Outrage check-in. What are your co-workers saying today about

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

all the f***ed up sh** that's happening in NOLA today?

One three-day weekend did NOT quell the fury at my place of employment.

Almost everyone was infuriated and calling the response driven by the economic and cultural status of the evacuees.

In other words, they weren't helped because they were poor and black.

The freeps at work were verrry low key and noncommittal. MKJ

[flamingyouth]

1. People were horrified and sad and angry.

I am lucky - all of my coworkers are liberal so at least I don't have to grind my teeth because of politics.

[justiceischeap]

2. Yeah, I work for a liberal non-profit

So I don't have to concern myself with that closed minded bs.

[Pied Piper]

11. Me too

At my workplace, we did our all of our screaming at * last Friday. Today, everyone was afriad to bring it up, mostly because it only got worse over the weekend, and frankly, we were so upset last week that no one wanted to tip over the apple cart...

Of course we have a few here who want to blame the victims, but no one is taking the bait; those with that view find that we change the subject or walk away.

[agates]

3. A reasonable repub friend said today that he's done

Done with watching Fox, listening to O'REally, listening to Rush, and voting (R). In his words, "Never again!" Welcome to reality and compassion, my friend!

[dsc]

4. I used to be the only outspoken liberal in the math office

Now there is a new teacher who is also a liberal and people are much more down on Bush. He had only one real defender and his point mainly was that NO was also local people's fault. He also heard the NPR story this morning in which a person refused to leave and used that as a defense. But even he blames Bush for much of the mess.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. We are mostly liberals at my school

but several have freeper husbands. And many told stories of husbands who voted for bush now disgusted with him. One said if election was coming up this November, no way could bush win after this.

[MassLiberal]

5. nobody's happy

My boss is a New Zealander who never either criticizes or praises Bush, and today he was talking about how appalling the slow response of the government was, how un-tuned in Bush seems about the hurricane and its aftermath. He thinks that Bush looks very bad right now, with things getting worse quickly. I secretly high-fived myself, as I have never been able to get this guy to criticize the idiot.

[distantearlywarning]

6. My co-workers haven't said much about it.

But they're all pretty liberal to start with, so I'm not worried about them.

I did overhear two middle-aged ladies in an restaurant today talking about it. I could only hear snippets of their conversation, but it sounded pretty negative towards the Feds and Bush.

[tedoll78]

7. Just think..

all of this before the new FEMA memo..

Wait until it gets widespread coverage from more media sources..

[MaggieSwanson]

8. I about lost it at work today.

Lots of people who consider themselves well-informed saying that the state and local officials blew it first and foremost (thank you DU for the links to Gov. Blanco's letter to the feds - that shut them up for a while)and a few assholes saying "well, they CHOSE to live there".

Here in Iowa, we have tornado warnings quite often in the summer months. I asked one of them what they do when there is a tornado warning, and they do just what I do - go out on the porch and watch.

I hope I gave some of them pause, but they are feeling so supreme with their MSM opinions and their Faux pity.


It was almost more than I could bear.

[ailsagirl]

9. I had to bring it up-- but, yes, people are disgusted and outraged

[bbgrunt]

10. I got the following from a hard-core and would like some suggestions

for a response:

Hi Guys -
>It's time for you Louisiana folks to clean house on the Governors office
>and ALL New Orleans politicians!
>Please send this email to all you know in LA - and - don't let anybody
>tell you it's all Bush's fault!!!
>
> Subject: The battle over New Orleans
>
> On Friday night before the storm hit, Max Mayfield of the National
> Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Nagin and
> Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of NO
> and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA
>buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was destroyed.
>
>President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his
>advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a
>state to Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act).
>
>Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and
>pleaded
> with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the
>military could legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that
>they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved
>yet.
>
>After the President's final call to the governor she held meetings with her
>staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It
>was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as
>if they had failed so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited
>in.
>
>Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin
>requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that
>they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation.
>After a personal plea from the President Nagin agreed to order an
>evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the
>governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal
>action.
>
>In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster area
>before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced
>preparations. Rumor has it
>that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of
>using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a
>state request federal aid before the federal government can move into a
>state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the
>Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the
> disaster. Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO
>for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a
>marina and support the gambling ships.
>
>Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness
>plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the
>city's website was
> never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of
>gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations
>identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any
>planning - though the document implies that they were.
>
>The suffering people of NO need to be asking some hard questions as do we
>all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the
>multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which
>further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard
> from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the
>President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when
>according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over
>500 busses at his disposal to use
> between the local school busses and the city transportation busses - but
>he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.
>
>This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been
>destroyed
> and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more
>suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers
>and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and
>incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives
>anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to
> avoid them in the future.
>

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. All your answers are in the thread link in my sig

------------------------------------------------------
Save the Gulf:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm

[bbgrunt]

23. thank you kindly GPV.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Report from one office: looting TVs, "state and local," NO below sea level

so this was bound to happen sometime.

This was a business meeting. It's a good thing I just heard about it, and wasn't there.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. Well at my husband's workplace, all are livid and have been.

They called Pinhead** every name under the sun. They want him impeached! Called him a Coward and well you get the picture! These are all white guys of varying age groups and I don't know their political leanings, or if they ever supported Idiot Boy. If they did, they sure don't now.

[raising2moredems]

14. Freeps are chickenshits

Unless O'Really/O'Liely or Druggie Limbaugh repeats a buzz phrase, they hide in their cubes all day. I'm lying in wait for the biblethumper, he's a paychek or 2 (1 month) from living in his barely running car with his wife and litter.

[MaggieSwanson]

16. Tell us what happens

when you find him. I need cheering up.

[mondo joe]

15. I work with almost all liberals so they thought Buscho was terrible to

begin with.

