Damn, has it already been a year
DjArcadian
3,633 Posts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060829/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_24NEW ORLEANS -President Bush bowed his head in prayer Tuesday in remembrance of the hundreds who perished in Hurricane Katrina and acknowledged that his administration's response to the disaster was unacceptable."We're addressing what went wrong," he told residents at a high school gymnasium in an uplifting speech that spoke to the heroic efforts of rescuers and the death and despair left behind when the floodwaters receded."Unfortunately, the hurricane also brought terrible scenes we never thought we'd see in America," Bush said. "Citizens drowned in their attics. Desperate mothers crying out on national TV for food and water. A breakdown of law and order and a government, at all levels, that fell short of its responsibilities."When the rain stopped ... our television screens showed faces worn down by poverty and despair. And for most of you, the storms were only the beginning of our difficulties.With Hurricane Ernesto bearing down on Florida, Bush said the government is better prepared for the next storm. And to help people still suffering from Katrina, the government is working to get federal money quickly to the people."A renewed New Orleans is a New Orleans with new homes," he said.Bush was applauded loudly when he promised to ask Congress for legislation giving Louisiana a bigger share of royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling. The state now receives less than 2 percent of the royalties, and Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Louisiana's congressional delegation are demanding more.The president also said the city's rebirth must include improvements to the poor-performing school system. First ladyLaura Bush, in remarks introducing the president, urged teachers nationwide to come to the region to teach."We know that families can't move back unless there's schools for the kids and so education is one of the most important parts of the recovery," she said."This city occupies a unique place in America's cultural landscape and the recovery won't be complete until New Orleanians return home and their culture is restored," she said.
Comments
It sickens me that there has been no real accountability for this shit.
In the meantime enjoy this:
Bush is the ultimate fuck up. He has made our country considerably weaker than it was before his time in office. He has helped us to lose the respect of an international community, he has helped liberal Americans lose respect in their own country and to top it all off he'll pose for photo ops grinning in the center of his worst domestic fuck-up.
really though, what does it take to call for impeachment? I can think of no "leader" who has deserved it more than this fuck up.
considering the continually poor state of affairs for a once great city and our ability as people to make a change I propose that we have a second round of Heatrock auctions. I am more than ready to donate several LP's to the cause and beyond that I am ready to make a $10 donation to habitat for Humanity today.
I challenge all here who have the ability to donate to do the same for those who have lost their home and their way of life and have gone without for a year and counting[/b]
I think this article was writen by a White House staffer.
Nevermind that the levees in New Orleans could have been bolstered under Clinton, the elder Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, etc.
Don't even consider that it's a nationwide, if not worldwide societal system at work that fosters the overt racism that smiled on such extreme poverty in New Orleans, including the complete collapse of the public school system there.
Forget that so many clammed up when it was time to levy any significant discontent towards the way that so many were left for dead in the wake of the man-manufactured flooding in New Orleans.
Just blame Bush and simultaneously tell us how great America is.
That ought to do it.
was this directed at me?
If so I am not blaming bush for anything done prior to his presidency. I am only saying that since the disaster he hasn't done enough, and I'm offering a solution by saying we need to take matters in our own hands and donate to charities that will work to rebuild New Orleans and its citizens lives.
If that figure is innaccurate I'd like to hear what the correct number is.
Plus they are in the process of using their political powers to downgrade Ernesto to a Tropical Storm!!
As I've said in the past, this is a step in the right direction...but it is not nearly enough.
Continuing to express faith in "liberals" to do any differently than conservative politicians on these fronts shouts from a hilltop that you are not yet ready to instigate a true solution to these problems.
Even if the funds were raised to build, where would that occur? Many crucial areas are completely condemned and others lack basic utilities as well as the proper government-regulated zoning codes to even begin the rebuilding process.
Material losses are hardly the half of what people suffered from the Katrina predicament. How are black New Orleanians in particular ever going to gain any trust in a society that obviously views them as less than human?
How will the distinctive culture of New Orleans be preserved?
How do families that have been split apart rejoin without any jobs to come back to?
How will the psychological trauma of the storm mayhem be treated by professionals with the proper background and training to actually offer any substantial help?
Overall point being, while contributions to Habitat for Humanity would certainly be welcomed by those in need...there are 200 other things on top of that that all of us should be doing, and frankly those thing's aren't even beginning to happen.
I read a new yorker article last week that said of the original $85 billion that was earmarked by the federal government for Gulf Coast rebuilding, only $13 was given FINAL APPROVAL.
of the $110 billion
as of today,
77 billion $$ have not yet been spent / authorized
$44 billion has been distributed
Harvey, I am but one man on the other side of the US trying to help those the best way I can at this moment. I am sorry if this somehow qualifies for some sort of criticism from you. I guess I'll never be as "real" as you and your offers to
find a solutionre-pinpoint the obvious problems.I don't get you. I challenge other strutters to make a $10 donation and you come at me like I'm throwing insults. Please fall back, realize I am not coming at you sideways nor do I want to. I simply want to do as much to rebuild New Orleans and help its residents. If it bothers you than please keep it to yourself or better yet up the charity ante and let us know what you're doing and what we can do to help in a better way.
