Ellington

Reprinted verbatim from the Sunday edition of the Times-Picayune:

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

Previous Comments

ID

70640

Comment

But don't worry...Karl Rove and the White House have put the spin machine into place and may be able to save Bush's credibility by moving "the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials." Nice. WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 - Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan. The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides.

Author

Todd Stauffer

Date

2005-09-04T22:37:08-06:00

ID

70641

Comment

Shift the blame to Louisiana officials? I can't tell you how. angry. this. makes. me. There are dead bodies floating in the water in New Orleans, and in freezers on the Coast, and they are crafting a strategy to shift the BLAME? Sputter, sputter. Dirty, rotten scoundrels.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-04T23:00:56-06:00

ID

70642

Comment

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 - Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan. The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides. oh i can't believe this! that's just a damn shame

Author

William Patrick Butler

Date

2005-09-05T00:28:22-06:00

ID

70643

Comment

It begins. The administration snakes start blaming the people in Louisiana. ome federal officials said uncertainty over who was in charge had contributed to delays in providing aid and imposing order, and officials in Louisiana complained that Washington disaster officials had blocked some aid efforts. Local and state resources were so weakened, said Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, that in the future federal authorities need to take "more of an upfront role earlier on, when we have these truly ultracatastrophes." But furious state and local officials insisted that the real problem was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Mr. Chertoff's department oversees, failed to deliver urgently needed help and, through incomprehensible red tape, even thwarted others' efforts to help. "We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."[...] But local officials, who still feel overwhelmed by the continuing tragedy, demanded accountability and as well as action. "Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired?" asked Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans. Far from deferring to state or local officials, FEMA asserted its authority and made things worse, Mr. Broussard complained on "Meet the Press." When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said. Huh? Turned back the water and fuel??? Cut the line? What the hell is going on here?

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T01:19:31-06:00

ID

70644

Comment

Krugman nails it: Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized. Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients. Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a "strange paralysis" set in among Bush administration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousands died. What caused that paralysis? President Bush certainly failed his test. After 9/11, all the country really needed from him was a speech. This time it needed action - and he didn't deliver. But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming? [...] Several recent news analyses on FEMA's sorry state have attributed the agency's decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters. But that supposed change in focus misses a crucial part of the story. For one thing, the undermining of FEMA began as soon as President Bush took office. Instead of choosing a professional with expertise in responses to disaster to head the agency, Mr. Bush appointed Joseph Allbaugh, a close political confidant. Mr. Allbaugh quickly began trying to scale back some of FEMA's preparedness programs. [...] But the downgrading of FEMA continued, with the appointment of Michael Brown as Mr. Allbaugh's successor. Mr. Brown had no obvious qualifications, other than having been Mr. Allbaugh's college roommate. But Mr. Brown was made deputy director of FEMA; The Boston Herald reports that he was forced out of his previous job, overseeing horse shows. And when Mr. Allbaugh left, Mr. Brown became the agency's director. The raw cronyism of that appointment showed the contempt the administration felt for the agency; one can only imagine the effects on staff morale.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T01:34:19-06:00

ID

70645

Comment

The Clarion-Ledger reports: Former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck McRae said Monday if state and federal response to Hurricane Katrina had been quicker, it's possible more lives could have been spared. "You wonder how many people would have been saved, such as older people on dialysis, if search crews had gone in there sooner," he said. He's heard there may be as many as 300 dead in Bay St. Louis and 500 dead in Pass Christian ó two towns devastated by the hurricane. He blames state and federal leaders for not moving in more quickly, he said. "I think the feds were looking to the state, and the state was looking to the feds." What makes the slow response so hard to understand is "they knew this thing was coming." He praised the current effort by the National Guard in the area. "I think the military is doing a fantastic job," he said. But guardsmen should have been called in sooner, he said.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T10:59:23-06:00

