General Rants » General Rants » The Machine Stops http://rantweb.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=898 The Machine Stops Post by mo on Sept 9, 2005, 1:39am
The Machine Stops By Thomas Lipscomb Published 09/08/2005
As Lake Ponchatrain's waters began to drown his city, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin had the colossal nerve to shout indignantly "Get off your asses, and let's do something" -- and then continued doing nothing himself, but add to the deluge by bursting into tears.
Having been prodded on Saturday into ordering an evacuation by President Bush and the head of the Hurricane Center and then delaying it for seventeen crucial hours until well into Sunday, Mayor Nagin is directly responsible for the AP picture of over 200 unused New Orleans buses marooned in four feet of water that might have evacuated more than 15,000 in one trip alone. Those were the buses that in the Mayor's own plan were to be used to evacuate 100,000 poor the city has long understood had no other means of transportation.
Nagin is also responsible for failing to pre-position generators, food and water, a medical presence and portable toilets for the two sites at the Superdome and Convention Center that he had proclaimed "emergency centers" for tens of thousands of the more than 30% of New Orleanians that lived below the poverty line. And then the Mayor failed to police them.
The rapes, murders, and needless deaths that took place in those "black holes" of New Orleans are his responsibility as well. Eighty armed policemen were too cowardly to enter the Convention Center after reports of the savagery inside as late as Sunday. Troops finally searching the Convention Center on Monday found an elderly man and a young girl, battered to death, among the corpses. New Orleans's would-be reformers thought they had elected a responsible leader in former cable executive Nagin and instead they got a classic "cable guy" with a million excuses and the same lousy service.
Of course behind all this is a dirty little secret well-known in New Orleans which is also the reason almost 30% of New Orleans police precinct members deserted during the Hurricane Katrina emergency. The police were afraid to try to enforce any kind of evacuations in the violent ghettos of a city that remains one of the most lawless in America. Anyone driving a school bus down a street in one of New Orleans's "projects" trying to enforce the mayor's evacuation order would be risking his life. Had the Mayor ordered police escorts, the desertion rate of the police would have been far higher than 30%. And that is the reason for the current argument between the Mayor and his own Police Commissioner, who still refuses to enforce his "mandatory evacuation" order.
Governor Blanco's ineptitude and indecisiveness was appalling. Her direct orders blocked the Red Cross's heroic effort to pre-position desperately needed supplies at the Superdome before it was cut off by the rising flood waters as well. Attempts by the Mayor, the Governor, and The New Orleans Times-Picayune -- which had extensively reported on the state's and city's similar failures on previous occasions -- to blame the Federal FEMA efforts for failing in its role in the immediate aftermath of Katrina are patently ridiculous.
Under white and black governments alike, New Orleans has always been one of the most corrupt cities in one of the most corrupt states in the United States. Three Louisiana officials were indicted for stealing emergency relief funds prior to Katrina. It should surprise no one that the Sicilian Mafia opened operations in New Orleans before it had a presence in New York. Even the "Louisiana Lottery" put in place by a genuine reformer to raise public funds quickly devolved into scandal.
The great black New Orleans-born blues composer Spencer Williams knew his city well. In his lyrics to "Basin Street Blues" Williams calls it "New Orleans, Land of Dreams." And a "Land of Dreams" it is and has always been. The French dreamt of it as the key to reversing the British conquest of Canada; Jefferson dreamt of it as the key to opening a continent; Aaron Burr was tried for treason for dreaming of using it as the base for his "Empire of the West" that could secede from the fledgling United States; "filibusters" like Samuel Walker dreamt of turning Haiti or Nicaragua into mini-empires for their own enrichment. And most of these dreams were doomed at the outset.
Basin Street itself was an excavation site where water settled after the removal of additional landfill to build up the high land around the French Quarter where the original colonists were smart enough to locate their settlement. And that began the dream that ended with Hurricane Katrina that believed with minimal expense New Orleans could continue to ignore reality and expand below sea level construction indefinitely. And the dream is wider than New Orleans. "Flood insurance" is now being offered that encourages development of the most endangered flood-prone littoral land in the country.
