Religions > Atheism > Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?!
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Michelle Malkin" |
| Date: |
01 Sep 2005 07:04:27 PM |
| Object: |
Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001053452
.
|
|
| User: "DanielSan" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the NationalGuard?! |
01 Sep 2005 07:06:55 PM |
|
|
Michelle Malkin wrote:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001053452
In Iraq, of course, helping construct a theocratic state. You didn't
know that? ;-P
--
****************************************************
* DanielSan -- alt.atheism #2226 *
*--------------------------------------------------*
* "If God had intended us to walk, he wouldn't *
* have invented roller skates." --Willy Wonka *
****************************************************
.
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
01 Sep 2005 07:32:30 PM |
|
|
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 07:07:44 AM |
|
|
wrote in news:1125621150.042562.304280
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
He did. A lot of people didn't comply with the order.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’
- Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
| User: "Misleart Chuff" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 02:17:07 PM |
|
|
"Fred Stone" <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote in message
news:1125662871.6545a39496046907575a47b335923dc7@teranews...
: wrote in news:1125621150.042562.304280
: @g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
:
: > Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
: >
:
: He did. A lot of people didn't comply with the order.
What a *clever* little derf you are. Even aside from the question of
ability, how about the question of where the ***** they could go?
Hmmm? As much as a clusterfuck as W's crew has made of this, I don't
believe that people were being supplied reasonable places to go right
off.
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "G-Ride" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 12:49:58 PM |
|
|
"Fred Stone" <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote in message
news:1125662871.6545a39496046907575a47b335923dc7@teranews...
stork@storkyak.com wrote in news:1125621150.042562.304280
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
He did. A lot of people didn't comply with the order.
Operation Blame The Victims
--
Aloha,
G-Ride
"Like a quarrelling group of monkeys on a leaky boat, armed with sticks of
dynamite, we are now embarked on an uncertain journey."
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 01:02:16 PM |
|
|
"G-Ride" <gride42nospammotherfucker@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:3nrhm4F2urd8U1@individual.net:
"Fred Stone" <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote in message
news:1125662871.6545a39496046907575a47b335923dc7@teranews...
stork@storkyak.com wrote in news:1125621150.042562.304280
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
He did. A lot of people didn't comply with the order.
Operation Blame The Victims
No blame. Just pointing out the facts.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’
- Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "nJb" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the NationalGuard?! |
04 Sep 2005 08:54:04 PM |
|
|
Fred Stone wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote in news:1125621150.042562.304280
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
He did. A lot of people didn't comply with the order.
Poor bastards, what the ***** were they thinking? Should have just hopped
in the wheels and driven out of Dodge.
--
Jack
Plonked by Native American
bobo1148atxmissiondotcom
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/xmissionbobo/
.
|
|
|
| User: "Enkidu the Atheist" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
04 Sep 2005 08:57:02 PM |
|
|
nJb <none@nowhere.com> wrote in news:dfg8b5$s1f$10@news.xmission.com:
Fred Stone wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote in news:1125621150.042562.304280
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
He did. A lot of people didn't comply with the order.
Poor bastards, what the ***** were they thinking? Should have just
hopped in the wheels and driven out of Dodge.
If they owned wheels, if the family could all fit, if they had somewhere
to go, if they hadn't been wheelchair-bound or bed-ridden, in a nursing
home or a hospital on a ventalator, or recovering from birth, perhaps
they would have done so.
--
Enkidu AA#2165
EAC Chaplain and ordained minister,
ULC, Modesto, CA
PGP ID: 0xC4CE8CF0
Blasphemy? No, it is not blasphemy. If God is as vast as that, he is
above blasphemy; if He is as little as that, He is beneath it.
-- Mark Twain
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Tim McGaughy" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the NationalGuard?! |
01 Sep 2005 08:28:12 PM |
|
|
wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Kate " |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 07:10:05 AM |
|
|
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 08:14:33 AM |
|
|
(Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’
- Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
| User: "nJb" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the NationalGuard?! |
04 Sep 2005 09:04:25 PM |
|
|
Fred Stone wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Show us how good his Department of Bumbling Security is.
--
Jack
Plonked by Native American
bobo1148atxmissiondotcom
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/xmissionbobo/
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
04 Sep 2005 10:28:15 PM |
|
|
nJb <none@nowhere.com> wrote in news:dfg8ui$tg9$2@news.xmission.com:
Fred Stone wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had
to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Show us how good his Department of Bumbling Security is.
Good answer. Thanks for proving that you don't have a clue.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’
- Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "WCB" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 04:27:50 PM |
|
|
Fred Stone wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Start with not slashing budgets for New Orleans flood
planning and not gutting FEMA that used to deal with
such problems.
That is, not do what Bush has been doing for 5 years now.
