On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 19:57:37 GMT, Kurt Ullman wrote:
> In article ,
> doublebreasted@mail.com wrote:
>
>>
>>The phase that should have followed, but wasn't, was comprehensive and
>>coordinated plans of action with FEMA taking the lead. Regardless of the
>>local/state screwups, FEMA/DHS/DoD knew perfectly well that they would
>>eventually have to respond.
> Not necessarily. All was going along swimmingly and people
> thought they might have dodged the bullet until about 12 or so hours
> later when the levees busted. Until then it was a garden variety,
> nothing fancy, hurricane and would have stayed as such.
Kurt, I was there. Necessarily, take it to the bank.
>>> The
>>> next was when it hit. Again this was pretty much a garden variety
>>> hurricane.
>>
>>I have no idea why you would state such.
>
> Ahh because it was. Nothing major was occurring and things were
> going according to the plan, admitted such as it was.
>
>>Kurt, this isn't a IT or technology problem, it is a lack of priority
>>problem, evac/dc plans aren't rocket science. Hundreds of millions of $$$
>>have been spent, wasted, no one on any level actually desired to see
>>implement anything serious with any conviction. In the scheme of things,
>>when the monies come for this type of funding from Dc and trickles down to
>>the stae and local level, if FEMA had refused to continue funding the
>>local/state until they got off their asses, then there would have been a
>>different result. If the local/state governments had decided to take the
>>bull by the horns, and seriously write, implement and test their known and
>>predicted participations in this type of disaster, the outcome could have
>>been remarkably different.
> Yeah and if pretty much from Eisenhower forward had spent
> enough money on the levees or LA hadn't tossed away the 1998 money
> to make evacuation plans using instead to study the Ponchitrain
> bridge, and if James Watt and the FEMA types at the time hadn't let
> them and if...
> Disaster like these are ALWAYS made up of many missed
> opportunities over many years that are invariably seen as crystal
> clear after the fact by those who weren't participating and
> invariably missed in real time by those who actually were
> participating. That is the nature of big disasters.
This disaster was predicted and ignored. Simple as that.
>>Here's the kicker. There is a lot of scurrying around but nothing is
>>actually changing. I anticipate nothing will unless the populace votes with
>>their opinions.
> They usually do, which is what got us into this mess (g).
I did not mean the electoral vote but rather the vote of popular opinion.
It was the popular opinion of those who could make a change in NOLA to
ignore the obvious.
No religious leaders, no one from the business community, none of the
populace activist groups, no one ever firmly decided to take this most
serious of issues and press hard and relentlessly on it. No one In DC, LA
or NOLA/Biloxi/etc. No one.
>>With this generation of a rather worthless voting public which has apathy
>>plastered across their collective foreheads, given a couple of months,
>>especially if NOLA survives the health and rebuilding issues, Katrina will
>>fade away and so will any initiatives to get real about saving lives,
>>especially when those lives are the socially disenfranchised.
> I would say probably most of the next year before it fades
> away. Next year is an off-year election with the House and normal
> compliment of Senators up.
I don't think it will take that long but what difference does it make?
The problem is the people of this country. They don't care, they are so
self-centered, worried about their own wealth building, morally groundless.
Not all but way too many and the ones who can make the changes, those with
wealth and power, see no mandate coming from the middle or upper income
classes so nothing will get done.
It makes little difference who you elect. I hate Bush' guts, the little
piece of hypocritical shit, but if there is no public mandate to take
action on the inevitable natural and soon to be terrorist calamities, then
the $$$ and the efforts will flow elsewhere.
This particular gov't has to take blame since they have surreptitiously
used the fear of terrorism as an artificial means to pass massive, populace
controlling laws which serve only their purposes.
If they are so concerned about terrorism, then show me the preparations for
coordinated control of the disasters yet to happen. There is none.
So on one hand, they shower fear on us and then ignore the real
consequences. We cannot defeat terrorism by war only by international
social change which will take generations. ITM, we had best prepare for the
atrocities to come. This would be responsible, forward thinking governance.
It ain't gonna happen.
Nope, the politicians understand who they are dealing with. Us. We don't
care. Neither do they. Caring won't get them reelected.
We move around in la-la land and when people, like myself, and many others,
call to arms the populace, we get ridiculed for wearing tinfoil hats. Then
NOLA happens, and RTC goes ballistic wanting to know why our gov't
isn't/hasn't saved us.
Shit, they can't save us from ourselves, from the cloud of apathy I have
never before seen the likes of. It is amazing, really, I cannot explain the
egocentricism. It has the Mark of the Beast all over it.
I guess empire builders come and go, it's our turn now, I suppose.
Our poor children and grandchildren, God help them.
We won't. |