I have to write

Tonight I am consumed by a sense of sadness and uncertainty. I have so much to do, but in the light of this week's events, so little of it seems important. It is hard to escape the creeping feeling that we are selfish to continue worrying about case A or hearing B, while in New Orleans, young fathers worry about how to get their children clean water.

Every face of a scared child becomes my child. Every elderly person becomes my grandparent. The helplessness is pervasive. It is impossible to overstate the heroism of those who are plunging into waist-deep filthy water to rescue their neighbors; who are hanging from helicopters to pluck the desperate to relative safety; who stayed behind in hospitals to tend to newborns while their own houses were destroyed; who stand guard over hospital pharmacies to protect the drug supplies from criminals. There are countless stories of personal heroism and generosity going on now, and that cannot be overlooked.

But there is the darker side of human nature at play tonight as well. And I am not talking only of those few marauding thugs taking advantage of the situation to steal electronics or drugs.

No, while those families in New Orleans spend their third day fighting alligators and fire ants for access to dry, baking-hot rooftops, the television networks make millions off of ads for cheap living room furniture and hemorrhoid cream. Staggeringly depressing shots of people standing in the rubble of their homes throughout the miles of destruction in Mississippi are nothing to these jackals except additional guarantors of ad revenue, an excuse for dramatic music and impressive graphics.

While mothers in New Orleans struggle to feed their infants, Joe Scarborough stands in Biloxi, with his hair firmly gelled, his generators running and a well-positioned piece of rubble to lean on, and criticizes the people of New Orleans for taking bread.

While New Orleans officials work for 72 straight hours to save their fellow citizens, Soledad O'Brien sits in New York, perfectly comfortable, and berates the mayor for having "no plan."

While the people of Gulfport walk among the ruins of their shattered city, gambling industry lobbyists urge the state legislature to make it their highest priority to give tax breaks to the casino industry.

"As you do it not for the least of these, my brethren, you do it not for me." A great radical said those words. A man who would be hanging from the end of those helicopter cables, rescuing the people of New Orleans. A man who, if he were here today, would probably make a special trip to overturn the tables of people like Joe Scarborough.

This country is in trouble. Dire trouble. Divided, we face the single greatest American humanitarian and economic crisis since the Great Depression, riven by political differences, led by a man who cannot lead.

We should come together in this time, but we seem unable to do so. Because we have been divided by our leaders, purposefully, over every issue for way too many years. At every turn, every opportunity, cynicism has been encouraged, selfishness has been rewarded, the political philosophy of so-called conservatism has urged each of us to ignore the needs of our neighbors and take what is ours. The market will provide.

The failure in the first few days to respond to this situation is, in my estimation, due to a failure of leadership at every level of government. But that failure is most painfully evident at the very top. I will be accused of politicizing this situation, but it is exceedingly clear to me that the philosophy of all-for-myself, small-government, tax-cut-conservatism has contributed mightily to this disaster. When it came time in 2002, 2003, and 2004 to finish the raising of the 17th Street levee in New Orleans, the very one that gave way yesterday, the Federal Government informed the people of New Orleans that there wasn't enough money to finish the job.

The money went elsewhere. It went to your tax cuts. It went to a war in Iraq. It went to subsidies to the energy industry. Southeast Louisiana, in the face of warnings that this very thing would come to pass, was told to make do. We gambled with one of our greatest cities. We lost.

I hope that people understand the great irony of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who has spent an entire political career destroying Americans' faith in and respect for the Federal Government, begging for federal assistance. He should get it. His people deserve it.

This, my friends, is why we pay taxes. Because at some point, somewhere, sometime, any of us may be the one who needs the help.

The Freepers weigh in

Stomach turning:

"Compare the demographics of New Orleans to those of the Mississippi Gulf coast. Which one is orderly? Which one is more organized? Which one has the less crime since the hurricane? Black/white? Democrat/Republican? Welfare recipient or working person? Drug addicts/law abiding?
If an earthquake hits Memphis, Tennessee, it will make NO look like a cakewalk. Everyone has the temerity to point a finger but it is overtly obvious the reasons for the lawlessness."


