Atlas Shrugs

GUSTAV:LEFTWING MEDIA RESURRECTS KATRINA TO BASH BUSH

Stuck at the airport ,,,,,,,,,held prisoner by CNN on all the monitors and I am struck (no, really) by the leftwing media's sheer joy at the opportunity to trot out the fallacious "Bush killed people KATRINA!" meme. It's bad enough we are all holding our breath waiting for this cat 5 hurricane to hit the gulf coast. I won't even go into the orgasmic glee the Democrats are experiencing at the timing of Gustav during the RNC (Bush has cancelled his appearance as have many form the Gulf states).

The lying leftists, yet again, place the blame of the worst storm in US history squarely at their god, Bush. Bush is most certainly their g-d for he is responsible for all the evil in the world, all the bad things that have ever happened to good people, for all the failures of Democrat administrations.

The fact is ................ the loss of life and destruction of Katrina was most glaring proof of the failed welfare state  aka the Democrat statism model. It was a Democrat mayor, a Democrat governor, a Democrat political machine in Louisiana that is responsible for the lack of actions, response and coordination of pre and post Katrina efforts.

Look at every incident in American history. First responders and local government are responsible. Who can forget Mayor Giuliani on and after 9/11.

Nagin failed that city Nagin did not evacuate that city. Nagin left those buses empty. Nagin didn't evacuate nursing homes and hospitals. Now of course, he is evacuating but I suspect the effort has been removed from his jurisdiction. Bush gave him too much credit, too much say pre and post Katrina, I am sure FEMA is the point man now. This will not be left to a corrupt and silly man again and I am sure it will be handled as deftly as possible under these trying circumstances.

The Democrats and the leftwing media enjoy this and will use Katrina to club the American psyche over the head yet again despite the fact that it was an unequivocal leftist failure.

I have little sympathy for a New Orleans that re-elected a completely incompetent Nagin. NONE.How could they possibly consider electing this completely useless, affable, failure of a mayor to another term? .  They are certifiably nuts.

The naked truth that Katrina reveals is the failure of the welfare state, the pathetic ineptitude of corrupt elected officials, and the decay of political patronage on democratically elected state and local governments.

The juxta of how the  Republicans handled disasters in Texas (and Florida) spoke volumes to management, administration and controlled chaos.

The best evidence is the stark contract of two states experiencing like disasters. The efficiency of Texas and the incapacitation of Louisiana during Rita and Katrina respectively is empirical evidence of the well run versus the well worn.That Louisianians elect and support this kind of government than clearly they have no one to fault but themselves.

Blame Bush, indeed.

UPDATE on Gustav from Mike Allen:

Ray Nagin and the Chocolate Factory

Breaking News: NEW ORLEANS (AP) Mayor Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu are the top vote-getters in the city's mayoral election and are headed for a runoff.

I just want to say I have no empathy for New Orleans. NONE.How could they possibly consider electing this completely useless, affable, failure of a mayor to another term? I can't imagine anyone handling KKKatrina any worse than this impossibly incapable fool.

This is mind blowing and sad. Of course the liberal left media and the left wing Louisiana politicians blamed  Bush for KKKatrina but then again the boils on their asses are Bush's fault too.

How they could consider voting Democrat is pathetic. The juxta of how the  Republicans handled disasters in Texas (and Florida) spoke volumes to management, administration and controlled chaos. Like I said, I have no sympathy for these people. They are certifiably nuts.

Day is night and night is day. Nagin Illustration: People's Cube

UPDATE: Suburban Crusader sent this little gem:

The Media's latest Production: The Katrina Rewrite

Who is editing the manistrream media news nowadays - George Clooney? The latest media swoon uh I mean swarm is all over that video released by AP of pre-Katrina briefings, using just little snips that pieced together appear to make  the President more knowledgeable of what was ahead

But the  LA Times today admits that the AP selectively edited the video. MONEY QUOTE:

“The AP video does not include footage of Chertoff asking Brown whether he needs any other help or of Chertoff asking whether Brown wants him to approach the Department of Defense. Transcripts show that to both questions, Brown indicated that no additional assistance was needed.”

Also, Newsbusters points out the sharp and telling difference between the levees being only “topped” – which was widely discussed before Katrina – and the levee breach 24 hours after the storm: Go over to Newsbusters, they have the dirty lowdown here.

Wake up people, you are being seriously played with. Stand up and say;

"I am Mad as Hell and I am Not Going to Take it Anymore!"

Bottom line on Katrina, the state and local governments failed their people miserably. Miserably. At no time in our nation's history have first responders failed to act so completely. Blame the Feds all you want, but they are the back up boys. They made mistakes, but considering what and who they were dealing with, it would have been impossible to do otherwise.

Katrina, Rita, Stan, Pakistan and G-d

Unlike the proselytizers and translators of G-ds intent, I do not subscribe to the wildly accepted interpretation of G-d's will. The Mullahs who have said KKKarina  is G-d  punishing the West for its decadent ways, or the Rabbi who called New Orleans Sodom and Gomorrah, or those Gentiles or Jews that believe the earthquake in Pakistan is retribution against Radical Islam.

Uh uh. I am not sure there is a divine intervention in what is essentially earth's growing pains.

But if I was forced to consider such an idea,  this would not be the case at all.

G-d is not a thug. In the case of KKKatrina,  G-d is not a racist or Grand Poobah of  the Klu Klux Klan. I would think that the Big Man upstairs would be more subtle and intelligent in his approach to such things.

