This is such a tough, TOUGH, and DELICATE situation.

First of, Kayne, you're a great talent and musician. Now, play, and shut the f*&# up!

Yes, most of those folks should have moved out. Even the poor were offered bus rides out of the city. And, as Wagner said, unless you're sick, elderly, or a child, you could have walked.

Yes, the government may have been slow to respond, BUT -- again, as someone else mentioned -- it is NOT that simple to gather, equip, and ship 10,000 national guard people. It could very well be the case that Mr. Brown (the head of FEMA) is in-experienced and probably even incompetent. Let's put him on tria AFTER this is over, shall we? I realize that's too late for thousands of people, but let's do the finger-pointing later, not now when there are still thousands of people who need help.

What really gets me is how CNN, FOX, MSNBC (all of these folks) are currently handling this. I was watching Bill Maher last night as he interviewed Anderson Cooper from CNN and stated that "We've got our press corp back." As much as I love Maher (and I do... I'm a liberal, remember ), that's just such a crap! They are ALL trying to MAKE news, not REPORT them. They are trying to find someone to blame; someone to embarass in public. Again, right now, is NOT the time to be doing that.

Having said ALL of that, we looked like a destitute third-world country when trying to help these poor people. America should never, EVER look like that. We are too good, too wealthy, too proud, to look so helpless. What a shame.

Anyway... what a tragedy. Nobody wins here, man. We all lost.

Juan

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Whenever I text "Barack," my phone suggests the word "Capable." I guess my my phone IS pretty smart.

Amen, bro. I feel a soapbox comin' on too...

My dad, who'll be 73 in February was saying the same thing- when it's your life on the line, you walk if you can't ride or drive.
He grew up dirt-poor, the son of a tobacco farmer in rural NC, they had 5 kids beside him, they had nothing that they didn't grow or raise or trade for, they got no government help, and they managed to survive.

Some of those people in New Orleans, whether they are black or white or brown or taupe, some of them are conditioned to believe that "the goverment is gonna help me" whenever they get into trouble. They're used to picking up that regular goverment check, getting that Medicaid, and naturally, they feel the government will deliver them from their situation. Sad to say, but the local goverment in New Orleans is perhaps currently as corrupt as the DC city goverment was when Marion Barry was smoking crack in a hotel room talkin' bout 'the bitch set me up'. They were unprepared and they also thought the federal goverment should bail them out.

Kanye West has a new CD out, he wants to promote it, that's no doubt part of the reason why he chose to say the things he said on NBC Friday night. He is not a humble man, asGretchen Wilson knows all too well.

There was a lot of talk and no action during the aftermath of Katrina. The NAACP could have rented 100 buses to drive down and evacuate people out of their petty cash. The powers of FEMA have been muzzled in recent years, but it can't excuse the lack of action.

New Orleans is one of our greatest American cities. Everybody comes to New Orleans- for Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras, Plantation tours, Gator farms, paddleboat rides- unless there's a hurricane to clean up after.

JV

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JV

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know...it's what we know for sure that just ain't so

Juan,

There is hope for you after all. .. But Bill Maher..come on...what a nut job.

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pepatrick
2002 X5 4.6is
oO ( )( ) Oo
o ===== o

I am a liberal, not a radical. I simply believe in doing things that make sense. This is why if John McCain runs, I'll vote for him. Ditto for Jo Biden. (I do not know what I'll do if it's Biden vs. McCain in '08. I'll be in a pickle, then.) These are guys who look beyond party lines and say, "OK, what makes sense?" Regardless of what side of the aisle you sit in.

What Maher said last night was not "liberal." It was radical. I do love the guy, but I think he crossed the line by stating "we've got our press corp back," which means, "the press is finally going after the Bushies." Please... I don't like the guy either, but, this is a little over the top.

Anyway...

Juan

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Whenever I text "Barack," my phone suggests the word "Capable." I guess my my phone IS pretty smart.

