Hurricane Katrina

[Asthaloth]

i stayed out of this because, well, im an oppinionated egotystical jerk.
nevertheless.

this is a post on another forum regarding the "bush is an idjit, he isnt doing anything" camp.
says everything i want to in anone alienating way.

I'm not trying to be political. This isn't a political situation.

However people (especially from overseas) need to know that this isn't a matter of the federal government simply saying "we'll handle it" and doing so.

The Constitution puts clear limits on federal power. We can't simply "send the Army in" when there is a disaster.

The person in charge isn't FEMA or the President or the Secretary of Defense - it is the governor of the state in question.

One of the articles linked above even had a quote from the National Guard commander in Michigan to the effect that they can't send anyone until formally asked. LA's governor waited days before doing that.

Another article pointed out that lots of boats wanted to go in and suggested that FEMA was being dense by saying no.

Wrong. FEMA was quite smart.

The river and whole area is one massive navigational hazard. In addition, fuel and hazardous chemicals are all over the place. They are one spark from a huge fire and the last thing we need is a makeshift flotilla without any central control setting a fire and getting tons of its own members killed.

Disasters of this scope take time to sort out. It appears that the local officials didn't know how bad things were and delayed taking decisive action. Normally my attitude is to suck it up and drive on.

Now they're blaming everyone but themselves, which doesn't help anyone. CYA may make you feel better, but it doesn't feed anyone or save any lives.

What really gets to me is how stupid some of these criticism are. You can't have it both ways. One of the articles blames Bush for delaying flights because he visited New Orleans.

Yet tons of sites whine that he didn't get there soon enough.

I do not envy our leaders right now. They are in a tough situation and have to make hard choices. In a lot of cases, there are no good answers, only the least worst option.

But the petty sniping is really beneath people - particularly the ones that know better.

I'll give folks a pass who only see what's on the news or what they pick up on Daily Kos (garbage in, garbage out there), but Mayor Nagin and his crew know better. And that's what bothers me the most.

[Igg]

I'm not trying to criticise or stir, but it does strike me as weird that a nation as rich as the USA needs so much foreign aid. I'm nod criticising it or saying it's not justified, but it's funny how things work.

[Christopher]

I'm not trying to criticise or stir, but it does strike me as weird that a nation as rich as the USA needs so much foreign aid. I'm nod criticising it or saying it's not justified, but it's funny how things work.

Iraq > Money

I assume that's the case.

[.neko.]

95% of America's wealth is controlled by 5% of the population.

[Igg]

I'm not trying to criticise or stir, but it does strike me as weird that a nation as rich as the USA needs so much foreign aid. I'm nod criticising it or saying it's not justified, but it's funny how things work.

Iraq > Money

I assume that's the case.

I don't really think if the Iraq Wat hadn't happened, there wouldn't be international aid for America.

*le shrug*

[Tharkun]

I heard that someone drove into New Orleans, and in that particular area, there were working traffic lights and a neon sign advertising bingo. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a good sign.

[Christopher]

I'm not trying to criticise or stir, but it does strike me as weird that a nation as rich as the USA needs so much foreign aid. I'm nod criticising it or saying it's not justified, but it's funny how things work.

Iraq > Money

I assume that's the case.

I don't really think if the Iraq Wat hadn't happened, there wouldn't be international aid for America.

*le shrug*

I mean Iraq is taking all the money

[Matt]

I know I am not a Misc. Discussion mod, but I'm going to point this out.

This thread is not for debating, political or religious discussion. In fact, there is a post like that in the Debating Group for that purpouse. You all konw this thread isn't for this. Can we try to turn it around to another discusison please?

[Runevalkyrie]

In additon to what Matt said.... if this continues I will lock this thread since this has been the second problem I've seen with this thread (and to be honest I don't want to.)

[Igg]

I'm not trying to criticise or stir, but it does strike me as weird that a nation as rich as the USA needs so much foreign aid. I'm nod criticising it or saying it's not justified, but it's funny how things work.

Iraq > Money

I assume that's the case.

