Anarchy

[Kitch]

OK

so lets get going on the big news item.
On an individual basis you have feel sorry for the americans of the Gulf Coast.
But are they victims of fate or a president that would rather be playing golf.
Looks like he may have his own home grown 'Gulf' War before long.

What are the lessons for a society riddled with guns and reliant on oil ?

One thing that really strikes home is what a short step we all are away from anarchy and the collapse of society.
From New Orleans it must look like the hill-billy militia men certainly have the right idea.

[bendover]

looks like the people of new orleans and the surrounding states have been let down massively by the bush administration. i for one do feel sorry for them.

i'm no expert on the situation out there, but from what i can gather, funding for the construction of flood barrages in New Orleans were cut in late 2003/early 2004 - to bolster the US defence budget and fund the 'operations' (not a war, this was over of course ) in iraq.

also - something like a 1/2 - 2/3 of Louisiana's national guard are currently in iraq - while most of those that are in the states have completed a tour of duty in the middle east. so there's a weakened aid and support network.

ultimately the responsibility for this poor preparation to the hurricane must lie with the bush administration. it's not as if hurricanes hitting the west coast of the US are a rarity. or that perhaps 3-4 days previously it was pretty obvious that they were going to get hit.

as normal its the poor that are worst affected. new orleans has a huge population of poor, desitute and homeless. these people had no way to fund themselves when it came to evacuating the city. just because they are poor or outside the circle of the average tax paying american it doesn't mean they should be unconsidered during an emergency. systems should have been in place to evacuate these people at the same time as the rich were cruising up the freeway in their SUV's...

[Meat Market]

They have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will

is that not what ALWAYS gets the americans into trouble?!?!? Maybe if they rethought their consitution which tells everyone that its their right to bear arms.

[PeterG]

There are apparantly roaming gangs of black people shooting at national guard helicopters but the media won't say that after the fuss over the "black people loot, white people find" incident. An entire group of the guard was lost for two hours.

If any of you are interested apparantly this web stream is fairly interesting.

http://ve3nsv.no-ip.org:8000/louisiana.m3u

[Kitch]

And why should they say they are black, how is that relevent ? To make that comment would be purely racist.

[Lil' God'rs]

Who decided to build a city below sea level and surrounded on all sides by water in the first place?

[FatBoy]

What you mean Lincoln?

[bendover]

good old bush

[sgb]

What you mean Lincoln?

At least Lincoln isn't in the middle of a hurricane zone.

[bendover]

you mean Abraham Lincoln?

[bendover]

this article and it's accompanying comments make for interesting reading.

watch this new video too

[bendover]

listen to this