Hurricane Katrina

Re: Round 2

EDIT: actually re reading it, so you're saying the situation is actually worse?

 

Re: Round 2

The reality is always worse than the numbers indicate because of the way they get their data as I mentioned. Canada plays the same game, its retarted but there you go.

GE

 

Katrina

PD, I think you miss the point.

In the U.S., our leaders generally do not care about doing things that will help Americans as much as they care about doing things that help themselves and their wealthy campaign contributors and friends. This is doubly true of Republicans, though I won't say that Democrats are all selfless public serveants.

You mention Lixemborg's low child-poverty rate as though it weakens my argument. Well, the truth is that mighty Luxemborg also spends more money on domestic welfare programs than the U.S. as well.

We could easily address domestic poverty and education as well as triple our foreign aid budget. We have the cash. We just don't have the leaders and the collective national consciousness for the job.

Hurricane Katrina provides a great example of how corrupt and heartless Washington can be. People have known for years that there was a serious likelihood that a huge storm would hit New Orleans and the area was not prepared. A project to revamp the levee system was halted because the gov't could not come up with $2 million to finish the job.

In what I believe was the last transportation bill to go through congress, $350 million dollars was alloted for the construction of a bridge in Alaska that will conect the mainland to an island with fifty residents. Alaska has an influential Republican Senator you see. Who are the people left in New Olreans? A lot of poor, uneducated black people. Not people who will be buying plates at a $20,000 a plate, black tie, Republican fund-raising event.

And yes, the U.S. is the stingiest nation in giving out foreign aid. When you control for population we are the stingiest rich nation on the planet. There was nothing wrong with any of the charts I linked to. There has not been a dramatic change in our level of aid to the third world.

As small as our commitment to foreign aid is, it is worsened by the fact that vast vast majority goes to Israel and Egypt and not to the neediest nations on Earth. This is indefensible. So is our own poverty level, considering we are the richest nation on Earth. We should be ashamed of both. Our stinginess with our own poor pepole does not excuse us,however. That is merely another indictment. I am going to try not to argue this point anymore because there is not much more to be said at this point.

Here is a brief article about the Bush Administration and the current crisis. It is from the Washington Monthly (not a Republican friendly site, but I believe the article is accurate).

September 1, 2005
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.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

 

Re: Katrina

[ QUOTE ]
SgtRamrod said:

No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year,

[/ QUOTE ]

hmmm. if there was even an inkling that a hurricane was gonna hit where i live, no matter how small, id be running for the hills. or in n'orleans case, getting ready. i dont wanna act like i know everything, but dont you think n'orleans could have prepared a bit for it instead of waiting it out?

 

Re: Katrina

Just like to say best wishes to the family and friends out there,hope ya guys get out

 

Katrina

That is a quote from the story I pasted on my post, by the way.

Of course most sensible people who could, did flee the city. So who was left behind? Look at the news reels. The very poor, mostly black, under-under class represent most of the people left behind. I think that many did not have the means to flee. To leave would have required transportation, money for lodging and/or relatives or friends that a family could go to. Believe it or not, a lot of people just don't have those things, especially in an area of concentrated urban poverty.

I think that as a British person, you may not understand the extent of the poverty and backwardness of New Orleans. Some of the roughest neighborhoods in the U.S. are in New Orleans. It's the residents of these neighborhoods that we are mostly seeing on the news.

This entire episode should make the whole country ashamed on many levels- for letting this kind of poverty persist decade after decade, for not commiting the money and the brainpower to dealing with problems they were well-aware of, for not responding with due dilligence once the extent of the destruction was known...

I'm giving money to a relief organization, but I know that my gift is largely symbolic since I am not exactly flush with cash. People, please do what ever you can do- not because I say so of course, but because if you or I can pay hundreds of dollars for, say, imported Japanese fighting sticks over the years, we can each spare a few bucks for these people.

 

Re: Katrina

damn. i didnt realsie how fucked up it was.

what kind of future do you think n'orleans has afteer this?

can people rebuild or just emigrate to another state?

 

Re: Katrina

[ QUOTE ]
KS_Vanessa said:

damn. i didnt realsie how fucked up it was.

what kind of future do you think n'orleans has afteer this?

can people rebuild or just emigrate to another state?

