Of hurricanes and Jackasses with no brains!

In fairness I didn't 'stumble upon it', Zanne did.

ok.... well you sent it to me :oP

About the only thing that I am willing to concede is that at the very least someone fubared very badly. No one at any point said "We have X number of people at X point heading to X place and it will take X amount of time to get there. We ask you for your patience." This would have calmed things down considerably. But combine this inaction with the fact that the only thing they said that they were on the way, no note of where they were coming from or how long it would take to get to the affected regions and the fact that they at the very least didn't send any food or water to the affected areas to help them more comfortably wait for evacuation makes it look like they really were trying to just forget about at least New Orleans. It wasn't just New Orleans though. There were many towns that were affected in the same way and had to wait just as long. Many of them are still waiting. The only one that I have heard anything from in saying that things take time and hinting at how long it could take was Lt. Gen. Russel Honore'. Now there is a man to get things done. But he has only been there since...Friday? Makes me think that they picked him out especially to try to make it look like he was on the case all along. (Go look at CNN in the archives, he's not mentioned before Thursday or Friday.) "Get those goddamned weapons down! I'm not gonna tell you again! Get those goddammed weapons down!" "This isn't Irag." "I told you to get those goddamned weapons down!" Gen. Honore' walking through his troops, yelling at them as they are in New Orleans. Gotta love the man. Oh, that and him helping to load the kidlets onto a boat. Yup, he's a press opportunity for FEMA and the federal government, but he's doing this on his own, and I'm sure the only reason he hasn't said his own little FU to the government is that he's career military and much more disciplined than that.

You should go read through some of the people's blogs that are on the neworleans list, or just go read the news on CNN or pretty much any of the major news outlets.

I've been very careful to not take the word of just any Joe Blow that writes something in his or her blog and have been reading the news outlets to see if their opinions and statements are backed up. They have been, in almost every case. There have been very few times that they haven't been backed up. That was when the statements were so outrageous as to not be believed without even trying to check up on them, or so minor as to not make any difference. There's been some really wild speculations running around right now, and unfortunately, the major news outlets and congressional webpages all back them up almost all of them.


Using Red Tape to stop a mobile hospital from going in: BAD

I'm not sure what day this happened, but I can see (in one way) why they might have stopped it. Things in New Orleans are very shaky, even now. They may have been afraid of the problems that the people on the hospital might have encountered. Now, we won't go into WHY that town is in the mess it's in and why they may have felt this was a necessary step. We all know why.

I had to make two comments to get it all in!

Legislating how much federal aid will go towards relief: BAD

They have to do this. It was basically a formality, there was never any doubt that it would have been approved. From the little I know about legislation, they have to make sure that the president doesn't ask for something that isn't needed, or that they don't want to give. (An example: He wants to fund his own private little thing that would do more harm than good, they have the right to stop him.) Also, it's to make sure that the American people know that yes, this is a legal action. It's making sure that the American people know that this is a valid expense that is needed, and not just some waste of public money. (I know, they waste more than that every year. Just trying to explain some of why this was done this way.) By the way, the president said he wanted $10.5B (?) and the legislators said yup, you get $10.5B, they never argued the point at all. Oh, and this number is on top of what is already being spent. Basically it was an extra $10.5B on top of what has already been spent. It's annoying and on the surface seems a bad way to do things, but in cases like this, there is never a doubt that it will be approved. Also, I'm sure that this will only be the beginning, and I doubt all the other requests that the president makes will be with much less fanfair, as will the approvals of the requests.


Failing to properly evacuate the affected regions in time: BAD

This event, while forseen, couldn't really be foreseen, if you can understand where I'm going. The people that were left behind in this event were either the ones that for one reason or another refused to leave, or for one reason or another couldn't leave. (And I am WAY past the point of saying that anyone was stupid for staying, I myself have grown up a lot in the past few days.) But, evacuating all of the people that stayed for whatever reason? There just wasn't enough time or resources. Ever try to take three 50 pound bags of grain, mix them all together and then try to get them all seperated into their original bags in only 48 hours, with your eyes closed? Along the same lines. Can we say herding cats? Yes, more could have been done. But it would have been damn nigh impossible to do so and would have taken more resources than really needs to be spent getting people out. Especially when FEMA(rred, as in fubared) promised that resources were being lined up to go into the affected areas as soon as the storm went away. They local and state governments had some peace of mind in leaving so many people behind in thinking that aid would arrive quickly. (I think I just came up with a new way to described something that has been totally fucked up and screwed up. Femarred. Gonna have to try to get that into the common lexicon.)

Uhm...let's see? Anything else I can argue with or explain? Nope, looks good, or rather, very very bad.

Re: I had to make two comments to get it all in!

Femarred sounds too close to Femurred. I don't wanna be describing things as if they've been bludgeoned by leg bones, sorry.

Can we just declare things "Bushed" instead? It's like botched only with more connotations of "i'm a worthless fuckup who's never had to practice independant thought or reasoning because everythings been handed to me or done for me".

Re: I had to make two comments to get it all in!

And then there's the original meaning of the word. Tired, worn out. Which I think we all are right now. The only time that I liked him in his whole term was when 9/11 happened. I don't think that Clinton would have been able to handle it as well. Anything after that...well...that's at least a three comment rant.