Katrina: Shameful Acts Thread

[slum_goddess]

power crews diverted--restoring pipeline came first: 'Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.

That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.

At the time, gasoline was in short supply across the country because of Katrina. Prices increased dramatically and lines formed at pumps across the South.'

amazing... (i've used the 'mad' smiley hundreds of times in the last few weeks and i'm sick of it)

[DudeAsInCool]

That order

What Dick Cheney did on his summer vacation

According to a report in the Hattiesburg American, Cheney's office placed calls to the Southern Pines Electric Power Association on Aug. 30 and Aug. 31, insisting that the agency immediately repair two electrical substations that supply power to Atlanta-based Colonial Pipeline Co., a company that pumps gasoline and diesel from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast.

Southern Pines complied with the order from Cheney's office, the paper says -- taking a risk that the repair work would knock out power throughout its system and delaying by at least a day efforts to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in Mississippi.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

[slum_goddess]

priorities and values: who gives a fuck about a bunch of sick people (or the dying)? the country needs FUEL.

[DudeAsInCool]

Woman fired after rescuing siblings from Mississippi

Family Dollar gave permission, then quibbled with time

COLUMBIA —An employee was fired from her $7-an-hour job at the Family Dollar store in Spring Hill after taking time off to rescue two younger siblings from hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, she says.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...EWS01/509140424

[DudeAsInCool]

Sick and Abandoned

It was the stuff of nightmares. Poisonous water moccasins were swimming in the filthy water of the flooded first floor, and snipers, rats and even a 12-foot alligator were roaming the treacherous area just outside the hospital's doors.

"To me, it was like being in hell," said Carl Warner, the chief engineer for Methodist Hospital in the hard-hit eastern part of New Orleans. "There were bodies floating in the water outside the building, and our staffers had to swim through that water to get fuel for the generator."

The patients and staff at Methodist could have been evacuated before Hurricane Katrina hit. But instead they were condemned to several days of fear and agony by bad decision-making in Louisiana and the chaotic ineptitude of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some of the patients died.

Incredibly, when the out-of-state corporate owners of the hospital responded to the flooding by sending emergency relief supplies, they were confiscated at the airport by FEMA and sent elsewhere.

The time to evacuate the hospital was when it became clear that New Orleans was in the path of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. "We had about 137 patients," said Dr. Jeffrey Coco, the hospital's chief of staff, "and we had a company called Lifeguard that was going to take them out."

But apparently there was a reluctance to evacuate without some sort of governmental guidance. When the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, issued a mandatory evacuation order, hospitals were exempted. Dr. Fred Cerise, secretary of Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals, said Methodist officials could have decided on their own to evacuate, but that never happened.

...Welcome to the United States, 2005.

http://nytimes.com/2005/09/15/opinion/15herbert.html?hp

[DudeAsInCool]

It may not be related to Katrina (thought it might in the future), but its shameful nonetheless:

Texas County Bans Parking Near Bush Ranch

September 15,2005 | WACO, Texas -- Two weeks after Cindy Sheehan left her anti-war campsite by the road leading to President Bush's ranch, county commissioners have banned parking along 23 miles of roads in the area.

http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?...=D8CKL7B80.html

[Kooperman]

However, pissing on the road leading to the Bush ranch remains OK...... thumbsdown

[DudeAsInCool]

The Crony Who Prospered Off of Fema

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/...augh/index.html

(view the ad, read the article - very enlightening)

[slum_goddess]

However, pissing on the road leading to the Bush ranch remains OK...... thumbsdown

great idea! those who want to and can't park should just pee there or better yet, take a huge dump nearby. :) (and stick one o' those flags in)

[DudeAsInCool]

And speaking of playing politics, I love how the news that Karl Rove has been placed in charge of the reconstruction effort was buried in the ninth paragraph of a twelve paragraph New York Times story on Bush’s big speech.

This assignment proves that despite the president’s lofty rhetoric about “building a better New Orleans”, his main concern is stanching his political bleeding. Let’s be honest, when it comes to large-scale efforts like this, Ol’ Turd Blossom isn’t exactly Gen. George Marshall, who, before devising the Marshall Plan, had, among other things, been responsible for deploying over eight million soldiers in WW II.

Rove’s genius (aside from a Mensa-level mastery of dirty trickery) is for using imagery, spin, and atmospherics to turn political liabilities into political opportunities.

