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Blogged by JC on 09.02.05 @ 06:57 PM ET

Taking Steps to Protect Hurricane Victims from Price Gouging and Bankruptcy


When Congress returns next week, I am planning to introduce several important bills. First, I plan to introduce legislation explicitly giving the federal government authority to pursue price gouging actions -- price gouging is a national problem, and it warrants a national response. Second, I am introducing a law to amend the Bankruptcy Code so that the most onerous provisions of the new law, scheduled to take effect October 17, do not inflict damage on the millions of victims of Hurricane Katrina and their families. Rawstory has the story on these bills.

What we have before us is an unvarnished human catastrophe, and it will require an unprecedented national effort to save lives and rebuild. There is no sugarcoating how we got here. There is little doubt the Administration has underfunded flood protection in New Orleans. There is little doubt FEMA and the military not only did not prepare adequately for the likelihood of flooding in a city below sea level that is in a hurricane prone area. There is little doubt that even after the Hurricane hit, our government was slow and unimaginative in its response.

While we will need to study those mistakes at some point, the task before us today is alleviating the ongoing hardship we see every day. At some point the president will also need to reevaluate the individuals he has placed in charge of FEMA. Clearly, it is unacceptable to have a director who is unaware that the New Orleans Convention Center is being used to house hurricane victims, and a deputy director who asserts that FEMA’s performance is "probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country’s history."

Our nation can and must do better for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Replies: 65 Comments


Comment #1: Nolip said on 9/2/05 @ 7:58pm ET...

Accountability...
Heads will roll?
All who gave a positive spin to their deficient response to this catastrophe need to either lose their jobs or go to jail, especially George Dubya.
The nauseating photos of Dubya, visiting the devastation five days after the fact and kissing and hugging kids was questionable on its face if not its intent. Had the man in charge really "cared" he would have done everything in his power, while he still had the chance, to mitigate the damage that experts warned would happen long before Katrina hit.



Comment #2: Nolip said on 9/2/05 @ 10:06pm ET...

American Tune
Many's the time I've been mistaken,
and many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken,
and certainly misused.
Ah, but I'm all right, I'm all right.
I'm just weary to my bones.
Still you don't expect to be bright and bon vivant,
so far away from home,
so far away from home.
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered.
I don't have a friend who feels at ease.
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered,
or driven to its knees.
Ah, but it's all right. It's all right.
For we've lived so well so long.
Still, when I think of the road we're travelin' on,
I wonder what's gone wrong.
I can't help but wonder what's gone wrong.

And I dreamed I was dying.
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly,
and looking back down at me, smiled reassuringly.
And I dreamed I was flying,
and high up above my eyes could clearly see
the Statue of Liberty sailing away to sea.
And I dreamed I was flying.

And we come on the ship they call the Mayflower.
We come on the ship that sailed the moon.
We come in the age's most uncertain hours,
and sing an American tune.
Oh, and it's all right, it's all right,
it's all right.
You can't be forever blessed.
Still tomorrow's gonna be another working day
and I'm tryin' to get some rest;
that's all - I'm trying to get some rest.

- Paul Simon -
"There Goes Rhymin' Simon", 1973



Comment #3: Rusty said on 9/2/05 @ 10:18pm ET...

Congressman Conyers,

Thank you for your tireless and magnificent efforts to restore honesty, integrity, and responsibility to Washington D.C. I am very proud of you, the Congressional Black Caucus, and a few dozen white leaders for the courageous leadership you have all demonstrated in this time of crisis.

Thank you, Nolip, for your feedback regarding my polite request for divine wrath to be visited upon Washington D.C. in #20 last thread. Actually, just one fair election should be sufficient to address my concerns.



Comment #4: Rusty said on 9/2/05 @ 10:20pm ET...

Thank you for #2 Nolip, that song is very timely and appropriate right now.



Comment #5: Nolip said on 9/2/05 @ 11:14pm ET...

#4 Rusty, don't thank me...thank Paul Simon who saw democracy slipping into anarchy back during the Nixon years...only to have his prophetic words have even greater meaning during these NeoconBush years...



Comment #6: Viet Vet said on 9/2/05 @ 11:40pm ET...

Halliburton 's gonna profit from Katrina
Posted by montieg
Added to homepage Fri Sep 02nd 2005, 09:46 PM ET

I'll be damned! Halliburton got a cost-plus (construction capabilities) contract from the navy to work in the Katrina-damaged ports. Go figure! Bastards profit off of misery around the world.

Halliburton hired for storm cleanup
The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

more...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/33356... WE MUST STOP THESE CROOKS.... WE MUST IMPEACH BUSH. WAR PROFITEERS...NOW DISASTER PROFITEERS...CROOKS, THUGS, LIARS, RACISTS...HOW MUCH PROOF DOES AMERICA NEED???. IMPEACH BUSH



Comment #7: tahoebasha1 said on 9/2/05 @ 11:58pm ET...

#6 Viet Vet,

Why am I surprised not? I was thinking earlier today that Halliburton would be right in there. You confirmed my suspicions.

I read an article today where it said that in the National Emergency Act, or such, there would be an attempt to privatize FEMA. (I will try later to provide the appropriate site.)



Comment #8: Viet Vet said on 9/3/05 @ 12:10am ET...

Disaster FAQs
Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.

The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.

The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an organization of civilian volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until the local authorities say it is safe and provide us with security and access.

The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.

As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated.

WHY??? WHY DID CHERTOFF(homeland security) WAVE OFF THE RED CROSS FROM ENTERING NEW ORLEANS....WHY?? WAS IT TO CREATE MORE DEATH, MORE SUFFERING OF THE BLACK POPULACE....WE MUST IMPEACH BUSH. SOMETHING STINKS LIKE HELL IN DC....



Comment #9: Viet Vet said on 9/3/05 @ 12:29am ET...

Louisiana sent letter begging Bush for help on 28th

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pd...

This letter was written on Sunday. The GOP is trying to spin that the local and state government hadn't asked for help. HOW MUCH PROOF DOES AMERICA NEED??? THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION SHOULD BE IMPEACHED..THEY ALL BELONG IN PRISON...BUT, MAYBE THAT'S TOO GOOD FOR THEM.



Comment #10: Jo said on 9/3/05 @ 12:37am ET...

Thats .pdf for anyone having trouble with vietvets link.
This whole thing just makes me sick...



Comment #11: Viet Vet said on 9/3/05 @ 12:49am ET...

Thanks Jo.....



Comment #12: Viet Vet said on 9/3/05 @ 12:59am ET...

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf corrected link to letter above....



Comment #13: cali said on 9/3/05 @ 1:36am ET...

looks like CNN might finally be getting it
The big disconnect on New Orleans
The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version Conditions were desperate at the Louisiana Superdome on Thursday.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

JP's Maestri said FEMA didn't keep its word
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076438



Comment #14: Jo said on 9/3/05 @ 2:08am ET...

stumbled on this while looking on cnn
www.cnn.com/2005/politics/09/02/black.lawmakers.ap/index.html



Comment #15: LenaDavid said on 9/3/05 @ 2:25am ET...

http://tinyurl.com/awegz

This is the Democratic Underground thread. Story about lack of access by Red Cross and lies on homepage.
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form11.html?1

My email to cnn:

REPORT ON THIS GENOCIDE AND ASK ON THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES, WHY IS THE RED CROSS PREVENTED FROM ENTERING NEW ORLEANS TO HELP THE DYING PEOPLE?? BY OUR NATIONAL GUARD!! GENOCIDE!!!! REPORT THE TRUTH!!!

TPM Cafe.com has an ad from ACORN saying donate to them so
the money doesn't end up in Bush's pocket.



Comment #16: LenaDavid said on 9/3/05 @ 2:27am ET...

I am going to post this story about the Red Cross on one thread of AOL Messageboards then go to afterdowningstreet.org, they have a page with clickable links to all the major Media. The Green Party Recount site used to have a similar one.

If anyone knows of another site with easy clickable links to the Media please post. I'm sure the After Downing Street media page will be flooded.



Comment #17: LenaDavid said on 9/3/05 @ 2:33am ET...

Yesterday, around 1pm, they announced that the search for survivors would be called off.

Democratic Underground had the story and comments that they had intended to call off the search all along to commit genocide on the black population, the tourist got out okay. The looting was in dryer areas. Not even one shot was fired at rescue heliocopters according to FAA who has information on everything in the air.

The looting stories are to make Americans less sympathetic to the people who are dying!

just called the White House and begged that rescue operations
resume. When the guy told me to calm down, I went off of him. the number to

call is:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461



Comment #18: LenaDavid said on 9/3/05 @ 2:34am ET...

urricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities

and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New

Orleans against their orders.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to

request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following

the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage

others to come into the city.

