Please, Come to D.C...

Do you know if donations are being accepted yet for clothing and toys? If so, where they are to be sent? Thanks

Musicone63:

I believe the best place might be the Salvation Army in Houston, TX. But wait a few weeks-they are saying they are saturated. They still need financial contributions, however.

http://www.salvationarmysouth.org/TX.htm#HoustonAC

It looks like it might be better to see where many of the people wind up--if they are coming to your area (the DC housing offer was delayed "indefinitely"--I guess the idea of housing several hundred really pissed-off victims so close to the scene of the crime made some people think twice).

FEMA for Kids Rap

Disaster . . . it can happen anywhere,
But we've got a few tips, so you can be prepared
For floods, tornadoes, or even a 'quake,
You've got to be ready - so your heart don't break.

Disaster prep is your responsibility
And mitigation is important to our agency.

People helping people is what we do
And FEMA is there to help see you through
When disaster strikes, we are at our best
But we're ready all the time, 'cause disasters don't rest.

http://www.fema.gov/kids/femarap.htm

Give New Orleans a N.Y. week

In Oct., unite 2 great cities in fund-raiser

By PETE HAMILL, NY Daily News

New York has an absolute duty to help rebuild New Orleans, block by ruined block. We are the richest city in the richest country on the planet. Yes, we have our own poor, too, but they are not dying in drowned attics. They are not being ripped from their neighborhoods to be scattered across nine other states, wearing only the clothes on their backs. The uprooted people of New Orleans are our people, too. More than ever now, when, like Blanche DuBois, they must depend on the kindness of strangers.

In this crisis, New York must step up. With our enormous ability to raise money. With our intelligence, our talents, our spirit of tolerance - which we share with New Orleans. We must remind the world of the immense gifts that New Orleans has given all of us.

Mayor Bloomberg must take the lead, organizing what might be called NewOrleansAid, an immense campaign to raise millions and assemble the city's greatest talents in the task of rebuilding. Bloomberg could ask Colin Powell, that child of the Bronx, to head it. He could promise every dollar would go to human beings in New Orleans. He could guarantee anyone caught stealing such moneys would have his hands chopped off.

I would like to see a gigantic week in late October dedicated to celebrating New Orleans and thank that city for all its astonishing gifts. The greatest New Orleans gift of all was music. Along with the children of Mississippi slaves, they gave us - and the world - the blues. They gave us jazz. I can't imagine being America without that music. On the first weekend after baseball is finished, I'd like to see Shea Stadium loud with the music of America.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/343810p-293416c.html

Disaster used as political payoff,
by Juan Gonzalez, NY Daily News

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has done it again.

Already under fire for its woeful response to Hurricane Katrina, the federal disaster agency appears to have turned hurricane relief donations into a political payoff - until it was challenged.

All last week, FEMA bureaucrats gave prominent placement on the agency's Web site to Operation Blessing, the Virginia-based charity run by controversial right-wing evangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson.

For anyone wishing to donate only cash, the agency's site listed the names and phone numbers of three groups: the Red Cross, Operation Blessing and America's Second Harvest, a national coalition of food banks.

That first list was followed by a second, longer list of several dozen religious and nonsectarian charities. This second list was for anyone who wanted to give either cash or noncash gifts.

Just as in an ordinary election, however, top ballot position makes it far more likely you'll get noticed and chosen.

The same FEMA list was then disseminated by state and local governments throughout the country. Both Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, for example, placed the same top three FEMA charities on their Hurricane Katrina press releases and Web sites last week.

Those familiar with Robertson and his charity were flabbergasted.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/343813p-293471c.html

Matthew...

As a musician with strong ties to New Orleans, and friends with some of the names mentioned in that article and intimately familiar with the places and sounds, and waiting on picks and needles to hear from many of them, thanks from the bottom of my backbeating heart. (doin' the 2nd line, of course)

I can tell you, that is exactly what needs to happen. It is brilliant. It is inspiring. It's why it won't happen, but I digress.

Maybe, just maybe, people will come to understand what that city means to the very fabric of America.

Secret revealed: That great American Melting Pot had Gumbo in it.

[EDITED] REPOST FROM IRA RE: WHERE TO SEND THINGS IN HOUSTON

If you wish to send items to Houston these would be my top 2 recommendations:

1. Salvation Army in Houston
Central Address:
1500 Austin
Houston, Texas 77002

Their needs as far as clothing are for large and extra sized women's clothing, comfortable stretched pants and clothing with elastic waiste. They especially need bras and slippers and pillows (but pillows might be problematic to ship in bulk).

The main Houston Salvation Army Director's number is 713-752-0677. Their director informed me just this morning that if it is expensive to ship or you don't have the appropriate items to send, or just want to just send a cash contributio, they have set up a donation system where you can assist those evacuees in the Dome and shelters by in effect buying Food and Clothing Vouchers by credit card contributions to them. You may call them directly if you wish to have more details of that worthwhile endeavor.

The next as I would describe Houston 'Together' Organization that Chris Matthews featured on Hardball the other night is a fine organization called the Star of Hope Mission of Houston. You can learn more of their operations at sohmission.org web site or call them at 713-226-5467.

This is a great Houston Charitable Organization that has been around forever here in Houston and does great civic work for our homeless families throughout the year.They certainly can't rely on our meagor state social services here in Texas or from Washington.

The Star of Hope Mission's Wish List is for the following Items:

1. Blankets their number 1 request
2. Towels and Wash Cloths
saw very few at the AstroArena
3. All Baby Needs again in short supply but hard to ship
4. Bras of all sizes(virtually none available at the AstroArena) and underwear(saw lots more boxes of undewear but they feel they need more.

4. Femine Hygene Products

5. Pillows saw very very few pillows there.

6. Slippers and footies

7. They are also collecting shampoos and cream lotions and might mention they could use things like baby talcom powders.

And again spread the word via email that large sized clothing, Large X-L and 1 X and 2 X items are in critically short supply as well as all clothing for the small numbers of pregnant women.

Mailing Address for the Star of Hope Mission central Houston location is:

Star of Hope Mission
1811 Ruiz
Houston, Texas 77002

All I also highly recommend that if shipping charges to Houston become high, to turn your contributions in locally to your community church/synagogue/mosque collection site or Salvation Army and take the savings from not shipping packages to Houston and use that money to contribute to the Houston Food/Clothing Voucher program.

Posted by: Ira at September 4, 2005 01:17 PM

I know this was posted before, but I just have to put it up again... wanna know where W gets it from?

Exhibit C

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

By E&P Staff

NEW YORK - Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

The former First Lady's remarks were aired this
evening on National Public Radio's "Marketplace"
program.

She was part of a group in Houston today at the
Astrodome that included her husband and former
President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son, the current president, to head fundraising efforts for the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were also present.

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

I sent the quote to a few friends and someone responded that they had just heard it on CNN....