[/ QUOTE ]

It is very bleak. New Orleans is 80% flooded. Some areas as high as 20'. There are helicopter pickups for residents stuck on their rooftops. They have taken several bus loads of people to as far as 350 miles away for shelter. Its going to take months to pump the water out. They fear they thousands dead.

Biloxi, MS was another hard hit city. I've seen pics of an entire apartment complex blown off its foundation.

 

Re: Katrina

[ QUOTE ]
can people rebuild or just emigrate to another state?

[/ QUOTE ]

After Hurricane Betsy in 1965 there was a huge movement of people out of New Orleans...they either moved north across Lake Ponchartrain to St. Tammany Parish & kept their jobs in NOLA or else moved further away to places like Baton Rouge or Southwest Mississippi and found new employment. This movement was essentially concurrent with the already widespread "white flight" that happened in many American cities in the middle of the last century. My grandparents, for instance, had only just purchased 100 acres in Covington (St. Tammany Parish) when Hurricane Betsy came up the mouth of the Mississippi...As my dad tells the story, they had purchased 100 wooded acres before the Hurricane and he was woken from sleep at 6am the morning of his 13th birthday (only a couple weeks after Betsy hit) to the sound of his birthday present--a brand spanking new chainsaw.

We'll likely see another exodus from New Orleans. I just don't see how someone could harbor a sense of trust in their home when its being is so transitory. Already some major employers have begun relocating to Baton Rouge and officials here estimate that our city will probably double (from about 350,000 to 700,000) as a result of all this. Right now there are no apartments available in the city (none...a week ago landlords were stepping over themselves to get people to rent & there was too much property unoccupied) and homes/properties which were going for $1,000,000 a week ago are now fetching $1,200,000. Our airport is gearing up too...it's now offering or about to offer direct flights to places like New York (watch out guys) and Los Angeles (watch out guys) as well as international flights. Not six months ago our airport lost one of it's daily commuter flights to Dallas. People who have money in Baton Rouge stand to make a shitton more...provided the officials here quit acting like morons and start being a bit more hospitable. The mayor refered to some of the refugees as "thugs" and the chief of police said that there was a "certain criminal element" amongst their number. Rumors of "abnormal criminal activity" amongst the "outsiders" and general denegration of these displaced citizens of New Orleans will do nothing to make Baton Rouge a palatable option to these people. On the other hand, we were a little slow early this morning at Louie's, which tells me that many of my morning regulars were out and about donating their time and energy towards helping some of those who have lost their homes (if only for a little while).

Interesting goings on.

 

Re: Katrina

Any Walgreens in the United states is collecting money for the red cross.

The whole corporation has opened transfers for anyone working in the walgreens in LA or MS to any location if they can make it. I gave up 5 of my hours to get someone to work a shift in my store already. It's nice to see companies get together and help out.

 

Re: Katrina

Absolute incompetence in U.S. goverment & the administration.

PR this you fucking BUSH! Let's see how long it's going to take this thing you call compassion to reach the people of new orleans.



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Re: Katrina

[ QUOTE ]
stompoutloud said:



It's nice to see companies get together and help out.

[/ QUOTE ]

They dont't give a rats ass about this whole situation. They are just doing this for good publicity. If you could listen in on their executive conversations you would see that they only do things like this because it would benefit them, not because it is out of the goodness of their heart.

 

Re: Katrina

That may be true, but I guess what comes around, goes around.

 

Re: Katrina

http://www.betanews.com/article/PayPal_Blocks_Hurricane_Relief_Funds/1125880826
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/09/05/somethingawful_paypal/
http://www.somethingawful.com/

 

Re: Katrina

[ QUOTE ]
stompoutloud said:

That may be true, but I guess what comes around, goes around.

[/ QUOTE ]

Uh-huh. Except that the rich get richer and the poor get nowhere. Not much going around is there?

Painty_J: Wow. Man corporations sure are nice and friendly. And people say the Bush administration isn't making a difference.

So is this what they're contribution is to America, more fear and paranoia where you can justify any injustice. Gee isn't it neat we live in such a gee-wiz time.

We might as well roll back our calendars to the 1950's in the time where government control and conformity was the keen thing to do!