Is the N.O. situation racist

[jimmy_b]

On the news last night they ran a story saying that if the majority of the people without transportation would have been white the government would have stepped in and evac. before the storm.
I have trouble believing this, and imo I think we as a people have become to dependant on the govenment to do things for us.

[Hard Ball]

The democrats are already trying to spin this as all being the dault of the Bush administratoin.

[Magnum88C]

Nope nothing racist at all.

If it was whites shooting at rescuers, things would have been put off too.

The problem is people expecting the government, whomever is in office, to do everything for them.

[41mag]

Racist?Wellll,it seems like that is the news medias chosen spin.They're showing massive quantities of blacks who have lost everything,are grouped up & are being treated like animals.Generally it seems that the white people shown are middle class or retirees who have been flooded but still have a standing home & shelter.

Poor blacks vs. rich whitey.

I get the impression that between Iraq & Katrina the chances of electing another Republican next term are slim to none.

Get ready for higher taxes to support the disadvantged.Hell in six months I expect that the number of folks claiming to be made homeless & with their hand out will have tripled.Gimmee gimmee gimmee.

[jimmy_b]

It seems to me the ones that are sitting there holding signs chanting we need help are the same ones that were living in government housing 4 days ago.
There seems to be a pattern?

[jimmy_b]

The democrats are already trying to spin this as all being the dault of the Bush administratoin.

My aunt started blaming Bush last night saying he should have fixed the levees.

What about the eight years Clinton was in office. :-punch:

[RIKA]

It was LA state govt and NOLa the city that diverted money from fixing the levys. They did this for years and years knowing the danger full well.

RIKA

[Rhino]

Actually I think if it were whites rioting there would be less restraint, no white cop wants tobe on TV shooting or subdueing violently a Black suspect.

Facts are simple, poor folks who are seeking help are for the most part finding it, those bent on hitting the lotto are stealing tv's and jewelery and guns, shooting at rescue workerss, and raping and killing the inocent refugees. Saw a report this morning os a 5 and 14 year old girls being raped at gunpoint by bands of scum, facts do not lie they were black does that make it racism to want the scum dead? HECK NO! it is common sense. they are acting like rampaging animals, sort them out as such

As I heard someone say "They are stealin' BLING not Chicken Ala King"

Rhino

[Aslan]

Actually it IS racist. After giving it some thought, because of the race of the people committing the crimes, people are NOT responding correctly or swiftly.

Treating a group differently or in a special manner because of their race is racist. Period.

Looters, black, white, red, yellow, whatever, should be dealt with. (shot)

:devil:

[Wylycoyte]

I think its racist as well. Representatives of various groups should be allowed to loot New Orleans just like the blacks and should be bussed in ASAP.

Which reminds me...have the Mississippi casinos been plundered yet? I have a 3 day weekend coming up.

[Rhino]

YOU ARE OF COURSE RIGHT IT IS RACISM, but not the type the newsies say

Rhino

[mrostov]

When those people are not acting like savages they are the most helpless dorks on Earth. They expect 'someone' to provide for their every need.

Wait till taxes go up to pay for their new housing.

IMHO, I think they need to ship them to Mexico as part of NAFTA. Give the taco heads a taste of their own medicine for a change.

[Rhino]

From the sounds of it this weekend will be must see TV. Local swat teams even here in IL are headed south, volunteers only and there is going to be a big house cleaning. I was selling them spare gear yeaterday

Rhino

[Mad Mike]

How many of you think the "media" is putting a spin on this to help out the Dems this comming election...? :hot:

[gripper]

No doubt! Mad Mike,you are in fact,CORRECT!!...yes,the MMM does have an agenda that nothing will dissuade them from.Its a pity the Republicans seem dead set on aping Trent Lott;snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.They should be throwing it back in their faces at EVERY turn,not fearing a fight.Karl Rove may be a very smart guy,but he's one of the guys I could do without.Just not for the same reasons that the freaks and fools want him gone...

[KJUN]

My aunt started blaming Bush last night saying he should have fixed the levees.

What about the eight years Clinton was in office. :-punch:

I want all presidents to keep their noses out of state business as much as possible. As sad as it is, everyone knew the danger in New Orleans. It shouldn't have come as surprise to anyone. You don't live in a floodplain and scream for free federal aide when it floods.

"Federal aide: Hell, the money belongs to us."

