Posted on 09/02/2005 6:20:49 PM PDT by HAL9000
Uh oh, here comes the "ad hominem projection."
You can only whine and fight...because you do not have the bigness (magnanimity) to reach out.
Take the low road, it knows you. And you know it!
Jeb Bush has been through numerous hurricanes in one season, yet he's right there on the ball and in charge. The clean up moves right along. This time, my gosh, the President of the United States himself had to go down there to get things done. The governor hasn't done a darn thing down there but bitch and moan about it. That's it.
You can only whine and fight...because you do not have the bigness (magnanimity) to reach out.
Take the low road, it knows you. And you know it!
Or having 10,000 refugees inundating the first town on the other side, pillaging and looting.
I mean, the next town over had to have had major damage as well, and they are just trying to recover. Better to keep the rioting confined?
Of course, the vast majority of these people would be fine. But a few rioters and looters, a few people shooting police and the rescue workers, and somehow people get a little nervous about letting you in.
Seriously, it would be much better to get these people food and water where they are.
I can't help but think that a couple of days were lost before N.O and the rest of La. made it clear to FEMA that contrary to their plans they had no staging, no food and water, no process to feed people. That had to be a shock to FEMA, who has sent millions to N.O. and other cities for them to develop such a plan.
Doubly so since N.O. had a history of water damage, required a levy and constant source of power to pump water to keep from being completely flooded, and was always one hurricane away from total annihalation.
If I ran a city like that, And was told 3 days in advance to stage assistance, I would think I'd have a few days of food and water at the major collection points (the places I told people to go).
I'm shocked they didn't, I bet FEMA is shocked they didn't. It's like your daughter asks you to help her with her report, and when you get there it's the last day and she hasn't started yet.
I hope that this doesn't lead people to call for the Federal Government to take over the disaster recovery plans for every city in this country. Each city knows its people, laws, police, fire, and rescue personell, equipment, and capabilities.
I ask all of you -- knowing that N.O. successfully runs Mardi Gras each year, would you have thought that they couldn't provide food/water for 20,000 people for 4 days?
We know better now. And I don't really care if Bush gets blamed for it, nor I presume does he. He wants to fix the problem, not fix blame for the problem.
You can answer for yourself whether the N.O. Mayor was more interested in fixing the problem or fixing blame by the fact that he spent 4 days telling people to go places where he had no help for them, promising them buses he let drown in a parking lot, and blaming the federal government for not saving his city within 2 days.
Pet Peeve -- Geraldo saying that it was over 6 days since the disaster. MSNBC has a clock so I presume their corresppondence don't make the same mistake (4 days 14 hours).
Valenti and her husband, two of very few white people in the almost exclusively black refugee camp, said she and other whites were threatened with murder on Thursday.
"They hated us. Four young black men told us the buses were going to come last night and pick up the elderly so they were going to kill us," she said, sobbing. "They were plotting to murder us and then they sent the buses away because we would all be killed if the buses came -- that's what the people in charge told us this morning."
Other survivors recounted horrific cases of sexual assault and murder. Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping and murdering children.
She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the convention center.
"She was raped for four hours until she was dead," Joseph said through tears. "Another child, a seven-year old boy was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night."
Being evacuated to your city - courtesy of the FedGov!!
DS
There was a great contrast between N.O. and Mississippi. They showed a guy from MS. talking about what they were doing. They got looters under control it seems, and they said they got a lot of calls but mostly they were false alarms. He sounded in charge, in command, and like they knew what was happening and could send help wherever it was needed.
Meanwhile in N.O., Fox has two correspondents who look like they need a break, surrounded by what they say is horrific disaster. And I'm sure it is, but the people they interview look OK, they certainly don't look like they haven't had water for 3 days. The baby cried when Geraldo took him, and fussed quite a bit.
But the big thing is that nobody had any idea what was going on, nobody seemed to know where to send people.
The difference is that in MS. they apparently had State resources set up to handle disaster, while in N.O. they seem to have spent all their money on parties.
Sorry for any insult. DS
You forgot the 'Firehydrant Barf Aert.'
Thx Steve and God bless!!!
The levy was designed to withstand a class 3 hurricane. This one was a 5. No one knew what would happen, and I'm surprised the states that got hit didn't scramble to make sure their people got out. There were warnings way ahead of time. What about all the school and travel buses? Why didn't they start gathering people down there and shipping them out to safety? I don't understand why the heck they have so many people there at all. Why are they even there? The state government didn't do anything at all to help anyone get out, even though they knew the levy could break.
I think there were old infirmed people who have died. Some from heat, some from dehydration.
I imagine there was enough food and water there, but if you didn't have the means to actively seek it, there probably wasn't anybody who was going to take care of you.
This reminds me of the 15,000 people who died of heat in France a couple of years ago.
"The Category 5 'Rat onslaught against the GOP has begun. Whichever GOPers can't see it will be swept away in its aftermath."
The Pubbies had better respond in kind. Take the gloves off and put on the brass knuckles, because the flood tide of lies from the 'Rats will be colossal.
Bingo.
"What's being done to filter out the criminal elements before they ship them up here to Texas?"
That is a question that has been gnawing at me also. Plenty of them are moving into Arkansas, too. It makes me really angry that good, decent people who want to help innocent victims, could very well be victimized themselves because they have no way of knowing which are the innocent and which are the scum-sucking crimanl opportunists.
Excellent catch.
Of course, there is the "send us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be fed".
They have no hesitation readily to make it up as they go along. I never credit any quotation reported in the media unless I have corroboration or hear it myself. They simply lie freely and with abandon any more.
The buses are all ready for school to start. Wouldn't want to take a chance messing them up using them to evacuate people who would just have to be brought back after the storm missed.
And they'd all be mad at you, the mayor. Can't have that, because being mayor of N.O. is a pretty good job.
Just so. Crisis does not alter one's character, for good or ill; it simply reveals it for all to see.
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