Hurricane Katrina - truly shocking.

[Slow Love™]

Is anyone else horrified at what's been going on in New Orleans? I can't believe the stories that have been filtering through, of children and the elderly dying in the streets, helicopters trying to airlift out hospital patients being fired upon, and some of the awful things regarding people being attacked/raped etc at the Superdome.

Worst about all of this is that much of it could have been avoided - on one hand people have been warning the government for years that a disaster like this was waiting to happen if preventative measures weren't undertaken (and were ignored), and in addition to this, emergency services just took so long to get involved. The mayor of the city has been enraged by how the Bush administration has handled this event. And it is just atrocious.

Today I read that Chicago (and some other states) had offered hundreds of staff and much-needed emergency equipment, and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has been rejecting that assistance, saying that things are under control - when they are running out of buses and don't have nearly enough national guardsmen, emergency workers and helicopters! People are dying while they reject additional help that could be invaluable. I also find it INCREDIBLY questionable that second on the list of FEMA's approved charities for this disaster is run by Pat Robertson, the evangelist demanding the President of Venezuela be assassinated a few months ago, and who agreed with Jerry Falwell that 9/11 was a message from God to depraved liberals in America.

The Bush administration just repulses me. They are incompetent, misguided zealots and fools, and must be held to account over the severity of this disaster and their inept reaction to it. You just can't help but be furious watching this.

[Anil]

Originally Posted by Slow Love™

Is anyone else horrified at what's been going on in New Orleans?

i would say just about any half-decent person would be....the images and the stories are absolutely shocking....

[Agent TBY]

[Anil]

Originally Posted by Agent TBY

why?

[Samuel_Vimes]

It's obviously a very sad event, but I think scoring cheap political points on a natural disaster is just wrong. New Orleans was geographically unfortunate in the first place, and politicians can't move an entire city higher up - yes, perhaps solutions to the crisis could have been better, but nothing works according to plan in a crisis situation, as the infrastructure breaks down completely and no one has a clue who is doing what. We expect things to work out just like they would with any normal event, while this total destruction has just stalled everything in the area, but that's a characteristic of a natural disaster, not one of political misjudgments.

[Sanz]

Originally Posted by Slow Love™

The Bush administration just repulses me. They are incompetent, misguided zealots and fools, and must be held to account over the severity of this disaster and their inept reaction to it. You just can't help but be furious watching this.

Capitalism at its worst, really. The fact that majority of those affected are poor, has been one of the reasons why everything has been so slow and it took almost 5 days before and a furious outburst from New Orleans Mayor to get some help.

Bush is a disgrace, He waited at his ranch for 4 full days while 1000s were dying in Lousiana.

[Slow Love™]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

It's obviously a very sad event, but I think scoring cheap political points on a natural disaster is just wrong. New Orleans was geographically unfortunate in the first place, and politicians can't move an entire city higher up - yes, perhaps solutions to the crisis could have been better, but nothing works according to plan in a crisis situation, as the infrastructure breaks down completely and no one has a clue who is doing what. We expect things to work out just like they would with any normal event, while this total destruction has just stalled everything in the area, but that's a characteristic of a natural disaster, not one of political misjudgments.

It's not scoring cheap political points - it's holding an administration accountable for a situation it was repeatedly warned about (and had plenty of time to prepare for), and in response, they cut funding that desperately needed to be allocated towards improving the levees that were to protect the city (and other flood-preventative measures). And it's about holding them accountable for the poor way they are handling the situation after the event. "Things not going to plan" doesn't cover the arrogance and negligence involved in this disaster. No doubt we probably haven't even heard the worst of it yet.

Writing these criticisms of Bush off as "scoring cheap political points" is IMO very trite, particularly when there are so many people from either side of politics saying the same thing, including the stranded residents of New Orleans (and the mayor of the town). Bush couldn't even cut short what was the longest vacation in American Presidential history in order to deal with this crisis. The fact that people see these kinds of objections as solely "politically motivated" is just amazing. We should ALL be this angry, and I would be just as furious if the Democrats were in charge and their preparation/response was this inept.

