One of the things that horrifies me about Katrina is that I believe the fact that most of the at risk were (I believe) poor, black and democratic weighed heavily in the thinking that left them exposed to disaster. I cannot prove this. But I cannot believe that a wealthy, white, Republican city would have been left so exposed.

It's hard not to notice that the Democratic voting demographic just took a huge hit in La.

But one does not need to entertain such horrible thoughts to think that this disaster is inherently political. It is a disaster that surely would have been less like to have ocurred or to have been as bad were it not for Iraq, for the financial costs of Iraq, the human costs of Iraq and the skewing of priorities created by Iraq.

But take it deeper. The roots of this disaster are to be found in Bush's maniacal tunnel vision. As I recall, the man was still making speeches about Iraq the day of the hurricane and added a reference to the hurricane as a sort of footnote. Stay The Course has become a catch phrase implying ever deeper catastrophe for Nations, above all, for our nation, because it's true meaning has been increasingly revealed as implying ever deeper tunnel vision.

I personally am deeply wounded by the thought that New Orleans is a sort of Karma for what was done to Falluja. The connection between Iraq and New Orleans is not hard to make, but it becomes deeper when one considers the role of Global Warming and economic change and the apparent American obsession with fossil fuels.

Today I was at the bank and the clerk asked me how I was doing. I commented that it was hard to function, because I felt so struck with grief and horror. She clucked sympathetically and then began to talk about the rise in gas prices, in an effort to relate to my comment.

I didn't say it, but I thought "how horrific." How insane that we measure our reality by the price at the pump. The destruction of an entire city barely makes a dent.

Was Tyranny political? Was Slavery political? Was the Depression political? You're damn right that confronting this inhumane and out of control government is political. It's a kind of political that I think sooner or sooner will seem obvious and appropriate to almost everyone.

We want a world where policies are sustainable, humane, tolerant, consensual, peaceful, we want policies that balance individual and community in ways that respect and maximise both, do we not? These are notions that are fundementally winners, no matter how supposedly blue or red a person is.

Bottom line: George Bush is driving this train into Hell and that affects everybody.

I had just finished watching one of the original Zatoichi films when I read this post (Katrina, yes you....."). I was by then used to seeing real justice, albeit 17th Century Japanese justice. Then I read this post. Every fibre of my being agreed with John's tenets. I had been cynically assuring my family the last 2 days that God (a just God) was indeed capable of smiting sinners and he was doing it with a vengence in the Gulf States and SE (no cheap pun intended). Every one of my relatives was horrified at my attitude. This is the sentimental level to which anger at the conservative component of this country has driven me. It's bad enough that these idiots vote against their own economic interests; it would be worse if they didn't bear the full weight of their bad decision.
The worst part of it for me is that we would have been rid of them if the GOP hadn't managed to game the last 2 presidential elections. And the complicity of the media has made it possible for them to get away with this, and , in the process, wreck the Nation.

These guys don't give a crap. Our Attorney general is having a party while people are dieing in the streets of our country. How sick. You would think they could wait a few weeks before having a good time. I wonder if bush was there?

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
UNTIL 2:00 P.M. (EDT)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005

ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO R. GONZALES HONORS EMPLOYEES AND OTHERS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S ANNUAL AWARDS CEREMONY

Link
http://www.atf.gov/press...05doj_attygen_awards.htm

Phil wrote:

"We want a world where policies are sustainable, humane, tolerant, consensual, peaceful, we want policies that balance individual and community in ways that respect and maximise both, do we not?"

Well ... um ... Some do ... and some don't.

And here's an interesting thing about those who don't: they just happen to have our electoral system in their back pocket.

I want people to UNDERSTAND THIS PICTURE:

THIS IS NEW ORLEANS - THESE are the PEOPLE of NEW ORLEANS, Holding a Jazz Funeral for Democracy when Bush got Inaugurated on January 20th. THEY gave a damn.

I have tears in my eyes as I write this. Stop with the Red and Blue States. We are the United States. Some of these people are probably dead now.

I can't even send money because I can barely make my own bills.

Starve Cable, Starve the corporations! Boycott them. I cancelled my Comcast. I won't give them one damn dime.

It's the damn rich people and the corporations that are rigging this and hurting all good folk.

I am not real religious, but what would Jesus do?

Well said, Jpentz. WP, I hear you on that.

I think you'll feel much different once events have played out Joe. You'll wish you never wrote this at all me thinks.

I've posted twice at length here and been discoonected by Katrina, in her weltering death throes here in Maine. i'LL POST MORE COHERENTLY WHEN ABLE.

Sorry - I've lost three posts here already. My first was to second Jospeh wholeheartedly in both his rebellion and his pity; and my second to remind people that people who cannot afford gasoline at the end of a welfare month CAN'T get out.

Why wasn't gas granted to people wanting to leave? Why didn't those 425 buses materialize BEFORE the floods to ferry out the stranded poor?

Why? Because they ARE poor, voiceless and by reduction, worthless. Let them eat mud.

I can't even believe this is what I'm reading. Have all your "liberals" lost what's left of your collective (alleged) minds???? I realize that most of you no longer give one hoot for poor people, but to openly suggest punishing poor folk because they live in a "red" state??? Where and when did you part company with your humanity?

I'm poor, also, and freaking the last several days because this could well have been me, and I know I couldn't have gone through this. I also know I sure as hell wouldn't have had any support from middle-class "liberals". That much is clear. I live in a "blue" city, which is in a "red" state, so go ahead and tell me to my face that I deserve to suffer and die because of where I live.

I'm printing out this blog, and the next time some idiot gives me crap about how poor people "don't get involved", and "don't participate in politics", I'm gonna shove this right in the heartless goons face.

I have never, ever talked like this before, but this is so enraging I must say, "Liberals, grow a damned heart!"

Torqued -

Methinks you misinterpret.. It's easy to do over the internet - because we can't read each others' eyes.

gave up.

Please, i can't take the pain you are capable of dishing out.

just drop it. you go your way, I go mine.

if you *HAD BEEN* "in my shoes" you wouldn't be so tough and uncaring.

goodbye

a BIG misunderstanding happening on this thread, it seems to me, and I hope it gets itself straightened out. I can't do it all but I can help it along a bit, and I hate to see good people arguing, especially when they probably agree. Internet communication sure is hard work! ... so please don't anyone give up on anybody yet!

I'm not a literary wizard by any means but I read Joseph's piece as a metaphor. The "struggle" between "the post he didn't write" and "the post he actually wrote" is emblematic of the struggle each of us must make to choose between propaganda and truth; the vicious government propaganda makes us want to see ourselves as divided into red and blue. It's easy to slip into that trap and start thinking that way ... that we're blue and they're red ... so screw them! ... unless you struggle and remail vigilant and think hard about lies you thought were truths ... and eventually you may find that your sense of humanity is more powerful than the pull of the nonstop propaganda machine ... which is what we are all hoping for anyway, I think ... that's the way I read it, anyway, and Joseph would be more than welcome to come along and correct me...

I notice that my friend Torqued disagrees with me on this, as does Superwoman; that's your right and I respect your opinions even though I happen to disagree.

And for Superwoman, please don't give up on all "liberals" just because of one post on one blog. At the very least please hang around and watch this thread and see how it all plays out! ok? thanks!

I don't believe that the war in Iraq was or is right (at least the corruption and greed after the invasion -didn't mind so much that they got rid of Saddam) but it is fallacious to make the argument that G-d has smited America for that particular sin. Any ratbag can make that argument to support any particular cause that they hold dear. Some have written that G-d is smiting America for supporting the pullout from the Gaza Strip, some are saying G-d is smiting you for ignoring the environment, some are saying it is because there was going to be a gay festival in two days. These sorts of hurricanes have always hit the south coast of the US and, yes, while they are probably getting worse for environmental reasons we should not be so quick to jump to the conclusion that G-d carried it out because who can claim to know the mind of G-d? And, quite possibly, a lot of the people who died in New Orleans were the ones who could not afford to get out and who, quite likely, could have voted Democratic ( and do you think the Democrats would not have continued the war?) It doesn't matter who people voted for, if you really care about G-d, you help out the poor and needy.

No worries WP. I should have explained my reasoning a bit better but frankly, I don't have all the words right now.

I have only suspicion supported by odd facts. Not for Joe, not for anyone here at all. But for the military action bearing down in Katrinas wake. Things aren't what they seem... all over.

Hear, hear Miriam! We all must help. We all must be morally accountable at all times.

The point is made that like real estate trading, its location, location, location! It's a valid point for sure. Perhaps we need a county-by-county, voter demographics map to sway odds of survival in the coming "disasters".

Nice to see the tinfoil trading is going up with all the paranoid schizoids showing up here.

How is it that Bush is at fault. I'm still trying to figure out how his short tenure could be blamed for the global warming that by all accounts has been building for more than a century. But suddenly, it's all Bush's fault. Not that any of the preceding presidents did anything to restrain it.

I love reading here. It really makes it obvious that the DU isn't the only bastion of crackpots out there.

> What would Jesus do?

Most prolly nail himself on a cross or any other form of ritual suicide.

Papers hail heroes but blast Bush.

"George W Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday," says the New York Times in an editorial.

"He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

"And nothing about the president's demeanour yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

"Oh, the [IN]Humanity!" of President George W Bush.

He understands more than he lets on. He understands that his remaining minutes are few in this country and he also knows his escape plan has been covertly breached.

Oh he knows plenty, or he should if hes on a-need-to-know-basis. His underbelly is exposed as are all the zionist yellow bellies on the bugout.

Ya got the loot but now what ya gonna do rocky? rocky? georgie? Got luck?

#22 I must be missing something - Bush's short tenure? Not even considering Bush won't support discussion of Global Warming.

-In his "short" tenure" our borders are going downhill, jobs are leaving, we are borrowing 1 Billion a week, health care is non existant or so costly you can't afford it at work, POVERTY HAS RISEN 1 MILLION MORE THAN LAST YEAR, our young are dying in an illegal war. No president has presided over such incompentency in history and kept his job.

Would you like to have an employee like this working for you? I sure as hell don't. We need to recall this incompentent administration. God help us if we have 3 more years of this leadership.

Disasters strike and this leader is eating birthday cake, and strumming a guitar. He doesn't even PRETEND to sit at the desk in the office paid for by you and I and make decisions.

How the most died hard conservative can defend this administration just amazes me.

#10 Superwoman - when you are in the place you are in right now, it seems you are alone. Many, many of us have truly been without, how about selling a tv for $40 so your daughter and you can eat for two weeks. Been there, done that.

There isn't a label to fit those who can't understand, just people that are mired in their own selfish world, nothing can change them.

But there are more of us, who are fighting to change things and 95% are posters on this blog.
Sure there are nut jobs here but they provide a laugh.

So stick with us, we want to hear from you, we can learn from you.

Short tenure = He wasn't going to finish his term. But now they have no where to run. They belong to us now.

With due respect to Joseph Cannon to all of the fine columns he's written on BB before, you should have put this one in the freezer for a few more days before you decided to post it, or if to post it at all. It is unnecessarily inflammatory writing.

You said you were tempted to write: "A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters." But THEN you decided not to write that in your column. BUT THEN, you put it out there anyway. Looks like you want to have it both ways. Shame on you!!!! The column was simplistic, and if anyone reads it that way, they got it right.

I live in one of those so-called "red states", and so do many others who comment on BB (as opposed to trolling, mind you). I do not and never did support Busho. in any way, shape or form. Bush has, among other things stirred up hatred and division in this country. People have said before in various comments on other threads things like "I hope all of those red states get destroyed." Well, that's pretty hateful and simple-minded thinking coming from folks who chance to live in a "blue state" and therefore feel they can claim moral superiority. Ah.. but you've bought into Bush's devisiveness... where's the superiority there? Not being very discriminating about passing out the blame, eh?

Yes, this is time for the politics of blame, but most certainly not that kind- more like, why was the budget gutted so that projects to shore up the levees didn't happen? A hurricane hit to NO has been 3rd on the list of most crippling disasters for quite some time, why have so many communities been left virtually defenseless against disasters of all kinds, lacking National Guard troops, etc. etc.

The blame should rest exactly where it belongs--- Bush & co.

No matter what, we have to be the face of relief.

We care about human suffering... we do not blame it on the cruel hand of fate, God's wrath, or the lazy stupidity of the victims. We should leave those smug rationalizations to the right wing nutjobs.

We must be the first responders. We must be the ones who break our backs and put ourselves out for peace and the alleviation of human suffering. We must build communities.

This is the only way to build a more human society. This is the only way to speak truth to power.

I agree with Joseph Cannon!

The god damn Bush & congress could have prevented the disaster themselves, by not gutting funding to FEMA and the real army protection guard in the coast!!!

http://archives.thedaily...30101/N9.BIHquakebu.html

They had their chance to PREVENT this, and these people begged them to pay for repairing the levees all over alabama, louisiana and the south.

And they flat out FAILED!!!!

It is the FAILED policies of the rich GOP morons in these states, who voted against their interests that have brought this upon everyone!!!!!! THE WAR, THROWING EVERYTHING DOWN THE DRAIN FOR THE WAR!!!!!

They deserve what they get for being so short-sighted. As for the rest of the people in the south who had nothing to do with them, may god help them all, because GLOBAL WARMING is a reality and it is here thanks to pure beligerance.

Our wasting away over material goods and foriegn oil has succeeded in warming the Gulf Waters, has began melting the icecaps, and Global Warming will NOT get better!!!!!

So just understand that right now, Global Warming is never going away!!!!! THE IDIOTS IN CHARGE AND THEIR FOLLOWERS HAVE BROUGHT THIS REALITY!!!!!

If you do not change and not only vote, but stand behind fully funding alternative energy sources and preventing climate change by getting away from oil this will be the result.

Its time ALCORA, for you and the rest of your incredibly blind followers to wake up or that selfishness and evil you are so obsessed with will COST you everything.....And will COST everyone around you.

Doug E

Waiting for a Leader

snippet----

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

------------------------more at editorial---

Global warming?
.....from N Y Times and other Editorials.
"It demanded to know why Congress had been in the process of cutting the area's flood protection budget.

"Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal," it said.

Even a conservative paper, New Hampshire's Manchester Union-Leader, took the president to task.

"The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following 11 September 2001, has vanished," it says.

"In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty."

The bastards even FIRED everyone who criticized the funding cuts for disaster repairs!!!!

http://archives.thedaily...30101/N9.BIHquakebu.html

REPAIRING THE LEVEES!!!!! THE MORONS SAT BY, AND LET THE GULF BECOME A GLOBAL WARMING!!!

This could happen anywhere, but so far has only wiped out almost half of the red states!!!! And who there, why many rich and blind GOP ignoramouses who care for nothing but oil!!!!! AND ALONG WITH THEIR HOUSES DESTROYED, SO IS THE POOR!!!!!

Doug

Ok, Re: my #7 comment above, I have words. Or other peoples words, whatever. Please give this a few extra brain cells for critical analysis, particularly the PDF document below: ENDGAME.

Draft FEMA Bid Notice

SUBJECT: STANDBY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR DISASTER RELATED OPERATIONS

POC: Ms. Linda A. Sudhoff, Contracting Officer, (202) 646-4672, Linda.sudhoff@fema.gov; Ms. Virna L. Evans, Contract Specialist, (202) 646-7591, Virna.evans@fema.gov

DESC: NAICS 541990 (Professional, Scientific and Technical Services) applies to this acquisition, with a size standard of $6.0 million. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) intends to award three (3), Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity, Task Order contracts starting in fiscal year 2003, subject to the availability of funds. Each basic ID/IQ contract will have an ordering period of five years. The basic ID/IQ contract will be structured to allow for the issuance of Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF), Time and Materials (T&M), and Firm Fixed Price (FFP) task orders. The method used to allocate task orders will include: consideration of experience, workload, and the firm's performance on other task orders. The estimated cost for services is approximately $300 million per five-year contract. --- more

FEMA Preparing for Mass Destruction Attacks on Cities

FEMA is readying for nuclear, biological and chemical attacks against U.S. cities, including the possibility of multiple attacks with mass destruction weapons.

The agency has already notified vendors, contractors and consultants that it needs to be prepared to handle the logistics of aiding millions of displaced Americans who will flee from urban areas that may be attacked.

The agency plans to create emergency, makeshift cities that could house hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who may have to flee their urban homes if their cities are attacked.

Ominously, FEMA has been given a deadline of having the cities ready to go by January 2003 – in about six months. --- more

FEMA’s Plan for Mass Destruction Attacks: Of Course It’s True

"The news report about FEMA building the temporary cities to house disaster refugees is totally bogus."

NewsMax, of course, told its readers it stood by the story.

In late July, I called FEMA and spoke with public affairs officer Chad Kolton.

I explained to Mr. Kolton that it was improper for the agency to claim that NewsMax had fabricated this story.

Mr. Kolton denied that there was any claim by FEMA that the NewsMax story was baseless, only that it was "factually inaccurate."

He made that claim without having read the NewsMax story, which he asked me to e-mail to him.

As I pointed out to Mr. Kolton, FEMA has put out a bid notice for the program to build the temporary cities (they call it "temporary disaster housing"). The bid is not only a matter of public record, it also is available on the federal government’s Web site. --- more

Now before you all go off on me about the questionable source of this story or whatever... Please read and (gulp) absorb the following PDF document prepared by the "Department of Homeland Security". This document is the partial result of the FEMA bid referenced above and which the above stories reference the bid as: STANDBY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR DISASTER RELATED OPERATIONS.

Exhale. Inhale. Click: ENDGAME: Office of Detention and Removal Strategic Plan, 2003 - 2012
Detention and Removal Strategy
for a Secure Homeland

Office of Detention and Removal? You betcha!
Breathe. Save. Print. Distribute. Repeat. Please.

Hey Guys-

I have been on the brad blog since before the 2004 election and have also been a New Orleans resident since 2002. New Orleans is NOT Bush country!!! So i was a little insulted to hear the remarks of this poster (glad it wasn't you brad), until I saw him rectify his position. I live in Metairie LA, which is 3 miles west of downtown new orleans. I am fairly confident that at least the first floor was flooded of the duplex I was renting, if the house did not collapse from the wind. So I only lost hopefully half of my stuff. I will be out of work for 2 months, and am now typing on this blog over a 56K modem....sucks.

So I think I earned the right to tell you why Bush has earned the title of Supreme Jackass to me over this catastrophe. About 8 months ago when congress was passing the energy bill to fatten the pockets of their rich friends, two Senators from Louisiana, Sen. Landriu and Sen. Vitter were fighting for an amendment to the Bill. This amendment was to give the state of Louisiana 2-3% of the oil royalties for oil coming through Louisiana infrastructure. ( Note: States that have oil produced on their land have royalties of 50% or higher). So it seems rather reasonable right?? This money was going to restore the coastal erosion of Louisiana. Why is that important you ask? The coastline is what protects New Orleans and the oil industry from Hurricanes like Katrina. It bears the brunt of the storm if you will. Louisiana loses 25 square miles per year to erosion. Well after me watching these two senators fight for days to get the ammendment passed on CSPAN... they get the votes. Now granted this wouldn't have stopped Katrina it would have been at least a recognition of the US Congress that Louisiana infrastructure needed to be protected in order to secure the oil industry and PEOPLE from these storms.

Well after the house and senate ok the ammendment, in comes the Supreme Jackass of all Jackasses, George Bush. He threatens to veto the whole bill if the ammendment is not rectified.

So they are forced to cut the royalties by over half. Thanks asshole. Nice foresight.

New Orleans is the only reason that Louisiana has any Democrats, If you dont support us then you forfiet a state. I strongly urge you to help in any way you can, I have never waivered in my ambitions to stop this pompus asshole of a president from his stupid rightwing agenda. But we are NOT to blame for his presidency...Let me tell you who is....

THE FUCKIN VOTING COMPANIES THAT RIGGED THE ELECTION. BUSH HAS NEVER WON AN ELECTION HE HAS STOLEN THEM. Need more proof look at all the evidence, and start with John Conyers book on Ohio.

Sorry for the long post, I may come out to California to stay with my brother for a month. I will try to get back here to post, but please even $20 to the red cross will help.

I will do everything to let New Orleans know what our dumbass president could have done to help pre-and post facto.

In addition i have been out of the loop for a week now, and if there is anything huge that has happened please take 1 minute to email me the story, I cants stand waiting 10 minutes for one page to open.

