Hurricane Katrina

[Guest]

Don't say that all black people wouldn't like it, that simply isn't true.  I've heard jokes made by us about it that black people will laugh at.

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Alright, all I'm saying is that he's saying things from behind the keyboard that he probably wouldn't say in mixed company.

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I don't know dude, some of us just don't care.

[SuperJerk 0]

I don't know what exactly this whole "sacred bond" among minority groups is about, especially when I tend to hear or read more about homogeneous race-on-race crimes than crimes crossing racial boundaries

I'm waiting

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You were waiting for...?

 

FYI: "Sacred bond" was term made up by Czech. I used the more-accurate term "cultural bond", which absolutely does exist amongst most African-Americans due to a shared cultural history and similar experiences.

[SuperJerk 0]

Changing the subject...

 

Here's a fun read:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167240,00.html

 

Bush authorized FEMA to act over a week ago.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Dear Michael Moore,

 

Do you have any idea where all the Krispy Kreme donuts we were sending to the Gulf Coast are?

 

They were last seen in your vicinity with several large cups of coffee.'

 

If you want to point fingers, go down there and spend your OWN money on the effort.

 

 

Signed,

 

The citizens of Baton Rouge, LA

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yup, nothing beats the counter-argument centered around the theme "YOU'RE FAT! HAHAHA!!! YOU LIKE FOOD AND LOTS OF IT!".

[bob_barron 0]

If you hate Current Events folder so much and think political arguments are pointless, why are you here Bruiser?

 

Wolf Blitzer went off on the Homeland Security chief today. Good stuff.

[dubq 0]

Bush fan or not, Michael Moore is a loud-mouthed and obnoxious blowhard. He should piss off, really, forever.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Okay, so people want to shout down someone who is trying to get questions answered that can prevent this from happening again just because he happens to be Michael Moore. Okay then.

 

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/commo...5e12377,00.html

This is the same story that the news sites in America ran initially. But later, the event was now gunmen (Scarborough freely called them "looters," as he did people who he thought shot down the helicopter) who fired on contractors, who were then killed by police:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/04/katrina.impact/index.html

Report: Police shoot gunmen

Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on contractors crossing a bridge to make levee repairs, The Associated Press reported.

 

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley told AP that police shot at eight people who had guns, killing five or six.

 

The incident came as the growing number of authorities attempted to regain control of the flooded city after days of violence and looting that interfered with rescue and recovery efforts.

 

The Army Corps of Engineers told AP that 14 contractors escorted by police were fired upon while crossing the Danziger Bridge, which spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

 

Corps spokesman John Hall told AP the contractors were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help fix a breach in the 17th Street Canal.

 

Initial AP reports had wrongly indicated that the contractors themselves were shot by police.

 

At the 17th Street Canal, crews worked to close a 500-foot breach of a levee that allowed Lake Pontchartrain to flood parts of New Orleans.

 

But that breach and another on the London Canal were being left open because water was draining back into the lake. Officials said that once they can get the New Orleans pumping stations running it will take at least 36 days to drain the city.

How can you fuck up a story to that degree where you manage to omit the entire supposed inciting action?

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

whoops. meant to hit edit, not reply. what the fuck...

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

Kotz showed me this and I thought I'd share. I thought this was funny as hell.

[Papacita 0]

^That's honestly the first time one of those things actually made me laugh.

[SuperJerk 0]

Okay, so people want to shout down someone who is trying to get questions answered that can prevent this from happening again just because he happens to be Michael Moore. Okay then.

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I think people were hoping for someone a little more...fair-minded.

[2GOLD 0]

Okay, so people want to shout down someone who is trying to get questions answered that can prevent this from happening again just because he happens to be Michael Moore. Okay then.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think people were hoping for someone a little more...fair-minded.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You mean sane right?

Cause either Moore is insane, or Bush stole his bike when he was a young boy at camp and kicked dirt in his face.

[SuperJerk 0]

Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding?

 

He did slash funding for levee projects. But the Army Corps of Engineers says Katrina was just too strong.

 

September 2, 2005

 

Modified:September 2, 2005

Summary

 

 

 

Some critics are suggesting President Bush was as least partly responsible for the flooding in New Orleans. In a widely quoted opinion piece, former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal says that "the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature," and cites years of reduced funding for federal flood-control projects around New Orleans.

