September 2005 Archives

Before I start, a gigantic tip of the hat to the first responders, whether they be the Coast Guard, National Guard, Armed Forces, local and state police, fire, and rescue, or just the person who lived there. You have worked hundreds of hours doing what needed to be done. Now, on to the idiots who appear to be running the asylum that we call Homeland (In)Security. Even though he doesn't want to discuss it, it appears that Chertoff has admitted that they are sitting around with their thumbs up their collective butts and spending billions of our taxpayer dollars and doing zip dot nothing. As reported on CNN today, the chief do-nothing admitted that a Katrina scenario did not exist.

Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur. But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.

Even a first year student in the Earth Sciences who has taken an introductory meteorology course and a basic geology course knows two basic facts:

1. Hurricanes produce lots of water
2. Water erodes soil, rock, and other earth materials

So how come the Department of Homeland Security who, as a government agency, has at their disposal their wealth of knowledge from the US Geological Survey, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Weather Service, cannot figure out that hurricane plus levees in need of reinforcement equals disaster? And let's not forget that stellar leader, FEMA Director Michael Brown. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune:

For the decade prior to joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Director Michael Brown was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association, a Colorado-based group that organizes breeders and horse shows. Then he was asked to resign. "He didn't follow the instructions he was given," then-IAHA President William Pennington confirmed Saturday. Less than five years after that dismissal, Brown, 50, finds himself heading the federal agency charged with responding to one of the nation's worst disasters.

So we have a neo-con Secretary of Homeland Security who can't figure that lots of water will erode away dirt and a FEMA director who can't lead a horse to water. Is it any wonder that so many people are suffering?

I am sick and tired of hearing Chertoff, FEMA, and the rest of these people who are in charge saying that they are working hard and aren't going to answer the questions that all Americans have right now about why they have and are continuing to screw up in the wake of Katrina. Chertoff in a brief news conference termed the effort in very non-human terms, speaking more about infrastructure than people. He talks about corpses. Hello? While others are being sensitive about people being refugees, he, too, needs to get that word out of his vocabulary. They are victims, people, some of whom would have been still alive if the federal government had not cut funding for preventative measures, some who still might be alive if they had gotten off their fat cat butts and gotten relief into the area faster. It never ceases to amaze me that we can get stealth bombers to Iraq, destroy the country with munitions, and get them back home in less than 24 hours, while we can't get aid to our own people in a week. Working hard at what, Dubya? Making speeches about Social Security and cutting the grass at your fake ranch in Texas? Try working hard at being president or do the right thing and take your whole regime to Iraq and screw up their democracy and give ours back to us.

Maureen Dowd from the New York Times had best not look for a government job with this administration. In fact, she, along with other truthful observers of the happenings in New Orleans, should watch their backs. Her excellent commentary entitled United States of Shame hits the nail on the head.

Shirt-sleeves rolled up, W. finally landed in Hell yesterday and chuckled about his wild boozing days in "the great city" of N'Awlins. He was clearly moved. "You know, I'm going to fly out of here in a minute," he said on the runway at the New Orleans International Airport, "but I want you to know that I'm not going to forget what I've seen." Out of the cameras' range, and avoided by W., was a convoy of thousands of sick and dying people, some sprawled on the floor or dumped on baggage carousels at a makeshift M*A*S*H unit inside the terminal.

I thouroughly expect him to say, with regards to the lack of government response, "It's a joke, son!" It is no joke. People are starving and dying in the most prosperous country in the world with the most incompetent lack of leadership. At least one hopes that it wasn't a plan to leave the poor people to rot and die...

Responded to an MVA (motor vehicle accident) this afternoon and actually remembered to put my cameraphone in my pocket (I am not attached at the ear with my cellphone). It was a rather nasty one, a car versus utility truck. Two people were injured, one being flown by medical helicopter. Now I have to keep remembering the phone and taking a few snaps. Also, the where in the world pulldown below is the location of the accident (and, no, I didn't make this entry from there).

Tired of the national spin from the network and media outlets? Take a look at the Times-Picayune on NOLA.com and their coverage of Hurricane Katrina. It includes PDF images of the front section of the paper. Also, WWL-TV online has a WMP feed.

Testing 1 2 3 :-) - Starting to digg... Propellerhead Software, makers of Reason, have discontinued development of their Rebirth synthesizer simulator software. It is now downloadable for free. If you haven't tried digg, it is another one of those social bookmarking sites. Just giving it a try - let's see if it survives...

One of my professors just the other day made a comment that I have held as truth for years. In a simple phrase...

Familiarize, not memorize

This web site has a group of two dozen cheatsheets for ready reference.

Paul Krugman tells the truth about our Can't-Do Government in today's New York Times. Read it, pass it along, and, of course, send what you can to the Red Cross for our fellow Americans in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

I think this entry on the WWL blog (a TV station in New Orleans) makes a point that the country needs to consider:

9:22 A.M. - State Representative Karen Carter: If you want to help...get a bus. We have comandeered other things, we need to comandeer Greyhound. You want to help? Send buses and gas, buses and gas. I don't need $10 million right now - send buses and gas!

As the supplies seem to be coming by way of Iraq and Halliburton's depot in Texas (what a concept), we have hundreds of thousands of people who need water, food, shelter, clothing, and yes, a way to get out of the damaged areas. Enough rhetoric! Help the people now! And if you want to see the reporting from New Orleans without the global media spin, go to WWL's web site and watch the programming coming from the disaster zone sans anchor hair.