The Katrina Blame Game
At 6:16 p.m., Tara Liloia posted The Katrina Blame Game
Even before every stranded survivor has been rescued from the toxic waters surrounding their New Orleans homes, the tricky political dance of placing blame has already begun.
Click here for the rest.
Some links of interest
DomeBlog
Blogging the evacuees at the Reliant Astrodome and George R. Brown Convention Center
The Interdictor "This journal has become the Survival of New Orleans blog. In less perilous times it was simply a blog for me to talk smack and chat with friends. Now this journal exists to share firsthand experience of the disaster and its aftermath with anyone interested."
If you go to the Air America Radio web site these days, you are first directed to a page about Katrina, and have to click a special link to go to the usual main page.
From Raw Story: Senate Democrats issue relief plan for Katrina
Barbara Bush--yikes!
The Beautiful Mind Strikes Again
Barbara Bush - the woman whom no less an authority than Dick Nixon said "knows how to hate," the woman who didn't want to trouble her "beautiful mind" with thoughts of "body bags and deaths" - has now offered us yet another gem. After visting refugees staying at the Houston Astrodome, she had this to say:"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (she chuckled slightly)--this is working very well for them."
And now for something completely silly:
Not sure how many people are familiar with The Llama Song. Now there's a takeoff on it--the Dalai Lama Song.
And here's a Flash animation from Atom Films called "I can't afford my gasoline"
Well it's nice to see the Senate Democrats come up with some relief plan, although parts of it don't look like they're easy to enforce.
ReplyDeleteTake Section 8, for example. Perhaps Sen. Reid doesn't have an idea of just how difficult it is to get decent housing under Section 8 right now. Landlords won't accept these vouchers because of the bureaucracy involved. Although Section 8 is adminstered nationally by HUD, the program is administered locally by public housing authorities or other designated agencies and organizations. The program has also historically been oversubscribed and waiting lists can run into the years. In fact, many housing authorities frequently close their waiting lists and stop accepting applications because the waiting lists are so long.
disaster victims filing for bankruptcy should be treated differently under the bankruptcy code in recognition of their particular hardship.
This is a difficult idea to sell: the economic aftershock will spread throughout the country, affecting people who are living on the economic margins elsewhere. How do you tell someone who has to declare bankruptcy in Maine, Iowa, or Oregon that they're not worthy of the same considerations as someone who was directly affected by the hurricane? They're also in distress. Reid needs to shoot the moon and call for the bankruptcy reform bill to be repealed.
While it's nice that Reid calls for a short-term moratorium on loan repayments, I'd like to see how defines "short-term." 3 months? 6 months? And what if lenders disagree? Will he stand firm or concede?
I'd like to see this after it's fleshed out a bit more.
uinen: to make hearts, you can either copy and paste, or use HTML, which works like this
ReplyDelete&
hearts
;
Put the above three together with no spaces, and bingo! ♥
FWI ~~ Tara has said that she *has* given Robert a time out in the past. Not mind you, that our "toughie" would ever admit it, LOL!
ReplyDeleteSince his strange silence since the Killer thread thursday night, I actually suspect he's on one right now, along with Jax and Deaniac/GA. . . .
puddle, it would seem that Tara's time outs haven't had much of an effect on Robert's posts. He's as much of an ass after a time out as he is beforehand. He never seems to learn.
ReplyDeleteI did see improvement for a while after Alison timed him out. But no, it doesn't last long. He enjoys inflicting misery too much.
ReplyDeleteHere's my take on Katrina:
ReplyDeletehttp://mataliandy.blogspot.com/2005/09/welcome-to-lake-george.html
------------------
puddle said...
I did see improvement for a while after Alison timed him out.
-----
Me too, it's a shame, too, because when he's behaving, he actually has some useful things to say...
mataliandy, this is my take on one little corner of it:
ReplyDeletehttp://eatapyzch.blogspot.com/
clicky
Yikes, Help, He's baaaaack!
ReplyDeleteAlso:
Shadowblog, hello. Check out the transcript on MSNBC for Countdown and give Keith Olbermann a shoutout of thanks for his commentary tonight.
I was trying to find Olbermann's commentary online, but I think the blog is updated some time after the show. If you are speaking of who I think you are speaking of, I was actually just thinking about him. In terms of his utter wrongness, you know. Click for a diary by kid oakland about race and racism and people who complain about "playing the race card".
ReplyDeleteThanks, Renee, for the kid oakland link. Puddle, I love the Theodore Roethke poem, The Waking, on your blog. Don't know how I missed that one before now. Also, Puddle, very surprising to hear that the Mayor of NO was formerly a Republican.
ReplyDeletejaydean, I'm actually working on a diary about how "it's scary here in the shadows" (snicker) and will be including that link among others.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Puddle. Like most things, It's absurdly simple once you know how.
ReplyDelete♥♥♥
jaydean ~ I'm a huge Roethke fan. Keeps one sane, sometimes. . .
ReplyDeleteHere's the link to the Olbermann video. Impressive.