 

Our fact-checking confirms that Bush indeed cut funding for projects specifically designed to strengthen levees. Indeed, local officials had been complaining about that for years.

 

It is not so clear whether the money Bush cut from levee projects would have made any difference, however, and we're not in a position to judge that. The Army Corps of Engineers – which is under the President's command and has its own reputation to defend – insists that Katrina was just too strong, and that even if the levee project had been completed it was only designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane.

Analysis

 

 

 

We suspect this subject will get much more attention in Congress and elsewhere in the coming months. Without blaming or absolving Bush, here are the key facts we've been able to establish so far:

 

Bush Cut Funding

 

Blumenthal's much-quoted article in salon.com carried the headline: "No one can say they didn't see it coming."  And it said the Bush administration cut flood-control funding "to pay for the Iraq war."

 

He continues:

 

    Blumenthal: With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico . But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

 

    …By 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year…forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze.

 

We can confirm that funding was cut. The project most closely associated with preventing flooding in New Orleans was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hurricane Protection Project, which was “designed to protect residents between Lake Pontchartrain and the Missisippi River levee from surges in Lake Pontchartrain,” according to a fact sheet from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (The fact sheet is dated May 23, long before Katrina). The multi-decade project involved building new levees, enlarging existing levees, and updating other protections like floodwalls. It was scheduled to be completed in 2015.

 

Over at least the past several budget cycles, the Corps has received substantially less money than it requested for the Lake Pontchartrain project, even though Congress restored much of the money the President cut from the amount the Corps requested.

 

In fiscal year 2004, the Corps requested $11 million for the project. The President’s budget allocated $3 million, and Congress furnished $5.5 million. Similarly, in fiscal 2005 the Corps requested $22.5 million, which the President cut to $3.9 million in his budget. Congress increased that to $5.5 million. “This was insufficient to fund new construction contracts,” according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project fact sheet. The Corps reported that “seven new contracts are being delayed due to lack funds” [sic].

 

The President proposed $3 million for the project in the budget for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1. “This will be insufficient to fund new construction projects,” the fact sheet stated. It says the Corps “could spend $20 million if funds were provided.” The Corps of Engineers goes on to say:

 

    Army Corps of Engineers, May 23: In Orleans Parish, two major pump stations are threatened by hurricane storm surges. Major contracts need to be awarded to provide fronting protection for them. Also, several levees have settled and need to be raised to provide the design protection. The current funding shortfalls in fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 will prevent the Corps from addressing these pressing needs.

 

The Corps has seen cutbacks beyond those affecting just the Lake Pontchartrain project. The Corps oversees SELA, or the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control project, which Congress authorized after six people died from flooding in May 1995. The Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans reported that, overall, the Corps had spent $430 million on flood control and hurricane prevention, with local governments offering more than $50 million toward the project. Nonetheless, "at least $250 million in crucial projects remained," the newspaper said.

 

In the past five years, the amount of money spent on all Corps construction projects in the New Orleans district has declined  by 44 percent, according to the New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper, from $147 million in 2001 to $82 million in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

 

A long history of complaints

 

Local officials had long complained that funding for hurricane protection projects was inadequate:

 

    *

      October 13, 2001: The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that “federal officials are postponing new projects of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Program, or SELA, fearing that federal budget constraints and the cost of the war on terrorism may create a financial pinch for the program.” The paper went on to report that “President Bush’s budget proposed $52 million” for SELA in the 2002 fiscal year. The House approved $57 million and the Senate approved $62 million. Still, “the $62 million would be well below the $80 million that corps officials estimate is needed to pay for the next 12 months of construction, as well as design expenses for future projects.”

    *

      April 24, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that “less money is available to the Army Corps of Engineers to build levees and water projects in the Missisippi River valley this year and next year.” Meanwhile, an engineer who had direct the Louisiana Coastal Area Ecosystem Restoration Study – a study of how to restore coastal wetlands areas in order to provide a bugger from hurricane storm surges – was sent to Iraq "to oversee the restoration of the ‘Garden of Eden’ wetlands at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,” for which President Bush’s 2005 gave $100 million.

    *

      June 8, 2004: Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, told the Times-Picayune:

 

        Walter Maestri: It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq , and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

 

    *

      September 22, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that a pilot study on raising the height of the levees surrounding New Orleans had been completed and generated enough information for a second study necessary to estimate the cost of doing so. The Bush administration “ordered the New Orleans district office” of the Army Corps of Engineers “not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money.”