ID

70646

Comment

Here, apparently, is the WH spin already in place, which the Washington Post didn't catch until after the paper had published it as fact. From Editor and Publisher: In its Sunday edition, the Washington Post quoted a "senior Bush official" who said that "as of Saturday [Louisiana Governor] Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency." This, of course, was meant to make the governor look foolish and spread the blame around for the disastrous response to the disaster, though it was hard to imagine on what grounds the newspaper would quote an unnamed source in this case. Several hours of blogosphere howling ensued. Later in the day, the Post ran this correction, or rather, 180-degree turn: "A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina incorrectly said that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) had not declared a state of emergency. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26." Round one of the Rovian spin -- they couldn't do anything because the governor on the ground screwed up. Except that she didn't.

Author

Todd Stauffer

Date

2005-09-05T11:03:02-06:00

ID

70647

Comment

Unbelievable. Please, people, spread the word so that the state of Louisiana doesn't get hit by two disasters in one week: the Hurricane and then the Rove lying machine. Southerners gotta stand up for our own this time.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T11:08:07-06:00

ID

70648

Comment

An intriguing question on this blame-the-victims strategy: Is the White House also going to blame Haley Barbour for the abysmal federal response in Mississippi? Or, is this strategy simply reserved his political enemies? Don't let anyone fool you: The emergency response was no better in Mississippi than in Louisiana. Remember the Sun-Herald plea for help last week as the spin machine kicks into full gear.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T11:23:48-06:00

ID

70649

Comment

Tell Bush & Congress: Accept Cuba's offer to send doctors to the hurricane victims! The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has set up an easy-to-use way to send Bush and Congress a message. Use the link below to tell them: "Accept Cuba's offer to send doctors to the hurricane victims!" On the evening of September 2, Cuban President Fidel Castro reiterated Cuba's offer (first made on August 30) to send doctors and medical equipment to provide desperately-needed assistance to those who have become the victims of both Hurricane Katrina and of the Bush administration's meager and dilatory response. Specifically, Cuba is offering to send 1,100 medical doctors with 26.4 tons of medications and diagnosis kits at no expense to the U.S. (they will even bring their own food and water). There is now a dire need for medical attention in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and in other Southern states. The Cuban doctors, nurses and professional healthcare staff are world renowned for their medical expertise and their ability to provide assistance even in the most difficult conditions, and have traveled throughout the Americas and the world providing care to those in need. The people of Cuba, even with far less resources than the United States, have survived extreme hurricanes and flooding because the government mobilizes to put people first, evacuating hundreds of thousands and providing necessary food, water and medical care immediately. These doctors and the medicine and equipment stand ready to fly to Houston and can arrive within hours as soon as they get permission - permission that thus far has not been given by the U.S. government. In their public statements about countries that have offered assistance, the Bush administration has not even acknowledged this offer from Cuba. Bush's racist and cavalier conduct towards the dying and suffering in New Orleans has been criminal. For him to withhold this medical support from people in need is cruel and outrageous. He will let even more people die needlessly just to support his right-wing political agenda against Cuba. You can send a letter to Congress and Bush today demanding that the U.S. allow the Cuban doctors to enter the country and begin assisting in the relief efforts! A.N.S.W.E.R. has set up an easy-to-use mechanism to facilitate sending a quick email to George W. Bush and the Congressional Representative in your District and Senators in your state with your demand. We have provided a sample letter, but you can customize your message to get your point across. Please take a moment now, by clicking here, to send a message to Bush and Congress. (http://www.pephost.org/CubaAidAlert) Cuban President Fidel Castro reiterates medical care offer to the American people in his remarks during the TV round table, September 2, 2005, 6:00 pm: "Our country is ready to send, in the small hours of morning, 100 clinicians and specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine, who at dawn tomorrow, Saturday, could be in Houston International Airport, Texas, the closest to the region struck by the tragedy, in order to be transferred by air, sea or river to the isolated shelters, facilities and neighborhoods in the city of New Orleans, where the population and families are that require emergency medical care or first aid. "These Cuban personnel would be carrying backpacks with 24 kilograms of medications, known to be essential in such situations to save lives, as well as basic diagnosis kits. They would be prepared to work alone or in groups of two or more, depending on the circumstances, for as long as necessary. "Likewise, Cuba is ready to send via Houston, or any other airport of your choosing, 500 additional specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine, with the same equipment, who could be at their destination point at noon or in the afternoon of tomorrow, Saturday, September 3. "A third group of 500 specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine could be arriving in the morning of Sunday, September 4. Thus, the 1100 said medical doctors, with the resources described tantamount to 26.4 tons of medications and diagnosis kits, would be caring for the neediest persons in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. "These medical doctors have the necessary international experience and elementary knowledge of the English language that would allow them to communicate with the patients. "We stand ready waiting for the US authorities' response."

