Here is my two cents in this (specially since this topic has been dead for so long...)

The people of New Orleans had sufficient time to get out of the city. They new several days before it happened that Katrina was a Level 4 storm, and their water relief system could only handle a level 3 (heard this on the weather channel). People refused to leave. So in a way, the only reason they are suffering right now is because they didn't have the sense to leave.

Now for the elderly or crippled, I see why they couldn't leave, on their own. The city has/had buses, they should have been shipped out on them. The whole situation degraded, due to poor management on the local governments part.

So what I am trying to say? I am kinda tired of hearin about them down there. They should have left when they recieved the warnings.

Agreed. Too many people tried to "ride it out" and ended up either dying or getting shipped off to somewhere else, while complaining that "It's all the government's fault. They caused the hurricane, they caused me to be poor, they're shipping me off to Texas..." yada yada. People just can't seem to accept the fact that things they do are ACTUALLY THEIR FAULT(gasp!). I think the nation is tired of hearing about people blaming all their problems on the government that is trying to help them, or saying that "George Bush controversial statement deleted." Everyone has their problems, and yours are yours, not anyone else's.

Well, even after the hurricane, people were just waiting around, waiting for the government to bus them out. If it were me, I would find a backpack, put some supplies in it, and get out of there. Makes one wonder if they were all on welfare, used to getting things, and not used to doing things themselves...

Here's how welfare should be run:
1. If you are not actively searching within 2 months of unemployment, it gets revoked
2. If you turn down a job offer (for any reason), it gets revoked
3. Nothing extra is given other than the needs for food, (necessary) utiliy bills, the cost of living, plus 5% for an income.
Once it gets revoked, it's revoked forever.

well not forever, but when searching for employment, you have to search for that you are qualified, not like a teenager looking for a job that requires a debree, for example.

You wouldn't get the job offer if you didn't have a necessary degree would you? And it only says you need to be lookingfor a job, not have found one in 2 months. That gets people off their behinds to look for one.

It was an example, some people who are on unemployment look for jobs they know they will not get. You have to be reasonable.

Okay, some additions/refinements
4. This only applies if you've had a job before, in which case welfare cannot be applied at all
5. The search for jobs must include jobs for which you are eligible/qualified for

Interesting ideas.

Lazy people


Those debrees are really important, almost more important than degrees...
(Poor Rivereye, stuck with a cramped laptop keyboard )

actually, I am bouncing between a lappy, my mom's comp with a standard ketboard, and my comp with a ergonomic keyboard, and you can't tell which is which by IP

Because if you're using a router, they should all show up as the same i.p.

Remember the FEMA guy who got fired from being the director of operations in New Orleans?

he was fired? i thought he resigned...

Yeah, I'm almost positive he resigned...

What about people who are too poor to get out? Not only did they have nowhere to go, but even if they did, they wouldn't have had the means to get there. Also, what about people who were either stuck in a hospital or families of those people?

If they had legs, they could get out. If they had a relative who you knew needed help, they could have helped them also... They had plenty of warning that a hurricane was coming, but they thought it was going to be light and didn't think of a worst case scenario and now blame Bush for making it bigger/not coming down and negotiating with it to hit Alabama or Florida.

Too poor to get out? That would imply that the ability to walk is dependent on wealth, which all intelligient beings know is not the case. If a relative is in the hospital and can't get out, and you stay with them, then you're all dead, so it doesn't matter. People who stayed did so of their own volition, their problems are their fault.