65 posted on 08/30/2005 5:16:51 PM PDT by vetvetdoug (Shiloh, Corinth, Iuka, Brices Crossroads, Harrisburg, Britton Lane, Holly Springs, Hatchie Bridge,)

Here's the principled reply:

To: vetvetdoug
Shhh. You are treading perilously close to the truth and that truth is not allowed.

82 posted on 08/30/2005 5:35:04 PM PDT by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")

Nero

Armageddon it is

WWL-TV, 9:06 pm ET:

****ALL RESIDENTS ON THE EAST BANK OF ORLEANS AND JEFFERSON REMAINING IN THE METRO AREA ARE BEING TOLD TO EVACUATE AS EFFORTS TO SANDBAG THE LEVEE BREAK HAVE ENDED. THE PUMPS IN THAT AREA ARE EXPECTED TO FAIL SOON AND 9 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED IN THE ENTIRE EAST BANK. WITHIN THE NEXT 12-15 HOURS****

Exactly how are they supposed to evacuate?

Lord have mercy.

Merely a catastrophe

... and not Armageddon. Evidently, God sneezed last night, and the storm "wobbled" to the east just enough to push in some dry air, spare New Orleans the right front quadrant, and drop the wind speed to merely astonishing.

But, to quote one blogger, "there is no city of Gulfport anymore." Entire neighborhoods of New Orleans are under water. Mississippii's waterfront is likely devastated, as a 22 foot storm surge reached nearly a mile inland. Biloxi and Mobile are both trashed, and God knows what happened to people in the fishing villages in SE Louisiana.

People are going to need our help. In America, there is only really one relief agency to give your funds to in the immediate aftermath of a disaster like this, so go to the Red Cross and give generously. And then go thank God it wasn't even worse.

UPDATE It may in fact be worse. Two levee breaks and "lake level" water in New Orleans. This is the worst case scenario in slow motion.

While we watch New Orleans disappear, remember:

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004

Priorities

An article on the budget from June 6, 2005:

The budget for 2005 and 2006 cut flood control in New Orleans by $71.2 million:

There is an economic ripple effect, too. The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.

Money is so tight the New Orleans district, which employs 1,300 people, instituted a hiring freeze last month on all positions. The freeze is the first of its kind in about 10 years, said Marcia Demma, chief of the Corps' Programs Management Branch.

So, if you're wondering why there aren't more people helping get people out of New Orleans, remember, your Congress cut the budget for those people, and your President sent the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi National Guards to Iraq.

More

American Radio Works did a story on Hurricane Katrina, only they did it earlier this year, speculating on what would happen if a Category 5 went "just east of the city." Exactly where Katrina is headed.

Basically, the part of New Orleans that most Americans—most people around the world—think is New Orleans, would disappear.

Suyhayda agrees, "It would, that's right."

And the aftermath, could, if anything, be even worse:

"It's going to look like a massive shipwreck," says Maestri. "Everything that the water has carried in is going to be there. It's going to have to be cleaned out— alligators, moccasins and god knows what that lives in the surrounding swamps, has now been flushed -literally—into the metropolitan area. And they can't get out, because they're inside the bowl now. No water to drink, no water to use for sanitation purposes. All of the sanitation plants are under water and of course, the material is floating free in the community. The petrochemicals that are produced up and down the Mississippi river—much of that has floated into this bowl... The biggest toxic waste dump in the world now is the city of New Orleans because of what has happened."

More:

[Army Corps of Engineer's Chief Researcher Jay] Combe looks like Santa Claus with a tie. It's especially unnerving to hear him talk about disaster. He's trying to figure out, for instance, how will emergency workers start working in a city that's drowned in an 80-mile lake? New Orleans has protected itself from past floods partly with the levees, but the city also operates one of the biggest pumping systems on earth. There are giant turbines all across town, and every time there's a major rain, they suck up the water and pump it out. Combes says that system won't work after a huge hurricane.

