[W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]
gary peck
gary.peck at sympatico.ca
Tue Sep 13 18:06:55 EDT 2005
Did he call you
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike R.
To: 'Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists'
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 10:49 AM
Subject: RE: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]
Richard,
Called but all I got was voicemail so I left a message. Hopefully he'll call me back later today.
Thanks for the info though! I have the broken edges of the aluminum bracket all ground clean. If Rex has the part that's great, if not I'll go find me an aluminum welding shop somewhere in town and have it Tigged or Migged back together. This is just an alignment piece that holds the side of the bumper in place. It's obviously meant to break since it is of a very light construction, so a welded piece shouldn't make any difference. I'm too lazy/cheap to just go buy a new one!! It looks like whatever money I can save on the cost of the part will be spent putting fuel in the tank!! L Any idea if the salvage yards would have a piece like this for a car this old (1987)?
Peace, y'all,
Mike R.
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From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com] On Behalf Of Richard Hogarth
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 7:32 AM
To: 'Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists'
Subject: RE: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]
Mike,
Did you try calling rex in Ohio about that part. I sent his phone number in one of the last email volleys?
-rh
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From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com] On Behalf Of Mike R.
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 10:42 PM
To: 'Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists'
Subject: RE: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]
I've seen several articles that show that the Feds responded FASTER to Katrina than they did to Andrew, Hugo, and several other hurricanes. IMHO - Bush haters trying to make him look bad while the blame should DIRECTLY be applied to the Mayor of NO and the Governor of LA, procrastinators both. Yep, FEMA had an idiot at the helm, but that's nothing new for any bureaucratic group in DC. Cronyism goes back thousands of years.
Unfortunately, this is a normal day in the present political climate.
By the way, I completely agree with Air Force One doing a low altitude flyby to look at the damage. The Prez got to see the damage but DID NOT interfere with the relief efforts on the ground. Had he landed, the Secret Service and other agencies would have had to gather lots of people for the normal security detail required for a presidential visit (Any president). He came, he saw, he went away to do other things to help, without any hindrance to activities already underway.
Y'all take care,
Mike R.
PS - anybody have a bumper bracket for the drivers side? 126-885-25-14.
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From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com] On Behalf Of Dick Spellman
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 7:11 PM
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]
Aloha Ken:
Please provide me with where in the US Constitution the President of the United States or the Federal Government is given the authority or responsibility to manage any state disasters or affairs germane to local governance, excluding interstate commerce.
The congress can and does appropriate sums of money to aid a state government when asked. I know of no instance where the federal government can just waltz in without the express permission and mission guidance designated by the local authority. How many days passed before congress convened and pronounced emergency funds to the states hit by Hurricane Katrina? When was the Federal Government asked and what was the time delta in response?
I could cobble together similar timelines that led up to any number of unexpected disasters where policy dictated changes in funding . . To suggest that a cut of $75mm just 8 weeks before a major hurricane hit the gulf coast exacerbated the response is IMHO nonsense and irrelevant to this discussion.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Cribbs
To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 9:19 PM
Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums it up.]
Of course the state and local responses to Hurricane Katrina were inadequate; no one can reasonably disagree. But decisions made by the Bush administration regarding federal agencies also contributed to the New Orleans disaster to a very large extent. Consider the following timeline, which I received from a friend. I haven't verified all the facts, but so far I haven't found any inaccuracies:
Chronology of events related to FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration.
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, his crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces his departure to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from its position as a cabinet-level agency and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
2003: Under the new DHS organization chart, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA would henceforth focus only on response and recovery.
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.
August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush poses for photo-ops, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.
So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Bush Administration policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence.
Aloha,
--Ken
At 02:50 PM 9/12/2005, Dick wrote:
Umm. The picture while humorous if you take no political posture, does not
belie the awful truth of the failed response in Louisiana. I think that
with time the truth will be told without the media hype and the terrible
pressure the photos of the first few days told of the suffering of so many.
Ask your selves the following questions.
In your state should a disaster occur who are the primary responders?
Does your state have a *EMA headquarters?
Who do you expect to see FIRST after a disaster strikes?
Your local PD?
Your local FD?
Your state's Guard?
Or the Federal Government?
When a disaster strikes and help from the outside is summoned, who is
responsible for having the answers to the following:
Where do you need help and what type of help do you need?
Where are the most populated areas in this disaster area where you have
coalesced evacuees?
Do you have lines of communications to each of these locations?
What resources and timelines for consumption have you made available to
these locations?
What percentage of the population moved of their own accord?
And of the remaining population what local transportation have you staged to
recover them?
Now, having answered all of these questions as they relate to you in your
state, who in your state has the ultimate authority and responsibility to
make sure your state is prepared and readied in the event of a forecasted
disaster?
Your answers should have been the state's governor, the state's emergency
management teams and coordinators, the state had readied and stockpiled
potable water and food stores to areas where they had evacuated populations,
the state should have been prepared to move in with local security and guard
forces, the state should have been prepared with communications and
transport vehicles staged and ready to roll when the conditions permitted.
I have to say that the STATE we are all watching and listening to was ill
prepared, had never run the drill, was incompetent, did not know where their
resources were, had no lines of communications established and readied, had
no reserve forces (State Guard) readied in light of the forecasted storm,
and simply sat back and waited, waited too long and when they did act it was
without a crafted and tested action plan.
Pointing fingers is fine and playing Monday night QB is fine but, the
reality is that we all expect our local government to have prepared for
disasters that are based on our location on this planet and our proximity to
a variety of 'islands of risk' that are man-made. In Florida which was
racked by back to back hurricanes last year, the state government and local
county governments were prepared, had a plan, and executed on the plan.
They plan and prepare year round for a variety of disaster drills.
Florida's state managed emergency teams and guard were lined up miles
outside the disaster area, waiting to roll in as soon as the storm passed
each and every time. The state was engaged and in play hours after the
storm hit, not days. They were not standing around awaiting the federal
government to muster from thousands of miles away. And when they did ask
for help they provided the salient details of what they needed and where
they needed it most. They had local authority and responsibility to provide
shelter, food , water and security and in Florida they did just this time
and time again. Louisiana is the single point of failure from which all
poorly coordinated efforts flowed. I'd fire every last one of the
management and political flunkies and start over before the next storm
arrives. Could be next week just like last year in Florida times 3.
The media will eventually get around to asking the hard questions that will
tell the true state of preparedness in the state of Louisiana. In order for
an outside response to be effective, good information, solid communications,
an assessment of needs and resources has to be ready and available. I know
this could not have been the case in New Orleans or the state of Louisiana.
Local government had no knowledge of the several thousand people in the
local hospitals running on generators with a few days supplies stock piled
by those private institutions. The hospitals were ready but, their local
government was not. Did not even know they were there until the media
uncovered them.
Rant over.
Continue with regularly scheduled programming.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: <dolans1 at verizon.net>
To: <mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com>
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 7:43 PM
Subject: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about summs it up.]
>
>
> Subject: Fwd: This about summs it up.
>
>
>
> Note: forwarded message attached.
> Yahoo! for Good
> Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
>
> If you ever thought that this guy would hook you up in a disaster. You
better look at what you need to be first!?
>
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