God Spare New Orleans

[Elspode]

Sounds like they had a hell of a thugs and deviants gathering at the Convention Center.

It is going to be very, very interesting to see how the Bush administration wriggles out of this. The N.O. Mayor is going to have to be neutralized for sure. Is there a sacrificial Louisiana Congressman who can also take a fall for the team?

[Brett's Honey]

Originally Posted by Elspode

It is going to be very, very interesting to see how the Bush administration wriggles out of this. The N.O. Mayor is going to have to be neutralized for sure. Is there a sacrificial Louisiana Congressman who can also take a fall for the team?

Yes, it will be very interesting. Sad, but interesting. I'm sure the reason Bush was on TV tonight in Mississippi hugging young black girls who had lost "everything" (but looked to me like they had showered and eaten recently) was because he would just "be in the way" in NO.

[Brett's Honey]

I don't have access to BBC but I will check out the MSNBC coverage. I know they have a beyond-comprehension tremendous job to do.

[warch]

In the blur, stories that stick:

The Convention Center with the elderly and babies in the heat. One nurse there doing her best.

Charity Hospital, critical patients, including those being hand ventilated for days, no relief, wait and watch while Tulane's staff, able bodies, are completely evacuated from across the street. Charity's sick must wait another day. Public vs. private.

Hiatt Regency guests arrive at the Superdome where thousands were still waiting days for their turn to leave by bus and are allowed to jump to the front of the Superdome evacuation bus line. The haves and the have nots.

One New Orleans fire department/division has been working from boats, basically on their own, in the 9th ward and has rescued over 900 people from roof tops. Amazing heros.

Grassroots relief: Citizens driving into MS with food caravans of their own. No red cross in sight.

Separated families.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Who will take it from you
We will and who are we
We are volunteers of America

[wolf]

Is the airport actually viable? Are the runways intact and inspected? And is the transportation infrastructure intact to be able to get stuff FROM the airport, or would a bunch of quartermasters be sitting around scratching their asses watching food spoil because you can't get it to where it's needed?

[tw]

Originally Posted by wolf

Is the airport actually viable? Are the runways intact and inspected? And is the transportation infrastructure intact to be able to get stuff FROM the airport, ...

I had already been looking at that on satellite pictures. The airport in Kenner and roads southeast to the Mississippi side of New Orleans were unflooded ground. For example, this map from the NY Times entitled The Impact of Katrina provides details. A free registration may be required to view the satellite map. Click on "Levee System" to see land and roads that were above water into New Orleans.

But don't worry. George Jr said he is going to fix it. Just keep waiting for food and water. It's coming.....

Again, learn from history. The George Jr response before, during, and after 11 September was woefully underwhelming. Even George Jr administration officials could not decide to ground all airliners. That was initiated by Boston Center, NYC, and then by someone who did not have the authority and was on his first week on the job in Herndon Center - all while the Transportation Secretary, FAA Director and Cheney all made no decisions (that the 11 September Commission could confirm). Top George Jr administration officials even lied to the 11 September Commission about their actions. The 11 September report says they lied. Cheney never even authorized US military aircraft to shoot down attacking airliners - even though he said he did. George Jr, well, he read a children's book in FL.

The Tsunami response was to have the US military waiting for most of the week before George Jr finally authorized a rescue mission. Literally, the entire world had to embarrass the US before George Jr ever responded to a Tsunami disaster. Another action well recorded in history.

George Jr's response in New Orleans is only consistent with 11 September and the Tsunami. A Hurricane hit Monday. He lied about 400 trucks enroute. Food, water, and National Guard did not arrive until Friday. Even Nightline on Thursday had to publicly embarrass the Director of FEMA before food, water, and National Guard finally were deployed on ..... Friday.

My criticisms of George Jr have long been based only on facts; on basic principles of management. Based upon his history, the pathetic response to New Orleans has been also how the George Jr administration responded to 11 September and to the Indian Ocean Tsunami. But again, show me. Show me where any of this is in error. History teaches us, again, that MBAs are horrible leaders. One would have to be living in a Communist Stalinist country to forgive George Jr for what he has now done ... done for the third time.

Oh... but he finally ordered the USS Comfort out of Baltimore harbor. No problem. It will arrive 12 days after the hurricane. Of course every victim could have been flown by C5A and C17 to hospitals elsewhere that were better equipped. George Jr forgot to mention that part when he bragged that the USS Comfort was enroute. Classic MBA spin.

I hate to say I've telling you so. But again, I don't waste time with pictures of crying people or other silly emotions. I go after a devil in the details. Go back to my first posts. They still hold water ... including the part about how local officials were in denial of a Category 5 storm. That weekend, the casinos and conventions went on as normal when everyone should have been leaving town hastily.

An interview with a casino worker said he did not know the storm was coming. He had worked all week in a casino. Even casino management was in denial. Basic concepts of quality - attitude and knowledge. Top management in casinos and in government did exactly as William Edward Deming defines as bad management. Same errors that also murdered seven Challenger and seven Columbia astronauts. Same management that somehow could not find C5A and C17s to rescue dying Americans. You tell me who is the enemy of America. Non-Americans are invited to comment about why American leadership has also soured American foreign relations. It's all the same thing.

The sky over New Orleans should have been packed with transport aircraft like it was Chicago or Dallas / Ft Worth. Residents should have been able to look up at any second to see 6 planes in landing patterns. But that means George Jr has to order assistance. Even Air Force One was not packed to the wings with food and water. But that 747 was loaded with press photographers - and promises that aid was coming.

[sproglet]

Originally Posted by tw

Non-Americans are invited to comment about why American leadership has also soured American foreign relations. It's all the same thing.