The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans

residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere

since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for

almost 93,000 residents.

The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the

city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local

authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and

sheltering.

The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an

organization of civilian volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until

the local authorities say it is safe and provide us with security and access.

The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places

outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to

open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this

decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.

As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate

role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that

their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these

individuals once they are evacuated.

. The bastards.
n/t

So are they or aren't they ON THE SCENE....?
They should pull their commericials if they are not.

They are not 'on the scene' in New Orleans.
They are not allowed to enter and the survivors are not allowed to leave.

They are taking care of evacuees
in cities across Texas and elsewhere.
They are on the scene.

Viva la Revolution!!
It's time to MARCH ON D.C.!!

Looks that way to me. This IS NOT INCOMPETENCE THIS IS POLICY.

That Doesn't Even Make Sense
Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come

into the city.

I'm trying to understand this, because HSD seems to believe it.

A hurricane victim in the outskirts of NOLA hears on their television set that Red

Cross is braving the toxic flood waters of the city center to provide food to storm

victims. So, the victim drives their car as far as possible, and then walks the

remaining several miles into the city for the free food the Red Cross is distributing.

Then, they don't want to leave because the services the Red Cross provides are

just so excellent, it is worth the stench of death the permeates the city, and worth

95 degree heat plus 90% humidity. The victim doesn't want to go to a clean, air

conditioned shelter in another state. They want to stay in NOLA.

Yep.Sounds like bushit to me!that comment implies people are just free to come

and go as they
please.

We saw Geraldo and Shepard Smith report that the NG has shut down the exit

from the city.

The victims of Katrina, who are really victims of the bush administration, are

being held hostage.

A bush crime family variation on genocide is being perpetrated against those

people.

What Is The Official Reason
for not letting them leave the city? I think at this point I would be inclined to say

to hell with waiting, I'll walk to Baton Rouge or somewhere else.
bush crime family variation on genocide" RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES
Come on, people!

The people of New Orleans are being MURDERED BY THE POLICES OF

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. This is not some 'fuck up'. This is POLICY!
It would encourage others to come into the city?
WTF?!? Why would anyone go INTO the city knowing it's underwater and has

no food/water? If they're OUT of the city then they have access to food/water!



Comment #19: LenaDavid said on 9/3/05 @ 2:38am ET...

Why did the Bush Regime turn down offers of help from Canada - their rescue teams were ready to go and the Prime Minister was so angry he was going to demand answers from the Bush Regime today on why he preferred to let those people die.

The UN also offered help, Bushco said they would get back to them.

Something smells worse than what the Superdome must smell like!
Daily Kos article by Steve Rose
http://dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/2125/04978

Red Cross NEVER allowed into New Orleans.
by SteveRose
Fri Sep 2nd, 2005 at 18:02:05 PDT
My first diary! This whole week has been so depressing. My Red Cross donation

was one bright spot. At least I had done something to help.

Then, after reading dKos and the other blogs all week and seeing over and over

again comments that that FEMA and the NG were no where to be seen from the

people on the ground in NO, I was wondering where the Red Cross was in all this.

They were never mentioned. It was like they didn't exist. And, after yesterday's

drama at the convention center, the Brown and Chertoff lies, the Red Cross was

still MIA. Then, earlier today, I saw a note that the Red Cross was not allowed to

enter NO. Hmm, that's doesn't make sense. This simmered for a couple hours.

So I called the Red Cross and asked them if its true....

updated to more blatant title.

SteveRose's diary :: ::
And, to my surprise, the nice lady answering the phone said it was true and they

told/asked/ordered not to enter NO. She then went right into her spiel about all the

other work the Red Cross was doing across the region. I said that's nice, but I still

didn't understand why they weren't in NO. To my amazement, she patiently

explained it to me. I even called back to verify what she said. This time she asked

if I was media, I said no, just a concerned and confused contributor.

So here goes: Homeland Security (her term, not mine) told the Red Cross DO

NOT enter New Orleans and says this still now. And why, you may ask? Not

Security. Not worker safety. Not lack of access. It was because people would be

drawn to the Red Cross food and they wouldn't want to go to be evacuated. So I

asked: "The people starving and dying at the convention center yesterday couldn't

get Red Cross food and water because they would be drawn to the food at the

convention center, where they were, and not want to be evacuated from the

convention center where no evacuations were going on or planned and all the

while they are dying". (Actually, it was a couple questions.) She went back into

her spiel about all of the other good work they were doing. When I asked again,

she said yes, that was true. She seem relieved to admit it.

In closing, I asked if she asked this question before since she was very familiar

with the answer she gave. She said yes. And I promised another donation. Which

they will get after this post.

So, the question for Bushies, why was the Red Cross banned from NO when they

knew people were starving? Could it be they were saving the convention center

rescue until Bush's visit today? It certainly seems like it. Doesn't it?

Red Cross National Affairs number (202-303-5551)


Sat Sep-03-05 12:27 AM

17. I want to say that is UN FUCKING BELIEVABLE but I know better than
a

t.
That is the problem: IT IS TOTALLY FUCKING BELIEVABLE.

This is how SICK SICK SICK these people

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&addre

ss=104x4

Really, Really, Really!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sick. Vile. Evil!

While FEMA continues to lie - saying that
Red Cross won't set up in NOLA because of the lawlessness --

this is the link Mike Malloy was talking about
holy shit ...What an outrage

This needs to be blasted all over the Internet!
It's a print-out to be shown to every-one I bang into starting tomorrow!

TPM Cafe.com has an ad from ACORN saying donate to them so
the money doesn't end up in Bush's pocket.

Someone on AOL messageboard wrote that Bush said to send cash and he wrote

WTF they can't eat cash, the stores are closed, they need food and water and

they can't buy it.

This is like Fallujah, they did not want The Red Cross, or the Red Crescent or the

media or anyone witnessing the genocide.

I want to say that is UN FUCKING BELIEVABLE but I know better than that.
That is the problem: IT IS TOTALLY FUCKING BELIEVABLE.

This is how SICK SICK SICK these people are.

Please, everyone, GET THIS INFORMATION OUT ON YOUR EMAIL LISTS

NOW
While FEMA continues to lie - saying that
Red Cross won't set up in NOLA because of the lawlessness --



TPM Cafe.com has an ad from ACORN saying donate to them so
the money doesn't end up in Bush's pocket.

Someone on AOL messageboard wrote that Bush said to send cash and he wrote

WTF they can't eat cash, the stores are closed, they need food and water and

they can't buy it.

This is like Fallujah, they did not want The Red Cross, or the Red Crescent or the

media or anyone witnessing the genocide.
repug logic, guns first food last. George your screwed now.
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form11.html?1

Why isn't the Red Cross being allowed into New Orleans? Why is the National

Guard preventing them? This is genocide!! Just like Fallujah when the military

would not allow The Red Cross, The Red Crescent or the media to enter until

they had finished their door to door mass murder of anyone who did not die in the

illegal bombing including napalm and cluster bombs.

REPORT ON THIS GENOCIDE AND ASK ON THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES,

WHY IS THE RED CROSS PREVENTED FROM ENTERING NEW

ORLEANS TO HELP THE DYING PEOPLE?? BY OUR NATIONAL

GUARD!! GENOCIDE!!!! REPORT THE TRUTH!!!

Landrieu Presses Bush for Aide Coordinator
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mary Landrieu called Friday for President Bush to

appoint a cabinet-level official to direct the federal response to the devastation

along the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said she asked Bush during his tour of New

Orleans on Friday to act within 24 hours to put a single official in charge of the

overall relief effort who would report directly to him.

"The suffering has gone on long enough," she said. "Now is the time for action."

....(Bush)has faced increasing criticism from state and local officials for the

government's slow response to the disaster.

Landrieu joined the chorus Friday.

"The people of Southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have suffered in a

desperate and unprecedented way, waiting for the administration to employ the

full resources of the United States government, resources which, for whatever

reason, have yet to arrive," she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

You know what I am beginning to wonder, I wonder if some of these
people have inside information on how nuts he really is and are trying to keep a

lid on things until they can figure out what to do.

There's alot of that going around today...
The heads are popping off even the staunchest conservatives. You still have

Hannity, Rush, and a few others but the ones with an ounce of humanity have

stepped into the light.

Please, everyone, GET THIS INFORMATION OUT ON YOUR EMAIL LISTS NOW!!!

