Katrina's POLITICAL aftermath (keep the political discussions HERE)

Climate Instability + Current Political Situation = Ruin

However, if someone wants to add to this thread later, they can just search "Katrina" in ILE search, whereas the former thread isn't as obvious in searching regards.

In the event of a slow-moving Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane (with winds up to or exceeding 155 miles per hour), it's possible that only those crow's nests would remain above the water level. Such a storm, plowing over the lake, could generate a 20-foot surge that would easily overwhelm the levees of New Orleans, which only protect against a hybrid Category 2 or Category 3 storm (with winds up to about 110 miles per hour and a storm surge up to 12 feet). Soon the geographical "bowl" of the Crescent City would fill up with the waters of the lake, leaving those unable to evacuate with little option but to cluster on rooftops -- terrain they would have to share with hungry rats, fire ants, nutria, snakes, and perhaps alligators. The water itself would become a festering stew of sewage, gasoline, refinery chemicals, and debris.

Well, no, it's not... but the question is a big "how?" Gross incompetence, sadly, isn't really an impeachable offence unless he starts naming his horses as secretaries.

The Congressional Elections will maybe chip away at the Republicans' majority (particularly in the House), but the Democrats are lame ducks at this point. No policy focus, no ideas, no unifying rallying cries. they're fucked. we're fucked. the only people that aren't fucked are DubyaCo.

you're an asshole. i mean i dont like him either, but come on.

xpost :D

I love Cafferty; he is really a breath of fresh air for cable news.

-- JD from CDepot (kicksjoydarknes...), September 1st, 2005 1:22 PM.

btw any athenians reading this thread (WHAT UP EMILY) trying to find a gas station in georgia athens that still has gas, bulldog square on baldwin across from blindpig (where i works) still has some. we're rationing though so don't be dragging some emptied out septic think behind you thinking you got a plan. if you drop by don't say hi to me cuz i can't stand to talk to motherfuckers at work, say hi to me at indierock karaoke tomorrow night. also, funny story: today georgia looked like a zombie movie done slapstick - gaslines longer than ANY i can remember and i can remember the carter administration, people panicking like crazy, wild rumours spreading around, shit hitting the fan minus any real tragedy. crowded store, long line of people waiting to prepay for gas, asshole republican asks 'what's the deal with the gas line?' and i say 'there's talk of a gas shortage, and people are freaking out a bit' and asshole lets out this one asshole scoffing chuckle and then says (and note this motherfucker is trying to have a fucking conversation for some fucking reason and holding up the line) 'there aren't going to be any gas shortages, no stores are gonna run out of gas mark my words. gov. perdue won't let it happen. PRESIDENT BUSH (his emphasis) won't let it happen.' and then some dude in line piped up 'that motherfucker better hope he get's impeached before someone assassinates his ass' and EVERYBODY laffed cept ralph reeder dude. and then he FINALLY took his change and left. god bless america.
-- j blount (jamesbloun...), September 1st, 2005 12:27 AM. (papa la bas)

VOODOO

bbbbut what if they increase dem numbers in texas and mississippi?!?

i heard that. i'll forgive him if he meant to say "the crowd is uniformly poor and black to such a great extent" etc instead of saying "wow these black people are really black," which unfortunately is how it sounds.

neither has a Dem Gov or Senator. LA has both, and voted for Clinton twice.

http://www.alternet.org/story/19992/

specifically in new orleans, i mean to say.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2005/08/hurricane-exit-strategy-at-some-point.html

yeah but ms. didn't have gop gov until recently.

It may be hard to speculate about alternate outcomes but there's obviously a huge difference in philosophy between the two. The Bush administration quite clearly doesn't believe that the federal government has any role in preparing for or preventing these types of disasters and judging by Hastert's comments posted on the other thread I don't think they believe the federal government should have much of a role in rebuilding either. Unfortunately I don't think most American's will recognize this difference in philosophy or know about the dismantling of FEMA.

I don't think you can underestimate the importance of appearances either. The response of a real leader both before and after a disaster may not directly save any lives but the impact of a strong leader can be very important. See the comparison to Giuliani mentioned upthread. Saying Kerry would have been "more slick" makes it sound like the appearance of strong leadership is a negative.

Well, a lot of southern states voted for Clinton twice though. That doesn't say much. Having both a dem gov and senator says a lot more.. but from what I recall, the dem/repub split in Louisiana is pretty tight. I hope i'm wrong.

Perhaps he's thinking of making an answer track to Outkast's "So Fresh, So Clean"?

Maybe he was recalling his favorite forgotten rap duo 2 Black 2 Strong, but said it wrong.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

House Speaker: Rebuilding N.O. doesn't make sense
Thursday, 2:55 p.m.

By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert dropped a bombshell on flood-ravaged New Orleans on Thursday by suggesting that it isn’t sensible to rebuild the city.

"It doesn't make sense to me," Hastert told the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago in editions published today. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask."

Hastert's comments came as Congress cut short its summer recess and raced back to Washington to take up an emergency aid package expected to be $10 billion or more. Details of the legislation are still emerging, but it is expected to target critical items such as buses to evacuate the city, reinforcing existing flood protection and providing food and shelter for a growing population of refugees.

The Illinois Republican’s comments drew an immediate rebuke from Louisiana officials.

“That’s like saying we should shut down Los Angeles because it’s built in an earthquake zone,” former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., said. “Or like saying that after the Great Chicago fire of 1871, the U.S. government should have just abandoned the city.”

Hastert said that he supports an emergency bailout, but raised questions about a long-term rebuilding effort. As the most powerful voice in the Republican-controlled House, Hastert is in a position to block any legislation that he opposes.

"We help replace, we help relieve disaster," Hastert said. "But I think federal insurance and everything that goes along with it... we ought to take a second look at that."

The speaker’s comments were in stark contrast to those delivered by President Bush during an appearance this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I want the people of New Orleans to know that after rescuing them and stabilizing the situation, there will be plans in place to help this great city get back on its feet,” Bush said. “There is no doubt in my mind that New Orleans is going to rise up again as a great city.”

Insurance industry executives estimated that claims from the storm could range up to $19 billion. Rebuilding the city, which is more than 80 percent submerged, could cost tens of billions of dollars more, experts projected.

Hastert questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city below sea level that will continue to be in the path of powerful hurricanes.

"You know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake issures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness," he said.

Hastert wasn't the only one questioning the rebuilding of New Orleans. The Waterbury, Conn., Republican-American newspaper wrote an editorial Wednesday entitled, "Is New Orleans worth reclaiming?"

"Americans' hearts go out to the people in Katrina's path," it said. "But if the people of New Orleans and other low-lying areas insist on living in harm's way, they ought to accept responsibility for what happens to them and their property."

(... and if anyone's busy shooting elected officials....)

Randi Rhodes is on a tear. She just said that the White House should call CNN and MSNBC's producers because clearly they're able to get there, so maybe Bush should ask them how to do it.

CLASS CARDS & DISASTER [Jonah Goldberg]

Several readers complain that it's in fact true that the hurricane will disproportionately affect poor people. I don't really dispute that in the sense most mean it. Yes, the poor will have special hardships. Obviously so. But what I objected to, and still object to, is the reflexive playing of the class card. Is it really true that some middle class retirees who heeded the advice of the government to leave town, only to watch their homes be looted after a lifetime of hardwork for a better life are suffering less than a poor person who lost his rented apartment? What's the metric for measuring this sort of suffering? What about the small businessman who worked his entire life to build something he's proud of? What about the families who lost loved ones, but had the poor taste to make more money than the poverty line?

Whatever happened to the idea that unity in the face of a calamity is an important value? We're all in it together, I guess, except for the poor who are extra-special.

this is something:

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453615.183333333.html

9/1/2005
The Empty Vessel as President:
Here's the Rude Pundit's fuckin' amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Fuck all yer anti-choice, save the flag bullshit amendments. Here it goes: No motherfucker who became wealthy due to inheritance is allowed to be President. No pampered pukes who get their hands dirty only as a lark. No asshole socially-connected cocksuckers who own three, four homes, fuck, no one who owns a huge fuckin' house they call a "vacation home." Sure, sure, we may have to sacrifice a Kennedy or two along the way, but, shit, and c'mon, between George Bush I's golfing during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (which was a double fuck-up because not only was he allegedly the President, but he was in the middle of a campaign to do it again) and now George Bush II's, well, fuck, golfing and goofin' on the guitar when a million of his citizens are displaced and over half of them are fucked for good, we can sacrifice a potential liberal or two to ensure that there's never a President Jenna.

