43rd President of the United States lands in NOLA to help evac efforts - Page 9

SuzeQuze · #**121** 09-06-2005, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Lisa Ling was just on Oprah and she asked what the response would have been if these were affluent white people. Then she interviewed a family that was just wandering down a decimated street in New Orleans who had lost contact with their daughters and sister-in-law; that part had me in tears. To not know what happened to your own flesh and blood is incomprehensible.

I just watched the Smith commentary on Randi's site. I know Geraldo was way over the top but I'm also glad that he at least showed that he was outraged.

Affluent white people would never wind up in such a situation would they? However, if by chance they had, W probably would have gone in himself to get them. They are his base after all.

strandinthewind · #**122** 09-06-2005, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

I couldn't have said it better.

Wanna get married?

I am seriously in love with everything you have said after this disaster. Ever consider running for office? Also, how cool is it that you are familiar with Anne Rice's house? I love her, and loved The Witching Hour, except the very end. I've gotta reread that one since it has been a long time. I am glad she spoke up in the wake of this as well. So many have shown their cajones by speaking out.

I am afraid my wild past would prohibit any political aspirations

does anyone have copies of those pictures

In the end, I think the state and local governments could have done a lot more in both LA and MS, esp. MS, where evacuation is comparatively easier than NOLA, which is essentially water locked. But, the glaring error of the FEMA, who was in charge according their statements at the time, eclipses all of that. I mean how is it possible that the Federal Emergency Managment people did not know for fout days that 30,000+ people were congregated six blocks from the Superdome and in need of assistance when it was being reported on every tv in the world at the time. I will say this though, since then, they have done a bang up job and for that I commend them, but it does not excuse the galring error last week.

gldstwmn · #**123** 09-06-2005, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Randi just played the entire segment of Smith, Rivera, and Hannity from Faux the other night. It's shocking what a heartless motherf*cking pig Sean Hannity is. "Let's put some perspective on this, Shep."

I thought he was going to kick Hannity's ass.

SuzeQuze · #**124** 09-06-2005, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I am afraid my wild past would prohibit any political aspirations

does anyone have copies of those pictures

In the end, I think the state and local governments could have done a lot more in both LA and MS, esp. MS, where evacuation is comparatively easier than NOLA, which is essentially water locked. But, the glaring error of the FEMA, who was in charge according their statements at the time, eclipses all of that. I mean how is it possible that the Federal Emergency Managment people did not know for fout days that 30,000+ people were congregated six blocks from the Superdome and in need of assistance when it was being reported on every tv in the world at the time. I will say this though, since then, they have done a bang up job and for that I commend them, but it does not excuse the galring error last week.

Unfortunately it is worse than not providing aid. They turned aid away. They did not allow people to leave the city. They guarded the entrance to the dome and did not allow people to leave. They cut emergency communication lines. I think that this was possibly due to the gunfire that was occuring and they treated every single person trapped there as though they were a criminal.

It is abominable.

wondergirl9847 · #**125** 09-06-2005, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michelle2677

I remember hearing someone in texas say about september 11 that they didn't care....it was way over on the other side of the country and it didn't have anything to do with them.... nice....real nice...

Mr. Heartless, table for one.

I have to admit, I have a hard time feeling empathy sometimes, but even today, when I see 9-11 footage, I cry...and I am a Texan. I had two friends in NYC that day (they weren't in the WTCs but they live super close) and I panicked when I found out. I cried watching Oprah today, it was the most heartbreaking thing to hear about the stories and see those people, dying...and already gone.

dissention · #**126** 09-06-2005, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wondergirl9847

I cried watching Oprah today, it was the most heartbreaking thing to hear about the stories and see those people, dying...and already gone.

Oh, Christy, didn't you lose it when the carpenter dude on Oprah was standing next to the woman who had died and was covered in a white sheet? Man, that was something.

estranged4life · #**127** 09-06-2005, 06:33 PM

the New Orleans coverage, It was getting to me.

I wonder how severe the political fallout will be from this screwup in the next major elections? I guarantee heads are gonna roll.

On a related topic, I have to say I enjoyed Sheppard Smith ripping on Sean "Talkin' political Asshat" Hannity though....I may hate Faux News (How ya let Rita Crosby go elsewhere shows how stupid ya news-tards are...That's alright, I watch Rita nightly on MSNBC and got to see her wearing red, Think my heart stopped for a minute or two when I saw her in red) but I always liked Shep.

wondergirl9847 · #**128** 09-06-2005, 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dissention

Oh, Christy, didn't you lose it when the carpenter dude on Oprah was standing next to the woman who had died and was covered in a white sheet? Man, that was something.

Also, the lady on the bridge, who that doctor had to cover.

I was a little taken aback for a split second (wasn't expecting them to full on show the bloated dead floating), but it was needed.

