They Really Dropped the Ball..

[Brwn_eyes0511]

The ugly truth

Why we couldn’t save the people of New Orleans

Bubbling up from the flood that destroyed New Orleans are images, beamed around the world, of America's original and continuing sin: the shabby, contemptuous treatment this country metes out, decade after decade, to poor people in general and the descendants of African slaves in particular. The world sees New Orleans burning and dying today, but the televised anarchy - the shooting and looting, needless deaths, helpless rage and maddening governmental incompetence - was centuries in the making.

To the casual viewer, the situation is an incomprehensible mess that raises questions about the intelligence, sanity and moral worth of those trapped in the city. Why didn't those people evacuate before the hurricane? Why don't they just walk out of town now? And why should anyone care about people who are stealing and fighting the police?

That hard, unsympathetic view is the traditional American response to the poverty, ignorance and rage that afflict many of us whose great-great-grandparents once made up the captive African slave labor pool. In far too many cities, including New Orleans, the marching orders on the front lines of American race relations are to control and contain the very poor in ghettos as cheaply as possible; ignore them completely if possible; and call in the troops if the brutes get out of line.

By almost every statistical measure, New Orleans is a bad place to be poor. Half the city's households make less than $28,000 a year, and 28% of the population lives in poverty.

In the late 1990s, the state's school systems ranked dead last in the nation in the number of computers per student (1 per 88), and Louisiana has the nation's second-highest percentage of adults who never finished high school. By the state's own measure, 47% of the public schools in New Orleans rank as "academically unacceptable."

And Louisiana is the only one of the 50 states where the state legislature doesn't allocate money to pay for the legal defense of indigent defendants. The Associated Press reported this year that it's not unusual for poor people charged with crimes to stay in jail for nine months before getting a lawyer appointed.

These government failures are not merely a matter of incompetence. Louisiana and New Orleans have a long, well-known reputation for corruption: as former congressman Billy Tauzin once put it, "half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment."

That's putting it mildly. Adjusted for population size, the state ranks third in the number of elected officials convicted of crimes (Mississippi is No. 1). Recent scandals include the conviction of 14 state judges and an FBI raid on the business and personal files of a Louisiana congressman.

In 1991, a notoriously corrupt Democrat named Edwin Edwards ran for governor against Republican David Duke, a former head of the Ku Klux Klan. Edwards, whose winning campaign included bumper stickers saying "Elect the Crook," is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for taking bribes from casino owners. Duke recently completed his own prison term for tax fraud.

The rot included the New Orleans Police Department, which in the 1990s had the dubious distinction of being the nation's most corrupt police force and the least effective: the city had the highest murder rate in America. More than 50 officers were eventually convicted of crimes including murder, rape and robbery; two are currently on Death Row.

The decision to subject an entire population to poverty, ignorance, injustice and government corruption as a way of life has its ugly moments, as the world is now seeing. New Orleans officials issued an almost cynical evacuation order in a city where they know full well that thousands have no car, no money for airfare or an interstate bus, no credit cards for hotels, and therefore no way to leave town before the deadly storm and flood arrived.

The authorities provided no transportation out of the danger zone, apparently figuring the neglected thousands would somehow weather the storm in their uninsured, low-lying shacks and public housing projects. The poor were expected to remain invisible at the bottom of the pecking order and somehow weather the storm.

But the flood confounded the plan, and the world began to see a tide of human misery rising from the water - ragged, sick, desperate and disorderly. Some foraged for food, some took advantage of the chaos to commit crimes. All in all, they acted exactly the way you could predict people would act who have been locked up in a ghetto for generations.

The world also saw the breezy indifference with which government officials treated these tens of thousands of sick and dying citizens, even as the scope of the disaster became clear. President Bush initially shunned the Gulf Coast and headed to political fund-raisers in the West.

That left matters in the bumbling hands of the director of emergency management, Michael Brown, who ranks No. 1 on the list of officials who ought to be fired when the crisis has passed. Even as local officials were publicly reporting assaults, fires and bedlam at local hospitals, Brown took to the airwaves to declare that "things are going well" as mayhem engulfed the city. When asked about the rising death toll, Brown attributed it to "people who did not heed the advance warnings." Brown's smug ignorance of the conditions of the place he was tasked to save became the final door slammed on the trap that tens of thousands of the city's poorest found themselves.

The challenge for America is to remember the faces of the evacuees who will surely be ushered back into a black hole of public indifference as soon as the White House and local officials can manage it. While pledging ourselves to remember their mistreatment and fight for their cause, we should also be sure to cast a searching, skeptical eye on the money that Bush has pledged for rebuilding.

