BigAL
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Posts posted by BigAL
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As long as we are going to be arguing about Katrina and who screwed up the worst, we might as well use the facts. FactCheck.org has a good article with lots of information that looks pretty solid and balanced to me. For those interested:
Mickey, the funding aspect is pretty much irrelevent. Even if Bush had fully funded the Levee project in 2001, do you really think the work would have been completed enough to make a significant enough difference in what happened?
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Haven't you heard FEMA and Bad Bush are blocking the media from taking pictures?
Of course they were told they could take pictures but the military , fire , etc.. are too bust to cart them around and protect them. But it's FEMA's fault not the media who wants to take up space that a recuser or helpless person could need.
Bush Bad, Fema Bad.
Way to turn a simple request into a political rant. Real helpful.
Smokinandjokin - check out USAtoday.com. They have a photo slide show on the front page. Specifically check out photo 58 on the recovery tab. I didn't see the trash, but it's got the light coming through the holes in the dome.
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Well, as I pointed out in my initial response, there are no facts to support that statement, only conjecture, anecdotes, and unconfirmed reports. But hey, feel free to jump to all the conclusions you want to believe in if it makes you feel better.
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If the city managed to get the busses to the Dome and Conv. Center, and get 25,000 people out of the city before the storm hit, no one would be busting the federal government's balls right now because they'd be too busy praising the city, county and state officials for doing such a superb job handling the pending crisis.
But the local screwups lead the way to federal criticisms. It's like blaming Nate Clements for the Jacksonville TD at the end of the game in our opener last year. If we stopped the fourth and long, there would have been no need for Nate in the endzone as the clock ticked away.
All true, but that's got nothing to do with the main premise of the article which is summed up in the last paragraph...
"The welfare state—and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages—is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting."
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I think most reasonable people agree that the Federal gov't was at least 24 hours late in responding to Katrina. That's not an anecdotal story. There are plenty of facts that can be used to determine "blame". It's a fact that Mike Brown, the head of FEMA said that the Federal Gov't was unaware of the situation at the Convention Centre/Superdome 2 days after it had been on tv. How can you possibly explain or justify that? I can't explain that anymore than I can explain why Mayor Nagin did not use the city and school buses to evacuate people from New Orleans, instead of taking them to the Superdome. If you want to buy into the "Intellectual Activist's" theory, you have to know at a personal level the status of the people commiting the crimes, and how that relates to welfare. Otherwise, it's just speculation.
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The article is all about assumptions. Assumptions about the people looting & committing crimes, assumptions about whether these same peolple are the ones on welfare, assumptions about the number of trouble makers. For all we know there could be 100 thugs, gang members, criminals or whatever, that have committed the bulk of the crimes and incidents referenced in the article. Until there is more than anecdotal sotries, with specific people involved, their backgrounds, and status, all you have is conjecture. Maybe this intellectual activist will follow up with some research to back up his theory.
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I don't like disagreeing with people who use "decidivate" in a sentence, but how about this scenario from the prison officials: "Gee, the entire city of NO is being asked to evacuate three days before a hurricane. What should we do with the prisoners? Ahhh, let's just let them free and we can all run for the hills."
Yeah, I know, where WOULD you put them? Still, someone should have had a plan in place. Letting them go free is a !@#$ed up plan and an even more !@#$ed up law. The more I learn about the people running New Orleans, the more I think God had a reason for hitting it.
The prisoners were not set free. Here's a link to an abcnews report with Senator Landrieu about what happened to the prisoners.
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I admit that I am tempted to, but the bottom line is no. I think the Local, State and Federal gov't all have failed these people regardless of what color they are.
One part where I think you can question race's role is around the perception of looting. I don't know if it's true (haven't bothered to prove it one way or the other), but I do wonder if there's some truth to the media reporting black people as looters, and whites as looking for food. Is there anything really different about someone breaking into walmart, taking shoes, clothing, and food to help their family, and a doctor breaking into the pharmacy to take medicine? Both can be considered looting, but the doctor will get praised for helping people where as the other person is condemend even if all they are doing is helping their family survive. I have no sympathy for the guys taking tv's though. That is looting.
I also think this is much more about class than race. If you look at the people who did stay, you have to wonder if they had any means of getting out when they called for a mandatory evacuation.
To me, it's pretty sad that we have people living in that kind of poverty at all. I'm not a socialist by any means, but we are the richest nation in the world, and we have billions of dollars to help other countries, yet we still have pathetic living conditions in this country.
Eryn - You asked me what my thoughts were, figured you'd at least respond.
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I just read that the coast guard has rescued nearly twice as many people during Katrina as they have over the last 50 years. Decent kudos buried in the doom and gloom here... if you know where to look for it...
I hear ya.
So while folks are complaining about CNN and MSNBC, you point to a CNN article for some positive news. Brilliant
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The NFL network showed up on my dishnetwork guide yesterday as channel 154. I didn't even know it was part of their service. I had gone to the NFL Network website to see if dishnetwork was ever going to carry them. They had a form letter that you could use to request your service provider carry the NFL network. I filled out the form a few weeks ago, and totally forgot about. Now i've got it. Pretty cool. Here's the link to request it if your cable or satellite service doesn't carry it. It makes me wonder what other channels dishnetwork is hiding that they could be providing as part of their regular service. Think i'll try for UniversalHD next.
