I'm ready to start pointing fingers
POSTED BY: embers
UPDATED: Sunday, March 8, 2026 23:08
VIEWED: 10706
PAGE 3 of 6
This disaster did not have to be this big. There are at least two things that contributed to the situation spiraling out of control: policy decisions made over the past many years and the implementation of the relief effort. To my mind, there’s no point in pointing fingers about the policy decisions. They are what they are and we have to live with them. Sure it would be nice if FEMA hadn’t been demoted and gutted since Witt left. But it was. Sure it would be nice if the levee repair budgets hadn’t been slashed year after year. But they were. Sure it would be nice if all of the local National Guard troops and equipment were home where they belong. But they aren’t. I could go on and on. But there’s no point. We agreed to the tax cuts and the Iraq War when a majority of voters returned this administration to office. It’s a bit late to start complaining now.
What I can complain about, however, is the implementation of the relief effort. Not the bottom up side of things. I have no complaint about the hospital workers, or the law enforcement agents, or the helicopter crews, or anyone who’s helping out in New Orleans itself. They’ve responded above and beyond the call of duty But they’re spread too thin. They need help. And the people who are supposed to get them that help, the people at the top, let us down. Not so much the city or the state level (the new theme is to tar the mayor and the governor in this weird blame the victims and those on the front lines mentality - although, on further reflection, there are a number of things they failed to do) but moreso the federal level. This is what big government is for, to handle the BIG problems.
I wanted my President on the phone, the moment he found out about the breaks in the levee, kicking ass and taking names. Calling up Fed Ex and taking over half their fleet. Telling the CEO to coordinate with the Red Cross. Within twenty-four hours there should be planes landing with supplies, two planes an hour or better. Get that airport fully staffed and operational yesterday. And start flying in emergency personnel. They’re out there and just chomping at the bit to help. Calling up Amtrak and taking over half their fleet. Telling them they need to be getting a fifteen car passenger train out of New Orleans filled with people every hour. Calling up Union Pacific and every other freight carrier that uses New Orleans and telling them they need to be getting construction equipment and dirt into the city. We can’t use the streets because they’re flooded? We’ll just dump dirt until we can. Calling up Greyhound and getting busses heading towards New Orleans on the double. Calling up every oil company he knows to start setting up fuel depots for the busses and enough aviation fuel to keep the planes flying. Calling up the governor of every neighboring state and telling them that they’re about to get a shitload of refugees coming in. Deal with it. Tell everyone not to worry about the cost, that he’ll go to Congress and beat up every Senator and Congressperson if he has to, but they’ll be reimbursed. Keep your receipts but don’t worry about it. Now is the time for action. Sending the message from the very top, “We’re Americans and we can do anything we set our minds to. We’ve got a lot of people that need help. Let’s do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
New Orleans is the number one port in the United States. One thing they know how to do down there is move mass quantities of stuff in and out. I don’t think the airport, rail lines, docks, and highways into the city were damaged by the hurricane. We should’ve done better. The job will get done. But we got off to a shaky start. People died that didn’t have to die and somebody should pay for that. But it won’t bring anyone back from the dead.
I'm just frustrated.
* editted to spread some blame to the city and state officials as well. No need to be excluding people.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I must agree whole heartedly with soupcatcher. They should have said to hell with the cost, let's get our people safe. But you have to remember that we are the country of gluttony. We have to have all of everything, and we do not like to share unless it benifits us directly.
And will anything happen to Bush? No. This is the same man that outright lied to us about this "war" we have going on. Everyone knows that he lied, he knows but what did we "all knowing" americans do? We KEPT him in office!
Granted blame needs to be somewhere, and that goes straight to the american people as a whole. We are to blame because we allowed a man who does not even know his native tongue to REMAIN as our president. 
There, that is all I shall say on this topic.....and yes, I am mad that I did not get to go to DragonCon. Maybe if gas was not $5 a gallon I could have saved enough money to go. 
Tell you what, the more I watch Firefly I think, horses, yeah. That is a good idea.
gas prices
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
MAC, you're a moron. Why don't you and AJ go exchange your baseless ignorant excuses between yourselves and leave the conversation to people who really give a crap. I mean it. Just go away, you are callous and stupid beyond belief, and you'd kiss Bush's butt even as he was shitting on you. Which he is.
