posted on September 1, 2005 04:43:29 PM new
Jesus, I thought I read and saw (TV) everything on the aftermath, I was really scared to almost tears reading this!
Any one of us could have a total disaster hit our town or city
from CNN
the latest:
New Orleans Mayor Issues 'Desperate SOS'
By ADAM NOSSITER
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Storm victims were raped and beaten, fights and fires broke out, corpses lay out in the open, and rescue helicopters and law enforcement officers were shot at as flooded-out New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday. ``This is a desperate SOS,'' the mayor said.
Anger mounted across the ruined city, with thousands of storm victims increasingly hungry, desperate and tired of waiting for buses to take them out.
``We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help,'' the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where corpses lay in the open and other evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing - no food, no water, no medicine.
About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at the convention center to await buses grew increasingly hostile. Police Chief Eddie Compass said he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation at the building, but they were quickly beaten back by an angry mob.
.....A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off the ground and flew away.
Is the raping some kind of basic survival instinct or what? this is fuc*ing scary
posted on September 1, 2005 05:47:19 PM new
What I don't understand is some of the shooting. There was a report of at least one hospital where workers were shot at as they tried to evacuate patients. There was also a report of someone shooting at one of the relief helicopters. That just makes no sense at all.
posted on September 1, 2005 06:20:13 PM new
It's total chaos. However, I can understand their desperation. They are without the basic necessities of life - shelter, food, clothing, water. It's a human reaction to what is happening to them.
They were shooting to get the attention of the authorities. They're desperately trying to get their own families taken care of and out of the city. Desperate people take desperate measures. Hold a gun to someone's head and they'll probably do whatever you ask them to.
As for the raping. The criminals are loose on the streets. They didn't care about human life before so what makes anyone think they'll care about it now? These are evil people and not even a disaster as large as this one will change that.
You are so right Near. This could happen to any one of us. I complain and moan about the cold and snow here in the winter time. However, we don't have hurricanes, we don't have tornadoes, we don't have earthquakes. We've gotten off pretty good and I can see that now.
Cheryl
[ edited by cblev65252 on Sep 1, 2005 06:20 PM ]
posted on September 1, 2005 06:25:25 PM new
Sorry, NearTheSea, but I disagree with you on 'it couldn happen to any of us'.
While I'm fully aware that many didn't have other places to go to....they ALL were warned to get out. Those that stayed behind chose to. All this wouldn't have happened to me, because no matter how poor I was, I would have left when the warnings were issued.
It's not like there haven't been discussions about the levees breaking again. This 'bend' in the Mississippi has long been a problem for residents that choose to live in those areas.
We tried to change the natural flow of the Mississippi River and it's been a problem ever since. Man vs mother nature.
These people are in desperate straights. But it they don't realize that shoot at those who ARE trying to help, giving of their own time, the use of their own boats to rescue these people.....then imo, they are just animals who are keeping others from receiving the 'help' they're wanting, and so in need of. Very selfish of them, imo.
"Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy. This is their essence." --Ann Coulter
And why the American Voters chose to RE-elect President Bush to four more years. YES!!!
I will agree with you on the man vs. mother nature thing. They didn't learn the lesson of Galveston's ordeal in 1900. Galveston raised the island up to above sea level to prevent that disaster from happening again. They added a seawall.
They've torn out the wetlands, which were a natural protective barrier against this type of thing happening. They've neglected the levies. They changed the shape of the state. What did they expect was going to happen? It's never a good idea to change what mother nature laid in place.
posted on September 1, 2005 06:51:23 PM new
Linda, I was thinking I guess of us on the west coast. A huge earthquake could destroy a city, either LA or Seattle.
I see this, and despertly want to leave the city, even though we are in the suburbs, it feels like the city to me.
posted on September 1, 2005 06:57:35 PM new
Cheryl, there were shootings and rapes INSIDE the shelters. They were not trying to get attention to get shelter for their families... they had it and it meant nothing to them.
The shootings in the city was AT authorities that were coming to help. They had the attention of people coming to help them. They did not want it, they wanted free reign over these areas to continue looting sprees.
