I'm an ugly American and I wanted it yesterday

That's what some of these reporters talking to the President sound like to me.

I've been watching this since we got home Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday morning the TV news was telling us that New Orleans had missed the worst and they showed people who'd stayed in their homes walking around in the street waving at the cameras.

Then the water started to rise as the levees were breached. So then the people started the walk through the water and sewage to the sports stadium that was already full of the people who had followed the order to evacuate. Many people made it to their roofs, and apparently many have drowned in their attics. On Tuesday I was watching the Coast Guard rescue people from roof tops.

On Wednesday morning the President returned to Washington. His enemies were already grumbling that it wasn't soon enough. I think it was the same people who thought he'd waited 7 minutes before processing the horror of September 11 and was working out where to go.

By Wednesday Baton Rouge and Houston officials already were putting into place emergency plans and were opening their doors--probably because those same officials had planned ahead, something the N.O. officials hadn't done.

By Wednesday, what had been looting for food and beer on Tuesday turned ugly and the urban terrorists began to rob, kill and rape. By Wednesday night refugees were arriving by bus in other locations.

The urban terrorists stopped all rescue efforts by early Thursday. Then the fires started, and we still don't know if they were set or were started by natural gas or people cooking on grills. By Thursday National Guard troops were completely mobilized and growing in the three affected states. This was to serve an area larger than Idaho. By Friday more troops are arriving, and I think they will be shooting to kill, just like Mosul and Fallujah.

By Friday there were 250 refugee centers up and running taking care of people, feeding them, clothing them, giving medical care and comfort. The Black Caucus finally made an appearance today waving fingers and pounding tables, but none of them have shown up in the areas hit. I think they kept a low profile because the city government of New Orleans is black and Democratic. But once the Feds were really up and active, then they launched their criticism. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton are no where to be seen. . . yet. One is courting a dictator; the other is mining an anti-war motherlode.

But Americans are an impatient people. We want it fixed yesterday.

1443 Reviewing New Orleans plans for protecting the city

As the "who's responsible?" list grows, Belmont Club points to an article in Civil Engineering Magazine in 2003, "The creeping storm." It's a fascinating article with a lot of history and good clarification of the problems the area deals with.

Also, follow up on in Google with the links about that Coast 2050 Plan to protect the coastal wetlands (it will be quite a struggle to work through the moonbats, but if you are persistent, you'll find good stuff). I think this is the $14 Billion plan the RFKites have been complaining has been underfunded by Bush--by some millions. It is a plan supported by environmentalists, city planners and evil oil interests, and is important, but wouldn't have kept the levees from being breached. Wouldn't have stopped an act of God. From what I read, it has a history of not being been fully funded, millions short also in Clinton's administration. Although with government funds, it is hard to tell since what is promised isn't what is spent. But in a program that size, millions mean little. It would hardly build a bridge to nowhere in Alaska ($223 million for an island with 50 inhibitants).

1442 Bad political moves

Who is managing these politicians? The Louisiana congress people (with the exception of Jindal who seems to actually be in a refugee center) are appearing on TV in suits and ties clucking over the devastation in their home state. On a split screen they look ridiculous!

I think I heard that President Bush was going to stop by for a look. Bad idea. He's not a touchy-feely Bill Clinton, and he can't put on that "I feel your pain" look. His visit will be a logistical nightmare; the Democrats are going to bad mouth him no matter what he does, so that cause is lost. But his visit might just endanger the lives of the people as security forces are diverted to protect the President. When he has come to Columbus, the back-ups are awful. Mr. President, go back to Crawford, talk to Cindy if you must, but stay out of hurricane zones until they get the people out.

1441 Goal setters and problem solvers

The U.S. is failing in Iraq says Andrew Krepinevich, Jr. in his Foreign Affairs article because it has goals (a democratic Iraq after exiting), but no strategy to defeat the insurgency. Democrats and the anti-Bushies also have a goal for Iraq--get out quick, no matter how many deaths of innocent Iraqis it causes. Republicans say, when we turn it over to the Iraqis, it will be their problem, then we'll leave. We have a huge home-grown example of how well that works.

Yes, look at New Orleans all you goal setters and problem solvers. It has a Democratic city administration and state governor's office who told the people to "get out immediately," but had no strategy. Now the city has been taken over by home-grown insurgents (terrorists would be a good term here, just as in Iraq). The mayor seems to be sincere, articulate and well spoken, but totally unprepared. The state government appears to be about evenly split with a Democratic governor, and again, Ms. Blanco looks like she is trying. I don't want to criticize them personally. But Louisiana politics, like Iraq, has a long history of corruption and ineptness, with a crime rate 10 times the national average. So I think it is probably a wash as far as which party would have been prepared. But there have been enough studies and reports federal and local (by problem solvers) to paper the city two or three inches deep. This is not a money problem, it is a no strategy problem created by goal setters.

