RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Hurricane Katrina

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the G-man said:
I respectfully submit that anyone else who rioted would likely be people inclined to riot anyway.

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Grimm said:


And finally, For all you fucknuts that keep trying to use disasters such as this and the London bombings to try and stroke your own political agendas, eat a chocolate bar out of my hairy, white ass.

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theory9 said:
I wonder if he's watching the news on a stolen TV...

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theo look again, that's a white guy.

NEW ORLEANS - To the estimated 10,000 residents still believed to be holed up in this ruined city, the mayor had a blunt new warning: Get out now — or risk being taken out by force.

As floodwaters began to slowly recede with the city's first pumps returning to operation, Mayor C. Ray Nagin authorized law enforcement officers and the U.S. military to force the evacuation of all residents who refuse to heed orders to leave.

Police Capt. Marlon Defillo said that forced removal of citizens had not yet begun. "That's an absolute last resort," he said.

Nagin's order targets those still in the city unless they have been designated as helping with the relief effort. Repeated calls to Nagin's spokeswoman, Tami Frazier, seeking comment were not returned.

The move — which supersedes an earlier, milder order to evacuate made before Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore Aug. 29 — comes after rescuers scouring New Orleans found hundreds of people willing to defy repeated urgings to get out.

They included people like Dennis Rizzuto, 38, who said he had plenty of water, food to last a month and a generator powering his home. He and his family were offered a boat ride to safety, but he declined.

"They're going to have to drag me," Rizzuto said.

That's a sentiment Capt. Scott Powell, of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, has heard before as he tries to evacuate people by air boat.

"A lot of people don't want to leave. They've got dogs and they just want to stay with their homes. They say they're going to stay until the water goes down," he said.

In Washington, D.C., President Bush and Congress pledged Tuesday to open separate investigations into the federal response to Katrina and New Orleans' broken levees. "Governments at all levels failed," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The pumping began after the Corps used hundreds of sandbags and rocks over the Labor Day weekend to close a 200-foot gap in the 17th Street Canal levee that burst in the aftermath of the storm and swamped 80 percent of this below sea-level city.

Although toxic flood waters receded inch by inch, only five of New Orleans' normal contingent of 148 drainage pumps were operating, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

How long it takes to drain the city could depend on the condition of the pumps — especially whether they were submerged and damaged, the Corps said. Also, the water is full of debris, and while there are screens on the pumps, it may be necessary to stop and clean them from time to time.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass said lawlessness in the city "has subsided tremendously," and officers warned that those caught looting in an area where the governor has declared an emergency can get up to 15 years in prison. About 124 prisoners filled a downtown jail set up at the city's train and bus terminal.

"We continue to get better day by day," Compass said.

Some National Guardsmen and helicopters were diverted from their search missions Tuesday to fight fires, an emerging threat in a city that has no water pressure to fight fires or electricity, which has prompted holdouts to use candles.

In a plea to those who might be listening to portable radios, Nagin warned that the fetid floodwater could carry disease and that natural gas was leaking all over town.

"This is not a safe environment," Nagin said. "I understand the spirit that's basically, `I don't want to abandon my city.' It's OK. Leave for a little while. Let us get you to a better place. Let us clean the city up."

To that end, the Pentagon began sending 5,000 paratroopers from the Army's storied 82nd Airborne Division to use small boats to launch a new search-and-rescue effort in flooded sections of the city.

Some people may already be heeding the mayor's message. After surviving for days in New Orleans, Johnnie Lee MacGuire finally accepted an offer to evacuate.

"It's too filthy. Look at that — the fish is dead, you got dead dogs, you got dead people around there," the 66-year-old said.

Floodwaters also had receded from St. Bernard Parish southeast of New Orleans, but it was still a disaster scene with bedroom dressers and hot tubs scattered on roofs, toilet seats dangling in tree limbs and cars overturned in driveways. Water gurgled and spouted where natural gas seeped from below.

While New Orleans waited for the floodwaters to recede before counting its dead, the effort to accurately catalogue Mississippi's toll was struggling to keep up with the decaying effect of 90-degree heat.

Even when cadaver dogs pick up a scent, workers say they frequently can't get at the bodies without heavy equipment. That's leading officials to estimate that more than 1,000 people could be dead.

As of Tuesday night, workers had recovered 196 bodies in Mississippi, the majority coming from coastal counties. Nagin has estimated New Orleans' dead could reach 10,000.

"The state doesn't know the answer," said Lea Stokes, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. "I know people don't want to hear that, but we just don't know."

