THE GULF IS A DISGRACE! » Forum Post by COL Gene

what do you think it looked like before katrina? it was a sh!thole then too.

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At Least 500,000 people had some sort of place to live. Now they have NOTHING! My point is we can spend money on others and cut taxes for people and companies that do not need a tax cut but we can not afford to rebuild America!

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Yea, in sh!tholes. Most of the people who got a free ride out of there, are now reluctant to return. THE POINT, is that they could've save their own butts if they had decent city/state management (let's make New Orleans a "chocolate town" ring a bell??). They chose not to. However, dont get me wrong, i do believe we waste BILLIONS per year in idiotic expenses wherein the dollar amount seems to exponentially climb, in that instance i do agree with you. But on the same note, IT DOES TAKE TIME and you and I both know the U.S. Government has a bottomless pit of money (yours and mine) to spend on any project they see fit, regardless of what you or I think.

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

hope George W. Bush takes a GOOD LOOK at the Gulf area one year after Katrina. The pictures are sickening—trash all over and not one thing done in many areas to even start rebuilding our country.

in light of that scandalous rockey vaccarella scam the whitehouse just finished running on the american people, i don't guess there's much chance is capable of taking an honest look at anything involving the gulf.

sh!tholes

perhaps that was the point of the vaccarella charade?

let's pretend an ordinary unknown joe citizen is driving his fake fema trailer all the way from louisiana hoping against hope to meet with bush--a meeting to which it now appears he already'd been invited--to provide a mobile repository for the overflowing font of shit the whitehouse has become.

whatta shock to learn rockey just happened to have run as a republican for local office in 1999...and that nobody, even karl rove, hadda clue.

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Why can't the people in the gulf buy some lumber with the thousands of dollars the government gave each individual and build a new house? The problem is that people in America want the government to do everything for them. You don't hear anything from the tornado victims, they got hit, said, "Shit," and got to work rebuilding not waiting for a government to do it. The government didn't send the hurricane, why should it fix the damage? That's life.

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Why can't the people in the gulf buy some lumber with the thousands of dollars the government gave each individual and build a new house? The problem is that people in America want the government to do everything for them. You don't hear anything from the tornado victims, they got hit, said, "Shit," and got to work rebuilding not waiting for a government to do it. The government didn't send the hurricane, why should it fix the damage? That's life.

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

The problem is that people in America want the government to do everything for them. You don't hear anything from the tornado victims, they got hit, said, "Shit," and got to work rebuilding not waiting for a government to do it.

i'm confused. which tornado?

musta hit somewhere outside the us cuz you say the victims--unlike people in america--rebuilt their homes without government assistance.

The government didn't send the hurricane, why should it fix the damage?

depends on whose opinion you accept. pat robertson claims hurricanes are sent by an avenging angry god. seems reasonable to me he just might be really pissed at bush in which case...

even if that aint the case, the corps of engineers built the faulty levees so one could make a fair case for blaming the resulting damage on them.

That's life

i thought life was a magazine. and a cereal.

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i'm confused. which tornado?

musta hit somewhere outside the us cuz you say the victims--unlike people in america--rebuilt their homes without government assistance

No, I'm talking about other Americans that lost all they had, that weren't looking for handouts from the American government. Not one tornado in America, but hundreds this year in America, in fact there were over 100 within a 24 hour period, in America, in the cental/eastern states in America. Not to mention the fires in America, the floods in America, where Americans lost everything as well. Clarified? Now, I guess I should have said, why don't Americans in the aftermath of Katrina get off their asses and fix that crap instead of wanting for someone to do it for them?

depends on whose opinion you accept. pat robertson claims hurricanes are sent by an avenging angry god. seems reasonable to me he just might be really pissed at bush in which case...

even if that aint the case, the corps of engineers built the faulty levees so one could make a fair case for blaming the resulting damage on them.

lol! Well,in that case, you could send the bills to God, but that would probable take longer than the government since a God that commands the hurricans won't feel all that responible for fixing what He chose to break in the first place. If He was mad at Bush, why didn't He send the hurricane to Washington, D.C. instead of N.O.LA? That'll make Bush think twice! Corps of Engineers? What about the money the government sent to N.O. to upgrade those same levees? Maybe the mayor should be held accountable, but I doubt he's got the funds to fix all that damage either. Stop trying to blame a HURRICANE on someone!

i thought life was a magazine. and a cereal.

