North Alabama Rant

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest sympathies to the Johnson family. My father-in-law suffered an aneurism earlier this year. While Senator Johnson did not suffer an aneurism, the post-trauma symptoms are the same and the recovery period will more than likely be the same, if not longer.

During the time that my father-in-law recovered, it was an emotional time as we all stressed over whether or not he would ever be himself again. My father-in-law ultimately recovered, but is still not 100% of who he used to be.

Having gone through the emotional ordeal of dealing with family members after a brain trauma and subsequent brain surgery, I feel for the Johnson family and wish Senator Johnson the very best on his road to recovery.

That being said, I find it rather twisted that all of the talking heads are worried about the implications of Johnson’s failure to return. While we certainly hope that is not the case, I suppose the Washington Philosophers must ponder for the worst.

While I concede a slight agreement over their concerns for the balance of power, it is not foremost in my mind as I have more pressing issues to be concerned about.

What is at the front of my mind, and what is bothering me about this situation, is that the governor of South Dakota gets to choose who replaces Johnson should that it be necessary. That is all fine and dandy, but the fact that a Republican governor can choose a Republican Senator to replace an elected Democrat astounds me.

The people of South Dakota voted and chose a Democratic Senator and they are due a Democratic replacement. That the voters can be trumped like this is another shining example of some of the things wrong with the American elections system.

How can the vote of the people be ignored? How did we create a law or procedure that simply ignores the vote? The laws, rules, and guidelines should demand that a replacement come from the same party as the member being replaced. It is that simple.

Governor Rounds, if you find yourself in the unfortunate circumstance of having to replace Senator Johnson, please do not violate the voice of your citizens: replace Senator Johnson with a candidate from the Democratic Party.

My best wishes to the Johnson family: you are in my thoughts.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 27 June, 2006

Before I go any further I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not read the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, or Wall Street Journal. I wanted to clear up any misconception that I might be partial toward the New York Times.

Where is the outrage at the Los Angeles Times? Where is the outrage at the Wall Street Journal?

Could it be that all the outrage at the New York Times is politically motivated? Is it perhaps that the New York Times is the “big boy” when it comes to liberal-leaning newspapers and the Republicans are just sucking up to their base?

No, surely politicians are above that.

Perhaps the outrage is just smoke and mirrors to cover up the fact that the USS King George has a leak? Everyone is blasting the New York Times, and yet none of the Bushians are talking about the leak.

I think we will be seeing another Judith Miller trial coming up in about a year and $270,000 later. There is nothing like a cool quarter of a million spent on a grand jury or independent investigation to settle a score with a “liberal rag.”

The nagging question, of course, is whether or not the New York Times should have run the article.

I can see the validity of some of the points on both sides of this argument. The media has a responsibility to make sure the public is aware of what the government is doing. However, that responsibility is a double-edged sword. Issues of national security (a gray area) and issues that involve risking the lives of soldiers (that is why Geraldo was kicked out of Iraq) make an editor think twice.

So, with all the rhetoric being tossed around by the King’s High Court about soldiers dying, is this article actually going to do that? Cheney practically said that if another terrorist attack occurred it would be The New York Times’ fault. Oh good grief…

I fail to see how this leak is anything new to the terrorists. The terrorists already knew we were tracking their bank accounts. After all, there have been numerous politicians, including King George himself, that have touted this fact during several speeches. I can remember at least two times that Bush has said in a speech that he will do everything to stop the terrorists, including going after their financial backers and tracking their bank accounts.

So what did the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal print that is so outrageous? Oh yeah, they hinted that the activity may be illegal. Oh… now I understand where the outrage is coming from.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 05 September 05

Did I just hear that right? Did Tucker Carlson, the bow-tied media strong-arm of the Bush administration, just say that the Bush administration was culpable and should bear the blame of this tragedy for not responding fast enough? Did I hear that right?

This is amazing. The right wing media is slamming the Bush administration on so many counts.

What I do not understand is why people are throwing the race card around. We all understand that race is associated with poverty, that is a given, but to say that these people are being ignored because of their race is ludicrous as best. The reason the majority of the people on our television screens are black is not that their black skin causes people to ignore them: they are the majority because in New Orleans, a majority black city, the black population dominates the poverty-stricken neighborhoods.

