Hurricane Katrina
August 28 is the fifth anniversary of hurricane Katrina. Billions of dollars have been poured into New Orleans and most of the homes which were destroyed during Katrina are STILL destroyed. Only about 700 of the thousands of homes in the Lower Ninth Ward have been rebuilt and those have been built with private money. Why? Because most of the money is going into the pockets of New Orleans and Louisiana politicians same as always. Mostly the same people who pocketed the billions of dollars give to New Orleans and Louisiana to make the dikes better in the decade before Katrina happened.
The more things change the more they stay the same. |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
We need more deregulation so that the market can take care of things. The invisible hand. Vote Republican.
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Re: Hurricane Katrina
What is needed in New Orleans and Louisiana is a less corrupt political infrastructure. Jindal has made a good start but has a long history of the way things are done in Louisiana to overcome.
The way the federal government has handled things under Commisar Obama, during the gulf oil spill has certainly hurt the oil industry in Louisiana which is a major portion of their economy. Obama has certainly been more of a disaster to Louisiana than either Katrina or the oil spill. |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
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Oh wait, that would cost money on the part of the government and as we all know when the government spends money on anything at all other than shooting the shit out of brown people it's Socialism and that's what the Muslims want. Palin in 2012! |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
In the years BEFORE Katrina something in the neighborhood of 2 or 3 billion dollars was sent to Louisiana to build up the levees. However, the liberals in Louisiana felt that spending it on corruption was a more proper use of the funds.
More Obama in 2012. Please, he's doing such a great job. |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
Yeah let's hold Obama responsible for what local politicians in New Orleans did... before he was elected.
And actually it's printed in the "liberal" manifesto to waste as much money as possible without accountability. I carry a copy of it in my pocket wherever I go, being a liberal and all, so I know it by heart. How's the tea party treating you dda? Fitting in? |
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Oh and please, more Palin in 2012! If she was that hilarious when she was just running for vice president, imagine how hilarious she'll be when she's actually running for president! :salute: |
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I do love the general bandwagon against Obama. Take something that he has nothing to do with, is actually a direct cause of a Republican office and spin it around to make it seem as if he's to blame. The issues with New Orleans are quite severe and were merely extenuated by Katrina, not created. The pathetic response by the then-current office along with organizations like FEMA are the root of the problem. Or you could just blame it on the liberals. NObama! Let's have a woman be president who can't hardly articulate her stances and has more interest in her public figure than anything even resembling politics. |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
Pay attention.
I didn't blame Katrina on Obama. However, it wasn't Bush that screwed up either. It was the Governor of the state of Louisiana (at the time a Democrat) and the Mayor of New Orleans (at the time a Democrat). It was the last 100 years (at least) of corrupt politics in the state of Louisiana and in the city of New Orleans which squandered the funds that they were given in the years before Katrina which were supposed to be used for reinforcing the levies. It was the same corrupt system in Louisiana which has squandered a lot of funds poured in there after Katrina. I repeat, Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the United States and has been almost since the Louisiana Purchase. My please more Obama was a response to MM's Palin in 2012 comment. As far as the Tea Party goes, while I agree with many of their stances, I have the same problem with them that I have with the "intellectual" left. Too many emotional arguments and too little actual fact with logical argument. |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
Fair enough point.
I do, however, disagree heavily that Bush is not marginally responsible. The response time and aid given was piss-poor and that falls back on all politicians associated, from the mayor to the president. The President always has the ability to swiftly perform tasks as needed. The whole catastrophe is a function of poor politics all around, but comments like: Quote:
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Oh yes, and then there is of course the small matter of Congress and the Presidency being controlled by the Republicans in the years leading up to Katrina. And the Governorship of Louisiana, and the greater bulk of Louisiana's congressional delegation. But I'm sure they had no responsiblity whatsoever in directing that money or sustaing it's supply and it's all the fault of the blacks in Louisiana who spent it on mangos and moonshine. If Louisiana is irredemably corrupt - and I've no doubt that the political descendants of Huey Long have stayed true to their roots - then don't send them any ****ing money, let along many billions. It's a simple enough concept. Checks and balances and all that. |
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There's also only a tenuous chance that a member of the Democratic Party is also a liberal, especially in the South. This is something that bothers me about political discourse in general. In the general election it doesn't matter that Politician A was corrupt or has said something dumb, or <enter personality flaw here>. The time to vote based on things such as these are in the *primary* election when people who share the same ideology are competing to run as the standard bearer for that party's platform. In the general election I would never vote for Republican, regardless of whatever flaws or nutty youtube moment the liberal candidate may have had. How this ties into this discussion is that corruption is not an ideological issue. If you'd like to convince me to vote for a Republican or a conservative, you'd have to address value differences I have with conservatism. This extends to complaints about Bush. I would never vote for Bush because he is a conservative, but even if I were a conservative I wouldn't vote for him because he is also incompetent. Redressing complaints people have with his competence may or may not convince me that I was wrong about this issue, but it would not mean that I would vote for him regardless of the outcome. Complaints about Obama's competence, correct or incorrect, would also not lead me to vote for a Republican during the general election in 2012. Etc. |
Re: Hurricane Katrina
I don't blame Democrats or Republicans. I don't blame conservatives or liberals. I blame dishonest politicians.
As to addressing the differences in ideology between liberals and conservatives, name some and maybe I will have a position. |
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This is above all else unacceptable to me. The room available to interpret data produced by good science is directly correlated to amount and quality of that data. The more data there is, the less room for interpretation there is. That is to say, eventually we have so much data, it speaks for itself. Data doesn't care about your political beliefs or your values. It's simply either truth or isn't and whether it is truth depends on the quality of the science, not the personal characteristics or the consequences of the data, or how it aligns with your personal views. If there's a problem with the data, it's a problem of methodology that is easily resolvable and requires little if any debate. The data and science that back evolution of life is undeniable by any scientific standard. I don't know much about the science of climate change, but the organizations that stand behind are run by solid scientists. The left is not immune from this criticism entirely: science about human intelligence and genetics or the efficacy of cultural practices is what it is and the data it produces is what it is regardless of personal values. I don't know what the data is or where it will lead, I just sense some apprehension from some on the left regarding the desire of some to learn more, and I find that unacceptable. However the right is by far the worst offender, largely due to social conservatism and the religious right. I cannot vote for people who do not value or even understand science. Here's another: personal liberty. What consenting adults do with their own lives is their business. This includes who they love and what they do to their bodies. Here again the left is also not blame free: nanny state laws that prohibit freedoms of individuals to run their lives or their business also bother me, but none are so terrible as conservative religious doctrine they wish to impose on unwilling subjects. I'll leave a third (but there's more): Social responsibility. I believe in capitalism and private property, but the truth is that we all live together on a desert island with limited resources. And just like on a desert island we have to work together to survive and work towards ensuring that those who need mortal help, when they cannot help themselves, can get it, and that we all make some sacrifice for the benefit of all. This is a gray area for me personally, since I value personal liberty and I certainly do not believe that the wealthy own their wealth at the pleasure of the poor. Private property belongs its owner. However ensuring children get fed, roads are built, people get life saving medical care are all part and parcel of good governance and benefit us all in the long run. A law abiding and reasonable government is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. Conservatives outcry of "big government" resonate with me to some degree, but modern conservatism, such that would repeal the modest health care legislation recently written seems extremist to me. |
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