purplerein said:

Wow, Mr. States rights. Tell the government to fuck off when they come collecting their taxes OK?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

I do that all the time, but they don't listen! Those bastards!

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

the federal government still protects me with an army, and maintains the roads I drive on and lots of other stuffs too, honey pie

purplerein said:

And? What relevance does that have to this discussion? Oh, that the country is full of heartless selfish people. Got it

jerseykrs said:

purplerein said:

Why should the federal government protect you with an army when you have the state to do it for you. flip flop

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

the federal goverment has an army. the states do not. otherwise we'd have New York attacking New Jersey

the katrina incident was to a certain degree a racial issue. but what all must remember is that everybody whose live there has lost either there lives, family, possessions or all. The fucked up issue is that all of this could have been prevented. i don't have any data to support all of this but the government knew about this way ahead of time. enough time to take the necessary precautions. People cannot just pickup and leave their homes and they should not be expected to. Starting from the ground up would be the best thing for new orleans since it was considered unorganized anyway imo. The whole situation is just sad.
[Edited 8/29/06 11:17am]

purplerein said:

The locals would fuck that state army up anyway. pppffftttt

purplerein said:

It's just hilarious that you resort to the states rights when it's convenient for your cause but fall back on the federal government when it suits you Typical.

brownsugar said:

Your right . I know that I've read that people have known for decades that N.O. was built wrong and something could have been done to try to correct this problem years ago.

nurse said:

The local government holds a lot of the blame in that department. They did not prioritize the levees. The federal government knew this as well. They should be rebuilt correctly so that the city has a chance to recover, just like we would expect of any other American city.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

exactly.

purplerein said:

That makes no sense since FEMA got involved.

jerseykrs said:

Why not? They are sending 250 million over to Lebannon!

sag10 said:

500 billion and counting in Iraq. How much really would it cost to build them correctly? Consider the $110 billion cost already designated for rebuilding efforts. Surely building those levees would not cost that much. Think about the savings if the levees were built correctly and this had never happened. The cost would not be considered astronomical in that context.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

You know those people are getting ripped off big time.

The peope in New Orleans are making their insurance claims, and the mortgage companies are getting their share before it even reaches their hands.

Not much left for rennovations.

And, what happened to all the money that was donated?

I think the focus is more on nothing has been done to rebuild it. At least it's not up to peoples expectations.

You know when all this went down, it was obvious that gov't didn't care about the poorest of neighborhoods in NO...even though they said the opposite. The fct that still the poorest of neighborhoods remains ruined is proof that the gov't really doesn't care about the poor.

Should we tell people to move out of Ohio just because it's.....
well....Ohio?

superspaceboy said:

This is nothing new, what government in history has gave a shit about the poor?

jerseykrs said:

Doesn't mean we have to tolerate it

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

as a people, no, will the govt take that stand? Not a chance in hell Supa.

How did it get built up in the first place? Does anyone know?

It seems so counterintuitive.

jerseykrs said:

So that's it huh? Just hug on the net and leave it at that? We need to hold politicians of all stripes accountable for the failing and for their responsibility in fixing what went so wrong.

I think it's because it's SO vulnerable. Truly.

It's below sea level in an extremly hurricane-prone area at a time when global warming is threatening to raise sea levels, perhaps dramatically, perhaps soon.

Honestly, it doesn't make sense to have a city there. And I don't think it's fair for the rest of the country to carry the burden for people who want to live in a place that is so very likely to be destroyed on a regular basis. California might get hit by a serious earthquake once per decade, or every few decades. The area where I live is prone to a volcanic eruption every couple hundred years. New Orleans is facing a hurricane season EVERY YEAR. Not to mention that California is a huge economic engine, and the Pacific Northwest is a trade hub. I think we're earning our keep. New Orleans is very culturally relevant, and always will be, even if it's a historical matter. But it's not clear to me that it's worth it to the rest of us to keep it around.

Now, if people wanna live there, fine. But they should plan on taking on the risk themselves. And if most people looked at that soberly -- like, if federal dollars weren't going to be there and they weren't allowed to join national insurance pools -- few people would choose to live there and face annual physical and economic destruction.

Imago said:

I'd riot!

HereToRockYourWorld said:

What about generations of people who were born there? Why does the entire population of that city need to be uprooted and sent to the ends of the earth when we can prevent what happened. The city was hit with many hurricanes none of which ended up in the entire city being destroyed. I hear what you are saying but I don't think we should destroy New Orleans because it is in a place that has natural disasters. The whole country faces natural elements of one kind or another. Why are we so willing to punish NO?

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Sure, the levy issue was a big part of this, and those can be built to be better than they were before. The thing is, you can't look to the past to understand what NO is gonna be like in the future. We may NOT be able to prevent it. The climate is changing. More hurricanes, higher sea levels. . . perhaps there was a time when the cost-benefit analysis worked out, but it doesn't now, and it sure as hell won't in a few decades.

I'm not saying that those generations don't matter, or are worth nothing. What is happening is deeply unfortunate, and could have been prevented in several ways. But we didn't. And you know, shit happens. Those generations of people put down roots in a swamp. They're gonna end up being uprooted. It's not fair, but it's not fair for the rest of us to pay for the alternative. Look at our economy. We can't AFFORD it.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

We can afford a lot. There are reasons we can't afford stuff right now. Tax breaks for those who have everything in the world they could possibly need and want....and then some. The Iraq war. It's all about priorities. If we have half a trillion to spend on Republican follies, we can surely muster up the money to save an American City.