Legit Reviews

Running a web site that reaches around the world I read the online news from 15+ countries every day to get a grasp on the world economy. Every so often I read something that makes me look at a situation in a new light and I thought I would share one of those articles now.

The following article is written by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey (Russian, 47 years old) for a Russian site called PRAVDA.Ru (One of my daily reads).

Shocking delay in aid contrasts with 200 billion wasted in Iraq

President George W. Bush pays back the good Christian Americans who elected him despite his illegal act of slaughter in Iraq by sitting in his Texas ranch for two days after the most horrific suffering was visited on the area around New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

After two hundred billion dollars were spent in destabilising Iraq, slaughtering up to one hundred thousand innocent civilians, blasting the legs and arms off defenceless children and leaving the country and region in utter chaos, the best he can do is a brief flyover of the region and a belated visit, hurriedly put together only because of the protests.

And the protests are many, and venomous and rightly so. How is it possible that in a country which is always blowing its horn about how advanced it is, that people are starving to death? Is this Somalia? No, it is George Bush's United States of America.

How is it possible that young children are dying of thirst. Is this Mali? No, it is George Bush's United States of America.

How is it possible that people are having to scavenge for food. Is this Burkina Faso? No, it is George Bush's United States of America.

So, this is how President George Bush treats the people who put their trust in him. After siphoning off 200 billion USD of their hard-earned cash to finance his illegal act of butchery overseas, he turns his back on them, leaves them to wallow in the sewage, to lie rotting in the streets and to starve to death.

Welcome to George Bush's United States of America. It appears the man is as inept at governing his own country as he is at conducting foreign policy. George W. Bush will go down in the annals of history as the worst president this country has ever had and the worst leader the international community is unfortunate enough to have been forced to rub shoulders with.

After reading this short but direct passage this evening i am left without any words to express how I feel. If you have ever met me in person you know i have something to say about pretty much everything.

I don't think it lies directly at the President's feet....there is plenty of blame to go around.
With the accuracy of weather tracking, and specifically these storms, FEMA and other agencies knew 3 days out that this storm was going to be catastrophic, yet did nothing in preparation. Several agencies knew that New Orleans couldn't withstand a Cat4 or 5 storm, and did nothing.
Why wasn't New Orleans, and the whole gulf coast placed under a mandatory evacuation earlier? Considering the financial standing of many in the area (very impoverished), why did they not bring in buses much earlier and get more people out? Right after the disaster, why did the National Guard and local law enforcement deploy and crack down on the thugs roamming the streets? I saw one new clip where a couple of police officers were looting jewelry and electronics themselves.
I think that the Governors of Mississippi and Louisiana shoulder a lot of blame for not acting sooner. I think that FEMA shoulders a great deal of blame for not acting sooner to get people out, and not doing anything to bring in potable water and food after it became obvious what was happening. I think Law Enforcement shoulders a great deal of blame for not stopping the crime immediately.....people see others raping, murdering, looting, and all else, but waited two days to stop it....by that time people were shooting at them and the rescuers.
I think the President shares in the blame by first of all knowing how bad this storm was, but staying on vacation at his ranch, then he waited too long to chew some ass at these agencies that handle these issues.
People who write articles like the one Nate linked are really biased, they have an agenda before they even start writing, and twist fact, as well as fiction, to support their claims...I love how the writer manages to tie Iraq into the hurricane.....hell, just the other day, Cindy Sheehan, the media whore, told everyone who would listen that the hurricane itself was George Bush's fault.
I also don't think anyone from Russia, probably the most brutal and corrupt country in the world, has much, if any room to talk.

I wouldnt wanna go into an area where chaos is let loose. i heard people are actually sniping the aid workers going into the area because they still wanna loot and be uncivilized.

The whole thing is just totally insane and rediculous and, as capper said, the blame should be shouldered be many people and parties.
This is one of those unique situations where there are so many stories floating around that it's easy to twist the truth and get people to believe you. It all escalated so fast that there's just too many things to deal with and it's just plain messy no matter how you try to slice it. So I don't think this is a black and white, cut and dry situation that can be solved by blaming one side or the other. It's more like just a bunch of people going crazy because they are cought up in a crazy situation.

Another issue too is that Mississippi was hit a lot harder than New Orleans, yet there are no murders, rapes, or looting going on there.
As one of the people from Mississippi who the press interviewed today said "They should burn the bridges and let those people rot, we got hit worse than they did and you don't see us doing the things they are."
Well said in my opinion, outside of bourbon Street, New Orleans is a **** hole, and to be honest, I forgot to say the people who ignored the evacuation orders and decided to stay need to shoulder some of the blame as wee. I remember watching the news the day before the hurricane hit, Sheppard Smith was interviewing people on the street, and every single one of them said they were going to stay because it wouldn't be as bad as it was portrayed in the media, and the levees would hold. ts like being told the stove is hot, then you burn your hand, and blame someone because the stove is hot in the first place. Accept some personal responsibility! Other than that, i think the order should have been given beforehand that all looters would be shot, that would have curtailed some of the violence.

6 days for help is very bad
the first 2 days was ok but taken to long for support to come

I agree. It didn't take six days, but it should not have taken 3-4 either. local agencies did a horrible job of securing the area and evacuating people, and it snowballed from there. As a first responder, how will would you be to go into New Orleans this past week with people shooting at you, rapes, murders, and looting as well.
I'm just a little miffed that some people want to throw all this on our President. I think its atrocious to politicize a catastrophe like this and use it for personal gain.
That being said, i'm plenty disappointed with the way the President has handled this and other things. OPEC is charging us almost $72 a barrel for crude, but their cost is just over $4. Part of it is them, part of it is our government, and a major part of it are these enviromentalist that have kept the US from building a refinery in over 30 yrs! People in this country need to stop passing blame and look inward for the problems we face, I'm personally tired of hearing the race card being played still, I'm tired of conservatives and liberals, and I'm tired of lazy and worthless people sucking our welfare system and not doing jobs they are paid to......okay, deep breath, I'm done ranting

enviromentalist

i did not know the US had them

any way dono how i found this forum (i book mark it any way)

do not norm rant my self but there is an other topic in this part of the forum about cars any way

capper5016 wrote:I agree. It didn't take six days, but it should not have taken 3-4 either. local agencies did a horrible job of securing the area and evacuating people, and it snowballed from there. As a first responder, how will would you be to go into New Orleans this past week with people shooting at you, rapes, murders, and looting as well.
I'm just a little miffed that some people want to throw all this on our President. I think its atrocious to politicize a catastrophe like this and use it for personal gain.
That being said, i'm plenty disappointed with the way the President has handled this and other things. OPEC is charging us almost $72 a barrel for crude, but their cost is just over $4. Part of it is them, part of it is our government, and a major part of it are these enviromentalist that have kept the US from building a refinery in over 30 yrs! People in this country need to stop passing blame and look inward for the problems we face, I'm personally tired of hearing the race card being played still, I'm tired of conservatives and liberals, and I'm tired of lazy and worthless people sucking our welfare system and not doing jobs they are paid to......okay, deep breath, I'm done ranting

no **** capper; those fricking baby-poppers who can't keep their damn legs closed and the frickin drug addicts who "support" them are the ones sucking our country dry. our own people in many respects are to blame for our money problems. people abusing the disability system each day, food stamps being abused, all sorts of government help is being abused, not to mention that now Eminent Domain has been expanded to include small businesses in the property-jacking of regular, common middle-class people (because you know the upper class people would buy the f-ckers off anyways). Damn tree-smoking hippie environmentalists are also to blame because there's certain parts of the country we can't explore for fuel (though I do agree we need to find another source soon, due to the way we use it; or at least have more fuel-efficient cars like in the UK). We can't do this and that, we can't speak our minds anymore due to "Political Correctness"; if I don't like what someone has to say, even my own congressmen, I would tell them so and if they tried to silence me, I would tell them to "f-ck off". Sorry, but we do need better, more diligent politicians in office who are truly for the people, and not for lining their fricking pockets all the damn time, at our expense, not to mention how much "pork-barrel" spending is in some of these aid bills and war appropriation bills. From what I've observed, and I know I haven't been around as some of the people in this forum (22 years, to be exact), I have come to the conclusion that I can't trust my own government. God help the hard-working Americans!!!

After posting on this yesterday and blowing off some steam, I watched a couple of news programs today that actually changed my opinion on this topic.
Yesterday I was willing to give the President partial blame for the hurricane devistation and response, today I have exhonerated him from almost all blame.
On the news this evening, it seems that the head of the National Hurrican Center pleaded with the Mayor of New Orleans and the govenor of Louisiana to evacuate everyone immediately. They waited 12 hours, and by some accounts more than 18 hours to act on the recommendation, and at first did not order a mandatory evacuation. To me this is appalling, as every model and projection said that New Orleans could not withstand a Cat 3 storm, let alone the nearly cat 5 one it took a direct hit from.
The local government knew there were thousands of people who either ignored the evacuation order, or who were unable to leave because of no transportation or health reasons, et they city itself left more than 500 buses sitting in two parking lots through the whole incident, never once using them.
Then there is the fact that they moved people to the Super Dome, a facility meant t to house people for a couple of hours during a sporting event , not as living quarters.
I think the blame for the aftermath is completely on the local government of New Orleans, and I think its embarrassing that they even consider blaming the federal government. this was one of the three worst storms on record, yet they did nothing until it was too late.
On a seperate note, its too bad Kanye West wasn't trapped under the dyke when it collapsed..... Honestly, i'm about at the end of my rope with people playing the race card.

i'm about at the end of my rope with people playing the race card.

I can agree with that. I still think that if the levey hadn't busted and the way they acted towards the people helping them, we wouldnt be hearing near as much about them but more about the other southen states that got hit just as bad if not worse.

edit.

incase you havent see the Kanye West Mike Myers stupidity yet...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9177352/page/2/

scroll down for the vid of it.

Hi All,

It's not President Bush's fault that local Government didn't do the job they should've done in evacuating the residents of New Orleans. The responsibility lies at the Mayor of New Orleans feet, as well as the Governor of Louisiana, period.

This whole thing of blaming Mr Bush is just plain ridiculous.

For the record, when votes were at stake in 2004, Bush rushed aid to Florida (and his brother) in what, two days??? How ridiculous.

Very true, but there's another factor to look at: the fact that Governor Blanco wouldn't allow military aid into New Orleans because of Martial Law; that alone could have easily caused the long wait for aid. But that's my stance, I believe in blaming all parties responsible, not just one (not trying to start a flame war, just stating my position).

there was aid rushed to Mississippi and Louisiana within a day or two as well. you can poliicize this all you want, but realize this was a once in a lifetime storm, that local officials were told to get everyone out, and didn't.....and that the shear magnitude of this disaster overwhelmed the responders.
There was a huge difference in Florida, they had the hurrican and a few tornadoes, and the storm was about 1/3 the size of this storm......This storm had the hurrican, and then a day or two later the horrible flooding, which compounded the problem. Florida had none of that.

then what's all this about aid taking 5 days to get to New Orleans then? I know that's what the hubbub's all about anyway....yes a city taking a Category 5 storm will overwhelm responders in just about any territory, but the levee breach was what caused a big problem as well, not to mention the introduction of waste water to the already stagnant remains of the storm. I'm just stating what I've heard, based on talk radio and the GOPUSA website, so I'm really not trying to politicize any of it, just stating the facts as I know them, that's all.

Rescue flights were fling the same day as the storm as soon as they dropped below 55 MPH. It's just real hard to bring in any quanty of aid by helicopter, they don't carry all that much.
And if you watched the news, you'd know that the local (state) FEMA wouldn't let aid be passed out in the main areas in hopes that the people would leave the city. It wasn't until Bush federalized the the area that aid was being passed out in large quanties. The city and state government failed to do anything it was supposed to do.
You might want to read up on the American law a little to find out just what and when the president just can do...........

Funny thing is that's what I was just talking about, concerning how the city and state flubbed on this one. From what I understand about the Law, the federal government can't step in until they get the OK from state government (maybe local too, not too sure about that though). On a sunnier note, at least some people did get out, and that's something to be glad about. Also another thing to keep in mind, from whom I been seeing stepping up and saying they're running for Pres in 2008, I'm inclined to not vote, because I've not yet seen a suitable candidate (and by "suitable" I mean GOP candidate, I just think that the Democratic party has gotten a bit wild and needs to be reigned in [but for some reason, I can't seem to distinguish the two parties anymore due to the GOP's appeasing Democrats who burn conservative Supreme Court nominees at the stake for taking the correct stand on certain issues, as per the Constitution]).

killswitch83 wrote:then what's all this about aid taking 5 days to get to New Orleans then? I know that's what the hubbub's all about anyway....yes a city taking a Category 5 storm will overwhelm responders in just about any territory, but the levee breach was what caused a big problem as well, not to mention the introduction of waste water to the already stagnant remains of the storm. I'm just stating what I've heard, based on talk radio and the GOPUSA website, so I'm really not trying to politicize any of it, just stating the facts as I know them, that's all.

I wasn't referring to you....i was in fact referring to the post you replied to

oh, sorry, my bad