Author

mIEKAL

Date

2005-09-05T12:06:32-06:00

ID

70650

Comment

Bob Herbert writes today: Hospitals with deathly ill patients were left without power, with ventilators that didn't work, with floodwaters rising on the lower floors and with corpses rotting in the corridors and stairwells. People unable to breathe on their own, or with cancer or heart disease or kidney failure, slipped into comas and sank into their final sleep in front of helpless doctors and relatives. These were Americans in desperate trouble. The president didn't seem to notice. Death and the stink of decay were all over the city. Corpses were propped up in wheelchairs and on lawn furniture, or left to decompose on sunbaked sidewalks. Some floated by in water fouled by human feces. Degenerates roamed the city, shooting at rescue workers, beating and robbing distraught residents and tourists, raping women and girls. The president of the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world didn't seem to notice. Viewers could watch diabetics go into insulin shock on national television, and you could see babies with the pale, vacant look of hunger that we're more used to seeing in dispatches from the third world. You could see their mothers, dirty and hungry themselves, weeping. Old, critically ill people were left to soil themselves and in some cases die like stray animals on the floor of an airport triage center. For days the president of the United States didn't seem to notice. He would have noticed if the majority of these stricken folks had been white and prosperous. But they weren't. Most were black and poor, and thus, to the George W. Bush administration, still invisible. After days of withering criticism from white and black Americans, from conservatives as well as liberals, from Republicans and Democrats, the president finally felt compelled to act, however feebly. (The chorus of criticism from nearly all quarters demanding that the president do something tells me that the nation as a whole is so much better than this administration.) Mr. Bush flew south on Friday and proved (as if more proof were needed) that he didn't get it. Instead of urgently focusing on the people who were stranded, hungry, sick and dying, he engaged in small talk, reminiscing at one point about the days when he used to party in New Orleans, and mentioning that Trent Lott had lost one of his houses but that it would be replaced with "a fantastic house - and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration. And it is this incompetence and indifference to suffering (yes, the carnage continues to mount in Iraq) that makes it so hard to be optimistic about the prospects for the United States over the next few years. At a time when effective, innovative leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of war and peace, terrorism and domestic security, the economic imperatives of globalization and the rising competition for oil, the United States is being led by a man who seems oblivious to the reality of his awesome responsibilities. Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T15:14:28-06:00

