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Friday, August 31, 2007
John Hawkins :: Townhall.com Columnist
It's Time To Get Over Katrina Already
by John Hawkins
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Two years after Katrina, everywhere you turn, there are people carping, whining, and kvetching. Just why hasn't the pity party for the citizens of New Orleans run out of booze and chips yet?

It's not as if hurricanes are a once a millennium event in the United States. In fact, residents of Florida have so many of them that they don't even cancel a barbecue for anything under a Category 3.

Moreover, people lose their homes in this country every day of the year. If it isn't a hurricane, it's an earthquake. If it isn't an earthquake, it's a tornado. If it isn't a tornado, it's a fire. If it isn't a fire, it's a flood. Yet nobody sits and frets about John Doe, age 58, who lost his house in a flash flood two years ago or Jane Doe, age 60, who had her house blown away by a twister back in 2005.

But, we're all supposed to eternally sit around and weep tiny little tears of sadness for the people who really took it on the chin in a hurricane because they chose to live in a city shaped like a soup bowl on the coast. Let me tell all the citizens of New Orleans something that should have been told to them 18 months ago: it's time to stop playing the sympathy card and get over it.

Nobody is owed a living for the rest of his life because he had a bad break two years ago. Yet, we still have people affected by Katrina who have FEMA paying their rent. How sad and pathetic is it that these shiftless people are still leaching off their fellow citizens? Since when is being in the path of a hurricane supposed to give you a permanent "Get Out of Work Free" card?

Is that just too honest for some people? Is it just “too mean?" Well, if your house burns down tomorrow and you're still living on the dole two years from now, are your real friends going to pat you on the back and tell you that you should keep suckling at the government teat for as long as you can or are they going to give you a kick in the behind and tell you to get a job? A real friend would be honest enough to tell you the truth and more people should do the same for Katrina victims.

Want to know another person who needs to be told the truth? It's New Orleans resident Erick Ventura, who said this,

"America really doesn't give a s*** about New Orleans. We forget. The bridge that collapsed [in Minnesota] -- it's gone, it's yesterday's news. The miners -- if they're not digging a sixth hole, we forget about them. We as a society, we really don't give a d*mn."

Guess what, buddy? You're right; nobody does "give a s*** about New Orleans" any more other than a few saints and a lot of manipulative Democrats looking for a political issue they can exploit. That's the nature of life. Today you're here, tomorrow you are gone, and 99% of the time everyone other than your closest family members have practically forgotten that you existed two weeks later -- but at least New Orleans got $127 billion, more than we spent on the Marshall Plan, before people moved on to something else. That's more than most of us get to say after something bad happens to us and it's why the citizens of New Orleans should be thanking the rest of America for our generosity instead of griping.

"Oh, but what about the poor government response to Katrina?" What about it? It's over and done with and it's not as if Karl Rove launched the hurricane at New Orleans with his Vast Right Wing Conspiracy weather machine. It was an act of God. It happens all the time, all over the United States, and all over the world.

Moreover, look at Ray Nagin. This guy's hurricane strategy went something like this,

"Go to the Superdome if there's an emergency! There's no food, water, or doctors there, but what could go wrong? We could bus people out of here, but we left all the buses on a flood plain! Now, all the hard work is done and all I have to do is sit back and wait for my ‘Mayor Of The Year’ award for doing such a great job handling the crisis!"

Believe it or not, Mr. "Chocolate City" is also encouraging people to rebuild in the same areas that flooded before, even though everybody knows another hit from a Katrina-sized storm would just submerge the city again.

Yet despite the fact that Nagin is to competence what Paris Hilton is to chastity, the citizens of New Orleans saw fit to re-elect him as mayor. So, why should the rest of America get all upset about how Katrina was handled when the people of New Orleans were so unconcerned about it that they brought back the man who was primarily responsible for it?

For the citizens and former citizens of New Orleans who've already moved on with your lives the best you can, God bless you and best of luck to you. But, for the rest of the Katrina victims who are still complaining that America has "forgotten me" two years later, here's a piece of advice: it's time to get over Katrina already.

