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

"Using our firm as a typical example reveals just how devastating the storm has been. Until today I could not locate all of my partners. Obviously we cannot perform necessary banking functions. We cannot receive mail. We cannot communicate with or visit our office. We cannot find many clients. We cannot collect fees or send bills. Consequently, there will be a significant delay in revenue collection and, as an obvious by-product, a very real threat to our ability to pay or even maintain all employees.

"Yesterday I made calls to ask for some delay on behalf of our employees, but I was turned down flat. Despite the circumstances, credit card companies insisted upon payment and, on at least two separate occasions, confirmed that accounts will continue to accrue interest and that they will charge fees for late payment. In the face of this overwhelming tragedy, which has left over one million people with uncertain futures, such a position is scandalous."

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(sorry. kidding, of course.)

Well, um, I don't think that's going to happen this time.

thing is, i think the Freedom Walk is still on. maybe they'll frame it as "we must honor the dead of new orleans by continuing the fight over there"

http://www.aliens.ibt.pl/COMPANY/burke03.jpg

only the marines who'll say "i say we grease this ratfuck sonuvabitch right now. Yer DOGMEAT, pal!" are 3000+ miles away.

also, they won't get their just desserts by becoming just desserts gobbled up by monsters.

Oh, come on. The people of New Orleans brought this on themselves. You know what it's like there. Where's Jerry Fallwell? Where the FUCK is Jerry Fallwell? It's times like this when we need his wise words.

well, i was being facetious, but shit, they're the ones still holding the goddamn pro-war march after all this anyway... We're far beyond rationality, here.

as Arthur Silber wrote in one of his posts, at least when the Soviet Army had a parade, they celebrated something positive...

he also put this thing up, WHEN NEXT WEEK NEVER COMES, NOW IS THE TIME FOR POLITICS

2005: Expect the worst.

i was wondering how debt collectors would respond to this, whether they'd be willing to suspend the debts or put people's accounts on hold. not surprising that they're acting like loan sharks.

On Channel 4 news over here they just showed a clip of Bush with Trent Lott going on about how they're going to rebuild Trent Lott's house and he's looking forward to sitting on his new porch.

We were sitting there going "did he actually just say that? I guess he did"

I'm just in a big WTF about this whole thing.

The big disconnect on New Orleans

Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday. The sanitized view came from federal officials at news conferences and television appearances. But the official line was contradicted by grittier, more desperate views from the shelters and the streets.

Or investigate, apparently.

I was in Texas when I was watching all this and exclaimed 'Man that Clinton is such a classy dude' to which the person standing next to me responded 'Are you kidding?'. I forgot where I was for a second.

"No one can say they didn't see it coming"
In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

Amazing prophetic article from last October in National Geographic:

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

"I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?" said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

San Andreas rolls over, burps, and says "I'm still here!"

(nothing greater than a 4.5 in this "swarm" so far)

NEWT GINGRICH OTM!

xpost holy shit donut

sorry. that just seems like it bears repeating.

Xpost

There could very well be a news item on this tonight... although this is just a car vandalization after all. News may be slow here, but not that slow.

Hahahahaha!

New slogan/tee shirt

More like, Newt Gingrich on the campaign trail. But yeah, even that tells you something.

That explains all the noise in the basement whenever I've visited.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

[insert snarky comment about holding press conferences to state how well you're handling emergencies in an age of digital cameras and blogs]

Dreher on the Corner -- he was extremely annoyed with Bush speeches earlier in the week:

ANARCHY, AGAIN. [Rod Dreher]
Heard just now from an old journalism school friend, now living in Atlanta, who sent the following desperate message by e-mail: I am hoping you can help. I am friends with a NOPD police officer Elizabeth Garcia. Things are MUCH MUCH worse in New Orleans. The inmates took over Central Lock up in New Orleans and took over the armory. They are targeting police and the police are under seige. She and 9 other police officers are running out of ammuntion and are being held down at the Hampton Inn across from the Convention Center. She just got her cell phone access and is calling everyone she knows to get out the information. They need assistance immediately. Please help in any way you can.

I called my friend just now to verify this. She said things have improved a bit since she sent the mail earlier this morning. She said that she got it to CNN, who relayed it to authorities. My friend, Lee, said that she spoke by phone to Officer Garcia (who can't call anybody locally, but who can call out of the 504 and 225 area codes), who said the criminal gangs have automatic weaponry because they looted the police armory. According to Lee, Ofc. Garcia told her that the police can't help people because "anybody in a uniform is being targeted" by these gangs. NOPD is receiving reports of children being raped and killed by these thugs, but they are outgunned and powerless. "It's complete and total anarchy," Lee quoted Ofc. Garcia as saying.

I ask you: WHERE IS THE ARMY? WHY ARE WE LEAVING THESE AMERICANS TO SUFFER AND POSSIBLY DIE? Honestly, folks, I cannot believe federal authorities are leaving these police officers and civilians to this. Is this America, or Somalia? The government has failed. Is failing. It is an outrage.

Lopez trying to run flack:

I THINK, ROD [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
That would be part of what the troops rolling in will be handling, I'd imagine. The local government appears to have failed in very many ways. And the federal government and many private organizations are working to pick up the slack. But I don't know it's the right time to declare "mission failed" here. More like "must be done better." Terrible things are happening, but broken record me: I think that message has gotten across. I hope your cop gets reenforcement quick. And no local government in the U.S. is ever as ineffectual as this one seems, especially in the face of widespread disaster and dismay.

Lopez a little while later (Derbyshire and Podhoretz have also trashed Bush's actions/reactions this week):

THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, DICK CHENEY [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
An e-mail came in this afternoon:

Subject: Pollyanna + Apologist = Kathyn Jean Lopez

Rod, Derb, and JPod are the only ones left with any sense.

The e-mail address ends in halliburton.com.

yeah, i'm sure it's just distancing at this point, but still the fact that he feels that comfortable breaking ranks is noteworthy..plus that particular statement was (scarily) probably 100% true.

I like how CNN just uses the word "clueless" as a matter of course:

(See video of CNN asking why FEMA is clueless about conditions -- 2:11)