Is this America?
 

I am embaresed to call this america, I have never seen anything like this in all my life...This Government has let these people suffer needlesly for 5 days !

As someone said last night, " I have never seen an administration so bent on killing poor people" I have to agree fully, Some of the pleading for help down there just rips at the heartstrings. We are the most advanced richest nation in the world, yet we cant drop water and peanut butter sandwiches to these people. How can bush watch people live on a highway overpass in 100 degree heat and say "help is coming" it should have been there the next day.

Acually everything should have been ready to go when the whitehouse saw that storm on the weather channell ! Bushes comment on GMA Yesterday " we didnt think it would happen" are you kiddin me? this is the best our president can do?

all the money this country has and not one plane braught in food or water! This is america for god sakes!

He says people should have " personall responsibility" Well if my kid needed food and a diaper you can bet I would be smashing windows in the wal-mart also. What does he do? send in troops? He is about to send in 10,000 active military!! My god he is terrifying these poor people, what he should have done is send food and doctors and HELP ! nO, THEY ARE WORRIED ABOUT "LOOTING" They trying to survive for god sakes!

It makes me sick, I wont ever vote republican again !

America , a third world country ! A country that doesnt care about its fellow americans...Its so abvious

Seems to me that the State of Louisana didn't have much of a emergency plan in place to start with. This is a dister that has been in the making long before Bush became President, the State has had many years to get ready for this. Who dropped the ball?? Having said that, I too believe the feds should be right in there to help. What's this crap I read in the morning paper, Bush may not accept "foriegn aid" form other countries that have offered?

When the "big flood" came to the heartland about 10 or so years ago, we saw convoys of food and water headding in that direction within a day or so. Haven't seen anything like that yet headding south.

Like all the rest of you, my heart goes out to the displaced people with no one to help, keep them in our prayers.

Pete

You have a right to your opinion and agree with some of what you say but assigning blame does not help anyone at this point. What needs to happen is a massive mobilization of strategic forces to go in and help these people. Unfortunately I don't see a lot of Congressional pressure being put on the powers that be.
I sincerely hope that our nations leaders are as sypathetic to the needs of their fellow Americans as they have been in the past for the victims of the Tsunami Disaster, the Sudan refugees and the starving Angolans. :bc:

Right you are! I was only expressing my opion based on the first post. There will be plenty of time for finger pointing, shouldas and couldas in the months to come. You are 100% right , those people, and not just in New Orleans, need help now.

Pete

I gotta agree with #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&.
You mean to tell me that this country is incapable of mobilizing huge amounts of food, water, shelter at a moments notice in the event of a disaster :confused:
hurricanes
earthquakes
enemy attack
.
aliens!
WTF - Tell me noone gave this any thought.
It is embarrasing.

Unfortunatly, they needed food and water and medicine and diapers days ago, they still dont have it, thats all I see....... No blame, should just be action

Bush just now said " food is on the way" I cant.wow you have to be kiddin me, we can send troops to Iraq in no time yet the richest country in the world takes 7 days to get food and water to new orleans? fellow americans? we had tsunami drops in a day of food but, this? a week? kids are dying on highway overpases, dead bodies everywhere......Its a shame.

The more bush talks the deeper he puts his foot in his mouth, he really seems not to care. Texas is doing more than the feds, a food drop could have been done instantly, there is no defense for the feds on this one, the republicans are in deep dudu for many years to come. Spending billions on an overseas war yet letting our own people die on national television, makes me sick.

The television crews can get in there but not the federal goverment. They never even offered a way out for these people who have no maney, no gas and no place to go, they wanted them out yet offered no possible way for them to get out. busses should have been there a week ago...

even if louisiana had a plan in place , the feds would have had to get involved, the scope is just to large.

Let me ask you this? what is this happend in a rich community? palm beach, or key west where all the people were rich, you can bet they would have been plucked up right away.. Just terrible

makes me sick too Bill :hs:

when the cards are laid down, republicans will always favor the rich.. always.

