I wonder why

[Kal]

What I am curious about - and dont jump on me its an honest question is what happened???

I'm a child of the cold war, when I was growing up America had all these contingency plans for dealing with large scale evacuations all the way through the cold war.

So honestly what happened in the last ten years? Or have I missed the point somewhere...


And wasnt September supposed to be 'National Readiness Week' or something?

[ZooTech]

What I am curious about - and dont jump on me its an honest question is what happened???

Too many communication roadblocks. Each side blames the other, I'm sure you know my take on it so for the sake of not opening yet another can of worms I'll just leave it at that. But what it boils down to is that we had all the info we'd ever need to be proactive pre-911, but unfortunately that information was spread out amongst several intelligence agencies who could not share with one another so the puzzle pieces were essentially useless.

[oldnslo]

If you mean why did it take all this time for national guard troops to show up, none of the news programs has said. I just watched 3 hours of news on various networks looking for the answer to that question. I saw King George give a short, uninspiring speech, refusing to shake hands with the mayor of New Orleans,[who complained earlier about lack of federal attention] promise to get something done to alleviate the suffering by transporting people to other states. Estimated death toll is now around 10,000.
I have every confidence that meetings will be held at the highest level to determine the scapegoat individual or agency, and once that has been done, more help will arrive in New Orleans and elsewhere. Blame comes first, however.

[9000white]

just watch how many task forces the government assembles to investigate the chaos that followed Katrina.each one will be overseen by some imbecile that bush owes a favor and appoints him.he wont in any way be qualified to do anything requiring more thought than serving slop at McDonalds.

[canuckerjay]

China's demand for oil based products and its overall consumption rates will naturally increase as it rises in industrial and technological levels of achievement. But, this doesn not mean that the nation will necessarily rely on automobile transportation to the extent that Americans and Canadians do. The reality is that our two nations have an unparalleled love affair with the automobile -- you'd be hard pressed to find such reliance on cars in European and South East Asian nations. That's certainly not to say that they're all taking public transit -- certainly not. But while North Americans tend to like owning automobiles that they don't need (no one really needs a V8 engine; or an SUV), other nations are not turned onto that concept en masse.

I'm sorry, but as Commander in Chief, GW does have supreme command of all aspects of the American military, and could have ensured that the process was faster. At the same time, people have this illusion that there's only a couple of people that take care of such things, and there's numerous levels of beurocracy in emergency response of this kind. Numerous are at fault. Having said all of that; there is certainly no excuse for the the kind of lax expediency thus far.

[cb360]

Does anybody really think that it's a valid defense to put it on the governor? What ever happened to 'the buck stops here'? Do you really think the president is sitting in his office thinking, "that looks pretty bad, I wonder if the mayor is gonna rescue those people? To be sure it's the governor's state. The governor screwed up. But it's the president's country... all of it. He dropped the ball. Again. And we wonder why.

[TechTMW]

That's certainly not to say that they're all taking public transit -- certainly not. But while North Americans tend to like owning automobiles that they don't need (no one really needs a V8 engine; or an SUV), other nations are not turned onto that concept en masse.

The last I read, the Chinese have more of a demand for Big american cars than anything else. Remember the fiasco over chinese cadillacs a year ago?? The reason the chinese have cadillacs in the first place is because they WANT them. And their government is encouraging it. GM is looking to build a plant in china - for good reason.

Also, the chinese have banned motorcycles and mopeds from major cities, to free up traffic patterns to make way for cars. They want to fire thier economy, and the best way to do that according to the Chinese is to follow the American model - One of the facets of that model is to make life such so that the citizens MUST rely on auto transport to get from here to there.

[oldnslo]

The Chinese are on the rise, and they want western-style goods. They may run into problems with their birth-control mandates of one child per family at some point down the road, but India is projected to have a population of well over 1.3 billion by 2050. If those two can coalesce, they will be able to control everything. Those of you still alive at at that time will be in a competititve world like you have never seen or imagined. The US will be fighting for business, in fact survival, and will already have sold itself off to the competition. We will be absorbed. It's happening as you read this. A molecule at a time. Could be all over in 70 years or so.

[rubthebuddha]

Yeah, not only is it Bush's fault that the guard got their so late, he in-fact created Hurricane Katrina with the help of Evil Conservative Enterprises for some unforeseen political gain.

Is there anything you won't blame Bush for? I think you give far too much credit to the Oval Office. The Left is already blaming the hurricane on global warming for goodness sake. That's arrogance at a whole new level.

You seem like a smart guy don't tell me your one of those people in denial about global warming.

As far as oldnslo, I'm from his neck of the woods (roughly - Pacific NW) and I can say the majority of people up here find a way to blame Bush for every little thing that happens in this country. Any excuse to hate Bush works for them (not that he hasn't earned some of it).

[9000white]

bush getting the blame for everything is an occupational hazard.
it makes it easier for dumb people like me to blame him.
if i really cared who is at fault i would have to research the facts to find out who exactly is to blame if indeed anybody is.i have spent a lifetime ignoring the facts.i see no reason to change now.