This is not the majority of the people, it is a small minority of thugs that is hurting good people that need and want assistance.
Please don't try to excuse them.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on September 1, 2005 07:03:17 PM new
NearTheSea - I can understand that you see this differently than I do.
I'm just looking at the fact that no one yet can predict earthquakes, especially giant distructive ones. But they can and do with hurricanes...to a very good degree.
Plus...I agree with you, I'd rather be out in the country should something like this happen, than be in a city where there are millions of people all 'jammed together'. And that's another reason I fully support gun ownership rights too. To protect ourselves against the criminals that are pulling this garbage against innocent people just trying to survive.
I was just saying that if, as was done, a warning was issued to 'get out' and then an order for them to get out...and they still didn't choose to leave? I will never understand that type of reasoning. To me it's like they gambled and took a HUGE chance it wouldn't happen to them. But those who remained....lost that bet.
posted on September 1, 2005 07:22:02 PM new
Yes, I can see having warnings to get out. Didn't they have A LOT of warning an time? I always watch these hurricanes, and it seems people leave like 12 hours or so till hurricane is landfall. I think I would leave days before, IF there is that much warning. I understand what your saying.
The earthquakes and volcanos can be scary. I am not afraid of them so much as what people would do if one shook Seattle at a 10 or so (and YES a 10 could happen, we never know) and destroyed the city. I just don't want to be near Seattle. I've told Mike over and over how much I want to move to Eastern WA and of course his work is here.I am almost thinking of buying a second home over there. And then he says 'thats why I have a gun, and a permit'
posted on September 1, 2005 07:23:11 PM new
Except for those stuck in hospitals and some hotel guests who could not get out of the city, those that remain belong to the "underclass" mostly poor blacks who lacked the means to leave. If they had cars or trucks, they probably did not have the money for gas. It was the end of the month. How many white middle class people do you see among the crowds waiting in shelters in New Orleans?
buyhigh
posted on September 1, 2005 07:32:23 PM new
This has NOTHING to do with race. It has to do with poor decision making judgements....and yes, I have seen many whites on film in these areas. Blacks aren't the only ones who are poor.
---------------------
Could this sort of thing happen to any of us? I don't believe we'd take this same action against our own family members.
Police: Miss. Man Kills Sister Over Bag Of Ice
POSTED: 12:14 am EDT September 1, 2005
UPDATED: 5:53 am EDT September 1, 2005
HATTIESBURG, Miss. --
Police in Hattiesburg, Miss., said a man fatally shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice.
Authorities say 35-year-old Antonio Page shot his sister with a handgun on a street corner Tuesday night.
Police Chief David Wynn said the woman's name was not available.Wynn said tempers are short, but he can't understand why a member of someone's family could take that step.
The shooting is being treated like a homicide, Wynn said.
posted on September 1, 2005 07:42:41 PM new
You have seen many whites at the stadium and other shelters and on overpasses in New Orleans on TV? I have seen some who are old and obviously poor but that is it. You must be watching TV stations that my cable TV does not offer. If one does not have the means to get out of town and stay out of town, how could that be poor judgement? They had to take their chances and they did and lost.
buyhigh
posted on September 1, 2005 07:54:45 PM new
There is nothing that can be done to change the situation now but hopefully, important lessons have been learned here. Hopefully the next time something this potentially catastrophic is forcasted, city officals will know to get busses into poorer areas of town in order to enable those ordered evacuations. If some of those hundreds of buses that are being utilized now had been utilized Sunday, how many lives could have been saved how many resources could be better directed today?
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on September 1, 2005 07:58:06 PM new
NEar - there was a a tremendous amount of warning.. Saturday night Fox started pretty much 24 hour coverage of the impending storm. The other problem is that Monday the storm hit and left and everybody was saying that New Orleans dodged the bullet. It was not until Tuesday morning that the flooding began in ernest at a lot of people that had left initially, returned thinking things were going to be OK. This really has been a matter of two seperate disaster occuring right on top of each other.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on September 1, 2005 10:42:45 PM new
I was just watching BBC World news and they showed a woman begging for Bush to help and she was crying and said that 'they're raping babies'. BBC said the scene is more Africa than America. There is a video on their site that shows her desperate plea.
posted on September 1, 2005 11:38:30 PM new
"No one can say they didn't see it coming"
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
posted on September 1, 2005 11:42:31 PM new
Why the Levee Broke
By Will Bunch, Attytood. Posted September 1, 2005.
