General Discussion

Iraq 100, Louisiana 8: "The Garden of Eden" vs. "Hell on Earth"

Is it possible to actually quantify how screwed up the priorities of the Bush cabal in Washington have been? Usually not. But when it comes to the issue of wetlands -- the natural buffer that could have protected New Orleans against a deadly storm surge liked the one that essentially wiped out the city last week -- the answer is "yes."

In 2004 -- at a time when George W. Bush was running for re-election and presumably courting votes in Louisiana, a potential swing state -- the White House proposed spending a whopping 12 1/3 times as much taxpayer money restoring wetlands in southern Iraq as he planned to spend on the same task in the Mississippi Delta.

Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences

Larry Bradshaw
Lorrie Beth Slonsky

Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's store at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The dairy display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48 hours without electricity, running water, plumbing. The milk, yogurt, and cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners and managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions and fled the City. Outside Walgreen's
windows, residents and tourists grew increasingly thirsty and hungry.

If I Screamed It, Would You Hear Me?
From our own Christy Cole:

Not too long ago I wrote an article entitled 'Preaching to the Choir.' in which I discussed the political abandonment of the deep south. When I wrote it, I was blissfully unaware of exactly how right I was. Or how it would bring death so close in plentiful amounts.

As a resident of Louisiana I would like to tell you about what you have lost. I would like you to see it, as I saw it.

New Orleans. Or, as they say if you’re from here, "Nuuuw 'Awwwlins'. So famous, most think her our capital city. Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana, but New Orleans was our crown jewel. World wide she was known for her parties, her history, her engineering feats, her defiance of nature itself. And on top of it all was a culture unlike any place on earth. A place where history is beloved and alive.

Milvertha Hendricks, 84, waits in the rain with other flood victims outside the convention center in New Orleans Thursday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

It's appears only poor black folks and not rich campaign contributors get to wait in the rain while a third of the Louisiana National Guard that might have helped with recovery is stationed in Iraq.

Monument to a Rotten System
By Dave Zirin, AlterNet. Posted September 3, 2005.

Governmental hypocrisy is personified painfully in the monument to corporate greed that has rapidly become the earth's most damnable homeless shelter: the Louisiana Superdome.

There is nothing "unnatural" about the disaster of New Orleans. When politicians smirk at global warming, when developers look at our wetlands and dream of mini-malls, when billions are flushed in the name of war and tax cuts, when issues of poverty and racism don't even register in presidential debates, all it takes is wind, albeit 145 mph wind, to expose a sturdy superpower as a house of cards.

THE TROOPS: James Taranto is doing his usual best to defend anything the Bush administration does and points out that the deployment in Iraq is not a reason for the lack of troops to restore order in new Orleans. He cites a NRO article that makes this point:
Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.

That’s all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.

So where are the rest?

(Editor's note: This article was original submitted as a post to afterdowningstreet.org.)

George Fails again or still
Submitted by Susan Carr (not verified) on Sat, 2005-09-03 15:33.
PROPER PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE!

When I was growing up this was a term my dad used all the time when I could have prevented problems. Mr. Bush has never learned that lesson not only about Katrina and its aftermath, but about all the budget cuts of services for Americans that can come back and haunt us later. That money is being used to fight a losing war and or is put into a Homeland Security Department that still doesn’t offer the protections it should for our citizens. Whether in the Iraq War or in a home crisis Bush is graded

Air Force to Send 300 Airmen to Gulf Coast
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer
51 minutes ago

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. Air Force will send 300 airmen home from Iraq and Afghanistan to help their families cope with emergencies on an air base devastated by Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, Miss., a spokesman said Saturday.

The airmen, all based at Keesler Air Force Base, will begin flying home over the next two weeks, said Air Force Capt. David Small, spokesman for U.S. Central Command Air Forces in Qatar.

The group includes airmen who were scheduled to rotate home in September and others whose deployments will be cut short.

Sept. 1, 2005, 8:30PM

CONSTRUCTION
Halliburton hired for storm cleanup
The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

KBR was assigned the work under a "construction capabilities" contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers' effort to repair New Orleans' levees.
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World stunned as US struggles with Katrina
By Andrew Gray
2 hours, 1 minute ago

LONDON (Reuters) - The world has watched amazed as the planet's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with some saying the chaos has exposed flaws and deep divisions in American society.

World leaders and ordinary citizens have expressed sympathy with the people of the southern United States whose lives were devastated by the hurricane and the flooding that followed.

But many have also been shocked by the images of disorder beamed around the world -- looters roaming the debris-strewn streets and thousands of people gathered in New Orleans waiting for the authorities to provide food, water and other aid.

A Can't-Do Government
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 2, 2005

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.

I was horrified to come across two photos on yahoo's site--one of a black man described as a "looter" and another of two white people described as having "found" bread and soda.

Go here to see the photos:

LINK

It is such language that reveals why we are still, 140 years after the Civil War, such a racist and divided country.

How can we possibly heal the rifts after such unconscious and appalling attitudes are revealed?

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Planning, Response Are Faulted

By Josh White and Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 2, 2005; Page A01

Tens of thousands of people remain stranded on the streets of New Orleans in desperate conditions because officials failed to plan for a serious levee breach and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was slow, according to disaster experts and Louisiana government officials.

Though experts had long predicted that the city -- which sits below sea level and is surrounded by water -- would face unprecedented devastation after an immense hurricane, they said problems were worsened by a late evacuation order and insufficient emergency shelter for as many as 100,000 people.

2 September 2005
DEAD BODIES, RAPE,CRACK, GUNSHOTS, FILTH AND A SICKENING STENCH FILLING THE THICK AIR
BRITS' HELL INSIDE THE TERROR DOME
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From Ryan Parry, Us Correspondent, Inside The New Orleans Superdome
BRITISH students told yesterday how they stepped out of the horror of Hurricane Katrina into the hell of their Superdome "shelter".

A place of refuge became a terrifying trap, where knives and guns, crack cocaine use, threats of violence and racial abuse were rife.

Jamie Trout, 22, who kept a record of his four days there, said: "It was like something out of Lord of the Flies - one minute everything is calm and civil, the next it descends into chaos."

By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 02 September 2005

President Bush faced not only the fallout of Hurricane Katrina but also an intense political storm yesterday as relief experts, government officials and newspaper editorials criticised everything from his administration's disaster preparedness policies to the manner in which he made his public entry into the growing crisis on the Gulf coast.

The New York Times said of a speech he made on Tuesday: "Nothing about the President's demeanour yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

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FEMA Directing Donations To Rev.
Pat Robertson
09/01/05 02:45 PM Eastern

UPDATED TO REFLECT NEW INFORMATION:
FEMA was called today and the Robertson listing is old. According to the person, it will be gone by tomorrow. FEMA is, no doubt, underfunded, like every other service agency in this government.

Incredibly enough, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is listing Pat Robertson's organization Operation Blessing as one of its top three groups to which Americans should send cash to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Robertson has previously used Operation Blessings plane's and resources to ferry equipment to his diamond mining corporation in Africa.

FEMA's actions were first pointed out by the website Sploid.

Police: Miss. Man Kills Sister Over Bag Of Ice

POSTED: 12:14 am EDT September 1, 2005
UPDATED: 5:53 am EDT September 1, 2005

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Police in Hattiesburg, Miss., said a man fatally shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice.

Authorities say 35-year-old Antonio Page shot his sister with a handgun on a street corner Tuesday night.

Police Chief David Wynn said the woman's name was not available.

Wynn said tempers are short, but he can't understand why a member of someone's family could take that step.

The shooting is being treated like a homicide, Wynn said.
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New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes

By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken.

"I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive," said Canadian tourist Larry Mitzel, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes missing. "I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire."

Congress Sending $10.5B in Relief Aid

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By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Congress rushed to provide a $10.5 billion down payment in relief aid for Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina on Thursday as President Bush ordered new action to minimize disruptions in the nation's energy supplies.

"Don't buy gas if you don't need it," he urged consumers already hit by sharply rising prices.

Amid lawlessness in flooded, chaotic New Orleans, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced plans to deploy 1,400 additional National Guard personnel each day for the next several days.

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New Orleans mayor issues 'desperate SOS'
Violence disrupts evacuation, rescue efforts

Thursday, September 1, 2005 Posted: 2223 GMT (0623 HKT)

Crowds of New Orleans residents try to get on buses at an evacuation staging area on Interstate 10.
Image:

The mayor of New Orleans issued a "desperate SOS" Thursday as violence disrupted efforts to rescue people still trapped in the flooded city and evacuate thousands of displaced residents living amid corpses and human waste.

Residents expressed growing frustration with the disorder evident on the streets, raising questions about the coordination and timeliness of relief efforts.

White House Briefing: McClellan Responds to Criticism Related to Hurricane

By E&P Staff

Published: September 01, 2005 4:10 PM ET

NEW YORK White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan met with reporters today, explained what the president plans to do about hurricane relief, and faced questions about whether that relief could have come stronger and sooner--and if, perhaps, Washington could have done more to prevent this tragedy.

Relevant excerpts follow:

*
Q People on the ground, though are questioning why it's taken three days or more for federal help to arrive, notwithstanding all of the preparations. There's considerable bitterness in some places. We had one woman ask on camera last night, where's the cavalry? And then there's been editorial criticism across the country of the President for not acting sooner, or not coming back sooner. What do you say to all that?

Editorials Raise Questions About President's Response to Katrina--and Lack of Preparations

By E&P Staff

Published: August 31, 2005 10:30 PM ET

NEW YORK As the truth sinks in--this is the worst natural disaster in the nation's history--editorials in a wide range of newspapers have now raised critical issues about the lack of preparation, the effects of so many National Guard sent to Iraq, and the response of President Bush to the tragedy this week.

One of the most stalwart conservative newspapers in the nation, the Union Leader of New Hampshire, today blasted Bush's response to the great Gulf Coast hurricane.

From an article in the Chicago Sun-Times (9/1/05):

Four out of 10 Americans, given a few minutes to bend President Bush's ear on Iraq, would tell him to bring the soldiers home now.

Or, as more than one respondent told Gallup pollsters, "get the [swear word] out."

Paper: Tenet won't become fall guy for 9/11 intelligence
RAW STORY

George Tenet will not let himself become the "fall guy" for 9/11 intelligence failures, according to a former intelligence officer and a source friendly to Mr. Tenet, the conservative Washington Times asserted Thursday.

The piece was written by John B. Roberts, who worked in the Reagan White House and often writes on terrorism and intelligence affairs. Tenet, the former CIA direction, was blamed for the sixteen words in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address in which he boldly asserted that Iraq was seeking uranium for a weapons of mass destruction program. He resigned shortly thereafter.

EXCLUSIVE: Karl Rove Makes Surprise Visit to Camp Casey!
Greets, Thanks Bush Supporters Opposing Cindy Sheehan
Snubs, Ignores Combat Vets, Gold Star Families Who Made Ultimate Sacrifice for Bush's War

CRAWFORD, TX - Driving his own pickup, with two trucks blockading both sides of the street, Bush Administration Senior Political Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove made a surprise sunset visit/photo-op Tuesday night to the half dozen or so Bush supporters camped across the street from "Camp Casey" in Crawford, Texas where Cindy Sheehan -- whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq -- originally made her stand requesting a meeting and an explanation from George W. Bush, The BRAD BLOG has learned from eye-witnesses.

Bush compares, contrasts Katrina and Nine-Eleven

WHITE HOUSE President Bush says while Nine-Eleven was a man-made attack and Hurricane Katrina natural, their aftermath is "just as serious."

Bush tells A-B-C "New Orleans is more devastated than New York was." But, he promises the city will rise again.

He says seeing the destruction from Air Force One was emotional. Bush plans to tour devastated areas tomorrow.

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Bush gives new reason for Iraq war
Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists
By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press | August 31, 2005

CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

''We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. ''We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary."

Appearing at Naval Air Station North Island to commemorate the anniversary of the Allies' World War II victory over Japan, Bush compared his resolve to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's in the 1940s and said America's mission in Iraq is to turn it into a democratic ally just as the United States did with Japan after its 1945 surrender. Bush's V-J Day ceremony did not fall on the actual anniversary. Japan announced its surrender on Aug. 15, 1945 -- Aug. 14 in the United States because of the time difference.

By Alastair Macdonald
1 hour, 49 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A cameraman for Reuters in Iraq has been ordered by a secret tribunal to be held without charge in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison until his case is reviewed within six months, a U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday.

But another Reuters cameraman was released after being held for three days by U.S. troops following an incident in which his soundman was shot dead, apparently by American soldiers.

Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani was arrested by U.S. forces on August 8 after a search of his home in the city of Ramadi. The U.S. military has refused Reuters' requests to disclose why he is being held. He has not been charged.

Daily Mail Thursday: Brits blame terrorists for stampede
RAW STORY

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned the "depravity" of terrorists who launched a mortar attack on pilgrims in Iraq, triggering a stampede near a holy shrine, Britain's Daily Mail will report Thursday. The Mail also asserts that more than a thousand are now dead after a stampeded on a bridge, which caused it to collapse...Excerpts follow...

CNN counters, saying it's not known that 'terrorists' were actually responsible. The cable news network's latest death toll is 843.

"Government officials are investigating that attack and the stampede itself -- which also led to the injuries of 323 people. The death count could rise as crews search for more victims," CNN reports Wednesday. "They also want to explore the extent of any 'technical defects" on the bridge.'"