Angry

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I’m insanely pissed off by the whole New Orleans/Katrina scenario!Where to begin?The US government can’t seem to get their fingers out of their asses to help out. Sure GW is “praying” but fuck that, do something.Also, why the fuck are the residents taking shots at rescuers with the guns they stole from Walmart?Why has the cost of fuel increased by a larger percentage here than in America, even though we produce 100% of our own fuel?Most importantly, why did the US mobilize quicker after the tsunami than they did in their own back yard?WTF?!

Because the american government is full of nothing but foolish dickheads and assholes. They're too preoccupied(ms) with helping everyone else out in the world (when in reality they're just fucking things up even worse) and couldn't give a rat's ass what happens to their people. After 9/11 and the tsunami, you'd think they could have pulled their heads from their asses and prepaired for things like this a lot better. Silly me for thinking that there was actually any intelligence in our government.Wow, I sound pretty pissy lol

I have to agree with both of you. I can't understand why it's taking the U.S. government so long to respond. Bush's speech Wednesday afternoon was appalling.The New York Times had this to say today...In reply to:Waiting for a LeaderPublished: September 1, 2005George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how that is going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been reported.Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.While our attention must now be on the Gulf Coast's most immediate needs, the nation will soon ask why New Orleans's levees remained so inadequate. Publications from the local newspaper to National Geographic have fulminated about the bad state of flood protection in this beloved city, which is below sea level. Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the gaping holes in the area's flood protection? It would be some comfort to think that, as Mr. Bush cheerily announced, America "will be a stronger place" for enduring this crisis. Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal.Ted Koppel blasted a FEMA guy about their apparent surprise that more people didn't evacuate New Orleans before the hurricane hit. Koppel told the guy that many of the residents are dirt poor, had no cars, and had no way out...and why weren't busses or anything provided to get people out before the storm? There were no answers forthcoming.

thank you both for the sanity-checkI have anger issues, I was hoping that this time, it was justified

Sometimes anger is well justified. This is one of those times.If you're poor and black, you're not a priority. Some things don't change easily.

I've seen news reports portraying whites as doing whatever they need to survive, yet the blacks are looting.

I'm finding it difficult to perform my job due to the sudden spike in gas price. Who should I rob?

Aren't you reimbursed per mile/km? Come to think of it, at the rate gas prices are rising, I doubt that most compamies are keeping up in their expense report car-usage reimbursement rates.

A year ago, FEMA conducted a mock disaster portraying a hurricane striking New Orleans. They still were not ready. I am puzzled. There are enough helicoptors and military cargo planes that could be loaded with food and disperesed to the stranded residents of N.O. to end the suffering-right NOW!In all honesty, there hae been concernes floated about the vulnerability of N.O. since the sixties, and every admin, every congress, has dropped the ball. But why the dragging of feet now!?!?!?!? People are dying. What the fuck is the hold up????Ritghteous anger. Gaurantees a democratic prez and a largely democratic congress next election. the slowness of response and the huge rise in gas prices will not be forgotten.

What I find sickening is there are some famous people that have family members that are missing and they have whole search parties and helicopters out looking ONLY for their family. Maybe it's me but that sickens me that they are not helping other that are stranded, but by passing them as they search for their family.And I over heard this morning that there are issues with the alligators and such now as well. Just angers me that there is not more support down there, if I had the option I'd be down there as well lending a hand.

[Today's NYT...]A Can't-Do GovernmentBy PAUL KRUGMANSeptember 2, 2005Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out without help - and help wasn't provided. Many have yet to receive any help at all.There will and should be many questions about the response of state and local governments; in particular, couldn't they have done more to help the poor and sick escape? But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response. Even military resources in the right place weren't ordered into action. "On Wednesday," said an editorial in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!"Maybe administration officials believed that the local National Guard could keep order and deliver relief. But many members of the National Guard and much of its equipment - including high-water vehicles - are in Iraq. "The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," a Louisiana Guard officer told reporters several weeks ago.Second question: Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an Editor and Publisher article says, citing a series of articles in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, "never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the same time as federal tax cuts - was the reason for the strain."In 2002 the corps' chief resigned, reportedly under threat of being fired, after he criticized the administration's proposed cuts in the corps' budget, including flood-control spending.Third question: Did the Bush administration destroy FEMA's effectiveness? The administration has, by all accounts, treated the emergency management agency like an unwanted stepchild, leading to a mass exodus of experienced professionals.Last year James Lee Witt, who won bipartisan praise for his leadership of the agency during the Clinton years, said at a Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor. At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

Great artical Steve.. thanks for posting.

I don't know if you guys saw his speech, but after he rattled off the list of items being sent, he paused like he was waiting for applause. It was sickening.
I have been watching the pictures from there and I am still so shocked that it's taking so long to get them help.

I'm still shellshocked from his Wednesday afternoon speech. And profoundly embarrassed.

What pissed me off the most is that people were looting the DEAD... How sick and disrespectful is that? and not all blacks are looting.. Its just a select group of morons. Most are at shelters like everyone else.. Just trying to survive...We should start an A2A relief fund.. Then send it to the Red Cross or Salvation Army Anyone hear from CR? I checked some of the 'lists' they had... If I remember right, his last name started with a B... So I checked all Bs.. Nothing.. Which is good.. I think? I really hope he is okay! Edit: Im not directing this at anyone.. Just in general.

I am happy about one thing. They are people stepping up to send help. Warrick Dunn of the Altanta Falcons proposed that every football player on every NFL team, except the New Orlean Saints, donate 5000 dollars to help with aid. That is 260,000 dollars a team and a total over 8 million dollars. I am glad to see that he has gone and proposed this. I think the NFL players are better at sending help for the disaster then our so called Leader George Bush.

Agreed!! And that would be awesome and give a new line of respect for the football players. I hope more people step up to the plate and help OUR country for a change instead of helping other countries. This time the USA is in need.. wonder if any of those countries we helped will come to our aid? Be a good time to see who our true allies are.

I mean I know that a lot of football payers will donate. I mean I would sure hope Brett Favre does b/c his family is down there (whole family), and i can see him, same with a lot of the teams in that area.

Europe offered gas.. I beleive... and Germany offered to help us... From what I heard...

well i just read an article on NFL.com, that the NFL not the players is going to donate 1 million dollars to the relief effort.

I mean here is some info on what NFL is doing:

Teams will make additional donations. For example, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair will match $1 million of fans

NFL players are already heavily involved in contributing to relief efforts. For example, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre and his team loaded the team plane with relief supplies and have partnered with Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, who has arranged to have a truck meet the plane in Nashville. The goods will then be driving to hard hit areas in Mississippi.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre and Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair, all Gulf Coast natives, will film a public service announcement encouraging fans to contribute. The ads will air during upcoming NFL games.

The NFL, in conjunction with the NFL Players Association will auction off items contributed by NFL players on NFL.com/auctions to benefit the ARC.

The NFL and company sponsor Campbell's are working with NFL teams to redirect all product from the Tackling Hunger promotion (32,000 cans of soup) to relief areas.

I mean we do have good people. Funny though, it is the best players like Favre, Manning, McNair that are doing the most. Good people.

I mean we do have good people. Funny though, it is the best players like Favre, Manning, McNair that are doing the most. Good people. Maybe other players are doing a lot, but the news media doesn't care, because they're not "the best". Celebrity is what sells.