1525 Where will the Conference be in 2006?

The ever-liberal and sensitive-to-diversity American Library Association had planned to have its Conference in New Orleans in 2006. The listserv is providing a variety of views on whether it is appropriate to be worrying about that during this time of disaster and great need. Considering that many organizations in the past have opted to boycott cities that are not friendly to women or gays or labor unions, I'm wondering why ALA ever considered New Orleans in the first place. By anyone's standards it was a mess before Katrina--a tourist mecca served by the working class hovering above the poor, living in project housing. New Orleans not only had the French Quarter, great hotels and jazz, it had a huge poverty rate among black Americans with enormous racial divisions and income gaps among whites, blacks and mixed race. Crime was at crisis levels (endangering locals more than tourists), with bars on the windows of even modest homes. The state and local governments have historically picked the pockets of the poor and used them to build a political base by doling the money back to them. It was an environmental disaster waiting to happen, with layers of bureacracy, red tape and regulations that paralyzed everyone trying to fix it.

Just the poverty alone should have been a red flag to the conference planners, but they never noticed the problem until it showed up on Fox and CNN.

1524 The woman I never was

Nathan Bierma sends out a newsletter about language. The latest issue has an interesting item about the word "spinster." I got married so young I just completely missed that stage of womanhood.

"Endings: The word "spinster" will be retired by the British Government this December, after centuries of use as the official term for a woman who has never been married. The male counterpart, "bachelor," also will be shelved. The Registrar General currently uses these terms on marriage certificates to describe the previous status of newlyweds. But now that homosexual couples can enter into what the Government calls "civil partnerships," the Registrar General wanted terminology that could apply to gay couples. From now on, an unmarried Brit, regardless of sexual orientation, will officially be called a "single."

"Spinster" was first recorded in the 14th Century as the name for the occupation of spinning wool -- a job usually done by a woman. Eventually both the job and the name became so associated with unmarried women that the British Government adopted it in the 17th Century as the official title of an unmarried woman, according to the OED.

The word has never lost its connotations of social inadequacy that came, in centuries past, with being an unmarried woman beyond marrying age. "I can't feel the word is much of a loss," wrote British etymologist Michael Quinion in his World Wide Words newsletter (www.worldwidewords.org), adding it has been "a very long time since an unmarried woman referred to herself by this title in seriousness." " The article also appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

1523 Such a deal!

Couldn't have worked out better. Be totally unprepared for anything above a category 3 hurricane, don't get your poorest and most vulnerable out in time, create chaos by not allowing ngo's to provide food and water, and then when all that bad planning gets washed away, ask all the other citizens of the United States to pay for it.

Here's what Blanco asked for yesterday in a speech to the Louisiana Legislature on the Restoration of Southeast Louisiana.

"Governor Blanco left no doubt about what she expects of the federal government. That includes:

• Asking the federal government to cover 100 percent of what Louisiana will spend on this disaster – just as was done after 9-11.

• Significant financial help to rebuild homes and return our families.

• Tax relief and loans to keep our businesses afloat.

• An extension of unemployment benefits.

• FEMA to give priority to hiring Louisiana companies and Louisiana workers."

So if Alabama and Mississippi were only slightly less prepared, do they get this too? And Florida? What about Ophelia and the North Carolina coast. They're quite prepared, having learned some painful lessons from FEMA's failures in 1999.

1522 Money she brought home from Washington

Gov. Blanco got a lot of money to build a highway between Louisiana and Arkansas. Truthfully, she's no different than any other governor when it comes to highway pork (Alaska and West Virginia are the greased pig highway and bridge champions), but considering events of the past few weeks, I wonder how much that stretch of highway was needed?

"The money our delegation brought home from Washington and the state investment we secure today are big steps toward making the complete connection from Arkansas to New Orleans.

Our delegation’s hard work has resulted in funding through 2009.

Beyond this, I know they are committed to securing the funds we need to build those last few miles and I know Louisiana will have the investment we need to match that federal commitment." Blanco Speech August, 12, 2005

"Governing magazine recently increased Louisiana’s grade to a solid B for the way we run our government and manage our taxpayers’ money. Only seven states ranked higher."
Uh oh. Boy, are we in trouble! Her State of the State speech, April 25, 2005.

1521 Bait and Switch

Writing and publishing were required in my job--and I loved it. Seeing my name in print in journals I respected was nice--but not wonderful enough for me to want to do it in retirement. I enjoy research and always did the appropriate amount and meticulously documented my conclusions. However, I usually "knew" my conclusions before I began the project. So when I saw journalist Barbara Ehrenreich being interviewed by Stephen Moore about her latest book "Bait and Switch" I wasn't too surprised by her conclusions that something is terribly wrong with our society because of her anecdotal evidence and personal prejudices proved that before she started her research. She says she was surprised that white collar, middle-class people with college degrees had trouble finding work, but her conclusion was that "they" (U.S. business?) were to blame. I wasn't surprised--I just don't agree with her method or her conclusion.

Here's her method. At 63, she changes her name and social security number and attempts to get a $50,000 job in marketing. She isn't successful. Are we surprised? Have you seen her? Have you seen people who usually go into marketing and PR? This woman looks like her face would fall off if she smiled! She looks like me when I'm deep in thought. She was quite combative with the interviewer who was from the Wall Street Journal (you can watch it on C-Span Book TV on streaming video), and I'm wondering how she thought she'd come across in a personnel interview in corporate America. She admits she was "acting." Does she think personnel officers (human resource managers?) are so inexperienced they can't spot that? So she tries an image coach, who sounds like an idiot and an image consultant, but still doesn't get a job. She admits she had no "network," and actually, that's a serious weakness for many women. I'm guessing from her attitude and career track, she's a bit of a loner. "Maybe I did it wrong, but I did what other people are doing," she sighed.

The interviewer pointed out the "BS" factor in the people who were making money trying to coach her into a position (for which she was completely unsuited). He suggested that the problem was "you were trying to be someone you were not." "So what" was her attitude about smiling. She missed it, didn't she? Being in marketing or PR is not about smiling. It's about personality, drive, depth, understanding the market, training, skills, and having a lot of contacts--maybe hundreds--attending sporting events, symphony, church, being on boards and committees until you think you can't attend another meeting.

Her advice for someone looking for work: "Be careful how you spend your money--it's mind games, new agey nonsense (referring to career coaches)." "Support and self-help groups don't really give a person a chance 'to tell their stories.'" She wanted out of work people to form warm fuzzy support groups and also lobbying groups. She whined about "corporate conformity" in clothing, and tried to argue with Mr. Moore who actually does work in the corporate world, when he denied a dress code. It made me wonder if she has walked the streets of any U.S. city or halls of academe and seen the awful outfits people wear, particularly women. Try church if you really want sloppy.

She refused to acknowledge the validity of Mr. Moore's statistics that countered hers--she was terribly full of "yes, buts." Her only answers for out-of-work people were for more government involvement--universal health insurance and longer unemployment benefits. How does that create one job--which was her other chord--too many jobs being lost. He decimated her points about Europe's employment picture and she just poohed-poohed them. "Well, they haven't accepted a low-wage economy. . . they have strong unions." Completely ignored the sky rocketing unemployment caused by all these features she wants in American businesses. But she was against Bush's plan to make workers more secure with their own retirement accounts (which she admits on air she knows little about--but she's against it).

We know several men ranging in age from 40-55 who are out of work and well educated--exactly her theme. They all want the same thing--well-paid, secure positions, outside the area in which they've worked, areas which have caused burn-out and failure for them. Any colleague, friend or relative could tell them what they are doing wrong and make suggestions on how to change. They will not, cannot listen. They have the same "Yes, but" attitude that Ms. Ehrenreich threw back at Mr. Moore's suggestions.

I haven't read "Bait and Switch" and probably won't. The interview was enough. I heard enough whining and sighing when I was employed.

1520 Why could Florida respond and other Gulf states couldn't?

Florida had disaster teams in Mississippi and Louisiana before those states' responders did. Why? How? Preparation. Planning. Learning from the past.

"And how Louisiana and Mississippi officials have handled Hurricane Katrina is a far cry from what emergency managers here [Florida] would have done. Mississippi was in the middle of rewriting its disaster plan when Katrina struck. Officials there were still analyzing what went wrong during Hurricane Dennis earlier this year when Katrina overtook them. Search teams from Florida were rescuing Mississippi victims before law enforcement officers there were even aware of the magnitude of the disaster.

