...my tinfoil hat, that is. Vox is rightly worried about the new effort to Federalize disaster relief and place the Pentagon (!!) in charge of the effort, bypassing state governors.
Vox Popoli: Martial law: coming soon to a country near you

*Ahem*

/tinfoil on
Could this debacle in NOLA have been a deliberate ploy, at least in part, toward this ultimate result?
/tinfoil off

So much for my brief interlude (1 or 2 days) of relative complacency...

Update: There is but one path of escape. Blessed are those who find that path in time of tribulation.

CNN.com - Witnesses: New Orleans cops among looters - Sep 29, 2005

At least a dozen officers investigated; TV video used in probe

Friday, September 30, 2005; Posted: 7:32 a.m. EDT (11:32 GMT)

NEW ORLEANS (CNN) -- Four New Orleans police officers have been suspended and one has been reassigned over allegations of looting in the chaos after Hurricane Katrina, acting Police Superintendent Warren Riley said Thursday.

The city's police department is investigating reports that at least 12 police officers may have gone on a looting spree in the days after the storm hit.

The probe began after police officials reviewed videos from news reports, Riley said, without elaborating

"Without elaborating"...

Could be THIS VIDEO?

Knowledge Is Power has a possible explanation.

Oh, y'know. Around.

Been busy thinking, researching my next real estate moves and that kind of thing takes away my leisure blogging time. I will be away for a week after the end of next week, but will probably be able to check in from where I am. I'll leave the "where" as a surprise.

See, in the Tucson market, real estate prices have gone suddenly flat, and that concerns me somewhat. Coupled with my desire to pick up a certain piece of country property, I'm looking at the whole portfolio and ruminating on my options. Modular and/or panelized construction may be in my near future. Also contemplating a section 1031 exchange. Much to learn, much to fret over and consider.

CNN.com - Democrats' special interest problem - Sep 26, 2005

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- For several elections, Democrats have been hurt by the widespread perception that the party consists of a confederation of interest groups to which Democratic leadership is slavishly beholden.

You know the knock: Democrats are forever meeting with special interests like the Irish-Jewish Home for the Short or Transvestite Taxidermists Against the Metric System and then caving to the groups' non-negotiable demands.

In the run-up to the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on the John Roberts nomination to be chief justice, that harmful stereotype of Democrats was reinforced.

In explaining his opposition to Judge Roberts, Reid told the Senate he had been 'very swayed' by the public testimony of, and his private meeting with, those civil rights and women's groups.

Did (Kim) Gandy (president of the National Organization for Women) tell the press that Harry Reid, a pro-life Democrat from the Red State of Nevada, deserved praise for making an unpopular political decision? Of course not. NOW's president attributed Reid's move not to internal character, but to outside muscle, telling The New York Times, 'He got the message loud and clear, didn't he?'

With friends like Kim Gandy, Harry Reid and the Democrats don't need any enemies.

This was no right-wing talk show host commentator or Republican Party operative accusing the Senate Democratic leader, on the solemn choice of a chief justice of the Supreme Court, of cravenly caving to organized pressure groups. It was an ostensible ally telling the world that when Democratic pressure groups yell, 'Jump!' the only question Democratic politicians ask is, 'How high?'

Yep.

And that is how all that Federal levee repair money got spent on patronage in NOLA, too.

Ok, it is now nearly three hours since I called the police about a loud party on the next block over. This isn't next door, but next block, and the Nortenyo music (oompah and accordians and lyrics belted out by drunk, despondent Mexicans) is loud enough for me to hear inside with my doors and windows closed. I've called twice since the original call, and apparently no officer is available to respond.

We have a "Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance" in this city that expressly prohibits parties and other noise that is audible beyond the boundaries of one's property. But the police helicopter circles elsewhere and sirens wail on other streets, chasing after stoners and hookers and tailgaters and jaywalkers. So much for my peaceful weekend evening at home.

The boon-docks are looking awfully nice in comparison...

Update: Five hours after the inital call and they're still going. The police say they "talked to" the owner, and he said he would turn down the racket. "Talked to"? Why didn't they issue a citation? Will they issue a citation when they return and the music is still blaring?

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work today to pick up some soda for Daisycat. On my way past the beer cooler, a bottle caught my eye: Arrogant Bastard Ale.

The subtitle: "You're Not Worthy".

This stuff is fantastic! I have never had a beer with so much flavor packed into every cubic centimeter! And I do mean "flavor", not just intensity. Incredibly full-bodied, and bordering on, but not quite crossing, too bitter.

The back label reads:
Arrogant Bastard Ale: This is an aggressive beer. You probably won't like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth. We would suggest that you stick to safer and more familiar territory--maybe something with a multi-million dollar campaign aimed at convincing you it's made in a little brewery, or one that implies that their tasteless fizzy yellow beer will give you more sex appeal. Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this.

Ha! Too bad this only comes in single bottles. But then again, it is clearly meant to be savored, not chugged.

Here is their website: Arrogant Bastard

...or I will burst!

I got word today that my humble abode has TRIPLED in value in just over ten years! Considering that I bought it on a zero down FHA loan originally, that's a helluva ROI!

Take THAT, Wall Street!

Possibly this also means one step closer to the new, improved Cat's Paradise.

...breathe in...

...breathe out...

...breathe in...

...breathe out...

Update: Is it insensitive to gush about a piece of country property while the poor and dispossessed of Houston are suffering under a hurricane warning?

More evidence that Scott Adams has a covert op at my place of employ...

Ahead of Hurricane Rita, Galveston, TX appears to know how to evacuate its poor and disenfranchised...

More at Knowledge Is Power

Update: 20/20, but it was quite a while ago.