Respectfully,

Charles R Dubord JR
charles.dubord@ritz.edu

Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada
Earthquakes recorded for the last week (168 hours). Times are local (PST or PDT).

N a t u r a l ?

Charlie in NO

Been worrying about you and other posters from the area. Glad to hear that you are "okay", well, sort of. Alive! My thoughts and... er.. "spiritual thoughts" go out to you- hope you get what I mean on that one. I am circa Nov 2004 BB reader.

VG

It saddens me to see people think that New Orleans is worthwhile only because it is a blue city in a red state.

My donation to Salvation Army is just as much earmarked for super-red Gulfport/Biloxi as it is for New Orleans.

Politicize the lack of preparedness. I agree W could and should have not gutted the funding and sent the LA National Guard to Iraq (along with equipment and even more funding). I agree W did nothing to stop global warming, which likely exacerbated this hurricane.

But, for heaven's sake, we progressives should care for everyone, even in red Mississippi as well as blue New Orleans.

The only way to get rid of the Bushes, the neo-cons and the Republicans who support their criminal activities and gross negligence is to march to Washington DC and make citizens' arrests. Put them in jails like Guantanamo, shut down Haliburton and those like them, deny them access to solicitors for two years or so, freeze their assets, take back monies stolen from the American and Iraqi people, then try them for crimes against America and humanity. After you arrest them (approximately 300 of them), go about restoring your country.

I lurk here very often and have never posted before but I am compelled to right now.

People are people. It doesn't matter who they are, where they live, who they voted for, what they ate for breakfast or even if they had anything to eat at all.

I find it sad that people cannot feel sorrow or remorse for other people who are suffering. This is the reason why this world is a shit hole.

I don't care that you call yourself progressive, democrat, republican, conservative or neo-con or whatever. When you have hate or fear or loathing in your heart, only darkness can come from that. This once, forgive those who are blinded by their own pain and suffering and do angry or hurtful things to you and instead stop the chain of hate.

I know that those here are much more enlightened then other sites I have read and I am discouraged that there are still those who would use tragedy and the pain and suffering of others for some political advantage.

Change can only happen when you change yourself.

Hate, anger or fear cannot bring positive change no matter how much you try.

The nations biggest natural disaster and you libs first reaction is to blame Bush for the weather.
So far away from reality there no coming back now eh?

The sick part is there are actually people that post here that are happy its a red state. So Sick. So full of hate.

Thanks to VG for the good link in #33 and here's another good one from the Op/Ed section of the NY Times

David Brooks: The Storm After the Storm

Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines....
Actually, from the sounds of the discussion above, everyone's engines have been started, and the move is on. From one standpoint, we can see that GW and Co. are embracing this "opportunity" to take the next steps in their raping and pillaging of America. Suddenly they have a natural opportunity to jack those prices of gas right through the roof, peeling any extra cash they can from every single American..., no need to obviously raise taxes...., not when the gas prices are really lining their pockets.

Along with the gas gouging, they get to start testing martial law and military action on American soil. Talk about a fearsome situation.

So, the Neocons are on the move...., figuring out how best to take advantage of this Katrina to do more of what they started with 911.

So, now, we have the BB'ers and everyone else..., connecting the dots of how BushCo put this disaster together. If GW doesn't handle this well, he and his like just might find themselves on the receiving end of an unrest of mega-proportions, turning "red" states into "blue" ones one after the other.

So, start your engines.... pull together, support the poor that just got mega-screwed, and start making every one very clear and aware that GW and GOP Congress are the perpetrators of this massive national disaster on such a scale that there should be immediate inquiries over how this could have happened, how they let everyone down, how they conspired to destroy America outright....

Let's jamb it you wild and crazy 6 or 7! Now it the time to pull together and make this break them (GW and Company, GOP Congress) right down the middle! We got no time for this back and forth about whether it 's reds or blues or to give or not to give.... Time to connect the dots, call Gongress to hammer this out and take them down!!

ONward!!
gh

I have now learned something new --- when dictators and tyrants illegally seize power by falsifying election counts, even in a country such as the United States of America, the people will rise up, and civil war will occur --- as much as everyone on this blog would not, and does not, wish this to happen, I now believe it will. The neo-cons are unintelligent and mad with power. Civil war is inevitable.

This House paper shows FY 2003 budget cuts for the Corps of Engineers, 30% constuction, says they cannot keep up with the deteriorating infrastructure
http://www.house.gov/tra...3-07-02memo.html#PURPOSE

There! That's what I'm talking about. Floridiot's FY2003 budget should now be in the hands of the MSM.... some unsuspecting outfit like the NYT's should be carrying a story like that front page as headlines....

At long last, they, the MSM will be thrashing about to find scapegoats and reasons that this travesty could happen.... Time for the BB'ers and Huff's to be pouring them a fresh cup of reality of how the BushCo's just deliberately dropped the ball....., and as Peggy points out... the rage will well up and hammer those SOB's right to the wall!!

Onward!!! Connect the dots!!
(Oh, and for someone that might wonder that we would blame Bush for the weather.... Oh, did you miss the memo on the Kyoto treaty and his complete denial that there is a global warming problem.....?)
Gh

#18 winterpatriot
Thanks for the reply, and thanks for not using judgemental terms with me.

What I want to respond to is that I'm NOT "judging all liberals by one post", or whatever the exact wording was. I have been politically active since Vietnam, when I SAW first-hand the concern for poor folk within the party, and the acceptance of those without $$$. That acceptance and support has steadily dwindled since then, and and become harsher and more critical of the poor themselves, parroting the RW.

In the last two years, as I worked on Democratic campaigns, I was more and more shocked at the lack of even simple human concern. If I were to catalog some of the hurtful, hateful things said to me BY "LIBERALS", you would be shocked-- or, at least, I certainly *hope* it would be shocking to you. There is only so much one can endure, and try to counter with education, before one gives up and says, "You win. Go ahead and dismiss poor people. It's your own funeral." And, it will be, because whether you liberals want to admit it or not, you NEED us.

No, it wasn't the original post (although, if the poster actually KNEW any poor folks, surely he would have thought better of such incindiary terms!), or a followup post which was even more disgusting. It's just two more (plus the obnoxious reply to me) in a long string of insults.

You may be under the delusion that we are disposable, and that you don't need us. I suggest it's time to rethink that assumption.

An amendment to my above post to Winter Patriot.. I misunderstood NOTHING. I did not initially write because I didn't *read* the whole post, or misunderstood his words, or anything of the sort.

That anyone can even entertain the thought of letting people DIE because they live in a red state is unconscionable, and yes, I WILL CALL IT WHAT IT IS. Damned hateful.

Just so there is no mistake.... even the *thought* of punishing dying people because you're angry at who their state voted for is EVIL.

Clear?

Good.

Superwoman -

Joseph did NOT mean what your simplistic interpretation took him to mean. He meant that , beyond politics, people were suffering and he harkened to their call of need. Where are your powers of discrimination? Why haven't you learned the subtleties of the English language? This man was conceding to pity and compassion in the face of massive pitilessness on the part of our "government."

We should NOT have to confront this disaster un-backed-up by a stalwart federal defense. But that defense is NOT THERE, totally abdicated, and our citizens are exposed as worthless throw-aways.

Phil, #1, I meant to reply to your post, but had to leave because it was all just to emotionally upsetting.

I thank you for posting the supposition that this is happening to the people of New Orleans because of poverty and race. I concur, and there would have to be very strong proof for me to change my opinion on that.

As a matter of fact, I've been making a lot of calls to congressional offices, and have said just that. I really let Frist's office have it...... I said if he could call the Senate back from recess for a white woman who had been dead for many years, he could do the same for poor, black, LIVE people who were dying now. I said, he *is* "pro-life", isn't he? These people *are* life, and even the babies are dying and need his action NOW.

I ended with.... "It really is about race, isn't it?!"

I didn't accomplish anything for those poor people, but it felt good to put him on notice.

I really encourage all of you to call *your* congresscritters, but also all that you can think of and have time for. I also told Reid's office that I'm tired of empty rhetoric and this helplessness.

The toll-free number for the Capitol Hill Switchboard is 1-888-355-3588. Please join me in expressing the urgency.

I understand they are now calling an emergency session for tonight. To discuss "appropriations". #9+!@0$%&(@*@!!!! They could drop billions of dollars down on those people right now, and it wouldn't save one life. They need WATER!

Thanks again. Make those phones ring. ^_^

I agree that the neocons would use Katrina politically at every opportunity. I'm sure they are hard at work this very minute doing just that. It's what they do.

I'd like to think that there are no evil people, only people making good or bad (or evil) decisions. And so I don't like the division message no matter who is bringing it.

And it is too early to decide just how natural the Katrina disaster is. I think the disaster will leave us all very changed and so I'll stand by my comments until the water is gone. Respectfully of course...

peg, you have never missed an opportunity to respond to a post that comes from my heart and pain with a judgment. Until you've walked in my shoes, you don't get that priviledge.

Tell ya what....... since you don't like much about me, let's make a deal. You ignore me, and I'll return the compliment.

You are one cold heart.

And, Superwoman -

There ain't no middle class left. We're all either "privileged" or "deprived," and there ain't no middle territory. And that's the way Corporatocracy wants it. Because they want an infinite supply of slave labor powerless to challenge its indentured status.

And if it takes a hurricane or two to drive it home, so be it.

texaslady #28, Thank you so much for your kind words. You don't know how badly I am in need of them. And, yes, that feeling of being alone and isolated is so frightening!

Most of all, thank you for telling me that my voice is needed. I appreciate that. I don't know if those not in my shoes can have any sense at all just how difficult it is to voice these things, unless there is really a willingness to hear.

That was the true gift of Cindy Sheehan. She founded a community where, for three weeks, people spoke from their hearts and shared their true grief and fears and rage, and it was HEARD, and accepted, and cared about. All the pretenses were dropped and people were accepted as just who they are. Nobody tried to "fix" them.

That is exactly why the place was so magical that it practically levitated.

The rest of us can do that, too.... really, we can.... if we can just begin to care enough that we can really hear what's in the hearts of all of us. All the pain, all the grief, all the anger and all the NEED.

Superwoman -

I'm sorry. I don't recall problems in the past. Believe me, I've walked in your shoes in the past, in despair and abandonment. Believe it or not, that is when I found strength anf enlightenment. Don't give up on me. I might be a good friend, lady.

Superwoman #50

My reading of the Cannon post was similar to yours- maybe not evident in my post # 30, though. I read it several times, carefully also. Cannon talks about what he wasn't going to write, says he isn't going to write THAT, and then does so anyway. I can't see anywhere that he disavows his opinion which starts "A large part of me still believes etc. " Others seem to have read/ interpreted his comments differently.

Maybe Mr. Cannon would like to come back and tell us what he *really* meant.

To me, being a liberal does not = being a Democrat, or supporting every one of their policies. I got bitch-kicked on another thread when I had some nasty words to say about Kerry --- not by regular BBers, but by a Kerry supporter who calls herself (elsewhere) kerrygoddess, who dropped in for a drive-by shooting. I checked out some of her postings on her very own blog, and I see that those of us who may have once supported Kerry (and presumably other dimocrats) are considered "far left" and not with the program. I didn't need this to stop considering myself a Democrat, that I already had, but it did open my eyes to how nasty some of these dims can be. You're not alone on this one.

VG

You are just a completely worthless piece of shit. Good bye.

re #50 Superwoman wrote:

That anyone can even entertain the thought of letting people DIE because they live in a red state is unconscionable, and yes, I WILL CALL IT WHAT IT IS. Damned hateful.

Just so there is no mistake.... even the *thought* of punishing dying people because you're angry at who their state voted for is EVIL.

Clear?

Yes! I agree with you entirely ... and that's why I couldn't bring myself to take it literally ... It was like when Hunter Thompson used to call Richard Nixon a "lizard" ... you knew that Hunter didn't really think Nixon was a lizard so you had to stop and say "what is he really saying?" ... I never for a moment imagined that Joseph Cannon would be saying "it's ok to abandon them because their state's electoral votes went into Bush's column" ... especially here --- on this blog --- since we know that the electoral process is in shambles all over the country and many of us doubt that the official vote count for our state bears any resemblance to the will of the people ...

but having said that, I respect your difference of opinion and I also appreciate your follow-up post #51 where you offer concrete ways in which people can help. Thanks very much for that and I hope you will continue to contribute to the discussions here.

You really need to take that enema your boyfriend keeps recommending - perhaps that will flush your brain out - however, nothing will flush the shit from your soul.
But that's right, I forgot. Liberals are wraiths - a tribe of lesser beings and one thing ya'll surely lack is a soul...

Political differences should have no bearing on care for those in desperate need. I don't care if the victims are the most right-wing or left-wing extremists in the world. A tragedy of this nature ought to transcend the partisan divide. There will be a time and place for demanding an explanation of any failures on the part of the administration. For now, can we see about getting these people some food, clothing, shelter, and maybe even a smile at some point?

How can you get any more bitter and twisted? Wow, it just isn't possible. You have no real grasp of the facts and your political bile has handicapped you to the point of becoming sub-human.

This piece is a showcase of mind-numbing liberal-left post-election envy. Apparently, history began with Bush --- everything simply must be his fault (ROFL). Your childish tantrum just points out the 'superiority' of your mindset.

Thanks for the bulletinboard material, ya wanker.

It's not always true that the conservative states get more federal money than they pay in taxes.

California gets $0.81 for every dollar paid, but New Hampshire is much worse at only $0.68. Bush won Colorado and Nevada which get $0.79 and $0.73 respectively.

Considering that CA is incredibly prone to natural disaster, this is an awful attitude to have.

As someone who was born in New Orleans, has relatives buried in New Orleans and has relatives living in New Orleans and the surrounding suburbs, this has to be about the sickess post I've ever seen on the Internet.

Just vile sick, twisted hatred, unwilling to see people as people and not as a political "thing." Because another person has a different political ideology or worldview than you, that means what about that as PEOPLE?? As flesh-and-blood humans?

You're sick, sir. Just sick.

Steven M. Galbraith
stevemgalbraith@yahoo.com

This is great. With every word you and your ilk write, you place another nail in the Dems coffin.

You are going to give the republicans elections for years with this type of diatribe.

things like this give liberals a bad name. this isn't about politics. its about people loosing everything, and in some cases even their lives.
for those fools who are thinking this is someone's fault, please grow up and grow a brain/heart.
-liberal in ohio

Winter Patriot,
YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOT ONE BRAIN CELL!

If only you could parlay stupidity and vitriol into votes...

Jesusland Joe:
Hey THANKS!!!!!!!

ohhh, valleygirl....... I've been trashed by all of this, and your words have me in tears. Please know just how much I need to know *someone* can hear!

I concur with you about your other comments, and could go on and on about it.

But, for right now, I'm consumed with the genocide that is happening before our eyes in New Orleans. If we are to reclaim ourselves as liberals or Dems or leftists, or whatever, right now we must leave the intellectual wrangling for later. This is about soul building, and mending the heart defects in so many. We need to remember Robert Kennedy's love for poor folk right now, and Martin Luther King's resolute support for poor folk. That is where our soul is.

I'm destroyed at what our country has become. I need a hug so badly, and your kind words are the next best thing. Thank you so much for letting me know you saw the same thing!!

Sheehan! (remember when Cindy said that "Sheehan" is gaelic for "peace"?) ^_^

My god, what a simplistic pig you are. Is the world so easily divisible into good guys and bad guys? Don't some members of your policitcal party live in Louisiana, and are thus undeserving of the punishment they're receiving? And even if you assume that everyone in New Orleans voted for Bush, is the punishment appropriate? Morons like you are so apt to cut Saddam Hussein miles of slack, yet so ready to wield the axe when someone in your own country doesn't vote your party into office.

"Because these are red states. They voted for Bush. These ninnies obviously wanted these policies, and they deserve to live with the consequences of their votes."

You are a complete and total fucking moronic idiot. you are saying that Katrina is Bush's fault and this would not have happened if Louisiana has voted for Kerry?

omg. I don't usually give you lefty scum one minute of my time, but this shows the true colors of your fucked up and demented way of thinking. It amazes me how filled with hate you idiotic left wing loons are. it is sad and a disgrace. fuck you.

wow, you're nuts

You're rant about not helping the hurricane victims because Louisiana is a red state? To which party do the Mayor and Governor of Louisiana belong?

Sick, perverted and disgusting; Joseph Cannon wouldn't be out of place on the editorial staff of "Der Sturmer".

My pleasure, shithead!

Actually I wasn't strong enough, you're a sick lunatic. If you were a dog, the police would capture you and examine your brain for signs of rabies.

No wonder so many regular folks think you Libs are morons.

Keep it up with your hate and divisiveness. You're doing Karl Rove's job for him. :plain:

I am speechless. I am embarrassed. I am, as of this moment, a Republican. This site has reached a low I did not believe possible. Whether so-called red or blue states, these people are our neighbors, and fellow beings. I've visited this site in the past to read the posts, and find hope that we have a future as a nation. Now I feel unclean. The lawlessness and ugliness that followed in the wake of the storm are not confined within the borders of New Orleans apparently. Mr. Cotton, I hope you grow up before you are entirely consumed by your own bile, and doomed by your ignorance.

"A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters."

Wow. I can't believe you posted that. What an exhibition of breathtaking callousness and stupidity.

I'm really at a loss for words.

I know most liberals don't share your sentiments, so I'm perfectly content to write you off as a kook.

You are truly a piece of shit.

I will second #76, but go farther: anybody who would think the way the author of this article did for even a nanosecond is _evil_ to the core.

Joseph Cannon: You are the most vile scumbag in America.

#66 Superwoman

Consider yourself hugged! VG

This post made me phsyically gag. Geographic location is a circumstance independent of the elected party in office.

I'm deeply, deeply embarassed to read what I just read.

Ahh, for chrissakes give Joseph a break. A blog is a venue for publicly venting one's opinions. Not every post is meant to be a Mission Statement.

By the way, it's been observed that the hallmark of truly first-rate mind is its ability to hold two contradictory thoughts simultaneously. Seems to me that is exactly what Joseph was doing.

Meanwhile, the two public hospitals (read, indigent patients) in NO still haven't been evacuated. No food, no fresh water, no electricity--and no help from ANYONE.

Cry about that.

Through all the rantings from environmentalists about W's policies leading to Katrina, or the irony of a Global Warming-fueled hurricane hitting a bunch of Red states, let us not forget one thing......The US Senate's Byrd-Hagel resolution (passed 95-0 on 5 July 1997) opposes U.S. acceptance of any climate change commitment that excludes the developing world or would seriously hurt the U.S. economy. Thus, Kyoto was unanimously rejected in a major showing of bipartisan unity before it was even "born". Making it a part of a partisan debate and blame game now demonstrates total ignorance of the historical record.

Openning one's mouth to prove oneself a fool. It's better to keep quiet and let them guess. The odd are better that they'll will guess wrong. Speaking of odds, I thought I'd offer this poignant reminder...

Btw, all of your "Little Green Football" folks coming by, you may want to read the actual article that your blogmaster quoted out of context before commenting here.

Or not.

Choose to believe what you like. *Or* actually inform yourself before commenting blindly.

Up to you.

You, sir, are a scumbag. People in the heartland LINED UP to help New Yorkers after 9/11, regardless of the fact that most heartlanders have ALWAYS viewed NYC with distrust and disdain. People in the heartland LINE UP to help when California is ravaged by earthquakes, or mudslides, or wildfires, or...regardless of the fact that many heartlanders view California as LaLa Land, Where Anything Goes.

People like you are the reason Democrats will CONTINUE to lose elections. As much as I loathe Geo. Bush (for this war in Iraq, for failing to secure our borders, for doing nothing as our manufacturing base erodes still further) I was happy to see him win last year's election only because I knew people like you were John Kerry supporters. Slime.

Wow. This is just sad. I don't think you can actually sink any lower. The only solace I can find in your absurd beliefs is the knowledge that you are the definition of extremism. Thankfully most Americans will not tolerate this sort of political "blood sport". Rather, I expect that most Americans will do what they do best in times of trouble, stand together. Hatred has obviously dominated you and I refuse to return that emotion. Instead, I will pity you. And when I'm done with that (read: in about two minutes), I will be doing everything I can to help the victims of this tragedy regardless of who they are, what they believe or who they voted for.

