<p>Only neglect of infastructure, too, is a WMD. That’s the whole point.</p>
<p>I don’t know if any of you are watching Anderson Cooper on CNN right now interviewing via satellite Louisiana Senator Landrieu, Democrat, who is unbelievably spending her three minutes on international television thanking the President, Congress and a string of other politicians, saying how wonderful they are to be helping them during this time, etc… she went on and on about their generosity… it was the MOST self-serving piece of BS I have EVER heard from the mouth of a major elected official. It was like she was paid p.r. flack for the President and Congress and Senate. Anderson was practically in tears when he interrupted her and said (I’m paraphrasing) “do you realize, Senator, the rats are eating the dead bodies out here? To hear you thanking politicians right now… do you realize the anger that is here?” I’ve never seen a reporter almost lose it like this. Now, a couple minutes later, he’s actually crying while trying to report. I can’t even flipping believe that she would go on TV and spout off like that. This is not partisan political criticism, just stupidity, a complete lack of connection to human beings. I’m so disappointed in how some people in government are handling this crisis.</p>
<p>“The city as we knew it is gone for our lifetimes.”</p>
<p>That, unfortunately, is probably the truest statement that’s been said so far in this thread. New Orleans is no more. And sadly, there are compelling reasons to effectively cut our loses where it is concerned and abandon plans to substantially reinhabit it. The resources, in both money and man-power necessary to get the city up and even marginally functional again, defy the imagination. The ecosystem, which nature designed to offer some level of protection against disasters such as this, having fallen victim to the hubris of man’s grand-scale manipulation, may not ever be made capable of protecting N.O. from a repeat of the current devastation. Unlike the much assumed myth, lightning can most certainly strike the same place twice. Meteorologists at The National Weather Center have said for a number of years now, that we are experiencing a cycle of unusually extreme weather, which will extend for years into the forseeable future. So like Florida, which was pummeled by hurricans over and over again last season, New Orleans COULD be faced with another Katrina (or close relative) as soon as the next hurrican season.</p>
<p>
I saw an article the other day which actually said that we’ve had unusally calm hurricane seasons lately, and that we’re reverting now to a cycle reminiscent of the 50s and 60s.</p>
<p>Before we give Landrieu the beat down, let’s switch hats for a minute. Do you think if this had happened in New York City or LA those citizens would be collapsing and dying in the heat–five days AFTER the hurricane? Do you think Sen Landrieu has had to stick out her hat like a beggar because that is the only way she is getting assistance? Louisiana is WAY down the list of federal priorities. If a little behind kissing will get him the manpower and money he needs to rescue those Americans, well, I don’t care what he has to say on national TV. </p>
<p>As for not rebuilding New Orleans…wow. Be careful with that kind of talk. There are lots of areas in the US that could be relegated to that bin.</p>
<p>Landrieu is a she. And if you could have seen and heard her, it was like she was a cyborg. Unreal. Even giving her the benefit of the doubt that she knew exactly what she was doing, it was so inappropriate in the context of what is going on there. Perhaps this has been the way she’s gotten things done for her state in the past, but this is not the time to kiss butt. It’s a time for her to show some outrage. Massaging egos is not going to get people saved any faster in this situation, and if it would, I would be even more appalled. It was pure PR and I, a woman and a progressive, am not giving her a break for that “performance.”</p>
<p>“Do you think Sen Landrieu has had to stick out his hat like a beggar because that is the only way he is getting assistance? Louisiana is WAY down the list of federal priorities.”</p>
<p>Cheers, Senator Landrieu is aka Mary L. Landrieu:
<a href=“http://landrieu.senate.gov/hurricanes/index.cfm[/url]”>http://landrieu.senate.gov/hurricanes/index.cfm</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://landrieu.senate.gov/~landrieu/releases/05/2005726C16.html[/url]”>http://landrieu.senate.gov/~landrieu/releases/05/2005726C16.html</a></p>
<p>WASHINGTON – The Energy Bill Conference Committee passed the committee’s report late last evening, including in it $1 billion in coastal impact assistance for Louisiana and other coastal oil- and gas-producing states, U.S. Senators Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., and David Vitter, R-La., announced. </p>
<p>“This is an incredibly important victory for Louisiana and the other Gulf Coast producing states who contribute so much to our national energy supply, security and economy each year,” said Sen. Landrieu, who led Gulf Coast efforts to secure the funding from her position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. </p>
<p>“As a result of our delegations’ hard work over many years, the federal government will now for the first time acknowledge these significant contributions and recognize America’s Wetlands and Gulf Coast for the vital security and economic strength they provide.”</p>
<p>I am not sure how low Louisiana is or has been on our list of priorities; the amount spent on maintaining New Orleans economic status has been far from trivial.</p>