The fact is that most of those in Pakistan hurt by the earthquake lived in a mountainous region and had never seen an American or a helicopter before in their lives. What an introduction.
If an American objective is to make inroads in the Muslim world, well then. Thank G-d (!) we had our guys in Afghanistan and Iraq to "pop in" and rescue. An act of kindness goes a hell of alot further than limitless propaganda. Maybe that's why the Pakistani government refused much needed aid from Israel. G-d forbid the Jews be seen in a positive light. The same could be applied to the Muslim countries hit hard by the tsunami.

Insofar as KKKatrina. Once again, the end result of that nightmare is just as telling as it is interesting. The naked truth that Katrina reveals is the failure of the welfare state, the pathetic ineptitude of corrupt elected officials, and the decay of political patronage on democratically elected state and local governments.

The best evidence is the stark contract of two states experiencing like disasters. The efficiency of Texas and the incapacitation of Louisiana during Rita and Katrina respectively is empirical evidence of the well run versus the well worn. Should Louisianians continue to elect and support this kind of government than clearly they have no one to fault but themselves. As Louis Brandeis, the eminent Supreme Court Justice said, "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." Indeed.

Far be it from me to even think of knowing or interpreting G-d's intent. If Einstein took an enormous beating from the quantum physics community when he opined "G-d does not play dice with the Universe", as in "ahhhhhhhhh, now Einstein claims to know what G-d is thinking," far be it from me...............

But if it is true there are no accidents, than perhaps deeper reflection and introspection is required on this Erev Yom Kippur.

For all those fasting, wishing you an easy and painless fast.

Photo 1: NASA, Color Composite of Solar Features

Photo 2: Pakistani Earthquake Relief,  Capt. James H. Cunningham, USAF

Reporting from NOLA GAY

My favorite American soldier (and Israeli soldier for that matter, yup did both*[see below update] ) left his home and family and trucked down to Louisiana to pitch in and help those in need. Here is his lunchtime report - crossposted at Herbert Sobel;

Lunchtime in NOLA

Miscellaneous musings and tales:

The fine folk from the Salvation Army run an outdoor daily hot-lunch line for us. As I was waiting today for a serving of beef stew, I couldn't help but notice that there are some fat flies in NOLA *shudder*.

After Rosh Hashana services Tuesday, a nice couple invited 3 of us military types to their home for lunch- a COL, an SFC, and myself. They had just returned home, and we thought that was really something, their insistence on sharing what little food they had. Immediately after we sat down, our host launched into total moonbattery- global warming causing the hurricanes, Bush being "selected", the wrongness of the Iraqi campaign. All the LLL talking points. While we soldiers were walking back to a main street, the SFC revealed the holes he'd bitten in his tongue, and the COL remarked on my deft redirection of the conversation.

Read it all....................

Update: October 10

Just wanted to clear something up.  The author was and is in the US military.  He once worked in Israel, but he was never in the Israeli military.  His youngest son, let's call him WiseAss 6, has joined the Israeli military and should be entering boot sometime in the near future

Thanks BB

Katrina - Watch this Video

Click on Katrina Download The GreatUSA.pps .........checked and rechecked for viruses
hattip: Foodman

KKKatrina: Forgotten Victims

Clayton James Cubit at Operation Eden, a personal chronicle of what hurricane Katrina
has done to his poor proud people.

Scroll all the way to the bottom, and travel with him through this.

Eric Berger at SciGuy found these pics and linked them. Startling and profound...........

Houston's narrow escape:

Those reading the above story about the Houston water situation and who were puzzled by all my water-saving activities will now understand why I stockpiled 200 gallons of drinkable water in my water casks and re-useable gallon containers ( 50 of them in the deep freeze) besides doing the usual of filling up the bathtubs, pitchers and large storage jars, pots and pans, spare buckets etc for other uses.

Hat tip: Tyler

Meanwhile how pathetic is this? The Israel have to sneak to help, we wouldn' t want to upset the Jihadists by allowing Israel to aid our victims *spit*

Israelis sneak into New Orleans to help those in post-Katrina chaos

NEW YORK, Sept. 27 (JTA) — Washington may have rebuffed Israeli offers of expert assistance in the days after Hurricane Katrina, but a team of Israeli rescue personnel managed to deploy in some of the worst-hit areas around New Orleans, JTA has learned.

The 18-member team — which included physicians, mental health professionals, trauma specialists, logistics experts and a special unit of Israeli police divers — arrived in St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish on Sept. 10 and spent a week and a half assisting fire department search-and-rescue squads and sitting in on daily planning meetings that included local leadership and a complement of FEMA, police, military and fire representatives,...

Michael Brown Should Not Have Resigned

If you missed today's hearings on the "KKKatrina Investigation", Michael Brown testified. And if I may say so, I found him sharp, logical, and rational. Despite the grandstanding by both the Dhimmicrats and the Republicans (looking to score '06 points I guess), Brown was honest, straight, and YES more than competent. He never should have resigned. I want this guy on my team.
It seems the Mayor and Governor of Louisiana are being given a free pass as "incompetent", and that Brown should have known it and basically usurped their authority.

