This One should Light Some Fires...

[rcecale]

This isn't mine, just thought I'd share...

TX vs. LA
Tuesday, September 27, 2005 3:50 PM
2 States, 22 Observations

Things I have noticed while watching media coverage of the recent hurricanes.

1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans.
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats.

2. Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves.
Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them.

3. Texas: Local and state officials take responsibility for protecting their citizens and property.
Louisiana: Local and state officials blame federal government for not protecting their citizens and property.

4. Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order.
Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness.

5. Texas: Law enforcement officers remain on duty to protect city.
Louisiana: Law enforcement officers desert their posts to protect themselves.

6. Texas: Local police watch for looting.
Louisiana: Local police participate in looting.

7. Texas: Law and order remains in control, 8 looters tried it, 8 looters arrested.
Louisiana: Anarchy and lawlessness breaks out, looters take over city, no arrests, criminals with guns have to be shot by federal troops.

8. Texas: Considerable damage caused by hurricane.
Louisiana: Considerable damage caused by looters.

9. Texas: Flood barriers hold preventing cities from flooding.
Louisiana: Flood barriers fail due to lack of maintenance (despite billions of federal dollars given to the state over the past 30 years to reinforce the Levees) allowing city to flood.

10. Texas: Orderly evacuation away from threatened areas, few remain.
Louisiana: 25,000 fail to evacuate, are relocated to another flooded area.

11. Texas: Citizens evacuate with personal 3 day supply of food and water.
Louisiana: Citizens fail to evacuate with 3 day supply of food and water, do without it for the next 4 days.

12. Texas: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials provide accessible distribution points.
Louisiana: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials prevent citizens from reaching distribution points and vice versa.

13. Louisiana: Media focuses on poor blacks in need of assistance, blames Bush.
Texas: Media can't find poor blacks in need of assistance, looking for something else to blame on Bush.

14. Texas: Coastal cities suffer some infrastructure damage, Mayors tell residents to stay away until ready for re-population, no interference from federal officials.
Louisiana: New Orleans is destroyed, Mayor asks residents to return home as another hurricane approaches, has to be overruled by federal officials.

15. Louisiana: Over 400 killed by storm, flooding and crime.
Texas: 24 killed in bus accident on highway during evacuation, no storm related deaths.

16. Texas: Jailed prisoners are relocated to other detention facilities outside the storm area.
Louisiana: Jailed prisoners are set free to prey on city shops, residents, and homes.

17. Texas: Local and state officials work with FEMA and Red Cross in recovery operations.
Louisiana: Local and state officials obstruct FEMA and Red Cross from aiding in recovery operations.

18. Texas: Local and state officials demonstrate leadership in managing disaster areas.
Louisiana: Local and state officials fail to demonstrate leadership, require federal government to manage disaster areas.

19. Texas: Fuel deliveries can't keep up with demand, some run out of gas on highway, need help from fuel tankers before storm arrives.
Louisiana: Motorists wait till storm hits and electrical power fails. Cars run out of gas at gas stations that can't pump gas. Gas in underground tanks mixes with flood waters.

20. Texas: Mayors move citizens out of danger.
Louisiana: Mayor moves himself and family to Dallas.

21. Texas: Mayors continue public service announcements and updates on television with Governor's backing and support.
Louisiana: Mayor cusses, governor cries, senator threatens president with violence on television, none of them have a clue what went wrong or who's responsible.

22. Louisiana: Democratic Senator says FEMA was slow in responding to 911 calls from Louisiana citizens.
Texas: Republican Senator says "when you call 911, the phone doesn't ring in Washington, it rings here at the local responders".

What if state and local elected officials were forced to depend on themselves and their own resources instead of calling for help from the federal government? Texas cities would be back up and running in a few days. Louisiana cities would still be under water next month.

Republicans call for action, Democrats call for help.

[Wolf1]

That pretty much sums up the situation.

[928ram]

Louisiana: Mayor moves himself and family to Dallas.

He must've seen this list

[Shuie]

Things I have noticed while watching media coverage of the recent hurricanes.

After Katrina passed through and the ugliness started showing up on Fox, there were reports of very organized gangs of looters from Dallas and Houston who bringing their own boats and wireless communications systems across the state line and looting shops in the French Quarter while murdering any locals who got in their way.

[creaturecat]

guess what? - They were ALL American citizens

[Steeve]

Originally posted by creaturecat
guess what? - They were ALL American citizens

I agree, we are all American citizens. The only difference is that some of us took personal responsibility for our safety, and some of us live in New Orleans.

[Tyson Schmidt]

Of course, Texas had a bad example to learn from to know what not to do.

But I agree with your examples.

I heard recently that many of the reports from N.O. were rumors passed along by the media that weren't true. Like the rapes and murders in the Super dome. Many things were reported as fact because they couldn't verify anything due to lack of communication.

The media in general really have outdone themselves lately with sensationalistic reporting.

[928ram]

guess what? - They were ALL American citizens

Nope, there were some Canucks who didn't know what "evacuate" meant in NO also. As I recall, they participated in the waist-high dung-slosh too.

[Moses]

These things I know are true;

The failure in Louisiana was largely due to ineffective and corrupt local leadership. The Governor and Mayor, who are democrats, have performed shamefully but will likely suffer no consequences.

President Bush shares little blame for the events in New Orleans, but should rightfully be impeached for his bizarre war in Iraq. He, too, is unlikely to suffer any consequences.

[rcecale]

Originally posted by creaturecat
guess what? - They were ALL American citizens

hah! guess what, right back at ya!

"The Acadians (Cajuns) were French settlers of eastern Canada who were exiled from their land in the 1750s. The Cajuns are their descendants who settled in Louisiana."

...not that there's anything wrong with that...!

