No one is blaming the government for the hurricane. We're blaming the government for the sorry response to the PREDICTABLE aftermath of the hurricane. I'm sorry but a major US city turning into a scene from a Mad Max movie is totally inexcusable. We're supposed to be better than this. And yes, the armed thugs roaming the city are despicable but that doesn't absolve the government of any blame. If you accidentally started a grease fire on your stove, then called the fire department only to have them arrive a week later after your house had burned to the ground, would you be angry at the fire department or would you just accept it because you started the grease fire? My point is that the majority of the people who are suffering are good law abiding citizens. They deserve better than being ABANDONED by their own government because of a few scumbags with guns.
Speaking of people having to depend on eachother, I saw a video on CNNs site, it supposed to be a guy calling in from inside the Convention Center and when he was asked about the thugs with guns who were supposed to be running the show, he claimed that the people inside banded together and forced them out, who have these people failed? It only takes a few to cause the problems they are having and since the initial response was severely lacking, those few thugs who could have been stopped with an appropriate response are currently overwhelming the people who are there.
The levy situation and hurricane preparedness in NO has been ignored for many, many years. Bush is the most recent to sweep it under the rug. He was the latest to do nothing but take away the resources to try and do something. He wasn't the first, but he was the last. He didn't even try. That makes him mighty responsible. If he made had made an effort and showed some attentiveness nobody could lay blame on him. Bush said it wasn't expected. He really couldn't of meant that, could he?
Whose pocket has all the money we've been dumping into the Department of Homeland Security been going into?
http://www.wissenschaft-online.de/spektrum/pdf/frei/FISCHETTI_NewOrl.pdf This is an article from a German science magazine from February 2005. I know most probably cannot understand the article, but I am quite shocked by how precisely everything that then actually happened was predicted by scientists.
It's true that the people have failed us, but they're not the only ones. An excerpt from an editorial in the times that was a bit shocking to me: Seems like a failure to me. In the days leading up to the storm hitting, there were tons of stories, like "Katrina will likely be one of the strongest storms ever to hit the gulf coast", etc.. It was obvious this was going to be a huge thing. Why didn't the government start preparing relief right then? The relief supplies should have been coming in right away. In the weeks and months leading up, government agencies knew the risks, and had talked about it at length (see this article for a story on FEMA specifically discussing the possiblity of NO flooding- it's in the nytimes, registration or bugmenot required). A lot of talk, no action. Here is another article that talks about predictions of a hurricane disaster in New Orleans. Here's the start of the article: good question. While Krugman is obviously a strongly left-leaning writer, he makes some excellent points. The Houston Chronicle was able to guess that this scenario would be a huge disaster, why wasn't the government? Oh wait, they did. So if they had been discussing this for so long, if they knew the possibilities, why did things turn out so badly? Because they failed. You can't possibly tell me that the government response has been as strong or quick to come as it should have been. Granted, the people we are reading about make things tougher, but that doesn't let the government off the hook. This is a non-partisan issue for me, I'm not bashing the Bush administration specifically. In the years leading up, it has come out now that government funding for the levees and other infrastructure projects in the area had been steadily cut for quite some time. There was a story in the times about how the Army corps of engineers had been complaining about the lack of funding for the maintenance of the levees for some time. It's mentioned in the second article linked above, but I can't find the original article. The point is, it seems that the budget cuts for these types of things go back further than the Bush administration. If this is true, the Clinton administration takes a but of blame here as well. The state and local governments also have a part in it. To me, the whole thing makes me (and many others) ask, if the government can't do better than this, what good is it?
that's exactly the point ima. this is not a partisan issue, it's a matter of competence. when giuliani, who i detested prior to 911, stepped up to the plate, i gained tremendous respect for him. he was everywhere all the time and was a reassuring prescence at a time of dire need. i heard bush this morning and he sounded irritated that he had such a messy distraction to deal with. there is simply nothing more important than what's happening down there. we need our government's undivided attention and prompt action... yesterday.
what news programs are you watching? It seems to me like there's no organization at all. When I first read "aid bombardment with no organization", I thought you were talking about what's actually been happening. Although it seems to be more of a light pelting so far, rather than an actual bombardment.
im also sick and tired of people making the looting and such such a big deal. its expected. it always happens. no one is defending people who are shooting at rescue workers. but give me a break. the best military in the history of mankind should be able to deal with a couple psychos and wannabe 'militias' shouldn't they? that shouldn't be an excuse to let thousands of people drown and die out of dehydration. that shouldnt be an excuse to let dead bodies lie around the superdome with tens of thousands of people waiting to leave that hellhole.
