I am listening right now to Bill O'Reilly, again defending the Bush Administration on what is being done about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This guy should be fired and I am ashamed that he is a fellow American. This is a crisis of bibicial proportions, and O'Reilly, smug and cocky as ever, shows me that he is a friggin'' racist in the worst way. He does not care to mention that the Bush administration cut their budget for flooding in June.
Now I hear him say that FEMA cannot do their job because of armed gangs (He failed to mention they are Black, but he lets you know in his racist baritone anyway.) He is slamming the NOLA Mayor, saying that he is not a good leader for his people, and yet,Bush flies over for a few minutes in his sanitized AF-1 at 2500'? When is enough enough? The stench from you, Bill O'Reilly is more sickening than what must be coming from Bourbon Street.
FIRE everyone who failed and is continuing to fail these people. Do not let the media sway you! These people cry "Help us!" for 6 days? Now Hannity is spewing his bullshit, trying to belittle Giraldo Rivera, after he makes a direct plea for the Jack Boots to allow the people out. Even Russia offered to help, and Bush replied? Yep, you guessed it.. NO.
So just when will YOU, the American citizen and neighbor, demand accountability? Are you that stupid? That brainwashed in just what is going on with this administration? And what about you people who work for the government? Feel a little confused lately? I challenge ANYONE to let me know why this is happening! Why fellow Americans should be allowed to die? Is Iraq more important? NO! (But the OIL is!) Both O'Reilly and these other so called commentators should be sent overseas, preferably to Angola, to live among the "colored" people they despise so much.
To Mr. O'Reilly? I have no respect for you. In fact, I respect Michael Crook (Who I detest) more! At least he doesn't back down on what he states, unlike you Mr. "Spinmeister". I hope that someday you will die a slow painful death, much like you have no problem with the "Bottom Feeders" of Louisiana and Alabama are each and every minute of the day and night. forget about gas prices, forget about Iraq and their "Freedom"!!! The number ONE distressing issue that has to be addressed RIGHT NOW is our fellow AMERICANS! And to those pols who want to be re-elected in 06? We are watching you. From the Haverford Blog: Awaiting Ivan in the Big Uneasy Thanks Pat!
A sub note. To Michael Marcavage: Your statement that the sinful gay people of the NOLA deserved what Katrina brought them is just plain evil. You call yourself a man of God? You are a worthless cause, a twisted soul who should be the soul patient of Haverford State Mental Hospital. Do something humbling. Go and help your fellow man and woman. In fact fellow Delconian Michael, I'll make you a deal. I'll drive you to Louisiana and we'll both help.
Are you in?
Musings from a variety of people from Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
9/02/2005
Spinning Katrina
I am listening right now to Bill O'Reilly, again defending the Bush Administration on what is being done about the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This guy should be fired and I am ashamed that he is a fellow American. This is a crisis of bibicial proportions, and O'Reilly, smug and cocky as ever, shows me that he is a friggin'' racist in the worst way. He does not care to mention that the Bush administration cut their budget for flooding in June.
Now I hear him say that FEMA cannot do their job because of armed gangs (He failed to mention they are Black, but he lets you know in his racist baritone anyway.) He is slamming the NOLA Mayor, saying that he is not a good leader for his people, and yet,Bush flies over for a few minutes in his sanitized AF-1 at 2500'? When is enough enough? The stench from you, Bill O'Reilly is more sickening than what must be coming from Bourbon Street.
FIRE everyone who failed and is continuing to fail these people. Do not let the media sway you! These people cry "Help us!" for 6 days? Now Hannity is spewing his bullshit, trying to belittle Giraldo Rivera, after he makes a direct plea for the Jack Boots to allow the people out. Even Russia offered to help, and Bush replied? Yep, you guessed it.. NO.
So just when will YOU, the American citizen and neighbor, demand accountability? Are you that stupid? That brainwashed in just what is going on with this administration? And what about you people who work for the government? Feel a little confused lately? I challenge ANYONE to let me know why this is happening! Why fellow Americans should be allowed to die? Is Iraq more important? NO! (But the OIL is!) Both O'Reilly and these other so called commentators should be sent overseas, preferably to Angola, to live among the "colored" people they despise so much.
To Mr. O'Reilly? I have no respect for you. In fact, I respect Michael Crook (Who I detest) more! At least he doesn't back down on what he states, unlike you Mr. "Spinmeister". I hope that someday you will die a slow painful death, much like you have no problem with the "Bottom Feeders" of Louisiana and Alabama are each and every minute of the day and night. forget about gas prices, forget about Iraq and their "Freedom"!!! The number ONE distressing issue that has to be addressed RIGHT NOW is our fellow AMERICANS! And to those pols who want to be re-elected in 06? We are watching you. From the Haverford Blog: Awaiting Ivan in the Big Uneasy Thanks Pat!
