Student: I cannot speak for Gazpacho, but as for me I use the gremlins to express how I intend the comment to be taken. I will be the first to admitt that a creative writing class would be of benefit for me. Probably the rest of the world would be better off if I took the class also. There have been many years since I sat in an English class. Therfore many times my posts come across as very abrasive when that is not the intent. Granted there have been times that they were meant to chaf the skin, as I am not one to beat around the bush. One on one in a personal setting I do not come across as bad as I do in written expression. I hope that I have answered your question, should you feel that you need a better explanation, feel free to send a personal E mail at the address listed in the bio page above.

"Provecho" Gazpacho, and the rest of you "Conservatives". I am feeling a little blue for you guys due to your whinning about so called "half truths," and "liberal lies"(theres that word again) but spit it out if you got a point to make!I only have so much sympathy left after all the tragedy and drama we've been witnessing lately. And by the way what's going on in LA today with the power blackouts? Just this Am I woke up to the new's and I see some American born Al Queda guy saying they would target LA and Melbourne for terror. We in the US can't afford any more crisis situations now and besides any new crisis would send our young King George and Field Marshall "Cheney" into hiding again before they get "Homeland Security Inc." into action finally down south! Valga mi Dios! ANd also thanks for the thumbs up on the Hilary Clinton campaign Gazpacho, I promise not to run for any elected office even though being continually prodded by DD, but how about maybe head of Border Patrol? Naw! after our law and order regime of Bush-
Cheney are done there probably won't be a need for immigration reform,que no DD?

THE MAN WITH THE PLAN, AND ALL THE ANSWERS.
VOTE FULANO FOR PRESIDENT 2008. I am sure that all of Mexico would love to have you for the head of the U.S.Border Patrol. Mexico's usual answer to their economic problems is send the bill to the US taxpayer. You would be their darling child.

Fulano,

Rarely have we been blessed with such genius on this message board. Your writings are truly inspirational. How can I be so blind as to live in what I have considered until now, the greatest country that ever has, and probably ever will exist, and not notice all the doom and gloom you seemed consumed by? Why, how delusional must be a young man like Alando who travels the world to follow his dream? Alando, stay home, there is no such thing as individual achievement. Only the government can save you. I am wrong to be proud that one such as you exists.

I'll tell you. After what you liberals have turned this country into, I'm going to write a letter of apology to Queen Elisabeth and humbly ask England to take us back. Couldn't be any worse than your plans to make us all dependent wards of the state.

Talking about Mexico's answer to any problem, Mexico sent to the US more than 40 trucks loaded with food and water for the victims of hurricane Katrina. Also, a ship of the Mexican Navy is in the Louisiana coast helping the victims of the hurricane.

Yesterday, I also saw on the news that the government has authorized the hiring of illegal immigrants to all employers in the affected areas for the next 30 or 45 days. (Actually, they mentioned that in Salvador thousands of people are preparing to come to the U.S. to work in the affected areas). This really came as a surprise to me since I am sure there are thousands of jobless Americans in that area willing to work as roofers or removing all the debris in the affected areas. Anyway, it seems that those construction companies need to secure their cheap labor force for the reconstruction work.

Hi Jabach. You would be amazed - - there are still people in S.W. Florida waiting for replacement roofs lost from last year's hurricanes. The roofing contractors cannot find enough workers. They have plenty of material but no workers. When you drive down I-75 towards Naples, you still see a great number of blue tarp roofs.

Certainly not a very scientific method but.....in my community, when they were building new homes, each new home had about 5 workers per roof. Perhaps there were five or six roofing crews working at a time. I think it took about 10 fulls days to install the trusses, overlay the plywood and put on the shingles.

I cannot begin to calculate how many roofing crews New Orleans, Alabama and Mississippi will need. This doesn't include additional truck drivers to deliver the wood, additional production workers in the already overworked truss plants and the additional foremen needed to oversee the work.

And that is just roofing. They need contractors to install new windows, run new electrical lines, install new carpets and floors, new bathrooms, new you-name-it.

Saludos!

Hi TJGuy and all! I'm probably wrong but I think Florida was hit by the hurricane 2 years ago, right? I don't know how many houses were damaged down there, but if it's been 2 years and they are still working on them, I don't want to imagine how long it will take for those in New Orleans.

MM: Just for the statistics, is this the thread with the most replies? 125 replies!

Clinton's famous sentence was "I did not have sex with that women!"

But I think Bush will have two.

One is "Mission accomplished" and the other one is what he said to the FEMA Director Michael Brown that had just resigned. Its funny and scary because last week Bush slapped Brown on the back and told him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

I really wonder at what point would Bush consider ex-FEMA Director Brown did a bad job because there is no way in hell he did a heck, good, fair or ok job.

Bill

Bill,

That's about as funny as Mary Landrieu saying that Mayor Naygin has a hard time getting his people to work on a sunny day.

I just read that the total amount of money spent in the war on hunger has been 6.6 trillion dollars. Let's see $6,600,000,000, and yet we still have all the poor in Louisiana. And have to import people to go to work. Anything wrong with this picture?.....Bill?

jabch wrote: Someone on Air America Radio the other day which suggested something similar, jabch. The announcer happened to mention that with the, what, $414M that Red Cross received in the past 2 weeks they could easily take SOME of that money and employ many of the displaced persons of the Guld Coast to help with the reconstruction efforts, thereby creating (albeit short-term) jobs and putting some of the lost wages into the pocket of the displaced and give meaning/direction/pride to those which cannot see their futures clearly. The announcer said that Red Cross would likely consider this option as they're likely making an unGodly amount of interest on all this goodwill cash. A relative of mine suggested the same after 9-11, that he wouldn't ever give to the Red Cross after that because he'd read/heard/(whatever) that they were withholding assistance to those who needed it in order to rake in the interest earnings. I don't know if that's true or not but using some of their cash to employ displaced persons seems like a much better idea than them asking for 4,500 NEW volunteers to help with the recovery efforts.

jabch also wrote: I don't know but it's got to be close. I know the 9/11 thread was very very long as well.

Bill from NYC: My favorite Bush statement around the Karina catastrophe (Laura Bush called it Hurricane Karina twice in a statement after the damage was done) is "Help is on the way!" on Tuesday, the day after the levees broke and the city was 80% flooded and 2 or 3 days before any help arrived.

International donations and assistance is truly wonderful. I/We thank everyone and every nation who gives/assists. I am ashamed, however, that the largest reconstruction costs will all go to Haliburton and other Bush-Cheney-linked businesses. I'm not only ashamed, I'm also bewildered that these facts don't seem to so much as raise anyone's eyebrows. We've grown so passive, so complacent, so inert, & so powerless. If these things would happen in other places in the world entire city populations would be out in the street marching/demonstrating.

Saludos, MadridMan