Monkey

Associated Press is now covering the quote in full and so it's already gone out in last night's Guardian-UK and alot of other papers. (I mean for today, since it's 8 hours later in UK than where I live).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5258979,00.html

I just sent it to my friend on a German Army base, as he insisted I substantiate the quote. This article even repots where she said it - on American Public Radio's "Marketplace," which I normally listen to when driving home. It's a conservative business show with people like Dallas Stockbroker David Johnson and other cast of characters who mostly care about the DOW, price/barrel, CPI etc. so her guard must have been down. They do play Robert Reich on there as a "counterpoint."

For you musicians, from a DJ in Florida:

http://ns1.clev15.com/~waxaudio/Mediacracy_07_Imagine_This_192kbps.MP3

You may not want to listen to the whole thing, once you get the idea.

Here's how Chicago Tribune does it (notice how many reporters it took to write this short report!):
SNAPSHOTS FROM THE STORM
Barbara Bush sees sunny side

Tribune staff reporters John Bebow, Lisa Black, Mary Ann Fergus, James Janega and John von Rhein contributed to this report. Tribune News Service also contributed.

Former First Lady Barbara Bush, who toured the Astrodome and met hurricane evacuees Monday in Houston, may have tried to put too cheerful a spin on what has occurred in the last week.

"Almost everyone I have talked to says, `We're going to move to Houston,'" she said in remarks to National Public Radio's "Marketplace."

"What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas," she said. "Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."

Also CNN International: 46 minutes ago

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.presidents.ap/

In Houston they chopped the hell out of the AP feed (tv news on-line) and left out the "scary" part but I think the damage is done by Hurricane Barbara.

Former first lady's comments about evacuees draws attention

Former first lady Barbara Bush is getting attention for some of the comments she made about New Orleans evacuees who are now in Houston.
In an interview with the American Public Media program "Marketplace," she said the relocation is "working very well" for some of those forced out of New Orleans. She noted that many of the people at the Astrodome were "underprivileged anyway."

Hopefully we will hear politicians once again
start to talk about the poor, working poor and the urgent need for expansion of the the Earned Income Credit for the working poor in contrast to the end of the estate tax. And maybe its time to once again make the term bleeding heart liberals fashionable again. If not now, when is always my question. If now is not the time to help those thousands who lost their lives and homes in the Ninth Perish of N.O. with an outreached hand, then when?

My carefully worded post yesterday was regarding the possible dramatic shift of potentially 100s of thousands of voters from the voting rolls of Louisiana to Texas and the implications for the Louisiana Congressional delegation. It is certainly a delicate subject but one that should be approached respectfully, but neverthelees a subject matter that in the coming months folks like Howard Dean will certainly need to give a close look at. The last thing we should be doing is bothering these confused and displaced folks with talk of politics and new voter registration cards but at some point and time, later rather than sooner, it truly will need to be part of our focus.

ABC's Good Morning America is having a "town hall" type of show.... and I am astonished at the answers coming out of the mouths of the "politicians" and the people who are supposed to be "in charge" of various agencies, including FEMA, and the former FEMA head, Witt. All politicial spin answers, which means, NON-answers to direct questions. It's appalling.

There's another hour left of the show in the Central time zone here, but I hope Mountain and Pacific time zone people will watch this travesty.

What I've been watching so far is making me ill....

from an Army hospital abroad:

Hmmm. I heard on NPR this morning that GW thinks that Trent Lott’s house will be bigger and better, and that he can’t wait to sit on the new front porch overlooking the Mississippi coastline and Gulf of Mexico.

Problem is here, that Bush as lived behind his walls his entire life and maybe somehow this causes a fundamental misunderstanding that we all don’t live the same way he does. I doubt that he’s ever stepped into a Wal-mart or a Bi-Rite drugstore in his life. So these kind of misperceptions are understandable in a perverse sort of way… in a sort of benign clueless sort of perversion or perspective.

That is probably the best reason to stop electing the elite among us to represent us.

I drop my head in shame every time I see Bush speak for the American People and this Great Country.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Posted by: DiAnne at September 6, 2005 09:14 AM

I saw the full sound byte of what Nitwit said to Lott.... made me ill.

As with Hawkeye's post just after yours, I hang my head in shame every time I see a sound byte featuring the Chicken Hawk-in-Chief (I don't always get to the mute button in time to avoid hearing what he says).

Between being embarrassed and Lamestream infotainment TV 'news,' I'm going to have to keep a barf bag by me every time I have the TV on at this rate. It's not my chosen way of losing weight.

Posted by: DiAnne at September 6, 2005 09:14 AM

Remember how old man shrub was so amazed by the scanner at a grocery store, and the uproar over how out of touch he was with the everyday life of real people?

The sins of the father are revisited upon the son... oh, and the mother hasn't done too bad herself.

I say, skip bigger house for Trent Lott. How about the Big House for W?

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Crews worked to drain the putrid floodwaters out of New Orleans on Tuesday, as authorities warned of the horrors still submerged in the city.

Mayor Ray Nagin told NBC's "Today" that he did not know how many bodies would be revealed once the waters recede.

"It's going to be awful, and it's going to wake the nation up again," Nagin said.

http://ns1.clev15.com/~waxaudio/Mediacracy_07_Imagine_This_192kbps.MP3

You may not want to listen to the whole thing, once you get the idea.

Posted by: not my president at September 6, 2005 08:43 AM

NMP,

The ONLY way Bush can say those things is if somebody splices and dices the digital recordings, just as was done in that recording. He doesn't have the capability of putting the words together. Just wait for the propagandists to start claiming that is reality.

Posted by: monkey at September 6, 2005 10:27 AM

How much do you want to bet that Rat Fink Rove and his evil minions are already writing the spin they'll have to put on finding (likely) thousands of dead people?!? I'll bet a whole quarter that they've already been writing the script in anticipation of finding out how many are dead and what excuses they will use when the numbers start mounting. I'm thinking someone is going to have to set up a DNA lab to do testing when they have bodies that can't be identified.

One of the stories this morning (can't remember if it was on CBS or ABC, but I think CBS) said at least ten neonatal babies' relatives have not contacted the hospital they were evacuated to, and I have to wonder if the parents or other relatives are still alive. They did show interviews with two couples who did manage to get to the hospital where their premature babies were taken, so that was the good news.

Also, Oprah is doing a show today from Houston. I'm thinking she may do more good than FEMA or any of the other agencies are able to do with helping people get connected and other practical help.... There's just too much bureaucratic red tape and other BS with government assistance.... I normally don't watch her show, but may have to try to catch it this afternoon.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050906/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_washington_41
White House: Leave Blame Game for Later
Excerpt:
During a stop at Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, several people ran up to meet Bush as he and first lady Laura Bush wandered around the room. But just as many hung back and looked on.

"I need answers," said Mildred Brown, who has been at the center since Tuesday with her husband, mother-in-law and cousin. "I'm not interested in hand-shaking. I'm not interested in photo ops."