And that is the real problem. E. M. Forster's THE MACHINE STOPS, published almost a century ago, posits a world in the future in which the human race gives up any individual responsibility to an immense computerized system that meets every need -- until it fails.
Those who dream of the perfectibility of human institutions through increasingly, compulsorily collective government will always attack the highest levels of government when it does fail. Republicans and Democrats alike have created huge institutions like the Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and now Homeland Security, built on dreams that can never meet the excessive demands placed upon them.
If we are to learn anything from the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, we will have to review the more practical expectations of the Framers of our Federal system. Local and state government are the primary responders. To keep their powers and responsibility intact the Federal Government is a resource they must administer wisely and decisively. Focusing on the habitual incoherence of Bush Administration communications is beside the point. There is no excuse for ignoring the key failures of local and state government in facing the challenge of Hurricane Katrina. Doing so will only ensure the next disaster.
Thomas Lipscomb is a Senior Fellow at the Annenberg Center for the Digital Future(USC). His family has lived in New Orleans for over 150 years.
Re: The Machine Stops Post by colehartt on Sept 9, 2005, 9:26pm
I'll take bets that he gets re-electedRe: The Machine Stops Post by midcan5 on Sept 10, 2005, 11:24am
How much of the above is true? How much is rumor? and How much ties into the myths this individual wants to believe are true? So far I have heard that several items noted above are either disputed or proved untrue.
What is this nonsensical idea that we need to check with the framers on federalism? Huh? does that not baffle anyone but me, seems we can figure this out with looking at dusty thoughts from a different age. In truth the author has no ideas so he falls back on tired platitudes.
What is it about perfectibility and government, why does the author not come out and say what he means. We are imperfect beings but we knew that so what should we do, lie down and give up? Re: The Machine Stops Post by scummybear on Sept 13, 2005, 7:03pm
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How much of the above is true? How much is rumor? and How much ties into the myths this individual wants to believe are true? So far I have heard that several items noted above are either disputed or proved untrue.
Which items? What, where, etc. . . I suppose we should believe what you have heard instead of someone who's family lives there.
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What is it about perfectibility and government, why does the author not come out and say what he means. We are imperfect beings but we knew that so what should we do, lie down and give up?
No, I guess we lie down and scream that it was all George W. Bush's fault, and call him a racist while were at it. Re: The Machine Stops Post by midcan5 on Sept 14, 2005, 11:56am
The stories of rapes and murders were false according to a policeman at the site, his comment was the only incidents were two reports of alleged rapes.
Your second comment is in your head as you said that, not I. Do you really feel that way?Re: The Machine Stops Post by scummybear on Sept 14, 2005, 5:54pm
Sorry, I'll try to write less abstractly for you next time.
Re: The Machine Stops Post by tnrighty on Sept 15, 2005, 8:31pm
In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson approved $80 million if federal funds to construct a system of floodgates along Lake Pontchartrain to reduce the strain on the levies around New Orleans during periods of extreme weather. A group that called themselves "Save our Wetlands" sued and won because they said the construction would have an adverse affect on marine life. The floodgates were never built. Days before the hurricane hit New Orleans, Amtrak volunteered to transport residents out of New Orleans. The local authorites declined the offer. A day after the levies broke, Red Cross trucks were lined up outside New Orleans with relief supplies, but local authorities denied them entrance because they said those supplies would only attract more people to the Superdome and N.O. Convention Center. We couldn't prevent the hurricane, but what followed it was 100% preventable, and its not Bush's fault.
The point, don't make a mess and then blame someone else when it isn't cleaned up soon enough.
Re: The Machine Stops Post by midcan5 on Sept 16, 2005, 7:53pm
Please provide sources. And are we to assume that if it is true this would have protected New Orleans?
I lived here all my life, several times in the last year or so I have been warned of hurricanes approaching our city, all missed. I am poor or maybe not but my home is my castle. Another storm is approaching and I am offered a train ride. Do I hop on board for destinations unknown. Where do I go, how do I get back. That is assuming this is true as well. Re: The Machine Stops Post by mo on Sept 18, 2005, 9:32pm
There were many rapes at the superdome. The volunteer workers that I talked to acknowledged that. By all individual accounts, the crime and looting were far worse that any of the press reported. The main failure that NO has exposed is the failure of the welfare state.