I think many countries (the UK included) were stunned to learn Dubya had been elected into a second term of office, even more so that his incompetent cronies seem to fuck-up with impunity, safe in the knowledge their jobs are protected.

If there's been one good thing to come out of this recent disaster, then it's the possibility of the population being shaken from their ennui and catching a glimpse of the bigger picture.

Historically, this has been the stuff of revolutions & civil war.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by tw

An interview with a casino worker said he did not know the storm was coming. He had worked all week in a casino. Even casino management was in denial.

I don't see how you get that ... I worked in a nuthouse all week, well outside of the storm zone, didn't watch the news ... but I still knew a big goddamned storm was going to hit New Orleans or thereabouts.

Anybody that clueless needs to be out of the gene pool.

Originally Posted by wolf

Anybody that clueless needs to be out of the gene pool.

Well, for once you and I are in complete agreement. I NEVER watch the news, but I still knew all about the hurricane in advance way up here in Colorado. What? Was that casino worker deaf and blind? You mean to tell me that not a single patron of the establishment he worked in happened to mention ever so casually as he lugged his winnings or empty bank account (more likely) out the door, "gotta go now, there's a hurricane coming?" Not a single co-worker ever mentioned in passing that they were going to go home and pack up their car just in case? The dude never so much as passed a newspaper stand on his way to or from work with the glaring headline, "GET OUT NOW!" Give me a break!

Onyx, to answer your question about why people just didn't start walking out. A number of them did, but others were elderly or Mom's with infants and tiny children and many were sick or handicapped. Pretty difficult for such folks to go out on the lawless streets of the city and just start walking in all that heat with nowhere to go and no money once they got there.

I agree that if I had children to feed, I'd have gotten them food any way I could, but doing so would have meant joining a group of young punks with guns who reportedly were not above rape as well as pillage, and the grocery shelves had probably already been cleared out well in advance, anyhow.

[tw]

Originally Posted by marichiko

I NEVER watch the news, but I still knew all about the hurricane in advance way up here in Colorado. What? Was that casino worker deaf and blind? You mean to tell me that not a single patron of the establishment he worked in happened to mention ever so casually as he lugged his winnings or empty bank account (more likely) out the door, "gotta go now, there's a hurricane coming?" Not a single co-worker ever mentioned in passing that they were going to go home and pack up their car just in case? The dude never so much as passed a newspaper stand on his way to or from work with the glaring headline, "GET OUT NOW!" Give me a break!

I had the same response which is why I did not post this example days previously. However, the point is not that the casino worker was that myopic. The point is that his employer was so negligent - had improper attitude and knowledge - as to keep running the casino / convention that weekend. The point is that 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. That management is responsible for the correct attitude and knowledge. A responsible management would have been boarding up the casino that weekend. Instead, the employees were working as if nothing bad was expected.

I am also struck by an interview with a Scottish couple who flew in Saturday. They kept asking if this 'ocean storm' was a problem. They were told (by people not defined) that the storm was no problem. Now appreciate a Scottish couple that has little comprehension of what Category 5 means. But when they asked residents, such as their airline, such as the limo driver; the locals were not concerned. That is damning.

Meanwhile, as that Scottish couple was arriving, Delta airline on Saturday were already pulling out the last of the airplanes and staff. There would be no more Delta flights in or out on and after Sunday because Delta management conveyed attitude and knowledge to their people.

I am also struck by what the Louisiana Governor kept getting from Michael Brown when she kept warning about the impending disaster in New Orleans. His response was, well, I saw his response to Ted Koppel's repeated questions on Nightline even 3 days after the hurricane. According to the Governor, Michael Brown's response was, loosely interpreted as, "Don't worry. Be happy."

Now maybe his actual response was or was not. But I have a difficult time believing Michael Brown since Ted Koppel on Nightline demonstrated a Federal official, three days after the hurricane, and still in denial. He did not even know that people were not being fed in the Superdome and Convention Center? He desperately tried to avoid admitting that he knew maybe 100,000 people could not get out of New Orleans. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. Even a former FEMA Director said on TV that given planning that already existed, then one could only assume the problems were only in top management.

The quote from that casino worker only demonstrates how much in denial top management really was both before and after the disaster. And yet some 50% of Americans still say George Jr was doing a good job. Where does this denial really start?

[Brett's Honey]

So does anybody know how the airboats came to be arriving in MO? Were they called, or did they just volunteer and show up? Just curious....

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Brett's Honey

So does anybody know how the airboats came to be arriving in MO? Were they called, or did they just volunteer and show up? Just curious....

I believe they were rounded up by LA Fish and Game.

[Brett's Honey]

My husband had an airboat a few years ago and the Corp of Engineers came around and asked if he could be listed as someone to contact should an airboat ever be needed in the area. (The can operate in very shallow water) So I just wondered....

[bargalunan]

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Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Originally Posted by marichiko

You wussy Europeans can take care of your infra-structure. We are above such things. (or under them, as the case might be)

Too many French politicians and economical leaders take US economy as their model, and pray capitalism god.
The worst of them, Nicolas Sarkozy could be our next president. He's a neocon.
A guy I know who votes our Extreme Right Leader, Le Pen, even thinks Sarkozy is crazy and dangerous !
The problem is that he's everywhere in front of the cameras.
He's really fascinating, he always has good answers and a lot of energy despite he's lying and does the contrary.
He can sell a radio to deaf people.
He takes the first opportunity to expulse poors, immigrates like this week.
I've heard that the next possible German chancellor, Angela Merkel, shares the same ideas.

Kinds of politicians who want to reduce money for social help, public service and decrease direct taxes when they stronger increase indirect ones.

Crazy times.