State as well as federal officials are facing public criticism for a slow response to the crisis. Behind the scenes, each suggests the other is to blame.

That tension was evident when the president and the Louisiana governor appeared together in Baton Rouge on Monday.

The governor, Kathleen Blanco, had to cancel a planned trip to Houston to visit evacuees after learning at the last minute that Bush planned a visit to Baton Rouge. She has turned to a Clinton administration official, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt, to help run relief efforts.

After addressing relief workers Monday, the president seemed to choke up, nodded at Blanco and kissed her on the cheek. She nodded back and both left the podium, headed for separate spots in the crowd.

Blanco later played down reports of differences with Bush. "We'd like to stop the voices out there trying to create a divide," she said. "We're all in this together."

During his stop in Mississippi, Bush said he understood his optimism about the region's recovery is hard for others to share.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050906/ts_nm/court_bush_democrats_dc
US Democrats seek increased scrutiny of Roberts
Excerpt:
Roberts' confirmation hearing was to begin on Tuesday. But in wake of Rehnquist's death, Bush's new nomination of Roberts as chief justice and Hurricane Katrina, Senate leaders agreed to postpone the proceeding briefly.

Senate leaders arranged to announce on Tuesday a new date.

A congressional aide said the hearing would start next Monday.

Preparing for the hearing, Schumer said, "We hope the White House will reconsider its refusal to release relevant and important documents that will shed light on what kind of Chief Justice Judge Roberts would become."

{{{ Well, at least Congress has the decency to postpone the start date of the hearings until after Rehnquist's funeral....}}}

"It's going to be awful, and it's going to wake the nation up again," Nagin said.

Posted by: monkey at September 6, 2005 10:27 AM

Monkey,

Christy and others have long been saying that they're hiding the number of Iraqi dead from us, so what makes you think they won't hide this too?

I don't hear Jerry Springer very often but today he had a good point. And I'm thinking of Veritas's comments while I'm hearing his.

Who is 'responsible'?

Springer's comments:

1. Citys do not have the tax base or the infrastructure to handle catastrophes without FEDERAL assistance.

2. Government ships or services must be approved to go in and help the people especially after the federal money was previously withdrawn from citys.

3. Democrat or Republican, the people ASK and DESERVE competence from their government.

4. There was a hospital ship available in the gulf BUT FEMA did not give permission for it to go in and rescue people.

5. THe government (federal) stepped in--AFTER 5 days--and look at how much they accomplished. IF they had stepped in earlier, how many less people would have died.

Veritas,

You gave us a lot to think about:

Federal v city v state,
"Blaming republicans" or the federal officials ruthlessly,
FEMA guidelines,
and
your own perspective...

This is toooooooooo funny! I'm not even going to tell you what it is, just click on it.

http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/dishonestdubya/

Norman Solomon | Bush's Implicit Answer to Cindy Sheehan's Question
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505B.shtml
President Bush has evaded Cindy Sheehan's question, "What was the noble cause that my son died for?" But he provided a partial answer on the day that the New Orleans levees gave way.
Excerpts:
In the August 30 speech, moments after condemning "a brutal campaign of terror in Iraq," the president said: "If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks. They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions." In other words, the US war effort in Iraq must continue because control of Iraqi oil is at stake.

Would US troops be in Iraq if that country didn't have a drop of oil under its sand? Most politicians dodge that kind of question. And for years, the US news media - with few exceptions - have elided the oily obvious. Such denials go back a long way.
. . . . . . . . . .
For years, war supporters have pooh-poohed slogans like "No Blood for Oil." But let the record show: In a scripted speech, the president of the United States has cited Iraqi oil as a key reason for the US military to keep killing in Iraq.

James Ridgeway | Pumping Us Dry
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505D.shtml
James Ridgeway: The very first thing George W. Bush did in response to Hurricane Katrina was to offer a helping hand - not to the people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans, but to his friends in the oil industry. These were the same people who gave him $52 million in his last campaign.

Paul Krugman | Killed by Contempt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505F.shtml
Paul Krugman writes: Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=nq050906&vts=9620050734
Non Sequitur cartoon which you might find ironic today....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050906/ap_on_re_us/hurricane_katrina_20
New Orleans Struggles to Pump Out Water
Excerpt:
"Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area. And bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today," Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, said on CBS' "The Early Show."

"So I'm asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot.

{{{I love Aaron Broussard's ability to capture the situation succinctly!!! :-) I saw him equate waiting for help with a baseball wind-up and catch stretched out for days and days on CBS this morning. I had to laugh at the analogy in spite of the tragedy. Babs Bush's quote in full is contained in this article, too.}}}

This is a must read. it's brilliant!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/18717/93167

Here is the 1st two paragraphs:

Transcript: Rush Limbaugh Tears Pres. Kerry a New One
by Microangelo
Mon Sep 5th, 2005 at 15:07:17 PDT

Rush: Folks, welcome back. Before I take any calls I want to address something that I think is getting lost in all this talk about Katrina. I want to talk about one of the major differences separating Liberals and Conservatives in this society today: Personal Responsibility. I said back in January when President Kerry took the oath of office that the wrong guy had been chosen and I told you to imagine him in the white house during a major crisis. Well, keep imagining because he wasn't there when it happened. He was on vacation.

I want to make sure every single Republican in this country makes this point early and often, because it's important: John Kerry was on vacation while people died. He didn't leave the mountains or wherever he snowboards on the day that Katrina, Then a Category 5 storm was preparing to hit the Gulf Coast, New Orleans, a Levied City. He didn't leave the mountain the day it hit or the day after--on Monday. Or on Tuesday while we were watching a major American city drown on live television. Or even on Wednesday while people were seen herded into the New Orleans Superdome like cattle, and treated worse than cattle, by the way. It was disgraceful. He waited until Thursday to even start back to the Washington and begin to do his job.

Dot and I have just returned from a successfull run to Covington...things are improving greatly there since we arrived Sunday morning after driving all night. Dot collected clothes, water, diapers and baby formula from the Dallas area. In Austin, Kellie, Karen and Aimee from the Continental Club, Tina, manager of the Hotel San Jose and I collected water, baby food, baby wipes, paper towels, TOWELS are a great commodity as are blankets and other supplies. Friends wired money for the Truck and gas and KGSR in Austin announced where people could go to drop off goods or donations for relief going DIRECTLY to the people of Covington and those that did not have goods donated money for fuel.

The devistation is unphathomable. One hundred fifty foot pine trees toppled like tooth-picks onto houses, cars, across roads...snapped at the trunk or simply blown over by Katrina's winds. Almost every home and building have sustained damage...many with huge trees draped across the roofs. When we arrived at 9:30 am Saturday, there was no power...5 days after Katrina. The lines for gasoline were at least a mile long.

We had to guess where Annie and Buddy's house was...many street signs, as you can imagine, were missing and wires draped from broken poles to the ground where they were still connected to large transformers. Be careful driving through the side streets.

