Texas and Louisiana and Katrina

[ferdville]

Email I received today.

(Over-simplified, but you get the picture.)


* * * * * *

Two States, 22 Observations 09-24-2005


Things I have noticed while watching media coverage of the recent hurricanes.
1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans.
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats.

2. Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves.
Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them.

3. Texas: Local and state officials take responsibility for protecting their citizens and property.
Louisiana: Local and state officials blame federal government for not protecting their citizens and property.

4. Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order.
Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness.

5. Texas: Law enforcement officers remain on duty to protect city.
Louisiana: Law enforcement officers desert their posts to protect themselves.

6. Texas: Local police watch for looting.
Louisiana: Local police participate in looting.

7. Texas: Law and order remains in control, 8 looters tried it, 8 looters arrested.
Louisiana: Anarchy and lawlessness breaks out, looters take over city, no arrests, criminals with guns have to be shot by federal troops.

8. Texas: Considerable damage caused by hurricane.
Louisiana: Considerable damage caused by looters.

9. Texas: Flood barriers hold preventing cities from flooding.
Louisiana: Flood barriers fail due to lack of maintenance allowing city to flood.

10. Texas: Orderly evacuation away from threatened areas, few remain.
Louisiana: 25,000 fail to evacuate, are relocated to another flooded area.

11. Texas: Citizens evacuate with personal 3 day supply of food and water.
Louisiana: Citizens fail to evacuate with 3 day supply of food and water, do without it for the next 4 days.

12. Texas: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials provide accessible distribution points.
Louisiana: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials prevent citizens from reaching distribution points and vice versa.

13. Louisiana: Media focuses on poor blacks in need of assistance, blames Bush.
Texas: Media can't find poor blacks in need of assistance, looking for something else to blame on Bush.

14. Texas: Coastal cities suffer some infrastructure damage, Mayors tell residents to stay away until ready for repopulation, no interference from federal officials.
Louisiana: New Orleans is destroyed, Mayor asks residents to return home as another hurricane approaches, has to be overruled by federal officials.

15. Louisiana: Over 400 killed by storm, flooding and crime.
Texas: 24 killed in bus accident on highway during evacuation, no storm related deaths.

16. Texas: Jailed prisoners are relocated to other detention facilities outside the storm area.
Louisiana: Jailed prisoners are set free to prey on city shops, residents, and homes.

17. Texas: Local and state officials work with FEMA and Red Cross in recovery operations.
Louisiana: Local and state officials obstruct FEMA and Red Cross from aiding in recovery operations.

18. Texas: Local and state officials demonstrate leadership in managing disaster areas.
Louisiana: Local and state officials fail to demonstrate leadership, require federal government to manage disaster areas.

19. Texas: Fuel deliveries can't keep up with demand, some run out of gas on highway, need help from fuel tankers before storm arrives.
Louisiana: Motorists wait till storm hits and electrical power fails. Cars run out of gas at gas stations that can?t pump gas. Gas in underground tanks mixes with flood waters.

20. Texas: Mayors move citizens out of danger.
Louisiana: Mayor moves himself and family to Dallas.

21. Texas: Mayors continue public service announcements and updates on television with Governor's backing and support.
Louisiana: Mayor cusses, governor cries, senator threatens president with violence on television, none of them have a clue what went wrong or who's responsible.
22. Louisiana: Democratic Senator says FEMA was slow in responding to 911 calls from Louisiana citizens.
Texas: Republican Senator says "when you call 911, the phone doesn't ring in Washington. It rings here at the local responders".

What if state and local elected officials were forced to depend on themselves and their own resources instead of calling for help from the federal government? Texas cities would be back up and running in a few days. Louisiana cities would still be under water next month. Republicans call for action, Democrats call for help. What party will you be voting for in the next election?

 

[smurphy]

this whole list would have meant nothing if houston was hit like nawlins. ....and also if texas was hit first.....or if galveston was below sea level. pretty much bullsh1t in other words.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

with one exception-- it wasn't the storm that did brunt of damage it was when levees broke--considering N.O. is under sea level evacuations and precautions should have been greater--not less.
The city and state of N.O. were so inept they failed to even have a basic system of communication set up.

 

[ferdville]

Smurph = I believe that the email I received contains facts.

I know your response is assumption. What else is new?

 

[smurphy]

i'm just saying the comparisons are not relevant because of new orleans' size, being below sea level, and the fact that everyone had the example of katrina to learn from when rita hit.

 

[smurphy]

When you begin the list with:

"1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans.
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats."

....I mean, come on. That's about as ridiculous and biased as a supposed "objective" statement can be.

 

[danmurphy jr]

Lurkers of the world, especially those beyond these borders. You are about to be treated to American Moronics at it's dizzying heights. Rascist, stupid and yes, Americana. I would to beg forgiveness if this offends even the person who adheres to this philosophy as this is the way most of them are reared.
Sit back and enjoy.