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I have no doubt whatsoever that hundreds of things went wrong. I hope to know more Tuesday night. Part of the reason for my visit is to gather lessons learned so I can apply them to another interagency effort going on. I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around. I doubt anyone will get any praise. A lady friend of mine is an Army Helicopter pilot flying relief down there right now. I'm pretty sure they are already exausted, and I hope that not too many crash before it's over with.
I still put the start of this snowball at the city government of NO. There is absolutely no reason why they could not have executed an adequate evacuation plan. Had they done so, a heck of a lot of the rest of this wouldn't even be discussed. IMO, I don't think anyone in government fully understood that NO still had several thousands of people in it for quite a while after the fact. That shouldn't have been the case. IMO, there was a big "holy shidt" from a lot of quarters. The city government folded and panicked. I think a lot of things in place had to get shuffled and redone on the fly. If you look at the numbers that have been rescued and evacuated over the last week, then look at the video of the masses still standing around, it doesn't paint a pretty picture. There's been breakdowns up and down the chain, but it starts there.
I agree with you almost 100%. It starts with the NO local gov't, but someone from FEMA who worked with them during their hurricane Pam simulation should have realized that what the local gov't had was up to wasn't going to cut it. By the way, best of luck to you down there. I'm sure you will do some good.
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I think that there is a difference between "believing what the administration is trying to do" and actually knowing what is supposed to happen and when. You can believe that I know what I'm talking about, or not. With an audience this volatile (I'm not saying you) it is impossible to adequately explain how things work without starting a bunch of wars. The fact is, people just don't want to hear the truth and a lot of that is because the truth is not pretty. As for your "definite lack of leadership", unless someone knows what is supposed to happen, I don't know how that accusation can be made - of anyone.
I suppose saying things like the Coast Guard has rescued 10,000 people in the last few days is biased. It doesn't sound bad, so it must be spun. It's better and more balanced to say that they didn't rescue whoever drowned in their attic a day after the storm.
When the mayor of NO bails, the FEMA chief has no clue as to what was going on in the Superdome, and GWB is doing photo ops for 2 days before finally doing a flyby, I'd say there was a lack of leadership.
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What bias and spinning have Smith and Cooper displayed? Although I haven't watched Cooper too much, I heard they have both gotten emotional, but I don't see them spinning things to the left or to the right.
Bib, you certainly come from a point of view where you believe in what the administration is trying to do, and how they've gone about doing it. So I have no idea if that will influence your perception on how the Katrina relief is going. There was a definite lack of leadership from the Mayor of NO, to the Governor, to FEMA, and ultimately to President Bush. I don't know if you are biased or unbiased enough to admit that. Hence my initial question.
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I admit that I am tempted to, but the bottom line is no. I think the Local, State and Federal gov't all have failed these people regardless of what color they are.
One part where I think you can question race's role is around the perception of looting. I don't know if it's true (haven't bothered to prove it one way or the other), but I do wonder if there's some truth to the media reporting black people as looters, and whites as looking for food. Is there anything really different about someone breaking into walmart, taking shoes, clothing, and food to help their family, and a doctor breaking into the pharmacy to take medicine? Both can be considered looting, but the doctor will get praised for helping people where as the other person is condemend even if all they are doing is helping their family survive. I have no sympathy for the guys taking tv's though. That is looting.
I also think this is much more about class than race. If you look at the people who did stay, you have to wonder if they had any means of getting out when they called for a mandatory evacuation.
To me, it's pretty sad that we have people living in that kind of poverty at all. I'm not a socialist by any means, but we are the richest nation in the world, and we have billions of dollars to help other countries, yet we still have pathetic living conditions in this country.
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Did I mention Geraldo? As far as Shepard goes, it is actually interesting to see Fox depart from the normal position of the Administration can do no wrong. I think it's good to see him get pissed off over what was going on down there. Geraldo on the other hand is pathetic.
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What makes you think Bib's firsthand observations would be any more or less biased than Shepard Smith's or Anderson Cooper's. No offense Bib.
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So it's not FEMA's job to say "hey we did this study that shows a category 3 will devastate your area, that the plans you have in place are inadequate, and you should be doing this instead?"
My only point is if they new a category 3 was going to be so terrible, then surely they understood how severe things were going to get. Yes I can say that the NO Mayor and LA Governor did not do particularly good jobs either, but FEMA new what they were doing and had planned. You would think that they would be more prepared to handle things themselves considering what they knew was in place.
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I'm specifically referring to FEMA's activity to get the wrod out about the dire consequences of staying based on the hypthetical scenario they ran with Hurricane PAM. If FEmA knew had bad it was going to be. They should have been telling people "if you stay, there's a good chace you'll die or be stranded for days before we can get to you" They new how poor some sections of NO are. Both FEMA and the Local autorities should have done more to bus those people out of there.
best pizza in WNY?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned Pinzone's on Main St. near the Queen City Book store and PJ Bottoms. I've eaten many a slice from there after a night out at PJ's. I was back in Buffalo this year, and went there for lunch, but they had sold the place, and don't sell pizza anymore. Very disappinting.