 The world is burning…
There is confusion. There is chaos. There is anarchy. And finally, days after the storm of the century, a shocked government is trying to assemble a state of order.
Babies are drowning. The elderly are dying. Kayne West is on television trying to create a race war, alleging that President Bush does not care about blacks and the media only cares about whites..
Thousands of people with desperate needs…same clothing…no bathroom. Six days. Babies with no formula. Diapers lacking. Toilets not around. No one leaving….
There is something happening throughout this nation. People are watching, and judging. And remembering. Something very wrong has happened…The government is in question. The local and state response to the Super storm Katrina has been deplorable beyond anyone’s imagination could have ever dreamt.
Has the local, state, and federal government has let people down? Have they let a country down? The President of the United States said today that the response to the levees collapsing and the hurricane is not enough.
It’s not. At all. This is an ongoing crisis of proportions that we not seen in this country in decades. The world is confused. The world’s greatest superpower, a major city within it reduced to rubble while its people confused with destruction looting and raping…pillaging. And praying. There is still some good out there. But it’s not making it to the news because the truly bigger story is the amount of horror that has been seen since Monday of this week.
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Gas shortages being reported around the country...
x x x
Racism?? The case is hard to make after reading the photographer's explanation...
The black woman is said to be looting while the white people are said to be "finding"...More from Snopes
Lest we forget, TIME magazine named Kanye West hip-hop's 'class act'...But last night he slammed Bush, the Iraq war, and the media for racism...VIDEO From MSNBC...the best part to watch is the very end, seeing Mike Meyers face drop down when West says bluntly that Bush doesn't care about black people...
National Review's Rich Lowy: [On if hurricane response is national disgrace] "It is - or ought to be - a disgrace and an embarrassment to Louisiana and New Orleans. I see the way Florida prepares for and responds to hurricanes; I see the way Mississippi and Alabama are dealing with this one; I've seen the Carolinas and Virginia deal with hurricanes, too. I've been in Miami and Norfolk when hurricanes hit, though not as severe as this one, and seen folks come together to support each other in the crisis. I see the outpouring of support from surrounding states and from the federal government heading to Louisiana as fast as it can. And then I see citizens of New Orleans shooting, raping, burning, and plundering while their government officials stand by helplessly"
Geraldo Rivera and Shep Smith make tearful pleas: Let trapped people at Superdome go...
New test: OIL SPILL IN MISSISSIPPI RIVER..
...10,000 dead??
...50,000 dead?
Blogs cover it..
Mayor flips out
Clip of Mayor Nagin
Bush says the response is not acceptable
Clinton and Bush admins both cut spending on levees..
Conservative papers slam Bush..
American Red Cross National Headquarters
2025 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
Phone: (202) 303-4498
To make a donation: (800) HELP-NOW (800-435-7669)
Salvation Army: 1-800-SAL-ARMY
Or sent Donation to:
PO BOX 4857
JACKSON, MS
39296-4857
USA Freedom Corps
Blogging from the Superdome
More at "Asmallvictory.net"
Relief numbers..
Catholic Charities:
Mail Checks To:
Catholic Charities USA
2005 Hurricane Relief Fund
PO Box 25168
Alexandria, VA 22313-9788
Or Call:
(800) 919-9338
The nation breathes a sigh of relief: Fats Domino is found..
Ellen DeGeneres was born in New Orleans...her family is safe, but their homes are gone...
Emeril Lagasse : The Food Network reported that he was safe after the storm and "the majority of his staff have been accounted for."
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Richard Simmons: The exercise star was raised in the French Quarter and has family and friends are there... his brother and sister-in-law, who fled New Orleans for Tennessee, were safe...
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Mississippi Senator Trent Lott loses his house..
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Why no food? Why were thousands promised such home in the Superdome while there was none to be found? Why such a haphazard federal response? Why did the Commander in Chief look aloof? Why did the governor merely cry at the impact of the storm? Why did the Mayor crack under pressure and then after meeting President Bush allow tourists to leave before the residents of New Orleans on the buses that were sent?
The largest national disaster relief effort in the history of the American Red Cross has been started today. The generosity of the American people is evident. Cities across the country are opening their hearts and hands….families are literally opening their doors to people who have lost everything. Donations are skyrocketing. People are volunteering faster than they can give assignments. This country’s heart is strong.
Lucky for us the heart isn’t the government. But during a crisis of such epic proportions it is clear exactly what the federal state and local government is there for….
Where did all that tax money go? People who now struggle for life and watch their own family members die before their very eyes in real time asking why and how they got left behind. Or..is it the fact that we could never have forseen this coming? The levee didn't burst until a day after the Hurricane... Is it race? Is it class? Is it politics. Apparently, we cannot even have a natural disaster without it turning into an argument of blue state versus red state.
I won’t bother with that. And I won’t bother with the race issue either. However, we need, perhaps, pay a little closer attention to the fact that the backbone of all metropolitan areas is filled with poverty. And the rich got out faster. There’s a reason why. They could. But those that couldn’t stand now, and sleep on interstates that were once highways….they lay awake in devastation. There are rumors of body dumps behind the Superdome.
We in this country are now living through history that none of us ever hoped we’d see. The president has now governed over two larger-than-life crises. Each has tested him, and us.
But sadly, during this test of nature, the resources of the federal government failed greatly. There is something wrong. And I’m not nearly smart enough to understand the reasons why it didn’t work like it should have. But it didn’t. And there should be answers.
One day went by. We thought the convoys were coming…two days…more hunger, more anarchy…three days…rumors of cannibalism—shot down later by civil rights leaders backtracking…four days…racial and economic tensions…and on the fifth day they finally arrived.
Doctors and nurses and police, the core of much of our economy and the first responders in crisis, are being put to the limits … soon they will be able to go no further.
I don’t really know what happens next.
Last Sunday we prayed for New Orleans on the eve of a storm, and this weekend we will be praying that the residents of the once large city—along with the state of Alabama and Mississippi—survive this horrific ordeal that no one in America could have ever believed they’d in their the land of the brave and the home of the free.
Meet the "John Wayne Dude".. Lt. Gen. Russel Honore
Experts alarmed: San Andreas Fault activity unleashing "massive tremors"
Swarm of earthquakes..
Shake map
The world watches in horror, as the world's only superpower struggles with the aftermath of nature at its worst...
The United Kingdom has been splashing headlines "Anarchy in the USA"... "Apocalypse Now" blazed in Germany...the world wondering how such lawlessness can be created by a storm in a nation tha tis supposed to have so much order...the easy answer can be found in the Big Easy....lawlessness and chaos can easily happen anywhere with order is lost and cannot be easily restored...
But now the commentators and experts are chuckling at the misfortune of the United States..
x x x
But looking at the chaos through the lens of terrorism can be a little more chilling...American's enemies are doing just that. More..
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