Okay, what's REALLY going on in this 'assistance' to the disaster...? by chrisisall

Howard Dean said Americans have to face the "ugly truth" that race and class played a significant role in who lived and who died when Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast. Dean, in remarks interrupted several times by applause, charged that Republicans in Congress and the Bush administration have not done enough to combat poverty. Senate Republicans who returned to the Capitol this week, Dean charged, were more interested in repealing the inheritance tax for the wealthiest Americans than hurricane relief. The estimated $750 billion cost of the tax cut, he said, would be better spent rebuilding the battered Gulf Coast.

Dean said the US has a moral responsibility to not ignore the devastating damage caused by Hurricane Katrina when it struck the Gulf Coast. Several black leaders and groups have expressed outrage over rescue efforts. Among them was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said last weekend that race played a role, and called Bush's response to the crisis "inexcusable." Dean also said that "lots of people perished" because the Bush administration lacked "vision" in handling the disaster. He also said the funds that now support the Iraq war could be used to rebuild New Orleans or to aid the poor and elderly.

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Thursday, September 8, 2005 7:54 PM

HKCAVALIER

Quote:
Originally posted by Jadehand:
For instance, what if Bush and a whole lot of people that
were there to help NO and Loui, get offended by this negative blameshifting
BS? What if they become less inclined to help next time since getting
burned?

If the problem is the corruption and obstructionism of the locals, that in no way justifies or explains Bush playing guitar and Condi Rice buying shoes and the Invisible Man doing his inviso thing while New Orleans was being wiped off the face of the Earth. If these local authorities are so mephistophelian then a decent man in the White House would have given them hell everyday until they got their acts together.

Why the hell are the press being turned away and not allowed to take pictures of the dead? Why is the death toll being obfuscated? Evil Local officials again?

And I gotta say, this section of your friend's post that I've quoted is pretty morally effed up as well. He's talking about the President leaving people to die next time because he "got burned" by some small time politicos this week. WTF?

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Friday, September 9, 2005 1:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
He's talking about the President leaving people to die next time because he "got burned" by some small time politicos this week. WTF?

That part made me doubt the entire content of the message...

Chrisisall

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Friday, September 9, 2005 2:42 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Some notes - that "refusal" was a refusal to sign away the rights of the state under the insurrection act, therefore allowing the feddies to treat those poor victims as traitors and rebels.

Don't believe me tho, look it up.

They wanted to strongarm the state gov into signing away the rights of the state "temporarily"

uh-huh, temporary like the telephone line tax or the patriot act... she told em to go to hell and that they could assist without 'taking over' the state, but they did not want to play it that way.

Then they run to the press "oh but they refused assistance".. please.

Get the whole story, and believe no one, check for yourself before you put stock in anything.
(even the above, do yer homework.)

Word's come out too, that the bastards are confiscating legal firearms that folks were defending their property with too, probably going right down the registration list, cause they're takin em ALL.

Gee, firearm registration makes so much sense NOW, doesn't it ?

It's a horrible mess, but in effect, I blame us all - we knew what the problem was, and for nearly eight years (or eighty, or more... it's 1798 all over again, damn the Federalists!) we simply didn't do enough about it cause it would inconvenience us.

And now the bill comes due - it's everyones fault, is what it is, and leads to the question of what one will do about it now.

-F

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Friday, September 9, 2005 3:34 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Jadehand- Your "friend" got it wrong. Blanco declared a state of emergency on the 27th, and Bush signed FEDERAL State of Emergency on the 27th retroactive to the 26th. A Federal State of Emergency requires that the Federal government bear 75% of the cost. The other part is that FEMa then becomes responsible for coordinating all (NOTE: ALL) operations. So the local governments were being reimbursed from before landfall and FEMA was supposedly already in the driver's seat. As far as refuding aid, the only thing that Blanco refused to do was to turn over authority of the Louisiana National Guard... basically, she asked for a 24-hour delay on that. And in terms of evacuation- Nagin ordered a voluntary evacuation on the 27th. According to a transcript of his evacuation announcement, he was having his legal staff look into the liabilities of a mandatory evacuation because of the hotels and businesses in his city. I think he was a little too busines-friendly. And the buses??? People forget that buses don't go anywhere without drivers. They had to depend on volunteer drivers.

