Witness how F*cked Up America Really Is - Hurricane Katrina Doc.

All weed smokers know how f*cked up America is. But Hurricane Katrina opened the eyes of many Americans about race, class, and especially government in this country. The one year anniversary of this tragedy is this week. How many of us have already forgotten?


Well, one person refuses to let anyone forget. Director Spike Lee created a 4-part documentary for HBO, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" that will premiere tonight at 9. (Actually, Acts I & II will be shown tonight, III and IV tomorrow night.) From what I hear it is quite good. It doesn't point fingers (not that it would be hard to do), but instead gives us the facts along with the views of those who lived through it, then allows us to form our own opinions.

I urge everyone to watch this documentary. And I've started this thread so that people can discuss anything regarding the subject. The bastards of the American government may have forgotten, but I know that we sure as hell haven't.

Poor people got the royal rope in La-Miss.

Evactuation = get the fuck out

You can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink.....


OK if you are slow.... you can tell people to evacuate, but you cant make them leave.


Yes the goverment made many mistakes..............

That is the problem with you socialist.... wait for the goverment to help....

Fuck the Goverment I would do it on my own...........

Christ, they showed people drinking on Bourbon St., others stocking up on beer for the hotels....

Then when they sent in the National Guard to MAKE people leave others bitched about that! If the Government steps in their wrong, if they don't their wrong....

Have a good one!:thumbsup:

P4B.... I was posting on OG at the time.

There was this guy from NO that was like...."Its not going Flood"....

he was like "all i need is my grow and some beers".......

we never herd from him again.


But what do I know.

If i was living under sea level i would have had some flood insurance and a full tank off Gas............

I have supplys stocked right now......

This was a huge part of the emergency evacuation plan that the CITY/STATE didn't put into effect.......what the hell, blame Bush and the fed.

LOL....have a good one!:thumbsup:

Lol, well no wonder most Americans will think their country is fucked up, with Spike Lee behind the camera.

No offence to him and what he does, but he always, always plays the 'race' card in his movies. He uses that to twist and manipulate the truth into what he wants: a 90-minute program about how, as always, African Americans are 2nd class citizens in America. Take this show about Hurricane Katrina. Everyone had more than enough time to evacuate, and if they didn't, it was their own lack of common sense that sealed their fate, whatever it was.

I am just sick and tired of seeing movie after movie from Spike Lee about how African Americans are still seen and treated differently compared to the whites. One movie, fine. But when he continues to make a career out of stretching and bending the truth, I have a problem with it. I did like "He Got Game", but that's about it. ~

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Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

This was a huge part of the emergency evacuation plan that the CITY/STATE didn't put into effect.......what the hell, blame Bush and the fed.

LOL....have a good one!:thumbsup:

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EXACTLY! And they RE-ELECTED MAYOR CHOCOLATE NAGIN?!

Spike Lee is a racist, and this documentary is total BS.


Spike Lee himself said Bush is responsible for the disaster, he even goes as far as saying the Levees were blown up.


Dont waste your time

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Originally Posted by BrooklynDiva

All weed smokers know how f*cked up America is. But Hurricane Katrina opened the eyes of many Americans about race, class, and especially government in this country. The one year anniversary of this tragedy is this week. How many of us have already forgotten?


Well, one person refuses to let anyone forget. Director Spike Lee created a 4-part documentary for HBO, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" that will premiere tonight at 9. (Actually, Acts I & II will be shown tonight, III and IV tomorrow night.) From what I hear it is quite good. It doesn't point fingers (not that it would be hard to do), but instead gives us the facts along with the views of those who lived through it, then allows us to form our own opinions.

I urge everyone to watch this documentary. And I've started this thread so that people can discuss anything regarding the subject. The bastards of the American government may have forgotten, but I know that we sure as hell haven't.

