Big Easy

[MrHoatzin]

It is surreal. I am somewhat speechless. I am not sure how something like this could happen in the US, but it is not totally unexpected: neighbors turning on one another, killing each other in the streets of a major US city. It is not so unexpected. We're all armed to the teeth, trigger-happy, paranoid. We don't need much incentive to kill our fellow man. I don't think I've heard of reports of people in Sumatra sniping ambulances and military choppers when those came to pick them up.

The looting, the anarchy, the lack of martial law, and the complete ineptness of our demagogue — all amazing.

It seems so simple! Ignore the people who steal bread from grocery stores, shoot to kill those who are looting Best Buy, bring in the military (which is taking too fucking long, perhaps because there is no military to send)... So fucking inept! I want heads to roll, for fuck's sake! I can't wait for the useless media to try to turn him into some sort of patron saint of flood victims! Right now the twat is on CNN shaking hands of people standing in line to get some food from the military. IT IS A FUCKING PHOTO OP! IT IS SICKENING! SHOULDN'T HE BE SITTING IN A WAR ROOM SOMEWHERE WITH HIS CABINET, NAVIGATING THE RELIEF EFFORTS!? FUCKING HELL!

I'LL SKULLFUCK THE NEXT VOICE—REPUBLICAN, HUMAN OR OTHERWISE—THAT TRIES TO RATIONALIZE ANY OF THE GOVERNMENT'S FUCKUPS!

:(

[Marek]

Yeah it's pretty fucking crazy out there. What the fuck. Seriously, what is going on?

And why isn't there a huge fuckoff army there right now to sort things out? Are they all in Iraq or something?

[Lechimp]

I've been pretty fucking depressed the last few days because of what has happened there. The thing is, it seems like it's just the people of New Orleans that are fucked up, not mankind. When 9/11 and the tsunamis occured, people weren't pulling this kind of shit. I don't know how people are so fucking stupid that they shoot at helicoptors that are trying to help them. And christ, we should be sending tanks in there and shit, there's people that looted guns from walmart and stuff and now they're running around robbing and killing people.

[Salka]

When Bush was voted in for the second time, I remember really hoping that something fucking terrible would happen so people could see him fuck up majorly. I guess this is it. And he's fucking up majorly.

It's really awful, and very surreal.

[Jake]

Nobody is paying enough attention to notice that Bush is fucking up. It will be spun so far that it's a non-issue in 2008.

[Tanukitsune]

I heard that Bush cut the funding for a program that's purpose was preventing this kind of disaster....

A President can only run twice for presindency, right?

Seriously, since he's been in power, USA keeps gettting from disaster that will go in History....

That picture just.... just....

[nsps]

Actually, he cut the funding for one program and ended another that could have prevented (or at the very least minimized) the damage: maintaining the levees, and preserving the wetlands that serve as a buffer zone.

If that weren't bad enough, he's handled the relief so incompetently that the area has gone out of control because no one had supplies.

He should resign in disgrace after seeing all the lives that he's ended and ruined.

[Lechimp]

Even if Bush didn't win, New Orleans still would be pretty fucked up (probably not as badly, but still). New Orleans should have fixed the levees before the funding was cut or try to use money from other programs (if they could), and the people of New Orleans shouldn't be so fucked up that they're looting guns from stores and running around robbing people and raping women.

But yeah, Bush should have sent as many troops and stuff as he could to New Orleans instead of say....another country. And he's not going to leave office anyway, because somehow he's going to turn it into "We all have to band together blah blah blah" and people will somehow like him more, but I really hope people are smarter than that.

they aren't

[nsps]

Um, the people of New Orleans didn't start shooting stuff and going nuts until YESTERDAY. Bush had a couple days to get things under control before people started acting like animals. The conditions there are deplorable, and as much as people shouldn't be acting like maniacs, it isn't exactly a surprise that people with no food, water or supplies are acting inappropriately.

[Lechimp]

http://www.bungiestore.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=322

Well, if anyone wants to help out the flood victims and wants to get something cool from it, here you go.

And I was pretty sure that shit hit the fan almost right away. The first things that were looted were nonessential things like tvs and other electronic stuff from stores like best buy and guns were looted as well. And why are people shooting at help, that's only making things worse for them, I doubt that they're doing it because of desperation.

Well at least convoys are starting to get into the city, so at lleast it will start to get better. This is going to turn out to be 100x worse than what happened on 9/11 though.

[Marek]

New Orleans isn't exactly yuppietown, right? Lots of gangs, poverty, guns, etc. Couple that with a really desperate situation and you easily have anarchy. The mayor pointed out in that radio interview that a lot of the shooting probably started with drug addicts not getting their fix and flipping out.

I agree that a lot of people are being morons over there but let's not forget they were already in a shit place to begin with. (Which is clearly why Bush didn't give funding for maintaining the levees etc. They don't give a shit about the poor.)

[vimes]

Let's blame video games, I say! video games and Canada!

Having said that, I think that the people who happened to live there and who went wild are far scarier than Bush... the guy can't be held responsible for the event but he sure can't escape the fact that his acts didn't go to disminishethe consequences of it, on the contrary.