Ten billion dollars are about to pass into the sticky hands of politicians in the No. 1 and No. 3 most corrupt states in America. Worried about looting? You ain't seen nothing yet.



http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-292991c.html

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by Jessica Leigh

people were hiding in their homes from police officers knocking on doors trying to evacuate people. i don't believe that everyone could have been saved and taken to safe places but i do believe that efforts were made to help people who were too poor to help themselves. there were many people who chose to stay- I'm sure Fats Domino, for example, had the financial means to flee... but he chose to stay. this is not completely a separation of poor v. not poor or black v. white.

(before anyone jumps on my back i want to say that i'm only referring to the evacuation process, not how quickly or not quickly aid was sent)

Oh I agree...

I'm just simply saying hey mr. mayor...why didn't you send out the buses to try and evacuate the people? Just tired of all the blame being placed on one individual that was already despised by the left...

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by dissention

No, I'm referring to Condi Rice and Hastert.

You mean the Speaker Of The House and the Secretary Of State?
/sarcasm

[strandinthewind]

If you want to read politico CR*P - read this and FEMA's BS

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/

Notice how he has no answers for Russert's questions about knowing. Notice how the MS Gov. flat out lies when he paints a rosy picture of his state, when thousands there had no food or water for days.

This is so much BS that it is hard to take.

Then, when people say things like don't comment negatively because we should focus on the positive, I just cringe because I know that is a talking point that spells cover up, and I cannot let that happen, not this time.

Finally, can anyone point to anything good W has done - and by good, I mean the entire thing. He often, as here, has a good beginning, but fails to follow through and it pisses me off because innocent people die when he screws up and people are like oh well, at least he acted in some manner.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by amber

If anyone reads the article Heather just posted, it seems glaringly obvious why everything went down as it did.

And there are about 1000 other articles that support everything Strandie asserted in his post.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by sodascouts

Rice adovcates bulldozing New Orleans? I hadn't read that.

No Hastert did.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Brwn_eyes0511

Oh I agree...

I'm just simply saying hey mr. mayor...why didn't you send out the buses to try and evacuate the people? Just tired of all the blame being placed on one individual that was already despised by the left...

FEMA had control of NOLA as of Sunday. Why didn't they do that? I'll tell you why (for like the third time) - FEMA and the state agreed that the dome could be used as a temp shelter and it was and with success. That does not support your argument, which once again, is not supported by any facts and is a blatant attempt to spin any fault from W. BTW - as long as you are assinging fault now as opposed to the other day, let's hear you analysis of W's actions in this situation. Please stick to the facts.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Brwn_eyes0511

The ugly truth

Why we couldn’t save the people of New Orleans

Bubbling up from the flood that destroyed New Orleans are images, beamed around the world, of America's original and continuing sin: the shabby, contemptuous treatment this country metes out, decade after decade, to poor people in general and the descendants of African slaves in particular. The world sees New Orleans burning and dying today, but the televised anarchy - the shooting and looting, needless deaths, helpless rage and maddening governmental incompetence - was centuries in the making.

To the casual viewer, the situation is an incomprehensible mess that raises questions about the intelligence, sanity and moral worth of those trapped in the city. Why didn't those people evacuate before the hurricane? Why don't they just walk out of town now? And why should anyone care about people who are stealing and fighting the police?

That hard, unsympathetic view is the traditional American response to the poverty, ignorance and rage that afflict many of us whose great-great-grandparents once made up the captive African slave labor pool. In far too many cities, including New Orleans, the marching orders on the front lines of American race relations are to control and contain the very poor in ghettos as cheaply as possible; ignore them completely if possible; and call in the troops if the brutes get out of line.

By almost every statistical measure, New Orleans is a bad place to be poor. Half the city's households make less than $28,000 a year, and 28% of the population lives in poverty.

In the late 1990s, the state's school systems ranked dead last in the nation in the number of computers per student (1 per 88), and Louisiana has the nation's second-highest percentage of adults who never finished high school. By the state's own measure, 47% of the public schools in New Orleans rank as "academically unacceptable."

And Louisiana is the only one of the 50 states where the state legislature doesn't allocate money to pay for the legal defense of indigent defendants. The Associated Press reported this year that it's not unusual for poor people charged with crimes to stay in jail for nine months before getting a lawyer appointed.

These government failures are not merely a matter of incompetence. Louisiana and New Orleans have a long, well-known reputation for corruption: as former congressman Billy Tauzin once put it, "half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment."

That's putting it mildly. Adjusted for population size, the state ranks third in the number of elected officials convicted of crimes (Mississippi is No. 1). Recent scandals include the conviction of 14 state judges and an FBI raid on the business and personal files of a Louisiana congressman.

In 1991, a notoriously corrupt Democrat named Edwin Edwards ran for governor against Republican David Duke, a former head of the Ku Klux Klan. Edwards, whose winning campaign included bumper stickers saying "Elect the Crook," is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for taking bribes from casino owners. Duke recently completed his own prison term for tax fraud.

