Katrina devastated the south, gas 6 $ a gallon

[Shorin Ryuu]

I work from home sometimes too. It works for people like you and I. But he's the president for crying out loud. And he's sitting at a BBQ 2 days after one of the biggest , if not the biggest, natural disasters to hit this country. The guy gets caught flat footed with a dumb look on his face too much.

Presidents never go on vacation. Even if they are "on vacation". Everyone knows that.

If you can get over the your aversion of the name of this blog, I recommend you check it out and get some of your facts straight. The writer assembled all the stories from a single source: New Orleans Times-Picayune. It details what was done from the 26th of August until the 2nd of September. If you scroll up, he is continually adding updates and more current events.

http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archive...onse-timeline/

[jetli68]

we moan about the weather in the uk been cold but we are lucky we dont get any disasters over here . odd flood now and again. not where i ive but in some parts of the uk. where i live we never get flooded or high snow no sun well hardly
any guess you dont knowwhen you are well off.i am sorry for all the people now who have lost there homes ,loved ones, there lives,
hope it all works out for yous .

[TaiChiBob]

Greetings..

When all is said and done, this nation is supposed to have a leader, GWB.. he has executive powers to make things happen.. he can make wars happen.. he can order swift response for tsunami victims half-way around the planet.. he has the most sophisticated intelligence services at his disposal.. he has the might of the world's most powerful military in his service.. he has the responsibility to lead his nation in times of crisis.. AND, as i keep repeating, he had the ability to over-ride subordinate political subdivisions in favor of rapid humanitarian aid to victims of Katrina.. it is reprehensible, that anyone with such resources and responsibilities would be so small as to blame the devastated local governments for their inability to respond.. it is further reprehensible that anyone in the office of the Presidency could look into the faces of people pleading for their very lives and not demand extraordinary actions from every available resource..

There will be every means possible used to deflect criticsm.. race blames, poverty blames, local and state agencies blame, resources in Iraq blame.. when, actually, the President could raise the bar.. he could admit that he failed to act appropriately and ask for forgiveness.. make every attempt to make it right from this point forward, and set policy to see that this never happens again.. (it worked for Rush...)..

The system failed at many levels and there will be appropriate scrutiny across the board.. but the highest scrutiny and the highest responsibility falls on the highest office.. this is not a "political issue", it's an issue of national readiness and responsibility, of systemic problems and chain of command, regardless of who is in office..

Be well..

[MonkeySlap Too]

"What ever happened to the buck stops here?"

Well, I agree with this. GWB would be much strongger if he just absorbed all the blame, justified or not, and took that stupid political finger-pointing game away from the children so they can play better.

But, the problems are systemic and deep. With the money allocatted for this disaster on a local level almost certainly stolen by a corrupt government, with 'leaders' who did not have the political will to act properly, what the feds found when they got there was - no help at all.

The water wasn't 'destroyed' - it wasn't there to begin with. Where is the money?

Living in Chicago now, once again I get to see the democratic party at work. Stealing money, lying to the disadvantaged about helping them while stealing from them. It makes me sick. Yet the multi-millionaire tax-dodgers (despite saying others should pay MORE taxes) in the democratic party continue to convince people that they 'care.'

I don't get it.

I wish we had more political parties in this country, having only one viable one disturbs me.

[SPJ]

Here is a video link;

what's in the water?

[ZIM]

we moan about the weather in the uk been cold but we are lucky we dont get any disasters over here . odd flood now and again. not where i ive but in some parts of the uk. where i live we never get flooded or high snow no sun well hardly
any guess you dont knowwhen you are well off.i am sorry for all the people now who have lost there homes ,loved ones, there lives,
hope it all works out for yous .

There is a sense in which you can relate to the scale of this disaster. The swath of destruction is roughly equivalent to the area of England, sans Scotland, itself. We're focused on New Orleans, but Biloxi, MS caught the worst of it and that state's entire infrastructure was more or less scrubbed. We're not hearing much because a] there's little communications & gas, and b] they're handling it in a much more organised fashion.
Because its that huge, one can maybe forgive the confusion and anger to a degree.

[SPJ]

Americans lending helping hands;

helps

[Chief Fox]

The water wasn't 'destroyed' - it wasn't there to begin with. Where is the money?