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Is the Orleans Levee Board doing its job? Critics allege corruption, charge the board with wasteful spending
By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit NBC News Updated: 11:52 a.m. ET Sept. 15, 2005
The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the levees surrounding New Orleans ¡ª the same levees that failed after Katrina hit.
"They misspent the money," says Billy Nungesser, a former top Republican official who was briefly president of the Levee Board. "Any dollar they wasted was a dollar that could have went in the levees."
Story continues below ¡ý -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- advertisement --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nungesser says he lost his job because he targeted wasteful spending.
"A cesspool of politics, that¡¯s all it was," says Nungesser. "[Its purpose was to] provide jobs for people."
In fact, NBC News has uncovered a pattern of what critics call questionable spending practices by the Levee Board ¡ª a board which, at one point, was accused by a state inspector general of "a long-standing and continuing disregard of the public interest."
Beyond the fountain, there's the $15 million spent on two overpasses that helped gamblers get to Bally's riverboat casino. Critics tried and failed to put some of that money into flood protection.
There was also $45,000 for private investigators to dig up dirt on radio host and board critic Robert Namer.
"They hired a private eye for nine months to find something to make me look wacko, to make me look crazy or bad." says Namer. "They couldn¡¯t find anything."
Namer sued and the board then spent another $45,000 to settle.
Critics charge, for years, the board has paid more attention to marinas, gambling and business than to maintaining the levees. As an example: of 11 construction projects now on the board's Web site, only two are related to flood control.
"I assure you," says Levee Board President Jim Huey, "that you will find that all of our money was appropriately expended."
Huey says money for the levees comes from a different account than money for business activities and that part of the board¡¯s job is providing recreational opportunities.
And despite the catastrophic flooding, Huey says, "As far as the overall flood protection system, it's intact, it's there today, it worked. In 239 miles of levees, 152 floodgates, and canals throughout this entire city, there was only two areas."
But those two critical areas were major canals and their collapse contributed to hundreds of deaths and widespread destruction.
Lisa Myers is NBC¡¯s senior investigative correspondent.
Still need a source, not a rumor or a person's prejudiced notions of what happened.
Suppose it were true would it be Ok that those in need received an abortion if they decided that is what they wanted?
Ah but the failure of the "welfare state." Does the right never cease to pick on poor old welfare. Old Ronnie Reagan's Cadillac mom didn't exist folks no matter how hard to try to materialize her. But consider this meme of the right for a few minutes. First, would not having welfare held the levees? Would poverty not exist? Ever drive those back roads of Mississippi? I have and I can tell you welfare has nothing to do with that kind of poverty.
And consider America before welfare, any non partisan look at poverty levels shows they have gone down. What this is really about is a racist and classist attitude toward those on welfare, and the idea that someone is getting something for nothing. For the rich it is connections, for the poor, a step up is welfare, but connections are good and welfare is bad.
What we need to do in America is teach the poor to pick better parents, middle class, upper middle class preferably, even if they are black they need to pick white parents, or mixed maybe, as light skin is better too, parents with good jobs, nice home, intelligent too that helps, that way we all start even and then when you fail as Dubya has done so many times they make you president. Dats all youse needs folks.
Oh and the corruption still doesn't account for poverty. Re: The Machine Stops Post by mo on Sept 27, 2005, 12:23am
It also helps to not have three kids by the time you're nineteen, by three different fathers who don't remember your name.
It helps to study hard and finish school.
It helps not to use drugs.
It helps not to weigh three hundred pounds.
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Oh and the corruption still doesn't account for poverty.
You've got to be kidding!
Re: The Machine Stops Post by midcan5 on Sept 28, 2005, 7:20pm
Mo, that was funny i was trying to think if you had missed any stereotypes, hmmm, no, not one. Re: The Machine Stops Post by steveinid on Sept 30, 2005, 8:42pm
What stereotypes are you referring to? Mo didn't mention any race at all.