It was an eye opener for me ............... I strongly recommend you go to CSPAN and watch the stream............the moment I most cherish is when Brown responded to a dhimmicrat , Mississippi Rep. Taylor's query with the following statement of incredulity;

RE: satellites for communication
"We do not have enough of them for an area the size Great Britain"

of MREs and Gasoline
"FEMA is not there to supply gasoline , it is not the role of the Federal government to supply five gallons of gas for every individual to go to somewhere. That is not the role of the Federal government. I personally believe that is a horrible road to go down. And while my heart goes out to people on fixed income, it is a primarily state and local responsibility, in my opinion the responsibility of faith based organizations, churches and charities and others, to help those people. If you want to stand ... sit there and berate me because FEMA did not provide 5 gallons of gas for someone to evacuate on a fixed income I take great offense to that, Congressman.

My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfuntional.

 

In other words, he made complete sense. I transcribed this myself, please watch this before you form a final opinion. And what makes Nagina dnBlanco sacred cows? The mainstream media and the fifth column, of course. The Republicans may have won the election, but the tail is wagging the dog.

oh and BTW, Louis Farrakhan is telling his minions that we blew up the levees ;

Nation of Islam chief Minister Louis Farrakhan has expanded on his theory that New Orleans' levees were blown up during Hurricane Katrina, announcing Friday that divers working on the levee break have found evidence of explosives.

"These explosives are from the government side," he said during a press conference in Memphis held to promote his upcoming Million Man Anniversary March.

 

Media whore Mother of the Year????? Cindy "ME!"Sheehan

"The outcome and consequences of defeat [in Iraq] are greater than World War II."
-- Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

This injured Marine best illustrates my response  to Mother Sheehan:
(Read the incredible story on this injured Marine here);

While media darling and mother of the year Cindy Sheehan, SHAMELESSLY exploits the death of her son for her 13 minutes of fame;

'Angry in the Great White North' has a posting today entitled "Cindy Sheehan: Taken to the woodshed" by the KosKidz.  Apparently, she whined CNN was dwelling on Rita coverage and neglecting her [Sheehan].  Unfortunately for CS, some the the Kidz had relatives in the Rita area, and they took her to task, accusing her of being a mediawhore, etc. This is almost as good as get our troops out of occupied New Orleans...............

From Cindy Sheehan on Daily Kos:

"I am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita...even though it is a little wind and a little rain...it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today...and in the world!!!!"

You can just imagine her yelling at the TV -- "ME! ME! ME!"

hat tip x dhimmi

UPDATE: A Media Advisory of Impending Arrests

The idiots at CODEPINK actually announced their intention to get Cindy Sheehan arrested ... yesterday: DC Indymedia: 9/26 Mass Civil Disobedience Action Against the Iraq War. Cindy Sheehan will participate. (Hat tip: Coffee250 via Robin.)

UPDATE  of that "rally" this past weekend in DC fromfrom the Foundation of for the Defense of Democracies;

One of the main sponsors of Sunday's anti-war demonstration in Washington was A.N.S.W.E.R. Predictably, the Washington Post's report failed to tell its readers anything about A.N.S.W.E.R.

For example, might it not be useful for readers to know that A.N.S.W.E.R. opposes not only U.S. support for liberated Iraqis (favoring the terrorists and insurgents), it also opposes U.S. intervention in Afghanistan -- and even in Haiti. It's pro-Castro and pro-Kim Jong Il. Indeed, the group says it opposes "the U.S. Empire."

In a May 12, 2005 "Call to Action" A.N.S.W.E.R. said: "The U.S. is actively attempting to destroy every government that resists the Empire... The war in Iraq is a necessary component in the political program and the institutions of global conquest and exploitation."

A.N.S.W.E.R. asserts that the United States is engaged in a "war for the benefit of U.S. banks, oil monopolies, and transnational corporations" and that the U.S. government "pretend[s] to promote freedom abroad but at the same time fan the flames of racism, anti-immigrant discrimination, sexism, homophobia and bigotry of all forms at home."

And, of course, the group calls Israel "a colonial state" that "launched devastating wars against Egypt, Syria and Jordan."

Ed McNamara photo-blogged from Sunday's "pro-troops counter-protest "  as did lost city.

Judith over at Kesher Talk has great insight here as well.

UPDATE: 5:16 pm, this post won't end because the hypocrisy won't end;

and  Beth (Cotillion sistuh) over at the superior MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy blog got email from her MGySgt serving over in Iraq at Al Asad; incredibly, he and the others he works with at HQ .Read her  blog ! Among other stuff he talked about, he said:

 

I think you would be amazed at the morale of the young military people here. I know I am. I’ve been in for over 28 years and I have seen good and bad. These youngsters are getting the job done in a way I would never have imagined. They go on convoys, get shot at or have IEDs go off, then they return still in high spirits. The trick here is to convince the bad guys they have been beat. The idiots at the peace rallies are what’s really hurting since the stated goals of the insurgents is to break down public support for the war in the US. I heard the other day that 52% of the people back home think we are losing. I would be worried if it was 1995 and this was the case, but Bush doesn’t govern via polls like Clinton did. That’s one thing we all appreciate about the president; he sticks to the plan.

and Irwin, my fellow liberal hawk (libeal as in Jeffersonian)  shares this great Hitchens piece with me;

Anti-War, My Foot
The phony peaceniks who protested in Washington.
By Christopher Hitchens

Slate Monday, Sept. 26, 2005

It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies ofl iberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side. Was there a single placard saying, "No to Jihad"? Of course not. Or a single placard saying, "Yes to Kurdish self-determination" or "We support Afghan women's struggle"? Don't make me laugh. And this in a week when Afghans went back to the polls, and when Iraqis were preparing to do so, under a hail of fire from those who blow up mosques and U.N. buildings, behead aid workers and journalists, proclaim fatwahs against the wrong kind of Muslim, and utter hysterical diatribes against Jews and Hindus.

