Sunday, September 4. 2005
Chertoff: "We're in Control" My thoughts: Three or four days late and a dollar short. Finally, the Feds are forced to shove the locals out of the way and take over NO. Just like we said. Here. It may not be legal, but we now have de-facto martial law and a federal take-over of the failed LA and NO govts. But where was FEMA on Weds? And why wouldn't the Gov. call in the National Guard to deal with the "insurgents"? And why did the Fed agencies watch while the local authorities were paralyzed with indecision, ignorance, and obvious incompetence, with barbarians running rampant? (We read that as late as Friday the Governor refused to let the Feds take over.) I want to hear the story from Bush, the head of FEMA, Chertoff, the Gov. of LA, the LA National Guard, the Mayor of NO, the NO Chief of Police, and the NO Chief of the Fire and Rescue Dept., the Chief of the LA State Police, the head of the LA National Guard, and the the person in charge of NO disaster planning. Under oath, please. Again, not that this was a manageable situation but rather one which was certain to result in death and destruction - but you try anything. It was clear on Tuesday that things were going to hell, and all of the past predictions for NO came true. Heck, even Maggie's Farm predicted it last Sunday: "Crash on the Levee." But I already know the answers: there was no real plan for a Cat 4 or Cat 5 storm, other than hope. And hope is not a plan. And, may I ask, what is Chertoff doing with this? This isn't Homeland Security. Is it? Oh, I see, FEMA is now under Homeland Security. Why? Combat operations in NO: An American Somalia "Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any servicemen being wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome Wednesday night. “I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.” " Read entire. Gov. Blanco refused help From the Anchoress: It seems President Bush tried on Friday night, after meeting with Gov. Blanco, to get her to streamline and centralize the continued efforts in New Orleans. Right away, political motivations are suspected, both in his offer, and her refusal. Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday. The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.
Indeed it would - and needed, too. Read entire. Lessons learned from Ivan ignored "A feckless state governor and New Orleans' mayor repeated the same mistakes they made with Ivan, and hundreds of thousands of largely poor people were forced to endure conditions that one associates with the Third World - not the richest nation on the planet." Read entire. The Race Issue: Bring it on, says Rick Moran Rick discusses the destructiveness of the War on Poverty, Moynihan's prescient warnings, and the govt-created culture of dependency. I think he overstates the case, however: the black middle class has been growing rapidly, and it is not only blacks who got caught in the culture of dependency - more whites than blacks. Still, it's a thoughtful essay on a subject which has been highlighted by NO. One paragraph, re LBJ's War on Poverty: "All these income distribution schemes did was hasten the destruction of the black family which led to a vicious cycle of more dependency, more frustration, and more anger. Even the welfare reform of the 1990’s did little to change what had become a national shame; a permanent underclass unable to escape the ravages of poverty. Millions of young men have grown up, lived, fought, and died in the streets who didn’t have to all because the compassion merchants and anti-poverty bullies have failed to grasp the debilitating effects of dependence on government and the causal relationship between that dependence and the “otherness” felt by African Americans in general but especially by young black men."
From a Lousiana guy, now living in New England Brewton from View from 1776. commented on our NO post yesterday, re LA culture. One paragraph: The ethos of the state, particularly in the southern, river delta
half, became entirely one of "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow
we die." New Orleans was a great commercial city (the south's largest
and richest as recently as 1945) that rebounded swiftly from the
devastating 1927 Mississippi River flood. The self-reliance of that
day is long gone.
Bill Clinton tells the truth...more or less: "Shit happens." Re Katrina, on Captain's Quarters
On an early Sunday morning, we like to call this view from the front porch of the hunting and fishing camp "The Church of Azicohos Lake" (Maine). Use your imagination to add the spooky call of the loons, or, for the real thing, click here. Not a bad spot for morning prayer and worship.
Saturday, September 3. 2005
New Orleans The Anchoress has two good pieces on the failure of local and state govt (thanks for the intro, neo-neocon). And Neo-neocon addresses the failure to prepare. View from 1776 discusses the moral failures of NO. Right Thinking has a little debate with the reflex Bush-bashers. Vilmar agrees with us - don't rebuild. RWNH covers the territory - the Bush-bashing, the immature blame-game, the racism issues, and mainly, money-raising to help out. And of course Michelle is on top of things. My humble opinion: Despite total incompetence, ignorance, stupidity, and corruption of the local hack, low-life politicians, and unprofessional police (one third abandoned their posts, and many joined in the looting) no-one can quickly manage a natural disaster on this scale. Even if they weren't such losers. That's why they call it a "disaster." If it were manageable, it would be called a "problem." This is beyond a "problem." This is the nature-imposed destruction of a city, with a local response which was an embarrassment, both practically and morally. And why didn't Bush know they were too incompetent to handle things? Don't know. He should have been told they were incompetent losers who would pass the buck and give him the blame for their failures. Still, he was the guy who told the gov. to order evacuation, but she had no plan to do so even though everyone knew this would be a problem, for decades. And the mayor - forget it - what a pathetic grandstanding, alligator-tears, manipulative schmuck who evades responsibility for his shortcomings and errors like a seasoned politico-sociopath. I'm surprised he didn't bring out a dead puppy or dead ma or drowned grandma to the cameras, to emotionally strong-arm people in an amateur political way in a pathetic effort to save his political life. Who took care of 9-11? Guiliani and Pataki. Who has taken care of all of the hurricanes in Fla? Jeb. What is the purpose of local and state govts, if not to protect their folks? Hello. Well, I guess this isn't New York City. It's Amateur Hour. No local heroes here - too bad. They had their chance-of-a-lifetime to be national heroes instead of whining crybabies, and they flunked the test of life. And they know it, too - hence their immature blaming to conceal their shame: that's usually what blaming is all about. Well, the nation is now on the job, and those local "officials" should get out of the way and hide themselves in disgrace. Including the NO sleazebag cops and sleazebag politicians. Get out of the way. The grown-ups are arriving, now that these people have made a mockery of the concept of federalism and the notion of state and local responsibility. Because of local corrupt politics and idiot politicians, it is Bush's, and OUR, problem now. But fear not - we will pick up the slack. For donations, we still prefer the Salvation Army - always first to arrive and last to leave. Still annoyed with the Red Cross. The $ is flowing in like a hurricane's flood. $5 or $100 - it all helps people, regardless of their characters. And thanks, Editor Bird Dog, for unleashing me. You may need to kennel me up when you return, with a good whack with a newspaper, if you get any of them anymore. Read our tasteless (post-hurricane, but pre-flood, satire) here, (which is coming true), and our piece on Send Money, Don't Rebuild, here.
Friday, September 2. 2005
Truth from Kate at small dead animals Blog, in Canada:Government officials and elected leaders urge the citizens to evacuate to save their lives. They warn of the scope of the impending storm and the potential of devastation. They mobilize and priorize. Hospital staff stay on duty to care for the sick and infirm. The doors to the largest facility available that may withstand the storm are opened in hopes that those who had no way of escaping, or somehow learned of them too late, can find refuge. And tens of thousands ignore them and remain in their homes. Many of them have cars parked in their driveways. Many who don't are able-bodied and capable of walking. They ignore the warning and simply remain where they are, though they have children and elderly in their care. With the storm passed, the waters rising faster than the heat, electricity failed and supplies running out, when the truth begins to dawn on the survivors - that the state is not all-powerful, that the mere human beings charged with coming to their aid,are, in fact, mere human beings who cannot come sweeping to their rescue like the cavalry over a Hollywood hill, that there are so many to rescue, because like they, so many have ignored the warnings - do they pool their resources? Do they find strength in human dignity and sanctity of life? Do the strong come to the aid of the weak? Do they summon patience and resolve in the knowledge that help is on the way, if only they can find the courage to help themselves a little longer? What is their response to this consequence that has befallen them, a consequence largely of their own making? "You owe us" . They take what others have failed to provide, those things required to sustain life - jewelry and television sets. And when taking isn't enough (it never is), they devolve into predation and anarchy, abandon the weak, turn upon the innocent and each other - and all in a matter of days. In former times entire nations found the strength to rise to the occasion, ordinary people understood that survival depended on their shared common decency and respect for their fellow citizen. That, by co-operating and persevering, they might create coping mechanisms through pooling skills and resources, and to be sure, the majority of those trapped in New Orleans will have done just that. But, in former times, whole nations were not living in a time of entitlement, where all and any are provided for by an all-encompassing "social safety net", funded by those faceless others with more, who have life easier, whom we have been trained to envy. Those human failings, irresponsible and anti-social behaviors that once brought consequences in the community - shame, ostracization, and deserved personal deprivation - are today excused, assigned new and neutral nomenclature (all the better for medical diagnosis), prescribed "tolerance", and if possible, assigned the politics of race or class, so that collective guilt may be mined to ensure that self-destructive behavior gains not only acceptance, but state funding. The predatory violence and anarchy befalling New Orleans is not the result of a freak convergence of forces brought on by unnatural disaster. It's a warning.
Read the entire excellent piece.
Lord of the Flies From Newsmax: Armed gangs of roaming thugs are the primary reason relief efforts in flood-ravaged New Orleans have been delayed, a prominent New York congressman said Friday morning.
"The main problem in obstructing the relief operation - it's almost like a Mogadishu-like gang situation that's prevailing in New Orleans," Rep. Peter King told WABC Radio's John Gambling.
From Gov. Barbour (Mississippi): "We're going to rebuild the coast bigger and better than ever," he said. "But it's not going to get done next month. It's probably not going to get finished next year. It's going to be a long time. We're in it for the long haul."
Do you call that "learning from experience"? And a quote from Powerline (we rarely quote them, since we assume you read them, but I can't help it: "Dr. David Caskey writes from Louisiana. We can't vouch for what he says; all I know is, he's there and we're not: A lot is going on down here that is not in the news. First, our esteemed governor and the mayor of NO are both idiots. This is the real reason for problems. Second, the NO police force is second only to the mafia in corruption and much of the looting and theft are coming from them as well as their lassitude in doing their job. Third, all Louisiana communities need clothes of any kind. See if your local Salvation Army will send to the shelters throughout the state and blog to give any clothes to the [Salvation] Army. You notice I did not say the Red Cross, they do not have a sizable presence here and are only fishing for money like after 9/11."
Confirmation of above from a reader: "That's right--cops are seriously corrupt and if you do not act like a racist - avoiding black neighborhoods, which is most of the city - and being careful of where you go and what you do - by the time you have lived in New Orleans one month, you will be forced to. Expect no help from their cops. Its' a big dirty secret. Relief does not get in because they are scared shitless and they should be--I personally know over ten people held at gunpoint including my best friend and roommate while I lived there. You don't garner a name like the Big Easy for nothing. NO is the crime capital of the US, and it has never bothered the Mayor. This isn't about race - I am not white - it's just a black city, and a city with minimal morals." And more confirmation here. But, despite all of the politicization and lies and problems, the main thing now is just to help those folks, the good and the bad.
A few quotes from Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence "During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize." and "The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products -- corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port -- including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on." and
"...it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside -- and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.
The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. " I would quote more from the excellent report by Friedman at Stratfor, but it is a subscription site, and a valuable one, so I hope they won't mind our quotes if we provide their site, here.
We need more Bubbas: T. "Bubba" Bechtol, part time City Councilman from Pensacola, Florida, was
asked on a local live radio talk show the other day just what he thought of
the allegations of torture of the Iraqi prisoners. His reply prompted his
ejection from the studio, but to thunderous applause from the audience.
"If hooking up an Iraqi prisoner's scrotum to a car's battery cables will
save one American GI's life, then I have just two things to say: "Red is positive - Black is negative"
Michelle is up to date on the moonbats, flood relief, and related issues, here.
The Help Pours In - Up to $100 million as of yesterday noon, according to this piece in the NYT. The Cavalry Arrives - 12,000 National Guard troops arrive. Denny Hastert must be a Maggie's Farm reader: "Don't re-build." Here. And so must the Editorial writers at the NYT - "The conceit that we can control the natural world is what made New Orleans vulnerable." Here. However, they undo that statement by proceeding to explain how if govt had spent 17 billion, it might have helped. Press urges Gov. Barbour to blame Bush for Katrina. And BlameBush has the grisly truth about Bush's visit today to New Orleans: But will the cameras be on as he cashes the check for all the war profits he's made as working families struggle to keep their heads above water? Will they capture the look of orgasmic joy on his face as he surveys the piles of dead Democrat voters? Will the microphones record the screams - the horrible screams - as Bush rips the head off a hurricane victim with his bare hands and drinks the blood from his skull? Of course not. The media will show us exactly what Rove wants us to see: Bush hugging paid shills with phony compassion.
Katrina effects on travel, here. Bayou Looters in CT - Not all of the looters are in New Orleans. Also from the NYT: "Federal prosecutors sued the Bayou Funds yesterday, saying the hedge fund company and securities firm run by Samuel Israel III directed a years-long fraud that attracted more than $300 million from investors. Mr. Israel is said to be at the Westchester County house he rents for $32,000 a month from Donald J. Trump. "Click here: U.S. Sues Bayou; Fraud Cited - New York Times
America's Black "Leadership", and New Orleans Gwynnie has noted on TV and in news bulletins the extreme division of the African-American community in New Nairobi, LA. Most of them are gentle people of the deepest, most sincere faith, which comes through in everything they say. The other part resembles the most lawless areas of Africa: Nairobi, Darfur, and Somalia, and their shameless, smirking appearances in huge numbers on TV may well deepen the residual racism in the United States, which is not what we need. Black looters have even been shooting at the police, military helicopters, air ambulances and rescue boats, all of whom have had to cease or suspend vital search and rescue operations. One would think that the Rev. Jesse Jackson, National Urban League President Marc Morial, and NAACP President Bruce Gordon would get down a to New Orleans as fast as possible to use their powers of persuasion to halt the anarchistic looting and bring order. But no; what is the NAACP’s current concern? Justice Roberts, whom they strongly opposed in a press release yesterday, August 31, while New Orleans and Mississippi writhen in agony! Gwynnie says the media’s favorites in the African-American leadership appear much more interested working in their personal interests than in the interests of the people they purport to support. (She actually said, “pampered, over-stuffed, self-important, self-promoting political windbags”). Update: Gwynnie heard on the radio last night that the country's African-American leaders ARE doing something about New Nairobi -- they are telling the maimstream media not to show pictures of the looting and riots. If you censor it, it didn't happen.
Exploiting Katrina It's not news that the Left is at war with America and with the Bush administration. Lies are no problems for them - war is hell. After all, we all know that hurricanes are caused by Bush's refusal to sign Kyoto, the levees were weak because Bush didn't give enough $, the blacks in New Orleans were poor because of Bush's racism, New Orleans is mainly black because, well, maybe Bush put them all there, Bush was too busy flirting with Cindy "Sheehan-Crawford" to pay attention to the crisis, gas prices are up because of Bush's Saudi cabal, we have too few National Guard units because of Bush's wrong and illegal war against the lovable and misunderstood Saddam ... what have I missed? Oh, of course - Bush has no heart and no feelings and no brain. Glassman at TCS hits the contemptible exploiters of natural disaster here.
Light Blogging Through Labor Day. Best wishes to our readers for a fine holiday weekend. We will pre-post a few things so the well don't run dry. And we will put the News Junkie on the New Orleans stories, with the promise of a hefty bonus. Yes, that is Cape Cod, where we are never surprised that sea and wind rule the earth.
Interviewer: So tell me, Mr. Harrison, what was it like to be a Beatle? George Harrison: Well, I dunno. What was it like not to be a Beatle?
Thursday, September 1. 2005
 Further Comment on New Orleans: Give $, But Please Don't Re-build
This is a heart-breaking human catastrophe, but please, everybody, quit it with the brave-sounding but totally-in-denial "We'll rebuild" talk. Don't do it. There is courage, and there is hubris: challenging the gods of wind and water is hubris. Just ask any sailor, or anyone who lives near the sea. These gods, givers of both good and ill, are patient but relentless, and will have their own way in time. Our Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts were once taller than the Alps. Wind and water brought them down to gentle hills. So also, obsessive Bush-haters, quit it with the blame. (He is not only not a god, but if you can blame him for bad weather, then you have to credit him for every nice day, too. We have tons of those, but this we will not do.) It is not only clearly disingenuous and dishonestly opportunistic - it also implies, with hubris again, that man has the power to overcome nature. You already read our satire on the subject (written after Katrina luckily bypassed New Orleans, but before the flooding began). However fine a city it is/was - one of America's favorite and most colorfully and happily decadent places - it's in the wrong place, and has always been an accident waiting to happen. Everyone knew that: it was part of its magic and mythology, a romantically-doomed place, our Atlantis-in-waiting. Blame it on the French settlers, who viewed it as a strategic military spot and a convenient trading place. Living below sea level is for ducks, fish and alligators. If New Orleans is to be rebuilt, this is the chance to do it on higher ground, instead of living at the mercy of nature and the often-misguided Army Corps of Engineers who, when not at war, are always looking for something to do to justify their budget. Let's do it in the practical American way, not in the French way. Cities, these days, have enough problems without the additional dangers of inhabiting a swamp surrounded by the mighty Missippippi River - already (temporarily) reconfigured to mankind's wishes, Lake Ponchartrain, and the Gulf of Mexico, while pretending that we are clever enough, and powerful enough, to outwit Mother Nature... but deep-down knowing that we cannot. That discussion can wait, however. The nation is pitching in with donations, as we always do - we posted Glenn's list yesterday and he has more today - we like the Salvation Army - always the angels for the truly down-and-out. Catholic Charities, which I worked for during college, is a strong and effective organization too. All we have to offer is money and prayer for folks, especially the poor, whose lives will never be the same. Photo: The god Neptune, Trevi Fountain (1762), Rome
A Very Fine Novelist offers the View from the Paranoid, Enraged, and Helpless-feeling Left. E.L. Doctorow looks deep into Bush's eyes and "figures him out" in a scathing ad hominem assault. More fiction from Doctorow? Our favorite blond, Laura Ingraham, would say "Shut up and sing write."I fault this president (George W. Bush) for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our twenty-one year olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear. But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the WMDs he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the thousand dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be. They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life. They come to his desk as a political liability which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq. (Read the rest of this predictably hateful, manipulative, condescending, amateur psychoanalytic, arrogant, party-line, juvenile rant from one of America's finest writers by clicking continuation page below. It would be a good game to identify every logical, moral and factual inconsistency herein, but who has the time? Or maybe I will make the time - or one of our readers will...)
Continue reading ""
Sea Turtle Protection Among the many predators which interfere with sea turtle reproductive success, Mexicans with the notion that turtle eggs enhance male potency are among the worst. People hang out on the beaches of Mexico at night with flashlights, and after a female has finished laying, they raid the nest in the sand and sell the eggs at ridiculous prices to sexually-insecure hombres. Sea turtles have enough problems (few of their babies survive to adulthood, fishing nets ensnare and drown them, some are illegally hunted for meat and shell, and shipping and propellers do damage too). So Mexico has produced an ad. Will it help? Worth a try. I don't think a photo of a turtle would have quite the same impact. Hey, amigos, try Viagra instead. It's cheaper than turtle eggs, and it really does work. Story here. For sea turtle conservation, we like the World Turtle Trust.
Katrina photos, here. Meteorologists contend Katrina's damage could have been far worse. And the Christian kooks come out of the woodwork to blame God's vengeance. Sheehan and other "useful idiots": Mark Alexander Yesterday we had the sad duty of reporting the banning of God from the Air Force. Today, chaplains enter the workplace - in CSM.
If the minimum wasn't acceptable it wouldn't be called the minimum.
George Muncaster (Air Force Wisdom)
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