Louisiana also lacked an adequate plan to evacuate New Orleans, despite years of research that predicted a disaster equal to or worse than Katrina. Even after a disaster test run last year exposed weaknesses in evacuation and recovery, officials failed to come up with solutions."

Read the whole article here.

1519 Don't know much about geography

What a wonderful world it would be if Europeans would read a geography book sings Jane Galt. Megan McArdle “is sickened by the smug response of some Europeans to this tragedy: their gladness that it has taken Bush down a peg, their overweening belief that this somehow happened because Americans just aren't as nice or as smart as Europeans are. Of course, Europeans have no way of knowing how they'd do in such a disaster, because they have no storms like Katrina, no earthquakes like Northridge, no rivers like the Mississippi . . . but somehow that doesn't seem to stop some of them from being sure that the ability of their police to stop 40 or so football yobs from rioting translates perfectly into an ability to handle the displacement of 500,000 people when even the police have no water, food, gas for their cars or power for their radios.”

She lists five items about our geographic, climatic and demographic differences that Europeans [and Americans] need to consider when criticizing the hurricane response. Might be nice if some librarians providing misinformation were aware of a few of these facts too.
Asymmetrical Information

1518 The Five stages of Crisis Management

begins with denial, says Jack Welch in an article in today's Wall Street Journal. Then comes Containment; then Shame-mongering. Fourth stage is blood on the floor, and finally we get to something better in the rebuilding and final stage. Whole article here.

I suppose he could be talking from experience, not as a CEO but a very public divorce and remarriage.

1517 Ophelia and Floyd

Five months ago when we were planning our trip to Germany we needed to decide our airport for the international flight. Remembering that September is hurricane season, and recalling the devastation of Floyd that changed our vacation plans in September 1999, I voted for Chicago O'Hare instead of Charlotte. It's a lovely airport and is a much easier place to be making a transfer, but not during hurricane season.

Floyd caused such devastation in 1999, particularly to the agricultural areas of North Carolina. I still remember seeing lagoons of dead pigs, cattle and chickens. Those of us on the Veterinary Medicine listserv were dashing messages back and forth trying to locate colleagues. Many people were killed and displaced, and two years later there was still controversy about how the recovery money was being spent. President Clinton preempted the governors of several states causing a lot of political wrangling. Over 2 million people were evacuated and there was general chaos, much of it blamed on FEMA. Again, it was the rain and the flooding not the hurricane that caused the worst economic damage, and people all up and down the coast suffered. I see that a number of conservative bloggers are now bringing up the Clinton Administration's poor response to that storm. Just Google "Floyd Clinton FEMA" if you are interested. I'm just thankful I will be flying out of O'Hare, my least favorite airport in the country.

1516 Just Staying Alive

"I think for the most part people have just been trying to stay alive," said Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. "They've been waiting for rescuers. They've been on top of buildings, all the rest of it. They have not been there trying to figure out what to steal. They've been trying to stay alive." Jefferson is quoted on ABC.com on Sept. 2.

Then on September 13, ABC reported that Jefferson had diverted some resources that same day from rescuing people from rooftops to go to his home and removed some of his property.

“Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A five-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News that during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson's initial request.”

“The water reached to the third step of Jefferson's house, a military source familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up onto Jefferson's front lawn so he wouldn't have to walk in the water. Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.”

“Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.”

He then refused a ride on the helicopter and another truck needed to be sent to get him. Tying up that many rescue resources certainly shows the depth of his concern, doesn‘t it.

1515 License photo

My birthday is coming up so I needed to renew my driver's license. I thought nothing could be worse than my last DL photo. I was wrong.

1514 A filibuster?

I've been busy getting ready for a trip and have only listened with one ear to the Roberts' hearings. But I did get a chuckle out of someone accusing him of filibustering. Biden? The Senators ask these insanely long questions using up big chunks of their allotted time, and then go all legalistic, naggy and self-righteous when he hands it right back to them with. . . long, complex answers. And can't that Dianne Feinstein just put you to sleep?

1513 Parroting Rush

Yesterday a reader accused me of "parroting Rush." I have on occasion listened to Rush Limbaugh, usually if I happen to be in my car in the afternoon. And I listen more often to 15 minutes or so of Glenn Beck in the morning. But like most liberals, this particular reader seems to think Rush has a lot of power--I couldn't possibly, after having been a Democrat for 40 years myself, have noticed any of the successes and shortcomings of those years. I've often said that I wouldn't own a home on Lake Erie if I'd waited for Republicans to push to clean it up. But that doesn't mean that now I'm going to try to destroy business and agriculture and return all Ohio, Michigan, New York, etc. to the pristine wilderness it was before all the evil Europeans arrived.

The other morning I was listening to 1230 in my car instead of 620 and came across an Air America Progressive Talk (for those of you outside the U.S. that is a fledgling left wing a.m. corporation funded by liberals and already in ethics and funding trouble). So I listened to see if left wing radio had anything to offer. Nope. It was mainly hype with very little information. If all I wanted from radio was emotion, entertainment and hyperbole (and this is where Beck wears a little thin), I suppose AA radio could be a choice, but if I'm going to listen to talk radio, I'd prefer more depth. After the jokes and loud bumper music, I'd want something solid. So I listen to those left coast guys at my computer on KRLA 870 instead.

Money is money to capitalists. Even the giant Clear Channel, home to so much right talk, is offering some Air America shows. Is this a great country or what?

1512 Women can stop poverty

As the nation and world watched "poor blacks" (as liberals called them) gathering after Katrina, some of us noticed something else. Mostly, we saw women and children. Young women, old women; thin women, fat women; women in groups, women alone; healthy women, disabled women; well dressed manicured women, and shabby, ill-kempt women. Poverty in New Orleans and anywhere else in the USA is in the control of women, because it only takes three things to wipe out most systemic poverty. 1) Finish high school, 2) get married before starting a family 3) have your first child after age 21. Very few women who do this live in poverty. If they build a good marriage, they have a solid economic base; if the marriage fails, they are better prepared to face adversity with an education. They will be better role models for their daughters. The Democrats would lose their political base if serious inroads were made by black women in controlling their own destiny rather than looking to Uncle Sam to be a negligent step father. This is why for the last 40 years the War on Poverty has been preaching not abstinence, marriage and education, but more money for more programs to help the poor stay poor. As New Orleans rebuilds, you won't hear any politician, local, state or federal, say "our old programs to help the poor failed," they'll just say they were underfunded, like the levees.

Update to my comment: Dan Quale was right.

William Galston, once an assistant to President Clinton, put the matter simply. To avoid poverty, do three things: finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after you are 20 years old. Only 8% of people who do all three will be poor; of those who fail to do them, 79% will be poor. And their lives did not improve if their mother had acquired a stepfather. See the article by James Q Wilson in City Journal. These statistics do not apply just to blacks.

1511 They may never

get around to reporting in the MSM why the Red Cross and Salvation Army didn't aid the evacuees trapped in the Superdome and the Convention Center worries the Anchoress. Some people are still saying, "If it is true. . ." however, you can go to the FAQ page at the Red Cross site and they tell you why. And the Director Marty Evans has been on national TV and has reported it. It's sort of old news, so I'm not sure why the MSM would say anything at this late date. I reported it on my blog on September 6, and I checked the page after seeing her on Fox and she was also on Larry King on CNN. I'd call that MSm at least (small media since it isn't the NYT). I'm guessing it has also been in the Wall Street Journal, although I haven't diligently checked it. The page says:

"Acess [sic] to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."

Every authority noted in the FAQ, "National Guard", "local authorities" and "state Homeland Security Department" clearly explains this was not FEMA at fault (although it may be in their training guidelines). Considering the chaos that erupted after the flooding brought more people to the already full facilities, it's possible that this decision, while it looked awful on TV, was the best they could do at the time.

Obviously, the whole situation would have looked very different to the world if cameras had shown immediate relief in the heat while people waited for buses. And we'll never know if that immediate relief might have made the situation worse by bringing people back in. The locals believed it would and THEY made the call.

1510 Hurricanes can bring new life

Some of the victims of Hurricane Katrina may be starting a new and more successful life in another state or city. It happened to Alexander Hamilton.