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John Hawkins is a professional blogger who runs Right Wing News, Linkiest, and Viral Footage.
 
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Poor, poor Victims...
Poor, poor New Orleans... Hmmm, if I have sufficient notice (they did), I would pack up my family and leave. I would have done so early on. Call it personal responsibility, but MY family means that much to me. I guess that is why I'll never put my family in that situation. I told an ex-brother-in-law that same thing. He laughed at me! I didn't realize what he knew. All you have to do is survive and you're fixed for life (at the gov't teat). No, I just try to do the right thing and I'll pay for it... taxes at work, what a joke. I still don't see the accountability of the state officials, you know, using the fed dollars to maintain the levees... why do that when you can spend it on pretty water fountains and other unneeded things... Louisiana has not changed a bit since I've lived there and I don't expect it to. Why should it when it's easier to live off the hard-working taxpayers? Call me insensitive or whatever term you'd like.

I remember this ...
We were glued to the TV set as Katrina roared in to NO. But what I remember most is the black man who was walking across the bridge from the Dome saying to anyone who would listen, "This is the Big Easy. This isn't supposed to happen here! This is the Big Easy." He continued to moan and groan and all I could think of was that he was simply a microcosym of what was and still is the biggest fault of the poorer people in NO -"This isn't supposed to be happening to us!" I'm with the majority of the bloggers who say that it is time to move on and begin to grow up, get your education and marry before having babies.

Katrina
Right on Mr. Hawkins!!!!!!!!! You hit the nail on the head -- everyone I know in Florida soooooooo agrees with you. Why, when they (the media) make a trip to followup on Katrina --do we always have to go to NO. Why not go to Mississippi where people picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and started all over again. That should be and, used to be,The American Way. Could it be that the media is just a "Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" using NO and Katrina to hep themselves in the election?

Again --great article!!!!!!!!!!!

I lost interest in Katrine the minute
the race card was played. Done. Over with, as far as I'm concerned.

This was a great column due to the fact that Mr. Hawkins had the testicular fortitude to use the words "shiftless" and "leaching" in the same sentence.

Yes, other people have suffered worse catastrophes in their lives and somehow they manage to move on without blaming it on everyone from G. Bush to Santa Claus.

Oh, and farmers receive subsidies because the government imports what the farmers grow on our shores from overseas through sweetheart deals. If farmers didn't get subsidies, we wouldn't be able to grow the corn that feeds the cows and makes the ethynol for our hybrid cars. Just ask a farmer. If you want, I'll high-tail it down the road and ask one.

My neighbor, along with his buddies, drove two tractor trailers of supplies that he collected here down to N.O. and shiftless people are still leaching off the government, complaing that the big, bad insurance companies didn't pay for something for which they did not collect premium and which was specifically excluded from the policy. The homeowners did not bother, living on the edge of that soup bowl, to get FLOOD insurance, WHICH IS EXCLUDED FROM EACH AND EVERY HOMEOWNERS POLICY. There is a flood pool and those living in flood zones should be savvy enough to participate in it.

At this point, give me a break. And if I see Mr. Bush, who I respect tremendously, down there kissing any more butt, I'm going to have what they call in competitive eating a "reversal".

Anthony
Anthony,
dahling,

I didn't create the terms--the "Chocolate" Community and their leadership did.

I used one of terms once--not over and over again as the "Chocolate" Community and their balladeers in the "Gansta Rap" Genre do.

I misspelled Vick--but then I don't torture dogs to death.--And if you think that AIN'T cultural you ain't been paying attention. I'm a Tech Grad and I didn't defend Vick like the "Chocolate" Community in his "hood" "Bad [Newport] News" did. I did however note that the
Animal Liberation Front Terrorists in People who think only Animals and Commiequeers are Human (PETA)--based across Hampton Roads in Norfolk- threw their little Chocolate Brother to the WOLVES in favor of--well--wolves. An interesting Commentary of the Core Values of Liberals (commiequeers in my more exact terminology).