Ask this good "friend" of yours to do a couple of things for us to add to the pile of knowledge, not the pile of bullshit:

Please find for us a link to the LA emergency plans, or... better yet, if it's not available on the internet, put it up for us.

Please cite SPECIFICALLY where Blano refused aid from either FEMA or nearby states. Find a memo or transcript.

There is so much bullshit being flung that we need reliable, original documentation, not someone's fourth-hand interpretation of events.

Please don't think they give a shit.

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Friday, September 9, 2005 3:51 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

A couple of days ago, I mentioned the possibility of total information control from the NOLA area. It appears that reporters are not being allowed in (I linked this in my other post to the blogger who was stopped at checkpoint and swa TV trucks being turned away) and FEMA is telling the press not to photograph bodies "Out of respect for the dead" (I linked this in my other post to mainstream media sources quoting FEMA). Yuh. There is no running death count. The only thing we hear about is the happy news of rescues and about the "holdouts"... as if they were the largest part of the problem!

Here's an interesting link.
www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2005/09/sec-050903-dod02.
htm

Please don't think they give a shit.

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Friday, September 9, 2005 5:33 AM

HERO

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

Please find for us a link to the LA emergency plans, or... better yet, if it's not available on the internet, put it up for us.

< http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26>
This is a really good site. You can go point by point down the plan checking off items in the plan that the Mayor failed to implement. So good news, they had a plan, bad news, they didn't use it.

Explore a little, the Emergency plan for diasbled persons is chilling considering it was never implemented and those people probably died by the thousands.

Quote:

Please cite SPECIFICALLY where Blano refused aid from either FEMA or nearby states. Find a memo or transcript.

Pulled this from a Broadcast news transcript from last night, question was why didn't FEMA send in the Red Cross:

Quote:

GARRETT: First of all, no jurisdiction. FEMA works with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other organizations, but it has no direct control to order them to go one place or the other.

Secondarily, the Red Cross was ready. I just got off the phone with one of their officials. They had a vanguard, Brit, of trucks with water, food, hygiene equipment, all sorts of things ready to go, where? To the Superdome and the convention center.

Why weren’t they there? The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security told them they could not go.

HUME: Now, this is the Louisiana — this isn’t the Louisiana branch of the federal Homeland Security? This is...

GARRETT: The state’s own agency devoted to the state’s homeland security. They told them, "You cannot go there."

Why? The Red Cross tells me that state agency in Louisiana said, "Look, we do not want to create a magnet for more to come to the Superdome or the convention center. We want to get them out."

So at the same time local officials were screaming, "Where is the food? Where is the water?" The Red Cross was standing by ready. The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security said, "You can’t go."

HUME: All right. FEMA does presumably, at some point, have some jurisdiction over some military forces. Of course, the first-responders there are the National Guard (search). Why didn’t FEMA send the National Guard in? You heard that cry from many people.

GARRETT: FEMA does not have jurisdictional control over any state’s National Guard. Only the governor does.

The governor, in this case, Kathleen Blanco (search), a Democrat, did use the Louisiana National Guard for some purposes, did not deploy them in massive numbers initially. And they were not used to move any of these relief organizations in. And they could have been, for the very same reason I talked about earlier. The state decided they didn’t want the relief organizations where the people needed it most, because they wanted those people to get out.

I suspect that since this story was just broke yesterday, we will hear more details of LA's refusal to allow aid to the Superdome as time goes on. I suspect the whole story wont come out till they do the hearings.

H

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Friday, September 9, 2005 6:25 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
First of all, no jurisdiction. FEMA works with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other organizations, but it has no direct control to order them to go one place or the other.

Secondarily, the Red Cross was ready. I just got off the phone with one of their officials. They had a vanguard, Brit, of trucks with water, food, hygiene equipment, all sorts of things ready to go, where? To the Superdome and the convention center.

Why weren’t they there? The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security told them they could not go.

The original statement on the Red Cross FAQs only refered to Homeland Security w/o specifying either state or Federal. I have since seen this MISquoted with the word "state" inserted after the fact. Supposedly, "state" involvement was confirmed by Carol Miller on the Diane Rehm radio show. However, no transcript is available and since one Red Cross statement has already been "modified" post-fact, I'm not ready to believe the Fox News version until I see an actual transcript.

