Remember Katrina?

[CA95380]

trust me---displaced people got tons of it via the Red Cross---some had their rent paid for over a year and thousands received MUCH more.

Funny how that money from the Red Cross was not Government money, huh?

All kidding, and jokes aside, Dillo ..... If you have one ounce of compassion you will remember those people sitting on that freeway for days without getting assistance ...

A time that I will remember just as well as I do that plane hitting the 2nd tower

In the days after the attack Bush had this country in the plam of his hand and blew it ... he did it again in New Orleans. You can say what you want ... the "buck stopped with him", and McCain will probably suffer because of him.

 

[dilloduck]

Funny how that money from the Red Cross was not Government money, huh?

All kidding, and jokes aside, Dillo ..... If you have one ounce of compassion you will remember those people sitting on that freeway for days without getting assistance ...

A time that I will remember just as well as I do that plane hitting the 2nd tower

In the days after the attack Bush had this country in the plam of his hand and blew it ... he did it again in New Orleans. You can say what you want ... the "buck stopped with him", and McCain will probably suffer because of him.

It was government money funneled through the Red Cross, just as they are now also doing to assist the families of GIs overseas

 

[CA95380]

It was government money funneled through the Red Cross, just as they are now also doing to assist the families of GIs overseas

Your right. My bad. At least when I make a mistake, I admit it.

 

[Abelian Sea]

Let the city drown, rebuild elsewhere.

Not likely.

It'll take more than biblical floods to get rid of that pirate-founded, corruption-entrenched, bizzare old nexus.

Louisinana politicians killed their own people.

There's certainly truth to that, and not just politicians in our lifetime.

I can't imagine that there wasn't plenty of skimming-off-the-top, cutting-corners-and-pocketing-the-$-difference, and other such grafty shenanigans going on when the levee system was first put in place.

Hope it goes as well as can be expected for the area... but they should have learned their lesson and take this one a lot more seriously.. I certainly hope for the sake of the individuals down there, that they have...

I hope the local media and the local governments are keeping the populous informed as necessary for everyone to determine if it is going to be OK to stay or if indeed these people should evacuate and get the hell out of Dodge

Yep, people and are really paying attention, the media is hopped up on the drama carried over from past trauma, and the various levels of government are eager to avoid getting more egg on their faces (oh, and I'm sure they're also concerned with, uh, saving lives and stuff).

 

[AllieBaba]

Spoken like a true American that gives a shit about other Americans!

Except really, it isn't the responsibility of the president and VP to prevent hurricanes or manage disaster relief for areas which are REPEATEDLY hit and should be managing their own.....

 

[Chris]

Celebrating McCain's birthday...............I kid you not.

 

[CA95380]

Except really, it isn't the responsibility of the president and VP to prevent hurricanes or manage disaster relief for areas which are REPEATEDLY hit and should be managing their own.....

But it is their responsibility to endorse re-building a foreign country after we have bombed the shit out of it?

Sorry, Allie ... I just don't buy that one either.

 

[Ravi]

Except really, it isn't the responsibility of the president and VP to prevent hurricanes or manage disaster relief for areas which are REPEATEDLY hit and should be managing their own.....

Except they hadn't been repeatedly hit, which is part of the reason everyone didn't evacuate.

Not to mention, the President signed on to provide disaster relief, but we won't expect him to keep his word.

 

[Gunny]

Celebrating McCain's birthday......

McCain is a Senator from Arizona, not Louisiana.

Where were YOU? I was at home watching dumbasses stand and stare at a Cat 5 hurricane barrelling down on their asses. That's what happens when you become dependent on a nanny state government to ease your every pain. You don't even have enough common sense to save your own dumb ass.

 

[LeftOfTheMiddle]

trust me---displaced people got tons of it via the Red Cross---some had their rent paid for over a year and thousands received MUCH more.

Interestingly enough, dillo, most of the people of whom you speak were poor and barely able to make ends meet and put food on the table. They had their homes destroyed and their livelihoods, communities, families, jobs and support systems taken away from them. The government responded by puttin families of 6 in a trailor or in one hotel room for an entire year in a city that they didn't know with no jobs or support systems and then cut them off and left them to fend for themselves. No one would be able to recover from that without some REAL help. For you to suggest that they are milking it or not making the most of it is not only insensitive, it is rather elitist and ignorant. You can't possibly have so much faith in the goodness of our government that you believe all were treated fairly and humanely.

Some of you need to read something!

 

[LeftOfTheMiddle]

McCain is a Senator from Arizona, not Louisiana.

Where were YOU? I was at home watching dumbasses stand and stare at a Cat 5 hurricane barrelling down on their asses. That's what happens when you become dependent on a nanny state government to ease your every pain. You don't even have enough common sense to save your own dumb ass.

