Hannah's Blog

Double-dipping

There is growing consternation in the general public that the charitable institutions to which they have donated for disaster relief are also being compensated by governmental funds. Why should this be objectionable?

Regarding the appropriateness of having charitable intitutions compensated by the government for their expenditures. Why should this be objectionable behavior?

Well, for one thing it's double-dipping. Let me explain what I mean by that.
Whenever someone accepts a gift, there's an implicit expectation, if not obligation, for the recipient to pay back with the coin of gratitude and appreciation. If then the donor is paid back by a third party, he's being compensated twice.

Then, of course, there's the problem with religiously oriented charities that their activities are Constitutionally required to be separated from the state or government. There's a good reason for this requirement. When the government, which retains the ultimate physical power to coerce some kinds of behavior, combines with organizations whose mandate is to coerce the mind or spirit of those they offer to assist, then the individual recipient is virtually stripped on any autonomy and thus of his humanity. It was the combination of the physical and spiritual coercive powers that the framers of our Constitution wanted to avoid when they incorporated the separation of church and state.

And it is, of course, the totalitarian effect of this combination which the proponents of authoritarian control seek to promote when they enlist the assistance of religious institutions to distribute benefits which, by all rights, the citizens are entitled to receive without strings--physical or spiritual.

Now, it is, of course, possible for individuals to take or accept benefits without any concern for an obligation to reciprocate in any manner. And, indeed, this capacity seems to be increasingly prevalent in people who have set themselves up as leaders of our nation. So, perhaps they don't even recognize the emotional and psychological stress they are imposing on individuals for whom the coin of gratitude is freighted with the realization that they are being forced to chose between the survival of the body and the survival of their spirit.

Nevertheless that's the choice the lust for power is imposing on the survivors of Katrina. It is also the choice that is being imposed on the citizens of Iraq. "Believe what we tell you, or die" is the message from the occupation. And that, in my book, is the essence of evil.

Myth v. Fact

As reported by the Independent, a British paper.

Fact and fiction about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina

* MYTH: Shootings and stabbings at the Superdome.

TRUTH: If there were, they were not fatal.

* MYTH: 24 dead at convention centre amid gun violence.

TRUTH: Four bodies recovered, one showed signs of murder.

* MYTH: Affluent suburbs taken over by gangs of looters.

TRUTH: Looters did not take over communities.

* MYTH: In Baton Rouge, evacuees created a crime wave. (In the atmosphere of panic Louisiana State University was locked down.)

TRUTH: One crime occurred in the city; a minor incident involving a knife at a temporary shelter. No one was hurt.

Dean on Sheehan

Howard Dean's report of his impressions of Cindy Sheehan is posted on the Democratic National Committee's official blog. Nice of him to mention that the politics of personal destruction have been going on since Nixon. Perhaps it's a central component of government by Public Relations.

Meeting with Cindy Sheehan

I met with Cindy Sheehan and three activist supporters here in my office at the DNC (two of whom were involved in the Presidential race) on Saturday after the rally. Some of you have met her, but for those who have not, I thought I would share my impressions.

She is a delightful person. She had not a drop of holier than thou zealotry. She is unpretentious and very clear. All this I expected, given the terrible sacrifice she has made, and her willingness to speak out.

What I was surprised at was her ability to be so comfortable in her own skin. After she became a phenomenon in Crawford, the Republican spin team realized she was a real threat. Cindy Sheehan, made a tremendous personal sacrifice. A sacrifice being made by too many American families who have had loved ones killed or maimed in this war.

Cindy has credibility the Administration does not have. Even the President tried to diminish her by saying that she did not believe in fighting terrorism. His minions, of course, did much worse, trying to make out that she was a media savvy manipulator -- and even spreading false rumors that she was anti-Semitic.

No one is untouched in the face of personal attack, but Cindy exudes an inner calm and a self-confidence which made it clear to me that she will not back down. I respect and support what she is doing in standing up and speaking out.

Whether you think the Iraq war is a good idea or not, all of us should support Cindy Sheehan. Perhaps the grossest disservice the Republican leadership has inflicted on our country is not the war, the huge deficits, or even the divisive appeals to the worst fears of voters. Rather it is the notion that it is unpatriotic to disagree with the most partisan President in our life time, and that dissent harms our country. Nothing could be farther from the truth -- we are a strong country because we have the right to dissent.

In fact it is the attempts of the Administration to fight dissent with personal attacks as they did during the Nixon era are that diminish our country in the long term.

Cindy Sheehan is honest in the face of a dishonest and corrupt Washington culture. She is plain spoken in an era of cynicism and propaganda, she in committed and idealistic in a time where our government has abandoned what is right for America in favor of what is right for the Republican party. We need more Cindy Sheehans.

Posted by Howard Dean at 06:06 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack (0)

Sunset Cruise

No on Roberts for SCOTUS

The designation of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. as Chief Justice supports the belief that the purpose of government is to rule over or subjugate the people, rather than, as the American Revolution established, be subject to the will of the people.

The current Administration is directed by the proposition that the "consent of the governed" is a one-time event, periodically refreshed by a rubber-stamp election and reinforced by the legislative and judicial support for its executive decisions.

While Judge Roberts seems to have given some Senators the assurance that he recognizes the "potential" for executive abuse of power, his commitment to absolute power, only slightly modified by a limited number of individual (civil) rights, makes that assurance ring hollow. In failing to recognize man's God-given human rights, Roberts' ruling on the captives in Guantanamo tells us all we need to know about where his sympathies lie. They do not lie with the common man, or woman for that matter. They don't even lie with the Constitution as written.

Face of Compassion

MESSAGE TO THE GULF---I CARE

Less than a month after the towers and the Pentagon were attacked, the President conspired with members of the Cabinet and Agency heads to withhold "sensitive" national security information from all but eight members of the Congress. The rationale for this effort to preclude Congressional over-sight was the so-called "War on Terror" which is turning out to be more a reign of terror than anything else.

But the question now is why did the gang of eight, including Democrats Graham, Daschel and Pelosi go along with this executive power grab? Did they even realize the implications when the President called and told them that from then on the rest of the people's representatives would be kept in the dark on what was being planned for Afghanistan and Iraq and, as the victims of Katrina and Rita have now discovered, the American people themselves?

Did they even answer the phone?

Since Graham and Daschel and Gebhardt are now out of office perhaps they can reveal why Frist and Hastert and Roberts of Kansas, continue to conspire with the Administration to deceive the American people. Surely they're not fearful of being arrested and charged with treason for revealing information that the people have a right to know.

One suspects that perhaps a feeling of guilt at having been complicit keeps them silent. It shouldn't. As long as the Bush Administration isn't called to account, matters can only go from bad to worse. How many more people have to die?

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/HowSenate_Intelligence_chairman_fixed_intelligence_and_diverted_blame_fromWhite_House__0811.html

March Against War

There was a good DFA contingent in D.C. among the 250,000 marchers.

MAKE LEVEES--NOT WAR

had lots of supporting signers, but no frontal picture

Capitalism Fails--US style

The capitalist economy of the United States fails periodically. Why? Prejudice is the reason.

It isn't racial. Prejudice isn't necessarily connected to any particular body of opinions or attitudes. Prejudice is actually a neutral concept. It simply refers to a body of knowledge or information, or attitudes, which the individual holds BEFORE he has the opportunity to learn from personal experience.

Prejudice, when it is present in the form, for example, of the wisdom gleaned and passed on by those who have already benefited from their own experience, is essentially beneficial. It is what is transmitted under the guise of education and training and enables the student to acquire the knowledge of how to respond to his environment, without having to suffer the slings of misfortune first.

The recipient of the information which provides the basis for a pre-judgement tends to assume that his own well-being is the motive for outfitting him with this protective information. But, sometimes that assumption turns out to be false. And sometimes the information being provided is accidentally or intentionally false.

That, I would argue, happens to be the case in one of the fundamental premises of the capitalist economy in the United States and, in my opinion, accounts in large part for why our economy collapses periodically. What is this false assumption, amounting to a negative prejudice? It's that man (all human beings) is essentially lazy and must be forced to work.

Step back for a minute and ask what would happen if someone were taught to believe that all dogs are vicious and bite and, as a result of this prejudice, were to pre-emptively kick every dog with which he came into contact. I think we could fairly predict that he would be bitten. Which experience, because of the way prejudice works, would reinforce the initial assumption that dogs are vicious. Prejudice interprets supportive experience as re-inforcing and contrary experience as "the exception that proves the rule."
Which is why prejudice, regardless of whether the basis is factual, rules.

Now let's get back to the assumption (or prejudice) that men are lazy and must be forced to work. If one believes that assumption (as the economics profession in the West does), then the logical next question is what strategy should be employed to force men to work. How is that force to be applied? At what point does force become counter-productive?

Obviously, the last question is easiest to answer. If people are subjected to enough force to kill them, they obviously can't work. So, the force must be less than what's needed to kill them, but enough to make them comply with whoever's directing their enterprise. In other words, the threat to their survival must be made real, but their capacity to work must be sustained.

Oddly enough, the concept of private property actually assists in this delicate endeavor. By restricting the use of the earth's natural resources to those who have "earned" the right to call a portion their own, those who resist the call to acquire the right to be sustained, are effectively precluded from sustenance. Conversely, the accumulation of resources one can call one's own ostensibly demonstrates compliance with the economic "rules."

But what if the assumption that man must be forced to work isn't just wrong, but that the delicate application of that force periodically goes awry? What if the cumulative effect of applying force (stressing man's ability to survive) is to reduce or eliminate the actual capacity of man to work? Would it not follow logically that the economy which is based on this false prejudice will collapse?

It has been argued that the collapse of capitalist economies is inevitable because of some flaw inherent in capitalism itself. I would disagree. Capitalism is like prejudice a neutral principle. How it is used can be either good or bad. Indeed, I might even go so far as to assert that capitalism is always good. That's because capitalism is nothing more than a strategy which counsels that some portion of current assets should be preserved for future use, rather than being consumed or allowed to go to waste. How can that be bad? Behaviors which we might classify as "predatory capitalism" or "vulture capitalism," are flawed not because they violate the principle of saving for future use, but because the manner in which capital assets or wealth are acquired is fraudulent. Wealth is being created not by the fusion of intellect with the resources provided by nature, but by depriving others of the sustenance to which they are entitled.

The predator and the scavenger are integral to the fabric of organic nature. However, when their characteristic behaviors are combined with the powers of the human intellect to decipher the processes of nature and anticipate the consequences of those processes, the potential for self-destruction (the demise of the species) increases exponentially. Instead of promoting human existence, man's intellectual capacities can make him into his own worst enemy.

But if that's the case. If our economic prejudices produce periodic and sometimes catastrophic failure, why do economist and social threorists continue to adhere to them? I think it's because it's emotionally satisfying to believe that men resist direction because they are morally flawed. Also, the assumption that men are lazy justifies the use of force. Some people just seem to prefer making others do their bidding to doing something worthwhile themselves. Though the rewards are uncertain, at least someone else can be blamed for failure.

The human brain's capacity to judge itself may not actually be perceived as a good. So other people's failure may well be preferable to an accurate assessment of one's own flaws. And every down-turn in the economy attests to the accuracy of the assumption that other people are lazy and justifies a renewed effort to make them work harder.

Houston's Turn

Hi, it is late but wanted to let you know we chose not to enter the
fray. We had a nice day, cooking stuff from freezer. And cleaning out
box next door and drawing water. We are almost finished filling a huge
assortment of bottles, pails ect. things look a bit better tonight,
though Billie has been weak all night. There are sirens now. Fires I
imagine. Will call Cindy in the morning.

September 23--

Dear Everyone,
This is my plan. We will stay the course of the storm in Houston.
When it passes and it seem feasible we will hit the road.
These are my alternative plans.

Short term,
If we feel it is safer we will go to our neighbors house. \
When we drive out of this I plan to head West

Short term:
Tucson: or Los Alamos

Long term, catch a plane to someone's house, either Cathy or Phil's I
think. Probably Cathy's since we will be in that direction anyway.

I do not want to live without services for too many days and Billie is a
concern.

If I can make it as far as Arizona or New Mexico I think we can get gas.
Hopefully the state and feds will get some into Texas after the storm
and will not be adverse to people leaving the scene.

We are all nervous, but grateful that we didn't get on the road
yesterday. Should have on Wednesday. Yes but that is hindsight.
And it is so damn hard to switch courses in your life particularly twice
in such a short time. I like being home. I got up at 4 am and gathered
up all our food and storm rations and supplies. I have all of us packed
and ready to go at some point or at least live downstairs for a while.
The big problem is we have a lot of old pecan trees and one huge oak on
our property or others. My friend Pat is coming over in a bit to advise
how to make the windows safer. We have gathered our tape and cardboard
and will start putting that up this morning. Also those windows that
have shades I will duck tape them to the window frames. A new paint
job later but might save if winds heavy. I guess I worry most about
flying glass. We will get into the closet under the stair if necessary.

Billie came down this morning and kept looking for Laura. She does keep
her close. Keep the faith if you don't hear for a while. But we will
move. I don't want you to catch us at a shelter on CNN.

If any of you have other suggestions make them now, but understand it is
a very difficult situation. I want you all to ask why there wasn't fuel
set up on Wednesday. This is horrible, Poor Louisiana is going to get
it again and East Texas is going to be a mess.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Jere's folks.

I taked to Jere and Ted about an hour ago. They and Billie
are relocating at this moment to their friend Pat Meisters'
B&B, into a guest suite there. The B&B's windows are boarded
up, so it is much safer. Ted told me they have some (a few?)
cases of bottled water (enough for a few days drinking water
only), but also bathtubs etc. filled with water. It sounds
like, with Pat's help, they are now well prepared to weather
the weather.

Jere now has the address of and driving directions to my house,
and my home and cell phone numbers. I live about 1000 miles
from Houston.

I asked Ted if they have household bleach (he says they do)
told him in a pinch questionable water can be made safe to
drink by adding some bleach to it. What I didn't tell him
is the recipe, so I have added one below.

Stay safe,

********
Disinfecting small quantities of water

Boiling:

Boiling is the best way to kill bacteria, viruses and parasites.
A full boil for at least one minute is recommended. At elevations
over 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) you should boil water for at least
two minutes to disinfect it.

NOTE: This is not appropriate for water that is obviously heavily
polluted, or subject to chemical contamination.

To remove the flat taste of boiled water, leave the boiled water
in a clean covered container for a few hours or pour the cooled
boiled water back and forth from one clean container to another.

Disinfection using chemical methods:

Unscented household bleach (5% chlorine) can sometimes be a good
disinfectant - e.g. when the water is not heavily polluted, or
when beaver fever or cryptosporidiosis are not a concern.

Disinfection using bleach works best with warm water. Add 1 drop
(0.05 mL) of bleach to 1 Litre (quart) of water, shake and allow
to stand for at least 30 minutes before drinking.

Double the amount of bleach for cloudy water, or for cooler water.

A slight chlorine odour should still be noticeable at the end of
the 30 minute waiting period if you have added enough bleach.

The disinfection action of bleach depends as much on the waiting
time after mixing as to the amount used. The longer the water is
left to stand after adding bleach, the more effective the
disinfection process will be.

NOTE: Bleach does not work well in killing off beaver fever
(Giardia) or Cryptosporidium parasites. The amount of bleach
needed to kill these parasites makes the water almost impossible
to drink. If beaver fever or Cryptosporidium are in your water,
boiling is the best way to ensure safe drinking water.

(From http://www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles/hfile49b.stm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Una, thanks very much for the update. I have trying to reach Jere by phone
since yesterday but have been getting all-circuits-busy or
unable-to-complete your call messages.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 24

Thanks for sending out the word on where we would be. I think you are
the last person we talked to before leaving the house for Pat's. We
passed a safe night and checked on the house this morning. Everything
at the house and my neighborhood is good. Electricity, water, and
minimal tree damage. Our area was developed in the early 1900's. the
original houses and businesses schools have survived a lot of weather.
We have many sycamore and pecan trees as well as oak. Most of the trees
are natives and most people only plant native gardens and new trees. So
we are built for staying power. New construction has entered in the
form of the three story jobs that are so popular these days. I have no
idea how they made out.

