[Well, crap! This would probably work better if i sent it to the list, instead of Greg. I didn't notice that there doesn't seem to be a Reply-to set for this list. (And i just did it again, with another thread. D'oh!.)]
Ok, i realise that my audience, here, does include the actual author. Nonetheless... Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:51:05 -0400, "Greg Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | Comments by Don of Niagara Falls: | Here is a partial list of the 40+ nations that have offered financial | assistance, specialist help, material assistance, transportation assistance, | and other assistance. ... Meanwhile, our President dumbfounded all by declaring that we don't want no for'n he'p. | The Blame Game. Where do we start? It seems that the Media, | the politicians, and most individuals blame Bush. I am so f'g sick of people calling anyone who criticises the actions of any part of the federal government, a Bush Basher. I, for one, *rarely* point the finger squarely at that particular person. (I do have my impression of him--that being of a man with the emotional stability of a 10 year old, and a profound talent for public embarrassment--which tends to make our entire country look stupid for having him in office. But that is another story.) I realise that there are some, who do wantonly point fingers at him in particular, without considering if he's the actual relevant target--which he often is not. But i have also been called a Bush Basher, in situations when i never mentioned him. I blame a lot of people. Pointing the finger specifically at Dubya, is just as stupid as idolising him. Our country does not revolve around our President (much as he often seems to want it to.) Regardless of which side of which fences you may be on, there is a lot more to the picture than the President. He is but a small part of a much larger bad situation--which may or may not be relevant, here. | I believe that there is enough blame to go around. | Starting with those fools back in the early 1700s who | decided to build a levee and start a city below sea level. BZZZZT. it was not below sea level at that time. It is sinking. This is why many are suggesting that the submerged part of the city be yielded to Lake Pontchartrain; it is going to continue getting harder to keep that land. Of course, the powers that be have been ignoring that fact for at least 30 years; so i don't expect them to stop now. (Therein guilt lies all over the stinkin' place.) | On Friday (before Katrina struck), Pres Bush called the Govs of LA and MS | and state of emergency was declared. He recommended a 'mandatory | evacuation'. Gov of LA issued a voluntary evacuation notice Saturday | afternoon at 2:30 PM CDT. Gov of LA issued a mandatory evacuation order | Sunday at 9:30 AM CDT. The storm hit the Louisiana coast on | Monday morning at 6:00 AM CDT. And, it was almost 24 hours later | that it was recognized that the levees had been broken. Yes, some bad moves. Politics is messy. You don't want to piss off your constituants by making them shut down their businesses. (No, i am not condoning this.) But what was done, having been done, one might think that a prior declaration of emergency, would have everyone prepared. Some local organisations were, and got cooking right away. FEMA, on the other hand, were tragically slow off the mark. And Mike Brown's excuses were those of a spoiled incompetant who got his job, with no relevant credentials, by having a buddy in the right place. (See? I'm not blaming GWBush. I'm blaming the backscratching bullcrap that is, unfortunately, SOP in the business world.) | First question, Why did the LA Gov wait almost 48 hours to order a | mandatory evacuation? For that matter, why didn't the Mayor order a | mandatory evacuation? (Maybe they wanted to keep the | French Quarter open a little longer?) Highly likely. Money talks. Business is bullcrap. This does not excuse FEMA's fumbling, and sabotage. | do any of you remember the Media bobble heads talking on | Monday evening news, that N.O. had apparently dodged the bullet[?] | ... But, by morning (Tuesday), ... someone realized that there was a real big | problem. ... | So it seems that at least 72 hours were wasted. ... | I wonder if any investigation will try to figure out why local | officials waited so long to react. Local efforts *were* engaging on tuesday. And the situation was all over the news. (Yet the relevant federal people were somehow oblivious.) | the Media has time and again cited the fact that many NGs | [National Guards] are in Iraq. I saw one bobble head asking a police | chief in MS what he thought about the fact [that] 7,000 MS NGs were | in Iraq. He got the obvious answer. But, what he did not say/note was | are an additional 17,000 MS NGs, at home, not deployed, available for | the fact that there Katrina relief. In fact, within 8 hours driving there are | 121,000 NGs who are not deployed to Iraq. And, throughout the US, | approximately 300,000 NGs not deployed to Iraq. "Stretched Thin?" Why are *any* of our NATIONAL guard off on a project outside of our NATION, to guard (arguably) stolen petroleum fields. | Everyone, I'm sure, has heard the complaint that Bush waited too long | before sending in the NGs. If I may, let me explain a couple of the | finer points of law. First, the President CANNOT activate NGs for | civil crises until he receives a formal request by the Gov concerned. The author just refuted their eariler argument. The (very roughly) 3rd of the Nat'l Guard people *and* equipment (incl deep-water vehicles--yeah those are vital in Iraq) that were confiscated from LA and MS, could have been mobilised by those state governments *without* Presidential order. | If the Gov or Sheriff activates the NGs, they (the State) assume the | costs: salaries, food, housing, fuel, transportation, etc. If the | President activates the NGs, then the federal government picks up | the costs (that's you and me - the tax payers, people!). The state gov'ts are also you and me. (At least AL includes me.) "Lucky" for those states that they didn't have a full force to deploy. | Also what they did not understand is that if they had activated the NGs | as soon as the President started activations, their troops would have | been covered by the Federal order. And, they would have still saved | money, AND the troops would have been there much sooner. The author is suggesting that there were no activations at all. I am not certain if this is the case. So, perhaps, they would have had more time before FEMA finally showed up, to tell them to shut down operations, and vandalise their communications equipment (causing more resources to be taken away from rescue efforts, to repair and guard the lines). (I don't offer an explanation of why they did these things--just that it doesn't make any sense within the *known* context (which suggests agenda that they're not telling us about.)) | Please note [that] I-10 no longer exists ... and it will be gone for 3-5 | years. ... that leaves only one way in and out of N.O. - I-10 NW. Expressways are not the only way to get around | I've rambled on a bit, but, I hope I've given you a different view. | There is blame at all levels. Yes [though "guilt" is syntactically more appropriate, here]. | The important thing right now is the feeding, clothing, | and caring for those who have lost everything. Yes. But we also need to run interference against continuing f'up. | By the way, I wonder how many tree huggers are getting a petition together | to declare N.O. a National Wetland Sanctuary, and to not allow any people to | return. Again, it has been becoming steadily more difficult to keep that land (hence the levee overhaul project, that people are going on about the federal funding having been yanked from). It is going to continue to become more difficult. That land is not land; it is silt. It should never have been built upon to begin with. The city should have been migrating inland ever since they realised that that part of it was sinking. At this point it should be seriously be considered to stop fighting nature, and (after the cleanup) let Lake Ponchartrain take the part that was submerged. But then again, Haliburton are going to make a lot of money from the rebuilding contract. | Please, God, put your arms around my shoulders and your hand over my mouth. Heh heh. I know the feeling. -- Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _______________________________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
