Literally baking under an unforgiving sun, some have been on the march for two days already without water, food or direction from officials of where to go. Time ticks away, police shoot home movies of the new coastline, scattered rooftops imersed in tears from heaven. I begin to ponder who’s in charge as not a single dark skinned soul slowly dying on the highway, infant to elderly, has any idea of what direction leads to their next birthday – let alone a glass of water.
Hundreds if not thousands of heros occupy this foresaken stretch of asphalt deep south, with forelorn city-faces never before seen in such numbers on the picture box so often filled with anti-hero yak attack Wonder Bread with mayonase splattered all over like it was the only condiment in the whole wide world worth anyone’s time. Darfur screams in unison with Big Easy dehydration tonight, drops of sweat roll from noses to asphalt, dusty ground Iraq, and the feet of heros we’ll never hear word one about unless the spreadsheet our network suit studies tells a tale of how much folks like you and I might find it entertaining for a while.
“Heroes”? For surviving a natural disaster? Victims, worthy of our help and aid, certainly, but by NO stretch of the imagination have they been “heroes”.
The swift-water rescue teams going in and pulling the ones who didn’t bother to listen to the warnings are heroes, because they risked death with every rescue.
The Army Corps of Engineers that are working their collective asses off to keep the levees intact and fix the broken parts are heroes.
The volunteers who work 24- and 48-hour days getting those hundreds and thousands the food, water and shelter they need are heroes.
But there is nothing even remotely ennobling or faintly heroic in being the victim of a natural occurrence.
Of course, given your mindset where “victim” is the highest class one can aspire to, I shouldn’t be surprised.
The victims have been rescuing others as well. They don’t wear uniforms, but from the coverage I’ve seen, the community (not in all cases of course) stuck their hands out for one another in the water.
That’s not what you were describing. You wrote “as not a single dark skinned soul slowly dying on the highway, infant to elderly, has any idea of what direction leads to their next birthday – let alone a glass of water”, and referred to them as “heros”.
Those you describe are the ones who are waiting for someone to come to them. That isn’t the action of a hero. Not that I would expect you to know the difference, though.
DI – what about those who are shooting at the helicopters at the Superdome this morning, causing the rescue efforts to be suspended? I guess they are heroes, too, in your warped little mind?
Chris,
I am still spinning around the room, wondering if this is your attempt to be prophetic, but this is not. To be prophetic, in this sense, would mean you would have some kind of “experience” to draw from the situation.
As a person who has directly suffered from a hurricane, as I read through your rant I can tell how much you really don’t know about what is going on. I am still finding trouble with whether you are writing in solidarity to black Americans or tieing a bundle of issues into a gumbo.
You have tested the full gamut of irresponsibility, from Iraq, to Darfur, to New Orleans. Other than loss of life how do any of these places in the world relate? a genocide, a war and a hurricane are relative on what grounds? I think I can guesstimate why you have created this tailspin topic, but it remains to be seen if you can be any more adult about this than a usual Bush bashing.
These heros you speak of? Are they heros because they are affected by tragedy? I am a hero too, then. I may not be black, but I do have an ethnicity. and I was involved in a similiar tragedy. Where is my little quip and hero badge?
The “real” heroes are people who are donating time, digging deep in pockets, and putting themselves in the thick. The people who are on the ground are “victims” as it were.
And if I were one of those victims, Chris, I would tell you to stay off my side.
Isn’t New Orleans sort of a repulican utopia at this point. No government interferece, no laws. I am surprised you guys are not moving down there in droves. Bush sure doesn’t seem to axcious to get there either. Remember before the election Bush could not wait to get to Florida after a hurricane. Now he seems back to his old habit of reading childrens books during disasters.
This article sums it up best. right now the country needs leadership, and that is not what the US is getting from the people in charge.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/1/123536/7907
Maybe if everyone in Lousiana was brain dead then the Republicans in congress and the president might be burning the midnight oil trying to solve this problem. Or if they thought they were protecting unborn fetuses maybe they would do something.
From now on that is probably how dissaster preparedness issues should be phrased, think of the all the unborn that will be harmed in the event of a Hurricane. Or maybe something like all the Teri Schiavos might be harmed when their hospice floods. That is all the current “leadership” cares about.