Please don't think they give a shit.

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Friday, September 9, 2005 6:43 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Please tell me I'm being an alarmist w/out cause, 'cause I can see the police state of Escape From New York coming on.

Chris. Please remember that the aluminium foil hat just goes on your head, not over your nose and mouth. Looks like we got a case of hypoxia here.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Friday, September 9, 2005 6:58 AM

HERO

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

The original statement on the Red Cross FAQs only refered to Homeland Security w/o specifying either state or Federal. I have since seen this MISquoted with the word "state" inserted after the fact. Supposedly, "state" involvement was confirmed by Carol Miller on the Diane Rehm radio show. However, no transcript is available and since one Red Cross statement has already been "modified" post-fact, I'm not ready to believe the Fox News version until I see an actual transcript.

We already know that the Federal Government was NOT involved at that point and were making no decisions at the local level. This was all the State's doing in their misguided effort to get people to leave by not sending aid.

Its still going on, remember the States plan from just a couple days back to inform people that they would not be getting any food, water, or medicine if they stayed in New Orleans. Clearly this is not just a single bad decision but part of some tragic and short sighted thought process (at least I think so) by someone at the State level.

But like you said, there is confusion on the issues. I think the hearing should be useful to bring out more facts.

H

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Friday, September 9, 2005 7:23 AM

JADEHAND

Hero,
Thanks for finding that. I appreciate you and your efforts.

see also:

Original Article: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46224

Source: http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html

Visit WWW.Marillion.Com for a better way to live
"Dreaming the dream that only the sleepless know."

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Friday, September 9, 2005 7:33 AM

JADEHAND

SignyM,
Could you explain the reason(s) for putting the word Friend in quotes in your post? Is this an attempt to imply that I wrote that myself and made it all up? or an attempt to imply that they aren't really my friend? I'm confused.

I removed the original post because it was late last night and I failed to do something very important, Get permission to post it. Sorry if it smells like something else to any of you.

I wish you all the best. Remember, everything that you believe is 100% true. Anything that tells you differently is 100% false and an attempt to screw you over personally.

Visit WWW.Marillion.Com for a better way to live
"Dreaming the dream that only the sleepless know."

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Friday, September 9, 2005 7:51 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

No, I didn't think you wrote it yourself. I figured it was a blog written by someone that you "knew of" or perhaps met once or twice (acquaintance). I was asking you to get back in touch with this person and ask SPECIFIC questions, but I thought perhaps you were not at that level of relationship.

I see that Jadehand did find the original Red Cross FAQ... something that I had been looking for again. It DOES say "state"... so in the Red Cross case the state is really to blame and I'm horified. Shame on them!

Please don't think they give a shit.

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Friday, September 9, 2005 9:34 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I scanned thru the NOLA emergency preparedness plan. They had a list if shelters (schools, mostly) that may not have been used. It would be interesting to see if those designated shelters were subsequently flooded to the rooftops... if so, then the choice NOT to direct people to those shelters was a good one even if it was not according to plan.

I couldn't find many of the appendixes that they referred to, such as the one referring to the Refuges of Last Resort (RoLR) which Nagin declared as the Superdome. Not knowing how a RoLR was to be designated I don't know whether this choice was part of the plan or not, only that such a category did apparently exist. Seems like it may have been part of the plan.

I looked specifically at the Special Needs Shelters (SNS)... and oddly the Superdome was the only place mentioned by name so apparently they didn't have specific SNS in place except, maybe, the Superdome. Since the plan ddin't have any specifics (unlike the shelters, no SNS were mentioned by name) it seems as if the plan was a little bit sketchy in that area... perhaps the city was supposed to flesh it out over time. Can't tell if that was a deficiency in the Plan or in the implementation. Prolly both.

What I saw consistently was that the plan ASSUMES that people- special needs or not- would have the capacity to either evacuate on their own or to at least make it to a shelter. There didn't seem to be any specific plans to provide transportation... that was to be a personal responsibility. Given that the bus drivers had been dismissed the day before, I didn't see any way that Nagin- much as he might have wanted to- could actually evacuate people from anywhere to anywhere. So altho it WAS according to plan, the plan itself was not well thought-out.