Billie and I didn't sleep well so have been making up for that since
arriving home. I think all the lifting and twisting and packing finally
caught up with me and my back hurts like a hell this morning. A sure
sign that it is time to lay down a while. Lots to do though and shall
begin.

Thank you all for the concern and willingness to take in the three of
us. We will stay put since we have what we need here and we don't have
the energy at this point for another move.

A word on the bus that exploded. That assisted living place was very
nice. I had talked to them when we were contemplating moving Aunt Anna
here from Kilgore. She was too frail for their services. I recently
called to inquire about a possible spot for Aunt Billie. I decided she
was too frail at this time and that she wanted to return to Covington if
possible. So was putting off any decision till we could revisit family
and friends there. I doubt that I would have let her travel by bus to
Dallas, but I would have considered it as a safer option for her. I just
would not have subjected her to another trip and shelter at this point.

At any rate, she could not make the stairs up to the bedrooms at Pat's
last night so they brought down two mattresses for us. At around 2:30
she needed to go to the bathroom and it was obvious that she was not
going to make it up from the floor too many more times, so I put her on
a sofa, but it was the room next to me, so I slept with an ear out for
her. At some point I just got on the sofa with her, it was roomy, but
we were life two peas in a pod. I would never have expected to end up on
sofa with Billie in the middle of a hurricane. But that is why we both
collapsed on arriving home. The thing about Billie at this point is she
is resigned to what ever fate brings her. She feels safe with Ted and I
and will do what ever we say. There is a deep sadness about her but
still she laughed and joked with a bunch of "queer boys" (her words for
three couples of men who have been partners for many years) who were
rather outrageous at dinner last night. They had all helped to secure
our safe haven. One of the guests was a woman from Marin County
California whose return flight was booked for Saturday at noon and
couldn't get out earlier. She and Billie and Ted and I played gin for
an hour before bedtime. As we were falling asleep last night, Billie
said, "I never thought I would be spending the evening with so many
'queer boys.' They are very nice men." She meant it. They all are nice
men. Two teachers, a realtor, a financial advisor, a house husband who
keeps the B&B running, and an ex-priest turned chaplain. We passed a fun
time, yea. And William Mary was the queen of the fete.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 26, back to normal--thinking about other people

We Don't Exist
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Sunday 25 September 2005

Last weekend, Karl Rove said that I was a clown and the anti-war movement was "non-existent." I wonder if the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up today to protest this war and George's failed policies know that they don't exist. It is also so incredible to me that Karl thinks that he can wish us away by saying we aren't real. Well, Karl and Co., we are real, we do exist and we are not going away until this illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq is over and you are sent back to the depths of whatever slimy, dark, and loathsome place you came from. I may be a clown, Karl, but you are about to be indicted. You also preside over one of the biggest three-ring, malevolent circuses of all time: the Bush administration.

The rally today was overwhelming and powerful. The reports that I was arrested today were obviously false. The peace rally was mostly very peaceful. Washington, DC was filled with energetic and proud Americans who came from all over to raise their voices in unison against the criminals who run our government and their disastrous policies that are making our nation more vulnerable to all kinds of attacks (natural and "Bush"-made disasters).

I led the march for peace alongside such venerable activists as the Reverends Al Sharpton, Bob Edgars, and Jesse Jackson Jr., and Julian Bond. Two of our Congresswomen with cajones from California, Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, also led the march.

Many people told me thank you for coming. I want to tell America "Thank you!!" At the Camp Casey reunion this evening, I was so overcome with emotion and gratitude that I wanted to hug every citizen of this country. We in the Camp Casey movement are so proud and thrilled that America showed up in such great numbers.

So much happened today! I am exhausted but very content. I am again filled with a renewed sense of hope that we will get our country back and get our troops home. I was also thrilled at the number of young people who came out today. That is another great sign that the side of good is winning.

With the Reverends, we stopped in front of the White House and said a prayer. After the prayer, I said that we are light and they are darkness. Darkness can NEVER overcome the light, ever. As long as there is one spark, the darkness has lost. We will prevail, we will be victorious. The darkness has lost because our beacons of peace and truth are shining for the entire world to see. And it is a very pretty sight. Take that Karl.

No Apple for Cindy

Be ashamed New York, be very ashamed

NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan
City?s Finest pulls move even Bush wouldn?t have tried

by Sarah Ferguson
September 19th, 2005 5:54 PM

Cindy Sheehan may be the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement. But that didn't stop members of the New York Police Department from marching into the crowd of about 150 people gathered in Union Square Monday to hear her speak and yanking away the microphone.

The NYPD pulled the plug just as Sheehan was calling on the audience not to lose heart in the fight to end the war in Iraq.

"We get up every morning, and every morning we see this enormous mountain in front of us," said Sheehan, speaking on behalf of the other parents and family members of fallen soldiers who have taken up the crusade to bring the troops home.

"We can't go through it, we can't go under it, so we have to go over it," she continued, just as the cops rushed the makeshift podium.

http://villagevoice.com/news/0538,fergusonshee,67983,2.html

Hard to be a Republican

Demetrius' genius!!!!!!

and then there was Subway

"Hard to be a Republican"

If I think of all the things I've got
The work of all my life
Multi-million dollar house
Preppy kids and trophy wife

I thank those country stars
That shill for me today
I've got the flag to wrap up in
as I push the poor away

And It's hard to be a Republican
'Cause the best things just aren't free
So a yellow ribbon for those who died
adorns my S-U-V

And I'd gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
'Cept I've got other priorities
and a pimple on my A.

From estates down in Florida
In gated communities
Vacation ranch in Texas
You'll find proud GOP

Screw Detroit and Chicago
and New York and LA
The blue that flows there's not the blood
So screw 'em all, I say

And It's hard to be a Republican
'Cause the best things just aren't free
So a yellow ribbon for those who died
adorns my S-U-V

And I'd gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
'Cept I've got other priorities
and a pimple on my A.

And It's hard to be a Republican
'Cause the best things just aren't free
So a yellow ribbon for those who died
adorns my S-U-V

And I'd gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
'Cept I've got other priorities
and a pimple on my A.

http://www.walkthroughlife.com/midis/christian/GodBlesstheUSA.mid

***********************************************************

When tomorrow all the things are gone,
We've worked for all our lives,
And the right has saved the nation,
From homosexuals and their wives,

I'll wish on every star,
We'd had Clinton here today,
Or wish to hear that Howard scream,
And make it go away!

And it's hard to be a Republican,
Where I thought my lunch was free.
And I can't believe the spinmeisters,
Who sold that crap to me.

And I'd gladly stand up if I could,
But they'd haul my ass away.
'Cause there ain't no doubt I bought their scam,
And screwed the USA.

From the words of Bill O'Reilly,
That I heard on my tv,
From Novak and Rush Limbaugh,
It all made sense to me.

The Liberals and the Feminists,
Were the ones we had to blame.
But my best friend drowned in sewage,
And the Bush response was lame.

And it's hard to be a Republican,
Where I thought my lunch was free.
And I can't believe the spinmeisters,
Who sold that crap to me.

And I'd gladly stand up If I could,
But they'd haul my ass away.
'Cause there ain't no doubt I bought their scam,
And screwed the USA.

Faces of Katrina

Kyanna Smith and her stepsister Regine Walker live in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Kyanna is looking for her brother?s Pernell and Jermaine Smith and her sister Kylia Smith. To contact Kyanna and Regine call the Bayou Black Recreation Center at (985) 876-4270 or (985) 876-4723.

The Houma, LA paper has a photogallery of Katrina survivors

http://www.houmatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=HC&Date=20050906&Category=PHOTOGALLERY06&ArtNo=906001&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=3

Not all the faces showing up are hearwarming:

These three pro-Big Oil, anti-environmental Congressmen do not
represent their state. Instead, Jeff Miller, Cliff Stearns, and Michael
Bilirakis, represent their masters, the big donors to their
campaigns. Behind them, from left to right, one of the 20 oil
platforms destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, oil spill cleanup
efforts on a beach and a duch who was polluted by a spill.

Kimmy Does a Rant

Hi guys!! Good morning Monica!

Have been so so so friggin' busy with the kids / work I don't have a clue about whats going on politically. I swear to god.. I'm grossing myself out and will catch up immediatly, starting here!

BUT

I just had to pop in and comment on the ugh.. cruise...

Ummm..Well..anyone have any diamond earrings I can borrow to go on said cruise because umm..I'm just NOT going on a CRUISE without 'em!!!

Sheeeeeeeeeesh that is just... thats.. buckwild. Okay I'll leave it at that and I hope everyone has a beautifully informed day

xoxo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
hi Kimmy! oh, no! are you saying I have to wear those things to get on the cruise? Monica, I might not be able to accept your kind offer of a ticket - I DON'T HAVE DIAMOND EARRINGS! maybe if I borrow a pair of cubic zarconias...

Kimmy, honey, perhaps you're thinking of a BIG, LUXURIOUS BOAT, when you think of a cruise on my lake? lol! click for pics!

http://www.lakechamplaincruises.com/gallery.htm#

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...kimmy wrote on September 19, 2005 06:11 AM:

Jo*in*Vermont wrote on September 19, 2005 06:05 AM
hahahahahahaha

I TOTALLY WAS!! Cruise is like.. going to Jamaica, Walt Disney Resort, some beautiful tiki-d out land o' exotica or something to me.. I dunno *shrug& hehehe

One look at that and I decided to brush my teeth and try going to bed one more time. I thought I landed on a GOP site or somethin'...

Yeah, yeah it pays to know what the hell you're talking about and all that..a friggin' lake..who knew?!

And thanks Monica!

What would I do without you guys?!
hehehehe

Back to that bed thing! *friggin' mumble mumble bad word mumble insomnia!*
arrrrrrrrgh

Yeah, yeah it pays to know what the hell you're talking about and all that..a friggin' lake..who knew?!
__________________________
Of course it says LAKE on that logo..

whatever. ;)

Goodnight!!

http://www.dfalink.com/fallcruise

Umpire Roberts

And now a word from the spouse:

At a recent Senate confirmation hearing, Judge Roberts took a swing at a question by claiming that he would, as Chief Justice, be an umpire rather than a player.

As the founder and (as yet) only member of CHASM (Concerned Humanists Against Sports Metaphors), I invite other acrimonious acronymics to join a coalition. Let SPASM (Serious People Against Sports Metaphors) and ORGASM (Outraged Radical Gays Against Sports Metaphors) and all the other -asms huddle together and hold the line against such gamey rhetoric. Only through teamwork . . . oh, never mind.

Julian Smith

I SCREAM --redux

I SCREAM

YOU SCREAM

WE ALL SCREAM FOR NEW ORLEANS

The first Howard Dean campaign for the presidency came to a premature end in part because the major media managed to reduce his efforts to a rallying cry he uttered after his first outing in Iowa.

For some of us, that rallying cry became a sort of mantra. Union workers in New Mexico used it to identify their interests with his.

Now, it strikes me as appropriate that the nation will not only benefit from being reminded that Howard Dean, whatever the occasion of his scream, was right, but it needs to set up a scream of its own. There has been a lot to scream about and, unfortunately, if past is prologue, there will be more to come. Because the people who brought us the disaster in Iraq, are gearing up to make the disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama worse.

Which is why, when the citizens from all over the country march on Washington this September 24, they should make sure their lungs are in good shape and come prepared to let out a scream for peace and justice that will be heard around the globe, especially in Baghdad and New Orleans.

Should Have Known

When an agency of our government puts out the kind of drivel DHS has on its site, there's no question we're going to be in trouble. But why is it that the very people who made sport of the Soviet attempt to plan, can't seem to recognize that words on paper just don't cut it with Mother Nature?

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=60&content=306

Hazard Mitigation

Planning Ahead in Case of Disaster

Hazard mitigation is sustained action to alleviate or eliminate risks to life and property from natural or man-made hazard events. Through such actions as sound land use planning and landscape design, adoption of building codes, property acquisition and relocation outside of floodplains, mitigation activities can protect critical community facilities to assure functionality following an event, reduce exposure to liabilities, and minimize disruptions to the community. A goal of mitigation is to decrease the need for a response as opposed to increasing the response capability. In-turn, hazard mitigation activities may reduce post-disaster expenditures across all levels of government and to property owners.

Mitigation can be best implemented through three stages of the disaster cycle: planning, response, and recovery. Some of the work in the planning stages before a disaster includes building public awareness of mitigation techniques, creating state and local hazard mitigation plans, integrating hazard mitigation criteria into comprehensive plans, and engineering public facilities to withstand the effects of an event. Immediately following an event, typical response phase activities include evacuation activities and location of emergency equipment and supplies out of high-risk areas. Through lessons learned, recovery activities following an event may include relocation or retrofitting.

Much as already been accomplished in the hazard mitigation arena at all levels of government and withi

n the public and private sector. However, these accomplishments have been replaced by future challenges. Working with our state, local and private partners we hope to be contributing players in moving our communities towards meeting those challenges.

Mark Fiore on NO

http://www.markfiore.com/animation/gras.html

Jere Speaks Her Mind

Since George the Lesser is unlikely to read his mail, it only seems fair to publish it for the world to see.

Are they keeping all the e-mails in the White House like they are supposed to?

Sister-woman's are certainly worth it.

Dear President Bush,

I am a 64 year old woman from Houston. I have never missed voting in an election since I turned 21, the legal age, at that time. I had to take a test in order to vote, a tricky test. I want you to know how much I honor the power of the vote.

I am writing to you to strongly urge you to meet with Cindy Sheehan and speak with her. Listen to her. Listen with your heart to a woman who has made the ultimate sacrifice for a war that you have supported and pushed for. I would hate to see anything happen to Ms. Sheehan, like her being roughed up or arrested. I think that would awaken a very strong populous.

It is time for you to begin to really engage with the people of this country. Your pat little sound bites and pat answers to everything are not serving your agenda or the American people. Please do speak to this woman. Perhaps then you could become what you have always wanted to appear as, a compassionate man. Like so many other mothers and grandmothers I will be watching. There are all kinds of prisons, Mr. President. I think you have found yours. But you hold the key to freedom.

*********************************************************************************************

Dear Mr. President,

The news of the inflated resume of Mr. Brown is disturbing. You appointed a man who was not only unqualified to head up this agency, he has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the complexities of getting the help to the people and governments that have been affected by Katrina. His actions have compounded the misery and suffering and the deaths of many people. How could you be so callous, self serving, to allow this injustice to happen. Are you truly stupid? Are do you just not care? It is time to stand up and be a man. Fire the man, and hire someone who is qualified. You seem to have finally chosen someone to run thing in the disaster zone, now get someone with some smarts and qualifications in Washington. He is probably sitting behind a desk there already, weeping in frustration.

I want to know where the FBI was? Where was Congress? Where were the real Christian churches?

This is what I want you to really get. People are losing trust, Republicans too, in the Federal Government. You have destroyed American confidence. Allow reporters in to New Orleans to observe the forces picking up the dead. This needs to be documented. Everything you do from now on needs to be documented and held up to the light of day for public scrutiny. You are all there is right now. I am praying for your almighty soul and the soul of the United States and its people. Grow up now, be a man and take your licks.

Winifred S. Pfister

Native of Covington, LA, born and married in New Orleans, four children born in New Orleans, family buried in New Orleans.

