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MMA seethes over Pak talks with Israel
Today's Headlines
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Page 3: Non-WoT
5 00:00 Charles [] 
2 00:00 Tony (UK) [1] 
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13 00:00 Atomic Conspiracy [] 
11 00:00 Robert Crawford [] 
8 00:00 Korora [] 
4 00:00 Captain America [] 
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4 00:00 John Q. Citizen [] 
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14 00:00 Sock Puppet O´ Doom [] 
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Man hangs self on Internet
This is from a blog, so I believe SOP is just to post the link?
Posted by: Jackal || 09/03/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  system unavailable
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  In his Mom's basement?
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 1:26 Comments || Top||

#3  what guy doesn't claim he's hung?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 2:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Was the guy a plastic surgeon?
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/03/2005 9:04 Comments || Top||


Man stabbed for refusing lap dance
An angry San Diego topless dancer pulled out a knife and stabbed a customer after he refused a lap dance, police said on Thursday. Lawanda Dixon, 24, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon shortly after the altercation with 33-year-old Melik Jordan at the Dream Girls Cabaret early on Wednesday, San Diego police Det. Gary Hassen said. "He was in the club with some friends watching the shows when she came up and asked if he wanted a lap dance," Hassen said. "He said no, she got upset about it, they argued back and forth. She pulled knife out of her bag and stabbed him."
The next time some bimbo asks if you want a lap dance, you say "YES!"
Posted by: Jackal || 09/03/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  YES, is my default setting.
Posted by: Red Dog || 09/03/2005 0:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Just where does a stripper hide a knife?
Posted by: ed || 09/03/2005 0:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Heh, usually its the lap dancer who gets it in the end.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 1:16 Comments || Top||

#4  The next time some bimbo asks if you want a lap dance, you say "YES!"

Depends on what she looks like.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/03/2005 3:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Lawanda was one of the dream (nightmare) girls at the Dream Girls Cabaret. Lawanda just couln't take "NO" for an answer. Ah, what has become of the "art" of lap dancing?
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/03/2005 8:39 Comments || Top||


#7  Hmmm...Fantasy World sits on the service road along side of I-25 occupying a space next to a nice local restaurant. About the size of a convenience store, with the architecture of a mobile home, its a real stretch of the imagination to think there is a VIP room of any type in that structure, unless they call the toilet the throne.
Posted by: Ulong Slereque6682 || 09/03/2005 9:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Yep, be warned people, they charge by the minute. I have a friend who was severely beaten by bouncers in a Daytona Beach club because he refused to pay a dancer for time spent "just chatting" to the dancer after a lap dance. The bouncers gave no warning, they just came in swinging. They broke both his orbital bones, cracked a vertebrae and left him on the street. The cops did nothing. They must be on the payroll because it is apparently a recurring event.
Posted by: Zpaz || 09/03/2005 10:53 Comments || Top||

#9  Same thing with Japanese Kareoke bars, they charge for each song you try to sing. Something our Japanese "friend" FAILED TO MENTION!!!

We were lucky to still have train fare left. He was lucky we didn't stab him.
Posted by: Steve || 09/03/2005 11:31 Comments || Top||

#10  Steve how else would they charge? By audience reaction?
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 13:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Posting their rates (that most likely change frequently) would lose precious revenue.
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 14:44 Comments || Top||

#12  I knew a guy who worked as a bartender at a strip club. He invited me there because they had just hired a friend of his to cook, who was a real chef, just taking the job there as a one-night gag.

The idea was that a big group of us would order something to eat, and he would whip up a top-quality dinner, instead of the usual crap you would get in such a place. The owner was away and wouldn't show up until later.

We ordered steak dinners, then when they arrived (and they were really good), we turned down the lap dancers because "we're eating, maybe later".

The girls were fit to be tied, and when the owner came him they descended on him and loudly complained about all the customers who didn't want lap dances, just to eat dinner. Confused, he came up to our table and everybody said it was a great dinner and we were going to come back there a lot for food like this.

The girls then launched into the cook, and in a huff, he quit. The owner begged and pleaded with him to stay, but he stormed out anyway. Then we, as a group, having finished dinner, marched out in support of the cook, leaving the owner and the girls in a grand brawl.

The moral to the story is to the girls: do not mistreat your bartender. They can be sneaky.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/03/2005 18:38 Comments || Top||

#13  lesson to owners: keep the bitches in line?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 19:01 Comments || Top||

#14  My rule: Stay out places like that. Find a real woman or a real brothel failing that.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 21:12 Comments || Top||


Britain
Anger over Muslim beauty entrant
Muslim leaders have called on a British Iraqi woman to withdraw from the Miss England beauty contest.
I've got a better idea: how about if you don't look?
Sarah Mendly, 23, the Miss Nottingham winner, is one of the favourites to take the national title in Liverpool. But her place in this weekend's event has been condemned by the city's Islamic institute, which has branded the showing of naked flesh unlawful.
"Oh! Nekkid flesh! Oh, hold me, Mahmoud!"
Miss Mendly said she will wear a sarong and a one-piece swimsuit instead of the traditional bikini. The pharmaceutical sales rep has lived in England since her parents fled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 1993. She said: "I wanted to show that there are attractive British Iraqi girls who are proud of being both British and Iraqi. Some fanatics might say entering a beauty contest is wrong because you are putting yourself up to be judged by your physical appearance - but my family supports me."
Good for you and your family.
But Dr Hashim Sulaiman, of the Liverpool Islamic Institute, said: "There is no way a Muslim girl should be playing any part in this in this competition because it is unlawful.
In fact, I've got an even better idea: why don't you go have sex with yourself?
"The ladies in that contest are always very scantily-dressed and the only part of the body that should be on display are the face the hands and the feet. I would like this girl to withdraw from the contest immediately."
The rest of us would like you to drop dead, either immediately or after a protracted and painful illness, it doesn't matter.
Miss Mendly, from Beeston, is currently leading a text ballot of 40 women all hoping to make the final 11 contestants who will take place in the grand final. If she scoops the Miss England title she will travel to China for the Miss World contest in December.
Posted by: Groluns Snoluter6338 || 09/03/2005 10:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wish her the best... If only to watch Dr Sulaiman's balls explode...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/03/2005 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  has lived in England since her parents fled Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 1993

What? Why? Iraq was a Mekkah for womens rights. Really, you can look it up.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 13:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Anger over Muslim beauty entrant, anger over Islamophobia, anger over the Zionist media, anger over everydamnthing that stops them Talebanizing the whole planet.
Posted by: plook || 09/03/2005 14:50 Comments || Top||

#4  People really need to keep their religious sensitivites to themselves or go to where people share them. Don't try and inflict them on the rest of us who in no way are ever going to share them.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 15:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Islam - the religion of inadequate and weak men
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 16:05 Comments || Top||

#6  She's a looker that one.
Posted by: Rafael || 09/03/2005 16:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Hey 'Dr' Sulaiman, read up on your British history, we've been doing this for centuries. Thousands of years actually. Boadicea for example - took on the Roman Empire and looked good in the process (whether she beared breasts or not is open to debate). Or Lady Godiva, riding naked through the streets of Coventry to try and get her husband to limit taxes on the populace.

Simple answer - you don't like it, don't watch it.