The Tower · #**129** 09-06-2005, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by estranged4life

On a related topic, I have to say I enjoyed Sheppard Smith ripping on Sean "Talkin' political Asshat" Hannity though....I may hate Faux News (How ya let Rita Crosby go elsewhere shows how stupid ya news-tards are...That's alright, I watch Rita nightly on MSNBC and got to see her wearing red, Think my heart stopped for a minute or two when I saw her in red) but I always liked Shep.

I just watched the Hannity/Shepard Smith/Geraldo thing.

Ledge rules or not, Hannity is a smug ****ing asshole. Somebody should take his piece of ****, lying ass and throw him in the heart of New Orleans so that he can get some "perspective".

He is an evil man and I wish him dead.

GypsySorcerer · #**130** 09-06-2005, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by estranged4life

On a related topic, I have to say I enjoyed Sheppard Smith ripping on Sean "Talkin' political Asshat" Hannity though....I may hate Faux News (How ya let Rita Crosby go elsewhere shows how stupid ya news-tards are...That's alright, I watch Rita nightly on MSNBC and got to see her wearing red, Think my heart stopped for a minute or two when I saw her in red) but I always liked Shep.

I enjoyed seeing Shep give it to both O'Reilly and Hannity. They're both so pompous and smug.

dissention · #**131** 09-06-2005, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Tower

He is an evil man and I wish him dead.

To be an evil man, he'd have to be human. He's simply an "it."

dissention · #**132** 09-06-2005, 09:05 PM

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/l...s/12575547.htm
Administration's figures on response don't appear to add up

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - In an effort to show the world that it's finally on top of the catastrophe unleashed by Hurricane Katrina more than a week ago, the Bush administration is producing a seemingly impressive battery of statistics.

Since Friday, as criticism has mounted against the administration for its perceived failure to act sooner, officials have sought to tangibly catalog crucial results, such as "lives saved," "people assisted" and "citizens evacuated."

But a closer look at the administration's claims shows some of the most important numbers seem to contradict each other, including assertions made as recently as Tuesday afternoon about the number of people rescued from life-threatening situations.

In other cases, the numbers seem, at best, to be crude estimates, though they are not presented that way when uttered or released by administration officials.

As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security said the "federal effort to save lives," a phrase it has used to begin each update released since Sunday, had so far yielded 32,000 "lives saved."

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the agency, explained that the U.S. Coast Guard, part of the Homeland Security agency, had saved 23,000 of those people on its own.

The remaining 9,000, Knocke said, were rescued by all other federal agencies involved in the effort, including federal law enforcement agencies, the National Guard and other branches of the Department of Defense.

But the Defense Department said it alone had rescued "over 13,000 people" as of 7 a.m. Tuesday, which was more than six hours before the Homeland Security Department issued its update.

Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, repeated the "over 13,000" figure at a Tuesday afternoon Pentagon news conference with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

A Department of Defense official, who agreed to speak about the issue only on condition of anonymity, said, "I don't know what the disconnect is on whose numbers are right and whose numbers are wrong." But the official also said no one could doubt the "massive" size of the rescue effort under way.

Perhaps just as elusive is how such numbers are reached by the administration in the first place.

Knocke, the homeland security spokesman, initially said a "life saved" was defined by the agency as someone who was plucked off of a rooftop in a flood-ravaged area by a helicopter or rescued by boat.

But he also said it included any "individual who is in a situation where their life could be in jeopardy if they stay in that location. ... It includes any number of things."

For three straight days, the Homeland Security Department also gave separate tallies of the number of people evacuated from flood- and hurricane-ravaged locales.

The agency said it was in the midst Saturday of "the largest emergency domestic airlift of people in U.S. history," an effort that would yield 10,000 evacuees per day.

By Sunday, the total number of those evacuated was listed by DHS as 35,000.

On Monday, however, the agency abruptly stopped listing those figures in its daily updates.

Knocke offered two explanations. First, he said the number of evacuees had likely declined since Sunday because many people had already been sent to safer ground.

But he also said the agency stopped issuing the number of those evacuated because "it's extraordinarily difficult to provide a precise number." And he said the agency only wanted to issue numbers that it could "back up" with certainty.

That didn't stop Myers, the chairman of joint chiefs, from saying at his news conference Tuesday that the military had evacuated "more than 75,000 people" so far - a huge increase from the last homeland security update of 35,000 on Sunday.

Other numbers first listed by the administration as key statistics also have disappeared from the daily reports.

On Friday, the first day such tallies were released, the Homeland Security Department said it had "assisted" 30,000 people. It was the first and last time the agency issued such a calculation.

Knocke insisted Tuesday the agency was not double-counting its statistics. Those "assisted" did not include those "evacuated" or those "saved," he said.

But he also said, "These numbers are estimations. We are still in the middle of a crisis."