Can I vent in here for just a sec?

[WolverineDG]

What an afternoon! Found out the mayor of my city was on TV saying how Laredo was not going to open up our arena or civic center to house victims of Katrina & we should just send money! :grr: :banghead: WHAT A GODDAMNED BITCH!!!! Only 2 words are keeping me completely sane on this issue: TERM.LIMITS.

Keith has my permission to have this publicity hound on & humiliate her....Lou Dobbs has already taken a whack at her, why should he have all the fun?

Then, in straightening out information with the Red Cross as to exactly what my agency is doing for victims of Katrina, I found out the local library was denying them access to computers to file FEMA claims because while they have local addresses (oh get this) THEY DON'T HAVE TEXAS DRIVERS' LICENSES!!!!!!!!

:nuke:

GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This in contrast to the local residents opening up their pocket books to the Red Cross. The Fire Department had firemen holding out boots on street corners & they raised $50K in one afternoon!!! The tiny town of El Cenizo has 20 local families willing to offer shelter to 20 families fleeing Katrina. Folks WITH DAMN NEAR NEXT TO nothing offering help to those WITH nothing. :thumbsup: And our mayor is a greedy bitch. :banghead:

The only bright spot in this afternoon was brainstorming with the Red Cross person: get the local universities to open up their computer labs for filing FEMA claims & get a phone bank up & running. Guess who got "drafted" for the phone bank? :)

Thanks for letting me vent.
dg

[Muffstser]

1. One sentence:

Worst Person, IN THE WORLD!!!

[Berry Cool]

2. Without QUESTION!!

Sheesh! "They don't have Texas drivers' licenses"? Hell, a lot of them probably don't have LOUISIANA drivers' licenses!! So the hell what????

That mayor should be ashamed as hell. CLEVELAND has been set up for DAYS to accept about 500 evacuees. Not supposed to get them until tomorrow, because at first they were expecting to get people relocated from Texas, but it turned out most of the people in Texas didn't want to get any further away from home than they already were. Now it looks as if the city is going to get a shipment of whatever holdouts can still be culled from New Orleans.

YOUR town won't help these people, and Cleveland will. Or will try to, anyway. Local merchants and museums and arts organizations have been loading up free goody bags for these people--with tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the zoo, the science center, the museums, Cavs preseason games, comedy clubs, cruises...they're also getting T-shirts, socks, pencils, notebooks, books, coloring books, art studio passes...the Cavs are donating basketballs...The Convention Center is full of cots and has TVs and is ready to serve up food and provide hot showers and medical care. If only they can GET some people there, the city will welcome them with open arms. Some of them may think of the winters up north and say "No thanks," but sheesh, winter is at LEAST a COUPLE of weeks away...

And a town in Texas says no. Sheesh. That's sad.

[RevCheesehead]

3. A driver's license to surf the net?

Now I've heard everything. :eyes:


Vent away, dear. That's what we're here for. :pals:

You know what's going on here - they don't want "refugees" flooding the job and housing markets. Besides, if you "write a check", you don't have to actually interact with any of "these people."

(that's why I get po'ed when my church people only want to send money. Those who've actually bothered to get involved have found a whole new level of meaning to what they're doing.)

[WolverineDG]

4. That's the problem

"These people" (meaning Hispanics) make up over 95% of the population here. If anyone should have open arms, it should be Laredo. After all, Hispanics are also "these people" to bigoted assholes.

The people here are actually very, very generous even though the vast majority live at or below poverty level. (see the $50K for Katrina victims in one afternoon) We give until it hurts, practically. It's the mayor who's the idiot & how she got elected TWICE is anyone's guess. She went on Lou Dobbs & made an ass of herself & he wasn't even trying to trip her up! :crazy:

Despite the mayor's yanking of the "Welcome to Laredo" mat, there are at least 26 families that made it here, maybe more. Most of them have family or friends in the area. They probably won't stay in the area; from what I gather, they just want a place to recover & then go home.

dg

[RevCheesehead]

5. How'd she get elected?

Diebold is my guess.

That's exactly why they want to stay in Texas, and not Wisconsin - because they have every intention of returning home. We're the one who should be sending $$ - and you guys open up the nearest doors.

