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Please evidence the stuff you people write with a link, or a reference, or even something of your own knowledge that you can specifically describe in a coherent way.
As for intellectual dishonesty, pardon me for linking to the mouthpieces of the republican party where all the bah-bah'ers get their information. I'm not sure where the dishonesty there is, but I'm guessing you can find some here:
"The Nat'l Guard in 2003/2004 as described by Democrats: a haven for draft dodgers such as George Bush."
That's horrendous, and I really think you know it. Do you not understand the concept of time? You Republicans used to be the party of emancipation, liberalism, and the enlightenment spirit. One would hardly accuse you of being that anymore.
Anyways, they're not dodging Bush's wars so well now-a-days, are they. The irony should poke you in the eye repeatedly, but again, that "vision" thing...
Also, I love this endless paradox. Fox news, highest rated media blah blah blah. Main stream media, liberally biased and slow-witted, blah blah blah.
If you OWN the media, stop blaming it for its shortcomings. It's this endless "Woe is me" bullshit, the pitiful song of the oppressed majority, constantly grinding against self-created demons.
Last time I left, I still read.
http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Your-World-Neil-Cavuto-WWII-Disagrees.mov
This time I leave, and never come back.
Last edited: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 10:10:37 AM
^ and he SLAMS the door as he leaves!
Last edited: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 10:26:22 AM
Dude - I really am trying to avoid this getting into a "point-counterpoint" situation...basically because
We all know that we are who we are and aren't going to change out [sic] views due to a forum posting on a website devoted to a game about cartoon tanks.
I have done nothing but quote facts....no "Halliburton runs the world" or "black noiseless helicopter" baseless accusations. I guess that's what makes liberals so angry - is that the facts get in the way of a lot of their hyperbole.
That being said -I guess I am a sucker.
As for intellectual dishonesty, pardon me for linking to the mouthpieces of the republican party where all the bah-bah'ers get their information
Lessee......you're linking to a site called "crooks and liars" and then touting a 1 minute cut of a 30 minute news show as "why the Republicans are hated." As I said bro - my dog ain't in that hunt (and I am sure I speak for JJ as well), as Barnes' occupies the fringe on that subject. Painting the conservative wall with that 1 inch brush is just as dishonest as it gets.
"The Nat'l Guard in 2003/2004 as described by Democrats: a haven for draft dodgers such as George Bush."
The riposte to this can best be found here and here , although in the second to a lesser extent.
As far as the "what they think of the Nat'l Guard today" thing - here .
Anyways, they're not dodging Bush's wars so well now-a-days, are they. The irony should poke you in the eye repeatedly, but again, that "vision" thing...
I am assuming this verifies my "today vs then" statement.....assuming that "they're" refers to the Nat'l Guard.
Also, I love this endless paradox. Fox news, highest rated media blah blah blah. Main stream media, liberally biased and slow-witted, blah blah blah.
I have never been the one to seperate Fox News from the rest of the mainstream media. The liberal camp did that along time ago. I simply made the statement that:
It's also more than humorous.....while the "Big Three" networks are considering trashing their "nightly news" broadcasts and planning overhauls at their "all news" spin-offs (MSNBC comes to mind....cancelling CNBC is one example), Fox News is enjoying all time record ratings. Certain print media readership is down as well - pretty much across the board, with the exception of a few such as the WSJ and Washington Times.
If you OWN the media, stop blaming it for its shortcomings. It's this endless "Woe is me" bullshit, the pitiful song of the oppressed majority, constantly grinding against self-created demons.
Suppossedly - no one "owns" the media. My only complaint with them has, and for that matter still is, it's lack of objectivity. Somehow, they have gotten away from reporting on a purely factual basis and instead have started making the news:
"That's my job. I'm a newsman. That's what I try to do, is make news. And you try to avoid news. That's your job."
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, to former president Bill Clinton. Clinton said Blitzer tried to get him to make news by saying the Iraq war was a mistake.