Sitting on his useless butt slashing programs that deal
with such problems ignoring pleas for reason and sanity.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA
and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush
administration. Read it and weep:
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head
of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May,
Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned
that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an
oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the
federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement
may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of
the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this
country."
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces
he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies
seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael
Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster
management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and
folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is
refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation
and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness
and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and
recovery.
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding
requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You
would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the
grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction
in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management
chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "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."
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit
areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which
was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson,
Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion
catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain,
plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day,
and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to
acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a
photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech
in the Rose Garden.
So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.
Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was
known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was
deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's
conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was
created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
--
Xenu is around and about,
mention Hubbard, Xenu pops out!
No way for the clams to stamp Xenu out,
Xenu is around and about!
Cheerful Charlie
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 05:50:06 PM |
|
|
WCB <wbarwell@Mungggedd.mylinuxisp.com> wrote in
news:11hhg6q70aj0b7f@corp.supernews.com:
Fred Stone wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo
sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent,
no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had
to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other
ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Start with not slashing budgets for New Orleans flood
planning and not gutting FEMA that used to deal with
such problems.
Ah, so he was supposed to fly back in time.
That is, not do what Bush has been doing for 5 years now.
Sitting on his useless butt slashing programs that deal
with such problems ignoring pleas for reason and sanity.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA
and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush
administration. Read it and weep:
Where is the timeline for previous administrations?
They've had plans since Hurricane Betsy in the early 1960's.
Oh, and don't forget to mention the environmentalists who blocked
construction because of an endangered waterfowl.
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head
of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May,
Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned
that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an
oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the
federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement
may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of
the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this
country."
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces
he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies
seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael
Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster
management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and
folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is
refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation
and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness
and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and
recovery.
So, FEMA wasn't gutted. It was reorganized.
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding
requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You
would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the
grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction
in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management
chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "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."
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit
areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which
was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson,
Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
Which still left them with over $450 million.
August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion
catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain,
plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day,
and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to
acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a
photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech
in the Rose Garden.
It's telling that your list doesn't bother to mention that Bush
activated disaster area status before the storm hit, and also requested
that National Guard troops from several states be mobilized and
prepositioned.
So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.
Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was
known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was
deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's
conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was
created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
Those functions were moved to another department under DHS.
All in all, a nice example of how the left deceives by omitting key
facts.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’
- Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
| User: "WCB" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 09:02:31 PM |
|
|
Fred Stone wrote:
WCB <wbarwell@Mungggedd.mylinuxisp.com> wrote in
news:11hhg6q70aj0b7f@corp.supernews.com:
Fred Stone wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo
sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent,
no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had
to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other
ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Start with not slashing budgets for New Orleans flood
planning and not gutting FEMA that used to deal with
such problems.
Ah, so he was supposed to fly back in time.
That is, not do what Bush has been doing for 5 years now.
Sitting on his useless butt slashing programs that deal
with such problems ignoring pleas for reason and sanity.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA
and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush
administration. Read it and weep:
Where is the timeline for previous administrations?
They've had plans since Hurricane Betsy in the early 1960's.
Oh, and don't forget to mention the environmentalists who blocked
construction because of an endangered waterfowl.
*****! The bastards have been slashing shipping channels
through the wetlands for years allowing wakes of ships to wash
away most of teg barrier islands.
Fred, you are a fuckhead without any sense and a liar.
The enviromentalists have not ever been paid attention
to, while the shitheads always get their ways.
Under Clinton, programs were started to try to end such
stupidities, the first thing Bush did was cancel them .
You are as usual, in auto-lie right winger mode.
You always make up lies! Always!
You NEVER bother with facts! Never!
I suppose you will spew lies and lies and lies, its all you can do.
The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big
trouble?with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New
Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere.
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy,
the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were
swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who
invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a
hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in
August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash
Wednesday.
But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As
the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people
evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however?the car-less,
the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who
look for any excuse to throw a party.
The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a
deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of
the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80
percent of New Orleans lies below sea level?more than eight feet below in
places?so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick
ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over
the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through
the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the
Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city,
people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and
industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from
dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to
pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of
putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It
was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
When did this calamity happen? It hasn't?yet. But the doomsday scenario is
not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane
strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up
there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New
York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the
city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.
"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before
landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24
hours?coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal
engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the
coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on an actual August
afternoon sipping lemonade and talking about the chinks in the city's
hurricane armor. "I don't think people realize how precarious we are,"
Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great when it
works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."
The chances of such a storm hitting New Orleans in any given year are
slight, but the danger is growing. Climatologists predict that powerful
storms may occur more frequently this century, while rising sea level from
global warming is putting low-lying coasts at greater risk. "It's not if it
will happen," says University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's
when."
