Riding Out Katrina

[Hugh_Hoy]

Flashermac said:

Who was the black Congressman from Oklahoma, the ex-football star?

 

J.C. Watts

 

 

HH

[chuckwoww]

"What I'm hearing, which is kind of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas" Barbara Bush.

 

Could be the GOP has an image problem. Maybe a lot of blacks see it as the party of the rich and well-connected. Not sure what you do about that.

 

This is where you say...'well there's plenty of rich well-connected Democrats too you know.'

[..]

In the November Atlantic, Richard Clarke, counterterrorism chief under Clinton and (briefly) under Bush writes about the Katrina fiasco and it's possible fallout. This is good:

 

Imagine if, in advance of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of trucks had been waiting with water and ice and medicine and other supplies. Imagine if 4,000 National Guardsmen and an equal number of emergency aid workers from around the country had been moved into place, and five million meals had been ready to serve. Imagine if scores of mobile satellite-communications stations had been prepared to move in instantly, ensuring that rescuers could talk to one another. Imagine if all this had been managed by a federal-and-state task force that not only directed the government response but also helped coordinate the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other outside groups.

 

Actually, this requires no imagination: it is exactly what the Bush administration did a year ago when Florida braced for Hurricane Frances. Of course the circumstances then were very special: it was two months before the presidential election, and Florida's twenty-seven electoral votes were hanging in the balance. It is hardly surprising that Washington ensured the success of "the largest response to a natural disaster we've ever had in this country." The president himself passed out water bottles to Floridians driven from their homes...

 

Why has an administration that talks so much about terrorism and homeland security demonstrated so little competence when it comes to securing the homeland? Part of the reason is management style: the president says he sees his role as that of a CEO, but he performs like a non-executive chairman of the board, not a hands-on supervisor. What is more, the White House inner tribe believes that a strong Department of Homeland Security is not only unnecessary but even antithetical to the administration's political philosophy and interests...

 

Beyond these surface explanations, however, lie bigger factors. One is simply that other administration policies regularly trump homeland security. Under a firearms policy largely dictated by the National Rifle Association, people on terrorist watch lists can and do buy guns in the United States without difficulty. Congress decided, over the objections of the FBI, that government records of who bought guns should not be kept for more than twenty-four hours. Health-care policy has contributed to the reduction in the number of beds in America's hospitals, reducing the surge capacity required to handle a catastrophe like Katrina, a biological-weapons attack, or a pandemic such as avian flu. Immigration policy seems designed mostly to provide American businesses and farms with millions of low-wage laborers, rather than to keep track of who is crossing our borders or living here illegally. Energy policy, particularly the new Energy Act, gives priority to building new fossil-fuel and nuclear facilities. Congress has just given the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission clear authority to locate highly volatile liquid-natural-gas ports?perfect terrorism targets?over the objections of city and state governments.

 

Moreover, the Bush administration simply dislikes spending money on many domestic initiatives, in contrast to its open-ended attitude toward military outlays and expeditions. Of all the new funding that went to national defense in the four years following 9/11, only 14 percent went to homeland security. People concerned about readiness on the home front have taken to comparing the cost of specific projects to the "burn rate" of spending on the war, as in this analysis published in Mother Jones: security upgrades for all subway and commuter-rail systems, or twenty days in Iraq; security upgrades for 361 U.S. ports, or four days in Iraq; explosives screening for all U.S. passenger-airline baggage, or ten days in Iraq.

 

The most compelling explanation for the lack of investment in domestic security comes from the president himself?over and over again. His strategy on terrorism, he says, is "to fight them over there [in Iraq], so that we do not have to fight them here at home." Spending on the war in Iraq greatly exceeds all federal spending on homeland security. But as most knowledgeable observers attest, the war is producing more terrorists than it is eliminating. One can be certain that they are learning the lessons of New Orleans?maybe faster than our government is.

 

Regards,

SD

[chuckwoww]

And don't forget the GOP is the party of self-reliance. Democrats just waste public money.

[Flashermac]

<< Moreover, the Bush administration simply dislikes spending money on many domestic initiatives ... >>

 

 

Both major parties are guilty of this. It just seems to be easier to drum up support for "saving the country from XXX" (formerly communism, but now whatever they can think of) than for domestic spending. Remember that Kerry said he felt the US should remain in Iraq. He just claimed he could do a better job of running the show than the Bushitter. (Flip sides of the same coin.)