So here is the White House’s Katrina Plan in a nutshell: block any independent examination of its failings, put the Einstein of damage control in charge of reconstructing New Orleans, keep the dead bodies out of sight, try to get away with general platitudes and palliatives, offer watered-down acceptances of “responsibility” while trying to pin everything you can on local yokels and fall guys like Brownie, and let Bush’s corporate cronies get fat on hefty no-bid reconstruction contracts.

So get ready for the New New Orleans -- Karl Rove’s Big Easy -- featuring the Halliburton French Quarter, the ExxonMobil River (formerly the Mississippi), Lake MBNA (formerly Pontchartrain), and Eli Lilly music (formerly jazz).

With deals like that shimmering on the horizon, it’s no wonder the president’s pals in Congress are doing everything they can to throw a monkey wrench into House Democrats’ efforts to investigate the Plamegate scandal, and the Boy Genius’ involvement in it -- shooting down a pair of bills that would have required Antonio Gonzalez and the Justice Department, and Condi Rice and the State Department to turn over all documents and information pertaining to the outing of Valerie Plame.

God forbid! Mustn’t allow anything to get in the way of Reconstruction Karl’s efforts to rebuild the president’s poll numbers, eh?

Arianna Huffington, 9/15/05

:reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad:

[DudeAsInCool]

in a piece last week in the National Review, John Berlau tried to pin some of the blame for Katrina on an environmental lawsuit that sought to stop the Army Corps of Engineers from raising levees along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Now, it seems, the Justice Department is trying to buy a ticket for the blame game, too. According to a report in Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger, the Justice Department has sent an email message to the offices of U.S. Attorneys around the country in what appears to be an effort to find ammunition for a blame-the-environmentalists argument. In the email, the Justice Department asks its local surrogates: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

The Justice Department won't comment on the email, but the Sierra Club isn't amused. "Why are they trying to smear us like this?" David Bookbinder, a Sierra Club attorney, asked.

We don't know if any of the local U.S. Attorneys have provided the Justice Department with what it's hoping to find, but the lawsuit the National Review described isn't going to do the trick. As the Clarion-Ledger explains, that lawsuit concerned levees along the Mississippi River. "The levees that broke causing New Orleans to flood weren't Mississippi River levees," the paper says. "They were levees that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain levees on the other side of the city."

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html

:reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad:

[Kooperman]

Evacuees grow frustrated with pursuit of relief

By Yancey Roy

Moses Holden was leaving nothing to chance.

After striking out in three previous attempts to get Red Cross relief, he made sure he was first in line for Friday. He arrived at 6:15 p.m. Thursday - and settled in for a 12-hour camp out in his Chrysler Sebring. He led a three-mile caravan of cars when officials opened the Lake Terrace Convention Center, site of Friday's Red Cross relief services, at 6 a.m.

Holden and his wife stocked the car with a cooler, drinks and chips, slept only 90 minutes and warded off people trying to cut ahead during the night.

"I been turned around too many times,'' said Holden. A tree fell on his house during Hurricane Katrina and he's been living in a friend's apartment.

In an effort to avoid the pushing and shoving and angry, turned away clients that marked previous Red Cross attempts to hand out hurricane checks at walk-in centers, officials changed how they did business: Clients drove through.

It seemed to work. Clients rolled through quickly, although traffic was snarled along U.S. 49 and Mississippi 42.

- Staff writer Yancey Roy

*******************************************************************

PURVIS - They arrived in the middle of the night. Some camped in cars, some slept on the ground along the dusty road leading to the livestock arena.

The Red Cross was supposed to hand out Hurricane Katrina checks Thursday. By 8 a.m., more than 1,000 people were lined up.

So when police cruised down the line with a bullhorn to say that anyone not registered the day before would have to leave and find another center, it was just too much.

"This ain't right!'' Latina Reid of Poplarville shouted through a river of tears. "They tell you to go one place, then they tell you to go another. I'm running out of gas. I've got no place to go.''

Up and down the caravan, evacuees said they were tired of the conflicting information and long delays that marked their pursuit of a little relief. It's a scene that's been played out around southern Mississippi in week three of recovery from the most damaging hurricane ever to hit the country.

"I'm tired of running around,'' said Linda McGill of Picayune. "I'm 54 years old. I want to get in touch with Bush.''

She was part of a nine-person group that was on its third stop in search of aid over the last week. They arrived in Purvis the night before and slept on the ground or in chairs.

Kentucky state troopers, who were providing security, estimated 600-800 people without registration tickets were on hand.

That was on top of the 600 with tickets. Almost a third of those were folks who were in line to get checks Wednesday. But a power outage cut short Red Cross operations that night, forcing them to come back and the Red Cross to move from the First Baptist Church to the livestock arena.

Those with tickets were willing to roll with the punches.

"It's going as well as it can,'' said Deon Tucker of Hattiesburg. He was about 10 people away from getting processed Wednesday when the power went out.

The on-site Red Cross coordinator, Chris DeRienzo, acknowledged that people were frustrated. But the organization had little choice but to limit clients because of limited manpower and the power outage. Getting through the 600 registered evacuees by today - before the Red Cross closes its mobile center in Purvis - is all it could hope to do, DeRienzo said.

It was not unlike scenes played out in Hattiesburg and Petal earlier in the week. In Hattiesburg, evacuees pushed and shoved to get an appointment ticket to receive checks of $360 or more. Red Cross officials requested extra police.

It didn't quite get to that point in Purvis.

"These folks have been through an incredible ordeal - the fact that there's been no violence,'' DeRienzo said before pausing. "Folks have been patient and understanding.''

Not exactly.

It didn't go over well when Kentucky state trooper Darren Allen began telling people to leave - and that their best bet was to shoot for the next Red Cross mobile center in Columbia - on Saturday.

"They're hollering and screaming at people - it ain't right,'' said James Reid, Latina's husband, as their five kids sat in the car. "We've been waiting in lines and waiting in lines and every time we get up there, they tell us they ain't giving out any more (tickets).''

"I don't think it's right, just sending 800 of us away,'' said Kathy DuBose of Poplarville. She and her husband, Rodney, were among a group of people commiserating around the Reids' car.

Lovell Sandifer of Lumberton said he was tired of buying gas to drive from relief center to relief center. But he said he'd probably head to Columbia.

"I ain't got no choice,'' he said.

Allen said he understood the group's frustration.

"It kind of makes it chaotic when someone tells them one thing and someone tells them something else,'' Allen said. "It's a mess. It really is.''

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pb...EWS05/509160301

Sharonda McGill wipes away tears after waiting in line at the Lamar Multipurpose Center in Purvis on Thursday to get help from the Red Cross.

[DudeAsInCool]

House, Senate Pass Hurricane Tax Relief

NEW YORK (Sept. 16) - The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives approved tax relief legislation for Hurricane Katrina victims on Thursday and quickly neared agreement on a final version that could be sent to President George W. Bush.

The House also passed a measure to establish a special committee to jointly investigate with the Senate the sluggish government response to Katrina. Democrats objected to the Republican-led panel, saying a fully independent outside commission was needed to get to the truth.

"The Bush administration and the Republican Congress should not investigate themselves," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said. "And partisanship has no place in this inquiry."

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/business/articl...915133409990004

:reallymad: :reallymad: :reallymad:

***********

Frist And Santorum Call For Investigation Of Katrina Then Vote No...

The Huffington Post   |  Posted September 16, 2005 10:16 AM

On Thursday, September 8, The Hill quoted Senator Bill Frist saying “Americans deserve answers. We must do all we can to learn from this tragedy, improve the system and protect all of our citizens.”

On Friday, September 9, Senator Rick Santorum issued a press release saying “It will be important to study the response to this disaster and to better understand what went right and what went wrong.”

On Tuesday, September 13, The Washington Post reported that “ 76 percent of the public favors an investigation of federal storm response efforts by an independent commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” and that the proposed commission “drew strong bipartisan support: 64 percent of all Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats favored creating the independent panel."

On Wednesday, both Senators Frist and Santorum voted to block the creation of and independent, bipartisan panel modeled on the 9/11 Commission to investigate the federal, state and local government’s response to Katrina.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/16/f...l-f_n_7447.html

[Kooperman]

From Brian Williams' blog ...

I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/...9_11.php#006552

[slum_goddess]

the entire 'response' has been disgusting (but they're just poor blacks so WHO THE FUCK CARES?) and the asshole's day of prayer yesterday, just as bad...since when is he allowed to proclaim holidays? did people get paid days off to pray? gah...i hate him and his see-through hypocrisy and hope he gets painful kidney stones like his brain, shitflower (or worse).

yeah, my karma's gonna suck (worse)

[DudeAsInCool]

Money Earmarked for Evacuation Redirected

As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane, but the money instead went to studying the causeway bridge that spans the city's Lake Pontchartrain, officials say.

The outcome provides one more example of the government's failure to prepare for a massive but foreseeable catastrophe, said the lawmaker who helped secure the money for FEMA to develop the evacuation plan.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/17/D8CM64J80.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Blair ‘shocked’ over BBC Katrina coverage

Tony Blair was shocked by the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, describing it as “full of hatred of America”, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, revealed on Friday night.

Mr Murdoch, a long-time critic of the BBC who controls rival Sky News, said the prime minister had recounted his feelings in a private conversation earlier this week in New York.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/933f0642-270a-11d...000e2511c8.html

He'd be in even more shock if he actually had to live in the states under this administration...

[DudeAsInCool]

Message: I Care About the Black Folks

ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/opinion/18rich.html?hp

[DudeAsInCool]

Some of the following is off topic, buts its all shameful:

Karl Rove, President Bush's top political advisor and deputy White House chief of staff, spoke at businessman Teddy Forstmann's annual off the record gathering in Aspen, Colorado this weekend. Here is what Rove had to say that the press wasn't allowed to report on.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/09/17/r...-ir_n_7513.html

   On Katrina: The only mistake we made with Katrina was not overriding the local government...  

Interesting - the rest of the country has a different perspective

 On The Anti-War Movement: Cindy Sheehan is a clown. There is no real anti-war movement. No serious politician, with anything to do with anything, would show his face at an anti-war rally...

55% of the American public want out now...and the numbers are growing...

On Bush's Low Poll Numbers: We have not been good at explaining the success in Iraq. Polls go up and down and don't mean anything...

They are sure to go down further...

  On Iraq: There has been a big difference in the region. Iraq will transform the Middle East...

Into what? More terror?

*****

On Judy Miller And Plamegate: Judy Miller is in jail for reasons I don't really understand...

On Joe Wilson: Joe Wilson and I attend the same church but Joe goes to the wacky mass...

When the prosecutor is done with him, he wont understand that either...

[DudeAsInCool]

Paying all these people is shameful:

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/...j_wh_dollar.htm

[slum_goddess]

why the world hates US (or why they will hate us more if this shit happens):

tons of british aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned. US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption. And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration. One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed. Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant...'

warning: turn down your speakers--there might be an annoying advert up top

[DudeAsInCool]

Tax Breaks for Katrina May Aid Rich More

WASHINGTON - House and Senate tax writers agreed Tuesday on a package of tax breaks designed to help Hurricane Katrina victims recoup their losses and access needed cash.

The Congressional Research Service, an office that provides lawmakers with nonpartisan legislative analysis, said some of those tax breaks could do more for higher income survivors than for the neediest.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050921/ap_on_...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[DudeAsInCool]

Auditors eye open-ended Katrina contracts

WASHINGTON -Government auditors are questioning whether several multimillion-dollar Katrina contracts - including one involving a Halliburton Co. subsidiary - invite abuse because they are open-ended and not clearly defined.

The contracts, for services such as levee repair and emergency housing, were granted to companies based on their pre-existing business relationships with the government. Critics say the arrangements foster cronyism because a few repeat players typically get the best deals.

http://www.rightonnews.com/news/?id=12812

[DudeAsInCool]

Storm Victims May Face Curbs On Bankruptcy

When Congress agreed this spring to tighten the bankruptcy laws and crack down on consumers who took on debt irresponsibly, no one had the victims of Hurricane Katrina in mind.

...Right after Hurricane Katrina struck, several lawmakers - mostly Democrats but including some Senate Republicans - suggested that storm victims along the Gulf Coast should get relief from the new law's stricter provisions, which are intended to screen filers by income and make those with higher incomes repay their debts over several years. Under the old law, which remains in effect until mid-October, many more filers can have their debts canceled quickly in federal bankruptcy courts.

But House Republicans, who fought off a proposed amendment that would have made bankruptcy filings easier for victims of natural disasters, said there was no reason to carve out a broad exemption just because of the storm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/business...artner=homepage

[DudeAsInCool]

Brown: It's Louisiana's fault

Former FEMA director Michael Brown is testifying today before the Republican-controlled House committee investigating the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, and he has an explanation for just about everything that went wrong: He should have worked harder on media relations, and he couldn't get state and local leaders to do their jobs in the "dysfunctional" state of Louisiana.

...Arguing that FEMA's response worked well in Alabama and Mississippi but not in Louisiana, Brown said that the "only variable was the state government officials involved." The governors of Alabama and Mississippi are Republicans; the governor of Louisiana is a Democrat.

...While Brown puts some of the blame today on the Department of Homeland Security, which he says deleted some of his budget requests, it's clear where his allegiances still lie: During the course of questioning a few minutes ago, Brown acknowledged that he's still being paid as a consultant to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff.

-- Tim Griev

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html