A sub note. To Michael Marcavage: Your statement that the sinful gay people of the NOLA deserved what Katrina brought them is just plain evil. You call yourself a man of God? You are a worthless cause, a twisted soul who should be the soul patient of Haverford State Mental Hospital. Do something humbling. Go and help your fellow man and woman. In fact fellow Delconian Michael, I'll make you a deal. I'll drive you to Louisiana and we'll both help.
Are you in?
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I watched the same show. In fact I watched the whole show and O'Reilly necer defended Bush once. At best he mentioned that the idiot Governor from La. should have done something and mentioned the feds should have acted quicker. But no defense of Bush. Is it possible your hate has made you dellusional?
ReplyDeleteYou've got Marcavage dead on. Very good post, and dead on the money. I'm overjoyed to see a Republican criticizing one of his own.
ReplyDeleteStill, there are many good Republicans out there. susan Collins, for instance, has demanded an investigation into the Bush response to Katrina. Her co-sponsor is Joe Lieberman, and I trust Susan to get to the bottom of this more than I do Lieberman.
But no defense of Bush. Is it possible your hate has made you dellusional? It may have been. After all, O'Liely is paid by the Bush administration and this fact will come out in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI might have "delusionally" read into it. Delusions of Granduer I call them. Myself and the President both experience them from time to time. too many Budweisers I guess. What's his excuse?
You've got Marcavage dead on. Very good post, and dead on the money. I'm overjoyed to see a Republican criticizing one of his own.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that Marcavage was a Republican.. But my offer still stands. Lets go Mike! You drive, I'll buy the Gas!
It's interesting how after Hurricane Charley rolled through Florida, relief efforts and out of state utility companies were storming Central Florida and repairing it like busy little bees, but it took DAYS before anyone did anything in Louisiana.
ReplyDeleteI just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims of
ReplyDeletehurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.
In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway, thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in mud and trash behind meta barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily armed soldiers
standing guard over them. When a bus would come through, it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the barricades, and people
would rush for the bus, with no information given about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would be told where the bus was taking
them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas, Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound for Arkansas (for example), even people with
family and a place to stay in Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could not come within 17 miles of the camp.
I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers Salvation Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were friendly,
no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been able to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these questions, and all of them, from Australian TV to local Fox affiliates complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told me "as someone who's been here in
this camp for two days, the only information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want to be here at night."
There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to get on
buses, a way to register contact information or find family members, special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment for possible
disease exposure, nor even a single trash can. To understand this tragedy, its important to look at New Orleans itself.
For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible, glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white supremecy
has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians, Parades, Beads, Jazz
Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights, New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation unlike anywhere else in
the world.
It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and where a
community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state and federal
governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not only asks how you are,
they wait for an answer.
It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300 murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly black,
neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after a shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.
There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months, officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption to theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several high profile police killings
of unarmed youth, including the murder of Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several months.
The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher salaries. The
equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining jobs are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the
service economy.
Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and incompetence. Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the media portrayal of the victims, this disaster is shaped by race.
Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane down" to a
level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane, we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and TV stations, hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a day of prayer. As rumors and
panic began to rule, they was no source of solid dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the water level would rise another 12
feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.
While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As someone that
loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.
No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but that just what the
media did over and over again. Sheriffs and politicians talked of having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.
Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.
City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to New
Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black, city.
While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.
The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of Huey Long.
In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools, cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former neighborhoods, cultural centers and
corner jazz clubs.
Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty, racism, disinvestment, de industrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.
Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on
Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and we need to fight for its rebirth.
"The
ReplyDeleteequivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die in the prison."
Was I supposed to start crying or feeling sorry for someone at this point?
"Was I supposed to start crying or feeling sorry for someone at this point?" Sure buddy, just lump in honest Black & White poor people, who couldn't get out of the hurricane's path with inmates. Typical assholish NeoCon thinking. Fuck You and your smug rhetoric!
ReplyDeleteYou obviously have no compassion for your fellow man. I wouldn't want you as a neighbor in time of need. so what your saying is that it's O K A Y, for these people to languish and die?
I'm not going to ask you to reconsider your view. You are entitled to it. Just go and spew your Bushitler loving on MY SPACE.
Just another example of "Compassionate conservatism." What trash these people are. Every single advance in human rights for hundreds of years has been made IN SPITE of creeps like this, not as a result.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. President:
ReplyDeleteWe 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.
The Unraveling of Bush's America
ReplyDeleteMike Whitney
September 2, 2005
Take a step back for a minute, then take a deep breath, because what we are seeing now is the beginning of the end of America's darkest hour; the end of the Bush Administration.
Bush will never survive this disaster; the tectonic political-plates have shifted too dramatically; the failure too colossal.
