Katrina's aftermath

9:53 A.M. - LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hilary Duff has pledged to donate $250,000 to help Hurricane Katrina victims on the Gulf Coast. The 17-year-old singer-actress will give $200,000 to the American Red Cross and $50,000 to USA Harvest, which is supplying food to shelters, according to a statement released Thursday by publicist Cece Yorke. The latter donation will amount to more than 300,000 cans of food being provided to victims.

Duff encouraged fans to bring canned food donations to her concerts and to give money to charities.

Jordan, that pictures is fires burning in NO.

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

Fuck you hater, Hilary Duff recorded a song by song cover of "Loveless"!

Lo, I am shamed.

10:37 A.M. - Bush: First we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation.

10:33 A.M. - (AP) A large fire erupted today in an old retail building in a dry section of Canal Street. There's no immediate reports of injuries.Earlier today, an explosion at a chemical depot rocked an area of New Orleans east of the French Quarter.

I LOVE U HILARY DON'T LET THE HATERS KEEP U DOWN

Great. Super.

"If you own a bus, bring it. We'll find a way to get it in to New Orleans," she said.

If everyone were armed, within the first moments of any looting/violence, the good people could have picked off the violent ones. Had they not been sitting around on their asses expecting help from the government

The mind boggles.

By midmorning Friday, despite a constant buzzing of military helicopters overhead, there was still no sign of the relief to the tens of thousands lined up outside the convention center.

"I'm trying to keep hope alive, but slowly my hope is fading," said refugee Carl Clark. "Believe it or not, these people are human. Right now they're crowded like animals. They're trying to keep their dignity. ... I don't even know what the Red Cross looks like."

Raymond Whitfield, 51, watched a National Guard truck drive by the convention center, but like most other official vehicles, it did not stop.

"The National Guard just drives around and around. I know the police, the National Guard, they got generators, so they can sleep and eat," he said.

"Look at them," he said of the men inside the truck, "they're not even sweating."

"Everybody's on the edge right now," said 28-year-old Kenya Green. "Every day, it's `The bus is coming, The bus is coming,' but still nothing. ... They don't give us no information."

Conditions were dire at the Superdome as well. By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. Evacuees from across the city swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the arena was the best place to get a ride out of town.

i really feel for him.

Subject: My Hurricane Story -- Medical staff from Superdome now in
Hyatt

Story: My mother is a doctor, and works for the city of New Orleans.
She was told to report to work at the Superdome at 7AM on Sunday 8/28.
Over my objections, she did. We have gotten 4 calls from her on her
cell phone since then. The first was Monady afternoon, when she was very
reassuring. The second was Thursday morning when she called to notify
us that they had moved the medical staff to the Hyatt Regency because
"the security situation was deteriorating in the Superdome". She
thought they were going to send an armored bus to evacuate them to Baton
Rouge, where I am. She was still quite calm, but she said she was the only
person there with a cell phone that still worked. The third was
Thursday night around 9PM, at which time she asked us to try to put pressure
on the governor's office, or somebody, to try to get them out. She
called back again at 4:30 on Friday to ask that we try to do something to
get food and water to the Hyatt. Apparently the State Police are in
charge of the people at the Hyatt.

ROBINETTE: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because
apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks
because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless
requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.

NAGIN: Really?

ROBINETTE: I know you don't feel that way.

NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?

You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did
they ask us to go in there?

What is more important?

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch
of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even
funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this
interview is over.

ROBINETTE: You and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq
lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

(xpost cnn.com is now streaming the nagin interview in its completion as well.)

No, it isn't.

Lt. Gen Steven Blum of the National Guard said that as many as 2,600 National Guard troops were expected to arrive in Louisiana Friday to join the nearly 2,000 who went in Thursday.

That was actually a Senator, not the Governor.

(xpost)

"Reeemembah, Dahlings...it's better to looook goood than to feeel goood"

Greetings All,

Interesting and encouraging article below from RADIO BUSINESS REPORT about Radio and TV efforts nationwide.

It is normal to think that only “we” are helping, but be encouraged by the knowledge that stations from Philly to San Diego, and Spokane to Boston and all sized markets in between are reaching out, just as we are.

And before anybody works up a full sweat bashing the Feds, do a little newspaper archive research and you’ll find that EVERY administration since the 60’s (when FEMA was developed) has been bashed for being slow or non-existent – even the 8 years of “I feel your pain. . . “.

And none of them were guilty of being slow. By all means call FEMA and tell them where to land the cargo planes full of people and supplies; Oyeah, I forgot the storm wiped out all the airports near enough to do any good. So call’m and tell’m about all the super highways they can use……whoops, I forgot, ALL the highways are gone, too. I-10 east of N.O. is gone for about a hundred miles.

The truth is that six months from now when 90% of those who receive this e-mail have forgotten about Katrina’s victims, FEMA will STILL be there helping.

Anyway, check out the article and be at peace that broadcasters everywhere are doing all they can.

Respectfully,

Stewart Robb, C.R.M.C.
Account Executive

This went out to everyone who works here. I hit "Reply All" and sent this:

Greetings, Stew.

Please keep your cute opinions about the Federal government to yourself. I could go on about federal funding cut from the budget to shore up the levees to NATIONAL guardsmen who have been called away from their post to go fight a war in a different country. The Head of FEMA, Michael Brown, admitted to Brian Williams last night on NBC’s news that he wasn’t aware that the situation was so serious, or that people were waiting for buses at the Convention Center. If it was your parent sitting dead on a highway median or your relative being raped in the Louisiana Superdome, I wonder how sing-songy you’d be about FEMA.

I miss the days of presidents saying “I feel your pain” rather than “don’t buy gas if you don’t need to.”

Tre Baker, American

I may be fired now, but I don't care.

holy fuck, man. rock.

If it's wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Shout! Factory's site doesn't say anything about it, but Chuck's been in touch with them, and says it's so.

hahahahahaha