Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Michael Moore could have sent in busses to help evacuate the people but he chose not to. The mayor of NO could have asked for busses to help evacuate people but he was too busy running to higher ground to save himself. The governor of Louisiana could have asked for help evacuating people but she didn't either. They knew 2+ days ahead of time that it was going to be a real close hit to NO. The levees should have been reinforced years ago to handle a category 5 storm but NO chose to spend the money they were given elsewhere. Michael Moore could have helped reinforce the levees but he didn't. Troops being abroad have nothing to do with what happened here. NO and the state of Louisiana had no central command set up in case a hurricane hit. So who was supposed to organize the relief effort? The federal gov't couldn't have done much more than they did in the first couple of days because there was no central command to communicate with. This disaster is the fault of the city of NO local gov't and blame should not be passed on to anyone else. Michael Moore should spend a couple of nights in a flooded NO house, I'm sure we would all appreciate it if he did. I'm sick of these self-righteous "celebrities" who never have anything to offer before an event occurs. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...thumbsdown.gif I applaud Sean Pean who jumped in to help rescue people. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif Going forward, NO should not be allowed to rebuild anything that is below sea level, that is the situation that created this disaster, not global warming, George Bush, Iraq or poverty.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
I applaud Sean Pean who jumped in to help rescue people. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif Going forward, NO should not be allowed to rebuild anything that is below sea level, that is the situation that created this disaster, not global warming, George Bush, Iraq or poverty.

[/ QUOTE ]
The only ones to blame are the city planners who built this place 18 feet below sea level and the ding dongs who decided to live in the place, years ago there was another place like this, it was called ATLANTIS, Gee anyone been their lately?
A Big https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif to Sean Penn!
In the end we will all be paying for this mess, can you say federal flood insurace program, id like to say thanks to all my buddies up in the hills of Montana someplace for the cheap $300.00 premium for my multi million dollar flood insurace policy. THANKS!

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

AMEN https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

I think it's spelled, Michael "Manure"......

wilma

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Sean Penn took along his personal photographer(and a leaky boat!), typical..." we've got to help these people, how do I look?". Anyone ever seen ACTUAL proof that we're screwing up the ozone?

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Sean Penn.............."how do I look?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry Sean, but you really don't wanna ask that question! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

I get pi$$ed when i hear the americans complain about they're "high price" of gas becouse of Katrina. I live in an oil rich province and my priemier was asked by bush to double our oil output to help with this crisis. I see prices in the states are averaging about $3.06 a gallon and they're complaining!!!!. Right here at home where the gas is made we pay (with the exchange and the litre to gallon conversion made) on a normal day $3.62 a gallon, and now becouse of katrina we are paying an average of $5.21 a gallon. Which since we did'nt have a storm and the gas is made here, how does that equate. Well becouse of the terrific support bush showed us when our beef producers were starving when mad cow hit us, (1 case by the way and 3 cases found in the states) and Canada lost billions in lost cattle revenue, and lets stick on the soft wood lumber tariffs that Bush will not give on when it's against the free trade act, i could go on with the list of how we get worked over, well our priemier said NO!!

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Where's all bushes buddies???, the billions they make off of north america every year you think that they could offer a little more that a few million. Thats a days interest for them, how about a few hundred million!!!, park a few of the weekender yaughts out in the harbour to help out with some of the relief work, like that would really hurt them. ...........oh ya thats right poor people don't buy gas!!

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Right here at home where the gas is made we pay (with the exchange and the litre to gallon conversion made) on a normal day $3.62 a gallon, and now becouse of katrina we are paying an average of $5.21 a gallon. Which since we did'nt have a storm and the gas is made here, how does that equate.

[/ QUOTE ]

May be it's an excuse by the Canadian oil companies to jack up the price? https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/dunno.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Where's all bushes buddies???, the billions they make off of north america every year you think that they could offer a little more that a few million. Thats a days interest for them, how about a few hundred million!!!, park a few of the weekender yaughts out in the harbour to help out with some of the relief work, like that would really hurt them. ...........oh ya thats right poor people don't buy gas!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Spoken like a True "French" Canadian........If only World Politics and Policies were that simple......

