The right blames the mayor and governor for the condition of the city today. Neither official has the tax revenue to rebuild without federal money. Federal money is authorized, though not handed over directly, but given to corporations who subcontract and subcontract and subcontract, hire illegal aliens and do a poor job. Still, the mayor and governor don’t have the money to fix what’s wrong. You can’t squeeze blood from a rock! My impression is that Republicans are indifferent to things like:
- Garbage covering neighborhoods
- Electricity not available for residents to purchase
- Criminals released because judges and lawyers aren’t available to try cases
Without money, equipment and people, how is local government supposed to fix these problems? By Republican logic, if the mayor and governor were both replaced tomorrow, the new officials would be able to fix all this without a budget. Totally illogical, but with the GOP of today, logic is to be avoided at all costs.
As for the residents themselves, why aren’t homeowners who owned an insurance policy with ‘hurricane coverage’ receiving their checks? The ‘free market’ is saying that they have to go to court for a few years before they get anything. The federal government isn’t saying a word about it. So, in America today if you:
- Purchase a home
- Purchase a homeowner insurance policy with ‘HURRICANE COVERAGE’
- Pay your premiums on time for a number of years
- The house is destroyed by a HURRICANE
You’re screwed, because the insurance company will fight to be able to keep all the money you paid without having to pay for your house. The government (a Republican-run government that is) will not go to bat for you, will not use the bully pulpit to assist you, and will not take care of you in the meantime. “You should have known better than to live in this country in the first place – it’s your fault you’re in the situation you’re in. You could have lived in Canada, but foolishly remained a citizen of this country. If you wanted an insurance policy to pay out as the contract said it would, you were dumb to assume it would happen here.”
WELCOME TO AMERICA! Now it’s time for me to burn a flag in honor of all this.
Looks like they have a lot fo money to make roads, just not to maintain them.
Link didn’t work:
http://www.acadiananow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060901/NEWS01/60901007
Neither official has the tax revenue to rebuild without federal money.
Sure they do, it’s called money managemnt. They have the power to tax and issue bonds. If history tells us anything, I bet all the road repair machinery and garbage trucks are parked in a lot somewhere collecting dust. Find the buses and you’ll find all the equipment just sitting there.
And why shoudl my taxes go to pay for osmeone who chose to live below sealevel? It gets over 110 degrees in the desert, why isn’t federal money being used to pay for my air coditioning? The mayor and governor are completely incompetant and, had they been Republicans, liberals would be calling for their heads rather than desperately trying to pin the blame on the nearest Republican.
My impression is that Republicans are indifferent to things like:
How would you even know? There aren’t any Republicans in office down there. It’s a Blue state through and through so it’s up to the elected officials to deal with the problem or move out of the way and let the Republicans fix it. I am all for Blanco and Nagin resigning and Republicans taking over clean up. How con someone who isn’t even there be labled as indifferent? Blanco and Nagin, no there’s your indifference.
You’re screwed, because the insurance company will fight to be able to keep all the money you paid without having to pay for your house.
I love how you had to quote a United Kingdom “news paper” for American insurance regulations in the French Quarter. Is there anything more accurate than the Guardian? Make the NYT look like responsible journalsists.
The federal government isn’t saying a word about it.
Insurance law is regulated by the state, the federal government has nothing to do with it at all. Unless, of cource, you are advocating the federal government violate state soverenty and state law and federal law to get involved. Insurance is not a Federal issue and they don’t have any jurisdiction.
Right, if Las Vegas experienced major power outages that left you and everyone else without AC in the summer, it would compare somewhat to those leavies not being built well enough to hold. We have the technology, money and expertise to make that happen, but for some reason even today it’s not taking place. From far away we can pontificate about whether or not it’s smart to live there, but for someone who was born and raised in New Orleans, to expect them to have this point of view is silly, especially when an insurance policy on their house covers hurricanes…or so they thought.
The Congress determined that it was right to spend this money to rebuild down there, and half of the money allocated hasn’t been distributed yet. A year after Katrina the leavie (i can’t spell that word) system is still not capable of protecting what it’s there to protect.
I blame the US government for the neglect that took place over time, Democrats and Republicans over a number of years who ignored the problem. Right now though, I’m having a hard time understanding why it can’t be done, especially considering how much we’re spending daily over in Iraq!
Republicans run THIS government, so who else is there to blame? The Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t answer to Mayor Nagin or the Governor.
Do you agree with this last statement? If so, then who is responsible for the leavie system if it’s not strong enough the next time?
