AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
Airdrop in clean water, food and meds RIGHT NOW. And some Everglade-type boats (with air-propellers) for search & rescue and recovery. This should have started TUESDAY MORNING after the winds died down and the levees broke. (The levees should have been sandbagged but that's a whole nother up - which turned this hurricane into a flood.) But in the meantime...
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
People on rooftops and overpasses are dying of thirst and hunger live on national TV while the government sits on its hands.
There ARE points of high ground / buildings in NOLA and the main need there is CLEAN WATER. Survivors are now on whatever high ground they can find but now they need water, food and meds until they can get to shelter. They're going to die of THIRST because nobody in this rich First World country has airdropped in a few pallets of bottled water. We have to wait for COSTCO to do it because FEMA can't get its head out of its ass. Drop it in on some of the overpasses and larger roofs where people are congregating and it'll get distributed. People in a disaster act selfish ONLY when they think there's no hope - but if people know there's a steady stream of bottled water being air-dropped down to them, they'll triage and prioritize just as well as the best ER staff, in order to save the maximum number of their fellow beings.
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
Meanwhile, people who dare loot some soda and bread from a store are being told they might get SHOT if they dare feed themselves. Mayor Nagin should take his town back ("local control" - Repubs can't argue with that!) and take charge of his own police and tell them to leave the looters alone - at a stretch it could be argued that looters are actually performing a valuable function because they're "liberating" food and supplies from local depots more efficiently than Michael Chertoff and FEMA will ever be able to. If a guy steals a pair of sneakers from Foot Locker and avoids getting gangrene on his foot, that's a net savings and I'm sure our brilliant accountants can route a check to the shop owner who lost a pair of shoes rather than to the doctor who performs the amputation (and the patient who goes on SSI for the rest of their life).
We should be PAYING the "looters" for the lives they're saving. And pay the shop owners for their merchandise rather than paying cops to shoot on sight (and paying for all the lawsuits that will come after that).
Like the American idiots we are, we follow the labels applied by some idiot on TV, and we're stuck with it forever. (A bus full of evacuees driven by a 20-year-old kid showed up "early" at Houston's Astrodome and they got turned away. CNN is callling this the "renegade bus" and everyone's parroting this term. Can't have people showing up at the wrong time or without all their papers in order after the BIGGEST NATURAL DISASTER IN US HISTORY.)
The overtime pay we're paying cops to go around shooting looters in the head could be used instead to indemnify / reimburse the shop owners whose merchandise gets looted. (I suspect many shop owners are planning on writing everything off and collecting the insurance anyways.) But nooooooo, that's too complicated an idea to get our minds around. Christ, the Supreme Court just approved "eminent domain" last months for private assets which could be better used by another private party - but I guess this concept can only be applied to dueling real estate moguls - not to people who dare to open "somebody else's" unused can of drinking water or soda after the BIGGEST NATURAL DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
Rather than airdrop this in to the people from a few C130s, the former estate lawyer heading the FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY holds a press conference talking bureaucratese about an "Incident of National Significance" and "assets" and "taskforces" - but doing NOTHING to help people! This guy Chertoff (Christians take note - his last name means "Devils") couldn't be an elementary school crossing guard - he's an incompetent wimp who belongs back behind a desk drawing up people's wills.
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
Now I hear FEMA is dropping out because the situtation is "TOO DANGEROUS". WHAT THE ?!?!?!? We're talking STANDING WATER with a few snakes and chemicals in it -- bad to drink but they could be skimming over it with boats sending in supplies and taking away people. STANDING WATER is too dangerous for ing FEMA?!?!?
(Now I hear that people are desperate and violent and FEMA's afraid to go rescue them for that reason. Well, maybe FEMA has a point there - if you show up three days late to rescue me and half my family DIED because you were too stupid to airdrop in a bottle of water for me then I'd be pissed too. So run with your tail between your legs FEMA - people have discovered that you're murderers, not helpers.)
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
They've known about the risk to the levees for years. They should have been sandbagging those levees on Sunday night when the whole country was glued to their "tubes" worrying about the "destruction of New Orleans". Someone at FEMA (who probably got demoted) predicted in early 2001 that the three most likely disasters in the US would be:
(1) Terrorist attack on NY
(2) NOLA hit by a hurricane
(3) SF hit by earthquake
They're batting 2 for 3 with their own predictions but they can't be bothered to MAKE ANY PREPARATIONS.