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i haven't forgotten, in fact a year seems like along time ago, katrina feels like more like a month ago, never will be forgotten

I didn't hear Lee say that Bush or anyone blew up the levees. Actually, I didn't hear him say much of anything. That POV (which has been expressed by many people all over the world since the levees first broke) was discussed by some of the people asked to speak in the documentary. - just to help get the facts right.

Most authors/painters/directors/photographers and the like have a certain niche or genre that they focus on. Why would this particular movie director be any different?

Yes u can make people leave. They do it all the time when an evacuation is ordered. Police do sweeps, anyone found still there is arrested and/or removed. Hell, if it's legal to bust down my door, drag me out, and arrest me with no warrant in the name of national security, then I think they can do the same thing in the name of the security for citizens. The east coast has been warned that a major hurricane could hit causing massive destruction. Again, they've done their studies and found out how difficult it will be to get NYC people to leave their homes and that most don't have the resources (ie, cars) anyway. And again, NO PLANS have been made. Listen, I agree that people should've evacuated. I know I would've (even though there was no place to evacuate to). But they didn't, they needed help, and where was the gov't.

The 3 top threats to our nation - a terror attack on NY, hurricane in N.O., and a earthquake in San Fran. 2 down and the gov't sat on their asses for both. I guess some people will wait till we're 3 for 0 before they start to care. Or maybe when it affects them, happens in their neck of the woods they'll care. It was a complete failure of gov't from the bottom up. The feds are supposed to step in when city and state fails, that's what the hell they're there for. Otherwise, there would be no need for us to be a united nation. Fuck the gov't indeed, but I pay my taxes for a reason and I'm tired of not seeing a return on my investment.

Dude, that ramble made no fucking sense. Haha.

How'd we get onto hunting with Bong's imaginary 16-year old son? Fuck, stay on topic and don't use dumbass comparisons like that.

As for how the gov't handled the whole situation after Katrina, I too feel they could have done better to evacuate and whatnot. But honestly, everyone had more than enough time to evacuate. It was a fucking hurricane. Advisories and warnings go out about hurricanes weeks in advance. If you can honestly tell me that all those who were caught behind in the storm had no tv's, computers, or radios to hear the warnings, then I might buy into the racist garbage Spike Lee vomits on camera. You're supposed to evacuate for hurricanes, and the safety info on them are well-known by most of the population down there. Hurricanes are nothing new, yet it seems that when a bunch of African Americans get caught behind in Katrina, the world has to stop and blame everything on the gov't for being racist.

Fuck people, listen to the warnings, eh?
If there's going to be a fucking hurricane on the shore in a week, take the proper actions to keep safe.
Instead of going to Burbon street and partying it away like it's just another rain storm.
Take some of the blame, instead of blaming others. J E S U S

This was the evacuation plan that I posted a while back....funny on how the link don't work now.......NEW PLAN??
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26


City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.

PART 1: WARNING

I. GENERAL

Evacuation planning and actual implementation has to be based upon certain assumptions. It must be understood that the need to evacuate elements of the population can occur at any time, events resulting in evacuations occur with various amounts of lead time and every evacuation will be unique and offer unexpected challenges to those conducting the evacuation. Evacuations in response to hazardous material spills or sudden severe weather are provided with little or no warning, and often have to be accomplished after the fact, and in a disaster response environment. Throughout the Parish persons with special needs, require special consideration regarding notification, transportation, and sheltering. Resources of equipment, facilities and personnel are more difficult to locate and coordinate when an evacuation is required during late night or early morning hours. If possible, advance warning should be given so an evacuation can be coordinated. Adequate provisions should be maintained at all times in order to conduct a warning or alert of an area.

Certain hazards, such as a hurricane, provide some lead time for coordinating an evacuation. However, this can not be considered a certainty. Plus, the sheer size of an evacuation in response to an approaching hurricane creates the need for the use of community-wide warning resources, which cannot be limited to our City's geographical boundaries. Evacuation of major portions of our population, either in response to localized or citywide disasters, can only be accomplished if the citizens and visitors are kept informed of approaching threats on a timely schedule, and if they are notified of the need to evacuate in a timely and organized manner. If an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials.

