New Orleans, Louisiana

[FanSoAp07]

Ok, this was on the front page of today's The Times Picayune, New Orleans' newspaper:

Congress doesn't bother to go through the motions to mark Katrina's anniversary.

A DAY TO FORGET?

By Bill Walsh

Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON-IN the week before leaving for summer vacation, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to honor bicyclists, a college fraternity and a retired baseball pitcher, but it failed to go on record noting the upcoming anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the most expensive natural disaster in the nation's history.

THOUGHTS? OPINIONS?

You don't want to hear my thoughts because I am just BOTTLED up with FURY, RAGE, HATRED, ANGER,...etc.etcc

If one more person asks, "So...is N.O. back to normal?" I think I'll have to be restrained from killing that person.

WE ARE NOWHERE NEAR back to normal. What do we have to do to get Bush to realize that N.O. was SEVERLY damaged by Hurricane Katrina? He spends MORE [!@#$%^&*] time on the middle east (WHICH IS NOT THE UNITED STATES) than he does on the the Gulf Coast (which IS the United States) & the costliest natural disaster in the United States of America's history.

HEY BUSH, THE UNITED STATES ELECTED YOU PRESIDENT, NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT THE MIDDLE EAST!

He sure doesn't hesitate to rebuild the middle east, but NOOOOO he can't even consider rebuilding a major UNITED STATES city.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

H

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Thank you.

[Ryan]

Just another example of how out of touch our government is with the public.

[Sweet_VeeVee24]

I'm sorry, but President Bush only cares about one thing; himself. Now, if were his area of Texas that was hit by such devestation as New Orleans, he'd be shelling out all sorts of cash; but since this "didn't happen to him" he doesn't have to care, I suppose.

[FanSoAp07]

sad but probably true

[Kwing42]

Where are the critics of the leaders in LA? Don't they have a say or control over their state and city? It is not always and ONLY the Federal Governments responsability to take care of NO. Talk to the Govenor, the mayor of NO.

I know millions upon millions of people donated money and other items from cars, tools, working hours, food etc to the areas affected. The Federal Government gave the areas MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars for the recovery. Talk to your elected officials in your state about where they spent the money.

Talk to the Mayor who turned many off on his comments about his city. Talk to the people in charge who for years KNEW the levees were not going to hold forever and did nothing.

I could go on and on...yes there is blame at the Top with the President, but god forbid, don't forget all the others that have been as negligent or MORE in this.

[Bree]

Bush and his administration could have handled it a lot better than they did, that's for sure, but Ray Nagin and his people are also complete and utter fools. They didn't take advantage of the buses to evacuate people, they waited too late, and they weren't firm enough in making people leave.

But this disaster clearly shows that Bush is more concerned about the middle east than his own country. And since the rest of the world really doesn't seem to respond when America faces natural disasters and terrorism, yet we always rush over to help everybody else, it's time for a wake-up call.

[FanSoAp07]

But this disaster clearly shows that Bush is more concerned about the middle east than his own country. And since the rest of the world really doesn't seem to respond when America faces natural disasters and terrorism, yet we always rush over to help everybody else, it's time for a wake-up call.

SENTIMENTS EXACTLY.

[PMac]

Kwing, I (almost) completely agree with your statements. I'm not a New Orleans resident, but I am a Louisiana resident, and my home was severely damaged by Katrina - in fact, I'm still not living there. You're absolutely right about the fact that it's not just the responsibility of the federal government to help Louisiana (and Mississippi and some parts of Alabama and Florida) recover. Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana's governor, is a moron, to be blunt. E-mails have been leaked in the first few days after Katrina where she was seemingly more worried about making sure her wardrobe was "hurricane appropriate" rather than worrying about the welfare of her constituents. And don't even get me started on Nagin. For a while I tried to give the fool the benefit of the doubt, but then his "chocolate city" comments allowed me to totally write the guy off.

The only part of your post I disagree with is about the millions the federal government gave Louisiana. Yes, the money has been PASSED in Congress to distribute, but we still don't have it - A YEAR LATER. My husband and I were lucky - we had good insurance and some savings (I add the savings part because insurance never pays what it really costs to rebuild ), so we really haven't taken that huge of a financial hit and aren't solely dependent on government aid to help us rebuild. But unfortunately, a lot of others who lost a lot more than we did DON'T have the financial resources necessary to rebuild without help.

FansoAp07, ITA about the Middle East coming before residents of the US - that's so crappy. But, I'm not so sure I want a big memorial on 8/29. I just want to forget the whole thing ever happened.

[FanSoAp07]

FansoAp07, ITA about the Middle East coming before residents of the US - that's so crappy. But, I'm not so sure I want a big memorial on 8/29. I just want to forget the whole thing ever happened.

That was my whole point. He is president of this country NOT Middle East.

I want a solemn rememberance day.

[Kwing42]

No one will ever agree about a President.

Should he have let Saddam stay in power and continue to kill and rape and destroy his own people or should someone finally stepped in to stop that? If he did something, people get mad, if he doesn't, people get mad.

If he steps in the middle east, like every President before him has, he is at fault. If he doesn't, he is at fault.

The president is always the fall guy...every president, from every party. It gets old, but never changes.

New Orleans should have been better prepared...fact.

[Bree]

I heard on CNN today that Nagin wanted to commemorate the Katrina anniversary with fireworks! How stupid is that, to celebrate peoples' houses being destroyed and lives being lost?

I still can't believe people down there voted him in for a second term. His behavior during Katrina was stupid and lacked common sense. Why let him have power again?

[FanSoAp07]

EVERYBODY I knew voted Landrieu...I think we ALL know who voted Nagin.... *cough*9th ward*cough*

[Huntress]

Well, do you care that there was a huge terror attack planned in the UK yesterday? Obviously not, because I don't see any posting about it on this message board although it was on the news all day and West Europe is currently experiencing heavy turmoil.

The world cares about what happened and happens to the US, trust me. 9/11 and Katrina were on the news over here for months.

But making entertainment out of catastrophies - like this new hollywood movie about 9/11 - doesn't really help in gaining sympathy.

[sweetness514]

Huntress,

I agree about the natural disasters. When Katrina happened we as Canadians sent money(food, among other thing as well), and volunteers there. We're not rich and we don't have a good army at all. But sending money to the richest country in the world is nuts, if you ask me. But we still did it b/c we cared about those people needing something at that moment and we felt so bad that some had to wait. The US doesn't even talk about most of the things that happen in Canada, wether it has to do with politics or anything else. The media is totally focused on their country, and they're to blame.

I'm sorry for what England is going through right now.