I live pretty close to a planned parenthood, are any of you guys out there protesting today? Drumwaster are you the short scraggly 60 plus guy with the aborted fetus sign?
….A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.
The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.
Wherever the old George W. Bush went, we sure wish we had him back.
This kind of criticism would not be surprising from a liberal rag, but the Union Leader’s a staunchly conservative paper that endorsed Bush in both 2004 and 2000. Insight magazine rated it one of the top five conservative papers in the country along with the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, New York Post, and Daily Oklahoman.
I think it’s safe to assume that President Bush’s post-election political capital has all been spent, unless aides can find a little in coat pockets and couches around the White House.”
Even conservatives are starting to see the light.
I’m amazed that none of you see the CLEAR coorelation between the people affected by these things. They’re all poor. When an evactuation order is issued for Massachusetts, I’ll have family somewhere else to stay with and the means to escape. Some of the CSRs who worked for me that took public transportation from the inards of Boston to Canton each day (hour each way) wouldn’t have anywhere to go or anyway to get there even if they did.
The negros on the highway are representative of this exact dynamic. They’re poor, and in turn, out of luck. The 1889 flood in Johnstown, PA – the great Mississippi flood of 1927 – Sudan…in Ruwanda a stack of cash could have bought you your life, and the same was true when the order to evacuate was given in New Orleans.
Are there any millionaires dying of thirst on that highway overpass right now? Are the infants of rich parents going without formula today in LA?
I think you and Drum are misinformed on this one. I was watching Shephard Smith reporting from down there for hours yesterday, and the folks who are up on that highway made it there by swimming/trudging through water. Many of them pulled others out of homes, helped those who couldn’t swim. One by one they made it to land with stories like this, and many of them lent a helping hand to people who would not have made it otherwise.
You obviously have a set definition of what a ‘hero’ is, and maybe I do as well…but with my own eyes and ears I saw what I consider heroism.
I was talking about the people who made it through the sunken city to the overpass…many of whom wouldn’t have been there if it hadn’t been for the assistance from their neighbors.
Are you proposing that we perceive every single person stranded down there to be a criminal with an AK-47? Obviously the people with automatic weapons are scum. Let’s get real about this…are all of them heros? No, but they’re not all criminals either.
The one common thread that binds them all is poverty – and perhaps dehydration.
Didn’t most of the global warming models predict more severe storms and coastal flooding. I sure am glad that is psuedo science.
….A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.
Air Force One can float?? I didn’t know that, what kind of plane is it, the Spruce Goose? How many sea planes does it take to haul food for over 1 million people for a month? Just what, in your opinion, is going to be used for shelter? I think Home Depot might be closed. And free from disease? With what, the full body condom from the Naked Gun movies???
Didn’t most of the global warming models predict more severe storms and coastal flooding. I sure am glad that is psuedo science.
Are you saying if there isn’t global warming then there wouldn’t be hurricanes? New Orleans is flooding because the geography makes flooding very likely. Denver doesn’t have the same problem but New Orleans doesn’t get 5 feet of snow either.
I also don’t see how the Kyoto treaty which doesn’t take effect until something like 2012 was supposed to stop a hurricane in 2005. Blaming Bush for hurricanes is like blaming hime for the sun coming up in the morning.
“Find and bury the dead”?
Are you for real? The dead are floating in several feet of the water. Where would you suggest they be buried? Where is the nearest dry ground to bury them?
A real leader would have done all that? In one day, too, right? You had better lay off the Superman comics.
My God, the ignorance here is staggering.
‘Let’s get real about this…are all of them heros? No, but they’re not all criminals either.”
But, DI, you said they were heros. Now you are saying they aren’t. Which is it?
And of course, it is all the fault of the rich guy that these people are poor, right?
Those evil rich people. How dare they be successful. How sinful.
Grow up, DI.
I think you and Drum are misinformed on this one. I was watching Shephard Smith reporting from down there for hours yesterday, and the folks who are up on that highway made it there by swimming/trudging through water. Many of them pulled others out of homes, helped those who couldn’t swim. One by one they made it to land with stories like this, and many of them lent a helping hand to people who would not have made it otherwise.