Still, I wouldn't be suprised if he escaped, the majority of any population tending to be less intelligent than the average.

[Erkki]

Wow! I've been kind of swamped with work so I haven't payed much attention to this. People shooting at helicopters? Insane.

[nsps]

Actually, the air traffic people said there were no actual reports of people shooting at helicopters, as they keep track of all that. But there have been snipers. And some guys at the convention center have guns have been holding everyone hostage and reportedly raping women. This didn't start until early this morning/last night, and I maintain that the violence has gotten continually worse, so it should have been calmed down earlier. Of course, gangs and the like are going to take advantage and loot,

The majority of people there just want food, water, medicine and a way out, and it wasn't hard to anticipate the violence and looting that has occurred.

[lailoken]

Well to a certain extent none of this is surprising. With so many people living below poverty levels in the US. And I believe that looting will always be a problem with catastrophes like this one. It's always a matter of the media being there and reporting on it. But all in all it is still amazing that SOMETHING LIKE THIS COULD HAPPEN TO THE MOST POWERFULL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD! It's like those blackouts. How is it possible that America has such a bad infrastructure?

As far as the Big Ass is concerned, seriously what did anybody expect. For him NOT to fuck this up? Decisive action was needed and the worlds biggest pussy couldn't get the job done? Wow... big surprise. I really liked what I heard from New Orleans mayor but hell he probably voted for Bush as well, so I say fuck him! You get what you ask for. I thought Bush made it abundandly clear how inept he was during his first term which he frauded his way into to begin with. And now everybody is like: "Well we didn't expect this to happen!"??? It's like the whole WMD thing. "Well we were told that there are WMDs so I am shocked to find out that there weren't any!"??? I am sorry for the people of New Orleans. I am sorry for the hundreds, if not thousands of preventable deaths. And I do hope that America gets its act together, impeaches the president and saves their pride as a country held together by more than just money. I hope, that's all...

[Thrik]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

I cannot confirm the Superdome "chemical plant" explosion you guys are reporting. When Bravo Team becomes functional this morning, we're going to do a Medium Range Recon Patrol around our section of the CBD. We need to access the area for potential human threats, situational threats (burning buildings, etc.), flooding, potential evac routes, military and civilian authority presence, etc.

My first tactical mistake. We were unprepared to accept the fuel when it arrived. The fuel arrived way too soon for us and we did not have all the empty drums down one ground floor when they got here. The driver had other deliveries to make, so rather than waste his time, I told him we'd recoordinate and be ready for him later today or tomorrow.

So I guess what I'm saying is that any moment could be my last moment online. If we do lose internet, Outpost Crystal might have to be abandoned by all but Sig and Myself. I've got to get Crystal out of here safely and relocated to someplace out of this state. I'm working on escape routes now.

Tee. :~

[lailoken]

I guess since this little comic was done pre-Katrina it does seem rather funny how accurate it turned out to be.

Oh yeah this is from one of my favorite sites btw [linkage]

[Kolzig]

A President can only run twice for presindency, right?

There's always Jeb Bush?

[Marek]

I hope Americans realize it's the government's responsibility to prevent these kinds of situations. All this crazyness could have been prevented by, first of all, fighting poverty and keeping guns away from people, actually making sure the levees are properly maintained, not sending 2/3 of your National Guardsmen to Iraq and generally by responding adequately when shit hits the fan. The government did none of these things. You can't blame the people for flipping out, especially poor people on drugs with guns.

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

The reason that the funding was cut on the safe guards was because one group of scientists said they had 5 years and the other said they had more than that brefore a major hurricane could destroy the city... so with all of the spending that's been going on the decided to spread the federal funding out over several years. What they didn't count on was the hurricane comming sooner rather than later.

[Karimi]

It reminds me of Fallout , I guess Iraq isn't the only place that needs help.

Facts are , even though it may not be racist there definately is some truth to the fact that if it was an all white community this thing might have been resolved sooner.

[nsps]

The reason that the funding was cut on the safe guards was because one group of scientists said they had 5 years and the other said they had more than that brefore a major hurricane could destroy the city... so with all of the spending that's been going on the decided to spread the federal funding out over several years. What they didn't count on was the hurricane comming sooner rather than later.

Do you have a source on this? I've been reading a lot and hadn't heard this. I know I read stuff previous to the hurricane saying that the levees weren't high enough. Also, were they going to develop the wetland buffers for four years, then restore them before the big hurricane hit?

[General Fuzzy McBitty]

At least the budget part. yes.

"Each year since 2001, the Bush administration has slashed Louisiana's requests for flood control funds. Congress did only slightly better in its final budgets. Whatever the reasons, less than 2% of the Army Corps of Engineers' $4.7 billion budget this year was set aside for three crucial New Orleans levee projects. Now it's hard to fathom why such urgent needs were such low priorities."

[Marek]

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/scans/

MTP.AaronBroussardX.wmv fucking broke my heart.

[MrHoatzin]

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/scans/

MTP.AaronBroussardX.wmv fucking broke my heart.

I tend to not give a fuck about emotional appeals, but man... What the hell is FEMA doing anyway?