Hurricane destorying the city of New Orleans

[Riot]

America has troops ALL OVER THE WORLD. Name a country and we got troops there.

[End Boss]

Antarctica?

[bchogan]

Not to get in the middle of the current discussion, but I just watched the hurricane relief concert on NBC. Specifically, Kanye West's comments are why I'm posting. I'm sure what he said will make it into the news, as he went of the teleprompeter and railed away, somewhat incoherently, basically claiming help isn't getting to New Orleans because of racism, and that the troops in Iraq are needed more here (I'm paraphrasing a whole lot, 'cause, as I said, West's comments were somewhat incoherent). He mentioned how blacks are seen as "looting" while whites are "looking for food," or words to that effect, and that "they're shooting at us," regarding the troops being sent down to try to keep order and prevent the stealing and violence that has been occuring. There's another thread going about it on this board, but that thread has gone way off topic, so I'm posting the same link to a site that illustrates the same thing West was commenting about with two similar Yahoo! News photos: http://www.gorillamask.net/.
The segment West was in was with Mike Myers, where Myers started off speaking from the teleprompeter, followed by West's off-the-cuff comments. After West finished, Myers went back to the prompter, after which West ended the segment with, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

[Riot]

It's so stupid, the excuses people will come up with.

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACISM. SHUT THE FUCK UP KANYE WEST.

God damn, I wish I could say that to Kanye's face.

[FendeR`]

It really bothers me sometimes, when someone like Kanye West starts rambling off about how racist people are. Not every problem equates to racism.

[Riot]

When things go wrong for black people they play the race card. It's hip, yo.

[bchogan]

I was curious about the population of New Orleans by race, so I looked it up. It's about 67% black, as of the 2000 census (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/2255000.html).
I've been there a number of times, and knew it had a large black population, but I wasn't sure how much. Since it's a tourist destination, you see a lot of white people there, too, but they aren't residents, so it doesn't give a clear picture of the race percentages.
I thought it was necessary to post this info just because the news shows mostly black people as the refugees, and it's important to know that blacks comprise the largest race in the city, which is helpful to know when you see the images on the news.
Anyway, I wanted to say that, yes, the relief effort has been slow going. Could it be faster? It's hard to say, truthfully, because we have not had a situation like this in the U.S. before. A major city hasn't been evacuated since civil war times, nor has any event, weather related or otherwise, been so catastrophic for such a large, concentrated area of people. So we have no frame of reference for a time-table for relief, nor did we have a plan to deal with such a situation because it was largely inconceivable. Sure, there is always scientific evidence to suggest that such devastation is possible, but we don't really believe it could really happen to us. If we lived our lives with a contingency for every extreme situation that could harm us, we wouldn't be able to function.
Still, I don't know all the facts, so I can't say for sure if we did all we could, or if we're doing all we can. But, to return to Kanye West's comments, it's wrong to characterize the slow relief efforts as being racist. While those Yahoo! News photos do seem to be unfairly racist, the nature of the disaster is the primary cause for the hinderence of rescue operations, not individuals in the government. Also, looting had occured before the levees broke, not just by people looking for food, but people taking advantage of the situation to fill their own pockets. That happened at a time when the damage was not as severe as what had been expected, so nobody needed to steal to survive. Now, it's a lot different, as people have been stranded for days without water, food, homes, toilet facilities, electricity or phones. The Yahoo! captions side-by-side do appear racist, but it's important to know that a lot of actual looting did take place.

[Kobe101]

Didnt somebody get raped?

[Amphatoast]

lol i thought there was some racism when i saw so many black people in the picture, didn't think that there would be so many black people in there

[iG®]

Captain America will save the world. Give me a break Riot will you? Of course it has something to do with racism. You're so proud that USA has troops all over the world. You should be ashamed. Who the hell are they so they can play God on earth. Now I get it why you want to be a cop....

[Jeffx]

So we have no frame of reference for a time-table for relief, nor did we have a plan to deal with such a situation because it was largely inconceivable. Sure, there is always scientific evidence to suggest that such devastation is possible, but we don't really believe it could really happen to us.

That's the problem right there. You can only hold back Mother Nature for so long. N.Orleans did it for 150+ years, but eventually lost. IMO, this is worse than 9/11 - we lost an entire city.