I am Bush!!! I command the skies!!! You will vote Republican or I will unleash my minions, wind & rain, to ravage your homeland!!! I was originally a member of SPECTR, but quit after I discovered they only talked about destroying the world whereas I actually had the power to do so myself!!! Hear me and obey my commands!!!!

Good Lord, you guys are killing me. I'm waiting for the Chris Matthews/Hardball parody on SNL. This entire post can be summed up in 11 words - "The poodle is the black man of the dog world, Chris"

"A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves."

Sick. Still believes many of them deserve to suffer and die. Sick.

"Let them look to Jayzuss for aid:"

Is it any wonder the majority of Americans consider the left to be unfriendly to religion? A comment that doesn't serve you well...

"It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters."

Please, sir, for the sake of the whole of the civilization you live in, get mental counseling.

Meanwhile, Condi Rice is shopping for shoes on Fifth Avenue in NYC. Human beings are literally dying in their attics, on their rooftops, in darkened hospital wards, and in their wheelchairs at the Superdome, and Bush is actually saying, "If people need food and water, we will get it to them." IF?? IF??

Where's everybody's outrage about that?

I read your damned article. You still make me sick.

You're wrong about the Iraq war, you're wrong to tie this hurricane to Republican environmental policy, and you're wrong to blame George Bush for inadequate funds or improper use of funds slated for NOLA projects. The problems there started LONG before Bush took office.

God, this is getting so disgusting. You liberals have lost your minds!!!!

Well, I am a right wing republican making six figures a year and I just laugh at you leftists.

HeeHee

"Choose to believe what you like. *Or* actually inform yourself before commenting blindly."

"I personally am deeply wounded by the thought that New Orleans is a sort of Karma for what was done to Falluja. "

YOU LIKE THE HEAD CHOPPERS DO YA? YOU WANT PEOPLE WHO VOTE DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU TO SUFFER AND DIE BECAUSE OF IT?

you sir are human scum. saddam killed thousands, the head choppers are killing thousands and you could give two shits about them. you mindless un-caring pos.

You libs are vile. Just vile. G-d help us if you are the "loyal" opposition. You have more compassion in your hearts for the Islamofascists who behead "working class" Americans than for our own brothers and sisters? Damn you all to hell.

"A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves."

Sick. Still believes many of them deserve to suffer and die. Sick.

"Let them look to Jayzuss for aid:"

Is it any wonder the majority of Americans consider the left to be unfriendly to religion? A comment that doesn't serve you well...

"It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters."

Please, sir, for the sake of the whole of the civilization you live in, get mental counseling.

Ugh. That some of you actually support Cannon's twisted spew is more than enough to make you enemies of humanity. The fact that your "hearts" are so black with frustrated rage is not surprising but your willingness to show it in public truly is.

Still, I'm amazed that you've taken your tired old Bush-hating shtick to the point where you'd even blame him for a hurricane and, worse, that you take glee at seeing so-called "Red" states devastated. If you even thought about it for a second, you'd realize that if most of the people who died or are suffering in those "Red" states voted at all, they voted against Bush.

There is a very good reason that you can't win elections and aren't in power. It's simply because you're ugly, terrible humans and you don't deserve it. In fact, there's probably not much that any of you actually "deserve" but whatever it is I'm sure you'll someday get it in spades, either here on Earth or after.

Your ignorance is like the aftermath of Katrina - beyond all scope and comprehension.

You sir,are an asshole. You sicken me. I'd be ashamed to tell another,,that you are a fellow American.

Brad,
When the next earthquake hits Northern California, and it will, I want you to think about what you said. I live in a small city which is hosting 800 victims of Hurricane Katrina. When I was helping cook for 800 souls who had lost everything, I did not stand there and ask them if they voted for Bush or not. I didn't even think about asking them.

But I knew that most of these people had probably voted for Kerry because New Orleans overwhelmingly voted for Kerry.

You know what, I didn't care. What I saw was 800 people who had lost everything they own other than what was on their backs. I didn't care if they thought Fidel Castro should be President of the US. I looked at them and I had compassion and love.

When I read what went through your mind, I thought about what an unhappy and malajusted person you must be.

I admit I reacted first with anger, but, really, man, I just feel sorry for you. You should be ashamed and you should apologize for your vile thoughts.

I can't believe you Liberals. You are such wretched scum. May God show more compassion on you than you show to your brother and sister Americans and the children of Lousiana, Mississippi, & Alabama.

I know the English language very well. Do not try blaming someone else yet again for "misunderstanding" you. Take some responsibility for yourself and your actions. "For the one finger you point at Bush; three point back to you". You make it difficult not to stoop to your level of behavior. But unlike Liberals, I'm going to use this emotion for something constructive and go donate my "red" dollars to my fellow Americans.

May you continue to show you true colors...Blue with a yellow stripe in place of a heart and spine!

You can't blame Bush for a hurricane. And I am pissed at Joseph Cannon for publishing something like this... nobody deserves to suffer because they voted for an extremely lousy president. Even if Republican leaders did make a catastrophic mistake about spending on prevention.

Leave these sort of sickening fantasies to Michael Savage (who thinks we need to be attacked again), Ann Coulter (who thinks terrorists should have killed the New York Times staff), and all the hatemongers (who think AIDS was sent to punish gays and vote that way).

We should just help.

Uninspiring speeches and extended vacations aside, I am grateful that the President delegated the relief effort to men who can handle the job:

Clinton and Bush Sr.!

I only feel bad that we can't really rely on our president for such an important job.

Well, that's it. The last straw. I can't be a Democrat anymore after reading this...

Absolutely disgusting and repugnant.

Did any of these wienerheads even read the article before posting vitriol ?

Just wondering

Whoa!!! Can't you just feel the LOVE in this room??

You all are like the proverbial horde coming down one side of the street. Mr. Cannon is coming down the other side of the street. And I'm the guy in the middle holding the sign that reads a warning to both sides: "PREPARE TO MEET THY DOOM."

"Can't we all... just... get along?" - Rodney King

I'll just go now and sit in a corner singing... "PEACE and LOVE."

I read it and I stand by what I said.

Wow, that was one of the most hateful and stupid things I have ever read. If that represents widespread opinion among the Left, it is no wonder they cannot win an election--they are not fit to govern.

Hmmm, if we did not prosecute the war in Iraq the hurricane wouldn't have come? If Gore or Kerry had won, Louisiana would have better prepared?

It's instructive that the only people asking if the hurricane victims are Republicans or Democrats, black or white are Leftists.

God help the victims of Katrina if they had to depend on the compassion of liberals.

Please, please leave. There has GOT to be another country on Earth where you'd be happier than you are here. If you truly believe what you wrote here, then I beg you to go find somewhere else to live. I recommend The Sudan.

Guys like you are a GODSEND to the conservative movement. I like to circulate posts like this to the few people I know who don't think the Dems have gone insane.

Keep up the good work!

Bush has done an outstanding job of dividing this country. Yes, the liberals pointed to this disaster as being in a red state... only hoping that people would wake up an realize that government's policies have effects on people's lives. We have to listen to the people running for office and hear their priorities. Bush's were for tax cuts because his class was burdened. They needed a tag day...and those that supported war should also not have to be burdened with paying for it. Health care is not in crisis in this country because his supporters have health care. The liberals only hope the Bush supporters realize that his policies left New Orleans vulnerable for his other priorities...yet, the oil refinery business is taking a serious hit due to the negligence of Bush priorities...this is not going to go over well with the majority of the country. Yes, the poor in New Orleans have taken the hardest hit...but this time the rest of us are going to have to share in the negligence of Bush policy...not just the volunteers sent to Iraq.
Too many of us saw this coming and tried to stop it ...Please forgive those that are angry...it is not going to help us as a country. The hard times are coming and we have to help each other through.

As for red staters leeching off the blue states, don't forget my friend that in your blue state it is the republicans who start the businesses, run the businesses, and hire the leftist workers and unionists to work at the business. It always the leftists who leach off the productive members of society--you think the 75% democratic portion of Manhattan does not owe its sustenance and employment to the 25% republicans running the show and starting businesses?

You are an idiot.

Thank you MrBluesky and Floridiot! Suddenly it was like the floodgates opened and the Trolls came a swarmin'!

Wow Barry, Kitch, Disappointed, Sloan, Sezwho, Bradkiller, DCLaw, BKDIWLD, Dimetrius...... et al.
Did the BushCo pay you guys to rush out and jamb the actual discussion with as much vitriol and bile as they flooded New Orleans with, as a way to distract everyone from the real story behind this story? I guess that would be the best Rovian way to confuse and distort and send everyone off in every direction.

Hang in there! We all really know what Mr. Cannon was trying to say. And he sure wasn't saying that those there now were to die you silly Rovian saps.
Amazing!
Gh

Be carefull. we people in the red states may stop sending you people in california the food we produce and the water you drink.

What makes me so mad is that I'm watching my devastated home town of New Orleans on TV in Columbus,OH, and the people are begging for food and water. I want to know why we can drop a bomb at a drop of a hat in Iraq, yet we cant drop water and supplies into the city by copter. Granted there are some crazy people in N.O., but for God's sake, just drop the water and supplies. Bush and FEMA has dragged their feet on this one.

Too bad your politics don't jive with the facts.

Not only have multiple Hurricane specialists noted that the increased hurricanes are part of a normal cycle that was present in the 1950s and 60s but missing in the 70s and 80s, but even if Bush had signed Kyoto the day he walked into office, it wouldn't have had an effect by now, if ever.

And don't forget, Kyoto was proposed under Clinton and ALL ONE HUNDRED US SENATORS including such arch-conservatives as Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, and Diane Feinstein voted against it.

So BLAME THE DEMOCRATS since they were in control of the presidency and the Senate when Kyoto was first proposed if you want to blame someone.

Can't we all just get along?

KRIS --

One difference is that bombs are laser guided and that's not an option available on most bottles of water.

I'm sorry for your loss, but Katrina has nothing to do with Iraq.

Kent

Pure, twisted, malevolent EVIL, is what I read throughout this page, starting at the top.

Funny, I thought Dubya had actually carried Florida thanks to the federal hurricane relief funds (How FEMA delivered Florida for Bush) and now, all of a sudden, they're gonna hang him from a lampost. Oh dear, these freaks are proof positive that some of the inmates form the New Orleans DU chapter ran away from the asylum in the wake of Katrina. And what's all that talk about a civil war?

Don't you guys remember what happened with your Democratic slaveowning forebears? A Republican aministration thrashed them for good. And the thugs wreaking havoc during the New York draft riots? Squashed like 'roaches by regulars who marched straight from Gettysburg. And now you wanna try it again?

Seriously, how long do yo think it would take to transport several thousand combat-hardened, fully-equipped men from an Airborne division using just a bunch of C-17 Globemasters cargo planes? You really want to fight it out with the US Armed Forces and the other half of the population who have guns? You want them to confront a bunch of patsy-faced looneys like yourselves?

BTW, I'm sure someone in Louisiana's law enforcement community would love to hear about this piece of shit and pay him a visit. Just sayin', Joey.

Twenty years of smaller Government has a bearing on this disaster
http://www.house.gov/tra...3-07-02memo.html#PURPOSE

Wonder if the author of that excreble rant is related to Republican Speaker of the House, Joseph Cannon?

"Born in Guilford, Guilford County, North Carolina, moved with his parents to Bloomingdale, Indiana, in 1840. The oldest of two sons to a country doctor, his father drowned when Cannon was ten trying to reach a sick patient by crossing a flooded river. He became the sole support of the family farm."

What a shameful irony.

Re:Mr Cannons entry

Dumbest blog post ever. Please leave the Internet immediately.

A major contributor to this catastrophe is the endemic corruption and incompetency of Louisana governments; starting in the governor's office, to the mayor's office, to the Levee Board and down to the NO police department.

All their graft and bribery can't help them now and the citizens of Louisiana are suffering the consequences.

Dayglow,

Are you surprised? Since when have liberals shown themselves to be anything other than worthless piles of worm-infested pig dung.

Not that I agree that the opposition should suffer because of whom they voted for but despite the fact that Louisiana is a red state, Orleans Parish was BLUE by almost a 4:1 margin in the '04 elections. So much for your logic...

Cannon:

You are below human. Just for this post, I am donating $100 to the Republican Party (my first political donation ever)!

You show just exactly how the left wing is infested with pure egotists, without any compassion, or intelligence. Know that a hundred right-wing blogs are now linked to you. Mobilizing.

I wish you to die painfully, slowly, and soon.

You are a fucking asshole for politicizing this issue! People are dying and you are playing politics? You are a piece of shit!

You are a fucking asshole for politicizing this issue! People are dying and you are playing politics? You are a piece of shit!

Dear sir,

Do you really wonder why you continue to lose elections time and time again?

Or do you just say that? I mean, isn't it obvious?

Sorry, Professor DeLong.

This post by Mr. Cannon was unacceptable. He certainly, of course, has the right to do it. The question is whether it was the right thing to do.

You can read it standing on your head and it still is vile. Unless you embrace the "no enemies on the left" worldview. I thought better of you; but it's not been a good week for us down here on the Gulf Coast (I was born in NO, my father lived in Gulfport, I live outside of Mobile) so perhaps I'm wrong.

Indefensible, sir.

Steven M. Galbraith

Yes, you too can be a liberal asshole.

How about not one more dime for the Big Dig? No more money for any project in "blue" states!

How about snow storms in "blue" states! I live in a "red" state where it is WARM most of the year - here in Florida we do not want any more assholes from the liberal north!

No more of my tax dollars for winter fuel for the poor in "blue" states!

No more of my tax dollars for any more "blue" state problems.

Yes, Virginia - liberals are morons.

to the brad blog:

[i](Californians stupidly give much more to the federal government than we receive from it; the money flows in a very different direction in the red states.)[/i]

To quote the movie Ace Ventura, "Ree hee hee heallllly?" Isn't it easy to say this when a red state is in crisis ? When your fellow Americans are in need, its so easy to talk about the aid you provide. But you are no saint and your a son of a bitch to pull the old gag "look at what I do for you."
But, despite your selfishness and pitiful sore loser attitude (which is exactly like the typical liberal mindset) allow me to remind you which side leans on over-taxing the people who work and giving it away to the lazy.
Its you, you liberal, good for nothing except a hummer in the white house , unappreciative mother fuckers. Its bastards like you smug fucking Californians who tell our government.. "you cant drill for oil, you cant refine oil and you sure as hell can not use nuclear power... but we want cheep fuel, why are you screwing us on the fuel?"

[i]But let us make one thing clear: We WILL politicize this issue.[/i]

Uh... no shit, that's all you losers are any good for... complaining. Will the royal fat fuck be leading you this time? or will you pick some other half assed celebrity ?

[i]Conservatives may accuse us of lacking taste if we use this sad occasion to point out sadder facts of political life[/i]

As if you ever did anything that could be associated with good taste ? Political life is only bad because you don't have a pervert in office anymore. Don't worry, you guys are going to destroy our nation by getting Hillary into office. Can you say the fall of Rome ? because that's our nation under that clickity clack cunt.

[i]If the Bush-voters want Californians and New Yorkers and other blue staters to fork over dough, then they damn well had better take our words as well[/i]

My favorite quote from this pile of horse shit thread.
Hey Liberal Californians... don't forget that line when you have your next huge quake. When 2000 of you sorry ass mother fuckers are buried under your homes, because you're stupid enough to live on a fault line... I will sit in my south east home and laugh. Oh and I WONT send you a penny. My money would be better spent if I gave it to a crack head.
if you want to know what I really think of you... listen to the "Tool" song "Aenima"

Wow....this is sickening. You don't even qualify as a human being any longer.

You really do need help. Your soul is in trouble.

It's no wonder the Dems keep losing elections. The one with decency and common sense are getting away from that party as fast as they can.

I hope you die a painful death.

Brad, #84

As you well know I am not a "Little Green Football" type-- er, I don't think I am, I don't really know what that means, just getting the context as best I can. Well, anyway, you know I'm not a troll. Read my comments #30 and #53. I tried to keep them tame.

Yeah, Cannon did talk about the evidence that places blame for the extent of the disaster in Bushco.'s court. And I agree, as you will see from other comments I've made. However, I did read the *whole* JC post very carefully several times, and, as it stands in toto, it's offensive, to say the least.

As for GordonH's #111 comment "We all really know what Mr. Cannon was trying to say", "we"? Count me out on that one. I don't really know what Mr. Cannon was TRYING to say in this article, and I think he'd better get over here *pronto* and explain himself.

Sorry Brad, this article, as presented, is indefensible. I've been reading since Nov 2004 (started commenting a while later), and this "guest blog" really hits and an all-time low during the time that I've been around.

Sincerely,

VG

You quote material that doesn't specify a date. The budget cuts mentioned in the article are for fiscal budget 2006, which begins in October 2005. It's hard for a budget for 2006 to cause a problem in 2005. The rest of the source article makes repeated inferences that are completely undocumented --- generally, again and again, the accusation that the cost of the war in Iraq caused the budget cuts for this one specific program. There isn't a single fact adduced to back up this rather ludicrous charge. There is simply no relationship established --- and, in fact, the author doesn't even attempt to show that there's a connection; all he does is quote one NO official as saying "It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq." It appears? Where's the appearance? Did someone draw lines? Knowing that many, many federal programs received increased funding in the FY2006 budget, "it appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle welfare increases." That is as solidly established as this guy's assertion.

Have you no shame sir? At long last, have you no shame?

I don't think that I've read a more pungeant expression of the Left's narcissism and intolerance than in this post and in many of the comments thereto. This is the kind of disgusting crap (apparently the result of too much social promotion in grade schools) that drove me straight into the arms of the Republican Party.

They don't agree w/ your politics, so it's ok for them to suffer? what kind of nazi bastard are you? f*ck you.

I can't believe what a peice of shit you are.

I read the whole article. It is disgusting, and you are a pig.

Perhaps we should remember this next time an earthquake hits San Francisco. Not one dime.

Mr. Cannon should just get a cancer and die.

I will no longer EVER vote for a Democrat again.

I am sending a large contribution to the Republican National Committee today.

Thank you, Mr. Cannon. You convinced me that liberalism is the enemy of America.

I just noticed that the top of the page is a request for donations to keep the blog going. I guess we'd better divert our charity money from the flood victims to the blog?

Yes, that is my plan! I Am Bush and I Command You!!! Donate to Brad's Blog, Not to The Poor People Who Voted Against Me!!!! Feel My Evil!!!! Warm Yourself In Its Six-Figure Comforts and Arrogant Destruction of All That is Good!!!! Let the Heavens Rain On the Leftists and the Flood Waters Cleanse Their Souls!!!!! I COMMAND YOU!!!

In all seriousness, my hypocrisy meter just exploded.

Here is hoping that Mr. Cannon gets a case of AIDs or some disease so he can wither like a prick and then die.

I only hope I hear about his death so I can put on a party. I would like to celebrate something like that.

DIE LIBERAL FUCKER!

Jim,
What do you do? The money collected by the Government goes from the people who earn money to the people who don't. If you have a job and are paying taxes, the money you send generally goes to people who need it. To say that money goes to a Red State or Blue State says nothing. Most of the money that goes to the Red States goes to the people who vote blue.

Is this too tough for you? So, the next time you see a meaningless chart telling you that your money is being sent to a Red State, well, son, you know its going to your true "blue" friends. Most of us people who earn money in Red States don't want or need your money. It's the welfare recipients who get the money. Do you want to cut "them" off?

The really, really sad thing is that Brad actually thinks Cannon's piece of shit is defensible.

What is even sadder is that positions like Cannon's and Brad's are becoming all too common on the left.

Actually, "liberals" is a stereo type fostered by the Rove and right wing neoconservative noise machine.

While I don't agree with the originating post as to how it was posted, you would consider me a "liberal".

Well, dear Bush worshippers, it is my conservative side that has gotten me through the catastrophy of the past nearing 5 years.

You certainly would consider me a "liberal" because those on the right and those on the left who have drawn their lines and made their camps, have conditioned you to label me as such.

I wonder how many of you are the same person posting under different names.

HOW DARE you use "liberal" as if we were all cut out of the same mold. Word up . . I don't consider you "conservative", but neo conservative. The Word "conservative" has been destroyed and redefined by the Rove and neo con programming you all have bought into.

I AM conservative some times and I am progressive sometimes. BUT the REAL not the fabricated meanings of the word.

I do not hate people. But I hate ignorance and self imposed blindness.