How would you have suggested they get out, you idiot?

 

[Ravi]

Not likely.

It'll take more than biblical floods to get rid of that pirate-founded, corruption-entrenched, bizzare old nexus.



There's certainly truth to that, and not just politicians in our lifetime.

I can't imagine that there wasn't plenty of skimming-off-the-top, cutting-corners-and-pocketing-the-$-difference, and other such grafty shenanigans going on when the levee system was first put in place.



Yep, people and are really paying attention, the media is hopped up on the drama carried over from past trauma, and the various levels of government are eager to avoid getting more egg on their faces (oh, and I'm sure they're also concerned with, uh, saving lives and stuff).

Be safe.

 

[Abelian Sea]

Be safe.

Thanks. I should be okay. I live far enough inland that unless the hurricane comes right up the Mississippi River, it's journey over land will weaken it enough that all I'll have to look forward to is a power outage and fallen limbs.

If I do need to evacuate (which is unlikely), I have family on higher ground that's further inland.

 

[CA95380]

Celebrating McCain's birthday...............I kid you not.

Sorry Gunny .... Kirk actually is making sense with this picture. Bush and McCain smiling and eating cake ... as a hurricane bears down on a major city in the US ..... again!

The have both lost their marbles!!

 

[KeaganFaie]

Those people were ignorant for moving back into that place. Let the city drown, rebuild elsewhere.

Okay, you must never have traveled to N.O. That city is like no other in the US. It's old world beauty mixed in with a slow creepy air of danger and mystery-- Put together with a crumbling elegance and the freedom of serious debauchery. And of course, it is a cultural epi-center. Really if New Orleans disappeared it would be a horrible tragedy!

A lot of the money that was supposed to go to people here has not made it's way to where it was supposed to go. There is still a program set up called The Road Home that is supposed to still be giving money out. It's been 3 years! That's thousands of applications in hand from people that have lost their homes--none of which have gotten money. Most people have long since just given the system up for corrupt and moved on.

The faults of old where due to the governor of LA not asking for the feds to come in. Thankfully that governor is no longer in office and the current one is already taking the steps to let the feds in. You see, they feds can't come in and help unless requested. We set it up that way a long long time ago. The former governor didn't ask, she didn't get.

Last night they where talking about starting evacuations today.

Oh they are. Panic fed by the media has started to set in. There will be a mass exodus of New Orleanians over the weekend. They've set up the contra-flow system for Sunday at noon. That's where they make all the roads out of the city one way pointed outwards. There will be no getting into the city after that.

 

[dilloduck]

Interestingly enough, dillo, most of the people of whom you speak were poor and barely able to make ends meet and put food on the table. They had their homes destroyed and their livelihoods, communities, families, jobs and support systems taken away from them. The government responded by putting families of 6 in a trailer or in one hotel room for an entire year in a city that they didn't know with no jobs or support systems and then cut them off and left them to fend for themselves. No one would be able to recover from that without some REAL help. For you to suggest that they are milking it or not making the most of it is not only insensitive, it is rather elitist and ignorant. You can't possibly have so much faith in the goodness of our government that you believe all were treated fairly and humanely.

Some of you need to read something!

Interestingly enough Left, I have worked and volunteered helping those exact same people ever since the Katrina hit. I worked 12 hour shifts at the Austin Convention Center where thousands of them were sheltered. Among a multitude of other things, i worked finding them places to live and in fact placed the very last person to leave that shelter.
Every kind of assistance that you can imagine was offered these people including housing in very nice apartments, transportation, clothing, catered meals , medical care, free counseling (still available), job fairs, live music, visits from celebrities etc etc.
Most took full advantage of the assistance offered and moved on while some did nothing but consume it.
Only recently has money run out to help these people but not until they had opportunity after opportunity to take what they had been offered and use it to support their own recovery and continue to make claims to recover lost items that your insurance wouldn't even cover if your home was destroyed.

We are currently preparing for another hurricane strike--I can tell you where YOU can sign up to come down and help.

 

[LeftOfTheMiddle]

Interestingly enough Left, I have worked and volunteered helping those exact same people ever since the Katrina hit. I worked 12 hour shifts at the Austin Convention Center where thousands of them were sheltered. Among a multitude of other things, i worked finding them places to live and in fact placed the very last person to leave that shelter.
Every kind of assistance that you can imagine was offered these people including housing in very nice apartments, transportation, clothing, catered meals , medical care, free counseling (still available), job fairs, live music, visits from celebrities etc etc.
Most took full advantage of the assistance offered and moved on while some did nothing but consume it.
Only recently has money run out to help these people but not until they had opportunity after opportunity to take what they had been offered and use it to support their own recovery and continue to make claims to recover lost items that your insurance wouldn't even cover if your home was destroyed.

