the entire gulf coast will be rebuilt, including New Orleans, no matter what anyone thinks, or no matter what it costs. we can patch it up , or spend a little more now, to try to make sure it doesn't happen again soon. the city at the mouth of the Mississippi River isn't closing or being considered for landfill by the Washington check writers. the Feds actually own 100% of the mineral rights to a lot of the natural gas/heating oil taken from this area, that accounts for 30% of our country's annual needs. something to do with the Louisiana Purchase and the fact that they already bought this property once. in exchange for their pipelines and crewboats and everything else drilling does for the coastline, we are rewarded with a state who's land and barrier islands that slow down hurricanes, is dissapearing at the rate of a football field per hour. we have asked Washington if they would help us with this problem and they said they would get back to us (right after the wells run dry). you will probably be getting a price increase on your winter heating products, blameing Katrina/Rita. thank your uncle, he's partly to blame too.

As for the mayor, most that know him, could not believe that was him. i guess he couldn't say he was drunk. he is not a career politician. this is his first try, and he has had a lot on his plate. at least he admitted he fuggedup, and was caught up in the MLK thing. the mayorial election has been moved back to April, so all the choc/van will decide then, who they want running this "armpit"

 

I'm all for keeping it functioning as a port and point to harvest natural resources but rebuilding a city in a sinking cesspool is nuts. If the locals want to do it great just dont ask the rest of the country to pay for it.

 

I agree.

 

if Washington wasn't making trillions on the deal, they wouldn't be spending your billions.

 

We still get the economical benefits from the region without wasting money on storm preparations and repairs that cant possibly work.

The area is sinking and no man-made structures and designs are going to survive a CAT 5 when it hits.

 

We had a big discusion about this yesterday at work. Basically it ended in the fact that once your a politician at a higher national or state level you wind up being a different kind of person than ANY working class american.

I heard Ray Naigan's apeal for help hours (or day I forget) for help on the radio. At the time I felt it to be the most powerful piece of radio I had ever heard. I think this was Ray Naigan the man, perhaps realizing he had flubbed up but knew he needed help. Hindsight is always 20/20 and afterwards there were things he could have done better. But during that press conference he knew he needed help and he asked for it..fast forward....

As a white 29 year old middle income American male, I am outraged at what I heard from Naigan, I am also outraged at what Hilary said. You see I have my own pulse and it doesn't run red or blue. I will say this again, as I have said it before on here, people my age are not voting PERIOD. This is going to come to a catastrophic point sooner than later. I'm not talking world annihilation I am talking bad choices made by people that are going to be the minority. The people my age need to get involved. From what I have seen and who I have talked about we have great ideas but for some reason my demographic is not concerned with the vote. Until we are, we will have Ray Naigans saying stupid things and Hilary's being politicians. We need to make a grass roots effort to save this country. It has to do with racism, poor people, schools, and stupid partisan politics. This country is not two countries (dem's & rep's). This country is a one place that needs to be run as one. That needs to tend to itself for awhile to replace some Band-Aids with real treatments.

Sorry, for the length but this is making me crazy. I may start out in our local political arena but I don't know if I can stand dealing with old farts that have the ideology of their sacred party before the better of the community.

 

Yep -- just ask any Black man who dares to call himself "conservative" or "Republican"!

He or she will be immediately labeled an "Uncle Tom" by the mainstream Black leadership of this country. If you want to look at the perfect example of "group think" you need look no further than at Black culture in America. To have any legitimacy with the Jesse Jacksons of the world, you must embrace the liberal and/or Democratic perspective -- and have a strong leaning toward the concept of reparations!

I guarantee you a FAR greater percentage of the White population in this country considers themselves "liberal" or "Democrat" than do Black folks who consider themselves "conservative" or "Republican".....

Black culture is the classic definition of "group think" in this country!

 

O'Ta...I agree.

 

Yesterday, I was going to drop off some mail at the post office and plum forgot that it was MLK day. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the holiday and all the BS that MLK said in his hayday.
Anyway, a black women was walking the the entrance as I was leaving. I ask her if it were a holiday today or something. She looked at me as if I was crazy and as if I asked that question under false pretense just to show my racistousness. Clearly, I am no racist. I just forgot that it was MLK day. It really shows you who are the racist people in the US. Sorry for the spelling.

 

Dont feel bad...MLK aint the saint that history has made him out to be. Time, selective memories and selective reporting have made him into the great civil rights leader he now is. I'll leave it at that as MLK is one sacred cow you dont mess with.

 

+1....


also.......you should investigate the "real" Rosa Parks story.......it is quite interesting......


......in a nutshell.....she was NOT the first black person to defy the bus "policies"........she was the first person that the "rights movement" officials felt would come across as a "respectable" example of the situation........

.......All history is "selective" in nature......history is a story and will be told with varying and often conflicting viewpoints........

 

Speaking of sacred cows -- it would have been interesting to see what would have happened in 1964 had Kennedy not been assassinated. He was struggling as President and would have been extremely beatable in the next election.

I wonder if the historical view of his time in office would have been different had events occurred in a different way....?

 

hmmm, it's amazing why the people who used to live in that area are not rushing back to 1) rebuild their community and 2) take advantage of the large number of jobs now available.

Here in Atlanta right before the holidays the local news was running a story about a displaced family that had just received notice that they were going to have to move from their free hotel room within a couple of weeks and how worried they were about not having another free place to stay. Not that they were out looking for a job, but that they were upset that after 3-4 months of being there that they were already being kicked out.

But wait, we wouldn't expect them to work now, especially since they have been receiving handouts and continue to wherever they are. There, my friends, is the problem with our current system. I do not have a problem helping out the needy, but when you have a system that promotes dependance rather than independance and excellence, then you shouldn't expect much out of the people that benefit from the handouts.

New Orleans is not chocolate - it is more like a tar pit. Something interesting to go look at, but I sure wouldn't want to get stuck in it!!!

 

It's the people like that that have brought Louisiana down. A Deep South state like LA should be rather conservative, but I think that it was actually the first state to enact half of the liberal laws in America. How does a private citizec, a blue collar worker, fight against politicians who make decisions to favor people that sit back and take hand outs? Those people outnumber the working class, so the politician caters to them to keep his job and pay. He doesn't give a **** about the working class, b/c they don't benifit him in anyway.
Personally, I think that the demise of this country started with WW2. All the soldiers came back, many messed up in the head. They had lots of kids to help work to support the family in an economy recovering from a major war. They are the 'Baby Boomers'. Their kids had kids who became the 'Flower Children'. 'Make Love, Not War'. Free sex all around, drugs abound. The result was many kids wound up without fathers, and with care free mothers who let them get away with anything. There was no discipline in the family. This brings us to the '80's. Everyone knows what happened in the '80's and '90's. Things kept getting progressively worse, and here we are today. It all stems from lack of parental discipline. If parents controlled their kids as they should, we wouldn't have 7/8's of the people who use and abuse the system. Kids brought up in the 'Projects' b/c their parents (mostly parent) wouldn't work and try to do anything with their life. Sitting back relaxing while our tax dollars put food on their table. What kind of BS is that?

 

That's all kinds of wrong and all kinds of right....