You obviously have a set definition of what a ‘hero’ is, and maybe I do as well…but with my own eyes and ears I saw what I consider heroism.
so their poverty is what makes them heroes or is it that you are trying to point out that tragedy only affects the poor? I don’t compute this logic, but you and the “piss and moan” section of society seem to be batting a thousand from the back seat.
how does it feel to ba an arm cahir quater back?
Not all of them are floaters. There are courpses amongst the huddled masses on dry land…pavement as well.
I said, ‘hundreds if not thousands of heros’…obviously there are more than hundreds of people stranded down there. Let’s not get bogged down in semantics.
Did I say that? Why put words into my mouth? You know that employers were not restricted from threatening employees with termination if they didn’t show up to work prior to the hurricane hitting shore, right? People were forced to choose between safety and their jobs.
The government ‘strongly urged’ people to leave…did they make it illegal to allow employers to require people to stay and work? Poverty is a serious reality of life here in America. Ignoring it or deciding not to care about it will only make it worse. If we can’t find compassion within ourselves for people who were faced with that choice – WE’RE SERIOUSLY LACKING!
Being successfull is what made America great – don’t lump me in with a pre-existing stereotype in your head simply because I’m compassionate towards the poor.
I’m pointing out a fact. Just because it IS a fact doesn’t condemn the well off, it’s simply a reminder to everyone reading of exactally who is dying from dehydration down there.
Keep this in mind when people who are needed refuse to go down there. AK-47s aside…it’s poor black people I see on my TV. The ones who were told they couldn’t leave the city or else they’d be out of a job weren’t making 60K a year! Social injustice strikes hardest at those who have the least in our society.
Look at OJ Simpson for proof of that!
CLUELESS….Could the people in charge of managing the catastrophe in New Orleans possibly be more clueless?
George W. Bush, President of the United States, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina: “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.”
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, following widespread eyewitness reports of refugees living like animals at the Convention Center: “I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the Convention Center who don’t have food and water.”
Mike Brown, Director of FEMA, referring to people who were stuck in New Orleans largely because they were too poor to afford the means to leave: “…those who are stranded, who chose not to evacuate, who chose not to leave the city…”
Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House of Representatives, providing needed reassurance to the newly homeless: “It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that’s seven feet under sea level….It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed.”
This is beyond belief. What’s with these people?
Where are you getting this – “The ones who were told they couldn’t leave the city…?
The city issued Mandatory Evacuations Sunday morning. Where do you get this “strongly urged” bit?
Keep this in mind when people who are needed refuse to go down there. AK-47s aside…it’s poor black people I see on my TV. The ones who were told they couldn’t leave the city or else they’d be out of a job weren’t making 60K a year! Social injustice strikes hardest at those who have the least in our society.
Who in the hell is going to dispute you for the fact that new Orleans is a predominantly black city? You most certainly didn’t seem to be weeping when all it was a crime infested cess pool of a city? Why stop there, and what do you propose should be done about these poor black victims that we must pity for they could never be expected to feind for themselves. Who would you say is doing all the looting, since “all you see is poor black people?”
BTW, I seriously question the News reports going on in New Orleans. Yes people are displaced. Yes the media loves to point cameras at blacks to drive their ratings up. But no it is not “ALL poor black people” on TV.
the hurricane also hit Mobile, AL. A decidedly much poorer area than NO, and quite possibly the poorest state in the union. There are white people that suffered too, and it is highly condescending to refer to “the victims” as blacks and not just say “Americans” are suffering. I don’t know about you, but I am not a racist.
If you speak English, carry and American Social Security Card, and pay your respects at a sporting event you are an American. Plain and simple. Reducing who has the ability to suffer from this tragedy to a skin tone is tantamount to being the racist you most probably think you distance yourself from.
Toodles.
Another realty is that some people did not have the means to leave, they probably did not need to worry about thier job because they didn’t have one. They did not leave because they were unable to leave.
One of the more painful lessons in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is the terrible price of political neglect of America’s deteriorating infrastructure. Sidney Blumenthal’s article “No One Can Say They Didn’t See It Coming” in Salon puts it this way:
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…In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.
Maybe this did not have to be this bad
One of the more painful lessons in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is the terrible price of political neglect of America’s deteriorating infrastructure. Sidney Blumenthal’s article “No One Can Say They Didn’t See It Coming” in Salon puts it this way:
wow, a small, but fleeting idea on this webshite. an actual point. Yes, indeed we need to address our infrastructure, but no that is not what caused this tragedy. A Perfect Storm did.