This is not about race: it is about class. The city of New Orleans is culpable from the very beginning. How can you put out a mandatory evacuation and not help people get out? When officials ordered a mandatory evacuation, officials should have mobilized buses and helped the poor people get out. The military should have sent in C-130 cargo planes to take people out..

You cannot give a mandatory evacuation and then not help people that cannot get out on their own.The city of Biloxi equally suffered from the class separation. The Point is where the poverty-stricken citizens of Biloxi live. Most of them could not get out of the city. Most of them died. Rescuers on the ground say that there will likely be 1,000 deaths in Biloxi and most of them from The Point.

The government not only failed the citizens of these states after Katrina left, they failed before Katrina ever arrived.

Even today the Mayor of New Orleans helped people from a classy hotel evacuate and get head of the line privileges at the Sewer Dome, I mean Super Dome. Why is that? He allowed the rich foreigners and out-of-towners to go ahead of his own poor people.

This is not about race. This is about class. This is about an incompetent administration.

Why is everyone so quiet about this? Am I the only one that is pissed off about what is going on along the Gulf Coast? Why are so many Americans dumbfounded over the national tragedy level of this catastrophe?

The father of my daughter’s friend had a conference call today with his clients, suppliers, and main office. They were talking about the fact that their plastics factories rely on petroleum and they are having a hard time getting it. They are talking about canceling orders and increasing prices to compensate for having to truck gas in all the way from California. They talked about stopping sales and just taking care of existing orders, which means he would be out of a job. Their main technician is stuck in Jackson, Mississippi with no gas to get home.

I rely on Mobile to get my parts to do my job. My work is still recovering, but they told me today that even if they could send parts, UPS is limited in the Mobile area because some of their employees are suffering loses, and they are also having a difficult time getting gas for their trucks. Do people not realize the national ramifications of the fact that UPS, FedEx, and even the Post Office are having problems delivering items to people? What will happen when the trucking industry shuts down because the truckers are not getting compensated enough money to purchase gas for the long hauls?

The Texaco one block from my house has raised the price of gas over fifty cents today. It rose slowly over the day. In just 2 1/2 hours alone, it went from $3.10 to $3.38! We went to Wal-Mart to get groceries and when we came back, it had gone up just twenty-eight cents. Then when my wife went back to work an hour later it was up to $3.48! This morning several Huntsville gas stations ran out of gas.

My cousin is complaining that she cannot get to the Auburn game and that the universities are asking people to cancel their reservations so they can house refugees. If I were in Mobile, I would reach out and slap her. The universities should cancel the game to ensure that refugees could use all the rooms available. Are we that stupid? Are we that ignorant of the ramifications? People are actually going to waste gas to see a stupid football game.

Cancel the NFL season and house these people in every dome stadium across the United States until resources can integrate refugees into their adoptive cities. Melt down the ice in Ice hockey rinks and use them as shelters.

I just do not get it. I am angry. I am upset. I am saddened. I am grieving.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 3 September, 2005

Now that the government is fully engaged and actually helping people that need the help, it is time to put a few things into perspective.

When I say things such as “no one is getting anything done,” or “why is no one helping these people,” I say such in general terms. I am speaking generally about the lack of government intervention.

Anyone with half a brain, and I am assuming that most of the people working for Bush have at least that, would know that when a major city is destroyed, you could not rely on the local police and a few FEMA civilians to take care of things.

I applaud the efforts of the New Orleans police that stayed on duty. While I am ashamed of those that fled, I must admit I understand why they did. I applaud the efforts of the Louisiana State Police and the FEMA representatives that did show up to help. They made a heartfelt attempt and they deserve the credit. No one is attacking them. No one is detracting from his or her efforts. They gave it their best shot and that is all anyone could ask for.

When I scream out and talk about others that are screaming out, I am not trying to give myself any more credit than anyone else deserves that was screaming. It was shameful that these people were sitting there without anyone (using that term generally to represent the federal government in general) helping them.

We also need to recognize that the few federal employees that were there initially (FEMA civilians and DOD contractors) were concentrating on two places: the Sewer Dome and the levees. No one ventured out to see where people needed help.

