New Orleans is so much worse than 9/11.

[1932]

Do you think the prevention of future 8/30s is going become the central oprating principle of the Bush administration the way 9/11 has been?

[DistressedAmerican]

1. Only If They Can Find Someone To Kill. Seems To Be All They Understand.

Far worse...

[KingFlorez]

2. I don't think so

He refuses to sign Kyoto to reduce global warming
He cuts FEMA and other disaster relief
It doesn't really benefit him politically so he'll take not action

[skypilot]

3. Not unless he...

...gets his grubby little hands involved in the levee building industry.

[kenny blankenship]

4. No.

prevention of a future example of this kind of disaster (which is an ongoing tragedy and not like 9/11) requires attention to domestic infrastructure issues that Bushco has no interest in.

[FloridaPat]

5. Wehad 4 hurricanes hit Florida last year. All they did is cut

funding for Army corp of engineering in NO. Plus he's trying to get rid of FEMA. I said this in answer to another comment: once the forms are filed, the MSM will loose interest and so will *. He probably only cared about us because it was an election year. NO apparently has a lot of poor people. We all know how much * cares about poor people. There may be a lot of talk, but I will bet there will be little action.

[Xenotime]

6. People are taking boats and jet skis..

at knife and gun point. People are being treated like refugees and they don't have food and water. When will this end?

[marmar]

7. Helping everyday people...

will never be a central theme of BushCo. He pretty much had to be dragged off the golf course to come see about this. The Gulf Coast won't get a fraction of what we're spending in Iraq.

[tx_dem41]

8. What's the purpose of this exercise?

My disaster is worse than yours? Who the fuck cares!

[1932]

9. Perspective.

[tx_dem41]

11. Why do we need perspective, unless its to score a cheap ...

political point. My hometown is dying, and you want "perspective". Beautiful. Have fun.

[1932]

12. because if we really want to prevent the misery and heartache

we should think hard about what are national priorities REALLY are and what things are sold to us as being important.

[tx_dem41]

13. I believe both were/are wake up calls....

why are you trying to have me make a choice? I'm capable of multi-tasking. Aren't you?

[1932]

14. Because great dangers deserve great efforts to prevent misery

Here we have a situation of unbelievable misery, causing so much more damage than 9/11 that occured almost a full day AFTER the storm hit becauase two blocks of levy disappeared, and we have a rescue effort that doesn't seem to be working to save lives.

Concern about these issues and about the strength of our domestic infrastructure should obviously be a top priority.

And hell, what if this had done by a terrorist instead of by nature? What if bombs had detonated that levy during a flood. We'd be in the same position -- people would be dying and we'd be wondering how it was that we left our citizens so vulnerable to something any first year civil engineering student could see coming.

And what happened to all those neighborhood emergency response teams and the support for first responders. Weren't they supposed to stop the deaths of 10s of thousands from things like terrorists blowing up levies and damns and flooding cities? Why is none of this working? Where have our resources gone? Into lowering the tax base and fighting a war in iraq?

I'm not trying to score cheap points on Republicans. I'm trying to create a little perspective. We can talk about terrorists until our faces turn blue. But the bottom line is we have to protect our society focussing on our infrastructure and on the safety of our citizens at home.

[fujiyama]

15. I don't get it either

A tragedy is a tragedy. For those families who have lost loved ones, it
doesn't make a difference how they died. They are still gone.

Plus, with nature there is only so much that can be done to mitigate the effects. You cannot control it. Terrorism is dependant on politics and other factors.

[1932]

17. The storm blew in & out on Monday. The levee failed on Tuesday.

Two blocks of levee have caused tremendous misery.

I think that, with the right priorities and the right investment in research and infrastructure, we could do a great deal to prevent catastrophies like this one.

That was the thinking at the time of 9/11, and it should be the thinking now.

[fujiyama]

18. I agree

The proper investment in infrastructure should have been made though a powerful hurricane such as this was inevitable.

Also the negligent attitude of this administration is astounding and their lack of response is inexcusable. They have done nothing. Also they cut the ArmyCorp of Engineers in that area and FEMA as well. And now a large number of national guard are gone too.

[1932]

19. Yes. I'm glad we could clear that up. I agree with you 100%.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. If someone explains to him how his cronies can make a buck

He'll show interest. Since the long term remedy of situations such as this are not in corporate americas better short term interest... No, we won't see anything more than head patting and tokenism.

[Xtreme]

16. Please tell me the phrase "8/30" will not be used!

9/11
Connect the dots
Homicide bomber

The list of "keywords" out of the whitehouse never ends!