Katrina and NOLA flood Politics...

[AlKilyu]

Originally Posted by edible_eye

ha. i thought you edited that out.

this almost makes me want to type in as many no-no words as i can think of to see what the internal editor will allow and what it won't.

i said - almost.

Why not? If any are too bad, they'll be **'d, kind of like a failsafe if you get like me driving by a Starbucks.


And Binkie: You could derail any thread and us lowly pe-HEY that's an ATHF quote!

[Bodnoirbabe]

you can't type in * * * * * *

****** <----- see!

[MrMaelstrom]

******

Damn, Bolero, you're right. This was so quick it can't be a person. It has to be some sort of software program censoring this shit!

"Teeth are for gay people"?!!!!!!!

WTF?!!!

Where do you get those quotes, Binkie? Been talking to Ice again?

[MrMaelstrom]

Oh, and Binkie, I know you weren't trying to convey no such message in your posts regarding Madrid or London.

I just distorted it all to get my point across.

You've been kind of absent lately. Are you OK?

[Peter]

Yeah, it's a word censor, you can tell because when you go to preview you post in go advanced it's already censored in the preview.

There's also scripts which can remove and censor stuff directly in the database periodically (it's how the thread pruning feature of vBulliten works for example)

[Peter]

I have had manual deletions though.

This will disappear eventually because I say **** and ******.

[edible_eye]

look at you go, boy. way to censor the censors.

[MrMaelstrom]

Funny, 'cause I can read **** and ****** perfectly well on your post, but both me and Bolero had it censored on posts of ours.

I don't get it.

[MrMaelstrom]

See? It's a selective bastard. I was censored and you weren't. It doesn't make any sense...

fuck **** cunt cock suck dick satan shit wad asshole arse ******

[MrMaelstrom]

Hummmm.... I wonder if this censoring program is what Weaselboy disagreed with...

I know I would...

[edible_eye]

i'm guessing peter knows code to side-step the censoring program, mael.

more important - what's wrong with a sea monkey scratching its balls with a fork? that's kinda cool in its own right. no one else has it...

[Spazik]

Why would it censor ****** but not fuck? What a strange world.

[Granny-like_the_apple]

Originally Posted by edible_eye

i'm guessing peter knows code to side-step the censoring program, mael.

Yeah, you can use Unicode to get around it. There's a list of shit at http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/utf8-t1.html for all of those people who simply need to talk about **** in their posts.

People like me.

[MrMaelstrom]

Talk about what in their posts?

Welcome back Granny, where you been girl?
Good holidays?

[Granny-like_the_apple]

Thanks Mael. I started college a couple weeks ago so I've been busy, um, studying. I love studying. How've you been?

And I was going for * * * *, but it still edited it. Wierd.

[edible_eye]

granny!

welcome back, you two.

[Granny-like_the_apple]

Hah, thanks. I'm saddened to inform you, though, that there's only one of us now. Damn those cephalopods...

[edible_eye]

only one? please tell me it isn't so!

they were such a pretty pair... such a massive, impressive, pretty pair......

[Empty_Purple_Stars]

May I be the first to say:

Gawdamn, those are some gigantic fucking Tits!!!

That is all...

[Peter]

And I think I've got back problems.

[Empty_Purple_Stars]

GawdfuckingDamn FINALLY!!

Now someone needs to peel the skin off of his body with a potato peeler and a blowtorch..

FEMA CHIEF SENT PACKING

9/9/2005, 4:18 p.m. CTBy LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, the principal target of harsh criticism of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, was relieved of his onsite command Friday.


He will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief, recovery and rescue efforts, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced.

Earlier, Brown confirmed the switch. Asked if he was being made a scapegoat for a federal relief effort that has drawn widespread and sharp criticism, Brown told The Associated Press after a long pause: "By the press, yes. By the president, no."

"Michael Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge," Chertoff told reporters in Baton Rouge, La. Chertoff sidestepped a question on whether the move was the first step toward Brown's leaving FEMA.

But a source close to Brown, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FEMA director had been considering leaving after the hurricane season ended in November and that Friday's action virtually assures his departure.

Brown has been under fire and facing calls for his resignation because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to exaggerate his previous emergency management background.

Less than an hour before Brown's removal came to light, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Brown had not resigned and the president had not asked for his resignation.

Democratic lawmakers weren't satisfied with the move; they immediately demanded Brown's ouster from FEMA.

"The events of the last ten days have shown that Mr. Brown has repeatedly exercised poor judgment and has failed in his basic responsibilities," said a letter to Bush from Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin, Debbie Stabenow and Charles E. Schumer. "His continued presence in this critical position endangers the success of the ongoing recovery efforts. ... It is not enough to remove Mr. Brown from the disaster scene."