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Everyone, don't worry about all this. Oprah arrived on the scene so we'll have her wisdom to straighten things out down in NO.

She said more people should open up their homes for these people. (Notice though she is not opening up her 4 empty mansions to the "refugees"-You have 5 homes Oprah -can only live in one at a time). Typical elite-do as I say but not as I do.

I'm also waiting for her to give away another bunch of Pontiac G6's out of the goodness of her heart. Of course GM actually gave away all the cars but who cares about the little details anyway.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Sean Penn took along his personal photographer(and a leaky boat!), typical..." we've got to help these people, how do I look?". Anyone ever seen ACTUAL proof that we're screwing up the ozone?

[/ QUOTE ]

AMEN!!!

Im glad most people can see through these shallow celebrities. It is all self serving publicity stunts.
Take the cameras away and I bet Penn, Winfrey or Clooney wouldn't pull your or my ass out of a mud puddle.
By the way, I thought Sean and Susan Sure-is-dumb were still on a "Fact Finding Mission" in Iraq.

Please guys do everyone a favor and go back to Hollywood.
Haven't the people of New Orleans already suffered enough?

Knoxville

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Spoken like a True "French" Canadian........If only World Politics and Policies were that simple......

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Westeners don't like French Canadians!!!!

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Check out this article that was posted on Team Chevelle. There is a lot of truth in it. It is a long read but worth it.
James


An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare State

By: Robert Tracinski

It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.

If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.

Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.

But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.

The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.
The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.

The man-made disaster is the welfare state.

For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).

So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?

To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story: "Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.

"The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire....
"Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.

" 'These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the streets,' she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.' " The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad.

What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome? Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?

Sherri figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)
What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional, crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so they just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.

There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency.
No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism.

What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.

But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.

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.

Source: TIA Daily -- September 2, 2005

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

I think Robert the Reporter is a pretty smart man.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]

Spoken like a True "French" Canadian........If only World Politics and Policies were that simple......

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Westeners don't like French Canadians!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool!!!!!!!!!

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
I think Robert the Reporter is a pretty smart man.



[/ QUOTE ]

Wow.......Someone with common sense who knows how to call the Kettle Black......I'm sure the "Reverend" Jesse would not agree........Imagine that......

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif
Gonna take a Mango break.........

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

All this talk is diverting attention away from that chubby, egocentric jerkoff who spreads disinformation and lies for political gain- you know, Karl Rove.

As for Michael Moore, to say he's a no credibility celebrity who shouldn't be shooting his mouth off is sort of ridiculous. He's a celebrity BECAUSE he shoots his mouth off about hot button social issues. Nearly all of his movies (save one crappy comedy called Canadian Bacon), have been about stirring the pot and shining a light on sociopolicial issues that he wants discussed. If a semi-literate hack like Sean Hannity can babble on nightly and call that his "job", then Michael Moore should have his say as well. In this case, his "letter" is a bit too clumsy and blunt, but I believe the sentiment is real.

While the images and tales of crime were shocking, most of the desperation I saw was from a lack of shelter, food, and water. That and the difficulty of moving and caring for the elderly. Sure everyone should have evacuated voluntarily, but realistically, no car + no money = no leavng. And theres always going to be elderly folks stubbornly staying put, as anyone who's tried to get the car keys away from or convince their aging parents to go to assisted living can attest.

I think there's race and class issues at play, but mostly I think it came down to the fact that those who were left were politically invisible. They weren't active enough to make their plight known while policies were formed, and weren't noticed in the aftermath until all hell broke loose.

Whether you think its formed by a defective welfare state or the greed of the haves keeping the have-nots down, few would dispute that there is a bubbling undercurrent of poverty, desperation, and rage that comes to the surface with frightening speed when the veneer of society cracks. Whether its the LA riots, the WTO riots, blackouts or this, I'm genuinely troubled by the violence and lawlessness that erupts almost immediately. Whatever the cause, I think we have to find a solution, as it will surely corrode the society my children inherit.

