Hilarious! EFFORTS by Hollywood actor Sean Penn to aid New Orleans victims stranded by Hurricane Katrina foundered badly overnight, when the boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak.
Penn had planned to rescue children waylaid by Katrina's flood waters, but apparently forgot to plug a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which began taking water within seconds of its launch.
The actor, known for his political activism, was seen wearing what appeared to be a white flak jacket and frantically bailing water out of the sinking vessel with a red plastic cup.
When the boat's motor failed to start, those aboard were forced to use paddles to propel themselves down the flooded New Orleans street.
Asked what he had hoped to achieve in the waterlogged city, the actor replied: "Whatever I can do to help."
With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"
#2
Well - at least the guy's taking the trouble to help. Paddling past a sea of raw sewage in 90+ degree temperatures probably isn't anyone's idea of a good time. This is in fact a hardship assignment. Still, I think he'd be better off just donating cash, except the guy's been too involved in arthouse movies to have made much. I expect him to shoot a bit of film, during which he will spend a fair amount of time trashing GWB.
#5
Ya know,ZF,I pretty much leave you alone.As moonbats go your not to bad.But:"Well - at least the guy's taking the trouble to help."
Give me frggin break,a boat load of syncophants and a personel photographer.This was nothing but a"me,me,me,look at me"excursion.Guess I shouldn't be surprised,aren't you the guy that thinks 70 year old perverts marrying 12 year olds is OK.After all it's part of thier centuries old culture.
#6
R: Guess I shouldn't be surprised,aren't you the guy that thinks 70 year old perverts marrying 12 year olds is OK.After all it's part of thier centuries old culture.
Well, yes - because they're not perverts. Gay sex is a perversion. Sadism and masochism are perversions. Marrying younger women who have reached puberty is not a perversion. Unless you consider the Western world to have spent the entire period before the 20th century immersed in perversion.
#9
ZF, I deal with 12 year old children frequently, actually pregnant 12 year old children. Needing their mom's to sign for them for consents.
I'm late to your discussion without reading earlier comments, but to think a 12 year old child is an adult or can think and make decisions as an adult in my opinion is way off base. Sorry I have to disagree with you, as reaching puberty doesn't equal an adult. Finish school first!
Regarding Penn, photo op most definitely in my humble opinion.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/05/2005 0:02 Comments ||
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USS HARRY S. TRUMAN, At Sea (NNS) -- The Norfolk. Va., based ship will serve as the command center and afloat staging base in the waters off the Gulf Coast. It was scheduled to arrive this morning.
Phase two of USS Harry S. Trumanâs (CVN 75) involvement in Joint Task Force (JTF) Katrina began at dawn Sept. 2 with a refueling at sea (RAS).
Truman received 1.3 million gallons of jet fuel from USNS Supply (T-AOE 6) to support Army and Navy helicopters that are scheduled to embark tomorrow.
âWeâve never taken on this much fuel at one time since Iâve been here,â said Aviation Boatswainâs Mate (Fuels) 2nd Class Johnny Clayborne. Clayborne is a New Orleans native who has been stationed on board for two years. âItâs difficult. This is a larger amount of fuel, so we have to do a lot more testing for the purity of the fuel.â
The SH-60 Seahawk and Army UH-60 Blackhawks scheduled to come aboard will fly to and from the ship with food, water and other supplies for those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
âWe have more than 20,000 bottles of water and more than 17,000 [meals, ready to eat],â said Supply Officer Cmdr. John Palmer, of Lexington, Ky. We also have cots, sheets and blankets, said Palmer.
Truman is scheduled to arrive off the Gulf Coast early Sunday morning, and one of her tasks will be to support the helicopters bringing these items ashore.
âWe are unsure of how many helos will come aboard, but it will probably be between 30 and 40,â said Trumanâs Air Boss, Cmdr. Doug Carsten of Byron, Mich. âWe talked with our counterparts on the West Coast, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), who helped in a similar mission during the tsunami relief. They were doing up to 90 missions a day. I think we can match that here aboard Truman.â
For all the key players, this RAS was business as usual, but as usual, it required the utmost cooperation among the various departments involved.
âIf one of us is tired, the other will pick up the slack,â said Aviation Boatswainâs Mate (Fuels) 3rd Class David Tuttle of Enfield, Conn. âWeâve got all our shipmates looking out for one another.â
In addition to aviation boatswainâs mate specialists handling the fuel hoses and storing the fuel for further use, boatswainâs mates and gunnerâs mates also manned replenishment stations.
âDuring underway replenishments, we always work together,â said Boatswainâs Mate 3rd Class Josh Van Drei, of Valley City, Ohio. âWe canât do it without the gunners; we canât pump fuel without the âfueliesâ and we canât run the station without Deck Department. Everybody has to cooperate together to get this done.â
While the job was routine, the focus was definitely much different. The RAS detail wasnât simply loading fruit, vegetables or soda for use aboard Truman, but rather, serving a purpose toward the greater good.
âIt makes me feel proud â Americans helping Americans,â said Van Drei. âWeâre primarily a fighting force and not a humanitarian aid force, but going to help people lets them see the wide range of what the military can do.â
On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed will lead the ceremonial washing of the Holy Kaaba today, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Prominent personalities, including Sheikh Saleh Al-Hussayen, head of the Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque, and ambassadors of Islamic countries, will attend the ceremony.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2005 20:44 ||
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Arab News
QUNFUDHA â A 95-year-old man successfully passed the premarital test, Al-Watan newspaper reported. The groom wanted to get married to a 60-year-old bride and, according to a recent law, he had to pass the test before the marriage could be approved. The groom expressed his happiness on passing the test and said that he could not wait for his wedding day.
"Back in my day, we didn't have no new-fangled marital tests! What kinda nonsense does this involve?"
"Have a look, Grampaw!"
"Hot damn! Help me off with my burnoose, sonny!"
This is the second time where an old man passed the premarital test, but last time the man was a youthful 80-year-old.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
OK, what kind of nonsense does this involve? Do I want to know?
#2
Just write it off as nonsense. The culture places a high premium on old guys being able to perform and virginity. They also place a high value on exporting terrorism and killing.
LONDON - An Uzbekistan-born teenager on Saturday night became the first ever Muslim girl to be crowned Miss England and will compete in the Miss World pageant in China in December.
Hammasa Kohistani, 18, whose parents had fled Afghanistan, said she was delighted but surprised to learn she was the winner and hoped she would not be the last Muslim girl to receive the honor. âWhen they announced that I had won I thought I had misheard... it took a second to sink in,â said Kohistani, dressed in an ivory white chiffon and silk ball gown designed and made by her mother.
Sarah Mendly, a 23-year-old Iraqi Muslim, had been the four-to-one favorite to win the contest, being held in Liverpool, northern England.
Asked about being the first Muslim Miss England, Kohistani said: âIâm making history and Iâm very happy. Hopefully I wonât be the last.â She was born in Tashkent, central Uzbekistan, after her parents were forced to flee Afghanistan.
The brunette, who speaks six languages including Russian, Persian and French, looked ecstatic as the crown was placed on her head before a cheering crowd in Liverpoolâs Olympia Theatre. She was selected from a group of 40 entrants following the two-day competition. The student, who was known as Miss Maya after the Asian fashion house which sponsored her, has also been offered a part in a forthcoming Bollywood movie. The competition winner secures a place in the Miss World final in China in December which offers a 100,000-dollar (80,000-euro) prize.
Kohistani and Mendly, a biochemistry graduate who had already been named Miss Nottingham, were among four Muslims among the 20 finalists â a fact that has annoyed some senior Islamic clerics.
âThere is no way a Muslim girl should be playing any part in this competition, because it is unlawful,â said Hashim Sulaiman of the Liverpool Islamic Institute, according to Fridayâs edition of the Times newspaper. âThe ladies in that contest are very scantily dressed and the only part of the body that should be on display are the face, the hands, and the feet.â
"They're scantily dressed, the hussies, and they've .. got those things on their chests that .. heave and bounce with every .. breath .. and creamy ... oh by Allah, I've got to go .. shoot my gun!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:15 ||
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#1
Threats of Honor Killing and other misogyny in 5..4..3..
The Bush administration backed away Tuesday from claims that Cuba has an offensive biological weapons effort.
There is a âsplit viewâ among intelligence analysts on the question, the administration acknowledges in a report to Congress. The report says that Cuba has the âtechnical capabilityâ to pursue biological weapons research and development because of its advanced pharmaceutical industry. But it left open the critical question of whether Cuba has done so.
The State Department report apparently marks the first time that the U.S. government has publicly softened its earlier charge, which has been controversial from the outset. Then-Undersecretary of State John Bolton had tried to reassign two intelligence analysts at the State Department and National Intelligence Council who had challenged Boltonâs view that Cuba had bio-war capabilities, according to testimony at Boltonâs nomination hearing to become United Nations ambassador.
The new finding on Cuba is based on a U.S. intelligence-community-wide assessment, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, completed last year. In that estimate, which is classified, âthe Intelligence Community unanimously held that it was unclear whether Cuba has an active biological weapons effort now, or even had one in the past,â the State Department report said. Cuba has denied any biological weapons work.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 01:46 ||
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#1
Last I hear'd, There was at least one "senior analyst" who turned out to be on the Cuban payroll.
I wonder how many of these analysts are commie sympathisers?
Fortunately, our sheer size combined with the decentralized nature of power here in the US makes it hard for a mole to greatly influence policy. it is ofter reduced to just trimming around the edges.
Posted by: N guard ||
09/04/2005 9:47 Comments ||
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#2
Bioweapons are indeterminate. Every hospital in the world has the capability to produce large amounts of bioweapons. Even uncautious housewives can unintentionally make copious amounts of bioweapons--enough to poison a large city. There is absolutely no way of policing them.
Long piece on Merkel's impending victory (it seems)
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:34 ||
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#1
I repeat again the Merkel victory will go to nowhere.
The pro-socialist media in Germany will not let anything to change. Only paliatives. Merkel have 1-3 months to make all changes after that she can forget.
No rude comments from me. Wish him a full recovery.
President Jacques Chirac has been admitted to hospital for at least a week with a blood vessel problem in his eye that could have been caused by a stroke, it was revealed last night.
Although the problem did not seem serious, it is likely to be seen as another setback for 72-year-old Chirac after a string of political defeats that have left the conservative politician increasingly isolated at home and abroad.
He was taken to a hospital in Paris on Friday evening after reporting eye problems and bad headaches, but was said last night to be alert and consulting advisers. 'He can't wait to leave [hospital],' said Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who was apparently not told until yesterday that the President had been admitted. 'He is on good form.'
Chirac's illness, which has forced him to cancel or delay several appointments this week, is likely to trigger questions about future changes in the French political landscape that Chirac has dominated for a decade.
As supporters played down the severity of his condition, doctors said such a problem could range from a ruptured blood vessel to a stroke, which often affects the vision. Chirac's office said he had slight difficulties with his sight following a blood vessel problem known as a 'vascular accident'.
Chirac, who used to smoke heavily and is not thought to take regular exercise, pledged to never speak about his health when he took over the presidency in 1995. His predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, had kept his cancer secret for years. He has, however, sought to portray himself as dynamic and energetic, reportedly telling off a former minister for hinting publicly that he wore a hearing aid. Chirac has few grey hairs, wears contact lenses rather than glasses and has a year-round tan. Aides say he watches his waistline.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:29 ||
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#1
Then the rude comments will be from myself. As a nice man I would, I suppoose, prefer if he stepped
out of power voluntarily but as I consider him bad for the country and, because he conforts dictators and terrorists, bad for humanity the sooner he gets out of the way the better.
Many people have a personal link to the disaster: Twenty-eight percent â more than one in four Americans â say they have close personal friends or relatives in the Gulf Coast area who were directly affected by the hurricane and flooding. Of that group, as of Friday night, about four in 10 were still waiting for word on how those friends or relatives had fared.
People who know someone affected by the hurricane are no more likely to criticize the president's or federal government's performance, and in some specifics (delivering food and water and evacuating displaced people) they rate the federal response more positively than others. Nor are those who have a friend or relative affected more apt to be angry at the federal response.
The data suggest that people still awaiting word on the status of friends or relatives are more apt to be displeased with the federal government's response and people who had already heard are more apt to be pleased, but these subgroups in this sample are too small for reliable analysis.
Poll results at link
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 15:27 ||
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#1
please discard, repetitive
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 15:32 Comments ||
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and we know about ABC/WaPo polls are always negative for Bush
Hurricane Preparedness Is Faulted; Fewer Blame Bush for Problems
Americans are broadly critical of government preparedness in the Hurricane Katrina disaster â but far fewer take George W. Bush personally to task for the problems, and public anger about the response is less widespread than some critics would suggest.
In an event that clearly has gripped the nation â 91 percent of Americans are paying close attention â hopefulness far outweighs discontent about the slow-starting rescue. And as in so many politically charged issues in this country, partisanship holds great sway in views of the president's performance.
The most critical views cross jurisdictions: Two-thirds in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the federal government should have been better prepared to deal with a storm this size, and three-quarters say state and local governments in the affected areas likewise were insufficiently prepared.
he most critical views cross jurisdictions: Two-thirds in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the federal government should have been better prepared to deal with a storm this size, and three-quarters say state and local governments in the affected areas likewise were insufficiently prepared.
Views of Hurricane Response
Yes No
Federal government adequately prepared? 31% 67%
State/local government adequately prepared? 24 75
Blame Bush? 44 55
Other evaluations are divided. Forty-six percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the crisis, while 47 percent disapprove. That compares poorly with Bush's 91 percent approval rating for his performance in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but it's far from the broad discontent expressed by critics of the initial days of the hurricane response. (It also almost exactly matches Bush's overall job approval rating, 45 percent, in an ABC/Post poll a week ago.)
Similarly, 48 percent give a positive rating to the federal government's response overall, compared with 51 percent who rate it negatively â another split view, not a broadly critical one.
When it gets to specifics, however, most ratings are worse: Majorities ranging from 56 to 79 percent express criticism of federal efforts at delivering food and water, evacuating displaced people, controlling looting and (especially) dealing with the price of gasoline. In just one specific area â conducting search and rescue operations â do most, 58 percent, give the government positive marks. snip
#1
I think the sympathy meter hit zero when broadcasters showed images of looters running around picking up TV sets. I suspect broadcasters wanted to play this up as an example of what society's inhumanity to man will do to his morals, but the viewing audience's interpretation was that the inhabitants of NO are the scum of the earth. More and more, the blame is going to be directed where it properly belongs - Louisiana's criminals and politicians (but I repeat myself).
#2
ZF, couldn't agree more. While $10 billion is ready to come out of the government for Katrina relief with almost no questions asked, it will be interesting to hear how many questions get asked about NO rebuilding appropriations. I think somebody, especialy Mayor Naggin, has shot themselves in the foot.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/04/2005 16:14 Comments ||
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#3
The media did a dis-service to the people of NO by pushing the violence so strongly. More than one person I know had been more than willing to take a person or family in for the duration, but after watching and listening to the continued reports of the violence, each has changed their minds. And I'm in Texas, that is welcoming with opening arm. We are all giving what is being requested, but now, not too inclined to welcome folks into our homes.
There are lots doing that, but there could have been far more willing, without question.
And did you see on Fox in Lubbock, with people deplaning, the numbers of police folks, and the screening being done before allowing them to get on the bus? Including at least one dog sniffing.
#4
S: The media did a dis-service to the people of NO by pushing the violence so strongly. More than one person I know had been more than willing to take a person or family in for the duration, but after watching and listening to the continued reports of the violence, each has changed their minds.
I understand that the non-criminal elements of the refugees would have benefitted from less coverage of the looting. But coverage of the looting was genuinely news you could use. When you think about whether or not to let complete strangers into your home, you need to have a good feel for the negative outcomes that could flow from that decision. The looting coverage provided some of that feel. People who are going to be hosting refugees will at least be psychologically prepared for any contingencies.
#5
A guy working on recovery efforts describes the size of the undertaking. Bottom line is that there is no way this could have proceeded faster, unless we want to keep large numbers of men and quantities of equipment on standby for every major city. We are talking really big dollars here - equipment needs to be maintained and kept ready, and men need to be paid - all for a once in 100 years event.
I went in Jason. Hauled a half dozen generators and five 50 gal fuel drums to run them. Plus two drums I needed to increase my range in order to make the end destination. No fuel was available closer than Tuscaloosa coming in from the east (Atlanta area). I run a short truck and am normally an expediter. My niche is delivering to job sites. I run 26,000# although weight restrictions were removed for disaster relief. When I went in I was hitting about 34,000#. Six wheels at 24' vs eighteen at 48/53' and 34k vs 80k. It took me 42 hours to run just south of Baton Rouge coming in from Meridian, MS to the north. I had nothing left to give at the completion of one run and was asked repeatedly to run again. A human body can only do so much.
Short trucks are the answer though. This is the tenth disaster aid run I've made in only the last two years. Going in with a road crew with chainsaws takes time and a whole lot of labor. There are just simply not many rigs like mine around. You can forget trying to pull a trailer into some of those areas. It won't happen. You have to pipe out your exhaust and run two granny gears just to poke through. It's a nightmare but one desperately worth facing. Command posts and comm run on power. It is critical to supply that power and you never know where it's going to be needed.
We had quite a few short trucks running. Rollbacks (car haulers/tow trucks) couldn't make the run unless they were full size (13 ton FL 70s, KW T-300s, etc.). Plus there is a problem with securing loads on slick aluminum beds. Two tried to run with me and had to turn back. They were simply too low to the ground. Two others in the 33k 26' class made it through. One of my cousins came over from the west side of Baton Rouge in his rig like mine and ran in my stead for a second run. The sheer logistics of the situation was a nightmare!
It'd be nice to have a fleet of short trucks just sitting around waiting on disasters to strike like I hear some idiots wanting to have. Shoot, I'll take that gig if the pay is equal to what I make now. Think the taxpayers would pay me to sit around and wait on Cat 4 storms to roll through? heh! All of a sudden we've got all these logistics experts in the media and in Congress. Sounds like the MSM and their ability to cover the military properly huh? Yep! Lots of brand new experts out there in the press and general populace! :-o
I would like to take one of these experts in one time though. Nothing like A 23 Stihl to give them a real education! :-)
#7
MG: Short truck? What's that? Like a P&D truck?
Commenter: I run 26,000# although weight restrictions were removed for disaster relief. When I went in I was hitting about 34,000#. Six wheels at 24' vs eighteen at 48/53' and 34k vs 80k.
That's a 6-wheeler vs an 18-wheeler - a 17-ton load vs a 40-ton load.
#10
the press won't go where the shots are being fired. Troops should be under shoot-to-kill orders when fired upon. Fox reported that 5 ACOE contractors were killed because they were mistaken (and armed) by nat'l guard troops....shit happens
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 18:31 Comments ||
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#11
Ah okay, a pickup and delivery truck. P&D truck. Got it.
ABC/WaPo Poll: Bush Not Taking Brunt of Katrina Criticism
Awwwwww.
Ain't that just too bad. :-D
Better luck next time, you worthless losers. I know you'll keep trying.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/04/2005 20:26 Comments ||
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#13
unfortunately I've been around a bunch of bozos who are screwing their eyes really tight and drinking the kool aid being served by the LA gov and the NO mayor. don't count your attitude polls yet, I'm afraid
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu threatens President Bush with physical violence this morning on ABC's Sunday morning news program, "This Week".
"If one person criticizes our sheriffs, or says one more thing, including the President of the United States, he will hear from me - one more word about it after this show airs and I - I might likely have to punch him - literally," says Landrieu.
"The President came here yesterday for a photo-op, he got his photo-op but we are never going to get this fixed if he does not send us help now."
It is a felony to threaten the President of The United States with violence.
No official comment from the White House has been reported.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 14:48 ||
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#1
Com on, make my day, Landreiu, you would look good in stripes.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 14:51 Comments ||
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#2
Democratic Senator of Louisiana is following in the foot steps of the Democratic Governor, making the major network shows, while Tennessee Republican Senator Frist is in Louisiana volunteering to help on the street.
The can't do nothing but can and threaten (bark) complain party.
#3
What, a Lib/Dem Granstanding?? I gotta see the video..
Mary "The Enforcer" gimme a break what a joke. Lots of people are suffering because of Democratic leadership your state failed to follow your own disaster plan. Stop trying to assault the POTUS, your a fraud and a disgrace.
Hey, and where has your Governor? Nice leadership on her part. If I were her I'd hide too.
#6
I saw part of that. I just laughed. If this twit feels like taking people to task, the ones closest to the ground would be the logical place to start.
#9
The Lousiana political leadership isn't worthy of presiding over a Little League game. Instead of preparing for the hurricane, and in the aftermath showing strength and taking charge, they are blaming everyone but themselves and are undergoing mental breakdowns. I saw a video segment of either Gov. Blanco or Sen. Landrieu taking an aerial tour of NO and all she could do was cry before the camera. Way to show leadership.
Posted by: ed ||
09/04/2005 22:25 Comments ||
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#10
I owe FEMA and the Feds a big apology for my past rants on this subject. Seems they were waiting for the LOCAL State and City Officials to give them the OK. That and they had to use most of the Choopers for erscue efforts for the fools that din't evac when ordered. They all seemed to laps into BDS as son as they realized the scope of the problem. I heard Chertoff and the Nation Guard Commander today and it apears they have one EVERYTHING humanly possible. Sure some people were left without food/water for days but the LOCAL officials are in charge of teh initial response. So if the tell everyone to head to the Superdome they should also send some supplies to those places also.
EFL New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he's feeling better about his city, he feels confident he has gotten the attention of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush, but he said he fears the Central Intelligence Agency may take him out because he's been yelling at these officials. Last night he told a reporter for the Associated Press: "If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened." Apparently, they've already slipped him something, like LSD.
Today he told interviewers for CNN on a live broadcast he feared the "CIA might take me out." Nagin resorted to vulgarity and profanity yesterday in his pleas for help. But he was actually calmer today, despite the hyperbole.
#1
Plop him down in the middle of his people and take bets on how long he lasts.
Posted by: ed ||
09/04/2005 0:05 Comments ||
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#2
Don't worry, mayor, your injuries are self-inflicted, and smacking of paranoia.
Image, this guy was elected to office three years ago as an "outsider" businessman who was going to set the city on the right course.
The grim reaper must be proud of you, mayor.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 0:16 Comments ||
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#3
The military intervention in NOLA is a quagmire. Thousands are dead, resistance continues from Democrat remnants, and Nagin has still not been captured.
#4
Maybe they should make him "swim with the fishes".
Posted by: Soliderwife Robin ||
09/04/2005 0:39 Comments ||
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#5
I knew he'd say that.
Posted by: Mind Control Industries, Inc ||
09/04/2005 0:48 Comments ||
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#6
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he's feeling better about his city, he feels confident he has gotten the attention of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush, but he said he fears the Central Intelligence Agency may take him out because he's been yelling at these officials.
#7
"If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened." "..he said he fears the Central Intelligence Agency may take him out.."
For him to even jokingly make these comments like these to infer that would even be a possibility shows his stupidity. For God's sake the MSM will run with this story.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/04/2005 2:30 Comments ||
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#8
Is being mental a requirement to be a Democratic Pol?
#12
s being mental a requirement to be a Democratic Pol?
Apparently, yes.
That's why Lieberman did so poorly in the primaries; he's too sane. Kerry, with his rich fantasy life, was the only one crazy enough to be acceptable to the base and still be trusted not to drool on his shoes during debates.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/04/2005 10:45 Comments ||
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#13
Check out LittleGreenFootballs and its link to junk-yard-dog blog. Mucho school buses -- like 146 of them -- went unused by Mayor Nagin's city gov. Could've saved thousands.
Sometime today NBC's site should have Campbell Brown's bitchslap of Mayor Nagin that aired early this morning. Wow!
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.
A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington. "The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his dues on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," she said.
Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7, 1972. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986. His death ends a remarkable 33-year Supreme Court career during which Rehnquist oversaw the court's conservative shift, presided over an impeachment trial and helped decide a presidential election.
End of an era. Love him or hate him, a truly remarkable jurist.
Robin adds more from WaPo:
And you thought things were partisan already!
The death [gives] President Bush his second court opening within four months and sets up what's expected to be an even more bruising Senate confirmation battle than that of John Roberts. It was not immediately clear what impact Rehnquist's death would have on confirmation hearings for Roberts, scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Arberg said plans regarding funeral arrangements would be forthcoming.
Bush was notified of Rehnquist's death shortly before 11 p.m. EDT. "President Bush and Mrs. Bush are saddened by the news," said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. "It's a tremendous loss for our nation." The president was expected to make a personal statement about Rehnquist on Sunday.
The chief justice passed up a chance to step down over the summer, which would have given the Senate a chance to confirm his successor while the court was out of session, and instead Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement to spend time with her ill husband. Bush chose Roberts, a former Rehnquist clerk and friend, to replace O'Connor. much more at link
#1
He was an excellent jurist and chief justice who fought valiantly for what is right about America.
God rest his soul.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 0:14 Comments ||
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#2
And he stayed on the SCOTUS as long as he physically could to add what order he could to the confirmation process. We lost a good man.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/04/2005 0:28 Comments ||
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#3
My respects to one who serverd his country to the best of his ability to the end of his life.
Expect the Dems to go in to full war mode and huge outbursts of pure lies and propaganda to appear in the Media as they try and defeat all nominations. We will see one of the biggests strains in our national history are they try to destroy and subvert our form of government. Expect to hear and see the Democratic party and the BDS corps tear our national fabric apart in the coming weeks.
#6
Fox is reporting this morning that the Democrats are demanding that the President delay the confirmation hearing of John Roberts, ask Sandra O'Connor to stay another year, and appoint her as Chief Justice "for the Unity of the Country". I was watching CBS Sunday Morning this morning because it is the only program they do that is generaly political free but it quickly turned into a BAsh Bush Fest so I turned it off. I won't watch it again, ever.
The only lights Saturday night on Bourbon Street were the flashing blues of police vehicles on patrol, the headlights of rumbling military trucks and an occasional flashlight or cigarette glow among bedraggled holdout residents.
"Why does any local stay? Because this is our neighborhood, this is home," said Ride Hamilton, 29. He has turned his French Quarter home into a mini-warehouse of supplies for his neighbors. He said he accumulated the goods during daily "shopping" trips to local stores, "trying to get it before somebody else does. We're relying on ourselves out here."
Johnny White's Sports Bar, which has no doors and, according to locals, never closes, has become a gathering place for some of those who remained downtown when Katrina devastated the city Monday.
"It's very eerie and disturbing," said Joseph Bellomy, 23, a Cleveland native who moved here in February and has been working as a bartender. His T-shirt's slogan: "How much fun can I have before I go to hell? - French Quarter."
At times, there has been gunfire at night. Most of the time, he said, it's quiet. "That's when we start talking to each other, trying to cheer each other up," Bellomy said.
A terrier that was dropped off by someone fleeing Katrina is tied to a darkened lamppost. A male, he nevertheless has been named "Katrina."
Bartender Deidre Rick, 24, serves drinks while wearing a tank top and shorts, joking: "I'm finally on the diet I wanted to go on." A woman identifying herself as Diana Straydog, "the last Native American in New Orleans," puffs on a long Dominican cigar obtained "at a Katrina discount."
Hamilton and Bellomy, who said he got some medical training while in the Air Force, have been trying to administer first aid. A local character they know only as "V" got his head busted the night before by thugs looking for money, Bellomy said. He was trying to get V to stay sitting to keep the wound, patched with a butterfly stitch, from opening up.