End of Part one---30

the big mick


Priorities all turned around
Here's the thing. I'm not one who thinks the answer to much of anything is to give more authority to the federal government to solve a problem. But, for us to be spending billions upon billions of dollars overseas, rebuilding Iraq, policing the world and throwing money hand over fist in foreign aid to other countries, rather than helping our OWN, is more than a little odd. Don't you think? Add to that, our infrastructure is collapsing, but instead of addressing that, our government spends OUR money to build roads in Mexico and bridges in Iraq.

What's up with that?

anthony thomas
I am not saying there isn't a loss just not an excuse to get on with yoiur life. But when I lived in charleston we were advised that when the hurricane season started you make sure that things that have value are either taken with you or put somewhere safe. There is a certain degreee of personal responsiblity. Those who chose not to evacuate obviously lacked the understanding that you must secure things to keep them safe. Crying over your own failures doesn't lessen the hurt but for many who lose things it is more the case of taking care of what means something to them. They had many days of warnings that the hurricanes was coming. They should have taken the responsibility to sort out precious pocessions. Crying after the fact is more the case of anger at yourself for not packing away what was valuble. But life goes on

Easy for you to say.
It's easy for you to say.

susan
attachment to property that can be replaced is superficial stupidity at it's worst. The important things in life involve family and people. Disasterrs can destroy personal property but not one life's experiences or memories of sharing life's adventures with others. Momentos can be lost or destroyed but can be replaced with new momentos as other experiences come to one's life. Only the most shallow individual acts as those losing one's knick knacks is so tramatic that it affects the remainder of life. Obviously you are that stupid that thinks life loses its full meaning and purpose when you lose the salt and pepper shakers you bought at niagra falls. Like others I have a house full of things, but losing any or all isn't going to change my life. You sound closer to being a child in your thinking than an adult who can't deal with possible traumas in life. It says less about victims that they are living in the past two years after the hurricane. How will they cope with personal tragedy

empathy is not in your vocabulary
until your home town as you know it is utterly destroyed and the entire country that you're supposed to be a part of forgets it and writes it off, you'll never understand what a travesty, what a heartbreak, what an injustice the people of new orleans have sufferred. your heart is a cold, dark place, hawkins. and you'll never know love.

my house was not destroyed. but i feel the pain of a lost city just the same. the place where i grew up is destroyed, and idiots like you propagate indifference. still, we love our home and we hold our heads high with pride, because we come from a place so rich that we carry it's warmth in our hearts wherever we go. how sad it must be to be you, completely clueless and free of compassion. what a sad existence indeed.

Just one more flush
NOLA needs one more flush, maybe two and then it will be over. It was a disaster waiting to happen and everyone had their collective heads in the sand.

I'll be glad when it is flushed forever and the country can move on. Most people have left and are leeching off the goodness of other states, so flush away friends of Katrina.

menken and allen
it would seem the libs/dims believe in a permanent underclass that is alloqwed to live off the largess of govt programs. In your world explain why productive americans should continue to pay people not to work. I am not talking about disabled folks but able bodied people that you lib types have allowed to skate through life without taking responsibility for making poor decisions but have wrapped your arms around and given big sloppy kisses, continually telling them no matter how many bad decisions you make, now matter how much you mess up your life we will always take care of you. The supposes 20 million people living on welfare is to the shame of our govt but mostly to the dims who under the dims and and their anti-poverty nivrvana grew an underclass that won't work, have beren told they needn't work to get their assistance but will always vote for dim candidates. It is the libs/dims who have no shame. They have robbed geneerations of the dignity of work and personal responsibilities

thebigmick
THat's Michael Vick not Vic.

unreal
that's the most ignorant thing I've ever read. what's it like--you fat prick---to have no soul?

wow, this article and so many of the posts thereto really dispell the impression that conservatives are heartless bastards.

nice to see good ole christian values flying high. you're a disgrace to your faith.

and why do you and your brethren hate america?

The Ballad of Katrina

"There is a town called NewOrleans, under a chocolate sun, where you can live the Big Easy Life, on a check from the guvamunt"

"My daddy was a halfwhite trash, he cheated lied and stole, my momma was a chocolate b**** and a stinkin crackheadhoe."