Otherwise, get the fuck out of my country - there is *nothing* that your 'religion' has done over the last 1,300 years that has made any positive difference to the world. Subjugation of women just shows how pathetic your belief system is.

Either that or you have a small penis.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/03/2005 18:24 Comments || Top||

#8  "Either that or you have a small penis."
I would have no way of knowing for sure, of course, but that would be my bet.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 09/03/2005 19:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Good one Sgt. Mom!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/03/2005 21:58 Comments || Top||

#10  a fundamental problem with fundamental islam -- they can't simply live their own lives without judging (and acting on) others who do not view the world as they do. this includes other muslims as well as nonmuslims.

this is why they're offended if there's even alcohol in the room. this is why they're offended by western women wear. this is why they're offended by the fact that nonmuslims don't understand the concept of dhimmitude.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 09/03/2005 22:21 Comments || Top||

#11  Either that or you have a small penis.

You're assuming he even has one. I'm betting he was born without.

Not that he's a woman. Just born sexless.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 23:22 Comments || Top||


Europe
Chirac in Hospital: Minor Vascular Incident
Posted by: RG || 09/03/2005 14:56 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Missed the jugular?
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 15:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Eye problem - probably brought on by constantly turning a blind one to weapons deals, Congo murders and other situations that might mean doing the honourable thing.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/03/2005 16:15 Comments || Top||


French City Offers to Help U.S. Namesake
The French city of Orleans is rallying to help its hurricane-hit American namesake. The city south of Paris plans to donate money raised from ticket sales at local sports matches to help hurricane victims in New Orleans, a statement from City Hall said Friday. Orleans and its university have also offered to take in 50 students from the University of New Orleans for the school year, the statement said. The mayor's office is working with U.S. authorities to find out what other aid it can provide.
Posted by: Fred || 09/03/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice offer; however a more effective result would be for the US government to employ the "Soloman Rule"! Take the 1.4 million displaced out of New Orleans, divide the evacuees by 50 and send them to the remaining United states! Roughly 28,000 for each State!!
Posted by: smn || 09/03/2005 6:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Brilliant! A Senatorial plan. Wyoming and California get 28,000 each. Makes sense... NALOSBS.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Wyoming and California get 28,000 each. Makes sense

Pardon me, But have you seen the size of these refuges? Do you think the San Andreas fault can bear the load?
Posted by: Red Dog || 09/03/2005 19:31 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Michael Moore Accuses Bush of Katrina Racism
Mikey is such a class act.
In an open letter to President Bush posted on his Web site, liberal filmmaker and anti-war activist Michael Moore suggests that a delay in rescuing stranded residents of New Orleans was based on race and class. "It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands has no transportation to get out of town," Moore wrote. "C'mon, they're black! ... Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days?"
I seem to recall that Bill Clinton didn't do a whole lot to change the lot of the African-American folks living in New Orleans. Their situation's been about the same for, oh, a hundred years or so.
The letter, dripping with drivel sarcasm, accuses Bush of not doing enough in the immediate wake of the storm to begin recovery efforts. "On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home," Moore writes, "I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster."
Mikey, like the MSM, hasn't caught on to the idea that a president can actually hear about stuff and get briefings while not in the White House.
Bush cut his five-week vacation short after reports of the hurricane's damage began to come in. He returned to Washington, D.C. to discuss recovery efforts with members of his cabinet.

Moore writes that the war in Iraq has claimed too many supplies and men who could otherwise be helping the recovery efforts in the Gulf areas affected by the storm. "It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted," he wrote.

Moore asks if Bush has "any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters."
They're in the South, Mikey, doing their jobs. By the way, how much money have you contributed to the Red Cross?
The number of National Guard soldiers heading toward the disaster area is increasing daily, with more than 50,000 part-time guardsmen and active-duty soldiers already there and many more on the way.

Echoing the accusation of German environment minister Juergen Trittin, Moore suggests that global warming is to blame for the hurricane. He said Bush ignored "pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable."
Don't bother explaining facts to Mikey, or to Juergen for that matter.
Moore acknowledged that "there will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you." He suggested that Bush not respond to his critics.
He generally doesn't; he lets his actions speak for him. There's a lesson, Mikey.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/03/2005 08:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Left is certainly reving up its BDS hatefest heading for that 'Cindy' moment when it starts to bite back on them again.
Posted by: Spaviting Elmoting4926 || 09/03/2005 10:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh no, I made a large donation and plan to do it again every two weeks until the crisis is over and everyone is placed.

I am very white. Honest, I didn't know I was suppose to be racist.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Michael Moore is nearly as honest as a carnival grifter.
Posted by: Korora || 09/03/2005 12:43 Comments || Top||

#4  "...Moore suggests that global warming is to blame for the hurricane."
Tell that to the 6,000 people who died in Galveston, Texas... 105 years ago.
http://www.1900storm.com/facts.lasso
Posted by: Darrell || 09/03/2005 12:52 Comments || Top||

#5  The largest contributor to global warming is Mikey running his mouth. Well, combined with the heat given off by his tremendous bulk, of course.
Posted by: Abu Musab al Dumbo || 09/03/2005 12:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Moore asks if Bush has "any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters."

Watch the news, simpleton. I know you believe they're all in Iraq, but less than 15% are, idiot. And of course, you believe they should get there like turning on a light, since in your world, all the trucks would be loaded with the motor running, contributing to global warming and using up more fossil fuels, you less-on (not even a moron).
Posted by: Bobby || 09/03/2005 13:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Mikey should be used as one those super-sandbags to fix the breach in the levee. C'mon Mikey, help them out in New Orleans!
Posted by: Rafael || 09/03/2005 13:16 Comments || Top||

#8  Fat Feces Moore to begin making money off human tragedy in 5...4....3..2......

Hope ya make another 50 million..
Posted by: macofromoc || 09/03/2005 14:20 Comments || Top||

#9  People of NO out of food/water for 5-6 days and Mikey goes to a fat farm.Does anybody else see the irony here?
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 15:26 Comments || Top||

#10  For the last damn time, it's not rascism. It's homophobia! Can't you morons see the obvious?


Oh! They left? Really. Fort Lauderdale, ah I see, Where the Boyz Are.
Never mind.
Posted by: George W Gorilla || 09/03/2005 16:44 Comments || Top||

#11  Sounds like Mikey has evaculated the fat farm?
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 20:31 Comments || Top||

#12  As Charles at LGF notes, Moore had no links to charitable organizations on his site.

Except, I imagine, those that contribute directly to Moore's own fat pockets.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 21:56 Comments || Top||

#13  Fuck you Michael Moore.
Posted by: bgrebel9 || 09/03/2005 23:10 Comments || Top||

#14  Correction: Moore does have links to charitable sites.

He's still an ass who deserves to burn in hell, however.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 23:12 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Revvvverand Jesse Jackson Essentially Calls Bush Racist
BATON ROUGE, La. - Racism is partly to blame for the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, calling President Bush's response to the disaster "incompetent."

"Today, as the President comes to Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi for his ceremonial trip to look at the victims of the devastation, he would do well to have a plan more significant than a ceremonial tour," Jackson said Friday.