For there he was, our goddamned President, standing there in the picturesque Rose Garden, surrounded, like Al Capone with his capos, by his cabinet, as if to say, "Don't worry - you won't have to rely on me." Having been pried away from his "working vacation" like a meth addict from an iodine factory, Bush appeared irritated that he had to talk to us last night. He smirked, he gave a campaign-like laundry list of shit heading to New Orleans and elsewhere, he told us what we already fuckin' knew from CNNMSNBCFox: that Hurricane Katrina was major, that his "folks" around him were ready to do their jobs, but, hell, at least he didn't mention how jim-fuckin-dandy Iraq is...

and he goes on for about 600+ more words. Fun vitriol.

I don't know about a lot. there's Arkansas (for obvious reasons, though they probably apply in LA as well), Tennessee (perhaps for same), Kentucky (Tennessee may apply here), and West Virginia (which went for Dukakis).

I was thinking that thread would be for more macro-level discussions about disasters, climate change, etc. More long-term stuff than Katrina politics.

maybe people really are just taking food and water, and the whole thing is another right-wing straw man. This whole "spectacle" is racist in its conception. You know when they are talking about "poor", they really mean "black" etc.

Living in Chicago, we don't see as much of this racial pornography on the news anymore, but I'm really having a flashback to the eighties with all this talk of poor black people walking around with plasma tvs or whatever (as if those are even useful when everything is covered with water and there's no electricity). Then there are always paid provocateurs (oh never mind...)

Let's see some pictures and specifics. Otherwise, I'll have to assume this is another right-wing fiction (isn't this trick getting a little old)?

for the hard of thinking UK readers, like me: it's an area the size of britain that's been devastated.

Or was the whole thing just a photo op?

i'm kinda reminded of the ep of Reno 911 where Junior drives the jewish kid to his first asian whorehouse

I wouldn't be so pessimistic about that - most people don't know that stuff because they don't need to. When the need arises, people can be amazingly adaptive.

Let's see some pictures and specifics. Otherwise, I'll have to assume this is another right-wing fiction (isn't this trick getting a little old)?

i'm not right-wing by any means, and i'm disgusted by the way things are being handled at the moment, but i did see a few news clips and hear a few confirmed reports of looters taking expensive, non-essential goods. maybe that's just the typical alarmism of cable news making mountains out of molehills, but i'm not making it up.

Like I said on the other thread, these are the people whose ideological role model, Grover Norquist has been quoted as saying that he wants to shrink the federal government down until it can be drowned in a bathtub. The administration's lack of action is not an accident or the result of poor planning or organization. The lack of a response is an accurate reflection of how Republicans view the role of the federal government.

yeah, i thought about putting it in the not-quite category with missouri, but politically it really aligns these days with other middle and southern appalachian states, coal country notwithstanding. what makes kentucky southern (if it is) and wv not?

(sorry to be off-topic)

http://corner.nationalreview.com

I read it daily because, generally speaking, it is so fucked in the head AND YET these are people who defend, are read by, talk with etc. White House folks. Ergo it's important to track these fools.

(Goldberg is in fact Jewish BTW.)

--

And a quick addition to say that over there Dreher just posted this:

GUY HAS A POINT [Rod Dreher]
From an Associated Press dispatch, bad news for the president from a grassroots political analysis:

An old man in a chaise longue lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered with a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet.

"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he pointed at the woman in the wheelchair. "I buried my dog." He added: "You can do everything for other countries but you can't do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military but you can't get them down here."

Its my understanding that even prior to this disaster NO had the most corrupt police force in the country, so I think you can take it for granted that "helping themselves" was par for the course for the NOPD. Footage I saw was also accompanied by a newscaster saying the cops had publicly stated they had given up trying to stop looting.

otm. the cops ARE the poor people.

as for looting, it strieks me that the looting per se isnt really a pressing issue, so much as the reported violence that is accompanying it.

wv seceded from va whereas we were just wishy-washy.

xpost guys my stepmom's niece's husband is a nola cop. but he'd probably agree with y'all about the corruption on the force.

Arthur Silber's been writing a lot lately on the kind of mindset of the folks in power.

Atrios asks: “Haven’t they done fucking anything in 4 years?”

The answer must be in two parts. Yes, they’ve done a great deal: they’ve consolidated their own power, they’ve demonized all their opponents and smeared them as “unpatriotic” and “anti-American,” and they’ve almost completely neutered the media so that the administration is never seriously questioned by anyone, even by those whose job it is to question them.

But in terms of protecting Americans from a terrorist attack or the aftermath of a natural disaster: no, they haven’t done a fucking thing. They never intended to...

same here. and the reported rapes. that's sickening.

"the Land of Do What Thou Wilt"?

that sounds awesome.

The full answer to your question, to be blunt, is: we don't fucking know! I'm sure the government themselves (or most of it) don't know why things are just not panning out the way they are expected to pan out, as far as recovery efforts. This is a first-time thing for the U.S. in many ways.

Yes, it's incredibly awful and embarrassing... and cruel.

I'm not sure where this comes from but...

"CNN just reporting that Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (of California which as a reminder is not a Gulf State) has been leading the charge to get Congress back to Washington, DC for an emergency session. Meanwhile, House Speaker Dennis Hastert has resisted, responding that Congress is already scheduled to reconvene next Tuesday and many Congressmen have important work (fund-raising of their own, not for victims) in their districts that can not be dropped on a moment's notice. Bear in mind that Hastert DID bring the House back from vacation for a special session on a Sunday night to address Terri Schiavo's feeding-tube issue."

xpost Jesus. What a fucking douche Hastert is.

words fail me.

What really concerns me is that there's no real angle for Bush here -- he has nothing really to gain by inaction. In fact, with the Gulf's oil production, he has a lot to lose. You'd think that even for the oil they'd move into gear. The fact that they didn't seems to indicate that they're both hamstrung by earlier poor decisions (FEMA funding), and by sheer incompetence.

Someone earlier pointed out that Bush said "no-one could forsee the levees breaking". Well this is a board of internet mentalists, and we foresaw it. There have been predictions of "this will be worse than Camille" since Saturday. Why weren't troops mobilised then?

Medics talk about the "golden 72 hours" to save people after a disaster. That time is now up, and thousands or hundreds of thousands are still trapped. With no water. In the richest nation on Earth. Why has this happened?

of course, this will not happen.

Know what? FUCK OFF, SMUGLY ANCHORGUY.

Bush Bypasses Senate to Install Official

"Bush used a "recess appointment" Wednesday to name Alice S. Fisher to lead the agency's criminal division. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo."

its made doubly hard by the fact that reporting in the uk seems so muted (NB I DONT have a TV, so this is skewed). this is a humanitarian disaster, and it seems unprecedented in what it represents. reading of the dying in the streets, the dead bodies. i dont even know what i would think if i read about that happening in the UK, its juts unbelievable. why dont i feel so strongly when worse (eg in terms of loss of life) disasters hit other more impoverished countries? well thats the point isnt it. Q: is louisiana so far from the gaze of gov. power that it migth as well be another country?

Of these three, I feel comparatively lucky to live with the threat of the one prospective disaster that is entirely independent of human action. Global warming = more hurricanes. Dumb foreign policy = more terrorists. But earthquakes, they just happen whenever they want...

Given last week's brouhaha involving him, Hurting, I'd have to say I'd find prioritizing him a *little* strange. Second on the list? Above folks like the Salvation Army?

The thing that is oddly NOT being mentioned at all, as far as human disasters go, is the eventual pandemic. What are doing about that, exactly? "Pandemic? Is that when there's an epidemic of pandas??? OMG!!"

"Next week will be the Senate’s opportunity to address this crisis, and I write to you today to ask that you permit the Senate to do just that. As you know, the current Senate agenda calls for us to consider motions to proceed to estate tax legislation and other issues when we return to session next Tuesday. Given the tragic and devastating events along the Gulf Coast, members of the Senate would have great difficulty explaining why we were debating the estate tax during our first days back when we know hundreds of thousands of families are suffering.

I urge you to take the estate tax and these other items off the table, so that Senators and the resources of the Senate can immediately be focused when where they belong when we return -- on the recovery effort. There can be no more important challenge facing our country in the days ahead than getting relief to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and the agenda of the United States Senate should reflect that priority."

-- gabbneb (gabbne...), September 1st, 2005.

http://www.ob.org/

I dunno, judge for yourself. It appears to be a pretty large-scale international charity. Is the list-placement a little suspect? Maybe. But hardly something to be up in arms about from the sound of it.

By Wesley Clark

...Again, just this past week, there was at least 36 hours notice that a major hurricane was going to hit the Gulf Coast, including likely a devastating blow to New Orleans, which certainly came to pass. The President continued with his regular schedule on Monday and Tuesday in California, Arizona, and Texas to hold some staged Medicare events and enjoy more vacation time, while finally returning to the White House yesterday. The joint task force including National Guard set up by the Pentagon failed to be on the scene in New Orleans in a timely manner to stop the looting and assist in the evacuation. Where is the leadership?

