WHERE IS BUSH?!

[Blurred]

Right now people are dying in NO because they've been left stranded and Bush isn't doing a fucking thing. WHY AREN'T PRIVATE HELICOPTERS BEING HIRED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO GET PEOPLE OUT OF THERE??!!!

A nurse from Charity Hospital who is stranded there, and says people are dying and need out NOW.

This whole thing is a massive clusterfuck and I think when it's all said and done, more people will have died than 9-11, and there will be a backlash when this is all over about how this was mishandled so poorly by our government.

[Woodsy]

This whole thing is a massive clusterfuck and I think when it's all said and done, more people will have died than 9-11, and there will be a backlash when this is all over about how this was mishandled so poorly by our government.

just like 9-11.
we can placate them by invading wherever Cheney and Rove decide Hurricanes come from

[Below Zero]

I just went on CNN.com and I see that there is a sniper now? What the fuck is going on? It's fucking armeggedon, hell on earth! This is absolutely horrible. I haven't totally gone through the other thread, but what can we honestly do here? Should we call the fucking Senate office, govenor's office? This is so fucking sad!

[NorCalSJK]

Right now people are dying in NO because they've been left stranded and Bush isn't doing a fucking thing. WHY AREN'T PRIVATE HELICOPTERS BEING HIRED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO GET PEOPLE OUT OF THERE??!!!

A nurse from Charity Hospital who is stranded there, and says people are dying and need out NOW.

This whole thing is a massive clusterfuck and I think when it's all said and done, more people will have died than 9-11, and there will be a backlash when this is all over about how this was mishandled so poorly by our government.

I originally was encouraged about how Katrina was being handled...that was before the storm hit. Since Monday, it has been a complete fuck up. We should, as you have said, gone at this thing as aggressive as possible. At this point, we are not...the powers that be seem to be sitting on there thumbs and counting the money they're making from the $6/gallon in Atlanta. Would it be going this slow if it weren't in N.O.? what if it were in a "upper class" area? i'm just speechless...horrible, angry.

[Viva]

In a recent speech, Bush spoke out against the "lootering" going on in the flood-ravaged areas.

[The AD]

Bush had to cut his vacation short by two days because of the 'cane. He's still pissed off about that.

[basom]

Scary perspective from Baton Rouge.


http://www.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1014&CID=449461

read this. fucking insane.

[Evil E]

The dumb fuck probably went on vacation again.

I agree that this whole thing is being handled terribly. I just heard on NPR that there are thousands of people that have not had fresh water and food for days now. Wtf???

BTW Brett... I thought you were a bush supporter. Changed your mind yet?

[snowsprite]

Right now people are dying in NO because they've been left stranded and Bush isn't doing a fucking thing. WHY AREN'T PRIVATE HELICOPTERS BEING HIRED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO GET PEOPLE OUT OF THERE??!!!

This is what's blowing my mind too... WTF!!! In this country, people are outraged when a single person is hurt or dies. But today, countless have already died in this tragedy and more are in danger of dying? Why are we standing for this?

I too am stunned and cannot understand why entire fleets of private buses, planes, whatever it takes are not on the move getting people out of that freakin' dome and flying them as far away as Connecticut (all under a huge military presence of course). The hell with business as usual. People are dying. Let the gas prices go up and my tax rates too. If that were me, I'd want to be helped god-dammit. I saw old people, babies, and whole families in there that are suffering in those inadequate "shelters." Get them the hell out NOW.

And where are the troops? I'm not talking about the national guard. I mean army, tanks, that kind of thing. What about we fly our people home from iraq and bring them here where they are needed. I know it is not that simple, but for fuck's sake let's get a move on and do SOMETHING semi-effective.

I think they let this thing get too far out of hand already. I only hope that it can be brought under control without too much further calamity. I am not very hopeful right now. Jesus.

Sprite

[NorCalSJK]

BTW Brett... I thought you were a bush supporter. Changed your mind yet?

Not that i'm advicating for Bush, by any means...but this is MUCH larger than he could fuck up by himself. I heard a quote that this is again the "invisible hand of capitalism". The Superdome and NO Convention Center are filled with the lower class of NO. The rich white and black people are gone. Fucking ridiculous.