In this day of high-speed communication and wide-spread availability of information, mechanisms do exist to transmit emergency related information to the vast majority of the community. For our most serious threat, hurricanes, information from the National Hurricane Center in Miami and our local office of the National Weather Service, can reach the general population through local governments and mass media outlets. It is the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Preparedness to guarantee that not only is the public alerted, but that other emergency response organizations and personnel are alert and in position to meet the real or potential threat.

Warning for an emergency requires notification at two levels: notification of public officials and response organizations and the warning of the general public. The mechanisms chosen to accomplish these critical events must be rapid in execution and comprehensive in application. This annex outlines the procedures which will be implemented for notifying the emergency response network of its activation, and of informing the general public of the potential or actual occurrence of life threatening events and hazards.

The extent and methods of warnings issued will be determined by the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, and are based upon the geographic area impacted. When events necessitate the immediate evacuation of threatened individuals, these decisions may be made by the on scene Incident Commander. Decisions affecting larger geographic areas will be made by the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness in conjunction with the Superintendent of Fire and Superintendent of Police.

General evacuations that may result from an approaching hurricane will be ordered by the Mayor of the City, upon the recommendation of the Director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness. The area affected by the warning may range from blocks and portions of neighborhoods, to the entire city.

THIS shouldn't be all that hard to figure out........Local Government was on Bourbon St. enjoying the storm. How in the hell can the fed. be blamed for this one?

Have a good one!:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Jake Martinez

A: Rationalize that it was his own dumb idea to go hunt alone and that you're going to call 911 and hope they can find him before he bleeds out

B: Run your ass to your son as fast as you possible can, put pressure on the leg, forgive him for his mistake, forgive yourself for allowing such a stupid idea, and get his ass to a hospital ASAP.


It's B, isn't it, Bong?

Why, though? You told him it was a bad idea to go out alone like that, but you had to respect his freedom (you actually didn't put let's pretend like you did). It may be his fault that he ended up shot in the leg and bleeding profusely, but all is forgiven because you love your son and you don't wish anything bad on him, even for the sake of learning to listen, right?


Well, the government chose option A.

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I think the comparison is right on! Especially option A (although, I attribute it more to incompetence than predjudice). I don't know every reason why people stayed behind. All I know is you have to help people out of that mess, regardless of what brains, if any, they have in their heads.

I agree with Gray and Jake. And yes, incompetence on so many levels played a part. The city and state failed those folks as miserably as anyone else did, but we should have done a better job federally, too.

Louisiana is where my family comes from. Fortunately, my extended family doesn't reside in 9th Ward New Orleans, but anyone who's spent time in the cities of Louisiana knows what those circumstances are like. A huge amount of of those people were absolutely resourceless. Poor. Carless. In ill health. Incapable of leaving without a plan that helped them do so. And yes, a huge majority of them were black. While I don't believe it's the federal government's sole responsibility to have rescued them, that situation was a failure on many levels. And while a huge majority of those who fell victim to the worst events were black, because that's who lives in inner city NO, a lot of people forget that the overall disaster wrecked the lives of desperately poor folks in addition to working class citizens, not just black ones.

My husband and I volunteered down there with a Red Cross medical team last September for three weeks. It was appalling. And unfair. And unnecessary. I will never forget the sights and smells of that time. We would like to go back at the end of next month just to see NO and the Gulf Coast again and see the state of things a year later, but I don't know if that'll be possible with me in school now.

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Originally Posted by BrooklynDiva

All weed smokers know how f*cked up America is.

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Don't group me into your sick category, I love my country and fully support the concepts of patriotism and nationalism. People in the path of Katrina were told to EVACUATE. Like another person said: "GET THE FUCK OUT".

Turning Katrina into a racial issue is by all means a disgusting, partisian issue that divides the country against itself. The issue was due to incompitence in the government. To hell with your talks of racism.

