Democrats & Liberals: Archives

I do not agree with your administration finger pointing blame game, but I do agree with the sentiment to help those in need! I will be checking into other avenues though because most of your donations through the Red Cross go to line their fat pockets, I will also be avoiding any celebrity driven fund raiser also…they have enough money too!!!

Paul,

Good post. I agree. Traci, where do you get
your disdain for the Red Cross? Perhaps you
would feel better if you gave your contribution
to the Republican National Committee. Then you
could be assured no fat cats’ pockets would
benefit.

I know Bush cut the budget of the Corp of Engineers.

Were they working on projects that have the express purpose of protecting New Orleans from category 5 hurricanes?

Disusted~

No need to get ruffled. You can send your money anywhere you like….it is America!

The Red Cross operates on the standard 13% operating cost or below. They’re not lining thier pockets that I know of. Of course, if you have specific examples, please let me know.

Darrius -

I wasn’t the Cat. 5 storm that destroyed New Orleans… it was the water - after the storm had past - that broke through the levees and that is what has caused such horrific damage.

also - from a previous post…

“In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding.

It would be the largest single-year funding loss ever for the New Orleans district, Corps officials said.

I’ve been here over 30 years and I’ve never seen this level of reduction, said Al Naomi, project manager for the New Orleans district. I think part of the problem is it’s not so much the reduction, it’s the drastic reduction in one fiscal year. It’s the immediacy of the reduction that I think is the hardest thing to adapt to.

There is an economic ripple effect, too. The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.”

Thanks Paul, It’s good to know Bush is responsible for this too.

Thanks Eric, It’s good to know that you’ll never hold Bush responsible for anything.

Government leaders from the mayor to the president are responsible for mass desruction of life in New Oleans following Katrina’s passing. There’s no excuse, they are educated, elected and expected to protect all their citizens. The people on the ground are heroes but are limited by lack of leadership. “Not on my watch” must refer to equality and justice. There is increased poverty in this country and the rich are richer, niot to mention the incredible loss of life suffered under Bush’s reign. America wake up, Bush was a mistake.

I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.

For an alarmingly prescient look from those who did indeed anticipate it, try a 2001 Scientific American article. It’ll break your heart.

Paul,

Okay…back to being prepared. Does anyone know if the rest of the Mississippi was fixed or not? The whole river was in need of repair as far back as 1993, at least. Was it ever done? I can’t find word of it one way or the other.

Aside from the dangers of the Mississippi…what other major work needs to be done? (And I’m not asking because I don’t think it exists, but because I don’t know.)

If we’re going to take this to the bank…I mean our representatives…then, we have to know what we’re talking about. Specifics, please.

As an ex-911 worker I can safely say that the Red Cross, as well as the Salvation Army were there with the US Army Corp of Engineers, the New York City Department of Design and Construction, Con Edison, AT&T, FEMA, Fire and Police Departments from over a dozen states across the U.S., volunteer rescue workers, welders and clean up crews every day and every night, 7 days a week (from September 13th until the last trucks rolled out of downtown Manhattan) feeding and caring for the thousands who needed food, water, blankets, clothing, medical assistance, boots and respirators, reuniting families and loved ones, and comforting all those who needed it.

As far as the Celebrities… Alan Alda, Barbara Streisand, Ray Romano and dozens more… they were there too, serving meals, raising spirits and clearing tables.

I have one question. Where were you?

I also want to thank McDonalds and Cambells Soup for serving free hot meals and cold drinks 24-7 for months after 911.

Pat,

Thank you for your service and your reminder that Americans can and do unite for the good of our country and her citizens!

“Where were you?”

Stuck home caring for my three special needs children, while funneling every extra dollar we had to the relief efforts.

My comment was in defense of the above post vilifying the efforts of the Red Cross, not a personal attack on anyone who did not contribute their time or money for 911.

Unfortunately, by the time I clicked the post button… there were already 6 other posts up.

Obviously I meant in “response to” the above post…. not in “defense of”.

NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF CYBER SECURITY AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE COORDINATION CYBER INFORMATION BULLETIN

DATE ISSUED:

September 1, 2005

SUBJECT:

Fraudulent Websites for Hurricane Katrina Victims

OVERVIEW:

We have received information indicating that Internet domain names are being created that could be used to lure unwary users into visiting potentially malicious web sites.