Update 2: Yeah, them Texans, they sure learnt a lesson from New Orleans all right. Sure's a good thing Katrina hit NOLA first. Galveston would NEVER have pulled together an evacuation plan on their own. They musta had extra help from all those federal dollars flowing into Texas from the BushCheneyHalliburton(OIL!!!) cabal in Washington. Karl Rove is personally driving one of those buses, just to make Blanco and Nagin look bad. RACISTS!! Damn RACISTS!!!

Trying to get a piece of this...


This five acres is for sale...


And it has one of these...an artesian well!

This has all the makings of a new and improved Cat's Paradise. The logistics of how are yet to be worked out.

Labels: San Pedro homestead

San Pedro Paradise

Hang onto your seat--I just about had a myocardial infarction!
LOLGFBCMC!! (laughing out loud gasping for breath clutching my chest)

Chimp bar joke - chimp_on_penguins.wmv

big dead mousie to Kateykakes!

As if the New Orleans bus fiasco wasn't enough, Billy Budd links to this story at The Washington Post

...while the last regularly scheduled train out of town had left a few hours earlier, Amtrak had decided to run a "dead-head" train that evening to move equipment out of the city. It was headed for high ground in Macomb, Miss., and it had room for several hundred passengers. "We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm's way," said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. "The city declined."

So the ghost train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board.

Just "three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail".

And yet somehow Bush is the only one that sees fit to apologize for anything...


Read the rest of that article while you're there. It is a pretty good summary of the events of the relief/rescue effort as they are presently assumed to have occurred.

To ABC's Surprise, Katrina Victims Praise Bush and Blame Nagin | NewsBusters.org:

ABC News producers probably didn't hear what they expected when they sent Dean Reynolds to the Houston Astrodome's parking lot to get reaction to President Bush's speech from black evacuees from New Orleans. Instead of denouncing Bush and blaming him for their plight, they praised Bush and blamed local officials.

Cluebat upside the head for the Bush-bashers!

Clicka, read the whole thing. Or at least click THIS link for a .wmv video clip that left me laughing out loud! Thank you Connie London for telling it like it is!

Wuzzadem and The Therapist both have a great take on it.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Bush Pledges Full Recovery From Katrina

In a speech laden with an array of policy initiatives, Bush promised that federal funds will cover 'the great majority of the costs' associated with rebuilding the Gulf Coast region, including roads, bridges, schools and water systems.

'E's lost 'is bleedin' mind!!

I know. Yes, I know. I know Vox. I can virtually hear your voice in my mind right now.

Cheez Louise! We're going to build a frickin' underwater city as a monument to "compassionate conservatism"!

I'm ill.

Update/clarification: I tell you this, so that when you see it, you will remember where you heard it first--by the time this is over, there will be hundreds of mayors and councilmen across this nation grumbling about the federal largesse being poured out on NOLA, and wishing a Hurricane Katrina would come wipe out their city so they could get their "share" of it.

I still think it would be far wiser to rebuild only what needs to be there. Instead of trying to create an "economic development zone"--which is just another form of redistribution, albeit an order of magnitude better than the dole--why not spend a fraction of that sum to help resettle a couple hundred thousand people elsewhere where the opportunities already exist? As I mentioned, Tucson and other parts of the country are experiencing very low unemployment rates these days.

Instapundit.com -

Heh. Indeed! As I was saying.

...but


Whatever.

People think it's so great. But they have no idea how hard it is to buy hats.

iowahawk: Every Little Bit Hurts:

"Two weeks ago, millions of Americans watched in horror as the city of New Orleans was savaged by the relentless, pollution-fueled fury of Hurricane Katrina. Later, we witnessed the human rights atrocity as George Bush's incompetent racist henchmen dynamited the levees, unleashing a tidal wave of contaminated Halliburton turdwater which forced thousands of our fellow citizens to flee into the dank slave ship-like bowels of the Superdome.

Now, as the floodwaters recede, the survivors of Bush/Katrina face an even greater danger: the danger of complacency. Even as you read this, Chimpy's pals in FEMA and the Red Cross are buying off evacuees with food and cheap blankets and debit cards, slowly robbing the survivors of God's most precious gift -- the gift of focused political rage."

Heh! Indeed. Clicka to read the rest.

dead mousie to TD

Nursing home owners face charges.

Which is as it should be if they failed to execute their own evacuation plan and left their residents to die. Quite shameful. Now if Mayor Nagin can get pinned to the wall for the same offense, well...

New Orleans may lose 160,000 homes.

Which is bad news or good news, depending upon whether the glass is half full or half empty. That's a lot, but somewhat fewer than I thought. Of course that doesn't take into account the many more that will require extensive repairs.

Officials have confirmed 423 deaths in Louisiana in the wake of the hurricane.

Which will continue to rise as more bodies are found and recovered. But c'mon! That is good news, if the initial estimates of 10,000+ dead were credible. And they were. I honestly believed that number to be both possible and likely. I don't believe there is any way we'll come close to that number now.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday if an EPA water quality report comes back with the expected good results, he will reopen parts of New Orleans, including the French Quarter, for business next week.

Heh! I never gave much credence to the excessive handwringing over the quality of the floodwaters covering the city. I'm a water guy, and the hyperventilating never rang true to me. Last week I read somewhere a hysterical report about how the e-coli levels in the city water were TEN TIMES THE ACCEPTABLE LEVEL!!! And that "acceptable level" was for what, drinking water? Ha! Your average pond probably has several times the acceptable level of e-coli for drinking water standards. When I read that, I knew that the threat of waterborne disease was very low. Just don't drink the damn floodwater! Duh.