On August 31, 1772 a hurricane struck St. Croix where the orphaned teenage Alexander Hamilton lived and worked. He wrote a letter to his father (who had abandoned his family some years before) describing the devastation. Hugh Knox a Presbyterian minister and journalist printed it in the local newspaper. As Chernow says in his biography, “Hamilton did not know it, but he had just written his way out of poverty (p.37).“ Knox started a subscription fund to send Hamilton to the colonies for an education and the rest is history, our history. It reads, in part:

“Good God! what horror and destruction. Its impossible for me to describe or you to form any idea of it. It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was taking place. The roaring of the sea and wind, fiery meteors flying about it in the air, the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, the crash of the falling houses, and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed, were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels. A great part of the buildings throughout the Island are leveled to the ground, almost all the rest very much shattered; several persons killed and numbers utterly ruined; whole families running about the streets, unknowing where to find a place of shelter; the sick exposed to the keenness of water and air without a bed to lie upon, or a dry covering to their bodies; and our harbours entirely bare. In a word, misery, in all its most hideous shapes, spread over the whole face of the country. A strong smell of gunpowder added somewhat to the terrors of the night; and it was observed that the rain was surprisingly salt. Indeed the water is so brackish and full of sulphur that there is hardly any drinking it. My reflections and feelings on this frightful and melancholy occasion, are set forth in the following self-discourse. Where now, oh! vile worm, is all thy boasted fortitude and resolution? What is become of thine arrogance and self-sufficiency? Why dost thou tremble and stand aghast? How humble, how helpless, how contemptible you now appear. And for why? The jarring of elements . the discord of clouds? Oh! impotent presumptuous fool! how durst thou offend that Omnipotence, whose nod alone were sufficient to quell the destruction that hovers over thee, or crush thee into atoms? . . .Death comes rushing on in triumph, veiled in a mantle of tenfold darkness. His unrelenting scythe, pointed and ready for the stroke. . . See thy wretched helpless state and learn to know thyself. . . Despise thyself and adore thy God. . . . O ye who revel in affluence see the afflictions of humanity and bestow your superfluity to ease them. . . Succour the miserable and lay up a treasure in heaven.” Royal Danish American Gazette, October 3, 1772

An so a homeless, illegitimate immigrant rides out a hurricane to be come the founding father of the United States government.

1509 If the Democrats design the memorial

Dr. Phat Tony is speculating about how Democrats will design a politically correct memorial for Katrina victims, based on how some want the 9/11 tragedy memorialized.

"Of course we’ll need to set up a memorial for the dead, but instead of showing the heroics of the people that came to save the stranded, it will have to be the politically correct. It will depict police officers of all races throwing dice at Las Vegas, people of all nationalities looting from stores, and buses of all colors flooded in a parking lot."

1508 Forth born?

Weren't we all?

I took one of those internet tests to predict my birth order (I was third of four). The answer was "forth born." Forth means onward in time, place or order; out into notice or view, but it doesn't mean 4th (fourth). So I think we are all "forth born."

Makes me think of the lovely rose bush I saw at the Park of Roses in June labeled "Forth of July."

1507 Brain Pattern

Your Brain's Pattern

You're a simple thinker, and this is actually a very good thing. You don't complicate matters when you don't have to. You look for the simplest explanation or solution, and you go with that. As a result, your mind is uncluttered and free of stress.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

1506 Ophelia, don't come back home

Was it somethin' that somebody said?
Mama, you know we broke the rules
Was somebody up against the law?
Honey, you know I'd die for you

Boards on the window
Mail by the door
What would anybody leave so quickly for?
Ophelia
Where have you gone?

The Band

1505 The Fear Factor

Yesterday I heard the Katrina disaster figures being revised from tens of thousands to hundreds to "we just don't know." We don't know yet how many people died, and of that number, how many died because they couldn't or didn't get out of the way of the hurricane, or how many might have died of heart attack or stroke brought on by fright. We know several died in Florida when it was a category one, and over a hundred in Mississippi. But here's an interesting article about the "fear factor."

"Recently, a report issued by a group called the Chernobyl Forum, a committee made up of several different UN-related organizations, gave a far less alarming assessment [of the Chernobyl catastrophe in the Ukraine]. While Chernobyl remains a far greater disaster than Three Mile Island [1979], the new report estimates the eventual total death toll as a result of Chernobyl to be about 4,000 -- terrible, but far less devastating than the initial estimates (and some recent ones).

The current death toll from radiation since the event is 56 total: 47 emergency responders and 9 children who died of thyroid cancer. The rest of the predicted 3,940 deaths are supposed to occur over an indeterminate future interval, due to other types of cancer, almost all predicted to strike the emergency responders, not the local inhabitants. . .

The UN report emphasizes a factor that the anti-nuclear and other activist groups always ignore: the greatest threat from the Chernobyl accident, and even more so in the case of Three Mile Island earlier, was the fear factor, the "mental health impact," as the report terms it. Somewhere between 200,000 and 350,000 people were evacuated from the area over the subsequent years, although three out of four of the reactors resumed operation before the end of 1986. The earth and water near the facility were heavily contaminated, but again, the report noted that, for the overwhelming majority, stress and anxiety -- the fear of radiation effects, the loss of homes and livelihoods -- were more serious problems than the actual radiation."
Facts and Fears

There are a lot of people making a living by keeping us fearful about everything--going out at night, shampooing our hair, using deodorant, drinking tap water, using microwave ovens, pesticides and herbicides, airbags in automobiles, and yes, natural disasters. The Katrina disaster actually was tracked and predicted, both in the short term (last week of August 2005) and the long term (rerouting the Mississippi River, creating levees and destroying coastal areas). The city had dodged a bullet for 200 years. As has California and the "big one." If everyone had taken heed of all the reports and the money appropriated had actually been spent and not pocketed, apparently there would have been no New Orleans because that area would have been uninhabitable from the natural flooding and rehabilitated marshes. If they don't find thousands of bodies, if it turns out not to be the immediate death toll, the fear mongers will be coming at us with stats that will run the next 50 years for death and disease. They need us to be frightened, or they are out of work. Their jobs haven't been outsourced to China. . . yet.

1504 Someone else asleep at the switch?

Neuro-Conservative tweaks the nose of the New York Times (do papers have a nose, or just a nose for news?)

"[Everyone knew except] New York Times readers the day before Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. Because the Times did not run a single article on Katrina on Sunday the 28th! Readers of the paper of record only learned of the storm's potential with their Monday morning coffee, as Katrina was making landfall.

Remember (as NY Times editors won't)-- George Bush was already actively preparing the federal response, and urging the governor and heel-dragging mayor to order an evacuation on Saturday the 27th, as detailed in the New Orleans Times-Picayune" Neuro-Conservative

1503 What if it had been a sea of white faces?

No "what if" to it. It actually was and is a story about NAAAs (Not African American Americans). The media just couldn't get 20,000 NAAAs all in one place at one time. They still can't get to many of the ravaged areas in rural and small town Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and even parts of Florida.

So they did the best they could and didn't mean to conspire with Jesse and Kanye and Bobby Kennedy to make this look like a race issue. They kept their crews where they were relatively safe and where they could be flown in and out. But that wasn't where the NAAAs were, you see. So all the viewing world saw was black people waiting on their city and state planners to get them out. That plan really worked pretty well when you think of it. Eighty percent of the city evacuated and another 20,000+ went to a shelter. The chaos started after a levee was breached, and it was a levee that was up to the current standard for a category three hurricane, and it flooded first a working class and integrated neighborhood. What we saw on our TV screens was people coming out of their homes who had refused to go to shelters or to evacuate or who couldn't because of disabilities or age. Since the population is nearly 70% African American, that's what the cameras showed. There are still hold-outs in New Orleans who won't leave. But a lot of those are NAAAs so they won't really get much attention; you'll only see the military or police talking to them through the window.

Because the media couldn't find any NAAAs in large groups, it is saying really stupid things like "The department of Homeland Security facing its first major catastrophe since it was created. . ." (today's Columbus Dispatch), completely discounting all the hurricanes in Florida last year, which must be forgotten because 1) the capable, prepared Governor of Florida is a Bush, and 2) most of the displaced, injured and dead in Florida were NAAAs. Therefore, the 2004 hurricane season was not a catastrophe--it didn't even count on Michael Brown's resume as "practice."

Will the media ever stop editorializing on the thoughts, attitudes, understanding and emotions of the various goverment officials from Bush to the levee supervisors to the police and just report? Will they every stop saying the President (the Congress was on "break") was on vacation? NAAA.

