(no subject)
I originally wasn't going to post anything about the situation in New Orleans because I hadn't seen anyone except Naomi mention anything, but I need someplace to vent, if only a little.
If you haven't been following the news coming out of New Orleans very closely, CNN has a page that pretty much lists most of the important quotes. Also, if you missed it, Kanye West said on TV that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." These remarks were evidently censored from the version which aired later on the west coast.
Really, I don't know what to say. It's quite clear, however, that if the nation can't cope with a predictable disaster, that it certainly will not be able to cope with an unpredictable one. Such as, you know, a terrorist attack. *facepalm* So, yeah, while I didn't like the president before this, now I loathe him, because, well, he seems to have failed at his main mission.
Honestly, I'm appalled at the slow response by the government, and their seeming denial as to the seriousness of the situation. Appalled and disgusted. I'm especially disgusted by the fact that the rescue forces are (or, at least, the other day they were) afraid to go into the city because some people had guns. Why's the National Guard so sissified? Aren't some of them serving in Iraq? They can get shot at while "liberating" oilforeign nations, but they can't get shot at while rescuing American citizens? WTF.
ETA: Evidently, they now aren't letting the Red Cross into New Orleans. Again, WTF. Uh, and, also, this kind of made me edge away from my computer because CRAZY PEOPLE SCARE ME.
However, I am glad that the mainstream media seems to finally have the balls to criticize the government. As some people have pointed out, the main purpose of a government is to protect its citizens, and that this government doesn't seem to be doing an adequate job of that.
From this editorial in the NYT:
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
From the Washington Post:
As reports continued of famished and dehydrated people isolated across the Gulf Coast, angry questions were pressed about why the military has not been dropping food packets for them -- as was done in Afghanistan, Bosnia and in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami.
Bill Wattenburg, a consultant for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the designers of the earlier food drop programs, said that he has lobbied the administration and the military to immediately begin something similar. He said he was told that the military was prepared to begin, but that it was awaiting a request from FEMA.
"We know very well how to do this, and it's just incomprehensible that we're not," Wattenburg said.
If you haven't been following the news coming out of New Orleans very closely, CNN has a page that pretty much lists most of the important quotes. Also, if you missed it, Kanye West said on TV that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." These remarks were evidently censored from the version which aired later on the west coast.
Really, I don't know what to say. It's quite clear, however, that if the nation can't cope with a predictable disaster, that it certainly will not be able to cope with an unpredictable one. Such as, you know, a terrorist attack. *facepalm* So, yeah, while I didn't like the president before this, now I loathe him, because, well, he seems to have failed at his main mission.
Honestly, I'm appalled at the slow response by the government, and their seeming denial as to the seriousness of the situation. Appalled and disgusted. I'm especially disgusted by the fact that the rescue forces are (or, at least, the other day they were) afraid to go into the city because some people had guns. Why's the National Guard so sissified? Aren't some of them serving in Iraq? They can get shot at while "liberating" oilforeign nations, but they can't get shot at while rescuing American citizens? WTF.
ETA: Evidently, they now aren't letting the Red Cross into New Orleans. Again, WTF. Uh, and, also, this kind of made me edge away from my computer because CRAZY PEOPLE SCARE ME.
However, I am glad that the mainstream media seems to finally have the balls to criticize the government. As some people have pointed out, the main purpose of a government is to protect its citizens, and that this government doesn't seem to be doing an adequate job of that.
From this editorial in the NYT:
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.
From the Washington Post:
As reports continued of famished and dehydrated people isolated across the Gulf Coast, angry questions were pressed about why the military has not been dropping food packets for them -- as was done in Afghanistan, Bosnia and in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami.
Bill Wattenburg, a consultant for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the designers of the earlier food drop programs, said that he has lobbied the administration and the military to immediately begin something similar. He said he was told that the military was prepared to begin, but that it was awaiting a request from FEMA.
"We know very well how to do this, and it's just incomprehensible that we're not," Wattenburg said.