"Wagenaar said the process would speed up once water recedes around the city's main pumping station -- Pump Station No. 6 -- and its 1920s-era pumps can go back online. That's not expected for another two weeks.

This one has us scratching our heads at my place of employ. What idiot would build a pumping station that had the potential of being inundated in a flood?! D'oh!!

In other news, the Louisiana Governor is still hoping that howling and finger pointing will save her sorry ass. And President Bush is taking responsibility for things that he was not responsible for. Whatever. That sounds like a sop to the arousal gappers. Here's hoping this isn't Karl Rove's first major piece of bad advice.

Here is a story by a man who couldn't sit still as the events following Katrina unfolded. His is an inside look at the conditions on the ground from day 4 to day 7.

I am somewhat shaken by what he saw and experienced--spent a couple of sleepless hours last night mulling it over.

Go read:
Lone Star MVPA - ('05 Hurricane Katrina Experience)

The Tucson Convention Center is set up to receive 800 people. So far only 80 have shown up and of those, 20 have been placed elsewhere, either with families or nursing homes.

Tucson's small black community came out in force to greet the recent arrivals at the airport. And the rest of us are ready to reach out and do what we can to help get y'all back on your feet. We've got tables stacked high with clothing and other goods. I'd hate to see it all have to get packed away again.

2.4% unemployment rate. Warm (*ahem*) climate. And *way* more easy-going than those northeastern cities some of you are being sent to. Already a few folks are saying they plan to make Tucson their new home.

Hello-o-o-o Houston!! You've got too many. Send a few more our way.

Update: Fantastic news! My church will be sending a reconstruction team to NOLA once things settle down. If I can't go I'll support it. But I do want to go.

In other news, my associate from the Medical Outreach is in St. Bernard Parish now, as part of the FEMA effort. She is a Nurse Practitioner.

Update 2--Heard from her today:
Greetings From St Bernard Parish
Quick note to all of you that things are going well. We have secured shelter in a Bell South building whihc has AC, and as of yesterday running water and flushing toliets. We are seeing various people in our clinic still some surviviors. They broughtin and 83 year old man in yesterday who had been in his attic since the water rose. Survivided on Peanut butter. all week we are also getting in al ot of workers with various injuries... alot of fatigue and spirits are starting to get low with the locals that are still here. Esp with the removal of the dead. One nursing home had 35+ bodies in it, and has of yesterday they had only been able to get 4 out.
The firefighters and search and rescue are very tired..you can see it in their faces.
Tahnks for all your prayers and cont. to pray for our safety. Sorry this is so dis jointed but I am in a hurry and have so much to tell.
T

Update 3: More information from St. Bernard Parish

Hi Everyone

Theresa called this evening and we had a lengthy conversation. She wanted everyone to know that she appreciated all of the prayers and support. It has been something of an ordeal and most of the team are feeling very ready to come home. She asked me to write to share some of her thoughts with you.

The effort has largely changed from a rescue effort to a recovery effort. They are still seeing patients every day, but primarily for dehydration or cuts/bruises/minor illnesses, and many are the volunteers who are hurt or sick in the course of the relief effort. Most of the very ill or injured have been removed from the area and by and large, there are very few people remaining.

St. Bernard Parish is a very closely knit community, one that has 110 firefighters that serve the parish. 100 of them lost everything in Katrina, but have remained on the job and served in the rescue and relief effort. Theresa said they are the real heros. The Tucson team had to drive through 2 feet of water on the freeway to get from Baton Rouge to St. Bernard Parish and have had to wade into water periodically to help victims.

Much of the water has receded now, but the trees are broken like match-sticks, steel girders and signs are bent to the ground, homes are flattened, and rubble is everywhere.

They are thankful that they have not seen the massive deaths, nor the serious water-borne illnesses that authorities felt were imminent. It seems many more people got out than at first thought. There are still people in St. Bernard who want to stay and start the rebuilding process.

One of the most tragic stories in St. Bernard was that of a nursing home that was not evacuated. All 35 residents died after their home was flooded. They did not evacuate in time. There are boats everywhere in the streets. Most of these were boats that were used by evacuees to get to various areas or in the rescue operation. As the water has gone down, these boats simply remain where they were last used, and many are on dry land now.

She believes that the team will likely be home within another week, and certainly hopes that is the case. The team is feeling very out of touch and isolated from the world. They are hoping to get back to their lives soon.

Communication is somewhat poor and news of what is happening in the disaster relief, as well as the rest of the world has been hard to come by. I read her the articles in the paper about the 30 AMAT (Theresa's group) who are serving in St. Bernard, and also some of what is happening in the TCC with the refugees here and how many of them are finding homes, etc.

The weather is hot and humid, but they do have air conditioning in the facilities were they are housed. There is plenty of food and always a BBQ going with a variety of meats. Last night they had juicy Ruth Crist filet minons and that was a treat. (Sounds like rough duty). One of the things she has missed the most is ice cream. They were invited to board a naval vessel anchored there and they made a beeline to the ship's store...only to be told they were out of ice cream. Sounds like we are going to need to treat her to an ice cream sundae on her return.

Theresa's team is working 8 PM - 2 AM. They usually catch a few hours of sleep, but once 8 AM has come, things get pretty noisy and it is difficult to sleep. She does appreciate having a cot to sleep on, though.

Access to a computer is rare and there is always a line of people waiting to get on, so it is difficult to respond to emails. She called from a satellite phone, which also requires waiting for a turn to get on. Our connection sounded clear like she was next door.

She can't imagine handling the daunting task of clearing debris and rebuilding, but those she has treated have been adamant that they want to rebuild soon, and most they don't want to leave at all.