"The hurricane came howling down, they told us all to run, but daddy said we'd stay right cheer, for a check from the govamunt."

[I leave it to better poets or song writers to chronicle the saga of the buses, the ode (erous) of the Super Dumb (dome), etc etc etc--and for those who find this offenseive, a simple reminder--IT HAPPENED! THEY DID IT!)

"Now mammas tell yo babies, just do what I have done, come live the Free Big Easy Life, on a check from the guvamunt."

Where I live now some folks were wiped out twice in just a few years by Isabelle and Earnesto--but they didn't act like "The Chocolate Factory".

To paraphrase the Great Forrest again "chocolate is as chocolate does."

As Mike Vic--a sort of hero not too far from here has amply demonstrated, you can't take the nnnn-neighbor out of the Hood.

Observation the last--If you do the same old thing in the same old way you get the same old results.
The New New Orleans will be just a corrupt, dependent and chocolate as the Old New Orleans.

And you suckers will continue to throw money at them.

thebigmick

"A chocolate in the sun"
Bigmick back on the street after a 2 month hiatus. Can't think of another topic more worthy for my equal opportunity distain.

Obervation One--the Gump Principle: "Chocolate is as Chocolate does."
Observation Two: A Chocolate in the Sun first puddles, then makes a mess, doesn't have sense enough to run.

Observation 3--Why do you think The Big Easy WAS easy? Ain't no easier money then to get yo check from the "guvmunt". N/O was ALWAYS a Corrupt and Dependent City built by a Corrupt and Dependent Culture and you suckers are STILL throwing money at them because you buy into the White Guilt Myth. Have they hit the Billion Mark in FRAUD and GRAFT yet?

Observation 4--It's below Sea Level, Stupid.
The INTELLIGENT, RATIONAL, JUST, thing to have done was the blow up the REST of the Levees and move the whole damn cesspool a couple of dozen miles inland and up hill. Then rebuilt a decent city with not one room of "public housing" in it.


the big mick

huck upchuck
that's good news. From the sound of some of the posters n.o. is still a total disaster. But I guess there seems to be quite a discussion about what will the future hold in store. Is it truly possible to save the ninth ward from a future huuricane? Also I know of flooding further up river having lived in memphis. Is n.o. at risk from floods or does the water disapate it's affects as it gets closer to the gulf. We known the msm has been dishonest about it's reporting from the start of the katrina storm so it's really difficult to known what real progrfess has occurred

answer wildwest
As a native New Orleanian who happens to be a liberal, let me just answer you by saying that the vast majority of people here have got their act in gear and have had their acts in gear since mere days after the Hurricane hit two years ago. Come down and see for yourself.

One just doesn't rebuild an entire life and an entire major city in a few short months or years. In many ways, we'll be recovering from this for generations.

You should know better than to buy into the media representations of New Orleans. There are true heroes in New Orleans, unsung heroes, who aren't begging for anything and who are putting their lives back together just fine. And we're by far the majority here.

to all you libs out there
how about supplying some clue as to when these folks in new orleans are going to ge their act in gear. Other parts of the country have suffered from floods, tornados, fires hurricanes and they got back to their previous lives of doing what they had done before. The two year anniversary is here and still new orleans is having their pity party about the inability to get their lives back on track. Not only has there been federal money but insurance companies have paid claims and many people donated goods and money. It would seem that we have a number of people from new orleans who have elected to be permanent victims and have decided to live free rent in fema trailers and other govt programs. There was the tragedy but milking the loss with no time limits is unacceptable. The govt told these people they could expect assistance for one year. Yet lawyers sued so that the former residents could essentially live the rest of their lives as wards of the govt. It would seem more the case these people were incapable of taking care of themselves prior to katrina and are now milking the system for whatever they can get. There is no one saying these people are living a luxurient life but they still need to take charge of their own lives and get off the public teat. My guess is that on the 5th anniversary there will still be sizable numbers still claiming they can't get their life back on track. But the libs seem to be saying that new orleans is entitled to take all the time they need, but they can't supply rationale justifications for the foot dragging

Enraged, but not engaged
Enraged writes: Saturday, September, 01, 2007 12:14

"hurricane Katrina
I cannot believe the insensitivity and the ignorance of thoise who think the hurricane victims are not deserving of better tratment. When 911 occurred, the nation raced to help New York. It was the right thing to do. Yet, when Hrricane Katrina hit, our country abandoned its own. Many lives were lost as a result. People lost their home their everything!"