I hate to say it but back in 60's and 70's New Orleans was about 70% white, affluent people. Since then the class has reversed itself, now about 70% black and poor. The amount of money going back into the local infrastucture has been dramatically decreased. On top of that, the feds the past 30 years have called shoreing up and improving the levy systems a "pork barrell" issue. Now that the chit as has hit the fan, do you think the poor souls in New Orleans consider this a pork barrell issue? I can certainly understand looting for survival, water, food and clothing, but plasma monitors, jewelry and the emptying of gun shops is just plain wrong. An engineering expert last night mentioned the levy system could be improved to withstand a cat5 hurricane for about the price of the big dig project but because these levy systems are situated in poor neighborhoods, that is not likely to happen anytime soon. Sure you can blame the current administration to some degree, but I haven't heard much from Kennedy and Kerry either. Sad sad sad....

No matter what happens now, the damage is done, to the country, bush , the govenment...This will be looked at for a long time as the worst screw up in history, the mass killing of our own people. Let them starve they arent a vote anyway. And to think what other countries must be thinking.

Brace yourselves.. Bush is going down there to do some chest beating..

i forcast him standing on a pile of rubble and surrounded by a bunch of followers like the days after 9/11. i'm sure his speach writers have drafted up a real jem of a speech.

I am not saying that all that was done for the Hurricane victims was done correctly. I am saying that all this rhetoric about who is to blame serves no useful purpose. As Pete said. let's help these people and point fingers later. :zup:

Here's a GREAT idea....and one that would make Bush a hero overnight.......go down to New Orleans, have a press conference, and announce that as a result of the huge rise in gas prices - and the fact that the US gave a lifetime exemption to all energy companies to never have to pay any corporate federal taxes again -- that the US Goverment has mandated that the major oil companies must pay for the entire clean-up and redevelopment of New Orleans. If they don't, they lose their perpetual tax advantage. Oh, and the US Goverment will place a price ceiling on all retail sales of gasoline.


Kill many birds with that stone.............. :laugha:

YO!!!!! WAKE UP. YOUR DREAMING :sleeps:

I know.......but all great ideas start with a dream......... :D

Ugh it's really depressing watching the footage from New Orleans. You know im a Bush supporter be he's gonna take alot of heat. he his already from the usual suspects but i get the feeling this will hurt him with alot of folks. Is it his fault we cant get supplies in there? pob not but he is the man so he will get blamed. Even he said he was pissed off at what he was seeing. W gives the orders i guess but who carries them out and gets them the the folks? FEMA? Guard? I dunno just a big mess down there. Doesnt help any having the thugs shooting the helicoptors and the supply trucks refusing to go into downtown NO becuase they are afraid for thier lives. Big F'ing mess :( Lets just hold off on the blame game now and worry about getting the folks the F outta that hell hole of a city. If they friggen can.

It is definitely a VERY weird America we are currently living in and more and more people are extremely fed up with it.

In regards to pointing fingers, what has happened down there could have been seen coming the moment the hurricane went Cat 4. Again, no one wants to be accused of crying wolf, but I'm sure many people saw this level of destruction coming (the gov't can't be that dumb) and didn't prepare for it.

Power loss, flooding, heat, humidity, disease, death, atom bomb-like desctruction of homes, all compounding together into what we have now. I'm no expert and I knew this was coming last Saturday. I think a lot of other people did too which is why there is so much controversy.

How fast do you think the National Guard, Army, FEMA, etc. would have been in there helping people out if this hurricane had hit Texas or Kennebunkport, ME....?? Think about it......watch TV.....all the people who are suffering so much right now in New Orleans are poor people.......makes me want to puke -- and I am DEFINATELY leaning Democrat in the next election now.

So your saying Bush wants the poor black people to suffer and die? Thats a stupid and shameful statment. How about ALL those poor people that were rescued off roof tops? Why didnt the gov. give the order to let them sit and rot? I know this an emotinal time going on but you cant honestly believe what you just said can you??

Shame on the US gov.
 

How is it we can land a batallion around the world in 24 hours but it takes 5 friggin days to get food and water to US citizens. Call me what you want ,but if that was 50,000 middle aged white guys they would be tailgating by now.We are the laughing stock of the world right now.
Please give to the Red Cross.

I'm glad to see you can only think about the political side of things.

Amazing....all the Bush lovers immediatly turn to "Let's not talk about politics at a time like this" whenever their guy doesn't handle something properly......I am NOT political.....just observant.

Explain why we haven't done more to help those poor people?

I never said that, so please do not put words into my mouth....what I said was the government is assessing the situation very slowly....I bet if this tragedy had hit any of their hometowns that their actions would not have taken so long.

And in case you are not as old as I am, generally speaking - the Republican party is the party of capitalism and competition, while the Democratic party has been the party of social responsibility / social spenders.