Then just this morning, the President claimed that no one could have anticipated the levee breaches we've seen in New Orleans after Katrina hit. That's not leadership, that's an excuse. In fact, people have predicted this kind of disaster for many years, including President Bush's own FEMA in 2001, when they ranked hurricane flood damage to New Orleans among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America. Instead, funding was significantly cut back, leaving key engineering projects on hold. Instead, this Administration focused on the war in Iraq, tax cuts, and private sector economic growth without asking the American people to make needed sacrifices for the good of the country. Again I ask you, where is the leadership?...

Oddly, the Red Cross and AmeriCares are NOT blocked. Judgment passed.

Donate Cash

American Red Cross
1-800-HELP NOW (435-7669) English,
1-800-257-7575 Spanish;

America’s Second Harvest
1-800-344-8070

Operation Blessing
1-800-436-6348

Donate Cash and/or Volunteer

Adventist Community Services
1-800-381-7171

B'nai B'rith International
1-888-388-4224

Catholic Charities, USA
1-800-919-9338

Christian Disaster Response
941-956-5183 or 941-551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
1-800-848-5818

Church World Service
1-800-297-1516

Convoy of Hope
417-823-8998

Corporation for National and Community Service Disaster Relief Fund
(202) 606-6718

Feed the Children
1-800-525-7575

Lutheran Disaster Response
800-638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
717-859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
888-256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
800-872-3283

Salvation Army
1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769)

Southern Baptist Convention -- Disaster Relief
1-800-462-8657, ext. 6440

United Jewish Communities
1-877-277-2477

Union for Reform Judaism

United Methodist Committee on Relief
1-800-554-8583

It just happens to be one of three charities that fall under "donate cash" only as opposed to "donate cash and/or volunteer." They are alphabetical, and it's third on the list.

Come on, bloggers!

If you had any doubts as to the evilness of Fred Phelps and his right-wing, anti-gay, anti-American "Christian" crusade, your doubts can be lifted. Here is what is posted on his site now:

THANK GOD FOR HURRICANE KATRINA!!!

THANK GOD FOR DEAD AMERICANS!

THANK GOD FOR HIS JUDGMENTS!

America worships at the fag altar and spits in God's face with every funeral they hold for these so called her soldiers. Is it any wonder that God has punished this vile nation with these losses?

It is no wonder that God has sent these great, unstoppable winds to sweep whole cities away like so much chaff. Just as it is no wonder that God sent the Muslim planes to destroy the World Trade Center, it is no wonder that the God who created the Earth and Seas (Genesis 1:9-10) could use them to destroy whole cities and unkown numbers of unrepentant sinners. Be thankful it wasn't BILLIONS, as it was in the days of Noah!

I'm not going to link to this. Fred Phelps, if you're reading: Eat a dick.

ROFFLE

knowing our fate is to be with them?

key sentences here: "As for the tragic piggism that is taking place on the streets of New Orleans, it is not unbelievable but it is unforgivable, and I hope the looters are shot. "

disgusting.

xpost: peggy noonan is so batshit, it makes sense that she's on the wsj's op-ed roster. they only let you in if you've passed the crazy conservative test.

No duh. It's almost heaven, jackasses.

re: Fox News only focusing on the looting; It's real easy to try to lessen the criticism on those who you're covering for if you continue to show the people in trouble as inhuman vandals. Why, they're animals! it's not so bad that our elected officials can't do shit to help! those people don't deserve it! we'd just be coddling them, and they'd never learn!

Anderson Cooper was so great just now on CNN. He laced into Sen. Mary Landrieu saying people who have witnessed the devastation don't want to hear politicans congratulating other politicians for how they've responded.

He was yelling, basically, "Don't you get it yet?" He mentioned seeing a woman's body on the ground being eaten by rats. Landrieu told Anderson she understood what he was saying and then thanked the President again.

and the comment:

I saw him too. He was so calling bullshit on the claim that officials "were doing all they can." He was fantastic. He interrupted Sen. Landrieu right in the middle of her atta-boys to virtually tell her "excuse me but you're all so full of shit. People are dying here and you're congratulating each other!?" It was fantastic!

vid is here, but as expected the servers there are overloaded.

yeah I posted on the other thread that apparently they've calculated for awhile that it was around 112,000 HOUSEHOLDS, which is at least double that number of people...224,000 PEOPLE left behind after evacuation. and yet they weren't prepared with provisions...crazy

what the fuck are you talking about? i'm saying that if the entire point of your news station existing is to blast RNC talking points 24/7, funny how convenient it is to tailor your coverage to how "disgraceful" those people in need are in an effort to deny any sympathy and thus lower the intensity of criticism.

will that actually happen? fuck, i dunno. will that stop them from trying? take a fucking guess.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5249797,00.html

Now, how legit is Operation Blessing? CharityNavigator.com, which rates charities, gives them four stars (their highest rating) across the board. They report giving fully 99.4% of their income to program expenses and trivial amounts to administration and fundraising.

On the other hand, Robertson has repeatedly been criticized for commingling his overseas charitable operations -- specifically, Operation Blessing -- with his personal for-profit ventures into precious metals and diamond extraction, particularly with some of your better-known human rights pariahs and genocidal dictators. Zaire's Mobutu with blood diamonds, Liberia's Charles Taylor with gold mines. He's well diversified.

So, on balance, you might say the picture is mixed.

I can't say I feel completely angry at Landrieu either - she's just handling it the way any politician would and the best she knows how, and she's probably pissed at the response too and can't say it. Nonetheless, AC said what everyone is thinking and it was about fucking time.

ILX in thinking that everyone else are hopless media dupes shockah!!!

chill the strawman shit. that's the reason i typed

"will that actually happen? fuck, i dunno.

I'm sure your research has been as extensive as your knowledge of the shady deals of Pat "Charity" Robertson. Most of the problems are actually caused by the unnatural changes in the geography in New Orleans.

And the theory is that global warming causes more frequent, and powerful, hurricanes, which has been the case for the last year.

But hey, fuck the scientists and the data, we need something...credible?

I'm just trying to keep things factual here, and yes, I need something more credible to explain how exactly global warming caused this particular storm which was a normal hurricane in a normal hurricane season.

I don't think that she needs to be thanking the goddam president on national television, but if anyone was expecting her to get all apeshit on federal and state agencies, you may need to have more patience than Anderson Cooper did.

But I think Anderson Cooper was really railing against all politicians here, not just Landrieu.

Hell, I'd be surprised if someone in the House didn't lobby for this at some point over the last 2 years. Any idea as to whether or not that can be found?

His phrase about the "can't-do government" gets at something important, I think. It's the same thing that struck me when I heard Bush was asking his dad and Bill C. to reprise their tsunami fundraising role -- the idea that government can't and won't do much of anything about anything. You don't have health insurance? Hey, set aside some of your earnings in a "medical savings account." You've been hit by a hurricane? Hey, we'd love to help but we're stretched kinda thin here...tell you what, my dad'll hold a bake sale, call up some of his rich friends.

It's all part of the conservative anti-gubmint boilerplate, of course. But this is the kind of thing that makes you think that maybe possibly you want people running the government who believe in the ability of government to act and react usefully, not just give vague, empty grinning assurances from a thousand miles away.

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

Too late you fucking flip-flopper!

The White House scrambled Thursday to defend itself against criticism that it has consistently proposed cutting the budget for Army Corps of Engineers water and flood control projects - including several that could have mitigated the disaster in New Orleans.

Just in February, President Bush proposed cutting the Corps' budget by 7 percent. The year before, Bush proposed a 13 percent cut....

Hurricane Katrina is expected to cause a spurt of bankruptcy filings by storm victims -- and sweeping changes in U.S. bankruptcy laws may leave them even more strapped than they otherwise might be.

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which takes effect October 17, includes a slew of rules and restrictions intended to curb abuse. These are expected to make it harder for individuals to file to keep creditors away, and more difficult for businesses to reorganize...

..."People who are seriously affected by this hurricane are not going to be able to file bankruptcy by October 17," said Henry Sommer, co-editor of "Collier on Bankruptcy," a leading reference work. "They have more pressing things in their lives, like survival."

yeah, there was a bit on crooksandliars.com about that within the last day.

also, Randi Rhodes reported today that some of the contractors working on teh levees were working for free for up to a year, but i can't find confirmation yet.

I guess Jefferson can expect a tongue-lashing from Anderson Cooper as well.