The team is well, with no illness so far, other than a few days of nasal congestion for Theresa, which has now cleared up. There is supposed to be another article in the Sunday paper about Theresa's team.

That is all for now. Again, she said thank you to everyone for love and support. Please continue to pray for strength and encouragement for her and the team, as they are feeling a little discouragement from time to time and very anxious to return home.

(Click Here to return to Main Page)

ABC News: Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Katrina Deal
A Halliburton Co. subsidiary that has come under fire for its reconstruction work in Iraq has begun tapping a $500 million Navy contract to do emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and Marine facilities that were battered by Hurricane Katrina.

The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., was awarded the competitive bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters.

That clinches it!! This hurricane was Bush's Fault! It's all about the OIL! And Karl Rove's evil mind control/weather control rays!!!

Boo!

AIEE!!

More bad news for Lousiana and NOLA politicians...

Outside The Beltway : Katrina: Louisiana Federal Money Not Spent on Levees
"It turns out Louisiana has gotten more than its fair share of federal dollars for infrastructure but its own lawmakers thought the New Orleans levees were not a priority."

Read the rest...

dead mousie to Attila

Are you a liberal? A moderate? Some uncertain flavor of libertarian? Do you really want to know where conservatives are coming from on this hurricane issue? Really? Would you like an inside view of the fundamentals of our worldview--what is the basis of the opinions that you see and far too often misinterpret?

This post by Bill Whittle cannot work a miracle, but if you approach it with an open mind, setting aside preconceived notions, it may go a tremendous way to helping you understand.

Caution: Bill Whittle is an essayist, and you will need to set aside a half-hour to read it:
Tribes

Oboi! Is anyone still paying attention to this, or has the left completely backfilled it's collective ears with concrete?

Looks like *more* blame lies at the feet of the state of Louisiana:
Special Report w/ Brit Hume - Interview - Looking for Answers in the Hurricane's Aftermath

HUME: But look, I mean, they're down there. The Red Cross, for example, is there.

GARRETT: Standing by, ready.

HUME: Standing by, ready. Why didn't FEMA send the Red Cross into New Orleans when we had all of those people there on that bridge overpass and elsewhere?

GARRETT: At the Superdome, at the convention center...

HUME: Lack of water, right. Why not?

GARRETT: First of all, no jurisdiction. FEMA works with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other organizations, but it has no direct control to order them to go one place or the other.

Secondarily, the Red Cross was ready. I just got off the phone with one of their officials. They had a vanguard, Brit, of trucks with water, food, hygiene equipment, all sorts of things ready to go, where? To the Superdome and the convention center.

Why weren't they there? The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security told them they could not go.

HUME: Now, this is the Louisiana -- this isn't the Louisiana branch of the federal Homeland Security? This is...

GARRETT: The state's own agency devoted to the state's homeland security. They told them, 'You cannot go there.'

Why? The Red Cross tells me that state agency in Louisiana said, 'Look, we do not want to create a magnet for more to come to the Superdome or the convention center. We want to get them out.'

So at the same time local officials were screaming, 'Where is the food? Where is the water?' The Red Cross was standing by ready. The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security said, 'You can't go.'

HFS BATMAN!!! Some heads better roll for this! And it won't be FEMA's or the Red Cross' either...

At six years old, he is already clearly the superior of many of his elders:

"In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love."

Unfortunately the only link I have to this story is to Vox Popoli, and Vox hasn't got his source linked. So consider it an "urban legend" until further verification.

Update: Here is the story (big juicy dead mousie to baldilocks!)

As I might have expected there is more to the story than first appeared, but it is still very much worth a read. Have a kleenex handy...

Ilyka Damen has a long post here, which links to several instances of nuttiness emanating from teh left. But this two sentence paragraph sums up so much truth:

It is racist to take any minority group and declare it a ward of the state, sentence it to permanent childhood, deny it independence. Which, when you apologize for behavior in one group that you wouldn't tolerate from a member of your own group--when you make the "they cain't help it..." argument--is what you're doing.

This is something many on the right call "the soft racism of diminished expectations"--and is one of the things that many on the left are rampantly guilty of.

In addition to a great cartoon, Cox & Forkum has some damning information that is pointing more and more to the Louisiana Governor as the bottleneck in the decision-making process that delayed aid to the stricken.

More here from Steve at Hog on Ice

Blanco was slow to get the FEMA ball rolling. Bush critics--especially foreigners--don't understand federalism, and they don't realize that the feds can't just stomp across borders at will and do as they please. They have to be invited, and state governors are responsible for inviting them. Blanco couldn't be bothered to do this crucial duty until after the hurricane had passed. It's remarkable that a state governor couldn't trouble herself to learn and execute her duties on a slow August weekend in Louisiana, with little else to do.

Blanco was also very slow to give permission for state vehicles to be used for evacuation. How will she explain that? It smacks of rank bureaucratic ineptitude. It sounds as if she was so worried about taking care of her buses that she completely forgot about the people who were in danger of dying. To anyone familiar with the way bureaucrats think, that will be completely plausible.

Update: Still more:

The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for "the big one" that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding.

Why not?

Humphrey Bogart

You scored 38% Tough, 19% Roguish, 33% Friendly, and 9% Charming!
You're the original man of honor, rough and tough but willing to stick your neck out when you need to, despite what you might say to the contrary. You're a complex character full of spit and vinegar, but with a soft heart and a tender streak that you try to hide. There's usually a complicated dame in the picture, someone who sees the real you behind all the tough talk and can dish it out as well as you can. You're not easy to get next to, but when you find the right partner, you're caring and loyal to a fault. A big fault. But you take it on the chin and move on, nursing your pain inside and maintaining your armor...until the next dame walks in. Or possibly the same dame, and of all the gin joints in all the world, it had to be yours. Co-stars include Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall, hot chicks with problems.

