Comments on New Orleans, The Why It Happened As It Did, an email received

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maj, Omaha?!? I can see it now, empty, just standing there. Too decadent.

posted by benzinha on September 9, 2005 at 10:07 PM | link to this | reply

Depends on the weather.Lots of rain will help clean it up, and so will

river downflow from us Yanquis.

HOWEVER....sites of mass graves from Anglo versus Saxon battles still contaminate groundwater in England, so it is not too farfetched.

 

Put the Quarter on a barge and take it to Epcot or Omaha.

posted by majroj on September 9, 2005 at 8:20 PM | link to this | reply

maj, an editorial writer here in town demands that they leave the Quarter

in place, like Disneyland, and build the new New Orleans about fifty miles away.

An environmentalist says that if they don't implement his 14 million dollar plan to restore the estuaries, etc. first, then they shouldn't replace one window in the city. Let the Delta be the delta and see what stays up high and build there.

This should be very interesting to watch unfold over the coming year. Years?!?!?

Supposedly the ground is now so contaminated by spills of everything imaginable, that the land will truly be uninhabitable. The Lake will surely die and soon.

posted by benzinha on September 8, 2005 at 1:54 AM | link to this | reply

They had a plan which said "The buses will come get the weak and infirm"

But apparently the plan was not robust to the loss of one or more people away from their desks, or implemented too late.

And it allegedly ended with the phrase "to safer ground".

Where was that? How would the drivers know? I'd have gone to Minneapolis!

posted by majroj on September 7, 2005 at 10:11 AM | link to this | reply

fer sure, maj. If I were the mayor of New Orleans, I would assume, correct-
ly, that the state and national governments would fail me, as they seem to do so often and I would do everything to save my people as if we were all alone on Earth, with only each other to count on, neighbor for neighbor.

posted by benzinha on September 6, 2005 at 11:15 PM | link to this | reply

Slow motion. Good steps, but not always complete and coming slowly.

I think that decisions have to be made at too high a level, as evidenced by these aspects.

Day by day, I am also starting to wonder what it can be like to be in the shoes of a governor or mayor there, a chief of police. I am also starting to try to see where the citizens may have done things better, what I would do.

Culturally, we need to spend a lot less of trivia and much more on personal preparedness and on national plans which are reasonable and humane.

posted by majroj on September 6, 2005 at 12:14 PM | link to this | reply

maj, I have been fascinated by the reporterrs need, and I mean NEED to

stir up controversy, to denegrate, to encourage hostile statements, to ask leading horrific questions of leadership, etc.

Bad news is the only good news. They like the little boy hero who saved his family, the fellow who stole the school bus, the doctors who worked their fingers to the bone, sobbing over the dying, etc. but, their real joy comes with controversy, either contrived or wished for or promoted by them.

New Orleans is the only place suffering, according to CNN, etc. Focus on the horror and ignore all else. Look for the horror, quote 'projected by computer programs' horror statistics of deaths to come, imagine the worst and then look for it. They disgust me. Not just CNN, but all news organizations, as far as I can see and I'm flipping channels 24/7.

I agree with the sobbing Jefferson Parish fellow, who told everyone to stop 'briefing', stop yapping, stop arguing and finger pointing and just go house to house, please, for the love of god.

Reporters go to the Quarter and talk about the hundreds of military personnel guarding the malls and shops there, etc. And I'm thinking, leave a few of them there and make the rest, every one of them, go door to door, where are all the boats??? Bullhorns?!?!?

Telling people to hang colorful sheets from windows if they need help, using the public RADIO to talk to the victims?!?!? when there is no electricity??!?!? makes a hell of a lot of sense to me, how about your thoughts?

I now know the definition of the word 'fiasco'.

posted by benzinha on September 5, 2005 at 11:53 PM | link to this | reply

PS: I work with law enforcement, not exactly the "Oprah" crowd..

and not one of them is defending the slowness of the response. They are really steamed at how the officers are most often  being mentioned in negative instances, such as quitting, looting, or comitting suicide.

I have read the chronology you quoted to them and...well, if we had some democratic registrars right now, they'd make some hits, I tell you.

posted by majroj on September 4, 2005 at 8:15 PM | link to this | reply

Anytme you want anonymous approbation, we're here 24/7 !!
You write a mean post when your dander's up.

posted by majroj on September 4, 2005 at 8:13 PM | link to this | reply

BrightIrish, I'm here to share.

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 5:03 PM | link to this | reply

homegirl, Katrina sized it all up much better than words could ever have

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 5:03 PM | link to this | reply

thanks, maj stranger, who I don't know......

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 5:02 PM | link to this | reply

katray, Katrina has said it all........

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 5:02 PM | link to this | reply

ca88andra, that's what they want you to think, that they are 'little

changes in direction', when they are truly the massive movement to 'privatize' all previous government activities to the enrichment of Bush's buddies. I'm awaiting Halliburton's offer to take over the 'rebuilding' of what they allowed to happen in Louisianna and Mississippi. See how that works, now?

Erase our Armed Forces and use our part-time heroes, our National Guard, to do the foreign duties of the previous Armed Forces.

Put private companies in charge of paying those Armed Forces (always late now), of supplying for their needs (with shoddy goods or giving them less than they need, or cost cutting by delivering needed equipment too late to be of any help), and watch the Armed Forces suffer horribly for the changes.....National Guard wounded uncared for the way that the military used to care for its wounded, etc......Shame on Bush and his cronies, both Bushes for their 'good works' in this area, for that matter.

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 5:01 PM | link to this | reply

Arachne Web, no, just the President is. The others are all sly foxes
raiding our nation's hen houses and stealing our very soul, while clueless George struts his dumb cowboy stuff around. He's the only dumb cowboy I know, as an Arizonan, I have to clarify that.

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 4:53 PM | link to this | reply

MayB, people like my sister and many others sent scathing letters to

thier congress people, to the White House all during the rape of this Agency. Find your old papers and read them.

You can write, too  at     comments@whitehouse.gov

posted by benzinha on September 4, 2005 at 4:51 PM | link to this | reply

Benzinha
Informative Post! 

posted by BrightIrish on September 4, 2005 at 2:36 PM | link to this | reply

that's about the size of it.

posted by homegirl on September 4, 2005 at 2:22 PM | link to this | reply

Nice one.

 

posted by majroj on September 4, 2005 at 12:53 PM | link to this | reply

Thank you Benz for sharing this
Sums it up so tragically.

posted by Katray2 on September 4, 2005 at 8:52 AM | link to this | reply

How little changes of direction turn into massive mistakes...

posted by Ca88andra on September 4, 2005 at 3:11 AM | link to this | reply

I think

that this administration is a bunch of morons with a knack for bad timing and absolutely no common sense.

posted by Arachne_Web on September 4, 2005 at 1:49 AM | link to this | reply

Very interesting. I am going to start digging around the newspaper websites for some of the editorials and analysis from top newspapers. I wonder how many saw it but didn't put the jigsaw together. Some must have seen it

posted by Azur on September 4, 2005 at 1:27 AM | link to this | reply