[Rolls]

I watched the O'Reilly Factor last night and he had one of the Black rulers on talking about racism. Bill asked him about if the guys that emptied the electronic stores of big screen TVs and had four of them in their front room were looters. The black leader said no that the individual might have taken the TVs to barter them for food for his family.

I just shook my head. Instead of trying to be half way honest, the guy took the extreme to try and qualify it as barter for food, and thus not looting. Not only that, by looting in their communities, they have probably stolen from other blacks trying to better them self, and now will be out of business.

Also the black Mayor of New Orleans had his group and others moved to the bus pickup area and moved them to the front of the line, in front of those that have been waiting there for days to be picked up. It's just such a shame that some of these black leaders look for any event to try and twist it into a black vs. white situation. They have to or nobody would invite them to appear on their TV show.

Thank God that Bill Cosby has seen the light and that we have some great black leaders like the Rev. Jesse Peterson to tell it like it really is.

Rolls

[BigEd63]

From what I've seen of LA in general the whole state is mixed but not sure of the ratio.
But there is a good chance they are stealing from other blacks. Most of the riots around the country had similar results. Damamge to their own communities.

Scum is scum no matter what the color. I just hate all this political BS attached to what's going on.

[Mad Mike]

The ratio is 67.5% black to 28.1% white, if you read the Times newspaper, which is, of course, neo lib bs 99.999% of the time. :dgrin:

[SatCong]

Aslan,
Regading your opinion that all looters should be shot; do you differentiate between those who, inspite of having zero electricity are stealing big screen TV's and those who are stealing food?
SatCong

[KJUN]

Aslan,
Regading your opinion that all looters should be shot; do you differentiate between those who, inspite of having zero electricity are stealing big screen TV's and those who are stealing food?
SatCong

I can't speak for Aslan, but I can speak for myself. Shoot them all. If they can't plan ahead and prepare, then I don't feel sorry enough for them to approve of their theft. They are LOOTERS, anyway. Geez, the .gov is handing out food, but they would rather steal it? THAT type of person has no place in society. What excuse do they have? Two meals poer day isn't enough or they don't "like" the free stuff they didn't have to steal? Come on and give me a break.

If they are stealing from areas where the .gov isn't getting food in, I might be willing to turn a blind eye for ones taking food after a few days of going hungry IF their stores were unavoidably destroyed and they were taking reasonable food. Someone taking cavier and leaving the Vienna sausages are taking advantage of the situation. Shoot them.

If they can get food from the .gov and are still stealing it, they will still later when you have something they want. Shoot them.

KJ

[Ankeny]

If they can get food from the .gov and are still stealing it, they will still later when you have something they want. Shoot them.
If you applied that logic to every person who has committed petty theft, there wouldn't be a whole lot of folks left.

[KJUN]

>If you applied that logic to every person who has committed petty theft, there wouldn't be a whole lot of folks left.

OK.

[lucille]

I can't speak for Aslan, but I can speak for myself. Shoot them all. If they can't plan ahead and prepare, then I don't feel sorry enough for them to approve of their theft. .

If they are stealing from areas where the .gov isn't getting food in, I might be willing to turn a blind eye for ones taking food after a few days of going hungry IF their stores were unavoidably destroyed and they were taking reasonable food.

KJ

You are saying two different things here. I personally thing that if a mother takes some necessary food enough to feed her children, I would not shoot her.

[KJUN]

No, I'm saying that if she is looting when she could get it from the .gov that is already handing it out for free, then she has no place in society - she is looting only because she CAN and not because she NEEDS it. If she is looting in an area where the .gov hasn't got to yet or she can NOT get to them with all reasonable efforts, then I would look the other way, too. I still won't say it is OK.

KJ

[lucille]

OK, we are on the same page and I agree. If people have food, or a way to get gov. food, and have what they need, they should not steal.

If they have no way to get to a food distribution center and there are starving children, I will not say it is right but I understand the necessity of taking enough to feed little ones for the moment. And I agree with what someone else mentioned, do not be taking the caviar and fancy food, rather take the necessities that will keep starvation at bay.

[KJUN]

I had a friend over when we read the comment from the lady who said that she HAD to loot because her welfare check would be late this month. He turned to me and said ironically that it is OK for her to loot since she has been looting from us (taxpaying Americans) for years, anyway!

