Now, will we look for the dead from Katrina?

[deminks]

Will we find them after 5 months? I know the lack of housing and the lack of health care, and the lack of basics for these people is enough to make you crazy with anger, but when we cannot even care for the dead. I am angry, speechless. This is the very first thing that should have been done. And ANYONE who is responsible for this right up to the top should resign. Now.



Dr Louis Cataldie, medical examiner for the state of Louisiana, stands outside the morgue set up to house Katrina victims Friday, Feb. 10,2006, St. Gabriel, LA. Officially, 1,079 people died in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina but family members of about 300 missing people have called the state looking for loved ones. Dr. Cataldie fears some may also be under debris in crushed houses. Final Katrina death count likely to climb but it is unclear how high. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)


http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?p=KATRINA&datesort=1&fr=&c=news_photos

[slackmaster]

1. They've probably been eaten by stray dogs by now

:puke:

[Selatius]

2. Unless you're a rich person, they don't give a crap about you

I'm just a working-class stiff, and those guys who hold power are the master employers. We are owned by them. That's what Bush means when he says, "ownership society." If I die or disappear, they're just going to find somebody else to replace me like replacing a broken gear in a machine. I'm just a number on a spreadsheet, a cog in the machine, a brick in the wall to these guys.

[Crazy Dave]

3. Isn't it a shame when a tragedy can no longer be used as:

A political and publicity stunt by either side? The war on Christmas got more air-time and attention than what was happening to these people during the holidays with the threat of being kicked out of their hotels at the beginning of the year.

[Ron Mexico]

4. Here's an actual answer to that question from a Repug co-worker

(and no, I didn't ask him - this subject came up sometime the week before last)

"Hell, yes, we need to find out who they are so that we can stop their illegitimate kids from cashing their welfare checks."

That's the mindset of those in charge. We're lucky anyone at all survived.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. If I didn't believe in nonviolence I'd plant my boot in his bum

[Ron Mexico]

7. No need. He's still upset because

someone put a chunk of Limburger (sp?) cheese on his engine block. It seems that he can't get rid of the stench inside the new car he had been bragging about for weeks.

It sure is unfortunate that someone did that. I feel terrible for the guy.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Oho... *lol*

[Selatius]

6. A simple proposal to your co-worker

If he doesn't like to live in society, then he can do without the things supported and funded by taxpayer dollars if he thinks taxes are useless. He can't use the roads, can't use the water system, and don't expect garbage pick-up every week, and if he has kids, then they shouldn't be in public schools.

If he wants to be individualistic, then he should pay out of pocket for everything, including the cost of teaching his kids. Make him live the words he espouses. If he's too poor to afford it, that's too bad. Because in the society he probably wants to live in, he will get no help.

[Ron Mexico]

9. I've tried all of those arguments. As good as they are, they

don't sink in with this asshole. It's like getting a Red Sox fan to root for the Yanks.

Amazingly, one of his retorts goes like this: "There's a difference between infrastructure and supporting parasites. Government has a responsility to provide roads and schools, not to steal from me to finance some street whore spitting out kids she can't afford."

This is why no matter how logical your arguments are, they're of no avail. The guy is only an individualist when being one includes tax dollars going to stuff he approves of.

[Selatius]

13. Well, then attack his position directly

If you don't spend money on health care services and public education systems, then that will eventually translate into a degraded infrastructure. You cut spending on education, and you'll end up with fewer engineers to build and maintain the water, power, and road/rail networks, and if you cut spending on health care, you end up with a less competitive workforce that's more likely to suffer from ailments that are easily cured, and if you cut both, not only will they suffer more ailments, they will be less skilled and thus less competitive in the workplace. (If he wants totalitarian China to catch up and eventually surpass us, tell him that's the way to go)

You cut money to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and the result is you'll have old people dying in the streets from being too poor to afford medicine and food like is often the case in many slums in South America that have been neglected by their corrupt governments for years.

[Ron Mexico]

14. You're preaching to the choir, friend.

I didn't present it as well as you, but I tried the same argument with him. His responses were predictable Repug mantra: 1.) "It's the responsibility of the old to save, and if they don't then screw 'em," and 2.) "If these goddamned socialist programs were so fucking important, how did we make survive before FDR tried to turn us into the USSR?"

He also doesn't believe spending cuts to education will hurt education because our educational system is so fucked up that we've passed the point where spending more will help. Although I don't agree with his overall stance, this is as close to rational as he gets, since some of his supporting points aren't entirely wrong.

At any rate, you're making the mistake of suggesting the use of logic against someone who is entirely immune to logic. His stance is simple: tax dollars should only be spent on what HE approves of, and he shouldn't have to kick in a cent beyond his share of that. The guy is a bitter fuck who couldn't get laid in a women's prison and snaps at everyone who talks to him about anything. After two months of batting this back and forth with him, I shrugged my shoulders and gave up. Not worth my time.

[Selatius]

15. One day he will pay the price if he continues this way

One day he will fall, and he will get no help because he pushed it all away because of that attitude. Unfortunately, sometimes one has to walk a mile in another's shoes in order to truly appreciate what that other person has gone through.

Keep the fires burning, Ron. Have a good day.

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Just when I think I've heard it all

from these compassionate conservatives, they go and say something outrageous like this. :grr: So if these "illegitimate kids" are orphaned as a result of the neglected levies by compassionate conservatives, are they too be thrown out onto the streets? "Billions for war, no more for the poor." Compassionate conservatism my ass! :mad:

[Ron Mexico]

12. Even more amazingly, another co-worker is

responsible for saying what I described in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x377739 . These guys are both in my office and they're not the same person.

I could leave, but this is my best chance to get full-time work with benefits (I work as a temp). I'm without health insurance because my wife and I could only afford it for one of us and I insisted that it be her.

[tanyev]

11. That is an atrocious reason, but even that would finally get people

in there to account for all the missing. But it is not happening. NOTHING is happening. It makes no sense.

[dflprincess]

16. No way no how will they ever tell us how many people died as a

result of Katrina. Especially if that number exceeds (and I'm sure it does) the number killed on 9/11.