If I meant the magazine or cereal, I would have capitalized the 'l' in 'life' ,but I didn't. So I'm glad I taught you another form of the word. It's definition is loosely: The time and all the events(random and controlled) within that time, that a living person resides in the universe, specificly Earth, and in this case, America! So, bad things happen to us all, it speaks to the individuals character as to how they react to these events in life(lower case 'l'), fixing it and geting on with living or standing around pointing fingers and waiting for handouts.

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My point is we are already spending money on Lebanon, Iraq, Israel and we are giving tax cuts to BIG OIL and wealthy Americans. Why should we not use that SAME money to HELP many people that simply can not help them selves? The issue is CHOICES. Is it better to blow IRAQ to hell or rebuild the Gulf? Is it better to give people that have all the money they would ever need MORE from tax cuts or help Americans that have NOTHING?

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

The issue is CHOICES. Is it better to blow IRAQ to hell or rebuild the Gulf?

you may have--intentionally or not--solved the mystery of what drives george bush to such inexplicable idiocy.

he has some sorta obsessive hatred of gulfs and adjacent areas. maybe barbara was scared by a sign atta gas station when she was carrying him?

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He is a President that does not care about is best for the majority of America just what he wants and to help those that helped fund his campaign.

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Link

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musta hit somewhere outside the us cuz you say the victims--unlike people in america--rebuilt their homes without government assistance.

Oh yeah, kingbee. I know a family that's living high on the hog off of the $10,000 check they got when their home, outbuilding, and everything they owned got wiped out in the March 13 wildfires!

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kingbee

Join Date 04/2004

+42

Oh yeah, kingbee. I know a family that's living high on the hog off of the $10,000 check they got when their home, outbuilding, and everything they owned got wiped out in the March 13 wildfires!

your sarcasm is misdirected gid. it was gregoreus/ha/whomever in one of his/her multiple incarnations making a claim that victims of natural disasters other than katrina, and everywhere except new orleans, neither needed nor wanted assistance after losing their homes and property to tornadoes, fires, etc.

in his/her own words:

they got hit, said, "Shit," and got to work rebuilding not waiting for a government to do it.

which prolly explains why none of em has had time to disguise one of them gen-x rv 'toyhaulers' as a fema trailer and take their lil dog n pony show on the road to the capitol in order to pretend to be average citizens 'pleading' for a photo-op (oops) i mean a meeting with the president.

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Who would want a photo-op with Bush-- Only a fool!

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

We've spent a ton on the disaster. If it's still a mess, then it just demonstrates how ineffective the government is.

A lot of people in my family volunteered and went down there to help people rebuild. My uncle, who has spent nearly half a year down there (he's retired) has told me that there is a sense of entitlement growing down there. That people there won't do for themselves. That what started out as everyone trying to work together has slowly morphed into a culture of waiting for "someone else" to do everything for them.

New Orleans still has wrecked cars in the streets a year later. How is taht Bush's fault? The Democratic governor and Demcoratic mayor of New Orleans are the ones with their hands on the levers of power down there, you can't micro manage that stuff from Washington and it's their state to fix up.

Private citizens from around the country have donated over $3.3 BILLION just to major charities. That doesn't even include volunteer time or faith-based charities which many believe have been the most effective. The federal government has also given billions too. At some point, people aren't going to blame Bush or some far away agency, they're going to take a hard look at the ineptitude of the local officials and the people themselves (who apparently are pretty prone to crime).

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First much of the damage was the result a levy system that was not capable of protecting the area. That was known for many years and Bush like other Presidents failed to act to redesign the levy system. In fact Bush CUT the funding levels to the Corps of Engineers to maintain the system. We still do not have a commitment from the Federal Government, Bush and Congress, to build a system that actually will protect the Gulf Area from major storms.

