"Complete Devastation."

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TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

A snippet from here:
The government has failed. We’re seeing the results of a government policy and culture that is so used to using shock and condescension to speak to its people that when an actual crisis hits, it’s dumbfounded.

Look. We lost a city. Literally. There are over a million refugees in the southeast US right now. I’m not talking about the poor souls in the Superdome who can’t sleep in three days because of the water, heat and smell much less find a waterlogged corner to take a crap from the last-minute scrounged up MREs. No, I’m talking about the lucky ones. The ones who owned cars and left.

If this happened in France? Or Germany? Or hell, even Poland? There’d be a tent city outside of Baton Rouge. Someone would have already printed temporary identity cards, troops would be filtering refugees for weapons and the Red Cross would be registering survivors. They’d have a fucking PLACE TO SLEEP.

Here in the land of the free? We tell them to find hotels. How immensely fucked up is THAT? We’re watching an entire city bankrupt itself because we can’t be bothered to do a simple refugee housing operation that WE’VE DONE IN OTHER COUNTRIES. Maybe we’ll depend on the Baptists or the Salvation Army to do it, and maybe they won’t be as insistent on trying to use the refugees that come to them for a bowl of soup as an opportunity to convert them.

Even when we have vague stabs of conscience, we screw it up. The Governor of Texas this morning made a grand prounouncement, stating that the people of Lousiana were family, and that the unused Houston Astrodome would be opened for refugees - like the Superdome, but with working AC and toilets, so it’s at least a minor upgrade. He said the right things. It’s what we should be doing.

Except, of course, we’re turning away refugees there too. See, they’re only taking people from the Superdome there. Actual refugees should continue to bankrupt their personal savings, thanks.

In the meantime, the Astrodome is turning away refugees who aren’t part of the Superdome evacuation. That was bad news for Christy and Honald Salomon and five carloads of family members, including a 93-year-old great-great-grandmother.

The Salomons and their extended family have been staying at a Comfort Inn for $55 a night. News of a longer stay had the family searching for more permanent housing arrangements.

But they were turned away from the Astrodome a little before noon, with only a one-page information sheet of services offered by the Red Cross.

“People with no money will be able to stay here, but what about people like myself who have a little money to hold us?'’ said Brian Salomon. “Where are we going to stay when we run out of money?”


Now look. As I keep feeling compelled to remind myself, I’m a conservative at heart, and what’s more, a libertarian one. Most things, the government should not be involved in. But you know, when a whole goddamned city gets wiped off the Earth in 2 days? Last time I checked, this is why we had a government. And they had damned well better drop everything else they’re currently being bitchy about and start FEEDING PEOPLE, and while they’re at it, SHOOTING LOOTERS IN THE HEAD.

I pay taxes for a reason, and it’s not to keep President Bush on permanent campaign trips so he can sell the Iraq war.

As Americans, we shouldn’t hope for our government to act. We should DEMAND it. And come elections, remember both the heroes (among them the New Orleans mayor, who deserves several medals) and those who were so thoroughgoingly incompetent they couldn’t do their jobs.


A mostly agree with him. See, I'd just as soon not have government at all, but if we're going to be forced to pay 1/3 of our money into the damn thing every year, it should be handling shit like this. What the fuck have I been paying for, I ask you?
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thibodeaux
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Post by thibodeaux »

Lum should stick to MMORPG commentary.
GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

How can someone claim to be a conservatist libertarian, then demand the government take care of a million refugees? I mean.................. well, yeah.

Where's the Red Cross? I thought they were the disaster-people.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

We don't need a tent city.

Had anyone spent the money to make sure the levees wouldn't fail, the refugees would be sleeping at home tonight and the country would be focusing on Mississippi and Alabama.

As powerful as Katrina was, she couldn't get the job done alone. She needed human to leave a door open for her to be able to flood the city.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

Over 200 families were kicked out of Houston hotels today because they can't afford the rooms anymore. Most of them are also being turned away from shelters because they don't look poor enough and aren't officially homeless. I passed a few carloads setting up camp on the sides of the interstates on the way home from work.

As I said, I'd rather the government go to hell and leave me alone, but as long as they're blackmailing me for cash they should do something about this.

I'd like to see us take the federal budget for international aid and shunt it aside to fixing all these problems here at home for as much as it takes. America first and all that jazz.