"The problem," says Combe, "is that the city's been underwater. And the whole city has to be drained by the pumps, and since the pumps have been under the water, the pumps are flooded. They don't operate now— we have to get the pumps back in operation and in order to get the pumps back in order, we have to get the water out of the city."

Sounds like a Catch 22.

"That's correct."

God help Louisiana

The Times-Picayune has a look at "the worst-case scenario" in a story from some time ago called "Washing Away."

The absolutely certain disaster now facing New Orleans boggles the mind:

A stronger storm on a slightly different course -- such as the path Georges was on just 16 hours before landfall -- could have realized emergency officials' worst-case scenario: hundreds of billions of gallons of lake water pouring over the levees into an area averaging 5 feet below sea level with no natural means of drainage.

That would turn the city and the east bank of Jefferson Parish into a lake as much as 30 feet deep, fouled with chemicals and waste from ruined septic systems, businesses and homes. Such a flood could trap hundreds of thousands of people in buildings and in vehicles. At the same time, high winds and tornadoes would tear at everything left standing. Between 25,000 and 100,000 people would die, said John Clizbe, national vice president for disaster services with the American Red Cross.

Louisiana officials have been expecting this, and in their worst-case scenario, they needed 72 hours to evacuate New Orleans. 72 hours ago, this storm was supposed to hit Florida. Jim Cantore, the Weather Channel's storm-chasing superstar, looked genuinely frightened this afternoon describing the scene on Interstate 10. A rough quote: "I have been doing this for almost 20 years, and I have never been as concerned as I am right now. There are too many people here. Too many people out and about, and I-10 is a parking lot."

Imagine:

"The worst case is a hurricane moving in from due south of the city," said Suhayda, who has developed a computer simulation of the flooding from such a storm. On that track, winds on the outer edges of a huge storm system would be pushing water in Breton Sound and west of the Chandeleur Islands into the St. Bernard marshes and then Lake Pontchartrain for two days before landfall.

...

All of a sudden you'll start seeing flowing water. It'll look like a weir, water just pouring over the top," Suhayda said. The water will flood the lakefront, filling up low-lying areas first, and continue its march south toward the river. There would be no stopping or slowing it; pumping systems would be overwhelmed and submerged in a matter of hours.


As the floodwaters invade and submerge neighborhoods, the wind will be blowing at speeds of at least 155 mph, accompanied by shorter gusts of as much as 200 mph, meteorologists say, enough to overturn cars, uproot trees and toss people around like dollhouse toys.

The wind will blow out windows and explode many homes, even those built to the existing 110-mph building-code standards. People seeking refuge from the floodwaters in high-rise buildings won't be very safe, recent research indicates, because wind speed in a hurricane gets greater with height. If the winds are 155 mph at ground level, scientists say, they may be 50 mph stronger 100 feet above street level.

Buildings also will have to withstand pummeling by debris picked up by water surging from the lakefront toward downtown, with larger pieces acting like battering rams.

Ninety percent of the structures in the city are likely to be destroyed by the combination of water and wind accompanying a Category 5 storm, said Robert Eichorn, former director of the New Orleans Office of Emergency Preparedness. The LSU Hurricane Center surveyed numerous large public buildings in Jefferson Parish in hopes of identifying those that might withstand such catastrophic winds. They found none.

One-third of the residents of New Orleans have no vehicle, and could not escape the city if they had had 72 hours. They have nowhere to go. As we speak, 12-15,000 people are sheltering in the Superdome, the field level of which is expected to flood. 15,000 people, in the dark interior of a cavernous stadium, with no water, no electricity and no way out. And they are the lucky ones.

This hurricane is expected to bring a tidal surge of 28 feet. That "fills the bowl" and utterly destroys the third largest port in the United States.

While nobody can say for sure whether man is partly responsible for the increasing number and intensity of hurricanes, it is clear that environmental and development policies are at least partially responsible for the devastation which is about to happen.