Buddy and Annie are near St. Paul's boys school. About a half of a mile east from highway 21.

There is gasoline now in Covington but it is being rationed to $10 of gas per person which at $3 a gallon is not squat.

The Red Cross refused almost all of our supplies. They took some Baby formula and diapers. As we stood dumbfounded by the lack of interest in the pallette of water we intended to unload for them, along with the other supplies, we were told to go to one of two other Red Cross shelters in Covington. None wanted the clothes.

The Vets for Peace were there and Gordon told us they would take the water and baby food and supplies in an attempt to distribute them to the community. As we were unloading, two ladies approached with small children. After getting formula and diapers from us, one asked that we go to the neighborhoods and try to knock on doors. There are many sick or infirmed or elderly who are either scared or too sick or trapped in their homes to get help.

We were told a Baptist Church in the area may be accepting clothes...so we followed a Sherrif's deputy to the church and were able to unload all of the clothes and shoes to a grateful group of volunteers.

People in Phoenix at Air America (as in many cities and towns) had a Labor Day Relief Drive. They have rented U-Hauls and are filling them with supplies to be delivered to the local charities and relief efforts. I was interviewed by Air America Phoenix for about a half an hour live yesterday during the drive home. I will try to get a copy for PODCAST.

Many who were at Camp Casey II may have seen and heard James McMurtry, James would like to have a benefit whcih will be held this weekend to raise money and goods for Direct Relief. If Sand and Skeeter would like to provide an 18 wheeler, I am certain we can fill it from Austin in addition to the Peace House donations and Gordon, Annie and Buddy can direct you as to where the supplies are needed the most along the Gulf Coast.

Brother James of the Round Table, Jackie, Tim, and Kris went into New Orleans on Sunday and again on Monday and have incredible video, photographs and touching stories as they were able to rescue three people and a dog and get them all to the National Guard for airlift.

This is an ongoing problem and will require months of these kinds of efforts to supply fresh water and goods to the Gulf Coast...the aid agencies just will NOT be able to handle it on their own. One container kitchen was able to feed 1000 people on Sunday...there are 8500-10,000 in Covington alone. Slidell and Bogalousa were hit very hard and the people of Bougalousa have no government and are running out of food and have very little water. Buddy and Annie were planning on doing a recon to see what the direct needs were at this time.

I talked to Gordon on the Vets for Peace bus yesterday on the way home and FEMA is trying to arrange for the Vets for Peace Bus to drive into New Orleans.

Thank you all for your generousity, determination and drive!

Clinton: Government 'failed' people

Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 9:49 p.m. EDT (01:49 GMT)

Former President Bill Clinton spoke to CNN on Monday.

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal investigation was warranted in due time.

"Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a failure."

He and former President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help raise money for those left homeless by the storm.

Clinton is just the latest in a long line of critics who have blasted the federal government for not moving fast enough to help people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast one week ago as a Category 4 hurricane.

He said that the utmost priority was saving people now -- and evaluating the mistakes in the months to come.

"We've got the departments on the ground, we've got the military on the ground, we've got a chance to do it right now, and we should do it right," he said. "And then in an appropriate time we should analyze what went wrong and why and what changes should be made."

More vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/clinton.katrina/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050906/ap_on_re_us/katrina_texas_evacuees_hk4
Plan to Move Astrodome Evacuees on Hold
AUSTIN, Texas - A plan to move some Hurricane Katrina evacuees from the Houston Astrodome to cruise ships was postponed Tuesday because many didn't want to go, and a proposed airlift of refugees out of strained Texas appeared to be on hold after the federal government took over.

Senator Barack Obama visited the Astrodome today with Oprah Winfrey. You watch: Obama is going to emerge from this crisis as a real leader. He is going to be a voice -- the voice -- of racial healing and genuine social progress in the Katrina aftermath. Watch him.

The Crescent City

My suspicions have been confirmed...New Orleans and the wonderful people who have created the city's great culture of life are destroyed...scattered...divided...leaderless...butthere is still great hope.

The American people have stood together while our federal government would not and could not. America and our democracy are, after all, comprised of us...all of us...Americans. We the people have come to the aid of our suffering brethren, and local New Orleans officials have done what they could with local resources...it is the Federal government and the Bush Administration who have failed the people of New Orleans and the surrounding area and our safety and security as a Nation.

In New Orleans...we know how to take care of our own, but we were stopped by FEMA and Homeland Security.

It is now up to Americans, regardless of race, creed, or political affiliation to take a stand...to heal the devisive wounds of prejudice, hatred and bigotry promoted by the current administration and to reach out to our fellow Americans who are in dire need.

It takes a people to nurture and restore a wounded nation...not a government.

New Orleans will be rebuilt in all of her former majesty and magic...charm and culture. As the sun will rise upon our beautiful city once again, so shall we restore our democracy to a government of the people, by the people and for the people and assure such incompetent leadership never darkens our shores nor allows the death and suffering of our people again.

We have a hard road ahead of us...but together we can make it happen.

Peace.

The government, specifically FEMA, is asking the Red Cross to do tasks that it has never done before.

So why wasn't FEMA prepared to do this or better yet, why hadn't they already lined this up?

This whole article is unbelievable...

Unfamiliar Tasks For an Organization Used to Disaster

By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 4, 2005;

The government is calling on the American Red Cross to take on a technological challenge the dimensions of which it has never before confronted.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency told the organization famous for blood drives and providing blankets to set up Internet kiosks in nearly 200 shelters scattered across the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast, many of them still without power. It must put in a phone system so that people displaced by the storm can report that they're alive. And it is expected to create a digital mortuary to gather the names of the dead.

Along with volunteers to organize soup kitchens, the Red Cross is dispatching engineers to set up wireless networks and trucks outfitted with satellite equipment that will allow isolated shelters to communicate with the rest of the world.

The challenge in the devastated region is like that faced by an army creating a communications system in a war zone. For the Red Cross, it is a new role, and one for which it is not wholly prepared.
~snip~
Communications are just part of the technological task ahead. [Steven I.] Cooper, [Red Cross CIO] has to figure out how to get money to hundreds of thousands of penniless, homeless people.
~snip~
FEMA, which is leading the relief effort, had still more assignments -- and thus new, complicated and undoubtedly expensive issues for Cooper's department. The Red Cross is hoping it will be reimbursed by the government for much of the work, but no one has worked out the details yet.

Contact mortuaries, FEMA told the Red Cross, and start to compile a secure database with names of the dead. The Red Cross had never handled such a job before, but software developers were quickly assigned to create a system to organize information collected by volunteers.

The Web site on which families can search for missing relatives was already up. But FEMA wanted more, asking the Red Cross to come up with a phone system that would provide the same service because some families might not have Internet access.