Posted by: RG || 09/03/2005 00:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where in the world is Waldo Jesse? I thought he would eventually surface. Someone said he would surface when the gunfire stopped. Jackson is the ultimate snake oil saleman and huckster--a political gadfly. Instead of helping, he is there to tell everyone what they did wrong and how racist it was. Spare me. Damn what a media whore.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/03/2005 8:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Ok,Rev.Jack'sass.lets hear your plan.
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 8:54 Comments || Top||

#3  "I have... a plan! I have been to the mountain. I have a plan.
Posted by: Jesse Jackson || 09/03/2005 8:58 Comments || Top||

#4  I have a scheme!
Posted by: Martin Lurther Gorilla || 09/03/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#5  I have blood on my shirt! See! I was really there! Honest!
Posted by: .com || 09/03/2005 10:23 Comments || Top||

#6  so, the warnings that infection would set in have come true
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 11:49 Comments || Top||

#7  This particular infection is chronic, but it merely causes pain in the buttocks.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/03/2005 12:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks for the thoughts Jesse, now either lend a hand or STFU!
Posted by: DMFD || 09/03/2005 15:27 Comments || Top||

#9  It strikes me that, for the second time in five years, the leadership of the Left had an opportunity to demonstrate strength and vision.

The first time was in the face of religious zealots offended by a culture which was, to a great extent, a creation of the left.

The second time, in the face of possibly the greatest natural catastrophe our population has ever faced.

In both cases, the leaders of the Left have failed miserably. All of that lovely rhetoric about "tolerance" and "solidarity" is just so much BS.

I already knew that, of course, but it always helps to see things confirmed every now and again.

They are very small people.
Posted by: dushan || 09/03/2005 18:51 Comments || Top||

#10  Anyone know why Jackson's not rotting inside a prison somewhere for extortion, fraud, and his involvement with various terrorist groups?

I sure don't.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 21:54 Comments || Top||


New Orleans Mayor DID NOT Deploy Available Buses to help Evacuation
Posted by: RG || 09/03/2005 02:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Nice to see the Mayor managed to save the School Busses from all the wear and tear of evacuating people.... can't have that!

Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/03/2005 8:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Those busses still look usable. The water level is nowhere near the air intakes. Most of them still have the tops of their tire exposed.
Posted by: ed || 09/03/2005 16:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Look closely. You'll notice the oil slicks on the water. Those engines are scrap metal. As are all the drivetrain and anything else submerges.

Mayor Nagin out to resign in disgrace. His own EMeergency Plan - publiched on the web by the State of La, years ago specifically called for the use of metro buses and school buses for transportation of evacuees.

Take in all the 350+ city buses, and the 350+ school buses in various depots (this one in the picture had over 100), so 600 buses at a minimum. Count 60 capacity - its people outbound or 150 lbs of cargo instead of a person inbound. Thats per bus. That works out (for the entire fleet) to 36,000 people evacuated per trip outboundHauling peopel out, supplies in. Block off one whole side of the highway (the side normally inbound to NO) specifically for the buses - one lane goes in the other out. Nobody but state police, EMS, Guard/military and the buses are allowed on that side. Outbound interstate stays in that direction for civilian traffic. (evac in Florida does that so ALL traffic is going in the one direciton it should). Make the location 7 hour radius from NO (Houston is 7 hours at 50 MPH) and allow 1 hour for unload/load. Buses can make 1 round trip Plus a final evac trip in a 24 hour period.

They could have evacuated 70,000 of the poorest people out, and brought in 2,700 TONS of food water shelter and clothing, as well as additional police and rescue from outlying areas to help the NO-PD and EMS. And the vehicles would have weathered the storm well out of the destruction path, and been available for use in the aftermath.

Here's the math:

60 people per bus, rated at 150 lbs per person load = cargo weight of 9000 lbs = 4.5 tons per bus. Assuming that approx 1/6 of the buses are out of service at all times for both fleets of 350+.

Thats being very conservative with the numbers. It could have in actuality been much more.

Here is the theoretical max:

There are more than 350 City buses and more than 350 School buses in the metro area. Allowing for a 5% down rate, thats still 700 buses.

School buses seat an average of 66, not 60, Metro buses 77 or more. And overall weight allowance on average is probably over 200 pound per passenger in the vehicle design limit.

That math give 700 buses, 66 pass/200lbs per bus.

Thats OVER 46,000 passengers per evac trip, 4,600 TONS of foods/water/suppiles per inbound. Meaning in 24 hours (trip out, trip in, trip out) over 90,000 could have been evacuated, and 4600 tons of supplies delivered for a total of 9,000 tons of supplies if you look at the first post-retun trip for the buses after the storm.

They screwed up BIG time - the Mayor and his Emergency manager should resign, and should face criminal charges of negligence and incompetence.

US Attny General, take a look at this. The math is there above, and the specifical legal reference for the buses is in the Louisiana Regional hurricane government guide, a document produced by the State and local governments of the region, to which the City of NO is a signatory.

The Mayor and Gov KNEW the storm was coming, they KNEW the levees were nto rated to suvive more than a Cat3, and the had a plan and authorization to take action. And they did NOTHING, and their citizens, the poorest of them, have DIED iun large numbers.

Arrest them now.
Posted by: Oldspook || 09/03/2005 17:44 Comments || Top||

#4  OS, even given less than 100% efficiency or ridership out, you're on the mone. Explains why NAgin is getting out of control on interviews. Powerline notes that teh evacuation was urged on Blanco and Nagin by.......Bush....who'da thunk it? Evil Chimpy Bushitler tried to help the "coloreds" survive.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

spread the truth
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 17:54 Comments || Top||

#5  on the money, sorry...
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 18:32 Comments || Top||

#6  It gets worse. Just heard on the radio here in Baton Rouge (now should be called West New Orleans) that a guy here organized a convoy of 25 buses and drivers, led them all the way to the New Orleans Convention Center to pick up refugees and haul them to Baton Rouge. When he arrived he was turned away by the authorities on the ground, with no reason given, and ordered to leave. He left. Empty. Has since been in contact with Gov. Blanco and supposedly will return tomorrow with an armed State Police escort and be allowed to evacuate people.
I am sure there is some kind of excuse, but it cannot be adequate for leaving 1000-1500 people to wallow and die in that filth another 24 hours.
All that said, I will defend Mayor Nagin - he is by far the best politician this city has seen in my 25 years here (there). Not perfect, but not bad in comparison with those before and around him.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/03/2005 19:08 Comments || Top||

#7  OldSpook - many thanks for that, I was going to do some maths with the numbers of school buses that I'd seen in photos, but you've gone way further than I would have.

It's obvious from that analysis, that a huge proportion of the population *could* have been shifted out in time, and that many more supplies could have been brought in for those still left behind.

Someone in authority really ought to swing for this.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/03/2005 19:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Glenmore, to many that sounds like an acknowledgement of how bad NO politicians are as a class. That seems sort of in the class with Saying Kimmie is the best leader North Korea has ever had.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 09/03/2005 21:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Glenmore, Mayor Nagin should be sitting before a Federal Grand Jury Tuesday AM. I don't care if he is better than those before, just shows how bad they were too. This is a human and national disaster that didn't need to happen. His acts caused people to die that didn't need to. There are Parishes harder hit than New Orleans and Orleans parish. We are seeing nothing or hearing nothing about that, just me, me, me from that waste of human skin Nagin.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 21:26 Comments || Top||

#10  You'll notice the oil slicks on the water. Those engines are scrap metal.

