Making Baby Jesus Cry

[Nut Case, Sensitive]

Originally posted by Spanky
quote:
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Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I have yet to see anyone on this board defend Nagin or Blanco. So maybe you could point me to those posts.
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Contradiction?



She is in charge of the National Guard until it is federalized by the President. The national guard has all the stuff you are citing above. You said earlier why was Bush trying to take charge of the state resource? - then just above you point out that the state resources were not being used. But Bush trying to take charge of state resources was purely just a political move. But how could that be if there were not state resources for her to use?

Bottom line.

She had lot of resources that she did not effectively apply to the situation.

You have been defending her all along so don't try and pretend you have not.

And the resources at your control?

Have you chipped in your Nut?

Have you no shame?

[nononono]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
No one has even bothered to explain to me what Blanco failed to do that she could have done, except that nonono thinks she should have had a more masculine, steely determination on TV, which is entirely possible, but to me misses the point that in the first days after the city was flooded, what was really needed was water and helicopters and trucks and helicopters and food and helicopters and ice, and that the marooned residents of New Orleans probably weren't as interested in masculine, steely determination as nonono is on the grounds that they didn't have any electricity to power up their televisions, which were submerged anyhow, and therefore would have missed the tough words and big talk. I hope all y'all enjoyed that sentence as much as I did.

I enjoyed that sentence quite a bit. I was trying to edit the quote from you just to what I wanted to respond to, but it went on forever! Very enjoyable.

Anyway, I knew that you were getting at he "masculine" thing when I talked about her crying. I didn't want her to be masculine; I wanted her to be a leader and to pull herself together and get some thing rolling, not cry about what she doesn't have, and who isn't helping, etc. Just as I don't believe in crying at work, I don't believe in leaders crying when they're the go-to person in a major crisis.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
No. While you have your mind made up and do not need any more facts, I keep explaining that I do not have enough of the latter and have not done the former. Like Gatti, I am willing to agree that Kathleen Blanco should be shot, and then tied down and forced to watch every one of Sean Penn's movies, if only someone would tell me what it is that she did wrong. In other words, sometimes a question is a question.

She abdicated her responsibility to ensure the safety of the people of her state (under a written plan in place) and when that safety had been breached she failed to act decisively to mitigate the damage.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop


No one has even bothered to explain to me what Blanco failed to do that she could have done,

All week, you and others have been asking the same question: Where was the fed'l gov't, and why wasn't it here more quickly, and why didn't it have a plan?

Well, the problem is that Blanco did so little that no one has even bothered to make this observation. Sure, the storm overwhelmed NO and La., but, if that's so, why is it surprising that it might overwhelm (at least temporarily) the federal government.

If you're NO's mayor your plan should have two basic parts: 1) What to do if there's a storm; 2) what to do if the storm is so big that you need help from the state. If you're the governor of La., your plan should have two parts: 1) What does the state do if NO needs help; 2) What do we do if the storm is too big for the state, and we need the feds.

It appears that neither the city nor the state had given much thought to part 2, so their immediate response was "where's the federal government--they should bail us out." That's not very satisfactory planning.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Spanky
She had lot of resources that she did not effectively apply to the situation.

I have yet to see any indication that the Louisiana National Guard and the other resources at Blanco's command were misused or not effectively applied, as opposed to overwhelmed. I am willing to believe it, if you guys can come up with something other than your own say-so and Penske's photoshopped masterworks. How many helicopters do you think the Louisiana National Guard has? I'm guessing not many, but who knows?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Spanky
You state this:



Right after you state this:



Does the above comment seem at all "defensive" to you?

Its more a naked bootleg. You’re out gathering facts on what govt functions Blanco flubbed while Ty’s amassing page after blog page of citations proving that each of those functions was pre-empted at the federal level.

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Or just tell me, after the hurricane, what is it that you think the state of Louisiana could and should have been doing that it was not doing.

I hate to say it, but coordinating rescue efforts among what remained of state and local resources & the federal resources on offer, or alternatively letting the feds conduct said coordination, would have been a good start.

That said, 2 on Sebby's analysis, though I would add the indigent to the invalids in the "no responsibility" category. I can't bring myself to assign any particular "blame" to the feds for their failure to more efficiently clean up a mess that appears to be in no small part the result of state & local planning incompetence, but I am completely appalled at their apparent inability to do so.