New Orleans has been living with hurricanes from the time it was established. Ask yourself, how were thousands of poor people supposed to get out? They use public transportation. What was the long term strategy? The city had a mass transit system and that certainly couldn't have handled it. There are buses for every church and school. At best, using every bus in the city you'd evacuate a few thousand, but you'd need an armed guard on every bus because the huge criminal element living there. Where would you get them?

What is needed is a thousand groups like the Central Ohio Southern Baptist Chain Saw Team ready to roll at a moment's notice. Every city needs a strategy to handle evacuees with pets; a strategy for nursing homes; a strategy for short term holding areas; a strategy for mobilizing citizens with guns to protect their neighbors (yeah, that'll happen); a strategy to call up every retired nurse to help with medical crises; a strategy to have potable water and non-perishable food stored. I can't think of any use for retired librarians, but I'm a problem solver so I'll think on that one.

But all you "get out of Iraq now" people and you "when the Iraqis can take over" people just go turn on the TV and think about how well getting out of one city of under one million in one democratic country went with no strategy.

1440 Dear Mr. Kennedy

Here is the site of the National Weather Service's United States Hurricane information by decade. Please begin with the 1940s decade (34 hurricanes). You'll see hurricanes are decreasing in number and intensity. Your exploitation of the Katrina tragedy is too low for words. It is exceeded only by your desire to destroy our economy.

1439 Product Differentiation

When I went back to the supermarket to pick up my photos of the lake, developed with a special deal which included a disc, they were not quite ready. "Just 2 minutes," she said cheerily. So I wandered through the health and beauty aisles, and stopped at Crest toothpaste. Twenty seven varieties. I could hardly believe my eyes, so I counted them. Cinnamon. Baking soda. Mint. Peppermint. Cool mint. Regular (whatever that is). Striped. Tartar fighting. Whitening. Small. Medium. Large. Supersize. Child friendly. Oval shape. Long shape. Then mix and match those. It mystifies me that economists and marketers think this is a big deal, but they do. It seems it is very important to our economy. I just googled the term and got a college course in it.

Today I was at the drug store. I like to look at greeting cards. More product differentiation. Becoming a citizen. Mom and her new husband. Dad and his new wife. Driver's license. Leaving for college. Going to camp. Loss of a child. Loss of an infant. Divorce. Sympathy for a sudden loss. Entering the service. Father to be. Setting up an anti-war camp in Texas (just kidding on that one, but the others are real).

I buy sugar free cookies. What I like about them is that within a brand, there are only a few choices, and there aren't very many brands. Archway has chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, peanut butter and Rocky Road. Voorhis has a shortbread and a raspberry and some sandwich cookies. There's another brand I look for that has really good oreo type in chocolate, vanilla and lemon. They are more expensive, but much easier on the brain.

1438 The liberals see only race

In a city that is probably 70% African American, Jack Shafer wonders: "Nearly every rescued person, temporary resident of the Superdome, looter, or loiterer on the high ground of the freeway I saw on TV was African-American." They are humans; they are people. They are black. They are suffering. Shades of the 19th century, Mr. Shafer. Shame on you.

"Race remains largely untouchable for TV because broadcasters sense that they can't make an error without destroying careers." Gee, Mr. Shafer. Who helped that along? Who screamed for Esterbrook's scalp. Who wanted Rush Limbaugh fired when he honestly pointed out that the media wouldn't criticize a black quarterback? What if CNN and Fox had sent only their African American reporters? Now wouldn't that be racist? Send blacks to report on blacks? Then they could be accused of protecting their white newspeople--or at least Fox would be accused of that.

"To the question of looting, an informed reporter or anchor might have pointed out that anybody—even one of the 500 Nordic blondes working in broadcast news—would loot food from a shuttered shop if they found themselves trapped by a flood. . ." And the shoes, and jewelry, and stealing cop cars and breaking into hospitals and nursing homes? Is it possible in a city nearly 70% black that the bad gangs of looters might also be black? Hmmmm?

1437 Gratitude-impaired

"My thing is they took too long to come to get our people," a woman with a disabled daughter is quoted in today's USAToday. Let's see. First volunteers risked their lives to rescue her by boat, then she was picked up by a bus, and then by helicopter. Must be some of that cradle-to-the grave gratitude.

