Hurricane Katrina Devastates The Gulf Coast.

[PhillyGirl]

Yeah, it was really weird.

[Diomedes]

video of Kanye West's remarks (takes a moment to load)

man, talk about Mike Myers being in an uncomfortable situation.

There's a pretty powerful segment from Fox news with Sheppard Smith and Geraldo Rivera that's worth watching, also found at crooksandliars.com.  This is such a failure it's not possible to fathom.  Americans unable to help themselves.  I'm glad the race issue has been brought up, and the class issue.  They are both relevant, both obvious.

[PhillyGirl]

Thanks for the link Dio.

I nearly lost it watching Geraldo.

[Rome]

They had Jerry Rivers on last night blubbering his eyes out holding some little kid.  I didn't hear the audio but assumed he was doing his usual "blame the white man" schtick.

You're right though, Dio.  If this disaster happened in Orange County, California, there's no way this shtein would have been permitted to happen.  There would have been 100,000 relief workers on the ground a day after the disaster begun.

They're poor and they're black so no one really gives a shtein about them.  And that's sickening.

[Diomedes]

I'd like to think it's got more to do with the fact that they're poor, than that they're black.  But even if I found grounds to support that hope--and I have not--it's wouldn't be much better that people were forsaken on account of their class. 

[PhillyGirl]

I watch this and I just can't believe this is our own country. I can't believe that the government could let our own farging citizens sit there for FIVE days before sending food and rescue. I tossed and turned AGAIN last night over this. I just feel helpless, because other than dontating money, what else can we do? 

[Diomedes]

what else can we do?

Shoot a politician in the face.  Drop a truck on a CEO.  Strangle an anchorman.

There's three good, constructive actions you can take.  Now get to work.

[PhillyGirl]

what else can we LEGALLY do?

Shoot a politician in the face.  Drop a truck on a CEO.  Strangle an anchorman.

There's three good, constructive actions you can take.  Now get to work.

[Rome]

I'd like to think that too, bro.  But if we're honest with ourselves, I think we have to admit that race plays just as big a part in this as anything else.

On the bright side, though, there's a monumental groundswell happening down here with respect to helping those folks.  You see it everywhere - people just itching to help in any way they can.  Churches, civic groups, white, black... it doesn't matter - they just want to pitch in and do something.

That makes me feel a little better about the situation.

PS: They had a donation drive at the bar last night.  Whatever donations they collected were matched dollar for dollar by the owners.  They were up over $1,000 when I left which means at least $2K will go directly and immediately to the Red Cross.  That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

[PhillyGirl]

I was listening to the radio yesterday and there was a guy from the military who just got back from his second stint in Iraq.

He said it took this disaster to make him realize what a joke them being over there really is. He said he'd talked to friends that are still over there this week and they are all wanting to come back so badly and can't. People FROM that area and people not from that area. All of them said that helping the hurricane victims trumps all and the fact that they aren't leaving there to come help pisses them off big time.

[Diomedes]

what else can we LEGALLY do?

Shoot a politician in the face. Drop a truck on a CEO. Strangle an anchorman.

There's three good, constructive actions you can take. Now get to work.

No commitment or determination to make a difference.  Such a shame.

[Rome]

 

[Eagles76ersFan]

Did you guys heard the mayor of NO interview on CNN?

He called in to a radio station and gave a great interview. He blasted the feds, blasted Bush and was basically begging for help. Him and the radio host started crying at the end of the call and he had to hang up because of his emotions.

If any of you can find a link to it, check it out, Powerful stuff.

Is it just me, or does this guy strike anyone else as an idiot? He seems to be very unaware of exact details and is just lambasting the relief effort from a personal viewpoint. Railing against Bush and Corps. of Engineers, but complimenting one "John Wayne" guy who Bush sent?

Just seems weird. I mean, it's not like NO would elect a really intelligent mayor anyway. Huey P. Long was the last great LA politician.[/sarcasm]

[Drunkmasterflex]

No one anticipated this type of problem, in fact early monday they were saying that NO had been spared.  Then all hell broke lose.  This is an unprecedented disaster in this country.

not true.

ecologists, scientists, city planners, FEMA, and the army corps of engineers had said this was a possibility, it's all published somewhere. but their warnings fell on deaf ears of the "it'll never happen to me." and they were either just flat out ignored, or their budgets were cut by our president (FEMA/Army COE)

It kills me when people who write articles like that pretend that no one is trying to help.  If you are doing shtein like that you are just part of the problem.

no one's said "no one is trying to help"...the problem has been the lack of action from the goveremnt, and the piss poor planning (homeland security (the goddamn motherfarging peice of shtein farce that it is) was created for just this kind of situation. and now it's 5 days later, and only NOW are there some signs of relief.

What I meant was that after the hurricane no one anticipated this problem, you are right it was predicted before.  After the hurricane hit they initially thought they were going to be ok.

[Drunkmasterflex]

I watch this and I just can't believe this is our own country. I can't believe that the government could let our own farging citizens sit there for FIVE days before sending food and rescue. I tossed and turned AGAIN last night over this. I just feel helpless, because other than dontating money, what else can we do? 

What a crock of shtein, there is a lot you can do you can volunteer to go help.