Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: JBA on September 12, 2005, 09:14:24 AM
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http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm
this is the funniest line I've read.
"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.
Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:
"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."
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Originally posted by JBA
"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.
LMAO!!!! :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl
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HEEEEYYYY!
I have a communications degree:(
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Soon the media will claim the NO images were a leftist conspiracy and that it never really happened.
Just wait and see. :D
And I can already see several posters on this UBB that will get it hook line and sinker.
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Originally posted by MrRiplEy[H]
Soon the media will claim the NO images were a leftist conspiracy and that it never really happened.
Just wait and see. :D
And I can already see several posters on this UBB that will get it hook line and sinker.
I've allready heard this but it was a little different.
The blame on the local govt is "right wing spin" And the looting of stores (not counting people looking for food and water) never happend, that was made up and embelished.
All I see is too many people talking about govt response and rescue efforts when:
1. they have no clue what FEMAs job is
2. THey've never been to New Orleans
3. They completly ignore that all the area AROUND NO was destroyed as well.
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Originally posted by Gunslinger
3. They completly ignore that all the area AROUND NO was destroyed as well.
Gretna, across the river, faired pretty good actually. Can't really response to the other points, they look like men of straw.
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From the article:
For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.
Andrew hit in 1992... kinda makes you wonder about the fact checking in the article.
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Originally posted by midnight Target
From the article:
Andrew hit in 1992... kinda makes you wonder about the fact checking in the article.
Oh of course, disregard all the facts because of a typo. That should rest your mind at ease that it is indeed all Bush's fault.
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Originally posted by Chairboy
Gretna, across the river, faired pretty good actually. Can't really response to the other points, they look like men of straw.
It's also south of NO and I'm assuming above sea level. All the roads north of the city GOING INTO the city were not easily passable.
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IMO, the issue at the federal level isn't logistics, but communications. Logistics is a DISTRACTION. A big central piece of the lessons learned part from 9/11 was command and control. The situation on the ground was obviously a cluster **** through most of the first week. You hear that not just from the press but from first responders involved in the situation, from outside relief agencies trying to get approvals, from any number of frustrated individuals looking for a central number to call to get stuff moved through the bureaucratic process.
We've spent a lot of money on this homeland security stuff, with one major goal being to get agencies and government entities to work together nicely. Apparently that didn't happen, and apparently you can't just point a finger at N.O. and say, we were 100 percent and they dropped the ball. Granted, N.O. showed almost no organization or initiative, but then it was hardly a well-oiled machine at the federal level.
Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi.
"The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said. http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/09/04/katrina.sick.redtape.ap/
Plus, there was no leadership. No one to stand up and cut through the red tape (that, again, I though wasn't supposed to be there after 9/11) until apparently Gen. Honore got on the scene. Even Cheney has admitted the need to cut through bureaucratic red tape (I think that was his reason for the recent visit).
Republican Leader Tom DeLay said Saturday the nation's terrorism preparedness needs review in light of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
DeLay was in Baton Rouge visiting the Louisiana state emergency center where government agencies have set up their command and control.
He said in a phone interview that he would meet with Secretary Michael Chertoff to discuss how the country deals with disaster and that the issue will be on Congress' agenda when it reconvenes Tuesday.
"The biggest problem we are having right now is command and control, who is in charge, who is making decisions, who is in position for leadership," said DeLay, of Sugar Land. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/weather/090405_APkatrina_delay.html
But of course, that is entirely the fault of N.O. and La., and we should ignore the billions spent on "homeland security" in the past 4 years, and ignore that command and control and communications was not only a stated goal behind these expenditures, but an entirely achievable goal. I'm sure Brownie will be the official scapegoat for that, and we'll be discouraged from questioning just exactly what our billions spent for homeland defense were actually spent on. My bet, we got 30-cents on the taxpayer dollar. Personally, I don’t like to see my taxpayer dollars squandered, but YMMV.
Charon
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
Oh of course, disregard all the facts because of a typo. That should rest your mind at ease that it is indeed all Bush's fault.
I guess the only question really is... which Bush?
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When it was originally announced, I thought the idea of putting FEMA into the Homeland Security command structure seemed a bit like empire building. I hope that this structure decission is analyzed in more depth and that the changes needed to make FEMA effective are implemented. I don't know if those changes will be internal to FEMA, involve removing FEMA from HS, or some combination of the two, but something is definately needed.
It's funny, five years ago I thought FEMA was a slumbering giant that could, when awakened, be a terrible danger to liberty if misused. It turns out that the giant is just some dizzy fat guy who drives around in a Rascal, going in circles and lurching into spectators.
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/12/a_hurricane_of_blame?mode=PF
The Washington Post: (flood control projects in New Orleans have received more money per year under the Bush administration than under Clinton.)
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman blames the disaster and its mishandling on conservative small-government ideology. Never mind that Bush, who has hiked domestic discretionary spending by 25 percent, is no more a small-government conservative than Bill Clinton was a socialist. And never mind that there was ample federal money going to Army Corps of Engineers projects in Louisiana, except that a lot of it went to costly boondoggles.
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Saw an interesting comparison to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and Kartina.
Immeadiately after the quake hit, some military commander rallied his troops without requesting permission, waiting for word, or any delay.
He took charge without any BS.
His troops were in San Fran within hours where he met with, and followed the orders of the mayor who ordered all looters "shot".. the mayor was described as a bit of a geek, yet rose to the occasion and directed his fire / police like a traffic cop.
Any looting promptly ended with the arrival of troops and a few shots fired, that gave the fire / police / troops time to focus on rescue right away.
There was no waiting for the Gov to ok this or that, Feds, or concern about stepping on any politicians toes... these two leaders grabbed the bull by the balls and got stuff done.
Probably the best call was to shoot looters, it's amazing how much can get done when you're not playing grabass with the local thug element
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Check out this timeline of the San Francisco 1906 quake. It's been discussed here before, but the immediacy of the response is truly amazing:
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/06timeline.html
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This was a good article. Puts things in perspective, and reveals all the finger-pointing for what it is...a political hatchet job. I kept hearing all last week those on the left (and even some on the right, afraid perhaps of having their own culpability revealed) that the Fed was somehow asleep at the wheel in responding. Yet, I never heard one person give a single valid example of this supposed malaze. Are there lessons to be learned from this disaster? Of course, and we should take a hard look at what went right, and what could have gone better. The finger pointing and race baiting is counter-productive, and belittles the efforts of all who've come to our fellow citizens aid.