BULLETIN:

Relief and charity efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina began immediately after the hurricane devastated the Gulf Coast area. Shortly thereafter, web sites began to appear which were designed to defraud unsuspecting users. Some of the activities include soliciting donations for seemingly charitable purposes, attempting to collect personal information through phishing scams and also spreading malware to unsuspecting users. Over the past few days, domain names that redirect users to malicious web sites have appeared online, in addition to email scams requesting donations for those impacted by the hurricane. While some of these sites and messages may be legitimate, many are not. At the time of this bulletin, please be aware that the following domains are reported to be suspicious:

katrinahelp.com

katrinacleanup.com

katrinarelief.com.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list and additional domains may continue to appear.

In addition to fraudulent web sites, opportunists may use this event as a vehicle for other types of online attacks. For example, email messages that claim to contain attachments with photos, video, or other information about Hurricane Katrina may actually contain viruses, worms, or other malware.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

We recommend that staff be advised to:

Validate the relief fund or charity through a known reliable entity. Please refer to the FEMA link below for a list of reputable disaster relief resources for Hurricane Katrina.

When a message containing a request for donations for these victims appears, do not respond unless you are certain it is a valid message.

Avoid visiting untrusted web sites.

Avoid opening email messages and attachments that claim to contain video, photos, or other information relating to relief solicitation for Hurricane Katrina.

Follow standard best practices for email and web browsing security.

REFERENCES:

SANS

Washington Post

Better Business Bureau

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Pat,

I didn’t take it as an attack, but am fully prepared to defend myself for those unwilling to accept that not everyone can help equally.

Reed Sanders provided a link an interesting 2001 article about New Orleans and its water problem. Here is a section on the last page.

If Congress and President George W. Bush hear a unified call for action, authorizing it would seem prudent. Restoring coastal Louisiana would protect the country’s seafood and shipping industries and its oil and natural-gas supply. It would also save America’s largest wetlands, a bold environmental stroke. And without action, the million people outside New Orleans would have to relocate. The other million inside the bowl would live at the bottom of a sinking crater, surrounded by ever higher walls, trapped in a terminally ill city dependent on nonstop pumping to keep it alive.

The conclusions of the article speak to the fact that people are not together on this with what to do. The Article also states that even doing some of the changes recommended will not stop the current problems experienced in New Orleans proper. They may have thought that the levees needed attention, but basically: the levees are a band-aid to the real problems.

Read the whole article.

Traci,

Sorry it took so long to respond to your
response. It was time for my thorazine dose.
I know I can give to whoever I choose. That’s
why I sent a check to Chattanooga Red Cross for
Katrina disaster relief. Then I sent one to the
Democratic National Committee.

Some people will try to score political points no matter how inappropriate or far-fetched. It’s downright ridiculous.

While we’re at it, why don’t blame New Orlean’s public school system and the public school system in general for the low character displayed by the looters and vagabonds now terrorizing the city? School vouchers anyone? Is that the “real” lesson of this tragedy? Maybe what those criminals needed was more school prayer or some lessons on intelligent design.

Today I returned to my house in Oregon. Last week my wife and I flew to New Orleans to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. Ohmigosh.

It was harrowing, but we made all the right decisions, given we were in New Orleans in the first place. We evacuated Saturday morning, and we made our way to Florida, and eventually home.

My heart goes out to all the suffering people who did not or could not get out, and others I know who have lost everything.

I don’t understand what’s going so wrong with the relief effort. It’s difficult, of course, we all know that, but…

Very good article.

It does help to be prepared.
It also helps to have a president who knows what the hell he’s doing and who actually cares about the people who exist in the realms of the everyday beyond his fairytail “base”.

Just to remind people what it was like to have a smart, careful and competent person in charge of this country, I think it might be wise to remember what happened with Hurricane Floyd back in 1999.
Clinton, you’ll remember, declared federal emergencies in several states even BEFORE that hurricane touched the continental US, and BEFORE any of the state governors asked for assistance. At his request, FEMA issued mandatory evacuation orders to nearly three million people who lived in the coastal areas — the largest peacetime evacuation in the history of the United States.

Afterwards Clinton took a hell of a lot of flak from the Republican’s for ordering that evacuation. But if New Orleans had gotten a similar pre-emptive response from our current president they’d have been a lot better off at the moment.

In fact, had Clinton been in office today instead of back then, I’d be willing to bet that he would have sent out fleets of busses for the poor, the sick, and the elderly of that city for a mass evacuation, even if he would later get reamed by the Republicans for doing it. The man might have had some serious personal flaws, but he certainly did take his responsibilities to We the People seriously.

