New Orleans is going, going gone...

[Guest MerryChristmas]

I thought they were thick but this has just bowled me over

Shooting at the people trying to rescue them!

[Stripey]

to be honest, I find it difficult to feel any sympathy for these people, considering the global context.

[fli$]

Maybe' date=' but the original dwellings that these cities were founded on were built by settlers who would have had very little idea of the potential consequences (having never experienced such conditions). To carry on building IN TO the flood plain, is surely - as someone who isn't a city planner - pure stupidity. Nature fucked over man and his defences.

The fact that they're talking of spending billions of dollars rebuilding the place defies belief. Here's a crazy idea. Start building 50 miles up the Mississippi on somewhere that isn't a flood plain, and the vast majority of the city would stay standing and un-watered come a massive, freak hurricane.

[/quote']

Fair point, granted 50 miles up the mississippi you would still get hurricane damage.

The point I am trying to make is that you cannot abandon locations just because every so often something like this happens. Everyone in the south know the risks are there. This does not make them stupid. It means that they have evaluated the risks and feel that due to the unlikeliness of this kind of thing happening, it is worth their while rebuilding and continuing with their lives.

I am not trying to start a debate or an argument with anyone, I just get slightly offended when people come out with such narrow minded, ignorant and simpleton statements.

[lowball]

i'm amazed how the authorities of this country have completely lost it

& how to control things in an emergency..........

& britain takes a lead from these people??????????

[beeker]

you've got to be sofa king we todd did to rebuild a city there... just up sticks n move to a higher ground!

[Guest tv tanned]

Apparently there has been a huge explosion at a chemical factory in New Orleans, and the air is filling with smoke and fumes.

It is incredible to watch the world's economic and military powerhouse being completely impotent in the face of this disaster.

If this is how bad they are at rescuing their own people, I imagine the UN is probably glad they don't bother their arse with peacekeeping missions anymore.

[Afro Droid]

"Perhaps you'd like to sign Kyoto now' date=' Mr President?"[/quote']

More likely to be eyeing up another middle eastern oil producing country, petrol prices to worry about an' all....

[HeinzHines]

Apparently there has been a huge explosion at a chemical factory in New Orleans' date=' and the air is filling with smoke and fumes.

[/quote']

Here is a photo....

[Afro Droid]

It's hard to feel sorry for the US as a nation... as the saying goes' date=' what goes around comes around.[/quote']

The problem with that atittude is that it's not the evil-powerful in the US that are suffering, it's the poorest and most disenfranchised.

[fli$]

I'm always just amazed at how concerned people are over here with what is happening in America. "America should do this, and this, they shouldn't be doing that, oh haha look at all those stupid americans, they deserve everything they get, we are far superior"

Why not be concerned with the problems we have? Get over it and let America get on with it - we have enough to deal with over here.

[Guest tv tanned]

I'm always just amazed at how concerned people are over here with what is happening in America. "America should do this' date=' and this, they shouldn't be doing that, oh haha look at all those stupid americans, they deserve everything they get, we are far superior"[/quote']

Yeh, anyone would think they were the world's dominant power or something.

The attitude of our own government is to nod like a fucking lapdog anytime the U.S. does something, be it ignoring the massacre in Rwanda or flicking two fingers to the United Nations and bombing the shit out of Iraq.

So naturally we retain an interest in what happens with the U.S.

Maybe if they weren't so intent on fucking the entire planet through their grotesque policies towards the environment, their laissez-faire attitudes to the obscene practices of multi-national corporations in the third world and their foreign policy which is driven by the need to control the oil reserves of the Persian Gulf, then we could happily ignore them.

Why not be concerned with the problems we have? Get over it and let America get on with it - we have enough to deal with over here.

See my final paragraph above. I am concerned with stuff over here too, but we don't live in a bubble, and until the U.S. gets its act together, then I will continue to be critical of its governmental policies.

That doesn't mean I am distracted from the issues over here, but I find ignoring things doesn't make them go away.

[Guest MerryChristmas]

Yeh' date=' anyone would think they were the world's dominant power or something.

The attitude of our own government is to nod like a fucking lapdog anytime the U.S. does something, be it ignoring the massacre in Rwanda or flicking two fingers to the United Nations and bombing the shit out of Iraq.

So naturally we retain an interest in what happens with the U.S.

Maybe if they weren't so intent on fucking the entire planet through their grotesque policies towards the environment, their laissez-faire attitudes to the obscene practices of multi-national corporations in the third world and their foreign policy which is driven by the need to control the oil reserves of the Persian Gulf, then we could happily ignore them.

See my final paragraph above. I am concerned with stuff over here too, but we don't live in a bubble, and until the U.S. gets its act together, then I will continue to be critical of its governmental policies.