1502 Happy Anniversary

September 11, 1960

1501 Does he get his money back?

Pay attention, this is confusing. In January 2005 a judge granted the surrogate mother of triplets custody of three babies she had contracted for $20,000 to carry for 63 year old James Flynn and his 60 year old fiance. The babies were born to surrogate Danielle Bimber and sperm donor Flynn in 2003. Apparently he and his lady friend didn't show much interest in the kids, so Bimber sued for custody. However, biologically they were not hers--the Indiana agency which arranged this travesty used the eggs of Jennifer Rice of Texas, who first also sued for parental rights, but dropped out. However, now an Ohio Appeals Court has awarded the children to Ms. Rice, the egg donor, who didn't carry them in a pregnancy nor has she raised them as a quasi foster/adoptive mom. This case involves courts in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Aren't we so pleased that we have the wisdom of the courts [sarcasm alert] to settle battles over children who when they are fertilized embryos can be bargained for, frozen for future use or disposal, sold, or snuffed out with "Plan B." When they finally manage to see the light of day they become pawns in a giant game of negligent semi-parental clowns, greedy attorneys, and judges who think they are Solomon.

In January the best interest of the children was this (in Pennsylvania).

But in September, it was all different in Ohio.

Then there's the Indiana blunder and the lawyer who didn't file the right papers.

1500 Defending Nagin

Today I've been wondering if the body count stays low, will Nagin be credited with making the right decision about sending people to the Superdome and not out of the city on buses. Blogger Cobb is defending Mayor Nagin and makes some valid points. Read it here.

1499 Hi-jacks and Hi-jinx

A California cowboy asks Democrats to please take back their party:

"I know there are millions of center left Democrats who think that President Bush is doing a terrible job. That's fine, but they don't think he is Hitler, or that he wants only poor black people to die in a natural disaster. They think that although John Roberts wouldn't be their first choice, he is a good man and is an extremely qualified justice. They don't like the war in Iraq but they understand that we are there now, and we can't cut and run. We must win this war on the enemies turf. These people used to be the backbone and voice of the Democratic Party, no longer." Read Roughstock Journal here for who's taken it over.

Howard Dean is acting more unhinged and bizarre than usual. Gary Gross' comments are in blue in this exchange between Dean and Blitzer at Boxer Watch.

1498 Bush: What didn't go right?

Nancy Pelosi, that was a question for you! He gave it back to you and you were unable to answer and said, "Bush is oblivious, in denial." Well, what are you? Certainly not speechless, because you just keep rambling on and on and on. The blame list on your side gets longer and longer and you keep rambling on. There were 6,000 Louisiana National Guard available for the Governor to call up, but all your team can say is they are in Iraq!

1497 Corps says lack of funds not the problem

On September 1, the Chicago Tribune reported that "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis." Tribune story here.
So it wasn't Bush Administration's fault that this levee, the one that was in good condition and up to the inadequate standard, failed. It was a "natural disaster?"

1496 What the Left will resist

Tooth and nail, they'll resist, like a cat 4 hurricane they'll resist easing up on environmental laws so that the three states can recover more quickly; relocating under-employed African Americans to areas of greater opportunity; cutting gasoline taxes; easing up on work "prevailing wage" rules so that companies can hire anyone who wants to work without threat of union interference; cutting through government red tape so that faith based and community organizations can provide assistance without threat of law suits. Katrina has shown that layers and layers of government bureaucracy with conflicting regulations cause problems, but the Left will want to solve this with even more government. The huge aid package will just encourage more government graft and dishonesty.

Dig through some of those levee rebuilding problems in New Orleans and you'll find law suits stopping repairs--in order to save the wetlands you can't encourage what was already a crazy system--rerouting the Mississippi River.

Two years ago when we were traveling through Arizona with a tour guide we asked him why the diseased trees in the forested areas which were clearly a fire hazard weren't removed. "Can't," he said. "Environmentalists are afraid it will encourage more people to live around here if it were made safer." Hmmmm. Sounds a bit like the reasoning that kept the Red Cross out of the Superdome, doesn't it?

Racism fanning the Hurricane

Kanye West was sort of the marker--he's an entertainer who strips his fans' wallets with songs about crack cocaine and gangster glorification. (Before his Bush bashing TV appearance, I'd never heard of him, but then that's not my kind of "music.") But everyone could see it. The TV crews were aiming their cameras at two large facilities and almost all the faces were black. Convenience and safety--for the TV crews, that is. They couldn't get their camera crews into the areas of rural and coastline white communities, where probably the number of afflicted, those who refused to leave or couldn't leave, far outnumbered the blacks who were following the instructions of the Mayor and headed for the safety of two large buildings.

The initial group who went to those safe areas were carrying food, water and clothing in their suitcases; the first night was sort of a party atmosphere. When the water rose after the levees were breached, the U.S. military (Coast Guard) was there, picking people up off rooftops on Tuesday morning, long before Connick and Oprah arrived with their TV crews. More people headed to the now crowded facilities. Both the regular military and the LA Guard stood prepared on stand-by away from the storm area waiting for the Governor to act.

The state of Louisiana, not wanting to create more crowding, prevented the Red Cross from going in with food and water for those waiting for buses, and the Gangster element (probably inspired by West's music and others) started taking pot shots at volunteer rescuers and the police.

And the cameras kept rolling. A sea of black faces, mostly women and children. The cameramen still couldn't get to the rural and coastal areas so the only footage we saw (and still 10 days later) was large crowds of African Americans, now getting panicky as services were denied to them by their own local governments, the people who had told them to go there.

I don't think the TV crews conspired with Jesse Jackson, Kanye West and Nancy Pelosi to fan the winds of racism, but they have contributed to a horrible mess, simply by doing the best they could with the areas they could get to. They showed the terrible devastation to the homes and lives of the people who had obeyed the orders to evacuate their homes.

As we are seeing now in the house-to-house search, those who remained in their homes had food, water, and guns to protect themselves from the gangster element. If they were rich and really prepared, they also had generators and private security guards. I have gained new respect for the hold-outs, rich and poor, black and white. At first they looked demented as they were presented to us. However, they seemed to know from past exerience with hurricanes, particularly Hurricane Ivan of last year, that their local government, rap artists, and Jesse couldn't protect them from the storm or from the criminals. Katrina has proven them right. I salute them.

Now that's a story they need to be showing.

1494 On my short list

I'm sure you've got lots of places to send support, but here's a Lutheran church I'm watching, Gloria Dei Lutheran in Houston http://www.gdlc.org/. They've been housing and feeding survivors and rolling with the punches and changes that are thrown their way. Although I've already donated to the Southern Baptists (their web site actually has the Good News) because they're at the forefront of the volunteers, Gloria Dei is on my short list for the second round.

"Our ministry to Katrina survivors changes every day to meet new challenges. Our special thanks to the many volunteers who are meeting with the over 300 people who arrive on our campus every day looking for some kind of help. Various programs have helped many of these folks find housing, now they’re working on jobs, schools, food, furniture, and trying to get accurate information." Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Houston

I noticed this site at Sherry's Semicolon, a wonderful blog about books.

1493 The Networks cooperate to raise funds

And will they edit out the anti-Bush remarks? If not, then it isn't a fund raiser (most of us know how to donate money without Hollywood telling us), it is a Get-Bush-Fest. If they don't control these mouthpieces, it will hurt the Red Cross and Salvation Army who are collecting the money. Or maybe not. Like I say, people of good will have already contributed. People of ill will are sniping at Bush, and maybe haven't had time to open their wallets.

"As previously announced, musical performers scheduled to appear on "Shelter From The Storm: A Concert For The Gulf Coast" include Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys, Randy Newman, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and Neil Young. Celebrity participants include Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Ellen DeGeneres, Jack Nicholson, Chris Rock, Ray Romano and Sela Ward." CBS announcement

BET is also raising money but is calling it SOS--Saving OurSelves. Nice touch.

1492 Get in line behind Jesse

Here's some more people who ought to keep their mouths shut in times of tragedy. The end-times Christians. How many disasters come and go and we hear the same thing? I remember when the tornado wiped out Xenia, Ohio some years ago. Israel is back in the land + tornado in Ohio = Tribulation. Boy, they came out of the wood work. Do these folks never read history? Do they know anything about disasters in other countries? Talk about narcissism. Please people, go read Matthew 25:31-46 about when the Son of Man comes and start clothing the naked and giving the thirsty something to drink.

1491 The power stuggle: stronger than wind or water?

Barbara J. Stock looks at what the other states did that were in the path of Katrina.