President Clinton:
“There may be some people who question whether we did the right thing to recommend all the evacuations. But now that we have this technology at the National Weather Center, we have to act on it.”

Sen. Connie Mack said at that time about the presidents promise of federal aid:
“If the state doesn’t get the declaration [of a federal emergency], it has no guarantee that it’s going to get assistance from the federal government, so there might be some hesitancy on the part of the state to act very early.”

What was our current president doing rather than acting very early? Fundraising for the Republican’s. Golfing at a country club. Basically, he was still on vacation and obviously couldn’t be bothered with his presidential responsibilities.
Too much “hard work” for him, I guess.

I know everyone thinks we shouldn’t be bringing up partisanship during this horrific disaster — and I’m not. Really. I’m bringing it up to talk about Competence, Forethought, Responsibility, and basic Human Feeling from The President of The United States to We the People.
And I’m afraid there are far too many people who are dead in New Orleans, and too many others still dying, for me NOT to raise the issue, or point up this comparison.

phx8, so glad you two made it through.

Adrienne,
Funny you should mention it- we were just wondering why people aren’t being bussed out of the city.

The Bush speech on Monday about the 60th anniversay of the end of WWII outraged me. Was it Monday? The days have been a blur. But Bush is such a crappy leader. He just doesn’t get it. That speech should have been s***canned the minute the levees broke. But Bush doesn’t anticipate, and he doesn’t act until someone tells him what to do. He just doesn’t know how to lead.

This is another sad example. And there’s plenty of blame to go around, no doubt, Dems as well as Pubs. But it starts at the top.

If the blame starts at the top, then you’d better blame God (or Mother Nature if that’s what you prefer) because no one else could have stopped this.

Adrienne, the situations surrounding Hurricanes Floyd and Katrina are not really comparable. Even if the people currently in New Orleans would be had been evacuated initially, how many would have come back before the levee broke? I don’t have the exact timeline in front of me, but I know that for some time after the hurricane had passed, the initial reports were that New Orleans had been spared the brunt of it. If you were staying in a motel up the freeway, you might very well have headed home.

And as for the levee, nobody expected it to break. Where it broke, actually, was at a place where it had been recently been uprgraded and reinforced.

Adrienne,
Thanks. Lots of ‘what ifs’ make me wonder, we made the choices and luckily they were the right ones.

Sanger,

“And as for the levee, nobody expected it to break.”

You’re simply wrong.

I evacuated Sunday morning because the levees were built to withstand 15 feet, and the storm surge was expected to be 20 feet or higher. I was in the Garden District, and prepared to hunker down & ride out the storm in a hurricane party. But when we left, everyone expected the worst case, breached levees & catastrophic flooding.

As it turns out, Katrina hit that night. The levees broke the following morning, after the worst of the storm passed. There is no way anyone could have returned to the city at that point. There were a few hours where we hoped the levees would hold- Katrina veered slightly east at the last minute, so the brunt of the storm surge hit MS- but enough damage was done, and the levees gave way.

It was predictable and it was expected.

The situation now is awful, but it’s not unanticipated. I can understand difficulties coordinating; I can appreciate a lot of good people are doing their very best to help; but really, what the heck is going on with the relief effort, in terms of coordination at high levels? Those people in New Orleans are going through hell, and I simply cannot understand how it could take this long for an effective, coordinated evacuation to be executed.

Had my wife & I stayed in a hotel rather than a B&B, we’d still be there, that simple.

phx8, I am now getting pissed along with thousands in New Orleans at the absence of supplies not being dropped from helicopters at and near the Convention Center. Cables and cargo nets are all that is required. There are stockpiles of water nearby that could loaded up from water vending Machine companies who bottle it in 5 gallon plastic jugs.

Where are the drop shipments? Those people have had no water or food for 3 days. I am having trouble understanding why.

Heh. The answer is simple. Most of the heavy equiptment is in Iraq. Helicopters, Trucks, Water purification vehicles. They may be getting bodies out of state but the hardware is in the desert.

Got Duct Tape?

That’s why I sent a check to Chattanooga Red Cross for Katrina disaster relief. Then I sent one to the Democratic National Committee.

Heh. My Dad’s disgusted in GA too. I bet he did the same thing. In fact, I think I’ll shoot the DNC a few more bucks myself. I can’t think of a better way to help future disaster victims.