UPDATE: October 1

VIDEO: Code Pink assaults filmmaker, moonbats on parade..............

video HT: Veritas 1884

Israeli Emergency Supplies Refused so as not to insult Muslims?

Anybody know anything about this? Madahar of Liberal Hawks inquires;

Did anyone watch Fox'N'Friends this morning?

My wife and I were watching the trio (E.D., Brian and Steve) at about  7:50am. They were talking about Katrina relief operations.

E.D. then blurted out that medicine and supplies donated & sent by Israel had landed in the gulf region and were put on trucks to be driven to the affected areas. She then claimed that the trucks were turned away by state and local officials for fear that accepting Israeli aid might upset members of "The Religion of Peace".

I almost dropped my coffee on our new Stearns & Foster.

I just called the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and they are looking
into this. I scoured the net, but found no info.

Did anyone see anything on this?

Religon of Peace my ass- RoPMA (in case you see that in the future and don't know what it means)

We do know that Israel and all the Jewish charities have raised millions of dollars for the victims, We do know that Israel sent aid IMMEDIATELY and we do know how the US government reacted here;

Administration Snubbed, Ignored Israel's Post-Katrina Help
Power Line ^

Tilting towards terrorists

Under Condoleezza Rice, U.S. foreign policy continues to veer in the direction of the "Arabism" of her mentor Brent Scowcroft and James Baker. Diana West points to the latest evidence. First, according to West (who cites worldtribune.com), the Bush adminstration snubbed Israel's efforts to provide aid in the early aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Then, once it finally accepted Israel's aid, the State Department apparently omitted Israel's name from the list of countries participating in the relief effort, a list that touts Arab aid-givers. These affronts may be less the work of Rice than of Karen Hughes, to whom President Bush has assigned the task of "presenting an image of a benign America sensitive to the Arab and Muslim world," in other words sucking up to Arabs at Israel's expense.

But snubbing Israel is never going to be enough to convince Arabs that we're benign and sensitive. We have to back up our gestures with funds that can be used to attack Israel and (until we've sufficiently established our bona fides) the U.S. itself. Thus, West reports, the U.S. will double its payments to the Palestinian Authority, even as the PA's "Voice of Palestine" exhorts the Muslim faithful to attack Americans in Iraq, and the PA's Ministry of Culture releases a collection of poetry honoring a bomber who killed 29 Israeli Jews and Arabs in 2003.

WonderWoman reminds me of this:

UPDATE:

Read thisThe United States has avoided any mention of Israeli participation in the international aid effort for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
..............State Department spokesman Sean McCormack focused on Arab offers of assistance to the United States.
Every country that contributed - Canada, Russia, Singapore, Bahrain,
et al.. was recognized by The White Hosue. Israel had 80 tons of
supplies, the IDF's chief medical officer, and a combat medical team
ready to go, but the U.S. was concerned that the Arabs wouldn't offer
assistance. This is a dangerous precedent.

I will be calling tomorrow: Mehlman, Coleman, Santorum, Delay,
as well as The White House.

Israel is not the "crazy uncle in the basement".

To ABC's Surprise, Katrina Victims Praise Bush and Blame Nagin

SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY. That's what I call "poll numbers". This is not a new trend but certainly more obvious and more damaging in the case of KKKatrina.
From the very first, the mainstream media blamed Bush. Not Nagin, who deserves jail. Not Blanco who deserves a recall, but Bush. Which BTW was ridiculous. But the media said it and kept saying it, and then they took a pol. This is what they do.

They politicize a story, inject their bile, report the meme over and over and over again and then take a poll.
The resulting poll results reflect what the American people have been told repeatedly 24/7.

Then the icing on the cake, The Democrat talking heads spend the following week, beginning every sentence with "The American people think" or "The American People are telling us............." and then that becomes the story. AMERICAN PEOPLE UNHAPPY WITH BUSH, LOWEST APPROVAL RATINGS OF HIS PRESIDENCY.

Of course, the American people are going to repeat what they mainstream media has been clubbing them with. The media is consistent in its Bush bashing passion.

Needless to say,in the case of Katrina it was particularly destructive to the American people.Why create a racial divide when there was none? Why ferment hate  at a time when people need each other the most?  Sick really sick.

And I am sure the limousine liberal reaction to the evacuees in this news segment will be typical of the lunatic left. They know better than those poor souls being manipulated by Karl Rove.

"The fact remains that this was a cataclysmic, epic natural disaster and great suffering was unavoidable" Dick Meyer

A word to the wise, IGNORE POLL (exit polls included). Oh and BTW, the Wall Street Journal weighs in on what the victims are really saying in Louisiana.

interesting about the angry messages is the choice of targets. The majority aren't about President Bush and the slow pace of federal assistance, for instance. Writers seem to be furious chiefly about the performance of local and state officials, specifically Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Messages blasting them for ineptitude during the crisis outnumber those about federal authorities.

Here's the  great post here from Brent Baker over at Newsbusters..........and do go to the videotape

To ABC's Surprise, Katrina Victims Praise Bush and Blame Nagin

ABC News producers probably didn't hear what they expected when they sent Dean Reynolds to the Houston Astrodome's parking lot to get reaction to President Bush's speech from black evacuees from New Orleans. Instead of denouncing Bush and blaming him for their plight, they praised Bush and blamed local officials. Reynolds asked Connie London: "Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?" She rejected the premise: "No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in.” She pointed out: “They had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses, that was just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people."