Sorry to see you go Tally.
@ JJ
Thanks and nicely put. As we all SHOULD remember - politicians are politicians first and partisan second. Remember - it's the world's SECOND oldest profession.
Boy the hurricane catastrophe is certainly a job for our National Guard. Wait, they can't help, they're all in Iraq.
Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to be on my toes.
Invite a retard to a picnic and you'd better expect to get drool in the potato salad.
LOL
They're a bunch of lazy draft dodgers anyway.
::gasp:: oh, and @ tally Ho- Graphs have keys... Or legends... Or whatever you want to call em... If you have a red line, green line and blue line, how are you to tell them apart?
Or shall we just call it the nicely grouped arngment of colors and letters?
EDIT: After eading this over, I see it could be meant offensivley towards tally... No offense at all... Ty :)
Pardon my rudeness, I cannot abide useless people.
Last edited: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 1:51:02 PM
It's about how we recount those Florida ballots/votes and who really won and how we count them. These musing were ignited and still burn thanks to Paul Krugman's column, mentioned way up above.
Beware, some viewers may be dismayed and confused...
...Krugman’s formulation [in his column that alleges that Gore won] is a play on words that describes two standards favoring Bush (“two-corner detachments” and “clear punches”) as only one (“at least two corners detached”), making it seem like Bush won under only one standard. But you could just as easily describe the two Gore standards (“any dimples” and “dimples with other dimples”) as a single standard (“dimples”). With that verbal sleight of hand, you could say Bush won two of three standards (“two-corner detachments” and “clear punches”) vs. Gore’s one (“dimples”). It’s the same thing, but — presto-change-o! — Bush, not Gore, wins two of three.
So happy it's over.
Last edited: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at 6:51:03 PM
@ JJ
LOL....you control the media....tell them to stop!!!!
Oh by the way.....apparently 15,000 National Guardsmen materialized out of nowhere in the US Gulf Coast area today. People just can't figure out where the hell they came from since they were suppossed to be in Iraq (the cowards)....
I see your point about the National Guard. But I don't think you're going to stop the wisecracks.
New Orleans might be starting to look like Bagdad after the war...
Be nice if they tried a little "spot strategy" as mentioned in this here.
August 28, 2005
Winning in Iraq
By DAVID BROOKS
Andrew Krepinevich is a careful, scholarly man. A graduate of West Point and a retired lieutenant colonel, his book, "The Army and Vietnam," is a classic on how to fight counterinsurgency warfare.
Over the past year or so he's been asking his friends and former colleagues in the military a few simple questions: Which of the several known strategies for fighting insurgents are you guys employing in Iraq? What metrics are you using to measure your progress?
The answers have been disturbing. There is no clear strategy. There are no clear metrics.
Krepinevich has now published an essay in the new issue of Foreign Affairs, "How to Win in Iraq," in which he proposes a strategy. The article is already a phenomenon among the people running this war, generating discussion in the Pentagon, the C.I.A., the American Embassy in Baghdad and the office of the vice president.
Krepinevich's proposal is hardly new. He's merely describing a classic counterinsurgency strategy, which was used, among other places, in Malaya by the British in the 1950's. The same approach was pushed by Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt in a Washington Post essay back on Oct. 26, 2003; by Kenneth Pollack in Senate testimony this July 18; and by dozens of midlevel Army and Marine Corps officers in Iraq.
Krepinevich calls the approach the oil-spot strategy. The core insight is that you can't win a war like this by going off on search and destroy missions trying to kill insurgents. There are always more enemy fighters waiting. You end up going back to the same towns again and again, because the insurgents just pop up after you've left and kill anybody who helped you. You alienate civilians, who are the key to success, with your heavy-handed raids.
Instead of trying to kill insurgents, Krepinevich argues, it's more important to protect civilians. You set up safe havens where you can establish good security. Because you don't have enough manpower to do this everywhere at once, you select a few key cities and take control. Then you slowly expand the size of your safe havens, like an oil spot spreading across the pavement.