Aldous!
I’ve been gone a while and in missed your comments. They are such a good reminder to me on how nutty and out of touch the far left is, Thanks!!

Getting supplies in the right hands.

If a helicopter simply drops supplies, there is no assurance that they will fall into the hands that need them the most. People are not capable of sharing under those circumstances.

Supplies must be centrally distributed, equally and based on priority need.

If they are to be dropped, a zone manned by military or relief personnel must be established , maintained and controlled.

Why dont you libs grow up. You are the party of yes but. Give us some solutions not you constent critism. I know that you elite liberals are so much smarter than the rest of us, so why do you keep loosing elections. Osama should have been delt with when your man Bubba was in office. He han a least 3 chances to get Osama but I think we all know where his Bills thoughts were (Monica-Jennifer—Paula Jones. Two more questions for you Oh so smart elite. What is your definition of alone and is is.

Where are the drop shipments?

Last reported they were being shot at by the crazies.

Pat~

Not to point out the obvious, but I’m sure it is a whole lot easier for Ray Romano and the like to spend days on end volunteering(I will be kind and try not to assume that they did benefit from this some way financially…as we hear time and time again) their time when they have millions in the bank….if I don’t get paid…I don’t eat.Just an observation.

Thomas -
“Why dont you libs grow up. You are the party of yes but. Give us some solutions not you constent critism. I know that you elite liberals are so much smarter than the rest of us, so why do you keep loosing elections. Osama should have been delt with when your man Bubba was in office. He han a least 3 chances to get Osama but I think we all know where his Bills thoughts were (Monica-Jennifer—Paula Jones. Two more questions for you Oh so smart elite. What is your definition of alone and is is.”

So - you decided to pull the ‘ole “I know you are , but what am I” tactic. I’m stunned - baffled at your deft skill.

Shhheeesssh… care to add to the DISCUSSION, or are you going to just sit on the sidelines and yell at people?

Paul,

Michael Brown says:

“”Before the hurricane struck I came down here personally and rode the storm out in Baton Rouge,” he said. “We had all of our rescue teams, the medical teams, pre-deployed, ready to go. … The lawlessness, the crime that is occurring, did surprise us.”

Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the FEMA director said he “never thought I’d see” the lawlessness that has overtaken the city and interrupted emergency relief efforts. “It’s heartbreaking and very, very frustrating to me from a broad operational perspective,” he said.

“What we have right now is a situation where, with my having access to the military, bringing in the National Guard troops, securing the area, we’ll be able to continue the relief efforts that we have been doing over the last several days,” Brown added. “We’ll be able to ramp those up and continue the evacuation.”“

So, apparently we weren’t quite as unprepared as some people are claiming (though, evacuations BEFORE the hurricane hit would have been wise). Does anyone know for sure why the lawlessness is so out of control?

Though, it does kind of bug me that this guy is (in his own words) “…focused on lifesaving efforts,” yet has time for talk shows. IMO, the “cover his butt” factor certainly weighs against his words.

Though, this one seems a bit more balanced.

Stephanie and Adrienne,

I think you may need to check your timelines. A mandatory evacuation order was issued BEFORE Katrina hit. The Order was issued on August 27. Granted, it may have been too late at that point, but an order was given nonetheless.

Despite the ad hominen attacks on the Bush Administration, Paul is right, we do need to think a little more. It did not take a great leap of imagination to understand that levee breaks could happen. but the failure is not just with this Administration, but with everyone up and down the chain of command.

Ya know, I’ve never been a big fan of the Bush administration. Once this thing is over, I’ll be more than happy to give him a huge ration of sh*t for how it was handled….

…but…

Right now, the last thing we need is for the President to be focused on defending his actions and decisions. He, and the rest of the government, needs to be focused on New Orleans. Once the evacuation is complete, and these people are safe, THEN I’ll start Bush-bashing again. Until then, he’s the only President I have, and I need him to be focused on doing his job at the moment.

I wonder if Dickie Cheney’s undisclosed
location was on the coast somewhere? I’m
worried about that boy as nothing has been
heard from him this week. Or did I miss it?

