Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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The union won't survive more incompetence.
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Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:18 pm |
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Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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Oh I've volunteered my time and so has my wife. We've fed evacuees at shelters. We've shared our home with another family whose home was wrecked by a tree. All of this during the week we had no power in our city and no gas for our cars.
It was the most instructive week of my short, wonderful life thus far.
So send money to the GOP all you want, "sarah". You are paying the people who let one of the historic cities of America drown. The people who repay faithful red states with abandonment. Even now, they character-assassinate the local leadership.
If you think they'll do their best with your money, then you go right ahead.
As for the rest of America, we've SEEN what they do. We are NOT impressed.
The UNION will not survive more incompetency. Bush and Cheney should both go BACK on vacation.
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Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:27 pm |
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Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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If you want to help, go to your church. They'll know how to convert your contributions to REAL AID for REAL PEOPLE who need it.
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Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:30 pm |
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Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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Question my church. That's nice.
The difference between us is that I trust people to know how to choose an honest charity. You apparently don't.
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Thu Sep 08, 2005 5:54 pm |
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Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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So far you have questioned my patriotism, my community service and my church. I guess you can be certain none of these will fail you, sarah.
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Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:06 pm |
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Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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Your gift to the charity of your choice will DO MORE FOR REAL PEOPLE than ANY gift to the RNC, redcross, whatever terrorist freedom corps or any "Homeland Security" will ever do.
If your town gets hit bny terror, you WILL be treated like an enemy. For GOD's sake, you are on your own.
I speak from experience. I don't know how close you are to this, but I'm pretty damn close to it. Close enough to KNOW - and not just from the TeeVee - close enough to KNOW what is working. And what is hurting.
Help the people. Help your church help the people. Do NOT help the feds help the people because they WON'T.
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Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:33 pm |
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Euler
Senior Member
Cash: $ 76.16
Posts: 404
Joined: 06 Nov 2003
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Want to know what your donation to freedomcorps.gov will buy? As you already know, it will pay for sexual harrassment conferences for firefighters during this crucial time. It will pay the salary of a Horse Show Judge so he can lie to the faces of the American people on National TV.
But what you may not have known is that your donation will also pay for 1,000 Fire Fighters to walk around handing out fliers with FEMAs phone number in stricken areas.
*blink*
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Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA
By Lisa Rosetta
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"
As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.
Federal officials are unapologetic.
"I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," said FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak.
The firefighters - or at least the fire chiefs who assigned them to come to Atlanta - knew what the assignment would be, Hudak said.
"The initial call to action very specifically says we're looking for two-person fire teams to do community relations," she said. "So if there is a breakdown [in communication], it was likely in their own departments."
One fire chief from Texas agreed that the call was clear to work as community-relations officers. But he wonders why the 1,400 firefighters FEMA attracted to Atlanta aren't being put to better use. He also questioned why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - of which FEMA is a part - has not responded better to the disaster.
The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through rubble and save lives.
"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."
The firefighter, who has encouraged his superiors back home not to send any more volunteers for now, declined to give his name because FEMA has warned them not to talk to reporters.
On Monday, two firefighters from South Jordan and two from Layton headed for San Antonio to help hurricane evacuees there. Four firefighters from Roy awaited their marching orders, crossing their fingers that they would get to do rescue and recovery work, rather than paperwork.
"A lot of people are bickering because there are rumors they'll just be handing out fliers," said Roy firefighter Logan Layne, adding that his squad hopes to be in the thick of the action. "But we'll do anything. We'll do whatever they need us to do."
While FEMA's community-relations job may be an important one - displaced hurricane victims need basic services and a variety of resources - it may be a job best suited for someone else, say firefighters assembled at the Sheraton.
"It's a misallocation of resources. Completely," said the Texas firefighter.
"It's just an under-utilization of very talented people," said South Salt Lake Fire Chief Steve Foote, who sent a team of firefighters to Atlanta. "I was hoping once they saw the level of people . . . they would shift gears a little bit."
Foote said his crews would be better used doing the jobs they are trained to do.
But Louis H. Botta, a coordinating officer for FEMA, said sending out firefighters on community relations makes sense. They already have had background checks and meet the qualifications to be sworn as a federal employee. They have medical training that will prove invaluable as they come across hurricane victims in the field.
A firefighter from California said he feels ill prepared to even carry out the job FEMA has assigned him. In the field, Hurricane Katrina victims will approach him with questions about everything from insurance claims to financial assistance.
"My only answer to them is, '1-800-621-FEMA,' " he said. "I'm not used to not being in the know."
Roy Fire Chief Jon Ritchie said his crews would be a "little frustrated" if they were assigned to hand out phone numbers at an evacuee center in Texas rather than find and treat victims of the disaster.
Also of concern to some of the firefighters is the cost borne by their municipalities in the wake of their absence. Cities are picking up the tab to fill the firefighters' vacancies while they work 30 days for the federal government.
"There are all of these guys with all of this training and we're sending them out to hand out a phone number," an Oregon firefighter said. "They [the hurricane victims] are screaming for help and this day [of FEMA training] was a waste."
Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.
But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.
lrosetta@sltrib.com
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Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:00 pm |
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Rolo
Yo' Daddy
Cash: $ 309.70
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Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Location: Colorado/Florida
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quote:
Originally posted by Euler
The union won't survive more incompetence.
That's what happens when one expects his government to take care of them.
If you do not feed yourself, though you have the opportunity, why is it my job to feed you?
If you don't exercise enough sense to 'get out of the rain', why is it anyone else's fault?
I live in the mountains; why is it my job to strengthen a coastal city from the inevitable? (that is what federal funding would do...make it my job)
Who spends billions to create misery? 'daheck did that come from?
"Expect me when you see me."
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Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:42 pm |
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