(no subject)

[nirix5]

This thing with New Orleans is un-fucking-beliveable. How is it that we can give millions of dollars in aid to everyone else, but we can't pull one of our own cities out of the fire? Not to malign the National Guard, but where the fuck is the army?

(Oh, wait. They're fighting a war someplace else that no one on either side really wants them involved in, and the only thing the President is doing is smirking through a Barbara Walters interview, the son of a bitch.)

In addition to the main network news, PBS also broadcasts the BBC World News. Unlike other American news, BBC shows all the footage of refugees screaming things like, "Where is George Bush? Why the hell hasn't help come? etc." This makes me smirk because the networks don't show it, or really anything that would cast W in a negative light. It's all toned down.

Christ, this whole thing is heartbreaking.

You would think that with all the emergency planning, they would have planned for something BESIDES terrorism. Apparently, working out a flood scenario for New Orleans in case of a monster hurricane was on the list, but the White House said, nah, fuck that. We're going to spend millions of dollars on a color alert system that no one pays attention to instead. Oh, and New Orleans? By the way, you're not getting any funding to shore up your levees so they can withstand anything higher than a category 3 hurricane. Sorry.

/disgust

Comments

[misscam.livejournal.com]

*shakes head* You know, what I see of the relief effort really seems like a disgrace. From the minute Katarina's path was clear, worst case scenario should have been planned for. That means troops on standby, gathering of resources, resolutions to give emergency aid on standby... You plan for the worst and hope for the best, I was always taught.

[nirix5.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And the whole jamming people into the Superdome thing... shit, a Girl Scout would have known better. That's something truly horrible. They've been showing footage of the dead bodies outside, people going into insulin shock because they've had no insulin for three days... and all the people chasing the helicopters and news vans, hoping for help. It's so needlessly, needlessly sad.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

And you can't help but note there's a lot a lot of African American stranded there. I guess they are the poorest and again, it's the poorest who's hit the hardest. And probably teh poorest who can't afford insurance. What aid will they get after, I do wonder.

[nirix5.livejournal.com]

Probably not a whole hell of a lot, all things considered. I'm not entirely sure of the figures and (forgive me) I'm too lazy to go look them up right this second, but I'm relatively sure that the US is close to being bankrupt, what with Iraq and all. They're cutting back on education and health care to fund it.

[tigurio-falzone.livejournal.com]

You know. MSN is portraying Bush as the hero, and congress as the villain... it's all bullsh*t. Bush is just as bad as the rest...

While the Army can't deploy on US Soil, we SHOULD still have been ready. Keep the national guard on national soil, damnit! Stop sending national guard international. Iraq is not an American state, nor a colony. And we don't need an Imperial Guard, so bring those troops home!

Honestly, I don't see how we could have gone this far that we can bomb Bin-Ladden into hiding, and we can f*ck Saddam in the a** with a bunker-buster, but what? We can't get food, medicine and transportation to our own people??

It's just stupid sh*t like this that makes me pissed with Bush...

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Ah, the differences of perspective. Tilt the glass just a bit and what you see if shaded differently.

Really, I think this seems to be a failure on seeral levels, Bush's including. Blame can be assigned later. Now what matters is correcting it.

I gather there's rules for what kind of troops can be deployed in this, so I'll have to agree that sending away the troops you do need and can use in such a situation seems in hindsight not so good. The army in general seems overstretched, and I guess this just shows it more. Failure of planning, perhaps.

Sadly, those who pay it are not those who made the mistake.

[nirix5.livejournal.com]

Why the fuck can't the Army deploy on US soil? Who came up with that? What if we lose the opportunity to take our wars somewhere else, and one comes here? Hello?

And also, this is kind of an emergency. It seems stupid to stick with some policy like that right now.

You're not the only one pissed with Bush. This is disgraceful- it's been said before, but it's true, dammit.

[tigurio-falzone.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly the constitutional ban on military deployment only applies to Washington DC. But, in order to deploy the Marines, Air Force, Navy or the main Army forces onto American soil, Congress has to pass a law placing an area under martial law.

The National Guard can be deployed wherever you want, within the US, and in my opinion, with respect to Hawaii and Alaska, the National Guad should be limited to the Continental United States... none of this "Oh, we have an embassy in Tajikistan. Let's send fifty platoons of National Guard to protect our land in Tajikistan!" bullshit.

I think the reason the army as a whole and the other divisions of armed forces can't deploy on American soil goes back to Rome's ban of marching the army to the capitol... but now, our military is so powerful that unless there's a fucking Russian invasion (or British), we're not going to see Navy and Marines deployed to go distribute rations and medications...

And hey, even if we could send all our troops to help re-locate the survivors, do you honestly think a bullshit-headed ass like bush is going to send the right number of troops? He's to busy with his Iraqi obsession...

[evening-shadow.livejournal.com]

Amen, Feather.

New Orleans Flood

[drusilla19.livejournal.com]

Feather,
You are absoulty right.Bush is a moron for not worrying about what could happen in his own country and instead of sending troops to Iraq.Now my friend Dean has to go to boot camp elarier because of this bullshit.
~Amber~