That means another call center and hundreds of operators to man the phones, even as the Red Cross keeps its own systems up and running. On Thursday, more than 1 million people visited the Red Cross Web site, crashing it and blocking donations. At one point during the week the organization was only able to answer half the calls that were coming in.
~snip~

read more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301483_2.html?referrer=email

So FEMA never planned for anything like this? And they're telling the Red Cross to create and deploy these systems on the fly?

The military doesn't have any communications resources that could be put into use on a temporary basis?

What is wrong with this picture?

Posted by: Hawkeye at September 6, 2005 01:17 PM

That's my senator and I'm damn proud of it!

P.S. Welcome Hawkeye!

Posted by: dwahzon at September 6, 2005 01:46 PM

Several billion is wrong with that picture....

Likely FEMA contacted Red Cross because they're "famous" for contacting relatives of military personnel in emergency situations. (That's only my best guess, not an answer.)

Also, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other charities are taking in record amounts of money for the victims of the hurricane, and while the government has allocated funds and will allocate more, the personnel with our military (and/or National Guard) are overseas draining our treasury which is already bankrupt thanks to Bu$hCo's war, and FEMA has neither the people nor the money to do what they've ordered the Red Cross to do....

One of the morning shows pointed out that people found it incredible that they could broadcast from the Mississippi Delta when all other forms of communication are down because of a lack of electricity. I realize the media has satellite communication on their mobile broadcasting trucks/vans, but perhaps the states most prone to getting hit by hurricanes should consider satellite communications for emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) when they rebuild, since lack of communications was perhaps the number one reason the city became a hotbed of anarchy.

Whichever way one looks at it, the #1 failure is the Bu$hCo administration on several levels, including the incompetent boobs appointed to fill posts for which they have no experience or background, even with hurricanes or floods that haven't taken such a heavy toll on lives and property which would have been of some small benefit just now....

From another email list that I'm on...

A project to create a wiki database that consolidates names from all the other websites where people have been posting "I'm here" or "I'm looking for..." messages.

"A friend of mine sent the following message. Please help if you can:

This all-volunteer project is trying to build a centralized database from the various Katrina-related "missing family member" sites. I'm assisting with technical issues and would like to spread the word that they are now looking for volunteer help for a massive data entry task.

Many of the missing person sites are cooperating - this project intends to get as much data in a centralized database so that family members aren't forced to search the dozens (probably over
100) sites that are collecting missing person info and queries.

Please see the following URL and consider spending an hour or two this long weekend helping in this small way:"

http://192.122.183.218/wiki/index.php/PeopleFinderVolunteer

George H.W. Bush: Media Unfairly Slamming My Son (Paging 'Mr. Sulzberger')

By E&P Staff

Published: September 06, 2005 12:35 AM ET

NEW YORK Appearing on the Larry King show on CNN Monday night, former President George H.W. Bush defended his son against criticism for his response to the hurricane disaster, suggesting it was mainly media-generated.

Goaded on by King, he eventually backed off, saying if he kept talking he would be hearing from "Mr. Sulzberger," apparently referring to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times.

Asked about the criticism, the former president said, "I think any time there's a crisis people want to blame someone. I've never been much for the Monday morning quarterbacking and to be very candid, Larry, I think some of the criticism had been grossly unfair, particularly when they suggest the president doesn't care and all of that.

"You have to understand that people that are hurting are going to criticize. I thought President Clinton put it pretty well today when he said 'Let's get on with it and then there will be plenty of time to assign blame.'

"But you know the media has a fascination, Larry, and you know this, I'm not saying you but the media has a fascination with the blame game and instead of looking for what can we do to help now there's a lot of why didn't we do something different?"

KING: "But even the president said the reaction should have been faster that he wasn't satisfied."

G. BUSH: "Sure. I don't think -- certainly I'm not satisfied but I'm just talking about the blame game and there was one particularly vicious comment that the president didn't care, was insensitive on ethnicity."

KING: "Yes."

G. BUSH: "Insensitive about race. Now that one hurt because I know this president and I know he does care and you know what can he do? He can just go out and do what he's doing today, showing that the federal government is involved, has been involved, will continue to be involved.

"Huge numbers of dollars have been appropriated or signed off on for the Congress, both Senate and the House and he had to push forward. He cannot listen to every critic from the editorial page of The New York Times."

KING: "What do you think it's like? He's fighting two wars isn't he? He's fighting a war in Iraq and he's fighting a war against nature."

G. BUSH: "Yes, that's right. Now the first war can be run by generals and I think, I'm confident we'll prevail there. But this other one was just so devastating because it struck without any political overtones. It just was terrible.

"But you know I talked to Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi yesterday because some people were saying, 'Well, if you hadn't sent your National Guard to Iraq, we here in Mississippi would be better off.' He told me 'I've been out in the field every single day, hour, for four days and no one, not one single mention of the word Iraq.'

"Now where does that come from? Where does that story come from if the governor is not picking up one word about it? I don't know. I can use my imagination.

"I don't want to be in my attack mode, Larry, but..."

KING: "Why not?"

G. BUSH: "I've already said enough. Mr. Sulzberger will be calling in."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054805

A tip of the hat to Veritas and all her "Coasties" from WaPo... This is how it's supposed to work!!

Coast Guard's Response to Katrina a Silver Lining in the Storm

By Stephen Barr

Tuesday, September 6, 2005; Page B02

Let's have a round of cheers for the U.S. Coast Guard.

Hurricane Katrina wiped out Coast Guard stations in Gulfport and Pascagoula, Miss., and looters wrecked part of its New Orleans base. But that did not stop the Coast Guard from sending out rescue helicopters and cutters on dangerous and exhausting missions to save lives and clear waterways after the hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29.

"We started the night that the storm hit," Jason Shepard , a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, said yesterday in an interview from Mobile, Ala., one of the agency's staging bases for Katrina.

Read more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501418.html?referrer=email

BTW, this is the third seperate time I've heard Haley Barbour referenced in response to the "too many Guard in Iraq is nonsense" thing.

I heard Barbour say it himself last week to Anderson Cooper, and Cooper told him he was not talking to the same people that he was.

Everyone I have talked to has said we are overextended in Iraq in relation to the response to Katrina.

With Pappy Bush saying the same thing on Larry King, it's easy to see this is being orchestrated.

Nice try, but it's a lie.
Nice try, but it's a lie.

SING IT WITH ME!

Nice try, but it's a lie.
Nice try, but it's a lie.
Nice try, but it's a lie.
Nice try, but it's a lie.

Jim Lampley: 10 Katrina Items Of Which Conservatives Can Be Proud (btw, there is no #9...)

Karl Rove is right. The whole thing has really been a triumph of Bush Administration management, it's just that we liberals are too blinded by our prejudices to see it. Foolishly misguided as we are, we might have thought the priorities would have been to constructively save lives and property along the Gulf Coast. Distracted as we are by what we now opportunistically call massive and tragic loss, we refuse to see the shining moments which have emerged here for conservatives.