Day 16

While Mr Hollingsworth lay on a couch in his home -- apparently alone, forgotten, without food or water, sinking into unconsciousness -- Mr Bush was doing the following :

Golfing

Licking cake frosting off his fingers

Strumming a guitar

Giving a propaganda speech in San Diego comparing Iraq to WWII and himself to FDR

Flying 2,000 feet overhead

Dragging his feet - sitting on his LAZY ASS - for FIVE LONG DAYS, while he and his gov't were in a state of PARALYSIS

Telling that horse's ass, 'Brownie you're doing a heck of a job'

Engaging in a pissing match with the Governor of Louisiana

Playing the Blame Game to try to pin his own inaction and negligence on everyone else

Taking full responsibility for the federal government failure to save people like Mr Hollingsworth ( Will Mr Bush receive consequences for his deadly inaction ? WILL HE ? )

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/14/12516/3649

NO Report

directNIC has been maintaining the

Survival of New Orleans Blog

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

and offers this vignette of how the rescues went:

Monday, September 12th, 2005
5:05 pm
Robert LeBlanc
Information and stories from Robert LeBlanc as passed on to me by a friend.

Jeff Rau, a family and now personal friend to whom I will forever be linked, and I were volunteering with a boat and pulling people out of the water on Wednesday. I have a first-hand experience of what we encountered. In my opinion, everything that is going on in the media is a complete bastardization of what is really happening. The result is that good people are dying and losing family members. I have my own set of opinions about welfare and people working to improve thier own lot instead of looking for handouts, but what is occurring now is well beyond those borders. These people need help and need to get out. We can sort out all of the social and political issues later, but human beings with any sense of compassion would agree that the travesty that is going on here in New Orleans needs to end and people's lives need to be saved and families need to be put back together.

Now. I will tell you that I would probably disagree with most of the people that still need to be saved on political, social, and cultural values. However, it must be noted that these people love thier friends and families like I do, desire to live like I do, and care for their respective communities (I was even amazed at the site of seemingly young and poor black people caring for sickly and seemingly well-to-do white people and tourists still needing evacuation from New Orleans' downtown area) the same way I care for mine.

Eight people in particular who stood out during our rescue and whose stories deserve to be told:

1.) We were in motor boats all day ferrying people back and forth approximately a mile and a half each way (from Carrolton down Airline Hwy to the Causeway overpass). Early in the day, we witnessed a black man in a boat with no motor paddling with a piece of lumber. He rescued people in the boat and paddled them to safety (a mile and a half). He then, amidst all of the boats with motors, turned around and paddled back out across the mile and a half stretch to do his part in getting more people out. He refused to give up or occupy any of the motored boat resources because he did not want to slow us down in our efforts. I saw him at about 5:00 p.m., paddling away from the rescue point back out into the neighborhoods with about a half mile until he got to the neighborhood, just two hours before nightfall. I am sure that his trip took at least an hour and a half each trip, and he was going back to get more people knowing that he'd run out of daylight. He did all of this with a two-by-four.

2.) One of the groups that we rescued were 50 people standing on the bridge that crosses over Airline Hwy just before getting to Carrolton Ave going toward downtown. Most of these people had been there, with no food, water, or anyplace to go since Monday morning (we got to them Wed afternoon) and surrounded by 10 feet of water all around them. There was one guy who had been there since the beginning, organizing people and helping more people to get to the bridge safely as more water rose on Wednesday morning. He did not leave the bridge until everyone got off safely, even deferring to people who had gotten to the bridge Wed a.m. and, although inconvenienced by loss of power and weather damage, did have the luxury of some food and some water as late as Tuesday evening. This guy waited on the bridge until dusk, and was one of the last boats out that night. He could have easily not made it out that night and been stranded on the bridge alone.

3.) The third story may be the most compelling. I will not mince words. This was in a really rough neighborhood and we came across five seemingly unsavory characters. One had scars from what seemed to be gunshot wounds. We found these guys at a two-story recreational complex, one of the only two-story buildings in the neighborhood. They broke into the center and tried to rustle as many people as possible from the neighborhood into the center. These guys stayed outside in the center all day, getting everyone out of the rec center onto boats. We approached them at approximately 6:30 p.m., obviously one of the last trips of the day, and they sent us further into the neighborhood to get more people out of homes and off rooftops instead of getting on themselves. This at the risk of their not getting out and having to stay in the water for an undetermined (you have to understand the uncertainly that all of the people in these accounts faced without having any info on the resc! ue ef!
forts, how far or deep the flooding was, or where to go if they want to swim or walk out) amount of time. These five guys were on the last boat out of the neighborhood at sundown. They were incredibly grateful, mentioned numerous times 'God is going to bless y'all for this'. When we got them to the dock, they offered us an Allen Iverson jersey off of one of their backs as a gesture of gratitude, which was literally probably the most valuable possession among them all. Obviously, we declined, but I remain tremendously impacted by this gesture.

I don't know what to do with all of this, but I think we need to get this story out. Some of what is being portrayed among the media is happening and is terrible, but it is among a very small group of people, not the majority. They make it seem like New Orleans has somehow taken the atmosphere of the mobs in Mogadishu portrayed in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down," which is making volunteers (including us) more hesitant and rescue attempts more difficult. As a result, people are dying. My family has been volunteering at the shelters here in Houma and can count on one hand the number of people among thousands who have not said "Thank You." or "God Bless You." Their lives shattered and families torn apart, gracious just to have us serve them beans and rice.

If anything, these eight people's stories deserve to be told, so that people across the world will know what they really did in the midst of this devastation. So that it will not be assumed that they were looting hospitals, they were shooting at helicopters. It must be known that they, like many other people that we encountered, sacrificed themselves during all of this to help other people in more dire straits than their own.

It is also important to know that this account is coming from someone who is politically conservative, believes in capitalism and free enterprise, and is traditionally against many of the opinions and stances of activists like Michael Moore and other liberals on most of the hot-topic political issues of the day. Believe me, I am not the political activist. This transcends politics. This is about humanity and helping mankind. We need to get these people out. Save their lives. We can sort out all of the political and social issues later. People need to know the truth of what is going on at the ground level so that they know that New Orleans and the people stranded there are, despite being panicked and desperate, gracious people and they deserve the chance to live. They need all of our help, as well.

This is an accurate account of things. Jeffery Rau would probably tell the same exact stories.

Regards,
Robert LeBlanc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

September 13th, 2005 4:45 pm
Arizona Food Not Bombs shares food with truckers, evacuees

by Emrys / New Orleans Independent Media

After receiving word that over 100 truckers were sitting in a Target parking lot in east Baton Rouge, the AZ Food Not Bombs mobile kitchen showed up with several pots of beans, chili and rice.

We spent a couple hours talking with the semi drivers, who were operating under FEMA to bring water and food into New Orleans ? but, as we saw, all were just sitting in the parking lot waiting for directions. Some had been there for days, some for more than a week, without any food or supplies from the government or any other relief agencies.

Many shared stories of frustration with the bureaucracy of the federal government and FEMA. Dozens of tanker trucks carrying 50,000 gallons of water each were parked in rows, awaiting orders to travel into affected areas and fill up 10-gallon jugs to hand out. Only a few trucks at a time are allowed in, and it takes nearly 24 hours to empty a tanker, leaving the majority of them sitting around doing absolutely nothing.

?They?ve got their thumbs up their asses,? said one driver talking about the incompetence of FEMA.

On the way to the truck staging area, the FNB crew had attempted to feed the Louisiana National Guard at the homeland security complex in Baton Rouge, but were told that they had two cafeterias and were well taken care of.

After spending about two hours serving the truck drivers, the FNB bus headed back across the city to the River Center where a few thousand refugees are still being housed. Our bus arrived about an hour before the 10:00 pm curfew and was able to catch people as they trickled by to stand in a 2-hour long security line to re-enter the shelter.

Many refugees were from New Orleans, some only having left yesterday under the mandatory evacuation, others had been there for over a week. Some had spent time in the Super Dome and recounted horrific stories that nearly brought them to tears. It is a highly emotional scene, as each has their own story of loss and their own vision of hope.

The FNB bus will head out to Covington, a town about an hour east of Baton Rouge where Veterans for Peace is organizing a major shelter. We have made contact with several other areas in eastern Louisiana that need help and supplies, and plan to begin visiting those areas throughout the week.

www.foodnotbombs.net

History in Pictures

http://skogsblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/its-9-11-do-you-know-where-osama-is.html

On Katrina's Front Lines

A Doctor's Message from Katrina's Front Lines
September 7, 2005 · Hemant Vankawala, 34, is a doctor with one of the nine Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) medical groups set up at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, treating evacuees from New Orleans. He is an emergency room physician in Dallas, Texas, and joined a Dallas-based DMAT just two months ago -- just in time for the biggest natural disaster in American history.

Here are excerpts from an e-mail he sent to family, friends and colleagues about his experience:

My team was activated 11 days ago. For the past eight days, I have been living and working at the New Orleans airport, delivering medical care to the Katrina hurricane survivors.

Let me start by saying that I am safe, and after a very rough first week [I] am now better-rested and fed. Our team was the first to arrive at the airport and set up our field hospital. We watched our population grow from 30 DMAT personnel taking care of six patients and two security guards [to] around 10,000 people in the first 15 hours.

These people had had no food or water or security for several days and were tired, frustrated, sick, wet, and heartbroken. People were brought in by trucks, buses, ambulances, school buses, cars and helicopters. We received patients from hospitals, schools, homes ... the entire remaining population of New Orleans, funneled through our doors.

Our little civilian team, along with a couple of other DMAT teams, set up and ran the biggest evacuation this country has ever seen. The numbers are absolutely staggering.

In hindsight, it seems silly that a bunch of civilian yahoos came in and took over the airport and had it up and running -- exceeding its normal operating load of passengers -- with an untrained skeleton crew and generator partial power. But we did what we had to do, and I think we did it well.

Our team has been working the flight line, off-loading helos [helicopters]. Overnight, we turned New Orleans' airport into the busiest helicopter base in the entire world. At any given time, there were at least eight to 10 helos off-loading on the tarmac, each filled with 10 to 40 survivors at a time, with 10 circling to land ... It was a non-stop, never-ending, 24-hour-a-day operation.

The CNN footage does not even begin to do it justice -- the roar of rotor blades, the smell of jet-A [fuel] and the thousands of eyes looking at us for answers, for hope...

Our busiest day, we off-loaded just under 15,000 patients by air and ground. At that time, we had about 30 medical providers and 100 ancillary staff. All we could do was provide the barest amount of comfort care. We watched many, many people die. We practiced medical triage at its most basic -- "black-tagging" the sickest people and culling them from the masses so that they could die in a separate area.

I cannot even begin to describe the transformation in my own sensibilities, from my normal practice of medicine to the reality of the operation here. We were so short on wheelchairs and litters we had to stack patients in airport chairs and lay them on the floor. They remained there for hours, too tired to be frightened, too weak to care about their urine- and stool-soaked clothing, too desperate to even ask what was going to happen next.

Imagine trading single-patient-use latex gloves for a pair of thick leather work gloves that never came off your hands -- then you can begin to imagine what it was like.

We did not practice medicine. There was nothing sexy or glamorous or routine about what we did. We moved hundreds of patients an hour, thousands of patients a day, off the flightline and into the terminal and baggage area. Patients were loaded onto baggage carts and trucked to the baggage area ... like, well, baggage. And there was no time to talk, no time to cry, no time to think, because they kept on coming. Our only salvation was when the bureaucratic Washington machine was able to ramp up and streamline the exodus of patients out of here.

Our team worked a couple of shifts in the medical tent as well. Imagine people so desperate, so sick, so like the five to 10 "true" emergencies you may get on a shift ... only coming through the door non-stop. Now imagine having no beds, no [oxygen], no nothing -- except some nitro, aspirin and all the good intentions in the world.

We did everything from delivering babies to simply providing morphine and a blanket to septic and critical patients, and allowing them to die.

During the days that it took for that exodus to occur, we filled the airport to its bursting point. There was a time when there were 16,000 angry, tired, frustrated people here. There were stabbings, rapes and people on the verge of mobbing. The flightline, lined with two parallel rows of Dauphins, Sea Kings, Hueys, Chinooks and every other kind of helicopter imaginable, was a dangerous place -- but we were much more frightened whenever we entered the sea of displaced humanity that had filled every nook and cranny of the airport.

[It's] only now that the thousands of survivors have been evacuated -- and the floors soaked in bleach, the putrid air allowed to exchange for fresh, the number of soldiers [outnumbering] the patients -- that we feel safe.

I have met so many people while down here -- people who were at Ground Zero at 9-11, people who have done tsunami relief, tours in Iraq -- and every one of them has said this is the worst thing they have ever seen. It's unanimous, and these are some battle-worn veterans of every kind of disaster you can imagine.

For those of you who want to help, the next step is to help [evacuees] who arrive in your local area. The only real medical care these survivors will receive is once they land in a safe, clean area far from here. For the 50,000 people we ran through this airport over the last couple of days -- if they were able to survive and make it somewhere else -- their care will begin only when providers in Dallas and Houston and Chicago and Baton Rouge volunteer at the shelters and provide care.

And yes, there are many, many more on their way. Many of the sickest simply died while here at the airport. Many have been stressed beyond measure and will die shortly, even though they were evacuated. If you are not medical, then go the shelters, hold hands, give hugs and prayers. If nothing else, it will remind you how much you have, and how grateful we all should be.

These people have nothing. Not only have they lost their material possessions and homes, many have lost their children, spouses, parents, arms, legs, vision... everything that is important.

Talk to these survivors, hear their stories and what they have been through. Look into their eyes. You will never think of America the same way. You will never look at your family the same way. You will never look at your home the same way. And I promise, it will forever change the way you practice medicine.

Hemant H. Vankawala, M.D.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``
The perspective of repair crews:

Power crews diverted
Restoring pipeline came first

By Nikki Davis Maute

RANDY SNYDER | Hattiesburg American

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.

That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.

At the time, gasoline was in short supply across the country because of Katrina. Prices increased dramatically and lines formed at pumps across the South.

"I considered it a presidential directive to get those pipelines operating," said Jim Compton, general manager of the South Mississippi Electric Power Association - which distributes power that rural electric cooperatives sell to consumers and businesses.

"I reluctantly agreed to pull half our transmission line crews off other projects and made getting the transmission lines to the Collins substations a priority," Compton said. "Our people were told to work until it was done.

"They did it in 16 hours, and I consider the effort unprecedented."

Katrina slammed into South Mississippi and Southeast Louisiana on Aug. 29, causing widespread devastation and plunging most of the area - including regional medical centers and rural hospitals - into darkness.

The storm also knocked out two power substations in Collins, just north of Hattiesburg. The substations were crucial to Atlanta-based Colonial Pipeline, which moves gasoline and diesel fuel from Texas, through Louisiana and Mississippi and up to the Northeast.

"We were led to believe a national emergency was created when the pipelines were shut down," Compton said.

White House call

Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney's office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.

Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Mike Callahan said the U.S. Department of Energy called him on Aug. 31. Callahan said department officials said opening the fuel line was a national priority.

Cheney's office referred calls about the pipeline to the Department of Homeland Security. Calls there were referred to Kirk Whitworth, who would not take a telephone message and required questions in the form of an e-mail.

Susan Castiglione, senior manager of corporate and public affairs with Colonial Pipeline, did not return phone calls.

Compton said workers who were trying to restore substations that power two rural hospitals - Stone County Hospital in Wiggins and George County Hospital in Lucedale - worked instead on the Colonial Pipeline project.

The move caused power to be restored at least 24 hours later than planned.

Mindy Osborn, emergency room coordinator at Stone County Hospital, said the power was not restored until six days after the storm on Sept. 4. She didn't have the number of patients who were hospitalized during the week after the storm.

"Oh, yes, 24 hours earlier would have been a help," Osborn said.

Compton said workers who were trying to restore power to some rural water systems also were taken off their jobs and placed on the Colonial Pipeline project. Compton did not name specific water systems affected.