Once you've secured a town or city, you throw in all the economic and political resources you have to make that place grow. The locals see the benefits of working with you. Your own troops and the folks back home watching on TV can see concrete signs of progress in these newly regenerated neighborhoods. You mix your troops in with indigenous security forces, and through intimate contact with the locals you begin to even out the intelligence advantage that otherwise goes to the insurgents.
If you ask U.S. Officials why they haven't adopted this strategy, they say they have. But if that were true the road to the airport in Baghdad wouldn't be a death trap. It would be within the primary oil spot.
The fact is, the U.S. Didn't adopt this blindingly obvious strategy because it violates some of the key Rumsfeldian notions about how the U.S. Military should operate in the 21st century.
First, it requires a heavy troop presence, not a light, lean force. Second, it doesn't play to our strengths, which are technological superiority, mobility and firepower. It acknowledges that while we go with our strengths, the insurgents exploit our weakness: the lack of usable intelligence.
Third, it means we have to think in the long term. For fear of straining the armed forces, the military brass have conducted this campaign with one eye looking longingly at the exits. A lot of the military planning has extended only as far as the next supposed tipping point: the transfer of sovereignty, the election, and so on. We've been rotating successful commanders back to Washington after short stints, which is like pulling Grant back home before the battle of Vicksburg. The oil-spot strategy would force us to acknowledge that this will be a long, gradual war.
But the strategy has one virtue. It might work.
Today, public opinion is turning against the war not because people have given up on the goal of advancing freedom, but because they are not sure this war is winnable. Why should we sacrifice more American lives to a lost cause?
If President Bush is going to rebuild support for the war, he's going to have to explain specifically how it can be won, and for that he needs a strategy.
It's not hard to find. It's right there in Andy Krepinevich's essay, and in the annals of history.
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 8:08:00 AM
Wow, a whole 15,000 troops to help cover four states. Great job Republicans. I now feel so secure knowing that the Bush Administration and his now to be proven inept Homeland Security are running the show. Denouncing Homeland Security actually pains me a bit considering Tom Ridge is from my home state and I respect the guy, well I guess I used to now.
If you even attempt to write here that the Federal Govt. And this administration has done a good job in dealing with this catastrophe I'll be forced to consider you a dope. Let me elaborate. The response time is horrid. Again, thanks Republicans. Don't fret though, Clinton and Bush's daddy will get things moving at a more rapid pace.
Bush officially is going to go down as one of the 3 worst Presidents of all time whether it's all his doing or not. <--That's actually a paraphrased quote from Republican stooge Bill O'Reilly. Your own trolls are beginning to jump ship.
Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to be on my toes.
Invite a retard to a picnic and you'd better expect to get drool in the potato salad.
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 12:01:25 PM
Chief, your banter comparing events around this tragedy with remarks about Bush's National Guard record is such BS. This tit for tat crap is getting pretty immature. Spare us.
Let me elaborate some more. Once the words "Category Five" were uttered the Bush administration should have already deployed all response teams. Even if the hurricane slowed at least it would have been a dry run. What if this had been a terrorist attack? This is sadly laughable.
This just shows us all how ill-prepared Bush and the Flunky Bunch are in terms of National security.
Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to be on my toes.
Invite a retard to a picnic and you'd better expect to get drool in the potato salad.
Once the words "Category Five" were uttered the Bush administration should have already deployed all response teams. Even if the hurricane slowed at least it would have been a dry run.
^Well said. The media mobilization makes the government response look laughable. Why is CNN standing in downtown New Orleans, Biloxi, etc. And not the National Guard?
Good posts Rogue and KBC.
With a city where 28% of the residents are below the poverty level you'd think the evacuation busses would have shown up well in advance.
Kinda gets me how the media keeps pulling kids aside after looting a Walmart for clean clothes and shoes while they're standing in 3 feet of sludge. I saw one reporter say 'don't you know thats stealing'. C'mon. With a better response from state and federal resources a whole lot of necessities could have been handed out in an orderly fashion. I'm sure Walmart would of been happy to allow that all things considered.