No, not at all. What I'm saying is that with all the money we have poured into the Department of Homeland Security, the events of the past few days prove that this country is no better prepared for responding to a disaster, natural or manmade, than it was on September 10th, 2001. Where has all the money gone? Why are we not better prepared? These are questions George W. Bush should answer, but doesn't have the guts to answer.
National Guard general faces tough questions By CINDY HORSWELL Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. — Sent to assess the devastation for President Bush, a ranking National Guard general faced a tough question first thing this morning: Four days after Hurricane Katrina left behind catastrophe and chaos in the New Orleans area, why are residents there still dying? "I don't know," answered a grim-faced Lt. Gen. Steven Blum. "That's why I'm down here, to assess things." Blum told reporters that 7,000 Guard troops mustered from around the nation would be in the state by Saturday, and that a group of 1,000 soldiers was headed in from Puerto Rico. He said the troops would arrive with their own food, water and fuel instead of relying on dwindling stocks in the local area. He also stressed that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco remains in charge, and that the Guard has no interest in taking over from civilian authorities. (what civilian authorities???) But local authorities are growing increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the federal response. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on CNN today lashed out at federal authorities and accused them of "thinking small." "I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming. That is coming," Nagin is quoted as saying. "My answer to that is, 'B.S. Where is the beef?'" In Baton Rouge, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Houma, La., reported seeing more than 100 dead in a tour of the devastated St. Bernard Parish south of New Orleans on Thursday. He said he was frustrated that they had died not from the storm, but from its aftermath. Melancon said there were 1,500 evacuees at the Chalmette Slip. They'd been brought there from rooftops and other precarious locations, but many had died awaiting further evacuation. "Dehydration, exhaustion, heart attacks," he said late Friday night. "There's no coroner's reports. They're just dead." Melancon also worried that as New Orleans generated so much alarm and attention, residents in the hard-hit southern parishes, such as St. Bernard and Plaquemines, would be left short. "They're losing the only thing they have left, which is hope," he said. Blum said this morning that, "You cannot be everywhere all the time. Not enough police and soldiers to do it. We have to concentrate our forces where the need is greatest." He said the top priority of the arriving Guard troops will be to stabilize the situation around the New Orleans Convention Center, where thousands of people still await evacuation and where several deaths have already occurred. He said they will try to avoid using lethal force. "We're going to put a significant number of soldiers there as a show of force," Blum said. " ... We're going to get order, discipline and control." Blum said the Guardsmen will do more than provide security, however. They will distribute of supplies and assist with transportation and rescue operations. LINK An unprecedented error in judgement by our government.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, facing blistering criticism for his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday "the results are not acceptable" and pledged to bolster relief efforts with a personal trip to the Gulf Coast. "We'll get on top of this situation," Bush said, "and we're going to help the people that need help." link to article straight from the horse's mouth. I think a fair translation of this would be: we have failed so far, but we're gonna try harder to get things right from here on in.
This is what I've been wondering. If this is the best response that our government can muster when we knew that somebody somewhere was gonna need help I'm really concerned. I mean, OK, maybe we didn't know NO was gonna turn into a soup bowl, but a Cat 4-5 hurricane was gonna hit the coast. Somebody was gonna need relief. Get organized get the ships and trucks loaded and ready to go. Call back the personnel off vacation. BE READY! What if this was and insurgent attack. Someone blows up a dirty nuke in NO. Could you imagine how many more would be dead from radiation poisoning while the victims waited for relief?
I know people who work directly and/or indirectly with the department of homeland security. You would be amazed what a colossal waste of money it is.
Well gee thanks for cutting your 5 week vacation short to do your job. According to the article refrenced above he has spent nearly 20% of his presidency in Crawford. Thats not including the time he has spent at Camp David.
What do you think Californians try to do as preparation? Add fortifications to bridges? Buildings? Okay, now what should Louisianans do? Where should they get the financial means to do so? Preparation *is* possible. How anyone can claim that you don't do your best beforehand is beyond me. In this case, that clearly didn't happen.
i don't understand why the government did'nt drop food/water and aid near the Superdome...as a first step....there were so many people there.
Yeah, my German comprehension is not that great but it's pretty spooky how accurate this article is. I guess this (and the many other reports and studies like it) are why since Sunday evening (before the storm even hit) I've just been disgusted with how unprepared our country has been for this. I had posted in the Hangout thread even Sunday night about how unacceptable it was for authorities not to have had elaborate plans in place to even attempt an evacuation of residents who didn't have cars. I mean if this storm had not weakened and veered east in the last few hours before making landfall, we would be discussing the 50,000+ instant deaths on this board right now. It is so painful to know that your own government would just leave 100,000 fellow Americans behind to die in this exact scenario that meteorologists were forecasting leading up to the storm. I am sure it would be equally unfathomable for you to imagine German authorities simply deeming tens of thousands of its people as arbitrary and non-essential.