Callahan's visit

Callahan is one of three elected public service commissioners who oversee most public utilities in the state. Commissioners, however, have no authority over rural electric power cooperatives.

Nevertheless, Callahan said he drove to Compton's office on U.S. 49 North in Hattiesburg to tell him about the call from the Department of Energy. Callahan said he would support whatever decision Compton made.

Callahan said energy officials told him gasoline and diesel fuel needed to flow through the pipeline to avert a national crisis from the inability to meet fuel needs in the Northeast.

Callahan said the process of getting the pipelines flowing would be difficult and that there was a chance the voltage required to do so would knock out the system - including power to Wesley Medical Center in Hattiesburg.

With Forrest General Hospital operating on generators, Wesley was the only hospital operating with full electric power in the Pine Belt in the days following Katrina.

"Our concern was that if Wesley went down, it would be a national crisis for Mississippi," Callahan said. "We knew it would take three to four days to get Forrest General Hospital's power restored and we did not want to lose Wesley."

Compton, though, followed the White House's directive.

Nathan Brown, manager of power supply for the electric association, was responsible for overseeing the delicate operation of starting the 5,000-horsepower pumps at the pipeline.

Engineers with Southern Co., the parent company of Mississippi Power Co., did a dual analysis of what it would take to restore power and Brown worked with Southern Co. engineers on the best and quickest way to restore power.

Work began at 10 a.m. Sept. 1 and power was restored at 2 a.m. Sept. 2 - a 16-hour job.

Night work

A good bit of the work took place at night.

Line foreman Matt Ready was in charge of one of the teams that worked to power the substations and the pipeline. Ready's shift started at 6 a.m. Sept. 1; he received word about the job four hours later and saw it to completion.

"We were told to stay with it until we got power restored," Ready said. "We had real safety issues because there were fires in the trees on the lines and broken power poles."

Ready described working on the lines in the dark like attempting to clear fallen trees out of a yard with a flashlight and a chain saw.

"Everything was dangerous," he said.

Ready said the crew members did not learn they were restoring power to pipelines until after the job was done.

How did they feel about that?

"Is this on the record?" Ready asked. "Well, then, we are all glad we were able to help out."

Compton said he was happy to support the national effort. But he said it was a difficult decision to make because of the potential impact in the region had the plan not worked and the area's power restoration was set back days.

"It was my decision to balance what was most important to people in South Mississippi with this all-of-a-sudden national crisis of not enough gas or diesel fuel," Compton said.

"In the future, the federal government needs to give us guidelines if this is such a national emergency so that I can work that in my plans."

Originally published September 11, 2005

Update from Houston

Houston is doing a wonderful job.  The people are generous and we have
lots of apartment space evidently.  We have a good mayor who has a
successful business background.  The plan is to move everyone out of
shelters by next week.  Will that work, I don't know. The mega and
smaller churches are chipping in. 

Houston has its own poor and people
need to remember them.  The Houston Chronicle's editorial today was
about Texas providing a month of free medicine to PWAs and birth control
and family planning for women, prescription drugs to any one from the
Katrina zone.  It asks about why we aren't providing those benefits to
our own citizens and why there have been so many cut backs in mental
health.  Services are set to be restored December 1, but what about now.
None of this is any good if it is just short term.  How much of the
country really realizes the extent of this disaster.  Will there be a
movement to make the whole country more people friendly.  I read where
the Republicans are pushing for school vouchers to be given out so
parents can get their kids into better schools.  As in faith based. As
in what?  White flight, religious schools are exactly what hurt the
public schools of New Orleans.  No, correction destroyed them.  All of
you parents who are so determined that your children have the best
chance in the world had better start asking, "At what child's expense?"
Close every private school in this country.  Demand that they turn over
their facilities and faculty, administrators to the public sector. 
Also demand that reporters be allowed to travel with the body recovery
teams in New Orleans and Mississippi. 

News from Houston

This is what cronyism has deprived the country of because, of course, it was always expected that people of this caliber would have the resources at the local level to work wonders BEFORE a natural disaster becomes a catastrophe, instead of AFTER.

September 09, 2005
From Texas, a First-Hand Account

I was sent this message from Melissa Noriega, the wife of Texas State Representative Rick Noriega who is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army. Last week, Houston Mayor Bill White appointed him to run operations at the George R. Brown Convention Center (GRB as it's in the letter), which houses 4000 evacuees. Lt. Colonel Noriega just returned from a tour in Afghanistan, and while there his wife Melissa held his seat in the Texas legislature.
My husband, Rick Noriega, humble public servant and state rep extrordinaire, has managed once again to blow me even me away. You all really should see what God, Mayorbill and Col. Rick Noriega have wrought.

The GRB is organized, orderly and automated. When the folks arrive, we cheer and clap for them, whisk away their dirty clothes while they shower and get them squared away. The moms get queensized air mattresses and the single men cots, in different areas, separated by police and National Guard walking around being very present and very nice. Everyone gets a blanket and a pillow, and if they ask, they can have a second one. The sheets are clearly donated and the floor of the GRB is a sea of quilt squares and out-of-style stripes. The generous people of Houston reached into their linen closets and made up the visitors' beds.

There is a chow hall. It is set up with round tables and chairs in groups. There are handwashing stations set up everywhere, with the hand gel to kill germs--so far the group is pretty healthy.There are port-a-potties tucked away from everyone. There is bottled water everywhere. The guests (that's what they are called--NOT refugees or victims) sit down and eat, with plasticware and napkins. There is a schedule for meals, and lots of lines, so folks don't have to stand long.
Upstairs there is a ballroom set up with TWO FULL SIZE parks gym set ups for the children. With chopped rubber chips underneath. If parents need to leave the kiddos to do paperwork or med stuff, they get a wristband that matches the kids and the volunteers will watch them while they play with the toys donated, again by the wonderful people of Housotn.

The middle ballroom is a TV room, with CNN and Fox going--these folks are needing info and news. As I stood in the doorway, a woman pointed at the screen and began to cry. There was a volunteer holding a fat cheeked baby on her shoulder. The mother said she had been under the bridge up on the TV at that moment for 6 days, holding this fat baby until she thought she couldn't hold him one more minute. She said when she got to GRB, a vounteer held the baby until she could shower and put on fresh clothes. She said she waded out from her house to the bridge with her son and two others in a
laundry basket over her head while the water was up to her chin. She was terrifed that she would hit a hole and she and the three babies would all drown.

The third ballroom is a library, with carrels of books, games and activites and a reading area. They just set up a computer lab there, so anyone can check websites or their email. There are also some computers for the older kids. The Parks folks set up both the park room and the library and have done an amazing job with a VERY small crew.

There is a command center, where they are building automated programs to figure out how many beds are left, how many folks they have and who they are. CenterPoint (our Electric Utility and Rick's company) and Second Baptist executives, as well as the City of Houston, folks are front and center, with a smattering of Marathon Oil folks doing the IT stuff with a guy from a mangement consulting firm who is our brother-in-law, Jerry Weisenfelder. He was here all Sat nite automating the whole record system. Incredible.

Mayor White gave Rick what he needed and the authority to do it. Every hour a new challenge arises and they march through it--the Rodeo folks showed up to help, and they got handed the transportation needs--getting families back together, getting people to other locations--and anyone who has been to the Rodeo know what geniuses they are at moving people!

There is a hospital--with mobile vans for dental and X-ray. (Thanks to UT and Mike McKinney.) There is a full size pharmacy (thanks to CVS), with security and staff. All of it has been built in 48 hours.

The City of Houston, CenterPoint, all the hundreds of volunteers, Second Baptist (the "2nd" folks are VERY sharp--Pastor Young lent at least three command staff level folks who are incredible.) The George Brown staff are brilliant and handing hairy things, like med hazardous waste and moving huge groups of people with great competence and a lovely attitude. The fancy Hilton next door is washing the guest clothes and returning them, as well as washing soiled linens. LOTs of babies and very small children.

The fire dept. folk, HPD--all are performing at max with a great attitude. I haven't even begun to name all the groups and individuals that deserve kudos, but there is what amounts to a city under the roof of Houston's George Brown Convention Center, and your son-in-law has done an incredible, magnificent job. I am beyond proud of my husband, grateful to God for the attitude and help everyone has provided, impressed with the City folks and just downright amazed at what has been done so quickly and so well. Next--a school. That stuff starts tomorrow.

This is NOT a permanent solution for these folks--a shelter is not housing, but Houston has risen to the task and has been magnificent. Please remember that this will not be over tomorrow when the news cameras go away and everyone goes back to work. We will need to work this hard to get these folks hooked up with opportunites to work and live again.

Pray for everyone down here--God bless,

Melissa Noriega

NO--September 7, 2005

Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street

By DAN BARRY
Published: September 8, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 7 - In the downtown business district here, on a dry stretch of Union Street, past the Omni Bank automated teller machine, across from a parking garage offering "early bird" rates: a corpse. Its feet jut from a damp blue tarp. Its knees rise in rigor mortis.

The sight of corpses has become almost common on the mostly abandoned streets of New Orleans, as rescue and evacuation operations have taken priority over removing the dead.

Six National Guardsmen walked up to it on Tuesday afternoon and two blessed themselves with the sign of the cross. One soldier took a parting snapshot like some visiting conventioneer, and they walked away. New Orleans, September 2005.

Hours passed, the dusk of curfew crept, the body remained. A Louisiana state trooper around the corner knew all about it: murder victim, bludgeoned, one of several in that area. The police marked it with traffic cones maybe four days ago, he said, and then he joked that if you wanted to kill someone here, this was a good time.

Night came, then this morning, then noon, and another sun beat down on a dead son of the Crescent City.

That a corpse lies on Union Street may not shock; in the wake of last week's hurricane, there are surely hundreds, probably thousands. What is remarkable is that on a downtown street in a major American city, a corpse can decompose for days, like carrion, and that is acceptable.

Welcome to New Orleans in the post-apocalypse, half baked and half deluged: pestilent, eerie, unnaturally quiet.

Scraggly residents emerge from waterlogged wood to say strange things, and then return into the rot. Cars drive the wrong way on the Interstate and no one cares. Fires burn, dogs scavenge, and old signs from les bons temps have been replaced with hand-scrawled threats that looters will be shot dead.

The incomprehensible has become so routine here that it tends to lull you into acceptance. On Sunday, for example, several soldiers on Jefferson Highway had guns aimed at the heads of several prostrate men suspected of breaking into an electronics store.

A car pulled right up to this tense scene and the driver leaned out his window to ask a soldier a question: "Hey, how do you get to the interstate?"

Maybe the slow acquiescence to the ghastly here - not in Baghdad, not in Rwanda, here - is rooted in the intensive news coverage of the hurricane's aftermath: floating bodies and obliterated towns equal old news. Maybe the concerns of the living far outweigh the dignity of a corpse on Union Street. Or maybe the nation is numb with post-traumatic shock.

Wandering New Orleans this week, away from news conferences and search-and-rescue squads, has granted haunting glimpses of the past, present and future, with the rare comfort found in, say, the white sheet that flaps, not in surrender but as a vow, at the corner of Poydras Street and St. Charles Avenue.

"We Shall Survive," it says, as though wishing past the battalions of bulldozers that will one day come to knock down water-corrupted neighborhoods and rearrange the Louisiana mud for the infrastructure of an altogether different New Orleans.

Here, then, the New Orleans of today, where open fire hydrants gush the last thing needed on these streets; where one of the many gag-inducing smells - that of rancid meat - is better than MapQuest in pinpointing the presence of a market; and where images of irony beg to be noticed.

The Mardi Gras beads imbedded in mud by a soldier's boot print. The "take-away" signs outside restaurants taken away. The corner kiosk shouting the Aug. 28 headline of New Orleans's Times-Picayune: "Katrina Takes Aim."

Rush hour in downtown now means pickups carrying gun-carrying men in sunglasses, S.U.V.'s loaded with out-of-town reporters hungry for action, and the occasional tank. About the only ones commuting by bus are dull-eyed suspects shuffling two-by-two from the bus-and-train terminal, which is now a makeshift jail.

Maybe some of them had helped to kick in the portal to the Williams Super Market in the once-desirable Garden District. And who could blame them if all they wanted was food in those first desperate days? The interlopers took the water, beer, cigarettes and snack food. They did not take the wine or the New Orleans postcards.

On the other side of downtown across Canal Street in the French Quarter, the most raucous and most unreal of American avenues is now little more than an empty alley with balconies.

The absence of sweetly blown jazz, of someone cooing "ma chère," of men sporting convention nametags and emitting forced guffaws - the absence of us - assaults the senses more than any smell.

Past the famous Cafe du Monde, where a slight breeze twirls the overhead fans for no one, past the statue of Joan of Arc gleaming gold, a man emerges from nothing on Royal Street. He is asked, "Where's St. Bernard Avenue?"

"Where's the ice?" he asks in return, eyes narrowed in menace. "Where's the ice? St. Bernard's is that way, but where's the ice?"

In Bywater and the surrounding neighborhoods, the severely damaged streets bear the names of saints who could not protect them. Whatever nature spared, human nature stepped up to provide a kind of democracy in destruction.

At the Whitney National Bank on St. Claude Avenue, diamond-like bits of glass spill from the crushed door, offering a view of the complementary coffee table. A large woman named Phoebe Au - "Pronounced 'Awe,' " she says - materializes to report that men had smashed it in with a truck. She fades into the neighborhood's broken brick, and a thin woman named Toni Miller materializes to correct the record.

"They used sledgehammers," she said.

Farther down St. Claude Avenue, where tanks rumble past a smoldering building, the roads are cluttered with vandalized city buses. The city parked them on the riverbank for the hurricane, after which some hoods took them for fare-free joy rides through lawless streets, and then discarded them.

On Clouet Street, where a days-old fire continues to burn where a warehouse once stood, a man on a bicycle wheels up through the smoke to introduce himself as Strangebone. The nights without power or water have been tough, especially since the police took away the gun he was carrying - "They beat me and threatened to kill me," he says - but there are benefits to this new world.

"You're able to see the stars," he says. "It's wonderful."

Today, law enforcement troops began lending muscle to Mayor C. Ray Nagin's vow to evacuate by force any residents too attached to their pieces of the toxic metropolis. They searched the streets for the likes of Strangebone, and that woman whose name sounds like Awe.

Meanwhile, back downtown, the shadows of another evening crept like spilled black water over someone's corpse.

Falls Creek, OK

Now that a few more days have passed since the disasterous aftermath of Katrina, it does seem that FEMA was well prepared with detention facilities for the victims, complete with a cell tower for communications, fire engines, ambulances and a contract to feed up to 5000 detainees at Falls Creek youth camp.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/fema.html

I just got back from a FEMA Detainment Camp
Valhall

The Divine Sibyl
Keeper of the Mystic Fish

I'm extremely depressed to report that things seem to only be getting sadder concerning the people so devastatingly affected by Katrina last week. Two car loads of us headed over to Falls Creek, a youth camp for Southern Baptist churches in Oklahoma that agreed to have its facilities used to house Louisiana refugees. I'm afraid the camp is not going to be used as the kind people of the churches who own the cabins believe it was going to be used.

Jesse Jackson was right when he said "refugees" was not the appropriate word for the poor souls dislocated due to Katrina. But he was wrong about why it is not appropriate. It's not appropriate because they are detainees, not refugees.

Falls Creek is like a small town that is closed down about 9 months out of the year. It is made up of cabins that range from small and humble to large and grandiose, according to how much money the church who owns the cabin has. Each cabin has full kitchen facilities, bathrooms and usually have two large bunkrooms - one for women and one for men. The occupancy of the cabins varies according to the church. This past week the Southern Baptist association of Oklahoma offered the facility as a place to house refugees from the Katrina disaster. Each church owning a cabin was then called to find out if they would make their cabin available. Churches across the state agreed.