Could we have been better prepared? Could we have responded more quickly? Could we be doing more today? Could recovery efforts be better organized?
Not sure we will know the answers to any of those questions for some time. The scope of this disaster may be too great for anything to have sufficed.
What is the one thing that is inexcusably absent, even through today?
Quality leadership.
Where's Giuliani?
Is Bush still on vacation?
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 3:03:10 PM
Scientist have been warning about this scenario for years.
Here's a synopsis from an article in the October 2001 issue of Scientific American:
THE BOXES are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."
New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh-an area the size of Manhattan-will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one million people inside and another million in surrounding communities. Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would cut off the few escape routes. Scientists at Louisiana State University (L.S.U.), who have modeled hundreds of possible storm tracks on advanced computers, predict that more than 100,000 people could die. The body bags wouldn't go very far.
IMO the answer to could we is pretty evident in many ( the levee system engineered only to withstand a Cat 3 for one ) areas 44. After all, isn't this the last remaining super power on Earth?
Is New Orleans the first victim of the 'less is more' mantra of many when it comes to the federal government? I'm sure that will be a question that rears it's head in the future.
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 8:30:52 PM
*Double post*
Guys (& gals),
Americans should hang their heads in shame over how these poor people are being treated. I am, quite frankly, disgusted at what I am hearing regarding reports from the ground. Here it is 96 hours after this happened and people are no better off today than they were on Monday. I mean - Jesus - if you can drive a bus to the Superdome you can dang sure drive a water truck down there.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/
I feel so strongly about this I am going to post this in other relevant threads.
I think I am no shit going to volunteer to go down there and do what I can do to help....with Labor Day coming up I can probably do a week or ten days.
This has been eating at me since it happened. Americans from all over supported SC in Hugo in 1989....and the situation in Charleston wasn't a whole lot different than it is now in New Orleans, minus the flooding.
Channel surfing the cable news channels this evening. Observation: Fox News seems focused on the looting more so than anything else. Interesting.
It's called city, parish, state, federal.
Not to mention the Army Corps of Engineers who
built and
maintained the levees.
Chief, New Orleans, which is sandwiched nicely
between the Lake on the north and the River on the
south, probably doesn't need no Geechies!
Best levee map is here .
Louisiana, they are trying to wash us away...
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 8:24:22 PM
If anyone is really serious about doing something - contact your local church or the Salvation Army. For the Catholics here just get in touch with your local parish.
@ Flea
Check out the Nat'l Hurricane Center website about that story.
I'm gone - drive it like you own it JJ.
Geechie - LOL.
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 8:29:03 PM
Let the looters take shoes. And food for that matter.
The first thing these stores will do is declare the entire stock destroyed by the flood.
Let's be honest. "I want a $100 pair of shoes that's been sitting in 5 feet of water all week"
.That's a sale I want to be at
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 8:29:07 PM
Gone, Chief?
Yeah, sho nuff.
Last edited: Thursday, September 01, 2005 at 8:38:34 PM
I'll try and check in assuming I can get a signal and keep a charge. The wife is amazingly acceptive...figured I'd take some heat.
Ack, good luck.
JJ sleeps.
Did I just hear Bill O'Reilly say that we should implement Marshall Law and shoot looters on sight? And then complain that too many people would be upset by the resulting dead bodies?
Did he really say that? Anyone know a way to get a clip or transcript?
This Fox News channel is interesting.
O'Reilly = wacko
Nice legacy, Bush
@ Chief-
Way to go. I wish I could go there myself, but the employer won't budge. It's good to see someone do something rather than complain. (Assuming of course you actually did what you said)
@ all-
Please do something to help, even if it seems little to you.
Thx LGM. BTW...any mod should be able to resolve my IP address to Cingular wireless...am on the Treo.
On the way to Baton Rouge via bus....Don's Charters...according to tbhe driver the company is doing this free of charge.