Presidents Chávez, Arbenz, Iraq, and the Big Easy
By Ron Smith

Posted on Thu Sep 1st, 2005 at 03:09:52 AM EST

It’s now fully 3 days since Katrina passed New Orleans, the city is now in a shambles, and now mainstream news, including BBC, presents the tired "it bleeds, it leads" philosophy in yellow journalism as they pretend to care about the tragedy facing the mostly poor, mostly black population of New Orleans. In the reporting, images are repeated of desperate black citizens taking necessities from stores and being castigated by the media as looters, while white citizens doing the same thing are represented as "just doing what they need to survive". Meanwhile, the latest tragedy of the Iraq quagmire goes unnoticed and unreported in all but the most raking of muckraking media (see counterpunch, 8/31). Meanwhile, capitalism presents itself in all its glory, as reports of retailers charging as much as 6 dollars a gallon pour in from all over the region, and the Bush Administration removes pollution requirements from gasoline producers (catalytic converters be damned!). But to get a real picture of the surreal nature of the current predicament, it's important to step back a bit, to the 1950's, and the US government's assassination of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, at the behest of the United Fruit Company...

(from 31 Aug 05)

Just look at these images, though, friends. Again, you know, the first day Haley Barbour came down here, he talked about scenes reminiscent of Hiroshima. Some people were concerned he may have been engaging in hyperbole. You know, I don‘t know what you call it when you walk through entire neighborhoods and there‘s not a single building left standing.

"To kick us down when we're down and destroy hope" is unnecessary, Blanco said.

Read the article again. Yes, Clinton and Carter both squeezed budgets for ALL Corp projects. No one gets the whole budget they would like. Here:

Other presidents also have taken aim at the Corps' budget. President Carters' first veto came against a big water projects bill passed by a Democratic-dominated Congress. And President Clinton squeezed the Corps budget as well. Doing so frees money for other White House priorities.

As compared to specific, gutting of a project by the Bush admin here:

Even though the administration has chronically cut back on the Corps of Engineers' own requests for funding - including two key New Orleans-area projects - White House officials trumpeted the administration's support for the Corps.

See the generic, "they messed with our budget" vs specific projects.

And notice how the article's information comes from a former Republican Congressman who has "battled" all the way back to Carter but only gives vague examples about Carter and Clinton. I'm sure Reagan and Daddy-Bush were more than happy to give out money for enviornmental bullshit, right?

This is what passes for fair and balanced reporting; if you dare criticize Dear Leader, make sure to toss in some "Clinton did it too!" stuff for the rubes.

--

If I may -- to all and sundry -- much of the reaction around this reminds me of four years ago in this sense: LOTS of axes are being reground, again. Those predisposed to certain conclusions have made them and in some cases are being incredibly vocal about it.

Personally I think Bush has handled the politics of this situation poorly. At the same time I'm not imagining he's supposed to be going around distributing food and water to everyone personally. But that said, one does wonder quite a bit about what he IS doing, asking after, etc. Frankly, my impressions are underwhelmed.

But it isn't just him -- it's a lot of different organizations, local, state, federal, government, non-government. It is quite obvious that the coordination needed has proven to be a dismal, wretched failure. The point is not to blame it on bureaucracy in and of itself, but on a situation that resulted from lack of care and expectations that things would handle themselves otherwise. Inured, I think, to the idea that Americans would somehow never act 'badly' in a dread situation -- that our purported exceptionalism means we are all somehow equally equipped and caring to help each other out 24/7 with a smile on our face (and the unstated expectation that that's all that's needed in order to help) -- many people are now confronting a different reality and either giving into bitterness (how many random calls of 'that's it, I'm buying a gun' have I read over these past few days? too many) or grasping at straws to score political points.

That said, I do not excuse Bush fully. The serious question I could and would ask Bush right now is this -- "Mr. President, you created a cabinet-level position to help protect against further attacks on this country and its citizens, part of the responsibility being to provide coordination in case of emergency from top to bottom among appropriate bodies. This disaster shows that no such coordination existed, or was and has continued to be handled wretchedly while our fellow citizens die. Why is this so, and why should anyone be assured that this situation could not repeat itself with another catastrophic natural or manmade disaster?"

Claims could be made that it is not Bush's responsibility to provide these answers. Well, frankly, bull -- because it is not Bush's responsibility per se but *the President's* -- and any President who found him or herself in this position, regardless of party or intent, would deserve the same question. On that level, Truman's brittle but pointed slogan of "The buck stops here" applies, fully.

otm. normally i think anderson cooper is a smarmy little prick but i was so proud of him for putting sen. landrieu in her place.

It broke my heart to go to the flood scene in Del Rio where a fellow and his family got completely uprooted. The only thing I knew was to got aid as quickly as possible with state and federal help, and to put my arms around the man and his family and cry with them. That's what governors do. They are often on the front line of catastrophic situations.

I guess it's a sign that I'm too tired/drunk when I thought for a second that an actual governor was posting here!

I'm sure you've noticed of late CNN getting rid of the pundit shows and moving to a hard news only format, right? I think the further they go towards that direction, the less likely you'll see them cater willingly to one side of the aisle or the other.

close paren.

Before the disaster:

- Not cut the funding to levee projects that were underway

- Not dismantle FEMA

- Provide busses to evacuate people who had no transportation

Now:

- Make sure the people who are stranded in NO have adequate food and water.

- Make complete evacuation of remaining refugees the top priority.

- Respond to the situation immediately by travelling to NO, finding some dry land somewhere to land and meet with the mayor, give a speech, talk about what steps are being taken, reassure people etc.

Those should have been some bare minimum no-brainer sort of steps.

My lord, the guy heading FEMA has no qualifications. What was he doing before getting pulled into FEMA by the Bush administration in 2003? He was an estate planning lawyer in Colorado and of counsel for the International Arabian Horse Association Legal Department. And yes, it is the same Michael D. Brown.

After CNN reported today that helicopters were diverted from plugging the levee breach on Tuesday, in order to rescue individuals on rooftops, I wondered what is involved in securing sufficient helicopters in a national emergency. It took me two minutes of Googling to identify the Erickson Air Crane Company and obtain their email address and phone number. The Air Crane is one of the most powerful helicopters in the world (used for lifting trucks and putting out fires, for example). I emailed them today asking if anyone had contacted them about the levee. They replied immediately that while they had put out the word to government entities, and while they are a DOD-listed contractor, they had not been contacted by any Government entity as of Wednesday evening. The levee broke on Monday night. I assume that a governor, or a general, or maybe a President would have gotten the CEO of this company (and other companies like them) on the phone and said "get over there ASAP."

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA. Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers... spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations.... Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming..."

I don't think that's true and I think you'd be hard pressed to find a similar degree of finger pointing after other disasters. The fact that it's a natural disaster does put the focus squarely on Bush's response to the crisis as opposed to 9/11 where the administration's negligence was overlooked thanks to an easy foreign scapegoat.

You can try to write-off any political discussion as a mere blame game but do you really believe that none of the questions being asked are valid? Do you think the response to the crisis has been sufficient and that we've exhausted every capibility we have as a nation? I think the political questions would have been out of place on day one or two but at this point the situation is nothing but political.

however i do indeed think that people like to be able to lay blame somewhere for natural disasters - it helps them feel a little more secure in a time of emotional trauma. and that's fair enough.

i had a thought earlier tonight...what would Johnny Cash have thought of all this?

Hell, what does Jimmy Carter think of all this? What Clinton thinks, some already have an idea...

xpost

Look at the reporters who are "incensed" by the rampant looting. Look at the smugness from those distant from the situation who chastise the dumb southerners for not evacuating when they had the chance. It blows their minds how many idiots stayed to wait it out. It makes them shake their heads and make "tsk-tsk" noises into their shiny microphones.

Well, fuck the lot of them.

New Orleans and Biloxi are not rich cities. They are poor southern cities disproportionately filled with poor southern people -- people who may not have reliable transportation, people who live hand-to-mouth, people who have nowhere else to go, even if they had the means to get there.

And the evacuation was little more than a vague order to get the hell out -- under your own power and at your own expense. If you have, at your immediate disposal, reliable transportation, money for gas, and either distant family OR money for shelter, then this isn't a big deal. Of course you leave. You pack up everything you can and you head for higher ground. But it is somewhat less easy to do if you are lacking any one of these things, AND you have been informed that what little earthly lot you may claim is about to be destroyed. Do you hang on and try to save what you can? Do you let it go and return to less than nothing?

What the hell do you do?

and then in the comments

The last time my brother had to evacuate Florida for a week or so it ran him about $1000. He couldn't really afford it but had no choice. Hotels jacked up their prices. Gas was nearly impossible get. They spent 17 hours stuck in traffic to travel a distance that would normally take 7. They ended up holed up in a small hotel because they lucked into a room.

