They Really Dropped the Ball..

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by dissention

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

On another note, I just read that Oprah donated $10 million.

Holy sh*t. Good for her.

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by amber

But I don't get how dead estate tax people will help his bill. I see that it's disgusting, but I'm not getting his angle....

I think the angle would be, "You want to punish the poor family of this guy who was victimized by Katrina?" I don't know. Its completely lame and disgusting and these guys should be ashamed of themselves.

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Holy sh*t. Good for her.

I tuned into her show this afternoon and she announced it. She's also set up a "gift registry" on her site where you can purchase items for the Katrina victims....from a house to toasters and towels.

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

I tuned into her show this afternoon and she announced it. She's also set up a "gift registry" on her site where you can purchase items for the Katrina victims....from a house to toasters and towels.

That's cool! I wish I could have seen the show today.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by GypsySorcerer

Yeah, I couldn't believe he wanted to let people back in. I did read where he was a life-long Republican and switched parties so he could get elected.

It wouldn't surprise me at this point, unfortunately.

[amber]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

I think the angle would be, "You want to punish the poor family of this guy who was victimized by Katrina?" I don't know. Its completely lame and disgusting and these guys should be ashamed of themselves.

That's totally retarded. So many people died. Most of them weren't billionaires. Whatever, could I ralph, hurl, or barf any more about this whole thing?

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by amber

That's totally retarded. So many people died. Most of them weren't billionaires. Whatever, could I ralph, hurl, or barf any more about this whole thing?

Its vile. I doubt a single wealthy person died.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

Its vile. I doubt a single wealthy person died.

Anderson is doing a story on how insurance companies and real estate plan on cashing in on Katrina tonight.

[strandinthewind]

I think all this Nagin slamming is mostly unfounded. Here is a quote from nola.com

Nagin said he had wanted to reopen some of the city's signature neighborhoods over the coming week in order to reassure the people of New Orleans that "there was a city to come back to." He said he had strategically selected ZIP codes that had suffered little or no flooding.

But "now we have conditions that have changed. We have another hurricane that is approaching us," Nagin said. He warned that the city's pumping system was not yet running at full capacity and that the levees were still in a "very weak position."

He ordered residents who circumvented checkpoints and slipped back into the still officially closed parts of the city to leave immediately. Those areas include the historic French Quarter, the Garden District, Uptown and the central business district.

Nagin also urged everyone already settled back into Algiers to be ready to evacuate as early as Wednesday.

The city requested 200 buses to assist in an evacuation, his office said. They would start running 48 hours before landfall from the downtown Convention Center and a stadium in Algiers.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, in a televised address Monday, urged residents of coastal southwest Louisiana to also make preparations to leave.

"We are taking Rita very, very seriously," Blanco said. "Prepare your family, prepare your house for the possibility of evacuation."

Tropical Storm Rita was headed toward the Florida Keys and was expected to become a hurricane, cross the Gulf of Mexico and reach Texas or Mexico by the weekend. But forecasters said it could veer in Louisiana's direction.

"We're watching Tropical Storm Rita's projected path and, depending on its strength and how much rain falls, everything could change. Residents moving into the area may have to evacuate again," said Col. Duane Gapinski, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers task force that is draining New Orleans and repairing the levees.

Under the mayor's plan, Algiers opened Monday, and Uptown, the Garden District and the French Quarter were supposed to reopen one ZIP code at a time between Wednesday and next Monday, bringing a total about 180,000 of New Orleans' half-million inhabitants back.

The dispute over that plan was just the latest example of the lack of federal-local coordination that has marked the disaster practically from the start.

Nagin saw a quick reopening as a way to get the storm-battered city back in the business of luring tourists. But federal officials warned that such a move could be a few weeks premature, pointing out much of the area does not yet have full electricity and still has no drinkable water, 911 service or working hospitals.

With the approach of Rita, Bush added his voice, saying he had "deep concern" about the possibility that New Orleans' levees could be breached again.

In addition, Bush said there are significant environmental concerns. New Orleans still lacks safe drinking water, and there are fears about the contamination in the remaining floodwaters and the muck left behind in drained areas of the city.

"The mayor — you know, he's got this dream about having a city up and running, and we share that dream," the president said. "But we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles that we all confront in repopulating New Orleans."

Bush said White House chief of staff Andrew Card had been pressing the matter with Nagin. The concerns were also echoed by the top federal official in charge in New Orleans, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who went on one news show after another to warn that city services may not be able to handle the influx of people.

Before reversing course Monday, a clearly agitated Nagin snapped that Allen had apparently made himself "the new crowned federal mayor of New Orleans."

It was not immediately known if Nagin had a meeting with Allen, who said over the weekend that he intended to have a frank discussion with the mayor on Monday.