<p>Landrieu just went on CNN again with Paula Zahn and her message is SIGNIFICANTLY different 45 minutes later. Now she is saying the federal government did not give them enough help/money before the disaster and that she hopes they will get more aid from them now and that she truly understands what her people are going through. She still praised Bush, Clinton, Lott, et al for their help, but it was a much more appropriate message. Guess Anderson Cooper’s naked emotion broke through her political sensibilities last hour.</p>
<p>Or perhaps James Carville called her.</p>
<p>Probably looked at polling numbers.</p>
<p>Too bad anyone had to call her to get her to act like a real human being. Sorry. Didn’t mean to turn this into a rant. I’m so frustrated seeing the video of dead people and hearing the interviews with survivors that are reeling from the collision of government ineptitude and the worst of human nature (snipers shooting at hospitals? Men raping 10 year old girls in the Superdome?). I want to DO something and I’m stuck here in California. Complaining and criticizing doesn’t help matters, it’s just a way to vent. Sending money is one thing but it doesn’t help the anger go away. Sigh.</p>
<p>Questions must be asked, critizing done, otherwise the same errors in planning can happen again</p>
<p>You know who else is late to the party?</p>
<p>The media. </p>
<p>I had a dark foreboding on August 29th watching the first shots of thousands of poor African Americans lining up in the rain to go into the Superdome. Those were worrying photos.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=92756&page=2&pp=40[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=92756&page=2&pp=40</a></p>
<p>It took the media four days to express that same shock. The mayor, the Governor and the Senators may have been screaming for help but federal help wasn’t rushed until the suffering was on CNN 24/7.</p>
<p>Were the initial pleas downplayed because they weren’t the media caliber of a Schumer, Clinton, Schwarzneger, Jeb Bush or Guiliani? </p>
<p>Painful as it was, early analysis and attention could have prevented so much suffering…</p>
<p>"Brown said those who ignored the city’s mandatory evacuation order bore some responsibility.</p>
<p>“I think the death toll may go into the thousands and, unfortunately, that’s going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings,” Michael Brown told CNN."</p>
<p>Brown is the lead person for FEMA</p>
<p>So much compassion its staggering…I will let that lady in the wheel chair know, and the family with no car know it was their fault for not getting out of town, that FEMA who provided no evacation vehicals, blames you for not leaving town…wow…to show so much caring at this time is really scary</p>
<p>In an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America, Mr Bush drew no line between those looting stores for survival supplies like food and water and those stealing television sets that are of no use with electricity out in New Orleans.</p>
<p>“I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting, or price-gouging at the petrol pump or taking advantage of charitable giving, or insurance fraud,” Mr Bush said.</p>
<p>Looting has run rampant in New Orleans as stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina await emergency assistance.</p>
<p>“If people need water and food, we’re going to do everything we can to get them water and food. But it’s very important for the citizens in all affected areas to take personal responsibility and assume kind of a civic sense of responsibility so the situation doesn’t get out of hand, so people don’t exploit the vulnerable,” Mr Bush said.</p>
<p>Is the food there yet? According to the Mayor, um no, people are hungry thirsty wet sick, and yet, they can’t help themselves and get food…one hotel told their guests to go steal food from the store nextdoor</p>
<p>Gotta love compassionate conservatism</p>
<p>And by the way, who ever said I was full of it, there you go…</p>
<p>From Molly Ivins:</p>
<p>"One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, “The Democrats did it,” or, “It’s all Reagan’s fault.” Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century’s interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river’s delta.</p>
<p>"But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies - ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.</p>
<p>"Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration’s policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.</p>
<p>"Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Category 3 or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. …</p>
<p>"Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it’s quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat…</p>
<p>“Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction…” <a href=“http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105Q.shtml[/url]”>http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090105Q.shtml</a></p>
<p>from today’s NYT op-ed page:
By PAUL KRUGMAN </p>
<p>Deleted for TOS violations.</p>
<p>And still 100 people died from having no food or water after being rescued by local people</p>
<p>Its also what didn’t happen a week ago, when the government knew this was coming- why is water STILL NOT THERE!! What about food</p>
<p>My good, we can send it to Iraq quicker than to our own people</p>
<p>To the rest of the world, the worlds richest nation with the best minds can’t even create a communications systems that can work during a time of disastor</p>
<p>Well I just have to pose this question to all you die hard Bush supporters - How did you react when you heard the president’s quote regarding the levees?</p>
<p>Had Hurricane Andrew hit NOLA in the early '90s, the same issue would have happened - this has been a potential danger for years. </p>
<p>Just sick. Absolutely sick. Do you expect that Bush will march on down and tell people to stop playing basketball?</p>