The rot included the New Orleans Police Department, which in the 1990s had the dubious distinction of being the nation's most corrupt police force and the least effective: the city had the highest murder rate in America. More than 50 officers were eventually convicted of crimes including murder, rape and robbery; two are currently on Death Row.

The decision to subject an entire population to poverty, ignorance, injustice and government corruption as a way of life has its ugly moments, as the world is now seeing. New Orleans officials issued an almost cynical evacuation order in a city where they know full well that thousands have no car, no money for airfare or an interstate bus, no credit cards for hotels, and therefore no way to leave town before the deadly storm and flood arrived.

The authorities provided no transportation out of the danger zone, apparently figuring the neglected thousands would somehow weather the storm in their uninsured, low-lying shacks and public housing projects. The poor were expected to remain invisible at the bottom of the pecking order and somehow weather the storm.

But the flood confounded the plan, and the world began to see a tide of human misery rising from the water - ragged, sick, desperate and disorderly. Some foraged for food, some took advantage of the chaos to commit crimes. All in all, they acted exactly the way you could predict people would act who have been locked up in a ghetto for generations.

The world also saw the breezy indifference with which government officials treated these tens of thousands of sick and dying citizens, even as the scope of the disaster became clear. President Bush initially shunned the Gulf Coast and headed to political fund-raisers in the West.

That left matters in the bumbling hands of the director of emergency management, Michael Brown, who ranks No. 1 on the list of officials who ought to be fired when the crisis has passed. Even as local officials were publicly reporting assaults, fires and bedlam at local hospitals, Brown took to the airwaves to declare that "things are going well" as mayhem engulfed the city. When asked about the rising death toll, Brown attributed it to "people who did not heed the advance warnings." Brown's smug ignorance of the conditions of the place he was tasked to save became the final door slammed on the trap that tens of thousands of the city's poorest found themselves.

The challenge for America is to remember the faces of the evacuees who will surely be ushered back into a black hole of public indifference as soon as the White House and local officials can manage it. While pledging ourselves to remember their mistreatment and fight for their cause, we should also be sure to cast a searching, skeptical eye on the money that Bush has pledged for rebuilding.

Ten billion dollars are about to pass into the sticky hands of politicians in the No. 1 and No. 3 most corrupt states in America. Worried about looting? You ain't seen nothing yet.



http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-292991c.html

Interestingly, the No. 1 member of the No. 1 most corrupt political family is writing the check. How about them apples

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

FEMA had control of NOLA as of Sunday. Why didn't they do that? I'll tell you why (for like the third time) - FEMA and the state agreed that the dome could be used as a temp shelter and it was and with success. That does not support your argument, which once again, is not supported by any facts and is a blatant attempt to spin any fault from W. BTW - as long as you are assinging fault now as opposed to the other day, let's hear you analysis of W's actions in this situation. Please stick to the facts.

Well them shame on NOLA and the state for not reading their own damn evacuation plan and not realizing what was in front of their face...

poor damn buses!

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by dissention

If Harry Connick Jr. and Charmaine Neville can drive right on in there to help people...

Charmaine Neville drove an abandoned city bus, for god's sake.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Jessica Leigh

people were hiding in their homes from police officers knocking on doors trying to evacuate people. i don't believe that everyone could have been saved and taken to safe places but i do believe that efforts were made to help people who were too poor to help themselves. there were many people who chose to stay- I'm sure Fats Domino, for example, had the financial means to flee... but he chose to stay. this is not completely a separation of poor v. not poor or black v. white.

(before anyone jumps on my back i want to say that i'm only referring to the evacuation process, not how quickly or not quickly aid was sent)

Most def. Any able bodied person who had means to escape and did not ought to be fined and then sent back to shovel the shiitte our of the shelters.

Sadly, Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes are mostly populated with poor black people. The majority of white people left decades ago - though some returned in the 90's.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Brwn_eyes0511

Well them shame on NOLA and the state for not reading their own damn evacuation plan and not realizing what was in front of their face...

poor damn buses!

No, shame on FMEA - are you being anatgonistic or are you just not getting that FEMA, not the state, is responsible here. Because you are making no sense when when you try to tag it back to the state.

Interestingly, if you want to incorrecntly tag it back to the state, then let's hear you rip the GOP Gov. of MS a new one because he did not enforce the evacuation of the lower part of his state.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

Ya'll gonna love this . . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9206991/

Some evacuees see religious message in Katrina
Across three states, survivors weigh links among faith, sin and the storm

People who have nothing left have to have some kind of hope to hold on to.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Brwn_eyes0511

hmmm....

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

that plan, assuming you quoted the correct one as no site is given, assumes the poor and unable will be temporarily sheltered in the Dome or did you not read that far?

[Brwn_eyes0511]

Originally Posted by Lux

Judging by that you're the one sitting in the comfort of your home

Yes, and you are out there...oh wait no you're not! silly me