Since the engines do sit a bit higher than normal vehicles, I'd have to guess that the visible oil slick is the gear oil in the differentials. Typically there are breather holes on the tops of the differentials, and they don't have valves to prevent entry of water in the event that the axles are fully submerged for any length of time.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/03/2005 23:36 Comments || Top||


Is Katrina Racist?
Al Sharpton showed up on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC last night, and the pair sounded a theme that's becoming depressingly familiar in the effort to demagogue hurricane Katrina:

Olbermann: I actually heard a commentator this afternoon--it was that Limbaugh--suggest that the issue of class and race in those who were left behind in New Orleans was irrelevant, because, as he put it, those people were not forced to live there and they weren't bused into New Orleans.

And I was thinking, A, this guy is even more clueless than I thought he was, which is saying something. But, B, there are people who actually believe that. How do you respond to them? How do you explain to them what the truth is? . . .

Sharpton: . . . The real question is not only those that didn't get out. The question is why has it taken the government so long to get in. I feel that, if it was in another area, with another economic strata and racial makeup, that President Bush would have run out of Crawford a lot quicker and FEMA would have found its way in a lot sooner.

In truth, Katrina's devastation was spread out over a huge area, not just the city of New Orleans with its majority-black population. The Associated Press quotes Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who lists four suburban parishes that, along with Orleans Parish (which is coterminous with New Orleans) were hit hard enough to need "long-term rebuilding."

Here are the 2000 census's racial breakdowns of the populations of those five Louisiana parishes, along with Mississippi's coastal counties, which suffered a direct hit:

Parish or county White Black
Jefferson, La. 69.8% 22.9%
Orleans, La. 28.1% 67.3%
Plaquemines, La. 69.8% 23.4%
St. Bernard, La. 88.3% 7.6%
St. Tammany, La. 87.0% 9.9%
Hancock, Miss. 90.2% 6.8%
Harrison, Miss. 73.1% 21.1%
Jackson, Miss. 75.4% 20.9%

Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 02:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And, in a related "race" article, the Congressionl Black Congress, the all-time source for truth and justice...

Racism charges swirl in Congress amid chaos

"Black leaders at a press conference in Washington criticized news coverage they said has depicted blacks in New Orleans as looters and refugees."

"We cannot allow ourselves to see only the black faces doing the looting and not see the homeowners, the families, the children who have lost everything," said Dorothy I. Height, president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women."
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  "We cannot allow ourselves to see only the black faces doing the looting.." that is who is doing the looting, the shooting, the raping and the killing dear. In two days I have seen very few white people at all in New Orleans. Get over it, this stuff is part of a pathology of poverty the leaders of the black community and black elected officals had cultivated, nurtured and encouraged helped by your friends in the Democratic party.

Sew the wind reap the whirlwind dear.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 2:50 Comments || Top||

#3  "We cannot allow ourselves to see only the black faces doing the looting.."
Translation: "We have to shut our eyes very tightly and go 'la la la la'."
No, it isn't only black faces doing the looting, but for crying out loud, that's who most of the population there are. If looters are uniformly distributed through the population, most will be black. Doesn't anybody ever learn statistics? Not that the media are any better . . .
Posted by: James || 09/03/2005 10:32 Comments || Top||

#4  And how about the black victims of rape, murder, and looting that aren't being shown?

These "gangstas" prey are equal opportunity thugs.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Katrina sounds mighty white to me. How come the National (clue word for whitey) Hurricane Center is allowed to use nothing but Dick and Jane names? How come there's no Hurricane Takasharilllia or Hurricane Jar'Michael? I know racism when I'm sold it.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||

#6  oh Al Sharpton, just shut up! (rolling eyes)
Posted by: Unaque Ulosing1075 || 09/03/2005 17:13 Comments || Top||

#7  Ever see a satellite photo of katrina? She's white, white, white. I rest my case.
Posted by: Rev. Al, Race Hustler for Hire || 09/03/2005 17:18 Comments || Top||


Let the Hurricane Blame Shifting Begin: Landrieu Presses Bush for Aide Coordinator
Sen. Mary Landrieu called Friday for President Bush to appoint a cabinet-level official to direct the federal response to the devastation along the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina. Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said she asked Bush during his tour of New Orleans on Friday to act within 24 hours to put a single official in charge of the overall relief effort who would report directly to him. ''The suffering has gone on long enough,'' she said. ''Now is the time for action.''
You tell 'em Landrieu. Why this had nothing to do with the ineptitude of the democratic governor, the mayor and police chief. Right?
There also were calls from Republicans for Bush to name a prominent official to oversee the recovery effort. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., suggested Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell or retired Gen. Tommy Franks to take charge.

President Bush acknowledged Friday before leaving Washington that ''the results are not acceptable'' and promised that the government would restore order in lawless New Orleans. He has faced increasing criticism from state and local officials for the government's slow response to the disaster.

Landrieu joined the chorus Friday. ''The people of Southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have suffered in a desperate and unprecedented way, waiting for the administration to employ the full resources of the United States government, resources which, for whatever reason, have yet to arrive,'' she said.

''Hopefully, after today's visit, President Bush understands the enormity of our situation here on the ground and will put the full weight of his office behind our recovery efforts,'' she said.
Wasn't it President Bush that convinced the lame governor to proclaim a mandatory evaculation? Well, ya
Before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported directly to the president. FEMA was folded into the new department and its head now reports to Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, rather than to Bush.

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said Friday he intends to introduce legislation next week to separate FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and to call for a complete review of FEMA operations.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 00:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The MSM continues it's total war against Bush. They are happy to help Landrieu out even if she is totally wrong.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 1:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Guam's population is generally the size of New Orleans estimated nos. of refugees/evacuees [100K +/-] - the island suffered much devastation from various strong storms over the decades. espec during Supertyphoons KAREN and PAMELA. It gener takes FEMA at least one week to flying and set up here at a "sufficient" level of operation, not counting for repairs, local activat of USNG units, andor initial distribution of emergency supplies and foodstuffs/stamps. Orleaners began complaining after only ONE DAY, and allegedly shooting at rescue helos after barely TWO!? CINDY/MOTHER-GATE + NEW ORLEANS > MORE PC AMMO FOR THE LEFTIES TO CRITICIZE DUBYA, AND ARGUE FOR "MO' MONEY, MO'FREE MONEY, BIGGER GOVT. , and ME FIRST"! MORE REGULATION, SOCIALISM, MORE COMMUNISM, MORE GOVERNMENTISM, MORE POLITICISM,... TOTALITARIANISM, NOT AUTHORITARIANISM, TO SAVE AMERIKA AND THE USSA! Good Clintonians demand to be invaded and gulagged - call in the Commie Airborne, Cindy, you go girl! Anarchy is what happens when Repub Conservative world conquerors and Servants of God fall in love with Democrat babes - BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA........., like Angelinia Jolie, Attila and Genghis' little Commie OWG Supermodel. Sniffle, Sniffle.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/03/2005 1:37 Comments || Top||

#3  http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRPbaseplan.pdf

President Bush and Tom Ridge put a plan together in 2003 for this situation. It was not followed on a local level in New Orleans.