Republican Sen. Trent Lott, whose Pascagoula, Miss., home was destroyed in the storm, said he, too, had concluded that FEMA "was overwhelmed, undermanned and not capable of doing its job" under Brown's leadership.

"Michael Brown has been acting like a private, instead of a general," Lott said.

Chertoff suggested the shift came as the Gulf Coast efforts were entering "a new phase of the recovery operation." He said Brown would return to Washington to oversee the government's response to other potential disasters.

"I appreciate his work, as does everybody here," Chertoff said.

In a telephone interview with AP, Brown said he was "anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies that are being said." Asked if the move was a demotion, Brown said: "No. No. I'm still the director of FEMA."

He said Chertoff made the decision to move him out of Louisiana. It was not his own decision, Brown said.

"I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep. And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims," Brown said. "This story's not about me. This story's about the worst disaster of the history of our country that stretched every government to its limit and now we have to help these victims."

The White House had insisted publicly for days that Bush retained confidence in his FEMA chief. Last Friday, Bush praised Brown during a tour of Alabama, telling him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

But there was no question that Brown's star was fading in the administration. In the storm's early days, Brown was the president's primary briefer on its path and the response effort, but by the weekend those duties had been taken over by Chertoff.

Even before Chertoff's announcement, the beleaguered Brown was facing questions Friday about his resume.

Bush administration documents have credited Brown with overseeing emergency services while working for the city of Edmond, Okla., in the mid-1970s. Brown's official biography on the FEMA Web site says he served as "an assistant city manager." But a former mayor of Edmond, Randel Shadid, told AP on Friday that Brown had been an assistant to the city manager — never assistant city manager.

"I think there's a difference between the two positions," said Shadid. "I would think that is a discrepancy."

Asked later about the White House news release that said Brown oversaw Edmond's emergency services divisions, Shadid said, "I don't think that's a total stretch."

A longtime acquaintance, Carl Reherman, said Brown was very involved in helping set up Edmond's emergency operations center and assisting in the creation of an emergency contingency plan in the 1970s. At the time, Reherman was a city councilman, and he later became mayor.

FEMA deputy strategic director Nicol Andrews said a report in Time magazine, which first detailed the discrepancies, was "very inaccurate."

Similarly, a January 2003 White House announcement of Brown's nomination to head FEMA lists his previous experience as "the Executive Director of the Independent Electrical Contractors," a trade group based in Alexandria, Va. Two officials of the group told Newsday this week that Brown never was the national head of the group but did serve as the executive director of a regional chapter in Colorado.

___

Associated Press writers Ron Fournier, Pete Yost and Ted Bridis in Washington and Richard Green in Oklahoma City contributed to this story.


http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topsto...xml&storylist=

[Empty_Purple_Stars]

Oh and this is friggin brilliant...

Member those "debit cards" with $2000 on them they were going to be handing out??

Well they started passing them out in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio in Texas and then decided it would make MORE SENSE to do the following:


FEMA to halt debit cards, use bank deposit

9/9/2005, 5:38 p.m. CTBy HOPE YEN
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government's relief agency said Friday it will discontinue its program to distribute debit cards worth up to $2,000 to hurricane victims, two days after hastily announcing the novel plan to provide quick relief.



The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will scrap the program once officials finish distributing cards this weekend at shelters in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, where many of the evacuees were moved. No cards will be issued to victims in other states.

Hurricane victims at other locations will have to apply for expedited aid through the agency's traditional route — filling out information on FEMA's Web site to receive direct bank deposits, FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule said.

"We tried it as an innovative way to get aid to evacuee populations in Texas. We decided it would be more expeditious with direct deposits," she said, citing the large staffing operation that would be required to replicate the Texas operation in other states.

FEMA's decision capped two days of confusion in which evacuees expressed frustration with the program, which was announced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in a conference call Wednesday with governors of states with evacuees.

The program was initially introduced this week at the Astrodome in Houston, but it was immediately beset with confusion and questions as to who would be eligible.

Some governors and lawmakers raised concerns about the risk of abuse by people falsely claiming to be hurt by the disaster without the full documentation.

"The question is, How do you separate the needy from those who just want a $2,000 handout," said Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski, a Republican.

On Thursday, confusion arose at the Astrodome in Houston following reports that the first FEMA cards would be distributed that day. Red Cross cards were distributed, but those seeking the government cards were told they would have to return Friday and provide documentation such as a Social Security number and the address of the damaged property.

On Friday, Ed Conley, a FEMA spokesman in Houston, said evacuees were receiving the cards at a rate of about 500 an hour, many of whom had filled out the proper documentation and applications through FEMA's Web site.

Applicants were being asked to provide Social Security numbers as well as the address of their damaged homes, for verification against aerial photographs of devastated areas.