If terrorists had been flying planes into N.Y. buildings every season for as along as hurricanes have been hitting N.O. and the Mississippi has been flooding, and they had the same expectations of disaster and warnings, then I wouldn't feel so bad about New Yorkers, either.

What is it about the weather that you don't understand? How much rain falling on you does it take before you realize that you are wet? Does the word "insurance" mean anything to you?

Misinfo
Well I see where pcolla gets his information. It is from a liberal NO newspaper who would not think of being biased on the topic of building flood walls.

http://www.nola.com/speced/ruinandrecovery/t-p/index.ssf?/speced/ruinandrecovery/articles/dutch13.html

What the aerticle does NOT say is that the design of the Northern Wall is insufficient to stop the Katrina Storm Surge. It also has to stretch to justify the expense citing cost/population. The Northern Wall in the Netherlands is justified because 65% of the country is below sea level, not one city. Why not look at that basis? Cost per land area protected. LOL, NO would owe money not get more.

a plague on both your houses
You people. Such low vitriolic hate from all sides. You're all me, me, me, me, my, mine. I see it everywhere. In the stores, on the roads, no respect, no courtesy, no caring for your fellow citizens...

What happened to this country? What's happened to your hearts?

The ethic of reciprocity is a fundamental moral principle found in virtually all major religions and cultures, which simply means "treat others as you would like to be treated." It is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights. Principal philosophers and religious figures have stated it in different ways,

"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the lord." — Torah Leviticus 19:18
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." — Jesus (c. 5 B.C. - A.D. 32 ) in the Gospels, Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:39, Luke 6:31, Luke 10:27
"When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the lord your God." — Torah Leviticus 19:33-34
"This is the sum of duty; do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you." — Mahabharata (5:15:17) (c. 500 B.C.)
"What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others." — Confucius (ca. 551 - 479 B.C.)
"What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man." — Hillel (ca. 50 B.C. - A.D. 10)
"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." — Muhammad (c. A.D. 571 - 632), Hadith 13 of al-Nawawi's Forty Hadith

You're not happy people. And it's hard to believe any website would publish such pure, unadulterated garbage from this hawkins punk.

TTSSYF
And by the way, the only hate speech i see in here is on the behalf of all the posters who feel the same as you and John Hawkins that we should just get over the biggest most unprecedented natural disaster in US history. All the lefties i see in here are saying to not forget. To love your fellow countrymen regardless of their faults as the Lord has forgiven you. So, please don't label me. Try having a little of Bush's "conservative compassion". You NEVER know when you're gonna need someone's help. Ask a Katrina victim. Now, I will go back to my Labor Day weekend and be thankful that im safe today because i could have easily been one of them. Think about this. Imagine all the Katrina victims who had to look at the faces of their children during christmas the last two years, knowing that you bearly had ANYTHING left, much less money for christmas gifts. People take so much for granted.

*shaking head*
TTSSYF writes: Saturday, September, 01, 2007 2:31 PM

PopYoColla:
They're just using Katrina to take political cheap shots at the people of NO. I have no idea what brand of Christianity they subscribe to. (WHO SAYS WE'RE ALL CHRISTIANS, YOU PREJUDICIAL FOOL?)