17 of us....we'll see what happens. We were told to pack like we were going camping. Wel're all from St Anns parish so we all know eaxh other. Solved the battery problem as I went and bought some spares last nite. Should be coming back Tues.
These guys need a ll the help they can get.....anyone close enough or with the ability to come should come....even if its for a day.
I'm still amazed at how many posts a political thread can get on ptt XD
I use multi-billion dollar military satellites to find tupperware hidden in the woods... What do YOU do?
Go, Chief.
Blog us what you see/do!
JJ can wake up for that!
Be very surprised if you make it down 10 -- which is the only passable road into town.
Also, the lack of coordination in the relief effort still seems utterly and totally appalling...though mountains of relief roll toward it.
Personally, I hope you make it instead to Mississippi or lower Louisiana areas where no one has been.
The more I see of this on the tube, the more I think the "oil spot strategy" makes good sense. The strategy is safe zone that expands steadily outward. Not that they need to discontinue rescue efforts in favor of this, but they need both!
And it is needed not to provide protection from shooters and looters only, but to provide a safe place for food, toilet, and information.
President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor crackers land."
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
Last edited: Saturday, September 03, 2005 at 6:56:11 AM
Intellectual integrity check...
Nope. Zero. Just more admin apologistic zealotry...same tired shit.
and you just lost tally? Great...almost total faith-based echo chamber in here...in here...in here.
I'll say this for you apologists, you fans of government, supporters of oligarchies, defenders of corporations...you sure can hang in there...and moo....and moo...and moo. I guess that's called sticking to message. Unimpeeded by reflection...or...ironically enough...rumination.
Carry on.
It's too hard to sort out the other threads on Katrina and New Orleans...
I commend Tally for pulling his links and comments into focus in his new thread.
My only thoughts on the New Orleans debacle is that the criticism needs more perspective.
The mayor of New Orleans was a reform mayor who has operated under federal protection and guidance for the last two years because of past corruption in politics in the city. Corruption has always been a part of Louisiana politics. The last three insurance commissioners are now in jail, for example. Edwin Edwards, a previous governor, ran against David Duke, the KKK candidate (it's a fact), and handed out bumper stickers that read: "Vote for the criminal. It's important." The bumper stickers said this because Edwards himself, Mr. Let-the-Good-Times-Roll, has been to jail for unethical ventures.
Hey, my brother-in-law, a doctor who lives in New Orleans, has a cap that has been popular there that reads: "Louisiana: Third World and Proud of It!"
Though a big city, it has lacked the government of a New York City, as one example, for a long time.
To say that this is a failure of only the federal government is wrong.
This has started something new! What I think will be discussed for years to come is the role of the federal government in state and local affairs.
I am not in favor of Big Brother in DC overseeing the nation. I find some of the ranting against the feds to be silly. Some of it is frustration. Some of it is deserved. But some of the ranting needs to be directed at local and state officials also.
They were the first responders. They just had to hold out in an organized way at least at one or two locations like the Superdome until the state and federal government stepped in to work with them. If the state and feds did not show up after the first responders set up shop, then only the state and federal officials are wrong.
It should be noted also that the first news reports of the hurricane hitting Louisiana were: Thank goodness it missed New Orleans! I heard that. It was only faintly noted that the levees had broken.
A hurricane in New Orleans was said to be one of the three potential major disasters that could hit the U.S. A major earthquake in California and a major disaster in New York City are the other two.
I hope it never happens but I also sincerely hope that the government of California, local and state, have evacuation and shelter plans in place now before any major earthquake.
Last edited: Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 12:28:58 AM
^Party line.
Everyone is at fault...which means no one is at fault. Buck stops where?
Last edited: Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 4:16:38 AM
Good to read ya stink.
Gee, did I say "perspective"?
You might like it...if you tried it. It's so much richer and fuller than the two-dimensional.
Unless, of course, you have another agenda...
Ya think?