Louisiana has been sinking for years. The leveeing and channelling of the Mississippi directs the silt and mud deposits farther and farther out to the Gulf along a narrower and narrower path. Meanwhile, the Gulf is rising over the marshes and mud flats which used to form a vast delta south of New Orleans - what would have been a useful and lifesaving 20 miles of land between the sea and the city has been gradually eaten.

And now, the piper is coming to be be paid.

For those of you feeling secure watching weather porn on CNN from the safety of your living room, it ain't just Louisiana that has to worry about this one. What do you get when you cross an oil industry already struggling to meet demand for gasoline (i.e. $2.65 gas) with this hurricane? The Mobile Register tells us:

The equipment located in the storm's likely path includes the bulk of the nation's oil and gas production platforms, thousands of miles of pipelines and -- perhaps most importantly for national gasoline prices -- much of the country's refinery capacity. In addition, the south Louisiana coastline serves as the entry point for around a third of the nation's imported oil.

Last year's Hurricane Ivan, which came ashore along the Alabama-Florida line moving through an area mostly devoid of rigs, caused widespread destruction both above and below water in the fields off Alabama and eastern Louisiana. Floating rigs were found drifting hundreds of miles from the wells they had been plumbing, while some rigs with legs fixed to the bottom toppled into the sea. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of pipelines were tangled and torn to pieces by sea currents and massive underwater mudslides.

The full extent of the damage wasn't known for days and the Gulf lost nearly 30 percent of production capacity for well over a month, which drove prices for oil up $12 a barrel within a few weeks. Prices for both oil and natural gas surged upward and stayed high for months.

But that storm was just a baby tap on the Gulf's infrastructure compared with the blow some in the oil industry are predicting from Katrina.

***

"This storm is going to pass through the meat of the oil and gas fields. The whole country will feel it, because it's going to cripple us and the country's whole economy," said Capt. Buddy Cantrelle with Kevin Gros Offshore, which supplies rigs via a fleet of large crew vessels.

Buckle up, folks. Fill up your tanks now, and I'll see you in the gas lines.

We will post donation links and other information as it becomes available.

Commandments VI and IX - The Robertson Amendments

Not content to propose the assassination of a foreign head of state, Pat Robertson (I will not call him Reverend) now denies having said it, on tape. Bearing False Witness, now playing on CBN.

Robertson now says:

"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said on "The 700 Club" program.

CNN, helpfully, does its job for once, and quotes Robertson's comments in full. They also provide a video from Monday's 700 Club. Here's what the Bonehead at the Beach had to say on Monday:

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson on Monday's program. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."

This story on CNN.com is much better than the CNN TV segment in which wingnut former Congressman Bob Barr was invited on to speak out as pro-assassination, in a "balanced" treatment of the issue. Can we not agree that, regardless of your political persuasion, it is a bad idea for American leaders to recommend the murder of foreign heads of state?

What I really want to know now is, does Called2Action, the Raleigh-based local political pressure group which bases so much of its strategy and approach on the Theology of Robertson, Falwell and their ilk, approve of this "Christian" political statement? They ask on their website for God to "raise up good Christian candidates" for local office. Are they seeking candidates with this outlook?

Go read Lex

Now.

Fighting for Democracy...

...or, you know, for the next best thing - an Islamist state allied with Iran, in control of the world's second largest oil fields. Hooray!!!!

Well, Mrs. Sheehan, I guess you got your answer now, huh? Casey died to establish a government in which Iraqi women have fewer rights than they did under Saddam Hussein:

While Islamists are calling for Sharia to be the main source of the constitution, less extreme groups are pushing for Islam to be only a "source" of legislation. But to Kamguian, this is "something like Afghanistan's constitution after Taliban. For women it would be an option between bad and worse. It is a catastrophe."

Yanar Mohammed, a secular Iraqi activist, speaking on the phone from Baghdad, says that what is not open for debate is that Islam will be mentioned in the first paragraph of the constitution. Based on recent drafts of the constitution that she has seen, Mohammed says that four of nine members of Iraq's Supreme Court will be Islamic clerics. "Iraq will have an Islamic Shura [council] deciding its most important legal issues," she says. Iraq's provisional constitution of 1970, at least until the 1990s, held a fairly progressive family law process. Iraqi women had access to education, the ability to refuse arranged marriages, and the right to full inheritance; their testimony counted in court; and they had a fighting chance to keep custody of their children if divorced or widowed. Islamic family law would change these rights, and not to women's advantage. Activists say that, judging from drafts of the constitution revealed so far, a woman's right to a divorce without her husband's consent, custody of male children past a certain age, and inheritance would be diminished, and she would not [sic] longer be considered equal to a man in the law's eyes.

Everybody happy???

See... I told... oh, never mind...

I wrote this article in October 2001, and it was published in the N&O on October 26, the day the first Patriot Act was passed by a frightened, panicky Congress. (Hey, who sent all that anthrax to Democrats and the media anyway?)

I just thought it was worth a look back. Plus, this article belongs to me, and I own the rights, so the N&O can't archive it. So here it is for your reading pleasure:

Terrorism, addressed in haste


Americans have been warned not to open "suspicious packages" that may arrive in the mail.

If you don't know who sent it, and you're not sure what's in it, don't open it. The same advice could be given for the anti-terrorism act now pending before the U.S. Senate. In a week in which most senators have been kept out of their offices by the anthrax scare, and during which most senators have been out of contact with key staff, counsel and constituents, the Senate is set to enact the "USA Patriot Act."

This act includes some of the most far-reaching changes to American criminal law ever enacted. Most Americans, including many members of Congress, have never read it. Because no one is in your senator's office, and the mail has been stopped, you probably could not express your opinions on this bill if you tried.

Yet, with very little debate, and almost no committee redrafting, this act has been rushed to the floor of both houses of Congress. "All anthrax all the time" media coverage has relegated the act to the back pages, out of sight to most Americans.

Just one example shows how dangerous the Patriot Act could be, if the tools it provides fall into the wrong hands. In the act, "domestic terrorism" is vaguely defined as any activity carrying a risk to human life, which is designed to "intimidate or coerce" a government or population. Once the prosecutor makes such a determination, she, the police and the CIA are given unprecedented powers of surveillance and investigation. More ominously, anyone associated with a person deemed to be a terrorist may be charged with the crime of supporting terrorism.

It is not hard to imagine the actions of Greenpeace or Operation Rescue activists being deemed terrorist, based upon the political views of a given attorney general. We need only look to Seattle to see that political minorities often resort to the tactics of the street in order to make a point. We already have laws which punish vandalism and rioting. We do not need to brand them as terrorist.

Under the USA Patriot Act, the payment of dues to such an organization, or even allowing an activist to sleep at your home, could be deemed a "terrorist" criminal offense. Such unfettered power carries risks of damage to our democracy that a thousand terrorist bombings could never accomplish.

Certainly, law enforcement needs to be able to keep up with those it is fighting. New powers can be crafted which enable the government to better protect us. Certainly, some of the provisions of this bill, such as roving wiretaps to allow police to obtain one order to tap all the phones of a suspect, are sensible adaptations to technology and the new, post-Sept. 11 environment. But throwing the constitutional baby out with the bath water is a bad idea that our
Republic has flirted with before.

During his administration, President John Adams proposed and signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which severely curtailed dissent and criminalized "anti-government" activities. Adams called it his greatest mistake. His greatest accomplishment? The successful criminal defense, some years earlier, of the British soldiers who fired on the crowd in the Boston Massacre. Adams knew better than most that constitutional liberties are to be protected, even under the most adverse of circumstances.

This is a dangerous time for our country. We are under attack from abroad, and are at risk of weakening ourselves with panic and overreaction.