Blaming the current administration and the war in Iraq is an uncreative waste of text. French explorers founded a military outpost on a patch of high ground (now known as the French Quarter) surrounded by hurricane-prone swamp. That was a sensibly defensible position for a military outpost. As the outpost grew the swamp was drained. Not exactly a bright idea. Baton Rouge would have been a much better site for a mega-city and port.
Now, after decades of failure to plan for the inevitable you want to attribute the blame to a three year old war and this fiscal year’s budget cut? Get real. Assuming all the cut money would have been spent shoring up the levees (again, get real) rather than paying bureaucrats and consultants how much actual construction could have been completed in the last year? A couple inches.
FEMA’s response has been miserable and more than a few people there should be fired. But it’s quite obvious that the City of New Orleans and State of Louisiana had nothing resembling a plan for dealing with a breach of the levees. To the extent any politicians are to blame, it is the past and current leaders of those localities that must bear the brunt of criticism for not having even a skeletal plan in place.

I live down here, just to the southwest of New Orleans. We were luckier than many. My home had some damage and some minor flooding, as did many in this area (Terrebonne Parish). Many did lose their homes, but it was largely due to trees falling and the areas that did flood.
It’s interesting how many people who are not here or are not from here have so many opinions as to what New Orleans did wrong.
The current Mayor (Nagin) has greatly improved the evac procedures, as well as emergency procedures. I don’t know how it’s possible to predict where a levee will break, when they run hundreds of miles all around the city and surrounding areas. I’d like to see a plan that could predict that. You go with what you’ve got and do what you can. The only way to move equipment to a particular area prior to the breech is to go out, during the middle of the hurricane, and move equipment, because you don’t know exactly where it is going to hit until it gets there. So just try to walk around in 75 to 125 mph winds and get in your bulldozers and drive them across town. Sure; it’s easy. Right?
Criticism of what went on during or before the storm is really misplaced. The plans were in place. The best effort to get people out was made. The area hit extends FAR beyond New Orleans, but most don’t realize that because only N.O. is shown on the news. So the resources are spread all over SE Louisiana.
We are all trying to help each other right now. I got my electricity back today, and was allowed back into my home. Tomorrow I go back out to help after four days of little sleep or much of anything else. But I’m only one of many, and many others are doing much more than I am.
The response has been slow from the fed gov. I blame it on bureaucracy and politics, but what do I know?
The city and surrounding areas have been overwhelmed and just can’t cope. This area needs massive help in the form of personnel, equipment, supplies, and coordination from the fed. govt. So far, it’s been pretty slow in getting here. Hopefully the focus that has been placed on the problem will change it. Ray Nagin, the mayor of N.O. is great, but he can’t do it alone. He’s probably the first honest mayor in that city, and he’s doing his best. But when people in Washington refuse his calls and only point fingers or give him the run around when he does reach someone, what can he do?
By the way, if you want to hear something positive: The power lines were out all over Terrebonne Parish. Poles were literally laying on the roads. Transformers were lying all over the place. Lines to houses were broken. The area I’m talking about covers about half of Terrebonne Parish, which is the largest in the state. (a parish is like a county in other states). Today my power was turned on. The poles are upright. The cables are no longer in the streets. Nearly all of Terrebonne has power, phone, and yes; even cable tv. That’s in FOUR DAYS! Thousands of miles of damage, and they got it done in four days! Now the hospitals, govt agencies, police, fire, doctors, and everybody else can do their job to their full potential.
Those linemen are awesome. Can’t forget the police, fire, fish and wildlife, coast guard, and all the rest. True heroes; all of them.

I wonder how many of the robing, murdering,rapeing,looting nigger in a wood pile african american’s are conservative republican. why are they all so poor? Could it be the evil whiteie keeping the brother down? Them white nikeie tennis shoes really are to die for.and when the roits that are about to come begin and they come for your home ,food ,money, cars, wives,daughters will you remember that they are just hungry and thristy because george bush did not tell them to get out of town in time and sent there welfare cheek to some sandnegro in bagdad.

angry white male- Your moniker should be ignorant cracker. Most of those left in NO couldn’t leave due to lack of resources. Sure there are some bad folks, but most are just poor and needing help. I find it interesting that this administration whose mantra seems to be ‘take personal responsibility’ never wants to take responsibility for their own actions or inaction. It’s always the previous administration or the evil liberals or somebody else’s fault. By the way either use a spell checker or learn English before you try to post your ignorant drivel. Your post spells out your lack of thought and education. This from a poor farm boy from the midlands who retired from the military.

