Hurricane Katrina

[dbev]

When you cut money transfers to local administrations, cut taxes to the rich and services to the poors, deny the evidence, and stay on vacation... this happens!!!

[Quinn]

This is simply about two societies within our nation. rich vs poor, haves vs have nots. And the disparity between these groups gets bigger every year.

Katrina is a terrible tragedy that exposes a very ugly truth about inequality in America.

Bingo! If a calamity befell some poor predominately white section of West Virginia, I don't think there would have been any more vigorous a response than the one we have already seen for New Orleans. It's not African Americans the system doesn't care about, it's poor people – a disproportionate number of whom happen to be from the aforementioned group.

As to the growing disparity between rich and poor, it now takes two incomes to support a living standard that one income would have supported in the year 1980. Why? The cost of living is increasing far more rapidly than wages. Translation: More people are getting poor every year than are getting richer.

-Quinn

[TomSelis]

Here's what author Anne Rice(a native New Orleanian) thinks about what happend. It's an interesting read, and no vampires.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rice.html

[Angel]

yeah that shit is sad

[chefmike]

Here's what author Anne Rice(a native New Orleanian) thinks about what happend. It's an interesting read, and no vampires.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rice.html

Yes, it's a very moving editorial...beautifully written

[geekmeat]

I just heard that the police just shot dead five men who were shooting at contractors trying to help rebuild.
These individuals are the worst scum of all.
I hope the police find these animals and destroy them.

[flabbybody]

the New York Times reported today that "the top fifth of earners in Manhattan now make 52 times what the lowest fifth make--$365,826 compared with $7,047--which is roughly comparable to the income disparity in Namibia. Put another way, for every dollar made by households in the top fifth of Manhattan earners, households in the bottom fifth made about 2 cents."

I'll add my ramble to these facts and figures. I can assure you the top wage earners quoted in this article are not nurses or firemen. They're Wall St/banker/lawyer deadbeats who contribute nothing to society other than to help the wealthy hold onto to their $$$.

[brickcitybrother]

CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep:


January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.


April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."


2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."


December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy and former college roommate, Michael Brown, who has no previous experience in disaster management and was fired from his previous job for mismanagement.


March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.


2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.


Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."


June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."


June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.


August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.


So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

[rick_932]

This is simply about two societies within our nation. rich vs poor, haves vs have nots. And the disparity between these groups gets bigger every year.

Katrina is a terrible tragedy that exposes a very ugly truth about inequality in America.

Bingo! If a calamity befell some poor predominately white section of West Virginia, I don't think there would have been any more vigorous a response than the one we have already seen for New Orleans. It's not African Americans the system doesn't care about, it's poor people – a disproportionate number of whom happen to be from the aforementioned group.

As to the growing disparity between rich and poor, it now takes two incomes to support a living standard that one income would have supported in the year 1980. Why? The cost of living is increasing far more rapidly than wages. Translation: More people are getting poor every year than are getting richer.

-Quinn

i dont think this is a race issue. st. benard's parish, a white parish right outside of the city is just starting to receive help today because most of the help was being sent to NO. ALL of st. benard's parish got flooded AS BAD AS parts of NO. water is too the roofs. you just dont see it on the national news. i get local news coverage here and i see all of this. there are also mostly white counties of Mississippi that are just receiving help for the first time today. so i dont think the issue is race but just a breakdown in bureaucracy. most of the officials say they cant do something without getting word from a higher official and that takes time. Mississippi's governor even admited that things couldve moved faster if this system wasnt in place. the system needs to be redone because obviously its not working. the local/state/and federal governments are to be blamed for this. each holds part of the blame