Thursday, September 08, 2005

New Orleans Should Not Be Rebuilt, Part 2

The WSJ reports on the failing state of NO schools
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007212
David Brooks recommends "cultural integration" in the rebuilt NO.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/opinion/08brooks.html?hp

The media are filled with success stories of people who have been helped to leave NO.

The cost of rebuilding NO is astronomical and maintaining NO above water will be very costly.

The mayor, governor and other officials are incompetent or worse.

Conclusion: huge cost, no assurance that the people who left will return. There is no justification for rebuilding.

All that's needed is to provide some help for the people who need it.
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Wednesday, September 07, 2005

In answer to another post

lwiner - 5:30 PM ET September 7, 2005 (#33798 of 33811)
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Ask ernest, the expert

ernest_t_bass #33791 4:53 PM ET 9/7/2005

Cost/Benefit, eh?

Well Mr. Expert, what would have cost to make New Orleans safe from even a Category 5 storm?

We know the cost of repairing: $50 to $150 billion.

The cost of prevention would have been much less, is that not so? What is the old saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

By the way, the US Treasury does not have the $50 to $150 billion, thanks to Bush�s fiscal mismanagement.

The money will have to be borrowed from the Chinese.

What if the Chinese say that they have retained a financial consultant and he has advised them to diversify their investments and that they are too concentrated in U.S. Treasury securities? What then?

In answer to a post

lwiner - 4:42 PM ET September 7, 2005 (#33785 of 33811)
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pollux: You're dreaming, or BS'ing, or both

polluxx #33778 4:20 PM ET 9/7/2005

You can quote all the experts you want but the real facts are that the waters of Lake Pontchartrain massively entered New Orleans.

The levees were breached. We have all seen the photos.

What the h-ll are you blathering about? Are you saying that the flooding could not have been prevented. Maybe not. But another uncontested fact is that the New Orleans levees were not designed to resist a Category 4 storm, which is what Katrina was. How did that happen? Had nothing to do with Bush's funding cuts? What if it had been a Category 5? Funding cuts still ok?

In any case, that is not the main complaint against Bush and his crowd.

It's the five day delay in the rescue effort. That's what is cooking Bush's butt. That�s what has the whole US concerned (Red States and Blue States). In case of a massive terrorist attack, or simultaneous terrorist attacks, will the Bush Administration be able to respond effectively and promptly to save American lives? The evidence from New Orleans is not reassuring.

What part of the above do you not understand?

Maybe New Orleans should not be rebuilt

lwiner - 1:39 PM ET September 7, 2005 (#33721 of 33811)
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Maybe New Orleans should not be rebuilt

Maybe we should let the river and the lake reclaim New Orleans.

See these two items from today�s NYTimes:

Barbara Bush Calls Evacuees Better Off

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - As President Bush battled criticism over the response to Hurricane Katrina, his mother declared it a success for evacuees who "were underprivileged anyway," saying on Monday that many of the poor people she had seen while touring a Houston relocation site were faring better than before the storm hit.

"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas," Barbara Bush said in an interview on Monday with the radio program "Marketplace." "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality."
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway," she said, "so this is working very well for them."

and:

Putting Down New Roots on More Solid Ground

HOUSTON, Sept. 6 - In her 19 years, all spent living in downtown New Orleans, Chavon Allen had never ventured farther than her bus fare would allow, and that was one trip last year to Baton Rouge. But now that she has seen Houston, she is planning to stay.

"This is a whole new beginning, a whole new start. I mean, why pass up a good opportunity, to go back to something that you know has problems?" asked Ms. Allen, who had been earning $5.15 an hour serving chicken in a Popeyes restaurant.

In response to Friedman's column

lwiner - 2:13 AM ET September 7, 2005 (#33574 of 33811)
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If Mr. Bush learns the lessons of Katrina

Mr. Bush stopped learning a long time ago. He certainly has not learned the lessons of Katrina.

