New Olreans.....A Racial Issue???

[BabyRider]

Scrat wrote: Fresh out of high school I decided I wanted to see the world and I joined "Your Modern Navy!". I was promptly put on the 6th Fleet Flagship the USS Puget Sound (we called it something else) and put under the tutilage of some of the most gnarly, evil tempered low life hole snipes you will ever meet.



I have some dirty jokes that will make you fall out of your chair.




My PM box is empty and waiting!!!

[Accountable]

BabyRider wrote: What do you think, that you, Far and Nomad have cornered the market on flirting??? :p :p
Not me. I'm the consummate gentleman. :yh_silent

[BabyRider]

Scrat wrote: I'm warning you BR, you'll never touch ice cream again.
That's pretty extreme, Scrat. I do love my ice cream!! I'm willing to chance it, though, I love a good joke, too!

[Nomad]

A race issue ? Nonsense ! The ones using the race card have a predisposition to uneducated utterances. New Orleans is predominantly black, over 50%. People have been leaving the city in droves since the late 60s, their population is dwindling because of crime, poor educational standards and unemployment. So you can do the same....you can vote in someone who cares (better yet run for office yourself) or bitch and do nothing.



The fact that a storm split their city wide open leaving any means of search and rescue let alone getting needed supplies in virtually impossible until the overwhelming magnitude of the destruction can be assesed and readiness troops deployed has nothing to do with the color of their skin. Sorry guys I feel for you, I was in Florida when Andrew hit Ive seen what these things can do, but even there you were on your own for a little while until they could get to you. I saw countless white people camped out in their front yards waiting...and waiting...and waiting, this had nothing to do with the color of their skin either. It was an awesome act of God thats all.

[Society4Sale]

Not that any blame should be directed away from our “wonderful” government, as well as their local government, but no one should have the audacity to state this is a racial problem. Refugees firing weapons in the air, the vast looting that took place, the several attacks on police officers, ECT. Why not put up a big sign stating “F%$^ YOU DON’T RESCUE ME!!” Unfortunately, the “Bad Apples” of the group are the ones to blame and they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. To kill your own rescue wagon (or in this case someone else’s) is worse than biting the hand that feeds you.

Black, white, purple, green, does not matter in this situation. I would not rescue an enemy, and refugees don’t shoot at you. Clearly bigotry is not the issue.

[StupidCowboyTricks]

News > September 2, 2005



Unnatural Disaster



How policy decisions doomed New Orleans



By Joel Bleifuss and Brian Cook



White House Press Spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters in response to questions about the devastating havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina, “This is not a time for politics.”

But with New Orleans now underwater, hundreds—if not thousands—dead and tens of thousands in desperate need of food, shelter and water, the natural question is: What could the federal government have done to lessen this catastrophe? The answer is all about politics.

The Bush administration, having done its best to realize Grover Norquist’s dream of cutting government “to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub,” for days watched impotently as citizens of New Orleans were drowned. It is a disaster that is largely the consequence of the policy decisions that the White House has made over the past five years. The faults of FEMA



The first defense was to plead ignorance. On September 1, President George W. Bush told “Good Morning America,” “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

Except Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In 2001 FEMA designated a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three “likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this county.” At the time, FEMA was headed by Bush’s former chief of staff in Texas, Joe Allbaugh, a self described political “heavy” who had no background in disaster relief.

With FEMA under Allbaugh’s watch, White House budget director Mitch Daniels announced in April 2001 the goal of privatizing much of FEMA’s work. As Allbaugh explained to Congress a month later, “Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program and a disincentive to effective state and local risk management. Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.”

Allbaugh resigned in December 2002, announcing that he was going to seek his fortune by setting up a consulting firm that would help corporations hoping to do business in Iraq. His replacement, Michael Brown, also had no experience with disaster relief.

In March 2003, FEMA became a part of the Homeland Security Department and its emphasis shifted from dealing with natural disasters to potential terrorist attacks. Writing in the September 1 Washington Post, Eric Holdeman, emergency management director for King County, Washington, asked why “the country’s premier agency for dealing with such events [has been] systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.”

He noted that this year “it was announced that FEMA is to ‘officially’ lose [its] disaster preparedness function. … In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission.”

Holdeman praised James Lee Witt, director of FEMA under Clinton, for “showing a serious regard for the cost of natural disasters in both economic impact and lives lost or disrupted.” In the ’90s, Witt had developed a plan for just such a New Orleans disaster that would have pre-deployed hospital ships and ships with pumps to remove water from the city. According to Knight Ridder, federal officials said a hospital ship was prepared to leave Baltimore on September 2—four days after the hurricane.

Private profits, public risk



Why was the federal government so poorly prepared for a disaster on the Gulf Coast?

In June 2004, FEMA privatized its hurricane disaster plan for New Orleans, contracting the work to the Baton Rouge, La., firm Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) whose motto is “Managing Risk in a Complex World.”

IEM announced the contract on its Web site on June 3, 2004, trumpeting that the company “will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).” But in the days after Katrina hit, the press release was removed from the company’s online press release archives, as China Mieville noted on the blog Lenin’s Tomb.

IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas told the magazine Biz New Orleans, “Given this area’s vulnerability, unique geographic location and elevation, and troubled escape routes, a plan that facilitates a rapid and effective hurricane response and recovery is critical. The IEM team’s approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes, as well as man-made catastrophic events.”

As Mieville opined, “So, the IEM team’s approach isn’t to siphon off tax money, spout management ****, provide a demonstrably catastrophically inadequate plan, then **** off like craven ****ing caveworms and hide the evidence when the ****ing corpses start piling up?”

New Orleans’ levees left behind



For years, Louisiana and the Army Corps of Engineers have tried to get funding to shore up New Orleans’ levees.

In 2004, funding cutbacks stopped major work on New Orleans’ east bank hurricane levees, the ones that collapsed, for the first time in 37 years. In 2004, the Army Corps requested $11 million for work on the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project, Bush requested $3 million and Congress approved $5.5 million. In 2005, the Army Corps requested $22.5 million, Bush requested $3.9 million and Congress approved $5.7 million. In 2006, Bush requested $2.9 million.

On June 8, 2004, after the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for levee construction in New Orleans had been cut severely, Walter Maestri, the emergency management chief of Jefferson Parish, told reporters, “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.”

And pay they have.

According to Wonkette, a Washington D.C.-based blog, a source at the Environmental Protection Agency had this to say about flooded New Orleans:

“We’re naming it Lake George, ‘cause it’s his frickin’ fault. Have you seen all that data about the levee projects’ funding being cut over the past three years by the Prez, and the funding transferred to Iraq? The levee, as designed, might not have held back the surge from a direct Class 5 hit, but it certainly would not have crumbled on Monday night from saturation and scour erosion following a glancing blow from a Class 3. The failure was in a spot that had just been rebuilt, not yet compacted, not planted, and not armed (hardened with rock/concrete). The project should have been done two years ago, but the federal gov’t diverted 80 percent of the funding to Iraq. Other areas had settled by a few feet from their design specs, and the money to repair them was diverted to Iraq. … This was senseless, useless death caused not by nature but by budget decisions.”

Not every one is so pessimistic. When George Bush looks at New Orleans he sees a city half full. “The good news is—and it is hard for some to see it now—that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before,” he told reporters on Friday. “Out of the rubble of Trent Lott’s house—the guy lost his entire house—there’s going to be a fantastic house. I look forward to sitting on the porch.”

[StupidCowboyTricks]

"According to Wonkette, a Washington D.C.-based blog, a source at the Environmental Protection Agency had this to say about flooded New Orleans:

“We’re naming it Lake George, ‘cause it’s his frickin’ fault. Have you seen all that data about the levee projects’ funding being cut over the past three years by the Prez, and the funding transferred to Iraq? The levee, as designed, might not have held back the surge from a direct Class 5 hit, but it certainly would not have crumbled on Monday night from saturation and scour erosion following a glancing blow from a Class 3. The failure was in a spot that had just been rebuilt, not yet compacted, not planted, and not armed (hardened with rock/concrete). The project should have been done two years ago, but the federal gov’t diverted 80 percent of the funding to Iraq. Other areas had settled by a few feet from their design specs, and the money to repair them was diverted to Iraq. … This was senseless, useless death caused not by nature but by budget decisions.”



Well?

I can not believe some of these post I just read!

[Accountable]

Don't allow others to take responsibility for your environment, and you won't have to beg them to do something to fix it. Then again, you won't be able to blame them when things go wrong, either.

[StupidCowboyTricks]

Scrat wrote: Okay AC I can live with what you say but there is one question.



What do I pay taxes for?



Security is one of them. If Seattle falls apart in an earthquake Iexpect the federal government to help rebuild because I pay taxes.



It is my right.


To pay for "The Bush New World Order"

[Accountable]

Scrat wrote: Okay AC I can live with what you say but there is one question.



What do I pay taxes for?



Security is one of them. If Seattle falls apart in an earthquake Iexpect the federal government to help rebuild because I pay taxes.



It is my right.That's kind of my point. I'm tired of paying taxes to a group of pompous megalomaniacs who want credit for everything but responsibility for nothing. Give me my money and let me stand or fall on my own.



Had New Orleans been responsible for their own levee, they would have been forced to be more creative. Private industry could have kept that levee strong cheaper than any federal contract with all the parasitic bureaucracies that come with it. If they had not done so, there would have been no one to blame but themselves.



I disagree that it should be the federal gov't who repairs an entire city. They should repair the interstates (freeways), federal buildings, and that's it. The city is responsible for the city, and the state has the Guard to provide security.



The people of America and the world have shown themselves to be incredibly generous in times of catastrophe. They will give in times of need. Nobody needs the government to take hard-earned money away from them just to give it away as well.



I expect your insurance company to pay for your house because you pay premiums. Don't expect for our gov't to pay for your house with my money. You don't have that right unless they built it, insured it, or - as in N.O. - they claimed responsibility to protect it and directly failed.