In the first 48 hours there were local people going around in boats trying to rescue people from their attics and rooftops. Anglers in bass boats, with a few Parish Sheriff Deputies, stood up and made the effort. We should applaud them for their efforts and bravery. They stood up when their government was lying down.

People have accused me of politicizing the disaster in order to promote my agenda against President Bush and his administration. I think I need to clear a few key points up in regards to such.

People need to understand that this is not a partisan issue. Leftists, liberals, left-wingers, and Democrats are not the only ones giving the Bush administration grief about this. The reporters and people that I normally disagree with are agreeing with me. This is unprecedented.

I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I have a certain disdain for most politicians, no matter what party they belong. I admit that I enjoyed it very much when Anderson Cooper tore up Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu live on CNN. Politicians were too busy thanking each other to realize that a major tragedy was occurring. Anderson Cooper called Senator Landrieu on this and told her that the victims of this tragedy did not want to hear politicians patting each other on the back – they wanted to hear when relief was coming.

What makes this a unique situation is that the right and left media reporters were all agreeing. We all know that every reporter with his or her own show has an agenda to push. We all know that certain channels lean to the left or right (FOX News being a big example of such). All of them, however, were hammering the government for failing to react in a timely manner and in some cases for failing to act at all.

I never watched FOX news before this. FOX did an excellent job. Shepard Smith was one of the most vocal reporters on the scene pleading for help for the stranded victims on the I-10. FOX was doing a great job until they sent Geraldo Rivera in there, anyway. LOL

I pass on kudos to Anderson Cooper, Tucker Carlson, Shepard Smith, and many other field correspondents for calling the government to task for their inability to get the job done and save thousands of lives. As we said in the Navy, Bravo Zulu!

I admit I do not like the Bush administration, his polices (foreign and domestic), but this is not a political issue. I am lambasting the Bush administration not because they are Republican, because I did not vote for him, or for any other political reason. I am lambasting the Bush administration because they failed to act in a timely manner.

I am not asking President Bush to be perfect. I am asking for a response. Bush sat in his ranch for two days before doing anything. He even traveled to San Diego to give a speech on the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in WWII. He then talked about the war in Iraq – not the tragedy in Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast. Then he decided to cancel his vacation and go back to Washington after everyone started asking where the federal government was.

That has nothing to do with him being a Republican or Democrat and everything to do with his incompetence and his inability to recognize this for what it was. No one watching the news could miss it. We knew at 2 AM Tuesday morning that the levee was broken and the city was flooding quickly. We knew by 3 AM that people were dying left and right in New Orleans and in Biloxi; because CNN was the only news channel reporting it live (we stayed up and watched all night). Bush was still in Texas and getting ready to go to California for a speech on Iraq.

If Republicans find that to be excusable, then I suppose that is their right. Nevertheless, I find that action inexcusable, no matter what political party one is associated. That is how everyone is seeing it: right and left. The fact that I agree with the reporters, editorialists, and others from the conservative side of the political spectrum is something that has never happened before in my lifetime. It is a phenomenon worth reporting on.

I do not blame only Bush. He is the captain of the boat, however. That being said, I still am angry with the Congress. When the news said, “The House and Senate wasted no time passing a 10.5 billion dollar aid package for the relief of Hurricane Katrina victims,” I wanted to scream. How can the media say that they wasted no time? They stayed on vacation for two extra days before coming back. Bush had a two-day head start on these elected officials. My previous blogs reflects my anger at these fools just as much as it does at Bush. As I said before, I was angry with Democrats and Republicans: I was angry with my government.

Many people, especially politicians, are now saying that we should not be pointing fingers right now. Instead, they say, we should be trying to help these people.

I agree there should be an accounting when everyone is safe. We need to look at our procedures and revamp them. We have let the terrorists know that we cannot handle a major catastrophe in this country. All the hyperbole over security in the post 9/11 environment was for naught.

This is what I think these people do not understand, though: people in the media and many people like me were complaining about it because people were not getting the help they deserved. We wanted those people to get help and it was not there. We wanted the military involved and the governor of Louisiana was refusing to request federal help.