"While the governors of both Mississippi and Alabama put in a formal request for federal assistance before Katrina even made landfall, the governor of Louisiana refused to relinquish any of her power for the good of the people. Now she and her party point the finger of blame at the White House.

Liberal blogs and websites are pointing to the Department of Homeland Security's website which states that it can take control in any disaster, natural or otherwise, but this is not true. The Department of Homeland Security can only work with the state and local officials in organizing relief efforts such as food, water, and shelter. There is no military arm of the Department of Homeland Security or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the military is what was needed and everyone knew that.

Instead of asking why the Democratic leaders of Louisiana failed the people, these sites post disgusting pictures of floating bodies with the message: "George Bush did nothing." The truth is the Democratic governor wouldn't allow Bush to do anything. That floating body belongs to Governor Blanco. She is the one who "did nothing." "
Read article here.

What is most despicable is all the Democrats using this death and destruction to build their flailing, failing party. Investigate, investigate, they yell, and then when the story begins to unfold we find a multitude of errors at all levels. But these people think Bush is so smart and so powerful, he should have prevented it. He was on vacation (as was Congress), you know.

1490 What Media Bias, pt. 3

Sandy Berger has received a $50,000 fine and probation for stealing and destroying documents from the National Archives right before the 9/11 Commission and then lying about it. A much more serious crime in my opinion than Martha's, but I digress, and besides, she is a woman and in business and the rules are different.

The AP story uses the following verbs in this story about the former Clinton official:

"taking classified documents"

"sneaking classified documents" . . ."in his suit"

"destroying [classified documents]"

"unauthorized removal and retention"

"improperly took classified documents."

1489 What's your address?

my daughter said in a phone call this week. Our 45th wedding anniversary is coming up and she wanted to address the card. Her palm pilot was down (broken? dead?). I've thought about this question numerous times this week watching family members at various evacuation centers trying to reconnect. This disaster has proven once again it is your family, neighbors, friends and church that come through in the initial stages; after you are all swamped and powerless, the cavalry might ride into town.

Once a year I send out a one sheet address list to my family members--my brother, my sister, their children and our children. When I started this about 10 years ago I included a line with the names of the younger children (my sibs' grandchildren), however, as cell phones, fax numbers, and work numbers were added I had to drop that to save space. I don't know what people do with this list after I send out the revisions, but I suspect it might go in the safe deposit box at the bank because I seem to get phone calls as though I am Ms. Information Please.

However, the only phone numbers I know by heart, which I could recall in an emergency if I lost my purse or didn't have access to my computer, would be that of my parents, and they died in 2000 and 2002. Oh yes, and I remember the phone number we had in the 1950s--59-L. We bought a new cell phone this week and neither of us knew our own cell phone number when the clerk asked. I have even worse control over the phone numbers and addresses of my husband's family, the people who put "blended family" into our modern vocabulary. He has them penciled in somewhere on a little card, and I don't know where that is, and this summer when we needed to call someone from the lake house, the card was in Columbus.

Perhaps for emergency preparedness, I need to memorize some phone numbers?

1488 Pets and Volunteers

Many people in the path of Hurricane Katrina didn't want to leave their pets, and now the TV reporters are focusing more on that theme. I've also heard people asking why some of the evacuees can't be used at the evacuation centers to help, "give these people something to do." Being a problem solver, I've been thinking about this, and haven't come up with any new ideas, but I will toss these out. Let's put this at the personal level. Let's say you are 35 years old with three children in your care who are totally dependent on you.

Are you willing to put your family in danger during a rescue for someone else's dog or cat or python or rabbit, because that's what will be sharing the rescue personnel resources and the helicopter or boat or van or bus if you need immediate help. These pets will be as terrified as their owners, and do you want your child's face torn off? Pet owners are often woefully negligent in training and keeping vaccinations up to date even in good times.

In the evacuation center, after you've had a hot shower and been handed clean clothes, do you want to be served food by someone who has recently been exposed to or lived for a few days in an extremely unhealthy toxic stew? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to supervise volunteers even in good times? Are you aware that these days most volunteers who work with children are required to have background checks and/or be fingerprinted? If you were the head of an agency with a crew of supervised, trained and background-checked volunteers, and your insurance was only good for that, would you accept an untrained group, "just to give them something to do"?

1487 Counter terrorism concerns and natural disasters

A working paper #104 published in 2000 by the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center Institute of Behavioral Science (University of Colorado) "Emergency Management in the 21st Century: Coping with Bill Gates, Osama bin-Laden, and Hurricane Mitch" expressed concern that Counter Terrorism preoccupation with Osama Bin Laden was hurting the federal government's ability to respond to natural disasters.

"Does current preoccupation with C-T significantly harm natural and industrial disaster preparedness and response capacity? It remains to be seen if the two main federal response plans (the Federal Response Plan and the National Contingency Plan) can carry the new load of responsibilities inherent in a major C-T response. My own observation is that staff at FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been pulled off work dealing with natural and industrial hazards/disasters in order to meet C-T planning needs. I presume the same is true at state and local levels too. In this regard, an important question is: Is the current emphasis on C-T changing the EM landscape temporarily or for good?"

That paper has been updated in August 2004 to #108 and is retitled: "Emergency Management in the 21st Century: Dealing with Al Qaeda, Tom Ridge, and Julie Gerberding." It describes all the new agencies and plans put in place after 9/11. It suggests our government's superior ability to put together workshops and maintain leadership with even more education and studies.

So the shift to counter terrorism and away from natural disaster preparedness started before the Bush Administration? Does Congress know?

1486 Why the Roberts' Nomination Matters

"Make no mistake -- America's legal and political culture is deeply divided between those who see the courts as engines for protecting and extending a social revolution and those who understand the courts to be the interpreters of the Constitution's text and the protectors of the law's majesty. Between these two legal worldviews lies a chasm of ideology, politics, social debates, and visions for the future. This nomination really matters." Dr. Mohler's Blog

1485 Visiting doctors set up MASH unit in New Orleans

A group of doctors attending a conference on HIV in New Orleans got permission to set up a MASH unit to treat the 1300 hotel guests. Dr. Max Brito of the University of Illinois at Chicago is interviewed at www.medscape.com. Apparently, with permission of the N.O. police they "borrowed" needed items from a local pharmacy.

1484 Racism's dirty little secret

New Orleans has two black colleges--Xavier and Dillard. The students who attend Xavier are wealthier and lighter skinned; the students who attend Dillard are lower income and darker. Racism among whites knows no boundaries like light or dark. A white racist will dislike or discriminate against an African American who "passes." If they don't like Indians or Latinos, 1/4 or 1/8 heritage and a European appearance will not open the door. But racism among blacks based on skin color? Yes. It has existed as long as people of African heritage have lived in North and South America and the Caribbean. About 30 years ago we belonged to a racially mixed couples group--4 black couples and 5 white couples. We occasionally met at a Columbus black private club which before the 1960s and the Civil Rights movement had had a skin color rule for membership--members needed to be light, no darker than a brown paper sack.

One would think from watching the television coverage of the Superdome and Convention Center fiascos last week that the only poor people in New Orleans were very dark skinned. Where were the lighter skinned African Americans? Apparently they evacuated to safer cities. If it was white racism that caused this bifurcation, the skin color would have made no difference--only the ethnicity would have mattered in the housing discrimination or the job opportunities or the education failures of the past that funnelled people into those buildings.

Why do I even raise such a touchy issue that no one will ever talk about? Well, I noticed that when the Xavier University students, faculty, staff and families were finally rescued from their flooded campus with eleven buses and heroic efforts by many (they tried to get help from the city but were unsuccessful) Jesse Jackson's organization was one of the groups that helped them evacuate. He was late to the party, later than FEMA. I'm not sure how the Dillard students got out. I've heard that one family of a Dillard student hired a limo to drive their daughter, themselves and some friends to Chicago because they could not get a plane out. Many colleges and universities are taking both groups of students in.

Does anyone know if Jesse Jackson was an equal opportunity rescuer? Just direct me to the story and I'll add the link.

Update: Commenter sent me here for information about Dillard students.

1483 What media bias, pt. 2

The "Jury still out" claimed USAToday (Sept. 7) sub-headline "on whether global warming had impact." That was the headline. Here's what the article said. "Everyone is clear global warming did not cause Katrina and that it is not causing more hurricanes." So where is this "jury" I wondered.

So I continued reading. Apparently, there is an economics professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. who they tracked down for this story (probably has a website) who has suspicions. Elizabeth Weise wrote a story that denies the headline. Don't know who wrote the headline.

