What is wrong with America? What is so wrong that we just abandon the sick and the poor, for no apparent reason whatsoever; and chock it up to ignorance? This, of course goes beyond the current tragedy in New Orleans and Mississippi, but the tragedy is a shining example of where we continually look the other way; when all of the warning signs are so crystal clear, a blind person could spot them at 50 paces. So WHY??? Why GW? (And don’t think that I am just talking to GW… I am talking to the rest of the government, FEMA, and all those guys.) Why do you continually operate under this intense level of ignorance? Does it make you feel better that you are doing nothing to make people lives better? Does it make you feel better to take all these vacations and essentially remain “out to lunch” intellectually; so much so that a disaster strikes the nation, one that was touted as eminent, and we remain unprepared and unwilling to take action? What about this works for you?
Also, how can you place the blame on the people that are suffering? The asshole director of FEMA said that it was the people’s fault for not leaving! (i.e. it was their responsibility to heed our warnings) WHAT??? These people are to blame the levees didn’t hold, like they were told they should? These people are to fault that the city flooded? How would you respond if someone told to leave your ENTIRE life behind? Don’t you think that you would be a little hesitant? What if you had no where to go? Even more than that, are the people that COULDN’T LEAVE!!! There are those that had no transportation. What about the poor, the sick, the old????? WHAT ABOUT THEM YOU FUCKER??? Is it there fault too? FUCK YOU, YOU ASSHOLE. (taken from this article)
You see, this illustrates something that should have been clear before today: the time for games is over; the time to listen and make some changes has begun. Why not start by funding items such as disaster relief? Why not adequately build levees to resist more than a category 3 hurricane, when you KNOW that a 4 or 5 are possible? As was the case in New Orleans, the failure of levees and the possibility of a “doomsday scenario” was actually discussed BEFORE last week; long before. People came to the government and asked for money. Asked for a system to prepare for this situation. But the government didn’t listen. Changes could have been made and people could have been more prepared, but still nothing happened. (This in NO WAY means that it is the people’s fault for not leaving, or being prepared. They had no way to be prepared!) And then Bush’s DUMB ass has the nerve to say shit like: (as Paul Krugman so eloquently put it in this article)
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
How can these fuckers possibly sleep at night, knowing that they could have done something to prevent a lot of this, or at the very least minimize the situation? How does it feel to know that there are people that are crying out for help that are not even being heard? I have said it before, and I stand by it: sometimes it makes me sick to call myself American. I say this, because calling myself American means that I, like every other American, am grouped with these people that make these decisions, policies, and portray downright stupidity. We, as a nation dropped the ball, when in actuality, we could have done something about it! And still can!!! So what are we waiting for? The time has come to stop being a fuck up GW. Get your head out of your ass, and run the country. The 49% of us that DIDN’T vote for you don’t want to continually see the nation get fucked over and over for the next 3.5 years; there isn’t much more these people can take.
Start by sending some fucking food and water to New Orleans and Mississippi, cause damn, people are deeply in need. The Director of FEMA said that he “didn’t know people were in the New Orleans convention center, until today (Thursday, September 1)”. Where have you been? With your head up your ass?? Get the damn people out of there. What the fuck are we doing letting them lay down there without water and food? I know that we are “working at it”, but what is taking so long, we knew there was a problem late last week, and we are just now getting to it!?!?!?! I just don’t understand this!
There are dead bodies lying next to screaming children. As one man put it, “I wouldn’t even treat my dog this way. I at least buried my dog.” And you know what, he is right. No one should be treated this way. Sure, I know that action is being taken, but it is nowhere near enough, and those in the government, that actually have the ability to take action, KNOW THAT. So why not do something about it? And take note that this situation is not an isolated incident. There are things like this that could happen all of the time; which takes us back to the listening and changing point I made above. Why must we keep dropping the ball, Bush, why??????
And finally, I want to know: how much of your money are you donating to this disaster relief, Bush? I want to hold you accountable, now. I for one am donating money, and HOPE BEYOND HOPE that this crisis is under control before too many more have to lose their lives. My heart goes out to those people suffering down there, and I wish things could be different; hopefully next time, they will.
Also insightful, check out this article
From my experience here in Iraq, I can tell you that moving mountains of one supply (medical materiel) isn’t that easy. I can only imagine the folks that are trying to get stuff to those in N.O. who did not heed the warnings. Again, I agree that there are some that could not get out due to whatever reason (trans, illness, means $). The fact remains that no system is prepared to deal with the tens of thousands of people w/in less than 72hrs. The hurricane was projected to hit FL and to just move any type of contingency materiel from one location to the next is no small task. I guess I am talking from personal experience and can tell you the task is much harder than it looks. I have a lot of assets here to move supplies and it is still a daily struggle.
I would not want to be involved in the planning and execution of getting thousands of trucks into an unknown situation and when coms are spotty and you hear about shootings, you can’t send people into that situation until it is secure. The majority of the FEMA response and contingency is run by contracts who are staffed by civilians. They are not trained in riot control and would be overwhelmed and we’d be in a worse situation. I do think there could have been more done, but I do not think it would still be able to cope with the onslaught of people who remained in a city that is under sea level.
Hindsight is 20/20 on whose fault it is for not building stronger levees and who ordered the evacuation and didn’t see what other provisions were needed (trans, housing). There are a lot of infrastructure improvements needed throughout the country. If we prepared for the very worst EVERWHERE, we’d be a broken country. Is Atl ready for the next hurricane, tornado, heat wave, snow storm, ice storm, earthquake? Probably not 100% ready for any of those, but I know there are plans and no one can be prepared for every contingency.
Can we really depend on the federal government for everything? If you are, then you will be disappointed.
Andy, I agree that we cannot count on the government for everything, but some things, we should be able to. In this case, and I am referring to the breach of levees and the subsequent flooding which caused all of these problems in NO, it was not only predicted, but it was a scenario that was well known and heavily discussed. Many people knew that this could happen, yet the funding for preparations was steadily and continually cut.
I guess I am so upset, because it should have been handled differently. Yes, it is difficult, in fact, I would venture to say damn near impossible, to handle the amount of aid that is needed in the area right now; but this isn’t something that was a surprise. They knew that something like this was going to eventually happen. They also knew the week prior to the hurricane hitting NO, that it was at least a possibility that it could happen. To me, that is enough of a reason to do something about it then, before it got too bad.
It has also been known and stated for years that if those levees broke, this is what would happen, yet they were not being rebuilt or repaired, due to cuts in federal spending. I think that this gives us more than ample reason to demand answers from the government, and more than ample right to hold them very responsible for what is going on down there. The fact of the matter is that it didn’t have to happen this way; and if it was going to happen, they knew about it, and should have been better prepared. Prevention is always better than cleaning up the mess after it has already happened… trust me, I have a masters degree that qualifies me to make such a statement.