CNN's Spellman report -"Poor cannot get on the buses(superdome)"

[rrrevolution]

Says the hotel guests and well to do are getting on the buses to be evacuated from the Superdome, and the poor people on the street cannot get on the buses.

[Guckert]

1. Wow, sounds like the Titanic. Scary $hit.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. First class first, steerage drowns.

:puke:

[ultraist]

26. And the band played on... eom

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. I just saw that too. Economic Divide. Still no food, no water

no Red Cross where the poor are !!!

[Roland99]

3. Who's orchestrating this thing? The Keystone Cops??

And why can't the buses going to the dome bring food/water/medicine?

[Wickerman]

4. And, the NG is in Iraq and the local police are arresting

folks for stealing water. god.

[KittyWampus]

14. link to police arresting people for stealing water please. As a Mod.

maybe you might have noticed threads about mob rule in New Orleans.

Can't you distinguish between needing police to try and restore order for those trying to just get out and the bogus assertion they're arresting people for stealing water?

[Wickerman]

18. How many thread do you need to see where

the mayor, the gov and even our not so esteemed president have called for "zero-tolerance" for looters?

Is it not a fact that police have been called off rescue to prosecute looting? Earlier you drew a comparison to shooting at helicopters to looting. They are hardly the same thing.

Perhaps both of us have been a little guilty of being a tad OTT, but, as progressives I really fail to understand how we can sit idly by and watch this kind of travesty of racial injustice and instead worry about the looting of worthless consumer goods that won't survive the cleanup anyway.

[nonconformist]

25. Be that as it may, I have not seen any reports of anyone

being "arrested for stealing water".

Link?

[Wickerman]

34. uh, Christ

I said it was OTT, in other words, hyperbole to emphasize how fucked up our priorites are. So, even though I wasn't talking to you, thanks for helping to emphasize my point.

:hi:

[madokie]

5. must go troll around the yard

Crying, getting so damn mad.
This is all too unreal.

[wildeyed]

6. Can this get any worse?

[Lindsay]

8. Oh, don't even ask that!

This is BushCo we're talking about, remember?

[lse7581011]

10. Never Ask That

it always can!

[wildeyed]

24. You are right.

As much as I hate them, I have always underestimated this admins ability FUBAR.

[leftchick]

20. sadly it can

:(

[gkhouston]

21. consider this a preview

of what it could be like if the avian flu becomes a devastating pandemic. Sooner or later, it's going to mutate into a strain that's highly contagious. If that strain is also highly lethal and our government responds to an outbreak with the efficiency displayed thus far in response to Katrina.... :scared:

[wildeyed]

31. Then it is clear that we will all die.

We will watch our children die. Except the really wealthy who will be able to by the anti-viral. Our government will be incapable or unwilling to do anything to help us.

[Union Thug]

7. Don't know about you, but I'd be agitating for a local

revolt given the situation.

[William Bloode]

28. I been thinking the same thing.

The reason people are shooting a choppers, and doing some of the other things is simply they feel abandoned, and feel thier government has failed them. Which sadly it has. No one except the people abandoned to this polluted, dank, rotting hell know how it feels. I am quite sure more than a few of these keyboard warriors around here would have a different view if they were in the same spot.

People going without water, food, and medication have started or will soon start dieing. No one but those there can feel the suffering of pbeing left in a mass of dead bodies, torn buildings, and shattered futures.

Of course more than a few have ideas of a bit of revolution, i am pretty sure i would myself in the same situation.

[1932]

9. That's got to be a record: first reference to class ever on CNN.

I guess when the division is man vs nature rather than conservatives vs liberals, CNN's guard is down and they're more apt to let the truth slip in to their reporting.

[Mizmoon]

11. How can they be hotel guests AND evaced from SuperDome?

Are there hotels in the Superdome or something?

[Eloriel]

12. Hmm, and people wonder why someone shot at the helicopter - IF

that indeed happened at all.

Frankly, I'm mad enough to shoot in the general direction of a helicopter myself.

:grr:

[Spangle]

16. Exactly what I was thinking

They are not getting the NEWS like everyone else is. They have no clue that people are still being brought in from roof tops, etc. They see the workers come and bring back more people. But not helping them.

Granted, they are on dry land on that bridge. But they have NO FOOD OR WATER. There is NO excuse for that.

[Tyranny_R_US]

19. Maybe they are trying to signal for help

Isn't it great the mayor of NOLA pulled police officers off who were rescuing people and reassigned them to protect rotting,watery property?

[OneBlueSky]

15. no, that wasn't the SuperDome buses he was talking about . . .

the reporter was at the Convention Center, where there are ten to fifteen thousand refugees who apparently have been totally ignored . . . no National Guard, no FEMA, no Red Cross, no Salvation Army, no cops, no one but people starving and dehydrating . . . there's no water, and the reporter said there were many bodies inside the Center, and that he even watched a baby die just a few minutes before his report . . .

the buses he was referring to were taking guests from some hotel on Canal Street . . . the buses were apparently arranged for by the hotel specifically for their guests, and no one else was being permitted to board them . . . his point was that the people with money were able to help themselves, but those without had to rely on others, and no help had arrived yet . . .

this is such unforgivable negligence that it makes my stomach turn . . . four days in, and NO ONE has come to help these thousands, or even provide them with some bottled water . . .

[Spangle]

17. OH my GAWD!

I didn't know people were there!

[TornadoTN]

22. I assume this is the Ernest Morial Convention Center?

[MaineDem]

30. Harry Connick was just on MSNBC, I think

He said a man just walked up to him and asked him to get the word out that the people at the COnvention Center - and Harry specifically corrected himself to say "the Ernest Morial COnvention Center" - needed help and someone had just died there.

The truth, when it finally gets out there, will be very very sad.

[TornadoTN]

35. This is inexcusable then

The Morial Convention Center is massive and sits along the Mississippi River. Why the hell are they not sending at least a relief boat in there with supplies? Of course, I have been wondering why they cant even use a helicopter.

This just keeps getting more and more surreal.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

27. Excellent summary and what I saw also

If you can afford private transport your life will be spared. If you are in a position where you are depending on government run aid/evacuation you may or may not receive help in time.

CNN did a good job pointing that out I felt.

[bvar22]

29. The Republican Ownership Society at its ugliest!

The Republican Ownership Society




The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

43. The poor that make it will have no choice but to enlist in the army

to help get themselves back on their feet.

I'll be watching enlistment numbers real close.
This would be a forced draft, and economic draft.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

33. I was so fucking outraged after...

seeing that report -- I cannot believe the incompetence that I am seeing!!!!! The Center was a designated safe area and the people there have been completely abandones by the authorities.

I am about to explode out here in SF. :mad:

[MissB]

23. The hotel guests have somewhere to go.

They have a home somewhere. They won't require long-term FEMA/Red Cross services. Keeping them there will only put a bigger strain on limited resources.

Same goes for the well-to-do.

I don't see these people being evacuated first to be a bad thing. Get them out of there and then help the people who are going to need the help for a good long time.

[rrrevolution]

32. Prob is that evacuation = survival, should rich go first?

There is some logic to your response.

However, you fail to appreciate what the act of "evacuation" means.
If the poor are left till last, many will not survive. So would not your proposal favor those with means for survival over those without means, who are more likely not to survive?

[MissB]

40. If they can pick people up, then they can drop off supplies

I believe yesterday I heard they were evacuating the medically fragile first.

This isn't an either/or situation.

[ultraist]

36. Are you fucking serious! O.M.G.

The longer the wait to be evacuated, the higher the risk of dehydration, illness, and bacterial infection from the unsanitary conditions and lack of medical care.

Are you really saying that the "well to do" should go first and let the economically disadvantaged perish?

Christ alfuckingmighty, that has to be one of the cruelest statements I've read yet on this subject.

[MissB]

39. Oh, calm down.

Sheesh. Yeah, just leave the poor there to starve and perish. :eyes:

If they can pick people up, then they can drop supplies off. One would assume they'd pick up the medically fragile first (that was the word yesterday, anyway.)

Everyone is at risk there. I'd prefer to get some people out of the way first so that the rest of them have supplies.

[nashville_brook]

37. so much for largesse

it was my favorite european city and it's gone. it will never come back. the heart of the city was that it wasn't corporate-owned. it lived on the edge. it will never be the same.

this is a culling.

[ultraist]

38. They should get the CHILDREN and disabled OUT FIRST!

And allow one caretaker per child or per medically disabled person (including frail elderly people who need medical care).

The healthier adults are more able to withstand the horrific conditions until they can get evaced out of there.

[MissB]

41. That was the plan yesterday, ultraist.

Unless they've changed it, the medically fragile were supposed to be taken out of there first.

[Skwmom]

42. This is at the convention center (not the superdome). n/m

[PuraVidaDreamin]

44. The poor that make it will have no choice but to enlist in the army

to help get themselves back on their feet.

I'll be watching enlistment numbers real close.
This would be a forced draft, and economic draft.