We were (and are) raising a stink because no one was doing anything. We saw the carnage and death. We saw the human tragedy. We saw the atrocities. We saw no one doing anything. We raised hell about it and suddenly people were responding and the government pulled its head out of its arse, got down there, and helped.

You do not know how pleased we are to see the military down there getting this thing taken care of. We are ecstatic to see the government finally rescuing people in New Orleans and surrounding areas.

That is exactly why people like me are venting. It was obvious that the government was not getting food and water to the victims. It was obvious that the government was not finding places of comfort for these people. At this very moment, there are still no government officials in the Ninth Ward part of New Orleans and the people there are still desperate.

We rant and rave because when we do, people listen. We ranted and raved about the Convention Center and look at what happened today. Would the government have gone in to the Convention Center today if no one were screaming about it yesterday and demanding that the government act?

We are not yelling for political gain. We are yelling for the gain of humanity during this human crisis and tragedy.

I think it was important to point this out because it helped get the government moving. People are pointing and screaming because they care for the people in the areas affected. I am a humanist, which means my number one concern is for humanity and human beings. If I have to scream and yell to get someone to care for his or her fellow human beings or respond to a human tragedy, then I will.

I know it sometimes seems that I am only lashing out at Bush, but I cannot help it. Bush irritates the bejesus out of me. When he got on television and made his first speech from the white house, he was so smug and nonchalant. I wanted to reach through the TV and slap that stupid grin right off his face. Thousands of people are dying and he has that stupid smug look on his face that he has when he talks about Iraq. That smug look was not on his face when he stood atop the rubble with firefighters after 9/11.

No matter what criticisms I may have of Bush and his administration, I cannot criticize his amazing ability to lead people and inspire people to follow him. He has an uncanny gift at it. He can even get people to follow a lie. It is truly a remarkable skill. Sarcasm aside, I am being sincere when I say that his leadership skills are exceptional (please do not equate leadership skill with leadership ability – they are two separate things). I did not fault him on 9/11 and I did not fault him in Afghanistan. He was doing what was right and I was behind him.

The fact that he stayed in Texas and went to California first has now opened his leadership skills up for criticism. Bush has scratched and gouged the one thing he had as a buffer from the left. That is why I was emphasizing that the right is also speaking out against him. Even they recognize that he failed miserably on this one. He is the captain of their boat and the captain of our national boat.

It is a mystery why the President went to California before going back to Washington. The people of the United States deserve an answer from Bush explaining why a WWII anniversary speech to compare WWII with Iraq was more important than thousands of dying people along the Gulf Coast. I doubt we will get it. While no one detracts from the heroic efforts of WWII veterans, I am sure they would understand why the President would cancel the event in order to attend to the natural disaster occurring in the country in the present time.

I am pointing my anger equally. I know I can sound one-sided because of my dislike for Bush, and I know this makes my anger seem biased. Please rest assured that is not the case. My anger is an equal opportunity employer. I am angry with the Senate and House, Republican and Democrat alike. I am angry with the Democrat governor of Louisiana for fumbling the ball and taking three days to pick it up and pass it to the federal government. I am angry at the Democratic senators that could do nothing but thank Senator Frist for initiating the monies for the relief effort, when they should have been condemning him for taking four days to get back from vacation (notice that Frist is now in Louisiana playing doctor to revamp his image).

I am angry with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for raising the race card. There was no reason to pull the race card from their shirtsleeves. They already had a Royal Flush in their hands from the bumbling of the Bush administration.

I will grant you that the left is screaming about this one, and some are politicizing it. That is to be expected. What makes this situation unique is that the left and right are screaming equally about it. Of course, the right is not politicizing it, but they are blaming the president and his administration for not acting fast enough to save thousands of people.

Joe Scarborough was a Republican Senator who now has his own show on MSNBC. I have to admit that I cannot stand the man. He and I disagree on every issue. When he and I agree, it is indeed a historic day. LOL

Scarborough called many Republicans to task for failing to do their jobs. He slammed the President for not canceling his vacation sooner. He slammed his Republican friends in the House and Senate for waiting until Thursday night to cancel their vacations and pass an emergency bill to give money to those dying people along the Gulf Coast.