I started my journey by loading six large trash bags full of clothes in the back of my beetle buggy. I then went to the local Dollar General and purchased various hygiene products, snacks and even a set of dominoes and a deck of cards. I had my daughter take her own shopping cart and go and select her own items that she wanted to take. I told her to imagine herself without anything in the world and then select what she would need to live every day.

We then met up with my elderly parents who had gone to the Dollar Store themselves, and to the grocery store and had spent WAY too much of their limited social security on the venture. But that's okay. We ended up having to take both vehicles on the 150 mile round trip because they were both pretty full. My son showed up and wanted to go. He drove my parents while my daughter and I rode in my car.

To say we all left with excitement would be appropriate. My 78 year old mother is a "fixer". She loves to help people and she absolutely needs some one to dote over. That she was about to be able to help some people who had lost all in their lives had her feeling physically healthier than I've seen her in days. I was glad to get the chance to actively do something other than donate what little I can to some faceless charity hoping it would get to the people who needed it. I felt glad I could do some small something that might cut through the helplessness I've felt over this situation. Both of my kids were eager to assist.

The only odd thing that occurred prior to setting off happened while I was gassing up in our small town. My daughter was pumping the gas and a lady she knew pulled up to an adjacent pump. My daughter started telling her where we were going and that we were taking things to the refugees. The lady told my daughter that she had been told the Red Cross was not allowing any one to deliver supplies. When I returned to the car from paying for the gas my daughter informed of this. I told her that the Red Cross would not be preventing the members of our church from entering our own cabin, so it really didn't matter. It was at that point we decided to stop back by the house and get my daughter's camera so that she could take pictures if required.

From the moment I heard about Falls Creek being scheduled to receive refugees I had two thoughts run through my mind:

1. What a beautiful place to be able to stay while trying to get your life back in order.

2. What a terrible location to be when you're trying to get your life back in order.

The first thought is because Falls Creek is nestled in the Arbuckle Mountains of south central Oklahoma. One of the more beautiful regions of the state. It would be a peaceful and beautiful place to try to start mending emotionally, and begin to figure what you're going to do next.

The second thought comes because Falls Creek is very secluded and absolutely no where near a population center. The closest route from Falls Creek to a connecting road is three miles on a winding narrow road called "High Road" (It gets that name for two reasons - it's goes over the mountain instead of around it like "Low Road" does, and it's where the teenagers of the area go to party). The road has not a single home on it for over 3 miles. After battling that 3 miles over mountains, you'll find yourself about 5 miles from the nearest town, Davis, Oklahoma, population ca. 2000. This is no place to start a new life.

[...]

All of sudden the landscape changed from picturesque mountainous rural America, to something foreign to me as we approached the rear gate of the camp. Two Oklahoma State Patrol vehicles and four Oklahoma Troopers guarded the gate. We started through and they stopped us.

"Can I help you, ma'am?"

I informed him we're here to deliver supplies to *our church's name* cabin. He stood silent and stared at me. My daughter turned and snapped a picture of his vehicle - very conspicuously.

I smiled at him and he asked, "Do you know where that cabin is located?"

I informed him I did. He looked at me a bit longer and then said, "Ok" and stepped away from the car. They stopped my parents' vehicle as well, but I assume my son informed them he was with us. They let them pass.

We made our way through the narrow streets toward our church's cabin.

We noticed that the various church cabins had numbered placards on them that normally weren't there.

We arrived at our cabin and started toting the clothes in. We finally found a group of men upstairs in the dorms trying to do something alien to them - make beds. They had almost completed the room of bunk beds and told us we could go over to the ladies' dorm room and start on it. We lugged our sacks of clothes back down the stairs. Then we got the first negative message. "You can't bring any clothes in. FEMA has stated they will accept no more clothes. They've had 30 people sorting clothes for days. They don't want anymore." My mind couldn't help but go back over the news articles that have accused FEMA of refusing water in to Jefferson Parrish, or turning fuel away.

We lugged the bags of clothes back to the car. We then turned to bringing in our personal hygiene products. That's when we learned our cabin had been designated a "male only" cabin. Approximately 40 men, ranging from age 13 on up would be housed there. We started resacking the female products and sorted out everything that would be useful for men.

We lugged the bags of female products back to the car. We asked if they knew of a cabin that had been designated for women. The "host" (the hosts are Oklahoma civilians who have been employeed??? by FEMA to reside at each cabin and have already gone through at least one "orientation" meeting conducted by FEMA at "BASE" which is some unknown but repetitively referred location within the camp) told us he believed McAlester cabin was dedicated to females. He then explained there were male, female and family cabins designated.

We then started lugging in our food products. The foods I had purchased were mainly snacks, but my mother - God bless her soul - had gone all out with fresh vegetables, fruits, canned goods, breakfast cereals, rice, and pancake fixings. That's when we got the next message: They will not be able to use the kitchen.

Excuse me? I asked incredulously.

FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...

it could cause a riot.

It gets worse.

He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months.

My son looks at me and mumbles "Welcome to Krakow."

My mother then asked if the churches would be allowed to come to their cabin and conduct services if the occupants wanted to attend. The response was "No ma'am. You don't understand. Your church no longer owns this building. This building is now owned by FEMA and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. They have it for the next 5 months." This scares my mother who asks "Do you mean they have leased it?" The man replies, "Yes, ma'am...lock, stock and barrel. They have taken over everything that pertains to this facility for the next 5 months."

We then lug all food products requiring cooking back to the car. We start unloading our snacks. Mom appeared to have cornered the market in five counties on pop-tarts and apparently that was an acceptable snack so the guy started shoving them under the counter. He said these would be good to tied people over in between their two meals a day. But he tells my mother she must take all the breakfast cereal back. My mother protests that cereal requires no cooking. "There will be no milk, ma'am." My mother points to the huge industrial double-wide refrigerator the church had just purchased in the past year. "Ma'am, you don't understand...

It could cause a riot."

He then points to the vegetables and fruit. "You'll have to take that back as well. It looks like you've got about 10 apples there. I'm about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?"

My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, "Quarter them?"

"No ma'am. FEMA said no...

It could cause a riot. You don't understand the type of people that are about to come here...."

I turn and walk out of the room...lugging all the healthy stuff back to the car. My son later tells me the man went on to say "We've already been told of teenage girls delivering fetuses on buses." My son steps toward him and says "That's because they've almost been starved to death, haven't had a decent place to get a good night's sleep, and their bodies can't keep a baby alive. I'm not sure that's any evidence some one should be using to show these are 'bad people'."

We then went to the second dorm room and made up beds. When we got through and were headed outside the host says to me and my daughter, "How did you get in here?" I told him we came in through the back gate. He replies, "No, HOW did you get in here? No one who doesn't have credentials showing is supposed to be in here." (I had noticed all the "hosts" had two or three badges hanging around their necks.) I told him it might have had something to do with the fact my daughter was snapping pictures of the OHP presence at the gate. He then tells us, "Well, starting in the morning NO ONE comes in. So if you have further goods you want to donate you will have to take them to your local church. They will collect them until they have a full load and then bring them to the front gate."

Me and my two kids then walked over the hill to the camp's amphitheater.

The amphitheater is full of clothes (but I'm not sure I'm seeing enough for 5000 people for 5 months).

But there was more...an Oklahoma Department of Safety truck and a military vehicle...

and a cell phone tower (which fretling didn't get a pic of...grrr). Falls Creek, because it sits in a "bowl" surrounded by mountains, is notorious for no cell phone coverage.

There were buses coming in the front gate at about a rate of 1 every 2 or 3 minutes. We could hear them below us as we walked back up the hill. We could also see their white tops through the trees. We figured these were busloads of refugees arriving, but we never saw these buses in the camps, nor were any refugees visible at the camp while we were there.

We then loaded back into our vehicles and headed toward the cabin we had been told was for women so that we could off-load our appropriate products. When we arrived there was no one in the cabin so we preceded to unload our vehicles and take the merchandise in to the cabin. A horde of "hosts" who had been hovering at a nearby cabin head toward us.

"Can we help you?"

I explained to them what we were doing.

"Uhh... you can't just leave donated goods in the cabins. FEMA has stated they want all supplies to go to their central warehouse. They said they have had far too many supplies come in and they need to handle them. You can't leave ANY clothes."

I just stared at them.

One chubby-checker, after several moments of pregnant pause broken only by the sound of my 82 year old dad continuing to shuffle boxes out of the back of his car (GO DAD!), says "I'll call "BASE" and confirm what should happen here."

I continue to stare.

He pounds out the number on his cell phone and when some one picks up he chickens out and just asks "I need to verify that cabin 11 is a female only facility." When he hangs up he says that it is and I respond, "Well, good, we'll get on with this then." It's at that point my son pulls me aside and says, "Every damned one of them have the same phone. That's what the comm tower is for at the amphitheater. Now we know how FEMA runs through billions, they've given every one of these people a Cingular phone when walkie-talkies would have worked just fine."

We off-load our goods into the McAlester cabin. Fretling takes pics of the buckets of toys that have been donated by citizens for the kiddos coming this way.
[...]

We then start out of the camp. I tell my daughter I want to go out the main gate this time. Here is what we saw on the way out:

This cabin was apparently commandeered by a group of people in navy blue jumpsuits with insignias all over them. You can see them in the left side of this pic. But they were standing all over the place on both sides of the narrow street.

[...]

Talk about a surreal moment...troops (unknown if Regular or National Guard) have taken up residency in the Durant First Baptist Church cabin very near the main gate of the camp.

Two things to point out in the pictures above...we passed a row of about 6 or 8 ambulances parked in the street just in front of the troop cabin, and the large tent on the top of the hill...we have no idea what that is for.

Now I'm starting to understand why it doesn't matter that this location is not conducive to starting a new life.

Green Report--II

Although this report is by the people from A.N.S.W.E.R, it's anchored in the report from Algiers. Ergo the title.

If you keep in mind that the conservative prejudice is the belief that the sole function of government is to control a potentially unruly population, then what we are seeing is what we should have expected. To a certain extent, while Iraq is Vietnam redux, New Orleans is Iraq redux. The purpose of government is to establish order and to make itself comfortable.

On Saturday September 3, award-winning filmmaker Gloria La Riva, internationally-acclaimed photographer Bill Hackwell and A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth & Student Coordinator Caneisha Mills, a senior at Howard University, arrived in New Orleans. The following is an eyewitness report of the crisis in the area written on Sunday, September 4.

Algiers While 80 percent of New Orleans was submerged in water, Algiers is one of the few districts that have been spared the worst of the flooding as it sits higher than most of the city. An historic district established in 1719, Algiers is on the west bank of the Mississippi river, across from the French Quarter.

Probably 15% of the residents still remain behind, most of them determined to stay in their homes. The majority of homes are still intact, although many have suffered damage. While their houses survived, the peoples? chance of survival seemed very bleak since there was no electricity or disbursement of food, water or other supplies. We arrived in the Algiers district of New Orleans after getting through seven checkpoints.

We quickly learned that the current media reports that relief and aid have finally arrived to New Orleans are as false as all earlier reports that also had as their origin government sources. The people in the Algiers area have received nothing or next to nothing since the Hurricane struck. Left without any way to escape, people are now struggling to survive in the aftermath.

Now they are being told they have to abandon their homes, even though they want to stay. They are not being given what they need to stay and survive, and are being told they must leave. ?Imagine being in a city, poor, without any money and all of a sudden you are told to leave and you don?t even have a bicycle,? stated Malik Rahim, a community activist in the Algiers section of New Orleans. ?90% of the people don?t even have cars.?

One woman told us it was not possible for her to evacuate. She said, ?I can?t leave. I don?t have a car and I have nine children.? She and her husband are getting by with the help of several men in the community who are joining resources to provide for their neighbors. The government claims that people can get water, but residents have to travel at least 17 miles to the nearest water and ice distribution center. Only one case of water is available per family. Countless people have no way to drive.

While the government is touting the deployment of personnel to the area, there is a huge military and police presence but none of it to provide services. All of them, north and south of the river, are stationed in front of private buildings and abandoned stores, protecting private property. The goods that the government personnel are bringing in are for their own forces. They are not distributing provisions to people who desperately need them.

Not one of them has delivered water to Algiers or gone to the houses to see if sick or elderly people need help. There is no door-to-door survey to see who was injured. The overwhelming majority of people who have stayed in Algiers are Black but some are white. One man in his late 50s in Algiers pointed across the street to a 10-acre grassy lot. It looks like a beautiful park. He said, ?I had my daughter call FEMA. I told them I want to donate this land to the people in need. They could set up 100 tractor trailers with aid, they could set up tents. No one has ever called me back.? He is clearly angry. Although some of the residents do express fear of burglaries into houses, acts of heroism, sacrifice and solidarity are evident everywhere.

Steve, a white man in his 40s, knocks on Malik?s front door. He tells us, ?Malik has kept this neighborhood together. We don?t know what we?d do without his help.? He has come in because he needs to use the phone. Malik?s street is the only one with phones still working. Malik and three of his friends have been delivering food, water and ice to those in need three times a day, searching everywhere for goods.

There is a strong suspicion among the residents that the government has another agenda in the deliberately forced removal of people from Algiers, even though this particular neighborhood is not under water and is intact. Algiers is full of quaint, historic French-style houses, with a high real estate value, and the residents know that the government and real estate forces would like to lay their hands on their neighborhood to push forward gentrification which is already evident.

Downtown New Orleans
Although entry is prohibited into downtown New Orleans north and east of the Mississippi, we were able to get in on Sunday.

The Superdome is still surrounded by water and all types of military helicopters, army trucks, etc are coming in and out of the area; however, most of the people who survived have already left. On US-90, the only road out of New Orleans, convoys of National Guard troops are pouring into the city, too late for many. According to an emergency issue of The Times-Picayune, 16,000 National Guard troops now occupy the city.

Thousands of troops are in New Orleans but water is premium and still not available. One African American couple we met looking for water told us, ?We have four kids. When they told us to leave before the hurricane we couldn?t. We have no car and no money.? Undoubtedly it is similar in the other states that got the direct hit of Katrina, Mississippi and Alabama. On the radio we hear reports of completely demolished towns. What differentiates the rest of the Gulf coast from New Orleans is that the many thousands of deaths in New Orleans were absolutely preventable and occurred after the hurricane. On everyone?s lips is the cutting in federal funds to strengthen the levees of Lake Pontchartrain. Two reporters from New York tell us they just came from the New Orleans airport emergency hospital that was set up. We made our way to the airport.

New Orleans International Airport
The New Orleans International Airport was converted into an emergency hospital center. Thousands of people were evacuated there to get supplies and food, and for transportation that would take them out of the city. Many people arrived with only one or two bags, their entire lives reduced to a few belongings.

Some people did not want to leave their homes, but say they were forced to do so. For example, one white woman and her husband were forced to evacuate. She said, ?The military told us that we had one minute to evacuate. We said that we weren?t ready and he said they can?t force us to leave but if we don?t leave anybody left would be arrested ? but it was the end of the month. The two of us have been living for a couple of months on $600 a month and rent is $550. At the end of the month, we only had $20 and 1/8 of a tank of gas. There was no way we could leave.?

When it became apparent that nobody was coming back to pick them up, the couple walked five miles to the airport to see if they could get help.

Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, doctors, nurses and community organizations came from as far as San Diego, California and Kentucky to provide support during the crisis. None of them were dispersed into the community. When we arrived at the airport on Sunday, September 4, there were approximately 20 medical people for every one patient while people in regions such as Algiers and the 9th ward were left to fend for themselves. The majority of people in New Orleans blame the local and national government for the catastrophe. One young Black man said, ?The government abandoned us ? [it?s] pre-meditated murder.? Another said, ?Why would you [the government] protect a building ? instead of rescuing people that have been without food or water for three or four days? It seems like that was the plan. ? We couldn?t starve them out, the hurricane didn?t kill them, it seems planned.?