[Steve]

Flashermac said:

Instead, too many seem to act like the Democratic party owns them.

 

Are we talking about blacks or unions, Jews, California and NY voters in national elections, entertainers, latinos?... ::

 

Blacks actually voted overwhelmingly Republican until FDR. Eleanor was very progressive and pushed integration, especialy in the military. Teddy Roosevelt was failry progressive as well (another Republican). Before both of them, Lincoln was the party of blacks, him being Republican and blacks stayed loytal to the party till FDR came along.

[MaiLuk]

Sorry but clarke is just full of shit and is all politics.

 

Imagine if 4,000 National Guardsmen and an equal number of emergency aid workers from around the country had been moved into place, etc etc...

 

Actually, this requires no imagination: it is exactly what the Bush administration did a year ago when Florida braced for Hurricane Frances.

 

This is not what was done in florida but it makes for good copy to say so. The fact is that Florida has been hit enough times by hurricanes that it has a well rehearsed response when one gets close. And florida is wealthier and far less corrupt than louisana and therefore better able to deal with the weather. It was not the feds running the show in florida.

 

Why has an administration that talks so much about terrorism and homeland security demonstrated so little competence when it comes to securing the homeland? Part of the reason is management style: the president says he sees his role as that of a CEO, but he performs like a non-executive chairman of the board, not a hands-on supervisor.

 

This is a shallow analysis by clarke. The US president is not and cannot be a hands on manager of federal agencies as clarke well knows. But when you have an axe to grind...

 

Beyond these surface explanations, however, lie bigger factors. One is simply that other administration policies regularly trump homeland security. Under a firearms policy largely dictated by the National Rifle Association, people on terrorist watch lists can and do buy guns in the United States without difficulty. Congress decided, over the objections of the FBI, that government records of who bought guns should not be kept for more than twenty-four hours.

 

Is Clarke joking? What does firearms policy have to do with al quaida terrorists? When is the last time an al quaida dick head pulled out a gun and started shooting in the US? How about never. Clarke becomes more and more irrelevant everytime he starts jumping up and down screaming for attention. Would we catch a terrorist or two if we built a permanent data base of gun purchasers? Probably. But hey, wouldn't we prevent terrorist attacks if we cancelled free speech and shut down the internet? Probably. If we follow clarkes specious reasoning we should do all of the above. And we should blame the administration for not doing everything in its power to protect us.

 

While some of clarke's statements make sense (anytime you write a long article something is bound to come out right), I see no point in listening because he has blown his credibility with a contrived analysis. If he had stood up and simply said the president is incompetent and then sat back down without uttering another word, he would be OK and could have alot of people agree with him. But with his bullshit "assessments" of matters he should be on everyone's ignore list.

 

Maybe a run for office is on his agenda.

[Flashermac]

The carpenters union and several others traditionally have been Republican. As to California and New York, well ... those aren't really NORMAL places.

 

Actually the situation has turned on its head. Black citizens in the "solid south" were long denied the vote in part because they would vote Republican. Nowadays, southern black voters go heavily Democratic, while the folks who formerly denied them the vote have become Republicans!

 

 

p.s. Anybody wanna clean out their attic too? Get rid of your unwanted junk and become a philanthropist!

 

 

 

Britney Spears sheds all in support of hurricane relief

 

Oct 03, 2005

 

 

US pop princess Britney Spears is giving her all to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in the US state of Mississippi -- even one of her bras, the eBay auction site showed.

 

The 23-year-old former teen slut queen, famed for her provocative stage outfits, has donated a treasure trove of personal items -- including a two-piece sofa, a bikini and a jewel-encrusted brassiere -- to be auctioned off to help victims.

 

The "white-stone" undergarment, worn by the singer in one of her music videos, sports "a variety of sizes of round white stones and silver-tone beads in this intricately designed bra," according to online auctioneer eBay.

 

The sparkling bra, which has already garnered offers of up to 610 dollars in the online auction that began on Saturday and will last a week, however, sports a broken link in the center piece connecting its cups, eBay noted.