[freshie247]

And where are the troops? I'm not talking about the national guard. I mean army, tanks, that kind of thing. What about we fly our people home from iraq and bring them here where they are needed. I know it is not that simple, but for fuck's sake let's get a move on and do SOMETHING semi-effective.

The troops are in Iraq & Afganistan! Since the right wing doesn't believe in birth control,this is their version of it,"God's Will".

[Jumper Bones]

the whole helicopter and snipers thing - that's blowing my mind too. A Chinook was shot at - so put fucking miniguns on the doors! that will fuck up some thug sniper's universe! The Nat'l Guard is being run out of town by petty thugs with AKs!

I can't believe we're not air-dropping MREs and water for these people. Those assets are available. I mean, we could air drop that stuff to fucking Afghan refugees, why not our own people?

It just pisses me off to no end that people of my vocation are told, time and time again, "be ready to go at a moment's notice! Watch the news, and events that you see are going on, be ready!" But then it takes HQ and Nat'l Command Authority people days if not weeks to get their shit all in one sock. That is bullshit.

fuckin' hurry-up-and-wait, story of my life. and now people are dying because of that. Inexcusable.

Okay, enough monday-morning armchair quarterbacking. I do wonder how much the posse comitatus stuff is holding the military back from helping out in its full capacity.

[Evil E]

NORCAL... a real president, a real leader would do whatever it takes to take charge and rescue the thousands of people in need. Instead he had to cut short his vacation to figure out what to do about all the "lootering"
(However, I understand that Bush is scheduled to arrive in NO tomorrow.)

Of course i dont think that BUSH is the reason why this happened or that he is to be held accountable for the sad state of NO at the moment, but where is the leadership and manpower to help these victims?

Of course this is just my opinion, I understand the unprecented level of devastation this hurricane caused... but in a nation as powerful and rich as the USA I would hope that more would be done to rescue the our citizens to insure they did not perish from starvation in the superdome.

[Woodsy]

dont know why it took me so long,
Hurricanes come from Venezula.
I bet 50% of the US believes that by our Oct 1st invasion deadline.

[NorCalSJK]

NORCAL... a real president, a real leader would do whatever it takes to take charge and rescue the thousands of people in need...

100% agreed.
My point is simply that the level of fuck up goes beyond him.

[P.A.K. MAN]

There was news that 10,000 national guardsmen were sent in to New Orleans to help with the evacuation. A third of those were military police that will aid with the arresting of all the looters. In addition to these snipers that were shooting at reporters there have been more than reports that men wearing flack jackets and moving on amphibious vehicles were shooting volunteers at hospitals that were recuing critically injured citizens onto hellicopters. We need to get as many people with boats and helicopters into Mississippi and New Orleans to help stranded people. WTF is with these looters that have been stealing guns, computors, beer and a bunch of useless shit. Obviously it is fine to take supplies from stores like water, blankets and food but this histeria has to end with armed robberies. If these thousands of looters were taken out of the picture, evacualtions would just be easier. Houses can be rebuilt I hope that the loss of lives is not as bad as people are saying.

Heres a site that will accept any amount you can donate. Imagine these peoples lives after the chaos ends and order is restored. Even though the death toll will stop, where will these thousands of people live? Ordinary life is far from resturning. www.WorldVision.org

[dbp]

I agree that this is a clusterfuck, and that many things have contributed to that. To keep myself from getting too frustrated though, I try to remember that there are tens of thousands of government employees, volunteers, civil authorities, etc. that are actually doing something. I am watching the news and donating money, but they are on the front lines at least trying to help. This is a huge disaster that involves much more than NO, and I am thankful that those people are there to do something. Some of that stuff (convention center, Superdome) seems horribly managed though.

[grrrr]

fuckin' hurry-up-and-wait, story of my life. and now people are dying because of that. Inexcusable.

Glad to hear the fire service isn't the only group in this position. It looks like we'll start shipping some resources in the next day or so, though.

I reluctantly put myself back on the roster for this. I'm already in bad grace for being deployed 23 days out of the last 30 - I'm hoping they'll take some of my other officers instead. The waiting kills, though.