That doesn't mean I am distracted from the issues over here, but I find ignoring things doesn't make them go away.[/quote']

Oh yay, lets all join in the anti american sentiment

There is a lot going on that you are unaware of. But get this, others are aware of.

People, governments make mistakes, nobody is perfect, even one of the most powerful countries in the world is going to suffer massively when a city disapears

Why dont you try running a country during a time of strife

[Hog]

Ironically there was a bad storm in China yesterday. 600,000 people were evacuated from their homes. Did you hear about that?

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Of course not, no one is bad-mouthing the Chinese these days.

Boo America!

[HeinzHines]

Ironically there was a bad storm in China yesterday. 600' date='000 people were evacuated from their homes. Did you hear about that?[/quote']

Im betting that you did hear about that......

[Hog]

Im betting that you did hear about that......

Yep' date=' Im not kidding!

(AP) Flooding and landslides in areas throughout China have killed 536 people over the past two weeks, forcing the evacuation of 1.4 million and making this one of the deadliest summer rainy seasons in a decade, the government said Friday.

Government forecasters warned of more "torrential rains" in the densely populated south, especially around the Pearl River Delta northwest of Hong Kong - the heart of China's booming export industries.

Damage was worst in southern China, where rains and mudslides have killed at least 97 people this week and left another 41 missing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

[Fast Caz]

Can anyone see escape from La turning into Escape From New Orleans

they will banish all the peados into a life long swimming marathon and target practise

[EchelonDivision]

US "slow response" to Hurricane Katrina was deliberate

While TV news presenters keeps asking why the government took so long to

save the victims of Hurricane Katrina, evidence is beginning to emerge

that the officials may have delberately prevented attempts to rescue

thousands of people in affected cities.

BBC News has learned that FEMA officials deliberately prevented major

convoys of heavy lorries carrying water, and other supplies essential for

survival, from reaching cities suffering in the aftermath Hurricane

Katrina. When the first FEMA lorries began to arrive today, BBC reporters

said "this is the first time we've seen this sign," pointing to the "FEMA"

signs displayed on white A4 cards in the windscreens of the lorries.

"This lorry driver loaded his truck on Monday but his bosses prevented him

from coming here to these people until today." (BBC News 24, Sat, 3 Sep

05, 12:41 GMT.)

If we are to have a truly objective debate about what went wrong, we must

consider every possibility, including the theory that right-wing, wealthy

white men, in the US regime could have used this disaster as an

opportunity to facilitate some ethnic cleansing and clear away a swathe of

the poor, Black underclass whose very existance undermines the myth of

freedom, democracy, prosperity, and the American dream. It would not be

the first time in history that a government has taken action of this type.

Ethnic cleansing in the USA today may seem impossible, even unthinkable,

but let us not forget that only recently the US regime presided over

military action that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq and

Afghanistan.

[Marn]

It did seem that way from what I saw, sure everyone was told to get out but they must have known that not everyone is going to have a vehicle. At the end of the day they simply didn't care enough to actually seek out ways to properly evacuate the people who needed help the most. Survival of the richest springs to mind.

[Stripey]

It is all pretty shocking.

Take a step back for a minute, then take a deep breath, because what we are seeing now is the beginning of the end of America's darkest hour; the end of the Bush Administration.

Bush will never survive this disaster; the tectonic political-plates have shifted too dramatically; the failure too colossal.

Nearly overnight the familiar voices that sang his praises from every media pulpit in America have either been silenced or turned against him. It is truly extraordinary; and a tad suspicious.

The friendly cheerleaders are bailing-out across the spectrum; NBC, CBS, MSNBC and even the "bullish" FOX News have all descended on their prey like feral dogs on a wounded squirrel.

Suddenly the callousness and rustic hauteur of our esteemed leader, the "Fly-over" President, seems to be wearing-thin on leaders and pundits alike. They smell blood in the water and they are preparing to do what they do best; dismember the flailing carcass with gnashing, razor-like teeth.

But, why the abrupt change?

Can anyone remember a time when the government has failed as miserably as it has with Hurricane Katrina?

While tens of thousands of desperate Americans are hunkered down in 90 degree heat without food or water, President Imposter is circling at 30 thousand feet blowing kisses to his drowning people below.

Bush has become a Texas Louis 14, completely detached in his bubble-world echoing the shallow bromides of his ideological predecessor, pres moi, le deluge".

His first response to the storm was to suspend the EPA's clean air restrictions on the profitable oil industry and to promise government aid for offshore drilling facilities.

No surprises there.

The second part of the administration's strategy was to work up an elaborate public relations charade that involved trotting out every waffle-bottomed bureaucrat in Washington in front of the TV cameras to make officious-sounding statements.

