Another inept Bush pal leaves FEMA

Yep. That would stop the whining. Move them all inland. When CA falls into the see Bob La Londe will have beachfront property and we can all go visit him for fried clams and beer.

| > Still doesn't justify just building bigger levees and still have the | threat. | > To me it just seems so dumb...sooner or later engineering will fail, it | wont | > be maintained and it will just happen again. | >

| > The suitcases are already packed! | | I guess you can look at it that way however New Orleans has avoided damage | like this for a couple of centuries now. You can also make that same point | about living in Florida where everyone knows will be hit by hurricanes, San | Francisco for being located on a major fault line etc... They made the | choice to live there and should (in theory) know the dangers. | | Last week I was driving home through central Illinois and passed through New | Madrid which is also situated on an even larger fault line than San Fran, | should everyone in that area move out even though it hasn't had an | earthquake in centuries? (btw everyone is predicting a major one will happen | one of these days in that area) | | |

Cool.

Last I'd heard was that there were alot of time shares and condos, etc. I know the gambling casinos weren't doing to good but I thought that there were some pretty big communities of "off islanders" living there. No? I can imagine the work for the natives has dropped off if the businesses are not doing well, but are the communities still occupied?

Used to be a bar there. The Cleartide. I got to know the bartender Alex, extreeeeemly well, in my youth. I used to play in a band there too. There also used to be a band called the "Jolly Boys", that played the local music. "The Keys", was a baaaaad place to go. But .... I'd go anyway. Got to know some of the locals pretty well. Long time ago though.

I'd always wanted to dive the Blue hole, but just didn't have the proper equipment. Some amazing stories come out of there. You're absolutely right about the tan. Took me about three years to lose my tan after I moved back up north.

Used to go to Nassau to see if I could hook up with women. Got lucky a few times but nothing memorable except that I did meet a nice girl there once. By the name of Janette Morie (I think) Went with her for a few months. Invited me home to dinner and meet mom and dad and all that. She was .... I don't know if I remember this right but, I think that she spoke Papiamento (?) Some kind of combination of Spanish, Dutch, native and pidgeon English, I think. When you hear it spoken, you think you understand it but ...... somehow you don't. I think it's from Aruba. Anyway, she was in it for the long run and I wasn't. That time in my life, I didn't want "long runs", I just wanted a lot of " fleeting encounters" .... It's fun when your young.

I never had to make a living when I was there, so I couldn't appriciate acually "living" there, even then. Seeing the changes that have taken place over the last 40 years to other places in the Caribbean, I can well imangine that your dire descriptions cant do it justice. I think I've mentioned this to you before but I remember when Paridise Island only had a few fishermans huts on it and used to be called Hog Island and you needed a boat to get there. Lots of good memories but I don't think I'll ever go back. I want to remember it as it was.

Too bad you can't vote, you'd be able to vote "these idiots" out.

Doug L

Apparently even dead people can vote in Florida, so why is it that you can't legally vote?

Doug L

Are you kidding? I live in rural Tennessee. This place is already a disaster.

Bob

The textbook definition of "scapegoat." As you'll recall I saw this coming several days ago in a reply to your post. Too bad this isn't an election year.

Would you prefer that we simply let the poor die of treatable and oft-times preventable illnesses without medical help?

I think they've already been promised Camp Pendleton. :^)

In this case he isn't being made a scapegoat. He resigned because the President pulled him from his post. That happened because public opinion of the president and FEMA is at an all-time low. That in turn happened because FEMA screwed up very badly.

The guy was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the disaster and he sat on his hands for days rather than take charge and get the troops in right away. This was partly because he had zero knowledge or experience in disaster relief and probably because he doesn't have the personality to handle an emergency. Remember, he was only given the job because of his friendship with Bush and his cronies -- there was nothing in his resume to warrant giving him even a mid-level FEMA post, let alone put him in charge.

A dear friend of mine's father spent years as a FEMA manager, assisting with minor to major disasters, including hurricane Andrew, after which he retired. Although he's a staunch Republican, he has expressed similar thoughts about Mike Brown. The fact is even those who worked with him saw him as inept. His appointment by Bush was without a scintilla of concern for his ability, or rather his lack thereof. This was classic cronyism and it cost a lot of people their lives.

My wife gets these strange ideas from time to time. When she turned 70, she brought home some papers and said that with our income we could qualify for some assistance programs (definition: Welfare) and even get food stamps. I told her that if she couldn't make do with what we have, then she should go and get a job to support her fancy wishes because this is America and we earn what we have. We were not brought up leaching off of someone else and we're going to remain independent and keep our pride. We will also fight giving away what little we have to those who think America is about drugs, immoral sex and having someone else support them. I would suppose that my views would offend Mr Bass, but I work hard for what little I have and I ain't sharing it with "disadvantaged" people who won't get a job.

Bob

I know. It's these right-wing jackasses who don't understand the damage to society as a whole that is done when the poor are left without help.

You'd better hope your business funds your retirement well. You'd better also hope your region never suffers a major disaster.

By the way, that is not what America is all about. It's what

Refusing government food stamps??? are you NUTS???

I found it quite amusing when Jesse Jackson Jr tried explaining the looting because poor people in that area owned only one TV. What ends up happening is the poverty rate has gone down slightly since LBJ's war on poverty but only because congress keeps ratcheting up what denotes poverty, in LBJ's day many poor had nothing but today they can own 2 cars, TV, a house etc... keeps the poverty pimps like RLB feeling happy

Hmm I see someone gets their talking points from the moonbats at Daily KOS

It'll be Bob's bad luck that his favorite fishing hole falls into the pacific with the rest of CA :)

You'd think such a little mind would be lonely in such a big head.

Nope. Florida's votes don't count.

This area is the poverty capitol of the U.S. I figure things are already as bad as they can get.

Bob