Ironically, he made a point I couldn't argue with. If it wasn't so sad, I would have laughed.

[Coyote]

Can't kill someone just for stealing food. Punishments must fit crimes, at least in my little world. I'm not down with shooting unarmed women and children either.

Even with the supplies that I stockpile, there is no such thing as too much food, too much water, ammo, etc. With the world as I know it crashing down, no law, no news, no communication with the outside world, my personal supplies being consumed and an unmanned walmart sitting in front of me - well, thats not a hard decision. Survival is the name of the game, petty ethics go on the backburner.

Now, as for armed looters, that extort what they need by way of violence... **** 'em.

[Magnum88C]

Food, water, necessities is one thing. i don't think anyone really begrudges anyone that. There were several days where there was no relief, and stealing necessities is understandable.

Carts of Nikes, TVs CD, and bling are not necessities.
Honestly, if I was defending the homestead, I wouldn't waste ammo defending wal-mart's goods. Become anything that even looks like a threat to me/my family/my property. . .and I'll sell that cart of Nikes to their next of kin.

[brass hammer]

My aunt started blaming Bush last night saying he should have fixed the levees.

What about the eight years Clinton was in office. :-punch:
BROTHER, YOU HAVE STRUCK A 'CORD' WITH ME!,,, as i'm merely just a 'SHELL' of the 'MAN' ,,,I WAS BEFORE 'clinton',,,, therefore and FOREMOST
mister JIMMEY-B!,,,, i'll give 'YOU' a pretty much clear trail to traverse on this board!,,,as 'IFFIN' your not of the SAME HEART/SOUL!!! :cool:

[Magnum88C]

My aunt started blaming Bush last night saying he should have fixed the levees.

What about the eight years Clinton was in office. :-punch:
LOL, what about all those years that bitch governor and third-worlder mayor have DIVERTED funds for hardening the levees to giving the freeloaders a bigger dole.

Guess what? Whatever NO becomes after this, they're going to go right back to paying ghetto queens to crap out their little bastards again, and not bother making the city survivable. They might even sue wal-mart for not restocking their shelves fast enough for them to spend their welfare checks.

[jimmy_b]

I just saw a man on the news saying that he heard explosions during the storm and that the government blew up the levees in the poor neiborhoods causing the poor to drown so that they could save the rich.

[Magnum88C]

Hope everyone's stocked up on their tin foil.

[Dave0520]

I just saw a man on the news saying that he heard explosions during the storm and that the government blew up the levees in the poor neiborhoods causing the poor to drown so that they could save the rich.

Let's ponder this one. Could it be glass smashing, trees falling, cars getting messed up, dumb looters shooting at people, doors getting smashed in, roofs collapsing? Anything else anyone can think of?

[T. Daves]

I'm just a dumb white man from Texas, but if a mother is looting a store for her children to eat and she has taken enough for 3 familys, and up jumps Rita Johnson and she goes to the same store and there a'int nothing left, should the first lady get away with it. As someone stated if they only take enough to tide them over till they can get to help, fine look the other way, that is until that last can of spam is on the shelf and your loved ones my need it.

[Magnum88C]

Well, you know, if the police did their jobs instead of running away, helping loot themselves or blowing their own brains out, they could have set up shop in some of these stores, handed out say, two cans of some kind of meat, two cans of veggies and a gallon of water per person, per day, and make sure no nonessentials got taken, it could have been a more orderly situation. Of course soem would whine that there's no right to take the store's property, but it's a corporation, not a private individual, so confiscation of a corporate entity's property for emergency use doesn't constitute a big problem for me.

[Aslan]

Let's ponder this one. Could it be glass smashing, trees falling, cars getting messed up, dumb looters shooting at people, doors getting smashed in, roofs collapsing? Anything else anyone can think of?

It was an unsecured barge smashing the levee. There's been at least two reports that this was the sound that people are claiming was an explosion.

In fact, one of the engineers was quoted as saying this barge may have been what started the failure of the levee in the first place, or at least what accelerated it.

The barge is question is sitting on the "dry" side (or what would be the dry side) right by the point of failure....

:devil:

[BigJon]

Is the New Orleans thing racist? Why, it certainly is! Al Sharpton's comments in the immediate aftermath of the storm were among the most racist things I have ever hear someone have the unmitigated brass to say - bordering on "hate speech". Wonder if the ACLU will take him task for it. Think I oughta hold my breath?