I agree. It's pretty obvious that there was some under handed stuff going down long before this even happened.

I've made a donation to the Red Cross. I can only hope that some of my money actually goes to helping these people and doesn't end up lining someone's pockets.

It's pretty sad when people loose faith in their leadership.

In the words of Tai Chi Bob, "Be Well".

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

. I can only hope that some of my money actually goes to helping these people and doesn't end up lining someone's pockets.

typically in the "aid" organisation culture there are administrative and logistical costs associated with every aid mobilisation. the red cross generally does not reveal it's administrative premium as it changes from project to project and has run as high as 93% on one project and as low as 39% on another. typically they run in the 57-63% zone. last number i have for Salvation Army runs a flat 72% premium. so, unless it's a major event (like this) i generally go with organisations that accept provisions, equipment and skill donations as almost all of thier people are volunteers despite the fact that volunteers are often turned away by the aid organisations.

volunteer organisations will sometimes persue evacuees from resource area to resource area where and where as the aid and relief organisations set up camp and expect the victims to find their way there and home.

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

Greetings..

There will be every means possible used to deflect criticsm.. race blames, poverty blames, local and state agencies blame, resources in Iraq blame.. when, actually, the President could raise the bar.. he could admit that he failed to act appropriately and ask for forgiveness.. make every attempt to make it right from this point forward, and set policy to see that this never happens again.. (it worked for Rush...)..

The system failed at many levels and there will be appropriate scrutiny across the board.. but the highest scrutiny and the highest responsibility falls on the highest office.. this is not a "political issue", it's an issue of national readiness and responsibility, of systemic problems and chain of command, regardless of who is in office..

Be well..

i kind of agree and i kind of don't. IMO, if FEMA had not been placed under DHS access to them would not have been so difficult. previously FEMA was a stand-alone type emergency response network of administrators who were very skilled at first-responder type mobilisations which could declare emergency admistrative authority and control. DHS is not as easily accessible as FEMA was. if the phone numbers haven't changed then that isn't a problem because FEMA went to great lengths to make sure every secretary of every politician and fire chief knew how to get hold of them. why it didn't happen in this case is a great mystery. and unfortunately i think you are correct that we will never know.

but in the history of the event i think FEMA was on the scene rather early but was ill equipped to handle the flood situation. in the formation discussions over FEMA's concept and organisation it was decided that FEMA would appropriate local resources on a mass scale to coordinate efforts over many jurisdictions. in a fuedal type state like Louisiana that would take some doing because they essentially have to ask the local top dogs to requite the decision making process and act as FEMA's dog. ask a lion to guard his mate, then ask some guy from outside the cage to borrow it away from him....

part of FEMA's problem was that power and communications were out throughout the affected areas. how do you get the guys with the boats to do your bidding if thier cellphones and radios don't work? i don't remember which channel i was watching but someone observed that satellite support would be redirected to assist in the communications processes. that took 16 hrs.

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

i was wrong about the nature of the 24 hour leiway allowed the governor by the president: she asked for it and he replied in the affirmative. it was reported that he said it as "I'll give you 24 hrs" as if he was handing it down, not replying to her request for more time. however it has since been clarified.

five of the storm tracks for ts-ophelia have it crossing florida and barreling into Louisiana. also, hurricane nate is close on her heels... i hope they don't combine and develop an attitude....

bruce and linda: if you're reading this the storms are not your welcoming gift!

[Shorin Ryuu]

The best way to doublecheck if a charity is worth giving to or not: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

"We rate charities by evaluating two broad areas of financial health, their organizational efficiency and their organizational capacity. We use a set of financial ratios or performance categories to rate each of these two areas, and we issue an overall rating that combines the charity's performance in both areas. Our ratings show givers how efficiently we believe a charity will use their support today, and to what extent the charities are growing their programs and services over time. We provide these ratings so that givers can make intelligent giving decisions, and so that the philanthropic community can more effectively monitor itself."


They are the most accepted source used in evaluating charities.

[MonkeySlap Too]

It should also be noted the the President PLEADED with Blanco to evacuate low lying areas several days before the hurricane hit.

At the end of the day, this will be another nail in the corrupt, nanny state coffin.

[SPJ]

Please rebuild the city.

poll

[SPJ]

There is a website that tags Katrina.

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Also beware of cyberscam.

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