September 03, 2005

• Authorities eventually allowed the renegade passengers inside the dome. But the 18-year-old who ensured their safety could find himself in a world of trouble for stealing the school bus. Does anyone else actually care about these people's well-being? He took control and helped people at a time when the authorities were incompetent. If he's punished, it will be as much for showing up official ineptitude as for his actual crime.
• From the info currenlty available, I'd say all on that bus got very lucky, if that's possible in this situation. Imagine if, without police escorts, an armed mob tried to overrun it, or they had an accident?
• Those are quite disparate stories. He's 18, he's 20. 50-70 or 100 bus passengers. 5 or 13 hours bus ride. Nevertheless, the red cross staff are probably lucky they weren't beaten up with the first entry refusal at the astrodome.
• beaten up? You mean by the little girl holding the baby? Or maybe by the young man (of whatever age) who just drove a bus of refugees to another state?
• Kid deserves a medal. /cliche
• And just because it's cliche doesn't mean it isn't true.
• The part about New Orleans police telling the driver and others to take the bus and get out of the city is striking. So is the way they pooled their money together for gas and diapers. I noticed slight clutter's beautiful photos earlier tonight via Yahoo's Katrina page and found the "renegade" bus story kinda sorta via one of the many comments on her photos. Other flickr photographers who are volunteers on the scene include Houstonian and ratterrell in Baton Rouge.
• It's hard not to wonder and worry about the immediate safety and long-term placement of kids (in this story and others) who are without their parents or adult family. Even without a natural disaster of this scale as a backdrop, connecting kids with their kin who can and want to take them in can be a tough process. The orphans of Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast region may be in limbo or lost to far-flung relatives for a while yet.
• jb: beaten up? You mean by the little girl holding the baby? Or maybe by the young man (of whatever age) who just drove a bus of refugees to another state? Yes. And/or by the eldest desperate frustrated helpless refugees on board. Can you imagine how they must have initially felt upon arrival to be told "no, you can't come in"? Oy. Your head would spin. (you can otherwise read my comment above as rhetorical jb)
• I saw this story on CNN last night. Good for that kid. I hope I'd have the sense to do the same thing in that situation. You kind of wonder why the authorities of New Orleans didn't think to use their own school buses.
• One has the impression officials were mired in red tape and certainly not thinking outside the box of what conventional procedure was. At one point heard on the radio the mayor of New Orleans saying in frustration there 'are too many chiefs'.
• peacay - I understand you mean about the frustration, but I guess I'm getting tired of everyone talking about the people in New Orleans as dangerous. One of the reasons that it took so long to get water to the convention centre were bus drivers who claimed it was dangerous - it wasn't - a reporter went in and the people had got order on their own (the link I put in the KATRINA thread explains a bit more), and elderly people and babies died in the meantime.
• Kid's a hero. /chomps cigar.
• While the author obviously has an axe to grind in the 'buses that were still in the city' link, he raises some disturbing questions about the competence New Orleans' local government and their emergency preparedness. And yeah, the kid's a hero. Maybe he'll get a movie deal out of it.
• Reminds me of this column from Wired comparing the competence of authorities vs. the competence of individuals and ad-hoc groups, in times of crisis. The only thing that could make this story better is if someone else were to swipe the bus again in Houston and head back to NOLA for another load.
• If only the decision-makers had performed half-as-well as Jabbor Gibson. He clearly deserves commendation. Those photos made tears run down my cheeks.
• <movie trailer voiceover guy> They told him they wouldn't let them out... Then they told him they wouldn't let them in... 'Til he took matters into his own hands... Wesley Snipes is The Renegade Bus Driver With Jessica Alba as Makivia Horton and Morgan Freeman as James Henrikson special appearance by Seann William Scott as George W. Bush </movie trailer voiceover guy>
• That young man is a hero. Buck the system and be proactive, don't stand around waiting for the proper fucking paperwork or okay from the right people. See that's the problem, the yes-men can't operate until they have been given direction. Why? They haven't thought on their own for a long time. Common sense isn't part of the picture.
• If I was President, I would have called up the ready brigade and told 'em I had the most desperate job for them...I would have dropped a rescue operation right on top. I would also send a plane to conscript Werner Herzog and have him embedded for an indefinate time.
• Beautiful photographs. Thank you.
• Werner Herzog wouldn't believe it.
• "In an extreme act of looting, one group actually stole a bus..." Sickening.
• Once Bush, Cheney and their cronies are out of power and in prison where they belong, I would reccommend that young man to become the new head of FEMA.