Nearly overnight the familiar voices that sang his praises from every media pulpit in America have either been silenced or turned against him. It is truly extraordinary; and a tad suspicious.
The friendly cheerleaders are bailing-out across the spectrum; NBC, CBS, MSNBC and even the "bullish" FOX News have all descended on their prey like feral dogs on a wounded squirrel.
Suddenly the callousness and rustic hauteur of our esteemed leader, the "Fly-over" President, seems to be wearing-thin on leaders and pundits alike. They smell blood in the water and they are preparing to do what they do best; dismember the flailing carcass with gnashing, razor-like teeth.
But, why the abrupt change?
Can anyone remember a time when the government has failed as miserably as it has with Hurricane Katrina?
While tens of thousands of desperate Americans are hunkered down in 90 degree heat without food or water, President Imposter is circling at 30 thousand feet blowing kisses to his drowning people below.
Bush has become a Texas Louis 15, completely detached in his bubble-world echoing the shallow bromides of his ideological predecessor, "Apres moi, le deluge".
His first response to the storm was to suspend the EPA's clean air restrictions on the profitable oil industry and to promise government aid for offshore drilling facilities.
No surprises there.
The second part of the administration's strategy was to work up an elaborate public relations charade that involved trotting out every waffle-bottomed bureaucrat in Washington in front of the TV cameras to make officious-sounding statements.
Meanwhile, nothing has been done to relieve the desperation of victims in New Orleans who are suffering through America's greatest natural disaster.
In fact, that appears to be the strategy; do nothing!
Many of the reports that are being filed mention that National Guard installations are set up just blocks away from the Superdome and the Convention Center; the epicenter of the human tragedy, and yet, the Guard is doing nothing to meet the needs of the people inside.
Why?
Many people are asking if it is because they are predominantly black and poor.
Certainly as we see the footage of poor, black people dragging across the city, 3 days without food and water and no busses in sight; we have to wonder if there is a racial element involved.
Rather than address the dire needs of the stranded people, Bush has approved "shoot to kill" orders for looters.
Unbelievable?!?
So, now its "open season" on starving people scavenging through the ruins of the city looking for sustenance for their family?
Bush is set on repeating the same mistakes he made in Falluja and Baghdad when angry townspeople were mowed-down during peaceful protests.
Look how that turned out.
Is that what Bush wants; a revolution?
What possible purpose does it serve to take 1500 Guardsman off their duties of treating the wounded and feeding the hungry, and making them patrol the streets to round up petty-thieves?
And why has Bush approved the deploying of snipers to the tops of New Orleans buildings instead of health-care workers to its overcrowded facilities?
"I think there should be zero tolerance for people breaking the law during an emergency such as this," Bush boomed on ABC's Good Morning America.
Bush's "law and order" approach to the tragedy is consistent with his utter inability to grasp the pain of the average victim of this colossal disaster. As always, he simply parrots the inane bromides about private property that underscore the Republican ideological world-view.
Bush is a firm believer that looting should limited to the class of carpet-baggers and war criminals to which he belongs. He has no problem with the "no-bid" contracts and war-profiteering that has plagued Iraqi debacle from day-one. The $9 billion of pilfered Iraqi oil revenue never even drew a raised eyebrow from our benighted leader, but the notion that that corruption might be extended democratically to everyone regardless of class. That's the REAL crime as Bush sees it.
The vast looting and destruction in New Orleans is an object lesson to the ruling class and one that ultimately benefits antiwar activists and civil libertarians. The people in power need to grasp the ephemeral character of society; there's nothing permanent about it. Order is a transitory phenomenon that papers-over the primordial swamp of human rage, desire and barbarity. When we peel back the outer layer of society, we see those same dark forces at work; a cauldron of competing emotions and shadowy cravings. Those forces are now in play on the streets of New Orleans, along with the even more elemental drive to survive.
What bothers men like Bush is the prospect that everyone may partake in the same nihilistic-revelry that he and his confreres have enjoyed for so long. It is the anarchy of unrestrained greed that puts a shiver in his spine; the selfishness that infects every man's heart. And, yet, this is the true face of present-day America; a lawless, twisted waif unleashing waves of terror across the globe; feeding the burgeoning coffers of its privileged few.
Why not uncork the bottle and let everyone take part in the festivities?
As the poet Yates said,
"The blood-dimmed tide is loosed And everywhere the celebration of innocence is drowned".
What's good for Bush is good for everyone. Isn't this what we see unfolding in New Orleans?
The roving gangs of looters are like a giant mirror hung in front of the White House reflecting the anarchic soul that lies within; Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Falluja; this is the Bush legacy. And, now, it is America's, too.
America has become like Rimbaud's dissolute drifter in "A Season in Hell" who boasts:
"I stretched myself out in the mud, I dried myself in the air of crime, And I played some fine tricks on madness."