Baton Rouge
As we drive to Baton Rouge tonight to visit evacuated people, we hear on local radio that possibly 10,000 people have died in the flooded areas of New Orleans. Tonight in one announcement, we hear the names of some of the missing people still being searched for, a 90-year-old woman named Lisa, a man 102 years old, two women 82 and 85 years old. The elderly, the most vulnerable, left to their own devices.

Bodies are lying everywhere, and hidden in attics and apartments. The announcer describes how one body, rotting after days in the sun, was surrounded by a wall fashioned from fallen bricks by survivors, and given a provisional burial to give her some dignity. Written on the sheet covering her is, ?Here lies Vera, God Help Us.?

At a Red Cross shelter outside of Baton Rouge, we meet Emmanuel, who can?t find his wife and three sons after the floods. His story is shocking but not unusual. His home is near the 17th Street Canal, where the Pontchartrain levee broke through.

?I stayed behind to rescue my neighbors while I sent my wife and kids to dry land,? he says. It is difficult for him to relate what happened. He had a small boat so he went from house to house picking up neighbors. While doing so, he encountered many bodies in the water. ?My best friend?s body was floating by in the water. One mother whose baby drowned tied her baby to a fence so she could bury him after she returned.? Because troops kept driving by him and others without helping them, he had to walk 30 miles north until he was picked up.

The people of New Orleans did not have to die; their lives did not have to be destroyed. This conduct of the government is a crime of the highest magnitude. There is not a single adjective that is adequate. Negligence, incompetence, callous disregard while all are true, none are sufficient. Those who manage a system that always and everywhere puts the needs of business and private property ahead of the people, that always find money to fund wars that benefit the rich of this country rather than meeting people?s needs should be held responsible and accountable. The real problem however, is not with the managers of the system, but with the system itself. They call it the free market. It is the economic and social system of plutocracy, this system of modern capitalism, of, by, and for the rich that in words declares itself to be of, by and for the people. The reality, however, can now been seen in the streets of New Orleans.

Emergency Response

It's becoming increasingly clear that Emergency Response is simply a matter of public relations.

Of course, government is cheap if all it does is tell lies.
Which picture is fake? Both.

Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA

By Lisa Rosetta
The Salt Lake Tribune
 
 
Firefighters endure a day of FEMA training, which included a course on
sexual harassment. Some firefighters say their skills are being wasted.
(Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune)
 

ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight
hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"
   As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for
firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for
a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in
a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
    Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the
United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they
were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
    Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations
officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to
disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
    On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the
Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in
backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency.
    Federal officials are unapologetic.
    "I would go back and ask the firefighter to revisit his commitment
to FEMA, to firefighting and to the citizens of this country," said FEMA
spokeswoman Mary Hudak.
    The firefighters - or at least the fire chiefs who assigned them to
come to Atlanta - knew what the assignment would be, Hudak said.
    "The initial call to action very specifically says we're looking for
two-person fire teams to do community relations," she said. "So if there
is a breakdown [in communication], it was likely in their own
departments."
    One fire chief from Texas agreed that the call was clear to work as
community-relations officers. But he wonders why the 1,400 firefighters
FEMA attracted to Atlanta aren't being put to better use. He also
questioned why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - of which FEMA
is a part - has not responded better to the disaster.
    The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring
backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They
were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with
awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through
rubble and save lives.
    "They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified,
paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting
in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims]
in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."
    The firefighter, who has encouraged his superiors back home not to
send any more volunteers for now, declined to give his name because FEMA
has warned them not to talk to reporters.
    On Monday, two firefighters from South Jordan and two from Layton
headed for San Antonio to help hurricane evacuees there. Four
firefighters from Roy awaited their marching orders, crossing their
fingers that they would get to do rescue and recovery work, rather than
paperwork.
    "A lot of people are bickering because there are rumors they'll just
be handing out fliers," said Roy firefighter Logan Layne, adding that
his squad hopes to be in the thick of the action. "But we'll do
anything. We'll do whatever they need us to do."
    While FEMA's community-relations job may be an important one -
displaced hurricane victims need basic services and a variety of
resources - it may be a job best suited for someone else, say
firefighters assembled at the Sheraton.
    "It's a misallocation of resources. Completely," said the Texas
firefighter.
    "It's just an under-utilization of very talented people," said South
Salt Lake Fire Chief Steve Foote, who sent a team of firefighters to
Atlanta. "I was hoping once they saw the level of people . . . they
would shift gears a little bit."
    Foote said his crews would be better used doing the jobs they are
trained to do.
    But Louis H. Botta, a coordinating officer for FEMA, said sending
out firefighters on community relations makes sense. They already have
had background checks and meet the qualifications to be sworn as a
federal employee. They have medical training that will prove invaluable
as they come across hurricane victims in the field.
    A firefighter from California said he feels ill prepared to even
carry out the job FEMA has assigned him. In the field, Hurricane Katrina
victims will approach him with questions about everything from insurance
claims to financial assistance.
    "My only answer to them is, '1-800-621-FEMA,' " he said. "I'm not
used to not being in the know."
    Roy Fire Chief Jon Ritchie said his crews would be a "little
frustrated" if they were assigned to hand out phone numbers at an
evacuee center in Texas rather than find and treat victims of the
disaster.
    Also of concern to some of the firefighters is the cost borne by
their municipalities in the wake of their absence. Cities are picking up
the tab to fill the firefighters' vacancies while they work 30 days for
the federal government.
    "There are all of these guys with all of this training and we're
sending them out to hand out a phone number," an Oregon firefighter
said. "They [the hurricane victims] are screaming for help and this day
[of FEMA training] was a waste."
    Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered
roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into
pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency
aid.
    But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in
Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight
headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside
President Bush as he tours devastated areas.
    lrosetta@sltrib.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Addendum--personal report from Baton Rouge on september 3rd

Hi Classmates,  I just got an update from Bev (Carole's sister).  Carol is at her son's house in Baton Rouge.  Her son has a tree business and was able to get all his trucks and business stuff out of the New Orleans area and his business stuff out of Carole's house before the hurricane hit.  He took Carole's new refrigerator too.  He told Carol to grab some clothes and valuables but she only took her suitcase of clothes she had from the reunion.  Kenner, the town where Carole lives, has pumps and they must of had generators because they were pumping as soon as the levy gave out and Kenner (or her side of Kenner) is not too bad off.  Officials are going to let her go home Monday to see her house, but she has to leave right away.  She and her son and her ex-husband and a few others are living in her sons house.  He has a generator servicing the garage so they are in the garage to cook and watch a little TV.  The hot water tank is out so they take cold showers.  They have to boil their water.  Most of the cell phones do not work because the towers are gone.   Right now, I'm trying to do things other than watch the horror down South.  I almost broke the TV when the head of FEMA, in an interview on Thursday, said they had massive help organized, and that they hadn't sent any to the convention center in New Orleans, because they just found out about it that day - what planet is he on???   An outrage!!!  More later. Kaye

She Said WHAT??????

Barbara Bush at the Houston Astrodome, surveying the survivors of the flooding in New Orleans:

"What I'm hearing 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 laughs] is working very well for them."

Here's my response------

Who knew, when the conservatives' guru, Grover Norquist, envisioned drowning the federal government in the bath-tub, it would be accomplished by taking the heart and soul out of our major cities, one at a time?

Who knew, when the twin towers were targeted by planes used as missiles, that the strategic command had been distracted by war games and couldn't react in time?

Who knew, when the first responders were dispatched, that three towers would come tumbling down before they could get back out?

Who knew, when Hurricane Katrina was announced, that Homeland Security concerns would keep the first responders tied up in paper work long after the winds had left?

Who knew, when the levees protecting New Orleans gave way and the flood waters drowned all the neighborhoods, including their tubs, that nobody had bothered to get tens of thousands of Americans out?

Who knew, when Grover Norquist envisioned drowning the federal government in a bath tub, that it would take less than half a decade to turn that lone super power,striding across that bridge, into a third world nation, racked by debt, poor health and deprivation, just like all those other nations where corrupt tyrants reign?

Who knew, when the demise of government by the people was planned, that it would be transformed into a killing machine, taking on unsuspecting enemies on foreign soil and then turning on the people themselves?

Who knew, when the opportunity society was touted, it was the opportunity of the vulture, a chance to profit from another's misery?

Who knew that when all men are declared sinful, the devil no longer needs to hide? He can do his dirty deeds right out in the open and blame somebody else.

Who knew? When our representatives and our votes and our judges were turned into rubber stamps, we the people should have known. We just couldn't imagine it.

But, now that we know, it's time to act. Otherwise, who knows which one of us will be next?

Green Report from NO

REPORTS FROM GREEN PARTY MEMBERS IN NEW ORLEANS

'This is criminal': A detailed account from Green
Party leader Malik Rahim in the Algiers neighborhood
of New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- Friday morning, Leenie Halbert, acting co-chair of the Green Party of Louisiana, described the chaos and devastation in New Orleans.

"We received news from Mike Howells, a community activist in New Orleans since 1983. He stayed in New Orleans during the hurricane."

"He wants to tell the President and the media that the people here want food and water. They have gotten no word on whether food is coming or not. They can only
receive news from one radio station, and there has been NO announcement about food."

Halbert went on to state that there are plenty of dry places to store food. "Even the police are upset that there is no food," she quoted Howells.

Howells also informed other Greens that people in dry areas who want to stay are getting harassed to leave. He asked for this to stop, saying, "People are sick,
they are tired and they don't want to leave their pets behind to die. "The quarter is dry and livable. There are people who don't want to leave their community. So they are being starved and denied water."

"It reminds me of the Warsaw Ghetto. We need people in the relocation centers to be treated humanely. We demand that the federal government establish food, water and medical in the dry area, including the French Quarter, parts of uptown, and Algiers, for
example, Jackson Square."

"We need help for the refugees, but we also need to respect the rights of people who want to stay in New Orleans. Water is receding in the Marigny and Tremaine. Even in the areas that WERE flooded, the water is receding."

"THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE DELIBERATE STARVATION POLICY HERE," Howells said. He added that looting is happening in all neighborhoods. "People are looting the stores closest to where they live," he said. "Central Grocery was just looted by a majority white group today. Looting is happening in all the parishes, not just Orleans."

He also said that he has not heard any firsthand reports of roving groups of men raping women and said that there seems to be no overt racial tension between
refugees.

West Jefferson Medical Center is not getting evacuated, according to Howell. It is not getting supplies either. People on dialysis are dying left and right.

Howell said that he stays in the Quarter because it's relatively safe. He cannot call out on his phone but he can receive calls on his land line.

'This is criminal '

Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans (Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New Orleans, for decades an organizer of public housing tenants both there and in San Francisco and a recent Green Party candidate for New Orleans City
Council, lives in the Algiers neighborhood, the only part of New Orleans that is not flooded. They have no power, but the water is still good and the phones work. Their neighborhood could be sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 refugees, he says, but they are allowed to help no one. What he describes is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people.)

New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005 -- It's criminal. From what you're hearing, the people trapped in New Orleans are nothing but looters. We're told we should be more
"neighborly." But nobody talked about being neighborly until after the people who could afford to leave --left.

If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own. People were told to go to the Superdome, but they have no food, no water there. And before they could get in, people had to stand in line for 4-5 hours in the rain because everybody was being searched one by one at the entrance.

I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami, because they had no warning, but here there was plenty of warning. In the three days before the
hurricane hit, we knew it was coming and everyone could have been evacuated.

We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There were enough school buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 40 buses go underwater -- they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen.

People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone would steal what they own that they just let it all be flooded. They could have let a family without a vehicle borrow their extra car, but instead they left it behind to be destroyed.

There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding around in pickup trucks, all of them armed, and any young Black they see who they figure doesn't belong in their community, they shoot him. I tell them, "Stop! You're going to start a riot."

When you see all the poor people with no place to go, feeling alone and helpless and angry, I say this is a consequence of HOPE VI. New Orleans took all the HUD
money it could get to tear down public housing, and families and neighbors who'd relied on each other for generations were uprooted and torn apart. Most of the people who are going through this now had already lost touch with the only community they'd ever known. Their community was torn down and they were scattered. They'd already lost their real homes, the only place where they knew everybody, and now the places they've been staying are destroyed.

But nobody cares. They're just lawless looters...dangerous.

The hurricane hit at the end of the month, the time when poor people are most vulnerable. Food st amps don't buy enough but for about three weeks of the month, and by the end of the month everyone runs out. Now they have no way to get their food stamps or any money, so they just have to take what they can to survive.

Many people are getting sick and very weak. From the toxic water that people are walking through, little scratches and sores are turning into major wounds.

People whose homes and families were not destroyed went into the city right away with boats to bring the survivors out, but law enforcement told them they weren't needed. They are willing and able to rescue thousands, but they're not allowed to.

Every day countless volunteers are trying to help, but they're turned back. Almost all the rescue that's been done has been done by volunteers anyway.

My son and his family -- his wife and kids, ages 1, 5 and 8 -- were flooded out of their home when the levee broke. They had to swim out until they found an abandoned building with two rooms above water level.

There were 21 people in those two rooms for a day and a half. A guy in a boat who just said "I'm going to help regardless" rescued them and took them to Highway
I-10 and dropped them there.

They sat on the freeway for about three hours, because someone said they'd be rescued and taken to the Superdome. Finally they just started walking, had to
walk six and a half miles. When they got to the Superdome, my son wasn't allowed
in -- I don't know why -- so his wife and kids wouldn't go in. They kept walking, and they happened to run across a guy with a tow truck that they knew, and he gave them his own personal truck.

When they got here, they had no gas, so I had to punch a hole in my gas tank to give them some gas, and now I'm trapped. I'm getting around by bicycle.

People from Placquemine Parish were rescued on a ferry and dropped off on a dock near here. All day they were sitting on the dock in the hot sun with no food, no water. Many were in a daze; they've lost everything. They were all sitting there surrounded by armed guards. We asked the guards could we bring them water and food. My mother and all the other church ladies were cooking for them, and we have plenty of good water.

But the guards said, "No. If you don't have enough water and food for everybody, you can't give anything." Finally the people were hauled off on school buses from other parishes.

You know Robert King Wilkerson (the only one of the Angola 3 political prisoners who's been released). He's been back in New Orleans working hard, organizing, helping people. Now nobody knows where he is. His house was destroyed. Knowing him, I think he's out trying to save lives, but I'm worried.

The people who could help are being shipped out. People who want to stay, who have the skills to save lives and rebuild are being forced to go to Houston.

It's not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.

There's military right here in New Orleans, but for three days they weren't even mobilized. You'd think this was a Third World country.

I'm in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the only part that isn't flooded. The water is good. Our parks and schools could easily hold 40,000 people, and
they're not using any of it.

This is criminal. These people are dying for no other reason than the lack of organization.

Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized. I'm asking people to go ahead and gather donations and relief supplies but to hold on to them for a few days until we have a way to put them to good use.

I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down here and help us just as soon as things are a little more organized. The Republicans and Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it and don't seem to care if everyone dies.

Bush in Biloxi

ZDF is a German TV network which has sent reporters to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The thrust of their reporting is that although clean-up preceeded Bush's visit to the affected area, everything came to a halt as soon as he left. Original German follows:

Hurrikan-Katastrophe: Kritik an Bush wächst
Tausend Nationalgardisten begleiten Hilfs-Konvoi von Amphibienfahrzeugen - Aufräumen nur für Bush?
Trotz der verheerenden Zerstörungen nach dem Hurrikan "Katrina" will US-Präsident George W. Bush keine Truppen aus dem Irak in die Katastrophenregionen im Süden der USA verlegen. Die Vereinigten Staaten hätten genug Ressourcen, um beide Aufgaben zu erledigen, sagte Bush am Freitag in der schwer zerstörten Stadt Biloxi im US-Bundesstaat Mississippi. Bush, der zunehmend in die Kritik gerät, gestand ein, dass die Hilfsaktionen bislang unzureichend waren.
03.09.2005

Bush versprach den Betroffenen des Hurrikans "Katrina" mehr Hilfe . Die Naturkatastrophe habe Konsequenzen für das ganze Land und deshalb werde die gesamte Nation helfen, er am Freitag in New Orleans. Nach seinen Worten hätten die Ergebnisse der bisherigen Hilfsaktion für New Orleans besser sein können. Bush verteidigte sich gegen wachsende Kritik und sagte, auf die unermessliche Tragweite der Zerstörung habe sich niemand vorbereiten können. Er versprach zusätzliche Hilfe über das vom US-Kongress verabschiedete 10,5 Milliarden Dollar (8,4 Milliarden Euro) Soforthilfepaket hinaus.

