To all of you in Louisiana, Mississippi & Alabama whose lives have been torn apart from Katrina, my thoughts & prayers are with all of you. It's been very hard to watch the alphabet networks & see just how veneralble the strongest nation in the world is to catastrophic events, regardless of how they are created. And it's even more disturbing to learn how "politicians," regardless of party affiliation and position, could just "drop the ball-big time" on all levels. I hope that we, as Americans, will begin to rise up and begin to change the way we are "represented".
> First off, don't tell people in Louisiana to step up.<
I agree. The people trapped by the storm need the help and assistance of all peoples, whether on our soil or foreign. Thank God there are countries who can overlook the shortcomings of our elected officials and realize that this is a humanitarian effort, and thank goodness that much (if not all) of the monies raised for relief efforts will come through agencies such as the Red Cross, and the like. If you remember the government wants to change the tax-exempt status of some of these organizations. And those from the government who will be doing the "sweat equity" in NOLA, MS, and AL will be people just like you and me, NOT politicians! But who will be stumping in front of the reporters and mics? You got it, politicians!
> Secondly, the law requires that the states request federal help to come in. It's easy to blame W, but before you do, blame Blank-O and her indecisiveness. If you aren't in the local area, you don't see her painting the rosy picture.
She tried to go through our senator - Mary Landrieu - to get the help we need. That's why the $10.5 billion was passed before we got anyone here. I have friends where I work that are at FEMA Regional HQ right now. The word from them - and these are not FEMA employees toeing the government line - is that FEMA has truckloads and truckloads of stuff for us, but no one on the state level will tell them where to bring it. FEMA doesn't run the show. The state runs the show. FEMA is just there to make sure that all of the supplies are porvided. After all, Mississippi took it bad too, but they have the help they need. Why? Because they asked for it.<
More stories of "thumbs up our asses." People who don't know what directions to take. I feel sorry that millions of lives were put in the hands of these politicians.
> Go ahead. Tell me I am wrong. Let your hatred from W blind you from the facts. CSPAN was running congressional hearings yesterday that were shot in June. The Hurricane Center Director (Max somthing with an M) predicted this very thing. He said the levees wouldn't hold. He said that NOLA could not evacuate everyone because there are 125K people without cars. Experts tried to warn people that this would happen, but no one would listen.<
Isn't it amazing that while every weather reporter in the world (or so it seemed) were in that area predicting that very fact, governments did NOTHING but call for an evacuation. Well, DUH! Isn't that what people do regardless? Again, more evidence of government indifference and indecision. Again, innocent people are left to suffer. Even as Katrina was beating a path for Florida, meteorologists were already predicting what it was going to do AFTER it hit Florida! It's a shame that too many politicians are reactive rather than proactive, and innocent people end up in ther wakes.
> Don't roll in with your sat. trucks and sat. phones and report that communications are down. Use those to help link up the first reponders. I would hope that people coordinating rescue efforts aren't watching TV.<
The media is there to elicit emotions from everyone else in the nation & the world. Countless reporters who could've shared their resources and just don't think the way the rest of us do. I'm sure the people on the ground running the rescue operations aren't worried about the media. It's funny to see military leaders' contempt fo media hordes. The media wants those NOT affected to feel sorry for themselves & their way of life and make us feel to do whatever we can to help. Well, DUH! As human beings, aren't we compelled to do that whenever diasters strike? Media hordes coming to disasters and "being the show" is nothing new. Anyone remember OKC? How about the image of Connie Chung rolling up to the Murrah Federal Building scene in a limo? I guess the sat. trucks now replace the limos.
> And finally, it troubles me that we are raising people to depend on the government for everything.<
That was the purpose for President Johnson signing the Welfare Act of 1964. It was never designed to be temporary for those in need. Some of those under welfare found ways to exploit it, and it is done today on a wider scale than ever. I laughed when politicos paraded in front of the media whores and said that they were going to reform welfare. Why? When the federal government is involved in 28 percent of this country's Gross National Product, why cut that number? That's government's thinking. They WANT people dependent on their government.
> Specifically, I am talking about the Convention Center people. Help wasn't
coming. Get up and leave. This is an example of government failing on every level, starting with the local leadership on up to the state and even federal on some levels.<
And that's why we, as registered voters, should ask different questions of those who seek political offices. Homeland security should be more than a deterrent for terrorists, it should be an agency designed to protect us & our soil from ALL threats, regardless or who/what/where/when/why/how. It should PROTECT us, not scare the bejeebers out of us! It's SECURITY for Christ's sake!
> People need to start looking out for #1.<
No, there should be more looking out for each other. Our society & political system has created a class system that will ultimately destroy what we have fought for for so many years. And when it does happen, Sheppard, Anderson, Tucker & all of those alphabet news networks will be there asking how could this have happened.....where is the relief.....and how could this have happened? They'll have the answers, but they'll never say.
>
> One question though... What happened to our naval ships?
> There were supposed to be 4 coming, plus that big USS
> Comfort hospital ship. Where are they?
>