Well, after sending in donations, what else is there to do? Figure out what went
wrong, how it went wrong, and who caused it to go wrong.

All I see when I turn on the news are the same socialist anti-war protestors from th
epast few years changing their signs to read “Bush caused Katrina because he didn’t
sign Kyoto” and now, “People are dying because Bush is a racist”.

This is all over the place, and it’s insulting on a number of fronts.
There is a group of protestors getting hurricane refugees to protest at the white
house, saying that Bush must stop putting the blame on the local government and
accept responsibility.

The thing that disgusts me is that we have these displaced people, who were stuck in
a flooded disaster zone because of their dependence on the government for help
(excluding thsoe too weak or old to leave), despite their being warned to leave,
blaming the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for not having an adequate exac plan.

None of it is acceptable. The violence is not acceptable. It’s sickening to see it in
my country – nobody’s denying that! I happen to find it even more sickening that
some people (CertainDemocrats, Race-warloard scumbags(JJ and AS, etc.),
Hollywood ignorants, and the like) have taken this disaster as an oppurtunity to
attack the president.

While he is the highest power, his power when it comes to State matters is not in fact
the “ultimate ” power. the President can’t send in the troops – the governer has that
power. The president does not have the ultimate say in matters of the sate.

I was immediatly sickened at the lack of evacuation preparation taken by the City of
New Orleans. I was also sickened by the time it took to get the relief into the areas
it was needed. The Red Cross had TONS of supplies to go in to the Superdome –
but the governer ordered them not to deliver it. They wanted people OUT of the
Dome, not flocking into it. apparantly they didn’t think that there were people
starving in the damned thing. The wonders of our modern big government
beurocracy.

Yeah, you’re right – I didn’t see the original Mad Max until a few weeks ago. Not
the same post-apocolyptic landscape as thunderdome… I thought it was still
supposed to be after a major war.

Nobody’s defending the way things came to be. There’s been some MAJOR F**k
up’s in the process, and people are going to have to answer some questions.
U;timatly, it’snot going to come down to racism, evil will or a massive conspiracy.
It’ll end up being big government burocrats, passing the buck, lots of misplaced tax
dollars and a big helping of corruption thrown in for good measure. All of it leading
up to mistake after mistake and lots of damage.

Regardless, the victims can go one of two ways: Blame the government for not
taking care of them, resettle and resume a victim mentality. OR, they can see that
this is an example of how we can NEVER depend on anything(especially
Government) but ourselves when it comes to our own safety and that of our family.

However at that point, the President could have taken charge and engendered urgency and broken some barriers, if he had believed it neccasary and appropriate, and over-ridden any limitations. This also did not happen. Whether this was a personal failure, a failure of the system or a failure of the political structure needs to be decided later – but it was
a failure.

This cannot happen, it cannot be allowed to happen.

The laws that prevent this from happening are there for a damned good reason. The president’s power is great, but very limited in a national scope. We want him to have power over outside threats, but less power over us. This prevents him from becoming an all powerful dictator. There’s no way in all the nine hells that a president would ever come into a city or state push aside the elected government, and impose HIS will – not in MY country.

I am intrigued by so many ‘hawks’ (I trust that’s an acceptable term) who are usually proud of the ‘can do’ culture and ultimate power of the President pointing out how many administrative problems he has in the way preventing him protecting his citizens. Ultimatlely, if true, these are
excuses which must be dealt with for next time.

Ultimate power? You are mistaken. More power than any other individual, yes. More power than all the other indiviuals, no way.

In state and local matters such as this, the federal government (including the president) operates at the request of the state, not on its own. This is not a problem. This is the way it must be.

Problems to be addressed are at the local level mainly, with the FEMA beuracracy needing some checking as well.

I find the image of police being shot in the back while trying to save lives beyond horrific. The murderer who pulled that trigger is primarily responsible. The creation of that ‘Mad Max’ type situation is a failure of the society, under incredible pressures.

No, not really. Mad Max was after a nuclear war in a wide open, barren landscape.

The situation in NO was one of oppurtunity a single DAY after a hurricane. The looting and lawlessness occurred before the real disaster – the breaking of the levees. The people that engaged in the looting and shooting were there for the looting and shooting.

Most people didn’t loot. These people did. They were the criminals and scumbags of New Orleans prior to the hurricane. They just stayed in large numbers and took advantage of the situation afterwards.

Whose fault it is I don’t know, but as one person said, reported on the BBC, a dictator would have done better at organising a reaction.

This is a gem. Of course a dictator could have been better at organizing a response. They have complete control over their country.

A president does not. No one man can adequatly control all of a government, let alone respond to all emergencies. For those reasons, power is dispersed, and ultimatly, in the hands of the people.

Unfortunatly, the people of New Orleans elected Major Nagin and Governor Blanco. They are surely not the only people who are to blame. It is clear that they were incompitent in the face of such a disaster (one that was so easily forseen, it has been a topic of college hydrology and hydrogeology classes for decades). They made a mistake electing these people.

Ever watch the mayor of NO speak? The guy makes George Bush sound like tony Blair…

If a president were to impose his power over the state and local governments, he woud esentially BE a dictator.

Then, we’ll have a disaster even bigger in scope than the hurricane.

Yes, they were terribly let down by those that they elected.
Unfortunatly, most of the people are blaming the president and the
federal government, which is not the area of government to blame.

George Bush’s administration was ready to send federal aid even before
the storm was over – but the govener decided she wanted to wait 24
hours first. Bad move.

the mayor of NO did not want to declare martial law. The mayors of all
the other major cities affected didn’t wait. they had far less looting and
crime. No crime got so bad, relief efforts had to be stopped. Bad move.

The City of NO didn’t evacuate it’s poor and helpless dependants with
its buses. Bad move. It would have been eaiser to use the buses when
the roads (and the buses) were dry. now they’re both under several feet
of water. Bad BAD move.

The federal government does not get involved with disasters unless the
city and or states request it. It is not the Fed’s buisness unless the
states say so.

the reason this is such a disaster is beacause NO has just about the most
corrupt police force, and the most corrupt government out of all 50
states. This comes from friends of mine who are from NO, and who
love the place.

I like the fact that the administration isn’t responding to the blame game
by directing the blame to those who ARE to blame. Concentrate on the
disasster, those responsible will be justly blamed in time. But it IS NOT
BUSH.

I swear, all these idiots saying “Bush is a criminal for not taking care of
us.” It’s because they depend on the government to care for them that
they are in this situation to begin with. Anyone with any degree of
self-reliance would have walked the hell out of new orleans….

The mayor and officials of NO said, days before, to get out, or you will
be on your own. Some people CHOSE to stay, some didn’t have any
means out of there. What is truely strange, is that in their procedures for
this disaster(breeching of the levees), it says that the city’s bus system
would be used to transport the poor and elderly.

There are some 800 busses sitting under water now – not one used as it
was supposed to be.

The federal government isn’t responsible for the situation. The
responsibility lies in the local officials, the city governments, the state
government, and most of all in the citizens themselves. The fact that the
poor blacks in the inner city were “left” there is not the fault of the federal
government. If it is anybody’s fault, it’s in the local or state government.

They had to bring in a degree of order to the looters before they could
do a lot of the relief work. Helicopter pilots refused to fly under fire.
When you’re dealing with bands of armed scumbags stealing and raping
without any opposition, you cannot do any good by dumping relief
supplie.s It’ll end up like somalia. All the UN relief work won’t do any
good if it all goes to Adid, and not the starving. The national guard went
in, kicked some a$$, and the crime is under control now.

Kanye West is an ignorant idiot. He has no comprehension of the way
things work in the country. First of all, the “Media” isn’t one single
individual. He’s referring to those two pictures posted online, a black
person “looting” and a white person “finding”. Did he bother to look and
notice that these pictures were taken and put out by two entirely different
outlets? The AP and another- two different companies!!! What does
that mean? THERE IS NOTHING RACIST ABOUT IT! If it were
one guy, that posted both description, then maybe. but not this case.

AL sharpton and Jesse JAckson and any other race warlord should shut
the hell up. Everyone in the damned country is disgusted to see the way
it was handled from the aftermath of the storm, to when the rescue
efforts started. It’s a human tragedy, and we look at it as such. When
these scum come in and try to get them all annoyed at the government
for being racist, it just makes me feel less sorry for them – especially
considering that they were told they would be on their own, and that they
needed to get out. But no, it’s not YOUR fault, blame Bush… Idiots
will lose a lot of sympathy with that.

Disgusting to see this happen. It’s only happening in NO. Nobody can
get in or out – and anybody that could, got out already. So what we
have is poor people stuck there. Disproportionally more violent
criminals tend to be of the low income variety. Hence, there is a
disproportionate amount of criminal scum left in the city.

My hearty really goes out to the people trapped there. For whatever
reason, they’re stuck, and need help. And these scumbags are impeding
the help.

Any looters or armed troublemakers should be shot on sight. that will
stop the looting and pillaging.

There was one old guy who was shot and killed because he didnt’ want
to give up his boat.

I knew it was going to be a problem when the news reported gangs
cleaning out the gun section of the N.O. Wal Mart. They need the
marines and AAV’s.

It’s really a worst case scenario. People here have been worrying about
New Orleans for decades. This was inevitable.

For those of you that do not know, New Orleans was built in what was
a drained swampland, in between the Mississippi River(Big A$$ed river)
and Lake Ponchatrain(Big A$$ed lake). Furthermore, th eCity is
BELOW sea level, and well below the level of both the lake and th
eriver.

Esentially, it is a depression surrounded by two massive water bodies
that are at a higher elevation that the city itself. Only massive levies and
constant pumping keep the city, well…a city and not the Gulf of
Mexico.

The Levies were built to withstand a Category 3 storm. Katrina was a
4. A cool, dry wind out of The West not only dropped it down from a
175mph category 5 monster to a categoy 4 storm at “only” 140mph – it
blew the center well to the east of New Orleans. The wind damage and
storm surge would have been much worse.

The massive amount of water flooded the lake, and the levies broke.
And when the levee breaks – you got no place to stay.

The damage is massive, but picture a bombed out city, under several feet
of water. Onl;y the water isn’t just there until the river recedes – this is
where nature intended the water to be, so it’s going to be a nightmare to
get it out.

There is really a chance that the City of New Orleans will simply be gone
– not rebuilt on site. It’s that bad.

Of course, odds are they will rebuild. they “just” need to patch about
1,000ft. of levee… Pump out billions of gallons of water, re-do th
epower grid, sewage…etc…

There is not a place in the United States where a hurricane could have
done more damage and displaced as many people.

Part of the big problem is the people that stayed. They stayed, they
survived the storm just fine. Right after the storm, everything looked as if
it was going to be just fine once the power came back. So nobody left
while they had a chance. Then the levee broke, and everyone was
stuck.

Now, there’s all looting and crap. And the looting and gangs are
slowing down the rescue effort. they’ll be delbt with in time.

So you say. Running around, seeing the entire world, drinking exotic
beer, bedding exotic women… it’s fun, for a time. It is, in the end, empty
and inconsequential. Being truely in love and raising a child is the single
most fantastic aspect of life. More time to enjoy the things in life that are
really important.

I had fun in college, but it got old. Real quick. While my friends were
still having fun after college, living in $hitty apartments with big incomes
and little responsibilities, I was getting married, buying a house and
planning a family. Now, I’m a few years “ahead” in the family thing, and
they’re gettign sick of being close to 30, in a $hitty apartment, with no
real fulfillment in their lives.

I couldn’t wait to graduate, get married, settle down and have kids.

It’s priorities. Lots of our friends have lived together for years, knowing
they were going to get married. they just spent all their extra income on
big trips all over, “enjoying life”. They didn’t understand that settleing
down and starting a family was how we enjoyed life.

I suspect that has a lot to do with why many Americans don’t travel that
much. It seems to me that many more people here are homebodies, and
are perfectly happy at or near home, and less so when they’re away.

Europeans take a lot mor elong vacations, whereas we take many small
ones. 3 day weekends, weekend trips, etc. My wife and I have only
gone on 2 or 3 week long vacations in the past 5 years. We get away at
least every month or so. 4 days in the mountains, a weekend at Myrtle
Beach, a BBQ at a friend’s house a few hours away, a few days hunting
in the woods, camping at the lake. there’s enough nearby, in driving
distance, to make big trips less important. Probably a contributing
factor as to why we drive so much.

damn, what the heck are you doing all your life. Even I have been more places than you in the US, including what many call “the freak states”. at the moment just had a 22 ounce steak, and saw a humvee earlier. Around here, lots of people with big asses ……….. that should really be a me no tap big ass.
>>>>>>>>>>>>

There’s enough nearby to hold my interests most of the time. I don’t like
traveling as much as I enjoy being home with my family. We’ve got
enough property to keep ourselves occupied. I’ts good to get out and
travel, but it’s better to be home.