We have a Disaster Assistance Response Team specializing in water purification and medical treatment (DART was recently sent to Indonesia following the Tsunami), shipments of drugs and (for what it's worth) the Canadian Military all "on standby".

I just don't understand why we're not acting yet. Why hasn't any U.S. officials directed our resources anywhere. And failing that why hasn't DART just headed down on their own?

I guess maybe just showing up without the aid of U.S. coordination might be stepping on some toes and a tad chaotic - but when we've been offering our help for days i don't understand why it hasn't been sent anywhere.

There is a serious emergency going on and it seems the admin has a "Ya, thanks. We'll let you know" sort of attitude. And, for the most part, we're just twiddling our thumbs up here. It's kind of bothering me.

Mayor Nagin blasted federal relief efforts as woefully inadequate and said the initial slow response to rising floodwaters was the cause of unnecessary deaths over the past four days.

In an interview broadcast on New Orleans radio station WWL-AM last night, an angry Nagin said federal officials, including President Bush, were too slow to respond to the city's worsening problems — both as flooding worsened on Tuesday as a key drainage canal caved in near the city's lakefront and later as thousands of desperate people waited for buses to get out of the collapsing city yesterday.

"They are feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying," Nagin said.

the fema head's behavior has been reprehensible in all of his public statements, most of which were denials!

as far as political fallout goes, the president gets the most of the "break it/bought it" logic, but everyone looks complicit in this failure because the sweeping change from dept of interior to homeland security was rubberstamped by both parties to streamline internal issues like this!

All this was minutes after Carol Costello was almost breaking down on air.

xpost: http://www.crooksandliars.com/

'It's awful down here'

Knight Ridder staff and wire services

New Orleans continued to sink into chaos and lawlessness, as gunfire, explosions and fire were reported overnight. People have reportedly fired at police.

Ragtag armies of the desperate and hungry begged for help, corpses rotted along flooded sidewalks and bands of armed thugs thwarted fitful rescue efforts as Americans watched the Big Easy dissolve before their eyes.

About 4:35 this morning, a series of massive explosions rocked the riverfront a few miles south of the French Quarter. The cause of the blasts or the extent of any possible damage was not immediately known.

An initial explosion sent flames of red and orange shooting into the pre-dawn sky. A series of smaller blasts followed and then acrid, black smoke that could be seen even in the dark. The vibrations were felt all the way downtown.

The explosions appeared to originate close to the east bank of the Mississippi River, near a residential area and rail tracks. At least two police boats were at the scene.

Despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting, a $10.5 billion recovery bill in Congress and a relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history, the chaos spred.

Congress was rushing though a $10.5 billion aid package, the Pentagon promised 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting and President Bush planned to visit the region. But city officials were seething with anger about what they called a slow federal response to the catastrophe.

"I need reinforcements," Mayor Ray Nagin said Thursday night on WWL-AM. "I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. This is a national disaster. This is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough. It's awful down here, man."

Saying he would probably get in big trouble after his interview, Nagin ripped at President Bush. "We have an incredible crisis here and his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice.

"Excuse my French - everybody in America - but I am pissed."

"This is a national disgrace," said New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert. "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

At the hot and stinking Superdome, where tens of thousands were being evacuated by bus to Houston, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile to board yellow school buses.

Houston's Astrodome, which had been taking Superdome refugees for the past day, is full and cannot take more people, officials say. It accepted more than 11,000 people and began sending buses to other area shelters and as far away as Huntsville, about an hour north of Houston.

The state of Texas agreed Thursday to take in three times more refugees from Hurricane Katrina than officials initially expected, bringing the total number of evacuees to nearly 75,000.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced that 50,000 more refugees would relocate to Texas, with plans to house 25,000 each in San Antonio and Dallas.

Ellen Dunkel of Knight Ridder Digital contributed to this report.

Well yeah, it is intentional to a point. Incompetence at various levels is obviously part of the problem, but at least as far as the Buwh people go, that incompetence is partly a function of their ideology. The conservative mantra that "government is not the answer" becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you underfund it enough while also treating it primarily as a vehicle for the pursuit of a narrow set of aims on behalf of a narrow set of people, you're going to be left with a hobbled goliath -- the "starved beast" of Grover Norquist's wet dreams -- run by people whose default position is that "government is the problem, not the solution." As others have pointed out (and as should have already been abundantly clear in the muddled domestic response to Sept. 11), these guys just don't take governing seriously.

(btw, on the BBC world service, they just read an email from an American listener who said the real problem was the "failed social policies" of the '60s and '70s, which had trapped all those people in dependent poverty. Because, you know, there was no poverty in America until LBJ invented it.)

"Did the Iraqi people ask for help?"

where's that national discussion we were going to have about infrastructure and preparedness after the Northeast Blackout?

Googleproof if you need to, but who was it? Cause here's what Goldberg just said:

I do agree with many readers that the real first responders in New Orleans failed. Some no doubt tried their best, others were too busy looting. I can understand the frustration of the Mayor, but this guy is pretty clearly not up to the job. Maybe no mayor would be given the nature of the calamity and the resources available. But this guy's complaints ring just a bit too self-serving for me. New Orleans has had rotten political leadership for decades and they simply cannot be allowed to point to Washington and say "it's all their fault!"

i dunno. remember, we have an Admin who will bar you from asking any questions if they don't like you. that's what happenned to Helen Thomas 4 1/2 years ago when she asked the first hard question(a tradition she'd had since Harry Truman in the 40s). THey moved her to the back of the room and the AP had to let her go, since she was completely neutered as a reporter. They can cut any access they want. These guys have been in full Soviet mode for years...

some of the harsh tv folks lately have just finally stopped caring about their jobs just enough to actually do them.

I am a great believer in foot-in-mouth disease and wish to expose it so we may all understand it.

jesus...I hadn't thought of that...I suppose they ground all other aircraft. God, this keeps getting worse and worse. This is shameful.

HARRY CONNICK JR. can get to the Convention Center to help. ANDERSON COOPER and TUCKER CARLSON can access all of these areas. Fuck, ARTHEL NEVEL OF A CURRENT AFFAIR can access all of these areas. I mean, I know I'm just venting at this point but we have half a mind to head down there ourselves loaded with supplies this weekend, because it's pretty fucking obvious that no one in the government went on, like, Yahoo! Maps and got directions to New Orleans or Biloxi, cos they ain't getting near it. Maybe they got their directions from Google Maps, those ones were confusin looking.

xpost - maura otm. ned, dude, you really pay way too much attention to that guy than he actually deserves.

naw she worked for upi, i thought.

Gallows humor a go-go!

It's just that I was watching the local news here in DC last night, and some police department here (forget which county) got a phone call from an official in New Orleans, asking if they can help with supplies and efforts, so of course they said yes, loaded up trucks with gatorade and food and stuff, and then made the mistake of trying to go through FEMA to get approval to go down there. They were still waiting as of newscast last night, because FEMA was WAITING FOR A WRITTEN REQUEST TO COME IN FROM NEW ORLEANS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

OH RIGHT LET ME JUST FAX THAT TO YOU RIGHT NOW. Douchebags.

xpost OK I mean I just xposted a ton, this Condi Rice thing is getting kind of stupid

Mel Brooks was prescient:

Sandurz, Sandurz! You got to help me! I don't know what to do! I can't make decisions! I'm a president!

I'm just waiting for certain low-level govt employees to go, "You know what? Fuck you and your official requests. We're heading out there now with this gear and you can fire me all you want when i get back. People are fuckin' dying."

It's like she's completely lost her mind after getting her hair done. "National emergency? Bump that; I need to get some pumps that make my bangin' coiffe pop!"

Yeah, exactly. I mean this doesn't make good sense, why is the paper trail this important right now? I mean, official requests? You can see with your own two eyes, turning on a television, that, OK, if these people COULD fax you an official, notarized, signed by everyone necessary BLAH BLAH BLAH request, they WOULD, but you know what? I bet they got other shit going down to be thinking about besides trying to, like, find some paper, write on it, and fax a request to FEMA. It just strikes me that, hi, paperwork, that can be done after the fact. I mean every workplace I've ever worked for has understood this, special circumstances require bending of the rules. Sometimes, you know, you have to get the person's credit card after the fact. Sometimes, you know, you gotta get that letter a year later because, like, THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW, NOT THREE DAYS FROM NOW.

It's insanity, the complete level of...disinterest the Capitol has for this situation.

XPOST I didn't even know Fats Domino was still alive until I found out he was rescued!!! I watched 12 Monkeys a few nights ago and have had Blueberry Hill in my head off and on since then, so it was kind of a relief to find out that he didn't actually die 20 years ago as I had assumed!

What's that proverb? Every crisis is an opportunity? AP this morning: "President Bush has used a constitutional provision to bypass the Senate and fill a top Justice Department slot with an official whose nomination stalled over tactics at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval facility."

