Comments Posted By Rick Moran
Displaying 1131 To 1140 Of 1317 Comments
Hey idiot:
Guess it doesn't matter that those "funds" have been earmarked since 1965 and that not one Congress - Dem or Rep - bothered to appropriate it.
As usual, you twist the facts to suit your ridiculous worldview.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 2.09.2005 @ 15:54
Sorry, I disagree.
We're talking about 90,000 square miles of devastation. And what's happening in New Orleans could not have been prevented with any amount of planning. We may be taling about 3 times the number of buildings underwater (perhaps as many as half a million) not to mention there is nothing that government can do - any government - when so many need so much in so short a time.
Access to people in an earthquake is relatively easy compared to gaining access to needy people with 10 feet of water in the streets.
If every disaster worker who will be in New Orleans by Sunday was there on Monday afternoon after the hurricane went through there would have been a chance - just a chance - that things wouldn't have been as bad as they are. But the fact that it's taking 6 days to get these people in position should tell you that we would have needed a psychic to divine mother nature's intentions to have a chance to head off the humanitarian disaster.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 2.09.2005 @ 12:28
FOR THE LEFT: A COMPASSION VACATION
Hey John:
It's not spin when people are wasting space on their blog to criticize the President when others are trying to raise money rather than defend him.
The righty blogs raised almost double what the lefty blogs did. Gee...ya think if they cared more about their fellow citizens than they did about goring the President that figure might have been reversed?
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 5.09.2005 @ 14:42
Hesiod:
As of 4:00 PM Central...
Lib Blogs: $118,000
Conservative blogs: $448,000
Gee...Ya think if Atrios and Kos had spent as much time and effort trying to raise money rather than trying to pin blame on Bush that the lib blogs could have raised a little more money?
You raise half a mil for a ex serviceman who calls his commander in chief a chickenhawk (while running a commercial saying he supports him) and you can't raise half a mil for your fellow citizens?
You disgust me.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 2.09.2005 @ 16:05
THE COMPACT OF CIVIL SOCIETIES
Read John Hersey's account of the aftermath of the attack on Hiroshima. In fact, the damage done by the bomb was confined to an area of about 3 square miles. Most city services (including street cars) were operating. Hospitals were running, albiet overwhelmed. Police were on the job and looting was kept to a minimum.
Electricty was out but the water service was working. The problem was the fires that were so numerous that the fire department couldn't deal with them.
Hiroshima was in no where near as bad shape as New Orleans. But hey! What do I know, I'm ignorant!
And the tsunami did not affect any city of more than 25,000. A much different situation than a city 20 times that size. Banda Aceh was the largest city affected but was barely scraped by the waves, thank goodness. Besides, one could hardly call Banda Aceh a modern industrialized city.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 1.09.2005 @ 17:14
Correct me if I'm wrong but the Governor just ordered the evacuation of the entire city. Did Blanco do it because of the levee breaks? Or because of the breakdown in services?
Whatever the reason, there's never been an evacuation of a major American city. That alone is going to cost lives.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 31.08.2005 @ 12:02
Jim:
Is it too politically correct to say that your comment is the most vile, racist, not to mention stupid comment ever left on this site.
In case you're wondering...that's why I deleted it.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 31.08.2005 @ 11:54
Bill:
I hope to God you're right.
However, I watched an interview with the Mayor who was ticked off at the Army Corps of Engineers because of the delay in trying to plug the levee. He specifically said that if they can't plug it by this afternoon, that the water would rise to the level of the lake which is 5 feet above sea level. This is the same interview where he said "The bowl is filling." Since the city is 4 feet below sea level, his engineers are telling him that there will be 9 feet of water (+5 + 4) throught the entire city.
I hope he's wrong. But official reports from FEMA are saying that the water is still rising as off 11:00 AM today. Water that's ankle deep now as it is in the French Quarter could be hip deep by 3:00 PM and if they can't plug the levee (a huge task given the break is more than 200 feet wide) damage will be total.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 31.08.2005 @ 11:22
Scott:
I'm not sure that the depression generation didn't have hope in FDR. And at least they had the comfort of some normalcy in their daily lives.
The situation in New Orleans could better be compared to a nuclear device going off. The problem with the flooding is going to prevent any meaningful help getting threw for days - perhaps up to a week. That's trouble in that there's no water and little food and not much prospect of getting any to tens of thousands of people until the waters subside.
As for enforcing the law, unfortunately every available law enforcement official is involved in trying to rescue the up to 20,000 people trapped by the flood. That will also take a few days. And unless they declare martial law, the National Guard will not be able to help out either.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 31.08.2005 @ 09:22
"DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE THE LOVE OF GOD GOES?"
Fzz:
You're right...I should have made it clear I was talking about an American natural disaster (600,000 people died in the CHinese earthquake of 1976).
TMH:
What you say is true about CW vis a vis 9/11. However, the deafening silence from both the visual arts (photography excepted) and the performing arts and with the publication of few novels or books of poetry by recognized cultural leaders, my point is I believe valid.
These are the people who ordinarily would put 9/11 in a cultural context which would give us those touchstones you speak of. The have failed miserably and I think it has more to do with the politicization of our culture - both right and left - rather than the nature of the event.
Comment Posted By Rick Moran On 29.08.2005 @ 13:16
