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

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_72002.asp

This is the only article I can find referencing it though. Photos of him doing relief work have surfaced on a handful of blogs though I can't remember which now. :( I also saw a brief clip of him in reference to this on local (DC) news.

>From the Knoxville News Sentinel
(link:http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_4054083,00.html)

Gore accompanies about 140 arrivals from New Orleans but declines to take
credit

By ROBERT WILSON

They saw nature's unmatched fury up close.

Now they would see unbridled human compassion.

About 140 people - mostly elderly and infirm - arrived Saturday at McGhee
Tyson Airport on a chartered mercy flight from hurricane-ravaged New
Orleans, welcomed to East Tennessee by a bright sun and a host of medical
professionals straining at the reins to help their fellow human beings
without regard to whether they were on the clock.

The displaced hurricane victims came to Tennessee on a hastily arranged
flight, accompanied by doctors and carrying whatever they had in boxes,
bags or, in one case, an old suitcase tied up with rope.

Former Vice President Al Gore arranged the flight and was on board, but he
declined to take credit for the airlift, fearing it would be
"politicized."

The patients and evacuees arrived aboard an American Airlines MD-80 about
3:15 p.m. The unloading process took almost two hours, as some walked
hesitantly down a staircase beneath the rear of the aircraft. Others were
rolled down a ramp from the front of the plane to waiting wheelchairs.
Personnel from Rural/Metro and the Tennessee Air National Guard
volunteered their services, as did others, to get the patients and
evacuees loaded onto buses or ambulances for the ride to area hospitals to
be assessed medically before going to a Red Cross shelter.

On hand to help with the operation were Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale
and his wife, Claudia, still decked out in orange from having attended the
University of Tennessee football game against Alabama-Birmingham. The
county's first couple assisted medical staff in shuttling patients from
the ramp to buses.

One of the doctors on board the flight was Dr. Anderson Spickard of
Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, who said he had a
"personal and professional" relationship with Gore.

Spickard said Gore called him about 11 p.m. Friday to ask him to
participate in the flight.

"The jet was chartered," he said. "It was a private effort."

Gore chartered the plane, but, Spickard said, "we'll decide who pays for
it later."

The doctor said the patients on the plane traveled well and added that he
was "pleased" with Knoxville and Knox County's response to the call for
help.

The patients, he said, "didn't know what kindness" they would receive here.

Spickard said the plane would leave McGhee Tyson Saturday evening for
Dallas, where he would spend the night before making another mercy flight,
possibly to Chattanooga, Nashville or Chicago.

The plan had been to make two flights Saturday, Spickard said, but delays
in getting to Knoxville meant that the plane could not get back to New
Orleans before dark. And there are no landing lights at New Orleans
International Airport.

Mayor Ragsdale said he was touched by some of the heart-wrenching stories
the people told him as they disembarked from the plane.

One, he said, was a man of 80-plus years who described being on his roof
for three days before being rescued. Another was in an attic that almost
filled with water. A third was a man who got off the plane barefooted and
with obvious skin trauma to his lower legs, who told the mayor of having
to stand in water for 2-3 days.

"Some folks are mentally exhausted," he said. And, the mayor said, he has
been notified that the Knoxville area can expect as many as 1,500 more
evacuees in coming days.

Ragsdale said a meeting was held Friday afternoon - before the mercy
flight was announced - that included representatives of his staff and
Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam's, all area hospitals, Knoxville's Community
Development Corporation, Child and Family Services, the Red Cross, the
Salvation Army and the Knox County Health Department to come up with a
plan to mobilize in case of such an emergency.

"We didn't know this would happen," Ragsdale said. "It is fortunate we had
the meeting."

He called Saturday "a very successful day."

Gore chose not to speak to the assembled media, but he was seen in a black
T-shirt and jeans moving rapidly from one side of the plane to the other
assisting with the off-loading operation.

Forty people aboard the plane were uninjured evacuees, mostly family
members of the elderly patients. Two or three children and a dog also were
on board.

Participating in the operation were the Knoxville Fire Department, the
Blount County Rescue Squad and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
Cruisers from the Tennessee Highway Patrol escorted the buses to
hospitals.

Additional medical personnel within the regional emergency system also
were on standby.

Units at the airports included at least 10 ambulances, a phalanx of buses,
fire trucks and other equipment.

All those aboard the mercy flight were taken to hospitals for evaluation,
including the University of Tennessee Medical Center, St. Mary's, Fort
Sanders Regional Medical Center, Parkwest, the Baptist Health System,
Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, Blount Memorial Hospital, Jefferson
Memorial Hospital, Fort Sanders Loudon and Children's Hospital of East
Tennessee.

Air National Guard personnel donated their time to help move patients and
others to buses and provide liquids, said Capt. Lisa Godsey, public
information officer for McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base. Also
coordinating the event was Rebecca Huckaby, public information officer for
the airport.

The crew for the plane was made up of volunteers led by Capt. E.W. Evans.

Mayor Ragsdale said the effort "could not have had better cooperation" and
that the response was "heart-warming."

------------------------------------------
Gore in New Orleans to aid Katrina victims
------------------------------------------
>From GNN
(link:http://www.algore-08.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=272&Itemid=81)

Updated: CNN reports that Al Gore has landed a plane in New Orleans, and
will fly approximately 100 of the most critically ill to hospitals in
Tennessee.

According to Alexis Simendinger of the National Journal, Gore organized
the relief flights earlier this week, but was delayed for several days
trying to get clearance from FEMA, which required a Federal Department to
request special numbers for each patient transported by private
conveyance. The flight consisted of two American Airlines planes, paid for
by Gore himself.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html

Look, it's really very simple. On Saturday, August 27, 2005 -- two days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall -- President George W. Bush assumed responsibility for the coordination of "all disaster relief efforts" in the State of Louisiana. This is the specific, undisputed language of Bush's declaration of a State of Emergency, issued that day by the White House, and still available for viewing on the White House website. The responsibility for coordinating all disaster relief efforts in New Orleans clearly rested with the White House. Despite all the post-disaster spin by the Bush Faction and its sycophants, despite all the earnest media analyses, the lines of authority are clear and indisputable. Here is the voice of George W. Bush himself, in the proclamation issued in his name, over his signature on Saturday, August 27, 2005:
"The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing. The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures"

Bush goes on to say: "Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency."

...or maybe not.

Note the salient text:
"The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts...in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides,
Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn."

Conspicuous by their absence are Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Plaquemines, Jefferson and basically every coastal parish, and the next parishes closest to the coast. So then, let me understand this: Team Bush saw by 26 August that Katrina would be sufficiently dangerous to warrant a preemptive disaster declaration for what looks like about 65-70% of the land area of Lousiana, and he declares it for the _landlocked_ parishes?

http://www.algore.org/images/stories//090405_katrina_flight.jpg

also, it was mentioned last night that his sons were helping out on the flights(at least 4 happened over the weekend).

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

You saying I don't? ;-)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims.

An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats and that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."

"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mailed response to a Reuters inquiry.

The Bush administration also has prevented the news media from photographing flag-draped caskets of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, which has sparked criticism that the government is trying to block images that put the war in a bad light.

The White House is under fire for its handling of the relief effort, which many officials have charged was slow and bureacratic, contributing to the death and mayhem in New Orleans after the storm struck on Aug. 29. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles)

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

IT GONNA RAIN!

Literally.

http://sigmund.biz/0904/index0006.html

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/07/katrina.congress/index.html

Also after meeting with Bush on Wednesday, Frist placed the blame for the slow response on all levels of government but warned against citing specific individuals.

[...]

In a response to Pelosi, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman faulted the Democratic leadership for using devise language during a time of national crisis.

"While countless Americans are pulling together to lend a helping hand, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pointing fingers in a shameless effort to tear us apart," Mehlman said in a written statement.

he might be on the down-low for a coupla days.

however, frist & hastert are vocal as ever.

You can't really defend his performance after the hurricane though. Waiting so long to visit the area, and seeming (even for him) mindblowingly disinterested.

I've been tuning into some conservative talk radio lately, for pure entertainment reasons. It is so rediculous the nonsense that comes out of the mouths of rush, hannity, glen beck, and especially Michael Savage. It's truly very scary, cause the people that listen to these guys vote.

I honestly heard some woman call into one of the shows and suggest that, like she and her husband, the victims in new orleans should have bought an "inexpensive R.V." that way they could have just chilled out, away from the city. rediculous

The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the greater New Orleans Bridge where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the City. The crowed cheered and began to move. We called everyone back and explained to the commander that there had been lots of misinformation and wrong information and was he sure that there were buses waiting for us. The commander turned to the crowd and stated emphatically, "I swear to you that the buses are there..."

"We marched the 2-3 miles to the freeway and up the steep incline to the Bridge. It now began to pour down rain, but it did not dampen our enthusiasm.

As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans..."

Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway? The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. "Taking care of us" had an ominous tone to it.

Unfortunately, our sinking feeling (along with the sinking City) was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna Sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway". A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway.

note: first use of "In the post-Katrina world," i've seen.

if that flowchart doesn't load, see it here

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed.

2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to
be changed.

3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.

4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either responsible for
changing the light bulb or for darkness.

5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new
light bulb.

6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a
stepladder under the banner: Lightbulb Change Accomplished.

7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in
detail how Bush was literally inthe dark.

8. One to viciously slime #7.

9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had
a strong light bulb changing policy all along.

10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between
screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

also, with the $51.8B emergency relief bill currently being batted about in Congress, guess which federal agency would get control of most of the money? (hint: they've been in the news a bit lately)

Also, the $10.5B approved on friday will probably run out by tonight.

Such fun times we live in.

Reform Bankruptcy "Reform"

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU SEPT 08, 2005 08:02:33 ET XXXXX

CNN PRESIDENT HOLIDAYS IN NANTUCKET DURING NETWORK HURRICANE COVERAGE

CNN President Jonathan Klein spent last week on a posh island off Massachusetts while his network was down in the muck, covering Hurricane Katrina, the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS reports.

Reporter Lloyd Grove quotes a CNN rep: "Coverage plans for the hurricane were set before he left, and Jon was in constant contact with his deputies and CNN the entire time."

Klein has held the title of CNN president since November 2004.

Klein's holiday in Nantucket did not apparently hurt CNN in the ratings; the all-news network saw audience levels reach the highest levels in years, with host Aaron Brown even topping FOXNEWS one night last week in the demo.

Despite the rare Brown demo win, FOXNEWS still commands a wide lead over its competition.

WRONG PRESIDENT, STUPID: http://drudgereport.com/flash3jk.htm