I am trying my best not to fall into the same trap that many on the left are falling into: the trap of politicizing the deaths of so many innocent victims. I appreciate when people help keep me on my keel. However, I must admit that it is extremely difficult not to politicize it. It is hard to stay the course and hope we are going to win the game when the President is fumbling the ball every time he tries to pass it. Luckily, for this team, we have a good defense that can prop up the lousy offense.

While no one will deny that efforts need focusing to ensure victims are out of harm’s way, my rants, and the rants of others are making the right waves to get the balls rolling. We push that ball because we see the suffering and horror of what used to be New Orleans, Biloxi, Waveland, Pass Christian, Slidell, Houma, and others. We see this devastation and we do not see any form of government there to help. This makes us scream and yell until someone listens and does something to help these people.

People demanding that we focus our attention on the rescuing of victims instead of politicizing this event are in harmony with me and we are on the same page. I just refuse to sit on the sidelines and only donate money. I want them helped NOW. I do not want to wait three days for the president to cancel his vacation. I do not want to wait three days for the governor of Louisiana (a Democrat, by the way) to finally ask for federal help. I do not want to wait four days for the government to give food and water to thousands of refugees standing on a bridge while ten of their family and friends die each day in front of the FOX News cameras. I do not want to wait five days for the people suffering at the Convention Center to receive aid and comfort.

Donate money: people need it and appreciate it. I will donate money, but I will also scream and yell until somebody gets off their arse and does something about the devastation to humanity that is unfolding across my television screen.

To reiterate, this is not a Republican issue. I am angry with the Democratic governor and senators from Louisiana. I am angry with the Republican governor of Mississippi. I am angry with the Republican president. I am angry with the government in general.

Luckily for the human devastation going on in Louisiana there were a few shining stars. To be honest, in my view, most of those shining stars are the ones that were screaming, yelling, and pointing fingers that caused the government to move. It was the Republican FOX news anchor on the I-10 Bridge screaming for help. It was the Democratic CNN news anchor in Biloxi screaming for help. It was the Republican MSNBC reporter screaming for help. It was the Democratic SKY News reporter screaming for help.

I am grateful for the finger-pointers and those that are screaming for help. They encouraged the nation to rally and encouraged the government to get moving. Now we are FINALLY seeing relief come to these people.

Thank you for finally getting the people out of the Convention Center. Thank you for finally getting the military into the city to restore some order. I just cannot help but wonder if the response would have been faster if half of the National Guard from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were not in Iraq.

I also want to retract my statement that the NFL should cancel the season to let people use the domes. Someone poignantly pointed out to me that doing so would have serious economic ramifications on the cities involved. Personally, however, I cannot see myself going to a football game when thousands (if not ten thousands) of my fellow citizens are dying because the government failed them.

While I am sure that the NFL franchises would have no problem losing one year’s worth of income, I do not think the cities would fare as well. They need the revenue. The economic impact of this tragedy will reverberate for a long time.

I guess the fact that I am not a sports enthusiast got the better of me. As I replied to a comment I received, do not get me started on the scholastic emphasis of sports over academics.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 03 September 05

The following letter is from Michael Moore of Farenheit 911 fame. The letter is posted on his website (link at bottom of letter). A few comments from me will be at the bottom of the letter as well.

Vacation is Over…
an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It’s Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helvping with national disasters. How come they weren’t there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn’t want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don’t like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don’t let people criticize you for this — after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don’t listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers’ budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn’t cut the money to fix those levees, there weren’t going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them — BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn’t stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It’s not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C’mon, they’re black! I mean, it’s not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don’t make me laugh! Race has nothing — NOTHING — to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com

My comments:

Moore’s letter is straightforward. He certainly holds no punches back and his letter drips and oozes with sarcasm. I love it!

The only thing that I disagree with is his insistence that race has something to do with this. As I said before in an earlier commentary, we all know that race is associated with poverty, but race is not the reason the government is ignoring these people nor is it why they are delaying the process. So many of the refugees are black because New Orleans is a majority black city and the black population dominates the poverty-stricken areas. This is about class, not race.