Räumarbeiten nur für Bush?
Wo der US-Präsident das Katastrophengebiet besuchte, räumten Hilfstrupps vorher ordentlich auf - aber nur dort. Aus Biloxi zitierte ZDF-Korrespondentin Claudia Rüggeberg verzweifelte Einwohner, Bush solle in seinen Limousinen statt lauter Bodyguards und Assistenten lieber Hilfsgüter herbeischaffen.

Entlang seiner Route hätte Räumtrupps vor Bushs Besuch Schutt weggeräumt und Leichen geborgen. Dann sei Bush wieder abgereist "und mit ihm", so Rüggeberg, "die ganzen Hilfstrupps". An der Lage in Biloxi habe sich sonst nichts verändert, es fehle an allem.

Kritik von schwarzen Bürgerrechtlern
Schwarze US-Bürgerrechtler haben die auch ihrer Ansicht nach mangelnde Hilfe für die Flutopfer scharf kritisiert. Die Regierung sage, dass sie alles tue, was sie könne, und das so schnell wie möglich, sagte der Kongressabgeordnete Elijah Cummings am Freitag vor Journalisten. "Ich bin absolut nicht dieser Meinung." Die überwiegend schwarzen Einwohner der Katastrophengebiete seien bereits zu lange ohne Wasser und Nahrungsmittel. Der Unterschied zwischen Überleben und Sterben dürfe nicht durch Armut, Alter oder Hautfarbe gemacht werden, betonte Cummings.

Der Aktivist Jesse Jackson Junior beklagte, in den vergangenen Tagen habe die Regierung eine "schockierende und schreckliche Langsamkeit" bei den Hilfsmaßnahmen für leidende und sterbende Amerikaner gezeigt. Er sei auch "konsterniert" darüber, dass die US-Medien ihre Aufmerksamkeit von den Leiden der Menschen größtenteils auf Gewaltkriminalität und Plünderungen in den Katastrophengebieten gelenkt habe, fügte der Sohn des bekannten Predigers Jesse Jackson hinzu.

Konvoi bringt Lebensmittel
Bei den Notleidenden in der US-Katastrophenstadt New Orleans ist am Freitagabend ein Militärkonvoi mit Lebensmitteln für zehntausende Menschen eingetroffen. Etwa tausend Nationalgardisten begleiteten den Konvoi aus Amphibienfahrzeugen zur Stadthalle Convention Center, wo tausende Evakuierte seit Tagen unter elendsten Bedingungen ausharren.

Kommandeur Russel Honoré wies Kritik an den Unzulänglichkeiten der Hilfe zurück. "Wenn diese Sache einfach wäre, hätten wir sie längst gemacht", sagte der General. Der Einsatz sei besonders schwierig, weil viele Zufahrtstraßen unter Wasser stünden. Zudem erschwere die große Zahl der Notleidenden die Hilfe: "Wenn eines Tages 20.000 Menschen zu Ihnen zum Essen kommen, können sie sich die Situation vorstellen", sagte Honoré vor Journalisten.
MEDIATHEK

Bilderserie Wie New Orleans überflutet wurde
80 Tage für das Abpumpen
Nach Schätzungen der Pioniere des US-Heers wird es bis zu 80 Tage dauern, um das Wasser aus dem überfluteten New Orleans abzupumpen. "Wir gehen von irgendwo zwischen 36 bis 80 Tagen aus, um es abzuschließen", sagte Brigadegeneral Robert Crear am Freitag. Die Stadt liegt zu einem großen Teil unter dem Meeresspiegel. Zahlreiche Dämme, unter anderem die zum See Pontchartrain, sind zerstört.

Umweltschutzbehörden aus Louisiana haben nach dem Hurrikan "Katrina" auf dem Mississippi einen großen Öl-Teppich entdeckt. Ein Sprecherin des Landesamtes für Umweltschutz sagte am Freitag, die Verschmutzung nahe der Stadt Venice sei bei einem Überflug entdeckt worden. Sie stamme aus Tanks, die bis zu zwei Millionen Barrel (ein Barrel entspricht knapp 159 Liter) Öl aufnehmen können. "Da läuft Öl aus, aber wir haben zu dem Gebiet keinen Zugang", sagte sie. Das Heimatschutzministerium habe das Gebiet abgeriegelt. Weitere Einzelheiten lagen zunächst nicht vor. Die US-Küstenwache teilte mit, der Bericht werde untersucht. Priorität habe jedoch die Rettung von Menschen nach dem Hurrikan. "Katrina" hatte am Montag erhebliche Schäden in mehreren Bundesstaaten an der Golfküste der USA verursacht. Ersten Schätzungen zufolge kamen Tausende Menschen ums Leben

ZDF News report

September 03, 2005

If he could go to Baghdad, why didn't Bush go to the New Orleans Superdome or the Convention Center? It was bizarre for all of the country and much of the world to be watching those scenes for days on our TVs and news reports, and for Bush's photo ops to be in areas that were far less critical. I know there are security considerations but his visit seemed extraordinarily hollow even by this administration's standard of ultra-stage managed events.

Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes:

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

Louisiana Exit

Nita LaGarde, 105, was pushed down the street in her wheelchair as her nurse's 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Blevin, held her hand. The pair spent two days in an attic, two days on an interstate island and the last four days on the pavement in front of the convention center.

"They're good to see," LaGarde said, with remarkable gusto as she waited to be loaded onto a gray Marine helicopter. She said they were sent by God. "Whatever he has for you, he'll take care of you. He'll sure take care of you."

LaGarde's nurse, Ernestine Dangerfield, 60, said LaGarde had not had a clean adult diaper in more than two days. "I just want to get somewhere where I can get her nice and clean," she said.

The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape ? and, overwhelmingly, they were black.

"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday with his partner and three of their aging Chihuahuas. They left a fourth behind they couldn't grab in time.

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http://nola.asgard.net/media/orleans.mov

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3 Duke students tell of 'disgraceful' scene

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Sep 4, 2005 : 9:36 pm ET

DURHAM -- A trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren't receiving help from authorities.

The group, led by South Carolina native Sonny Byrd, say they also managed to drive all the way to the New Orleans Convention Center, where they encountered scenes early Saturday evening that they say were disgraceful.

"We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn't go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai," said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla.

Buder's account -- told by cell phone Sunday evening as the trio neared Montgomery, Ala., on their way home -- chronicled a three-day odyssey that began when the students, angered by the news reports they were seeing on CNN, loaded up their car with bottled water and headed for the Gulf coast to see if they could lend a hand.

The trio say they left Durham about 6 p.m. Thursday and reached Montgomery about 12 hours later. After catching 1½ hours of sleep, they reached the coast at Mobile. From there, they traveled through the Mississippi cities of Biloxi and Gulfport.

They say they elected to keep going because it seemed like Mississippi authorities had things well in hand.

Pushing on, they passed through Slidell, La., and tried to get into New Orleans by a couple of routes. Each time, police and National Guard troops turned them away. By 2 p.m. they'd wound up in Baton Rouge.

Stopping first at a Red Cross shelter and then at offices of a Baton Rouge TV station, WAFB, they eventually made their way to the campus of Louisiana State University. By 8 p.m. Friday they were working as volunteers in an emergency assistance area set up inside LSU's indoor track arena.

The students worked until about 2 a.m. Saturday, then slept on the floor of a dorm room. When they awoke, they went back to the TV station, which was hosting what Buder termed "a distribution center" for supplies.

At 2 p.m., the trio decided to head for New Orleans, Buder said. After looking around, they swiped an Associated Press identification and one of the TV station's crew shirts, and found a Kinko's where they could make copies of the ID.

They were stopped again by authorities at the edge of New Orleans, but this time were able to make it through.

"We waved the press pass, and they looked at each other, the two guards, and waved us on in," Buder said.

Inside the city, they found a surreal environment.

"It was wild," Buder said. "It really felt like it was 'Independence Day,' the movie."

The trio dodged downed trees and power lines until they happened upon Magazine Street, which runs in a semi-circle around the city parallel to and about four blocks north of the Mississippi River.

They stopped to give water to a 15-year-old boy sitting beside the road holding a sign that said "Need Water/Food," then went to the convention center.

The evacuation was basically complete by the time they arrived, at about 6:30 or 6:45 p.m. What the trio saw there horrified them.

"The only way I can describe this, it was the epicenter," Buder said. "Inside there were National Guard running around, there was feces, people had urinated, soiled the carpet. There were dead bodies. The smell will never leave me."

Buder said the students saw four or five bodies. National Guard troopers seemed to be checking the second and third floors of the building to try to secure the site.

"Anyone who knows that area, if you had a bus, it would take you no more than 20 minutes to drive in with a bus and get these people out," Buder said. "They sat there for four or five days with no food, no water, babies getting raped in the bathrooms, there were murders, nobody was doing anything for these people. And we just drove right in, really disgraceful. I don't want to get too fired up with the rhetoric, but some blame needs to be placed somewhere."

By about 7 p.m., the students made their way back to the boy on Magazine Street. He directed them to some people "who really needed to get out." The resulting evacuation began at a house at the corner of Magazine and Peniston streets.

The first group included three women and a man. The students climbed into the front seats of the four-door Hyundai, and the evacuees filled the back seat. They left the city and headed back to Baton Rouge. There they deposited the man at the LSU medical center and took the women to dinner. The women later found shelter with relatives, and the students got about four hours' sleep inside the LSU chapel.

At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, they made their second run into New Orleans, returning to the house at Magazine and Peniston streets. This time they picked up three men and headed back to Baton Rouge. Two of the men were the husbands of two of the women evacuated the night before. The students reunited them with their wives and put the two families on a bus for Texas.

Buder is from Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; Byrd is from Rock Hill, S.C.; and Hankla is from Washington, D.C.

Notes from NO

Notes from Inside New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty

Friday, September 2 - I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.

In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge.

You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.

I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these questions, and all of them, from Australian TV to local Fox affiliates complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want to be here at night."

There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family members, special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.

To understand the dimensions of this tragedy, its important to look at New Orleans itself.

For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in the world.

It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.

It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.

There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several months.

The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.

Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence.
Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the the media portrayal of the victims, this disaster is shaped by race.

Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane, we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and TV stations, hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.

While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.

No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but that's just what the media did over and over again. Sheriffs and politicians talked of having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.

Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.

City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black, city.

While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.

The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of Huey Long.

In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools, cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.

Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.

Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and we need to fight for its rebirth.

Quotes of Note

Let's hope the following will not be forgotten.

"'The good news is - and it's hard for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.' (Laughter)." - president George W. Bush, yesterday.

The official for people who come to the world with this attitude is "creative destructionists." Every act of destruction, whether man-made or natural, is seen as an opportunity. That the benefits of reconstruction rarely, if ever, accrue to those whose lives and prior creations have been destroyed is irrelevant. Indeed the misery of others serves to validate the the self-satisfaction of those who expect to benefit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In an impromptu speech, the Grammy winner (Kenye West) informed viewers of the fact that Bush had given National Guardsmen the order to shoot at the residents of New Orleans caught taking provisions out of stores.

Nervous, stuttering and angry, West pointed out that African-Americans who were caught stealing in New Orleans were labeled by the media as looters, but whites doing the same thing were "finding" food.

While West spoke, his partner a seemingly speechless Mike Myers, tried to return to the show's script.

West then declared "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

He didn't finish what he was saying after that because NBC producers cut away.
@@@

Here is a statement from NBC regarding West's comments on the telethon:

"Tonight's telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion. Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unbelievable!!!!! NBC apologizes for someone because he "departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him" to speak the truth and the lies of George W. Bush go unchallenged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Addendum--

Kanye West's Torrent of Criticism, Live on NBC
By Lisa de Moraes
Saturday, September 3, 2005; C01
Why We Love Live Television, Reason No. 137:

NBC's levee broke and Kanye West flooded through with a tear about the federal response in New Orleans during the network's live concert fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina last night.
...
West and Mike Myers had been paired up to appear about halfway through the show. Their assignment: Take turns reading a script describing the breach in the levees around New Orleans.

Myers: The landscape of the city has changed dramatically, tragically and perhaps irreversibly. There is now over 25 feet of water where there was once city streets and thriving neighborhoods.

(Myers throws to West, who looked extremely nervous in his super-preppy designer rugby shirt and white pants, which is not like the arrogant West and which, in retrospect, should have been a tip-off.)

West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

(West throws back to Myers, who is looking like a guy who stopped on the tarmac to tie his shoe and got hit in the back with the 8:30 to La Guardia.)

Myers: And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastating, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild and remain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all.

(And, because Myers is apparently as dumb as his Alfalfa hair, he throws it back to West.)

West: George Bush doesn't care about black people!

(Back to Myers, now looking like the 8:30 to La Guardia turned around and caught him square between the eyes.)
...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Anderson, tonight, I don't know if you've heard -- maybe you all have announced it -- but Congress is going to an unprecedented session to pass a $10 billion supplemental bill tonight to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating.

COOPER: Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.

And when they hear politicians slap -- you know, thanking one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there's not enough facilities to take her up.

Do you get the anger that is out here?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brown - formerly an estates and family lawyer - this week has has made several shocking public admissions, including interviews where he suggested FEMA was unaware of the misery and desperation of refugees stranded at the New Orleans convention center.

Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.

``We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added.

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

``He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.

Genocide Starts with Little Steps

Guardsmen Halt Evacuation at Superdome

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 28 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - National Guard members halted the evacuation of the Superdome early Saturday after buses transporting the refugees of Hurricane Katrina stopped rolling. About 2,000 people remained in the stadium and could be there until Sunday, according to the Texas Air National Guard. They had hoped to evacuate the last of the crowd before dawn Saturday.

Guard members said they were told only that the buses had stopped coming and to close down the area where the buses were loaded.

"We were rolling," Capt. Jean Clark said. "If the buses had kept coming, we would have this whole place cleaned out already or pretty close to it."

The remaining refugees remained orderly, sitting down after hearing the news.

Guard members reported that the operation for the most part had gone smoothly Friday. Two women had miscarriages and a few people had to be removed from the buses for drinking.

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses rolled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line ? much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the stinking Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

The 700 had been trapped in the hotel, next to the Superdome, but conditions were considerably cleaner, even without running water, than the unsanitary crush inside the dome. The Hyatt was severely damaged by the storm. Every pane of glass on the riverside wall was blown out.

Mayor Ray Nagin has used the hotel as a base since it is across the street from city hall, and there were reports the hotel was cleared with priority to make room for police, firefighters and other officials.

As the evacuations continued late Friday, officials sought to comfort refugees by handing out Meals Ready to Eat and bottled water.

The conditions in the dome stayed miserable even as the crowds shrank after buses ferried thousands to Houston a day earlier. While the evacuation resumed Friday, the press of people on the bridge outside the arena was just as great as before.

Capt. Andrew Lindgren with the Air National Guard said 8,000 to 10,000 people remained in the Superdome. Most of them were jammed on the ramps leading out.

Friday's evacuations began about 9 a.m., halted for about an hour and then resumed two hours later.

Things reached such a state inside that people opted to stand on the broiling brick walkway, jammed shoulder to shoulder in temperatures that Pollard estimated had reached 125 degrees in the middle of the crowd. The sun blazed down from the cloudless sky and officials flew in a helicopter for all-too brief moments under the fan.