 

[StevieD]

i was in New Hampshire the week before the evacuations in Texas. That week they happened to have a NASCAR event in New Hampshire. To help traffic they had the traffic running south on both sides of the highway, with only one lane running North. I was surprised to see that Texas couldn't figure that out when they had massive traffic jams leaving town and and the other side of highway deserted.

 

[dr. freeze]

i was in New Hampshire the week before the evacuations in Texas. That week they happened to have a NASCAR event in New Hampshire. To help traffic they had the traffic running south on both sides of the highway, with only one lane running North. I was surprised to see that Texas couldn't figure that out when they had massive traffic jams leaving town and and the other side of highway deserted.

obviously you have never driven on I-45 through downtown Houston

to leave one lane open or even two running South would be impossible with the exits, construction, increased bottlenecks on your northbound traffic, etc. etc.

i am surprised to see that anyone could just ignorantly assume roads are built the same as they are next to a NASCAR facility near one's house

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I was surprised to see that Texas couldn't figure that out when they had massive traffic jams leaving town and and the other side of highway deserted.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

only traffic jams in N.O. were the cops heading out of town and the looters heading to shops--

 

[Nosigar]

Lurkers of the world, especially those beyond these borders. You are about to be treated to American Moronics at it's dizzying heights. Rascist, stupid and yes, Americana. I would to beg forgiveness if this offends even the person who adheres to this philosophy as this is the way most of them are reared.
Sit back and enjoy.

The majority of the working world, who you would seem to pander to in your quest for global acceptance, believes the notion of this statement. And trust me, the vast majority of the world does not want to come to the US, they just want to live like in the US.

-Racist? Where the fuqk is it racist? Or are you just trying to use politically correct and emotionally charged verbiage to put your point across? The racist card is definintely past its peak. Neo-socs will have to look for a new expression du jour soon enough.

-Stupid? Stupidity is having elected officials who gain their positions by calling others racists, stupid and old fashioned traditionalist "Americana" and are worthless as leaders at the time of any crisis. Whining blamers? Yes, they're good at that. What is so stupid?

-Americana? Certainly a poke at the culture that allows incompetent local officials to lead people in an emergency. Americana is blaming everyone but yourself and getting away with it after you have helped cause hundreds of deaths? Is Americana spending untold billions of unsupervised dollars just to appease thise who would only vote when there is a personal financial gain to be made? Democracy will only last until people realize they can vote themselves money out of other people's pockets.

As for this philosophy is due to how most are reared, that isn't a racist comment at all. Sure, but the children of the unkept, unwanted, unattended, unheard and unloved are those who seek the graces of the rest of the world by appeasement? Rearing? Gimme a break. i guess you could ssay that if you aborted the children of all middle class/working class people in the US we would have no more neo-cons?

i guess you comment is based on the fallacy that the new left ifs formed by well-educated intellectuals.
The intellectual left is a joke. "Intellectual"? I beg the forgiveness of those who may be offended by what I'm gooing to say since it does not pertain to all (they will understand), but a leftist intellectual who went to college for a bachelors, master and maybe a PhD studying poilics, literature, law and other humanities is not quite an intellectual in the book of most actual intellectuals I know. Learing from a neo-socialist professor and telling them what they want to hear, bisaed opinions favoring the complacent, "don't want to get their hands dirty" elite is not exactly stretching the boundaries of the mind.
Expressing feelings of empathy for those less fortunate in the same way one feels bad for a little lost and hungry puppy on the side of the road does not make a person better. Feeling sorry for the puppy does not make a person better.
Giving that person a meager subsistence by entitlement by taking from others work does not make a person better. What makes a person better is taking the time and effort to allow the conditions for any willing and "able-bodied" person to succeed and grow personally, socially and economically. We are all human beings, not gods or angels with the mission of curing all of humanities maladies with a swift pen or a emotional speech. Perhaps that is the long term goal that we all seek and liberals are only the misunderstood purveyors of that goal, but due to the complexity of humnakind I doubt that that goal wil be reached anytime soon.

Or maybe the lefty only seeks control over everything by way of advertising themselves as the ones who can give to the meek, the poor, the "down on their luck" that which they desire most ... socio-economic freedom?
Democracy.. you gotta love it.

 

[LUX]

i guess you comment is based on the fallacy that the new left ifs formed by well-educated intellectuals.
The intellectual left is a joke. "Intellectual"? I beg the forgiveness of those who may be offended by what I'm gooing to say since it does not pertain to all (they will understand), but a leftist intellectual who went to college for a bachelors, master and maybe a PhD studying poilics, literature, law and other humanities is not quite an intellectual in the book of most actual intellectuals I know. Learing from a neo-socialist professor and telling them what they want to hear, bisaed opinions favoring the complacent, "don't want to get their hands dirty" elite is not exactly stretching the boundaries of the mind.
Expressing feelings of empathy for those less fortunate in the same way one feels bad for a little lost and hungry puppy on the side of the road does not make a person better. Feeling sorry for the puppy does not make a person better.
Giving that person a meager subsistence by entitlement by taking from others work does not make a person better. What makes a person better is taking the time and effort to allow the conditions for any willing and "able-bodied" person to succeed and grow personally, socially and economically. We are all human beings, not gods or angels with the mission of curing all of humanities maladies with a swift pen or a emotional speech. Perhaps that is the long term goal that we all seek and liberals are only the misunderstood purveyors of that goal, but due to the complexity of humnakind I doubt that that goal wil be reached anytime soon.