1436 Disaster Blame

No one in the media seems to be taking the global warming drivel seriously, but it is awash in blame. 85% of a sprawling city living in and on its past is covered up, and "they" should have done something. USAToday comes this close <-----> to blaming President Bush with a long list:

lack of coordination is inexcusable
evacuation was haphazard
halting response from Bush on Tuesday (keep in mind that Tuesday morning the media was announcing that NOLA had been spared)
leadership void
puny efforts
what's the plan
woefully inadequate
was anyone in charge

The Wall Street Journal is also critical of the flaws and failures in the crisis planning, but with specifics that other cities can use:

1) "All the cunning of man cannot defeat the greatest fury of nature."
2) guidelines for coordination between state, federal and local agencies were incomplete.
3) The most vulnerable were not evacuated.
4) There was no search and rescue plan.
5) Conflicting radio frequencies for emergency units defeated workers.
6) Plans were in place for a category 3 hurricane.
7) Florida's plans in 2004 were far superior to Louisiana's, but other states had not learned from it.
8) Heavy equipment needed to repair breaches was not in place.
9) No fuel for emergency generators.
10) Federal gov't must wait for the governor to invite it in for diasaster relief.

However, Joel Kotkin's article in today's WSJ about the city itself is very informative. Not sexy and unprovable like global warming, but local decay seems to be in part the problem. He points out that New Orleans was once the premier city of the south with a vital economy, but Houston and Miami long ago surpassed it. He attributes active immigration from South America and the Caribbean as pluses for those cities bringing in trade, investments, services, and businesses with corresponding higher paying jobs for workers. New Orleans now sells its past--or did until Tuesday morning when the levees were breached. Kotkin said it was a city of underemployment, crime and poverty with a murder rate 10 times the national average, a city of least resistance.

1435 Disaster Relief

Monday night our local TV news carried a story about the Southern Baptist Chain Saw team from Central Ohio. They were loading up their vans and getting ready to go south to help out in one important niche--clearing roads and getting trees off homes. We're looking at agencies for disaster relief. I'd sent my tsunami check to the Mennonites but later learned it basically went through Church World Service which is part of the National Council of Churches. That may be adequate for relief but it won't answer any deeper spiritual needs. So I looked at the site for the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities. Finally, I settled in at the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Homepage, an agency of its North American Mission Board. Not only did they have the information for their most recent Dennis help posted, but right at the top they had "Sharing Christ." All these agencies cooperate--the Baptists are working with the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army at their kitchen sites, for instance. But I'd like to know the volunteers are not going to be shy about spreading the good news while they serve the hot food and clear away trees.

1434 Women for Roberts

This is about all I know. I hope they develop a website or a blog aggregator of bloggers for Roberts. I'd join. The left is really pulling out the heavy guns. Seems he believes in equality.

"Roberts’s other offenses? In 1983, reviewing a report on state-by-state initiatives to combat sex discrimination, he singled out several ideas as ’’highly objectionable’ -- among them, special tuition breaks for women at state colleges to compensate for their lower earnings (a scheme so harebrained and so blatantly discriminatory that it’s amazing it was seriously considered) and preferential treatment for women and minorities during layoffs. Looks like Roberts believed that equality actually means -- well, equality. Oh, the beast...." Cathy Young, Boston Globe

Noticed at Independent Women's Forum

1433 How does this help?

Apparently, a President cannot go to his own home, where he has phone, fax, computers, security and all his staff. Nope. It's a "summer idyll." And this guy Dubya is so incredible, and so astute, he should've known that the levees would break and just didn't respond. WaPo editorializing the news here. Amy's my source.

1432 Looney Left and Paleo-Right, together again

Why is Cindy Sheehan playing footsie with David Duke? Victor Davis Hanson has an excellent article on the extreme left and extreme right falling into bed together, breathing heavy in their hatred of George Bush and the United States.

"This odd symbiosis began right after 9/11. Then the lunatic Left mused about the "pure chaos" of the falling "two huge buck teeth" twin towers, lamented that they were more full of Democrats than Republicans, and saw the strike as righteous payback from third-world victims.

The mirror-imaging fundamentalists and censors in turn saw the attack as an angry God's retribution either for an array of our mortal sins or America's tilting toward Israel."

Besides David Duke, on the right he lists racists and fascists (admittedly, obscure and not as well known as the big time left). On the left he has Harold Meyerson, George Soros, and the grieving, self-serving Mrs. Sheehan.