He was also changing the bandage on the leg of Lisa Smith. Away from her earshot, Bellomy and Hamilton say they're worried about the leg, punctured as she swam for her life during last week's flooding. They say gangrene is setting in.
"We need medical supplies. We need help," Bellomy said.
Down the street, Vaughn Couk and Ted Mack sit out in front of the Blues Club. They and a friend have been maintaining a daytime presence, they say, that's deterred looters. When it gets dark, they say, they go inside and lock the door with a chain. They say they've heard the chain rattling at night, but they make noise to scare off whoever's there.
"I'm working 24-24 now," said Mack, who normally works security inside the club.
Couk usually works at Hoggs Bar on Chartres Street, but left that locked up.
"It's not too bad now. It's been getting better," he said of the nights. "There are police around from all over the place - New Jersey, Wisconsin, Wyoming."
On a side street cluttered with clothing, glass and other debris, a man on a bicycle has a large bottle of whiskey and some cookies in the front basket. He pedals away erratically but quickly when approached. A couple with a shopping cart both smile and then turn their backs and push the cart.
There were police checkpoints. Officers in blue T-shirts holding M-16 rifles sat in chairs on some corners. One barked: "Get off the street! There's a curfew. It's dangerous out here."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 20:19 ||
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He was also changing the bandage on the leg of Lisa Smith. Away from her earshot, Bellomy and Hamilton say they're worried about the leg, punctured as she swam for her life during last week's flooding. They say gangrene is setting in.
"We need medical supplies. We need help," Bellomy said.
Elsewhere in the story:
Bartender Deidre Rick, 24, serves drinks...
On a side street cluttered with clothing, glass and other debris, a man on a bicycle has a large bottle of whiskey and some cookies in the front basket.
Is there some high-proof hooch in that bar? If so, why haven't they used that to try to clear up the infected wound? Granted, if it's a puncture, you're facing tetanus, but, Christ...
Hell, I bet they've got some bleach stashed in the cleaning closet, too. Maybe even some iodophor.
Hell, maybe they've tried all that. But wouldn't that be one of the things you'd put into the story?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/04/2005 22:47 Comments ||
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Why... disinfecting her leg or patching her up would let Bush off the hook. After all its all his fault... (according to the MSM).
New Orleans police shot and killed at least five people Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors travelling across a bridge on their way to make repairs.
Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
John Hall of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said fourteen contractors were travelling across a bridge that spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, under police escort, when they came under fire. The contractors were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to plug a breech in the canal.
None of the contractors were killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 20:05 ||
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In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming âtribesâ and dividing up the labor.
As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim.
While mold and contagion grew in the muck that engulfed most of the city, something else sprouted in this most decadent of American neighborhoods â humanity.
âSome people became animals,â Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny Whiteâs Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. âWe became more civilized.â
While hundreds of thousands fled the below-sea-level city before the storm, many refused to leave the Vieux Carre, or old quarter. Built on some of the highest ground around and equipped with underground power lines, residents considered it about the safest place to be.
Katrina blew off roof slates and knocked down some already-unstable buildings but otherwise left the 18th and 19th century homes with their trademark iron balconies intact. Even without water and power, most preferred it to the squalor and death in the emergency shelters set up at the Superdome and Convention Center.
But what had at first been a refuge soon became an ornate prison.
Police came through commandeering drivable vehicles and siphoning gas. Officials took over a hotel and ejected the guests.
An officer pumped his shotgun at a group trying to return to their hotel on Chartres Street.
âThis is our block,â he said, pointing the gun down a side street. âGo that way.â
Jack Jones, a retired oil rig worker, bought a huge generator and stocked up on gasoline. But after hearing automatic gunfire on the next block one night, he became too afraid to use it â for fear of drawing attention.
Still, he continues to boil his clothes in vinegar and dip water out of neighborsâ pools for toilet flushing and bathing.
âThey may have to shoot me to get me out of here,â he said. âIâm much better off here than anyplace they might take me.â
Many in outlying areas consider the Quarter a playground for the rich and complain that the place gets special attention.
Yes, wealthy people feasted on steak and quaffed warm champagne in the days after the storm. But many who stayed behind were the working poor â residents of the cramped spaces above the restaurants and shops.
Tired of waiting for trucks to come with food and water, residents turned to each other.
Johnny Whiteâs is famous for never closing, even during a hurricane. The doors donât even have locks.
Since the storm, it has become more than a bar. Along with the warm beer and shots, the bartenders passed out scrounged military Meals Ready to Eat and bottled water to the people who drive the mule carts, bus the tables and hawk the T-shirts that keep the Quarterâs economy humming.
âItâs our community center,â said Marcie Ramsey, 33, whom Katrina promoted from graveyard shift bartender to acting manager.
For some, the bar has also become a hospital.
Tryphonas, who restores buildings in the Quarter, left the neighborhood briefly Saturday. Someone hit in the head with a 2-by-4 and stole his last $5.
When Tryphonas showed up at Johnny Whiteâs with his left ear split in two, Joseph Bellomy â a customer pressed into service as a bartender â put a wooden spoon between Tryphonasâ teeth and used a needle and thread to sew it up. Military medics who later looked at Bellomyâs handiwork decided to simply bandage the ear.
âThatâs my savior,â Tryphonas said, raising his beer in salute to the former Air Force medical assistant.
A few blocks away, a dozen people in three houses got together and divided the labor. One group went to the Mississippi River to haul water, one cooked, one washed the dishes.
âWeâre the tribe of 12,â 76-year-old Carolyn Krack said as she sat on the sidewalk with a cup of coffee, a packet of cigarettes and a box of pralines.
The tribe, whose members included a doctor, a merchant and a store clerk, improvised survival tactics. Krack, for example, brushed her dentures with antibacterial dish soap.
It had been a tribe of 13, but a member died Wednesday of a drug overdose. After some negotiating, the police carried the body out on the trunk of a car.
The neighbors knew the man only as Jersey.
Tribe member Dave Rabalais, a clothing store owner, said he thinks the authorities could restore utilities to the Quarter. But he knows that would only bring âresentment and the riffraff.â
âThe French Quarter is the blood line of New Orleans,â he said. âThey canât let anything happen to this.â
On Sunday, the tribe of 12 became a tribe of eight.
Four white tour buses rolled into the Quarter under Humvee escort. National Guardsmen told residents they had one hour to gather their belongings and get a ride out. Four of the tribe members decided to leave.
âHallelujah!â Teresa Lawson shouted as she dragged her suitcase down the road. âThank you, Jesus!â
For Mark Rowland, the leaving was bittersweet.
âIâm heart-broken to leave the city that I love,â Rowland said as he sat in the air-conditioned splendor of the bus. âIt didnât have to be this way.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 19:57 ||
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Police came through commandeering drivable vehicles and siphoning gas. Officials took over a hotel and ejected the guests.
An officer pumped his shotgun at a group trying to return to their hotel on Chartres Street.
âThis is our block,â he said, pointing the gun down a side street. âGo that way.â
unf*ckin real.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/04/2005 20:30 Comments ||
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#2
As I think someone observed in another post, the somewhat ironically acronymned NOPD (or maybe just the 2/3 of them who left their posts and threw in with the mob?) may just end up being the city's biggest gang.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 21:23 Comments ||
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Who are these folks?! To buy a generator, drink at the local bar as though nothing has happened, and honker down not planning on leaving, instead of getting out of there?! Do they think the food will keep coming after the rescues are done?
To start any rebuilding all the folks are going to have to get out of there, aren't they?
I'm shocked, I thought I had seen and heard it all. The quality of life they seem to be satisfied with is below filth. This is america?
âThey may have to shoot me to get me out of here,â he said. âIâm much better off here than anyplace they might take me.â
how does one deal with this sicko mind set.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/04/2005 23:45 Comments ||
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Associated Press reports that at least five people shot dead by police as they walked across a New Orleans bridge yesterday were contractors working for the US Defence department.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the victims were contractors on their way to repair a canal. The contractors were on their way across the bridge to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain, in an operation to fix the 17th Street Canal, according to the spokesman.
The shootings took place on the Danziger Bridge, across a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River.
Early on Sunday, Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley of New Orleans said police shot at eight people, killing five or six.
KUWAIT CITY (AP) - The oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Kuwait said Sunday it will donate $500 million in aid to U.S. relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The offer is the largest known put forward since the hurricane ravaged Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and follows a $100 million aid donation from the emir of a Mideast neighbor, Qatar.
Kuwait's energy minister said his country would provide "oil products that the disaster-stricken states need in addition to other humanitarian aid." "It's our duty as Kuwaitis to stand by our friends to lighten the humanitarian misery and as a payback for the many situations during which Washington helped us through the significant relations between the two friendly countries," Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah said in a statement carried by Kuwait's official news agency, KUNA.
Kuwait and Qatar's donations came as the Egypt-based 22-member Arab League called on Arab nations to provide relief to the U.S. The Arab League said that its secretary-general, Amr Moussa, sent a cable of "deep condolences and regret to the U.S. administration over the effect of Hurricane Katrina ... and called on all Arab countries to extend aid to the United States to face the exceptional humane circumstances."
Kuwait and Qatar: thank you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 15:20 ||
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This not only helps directly, it also sends a signal to oil speculators.
#2
Indeed. I am boggled. How many times have we wanted those we've helped to simply feel appreciative, much less show appreciation?
There's a heavy dose of irony here from multiple sources, from outrageous oil profit levels with the current prices - to the dictatorial freedom (Can you say cognitive dissonance?) of these Emirs to whip out a checkbook the size of the EU "constitution" with ease...
Gonna have to chew on this for awhile. In the mean time, I'll offer sincere thanks and shitcan the cynicism. And remain boggled.
Found this on Lou Minatti's blog, http://louminatti.blogspot.com/, with a tip from one of my ML. Link point to a Google archive, with highlighted keywords. This has been mentioned in comments yesterday, and should be publicized.
#1
This is why I am utterly and anxiously waiting for the screaming of the Donks to get louder and louder, for an investigation. When the truth comes out, the Donks will lose the black vote. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton adultrous self appointed reverandswill will forever lose all credibility. Forget the phrase "faster please." From now on, its
Big surprise here Bring it on
(09.02.05 - AP) â Congressman Tom Tancredo is vowing to fight any effort to give amnesty to workers in the United States illegally. Pressure is mounting on Congress to revisit the nation's immigration policy. This fall lawmakers are expected to take up a slew of bills dealing with everything from border security to guest workers. Let them know how you feel write letters e-mail call fax knock on doors etc etc
If an amnesty bill is introduced, Tancredo says he'll do whatever he can to enlist the aid of every organization he can to get the word out. You Da Man
The White House declined comment on Tancredo's remarks yesterday. A spokeswoman says President Bush is still consulting with Congress on the issue and welcomes all input. Hell yeah let's give him input shall we!
Posted by: Jan ||
09/04/2005 00:00 ||
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will do Jan..thanks.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/04/2005 10:54 Comments ||
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If we can get this beyond a political volleyball, we might establish secure borders. Encourage legal immigration and eliminate the incentive for illegals should be the supra objective.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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HURRICANE Katrina has incited a storm of enthusiasm among Islamist bloggers who claim the destruction was sent by God to torment the American empire. "Katrina, a soldier sent by God to fight on our side... the soldier Katrina joins us to fight against America," said one Islamist web site.
Another said: "Allahu akbar (God is greatest). Soldiers of God, Hurricane Katrina demolishes America. Don't think that God doesn't care about the injustices of tyrants."
This is nothing. Go to Washington Monthly and read the comments sections on any Katrina related post. The Islamists are mild in comparison.
Internet sites published dozens of photos showing crumbled buildings, overturned cars, flooded streets, devastated oil refineries, residents wading through muck and water and US flags ripped to shreds by the hurricane that wreaked havoc in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The pictures should "serve as a lesson," one blogger said. "In spite of being a superpower and of its technological development, America was unable to cope with the power of the Almighty," the writer said.
Which should make you ponder what would happen to your pissant country under similar circumstances.
Another blogger, who decorated his site with photos of Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Iraq's most-wanted man Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said: "America observes silence over its human losses."
The Islamist perspectives were not limited to the Internet. A Kuwaiti Arabic-language newspaper published similar comments by the director of the Kuwaiti ministry of endowment's research center, Mohammed Yussef al-Mlaifi. "When the satellite channels reported on the scope of the terrifying destruction in America (caused by) this wind, I was reminded of the words of (Prophet Mohammed): 'The wind sends torment to one group of people, and sends mercy to others.'
"I do not think -- and only Allah knows -- that this wind, which completely wiped out American cities in these days, is a wind of mercy and blessing. It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire," he said in the daily Al-Siyassa.
"But how strange it is that after all the tremendous American achievements for the sake of humanity, these mighty winds come and evilly rip (America's) cities to shreds? Have the storms joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization?"
He also cited a passage he found in the Koran: "The disaster will keep striking the unbelievers for what they have done, or it will strike areas close to their territory, until the promise of Allah comes to pass, for, verily, Allah will not fail in His promise."
Many bloggers drew parallels between the destruction caused by the storm and that brought by US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and blasted US President George W. Bush's so-called "war on terror." "America fights Islam in the name of the war against terrorism, kills innocents in Afghanistan and Iraq and supports the Zionist entity (Israel)," said one site, then listing two dozen curses -- habitually used by Islamist radicals at the end of prayers -- against the United States.
Amid all the criticism, at least one blogger spoke out in defense of the victims, saying he was "exasperated at the rejoicing over the misfortunes of Americans." "Certainly, the leaders of the United States have oppressed many peoples, but the citizen... is in no way guilty."
Islamist web sites had also cast blame on South Asian countries hit by last year's tsunami that killed more than 125,000 people, saying "the hand of God" was involved. Back then, one scribe described the tsunami as "divine vengeance against Thailand, a country of debauchery."