Hate is a strong word and I pray, that in the UNITED STATES of America, you will come to realize how carefully this has been set up to divide and conquer. This animousity and hate mud slinging is exactly what has been designed and your administration wants.

EVERYONE needs to realize this. Understand Right from Wrong. REAL moral values and "love they neighbor" as thyself.

This IS what happened to germany pre world war II. This IS the tactic they used on the people to divide them into bitter squabbling.

Get over your propaganda induced labels.

(superwoman, I do hope you realize the above is NOT directed at you. DO know I am walking in your same shoes right now. But whatever you do, please don't just lump everyone in together under the stereotype "liberal". Non politicians are a combination of both (howerver the REAL meanings of the words. I do hug you as well.)

The way democracy works: Local and State gov’ts are to operate on their own without the micromanaging of the federal gov’t. As long as state laws do not conflict with the constitution and federal laws, all is well. You learn this in basic high school level government class. Funny how a lot of people blame Bush for not preparing for the hurricane, but it was the local and State gov’ts who were supposed to prepare and or evacuate. If they cannot take care of things on their own, THEN they are obligated (because you are elected to take care of your people) to contact the federal gov’t for additional help. It has worked like that very well in the past. But this time it appears that some people just did not realize how bad this storm would be and did not heed the evacuation notice. It is not Bush’s fault. It is the fault of everyone who stayed behind. Tragic and terrible their suffering is, but they chose to stay behind. And if the States needed additional help preparing, they never asked for it from the federal government until AFTER the tragedy hit. So whose fault is it? Somebody’s Governor, and those who chose to stay behind. Sad, and painful to say. And I pray for them regardless.
Analogy: You can't blame someone else for you almost drowning in an area with posted signs saying “No life guard on duty; swim at your own risk”.
You "left wingers" are getting more and more uneducated sounding every day. It has already become your undoing. That is why I switched from Dem to "American".

HATE...HATE...HATE...HATE...HATE...HATE...HATE....
HATE..HATE...HATE....HATE....HATE....HATE....HATE...HATE...

(I read the post by Cannon, but the above is the way my brain translated it.)

Quite likely the most disgusting garbage I have ever read. And some of you are actually defending Cannon's hateful bullshit? Unfuckingbelievable.

You people have dragged the Democratic party deep into the sewer, and forced former Democrats like me out for good.

You just can't be a Dem today unless you believe a global 'Neocon-Halliburton-Zionist' conspiracy is responsible for everything that goes wrong anywhere in the world, including the fucking weather.

What a bunch of morons you are.

You and your leftist buddies are scum, pure and simple, while you sit and whine into your blog, its people like me who are mobilizing to get down there and MAKE A DIFFERENCE, something you liberal losers know nothing about

Please, do not try to stop this left wing looney from continuing in his rant. Encourage him and get out of his way. The more the left talks like this, the more they expose themselves for what they really are. I applaud them to continue...go on the air, get on the TV, do whatever you can to continue to let everyone see who you really are.

...and you will continue to loose more and more elections and any degree of respect from the rest of the country.

jpence,

Take off the tin foil hat. Put down the kool aid. Breathe in. Breathe out. Open your eyes. Take one step forward. You can do it. See, there's hope even for someone as stupid as you are.

Cannon, you are an effing idiot. So Bush has enough clout with God to get Him to produce a category 5 hurricane on demand. Well, now, that SHOULD scare the shit out of some of you moronicl libs!

Anybody with a reasonable degree of familiary with life in the Gulf Coast states would have to have known that we had an anomalous, historical respite from severe hurricane activity from about 1970 to the early 90s. (Anybody who thinks that Katrina was due to global warming is an idiot; killer hurricanes have been part of a natural cycle since whenever, it's just that the most recent cycle occurred at a time before many of you were born, and before overdevelopment and 24/7 media, so you simply have no collective memory of it.) Rampant development occurred during this time, under Republican and Democratic administrations at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels, with little attention paid to civil defense infrastructure in the event of a catastrophic hurricane event.

N.O. was particularly vulnerable, as we can all now see. But it's not the POTUS's job to protect people against stupidity. I in fact recently turned down a job offer in N.O. because I knew that we were entering a much more active hurricane cycle and that investing in N.O. real estate, let alone living there, would be a risk.

I guess I was more right than I imagined.

Having lived most of my life in hurricane zones, there is no doubt in my mind that local and state governments have to take the lead on setting priorities for infrastructural issues in preparing for hurricanes. Local officials should also set the agenda for controlling evacuations and the protection of life and property. Here in Miami, the County Mayor sets that agenda, with the governor and the feds only stepping in where necessary. The POTUS simply cannot involve himself in micromanaging matters, especially in areas where the states should have primary responsibility.

There is always time to consider what went wrong, and what went right, in the aftermath of a major hurricane. Andrew revealed some pretty shoddy building standards, and led to major improvements in the South Florida building code (the toughest hurricane standards in the country). A lot apparently went wrong in N.O. I have to particularly ask myself why local officials didn't bus people out of the projects and other poor areas and get them to higher ground. I have to wonder who on earth thought that cooping people up in the Superdome --- when flooding, power outages, and loss of water pressure were near certainties --- was a good idea.

It seems to me that there may be plenty of blame to go around for this mess, but the mess was surely foreseeable enough that local officials could have done a more effective job of getting people out of the city.

So, the only reason you moderated your position even a little bit is because New Orleans is heavily Democratic and voted for Kerry? If it wasn't for your "blue state" brethern, you'd have no trouble letting the rest of us just die a slow and lingering death (and by "us" I mean those of us living in southeastern Louisiana)?

Really amazing stuff, there. Very much like Michael Moore lamenting that the terrorists killed the wrong people on 9/11, because most of the people in the twin towers hadn't even voted for Bush. Who knew that I deserved to die just because of how I voted in the last presidential election.

Joe, make sure this message is heard by everyone in this country. Everyone. Because you're a loon. You have completely lost your grip on reality. And everyone who has not already completely lost his grip on reality --- which is about 85 to 90 percent of the people of this country --- need to realize that the 10 percent of you who have seized the left end of the political spectrum, and who may likely control the Democratic party in the next election cycle, are, like you, complete and total loons. Loons who cannot be trusted with control of this country. Fortunately, that message is being reinforced by the pictures we're seeing out of New Orleans --- what happens to a city controlled by liberals for decades when the going gets tough? It falls apart.

Joey,

In 20 years you will look back on this post and shake your head at what you have written. It is the blogging equivalent of a bad tattoo.

Actually "Joe" without the Jesus. The koolaid is slowly killling you. Put it down. I heard it is grape they give you guys.

I will pray for you.

David,
If you will make some kind of sense, I might know how to respond to your disjointed message. Are you alright?

superwoman, I know where you are coming from.There is a wing of the democratic party that is republican lite. It is easy to see who they are. After the '04 stolen election, instead of demanding recounts and fair elections, they were talking about how to show we are christians too. Carter's policies led to the demise of family farms. There is nothing perfect here on earth. This blog is the best, and I hope you will visit often. Believe me, Brad and the good people who blog here are not republican lite.

superwoman, I know where you are coming from.There is a wing of the democratic party that is republican lite. It is easy to see who they are. After the '04 stolen election, instead of demanding recounts and fair elections, they were talking about how to show we are christians too. Carter's policies led to the demise of family farms. There is nothing perfect here on earth. This blog is the best, and I hope you will visit often. Believe me, Brad and the good people who blog here are not republican lite.

Go to the "conservative" blogs and you will read how the owners are BEGGING people to help in any way they can.

Go to "liberal" (even thinking that word now makes me sick to my stomach) and you find crap like this.

It's just ...and there is no other word for it....EVIL!!!

And I thought the left held the corner on compassion.

"A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters."

Sad, truly sad.Blue state, red state, we're all Americans.Whether its 9/11, Katrina, or the next tragedy of an Earthquake in California, or a tornado outbreak in the Midwest - we should all help each other regardless of that areas political slant.

Cannon and Brad are probably sitting on the sofa watching CNN and fondling themselves as they watch the death toll grow.

You people who agree with Cannon & Brad are vile, ignorant vermin.

Katrina is Karma for Fallujah? Red-staters (I assume you mean only those who voted for Bush) deserve to die?

You show your true, hateful selves. I weep for humanity.

The apparant position of the Bush regime is that "it caught us by surprise", that this was the worst case scenario; even the Nat'l.Guard general there said that they hadn't contemplated this worst case scenario. That bears examining. See, they said a few days ago that the levee keeping Lake Pontchartrain out of New Orleans was meant to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, but nothing greater. Not to be a monday morning quarterback but a plan to reinforce the levee to make it able to withstand a Category 4 or possibly 5 hurricane was proposed a couple years ago, and Bush declined to fund it so it didn't happen. Nevertheless, they knew since it was built many years ago that it would only take a Category 3 without failing. They also knew of course that New Orleans sits down in a bowl geographically speaking at the mouth of the Mississippi and that Lake Pontchartrain is up by the rim ready to inundate the city if the levee is seriously breached. They also had the hurricane on radar and knew that right after it finished crossing over the southern tip of Florida it was entering the warm waters of the Gulf of Texaco and grew in strength and would become a Category 5 before it lessened slightly to a Category 4, so let's face it: They knew for several days in advance that the levee was going to be faced with a hurricane that would almost certainly be more than it could withstand, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what would happen next. So they had a few days advance warning of this and all they did was issue a mandatory evacuation order, tell people who couldn't leave to go to the Superdome, and make both stretches of the interstate for outbound traffic? They certainly had to have known that many thousands of the city's residents wouldn't have the means to get out entirely on their own, so a more compassionate, imaginative government might have responded differently, perhaps as soon as it crossed southern Florida and built up its strength rapidly, why not ask, compel, or pay the freight railroad companies to drop what they were doing and send all the rolling stock they possibly could towards New Orleans as quickly as possible, and run constant trainloads of people to a safer location (a temporary camp on higher ground) and when each unloads it could be shunted off and sent back around to reenter the line of empties heading to New Orleans to get more people out. The Army could have sent its railroad engineers to the area to route the incoming and outgoing trains or maybe the railroad companies would have sent their own switchmen and crews etc., either way. The rail line selected would have to be routed so as to not intersect with the interstate as that would be counterproductive having to stop traffic at every railroad crossing when time is of the essence. And that's the thing: the government at all levels didn't really act like time was of the essence. Bear in mind that you can fit forty or fifty people in a boxcar and a cattle car, and probably almost as many in a gondola car, then there are flatcars, etc. You could get a thousand people on a train and then some. How many total freight-trainloads to move everyone that couldn't move? Eighty? A hundred? Remember, we are talking about turning the empty trains back around on another track and back onto the one going to New Orleans again so eighty or a hundred trainloads could be done with much fewer actual trains than eighty or 100. Running them constantly with another arriving right after the last one left full of people would be a hassle, but a lot of lives were at stake. Did anyone in the government even suggest an idea like this?
Also consider, the Navy has sent a few ships including the hospital ship 'Comfort', but why isn't it trying to use what would be ideal for evacuating masses of people, its amphibious assult ships that each have several flat-bottomed landing craft that can run right up to the beach? You could fit fifty or so people in each craft and they shuttle them back out to its mothership as it were, dropping off the people at the ship and the empty landing craft turning around and going back for more people. Then once each amphib. assult ship has the maximum amount of people on board that it can safely carry, then it takes them to a safer port, drops them off and goes back to New Orleans. Granted, they couldn't have the ships in the Gulf in the teeth of the hurricane but I'm saying why not have them ready to go and on the way and by the time the hurricane made landfall they could be ready to steam into the Gulf safely behind it to commence the inevitable evacuation that will have to take place once the levee is breached? It seems the Navy only announced it was sending ships after some lady caller on the Larry King show said "has anyone thought about using ships to get the people out?". That would be the Navy and the Coast Guard's jobs to think about that, so why has no-one from either said anything about evacuating by ship? You could get a lot of people in those amphibious assult ships.
There have been promised 28,000 Nat'l.Guard troops from out of state but so far even the initial batch of 1,600 is still "on the way" with no explanation as to what's taking them so long. It just seems that in every aspect of this the government at all levels has approached it in a halfhearted, lackadaisical manner, like thy hoped the hurricane wouldn't really hit New Orleans and didn't have a Plan B if it did. At what point does stupidity and lack of planning become criminal negligence?

Joseph,

I lack the words to describe your disgusting idiocy. I would, however try to help you if you were in a mess like this (Katrina) regardless of your political views, even though I find your views repellent. We are all people first and should be above petty politics in times like this. Pull yourself out of the gutter and act like a real man.

The sad thing is that the author likely believes himself to be heroic for his "dissent." This article is a tantrum and not a terribly interesting one. I am mostly upset with myself for allowing myself to read it, knowing that it was going to be off the rails.

Mr. Cannon, I won't swear at you or insult you. I'd merely like you to ask yourself if you would say "they deserve to suffer and to die"
to an actual person from New Orleans. If you wouldn't actually say it to a live person, then maybe it's time to dial down the rhetoric a tad.

WOW! Who dropped the cherry bomb in the toilet?

At least now we know what we're up against. Holy cow, there's a lot of ignorant right-wingers!

Molly,
It has been almost all Democrats who have been convicted all over the nation for voting irregularities. If you would get your news from somewhere other than the inmates at DU and Indymedia, you might actually learn something.

And yeah, this blog is really great for you poor folk who do nothing, see nothing, hear nothing and accomplish nothing, in other words, for losers.

What a hateful bunch of people some of you are. And the author is guilty of the worst sin of all. Selecting what information bolsters his claims while ignoring any information that refutes it. Convenient way for him to get all his little pals lathered up and spewing vitriol.

It's disgusting.

It wasn't long ago that I worried where I was going to get what my family needed from week to week, but I'll tell you one thing; NEVER would I have associated with the likes of what I've seen here to speak for me.

Ok, I think the world gets it, liberals and democrats hate George W. Bush. Is that all the substance you have? I think it is...

All I can say is that people bitching about the "what ifs" need to ask: What if they spent millions getting absolutely everyone out of the city and the hurricane didn't hit NOLA? Wouldn't people be bitching about the wasted money? Of course they would. But it doesn't matter because, of course, everything is W's fault..

Even Attila is shocked by such a vile lack of basic human empathy.

Joseph, you are filth.

I love the "your taking it out of context" backtracking. Yes, its understandable that you try and distance yourself from your own words. No, there's no contextual confusion here. As noted by other commenters here, whether you look at your individual lines by themselves or taken as a whole, your words and meaning attributed to them are completely unambiguous.....and awful.

I think you should accept who you are - a very ignorant, hateful person - and deal with it.

Mr Jones #130 What you say is not true. Of the 7 counties that make up south Florida, 5 of them voted against bush. In my county it was almost 2 to 1 against bush. Florida is divided , even with so much election fraud. Thousands of new people move into south Florida every month, makes it hard to calculate how much fraud is necessary, I guess.

"Guest Blog item by Joseph Cannon has been entirely misquoted to you out of context by your blogmasters."

Ummmm...Brad...nothing was taken out of context, nor was anything misquoted. The words are right there....clear and legible.

You can try to backtrack all you want, but there's no way of getting out of this one!

"A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die."

now, which part of your deserving "to suffer and to die" statement was taken out of context. Seems pretty damn explicit to me.
Please explain.

In the 1850's Ireland was in a state of famine. Potato (the main crop of the country) had been struck by a fungus. Making most of the crop useless. The church of England set up "charities", where they would bring big giant pots of soup to street corners, and give one bowl of soup to each Irish Catholic who converted. These pots were so big, that when they ran dry they just left them there. You can still see them in certain areas.

Thousands refused to cooperate.

If the mocking of my faith and beliefs is necessary to receive your "charity", then

I'd rather not have it all.

The "neo-cons" did this? "Ignorant right wingers"? Staggering. Absolutely staggering. Do you also believe the hurricane was really the work of the "Jooooos," who told Karl Rove to use his secret weather ray gun to direct the storm surge at levees weakened by 30 years of selfish Republicans spending money on Star Wars in order to line Haliburton's pockets and help Arik Sharon eat muslim babies? You libs need mental health help. And I need a shower after having made the mistake of walking through your intellectual cesspool.

...jesusland joe said
" Jim, What do you do?" I am the head foreman for a Florida construction business.

"Is this too tough for you? So, the next time you see a meaningless chart telling you that your money is being sent to a Red State, well, son, you know its going to your true "blue" friends. Most of us people who earn money in Red States don't want or need your money. It's the welfare recipients who get the money. Do you want to cut "them" off?"

Listen up pal, you apparently didn't read my original post or you may have thought out your idiotic post. I never said my money goes one way or the other... I said I wouldn't send aid to California as it sinks into the pacific. I didn't say Republicans NEED or WANT my money and your final sentence sounded exactly like what I said but lacking the fact that liberals are why your money is given to those welfare recipients (I just call them lazy fuckheads)

and YES... I want to cut them off. I want welfare tossed to the shitter and flushed. If you wont earn your living, starve.

and before I get attacked... if you CANT earn a living, there is disability. Cant is not wont. I hate the lazy and despise giving my money away so they can sit and get fat or do drugs on my hard work, my sore back and my struggle to either have time for my kids or feed them.
That is at the fault of the liberals and I hate them for it.

I'm pissed about all this crap we are dealing with just like anyone. I am getting a bit fed up with Bush... and I voted for him. And I understand the reasoning why people don't like him or didn't vote for him. BUT... if you think Kerry would have brought America out of this hole and somehow stopped the hurricane with his powers of utter boredom, your nuts and should be locked up. Its so easy to blame Bush for everything that is wrong. But anyone who has a clue knows that our economy fluctuates over a 4 to 6 years period. Much of what we are suffering with is aftermath from Clinton and all the wonderful things liberals like to associate Clinton with were by products of Bush Sr

What an utter crock. Surely flood control is a city iss ue or at most a state issue. Let Louisiana pay for levee development etc.

Enough with the rich vs. poor nonsense. Go George. You rock.

Vancouver Steve

Actually, 77 million was cut by the federal government, and wetlands were allowed to be destroyed that would have lessened the damage. The levy needed help and the US Army Corps of Engineers couldn't do anything.

enjoy your tax cuts (what small amount they were) and wonder why New Orleans was no longer defended.

Rove didn't need a secret ray gun

Your president was touting his war at Coronado when New Orleans was being destroyed, saying we had to protect Iraqi Oil fields.

Why did it take him three days to say "Our first priority" is saving lives?

WTF? Where the hell was he?

The Leftists and the Democrats have shown their true colurs..

As an ex military servicemen you disgust me...

Americans and the military defended ALL americans..

But the lefist communist Traitors have decided who lives and dies based upon WHAT they BELIEVE
or who they voted for..

I dont know who is worse...
The left and the Democrats
Or Osama and sadamm hussein...

I'm sorry, I must say that this isn't a red/blue issue. They are americans. they need help. That is all that is important. To say your reason for not giving is because La. went for Bush shows your lack of humanity. You are just as bad as Bush.

Shame on you.

The Republicans did not shirk from making political use of 9/11

And it was fucking disgusting when they did so (and continue to do so). I'm all for taking them to task for disregarding the advice of everyone that saw this coming, or for wasting our resources on the war, but using corpses as political capital is sickening, and to hell with anyone who does so.

Wow. So absolutely unbelievable, I barely know where to start.

Quoting out of context? Yeah maybe if it were a sentence or two but not when LGF quotes half your putrid article.

Red State vs Blue State rivalry? With most states, even your beloved California, the vote split was 60/40 or less. Apparently you are so devoid of empathy that you can't feel for the 60% of people who chose to vote differently than you did. But surely even you wouldn't be so callous as to kick the 40% who are on your side in the teeth because they happen to live in a state where the split runs the other way? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

BTW, I don't even live in the US but your attitude to your fellow countrymen makes me sick.

Forking idiot Cannon can't even spell deity.

Jesus, you Liberals are mind-boggling. No matter how vile and disgusting you get, you can always shock me anew.

Out of context? Suuurrreee.....Looks like he cut out the middle rant with the pseudo-science and the typical 'all the money is in Iraq' idiocy - seems like he quoted it right on the money.

I don't recall ANYONE on the right saying that since New York was a heavy BLUE area, we shouldn't donate money or time to help the New Yorkers rebuild after 9/11.

So....for you folks, I'll quote your own fearless leader ("Kos") as to my feelings for you: Screw them.