Red Cross cannot enter New Orleans - National Guard orders
Sat Sep 03rd 2005, 01:03 AM ET

Red Cross

* Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities

and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

* The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to
request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4...

~~~~~100 said dead in Chalmette Thursday, 9:46 p.m.

About 100 people have died at the Chalmette Slip after being pulled off their rooftops, waiting to be ferried up the river to the West Bank and bused out of the flood ravaged area, U.S. Rep. Charles Melancon, D-Napoleonville, said

Thursday. About 1,500 people were at the slip on Thursday afternoon, wherecritical supplies like food and water are scarce, he said.

snip--



Comment #20: Jo said on 9/3/05 @ 2:58am ET...

I just saw the photo op on msnbc. Mr.Bush hugging two docile little black girls while surrounded by well nourished white men. They should drop Mr.Bush into the convention center and see what kind of photo op he wold get from the angry starving mob inside.



Comment #21: Rusty said on 9/3/05 @ 2:59am ET...

I never thought I'd see the day that I would call Shepherd Smith of FOX a hero, but he lit into Hannity last night when Hannity tried to spin his pro-Bush garbage. Smith has been on the ground in New Orleans for days, witnessing unspeakable horror, while Hannity has been sitting in the PRAVDA studios, spouting his deranged GOP talking points and protecting Bush.

The video is available at:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Keep it up, Shep, you might save your soul yet . . . and if you get fired and need a place to stay for a little while, my hero Sandra might have room for one more abandoned American.



Comment #22: Rusty said on 9/3/05 @ 3:05am ET...

Amazing Grace 2005

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a soul like me,
Yes I was lost, but now I’m found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Life’s trials caused my heart to break,
But Love my heartbreak healed,
His children God will not forsake,
His Grace will be revealed.

I could not leave, I had no means,
They call it poverty,
I died alone in New Orleans,
But God has come for me.

He found me in the waters deep,
And took me by the hand,
He sees the tears His children weep,
Across this troubled land.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a soul like mine,
Yes I was lost but I’ve been found,
God’s mercy is divine.



Comment #23: Dr Alan H Levinson said on 9/3/05 @ 7:38am ET...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

Kevin Drum

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:

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

b.. 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."

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

d.. 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.

e.. 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.

f.. 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.

g.. 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."

h.. 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."

i.. 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.

j.. 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.

A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.

Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence.

It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.



Comment #24: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 7:54am ET...

Rusty,

(Yesterday was 'linen day' and we've successfully collected blankets, towels, and sheets for 20; we continue our 'hunting and gathering' to help families in need --- so I guess that I'm now a 'looter' too in my begging for the poor and displaced.)

I've got room for Sheppard Smith. And, wrote him the other night after his pleas from the middle of Interstate 10 where thousands had been left abandoned by their own government dead, and dying without relief begging for humanity. Shep repeated his s.o.s. identifying his location and the exit he was at.

Shep called the state troopers and asked for directions to give these fellow human beings to no avail. He begged and pleaded for help as he watched a 5-day old baby slowly dying of dehydration. He was shocked to the core that police would not stop or comment to him and just breezed on by.

He was shook to his knees to see dead bodies abandoned and nauseated of the smells of human waste. Something only the military and medical professionals have been able to comprehened on a daily basis which will shake you to your own existence in such a world gone cruel at the gates of hell.

GOD ANSWERED: It began to rain, and people captured and drank the rain. Nurses began giving each other I.V.'s. Brave foot soldiers began looting for food and drink to supply the thousands.

Also, I never thought I'd see the day when I would praise Bill O'Reilly but I did just that last night for his demanding stance with the Cato Executive to have the oil companies reduce their profits by 20% in the name of 'national' emergency interest. Of course, the greedy self-serving 'oil companies' will do no such thing. And, so I wrote Bill too.

This is all so surreal it boggles the mind and tears your heart out...and it truly reveals your soul. This disaster has turned in to a compounded humanitarian catastrophy and thousands are dead and dying because this government is inept, negligent, arrogant, and totally, utterly, incompetent.

This is death by design and manipulation and goes to the heart of calousness and greed in it's ugliest form. Who believes they have the right to decide who lives and who dies? Should you be designated expendable because of the poverty imposed upon you or the color of your skin? Should you be considered undesirable because of your DNA?

Perhaps another tsunami is what the powers that be planned to wipe out the entire area to rebuild and profit from the resources that lay beneath. This isn't the first time that the 'collateral damage' would have to be removed from land by design. We only need to look at the disease and neglect that has been profited by our very own government and others as they have systematically 'removed' the undesirables from the land they take by force whether by disease, gassing, starvation, or bombs. (Iraq, Africa, Palestine, etc. the list is long.)

And, if Cheney still sits in the bunker --- then I'd be planning a survival kit in San Franscisco right now for the earthquake or get as far away as possible.

GOD SAVE US ALL --- AS THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE WORLD.



Comment #25: Patriot said on 9/3/05 @ 8:01am ET...

A horror video of Geraldo Rivera in New Orleans. Take a hanky and a stiff drink to view it.

http://crooksandliars.com



Comment #26: Nolip said on 9/3/05 @ 9:08am ET...

Parallels between 9/11 and Katrina:

Bush is on vacation given warning about impending disaster: 9/11- PDB of August 6 and Katrina - Army Corps of Engineers, Local Officials, Major Media

BUSH DOES NOTHING

Disaster Strikes!

BUSH DELAYS RESPONSE: 9/11 he sits in a classroom for an eternity while Americans meet their fate and with Katrina he waits a week while Americans die in alleyways and overpasses.

BUSH REDIRECTS BLAME: Short of saying that the people in the Twin Towers had no business being there in the first place, Bush diverts attention away from the perpetrator OBL and sends this country into war saying that Saddam Hussein is the real culprit - with Katrina the head of FEMA certainly deserves to take some heat but when it comes to directing the armed forces that needed to be in New Orleans hours after Katrina hit, that's GW's
job. The buck stops there. Leadership vacuum!



Comment #27: GreyHawk121 said on 9/3/05 @ 10:44am ET...

I'm cross posting from a comment I made at The DailyKOS made for a diary entry by RonZ on DailyKOS. It draws an unfortunate parallel between the Bush Administration's response to and perception of the NOLA disaster with "South Park":

OMG - They killed Kenny! THOSE BASTARDS!

The phrase "while rats nibbled on dead Americans" just made a very strange and different - yet oddly appropriate - analogy to the Bush Admin's reaction to the crisis and their likely perception of our outcry.

South Park. The cartoon. Where the character Kenny is killed in almost every episode, and is sometimes eaten by or carried off by rats.

The indifference to the death, and the standard outcry of the characters, is nothing different than what we are seeing in New Orleans, and even Iraq and Afghanistan.

To the Bush Administration, all of America is "South Park". And we, the people, are stand-ins for both Kenny and his friends. When someone (another "Kenny") dies, the Admin just sees us yelling "OMG - they killed Kenny! Those BASTARDS!" and expects us to then just turn around and go on with our lives.

...those bastards.


A comment made in reply to my comment notes that Kenny, in the South Park world, is also poor.

Taken in the context of Louisiana, that just adds to the unfortunate parallel of the comparison.

:/



Comment #28: Shakti said on 9/3/05 @ 11:32am ET...

Extremely useful timeline, Alan. Thank-you!

Why does Mayor Nagin seem to be the only official who truly cares about the people of N.O., to the point where he actually stayed behind with them?
Where was Gov. Blanco while she was issuying her sickening orders for the NG to "shoot to kill" the so-called "looters"?

Listen to Nagin's live commentary -- this broadcast should be picked-up and aired on all major networks!!!
http://www.atypical.net/mm/nagin.mp3

While Bush was vacationing, wasn't Cheney the acting president? WHERE WAS CHENEY? Where is the vice-pResident now?

The People will need real answers about this total FIASCO.



Comment #29: Shakti said on 9/3/05 @ 11:44am ET...

Bush Strafes New Orleans
Where is our Huey Long?
by Greg Palast
Fri. Sept. 2nd 05

A must read!
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=453&row=0



Comment #30: Patriot said on 9/3/05 @ 12:06pm ET...

* Mr Conyers! We need you ASAP! *

Mr. Conyers, my brother's company has purchased not only supplies and generators, when they couldn't rent a available helicopter to donate, they bought one from Canada and delivered it.

They have three DC3 (C47) cargo planes in their area. They have one of their own and two more available to them. Their pilots are ready to be certified but the Dallas office is dragging their feet. Because their fully qualified pilots aren't certified, they are having to hire pilots, when any are available, from out of state. They have more supplies and equipment to deliver and will continue to collect and deliver throughout this crisis.

I checked their representative and she's Eddie Bernice Johnson, 30th District of Texas. She's on the transportation and aviation committee.

Here's his note to me:

Maybe he could help me with a problem I have with the FAA. I've been trying to get our chief pilot as an examiner for several months. The Dallas office says they don't get enough requests to authorise an examiner on a DC3. We have to get a guy from Detroit or Alabama to come give annual exams, when we have a qulified pilot right here. Now I don't have enogh pilots to fly supplies in. We have about 5 that could do it if they could just get the check ride.

I need to get our pilot approved. He has been to all of the required classes and has done everything. But the Dallas office says they don't get enough requests to need him. That's because no one calls them because they know there isn't one in the Dallas area. There are 3 DC 3s in Dallas and we all get examiners to come in from out of town or fly our planes to them.

He has already done all of the FAA required training, they just need to bless it. He went to the FAA examiner school in OKC.

First he's got to go through the Dallas Flight Standards District Office. Then he has to get a check ride with the FAA. We had this set up, then the office manager stopped the process and said we didn't need him. We had to use a guy from Alabama to get 2 pilots thier annual check out. We have about 4-5 more that are qulified and rated in the DC3 they just need the annual check ride to be current. I have hired two guys from Alabama to come fly for us. We have to pay somene from out of town when we have pilots here that would volunteer. There are 3 DC3s in the area that run into the same problem. They would use our pilot for the exams if he could do it.

They are making a signifant contribution to this effort and with a few phone calls, they could be doing even more.

Here's what he said about the rescue activity there from his perspective:

I went to Windsor ont. yesterday to pick up a helicopter and flew it to chatanooga, tn. it will go today to help out. I have been involved in relief already. Our DC3 has made 2 flights down taking elec generators and food.

Again only the bad is being shown on the news. I was charged with finding 15 helicopters to rent for the effort on Tues. Everyone I called already had them rented to FEMA we had to buy one in canada just so we could help.