Meanwhile, nothing has been done to relieve the desperation of victims in New Orleans who are suffering through America's greatest natural disaster.

In fact, that appears to be the strategy; do nothing!

Many of the reports that are being filed mention that National Guard installations are set up just blocks away from the Superdome and the Convention Center; the epicenter of the human tragedy, and yet, the Guard is doing nothing to meet the needs of the people inside.

Why?

Many people are asking if it is because they are predominantly black and poor.

Certainly as we see the footage of poor, black people dragging across the city, 3 days without food and water and no busses in sight; we have to wonder if there is a racial element involved.

Rather than address the dire needs of the stranded people, Bush has approved "shoot to kill" orders for looters.

Unbelievable?!?

So, now its "open season" on starving people scavenging through the ruins of the city looking for sustenance for their family?

Bush is set on repeating the same mistakes he made in Falluja and Baghdad when angry townspeople were mowed-down during peaceful protests.

Look how that turned out.

Is that what Bush wants; a revolution?

What possible purpose does it serve to take 1500 Guardsman off their duties of treating the wounded and feeding the hungry, and making them patrol the streets to round up petty-thieves?

And why has Bush approved the deploying of snipers to the tops of New Orleans buildings instead of health-care workers to its overcrowded facilities?

"I think there should be zero tolerance for people breaking the law during an emergency such as this," Bush boomed on ABC's Good Morning America.

Bush's "law and order" approach to the tragedy is consistent with his utter inability to grasp the pain of the average victim of this colossal disaster. As always, he simply parrots the inane bromides about private property that underscore the Republican ideological world-view.

Bush is a firm believer that looting should limited to the class of carpet-baggers and war criminals to which he belongs. He has no problem with the "no-bid" contracts and war-profiteering that has plagued Iraqi debacle from day-one. The $9 billion of pilfered Iraqi oil revenue never even drew a raised eyebrow from our benighted leader, but the notion that that corruption might be extended democratically to everyone regardless of class. That's the REAL crime as Bush sees it.

The vast looting and destruction in New Orleans is an object lesson to the ruling class and one that ultimately benefits antiwar activists and civil libertarians. The people in power need to grasp the ephemeral character of society; there's nothing permanent about it. Order is a transitory phenomenon that papers-over the primordial swamp of human rage, desire and barbarity. When we peel back the outer layer of society, we see those same dark forces at work; a cauldron of competing emotions and shadowy cravings. Those forces are now in play on the streets of New Orleans, along with the even more elemental drive to survive.

What bothers men like Bush is the prospect that everyone may partake in the same nihilistic-revelry that he and his confreres have enjoyed for so long. It is the anarchy of unrestrained greed that puts a shiver in his spine; the selfishness that infects every man's heart. And, yet, this is the true face of present-day America; a lawless, twisted waif unleashing waves of terror across the globe; feeding the burgeoning coffers of its privileged few.

Why not uncork the bottle and let everyone take part in the festivities?

As the poet Yates said, "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed And everywhere the celebration of innocence is drowned".

What's good for Bush is good for everyone. Isn't this what we see unfolding in New Orleans?

The roving gangs of looters are like a giant mirror hung in front of the White House reflecting the anarchic soul that lies within; Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Falluja; this is the Bush legacy. And, now, it is America's, too.

America has become like Rimbaud's dissolute drifter in "A Season in Hell" who boasts: "I stretched myself out in the mud, I dried myself in the air of crime, And I played some fine tricks on madness."

Bush can't have it both ways. He cannot destroy the law and then pretend it still exists for the poor and helpless.

The looters in New Orleans are the offspring of the Bush political ethos; a no-holds-barred culture of violence, thievery and impunity.

If we cannot have a society based on justice and mercy, than let's tear it down and start over.

[sonhenry]

Ironic that Hurricane Andrew was his fathers undoing as well. Beautiful symetry, no?

[thestooge]

Good to see Cuba and Venezula offer to lend the US some doctors and medical supplies. I think our nation should maybe be looking to lend a hand as well (equality and all). The people suffering are, despite living in the states, among the most deprived in the world.

Interesting to hear that the levees were built to withstand a force 3 storm. Katrina was initially force 5 but by the time it reached land it had been down graded to 3 hadn't it?

Also the flood defence system was privatised last year - not sure if thats relevant but privatisation generally results in corners being cut, repairs not being completed as promptly as they should etc.

Oh well, roll on conspiricy theory

[Friday's Child]

I can easily believe that Bush prevented aid. After all, the deep south is hardly reknowned for their pro republican attitude. And as an area, it isn't too reflective of the 'American Dream' now is it?

It'll be funny watching how Georgey tries to justify abandoning hundreds of thousands of people though.

[Edgar Graham]

[Guest MerryChristmas]

One has a piece of electronic equipment under his arm