Hurricane Katrina

[Heads22]

Would anyone be adverse to me putting a Red Cross banner next to the FS one?

[Texsox]

Would anyone be adverse to me putting a Red Cross banner next to the FS one?

 

I think it is a great idea.

[kapkomet]

Drinking is fung, Fung is drinking

[Rex Kickass]

Anyone read the NOLA.com hurricane blog? Heartwrenching.

[Rex Kickass]

Carnival sending three ships to the Gulf to house evacuees.

 

http://www.wwl.com/goout.asp?u=http://abcn...tory?id=1094382

[Heads22]

I stumbled across the Red Cross page where they have banners. I put one on my blog and now here. I like how it's the same size as the FS one. Fits in pretty seamlessly.

[Texsox]

Gunmen Attack Contractors on La. Bridge

Sep 04 7:08 PM US/Eastern

 

 

NEW ORLEANS

 

Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.

 

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six.

 

Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

 

They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.

 

None of the contractors was killed, Hall said.

 

The bridge spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

 

No other details were immediately available

[HighHeat45]

Gunmen Attack Contractors on La. Bridge

Sep 04 7:08 PM US/Eastern

 

 

NEW ORLEANS

 

Police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.

 

Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people carrying guns, killing five or six.

 

Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers.

 

They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to help plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.

 

None of the contractors was killed, Hall said.

 

The bridge spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.

 

No other details were immediately available

 

WTF

[Flash Tizzle]

WTF

Perhaps Kanye West can blame this incident on George Bush ignoring blacks/poor and refusing to provide help. LOOK WHAT HE DROVE THEM TO!

 

Oh wait, assistance has arrived and increases by the minute.

 

We're not dealing with people looting to feed themselves or their families anymore. We're witnessing pure savages treating the streets of New Orleans as their own Mad Max movie. How does firing upon a convoy assist yourself in anyway?

 

Without law, certain people can't hold themselves under control. I hope violence doesn't escalate--who knows how the word passes through the streets regarding this. When tempers are flaring and people remain homeless it's a possible combination for rioting.

[The Ginger Kid]

I stumbled across the Red Cross page where they have banners. I put one on my blog and now here. I like how it's the same size as the FS one. Fits in pretty seamlessly.

 

that was a nice touch. Keeps things in perspective.

[Balta1701]

When you saw it...you just knew it was a matter of time.

 

It's taken barely a week for a prominent member of the Christian right to start blaming gay marriage for the Hurricane. Rick Scarborough of Vision America and the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration...a man who in late October will be running a major conference designed to "counter the war on faith" (attendees expected include: 2008 presidential candidate Senator Sam Brownback, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer and Phyllis Schlafly)...had some fun things to say about the storm.

 

Specifically...he blamed it on the gay marriage bill before the state government in California...bestiality in Washington state, and Israel's evacuation of settlements in Gaza.

 

    After September 11, 2001, "God bless America" was on everyone's lips. But what, exactly, are we asking God to bless - a nation moving a breakneck speed toward homosexual marriage, a nation awash in pornography, a nation in which our children are indoctrinated in perversion in the public schools, a nation in which most public displays of The Ten Commandments are considered offensive to the Constitution, a nation in which the elite does all in its considerable power to efface our Biblical heritage?

 

    We are sowing the wind. Surely, we shall reap the whirlwind.

 

    One other factor which must be considered: Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy ("I will bless that nation that blesses you, and curse the nation that curses you")?

 

    Please read on. I want to give you two examples - from today's headlines - of how we are bringing disaster on ourselves. And then tell you what you can do - right now, today - to begin to reverse the process.

 

 

So what were Scarborough's examples of "how we are bringing disaster on ourselves?" First, he cited California's AB 849, a bill changing the definition of marriage in that state from "a man and a woman" to "two persons." Scarborough's second example was even weirder, and more reflective of the Christian right's curious focus on, shall we say, unorthodox sex acts. Check out what he wrote:

 

    In Washington State, a man recently died from internal injuries sustained from committing bestiality with a horse. The incident led police to raid a farm where people were going to have sex with animals.

 

    Though they discovered hundreds of explicit videotapes, apparently, nothing can be done about it. Washington is one of only a handful of states that does not have a law against bestiality....

Link here.

[kapkomet]

When you saw it...you just knew it was a matter of time.

 

It's taken barely a week for a prominent member of the Christian right to start blaming gay marriage for the Hurricane.  Rick Scarborough of Vision America and the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration...a man who in late October will be running a major conference designed to "counter the war on faith" (attendees expected include:  2008 presidential candidate Senator Sam Brownback, Alan Keyes, Gary Bauer and Phyllis Schlafly)...had some fun things to say about the storm.

 

Specifically...he blamed it on the gay marriage bill before the state government in California...bestiality in Washington state, and Israel's evacuation of settlements in Gaza.

 

Link here.

 

These people sure as hell don't represent most people's views.

[Texsox]

From my dearest friends at Catholics for Faithful Citizenship.

 

CEASAR TENDS TO WAR WHILE HIS PEOPLE SUFFER

 

 

 

  On the day the levees broke in New Orleans, George W. Bush gave a speech trumpeting the war in Iraq and comparing himself to President Franklin Roosevelt.  Seven days later the War in Iraq “still remains a defeat for humanity,” in the words of Pope John Paul II, rather than the clear moral struggle that World War II was. Seven days later, history agrees that Bush’s all time low approval rating puts him no where near the wildly popular Roosevelt. Seven days later, the biblical disaster in New Orleans reminds us that the “Pro Life President” is just the opposite.

 

 

 

  As Americans prayerfully search for a leader in this time of national crisis, we find that instead of taking leadership and relief directly to those suffering in the Hurricane area, Bush is coming off a five week vacation and retreating to the sanctity of Washington DC.  Instead of meeting with his cabinet, he remained on vacation while they attended to their own vacations and comedy shows in New York City. If we looked to Congress for leadership, we would have discovered the Speaker of the House has made the outrageous remark: “it makes no sense to rebuild New Orleans”. This of course comes from the man who has led the charge in Congress to fund billions to rebuild a country ravaged by an unjust war.

 

 

 

  George Bush has promoted his unjust war by labeling it a “Noble Cause”. He trumpets the honor in killing and tells us we are protected from terrorists by fighting them in Iraq, though strangely enough there was never a presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq prior to our invasion. Now with a natural disaster that is the worst national tragedy since September 11th, we are reminded just how vulnerable we are.

 

 

 

  Instead of preparing the homeland for the effects of natural disaster and terror attacks, the Bush administration diverted funding that could have strengthened New Orleans’ levees to a war that destroyed another country and killed countless innocent civilians.  Instead of investing in jobs, health care, housing for the poor and education, Bush chose war. Instead of supporting a raise in the minimum wage, Bush chose war. Instead of passing an energy bill to protect Americans at the gas pumps, Bush chose to give the rich oil companies a tax break.

 

 

 

  Now in New Orleans, we see how those who are the least among us are suffering. We are seeing how those who live paycheck to paycheck are marginalized while our President takes a 5 week vacation. Instead of ordering helicopters into the air to deliver water and food to those stranded in New Orleans, we watched in utter amazement as Bush continued his vacation. George Bush was willing to put himself in harms way to visit our troops in Iraq, but was unwilling to even take a bottle of water to his own people at the Superdome. We are seeing how our “Pro Life” President, whose rhetoric focuses on the unborn and those near death, actually ignores the wellbeing of everyone in-between.  For example, new Census data released this week show the poverty rate rising and family income falling for the 4th year in a row. President Bush stated that the lack of response to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina was “unacceptable”. “Catholics for Faithful Citizenship” agree, and find Bush’s lack of attention to the “have nots” in favor of his focus on the “haves” and “have mores” in this country “unacceptable as well.

 

 

 

  We watch in horror as citizens of the most powerful country on earth suffer. Our own citizens lack the basic necessities for basic survival. In the not so recent past, our President and his cohorts rushed to Washington from all corners of the country to pass legislation in the middle of the night to protect one life, but when thousands and thousands of lives are at stake, they hesitated and it took the protests of House Minority Leader Pelosi to urge Congress back into session.

 

 

 

    In this time of national tragedy, Catholics for Faithful Citizenship prayerfully search the horizon for a leader and realize that a true “Noble Cause” is Jesus’ admonition to us to: feed the hungry, clothe the poor and shelter the homeless. Surely the victims of Hurricane Katrina will find basic human comforts and be afforded dignity, but for many the help will come too late. The innocent victims of the war in Iraq have much more in common with the victims of Kartrina than we realize.

 

 

 

Catholics for Faithful Citizenship urges Americans to give for Hurricane Relief to “Catholic Charities USA” @ http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/

 

 

 

Catholics for Faithful Citizenship is a Catholic organization that promotes education and involvement in the U.S. political process from a lens of social justice, just war policy and attention to the poor. Formed in 2004, Catholics for Faithful Citizenship seeks to inform Catholic voters on the wide range of issues that the Church calls Catholic voters to base their political decisions on.

 

bold was my edit.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Dont know if this was mentioned here but Grisham is my favorite author and he came up big here for the relief effort.

 

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168431,00.html

[KipWellsFan]

Little slip of the tongue for Barbara Bush

 

'So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this --this is working very well for them'

http://www.drudgereport.com/bb.mp3

 

----------------------------------

 

 

 

oops

Edited September 6, 2005 by KipWellsFan

[KipWellsFan]

Hillary calls for commission on Katrina and legislation to remove FEMA from Homeland Security

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/...9p-293306c.html

 

WASHINGTON - With many blaming the growing scope of Katrina's devastation on the Bush administration, Sen. Hillary Clinton called yesterday for a 9/11-style probe into how the federal government responded to the crisis.

 

"It has become increasingly evident that our nation was not prepared," Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to Bush asking him to set up a "Katrina Commission."

 

"The slow pace of relief efforts in the face of a mounting death toll ... seems to confirm that our ability to respond to cataclysmic disasters has not been adequately addressed," she said.

 

Her call echoed statements of Republicans such as Arizona's Sen. John Kyl, chairman of the Technology and Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who plans a hearing and has said the catastrophe in New Orleans could have a lot in common with a terror attack.

 

A White House spokeswoman deferred comment to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who appeared on numerous Sunday morning broadcasts insisting there would be time to lay blame later.

 

Clinton has decided at least one thing without waiting for any commission reports. She said she plans to introduce legislation to split the Federal Emergency Management Agency out of the Department of Homeland Security and give it back a cabinet-level director like it had in her husband's administration.

[Balta1701]

Hillary calls for commission on Katrina and legislation to remove FEMA from Homeland Security

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/...9p-293306c.html

I fully agree with the idea of a commission, but I think I disagree with the other proposal...FEMA actually does belong in the DHS...in the event of a terrorist attack, the head of the DHS will need to summon FEMA, and there are resources throughout the DHS (FBI, National Guard, Coast Guard, etc.) that are not directly under the control of FEMA but do fall within the jurisdiction of the DHS and can be very useful in the event of a natural disaster like this one.

 

FEMA actually belongs in the DHS. But there clearly need to be other changes...first of all we need to remove the incompetent leaders who are running FEMA and the DHS and who didn't realize that the levees had broken and flooded New Orleans until 36 hours after it happened. Secondly, FEMA needs to divert resources away from fighting terrorism and back to general disaster preparedness. Third...there needs to be a reorganization of the command structure of the DHS such that in the event of a natural disaster, the command of all of FEMA and the DHS fall under 1 person...with clearly defined roles for everyone underneath that person (my suggestion is that in the event a state of emergency is declared, the whole of the DHS falls under the command of the FEMA head...assuming we get a competent FEMA head and not a guy who was fired from a job trading horses for the Saudis)

 

Also...FEMA's budget needs to go massively back up, and the FEMA director needs a better method of communicating with the President in the event of a declaration of emergency. Even if the president is playing a guitar with a country music star.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Hillary calls for commission on Katrina and legislation to remove FEMA from Homeland Security

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/...9p-293306c.html

 

 

I agree with that totally. We need to find out where we went wrong and what we did and how to fix it so this doesn't happen again.

[Rex Kickass]

Nuke agrees with Hillary Clinton?

 

Another sign of the impending apocalypse...

[Texsox]

You know what, if there is a commission, could we get some people from Mars to do it? I'm so burned out by frickin' political commissions whose first goal is to make it a DEM or GOP mistake. If we could somehow find a group of experts who have zero, nada, zip, no political leanings, aspirations, or axes to grind, it just might do something useful.

[EvilMonkey]

You know what, if there is a commission, could we get some people from Mars to do it? I'm so burned out by frickin' political commissions whose first goal is to make it a DEM or GOP mistake. If we could somehow find a group of experts who have zero, nada, zip, no political leanings, aspirations, or axes to grind, it just might to something useful.

Emphasis added by me.

 

If I get the chance, this gets nominated for post of the year.

[Texsox]

^^^^^^^^^^^ like we have a chance in the world of it happening. One side will try to pin it on the Federal response (anti-GOP) and the other side will try and pin it on local (anti-Dem)

[greasywheels121]

Havent looked in the thread for a while, but I dont think this has been posted.

http://media.putfile.com/Kanye79

Thanks Kanye.

 

It has. He donated then. He's also involved in another benefit concert this weekend. At least he's doing something.

[HighHeat45]

Ive heard that a bunch of times and i still dont understand what he is saying when he says "they have given them permission to go down there and shoot us" WTF is that supposed to mean?

[kapkomet]

If the troops are shot at, they are given permission to shoot back. But of course, that gets twisted to "they can shoot our ass".