Click on the "katrina's remnants" photo essay.
As an American citizen and taxpayer......if a tornado/flood/wildfire/etc. comes and wipes out my house and everything in it tomorrow......and I have no form of insurance.......what should I expect and/or deserve to get as some sort of compensation from the Federal Government???
whatever that means ??? !!!
as a taxpayer, paying into a system that helps to keep roads paved, emergency services running and federal welfare going I beleive compensation from a government by the people and for the people is an entitlement.
However if the government fails in its duties the responsibilty of help falls on those with the ability to help.
This isn't about charity. It's about brotherhood. Rather than you giving another penny to recovery efforts, it would be better for you to stop consistently attempting to patronize anyone who ever tries to discuss race as an issue here within American society. Race was obviously an issue in New Orleans and if anything it should awken us to a reality long overdue for some real spiritual catharsis. None of us in America can just continue to live how we did before Katrina. And dishing out some bucks to charity, while always noble, simply isn't getting any of the root problems here solved. Neither will automatically voting for whoever the Dems put up for election in '08. It's about wiping clean from your mind all of the societal programming that has gone to make us apathetic, egotistical, materialistic, not-about-shit windbags that let history repeat itself in the worst possible manner time and time again.
Oh, I'm sorry. But fuck, even most Libertarians would agree that keeping people from rotting in hunger induced cesspools of chaos after a natural disaster is a responsibility of the government. Truth be told, that kind of basic protection is something that keeps me sane when I fork over upwards of 10Gs to the government every year. Other roles of the government are certainly debatable, but across the entire political spectrum there is basic consensus that the government should minimally protect its citizens from harm.
And these fuckers can't even do that? This is the very basic shit.
seriously, what is wrong with you. Did you jump in this thread to re-stir some beef? Seriously stop following up my posts with your inane bullshit. What I get from your writings is there is racism in New Orleans, charity/ giving financial help is pointless and our two views on things such as race or politics will never coincide.
Offer a solution or shut the fuck up. We already know the problem, and we all know you know how to criticize, the real question is what else can you do?
It's also very basic shit to take what has happened in the past, including on 9/11, as proof that we should no longer be expecting our federal government to help us in such situations.
They are either inept or complicit...take your pick.
And we knew this long before Katrina.
Therefore putting so much concentration on Bush at the expense of looking at all of the other, just-as-important factors that went into what happened or didn't happen in NOLA, is a detrimental distraction to actually solving the full extent of the problem at hand.
Can y'all see where I'm coming from with that?
Bush bad...check.
Charities paid...check.
Problem solved...not even close.
So let's hear some new strategies already.
i just had a real spiritual catharsis.
I wiped clean from my mind all of the societal programming that has gone to make me an apathetic, egotistical, materialistic, not-about-shit windbag.
do i now have your permission to dish out some bucks to charity?
Blew them up or purposefully never reinforced them knowing full well that they couldn't withstand a direct hit from even the tiniest of hurricanes...take your pick.
so once again, now that we have squarely laid the blame on the evil lizards how the fuck do you propose we fix the problem?
You lose credibility if you use the word "charity" anywhere in your response
This shit head has been around far too long.
Cosign. Someone do an IP search and send his alter ego packing as well...
You can call them lizards, you can call them assholes, you can call them anything you want, I don't care how they are labeled just as long as they are not perceived as a single scapegoat individual or even an administration for that matter, but seen as a centuries-old system that not only pervades our economic and legislative surroundings but also each of our own psychological underpinnings.
I don't know why you want me to repeat myself again and again, but my suggestion has been all along for each of us to completely reevaluate where we stand in relation to this obviously evil system at work.
And currently that system wants you to curse Bush from afar, give some spare change to charity, and then go to bed thinking that you are Superman for it.
Meanwhile not a damned thing changes.
Here I am as an actual child of New Orleans, whose family on both sides has been traumatically affected by this situation, and y'all simply don't want to hear what I have to say beyond what you came into it already wanting to hear. Forget that I've sat down with one of the most vocal activists surrounding the dsplacement of New Orleans, Cyril Neville, and he too thought it was pointless to funnel charity to non-local organizations who are going to dictate how that money is spent, if spent at all. I can pretty quickly come up with a list of NOLA-based organizations that could use that money in much better and efficient ways than would Habitat for Humanity, if that's what you want.
But still, there is so much more to it than that. And from what I can tell, whether it's me telling you to or not, many of you are flat-out refusing to give up even an inch of your societally-constructed comfort zones in order to actually do a damned thing for NOLA...which ultimately wants you to learn the lesson of Katrina long before thinking that you can come in and materially recreate what in many ways is already lost forever.