looting: a primer
This picture from Monday:
This picture from Monday Tuesday:
Washington Post and Newsweek print correction over Bush Lies
The Washington Post printed their correction first, then Newsweek printed theirs. Both had incorrectly stated that as of Saturday, Louisiana Gov. Blanco still hadn’t gotten around to declaring a state of emergency, and this was the reason why federal response was so slow.
In fact, Blanco issued a state of emergency on Friday, August 26th, (BEFORE THE STORM HIT) which was reported on major news sources, and even was posted on the Governor’s website [link is a PDF file].
The Post and Newsweek both cited as their source for the incorrect information as an unidentified “senior Bush official” but neither in their corrections identified the source who misled them.
Which makes me wonder about linking to or quoting any of their coverage, if they’re going to let people lie to them and not burn bad sources, or even double check source information to determine it’s bad before printing it, then the rest of their coverage is suspect, too.
That’s one key fact of the Plame scandal that no one has hammered home yet; none of the reporters taking information from anonymous sources are bothering to check on or back up that information at all — which is shameful, and terrible, terrible journalism. That’s what the entire movie of “All the President’s Men” was about — two reporters trying to corroborate information given to them by an anonymous source, schlepping from door to door trying to find anyone who could back-up what they were given by Deep Throat before they printed it.
Now The Washington Post and Newsweek print any old crap the White House tells them, without even doing a simple two-minute google search to find out if it’s true or not. That’s not journalism. That’s STENOGRAPHY.
FEMA and Homeland Security were briefed BEFORE the storm
Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told the Times-Picayune Sunday afternoon that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff in advance of Hurricane Katrina slamming Louisiana and Mississippi–and were advised of the storm’s potential deadly effects.
People not even safe yet, but Bush team has plan to Cover Their Asses
New York Times Article: “White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage”
Under the command of President Bush’s two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.
The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides.
I’m thinking Senator Landrieu must be very tired right now, because she’s been awake for 7 days. So I’d like to personally volunteer to punch ANYONE she would like me to. I’m not kidding, Mary, I’ll do it for you. I’ll haul off and hit anyone you want me to hit. Name the guy!!
Sen. Landrieu Threatens to ‘Punch’ President
Sen. Landrieu Threatens to ‘Punch’ President if He Keeps Hitting Local Response to Katrina
Senator Mary Landrieu, the Democrat of Louisiana (whose father was a mayor of New Orleans), appears to have finally found her voice after offering only cautious criticism of the federal relief effort in the hurricane catastrophe earlier in the week. Today she promised to literally “punch” anyone, “including the president,” who continued to question the local response to the tragedy, considering the gross federal misconduct.
Appearing on ABC’s “The Week” TV program this morning, Senator Landrieu still appeared to be smarting from President Bush’s comments, during his national radio address, that state and local bore a fair share of blame for the slow response. On a copter tour of the area, Landrieu said that if she heard any more criticism from federal officials, particularly about the evacuation of New Orleans, she might lose control.
“If one person criticizes them or says one more thing – including the president of the United States – he will hear from me,” she said on the ABC program. “One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally.”
She burst into tears as she looked at a broken levee. “The President could have funded it,” she said. “He cut it out of the budget. Is that the most pitiful sight you have ever seen in your life? One little crane.”
She also referred angrily to comments Bush had made Friday at the New Orleans airport about the fun he had in her city in his younger days.
“Our infrastructure is devastated, lives have been shattered,” Landrieu said. “Would the president please stop taking photo-ops?”
How to help, and current reading
I might have a lead on where to take clothes: I’m emailing with a guy from one of the local churches who is providing aid. If I get more information, I’ll post it here ASAP. Of course, donate money to the Red Cross if you haven’t already.
Helpful info from people’s comments to this site:
“Move on” has set up a website to couple up people who have some extra room with those in need it’s Hurricane Housing.
“Best Friends” is down there saving pets that were left behind or otherwise spotted. Donations needed for the animals. bestfriends.org
Also, you can donate your pocket change to the Red Cross through Coinstar, the change machines located all over Indy. I wasn’t able to determine if they donate 100% of your change, or if they take a percentage, but either way, it’s an option. You basically dump your change in, specify the charity, and they give you a tax-deductible receipt.