You cannot order a mandatory evacuation and then leave the poor people behind to die. Attitude and actions like that is what caused so many deaths on the Titanic. The government failed Louisiana and Mississippi before Katrina ever hit land. Buses and aircraft should have been evacuating those that could not afford to evacuate on their own.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 03 September, 2005

Just got off the phone with my sister. She has no idea just how bad it is in Biloxi. She thought she could go back and go back to work. I had to let her know that Biloxi no longer exists. Biloxi consists of a few skeleton hotels, wrecked casinos, and a few parking garages. She has not seen any footage from the area.

I had the unpleasent experience of telling her that she will NEVER return to Biloxi. The casinos will probably not open for several years, if they even open again. Many people that evacuated have said they will not return to the coast. They will make a new life where they evacuated to.

As a former On-Scene Mass Casualty Coordinator, I watch these pictures in horror. I do not understand why they government is proving to be so impotent. It is like watching a scene from Bangladesh. It is like watching a third world country respond. Why is this so hard?

There are people dying of dehydration and heat stroke on the I-10. If Fox news can get there and give them ice, then what the hell is the problem with the government? In foreign countries we drop troops into the affected area and established a security buffer. Then helicopters drop food and water and then the prestationed troops distribute the food and water to the people.

We can do that for a foreign country but not to our own people. I am sitting here watching the news and I am boiling.

What is it so hard for people to understand that this is a NATIONAL DISASTER?! Gas is already $6.00 a gallon in Atlanta. You cannot get any gas south of Montgomery, Alabama. The economic repurcussions from this will be staggering. If gas runs out or increases then I will not be able to leave my home to work. I travel an average of 300 miles each day. I cannot risk driving to work and then not being able to get gas to drive back home.

I was able to fill my car up at the local Texaco for $2.95 a gallon a couple of hours ago. My wife is going to fill her car up as I write this, and the price has already gone up to $3.05 a gallon.

Anyone want to wager that the terrorists are watching this? We are advertising to the world that we are impotent during a major disaster.

I wanted to slap the crap out of Bush during his speech today. His stupid smug look and non-chalant attitude as he said we will get through this and get New Orleans back to its old self. Is he kidding himself? Is he delusional? Who gives a terd about New Orleans? We need to worry about the people – not the city.

I need to stop watching the news. I am going to have coronary.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 1 September, 2005

Here is another example of government not thinking things through. They have a stadium full of 25,000 people and they start bringing in helicopters and buses. The rest of the city sees this happening and the citizens begin a pilgrimage to the Super Dome. Now suddenly there are 50,000 people there. Government officials are confused why so many people are there and wondering what they are going to do now. Obviously, they cannot all go to the Astrodome. Why did no one think about this in advance? Obviously, people are going to start heading toward the helicopters, buses, and ambulance activity. Duh!

Now you have refugees in Houston that are trying to get into the Astrodome and they will not let them in because they are not from the Super Dome. Who came up with this brilliant idea?Are government officials so ignorant to think people are going to sit still and only allow the rescue of people from the Super Dome? What are these idiots thinking? Let as many people as possible into the Astrodome, no matter where they are from. Then start diverting the rest of them to other facilities.

Maybe it is just me, but I am willing to cancel the NFL season in order to open more domes to these people.

Cities need to understand that most of these people are not going back to New Orleans and will become permanent residents.I just do not understand why government officials are not thinking this through. You tell people where to go to get help and then when they get there tell them they have to go somewhere else. They gave this poor woman a sheet of paper with local shelters and Red Cross numbers on it. How in the hell is she supposed to get there? She has no car, no money, no clothes except what is on her back, and the ordeal has worn her out. They give her a sheet of paper and wish her luck? What in the hell is wrong with people?

As to the looting situation, I have no problem with people looting food, diapers, and water. People are desperate and in survival mode. Personally, I think the police and National Guard should be in these stores distributing the food and water inside them. The stuff in the stores is going to be an insurance write-off, anyway.

I do not have a problem with people looting clothes and tennis shoes, either. The flooding caught so many people off guard that they were shoeless and had no change of clothes. As before, all of these items are an insurance write-off, anyway.

Regarding the looters that are taking electronics and similar stuff, I do not get it. Where are they going to take this stuff? They do not have a house to bring these things to; there is no electricity. If officials rescue them, do they think the Coast Guard is going to airlift their new big screen TV? It is just silly.

