So how did the destruction of New Orleans happen?

[Ted Striker]

Here's the list of people that need to be FIRED:

FEMA Director Michael Brown
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
President Bush

At least Bush is taking SOME responsibility and saying the response so far has been unacceptable.

These other 2 clowns are doing nothing but passing the buck.

Listen to this ******* Chertoff. What a ****ing bastard!!!

Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.

But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html

[Ted Striker]

Biggest load of crap ever. ZOMG the ultracatastrophe!

"I think we have discovered over the last few days that with all the tremendous effort using the existing resources and the traditional frameworks of the National Guard, the unusual set of challenges of conducting a massive evacuation in the context of a still dangerous flood requires us to basically break the traditional model and create a new model -- one for what you might call kind of an ultracatastrophe," Chertoff said.

[notyoueither]

What I don't understand is why the NG had to be either on rescue or maintaining order. Why not both, and why weren't more Guard there sooner?

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Here's the list of people that need to be FIRED:

FEMA Director Michael Brown
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
President Bush

At least Bush is taking SOME responsibility and saying the response so far has been unacceptable.

These other 2 clowns are doing nothing but passing the buck.

Listen to this ******* Chertoff. What a ****ing bastard!!!



http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/kat...off/index.html

there is also some senators, that should ge tthe axe...

basically any from the states who weren't out there, getting help for those states..

as well as some of the rest of the nation, who would rather talk about taxes and the like, then about what was going on in our south

JM

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by Guynemer
I don't disagree, Farb. The mayor and governor need to be held accountable.

It doesn't stop there, unfortunately.

Oh, I fully agree with you, virtually everyone did mess up at some level. But the BIG BUCK stops with those two idiots.

They Mayor who knew it was coming FIVE DAYS IN ADVANCE and left those lower income citizens to fend for themselves when he could of used the city's buses to take them out.

And then forgot to tell FEMA that the Convention Center was a site for the people to head to until 3 days afterwards.


The Governor who didn't request the state be a disaster area in a timely manner and then stalled for almost two days before actually starting to send in rescue assets.

FEMA was slow but two days of that was the fault of the Governor's delay to request FEMA.

The idea to use the school buses to take people to Texas, I can almost guarantee FEMA suggested that to the Governor, I haven't seen a spark of intelligence in her that hints she could have come up with that idea.

[Alexander's Horse]

chertoff rhymes with jerk off

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
chertoff rhymes with jerk off

Alexander's Horse rhymes with Alexander's Force.

[Alexander's Horse]

the night they drove old dixie down...

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by notyoueither
What I don't understand is ... why weren't more Guard there sooner?

Are you ****ing serious!!???

Could it possibly be that 7,000 of them from MS and LA are currently on active duty in Iraq?

"Missing the personnel is the big thing in this particular event. We need our people," said Lt. Andy Thaggard

Capt. Richard Locke of the Guard's 1st Battalion 167th Infantry headed toward Mobile yesterday with a force of 400 soldiers cobbled together from four units because the rest of the battalion is in Iraq.

Recruiting and retention problems are worsening the strain on Guard forces in hurricane-ravaged states. Alabama's Army National Guard has a strength of 11,000 troops -- or 78 percent of the authorized number. "We're just losing too many out the back door," Arnold said.

That one is a good quote for the draft thread...

So basically the illegal Iraq war has seriously degraded the NG's capabilities not least because a sizeable proportion of its strength is stuck thousands of miles away getting needlessly shot up - but also because states like AL are missing almost a quarter of their strength because for some wierd reason utterly beyond my comprehension US civilians don't particularly fancy getting their asses shot off in some far off desert hell-hole!

[germanos]

(copied from the Katherina info thread, but it seems this is a good place to place it as well)

Today on national radio an engineer from the University of Delft (civil enginering) mentioned that in the US (or in New Orleans at least) the levees are build with a risk assesment of failure of once in 30 years.

In comparison, in the Netherlands it is once in ten thousend.

[Ted Striker]

Ted said:

"You Dutch need to come over here and show us how to build the damn thing properly."

Germanos said:

Originally posted by germanos


I'm sure we (well, the contractors for sure ) would love to.
But as I understood from the guy, one of the reasons it is like this is because the Americans have a different view on the return on investment.

While we can for sure build up your ****s to Dutch standards (and I´m sure you can do it yourselfs as well), it will be very difficult for us to change the American attitude on fiscal policy.

Sad but true.

Now, if someone was to sell this idea as a way of making "profit," our decision makers would be all over it.

"ZOMG the Dutch levee system will earn us 70 million a year let's get it done!!!"

For the past 25 years, anything that is built, whether public or private, has to contribute to "profitability."

But I think people are starting to get tired of this idea, and perhaps building something for the greater public good may start to earn acceptance.

I believe alot of the American infrastructure, that was built during the New Deal time, was what helped our economy propel itself into greatness after World War 2. At the time, none of those projects could be considered "profitable,." but they helped mend the American social fabric together and also contributed to a physical connecting infrastructure (roads, power plants, schools, etc).

I'd say the idea of not having a city underwater is reason enough to build the damn thing.

[germanos]

Well said Ted

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by GhengisFarb

Oh, I fully agree with you, virtually everyone did mess up at some level. But the BIG BUCK stops with those two idiots.

They Mayor who knew it was coming FIVE DAYS IN ADVANCE and left those lower income citizens to fend for themselves when he could of used the city's buses to take them out.

Don't hurricanes happen EVERY YEAR ?


Isn't there a hurricane SEASON ?

[Sandman]

Where are the libertarians? You'd have thought that they'd be thrilled to bits over the failure of 'big government' and the gun battles between residents and looters.

[Patroklos]

Ted, is there any scenario where Bush isn't to blame?

Basically if the storm had killed one person, surfing at the beach, you would still be calling for his head.

It really makes me sick how far you an MOBIUS (I expect it from him) will go for political profit.