#1
If this defuses their motivation to contribute money and their sons to jihadi causes on the theory that Allah is on the job, I say more power to them. Heck - let them throw block parties, for all I care. The "I gave at the office" syndrome is a wonderful thing, when applied to jihadi financing.
They are old predators with new vigour. Often bearded, invariably in flowing robes and expensive turbans. The rich, middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days that we wrongly think are history. These Viagra enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer of nikaah, the Islamic rules of marriage. Misusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Hyderabad, but marrying more than one minor in a single sitting.
"The Arabs prefer teenage, virgin brides," says Jameela Nishat, who counsels and sensitises young women against the malaise. Two of her volunteers, Shahida Yasmeen and Tasneem Sultana, in their early twenties experienced the trauma of being scanned by an old Arab. A few months ago, they accompanied an undercover television reporter who was following these sham marriages. They reached a home where half a dozen other prospective brides were gathered. "It resembled a brothel. The girls were paraded before the Arab who would lift the girlsâ burqa, run his fingers through their hair, gaze at their figures and converse through an interpreter," says Yasmeen recalling the day.
Most girls inspected by the Arab were minors, and forced by a complex union of their parents and Islamic clerics to yield to the preliminary probes of the Arab.
Posted by: john ||
09/04/2005 07:40 ||
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On a related topic, there is an excellent ebook in french by an activist(Tm) who synthethized data from Australia (where there has been more high profile cases since), Northern Europe, France, Netherland,... on the sexual predation by gangs of muslim youths from various ethnic backgrounds (north-african in western Europe, lebanese in Australia, kurdish or somalian in Northern Europe) litterally specialized in gangraping "unmodest" non-muslim girls, sometimes very young.
http://www.coranix.com/biblio/tournantes_international.htm
http://www.coranix.com/biblio/tournantes_international.pdf
The article above strikes me as an another illustration of systematic exploitation of a category deemed inferior (wimmen), in a non-criminal (but shameful and disgusting) way. This is truly revolting.
Sexual exploitation is of course not restricted to muslim culture, but this kind of institutionnalization and societal acceptance is revolting... I'm a bum, so I don't fully remember, but this remind me of some articles on the widespread abuse of young women by elements of the iranian society (resulting in pedophilia and white slavery), made possible by their intrinsic lower status in regard of the law and society's standards.
This really bugs me (I'm the sentimental type), and so does the astounding silence about the severe "flaws" of islamic cultures that no feminist or progressive dare to ttouch.
#4
This practice is based on the Old Testament view that biology determines marriageability - when someone hits puberty, he or she is eligible. It also happens to be the major tradition around the world across races, ethnicities and religions, until "reformers" started infantilizing children - who had previously been regarded as adults in miniature. There is nothing inherently "disgusting" about old men marrying teenagers*, any more than there is anything "disgusting" about the Texas billionaire marrying Anna Nicole Smith. What is sad is that this is being done without their consent - they are essentially being sold into arranged marriages.
* Note that teenagers in the Third World are much more mature and grown-up than their developed country counterparts - they tend to have to grow up faster, because they have to work to support their families at an early age. In the West, growing up means losing your virginity at the earliest possible date, whereas in certain Muslim countries, growing up means holding on to it, on pain of pregnancy and/or death. (Doesn't seem to apply to Southeast Asia, where Muslims are said to be pretty liberal in their attitudes towards sex - moralistic in word, but permissive in spirit).
#5
"This practice is based on the Old Testament view . . ."
Wrong, ZF. Again, not your topic. (Interesting to note your deconstructionist "bent" in this, and other posts, and I wish --sort of-- that I had the time to disabuse you of your uneducated opinions . . .)
On topic: These idiot-Moslem-men, and their culture, should all die.
well duh! The girls don't know how badly inadequate the Arab men are in every sense of the word - they have nothing to compare to...
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 13:43 Comments ||
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ex-lib: "This practice is based on the Old Testament view . . ."
Wrong, ZF. Again, not your topic. (Interesting to note your deconstructionist "bent" in this, and other posts, and I wish --sort of-- that I had the time to disabuse you of your uneducated opinions . . .)
Are you saying that the Old Testament does not feature minors being married off when they reach puberty without divine retribution being forthcoming? This puberty standard isn't just a biblical thing - it is practiced in the natural world and in most of the non-Western world - and it is practiced here in the West - except teenagers here don't get married before having sex.
What I have written here has nothing to do with deconstructionist theories, which are written in impenetrable prose opaque even to other practitioners. I am putting ingrained prejudices in the spotlight and providing contexts and explanations for other traditions to show that many of our prejudices are neither scientific nor self-evident.
#8
" . . . deconstructionist theories, which are written in impenetrable prose opaque even to other practitioners . . . "
Actually, they're not that hard to uncover.
" . . . many of our prejudices are neither scientific nor self-evident . . . "
Finding dirty old men disgusting, regardless of cultural conditioning on either side, is hardly a matter of prejudice. Your statement makes me wonder if you have much first-hand experience with Moslem men and their abberant, sexually deviant, destructive mindsets.
#9
ex-lib: Finding dirty old men disgusting, regardless of cultural conditioning on either side, is hardly a matter of prejudice. Your statement makes me wonder if you have much first-hand experience with Moslem men and their abberant, sexually deviant, destructive mindsets.
No offense, but if you find evidence of such disgust in Muslim literature, please be so kind as to point me in that direction. The fact is that some principles aren't universal - the rampant promiscuity we in the West practice is viewed with disgust in much of the non-Christian world.* That view clearly isn't universal, since we don't have the same opinion about our own sexual norms. Outside of the West, sodomy isn't viewed as a basic human right - it is viewed as an unnatural act in many places, and a criminal act in some - many of which have nothing to do with Islam.
Bottom line for me is that I don't have any real issues with how young Muslims like their women (as long as it's at or above the age of puberty) - what I have a problem with is that these young women have no way to refuse these marriages. The other problem is that many Arab countries don't have or don't enforce laws against either wife-beating or honor-killing. The basic principle isn't deconstructionism - it's picking out a position that is defensible and universal in the sense that many men of other cultures and faiths can agree about them - and not just universal in the sense that we believe they really ought to think like us. Heck - in that sense, Muslim views are also universal, since they believe we really ought to think like them.
* This is why traditionalist - or evangelical - strains of Christianity are more successful at propagating their message in non-Christian parts of the world than the more modern strains, such as Episcopalianism or Presbyterianism.
#10
Why ZF, could you actually CITE A VERSE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT proving your assertion, rather than indulge in generalites calculated to play on ignorance?
I recommend looking at the selection of Rebecca for Isaac, and the courtship of Rebecca and Jacob. When Dinah got raped, her brothers didn't stone her, but slaughtered the offenders and preserved her alive. Don't blather about OT sexual attitudes until you've read Song of Solomon.
And Valentine's Day is named after a Christian Bishop who married couples in defiance of bans issued by PAGAN Roman Emperors.
I think your problem is that you can't handle Judeo-Christian exceptionalism, insisting on viewing it through a lens calculated to obscure that exceptionalism. THAT is what ex-lib was talking about when he mentioned deconstructionism: you've turned your theory about religion into a procrustean bed in order to kill religion under the pretense of scholarship.
#11
P: I recommend looking at the selection of Rebecca for Isaac, and the courtship of Rebecca and Jacob. When Dinah got raped, her brothers didn't stone her, but slaughtered the offenders and preserved her alive. Don't blather about OT sexual attitudes until you've read Song of Solomon.
And Valentine's Day is named after a Christian Bishop who married couples in defiance of bans issued by PAGAN Roman Emperors.
I believe we were on the subject on the permissibility of marriage at puberty in the Old Testament vs the view expressed by some commenters that Muslim men are perverts because they marry minors.
P: I think your problem is that you can't handle Judeo-Christian exceptionalism, insisting on viewing it through a lens calculated to obscure that exceptionalism. THAT is what ex-lib was talking about when he mentioned deconstructionism: you've turned your theory about religion into a procrustean bed in order to kill religion under the pretense of scholarship.
What I have said is that the prejudice against marriage at puberty vs the tolerance of marriage at majority is not a Judeo-Christian artifact - it is an artifact of "reformers" having nothing to do with Judaism or Christianity. My view is that there is nothing universalistic about Judeo-Christian principles - every religion or culture is an exercise in exceptionalism. If we are going to get others to agree with us, we need to establish some common ground - and that common ground is not what our atheistic "reformers" dictate as acceptable - in contradiction to what the Old Testament described as acceptable. We might achieve common ground on the desireability of free will and the undesirability of corporal punishment or murder. We are unlikely to achieve common ground on either polygamy or marriage at puberty.
Each of the passages I cited are "relevant" in that the girl is, in a sense, courted and had an option to accept or refuse the suitor. The Dinah incident is an example of what happened when the process was violated.
#14
Here's a long article about the evolution of the age of consent in the Western world. (Attitudes in the Orient are pretty similar to the Roman - and 19th century Western - views on the subject, which is why marriage with minors who have reached puberty doesn't ruffle many feathers):
Traditionally the age at which individuals could come together in a sexual union was something either for the family to decide or a matter of tribal custom. Probably in most cases this coincided with the onset of MENARCHE in girls and the appearance of pubic hair in boys, that is, between twelve and fourteen, but the boundaries remained fluid. In much of classical Greece this was true of both same- and opposite-sex relationships. In Republican Rome, marriage and the age of consent were initially private matters between the families involved. Not until the time of Augustus in the first century C.E. did the state begin to intervene. Marriage then legally became a two-step process, a betrothal which involved an enforceable agreement between the heads of two households, and then marriage itself. Women who were not yet of age could be betrothed with the consent of their fathers, but the woman herself had to consent to marriage.
The Roman tradition influenced peoples and cultures with whom it had come in contact. In the Islamic tradition following Muhammad, betrothal could take place earlier than PUBERTY, perhaps as early as seven, but the marriage was not supposed to be consummated until the girl menstruated and was of age. In medieval Europe, Gratian, the influential founder of Canon law in the twelfth century, accepted the traditional age of puberty for marriage (between 12 and 14) but he also said consent was "meaningful" if the children were older than seven. Some authorities said consent could take place earlier. Such a marriage would be permanent as long as neither party sought annulment before reaching puberty (12 for girls and 14 for boys) or if they had already consummated the marriage. Even if the husband had technically raped his wife before she reached puberty, the marriage was regarded as consummated. It was this policy which was carried over into English common law, and although consent was necessary, force and influence or persuasion seemed to have been permissible elements. Similarly Gratian's ideas about age became part of European civil law.
The age of consent in both English and continental law seemed to be particularly elastic when property was involved or family alliances were at stake. For example in 1564, a three year old named John was married to a two year old named Jane in the Bishop's Court in Chester, England. Though Shakespeare set his Romeo and Juliet in Verona, the fact that Juliet was thirteen probably reflects the reality in England. Her mother, who was twenty-six, calls her almost an old maid.
The American colonies followed the English tradition but the law could at best be called a guide. For example in Virginia in 1689, Mary Hathaway was only nine when she was married to William Williams. We know of her case only because two years later she sued for divorce, and was released from the covenant she had made because the marriage had not been consummated. Interestingly, historian Holly Brewer, who discovered the case, speculated that if William had raped Mary, she probably would not have been given the divorce. The only reliable data on age at marriage in England in the early modern period comes from Inquisitions Post Mortem which involved only those who died and left property. It appears that the more complete the records, the more likely it is to discover young marriages. Judges honored marriages based on mutual consent at age younger than seven, in spite of what Gratian had said, and there are recorded marriages of two and three year olds. The seventeenth-century lawyer Henry Swinburne distinguished between the marriages of those under seven and those between seven and puberty. He wrote that those under seven who had said their vows had to ratify it afterwards by giving kisses and embraces, by lying together, by exchanging gifts or tokens, or by calling each other husband or wife. A contemporary, Philip Stubbes, wrote that in sixteenth-century East Anglia, infants still in swaddling clothes were married. The most influential legal text of the seventeenth century in England, that of Sir Edward Coke, made it clear that the marriage of girls under twelve was normal, and the age at which a girl who was a wife was eligible for a dower from her husband's estate was nine even though her husband be only four years old.
The age of consent was more variable than a summary of the law seems to imply. Peter Laslett, for example, used available statistics to argue marriage and child bearing in the late teens was not common in England and marriage at twelve was virtually unknown. The problem is that his statistics might well be skewed because in England only a small portion of marriages were registered, and even on these registrations it is difficult to tell if they recorded first or second or later marriages. A second marriage by a man in his late fifties or a woman in her early thirties skews the data. Not all marriage records even bother to record the participants' ages. Unrecorded are marriages without parental consent and private weddings and the quality of data varies from region to region. For example in the parish of Middlesex County, Virginia, there is a record of fourteen-year-old Sarah Halfhide marrying twenty-one-year-old Richard Perrot. Only in the last sentence of the register does it indicate that she was a widow. Did the compiler read that far? We simply do not know what her age at first marriage was, or even if it had been consummated. Of the ninety-eight girls on the ten-year register, three probably married at age eight, one at twelve, one at thirteen, and two at fourteen. Historians in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have sometimes been reluctant to accept data regarding young ages of marriage, holding instead that the recorded age was a misreading by a later copier of the records. Natalie Davis, whose book The Return of Martin Guerre became a movie, made her heroine, Bertrande, much older than the nine-to ten-year old girl she was when she married her missing husband.
In the nineteenth century France issued the Napoleonic Code and many other countries, following France's example, began revising their laws. The Napoleonic Code, however, had not changed the age of consent, which remained at thirteen. When historian Magnus Hirschfeld surveyed the age of consent of some fifty countries (mostly in Europe and the Americas) at the beginning of the twentieth century, the age of consent was twelve in fifteen countries, thirteen in seven, fourteen in five, fifteen in four, and sixteen in five. In the remaining countries it remained unclear. In England and the United States, feminist agitation in the late nineteenth century called attention to the young age of consent and called for changes in the law. By the 1920s the age of consent, a state issue in the United States, was raised in every state and ranged from fourteen to eighteen, with most states settling on sixteen or eighteen.
