Just saw on the News...

[Merc]

TweetI just saw that the mexican military is sending trucks with supplies to help out with relief in N.O. Its the first time in 165 years that the mexican army has operated on US soil. Just thought it was impressive that someone else is helping us out made me smile.

[mick-G]

TweetI can't believe China only sent 1MM and Japan 5MM, that is like a total insult.

[diggi]

TweetWell.. not to disrespect Bush or anyone.. but USA is the strongest country in the world why would country need any help from anyone ??

[Merc]

Tweetits just the fact that they are just doing it which is impressive I think. They are not the richest country but they still want to help out.

[T-Man007]

TweetI think it's awesome. You know, everytime something goes wrong everyone expects the US to help, but when we get out asses knocked down there is no recipication, no discount on imports, nothing. There is going to come a day when someone like the French have a huge devestation and I hope to God we look the other way. I would be sick to my stomach if we ever helped those phukers after all the times they've stabed us in the back. But as far as Mexico, the gesture is awesome.

[ulvmeto]

TweetThought this was interesting to pass on!!!
It came to me to forward to you the following op-ed piece from the New York Times. In my experience, love is action. And an unquestioned mind is the only suffering in the world--but only totally.



A Can't-Do Government

By Paul Krugman

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.

First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out without help - and help wasn't provided. Many have yet to receive any help at all.

There will and should be many questions about the response of state and local governments; in particular, couldn't they have done more to help the poor and sick escape? But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response.

Even military resources in the right place weren't ordered into action. "On Wednesday," said an editorial in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!"

Maybe administration officials believed that the local National Guard could keep order and deliver relief. But many members of the National Guard and much of its equipment - including high-water vehicles - are in Iraq. "The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," a Louisiana Guard officer told reporters several weeks ago.

Second question: Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an Editor and Publisher article says, citing a series of articles in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, "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."

In 2002 the corps' chief resigned, reportedly under threat of being fired, after he criticized the administration's proposed cuts in the corps' budget, including flood-control spending.

Third question: Did the Bush administration destroy FEMA's effectiveness? The administration has, by all accounts, treated the emergency management agency like an unwanted stepchild, leading to a mass exodus of experienced professionals.

Last year James Lee Witt, who won bipartisan praise for his leadership of the agency during the Clinton years, said at a Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.

At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.

So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

[ulvmeto]

TweetI received this in a email thought it was worth passing on!!!!
Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor
John NicholsTue Sep 6, 1:08 PM ET

The Nation -- Finally, we have discovered the roots of George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism."

On the heels of the president's "What, me worry?" response to the death, destruction and dislocation that followed upon Hurricane Katrina comes the news of his mother's Labor Day visit with hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston.

Commenting on the facilities that have been set up for the evacuees -- cots crammed side-by-side in a huge stadium where the lights never go out and the sound of sobbing children never completely ceases -- former First Lady Barbara Bush concluded that the poor people of New Orleans had lucked out.

"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.

On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever. Perhaps the former first lady was amusing herself with the notion that evacuees without bread could eat cake.

At the very least, she was expressing a measure of empathy commensurate with that evidenced by her son during his fly-ins for disaster-zone photo opportunities.

On Friday, when even Republican lawmakers were giving the federal government an "F" for its response to the crisis, President Bush heaped praise on embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown. As thousands of victims of the hurricane continued to plead for food, water, shelter, medical care and a way out of the nightmare to which federal neglect had consigned them, Brown cheerily announced that "people are getting the help they need."

Barbara Bush's son put his arm around the addled FEMA functionary and declared, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Like mother, like son.

Even when a hurricane hits, the apple does not fall far from the tree.

[T-Man007]

TweetThere was no way into the city. Didn't you see the news? They had to round up specialized vehicles that could travel through the flooded streets. (this took time) Not to mention, it's not like we just have millions and millions of "emergency" food in a warehouse somewhere. It had to be collected, loaded, and shipped. Also, don't forget, because of the violence, the trucks were stopped in route and told to sit on the side of the road for something like 14 hours while the National Guard regained order. Had there not been people shooting at helicopters and not been flooded streets the resources could have been hauled on normal 18 wheelers and got there sooner. That's the facts.

[T-Man007]

TweetHey, I just thought I add this. I was just watching ESPN and the athletic director from LSU said that the government organized a triase (spelling - you know the mdeical relief) at LSU before the huricane ever hit the shore. He said they were there and mostly set up by Friday. So, all this crap about Bush and the government not acting fast enough is BS. The athletic director at LSU wouldn't make this stuff up. He said Docs were there from New Mexico, Texas, Atlanta, etc. That's one hell of a jump start. As a matter of fact, the triase (sp) was the largest ever in history.

[Blackfoot]

TweetProps to the Mexican gov't. Nice, especially from a country as poor as they are.

I'm really disappointed in Bush for a lot of reasons. When Clinton was in office, the national debt was erased and we had a surplus (that means we had money in the bank), and Gore's foreign policy was amazing - people don't realize this aspect because it's behind the scenes but it's what keeps the peace. In just a few short years, "George W" has managed to screw everything up. Way to go man. What's your next move genius?

And, what's with all of the damn criminals in NO. What kind of people do shit like that to other people during a crisis? Correction, what kind of animal does things like that to other people during a crisis?

Sorry if I've hit a nerve with some bros, but damn! Just had to vent.

[diggi]

TweetEveryone is disapointed in Bush now.. Why the fuck did people vote for him anyways.. I bet if they had another elections people would still be fucked up in their heads and vote for him.. what we get is what we deserve..

[Blackfoot]

Tweet

Everyone is disapointed in Bush now.. Why the fuck did people vote for him anyways.. I bet if they had another elections people would still be fucked up in their heads and vote for him.. what we get is what we deserve..

LMAO. I didn't vote for Bush, but I know what you mean.

[TRAM]

Tweet

I just saw that the mexican military is sending trucks with supplies to help out with relief in N.O. Its the first time in 165 years that the mexican army has operated on US soil. Just thought it was impressive that someone else is helping us out made me smile.

I THINKS IT'S AWESOME THAT OTHER COUNTRIES ARE HELPING OUT, BUT MEXICO...TOO WEIRD... I WONDER HOW MANY ILLEGALS & TONS OF GRASS THEY WILL BE DROPPING OFF ON THE WAY THROUGH.

[O2BESOHUGE]

TweetTHATS GREAT BUT I THINK THEY HAVE IT CONFUSED...ALL THOSE MEXICANS ARE OVER HERE ANYWAY

[3Vandoo]

TweetBe careful guys maybe these mexican army will not go back home