To: Alan Smithee who wrote (108191 ) 9/6/2005 1:23:12 AM From: Grainne Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 108807 I haven't decided what I think about the global warming issue as it relates to Hurricane Katrina. I haven't read enough scientific articles to come to any conclusions. I definitely think the U.S. should sign the Kyoto accords. We pollute the earth way out of proportion to our population. I also haven't read enough about when the governor and mayor asked for help, and who they asked, and what happened when they did. I will wait until I understand the facts to draw a conclusion. I'm sure those facts will come out eventually. My basic underlying belief about the situation on the Gulf Coast is that the Bush administration has all the wrong priorities, and protecting poor Americans is not high on the list. I think the administration is actually unwinding, imploding, and the fact that the emperor has no clothes is becoming more and more obvious. I think Bush is fully incompetent and it is beginning to show. I am one of those people with SUVs and credit cards and savings, so of course I would depend upon myself first in a disaster. But at the same time, I believe that first world governments should be big enough and well enough organized and compassionate enough to help those who do not have all the advantages I do. In any society, the old and poor and weak and not so well educated or mobile members deserve the protections of the state. I think any other view of the poor in New Orleans is completely amoral, in fact. I think it is a smoke screen the right is trying to throw up, a way of making the victims of this disaster look like they deserved it. I personally think that is a horrible view of what happened.