In the last part of the twentieth century the U.S. public once again took note of age of consent issues. Although sometimes it is not possible to identify a single age of consent since the statutory age varies with the age of the defendant and with the particular sexual activity, in the United States as of 2000 the age at which a person may engage in any sexual conduct permitted to adults within a particular state ranges between fourteen to eighteen. In the vast majority of states the age is either fifteen or sixteen. Most states set the minimum age for marriage without parental approval at eighteen, and there are elaborate provisions governing which parent must give consent and who qualifies as a custodial parent or guardian when marriage under eighteen takes place. There are occasional contradictions since some states will allow a minor to marry with parental permission at an age when the minor cannot engage in legal sexual activity, while others allow a minor to engage in sexual activity years before he or she can marry without parental approval.
Caught between Sania Mirzaâs rising fame and her attire, Islamic clerics in the city felt compelled to comment on both. Urdu papers covering Mirzaâs third round triumph in the US Open carried modest legless shots of the 18-year-old, in a mixed sentiment that reflects the mood of the conservatives. "We are all proud of Saniaâs achievements and want her to do well," said Aslam Razi, advisory member of Jamaat-e-Islaami. "At the same time we canât understand why she should be wearing the kind of dress she wears on court."
"There's no possibility the two could be connected, of course..."
Many like him canât fathom why Mirza cannot look like the devout Muslim she claims to be on court. "Is there a dress code that says the skirts should be smaller and shirts tighter?" asked Razi. "Why canât she wear the long skirts and full sleeve shirts that players Iâve seen 25 years ago used to wear on court?"
"Why can't she just play tennis back in the seraglio? Why does she need to play tennis? Why couldn't her father have had a boy? If he had, why wouldn't the lad be off fighting jihad?"
Maulana Mahmood Dariabadi of Ulema Council, a body of scholars, said, "It is a sport, not a fashion parade. If people are troubled by her dress she ought to cover herself and play."
If people are troubled by her dress, why don't they listen to the games on the radio?
Shodhan, a Marathi weekly managed by a Muslim trust has refrained from publishing any of Mirzaâs photos "because it will offend sensibilities".
Okay. We'll do it for you. Arseholes.
Posted by: john ||
09/04/2005 07:43 ||
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The terse comment: "They do not even care for women, so why do they care so much for what women wear? Do they want to dress as women, too?"
#2
Suggestion for clerics: Forbid her from playing. Maybe she'll then do the sensible thing and jettison that sorry excuse for a faith that is Islam, and get on with the business of being what she wants to be, free from these little distractions.
The National Guard was slow to move troops into New Orleans because it did not anticipate the collapse of the city's police force after Hurricane Katrina, the guard's commander said. Lieutenant General Steven Blum said the New Orleans police force was left with only a third of its pre-storm 1,500-person strength.
Some police had families caught up in the disaster, others were unable to make it back to their precincts because of the flooding, and yet others left their posts after deciding the situation had grown too dangerous. That's the AFP explanation, not Blum's. There's another one, but it's a little less cheery.
"The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans," Blum told reporters here. "Once that assessment was made ... then the requirement became obvious," he said. "And that's when we started flowing military police into the theater."
Blum said that since Thursday some 7,000 National Guard and military police had moved into the city. But he said any suggestion that the National Guard had not performed well or was late was a "low blow."
The initial priority of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard forces was disaster relief, not law enforcement, because they expected the police to handle that, he said. "We were pulsing forces in in very degraded infrastructure -- airports had reduced capabilities ... in some cases we only had one road in because of lack of bridges, flooding, loss of infrastructure," he said. "So we couldn't rush to failure on this thing and we had to take a more measured approach on this thing than any of us wanted," he said.
When it became apparent that disorder in New Orleans should be the most immediate priority, the National Guard waited until they had enough forces in hand to make an overwhelming show of force, he said.
On Friday, while President George W. Bush was touring the stricken city, 1,000 military police and National Guard stormed the convention center where street gangs mixed in with thousands of others awaiting rescue had created a volatile situation, Blum said. "Had we gone in with a lesser force we may have been challenged, innocents may have been caught in a fight between the guard and military police and those who did not want to be processed or apprehended," he said.
Bush, under intense criticism for the slow federal response, on Saturday ordered an additional 7,000 active duty and reserve ground troops to reinforce the National Guard. That would raise the level of US military forces committed to the relief effort -- active duty as well as national guard and reserves -- to more than 50,000 by the end of next week.
Blum said that on Saturday there were 27,000 national guard troops in Louisiana and Mississippi. That number will grow to about 40,000 within the next week, he said.
There were varying estimates of the number of active duty troops already in the area as part of the relief of operations before Bush's order. Major General Joseph Inge, deputy commander of the US Northern Command, put the number of active duty forces already on the ground at nearly 5,000 while Blum estimated the active force at 7,000, including sailors aboard navy ships.
The additional troops ordered in from the active force include 2,500 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division, 2,700 from the 1st Cavalry Division and 2,000 from the 1st and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Forces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 03:42 ||
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#1
I don't remember this happening in NYC when 911 happened. Must be a cultural thing?
#2
"Now the chief of the New Orleans police, an organization so famously corrupt that it actually had to be put under Federal control, having watched 200 troopers simply walk off the job, is sitting around criticizing the National Guard for being late for doing the job he was supposed to be doing." - Jason von Steewyk
Anyone know what he's talking about?
And BrerRabbit, something in me suggests that the "anything goes" culture (yes, the one tied to Mardi Gras and that "national treasure" the Dems so badly want back)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/04/2005 9:00 Comments ||
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He may be referring to the period when the Feds were busting the NOPD for corruption not too long back. They may have been subjected to Federal oversight for a period of time by DOJ.
#4
The NO police department is famous for corruption, drug-dealing, and even murder. One policewoman murdered her partner when she and her boyfriend robbed the restaurant he was moonlighting at. Another policeman murdered a citizen who had filed a brutality complaint upon him. Drug investigations were leaked to the suspects, and corruption investigations were leaked to the policemen involved. Think of it as a more sinister version of the movie The Big Easy.
Brer, in NYC the policemen and firemen were almost inconceivably brave. Some of the NO policemen are almost inconceivably vile. We don't hear about the good ones, of course. And, although the destruction at the WTC was complete, it was also local. The rest of NYC was affected by smoke and debris, but there was no breakdown of order. The affected area in NO is much larger than the affected area of NYC. Sadly, the WTC attack left few people wounded. Thousands of people lined up to donate blood, but little of their donations were ever used.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/04/2005 10:27 Comments ||
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A better analogy is the 1997 flood centered on Grand Forks, ND.
There was a dike breech. There was sudden major flooding. There were people stranded. There even was some minor looting. However, the local police and State troopers put down the minor looting quickly.
In the New Orleans case, the Mayor wasn't able to acknowledge that the police force would be unable to handle the emergency and the State wouldn't do so because they would be called 'racist'. Similarly if the Feds had said, "well we are coming in with force because we expect the police force to disintegrate", the Feds would have been condemned by the PC press, the Democrats, etc.
#7
From LGF -- CNN reported major from the Hyatt this morning. "The first thing on his agenda this morning was to get hotel rooms in a place like Las Vegas for his police and firefighters? He wants them to get counseling?"
Remember all the places NYC finest were sent? This guy thinks he's Rudy!!!!
#8
NO French colony, like Haiti; NY Dutch/English colony. These influences are very persistent. Yeah, it's cultural.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/04/2005 17:20 Comments ||
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#9
So much of this is due to leadership. People key on the leader. When the leaders are running around, blaming everyone else, breaking down on camera, and making paranoid accusations*, then it should come as no surprise when everything falls apart. Contrast this vile New Orleans bunch with Pataki and Guiliani on 9/11. If Rudy and Pataki had panicked on 9/11, there would have been a similar breakdown in NYC.
* I'm probably being too kind by characterizing them as paranoid. They are political opportunists of the worst sort. This is probably the game they've been playing all of their lives. Sit back, let things happen as they will, then shift the blame onto someone else when things go wrong. Only now, the stakes are much higher and the attention of the world is focused on them, so they sound shriller and more accusatory than they normally would. This is not about saving their city. It's about saving their sociopathic asses. They could give a rat's ass about the dead and dying.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 18:33 Comments ||
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1 I don't remember this happening in NYC when 911 happened. Must be a cultural thing?
I am cautiously going to offer up that comparasonsons to 9/11 are more dis similar. NYC had a flood of "manpower" at the willing and ready to move any mountain. NO seems to have suffered from a lack of manpower, dispursed at farther distances. It is almost as if all the first responders to 9/11 had to coordinate in PA, you would not have seen the same response...
Just thinking out loud and I could be off base here.
#12
9/11 was localized. The subway system was 99% undamaged. The roads were passable, with the exception of about a few building blocks around WTC. LA will see less people killed but more infrastructure damage than 9/11. I suspect $20B is a low estimate for the Federal aid to the regions affected.
New Orleans is also one of the most crime-ridden cities in the country. NYC's murder rate in 2004 was 6.25 per 100,000 population. New Orleans's murder rate was 54 per 100,000 population. That's a whole lot of murders.
#14
OTOH, NYC had no advance notice and NO had five days. NYC suffered a paramilitary attack that could have been repeated or supplemented with additional attacks, NO suffered a hurricane like plenty of others it has endured except for its location and intensity.
Argue all you want about the crisis comparisons, but the fact is both sets of leaders were under unbelievable pressure in real time. NYC did the job, all the way up and down the chain of organization. NOLA buckled at every rung. It's cultural. Hopefully that can be excluded out in the rebuild.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/04/2005 19:17 Comments ||
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Comparing apples to apples,there has been no similar collapse in Mississipi where several small towns and cities were hit even harder.(THe NO mess came after levees breached.)
Complete lack of leadership. NO own hurricane plan states that city can EXPECT NO OUTSIDE HELP FOR AT LEAST 72 HOURS!
Posted by: Stephen ||
09/04/2005 20:29 Comments ||
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Mississippi also has a toxic waste problem... Gulfport, a port of entry of all things animal, chemical, etc. Ships and semi's (with cargo still aboard) have been destroyed and contents carried across the city.
#17
g: Iraq's murder rate was, I think, 65 per 100,000.
That is an amazing (and true) statistic. Don't think of New Orleans as just another American city. Think of it as Fallujah-lite. At least the enemy in this instance doesn't have RPG's or large caches of stockpiled ordnance for IED's - or the skills to use either.
Combat operations are underway on the streets âto take this city backâ in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
âThis place is going to look like Little Somalia,â Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guardâs Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. âWeâre going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.â
Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.
Dozens of military trucks and up-armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.
âWeâre here to do whatever they need us to do,â Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guardâs 1345th Transportation Company. âWe packed to stay as long as it takes.â
While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.
Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and police helicopters filled the city sky Friday morning. Most had armed soldiers manning the doors. According to Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeremy Grishamn, a spokesman for the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the vessel kept its helicopters at sea Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.
Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any servicemen being wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a gunshot wound sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome Wednesday night.
âI never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,â said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. âAnd I never thought Iâd have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.â
Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he knows there are plenty of decent people in New Orleans, but he said it is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.
âThis is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.â Ferguson said. âYou have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didnât come here to fight a war. We came here to help.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/04/2005 01:40 ||
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Spc. Cliff Ferguson needs an informational tour of the Angola State Penitentiary to see some of the people who are out there on the streets. Maybe even pickup a t-shirt while he's there. He'll find the same thugs there both in Angola and NO, that he'd find anywhere else in the world who will exploit, kill, abuse those the least able to fend for themselves. That is why strong men must stand before the darkness that is always around the corner.
#2
Gunfight on the Danziger Bridge. 5-6 people with guns dead, 2-3 others wounded. Implication is they were shot by law enforcement (no idea whether NOPD, State Police, or MPs). The dead & wounded were firing on Army Corps of Engineers contractors trying to repair the canal. Comment here in the house was our guys need more practice time at the range.
Glenmore, evac'd from near New Orleans
#3
âThis is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.â Ferguson said. âYou have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didnât come here to fight a war. We came here to help.â
Keeping in mind the press has wet dreams over quotes like this, and it's quite possible they made it up or twisted it completely out of recognition, what does it say that people are reluctant to re-enlist after their experience in NOLA, but re-enlisting in droves after their experience in Iraq?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/04/2005 18:52 Comments ||
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It says living conditions in New Orleans are worse than Iraq, that Iraqis are worse shots than New Orleans thugs, and that you don't get combat pay in New Orleans.
Faced with the prospect that there might not be much of a city to return to, some displaced New Orleans residents are already shopping for new homes. "People are buying houses sight unseen here," said Shelley Minor, a Realtor with Keller Williams Realty in Baton Rouge. "There is a buying frenzy."
Some companies that once had offices in New Orleans have decided to make Baton Rouge a de facto headquarters until they decide whether it will ever be feasible to move back to New Orleans. Minor, for example, just landed the job of finding homes for the 150 displaced employees at the financial advisory firm where her husband works.
Arthur Sterbcow, president of realty company Latter & Blum Inc., said he had heard stories of people shopping this week for homes in Baton Rouge wearing shorts, still muddy from narrow escapes from the flooding. The rental properties are already taken, he said, by workers who have come to help fix the problems in New Orleans. "We're selling houses hand over fist," he said. "We can't get enough inventory."
Hank Saurage IV, owner of Saurage Realtors, said that the demand has pushed up prices 3 to 10 percent in some cases and that some buyers are making cash offers to make their offers seem more attractive to sellers. "There are 1,900 Realtors in the greater Baton Rouge area, and I don't think there's a one not working to find homes for multiple families," he said.
A week ago there were between 3,400 and 3,700 homes listed for sale in the area, he said. By the end of next week, he figures, there will be around only 500 still available -- ones that are either "extremely overpriced or uninhabitable."
