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<p>From London…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1768672,00.html[/url]”>The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines;
<p>The character of the American nation is fluid from region to region, city to city. That is the key to understanding the U.S. You can not put labels on the hugh area. You can label NO. You can label NYC. You can label L.A. You can label Brownsville, Tx. But what do any of these places have in common with Peterborough, NH? English spoken here? Not everywhere. I have lived in many regions of this planet: fending for yourself is as prevalent everywhere as neighborliness. The richest folks I have met in my life are not Americans and I have met some rich Americans. It all goes back to the old saying that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. That is not to say that we don’t want to make a better world, to understand our weaknesses, to make corrections. But I am pretty sick and tired of hearing constantly about the evil USA. I find it very provincial at the best right about now. I listen to the BBC everyday. I love the BBC especially talk shows and documentaries, but they have as many foibles as does Fox News…and the poor in London are not mostly from ethnic minorities?!</p>
<p>Overseas, well said. </p>
<p>I am another person just sick and tired of all the comparisons to Third World countries. A third world country would not have marshaled the help that finally did arrive in the hurricane region. </p>
<p>I went to London for the first time this year. It is a great city. However, one can zero-in on parts of London and witness “third world country” conditions. Right in Central London, in Covent Garden, there are homeless people living in cardboards - I saw them myself. Some of the streets I walked through in Covent Garden, reeked of urine. Then, there is South London. Parts of South London are interchangeable with parts of poor New Orleans neighborhoods before the hurricane. </p>
<p>Going back to the relief efforts and the constant “blame game”, this is my take:
- Gov. Blanko - should step down - her incompetence has cost lives
-Mayor Nagin - I liked his intensity that eventually showed up but he waited too long to call for an evacuation
-Michael Brown - should be fired before the next big disaster; I don’t want him to be head of FEMA when there is a disaster in the area where I live
-President Bush - he is responsible for appointing Brown; he should bite the bullet and just fire the guy</p>
<p>Interesting article, but not exactly one-sided; I found this paragraph to be surprisingly apt, considering a European source:</p>
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<p>The reference to Hobbes also suggests the ideological divide that has become evident in this debate. The need for, and the role of, a Leviathan government to control everything is at the heart of nearly every debate between American federalists and Americans who long for European-styled centralism and even world government.</p>
<p>“The poor, most of them from ethnic minorities, looking like exiles from the Third World, are left to sink and die.” Hmmm - we have millions of Mexicans and millions from the Third World clamoring to get into the United States - I guess they want to come here to “sink and die”. And our unemployment rate of 4.9 percent - less than half that of most European countries - must be a lie.</p>
<p>We were hit by a MASSIVE storm - we didn’t know how massive until after it hit. We had a local and state government unprepared for it. And apparently some parts of the Federal Government. Now we are marshalling our resources to help ALL of those in need. I don’t know a single person I’ve spoken to in the last week who hasn’t already sent money or offered to take in a family from New Orleans. Guess we haven’t all read Hobbes lately. </p>
<p>If a crisis like this happened in virtually any other part of the world, people would be sitting waiting for their GOVERNMENT to do everything.</p>
<p>The United States and its people have been the greatest force for good in the history of the world. And continue to be. That’s my palatable truth.</p>
<p>Here’s an alternative view:</p>
<p><a href=“How Charlottesville's Bed and Breakfast Hotels Reflect Individualism and Economic Progress”>How Charlottesville's Bed and Breakfast Hotels Reflect Individualism and Economic Progress;
<p>After listening to the “Blame Bush, Blame the Feds” crowd it is obvious to me that the majority of the people in this country not only do not understand the Constitution, they have probably never read it. Where is the stirring defense of “posse comitatus” now? Well, it doesn’t serve their political agenda, so all we hear is complaints that the military wasn’t deployed fast enough, in spite of the LA gov’s refusal to give permission.</p>
<p>Who left the poor to “sink and die?” Well, I think it’s pretty obvious when seeing the pictures of 200 schoolbuses sitting in 8’ of water–the same schoolbuses that were supposed to be deployed to the housing projects according to the official disaster plan–that it was the city government, specifically the mayor’s office.</p>
<p>One small dispute underscores the problems of coordinating such an event. The Mayor says all residents should leave–the police chief is not sure and other parties work to undermine both.</p>
<p>"At this point we have no intention of forcing people to go, but ultimately that may happen, Maj Pons says, noting that the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, and the Louisiana state governor, Kathleen Blanco, have said they want to empty New Orleans in order to put it back on its feet. </p>
<p>Local radio cited officials as saying that those who insist on staying behind will not continue to receive food supplies.</p>
<p>Workers of the Salvation Army charity greeted these warnings with derision, saying they could sow panic. They insisted they would continue to distribute food and water from their mobile units to anyone who asked"</p>