Not one of the six people interviewed on camera had a bad word for Bush -- despite Reynolds' best efforts. Reynolds goaded: "Was there anything that you found hard to believe that he said, that you thought, well, that's nice rhetoric, but, you know, the proof is in the pudding?" Brenda Marshall answered, "No, I didn't," prompting Reynolds to marvel to anchor Ted Koppel: "Very little skepticism here.”

Reynolds pressed another woman: “Did you feel that the President was sincere tonight?" She affirmed: "Yes, he was." Reynolds soon wondered who they held culpable for the levee breaks. Unlike the national media, London did not blame supposed Bush-mandated budget cuts: "They've been allocated federal funds to fix the levee system, and it never got done. I fault the mayor of our city personally. I really do."

Full transcript follows. Video excerpt: RealPlayer or Windows Media. Plus MP3
Listen to the black evacuees and HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF

The MRC's Rich Noyes alerted me to the reactions ABC broadcast.

Hat tip: Veritas

BTW, Hugh Hewitt and Major Garrett are onto what should become a huge story.  Apparently, the Red Cross was blocked by the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security from going into New Orleans with their supplies.

G-d is a Racist!

That was my reply to the moonbat on line at the Hitchens Galloway debate when she ranted on about how KKKatrina was Bush's fault.

Maggies's Farm has a searing portrayal of what really happened.

Race Hustlers and Pimps

In my opinion, nothing did more damage to American poor, including the black poor, than the 1970s "War on Poverty," and we continue to reap what was sown then - seeds of helplessness, dependency, excuse, grievance, and entitlement - the worst possible lessons for proud, free people in America. Far more lives down the drain than a thousand hurricanes. Let's hope this older generation of black "leaders" will be ignored. And let's begin hearing voices from black leaders who have faith in their people and who respect their intelligence and abilities and pride.

UPDATE:
In today's Wall Street Journal Political Diary

Million More Conspiracies

Louis Farrakhan became the latest civil-rights demagogue to accuse government officials in charge of Katrina relief of saving whites at the expense of blacks. In a speech last weekend in Charlotte, NC, to promote his "Millions More March," Mr. Farrakhan said one of the New Orleans levees was intentionally "blown up" to divert flood waters from white to black neighborhoods. "I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach," he said.

Sounds like the minister's friend is Mr. Magoo. It's takes a lot of explosive power to make a crater that big, and the explosion would have knocked the levee and surrounding buildings sky-high. Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bomb left a crater 28 feet in diameter. He used the equivalent of 4,000 pounds of TNT. Blowing a 25-foot deep crater in solid earth would take a whopping 200,000 pounds of TNT, according to University of Washington explosive simulations. An IED that size gets noticed in an urban neighborhood, as does the caravan of trucks needed to haul it in.

Mr. Farrakhan spreads rumor in fertile ground.

Astute Blogger asks: Whats Race got to do with it?

Geez, what lengths a guy won't go to to increase blog traffic

Look I gotta tell you I am soooooooo not porn girl.........those of you that know me, know I keep it real and I keep it to myself..........but Darleen of the Cotillion (which btw, rocks) sent me this link, and I gotta tell you I admire the guy's, well, cujones.............click here (not for the faint of heart)-
me?  - I sent him $18 (Chai for Life!)

Hey it's for the needy right? (no pun intended)

Accesssory to Murder..............Katrina

Let me pause, here, to remind or enlighten you: the ‘Posse Comitatus’ Act constrains any Administration from use of the Army and Air Force to execute the laws, save in cases of insurrection (there are certain exceptions for the Navy and the Coast Guard). When there is not a police presence to support and the governor, for reasons of turf, won’t mobilize the Guard, it stymies the DoD and the White House. Guess what has happened in this very instance….

READ IT ALL AT

Herodotean Laughter: Snickering Along With Clio

So. Let us look. Let us look at what has happened.

There was a disaster plan for New Orleans. It required mandatory evacuations. It required the use of designated shelters – of which the Superdome was not one. It was the responsibility of Blanco, Nagin, and Ebberts to execute.

They didn’t.

In fact, the mandatory evacuation order – too little and far too late – was issued by Blanco only after she was begged by the President to order it. No wonder she’s trying to shift blame.

Nagin and Ebbert did not execute. Nor did they provide for those without the ability to evacuate on their own: they left between 400 and 500 city and metro buses standing empty in parking lots, that could have materially assisted the evacuation of those without access to private transportation. Of course, we now have reason to suspect that the NO school system may not have known it had buses, or drivers, or how to reach them. Those buses, now ruined, are still sitting in rows, like planes at Pearl Harbor and Manila on 7 and 8 DEC 1941: sitting, ruined, and leaking toxic sludge into the floodwaters. No wonder they’re trying to shift blame.

New Orleans had a scare last year – Hurricane Ivan – that provided these same officials with a dry run. They made the exact same mistakes. Like the city’s founding French Bourbons, they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing. No wonder they’re trying to shift blame.

Let’s be clear here. In the first place, New Orleans received neither a direct hit from Katrina nor did it catch the ‘dirty quarter’ of the storm. Mississippi did. Do you see these problems where Haley Barbour is showing leadership? No.