    *

      June 6, 2005: The New Orleans CityBusiness newspaper reported that the New Orleans district of the Corps was preparing for a $71.2 million reduction in overall funding for the fiscal year beginning in October. That would have been the largest single-year funding loss ever. They noted that money “was so tight" that "the New Orleans district, which employs 1,300 people, instituted a hiring freeze last month on all positions,” which was “the first of its kind in about 10 years.”

 

    Would Increased Funding Have Prevented Flooding?

 

Blumenthal implies that increased funding might have helped to prevent the catastrophic flooding that New Orleans now faces. The White House denies that, and the Corps of Engineers says that even the levee project they were working to complete was not designed to withstand a storm of Katrina's force.

 

White House Press Secretary Scot McClellan, at a press briefing on September 1, dismissed the idea that the President inadequately funded flood control projects in New Orleans :

 

    McClellan: Flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one. We have dedicated an additional $300 million over the last few years for flood control in New Orleans and the surrounding area. And if you look at the overall funding levels for the Army Corps of Engineers, they have been slightly above $4.5 billion that has been signed by the President.

 

    Q: Local people were asking for more money over the last couple of years. They were quoted in local papers in 2003 and 2004, are saying that they were told by federal officials there wasn't enough money because it was going to Iraq expenditures.

 

    McClellan: You might want to talk to General Strock, who is the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, because I think he's talked to some reporters already and talked about some of these issues. I think some people maybe have tried to make a suggestion or imply that certain funding would have prevented the flooding from happening, and he has essentially said there's been nothing to suggest that whatsoever, and it's been more of a design issue with the levees.

 

We asked the Corps about that  “design issue.”  David Hewitt, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said McClellan was referring to the fact that “the levees were designed for a category 3 hurricane.” He told us that, consequently, “when it became apparent that this was a category 5 hurricane, an evacuation of the city was ordered.” (A category 3 storm has sustained winds of no more than 130  miles per hour, while a category 5 storm has winds exceeding 155 miles per hour. Katrina had winds of 160 mph as it approached shore, but later weakened to winds of 140 mph as it made landfall, making it a strong category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.)

 

The levee upgrade project around Lake Pontchartrain was only 60 to 90 percent complete across most areas of New Orleans as of the end of May, according to the Corps' May 23 fact sheet. Still, even if it had been completed, the project's goal was protecting New Orleans from storm surges up to "a fast-moving Category 3 hurricane,” according to the fact sheet.

 

We don't know whether the levees would have done better had the work been completed. But the Corps says that even a completed levee project wasn't designed for the storm that actually occurred.

 

Nobody anticipated breach of the levees?

 

In an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on September 1, President Bush said:

 

    Bush: I don’t think anyone anticipated breach of the levees …Now we’re having to deal with it, and will.

 

Bush is technically correct that a "breach" wasn't anticipated by the Corps, but that's doesn't mean the flooding wasn't forseen. It was.  But the Corps thought it would happen differently, from water washing over the levees, rather than cutting wide breaks in them.

 

Greg Breerword, a deputy district engineer for project management with the Army Corps of Engineers, told the New York Times:

 

    Breerword: We knew if it was going to be a Category 5, some levees and some flood walls would be overtopped. We never did think they would actually be breached.

 

And while Bush is also technically correct that the Corps did not "anticipate" a breach – in the sense that they believed it was a likely event – but at least some in the Corps thought a breach was a possibility worth examining.

 

According to the Times-Picayune, early in Bush's first term FEMA director Joe Allbaugh ordered a sophisticated computer simulation of what would happen if a category 5 storm hit New Orleans. Joseph Suhayda, an engineer at Louisana State University who worked on the project, described to the newspaper in 2002 what the simulation showed could happen:

 

    Subhayda: Another scenario is that some part of the levee would fail. It's not something that's expected. But erosion occurs, and as levees broke, the break will get wider and wider. The water will flow through the city and stop only when it reaches the next higher thing. The most continuous barrier is the south levee, along the river. That's 25 feet high, so you'll see the water pile up on the river levee.