Bush can't have it both ways. He cannot destroy the law and then pretend it still exists for the poor and helpless.
The looters in New Orleans are the offspring of the Bush political ethos; a no-holds-barred culture of violence, thievery and impunity.
If we cannot have a society based on justice and mercy, than let's tear it down and start over.
Bill O'Reilly proclaimed, "A lot of the people — a lot of the people who stayed wanted to do this destruction. They figured it out. And that's — I'm not surprised."....
ReplyDeleteHmm, people listening to the media. Now THAT's scary.
ReplyDeleteYes Bush cut the budget for tons of stuff included disaster planning and levee work. That's a given. Hell an exercise was run just last year with this exact scenario but the budget dropped and the 'fixes' couldn't be worked out and applied.
I do ask you take a moment away from the Bush bashing to contemplate the role of the state.
The governor/mayor also hold the blame. Constitutionally the federal government can only go so far. The state has to go further. FEMA can bring goods so far, then the state has to push the products down further. They were not ready/prepared to do so. Shelters were not previously identified by the State, besides the now infamous superdome (and hold your applause for the mayor being so generous as to open it up. It was identified in numerous scenarios as a last-ditch mass shelter. Its downfall was that the state/locality didn't identify enough shelters. Now its FEMA getting the blame for the lack of work by the state). Evacuations were ordered when everybody knew there wasn't enough law enforcement personnel to handle the evacuation, but nobody asked for help.
The governor has control over the National Guard, yet, they weren't called BEFORE the hurricane hit? It takes time to get units up and running, as everyone is seeing now. Again, the GOVERNOR CONTROLS THE GUARD. If the guard does nothing its because the governor has done nothing. It was so bad that the federal government was looking to lawyers to try to fitgure out how to wrestle control of the guard from the governor.
People ARE rushing to help, but the lawyers of the states are unsure of letting them help. There were many lined up with boats ready to go and help get people out after the water rose. Who has the liability if something happens? Who assumes responsibility of controlling what could end up being more looters moving in with the govt's concent? Oh yes, liability talks these days. So they keep them out.
EVERYONE is to blame. Federal, State, Local governments, everyday citizens. EVERYONE. Don't let the ratings loving media, who know president bashing = ratings, let you lose site of that.
Lets not forget this doesn't always happen. Remember hurricane Isabel? Barely as all needs were met the next day. Florida? Again, little is remembered other than the numerous storms back to back and the rushing in of aid (as mentioned regarding electrical work). All of these are nothing compared to Katrina. Nobody ever compares anything to Hurricane Isabel, it's always Florida. Virgina was out of power for weeks, yet water/food/ice was available to everyone throughout that period. That's just an FYI for the media driven folks out there.
Please be skeptical of the media. They are out for ratings and they know president bashing = ratings. Yes, the president holds some blame but there are numerous others that also hold the blame. Think for yourself, don't let the media do it for you.
You are right on just about everything except "The media thinking for me" Also,I have two issues that no one can answer. One: Why did FEMA turn back water & food to the dome and the overpass? and two: What gives with the military JAMMING the Police/Fire/Ambulance/Rescue/Taxi/Etc, Communications?
ReplyDeleteThis is not some bs either. The sources come from established ham radio operators here in Delco.
WHY? WHY? WHY?
I do not care about who did what. This is a disgrace. People died and are continuing to die. FEMA "Fucked up". The Bush administration Fucked up. The Local "DEMOCRATS" in NOLA and the State of Louisiana "Fucked up".
This is not like Iraq, where the Pentagon can hide the bodies of dead American soldiers from the media.
If I "Fuck up" in my job, I will be either fired from it, or sued.
Face it: THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT CANNOT PROTECT IT'S OWN. So bring home the "NATIONAL GUARD" (Like the name say's, "National", as in AMERICA, Not Iraqi) and deal with this!
FEMA's Brown Blasted
ReplyDeleteWhile Dubya Still
Refuses Foreign Aid
By Wayne Madsen
Wayne Madsen Report.com
9-6-5
"Team Bush" is still refusing international aid.
* Russian rescue crews on four cargo planes with helicopters on board sit idle at an airport near Moscow waiting for green light,
* Cuba has 1500 doctors with 26 tons of medical supplies and Bush is refusing them entry to U.S.,
* Venezuelan disaster rescue teams wait for a "go,"
* Dominican Republic crews with hurricane recovery experience wait and wait and wait.
It's the same scene at airports around the world.
Meanwhile, FEMA turned back 8 buses from Washington, DC that were to bring 400 evacuees to the DC Armory which has been stockpiled with just about every need. The Bush regime has finally reached the crescendo of evil.