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…In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.
I was warned in Sunday School that Armageddon was going to quite possibly happen in my life time. I haven’t stocked up on holy water. What is your point? this is somehow the administration’s fault?
I mentioned this above I believe. There were many employers who informed these people that if they left, they’d lose their jobs. So they had to choose between what the government said and what their boss told them. Say they left and the city wasn’t underwater when they returned, who would they have to thank for being unemployed? I’m sure the government wouldn’t compensate them for it.
How far do you think a lawsuit against the employer would go? If LA is an ’employee at will’ state like Massachusetts, they’d be out of luck.
Don’t catagorize the ‘strongly urged’ message as adequate or the people who stayed as stupid. Up here in the Northeast there are winters where at least 2-3 days are practically impossible to get to work because of the snow, but I’ve had jobs where I had no choice. So I bought a 4WD Jeep and got to work somehow. While that sucks, being told a storm is coming that could tear down your home – while also being told that you HAVE to be at work or lose your job…it should be criminal.
It’s an example of politicians with the right idea, but absolutely no perception of reality for most of the people they work for. RepMom’s glib comment is proof positive…’well they were strongly urged to leave’…it’s not as simple as that.
On this score…the advisory, levies, everything…it’s something we can never forget. While most of it was unavoidable (the proposed engineering upgrades might not have made a difference), we have to take things like this a hell of a lot more seriously in the future.
The ocean temperature has been attributed to the severity of this storm, and I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon. Also, if the temperature is rising (Alaskans can act as witness to this reality), the sea levels will rise.
Calling it a ‘cess pool of a city’ is ridiculous. I haven’t met a single person who’s been there that had that to say about it. Crime is high in a lot of places in the country.
The looting is a side effect of criminals knowing they’re probably not going to be caught. Aside from criminals high on or experiencing withdrawal from drugs, this is the basic concept in that line of work. Whether it’s someone smashing a storefront window with a brick or Tyco’s CEO – criminals will get their grove on as long as there are things in the world to steal.
The assault rifles should have been tougher to acquire…
DW: the hurricane also hit Mobile, AL. A decidedly much poorer area than NO, and quite possibly the poorest state in the union. There are white people that suffered too, and it is highly condescending to refer to “the victims” as blacks and not just say “Americans” are suffering. I don’t know about you, but I am not a racist.
If you speak English, carry and American Social Security Card, and pay your respects at a sporting event you are an American. Plain and simple. Reducing who has the ability to suffer from this tragedy to a skin tone is tantamount to being the racist you most probably think you distance yourself from.
I dig what you’re saying Manwhore…but the title of the piece WAS ‘Negros on the Overpass’. The insinuation that I perceive every victim of the tragedy to be black is inaccurate. The TV had New Orleans on the screen and I got my ‘spontaneous prose’ on.
Calling it a ‘cess pool of a city’ is ridiculous. I haven’t met a single person who’s been there that had that to say about it. Crime is high in a lot of places in the country.
You have (either fortunately on unfortunately) met me.
The looting is a side effect of criminals knowing they’re probably not going to be caught. Aside from criminals high on or experiencing withdrawal from drugs, this is the basic concept in that line of work. Whether it’s someone smashing a storefront window with a brick or Tyco’s CEO – criminals will get their grove on as long as there are things in the world to steal.
So it is simply too much to ask that the citizens not steal? There is something that can and will be done about it. It’s The National f***ing Guard and the will go in there and pwn3 those clowns.
I told you I went through Andrew, and pissing the idea that they are looting because they can is asinine. Those are people life’s work, family posessions, futures, etc. Standing back while others wrongfully take what isn’t theirs for a silly little idea that it is a target of opportunity is stupid.
I dig what you’re saying Manwhore…but the title of the piece WAS ‘Negros on the Overpass’. The insinuation that I perceive every victim of the tragedy to be black is inaccurate. The TV had New Orleans on the screen and I got my ’spontaneous prose’ on.
Well it sure sounded that way.