 

Whether or not a "breach" was "anticipated," the fact is that many individuals have been warning for decades about the threat of flooding that a hurricane could pose to a set below sea level and sandwiched between major waterways. A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report from before September 11, 2001 detailed the three most likely catastrophic disasters that could happen in the United States: a terrorist attack in New York, a strong earthquake in San Francisco, and a hurricane strike in New Orleans. In 2002, New Orleans officials held the simulation of what would happen in a category 5 storm. Walter Maestri, the emergency coordinator of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans , recounted the outcome to PBS’ NOW With Bill Moyers:

 

    Maestri, September 2002: Well, when the exercise was completed it was evidence that we were going to lose a lot of people. We changed the name of the [simulated] storm from Delaney to K-Y-A-G-B... kiss your ass goodbye... because anybody who was here as that category five storm came across... was gone.

 

http://www.factcheck.org/article344.html

[Murmuring Beast 0]

It disgusts me that so many young people here are so disgustingly Conservative.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I was just thinking about Moore this morning, without even hearing he had written Bush.

 

While there's no question I agree with most of his message, he's a self involved, attention whore and a hypocrite.

 

Iraq has nothing to do with Katrina, no reason whatsoever to bring that into this mess.

 

And while maybe he's right about being able to prevent, or minimize damage from the levee cuts, I'll give Bush the benefit of the doubt:(and this is blatantly hacked from The Daily Show last week)

 

Saying Bush could have prevented the damage is like saying you support child molestation if you purchased Michael Jackson's Thriller in 1983.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

It disgusts me that so many young people here are so disgustingly Conservative.

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Why, because people can't form their own opinions, and that you somehow stumbled upon all the right ones?

 

Whatever...

 

Anyways, its becoming more and more apparent that the LA government funked this up. But I guess Bush authorizing FEMA in advance means nothin

[Bruiser Chong 0]

If you hate Current Events folder so much and think political arguments are pointless, why are you here Bruiser?

 

Wolf Blitzer went off on the Homeland Security chief today. Good stuff.

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Because events like this are an exception. Yeah, they eventually derail into Round 382 of the Conservative vs. Liberal dick-waving contest, but rare events like this actually pique my interest.

 

I'm not sure why you picked that quote as the basis for your response, bob, since it was more me saying how lame and unoriginal it is for someone to poke fun at somebody's weight or appearance, when neither is an issue.

 

I should also take this time to note that I unfortunately took a look at The Pit's Katrina thread, which degenerated into *gasp* complaining about what TSM was talking about.

 

Anyway, some things that Czech said in there bother me. First off, he (badly) paraphrased an AIM conversation we had about music. I'm taking his point was that I viewed music by color and such, but like most things, that's taken out of context. The actual AIM conversation had me classifying the whiney emo music as "white" music. The word "Radiohead" is nowhere near that chunk of the conversation.

 

Also, I resent NMB being labeled as collectively liking Kanye West and porn. It was probably a (pretty bad) joke, but point is, there's no real love for West and the whole porn schtick is sooooooooo played. We don't even HAVE a porn folder, nor do discussions within the porn realm ever appear on the board. So how all of the board members can be known for loving porn, is beyond me.

 

I don't think Czech's a racist, but I do believe it's out of touch with the culture. Hey, I'm white and not trying to act like I live in that environment, but thanks to being immersed in the atmosphere throughout high school, I'd like to think I've got a better understanding of their values, beliefs, and bonds. If I had to take a shot in the dark, I'd say that Czech's never really had to be in such surroundings. It's hard to "get" something you don't experience first-hand. At any rate, carry on.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

except they can't

 

its called separation of powers.  the fed literally cannot act until the state asks or acts itself.  That's the principle of federalism, which very few people seem to understand.

 

they are legally NOT ALLOWED

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From letter from Blanco to Bush, 27 Aug 2005

 

Pursuant to 44 CFR 206.35, I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster

 

I request Direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property.

 

28 Aug 2005 (via Voice of America)

 

President Bush, in keeping with the Stafford Act, issued a declaration of a State of Emergecy on 28 August 2005:

 

President Bush has declared a state of emergency for the Gulf Coast state of Louisiana, as it braces for the expected onslaught of Hurricane Katrina, set to make landfall on Monday.

 

Saturday's emergency declaration authorizes federal officials to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and provide appropriate assistance in several Louisiana parishes.

[snuffbox 0]

It disgusts me that so many young people here are so disgustingly Conservative.

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Its not so much that young people are conservative...but just so closed-minded. It is really unsettling. It takes place on both sides...either Bush can do no wrong or no right. Nobody bothers to actually consider the values of each person or opinion.