ID

70651

Comment

I don't know where this should go on the website, but I just watched my videotapes of the Katrina coverage, beginning Saturday morning, August the 27th. Now that W. and Rove are trying to smear Gov. Kathleen Blanco, thought you'd be interested in this dialog from CNN news conference on Sunday morning, August 28th, 24 hours before Katrina hit New Orleans: First, the Louisiana governor stated that she had just received a phone call from President Bush and that "he was very concerned about the impact that this will have on our people ". . . "Leaders of the highest ranks of our nation have recognized the destructive forces and awesome danger we are in. " Gov. Blanco introduced the head of LA national guard, General Landreneau. General Landreneau said "The governor directed that all state reserves be available to the parishes . . . The governor directed we mobilize 4,000 guardsmen to support the parishes . . . WE ARE COORDINATING WITH FEMA TO MAKE FEDERAL ASSETS AVAILABLE" [my all caps for emphasis.] This was said 24 hours before Katrina hit. There was much more said including comments from head of state police, Col. Whitehorn, and Secretary of Transportation re getting ready for contraflow and evacuation. Don't let the White House get away with lying about Governor Blanco and the Louisiana officials, including Mayor Ray Nagin. On Monday, after Katrina hit and moved on, Gov. Blanco publicly declared that Louisiana needed 40,000 national guard troops immediately. She still doesn't have HALF of them today, Monday, September 5th. According to the T-P today, there are 13,268 national guard troops in the 13 Louisiana parishes affected by the storm . . .

Author

Towanda

Date

2005-09-05T16:02:31-06:00

ID

70652

Comment

Posting by NBC's Brian Williams on the Nightly News' Web site: Just enough progress has been made... just enough relief is visible on the television screen... to allow the first early, furtive glimpses over our shoulders at what went wrong initially. It is a kind of slow-motion, ongoing outrage that lives are still being lost in this most robust of all nations on earth. In a strange way, the most outrageous news pictures of this day may be those of progress: The palettes of food and water that have just been dropped at selected landing zones in the downtown area of New Orleans. It's an outrage because all of those elements existed before people died for lack of them: There was water, there was food, and there were choppers to drop both. Why no one was able to combine them in an air drop is a cruel and criminal mystery of this dark chapter in our recent history. The words "failure of imagination" come to mind. The concept of an air drop of supplies was one we apparently introduced to the director of FEMA during a live interview on Nightly News on Thursday evening. (Watch Brian's interview with FEMA Dir. Michael Brown from Sept. 1.) He responded by saying that he'd been unaware of the thousands gathered at the Convention Center. Later that evening an incredulous Ted Koppel on ABC was left with no choice but to ask if the FEMA director was watching the same television coverage as the rest of the nation. Complaints are still rampant in New Orleans about a lack of information. It's one of many running themes of the past week: There were no announcements in the Superdome during the storm, none to direct people after the storm, no official word (via bullhorn, leaflets or any other means) during the week-long, on-foot migration (and eventual stagnation) that defined life in the downtown section of the city for those first few days. One can't help but think that a single-engine plane towing a banner over the city would have been immeasurably helpful in both crowd and rumor control. There are a few details from a week ago that are strikingly telling in the light of day a week later. Our team arrived in Baton Rouge Sunday afternoon, Aug. 28. After renting cars, we headed to top off our gas tanks before one last stop at a Wal-Mart for provisions. The air was already frantic, the snack aisles empty and the last of the bottled water were selling out as we watched. I will never forget one particular moment: I was on the phone with my wife while at the checkout area when a weather bulletin arrived on my Blackberry, along with a strong caveat from our New York producers. The wording and contents were so incendiary that our folks were concerned that it wasn't real... either a bogus dispatch or a rogue piece of text. I filed a live report by phone for Nightly News (after an exchange with New York about the contents of the bulletin) and very cautiously couched the information. Later, we learned it was real, every word of it. Below are actual excerpts, in the urgent, all-capital-letters style of the medium. Note the time on the message... but more importantly... note the content. URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA 1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005 ...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED... HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED...ALL WINDOWS WILL BE BLOWN OUT. THE VAST MAJORITY...OF TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS. The last sentence in that statement is as concise a summation of conditions in New Orleans as is possible. We talked about the document en route to New Orleans. It turned out to be an advance copy of the script for this storm, predicting in unbelievable detail the level of destruction that was by now less than 24 hours away. To me it conjured up the image of a lone forecaster, known but to his or her co-workers, struggling to merge decades-old boilerplate Weather Service wording with the most vivid language possible in a final attempt to warn an entire region.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T16:26:08-06:00