Before approving this suspicious package, the Senate might want to know what is in it. Better yet, throw it in the incinerator, and start over, with a careful, rational and reasoned approach to the problem.

heartless

Bush: "I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."


Yeah, going on with your life. What a concept. Maybe someone can tell them what it's like to do that.

The Anchormen

I either just made the worst pick in the history of Fantasy Football, or I am a genius.

Here's my team so far this year. 12-team league with points awarded for receptions (new rule) and a limit of 4 RBs per team.

RB - Shaun Alexander (SEA) (keeper)
WR - Marvin Harrison (IND) (keeper)
RB - Brian Westbrook (PHI) (1st round pick)
TE - Jason Witten (DAL) (2d round)

Update

QB - Tom Brady (NE)
WR - Donald Driver (GB)
RB - Mike Anderson (DEN)
WR - Ashley Lelie (DEN)
DST- Jaguars
QB - Kurt Warner (ARI)
K - Mike Vanderjagt (IND)
RB - Stephen Davis (CAR)
DST - Bengals

We have to pick 2 of everything except kickers, with 3 "wildcards."

I'm either a genius or an idiot.

It is a violation of Federal law...

As I sit here with my laptop, actually using it on my lap's top, I am struck by the thought that there are few more soul-sucking places on earth than the concourse of a mid-sized airport. I am in Terminal 2 of the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, where I have been since 2:30. It is now 7:15.

There are no comfortable chairs. No affordable beverages. The sole saving grace has been Outside Magazine's August issue and the free wireless access.

But to enjoy those things, I have had to put up with five hours of mind-numbing repetition of warnings from the Transportation Security Administration, reminding me to place my keys, coins, cellphones and pagers in my carry-on luggage prior to reaching the security checkpoint, and that it is a VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW to board an aircraft or attempt to enter the security screening area with a concealed firearm, knife, or weapon on your person or in your carryon baggage.

This message is repeated, ad nauseum, every 20 seconds. Now, either other people are moving through this airport in 20 seconds, and my stay is anomolous, or this repetition is ridiculously frequent. I do not see any travelers moving at the speed of sound from the checkpoint to the gate, blessed by a one-time, timely reminder to discard their glocks and switchblades before boarding. Rather, I see hundreds of equally exasperated people, all now fully brainwashed, desperately seeking some solace in the undercooked pizza at Sbarro's or the multiple copies of Jennifer Aniston's face peering out from the magazine racks.

Another thing I have learned on this trip is that South Florida is everything that is wrong with urban development in the United States. If you like strip malls, gated communities, and vast stretches of highway, then Broward County and Miami-Dade are for you.

Somewhere to the west lie the Everglades, doomed to be poisoned for eternity by the unquenchable materialistic thirst of South Florida. Sad.

Best of all, Florence Henderson would have a job

The case for biodiesel.

Think about it, Wesson Oil as far as the eye can see (ok, what is Jenny McCarthy doing in that image?) and the delicious odor of french fries at every stoplight.

Arrrrrrrggghhhh

Okay, so I lied. SOMETHING can get me fired up enough to post:


Bush: Schools should teach "intelligent design."

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

The article doesn't say if the President belives people should also consider the theory that people are held to the earth by lots of gum alongside the theory of gravity, or if he believes students should consider the possibility that Jerusalem is at the exact physcial center of the universe.

This is what happens when people who don't listen in school rise on the merits of their father's position in life and not on what they managed to pick up between bouts of folded-paper football in the back of class.

Time Out

I am too busy to blog right now, and it pains me to say it. Sorry to those of you who continue to check in for what used to be thrice daily blasts of my rants. I'm still just as full of things to say, but my wife and secretary get to hear most of it now. I'll be back in form soon.

I'm also soliciting guest posts. Shoveldog is hibernating, and I need someone to help me take up the slack, since the ScotchZombie is too busy kissing up to higherups at his corporate behemoth to do much blogging these days.

Any way, I wanted to put up a picture of the week for your enjoyment. So here it is:


Bathing beauty: