Hurricane Katrina Devastates The Gulf Coast.

[Diomedes]

Red Cross donations as of 4:10pm

Total Collected:    $37,158,535
Number of Donors:    256,195

Giving what our government won't: what we can.

[Diomedes]

Here's a question I have:  is it simple coincidence that the aid arrived when Bush did? 

[PhillyGirl]

Red Cross donations as of 4:10pm

Total Collected:    $37,158,535
Number of Donors:    256,195

Giving what our government won't: what we can.

Only 30 minutes later:

Total Collected:     $37,409,690
Number of Donors:    258,022

[Wingspan]

not to be political.

but this makes me sick to think about that it's happening anywhere. but even moreso that it's within our borders (and an aside, i am not that naive to think that natural or manmade disasters can happen within our borders, no one is immune to that). but the complete and total BULLSH|T WEVE BEEN FED BY OUR FEDERAL GOVERMENT.

what the holy farg was all that crap we were fed by our president in the creation of this so called HOMELAND SECURITY department that was made up, and supposedly created FOR THIS EXACT SITUATION.

how can someone justify spending money on "homeland security" while cutting FEMA and prevention budgets (army corps of engineers)?!?!? if there isnt a bigger peice of proof of the hypocracy of our president, i dont know what is. and yes, HIS signature is on the bottom of all of that.

this is a bigger mess and a giant clusterfarg than the aftermath of 9/11/01 will ever be.

you know the difference between the two? one happened in what may be one of the poorest area's in this country. the other hit the backbone of our economy. that is ALL you need to know right there as to why it's taken 4 or 5 days to get help to these people!

christ, i really really HOPE that there is a gas shortage, that it goes up to $5/gallon. it seems to be the only thing this country REALLY  cares about in regards to this...let the gas prices rise, so people get so pissed about this that none of these shtein faces have a prayer of re-election.

the storm was a tragedy, and i feel terrible for the people. but the people draggin their asses around, and taking SO GODDAMN LONG TO HELP THESE PEOPLE should be downright ashamed of themselves.

farg them.

[Butchers Bill]

what the holy farg was all that crap we were fed by our president in the creation of this so called HOMELAND SECURITY department that was made up, and supposedly created FOR THIS EXACT SITUATION.

My wife and I were talking about that at the game last night (the conversation was more interesting than that monstrosity).  Since 9-11, haven't we been planning for a scenario just like this??  I mean, this is similar to a serious terror attack (dirty bomb, chem/bio release, etc.) and we look like complete iceholes because we cannot save our own people within our border.

Farging embarrassing and so sad.

[Diomedes]

Condoleeza is on CNN right now, sucking Satan's cock.

[PhillyGirl]

[Diomedes]

Jesus Christ, these people can't get a farging break.  Now a bus carrying evacuees has flipped over on some goddamned highway.

[SD_Eagle5]

Bush just had a heart attack

Major oil spill' seen on Mississippi River
Capacity of leaking tanks estimated at 160,000 barrels
The sheen from an oil spill on the Mississippi River is seen Thursday. At left are the two storage tanks leaking oil.
Louisiana DEQ 


BREAKING NEWS
By Miguel Llanos
Reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 5:15 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2005
A "major oil spill" has been spotted from two storage tanks southeast of New Orleans, the state Department of Environmental Quality said Friday.

The spill was first spotted Thursday during a flyover, department spokeswoman Jean Kelly told MSNBC.com, "but we still don't have access to the area."

The spill was just north of Venice, a town in the Mississippi River Delta, and 65 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Each tank is 20 feet tall and 200 feet in diameter, she said. The department initially estimated that total capacity could be one million barrels each but later reduced that to 80,000 each.

Kelly said the department still doesn't know who owns the tanks and therefore can't be sure how much oil is in them.

The Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989 involved about 250,000 barrels of oil.




Homeland Security officials were restricting access to the area, and Kelly said the state agency had notified both the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency so that they can begin clean-up.

Coast Guard officials in St. Louis said they were looking into the report but that their priority was search and rescue in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.


Louisiana DEQ
The two leaking oil storage tanks are seen in this photo taken Thursday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The state agency said it was continuing to assess the situation from the air.

The department added that it hoped to soon have two helicopters dedicated to assessing wider areas for environmental problems.

[Diomedes]

Bush is on CNN now.  His turn to suck Satan's cock.

[PhillyGirl]

A Colossal Failure of Leadership
Saving people and maintaining order are the first order of government in any disaster. In New Orleans, neither has been achieved.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 12:29 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2005

Sept. 2, 2005 - I didn't see the movie "The Day After," which depicts the desolation and desperation in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Staring at the images from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is like watching that disaster movie in real time. People trying to survive, scavenging like wild animals, dead bodies stuffed in corners of the Superdome, the governor of Louisiana fighting to hold back tears.

Where is Rudy Giuliani when we need him? We've had four years since 9/11 to prepare for a crisis with mass casualties, yet we seem totally unprepared. To be sure, there are countless unsung heroes performing tasks of kindness and going out of their way to help their fellow man. But this was a moment for national leadership, and nobody rose to take charge the way Giuliani did in New York.

This has been a colossal failure of government. President Bush spent Tuesday, the day after Katrina struck, at a Medicare event in Arizona and then he made his way to a San Diego naval base for yet another anniversary tribute to the Greatest Generation. His concession to reality was adding a few words of compassion to his prepared remarks. Meanwhile, the greatest natural disaster in a century was unfolding at sickening speed with television cameras capturing footage of looting reminiscent of the days after the invasion of Iraq. Things were so bad "you almost wonder if Donald Rumsfeld is in charge," said Marshall Wittmann, an analyst with the Democratic Leadership Council.

Saving people and maintaining order are the first order of government in any disaster, and neither was achieved. The much-touted Department of Homeland Security appeared too caught up in its internal bureaucracy to perform, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) called off its rescue missions Thursday because residents trying to board boats were getting violent. The disorder and lawlessness was breathtaking to watch. At one point, the evacuation of patients from a hospital was halted because of gunfire. Bush talks about "zero tolerance" for looters, but there aren't enough police to stop them and the jails are under water. One third of the National Guard from the affected states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they're the ones trained to perform the police functions that restore civil order.

Instead of declaring a national emergency and deploying the military from all those nearby Texas bases, Bush deployed his father and President Clinton for a photo op at the White House as a prelude to a fund-raising tour. Callers to cable shows called the unfolding disaster "our tsunami" and wondered whether other countries would come to our aid the way the American government did when the tsunami hit Asia. We are the richest nation on earth with the resources, as Bush rightly said, "to take care of our business." Even so, gestures of support are welcome; NEWSWEEK has learned that the former ambassador from Sri Lanka is rallying medical doctors from his country's expatriate community to go to New Orleans to help. "I figured this is the least we could do to reciprocate for all the help we got," Ambassador Devinda Subasinghe says.

We're getting a taste of what poorer parts of the world have experienced along with a glimpse into a frightening future. Scientists say we have entered a cycle of frequent and dangerous storms. September is the peak season for hurricanes, and we're already through the letter K with Katrina.

Bush's comment that nobody thought the levees in New Orleans would break is false, and he will regret those words just as Condoleezza Rice did her comment that nobody could imagine a plane flying into a building like a missile. Local authorities and the Corps of Engineers had war-gamed hurricane scenarios and issued repeated warnings about the vulnerability of the levees. Their pleas were turned down and funding cut instead. Now the money will flow. Congressional leaders rushed back to Washington early to pass legislation to free up $10 billion for hurricane relief, a mere down payment on what it will cost to rebuild the stricken areas.

Congress had been planning to eliminate the estate tax, draining billions from a federal budget already reeling under the costs of a war. Marshall Wittmann, who used to advise John McCain, predicts that Bush's tax-cutting days are over. "We've been living in la-la land," he says. "This is a moment of sobriety when business as usual can't continue."

[/b]

[Drunkmasterflex]

I love how everybody plays monday morning quarterback in these situations farging iceholes.  I have no problem with the people there being angry but all the people on the outside that run their mouths are worthless pieces of shtein.  No one anticipated this type of problem, in fact early monday they were saying that NO had been spared.  Then all hell broke lose.  This is an unprecedented disaster in this country. 

Articles like that piece of crap totally miss the point.  They act like it is so simple just take them food.  Well how do they get it there if the roads are not able to be driven on? Not to mention the fact the National Guard took much of the supplies away before this all went down they spent two days on the road, now they have to turn back with many obstacles to overcome.  It kills me when people who write articles like that pretend that no one is trying to help.  If you are doing shtein like that you are just part of the problem.

[Wingspan]

No one anticipated this type of problem, in fact early monday they were saying that NO had been spared.  Then all hell broke lose.  This is an unprecedented disaster in this country. 

not true.

ecologists, scientists, city planners, FEMA, and the army corps of engineers had said this was a possibility, it's all published somewhere. but their warnings fell on deaf ears of the "it'll never happen to me." and they were either just flat out ignored, or their budgets were cut by our president (FEMA/Army COE)

It kills me when people who write articles like that pretend that no one is trying to help.  If you are doing shtein like that you are just part of the problem.

no one's said "no one is trying to help"...the problem has been the lack of action from the goveremnt, and the piss poor planning (homeland security (the goddamn motherfarging peice of shtein farce that it is) was created for just this kind of situation. and now it's 5 days later, and only NOW are there some signs of relief.

[Butchers Bill]

No one saw this type of devatation coming.  Sure, there were predictions of "worst case scenarios" but even Clinton was on TV yesterday saying this could not have been predicted.  The series of events that happened could not have been planned for, and the arm-chair quarterbacking needs to stop.  Its not helping anyone right now.  There will be very intense examination of this event for years, and we'll know more then.

[MadMarchHare]

And they're all full of shtein.  This level of devastation was predicted years ago.  No one wants to take the blame for screwing the pooch.  Well, the good news is, their's plenty of blame to go around.

For a lighter description of events, here is Foamy the Squirrel.

http://www.illwillpress.com/kat.html