1. "Must be doubly devastating on the ground." The President powerfully and succinctly articulated the philosophy that ties rich conservatives together in America: "Wow, real life looks like a bitch! Good thing we don't have to touch it."

2. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." Well, not anyone you'd want to know, Mr. President. After all, they're scientists, and therefore dangerous.

3. "Don't buy gas unless you need it." The emergence of a comprehensive new energy policy. Loosely translates to "Buy gas for the two SUV's and the F-150, but consider holding off on the lawnmower for a week."

4. "You're doin' a great job, Brownie." Landmark FEMA response demonstrates ideal background for chief executive is coddling rich horsebreeders. May want to next put Mike Brown in charge of Social Security Administration, to pump up argument on urgent need for reform.

5. Validates Bush environmental policies. If the globe were being warmed, it would dry us out, right? All that hubbub, and the stupid liberals haven't said a word about Global Wetting. Hah!

6. No shoes amid the chaos, but new slippers for Condi. While survivors fried their feet on the asphalt of New Orleans waiting for Federal help, Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice shopped at Ferragamo in Manhattan. Those poor people in New Orleans should have gone to Stanford.

7. $500 million more for Kellogg, Brown & Root. Halliburton subsidiary gets to begin collecting on natural disaster cleanup contract it "won" (tee-hee) from the Naval Department. May even do some work for the money.

8. Another happy AWOL moment for Barbara and Jenna. Bush daughters, who have chosen to express support for their father's noble Iraq War from afar, were again MIA. Good example for young people of America, who shouldn't let messy compassion get in the way of profit motive.

10. Underlines depth of commitment to Iraq. While thousands of conservative Christians prayed for help on the Gulf Coast, their Christian-committed administration was spending more money and attention on propping up Shiite-dominated conservative Islamic government in Baghdad. Important for insurgents to see we will not let the suffering of Americans at home get in the way of spending American resources to keep fighting them.

I know it's old news, but I finally heard Barbara Bush's babbling from the Astrodome. And it's official...Boy George is a S.O.B...

HEY!!! Is www.congress.org down??? I can't get to it (and I need to to get addresses...). Can someone else try and let me know here or in the IRC? Thanks.

'Katrinagate' fury spreads
06/09/2005 17:59

Washington - "For God's sake, are you blind?," a woman shouts at the head of the federal emergency management agency (FEMA), Michael Brown.

"You're patting each other on the back, while people here are dying."

The woman is not a victim of Hurricane Katrina. She is a reporter with US television network MSNBC who is so affected by the misery she has witnessed she can hold back no longer.

"Katrinagate" is the term being used by the media to describe the biggest challenge facing the political establishment in the US since the Watergate affair in the 1970s toppled Richard Nixon.

Not for decades has there been such merciless questioning of the president and his administration by the US media.

Even now, as the rescue operation gets underway in earnest and the flood waters in New Orleans are starting to subside, the federal government's inadequate reaction - in the run-up to the hurricane and directly afterwards - is still being criticized by the media in reports which are anything but detached.

Never before, say some observers, have US reporters been so emotionally involved in a story to the point of being enraged.

They are not just telling a story, they have become part of it.

"Has Katrina saved the US media,?" asked BBC reporter Matt Wells who sees the shift in tone as a potentially historic development.

A number of US journalists who cover federal politics, especially television presenters, had become part of the political establishment, says Wells.

"They live in the same suburbs, go to the same parties. Their television companies are owned by large conglomerates who contribute to election campaigns."

It's a "perfect recipe" for fearful, self-censoring reportage, he says, but thinks "since last week, that's all over".

The 'Big One'

But if the Bush administration's reaction to Hurricane Katrina was slow, so too was the media's.

On Friday, reporters at the scene were still having difficulties establishing the scale of the disaster and the number of dead.

Used to reporting on comparatively harmless storms, heroically riding out the storms with windblown hairdos, they were then confronted with the "Big One".

The television reporters, particularly, were left scrambling in the first few hours of coverage as they tried to comprehend the scale of the disaster.

Then came the emotion. A CNN reporter broke down as she described the cries of help of people stuck on rooftops in Louisiana.

Other journalists also related what they saw in broken voices.

Then the federal officials rolled into town and the press conferences started, with politicians thanking one another for their tireless efforts.

Next came anger. "This isn't Iraq, this isn't Somalia, this is our home," one NBC television reporter shouted.

The usually stoic ABC television presenter Ted Koeppel lashed out at FEMA head Brown in a interview, when he could not give any details on the number of refugees waiting to be rescued from the Convention Centre.

"Don't you people ever look at television?," the veteran presenter raged.

"Don't you ever hear the radio? We've been reporting on the crisis at the Convention Centre for a lot longer than just today."

Supplies

A CNN journalist also attacked Brown. "How it is possible that we have better information than you? Why aren't supplies being dropped in (by plane).

"In Banda Aceh, in Indonesia, they did it two days after the tsunami."

Another CNN reporter interrupted senator Mary Landrieu during an interview in which she was praising congress for passing an emergency aid package.

"Excuse me senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard anything about that, because I was busy these past four days seeing dead people on the street.

"And when I hear how one politician congratulating the others...Yesterday there was a corpse on the street which had been eaten by rats because it had been there for 48 hours."

If the alarm bells are not already going off in the Oval Office, they should be, because the previously staunchly pro-Bush Fox News is also starting to show signs of disaffection.

As one of their reporters was being directed to another area because of the danger caused by looting, he spoke quickly into his microphone, saying: "These people are desperate.

"Why shouldn't they try to steal water and food from us?"

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Hurricane_Katrina/0,,2-10-1942_1766111,00.html

Posted by: madame defarge at September 6, 2005 03:43 PM

Never mind... Got to congress.org. The SS haven't found me yet... Whew.

OK, here's my tip of the day RE: Supreme Court Chief Justice... Please let me know if it makes sense.

We should all write to all members of the Judiciary Committee as well as our own senators to demand that they do not start the judiciary hearings for Roberts until they get all the missing papers and until they have the names of the nominees the president is going to submit for O'Conner's opening.

No Papers
No Names
No Hearing

And if they don't agree, add to that...
No Vote/Support from us in their next election

Is this the right thing to do? Or am I going crazy? (Be careful how you answer that...)

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=sjudi

I'm witcha, madame... but you know there will be just a lot of hot air and meaningless fluff and legalese, and they will just go with the flow, choosing to fight another battle another day... which we've yet to see.

Today's theme song for Dem's in both houses,

"Roll Over Beethoven"

Posted by: monkey at September 6, 2005 04:16 PM

Maybe so, monkey, but I'm not going down without a fight. They need to remember that they're our employees.

What was that line from Bill Cosby..."I brought you into this world and I can take you out of this world and I can make another one just like you..."

reach for barf bag-just got this email
Don't Blame Bush for Katrina
Christopher Ruddy
Monday, Sept. 5, 2005

George Bush and the federal government are not to blame for the disaster we have witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, the primary responsibility for the disaster response lies with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other local officials.