 

Example - 'Michael Moore is irrelevant because hes fat.' This is certainly among the weakest arguements Ive ever heard. Disagree or not he deserves to be able to speak as mind just like anyone else does, and he can be publicly vocal about it because he made popular documentaries that touched chords with alot of people.

 

And to everybody so quick to defend President Bush...he gets the most heat for one simple reason - He is at the top. Harry Truman said, "The buck stops here", and the statement remains accurate and applicable today. Bush ran in 2004 on his 'national security' ticket but in this instance there was clearly not enough done to help and save Americans right on our very own soil. He doesnt deserve all the blame but Bush and his Administration deserve, and will get, the brunt of the questions and the political/social heat.

 

If people want this to already be a poltical battle than that is simply a problem within their own respective egos. It is a sad case indeed that will turn the worst disaster in America's history into political whining and hollering, but it is not an isolated case. The one and only best thing for everyone to do is the best they can. The deserved elected officials will take the bumps they have earned by not doing a fair and humane job for the victims. Juveniles on messageboards need not bicker over the relevancy of Michael Moore or other such nonsense.

 

Also - I dont like Trent Lott, but the man's house was destroyed...Im willing to guess that he is doing all in his power to help in this situation.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Michael Moore is irrelevant because he manipulates film and takes people out of context in his documentaries to such an extent that they no longer hold any veracity.

 

"It's just entertainment!"

[AboveAverage484 0]

I guess if you had to classify me, I'd be a conservative. But if John Kerry were elected, I probably wouldn't care too much; all the candidates have their strong points and weaknesses so whoever is elected is who I'll serve, unless they happen to be a total and complete wack-job, but I don't see the American people becoming that stupid with their voting.

 

*Waits for someone to call Bush a wack-job*

[dubq 0]

It disgusts me that so many young people here are so disgustingly Conservative.

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Get over it. We're the wave of the future.

[snuffbox 0]

It disgusts me that so many young people here are so disgustingly Conservative.

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Get over it. We're the wave of the future.

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Doing something that has been done for decades is the 'wave of the future'?

[SuperJerk 0]

It disgusts me that so many young people here are so disgustingly Conservative.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Get over it. We're the wave of the future.

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Doing something that has been done for decades is the 'wave of the future'?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Indeed. As a philosophy, conservatism exists primarily as a justification for prolonging the existing power structure. That is not to say they are always wrong, but tend to be skeptical of any ideas that would shift the power structure.

 

Where conservatives get is right is when they defend something that is done right and should not be changed, or when they demonstrate how things were done better at some point in the past. Conservatives get it wrong when they simply defend something that doesn't work because it promotes their own interests.

 

This board is composed mainly of middle class white males. Conservatism, although not actually a racist philosophy, tends to protect the interests of middle class white males. Hence the prominence of conservatives and their ideals on this board.

 

Some of the people on this board who appear to be conservative would be more accurately be described as libertarian. Libertarians hold fast to a philosophy of government non-interference. This is similar to conservatism because it protects the existing power structure, but differs in areas of greater emphasis on civil liberties over the so-called "common good".

[Guest Brian]

This forum needs a bin where everytime stuff falls back to conservative/liberal bickering, they just end up in a "junk" folder. That way, people can avoid what they dislike and others can get all Hulky and whatnot. Or maybe a OAO, but I think Al will kill me for suggesting that.

[Dr. Zaius 0]

Perhaps moderates should learn to bicker.

[The Czech Republic 0]

This board is composed mainly of middle class white males.  Conservatism, although not actually a racist philosophy, tends to protect the interests of middle class white males.

 

Not always true, sometimes conservatism fucks over all but the very rich. But yeah, by and large, it looks out for the middle class. I don't know if I'd throw white or male in all the time, though.

[tominator89 0]

White middle class males also includes the serial killer demographic. I don't think it's fair to lump everyone in that same category.

[Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye 0]

Pity = insanity. It's merely a tool used by people to look down on others as inferior, and then work to bring them up to 'their' level. Helpful indeed...

 

 

LOL NATURE WINS AGAIN!

 

http://anus.com/zine/news/1007.html

 

ANUS indicts ADL for interrupting evolution

Some fear death so much they protect useless idiots

 

10:00 PM 9/1/2005

ANUS News

 

The American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS) today criticized the ADL for protesting those who take delight in the evolutionarily-positive deaths of fools in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. While ANUS is not a White Nationalist or neo-Nazi organization and is opposed to those ideologies, it celebrates the death of those who could not preserve themselves.