If they rebuild, they should either a) Make N.Orleans like Venice, with canals & waterways, or b) make it a landfill and build on top of it.

Can you imagine the cleanup? Where's all that polluted water going to go? What about the debris that's left?

[FendeR`]

Captain America will save the world. Give me a break Riot will you? Of course it has something to do with racism. You're so proud that USA has troops all over the world. You should be ashamed. Who the hell are they so they can play God on earth. Now I get it why you want to be a cop....

"Of course it has something to do with racism."

Could you be any more unclear? What a joke, how about you give me a fact about why the "slow" relief efforts are related to racism. We've never experienced anything like this, it's not as easy as snapping our fingers. What if someone gave you a violin and asked you to play a Mozart piece, and you had never played the violin a day in your life? Ridiculous.

[Riot]

Yes, Bush is racist. He has the most racial diverse administration in American history and he spends billions of dollars a day on a War in Iraq liberating 50 million arab-muslims. He's also spending millions more on the War on Terror with more muslims.

Yup, Bush is racist.

shut the fuck up. Everyone places the race card these days that it's just fucking ridiclous. You know what? If you really think he is sitting in his desk saying "give them food and water in 4 days. I want to see them suffer." then are you no good.'

Race card, ha. I could say something really racist and I will. You see those black people in New Orleans? Running around, looting, raping, screaming, cursing, shooting at rescue workers, ect. FUCKING ANIAMLS.

There, I said it. If you think race had ANY kind of influence in this then you my friend are uneducated.

[J@3]

Where's that siren, the moral police aren't far behind me!

[Indy]

-First of all, the Bush Administration has no real say over the levees. True, the DHS not looking into the levee due to terrorist possibility is distressing. True, there was the possiblity for funding to improve the levees, but it would've taken until 2008 before construction even started in a best case scenario. You also need to learn more about the levee system:

Oh really? So the bill George Bush signed denying the funding for building level 5 levees.. he... had... no... control over???

Interesting.

[Riot]

Clinton didn't sign the bill either in 1998.

[Indy]

Clinton didn't sign the bill either in 1998.

Point out to me where I EVER said anything pro-Clinton. I HATE Bill Clinton.

[Riot]

Clinton started it, and Bush just contined it.

Also, if Bush DID sign the bill the levees wouldn't have been completed until 2009 at the fastest.

[Indy]

Clinton started it, and Bush just contined it.

Also, if Bush DID sign the bill the levees wouldn't have been completed until 2009 at the fastest.

It was a 4 year project. The bill was presented to him first in 2001.

[Riot]

That's not what I heard, I heard that the leeves wouldn't have been completed before 2009.

[Indy]

That's not what I heard, I heard that the leeves wouldn't have been completed before 2009.

If he had signed the bill in 05, yes.

[Riot]

I read that when he didn't pass the bill in 2001 the best case would have been 2009.

[Indy]

The Department of Homeland Security is preventing the Red Cross from entering New Orleans.

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html

[Riot]

Yeah, Red Cross isn't going to help get people out of the city. They don't want to treat people inside New Orleans they want people to be treated outside of New Orleans. They want everyone out of New Orleans so they can begin fixing the levees and pumping the water out.

[Maaarf]

I have no idea where to post this, so I'm doing it here

The next time you are forced to listen to someone try to blame the lack of help for New Orleans on our Federal Government show them this.

Then ask them why the local Mayor and/or Governor did not deploy these buses August 27 and 28 to help those who could not afford to get out. I am worn out listening to that blowhard mayor (who saw to it that friends were given special leeway to evacuate the Superdome before many of the sick and elderly) and his cronies complain that the President hasn't done enough. And, while your at it, remind the whiners that the majority of the suffering taking place now is a direct result of most of those people not leaving the city last Sunday. I understand that there were some people who couldn't leave for various reasons (such as folks in nursing homes who were only evacuated Saturday), but for the majority of these folks, they would not be in the predicament they are in now If they had simply left. These buses are testimony to the fact that much more could have been done before things progressed to the point they are now.

It is not the Federal Government's (and consequently, the President) fault those people did not leave.

There. I feel better now.