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Author Message
25 new of 112 responses total.
bru
response 59 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 19:27 UTC 2006

I would say there is a difference between forcefully and forcibly, the later
suggesting something other than hard work.

I would like to see her whole letter adn the phase in context
nharmon
response 60 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 19:57 UTC 2006

If anybody comes across the whole letter, please post it, as I would
like to read it also.
johnnie
response 61 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 15:09 UTC 2006

Dear Alibi,

I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and criminal
negligence of this government. The Katrina tragedy in the U.S. shows
that the emperor has no clothes! Bush and his team partied and delayed
while millions of people were displaced, hundreds of thousands were
abandoned to a living hell. Thousands more died of drowning,
dehydration, hunger and exposure; most bodies remain unburied and
rotting in attics and floodwater. Is this America the beautiful?

The risk of hurricane disaster was clearly predicted, yet funds for
repair work for the Gulf States barrier islands and levee system were
unconscionably diverted to the Iraq War. Money and manpower and ethics
have been diverted to fight a war based on absolute lies!

As a VA nurse working with returning OIF vets, I know the public has no
sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of
post-traumatic stress disorder; now we will have hundreds of thousands
of our civilian citizens with PTSD as well as far too many young
soldiers, maimed physically or psychologically or both spreading their
pain, anger and isolation through family and communities for
generations. And most of this natural disaster and war tragedy has been
preventable ... how very, very sad!

In the meantime, our war-fueled federal deficit mushrooms and whither
this debt now, as we care for the displaced and destroyed?

Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Brown and Rice should be tried for criminal
negligence. This country needs to get out of Iraq now and return to our
original vision and priorities of caring for land and people and
resources rather than killing for oil.

Katrina itself was the size of New Mexico. Denials of global warming are
ludicrous and patently irrational at this point. We can anticipate more
wild, destructive weather to occur as a response stress of the planet.
We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a
government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious
deceit. Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these
times.

Laura Berg
Albuquerque

bru
response 62 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 21:39 UTC 2006

and laura berg is full of shit.

Number one, it was NOT Bush's fault.  NOLA is the fault of the MAyor, the city
council, the various levee boards, and the governor.  If you want to place
further blame you have to start with every congress and every administration
since the 1960's as well as every levee board, because they all failed to act
to build a levee system to withstand a level 5 hurricane.

Are you going to blame bush for notmaking the Twin Towers resistant to 737's?
Is Chertoff responsible because someone in the 1600's decided to build a city
below sea level?  I WAS NOT HIS FUCKING JOB!!!

His job was to respond to and co-ordinate with local officials, not run the
god damn operation.

I am TIRED of you IDIOTS trying to make the FEderal Government the be all and
end all if your personal wellbeing and that of everyone else.

You need to be responsible for your own damned safety.  If you live below sea
level, You need to prepare to get flooded.
lowclass
response 63 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 22:43 UTC 2006

 Bru, they can't BUILD a levee system to withstand a force 5 hurricane, if
the government won't FUND a levee system to withstand a force five Hurricane.
happyboy
response 64 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 22:54 UTC 2006

bru...IT WAS BUSH'S FUCKING JOB TO TAKE
THE AUGUST 6 PDB SERIOUSLY.

I'M TIRED OF IDIOT BOOTLICKERS.
naftee
response 65 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 23:11 UTC 2006

whoa ; guys.  cool heads prevail
nharmon
response 66 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 00:35 UTC 2006

Thank you Johnnie for posting that. It looks like she choose her words
poorly, and I believe that is what the investigation will eventually
conclude.
cyklone
response 67 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 01:55 UTC 2006

Bap, you missed the point, the facts and the truth in #62. Even if 
everthing you say is true, the bottom line is that the organizations 
responsible for identifying and responding to major public health 
catastrophes were utterly unprepared and ineffectual. This for a PREDICTED 
EVENT. Given how badly they botched Katrina, I shudder to imagine the 
number of lives that will be lost due to the administration's incompetence 
in the event of a successful attack.
bru
response 68 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 12:56 UTC 2006

My point is they are always going to be unprepared and ineffectual.  There
is no way any government agency can handle a catastrophy like Katrina.  And
If you think Katrina was bad, wait till SAn Fransisco starts rocking with a
major earthquake, or the EAst Coast takes a Tidal Wave.

All any government agency can do is respond.  They can't know how to respond
until they see what has happened.  Other than storing supplies and
transportation to move same in a few select locations, government can only
do so much.

Ot os the people who have to respond and help each otehr, who have to buckle
down and rebuild.

Thats why every single one of you should have a minimum of Three days, THREE
DAYS of food and water stored in a way that you can easily transport it.  One
gallon per person per day of water.  In your house, right this very second.

IF you do not, you are irresponsible.  You do not deserve any government help.
You need to be weeded out of the gene pool.

Preferably, you should have a years supply of food in storage in your house.
yes it might get destroyed in a fire or major catastrophy, but if everyone
had it in an emergency, we would have enought to share with those who lost
it all.

YOU CANNOT REALLY ON GOVERNMENT TO SAVE YOU!!!  HAVE A PLAN IN PLACE!!!  IF
you need help coming up with a plan, I am more than willing to come out for
a consultation to tell you what you need to do here in the ANN ARBOR area.
jadecat
response 69 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 13:48 UTC 2006

Bru- what if you don't live in a house? What if you live in an apartment
and simply do not have room for these things?
keesan
response 70 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 17:04 UTC 2006

Why do we need to store water when we live near a river and there is lots of
dead wood around to boil the water with?
happyboy
response 71 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 18:03 UTC 2006

"weeded out of the gene pool"

nice christian attitude there, dingleberry.
rcurl
response 72 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 18:26 UTC 2006

Re #68: I disagree that the government is as powerless as you suggest. You 
even contradict yourself by noting correctly that the government can have 
been "storing supplies and transportation to move same in a few select 
locations".