We're puring the money out to help. We bought generators, chainsaws, water, everything you can imagine. The whole area is under control by AWACS planes cause there is no radar. we take them to Hammond LA. that's the nea4rest airport outside of the no fly zone.

Airbourne command centers. They have radar and direct planes on combat missions and report enemy action, and direct the fighters there. Now they are acting as a airbourne approach control. They were in the air almost immediatly after the storm.

The news is showing the inside problems but the outside working in is increadible. It's like a war zone. You have to stage and get supplies and then get them in. It can't be done immidiatly. But the effort started on tues. We had a meeting while the storm was still over New Orleans. I couldn't find a helicopter anywhere they were already gone. I'm amased at the fast response. Could it be better. I'm sure there are problems, but if you saw the effort, from where I've been, it's increadable.

Please, Mr. Conyers, can you see about getting his pilot certified as an examiner now so they can get these planes going on a regular schedule with volunteers instead of hiring pilots?

This is a big effort and a push from you and from the gentlelady from Texas would make a big difference. Thanks.

Admin has my email address and your campaign has it, too, and your newsletter and Jonathan who worked on the house parties.

Soapbox4truth.org



Comment #31: Viet Vet said on 9/3/05 @ 1:03pm ET...

Is Bush Out of Control?
By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 15, 2005, 05:46


Buy beleaguered, overworked White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia.
They describe a President whose public persona masks an angry, obscenity-spouting man who berates staff, unleashes tirades against those who disagree with him and ends meetings in the Oval Office with “get out of here!”

In fact, George W. Bush’s mood swings have become so drastic that White House emails often contain “weather reports” to warn of the President’s demeanor. “Calm seas” means Bush is calm while “tornado alert” is a warning that he is pissed at the world.

Decreasing job approval ratings and increased criticism within his own party drives the President’s paranoia even higher. Bush, in a meeting with senior advisors, called Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist a “god-damned traitor” for opposing him on stem-cell research.

“There’s real concern in the West Wing that the President is losing it,” a high-level aide told me recently.

A year ago, this web site discovered the White House physician prescribed anti-depressants for Bush. The news came after revelations that the President’s wide mood swings led some administration staffers to doubt his sanity.

Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

As a recovering alcoholic (sober 11 years, two months, nine days), I know all too well the symptoms that Dr. Frank describes and, after watching Bush for the past several years, I have to, unfortunately, agree with him.

Conversations over the last few weeks with longtime friends who work in the Bush White House confirm even more what Dr. Frank says and others have suggested.

The President of the United States is out of control. How long can the ship of state continue to sail with a madman at the helm?

© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue
WE MUST IMPEACH BUSH..AND REMOVE THESE CRIMINALS FROM OUR GOVERNMENT. WHEN WILL AMERICA WAKE UP?



Comment #32: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 1:05pm ET...

I recently received, from a wealthy southern caucasion republican his response to my concerns of the tragedy that is befallen upon New Orleans; his reply:

"This is just Mother Nature's way of Ethnic Cleansing a vital land needed for other purposes."

His reply promted the following questions:

1.) Where did New Orleans fall on the map quest in the Supreme Court's ordered sealed undisclosure of Cheney's Energy Task Force? What were/are the plans for this oil rich occupied territory of New Orleans and the Gulf region?

2.) Why does Speaker of the House, Dennis Hasert proclaim that New Orleans will not be re-built? For that matter who is prosecuting Hasert for bribes, illegal and unethical dealings with Turkey in the name of the United States of America?

3.) Why was Michael Chertoff (son of a rabi who enjoys dual citizenship US and ISRAEL) appointed (98-0) as Secretary of Homeland Security with no prior experience in disaster response but strongly pursues legal justification for response to 'terrorism'?

4.) Why was Brown placed in charge of FEMA with no experience?

5.) Where is Dick Cheney now? Why was the warning of "The Guns of August" and Cheney's manical desire for another 9/11 type crisis ignored?

6.) What does American Colonialism and Globalization have in common with Zionism and Ethnic Cleansing?

-----------------------------------

As the uprising intensified, the Israeli cabinet and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin implemented “collective punishment, ”a tactic characteristic of the Nazi occupation of France, Denmark and Yugoslavia. Food, water and medicine were prevented from reaching Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (U.N.R.W.A.) personnel reported that children seeking powdered milk at U.N. depots were shot at and beaten with sticks.

This book seeks to uncover the hidden history of Zionism, a movement rooted in the ideology of racist oppression of Jews and colonial subjects alike. It has been written in anticipation of that day when the dedication and fervor of the Palestinian people, so long persecuted and oppressed, will speak to the Jews, recalling to them their own painful history, with a program for a Palestine in which victims, past and present, will create together the Intifadeh of the future and overthrow a state predicated upon oppression, torture, expulsion, expansion and unending war.

Four overriding myths have shaped the consciousness of most people in our society about Zionism.

1.) The first is that of “A land without a people for a people without a land.” This myth was sedulously cultivated by early Zionists to promote the fiction that Palestine was a remote, desolate place ready for the taking. This claim was quickly followed by denial of Palestinian identity, nationhood or legitimate entitlement to the land in which the Palestinian people have lived throughout their recorded history.

2.) The second is the myth of Israeli democracy. Innumerable newspaper stories or television references to the Israeli state are followed by the assertion that it is the only “real” democracy in the Middle East. In fact, Israel is as democratic as the apartheid state of South Africa. Civil liberty, due process and the most basic human rights are by law denied those who do not meet racial, religious criteria.

3.) The third myth is that of “security” as the motor force of Israeli foreign policy. Zionists maintain that their state must be the fourth largest military power in the world because Israel has been forced to defend itself against imminent menace from primitive, hate-consumed Arab masses only recently dropped from the trees.

4.) The fourth myth is that of Zionism as the moral legatee of the victims of the Holocaust. This is at once the most pervasive and insidious of the myths about Zionism. Ideologues for the Zionist movement have wrapped themselves in the collective shroud of the six million Jews who fell victim to Nazi mass murder. The bitter and cruel irony of this false claim is that the Zionist movement itself actively colluded with Nazism from its inception.

To most people it appears anomalous that the Zionist movement, which forever invokes the horror of the Holocaust, should have collaborated actively with the most vicious enemy ever faced by the Jews. The record, however, reveals not merely common interests but a deep ideological affinity rooted in the extreme chauvinism which they share.

The objective of Zionism has never been merely to colonize Palestine – as was the goal of classical colonial and imperial movements during the 19th and 20th centuries. The design of European colonialism in Africa and Asia was, essentially, to exploit indigenous peoples as cheap labor while extracting natural resources for exorbitant profit.

The Hidden History

--------------------------------

Ethnic Cleansing

The term ethnic cleansing refers to various policies of forcibly removing people of one ethnic group. At one end of the spectrum, it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population transfer, while at the other it merges with deportation and genocide.

At the most general level, however, ethnic cleansing can be understood as the forced expulsion of an "undesirable" population from a given territory due to religious or ethnic discrimination, political, strategic or ideological considerations, or a combination of these.

Some political commentators avoid use of the term, which they see as a political euphemism which attempts to apply a word with positive connotations (cleansing) to a morally objectionable act (forced population movement usually achieved through violence).

Wikipedia - Ethnic Cleansing



Comment #33: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 1:17pm ET...

One other question left off...

In light of the recent Supreme Court decision on Imminent Domain, what property, city, or territory can the government deem necessary in taking either by military force, martial law, or 'legally' from homesteaded or privately held properties for commerce purposes and redevelopment under the guise of capitalism, globalization, and national interest?



Comment #34: Patriot said on 9/3/05 @ 1:56pm ET...

#31 Viet Vet. I can see that... sadly, too clearly.



Comment #35: nomad said on 9/3/05 @ 3:26pm ET...

IT ISN'T JUST PRICE GOUGING at the pump we should decry. We should demand payback for all those outrageous profits the oil barons have been making since Dubya took office. If the president of Venezuela is offering discounted gas prices to the poor, and 40% discounts on oil for heating their homes in the winter (rather than freezing to death as many poor and elderly do in the US each year), where are the US oil companies? Why can't they make some discounts considering the situation? Why do they need to keep all those profits without putting them back into society? ARE THEY USING IT TO DEVELOP ALTERNATE SOURCES OF ENERGY??? HAH!! I suggest the first cuts be made by refusing to fuel the limos and Air Force 1, and cut the lights in the White House! Oh, and the air conditioning, too. LET HIM SWEAT!



Comment #36: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 3:38pm ET...

THESE RECORDS NEED TO BE SEIZED

IEM offers services through the GSA Federal Supply Schedule. Where applicable, all work conducted under the GSA contract will be compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Repost: IEM Incorporated

Bush Privatized Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans, Southeast Louisiana in 2004

IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana 03 June 2004 (IEM, Inc. Press Release)

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

IEM Products and Services

"As they develop mass-evacuation strategies, disaster planners are increasingly knowledgeable about human behavior."

See also:
IEM - What's New

IEM-led team develops www.Louisiana.gov.

"The official web site of the state of Louisianna"

Louisanna State Government

----------------

Clients – Federal Agencies IEM Clients

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP)

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA)

National Emergency Training Center (NETC)

Secretary of Defense Joint Program Office for Special Technology Countermeasures (JPO-STC)

United States Army Chemical Materials Agency
(formerly the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command)

United States Army Chemical School

United States Army Environmental Center (AEC)

United States Army Program Manager for Chemical Demilitarization (PMCD)



Comment #37: Nolip said on 9/3/05 @ 3:54pm ET...

United States of Shame

By MAUREEN DOWD

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/03/opinion/03dowd.html

Excellent op-ed piece.



Comment #38: tahoebasha1 said on 9/3/05 @ 4:24pm ET...

#23- Dr. Alan

I was going to post that very post -- you beat me to it!

Here's more on the subject:

"When the levee breaks"

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002331.html

VALUES
Bush Asks Not

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1375197

Airboaters stalled by FEMA

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3956
~~~~~~~
Scientists warned of this event (not the same extent) over three years ago. I guess the virtual dismantling of FEMA and the continual cutback of funds for the national flood controls was/is Bush & Co.'s answer to the scientists.