[Greydon Clark]

I do wonder how much the posse comitatus stuff is holding the military back from helping out in its full capacity.

Zero. The President of the United States can waive this law in an emergency. See the LA Rebellion of 1992 when troops were present in LA for 25 days. Oh, mini-guns? Flyboy, you’ve watch too much Airwolf.

[Shrubs]

The reaction to this was definitely way too slow by the Feds. In fact, it's f*cking pathetic. We didn't mobilize the armed forces until yesterday, for all intensive purposes. My friend lives (lived) there and went on assignment with his old news channel as soon as it all went down, and he said until yesterday morning, most of the rescues were being done by private citizens, and that it is still total chaos. He said you would be hard-pressed to find any military personnel outside of the superdome area.

As far as the looting goes, it doesn't take a genius to know that is going to happen. Zero tolerance??? Right, Bush. I would kicking some doors down if I had been out of food and water for two days.

We can get 100,000 troops into Iraq in a week, and we can't get 10,000 into NO in the same amount of time?

[Pedro]

the whole helicopter and snipers thing - that's blowing my mind too. A Chinook was shot at - so put fucking miniguns on the doors! that will fuck up some thug sniper's universe! The Nat'l Guard is being run out of town by petty thugs with AKs!

I can't believe we're not air-dropping MREs and water for these people. Those assets are available. I mean, we could air drop that stuff to fucking Afghan refugees, why not our own people?

It just pisses me off to no end that people of my vocation are told, time and time again, "be ready to go at a moment's notice! Watch the news, and events that you see are going on, be ready!" But then it takes HQ and Nat'l Command Authority people days if not weeks to get their shit all in one sock. That is bullshit.

fuckin' hurry-up-and-wait, story of my life. and now people are dying because of that. Inexcusable.

Okay, enough monday-morning armchair quarterbacking. I do wonder how much the posse comitatus stuff is holding the military back from helping out in its full capacity.

i dont think the posse comitatus stuff is holding them back much from helping out, i think its just the large beauracracy of our goverment to organize the support from groups who do not normally support these types of missions.

When i was at Fort Carson a few years back, the wildfires started spreading towards woodland park, we had deployed Buldozers, and misc heavy engineer assets up there within a few hours to start cutting fire breaks, i believe the Instalation commander just called the Directorate of Public works and asked if they needed any help.

Getting them to come in and police the area and lay down the law, thats adifferent story.

[flatlander#2]

if we decided tomorrow that we needed to swarm invade some piss ant country we could have a 20k person force mobile and gone. We need to get that many troops in there and get people out of harms way now. There is no excuse "in this day and age" that it shouldn't happen. Go get them. To see these old people and babies, etc. in there just makes a person sick.

Did you see how tan he was in the press conf? Holy crap, he looks like George Hamilton.

[char]

I'm hearing that fire resouces aren't being sent yet because there isn't any way to support them once they get there. That being said, I'm available to go on a crew, I wouldn't be excited to go down there.

[Stu Gotz]

Courtesy of the Rude Pundit-

"Here's the Rude Pundit's fuckin' amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Fuck all yer anti-choice, save the flag bullshit amendments. Here it goes: No motherfucker who became wealthy due to inheritance is allowed to be President. No pampered pukes who get their hands dirty only as a lark. No asshole socially-connected cocksuckers who own three, four homes, fuck, no one who owns a huge fuckin' house they call a "vacation home." Sure, sure, we may have to sacrifice a Kennedy or two along the way, but, shit, and c'mon, between George Bush I's golfing during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (which was a double fuck-up because not only was he allegedly the President, but he was in the middle of a campaign to do it again) and now George Bush II's, well, fuck, golfing and goofin' on the guitar when a million of his citizens are displaced and over half of them are fucked for good, we can sacrifice a potential liberal or two to ensure that there's never a President Jenna."

[grrrr]

Char,

We do have a call out for 2 person teams to do door to door first aid/minor assistance, and we are sending quite a few out to do food unit, etc type jobs. Right now they are looking for logistics people more than ops people. I may go out as part of the type 3 team to help with logistic support.