more at leenk
"This Trojan writer just wants to clean up the Internet, which is unique for a worm creator," noted Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos. "But despite what they might see as the best of intentions, this isn't the way to do it."
A new Trojan has surfaced that targets Windows-powered PCs and displays a message from the Koran if it determines that a pornographic Web site is being accessed.
Called Yusufali.a by some security firms, and Cager.a by Trend Micro , the Trojan monitors a browser's title bar once a system is infected with the malware.
If a word in the URL matches one of the worm's trigger words, the site's window is minimized and a Koran quote pops up.
"Yusufali: Know, therefore, that there is no God but Allah, and ask forgiveness for thy fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and ye dwell in your homes," the message reads. pwn3d!
If everybody hit the tip jar before tomorrow, perhaps Mr. Pruitt will be able to add this to the RB's features : wouldn't it look great, manned by the AoS?
A dog saved the lives of its owner and three more people in Russiaâs Western city of Belgorod, when it threw itself over the ready-to-explode hand grenade, Russian news agencies reported Wednesday. The young man who threw the grenade was sentenced to 5.5 years behind bars, the official Prosecutorâs Office website added. Sergei Kulikov, 18, was drunk on the night of the incident, and got enraged when a pensioner remarked on his behavior. In response to the remark, the young man punched the pensioner and his companion, the agencies report. However this was enough for him and shouting out threats, Kulikov took out a hand grenade and threw it at the people.
I always carry a grenade when I'm out drinking
Luckily, a dog who was walking nearby with its lady owner, rushed to the grenade and covered it with its body when it exploded.
Ok, the dog thought it was a ball and was just playing with it. Still, he done good.
The dog died, but the four people around, including the dogâs owner, survived and only received light injuries.
A moment of silence for man's best friend
Belgorod Court found Sergei Kulikov guilty of attempted murder, hooliganism and illegally keeping weapons, and sentenced him to 5.6 years of prison, the agencies added.
Rin Tin Tin would have thrown it back, then covered his owner.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2005 13:16 ||
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#5
I'd sentence him to a kennel cage for those years...make him eat and drink from bowls and listen to the dogs 24/7. Make it low enough he can't stand and has to crawl....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2005 14:43 Comments ||
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Russia's navy said Tuesday that a navy fighter jet sank in the North Atlantic after overshooting the deck of an aircraft carrier, although the pilot was able to eject safely. The Sukhoi 33 jet sank in around 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) of water on Monday after a restraining cable intended to stop the plane overshooting the deck of the Admiral Kuznetsov carrier snapped as it came in to land, a spokesman at navy headquarters in Moscow said. Whoops!
The pilot managed to eject from the plane however and "was fished out in five minutes," the spokesman told AFP. Another demonstration of Russia's world-famous ejection seats.
Any landing you can eject from is a good one.
The spokesman denied Russian media reports that the plane would be destroyed in its resting place on the seabed in order to prevent secrets on its design and equipment falling into the wrong hands. "The plane was not armed and therefore does not represent a danger," the spokesman said. It becomes a part of Russia's world-famous submarine fleet. The ones that submerge, and stay there.
#1
Hope there training the ChiComs on this technique
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
Although I was Air Force, my friends in the Navy tell me the same principle applies to them as well and that, even on the best of aircraft carriers, shit occasionally happens. As they say, nothing to see here, move on.
#3
RWV - I like the way they do their "shit occasionally happens" more than our's. Savvy?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 1:19 Comments ||
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#4
...An arresting wire break is a bit more spectacular than even this sounds. The wire has a nasty tendency to start cutting deck crew in half. One thing that struck me though, and perhaps our USN carrier vets can clear this up - from the Su-33 driver's point of view, wouldn't this have simply been considered a 'bolter' followed by full burner and a go-around?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/07/2005 7:06 Comments ||
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#5
Snapping the wire may have taken off speed for a crash and go.
#6
wouldn't this have simply been considered a 'bolter' followed by full burner and a go-around? What Shipman said. They have full thrust on when they hit the wire in case they miss it. Once they feel the hook grab the wire they back off on the throttle. Those Russian ejection seats are amazing, I saw a video of a guy punch out at low level inverted. Seat came out, turned 180 degrees, went straight up and deployed the chute.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2005 8:42 Comments ||
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#7
Once they feel the hook grab the wire they back off on the throttle.
On the U.S. carrier landings I've seen on the tube, the pilots typically close the throttle a moment before the plane comes to a full stop. Of course, maybe that's right when the cable let go. Would be nice to see some video footage to see just what the deal was.
#10
Mojo:
As I understand it, you go to full power as you touch the deck, then cut it once you snag the (ideally #3) wire. One can speculate that everything was nominal to that point, then the cable snapped, freeing the airplane but without full take-off power. Splash.
Or maybe he missed the wire and was a second too slow on putting the throttle up. I know that I would be sitting there stupified as My plane went into the drink. That's one reason I'm not an aviator.
#11
The Russian and Chinese navies are now at the forefront of any [escalatory]confrontation with the USA and its Allies - for Russia it means predom ags the USA and Britain in Europe, while for China it means the USA and Japan in the Pacific. I believe Putin and his Admirals wants the Russian Navy to learn CV handling and tactics at any price. The CV's and land-based Air are there to cover their missle subs, whom in turn are there to cover their RR Airborne-Amphib forces and Milog as they leapfrog from island to island, i.e "turtles of war", as they threaten America and Washington with rapid nuclear escalation. This incident is laughable to us now, but expect Putin-baby to act like Stalin and kick the Admirals' butts harder, ala "They fly or you die".
Internet giant Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist for "divulging state secrets".
Yahoo's Hong Kong arm helped China link Shi Tao's e-mail account and computer to a message containing the information.
The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a "police informant" in order to further its business ambitions.
A Yahoo spokeswoman, Pauline Wong, said the company had no immediate comment. Sniveling bitches.
Shi Tao, 37, worked for the Contemporary Business News in Hunan province, before he was arrested and sentenced in April to 10 years in prison.
According to a translation of his conviction, he was found guilty of sending foreign-based websites the text of an internal Communist Party message.
... the message warned journalists of the dangers of social unrest resulting from the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in June 2004.
No more yahoo IM, no more Yahoo email. Go to google, use Trillian for IM
#1
Wait, Google isn't as guilty??? (Since I use both of what you described and was already boycotting Google -- as an app, YIM has been just too good to substitute.)
Posted by: ed ||
09/07/2005 13:30 Comments ||
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#3
Has this been reported by anyone other than a socialist mouthpiece? Don't get me wrong - it's disgusting if the report is true. But I'm a little skeptical of any group with "sans frontieres" in its name.
They're the ones that carry white supremacist and pro-jihadi websites in their news aggregators, saying they're "legitimate news sources".
Meanwhile, they refuse to carry Michelle Malkin -- who's been breaking the Air America fraud story -- because she doesn't claim to be more than one person on her website.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/07/2005 21:21 Comments ||
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Claus Christian Malzahn of Der Spiegel has pounced on the Schroeder gang and come out with fangs dripping:
GERMAN CALLOUSNESS
Kicking Hurricane Victims While They're Down
By Claus Christian Malzahn
Hurricane Katrina has cost the lives of hundreds and devastated the US Gulf Coast. But instead of aid donations and sympathy, the Americans have heard little more than a haughty "I told you so" from Germany. It's another low point for trans-Atlantic relations -- and set off by a German minister. How pathetic.
For the record: German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder offered his condolences to US President George W. Bush for the Hurricane Katrina disaster that has hit the Gulf Coast. Both he and his fellow Germans, Schröder wrote, feel "great sympathy for the fate of those people affected by the hurricane."
Nice words to be sure, but that was it. No pledges of aid money, no announcements of immediate help -- although finally, two days later, the German interior minister did manage to come out with a hesitant offer of assistance. And let's be honest, the crisis region this time around isn't in the Third World, but is in the United States of America. There really isn't much of a need for German helpers -- experienced as they may be from aid missions from Kosovo to Afghanistan -- because the American authorities are already doing as much as can be done.
Nevertheless, German aid money delivered to American aid agencies would surely be welcome on the other side of the Atlantic. But apparently, people over here believe that the Americans over there don't really need help. Strange. The same people who normally spend their time pointing their holier-than-thou fingers at the ghettos and slums in the US, the same ones who describe America as an out-of-control capitalist monster, are now, when the Americans could really use a bit of help, oddly quiet.
Sledgehammer fisking coming up:
Cold and malicious
Apparently the Americans had it coming: "The American president has closed his eyes to the economic and human damage that natural catastrophes such as Katrina -- in other words, disasters caused by a lack of climate protection measures -- can visit on his country." Who wrote this? None other than JÃŒrgen Trittin, Germany's minister of the environment.
Evil Moonbat Tritten
At a moment when the dead on the Gulf Coast are still being counted, the German minister of the environment could think of nothing better to do than -- in an essay published Tuesday in the center-left daily Frankfurter Rundschau -- to blame the US itself for the catastrophe. The piece is 493 words long, and not a single one of them is wasted to express any sort of sympathy for the victims of the storm. The worst of it is that Trittin isn't alone with his cold, malicious tenor. The coverage from much of the German media tends in the same direction: If Bush had only listened to Uncle Trittin and signed the Kyoto Protocol, then this never would have happened.
Bullshit. Trittin's article is a slap in the face to all the victims. Let's just assume that the environment minister is right, that there is a direct relationship between greenhouse gases and Hurricane Katrina. Even still this would hardly be the time for yet another round of America bashing and finger pointing. Three years ago, just before the US election, former Minister of Justice Hertha DÀubler Gmelin compared US President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. This time, with German elections looming, the environment minister is using a natural catastrophe as an excuse to once again campaign with subtle anti-Americanism and to unabashedly pat himself on the back. A "Kyoto Two" is "desperately needed" screamed the headline over his insensitive attack.
As a Green-Brown politico, with all that implies in terms of scientific and historical ignorance, Tritten may simply be unaware that hurricanes occurred before Bush became President, and even before Kyoto, and, in fact, before humans learned to use fire.
There are scientists and Nobel Prize winners who see the problem of global warming totally different than Trittin. Many consider the fight against AIDS, hunger and malaria as higher priorities than a reduction of carbon dioxide output. Last year, some of these experts jointly published the "Copenhagen Consensus," in which they outlined the greatest problems facing the world. Global warming figured low on the list. And believe it or not, the scientists are not on the payroll of the Texas oil industry. But that's hardly the point at the moment. Right now, the situation calls for empathy with the people in the American south who are suffering the after effects of the massive storm.
It's not the American people's fault that the storm hit and they couldn't have stopped it. The Germans, on the other hand, could have done a lot to prevent World War II. And yet, care packages still rained down from US troops. Trittin's know-it-all stance is therefore not only tasteless, it is also historically blind.
ROME (AP) - Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin was hospitalized Wednesday after breaking a leg during a fall off of a bar stool at Ted Kennedy's villa a resort town on the Italian island of Sardinia, officials said.
Emergency service workers arrived early Wednesday at a villa in exclusive Porto Rotondo, where the 74-year-old Yeltsin was undergoing dialysis treatments staying, and took him from a wine cellar to a local hospital, said Giuseppe Soro, director of the ambulance dispatch center in Sassari.
Yeltsin's spokesman Vladimir Shevchenko told Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency that the former president had broken a thighbone in a bad fall while on vacation in Italy and would be flown to Russia later Wednesday. What, no details?
Yeltsin fell at the home around 6 a.m. and initially was taken care of by his bodyguards, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. Clinton ripped his knee up when he was Prez, didn't he?
Dr. Maria Serena Fenu, medical director of the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in nearby Olbia, said Yeltsin was treated there, then taken elsewhere. She declined to release further information, citing privacy reasons.
A doctor in the hospital's orthopedics department, who said he was not authorized to have his name published, said an X-ray revealed cirrhosis of the liver a broken thighbone and Yeltsin was taken to detox another hospital for a quick spin dry surgery. He said he did not know which hospital.
Elderly people who break their upper-thighbones often require hip surgery.
"Given his age, it's easy to break a femur," Soro said.
The Russian Embassy in Rome referred questions to Yeltsin's representatives in Moscow, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yeltsin - Russia's first elected president after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union - has kept a low profile since resigning Dec. 31, 1999, appearing only occasionally at tennis tournaments or to greet foreign officials.
During the final years of his presidency he was dogged by health problems, retreating regularly to his country residence outside Moscow and spending days, sometimes weeks, away from the Kremlin.
In retirement, he has concentrated on health-boosting regimens, traveling to China and other destinations for treatment.
Porto Rotondo is an exclusive resort on Sardinia's Emerald Coast. Premier Silvio Berlusconi, among others, has a home nearby. Seems like they're going to great lengths to avoid the obvious...
#1
The 13% that blame Mr. Bush obviously have NO idea how government works.Probably should have stayed in school or it's just the LOONEY LEFT because there's nothing else to BITCH about.These people need to do a 180 and look at their CORRUPT STATE GOVERNMENT!!!!
#2
their little pin heads are close to exploding. Worst disaster in the nations' history and they can't pin it (albeit unfairly) on chimpy bushitler. He wins again, Bwahahahaha!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2005 12:55 Comments ||
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#3
The poll left out the those primarlily responsible for the deterioration after the hurricane, a subset of New Orleanians themselves. Instead of acting as civilized citizens, they made their, and everyone elses, situation ten times worse by engaging in looting (not just food and water) and crime sprees. Instead of banding together to protect and comfort each other and distribute stocks of food, water, and medicine, they reverted to petty theft, banditry and savagery. Shame on them.
Much of the US have been very generous to the evacuees, Texas alone taking over 250,000 of them. Let us hope for the sake of their adopted homes they act better than they did last week. Otherwise they will learn "Don't Mess With Texas" is not just a bumper sticker.
Posted by: ed ||
09/07/2005 13:02 Comments ||
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Congress' top two Democrats furiously criticized the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina on Wednesday, with Sen. Harry Reid demanding to know whether President Bush's Texas vacation impeded relief efforts and Rep. Nancy Pelosi assailing the chief executive as "oblivious, in denial" about the difficulties.
:-) BDS approaches "Scanners" in intensity - HT to drudge
With much of New Orleans still under water _ and likely to stay that way for weeks _ Bush readied a request for about $52 billion for relief and recovery along the Gulf Coast, and the White House indicated millions more would be needed later. Congressional officials said they expected to approve the next installment as early as Thursday, to keep the money flowing without interruption.
There was no formal announcement of the details contained in the request, although the Associated Press learned that the government plans to distribute debit cards worth $2,000 each to adult victims of the hurricane.
"They are going to start issuing debit cards, $2,000 per adult, today at the Astrodome," said Kathy Walt, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
The cards could be used to buy food, transportation, gas and other essentials that displaced people need, according to a state official who was on the call and requested anonymity because the program has not been publicly announced.
GOP congressional leaders met privately to plan their next step, possibly including an unusual joint House-Senate committee to investigate what went wrong in the government's response and what can be fixed. Establishment of a joint panel would presumably eliminate overlapping investigations that might otherwise spring up as individual committees looked into the natural disaster and its aftermath.
In a letter to the Senate's Homeland Security Committee chairwoman, Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, pressed for a wide-ranging investigation and answers to several questions, including: "How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation? Did the fact that he was outside of Washington, D.C., have any effect on the federal government's response?"
At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had "absolutely no credentials."
She related that she urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Brown.
"He said 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.
"'I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'"
"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she added.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2005 13:51 Comments ||
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#5
No. No. No. That's not how you report it.
OK, take the 18% blaming "the federal government," we can add that to Bush's score since he controls it. We can leave out the 38% who don't blame anyone. That leaves the other 25%. So, here is our headline:
Only 25% blame someone other than Bush for Katrina disaster.
In the first 16 hours, doctors treated about 100 people: nasty head wounds, car crash victims, cuts from storm debris, dehydration.
With such demand, it is hard to imagine that the doctors weren't allowed to set up shop in Louisiana, their original destination. They were stymied by red tape there.
"Mississippi stepped up and said if they don't want you, we'll take you," Dr. Thomas Blackwell, medical director of the hospital and an emergency doctor at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., said Monday. He said the delay in getting deployed was a dispute with Louisiana over what they'd be allowed to do.
Now the futuristic $1.5 million emergency response hospital is getting its first real tryout since the Department of Homeland Security established it. The 113-bed hospital travels in a convoy that includes two 53-foot trailers. Equipment includes ultrasound, digital radiology, satellite Internet, and a full pharmacy, enabling doctors to do most types of surgery.
Gov Bunko was too buys playing Big Government power politics (i.e. who gets to control what) to coniseder the lives of her citizens.
MOre and more its looking like Mayor Nagin may have fumbled somewhat, but that the government of Louisiana (including the governor) will be the biggest source (other than Katrina) of human misery and suffering in that state.
EFL
Jane Fonda told me (Roger Friedman) yesterday she's scrapped plans for anti-war bus trip next March. As well, Fonda will be making only two appearances this month on another rally with controversial British politician George Galloway, not the eight that were widely misreported in the press yesterday. No one cares?
Why the change of plans? Certainly, Fonda is still very much against the war in Iraq and in favor of helping our troops there. But she said that she didn't want to distract people from Cindy Sheehan's bus trip, already under way and gathering support. Cindy who?
Fonda, will appear with Galloway -- who is vehemently anti-George Bush -- in Madison, Wis., on September 18 and Chicago, Ill. on Sept 19. She told me that "what the right wing has done to Sheehan is despicable." Her own decision not to stage a bus tour came because she wants Sheehan's to succeed without messages being mixed. " I would be a distraction," she said, "and the vacuum has been filled. That said, I plan to speak out and write some op-ed pieces but no bus tour." On your mark. Get set. Fisk.
#1
Fonda, will appear with Galloway -- who is vehemently anti-George Bush
ITTM, "vehemently pro-jihadi".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/07/2005 9:39 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmm... The pope died the week her book came out, robbing her of spotlight. Now the NO hurricane disaster during her bus tour, robbing her of the spotlight. Anyone else see a trend here? Poor little Ms. Fonda, can't feed her narcissistic ego so she takes her toys, goes home and pouts. BTW, didn't her reality show tank as well?
#3
YEAH Jane, you'd be a distraction from that BITCH trying to RIPOFF the people down in La.That's what MOMMY MENTAL is doing now.Thier asking for doations in Louisiana for high dollar computer equipment to "help the people"(Ya right)because they can't afford the FREAKIN' trip thier on now.
Hey jihadijane,why don't you take both buses and drive em' right up your ASS!!!!!
#4
She told me that "what the right wing has done to Sheehan is despicable."
Yeah, the mean ole' VRWC group again, eh Jihad Jane? Give me a freakin' break. What did the VRWC do to poor Ms. Sheehan, eh? Let her get free press in the MSM for a month down in Crawford, hold "peace vigils" in TX, and start her own bus tour. Yep, we're soooo mean and nasty. This is what happens when moonbats meet reality and realize that with Katrina and all NO ONE cares what they think! They were only filling time on the news between 2 hurricanes (Dennis and Katrina) and overload of Aruba 24/7.
Posted by: BA ||
09/07/2005 10:14 Comments ||
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"...she wants Sheehan's to succeed without messages being mixed."
Fonda: I'm an America-hating bitch!
Sheehan: I'm an America-hating bitch!
The motto of the Ahmadiyya Muslim movement, "Love for all, hatred for none," was displayed on banners and repeated often during its national convention this past weekend at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly. "Jihad by sword is forbidden in this age," Ahsan Zafar, the movement's president, said in an interview, citing the power of the pen rather than weapons as an appropriate means of persuasion. "Jihad is a struggle using reason, discussion and argument." About 3,000 Ahmadis from two dozen states attended the 57th Jalsa Salana event. Other attendees drove from Canada or flew from Pakistan for Jalsa Salana, which means "annual convention" in Urdu. The gathering, held in the Washington region for more than a decade, is an opportunity for adherents to strengthen spiritual bonds and pass them on to their children.
Abdul Karim of Chicago has attended Ahmadiyya conventions in England, Canada and India. Karim, 64, said that though the cuisine at each convention has varied a bit, the uplifting message of each gathering was identical. "We are one community," said Karim, who grew up as a Southern Baptist in Mississippi and converted in his twenties. His wife, a native of Pakistan, was raised Ahmadiyya, and they were staying with her relatives in Fairfax. Throughout the conference, the men were gathered at the expo center's south side, where they sat in chairs or cross-legged on the floor. Treats included a traditional ice cream served with noodles and strawberry-flavored syrup. Some speeches from the men's meeting were broadcast to another part of the center, where the women met, but the women also produced their own programs and lectures. Their conference space included children's play areas, as well as areas where clothes and crafts were sold.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim movement was founded in 1889 in India, and its more than 10 million followers are in more than 150 countries. Like other Muslims, Ahmadis observe the teachings of the Koran and believe in Muhammad as a prophet. They also recognize their 19th-century founder, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, as the Messiah; most Muslims consider Muhammad the final prophet. The Ahmadis face persecution in such Muslim countries as Pakistan, where they face restrictions. Some at the convention said they had encountered discrimination by other Muslims in the United States. "One of the few things the Sunnis and Shiites could agree on is that the Ahmadis were wrong," said John O. Voll, director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He said that though Ahmadis represent a small fraction of Muslims, their missionary efforts, particularly in West Africa, have raised their visibility and impact. "We have a great responsibility to preach the true face of Islam," said Yahya Luqman, 27, an Ahmadiyya missionary who was born in Pakistan and raised in Portland, Ore. A sign at the front of the gathering displayed another traditional saying: "Evil is he who is not willing to make peace with his brothers."
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
09/07/2005 06:26 ||
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"...The Ahmadis face persecution in such Muslim countries as Pakistan, where they face restrictions..."
Its actually worse for the Ahmadis in Bangladesh. Any day course bring coordinated massacres. However, the movement is very strong in both England and India.
#2
This is the one Muslim group that I know of who are really decent. They are loaded with professional people. The late Abdus Salaam, a Pakistani Nobel Prize winner in physics was a member of this group. But he is and was not honored in his homeland because the other Muslim groups consider the Ahmadiyya to be apostates -- and fit to be killed.
2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was better organized to deal with disasters like Hurricane Katrina while her husband was president - an approach, she said, that was "rejected" by President Bush.
"FEMA was the lead agency during the Clinton administration; it was in charge," Mrs. Clinton boasted during a conference call with reporters. "James D. Witt, the director, understood how to deal with emergencies."
"FEMA took on the role of helping to prepare localities and states to be in a position to respond," she continued, in quotes picked up by the Village Voice. "Helping localities do what they needed to do to mitigate damage - that philosophy governed FEMA during the Clinton administration," Hillary said. "It was obviously rejected by this administration."
Though Sen. Clinton touted former FEMA director Witt's experience, she made no mention of Raymond 'Buddy' Young, whom her husband appointed to the post of Southwest Regional FEMA Director in 1993.
Mr. Young, a former Arkansas state trooper, won the promotion after heading up efforts to discredit other state troopers whose allegations fueled the Troopergate scandal.
Had Katrina struck during the 1990s, Young would have had jurisdiction over disaster relief efforts for New Orleans.
Despite that kind of cronyism, Mrs. Clinton painted FEMA as a model agency when her husband's appointees ran it. She pledged to introduce legislation to restore FEMA to the Cabinet-level status it had during the Clinton years.
In her second Katrina press event for the day, the former first lady continued to blast the Bush White House.
"I feel very strongly about this," she told reporters. "This current government is not only failing with respect to Katrina but we are not planning for the future."
Ya'll don't forget to vote for Billary in 2008
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 00:33 ||
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#1
what a low down bitch.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/07/2005 0:43 Comments ||
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#2
There's a big stench to all of this. By all means, investigate - and let's start with the Mayor, followed by the Governor. Knowing the donks...they're more than willing to sacrifice any number of po' folk if they feel they can pin it on W. And the way all the donks are responding in unison smacks of a playbook.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/07/2005 1:07 Comments ||
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#3
Rex, I don't think it's a playbook, I think it's in their genes. I've been visiting a few of the leftie blogs, and the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth types have been singing the same, dystopian tune from minute one of the disaster. It's truly remarkable, and no matter how hard you try, facts don't seem to penetrate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/07/2005 1:55 Comments ||
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#4
The Bush Derangement Syndrome should be a clinically-recognized mental disease.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/07/2005 2:10 Comments ||
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#5
What a bitch!
This should be touted far and wide! As well as the story of Mr Young who received a cushy job for ratting on his fellow officers.
#6
Kan't wait to read the report of the Katrina Katastrophe Kommission, which should be even more of a boondoggle than the 9/11 commission was. I can only hope the truth will come out on talk radio and the blogs. It sure won't come out of a government investigation.
#9
Why don't somebody just give this bitch a bucket and send her fat ass down there? She could use the exercise...
Sean Penn could ride her around the city, rescuing drowning puppies, kittens, and bunnies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/07/2005 9:37 Comments ||
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#10
Well we at least now have the real world standard by which Theadora of Byzantium Hillary the Grand will now be measured by during her [short] tenure. If it ain't there in twenty-fours and fully operational, its number 10 for you GI.
#12
They are right that FEMA is less effective. But it's because of the DHS they insisted on. Bush should have held out longer in denyhing DHS its existence. DHS is rapidly becoming a HUD/ DOEd level cabinet drawer.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/07/2005 11:09 Comments ||
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#13
Uh, just because her husband did something, she's somehow entitled to the credit? (not to mention the whole thing is a campaign op) She's a danger to the entire world and is motivated by private pathologies.
#14
Placing FEMA under DHS was IMO a mistake as they have very different missions. But in the initial aftermath of Katrina I want to see a time line of just when FEMA made decisions as to where to allocate aid. The areas around Gulfport looked to be the hardest hit. Nawlins seemed to have been spared. Then the levees broke. Were decisions already made to direct aid to MS and AL when the scope of the disastar became apparent. As to allegations of just what would of happened under the Clinton administration or any other that is one game I really don't want to get into.
#15
Even tho it would be good if FEMA were out of DHS, it's there. Consider this: This is the first major use of FEMA. One of the things we keep forgetting, is that Katrina did $1B in Florida before moving west. And FEMA seemed to have handled that.
FEMA, as it now stands, had never been tested. So now, the kinks are known, problems can be looked at and studied and fix.
Once again, changing the look, the feel, the function of FEMA will put us back to the same spot, untested.
And we could again face some new problems that could be just as bad as the ones we can now fix.
Just a thought. This could be just moving the chairs around on the deck.
The United Nations warned Gordon Brown last night that he will have to levy taxes on the better-off in Labour's third term if the government is to meet its ambitious goal of halving child poverty by 2010.
In its flagship annual study charting progress in tackling poverty, the UN highlights Britain as a country where inequality has put a brake on development, and says there would need to be a complete reversal of the pro-rich bias of the 1980s to eradicate the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.
Its human development report (HDR) praises Labour for its efforts to tackle child poverty since 1997, but says a cash-strapped Mr Brown needs to go further in his coming budgets and contemplate politically sensitive tax rises to maintain the progress made in the past eight years.
"If the next 10 years did for the poor what the 1980s did for the rich, that would bring the UK within touching distance of the child poverty goals," the UN says.
The report singles out the UK and US as two wealthy countries where a growing gap between rich and poor has emerged in recent decades, leading to more child poverty and big discrepancies in health outcomes.
Overall, it says the world was making faltering progress towards meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs) set by every country in 2000. These include cutting by 50% the number of people living on less than $1 a day, reducing infant mortality by two-thirds and putting every child in school.
"There is little cause for celebration", it concludes. "Most [poor] countries are off track for most of the MDGs. Human development is faltering in some key areas, and deep inequalities are widening."
In the UK the incomes of the richest 10% rose by 3.7% a year on average from 1979 to 1990 compared with a 0.4% average increase for the poorest 10%. Taxes on top earners were cut from 83p to 60p in the first Conservative budget in 1979 and from 60p to 40p in 1988.
If the incomes of the poor rose by 3.7% and those of the rich rose by 0.4% until 2010, child poverty would be cut from 23% to 17%, the UN says.
It says Labour's untrumpeted tax and benefit changes since 1997 have resulted in the incomes of the poorest fifth of the population rising by 20%. However, the report says the government needs to do more to load the tax and benefits system in favour of the less well-off, make it easier for poor parents to find work, and make "fundamental changes to the underlying distribution of earnings and income".
A Treasury source said: "The government's reforms to the tax and benefit system, including measures such as the child tax credit, have played a pivotal role in lifting more than half a million children out of poverty. This shows the importance of a progressive approach if we are to rise to the challenges in this report."
The UN, using data provided by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the UK's leading independent thinktank on taxes and benefits, said there was a limit to what Mr Brown could do in budgets to meet the goal established by Tony Blair of cutting child poverty in half by 2010 and eradicating it within a generation.
"Meeting the 2010 target (of halving child poverty) will require more redistribution, a change in working and employment patterns among parents and more fundamental changes to the underlying distribution of earnings and incomes."
The HDR, published each year since 1990, concentrates on the problems of poor countries, but a central theme of the report is the negative impact of inequality in both high income and low income countries. It highlights how countries with low per capita incomes often do better than countries with higher incomes in meeting human development goals such as cutting infant mortality, because they pursue pro-poor policies.
Noting that the US has a worse infant mortality rate than Malaysia, the report says: "Some countries that spend substantially less than the United States have healthier populations. US public health indicators are marred by deep inequalities linked to income, health insurance coverage, race ethnicity, geography and - critically - access to care."
The report also criticises two of the leading developing countries, China and India, for failing to turn stronger growth into better health outcomes.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 21:27 ||
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Speaking as a formally poor person ($7,000/year in '96) I decided it sucked, got off my lazy ass, got an education thanks to a loan from the gov., busted my butt and now make a very good wage. How about the rest of the poor people do the same if they don't want to be there? Quit taxing the successfull because somebody wants to be a lazy slob! (I speak from experiance as a former lazy slob)
#2
exhibit # 4,760 why a internet or global tax of any kind should be fought to the death. Who the fuck are they to tell anyone how to manage an economy? Raise taxes? I don't think so. Hillary should be asked to take a position on this
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2005 22:49 Comments ||
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Considering the UN's sterling record in managing other people's money to aid the poor as evidenced by the Oil for Food program, I'm sure that the Brits will give this the consideration it deserves. Although I don't normally use the word, the most apt description for the author of this report is fuckwit.
Disgusting depths - racial hatred is obviously part of the 2006 campaign. Unamerican scum
Race was a factor in the death toll from Hurricane Katrina, Howard Dean told members of the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday at the group's annual meeting.
Dean, chairman of the Democratic party, made the comments to the Baptists' Political and Social Justice Commission. The Baptist Convention, with an estimated 3.5 million members, is one of the largest black religious groups in the country. "We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," Dean said.
Dean said Americans have a moral responsibility to not ignore the devastating damage caused by Hurricane Katrina when it struck the Gulf Coast.
The former presidential candidate said the government will be judged by how it treats the old, the young and the poor. "People are poor in different parts of the country. They are not refugees. They are Americans," he said.
Dean said that instead of considering proposed estate tax breaks, the Senate should channel the money into disaster relief. "Shall we give that to the wealthiest people in the country, or should we rebuild New Orleans?" Dean said.
Dean also urged the government to exempt victims of Hurricane Katrina from a stricter new bankruptcy law for one year. Ken Mehlman, Dean's counterpart at the Republican National Committee, said he hoped Dean "will match his rhetoric with his support for reforms that replace bureaucracy and entitlement with hope and opportunity."
Stephen J. Thurston, president of the Baptist Convention, said there was a lack of response and sensitivity by the government following the Gulf Coast disaster
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2005 20:27 ||
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"We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," Dean said.
He's may be right. The local and state governments are controlled by Democrats, and Democrats have a 150 year history of race-hatred, lynching, and anti-black policies. Besides, dead voters more reliably vote Democrat than live ones.
When I was in NO last year, I toured the Cabildo, the history museum made from the colonial-era conference house/legislature. One of the curious bits called out in the section about the history of race relations in LA was that, for quite a long time, whenever a Republican got elected in LA, there'd be a riot to remove or kill him.
I got the impression that the Republicans in question were black. Oddly, there wasn't any mention of a riot sparked by the election of a Democrat.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/07/2005 21:35 Comments ||
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I'm soooooo sick of the Democratic race baiting. We are all human beings and Americans. Drop the slavery of welfare, get them educated and people will do great things. Of course, that will rob the democrats of all their power.....
#3
Yeah, great try Howie.. A Democratic Government doesn't follow it's own disaster plan, and even blocks the Red Cross from sending water and blankets in to the Superdome, but yeah, right it's racism. The Governor probably is single handedly responsible for thousands of deaths but, yeah, the Republican administration is racist.
Anyway, I hope he keeps speaking. He's doing more for conservatives than, well Kos, Michael Moore, Hanoi Jane, Mother Sheehan, etc......
Now who is it that left the hundreds of busses in the parking lot to be flooded? Who was it who refused to declare a state of emergency and federalize the troops?
#5
Again, some serious kool-aid chuggin' goin' on at the Dems' HQ.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/07/2005 23:39 Comments ||
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Why does anyone care what this deranged ass says. He, like most of the other Democrats, will say or do anything to get himself in front of a TV camera. As the former governor of Vermont (96.8% white, black 0.5% in the 2000 census), Dean is certainly "qualified" to lecture America on race relations.
Forced to defend what some critics consider its slow response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from New Orleans.
FEMA, which is leading the rescue efforts, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims, Reuters reported.
A FEMA spokeswoman told the wire service that space was need on the rescue boats and assured Reuters that "the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect."
"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman told Reuters via e-mail.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 17:10 ||
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Unfortunate Senator Kennedy quote of the day:
"What the American people have seen is this incredible disparity in which those people who had cars and money got out and those people who were impoverished died."--Ted Kennedy on Hurricane Katrina
""--Mary Jo Kopechne on Hurricane Katrina
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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still clingin' to the Manifesto like any, has-been, errr, Democrat. Just keep using class politics. This is what you get when your Party has run out of ideas, and your policies are a proven failure.
Oh, yeah, and when you've driven a car into a lake.
#3
My housekeeper watches CBS Evening News and they were just showing floating corpses in NO. Also, Bob Scheifer (sp?) did a story on the helo pilots who abandoned their mission to rescue some people (the figure is noe 150!!!) and said this was another example of Federal fumbling. Absolutely unbelievable. Arianna Huffington is blasting the media for covering for Bush and the media is actually trying to villify him. I made her turn it off. I am totally disgusted with the MSM and the Democrats. and to think, I used to BE one. I agree with .com, we are headed for another Civil War.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/07/2005 19:26 Comments ||
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Excellent article -- really points out the 7 myths that the media was attempting to get us to believe EFL
But the real human story of this tragedy will play out in the months ahead: the huge effort to deal with so many displaced persons (many far from their original homes), and so many people out of work, is just beginning. This is a much larger story and much more significant than the 48 lost hours in evacuating the Super Dome, where perhaps 3% of those affected by the storm and its aftermath were temporarily housed. But the pictures and stories of the work ahead will not be as dramatic as those of this past week. Cleanup and rebuilding never is. The highest network and cable TV ratings have already occurred for this story. And the future story does not offer the media as much low hanging fruit in their systematic effort to turn this into their conventional story line â that Bush is at fault.
Some of the coverage and the charges that have been made this week are flat out wrong, or grossly misleading, and deserve attention.
Reality #1: A very high percentage of the population of New Orleans and surrounding low lying areas were successfully evacuated before the hurricane hit. An article in 2002 in the New Orleans Times-Picayune explored the hurricane-induced flooding scenario and estimated that 200,000 residents of the city would be stranded by such an event. A Houston Chronicle article from 2001 estimated that 250,000 residents would be stranded. That is over 40% of the population of the city, which stood at 484,000 in 2000.
A recent poll of New Orleans residents revealed that an even higher percentage, 60%, would remain in the city even if ordered to evacuate with a major storm on the way. The Mayor New Orleans, Ray Nagin, estimated that at least 80% of his city's residents were out before the hurricane hit Monday. In retrospect, this must be considered a major positive achievement. How did it happen? Though you won't hear this on NBC, CBS or CNN, the National Hurricane Center urged President Bush to request that the Governor of Louisiana and Mayor of New Orleans order a complete evacuation of New Orleans. Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin agreed, and this order was given over the weekend, two days before the hurricane hit. All day Saturday and Sunday, as the TV news networks were in the midst of their all Katrina, all the time coverage, the pictures were of bumper to bumper traffic heading out of town in all directions.
If 80% of New Orleans got out before disaster hit, instead of 40% or 60%, that is an additional 100,000 to 200,000 residents who were spared the worst of this week's trauma. For this the President deserves credit, which he will not receive. Remember that the focus all week has been on the slow response to assist the 20% who did not get out. There is plenty to criticize in what happened this week for the 20% left behind, but it does not diminish the achievement in getting 80% of the residents of the city to safety before the storm hit. There more just like this
#1
I just saw the Lt. General the Feds put in charge on Fox. Have to say I was fairly impressed; he seems to be a businesslike, non-political type. Which IMAO is exactly what is called for.
#2
The thing that really twists my knickers is that the MSM have turned this into all NO all the time. NO wasn't even the hardest hit city. What about Biloxie and Gulfport and the rest of the MS coast?
NO is the place that the MSM can use to hit at Bush (wrongly) though so that's all you hear about.
Few are proud of the response â just 27 percent â but the most prevalent emotion is hopefulness, expressed by 64 percent. (Fifty-five percent say they're "shocked," which could reflect a response to the magnitude of the disaster as much as the federal response.)
More horrors from Townhall. I'm shocked, shocked!
On a more serious note, I'm sure there is/was some racial tension, and not always in a PC way, white tourists trapped in the Superdome reported being harassed by black gangs for instance, but the seeing usual suspects play the race card in such circumstances is shameful.
Think stuff like this will turn up at the hearings?EFL
November 29, 2004
Shreveport, Louisiana . . . A federal grand jury has returned two separate indictments charging three members of the State Military Department with offenses related to the obstruction of an audit of the use of federal funds for flood mitigation activities throughout Louisiana, United States Attorney Donald W. Washington announced today. Two of the individuals charged, MICHAEL C. APPE, 51, of Mandeville, Louisiana, and MICHAEL L. BROWN, 61, of St. Francisville, Louisiana, are senior employees of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Both APPE and BROWN are charged with conspiracy to obstruct a federal audit; BROWN is additionally charged with making a false statement.
The Hazardous Mitigation Grant Program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is designed to fund mitigation projects to prevent future flood losses or flood claims made upon the National Flood Insurance Program. BROWN was responsible for overall management the program in Louisiana; APPE was responsible for managing employees who perform fiscal transactions regarding these funds. The indictment alleges that during an audit of the program being conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Office of Inspector General, a State Military Department employee realized that $175,000 in expenditures of federal monies was improper in that the money was not used for purposes authorized by the federal program and would therefore have to be re-paid to the federal government. This employee notified APPE, who in turn directed the employee to provide false documents to the federal auditors.
Specifically, the indictment alleges that APPE directed an employee to contact an assistant to BROWN and have them prepare a false, backdated memo to make it appear that the expenditures were proper. The false document was created and was subsequently signed by BROWN. APPE and BROWN then sent the false, backdated memo to federal auditors. The indictment alleges that BROWN told federal auditors that he signed the document in May 2000, when in fact he knew he had signed the document in January 2004. Also indicted was DANIEL J. FALANGA, 53, of Folsom, Louisiana, for committing perjury before a federal grand jury. FALANGA was an employee of the State Military Department in charge of the State Mitigation Office. The indictment charges him with testifying falsely before the grand jury concerning his access to a ârepetitive loss list.â The repetitive loss list is a listing of properties that have suffered two or more flood losses in a ten year period.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2005 11:23 ||
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Why no popcorn?
Posted by: Curt Simon ||
09/07/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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(CNSNews.com) - The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for "the big one" that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding.
In December of 1995, the Orleans Levee Board, the local government entity that oversees the levees and floodgates designed to protect New Orleans and the surrounding areas from rising waters, bragged in a supplement to the Times-Picayune newspaper about federal money received to protect the region from hurricanes. "In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection," the pamphlet declared. "The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects." The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the "few manageable gaps" in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature's waters "will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection."
But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws," according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency. Blocked from financing the local portion of the flood fighting efforts, the levee board was unable to spend the federal matching funds that had been designated for the project.
By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one tenth of one percent of that -- $1.98 million -- was dedicated to levee improvements in the New Orleans area. State appropriators were able to find $22 million that year to renovate a new home for the Louisiana Supreme Court and $35 million for one phase of an expansion to the New Orleans convention center. The following year, the state legislature did appropriate $49.5 million for levee improvements, but the proposed spending had to be allocated by the State Bond Commission before the projects could receive financing. The commission placed the levee improvements in the "Priority 5" category, among the projects least likely to receive full or immediate funding.
The Orleans Levee Board was also forced to defer $3.7 million in capital improvement projects in its 2001 budget after residents of the area rejected a proposed tax increase to fund its expanding operations. Long term deferments to nearly 60 projects, based on the revenue shortfall, totaled $47 million worth of work, including projects to shore up the floodwalls. No new state money had been allocated to the area's hurricane protection projects as of October of 2002, leaving the available 65 percent federal matching funds for such construction untouched. "The problem is money is real tight in Baton Rouge right now," state Sen. Francis Heitmeier (D-Algiers) told the Times-Picayune. "We have to do with what we can get."
Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Mark Drennen told local officials that, if they reduced their requests for state funding in other, less critical areas, they would have a better chance of getting the requested funds for levee improvements. The newspaper reported that in 2000 and 2001, "the Bond Commission has approved or pledged millions of dollars for projects in Jefferson Parish, including construction of the Tournament Players Club golf course near Westwego, the relocation of Hickory Avenue in Jefferson (Parish) and historic district development in Westwego." There is no record of such discretionary funding requests being reduced or withdrawn, but in October of 2003, nearby St. Charles Parish did receive a federal grant for $475,000 to build bike paths on top of its levees.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2005 09:36 ||
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I very well imagine that a lot of this could be tied to the Greens too. Sierra Club/NRC/Greenpeace/etc. probably would've showed up if they'd tried to increase the size of the levees. When State/Locals fail to find matching funds for Fed money, something's very wrong, they usually don't pass that up for anything! Of course, higher/stronger levees don't "look good" for Capital Improvement budgets compared to a new courthouse, convention center, and even bike paths ON TOP of the levees (where's Screamin' Dean when you need him to fight the bikepaths?).
Posted by: BA ||
09/07/2005 10:22 Comments ||
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This is typical!!The La. government at work?? Let's build a golf course and bike paths!!!
#3
If you look at where the money was spent, the levee commision bought a private jet, limos, condos, etc. instead of building up the levees. Geee.... I wonder why they failed and the federal government and taxpayers don't want to give these crooks any more money?
#5
Hey--free money from the gov'ment! What we gonna do wid it? Whut? We gotta raize matchin' funds? That'd be a lot of work, and besides, we needs to go shoppin'!
#7
Just discovered that each level has its very own fiefdom, gaming the feds while protecting turf.
Lovely and lethal.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 17:37 Comments ||
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levy not level
The LA gov and US senator have so much to be defensive about. Landreiu has family all over LA state government.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 17:39 Comments ||
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The Fed > "Iff you don't use it, you lose it", and the Fed was and remains kind enough to give local and State Govts. a few YEARS to explain why they should keep the monies.
There's a new battle plan for bringing the battleship Iowa to San Francisco. The battleship's supporters now hope to gain the support of city leaders by turning part of the vessel into a museum about the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the contributions of gays, lesbians, ethnic minorities and women to the military. The Board of Supervisors rejected the ship in July, and two supervisors explained their "no" votes by saying they objected to the military's policies toward gays and lesbians, while others opposed the war in Iraq.
"I think the Iowa could be a very powerful teaching tool regarding recruitment and U.S. defense policy," said Merylin Wong, president of the Historic Ship Memorial at Pacific Square, the San Francisco organization lobbying for the ship. There's a tremendous amount of archives documenting the contribution of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) veterans," she said. "It's all part of naval history, and it's all fact."
Transgender?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 09:35 ||
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Pandering! I love it!
Welcome to Stockton, USS Iowa!
PENSACOLA, Fla., Sept. 6 - Two Navy helicopter pilots and their crews returned from New Orleans on Aug. 30 expecting to be greeted as lifesavers after ferrying more than 100 hurricane victims to safety.
Instead, their superiors chided the pilots, Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow, at a meeting the next morning for rescuing civilians when their assignment that day had been to deliver food and water to military installations along the Gulf Coast.
This is one of those classic moments when you get patted on the back and have your wrist slapped at the same time.
"I felt it was a great day because we resupplied the people we needed to and we rescued people, too," Lieutenant Udkow said. But the air operations commander at Pensacola Naval Air Station "reminded us that the logistical mission needed to be our area of focus."
Lieutenants don't get to write their own orders
The episode illustrates how the rescue effort in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina had to compete with the military's other, more mundane logistical needs.
Logistics are part of the rescue effort, just not as exciting or glamorous
Only in recent days, after the federal response to the disaster has come to be seen as inadequate, have large numbers of troops and dozens of helicopters, trucks and other equipment been poured into to the effort.
Blah blah blah Bush is at fault blah blah
Early on, the military rescue operations were smaller, often depending on the initiative of individuals like Lieutenants Shand and Udkow.
The two lieutenants were each piloting a Navy H-3 helicopter - a type often used in rescue operations as well as transport and other missions - on that Tuesday afternoon, delivering emergency food, water and other supplies to Stennis Space Center, a federal facility near the Mississippi coast. The storm had cut off electricity and water to the center, and the two helicopters were supposed to drop their loads and return to Pensacola, their home base, said Cmdr. Michael Holdener, Pensacola's air operations chief. "Their orders were to go and deliver water and parts and to come back," Commander Holdener said.
But as the two helicopters were heading back home, the crews picked up a radio transmission from the Coast Guard saying helicopters were needed near the University of New Orleans to help with rescue efforts, the two pilots said. Out of range for direct radio communication with Pensacola, more than 100 miles to the east, the pilots said, they decided to respond and turned their helicopters around, diverting from their mission without getting permission from their home base.
Pssssst..crackle..sputter.."Say again base, I can't hear you, you're breaking up"..sputter..hisssss."Ok, let's go!"
Within minutes, they were over New Orleans. "We're not technically a search-and-rescue unit, but we're trained to do search and rescue," said Lieutenant Shand, a 17-year Navy veteran.
Hummmm, 17 year Navy lieutenant? That's a O-3, equal to AF Captain. Unless he was enlisted in a previous life, he's missed a few promotion cycles. Perhaps this isn't the first time he's ignored orders
Flying over Biloxi and Gulfport and other areas of Mississippi, they could see rescue personnel on the ground, Lieutenant Udkow said, but he noticed that there were few rescue units around the flooded city of New Orleans, on the ground or in the air. "It was shocking," he said. Seeing people on the roofs of houses waving to him, Lieutenant Udkow headed in their direction. Hovering over power lines, his crew dropped a basket to pick up two residents at a time. He took them to Lakefront Airport, where local emergency medical teams had established a makeshift medical center.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Shand landed his helicopter on the roof of an apartment building, where more than a dozen people were marooned. Women and children were loaded first aboard the helicopter and ferried to the airport, he said.
Returning to pick up the rest, the crew learned that two blind residents had not been able to climb up through the attic to the roof and were still in the building. Two crew members entered the darkened building to find the men, and led them to the roof and into the helicopter, Lieutenant Shand said. Recalling the rescues in an interview, he became so emotional that he had to stop and compose himself. At one point, he said, he executed a tricky landing at a highway overpass, where more than 35 people were marooned.
Lieutenant Udkow said that he saw few other rescue helicopters in New Orleans that day. The toughest part, he said, was seeing so many people imploring him to pick them up and having to leave some. "I would be looking at a family of two on one roof and maybe a family of six on another roof, and I would have to make a decision who to rescue," he said. "It wasn't easy."
While refueling at a Coast Guard landing pad in early evening, Lieutenant Udkow said, he called Pensacola and received permission to continue rescues that evening. According to the pilots and other military officials, they rescued 110 people.
Good job, well done, etc. Now, about those orders...
The next morning, though, the two crews were called on the carpet to a meeting with Commander Holdener, who said he told them that while helping civilians was laudable, the lengthy rescue effort was an unacceptable diversion from their main mission of delivering supplies. With only two helicopters available at Pensacola to deliver supplies, the base did not have enough to allow pilots to go on prolonged search and rescue operations.
"We all want to be the guys who rescue people," Commander Holdener said. "But they were told we have other missions we have to do right now and that is not the priority."
While you're off being heros, other people's lives may be at risk without those supplies
The order to halt civilian relief efforts angered some helicopter crews. Lieutenant Udkow, who associates say was especially vocal about voicing his disagreement to superiors, was taken out of the squadron's flying rotation temporarily and assigned to oversee a temporary kennel established at Pensacola to hold pets of service members evacuated from the hurricane-damaged areas, two members of the unit said. Lieutenant Udkow denied that he had complained and said he did not view the kennel assignment as punishment.
"No, certainly not. I'm in the doghouse most of the time anyway"
Dozens of military aircraft are now conducting search and rescue missions over the affected areas. But privately some members of the Pensacola unit say the base's two available transport helicopters should have been allowed to do more to help civilian victims in the days after the storm hit, when large numbers of military helicopters had not reached the affected areas. In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, "So Others May Live."
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2005 09:10 ||
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But as the two helicopters were heading back home, the crews picked up a radio transmission from the Coast Guard saying helicopters were needed near the University of New Orleans to help with rescue efforts, the two pilots said. Out of range for direct radio communication with Pensacola, more than 100 miles to the east, the pilots said, they decided to respond and turned their helicopters around, diverting from their mission without getting permission from their home base.
I'm curious, what are the rules regarding intra-service assistance? If the Coast Guard (yes, part of the Armed Forces) radios for help, who should respond, and when?
#2
I know it's going to sound cold, but I agree with the reprimand. Yes, there's room for initiative, but if everyone did what they want, all those supplies would be rotting in Florida while people are starving in NO.
#4
Sounded like they had already delivered the supplies, and were heading back before the impromptu rescues.
" . . . privately some members of the Pensacola unit say the base's two available transport helicopters should have been allowed to do more to help civilian victims in the days after the storm hit, when large numbers of military helicopters had not reached the affected areas. In protest, some members of the unit have stopped wearing a search and rescue patch on their sleeves that reads, "So Others May Live." "
That's pretty telling. The miliary is about chain of command, which has to be obeyed, but it's also about people who have to make choices in difficult situations. I don't think their choice was a bad one.
Wouldn't it be unlikely that "people would be starving without the supplies" in this case? They didn't really endanger anything having to do with supply delivery, unless they were supposed to make several more runs (that was unclear). And wasn'tit arguably were more dangerous to the survivors to leave them on their roofs?
My other question is that they were responding to the Coast Guard request for help, and aren't they required to do that?
Anyway, you probably have more pro-military people (especially the blind guys) in pro-Democrat Louisiana right now because of their efforts.
I say spank 'em and send 'em to their rooms for a little while for breaking the rules, then take 'em out for a drink.
#7
I seem to recall that Pres Bush (Commander In Chief) said "Red tape later, do whatever it takes"
Doesn't that make it a direct order from a (Very) Superior Officer?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/07/2005 14:56 Comments ||
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After thinking about it a bit more, this Commander Holdner deserves a stiff reprimand for refusing to follow HIS (CNC's) orders.
Sounds exactly like one of those "Rules above common sense" Officers that screw up everything.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/07/2005 15:04 Comments ||
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#9
If the couple of hours spent in rescuing those folks caused starvation at the primary site, I would have to say the primary site should have been evacuated, because it would have been in pretty bad shape. Since they weren't, it wasn't and while disregarding orders is not a good career-enhancing move, the Boss must be right up there with FEMA in the cluelessness department.
The SAR and Helo guys I have been stationed with over 26 years of active duty put a very high premium on saving lives and some have paid for that with their own lives. To ground somebody for putting his life and that of his crew at risk to save people that should have left while hovering in tight spots is really stupid.
Posted by: DanNY ||
09/07/2005 07:01 ||
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#1
Actually a good idea. New Mexico is a good location, for several reasons, and can tailor-make a spaceport to maximum efficiency.
1) Broad sections of the State have no overflights from commercial aircraft.
2) Large tracts of inexpensive undeveloped land, yet near a southern rail line (for xporting large equipment.)
3) A history with experimental rocketry.
4) Military tracking nearby.
HOUSTON â Even before hurricane Katrina made landfall Monday, a massive relief brigade - one that officials hoped would be an equal match for a huge Category 4 storm - was being deployed to help residents along Louisiana's low-lying coast. Among them: The Red Cross called upon some 5,000 volunteers, including some who drove in from Washington State. Members of Fark.com, an online discussion board, offered to host fellow forum participants who were fleeing Katrina. And FEMA, the federal disaster-response agency, moved its search-and-rescue teams - as well as stockpiles of ice, water, and food - as close as safety would permit.
The outpouring of aid, possibly the largest the US has ever seen to cope with a domestic natural disaster, stems from Katrina's imposing size as well as its destination so near the major population center of New Orleans.
Such early deployment of relief is unusual in disaster-aid work. But damage projections had been so severe - and New Orleans deemed so vulnerable in its dependence on a network of levees, canals, and pumps to keep dry - that President Bush on Saturday went ahead and declared an emergency in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mobilize ahead of the storm.
Forecasters, scientists, and government officials have long worried that a hurricane could swamp the Big Easy, parts of which are 10 feet below sea level, and cause months of misery. As a result, relief agencies - public and private - moved with urgency once Katrina, which led to nine fatalities when it hit Florida Thursday as a much weaker storm, turned toward Louisiana. "This storm is so large ... that it's like all the storms from last year rolled together and probably [those were] still not as bad," says Margaret O'Brien-Molina, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross in its southwest region. "So our coordinated efforts have to be huge."
Last year, the Red Cross mobilized 7,000 volunteers total to handle the aftermath from four major hurricanes. For Katrina alone, it is working on sending upwards of 5,000. Staging areas set up at both Houston airports allowed arriving volunteers to get off their planes and onto the road as quickly as possible.
Red Cross emergency response vehicles, or ERVs, are crucial in a situation like this, says Ms. O'Brien-Molina, because many skeptical New Orleans residents didn't take the mandatory evacuation seriously enough and then were unable to get far enough away because of jammed evacuation routes. In addition, the Red Cross warehouse in Baton Rouge is filled with key supplies, and 283,000 heater meals are on their way to the state. Hot meals are also on their way - 80,000 per day - thanks to the Texas Baptist Men, a ministry with a history of disaster response. It plans to have available more than a dozen kitchens in Louisiana that can serve "one-pot meals," such as stew, chili, or chicken and rice. The kitchens are self-sufficient, with generators, water purifiers, and propane. To get to the most devastated areas, the group's members bring their own chain-saw units, along with chaplains and portable showers for those in need.
The Red Cross typically pays for the food, and the Texas Baptist Men prepare it. The Texas chapter alone has 18 mobile units. Seven are on their way, and the rest are on standby, says Gary Smith, disaster relief coordinator for the Texas Baptist Men in Dallas. "Earlier this year we mobilized for hurricane Emily," he says, "but it was nothing like this."
FEMA, meanwhile, had moved generators, ice, water, and food into the region for deployment after the storm. FEMA also brought in urban search and rescue teams from Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas, and set them up in Shreveport, La. Similar teams from Indiana and Ohio were staged in Meridian, Miss. FEMA also deployed 18 disaster medical assistance teams to staging areas in Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Louisiana deployed 3,500 Army National Guardsmen to help hurricane victims, and another 3,000 were on standby as of Monday morning, according to a Guard spokesman.
Statewide, 48 Red Cross shelters opened to residents in the storm's projected path. Hotels were packed as far away as Houston and Jackson, Miss. For New Orleans residents who couldn't - or didn't - leave, the city opened the Superdome. Katrina's 145-m.p.h. winds ripped away part of its roof Monday but as of press time had not forced an evacuation.
Other private and public aid - as well as volunteers - have been pouring into Louisiana over the past 48 hours. Office Depot says it will donate $1 million to the Red Cross, while Anheuser-Busch shipped 300,000 cans of drinking water to relief agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi. Wayne Elsey, president of Kodiak-Terra, a footwear company that donated thousands of pairs of shoes to South Asia after last year's tsunami, is setting up a "Katrina Relief Effort" fund.
The US Coast Guard shut down and evacuated its Gulf coast facilities, even as it sent more than 40 aircraft from the Eastern seaboard, and at least 30 small vessels, to the surrounding area. The units will be used for search-and-rescue operations and repairs of damaged waterways.
Though New Orleans has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since Betsy, a Category 3 in 1965, Katrina is being likened more to hurricane Camille in 1969, says Frank Lepore of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before making landfall, the storm's winds exceed 200 m.p.h. but weakened to less than 150 by the time it hit just east of New Orleans.
#1
Private donations are just under $500 mil and growing. The article gives the usual press to the Red Cross. The Salvation Army, the Methodists and the Southern Baptists are there in force, doing the same thing without the PR.
Foreign aid is also pouring in. The folks in NO should look up. There are copters from the Singapore Air Force overhead.
#2
Here are two e-mails I received over the weekend from my cousin who lives near the Mississippi line west of Mobile. My point being these people aren't sitting on their butts waiting for "the gubmint" but doing what needs to be done themselves. FYI... Just a quick note to let my genealogy friends know that I am alive. My family live on the Alabama-Mississippi State line with George County, Miss. We all rode out the storm here. My mobile home lost its roof and had other damage. I have "sky light" in the living room. There were many mobile homes in our community destroyed from tornadoes, winds, etc. We have no city water and are relying on a regenerator to pump well water. It is somewhat rough here as gas is almost non-existent at this time. Many
people from George County (Lucedale), Miss., and Jackson County (Pascagoula), Miss. are wandering over in desparation to find water, ice and gas. People are literally camping out at any gas station that they hear may have gas.
Rumors has it that people in Mobile County are also being held up and robbed; not fr money but but gas. People are having to "guard" their vehicles so no one ciphines gas out, etc. Generators are also hot items for theft. Please
keep us and our neighbors in Mississippi in your prayers.
Well, I will send this email now and many more later.
Larry E. Caver, Jr.
P.O. Box 520
Wilmer, Ala. 36587
Friends,
The power came back on here last night (Sat.). This morning I used some of
the gas we had on hand for generator power and put it in my F150 truck to make a delivery to Miss. I took ice, water, food, cokes, candles, etc. and made a delivery to a trailer park on Hwy 90 between Pascagoula and Moss Point, Miss. All the trailers in the park were damaged and/or destroyed, but many people were still staying in them. They were very thankful for the items.
I was glad to see that more trucks were getting out to remote areas to distribute ice from local Volunteer Fire Depts. We may make another run that way with food.
Take care where ever you are.
Larry E. Caver, Jr.
Wilmer, Ala.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/07/2005 14:04 Comments ||
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#3
Catholic Charities as well, amigo. NO was a Catholic enclave before it be came welfare projects central. I gave to both CC and Salvation Army....both are well-run, low o/h and the $ get put to good use. RC has cleaned up a lot, I just prefer not to use them
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/07/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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#4
From my experience, CC, is stellar
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 17:41 Comments ||
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The National Football League is refusing to punt Kanye West, despite the rapper's controversial trashing of President Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina. The NFL stood by the hip-hop star Tuesday at a Los Angeles press conference announcing the talent lineup for the upcoming Opening Kickoff special this Thursday. Well, of course they did, what did you expect? I'm sure someone will be screaming "Freedom of Speech" here soon!
The roster still includes the Chicago-based rapper, who made waves Friday when he ignored the TelePrompTer and lashed out at the White House response to hurricane victims during NBC's live telethon, saying "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Well, then, why'd he send in the military? If he REALLY didn't care, he would've just stayed in Crawford and eaten BBQ. I mean, Cindy Sheehan and her moonbats are gone now. Why would he even lift a finger if he could just continue his "vacation"?
The network edited out West's remark from the West Coast rebroadcast and hastily issued a press release that said that the "Gold Digger" rapper's "opinions in no way represent the views of the network." "So much for Freedom of Speech," replied John Q. Doo-Gooder, head of the ACLU.
West was asked several times to comment on his remarks at the NFL press conference, but declined to address the issue, saying that between the hurricane and the controversy, it created "a lot of pressure for one human being." "And, yes, I must shoulder ALL of this burden myself. F#*k all you crackers," he added.
"I don't want to detract from the show at all, because it's entertainment, and a lot of times, in a time of need, we need entertainment to lift people's spirits," West added. "Besides, how else am I gonna sell millions of records if I don't get on TV, punk?" he concluded.
League spokesman Brian McCarthy, meanwhile, told the Los Angeles Times that West "expressed an unscripted opinion." Performers, McCarthy said, were selected "for their entertainment value, not their political views." "Of course we select them for their entertainment value. Look at all the great controversy entertainment we've had in the last year. Janet Jackson's breast, Nicolette Sheridan's nakedness and even the Rolling Stones' new song, 'Sweet Neocon'! How much more entertainment can you expect us to provide?" he added. (I swear, sometimes these articles/quotes truly sound like the onion).
Steve Brener, a rep for the event, did not yet know what songs West is planning to perform during his "medley," aside from a version of "Heard 'Em Say," but it's a safe bet the Time magazine cover subject will not be performing the new track "Crack Music," in which he raps, "Who gave Saddam anthrax?/George Bush got the answers." Oh, I wouldn't put it past him. Guess the NFL can "credibly deny" that he wouldn't sing that song, just b/c it wasn't in their lineup. Just like NBC can deny it b/c he strayed from their script.
Yeah, but you better belive they'll have that time delay operational with a sweaty palm hovering above the "mute" button.
In any case, West's performance will be taped 20 minutes before the show comes on live, then will be edited into the telecast. How 'bout just not showing the whole performance?