A FEMA spokeswoman had said Friday there were enough cards to cover the families of the estimated 7,000 people registered at three shelters in the Astrodome complex.


http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topsto...xml&storylist=

I still cant fucking believe what I'm reading..

A HUGE percentage of these people were living WAY BELOW the poverty line when they were forced out of NOLA..

Which means they had barely any fucking money at all..

No big fat savings accounts..

No IRA's..

And certainly not huge checking accounts..

Let alone 'direct deposit'..

And the small percentage that did had their bank records destroyed along with everyone else...

Hell, I didnt have a checking account for almost 6 years..

Why would you need a bank account when you don't have any fucking money?

How complicated is that to understand?

They cant even just make them out a check they can go to a check cashing center and pay a small fee to cash..

Noooooooo, they have to use " direct deposit".. Or they can go fuck themselves..


What the fuck??

And I cant believe I saw the word " Expeditious " come out of ANYONES MOUTH from FEMA!!

Oh my fucking God..

[Spazik]

So, to Alkilyu and the other Republicans making a big stink over the Govenor and Mayor, whom convienently are Democrats What are your thoughts on Michael Brown resigning? You realize that he presided over the AMERICAN ARABIAN HORSE ADMINISTRATION before being appointed director of FEMA. Why, you ask? Because the man you support as president is more concerned with personal loyalty than he is with actual job qualifications. Brown wasn't qualified to run FEMA, an organization that doesn't have much to do anymore, but you can bet he was a blind Bush loyalist. Makes you wonder about his Vice fucking President, doesn't it?

~Is Bush loyal to the oil companies, or are the oil companies loyal to Bush?

[MrMaelstrom]

Democrats and Republicans were caught with their pants down. And so would be Ralph Nader if he mattered at all.

The world is quick to make up its own judgement, though, and it ain't pretty...

All the magazines have N.orleans on the cover with titles such as "how could they allow this to happen", or "the richest nation on Earth's private little 3rd world uncovered" and arguements whether or not people weren't given any help on time because of basic lack of coordination from authorities, racism or just basic prejudice towards poor people, whether they be black or not. Shit man, the USA needs a brand new PR department, 'cause the last decade hasn't been the least bit helpfull at all.

Only the extremist left-wing radicals (like me) had anything to point and criticize of George Bush (senior), but things have gone downhill so much since then that Bush Senior seems like a fucking angel.

Everybody's saying "if they can't do anything regarding a Hurricane that was predicted 5 days in advance, how will they ever cope with another terrorist attack?", and I, for one, have no answer...

I mean, if the army can't be deployed on time to areas in dire need of assistance to cope with a known natural disaster, how long will they take to answer a call from a yet unknown attack?

Now they're speaking of months before the place is cleaned up?

My brazilian friends were absolutely shocked beyond belief. They say: we get this shit every single year. Slums come down in huge landslides when the monsoon season hits and the floods rise.
Every year we have tens of thousands of people with absolutely nothing but what they're wearing and whatever food they already have in their stomachs, but no one dies except in the tragedy itself.

When help is sent in - they say - on account of the organized crime running the slums, police and relif organizations carry no weapons whatsoever, otherwise, they'll never be allowed entrance into disaster areas...

But then again, no one in their right mind in Brazil would be holding a gun while waiting for help unless they are organized crime (in which case, they have nothing to fear)...

It just keeps on not making any sense... People in the US act so different from other nations that it really is surprising sometimes.
When I heard reports saying that instead of food and water, it was guns and ammo the first things to be looted, I still couldn't believe it...

I still can't believe it... any of it...

[Empty_Purple_Stars]

Originally Posted by MrMaelstrom

Democrats and Republicans were caught with their pants down. And so would be Ralph Nader if he mattered at all.

The world is quick to make up its own judgement, though, and it ain't pretty...

When I heard reports saying that instead of food and water, it was guns and ammo the first things to be looted, I still couldn't believe it...

I still can't believe it... any of it...

Nor can I..

I just received word that all of my MIA relatives, have been accounted for except for one, my cousin Ted.

He and my other cousin Don got separated as they were trying to help evacuate as many of their elderly relatives as possible. Then Don said the Levee broke, and within less than five minutes there was more than 20 feet of water as far as the eye could see, and it just kept coming..

He said there was everything in the world you could possibly imagine churning through the flood waters. Cars, sofas, sinks, people, telephone poles..

We are both ecstatic and sick with fear, at the same time..

We are so glad everyone else is at least alive, but after talking to my cousin, I am so nauseous with worry still..

And as I have said before, this friggin nightmare has no " Party Lines.. "

So many questions, so much needless pain..

So few answers..



Truth...real truth....

no matter how small....

no matter how undesirable or unwelcome one may perceive it to be....

is never pointless.

and if it's considered to be pointless....

then it was never real truth.