BUZZURRO

I just read on CNN that a general says that the Louisiana and Missippi National Guard were in Iraq, and this delayed the cleanup and rescue in those states. I do not agree with him.

I have read on another website that 40 percent of those National guardmen were over in Iraq.

That leaves 60 percent still at home in those states.

While the areas affected by Katrina were several, they were still only a small area if you consider all the acreage in those states.

I think 60 percent of the National Guard could have handled that. That point however is moot.

The real reason the cleanup effort after hurricane Katrina was delayed is ..the US constitution.

When the Constitution was written the delegates from each state had a fear of a federal government with too much power, so they created not only checks and balances within the federal government, but also limited the things the federal government could do without the states permission.

One of these things is send out the state’s National Guard forces.

I read the transcript of a interview of the Mayor of New Orleans Nagin.

He mentioned that George Bush asked the Louisiana governor for ’something, I don’t know what’ to use his words.

She replied to President Bush that she needed 24 more hours.

Constitutionally she was within her right to do so, morally is another story.

If there were another 1000 troops available for her to utilize it wouldn’t have changed anything in her response time. The problem is in the Constitution, and the Governor’s choice for a slow response - not the National Guard.

A CNN interview to mayor Ray Nagin.

(Thanks to LGF)

This afternoon I saw a picture of unused schoolbuses in a parking lot in New Orleans (compliments of Grouchy Old Cripple).

I just can’t get that picture out of my head. While the mayor of New Orleans is yelling at the federal government to do something to help his constituents, he himself has sat on top of a parking lot full of empty buses.
According to Grouchy Old Cripple, there are approximately 100 buses there. If each bus can carry 60 people, that is around 6000 people. Just think, 6000 more people could have been evacuated to safety, instead of suffering hunger, thirst and other great miseries.. if still alive.

Some Black leaders in the US are saying that the rescue response to New Orleans was slow because the majority of the victims are black.

I do not think so. I think the responsibilty for the slow response falls upon:

1. the local Government
2. the State Government and
3. the Federal Government

IN THAT ORDER

with the majority of that resposibility laying with the local government who knows the area’s constituents and make up better than anybody else. The local officials happen to be black, but that is not the issue here.

The issue is Economics. New Orleans is divided into:

1. a poorer inner city population and
2. a richer population in the outlying suburbs.

When the mayor and everybody else sounded the alarm for the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans it was the richer people who had either other places to go, or enough extra funds to pay for a hotel for a few days who left.

The poorer ones who had nowhere to go stayed behind. The kind mayor who lambasted the federal government for doing nothing abandoned his constituents. Why couldn’t they be bussed to stadiums in other counties and the city of New Orleans pay for that cheap plan?

That IS an important issue, but not the issue I’m writing about now.
The victims we see are not victims of race, but of Economics.

Every time something bad happens to a black person in the United States they say it happened because of race. This is simply not true. Most times there is a complexity of issues at stake, race either being at the bottom of the list or not a factor at all.

I am tired of American Blacks always blaming the color of their skin for everything that is wrong in their lives. Living abroad I see many black people of many different nationalities who don’t have this belief system. They advance or stagnate economically according to their own work abilities.

What!? Is he thinking people will make supplies of gas ? And how ? By putting it in their closets ?

… urged Americans not to buy gasoline if they do not need it because of looming shortages

Does he think people fill up because they need to, or he thinks some fill up for fun ??

You know what’s happening in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and other states.
I read, among other news, about companies donating charity in the relief effort.
Companies like Walmart, that gave $ 1 million. Walmart was among those companies whose shops were ransacked by looters. Now, it’s OK if you’re looting for food or clothes, if you’re starving or you don’t have dry clothes, or if you’re doing it for your beloved ones, but it’s another thing to take electronics, such as TVs and stereos, or steal from jewelry stores. That’s robbery, low-down dirty criminal act.

Thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. (…)

Officials tried to balance security needs with saving lives.

“We’re multitasking right now,” said New Orleans Police Capt. Marlon Defillo. “Rescue, recovery, stabilization of looting, we’re trying to feed the hungry.”

Some experts predict that one million people could become homeless.
Nearly 5 million people are without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, utility companies said. Restoring power could take weeks, they warned.
Martial law was declared in the New Orleans area.

How come, when a disaster strikes other countries, the US are the first to help out, while if a disaster strikes the US, many people won’t give a damn. I know that the US is a rich country, this doesn’t mean that Americans would not accept or appreciate help from other countries.

I read about this:

The U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland — a capital at the foot of the Alps hit by flooding last week — said calls were rushing in from Swiss individuals and institutions looking for a way to donate to relief efforts.’We are getting calls from the Swiss public looking to express their condolences (and) people are also asking for an account number where they can make donations,’ said spokesman Daniel Wendell.

And, opposed to those who will express their sympathy for the victims, there will be those moonbats like the umpteenth Kennedy who blames Bush for the hurricane. Appalling.

I suggest all non-American readers to donate, for example, to the American Red Cross.