 

"Regardless of race, background, color, sexual orientation and genital size," said ANUS spokesterrorist Vijay Prozak, "the people who failed to evacuate New Orleans are by nature genetic failures. They are failed life. They could not respond to changes in reality, which means they're either insane or dysfunctional."

 

"They had 48 hours of warning," said ANUS CTO Penisbird. "If you cannot save your ass within two days of otherwise certain doom, you have nothing to offer humanity." He then whipped out a monster cock and sprayed his semen across the faces of the assembled members of the press, who carefully sampled the fluid and wrote observations in shorthand.

 

The American people, long accustomed to being manipulated emotionally by their government, are gathering today for a giant cry-in about the New Orleans disaster, and will be sending their hard-earned money to subsidize those who could not preserve themselves, in the longstanding tradition of welfare, civil rights, public education and drug treatment programs.

 

"This is an extension of the Christian and Jewish concept of 'pity,'" said ANUS scientist Midvinter. "When one extends pity to another, one feels personally important for having the power to help another. However, this is a cancerous notion, as it encourages the proliferation of life-forms that, being poorly adapted to their environment, would otherwise have perished."

 

ANUS has long promoted the idea that 7 billion humans is too much to avoid ecocide, and that, as many environmentalists have said, the sensible limit for worldwide population is a half-billion humans. "We aren't short of people, that's for sure," said ANUS infoterrorist g0sp-hell. "And most of them are brick stupid and contribute nothing except consumption and defecation, neither of which are in short supply."

 

New stories report that when the hurricance approached New Orleans, most people who had any sense of self-preservation got up and left. Those who remained have been unruly, assaulting police officers and looting all remaining buildings while doing nothing of a practical nature, such as trying to stop the flooding or built temporary shelter. Based on this observation, say ANUS scientists, "it's unlikely these people could survive in the wild."

 

"People who are inferior, regardless of race and color et cetera, will drag us down by forcing us to design society for idiots," said Prozak. "If you let them live, they breed, and soon you have to dumb everything down to accomodate them. It's great for industry, because they buy whatever they see on TV, but bad for those who can feed themselves without an instructional video."

 

Despite their loathing of Undermen, the ANUS organization has determined that in order to meet its projected budget needs, it will launch a line of instructional videotapes, starting with the inspirational "How To Avoid a Hurricane Within 48 Hours." The videos will be hosted by legendary underground black metal artist Paul Ledney, who will be naked and covered in blood in order to express his individuality.

 

About ANUS

 

The American Nihilist Underground Society advocates nihilism, or a removal of interpretive layers from our perception of physical reality, as a means of transcending neurotic crowdism and thus achieving adaptive success. It has been online since 1995 and attracts thousands of readers daily with articles about philosophy, politics, music and culture. Every major internet filtering service bans anus.com, and many "anti-hate" organizations decry it as an anti-crowdist site which must be censored and its perpetrators bankrupted.

 

http://www.anus.com/

 

About Nihilism

 

Nihilism is the belief that nothing we perceive has Absolute value; reality exists, but beyond its inherent meaning to us as the physical container of our existence, it has no significance outside of what we perceive. "The world is my representation," indeed. When we strip away all of the values projected onto physical reality and its outcomes, we are left only with personal ideal and natural ideal, and bringing the former into adaptation with the latter is the lifetime task to which nihilism is a gateway.

 

http://www.nihil.org/

 

wait there's more!

 

As Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on Monday, experts said it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.

 

Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.

 

That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 160 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.

 

"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

 

The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.

 

Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.

 

"We're talking about in essence having - in the continental United States - having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.

 

Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely populated areas.

 

"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening the system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4 or 5 intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center meteorologist Richard Pasch said.

 

As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would record.

 

"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program," said Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He works for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its seventh year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind conditions using a set of mobile weather stations.

 

Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years, chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.

 

Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.

 

After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.

 

In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous materials.

 

"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden said.

 

He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from Mississippi River floods.

 

Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above sea level.

 

The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden said.

 

It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.

 

Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998, Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely grazing a grateful city.

 

closest thing I could come to the original source:

 

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K...G_ONE?SITE=KVUE

[The Czech Republic 0]

Whyyyyyyyyyyy don't we check WASPs at securrrrrrrrrrrrrrity? Timothy McVeeeeeiiiiigh didn't look like an Araaaaaaaaaaab