The other thing they mention over and over is that people were to bring five changes of clothes and their medicine. Definitely not according to plan.... but not the city's fault.

I looked fairly closely at the required evacuation timing and the levels of warning, and as far as I can tell Nagin followed the plan closely, and the traffic issues were smoothed out according to plan.

So in terms of the checklist of things not being done according to the plan, I find one deficiency in the implementation: the Special Needs Shelters were apparently never set up. I find two real deficiencies in the plan itself - transportation was not provided to evacuate people, and out-of-city shelters were not created. (Prolly this was out of Nagin's jurisdiction.)

So in terms of going down the checklist to see what they didn't do, it appears Nagin did almost everything he was supposed to do. Any comments?

Please don't think they give a shit.

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Friday, September 9, 2005 5:49 PM

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Please tell me I'm being an alarmist w/out cause, 'cause I can see the police state of Escape From New York coming on.

You need someone to tell you that? You’ve watched one too many X-files, my friend. And I fear the path you walk down may be paved with tin-foil hats and possibly some kind of probe.

-------------
Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 4:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
You need someone to tell you that? You’ve watched one too many X-files, my friend. And I fear the path you walk down may be paved with tin-foil hats and possibly some kind of probe.

Funny, I never watched X- Files at all, and the tin-foil reference is from a movie I guess I haven't seen, but I take it's meaning.
Anyway, people like you need people like me; we tell y'all what's possible, then you tell us what's probable, and we can work out the truth that lies (usually) somewhere in between those two points.
But when things the government does makes no sense, I usually revert to Plissken mode, at least for a time.

Call me Snake Chrisisall

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 5:13 AM

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Funny, I never watched X- Files at all, and the tin-foil reference is from a movie I guess I haven't seen, but I take it's meaning.

You never watched the X-Files? I’m not even sure how to respond to that. The X-Files is a television classic. Granted it got kind of stupid in its last episodes, mostly because the principle actor sort of lost heart in the show. The first four or five seasons were golden. I didn’t watch the first season when it was on, because I thought the whole premise sounded stupid, but they really did manage to pull off the whole ‘shadow-government-alien-invasion’ thing quite well.

And I don’t know where the tin-foil hat reference comes from either. It’s just something I used to say to my brother who was quite the conspiracy theorist.

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Anyway, people like you need people like me; we tell y'all what's possible, then you tell us what's probable, and we can work out the truth that lies (usually) somewhere in between those two points.

Works for me.

-------------
Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 5:31 AM

SUPER-SECRET BUSH PHONECALL TRANSCRIPT 08272005 08:42 Contact unknown
PERMANENT COUNCIL MEMBERS L2 AND ABOVE EYES ONLY

" So it's a local matter?...Well sure, if they're as stupid as we think.....in the meeting we had I was told that it didn't matter, in fact we could make a catastrophe work for us....yeah *laughs*, What war, I get it....NO, I was told loss of life would be no different, no matter what we do. I was told that. So it isn't a question of letting anyone die, it's just how do we play it if it hits hard and those a**holes DO f***up like we think they will....yeah, so if it goes well, we send everything in FAST, if it doesn't, well, we'll let them swim in it a bit, so to speak...wait 'til they ask us nicely *laughs*...F**k 'em, they'll say bad things about us in any case!....that's right, win/win.....yep. The approval ratings. Toss one back for me, y'hear?....Adios"

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 5:48 AM

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Just for future reference, FYI. The caveat "eyes only" is meaningless without a qualification and a classification.

-------------
Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 6:10 AM

Thanks

About Fed vs. local handling of aid:
"Reminds me of the last time I saw two dogs alternately peeing on the same fire hydrant."

R1Z put it VERY succinctly, nes pas?

Chrisisall

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 8:11 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:

And I don’t know where the tin-foil hat reference comes from either. It’s just something I used to say to my brother who was quite the conspiracy theorist.
Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.

The tin-foil hats are a common meme relating to the conspiracy-theory lunatic fringe. They keep the mind-control rays from working. Depending on who you ask, the rays come from the alien spacecraft, the black helicopters, the Ultra-low Frequency transmitters that the Navy "says" are for communication with submarines, or somewhere else.