Karl is all wet and seems to like blaming everything on GWB and the Republicans. People are suffering and their race doesn’t matter! We can analyze this disaster to death and it won’t change one thing. Action is what matters at this point.
Di – You are the one who made the “strongly urged to leave” comment. I was repeating you. The city of New Orleans was under Mandatory Evacuation. What part of that do you not understand? Jeez….
karl,
you and your ilk honestly think that you can sit there and blame the worst natrual disaster to hit the U.S. on one man’s politics? What about all the tax revenues collected in NO? I bet the city could have funded levee repairs on the hotel taxes generated from mardi gras alone. But no, its Bush’s fault!
This ridiculous idea that Bush somehow knew about Katrina and made the decision to divert money to the war in Iraq shows how patheticly desperate you liberals are. You are trying to find any reason to get the general public to see bush as the evil villian you make him out to be.
Too bad the American public have a voice too, huh? I mean, if you guys could only get your way, everyone who wanted to envoke free speech would have the right too
That is, unless they disagreed with you. In that case, they are violating the law and must be silenced. Tell me guys, do you have a poster of Marx on your wall, or is that just my imagination getting carried away?
Hurricane Katrina is a natural disaster. Please do not cheapen the suffering of these people by using this tragedy as a soapbox, or to brag about your personal gain…wait(looks at post about portfolio rising)…. never mind, too late
Paul here is an example of the problem:
Sploid.com noted something odd earlier today on the FEMA page which lists reputable disaster relief organizations for Katrina-related giving.
After the American Red Cross, which is listed first and, I guess, by common consent the primary domestic disaster relief organization, comes Operation Blessing.
And if you don’t know, Operation
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Blessing is the relief organization run by professional wingnut Pat Robertson.
After that on the list came America’s Second Harvest.
And then below that, everyone else, in alphabetical order.
Now is not a good time to be rewarding your wingnut friends. Like you said action is what matters not creating paydays for Pat Robertson.
Bush this morning said that the releif effort is unacceptable, I hope he trys to do better from this point forward. To this point the federal response reminds me of a monkey making amorous advances on a football.
Repmom:
Mandatory evacuation is great but if you don’t have the means to leave it does not matter. We could have a mandatory evacuation to the moon and I doubt anyone would make it. MOst the people who had the means to leave did.
SOA:
My critism of the Bush stems from cuts to the Fema budget and the ignoring of the levy system. Mostly the problem has been a lack of response after the disaster, for example the people who are stuck at the convention center without food or water. If you tell people to go somewhere you should probably make sure it is safe.
I hope Bush does better and everyone says what a great job he did, I really don’t care who gets the credit for helping these people as long as they get helped.
From Pandagon.net
Sean Hannity asked Franklin Graham tonight why “on the one hand” some people have risked their lives to help the hurricane victims while “on the other side, we have looting, shooting, rape and mayhem.”
Graham answered, “Of course, Sean, this happens in a country when we have taken God out of our schools and God out of our society. We don’t have a moral standard and we need to put God back into our schools.”
Things like this would not happen if we just put the ten commandments on buildings. Liberals think we should build better levys and fund disaster relief agencys, conservatives want to pray about it.
you and your ilk honestly think that you can sit there and blame the worst natrual disaster to hit the U.S. on one man’s politics? What about all the tax revenues collected in NO? I bet the city could have funded levee repairs on the hotel taxes generated from mardi gras alone. But no, its Bush’s fault!
Not to mention the federal goverrnment is a mixture of both republicans and democrats so they both share any inherent blame, if any.
The situation on the ground is so bad it is sickening. I am happy to hear that the National Guard is moving in and rolling out the thugs and criminals adding to the tragedy.
They need to start parachuting supplies down there.
MH:
I agree their is plenty of blame to go around, but at some point the party in charge has to take responsibility.
I got this from Washingtonmonthly.com and to me it shows why the problem is so bad right now:
EVACUATING THE POOR….Why did so many people who lacked the means to evacuate New Orleans get left behind?
Brian Wolshon, an engineering professor at Louisiana State University who served as a consultant on the state’s evacuation plan, said little attention was paid to moving out New Orleans’s “low-mobility” population — the elderly, the infirm and the poor without cars or other means of fleeing the city, about 100,000 people.
At disaster planning meetings, he said, “the answer was often silence.”