Yet leading Democrats and their allies in the major media are clearly using this disaster for political purposes and ignoring one obvious fact.

This fact – which needs to be repeated and remembered – is that in our country, state and local governments have primary responsibility in dealing with local disasters.

The founding fathers devised a federal system of government – one that has served us remarkably well through great disasters that have befallen America over more than two centuries.

But if we believe the major TV networks, George Bush, FEMA and the Republicans in Congress are all to blame for the current nightmare.

Let's remember that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was created only in 1979. It was formed to coordinate and focus federal response to major disasters – to "assist" local and state governments.

Common sense suggests that local and state governments are best able to prepare and plan for local disasters.

Is a Washington bureaucrat better suited to prepare for an earthquake in San Francisco, a hurricane in Florida, or a terrorist act in New York?

After the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center, no one suggested that the Bush administration should have been responsible for New York's disaster response or that federal agents should have been involved in the rescue of those trapped in the buildings.

Last year, four major hurricanes slammed into Florida. Governor Jeb Bush led the disaster response and did a remarkable job, with nothing happening like what we have seen in New Orleans.

The primary response in disasters has always come from local communities and state governments.

First responders and the manpower to deal with emergencies come from local communities: police, fire and medical. Under our federal system, these local departments answer to local authorities, not those in Washington. These first responders are not even under federal control, nor do they have to follow federal orders.

In addition to local responders, every state in the Union has a National Guard.

State National Guards answer first to the governor of each state, not to the president. The National Guard exists not to defend one state from an invasion by another state, but primarily for emergencies like the one we have witnessed in New Orleans and in other areas impacted by Katrina. (See: http://www.arng.army.mil/about_us/organization/command_structure.asp)

Tim Russert and the Blame Game

The media would have you believe that this disaster was worsened by a slow response from President Bush and his administration, though the primary responsibility for disaster response has always been with local and state governments.

It is true that federal response was not as fast as it could have been. The president himself has acknowledged that fact.

But the press has focused on the first 48 hours of federal response, not uttering a word about the fact that New Orleans had 48 hours of warning that a major Category 4 or 5 would make landfall near the city, yet local officials apparently did little to prepare.

Obviously, Gov. Blanco did not effectively deploy her state's National Guard.

And New Orleans' city leaders did almost nothing to evacuate the portion of the population with no transportation. In failing to follow their own evacuation plan, these officials did little to pre-position food, water and personnel to deal with the aftermath.

I was surprised Sunday to watch Tim Russert, on his show "Meet the Press," tear into Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. During his encounter with Chertoff, Russert did not suggest once that local government had any role in dealing with the disaster. Russert also asked for Chertoff's resignation.

It wasn't until after the first 29 minutes of his show – 29 minutes – that Russert raised the question of local responsibility. And when he did so with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, he did so in a passing way. Broussard brushed off his question with a non-answer.

Broussard began his interview claiming that the nation had "abandoned" New Orleans.

That is nonsense and a lie.

Broussard, who was never identified by "Meet the Press" as a Democrat, spent much of his time attacking the Bush administration, as has Democratic New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Broussard then ended his performance as he collapsed in tears with a demand: "For God's sake, just shut up and send us the money!"

His tears didn't wash with me. My sympathies lie with the tens of thousands of people who have suffered or died because local officials like Broussard, Mayor Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco, also a Democrat, failed monumentally at their jobs.

As former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial told Russert, the disaster in New Orleans was "foreseeable."

In fact, New Orleans has long known that such a disaster could take place if a major hurricane hit the city.

The municipality even prepared its own "City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan."

The plan makes it evident that New Orleans knew that evacuation of the civilian population was the primary responsibility of the city – not the federal government.

The city plan acknowledges its responsibility in the document:

As established by the City of New Orleans Charter, the government has jurisdiction and responsibility in disaster response. City government shall coordinate its efforts through the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

The city document also makes clear that decisions involving a proper and orderly evacuation lie with the governor, mayor and local authorities. Nowhere is the president or federal government even mentioned:

The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

It is clear the city also recognized that it would need to move large portions of its population, and it would need to prepare for such an eventuality:

The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Those evacuated will be directed to temporary sheltering and feeding facilities as needed. When specific routes of progress are required, evacuees will be directed to those routes. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed. ...

Evacuation procedures for small scale and localized evacuations are conducted per the SOPs of the New Orleans Fire Department and the New Orleans Police Department. However, due to the sheer size and number of persons to be evacuated, should a major tropical weather system or other catastrophic event threaten or impact the area, specifically directed long range planning and coordination of resources and responsibilities efforts must be undertaken. [You can read New Orleans' Emergency Plan for hurricanes at its Web site: http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26]

The city's plan also specifically called for the use of city-owned buses and school buses to evacuate the population. These were apparently never deployed, though the Parish of Plaquemines just south of the city evacuated its population using school buses.

The plan, written well before Katrina was even a teardrop in God's eye, was obviously never heeded or implemented by local leaders.

But why should the New Orleans mayor and Governor Blanco take responsibility when they can blame George Bush and the Republicans in Washington?

With congressional elections fast approaching, Democrats who are out of power in every branch of the federal government know they need to change the tide quickly.

They have apparently seized on the Katrina disaster to harm the president politically.

Criticism of the federal government's response is fair and warranted. But putting full responsibility for this disaster on the Bush administration is way over the top.

Primary responsibility for this disaster remains with local officials like Nagin and Blanco, not President Bush.

THE WHITE HOUSE
UNDER WATER
by David Remnick

The New Yorker
Issue of 2005-09-12

One of the creepier vanities of most political leaders is the private yearning to be tested on a historical scale. Bill Clinton used to confide that, no matter what else he did as President, without a major war to fight he could never join the ranks of Lincoln and F.D.R. During the Presidential debates in 2000, George W. Bush informed his opponent, Al Gore, that natural catastrophes are “a time to test your mettle.” Bush had seen his father falter after a hurricane in South Florida. But now he has done far worse. Over five days last week, from the onset of the hurricane on the Gulf Coast on Monday morning to his belated visit to the region on Friday, Bush’s mettle was tested—and he failed in almost every respect.

Obviously, a hurricane is beyond human blame, and the political miscalculations that have come to light—the negligent planning, the delayed rescue and aid efforts, the thoroughly confused and uninspired political leadership—cannot all be laid at the feet of President Bush. But you could sense, watching him being interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America”—defensive, confused, overwhelmed—that he knew that he had delivered a series of feeble, vague, almost flippant speeches in the early days of the crisis, and that the only way to prevent further political damage was to inoculate himself with the inevitable call for non-partisanship: “I hope people don’t play politics during this period of time.”

More... http://www.newyorker.com/printables/talk/050912ta_talk_remnick

Posted by: mkh at September 6, 2005 04:22 PM

Maybe somebody should send Christopher Ruddy a copy of the National Response Plan that Bush signed into action last December, and see who is responsible for what.