Orion

I hope Cannon will join me in my plan to rape the children of all conservatives. After all, those little fuckers ought to know better than to stay with their evil parents. The more of them that starve in this red-state triumph, the better. Hurray for Katrina! Kill more conservatives and red staters! Rape the children! Let the old people die in the street! Join Joseph Cannon and me in our tyrrany of progressivism! Yes!

Narcissistic men like Mr. Cannon only pretend to have compassion for the downtrodden.

I just posted your fun article on my blog..
America Awakes..

Americans will Help Americans..
REd, White or BLUE...

Because WE CARE

Unlike leftists like you

Go crawl back to your terrorist loving friends
We can get by without filth like you.
Go whine to the ACLU (oh there to busy representing People who kill our file soldiers) Like your Hero Osama and Zarchawi..

At first, it did pidd me off. The thinking was morally repugnant. However, the farther I got into the post and saw the complete and total lack of logic, the fabrications, the lies, the non factual innuendo... I started to laugh. IF this guy isnt a right wing plant, sent to make you idiots who would fall for his tripe look bad, there never has been on!

What part of "I'm going to say "DROWN AND DIE, YOU ARROGANT HILLBILLY SOUTHERN-FRIED LEECHES!!" was quoted out of context, you fucking ghoul?

Lying isn't going to help you any more than it has for the last 5 years.

You're a sick pup. Just own it. You can just tell your lefty friends that you're "pursuing an alternate morality", you disgusting pile of subhuman shit.

You're on the record, fool. Deal with it.

You're absolutely right. All aid should be given based on political party and who the victim voted for in the last presidential election.

THAT is how the best in humanity is brought out during such a horrible natural catastrophe.

I look forward to your paper describing how Bush caused Katrina in The American Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres. The world needs intellectual geniuses like you making the important decisions. (p.s. Michael Moore, Barbra Streisand, and Robert Kennedy probably aren't accepted as scholarly references in scholarly journals)

http://cannonfire.blogsp...-right-i-blame-bush.html

You've got some freaky, freaky friends Brad.

"The Republicans did not shirk from making political use of 9/11"

Yeah, but I don't recall Republicans contemplating letting New Yorkers die because they were blue staters.

If you want to politicize Bush's failures during this tragedy, by all means that's your right, but I'm appalled that you were even thinking that people should die because of your hate for him.

As much as we may dislike each over politics (politics!), let's not call for each other's deaths. We're still Americans, and I would never wish any harm to you or your family.

I am a Libertarian at heart and have problems with both of the major political parties in our country. I'm pretty much a Constitutional originalist and think if it's not an enumerated power, then the Federal Government should "butt out".
Now that my disclaimer is out of the way, I have two things to say.
First off, some of the best advice I ever got came from my best friend's grandmother who said, "Never complete a thought that begins with either 'I probably shouldn't say this, but...' or 'I was going to say, but...'" Mr. Cannon, once you decided you weren't going to write a post about "blue states" not helping "red states", then you would probably have made your point better without mentioning that post you thought about writing at all. You left yourself wide open for attack by your political opponents.
Secondly, I have a serious question that I wonder if someone could answer. Did the FY2003 budget for the levee system actually allocate less dollars that the FY2002 budget, or, as is usually the case in Washingtonese when the word "cut" is used, did it not get the amount of increase that was requested? Also, what about FY2004 that just ended?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can find that out.

...superwoman said on 9/1/2005 @ 11:52am PT...

"That anyone can even entertain the thought of letting people DIE because they live in a red state is unconscionable, and yes, I WILL CALL IT WHAT IT IS. Damned hateful.

Just so there is no mistake.... even the *thought* of punishing dying people because you're angry at who their state voted for is EVIL."

The flood of vampire bats from Hell, screeching and flapping their wings like mad is an awesome thing to see. I wonder if there are more than 2 or 3 of them. Anyway...

It's truly an amazing wonderful thing to see them all completely repudiating the traditional Republican ideology of letting the individual stand all by themselves with no aid from any government. It really is amazing. Ayn Rand would be upset.

After all, when there was no hue and cry as Enron & friends screwed "Grandma Millie" in California and Bush did nothing to stop it I was convinced they truly believed the individual should be on their own, even if they were being mugged and raped.

When there was no crying that Bush had allowed New York to suffer on 9/11 by forcing the military to stand down it seemed clear they still believed the individual should stand, or fall from tall buildings, on their own with no protection from the federal government.

But NOW, finally, they've come to their senses and they're screaming their lungs out that the federal government MUST help ordinary citizens, even Democrats or non-voters. It's amazing.

I wonder if the policy of letting people be robbed or die by refusing federal government aid, as Bush has done for Californai, New York and now New Orleans, has even one supporter. Just like his idea of not having a 9/11 commission should've lost him every single supporter, including the family dog, this one should cost him every single drop of support. I wonder, will it?

The only concern I have is all the hateful words, the spewing forth of nastiness is reminiscent of Ann Coulter and Rush "can you get me some drugs" Limbaugh. How can they show their compassionate conservatism and caring for the people devastated by Katrina if they're so angry? Take care folks, save your energy for writing those checks to the Red Cross or for calling your congressman to ask for immediate (!) support down there.

"As to LGF's misleading update to their misleading item describing my comment here as "an uttlerly craven excuse," I promise to scratch my head and ponder for the rest of the evening what "excuse" it is they are referring to."

The "excuse" you idiot is the fact that mr. cannon makes the comments right there for the world to see. There is nothing to take out of context! so saying the article was "taken out of context" is an excuse for the sheer fucking ignorance of his piece.

He may disagree with policies, people who read blogs know you libs don’t like bush. But, when you wish death upon those who disagree with you, you are crossing the line. The only other people I see doing this are the fucking Muslim terrorists we are at war with.

This a tragic event and I find is so unbelievably sick and twisted that someone would stoop to this level. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Civil War and Kent and the rest of the neocons:

You are total fucking IDIOTS!!!!

He is blaming the red-state GOP fundies and Bush's failed policy to stop the levees!!!!

He is blaming that, NOT all americans!!!!

Amazing how fast a bunch of crazy right-wing freaks spin things to make it "seem" something it isn't.

This is about THIS you fools!!!

Funding for Fema SLASHED before disaster

And by the way, butch, Global Warming is a REALITY. It is the faith-based fundies from hell and most of their neocon allies who believe it is some "silly joke" and it has costed them dearly.

It costed many of them their LIVES. That's how much of a "joke" global warming is!

It's HERE!!!! AND WE HAVE PROOF ITS HERE, AND IT IS WIPING OUT STATES EVERYWHERE!!!! Just because it wipes out a blue city and a red state doesn't mean anything, although it wiped out most of the red state that was against global warming......But whatever the case, ITS HERE AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED WITH DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE!!!!!!

So stop your silly nonsense and chew on a respite of truth. We could have started alternative fuel over 5 years ago with our funding

Doug E.

"A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters."

This from a Californian, land of mudslides, fires and earthquakes. Awful lot of money comes to help people like you out when something bad happens over there, and you deign to say "don't help, they voted against the way I wanted them to"?

You're gonna need to get your Tiger Balm out, pal, because you really should just take this post, print it out, fold it until it's all sharp corners, then stick it straight up where your head is at.

...and as far as 'taking it out of context' goes, well, perhaps that'd be a good excuse IF THE SUBSTANCE OF THE POST WASN'T RIGHT THERE. That's what LGF termed "a craven excuse," Mr. Brad.

It seems that reading comprehension, as well as any sense of morals, is beyond the both of you.

Hope you don't believe in karma.

Sorry to puncture a hole in your theory, but there is absolutely no scientific evidence whatsoever that global warming is caused by human activity. The earth has been cooling and warming over time for millenia, even before there were humans. It is a natural phenomenon.

Keep it up lefties! You're just helping to ensure that you and your ilk will stay out of power for the foreseeable future. But I think deep down on some subliminal level, that’s exactly what you want. I think that behind closed doors, each of you moonbats breaths a sigh of relief each time republicans win. Why? Because winning elections means you’ll actually have to govern. And it’s just so much easier and comfortable to sit on the sidelines and dream of utopian socialist fantasies that will never actually come through, isn’t it? Could you possibly be any more pathetic?

Gary: Shut the hell up THERE IS NO EVIDENCE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!

There is PROVEN studies asshole, why don't you go and test the water at the gulf and atlantic!?????

It is heating up, and constantly getting WARMER!!!

This is proven, PROVEN to be caused by greenhouse gas emissions coming from cars and SUVs who all run on oil gasoline!!!!!!

ITS CLOGGED UP THE ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE!!!! It has changed the weather, along with H.A.A.R.P!

It has changed the weather completely and PERMANENTLY!!!!! And nothing will make it go away!!

As for you Kraig Left of Civil War YOU ARE A TOTAL FUCKING HYPOCRITE.

You call out death to all liberals asshole, when you misread what Joe Cannon even said and then you call for everyone to get their guns.

There's arleady been a number of people that have killed eachother because of your bullshit HATE SPEW!!!!! Joseph Cannon was just venting, whats next you going to call them all NIGGERS?!?

There's lots of RACISM in the south, so much FUCKING RACISM that its people like you who start wars down there!!!!!!

And even people like superwoman have been known to be openly RACIST towards black people, all the thousands killed in Orleans were mostly BLACK!!!!! They didn't even care about them, the homeland security called them NIGGERS!!!!!

Hey asshole, that kind of reasoning has consequences and so does global warming. Next time you right-wing rifle touting supermacist wants to call death to liberals and everyone else, you just remember your own OPEN RACISM.

And then go shoot yourself full of ephamine rather than kill somebody else or kill yourself, because of all that hate you got from growing up around black people that apparently wrecked your life!

Oh man, your estate and $600,000 income must be SO GOOD!!!!! NEWSFLASH: Bush and his cronies doesn't give a shit about you!!!!! ONLY TO MAKE YOU INTO A RABID HATE MACHINE, SO HE CAN MAKE YOU ALL KILL EACHOTHER!!!

Doug E.

Are you sure Gary ? Guys like Joseph Cannon would have you believe that the Republicans cause the first ice age and quite possibly killed all the dinosaurs to get the oil and keep it for themselves. :laugh:

Doug Eldritch,

you are you saying it is a FACT that global warming is he cause of the hurricane and that "if" a democrat was in office it would not have happened?

and also saying that we would not need oil because we would all be driving alternative fuel vehicles by now?

wow, you are smart.

in regards to funding, wasn't there funding for 8 or so years (during the Clinton years) after the floods of 93? why did they not fix them right away? It is a failure, but to blame your American enemies is beyond the pale.

You want so bad to blame bush for everything and it is so shallow that it makes you look the fool. This is a tragic event that NO ONE could have foreseen. But you insist on playing the blame game. That’s just like a lib loon for ya'. Elitist mentality, thinking you are above others who don’t think like you do.

oh and ASSHOLE, for the record, the "right-wingers" are not here bashing your dumbass because of that article and your "proof" that it’s bush’s fault. Don’t be so full of yourself we all have heard it for 5 years, every fucking day. We are here because the writer of this post seemed ok seeing people suffer and die because "they deserved it" for voting red.

Otherwise any sane person would bypass this crap blog just like the 1000 other crappy liberal lunatic blogs on the internet. This post just showed in plain view the complete and total sickness that is infesting the democratic party.

Sorry, Doug. You are wrong. Yes, global warming is occurring. There is no scientific proof that it is caused by greenhouse gasses. First of all, about 50 - 60 years ago we were concerned about global cooling. Now it is global warming. If you check some scientific sites on this subject, while you will get some mixed opinions, you will find that the predominant point of view of most scientists is that global cooling and global warming has been occurring for thousands, if not millions of years. It is a phenomenom that occurs naturally, and even occurred before the existence of human beings. It is not the end of the planet, and when this cycle of global warming ends we will then be concerned about global cooling, which will certainly occur.

Check it out.

And, by the way, is it not possible for you to reply in a civil tone?

Sick... Simply sick.

Yep, read the whole thing in context.

Still sick.

Mike, your ass-buddy Tom DeLay is calling you, why don't you go back to make-believe land and join him raping the country of its tax cuts?

http://dailydelay.blogspot.com

After all you are completely oblivious to reality, and happen to have missed the last two elections were stolen anyway. What kind of crazy alice in the looking glass world do YOU live in????

Linked Here

Do you seriously believe the bullshit MORAL VALUES line that is equivalent of thousands of racistly supressed votes for black people? RACISTLY OPRESSED SO THEY CAN'T EVEN VOTE? HAVE THEIR VOTES PURGED? And it never stopped there and yet you're proud, that's your bullshit game huh?

Doug

The alleged "hurricane" the reich-wingers are whimsically calling "Katrina" was actually caused by a micro-nuke planted in the ocean by a neocon warship.

The plan was to give cover for hiking up the prices at the gas pump so the neocons could line their pockets at the expense of the poor working class.

No doubt the Jews had something to do with it as well. Though even the cunning Jews are but pawns of the Illuminati, who are the real puppetmasters.

I know it may be hard for some of the LGF trolls to understand... however, we regulars at this blog are motivated by saving our democracy.

Our motives are true. We truly believe that this republic is being threatened.

I like to quote this line from the most recent Star Wars movie because it is so true and speaks to my own motive for being on this blog:

"My loyalty is to the Republic.... to DEMOCRACY" - Obi Wan Kenobi

:angry: Liberals have truly lost their minds. It is now complete. Where are the obvious questions??? Questions that supercede liberal & conservative. Questions like, "why didn't the city of New Orleans actually improve on the levies?" It's not like this was an unknown situation. This possibility has been known about for a while. New Orleans lives below sea level. Every Mayor of New Orleans and every governor of the state should be ashamed of themselves for not improving the levies and having other plans for flooding in place. They should have been improving the levies every year since they were built! The city is below sea level--for those of you liberals with little, or no, brain cells left, that means that the ocean is at a higher altitude than the city.
As for government help, it Bush had step in with troops, you would have complained about state's rights and stuff. You just hate Bush, and you are using this to voice your anger even more. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I believe we the people have more of a responcibility to help the people out with our money, supplies, manpower, etc. without the governement taking out it's large share for the overhead of overpaid government politians! Grow up liberals and start helping out instead of whining and complaining. Start offering positive improvements, or you will disappear into the history of wasted chances. I agree with Superwoman, liberals need to grow a heart. All modern day liberal actions show no aspect of caring about poor people. It's all whining about Bush, and little else. At least, Bill Clinton knows when to shut up and help out, and he was the worst President ever!
It's time to grow up!!!!

Mr. Blue Sky....a question.

Please describe for me in a couple of sentences how our republic is being threatened, and by whom.

Thank you.

"Please describe for me in a couple of sentences how our republic is being threatened, and by whom."

Dude, it's the Ewoks! They have run amok.

#209 Doug,

Hey Doc., I think it's time for you to rein it in on those comments. Whatever truth there may be to the substance of your comments, your foul badass language is getting in the way of your message big time.

Mr. Blue Sky...

If your arguement is supported by quoting Star Wars, you're beyond help anyway.

Well then, call Luke Skywalker and have him and the Jedi Knights take care of the problem!

Dear BradBlog,

Fuck you.

Bush called the Governor - a democrat no less - and told her to declare a state of emergency the day before the hurricane hit. He did the same thing with Texas and Florida and Alabama, thereby freeing up federal emergency aid funds before the storm. He triggered the National Response Plan, which provided for a cabinet level task force, the day the hurricane hit. There are seven fucking cabinet secretaries, and their departments - that’s one half of the entire federal government - on the case. Bush also addressed the nation at 3:00 PM, three hours before your diatribe about his lack of an address to the nation. As usual, the networks (other than CNN and FAUX (ha ha)) couldn’t be bothered to cover it. So it’s Bush’s fault you didn’t hear the address, I suppose.

You know why FEMA doesn’t run the national response system? Because FEMA isn’t a warmaking or security agency, it’s a handout and coordination agency. Post 9/11, the national response system was brought under closer control of the National Security Counsel and the Homeland Security Counsel, to allow better, faster, more global response to disasters. That’s why seven fucking cabinet secretaries are on the case, not just the several thousand FEMA employees. That’s why HHS is putting together massive pharmaceutical packages to stave off cholera, plague & diptheria, rather than letting FEMA go around and beg for aid. That’s why the Secretary of Homeland Security is out front, rather than a guy from a sub-cabinet level agency. That’s why DHS and a major command of DOD, NORTHCOM, are working on the problem. And for what it’s worth, FEMA had a chance to work on the integrated national plan, and basically begged off. Contrary to what Drum’s poster claims, they didn’t get subsumed, they chose instead to remain as independent as possible. They decided that they did well with response, but probably didn’t belong in the national security planning arena - they thought that was more the business of DOD and DHS; the NSC and HSC.

Normally, I live in D.C. All the feds I know are being canvassed, and asked to volunteer for a long deployment to the affected areas, where they will give up their comfy digs around the beltway, and probably live in tents, without air conditioning, decent food or water, in order to help out. Should we perhaps also stand down the DOD, FAA, and FDA, and direct them to respond? I’d argue that there is a country to be run, half the federal government is working on the problem, while the rest of it will work double time to make sure national security, safe air travel, food safety, and the economy don’t run into a brick wall.

Just because you haven’t a clue about what is happening in the real world, just because you don’t see the wheels turning, doesn’t mean that things aren’t happening. I am certain that had Bush spoken sooner than he did - yesterday at 3:00 PM, three hours before your comment - you would have no doubt criticized him as taking political advantage of the situation. There is no winning for anybody who disagrees with you or your type politically, and I’m sick of it. You aren’t worth talking to, because everything is filtered through your pathetic lens of Bush hatred. A sparrow does not fall from the sky in your world, but for a fiendish Bush conspiracy, Halliburton pollution, and Rove-led plot.

Fuck you, and the rest of you sorry motherfuckers that will use any excuse for some political gain, or to vent your dissatisfaction with your pathetic life at the President, whether he’s at fault or not. I’m sick of your half-witted attempts at reasoning and commentary.

And for the record, from 1850 to the present, we’ve averaged roughly 6 Cat 4 / Cat 5 hurricanes per year. Since the early 1990s, we’ve averaged roughly three such hurricanes per year. Take your global warming / Kyoto theory, and shove it up your ass.

And while you’re at it… Fuck you.

Dear Mr. Aminoff,

Thanks for asking.

I first heard of Brad Blog last December when Mr. Friedman, the owner, uncovered a vote rigging scandal of last year's presidential election.

At first I refused to believe it, saying that it was merely a conspiracy. However, as time went on, there was a plethora of supporting incidents. Just check out Brad's archives as the story develops.

Mr. Curtis, the computer programmer who wrote the vote flipping code, admitted to this under oath before the House ad hoc Judiciary Commitee. Later, he took a lie detector, which he passed.

John Kerry won the election by an estimated 1.75 million votes... before Mr. Curtis flipped the votes. According to researchers at UC Berkley, the odds of what occured on election night by random chance was approximately 250 million to 1. In other words, you are 250 times more likely to get struck by lightning than to have Bush actually win the election...and the anomalies occur by random chance.

This is but one and only one threat to the republic. Mr. Friedman and his friends at Raw Story have uncovered a major plot that the Valerie Plame incident is but one aspect.

Please Mr. Aminoff, check out Brad's hard work on this blog. I am sure that you will agree that there is something afoot that threatens our democracy.

Well, I didnt read all the comments but as a 'moderate' I get the distinct impression that the people on the 'right' posting here are much more reasonable and polite than those defending what was written.

Actually I see that a lot.

I, uh, notice that while the incompetent, power-mad, oil-stealing, neo-con Bush is up past his bedtime organizing disaster relief (for his next carrier photo-op probably,) the poor, exploited Kerry/Clinton supporters are burning down the city, looting and raping young girls. You would have thought they would look to Bubba and Teddy and John-Boy for examples of correct behaviour towards the helpless and needy. Oh, they did. Liberals... :rolleyes:

Somebody shoot those pesky Ewoks before they start looting.

Doug - get some valium. You really need it.

Conservative with a brain,

Hey you moron, perhaps you could blame all the BLACK LEADERS OF NEW ORLEANS TOO, FOR NOT FIXING THE LEVEES!!!!!

No asshole, it was the GOP fundie and Bush who cut the god damn funding!!!! They cut it all and sent it into the Iraq war! TO TAKE THE OIL!!!!!