Yet just as the risks of a killer storm are rising, the city's natural
defenses are quietly melting away. From the Mississippi border to the Texas
state line, Louisiana is losing its protective fringe of marshes and
barrier islands faster than any place in the U.S. Since the 1930s some
1,900 square miles (4,900 square kilometers) of coastal wetlands?a swath
nearly the size of Delaware or almost twice that of Luxembourg?have
vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Despite nearly half a billion dollars
spent over the past decade to stem the tide, the state continues to lose
about 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of land each year, roughly one
acre every 33 minutes.
A cocktail of natural and human factors is putting the coast under. Delta
soils naturally compact and sink over time, eventually giving way to open
water unless fresh layers of sediment offset the subsidence. The
Mississippi's spring floods once maintained that balance, but the annual
deluges were often disastrous. After a devastating flood in 1927, levees
were raised along the river and lined with concrete, effectively funneling
the marsh-building sediments to the deep waters of the Gulf. Since the
1950s engineers have also cut more than 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of
canals through the marsh for petroleum exploration and ship traffic. These
new ditches sliced the wetlands into a giant jigsaw puzzle, increasing
erosion and allowing lethal doses of salt water to infiltrate brackish and
freshwater marshes.
While such loss hits every bayou-loving Louisianan right in the heart, it
also hits nearly every U.S. citizen right in the wallet. Louisiana has the
hardest working wetlands in America, a watery world of bayous, marshes, and
barrier islands that either produces or transports more than a third of the
nation's oil and a quarter of its natural gas, and ranks second only to
Alaska in commercial fish landings. As wildlife habitat, it makes Florida's
Everglades look like a petting zoo by comparison.
Such high stakes compelled a host of unlikely bedfellows?scientists,
environmental groups, business leaders, and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers?to forge a radical plan to protect what's left. Drafted by the
Corps a year ago, the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) project was initially
estimated to cost up to 14 billion dollars over 30 years, almost twice as
much as current efforts to save the Everglades. But the Bush Administration
balked at the price tag, supporting instead a plan to spend up to two
billion dollars over the next ten years to fund the most promising
projects. Either way, Congress must authorize the money before work can
begin.
To glimpse the urgency of the problem afflicting Louisiana, one need only
drive 40 minutes southeast of New Orleans to the tiny bayou village of
Shell Beach. Here, for the past 70 years or so, a big, deeply tanned man
with hands the size of baseball gloves has been catching fish, shooting
ducks, and selling gas and bait to anyone who can find his end-of-the-road
marina. Today Frank "Blackie" Campo's ramshackle place hangs off the end of
new Shell Beach. The old Shell Beach, where Campo was born in 1918, sits a
quarter mile away, five feet beneath the rippling waves. Once home to some
50 families and a naval air station during World War II, the little village
is now "ga'an pecan," as Campo says in the local patois. Gone forever.
Life in old Shell Beach had always been a tenuous existence. Hurricanes
twice razed the community, sending houses floating through the marsh. But
it wasn't until the Corps of Engineers dredged a 500-foot-wide
(150-meter-wide) ship channel nearby in 1968 that its fate was sealed. The
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, known as "Mr. Go," was supposed to provide a
shortcut for freighters bound for New Orleans, but it never caught on.
Maybe two ships use the channel on a given day, but wakes from even those
few vessels have carved the shoreline a half mile wide in places, consuming
old Shell Beach.
Campo settles into a worn recliner, his pale blue eyes the color of a late
autumn sky. Our conversation turns from Mr. Go to the bigger issue
affecting the entire coast. "What really screwed up the marsh is when they
put the levees on the river," Campo says, over the noise of a groaning
air-conditioner. "They should take the levees out and let the water run;
that's what built the land. But we know they not going to let the river run
again, so there's no solution."
Denise Reed, however, proposes doing just that?letting the river run. A
coastal geomorphologist at the University of New Orleans, Reed is convinced
that breaching the levees with a series of gated spillways would pump new
life into the dying marshes. Only three such diversions currently operate
in the state. I catch up with Reed at the most controversial of the lot?a
26-million-dollar culvert just south of New Orleans named Caernarvon.
"Caernarvon is a prototype, a demonstration of a technique," says Reed as we
motor down a muddy canal in a state boat. The diversion isn't filling the
marsh with sediments on a grand scale, she says. But the effect of the
added river water?loaded as it is with fertilizer from farm runoff?is plain
to see. "It turns wetlands hanging on by the fingernails into something
quite lush," says Reed.
To prove her point, she points to banks crowded with slender willows, rafts
of lily pads, and a wide shallow pond that is no longer land, no longer
liquid. More like chocolate pudding. But impressive as the recovering marsh
is, its scale seems dwarfed by the size of the problem. "Restoration is not
trying to make the coast look like a map of 1956," explains Reed. "That's
not even possible. The goal is to restore healthy natural processes, then
live with what you get."