Read it.
Posted by: RG || 09/03/2005 1:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Instead of focusing on getting the folks to safety, everybody is looking to blame. How very sad. I was surprised that they chose the superdome as the safe haven not being out of the below sea level area. Has anyone seen the hurricane evacuation plan? Obviously no one there has. Local government in NO is failing miserably and trying to blame everyone but themselves, and the ones that suffer because of it are all the folks still out there.
Instead of the link I've included it here(you had to deal with ads to get to the story)
A dry plan
Louisiana's official hurricane plan says absolutely zero about how to handle an evacuation once New Orleans is flooded.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Mark Benjamin



Sept. 2, 2005 | Engineers have warned for decades that a massive hurricane might drown New Orleans. So why are the efforts to evacuate the city in such chaos? Didn't somebody have a plan?

Well, yes, kind of. The "Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation and Sheltering Plan" does note that a hurricane the strength of Katrina might push a 20-foot storm surge into New Orleans, that levees might break, pumps might fail, and the drinking water supply, electricity and sewage system might go kaput. The plan "prescribes the actions to be taken at each stage of a catastrophic hurricane emergency."
But the plan doesn't mention anything about how a killer hurricane might make evacuating the city rather tricky, much less a logistical nightmare. In fact, it says absolutely zero about how to handle an evacuation once the city is flooded.

The plan appears on the Web site of the state's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness under a button labeled "Plans." [This just had emergency radio stations and the like to tune to from what I could see] It was last revised in January 2000 and goes hand-in-hand with the state's Emergency Operations Plan, which outlines government agencies' responsibilities in big emergencies.

Mark Smith, the office spokesman, did not return requests for comment on the plan. In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Walter Baumy, chief of the Army Corps engineering division in New Orleans, says authorities could not have anticipated Katrina's impact. "There was a plan in place," Baumy said. "[Katrina's impact] was much more than envisioned. The city has never seen anything like this."

According to the plan, state officials had a good idea how a storm like Katrina would deluge the city. "Tidal surge, associated with the 'worst case' Category 3, 4 or 5 Hurricane Scenario for the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area," it reads, "could cause a maximum inundation of 20 feet above sea level in some of the parishes in the region, not including tidal effects, wind waves and storm rainfall."

The evacuation planners also knew that New Orleans could not handle that much water. "The area is protected by an extensive levee system, but above normal water levels and hurricane surge could cause levee overtopping or failures," it reads. It also says the city's now-famous pumps might give out, and that a catastrophic hurricane would result in "complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings" and might require a "massive evacuation." It just does not say how to do that when 80 percent of New Orleans is underwater.

The plan states that to avoid danger, most people should get in their cars and drive away before the storm comes. "The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles," it reads. School buses and government vehicles will move everybody without a car. Interstate highways will be converted into one-way outbound evacuation routes (All of that did happen.)

When the approaching storm produces high winds and rising water, the evacuation routes should be closed when driving gets dangerous. "As evacuation routes are closed, people who are still in the risk area will be directed to last resort refuge within the area," the plan reads. It is unclear if the authors understood that as many as 100,000 people might be left behind or might decide to stay in the city.

That's it. The rest of the document outlines how to let residents back into New Orleans. It says roads should be clear, flood waters should have receded, and public utilities should be up and running. It says nothing about when people can return. Officials now estimate that fixing the levees and getting the pumps working to dry out the city might take 30 days. Mayor C. Ray Nagin predicts that residents won't be able to return to the city for 16 weeks.

Hindsight is 20-20. But the state's hurricane evacuation plan appears to have been nearly blind to the devastation in store. It says nothing about people having to be air-lifted from their rooftops. It says nothing about how looting, violence or sheer desperation-driven anarchy might overtake the city. It says nothing about untold gallons of chemicals, gasoline, excrement and dead bodies floating through the city. It does say, though, that people should get in their cars and drive away before the storm, or hide in the Superdome, until the water recedes.
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 2:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Head of Emergency Operations in New Orleans, Terry Ebbert should be investigated by a Federal Grand Jury. My sympathy is going to get very thin if the MSM and Democratic leaders in LA and the counrty don't STFU and get on with restoring order and the systems thaty make the society in this region work.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 2:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Landrieu Presses Bush for Aide Coordinator

You already have two full time paid coordinators, they're call Senators. Appearently, Ms. Landrieu doesn't want to do her job of representing her state at the federal level. Why not ask Senator Frisk for an authorization for additional staff first?
Posted by: Spaviting Elmoting4926 || 09/03/2005 9:36 Comments || Top||

#7  The Donks are also asking for an investigation. They never learn and have short memories. They asked for a 9/11 commission....and who was at fault?? Which party will be faulted for this one??

Personally, I hope the Donks scream for an investigation. Nothing would be sweeter than the revised 9/11 Commission report and the Hurricane Katrina report to come out at the same time.

It is a ripe season for the Donks to loose more seats. Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching!
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 09/03/2005 15:16 Comments || Top||

#8  In 1987, my old hometown of Grand Forks, North Dakota experienced a massive flood.

From: http://www.draves.com/gf/gfindex.htm

Flood crest: 54.4 feet. (Flood stage: 28 feet)

Water flow: 140,000 cubic feet/second. (780 is normal)

46,000 people evacuated in Grand Forks (90% of population)

8600 homes with damage (75% of total) and 1616 apartments damaged (28% of total)

Almost two billion dollars in damage (Grand Forks and East Grand Forks)

60,000 tons of debris removed.

13 days without running water, 23 days without drinkable water.

No lives lost to the flood.


Number of National Guard troops needed to put down the local insurgency: 0


Posted by: Pat Phillips || 09/03/2005 17:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Has anyone suggested Hulk Hogan - I saw on a trailer for the last episode of his show this season that he is bored and is trying out tennis and pilates but can't find a suitable replacement for the excitement of the ring. Maybe a cabinet level position would do the trick.
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/03/2005 19:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
A storm blog starting with the 28th
Sunday Aug 28th 8:19 am

Like then P Diddy sang, "We ain't goin' no where."

Come on with it then, storm. Bring me what ya got. Let's see who wins.

on without stop since.

Suggest by my oldest son as the best storm and disaster blog.

Posted by: 3dc || 09/03/2005 18:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They are Directnic.com and the man posting is ex Special Forces.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/03/2005 18:50 Comments || Top||

#2  3dc, thanks for posting this. I had heard about it but haven't had enough internet access to give it a good look. I used to work in the building the guy is blogging from. Every building in the photos is familiar to me, including the church where my grandparents got married in 1910. This is excruciating.
Posted by: Matt || 09/03/2005 20:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks 3dc. It's good to get news unfiltered by the gloom'n'doom of the media and the politicians.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/03/2005 21:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Thank my video gaming son...
Posted by: 3dc || 09/03/2005 21:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Just on Fox, Chief Justice died surrounded by family.
Posted by: Charles || 09/03/2005 23:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Economy
Americans Aiding Americans
I just updated the Americans Aiding Americans site.

$302,172,382. in cash raised so far for Katrina relief from Americans.