Washington knew exactly what needed to be done to protect the citizens of New Orleans from disasters like Katrina. Yet federal funding for Louisiana flood control projects was diverted to pay for the war in Iraq.
An Unreasonable Woman
Diane Wilson, AlterNet
Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters continued to rise in New Orleans on Wednesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.
There have been numerous reports of bodies floating in the poorest neighborhoods of this poverty-plagued city, but the truth is that the death toll may not be known for days, because the conditions continue to frustrate rescue efforts.
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.
Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."
In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to this Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness:
The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.
"The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink," he said. "I've got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be (because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million. And we're going to have to pay them interest."
On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
That June, with the 2004 hurricane seasion starting, the Corps' Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."
The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.
The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:
The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.
posted on September 1, 2005 11:47:26 PM new
Flashback: Bush Held Back Funding On Hurricane Defense
New Orleans City Business
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified millions of dollars in flood and hurricane protection projects in the New Orleans district.
Chances are, though, most projects will not be funded in the president's 2006 fiscal year budget to be released today.
In general, funding for construction has been on a downward trend for the past several years, said Marcia Demma, chief of the New Orleans Corps' programs management branch.
In 2001, the New Orleans district spent $147 million on construction projects. When fiscal year 2005 wraps up Sept. 30, the Corps expects to have spent $82 million, a 44.2 percent reduction from 2001 expenditures.
posted on September 1, 2005 11:51:30 PM new
When the levee breaks
It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
This picture is an aerial view of New Orleans today, more than 14 months later. Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city and the sun is out, the waters continue to rise in New Orleans as we write this. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.
There have been numerous reports of bodies floating in the poorest neighborhoods of this poverty-plagued city, but the truth is that the death toll may not be known for days, because the conditions continue to frustrate rescue efforts.
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.
Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. (Much of the research here is from Nexis, which is why some articles aren't linked.)
In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to this Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness:
The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.
The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.
"The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink," he said. "I've got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be (because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million. And we're going to have to pay them interest."
That June, with the 2004 hurricane seasion starting, the Corps' Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don’t get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can’t stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn’t that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can’t raise them."
The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.
The 2004 hurricane season, as you probably recall, was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:
The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.
"We'll do some design work. We'll design the contracts and get them ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put the work in the field, and that's the problem," Naomi said.
There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:
That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.
But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.
The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late. One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach. The levee failure appears to be causing a human tragedy of epic proportions:
"We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater," Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.
Washington knew that this day could come at any time, and it knew the things
posted on September 2, 2005 12:10:36 AM new
Yes, they saw it coming and were warned. Where WERE the busses , trucks, military carriers, helicopters, National Guard, BEFORE the hurrticane started.
Where WAS the LEADER of our country?
LindaKKK, I bet you're just dancing the happy dance knowing so many poor, elderly and disabled who couldn't leave the city are suffering and dying....serves 'em right, doesn't it LindaKKK ?, for being so unlike YOU.
posted on September 2, 2005 04:51:23 AM new
It's easy for the lot of you to say they had plenty of warning and should have gotten out. The vast majority of the refugees are black and dirt POOR thanks in part to this administration's policies. How the hel* were they to get out? Walk? Most have no transportation. The little money they do have wouldn't have been enough to get them anywhere. And, where were they to go if they did leave? Their homes were their only possession. Their only family is in the city. They could barely afford the necessities to stay alive, so they could suddenly afford a motel to stay in? Unless you are that low on the economic scale, how can you possibly pretend to understand and how can you possibly condemn them? Had they been white, and middle- to lower-middle class I'm sure there'd be a lot more sympathy floating around here.
The authorities in the City of New Orleans knew these people had no way out and could have provided one for them. Do you honestly believe that these people would have rather stayed to endure this than get out when the getting was good?
