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Trying To Make It Right
The e-mail about the Jackson doctor came all the way from Canada. Hollis Brown, a singer/songwriter in Saskatchewan, wanted to know if an e-mail he had received, calling New Orleans evacuees in the Astrodome ungrateful "n*ggers," had really been written by Dr. Richard L. Johnson of University Medical Center. "It sounds like some KKK Krap if you ask me," Brown wrote.
Brownie Resigns from FEMA Post Altogether
MSNBC is reporting:
WASHINGTON - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Mike Brown said Monday he has resigned "in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president," three days after losing his on-site command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Lott: Coast Relief Efforts to Intensify
[September 2, 2005/verbatim] PASCAGOULA, Mississippi - On the heels of site visits Thursday to the Hurricane Katrina Emergency Operations Center in Gulfport, the National Guard's relief coordination center at the Gulfport Guard base and briefings at Northrop Grumman Ingalls Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Senator Lott said he is confident that the effort to get more food, fuel, water and supplies onto the coast will intensify.
URGENT: 250 Folding Cots Needed NOW for Coast, More Needs
Rev. Emma Connolly wrote Sunday:
We are getting calls from all over the country, thanks to your networking. We are in need - NOW - for 250 folding cots to deliver to the Gulf Coast ASAP. These items cannot be found in the Jackson area at this time. Do you have connections to ask this? Anyone can call my husband, Robert Connolly, 601-573-5796, if they can find any cots and get them to Jackson quickly. He will let them know how many are needed. Thanks again for all you have done.
‘This Country Is Better Than That'
Great New York Times editorial today:
FEMA: Flood Insurance to Expedite Claims
[verbatim from FEMA/Homeland Security] September 20, 2005/Washington, D.C., – In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the National Flood Insurance Program will modify the way it settles claims to expedite the response to those policy-holders in storm-stricken areas under a new policy announced today by Acting Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response R. David Paulison.
Melton Tells City Workers to Help Red Cross
Facing a growing crisis with evacuees who have been ejected from the Mississippi Coliseum and other shelters, with some now reportedly without a shelter over their heads and now sleeping in cars, Mayor Frank Melton told WAPT that he is going to send city workers to help the Red Cross speed the process:
Lott: Scrap Medicare drugs, pay for storm
Gannett News Serviceis reportingt:
Homeland Insecurity
Award-winning reporter Eileen Lou Harrist wrote this story a year ago for The Gambit Weekly, the alternative newsweekly in New Orleans:
As Rita Looms, Mississippi Fears Being Forgotten
Knight-Ridder is reporting:
Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned *Before* Katrina
So much for passing the buck:
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage. Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."
Times-Picayune: Congress ‘Dishonest and Mean-spirited'
Here's part of the Times-Picayune piece:
The Times-Picayune is running a powerful editorial, trying to correct public misconceptions and rumors about the realities on the ground in New Orleans. This desperate plea for truth is similar to an editorial run last week by the Sun-Herald, which Ali Greggs is discussing on her blog. No doubt about it: The South—the Coast and New Orleans—are getting screwed by national media and political innuendo.
Study: Most Katrina Victims Elderly
AP is reporting:
A majority of people killed by Hurricane Katrina were older residents unable or unwilling to evacuate in the rising floodwaters, according to a study of almost half the bodies recovered in Louisiana. About 60 percent of the nearly 500 victims identified so far were age 61 or older, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reported.
Sign and Pass on the Katrina Pledge
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute (Proverbs 31:8).
U.S. Senators: Congress to Probe ‘Immense Failure'
Reuters is reporting:
Pray for the Big Easy and the Magnolia State
AP reports:
"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," Mayor Ray Nagin said in ordering the mandatory evacuation for his city of 485,000 people, surrounded by suburbs of a million more. "The storm surge will most likely topple our levee system." Conceding that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport, the city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome.
Lott: Senate Passes Katrina Relief Measures
[verbatim/Sept. 15, 2005] The Senate on Thursday, by unanimous consent, passed a sweeping tax relief package, co-sponsored by Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, to provide tax relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Lott, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, provided significant input on the bill's provisions, tailored to Mississippi-specific needs. In addition to Lott, the bill, authored by Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Max Baucus of Montana, was co-sponsored by Senators Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, David Vitter of Louisiana, and Richard Shelby of Alabama.
Poll: Katrina Changed Americans' Attitudes
AP is reporting:
A 64-year-old Alabamian frets about frayed race relations. A Utah software programmer ponders the slow government response to Hurricane Katrina and decides he'll turn to his church first in a disaster created by nature or terrorists. A woman scraping by on disability pay in northern Virginia puts her house on the market because of surging post-storm gas and food prices. Cheaper to live in Pennsylvania, she figures.
Gifts Losers Don't Give
It's only days until Christmas and—this is the point where a lot of people really screw up. If—like me—you haven't quite finished your shopping (or started), you might be tempted to run to a mall and grab anything that looks like a gift. Don't. This is how people end up with useless appliances and way too many golf accessories they'll never use.
[Green Eats] Food For Thought
"No MSG."