In Lafayette, La., 135 miles west of New Orleans, Re/Max associate broker Jane Ortego described a similarly hectic scene. "As of yesterday, everything has been rented out," she said. "Now people are turning to buying because there is nothing left to rent."
Ortego has sold three homes to refugees from New Orleans this week and says she's working as quickly as she can to find homes for others. She still has to meet with four new clients who left messages on her voice mail overnight. Ortego's office is getting 200 calls an hour for people looking for rental property. Some buyers in the market there are offering more money for a home if the current owners are willing to move out early -- but those owners typically are not able to move out early because there is nowhere for them to go, she said.
More than 200 miles northwest of New Orleans in Alexandria, La., Elaine Fuqua Setliff, owner of Louisiana Lagniappe Realty, said the displaced people who are able to buy homes this week are typically retired, with a pension or dividend income. It is harder for other displaced New Orleans residents, camped out in churches and parking lots around town, who no longer have jobs and thus are frequently unable to get loan approvals.
The National Association of Realtors, based in Washington, said it was too early to say how the exodus from New Orleans will alter the real estate market in the South.
Rick Brinkman, senior vice president of branch operations at Harry Norman Realtors in Atlanta, said that his firm has not seen an impact there but that he expects to see one in the coming months. "I think there absolutely will be a ripple effect; we're one of the closest job markets" to New Orleans, he said. "I don't know when it'll hit. It's going to be interesting."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:43 ||
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#1
Seems like the smart thing to do would to use all rebuilding aid to relocate as many people and facilities as possible anyplace other than NO. If, as others have suggested here, the port of NO is so important, then keep that and build transportation routes for the workers to get in and out of there. The French Quarter could possibly be saved for the tourism. Abandon anything that is currently under water.
Why should tens of billions be spent to rebuild a city, which is 30 ft below sea level, and seems a sure bet to be destroyed sometime within every 40 year period?
Posted by: DO ||
09/04/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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The insurance companies will make it happen. Remove federal flood insurnace for residences and consider it a done deal. There has to be a better place for that port.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/04/2005 20:27 Comments ||
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Let the games begin....select cuts follow:
Tens of thousands of people spent a fifth day awaiting evacuation from this ruined city, as Bush administration officials blamed state and local authorities for what leaders at all levels have called a failure of the country's emergency management.
Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly. These folks are in defense mode, the hell with their constituents
A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort. More at link
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 00:39 ||
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move to p. non-wot plz
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 0:45 Comments ||
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If you want to look at issues concerning logistics of disaster relief, check out this site.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/04/2005 0:59 Comments ||
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#3
The MSM is more than willing to kill as many are necessary to do what ever stupidity they are scheming as long has they bring down the Bush government.
That the WaPo who knows how the system of Disaster response function is printing such total crap shows their hand. Open season on Journalists.
#5
To bypass or overlook local government's responsiblity here and allow them to blame their ineptness on Bush is ridiculous.
The fact that at the local level they didn't assist folks with transportation for the mandatory evacuation starting before the storm hitting, that the plan for evacuation was for the Superdome which is also below sea level, and that they didn't stock the Superdome anticipating the folks arriving there. I never heard of any folks stationed at the Superdome assisting and helping out. What I did remember hearing was that folks were expected to bring their own food and water, that the Superdome didn't have any. Setting the situation up for failure in my book. Yes hindsight is very clear, but the local government should have been practicing evacuation plans so folks would know what to do in case of an emergency such as this. I also remember before this hurricane hit that folks were talking about staying and riding it out, as the mandatory evacuation was being implimented.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/04/2005 2:11 Comments ||
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#6
Hay wapo you f-tards, where are the pictures of the swamped busses? WHere is your research into the standing published emergenyc plans at the state and local level>
Hmm - what the hell happened to journalism?
The Bush administration is not "putting the blame" anywhere - its point out the factsm and the FACTS show where the blame BELONGS - the idiots at the lcoal levels who killed thier people with incompetence.
#7
Several times a year my county goes through earthquake preparedness drills. All the Cities in the county participate it's not optional the way it's set up. The State does a state wide one once a year it's not optional.
There is no excuse for this failure in Louisiana. The State Office of Emergency Services and New Orleans dropped the ball. Ask any one trained in disaster preparedness and response. Drills and practice are not "optional." The Federal government did not drop the ball. It marshaled it's response as soon as it could and provided assistance as soon as it was able. People need to go to jail over this. Their failures were criminal.
People who blame Bush and "race" need to look in the mirror. Their derangement and agendas are showing.
#8
The WAPO reporters and television commentators continue to show the public that they are ignorant - and - politically biased.
That they continue to think that the rest of the American public is as stupid as they are shows how deluded they are with the scope and nature of exactly what service it is that they provide their consumers.
In every city in America, respected public health workers, government officials, emergency response teams, police, firefighters, military members, red cross members, etc., etc., etc. ALL know and understand that it goes, LOCAL, STATE, FEDERAL. They all know that the feds don't come marching in with guns and trucks and that they outside help takes about 72 hours to mobilize.
There is plenty of blame to be dished around after this hurricane. Part of the blame will be that, once again, reporters have shown themselves to be slack-jaw ignorami unwilling to report facts they don't find politically convenient.
#9
Even the title - SHIFTS blame. One bright spot - at least the title wasn't 'TRIES to shift blame.' I whish I thought it was progress.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/04/2005 8:25 Comments ||
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#10
Lots of people to blame here.
One person who has escaped blame (although only a little blame can be justified) so far is Joe Lieberman. He was the prime mover behind a Homeland Security Administration. The very size and complexity of this bureaucracy aggravated the problem.
#13
Definitely plenty of blame to go around. The amount fingerpointing is amazing. The way I see it only state and local people really know the vulnerabilities of a particular area. I don't expect the people in Washington to know what structures are vulnerable in my town during an earthquake or a tsunami or , like last year, a massive wildfire. Most of the disaster preparedness must be done on the local level. But if we're busy pointing fingers here's my list by percentage responsible (for the lack of response).
40% - Mayor and city officials of New Orleans. Nobody knew more about the risks and what responses were available in the initial hours.
30% - Governor and state officials - They had the closest resources and the authority to use them quickly.
10% - Feds - The combination of all of our different government entities to create the Dept of Homeland Security was supposed to make things more efficent. Clearly it has not worked(yet).
10% - The people of New Orleans. Too many of these folks were instant victims. No preparedness on their part at all. It's really probably more the fault of the beaurocrats that have instilled in these people a sense of helplessness and dependency on government.
10% - The press. We should not let these people off the hook. They were reporting a day before the storm hit that the intesity of the storm was decreasing and that New Orleans "dodged a bullet". People relied on that information and it was clearly wrong.
#15
The blame is 100% with the local government. They had a hurricane last year, they went through this and had a year to prepare. They have a detailed plan on how to get the poor out. They did not follow their own plan.
Blogs are already flogging this, it won't be long before it gets into the mainstream media. Someone should be thrown in jail for gross incompitance and I think it's the mayor of NO.
Mississippi is running dangerously low on fuel and medical personnel, and faces a looming housing crisis for tens of thousands of people, officials said four days after Hurricane Katrina blasted through the state.
The state's death toll from the hurricane currently stands at 147, but seems certain to rise as officials widen their focus of attention from larger cities and coastal areas to rural communities further inland. "That number is going to go up," said Gov. Haley Barbour (R), who accompanied President Bush yesterday on a tour of Gulf Coast communities ravaged by the hurricane. "If you see the devastation, you wonder why it didn't kill a million people."
Refugees and survivors continued to tell horror stories about looting, terrible sanitation, long lines for gas, a continuing lack of food and water, and a relief operation that has been excruciatingly slow. Government officials, however, painted a very different picture of the relief effort, called for optimism -- and even suggested that difficult experiences were good for people's character.
"We're spoiled," said Col. Joe Spraggins, civil defense director of the hard-hit Harrison County. "All these years we've had everything given to us. God gave us this disaster and we've got to live with it. It might bring us back to reality."
At a news conference in Jackson yesterday, Barbour and other government officials only mentioned meeting upbeat people during their tour with President Bush. When asked whether he had told the president about the financial needs of the state, Barbour said, "He doesn't need anybody to take him to school on that, he understands that cold."
"There are tens of thousands of homes on the coast that are uninhabitable," Barbour said, of the coming housing crisis. And officials had still not gotten a full understanding of the scope of the disaster in many areas: "We went places where the debris is chest deep, head deep."
Barbour said fuel shortages were the most immediate issue, and called for people who owned tanker trucks in Mississippi and neighboring states to step forward and help with transporting gasoline. He also put out a call for nurses, healthcare workers and physicians, and said that he was worried about the risk of disease outbreaks.
Some 9,000 National Guardsmen, mostly from other states, are expected to be in place by this weekend to help maintain security and assist with relief efforts.
In coastal communities, the search operations continued endlessly. Long Beach, Miss., firefighter Christopher Findlay said he had found four bodies since Monday. "It's like reliving 9/11 again, looking through the Pentagon for bodies," said Findlay, 40, who lives in Long Beach, and was formerly a firefighter in Bowie, Md. "Now I'm looking for bodies again, but some of them are in trees."
Findlay and other firefighters have been pulling double duty, participating in rescue and relief efforts while also policing badly damaged areas. "Looting is pretty bad," he said. "People are taking clothing, liquor -- things that aren't life-surviving, material items. I don't have a problem if someone is trying to get food or water, but beyond that, we're busting 'em.
"What we're getting worried about is people are starting to shoot at us now," he added. "That's the lowest form of human being haunting the Earth."
But Findlay acknowledged that even honest people were reaching breaking point. "Everything is just stretched so thin. People's nerves are really agitated," Findlay said. "They want things now, but it's not here. It's coming in. We're only issuing two bags of ice per vehicle. We'd like to give more, but if we did, it'd never last."
Officials in Harrison County relaxed the nightly curfew by two hours to 8 p.m., despite increased security fears. The reason, Spraggins said, was to give people more time to venture out for gas and food, errands that now could take all day or longer.
Most residents are without electricity, phones and sewage service. Sanitation is a challenge. The Salvation Army is providing 20,000 meals a day for the hungry. By Saturday, the nonprofit group will have a total of 20 canteens operating, serving 30,000 meals a day, Spraggins said. By the end of the weekend, 2,500 portable toilets are expected. One hundred tractor-trailers filled with ice and 500 filled with water are on the way, as well. About 28,000 residents out of 195,000 in southern Mississippi have had their power restored as of Friday, Spraggins said.
Fuel supplies are so low that emergency response crews in Long Beach had no gasoline Thursday night.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:37 ||
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#1
thisn jus prove teh chainey is make for levee preperashens of falterin falters of prequalified kandidates bein left outta bidden time.
#2
With all the blame bullshit eminating out of the Big Easy, Mississippi gets scant attention. A classic case of the squeeky and incompetent wheels getting the grease.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 1:20 Comments ||
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#4
Yep, its easier to sit on an overpass in NO than to go into the field to see places where Katrina just cleaned the earth of any mark of man. Much easier to manufacture the storyline with powerful closeup shots of faces than it is to actually show the full extent of the devastation. I think the Weather Channel has trumped the MSM in coverage outside NO.
#5
"Everything is just stretched so thin. People's nerves are really agitated," Findlay said. "They want things now, but it's not here. It's coming in. We're only issuing two bags of ice per vehicle. We'd like to give more, but if we did, it'd never last."
My wife and I were in deep conflict over this situation: I didn't want to give a damn thing. She wanted to "help the children". I said I didn't feel obligated to love those kids more than their incompetent parents who thought they were so goddam smart, they could ride out a Cat 5.
We reached a Solomonic compromise: we'd just send baby food and diapers. No wipes, since the parents could use those to wipe their own asses.
"Essential medicines that may be required" would be donated, he added.
India boasts the largest number of pharmaceutical companies recognized by the US
Food and Drug Administration in any country outside the United States.
Sen said a medical team from the Indian Army Medical Corps, including a surgeon, an anesthetist, doctors, nurses and para-medics, could fly Sunday to the disaster area in an Indian Air Force aircraft.
"The team will have its own medical equipment and stores. It is aimed to complement the efforts of US organizations, will not require any additional logistic support and will not in any manner strain existing resources," he said.
In addition, New Delhi has offered large water purification systems for use in households and small communities in the stricken areas, where potable water is a key concern.
Posted by: john ||
09/04/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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#7
Muck - your Cheney rants are not appropriate for this one....MS is certainly getting the short end of the attention stick, but suffered just as badly and with as many blacks in the population. Bush should make sure that Barbour and MS get everything they need, especially over the whiney Blanco, Mayor dickhead, shooting gangmembers, et al. Not saying LA shouldn't get theirs, just make sure that MS does as well (and Alabama)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 16:54 Comments ||
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#8
Just got back from the Biloxi area, (checking on my brother) Power is back on in his area, Hwy 90 is open, the interstate is open westward, but two shrimpboats and one construction barge with two big cranes onboard have hit the eastbound span as it crosses near Pascagoula.
As I passed the Hwy dept was making a gravel turnout at the bridge approach to turn the eastbound lane into a two-way, currently traffic eastbound is being diverted to hwy 90 and rejoins at the Alabama state line.
Much wind damage, the railroad bridges are out both at Biloxi and Pascagoula, ther4e won't be any rail traffic for weeks at least
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/04/2005 18:03 Comments ||
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#9
Much wind damage, the railroad bridges are out both at Biloxi and Pascagoula, ther4e won't be any rail traffic for weeks at least
#10
I just went looking for pictures of Choo Choo Bridges in Mississipi (I only archive Florida Briges of Doom) and stumbled across this note how up to date it is. Don't try peeking up at the index they get angry.
#11
Refugees and survivors continued to tell horror stories about looting, terrible sanitation, long lines for gas, a continuing lack of food and water, and a relief operation that has been excruciatingly slow.