Perspective JJ? You go about it by blurring issues up there. No offense but people here aren't stupid. Google SELA and the Bush administration for perspective.
It was only faintly noted that the levees had broken.
Thats not true. Anyone watching the news when that happened can tell you that. Maybe you just didn't take it seriously.
All the pundit crap here skirts so many important issues I think some people need new hobbies.
Actually the levees really started coming down after the hurricane had passed.
This from the Times on 8/29:
In New Orleans, most of the levees held, but one was damaged.
It was said also that the water on the inside of the levees contributed as much damage to the levee system as the water on the outside. This was said on 8/31/05.
But the levees were the always the big issue and needed watching from the beginning.
Most of the major levee and flood control work would have taken years to complete.
The plan was called "Coast 2050." Be glad to post some history on the Coast 2050 project. Here's a chunk. Throw it into the breach:
So, in early 1997 a partnership was forged among federal, state and parish (the equivalent of a county in Louisiana) participants that would embark on the "Coast 2050" planning effort.
The web address was here: http://www.coast2050.gov/
But the site is down. Just happened to have a piece of that.
One of the better short articles on the nature of New Orleans
...
Last edited: Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 5:36:59 PM
Blind Cide for President!
You guys go on ad nauseam about Democrat vs Republican when the root of the problem is that the only legitimate function of the government is the protectection of individual rights. Why do you expect positive results from the biggest committee ever formed?
And MJ for Vice President!
The American motto should be "It's not my fault". Everyone is always quick to blame someone else.
Me, I is just waiting for the Chief report...
Last edited: Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 5:47:29 PM
Yeah I was aware that it happened after the hurricane passed
You like music, Az.
Here's a good article on the Randy Newman song. I read John Barry's book. Not a bad read. Slow in the midparts, good on the ends.
By Todd Leopold
CNN
Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 8:03 a.m. EDT (12:03 GMT)
(CNN) -- In 1926 and 1927, the Mississippi River, heavy from months of rain, started bursting its banks. Land along the river flooded from Illinois on south. Memphis was overrun in the fall of 1926; the waters covered western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana in the months following. Seven hundred thousand people were evacuated or left homeless.
What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it start to rain...
New Orleans watched the Mississippi Valley floodwaters nervously. On a single day in April the city had received 14 inches of rain, which put parts of it were under more than six feet of water; the French Quarter had two feet. If a levee broke, the city would be doomed.
Eventually, fearful townspeople prompted the governor to dynamite a levee south of town to relieve the pressure on New Orleans. The city was spared. Others in the state weren't so lucky.
Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline...
The flood, as chronicled in John M. Barry's book "Rising Tide," led to dramatic changes in the United States. It was a factor in the Great Migration of African-Americans to northern industrial cities, and many of the migrants wrote songs and tales about the Great Flood.
Louisiana, Louisiana, they're tryin' to wash us 'way, they're tryin' to wash us 'way
Louisiana, Louisiana, they're trying to wash us 'way, they're tryin' to wash us 'way....
I first heard Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" while growing up in New Orleans. The local radio stations always liked playing songs with Louisiana references: Gary U.S. Bonds' "New Orleans," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Born on the Bayou," Arlo Guthrie's "City of New Orleans," Louisiana LeRoux's "New Orleans Ladies." I don't now if the radio stations knew the history documented in the song or were completely ignorant of it and just liked the title. Whatever they thought, "Louisiana 1927" created its own mesmerizing power.
The song starts with plaintive strings, something out of the 19th century. Then Newman's humble voice comes on, singing lyrics at once as basic as a newsreel and as majestic as Homer.
The river rose all day, the river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away all right
New Orleans and I didn't fit; I left as soon as I could. But my heart breaks as I view the floodwaters lapping at building roofs, the city submerged as far as the eye can see.
The river has busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline
My mother drove up ahead of the storm Saturday night. She's OK. But I worry about the house she left behind, about my old high school friends, about the avenues and architecture, about the people missing and homeless all along the devastated Gulf Coast. And my mind can't stop playing "Louisiana 1927."