Furthermore, if I hear one more ignorant prick reference WTC or Florida again in comparison to Katrina, I will drop them like a two foot putt.

In all of those cases, getting emergency personnel to the scene was fairly easy, because, TADA! THERE WAS NO WATER!

Every aspect of the article by Ruddy is Rubbish, and he should be called on it... but this isn't the time for politicizing, or so I'm told.

I live in Florida, I endured all those hurricanes last year, I know that FEMA was EVERYWHERE. You couldn't turn on the news (on battery powered tv) without seeing large numbers of those dark blue jackets with FEMA in yellow letters on the back.

I have yet to see one yet in all the coverage so far.

Look at the National Response Plan, Rubbish. Your propaganda holds no water.

p.s. Where's Jeb during all this? Why, he was enjoying the Florida State - Miami game last night.

1. W plays air guitar during crisis
2. Babs puts foot in own Quaker Oats face
3. Pappy says media picking on Poor Georgie
4. Jeb at the football game
5. Barbara & Jenna nowhere to be found (probably holed up in the Quarter, playing quarters with free booze!)
6. Condi... buying shoes
7. Dick in Wyoming, being dick.
8. Chertoff just found out Reagan died.
9. Horse show judge trots out FEMA response

Sorry Ruddy-faced spinmeister. Blame for the disaster lies ALMOST ENTIRELY on the nutjob that chose to fund a bad war and tax cuts for his fat cat contributors rather than repair/bolstering of the levees.

The blood of the New Orleans dead is on Dubya's hands. May God have mercy on his miserable soul.

What I don't get is how the republican spin machine is even able to defend this administration for its Katrina emergency inaction, not in the "how dare they sense", but literally in the "how they can even find people still willing to defend them? spin for them? lie for them?" sense.

What is going on in our culture when people will actually work in overdrive to make excuses and lies for the terrible treatment of our own fellow citizens, our brethren, in the Gulf? Isn't there a line over which most people won't go? Is there a number of deaths people are unwilling to simply let go? What about 1,889, the number of US troops (0fficially) killed in Iraq? What about 25,000 or so, the number of civilians we think may have been killed in Iraq (no one is officially counting).

Will they count in New Orleans?

Here in IL, we are expecting the Cindy bus today and several of our good folks are meeting it. Others working through our Townships are collecting childrens items to be sent to Mississippi. Others are preparing with the Governors office for Illinois arrivals of evacuated US citizens from the affected areas. We have heard rumors flying around that only red states are helping the afflicted, but that is simply not true.

Here is a first-person account from 2 EMT's from California who were in NO for the EMT conference:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sfsocialists/3687.html

an amazing story

Posted by: Ellen Beth at September 6, 2005 05:18 PM

Evidently, there are people in this country so utterly brainwashed, or just plain twisted, that they apparently can.

Bush is now offically beyond incompetent. His Administration is now responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent American civilians. If they had any stones at all, they would resign en masse. But they have no shame. Dubya's just doing in the White House what he did everywhere else.

We have heard rumors flying around that only red states are helping the afflicted, but that is simply not true.

Posted by: Ellen Beth at September 6, 2005 05:18 PM

Well, DC voted 90-plus % for JK and we have 600 arriving any minute...

As of yesterday...

Texas is housing over 215,000 survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

A friend is working on a benefit for the Gulf Coast...

"No Moon Over Bourbon Street"

To be held in Austin.

New Orleans voted 78% for Kerry...and this is political payback as well as Racial Cleansing...

Add that to the list of crimes for the Haig.

Bush Administration Policy:

Destroy all dissent at all cost.

Posted by: dwahzon at September 6, 2005 05:22 PM

I'm really ticked off after reading that article!

I'm hearing of EMPTY busses returning back to MI. And what is the truth of why? Spin or reality? I don't know what to think!

For once and for all can we PLEASE DROP THE COLOR CODING!?!?!?!?!

We have no "red" states...and there are no "blue" states there is only America and we are all...each and every one Americans!!!

It is a suck a$$ crying f*#king shame that it takes something like Katrina to force everyone and their Dog Damn special interests and greed to get along!!!

Geezus H. Freakin' *****!

Jazz and the Blues came from New Orleans...our art, our food, our culture and our ability to yearly throw the world's biggest party and one of the largest and best musical festivals in the world seem to enchant and enrage...but chances are those enraged have been seen dining in our restaurants and drinking in our bars...(and even sleeping in our hotels with those they probably should not) but in New Orleans...

What happens in the Quarters...stays in the Quarters.

Live and let live. Let the Good Times Roll.

Lagniappe...meaning "A little something extra"

This is the result of the melding of all cultures of the world for over two centuries.

Learn a little somthin' from the People of New Orleans and try to get along...

It may just change the world.

Posted by: sparrow at September 6, 2005 05:51 PM

Yesterday on the drive home we lost count of empty busses driving home...but in New Orleans, the city is using public transit buses to transport people.

Also witnessed were 5 divisional convoys and one mother of them all Batallion convoy, most in desert camo paint headed TO New Orleans.

Evidently Tim Russert said what he really thinks on Don Imus' show this morning...

here's the audio link...

http://wfan.com/imusinstantreplay

Here's a few notes from a dkos poster on what Tim said...

I was spellbound, listening to Russert

He tore apart Bush for claiming we didn't anticipate this: "Who is advising him?" He noted the Hurricane Pam similution that predicted a levee breach.

He called Chertoff out for claiming that he heard about the levees breaking Tues. afternoon, noting that the Times-Picayune had that news up Monday.

He slammed the Feds about not knowing about the Convention Center.

He asked repeatedly why, four years after 9/11, we were so woefully unprepared for this disaster. He wondered what was going on the past 4 years.

Imus wondered if racism was involved. Russert wasn't sure and just thought it was pure incompetence. (Memo to White House: when MSM is debating whether your failures were due to racism or incompetence, no spin will save you).

Russert said that the primary responsibility of the government was to protect its people. He said that this administration promised to keep us safe and that four years after 9/11, it appeared our first responders still couldn't talk to one another and communicate effectively to reach people. He also said that he thought that Chertoff's excuses on Meet the Press on Sunday were weak because he thought that the American people were perfectly capable of questioning the response and the government AND conducting relief/rescue operations. That we HAD to question this government on their slow response. Also, he totally made the parallel between the failure of finding WMD in Iraq and how the administration tried to claim that we couldn't fight the war and criticize what the government had initially told us, just as they now want to deflect/avoid any criticisim/questioning of the relief effort. He said that privately, he's being told the death toll will be astronomical.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/6/10841/71388

And here's a link to a transcript of the conversation that another kos poster made

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/9/6/10841/71388/247#247

Additional lengthy analysis of the National Response Plan and its application to Katrina with many external links by dailykos poster georgia10

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/225729/7487

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