You were the first one to bring politics into this thread so dont say your not being political. and turn on your TV there are hundreds of military vehicles and thousands of armed troops flowing into NO as we speek and with tons and tons of food and water. I will be glad to debate the whole did we do enough soon enough topic. That will certainly be anlyzed tons in the days and weeks to come. But right now screw politics and be glad the NO folks are getting help as we speek. Later than we would have all liked to see yes, but the supplies are rolling in and lets pray this comes to and today. Its a %$%$%$%$ty and tough situation and thankfully the people are almost outta there

I don't disagree with any of that, but frankly, you just made my point for me. Even you admit we didn't do enough quickly enough for these people. It's not politics.......

Bush lover?
Right.
I bet I was banned from stripersonline for being a Bush lover.

There will be plenty of time after this is said and done to argue who's fault it was about timeliness of response and whatnot, what matters now is to help in any way possible.

Agreed........

I disagree
 

Those levees and dikes have been an issue for the last ten to twelve years and who was president then.

First of all rescuing, feeding, housing, and getting medical care for all the misplaced individuals falls squarely on the town first, the county (parish) second, the state third, and then when all of those options fail as they did so miserably it then becomes the responsibility of the feds to clean up everyone elses mess. I have never seen such a poor example of leadership as I have from the Mayor of New Orleans. Standing in front of the cameras saying how "pissed" he was that nobody has come to help. Using words that had to be bleeped out. He showed just how much of a "man" he was. One third of the cops that he hired screwed and left the city underprotected. They have yet to return to duty and their brother officers that heroically stayed with the people they serve can't wait to see them. You all have to come to grips with the simple fact that people die under these circumstances. Seeing dead bodies laying up against a curbing or sitting in a wheelchair is a hard fact of life. Come with me to a fatal crash sometime. Come with me when I find my brother officers oldest taking his last breath face down on the edge of the road. The affected persons were predestined to this fate for many reasons. Color of their skin aside the most prevelant reason is the economic well-being. They are poor and diseenfranchised and have been in that position long before Katrina came along.

No one can expect any large rescue effort to commence before the LZ can be secured can they? These same disenfranchised people are shooting at their rescuers. People who are not associated with any govenrment agency who drove their boats some from several hundred miles away were shot at. Those resuers were ordered out of the area because they cold not be adequately protected from the snipers. Americans shooting amercians. Armed thugs trying to institute anarchy until they can loot ever last store in the area around their homes.

Lastly, as far as all those people at the dome and the basketball center next to the dome are better off with or without food there than anywhere else. They have to be centrally located so an evacuation when started can be the most effective. I am sure it sucked there. They complained about no food and water, but they did have water. And the news media keeps playing the same scenes over and over giving the viewer the idea that each time things were more worse. And they very well could have been. What you are seeing is the best the government can do. Its like when you call the cops for a problem with your neighbor and they show up in a minute or two and thats reasonable most of the time. And maybe even more than one cop responds, which is even better. Power goes out in my town and I'll get 100 phone calls. I can't do anything about the power being out. Not even give the caller a time frame for it being restored, but the callers think I should. Now fathom the fact that your city or parish was just wiped off the face of the earth and imagine yourself being the officer taking calls in the station. Their is nothing anyone can do until many things are in place and the safey of the rescuers and other person involved in the cleanup can be gauranteed safe passage.

Its unfortunate but people die in these tragedies, sometimes many people, and sometimes their deaths have more to do with themselves initially at least than it does with any other action or force. All we can do is donate and pray for the survivors and the rescuers many of whom of the latter I know.

We need some humor. :rotf3:

If I owned a helicopter, or even a hummer, I would pack up as many sandwiches, saltines, water, and whatever I could to take down there. With what little effort is being put forth down south, it makes me want to go there personally, because -- What are my tax dollars doing? What are my charitable donations doing? They're not helping those people, as we can see. Look at the TV and read the papers -- this is our own country. Everyone should feel guilty, not only the government -- we're sleeping in beds, eating, fishing -- and doing what for the victims? We need to call our representatives and senators and tell them to get as much as they can down there, and get it there yesterday. That won't take too long. We need to take whatever effective steps we can to help these people, and then we can type online about how much it sucks...while we're sitting comfortably in our homes. Our homes.