What happened, instead, was the Pontchartrain levee failed. The newest and strongest and most recently upgraded one. Which is to standard: a standard set under LBJ, in 1965, and not changed since by any Congress or any Administration. The levees are engineered for a Cat 3 hurricane. Katrina was a Cat 4.

Everyone knew that was the danger. George W. Bush could have started the Corps in on upgrading the levees the day he first took office and they wouldn’t be done. In fact, the idea to study the possibility of doing so was adopted in 1999, under Clinton, and set to result in a completed study and the possible start of work only in 2006.

That is why the plans have always been to evacuate, on a mandatory basis, 72 hours prior to landfall. Blanco and Nagin didn’t. Only pressure from GWB got them to order an evac at all. No wonder they’re trying to shift blame.

Prior to the disaster, the Bush White House – which, we know now, was also having to deal with the imminent death of the Chief Justice of the United States, in addition to all the other business of government – tried to federalize and streamline the emergency management and the evac. Blanco resisted, in a turf war. No wonder she’s trying to shift blame.

hattip: IRIS ENG

HILLARY STAGES ANOTHER STAR STUDDED SHAM "COMMISSION" WITH THE USUAL SUSPECTS, BABS BOXER, sKERRY, PLAGERIST BIDEN, STICKY FINGERS SANDY BERGER and MURDERER KENNEDY TO WHITEWASH THEIR MONUMENTAL FAILURES AT LOSING SO MANY LIVES

AHA!!  So Hillary Clinton calls for 9/11-type 'Katrina Commission
THESE PEOPLE MAKE MY SKIN CRAWL -ATLAS
US Senator Hillary Clinton has urged President George W. Bush to set up a "Katrina Commission" to probe the government's response to the killer hurricane that has ravaged New Orleans and its surroundings, possibly killing thousands of people.

WHY ISN'T SHE CALLING FOR THE RESIGNATION OF NAGIN AND BLAME A/S/A/P. Because this the the favorite MO of the left...............after gross dereliction of duty they "call a commission" so that they might espouse their lies and spin their failure into a Republican boondoggle. And the Republicans fall for it very time

Why do you think she wants that? Huh? So that she can wash the sins off the Democratic mayor and governor with lies directed at the current administration? Hey Billary, let's not forget STATE"S RIGHTS!

Remember the ginormous lies of the 9/11 commission? They politicized it and corrupted it on every level right down to Sandy Berger shoveling classified documents down his pecker while everyone else ignored that and "Able Danger" It-was a sham............to turn the horrible historical mistakes of the Clinton White house against Bush. WTF was Berger really covering up? WHAT? Why does no one answer that key question?

Sorry fellas,  i will not buy tickets to this circle jerk of show. Lies lies lies lies lies

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more, no more.
Hillary Clinton makes Evita Peron appear to be normal.

DEMAND BLANCO'S AND NAGIN'S RESIGNATON NOW!

For those of you that can't fathom the impossible stupidity of Louisiana's Democratic Mayor and Governor...............

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.
Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. “Quite frankly, if they’d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,” said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

try this on for size..

KATRINA MEDICAL HELP HELD UP BY RED TAPE

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (AP) -- Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors while health problems rise.

Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital, developed with millions of tax dollars for just such emergencies, marooned in rural Mississippi.

"The bell was rung, the e-mails were sent off. ...We all got off work and deployed," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said.

While the doctors wait, the first signs of disease began to emerge Saturday: A Mississippi shelter was closed after 20 residents got sick with dysentery, probably from drinking contaminated water.

Many other storm survivors were being treated in the Houston Astrodome and other shelters for an assortment of problems, including chronic health conditions left untreated because people had lost or used up their medicine.

Who  elected these clowns for G-d's sale?

Wanna help?

Responding to Desperation
Desperation has gripped New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina victims in the devastated gulf region face horrific and deteriorating conditions. The Jewish federation relief plan, coordinated by United Jewish Communities, is working with local Jewish and nonsectarian relief agencies to provide the most essential emergency needs at this time, such as foodstuff and basic supplies. Donate now. Our Jewish tradition and the values of caring and tikkun olam that guide our work call on us to help all people in need at this tragic time. Read more about our response.

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Supporting the Most Vulnerable
As people and communities put their lives back together in the days ahead, contributions to our relief fund will provide financial aid, mental-health counseling, temporary housing, respite care for thousands of evacuees, and health care not covered by insurance.

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How to Help the Victims
Donations to UJA-Federation’s Katrina Relief Fund can be made online at http://www.ujafedny.org/katrinarelief

To donate by check, please make your check payable to UJA-Federation of New York, with Katrina Relief Fund in the memo field, and mail to:

Attn: Katrina Relief Fund
UJA-Federation of New York
130 East 59th Street, Room 1145
New York, NY 10022

You can also call our Donor Center at 1.212.836.1880 with credit card information.

President is now saying that the KATRINA relief efforts "are not acceptable."

I have subesequently added more evidence of incredulous unfolding events this Saturday morning; Please read through it all to have a better understanding of the boots on the ground;

If anyone should have had a plan in place, it should have been the governmental body of New Orleans. They live there! They should have understood the extent of the potential damage! They should have had a disaster preparedness plan in place that they could utilize, then use federal assistance to bolster that plan! But THE DEMOCRATS DIDN'T.   The Democratic Governor of Louisiana should resign.  The Mayor of New Orleans should resign.  They are primarily responsible for the safety of that area.  And they fucked up, big time.  They clearly didn't have a plan in place for this eventuality, which was entirely foreseeable.