OUR PREZNIT: GETTIN SHIT DONE

But the Bush adminstration has broken the basic social contract in New Orleans, the one that goes all the way back to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the one that says we adhere to laws because you agree to protect us, and thus the city and its citizens have returned to the state of nature, which is to survive, motherfuckers, just survive.

and other bits about hipsters going to black clubs in a never-ending search for "authenticity" etc, El Doofus coming down and "[you] can bet he's gonna hug some negro, maybe two, maybe he'll feed a negro child."

http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/looters.asp

Stepping aside from Katrina specifically for a moment:

Y'all think *I* do that? What about all the feebs who watch him and nod their head approvingly even when he slips up, self-contradicts, begs forgiveness? *They're* the ones I'm worried about, and they're why I want to see what the mouthpieces say.

For myself, I've realized that the function of a lot of political commentary that I do agree with is to reassure me -- to say, "There there -- whether we're angry or just simply calling it 'like it is,' this way you can be reassured you are not alone, and we can all be comfortable at least in being right." This applies across the political spectrum. Well, I don't want to be reassured -- rather, I want to be annoyed, on guard, wary, suspicious. NRO's blog may be neocon fast food but it gives off a stench of the darker rot within.

less than 2 months ago, cuba was able to move 1.7 million people on
short notice.

the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with.
people know ahead of time where they are to go.

they come to your door and knock, and tell you, evacuation is coming,
then they come and tell you, now.

if no electricity, they have runners who communicate from a headquarters to central locations what is to be done.

the country's leaders go on TV and take charge. but not only the leaders are speaking. the TV weatherpeople are knowledgeable. and the population is well educated about hurricanes.

they not only evacuate. it's arranged beforehand where they will go, who has family where. not only pickup is organized, delivery of people is organized.

merely sticking them in a stadium is unthinkable. shelters all have
medical personnel, from the neighborhood. they have family doctors in
cuba (!), who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know who, for example, needs insulin.

if they evacuate to a countryside high school -- a last resort -- they
have dormitories there.

they also have veterinarians and they evacuate animals. they begin
evacuating immediately, and also evacuate TV sets and refrigerators, so that people aren't relucatant to leave because people might steal their stuff.

it's not throwing money at the problem. it's not financial capital, it's social capital. the u.s. in this sense has zero social capital.

dealing with hurricanes in cuba, as compared with how it's done in the
u.s., is similar to the differences in how they deal with medicine. it's not reactive; it's proactive. they act as early as possible. the u.s. doesn't have civil defense, it has civil *reaction.*

also, apparently the "Freedom Walk"/Pro-War Rally is still on!

why did Americans in the South vote in such a Clown as Bush?

remember everything that me and plenty others here and elsewhere about how people aren't all that rational in their voting patterns, that narratives("bush is a strong silent, man-of-the-people-on-his-ranch") matter far more than actual reality? or, that "facts don't trump frameworks," as George Lakoff once wrote?

"There's nothing wrong about America that can't be fixed by what's right about America."

"Imagine the Gulf Coast obliterated by the worst weapon imaginable."

No, that would be nuclear weapons, which you... ah, nevermind.

I tried to volunteer for the Capital City Area Red Cross for volunteer work in Katrina just now and the site's not even coming up at times. When I finally got to the page for signing up, they had some sort of error and the online form I filled out with my contact info didn't go through. I tried twice more and it still faltered. Fuck. I'll have to try it again later today, if it's working. I can't get through on the phone, either, and I haven't found information as to where the office is.

yeah well, again, the ruling conservative ideology doesn't believe in social capital. They don't believe in much of anything with the words "social" or "public" in them. The whole idea of the social contract -- which is arguably one of the two or three most important ideas underpinning democratic self-government -- is in their view part of the "problem." This is already showing up in the right-wing commentary: the problem isn't government's failure to respond, it's peoples' expectation that government will respond. The answer is not more or better government, it's less and worse government, to teach people not to be so "dependent."

Stepping aside from Katrina specifically for a moment:

Y'all think *I* do that?

yes. i'm pretty sure if i searched on your posts that were reposts of his posts, i'd have quite a few results. don't take it the wrong way, i know why you're fascinated by him, but at the end of the day it's something that i can't really understand or share. i mean, the guy is clearly a douche, even after reading him for a little bit. can it really be that much of a revelation at this point that he's going to contradict himself, badly?

What about all the feebs who watch him and nod their head approvingly even when he slips up, self-contradicts, begs forgiveness? *They're* the ones I'm worried about, and they're why I want to see what the mouthpieces say.

i honestly don't think they matter. i'm not sure there's that many of them, either.

but that said, i'm just pointing it out to point it out, as hopefully constructive criticism, not cuz i like hate ya or nothing. that's all.

No officials on the ground, so it's just young men who fight to get the food.

What matters, I think, is that regardless of the exact amount more than a few are in more than a few positions of power these days. Tuning into that wavelength is an eerie fascination, I admit. But we could debate this into the ground.

You guys, something is happening.

Ted Koppel, Joe Scarborough, NRO, Cafferty, Anderson Coopers, Robert Siegel on NPR grilling Chertof, fucking PAULA ZAHN getting pissed off, etc. Something is happening here. Please Christ let the deaths of thousands of Americans have at least the effect of shaking up the complacency of everyone else.

NOTE: One quote caught my ear but I didn't quite focus on it. I've played it again and Brown is laying the groundwork for putting the blame on LA's governor. (It must be a Fox News talking point; my dad made the same argument earlier.)

Brown of FEMA: We work closely with the state government. The federal government didn not just come in here and tell the state governor how or what to do. We came in here and said, 'What do you want us to do? We will help you.' We are now taking it upon ourselves to do what we think needs to be done. And we will continue to do that.

Translation: LA's Democratic governnor screwed things up royally and now we're cleaning up her mess and taking charge.

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Somehow I don't think that'll take root, except with Republican cheerleaders.

still, it's always good to identify and point out the Talking Point when it begins.

Last night on PRI's The World radio show, they asked a BBC reporter how we was reporting the story to the UK and other countries that was different from how it was being reported in the US. He said the most notable difference was having to explain how it was that the wealthiest country in the world wasn't able to deal with a disaster like this.

"We got a lot of rebuilding to do.... the good news is and it's hard for some to see it now but out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic gulf coast... out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- the guy lost his entire house -- there's going to be fantastic house. I look forward to sitting on the porch. Out of New Orleans is going to come that great city again."

Glad Trent is going to be taken care of.

Take the ball, run with it!

Trent Lott will have a fantastic house, indeed.

you guys, something is happening.

xpost: Is he shaking the negro's hands and smiling? or he looking "somber"?

Now if you don't mind I have to go meet Condi for martinis and a trip to Kate Spade.

xpost Bush is going to be remembered exactly like I just said. WHAT THE FUCK WAS ANYONE THINKING, WAS IT A PRACTICAL JOKE?

"As a result of Katrina, Saudi Arabia has finally admitted that it cannot increase (oil) production. Many of us knew they’ve been lying for at least two years. The Energy Information Administration has just admitted that global demand has been outstripping supply for several months before Katrina. Nice time to start telling the truth. Nature is finally calling everybody’s bluff.

OTM. Somewhere in the afterlife, Harding is dancing a jig with a big cake-eating grin on his face while singing "Finally" by CeCe Peniston.

The source for this is my mom but she doesn't DO anything besides watch news all day so I believe her, Bush is trying to be all nice to some young girls in Biloxi, asked why don't they go to the Salvation Army Shelter, it's right down the street. To which some dude stepped in and was like, "It ain't THERE. It's GONE."

She reports Bush as looking "annoyed".

Don't worry. That won't happen until late summer in the first year of Bush's third term.

*applause*

HE DOES! It's like he's not even trying!

"I know, I know..."

--G. W. Bush, President, in response to a distrought creole woman.

I am pronouncing that as "boosh-coo" and it's really making me laugh, I think I'm cracking like Anderson Cooper.

I think the answer here is that A) Bush never got off cocaine B) he's been giving it to the rest of the administration. I mean seriously.

God, what a jackass.

For myself, I've realized that the function of a lot of political commentary that I do agree with is to reassure me -- to say, "There there -- whether we're angry or just simply calling it 'like it is,' this way you can be reassured you are not alone, and we can all be comfortable at least in being right." This applies across the political spectrum. Well, I don't want to be reassured -- rather, I want to be annoyed, on guard, wary, suspicious. NRO's blog may be neocon fast food but it gives off a stench of the darker rot within.