People are angry there and rightfully so. They've been days with water, food and shelter, shameful. The cuts in funding, shameful. Our president's response time, shameful. So glad he could tear himself away from his hammock. Had it been a rich, white area I'm sure the response would have been better.
Like one reporter I heard last night said, "the city of New Orleans resembles Iraq. But, at least in Iraq they have shelter, food and water". Our government was quicker to provide these things to the people of Iraq than they've been to provide it to their own citizens.
Edited to add: $18.4 BILLION for rebuilding Iraq. $15 BILLION pledged to Africa. $10.5 BILLION to New Orleans. You do the math.
Cheryl
[ edited by cblev65252 on Sep 2, 2005 04:55 AM ]
posted on September 2, 2005 05:13:05 AM new
Did anyone else see Ted Koppel interview FEMA secretary Michael Brown last night? It was unbelievable!! He said FEMA didn't respond right away because they didn't know how bad it was until WEDNESDAY!!!! Ted Koppel said "How could you not know - we have been reporting it all week?"
From the FEMA website: "As the head of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Under Secretary Brown leads federal disaster response and recovery operations and coordinates disaster activities with more than two dozen federal agencies and departments and the American Red Cross. He also oversees the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration, and initiates proactive mitigation activities.
Additionally, Under Secretary Brown helps the Secretary of Homeland Security ensure the effectiveness of emergency responders, and directs the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Integration Center, the National Disaster Medical System and the Nuclear Incident Response Team."
God help those poor folks in New Orleans because it looks like their Government hasn't. God help us all.
-------------------------------------
posted on September 2, 2005 05:14:42 AM new
I think part of the problem is the media so overblows many of these storms. Then people are like yeah, yeah, cry wolf. They had it at category 5, then downgraded to category 3. What was that? I agree they should have had some better crises management plans ready to be executed. (Had buses taking people out etc) but I also have to wonder even if they had that - how many people would have been worried enough and actually left?
I just dont think ANYBODY ever thought THIS was what was coming.
posted on September 2, 2005 05:40:53 AM new
Oh my yes lets blame President Bush, people are no longer required to take personal responsibiltiy, states are no longer required to look out for their own people it is all of the federal governments fault.
This is more examples of those wanting to place the blame everywhere but where it belongs.
posted on September 2, 2005 05:58:26 AM new
Ron - I think the point is that time should not be wasted pointing fingers - it is time (past time) for ACTION and the designated agency for that is FEMA. This is not a political issue. There are thousands of people DYING in New Orleans. It appears Michael Brown needed President Bush flying over New Orleans in Air Force 1 to determine that there is a serious problem there. If the man isn't up to the job then find someone who is!!
Again from the FEMA site:
"Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Brown practiced law in Colorado and Oklahoma, where he served as a bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility for the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a hearing examiner for the Colorado Supreme Court. He had been appointed as a special prosecutor in police disciplinary matters. While attending law school he was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman."
Do these sound like credentials necessary to co-ordinate disaster response??
-------------------------------------
posted on September 2, 2005 06:09:31 AM new
Don't ask me why, but I think Bush is about to get pissed and start kicking some people in the rear. There was just something in that comment he made when boarding Marine One.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on September 2, 2005 06:18:29 AM newIt appears Michael Brown needed President Bush flying over New Orleans in Air Force 1 to determine that there is a serious problem there.
Ain't that the truth. This particular need was also shared by some other wackos (some of whom post here) because it gives the simple mind an avenue to politicize something that clearly isn't political.
"This has NOTHING to do with race. It has to do with poor decision making judgements....and yes, I have seen many whites on film in these areas. Blacks aren't the only ones who are poor."
Linda, you should be ashamed for holding the poor victims of Hurricane Katrina responsible for their situation because they, in your dumbass opinion used poor judgment. Your lack of knowledge, compassion and understanding is unexcelled on this chatboard and that is saying a lot. It's YOUR lack of judgment in your comment above that is faulty, linda.
The incompetence being shown in the management of this disaster should be criminal. Where is the plan to motivate the national guard and where is the plan to provide food and water, for example? And most important, where was the plan to evacuate?
