New Orleans - Non Politically Correct View

Will the govenment give the hurricane victims an average of $1.6 million each like they did to the relatives of 9/11?

extremely high. i've actually been there twice. please illuminate the rest of the world why no, unlike every other coastal area on the east coast, particular the ones UNDER sea level, didn't require people to build houses with living spaces significantly above street level. you might want to venture outside of your trailer park in the midwest and hit some places like the jersey shore, south carolina or florida.

So, are you saying it is feasible to put the Superdome on stilts?

By the way, I live in a New Orleans suburb.

so the only problem in no was that the poor didn't have cars to evacuate in? i like being called an idiot by such an intelligent poster. it makes me feel good. earth to "no," there were A LOT of problems in no -- a mayor and governor who had their heads very far up their asses were probably the biggest problem. they had several days notice of the impending hurricane and did very little. ever notice how mississippi and alabama managed to evacuate most of their people and had relatively few deaths? how about those 200+ school buses just sitting around? do u like the pix of them sitting in water now? how about corrupt local, state and federal governments that have given the army corp of engineers in la more money than any other state but none of it went to the antiquated dams/levees? how about the fact that a lot of people WANTED to stay to loot the place silly? how about the fact that a lot of people were jaded by hurricanes from all the near misses over the years and decided to ride it out?

this is a VERY different situation than 9/11 and it really pisses me off to read people even begin to compare no to 9/11. in 9/11, people were sitting ducks and were completely defenseless. what was one who worked at cantor fitzgerald supposed to have done that morning? read his/her tea leaves and known not to show up for work that day? if you went to work that day, you are now dead because nobody got out of the high floors. here, people had DAYS to prepare and evacuate and knew damn well what was coming. yes, it is terrible to lose everything you own, but don't even begin to compare this to 9/11.

last time i checked, the superdome is NOT a house. you would do everyone on this board a nice service if you actually read the posts that other people write.

It's not a house? News to me. But thats just the problem isnt it.

People's JOBS are not in houses. Even if people's houses were safe, what would we do about uptown, dowtown and mid-city?

Use those critical thinking skills, I know you have them.

And while I am responding to your idiotic banter, the damage done by this hurricane is way more than 9/11.

It doesnt matter if people were in NO or not, homes and people's livelihoods were STILL destroyed! Plenty of people I know left town 2 days before the hurricane! That didn't stop the hurricane from destroying their homes and workplaces. That means, nothing left. Are you trying to tell me that it is their fault that the hurricane hit? NO!

These are the people(and believe me, there are plenty of them) that need government aid to get themselves by in this transition period.

So......... when exactly are you expecting world peace?

maybe you feel differently, but i would gladly take my life over the loss of my home. i am sorry that you view 9/11 in terms of dollar loss. i don't and i don't know anyone else from the nyc metro area that does. the tragedy of 9/11 was the innocent loss of a lot of lives -- not the loss of a few buildings that can be rebuild (albeit it is taking a lot longer than expected). the real tragedy in no is not the loss of property -- that goes on every year in florida -- it is the completely unecessary loss of life that occurred because of so many governmental screw ups. the fact that so many people stayed in no -- whether by choice or not -- directly impacted this loss in the most negative way. i am done countering your malarky. go back to bitching about your property loss and i would advise you not to come to nyc and spew your nonsense about how no is worse than 9/11 because there was a greater dollar loss because it will not be received kindly.

patriot... wrote:

Will the govenment give the hurricane victims an average of $1.6 million each like they did to the relatives of 9/11?

NO

no wrote:

Yes, it is true that large amounts of federal aid are wasted, given to people who are simply too lazy to work.

large amounts? LARGE amounts?

i hear this criticism all the time from people, that there are tons of lazy people out there who are ripping off the honest taxpayers. they say this as if we could reduce our taxes a large amount by cutting off those lazy people.

hi, i'm looking for the "distance running" message board?

"Yes, it is true that large amounts of federal aid are wasted, given to people who are simply too lazy to work. This kind of inefficiency is one of the problems with large governments. However, programs like these have another side. There are many, many Americans who were simply born in a poor situation, and due to lack of education and any of a number of other factors are unable to earn enough money to sustain themselves. Welfare helps these people - they do not deserve to be treated as second class citizens so you can take an extra vacation to Cancun every summer."

The great thing about America is that ANYONE can work hard and make something of themselves. Just because you were born poor is no excuse to be on the public dole for the rest of your life. You know what? I was born poor, I worked my ass off with multiple jobs through college, and now I'm doing ok. If one day I can afford an extra vacation to Cancun, I will take it guilt-free because there is NO REASON I should have to give back the fruits of years of hard work because some poor people sit back and feel sooo sorry for themselves and their situation which is "not their fault".