Disaster has either made or broken politicians throughout history…some are defeated by it, others become heros. After 9/11 Bush scored on an opportunity, but Katrina killed and buried that image. He’s concerned about how he’ll go down in history, yet is unwilling to stand up and be the leader that GETS SHIT DONE! Are his people telling him it’s impossible to do what needs to be done? Perhaps. But that’s on him – his people – his legacy.
Nobody gives LBJ a break for trusting knumbskulls who advised him to send a portion of a generation over to Vietnam. It doesn’t work like that you see…that’s why we have executives, because when it goes bad, there’s got to be someone to point to…it’s how history works. Perceptions today won’t matter much in comparison to what Iraq and New Orleans’ leavie system looks like in 20 years.
I’m sure that there will be people around who will give him a break over all that, but the history books won’t, and they shouldn’t…because while the modern day political discourse here in the US is based on low expectations, history is not…especially when we were the best at everything 50 years ago.
Right – the link, being from the Boston area, I know what this is like. What it has to do with Katrina, I don’t know. Truth is – if they weren’t taking care of the roads, there wouldn’t be construction going on at all…though I’ve always suspected that road construction is a racket in and of itself.
If the road is a federal interstate, I think the funding is federal…and state roads are the state’s responsibility.
Typical insurance practice. Don’t pay until you absolutely are required by law (meaning a court directive) to pay. Homeowners should feel good that they are not battling for life-saving health coverage (rather than just property protection).
I don’t blame Republicans for all the woes New Orleans is experiencing. I don’t think the Bush administration has really helped much. Not sure why, incompetence, spread too thin, pick one.
I will say that Alaska is RULED by Republicans and they are completely inept.
If you followed the news up here at all you would know that last week the FBI raided the offices of 10 to 15 of our state legislators (all Republican except for 1). They were looking for information regarding the oil services company Veco. The details aren’t public yet, the investigation continues.
And let’s not even talk about the pipeline fiasco. Our Republican governor has had 4 years in office. Our state is 85% depedent on oil revenues for state operating expenses. Yet this governor (with backing from the Republican majority legislature) completely neglected it’s duty to oversee the maintenance of the most vital component of our economy – the Trans-Alaska pipeline. We’ll be paying for this screwup for years.
Republicans may not be intentionally “bad”, but their track record is one of damn near 100% incompetence (whether you measure locally or nationally).
Whether Republicans are good, bad, worthy, unworthy it is time for a change. Democrats may not be great, but they would at least offer a different path. In my opinion it couldn’t get any worse. I’d take Kerry at the helm any day.
I wanted to run a couple of Alaska stories, but got caught up and didn’t want to make you feel I was blasting your state…Ted Stevens’ son is in the mix, sounds like he’s too dirty to get clean before at the very least his political career is over…that pipeline, in some book in the library a couple years ago I burnt a couple hours in a good way reading about the construction of that pipeline, an engineering accomplishment comparable to some of America’s all time greats, and to know it was allowed to rot…
The anti-government, anti-regulation people have to look at that situation and get serious for a second. Because going too far that way leads to breakdowns like this.
And of course papa Ted putting the kibosh on the pork database…that guy is unbelievable. At least his plan of keeping that senate seat in the family isn’t going to happen (hopefully, since his son is a crook like his old man).
The highway built by the army during FDR’s time, for me that’s the best Alaska story, you know what I”m talking about I’m sure. Integration, mission impossible, permafrost that hadn’t been walked on by humans ever before most likely…
Our generation is soft-serve compared with the people who did that!
The most dissapointing thing about the Stevens family is that they started off good. Ted was a real statesman. He was always a very strong supporter of Native rights, and Alaska’s rights to control it’s natural resources. He really is a legend with a career spanning half a century.
His son started off not too bad either. A commercial fishboat captain in the Bering for several years, he put his time in doing one of the most dangerous jobs there is.
But of course, then came politics. A great example of how absolute power can absolutely corrupt. This is the problem when one party is in control. There really are no checks or balances. Definitely a problem in Alaska over the past 4 years. Luckily our current governor Murkowski took a severe beating during the primary earlier this month. He came in 3rd (out of 3 real candidates) taking less than 20% of the vote. Hopefully we’ll get a democrat governor in office this November, the legislature is likely to stay strongly Republican.
Feel free to bash Alaska all you like. I know I don’t hold back on my state, or any other state for that matter. Crooks are crooks and fraud is fraud. I’m not too soft-spoken when it comes to corrupt politicians, regardless of which banner they fly.
Agreed, regarding the Highway, a real marvel. You’d be even more impressed if you saw the land, it can be ugly. The classic Alaska story is the one that involves the GI getting stationed up here and falling in love with the place. My dad was a Coastie, but the story was the same.