• What a load of happy horseshit. This kid deserves a pat on the back for having the initiative to assist women and children to safety and for salvaging a bus that would have been no more than an expensive piece of rusting metal had it been left "unlooted" in NO. The magnitude of the screw ups on the local and state levels is becoming quite apparent. As far as I'm concerned, it still goes back to the feds and Chimpy. His damn Homeland Security should have been working with the state and the local governments to identify, prevent, and/or mitigate any effects of a terrorist act, remember? They have had four years to get this stuff rolling, and we're no closer to a proactive plan for a terrorist attack than we ever were. Obviously, proactivism is required here, not reactivism. Where's the money gone?
• "Where's the money gone?" Condi's shoes.
• Condi's shoes, indeed. Bush's haircut. The cost of that blue (collar!) shirt with the rolled-up sleeves he wore for the last photo-op. Rolled-up sleeves! WTF is that all about? Like he's going to actually get his hands dirty sandbagging?? HAR! Why doesn't he have the decency to wear a suit and look like dignified and ready to be the administrator and coordinator he is he's supposed to be? His posturing makes me want to gag. I think the bearings on the spin-machine are wearing a little flat on one side. On another note, I listened to public news radio yesterday evening for a while and heard numerous people, both with the rescue effort and those being rescued, speak live and unscripted about the events that happened/are happening and about future plans/problems they forsee. Several of them were CEOs and administrators, one had been living in the street, several were representitives of the 'average' NO poor. Every single one was eloquent, intelligent, informative, and articulate in what they were saying. When the reporter asked the people coordinating the rescue a question they didn't know the answer to, they responded by admitting the didn't know, didn't have authority to speak, whatever, and then suggested someone who would be the one to speak to on those matters. One or two made me want to stand up and yell, "YA! America!" which is something I haven't felt in a while. Contrast this with Bush's scripted piss poor response and efforts at public speaking. The spin-machine can't help him there, either. Everytime he starts his obvious attempts at drumming up patriotism, I want to spit and start doing the slow burn. Don't tell me patriotism, you rich shit. JB, I don't know about "anti-crime" but isn't there a mitigating circumstances defense? Do you think any of the people on that bus would be willing to speak in his defense or maybe give him a character reference? Or maybe we should just jail the whole damn busload of them, buncha terrorists.
• BlueHorse - I was being facetious. If they actually charge Jabbor Gibson with a crime, I would hope that the judge throws it out, and charges the bus company and the city with criminal negligance for not busing people out to start with. Someone on metafilter said "Jabbor Gibson for President!" It's a damn good idea. And he can get Charles Evans for his press secretary - (link to MSN video - see "A child's plea" and "in his own worlds" - really much more of a demand than plea. That kid can talk).
• Well, maybe Jabbor would be good for President, but he needs to be at least 45. (And, yeah, I know the "for president" thing is a momentary reaction." Here's a thought. Support and educate him till he at least reaches majority, and further, if he's inclined. Give him some comforts and some challenges. He seems to be intelligent and honorable enough that he would take advantage of that opportunity. And, he certainly knows how to take charge. It's impossible to tell whether he has any sense of what he wants to be when he grows up, or even knows what the possibilities are. And, since his life must still be in chaos, putting too many expectations on him would probably be a bad thing, but it does seem that his future could be spectactular. The Google links I looked at only parroted the original news story. It doesn't appear that anyone interviewed him except when the bus arrived. It could be that no one knows where he is, at this point. It sould be sad if he was lost into the maelstrom that's going on now. And, I don't really think that we monkeys could do all that, but I'd like to see a national surge.
• Jabbar Gibson arrested for stealing the bus.
• Someone is a serious major ass, and I hope they get a bout of dysentry. Then fired. And it ain't Gibson, who deserves a medal.
• Whaaaat??? damn. I'm going back to bed, and when I get up again, the world better be right where I left it!
• Someone on metafilter said "Jabbor Gibson for President!" It's a damn good idea. And he can get Charles Evans for his press secretary - (...That kid can talk). Evans was on tonight's tv broadcast of the Emmy Awards. The child actor he came on stage with (and presumably, the producers) didn't let him say much besides that he likes to watch Spongebob Squarepants, but it was cool to see him again.

  In a more serious moment, Tyler James Williams, star of Chris Rock's upcoming series "Everybody Hates Chris," delivered a plea for donations to Habitat for Humanity. He was accompanied by his "new friend," Charles Evans, a boy from New Orleans whom viewers may have seen in news clips asking, "What is going on here?" - Stars remember Katrina victims at Emmys

• As for Gibson, I've seen a few blogs linking to a petition that calls for him to be awarded a medal and full college scholarship. Not sure what happened after the arrest mentioned above, if it's true.