Second the Federal response was about as big a disaster as the storm and much of that was because BUSH appointed people to head FEMA that were just POLITICAL HACKS with no real experience that was needed to accomplish the tasks of dealing with a disaster like Katrina. Bush DID NOTHING for over a week after the storm!

The money to rebuild the Gulf is not available. Insurance either will not pay because of the flood issue or people did not have coverage. We can spend hundreds of Billions in Iraq (which is because of Bush) but we can not rebuild America after the biggest natural disaster that we had in our history. We can give tax cuts to people and companies that DO NOT NEED TAX CUTS and take the revenue needed to rebuild the Gulf and give it to the rich.

EVERY ONE OF THE ABOVE IS BECAUSE OF BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Bush had a study that said, "ONLY the ACTIVE MILITARY had the resources to deal with a disaster like Katrina. Bush did not use the ACTIVE military before the storm to insure people were out of harms way and did not send the ACTIVE MILITARY after the storm to control the looting, rescue people, distribute food and provide emergency medical care. In other words our leader did not exercise GOOD LEADERSHIP!!!!!!!!

One year later the Fed is still not acting to deal with the overall issue of the levee system to protect against future storms!

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

Here's the problem Col - you assume that all people think that it's the federal government to take care of state and local problems.

The federal government has allocated over $100 billion. A ridiculous amount. Over $75,000 PER PERSON in New Orleans has been allocated to just New Orleans.

The United States does not elect a President to micro manage a city. The last thing we should be doing is sending in our military to deal with Katrina clean up.

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The country elects a PRESIDENT FOR LEADERSHIP ESPECIALLY IN TIME OF EMERGENCY. THE STORM WAS THE WORST DISASTER THAT EVER TOOK PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY AND WENT FAR BEYOND THE RESOURCES OF THE STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS. It impacted one of the most essential ports that serve our country.

The simple fact is that ONLY the ACTIVE MILITARY had the structure, command and control and resources to deal with a storm of this size as the 2002 report told the White House. The President did not properly employ the resources at his command to insure that evacuation was complete or to provide assistance in the days after the storm. The issue is EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP. When IKE saw the potential of civil disorder in Alabama he used leadership and used the Active Military to insure that order was insured. Bush sat on his A*s and did nothing.

This is a FEDERAL issue for two reasons-- The resources required go beyond what the states and local government can provide. Second that region provides the shipping for much of our country. If we had spent the money we did to attack Iraq on the Gulf, we would have provided the resources needed. Do not tell me how much Bush provided. Much of the help was not administered properly by the idiots HE APPOINTED. In addition given the magnitude, the amount provided has not come close to rebuild the Gulf!

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I did my best to restrain myself from posting but your stupidity just begs to be responded to.

The country elects a PRESIDENT FOR LEADERSHIP ESPECIALLY IN TIME OF EMERGENCY. THE STORM WAS THE WORST DISASTER THAT EVER TOOK PLACE IN OUR COUNTRY AND WENT FAR BEYOND THE RESOURCES OF THE STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS. It impacted one of the most essential ports that serve our country.

First of all act your age. Screaming is for children. If you gonna come here to debate and prove a point do it like an adult and a man that you are. Second, we voted in a President to take care of the entire country, not just a small little town. That's why we have Governors and Mayors. Maybe you should start pointing your fingers at the real problem creators, those who chose to cross their hands and do nothing about the Levies except complain about them, The New Orleans people and their Mayor and Governor. Point to Bush all you want, in the end reality dictates that he is not directly responsible for the restoration of the lives of all these people, we are each responsible for our own lives and those of our families. It is sad that while Florida was hit with several Hurricanes in a role, no stories about how they are struggling are being heard on the news, yet just one storm was enough to keep this entire city from making a comeback and what was their way of showing how much they want to fix their city? They did Mardi Gras, instead of spending that money on helping others they did a festival. What a shame.