Even that will be hard to do. Caernarvon, for instance, became a political
land mine when releases of fresh water timed to mimic spring floods wiped
out the beds of nearby oyster farmers. The oystermen sued, and last year a
sympathetic judge awarded them a staggering 1.3 billion dollars. The case
threw a major speed bump into restoration efforts.
Other restoration methods?such as rebuilding marshes with dredge spoil and
salt-tolerant plants or trying to stabilize a shoreline that's eroding 30
feet (10 meters) a year?have had limited success. Despite the challenges,
the thought of doing nothing is hard for most southern Louisianans to
swallow. Computer models that project land loss for the next 50 years show
the coast and interior marsh dissolving as if splattered with acid, leaving
only skeletal remnants. Outlying towns such as Shell Beach, Venice, Grand
Isle, and Cocodrie vanish under a sea of blue pixels.
Those who believe diversions are the key to saving Louisiana's coast often
point to the granddaddy of them all: the Atchafalaya River. The major
distributary of the Mississippi River, the Atchafalaya, if left alone,
would soon be the Mississippi River, capturing most of its flow. But to
prevent salt water from creeping farther up the Mississippi and spoiling
the water supply of nearby towns and industries, the Corps of Engineers
allows only a third of the Mississippi's water to flow down the
Atchafalaya. Still, that water and sediment have produced the healthiest
wetlands in Louisiana. The Atchafalaya Delta is one of the few places in
the state that's actually gaining ground instead of losing it. And if you
want to see the delta, you need to go crabbing with Peanut Michel.
"Peanut," it turns out, is a bit of a misnomer. At six foot six and 340
pounds, the 35-year-old commercial fisherman from Morgan City wouldn't look
out of place on the offensive line of the New Orleans Saints. We launch his
aluminum skiff in the predawn light, and soon we're skimming down the
broad, café au lait river toward the newest land in Louisiana. Dense
thickets of needlegrass, flag grass, cut grass, and a big-leafed plant
Michel calls elephant ear crowd the banks, followed closely by bushy wax
myrtles and shaggy willows.
Michel finds his string of crab pots a few miles out in the broad expanse of
Atchafalaya Bay. Even this far from shore the water is barely five feet
deep. As the sun ignites into a blowtorch on the horizon, Michel begins a
well-oiled ritual: grab the bullet-shaped float, shake the wire cube of its
clicking, mottled green inhabitants, bait it with a fish carcass, and toss.
It's done in fluid motions as the boat circles lazily in the water.
But it's a bad day for crabbing. The wind and water are hot, and only a few
crabs dribble in. And yet Michel is happy. Deliriously happy. Because this
is what he wants to do. "They call 'em watermen up in Maryland," he says
with a slight Cajun accent. "They call us lunatics here. You got to be
crazy to be in this business."
Despite Michel's poor haul, Louisiana's wetlands are still a prolific
seafood factory, sustaining a commercial fishery that most years lands more
than 300 million dollars' worth of finfish, shrimp, oysters, crabs, and
other delicacies. How long the stressed marshes can maintain that
production is anybody's guess. In the meantime, Michel keeps at it. "My
grandfather always told me, Don't live to be rich, live to be happy," he
says. And so he does.
After a few hours Michel calls it a day, and we head through the braided
delta, where navigation markers that once stood at the edge of the boat
channel now peek out of the brush 20 feet (six meters) from shore. At every
turn we flush mottled ducks, ibis, and great blue herons. Michel, who works
as a hunting guide during duck season, cracks an enormous grin at the
sight. "When the ducks come down in the winter," he says, "they'll cover
the sun."
To folks like Peanut Michel, the birds, the fish, and the rich coastal
culture are reason enough to save Louisiana's shore, whatever the cost. But
there is another reason, one readily grasped by every American whose way of
life is tethered not to a dock, but to a gas pump: These wetlands protect
one of the most extensive petroleum infrastructures in the nation.
The state's first oil well was punched in south Louisiana in 1901, and the
world's first offshore rig went into operation in the Gulf of Mexico in
1947. During the boom years in the early 1970s, fully half of the state's
budget was derived from petroleum revenues. Though much of the production
has moved into deeper waters, oil and gas wells remain a fixture of the
coast, as ubiquitous as shrimp boats and brown pelicans.
The deep offshore wells now account for nearly a third of all domestic oil
production, while Louisiana's Offshore Oil Port, a series of platforms
anchored 18 miles (29 kilometers) offshore, unloads a nonstop line of
supertankers that deliver up to 15 percent of the nation's foreign oil.
Most of that black gold comes ashore via a maze of pipelines buried in the
Louisiana muck. Numerous refineries, the nation's largest natural gas
pipeline hub, even the Strategic Petroleum Reserve are all protected from
hurricanes and storm surge by Louisiana's vanishing marsh.