We are currently preparing for another hurricane strike--I can tell you where YOU can sign up to come down and help.

First let me say that you have done amazing work for the NOLA communities affected by Katrina and you should be commended for that. My point to you was that there are many socio-cultural/economic, psycho-social, and structural factors that need to be considered when you imply that many of "these people" (a highly charged and offensive way to refer to people that implies that they are somehow less than you) have not appreciated and taken advantage of the opportunities that have been offered to them.

To your final point, I don't need you to tell me where to go and help. I am from Baton Rouge and lived in New Orleans for many years prior to moving to the west coast. I know the region of the country, and the city very well both on the political and structural level and on the community level. Finally, I too was among those assisting in the effort after the hurricane. I saw the same people and the same devastation. Although, judging by where you did your volunteer work, it sounds like you weren't in the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, "Ground Zero" if you will, witnessing what happened to people's homes, families, and communities. FEMA trailors were parked by the hundreds in the park behind my fathers house in Baton Rouge and many of them never went to anyone. Some, in fact, are still there 3 years later. The people who were put in those trailors, "temporarily" were left there for far too long (sort of like housing projects) and many of them developed health problems because of the chemicals used in the structures of the trailors. These trailors were meant to be temporary fixes, not long term housing and all of this happened while they waited for the government to fulfill the promise to help them rebuild their homes.

Oh yeah, you mentioned quite a lot of great and wonderful things you help to make happen for "these people" but you left out the most important one - at the end of the day, they still didn't have a home to go home to.

 

[Ravi]

Wow, dillo works for FEMA and thinks of Americans as "these people."

Big surprise!

 

[CA95380]

Wow, dillo works for FEMA and thinks of Americans as "these people."

Big surprise!

Interestingly enough Left, I have worked and volunteered helping those exact same people ever since the Katrina hit. I worked 12 hour shifts at the Austin Convention Center where thousands of them were sheltered. Among a multitude of other things, i worked finding them places to live and in fact placed the very last person to leave that shelter.
Every kind of assistance that you can imagine was offered these people including housing in very nice apartments, transportation, clothing, catered meals , medical care, free counseling (still available), job fairs, live music, visits from celebrities etc etc.
Most took full advantage of the assistance offered and moved on while some did nothing but consume it.
Only recently has money run out to help these people but not until they had opportunity after opportunity to take what they had been offered and use it to support their own recovery and continue to make claims to recover lost items that your insurance wouldn't even cover if your home was destroyed.

We are currently preparing for another hurricane strike--I can tell you where YOU can sign up to come down and help.

I didn't see that he said he "worked for FEMA" am I missing something? Not good to give him fuel for his already lit fireworks. lol

 

[dilloduck]

First let me say that you have done amazing work for the NOLA communities affected by Katrina and you should be commended for that. My point to you was that there are many socio-cultural/economic, psycho-social, and structural factors that need to be considered when you imply that many of "these people" (a highly charged and offensive way to refer to people that implies that they are somehow less than you) have not appreciated and taken advantage of the opportunities that have been offered to them.

To your final point, I don't need you to tell me where to go and help. I am from Baton Rouge and lived in New Orleans for many years prior to moving to the west coast. I know the region of the country, and the city very well both on the political and structural level and on the community level. Finally, I too was among those assisting in the effort after the hurricane. I saw the same people and the same devastation. Although, judging by where you did your volunteer work, it sounds like you weren't in the cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, "Ground Zero" if you will, witnessing what happened to people's homes, families, and communities. FEMA trailors were parked by the hundreds in the park behind my fathers house in Baton Rouge and many of them never went to anyone. Some, in fact, are still there 3 years later. The people who were put in those trailors, "temporarily" were left there for far too long (sort of like housing projects) and many of them developed health problems because of the chemicals used in the structures of the trailors. These trailors were meant to be temporary fixes, not long term housing and all of this happened while they waited for the government to fulfill the promise to help them rebuild their homes.

Oh yeah, you mentioned quite a lot of great and wonderful things you help to make happen for "these people" but you left out the most important one - at the end of the day, they still didn't have a home to go home to.

I worked in Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Alexandia, Orange, Beaumont and all the little towns in between. It was horrible for everyone involved but I am incensed when I hear the political football get thrown around on this one. Considering the scope of the storm and the magnitude of the pre-existing political, social, financial and cultural factors of the once murder capital of the USA I think people did an awesome job and the outpouring of all types of assistance was probably record breaking. To try to make some political points via biased and erroneous reporting of a primarily racial disater is disgusting.
Sorry but I don't think the government is required to go out and buy anyone a home if they lose one. Stop paying your insurance and wait for a fire to destroy your home---see what happens.