<p>With respect overseas, if you drove through New Orleans and then up the River Road through Petro Chem Alley, you might be struck by the same ‘Third World’ observations.</p>
<p>Before the hurricane.</p>
<p>The rest of the world is astounded by what is happening on our Gulf Coast. There may be smirks, sure, but most, including the BBC, seem genuinely surprised. As are we?</p>
<p>“Who left the poor to “sink and die?” Well, I think it’s pretty obvious when seeing the pictures of 200 schoolbuses sitting in 8’ of water–the same schoolbuses that were supposed to be deployed to the housing projects according to the official disaster plan–that it was the city government, specifically the mayor’s office.”</p>
<p>Oh, get off your high horse - if every single seat on those so-called 200 buses was filled, and they had a place to go, it would have carried fewer people than the number of folks who PAID to get out of town, but were left behind by the corporate stooges at the airlines that cancelled SATURDAY flights out because they didn’t want to lose money on Saturday flights in, and Feds just sat there and let them do it.</p>
<p>mini, I corrected your math on the other link. We are talking 64,000 people on those buses if they had started at 4PM on Saturday.</p>
<p>This number could have been significantly increased if they had a statewide coordinated evacuation plan that would have called for school busses from the surrounding suburbs to be used in addition.</p>
<p>Not only that, mini, but they also had 300+ transit buses at their disposal. 500x50=25000 per run, and they had all day Saturday and Sunday to do it.</p>
<p>If that isn’t enough for you, they had tweaked the evacuation plan after Hurricane Ivan veered off at the last minute last year, so they knew what to expect.</p>
<p>And the piece de resistance ? Within the last year they actually DRILLED this very disaster, a force 5 hurricane, assuming 80% of NO under 20 feet of water. So they had practiced.</p>
<p>Why didn’t they use their carefully prepared, practiced disaster plan?
Who knows…???</p>
<p>I’m sure, though, that if the “corporate stooges” had been responsible for that decision, that mini would assure us all that it was because they were racist. What other reason could it be?</p>
<p>Laurel, looking down from her high horse, which yes, she can ride ;)</p>
<p>Not to mention the 100s of busses the Governor could have ordered to NO in under half a day. But that does not square with the Big Easy attitude. Think of all the transist and school busses there are within 6 hours drive of NO.</p>
<p>The city and state hadn’t even come up with a plan to maintain communications in the event of the flooding they all knew was coming.
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<p><a href=“http://www.fcw.com/article90541-08-31-05-Web[/url]”>http://www.fcw.com/article90541-08-31-05-Web</a></p>
<p>“I’m sure, though, that if the “corporate stooges” had been responsible for that decision, that mini would assure us all that it was because they were racist. What other reason could it be?”</p>
<p>Money trumps racism every time.</p>
<p>Actually, silly beyond belief. Assuming you could have assumed the presumed 64,000 people in one place to wait for buses (“which ones should I have left behind,” asks my friend, “my grandma on a vent, my mother with Alzheimers, my brain-damaged son, my daughter who was in car wreck, or my daughter with three kids” - I notice none of you have tried to answer), my friends doing relief work in Baton Rouge tell me that the town had swelled to 2 1/2 times its normal size by Saturday night, and there wasn’t a single gas station with any gas still open between NO and Baton Rouge. </p>
<p>The planes on the other hand, had plenty of fuel, and plenty of space, and plenty of passengers who had PAID for their tickets. What they lacked was profit from passengers who wanted to fly into New Orleans, or an order from the Dept. of Homeland Security/FEMA (to whom, for this purpose, Blanco didn’t even have to cede authority) that they had to.</p>
<p>Any at rate, all of those buses were under federal control by Saturday, according to the President (as were the planes, if Brown/Chertoff chose to use them):</p>
<p>“The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe … Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.”</p>
<p>Mini seems to think he’s onto something with this Stafford Act business, particularly Title V, which he keeps quoting–paraphrasing, actually, and loosely, at that. It’s a rather extensive document, and Title V doesn’t support his point. Neither do Titles I-IV.</p>
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I’m not sure what blog Mini is paraphrasing, but the Stafford Act doesn’t say what he wants it to say. <a href=“http://www.ohioema.org/robertt.htm[/url]”>http://www.ohioema.org/robertt.htm</a></p>
<p>I have seen thousands of people quickly taken from a football game in the middle of Madison (where there is little parking by the stadium) and Seattle in busses in a matter of an hour. The busses line up at streets next to the stadium and people board and they take off as fast as they fill. It’s not that hard.</p>
<p>Here’s the entire unedited White House Statement regarding federal emergency aid as “authorized under Title V,” which is linked and quoted above.
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<p>You cannot operate aircraft on debris covered runways (foreign object damage destroys engines, causing catatrosphic failures that can lead to loss of aircraft and lives); you cannot operate an aircraft in high cross winds (aerodynamically unsafe, they just can’t land in these conditions)…so, it wasn’t about money, Mini, it was about safety and not endangering any more lives. No airline captain choses to place his aircraft, crew, or passengers at risk regardless of any ideas you may have about it. Period.</p>
<p>Iflyjets…this is off topic but it is nice to see you posting as it has been a while, I think! If this drew you to post, great! I hope your daughter has loved Furman. I have not seen you post since she entered a year ago. Hope you will join in on CC outside this thread as well.
Susan</p>