About 20 percent of the city is still flooded, down from a high of about 80 percent after Katrina, and the water was expected to be pumped out by Sept. 30.

But officials with the Army Corps of Engineers said the repairs to the levees breached by Katrina are not yet strong enough to prevent flooding in a moderate storm, much less another hurricane.

Nagin did not give any specifics about how he plans to enforce the renewed evacuation order.

In the raucous French Quarter, about a half-mile from where Nagin made his announcement, businesses were getting up and running, and bars were serving cold beers to National Guardsmen and passers-by.

Del Juneau, owner of a Bourbon Street lingerie shop, said it would be premature to order an evacuation based on the storm nearing Florida. "Where are you going to go? What are you going to do?" he said. "I'm not going anywhere."

Down the street at the Famous Door, bartender C.B. Dover, said: "If we have a forced evacuation, we'll go. If it's not forced, we're not going anywhere." Dover said the mayor "has been overreacting the whole time. ... He's reacting emotionally, and you can't do that."

Earlier in the day, as residents began streaming in at the mayor's invitation, cars were backed for two hours at an Interstate 10 checkpoint into the city. Tractor-trailers, emergency vehicles and National Guard trucks shared the highway with cars towing trailers full of hurricane gear and pickup trucks with their beds loaded with water, cleaning materials and coolers.

It was clear that at least some of the traffic was headed to sections of the city that had not yet officially opened.

Algiers, a neighborhood of 57,000 just across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, is home to many of the companies that make floats for Mardi Gras parades. Unlike much of the rest of the city, it saw little damage from Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago and has electricity and drinkable water.

"Obviously we need to get businesses up and running any way we can," said Barry Kern, whose float businesses is stocked to the rafters with oversized imaginary creatures. "If we don't start somewhere, where do we start?"

Elsewhere across the city, where the damage was more severe, much of the sentiment seemed to be with the mayor and his attempts to reopen the city quickly.

"Send Bush here and we'll make him a po' boy and tell him to leave us alone," Kathleen Horn said as she cleaned up the debris piled in front of Slim Goodies Diner on Magazine Street in Uptown.

That makes sense to me

Also, many many areas of NOLA had homes that suffereed little to no damage.

Finally, many people have slipped in since at least a week and a half ago, esp. in Jefferson Parish, most of which was not comparatively significantly effected.

[Nixxxed]

Psssssssst! Google the word "failure".

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I think all this Nagin slamming is mostly unfounded.

Not really. There's something about him that seriously rubs me the wrong way. I can't exactly put my finger on the pulse of it, but that's how I feel. He reminds me of The Three Faces of Eve a bit. From a raving lunatic who was convinced the CIA was trying to kill him to a silent asskisser of the highest order.

In any event, there was a bit on Anderson Cooper earlier that disturbed me a bit. None of the people currently in and who stayed in New Orleans that feel Nagin is an incompetent fool over all of this would dare go on camera to say so. I found that a little disturbing, as if they thought they'd face retaliation over it.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

In addition, Bush said there are significant environmental concerns. New Orleans still lacks safe drinking water, and there are fears about the contamination in the remaining floodwaters and the muck left behind in drained areas of the city.

"But we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles that we all confront in repopulating New Orleans."

Precisely. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd agree with Bush on anything. Fill the bathtub and hand me a razor.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

Not really. There's something about him that seriously rubs me the wrong way. I can't exactly put my finger on the pulse of it, but that's how I feel. He reminds me of The Three Faces of Eve a bit. From a raving lunatic who was convinced the CIA was trying to kill him to a silent asskisser of the highest order.

In any event, there was a bit on Anderson Cooper earlier that disturbed me a bit. None of the people currently in and who stayed in New Orleans that feel Nagin is an incompetent fool over all of this would dare go on camera to say so. I found that a little disturbing, as if they thought they'd face retaliation over it.

I meant the slamming for allowing the people to return to the uneffected areas was unfounded. He is not my fav. person, but no politician is

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

Precisely. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd agree with Bush on anything. Fill the bathtub and hand me a razor.

I agree with him here to. But, Nagin's plan was for this week and now that Rita is a threat he withdrew it. Also, the plan was initially mostly for the uneffected areas, which I do not see a problem with repopulating if the people understand the risks of no power, water, etc., which I can assure you almost all New Orleanians know

May I go on record here as saying that if Rita causes flooding in NOLA and able bodied people ignore the current evacuation order, they ought to leave them stranded

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I meant the slamming for allowing the people to return to the uneffected areas was unfounded.

Well, no. I think it's too soon for so many people to be allowed back. With all of the dry mold and spores in the air, it's unsafe. Don't forget how the government said the air in New York was fine after 9/11 and all of the health problems that resulted from that rank BS.