Katrina, and a California earthquake (and a Missouri earthquake too, for 
that matter), are among events that are known to be probable. Therefore it 
is possible to have supplies, transporation arrangements, allocation of 
personnel (who drops what to go where to get things moving), 
communications centers, civil communications, and ungoing training, all in 
place and kept current. Yes, this is all expensive, but less expensive 
than the increased deaths and destruction that ensue from an event for 
which preparations are not in place.

Billions are being put into anti-terrorist measures, for events that are 
even more problematic than natural diasters. The same thinking should be 
put in place for natural disasters that are expected.
tod
response 73 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 18:48 UTC 2006

re #68
Wouldn't it just be easier to have enough rounds to take 3 days of rations
from the well prepared neighbor?  That's how they did it in NOLA.
nharmon
response 74 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 19:31 UTC 2006

We have plenty of Wally Marts 'round here to l00t.
bru
response 75 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 20:06 UTC 2006

you willing to foot the bill there rcurl?  So you want to have a national
emergency department with 100,000 on staff doing nothing until a disaster
strikes and then moving in to take over from the locals?

What we do is fill such positions in an emergency with military personell on
a temporary basis.  But they do not have the training to handle such missions
as a primary skill set.  There job is actually just the opposite, to kill
people and break things, not save people and fix things.

and each situation is different, even unique.  The streets in baltimore are
diferent than the streets in New Orlians are different from the streets in
Ann Arbor.  Even the basic services are different in each city.  The FEDERAL
government cannot know these things.  They cannot spend their time learning
them to lay out a plan.  It i up to LOCAL government to know these things.
Thats why all the FEDERAL government can do is back up the LOCAL government.
Thats why in an emergency, where martial law is declared, the person in charge
is slated to be the LOCAL SHERIFF.  He is supposed to know where to allocate
the incoming support resources.

The Federal Governemtn does do a good job if storing and transporting supploes
where they are needed, the problem comes in the method of distribution.

The biggest problem comes from our modern society...COMMUNICATION.  Think
about what would have happened if Some disaster would have happened to detroit
100 years ago.

Who would have known first?
How would the Federal Government have responded?
What would the locals have done?
Where would the refugees have gone?
When would we have known?

Would the Federal Government come in and save everyone?
mcnally
response 76 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 20:16 UTC 2006

 re #75:  where is the local sherriff supposed to find resources to
 provide temporary housing for 500,000 people?  how's he supposed to
 arrange supply convoys while whatever force remains to him is trying
 to maintain some semblance of law and order?

 Nobody (well, nobody worth listening to) thinks that local and state
 operations don't have a large role to play in disaster response but
 you're deliberately presenting a false dichotomy (between "the feds
 can't do it all" and "the feds therefore have no responsibility.")
cyklone
response 77 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 20:29 UTC 2006

Not to mention the ever-worshipped by conservatives private sector has learned
how to move goods and services around the country (and the world) on an
as-needed basis. I don't think the learning curve would be all that great if
the feds decided to take their responsibilities seriously and learn a bit more
about the knowledge that already exists.
crimson
response 78 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 21:45 UTC 2006

Re #77: You're begging the question. What's under discussion here is whether
"their responsibilities" is a reasonable description. I seem to recall hearing
on NPR in the week or so following Katrina that the city of New Orleans (or
perhaps the state) had a detailed plan, which was not followed in the least
description. In any case, because the federal government has such a large
area that it is responsible to some degree for, and several areas that it is
intensively responsible for (such as the national parks and Washington, D.C.),
intensive responsiblity clearly lies with the state and local governments.
(That last sentence was all general theory; if the federal government decided
beforehand to take more responsibility than necessary, then it still bears
the responsibility for its failure after the fact.)
mcnally
response 79 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 22:30 UTC 2006

 re #78:  In your opinion, then, what *is* the responsibility of the
 Federal Emergency Management Agency, if not to respond to emergencies?
 Whatever it is that you believe them to be responsible for, do you
 believe they did a reasonable job of it in the case of Hurricane Katrina?
 When they have been called upon in the past to respond to similar 
 emergencies (e.g. Hurricane Hugo) did they do a better or worse job?
cyklone
response 80 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 23:55 UTC 2006

Re #78: I was respinding to bap, who said "The Federal Governemtn does do 
a good job if storing and transporting supploes where they are needed, the 
problem comes in the method of distribution."

My point, which you seemed to have missed, is that if an epidemic breaks 
our, or a terrorist attack requiring a massive logistical response occurs, 
Katrina has proven the Federal government is incapable of responding. I 
not at all pleased to hear bap making excuses for why American citizens 
should not expect the feds to deliver crucial medicine and other supplies 
that may be needed.
tod
response 81 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 21 03:12 UTC 2006

re #75
Local sheriff? Dude, you're smoking too much crack
Incident commander is whoever happens to show up first on the scene.  Its
always been that way.  As for emergency preparedness, it is supposed to be
a joint effort between municipal, state, and federal agencies.  
nharmon
response 82 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 21 03:24 UTC 2006

The initial incident commander is whoever shows up, Todd. But after
that, especially if it is a major event, incident command will move to
whatever jurisdiction has responsibility. For example, you wouldn't have
a police officer coordinate a major building fire, nor would you have
the fire department search for a missing plane.
tod
response 83 of 112: Mark Unseen   Feb 21 03:32 UTC 2006

re #82
I wouldn't have a Sheriff stick his nose into the operations of the county
emergency management division, neither.  NOLA was fucked up by FEMA, hands
down.  Municipal and state called for emergency and FEMA responded a day late
and a dollar short.  
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