However, here's an interesting tid-bit from the article. The lull in hurricanes in the last 30 year cycle coincided with the advent of air conditioning allowing people to live in formerly uninhabitable areas which are hit harder by hurricanes.

1482 Finding or Looting

How many times have you heard that complaint about racist photos linked to Bush hates black people? The complaint was about AP photos of looting (photos of blacks) and finding (photos of whites). You can go here for the details. The photographers had actually seen the people loot and/or find.

I'm looking for Jesse Jackson to complain about photos of white volunteers helping black victims. There will be whining about using the word "volunteer" and "victim." The volunteer word is also a term that can apply to the military, so use of this word might imply support for Bush in Iraq. The word victim, like the word refugee, might put negative images of tricked or duped or oppressed, and that's his long suit.

1481 Michael Brown at FEMA

One of the myths going around liberal blogs and newspapers is that Michael Brown had no previous experience before becoming head of FEMA. Now, that wouldn't actually surprise me, since as I've noted, the Librarian of Congress has never in the history of the office been a "real Librarian." This irritates Librarians, but as you can see from the name, The American Library Association represents "libraries" and not librarians. But I digress. So I looked him up. Here's his resume:

"Under Secretary Brown has led Homeland Security’s response to more than 164 presidentially declared disasters and emergencies, including the 2003 Columbia Shuttle disaster and the California wildfires in 2003. In 2004, Mr. Brown led FEMA’s thousands of dedicated disaster workers during the most active hurricane season in over 100 years, as FEMA delivered aid more quickly and more efficiently than ever before.

Previously, Mr. Brown served as FEMA's Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel. Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Mr. Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks. Later, the President asked him to head the Consequence Management Working Group to identify and resolve key issues regarding the federal response plan. In August 2002, President Bush appointed him to the Transition Planning Office for the new Department of Homeland Security, serving as the transition leader for the EP&R Division.

Prior to joining FEMA, Mr. Brown practiced law in Colorado and Oklahoma, where he served as a bar examiner on ethics and professional responsibility for the Oklahoma Supreme Court and as a hearing examiner for the Colorado Supreme Court. He had been appointed as a special prosecutor in police disciplinary matters. While attending law school he was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman.

Mr. Brown was also an adjunct professor of law for the Oklahoma City University.

A native of Oklahoma, Mr. Brown holds a bachelor's degree in Public Administration/Political Science from Central State University, Oklahoma. He received his J.D. from Oklahoma City University’s School of Law."

So for four or five years he's been working with FEMA and that doesn't count? I'm not saying here he's done a good job--there's not enough evidence yet that anyone other than the local and state authorities failed miserably. I'm just sort of wondering what would qualify as "experience."

FEMA was highly praised I recall in 2004 for its response to a very hectic hurricane season. Same guy was in charge as near as I can tell.

1480 What media bias?

The USAToday Sept. 9 had a detailed article about who responds when in a disaster like Katrina. First response falls to local government familiar with local conditions. According to this report, Nagin gave city residents a non-mandatory evacuation order on August 27, and told those without transportation to go to the Superdome and the Convention Center. There was no transportation planning for 134,000 people, according to USAToday.

Second response was to be from the state. The state agencies help the locals with logistics and manpower. In the paper's timeline, Gov. Blanco "wrote" Bush to ask for help on August 28. I'm not sure what that means. It didn't say she declared an emergency which I heard on Air America this morning (which of course blames evil Republicans for all of this). USAToday said 65% of the Louisiana Guard were available to the Governor, but editorialized it was "depleted by deployment" in the war and anemic recruiting (a state responsibility?). They used the word "delay" for her 24 hour "I'll get back to you" response to the President that Nagin reported yesterday on CNN.

Finally, the third level of responsibility is the Federal government, specifically FEMA. And FEMA has state agencies which it funds. Twice in this section of the article it was noted that President Bush was on vacation. A state of emergency was declared August 27, it said, and FEMA was moving in response teams and stockpiling supplies by August 28. But, of course, Bush was on vacation. On August 30, the President was giving a speech about the end of WWII, it said, and made some "remarks" about the disaster, and ended his vacation on Sept. 1. So August 30 was a vacation day even though he was giving a speech in California, and August 27 and 28 were vacation days even though he was working with Louisiana's governor and the FEMA staff.

Then on the editorial pages, USAToday continues to batter FEMA because that's the only direct way to get to Bush. Says Bush replaced competent leaders with political pals. Hello? Don't all Presidents replace the former administration's people? And he didn't have disaster experience? There has never been a Librarian appointed the Librarian of Congress, so this doesn't surprise me that someone who managed a large private association would be appointed to a large government agency. It's the civil service people who do the grunt work, not the political appointees. And of course, the war has drained resources, and FEMA was swallowed up by Homeland Security (an agency that Bush and the Republicans resisted). What will solve all this? Why a speedy investigation, of course.

Anyone know why Congress wasn't criticized for being on vacation? Even Hollywood beat the Black Caucus to the scene. As near as I could tell, only Bobby Jindal was on hand to help from the Louisiana group, who showed up way late.

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about how the rich sat out the storm. Some stayed and had their food and water helicoptered in. One guy who stayed was Mayor Nagin's head of the Rapid Transport Agency. When the water rose, he had a private Israeli security company airlift him out, and he's waiting in Colorado for the meeting he'll have with Nagin's staff somewhere in Texas, I guess. He's fortunate he didn't need to use New Orleans RTA (which got $22 million in 2003 from the Federal gov't for trolley service) to get out of town, isn't it?

1479 What if Hurricane Ivan had hit New Orleans?

That scenario was examined in 2004 here.

Here's what was predicted:

Pushed a 17-foot storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain;

Caused the levees between the lake and the city to overtop and fill the city “bowl” with water from lake levee to river levee, in some places as deep as 20 feet;

Flooded the north shore suburbs of Lake Pontchartrain with waters pushing as much as seven miles inland; and

Inundated inhabited areas south of the Mississippi River.

Up to 80 percent of the structures in these flooded areas would have been severely damaged from wind and water. The potential for such extensive flooding and the resulting damage is the result of a levee system that is unable to keep up with the increasing flood threats from a rapidly eroding coastline and thus unable to protect the ever-subsiding landscape."

Many people chose not to evacuate during Hurrican Ivan. Here's why:

"The fact that 600,000 residents evacuated means an equal number did not. Recent evacuation surveys show that two thirds of nonevacuees with the means to evacuate chose not to leave because they felt safe in their homes. Other nonevacuees with means relied on a cultural tradition of not leaving or were discouraged by negative experiences with past evacuations."

What was learned after Hurricane Ivan about the able bodied non-evacuees?

"Residents who did not have personal transportation were unable to evacuate even if they wanted to. Approximately 120,000 residents (51,000 housing units x 2.4 persons/unit) do not have cars. A proposal made after the evacuation for Hurricane Georges to use public transit buses to assist in their evacuation out of the city was not implemented for Ivan. If Ivan had struck New Orleans directly it is estimated that 40-60,000 residents of the area would have perished."

1478 Can't someone shut Jesse up until this is over?

Do we need another disaster of hot, racist air in an already volatile atmosphere? Does this man know how to do or say anything helpful? He's terrified apparently that he will lose his base if blacks catch on to his game.

" "It is racist to call American citizens refugees," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, visiting the Houston Astrodome on Monday. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed similar sentiments."

1477 Katrina Bush

That's the name of a 33 year old evacuee from New Orleans who has arrived in Columbus, Ohio with 25 members of her extended family, and a few other non-relatives. The family had evacuated their homes and gone as a group to a hotel to ride out the storm. After three days they were rescued from that building by volunteers in a boat and dropped on a highway where they spent the night. Eventually, after some horrific experiences, they made their way to the evacuation center in Baton Rouge. There she heard someone named Dave from Ohio announce that he would take people back there to start over.

Katrina Bush and her son settle in at a Best Western in Columbus, Ohio

Dave Whinham and Brent Crawford own apartments and a real estate firm and have set these families up for a year, rent free, in one of their facilities and will help them get jobs. A group of Columbus residents met them with cheers and applause when they arrived. They traveled here on a bus supplied by our church, Upper Arlington Lutheran which had sent it down loaded with supplies. I don't know if Whinham and Crawford are connected with UALC, but sometimes private concerns can act more quickly and effectively than government agencies overwhelmed with other needs.