Best,
Jon

[neolithic hunter]

Subject: Politics over Duty



This is a post from Bill Weiler, freelance journalist, over in Merritt Island, FL, who has been researching what went on before the storm hit.

These are the authors comment - very interesting.



--

Politics over Duty



I think all of Mayor Nagin's pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in the near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming to light.



On Friday night before the storm hit Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was destroyed.



President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet. After the President's final call to the governor she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.



Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation. After a personal plea from the President, Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations. Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal government can move into state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the disaster.



Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to New Orleans for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were.



The suffering people of New Orleans need to be asking some hard questions as do we all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his disposal to use between the local school busses and the city transportation busses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.



This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in the future. :headbang:

[Rich Z]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Don't Blame Bush for Katrina
Christopher Ruddy
Monday, Sept. 5, 2005
George Bush and the federal government are not to blame for the disaster we have witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, the primary responsibility for the disaster response lies with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other local officials.

Yet leading Democrats and their allies in the major media are clearly using this disaster for political purposes and ignoring one obvious fact.

This fact – which needs to be repeated and remembered – is that in our country, state and local governments have primary responsibility in dealing with local disasters.

The founding fathers devised a federal system of government – one that has served us remarkably well through great disasters that have befallen America over more than two centuries.

But if we believe the major TV networks, George Bush, FEMA and the Republicans in Congress are all to blame for the current nightmare.

Let's remember that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was created only in 1979. It was formed to coordinate and focus federal response to major disasters – to "assist" local and state governments.

Common sense suggests that local and state governments are best able to prepare and plan for local disasters.

Is a Washington bureaucrat better suited to prepare for an earthquake in San Francisco, a hurricane in Florida, or a terrorist act in New York?

After the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center, no one suggested that the Bush administration should have been responsible for New York's disaster response or that federal agents should have been involved in the rescue of those trapped in the buildings.

Last year, four major hurricanes slammed into Florida. Governor Jeb Bush led the disaster response and did a remarkable job, with nothing happening like what we have seen in New Orleans.

The primary response in disasters has always come from local communities and state governments.

First responders and the manpower to deal with emergencies come from local communities: police, fire and medical. Under our federal system, these local departments answer to local authorities, not those in Washington. These first responders are not even under federal control, nor do they have to follow federal orders.

In addition to local responders, every state in the Union has a National Guard.

State National Guards answer first to the governor of each state, not to the president. The National Guard exists not to defend one state from an invasion by another state, but primarily for emergencies like the one we have witnessed in New Orleans and in other areas impacted by Katrina. (See: http://www.arng.army.mil/about_us/organization/command_structure.asp)

Tim Russert and the Blame Game

The media would have you believe that this disaster was worsened by a slow response from President Bush and his administration, though the primary responsibility for disaster response has always been with local and state governments.

It is true that federal response was not as fast as it could have been. The president himself has acknowledged that fact.

But the press has focused on the first 48 hours of federal response, not uttering a word about the fact that New Orleans had 48 hours of warning that a major Category 4 or 5 would make landfall near the city, yet local officials apparently did little to prepare.

Obviously, Gov. Blanco did not effectively deploy her state's National Guard.

And New Orleans' city leaders did almost nothing to evacuate the portion of the population with no transportation. In failing to follow their own evacuation plan, these officials did little to pre-position food, water and personnel to deal with the aftermath.

I was surprised Sunday to watch Tim Russert, on his show "Meet the Press," tear into Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. During his encounter with Chertoff, Russert did not suggest once that local government had any role in dealing with the disaster. Russert also asked for Chertoff's resignation.

It wasn't until after the first 29 minutes of his show – 29 minutes – that Russert raised the question of local responsibility. And when he did so with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, he did so in a passing way. Broussard brushed off his question with a non-answer.

Broussard began his interview claiming that the nation had "abandoned" New Orleans.

That is nonsense and a lie.

Broussard, who was never identified by "Meet the Press" as a Democrat, spent much of his time attacking the Bush administration, as has Democratic New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Broussard then ended his performance as he collapsed in tears with a demand: "For God's sake, just shut up and send us somebody!"

His tears didn't wash with me. My sympathies lie with the tens of thousands of people who have suffered or died because local officials like Broussard, Mayor Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco, also a Democrat, failed monumentally at their jobs.