1431 Hundreds of pounds of journals

Our public library sells used books and magazines donated by the public. Magazines are usually 25 cents, hard cover books $2, and paperback $1. It's clean out time at our house. A huge load of magazines will soon be leaving the garage:

Fine homebuilding
Home
This Old House
Metropolitan home
Architecture
Architectural Record
Environmental Design and Construction
Renovation Style
Elle Decor
Wired
Architectural Digest

But the house doesn't look any different. Magazines are like rabbits. Or spiders. Or spam.

1430 Moonbats and Wingnuts

I wonder if the President could appoint a team of Robert Kennedy Jr. and Pat Robertson to head up the relief effort. Before the dead are even found and buried, Kennedy is blaming Bush (who is personally responsible for global warming, assuming it exists). Robertson years ago in the 90s said hurricanes were God's wrath for sinning Americans. And he claims to have prayed them away from certain areas in the 80s. So the worst natural disaster in our history buries a city known the world over for its partying. Yes, the Bobby and Pat dog and pony show. What a team. And they are both Christians so there's something for everyone to hate.

1429 Casual, low pressure atmosphere

Desperate for a meaningless job complete with all the right words scripted for you? Christ-haunted saw this one first.

1428 Constitution Day is coming

Educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September 17 of each year. The notice.

Alexander Hamilton and the U.S. Constitution

U.S. Constitution

Documents and debates on the Constitution

The framers

1427 The best and worst after the hurricane

The scenes on the cable networks are compelling. The Coast Guard rescues have been dramatic [shared video, but I thought Fox's commentary was the best and the least intrusive]. Most discouraging is the footage of the looters. There's no one to stop them so they are just grinning into the camera lens and waving. Most heartwarming was the shot of someone pouring water on a stranded sea lion who was dying in the heat. Shepard Smith on Fox was probably the best I've ever heard of him--he was not just another pretty face. Stranded in Louisiana when he really wanted to be in Mississippi, his home state, his voice wavered as he motioned toward the devastation. He sounded completely distraught and not at all the controlled professional he usually is.

1426 Do you buy organic and avoid Wal-Mart?

Tomeboy has an interesting collection of contrasts for you Wal-Mart avoiders.

"800,000 organic farm workers are hired each year in California by 35,000 employers. Wal-Mart has 44,000 employees in California.

The average California organic farm worker annually earns $7000-$8000 or $6.75/hour (California minimum wage). His counterpart at Wal-Mart makes $9.70/hour.

Only 19% of organic farm workers have some type of health insurance compared to 90% of employees at Wal-Mart." Read the whole story here.

I was chatting the other day with a woman who works in a small franchise operation where I was shopping--very up-scale, very posh-posh, full of bling-bling. She was breathless with excitement that she might get in at the local Wal-Mart.

1425 There's good news from Iraq

Chrenkoff posts his 34th entry of Good News. I thought of printing it out because of its length, but print preview shows it runs to 38 printed pages. Examples:

"USAID has been helping to bring the constitutional debate to the people (link in PDF): "The Constitutional Dialogue program has organized over 3,000 dialogues throughout Iraq, reaching almost 80,000 Iraqis who also shared their opinions through 64,000 questionnaires. To date, 210 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have participated, including 151 NGOs contracted by USAID and 59 NGOs working as volunteers. Feedback indicates that the dialogues are achieving their dual purpose; to educate and consult the public."

Say what you will about this process, but it is going better than ours did back in the 1700s, with a lot more input from the people.

"Iraq's economic links with other countries keep expanding. "International Finance Corporation (IFC) considered the possibility of investing $210.3 million in the construction project of cement works in Iraq with a productive capacity of 2.9 million tons per annum. Also according to Russian analysis agency AK&M, IFC intends to participate in the capital of new company by investing $8.3 million. The first investment project in Iraq with participation of IFC was realized in finance sector in November 2004 when IFC invested $35 million in the capital of Credit Bank of Iraq."

And to think they don't even have an Alexander Hamilton!

"The first international airline flight to land in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 15 years arrived here yesterday [22 August] receiving a warm welcome from local officials. A Sharjah-based Phoenix Air Boeing 747 arrived from Dubai with 22 passengers on board."

Tomato farmers are harvesting higher yields thanks to improved technologies learned under the Open Field Tomato Demonstration initiative of USAID's Agriculture Reconstruction and Development for Iraq (ARDI) program. For the demonstrations, ARDI established plots in Baghdad, Diyala and Babylon governorates on which they introduced drip irrigation, black plastic mulch, and fertilization. With the Ministry of Agriculture, USAID representatives monitored the plots and helped participating farmers control tomato pests...

Read the whole thing--and the previous entries too. Check the links bottom right. Also includes "Good News from Afghanistan."