I am absolutely sick to my stomach right now. Re: Rescue efforts stopped.

[tjwash]

My god. They are stopping the rescue efforts because it was too dangerous. Right now New Orleans is a disaster area of biblical proportions. It looks as if several tactical nukes went off in the city. There are dead bodies floating down the flood created rivers. People are going on four days without food or drinkable water. OF COURSE IT IS DANGEROUS! IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE DANGEROUS! WHAT THE FUCK???

I'm sorry, but I just can't buy into the MSM's reporting and spin on on this right now, as it is making me physically ill.

What is the media going out of their way to NOT report is what is starting to infuriate me. Our brave national guardsmen are doing everything they can possible do, considering they are an overworked skeleton crew, that is full of brave men and women that have just come home from double and triple tours in Iraq.

You can bet that the oil refineries have a full around the clock guard though.

As stretched thin as our National Guard is at the moment, because of this incompetent administrations illegal oil war in the middle east, you can bet that protecting the pipelines and refineries is behind this decision.

This is an administration that thinks nothing of sending kids into a meat grinder in the middle east, you think they care one little bit about desperate, poor, people that are drowning and starving, and were left behind simply because they were so broke they could not afford to get out of town in time? Is it too much to ask this bunch of thieves in the White House to at least PRETEND that they care as much about their own citizens as they do about about the people in a sovereign nation that they invaded on the other side of the globe?

Or is there no money in it? Is Halliburton stretched so thin "restoring law and order and rebuilding the middle east" that they can't bother to do the same to our own citizens? Maybe we will get lucky and those war profiteering bastards will pencil the city of New Orleans in to their busy schedules and drop by in a month or so to see how much more they can gouge the American taxpayers for.

Sorry for the rant. I just had to get that off of my chest.

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. I'm stunned.

As a side thought, I've been wondering about the reports of helicopters under fire. Is it possible people are not firing AT the helicopters but trying to get their attention, i.e. flare gun without access to flares? The desparation must be beyond imaginable.

[tjwash]

6. It is desperation plain and simple.

And to your point just how much of what is being reported on CNN right now is actually accurate? We get the official canned report / FEMA press release, but who is really in the position to fact check what is actually happening there right now?

The one thing I know, is that I don't know. I don't know how I would act if I was stranded on the top of a building, surrounded by stale murky water, and watching my dead neighbors floating by, after not being able to eat or drink clean food and water for a week. If I had a gun I would probably be desperate enough to fire a shot in the air to signal that I was there if I saw a helicopter and was unsure that they saw me...

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Those were exactly my thoughts.

[silver10]

2. No, they don't care,

and they don't care to hide that they don't care. This country has been robbed blind by a bunch of incompetents and robber barrons who have wasted billions, if not trillions, on a war that cannot be won, and on tax cuts for the rich - who if they were in NO, had the money to leave in time. Everything else has been gouged, including education, social and welfare programs for the poor, and fixing the dilapidated state of this 'great' nation's infrastructure - including unsafe bridges, roads, highways and LEVEES that could have been easily reinforced - but we didn't have the money? To murder people, yes, to help prevent pain and suffering, hell no.

[LeftHander]

3. Despite what you heard...resuce is ongoing...

Listening the the scanner feed hundreds of National Guard and Coast Guard are helping evac people from staging points around the city. It is the boat rescues that have been suspended by FEMA.

Weather or not anyone is actually listening to FEMA remains to be seen.

The scanner shows that there are several temas of "soldiers" National Guard. Air Guard and Coast Guard that are working, helping people get out of the city.

[intheflow]

7. Yes, it will be interesting to see if boat rescues continue "privately."

And by privately, I wonder if some FEMA-coordinated boats continue working to save people. I'm listening to the scanner & it seems that some "official" rescuers are questioning the federal leadership about how to bet proceed in NOLA.

[MADem]

4. Take heart, the rescue ops were temporarily suspended, not stopped

And I am glad to see at least one person, besides me, on this board, has respect for the service personnel of all branches who have left their families behind to help out these folks in NOLA.

We cannot depend on the chimp for much of anything...but then, we already knew that. All we can do is hope that this awful situation resonates across the country, and serves as the tipping point that brings the House, and the Senate, down, and turns them over to leaders who can lead in 06...and then we can take back the WH in 08 (or sooner, with impeachments!).

[silver10]

5. Those brave men and women of our armed forces,

are to be commended. They are doing everything they can, and sacrificing much more than any person has a right to ask them to.

[tjwash]

9. Exactly.

nt