Why do people fall for this lame rhetoric that says that holding an administration accountable for what is essentially a fiasco somehow discredits the criticisms made as being irrationally biased or "cheap"? It really beats the hell out of me.

[luckyeddie]

When Air Force One transported Chimpy down for his photo-opportunity, all I could think of was "How much food and water could you fit in that?"

[twctopcat]

Agree with you there SL, heard a speech Dubya gave about the disaster and obviously you cannot hit the panic button in these situations, but the man is so out of touch with the real world its untrue.

[Jamee999]

Apparently when Bush came to power he had a list of the 3 worst things that could happen to the States during his "reign".

1) Terrorist attack on NYC
2) Earthquake in the San Andreas fault
3) Catergory 4 or 5 Hurricane to hit New Orleans.

1 and 3 have happened...

[PY]

When does incompetence become gross, unlawful negligence?

I read an article that they've known for years that New Orleans was on borrowed time and yet they've still reduced funding and taken ages to get federal relief in place.

I've been on holiday for a week and I had no idea it was as bad as it is, how horrible.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by Slow Love

It's not scoring cheap political points - it's holding an administration accountable for a situation it was repeatedly warned about (and had plenty of time to prepare for), and in response, they cut funding that desperately needed to be allocated towards improving the levees that were to protect the city (and other flood-preventative measures). And it's about holding them accountable for the poor way they are handling the situation after the event. "Things not going to plan" doesn't cover the arrogance and negligence involved in this disaster. No doubt we probably haven't even heard the worst of it yet.

*spits for defending the Bush administration*

Of course it is a disaster, but my point is that some things can not be stopped by human intervention - no matter how much funding you allocate. I suppose there's some kind of twisted logic that argues that Bush has saved more American lives by spending money on an offensive war to stop terrorism than on spending money on flood breaches (I don't agree with this, but it's the logic they run on). And also, it's so easy to criticise after a major natural disaster, because it is impossible to get everything perfect. As for the mayor - shouldn't he take some of the blame instead of pushing it up to a higher level?

Not that they haven't done a lot of atrocious priorities that we might disagree with, but in this situation, the sheer size of the disaster overwhelms everyone that's involved, from politicians down to bottom-level healthworkers.

Oh well, I hate arguing for Bush anyway - I'm just a bit tired at people yelling "crucify" for something that's largely out of their control.

[Pothas]

A truely terrible event that has shocked us all in its unexpected serverity. The reaction from what is the richest and advanced nation on the world has been incompitent to say the least. I am not saying their is anything deliberate but it is no coinsidence in the fact that nearly all the people stuck in the city are poor it has exposed the weakness of the united states

[PY]

Originally Posted by Pothas

The reaction from what is the richest and advanced nation on the world has been incompitent to say the least.

Depraved is another one, it's outed a whole bunch of nutcases. What possesses someone during the middle of a crisis to sit on buildings and use sniper rifles to fire on fellow citizens and emergency services.

It just shows no matter how 'civilised' people claim to be, there's still muchos evil in humans lying dormant waiting to surface.

(Although obviously the psychos are a minority but it's still slightly scary that this is the way some people have reacted.)

[luckyeddie]

Originally Posted by PY

Depraved is another one, it's outed a whole bunch of nutcases. What possesses someone during the middle of a crisis to sit on buildings and use sniper rifles to fire on fellow citizens and emergency services.

It just shows no matter how 'civilised' people claim to be, there's still muchos evil in humans lying dormant waiting to surface.

(Although obviously the psychos are a minority but it's still slightly scary that this is the way some people have reacted.)

Think about it....

A whole city to plunder - a city full of banks and jewellers and chemists.

Keep the man out of there for a few days, snaffle the booty (no electricity = no alarms for a start) and just spirit it away. Although how you actually manage to do that with no infrastructure at all is beyond me.