As for the President, I believe that the co opting of the National Guard and its resouces to fight that misbegotten Iraq war "on the cheap" has come back to haunt him. (2008 election can't come soon enough for me. I'll leave it at that.)

Anyways, kudos to all that have sent support to the Red Cross and others. We donated to the Red Cross prior to SCR8, and are waiting to see who is most effective in the "recover and rebuild" phase and will send money then as well. If anyone finds an organization that seems to be really effective at getting people back on their feet, into homes, and on with their lives, post here or feel free to send me a PM.

Respectfully,
TOM

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

I think what you are seeing is the end result of a couple generartions of ACLU and MTV mentality....It's not a simple fix and I think it's only gonna get worse......

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif
Bring back Commando Cody, Boston Blackie, and Superman

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyways, kudos to all that have sent support to the Red Cross and others. We donated to the Red Cross prior to SCR8, and are waiting to see who is most effective in the "recover and rebuild" phase and will send money then as well. If anyone finds an organization that seems to be really effective at getting people back on their feet, into homes, and on with their lives, post here or feel free to send me a PM.

[/ QUOTE ]
After delivering a load of stuff in our trailer yesterday, I had a chance to talk to a couple of the folks spearheading the effort in that area, and they explained that even the Red Cross has such an enormous amount of red tape that things move at a snail's pace...and this type of thing is old hat to the Red Cross. These folks have like 200+ refugees in a town of only 1800, and would've had more had the Red Cross "approved" one of the church's sanctuary...the Red Cross told them that since the bathroom wasn't directly adjacent to the sanctuary (it was down the hall) that they couldn't host any families...sounded a lot like a HUD inspection, not a relief effort. But anyway, they said the church decided to work *bypass* the Red Cross as the refugees just needed SOMEWHERE to go and having to walk down a hallway to a bathroom was their least concern. I was extremely pleased to hear that a couple of the farmers in the town had hired a couple of the refugees to help them get back on their feet, a trucking firm in the town was sending 10 of them to truck driving school, and all of the restraunts in town had agreed to hire as many folks as were willing to work...all from a town of 1800. Folks are pouring into all of the surrounding church camps here in our area, so the relief effort is gonna hit a lot closer to home than most people ever thought...

I'll withhold my thoughts on Michael Moore, as the focus needs to remain on those helping and those needing help...

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Rob...Good job on the help you are providing. I will also hold my thoughts on MM. I live in the Town he has trashed. By the way, he is not from Flint. He is from Davison, a rather nice suburb of Flint. His own hometown refused to honor him in any way.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

These folks probably could have used a decent mayor who had some type of plan or the brains to come up with one...IMO

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
These folks probably could have used a decent mayor who had some type of plan or the brains to come up with one...IMO

[/ QUOTE ]

Clear, Consise, and Logical..........I Agree with BelAir

Ken https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/flag.gif
Post #200

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

The sheriff from Scott county and 6 deputies returned from the NO. area today. Sheriff Conard is intelligent, consise, articulate, and well versed in emergency management. He's also a Republican, and I've voted for him more than once. He said there is virtually no real organization. The local sheriff actually ran the feds off as they could not make any decisions. He said people have, and are dieing because of the lack of a comprehensive plan. He said "elected officials from the local level to the federal level should be held accountable for this mess."
I do not understand how in post 9/11 this could happen. This could have been a dirty bomb, or a biological assault. I have to think the confusion would have been the same.
There's a protocal that happens in emergency management, to say nothing of local and state mutual aid agreements.
Local calls county, county calls state, state calls fed. Contingency plans are implemented and should be backed up with redundent plans to cover problems, or redirect help.
Now someone , or everyone, dropped the ball.
And there may be 10,000 dead Americans, not poor people, not black people, not white trash people,not elderly folks who couldn't evacuate, not folks living in gated communities, not Republican, not Democrats. Americans. Our people.
Ken Schoenthaler, Mayor, City of Donahue
DVFD, fire fighter, EMS

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

A friend of mine from Alabama is having a rough time with FEMA

**************************************My huge gripe right now is that the Feds not only have no plan to feed them, they have no plan to get them here. We're willing to go to Baton Rouge and get them. We have buses and CDL drivers. We even have police escorts lined up.