As former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial told Russert, the disaster in New Orleans was "foreseeable."

In fact, New Orleans has long known that such a disaster could take place if a major hurricane hit the city.

The municipality even prepared its own "City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan."

The plan makes it evident that New Orleans knew that evacuation of the civilian population was the primary responsibility of the city – not the federal government.

The city plan acknowledges its responsibility in the document:

As established by the City of New Orleans Charter, the government has jurisdiction and responsibility in disaster response. City government shall coordinate its efforts through the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

The city document also makes clear that decisions involving a proper and orderly evacuation lie with the governor, mayor and local authorities. Nowhere is the president or federal government even mentioned:

The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

It is clear the city also recognized that it would need to move large portions of its population, and it would need to prepare for such an eventuality:

The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed. When specific routes of progress are required, evacuees will be directed to those routes. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed. ...

Evacuation procedures for small scale and localized evacuations are conducted per the SOPs of the New Orleans Fire Department and the New Orleans Police Department. However, due to the sheer size and number of persons to be evacuated, should a major tropical weather system or other catastrophic event threaten or impact the area, specifically directed long range planning and coordination of resources and responsibilities efforts must be undertaken. [You can read New Orleans' Emergency Plan for hurricanes at its Web site: http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26]

The city's plan also specifically called for the use of city-owned buses and school buses to evacuate the population. These were apparently never deployed, though the Parish of Plaquemines just south of the city evacuated its population using school buses.

The plan, written well before Katrina was even a teardrop in God's eye, was obviously never heeded or implemented by local leaders.

But why should the New Orleans mayor and Governor Blanco take responsibility when they can blame George Bush and the Republicans in Washington?

With congressional elections fast approaching, Democrats who are out of power in every branch of the federal government know they need to change the tide quickly.

They have apparently seized on the Katrina disaster to harm the president politically.

Criticism of the federal government's response is fair and warranted. But putting full responsibility for this disaster on the Bush administration is way over the top.

Primary responsibility for this disaster remains with local officials like Nagin and Blanco, not President Bush.

[Rich Z]

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Why New Orleans Flooded
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2005
A steel barge that came crashing into one of the levee walls, and not the failure of that levee to hold back an immense tidal wave, was to blame for much of the flooding that drowned parts of New Orleans.

Lying an average of seven feet below sea level, surrounded by the waters of Lake Ponchartrain, the Mississippi River and Lake Borgne, which separates Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico, and protected by a series of sinking levees, the city of New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen.

It happened on August 29, 2005, just as the city was breathing a collective sigh of relief that hurricane Katrina had not been as bad as predicted.

It turned out to be far worse, not because of the destructive winds of a Category Four hurricane, but because three massive walls of water spurred by those winds inundated many parts of the city after the winds moved away.

As politicians play the blame game, many facts about the roots of the disaster have either been overlooked or deliberately ignored because they are inconvenient to those seeking to put the onus for the tragedy upon their political targets. One of them was the story behind the flood that turned a major disaster into a catastrophe of immense magnitude.

In a fact-filled retrospective that told the full story, the Wall Street Journal explained in great detail just what happened when much of the Big Easy became an adjunct of Lake Ponchartrain.

The Journal told the truth, but the truth hurts when you are seeking to put your spin on the assignment of blame. So the remainder of the media simply ignored a story the American people are entitled to know.

Facts Ignored and Not Investigated

Among the facts exposed of the Journal which the mainstream media has studiously ignored:

In two cases, storm-driven water, far higher than the levees were designed to hold back (up to 15 feet of tidal surge), overwhelmed them and went pouring down on parts of the city. According to the Journal, the waves inundated the mostly working-class eastern districts, home to 160,000 people. In some places, the water rose as fast as a foot per minute, survivors told the Journal. These levees did not break.
According to engineers, scientists, local officials and the accounts of nearly 90 survivors of Katrina interviewed by the Journal, the first of the three waves swept from the north out of Lake Pontchartrain.

The wave of undetermined height poured over 15-foot-high levees along the Industrial Canal, which were several feet lower than others in the central areas of the city. Wrote the Journal: "About the same time, a similar wave exploded without warning across Lake Borgne, which separates Lake Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico. It filled the lake, engulfed its surrounding marshes, raced over levees and poured into eastern New Orleans."