His recent orations prove that the same old George Bush with the same old spin resides in the White House.

His poll standings are declining.

Republicans see less advantage in supporting him.

Congressional Republicans, contemplating the 2006 elections may even perceive political advantage in impeaching Bush.

Tom Friedman may as well stop trying to teach Bush how to govern better. He's wasting his time and it's probably annoying George Bush.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Calling all defenders of President Bush

lwiner - 5:08 PM ET September 5, 2005 (#32810 of 32821)
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Calling all defenders of President Bush

Considering Bush's failure to avert the 9/11 attack after being briefed on August 6, 2001 that bin Laden is scheming to hijack American air liners, and

Considering the monumental waste of American lives and treasure engineered in Iraq by Bush, and

Considering the 5 day delay in responding to New Orleans disaster,

How much confidence do you have in George Bush's ability to defend us from further terrorist attacks?

And George Bush's ability to reduce the harm we will suffer in the event of another terrorist attack?

Support your answers with evidence.

If you insult me, you are simply proving that you can not defend your support of Bush with facts and reasoning. In other words, that you are full of ordure.

If you do not respond to this challenge, you are proving the same thing = you are full of ordure.

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Response to Brooks' column of 9/4

Brooks is giving Bush a free pass

Like the consistent pimp for the Bush administration that he was and continues to be, Brooks gives Bush a free pass.

1. Bush is the worst president the US has ever had. Bush is doing more harm to the US than all the terrorists, North Korea, Iran and anybody else ever blamed by Bush.

2. Bush was re-elected as a result of being the greatest practitioner of the "big lie" technique, an ancient method of demagoguery brought to full fruition in modern times by Hitler and Goebbels, and now Bush.

Get rid of Bush, Cheney and Rove and the United States can resume its marvelous destiny once more.

Brooks continues to ignore the obvious facts. Obloquy on Brooks and his master!

Friday, September 02, 2005

The Nation of New California

This came in today's e-mail:

Dear Red States:

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California
and we've decided we're leaving.

We intend to form our own country and we're taking the
other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware
that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation
and especially to the people of the new country of New
California.

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and
entrepreneurs.
You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make
the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower
than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of
happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro
choice and anti war and we're going to want all our
citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to
fight ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're
apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose and they don't care if you don't show pictures
of their children's caskets coming home.

We wish you success in Iraq and hope that the WMDs
turn up but we're not willing to spend our resources
in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control
of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of
the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh
fruit, 95% of America's quality wines (you can serve
French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90%
of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur
coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia, as well as Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, Northwestern, the University of Chicago, as well as Stuyvesant High School and the Bronx High School of Science.

With the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of
all obese Americans and their projected health care
costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the
tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush
Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the
University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is
sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or
gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53%
that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy
bastards believe you are people with higher morals
then we lefties.

Sincerely,
Author Unknown in New California.

P.S. Oh, yeah. We have most of the art museums and Nobel Prize winners, too.


.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Response to NYTimes Editorial

It's wilful ignorance


Here's a man who enjoyed a privileged life.

His father's influence enabled him to attend some of the finest schools in the World: Yale and Harvard.

The opportunity to gain knowledge and wisdom was for all practical purposes unlimited.

Wilfully, he wasted his time on partying and boozing. He learned nothing at all but to cheat, swagger and lie.

He spent the next 15 years in a drunken stupor.

When his wife told him to sober up or she's gone, he sobered up.

Then his father's friends invested a lot of money and time in him and bought him the Presidency.

And now the NYTimes expects ledership?

They'll have to wait for that.

Comment on Brooks' column

lwiner - 4:02 AM ET September 1, 2005 (#39227 of 39227)
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There is an inconvenient fact that Brooks fails to mention:

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Source:

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1 [...]

The other two most likely disasters mentioned by FEMA in 2001 were:

1. Terrorist attack on NY City.

2. Earthquake in SF.