ID

70653

Comment

"Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired?" asked Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans. Huh? Turned back the water and fuel??? Cut the line? What the h--- is going on here? I'll tell ya, seeing the interview itself was a killer: Finally, Broussard told the tragic personal story of a colleague, and broke down: I want to give you one last story and Iíll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building Iím in, Emergency Management, heís responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, ìAre you coming, son? Is somebody coming?î and he said, ìYeah, Mama, somebodyís coming to get you.î Somebodyís coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebodyís coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebodyís coming to get you on Thursday. Somebodyís coming to get you on FridayÖ and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobodyís coming to get us. Nobodyís coming to get us. The Secretary has promised. Everybodyís promised. Theyíve had press conferences. Iím sick of the press conferences. For godís sakes, just shut up and send us somebody.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T17:58:32-06:00

ID

70654

Comment

Also, there was outrage expressed by Celine Dion, Bob Schieffer, and MANY others: http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/04.html

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T18:01:24-06:00

ID

70655

Comment

I posted a link to a letter from Michael Moore on another board, but I'll give you an excerpt here: Dear Mr. Bush: Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag. Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with? Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her! I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike? And it goes on from there: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2005-09-02

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T18:12:56-06:00

ID

70656

Comment

Michael Moore expresses some of what most of us feeling right now, but I'll be honest with you, L.W., I don't think we need Moore expressing it. It's so much more powerful to read the editorials and the accounts of what real people on the ground on the Coast and in New Orleans are saying about being abandoned, and the details of the horrors that were allowed to fester there for days. Like your comments by Broussard. I mean it respectfully, but I do think Michael Moore just gets in the way right now. Fine for him to say it, but this time around, plenty of other people are saying what needs to be said. And for that, I am thankful.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T18:24:07-06:00

ID

70657

Comment

I agree with you. Just sharing some of what I found. Sorry.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T18:41:10-06:00

ID

70658

Comment

It's OK; I'm not scolding. It's just that Moore is so divisive -- when you don't need to quote divisive folk. Sometimes, you need to. And he gets credit from me for criticizing the war publicly when about no one else would. All that said, I still don't like him much. I kinda consider him a necessary evil. But the more people find their own voices all along the so-called spectrum, the less he's needed.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T19:34:41-06:00

ID

70659

Comment

I didn't know he was divisive. Guess you learn something new every day. I usually tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, and I think I'm extra sensitive right now because of all that has happened lately - especially after babysitting my niece and nephew last week since they couldn't go to school. I thought I was going to rip my hair out!

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T19:40:13-06:00

ID

70660

Comment

Donna, is there any way you can disable the Michael Moore links and remove the excerpt? I hate I found it now. I didn't know so many people had a problem with him, and I didn't mean to offend anyone.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T19:46:19-06:00

ID

70661

Comment

Editor & Publisher reports today: On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told Tim Russert that one reason for the delay in rushing federal aid to the Gulf Coast was that "everyone" thought the crisis had passed when the storm left town: "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'" The Wonkette blog raised this question today: "We're wondering what papers the Chertoff household gets," and then showed a few front page banners from Tuesday morning, including the Times-Picayune's CATASTROPHIC. "The Newseum has over 400 front pages archived," Wonkette noted, "but we suspect that the one with the 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet' hed exists primarily in Chertoff's mind." ___ The most remarkable thing, really, is that Homeland Security Secretary, who is over FEMA, would feel he had to find out such a thing from the newspapers. Or that he should just take their word for itóshould that headline actually exist. If not, he's lying on top of being incompetent. Wow.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T20:41:40-06:00

ID

70662

Comment

L.W., I'll delete them if you want to. But please don't feel you have to on my, or Tom's, account. You're not trolling to quote Michael Moore, of course. And, if I haven't mentioned it lately, you rock.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T20:43:16-06:00