Maybe, in part, it was calculated to leave room for privatization of FEMA. Just look, Haliburton is down there already raking it up.

To feel such deep sorrow for those people in one breath and utter contempt for the response of this so-called government in another breath is just about all the emotion one can stand.

The priorities of this administration ARE SPEAKING OUT LOUD AND CLEAR.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE?



Comment #39: GreyHawk121 said on 9/3/05 @ 4:33pm ET...

#36 Sandra - Checked the IEM site; there's no press release for that day (3 June 2004).

Do you have a link to it?



Comment #40: GreyHawk121 said on 9/3/05 @ 4:35pm ET...

#36 Sandra - found it:
IEM Team Wins U.S. Army MANSCEN Services Contract
(site says it's May 25, 2004)



Comment #41: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 4:41pm ET...

IEM Commercial Clients

Agrico Chemicals
APPRO Systems, Inc.
Arizona Public Service Company
Bechtel National, Inc.
Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc
Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station, Texas
Dillard University
Dominion Virginia Power
E.I. DuPont de Nemours Corporation
James Lee Witt Associates, LLC
Kaiser Chemicals
Logistics Management Institute
Louisiana Power and Light Company
Harris Nuclear Plant, North Carolina
Occidental Chemical Corporation
Quaternary Resource Investigations, Inc.
Union Carbide
Taiwan Power Company
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Westlake Chemical Group
Woman's Hospital, Louisiana

IEM Clients – State Agencies

California State University
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
Georgia Legislative Budget Office
Louisiana Office of Electronic Services
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
State of Alabama Emergency Management Agency
State of Arkansas Emergency Management Agency
State of Colorado Emergency Management Agency
State of Indiana Emergency Management Agency
State of Illinois Emergency Management Agency
State of Kentucky Emergency Management Agency
State of Maryland Emergency Management Agency
State of Oregon Emergency Management Agency
State of Utah Division of Comprehensive Emergency Management
State of Washington Emergency Management Agency
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Washington, D.C. Emergency Management Agency



Comment #42: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 4:47pm ET...

GreyHawk --- IEM site was altered to remove the press release.

Repost:

Comment #25: Sandra said on 8/30/05 @ 10:03pm ET...

Bush Privatized Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans, Southeast Louisiana in 2004

IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana 03 June 2004 (IEM, Inc. Press Release) "IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November." [James Lee Witt Associates, LLC, established in 2001 by the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is a leader in public safety and crisis management. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Atlanta, Chicago and Sacramento... nice reward for covering up Bush's 9/11 terrorist attacks, etc.]

Breaking News - Citizens for Legitimate Government



Comment #43: Viet Vet said on 9/3/05 @ 5:00pm ET...

Also, From the CLG above...Sonic 'Lasers' Head to Flood Zone 02 Sep 2005 In mid-90's morning heat at Edwards Air Force Base, HPV Technologies and American Technology demonstrated prototypes of non-lethal sonic devices for a group of military and law enforcement guests, including representatives of the U.K. Home Office. Representatives of both companies say that within days, they will ship some units of their respective products to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, so authorities can use the tools for crowd control, aid distribution and rescue operations. American Technology is donating four devices -- three MRADs (medium-range acoustic devices) and one LRAD (long-range acoustic device). The four devices will be shipped out Friday to a Marine military police unit that is deploying to the Gulf States area for disaster-relief efforts. [The Bush terror team is able to send crowd contol lasers but not food and water.] WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE??? WE MUST IMPEACH BUSH....THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE....



Comment #44: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 5:03pm ET...

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
03 September 2005

http://www.legitgov.org/
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

Pentagon Investigator Resigning - Takes Job With Blackwater --

The Defense Department's inspector general is suspected of blocking investigations of senior Bush officials. 03 Sep 2005 The Pentagon's top investigator has resigned amid accusations that he stonewalled inquiries into senior Bush regime officials suspected of wrongdoing.

Defense Department Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz told staffers this week that he intended to resign as of Sept. 9 to take a job with the parent company of Blackwater USA, a defense contractor.

Pentagon watchdog to join defense contractor 31 Aug 2005 Joseph Schmitz, the Pentagon's chief internal watchdog since March 2002, has quit to join a defense contractor involved in private security services, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday. Schmitz will become chief operating officer and general counsel of McLean, Virginia-based Prince Group, which manufactures items on contract and owns Blackwater USA, a security consultant working in Iraq [and now in the US Gulf Region], said Lt. Col. Rose-Ann Lynch, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Blackwater USA Joins Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort On (September 1, 2005, Blackwater USA joined the ongoing relief effort in the Gulf Region devastated by Hurricane Katrina by dispatching a SA-330J Puma helicopter to help assist in evacuating citizens from flooded areas.... The following services are available: Airlift Services, Security Services, Communication Support, Crowd Control, Humanitarian Support, Services Logistics, and Transportation Services.



Comment #45: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 5:30pm ET...

OPEN THE MILITARY BASES

The shelters in stadiums must be relieved. These should be considered as 'temporary' stablization and wellness stations.

The many military bases (some that were closed during previous RIF/BRAC) with housing and services could accommodate best the large population of American Hurricane survivors 'displaced' on a longer term and national level.

They have experience in housing, feeding, and medical care for large numbers without further harm and separation of families.

What is being done in this area of consideration?

Expect this to be part of the legislative session which begins on Tuesday if another emergency session is not called with Senator Reid and Senator Warner prior to that time.



Comment #46: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 5:54pm ET...

So, do you think American have had enough of this administration?

Not even close.

Look at public opinion, people do not blame this administration for half of what they do, and half of the rest on us. Bush himself would have to have blown those poor kids away live on national TV before everyone thinks unkindly of him - but only if he's seen laughing about it.

I've read opinions saying that price gouging is good, that these people deserve what they got, that FEMA is not to blame for anything, that Bush did the right thing, etc., etc., ad nauseum. People still defend the SOB.

It's quite simple. America is going down and we're the ones cursed enough to be aware enough to know we're watching the downfall of America unfolding before us.

Greed has overcome sensibility. Politics over competence. Images over substance. Racism over compassion. Rhetoric over reason. We've seen it all unfold and we shall see much more unfold in the next 3 years.

I have a feeling we could have the perfect presidential candidate and still lose to some lowbrow idiot conservative. We'd be better off nominating a real jackass to counter their jackass.

Mr. Ed, 2008

Not even close.

Look at public opinion, people do not blame this administration for half of what they do, and half of the rest on us. Bush himself would have to have blown those poor kids away live on national TV before everyone thinks unkindly of him - but only if he's seen laughing about it.

I've read opinions saying that price gouging is good, that these people deserve what they got, that FEMA is not to blame for anything, that Bush did the right thing, etc., etc., ad nauseum. People still defend the SOB.

It's quite simple. America is going down and we're the ones cursed enough to be aware enough to know we're watching the downfall of America unfolding before us.

Greed has overcome sensibility. Politics over competence. Images over substance. Racism over compassion. Rhetoric over reason. We've seen it all unfold and we shall see much more unfold in the next 3 years.

I have a feeling we could have the perfect presidential candidate and still lose to some lowbrow idiot conservative.


Comment #47: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 5:56pm ET...

Sorry about the messed up link and the double post.

Attempting fix.



Comment #48: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 5:57pm ET...

Properly made link - I hope



Comment #49: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 6:15pm ET...

I think I finally figured out how to get an image on the blog.



Comment #50: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 6:29pm ET...



Comment #51: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 6:30pm ET...

Well, that certainly did not owrk too well.



Comment #52: Jay Lechnyr said on 9/3/05 @ 6:32pm ET...

Admin, please remove the offending post. It seems I've gotten into some trouble and I cannot gmake just a simple fix. So please remove this and the previous one or two posts.



Comment #53: Sandra said on 9/3/05 @ 7:04pm ET...

Emergency International Webcast

Lyndon LaRouche —

"Pulling This Nation Together Now!"

11:00am, EDT/15:00 UT
Saturday, September 3, 2005

Emergency Session - United States Senate



Comment #54: Rusty said on 9/3/05 @ 7:54pm ET...

Jesse Kornbluth on Huffington Post:

"No one in charge. How scary is that? The biggest disaster on our shores in a century, and our government's leaders were AWOL. Now we have proof: Our President's deer-in-the-headlights reaction to the 9/11 attacks was no fluke. For all his tough talk, the man simply does not know what to do when things go really, really wrong. Careless in good times, he's negligent in bad. Criminally negligent. And now it looks as if as many as 10,000 people have died because of that negligence.

You have read, by now, how the Federal Government cut funding for flood prevention work in New Orleans because the money was needed for the war in Iraq. How the head of FEMA is such an inexperienced idiot that he was fired from the International Arabian Horse Association --- not exactly a confidence-inspiring credential, even if he had been a howling success at that job --- and did not seem to know as late as yesterday that 15,000 people in the sweltering convention center were without food or water. How Dick Cheney, on seemingly permanent vacation, has decided to let George Bush play the part of the President without his help. And how Condi Rice, instead of coordinating the international response to our crisis, shopped for shoes in New York.

And we have seen this government do what it does best, which is to spin a fairytale for a nation of children. The Army finally shows up and George Bush hugs a Negro. Did everyone get the picture? Great."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/when-a-preventable-traged_b_6746.html



Comment #55: Rusty said on 9/3/05 @ 8:05pm ET...

WARY OF THE STORIES OF NEW ORLEANS RAMPAGING

By Lee Russ, Section Diaries
Posted on Fri Sep 02, 2005 at 09:03:49 AM EST

"Television coverage of New Orleans is heavy with tales of absolute lawlessness, including a widely reported sniper shot at a rescue helicopter.
I don't doubt that looting has occurred, nor that some of it is for "luxury" goods not just necessities. But I do have a lot of skepticism about the type and degree of lawlessness being portrayed.

Now it turns out that Laura Brown, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Washington, has cast doubt on the report of the firing on the helicopter. She said she had no such report.

"We're controlling every single aircraft in that airspace and none of them reported being fired on," she said, adding that the FAA was in contact with the military as well as civilian aircraft."


http://watchingthewatchers.org/story/2005/9/2/9350/92642



Comment #56: tahoebasha1 said on 9/3/05 @ 9:49pm ET...

There have been many offers of help from many countries, equipment, supplies, etc. Why, I ask you, have Bush & Co. refused these offers? I am so baffled by that knowledge. Don't you think that maybe these countries "genuinely" want to help, in recompense for all our past efforts? And yet, Bush & Co. say they will only accept CASH. Exactly, how do we translate that? I think what it boils down to is that Bush & Co. want complete CONTROL over what goes down, how the situation is handled, etc. Why should we accept "free" help, when we can have Haliburton, and its subsidiaries in there (at their "inflated" pricing)? Afterall, wouldn't it behoove Bush & Co. to do what profits the Carlyle Group and others? Accepting help from other nations does nothing for their "interests," nor do the lives of poor black people, although, they pay taxes just like anybody else.

The "EVILS" of this administration are endless. WHEN will the American people WAKE UP? Does no one realize that it will take "years" to undo the "fallout" of all the damage and destruction to America and its constitution that has been done by this so-called administration? No one is EXEMPT!



Comment #57: Rusty said on 9/3/05 @ 10:03pm ET...

BUSH FAKED LEVEE REPAIR FOR PHOTO OP YESTERDAY
by John in DC - 9/03/2005 06:29:00 PM

"From a press release LA Senator Mary Landrieu sent out today:

"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young annd old - deserve far better from their national government."

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/bush-faked-levee-repair-for-photo-op.html



Comment #58: tahoebasha1 said on 9/3/05 @ 10:29pm ET...

Folks, I think the problem here is that Bush is delusional. I think he thinks of himself as a "king," his cabinet, the "royal family" and us, the "lowly subjects." Thus, he does not have to answer to anything. (He's been hanging around the Saudis way too long!)

Given that same premise, he can trample all over our Constitution, the United Nations, the Geneva Conventions, the international community, and our very own homeland and the concerns and needs of the American taxpayer citizens -- nonetheless, our very own Homeland Security. If it does not profit the "king" and his "royal family," he simply has no care or concern. Why have our soldiers been so ill-equipped and without proper gear? Why have their benefits been cut back? Why? Because they are not in the interests of the "king" and his "royal family" and, thus, does not behoove them.

You can then apply that same premise to the latent response to the disaster of the hurricane and the pleadings of all of those unfortunate souls crying out for help. Why on earth would any kind of response come so late? It was simply that poor, black people were not in the "interests" of the "king" -- (even though they pay taxes like anyone else) there was little to be gained from them, therefore, while not stall everything in order to profit from the situation (Haliburton & Co. -- just like 9/11, boy, did Halliburton make out on that). Afterall, he's the "king" and he has decided/will decide who is to live and who is to die!



Comment #59: Nolip said on 9/3/05 @ 11:59pm ET...

Anyone on this blog surprised by this latest development?

White House Shifts Blame to Local Officials

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html



Comment #60: Neerav Trivedi said on 9/4/05 @ 12:49am ET...

Here is an article in Saturday's New York Times about how Hurricane Katrina is becoming a very bad political crisis for Bush and his Administration. If he does not handle this situatiuon well, say bye-bye to his poll numbers!!!

You can find the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/national/nationalspecial/04bush.html

Here is the entirety of the NY Times article, which is co-written by Elisabeth Bumiller and Adam Nagourney. The date of this article is Sunday, September 4th, 2005.

Please read the article and give your opinion on it. I take full responsibility for the length of this post as a result of this NY Times article, but I must post it here, as it is relevant to our cause.