The amount of money raised on line represents more than 1/3 of the total. I have close to 100 e-mails for which I have not yet been able to verify the donation, hell, even read! There's a ton of commentary I want to write, but I'm jammed with the record keeping. Hey, do me a favour, please! If you catch a typo or an error, please write me about it.

I can assure you that I am at least $50 million low at this point. There is so much going on that isn't getting publicized. And, it's the Labour Day weekend, making publicists wait until Tuesday or so.

Huge thank yous to everyone who has sent info. Huge thank yous, as well, to Glenn Reynolds, Michelle Malkin and many, many other bloggers who have featured this site.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 09/03/2005 15:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When is the Richard Simmons "Sweating to the Oldies" telethone? That is when the big bucks start rollin' in.

Get Michael Moore to co-host in leotards.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 20:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Damn Capt! You broke my imagination with that one! Mike Al-moore in a leotard -- I may never recover from that image...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/03/2005 20:53 Comments || Top||


Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s 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. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.”

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. “We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,” Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.”

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.
Whether they know it or not, these scumbags are rebels, insurgents, and traitors. Kill them, now.
Bad idea to shoot at a helicopter gunship. Really bad idea.
“I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”

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. “This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”
There was a Battle of New Orleans once before as I recall. Old Hickory and his army, which included many Marines and sailors, as well as pirates and Indians, whipped the lobsterbacks and sent 'em running.
A senior NCO needs to have a quiet talk with Spc. Ferguson.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 13:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Spc. Backus, focus on your commander's intent: to remove those who are making life hell for the people you want to serve and defend.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/03/2005 13:49 Comments || Top||

#2  On a different forum, some snarky leftist made a sneering remark: "How come we never hear any good news from New Orleans?"

It was quickly jumped on by conservatives who responded with good one-liners, like:

"It's time to bring our military and emergency personnel home. They obviously don't want us there."

and my favorite: "The looting and shooting shows that the New Orleans people just aren't ready for freedom and democracy!"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/03/2005 13:52 Comments || Top||

#3  And "NO BLOOD FOR GUMBO!"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/03/2005 13:53 Comments || Top||

#4  The 527th is a Louisiana NG outfit, right? Maybe they ought to send in some outsiders. Of course, this kinda defeats the purpose of having the NG in the first place.

...several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.

As John of Iberian Notes says: This is what anarchy means, all you blackshirts out there on your Pacific Northwest college campuses. John's over-sanguine about the looting for my taste, though.

They obviously don't want us there.

You think that's just snark, but it's not. It's an object lesson that ought to give some folks pause. Not now, but in a week or two. Won't, though.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 09/03/2005 14:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Old Hickory shot a few civs in his time, you'll note. He had no patience with the local muckety-mucks who wanted to surrender the city to the Brits.
Posted by: mojo || 09/03/2005 14:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Article: 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. “This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”

For military men, helping generally means fighting a war.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/03/2005 15:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Got a link,sounds like fun?
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 15:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Spc. Cliff Ferguson,they gave-up any consideration due to them as Americans when the first round was fired.
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 16:03 Comments || Top||

#9  Sounds like some people need to be reminded why the statue of Andrew Jackson has "TO PRESERVE THE UNION" carved on its base.

And how it got there.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 16:20 Comments || Top||

#10  The thugs were in N.O. before the hurricane, the floods just brought them out of their cribs. The NOPD were losing the war against the thugs to begin with.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 20:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Have they captured Nagin yet?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 09/03/2005 21:12 Comments || Top||

#12  Have they captured Nagin yet?

Well, we know he's not hiding in a septic tank somewhere. They're all flooded.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 21:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Mrs. Davis and Robert Crawford: Nagin as Saddam is hilarious. Thanks for the best laugh of this sometimes trying week.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 23:44 Comments || Top||


Halliburton Hired for Katrina Cleanup (conspira-loons will go ape-s**t)
Break out the foil, left-losers. The rest of you should invest in Alcoa and Reynolds stock.
The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

KBR was assigned the work under a "construction capabilities" contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers' effort to repair New Orleans' levees
The New Orleans Resistance forces will no doubt strive to prevent this illegal Halliburton occupation by continuing to shoot at relief helicopters. The dhimmis in Berkeley, Madison, and Canuckistan will obviously be taking up a collection for them and showing their solidarity in street demonstrations. Since it's a lot closer than Iraq or "Palestine," will they stick with this limited support, or might they actually go there and join in this time? Chicken-bats anyone?
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 10:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Halliburton Hurricane Division only generated Katrina at Karl's insistance.

in other words
BLAME BUSH!

Posted by: Red Dog || 09/03/2005 10:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Bwahahahaha
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 11:37 Comments || Top||

#3  The New Orleans Resistance forces will no doubt strive to prevent this illegal Halliburton occupation by continuing to shoot at relief helicopters

Oh, please please please ... we have troops there now who can shoot back.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/03/2005 12:03 Comments || Top||

#4  I thought the hidden subsidiary was going to handle this one?

BTW Have you seen any Joooooooos in the 'Dome? I thought not. They left, had early warning from WWL, The Jooooo Weather Channel. Only Jooooooooos left were a few so called doctors at Tulane and Charity who were busy removing blood from new born babies and gold teeth from the elderly.

/yeah I better
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 12:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes Mona, you'd better - just mentioning Halliburton seems to attract the troglodytes from near and far...
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/03/2005 12:29 Comments || Top||

#6  "contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process"
The smell of capitalism and free markets will inflame the left too.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/03/2005 12:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Mona Gorilla wrote:

BTW Have you seen any Joooooooos in the 'Dome? I thought not.

That's cause Bush used the Evil Zionist Tsunami / Hurricane / Death Ray Satellitetm to create the hurricane in order to distract the nation from Cindy Sheehan and make money for Halliburton. Yeaargghh!!
Posted by: DMFD || 09/03/2005 13:55 Comments || Top||

#8  And what facet of the conspiracy is it if this goes into the Classix?
Posted by: Korora || 09/03/2005 14:31 Comments || Top||


Tourist tells of 'murder and rape'
AN Australian backpacker stranded in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has told his parents he witnessed horrific scenes while sheltering in the city's Superdome, including murders, rapes and stabbings.

John McNeil, a 20-year-old university graduate, rang his parents in Brisbane yesterday from a payphone in the foyer of the New Orleans Hilton, where about 60 foreign tourists, including 10 Australians, were sheltering under armed guard after they were rescued from the Superdome by US military personnel.

In a brief telephone call, John told his father, businessman Peter McNeil, of chaos and lawlessness in the Superdome, where more than 20,000 refugees sought shelter after the hurricane. "He saw murders, stabbings and rapes in there," Mr McNeil said.

Mr McNeil said about 100 military personnel and police in the dome were struggling to cope with the huge crowd. "It was just getting worse by the hour and there were gangs in there who were killing each other," he said.
That's a key sentence not appreciated by the hand-wringers on the Left: there were gangs there. Wonder why they didn't evacuate the day before the hurricane hit.
Mr McNeil claimed African Americans in the Superdome had abused foreign tourists and demanded they be rescued ahead of them from the crowded football stadium, where conditions were stifling. The 60 foreign tourists were escorted from the Superdome by military personnel. They spent one night at a medical aid post in a nearby building before they were moved to the Hilton.