The Classic Leading Man Test

BWAHAHAHAHA! Oh Lord God! Pinned to the wall. My life in a paragraph...

Police Looters

Stunning! Just go look. More on this later...

Stratfor says New Orleans has to be rebuilt. Understanding what they are saying, I still say it is better that those who do not have strong economic reasons to be there should try to resettle elsewhere. If the city must be rebuilt to serve the port and the petroleum industry, then let it be so. But no more people than are required for that should return. It is too hazardous a location for people to live at risk unneccesarily.

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize - News Archive - Stratfor

dead mousie to Bane

...for rebuilding New Orleans:
Floating Houses

dead mousie to Cowboy Blob

Steve at HOG ON ICE is on a rant here.

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World

Refugees also began arriving in Arizona, which has agreed to take up to 2,500. They were greeted on the runway by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon.

Several people had to be helped off the plane and down the stairway to the tarmac, where pink, yellow, teal and black flip-flops had been set out for them.

Then, carrying garbage bags, backpacks and brown shopping bags with their only belongings, the evacuees were led into the airport for physicals before boarding buses to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

"We'll take care of them," Gordon said. "We'll make sure they know that the city cares."

This is good, but I'd think the state could absorb a few more than 2500?

UPDATE: Tucson is ready to receive 1000 more refugees at the Tucson Convention Center.

Excite News

The dead and the desperate of New Orleans now join the farmers of Aceh and the fishermen of Trincomalee, villagers in Iran and the slum dwellers of Haiti in a world being dealt ever more punishing blows by natural disasters.

It's a world where Americans can learn from even the poorest nations, experts say, and where they should learn not to build future settlements like the drowned old metropolis on the Mississippi.

The levees in New Orleans inspired a false sense of security, says Dennis S. Miletti, a leading scholar on disaster prevention.

"We rely on technology and we end up thinking as human beings that we're totally safe, and we're not," said Miletti, of the University of Colorado. "The bottom line is we have a very unsafe planet."
...
The way America builds too often invites disasters, experts say - by draining Florida swampland and bulldozing California hillsides, for example, disrupting natural runoff and magnifying flood hazards.

"We're building our communities in ways that aren't compatible with the natural perils we have," Miletti said.

The more advanced the nations, the bigger the blow may be.

Terry Jeggle, a U.N. disaster-reduction planner, cites the New Orleans levee system - dependent on pumps that run on electricity produced by fuel that must be transported in. One failure will lead to another along that chain.

"Complex systems invite compounding of complexity in consequences, too," said the Geneva-based Jeggle.
...
The prospect of more vulnerable populations on a more turbulent Earth has U.N. officials and other advocates pressuring governments to plan and prepare. They cite examples of poorer nations that in ways do a better job than the rich:

_No one was reported killed when Ivan struck Cuba in 2004, its worst hurricane in 50 years and a storm that, after weakening, killed 25 people in the United States. Cuba's warning-evacuation system is minutely planned, even down to neighborhood workers keeping updated charts on which residents need help during evacuations.

_Along Bangladesh's cyclone coast, 33,000 well-organized volunteers stand ready to shepherd neighbors to raised concrete shelters at the approach of one of the Bay of Bengal's vicious storms.

_In 2002, Jamaica conducted a full-scale evacuation rehearsal in a low-lying suburb of coastal Kingston, and fine-tuned plans afterward. When Ivan's 20-foot surge destroyed hundreds of homes two years later, only eight people died. Ordinary Jamaicans also are taught search-and-rescue methods and towns at risk have trained flood-alert teams.

Like many around the world, Barbara Carby, Jamaica's disaster coordinator, watched in disbelief as catastrophe unfolded on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"We always have resource constraints," she said. "That's not a problem the U.S. has. But because they have the resources, they may not pay enough attention to preparedness and awareness, and to educating the public how to help themselves."

That last part is the clincher for me.

When you rely on someone else to take care of you, you are bound to be disappointed. The whole topic of preparedness has been heavy on my mind lately. Katrina has only brought it back to the forefront of my awareness--awareness that I am not anywhere near as prepared as I ought to be for a variety of disasters and disruptions, both natural and manmade.

Others have said this, and I've made it my own goal: the last thing I want to be in a disaster is a refugee. But it is up to me to see to it. And that takes some planning and forethought.

That's why this shrieking and crying about how slow the Federal teat has been in coming out to feed the open mouths of the helpless masses is so disgusting to me. When Jamaica and Cuba, with their meager resources can effectively plan for disaster, then why not the City of New Orleans?

Update: Cold Fury discusses preparedness.
Update 2: So says Ith too.

We're always told that if there is some sort of cataclysmic disaster -- in my case it would be an earthquake -- that you need to be able to take care of yourself for several days becuase it's going to take at least that long for any official help to get to you. You hear it over and over again, but I'm not quite sure it sinks in. It has now.

Time to restock my emergency supplies.

Now *this* is the kind of thing I expect of my fellow man:
Excite News

In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming 'tribes' and dividing up the labor.

As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim.

While mold and contagion grew in the muck that engulfed most of the city, something else sprouted in this most decadent of American neighborhoods - humanity.

'Some people became animals,' Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny White's Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. 'We became more civilized.'

The Intellectual Activist

by Robert Tracinski

It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.

If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.

Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicle, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.

But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.

The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.

The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.

The man-made disaster is the welfare state.
...
75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional, crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so they just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.

(Editor's note: the hell, you say!!)

There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state, people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

continue...