Knight Ridder Newspapers:
Away from the coast and cameras, victims cope without much help
Like thousands of her rural neighbors, 72-year-old Gloria Jean Watts said she sympathizes with those suffering in the coastal cities. But she’s hot, hungry and almost out of blood pressure medicine after a week of camping in a neighbor’s sweltering living room and subsisting on a diet of little more than canned sausages.
Indy Star
Many didn’t have the means to flee Katrina’s path
Data show that those in hard-hit areas are mostly poor and lack transportation
Washington Post:
Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting
White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials
Washington Post:
Storm Exposed Disarray at the Top
Rebuffed Offers of Aid
Times-Picayune, via Editor & Publisher:
An Angry ‘Times-Picayune’ Calls for Firing of FEMA Chief and Others in Open Letter to President On Sunday
“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.””
AFP:
Guardsmen ‘played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official
Chicago Sun-Times:Daley ‘shocked’ as feds reject aid
“A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.”
L.A. Times:
Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects
For example, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps commander, conceded Friday that the government had known the New Orleans levees could never withstand a hurricane higher than a Category 3. Corps officials shuddered, he said, when they realized that Katrina was barreling down on the Gulf Coast with the vastly greater destructive force of a Category 5 — the strongest type of hurricane. Washington, he said, had rolled the dice.
Watch this video
On Meet the Press – Aaron Brousard, President of Jackson Parrish, Louisiana.
At the end of the video, when he starts talking about city employees who have worked hard to repair the levees and provide emergency services, he begins talking about the man who is keeping the building he’s in running. The man’s mother was in an nursing home and was desparate for help. She called Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights to ask for help, and Friday night she drowned in her nursing home.
“They’ve had press conferences; I’m sick of press conferences. For God’s sake, shut up and send us somebody!”
“Bureaucracy has committed murder in the Greater New Orleans area.”
Bush Fakes levee fixes for photo op
from U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., yesterday afternoon:
“I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims – far more efficiently than buses – FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
“But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast – black and white, rich and poor, young and old – deserve far better from their national government.
I was forced to watch Faux News
Turns out the only 24-hour “news” channel at Stephanie’s house on basic cable is Fox. (She hardly watches TV, so she doesn’t have a full package). No wonder so many lower-income people who can only afford basic cable have such a skewed idea of what’s going on in the world.
While we were watching the “sunshine and roses, the president is Hercules” version of what’s happening in New Orleans last night, apparently they locked people in the Convention Center and wouldn’t let them leave. Reporters are pleading for help and crying on camera.
Meanwhile, Bill O’Reilly’s talking point last night was “the government is not responsible for protecting you. You should not rely on the government to take care of you. Learn to fend for yourself.”
Really, Bill? So what’s the point of government, then?
They keep blaming the mayor, the governor, the “people who refused to leave.”
All of that is irrelevant — the point is that we had a disaster in a major city the completely wiped out the city, and thousands of people died, not because of the disaster itself, which they survived, but of thirst, heat stroke, violence, lack of electricity. They died of the AFTERMATH.
In the event of a terrorist attack, this is exactly what would happen, and there would be no way for them to shift the blame onto the victims of the tragedy. That’s a crime for which the president ought to lose his job. Bush is a living example of the Peter Principle in action.
Yesterday I was listening to some co-workers discuss New Orleans, and one of them was making jokes about how stupid the people of NOLA are and how they deserved to have it happen. He was trashing people who are donating to the relief effort, saying that we shouldn’t reward the people for living in a city below sea level and refusing to leave.
And it occurred to me that if something like this happens here in Indiana, that jackass guy is the one who would end up getting me killed. That’s handy information to file away for future reference.
Evil Republicans are blaming the Governor and Mayor
Before the hurricane struck, the Mayor and Governor were begging for federal help to put sandbags at the levees and to get rescue trucks in to evacuate people; they weren’t just asking people to leave, they were asking for federal help to get people who didn’t have transportation out.
See the letter asking for help here… the letter the president ignored for 4 days.
Fox News and the Bush administration are now blaming the Governor and the Mayor, saying the didn’t ask for help, and didn’t explain what they needed. It’s not true; the white house are liars.
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