That also being said, I am a NYC girl who, after 9/11 and the blackout, is firmly of the opinion that anyone counting on the G (state, local, federal or interplanetary) to rescue them in any disaster instead of resolving to rescue themselves & their loved ones by having plans to get the fuck out of Dodge in multiple disaster/social order breakdown situations is probably mentally deficient.

BR(I note for the record that I also have arranged for multiple rural "come the revolution/zombie invasions" back-up refuge locations with food stockpiles and secure freshwater sources capable of fortification, so YMMV on my self-sufficiency schtick. Y'all knew I was a closet survivalist, yes? Goes with the Libertarian thing.)C

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
No. While you have your mind made up and do not need any more facts,

Facts? You need more facts? New Orleans gets flooded, which was totally forseable, and thousand of people die. Everyone agrees more could have been saved if there had been a quicker reaction with more resources.. Why is the mayor responsible - he is the Mayor. His job is to take care of the City of New Orleans. New Orleans is his sole responsibility and this disaster was completely forseable and he was caught with his pants down. The Governor - she has other cities besides New Orleans but it is the biggest city in her state, so she is pretty responsible also. Again this disaster was totally forseable. The President - he has a lot of other stuff to worry about, but that is his job - so he has to bear some of the responsiblity.

What more facts do you need?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
the pictures of the submerged buses speak for themselves.

Your pictures speak for themselves, often literally, and yet -- strangely -- I no longer believe them. Go figure. Is there a reputable newspaper that has reported this stuff? I ask because I don't know, and would like to read about it.

She didn't lead, she followed and she looked for an out (she also refused to work with both th eFeds and Nagin), that is not what we elect or pay leaders to do.

OK, well that's about as substantive and convincing as your other posts to date. Well done.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Awwww. What if I coupled it with a posting of a nice image? Would that do the trick?

It would be more entertaining, given that it holds no substantive value. It has been almost 30 years since the Dems have received a majority of the votes in a presidential election that they won. Do you think that is random happenstance?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by nononono
I enjoyed that sentence quite a bit. I was trying to edit the quote from you just to what I wanted to respond to, but it went on forever! Very enjoyable.

Anyway, I knew that you were getting at he "masculine" thing when I talked about her crying. I didn't want her to be masculine; I wanted her to be a leader and to pull herself together and get some thing rolling, not cry about what she doesn't have, and who isn't helping, etc. Just as I don't believe in crying at work, I don't believe in leaders crying when they're the go-to person in a major crisis.

Even us Ed Muskie fans surely agree. Damned Canuck letter.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Nut Case, Sensitive
And the resources at your control?

Have you chipped in your Nut?

Have you no shame?

I am only stating this because you are a moron. I have already raised $20,000 for the relief effort. Two employees of my non-profit are in training right now, along with my sister, and are going to NO next week. What have you done?

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Your pictures speak for themselves, often literally, and yet -- strangely -- I no longer believe them. Go figure. Is there a reputable newspaper that has reported this stuff? I ask because I don't know, and would like to read about it.

This is a joke right? You can't really mean this.

[nononono]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Your pictures speak for themselves, often literally, and yet -- strangely -- I no longer believe them. Go figure. Is there a reputable newspaper that has reported this stuff? I ask because I don't know, and would like to read about it.



OK, well that's about as substantive and convincing as your other posts to date. Well done.

FWIW, I saw/heard a discussion on CNN last night about criticism about the busses.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
All week, you and others have been asking the same question: Where was the fed'l gov't, and why wasn't it here more quickly, and why didn't it have a plan?

Well, the problem is that Blanco did so little that no one has even bothered to make this observation. Sure, the storm overwhelmed NO and La., but, if that's so, why is it surprising that it might overwhelm (at least temporarily) the federal government.

If you're NO's mayor your plan should have two basic parts: 1) What to do if there's a storm; 2) what to do if the storm is so big that you need help from the state. If you're the governor of La., your plan should have two parts: 1) What does the state do if NO needs help; 2) What do we do if the storm is too big for the state, and we need the feds.

It appears that neither the city nor the state had given much thought to part 2, so their immediate response was "where's the federal government--they should bail us out." That's not very satisfactory planning.

Doubtless there was bad planning at all levels. But I'm not sure why you think LA hadn't given much help to 2), since they took the legal steps they needed to. And surely the state's response was not just, the federal government should bail us out. From what I've seen, the state troopers, the first responders, the La. Nat'l Guard -- all have worked tirelessly since the storm hit. You are implying that they were just sitting on their asses, waiting for the feds to show up.