Sweetheart, I didnt even write that post. Regardless of whether you're christian or not *since you want to atribute that post to me, ill respond for Anthony* name one religion that advocates an "every man for himself attitude". Name one religion that says to do everything on your own like so many posters are saying in here. If i understand my religion correctly, *I am a christian however* the bible clearly states that roughly no man accomplishes anything on his own accord. But rather ALL THINGS, good and bad, are tests from God. It seems to me that a lot of posters in here are failing their God. Be it Jehovah, Allah, Budda, or the rock on the corner that they pray to. I am a christian who believes Jehovah is the father and Jesus Christ is his only son sent to save both you and me from our sins. Maybe you should crack the Bible open sometimes instead of just carrying it to church on Sunday. Remember it doesnt have to be Sunday for you to get your daily bread. Love thy neighbor as I have loved you. Im sure that's in there somewhere.

TTSSYF
Got some nerve!!!

Typical left-wing hate speech
When confronted with uncomfortable facts or rational arguments to which they cannot respond with rational counter-arguments, lefties invariably resort to spitting, sputtering hate or childish taunting (e.g., Anthony Thomas, Rocker, Hughie, Unclesmedley, PopYoColla). Suggestion: Post your hate speech on liberal/leftist websites where you can nod in agreement with one another about how awful conservatives are and smugly tell each other how superior you are in your compassion. While you're at it, donate some of your vacation time to rebuilding New Orleans, or take in one or more displaced Katrina families (along with a few illegal Mexicans) into your own homes, then get back to us about our lack of compassion.

Typical left-wing hate and immaturity
When confronted with ideas they don't like or facts they can't dispute, lefties typically respond with spitting, sputtering, hate speech or childish taunting/sarcasm; to wit:

Anthony Thomas:
Oh I'm sorry Mr. White Man, (NOTE THE SARCASTIC AND PREJUDICIAL ASSUMPTION THAT I'M A MAN) things are soooo difficult for you in this country! Let me stop pointing discrimination out to make things easier for you, you need a pilow right.It's sooo tough, I know. (TYPICAL LEFT-WING IMPOTENT SARCASM AND CHILDISHNESS)

Unclesmedley:
It would be nice if you were to become incapacitated with paralysis, in need of constant assistance and left wanting. After all, you asked for it. Asswipe. (TYPICAL LEFT-WING HATE SPEECH AND LACK OF RATIONAL, INTELLIGENT COUNTER-ARGUMENT)

Hughie:
John Hawkins...is a racist piece of sh*t. I sincerely hope whatever hick-town he lives in gets washed away in the next Category 4. (MORE TYPICAL LEFT-WING HATE SPEECH AND LACK OF RATIONAL, INTELLIGENT COUNTER-ARGUMENT)

PopYoColla:
They're just using Katrina to take political cheap shots at the people of NO. I have no idea what brand of Christianity they subscribe to. (WHO SAYS WE'RE ALL CHRISTIANS, YOU PREJUDICIAL FOOL?)

Rocker:
John is an idiot and scum of the earth. (EVEN MORE TYPICAL LEFT-WING HATE SPEECH AND LACK OF RATIONAL, INTELLIGENT COUNTER-ARGUMENT)

Suggestion to you idiot lefties who profess to love the "downtrodden" of the world while spewing bile at conservatives making rational arguments or observing facts not of our creation: Go post on a liberal website where you can nod in agreement in your echo chamber about how rotten and racist all we conservatives are. And keep your two-faced "compassion" to yourselves, you disgusting, hatefilled hypocrites.

Everyone
We did it!!!!!

405 Posts on this article!!!!

That is equal to Fat Boy John's Weight!!!!!!

(Just Kidding Josue!!!)

Great Job People!!!!

PS: How can Vic and Marc call anyone racists? Pop Ya and AT just destroyed any sort of argument they had. So in typical fashion, they punked out by using the race card. Great job!!!! LMAO!!!!

And another thing...
For all the right-wing fecal stains out there who think New Orleans is such an awful place: why did the Republicans subject themselves to all those negroes below sea level in 1988, when they held their national convention there?

John Hawkins should be institutionalized
You are a sociopath and a moron. The only possible justification for your inane observation(s) is to provoke and justify hatred and other forms of anti-social behavior. Beyond this (which is reprehensible) your comments are unimaginative, inaccurate, cruel, crass, stupid, unChristian, impractical and asinine.