And why is FEMA so incompetent? It was turned into a political patronage agency by Bush for Bush's campaign lickspittles. This from a disaster recovery specialist with inside contacts at FEMA:
Mike Brown was Joe Allbaugh's college roommate. (Allbaugh was Bush's first FEMA director). Allbaugh is now a consultant who makes tons of money for greasing the skids for companies to get business with the federal government in Iraq and with FEMA.
Note to Federal law enforcement: You might want to investigate the relationship between Allbaugh and IEM, Dewberry, and URS -- the companies that took $500,000 to develop a "Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana," a plan they never delivered and a project for they fraudulently included James Lee Witt Associates as one of their team partners. The sleazy revolving door spewing out money spins very fast with the Bush administration.
Mike Brown had absolutely no experience in disaster management. When Allbaugh became director in January, 2001, he politically cleansed FEMA of anyone who was associated with outgoing director James Lee Witt, who had done an excellent during the Clinton administration. Allbaugh was charged with cleaning out of FEMA because of the neocon desire to rid the Federal bureaucracy of FEMA and replace it with charitable giving as a means of disaster relief.
So, Allbaugh's first priority was to gut FEMA. This became an even greater priority after the Democrats (especially Joe Lieberman) forced Bush to create a Department of Homeland Security. FEMA was rolled into DHS. Allbaugh was caught by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) using the FEMA Boeing 737 aircraft for private purposes, including numerous personal trips to Florida and political trips around the country. The Republican National Committee reimbursed FEMA for the political junkets, but the embarrassing trips hit the pages of the New York Times and Allbaugh chose at that time to leave and set up his own consulting business. He left without any pressure from the White House.
In early 2001, The American Arabian Horse Association fired current FEMA director Mike Brown as its executive secretary after a non-productive period of employment. Admittedly, Mike Brown had spent a large part of 2000 campaigning for Bush rather than doing his job, but the bottom line for the horse association was that Brown neglected his duties and day to day responsibilities.
Brown was lucky. His old college roommate, Allbaugh, appointed Brown as his number 2 within days of his firing by the horse association. This cozy relationship was noted throughout the Allbaugh period. Upon Allbaugh's departure, Brown was designated by Bush to succeed him as FEMA director. He is called "Brownie" by Bush.
"Brownie" has few supporters in FEMA. In fact, the general commentary is that he lacks basic organizational and management skills and he is a bullshit artist, not a leader.
Feds Treating Katrina
ReplyDeleteVictims Like Terrorists
By Wayne Madsen
9-6-5
Urgent International Appeal.
U.S. troops in New Orleans are treating hurricane victims as members of "Al Qaeda." Reports coming to WMR report that the greater New Orleans area has been turned into a virtual military zone where troops threaten bewildered and hungry survivors who approach them for help.
One resident of the unflooded Algiers section of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River reports that the 65,000 population of the neighborhood has been reduced by forced evacuations to 2000 even though there are relatively undamaged schools, parks, and churches available to house the homeless. The remaining population of Algiers is in urgent need of medical supplies.
The same situation exists in Jefferson Parish and other areas in the greater New Orleans area. U.S. troops are treating the remaining people in New Orleans and its suburbs as "suicide bombers," according to the Algiers resident.
FEMA's operations are nothing more than a ruse to depopulate the poor African-American and whites from the metropolitan area. A natural disaster has now turned into a human rights catastrophe in the making. Our corporate news media is totally controlled by the Bush administration with an information embargo now in force from the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi.
The cable news channels are now praising the White House's response. This is a blatant lie from a dictatorship that controls the media through financial domination and intimidation. The web is our only way to get the news out to the rest of the world.
As a U.S. human rights activist who has reported on genocide in Rwanda, Sudan, West Papua and other parts of the world, I am appealing to my human rights and civil liberties contacts around the world -- Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Canada, Asia and the Pacific -- to immediately bring this humanitarian crisis to the attention of your elected representatives, your governments, and international organizations.
They must make immediate demarches to the American diplomatic embassies and offices in your countries. The United States is under the control of a despotic regime that is permitting American citizens and legal residents to die from starvation and disease. This is why the Bush regime refused offers of international assistance -- they are depopulating an entire city that before the storm was 70 percent African American, with the remaining 30 percent largely comprised of those of Creole, French Acadian, and American Indian descent. The United Nations must take this up as an urgent unfolding crisis that has an international impact. Please help our people.
Meanwhile, the communications jamming in the New Orleans continues. it is now being reported as affecting the Citizens' Band (CB) frequencies by truck drivers on Interstate-10.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
You want the truth about FEMA?
ReplyDeleteTo "Watcher", your information is rather extreme to say the least. I was shocked to follow up on "Wayne Madsen" only to find out that he is considered a bit of a kook to most.
ReplyDeleteTo my fellow contributor "Playing in Traffic" please do not leave. Yes people are upset at the government. Do you blame them? From the Mayor to Governor to Mr. Brown to George Bush, ALL involved had no communication with each other and in essence, screwed up.
I do want to know why FEMA allegedly cut communication lines. If true, what excuse could there be? You are in a unique position in your government role so I can see you defending FEMA. But you and your colleagues also must have some compassion for our fellow American's in NOLA and the rest of the devastated area, No?
Cheers.
P.S. So you shot JFK, huh?
You re right about leaving FEMA out as opposed to the bigger picture. But your boss, Mr.Brown seems to have royally screwed up, as did Prez Bush and others. and where is Dick Cheney? Has he died or something? Not one statement from our VP about this.
ReplyDeleteThe reports about FEMA turning back food and water must then be attributed to the Military. So is the jamming of radio signals, as they have the capability to do that.
I just have to add this for future reference: Notice The Blue Skies since Katrina? Something sinister is going on and has been now for sometime. And It isn't FEMA, or the National Guard who is behind it. As a weather observer and sky watcher I no longer see those "Contrails" Above Delaware County. Well enough of that.
I do agree that you and your fellow employees of FEMA are getting a bum rap. The MSM has a lot of influence on John Q Public, as you are quite aware. You and I and other "Common" people throughout America and the world for that matter really feel sorrow as our number one feeling for these victims.
So what can we really do to help?
So here's why the communications are being affected? Pleeze. This only reinforces my suspisions.
ReplyDeleteNOAA ISSUES SPACE WEATHER WARNING;
POWERFUL SOLAR FLARE ERUPTS;
KATRINA COMMUNICATIONS MAY HAVE BEEN AFFECTED
Sept. 7, 2005 ? Forecasters at the NOAA Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo., Wednesday observed one of the largest solar flares on record at 1:40 p.m. EDT. The forecasters are predicting significant solar eruptions in the coming days. Agencies impacted by space weather storms may experience disruptions over the next two weeks. These include spacecraft operations, electric power systems, high frequency communications and low-frequency navigation systems. (Click image for larger view of the sun from the SOHO spacecraft taken Sept. 2, 2005, at 9:19 a.m. EDT. Click here for high resolution version. Click here to view latest images. Please credit “SOHO.”)
The very active Region 808 produced a powerful X-17 flare (R4, severe radio blackout, on the NOAA space weather scales), which was observed on the NOAA GOES satellite. "This flare, the fourth largest in the last 15 years, erupted just as the Region 808 sunspot cluster was rotating onto the visible disk of the sun," said Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the NOAA Space Environment Center. Intense radio emissions were also associated with this flare. A very bright and fast coronal mass ejection was observed on coronagraph imagery. However, the material was not Earth directed. Over the past two weeks, this active region has produced a series of significant solar eruptions as it made its passage around the back side of the sun with minor impacts.
"This event created a complete blackout of high frequency communications on the daylit side of Earth, which included the entire U.S. and basically anywhere the sun was shinning at this time," said Combs. "Communications used by emergency services along the Gulf Coast may have experienced problems due to this flare. Low frequency navigation systems may also have experienced a period of significant degradation," he added.
NOAA is continuously monitoring the Earth's atmosphere—from the sun to the sea. Data used to provide space weather services are contributed by NOAA, U.S. Air Force, NASA, National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, the International Space Environment Services and other observatories, universities and institutions.
The NOAA Space Environment Center, one of the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction, is home to the nation's early warning system for solar activities that directly affect people and equipment on Earth and in space. SEC's 24 hour-a-day, 7 days-a-week operations are critical in protecting space and ground-based assets. Through the SEC, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force jointly operate the space weather operations center that continuously monitors, analyzes and forecasts the environment between the sun and Earth. In addition to the data gathered from NOAA and NASA satellites, the center receives real-time solar and geophysical information from ground-based observatories around the world. NOAA space weather forecasters use the data to predict solar and geomagnetic activity and issue worldwide alerts of extreme events.
NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources.
Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Space Environment Center
NOAA Space Weather Scales
NOAA Solar X-ray Imager
Media Contact:
Carmeyia Gillis, NOAA Space Environment Center, (301) 763-8000 ext. 7163
Here's the source page:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2499.htm
Ok, My mistake. Assuming that Brown is somebody's boss and the fact that he was let go from a position of what was it? Arabian Horse selling or something? Kind of makes one wonder how he was put in charge in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that DHS has no business in overseeing FEMA, given the political "buck passing" that is now going on. I wonder where this will all go in lets say, a years time.
Was The New Orleans
ReplyDeleteFlooding A Planned Event?
Commentary
By Michael Shore
Israel
9-9-5
The following eyewitness accounts produced the following statement by the people who were there and witnessed first hand what was going on in New Orleans and this is what they had to say regarding the U.S. government's actions with the people of New Orleans:
http://www.rense.com/general67/eyewit.htm
"We couldn't starve them out, the hurricane didn't kill them, it seems planned."
The idea that this whole hurricane disaster was a planned event just like 911 is incomprehensible to just about everyone. But it actually may have been. Please read the following two articles that appeared on Rense. Technology now exists that can control and manipulate the weather...to what degree is not known. A disaster like Katrina is not incomprehensible when gangsters take control of such a powerful weapon. The Illuminati and the Bush/Cheney gang and their associates in crime can literally get away with murder on a grand scale in broad daylight - as long as they can keep their secret of the existence of scalar weather weapons from the People, which they are obviously successful in doing.
Can Hurricanes Be Used As Weapons Of Mass Destruction?
http://www.rense.com/general67/wmds.htm
Was Hurricane Katrina A Man Made Storm For Profit?
http://www.rense.com/general67/waskatrinaamanmade.htm
The accounts of the eyewitness storyfurther suggests manipulation. The gangsters seem to be primed to grab many of the assets a large chunks of land in New Orleans without having to use a major war to do so. After everything has quieted down, they will then use taxpayer money to rebuild ...including casinos, hotels, shopping malls, condos etc, etc. They will loot vast sums from the billions in Federal aid it will take to repair the levees and infrastructure of the city. The Illuminati bankers will also make billions in interest from the loans they will make to the government, corporations and some individuals, who will need the necessary financing for rebuilding. Of course, the slow response or "no response" to this disaster is part of the plan. In one small swoop, these gangsters have gotten "the poor niggers" off the land, so when they rebuild, this area will become a major upscale lily white NEW TOWN. How sick can they be?
As one of these articles points out, they've done the same thing by dropping bombs from planes in Afghanistan and Iraq. They've done the same thing in several of the other major hurricanes that hit Florida which may have intentionally been influenced and manipulated. They destroy property and infrastructure and then their corporations get the multi-billion dollar government "no-bid contracts" to rebuild. It's their 'destroy and rebuild' profit generating manipulated scheme.
Cheney's Haliburton has already gotten several billion in cleanup and rebuilding "no-bid" government contracts in New Orleans. There will be many more billions of dollars of "government" contracts to come for these thugs to steal. The US taxpayers are never privy to know how much money is overpaid in the checks to these "gangsters in government" - nobody is watching the store folks, and they're screwing you royally.
The concepts presented in this article sound too far out for most people to believe and that is understandable. That's how the Illuminati have set it up with their control of all the major media: TV, radio, newspapers magazines, etc. Only about a dozen major media conglomerates control essentially all the major media around the planet: Time Warner, Disney being two prime examples. The first casualty of such domination is, of course, the truth. Anything not broadcast on Fox, CNN, etc, etc. is just "conspiracy theory".
It should also be noted that Scalar technology can be used for GOOD. If one can intentionally create and manipulate hurricanes, droughts etc, then one can also dissipate and stop natural hurricanes from hitting land or stop droughts before they even get started by making rain. Further, these exotic energy technologies could possibly be used to cure major diseases and promote the general health and well-being of the public. There are many other benefits of advanced eletromagnetic technology which might be available to us, if such technology was in the hands of GOOD compassionate people who love humanity.
So, even if you can't bring yourself to believe any or all of the foregoing is real, at least be open to the possibility. Do research online. You might be shocked at what you uncover. Invite your friends to read the above articles about weather manipulation. Do a google search for 'scalar weapons' and read more about this amazing technology. Spread the word...while we still can.
Remember: Lying, cheating, stealing and killing is the Illuminati way.
If these sick, insane gangsters are not exposed, be ready for more Illuminati planned mass death and destruction in the immediate future.
PEACE
Michael Shore
This is a CONspiracy of the Bush administration thru Cheney's Halliburton to use coordinated Solar Flares and thru the timing of a Cat. 5 hurricane to be utilized as a WMD against the minority population of southern Louisiana. We must block out the eays of the sun thru a specially funded Space Shuttle mission to stop this conspiracy. They must be stopped. You could be next!
ReplyDelete"Was I supposed to start crying or feeling sorry for someone at this point?" Sure buddy, just lump in honest Black & White poor people, who couldn't get out of the hurricane's path with inmates. Typical assholish NeoCon thinking. Fuck You and your smug rhetoric!
ReplyDeleteYou obviously have no compassion for your fellow man. I wouldn't want you as a neighbor in time of need. so what your saying is that it's O K A Y, for these people to languish and die?
I'm not going to ask you to reconsider your view. You are entitled to it. Just go and spew your Bushitler loving on MY SPACE.
Sunday, September 04, 2005 8:34:28 PM
Hey, where did you go to high school? Becuase obviously they didn't teach you how to fucking read. I addressed only the drop outs & convicts brought into the original post to suck sympathy from you clowns.
You know that con trails caused this hurricane, right!