God, I hate the press.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/04/2005 18:57 Comments ||
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#12
Pictures around the Biloxi-Pas Christian area
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/04/2005 19:08 Comments ||
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#13
Dang it, the link didn't work, try again
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/04/2005 19:09 Comments ||
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#14
How did you make out RJ? You're in Mobile, right?
#15
We're fine, except for losing power for three days, no harm to us. Worst is a minor dent in my wife's car hood from a falling branch, not even worth repairing.
Things are pretty much back to normal, we got power back wednesday, and except for a huge cleanup of branches and such trash, all is well here, traffic lights are almost all restored, should have all power out areas back by monday or so. Tunnels and both the interstate and Cuseway are open and traffic flowing uninterupted, I-65 is also open and clear.
We have lines at gas stations, but it's mostly panic buying, gas is 3 bucks or so a gallon and except for a few with "Out of Gas" signs, gas seems plentiful, and the radio keeps saying supplies are going to be normal by tuesday or so. I'm just not buying any gas and waiting unti later, I shouldn't need any until next friday or so. I see people with trailers full of 5 gallon cans filling up and nobody seems to be restricting quantities (And making a killing at 3 bucks)
Traveling on the I-10 I noticed nobody speeding, in fact speeds were closer to 65 than the normal 85 or so, traffic was thick with emergency vehicles going west, Sherriff trucks packed with generators, and tarp covered supplies, many army type vehicles, a series of heavy diesel pickups hauling medium-large travel trailers (All the same, that's why I noticed) and I saw a series of about 12 new semis parked in Pascagoula each with 4 brand-new medium large 4 wheeled gensets on each trailer (Stopped for a break I guess)
Pascagoula got it a lot worse than us, passing through around 3 this afternoon the power crews were everywhere, traffic is running smoothly, (I-10 Eastbound is being diverted through Pascagoula) and streeets are blocked off to cross traffic to smooth the overflow. Hwy 90 is a 4-6 and 8 lane renewed road throughout, and they just finished a brand new bridge over the Singing River that was not damaged.
As I passed I saw the railroad was out, the railroad has a timber causeway running beside Hwy 90 and several sectioms were missing in the middle, about 200 feet missing estimate, but the basic pilings were still there, this is a major east-west artery and trains run more or less constantly through there, from Pascagoula to Mobile the rails seem intact, it's not near water until you get to Downtown Mobile, I have no idea if the tracks are intact past, or in Mobile, but as the trainyard here regularly floods I doubt it.
Biloxi seems pretty well destroyed, I saw none of Biloxi personaly, (Stopped at the destroyed Drawbridge over Biloxi bay)but the sun-Herald pictures show ruin.
Having the rails out will certainly hurt.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/04/2005 21:52 Comments ||
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#16
glad to hear you're OK RJ
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 23:49 Comments ||
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - President Bush's top advisers met Saturday with black leaders concerned about the administration's slow response to blacks suffering from Hurricane Katrina, while the head of the NAACP said it was not time for ``finger-pointing.''
NAACP President Bruce Gordon said that any recriminations over how the government treated Gulf Coast residents can wait until the mostly poor and black victims are given the care they desperately need. ``Right now, the NAACP is in what I call a life-saving mode. We are not in a finger-pointing mode and until every life has been stabilized and every life has been saved, we will devote all of our energies for that purpose,'' Gordon said.
Gordon and Mississippi NAACP officials spoke at a news conference in Jackson hours after Bush administration officials including Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff met with black leaders in Washington about allegations that indifference to black suffering slowed the response.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the group discussed how to evacuate, save and sustain lives, create temporary housing and ways to work with community and faith-based groups to handle the long-term needs of the displaced.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland and past chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he believes the administration was partly interested in offering assurances that any missteps in getting relief to the victims would be corrected. ``I think a lot of people in the African American community - and others, by the way - share Bush's view that the results of his efforts have been unacceptable,'' Cummings said after the White House meeting.
Gordon said the NAACP will monitor how federal officials provide relief in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast while offering assistance to displaced residents and those in need. ``Once we are satisfied that some level of stabilization has occurred, then we are going to figure out what happened,'' Gordon said. ``Because are there discrepancies? Yes.''
Concerted screw-up over this hurricane. Nagin, Blanco, Brown, Chertoff, lots of others.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:31 ||
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#1
SW - You're half right. Nagin, Blanco, and the police chief screwed-up. The state governor is in control and is chiefly responsible. She determines how much federal involvement she wants, what type, and when.
Brown, Chertoff and crew are sideline players until the governor divines them in. The record shows that she didn't do anything until Wednesday and is today in major defensive mode.
The record will come out, and it will not reflect well for Nagin, Blanco, and the police chief.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 1:01 Comments ||
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#2
The record will come out, and it will not reflect well for Nagin, Blanco, and the police chief.
Not that it won't keep Blanco or Nagin from being re-elected...
#3
Will they be re-elected? See this " Of the eight men and women elected to statewide office in 1991, three -- Governor Edwin Edwards, elections commissioner Jerry Fowler, and insurance commissioner Jim Brown -- were later convicted of crimes. The FBI said more people -- sixty-six -- were indicted on public-corruption charges in Louisiana in 1999 than in any other state." Then there was Gov. Earl Long -- " Here was a man who had a psychotic breakdown on the floor of the Louisiana legislature, bounced between two mental hospitals in less than a month, got himself sprung outâonly to cavort with a young woman who literally symbolized sin. That man then announced his candidacy for Congress! And he WON! He won the House seat in a hard-fought election during the dog days of the summer of 1960, in the middle of Louisiana, the Pentecostal heartlands!"
#4
And not one loud clear denouncement of the unacceptable barbaric behavior of those exploiting the lives and property of the citizens of New Orleans by lootings, shootings, rapes, etc. They aren't leaders until they can turn to their flock and demand that such actions be treated as intolerable and that race and poverty are not excuses.
No matter what bill of goods they seek to sell, one thing they can't hide is what Americans have seen over the past week. No matter how PC a face is painted upon it, the image will remain. Their silence will only reinforce the very thing they seek to exorcise.
I was on the phone with an old friend, noted author Jason Berry, who recounted his first personal recollection of Earl Long. âWatching your governor go crazy on TV is what I would call a D.L.E.âa Deep Louisiana Experience.â
#7
That's it, I want all LA governing officals to immediately undergo a complete pysch testing. Who gave these people the license to think for themselves? Why are they not in confinement?
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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#8
thinking for yourself has responsibilities and consequences - they want neither
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 16:24 Comments ||
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#9
Bobby Jindal is about the sharpest knife in the political drawer. Blanco is a far more adept politico. Naguin is the best New Orleans politician in my 25 years here, but totally overwhelmed. Big mistakes were made, and he will have to deal with the tragic consequences, but he didn't initiate the mistakes - he just did not manage to correct them in time. He had very few tools in his tool kit, and very few allies in his battles. I have a lot of sympathy for the man - he is a rarity, an honest politician.
#10
not honest, Glenmore, if he tries to pin the blame elsewhere. the buck started and stopped at various levels, Local, then State, then up to Feds....blaming teh last in line, when you were forewarned, requested to evacuate, yet didn't...isn't what I consider "honest"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 19:16 Comments ||
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#11
Frank G:
I was there, I heard Naguin Saturday morning say emphatically that everyone should evacuate. He did not make it mandatory on the advice of the city attorneys. He did say "If I COULD make a mandatory evacuation order, I would." There was NO uncertainty in the meaning. I left.
The mistake was that the city did not provide a means to evacuate those who were unable to evacuate themselves - no car, no gas, ill health, etc. Even evacuating those who would have left if they could, there still would have been probably 100,000 who CHOSE to stay behind despite all efforts short of hauling them off at gunpoint. I know several of them. Lucky idiots are still alive. Rescuing them has overtaxed the abilities of the folks on the ground and in the water.
Dumping on Naguin (or Aaron Broussard, or other local officials) at this point is unfair. The stress on them is about as high as it can possibley get, and combined with feelings of guilt, I think it would get most anyone sounding whiney and emotional. Hell, I got out easy, but after 3 days cooped up in a 96 deg apt with up to 9 other people I was getting rather short-tempered.
#12
Unfair dumping is part of the job of politician. Ask Bush. Naugin is going to spend the rest of his life explaining the aerial photos of those busses. He wasn't alone in blowing it. Apparently nearly every link in the chain of command failed. But he and the rest of the Democrats in LA and "Black Leaders" have decided to make this political and vicious. so Mr. Naugin is going to get a lot more dumping whether it helps or not and whether it is deserved or not. You lie down with pigs, you get up stinkin.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/04/2005 19:36 Comments ||
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#13
Dumping on Naguin (or Aaron Broussard, or other local officials) at this point is unfair.
When they stop trying to blame Bush for their screw-ups, then maybe people will stop looking so closely at them.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/04/2005 19:36 Comments ||
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#14
granted your experience (glad you're safe BTW!) I wouldn't even criticize Nagin if he wasn't lashing out inappropriately at everyone with an "R" by their name. The bus picture will be on his above-ground tomb
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 19:48 Comments ||
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#15
He did not make it mandatory on the advice of the city attorneys. He did say "If I COULD make a mandatory evacuation order, I would." There was NO uncertainty in the meaning. I left.
A leader doesn't stand behind his atty's in face of a natural disaster....nor does he not implement long-in-place disaster plans, then blame others. See CapatinsQuarters, Powerline, Instapundit, et al, and tell me the LA politicians did their "due diligence"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 19:53 Comments ||
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#16
check Instapundit: Other federal and state officials pointed to Louisiana's failure to measure up to national disaster response standards, noting that the federal plan advises state and local emergency managers not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours, and base their own preparedness efforts on the need to be self-sufficient for at least that period. "Fundamentally the first breakdown occurred at the local level," said one state official who works with FEMA. 'Did the city have the situational awareness of what was going on within its borders? The answer was no."
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 19:59 Comments ||
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#17
Glenmore, if I read New Orlean's emergency mgmt plan correctly, if Nagin HAD declared a mandatory evacuation, it would have obliged him to provide transportation, food, etc.
Which is why I have little respect for what I see of him. That and the truly angermaking TV stunt on Monday ... "get your asses down here with 500 busses".
I will never forget that and what makes it worse is that the Ivan dry run last year showed exactly where the problems would come if he sent people to the Superdome without food or water there.
Long list of countries contributing and/or grandstanding deleted.
Qatar pledged $100 million in humanitarian assistance Saturday to help Americans recover from Hurricane Katrina, heading a list of more than a dozen countries joining an outpouring of support.
I'd say that one goes beyond grandstanding...
âIn these difficult circumstances, the people and the government of the state of Qatar would like to assure the people of the United States of its support and desire to assist the people in the affected area along the United States Gulf Coast,â said a statement from the oil-rich Persian Gulf stateâs embassy. And no statement about how the money must only be used to help moslems? The surprise meter moved! I saw it!
âPlease accept our solidarity as well as our heartfelt condolences for the tragic loss of so many precious lives,â the statement said.
The State Department is maintaining a list of countries that have offered assistance, but does not discuss the amount of whether they officers have been formally accepted. The $100 million pledge from Qatar is the largest disclosed so far. Earlier offers have covered a range from Saudi Arabia to tiny Dominica.
A sincere thank-you to the people of Qatar, and to each country that has offered to help.
Pass this on to any flooded-out students you know -- substantial and useful aid from Israel. :-D Medical students unable to attend the Katrina-ravaged Tulane University in New Orleans can attend Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine. In addition, any college student from the Gulf area affected by the storm may apply late for the University's Lowy School for Overseas Students, which is waiving deadlines and some requirements to make room for Katrina's victims. "In tragedies such as this, you desperately want to help, and these are two things the university can do -- offer academic sanctuary to Tulane medical students and an overseas program to other Gulf-area students whose campuses have been destroyed," said Itamar Rabinovich, president of Tel Aviv University. The Tel Aviv Medical School doesn't begin until the end of October, providing time for transferring students to make arrangements. Both the Sackler School of Medicine and the Lowy School programs are conducted in English. Whew! Not many can handle both learning a new language and learning new material!
The American Association of Medical Colleges and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has plans to help the students and residents affected by Katrina. My university will be part of that. We need first to get a sense of how many students and residents, who has room, how the money is going to be handled, etc. It will take a couple of weeks to a month to get a plan together. I suspect I'm going to be part of this.
EFL
Bill Frist took off his senatorâs coat on Saturday and flew for New Orleans as a medical volunteer. But what he found among the thousands needing treatment from Hurricane Katrina was a rescue effort in chaos: patients sleeping on luggage conveyors, teams of nurses who didnât know each otherâs names and a total communication breakdown. Frist left Washington around 4:30 a.m. Saturday on his private plane. He spent most of the day helping to treat thousands of victims at Louis Armstrong International Airport and the New Orleans Convention Center.
The senator spent the day treating diabetics for low blood sugar and dealing with cases of high blood pressure and dehydration. Though he is a surgeon by training, there was no need to perform surgery on Saturday, he said. After overnighting in Nashville, Tenn., following his day in New Orleans, Frist planned to return to the Gulf Coast on Sunday to work in storm-ravaged areas of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as returning with supplies to New Orleans. He plans to be back in Washington by the time the Senate reconvenes on Tuesday. He said the show trials confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts will go forward as planned. I can't wait for the idiotarians to start spewing conspiracy theories, like: Frist is actually murdering witnesses to the GOP's plan to wipe out the black race from New Orleans.
#1
While not presidential material, he has proven to be a great physican in chief. He has answered the call all over the world.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 0:20 Comments ||
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#2
He has answered the call all over the world.
And in doing so has avoided all the dog&pony shows to form his own opinion based on the reality he was up to his elbows in. A wise man as well as a good one, I think.
Since 1981, Shell researchers at the company's division of "unconventional resources" have been spending their own money trying to figure out how to get usable energy out of oil shale. Judging by the presentation the Rocky Mountain News heard this week, they think they've got it.