Stay tuned for the next marvel. Hopefully we’ll have an Alaska-Canada natural gas pipeline within the next decade. It will deliver Alaska natural gas directly to mid-western markets. When construction starts there will be many many jobs.
I don’t know if you’re aware of a ‘favorite’ book on the construction of that highway, but I’d really like to have it in my library…not much on keeping books, I like to spread around the good ones I consume, but one on that project would be something I’d like to share with my sons someday. My study of it has been out of compilations, bits and pieces over time…but I believe that the dates were pushed up due to the japanesse occupying a muck ridden island off of Alaska, where they all fought to the death (brainwashing was their strategy, and I’m not even sure they got their people to look forward to an afterlife of any kind!!!)…our troops landed and made their way inland, mud up to your eyeballs in some places…horrible conditions for the movement of equipment, let alone setting up a bivuac.
I got that story while I was in the Army, one of my conversations with a CommandSgtMajor I worked for…we’d talk about tactics and hell conditions, relate it to the bitter cold out on our winter deployments…we were talking about the condition of the gear we were issued once in Germany, how the sleeping bags weren’t cold weather, no poncho liner, etc…then he got into talking about Vietnam (where he started out as a private) and how that was shitty, but he always knew his dad had it worse at times in Korea, the C-O-L-D…but shit, at least you can MOVE when it’s cold outside…given, the island mission to eliminate the Jap presence wasn’t all that lengthly or overly treacherous, but damn it must have been hell being covered in mud the entire time…
Personally, I look at the battle of the bulge and those poor bastards on the line during that winter and figure it doesn’t get much worse than that.
The story of that got me to researching more about Alaskan history (always fascinated me…my grandparents about 20 years ago took a vacation up there and I soaked it all in, got me off on the right foot as far as your state goes) – the Klondikers who stormed up there in the 1800s looking for gold, the story of that highway…
That’s what got me to thinking that while these guys weren’t being shot at, they may have had THE WORST job in the history of the American military.
Not that we need to order all these things, but for some reason this story isn’t part of most high school history books…yet it’s this piece of history that I find most inspiring. Sure, there was an “enemy” that pushed the timetable up, but they weren’t shooting, yet the Army was able to motivate these men (blacks and whites) and get got the damned thing finished! There were PLENTY of times in the Army where I was tired and sore like I’d never want to be again, but shit it felt good having accomplished something with my unit, jumping from one site to another, pulling it all up, moving, setting it all up again…could be 48 hours w/ no rest, but when it was done you’d step back and get a feeling that you had an important place in the world.
There was pride involved…yet domestically today I don’t see that spirit, that all for one ideal…listen to what people complain most about today on the right. Illegal immigrants, gays, non-Christians, people who have abortions…
It’s all about how one’s neighbor is a douchebag and their very existance should be frowned upon, if not outlawed alltogether. A sense of “we’re up here, and you’re down there”…
They point out often that a majority of the military votes Republican…but to be honest, the subject doesn’t hardly ever come up. We had more important things to worry about.
I think it’s an insult to every one of those guys who broke their back on that highway for the country to be so hatefull today. To each his own isn’t good enough anymore, and that sucks! Because instead of just BUILDING THE FUCKING LEAVIES THE RIGHT WAY, we’ve got to hear about who’s an idiot and blah blah blah.
If there was ever a moment for all that shit to fall by the wayside and everyone just focus on fixing the damned thing, this was it.
So today I don’t think we could pull off that highway…I guess that’s my point.
Alaskan history can teach us a lot about what it used to mean to be an American, and how badly we’ve fucked it up over time. Personally, I’d rather build something than bomb something – fill up sandbags than kill someone with an M-16…though I think that others would agree only if they knew in advance WHO they were building what for. Simply saying ‘fellow Americans’ isn’t good enough anymore.
And that’s only going to get worse as we continue to waste lives over in the middle east, up in everyone’s business for the sake of nothing.
Osama speaks today and Bush uses his words to argue that he’s right about something. Hiding out in the country we’ve sold missiles to, that nuclear power Pakistan…yet, Iran is the EVIL we must rub out. Give me a break!
Let’s build something instead…
Unless we’re killing Osama, we’re wasting time…OBVIOUSLY noone in charge gives a damn about whether he lives or dies, so if that’s not the thing, then let’s pull our muscle back and put them to work on something our kids might be gratefull for later on…or (God forbid) accomplish something worthy of a Saturday in the library reading about!
I like this rant dude. It sums it all up pretty friggin well. This could happen to any of us, and we better pray it doesn’t..no one will pick up the pieces..its an outrage.
But the carpetbaggers are getting friggin rich. Its the American way.