Louisiana, Louisiana...
Last edited: Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 6:02:00 PM
Thats a great piece JJ. "City of New Orleans" has been playing in my head a whole lot this week. Bob Dylan wrote this poem that's also been on my mind. Check it out.
Last thoughts on Woody Gutherie
Last edited: Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 6:26:17 PM
Oh! This morning they try to federalize the National Guard!
You liberal types should be careful what you pray for! You might get it.
Check the last several paragraphs of the Washington Post item.
The statists are coming! The statists are coming!
Oh, we're saved. Womb to the tomb...womb to the tomb.
Goodbye individual rights. Hello Committee!
This should be dubbed the Blind Cide priniciple of gov't. Power to the Committee!
...wait, what happens when the Committee can't handle the job?
-----------> A 20 foot tall poster of our leader hung from the Washington Monument looking placidly down the National Mall.
Which way will she do her hair, I wonder? ;)
Last edited: Monday, September 05, 2005 at 8:15:58 AM
Wake me up when Chief blogs in...
Yo dude,
Here I be. Just in case Tally kills this post in his thread:
It is a g#ddamn shame that while *hundreds of thousands* of people are on the move....their lives completely shattered.....people continue to play politics and the blame game.
We returned to SC last night after 4 days of "The War of the Worlds".
Anyone - left or right - that tries to play this at a political angle has a special place in Hell reserved for them.
I cannot convey to you the enormity of this situation. You can tell the people who were in New Orleans by the stench.....not only from their clothes (the ones that got out with what was on their backs) but basically their entire lower bodies. When we first got there, we were amazed at the stories some evacuees told of thei escape. After a while, it became apparent that everyone had a miraculous story.
The items in biggest need are baby formula, cots, PANTS, mosquito repellant, and bottled water. The Church we served at, St. Agnes, is currently serving 1200 evacuees....capacity is 750 - most come in, re-group, eat, rest, then keep moving. About every other car has picked up evacuee hitchhikers on I-10....the hitchhikers tended to be the ones staying put. What was more amazing is that- although BR was nailed as well...and had it's own severe issues to reckon with - people were still dropping stuff off....clothes, canned food, water. It was truly amazing to see.
The diocese was doing a great job in relocating them to more permanent shelters in no LA, TN, and GA. The Don's bus took a bunch of people to the monastery in Chas SC - we caught a ride back with some really nice folks from Savannah.
Trust me - you people don't have the faintest clue what's going on on the ground down there. Get off your ass and do something instead of pointing your finger at any one politician - whoever they are. The *bureacracy* failed here as Brousseau stated most succintly.
Last edited: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 10:01:44 AM
Ah, Chief.
A nice read.
A staggering situation.
Had a rather passionate conversation today with a woman whose family still lives there.
She had several observations that were noteworthy, several that I was already aware of.
First, she mentions that she has relatives who rode out the storm across the river from the FQ and are doing OK. They stocked up, are dry, and doing OK. There are parts of the area, especially in the metro New Orleans that did ride it out. The lucky ones.
Second, Orleans Parish (the equivalent of county in other states) is New Orleans the city . St. Bernard Parish was hit the hardest and is not under city control proper but is still considered part of the metro New Orleans area. It is one of the poorest areas and least well able to manage.
Her point was that there is a chain of governments that operate in that area, all of which are connected in many ways to one another, the state, and federal agencies. The local government is first, the city, the state, and so on.
What everyone is scrutinizing now is the breakdown in preparedness and the breakdown in response.
She was very defensive about criticism against Ray Nagin. Me too.
You just have to understand LA politics. It is like nothing else in this country. (Except Chicago?) So I am not going to waste much wind trying to explain it here. I think in the near future that the corruption in local politics that has weakened management of New Orleans will probably come to light.
She was also very angry at the governor and the governor's lack of responsiveness...as well as the governor's own political maneuvering against Nagin and the City. Nagin was cut down from behind by corruption and dirty politics and from the front by the governor.