Ned is completely OTM. it's PARAMOUNT, in such situations, to see what the "enemy" has to say.. even on a regular basis.. if you care to be passionate about political discourse as such. You're not a lesser person if you ignore your enemies (because 90% of what anyone says is usually crap anyway), but you're definitely more aware and objective when you don't ignore your enemies.. especially if they're a click away... this is not the same as agreeing or even giving a fuck about what your "enemies" have to say most of the time, but I stress "most of the time."

SATAN

Ally OTM, i would like to see that poltergeist scenario happen

Did I just hear that right?

Reminds me of the Passion Fodder lyrics:
"It's hard work to run a country, when you're dumb as a horse"

well, now we know the answer to this

The 4th anniversary of 9/11 is due in a week or so.

Had Katrina just fizzled into the Yucatan as a tropical depression last week instead, we'd be already be seeing the massive parades of 9/11 nostalgia on TV, and see the angelic imposed Bush over those American flags as "the fighter against terrorism".

Well, um, I don't think that's going to happen this time.

Mass media might decide to tone down the New Orleans disaster coverage and focus right back into 9/11 nostalgia as usual.

But probably not. Who knows. If Gulf coast disaster isn't "boring" by then, then the focus will not be nearly as strong as it was for the previous "remember 9/11" anniversaries. U.S. mass media will flip between pro-Bush and anti-Bush depending on what is exciting viewers the most, period. U.S. mass media wants to feed more passion and hence more ratings to itself. When a major story becomes "boring", it's time to move on.

I don't think the Gulf Coast disaster news will become "boring" by 9/11/2005...

Right around 9/11/2005, we'll be seeing more accurate roundups of the death toll down there in the central Gulf coast, as the waters evaporate, recede, etc. No one knows if things will STILL get better by then, by more shit is going to be hitting more fans JUST IN TIME for 9/11/2005. It's possible that "the 4th anniversary" is going to be a secondary footnote in the news...

Not only that, in future years, future "anniversaries" on mass media will have to honor both Katrina aftermath *and* 9/11, in that order, for chronological reasons.

I think Bush's "remember 9/11" crutch/support might have finally given way... thanks to Katrina's timing.

And of course, I'm NOT trying to downplay the importance and horror of 9/11.. DUh! But I've been sick to my stomach for the past three years around this time, though, because our not-known-then-but-known-now ineptness of our government to have prevented this in SO many ways had been totally clusterfucked and warped into a big celebration and veneration of Bush. And forgive me if I'm happy at the possibility of the latter being dismantled now.. and allowing 9/11 rememberance to be what it truly should be, and not serve as a pedestal for which to support and venerate Bush.

I have more thoughts on this later. Sadly I have to go back to work.

"Yes, that's right... the man responsible for directing federal relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sharpened his emergency management skills as the "Judges and Stewards Commissioner" for the International Arabian Horses Association... a position from which he was forced to resign in the face of mounting litigation and financial disarray."

CONVOY AFTER CONVOY... [Rich Lowry ]
...pouring into NO. It's great to see...
Posted at 02:20 PM

I SURE HOPE HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
"My guess is that it will start at 10,000, but that is only a guess," [Louisiana Senator David] Vitter said," talking about Louisiana.
Posted at 01:53 PM

INCISIVE!

"Using our firm as a typical example reveals just how devastating the storm has been. Until today I could not locate all of my partners. Obviously we cannot perform necessary banking functions. We cannot receive mail. We cannot communicate with or visit our office. We cannot find many clients. We cannot collect fees or send bills. Consequently, there will be a significant delay in revenue collection and, as an obvious by-product, a very real threat to our ability to pay or even maintain all employees.

"Yesterday I made calls to ask for some delay on behalf of our employees, but I was turned down flat. Despite the circumstances, credit card companies insisted upon payment and, on at least two separate occasions, confirmed that accounts will continue to accrue interest and that they will charge fees for late payment. In the face of this overwhelming tragedy, which has left over one million people with uncertain futures, such a position is scandalous."

x-post

(sorry. kidding, of course.)

Well, um, I don't think that's going to happen this time.

thing is, i think the Freedom Walk is still on. maybe they'll frame it as "we must honor the dead of new orleans by continuing the fight over there"

http://www.aliens.ibt.pl/COMPANY/burke03.jpg

only the marines who'll say "i say we grease this ratfuck sonuvabitch right now. Yer DOGMEAT, pal!" are 3000+ miles away.

also, they won't get their just desserts by becoming just desserts gobbled up by monsters.

Oh, come on. The people of New Orleans brought this on themselves. You know what it's like there. Where's Jerry Fallwell? Where the FUCK is Jerry Fallwell? It's times like this when we need his wise words.

well, i was being facetious, but shit, they're the ones still holding the goddamn pro-war march after all this anyway... We're far beyond rationality, here.

as Arthur Silber wrote in one of his posts, at least when the Soviet Army had a parade, they celebrated something positive...

he also put this thing up, WHEN NEXT WEEK NEVER COMES, NOW IS THE TIME FOR POLITICS

2005: Expect the worst.

i was wondering how debt collectors would respond to this, whether they'd be willing to suspend the debts or put people's accounts on hold. not surprising that they're acting like loan sharks.

On Channel 4 news over here they just showed a clip of Bush with Trent Lott going on about how they're going to rebuild Trent Lott's house and he's looking forward to sitting on his new porch.

We were sitting there going "did he actually just say that? I guess he did"

I'm just in a big WTF about this whole thing.

The big disconnect on New Orleans

Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday. The sanitized view came from federal officials at news conferences and television appearances. But the official line was contradicted by grittier, more desperate views from the shelters and the streets.

Or investigate, apparently.

I was in Texas when I was watching all this and exclaimed 'Man that Clinton is such a classy dude' to which the person standing next to me responded 'Are you kidding?'. I forgot where I was for a second.

"No one can say they didn't see it coming"
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Amazing prophetic article from last October in National Geographic:

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

"I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?" said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

San Andreas rolls over, burps, and says "I'm still here!"

(nothing greater than a 4.5 in this "swarm" so far)

NEWT GINGRICH OTM!

xpost holy shit donut

sorry. that just seems like it bears repeating.

Xpost

There could very well be a news item on this tonight... although this is just a car vandalization after all. News may be slow here, but not that slow.

Hahahahaha!

New slogan/tee shirt

More like, Newt Gingrich on the campaign trail. But yeah, even that tells you something.

That explains all the noise in the basement whenever I've visited.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

[insert snarky comment about holding press conferences to state how well you're handling emergencies in an age of digital cameras and blogs]

Dreher on the Corner -- he was extremely annoyed with Bush speeches earlier in the week:

ANARCHY, AGAIN. [Rod Dreher]
Heard just now from an old journalism school friend, now living in Atlanta, who sent the following desperate message by e-mail: I am hoping you can help. I am friends with a NOPD police officer Elizabeth Garcia. Things are MUCH MUCH worse in New Orleans. The inmates took over Central Lock up in New Orleans and took over the armory. They are targeting police and the police are under seige. She and 9 other police officers are running out of ammuntion and are being held down at the Hampton Inn across from the Convention Center. She just got her cell phone access and is calling everyone she knows to get out the information. They need assistance immediately. Please help in any way you can.

I called my friend just now to verify this. She said things have improved a bit since she sent the mail earlier this morning. She said that she got it to CNN, who relayed it to authorities. My friend, Lee, said that she spoke by phone to Officer Garcia (who can't call anybody locally, but who can call out of the 504 and 225 area codes), who said the criminal gangs have automatic weaponry because they looted the police armory. According to Lee, Ofc. Garcia told her that the police can't help people because "anybody in a uniform is being targeted" by these gangs. NOPD is receiving reports of children being raped and killed by these thugs, but they are outgunned and powerless. "It's complete and total anarchy," Lee quoted Ofc. Garcia as saying.

I ask you: WHERE IS THE ARMY? WHY ARE WE LEAVING THESE AMERICANS TO SUFFER AND POSSIBLY DIE? Honestly, folks, I cannot believe federal authorities are leaving these police officers and civilians to this. Is this America, or Somalia? The government has failed. Is failing. It is an outrage.

Lopez trying to run flack:

I THINK, ROD [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
That would be part of what the troops rolling in will be handling, I'd imagine. The local government appears to have failed in very many ways. And the federal government and many private organizations are working to pick up the slack. But I don't know it's the right time to declare "mission failed" here. More like "must be done better." Terrible things are happening, but broken record me: I think that message has gotten across. I hope your cop gets reenforcement quick. And no local government in the U.S. is ever as ineffectual as this one seems, especially in the face of widespread disaster and dismay.

Lopez a little while later (Derbyshire and Podhoretz have also trashed Bush's actions/reactions this week):

THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, DICK CHENEY [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
An e-mail came in this afternoon:

Subject: Pollyanna + Apologist = Kathyn Jean Lopez

Rod, Derb, and JPod are the only ones left with any sense.