There's a partial answer to the question of "where were the men?"

dead mousie to Dadcat

This article is from 2000, but it is eerie in its prescience, and reads like a stinging indictment of the city officials in hindsight.
Risk & Insurance: The Lost City of New Orleans?

Blogger News Network--Editorial by Bob Felton:

I Think It Is Likely that, given time to reflect, the deployment within 3-days of a self-sustaining, ad hoc army of thousands of troops, vehicles, and supplies will be seen for what it was: a very high-order logistical triumph attesting to the professionalism and dedication of America's under-appreciated military.

We might better complain ... where were the men? I don't mean the adult males, I mean the men, the two-legged, responsible, self-directed men willing to put their hands on events and drive them to a better ending.

Consider, for instance, the matter of the lawlessness within the Superdome, a closed universe. A very small percentage of the adult males had physical and psychic energy enough for gang rape; the remaining 99 percent didn't have in toto the physical and psychic energy to stop them?

Corpses here, corpses there, children playing in their midst. There was nobody to say they should be moved to a remote corner? Nobody to start the hauling?

There was nobody to rig-up simple outdoor privies, using spare clothing, sheets, sleeping bags for privacy?

There was nobody to organize a simple police force to prevent rape, theft, even murder?

Where were the men!?

There were none. When boys are victimized by feminism, they do not grow up to be men. They grow up to be animals or pussies, or a very unfortunate combination of both, but not men.

Kim DuToit had an excellent essay on this topic. Unfortunately I have lost track of it.

Herald.com | 09/02/2005
The levee system that protected New Orleans from hurricane-spawned surges along Lake Pontchartrain was never designed to survive a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday.
...
"The Corps knew, everybody knew, that the levees had limited capability," said Joseph Suhayda, a retired director of the Louisiana State University's Water Resources and Research Institute.

"Because of exercises and simulations, we knew that the consequences of overtopping [water coming over the levees] would be disastrous. People were playing with matches in the fireworks factory and it went off," he said.

Suhayda, an expert in coastal oceanography, said, "the fact the levee failed is not according to design. If it was overtopped, it's because it was lower in that spot than other spots. The fact that it was only designed for a Category 3 meant it was going to get overtopped. I knew that. They knew that. There were limits."
...
Some critics Thursday questioned the usefulness of levees, saying that all of them fail eventually.

"There are lots of ways for levees to fail. Overtopping is just one of them," said Michael Lindell, of Texas A&M University's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center. 'There's a lot of smoke screen about 'low probabilities.' Low probabilities just means 'Takes a long time.'"

Or put a better way, the chances of it occuring at any given moment are low, but over time it is a virtual certainty. And 100-year storms do not occur only once every one-hundred years.

Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em.

It sank into the swamp.

So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp.

So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these here isles....

"But Faa-theh! I doun' wount a cahstle in a swomp..."

"Nonsense lad! That's what you're going to get if we have to drain the last drop from the nipple of the Federal Treasury to pay for it! She has huge...mmm...wads of cash!"

Ok, I'm going to say it: It does not make sense to me to rebuild New Orleans.

(*gasp!!*)

I said it. I know most people don't share my perspective as a Civil Engineer, but when I contemplate what it will take to restore basic infrastructure throughout the city, my mind reels! The cost will be so staggering it almost makes me physically ill. I cannot even begin to get a handle on the scope of the destruction of private residences, commercial and industrial buildings.

You can't leave a house submerged for weeks without it deteriorating so badly that it needs to be razed. And how much of the city does that include? Most of it? Who will pay? I understand flood insurance is nearly impossible to come by in NOLA, and so most people don't have it. So...the rest of us who pay income tax?

In that case, I have paid for the privilege of having my say.

There is no good reason for NOLA to be where it is anymore. There was a day a couple hundred years ago when it was a perfect location. But the city has been slowly sinking ever since. And the essential functions the city serves--harbor and freight terminal, petroleum industry hub, don't require the presence of some 1+ million vulnerable souls sitting ten feet below sea level.

This was a city where over 25 percent of the population could not find the jobs or other means to live above the poverty level. Now that the city is being completely emptied of people--many of whom will not be able to afford to rebuild their old homes anyway--why not provide them with the assistance necessary to re-establish their lives in new locations with more economic opportunities? Why pay them to go back into harms way for the next Category 5 hurricane to wipe out their lives again?!

Can NOLA be made safe from a Cat-5 killer? To an Engineer, all things are possible. But at what cost? And just because this *could* be done, does it make the most sense to do it? I have a hard time thinking so.

Oh sure, let's rebuild a levee around the French Quarter--there's too much history there to let that go. It can still serve as a tourist mecca and assuage the sentimental. And I can see compelling reasons to rebuild enough of the city to allow the petroleum industry, the freight terminals, and the fisheries to function well. But for the rest of the refugees from the vast residential areas of New Orleans now under twenty feet of water, there surely have to be better opportunities to rebuild their lives elsewhere.

Let's give the rest of the delta back to the Mississippi.

Update: More from Time

Beats me, since it appears that the City of New Orleans had all the means necessary to get very significant numbers of people out both before AND after the storm. No need to wait for State or Federal assistance. No excuse for the finger pointing.

This shame falls on YOUR head, Mayor Nagin!



Read:
BUS-TED!

Update: Some are saying the buses are waterlogged. Take a closer look. They appear to be standing in no more than eighteen inches of water. Not a problem. Second, there was no water in that lot before the storm when the mandatory evacuation order was given. Why did the Mayor not order the buses commandeered at that time to gather up the poor and immobile? And now after the storm, while he's shrieking on national television about the lack of federal aid, why has he not ordered his own police to commandeer the buses, drive them to the Superdome, and get his people out of there. Take a look at the link above. There are more photos that show the location of this bus lot relative to the Superdome. They are very close, and the freeway you see in the picture is clear all the way out of the city.