That uncertainty has led to an agonizing wait for people who are desperate to locate family and friends but cannot fathom the scope of the storm's devastation.

"We get a lot of information about New Orleans, but I don't even know how bad Alabama and Mississippi are," said Darryl Moch, 32, of Portland, Ore., who has tried for days to locate his best friend, Leon Harvey Packer, of Biloxi. "How bad was Mississippi hit? What's the number of people displaced? What's the estimated damage?"

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Associated Press writers Doug Simpson, Dan Sewell, Jim Litke, Melinda Deslatte, Matt Apuzzo and Randolph E. Schmid contributed to this report.

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Grimm said:
And finally, For all you fucknuts that keep trying to use disasters such as this and the London bombings to try and stroke your own political agendas, eat a chocolate bar out of my hairy, white ass. You divisive, ass cuddling dipshits need to be first up against the wall. You're taking all the things that used to be great about this country and burying it under your own ego stroking. Rot in Hell.

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Grimm said:
And finally, For all you fucknuts that keep trying to use disasters such as this and the London bombings to try and stroke your own political agendas, eat a chocolate bar out of my hairy, white ass. You divisive, ass cuddling dipshits need to be first up against the wall. You're taking all the things that used to be great about this country and burying it under your own ego stroking. Rot in Hell.

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Jim Jackson said:
Glad things are going well enough for you that you've got time and concern to spew that bit of bile.

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the G-man said:
The fact you don't like him doing so tells me--hell, it tells everyone here except, maybe, whomod--that you are, in fact, consumed by some sort of almost fetishtic urge to play politics with this thing.

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Jim Jackson said:

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the G-man said:
The fact you don't like him doing so tells me--hell, it tells everyone here except, maybe, whomod--that you are, in fact, consumed by some sort of almost fetishtic urge to play politics with this thing.

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I would just think he's got bigger things to worry about than to take time out to chew me and others out.

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r3x29yz4a said:
i'm still waiting for the "new orleans was full of sinners and god was wiping them out speech" from robertson/fallwell, like how they blamed 9/11 on feminism.

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britneyspearsatemyshorts said:

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theory9 said:
I wonder if he's watching the news on a stolen TV...

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theo look again, that's a white guy.

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r3x29yz4a said:
i'm still waiting for the "new orleans was full of sinners and god was wiping them out speech" from robertson/fallwell, like how they blamed 9/11 on feminism.

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PJP said:

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r3x29yz4a said:
i'm still waiting for the "new orleans was full of sinners and god was wiping them out speech" from robertson/fallwell, like how they blamed 9/11 on feminism.

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I thought that was al-qaeda?

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r3x29yz4a said:
i'm still waiting for the "new orleans was full of sinners and god was wiping them out speech" from robertson/fallwell, like how they blamed 9/11 on feminism.

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britneyspearsatemyshorts said:
he wants to be referred to as bsams-lite.

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britneyspearsatemyshorts said:
he wants to be referred to as bsams-lite.

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SIERRA VISTA - Like many people who watched the events of Hurricane Katrina unfold on television, Irene Thiele was left in tears by the tragic scenes.

The 64-year-old was so moved by the plight of Katrina's victims, she decided she must do something to help.

Being on a fixed income, she could not afford to donate much money, so she asked the American Red Cross if she could collect it instead.

Her generous offer was readily accepted and last weekend during the Oktoberfest festivities. Thiele camped out at a table, with some homemade posters and hoped for a generous response.

By Sunday, after single-handedly manning her table at Veterans' Memorial Park for more than 21 hours over three days, she had collected $2,600.


"I've never done anything like this before, but watching the faces of those people was just so sad," she said. "The people of Sierra Vista were so kind and generous."

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theory9 said:

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PJP said:

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r3x29yz4a said:
i'm still waiting for the "new orleans was full of sinners and god was wiping them out speech" from robertson/fallwell, like how they blamed 9/11 on feminism.

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I thought that was al-qaeda?

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Silly rabbit, the truth isn't for r3x!

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Pig Iron said:
see, r3x..robertson and falweel are extremists...faaaaarrrrrr right. It's like me saying all liberals are ellen fuckin' degeneres and sean penn..they aren't. Most people meet somewhere in the middle.

You are certainly not one of those people or you would have realized this and not have even mentioned it. The fact that yopu can even conceive that any significant portion of conservatives thought that feminism was to blame for 9-11 is fucking crazy. You should have your head examined.