Shell's method, which it calls "in situ conversion," is simplicity itself in concept but exquisitely ingenious in execution. Terry O'Connor, a vice president for external and regulatory affairs at Shell Exploration and Production, explained how it's done (and they have done it, in several test projects):
Drill shafts into the oil-bearing rock. Drop heaters down the shaft. Cook the rock until the hydrocarbons boil off, the lightest and most desirable first. Collect them.
Please note, you don't have to go looking for oil fields when you're brewing your own.
On one small test plot about 20 feet by 35 feet, on land Shell owns, they started heating the rock in early 2004. "Product" - about one-third natural gas, two-thirds light crude - began to appear in September 2004. They turned the heaters off about a month ago, after harvesting about 1,500 barrels of oil.
More on the technique, and Shell Oil's next steps (Shell has applied for an R&D lease on 160 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, which could be approved by February. That project would be on a large enough scale so design of a commercial facility could begin.) Engineer, techie and finance types should go read the whole thing.
#1
Article: On one small test plot about 20 feet by 35 feet, on land Shell owns, they started heating the rock in early 2004. "Product" - about one-third natural gas, two-thirds light crude - began to appear in September 2004. They turned the heaters off about a month ago, after harvesting about 1,500 barrels of oil.
In 1-1/2 years, they extracted 1,500 barrels of oil. That's under 3 barrels a day. I wouldn't break out the bubbly yet.
#2
Hey ZF - If my math is correct, there are 39,826 such plots in one square mile. I'm not sure how this scales up in relation to surface area, but if the relationship is linear, then that means one square mile would yield 54,556 barrells per day. That might be considered significant.
#3
At current and near current prices, look for considerable investment in new R&D for petro alternatives. Ironically, the problem in the past has been too low of petro prices.
This (high energy prices) is likely to prove to be the greatest opportunity for energy independence.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 0:27 Comments ||
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#4
On one small test plot about 20 feet by 35 feet, on land Shell owns, they started heating the rock in early 2004. "Product" - about one-third natural gas, two-thirds light crude - began to appear in September 2004. They turned the heaters off about a month ago, after harvesting about 1,500 barrels of oil.
Lease ground and comply State/ US regulations, Heat rock and Freeze rock ground for a year and then add the drill rig, Heating system, Freezer system/ pipe/equiptment, oil pumping/eqipt, transportation of oil to refinery and labor costs.
$30 + a few pesos + a few biscuits....
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/04/2005 1:06 Comments ||
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#5
Interesting! There have been a lot of false starts with oil shale and the only producing oil shale facility in Australia was recently shutdown - not economic and too many environmental problems from the leftover shale. Not only does this not produce waste rock, but it will scale incrementally, which means it will be faster to ramp up and incremental improvements can be introduced along the way. Its also a candidate for solar energy cos the underground heating can be supply driven (unlike most energy uses which are demand driven which makes solar prolematic since the sun shines for less than half the time).
#6
Lone Ranger, if the math scaled linearly then you'd need only about 100 square miles of land to supply more 5 million barrels per day. However I doubt it does. Also this technique requires oil shale still in the ground which luckily the central plains and midwest have in huge abundance (contains more oil than all the oil in saudi arabia and a good chunk of the rest of the world to boot).
#8
phil_b do you actually work in the energy business? Have you actually ever seen a pumping unit in you life? Dealt with petroleum to any greater extent than putting oil and gas in your car? Do you have any experience in the energy field besides theoretical or having read about it?
#9
SPoD, coincidentally my wife works for the company in question. However thats moreorless irrelevant. I spent my entire working life analysing businesses about which I knew nothing more than an educated layman. its not that hard, despite the mystic that people weave around what they do. I've been around an oil refinery, but then Ive been around a battle tank factory and a goldmine. So, what's your issue?
#10
Your comments are almost always seem negative about energy. I just wondered if you had actual experience or a degree in the field that could justify such a view. I live in an area that produces oil natural gas and electricity. I can see pumping units from my front door and most of the people around me actually work in the field of extracting and delivering petroleum products and delivering energy. They don't seem to be as pessimistic as you seem to be. They seem to be finding new resources and cheaper better ways to get at them or deliver them all the time.
#11
SPoD, i deal in facts. The USA imports 5 millions barrels of oil A DAY. Its a huge geopolitical problem. I dearly wish it wasn't true because a self sufficient USA is my ultimate gaurantee of the world I live in (although Australia under Howard is IMVHO stepping up to the plate). Having said that there is so much greenie snakeoil out there that lots of people believe fuel cells for example will solve the problem. They won't. *ONLY* increased energy supplies will do that.
#13
What's important is not whether this particular method works but that a new price plateau is reached that makes development profitable for which ever alternative proves to be best economically and helps to gain energy independence from the Arabs. The worst thing that could happen now is for the price of oil to fall to under $30 in 9 months. The Saudis and Iranians aren't stupid. Well, not that stupid. Look for it to happen. That's why we need to impose an oil import tarriff if it does.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/04/2005 10:04 Comments ||
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#14
I have no idea how this technology scales up - I just wanted to make the point that dismissing this because it "only yielded 2.something barrels per day" was probably an inappropriate comment. We're talking about a small fraction of a football field - less than (even) a basketball court. So - maybe thsi means something. I dunno - I'll leave it to those who knos more.
#15
Okay guys, someone tell me what temperature you have to heat the rock to extract the oil/gas, and how long it takes to reach that temp?
I'm kinda assuming that it took a while to get to temp. and that the time that should be used to extrapolate is from the day it first started producing. That may (or maynot) increase the per/day rate going forward, no?
#16
SPOD: I can see pumping units from my front door and most of the people around me actually work in the field of extracting and delivering petroleum products and delivering energy. They don't seem to be as pessimistic as you seem to be. They seem to be finding new resources and cheaper better ways to get at them or deliver them all the time.
Energy people are optimistic because supplies are scarce and prices are likely to not only remain high but continue climbing at a steady rate for the next several decades. They are optimistic in the same way that farmers are optimistic when the global harvest is poor, and their harvest is good. Anyone that is producing natural gas or oil right this minute is making a mint.
#17
LR: I have no idea how this technology scales up - I just wanted to make the point that dismissing this because it "only yielded 2.something barrels per day" was probably an inappropriate comment. We're talking about a small fraction of a football field - less than (even) a basketball court.
That is precisely the point. Many things are not scalable. What kind of fixed investment was necessary to produce those 3 barrels a day? The numbers given indicate 1000 barrels a year or revenues of $60,000. Is $30 a barrel the variable cost? What was the fixed cost, including the cost of exploration and equipment?
#18
Okay, my take on this article is that addresses innovative methods for oil extract, heavy on the innovative.
Given we are an innovative, capitalistic society, my bet is that there is going to be quantum leaps in innovative now that the incentive bar has been raised. Higher petro prices create both the obvious short-term costs to consumers AND the wherewithall to find a more sustainable solution to higher prices long term.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/04/2005 12:23 Comments ||
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#19
I was able to find some more articles on the same process thanks to the ever present google (just search up in "situ conversion" or "shell and shale oil"). It seems that this is a heavily industrialized process still and is only a bit better than the strip mining process that would normally be used to get at the shale. Also the process would extract about 10-15 times more oil from the same amount of shale versus the normal way of bringing it up to the surface and extracting it by crushing and heating/pressure.
Just a year ago, Hurricane Ivan caused disaster plan review
It's World Net Daily, you may need a diuretic to off-load the salt.
A year ago, New Orleans reviewed its hurricane disaster plans after Hurricane Ivan gave the city a major scare forcing the evacuation of nearly 1 million people from the area. What happened last September bears striking similarities to the problems encountered before Hurricane Katrina struck. The only difference was Ivan missed the city.
There were hours-long traffic jams. Those who had money fled, while the poor stayed. The warnings were the same: Forecasters predicted that a direct hit on the city would send torrents of water over the city's levees, creating a 20-foot-deep cesspool of human and industrial waste. "They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya Hill, 57, told the Associated Press at the time. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."
Advocates for the poor were indignant in 2004 â just as they are complaining now. "If the government asks people to evacuate, the government has some responsibility to provide an option for those people who can't evacuate and are at the whim of Mother Nature," said Joe Cook of the New Orleans ACLU.
With Ivan, city officials first said they would provide no shelter, then, just hours before the storm was set to hit land, they agreed that the state-owned Louisiana Superdome would open to those with special medical needs.
Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Tanzie Jones, insisted that there was no reluctance at City Hall to open the Superdome, but said the evacuation was the top priority. "Our main focus is to get the people out of the city," she said.
But again, in 2004, no city or school buses were used to take people to safety. Callers to talk radio complained about the late decision to open up the dome, but the mayor said he would do nothing different.
And, indeed, he didn't do much different last weekend before Katrina struck.
Even the problems that occurred at the Superdome this week had a precedent â during a threat by Hurricane Georges in 1998. An estimated 14,000 poured into the stadium, but theft and vandalism were rampant. During the threat by Ivan, only 1,100 fled to the Superdome and they were supervised by 300 National Guardsmen, who were able to avoid major crime problems.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Nagin both acknowledged after the Ivan near miss they needed a better evacuation plan.
Boy howdy, they sure took the lessons to heart, didn't they?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
As the world looks directly at us, with these two people in charge, Bush gets blamed.
Bush has been a governor of a "hurricane state." He knows the drill. He knows the steps between state power and federal power.
You just gotta believe, as he watched this disaster unfold, he knew it was a disaster for his country.
#3
I don't think Sherry meant it the way you think she did.
By the way, if you want to see BDS in full-blown regalia, head over to the Washington Monthly and check out their commenters. I did battle a little while this evening on one of their threads (now 200+ and counting, I did about 12 or so) -- oh my.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2005 2:18 Comments ||
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#4
If I am wrong my apoligies. However this is the way it usually starts. I have seen so much of it in the last 6 days I am in full offensive mode.
#6
I thought Sherry was clearly on the President's side: Texas is on the Gulf also, and Bush, having been the governor there, knows the drill and knows what responsibilites the states have, the locals have, and what the feds have. Louisiana's governor and N.O.'s mayor DID NOT DO THEIR PART, tying the hands of the feds.
It's proof that Bush is not Hitler, and we are not a Nazi country with all government decision making centralized.
#7
Sherry's right - W called Blanco on sunday, urging mandatory evacuation (which was noyt his responsibility to call for...). It's a fact, she dithered
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2005 16:58 Comments ||
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The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil-shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released yesterday.
But the researchers at the RAND think tank caution the federal government to go carefully, balancing the environmental and economic impacts with development pressure to prevent an oil-shale bust later.
"We've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East," said James Bartis, RAND senior policy researcher and the report's lead author. He added, "If we go faster, there's a good chance we're going to end up at a dead end."
For years, the industry and the government considered oil shale â a rock that produces petroleum when heated â too expensive to be a feasible source of oil.
However, oil prices, which spiked above $70 a barrel this week, combined with advances in technology could soon make it possible to tap the estimated 500 billion to 1.1 trillion recoverable barrels, the report found.
The study, sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, comes about a month after the president signed a new energy policy dramatically reversing the nation's approach to oil shale and opening the door within a few years to companies that want to tap deposits on public lands.
The report also says oil-shale mining, above-ground processing and disposing of spent shale cause significant adverse environmental impacts. Shell Oil is working on a process that would heat the oil shale in place, which could have less effect on the environment. Shell claims the insitu extraction is profitable at $30/barrel.
Posted by: ed ||
09/04/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Quoting RAND can be as bad as relying on CNN.
better info on this at: http://ww2.scripps.com/cgi-bin/archives/denver.pl?DBLIST=rm05&DOCNUM=20000
#2
Has everyone forgotten about the untapped oil "gold mine" in Alaska? Oh but wait, that's right we don't want to upset the wildlife.
Posted by: Soliderwife Robin ||
09/04/2005 0:21 Comments ||
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#3
A much bigger prize could be obtained with the conversion of high sulfur coal to fuel oils. The US has such vast quantities of HSC that it could meet our energy needs for several hundred years. However, the problem lies in removing the sulfur to produce cleaner-burning fuel.
The solution to this might be in engineered bacteria(s) that could process vast amounts of coal overnight in several ways.
#4
I don't know about the "reveals" part. I worked on a project in the early '80's that tapped some of this oil. I remember the $30 a barrel figure from back then. More old news.
#5
..Actually, Brer's comment has a point in it I'm not sure if anyone else noticed. If the oil companies knew in the 80s that the stuff was profitable - not viable, not break-even, but profitable - at $30+/bbl, that tells me that (at least) the oil company involved here has made a long-range decision that oil will never go back that low, and is planning accordingly.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/04/2005 9:33 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed will lead the ceremonial washing of the Holy Kaaba today, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Prominent personalities, including Sheikh Saleh Al-Hussayen, head of the Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque, and ambassadors of Islamic countries, will attend the ceremony.
Arab News 
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he's feeling better about his city, he feels confident he has gotten the attention of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush, but he said he fears the Central Intelligence Agency may take him out because he's been yelling at these officials. Last night he told a reporter for the Associated Press: "If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened."
The rich, middle-aged Arabs increasingly stalk the deprived streets of Hyderabad like medieval monarchs would stalk their harems in days that we wrongly think are history. These Viagra enabled Arabs are perpetrating a blatant crime under the veneer of nikaah, the Islamic rules of marriage. Misusing the sanctioned provision which allows a Muslim man to have four wives at a time, many old Arabs are not just marrying minors in Hyderabad, but marrying more than one minor in a single sitting.
Caught between Sania Mirzaâs rising fame and her attire, Islamic clerics in the city felt compelled to comment on both. Urdu papers covering Mirzaâs third round triumph in the US Open carried modest legless shots of the 18-year-old, in a mixed sentiment that reflects the mood of the conservatives. "We are all proud of Saniaâs achievements and want her to do well," said Aslam Razi, advisory member of Jamaat-e-Islaami. "At the same time we canât understand why she should be wearing the kind of dress she wears on court." 