Why the Congress underfunded the Corps of Engineers for years is part of what I don't understand. We are losing 25 feet of Louisiana coastline for years. In other words, New Orleans is sinking. They must think about rebuilding a smaller city. The numbers of dead is incalculable until all those homes under water and the dead counted.

I fear the worst is yet to come.

Defense Tech org. takes on the catastrophe:

Organizing thousands and thousands of people, in hellish conditions and in a hurry, is tough work. Let's take that as a given. But still: We're now a work week into a natural disaster that had been forecast for years, and New Orleans "is being run by thugs," the city's emergency preparedness director tells the Times. "Some people there have not eaten or drunk water for three or four days, which is inexcusable."

Damn right. And this Slate article on the Department of Homeland Security's underwhelming response to Katrina is absolutely dead-on. (Click here for ways you can help.)

How is it possible that with the fourth anniversary of 9/11 almost upon us, the federal government doesn't have in hand the capability to prepare for and then manage a large urban disaster, natural or man-made? In terms of the challenge to government, there is little difference between a terrorist attack that wounds many people and renders a significant portion of a city uninhabitable, and the fallout this week from the failure of one of New Orleans' major levees. Indeed, a terrorist could have chosen a levee for his target. Or a dirty-bomb attack in New Orleans could have caused the same sort of forced evacuation we are seeing and the widespread sickness that is likely to follow.

Chertoff's Department of Homeland Security demonstrated today that it could organize an impressive press conference in Washington, lining up every participating civilian or military service from the Coast Guard to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to promise its cooperation. But on the ground in Louisiana, where it counts, DHS is turning out to be the sum of its inefficient parts. The department looks like what its biggest critics predicted: a new level of bureaucracy grafted onto a collection of largely ineffectual under-agencies.

What has DHS been doing if not readying itself and its subcomponents for a likely disaster? The collapse of a New Orleans levee has long led a list of worst-case urban crisis scenarios. The dots had already been connected...

Located only three hours from New Orleans is Fort Polk, home of the 4th Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, a light infantry unit with about 3,000 soldiers. Also at Fort Polk is the Joint Readiness Training Center, which prepares military units to respond rapidly to crises abroad. The 4th Brigade has been training for duty in Afghanistan. Why was it also not ready to take on a local disaster scenario in hurricane season? Or at the least, once the National Hurricane Center predicted that the eye of Katrina would come close to New Orleans, couldn't DHS have deployed the military to help shore up the levees?

And in the event of a WMD attack, when there would likely be no warning at all, what is DHS's contingency plan for moving into position the army or the marines to restore order and sustain life? In the wake of Katrina and the breached levee, the answer seems to be not much of one. In the wake of 9/11, that is worse than incomprehensible. It is unforgivable.

undefined does not understand how we don't have water filtration systems crated up in all fifty states that could be loaded onto an airplane and be usable in under 5 hours is beyond him.  He asked this very question during the Tsunami when it took the Navy guys 8 hours to make a water filtration unit to airlift into Indonesia.  Why don't we have 1000 of these units built and forward deployed though out America and our overseas bases ready for immediate deployment?

But lets be pragmatic. DW (a poster over at Defense Tech) asks that we look at what's happening down there. Soldiers, civilians, everyone that can, is trying to get into the area and help. No one could have predicted that thugs would actually shoot at the rescue helicopters! What kind of a person takes the mindset that they shoot loot TVs from stores and shoot at their rescuers? Animals, that's who!

Of course the Left offers no solutions.  I don't expect them to.  That's why I voted for Bush.   Bush better pull this disaster together or the Republicans are going to start running from him for the next 3 years.  And that won't be pretty.  And it puts lives at risk because the Al Qaedist will be rejuvenated at the thought of our government falling.
(photo left: Democratic Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin)

Stories of a hospital ship in Baltimore preparing to leave 3 days after the hurricane hits only adds to the belief that the military is behind the curve.  This should have been a home run for the Pentagon.  They should have looked like the A-Team.  Instead, they look like bunglers.
Hat tip: Tim McD

UPDATE FROM A MAN WHO HAS BEEN THERE DONE THAT:

Disaster operations are messy just like war, and people today are expecting instantaneous response when it’s virtually impossible when dealing with disasters or large combat operations.

Prior to my retirement from the Army I was the officer who coordinated Military Support to Domestic Operations in the United States involving USAF, NAVY, Coast Guard, Army, and many other Federal and state agencies. I have also planned & executed other large military engineering operations such as the deployment into Somalia in the early 90’s.

You folks have no idea what is going on behind the scenes and what massive efforts are ongoing to deal with this disaster. I can tell you the STATES have VERY SIGNIFICANT role in coordinating disaster relief and if they are unprepared it will significantly slow federal response. The state of LA delayed requesting Federal help according to my sources and it was the demands of the President prior to the Hurricane arriving that forced the State of LA and New Orleans to finally make it a mandatory evacuation. There are legal requirements that the states are required to do before the Federal Government may act. The Federal government will prepare to act and then execute prior to official requests from the states. The military and federal response was front loaded (IVAN last year was just insignificant compared to this, but good training) for this operation as can be determined by their quick response. I know the press has not told us all the details, but as one who has done major disaster and major combat operations in the past the signs are there by the quick presence of the Navy, Coast Guard, and FEMA. You just have to sort through the media stories to see it.