Suggesting that someone wears a tin-foil hat humorously implies that they have trouble distinguishing reality from their fantasies.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 8:22 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
Just for future reference, FYI. The caveat "eyes only" is meaningless without a qualification and a classification.

-------------
Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.

The 08:42 timestamp is curious also. it is missing a timezone designator. Most communications use Zulu time, indicated by a Z, which is Grenwich Mean Time. If this timestamp is GMT, then the call would have been made at 3:42am Central Daylight Savings Time. Yawn.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 11:36 AM

I just copy it the way I get it off the Shadow Government computers, I have no idea what time zone they're in.

Hacker Chrisisall

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 11:40 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
They keep the mind-control rays from working. Depending on who you ask, the rays come from the alien spacecraft, the black helicopters, the Ultra-low Frequency transmitters that the Navy "says" are for communication with submarines, or somewhere else.

This is an all-too-common fallacy.
The tin foil doesn't really keep the rays out (it's not thick enough).

CT Chrisisall

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 12:03 PM

MONTANAGIRL

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
This is an all-too-common fallacy.
The tin foil doesn't really keep the rays out (it's not thick enough).

Not even the heavy-duty Reynolds Wrap?

-------------------------------------------------
"Do you accept gifts from strange men?" -Brisco
"Well, strange is no problem, but I draw the line at men I don't know." -Dixie

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 12:19 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

HEEEro,

You must not read your own links, and presume no one else is, either. The Mayor is responsible for calling for evacuation, but has little other singular authority. He has NO CONTROL over buses, they are controlled by the Regional Transit Authority. And the provision of shelter areas called for in the plan had not yet been accomplished by the OEP. The OEP, which had the tactical authority to carry out actual evacuations, had been contracted out and was MIA during the actual event.

Evacuations, even mass evacuations, were primarily planned as an exodus in private (small) personal vehicles over existing highways. Blanco did everything possible to expedite the plans.

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26 (your link)

Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane. check

The SOP provides for the evacuation of the public from danger areas and the designations of shelters for evacuees. check

Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans check in coordination with the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and the OEP Shelter Coordinator. blank

Slow developing weather conditions (primarily hurricane) will create increased readiness culminating in an evacuation order 24 hours (12 daylight hours) prior to predicted landfall. check

D. Regional Transit Authority
* Supply transportation as needed in accordance with the current Standard Operating Procedures. blank

A. Shelter Demand
Shelter demand is currently under review by the Shelter Coordinator. Approximately 100,000 Citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation. blank

Please don't think they give a shit.

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Saturday, September 10, 2005 9:06 PM

RUE

I have a vote and I'm not afraid to use it!

SignyM

Quote:
So in terms of going down the checklist to see what they didn't do, it appears Nagin did almost everything he was supposed to do. Any comments?

I concur. Blanco also did what was w/in her authority.

I have a question for you. It appears that depending on private contractors for government functions is a big problem in emergencies. I couldn't find the original New Orleans Regional Transportation Authority site (it's down), but the temporary site is http://www.norta.com/. Since it's listed as .com, I'm guessing it's a private contractor doing government business.

As to your earlier post "Innovative Emergency Management", I found this http://leninology.blogspot.com/2005/09/politics-of-weather-3-shyness-o
f.html right. The evidence that hurricane-management was privatised and handed over to IEM has been eradicated from the IEM website. It's almost as if someone was trying to evade responsibility for incompetence that's resulted in the deaths of thousands, or something."

and http://www.all-hands.net/

Quote:
FEMA : New Orleans Plan Outsourced to Pols-Cronies
Posted by: Steve on Sunday, September 04, 2005 - 06:30 PM
FEMA privatized hurricane disaster recovery planning for New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana. The firms that received the contract are big GOP contributors.
Adding to the controversy regarding the Army Corps of Engineers diverting $250 million from the SELA (Southeast Louisiana) Urban Flood Control Program to Iraq and Halliburton reconstruction projects, is the revelation that FEMA outsourced hurricane recovery planning to the Baton Rouge-based consulting firm Innovative Emergency Management (IEM), Inc. to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana."
The award was announced on June 3, 2004 on the firm's web site but was taken down just as Hurricane Katrina's winds and waves first started pounding New Orleans.