It would be nice if you were to become incapacitated with paralysis, in need of constant assistance and left wanting. After all, you asked for it. Asswipe.

NevadaDad: 9/11 incompetence = katrina
incompetence.....

9/11: CIA knew hyjackers were in the country but failed to tell the FBI.
Katrina: Government knew the levees were bad but claimed otherwise after the fact.

9/11: Opportunity to use tragic event as photo-ops and spread fear to promote the administration's own agenda. *mainly, the war in Iraq*
Katrina: Opportunity to truely do something great for citizens but instead was used as a photo-op. *Man, Bush loves pics of himself*

9/11: Loved ones of victims displayed grief.
Katrina: Loved ones of victims displayed grief from on top of their roofs for 5 days without food or water.

9/11: People worked in a known terrorist target on their own accord.
Katrina: People lived in a city under sea-level on their own accord.

9/11: Mayor spend 29 hours out of 5 months at the site.
Katrina: Mayor spend 5 days in Hyatt hotel next to Superdome surrounded by water and NEVER LEFT THE CITY even after it was over.

9/11: People couldn't help themselves because they were depended on the government for protection from terrorist attacks.
Katrina: People couldn't help themselves because they were depended on a federal government to protect them from the waters of the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain. *Gov knew levees were faulty since Hurricane Camille in '65*

9/11: Opportunity to spew hateful views of Arabs, lumping them all together as if they're all terrorists
Katrina: Opportunity to spew hateful views of blacks, lumping them all together as if they're all lazy, jobless beggers looking for gov-handouts.

Now, should I go on?

Anthony Thomas
I hear you man. Dont you just love all this conservative compassion in here? It's kinda pointless to argue with people who can't see ANYTHING but the bad, but the negative part of New Orleans. Obviously, these people have never even been there. So, you do what you do and hold your head high knowing that you are doing, feeling and saying what God is putting in your heart. Judge not lest thou be judge, and fore the same judgement you give, you shall also be judged by. I think that's how the passage goes, roughly. But anyway, the truth is, is that, most of these "conservatives" are borderline racists who feel comfortable saying the trash that they are saying because they are safely tucked behind their computer screens. I wonder would they have the guts to say that in front of their black co-workers or in front of anyone for that matter who they didn't know shared their view or not. So, God bless you and bless them too. What if Jesus said for people to just "get over" all the ills in their lives? What if Jesus was as insensitive in a sense of not dying for your sins because you should have known better? We'd all be on a one-way ticket to hell. "Conservative christians" should know that. My tax dollars this. My tax dollars that. But infinite amounts of money for a war in Iraq. It's surreal. People are so stupid sometimes. You're gonna pay taxes REGARDLESS OF WHERE IT GOES. Wouldn't you rather it go to fellow americans than to the bottomless pit called Iraq? And one more thing, there was a lot of white people at the superdome as well as blacks. What was their excuse?

Anthony Thomas
I only have respect for the people who left NO before the hurricane struck and who did not come back. They made a wise choice AND they will not benefit from all of MY tax dollars that are being funneled into that stink-hole of a corrupt city.

Anthony Thomas: 9/11 vs. Katrina
Sir, I don't know much about you and I'm not here to defend every statement ever made regarding Katrina on TH, but I do know that there is a VAST difference between those who were victims of the 9/11 attacks and those of Katrina. The fact that you would choose those two events to suggest "equivalence" tells me much about your ability to critically process the world around you accurately and logically. It also tells me quite a bit about your politics of "compassion" (i.e. compulsory wealth redistribution).

9/11: Absolutely no warning
Katrina: Days of warning

9/11: Terrorism responsible.
Katrina: Nature responsible. (or Dubyah...according to the Left which asserts that he governs not just the United States, but the climate as well)

9/11: Victims displayed grief over loss of loved ones.
Katrina: Victims displayed grief over loss of entitlements.

9/11: People jump to their deaths trying to escape the building.
Katrina: People cling to their deaths trying to stay in their homes.