While the looting of guns makes things a bit dangerous, we need to understand that people are in survival mode. They are doing what is necessary to survive. It is unfortunate, but it is also reality.

The police are preventing people from taking food and water from stores, so I am not surprised that people are shooting at them. People are getting to the point that they will kill each other for food and water.

I understand that many people think the government warned these people to get out and they chose to stay. This means they are responsible for their condition and some people feel no pity for them because they were “stupid enough to stay there.”

The bottom line is that the majority of these people could not leave. They owned no cars. They live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford a hotel or an airline ticket to get out of town.

The real issue with these people is finding out why the government did not help them evacuate after they ordered a mandatory evacuation. Why did the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana not bring buses into the city to take people to safety? Why did officials close the airport so soon, which prevented another few thousand people from getting out? Why did the airlines not offer people free seats to leave the city? Why did hotels not offer free rooms to help the poor people leave the city?

It comes down to greed. Why should the airlines offer free seats when there are rich people willing to pay for them? I cannot help but think of the Titanic, where the rich people got on the rescue boats and the poor people sank with the boat.

How can anyone blame these people for staying? They had no choice.

I understand there are some idiots that chose to stay when they could have left, and those people are around for every disaster. Nevertheless, the majority of people there are the poor that could not leave.

ORIGINAL COMPOSE DATE: 31 August, 2005

Well, the Republicans are finally starting to crack their veneer of denialism. The mayor of New Orleans finally admitted today that deaths would most likely be in the thousands.

President Bush finally accepted reality and cut his well-earned vacation short to return to the White House. I feel so sorry for him, having to cancel his vacation for a national tragedy.

Just like 9/11 and his deer caught in headlights look, he waited this one out until his brain could figure out what to do. His first response was to head back to Washington so his puppeteers could tell him what to do and pull his strings.

Now the Pentagon is reacting and sending help. After the Asian tsunami, we had relief in the area less than 24 hours after an event that we did not know was going to happen. 48 hours after an event, we KNEW was going to happen we are still struggling to figure out what to do.

I just do not get it.

This is not a state tragedy or disaster – this is a NATIONAL DISASTER. The loss of New Orleans has the means of being catastrophic to the economy and social structure. Think about this for a second. Twenty-five percent of our oil and import/export business occurs in New Orleans along the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico. Almost one million people are suddenly unemployed, homeless, moneyless, without property and goods, and their children are out of school.

We are not talking about building a tent city for these people. We actually have to build a NEW city, one the size of Baton Rouge (and probably a bit larger).

Engineers are saying that there is a possibility that New Orleans is unrecoverable; that it will be a permanent loss. While they grant this possibility is low, it still exists.

The Republican denial system turned on again as Republican representatives throughout the state said they would have New Orleans back on its feet in eight weeks. Newsflash: they are still repairing things from Andrew ten years ago.

So what did the brilliant governor of Louisiana come up with to solve the issue? She gave us a day of prayer. Oh, yeah, that will help. We can pray the levee will magically repair itself. We can pray for force shields to cover the stores to prevent looting. We can pray that food will appear out of thin air in the Superdome, hotels, and houses around the city. On the other hand, we can skip the praying and get down to the reality of what is happening in New Orleans. Perhaps if the government would stop with the fairy tales and dreaming and accept reality, they might actually accomplish something.

Moreover, what is their brilliant plan for the refugees in the Superdome? Why send to another domed stadium, of course. Let us tell 20,000 people cooped up in a stadium for days that we are evacuating them to another stadium. I am sure that will go over really well. Especially since the Astrodome has been out of service for a while since the Texans do not use it anymore. They have to revamp it quick to get the AC and food service going.

I am not a bystander here that is trying to be an armchair quarterback. I have family involved. I have places that I work in the affected area. My headquarters is in the area and currently out of commission.

I was also an On-Scene Mass Casualty Coordinator and Med Control Officer for the Navy in Jacksonville. I trained with Fleet Hospital at Camp Pendleton. I know what the procedures are. The government of Louisiana and the federal government have dropped the ball big-time on this one. Instead of being proactive, they are playing catch-up – playing catch-up with people’s lives.

Okay, I am done with the ranting for now. I am sure I will be pissed off again really soon if the government does not get its head out of its arse.