Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

I'm surprised I didn't see anything about Katrina on the forum. We all agree about how terrible the devastation is, but is there anything worse than the fact that next to nothing is happened on a wide scale there in regards to cleanup? It's as though people can't think for a second to get together and create a solution to the problem. I don't often point fingers, but I must say the Federal government should be responsible for the cleanup, not the state and local governments. The Administration can't just give money to people (who exactly got all the monet, I'm not sure) but nevertheless, we find ourselves throwing money at a problem before creating a cleanup solution.

I think Katrina in one way woke people up to the lack of competent leadership in the current administration. Michael Brown, head of FEMA, put into that position by Bush in a spoils-system appointment, failed miserably both before and after the hurricane. He resigned, pointing the finger at everyone except himself (read the article to see what else he worried about, before the security of the people in the region). But Bush should also take responsibility by accepting Brown's failures and apologizing for appointing him, instead of saying things such as "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It's bad enough that the military is doing the job of the many organzations formed by the goverment in case of such of a disaster, but the fact that there are towns that have yet to see as much as a bulldozer is unacceptable. Will someone step-up, or at least step-down?

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One of the reasons, I think, is that New Oreans has a very small amount of voters, so there is no hurry for a cleanup.

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<(* ) THRUSTER DUCK
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God forbid someone in the Bush family actually help someone. And that commentary by dubya's mom set me off too...

What surprises me with the lack of competent leadership, cronyism, and all of this other nonsense that has been happening with the current regime, that he still remains president...



That is probably one of the biggest verbal insults to the people of New Orleans I've read apart from his mom's disparagingly racist commentary.



This proves that the department of homeland security is a failure.

The last 5 years has been nothing but one big failure... Broken treaties... defying the ideals of this nation...taking away rights... three to go, and I can't wait until this nightmare is over.

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If my town got flooded, I wouldn't be blaming the federal government before or after the tragedy. That's why we have state and local governments- to micromanage everything. The federal government isn't responsible to make sure Joe Smith on Weston Street evacuates because he can't afford a car or is just too stubborn to leave.

If anyone's to blame, I'd start pointing fingers to the mayor of nawlins.

Get over it. The horse you've been beating is dead. Now people are blaming Bush for the weather? Give me a break.

It must suck living in a country where such a horrible horrible man could be elected president, eh?

The blindness of those who blame the federal gov't for this is overwhelming. If you're going to at least attempt to appear rational, I recommend mentioning how all those school busses never took anyone anywhere, for starters. Was that Bush's fault? I can't wait for someone to spin it that way.

I sort of agree with Celtic... Not quite. The feds aren't blameless, BUT, it sure woulda made matters a lot better had Mayor Nagin loaded up the city's buses instead of letting them sit there, and had Louisianna's mayor not told the feds to back off and let the locals handle it...

Seriously, the whole "I'm in charge! NO! I AM!" thing made a lot more people suffer than need be.

The whole thing would have been better had FEMA stepped in and said, "hey, we're in charge, don't like it? Tough!", but that kinda thing borders on dictatorship, so it's not gonna happen.

The thing that makes me sick is people taking out their frustrations on FEMA employees.. The "ground troops" have little to do with making decisions on who gets aid and who doesn't and when it gets dispersed.

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

agreed- FEMA was mismanaged. My point is that we shouldn't rely _solely_ on the feds for local support. We don't sit back and laugh at the wall of water coming our way and expect a president (any president) to motor up in a boat and take us off to some magical land.

I don't necessarily believe that FEMA was an intentional failing, though. I'm sure they had their little plan ready, but when the city flooded and infrastructure collapsed, they probably had no clue what to do. How do you deal with that situation? Even if you know how to deal with it- how long would it take to put that new plan into action?

Should we blame the people who built the dikes and levees? Should we blame the people who decided to build a city under sea level? Should we blame the people who cut funding for the project to understand and attempt to stop hurricanes (60's or 70's I think)? Should we blame god for sending the hurricane? Should we blame the people who were running around with guns, raping, and stealing?