Lets not forget that Kanye West is an uneducated black man, with no high school diploma... but all of a sudden since he has "credibility" through his rap songs all of a sudden gets media publicity through his skewed visions of "black people" and how they should be treated.. after i saw his interview on MTV unplugged or whatever i just thoguht to myself.. how is this guy even on tv and why are we even being subjected to his uneducated ignorance..

if kanye wasnt a famous rapper.. we'd all just laugh in his face.

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03 X5 4.4i Sport
02 Boxster S (totalled-tree)
03 350Z Touring (totalled-flood)

1st point:
Who are u to decide who deserve to die and who does not, when this catastrophy happened, for 72 hours no one did nothing to help this people. For 72 hours these people were left behind by a local and federal government too busy looking good in front of the media. Less than 12 hours after Katrina hit, MSNBC and CNN reporters rolled in the city with simple SUV broadcasting the devastation on every news channel. Where was the government?
2nd point:
They said they ordered a mandatory evacuation: How can one evacuate if one doe not have transportation. Maybe they assumed that every one in New Orleans had a car, maybe they also assumed that all the seniors and sicks could find a way to get a ride. How a country such as ours, big and powerful, can they ordered an evacuation without providing means to do so for the unfitted. The emergency plan was: Oh, we can put them in a superdome. We know what happened in there.
Every litterate person in this country knew this was going to happen at some point in the near future. Fema, Noaa and every other organization had warned the government that the day a cat 2+ would hit the city, it was going to be worst than Sept 11. And still they didn't have a plan like they did when invading Irak,but i'll leave that for another day. On top of it, they kept cutting the funding of these organizations, in 2005 Fema needed about $14 million to make repairs on the levys as well as around the city to save some of the coastal marshes. The goverment said no. During all my college and post college years, every time I have taken a weather and climate class of any sort, New Orleans was mention as a disaster waiting to happen.
I'm not gonna to sit here and say it could have been prevented, but I'll say this: A lot of lives could have been saved, a lot suffering prevented with a better governmental preparations. they knew this was coming!
3rd point:
I don't wait for a disaster to happen to donate money. I do that and more on a regular base, from the Red Cross,UNICEF, Habitat 4 Humanity as well as Save the Children. I do more than that, I donate my time on monthly base (being member of the GTU) to go clean roads, lakes and infected ponds. Next time you ride your X, look 4 "Adopt a Road" sign all around you. We take care of your neighborhood when your are sleeping.
So don't get me started!
4th point:
" Kayne West has not donated a single cent to the cause and he's talking shit?? like it said.. if somebody is coming to help and you shoot them for no apparent reason you're excess population and you deserve to die. put yourself in the contractors shoes."
Being a proud Black man, i'm not going to discuss what Kanye West and other Black Stars do in our community on a daily basis. We don't watch the same news, we don't go to the same places, we don't listen to the same music nor do we like the same food, we co-exist but we don't live in the same world.
On this day of my life, at this time, i'm not going to put myself on those contractors shoes who are getting paid to do their job. However i'm going to put myself in the shoes of the people who lost every thing including Brothers and Sisters as well as Moms and Dads. American citizen whose tone of skin made them look suspicious from the 1st hour of their life to these seconds i'm writing these words. I'm reminded what I am at Starbucks as well as the grocery store. I don't want to but I see it in people eyes everywhere i go.
I'm not going to defend the assholes that shooting at people and cops but one thing I know for sure is: the system has failed, the government has failed to protect them, too busy protecting other nations.
But at times like theses, it's very important for all of us to stay 2gether and see what we can do to help, the day will come when we will determine the responsabilities and who is gulty of what, why the cry for help of theses organizations were ignored etc......
In the mean time, help and enjoy your X, you are part of the priviledged ones.

Amen

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Xoutpost.com - where you come for the information but stay for the friendships

SORRY FOR THE LONG POST GUYS, I think i might stop reading this thread cause I've seen very upsetting things written here.
Good day all of you!

Then you better quit watching the news, too, because what is going on in the real world is infinitely more upsetting than what a bunch of car enthusiasts can post on a Web board.

There is much suffering, blame and heroism, all at once. Our military, EMS, law enforcement and private citizens are doing wonderful things, trying to save and salvage lives and futures. I prefer to focus on the good, rather than the bad.

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