9/11: Mayor displays leadership.
Katrina: Mayor displays ineptitude.

9/11: People cannot help themselves
Katrina: People refuse to help themselves

9/11: Brings the country together (all too briefly) because it is blamed on a common enemy.
Katrina: Tears the country apart because it is blamed on an Administration.

Should I go on?

Conservative Fiscal Robbery
Has anyone noticed that a big meme passing around here is that New Orleanians don't deserve the tax dollars of American citizens. WTF? What about all of us New Orleanians, citizens of the US that we are, with regard to making a claim on our own contributions to the US Federal Treasury.

Conservatives only pretend to want people to keep more of their own money. They're very content to speak on behalf of a government that picks my pocket and tell me that I don't deserve and shouldn't ever see a dime of it when I really need it.

Remember that we New Orleanians are citizens who have paid taxes into the Federal Treasury just like any other tax-paying citizen.

Not only is the underlying premise that we New Orleanians don't deserve the benefits of citizenship and the services of our government that we pay for, but we also suffer the indignity of not even being treated half as decently and respectfully by our own fellow conservative citizens outside of the region as they treat the real basket-case that is Iraq.

Nouri al-Maliki is in bed with Moqtada al Sadr and the Iranians, which cost US lives, and yet the criticism of leadership is saved for Blanco and Nagin. Go figure.

marc
hey, I'm a liberal, so I'm not supposed to do anything but whine and show the negative in everything, right? But you and Hawkins are conservatives who go around whining about the lack of positive media coverage of the good things Americans are doing. So, live up to your own principles, instead of aspiring towards the least common denominator and try to highlight the many great things about New Orleans and its people. The MSM fails to show the good in Iraq so that gives you a pass to behave likewise with regard to New Orleans??? Please explain the conservative logic in that for me. The indisputable fact is, you're nothing more than an ideological hack with as much of a chip on his shoulder as any Katrina victim. You whine with the best of them. And, again, please stop claiming MY tax dollars as your own to control.

anthony thomas
I press some of the blame on the media. If they would show stories showing people turning their lives around perhaps that might inspire some less motivated to get more active in their recovery. But when the news continually shows lack of progress there are those who will be content to sit back and do nothing. No one is debating the tragedy but I and others ask ask what point are these people going to put their lives back on track. Two years is more than enough time to be implimenting personal plans for your recovery.

Anthony Thomas
Although I have 9/11 fatigue, I do have sympathy for the 9/11 victims, because, unlike with Katrina and three-days advance warning, there was zero warning to the poor souls who were merely going to work on 9/11/2001. The do-nothing nit-wits in New Orleans knew a hurricane was approaching.

Katrina
Enough, infact too much already. Guess what I have a prediction, next year there will be Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. So either move or prepare. $127 billion is not chump change.

Anthony Thomas
You clueless racist snot. The reason you don't hear 9-11 victims screaming for government handouts is because they are DEAD.

Anthony Thomas
I also have 9/11 victims fatigue...and I'm no man, you chauvinist.

I have compassion fatigue
I have compassion fatigue. I have white guilt/blacks being discriminated-against fatigue. I have poor-Palestinians fatigue. I have must-be-sympathetic-to-the-downtrodden fatigue. I have poor homosexuals not being allowed to marry fatigue. I have institutional-racist white pig fatigue.

I want to be left alone. I am not a racist -- I am a separatist. I want to separate myself from those who don't share my values, my work ethic, my rationality (or lack thereof -- see? I don't care what you call it). I just don't care anymore. I'm burnt out. I'm your typical, middle-class (white) American, and I'm plain burnt out.

You liberals, you take it from here. I'm dropping out, doing the minimum, paying whatever taxes I have to, but no longer contributing my time or money to charitable causes, except to the true innocents (animals, children, or the sick or elderly). I will isolate myself to the extent possible from the rest of the scum of the earth and let the liberals deal with all those they believe are decent but for their poor, unfortunate circumstances. Good luck, liberals! You brought it on yourself with your squelching of the free exchange of ideas and lack of rationality and moral clarity, so you're going to need luck.
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