You can smell the petrodollars burning at Port Fourchon, the offshore oil
industry's sprawling home port on the central Louisiana coast. Brawny
helicopters shuttle 6,000 workers to the rigs from here each week, while
hundreds of supply boats deliver everything from toilet paper to drinking
water to drilling lube. A thousand trucks a day keep the port humming
around the clock, yet Louisiana 1, the two-lane highway that connects it to
the world, seems to flood every other high tide. During storms the port
becomes an island, which is why port officials like Davie Breaux are
clamoring for the state to build a 17-mile-long (27-kilometer-long)
elevated highway to the port. It's also why Breaux thinks spending 14
billion dollars to save the coast would be a bargain.
"We'll go to war and spend billions of dollars to protect oil and gas
interests overseas,"
Breaux says as he drives his truck past platform anchors the size of
two-story houses. "But here at home?" He shrugs. "Where else you gonna
drill? Not California. Not Florida. Not in ANWR. In Louisiana. I'm third
generation in the oil field. We're not afraid of the industry. We just want
the infrastructure to handle it."
The oil industry has been good to Louisiana, providing low taxes and
high-paying jobs. But such largesse hasn't come without a cost, largely
exacted from coastal wetlands. The most startling impact has only recently
come to light?the effect of oil and gas withdrawal on subsidence rates. For
decades geologists believed that the petroleum deposits were too deep and
the geology of the coast too complex for drilling to have any impact on the
surface. But two years ago former petroleum geologist Bob
Morton, now with the U.S. Geological Survey, noticed that the highest rates
of wetland loss occurred during or just after the period of peak oil and
gas production in the 1970s and early 1980s. After much study, Morton
concluded that the removal of millions of barrels of oil, trillions of
cubic feet of natural gas, and tens of millions of barrels of saline
formation water lying with the petroleum deposits caused a drop in
subsurface pressure?a theory known as regional depressurization. That led
nearby underground faults to slip and the land above them to slump.
"When you stick a straw in a soda and suck on it, everything goes down,"
Morton explains. "That's very simplified, but you get the idea." The
phenomenon isn't new: It was first documented in Texas in 1926 and has been
reported in other oil-producing areas such as the North Sea and Lake
Maracaibo in Venezuela. Morton won't speculate on what percentage of
wetland loss can be pinned on the oil industry. "What I can tell you is
that much of the loss between Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Terrebonne was
caused by induced subsidence from oil and gas withdrawal. The wetlands are
still there, they're just underwater." The area Morton refers to, part of
the Barataria-Terrebonne estuary, has one of the highest rates of wetland
loss in the state.
The oil industry and its consultants dispute Morton's theory, but they've
been unable to disprove it. The implication for restoration is profound. If
production continues to taper off in coastal wetlands, Morton expects
subsidence to return to its natural geologic rate, making restoration
feasible in places. Currently, however, the high price of natural gas has
oil companies swarming over the marshes looking for deep gas reservoirs. If
such fields are tapped, Morton expects regional depressurization to
continue. The upshot for the coast, he explains, is that the state will
have to focus whatever restoration dollars it can muster on areas that can
be saved, not waste them on places that are going to sink no matter what.
A few days after talking with Morton, I'm sitting on the levee in the French
Quarter, enjoying the deep-fried powdery sweetness of a beignet from the
Café du Monde. Joggers lumber by in the torpid heat, while tugs wrestle
their barges up and down the big brown river. For all its enticing
quirkiness, for all its licentious pleasures, for all its geologic
challenges, New Orleans has been luckier than the wetlands that lined its
pockets and stocked its renowned tables. The question is how long Lady Luck
will shine. It brings back something Joe Suhayda, the LSU engineer, had
said during our lunch by Lake Pontchartrain.
"When you look at the broadest perspective, short-term advantages can be
gained by exploiting the environment. But in the long term you're going to
pay for it. Just like you can spend three days drinking in New Orleans and
it'll be fun. But sooner or later you're going to pay."
I finish my beignet and stroll down the levee, succumbing to the hazy, lazy
feel of the city that care forgot, but that nature will not.
Subscribe to National Geographic.
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head
of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May,
Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned
that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an
oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the
federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement
may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of
the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this
country."
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces
he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies
seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael
Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster
management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and
folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is
refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation
and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness
and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and
recovery.
So, FEMA wasn't gutted. It was reorganized.
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding
requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You
would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the
grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction
in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management
chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "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."
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit
areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which
was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson,
Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
Which still left them with over $450 million.
August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion
catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain,
plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day,
and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to
acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a
photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech
in the Rose Garden.
It's telling that your list doesn't bother to mention that Bush
activated disaster area status before the storm hit, and also requested
that National Guard troops from several states be mobilized and
prepositioned.
So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.
Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was
known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was
deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's
conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was
created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
Those functions were moved to another department under DHS.
All in all, a nice example of how the left deceives by omitting key
facts.
--
Xenu is around and about,
mention Hubbard, Xenu pops out!
No way for the clams to stamp Xenu out,
Xenu is around and about!
Cheerful Charlie
.
|
|
|
| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
05 Sep 2005 11:52:40 AM |
|
|
In episode <11hi0aa74bhap06@corp.supernews.com>, WCB burst into the room
and exclaimed:
The enviromentalists have not ever been paid attention to, while the
shitheads always get their ways.
Not to mention it's almost funny (in a tragic sort of way) to see somebody
***** about the "environmentalists" in Louisiana.
When did we get any of those?
Hell, we're the nation's dumping ground. The reason gas prices are so high
is we'll put up with the refineries and the oil spills and all because we
need the money so there are a *lot of them here as other states wouldn't
want them.
And not to mention the levy issues have nothing at all to do with
"environmental" anything. They're all in the *urban* areas. The already
paved and built up areas. That's the point of the damn things, to protect
the *city.
He's pulling ***** out of his ***** so fast now, he's going to rip something
open back there...
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
Alt-atheism website at: http://www.alt-atheism.org
--------------------------------------------------
"Come to think of it, there are already a million
monkeys on a million typewriters, and the Usenet
is NOTHING like Shakespeare!" -- Blair Houghton
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "chibiabos" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 08:34:44 AM |
|
|
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>, Fred
Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown to be
a matter of government responsibility. Reagan proved that when he fired
the striking air traffic controllers, remember?
-chib
--
Member of S.M.A.S.H.
Sarcastic Middle-aged Atheists with a Sense of Humor
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 09:36:47 AM |
|
|
chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in
news:020920050634441797%chib@nospam.com:
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com> wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he
was soooo sorry he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent,
no buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had
to pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had
that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running
vehicle could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no
money left? The government provided no way to do that and there was
no other ways to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown to
be a matter of government responsibility.
Yes, LOCAL government.
Reagan proved that when he
fired the striking air traffic controllers, remember?
Non sequitur.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’ - Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
| User: "chibiabos" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
03 Sep 2005 06:07:17 AM |
|
|
In article <1125671811.7c2a120fb703ac803d038aa6612bbff7@teranews>, Fred
Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in
news:020920050634441797%chib@nospam.com:
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com> wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he
was soooo sorry he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent,
no buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had
to pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had
that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running
vehicle could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no
money left? The government provided no way to do that and there was
no other ways to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown to
be a matter of government responsibility.
Yes, LOCAL government.
Which is why we have the FAA and the DOT, right?
Reagan proved that when he
fired the striking air traffic controllers, remember?
Non sequitur.
A statement that illustrates the point is not a non sequitur.
-chib
--
Member of S.M.A.S.H.
Sarcastic Middle-aged Atheists with a Sense of Humor
.
|
|
|
| User: "Kate " |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
03 Sep 2005 07:38:03 AM |
|
|
On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 04:07:17 -0700, chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote:
In article <1125671811.7c2a120fb703ac803d038aa6612bbff7@teranews>, Fred
Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in
news:020920050634441797%chib@nospam.com:
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com> wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he
was soooo sorry he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent,
no buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had
to pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had
that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running
vehicle could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no
money left? The government provided no way to do that and there was
no other ways to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown to
be a matter of government responsibility.
Yes, LOCAL government.
LOL, I guess it's all a local government responsibility (and who don't
have the resources, duh) only when the repubs ***** up first and the
locals are democrats who went through all the correct procedures.
Let's change the regulations after the fact so we don't look, uh
overwhelmingly murderous in our incompetance.
(and once again Freddie is calling Bush a liar)
Which is why we have the FAA and the DOT, right?
Reagan proved that when he
fired the striking air traffic controllers, remember?
Non sequitur.
A statement that illustrates the point is not a non sequitur.
-chib
Without non sequiturs, Fred would implode.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
03 Sep 2005 09:53:31 AM |
|
|
(Kate ) wrote in
news:4399983e.1252619062@news-west.newscene.com:
On Sat, 03 Sep 2005 04:07:17 -0700, chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote:
In article <1125671811.7c2a120fb703ac803d038aa6612bbff7@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in
news:020920050634441797%chib@nospam.com:
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
(Kate ) wrote in
news:43833f54.1164320250@news- west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com> wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said
he was soooo sorry he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to
rent, no buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately
trying to find anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally
found a cab and had to pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out.
Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running
vehicle could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no
money left? The government provided no way to do that and there
was no other ways to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown
to be a matter of government responsibility.
Yes, LOCAL government.
LOL, I guess it's all a local government responsibility (and who don't
have the resources, duh) only when the repubs ***** up first and the
locals are democrats who went through all the correct procedures.