LOL!
Con-Trails? And what may they be? Oops, I fergot. I'm just a dumb idiot from PA who likes to watch the Bounty Hunter, an sit n watch my heros on FAWX slam them old CONSpiracy Liberal dweebs..
ReplyDeleteLike I said on another thread, I'm done explaining FACTS to you numskulls.
But remember this: When the shit hits the fan and everyone is saying, "Why oh why is this happening to us here in Amerika!!" I'll be laughing my ass off.
Cheers.
On Wednesday, 54 Republican senators in the US Congress voted to block the creation of an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate what went wrong in the Katrina disaster response. By voting against an honest investigation, these 54 people have, in essence, admitted their complicity in the failure and compounded their guilt by trying to cover the tracks of the guilty.
ReplyDeleteSo just what are those responsible for the Katrina debalce guilty of?
I believe that allowing hundreds of people to needlessly die - and to die horrible, agonized deaths, with their last thought being that their nation had abandoned them, is an act of terrorism. Here is a definition of terrorism from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
"The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons."
1.In the case of New Orleans, it was obvious from day one that withholding aid would most surely result in violence, starvation, death, and suffering. Thus withholding aid was as much an act of violence as a parent's willfullly starving a child considered a crime as serious as any other type of violent abuse.
2. The 54 Senators who have banded together to block an investigation, as well as Bush and his group of "handlers" and executive cohorts (Brown, Chertoff, Rummy, et al) are an organized group. These same senators unquestioningly and enthusastically endorsed Michael Brown and Richard Chertoff, and have worked at every turn to hide the truth about these people and the Bush administration from the US public. I would describe Bush and his supporters within the government as a "terrorist cell" - whill call it the Bush Terrorist Network, or BTN
3. The act of terrorism that was the response of the federal government to the plight of the Katrina survivors, specifically those trapped in New Orleans, undermined the nation's security far more seriously than even 9/11. The economic cost is higher, the number of disrupted lives is higher, the damage to US commerce and relations with the rest of the world is greater. And, unlike 9/11, the Katrina failure undermined the faith of Americans in their government and system. This demoralization is always the primary objective of terrorist acts.
4. The rightwing neocon political ideology of the BTN is what has driven all of the BTN's acts of terrorism, from the illegal Iraq war to the appointing of incompetent, inadequate people to the nation's most critical positions.
If your senator is one of these terrorists, call them, write them - CONFRONT THEM. This must not be allowed to pass. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED. These people deserve to be removed from office in handcuffs and shipped off to Guantanamo, where they can be "interrogated" by the family members of people who died slow, miserable deaths in the sweltering days after Katrina.
TOO AFRAID TO READ A LIB'S SOLUTION???
ReplyDelete1) Stop paying the former presidents and their wives salaries after they come out
of office...I dont' know anyone else whocan leave a job and still get paid for it.
2) Start laying some HIGH tariffs on imported goods, penalize businesses based in the US
that take their businesses over seas.
3) Stop handing out charity to every nationon the globe and start taking care of thepoverty issues here at home. It is a disgrace to hand out money and feed people
worldwide when you won't even feed your
own.
4) Stop the business of immigrants living inthe US tax free for 7 years...also stopgiving illegal aliens DSS assistance until
they become legal citizens and can show that they will maintain their own families
or at least attempt to.
5) Stop handing out money to every ho on the street that wants to pop out a new babyby a different daddy every 9 months.
6) Stop paying 35.00 a piece for a lightbulb
already!!!
7) Start demanding greater accountibility concerning expenditures made by government
officials..no 100.00 dinner meetings just for the fun of it, no jetting to other countries for the fun of it...stop government wasting!!!
8) stop making excuses for our government andletting everyone slide by because "he professes to be a Christian"...I can say Iam a millionaire but it doesn't make it
so.
Quick, there's another hurricane in the Gulf area, blame the President, it's his fault afterall, him and those friggin solar flares & Cheney w/Halliburton.....my heads gonna explode from all of this.....help me!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHaha. Ok, Hurricane Rita is George Bush's fault. And Halliburton is going to make zillions as Cheney cashes in his deferred stock. HAARP is all fired up, heating the air just a few degrees to steer her.
ReplyDeleteHappy?
Pay attention folks............
ReplyDeleteby: antinwo184 (48/M/NW Mtns of N.C.) 11/15/05 08:02 am
Msg: 24923 of 24951
4 recommendations
Where is Herr Cheney?
Are there any "wargames" or "terror drills" happening in any major cities this week?
Remember the GOP memo from a few days ago about how a devastating "terror" attack now would boost Bush's sinking ratings and allow him to comfort a greiving nation and unite us - just like what happened when Al CIAida pulled 9/11!
Just be watchful and if 9/11 Part 2 happens in the next 7 days...........