It never seems to have occurred to this incompetent fool of a Mayor that he had the means at his disposal to transport many tens of thousands of his own people out of harm's way!

Update 2: And on the outside chance this is true, then who's the murderer?

UPDATE 3: via Drudge

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

So this makes it even worse! They "planned" to use the buses to evacuate people, but never did!!

Lost in the Flood - Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage? By Jack Shafer

Now, don't get me wrong. Just because 67 percent of New Orleans residents are black, I don't expect CNN to rename the storm "Hurricane" Carter in honor of the black boxer. Just because Katrina's next stop after destroying coastal Mississippi was counties that are 25 percent to 86 percent African-American (according to this U.S. Census map), and 27.9 percent of New Orleans residents are below the poverty line, I don't expect the Rev. Jesse Jackson to call the news channels to give a comment. But in the their frenzy to beat freshness into the endless loops of disaster footage that have been running all day, broadcasters might have mentioned that nearly all the visible people left behind in New Orleans are of the black persuasion, and mostly poor.

Damn racist hurricane!

When disaster strikes, Americans--especially journalists--like to pretend that no matter who gets hit, no matter what race, color, creed, or socioeconomic level they hail from, we're all in it together. This spirit informs the 1997 disaster flick Volcano, in which a "can't we all just get along" moment arrives at the film's end: Volcanic ash covers every face in the big crowd scene, and everybody realizes that we're all members of one united race.

But we aren't one united race, we aren't one united class, and Katrina didn't hit all folks equally. By failing to acknowledge upfront that black New Orleanians--and perhaps black Mississippians--suffered more from Katrina than whites, the TV talkers may escape potential accusations that they're racist. But by ignoring race and class, they boot the journalistic opportunity to bring attention to the disenfranchisement of a whole definable segment of the population. What I wouldn't pay to hear a Fox anchor ask, "Say, Bob, why are these African-Americans so poor to begin with?"

"Say Bob, do tell? I notice you're awfully white yourself, and wearing a very nice suit."

Just by asking such a question at a time like this is exploitative, Jack. You really want to use people's suffering to advance your political agenda like this? Shame!

Has it occured to schmucks like Mr. Shafer that if this hurricane had hit a city peopled with Eskimos and Canucks, it would be images of poor white Canucks and Eskimos we'd be seeing instead?

Update: The Therapist appears to be just as disgusted as I am. Click & read.

Incidentally he's been faltering at his job of providing Political Therapy lately, but today he's finally got something with an appropriate dose of levity to take some steam out of an emotionally exhausting few days. Here.

UPDATE 2: JeffG says "Bring it on!"

... on the streets, in statehouses and federal offices, and in the media, and practically every last word of it is inane yak-yak-yak. The appalling events in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast could not have been reasonably anticipated.
...
The only serious failure - and it must be counted a very, very serious failure - was the failure to respond to looting with deadly force the very instant it appeared. Word travels ... and the word that busting into the shoe store means instant death would have traveled very quickly. A tough, no-nonsense attitude from the get-go would have worked miracles and prevented the ensuing chaos and needless deaths.

Some needed perspective. Click to read the rest: Editorial by Bob Felton

The hurricane of recriminations is only now winding up. And predictabley, the Racial Grievance Pimps are out in force, spewing their poisonous blather. Expect conditions to worsen in the days ahead.

And of course there is the usual political haymaking by the left:

The President is taking heat for responding too slowly to the Katrina disaster. James Taranto covers how angry folks on the left have been reacting in general ("It's global warming!", "It's because Mississippi has a Republican governor!"), but the speed issue is one that keeps coming up. The NY Times calls Bush's response too little, too late.

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

One of the criticisms I have of many pundits and news reporters on the Left is that, no matter at all what Bush does, they'll find some way to criticize it. It doesn't matter how objectively good his action may be, it simply must be shot down. Don't believe me? Well Sherman, set the Way Back Machine to August 15, 2004, a little over a year ago. CBS reports on what folks are saying to Bush's response to Hurricane Charley.

Even before the storm hit, the president declared four counties disaster areas to speed federal money to victims. But that quick response fueled suspicion that he is using disaster politics to help his campaign in one of the most critical battleground states, a notion the president dismissed Sunday.

"Yeah, and if I didn't come they'd have said he should have been here more rapidly," Mr. Bush said.

Read the rest here: Editorial by Doug Payton

Superdome evacuations enter second day

This stuff is hard for me to read. This is America, and the scenes described sound like the frantic shuffle of humanity out of a third-world war zone. It's surreal, and the level of disorganization is appalling!

And these are the people we are trusting to deal effectively with a major terrorist attack? God help us if the Islamists ever do set off a thermonuclear device in Los Angeles or New York, or any other major American city!

I mean seriously, is it just the peculiar circumstances of New Orleans, or are we really this poorly prepared to deal with major catastrophes? Granted we've never had to completely evacuate a medium sized American city before, to my knowledge. Especially one under 10+ feet of water. But I am not comforted by what I am seeing.



One downside of haloscan is that they ditch the comments after a few months. So to preserve the conversation in this post, I've copied the comments section out of haloscan and posted them here:

We really are this poorly prepared.

The poverty and long-time isolation of Louisiana and New Orleans from the same federal assistance other states get has exacerbated the incompetence in the relief effort there.

But for federal officials to keep saying things like "We didn't know there were all those people in the convention center, but we rushed to get someone out there to take a head count" is disgusting.

