Holy Sh*t! This story about FEMA and the ice is INCREDIBLE!

[Atman]

Hundreds of trucks filled with ice in preparation for the storm are being directed all over the country. Literally, trucks driving to OKLAHOMA, filled with ice. Then being sent on to other locations all over the place. This is un-fucking-believable. I simply cannot believe what I am seeing.

Now on Scarborough.

[stepnw1f]

1. What For? (nt)

[Atman]

4. What for? Remember the hurricane OVER TWO WEEKS AGO?

This is still destined for the Katrina victims! I kid you not. FEMA is holding up shipments because of improper paperwork. So instead, they're just driving it all over the country. Keeping the truckers busy. WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK IS GOING ON?

[stepnw1f]

13. Good God.... this is CRMINAL NEGLIGENCE

We have no representation to hold them accountable. We will have to do it ourselves. We will too.

[sandnsea]

15. Still???

Are you fucking kidding? I never watch Joe, but I did pick up the ice story somewhere. I thought they'd finally delivered it. This is the 30 trucks, or such, you're talking about? From up north, etc. They're STILL driving around????

I saw a piece today with the mayor of D'Iberville, I think Anderson
Cooper had him on. He was nearly in tears, he can't even get friggin' tents from FEMA. They told him today, two more weeks. For TENTS.

I'm really thinking we should change the anti-war protest. It should be a run 'em out on a rail protest. People should bring tar and feathers.

[lonestarnot]

26. There is still people in N.O. w/o bloody shelter!

[sandnsea]

36. I saw that too

The 500 immigrants in Kenner and that fat fuck of a civil servant. Probably others too. I am so pissed off. A friend's mother just died and we are helping him figure out all the estate stuff, he's got mental disabilities. Otherwise, I swear to god I'd be down there kickin' ass. I am SO SICK OF THIS SHIT.

[RagingInMiami]

38. I agree

An Impeach Bush demonstration. We needed to demand an end for the war, but this regime is so fucked up, that it just becomes another part of the big picture.

[KerryOn]

28. Just burning up precious fuel so they can raise the price again. n/t

[cdsilv]

2. They're seeing how far they can push the public....

...like petulant children - how much can they break without the populace finally saying ENOUGH!

I'm really disappointed with the apathy of the general public.

[Atman]

6. Honestly, what are we to do?

They anticipated this years ago. Not the storm, US getting fed up, discovering their scams. So they've made "The People's House" a fortress. We can march on the White House or the Capital and then what? You can't get anywhere near either of them anymore. So they send out the police to bust heads. Really...what the hell are Americans supposed to do?

[pretzel4gore]

19. i'm starting to loathe the public...

maybe the gopigs just got sick of the bastards sooner then we did?

[jillan]

33. The public probably doesn't know.

They watch the 5 o'clock news.
They saw the idiot on prime time.


That's all they know - it's not their fault.
It's the republican owned media's fault!

[Castilleja]

37. I am beginning to think this is exactly right, as much as they can

get away with. What sealed it for me was reading an article about a male veterinarian being appointed acting Director of Women's Health at the FDA after the previous official resigned. What is this, an experiment in how much people will put up with?

[gumby]

3. Saw that on KO (I think)

They followed ONE of these hundreds of trucks. It was waiting to get into the disaster zone. Then it was sent all over the country with no delivery.

That ONE truck cost $9,000.00 to not do anything but dive its load of ice to no one. Amazing, ain't it?

[Stephanie]

11. they showed it on Brian Wililams network news

NBC

[doublethink]

5. Scarborough is going off .......

:wtf: maybe I tuned in too late, he was saying something like ever time he calls FEMA a 'lawyer' answers .... look Scarborough this is the administration bureaucracy you backed up from day one. What's his complaint? Isn't this what he wanted? Hypocrisy ....... it never seizes to amaze me. Peace.

[RepublicanElephant]

7. which private contractor...

...is screwing the people this time?

[madfloridian]

8. Brian Williams covered that on NBC news tonight.

It was outrageous.

[MnFats]

9. some RW mole is trying to destroy the agency.

unaware that the agency is taking care of that on its own.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

10. Just gawdawful.

People dying for a drink of water and trucks full of ice going to nowhere.

:cry: The people currently in charge of this nation will be the death of us all :cry:

[WiseButAngrySara]

12. I saw that too and was utterly amazed. I can't help but think that this

is a planned screw-up. I mean WTF? B* and Jeb were handing out ice in FL, and now they're sending trucks all over the country with melting ice, wasting gas and precious ice for those without water and refrigeration? And we are paying for these incompetents? It has to be a planned F*up; sorry, no other explanation for me is possible at this point.

[Atman]

14. Wow...while you were posting that, I posted a new LIHOP thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4799751

[WiseButAngrySara]

20. Thank you. I'll read it. I always looked at MIHOP/LIHOP theories with

somewhat of a jaundiced eye, especially as pertains to 9/11. But finding more out about PNAC, and these vultures in power, I've no doubts that they care little about human life. For all of their gesturing and gesticulating to the contrary.

[Botany]

16. Well

Ship it to the area hit ...... ASAP.
They will find use for it ......

Next idea the other 5 political appointees who asshole put into
top positions @ FEMA .... fire em NOW

2 political advance men for bush cheney 04
a TV reporter
a lobbyist for an electric company
a Lt. Governor from Nebraska


also take their paychecks too

[Ikonoklast]

17. According to OOIDA there were 400 trucks

diverted to Memphis after being sent all over the South loaded with disaster relief. They are being paid $800 a day to sit until they are unloaded.

Last year for the Florida hurricanes I ran FEMA disaster relief (water, building supplies, etc.)to Pensacola and there were very few foul-ups or waiting around to get unloaded. At the NAS they had the product out of my trailer in fifteen minutes flat and we were outbound north to go get more.


I guess if you are in a state that has a governor that doesn't happen to have a brother as Preznit you are f****d.

[Atman]

22. The FIRST thing Bush did was suspend truckers logging regulations

Might have been second. Along with relaxing fuel production rules.

The very first thing he did after the worst hurrican in history hits is ELIMINATE REGS ON HOW MANY HOURS TRUCKERS CAN DRIVE, and relax log restrictions. Is that the first thing YOU would have thought of when you saw 100,000 people stranded at the Superdome?

Now, coincidentally, 400 trucks are driving all over the country filled with ice. Or nothing. And someone is making a goddamn fortune. This is just getting too freaking bizarre.

[Ikonoklast]

40. Actually, suspending the hours of service rules

in a federally declared emergency is SOP. It happened last year, the years before that, and it will happen in the future. The rules are artificial as far as moving freight goes and would be almost impossible to work around in an emergency situation.

As for the $800 a day, that BARELY covers the expense of having a tractor-trailer with a driver sitting around somewhere. These vehicles are very expensive and must produce revenue each day or they would be operating at a loss. My personal minimum to keep from operating at a loss is well over that figure; that is why I couldn't afford to run FEMA freight this year.

[Dover]

39. Yeah, if Jeb was governor of New Orleans do you think there would

be these kinds of screw ups?

I think they regularly plan to fail, to blame it on 'incompetence' to turn people against their government and its agencies. They want to dismantle this government and allow their elite mob to take over.

Could ANYONE be so incompetent? Not likely.

[nonconformist]

18. They're bleeding it dry.

I have to think that this is deliberate. I can't fathom how any agency can be as inept as they have been. They're either milking all the money out of the agency or attempting to discredit it altogether (or both). Makes little sense to me that they would pick FEMA to be the poster child for "bad government" since the responsibility for FEMA and it's reorganization/gutting falls on Bush's shoulders... but I've seen stranger shit out of this cabal.

[WiseButAngrySara]

21. See response #12 and #14...we tend to agree!.......n/t

[emulatorloo]

23. kick n/t

[Dora]

24. WHY DON'T THE DRIVERS MUTINY AND DRIVE THEIR ICY ASSES TO NOLA? n/t

[TahitiNut]

25. FEMA is doing the End-Of-Fiscal-Year Rumba

It's a spend-it-or-lose-it budget attitude that PERVADES the Federal government, and must be running absolutely rampant under the Bush Regime. The end of the Federal fiscal year is September 30. Any money left in an agency's budget can be spent without higher authorization. If it's not spend on or before September 30th, it's not available on October 1st (that's a new pool of dollars).

I've seen it - for 5 years. I've worked on the federal budget process for a M&O contractor for DOE. It's bizarre. Management would actually send out notes telling folks there was money left in certain budgets and to look for 'needs' that could be met before year end. For the first 10-11 months of the fiscal year you'd think asking for a piece of needed equipment was asking for the virginity of the manager's sister. In September, cronies and sycophants are paid off first - boondoggles, new computers, reference books, furniture, whatever. As the 30th approaches, it's often a free-for-all. I get the impression that 15-20% of purchase order expenditures are made in September. Accounts Payable becomes a zoo. Contractors are especially attuned to this ritual - and turn up the suction for taxpayer dollars BIG TIME.

[slipslidingaway]

27. Thanks, great point. nt

[chalky]

30. You're right. Just said on Olberman, wasting $9000 per truck, and

cost could go into the millions.

[jillan]

34. That is OUR money that they are wasting!

This realy pisses me off!!!!!!

We need to get some leadership over there.
We Cannot leave this up to the bullshit administration.

[Joebert]

31. I used to sell computers in a DOE town.

We'd see the employees come in all the time, browsing.

But towards the end of the year, they'd start bringing in their "per diem" sheets that would let them spend $X a day without approval.

Some would ask us to build them a computer, but charge 8 different people $100.00 each, etc.

It was gross. This was back in the early 90's, Clinton times. It's more of a wasteful Gov't overall, in all time periods, than just Bush.

[Blue_Tires]

35. my HS biology teacher

was in charge of a department budget at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, and she told the class similar shocking stories about the year-end spending frenzy, and she was working there way back in the 60s

[chalky]

29. Talking about it on Keith right now

n/t

[Berry Cool]

32. This is sad but true.

In any institution that allocates budget dollars annually in a "use it or lose it" system, you will find managers acting like tightwads all year long until the last month of the fiscal year...and then suddenly it's Christmas and they are Santa Claus. And it doesn't really matter where the money goes...you've just got to spend it and spend it FAST before it gets taken away. Any system like that just begs for wastefulness to ensue in one month while people go without what they need for the other eleven.