I don't really think if the Iraq Wat hadn't happened, there wouldn't be international aid for America.

*le shrug*

I mean Iraq is taking all the money

Yeah, I know...if it hadn't happened, the money wouldn't be going into it. Idiot.

[Lilac~The Fainting Queen]

Whee! I'm excited about something and I think this topic does need a bit of a change of pace. So this really has little to do with anything anyone has been talking about except the fact that it relates to Hurricane Katrina victims.

This is going to sound really offtopic, but bear with me. The last three or so days, I've been working late morning to after dark cleaning out my garage. Unfortunately, it doesn't really look any better than when my family started, because we emptied out 3 modules of deep storage into our garage to save money. It is kind of crazy that we have so much junk/stuff still because we threw out/gave away SO much stuff.

Anyway, so I found like 3 boxes of childhood books, most of which are paperbacks that will deteriorate long before I ever really want them again (ie. when I have kids, although that isn't as long off as I make it out to be! eeple. Have to go to college and get married first though, haha ).

So my mom was watching the news last night (okay, so I hardly ever watch TV, that's why I'm always mentioning my mom watching TV), and on one of our local channels they talked about how they need children's toys and books for the victims of the hurricane who lost EVERYTHING, and they gave an address of where you could send this stuff.

Before I had been planning on giving most of my childhood books to the salvation army or maybe selling them on ebay, but now I'm excited 'cause I can finally do something that actually FEELs like helping. So I'm going to box up those books soon and send them off, probably some toys too. It is also nice to finally be able to help, because I don't feel comfortable donating to the red cross (for reasons some of you have touched here that I don't particularly want to go into right now).

So, yeah. I'm excited, and it is pathetic how easy this will be for me. Especially since I need to get rid of stuff before I leave in a week for collge. Which is why I have basically zilch in the excuse department for not doing it.

[Edit: Oooh, 100th post! haha. seems like such a long time ago I had my last hundredth post...]

[Sweet Pea]

Speaking of donating items and things, I have a bunch of clothes that I never wear anymore. The stuff just sits in my drawers. @.@ Maybe I can donate some clothes or something.

oOo, I also have some books... Maybe there's some I can let go. :3

I haven't really helped the hurricane victims yet so this would be great. I have to talk to my mom then.

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Is it getting crowded in Texas or some states so other states are helping out? Are groups of victims being transfered to all kinds of states nearby their home states?

*I've only seen a bit of the news.* X3 I think there's like 600+ victims located in the old coliseum in NC.

They're going to be with us for a while. We have to have kids going to schools. Just thinking bout this...the victims' lives are disrupted. Jobs are gone. Kids and families have to start over again. It's really terrible. :|

[oogabooga]

They're sending people all over the place. We've got a few in the coliseum here at Georgia Tech - but that makes sense because we're fairly close. What doesn't make so much sense is that about a thousand people have been sent to Utah, and some to Arizona and Colorado. Imagine what a change that would be from Lousiana!

[Dragonfire]

They're sending people all over the place. We've got a few in the coliseum here at Georgia Tech - but that makes sense because we're fairly close. What doesn't make so much sense is that about a thousand people have been sent to Utah, and some to Arizona and Colorado. Imagine what a change that would be from Lousiana!

I live in Austin, and now that Houston is filled up they've sent people to here, Dallas, and San Antonio. One of our convention centers is now a shelter, and the other is a temporary triage.

[Charisma]

DC had a 24 hour delay last time I saw the news, yesterday, in getting people up here. I'm glad that we are going to help out some, it's not the best place to stay, the DC Armory but at least it's a bed for the time being. A lot of volunteer doctors are getting ready too to help out when they come in, and there is so much stuff donated by people that they can't fit anymore of it in their storage

My boss went to help out, he went was called over the holiday. I'm so proud of him lol, I feel ike his mom or something. I hope he's safe. His platoon is handing out food and such down there. I wish I could do more hands on things to help out, sometimes you justs feel so useless up here while everyone else seems to be involved.