Please don't think they give a shit.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
And now comes the finger pointing, spinning, and lying from our favorite White House team! Get the popcorn, and count the lies, its going to be fun! Already, the White House (and its stupid synchophants) are blurring the timeline, and obscuring Bush's itinerary from Aug 27 through Sep 2. Now Michael Chertoff- the man who is supposed to be in charge of Homeland Security- says:
Quote:." www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.chertoff/index.html
...government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.... Chertoff, fielding questions from reporters, said government officials did not expect both a powerful hurricane and a breach of levees that would flood the city of New Orleans.
Compare this to what his immediate underling Michael Brown said a couple days ago:
Quote:edition.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/02/hurricane.drill/index.html
In a five-day, tabletop exercise last summer, emergency preparedness officials faced an imaginary "worst-case scenario" in which a hurricane hit the New Orleans, Louisiana, area... Participants drew up action plans for dealing with the storm's aftermath in which calls for evacuation were partially heeded, water pumps were overwhelmed, corpses floated in the streets and as many as 60,000 people died -- mostly by drowning.
And experts have been predicting the magnitude of this disaster for years
Quote:www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/katrina.doomsday/
Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center and director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes in Baton Rouge {said}
Floodwaters from the east would carry toxic waste from the "Industrial Canal" area, nicknamed after the chemical plants there. From the west, floodwaters would flow through an industrial complex that includes refineries and chemical plants... "So, we're looking at a bowl full of highly contaminated water with contaminated air flowing around and, literally, very few places for anybody to go where they'll be safe." The levees intended to protect the city vary in height, from as low as 10 feet above sea level to about 14 feet, he said. They too are vulnerable because they are made of earth, he said... Walter Maestri, emergency management director in neighboring Jefferson Parish ... "The way it's described, we describe it here, is Lake Pontchartrain has now become Lake New Orleans" he told CNN in 2004.
You know, the BUsh White House has been peculiarly inept about responding to disaster. (They've done a great job of creating it, tho. Just look at Iraq.)
Please don't think they give a shit.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Here is the notice of how the planning was outsourced
Quote:
June 9, 2004
IEM Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, announced it will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2004/06/09/43008.htm
And just check how prescient their model was! They planned for
Quote:http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1022/1386/1600/extract.jpeg
'Sustaining winds of 120mph... destroyed over 75% of the structures in its path, and left the majority of New Orleans under 15-20 feet of water... Sheltering, temporary housing, and temporary medical care' were chosen as areas to focus on 'functional plans' were put in place, that can be 'implemented immediately'.
If the response was poor, it wasn't for lack of imagination or planning. So...
Please don't think they give a shit.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Gennie:
I must agree whole heartedly with soupcatcher. They should have said to hell with the cost, let's get our people safe. But you have to remember that we are the country of gluttony. We have to have all of everything, and we do not like to share unless it benifits us directly.
Except for the $350 million donated to disaster relief or the $10.5 billion aid package, right?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by GinoBiffaroni:Quote:
Originally posted by evilmike:
And assigning blame without the facts is the only alternative?
I'd like somewhere in the middle... but then again I don't really think blame will fall on those it should anyway... if past history is any judge.
Remember, I'm all for people getting the blame they deserve. I just don't think it serves the issue to make charges without information. For example, I think the charges made at the start of the thread were inaccurate -- how do we point fingers based on that?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Could we please stop using that ridiculous little sound bite?
Originally posted by MacBaker:
I'm continually amazed at the Bush blame game going on here.
Anytime someone is called into question as to his actions or in-actions regarding the deaths of people it is a serious matter. I doubt that Charles Manson feels that he was the victim of the 'Manson Blame Game', rather that he was judged on his doings.
I doubt Mac, that you realize the scope of the screw up here.
Or that you just don't WANT to believe your president and your government don't care that much about the average citizen.
Snake Plissken would be ashamed of your blind support of these thugs. No, that's right, he doesn't give a shit. And he's still a more caring soul than our president.
Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
And the Oscar goes to...
Originally posted by SimonWho:
Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Bush fans take note of these two very important points!
Originally posted by SoupCatcher:
I wanted my President on the phone, the moment he found out about the breaks in the levee, kicking ass and taking names.
New Orleans is the number one port in the United States. One thing they know how to do down there is move mass quantities of stuff in and out.
Chrisisall
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME