Maggie's Farm

Disney New Orleans

The prospect of trying to rebuild New Orleans "safely" seems beyond stupid to me. Indeed, to do so would be to rip off every American taxpayer to make a futile gesture of defiance towards Mother Nature.

It has been estimated that it would take 15-20 years to build levees which could handle a Cat 4 storm, much less a Cat 5 - which is why the decision was made, years ago, not to. There will be another big storm before that time. Thus another disaster is guaranteed, regardless of expense. My first reaction is "Not on my nickel." As an investor, I wouldn't invest a penny. Would you?

But I have had an inspiration. Disney New Orleans. Call it "Disney NO" for short. Let Disney rebuild it as a tourist attraction, with their own money and their own insurance. I can see it now - Disney's jewel in their crown. A cleaner, neater, civilized New Orleans that America could be proud of. No poverty, no creeps, no dirt, no crime and no-one who would make a church lady from Dubuque uncomfortable. Happy, upbeat lite jazz coming at you through loudspeakers on the streets. Blackened Seafood-like Product at Chez Mickey's. Aerial tramways not just for around town, but also with express lines running to high ground shelters, just in case. Just rebuild the charming tourist stuff, OK? The French Quarter, the jazz bars, the restaurants, etc. Maybe a golf course or two, of course, where the rest of the city has been bulldozed. Golfers love seeing gators lying around: they add a bit of excitement to the otherwise brain-damaging effects of the game. Or they could kill all the gators and scatter mechanical gators around. Hey, and the best part - they could do a Mardi Gras parade daily from 1-4 pm. Maybe they could run the numbers and depreciate the entire investment and collect massive profits before the next hurricane drives Mickey to Baton Rouge. 

Don't rebuild NO

Logic from Chapman at RCP:

No amount of money will change the fact that this is no place for a large urban population. Most of the city is below sea level, and it continues to sink, even as the ocean is rising. Over the next century, it's expected to drop by a full meter. Virginia Burkett of the United States Geological Survey told National Public Radio, "Within the next century, the areas that didn't flood this time will be likely to flood under a similar hurricane situation."

Lehman Bros is a Weenie

Can you believe apologizing for slavery? The Lehman leadership may have some things on their conscience - I don't know - but moral responsibility for slavery  isn't on the list. Someone scared them enough to cough up an apology, but no cash. Lame, pathetic, and disgusting. Hey - if they really felt bad, they'd give the whole company to the Rainbow Coalition.

Minimum Wage Debate

It's an endless debate, but what semi-clinches it for me is that 50% of the people earning min. wage are youngsters. Anyway, here's a nice summary of the perennial issues.

A rational conclusion from Hinderaker:

"It seems increasingly likely that when the history of Hurricane Katrina is written, the conclusion will be that it is a wonder that such a powerful storm, striking a uniquely vulnerable area, did not kill more people, considering the gross negligence and sometimes illegal conduct of many individuals and local government officials during the days that preceded and immediately followed the hurricane."

Shots of Beer? Right Thinking discusses the world's strongest beer.

Rick Moran goes Sane on us:

Perhaps the politicization of the relief efforts surrounding the aftermath of the hurricane was inevitable. Frustration on the left at Bush’s presidency exploded into recrimination almost before hurricane force winds moved inland from the stricken areas on the coast. And the predictable push back by those of us on the right who were at first taken aback by the ferocity of the attacks and then frustrated ourselves at some of the coverage in the MSM has not been a very edifying display for the rest of the world to see.

This is politics in America at the turn of the 21st century. Troubling to some, tiring to many more, I am clueless as to how to fix it or who can fix it or even if it needs fixing. There have been many periods in American history where this kind of partisanship has been the norm. We’ve survived it and gone on to thrive as a nation and a people. I suspect the same will happen here.

That said, sit right down in your easy chair and let your face assume that Carnival stare! Perhaps laughing at ourselves is the best medicine after all.

Read the whole thing, which concerns Ben Hur, and this week's Carnival.

Text of Judge Roberts' Remarks

without notes, mind you.  Here.

Russert interviews Nagin

Ace of Spades covers it

Iran web sites

In addition to Regime Change Iran, we have been alerted to another serious and interesting Iranian site, the English translation of Iran-Va-Jahan.

SDA on Katrina Coverage

"Especially for those of you new to SDA and the blogosphere, I suggest you read Jeff's entry. In his disassembly of the Newsweek article, he exposes that much of the coverage we've been treated to on Katrina and the responses of the various levels of government is, at best, pathetically superficial and selectively factual. At worst (and most of it falls into the worst category) it's intentionally politicized and misleading.

Journalists, take note. This is why increasing numbers of Americans - and Canadians - are turning off their network news and cancelling subscriptions. The "art of omission" is a dangerous ploy in an age where the media consumer has near instant, unfiltered free access to legal and constitutional experts, transcripts, archival material, and witnesses on the scene.

When viewers and readers discover you are ignoring the details - in this case, details like the limitations placed on presidential powers by the US Constitution - in a transparent ploy to score political points, you damage the relationship with the information consumer on a multitude of levels.

That you inflict long term damage on your own professional credibility goes without saying. What seems less understood by your profession is that your actions convey a profound contempt for your readers and listeners. Disingenuously superficial and/or inappropriately politicized versions of current events are an insult to our intelligence - and we know it. "

Read entire.

NYT Honors 9-11 Victims

by noting the clamor for "answers" re Abu Ghraib. Clamor from whom? Besides them? Perhaps the two issues are "moral equivalents"?

Kinsley on Disasters

Kinsley appears to represent a return to sanity:

"You never gave five seconds of thought to the risk of flooding in New Orleans until it became impossible to think about anything else? Me neither. Nor have I given much thought to the risk of a big earthquake along the West Coast — the only one of the top three catastrophes that hasn’t happened yet — even though I live and work in the earthquake zone.

Of course, my job isn’t to predict and prepare for disasters. My job is to recriminate when they occur. It’s not easy. These days the recriminations business is overrun with amateurs, who are squatting on all the high ground. The fetid aroma of hindsight is everywhere."

The European Social Model

Dead or alive?

Propaganda Techniques used by Media

At Dr. Sanity, via Atlas Shrugs

Arafat died of AIDS

Why don't they just say so? Story at Gateway.

Nagin and Blanco: They Ain't Kissin'

Thanks, P'line. Story here.

Daniel Pipes on the Thwarted L.A. Terror Spree

"Terrorist plans that fail don't make headlines, but they should. This was a near-miss. Home-grown radical Islam has arrived and will do damage.

American prisons are comparable to the banlieues in France, the principal recruiting grounds for a criminal form of Islam. As Frank Gaffney observes, "The alleged New Folsom State plot had better rouse us out of our stupor." Will it? Senate hearings in 2003 on prison jihadism yielded distressingly few results.

The emergence of a primarily African-American Islamist terrorist cell signals a new trend. Native-born Americans have taken part in terrorist operations before, but (again, as in London), this case this marks their first large-scale plot."

Read entire.

Sometimes, it's just fun to play the immature gotcha blame game. So I will. I blame the storm. So does Rick.  Fact: Search and rescue and evacuation is not FEMA's job. Fact: Governments don't do very much, very well, except spend $.

Dems strategize about how to best profit from Katrina, here.

Bolton on the job. HT, View from 1776. He has already quietly done a great service.

"If you don't leave, you're on your own." When Nagin said it, he meant it. They still can't get everyone to leave town. Can't leave is one thing. Won't leave is another. At this point, I would suggest "reasonable force." Anyone still there is either deranged or wants to stay and loot.

Owning firearms is a good idea. Auster.

Ayatollah Komenei calls for Jihad against World

Nagin blames Blanco. And the pumps are working now. But anyone who wants to move back to that cesspool is nuts.

Reason # 7,657,789 not to trust the NYT (P'line)

Minor problem: No more NO Etouffe. Open call to NO chefs and sauciers - email us - we'll find work for you here.

Patterico's primary function, IMO, is to find dishonesty, failures of intellectual integrity, and bias at the LAT. He found one here and one here.

NOW gives women a bad name: Shrieking hormonal hysteria re Rehnquist's replacement (and of course, Bush caused the hurricane,too, they say). Meanwhile, Dems exult in his death (via Michelle).

Evacuation Failure - at Pennywit. Hurricane Graph - Proof the wacko enviros are lying thru their teeth - from R. Nation:

Sen. Landrieu threatens violence if anyone criticizes LA: Powerline. Come and get me, Senator. I'd never hit a lady. Reason # 7,387,563 that I cannot read the NYT: Captain Ed. Shays and Lieberman vow probe into f-ups.  Cole asks whether it is possible to evacaute any place. Probably not any city. Excellent timeline of the disaster from Env. Economics.  Oh, and now I see NO did have a plan - they just didn't follow it: Macho Nachos

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

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.