Vet24, your clear violation of our Critique the Message, Not the Messenger has earned you an invitation to take your comments elsewhere. They are no longer welcome here. —WatchBlog Managing Editor

ya ya bush lied I cant spell and all you leftwing liberals do is excuse bad behavior. you rationalize it.shore denounce me as extermist for calling attention to it. this thing will never be over. poverty and economic disparities between the lower and upper classes will never be bridged by leftwing liberal tribal socialism and grovment dependency.so you demmacommie’s keep it up bash bush soon you will try too install Hillary as queen of america and you will have a secound black white president clinton to free the slaves twice in our life time.

awm-
I’m sure that when Christ returns, you can explain to him your great love for the poor, the downtrodden, the sinner. You can explain to him why you blame others for feeding the hungry, giving drink to to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and so on and so forth.

You hate and you fear these people. Most of us don’t, and with good reason- they’ve never personally done us any harm. You may call it realistic- I say you have no real experience that would allow you to judge these people on a realistic basis. How can you? Hundreds of thousands of lives there, and you claim to know them all.

I think the innocent should not bear the brunt of the kind of toxic racism you’ve expressed, but then I have the comfort of knowing you are not among the vast majority who see a human face when they look at this tragedy, or even the face of Christ himself.

awm,

I’m not a leftwing liberal, but an independent who leans strongly towards the right. I’m not a Bush-basher and defend him staunchly when he’s being accused of things he’s not responsible for (which is different than responsible for fixing), like the actions of the insurgents or the disaster of Katrina. Your rhetoric and labels do not work on me.

That being said, your comments are racist and very disturbing. These people need our help. There are far more innocent people suffering through the acts of the looters, than there are looters committing crimes. And there is nobody who knows the race of all the looters, so you’re racial slurs are baseless. Even Bush admits that our efforts to alleviate these people’s suffering is unacceptably weak. Bush who rarely admits any failure, admits that readily and is working to fix the problem.

This is a time for Americans to unite, not a time to divide ourselves on the basis of wealth, race, political affiliation or any other dividing issue. We’re all human, we’re all Americans, and many of us are suffering. Anything else is trivial.

How many days did it take for FEMA to respond to Andrew? I have been searching to no avail.

Is there legal redress for those whose lives have been destroyed? Many emergency planners in agencies have taken federal money for years to develop plans for disasters like this. Is this gross government waste we are witnessing? Can there be a class action?

Why did three Fire Trucks respond to put out a fire at SAX FIFTH AVENUE today in N.O. when those assets could have been used to help alleviate the human suffering that was continuing?

Who is profiting from this disaster?

ya ya It gives you great comfort to tell yourself that I am the great hate monger spuing racial hatred.I know it scares you to death when you see and hear true free speach.Maybe you should do as Louis Faracon preachs and strap a bomb on your body and strike a blow for your Islamic brothers and the oppressed inner city minority against the EVIL RIGHT WING people who have had with you and your socialist apatetic appeasement defeatist elite egoism diatribe.in the days to come will see who the real race baiters really are .I am so sorry to see that Katrina blow Cindy off the front pages of your leftwing partisan rags you call newspapers. The little white crosses were a nice prop.That is until the real mothers of fallen heros removed there sons from her hate filled pathetic pathological politicking patronage to political liberty’s Bush bashing cemetery.Yes the good old boy with the pick-up truck was just exercising his political discord. Be Brepared ya Ihave been prepared for years fear them yes I fear them fear them for what they will make do to them before they get to family my home or myself.

awm,

Your use of “free speech” shows just as much lack of responsibility in how you speak as does Cindy Sheehan’s.

Try reading more and shooting less. It might enlighten you to the real world.

I have no idea who Louis Faracon is, and I don’t praticularly want to.

However, I’d be quite interested in your evidence that proves your assumptions. Whatever they are…they’re kind of hard to pinpoint seeing as they’re buried in so much hate-filled language.

“Not to point out the obvious, but I’m sure it is a whole lot easier for Ray Romano and the like to spend days on end volunteering(I will be kind and try not to assume that they did benefit from this some way financially…as we hear time and time again) their time when they have millions in the bank….if I don’t get paid…I don’t eat.Just an observation.”

Traci~

Mark Twain once said

“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”

I don’t know where you are getting your information about the Red Cross and Celebrity endorsed charities… but it is all wrong.

The Jerry Lewis telethon is this weekend. If everyone had your opinion of celebrity endorsed charities children with Muscular Distrophy would be much worse off.

Yes, you can choose to donate the money anyway you like… but I suggest saving it for your meds.