We have shelters ready to feed them and care for them. We have Doctors ready to provide medical care. We have grief counselors and certified counselors ready for them. We have set up a "Love Mart" supplied with everything they might need.

What we don't have is a permit from FEMA. One of our local circuit judges is beating his head against a wall of bureaucratic stupidity trying to get the permit. Everything is ready if the government will get out of the way and let it happen.

I'm worried that they will suffer down there when there's a good place for them here at our Park. Our governor actually bought the trailers with Alabama money. The Feds are just being an obstacle. That's all that they're doing. Email to your congressman would be appreciated.

If any of you do want to help, United Way of Marshall County is a fine organization. Anything given to them right now will go into our relief effort, but ear mark it "State Park relief" just in case. Our Church association was way out in front with our distribution channel, so the other agenices are joining us. Their address is 705 Blount Avenue, Guntersville, AL 35976.*********************************

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
These folks probably could have used a decent mayor who had some type of plan or the brains to come up with one...IMO

[/ QUOTE ]
How about the head of Fema? Gee whiz, looks pretty bad down there, Let me know if anybody calls in case they need any help https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/crazy.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Odd that you would need a permit to help people..

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

Anybody see that town in Mississippi that was built to 200mph wind codes? entire town is completely gone with only a tiny part of one single house left. This is where the eye went through. they said 20'+ storm surge followed by a bunch of tornados and then the back half of the hurricane, absolutely unbelievable to see that. We are building for 110mph here and now im wondering why even bother after seeing that https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/frown.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/eek.gif https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

I'm worried that they will suffer down there when there's a good place for them here at our Park. Our governor actually bought the trailers with Alabama money. The Feds are just being an obstacle. That's all that they're doing. Email to your congressman would be appreciated.
[/quote)

That must be what all those trailers i saw on the news were for, i just caught the back end of the story and they were talking about all these trailers sitting there going to waste as buracratic balony was making things difficult.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Odd that you would need a permit to help people..

[/ QUOTE ]
You need permits for everything,Try getting a permit to build a tiny dock or bulkhead, the feds take for ever to complete the paperwork. we spend more time getting permits, meeting with the DEP and EPA, getting inspections,Meeting with inspectors, getting all the surveys, engineering and flood elevation certificates than we do building the house, it has added 2-3 months time on a new house. First timers are amazed at the process and red tape..

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

The Truth is out There--But "The Media" cannot find it.

This is a post from a fellow over in Merritt Island, FL, a reporter who's been researching what went on before the storm hit:

I think all of Nagin's pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in the near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming to light.
On Friday night before the storm hit, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Nagin and Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NO(New Orleans) AA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 8ft.waves before it was destroyed.

President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before
midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved
yet.
After the President's final call to the governor she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.

Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation.

After a personal plea from the President Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the Governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration the President declared the area a national
disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations. Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid
before the federal government can move into state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the disaster.

Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal
government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were.

The suffering people of New Orleans need to be asking some hard questions as do we all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his disposal to use between the local school busses and the
city transportation busses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.

This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in the future.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

What they should be doing is building a bunch of temporary housing units and camps, small buildings, tents, ect. They have the manpower, think of how many people they could put to work and good use doing that...oh yeah, we will have to wait 6 months to get the permits..

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

[ QUOTE ]
Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships.

[/ QUOTE ]
How about the millions that was spent on a 5 year study of the levee's to decide if they were sufficiant enough. I love those studys,engineers are bigger crooks than lawyers.

Re: A letter from Michael Moore
 

People waiting for permits to help in a situation like this are actually part of the problem not the solution. Absolute https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bs.gif that anyone would let something so trivial stop them. That judge sound be sh*t canned. Sounds like an excuse for non-action to me, but then again I've never been one to wait for someone else to do something for me.