Blame the blacks like a racist but the truth is it was GUTTED YEARS AGO!!!! It was gutted over in 2004 too while the war was destroying Fallujah.

And let me guess it felt good to kill all those FIFTEEN THOUSAND PLUS BROWN PEOPLE HUH??!???

Man thats compassionate cons again, the same ones who called for death to liberals and libertarians. And all the same assholes too!

Yeah that's right, you frickin cons are the biggest damn hypocrites there is. Whether its science or war, you don't practice what you preach. EVER!!

Proof that Global Warming is brought on by greenhouse gases:

Climate Change Facts

Oh but hey, its all just some natural thing....level 6 disasters that will wipe out entire states and soon the country are a natural thing!! JUST LIKE INTELLIGENT DESIGN!!!!!!

It's all Intelligent Design and we don't need no stinking facts!

8-D

Doug

Mr. Blue Sky, I will look at Brad's blog to see what you are talking about, but don't you think that if there were REALLY a vote scandal that some major Bush-hating newspaper like the New York Times or the Washington Post would have picked up on it.

How come it is such a secret that only you, Brad and a few others know about.

Wouldn't the Democrats in the Congress be all over this scandal?

I have to say I have a high degree of skeptism about that. I am afraid that many people on the left have such hatred for the President that they will "drink the Kool-Aid" and believe anything.

LOL

What a bunch of lies.

First, New Orleans is a "blue" city. I can't believe anyone with more than two neurons to rub together thinks that "areas that supported Bush" were devastated.

Indeed, the worst off will be the urban poor. Who did they vote for again?

Next, as you can read for yourself, Federal funding for the Louisiana area continues to this day and was not "savaged" or "eviscerated". The Corps of Engineers have the "wetlands" areas listed as a priority for FY2005.

Nor has hurricane activity "increased dramatically", as even the New York Times admits.

Junk science and propaganda is no way to convince people who can think critically. That is, everyone outside the left.

Steve & Don,

Thanks for proving how openly racist you are!!!! First you talk about the fact new orleans govt didn't do anything, than you call all the looters "ewoks"

Hey buddy, I guess the black poor people who get disenfranchised all the time just aren't worthy of practically anything?!???

I say f*k yourselves and shutup. You got no right to say anything and oh yeah, screw your stupid friends who talk about them behind their back.

Love it or not this disaster affected everybody, as Global Warming proves now YOU'RE GOING TO BE AFFECTED BY IT!!!!!

http://www.ems.org/climate/facts.html

So rather than wait till your 6,000,000,000 home is destroyed completely, you ought to find out what can even be done and actually do it. Oh boy, but lifting a finger for some of you cons is too much right, yeah I bet haha

As for BlackMamba, I can't believe anyone black would defend what this racist fratch did. He flat out had the admin completely cut the funding, and THAT is your result, for the levees which were in place to prevent these disasters. He flat out gutted all the funding and not even the same day of holocaust chernobyl, was strumming his guitar.
LINK

He doesn't deserve any defense at all, go figure that out instead of being a stooge for Bush.

Doug

Dear Mr. Aminoff,

Thanks for bringing it up. In fact, Brad has also proven that the MSM is owned primarily by corporations who are, in turn, major donors to the neocons.

Just check the official record of the House of Representatives. It's there for you to read. The ad hoc committee was held by Rep. Conyers of Michigan. Again, Brad has the story (and you can cross reference with the official testimony at the House webpage.)

But, the MSM is now slowly starting to come around.

Look, I don't expect to change your mind... it's already been made up. All I ask is that you keep an open mind as you read Brad's archives. And let me know what you think.

And, by the way, I hold no animosity toward conservatives. I am also a member of the American Family Association because I also approve of the work they do.

I just don't agree with their politics. Here at Bradblog, I agree with both Brad's work and his politics both.

unbelievable. I made sure to read your article just to make sure, and you "moderated" your position about giving aid to the hurricane victims only because they "went heavily for Kerry"? Otherwise no donation to Red state Americans? And you consider yourself courageous for saying something like that? You're a fucking nutjob. People like you are the reason I left the Democrats. This is the kind of hate that drove me away from Liberalism. You're a godsent to the Bushies.

Poor sad American Left........so full of hate and ignorance.

Doug, with respect to Global Warming, I suggest you read the paper found here

Here is a partial quote on page 16:
As demonstrated in Figure 3, the
preponderance of proxy measurements
show that there were periods
of 50 years or longer in a wide variety
of locations around the world that had
warmer temperatures than the 20th
century. The claim that the 20th
century was the warmest or most
extreme of the millennium depends
on a reconstruction of Northern
Hemisphere temperature over the
past 1,000 years that seems to depend, to an inordinate degree, on a single set of
proxy measurements, and is therefore unreliable. We conclude that the available
scientific data do not support the claim that the 20th century was the warmest or most
unusual of the millennium.

And the right is full of openly racist ideologues, so much for that. Guess one's a hell of a lot swifter than the other!

Video of Clint Curtis, Proof of Vote Rigging

The world ain't flat

Doug E

Turd.

A paper written by some out of neck fundie, that isn't going to do anything with this!!!!

GIVE IT UP!!!! Scientist have openly confirmed, now over 100 of them, that global warming is accelerated and real because of greenhouse emissions!!!!

http://www.climateark.or...es/2000/4th/scnowack.htm

Doug

They live and they've taken over the government. The U.S. is suffering through an epidemic of sociopathy, both in Washington and in NO (the predatory psychopaths freed to act at will - if the stories are true).

There is no leadership, contingency planning or coordination of actions. Sociopaths are not capable of such. They mistake blowhard statements as leadership, have trouble planning for the future, and do not believe in science (either hurricane or global warming science).

Are there any officers out there who remember their oath?

Not one dime,is it? We in the Red States will manage just fine thank you, without your help. We don't help our neighbors in need based on their ideology. We know that those poor people need help & we will see that they get it,without first asking ourselves " How do they vote?" If it were left to people like you, America would cease to exist. You just continue to bitch & moan, we'll get back to you when we have done the work of getting these poor people back on their feet. As long as Red Staters exist the victims of disasters will survive. By the way, how much help has Hollywood, Soros, & the rest of your crowd given? Any word from Kennedy, or MR. Heinz-Kerry yet? Oh, I forgot- we are to judge you guys by your "intentions" rather than your results,right?

New Orleans, a town run by Democrats, permitted, even encouraged, people to build in an area known for hundreds of years to be vulnerable to flooding. Now that the floods have come, those Democrats, and you, want to blame George Bush--Disgusting!

Looks like another example of how the "progressives" are so much more open-minded and caring than anyone else....

Yes I came over here from LGF ... but I don't see any indication of the link being taken out of context. I read the whole thing and all 200+ comments.

This is really hateful stuff.

Doug E is correct in saying that it is policy of the scientific community that global warming is real.

However, it is overwhelming consensus, rather than set in stone.

There are those who disagree with the consensus and their work is exemplary.

However, overwhelming consensus is what drives policy. We should move forward using the assumption that global warming is occuring, is exacerbating disasters.

But, we should also recognize that is not unanimous.

Unfortunately, President Bush chooses to ignore the overwhelming consensus... and moves forward with the minority.

That is completely backward. It truly should be the other way around.

And here I always thought liberals believed in helping the poor. I guess that's only if they vote for the right guy. If they didn't, fuck 'em.

Doug, old fellow, this might help..

#1 I'm Black. I have family that lives in Louisiana. I am VERY worried about what is happening there.

#2 Being Black, poor, disenfranchised or a Ewok does not give you the right to ACT LIKE A ANIMAL in a time of crisis. It is not being a racist to say so.

#3 I am a veteran. I understand a few things about the responsibility of local, state and federal authorities in times of national emergency. The federal government comes on the scene at the invitation of local and state authorities. It's established under the Posse Comitatus Act. The governor of Louisiana WAS SUPPOSED TO ASK for federal aid before the crisis so it would be IN PLACE.

#4 Louisiana had about, oh, 50 YEARS to built levees that could take the strain of a major hurricane that THEY KNEW WAS COMING. So, unless Bush is really H.G. Wells 'The Time Traveler...'

#5 Global warming is really caused by a big honking fusion reactor burning 93 million miles away in space. It's interaction with the atmosphere is also what caused the hurricane. If you ever get outside you might see it; it's hard to miss.

#6 I believe, that after the disaster, Bush has been too damn slow to respond. Got me there.

#7 I believe, that after the disaster, the WHOLE BLOODY PLANET has been too damn slow to respond. Shame on us all.

#8 Right now, Iraq is not the issue. Save it for later.

#9 My home cost about 130K and I drive a used Plymouth Neon, although I dream of a 2006 black Dodge Charger SRT8. Not going to happen, though.

#10 I thought all you liberals believed in Gaia. Perhaps the Earth Spirit had a slight touch of PMS. If so, blaming Bush is not getting to the heart of the matter. Actually, blaming ANYBODY WHILE PEOPLE ARE DYING shows a certain lack of respect for the life you claim you want to protect.

Really, can't you liberals think of anything else to do at this time other than spin up your black helicopters? Cancel that, we could use them for search-and-rescue.

1. Did Clinton ever do anything to prevent global warming, which you incorrectly proscribe as affecting the intensity of the hurricane?

2. As an a Democrat and an AMERICAN, every sentence in this post is offensive.

3. How dare you politicize this issue. In doing so, you are no better than Sheehan or other left-wing nutties.

Don, then you need to stop showing your open racism to your own people.

Most of those looters DONT HAVE ANYTHING!!!! NOTHING AT ALL!!!! UNLIKE YOU, THEY CAN BARELY SURVIVE!!! MOST OF THEM BLACK!

Awwwww but Dianne, it doesn't matter where you build, you stupid fools.

And why are all your racist assholes bothering to claim the LEFT is hateful crackpots?

Why are you over here spreading your own VILE NARCICISSM everywhere and then claiming to help out!????

Oh boy, you guys are helping out allright!!! You're helping out those black people by SHOOTING THEM!!!! IT IS ONLY THE WHITES WHO ARE GETTING HELPED USUALLY, THE OTHERS ARE GETTING STRANDED OR SHOT BY THE ARMY!!! I WONDER WHY THAT IS?

And you wonder why they "southerners" take over the hospitals, and have erupted into a violent chain reaction. They know you freaks are racist, not all of you but most of you cons have ALWAYS been racist!!!!!

And why the f*k should they care, as you can read here Global Warming is hitting everything....its hitting every single PART of your state

http://www.climateark.or...es/2000/4th/scnowack.htm and continues to hit every part of your state, and all the people....

Yet even when 15,000 whites die......the blacks are left in the streets and in the gangs and shooting everything while racists sit back and laugh at them.

And guess what.....other aid, unlike from Walmart, came in the form of 2 million dollars recently. Just to get those people out of there yet no one is getting the thousands of drowned out of there....pretty soon the whole state of mississippi could be gone, and florida next, yet no one really seems to care.....

BECAUSE UNLIKE THE LEFT, THE RIGHT RACIST ASSHOLES ARE WILLING TO LET PEOPLE DIE EXCEPT FOR THEMSELVES. Until their pride is completely broken, and their redneck stupidity shattered to the core. Bank on it, because you've listened to nazi propaganda.

And you ought to remember....Global Warming is a world problem. YOU DEAL WITH IT, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.
http://www.climateark.or...ticles/1999/cooperag.htm

Doug

#237 New Clear Days

I hope you don't include me in the "this" i.e. hateful comments. See #30, #53, #134. Tried to keep them civil, as did you. VG

Don,

We asked for the same thing after 9/11.... unfortunately Bush sold pictures of himself at ground zero as a Republican fund raiser.

I think that, had this not occurred, we progressives might be a little more willing to not politicize Hurricane Katrina.

However, please check my post #40 from earlier today. I sent money to the Red Cross (out of my poverty) that was earmarked for both Red Mississippi and Blue New Orleans.

Nothing was taken out of context. You guys are repulsive human beings and one day will pay for the disgusting things you say. But as long as you can get more exposure (yes we have all seen your pictures at Camp Loonie) you will be happy.

Doug

How does your theory on global warming account then for that period of approximately 30 years prior to the industrial revolution where England had increasingly warm & sunny climate? I seem to recall that, because of that strange weather patterns, harvests were much better for a sustained period and seemed to facilitate movement away from dependence on farming.

I agree that the world is getting warmer. I just don't agree that there is any proof that this is man-made.

But, of course, I am a neo-con; therefore, I am evil, idiotic, racist and just plain mean. Oh yeah, and Canadian. Go George.

Wow. Y'all really want to play, maybe we should. You might want to look at a tactical map before you start talking about Civil War, though.

You might also want to remember that we're the ones who don't believe in gun control.

Doug,

I feel because I am Black, I can criticize my own people. Do you really believe not having anything excuses people from shooting at rescue helicopters, looting TV's, ransacking and burning hospitals and rape? As a people, they SHOULD have been helping save stranded victims and digging people out of the rubble. You know, the way Muslims and Asians and Hispanics do when hit by hurricanes and earthquakes and such all. The fact that you don't think any better of us shows YOU are the racist.

Wrong Bret, EVERYTHING was taken out of context you ***hole!!!!

Joe and the many like him are PISSED!!!! They're pissed and tired of Bush exscuses, or his right-wing racist freaks!!!

You bet you I'm pissed now with the right-wing hacks the biggest hypocrites there is!

They claim the left is all crackpots, while they stand there openly racist and don't do anything about most of the african americans!!!! THEY SIT THERE AND SAVE THE WHITE PEOPLE, OR "TELL EVERYONE TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES"!!!!!

And then you have the audacity and arrogance to claim Joe and company are vile bastards of humanity. Look at yourselves in the mirror!!!! You've been spewing so much nazi-propaganda and been so damn selfish, you have forced this result!!!!

YOU HAVE FORCED IT UPON YOURSELVES!!!! You have forced liberals and others like Joe to HATE YOU WITH PASSION!!!! BECAUSE OF YOUR RACISM, BECAUSE OF YOUR INTOLERANCE!!!!

And you BET they are intolerant. I'M intolerant, and I'm FOREVER intolerant of all intolerance. And all the racist pigs who are bringing it!!!

And don't start with your anti-semite garbage, zionism and jews are NOT the same thing and never will be!!!!! zionists are mostly racist, totally against jew or any of their other arab relatives. They aren't even of the same race, they could be distant cousins but the true zionists have never been anything but ANTI-RACE. And they are fascists to the core.

The next time you harp about intolerance remember how intolerant some of you are.

Doug

MrBlueSky,

Notes with thanks.

Ahem - may I say something here?

First of all - will y'all PLEASE remember that just because someone comes here and posts something hateful and ugly and SAYS they are liberal, left, progressive, etc etc, does not mean they really ARE? Now granted, SOME really are, and people do get upset and angry and spun up and go off on everyone here when it probably would be best for all concerned for them to just log off and go outside or something...but there are some posts that just FEEL wrong. Trust your instincts.

"They" love nothing more than to stir up trouble in any way possible. "They" are avid fans of the master of manipulation, the king of dirty tricks, Karl Rove - and with him as a mentor, there is no heart and no concience.

WE are on the side of what is right and just and good. Do not let them destroy what we have built here.

And y'all, if somebody really gets to you, stop reading what they write! You lose NOTHING by ignoring someone! Besides, I've a feeling when Winter Patriot and/or Brad gets around to looking at IP addresses, some of these posts will be deleted because they are the same person posting under different names - and though dissent is allowed here, deceit is not.

And if you just can't stand not to read something that gets you all fired up, and you just HAVE to respond, go ahead and type up what you want to say and save it in a text file - then come back later tomorrow and read it again, and THEN decide if you really, really want to post it. What do you have to lose?

We are all angry right now. We need to use this anger in a positive way. I posted about that on another thread here

Look, a lot of us have been through rough times - a lot of us are still struggling, and it's going to get worse before it gets better - but it WILL get better - IF we channel our anger into action. Turning on each other won't help.

Tennessee's technically considered a "red state", and my politics are different from most everyone on this road probably, but don't think we don't help each other through rough times. I've been on the giving end and on the receiving end of kindness - and when someone is hurting, who they voted for just doesn't matter.

Okay, I'll stop being "mama Kes" now. Y'all just be good to each other, okay? Please?

Or I SWEAR I will turn this car around RIGHT NOW!!

*grinz* 'night y'all.

Don,

Class racism is still racism. You're rich, they're poor. Why don't you try running around the streets with them I dare you.

And its damn sad how they couldn't even get them out of there, its damn sad how most of them were LEFT there!!!!!

Nobody has any right to call the looters animals, thats racism. That is class racism, color racism.

Doug

Doug,
You are living proof that smoking dope affects mental processes. Read what you just wrote. It just doesn't make any sense.

Doug,

I'm from Compton. Spare me.

I'll have to ask how having a mid-size house and a used Neon makes me rich.

You have'nt answered my question. Does the emergency excuse that behaviour?

By the way the class racism is just as sick as the racism.

You don't have any clue what its like to be poor or run on the streets, most of you rich people have never even experienced it in the south!!!!

Don't talk about the looters or anyone else as being ewoks and animals, like the total racists some of you are.

That is completely god damn revolting. You don't know anything unless you've been there, or seen it firsthand. Disagree with them but never call them animals and freaks. It shows what you're really like.

Doug

#240 Don

Thanks for your thoughful and informative post. If you've just encountered BB (can't remember if you've posted before or not) I'll put in my 2 cents. I've been "here" since Nov. 2004, so I've seen a lot come and go. I have never read a Brad article or a "guest blog" that comes anywhere near (as low as) the indefensible Cannon "guest blog". Hey Brad, I repeat, it's indefensible. And, some people *do* tend to rant, as you may have noticed. But most of the regular posters have your same quality- they may disagree on (whatever) but try their best to inform and educate. Welcome from me.

I haven't yet taken in emotionally the full truth of the NO disaster, but I'm sure that will come soon. I can only hope for the best for your LA family. I don't think that anyone can appreciate what it's like to be in the midst of a total disaster until they've been there, trying to sort out the mess. My mother's house was at the epicenter of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and I arrived there as soon as it was possible to do so. The chaos and confusion that reigned then pales by orders of magnitude by comparison with the NO tragedy. I've run out of words, except to say...

Thank you, PAX

VG

This post makes me sorry I ever gave any money to help a BLUE CITY, namely New York after 9/11. But I promise you, I swear to you you bastard, that will NEVER happen again.

I hate to let the facts trump a good old fashioned Bush bashing brouha, but consider the following, courtesy of the EU Rota Blog...

Keep in mind these quotes are from the Times Picayune Newspaper, not some "rightie blog"...

February 17, 1995

An Army Corps of Engineers "hit list" of recommended budget cuts would eliminate new flood-control programs in some of the nation's most flood-prone spots - where recent disasters have left thousands homeless and cost the federal government millions in emergency aid.

Clinton administration officials argue that the flood-control efforts are local projects, not national, and should be paid for by local taxes.

Nationwide, the administration proposes cutting 98 new projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico, for an estimated savings of $29 million in 1996.

Corps officials freely conceded the cuts, which represent only a small portion of savings the corps ultimately must make, may be penny-wise and pound-foolish. But they said they were forced to eliminate some services the corps has historically provided to taxpayers to meet the administration's budget-cutting goals.

June 23, 1995

A hurricane project, approved and financed since 1965, to protect more than 140,000 West Bank residents east of the Harvey Canal is in jeopardy.

The Clinton administration is holding back a Corps of Engineers report recommending that the $120 million project proceed. Unless that report is forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget, Congress cannot authorize money for the project, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's office said Thursday.

On June 9, John Zirschky, the acting assistant secretary of the Army and the official who refused to forward the report, sent a memo to the corps, saying the recommendation for the project "is not consistent with the policies and budget priorities reflected in the President's Fiscal Year 1996 budget. Accordingly, I will not forward the report to the Office of Management and Budget for clearance."

July 26, 1996

The House voted Thursday for a $19.4 billion energy and water bill that provides $246 million for Army Corps of Engineers projects in Louisiana.

The bill, approved 391-23, is the last of the 13 annual spending measures for 1997 approved by the House.

One area in which the House approved more financing than the president requested was for flood control and maintenance of harbors and shipping routes by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Flood control projects along the Mississippi River and its tributaries were allotted $303 million, or $10 million more than the president wanted.