Gold Coast entertainment agency owner Gary Hopes said yesterday his family had been extremely worried about his younger brother Anthony, 30, who had been missing for five days after the hurricane. But the family was relieved to learn yesterday that Anthony was among the 60 foreigners sheltering in the Hilton.

While the Hopeses and McNeils had obtained information about their loved ones, other families across Australia were still hoping last night for up-to-date news. Sydney woman Sharon Cullington flew to the US yesterday to find her 22-year-old daughter, Vanessa, who she had not heard from since Tuesday night. Accompanied by her daughter's boyfriend, Toby Salmon, Ms Cullington was armed with photographs of her missing child. "We've brought lots of photos and we're just basically going to see who's there and who we can hassle," she said.

Vanessa Cullington has been in the US since June working at a Camp Counsellors USA youth camp and was at the start of four weeks of travelling. Ms Cullington said Vanessa had been on a train to New Orleans from Washington DC and hadn't heard about the approaching hurricane.

Tim and Joanne Miller of Rockhampton, on holiday in the US, contacted their daughter Tamara yesterday and told her that they were still awaiting evacuation after living under a bridge in the flooded city for four days. Ms Miller said her parents had been threatened by a gun-wielding guard when they tried to board a bus.

A family spokesman for Brisbane sisters-in-law Fiona Seidel and Katie McLean, who were reported on Wednesday to be safe in a tourist hotel, said they were out of contact.

Sydney woman Denise Drake, 29, rang her mother Mercedes yesterday, saying she was trapped in one of the city's churches without food or drinkable water. "Mum, I'm alive but I am trapped in this church. Get someone to come and rescue us. Report it, ring the embassy," Mrs Riviera said her daughter had told her.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/03/2005 08:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rats in a bowl. Should of been very strong show of force in there and a sense of safty.
Posted by: Sperese Ebbavith1908 || 09/03/2005 16:10 Comments || Top||

#2  It was a MANDATORY evacuation, you idiots. This is exactly the kind of bad experience tourists get to avoid because they have no ties to keep them there, and generally a rental car to drive away in. Darwin Awards all around, and my condolences to their families
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/03/2005 16:39 Comments || Top||


#4  FG: Right, and additionally, Bush asked the (not ready for prime time) governor to declare Marshall Law last Sunday (i.e., federalize the troops).
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 20:54 Comments || Top||


Shameful: Only 25 Nations Offer Help to the U.S.
As for the list of Nations, not to be ungrateful, IMHO some helps are more sincere than others (for example I can't help thinking pledges from Venezuela or China are more propaganda coups than anything else), and that there is more than a bit of schadenfreude involved, for example in the case of my dear France (or cf. german environment minister's comments about the US responsability for global warming).
When the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated many nations across Asia in December, the United States rushed to the aid of victims by pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance – just as it has offered aid whenever a natural disaster strikes in another country.

Now the U.S. is facing a catastrophe of its own from Hurricane Katrina. Though the U.N.'s own top official for disaster relief has called Katrina one of "the largest, most destructive natural disasters ever," shamefully only a handful of nations – at last count just 25 nations of the 191 countries in the United Nations – have come forward to offer assistance.

And almost none have offered what America has so often provided: money. And the aid so far offered by foreign nations amounts to a drop in the bucket considering the anticipated multi-billion-dollar cost of dealing with the immediate crisis and the reconstruction to follow.
This doesn't upset me. We're a wealthy country, we can handle the cost. I'd appreciate countries with special expertise helping out, but it isn't mandatory that they do so.
President Bush has urged Americans to send cash donations to private relief organizations rather than in-kind contributions such as clothing and food.

The same could be applied to foreign nations, most of which have been on the receiving end of massive financial assistance from then U.S. over the years. President Bush told ABC-TV Thursday morning: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars.

"We would love help, but we're going to take care of our own business as well, and there's no doubt in my mind we'll succeed."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has decided that "no offer that can help alleviate the suffering of the people in the afflicted area will be refused," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The offers of assistance so far pale in comparison to the aid pledged by the U.S. for tsunami relief, including $346 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Defense Department for their relief efforts, $339 million for reconstruction and $168 million to help victims with food, shelter, housing and education. In addition, a private fund-raising campaign led by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton brought in more than $1 billion for tsunami victims. In fact, at least one-third of American households have donated money to an aid group in tsunami-hit nations.

Now the U.S. is trying to deal with the "American tsunami." U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan acknowledged the extent of the disaster, saying through a spokesman: "The damage is far worse than any of us imagined at first. The American people – who have always been the most generous in responding to disasters in other parts of the world – have now themselves suffered a grievous blow."

But he went on to add: "Of course the United States is also the country in the world best prepared to cope with such a disaster." While Annan has not spoken directly with President Bush, he did meet with America's U.N. ambassador John Bolton to convey the U.N.'s readiness to help.

While it is true that America indeed is a wealthy nation, a sentiment of help and support would be appropriate and courteous. Apparently, most nations do not believe in courtesy.

Of the nations that have offered assistance to the U.S., few have offered money. China, for example, presented $100,000 to the American Red Cross. Russia has offered boats and aircraft. On Wednesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin offered to send a group of military special forces specializing in search and rescue to the region. That offer was rejected by the State Department.

Japan has promised tents, blankets and generators. Even France offered a fire brigade. Germany is willing to provide communications equipment. Israel, which receives $2.2 billion in U.S. aid each year, has offered to send doctors, nurses, technicians and other experts in dealing with natural disasters, as well as field hospitals and medical kits.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the U.S., made a mocking offer to send cheap fuel and relief workers to the stricken area. At about the same time he used the disaster as an opportunity to attack President Bush, calling him a "cowboy" who failed to manage the disaster.

Other nations that have offered some form of aid include Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, Honduras, the UK, Greece, the Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland, Colombia, the United Arab Emirates and Australia. "They're the most powerful, wealthiest country in the world, but when something like this strikes, the poor and the vulnerable are the same all around the world," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

One nation not on the list is oil-rich Kuwait, which owes its very existence to America's liberation effort following Iraq's invasion. In fact, a high-ranking Kuwaiti official has said Hurricane Katrina was sent by Allah, adding that "disaster will keep striking the unbelievers."

No matter how much foreign aid does arrive in the U.S., it's clear that America will have to shoulder almost all the financial burden in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The size of that burden became clear when President Bush asked Congress for an initial appropriation of $10 billion. Officials say the total cost of dealing with the reconstruction will be as high as $50 billion.

Meanwhile, the U.S. could find itself with a new security nightmare. As the Pentagon prepares to send as many as 50,000 troops to the disaster region, the White House must also find the manpower for the U.N.'s special summit, due to convene in New York on September 12. More than 150 heads of state are expected to attend.

One topic slated for discussion is progress in relief for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Said one U.N. official: "Now we have something new to add to the agenda."

In addition to Katrina, one topic the U.N. might include on their agenda: ingratitude.

Nations That Have Offered Katrina Hurricane Aid:

Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, UK/Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/03/2005 08:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  France wanted to help early on, but Chirac couldn't figure out how to support the Hurricane.
Posted by: DMFD || 09/03/2005 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm sure Kofi and the UN will be the first on the scene to take credit just like with the Tsunami

... as soon as the 5-star hotels (and 24 hour catering services) are back up and running and we suspend those pesky pedophellia laws...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/03/2005 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  "Support" is actually a very complicated thing, and I cannot condemn many countries for not being able to offer it. The reason being the understanding of what countries are, and what government is, in the first place.