Randy

[bryanthompson]

Are you trying to say that they surrendered to the hurricane?

[CamB]

A few of those are really good, but most are just cheap shots or ignore the practice hurricane that was Katrina. This one is the worst:

8. Texas: Considerable damage caused by hurricane.
Louisiana: Considerable damage caused by looters.

Yeah, the hurricane did no damage in Louisiana

[johnco]

The Acadians were exiled from France after having all their possesions taken by the French. Then exiled from Canada and Nova Scotia after having all their possesions taken by the English. no one wanted us then, no one wants us now. they just want our property. so we get moved off the coast... how long before you northern carpetbaggers and scalawags move in to take our stuff again? I really didn't see too many Cajuns getting bused out of the superdome, convention center or doing any looting. seems to me most of them were a different flavor of people. just because you're from Lousiana, it doesn't make you a cajun

[Overpaid Slacker]

Great list -- and though there are a few cheap shots, the dichotomy in accountability and responsibility is there.


What frosts my muffins is that the same inept, corrupt (yet protected from media scourging by party affiliation) NO/Louisiana officials are now asking for $250 Billion -- that's $250,000,000,000.00 -- to recover from Katrina.

So, these same people who have proven themselves inept at best (and whom I would argue are culpable for their nonfeasance and malfeasance) now want a check for $250,000,000,000.00 to be disbursed as they see fit to fix the problems they helped create.

Just as a point of reference, $250,000,000,000.00 is about SIXTY-THREE (63) times as much money as the Army Corps of Engineers said it would cost to build levee systems required to protect NO from a Category 5 hurricane.

For $250,000,000,000.00 they could rebuild the entire city of NO on a 20' high plinth of gold-plated titanium and put a climate-controlled dome over the whole city.

I don't think the federal government should fully fund the bail out (so to speak) of NO -- and LSU Professor Jeff Sadow is thinking along the same lines:

Making matters worse is the pork-laden nature of the request. . . .

And who would control the disbursement of this money? It seems the nine-person panel would have a Louisiana majority.

So, let's get this straight. Louisiana, from some of her federal officials through some state officials all they way down to city and other local governments, countenanced negligence from benign to irresponsible in ensuring proper flood protection and in dealing with hurricanes. And now these same people have formulated a plan wanting the country to pay an incredible sum of money to the state controlled by people from the state to deal with the aftereffects and, apparently, Louisiana's past inability to utilize our resources efficiently in other areas?

The rest of the country is going to look at this and think we're still stuck on stupid.

JP

[Overpaid Slacker]

From Izvestia, ... er... the Washington Post. Sorry, I get them confused all the time.

Louisiana's congressional delegation has requested $40 billion for Army Corps of Engineers projects in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, about 10 times the annual Corps budget for the entire nation, or 16 times the amount the Corps has said it would need to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane.

Louisiana Sens. David Vitter (R) and Mary Landrieu (D) tucked the request into their $250 billion Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act, the state's opening salvo in the scramble for federal dollars.

The bill, unveiled last week, would create a powerful "Pelican Commission" controlled by Louisiana residents that would decide which Corps projects to fund, and ordered the commission to consider several controversial navigation projects that have nothing to do with flood protection. The Corps section of the Louisiana bill, which was supported by the entire state delegation, was based on recommendations from a "working group" dominated by lobbyists for ports, shipping firms, energy companies and other corporate interests.

The bill would exempt any Corps projects approved by the commission from provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act. It would also waive the usual Corps cost-sharing requirements, ensuring that federal taxpayers would pay every dime.

Read the rest here.

[Steeve]

Originally posted by Overpaid Slacker

What frosts my muffins is that the same inept, corrupt (yet protected from media scourging by party affiliation) NO/Louisiana officials are now asking for $250 Billion -- that's $250,000,000,000.00 -- to recover from Katrina.

I agree. Wasn't there a saying about having a fox watch over the hen house??

[Mule]

OK boys, time for a little reality check.

1.Put 10 feet of water in downtown Houston & see if things change.

2. Do you really think New Orleans has all the low-life getto thugs? Check a project near you.

3. So LA is requesting $250 billion. How much did Boston pi$$ away on the 'big dig?" No natural disaster at all. Just pork. I'm wondering how much benefit the nation will recieve for those federal dollars? And these aren't ignorant Southerners. These are educated individuals who re-elect Ted Kennedy & Barney Frank.
"When Congress originally approved construction of the project, it was to cost $2.5 billion and be completed by 1998. According to the audit, the project’s total cost could reach a staggering $13.6 billion – $2.8 billion more than projected just six months ago. "

4. Texas got nothing in damage compared to LA.

5. The feds were in Texas before the storm.

I could go on but this comparison is apples to tuna fish. IMHO Houston has to be one of the least habitable cities I've ever been in, no zoning, poorly planned, traffic from hell. Take New Orleans, subtract everything interesting & historical, add a few million Mexicans, stir in some rednecks and cows, and there you have it.

As for FEMA, Texans are b!tching up a storm about FEMA.

If you believe nothing else I say here, trust me on this. Take your run of the mill getto welfare recipient in NO and any other large city, the biggest difference will be wether they are wearing FUBU or Sean John. Every large city has this same problem.

[}{arlequin]

huh huh... you said pelican

this list has some funny stuff. maybe the way NO has been run by the local gvt. has to do w/ the place itself? maybe the "laissez faire" nature of the region, the party atmosphere, so to speak, encroaches into the everyday life, all the way to the official positions? it's nice as a fun, relaxing way of life, but when real danger approaches, a more serious approach to things should be implemented.

[Mule]

"but when real danger approaches, a more serious approach to things should be implemented."

Everybody I know took a sane, sensible approach to the storm and ended up safe and sound. So you think your getto dwelling welfare recipients would react better? Maybe but I doubt it.