I believe people need to take more responsibility for themselves. As such, obviously I'm not a democrat

Stormfury and Skyfire were tremendous wastes of time and money, as are any attempts to control hurricanes.. The storms are so huge and contain so much energy that pretty much anything that can be done to control a storm would involve doing something that would be more destructive than the storm itsself. I've seen all kinds of crazy ideas about controlling storms, but they're just impractical. They range from covering the Gulf of Mexico with some sort of barrier to cut off the supply of water vapor (and thus heat) from the storm to dumping billions (and it would take BILLIONS to achieve the desired effect) of gallons of liquid hydrogen or liquid nitrogen onto the surface in front of a hurricane to cool the water and choke the storm...
I don't think we'll ever control the weather, although we're doing a LOT to get better at forecasting. I'm convinced that a better forecast would not have saved any lives.. The forecast was pretty clear..

I don't see this as a republican/democrat issue. The point is that, on some level, every layer of government failed. People didn't work together and a domino effect of failure occured. Sadly, this is similar to the chain of failures that happened leading up to 9/11.

FEMA's slow response was shameful, but was as much as result of the infrastructure being wiped out as it was of mismanagement. Either way, I'm hoping some things have been learned.

It really bothers me how fast the Gulf Coast casinos have been rebuilt and reopened, while there are still plenty of people without homes. I know that people won't come back if they don't have jobs, but they won't come back if they don't have homes, either..

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If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Nope, weather isn't anyone's fault. However, response to disasters should be prompt. The man that Bush put in charge of that response, Michael Brown, cared too much for himself than for what his job actually entailed. No, Bush did not order the pump station workers to leave their posts. No, Bush did not deny the Army Corps of Engineers to reconstruct old levees. The flooding was to happen. However, as stated before, it isn't the fact that 'he let it happen' but in fact 'he let it drag on'..Brown that is. Therefore, Bush should take responsibility for putting someone in place who could not fulfill his duty.

Let's take the Navy for example. Every day, they deal with life and death decisions. There is little room for apology. Take this true story for instance. A new captain takes a tugboat to his new command, a destroyer that has been out to see for five months. The captain steps on the ship off the tug, changes command with the old captain, and takes the COMM. A month later to the day, the crew discovers that a male officer had put in place a camera in the female's berthing. It was the captain's decision not to tell CENTCOM about the incident until another few days later; however, he did follow correct underway protocol in punishing the officer. That officer AND the captain were both unceremoniously kicked out of command positions. But was why the captain, who had basically just stepped foot onto the ship, sacked, despite taking the correct steps to fix the crew? Because he was in command of someone who commanded others, and at some point that officer would make a decision that could effect the lives of the men and women aboard. CENTCOM deemed it was too risky to have in place a CO who had such crew members under him. Was it his fault the officer spied on the females? No. Did he follow the correct steps in punishing the officer? Yes. But he took responsibilty for the outcome of the situation by not acting expeditiously. He didn't take responsibilty for the situation itself.

That was with sexual harrassment. This is with an entire region still devastated and lacking the needs and cleanup services necessary to continue rebuilding. Some say it should be micromanaged by the cities. But this isn't about just New Orleans. Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southwestern Alabama...this is too much work for cities and towns to do. The governers and the federal goverment should take control, start an initiative to get contractors to send down construction equipment en masse, give construction jobs to those who have no jobs and are still living in the region, and construct temporary houses (not like the pathetic trailors they have now) for those people to stay in. Could it work? It worked for FDR with the TVA. Yet I don't know, but that would be my idea to get things rolling.

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lah - It's not that I am blaming the emperor for the weather... I am blaming him for considering New Orleans as an acceptable casualty and not helping, or leading.

But, it is those who show unrelenting allegiance to their government and are afraid of questioning them who are truly blind. That kind of blindness leads to people thinking that dissenters are blaming the government for the weather (true stupidity).

A truly education person questions all authority, because all authority can falter.

By the way... you left your red armband at the 7-11.

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ahem....ABP'd

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That was more about what could be done to save the city, this thread is more about the hurricane and what ensued itself.

I think that George should say that he's sorry for appointing such an idiot to be the head of FEMA. Seriously.

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Agreed... and him saying that he's doing a good job? Such words from a chimp... People dying of exhaustion, exposure and disease... and he has such nerve.

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