Sorry, Kate, the local democrats fucked up BIG TIME. The only thing
that's keeping them from being lynched is their Bush-bashing. But that
won't hold up. Once the media orgy wears off the facts will come to
light, and the local authorities in New Orleans will be seen by all as
the incompetent grafters that they are.
Let's change the regulations after the fact so we don't look, uh
overwhelmingly murderous in our incompetance.
(and once again Freddie is calling Bush a liar)
Nope.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’
- Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Fred Stone" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
03 Sep 2005 09:22:05 AM |
|
|
chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in
news:030920050407171652%chib@nospam.com:
In article <1125671811.7c2a120fb703ac803d038aa6612bbff7@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in
news:020920050634441797%chib@nospam.com:
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>,
Fred Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in
news:43833f54.1164320250@news- west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy
<teekem@ispwest.com> wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the
government after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he
was soooo sorry he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to
rent, no buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately
trying to find anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally
found a cab and had to pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out.
Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running
vehicle could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no
money left? The government provided no way to do that and there
was no other ways to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown
to be a matter of government responsibility.
Yes, LOCAL government.
Which is why we have the FAA and the DOT, right?
It's why cities have Mass Transit Authorities.
And somebody archived Mayor Nagin's pre-hurricane comments about
evacuation plans.
http://bushinatree.blogspot.com/2005/09/more-on-mayor.html
As late as Sunday he was saying: "Although the track could change,
forecasters believe Hurricane Katrina will affect New Orleans,” said
Mayor Nagin. “We may call for a voluntary evacuation later this
afternoon or tomorrow morning to coincide with the instatement of
contraflow. This will give people more options to leave the area.
However, citizens need to begin preparing now so they will be ready to
leave when necessary. Do everything to prepare for a regular hurricane,
but treat this one differently because it is headed our way. This is not
a test."
He basically ignored his own city disaster plan.
"Certain hazards, such as a hurricane, provide some lead time for
coordinating an evacuation. However, this can not be considered a
certainty. Plus, the sheer size of an evacuation in response to an
approaching hurricane creates the need for the use of community-wide
warning resources, which cannot be limited to our City's geographical
boundaries. Evacuation of major portions of our population, either in
response to localized or citywide disasters, can only be accomplished if
the citizens and visitors are kept informed of approaching threats on a
timely schedule, and if they are notified of the need to evacuate in a
timely and organized manner. If an evacuation order is issued without
the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected
persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people
either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area
impacted by toxic materials."
Reagan proved that when he
fired the striking air traffic controllers, remember?
Non sequitur.
A statement that illustrates the point is not a non sequitur.
*IF* it illustrates the point.
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
I think if we had a three-word message right now it’d be, ‘We can do
better.’ - Howard Dean
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "WCB" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
02 Sep 2005 09:28:28 PM |
|
|
chibiabos wrote:
In article <1125666873.2b6abd307c42f11907098da57f1b96af@teranews>, Fred
Stone <fstone69@earthling.com> wrote:
cobalt@newscene.com (Kate ) wrote in news:43833f54.1164320250@news-
west.newscene.com:
On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:28:12 -0500, Tim McGaughy <teekem@ispwest.com>
wrote:
stork@storkyak.com wrote:
Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city sooner?
Why didn't people leave when they were told to?
Don't blame the mayor for a city full of morons.
I listened to a freshly ex republican tourist blasting the government
after just evacuating the city yesterday. He said he was soooo sorry
he voted for Bush - twice.
He tried to get out and there was almost no way - no cars to rent, no
buses, nothing. He and his wife were desperately trying to find
anyone or anyway out of the city. They finally found a cab and had to
pay 200 dollars cash to get a ride out. Fortunately they had that.
Just how the ***** do you think a family of 5 with no running vehicle
could afford to leave? At the end of the month and no money left?
The government provided no way to do that and there was no other ways
to do that.
***** you moron.
What was Bush supposed to do about that anyway?
Public transportation, especially in an emergency, has been shown to be
a matter of government responsibility. Reagan proved that when he fired
the striking air traffic controllers, remember?
-chib
I saw a report on FEMA lack of preparedness.
60 Schoolbuses up to their roofs in deep water.
If we had a decent FEMA run by competent people, somebody
would have had all school buses and cities buses fueled
up, ready to go, with drivers and on high ground.
Under Clinton, FEMA had been a can do organization,
reorganized after the hurricane fisaco in Florida
in Bush's last waning days.
Under Bush II, FEMA was gutted, demoted from cabinet level
department, handed over to a cronty of Bush's that hd never
dealt with a disaster, and gutted. It was turned into an
arm of Homeland Defense and its mission changed from
disaster preparedness to anti-terrorism duties. poorly
planned and useless and underfunded at that. Many
good people with 20 - 30 years expertise finally flooded
out of the wounded FEMA, leaving it run by morons
who would not pay attention to experts anyway.