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
The levees, like every other up in this MAN-MADE DISASTER, are under FEDERAL jurisdiction (US Army Corps of Engineers). I had tears in my eyes seeing the mild-mannered, black mayor Nagin of NOLA talking about how (1) he wanted the levees fixed months ago but the money got cut and (2) he wanted them fixed just before they "blew" on Monday but SOMEBODY REDIRECTED THE HELICOPTERS CARRYING THE 3,000 SANDBAGS.
There's a lot of expensive-looking houses near Lake Pontchartain where that levee broke. If the Federal government could have been honest and admitted they didn't give a about the people in those houses, then I bet the people in that neighborhood could have paid for some SANDBAGS to be airdropped from a helicopter when a storm comes. It's time for the Federal government to " or get off the pot" - if you're in charge of the levee, then sandbag it. If you're not going to sandbag it, tell us and give up jurisdiction so WE can do it. The way things are, it's ILLEGAL for private citizens to fix things that are under the jurisdiction of DC - but when it comes time for DC to DO something, they can't or they won't. This ed-up "separation of powers" is what's killing thousands of people in NOLA.
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
People need to wake up and understand that for White House insiders this is a big chance to save some more money short-term and kill off some poor Dem-voting black people (and white people with funny accents). For the oil barons, this is another chance to "gouge" for a few weeks. And for the media, this is a run around with perfect hair reporting on "human interest" stories (which are always great for ratings). Talk to some distraught white people, and film some black people acting wild - that's the mainstay of American media.
AIRLIFT IN WATER - FOOD - MEDS
The media, the oil barons and DC run the country now - and the last thing any of them care about is "saving lives". It's The People against DC & the Media & Big Oil now. That's the sad reality which a small minority of bloggers have woken up to - and many black people have resignedly lived with for their entire lives.
OR CALL THIS WHAT IT IS - GENOCIDE
Black people on overpasses and roofs in NOLA are dying of thirst on live TV now -- as media helicopters circle around filming them and former estate lawyers hold press conferences and Scotty McClellan continues to deflect questions... and millions of Americans watch in horror. My roommate just ran into the room in tears. He can't believe this is happening.
Sorry folks, this is no different than when they sent the Jews to the ovens - just this time they THINK they can blame Mother Nature. But the rain and the wind stopped three days ago - and the ONLY reason those people on high ground in NOLA are dying is because OUR SO-CALLED GOVERNMENT IS RACIST AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO AIR-DROP IN WATER TO A BUNCH OF POOR BLACK PEOPLE. Trust me, if there were some rich white lawyers (like Chertoff) on those overpasses, we'd be having a whole different media circus: we'd be air-dropping down food and groceries and blonde bimbo anchorwomen would descend from the helicopters to interview the survivors. But it's BLACK PEOPLE on those overpasses and ROOFS and most of the people with the MONEY and the MEDIA and the POWER JUST DON'T CARE ABOUT SAVING BLACK PEOPLE'S LIVES. That freeper thread talking about "plush carpeting and Cadillacs and procreating" (and the recent resurge of interest in The Bell Curve with its paranoia about black guys with big s and black women with big s) is just the Repub subconscious seeping out.
This is a sick country. The media says black people "loot" and white people "find". DC sits on its hands instead of airdropping and airboating in in supplies. They keep saying this is the "biggest natural disaster in US history" but and they keep SAYING their priority is on saving lives and they're "doing everything in their power" but they're NOT. They ignored the warnings - and now they're ignoring their own countrypeople crying from the rooftops, dying of thirst and hunger on the rooftops... while thousands of planes sit on the tarmacs and millions of bottles of Evian water sit on the shelves and the President eats cake in the richest country the world has ever known.
Link
Last edited by Nbadan; 09-01-2005 at 08:14 PM.
Dan...it's good to know that...no matter what happens to this country...we'll always have you to do nothing but about it and blame the Republicans.
I think the Democrats thought that the hurricane could be appeased...
that crackpipe was hilarious whott
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They did this after Kerry lost too. It would be nice if they allowed voices of dissent during the times when they are most caustic.
It's not a bad sentiment for about the first half but the second half is a ing joke. Opportunistic partisanship at its worst.
Democrats only want Democrats to have freedom of speech...right Cindy?
I'll say one thing...I am worried about the poor white minorities of New Orleans...I haven't seen a white person rescued or refugee yet...yet they make up a full 30% of the population.
I mean yeah it would suck being a refugee...but it beats the out of being dead.