It’s not that no one had thought of this problem. They just didn’t consider it important enough to spend any time on.
UPDATE: More from Jim Henley
I agree that it is time to send in as many gaurd troops as possible and drop supplies as well, like you said the situation makes me ill as well.
President Bush is starting to at least say the right things, he is urging Americans to conserve gas and demanding that his appointees do better. I hope he steps up the plate on this one.
DI – I couldn’t help buy think of you as I read this — http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=4785
Now that I think about it, had Democrats worked with the President and helped America in it’s struggles at home and abroad, maybe this disaster wouldn’t be so bad.
The obstructionists in the government have made it very difficult for elected officials and government agencies to be successful buecause they not only have to do their jobs but also have drag a “child in full temper tantrum mode” around with them. Democrats are like a big weight trying to hold everyone and everything down.
They have a blanket filibuster policy in force, they criticize everything without adding their own ideas or constructive ideas. They are always on the offensive, always agressive, always unsportsmanlike and difficult to work with.
Had Democrats helped get the troop numbers up, whether it needed it or not, and helped get Social Security fixed and helped deal with nations abroad then maybe one segment of the population wouldn’t have to do all the work. Bush gets an A++ in my book because he is able to be successful when all the odds are against him. Clinton, on the other hand, had everything and he threw it away. Bush is 50 times the President Clinton was.
Right:
How are you? it is hard to find your comments now that the site is getting so many hits.
So somehow the Democrats forced Bush to cut FEMA funding. I guess it was one of the few Democrats who made it so the Republicans could not help transport people out of New Orleans. As for Social Security the repubs have a majority in both Congress and the Senate plus the president, they can pass anything thet want, and Bush can call for a draft if he is concerned about troop strength. All these things would require unpopular decisions. Don’t blame the Democrats, you guys have the votes but not the cajones.
How are you? it is hard to find your comments now that the site is getting so many hits.
Great, how about yerself? Yeah, it’s hard to find my comments and then find the responses so I can respond back. An exciting few days, huh?
So somehow the Democrats forced Bush to cut FEMA funding.
They didn’t say no and haven’t worked on the problem since it started in 1965. They didn’t make any suggestions or offer any other programs to cut instead of FEMA. Sitting in silence watching it happen, then bitching about it later isn’t something I’d call innocence.
guess it was one of the few Democrats who made it so the Republicans could not help transport people out of New Orleans.
No, the hurricane did that. How many trips in 10 or so helicoters would it take to move 100,000+ people if each helicopter can hold 3 refugees? Don’t forget the fuel breaks every 2 hours.
As for Social Security the repubs have a majority in both Congress and the Senate plus the president, they can pass anything thet want,
One word, Filibuster.
Bush can call for a draft if he is concerned about troop strength.
Or we can all come together and try to get this thing taken care of. So far liberals want only republicans to protect this nation so they have the time to go protest stuff.
All these things would require unpopular decisions.
Not if liberals would think of the nation first and their political careers and ideology.
Don’t blame the Democrats, you guys have the votes but not the cajones.
We don’t have the votes or everything would be ok now.
Who cares what constitutes a hero? Let’s address the issue, not the partisan semantics.
First. Chris, it’s impossible to reference anything related to the rescue effort by writing “AK-47’s aside”. Guns are in play. Rescuers cannot pretend they’re not being shot at. New Orleans is arguably the most undereducated major city in the nation. The majority of those who stayed behind possessed nothing PRIOR to the hurricane – neither money nor Hope. What transpired post mortem was a cross between Darwinism and Machiavelli. Survival of the fittest meets King for a day. This isn’t a blanket statement for ALL those whom stayed behind, merely the few meatheads shooting up hospitals and helicopters. The teenagers raping children and sniping National Guardsmen weren’t readying a run for politcal office prior to the flooding so they’re ignorantly seizing an adulterated opportunity. For the first time in their lives they face no consequences for the chaos they’re adding too. They know they’ll receive more respect from their peers for toting a gun than collecting bottled water for the sick and frail. A bad decision, yes, but in the short run, a self-serving one that’ll give ‘em props. Essentially, education leads to intelligence. Sans education equates to ignorance. Ignorance leads to bad decisions (in reference to shooting and SOME cases of people staying in New Orleans). It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about blacks, whites, Canadians or purple Mexicans. Bottom line, New Orleans is a very uneducated city that has become a victim of it’s culture.