What is really being argued on the federal level right now is how much federal control should be exercised in the area, meaning what will it take to move the governor out of the road.
Finally, this lady (name is Blanchard, nice local name) said that there has always been a huge drug culture in New Orleans. It apparently rode out the storm. Three hospitals have been trashed locally and you can guess why.
What a mess. As you say, though, all the ranting about Washington while turning a back on relief efforts is just playing politics. The political theater. I have no words for that.
Last edited: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 9:53:43 PM
of scientific interest.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1764136,00.html
^ illustrates my earlier point. Why are we teaching something in schools that changes so frequently? (sorry about the pun.)
Also...
Congratulations on the trip, Chief. Taking off your personal time to donate time.
Donation to the Red Cross today for me. I have been holding out to see who is going to do the best job on relief. There seems to be no leader.
Thanks bro! It is much needed.
By the way - did some math last night. The way I figure it, I can move all the wife's crap out of the hall closet and put about a month's worth of supplies in there.
On Chief's shopping list:
- Water
- Canned food
- Marlboros
- Grey Goose (for medicinal purposes)
- TP
- Garbage bags - one of those big ass containers they sell at Sam's Club.
- Duct tape
- Solar / hand powered radio
May not be a bad idea in case of another Hugo / Floyd. I think after Katrina we'll probably be left to our own devices were we to get hit in the next 60 days (an event that I am told has better than 50/50 chances).
Didn't want to "smoke up" Tally's thread with this one, but another hot button has been depressed:
8. Well, the President has said that this government can do many things at once: It can fight the war on terror, it can do operations in Iraq, and aid and comfort people in Louisiana. Can it not also find time to begin to hold people accountable? It sounds, Scott, as if the line that you're giving us -- which is, you don't want to answer questions about accountability because there's too much busy work going on is a way of ducking accountability.
When I initially read the series of questions 44 posted in Tally's thread, I just assumed that he had written them himself or they came off of a fictitious press briefing on moveon.org or something.
Well - come to find out - these questions were actually asked at an actual White House press briefing!!!!!
Holy cow! Talk about pre-judging the answer! "No Scott, that's not the answer I was looking for!"
How about some honest-to-God let's make a difference reporting of fact fellas? Your tilt is so obvious.....I wasn't even really paying attention, just finished an all nighter, and I still noticed it!
Ps - press briefings took place just like this one back in Clinton's years - they were just as wrong then too.
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Yeeeeeeeep, that's right. It ain't over 'til the fat lady has sung...and waffles are served for all.
First up - Social Security.
I bring you the following from an email I rec'd earlier today. Slightly partisan, but I though "What the hey...what's not lately?"
SO:
Subject: Social Security
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like
a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the
handle.--Winston Churchill
SOCIAL SECURITY:
Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the
Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:
1.) That participation in the Program would be
completely voluntary,
2.) That the participants would only have to pay
1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into
the Program,
3.) That the money the participants elected to
put into the Program would be deductible from their
income for tax purposes each year,
4.) That the money the participants put into the
independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the
General operating fund, and therefore, would only be
used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program,
and no other Government program, and,
5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees
would never be taxed as income.
Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and
are now receiving a Social Security check every
month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed
on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal
government to "put away," you may be interested in
the following:
Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from
the independent "Trust" fund and put it into the
General fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the
Democratically-controlled House and Senate.
Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.
Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
"tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.
Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving
annuity payments to immigrants?
MY FAVORITE :
A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic
Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at
age 65, began to receive SSI Social Security
payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments
to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!
Then, after doing all this lying and thieving and
violation of the original contract (FICA), the
Democrats turn around and tell you that the
Republicans want to take your Social Security away!
And the worst part about it is, uninformed citizens
believe it!
I haven't had a chance to fact check yet - I'm sure someone will. I deleted the "pass this on" part of the email.
Well? Agree? Disagree?