[Extend a Hand]

17. where I work

The silence is deafening...Even when I tried to bring it up
I really don't understand this.

[Erika]

18. Co-workers pretty stunned

How could this happen in America is the general response.

[smurfygirl]

20. everyone I work with volunteered all weekend

and helped make personal kits for evacuees. No one took a day off.
They are all affected in ways I can't describe. I'm exhausted. I know many of us must be.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. I am lucky - not many freeps at work

But I was surprised today by how many had not watched the coverage. Only one had seen the video of Broussard crying. (And I have seen it maybe ten times.)

But all agreed the govt failed poor brown-skinned people.

[Nobody]

24. I got a die-hard freeper

From the same guy who excused the torture at Abu Ghraib came this gem: When the rescuers showed up in New Orleans, they got "Where the hell have you been?" and they should have been grateful to be alive. The tsunami victims were grateful, but those people in New Orleans.... that just burns me. They should have known this was coming a year ago and they didn't do anything.

---What can you say to such willful ignorance? Starting with the tsunami: FEMA is a federal agency for the purpose of dealing with disasters. The people of New Orleans are Americans, don't you think that Americans should expect their own damn federal agencies to be timely? How many more people could have been saved if they hadn't been sucking their thumbs on borrowed time?

Where the hell WAS FEMA? Diddling around with their heads up their asses, that's where. And the local government asked for money to beef up the levees long before the hurricane hit. Denied.

Idiot freeper also made the point about how 275 pound guys couldn't possibly be starving. Do I even have to comment? Five days without food, it doesn't matter whether you were overweight or anorexic, but the overweight people had a better chance of making it.

By the way, no one said anything, it was plainly obvious to all that he was digging himself in deeper as someone seriously lacking in compassion. Nothing would convince him and not one single person who heard his outburst agreed with him. Reactions from everyone else was the same as toward a venomous snake: back slowly away and hope it's not a cottonmouth.

[preciousdove]

25. Where the hell IS FEMA? n/t

It was Honore that got the ball rolling and FEMA is still AWOL.

[Tsiyu]

26. I had to get up from dinner with two managers and a peon ( like me)

saying I'd rather be a "liberal" than a dumbass and coldhearted. "Keep drinking the Koolaid."

Had to go out back and cry and have a smoke. Later, the other peon cheered me up - as did quite a few of the peons. We aren't supposed to discuss politics, but the Freepers are allowed to, I guess.

When they do, I am ready, but today I am so hurt inside I just had to get away from them. I was shaking. I know they were baiting me, but I got my digs in later, preaching to the peons who listen, within earshot of one manager. The other manager figured out he'd better stay away from me.

I just kept asking everyone, and myself, "Why are people so stupid??????????"

[Nobody]

27. A better question would be: Why are people so heartless?

Hameland Security has been and still is a joke, FEMA has shown itself to be worse than useless -- my mind still can't wrap itself around the fact that the Red Cross was turned away, that kids had to commandeer buses to evacuate people and showed up in Houston AHEAD OF survivors who were being evacuated by FEMA.

If I had a time machine. There are so many things I'd fix.

[Hello_Kitty]

28. Remarkably similar experience last night

I was at a teambuilder dinner with 2 other peons and our manager.

First it was: "It's not racism. Hurricanes don't discriminate!"

It deteriorated from there.

They got into the looting and the supposed rapes of seven year olds. And...wait for it...they couldn't deliver food and water to people because they were shooting at them! The manager says her sister lives in Lafayette and volunteered at a shelter set up there where...you guessed it...the sister "heard" that an old person in a wheelchair was beaten to death. Then one of the co-workers weighs in with how Jesse Jackson should just shut up because all he does is start trouble every time he opens his mouth (and Pat Robertson doesn't?). I refuted it as best I could. Other racist bullshit followed and I had to get up and smoke too.

All 3 of them have already received "educational" emails from me about racism and poverty with more to come as I find them.

What the hell makes people think that because I share their skin color that I share their fucked-up views?

[bleedingheart]

29. The Racists here in PA have had no trouble blaming problems

on the people who are poor and black. Comments like, "Why should I pay to bail out people too stupid to help themselves". "I don't see anyone giving anything to me?"--this comment from a woman living in a $250K house with a brand new car...

I have heard many others try and blame the governor and the mayor and basically state that why should "the rest of us have to pay for levees in a city built below sea level..."

It disgusts me and it makes me really sad.

However I have explained to some people that since SW Pa is swiss cheesed with mines...one day our turn may come and when our homes are suddenly sitting in sink holes and our lives are made miserable by both the forces of mother nature and coal companies...I wonder if they will want help???

My faith in humanity has been seriously shaken.

[rhino47]

30. My freep bro in law just lies in wait for me.

I think I am the only liberal he knows.
His comment on the hurricane was at least there are a few less N word
to leech off the goverment.He went on to say it was all the blame is the democrats in the region.Of course it couldnt be Saint Georges.
My children were standing right there.I would have slapped his face if they had not been.I told the kids to go check their bookbags .After they left I tore him a new one and told him to get the hell out of my house.This guy is a retired 60 year old former goverment employee.A yellow backed chickenhawk that hates everyone and is proud of it.
How much does a person have to hate themselves to utter such a thing?
As horrified and angry that I am ,I am also rather saddened.

[Francine Frensky]

31. Blame the blacks and women for being stupid

"Why didn't the people leave?
N*****'s won't help themselves, they just sit around waiting for the federal government to come in and rescue them.
black mayor was incompetent
female governor was incompetent
why are people blaming bush? he didn't do anything wrong."

[ScreamingMeemie]

32. Luckily, I work for myself, all I have heard from my clients is shock

and anger that this could go on here...and now.