ReplyDeletehttp://media.putfile.com/OlbermannSwings
Thanks, shadowdonna. I just took a break from the blog post I was writing to watch it. Demetrius commented that he wouldn't have thought this administration needed a new a$$hole, but he's glad someone was willing to rip them one anyway.
ReplyDeleteYa gotta wonder, how much is it going to take before America throws the bums out? Maybe we don't get it because we have always known just how bad these cretins are, but even after all that has happened this week, bush nominates a wannabe Supreme Court Justice to Chief Justice. What's it gonna take for people to begin doing a Jon Stewart double-take and realize something is very very wrong.
ReplyDeletedonna--read this:
ReplyDeleteMom called. Stick a fork in Bush. He's done
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/5/183758/7470
Today's TruthOut headlines:
ReplyDeleteTimes-Picayune: Fire Michael Brown
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505A.shtml
An angry Times-Picayune calls for the firing of FEMA chief and others in an open letter to the President on Sunday.
Norman Solomon | Bush's Implicit Answer to Cindy Sheehan's Question
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505B.shtml
President Bush has evaded Cindy Sheehan's question, "What was the noble cause that my son died for?" But he provided a partial answer on the day that the New Orleans levees gave way.
Amid Difficulties, Leaders of Labor See Opportunity
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505C.shtml
As they have on past Labor Days, the nation's union leaders are vowing to reverse labor's decline, but that goal is made more difficult this year by the schism in the AFL-CIO and by the likelihood that striking mechanics at Northwest Airlines will suffer a bruising defeat.
James Ridgeway | Pumping Us Dry
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505D.shtml
James Ridgeway: The very first thing George W. Bush did in response to Hurricane Katrina was to offer a helping hand - not to the people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans, but to his friends in the oil industry. These were the same people who gave him $52 million in his last campaign.
Waters and Jackson: Give Me Shelter
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505E.shtml
Trying to force authorities to open an Air Force base as a shelter, Jesse Jackson and other black leaders picked up 150 evacuees at the squalid New Orleans Airport and headed into the night.
Paul Krugman | Killed by Contempt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505F.shtml
Paul Krugman writes: Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.
Dr. James J. Zogby | Katrina and Iraq Vie for Attention
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505G.shtml
Dr. Zogby points out that Hurricane Katrina forced President George W. Bush to do what Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, could not. Four days into the worst natural disaster to hit the US, the President cancelled his month-long vacation and returned to Washington.
Bob Herbert: A Failure of Leadership
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505X.shtml
Bob Herbert writes: Neither the death of the chief justice nor the frantic efforts of panicked White House political advisers can conceal the magnitude of the president's failure of leadership last week. The catastrophe in New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the US and around the world.
Bush Faces Rising Complaints about Handling of Disaster
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505Y.shtml
President Bush faced increasingly bitter complaints today from local and state officials in the battered Gulf Coast region as he struggled to exert control over a disaster that almost surely claimed thousands of lives. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, a Democrat, said today that she was so angry about federal failures and second-guessing that if she heard any more criticism of local efforts, even from the president, she might "punch" him.
Bush Nominates Roberts as Chief Justice
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090505Z.shtml
President Bush on Monday nominated John Roberts to succeed William H. Rehnquist as chief justice, and called on the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court opens its fall term on Oct. 3. The swift move would promote to the Supreme Court's top job a newcomer who currently is being considered as one of eight associate justices.
From the In Box:
ReplyDeleteDate September 5, 2005 1:38.41PM
From: Justice For All Moderator (jfa@jfanow.org)
Send to justice@jfanow.org
Subject: Emergency Resource Registry Activated. FEMA registration numbers.
DHS National Emergency Resource Registry Activated
The Department of Homeland Security is coordinating response efforts to
provide necessary assistance to communities affected by Hurricane
Katrina.
The Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC) serves as the nations
nerve center for information sharing and domestic incident management. At
the request of the HSOC the National Emergency Resource Registry has
been activated.
The NERR stands ready to assist the coordination efforts between the
resources that are needed and the resources that may be available from
the private and public sectors.
If you or your organization / agency / corporation have resources that
may be made available to the response agencies, please list them in this
Resource Registry.
What's Needed Most?
Housing
Transporatation
Emergency Supplies
https://www.swern.gov/
--
FEMA registration numbers:
In case you or those you serve haven't gotten this, here are the FEMA
registration numbers. Every single hurricane survivor with a disability MUST
register to be able to receive the full range of federal assistance-
Registrants MUST make clear that they have a disability or chronic health
care need.
1/800-621-FEMA
1/800-462-9029
1/800-462-7585 TDD/TYY
http://www.fema.gov/about/process/ (For on-line registration)
Marcie Roth
Executive Director/CEO
National Spinal Cord Injury Association
6701 Democracy Blvd Suite 300-9
Bethesda, MD 20817
(301) 717-7447 (Direct)
(301) 214-4006 (VM)
(301) 963-1265 (Fax)
(800) 962-9639 (Helpline)
mroth@spinalcord.org
www.spinalcord.org
Go to http://www.katrinadisability.info