The larger group relocation to three major Ohio cities has been postponed. Someone has decided moving people to northern cities or to cruise ships may not be the best way to recover from this trauma. However, there are stories of people in Zanesville and Hilliard who just got on the internet and found people willing to relocate. There's a new hurricane baby in Zanesville with lots and lots of god parents.

1476 Hurricane Mythology and the Media

This researcher must get discouraged. Henry W. Fischer III investigated how the media covered Hurricane Gilbert(1989) and Hurricane Georges (1998), 10 years apart, and found pretty much the same thing:

"Why does belief in the disaster mythology continue to plague us? Regardless of research findings (for example, see Fischer, 1998) many still believe panic flight, martial law, psychological dependence, looting and other forms of deviant behavior, price gouging, disaster shock, contagion, and the mass sheltering of a majority of the would-be victims are all symptomatic of a community's disaster response. Mass media has been found to be a prime reason for the continued perpetuation of the disaster mythology among laypersons and emergency personnel. A quick response grant supported work by this researcher ten years ago resulting in a case study of how the media presented the world with a picture of the community response to Hurricane Gilbert. While most national and local, print and broadcast reporters were found to subscribe to the disaster mythology, their reporting was observed to vary nevertheless. Why? The Gilbert study findings suggested that the local print and broadcast media were more likely to share in the altruistic role of the victim, resulting in a desire to help their communities successfully respond to and recover from the hurricane. As a result, the local media tended to essentially turned news management over to local officials-reporting what local officials stated with respect to community needs and response. If the local officials were accurate, the reporting was accurate. On the other hand, national reporters were found to be guided by a different norm; they appeared to seek to provide their audience (who were not co-victims) with a picture or story of what typically occurs in a hurricane. As such, they created a scenario based upon their perception of reality. These reporters maintained control over news management and, as a result, created a story line reinforcing the disaster mythology."

So the looting stories in the media were the President's fault? In 1989?

"Looting is perhaps the behavior most expected by the public and officials. Police departments usually talk about the fear and incidence of looting, the media report stories of its occurrence, and governors call out the National Guard to "protect against" it. Potential victims or survivors often report that they will not leave their homes because they fear looting. They paint signs which read: "DON'T LOOT OR WE'LL SHOOT!" While looting does sometimes occur, concern over it far exceeds the rate at which it actually takes place. Unfortunately, excessive time and resources are often expended on looting which could be better employed in mitigating against and responding to higher priorities."

Anyone want to guess how Prof. Fischer's next study will turn out?

1475 Dear Nancy Pelosi

Before you move on to the big investigation in which you will find President Bush guilty of failing black and poor people, maybe you could start on a smaller story. Today the USAToday reported the sad story of Linda Bowie, her grandchildren and her mother (no mention of who or where the children's parents are). By the time Ms. Bowie made it to the Superdome last Wednesday pushing her mother (Ms. Herbert) in her hospital bed, she was stopped by a group of men (I'm guessing they were African American, but only because Rev. Jackson says everyone who evacuated there was) guarding I-10 with shotguns, pistols and AK-47s. The story is on 4A in print, or here.

"A neighbor found a boat. He and others dismantled the bed, floated it to Interstate 10 and reassembled it atop the elevated roadway. He then went back for the mother and the others. That was Tuesday. No rescuers came. So the small band disassembled the bed and took it back to Herbert's apartment and repeated the exercise Wednesday — repositioning Herbert in her bed atop the pavement.

Desperate, Bowie and her 13-year-old grandson, Kailen, took off for the Superdome on foot. "When we walked up," she recalls, "all the ... guys, they're lined up across I-10 with AK-47s and shotguns and hand pistols. And they said, 'You can't be up here.' I explained the situation to one of the guys, and he said, 'You go talk to that guy.' When I walked up to him, he just looked at me for a while.

"I said, 'Mister, I have a serious situation here.' He said, 'What's the matter?' And I explained it all to him. I thought my mother'd had a stroke. And he said, 'Well, let her die.' "

So she left, found a sympathetic soldier who got her mother evacuated by helicopter to a hospital. She returned to the Superdome with her grandchildren which she says was filled with people scalping food and drugs, fighting, murder and rape.

I think this is a very serious story that you, Rainbow Jesse and Prophet Elijah Cummings of the Black Caucus need to investigate. This is the reason thousands chose to stay in their flood ravaged homes and are disobeying the Mayor's eviction notice. They knew the Superdome's reputation as a hurricane shelter, and NO ONE wanted to be there. This story stinks, but the smell doesn't lead back to Washington DC, or Crawford TX, or even to RFKjr and the environmentalists screaming global warming. This is a failure at the local level, a failure of "Biblical proportions." Get to it Nancy; you've got a real story here.

1474 When did the Red Cross arrive?

It hasn't. Marty Evans was interviewed on Fox tonight about specifics of aid, and volunteers. The Red Cross was not allowed into New Orleans by the Louisiana Homeland Security. In case you're the type who doesn't trust Fox News to get it right, here's the statement from their web page. She also spoke on the Larry King show on CNN.

Louisiana couldn't guarantee their safety, nor did they want people remaining there, so although this sounds a bit crazy to us, I suppose it makes sense to them. From their web page:

"Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.

The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.

The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an organization of civilian volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until the local authorities say it is safe and provide us with security and access.

The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives."

Keep in mind, it is the Governor of Louisiana who gives orders to the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Agency (gets its money and training from FEMA), and it was that decision that kept the Red Cross food and water from the evacuees.

1473 Will the Democrats regret calling

loudly for investigations so quickly before leading Dems can get their stories in sync? Nancy Pelosi D-CA is crying for Brownie's scalp (FEMA) and a Task Force. Who set this up, anyway? Why is FEMA in Homeland Security? Well, it was a prominant Democrat, whom I happen to like, and once was running for President.

"Senator Lieberman is Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and former Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate's principal oversight Committee, with responsibility for reviewing "the efficiency and economy of operations of all branches of government." Under the chairmanship of Senator Lieberman in 2001 and 2002, the Committee focused on the nation's homeland security, on corporate accountability, and on the Bush Administration's weakening of environmental regulations. Committee legislation enacted into law under Senator Lieberman's leadership includes laws creating the Homeland Security Department, establishing an independent commission to examine the causes of the September 11th attack, and facilitating the transition to electronic government, by requiring the federal government to make more information and services available to the public online. The Committee also has jurisdiction over many aspects of federal government management, the federal civil service, federal government procurement, the U.S. Postal Service and the District of Columbia." From Senator Lieberman's home page.

Who should have bussed those without transportation? Whose responsibility was it to have food and water for people evacuated to the Convention Center and Super Dome? Chertoff wasn't suppose to hand out water bottles. The Democratic Mayor, Ray Nagin, should've at least been in town.

Whose responsibility was it to call for help from the Federal government, and said, I'll get back to you in 24 hours? Would you, Nancy, put the President on hold like a crank caller? The Democratic Governor, Ms. Blanco, did.

So Nancy, honey, cool it. We've already got enough women pols making our sex look like dithering bird brains. You're setting the movement back. Let your buddies circle their wagons and reload. And put Jesse Jackson and Sean Penn and the Hollywood Monday morning quarterbacks back on the bench.

1472 The CYA attitude in government

Technically, I've been on the "dole" most of my adult life, because I worked in tax supported university libraries. However, working for the state government only six months was the real eye opener for me. Dr. Sanity today clips pieces from a variety of sources, but also comments:

"This "pseudo-action" is the hallmark of government on all levels, from the local to the federal. From NASA to FEMA to the Post Office. Somehow, all these agencies are able to transform huge amounts of money from the taxpayers into the appearance of doing something, when in fact, they fiercely resist any change, any improvement, any suggestions. They remain fixated in granite from their points of origin, determined not to adapt or change with the times. This attitude is insured by the creation of new levels and levels of bureaucracy after every crisis or failure."

When I worked for the State of Ohio I rubbed shoulders with some of the best and brightest of my whole career. Brain cell for brain cell many surpassed the people I knew at the university. There was an energy and desire to serve there that I never saw in academe. However, there was another group of "hangers-on" in those offices who literally sat in their offices behind closed doors with absolutely nothing to do, hired by someone because their daddy had contributed to the party. There were others who were fabulous in appearance and oratory, but were ethically and intellectually challenged. They wouldn't have known a 40 hour work week unless you introduced them at a party. Yes, pseudo-action: "transforming huge amounts of money into the appearance of doing something" is probably what happened in New Orleans at the parish, city, and state level and in DC at the Congressional and agency level.