I am a nurse with an emergency medical background. I have been trying to find out where to volunteer. Today on the news there was a number to call to volunteer. I called, gave my license info and was told that around the 6th they will consolidate the info and see what needs they have. Do they not work weekends? They gave me a web address hhh.gov, I don’t know how long after that they take to contact me. Once they contact me I will need to have two days of training. Then maybe I will be sent someplace. I know the medical needs will go on for some time but it seems that they should already have a list of some needs and should be able to send my name out, not three days from now and then two more days of training. Of course in between then I will spend days waiting on phone calls. Even after a week the feds still can’t get it together. What a shame people are dying and here I sit because we have to get the list together. I can’t just get in my car and go down there I do not have a medical lecense for their states and can’t volunteer in the hopitals there. To get a license takes weeks. If Texas hadn’t opened it’s door what were the plans for surely there were plans on where to evacuate these people to. In the mean time the feds are sueing local libraries to get a list of who checked out what books. I watched the O’Riely Factor last night on Fox for the first and the LAST time. He was trying very hard to get the people to say it was the LA govenor’s fault so was it also Miss and Alabama’s fault? I am so angry at the Federal govt both sides. Not one NOT ONE deserves to get reelected. Lead, Follow or get pushed the hell out of the way. I think it is time for the PEOPLE to do some pushing.

upset nurse, Vote the In Guy Out, at the next election, and the one after that, and the one after that, until enough incumbents have been pushed out of office to put newcomers on notice: they
work for us and they WILL solve our nation’s problems or have a very short public career.

It is the only pushing that has a chance of being effective.

Hey David. What if you think the incumbent’s doing a good job? Do we vote out the good guys too?

Scientific American article
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00060286-CB58-1315-8B5883414B7F0000
YES!!!! a must read for anyone questioning the “fact” that no one could forsee the N.O. catastrophy. And that local officials arent doing enough…. if you cant contol the situation give up control to one who can!!!

the commander called for ZERO TOLERANCE to all looters, shooters, rapist and thieves… i think we should have ZERO TOLERANCE for an incompetent administration!

He flys by, stops in a convienient place for a photo op….groping Condi-likes while Condi is out buying shoes as “her people” from “her home town” and surrounding areas are suffering a miserable fate, and she has the ear of the man that can change the world, instead she waits, he waits, fema waits and people are dying….and NEW ORLEANS floods and the FEMA program lags…. stopping people prepared and stocked and ready to go…. keeping out supplies due to a lack of security and NG and troop protection…. please hold this man accountable for his failure to lead!!!!! PLEASE PREPARE FOR YOURSELVES …. the govt cannot and will not protect you. it may help pick up the pieces later, but he DOES NOT LISTEN to the people hired to tell him whats happening…. i guess they didnt get it cause the article was called DROWNING OF NEW ORLEANS maybe that wasnt clear enough for them… it didnt give exact names of the hurrican that would hit and it was just a historical report for his review….. give me a f****** break…. how much more misery can this man inflict on the american public before we say enough?????

Anyone noticed a certain absence of converstion of a certain topic on the Red Blog?
I just posted this to them:

How come no one on this blog has talked about Katrina, what can be done NOW, what you expect to see done to help these people, etc. Seems to me that this Blog has been missing the boat for over a week now.

Linda, and I replied to this same message you are leaving all over this site trying to start a flame fest for your enjoyment. My experience here tells me you should back off this flame baiting if you want to keep your posting privileges.

WatchBlog writers have no obligation whatsoever to write on specific topics others think they should write about. All writers here are voluntary, and I respect their efforts and their freedom to choose when, where, and what they choose to write about.

A bunch of people locate to an area previously uninhabited. They decide to build a city. Everything is put into place in terms of rules, regulations, zoning codes, tax structure, police department, fire department, etc.

The city is chartered by the State, elects a mayor, there is a city council, school board, committees to analyze and plan for emergency evacuation in the event of natural disasters, contagious disease and so on. You get the picture, a city like most others in the country.

However, there is something unusual about this city. It sits on the edge of a desert. Sand storms have been active for years and years. They build a wall for protection. In building this wall, they realize that the Federal Government has a program that provides engineering, manpower and funding for such projects which they take advantage of.

Now the city continues to grow. It becomes a convention center, a tourist attraction, sports teams establish themselves, a University springs up, etc. This draws far more people to the city than ever imagined. Jobs are plentiful, albeit low paying jobs.

Because of the near disasters through the years, “casual sand” has accumulated on the oppopsite side of the city which is also a danger from wind. Even though wind does not normally blow from that direction, they are warned that one day it could. The city officials and populace ignore this warning.

Now, one day a warning is issued by the weather service. High winds are developing which could hit the city in 4-5 days. People are advised that an evacuation might be a good idea.

Very few evacuate because they have done this unnecessarily before, it’s a pain in the neck, more trouble than it’s worth. Besides, how bad could it be, we’ll just ride it out.

City officials have never had the foresight to have evacuation drills, disaster response exercises, etc. They figure they built the city, now anything that goes wrong will simply be taken care of by the government and it’s agencies.

We don’t have to do anything on our own behalf, we will just blame the government, go bankrupt, apply for aid and start over.

The saga of a city hit with a disaster.

It’s hard to be prepared, when we continue to reduce our options, and continue to back ourselves into a corner.
If it weren’t for past and current fiscal irresponsibility, many current disasters and problems could be dealt with much better.
That’s why we should perhaps view such fiscal irresponsibility and unaccountability as a threat to national security.

Steve Smith:

City officials have never had the foresight to have evacuation drills, disaster response exercises, etc. They figure they built the city, now anything that goes wrong will simply be taken care of by the government and it’s agencies

Except that this scenario you describe does not fit New Orleans or the surrounding area. I live here, and can tell you that we evacuate often enough that we don’t have to have drills. We do it for real.
You also say that “very few evacuate because they have done this unnecessarily before”. Again, this is not the case in New Orleans. Roughly 80% of N.O. evacuated. Plus about half of the surrounding areas. That’s a pretty good percentage, considering that this storm left very little time for evacuation and the three highways that could be used for evac were jammed full of cars.
The plans were there. The evacuation took place. You will always have a certain amount of people that cannot evacuate, for whatever reason. Then there will be a certain amount that will not evacuate, even if you told them that you were going to explode an atomic bomb in their living room.
But in the end, 80% is a good percentage, and shows that something was done. Let’s stop spreading this misinformation that the plan did not exist or that the people just chose not to evacuate.
Incidentally, I was one of the people stuck on the road. I had to go back and hunker down in a friend’s brick house. Luckily, the storm turned a little at the last and spared us.

Then there is the issue where you imply that the local officials “ignored” the dangers. That’s absolutely untrue. You should look into the history of what has been done, planned, and not done regarding the levee systems around the city and in SE Louisiana. There is constant work done on them, as the federal and state budget allows. Unfortunately, the federal budget allottment has consistently shrunk year after year, and the state could not take up the shortfall. Probably the only good thing to come from this will be a realistic federal budget to deal with flood control issues along the gulf coast.

Cole,

Thanks for the update regarding the preparedness of New Orleans. I am sorry for all the folks who lost loved ones, homes and possessions. I lived in Baton Rouge for a few years a long time ago and have had many an enjoyable time in NO.

In the 2004 census there were 484,674 people living in New Orleans. You say that about 80% got out/evacuated. That means that 20% did not. 20% of the population is 96,934 folks.

Cole, my post was intended to make a case for the fact that the entire disaster cannot and should not be blamed on the President or FEMA. As a resident you can appreciate the difficulty in locating 96,934 peoiple in a city that holds 5 times that many people. Folks cant be airlifted by helicaopters from rooftops 10-20 at a time. The city officials of NO HAVE to accept some of the responsibility.

Thank GOD you are safe.

Steve Smith

I appreciate where you are coming from. I can’t say that I feel there is as much blame to be assigned as others. I think it was a catastrophe that would have overwhelmed the city regardless of what the officials did (in one way or another). Sure, you can say that help could have arrived sooner. I wish it had. But do we really know that?
I think that there should be a review, after this is all over, and improvements should be made in the plans. That should be the objective. I would hate to see that no improvements were made because all of the energy went into fixing blame, instead of fixing problems.
BTW, I’m a democrat, and I don’t like Bush, either. But let’s face it; if he had gotten back to DC sooner and put on his best “leader face” for the public, there would still be a flood and many people dead. Perhaps some could have been saved if he were more efficient or a better leader, but it’s a little late to change that. The republicans voted for him and they got what they asked for.
All we can do is try to put someone better in office next time. The mayor is a mayor. Think about that. They think city-wide because that is their task.
I think that FEMA should have just been ready and moved in without waiting for any kind of request or whatever they needed, if that was the case. They should have had the resources all ready to go the day before, and began moving them in on Monday evening (the day of the storm).
It should have been automatic.
Blame whoever you want. But they better get it right next time.