Edited By TPRJones on 1125538372
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

I'd like to see the hotels just let people have freaking rooms.

I would.
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

I'd like to see the hotels just let people have freaking rooms.

I would.
Be sure to advertise the chains turning people out.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

It has been a busy week, have I mentioned the executive who called me Monday (Tuesday?) and how concerned he was that his fax machine wasn't working? He wanted me to help get it going again.

Considering the thread, you know where this is going, he lives in Baton Rouge.
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Post by GORDON »

Road trip.
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Vince
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Post by Vince »

Have you seen Gulfport\Biloxi? Found one casino two blocks away. NOLA Saved Devastation elsewhere.
Yeah, but the casino was a barge that was floating... so I'm not really sure how impressive that is.
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Post by GORDON »

I've stayed in the Beau Rivage, there.
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Leisher
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Post by Leisher »

I lived in Biloxi for 9 months back in 91. The only hurricanes I experienced were the ones at the bar.
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TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

They are barges, and with massive amounts of technical support they can indeed float, but just on their own without help it takes water to the roof to get them moving. The "barge" term is mostly a technicality in the Biloxi casinos.

If I said this already here, I apologize for repeating myself, but I'm betting that the casinos that are unsalvagable (all but two, so far as I can tell) will not be rebuilding on the coast. They'll rebuild inland, once Mississippi changes the law for them (and they will, they need the revenue badly).
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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

You know.... heh.... it's VERY hard for me to feel much grief for the poor casinos. hehe
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Vince
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Post by Vince »

They are barges, and with massive amounts of technical support they can indeed float, but just on their own without help it takes water to the roof to get them moving. The "barge" term is mostly a technicality in the Biloxi casinos.
Not only "can" they float, they have to float. That's how they skirt the laws on casinos in the state. All the casinos in Tunica are floating on water irrigated in from the Mississippi river.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't feel much grief for them directly, either. Well, I weep when I see slotmachines lying busted and broken on the ground, but not because I feel for the casino's bottom line.

However, Amy's folks are from Gulfport/Biloxi (and currently living on the couch), and I've spent some time there the past couple of years. I can say with certainty that if the casinos go away, so will any hint of affluence on that stretch of coastline. Sure there are some people that live there that don't make a living direclty or indirectly off the casinos, but most of those people are on welfare.
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Post by Leisher »

However, Amy's folks are from Gulfport/Biloxi (and currently living on the couch), and I've spent some time there the past couple of years. I can say with certainty that if the casinos go away, so will any hint of affluence on that stretch of coastline. Sure there are some people that live there that don't make a living direclty or indirectly off the casinos, but most of those people are on welfare.


Now that sounds like the Biloxi I remember.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

Not only "can" they float, they have to float. That's how they skirt the laws on casinos in the state. All the casinos in Tunica are floating on water irrigated in from the Mississippi river.
Yes, and no. I've watched them passing the annual test at the Beau. It took several very massive pumps pushing tons of water through a system of ducts (similar to how a hovercraft works) to push it one inch off the bottom of the bay (the minimum requirement). That's what I meant by massive technical support.

No way is that thing floating like a boat. It floats more like a house (fill it to the roof and the air pockets at the top will float it).
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Post by TheCatt »

Well, weep for the 5000 people who will be losing their jobs as the casinos won't be re-opening. And that's just from 2 of them.
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mbilderback
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Post by mbilderback »

Some of these people are exceedingly uninformed. First off, here in Memphis, business, gumment, and people are going to extremes to help victims of the hurricane. Last I heard, so many shelters are open that they can't even fill up, the local library has a bank of computers set aside for refugees only use (needed to apply for aid and whatnot), and a vertiable laundry list of business are offering cheap to free food, entertainment, and assistance. Boscos is offering free lunch and dinner through saturday to refugees. Pretty much every museum is giving free admission. And, the schools are alowing refugee children to attend. EVEN college students aren't left out. If you've paid admission to your college in NOLA, you get to attend the U of Memphis for free, if you haven't paid, you get in-state tuition rates.

Not doing anything my ass.

P.S. Memphis has been operating in the red for a couple of years, taking major cuts in all areas to make up the millions of dollars in difference. The state and national governments are picking up a lot of the tabs for this.




Edited By mbilderback on 1125579058
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