Bullshit they haven’t.

And yes, we must consider what might have been, at *all* levels of government. But we cannot do that properly if we ignore what actually happened.

What if the Mayor had evacuated the city in a timely manner, rather than waiting for less than 20 hours before the storm to issue an evacuation order?

That would make him Madame Cleo.

A voluntary evacuation was in effect when the storm was a category 3 storm. The hurricane was upgraded to category 4 at 2 in the morning, 29 hours before landfall. It was upgraded to category 5 at 7 in the morning, 24 hours before landfall.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered at 9:30 a.m., 21 1/2 hours before landfall.

The thinkprogress timeline is a list of “what happened and when”, while being careful not to engage in “what might have been”. There is no “criticism” of Bush in the article. It is a straight-forward accounting of the facts of what happened.

By comparison, you want a “what might have been” list for the locals, without focusing on “what happened and when”. As you say, there is plenty of blame to go around. But please don’t misconstrue facts as criticism. The criticism is a conclusion drawn from the facts by the reader.

Typical. When the facts are inconvenient, neo-cons criticise the ones who report the facts.

But from where I sit, there’s plenty of blame to go around. And shill partisan hacks like Oliver are ignoring the glaring mistakes that Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco made in their zeal to make some political hay.

(Thinkprogress even contributed to this one.)

Such as why over 200 busess weren’t used to evacuate residents when the city’s evacuation plan specifically said they should be used for that purpose.

Or why he waited so long to issue a mandatory evacuation order when the city’s evacuation plan specifically said city leaders should allow at least 72 hours for an evacuation to occur.

But why let facts get in the way of a good rant?