I think the ing government is trying to pander to the minority vote by saving all the blacks and letting the whites die. Conversely...about 99% of the rescuers I see are white people...White people need to save their own...the blacks and Democrats sure as aren't going to do it...they think the only good white is a dead white...they probably think they are all rich...
I mean are we to assume that no white people got stuck in New Orleans? That none of them are poor? Where are they?
I bet when this is all said and done the majority of the dead are white people inspite of them being the minority of that city.
They hate white people... ing racists.
So Whottt...you're kidding, right? Otherwise, that's the saddest thing I've ever read.
"White people need to save their own."
And you call someone else a racist?
Hey...anytime the US is hit with the worst national disaster in it's history, and the largest evac ever of a US city is underway with the infrastructure and communications systems of the area nonexistent...it's always a positive to play the race card and blame game, because inflaming racial tensions is the best way to solve the problem. It's called doing things the liberal way.
I mean the hurricane didn't destroy the white peoples homes, lives, and city, right? Bush made sure of that.
If this is an example of Homeland Security response, God help us when al Qaeda really strikes, with something on the order of a dirty bomb.
I wonder where the mayor and city council of new orleans are, I mean don't they have a command center somewhere, or are they all at the astrodome too, dumbF***s probably couldn't put together a evac plan if it bit them in the ass...
For those of you that don't ever get out of the Politic's forum
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24390
That's what FEMA and the Dept of HS are for. No city is competent to pull off an evacuation on this scale, especially with their infrstructure almost totally destroyed. Nice try on the deflection, though. Nine out of Ten for effort.
exstatic.. yeah the federal govt. should be in charge of even local muncipalities.. they should also run our states... why do we need local and state officials for anyway..?
The bulk of the responsibility definitely falls on the shoulders of the state and local goverments...
But I know for a fact I saw the mayor telling everyone to get the out...there wasn't any question about it...Perhaps he underestimated the need for help on the evac...but it was definitely the Mayor and Govenors responsibility to do that evac...
That's their whole ing purpose is things like this...the US government is designed to handle city evacs on short notice like that...the city and state are supposed to have those resources in place...
Yeah a bunch of people stayed because they were poor...but plenty of these people could have left and didn't....they didn't leave because they had no gauge of just how bad it could get...I've seen like 3 people say they wanted to leave but couldn't...the vast majority are saying they didn't think it would be that bad...not just in NO..but in all the cities.
Dumbass. We're not talking day to day here. This is a disaster.
What, exactly, would you have the mayor of NO do? And with what resources?
exstatic.. the city of NO has a transist system, it has a police force and a local govt. in place for situations like this, even before the storm hit they were warned a direct hit would be devestating instead he ordered everyone to the superdome. Why didn't he organize the transit system to take the poor out of town... or was he waiting for bush to do that as well.... ?
Dude. Did you have a nice big bowl of drama flakes this morning or what?
You still didn't answer my question. What would you have the mayor of N.O. do (now, in the present and in the future), and with what resources?
TwincitiesFederal response called `a national disgrace'
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Rage and resentment reached a crescendo Thursday among victims of Hurricane Katrina who felt the federal government had abandoned them at their most desperate moment.
Bush administration officials acknowledged the anger but said they were moving as quickly as possible to mobilize thousands of troops and other personnel to the area.
Critics were in no mood for excuses, though, as New Orleans slid further into chaos - with people literally dying in the streets, snipers taking shots at relief workers and hunger spreading throughout the area.
Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans' emergency operations, called the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency "a national disgrace."
"FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control," Ebbert said. "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
exstatic Calling you stupid would be an insult to stupid people.
Yeah the mayor could have coordinated better way in advance of the storm, apparently much like most liberals he expected the federal govt. to come in save the day should a natural disaster happen, talk about short sided planning, especially to a city so close to the gulf basically sitting in a bowl ... yeah the mayor could have done alot more than just call for the feds... who by the way can't get into most area's because the roads are washed out... I blame the mayor first and foremost for having no plan, for a situation like this.... it's like blaming Stern for the fact Goerge Karl couldn't get his team passed the Spurs in the playoffs...
You still haven't answered my question...
The mayor could have coordinated better way in advance of the storm, with at least 2 days warning what did he do?
You still haven't answered my question...
What would you have the mayor of N.O. do (now, in the present and in the future), and with what resources?
exstatic... this is all the mayor has done so far..
Nagin ordered the city of nearly 500,000 to be evacuated over the weekend as Katrina approached. Since then, he has called for the 50,000 to 100,000 who remained to leave because the city has become inhabitable.
People will not be allowed back into their homes for at least a month or two, he said.
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