-----------------------------------------------------------
September 4, 2005
As White House Anxiety Grows, Bush Tries to Quell Political Crisis
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
and ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 - Faced with one of the worst political crises of his administration, President Bush abruptly overhauled his September schedule on Saturday as the White House scrambled to gain control of a situation that Republicans said threatened to undermine Mr. Bush's second-term agenda and the party's long-term ambitions.

In a sign of the mounting anxiety at the White House, Mr. Bush made a rare Saturday appearance in the Rose Garden before live television cameras to announce that he was dispatching additional active-duty troops to the Gulf Coast. He struck a more somber tone than he had at times on Friday during a daylong tour of the disaster region, when he had joked at the airport in New Orleans about the fun he had had in his younger days in Houston. His demeanor on Saturday was similar to that of his most somber speeches after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"The magnitude of responding to a crisis over a disaster area that is larger than the size of Great Britain has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," said Mr. Bush, slightly exaggerating the stricken land area. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."

The president was flanked by his high military and emergency command: Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

As Mr. Bush spoke, Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser, listened on the sidelines, as did Dan Bartlett, the counselor to the president and Mr. Bush's overseer of communications strategy. Their presence underscored how seriously the White House is reacting to the political crisis it faces.

"Where our response is not working, we'll make it right," Mr. Bush said, as Mr. Bartlett, with a script in his hand, followed closely.

His speech came as analysts and some Republicans warned that the White House's response to the crisis in New Orleans, which has been widely seen as slow and ineffectual, could further undermine Mr. Bush's authority at a time when he was already under fire, endangering his Congressional agenda.

Mr. Chertoff said Saturday: "Not an hour goes by that we do not spend a lot of time thinking about the people who are actively suffering. The United States, as the president has said, is going to move heaven and earth to rescue, feed, shelter" victims of the storm.

The White House said Mr. Bush would return to Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday, scrapping his plans for a Labor Day address in Maryland. The rest of Mr. Bush's schedule next week was in flux.

The White House also postponed a major visit to Washington next week by President Hu Jintao of China. In a statement issued on Saturday, the White House said both Mr. Hu and Mr. Bush had agreed that "in the present circumstances, it was best not to have" the meeting, which would have demanded much of the president's attention over the next days on growing difficulties between the United States and China over trade frictions, North Korea's nuclear program and China's military buildup.

The last-minute overhaul of the president's plans reflected what analysts and some Republicans said was a long-term threat to Mr. Bush's presidency created by the perception that the White House had failed to respond to the crisis. Several said the political fallout over the hurricane could complicate a second-term agenda that includes major changes to Social Security, the tax code and the immigration system.

"This is very much going to divert the agenda," said Tom Rath, a New Hampshire Republican with ties to the White House. "Some of this is momentary. I think the Bush capital will be rapidly replenished if they begin to respond here."

Donald P. Green, a professor of political science at Yale University, said: "The possibility for very serious damage to the administration exists. The unmistakable conclusion one would draw from this was this was a massive administration failure."

And Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, urged Mr. Bush to quickly propose a rebuilding plan for New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast, arguing that an ambitious gesture could restore his power in Congress.

"If it's done right, it adds energy to the rest of his agenda," Mr. Gingrich said. "If it's done wrong, it swamps the rest of his agenda."

The silence of many prominent Democrats reflects their conclusion that the president is on treacherous political ground and that attacking him would permit the White House to dismiss the criticism as partisan politics-as-usual, a senior Democratic aide said.

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, disputed the notion that Mr. Bush's long-term political viability was endangered and said Saturday that he was confident the administration would be able to push ahead successfully with its second-term agenda. "There are a number of priorities, and we will address all of them," he said.

For all the enormity of the destruction and the lingering uncertainty about how many years it will take to "rebuild the great city of New Orleans," as Mr. Bush said in his remarks on Saturday, some Republicans suggested that the impact could prove fleeting in this age of fast-moving events, and that Mr. Bush's visit to the region on Friday had helped some in addressing concerns about his response.

"Next Tuesday the Roberts hearings start, and that's going to occupy a significant part of the daily coverage," said Richard N. Bond, a former Republican chairman, referring to the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge John G. Roberts Jr.

But others said the damage could prove enduring, and they warned that the inevitable battery of official investigations into what went wrong could further erode support for the war in Iraq if it turned out that the deployment of National Guard units to Iraq had contributed to the slow response. They said any thought that memories of New Orleans will fade would be checked by gas prices that spiked as Louisiana refineries shut down, particularly given that there was already evidence that rising gas prices were hurting Mr. Bush's political standing.

Beyond that, some Republicans said the perception among some blacks that the White House had been slow to respond because so many victims were poor and African-American undercut what had been one of the primary initiatives of the new Republican chairman, Ken Mehlman: making an explicit appeal for support among black voters, a constituency that has traditionally been overwhelmingly Democratic.

"Given the racial component of this, and given the current political environment, there certainly seems to be a high level of risk to this story," said a Republican Party official, who, citing the concern among party officials about the criticism, would only discuss the question on the condition of not being identified.

But Mr. Bush, reflecting concern within the White House about the president's standing among blacks, notably said in his radio address that "we have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters all along the Gulf Coast, and we will not rest until we get this right and the job is done."

Both Republicans and Democrats noted that the reaction to the crisis has been nothing like what happened after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when both parties joined in a bipartisan show of unity in the face of a clear and identifiable outside threat.

Hurricane Katrina struck at a time, they said, when Mr. Bush was already in a weakened state, with his approval rating in many national polls at the lowest level of his presidency and his political capital in Washington diminishing.

The shifting dynamics on Capitol Hill was clear as Congress returned to Washington to allocate billions of dollars for the relief effort. Congressional leaders suggested that the White House needed to reconsider its legislative agenda. "This is not going to help Social Security," said Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois. "And it was already on its last legs."

Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican whip, said it would be a mistake to abandon efforts to reduce the estate tax, arguing that was precisely what the economy needed to grow. But he said he thought the White House might reconsider what it wanted this fall.

"I think the administration needs to be thinking about what their agenda is for the fall," he said. "And I'm sure there will be some re-evaluation."

Richard W. Stevenson contributed reporting for this article.



Comment #61: Neerav Trivedi said on 9/4/05 @ 1:01am ET...

Frank Rich of the New York Times hits the nail on the head in his Op-Ed piece for the Sunday New York Times, comparing the failure of Bush and his Administration in responding quickly and appropriately to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster to that of the very poor handling of both 9/11 and the current situation in Iraq. Every artciel has Frank Rich pounding the living daylights our of Bush and his Administration, and exposing the truths about the corruptions that lie beneath.

Ladies and gentlemen of Conyers Blog, read this article, as this opinion piece by Frank Rich gives us craploads of ammunition to use against Bush, possibly to impeach him over this and the Iraq War (since the two are now related very closely).

Please read this article, along with the one I posted right above, nad let me know your opinion on this.

You can find the opinion article, written by Frank Rich of the New York Times at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rich.html?pagewanted=all

Here is the entire opinion piece of Frank Rich:

-------------------------------------------------------------
September 4, 2005
Falluja Floods the Superdome
By FRANK RICH

AS the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny.

As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.

After dispatching Katrina with a few sentences of sanctimonious boilerplate ("our hearts and prayers are with our fellow citizens"), he turned to his more important task. The war in Iraq is World War II. George W. Bush is F.D.R. And anyone who refuses to stay his course is soft on terrorism and guilty of a pre-9/11 "mind-set of isolation and retreat." Yet even as Mr. Bush promised "victory" (a word used nine times in this speech on Tuesday), he was standing at the totemic scene of his failure. It was along this same San Diego coastline that he declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln more than two years ago. For this return engagement, The Washington Post reported, the president's stage managers made sure he was positioned so that another hulking aircraft carrier nearby would stay off-camera, lest anyone be reminded of that premature end of "major combat operations."

This administration would like us to forget a lot, starting with the simple fact that next Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the day we were attacked by Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Even before Katrina took command of the news, Sept. 11, 2005, was destined to be a half-forgotten occasion, distorted and sullied by a grotesquely inappropriate Pentagon-sponsored country music jamboree on the Mall. But hard as it is to reflect upon so much sorrow at once, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the real history surrounding 9/11; it is the Rosetta stone for what is happening now. If we are to pull ourselves out of the disasters of Katrina and Iraq alike, we must live in the real world, not the fantasyland of the administration's faith-based propaganda. Everything connects.

Though history is supposed to occur first as tragedy, then as farce, even at this early stage we can see that tragedy is being repeated once more as tragedy. From the president's administration's inattention to threats before 9/11 to his disappearing act on the day itself to the reckless blundering in the ill-planned war of choice that was 9/11's bastard offspring, Katrina is déjà vu with a vengeance.