The simple fact is that ONLY the ACTIVE MILITARY had the structure, command and control and resources to deal with a storm of this size as the 2002 report told the White House. The President did not properly employ the resources at his command to insure that evacuation was complete or to provide assistance in the days after the storm. The issue is EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP. When IKE saw the potential of civil disorder in Alabama he used leadership and used the Active Military to insure that order was insured. Bush sat on his A*s and did nothing.

Then that means that the city should be ashamed of not having the necessary equipment and people to deal with such a disaster. They should have been prepared but instead chose to spend the money on all those parties they thru having women show their breast for a few worthless beads. BTW, it was up to those in charge to get things done, instead they stood there waiting for Bush to do things for them. I guess if the majority of the people in the US were dumb enough to elect Bush, they were dumb enough to elect the Mayor and Governor of New Orleans.

This is a FEDERAL issue for two reasons-- The resources required go beyond what the states and local government can provide. Second that region provides the shipping for much of our country. If we had spent the money we did to attack Iraq on the Gulf, we would have provided the resources needed. Do not tell me how much Bush provided. Much of the help was not administered properly by the idiots HE APPOINTED. In addition given the magnitude, the amount provided has not come close to rebuild the Gulf!

What a fool, I guess everyone in New Orleans, including the Mayor and Governor are just victims and they did nothing wrong. You are so stupid it's amazing you even know how to post on this site. What an idiot. Don't bother responding cause I won't even waste my time with your expected rhetoric and stupidity. Just go ahead and do what you do best, contradict yourself as you always do.

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I'm going to say this flat out. As the manager of a group home in Wisconsin, in late 1999, I worked with other managers on authoring a Y2k preparedness plan for about 50 facilities. The Y2K plan was per federal mandate, and was required not only of health care facilities such as ours, but of municipalities and other governmental entities. When we authored our plan, we realized it was FAR more practical to implement it as a general emergency plan, and we worked towards that end. All New Orleans had to do was have the same foresight that a bunch of middle class peons in Wisconsin had and they could have prevented the hurricane from having such a devastating impact.

I remember the days before Katrina; I remember that the evacuation order went out WELL IN ADVANCE of the hurricane. Many citizens of New Orleans did nothing.

Look at it this way: if you break down in a car on a straight, narrow stretch of road, and you see a semi coming towards you and you know the impact is unavoidable, and I'm way up on the hill looking down, who's to blame if you die in the crash? Using the logic of blaming Bush, you would blame ME because I didn't rush down to save you, when you had the resources to save yourself.

Appalling. Utterly appalling.

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The size of this storm was such that state and local assets were not sufficient and the state and local resources were impacted by the storm. The issue of how to respond to storms like Katrina was looked at and the conclusion was that ONLY the ACTIVE MILITARY had the capacity to deal with a storm of this size. It impacted the better part of two states in fact an area as large as England. Thus to say state and local government should handle the impact is just ignoring the size of this storm and the limitation of the assets available to LA and Mississippi.

The issue again which you all ignore is the lack of leadership on the part of Bush.

He cut funding before the storm to help insure maintenance of the levies.

He did nothing before the storm to help insure the people were evacuated.

He did nothing after the storm even though he had command of the ONLY ASSET capable of dealing with a disaster of this size.

He showed the same lack of leadership when on 5 Aug 2001 when he ignored the report that warned of the 9/11 attack.

Bush is useless as a leader and should go back to Texas and start some new companies that he can drive into failure like the two oil companies he ran into the ground!

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Draginol

Join Date 03/2001

+137

He showed the same lack of leadership when on 5 Aug 2001 when he ignored the report that warned of the 9/11 attack.

Oh god that has been so thoroughly debunked that you are either incredibly ignorant or you are incredibly dishonest.

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How was that story debunked? The Sec of State admitted there was such a report and Bush did nothing to help prevent the attack. The issue is the lack of EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP by Bush. Document ONE major issue where Bush solved any major issue he was faced with since Jan 2001.

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