It didn't matter: People passed out one after another. They were carried out on tables. National Guardsmen picked them up and took them in their arms. The medical area in the nearby shopping mall was full of victims being fanned, given water. A nurse said they all were felled by the heat.

"Everyone here is doing all they can with the assets they have," Pollard said. "We just don't have the assets."

Medical help was limited. Much of the medical staff that had been working in the "special needs" arena had been evacuated. Dr. Kenneth Stephens Sr., head of the medical operations, said he was told they would be moved to help in other medical areas.

Authorities estimated they could move about 1,000 people an hour when the buses are in place.

Tina Miller, 47, had no shoes and cried with relief and exhaustion as she walked toward a bus. "I never thought I'd make it. Oh, God, I thought I'd die in there. I've never been through anything this awful."

The arena's second-story concourse looked like a dump, with more than a foot of trash except in the occasional area where people were working to keep things as tidy as possible.

Bathrooms had no lights, making people afraid to enter, and the stench from backed-up toilets inside killed any inclination toward bravery.

"When we have to go to the bathroom we just get a box. That's all you can do now," said Sandra Jones of eastern New Orleans.

Her newborn baby was running a fever, and all the small children in her area had rashes, she said.

"This was the worst night of my life. We were really scared. We're getting no help. I know the military police are trying. But they're outnumbered," Jones said.

People brought tables and chairs from restaurants and anything else they could find to make conditions a bit more livable. On one row, people had staked out their space with a row of blankets and used brooms to sweep it clean.

"We're just trying to keep a little order. It's bad. We're trying not to let it get any worse," said Michele Boyle, 41.

As for the bathrooms, "I'm trying not to eat anything so I won't have to deal with it," Boyle said.

Those who did want food were waiting in line for hours to get it, said another refugee, Becky Larue, of Des Moines, Iowa.

Larue and her husband arrived in the area Saturday for a vacation but their hotel soon told them they had to leave and directed them to the Superdome. No directions were provided, she said.

She said she was down to her last blood pressure pill and had no idea of when they'll get out or where to get help.

"I'm really scared. I think people are going into a survival mode. I look for people to start injuring themselves just to get out of here," she said.

James LeFlere, 56, was trying to remain optimistic.

"They're going to get us out of here. It's just hard to hang on at this point," he said.

Janice Singleton, a worker at the Superdome, said she got stuck in the stadium when the storm hit. She said she was robbed of everything she had with her, including her shoes.

"They tore that dome apart," she said sadly. "They tore it down. They taking everything out of there they can take."

Then she said, "I don't want to go to no Astrodome. I've been domed almost to death."

Mississippi Musings

Monisha Sujan checks in again from Mississippi today?she shared her story of escape from New Orleans via email yesterday.

Friday, September 02, 2005
It's Friday in Mississippi...

It's Friday morning and I'm in Starkville in Northeast Mississippi. We've spent yesterday moving from Baton Rouge across the state of Mississippi.

Baton Rouge seemed so overcrowded and desperate before we left. It seems like the city has doubled or tripled in size with some desperate New Orleans residents rumored to be roaming in downtown Baton Rouge in armed gangs, the S.W.A.T. is out and many displaced New Orleans residents are fruitlessly attempting to find a home in Baton Rouge. I'm concerned that the violence wrought by desperation will turn the refugee camp and rescue and recovery staging ground that is now Baton Rouge into a chaotic and violent mess. I'm also fear that the natives of Baton Rouge might react with violence in order to protect their city (I know of many friends buying shotguns). CNN reports late last night seem to confirm my fears.

We spent the day driving through Mississippi and many of the areas we drove through had hurricane damage. On Highway 61, there are houses blown completely open (I think, by tornado damage) and many of the billboards are completely tattered. It is so heartbreaking to see people (many who seem to be poor African-American New Orleanians) walk empty-handed on the side of the road or pile into the backs of trucks. The lack of gas, ice and other provisions and the boil water order throughout the state remind me of stories of sub-Saharan African civil war. We've only seen two gas stations that have been open throughout the state and the lines are hours long and patrolled by four police cars each. I'm not honestly sure how riots and violence will be prevented. Personally, we have less than a quarter tank last night and hoped that gas will arrive during the night and plan on an early and lengthy visit to the pumps. My dad is on a pump run.

I've seen the news and have started receiving information from friends today. I'm heartbroken and angry that at the aftermath of Katrina is so devastating.

The damage from the storm was great but completely manageable. However, the storm ended on Monday. The flood could have been preventable (by dropping concrete (instead of sand) on late Monday or early Tuesday) and the looting, violence and complete lack of law and order could have been prevented by decent relief efforts (ones that included food, water and the arrival of National Guard before Thursday). While I think it is highly immoral and plain dumb for guns to be used to steal video games and items from pawn shops (all seen by friends still stuck in New Orleans), many left (mostly poor African-Americans) have been abandoned by the government who could not evacuate them prior to the storm, house or feed them during the storm or rescue them afterwards and who feel forced to take matters into their own hands. (A historical note?this sentiment has been felt by Louisiana's African-American population repeatedly and notably in the aftermath of Hurricane Betsy in the 1960's and the flood in 1927. It's rumored that the Army Corp of Engineers broke a dam to protect the Garden District and Uptown (rich, mostly white neighborhoods) which flooded the Ninth Ward (an almost completely African-American area) during Betsy and that they used African-Americans as sandbags during the flood).

In my opinion, causalities during a disaster versus casualties during and after a disaster (with more occurring during the aftermath) differentiate civilization from the non-civilized world, peace-time from war-time. The number of dead bodies littering shelters and the city just reinforce this.

The fight for life and the lack of help our people are getting is frightful. The use of small busses (instead of large cruise boats) makes little sense. The lack of rescue operations today is unfathomable to me. According to a friend, Jefferson Parish has sent sheriffs out across the Cresent City connection to prevent New Orleans Citizens from Crossing into Algiers (which is in Orleans Parish) sending them back into the water logged city. The Western Bank of New Orleans is dry and could provide a safer staging place for rescue efforts. The dangerous conditions within the city have forced some of our friends to remain inside an apartment building and delay evacuation attempts in order to avoid gunfire and crazed mobs.

I also can't believe the reaction of the federal government officials and the comments made by certain members of the Republican leadership, before a emergency session of Congress to provide money for rescue operations (not rebuilding). It's not the time to comment on the economic future of New Orleans; we're still trying to rescue our survivors and then need to bury our dead before these discussions should even begin. Money should not matter during the rescue stage of the nation's biggest national disaster. For a country that claims to value our citizen's lives beyond all else, we need to spend any penny that might save a single life.

Though I thought the following sentiment was nuts earlier today, it seems like the Republican leadership is trying to use America's worst national disaster. Here are couple of pieces of information that could lead to this sickening conclusion:

I learned from Jean-Paul Morrell (the son of New Orleans' City Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge Morrell and State Representative Arthur Morrell, brother of NOPD Special force Sergeant Todd F. Morrell) that NOPD has not received food or even bullets from the federal government. They are down to about 10 bullets per office. Looters have raided the armory (that was supposed to be protected by National Guardsmen that weren't there) and police officers have been eating peanut butter sandwiches because the Feds won't even give them MREs.

Jean-Paul also has learned that the National Guard had not been deployed into New Orleans before Thursday. Most of the National Guard troops, reported to be in the region, are in Baton Rouge awaiting orders. He also informed me that the federal government is requesting that the Mayor of New Orleans relinquish control of New Orleans. The Mayor has refused to do so, stating that he is the legally elected representative from New Orleans to represent the people's interest. Guilliani was not asked to relinquish control of New York. Mayor Nagin is a Democrat. Guilliani is a Republican.

Hastert's comments show heartlessness towards New Orleanians?a callousness that I'm sure he would not display to his own constituents.

The demographics of New Orleans. The city voted for Kerry overwhelming (74% if I remember correctly) and elects Democrats to municipal, state and federal offices. 60% of the city is African-American. 50% of the city lived in poverty prior to the hurricane.

The demographics of most of those trapped. The images on TV show African-Americans, mostly those who didn't have the resources to leave the city.

I feel that this accusation of political opportunism and institutional racism is crazy but I can't understand how the richest, most powerful democracy in the world can be so inept, letting so many suffer and die.

I've been able to be in email and cell phone contact with many friends around the country today and have learnt that many want and are planning to come down to Louisiana and the Gulf Coast to help with the relief and recovery efforts. In my opinion, the region is overwhelmed with refugees from devastated areas and really is not equipped to deal with another wave of people, even if they are volunteers. The Red Cross in Baton Rouge (the main staging area for Louisiana) supposedly is claiming that it has too many volunteers and that some of its volunteer efforts are impeding general progress. I believe we can be much more effective if we partake in a collective, long-term effort to rebuild lives (especially of those poor, African-American Orleanians who seem to have nothing left?no savings accounts, insurance, standing home, etc.). I have a couple of nascent ideas where we might begin.

Counseling and life planning efforts. The kids I've seen in Louisiana and Mississippi who fled after the storm look like they have grown old and have the weight of the world on them. I think the American Psychological Association could be a great initial point of contact for this project. I plan to try to get in touch with some of their people (my dad's a member).

Creating a non-email/Internet communication tool for survivors to keep in touch with family and friends. Statistics showed that only 20% of Louisianans had Internet access and only 10% had email. I don't think closing the digital divide needs to be the first step before reconnecting people.

Planning long term financial aid/security to victims.

Finding jobs for victims.

Please let me know what you think we should do. I don't think it is possible to watch without doing something and the last couple of hellish days have demonstrated that something isn't enough. We need to be creative and compassionate to intelligently mitigate something I have yet to fathom.

Take care,

NO Real News

Thursday, September 1st, 2005
10:46 pm
The Real News
The following is the result of an interview I just conducted via cell phone with a New Orleans citizen stranded at the Convention Center.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

I don't know what you're hearing in the mainstream media or in the press conferences from the city and state officials, but here is the truth:

"Bigfoot" is a bar manager and DJ on Bourbon Street, and is a local personality and icon in the city. He is a lifelong resident of the city, born and raised. He rode out the storm itself in the Iberville Projects because he knew he would be above any flood waters. Here is his story as told to me moments ago. I took notes while he talked and then I asked some questions:

Three days ago, police and national guard troops told citizens to head toward the Crescent City Connection Bridge to await transportation out of the area. The citizens trekked over to the Convention Center and waited for the buses which they were told would take them to Houston or Alabama or somewhere else, out of this area.

It's been 3 days, and the buses have yet to appear.

Although obviously he has no exact count, he estimates more than 10,000 people are packed into and around and outside the convention center still waiting for the buses. They had no food, no water, and no medicine for the last three days, until today, when the National Guard drove over the bridge above them, and tossed out supplies over the side crashing down to the ground below. Much of the supplies were destroyed from the drop. Many people tried to catch the supplies to protect them before they hit the ground. Some offered to walk all the way around up the bridge and bring the supplies down, but any attempt to approach the police or national guard resulted in weapons being aimed at them.

There are many infants and elderly people among them, as well as many people who were injured jumping out of windows to escape flood water and the like -- all of them in dire straights.

Any attempt to flag down police results in being told to get away at gunpoint. Hour after hour they watch buses pass by filled with people from other areas. Tensions are very high, and there has been at least one murder and several fights. 8 or 9 dead people have been stored in a freezer in the area, and 2 of these dead people are kids.

The people are so desperate that they're doing anything they can think of to impress the authorities enough to bring some buses. These things include standing in single file lines with the eldery in front, women and children next; sweeping up the area and cleaning the windows and anything else that would show the people are not barbarians.

The buses never stop.

Before the supplies were pitched off the bridge today, people had to break into buildings in the area to try to find food and water for their families. There was not enough. This spurred many families to break into cars to try to escape the city. There was no police response to the auto thefts until the mob reached the rich area -- Saulet Condos -- once they tried to get cars from there... well then the whole swat teams began showing up with rifles pointed. Snipers got on the roof and told people to get back.

He reports that the conditions are horrendous. Heat, mosquitoes and utter misery. The smell, he says, is "horrific."

He says it's the slowest mandatory evacuation ever, and he wants to know why they were told to go to the Convention Center area in the first place; furthermore, he reports that many of them with cell phones have contacts willing to come rescue them, but people are not being allowed through to pick them up.

I have "Bigfoot"'s phone number and will gladly give it to any city or state official who would like to tell him how everything is under control.

Addendum: Bigfoot just called to report that "they" (the authorities) are cleaning up the dead bodies at the Convention Center right now.

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Another opinion:

Paul in St. Paul wrote on September 2, 2005 11:06 AM:

It sounds like Nagin is a good man. He was picking away at decades of corruption (state and city).

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The problem with planning is the same as the problem with flood control that I wrote to you about yesterday. There are simply too many competing agencies asking for the same dollars and jealously guarding their political turf. More importantly, no one anticipated the complete social breakdown that has occurred among those who refused or were unable to evacuate. The breakdown appears to be the culmination of decades of weak, at best, law enforcement with Orleans Parish that looked the other way at a lot of the crime that occurred in areas like the Ninth Ward, because the officers themselves were scared to go into many of the housing projects. Also, until within the last ten years the state police were not allowed by the city government to operate within the parish (the city's boundary is contiguous with the parish boundary). Some of this goes back to when Huey Long amended the state constitution to take control of the city from the elected city government; most, unfortunately, is the result of much more recent corruption (witness the recent indictments of many close aides, including family members, of the administration of former mayor Marc Morial). There were rumors flooding the state yesterday (Thursday) that the unrest and looting had spread to Baton Rouge and Lafayette, where many of the refugees who fled prior to the storm were located. I even received a forwarded email written by a Rapides Parish Sheriff's deputy (the parish I live in) that warned about the flood of refugees heading our way from the Ninth Ward and to be prepared for anything. The rumors were false, and the Sheriff has said to disregard the email; it was unofficial and the sender will be dealt with when the Sheriff returns (he spent the day in New Orleans observing the deputies he sent to aid in rescue efforts.

2) People outside of New Orleans had high hopes when Nagin was elected. He was not a part of the competing political machines in the city. His background was as an executive in a cable company. He has done a good job at ferreting out corruption and trying to change the system, but he had not been able to really change the culture of the police force. When he took office the New Orleans Police Department had only just quit accepting convicted felons as officers. Unfortunately, he appears to have been overwhelmed by the force of events and the complete loss of the city's infrastructure. After 9/11 New York City, outside of Lower Manhattan, still had all of the basic city services; New Orleans as of Monday afternoon essentially had none, and neither he nor the governor exhibit the leadership needed. I was never a fan of the former governor Mike Foster, never voted for him, but I want him back. He would have taken his own boat to New Orleans and personally arrested the looters on Monday, shooting those that ignored him. That may sound callous, but it is what is needed. Governor Blanco this morning finally realized that, declaring war on the looters. That should have been done Monday afternoon.

Sorry this is so long, but in Louisiana there are no quick easy answers, due to the nature of politics here. I hope this was helpful.

International Blogging Disaster Relief Day

It's tomorrow. But here's the link early.

http://technorati.com/tag/International%20Blogging%20for%20Disaster%20Relief%20Day#taglink

http://blog.myvoteismyvoice.com

To learn how we got here read--

CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep:

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.

2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."

June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.
...

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What we need to recognize is that "entitlement" is a dirty word in the conservative dictionary because it implies that, just because they exist, individuals are owed a certain level of support by the community that gave them life. The conservative mantra insists that mere existence is valuable enough and any support for that existence has to be earned. In other words, the insubordinate individual does not deserve to be sustained and is destined to perish.
The conservative's answer to Caine's question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" is a definite "No." Does that make conservatives the descendants of Caine?

Plaquemines Parish

http://www.takeyourcountryback.com/PLAQUEMINES/