Don't get the misconception that I'm defending the government. I'm pissed off that all this legislation was passed to make the country safer from Terrorism at the expense of privacy rights; and the FED somehow managed to respond slower this time to a national tragedy.

You can spew your garbage of class vs class, black vs white all you want. I'm not interested in that bullshit. At the end of the day, a lot of people died. And that's all that matters. It's all that ever matters.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/25/kat....ap/index.html

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During the CBS "60 minutes" interview, a correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars still on the streets of New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward. Nagin replied, "You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair," according to CBS.

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The people in NO have have exactly the Government they voted for, and re-elected.

It's incompetent, overwhelmed, corrupt, focused on it's own image and agenda. Doesn't really care about the people in NO, and the people re-elect them anyway.

I agree that if you live under sea level, you're a dumbass, but the government really didn't do much. The government TOLD them to evacuate, but not everyone has access to vehicles and houses in other states. The rich people were fine, but the majority of the poor who were mostly black did not get out of the city because they really had to way out. Yea...just let them run out of the city...they'll be ok. Besides, the government should have had supplies ready BEFORE Katrina even hit. You can't deny that. And why weren't the levees raised before it hit after they were warned many many times?

Do you remember a few years ago I think on TLC or something along that line, they had a TV program about what would happen if New Orleans was hit by a hurricane? I hope the Illuminati aren't experimenting with controlling the weather. Pretty damn good odds when it actually happens! :(

Just goes to show how much of a fascist government this is. Lol the handeling of Katrina doesn't make for good propaganda either! You want to make your government look like it is doing the best it possibly can. Shit, Nazi Germany probably would have had supplies ready for the Germans if a disaster like this happened there, because Nazi germany was in fact a welfare state. thats how they kept control.

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Originally Posted by BrooklynDiva

All weed smokers know how f*cked up America is. But Hurricane Katrina opened the eyes of many Americans about race, class, and especially government in this country.

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These two sentences are awesome.
First off, I smoke and I love this country and you damn sure don't speak for me.
Second most Americans knew about race, class, and government long before Katrina. Maybe you are speaking about people who are in comas or live in caves.

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Originally Posted by Great Spirit

Shit, Nazi Germany probably would have had supplies ready for the Germans if a disaster like this happened there, because Nazi germany was in fact a welfare state. thats how they kept control.

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I disagree, Nazi Germany would have flooded New Orleans to kill the ethnic minorities. The Nazis controlled by killing people, where did you learn history?

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Originally Posted by Great Spirit

Shit, Nazi Germany probably would have had supplies ready for the Germans if a disaster like this happened there, because Nazi germany was in fact a welfare state. thats how they kept control.

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Why of course, that's what the Gestapo was! They handed out candy and milk on fuckin' unicorns; that's exactly how the Nazis conducted welfare.

HAHA.

GS, you are nothing but BS.

Baaaaa-Zing. ~

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Originally Posted by Its a Plant

HAHA.

GS, you are nothing but BS.

Baaaaa-Zing. ~

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HAHA. Plant, you are nothing but unenlightened. :thumbsup:

I guess you know me all too well then. . .

At least I can get my facts straight, which makes for a better debate.

Rather than you just calling anyone who doesn't share your almost laughable mindframe "unenlightened".

Give me a break.
Get off your faulty pedastal of knowledge.
Hold the order of bullshit.
Add a side of maturity to go.

Eat a steak or something you pud. ~

GS dont eat steak!!!!! way to American.....

I went to the Trail Dust for diner the other night....yummm had the 20 oz porter house......

GS go get some Falaffel......... lol

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Originally Posted by Great Spirit

I agree that if you live under sea level, you're a dumbass, but the government really didn't do much. The government TOLD them to evacuate, but not everyone has access to vehicles and houses in other states. The rich people were fine, but the majority of the poor who were mostly black did not get out of the city because they really had to way out. Yea...just let them run out of the city...they'll be ok. Besides, the government should have had supplies ready BEFORE Katrina even hit. You can't deny that. And why weren't the levees raised before it hit after they were warned many many times?

