So how did the destruction of New Orleans happen?

[DanS]

Here's one of the evacuees' philosophy on the destruction of the city...

Thomas, the philosopher, waved his bandaged hand. He had a theory: "God's angry with New Orleans. It's an evil city. The worst school system anywhere. Rampant crime. Corrupt politicians. Here, baby, have a potato chip for daddy."

The 2-year-old, Qadriyyah, took a chip from her daddy and gobbled it up. Her face was covered with mosquito bites. But she smiled just to be in daddy's arms.

Thomas continued: "A predominantly black city -- and they're killing each other. God had to get their attention with a calamity. New Orleans ain't seen an earthquake yet. You can get away from a hurricane but not an earthquake. Next time, nobody may get out."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090102305.html

[SpencerH]

The federal govt is not responsible for providing a hurricane-proofing system for New Orleans or any other city.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by SpencerH
The federal govt is not responsible for providing a hurricane-proofing system for New Orleans or any other city.

When the results of not doing so result in a major national catastrophe, then yes, it is. That's why a country exists in the first place. If not, then we'd all be independant states.

[Ninot]

Seriously. The entire thing is going to have reprocussions on the world economy, not just Louisianna. This was a federal matter.

Heck, i'm feeling it in Canada.

[MosesPresley]

Why is it when a disaster happens, the right wings answer is always "no could have seen this coming", "hindsight is 20/20" and "sh*t happens?"

[Sava]

Originally posted by MosesPresley
Why is it when a disaster happens, the right wings answer is always "no could have seen this coming", "hindsight is 20/20" and "sh*t happens?"

Because they don't want to admit their policies failed.

[Sava]

Actually, watching a lot of the news and stuff... I find it interesting that a lot of the biggest bashers of the president are the local mayors and governors, who are repubs...

Like the NO mayor, and the LA gov...

[DanS]

The NO mayor and LA governor most definitely are NOT republicans.

[Boris Godunov]

Here's a run down of what our leaders were doing yesterday, Sept. 1:

-President Bush made the incomprehensible statement that nobody "expected the levees would break." Given that all the experts knew they could only withstand a Cat. 3 storm and were predicting for years that there would be levee failures if a stronger storm hit, I just wonder if by "nobody" he's just referring to the nobodies in his administration. Well, at least he had time to devote to the issue, instead of the previous two days, where he had shuttled around to staged events and photo ops over Social Security and such.

-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice played tennis in New York before attending a matinee performance of the musical Spamelot. She then spent several thousands of dollars shoe shopping on 5th Avenue. A fellow woman shopper who saw her shouted to her something to the effect of "you should be ashamed you're here while people are dying in our own country." Rice had her Secret Service agents remove the woman from the store.

-FEMA director Michael Brown (who, interestingly enough, was fired from his previous gig as a lawyer for the International Arabian Horse Association Legal Department) was spinning furiously about how wonderful and prepared FEMA was for this. He then admitted to Paula Zahn on CNN that it wasn't until that very day FEMA realized there were 15,000 people also stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center. That's despite it having been designated an official emergency shelter before the storm. Then he had the wonderful compassion to say this on CNN:

"Unfortunately, that's [the suffering] going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings. I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans."

Is this guy for real?

-Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieux, in a stunning display of political insensitivity, went on Anderson Cooper and, when asked about the suffering of those still trapped, proceeded to rattle off a long litany of thank-yous to--get this--other politicians. Not rescue workers, not police or national guard, but politicians like Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr., Sen. Frist, Sen. Reid, etc. Cooper totally lost it on her over this, and it was one of the best smack-downs I've seen.

-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said that we shouldn't rebuild New Orleans because it's expensive, impractical, etc. Nice timing there, Dennis.

-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld eased the minds of the nation by assuring us that the ultra-tacky country music hoedown with Clint Black in, erm, remembrance of September 11, 2001 would go on as plan. A big sigh of relief was heard all around the country.

-Republican party chairman Ken Mehlman sent out an "urgent e-mail" to the GOP party demanding their help with the most crucial issue facing the nation today--repealing the estate tax.

-Vice President Dick Cheney remained on vacation in Jackson, WY. Aides insisted it wasn't a vacation because he had had two briefings while there. Uh-huh.

Ladies and gentlemen, our leadership just boggles the mind, don't it?

[chequita guevara]

And uh, it's not that no one saw this coming. EVERYONE SAW THIS COMING!!!!!!!

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


When the results of not doing so result in a major national catastrophe, then yes, it is. That's why a country exists in the first place. If not, then we'd all be independant states.

So do we build surge protection for Miami, Charleston etc? Why is New Orleans so special?

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
The NO mayor and LA governor most definitely are NOT republicans.

No, but they are conservatives.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by MosesPresley
Why is it when a disaster happens, the right wings answer is always "no could have seen this coming", "hindsight is 20/20" and "sh*t happens?"

Well, that is their exact response to the disaster that is Iraq, true.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by SpencerH


So do we build surge protection for Miami, Charleston etc? Why is New Orleans so special?

Neither of which sit in a below-sea level bowl. It has always been acknowledged that NO was especially vulnerable. It's als especially important, given its location and status as port and oil refining hub.

But yes, why not build it for those cities?

Let me get this particilar meme straight, though--spending $25 billion per month on a war in Iraq is vital to our national interests, but spending substantially less than that to secure our own cities from disaster is impractical and not worth the government's efforts? Nice priorities.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Here's a run down of what our leaders were doing yesterday, Sept. 1:

.........

Ladies and gentlemen, our leadership just boggles the mind, don't it?

While I cant be bothered to check that all out, I totally agree with the sentiment.

BTW, in other interviews it looked as if Landrieux is simply not jumping on the 'blame the feds' bandwagon.