The president's declaration that "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" has instantly achieved the notoriety of Condoleezza Rice's "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center." The administration's complete obliviousness to the possibilities for energy failures, food and water deprivation, and civil disorder in a major city under siege needs only the Donald Rumsfeld punch line of "Stuff happens" for a coup de grâce. How about shared sacrifice, so that this time we might get the job done right? After Mr. Bush's visit on "Good Morning America" on Thursday, Diane Sawyer reported on a postinterview conversation in which he said, "There won't have to be tax increases."

But on a second go-round, even the right isn't so easily fooled by this drill (with the reliable exception of Peggy Noonan, who found much reassurance in Mr. Bush's initial autopilot statement about the hurricane, with its laundry list of tarps and blankets). This time the fecklessness and deceit were all too familiar. They couldn't be obliterated by a bullhorn or by the inspiring initial post-9/11 national unity that bolstered the president until he betrayed it. This time the heartlessness beneath the surface of his actions was more pronounced.

You could almost see Mr. Bush's political base starting to crumble at its very epicenter, Fox News, by Thursday night. Even there it was impossible to ignore that the administration was no more successful at securing New Orleans than it had been at pacifying Falluja.

A visibly exasperated Shepard Smith, covering the story on the ground in Louisiana, went further still, tossing hand grenades of harsh reality into Bill O'Reilly's usually spin-shellacked "No Spin Zone." Among other hard facts, Mr. Smith noted "that the haves of this city, the movers and shakers of this city, evacuated the city either immediately before or immediately after the storm." What he didn't have to say, since it was visible to the entire world, was that it was the poor who were left behind to drown.

In that sense, the inequality of the suffering has not only exposed the sham of the relentless photo-ops with black schoolchildren whom the president trots out at campaign time to sell his "compassionate conservatism"; it has also positioned Katrina before a rapt late-summer audience as a replay of the sinking of the Titanic. New Orleans's first-class passengers made it safely into lifeboats; for those in steerage, it was a horrifying spectacle of every man, woman and child for himself.

THE captain in this case, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, was so oblivious to those on the lower decks that on Thursday he applauded the federal response to the still rampaging nightmare as "really exceptional." He told NPR that he had "not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water" - even though every television viewer in the country had been hearing of those 25,000 stranded refugees for at least a day. This Titanic syndrome, too, precisely echoes the post-9/11 wartime history of an administration that has rewarded the haves at home with economic goodies while leaving the have-nots to fight in Iraq without proper support in manpower or armor. Surely it's only a matter of time before Mr. Chertoff and the equally at sea FEMA director, Michael Brown (who also was among the last to hear about the convention center), are each awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom in line with past architects of lethal administration calamity like George Tenet and Paul Bremer.

On Thursday morning, the president told Diane Sawyer that he hoped "people don't play politics during this period of time." Presumably that means that the photos of him wistfully surveying the Katrina damage from Air Force One won't be sold to campaign donors as the equivalent 9/11 photos were. Maybe he'll even call off the right-wing attack machine so it won't Swift-boat the Katrina survivors who emerge to ask tough questions as it has Cindy Sheehan and those New Jersey widows who had the gall to demand a formal 9/11 inquiry.

But a president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy. Eventually we're going to have to examine the administration's behavior before, during and after this storm as closely as its history before, during and after 9/11. We're going to have to ask if troops and matériel of all kinds could have arrived faster without the drain of national resources into a quagmire. We're going to have to ask why it took almost two days of people being without food, shelter and water for Mr. Bush to get back to Washington.

Most of all, we're going to have to face the reality that with this disaster, the administration has again increased our vulnerability to the terrorists we were supposed to be fighting after 9/11. As Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar, pointed out to The Washington Post last week in talking about the fallout from the war in Iraq, there have been twice as many terrorist attacks outside Iraq in the three years after 9/11 than in the three years before. Now, thanks to Mr. Bush's variously incompetent, diffident and hubristic mismanagement of the attack by Katrina, he has sent the entire world a simple and unambiguous message: whatever the explanation, the United States is unable to fight its current war and protect homeland security at the same time.

The answers to what went wrong in Washington and on the Gulf Coast will come later, and, if the history of 9/11 is any guide, all too slowly, after the administration and its apologists erect every possible barrier to keep us from learning the truth. But as Americans dig out from Katrina and slouch toward another anniversary of Al Qaeda's strike, we have to acknowledge the full extent and urgency of our crisis. The world is more perilous than ever, and for now, to paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld, we have no choice but to fight the war with the president we have.



Comment #62: Rusty said on 9/4/05 @ 3:17am ET...

From Internik's Diary at Huffington Post:

I AM MORE ANGRY THAN I HAVE EVER BEEN IN MY LIFE AND IT IS A RIGHTEOUS AND PURPOSEFUL INDIGNATION

by internik
Sat Sep 3rd, 2005 at 19:31:50 PDT

"My god! September 11 was supposed to be our national security wake-up call. Bush and his buddies have had four f _ _ _ ing years, longer than the total of American involvement in World War II, to prepare for this sort of situation. And they've blown it harder than Monica. Now we know what would happen if the United States were attacked again: Dead Americans Everywhere.

Even by conservative thinking, the most basic job of the government is to protect the lives of its citizens and Bush just proved how much of a rat's ass conservatives actually give about the security of the America people.

This disaster is the direct result and culmination of 30 years of conservative anti-government doctrine and 4 years of lazy, destructive administration. They've spent 30 years destroying Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and FDR's New Deal, cutting taxes on the rich in order to make excuses to gut programs that serve Americans. Infrastructure, border security, debt relief, disaster preparation and recovery: these things all worked once, before the Republicans got their hands on them, twisting them to their own callous purposes.

Lake New Orleans is the end product of the every-man-for-himself selfishness of the American conservative movement which has not solved any of our nation's problems. So I have these words for all you Anti-American, Anti-Government, Conservative Assholes:

You want to cut my taxes? F _ _ _ you. My taxes protect American lives.
You want to downsize the government? F _ _ _ you. My government defends the American people.
You want the government off your back? F _ _ _ you. My government watches my back.

Conservatism is dead, washed away by the waters of Hurricane Katrina. And when anyone tries to spread its un-human contemptuous philosophy, or support its vile proponents, I will remember New Orleans and they will be struck down by my righteous retribution.

I Will Remember New Orleans."

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/223150/1013



Comment #63: Rusty said on 9/4/05 @ 4:56am ET...

Thanks Neerav for #60 and #61,

I have never seen so many people so angry. Across this country, people have been watching this holocaust in New Orleans in disbelief and stunned horror.

Last week, as each horrible day passed, the moral bankruptcy, brazen hypocrisy, and criminal incompetence of Bush and his lying federal government stooges was systematically exposed on national television for all of America and the world to see.

I think Cindy Sheehan's heroic stand for truth and justice at Camp Casey and her courageous defiance of Bush's right wing attack machine sent shock waves of remorse through many people in the corporate media, who were finally shamed into abandoning their complicit alliance with Bush and the GOP.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast and New Orleans died while Bush and his federal government lackeys bungled and lied and then congratulated one another, media remorse turned into anger, anger turned into fury, and fury turned into loathing for this squalid regime.

Bush and the GOP are desperately looking for a way out and are typically pointing fingers of blame at everyone but themselves.
The corporate media has let them get away with this for five years, and has often joined the propaganda charade.

But in the minds of many mainstream media journalists and commentators, the death and misery of thousands of innocent people in New Orleans has destroyed the last shred of Bush and the GOP's credibility.

Everyone can now see without any doubt that not only does the emperor have no clothes, he has no soul either. He is a shallow travesty of a human being and fully deserves impeachment, conviction, and imprisonment for his criminal negligence, which condemned thousands of innocent men, women, and children to die needlessly in New Orleans.



Comment #64: dearkitty said on 9/4/05 @ 8:21am ET...

More on Katrina, Halliburton, etc. here.



Comment #65: Nolip said on 9/4/05 @ 9:40am ET...

Comment #63 Rusty...
"Everyone can now see without any doubt that not only does the emperor have no clothes, he has no soul either. He is a shallow travesty of a human being and fully deserves impeachment, conviction, and imprisonment for his criminal negligence, which condemned thousands of innocent men, women, and children to die needlessly in New Orleans."

Rusty you forgot to mention the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania...Bush wasn't minding the store then, just as he wasn't minding the store during Katrina...had he not been on vacation just before both catastrophes and been paying attention to what was going on with the country he's supposed to be running, we could have avoided 9/11 and responded faster to the poor dying souls after Katrina...as stated so well in Post #61 by Frank Rich of the NY Times...


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