Do you remember a few years ago I think on TLC or something along that line, they had a TV program about what would happen if New Orleans was hit by a hurricane? I hope the Illuminati aren't experimenting with controlling the weather. Pretty damn good odds when it actually happens! :(

Just goes to show how much of a fascist government this is. Lol the handeling of Katrina doesn't make for good propaganda either! You want to make your government look like it is doing the best it possibly can. Shit, Nazi Germany probably would have had supplies ready for the Germans if a disaster like this happened there, because Nazi germany was in fact a welfare state. thats how they kept control.

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Next thing you'll know, the Bird Flu will catasphorically hit America and GS will complain "the government should've been prepared." Who knows, Asteroids could destroy Chicago. GS will complain "the government should"ve been prepared, what facist shits." How many things should the government be prepared for? GS seems to believe the government has infinite resources that can be pumped into every molecular possibility of human tragedy.

It's easy to complain after the fact. It's easy to place blame on the government after the fact. It's easy to say there have been tall-tale signs that this was going to happen.....after the fact. Hell I digged up an article in 1987 warning about the potential New Orleans had for disaster in a hurricane situation since it's not only surrounded by the sea, but Lake Pontacharin, Lake Borgne, and a collection of smaller lakes. New Orleans situated right in the middle of all this. Obviously the answer is "No shit."

If you can make one correct prediction before the fact, well then, I'm sure people will be lining up behind your ideas. Until that day, you'll always be known for being the crazy guy who makes perpetual arguments after the fact. That's the element your crazy propaganda is based upon.

http://www.total411.info/

When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to this Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness:


The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds, said Al Naomi, project manager. That project consists of building up levees and protection for pumping stations on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes.


The Lake Pontchartrain project is slated to receive $3.9 million in the president's 2005 budget. Naomi said about $20 million is needed.


"The longer we wait without funding, the more we sink," he said. "I've got at least six levee construction contracts that need to be done to raise the levee protection back to where it should be (because of settling). Right now I owe my contractors about $5 million. And we're going to have to pay them interest."

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

That June, with the 2004 hurricane seasion starting, the Corps' Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:


"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:


The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.


"We'll do some design work. We'll design the contracts and get them ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put the work in the field, and that's the problem," Naomi said.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:


That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.


But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.

The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late. One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday. The levee failure appears to be causing a human tragedy of epic proportions: "We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater," Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.

The fact that those levee repairs weren't completely funded is one part of the story, and certainly there's plenty of blame to be laid for the Katrina-related levee-failure disaster that occurred last year.

But it's important to recognize some other facts about south Louisiana that have also been covered by the Times-Picayune and other news outlets, and that's how rampant corruption and mishandling has been at every level, from local levee boards and authorities up to city, parish and state-level administratio,n of monies they've already received. There've been some really egregious examples of corruption and misspending with the money that has been made available to these levee-repair authorites, and this sort of wasteful corruption has been going on for decades down there. It's the way politics in Louisiana work, sadly, and last year when those levees failed, one of the first things everyone did was point the finger at inadequate federal funding. But an equally focused finger has always needed to be pointed at how those various authorities have misspent and mishandled the money they've already received and yet not used for the benefit/repair of levees. Had corruption not been a pre-existing and historically enduring problem down there, many of those weakest levees would have already been in much better shape than they were, even with not enough money in recent years.

Anyway, beware of too much blame on lack of federal funding in this particular case. Had every penny in the world been made available to those authorities and boards responsible for the levees, you can bet that critical repairs would not necessarily have been completed--and that impressive portions of that money would have mysteriously disappeared or been misused. That's the way things work in south Louisiana, sadly.

Great context and insight, Birdgirl, as usual. It's good to temper the "urge to blame" with the reality of regional politics. At the risk of sounding politically incorrect, I've heard some of the Tavis Smiley guests at the one year commemerative, and they sound so rehearsed I want to go to sleep or puke.