June 19, 1996

The Army Corps of Engineers, which builds most flood protection levees on a federal-local cost-sharing basis, uses a cost-benefit ratio to justify a project. If the cost of building a levee is considered less than the cost of restoring a flood-ravaged area, the project is more likely to be approved.

For years, the Jean Lafitte-Lower Lafitte-Barataria-Crown Point areas couldn't convince the corps they were worthy of levee protection. But the use of Section 205 and congressional pressure has given the corps a new perspective, Spohrer said.

But even so, when the Clinton administration began to curtail spending on flood control and other projects a year ago, the corps stopped spending on Section 205 projects even after deciding to do a $70,000 preliminary Jean Lafitte study, Spohrer said.

July 22, 1999

In passing a $20.2 billion spending bill this week for water and energy projects, the House Appropriations Committee approved some significant increases in financing for several New Orleans area flood control and navigational projects.

The spending bill is expected on the House floor within the next two weeks.

For the New Orleans District of the Army Corps of Engineers, the panel allocated $106 million for construction projects, about $16 million more than proposed by President Clinton.

The bill would provide $47 million for "southeast Louisiana flood control projects," $16 million for "Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity hurricane protection," $15.9 million for the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock on the Industrial Canal in New Orleans and $2 million for "West Bank hurricane protection --- from New Orleans to Venice."

Most of the projects received significant increases over what the Clinton administration had proposed. The exception: general flood control projects for southeast Louisiana, which remained at the $47 million suggested by Clinton. Local officials had hoped for double that amount.

February 8, 2000

For the metropolitan New Orleans area, Clinton's budget was seen as a mixed bag by local lawmakers and government officials. For instance, while Clinton called for $1.5 billion to be spent at Avondale Industries to continue building LPD-17 landing craft, his budget calls for significantly less than what Congress appropriated last year for Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity hurricane protection and for West Bank flood control projects.

All of the dates on these articles are from WELL before W took office. I suppose if a meteor hits, it'll be Bush's fault because he failed to move the Earth out of the way......

Like I say, far be it from me to let the facts ruin a good story.

VG,

Thanks for the kind words. My family is doing fine, and oddly enough, are taking in homeless families and sharing what they have. And THAT, Doug, is what I expect of my people.

as a former resident of louisiana your comments make me sick i can't wait to point this out post & the rest of the sick posts like this one to the refugees.....

Mike wrote:

"This post makes me sorry I ever gave any money to help a BLUE CITY, namely New York after 9/11. But I promise you, I swear to you you bastard, that will NEVER happen again."

No Mike... we are better than these 'people'... next time we will help Americans without asking how they voted.

Don't associate yourself with these scum.

bleecoz, Surprise that doesn't have anything to do with the levees at all. They had all the funding back in 2001, and in 2003 begged, continually BEGGED for the funding and when they got one part of it voted by congress, Bush & them vetoed it and threw it into Iraq.

So it doesn't matter anymore what happened before then because it was cancelled in 2004. Kind of just like Able Danger in 2001, and that means it was all their policy.

You know what I find sickening the most? any liberals or anyone who stands up to you right-wing racist freaks is viewed as a crackpot and then immediately should bend over and apologize. Not going to happen bub.

I've lived the ghettoes....YOU CAN F* yourselves unless you know what you're talking about!!!!

Most of you south, or rednecks or whatever else don't know the meaning of the word DISENFRANCHISEMENT. Like what happened in Ohio for instance, and whats about to hit Florida: A catergory 4 hurricaine. I sure as hell ain't apologizing. If you want to prove everyone wrong, stop the election fraud and stop disenfranchising the poor

THATS MY ONE CHALLENGE FOR YOU: EVERY ONE OF YOU RIGHTIES

Doug E

psst hey guess what red states out give blue states for charitable donations

http://www.catalogueforp...generosity.php?year=2004

The City of New Orleans had a mandatory evacuation order. I saw Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco on television ordering the evacuation.

I also saw a photograph of hundreds of NO Parish schoolbuses setting in a parking lot mostly covered with water.

Are you telling me that the mayor and the governor didn't have enough sense to use these hundreds of buses to evacuate poor people to higher ground?

They had two days. They had the opportunity to get thousands of poor people to higher ground. You have to place a big part of the blame for these stranded people on the city and state government.

Is the mayor white? Is the governor a Republican? A lot of the blame for this catastrophe has to be put on the mayor and his posse. They had ample opportunity to get the poor out of NO.

You can blame Bush for a slow response, but you must place the larger blame on the mayor for not evacuating the poor when he had the time and chance.

Doug,

Here's a tip on pursuasive writing - adding exclamation marks after every sentence does not add to the appearance of veracity. To the contrary, it makes the writer look desperately emotive and unable to make real points with solid facts and sound reasoning.

You, my good man, sound like a fool.

Hey Doug,

I've been reading and posting here a good long while, and apart from my remark a while back that Kerry needed to be strung up by his Skull and Bones balls/testicles/small brain, I've kept it civil. But I do indeed know all of the badass words- I was/am part of the "VietNam" era. And now I'm gonna use them-

Shut the fuck up you asshole pig, you are piece of shit!

VG

HOW DARE YOU BLAME THEM JLAND JOE, YOU COMPLETE RACISM TOOL!!!!!

Landrieu couldn't even do shit anyway!!!! Neither could Barbour!!!! THEY WERE BEGGING FOR AID, BEGGING FOR FEMA ASSISTANCE!!!!!! BEGGING!!!!!!!

DAYS AGO!!!!!! They couldn't get everybody out because they didn't even have the MANPOWER!!!!!! The result? No guard,army, no help at all. Those ENTIRE days!!!!!!!!

You want to talk about trapped buses, those guards came along and laughed at the niggers and looters and said they should all get themselves out and they called them that.

And when was that? OH TWO DAYS!!!!!! Two days after the massacre had wiped out almost the entire stadium!!!!

Doug

You're right, Dougie...

There WAS voter fraud... unfortunately, it was the Dems in 2004 that did it:

http://powerlineblog.com...chives/011255.php#011255

Doesn't matter tho... this post may still be the worst ever posted on the web....

Doug E,

"I've lived the ghettoes....YOU CAN F* yourselves unless you know what you're talking about!!!!"

I grew up in the ghettos...so i know what i'm talking about (southern projects to be exact)

you wanna talk about pot & kettle "right-wing racist freaks" but then you say "Most of you south, or rednecks " but i guess it's ok to make disparaging racial remarks as long as it's towards whites right? good job on further dividing the races...

oh you mean voter fraud like this?
http://www.ac4vr.com/news/default.html

Doug is perpetrating the soft racism of low expectations. Because people happen to be poor and/or black, you can't criticize them because they're poor/black, and you don't understand why that would make them want to loot, rape, kill cops, etc... You CANNOT expect them to adhere to common decency, according to Doug.

You're a sick, racist SOB, Doug. The majority of their mothers/grandmothers would slap the shit out of those fools...for acting like animals and bringing shame upon their families and communities.

Thanks for proving me right rebel, you knew what open racism was about once again.

Just like this report proves where who was disenfranchised but 90% of the whole black suburb.

Election Ohio

WHO DID IT???? WHERE DOES THE BLAME GO NEXT?
Your points are washed out in your own rhetoric. You are exactly what I knew in the justice department that is totally racist.

Doug

Hey Brad, how do you quote 13 consecutive paragraphs out of context?

Doug,
Can you read? The mayor had the opportunity to get the poor out of NO before the hurricane hit.

THERE WAS A MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER PRIOR TO THE HURRICANE!

The mayor could have used the school buses to get the poor out of NO PRIOR TO THE HURRICANE.

Prior means before. BEFORE!!!!BEFORE THE HURRICANE HIT!!!!

VG,

I see your point.

Doug,

You begin to annoy. As rational thought seems beyond your capibilities at the moment, please understand that not all Black people enjoy being called that, espcially by idiots. So what say we step away from the mouse for a moment and fire up the decaf. And the answer to my question?

WHO DID IT???? WHERE DOES THE BLAME GO NEXT?

Hey Doug, what party was running the polls in those black suburbs?

Here's a hint: Local governments are responsible for setting up polls, ordering voting machines, managing lines, etc...

Pablo bob,

You proved me right at least four times!!!! Now you claim those gangs and everyone of them oughtta be slapped, I bet you never even spent a day outside in them.

Wait, I know you haven't because if you had you wouldn't say anything so racist that I have ever heard

And then you talk about dividing the races, who's the one encouraging the south civil war down there??? Yeah the gangs in the streets, the fighters, and the looters you call animals and whatever else. They don't just get that way by chance buddy, they get forced into it by narcicisstic assholes who think they're rich and tough.

Even though most of the "rich" south is middle class they treat everyone else like dirt, that's what happened in the streets of NO!!!! They were shooting them!!! EVERYWHERE!!!! I will never exscuse what happened there. I don't care what they took buddy, they deserved to be left alone!!!!!

IN A DEMOCRACY, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE SHOT THEM ON SIGHT!!!!!!!! Most of them barely have enough to even survive. Most of them would have been killed. Now the way you have seen it, most of them could still be killed and I know you wouldn't even care. Deep down you're like all the rest, like the confederate of the 40s. But I don't care, I just know what those true colors did to their cities.

Doug

I hope all the good guys will donate again to help the victims of Katrina. We can make up for the lefty loonies, who won't give because this is a Red State disaster. Good thing we didn't think that way after 9/11. I doubt they ever contribute much, other than criticism anyway. I just gave more to the Salvation Army, Samaritan's Purse the Mercy Corp, & Soldiers Angels. Instapundit has a long list of charities you can choose from. Red Staters are just naturally more giving,even though one of these lunatics pointed out that the Blue States are richer. Maybe so, moneywise anyway, but not in the things that count more. We believe in actually helping others,rather than wasting time & money in destroying anyone who disagrees with us. Wouldn't it be nice if they were to figure out the more you do to help others, the happier your life is!

THAT is what I expect of my people

You're the expert of your people don??? To all be like you? Yeah right. And you know what? They call them "niggers" down where you're from, not where I am, and I don't call them that. I don't call them anything but struggling citizens

Unlike who I know refers to them all as ewoks and animals and niggar and every other little label....

Doug

Re: #227 Mr. Blue Sky,

I just want to be sure I understand what you are saying. As I understand it, you are saying that there is a major voting scandal that occurred in 2004 where someone manipulated votes in favor of President Bush and caused Kerry to lose the election. You are further saying that the New York Times, Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and other left-leaning media who would love to embarrass the President for any reason have conspired with the Administration to quash the story, and that the Democratic Senators who hate the President, such as Ted Kennedy, Schumer, Biden, etc. have also entered into the conspiracy to keep this matter from the public.

I just want to be sure I have your contention correct so I can proceed from that premise.

Got me there Dougie...

Have you bothered to check the references on that academic 'report' you quoted?

Let me enlighten you...

"Democracy at Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio"

"Did George W Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?"

The authors of these impartial citations are quoted six of seven times...

Wow.. just wow... can't argue with impartial info like that now can we?

Are you still living in a pre-Dan Rather world? Don't you think that people fact check you anymore?

No wonder you lose every election.

No matter.... this premise of this post is still the most disgusting ever written to the web.

Rebel,

You just proved me right. Thanks for playing again

Doug

Doug,
You know the mayor didn't care about his fellow citizens or he would have evacuated them before the hurricane hit.

The mayor is black, Doug. He doesn't care about the poor people in NO. That makes him a racist. And you want to defend him. You know what that makes you. A bigot!

Doug,

I suppose you totally missed, or chose to ignore, where i pointed out i grew up in southern projects

"encouraging the south civil war down there"
1st i've heard of it, so i would guess it would be you then?

"They were shooting them"
proof?

"IN A DEMOCRACY, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE SHOT THEM ON SIGHT!!!!!!!!"
actually maybe you forget we are a republic & further more in the south you are allowed to defend your self & your property, personally i have no problem with the people taking food...

also why do you keep pressing racism when there is none, is your arguement & your mind that weak? you are the one thats exhibiting racism by basically saying that the african americans in NO couldn't make it on their on & were there fore to weak/dumb/whatever to do anything with out the gov. there with a helping hand to guide them along, I find this underhanded racism more offensive than being called a nigger.

ME #277
Like ya helping in Iraq ,that the problem.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that Doug was a completely irrational lunatic.

How do you know what color I am or where I'm from, Doug? Answer: You don't. But that doesn't prevent you frow spewing whatever bullshit muddles through your hate addled brain.

Doug may be America's first suicide bomber, just because the oppression works him up so.

Joe & Bob prove further how their true colors really shine......

I guess you didn't see the report of the people allowed to DIE??

http://www.boingboing.ne...lack_people_loot_wh.html

You claim the mayor is a racist and then you claim I'M a bigot!!!

http://www.cnsnews.com/ThisHour.asp

And then you claim this after I show you how your own right-wing RAGS portray every single one of them, who's the real racist?

Who's THE REAL BIGOT? I think these people didn't DESERVE TO BE LEFT STRANDED, IN THE STREETS, RUNNING AROUND?

But hey, that was the only way they could survive after meeting Pat Robertson and all the christian fundie assholes who "extended their condolences" according to this news!!

Your people? Right-wing patriots.

Doug

MMIIXX, Yep, I give to every military org as often as possible, & damn proud to do so. And yes, I have military family members, & damn proud of them also.

Troll city

The buses were there for the mayor to use to evacuate the poor out of NO prior to the hurricane. Why didn't the mayor use those buses, Doug?

That's the question everyone with a brain wants an answer to, Doug.

Doug, do you have an answer?

Am I alone in remembering the days when the Army Corps of Engineers was the environmental movement's Great Satan, pointlessly destroying pristine nature with dams and levees? Back in 1993, the kvetching was about how the levees on the Mississippi stopped small floods and left us vulnerable to large floods.

What has suddenly turned the Corps of Engineers into far-sighted heroes, other than the chance for the left to try to pin one more thing on the current administration?

Dougie?

You're getting more and more looney as the night wears on...

That SOURCE you quoted? The one who PROVES voter fraud? Did you check her bio before publishing?

Let me enlighten you who cannot fact check (Google is your friend)...

"My masters thesis subject was thirteenth century Buddhism in Japan. The title, "Kamakura Buddhism: A Response to the Emperor's Loss of Power."

WOW... THAT certainly proves that those damn Red State people surely must die, right?

Keep it up moron, I'll fact check you all night.

You are sick people to think the way you do. No wonder democrats are losing elections. I should be happy to see you self destruct but as an American, it saddens me... deeply.

Doug,

maybe, if you recall from my previous post, we are a republic & people are free to make thier own choices as to leave or not

why do you seem to think that the african americans aren't smart/strong/whatever enough to make thier own decisions with out having the gov. tell them what to do?

again your racism disgusts me

Doug,

I AM a expert on my people. Black and from Compton, remember?

And no, I don't expect them to be like me. I just expect them to behave themselves in an emergency as well as they can. I would expect them to do what they needed to to survive, as I would you. I do not think shooting at rescue helicopters increases the chance for a air rescue; sort of defeats the purpose. Nor do I think rape enhances the chance a woman aid worker will feel comfortable around you.

Doug, two things I learned in the military: always remember who you are and what you represent, and when the action is over you WILL be held to account for you actions.

JOE: THE MAYOR DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE FUNDING, WHAT WAS HE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Ship them all out on cars or let them run for their lives? Take the buses which broke down in the rainstorm and send them on a suicide mission?

I'm almost shocked at the ignorance here. Missisissippi and Louisiana have turned into freaking Iraq thanks to you, my god....

And now you claim the loony left while trumping the racism card. You claim the suicide bombers are going to come back. This is the most sick, f'n racist crap I have EVER, EVER SEEN!!!!!

After killing thousands in other countries who defended themselves, you wouldn't mind seeing thousands more die here would you? As long as it wasn't you. Just admit it, then you'll be so much more relaxed!

Doug

Rebel POW,

The morons who normally post here have hit the trail. They left braindead Doug to man the trenches, and he was no more use than a levee against a Cat 5 hurricane.

These people are a pathetic pack of losers.

Goodnight MMIIXX, I have to get to bed now, East Coast time you know. I will be up bright & early tomorrow helping to organise supplies to be sent to the relief effort by my church. Hope your day will also be spent usefully, charitably, & helpfully to someone in need.

JESUSLAND JOE
Why was the funding cut on the levees and by who ?

I read the whole thing. It's still garbage.

Listen, you can practice deconstructist analysis on your own motivations all you want if that helps you sleep at night, but to the objective reader, this post (and many of the responses to it) boils down to just more pathological hatefulness in regards to Bush.

I have no doubt the NO papers ascribed reductions in the levee projects to Iraq and whatever else they could, given their open hostility to Bush, so pardon me for identifying that argument as a straw man. If Clinton was so gung ho on solving the problem, it would have gotten done...period. The real problem is that no administration, and the Lousiana state govt., and the NO city government, took seriously the possibility of a category 5 hurricane slamming into the coast so close to the city.

I need you to pay close attention here. Category 5 hurricanes aren't regular occurences. 3-5 a decade. The numbers are slightly down over the last few decades, which demonstrates what a lie all this "global warming" shrieking is. There's no conclusive science that points to the relatively small increase in temperatures (about a degree over the last 50 to 100 years) resulting in an increase in intensity in hurricanes. Aside from one or two studies that explore the *possibility* of a connection, the science, the same science that has observed the rise of the last century, has found no significant link between the two. It's a fake argument, a straw man being used cynically, in concert with the awfulness of the current crisis in the south, to bash Bush. It is, in short, dishonest.

No one expected Katrina to intensify to this level. If scientists were expecting global warming to create stronger hurricanes, where the hell were they when Katrina wandered into the Gulf? Why weren't they calling radio and TV stations and NOAA, and other outlets and resources and warning of the potential for massive disaster. No one thought anything until we all suddenly realize the thing was bearing down on NO.

As for dividing and inspiring hatred, you and a few of the posters here take the cake. I've yet to hear Bush once suggest that blue state America should be treated any differently than red state America. He visited (and inspired many) New Yorkers after 9/11. Yet here you are, self-reflexively debating whether aid should be sent. Even the thought that people are somehow different in desrving aid and help because of political outcomes is repugnant. Indeed, one of the reasons American and Britain are in Iraq is because of the idea that Iraqis deserve freedom as much as we do. The same repulsive notion that Arabs are somehow not ready or desirous of freedom and liberty is a close cousin of the vile musings of your post.

The situation in NO and the rest of the area hit by Katrina is appalling, and appallingly difficult. It;s made more difficult by the lawlessness reported in the city, which endangers not only the victims of this tragic disaster, but the rescuers as well, and, if you actually pay attention to the news stories beyond the political columns, has done as much to set back efforts as anything, including evacuations from the Superdome.

There will be a time to evaluate what was done and how successful or inept it was. Now is not that time, unless your primary concern about this whole thing is how effective a bludgeon it might make to attack a President you;ve irrationally hated from day one of his term.

Don,
Try living under a tunnel for days with no food and no light trying to get out. And no one hears you scream, and no one hears you rail against the walls. Then try to imagine how insane you go as you emerge on the streets....and find someone with food, and anyone else, to rescue you and whoever you are with. And before you know it people are shooting and killing your friends.

You scrounge around and pick up the remaining food, and notice a helicopter circling you which looks like its going to shoot. You decide to shoot it. It is survival. It is plain, simple survival.

Until you are there or experienced it, don't even bother trying to blur the lines of what is for survival and what is selfishness...

Doug

Jesusland, you wrote:

"The morons who normally post here have hit the trail. They left braindead Doug to man the trenches, and he was no more use than a levee against a Cat 5 hurricane."

And THAT may be the first signs of intelligence reported among the LLL....

doug,

again i ask for proof that the army/police there are shooting anyone, only thing i have heard about shooting is from the rioters & looters...

Doug,

Now you're saying that the city of NO didn't have the money to evacuate people. School was out. The buses were gassed up. All he had to do was have the people get on them.

Here's the facts, dumn doug. The mayor had the time and the opportunity to get a significant number of the poor out of NO. Why he didn't is a question that should be asked.

Is this too much for you to comprehend? And stop with the racist thing. It makes you seem dumber than you really are, if that's possible.

Capital idea, ME!

Brad,

Thanks for the opportunity to post to your blog. I am Black and a conservative, but your love of freedom of speech is commendable.

Doug,

Good night. You might want to give the voices in your head a treat before you send them to bed. I suggest a little green tea and some rye chips.