ID

70663

Comment

My heart is just breaking in two: Jazmyn Anderson yawned and flexed her tiny, rail-thin arms. Weighing 1 pound 41/2 ounces, she is one of the tiniest and frailest of Hurricane Katrina's survivors, airlifted here to Woman's Hospital of Baton Rouge last week from a New Orleans hospital as part of a chaotic evacuation of newborns. The hospital was the clearinghouse for 121 babies rescued from hospitals in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes last week. Nearly all of the babies were newborns and most, like Jazmyn, were premature. Many have since been discharged or transferred elsewhere, but 37 remained at Woman's Hospital on Monday afternoon, most of them in a neonatal intensive care unit that hummed with the sound of ventilators and cardiac and respiratory monitors. The unit usually has about 60 premature babies at any one time; on Monday, doctors and nurses were caring for 95 babies. As of Monday afternoon, the hospital had not established contact with parents of about 10 of the 37 infants, but officials said they were hopeful that all of the babies would eventually be reunited with their families. Whole story

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-05T20:44:26-06:00

ID

70664

Comment

L.W., you do rock. And seriously: If I'd known you'd posted the Michael Moore link, I would have chosen a different example. I never meant to criticize you! Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-09-05T20:55:38-06:00

ID

70665

Comment

Thanks, guys. I despise trolling, and I just don't want to be a troll, look like a troll, or even be a troll's cousin. I enjoy intelligent dialogue, and I want to keep it that way. I just know now to watch the Michael Moore quotes. 8-P

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T21:19:17-06:00

ID

70666

Comment

L.W., having run across your photo linked off a site you once posted, I can definitively say that you're much, much too cute to be a troll. :P Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2005-09-05T21:26:20-06:00

ID

70667

Comment

Tom, ROTFL!!!

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2005-09-05T21:33:23-06:00

ID

70668

Comment

For those who think the fault lies at all levels of government, take heart. Paul Reynolds, World Affairs correspondent for the BBC, agrees with you http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216508.stm

Author

Philip

Date

2005-09-05T23:18:36-06:00

ID

70669

Comment

I had tears in my eyes watching this clip -- not only because of the horror of what's happened, but because I have hope that this message could actually take hold: http://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings

Author

Tim Kynerd

Date

2005-09-06T02:49:05-06:00

ID

70670

Comment

From letter in Clarion-Ledger today: A 'starved beast' fails in relief effort While we're pointing fingers to blame George Bush and his minions for the inept and disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, let's don't forget to point at Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and strategist who urged Republicans to "starve the beast" of government until they could "drown it in a bathtub." Amen.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-06T10:19:29-06:00

ID

70671

Comment

Man, Tim, that clip is amazing. The mainstream media are redeeming themselves. I hope we see it happen here in the state of Mississippi as well.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-06T10:25:52-06:00

ID

70672

Comment

Man, Tim, that clip is amazing. The mainstream media are redeeming themselves. I hope we see it happen here in the state of Mississippi as well. Agreed on all counts. In the midst of all the horror, I have to be happy that this is at least too monstrous for the "lamestream" media, in your excellent phrase, to ignore. I think it just took something this bad to wake the media out of their collective Sleeping Beauty trance. Best, Tim

Author

Tim Kynerd

Date

2005-09-06T11:30:19-06:00

ID

70673

Comment

Yeah, me, too. I hope they stay awake. They really are complicit in allowing certain folks' messes to get this far.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-06T11:32:02-06:00

ID

70674

Comment

Something else to look at (it's not the mainstream media, though): http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050906/cm_thenation/120080 Wanna listen to her? The audio is here. Best, Tim

Author

Tim Kynerd

Date

2005-09-06T16:21:11-06:00

ID

70675

Comment

The reports are piling up about press stagings during Bush's visit to the disaster-torn areas. I really hope this stuff isn't true.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2005-09-06T17:04:10-06:00