Well said swimmer im in total agreement

yes i will have to agree with you. But i think Swimmers last post sums up why we coudnt get into NO any sooner. Even now its dangerous. Shoot outs with thugs today all over the place with the guard and police. I think what we agree on is the fact that food and water was not dropped in all over the place where the bigs crowds were gathered days ago. I meen some were getting food water but not many. Maybe they were concerned about people getting trampled if hundreds of folks were fisghting over the last bottle of water? and they wanted to attemp to keep some kind of order? I dont know. Thats what bothers me...Not the fact that the Guard and Feds didnt move in ASAP becuase obviosly they coudlnt get organized that quick but water and food somehow should have been dropped or something to keep the folks healthy until the convoys could get orginezed and roll into town like they did today. I do believe the city of NO and the state should have been able to accomplish the food and water part for a few days before the big Fed convoys could get organized. The local and State goverments were pitiful.

A young lady interviewed in Europe stated :"I thought America was more advanced than this, I guess that's not so.." The folks you see milling around in New Orleans are those who had or could not buy transportation out of the city. They were simply Left Behind to die. That was reported last night on NightLine. The next Election that comes along, I'm firing all the incumbents.

is this america?
 

i just watched the cnn video ..........twice.......... and watched our president say
about...his katrina's devastation tour.. "people in this part of the world"....
and he said it twice. it was as if he was talking about somewhere other than in the United States of America,,, i find that very strange. don't you? :huh:

There's a LOT of strange crap going on lately. That man acts like he's drugged or something. I think it's due to a total disconnect from the People. Our Government displays little true sympathy or empathy with "Joe Dirt" , because those running the show have no point of reference. Never been in the trenches. OK my last rant on this subject, sorry never been so upset and outraged.

Perhaps he just saw a photo and assumed it was Somalia? :usd:

-spence

You guys make me sick bashing the President.

If you're so f*cking indignant, get off your f*cking arses and head down to help out and clean up.

Right now relief organizations need CASH to buy stuff (doubtful you'll fork any up, since you're saving up for gas money for fishing, right), and medical personnel (doesn't sound like any of you are qualified). Later down the road they'll need people to help rebuild the infrastructure - that means contracters. Doubtful any of you will donate your skilled labor if there's nothing in it for you. Put up or shut the f*ck up, and get this through your thick useless uninformed skulls:

1. As much as you would have like the Prez to get on the telly last week and tell people to pack up, it was up to the governor of LA and the mayors of LA's respective towns to order an evacuation in a timely manner. Despite a lot of hand wringing and crying, the order wasn't given until it was too late. If anyone should be excoriated publicly, it should be the governor of Louisana and the mayor of New Orleans.

2. Nobody realized the enormity of the situation until rather late. The storm turned quickly and unexpectedly. This is the first time an entire U.S. City has been taken out by a natural disaster.

3. It was up to the states to ask for federal help. State and local officials were slow to ask for that help.

4. In any disaster, there are going to be huge chaotic clusterf*cks - that's the nature of the "fog" of tragedy. In the future, you should be able to pin early confusion on INABILITY TO COMMUNICATE.

And if ANY of you want to say to my face that "Bush doesn't care about black people," ...

... I will personally spit in all of your useless crybaby faces.

:af:

EXACTLY.......our tax dollars have gone to help citizens of every other country EXCEPT the United States......we (the citizens of the US) have been subsidizing the lives of every third world citizen in the world for over 70 years now. Our government does this as a way to keep these countries in check so that the dreaded C-word (communism) doesn't take a hold in these countries. By eleiminating Communism, the US Government beleives this will mean that the US can keep a stranglehold on our economic and military position of being #1.

So, next time you pay your federal income taxes, ask yourself, what NEW services have the federal government (or the state governemnt for that matter) provided for ME in the past year? 5 years? 10 years? Then compare your answer to what new services the federal government has provided for other countries over the past year, 5 years, 10 years.......be careful -- this exercise might make you sick.

\\not just bush, but most of the republican party doesnt care about POOR black people. Just like any onther rich republican. go ahead and spit in my face.. this event has been a huge wakeup call for the american people. hmmm welfare reform for the poor, but push better welfaare for rich corperations..

This is who George Bush cares about - the Big Oil Companies

DERRICK Z. JACKSON
Big oil's bigtime looting
By Derrick Z. Jackson | September 2, 2005

PRESIDENT BUSH yesterday told ABC-TV, ''there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this, whether it be looting or price-gouging at the gasoline pump or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud."