Another huge wave came across Lake Pontchartrain in the north. It sent a steel barge ramming through the Industrial Canal, a major shipping artery that cuts north to south through the city, possibly creating a breach that grew to 500 feet, letting water pour into nearby neighborhoods of the city's Ninth Ward.

The barge's remains were found lying on the bottom of the gap. An early eyewitness reported seeing the barge smash through the levee. His report was never followed up by the media.

Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said that break was particularly surprising because one of the levee breaks was "along a section that was just upgraded."

"It did not have an earthen levee," Dr. Penland told the New York Times. "It had a vertical concrete wall several feel thick."


Vital repairs for which a whopping $600 million had been appropriated by the federal government were stopped after residents of the Ninth Ward complained about the noise created by the repair project and sued to halt it.

The Industrial Canal, now operated and maintained mostly by the federal government, which the Journal described as "the area's defining presence since it was built in the 1920s," has been damaged by the passage of time and heavy use.

Barges and ships were routinely delayed because of growing traffic levels and the lock was "literally falling apart at the hinges" in 1998, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report, which called it an "antique" and recommended replacing it.

The lock replacement project didn't get very far because Ninth Ward residents complained about noise and launched a legal fight that bogged down the work.


Levees Not Tall Enough

The levees along the Industrial Canal's eastern side are supposed to stand at a height of 15 feet, according to the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Joseph Suhayda, a retired Louisiana State University coastal oceanographer, who told the Journal he suspects the levees aren't actually that tall, partly due to sinking of the land beneath them. Mr. Suhayda now consults for a maker of flood-protection barriers. If he's right, that would mean the levees weren't high enough to handle even a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. Katrina was nearly a Category 5.

The Corps of Engineers concedes some of its levees in the area "have settled and need to be raised to provide" the level of protection for which they were designed, according to a fact sheet on the Corps's Web site dated May 23, 2005. But federal budget shortfalls in fiscal 2005 and 2006 "will prevent the Corps from addressing these pressing needs." Even had sufficient funds been available the work could not have been completed in time to prevent the Katrina floods.

Designed for the Mississippi, Not the Gulf

In an earlier September 2 story the Journal noted that in Louisiana, coastal wetlands provide some shelter from surging seawater, but more than one million acres of coastal wetlands have been lost since 1930 due to development and construction of levees and canals. For every square mile of wetland lost, storm surges rise by one foot.

"Moreover, the levees in New Orleans were built to keep the city from being flooded by the Mississippi, but instead caused it to fall below sea level. Now the Gulf of Mexico has moved into the city," says the Journal.

As the hurricane rolled into New Orleans, scores of boats broke free or sank. In the Industrial Canal, the gush of water broke a barge from its moorings. It isn't known whose barge it was. The huge steel hull became a water-borne missile. It hurtled into the canal's eastern flood wall just north of the major street passing through the Lower Ninth Ward, leading officials to theorize that the errant barge triggered the 500-foot breach. Water poured into the neighborhood.

When the storm was over, the barge was resting inside the hole. "Based on what I know and what I saw, the Lower Ninth Ward, Chalmette, St. Bernard, their flooding was instantaneous," said Col. Rich Wagenaar of the Army Corps.

It didn't help that the Mississippi River, which runs along the southern border of these neighborhoods, rose 11 feet between Sunday and Monday mornings. Coastal experts say that could have worsened flooding by limiting the water's escape route.

As the water roaring out of the Industrial Canal turned the streets of eastern New Orleans into rivers, the same areas were hit from the other side by the storm surge coming off Lake Borgne. Engineers say the estimated 20-foot surge also appeared to overflow levees just north of St. Bernard Parish. Shrimp boats were dumped in a marshy section between Lake Borgne and the city.

Responsibilities Unfulfilled

The city of New Orleans issued a "Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan" for hurricanes well before Katrina arrived. The city accepted the responsibility for issuing a warning, ordering and managing evacuation, arranging for buses for those without any other transportation, setting up and maintaining shelters, and other critical duties.

As one editorialist wrote, "Given the corruption in municipal agencies - one not necessarily cynical Louisiana politician (Billy Tauzin) said some time ago that "Half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment" - it was inevitable that a picture of responsibilities unfulfilled would emerge after a storm like Katrina."