Some football fans are having an increasingly difficult time buying the league's position regarding halftime and preshow talent tapped by the NFL in its quest to lure increasingly a younger and more diverse demographic. Boy, that's the understatement of the year. Myself? I've never really cared for pro football (love college football), but this definitely puts the nail in the coffin of me ever watching the NFL again.
Last month, many pigskin faithful of the conservative ilk were outraged that the league was launching a campaign featuring the Rolling Stones, whose latest release, A Bigger Bang, features a scathing indictment of the Bush administration in the form of the track "Sweet Neo Con." "But we hire them for their entertainment value, not their political stances."
The Los Angeles Times suggested ... (ya think? I'd say it should be more than a "suggestion")
... the league hasn't learned any lessons after suffering backlash in the wake of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" incident last year or Nicollette Sheridan's towel-dropping segment preceding a Monday Night Football game last November. Perhaps it's easier for the NFL to back West now that the Grammy-winning artist is the hottest thing in music. "Yeah! And don't forget my million album record sales, boooyyyyy!"
His new album, Late Registration, will top the charts with sales expected to exceed 900,000 when Nielsen SoundScan releases its weekly report Wednesday. It would've hit a million, but 100,000 were looted in 'Nawlins.
Aside from West, Good Charlotte, Rihanna and Maroon 5 will also play the Opening Kickoff special, which takes place at the Los Angeles Coliseum Thursday. The free event begins at 2:30 p.m. PT, with portions airing live and on tape during the 5-6 p.m. pregame on ABC. The season kicks off at 6 p.m. with the Oakland Raiders taking on the New England Patriots. Guess I'll just have to watch Brit Hume's show during that time.
Meanwhile, West is putting his words into action regarding Hurricane Katrina. He will perform on BET's S.O.S. (Saving Ourselves) benefit on Friday and then join the Stones, Kelly Clarkson and Paul McCartney for the ReAct Now: Music & Relief special on MTV, VH1 and CMT this Saturday. Several more instances where I'll be watching Fox News this weekend (if I'm not heading to the Mississippi coast myself to help out).
Posted by: AFP correspondent guy ||
09/07/2005 07:30 ||
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#1
Here's a question? Why's the NFL need this bullshit concert in the first place?
#2
What do you expect from a league who worships Ray Lewis - convicted of obstruction of justice in a murder investigation, which is a much worse offense than Martha Stewart's obstruction in a dropped insider trading case. By the way, who killed those people, Ray? It happened in a limo in which you were riding during the murders.
Should West go off it will be the first and last MNF football game I watch this year.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/07/2005 9:12 Comments ||
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#3
I too stand behind Kayne West ... in order to put my foot in his A&*!
#10
Looks like I'm going to get a lot of reading done until the last few weeks of the season when the games start to matter and there's no college action.
Maybe get the NHL pakcage on cable.
Good Bye NFL. Nice knowin ya. Shame you had to turn into Hollywood's bitch.
#11
There are good people in the NFL, and complete assholes too. I'm all for letting all of them mouth off to see who the dickheads are and who aren't.
More news for the "You couldn't make this sh!t up if you tried" column. Get a load of this! Michael Jackson is ready for action. Boy, the play on words is enormous in just that one statement, eh?
The entertainer, who's been enjoying a lengthy vacation in the United Arab Emigrates, has announced plans to record a song to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. The song, titled "From the Bottom of My Heart," is set to be released on 2 Seas Records, a label owned by Prince Abdulla Hamad Alkhalifa of Bahrain. Like I told ya, you just couldn't make this stuff up if you tried! Vacationing in UAE and recording on a label owned by the Prince of Bahrain? I imagine somehow, Michael will be making a TON more money than what he's dishing out to 'Nawlins, but that thought never crosses many peoples' minds.
He's doing it for the children
Jackson reportedly hopes to enlist other musical types to chime in on the song, in a flashback to the successful recording of "We Are the World," which helped raise millions of dollars for African aid, and the less successful recording of "What More Can I Give," his much delayed post-9-11 charity anthem. And we saw how successful those attempts were in ending evil and suffering in the world, now didn't we class?
"It pains me to watch the human suffering taking place in the Gulf Region of my country," Jackson said in a statement. "My heart and prayers go out to every individual who has had to endure the pain and suffering caused by this tragedy. I will be reaching out to others within the music industry, to join me in helping to bring relief and hope to these resilient people who have lost everything." "Besides, I'm in debt up to my fake eyeballs, with all my attorneys' fees and such," he added.
Of course, Jackson isn't the only celebrity pitching in on relief efforts. Well of course not. But let's not focus on the MILLIONS more who are donating time, energy, talent and money to help out those down there on the Gulf Coast. Nope, only A-listers count in the media world, even if they only show up for a few hours and are no where to be found for the long haul.
Many of Hollywood's A-listers have been vocal about their contributions to hurricane-related charities in an effort to inspire donations from the masses. Sounds more like grand-standing and trying to revive long dead careers to me.
Here's a look at how some famous folk are lending a hand in Katrina's wake:
George Clooney donated $1 million to the United Way for hurricane relief. "There isn't much any of us can do right now but pour money into this tragedy," Clooney said. "We're all in this one together."
Steven Spielberg and his family donated $750,000 to the American Red Cross for immediate relief and $750,000 to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund for long term recovery efforts.
Mississippi-based author John Grisham and his wife established the Rebuild The Coast Fund to aid in relief efforts on Mississippi's Gulf Coast and made an initial contribution of $5 million.
Oprah Winfrey spent time Monday among the 18,500 New Orleans evacuees who have taken refuge in Houston's Astrodome. "My pledge is to keep the stories of these people alive," the Queen of Daytime said.
Macy Gray also visited with displaced New Orleanians at the Astrodome, where she handed out clothes and toiletries on Saturday. "I just really wanted to help out," Gray said. "It is crazy when you don't know what is going to happen to you the next day and suddenly that is what their lives are like."
Jamie Foxx hosted an auction event at Miami's Delano Hotel at which more $600,000 was raised in a few hours for the American Red Cross. A New Year's Eve date with Paris Hilton (and a starring role in her next "video")
was sold for $200,000, while a date with Colin Farrell went for $10,000. Guests paid $200 a ticket to attend the event. Boy, I bet Colin's hurting after only being worth $10k vs. Paris' $200k tab, eh?
Producers of American Idol announced that the season four contestants would add a date to their Idols Live! Tour and play a Sept. 11 concert in Syracuse, New York to benefit relief efforts. What? A benefit concert for 'Nawlins on 9/11? It's almost as if the moonbats truly believe there is no more terrorism in this world. Two different catastrophes, by two different causes. Look, I'm all for raising money, but to link the two is moronic.
Organizers of Ozzfest teamed with Red Cross volunteers to accept cash donations from concertgoers Sunday at the tour's final date in West Palm Beach, Florida. Stars including Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys, Randy Newman (who? Is this Paul's bro or something?), Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and Neil Young are scheduled to perform on Shelter for the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, a primetime benefit special to be simulcast on numerous networks, including E!, on Friday. Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Nicholson and Chris Rock are among the celebrities slated to appear. Oh, great! Can't wait to hear what they have to say.
Finally, there was at least one celeb whose relief efforts reportedly didn't pan out as planned. According to published reports, Sean Penn traveled to New Orleans and boarded a small motor boat with the intention of rescuing children still stranded by the storm. However, Penn apparently neglected to plug a hole in the boat, which began taking on water, forcing the actor to start bailing and thwarting his rescue attempts. Another sign that the "A-listers" have NO clue on how to live a survival-style lifestyle should L.A. ever be hit. Of course, I imagine Penn would be too busy "reporting" from Tehran.
Posted by: AFP correspondent guy ||
09/07/2005 07:51 ||
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#1
Michael, Throw My Boat an Oar What's it toooooo 'ya?
Posted by: Sean Penn ||
09/07/2005 10:44 Comments ||
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#2
Randy Newman sang "Short People", as well as a few other songs.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/07/2005 10:58 Comments ||
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#3
I thought Michael Jackson was giving a concert tour at all the UN Peacekeeper deployments.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/07/2005 11:31 Comments ||
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#4
Thanks, RC! I was OP, but for some reason my screen name defaulted to 1 I used for just a few postings a week or two ago (for humor). What is it with these has-beens of the 60s and 70s? First in Crawford and now here?
Posted by: BA ||
09/07/2005 11:34 Comments ||
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#5
The entertainer, who's been enjoying a lengthy vacation in the United Arab Emigrates, has announced plans to record a song to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.
A number of New Orleans police patrol cars have been spotted in Houston since Hurricane Katrina struck â several of which are now being stored in HPD parking lots, officials said. Details about how the patrol cars arrived in Houston remained sketchy , more than a week after the devastating storm caused major flooding in the city. "To our knowledge, (the patrol cars) have been driven by New Orleans police officers," said Lt. Robert Manzo, an HPD spokesman.
New Orleans police commanders are aware that several of their patrol cars are now in Houston, Manzo said. "We were told not to stop them and we were told that these cars were not reported stolen," Manzo said. The patrol cars apparently were taken by New Orleans police officers as they evacuated the city, officials said. "That was the only mode of transportation," Manzo said. New Orleans police officials "are not interested in pursuing any charges against (the drivers.)"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/07/2005 02:02 ||
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#1
There is something really strange going on here.
What do all these cops have on the mayor, or someone close to the mayor?
#3
There is also something going on with the Govenoralong the same lines. She is isolating her departments from all outsiders.
I think there is some sort of corruption that these people are so afraid will be exposed if they lose control or piss of the wrong people in there organizations? BIG corruption.
#5
What do all these cops have on the mayor, or someone close to the mayor?
Either ties to crime or direct evidence of his decision to let the people of New Orleans drown.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/07/2005 7:56 Comments ||
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#6
Within a day or so of the levee break, I heard an interview on the radio with a NOLA cop who had driven to Houston to be with his brother (also a NOLA cop, supposedly on a medical leave of absence [LOA]). The one who had just driven in started to be interviewed about what he had gone through, then thought better of it & stopped talking. The brother on leave of absence finished the interview. I think it was NPR's morning show, but I'm not sure now. I was surprised that the cop was shameless enough to even be willing to appear in public after leaving his fellow officers and citizens in the lurch. Maybe he realized his situation & stopped the interview. His brother on LOA seemed clueless as to the significance of the situation, but then he (apparently) had nothing to be ashamed of.
Those cops who walked off had better change their identities & go underground.
#7
I suspect New Orleans legal officials will change their mind about pursuing charges once they have recovered from their own fatigue & stress and once the death toll is added up. I saw a few TV interviews with the remaining NOLA cops, and they were very angry about being abandoned by their own.
#1
I've been extremely non PC lately, but when I read this headline the first thought was probably by sending folks. Yep.
Actually any help is good I guess...
Posted by: Jan ||
09/07/2005 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
Taco Bell, Jack in the Box lunches for everyone, senor
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 0:25 Comments ||
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#3
Article: Some 145,000 Mexicans live in the large swath of the U.S. Gulf Coast affected by the powerful hurricane, 10,000 of them in New Orleans, according to official figures.
Posted by: DanNY ||
09/07/2005 6:50 Comments ||
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...Glad they sent it and I know every set of hands is welcome - but did anyone notice that's a Russian helo on the fantail, and an old Soviet personnel carrier swimming in the foreground?..
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/07/2005 7:11 Comments ||
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Hundreds of thousand of Mexican relief workers poured across the border today in support of Hurrican relief efforts....
#9
Current conditions in Nawlins are still a step up from some places down in Mexico. Except for the police. Even though the Mexican police are pretty corrupt too, at least they don't try to sneak into Texas in their cop cars.
#10
least they don't try to sneak into Texas in their cop cars.
That previlage is reserved for the Mexican Army. They've been photographed on this side of the border in fully armed jeeps. Most likely escourting drug runners. The locals complain, but nothing ever gets done about it.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/07/2005 17:01 Comments ||
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#11
Who do you think will be rebuilding most of the houses in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana? Although I have seen no formal statistics, it always seems as if the bulk of construction crews in the Southeast speak Spanish.
Lawmakers have a message for any local officials who think farmland on the edge of town might make a nice shopping mall: Seize the property and you'll lose federal funding for your community.
Republicans and Democrats alike want to negate a recent Supreme Court ruling that gave cities broad power to take private properties for use as shopping malls or other development. "This potentially could allow a city to go out and confiscate a sugar beet field and turn it into a shopping mall," said Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the senior House Agriculture Committee Democrat.
Come to suburban Chicago, we've been doing this for decades ...
The committee is holding a hearing Wednesday on the most far-reaching of several bills to thwart the high court's ruling. The measure would yank all federal economic development funds from any state, city or town that seizes private property in the name of economic development. "If they try to do it for private commercial purposes, they lose all their money," said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, the bill's sponsor. "You lose it across the board if you try to take property for free enterprise purposes and not through the traditional eminent domain purposes."
At issue is the court's 5-4 ruling in June that New London, Conn., could take people's homes for a private development project under the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which allows the seizure of private property if the land is for public use. The court said the city's vision of generating jobs and revenue are a long-accepted function of government.
The ruling is clearly the law of the land and Congress can't change it, said Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., an Agriculture Committee member. But Congress can send a message to communities that they will be punished if they enrich one private party at the expense of another, she said. The committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is co-sponsoring the bill with Peterson, Herseth and several other lawmakers.
The measure raises concerns of the National League of Cities, which backed New London before the Supreme Court. Executive Don Borut said it's ironic that those who believe in states' rights turn to the federal government when they don't like a state's actions. "If there are abuses, they need to be addressed, but to have a blanket, one-size-fits-all rush to judgment at the federal level seems to really be overkill," Borut said. "The fact is, these are decisions that really need to be made at the state level. This is a preemption of local authority."
Minnesota farmer Bryan Lawrence thinks Congress needs to step in. He said the state took 10 acres of his land in Coon Rapids, north of Minneapolis, to create a drainage pond for a nearby shopping mall. Lawrence was about to put a convenience store there that would have made more money; instead, he said, the state awarded him one-quarter of the property's market value. "There's no checks and balances to ensure that a property owner is treated fairly and receives just compensation," Lawrence said.
So he wants compensation because his farmland was turned into a drainage pond for baby ducks instead of a 7-11. My head hurts from all the spinning ...
The agriculture panel is working on the bill because an array of federal dollars come from the Agriculture Department. Funds from Commerce, Health and Human Services, Interior and other departments would be withheld.
#1
Come to suburban Chicago, we've been doing this for decades ...
I'm certain that stately White Manor would surely earn more revenue as the "Wheelus West Saloon" and Rantburg Retirement Villas...now who do I need to bribe call?
#2
Legalized theft at below market prices. Lawyers inventing new uses of the law to benefit lawyers. They have been doing this for years in California.
The best plan. Make it a violation of federal law with a minimum sentence of ten years and a in federal supermax prison and a 10 million dollar fine if property is siezed by the government under eminent domain and passed to a private party by any type sale, gift, loan or lease within 50 years of being condemned sized or aquired against the owners will.
#3
Seizure is one scam. The usual trick was for the local political body in charge to rezone the agricultural land to residential/retail, then re-assess the farmland like it was already full of L-shaped ranch houses and cul-de-sacs and strip malls. The farmer could no longer make the tax payments and the friendly neighborhood developer would arrive to save the day and buy the land off the farmer.
Believe me, I'm not putting down suburbia. I grew up in one for over half my childhood, live in one and will probably die in a suburb. I like it. But these shenanigans have been going on since Bob Moses built the first projects in NYC and Levitt built Levittown. The only thing that's changed is that the Internet is allowing us to compare notes. In the last fifteen years, I've seen with my own two eyes a lot of working poor (_not_ welfare bums) driven out of their homes using these tactics. I'm sick of it and hope that others are starting to see the light, too.
#4
BTW, why do you think the MSM has been silent about these gross abuses of power for the last 50 years? There are a hell of a lot of ads for real estate and retail stores in your local paper...
#5
The O-club in one of the bluest 'burbs in a blue state? Better build a high fence ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/07/2005 1:52 Comments ||
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#6
Haven't you heard? Congress is unnecessary. The Federal Courts have overturn legislation that denies federal monies to schools that don't permit recruiters, the lower courts so far have sided with the complaintants. Some states and cities just have to find the right judge and no matter what is passed, the feds will directed to pay. We have our barons and dukes running us now. Congress is a coward for not removing this modern royalty from the bench and surrendering their power of the purse. Now its just all show and acting upon the Hill.
#7
11A5S is right. This was going on well before this ruling (through re-zoning). Rezoning hearings are some of the most interesting, heated debates I've ever seen in my life. The Supremes have just gone 1 step further and allow it to happen "legally" now. And, any attempt to withold fed funds will be challenged in court and beat, you can bet on that. I completely stupifies me as to how such CLEAR worded language (of the 5th Amendment) has been sooooo skewed by the "enlightened ones."
Posted by: BA ||
09/07/2005 9:54 Comments ||
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The Dominican Republic passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement Tuesday with an overwhelming margin, the U.S. trade office said. The Dominican Republic became the fifth country to vote favorably for the trade pact joining El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the United States. The trade pact approved by the United States late July, aims to expand trade with six Latin American countries including Costa Rica.
"CAFTA-DR offers more than free trade," said Rob Portman, U.S. Trade Representative. "It offers new hope for easing poverty, fostering development, and strengthening democracy. It is about strengthening the rule of law and improving transparency to counter corruption."
"This agreement levels the playing field for American workers, farmers and businesses, expands choices for consumers and strengthens democracies in our neighborhood," added Portman. Portman explained that the United States would be coordinating with the five other CAFTA countries over the next several weeks to determine when to put the agreement into effect.
Tens of thousands of evacuees are heading to communities in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota, cold weather states with welcoming hearts.
The first 200 of an expected 2,000 evacuees from soggy, hurricane-battered New Orleans arrived in Chicago Tuesday as thousands more headed to the Midwest. The evacuees were taken to a center in Fosco Park on the near West Side to be briefed and moved to temporary housing. The first planeload of 140 evacuees arrived at Battle Creek Air National Guard base in Michigan Monday afternoon and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said his state was prepared to clothe, shelter and feed 5,000 evacuees for months. Up to 3,000 evacuees were expected in Minnesota in a relief exercise the state National Guard dubbed Operation Northern Comfort.
A majority of the 500,000 displaced residents of New Orleans are staying closer to home in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee Arkansas and Florida, but evacuees are being housed as far away from Louisiana as Colorado and Massachusetts.
This resonates with an interesting comment in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web blog (registration req'd)
If Katrina's aftermath was, or is seen to have been, a government failure, state and local officials in the affected states--especially Louisiana--are likely to pay a price. And Katrina may change Louisiana politics for another reason: demographics. The storm forced a mass exodus from New Orleans and vicinity, and many residents surely will resettle out of state. The political effect will depend on whence the emigrants turn out to have come.
In the 2004 election, President Bush carried Louisiana by 281,870 votes, according to data from David Leip's election atlas. A breakdown by parish shows that the two candidates ran almost exactly even in the New Orleans area: John Kerry had a 109,763-vote margin within the city (Orleans Parish), while Bush beat Kerry by a combined 109,546 votes in the suburban parishes of Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany.
Obviously if more New Orleans residents than suburbanites move out of state, Louisiana will become more Republican. Less obviously, the state will become more Republican even if flight from the suburbs equals that from New Orleans, since the evenly divided New Orleans region will account for a smaller part of the population than the heavily GOP-leaning rest of the state.
New Orleans's Mayor Ray Nagin is up for re-election in February 2006, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu in November 2007, and Sen. Mary Landrieu in November 2008. All four are Democrats. When they point the finger at the federal government for whatever went wrong in the Katrina response, remember that they are fighting for their political lives.
#1
Evacuee's relocating so far north, hmmmm, just when winter is around the corner.
When I drove down during spring break from Colorado, some had never seen studded tires (I never changed my tires just for the one week trip). Hopefully they will adapt easily.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/07/2005 0:24 Comments ||
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#2
Most will return south eventually. My LA friends don't care for the "chill bumps" weather up north.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/07/2005 0:30 Comments ||
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#3
Yep, it's a new thing.
Posted by: P Joad ||
09/07/2005 19:53 Comments ||
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#4
The way I hear it they're headed west to Texas where they'll be swamped, either way. Consider this, the tax loss to LA will be big. Property and Income. I hope we help LA every bit as much as MS, and not a penny more.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/07/2005 20:46 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A number of New Orleans police patrol cars have been spotted in Houston since Hurricane Katrina struck â several of which are now being stored in HPD parking lots, officials said. Details about how the patrol cars arrived in Houston remained sketchy , more than a week after the devastating storm caused major flooding in the city. "To our knowledge, (the patrol cars) have been driven by New Orleans police officers," said Lt. Robert Manzo, an HPD spokesman.