You can't choose your parents or the situation you're born into, but if you can't work your way to something better is is rarely anyone's fault except your own.

I lived in New Orleans for three years.

I can guarantee that a large percentage of the people stranded are unemployed, not looking for work, and living off welfare. I have never seen so much dependence on the government before in my life. It's part of the culture down there to live off of Uncle Sam... and then complain about what he gives you.

The experience turned me from a fiscal liberal into a budget cutting conservative.

I don't presume to know what to do about all the problems inherent in our system of government and our society. Anyone so eager to tell you they do while at the same time trashing other points of view so vehemently is working out a drama in their own psyche that most likely has little to do with the external reality.

The simple fact of the matter is that we're all cut from the same cloth. Given a set of circumstances, human nature dictates we will all behave in roughly the same manner in response. White, black, red, yellow, brown, conservative, liberal, etc.

To feel cheated and put-upon is a perfectly reasonable response to being taken advantage of by some people living off our tax money. Similarly, to cheat and lie seems just as reasonable when you get dealt worthless cards, ocassionally from the bottom of the deck, repeatedly. Anyone who says that they have never experienced both situations to varying degrees is full of shit or not human.

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be brief. The issue here is not whether certain rules we take for granted have been broken or whether you are being or have ever been taken advantage of by certain, less fortunate members of society (you have been).

But you are in no position to cast blame and judgement on a set of people you don't even know. For if you do, then shouldn’t we just blame the whole of human nature? And if the whole of human nature is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our societal and political institutions in specific?

I put it to you, "herewegoagain" isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you want, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to you bad-mouth the United States of America!

iceman wrote:

extremely high. i've actually been there twice. please illuminate the rest of the world why no, unlike every other coastal area on the east coast, particular the ones UNDER sea level, didn't require people to build houses with living spaces significantly above street level. you might want to venture outside of your trailer park in the midwest and hit some places like the jersey shore, south carolina or florida.

Well, you're saying all the houses that have been there for decades should have been torn down and rebuilt on stilts. Also, showing more idiocy, you point to homes on the jersey shore and the carolinas. Let me point out that the old homes on the Jersey shore AREN'T ON STILTS EITHER, NEITHER ON THE ONES IN THE CAROLINAS. New homes are built to code, as are the NEW homes that were built in New Orleans. I should also point out who fought for the codes? Democrats? Who fought again codes, and zoning to cut down coastal building? Republicans? Who fought to insure million dollar second homes on the shorelines with government assistance? Republicans? Who fought to fill or dredge the wetlands? Republicans? Who got sea walls built to protect their mansions that were too close to the shore? Republicans.

Now that a bunch of poor black people lost their homes who wants to dry up the government teet? Republicans.

What a bunch of duplicitous dickweeds.

Didn't I hear this speech in Animal House?

I suppose the same people arguing here about the poor in New Orleans would also feel the same for people in Los Angeles the next time an earthquake hits. Hell, they should have known not to live there, so tough l,uck. And, oh yeah, y'know, if you live in Tornado Alley, tough luck, kiddo. If you live near a river, hey, it could flood. And if you live near a fault line in the midewest, tough.

It makes me sad to read what I do here. Yeah, sure everyone has a chance to make what they can of themselves, but not everyone starts at the same place. There is no level playing field. I am guessing that a lot of folk here went to school on their parents' dime, or with some loans. And some had loans and aid come from folks wealthy enough not to have to get them, therefore depriving others of them. So you take a lot for granted when you claim that we all can rise equally. That's naive and mindless. Sure, in principle it's true, in reality, it can never be true.

People have lived in New Orleans for 200 years. The tragedy occurred now. I live in Davenport, which 15 years ago was underwater when the Mississippi flooded, destroying our downtown- and I guess we should just write the city off, but somehow the government actually did what it should and helped the thousands of people out who were displaced, and no one complained then and said too bad. What is happening in NO is classism and racism, in large measure.

Been There wrote:

I can guarantee that a large percentage of the people stranded are unemployed, not looking for work, and living off welfare.

how can you guarrantee this? have you interviewed them? no, you're making as assumption.

in any case, as a budget cutting conservative, how would you get your savings. but cutting off public assistance? you'd save somewhere around $50 for every $1000 of taxes you paid. and that includes cutting off assistance those who are unemployed AND looking for work - not just those that are cheating the system. if you were to assume that about half the people are gaming the system, you save $25, and you could buy yourself another case of beer.

here's a nice little chart - the average NO citizen would save about $250 by cutting welfare.

penny wise and pound foolish. i don't think i've ever really met a budget cutting conservative. they SAY they are, but when it comes to putting the hatchet down and actually cutting the budget - it doesn't happen.

look at who cut the budget - clinton! and what's happening now?