Among the city's self-proclaimed responsibilities was the job of the mayor to order an evacuation 48 hours before the hurricane came ashore, not 24, hours, as Mayor Nagin did; the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority was meant to "position supervisors and dispatch evacuation buses" to evacuate at least some of the "100,000 citizens of New Orleans [who] do not have means of personal transportation," but it did not, and the flood claimed the buses.

Moreover, the city was responsible for establishing shelters co-ordinated with "food and supply distribution sites" which the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and others were to provision, but the city did not.

Both agencies provided the supplies but as Fox cable News correspondent Major Garret revealed, they were barred by local authorities from delivering them to those stranded in the city at places such as the Superdome who most needed them in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

As the Journal reported on September 2, city officials appear to have been well aware of their responsibilities. As late Aug. 1, officials close to the planning confirmed to the New Orleans Times-Picayune that the transit authority had developed plans to use its own buses, school buses, and even trains to move refugees from the city when disaster struck.

Failed Execution of the Plan

Part of its "Future Plans" section, for example, concerns the levees. It also includes discussion of "the preparation of a post-disaster plan that will identify programs and actions that will reduce of eliminate the exposure of human life and property to natural hazards."

In 9,000 words, there are only four references to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nowhere, not even in a section on catastrophic events, do the words "Department of Homeland Security" appear.

The city declared that its hurricane preparedness procedures were "designed to deal with the anticipation of a direct hit from a major hurricane." Such a hurricane hit, and New Orleans was not prepared. The first questions that legislators in Washington and in Baton Rouge should be asking are simple: Why didn't the buses run? Why were people left to starve? Where did all those dollars go?

What the Journal reported showed the immense magnitude of the disaster and explained what created a catastrophe beyond anything most people in New Orleans anticipated. The real cause of the tragedy lay in the history of the city's below sea level location – a fact that can be traced back to the city's founding.

The attempts to prevent the Mississippi from rising over its banks and flooding the area has been a recurring problem, as have the miscalculations surrounding the ability of the dikes to deal with storms even less severe than Hurricane Katrina.

[MileHighSailor]

Moral poverty cost blacks in New Orleans

By: Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson
Posted: September 21, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
2005 WorldNetDaily.com


Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. Two questions:


1. What would you do?
2. What would you do if you were black?


Sadly, the two questions don't have the same answer.
To the first: Most of us would take our families out of that city quickly to protect them from danger. Then, able-bodied men would return to help others in need, as wives and others cared for children, elderly, infirm and the like.
For better or worse, Hurricane Katrina has told us the answer to the second question. If you're black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, then you'll probably wait for the government to save you.
This was not always the case. Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic performance by the black community in a time of crisis would have been inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of the community. Then local government would come in.
No longer. When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out. This, as we know, did not turn out good results.
Enter Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Jackson and Farrakhan laid blame on "racist" President Bush. Farrakhan actually proposed the idea that the government blew up a levee so as to kill blacks and save whites. The two demanded massive governmental spending to rebuild New Orleans, above and beyond the federal government's proposed $60 billion. Not only that, these two were positioning themselves as the gatekeepers to supervise the dispersion of funds. Perfect: Two of the most dishonest elite blacks in America, "overseeing" billions of dollars. I wonder where that money will end up.
Of course, if these two were really serious about laying blame on government, they should blame the local one. Responsibility to perform legally and practically, fell first on the mayor of New Orleans. We are now all familiar with Mayor Ray Nagin, the black Democrat who likes to yell at President Bush for failing to do Nagin's job. The facts, unfortunately, do not support Nagin's wailing. As the Washington Times puts it, "recent reports show [Nagin] failed to follow through on his own city's emergency-response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city."
One wonders how there was "no way" for these people to evacuate the city. We have photographic evidence telling us otherwise. You've probably seen it by now, the photo showing 200 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town, Mayor Nagin?
Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining New Orleans residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We know how that plan turned out.
About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly. Now I have to disagree with me. I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos. Rampant with theft, rape, and murder.
President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves.
All Americans must tell blacks this truth. It was blacks' moral poverty not their material poverty that cost them dearly in New Orleans. Farrakhan, Jackson, and other race hustlers are to be repudiated, as they will only perpetuate this problem by stirring up hatred and applauding moral corruption. New Orleans, to the extent it is to be rebuilt, should be remade into a dependency-free, morally strong city where corruption is opposed and success is applauded. Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so.



Can't call it racist, it was written by a black man.

:madeuce: