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Refugee Radio Station Blocked by Red Tape
Zathrus writes "According to a Wired story, a volunteer organized low power FM radio station is being blocked by local administration and red tape. They've already won the classically big battles -- securing FCC licenses, obtaining the broadcast equipment and radios, getting the manpower, and having some big name backing -- only to be blocked at the last minute by some lower level administrators who don't think information is a worthwhile resource." From the article: "According to KAMP, Royal claimed the Astrodome was not able to provide power to KAMP's low-power FM transmitter. When KAMP offered to bring in enough batteries to power the equipment off the Astrodome's grid, they were still denied. Obey, speaking to Wired News, explained that the JIC couldn't see a use for the radio station when they had the ability to communicate via the loudspeaker system and newsletters. "
Hey, how about a 24/7 PUPPET SHOW taking place in the center of the Dome.
It would be totally free, and not get in the way, and provide valuable information and "stress relief".
And it would be put on by black people, so if you are against my puppet show idea, you are racist! LOL
Why don't you get a real job and stop being a parasite? It's the only moral choice. Nobody is going to respect you until you abandon your parasitcal way of life by leaving the employ of the state.
You want a radio station catering to the evacuees run by people who literally believe things like the Bush administration is not only responsible for the poor response[1], but is actually responsible for the hurricane itself?
Wow are you full of shit. So because some poor, black people in NO are pissed off and have crazy conspiracy theories...you DON'T want them to be more informed? What the hell kind of sense does that make? And the sentance blaming Bush for Katrina DOES NOT EXIST in that editorial you linked to.
In an emergency housing situation, the infrastructure at the facility, the facility-wide loudspeaker system, and newsletters/handouts/flyers are *more* than enough to disseminate information.
Nonsense. Two of the consistent problems in NOLA have been lack of power and lack of communications. It's going to take a lot less power to run a small radio station than it will for the loudspeakers of the entire Superdome and convention center.
even though Texas and Houston have gone completely out of their way to assist in any way possible.
Because there are more refugees than Houston and Austin can handle? Or maybe it's the fact that refugees are tired of sleeping on astrotuf.
Oh, wait, let me guess: it's not a state and local municipal responsibility, it was somehow magically a federal one?
So let me get this straight: you conservatives go on and on about the inefficiencies of "big government", but rather than having mobile federal resources available for massive disasters, you'd rather each city and state be able to handle anything that comes at them? So I can assume that you have written your state legislature demanding that they increase your taxes so your state can handle a hurricane, earthquake, or terrorist nuclear attack all by itself with no help from the federal government?
Let me guess: you were one of the people who blame Clinton for Waco and Ruby Ridge in the same breath. When you know, Ruby Ridge happened before he took office.
First, from the very article you're quoting, the firefighters responding to the consolidated request for aid were very clearly told FEMA was looking for two-person community relations teams. Community relations, public relations, security, field medical assistance if necessary.
You idiot. That only happened AFTER they had been sitting in Atlanta hotel rooms for days! Here, I'll quote the article since you were too stupid to comprehend it: 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.So FEMA took these people highly trained in disaster relief, and then used them to hand out phone numbers and photo ops with the president.