Another Anti-New Orleans Column "New Orleans, A Lost Cause"

[AtPontchartrain]

This one is from the Hartford Courant. It's by a geology professor who would move us all outa here. We're too low. I guess he'd have robots run the port? I don't know. Maybe he could move me to Montreal -- where they live and party underground!! The comments under the article are the best part. I bet he'd love to hear from .... you!!

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-thorson0705.artjul05,0,6937950.column

[linza22]

This one is from the Hartford Courant. It's by a geology professor who would move us all outa here. We're too low. I guess he'd have robots run the port? I don't know. Maybe he could move me to Montreal -- where they live and party underground!! The comments under the article are the best part. I bet he'd love to hear from .... you!!

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-thorson0705.artjul05,0,6937950.column

oh my God! what a crock of ....no, that word is too good....let me think of something else....

[mightyradgumbo]

I have two words for the good professor..The Netherlands. Also there is a section that I read about a while back in the San Joaquin valley in CA. that is existing and was at one point experiencing a housing boom despite being below sea level.
I do not disagree something should be done for the Alaskan indian tribes. Why does he feel that because that group is being neglected, we should just neglect our brothers and sisters in New Orleans.
Again this is not a democratic issue or a republican issue, it is an American problem.

[steeleye]

The good professor forgets that the bulk of the damage was caused by the failure of poorly engineered, manmade levees... not mother nature.

[Corona]

oh my God! what a crock of ....no, that word is too good....let me think of something else....
I tried to post my pic of me flipping the bird to make my response but i'm at work and can't access any pics on here.....dude's a jack-ass...

[Blitzzzzz]

I tried to post my pic of me flipping the bird to make my response but i'm at work and can't access any pics on here.....dude's a jack-ass...
Interesting series of comments posted after the article. Of the 64 at this writing, easily 75% could have come from folks on this board.:cool:

[Theotherone]

The comments to the article are very good. The professor is obviously ill informed and just using his title to advance his own political views. He doesn’t want Katrina to come back into the news because Katrina was the turning point for the Bush crew. That’s when the people finally started to realize that the administration is staffed with incompetent and uncaring fools.

[Michelino]

Another, perhaps even more controversial,article, but with many points worth contemplating:

How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty-Three Steps - Lessons From Katrina (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907N.shtml)

[Blitzzzzz]

Another, perhaps even more controversial,article, but with many points worth contemplating:

How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty-Three Steps - Lessons From Katrina (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907N.shtml)

Thanks for the post and the tip on TruthOut, Mich!:cool:
Interesting and hardly controversial from where I sit. Much like the Bush Administration itself, attacking on all fronts at once, the litany of calculated erosion is stunning in it's aggregate effect.

[ohio]

Another, perhaps even more controversial,article, but with many points worth contemplating:

How to Destroy an African-American City in Thirty-Three Steps - Lessons From Katrina (http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062907N.shtml)
Yes indeed! I doubt we'll ever discover if such a systematic approach was intentionally perpetrated, but those who may have participated should be charged with hate crimes, if not murder. Too many striking similarities to what actually came down...

[sophisticated sissy]

This one is from the Hartford Courant. It's by a geology professor who would move us all outa here. We're too low. I guess he'd have robots run the port? I don't know. Maybe he could move me to Montreal -- where they live and party underground!! The comments under the article are the best part. I bet he'd love to hear from .... you!!

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-thorson0705.artjul05,0,6937950.column


:( Wow. The guy must be a total pinhead.
I read some of the comments posted below the main article. Wish I had time to read them all today, but #12, from New Orleans Native, was exceptionally good.

[breambob]

Mr. Quigley makes a few good points, but not many. And "
Every fact in this list actually happened and continues to happen in New Orleans after Katrina." is total BS.


Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African-American city after a disaster, that word is DELAY. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps - just remember to delay, and you will probably be doing the right thing.

What was delayed? I don't get it.



