Posted on 09/02/2005 12:29:42 PM PDT by joinedafterattack
WHY DIDN'T YOU DEPLOY THE BUSES, MAYOR?... New Orleans Lost Opportunity
WHY DIDN'T YOU DEPLOY THE BUSES, MAYOR?...
"It's the Lord, Nagin..."
ping
The photo illustrates the incompetence of the city and state government in LA and NO. Those are the people who never had a plan to evacuate people- they know they have tons of people in the city without cars- why did they not have a plan to evacuate people without cars and take them to the superdome??? They left those buses empty and unused-that is why the fuss is about the photo.
Slow witted People with half a brain should not be in position of authority-but for some reason the democrats keep electing them.
Shep thought by over acting his role there in N.O he'd be a sure winner of the coveted Walter Cronkite award! Sickening!
Well, who knows? Brainy liberals have only had decades to plan such a simple thing. But when push comes to shove, oddly enough, the wonderful geniuses seem to miss the most obvious things.
It's odd, isn't it, how they can spew endlessly about their vaunted intelligence and moral sensitivity, but somehow they never, ever actually to do anything even remotely intelligent. I mean, they've only had decades and many billions of dollars to plan for such paltry, simple things as food, shelter, and a place to go to the bathroom.
As I said in the Presidential live thread from this morning, the mayor is too busy talking to the a-holes at CNN to be bothering with any leadership, and people wonder why he's out of the loop.
New Orleans has, quite literally, been turned inside out, and America has had some of its most terrible national vulnerabilities exposed for the world to see. Our enemies are taking notes. We better be taking some notes, too.
It will be more difficult for people to ignore explicit hurricane warnings for at least a generation, so harping on the accuracy of the National Hurricane Centers predictions of what would happen when this storm came ashore is pointless. Whether this renewed respect for the National Weather Service is transferable to the other agencies we pay to warn us remains to be seen.
The chattering classes have also had thrust upon them an unnerving look at Americas urban underclass, washed out from behind the curtain and shaken out on the living room floor. Thats the same New Orleans that was always there, by the way. Its just been turned inside out. Its not a pretty picture.
Among the working poor came the gangs and the addicts and all that they could carry through the floodwaters, and now they are angry, we are being told. They were angry before, of course, but now they are storm victims, with all the attendant trauma and dumbfounded astonishment that accompanies that unhappy state of mind and being.
A lot of people watching from a distance are angry for them, some with some sort of bizarre guilt and misdirected anger less for the victims, I would imagine, than for some sense that somebody, somewhere, has made a terrible mistake.
But this is not Chernobyl. A lot of people made a choice to be, or just happened to be, in the wrong place at the wrong time and lightning struck. There is plenty of the uniquely human kind of outrageous stupidity to go around, but FEMA isn't the problem.
Unless, of course, governments tend to foster dependence. Afterall, FEMA's original primary mission is COG, or "Continuity of Government," not search and rescue.
In Mississippi and Alabama, where the largest storm surge ever recorded has swept away whole communities and families, there is anger too. Anyone who has ever sat upon the ground in the stillness of the ruins after these storms understands how it feels to have the startlingly thin veneer of modern civilization ripped away. Patience does eventually transform to discomfort and then to fear, which manifests itself as anger as first the hours, then the days and then the weeks pass by and the illusion of self-sufficiency brings both humility and humiliation.
All the anger is useless, of course, but reason gives way at times like these. Its important, however, all the more to rely on reason. Especially by all of us who are trying to help. It is reasonable, for example, to understand that nature is not your mother and government is not your father.
The 1900 Galveston Hurricane began the transformation of the National Weather Bureau from a meteorological survey into something that gives people warning of the impending arrival of killer storms. Hurricane Andrew in 1992 demonstrated the value of building codes and satellites, but it also showed the powerlessness of government to come to the aid of the storms victims in a timely fashion.
Were going to learn a lot from Katrina. Not all of it will be welcome. None of it will be pretty.
If this is a preview of how Americas governments are prepared to react in the aftermath of a nuclear attack on a single city, for example, in a scenario more likely than a wholesale nuclear war these days, then this dress rehearsal is not very encouraging. Some of those problems, now exposed for our enemies to see, may be beyond fixing until long after its too late.
Andrew taught the federal government to preposition relief supplies and reduce response and rescue time by many days, but thats not going to be good enough for some people.
For others, it begs the question of what would be good enough?
It demonstrates the stark reality that people, families, and communities need to prepare to take care of themselves for some reasonable period of time before disaster strikes. And I dont mean by buying flood insurance.
Katrina is going to teach us a lot about New Orleans, and New Orleans will show us how quickly local governments, and then state governments, can simply collapse. In comparison to the magnitude of a such a vast and powerful storm, governments are simply frauds, and always were, and the indulgence of their constituents alone keeps them afloat.
This disaster has exposed a People who are too dependent on government and who become helpless when government staggers. It has exposed one of many of Americas Great Cities who have among their people some who will immediately turn on authorities when the support they voted to support fails, even momentarily.
For Americans to rely upon one another, we must also be able to rely on ourselves. As anyone who takes on the responsibility of being a part of a family knows, you cant help others when you cant help yourself.
I swear, every time I read a post about the mayor, he's on CNN "ranting".
No he needs to take it back to if not Carter and Clinton, to Moon Landrieu, corrupt mayor and father of Sen. Mary Landrieu and Mitch Landrieu... Who didn't factor in installation costs in his disaster windfall before, hence didn't install the pumps and kept them at a family's members company. If they want to go there, let them... we're really.
Let the church say Amen.
Well in Africa they rape children....
The Gov, the head of their state homeland security, the mayor, and many others knew the levees were built to withstand a cat 3 hurricane. In the face of a pending cat 4/5 heading at their levees, they did not force the evacuation when they had the means to do so. That is only one of their many mistakes.
Um, let's see. NOLA is under sea level to begin with, there's a Cat5 storm bearing straight on for NOLA, a mandatory evac is ordered, and the buses are left parked in a lot that flooded. Maybe some FORESIGHT on the part of the Mayor and Governor could have utilitized these better. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but foresight is the responsibility of our elected leaders.
Sure, try to blame it on the victim!
George Bush and Halliburton own those buses!
Has to be! Has to be!
It's all Bush's fault!
/outraged lefty voice
Racist punk.
Shut up.
What sticks out is he said "I'm not a drug addict", hence, he is a drug addict. I guess if he wasn't he is now.
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