[WolverineDG]

6. Diebold = amateurs

Trust me. The folks who stole Ohio are rank amateurs. Does "Box 13, Duval County" ring any bells?

No, we vote IN PENCIL here. I damn near fell over when I saw that. It's *SUPPOSED* to be the kind that's hard to erase. :rofl:

dg

[RevCheesehead]

7. Yeah - that happened when I went to do early voting.

The lady handed me a pencil. I didn't say anything, I just kind of looked at her, until she said, "oh - now that won't do, will it?"

Small towns - gotta love em.

[gkhouston]

12. :-)

"Vote early, vote often, vote in pencil... so we can correct you mistakes." How many times did I hear that even before Nov 2004?

[WolverineDG]

8. I forgot to add

the local university sent out an email to the students saying that they had taken in over 200 students from Louisiana. They are living in student housing & I think are paying in-state tuition. So, please don't judge this town just because of the stoopid mayor. She's the town joke.

dg

[Gogi]

9. Over 2,000 people have moved, on their own, to MO.

FEMA can't get 500 here! The volunteers in St. Louis have been waiting and waiting and waiting..........

St. Louis is the 18th largest metropolitan are in the US and ranks seventh in charitable contributions.

[Berry Cool]

10. Oh, I understand.

It's not the people, it's the mayor. But Cleveland probably wouldn't be set up the way it is right now if not for the mayor. She's far from perfect, but at least she's not saying NO while the people say YES.

Oh, and did I mention all the spare apartments in town that have been dug up to help transition these people to, so they don't have to spend months on a cot in a convention center?

[Catchawave]

11. The Mayor of my city was on Hardball tonight.....

..describing our Hurricane Evacuation Plan includes Sharpies to write SSN's on a body part to identify your dead body if you don't mandatorily evacuate. Tweety freaked! She said, "well it works!"

As far as our state helping, we have about 3,000 in the Richmond, Va area. Mark Warner is definitely running for President in '08, heh.

Katrina is definitely going to make or break some political careers.

((Watching Ophelia))

[gkhouston]

13. Good for her!

both for freaking out Tweety and for coming up with a way that drives home the point of what might happen if you stay -- and that is actually useful if people do stay.

[RevCheesehead]

14. I saw her!

She also has them fill out forms with "next of kin". When they ask "what do you need that for," she said "so we know who to contact to identify your dead body."

[WolverineDG]

17. I've seen that before too

I like that idea, plus the form with the next of kin information. Puts it there in black & white for those "I'm not leaving no matter what" types. What bugs the crap out of me are all the people wandering around outside in the middle of the storm. GET INSIDE YOU FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My dad was one until Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. We rode that one out & got lucky because it went into northern Mexico & didn't "turn right" until it got to Laredo & then all holy hell broke out in Laredo & San Antonio. Dad said after that "Next one comes, I'm running." :scared:

Following Dad's guidance, I took off from Hurricane Brett because it jumped from a Cat. 2 to a Cat. 4 in two hours. Living in Corpus, 1 mile (if that) inland, 2nd floor apartment = no place to be in a Category 4, so HASTA! It reminded me of when we packed up & left South Padre the day before Celia hit...we would have dead for sure if the storm had come in earlier & further south because we were stuck on the old causeway for hours while they had the drawbridge raised to let the shrimpers into port. My mom was freaking out, dad tried to remain calm, & we kids thought it was all a big, exciting adventure.

dg

[Horse with no Name]

15. Are you sure this was her decision?

We aren't far from the LA border. They were preparing a nursing home that had recently closed and Camp Maxey for the survivors.
They got a call saying they weren't opening any new shelters...in fact, saw something tonight saying they were going to start closing down the ones they have in 30 days?
That was unsubstantiated, btw.
So...no new shelters are being opened, whether she wanted to or not.:shrug:

[WolverineDG]

16. No, she said this earlier

people were pretty disgusted with her & were talking about it all week.

dg

[Berry Cool]

18. I think the only way to get some of these people out WILL be to make them

fill out a next-of-kin form.

It would definitely make ME think twice about staying.