Step Two. When a disaster is coming, do not arrange a public evacuation. Rely only on individual resources. People with cars and money for hotels will leave. The elderly, the disabled and the poor will not be able to leave. Most of those without cars - 25 percent of households in New Orleans, overwhelmingly African-Americans - will not be able to leave. Most of the working poor, overwhelmingly African-American, will not be able to leave. Many will then permanently accuse the victims who were left behind of creating their own human disaster because of their own poor planning. It is critical to start by having people blame the victims for their own problems.

Mr. Quigley doesn't mention that it was the responsibility of the Governor and Orleans Parish Sherrif to evacuate. Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Tammany, Alabama and Mississippi did not have anywhere near these problems. Why?
60% of the folks stranded in Orleans Parish had the means to evacuate and did not choose to do so.


Step Three. When the disaster hits, make certain the national response is overseen by someone who has no experience at all handling anything on a large scale, particularly disasters. In fact, you can even inject some humor into the response - have the disaster coordinator be someone whose last job was the head of a dancing horse association.

I guess he's referring to Brown, who had four hurricane responses and a few other disasters behind him before K with little or no criticism. Where does he get his info?


Step Four. Make sure that the president and national leaders remain aloof and only slightly concerned. This sends an important message to the rest of the country.

Aloof? I don't get it, give me an example, please.


Step Five. Make certain that local, state and national governments do not respond in a coordinated, effective way. This will create more chaos on the ground.

Again, an example please, of where and how it was done better. No fair metioning how Florida does things, they are pros...


Step Six. Do not bring in food or water or communications right away. This will make everyone left behind more frantic and create incredible scenes for the media.

FEMA was at the Superdome within hours after the storm passed. Of course it was Blanco who turned back Red Cross and FEMA trucks a day later.


Step Seven. Make certain that the media focus of the disaster is not on the heroic community work of thousands of women, men and young people helping the elderly, the sick and the trapped to survive, but mainly on acts of people looting. Also spread and repeat rumors that people trapped on rooftops are shooting guns not to attract attention and get help, but AT the helicopters. This will reinforce the message that "those people" left behind are different from the rest of us and are beyond help.

Agree here. It was the most massive and successful rescue mission in the nations' history. Why the press didn't report it that way is a mystery.


Step Eight. Refuse help from other countries. If we accept help, it looks like we cannot or choose not to handle this problem ourselves. This cannot be the message. The message we want to put out over and over is that we have plenty of resources and there is plenty of help. Then, if people are not receiving help, it is their own fault. This should be done quietly.

???


I really can't go on. I understand his focus on the situation of the Afro-Americans and poor that were displaced and disadvantaged, but tell me when, in all of history, has this not been the case?
He points out a lot of problems, but gives no evidence that anything that was done here that had not been done dozens of times in the past. And he gives little or no remedy. Just a rant. Sorry, but this is TruthOutTheWindow.

[Cleophus]

I was preparing a response, but I could not do so in a way that avoided losing civility. "If I can't say anything nice, I won't say anything at all."

OK, maybe one thing:
http://www.tequilafish.com/2005/08/31/bush-katrina-out-of-touch

[mightyradgumbo]

Breambob, I have to disagree with you on a couple of points.

Step Four. Make sure that the president and national leaders remain aloof and only slightly concerned. This sends an important message to the rest of the country.

Aloof? I don't get it, give me an example, please.
Example: Bush visiting San Diego and appearing to remain Aloof by playing the guitar at the visit. Michael Chertoff going to a conference in Atlanta at the CDC and remaining more disinterested in the goings on in New Orleans even though as head of DHS he had the sign-off to give FEMA the green light to do what they were supposed to do.

Step Five. Make certain that local, state and national governments do not respond in a coordinated, effective way. This will create more chaos on the ground.

Again, an example please, of where and how it was done better. No fair metioning how Florida does things, they are pros...
Ex: There are many instances that various levels of government were either incommunicado from anyone or each other. Nagin at the Hyatt rather than the EOC, Blanco not communicating with the Feds correctly or timely and the lack of Fed response based on by-the-book processes. Coordination was the very thing that was missing in the whole process. BTW, why is it unfair to mention Florida? If they are truly pros at it, these are the folks you want to mirror. In business we call it benchmarking.