I read the excerpt on LGF. Reading the whole thing here didn't change my opinion of it at all.

BF wrote: "Even LGF's reply to my comment is wholly bereft of anything that represents actual information, honesty or reality."

In actuality, that pretty much describes your and Cannon's remarks.

A disaster like this has been in the making for decades. And of course, the only people responsible are Republicans. Clinton didn't fix it, either, but he has none of the responsibility.

Joseph Cannon wrote: "A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters...So, at least, I started to write. But then (to paraphrase the old song) I thought I'd better think it out again."

Oh, nominate yourself for a Nobel Peace Prize. That terrorist Arafat got one, you have a shot. Seriously.

Joseph Cannon wrote: "Conservatives may accuse us of lacking taste if we use this sad occasion to point out sadder facts of political life."

No, I'll state a fact: you are hate-filled and vengeful. In other words, a typical liberal.

"But let us make one thing clear: We WILL politicize this issue."

Oh yeah, that'll help. You'll only show how hate is fundamental to your own self.

Some dead politician: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" Apparently not.

And why didn't you politicize it earlier, like a few years ago? Much more satisfying to blame someone else. And much easier and cheaper. From the song: "We didn't know at all, we didn't see a thing, you can't hold us to blame, what could we do?" and "Love me, I'm a liberal."

"If they say that, screw 'em."

I'll just reply, "No, screw YOU."

Doug wrote: "YOU HAVE FORCED IT UPON YOURSELVES!!!! You have forced liberals and others like Joe to HATE YOU WITH PASSION!!!! BECAUSE OF YOUR RACISM, BECAUSE OF YOUR INTOLERANCE!!!!"

Always, ALWAYS blaming someone else for your own personal choices.

You are WRONG. You have FREELY CHOSEN to blame and hate. It's completely upon your own head.

I'll put it in pop culture terms that might be easier for you to understand (edited from the original): "I can feel your anger. Let the hate flow through you. The hate is swelling in you now. Use it. Give in to your anger! Strike with all your hatred, and your journey towards the Dark Side will be complete. It is the only way you can save your cause. It is inevitable. It is your destiny."

Liberalism is dead. You people have killed it yourselves. What's called liberalism today is a Frankenstein's monster composed of dead and rotting pieces from liberalism and failed fantasies like Communism.

#274 and #294

Don, thanks for continuing to keep the discussion civil. I violated my own good guidance that I was to do the same. So glad you saw my point, however, even if others missed it.

It's late here, so I've got to "sign off".

All the best, VG

Jim C. and Joe,

YOU WANT TO TALK about HATE?

Look at this OPEN RACISM!!!! Conducted by your right-wing media rags!!!!

http://www.bairey.com/journal/katrina3.jpg
http://www.bairey.com/journal/katrina2.jpg

The BLACKS are looters are they?!?? Oh but not black "goodies" just the POOR!!!!!!!

They getting shot at and no one seems to pay attention, sure though, you guys will blame it on the mayor!!!!

LINK
Doug

to the split personality ,explain how "Homeland Sercurity" works ,4 years of preparation and the worlds only "Superpower" has anarchy in the streets.

Doug,

"a helicopter circling you which looks like its going to shoot"?

Please save the whole frustrated writer gig for another forum and another crisis. Someone once said "adversity doesn't build character, it reveals character." For every rotten, selfish cretin taking potshots at helicopters, most of which are trying to medivac patients in dire need ot transport, there are hundreds of people patiently, if frustratedly, waiting for assistance without trying to shoot other human beings, or loot electronic and dry goods from stores. Those people, as hungry and tired as they are, get it. The ones shooting and looting are only part of the problem, as much a blight on the true victims of this disaster as the floodwaters and filth. They don't get to keep their victim status once they descend into criminalhood. The National Guard needs todeal with them and in a way that protects the lives of those who are trying and struggling to mantain human decency during this crisis.

Some looters are fleecing destroyed homes on the gulf, at times crawling over the bodies of the victims who until Monday lived there. These are people who have set aside their humanity to satisfy whatever perverted frustration they use to rationalize these crimes against their fellow humans.

For you to try to support those rationalizations with half-cocked pretentious assertions about survival is ludicrous. Don's got it right. We should expect people to behave with respect for one another in a crisis such as this, despite the difficult situations. That's what being human is supposed to be about. I can understand someone sitting outside the Superdome being frustrated at the government and not having food and water available. I'll never understand someone who uses a disaster as an excuse to murder, steal, and rape...I we shouldn't have to.

Answer the question, Doug!

Well, you won't answer the question so it is obvious that I am right. I already knew I was. I just wanted to make a point.

Goodnight, moonbats! I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I have to take clothes to the church for our guests from NO, have to work, then help cook for 800 refugees before watching my son play football. Everyone have a wonderful holiday!

Joe: I don't care if the mayor is racist!!!! THEN HE IS RACIST, BUT WHO'S ALL THE RIGHT-WING RACISTS WHO PUT THEM IN POWER?

"They don't get to keep their victim status once they descend into criminalhood."

This is making me completely sick. You freaks don't have, and have never had any shame its all about "me me me!!!"

As long as you're rich and make over 100,000 all the rest don't matter. Its always about YOU YOU YOU and "me me me!!!"

Well assholes, I hope you still feel that way once Hurricaine Nexus rips down your house and tears up your lives if thats what it takes. Because those poor people, the majority of those disenfranchised people are more worthy of life than you will EVER be!

For a moment here I felt like I was talking to a whole bunch of talking heads in Iraq. The go to guys

"Well doug, since they chose to be violent, they deserve no life of priveledge. We'll just take all the food and water, and reward those who behaved, with a few crackers. Its the way of civility"

G*DAMNITT!!!!!!!! IF YOU CAN FEEL ONE THING FOR THOSE POOR, STRUGGLING PEOPLE WHO TOOK OVER THE HOSPITAL I DARE YOU TO CONVEY IT!!!!!! Thats what the rest of us do.....ACTUALLY FEEL for those who die or end up on the wrong side of the law. Damn all these class racists.

Doug

MMIIXX,
It works just like it did in LA during the last riots. It's called having a black mayor who is not fit to have the job(not to say that there arn't blacks fit to do the job, they just can't get elected by their fellow blacks). And a white governor and president who are shackled by PC. And a stupid media.

Bugger the damage control in New Orleans is not as speedy as the bush groupies damage control to deflect any short comings of the bush admin. handling of is crisis.

Doug,
You have not read one thing that I have posted. Dammit, I do feel sorry for these people. And I'm damn well doing something about it. And I'm not asking them whether they are rich or poor, black or white, Republican or Democrat.

I know most of these people voted for Kerry, but I don't care. I just want to help. That's what made me so mad about this whole subject.

You just don't get this whole fact checking theory do you Dougie?

You said:

"YOU WANT TO TALK about HATE?

Look at this OPEN RACISM!!!! Conducted by your right-wing media rags!!!!

http://www.bairey.com/journal/katrina3.jpg
http://www.bairey.com/journal/katrina2.jpg "

Before you posted, you might have wanted to check this: 11am EDT update: Wonkette highlights disparate Associated Press captions on "finding" vs. "looting" photos and suggests that racism is involved. Lots of other readers are sending me the photos, too, making the same point. There's one slight problem with the implication that the AP was overtly racist in labeling one of the photos "looting" and the other "finding." The race of the woman in the "finding" photo is indeterminate. She looks Hispanic or mixed. I agree it's still a curious editorial choice of words and I'd love to hear AP's explanation. But seems to me that it's not as black and white as some people are making it out to be.

La Shawn Barber and her commenters share thoughts on the looting phenomenon.

Looting/finding update: Xrlq spots an even more fundamental error--the photos are from two different news agencies--AP and AFP.

http://www.michellemalkin.com/

Like I said, Keep it up moron, I'll fact check you all night...

PS - Moron? Most of us 'neocons' don't consider the AP to be a 'right wing media rag'... LMAO

JESUSLAND JOE
I thought i'd asked "Why was the funding cut on the levees and by who ?"
And what the hay does this mean "And a white governor and president who are shackled by PC. And a stupid media."?
I don't have faith ,I want facts.

Joe that was absolutely disgusting. I feel like I just landed in baghdad and I'm about to throw up.

The mayor is a black man was he? WHATS THAT GOT TO DO WITH IT? Why the hell didn't FEMA RESPOND TO HIM? BECAUSE HE WAS BLACK?

Is it the black mayors fault all the time now for the riots? G*D the racism is sick, you people haven't ever changed!! The damn rich liberals and conservatives didn't donate any money to them at all, NONE!!!!!! The levees couldn't be completed, the flooding was predicted weeks even a month ago.

While you prance around blaming the black mayors all those poor people are winding up dead or worse!!!! EVERYWHERE!!!! The same thing that happened to the civilians in Iraq!!!

I don't recognize this country because of you right-wing hacks talking about "class" division all the damn time. If you were all poor, we'd all be better off. If we were all on the same level, we'd give a damn about eachother and we'd all make sacrafices

Doug

"I know most of these people voted for Kerry, but I don't care. I just want to help. That's what made me so mad about this whole subject."

Classiest response in this entire cesspool, Jesusland.

Doug Eldritch said,

"Unlike who I know refers to them all as ewoks and animals and niggar and every other little label...."

- Look fool, my Ewok comment was poking fun at the guy who quoted Obi-Wan from Star Wars, that's all.

How you can get "Black person" from "Ewok" I don't know, and don't really want to know. That's your problem, that you think everything boils down to race. That makes you the racist.

You have more than just a few screws loose, that's for sure.

Doug,

Do you work? Do you have a job?

Blue Skies,
You are confusing the whole place because that comment was for Don. Don sent me the comments about how his fellow black patriots were animals or ewoks for looting the streets.

Don't look at me, look at your right-wing friend Don please.

Doug

Fighting The Man and the neocon imperial zionist oppressors with their hurricane weapons is a full-time job.

Doug,

I know who you are. You must be Downing Street Memo. There can't be two people in the world as crazy as you.

Now I am done venting, actually I'm not as pissed off at you Mr. Jim as I am at the racist right-wings.

Sorry to take it out on you but I can't stand the hypocrisy of the right-wing lately, mainly I can't stand that hack Pat Robertson.

His fundie business has donated relief to the hurricaine victims and almost all of it has gone to the churches. Anyone outside of that is a nuiscance he claims.

And it really sickens me because the right-wing comes here or there at all the blogs, calls the left loony fools with conspiracies and also claims they are kinder than the left.

And then after that, trumps everything with the racism card. They don't practice what they preach, which is what I can't STAND about the right-wing.

Limbaugh instead blames everyone else, BUT himself! And they openly mock blacks and hispanics for the most part, and I can't stand the damn class division on the right.

So I understand where the blogger was coming from, because I notice that hate and racism every day. And I'm tired of Pat Robertson and his fundies, so sick of it I'm glad the hurricaine wiped out their church.

It just is SO disgusting to me when people claim they "know" everyone and then divide everything by class, poor to middle class and then rich. And then claim superiority. I have never standed it.

Doug

Doug,

Goodnight, and I'll be talking to you again! Remember, actions always speak louder than words.

Apparently Dougie,

You just can't stand that people check your insane comments...

Reality bites, doesn't it?

Still the basis for this discussion, that Red Satter's should not receive relief is still the definition of 'racism'... and the most disgusting posting ever on the WWW.

And thanks, Brad, for allowing us to vent our feelings out on your blog. We do all appreciate freedom of speech and expression. Thanks for not deleting everything.

What a bunch of motherfuckers you haters are!

People are people - no matter how they voted. To try to lay this at the President's doorstep is worse than shameful - it's actually evil.

I'm ashamed to call myself a Democrat. You people disgust me.

If I'm reading this right, the editorial is saying that New Orleans should be helped only because the city went for Kerry?

That just can't be right. I don't like the president, but you can't seriously suggest that human beings do not deserve help because of who they voted for.

The most insane sentence of the article by far though was the last one - "That message is the price of the charity they now demand."

Dude, there is no price for charity. Its CHARITY.

Ok, I have read the whole thing: and I'm still not convinced otherwise.

First, the line, "A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters."

No matter what change of heart your guest blogger Joseph Cannon had regarding donating to the Gulf region, his belief is still rooted in "fuck 'em all, they deserve to die". He admits it, still.

Further, how about some truth squad time, huh?

"Even Bush the elder immediately sent 25,000 troops to clean up after Hurrican Andrew. Bush the younger won't be able to spare half that amount of manpower."

From Reuters, Thursday, September 1, 2005:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The military is increasing the National Guard force on the storm-ravaged Gulf coast to 30,000 and 3,000 regular Army soldiers may be sent to help end lawlessness in New Orleans, officials said on Thursday.

The moves would bring to nearly 50,000 the number of part-time Guard and active-duty military personnel committed to the biggest domestic relief effort in U.S. history after Monday's onslaught by killer Hurricane Katrina.

link

Seems George W. Bush has already SURPASSED his father's number of troops. And, since he surpassed it, logically he has been able to "spare" *more* than "half" of the magical 25,000.

33,000 and rising.

"Because it should be obvious to all that this tragedy was not just an act of God. Dubya and his diety conspired to transform mere disaster into an unprecedented mega-catastrophe."

Interesting. So, Bush and God made an agreement to commit a natural disaster? Wonder if the feds got that one on tape.

"The National Guard was off in Iraq stealing oil --- and everything else in that nation --- all to benefit Haliburton and the oil companies. They could have been in N.O. earlier, building levies, overseeing evacuation."

As of Augsut 31, 2005, there are approximately 121,000 Army Reserve and Army National Guard troops mobilized--not just NG, but Reserve and NG. And mobilized is ANYWHERE: Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Korea, in the United States, and as part of the rescue operations in the Gulf states.

http://www.defenselink.m...Aug2005/d20050831ngr.pdf

The DoD does not have numbers readily available broken down for Reserve vs. NG mobilization. I will post them if I find a link to specific NG numbers.

But even as it stands, the Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi Reserve and National Guard COMBINED mobilized is a grand total of 10,959.

AL: 2431 Res and NG
LA: 3748 Res and NG
MS: 4780 Res and NG

"No-one in the blue states (where the money is)"

Houston and Dallas are pretty rich. So is Charlotte. Oh, and Miami's a pretty well-off town, with well off-citizens. So is Tampa-St. Pete, and Naples, and Palm Beach.

Columbus is upper middle class; Atlanta's got some dough.

What you wish to believe is that the Northeast, essentially blue dominated, will donate the most. Which may very well be true. But to say that the money is only in the blue states is to ignore where some new wealth capitals are (Columbus and Charlotte are numerous bank and credit card HQ cities).

"The National Guard was off in Iraq stealing oil --- and everything else in that nation --- all to benefit Haliburton and the oil companies. They could have been in N.O. earlier, building levies, overseeing evacuation."

Where is this stolen oil? How come no one has blown the whistle on US forces stealing oil--a court-martial offense?

If Halliburton and the oil companies are benefiting, why are the oil companies worried about stock from the Gulf states? And transportation?

You have some inconsistencies there--please revise and extend.

The National Guard would not have been building levees, because the NG is not used for civil construction projects in non-national emergency times. The letting of levee contracts belongs to the Army Corps of Engineers, and the individual levee boards of the parishes affected. The NG cannot, by law, be mobilized to handle civil construction unless an exigency exists. Before Monday, no national emergency existed.

Geese J. Madison...

Don't confuse their opinions with facts.

I've tried that all night and it just makes the LLL madder...

I'll see you Libs on the battlefield, in the coming civil war.

The left just keep digging a bigger and bigger "sinkhole". Now you ramble and rant and don't even make any sense anymore.

BTW- You claim way too much power. Everyone knows it is "red people" in "blue states" that support "blue people" in "red states".

Most of us simply see a National disaster, and people (victims and rescuers) doing the best they can in a situation that is worse than anyone could have imagined.

Why don't you have the same grace as your last President....

"CLINTON: Yes, I think that's important to point out. Because when you say that they should have done this, that or the other thing first, you can look at that problem in isolation, and you can say that.

But look at all the other things they had to deal with. I'm telling you, nobody thought this was going to happen like this. But what happened here is they escaped --- New Orleans escaped Katrina. But it brought all the water up the Mississippi River and all in the Pontchartrain, and then when it started running and that levee broke, they had problems they never could have foreseen.

And so I just think that we need to recognize right now there's a confident effort under way. People are doing the best they can. And I just don't think it's the time to worry about that. We need to keep people alive and get them back to life --- normal life."
http://www.captainsquart...m/mt/archives/005360.php

Now go off and donate somewhere.

There are people to save.

You can continue your never ending "blame Bush" game later (you have over three years left to play until the new game starts). And, while you are foolishly playing your games.....the rest of us will live in the real world and tackle real problems with real solutions.

RebelPOW: Don't talk about any "racism" if you don't even care for all the poor who are trapped in those towns, who are running the streets.

Don't EVER talk about racism. It is not racist to refuse to help a RED STATE if it is full of ignorant racist people.

And the rest of those people are all the decent people in NO and Baton Rouge, otherwise, it is completely FILLED with red. And so many fundie hicks I can't stand it.

As you for the stupid cons who tout shit like civil war, DON'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You'll see all the states be wiped out by disasters starting with the red ones, which are red by vote fraud.

You have no idea how many people are pissed off. Its asking for THAT kind of New Orleans madness and you will receive the brunt of it.

You'd be better off, all would be, in directing every attention to the Bush admin and getting rid of them with your rage as they are responsible for the hate. And the fear and hate combined to try to divide.

You're damn right I won't give a dime to a fundie. NOT EVER, THEY'RE F*KING RACIST! Just don't act like them or practice the nazi ways and I won't get a reason to dish it out.
Doug

Well Joe, you're obviously doing something right because so many right-wing extremists are up in arms. You'd think their arms would be tired by now, but I guess "Sieg Heiling" Bush's picture several times a day builds up some endurance.

Of course, they have to attack you personally because they can't dispute the facts.

(Pay attention righties, I'm using small words just for you:)

The bulk of our National Guard and all of the money to strengthen Louisiana's levees, barrier islands, and hurricane disaster plans got sent to Iraq in 2003 by the GOP and Bush.

Plans to fight global warming --- which contributed to Katrina's size and strength --- got sent to the "round file" by the GOP and Bush.

The GOP controls Congress and Bush controls the White House thanks to Red Staters voting against their own interests. Now the rest of America --- and the world --- has to step in a fix yet another Republican mess.

You Righties can bitch and moan and dogpile as much as you want, but you know your president and your party made this natural disaster unnanturally worse. The blame is on the right, and the American people know it.

It's that simple, simpletons.

S.M Dixon:

Its the f*kers fault who voted for him from the churches, its mostly the fundies who put the asses in. Don't blame the rest of the republicans they don't know any better.

And its also the fault of vote fraud, so dont pin the blame on everyone. Sorry but racism of any sort p*ses me the f*k off now and I've had enough.

I want to see the racism end, AND be purged!!!!!

Blame it all where it belongs, the GOP congress, and Bush Admin for vetoeing it on the tax cuts before Landrieu and the rest could fix their levee defenses.

Doug

Do us a fucking favor scumbag who wrote this blog and those stupid negative commenters.
Shut your fucking ass mouth up! Look at the news... You see how many people are suffering with no food, clean water or medicine. You people are really an asshat!

Jeeezuz H. Key-Rice-T

What could I have expected from a site that's big quiz at the end of the comment section was, "SHOULD MARIJUANA BE LEGALIZED?"

What, you fuks run out of LSD?

First I'll say this: I appreciate that you won't delete comments that disagree with your point of view. Many of the lefty blogs I frequent have thought police who will routinely do this.

With that said, I hope that tomorrow morning you reread what you wrote and hang your head in shame. Many of these bold accusations about global warming causing the hurricane and the federal government not taking care of state and local issues have already been addressed and debunked. You'd see it on a larger scale, but the right wing blogs are a little too preoccupied TELLING THEIR READERS TO DONATE MONEY.

I know that there are plenty of liberals who seriously are compassionate and have good intentions for all Americans. I may disagree with them on their political methods for helping people, but I at least know they have good intentions.

You, sir, do not appear to be one of these people. I am saddened by the filth some of you have been spewing throughout this tragedy. After things settle down, your words will not be forgotten.

I recommend the Salvation Army for anyone who wishes to donate. Whether you like it or not, there are probably some Bush voters wh