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

that sounds awesome.

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

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

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

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

xpost Jesus. What a fucking douche Hastert is.

words fail me.

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

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

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

of course, this will not happen.

Know what? FUCK OFF, SMUGLY ANCHORGUY.

Bush Bypasses Senate to Install Official

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.ob.org/

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

By Wesley Clark

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

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

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

Donate Cash

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

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

Operation Blessing
1-800-436-6348

Donate Cash and/or Volunteer

Adventist Community Services
1-800-381-7171

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

Catholic Charities, USA
1-800-919-9338

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

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

Church World Service
1-800-297-1516

Convoy of Hope
417-823-8998

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

Feed the Children
1-800-525-7575

Lutheran Disaster Response
800-638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
717-859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
888-256-5886

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
800-872-3283

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

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

United Jewish Communities
1-877-277-2477

Union for Reform Judaism

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

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

Come on, bloggers!

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

THANK GOD FOR HURRICANE KATRINA!!!

THANK GOD FOR DEAD AMERICANS!

THANK GOD FOR HIS JUDGMENTS!

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

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

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