We are dealing with three disasters at once over a multiple states (roughly over a 200 mile front and to a depth of 200 miles (90,000 square MILES!!!) …ocean surge, flooding, rain, and then wind damage. The damage is massive!!! As someone who has war gamed, planned and executed these type of operations (with dedicated people who work 20 hour days or more at the start), it is unbelievable that people are expecting miracles in 4 to 5 days. We really have had miracles as the Coast Guard alone rescued 3,000 people by helicopter and with boats on Thursday, just 3 days after the strike!!! Let’s move on….

The transportation grid basically has collapsed in many areas (roads (interstates), bridges, waterways, rail, pipelines, electric grid, etc.); just the damage to the fuel distribution system alone will slow any response. NOTHING runs without fuel/Electricity and if you have to truck it in then you have even more problems.

Complaints about where the ships were when the storm hit is foolish. Any Naval officer who had his ships at sea anywhere near a CAT 5 Hurricane would be relieved. The Navy routinely moves its ships to sea and away from the Hurricane prior to it entering its area of operations. So far the Navy has deployed 2 Amphibious Assault ships with 600 hospital beds each in addition to helicopters, etc.!!! Another fleet carrier is in route with additional hospital capability,etc. The hospital ships mentioned in the Press have to be staffed and then they sail to the crisis. The hospital ships are the long term care medical facilities after the other major surface ships depart the disaster area.

other federal agencies etc. will staff their services in the disaster area when they can be supported in the disaster area. Normally an initial planning and operations cell (Command and Control) deploys and then as soon as feasibly possible everything else starts to follow as they can be supported logistically. Has it occurred to anybody that if you send in thousands of rescue workers without a transportation system to feed and supply them that you have only increased the amount of people you now have to rescue! Obviously the press has nobody who has dealt with logistics on the scale being involved in this relief operation. The press needs to get a grip and really think about what is going on. In military planning terms we are trying to move the equivalent of an Army in this disaster that has thousands of untrained and stunned troops (civilians).

This is a MAJOR effort of unbelievable proportions which in many cases local political leaders cannot understand the requirements or may not want to even cooperate in. In some cases the local Leader such as the Mayor of New Orleans demonstrated yesterday; really do not have a clue. From his rant yesterday it is obvious he has given up and is totally expected the Federal government to save him (and the attitude does not help). The local leaders really have to hang in there and maintain a leadership position of strength, (Rudy is an excellent example). Let’s move on….

It is apparent to me that President Bush understood the magnitude of the situation when he encouraged people to evacuate prior to the Katrina reaching landfall with a press conference. If you notice he did this after the slow evacuation procedures were started in New Orleans. This is the first time that I can remember a President doing such a declaration prior to a hurricane making landfall. This is state and local responsibility. Additionally, the disaster areas were declared before the hurricane hit which shows you that the Feds and the states new it was going to be bad. Almost always disaster areas are designated after landfall of a hurricane. I firmly believe the press has had a negative impact by all of the hype they put on the previous hurricane this summer (and exemplified by Drummonds comments). I believe this made people think the damage would not be that great and that they could stay in the affected areas and survive the storm.

Many of the people forgot the basics of surviving a disaster, which I blame on the states and local governments, which include preparing for 3 to5 day supply of water and food on hand to survive after a major disaster. It’s sorry to say, but many people will not live to learn their lesson, but I pray that those who do survive learn from this experience.

I truly believe that neither political party should try to gain politically from this disaster that they should focus on helping those in the disaster area, and those who have evacuated to the surrounding states. There will be plenty of time in the next few months to constructively criticize (and assign political blame), but we need to focus on the relief operations, if criticism is leveled it should be accompanied with a proposed solution and if not it should be ignored. This is too important to waste time answering political accusations and distracts from the leaderships focus successful conducting life saving operations. It is apparent that the usual wacko lefty lefties are screaming about nonsense, the grownups need to ignore them and do what it necessary. Shame on the press for pursuing their agenda instead of truly doing comprehensive reporting. The entire nation could learn from this disaster if better reporting was ongoing, as we will have more in the future.

Sincerely,
Ben Bauman (U.S. Army, Retired) Commander,
VFW Post 9949

"And I heard the voice of the LORD saying "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said "Here I am! Send me." Isaiah 6:8 Sincerely,

UPDATE $:00;
for me Bauman says it all but my favorite Doc over at Maggies Farm gives good analysis;

The Anchoress has two good pieces on the failure of local and state govt. Neo-neocon addresses the failure to prepare. View from 1776 discusses the moral failures of NO. Right Thinking has a little debate with the reflex Bush-bashers. Vilmar agrees with us - don't rebuild. RWNH covers the territory - the Bush-bashing, the immature blame-game, the racism issues, and mainly, money-raising to help out. And of course Michelle is on top of things.

My humble opinion: Despite total incompetence, ignorance, stupidity, and corruption of the local hack, low-life politicians, and unprofessional police (one third abandoned their posts, and many joined in the looting) no-one can quickly manage a natural disaster on this scale. Even if they weren't such losers. That's why they call it a "disaster." If it were manageable, it would be called a "problem." This is beyond a "problem." This is the nature-imposed destruction of a city, with a local response which was an embarrassment, both practically and morally. And why didn't Bush know they were too incompetent to handle things? Don't know.

oh and hey Doc............I is gonna work on Maggies Farm, click number 5 much more .......oh yeah!