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did i say i was waiting for the GOP to announce this, or for one of those two guys to announce this?
I was making an offhand remark about them and their past statements.
I bet I can dig up a comment where someone insulted Sean Penn and wasn't jumped on by the majority of the posters here.

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Jim Jackson said:

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Grimm said:
And finally, For all you fucknuts that keep trying to use disasters such as this and the London bombings to try and stroke your own political agendas, eat a chocolate bar out of my hairy, white ass. You divisive, ass cuddling dipshits need to be first up against the wall. You're taking all the things that used to be great about this country and burying it under your own ego stroking. Rot in Hell.

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Glad things are going well enough for you that you've got time and concern to spew that bit of bile.

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The CBO projects that the federal government will collect $2.14 trillion this year. That's a hefty 58% increase from a decade ago. Washington may have many problems, but a shortage of money is not among them.

All those dollars have not just gone to Iraq. The $286.5 billion highway bill is evidence that Washington is spending record amounts on infrastructure. And there's lots being lavished on all types of capital expenditures. The budget of the Army Corps of Engineers -- the federal agency tasked to help waterproof New Orleans -- is 31% higher today than it was 10 years ago.... In Louisiana, real per capita spending rose by 59% from 1991 to 2002....

The highway bill is a case study in spending money based on political prioritization, not economic or social need. Amid the 6,500 earmarks in that bill, Louisiana pols managed to sneak in $400,000 for the Mississippi River Trail and Bikepath and $3,200,000 for bike and pedestrian crossings of the Washington-Palmetto Canal. While the bill could be stretched to include bike paths for Louisiana, it apparently couldn't to include funding for levee construction.

Even more broadly, this is a good time for us to rethink the locus of infrastructure spending. If a lot of officials in New Orleans knew this was a disaster waiting to happen, perhaps the problem could have been better addressed if the tax dollars city residents pay for infrastructure of all sorts stayed in the city, rather than being cycled through the expensive Washington bureaucracy.

There are many public policy questions to be asked in the wake of Katrina. But we don't need to ask whether there are sufficient dollars to perform the basic functions of government. There are

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the G-man said:
I respectfully submit that anyone else who rioted would likely be people inclined to riot anyway. I would further respectfully submit that most people, who are victims of the looters, would be relieved.

Shooting looters in times of civil unrest is hardly a new, untested, theory, after all.

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King Snarf said:
I just find it funny that when people fly planes into buildings, the government jumps into action, eventually coming together like a well-oiled machine to be provide both relief efforts and attempts at retribution, yet when a hurricane, a weather phenomenon that people have known about for decades if not centuries, hits, the government seems to be sitting on their hands. Hmmm...

For god's sake, we're the RICHEST FUCKING COUNTRY IN THE WORLD and we have THIRD WORLD NATIONS OFFERING HANDOUTS!!! To quote Cordelia Chase from Angel Season 5, "What frickin' Bizarro World did I wake up in???"

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Officials in New Orleans (search) braced for what could be a staggering death toll Thursday by readying 25,000 body bags — as one rescue team made the grim discovery of 30 bodies in a suburban nursing home.

Soldiers toting M-16s strengthened their grip on the swamped city as fears grew about the risks posed by the stinking floodwaters. Across miles of ravaged neighborhoods of clapboard houses, grand estates and housing projects, workers struggled to find corpses and persuade the city's last stubborn residents to leave.

"Right now, human life is paramount so I'm concentrating all my power on getting out people who want to leave," said Police Chief Eddie Compass.

President Bush pledged the government would "cut through the red tape" to provide an immediate $2,000 in disaster assistance to families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and make sure they continue receiving Medicaid, food stamps, jobless compensation, and other federal benefits.

He designated Friday as a national day of prayer and remembrance for victims across the Gulf Coast.

"We have much more work to do," the president said. "But the people that have been hurt by this storm know that — need to know that the government is going to be with you for the long haul."

Michael Keegan, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (search), said rescuers in New Orleans were finding more and more residents willing to leave. "Some are finally saying, 'I've had enough.' They're getting dehydrated. They are running out of food," Keegan said.

Government tests confirmed that the floodwaters are thick with sewage-related bacteria in amounts at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety limits. The muck is believed to contain E. coli (search), certain viruses and a type of cholera-like bacteria.

"If you haven't left the city yet, you must do so," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She urged anyone coming into contact with the water to scrub up with soap and water.

At least four deaths among storm evacuees have been attributed to infected wounds, said Tom Skinner, spokesman for the CDC

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The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.

We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived home yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or look at a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the Walgreen's in the French Quarter.

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