Or maybe the lefty only seeks control over everything by way of advertising themselves as the ones who can give to the meek, the poor, the "down on their luck" that which they desire most ... socio-economic freedom?
Democracy.. you gotta love it.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[LUX]

i am surprised to see that anyone could just ignorantly assume roads are built the same as they are next to a NASCAR facility near one's house

Don't be surprised Freeze, he just needs something to bitch about. Ever since "the man" jacked him on his house, he's been a bitter miserable fvck.

 

[Chadman]

First of all, I think even Dubbya would say that Katrina (or Catherine, or whatever her name was) was a bigger storm than Rita, so to compare the two is not an equally measurable exercise, FWIW. In short...when you compare what happened in Texas because of the storm to the massive disaster caused by Katrina, you lose credibility. I know you probably didn't write this assessment yourself, but you get my point.

Texas: Gained much of their state's success and funding through the connections of Tom Delay, George Bush and George Bush.

Louisiana: Didn't.

I wonder - I honestly don't know, I wonder - if the areas of oil development in the Texas part of the gulf had their funding cut as much as New Orleans and the Louisiana gulf did over the past 6 years.

I understand that there are corrupt politicians in southern Louisiana, and they are Democrats. If they misappropriated funds, then they should be dealt with. But there is no arguing that Bush pushed and succeeded in cutting much important funding that could have helped a lot of people. Deal with it.

 

[Chadman]

How laughable are the assessments about FEMA's response in Texas compared to in Louisiana?

How about these comparisons:

12. Texas: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees.
Because Bush didn't want to look like an idiot TWICE... or
Because Brownie was not in charge anymore... or
Simply, because it was a smart thing to do to help people.

Louisiana: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees.
Whenever they got around to it.


AND, the best one of all...how about we assess it like this:

17. Texas: Local and state officials work with FEMA.
BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE.

Louisiana: Local and state officials obstruct FEMA.
WHICH IS A JOKE, BECAUSE THEY WEREN'T THERE.

And, finally, which state do you think they would rather remain whole - Louisiana, or Texas?

Hell, the Bush family knows that people are better off in Texas, right?

(The last one was kind of a joke. I would assume they wouldn't REALLY feel that way, would they?

 

[StevieD]

You mean to tell me that there are not any breaks in the median strip for emergency vehicles to use? Then I guess I am surprised to see they don't know how to build roads in Texas! LOL! Very constructive Lux. Nice plan for Iraq by the way. Train Iragi's and get out. LOL! Where have I heard that before.......LOL! Moron.

 

[LUX]

Oh, ok Stevie, so you think we should stay even longer after their troops are trained? What was your plan btw? Protest until you get the troops home, just like you did during vietnam. You seem to speak up so easily on a message board, but seem to be a bit of a pussy in real life according your account of the whole house debacle.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Hmm Was N.O. the only city hit in Louisiana--and what about Miss who took brunt of storm?
You would think from some of these post that somehow the feds decide to just shit on N.O. and no one else or is there remote possibilty that "MAYBE" N.O. was the one responsible

I'll go back on my 1st post on matter-- you tell me who was responsible for evacuation-levees and pumps and I'll tell you who deserves most the blame.

 

[StevieD]

Lux, you realise that Lyndon Johnson was only to stay in Vietnam until we had the South Vietnamese trained to defend themselves? Do you realize that Richard Nixon was only going to stay in Vietnam until he had the South Vietnamese trained to defend themselves. Now Bush is telling you the same thing. I am sure it is not lost on you that last year the defense department said that 3 battalions where trained. This year they said one was trained.

Don't go trying to figure out my plan because I don't have one to end this mess. I just think that the guys who created it shouldn't be the ones to stay the course.

Another thing you are missing is that we, as a nation, have had 4 years to figure out evacuation plans from our major cities and from what we have seen out of these two storms is that we have failed miserably.

Some would like to make this a Democrat/ Republican thing. I don't understand that. Both sides have failed.

 

[LUX]

Stevie, I'm not going to argue with you anymore because it really isn't going to change anything one way or the other. In all honesty, I could care less if Iraq became a parking lot tomorrow. I've stated ad nauseam why I don't think their religion and democracy is a good fit. I believed the whole presentation that this admin gave before this ordeal started. Looking back, either they were 110% full of shit or had terrible intelligence. I'd like to believe it's the latter, but we'll never know IMO. I just don't think we can leave tomorrow because we created this mess. Believe me, I don't believe everything Bush says regarding Iraq.