Why didn't they just assume the folks on the ground MIGHT already have an accurate count and send food and water too? Then if there were less people in the CC they could distribute it elsewhere.

The fact that so many of those people are poor, black, and Southern has a great deal to do with this situation.

So does the fact that we have very high level federal politicians whose greatest skills are not in true leadership, but in convincing people they are leaders when they're not.

That's the difference between the sizzle and the steak.

And now innocent people are dying of hunger and thirst and diabetes as a result.
k | Homepage | 09.01.05 - 11:00 pm | #

I also blame the people who are SHOOTING AT THEIR RESUCERS! There's nothing about being poor, black, and southern that excuses that. That reveals a rottenness of the soul.

Because for every gangsta taking potshots at the relief truck, there's a hundred people behind him who don't get the help they need. For every hundred people in a mob surging at a helicopter landing point, there's thousands of people in the convention center dying for need of what's on the helicopter.

This whole incident is exposing the black ugliness that lives in too many people's hearts.

No, I don't think the aid is slow in coming because many of the people afflicted are poor, black, and southern. There were huge numbers of poor black southerners from Biloxi to Gulf Shores equally afflicted by this storm, and you don't see the chaos and slow relief there that you see in NOLA. Why is that? From what I am learning, there was more of an effort to establish law and order ahead of, and in conjunction with the relief effort.

But people are criticizing the police and guard for trying to establish order in NOLA "instead of" helping dying people. Damnit! People are dying BECAUSE of the lawlesness!

No, I'm not willing to give any credence to the veiled charges of racism. Not unless you want to be suggesting that being poor black and southern is an excuse for what some of them are doing. I don't excuse that normally, and in a crisis situation it is ESPECIALLY egregious, given how many people it affects.

There are no other "root causes" that matter here. None.
Desert Cat | Homepage | 09.02.05 - 9:08 am | #

I must ask you this: Why in the world would you think I'm excusing looters?
k | Homepage | 09.02.05 - 1:42 pm | #

In addition to the keystone cops fiasco of both the state and federal officials, I see what appears to be a pretty direct correlation between the violence over the last few days and the slow response of the rescuers. There are plenty of stories to back up that correlation. One I was reminded of today was the reports of shots fired at people in boats, attempted hijackings of boats, etc. the day after the hurricane. That put a real crimp in people's willingness to venture back in.

Yesterday the Governor finally authorized "shoot to kill" orders against the bad guys. Today the National Guard arrived in force, and today the aid is finally flowing in much faster.

Pardon my sensitivity on the issue. As a conservative, I am automatically suspect as some kind of closet racist in certain quarters. So when I hear something like: "The fact that so many of those people are poor, black, and Southern has a great deal to do with this situation", I am hearing something like "this is because of the racism that is inherent in those who are white, non-southern and economically comfortable". If that's not what you meant, then I apologize for lighting up.

There are unfortunately a lot of people who would excuse the lawlessness we're seeing against the rescuers by invoking an argument about the "root causes" of the urban subculture that condones it. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in a speech yesterday pretty much blamed the situation on racism. I can see people being angry. I can understand many feeling like they've been abandoned in a dying city. I can even understand and forgive looting grocery stores for food and water.

But not the rest of what is going on there. And certainly not the political opportunists who seem to be trying to distort the truth of what is happening in order to protect their racket, their position as the sainted spokespeople of the downtrodden victim class.

Sorry, I don't mean to direct this at you. But this is one of those hot button issues that gets me frosted. Because it seems to me there is nothing more damaging than to convince someone that they are a victim or a class of victims who cannot achieve any of their dreams by their own efforts.

Life is tough and unfair for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. And racism is ugly and deserves to be excoriated. But not everything that is called racism, always is. The epithet "racist!" is used like the epithet "chickenhawk!" as a means of shutting down discussion without examining the issue in any meaningful manner.

When all of the shouting is over, there will be plenty of blame to go around.
Desert Cat | Homepage | 09.02.05 - 8:08 pm | #

(click THE SANDBOX to read the rest...)(Click Here to return to Main Page)

Wired 13.09: The Dream Factory

"If you could make anything you wanted, what would it be?"
For me, that's not a rhetorical question, because right now I'm staring at my own personal fabricator. It's eMachineShop, an application that produces a physical 3-D copy of almost anything I draw. 'You know the machine on Star Trek? The replicator? That's what I was aiming for,' says Jim Lewis, the guy who created this tool.

The concept is simple: Boot up your computer and design whatever object you can imagine, press a button to send the CAD file to Lewis' headquarters in New Jersey, and two or three weeks later he'll FedEx you the physical object."

The possibilities are, of course, endless.




I mean that seriously. Exercise your imagination.

Back a few years ago I caught a portion of one of those handyman shows--maybe Bob Vila or someone like him. He was demostrating a woodworking machine where a piece of wood was inserted at one end, and a custom cabinet door emerged at the other end.

I was ill.

I learned that day why some women loathe Martha Stewart with such a passion. That was a case of being "shown up" on a grand scale.

"Hey Bob! Come check out the cuts I can make with my new router bit set. I can actually make panelized doors now if I have a couple of weeks to devote to it."

"Heh. Well that's nice Joe. But you really ought to come over to my place. I just bought the Replicator 5000-DX. I toss a log in one end, and custom cabinetry pops out the other end. It's great! Your wife need any new cabinets?"

eMachineShop does fabrication not only work in wood, but a wide variety of materials. For example, the author of the article designed a custom electric guitar made of clear acrylic and brushed aluminum, sent the design over, and in a couple of days the parts were ready.

Go read, turn green. Then dream.

dead mousie to Dadcat