G=EMC^2 Glazier wrote:
Hi nightbat Ask why the navy does not bring in inflatable life rafts??
Why no army water trucks?? Why no army generators?? Why no army tents??
I could go on and on. Looking at your TV tells the answer. These people
are the poorest blacks of the south. Most had no money to leave before
Katrina hit. Most did not know how dangerous New Orleans was. The
politicians knew,and like the rats they are were the first to find
safety. Now nature's forces will start killing off the children first,
old, and mothers next. Men will kill men. That will be the political
final solution. Survival of the fittest. This was all accomplished by
those in power stalling and stalling. Coning and coning. Just doing
nothing was all it took. Helicopters showing dynamic rescues on TV was
just part of their con game. Best we think about the big picture,and
realize nothing was really done in the last four days,and that was the
best time for helping the poor blacks These men with guns that would
have died soon,are now taking out their revenge. We will see in the next
few days New Orleans like we see most Iraq cities. Bert

Another sign of what is wrong, Bert ...

.... Not race, here or now ...

Rather, ...

power
money
self interest

See below:

RL

--------------------------------

See http://tinyurl.com/cpt2m

" NEW ORLEANS (AP) - First the U.S. government took the buses hired to
evacuate them. Then their hotels turned them out onto the desolate
streets.


They trudged for blocks to walk over a bridge, but police wouldn't let
them cross - and fired a few warning shots over their heads to convince
them not to try.

And the night was coming down.

Despairing, dozens of trapped tourists huddled on a downtown street
corner and waited for dark.

"I grew up in an upper-middle class family," said Canadian visitor
Larry Mitzel, 53, of Saskatoon. "Street life is foreign to me. I'm not
sure I'm going to get out of here alive."

The fate of tourists in dozens of hotels was caught up in the days of
chaos and confusion that came after hurricane Katrina.

Many smaller hotels shut down. The largest housed hundreds and hundreds
of guests and took in refugees from the storm. How many remained
Thursday was unclear.

Tourists and hotel managers alike condemned government officials for
ignoring them.

"The tourists are an afterthought here," said Bill Hedrick of Houston,
who went to New Orleans on business and was trapped with his wife and
elderly mother-in-law.

"We're appalled," said Jill Johnson, 53, of Saskatoon. "This city is
built on tourism and we're their last priority."

Peter Ambros, general manager of the Astor Crowne Plaza in the French
Quarter, said guests who bring business to the hotels are "treated 10
times worse than the people at the Superdome."

He helped arrange the hiring of 10 buses to evacuate 500 guests from
his and a nearby hotel - at a cost of $25,000 US.

Then the
Federal Emergency Management Agency commandeered the buses and police
told the guests to go to the nearby convention centre, where a crowd
left without food, water or security was growing angry.

Instead, the tourists - dragging their rolling luggage through broken
glass, smashed bricks and trash - tried to cross a huge bridge blocks
away.

They were turned back when another group trying to cross began to
threaten the officers, said Whit Herndon, 32, of Jonesboro, Ark.

As night approached, the tourists stuck close together on a corner of
the downtown waterfront and within sight of a police gathering point.

Officers brought them food and water and promised buses would come for
them. Most prepared to sleep, sheltered by a concrete overhang.

The tourists put on a game face and prepared to sleep.

Ann Robertson, a 50-year-old vocational counsellor from Nashville,
Tenn., looked on the bright side. They had food, there was safety in
numbers - but then she looked at the sky.

"I don't know," she said, "I never slept on the street before." "