 

A two-piece, six-seat sofa owned by Spears is also on the block, with 560 dollars in bids so far received, while an oversized daybed had notched up a top offer of 390 dollars.

 

A white two-piece swimsuit once worn by the formerly shapely singer has fetched bids of up to 320 dollars.

 

Other items include shoes, hats, handbags, a T-shirt, jewellery, a pair of red jeans and a set of bar-stools.

 

Proceeds from the sale will go to the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund which on Saturday staged a concert in Mississippi to benefit victims of the storm that struck the US Gulf Coast on August 29, leaving more than 1,000 people dead.

 

Spears last month gave birth to her first baby with husband Kevin Federline.

[Evel_Penivel]

Search for Bodies Ends in New Orleans

By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer

1 hour ago

 

NEW ORLEANS - Officials ended their door-to-door sweep for corpses finding far fewer bodies than once feared and some schoolchildren returned to classes as New Orleans revved up efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

 

The search for Katrina victims ended in Louisiana with a death toll substantially less than the 10,000 victims some officials feared. A private company hired by the state to remove bodies was on call if any others were found. The toll Tuesday stood at 972, eight more than Monday, the state health department said.

 

The death toll probably will continue to rise, but authorities have said sweeps yielded fewer bodies than feared, and that the toll was likely to be well below the dire projections. Mayor Ray Nagin said soon after Katrina struck that New Orleans alone could have 10,000 dead.

 

"There might still be bodies found _ for instance, if a house was locked and nobody able to go into it," said Bob Johannessen, a spokesman with the state Department of Health and Hospitals. Mississippi's death toll remained at 221.

 

There were signs of normality in the city Monday _ five weeks to the day since Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. St. Andrew the Apostle elementary school in the reopened Algiers neighborhood was the first Roman Catholic school to resume in New Orleans.

 

"My heart is just bursting," said teacher Jewell McCartney, fighting back tears as she welcomed her class of sixth-graders. "I just want to give them all a hug."

 

Archdiocese officials said their schools also were reopening in areas outside the city. Some public schools in nearby parishes also opened Monday, but public schools in New Orleans remain closed. Some may resume by November.

 

On Tuesday, former President Bill Clinton was to travel to Louisiana to meet with hurricane survivors at a Baton Rouge shelter, get a briefing from officials on the relief effort and tour New Orleans' largely destroyed Ninth Ward. Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush are heading up the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, which has raised $100 million to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina.

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues pumping water out of the lower Ninth Ward and efforts to rebuild the levees that breached, causing water to cascade into the city, remained under way.

 

However, two canals near the area were closed Monday as a precaution, because of stronger-than-normal winds and higher tides, spokesman Alan Dooley said. As of late Monday afternoon, a steady stream of water leaked through the repaired levees.

 

Electricity had been restored to about 36 percent of New Orleans customers and to about 99 percent of the customers in neighboring Jefferson Parish, said Entergy Corp. spokesman Chanel Lagarde.

 

And as another sign that the city was coming back to life, nine ships, including four container vessels, were scheduled to call on the Port of New Orleans this week, port officials announced.

[Steve]

MaiLuk said:

 

This is not what was done in florida but it makes for good copy to say so. The fact is that Florida has been hit enough times by hurricanes that it has a well rehearsed response when one gets close. And florida is wealthier and far less corrupt than louisana and therefore better able to deal with the weather. It was not the feds running the show in florida.

 

 

Andrew was a category five that hit South Florida. However, Miami was never as flooded as New Orleans. It didn't do the same damage. It centered south of Miami. FEMA became more responsive to Hurricanes AFTER Andrew hit.

As I've said before, Bush f**ked up royally, both in his appointment of the FEMA chief, the lack of funding and the Katrina aftermath but NO ONE in America was ready for a category 5 hurricane in that area. Even with a Dem in the office there would have been widespread devastation. Even after Andrew, south Florida has a better evacuation plan but it still had holes and no plans to vacate the entire population of the city of Miami. No busses or transports that could be brought in a moment's notice. There are parts of America that simply aren't ready for natural disasters. I've said before if a major earthquake hist Los Angeles, the same 'chickens running around with heads cut off' and lack of organization would occur.