The e-mail address ends in halliburton.com.

yeah, i'm sure it's just distancing at this point, but still the fact that he feels that comfortable breaking ranks is noteworthy..plus that particular statement was (scarily) probably 100% true.

I like how CNN just uses the word "clueless" as a matter of course:

(See video of CNN asking why FEMA is clueless about conditions -- 2:11)

Bush to women: "There's a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I'll tell you where it is, and they'll get you some help. I'm sorry.... They'll help you.....
Woman 1: "I came here looking for clothes..."
Bush: "They'll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center..."
Woman 1: "We don't have anything..."
Bush: "I understand.... Do you know where the center is, that I'm talking to you about?"
Guy with shades: "There's no center there, sir, it's a truck."
Bush: "There's trucks?"
Guy: "There's a school, a school about two miles away....."
Bush: "But isn't there a Salvation center down there?"
Guy: "No that's wiped out...."
Bush: "A temporary center? "
Guy: "No sir they've got a truck there, for food."
Bush: "That's what I'm saying, for food and water."
Bush turns to the sister who's been saying how she needs clothes.
Bush to sister: "You need food and water."
Damn, it reads like a Saturday Night Live skit.

you guys don't know newt very well if you think he's always been about crowing the party line. i mean, i don't like the fucker, but he's not a goosestepping aparatchik or whatever they were called. and there's no way he's ever running for anything ever again.

NO, KEVIN: Kevin Drum wants to say that the difference between conservatives and liberals is that liberals believe in funding organizations like FEMA or the Corps of Engineers and conservatives don't. Nuh-huh. Real conservatives believe that the state should do a few things that no one else can do - defense, decent public education, police, law and order among the most obvious - and leave the rest to individuals. Funding FEMA and having a superb civil defense are very much part of conservatism's real core. It's when government decides to reshape society, redistribute wealth, socially engineer, and take over functions that the private sector can do just as well that conservatives draw the line. The reason I'm mad as hell over Katrina is precisely because I'm a conservative and this kind of thing is exactly what government is for. Bush in this sense is not now and never has been a conservative. A man who explodes government spending but can't run a war or organize basic civil defense is simply a fiscally reckless incompetent. If this were a parliamentary system, we'd have a vote of no confidence. Instead we have three years of more peril.

Everybody knows this but Newt. I agree that he doesn't have a prayer of winning anything, and might not even actually run, but he's very much paving the way for a potential candidacy in '08. He's all but confirmed that he's considering it.

But whatever his motivations, I also agree that he's always been capable of the occasional burst of off-the-reservation candor.

"Feeling the pressure, Bush confers with Tom Green on what to do next."

Bush: "zzz..."

Bush: Response to Katrina Was Mishandled

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Scorched by criticism about sluggish federal help, President Bush acknowledged the government's failure to stop lawlessness and help desperate people in New Orleans.

"The results are not enough," Bush said Friday in the face of mounting complaints from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Remember, Brownie's doing a great job!

oh yeah, and dig this quote:

"Where it's not working right, we're going to make it right," the president said after walking through a devastated neighborhood of Mobile, Ala. "Where it is working right, we're going to duplicate it elsewhere."

note the fine print(as it were):

There will be a special introduction by WABC's Sean Hannity and tickets go on sale this Tuesday, 9/6 at 10am. All tickets are $77 (plus fees) and are available by calling Ticketmaster at 212-307-7171 or just check back here.

hey, i guess Ticketmaster gotta pay their rent, too, right?

C&L vid here (server still probably overloaded)

"I'm gonna fly out of here in a moment."

"I believe the town where I used to come to from Houston, to enjoy myself -- sometimes a little bit too much -- will be rebuilt."

Hey, Ray Nagin's with him -- wait, no more press conferences?

he's a nice guy from lexington, but he's a drummer and an art student-type, so he's just a bit off. i had to restrain myself from yelling at him over the phone. i should have sent him this link

Remember my earlier point that disaster management in New Orleans had been privatised, the 'catastrophic hurricane disaster plan' having been handed over to Baton Rouge-based Innovative Emergency Management last year? Watching this nightmare unfold, I've been wondering why no fucking one is asking what exactly IEM got paid for.

It's turning out to be very hard to find out, for rather startling reasons.

In my first post on this, I quoted their original press release:

IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

(continued at the link...)

Scratch that. Make fun of the president all you want. But teasing a hurricane victim based on his appearance is a bit low.

Consider Pleasant Plains' e-mail exchange with his coworker today and you realize that what to *you* may seem like commonsense is not necessarily so to others. Far too many, I'd guess. Thus my note -- forward where necessary.

Ah, the wonders of privatization.

Carter wasn't the only loser that year. Clinton lost his first re-election campaign because of the crisis at Fort Chaffee.

(That, and raising car tags fees.)

September 2, 2005 13:50:59
The Deadly Cost of Being Poor
St. Petersburg - We are over the top in New Orleans now. We are at the point where the level of grief, frustration, and helplessness boils over everywhere. Headlines in Tampa and St. Petersburg simply said “Chaos” and “Anarchy.” This is now a case of total government failure, and a national disgrace. This is a collapse of the national will even while demonstrating the strength of the human spirit.

Helene O’Brien, ACORN’s National Field Director, called me in the afternoon weeping about the TV film of people dying in the Convention Center and yelling that we had to do something, because our people were dying. What could we do? What works?

So, we put out a call on the email alerts and to all of our members to all their Congressperson and demand that the poor of New Orleans and the victims of this disaster get immediate help. Some of our offices are calling for sit-ins in the offices of their representatives until they know there is help.

Is this a decision or a cop-out? It’s a nothing, but it simply a way to allow everyone to do something in a situation where there is almost nothing we can do at the depth of our powerlessness.

My daughter, now a real organizer, talked to me at mid-night from the Tampa office where she and other young organizers had been making calls and running off flyers because they wanted to do something, so they were doing what they knew how to do. It was hard to tell her that there was no way to move 100 people at the Site Fighters Conference to a Congressional office. There were no busses. There was no gas. Maybe at the end of the conference we could have everyone made a cell phone call to the 800 number for Congress at the same time, so that they could do something.

There was silence.
She said it was lame.
It is lame.

I’m ashamed that we have worked so hard for so many years to organize so many thousands of lower income families and built so much power in so many areas and absolutely in New Orleans, but it turns out simply to not mean much when the price of being poor is reduced to dollars and cents in a disaster and converted to life and death.

She thought the government was killing people. She felt that she was watching genocide in her hometown, because people were largely black and all completely poor.

I thought it was not genocide, but a breakdown, an implosion, a level of incompetence at an extreme level.

But, thinking now this becomes simply a distinction without a difference. Either way it is inarguable that if this was not happening in the poorest city in America, we would not have so quickly recreated the conditions of global south in our own deep south. Either way one is shocked to see so clearly and to know so fully that if this were not happening to people so poor and largely African American, this would not be happening.

At the bottom line as an organizer one learns that sometimes it is not a question of doing the right thing or the wrong thing, but at least of doing something, allowing people to act in some way, to have a voice and to speak strongly with that voice.

Even as it turns out, that no one is willing to listen.
Or act.
Please help us and do something.
Now.

OK everyone... we must think outside the box to get help into our city! Here's what I propose we do to get a government response faster:

1. Announce they are giving late term abortions down at the Convention Center
2. Spread the rumor that they're thinking about disconnecting the feeding tube of a (white) woman in a coma at one of the hospitals still standing.
3. Ask a calm, mourning, middle aged woman to camp out for peace along Canal Street.

In this moment, we have to remember they are part of us, Americans who love their country and are part of our national community. In this moment, it is hard because our hair is clean and our clothes are washed and our eyes are not glazed with hopelessness. But these are our brothers and sisters, and we have to remember this not just for them, but for us. We must finally recognize that when any of us suffer, we are all weaker; it affects us all...

Whether you think I'm a stupid bitch for staying or not, the fact remains that because of us staying dozens of people got fed for free on Monday and early Tuesday as we cooked up the food in our kitchen and served it without asking for money. People were able to come and get water, food, drinks and good spirits because we stayed. And when we did decide to leave, we took people with us that otherwise had no means of getting out of the city, even though they were piled on top of each other in the van and we had to drill holes in abandoned cars' gas tanks to get enough fuel to leave the city. We were on the road for the past two days, dropping people off where they needed to go, staying with friends and family, or catching flights home...

no jerry falwell, but the house-organ of jesus freak don wildmon steps to the plate and knocks it outta the park.

the religious right: the gift that keeps on giving ...

you wouldn't know it from reading the above, but don wildmon is from tupelo, MS.

yeah, they ARE this shameless.