So, thanks to Bush, people are not being exacuated and
70 buses sit up to their roofs in water because Bush
gutted FEMA and left a wounded organization incapable
of doing the deed when it was needed, run by morons.
More incompetence is coming. Under Clinton, a great deal
of care was expended in expanding clean up and aftermath
programs that had been the main source of problems with
FEMA under Bush I. All these programs Clinton, started,
polished and funded are gone. Abolished, destroyed, defunded.
All those, with expertise, who made plans, who knew what
was needed, how to get it there, how to deploy resources and
how to distribute relief are gone. Disbanded and no longer
ready to spring into action.
So its going to be a long, dreary time of it since there is no
planning, no organization, no experts, no many years of
experience, no support, no budget, not infrastructure anymore.
Bush II strikes again with assistance from the GOP Congress.
The GOP congress just voted $10 billion in aid,
but there is no immediate mechanism to channel that into
real and effective immediate help. And you can bet the farm
that when it does start flowing, a lot of it is going into pockets
of scummy GOP cronies.
You watch.
--
Xenu is around and about,
mention Hubbard, Xenu pops out!
No way for the clams to stamp Xenu out,
Xenu is around and about!
Cheerful Charlie
.
|
|
|
| User: "Well Done" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
03 Sep 2005 04:23:51 PM |
|
|
Just another ignorant Bush-hating fool (WCB
<wbarwell@Mungggedd.mylinuxisp.com>) wrote:
<snip>
Under Bush II, FEMA was gutted, demoted from cabinet level
department, handed over to a cronty of Bush's that hd never
dealt with a disaster, and gutted.
<snip>
Cite. You have NO CLUE, do you? No clue at all.
This disaster is unprecedented. This is the type of disaster where,
if you send in rescuers immediately, you end up having to RESCUE THE
RESCUERS. Assholes like you are part of the problem. *****.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
05 Sep 2005 11:54:26 AM |
|
|
In episode <kv4kh1tgaq5m8nojji7fndd3pqamb4d92e@4ax.com>, Well Done burst
into the room and exclaimed:
Just another ignorant Bush-hating fool (WCB
<wbarwell@Mungggedd.mylinuxisp.com>) wrote: <snip>
Under Bush II, FEMA was gutted, demoted from cabinet level department,
handed over to a cronty of Bush's that hd never dealt with a disaster,
and gutted.
<snip>
Cite. You have NO CLUE, do you? No clue at all. This disaster is
unprecedented. This is the type of disaster where, if you send in
rescuers immediately, you end up having to RESCUE THE RESCUERS. Assholes
like you are part of the problem. *****.
This is one of the top four most studied disasters in the history of the
US. We knew what was coming. We knew what to do. Down here, we did *our
part. FEMA was busy doing org charts.
You *****.
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
Alt-atheism website at: http://www.alt-atheism.org
--------------------------------------------------
"Come to think of it, there are already a million
monkeys on a million typewriters, and the Usenet
is NOTHING like Shakespeare!" -- Blair Houghton
.
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
05 Sep 2005 12:04:04 PM |
|
|
I have never seen FEMA involved in evacuation of any areas prior to a
hurricane. Has anyone else? FEMA has no authority to get buses that
the city of New Orleans owns and controls moving to ferry out the poor
people before the storm hit. Those hundreds of buses that could have
been used to move the poor were the direct responsibility of NO Mayor
Nagin. The same guy who's now a big crybaby, whaaaah, everything is
awful, whhhahh, we need 500 buses. The use of school buses is even
included in their own NO hurricane evacuation plan. A plan that is
woefully inadequate. It identifies that 100K+ people would need
transportation help to be evacuated and at the same time it fails to
address key things like whre exactly the people without transportation
were to be sent, who would order the buses into operation, etc.
When the dust settles, its going to become obvious that the really big
failures here were the result of NAgin and Blanco. Blano didn't even
declare martial law unitl Thur. What a total bunch of bufoons!
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "WCB" |
|
| Title: Re: Looters Running Rampant IN New Orleans- Where is the National Guard?! |
04 Sep 2005 06:56:48 AM |
|
|
Well Done wrote:
Just another ignorant Bush-hating fool (WCB
<wbarwell@Mungggedd.mylinuxisp.com>) wrote:
<snip>
Under Bush II, FEMA was gutted, demoted from cabinet level
department, handed over to a cronty of Bush's that hd never
dealt with a disaster, and gutted.
<snip>
Cite.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/
CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA
and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush
administration. Read it and weep:
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head
of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May,
Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned
that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an
oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the
federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement
may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of
the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this
country."
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces
he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies
seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael
Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster
management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and
folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is
refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation
and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness
and Response. FEMA will | | | | | | | | | |