Second. Bush should quit the Enrique Inglesias karaoke act and immediately appoint Rudy Guilliani as overseer of this disaster. Politics aside, Rudy told it like it was during 9/11. Honesty is the only hope for this situation. The partisan bickering that’s ensued on the national level is disgusting. You’ve all brought out great points above. My favorite was RFK Jr is sending off letters regarding Kyoto the day following the hurricane instead of donating $X, $Y or $Z of his riches. The blame game must stop immediately.
Third. Declare Marshall Law. It’s not democratic. But look at the situation. The person currently in charge in the region is the man with the biggest gun and/or gang.
Fourth. I’m leery of an outside attack from an isolationist nation such as North Korea or Venezuela. Foreign nations are watching this unfold with a sick chuckle. The fact that the greatest nation has yet to mobilize forces into the area is quite unsettling. We’re currently working on two fronts – Iraq and New Orleans. If al quedane were to blow up the Saudi oil fields I’m not sure we could handle a third deployment.
Right it would b easy to get rid of the filabuster, straight up or down vote, the reason repubs don’t do that is most of what they want to do is politicaly unpalatable, so they claim that the democrats are stopping them from doing what they really want to do, keeps the base happy, or angry as the case may be.
As for the evacuation of New Orleans, it would not have required helicopters had they helped people before the Hurricane got there, of course that would have required planning.
The Democrats did not have the votes to stop the cuts in FEMA, hopefully in the next election cycle that will change and then the Democrats can go back to saving the republicans from themselves.
One thing I will say about Bush is that he seems to be handling the situation well, I get the impression that once he saw the seriousness of the situation he got serious about helping and hopefully people are no longer dieing in the convention center. I hope at some point I actually say Bush did a good job.
Please tell me this is a joke:
Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God’s mercy in the aftermath of Katrina — but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city.
The pastor explains that for years he has warned people that unless Christians in New Orleans took a strong stand against such things as local abortion clinics, the yearly Mardi Gras celebrations, and the annual event known as “Southern Decadence” — an annual six-day “gay pride” event scheduled to be hosted by the city this week — God’s judgment would be felt.
“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion — it’s free of all of those things now,” Shanks says. “God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there — and now we’re going to start over again.”
The New Orleans pastor is adamant. Christians, he says, need to confront sin. “It’s time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won’t have to deal with that wickedness,” he says.
Believers, he says, are God’s “authorized representatives on the face of the Earth” and should say they “don’t want unrighteous men in office,” for example. In addition, he says Christians should not hesitate to voice their opinions about such things as abortion, prayer, and homosexual marriage. “We don’t want a Supreme Court that is going to say it’s all right to kill little boys and girls, … it’s all right to take prayer out of schools, and it’s all right to legalize sodomy, opening the door for same-sex marriage and all of that.”
Evangelicals have so much love to share, don’t they?
Chris:
I just heard that Haliburton got the reconstruction contract.
I take back the nice things I said about Bush, even when he has a chance to do the right thing he finds a way to screw it up.
BTW I like the new site with all the people posting, you should pick more fights. Take care
That figures! Well, at least there’s a silver lining for the administration…at least those within it who own shares. Wish I did…
As a footnote to all of this, that trully is a kick in the nuts. karl, what did you think of my new piece? Since it’s Friday night, there won’t be much of a response. I always seem to come up with my juciest ones on the weekend…should do like Lee at RtFtLc and wait until the start of the business week.
The problem is with that stuff, there are 100 sites making the same point in the same way, whereas I’m trying to get my stuff out before the ideas are all over the place.
I’ve got a couple other right wing sites I haven’t been to in a while, so I’m sure there will be some overflow from there as well. It’s you and I against the world now!
Chris:
Truthfully arguning with right thinker is not that much fun because he seems like a nice guy. It is more fun to make some of the new people mad. The good thing is all is takes is a few facts to put them over the edge.
I would think staying original would be the hardest thing about blogging, I think that is why conservative blogging is so much easier as they just repeat what everyone else says. The one conservative site where the guy does say some original stuff is right thinking and that is usually when they have a melt down.