Come on now -- I never suggested such a thing; please assume good faith. It's fine to debate whether information should be included in the article or not, that's what talk pages are for. But you don't support your position by airing your personal opinions about it. You find published sources. Newspaper articles. Politicians. Thinktanks, whatever, that support your position. My only point is to support your position with sources, as per Wikipedia:Cite sources, not with your personal opinions. · Katefan0(scribble) 15:28, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
Again, I know how to research, but saw no reason do to so as it has already been done...I was merely attempting to discuss that further elaboration of the school buses is unwarranted and what I stated isn't anything other than common sense and a knowledge of the situation as it unfolded. Simple math and logistics, which is my forte, but I'm not going to cite myself.--MONGO 01:09, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

The issue of the buses will be decided by a committee of enquiry - if there ever is one. It will not be decided here. The New Orleans plan was to evacuate to the superdome. This was done successfully before the storm hit. The problem was the subsequent evacuation of the superdome after the storm. --Gorgonzilla 04:22, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

The New Orleans plan was a voluntary "mandatory evacuation", primarily under control of the city although the Governor apparently had to help find buses (she found many within hours on Election Day too). The Superdome is a "refuge of last resort". Look up the definition of that label in the plans. It is not a shelter, although the Superdome was used the same way previously. The intent to not do so again somehow didn't achieve much. The original problem was not getting people out of the city and to shelters. Not putting buses on higher ground (yet still within a hurricane zone), or moving buses away from the hurricane for later use, are mere mistakes or side effects of not moving people. Not arranging for transport after the storm is yet another issue, but follows the decision to leave people in the city. Oh, and then after the storm the plan included starving the people to make them leave, which is an interesting evacuation method. (SEWilco 05:10, 7 October 2005 (UTC))
I think we both agree that the New Orleans plan was deficient with respect to the 135,000 people who did not have transport. The plan certainly does not appear to have functioned well. There were breakdowns at every level of government. However the fact remains that the 'evacuation' plan was almost exclusively evacuation for people with their own transport. Earlier I added in links to the story of the DVD the city made telling people that they would be on their own. The school buses issue is utterly irrelevant to the post storm evacuation. FEMA promised buses with drivers and failed to deliver. Blanco and Nagin might be blamed for not pressing Brown on when the buses would arrive, for not being suspicious enough. If you are promised buses with drivers you are not likely to divert your scarce manpower on the ground to providing drivers when there are other urgent needs. A more relevant question would be why the helicopters that were meant to be shoring up the levees were diverted into other tasks. --Gorgonzilla 14:05, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
This is all interesting but not necessarily relevant to an article about the person of Ray Nagin himself. I wonder, do we have an article like Response to Hurricane Katrina or Failures during Hurricane Katrina? To your point on FEMA and the buses, Gorgonzilla, I was at a hearing with DOT secretary Norm Mineta yesterday and this is what he said: after the hurricane, FEMA directed the DOT, under the national response plan, to deliver 455 buses to transport people out of the Superdome. The DOT delivered them to somewhere just outside of New Orleans on 8/31. It was from that point FEMA's responsibility to dispatch them from there, and that's where the breakdown happened. The buses were there, FEMA just didn't utilize them properly. · Katefan0(scribble) 15:15, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
There are articles Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and Criticism of government response to Hurricane Katrina. (SEWilco 16:19, 7 October 2005 (UTC))
The 'evacuation' plan failed the same way during at least two previous hurricanes. Promises of improvements were made. The bus issue is relevant at two levels: Either move the buses out of town (with people on them) so the buses (and people) survive the storm, or put them someplace where they're likely to survive the long-expected flooding. The flooded buses shows neither was done. The mayor is not responsible for saving private buses, but he was authorized to use them during evacuation, as the Governor did. Again, the flooded buses (and Superdome people) show they weren't used during evacuation. (SEWilco 16:19, 7 October 2005 (UTC))
I don't know much about the evacuation, and you've clearly done a lot of research. However, it was my understanding, from reports on the media and across the internet, that 80% of residents of New Orleans were evacuated, making this a very successful evacuation, and that the congestion and flooding physically prevented further evacuations, making the buses a moot point. AIUI, the failures were in not starting the mandatory evacuation immediately rather than a voluntary evacuation to start, and not adequately preparing emergency shelters within New Orleans for those who couldn't be evacuated in time. 172.214.64.34 04:20, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
The Superdome refuge opened at Noon on Sunday, and city buses were bringing people there. Taking some of the people from the Superdome out of town could have been done with the still-dry buses. Yes, better preparations could have been made within the city. I don't remember if any Red Cross "shelter" definitions apply to locations within a storm's path, particularly when 35 feet of water is expected. (SEWilco 16:05, 12 October 2005 (UTC))

Phone conversation posted by 71.106.200.233

Perhaps there is a better way to record the phone conversation Nagin had in a daughter article. I'm taking it out as it is longer than the biography itself and doesn't add much to the article.--MONGO 07:59, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Something like that really belongs more in Wikisource. · Katefan0(scribble) 14:42, 5 October 2005 (UTC)