1471 Blanco told President "24 hours"

Mayor Nagin told CNN today that Governor Blanco needed 24 hours to think about the proposal the President made for taking over the disaster control on Air Force One. Sounds like he's getting tired of being blamed for the chaos in the response. I'm guessing that soon both Bush and Nagin will stop being gentelmen and let the lady have it. I don't know about you, but if the President of the United States told me, "This is what we'll do," I wouldn't put him off with a "24 hour thinkathon." It wasn't a marriage proposal.

CNN report recorded here, but I heard it on the radio.

1470 The No Pork Challenge

Today I suggested items that the different states could contribute to disaster relief, including Jesse Jackson's mouth for waste removal. But on September 1 Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has "challenged members of Congress to block funding for unrelated pork projects in its aid package for hurricane recovery, and to help offset the bill’s cost by returning the $24 billion worth of earmarks in the recently enacted highway bill."

This would most likely be that $233 million dollar bridge to no where in Alaska that will benefit no one and may even hurt the locals.

It continues: "Congressional leaders expect to negotiate an emergency supplemental spending bill when Congress reconvenes next week. Hurricane Katrina has been called the most expensive disaster in the country’s history. One expert said that federal aid could top $30 billion, which will add to the $331 billion deficit predicted for fiscal 2005.

“In the past, Congress has shortchanged our troops, disaster victims, and taxpayers by including self-serving pork projects in emergency spending bills,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Maybe this time, the widespread devastation and loss of life will shame them into forgoing egregious spending that will hinder recovery efforts and add to the deficit.” "
Don't count on it, Tom. Pork buys votes and builds highways that are naming opportunities.

"Emergency supplemental bills have become a magnet for pork because they do not count against House and Senate budget caps and such bills are always signed by the President."

The announcement then lists the additional funding requests that made it into supplemental bills.

Than back track to this site's database and look at Louisiana for the various years. As a keyword, try "Army Corps of Engineers," or just the word "water."

1469 Jesse Jackson and the N Word

Many states are offering assistance to the hurricane area. My dream would be that Ohio could loan (dump) its Republican Governor Taft and Republican Senator Voinovich to fill in for some of Louisiana's inept Democrats. As poor as they are, they'd be an improvement. I'd like to see Alaska donate the money for its bridge to nowhere (serves 50 people and costs about $233 million) to restore some of the bridges in Mississippi and Louisiana. West Virginia will be feeding and housing in some families, but how much better if they could donate some good old boy pork for highway rebuilding--they could be called the Robert Byrd highways just as easily in Alabama or Mississippi as West Virginia. More pork here to throw in the pot.




Robert Byrd Dam in West Virginia





I'm not sure what state claims Jessie Jackson, but where ever it is, my sympathies. Would you please donate his mouth to funnel all the cesspool water out of the flooded areas? The N Word I'm thinking of is Narcissist. Mr. Jackson is the biggest Me, Me, It's all about Me, guy around. It's all about Me especially when Me is a one person speaks-for-my-race sort of guy. The drivel coming from his mouth during this tragedy is just beyond belief. Let's put that mouth to better use for waste disposal.

1468 On planning for a hurricane disaster

Over at Captain's Quarters I noticed this link to the Emergency Preparedness Plan for the City of New Orleans.

There are phrases in this Plan familiar to all of us who have ever been a member of a task force charged with coming up with a plan. About 20 years ago I worked for the State of Ohio as a planner and had to put together a plan that showed the various "agencies" under that department were all heading the same direction. Never having done anything larger than a small task force report for a small library problem I was baffled about where to begin. Then I discovered by reading through similar reports that all I needed to do was find out what each agency was already doing and then add the words: provide, maintain, participate, develop, ensure, conduct, test, disseminate, facilitate, etc., along with lots of "train" and "education" words, and then add a time line that fit within the period of time that political party would be in charge. It's almost a miracle how you can meet your plan deadline quickly. So I was not surprised to see phrases to nowhere in the plan.

"Coordinates, facilitates and encourages"

"develop evaluation procedures"

"sponsor and coordinate"

"shall work in conjunction with"

training in "appropriate plans and standard operating procedures"

"required to develop and implement"

This report even has trifectas: "Develop adequate educational materials for dissemination" and "consult with other city departments and agencies in development of appropriate bulletins affecting their activities." Ah, the faith this country has in education, especially if it stays on a paper plan.

However, writing a plan that describes the disaster is not the same as being prepared for the disaster, and that appears to be where Nagin's administration failed:

"Certain hazards, such as a hurricane, provide some lead time for coordinating an evacuation. However, this can not be considered a certainty. Plus, the sheer size of an evacuation in response to an approaching hurricane creates the need for the use of community-wide warning resources, which cannot be limited to our City's geographical boundaries. Evacuation of major portions of our population, either in response to localized or citywide disasters, can only be accomplished if the citizens and visitors are kept informed of approaching threats on a timely schedule, and if they are notified of the need to evacuate in a timely and organized manner. If an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials."

1467 New Orleans Police collapsing?

I've read that Mayor Nagin of New Orleans is going to send some of his police to Vegas for a break. I hope that is a cruel, right wing rumor. But things don't look good for him:

"Reeling from the chaos of this overwhelmed city, at least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked away from their jobs, and two have committed suicide, police officials said yesterday.

Some officers told superiors that they were leaving, police officials said. Others worked for a while and then stopped showing up. Still others, for reasons not always clear, never made it in after the storm."

Story here from Seattle Times, but is from the New York Times. I think it is too much "he said, she said," to be solid news, but that's NYT for you. I came across this article looking for the one where the NYT praised Congress for resisting flood control excesses, and I passed by the photo of all the buses underwater that the mayor didn't use, and the story about how the President had to plead with the Mayor Saturday night [before the hurricane hit] to get him to give a mandatory evacuation order. Some of these stories are so beyond belief you just don't know how to go about researching them.

1466 You can choose your tribe

You can't choose your parents but you can choose your Tribe--the guys in the white hats, Bill says.

"Only a few minutes ago, I had the delightful opportunity to read the comment of a fellow who said he wished that white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself could have been herded into the Superdome Concentration Camp to see how much we like it. Absent, of course, was the fundamental truth of what he plainly does not have the eyes or the imagination to see, namely, that if the Superdome had been filled with white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself, it would not have been a refinery of horror, but rather a citadel of hope and order and restraint and compassion.

That has nothing to do with me being white. If the blacks and Hispanics and Jews and gays that I work with and associate with were there with me, it would have been that much better. That’s because the people I associate with – my Tribe – consists not of blacks and whites and gays and Hispanics and Asians, but of individuals who do not rape, murder, or steal. My Tribe consists of people who know that sometimes bad things happen, and that these are an opportunity to show ourselves what we are made of. My people go into burning buildings. My Tribe consists of organizers and self-starters, proud and self-reliant people who do not need to be told what to do in a crisis. My Tribe is not fearless; they are something better. They are courageous. My Tribe is honorable, and decent, and kind, and inventive. My Tribe knows how to give orders, and how to follow them. My Tribe knows enough about how the world works to figure out ways to boil water, ration food, repair structures, build and maintain makeshift latrines, and care for the wounded and the dead with respect and compassion.

There are some things my Tribe is not good at at all. My Tribe doesn’t make excuses. My Tribe will analyze failure and assign blame, but that is to make sure that we do better next time, and we never, ever waste valuable energy and time doing so while people are still in danger. My Tribe says, and in their heart completely believes that it’s the other guy that’s the hero. My Tribe does not believe that a single Man can cause, prevent or steer Hurricanes, and my Tribe does not and has never made someone else responsible for their own safety, and that of their loved ones.

My Tribe doesn’t fire on people risking their lives, coming to help us. My Tribe doesn’t curse such people because they arrived on Day Four, when we felt they should have been here before breakfast on Day One. We are grateful, not to say indebted, that they have come at all. My Tribe can’t eat Nike’s and we don’t know how to feed seven by boiling a wide-screen TV. My Tribe doesn’t give a sweet God Damn about what color the looters are, or what color the rescuers are, because we can plainly see before our very eyes that both those Tribes have colors enough to cover everyone in glory or in shame. My Tribe doesn’t see black and white skins. My Tribe only sees black and white hats, and the hat we choose to wear is the most personal decision we can make." [Permission to use given for personal use, and I'm obviously making no money at this]

There's much more by Bill at Eject, Eject, Eject. Read what he says about pink and grey. Very interesting.