Zero tolerance is meaningless when the White House lets the biggest looters of Hurricane Katrina walk off with billions of dollars.

We are not referring to the people you currently see in endless footage, crashing through storefronts and wading through chest-high water with clothes, food, and pharmaceuticals. Some folks are disgusting in their thuggishness, but a great many others are simply desperate, having now gone three days without food or water. The latter are living out one of the most famous hypothetical problems in moral reasoning -- should a husband steal a cancer drug he cannot afford for his dying wife?

No such sympathy is to be extended to big oil. The nation has on its hands a disaster so profound that we have not even begun to seriously count the bodies in the floodwaters. It brings us as close as we may get in our lifetime to places like Bangladesh.

New Orleans is under martial law and will not return to normal for years. Members of the Red Cross, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, police agencies, and firefighters are sacrificing time and risking lives to save lives. Texas is opening up its school systems for homeless Louisiana children. Generous food wholesalers are giving away their stocks to passersby. The Astrodome is taking in the refugees of the Superdome.

In the midst of this charity, big oil looted the nation. The pumps instantly shot past $3 a gallon, with $4 a gallon well in sight.

In a thinly disguised attempt to act as if it cared about the people wading in the water, Chevron has pledged $5 million to relief efforts. ExxonMobil and Shell have pledged $2 million apiece. British Petroleum and Citgo have pledged $1 million each.

This is nothing next to their wealth. Of the world's seven most profitable corporations, four are ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Chevron. ExxonMobil is the world's most profitable company, making $25.3 billion last year. It and the other three corporations had combined profits last year of $72.8 billion. ExxonMobil is also the world's most valuable company, with a market value, according to Forbes magazine, of $405 billion. The combined market value of ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron is nearly $1 trillion.

And that was last year. A month ago, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips announced record second-quarter profits of $7.6 billion, $3.7 billion, and $3.1 billion, respectively. Royal Dutch Shell's quarterly profits of $5.2 billion were up by 34 percent over the same period last year. Other well-known companies like Sunoco also had record second-quarter earnings.

If ExxonMobil were to maintain its current pace of profits, it would cross the $30 billion barrier for 2005. The company's chief financial officer, Henry Hubble, bragged in classic corporatese, ''Our disciplined project management and operating practices deliver the benefits of strong industry conditions to our shareholders."

Those disciplined operating practices are hardly confined to the oil fields. Everyone knows that Bush does not really mean what he says about price-gouging at the pump, since he just gave energy companies the bulk of $14.5 billion in tax breaks in the new energy bill. Surprise, surprise. In Bush's two elections, oil and gas companies gave Republicans 79 percent of their $61.5 million in campaign contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

If Bush really meant what he said, he would call for a freeze or cap on gasoline prices, especially in the regions affected most dramatically by Katrina. He would challenge big oil to come up with a much more meaningful contribution to relief efforts.

Insurance companies are expecting up to $25 billion in claims from Katrina. For ExxonMobil, which is headed to $30 billion in profits, to jack up prices at the pump and then only throw $2 million at relief efforts is unconscionable.

Stay fixated, if you wish, on the thieves and desperate families who are so much easier to catch on camera than comptrollers electronically stealing your cash. It is not pleasant to see anyone loot a store. But ExxonMobil and big oil are looting the nation, and no one declaring martial law on them.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.

Wake up WeeWee......I supported Bush's move on Iraq (it was the RIGHT thing to do)....but frankly, this guy is NOT a leader. He doesn't command respect, because he hasn't earned it.

IMO - Bush like all politicians - only care about the people who can butter their bread for them....that does not translate into poor black people. I wouldn't say he doesn't care about poor people, it's just that they are not seen as politically important to him.

Even Bush is admitting he (read US Government) dropped the ball on this one.......

Yet again, another Homerun04 idea coming to fruition.....didn't someone call me a dreamer on this board for suggesting that Big Oil be ordered to pay for the clean-up of NO due to their gas gauging....?? Huh, imagine that, the Big Oil companies recognized what was going on and are doing everything they can do to cut the US Government to the quick and start donating money BEFORE they were ordered (whether publically or behind closed doors) to do so.......how much of a dreamer is Homerun04 now...... ;)

Amazing, Big Oil steals from us blindly, then gives back peanuts compard to what they stole, and then they expect everyone to praise them for it....standard fleecing practice in US businesses......remember, "The masses are asses"...