I am curious to know why they had so many empty buses back when they called for an evacuation, but also I haven't heard if they had places to take them set up or not?? And if it was just the one particular dome that was under water itself? I am more interested in the facts and how to avoid this kind of problem then trying to point the finger. (I don't mind prosecuting any corrupt officials who may have spent the funds that were meant to strengthen the levies, etc.. too.)
Apparently someone took my sarcasm seriously and left a red rep saying I am clueless about the plight of the poor in New Orleans. Trust me, I'm not clueless. My sarcastic post was meant to show that people didn't have the money to leave, contrary to Wills assertion that they should have "saved some money so they could get out of there"
I've gotten one red and one green from this thread. One asshat reminded me of the Posse Comitatus Act, which says (in part): What I said was: Nowhere did I say anything about "the military enforcing civilian law" (which is what the comment with the red rep says). So... Whoever you are who left me the red rep - next time read the thread before passing judgement, knucklehead.
On opinion threads I will red rep someone when they are being a complete jerk towards someone or trying to put words in their mouth by rewording what was stated. Besides that an opinion doesn't deserve a red rep. - Back on subject so as not to turn this into a YART-
Who cares about red rep, it is usually used by those that can not argue intelligently. I got a red rep with comment : "this red approved by FEMA" because I quoted from FEMA web site that they were the one who were responsible.
That is actually a mis-quote. My comment was pointing out that if they had left town when they were told to, it would have been less expensive than rescue helicopters.
Except that you are making an enormous logical error. The money we are spending in Iraq is from the Federal budget. The money which should be spent on improving local levees in New Orleans is from the city, county, or state budgets. Sorry, I know that people do not like to be corrected.
Will, I think it will be good that you start to learn about the subject before starting to correct the others. "Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. " "In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness. On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "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. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune: "The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them." The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain." The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22: "That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said." Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? Nearly 2000 soldiers dead, possibly over 10,000 dead in New Orleans, the question is how many Americans need to die, so few people can make profit?
Yes. To MYSELF and to my INSURANCE COMPANY. I wouldn't be whining at the Federal government for help, or claiming that GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T LIKE IRISH PEOPLE. Actually, the exact opposite. I grew up poor enough that we seldom had furniture in the house and I do know from first hand experience what it is like not to eat because you just don't have the money. What I did have was personal responsibility, which is worth more than all of the money in the world. And, with that personal responsibility, I built two successful companies and now I am (to borrow a phrase) "middle to upper class". No offense taken, as you were so far off the mark you made me chuckle. I never finished high-school. I tried college a few times, but never saw the value in it. All but a few of my professors seemed as if they would be completely and totally lost in the real world. Two of those were part-time professionals who only taught one class. The third was an econ professor who was terminated for what I would call "academic excellence". Wrong again. I love my roots. They gave me the strength and the determination to get me where I am today. Being poor is a great place to start and a horrible place to finish. My Democrats I know are rich mommas boys who have never had to wonder where their next meal would come from. They sympathise with poor people, but they don't understand poor people. I do understand poor people. I've been one and I've worked with many more. I've spent many hours working with people in homeless shelters and soup kitchens. I've invited homeless people into my home to live until they could get on their feet. I understand poor people. I do not have an equally good understanding of "dumb people". Perhaps that why I'm not grasping the behavior of a lot of liberals during this storm. If I was facing a hurricane, my first thought would not be How will George Bush save me from this storm?
The fact that the politicians in Louisiana have been able to misappropriate Federal taxpayer funds in the past does not in any way make it correct. In effect, you completely changed topics without realizing it. Please re-read my post and re-evaluate your hidden assumptions. If anything, you are proving that what we have done wrong is to give Louisana any Federal funds for their levees in the past, because this led the people of Louisana to believe that their own lives were not their own responsibility but were instead somehow the responsibility of someone in Washington D.C.
It seems government has no problem with collecting federal taxes and using the state resources in the war and the problem only starts when they have to take care of their responsibilities. Why do you need FEMA for, just to provide employment for Bush friends who get fired from horse organizations?
but if you are surrounded by water ( or fire in the case of the meteor) with no phone service, you will probably need someone else first, I don't understand how someone with any grasp of reality can think that all of those people just volunteered to stay
FEMA has always been a joke. It's just another Federal welfare program. It doesn't matter who is giving out posts to their friends, Bush, Clinton, LBJ, Nixon, Kennedy -- it's all just a bunch of folks taking money from the pockets of the American taxpayer and using that money to pay off their friends. Honestly, do you think that politics just started happening when George Bush was elected? Please... it is amazing that the liberal establishment can speak that ignorant rhetoric with a straight face. Their record is even worse than the Republicans!
Yes, and when I look for that helping hand, I'll start by looking at the end of my own arm. And yet, if you look at the facts, that is exactly what happened. It's not the choice you or I would make, so the logical (and incorrect) assumption is that no one would make that choice. The trouble with liberals is that they do not understand poor people. Even if the incompetent New Orleans mayor had not refused to use city buses and school buses to evacuate residents, those people still would not have evacuated when they should have.
Those people had no money and no where to go, there was no public transportaion, how were they going anywhere, if you have no money, where do they choose to go. I mean sure people could have sold their possessions or something to get the ride out, but come on ... and if people arn't as self reliant or as smart as you Will then they deserve nothing, right will ....
Hey ferret77, my garage is dirty. Will you come over and clean it for me? I'm awfully tired and I really can't do it myself.
yeah I'll bring some homeless people so you can have sleep over and we can all go the the soup kitchen afterwards
Why there was no public transportation available between Friday and Sunday is a question lots of people are asking. They are asking why the local and state did not execute their disaster plan. http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSupplement1a.pdf Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00 The school buses referenced: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015 Photo only covers the school buses, not the public buses. Approximately 500 buses in total could have been used, but were not. Why?