If private contractors fail to provide services during an emergency, there is no timely accountability (eventually cancel the contract). And as far as I can tell, the government at whaever level has no authority to order employees of private contractors to do anything. They could not order bus transport, they could not make IEM implement the plan.
It seems foolish beyond belief to actually contract these things out if public security and safety depend on them.
Does this match with what you know?

Nearly everything I know I learned by the grace of others.

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Tuesday, October 1, 2024 4:38 AM

Ports Shipping shutdowns

War in Middle East, Yemen, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon

2023 Hawaii wildfires

Hurricane Helene live updates: 132 dead, including 40 in hard-hit county...Hurricane Helene's inland flooding has been catastrophic.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/hurricane-helene/?id=113931821

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Monday, October 7, 2024 5:48 AM

Biden sends more troops to North Carolina for continued Hurricane Helene response

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-troops-north-carolina-hurricane-hel
ene-federal-response/

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Tuesday, October 22, 2024 12:17 PM

As Hurricane Floodwaters Recede, a Public Health Threat Rises
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-hurricane-floodwaters-re
cede-a-public-health-threat-rises/

The Rise of Howard Dean during Bush junior and the Fade Away and Fall of Howard Dean into obscurity by the Neo-Democrat Agenda?

When Republicans Became ‘Red’ and Democrats Became ‘Blue’
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-became-red-dem
ocrats-became-blue-104176297/
The 2000 presidential election cemented the color-coded nature of political parties. Prior to that race, the colors were often reversed on electoral maps

Two days after voters went to the polls on November 7, 2000, the Times and USA Today published their first color-coded, county-by-county maps detailing the showdown between Gore and Bush. Both papers used red for the Republican Bush and blue for the Democrat Gore.

Why?

“I just decided ‘red’ begins with ‘r,’ ‘Republican’ begins with ‘r.’ It was a more natural association,” said Archie Tse, then a senior graphics editor at the Times, in 2012. “There wasn’t much discussion about it.”

Also in 2012, Paul Overberg, a database editor who designed the map for USA Today, said he was following a trend: “The reason I did it was because everybody was already doing it that way at that point.”

And everybody had to continue doing it for a long time. The 2000 election dragged on until mid-December, when the Supreme Court stopped the vote recount in Florida and handed the presidency to Bush. For weeks, the maps were ubiquitous.

Perhaps that’s why the 2000 colors stuck. Along with images of Florida elections officials eyeballing tiny chads on paper punch-card ballots, the maps were there constantly, reminding viewers of the vast, nearly even divide between red and blue voters.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the current color scheme fits with the political landscape, Overberg said. Republicans typically dominate in larger, less populated states in the Plains and Mountain West, meaning the center of the United States is very red. “If it had been flipped, the map would have been too dark,” he explained. “The blue would have been swamping the red. Red is a lighter color.”

But not everyone liked the shift. Republican operative Clark Bensen criticized the change in a 2004 essay titled “Red State Blues: Did I Miss That Memo?”

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Tuesday, October 22, 2024 6:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
As Hurricane Floodwaters Recede, a Public Health Threat Rises
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-hurricane-floodwaters-re
cede-a-public-health-threat-rises/

God. I can only imagine.

The few near-misses I've had with flooding since I've been here have left quite a mess to clean up, and you don't even want to know what I dragged out from behind the basement walls when I bought the place.

They're going to be finding mold with every color in the rainbow. Stay away from all of it, but especially the black stuff.

If you're young, looking for a job and you've held a hammer once in your life, I bet you could make a pretty quick buck down there right now. The Federal Government is probably going to be up everyone's asses like they were with the rescue efforts though, so watch yourself.

--------------------------------------------------

Trump will be fine.
He will also be your next President.

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Sunday, November 3, 2024 2:19 PM

Residents throw mud and insults at Spanish king on visit to flood-hit town

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/03/residents-throw-mud-and-
insults-at-spanish-king-on-visit-to-flood-hit-town

Angry flood survivors confront Spain’s King and Queen in flood-stricken town in Valencia

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Monday, November 25, 2024 10:37 AM