I will always remember when Katrina hit the Gulf coast: 29 AUGUST....my birthday.....Damn!

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Originally Posted by PigSnout

These two sentences are awesome.
First off, I smoke and I love this country and you damn sure don't speak for me.
Second most Americans knew about race, class, and government long before Katrina. Maybe you are speaking about people who are in comas or live in caves.

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First off, to PS and those who feel like him - calm down. Nobody questioned your love for this country. But you're right, I apologize. I guess some people don't mind being considered a criminal by America because they indulge in weed. Silly me....


Yeah, Americans are known for their in-depth knowledge of current and historical events. :stoned: Delude me some more, PigSnout. It's great for my high.

And while we're on the topic of patriotism and all that, I find it hilarious that people start off by saying how much they love their country, yet their fellow citizens were at fault because they were told to evacuate. I wish I could find it as funny that some people think the only reason people are so focused on Katrina is because it could be construed as a race issue. Are you kidding me??

I personally believe that the gov't failed to respond because these were poor communities. Everyone gets caught up in New Orleans cuz the levees broke there. But people all over the gulf coast, in Louisiana and Mississippi, were affected by the storm, needed gov't assistance, and were left to rot. Their homes and communities have not been rebuilt either. When I look at the victims of Katrina I see all kinds of faces, not just black ones, so what the fuck are ya'll talking bout?

In general though, what does it really matter? I don't care if they were white, black, brown, yellow....fuck, green people. I don't care if they were rich, poor, educated or not. All I know is that day after day after day, I had to watch my fellow Americans dying on American soil while our gov't did nothing. I guess all you America-lovers weren't really affected by that.

GreatSpirit may be off but he did say one smart thing - "the handeling of Katrina doesn't make for good propaganda either." Even if you don't care about people dying, do you care about ur precious nation's image? Cuz it seems to me that a country that can't (or won't) even take care of its own, is not a country to fear. How can we ever win "the war on terror" when we show time and time again that we are inadequate at even protecting ourselves or adequately running our govt?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The ousted head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency says the White House wanted him to lie about the response to Hurricane Katrina.






Former Director Michael Brown told ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Sunday he stood by comments in a Playboy interview, and President Bush wanted him to take the heat for the bungling.

"The lie was that we were ready and that everything was working as a team. Behind the scenes, it wasn't working at all," Brown said. "There were political considerations going into all the discussions. There was the fact that New Orleans did not evacuate and the mayor (Ray Nagin) had no plan."

Brown said it was natural to "want to put the spin on that things are working the way they're supposed to do. And behind the scenes, they're not. Again, my biggest mistake was just not leveling with the American public and saying, 'Folks, this isn't working.'"

The former FEMA chief cited what he called an e-mail "from a very high source in the White House that says the president at a Cabinet meeting said, 'Thank goodness Brown's taking all the heat because it's better that he takes the heat than I do.'"

Also on "This Week," U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said the administration still doesn't understand the magnitude of the reconstruction problem; but the president's Gulf Coast coordinator, Don Powell, said the federal government's No. 1 priority is to rebuild the area in a businesslike way.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

We can go to war with a country at a moment's notice, but we can't help our own people that efficiently? Something's wrong with that. And like a former president once had on his desk: the buck stops here. The president should have done much more to help in Louisiana, whether it meant dispersing 10,000 National Guard troops or whatever. They could have done that before the hurricane even hit land, as there was enough warning time to mobilize and deploy. I do hold the president responsible, and if he were running for president again (if he could), I wouldn't vote for him for that reason alone. He's too insanely fixated on Iraq, always has been, to the detriment of his fellow citizens.

Bush, Brown, Blanco, and Nagin all should be equally held accountable. They had days to plan ahead, and Brown should've told us the truth a year earlier. I saw him on NBC today getting interviewed, and what he stated was he was painting an optismistic picture with the White House talking points. I have no doubt that is quite true, he tried to save his own ass and cover Bush's as well.

I have no idea why New Orleans re-elected Nagin. That's just crazy.