The two universal things a government must provide its people are protection from external and internal enemies. But with the advancement of democracy around the world, many nations and their armies have given up on aggressive war and solely focus on defense. That is, they can protect their own country, but they don't really have any significant capability or desire to project force outside of their country.

Look at the nations who are able and willing to commit "peacekeepers" around the world. A short list indeed, perhaps giving a hundred ill-equipped infantrymen to be supported by the US or some other 1st world country who are also deployed. And that small contribution still taxes their own nations' military.

And everybody knows that the US is NOT going to permit foreign troops on its soil. So what else could they send? Well, maybe things like specially trained dogs to help find trapped people and dead bodies. But only a few developed nations have anything like that, either.

Even China probably did the best thing it could have done by giving a contribution to the Red Cross. Even if their intentions weren't pristine, it was still perhaps the most effective thing they could have done. It actually will have an effect and help people.

But all told, it is a major dilemma of what other countries *could* do, that unlike empty gestures of "moral support" so beloved by the left, would have a practical and timely effect on the ground.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/03/2005 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  I agree. The US can and will handle it alone. Just watch the money pour in from Americans themselves in the next couple of weeks and months.
Posted by: Rafael || 09/03/2005 13:25 Comments || Top||

#5  NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced a $5 million contribution to the US Red Cross for relief and rehabilitation of the victims of the devastating Hurricane Katrina.
Posted by: john || 09/03/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||

#6  The the leftists are crying how Bush is turning down offers of aid. What a shameful bunch of ignorant clowns.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 15:40 Comments || Top||

#7  "This doesn't upset me." Doesn't upset me either.IT PISS'ME THE HELL OFF.
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 16:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Thank you, India. We could also divert all of the funds promised to the Paleo theftocratic killer corps as their contributions....
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 16:56 Comments || Top||

#9  john: NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced a $5 million contribution to the US Red Cross for relief and rehabilitation of the victims of the devastating Hurricane Katrina.

China has apparently also offered $5m.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/03/2005 18:25 Comments || Top||


Doc: 6 Murders, 12 Rapes Inside Superdome
Plus according to the stories of british and australian tourists, a very tense racial atmosphere, blacks vs whites, and a lot of prejudice against outsiders coming from the locals. The Superdome was apparently a very bad place to be.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/03/2005 09:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Outsiders vs Insiders. Not surprising. I seem to recall the hatred directed to Vietnamese boat people who where relocated to NO in the 70s. The locals were complaining that the new arrivals were getting benifits that belonged to them.

NO has been a classical welfare state where someone else is suppose to be responsible for the basics of existance. Not much above the Paleos reliance upon the UN buearucrats for their existance for 67 years.
Posted by: Spaviting Elmoting4926 || 09/03/2005 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  "6 Murders, 12 Rapes"

0 witnesses.
Posted by: .com || 09/03/2005 10:41 Comments || Top||

#3  My Gawd, the killed the witnesses too?
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 11:58 Comments || Top||

#4  .com, and Captain America: I'd be very suprised if the numbers were that low.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 09/03/2005 12:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Delta Force or SEALS should have been sent in there as soon as the first reports appeared of rescue teams being fired at. Since time was of the essence it would have made sense to put the best people in there, rather than NG or local police.
Posted by: plook || 09/03/2005 14:31 Comments || Top||

#6  Or failing Delta Force or the 7th Calvary pehaps some honest cops.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 16:04 Comments || Top||

#7  It was probably the cops shooting at the rescue teams, for interrupting their lil looting spree.
Posted by: Oswald J Flugelmeyer || 09/03/2005 17:12 Comments || Top||

#8  The
Posse Comitatus Act of 1878


Time for the adults to take over came, the adults showed up. Order was restored. The city, Parish and State government have been abject failures in the New Orleans area. Now the Democrats and left who run the show down there and screwed it up so badly blame Bush and the Federal Government. I want to see some Federal Grand Jury indictments handed down to the Mayor of New Orleans and the Head of the Office of Emergency services in New Orleans.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 17:25 Comments || Top||

#9  Let me first preface this comment by saying that I hope you don't think I'm a terrible person for harboring these feelings.

It seems that the folks that stayed behind for whatever reason mostly seem to be a mixture of thugs and those not having resources. What we're seeing now is the ignorance that has been breeding here over many years. These folks seem to rely on the government to help out in every way. Most of all the disaster plans encourage folks to have a family plan intact, to be ready themselves and knowledgeable in how to access information. The local government failed miserably as well, going off the deep end. It is sad that precious hours and days were wasted because of this. I know this sounds horrible, as I like to think I am compassionate in alot of ways. I guess what I mean to say is I would like to help folks already making some attempt here. For it to be expected that everything be done is crazy especially in such an all out emergency. I'm not refering to the elderly or sick, I'm mostly refering to the able bodied. To not see these guys help each other out is frustrating to say the least. I feel like we are failing the folks that were just too ignorant to leave or that decided to stay for other strange reasons (that escape me)and are stuck with these thugs. So much for emergency preparedness. Meanwhile I hope folks survive this tragic situation.
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 18:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Jan - I agree
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 18:37 Comments || Top||

#11  guess we're both bad people?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 18:38 Comments || Top||

#12  Hey, Jan and Frank G... I'm a bad person, too.
(And I hope to see Hizzonor the Mayor raked over the coals for the failure to use the school and city busses to get people out, either before the hurricane, or when the levee began to fail. That aerial picture of the bus yard is damning.)
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 09/03/2005 20:08 Comments || Top||

#13  MeBad2

The hurricane brought to the surface a complete absence of leadership at the state and local levels.

The MS governor immediately issued a "shoot to kill" against looters. The outcome, no looting problem.

The N.O. mayor told the N.O. police chief not to take punitive action against looters. The outcome, adject lawlessness, deaths, rapes, etc.

The LA governor throws up her hands and issues a "Desperate SOS" the most serious problem is between her ears and lack of a leaders' heart.

The N.O. police chief throws a temper tandrum on cable television. No wonder 2/3s of the police officers bolted at the sight of a flood. Less than 5 perc of them live in N.O.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 21:08 Comments || Top||

#14  Delta Force, etc. could not be employed because the LA governor didn't declare Marshall Law and did not federalize the troops.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 21:10 Comments || Top||

#15  I guess I'm bad too because I've been saying they should get rid of that 'useless as a turd in a rainstorm' mayor and issued shoot-to-kill orders against looters and the lawless.

Does anyone thing the MSM will allow any of those responsible (the Mayor, Governor) to be help accountable? Didn't think so.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/03/2005 21:30 Comments || Top||

#16  CP,
Marshall Law is forbidden in the Louisana Const.

Jan,
I guess I am a terrible person also. I hope the generosity around the US in taking in the refugees is done with caution. In the sense that criminal backgrounds are checked, immunizations, etc. I am not talking about extra precautions just for the refugees. I am talking about the same standards should be in place as if they were a citizen of the community taking them in. E.g. if strict background checks and drug testing are required for a regular employee then it should carried through to the refugee also.

Also, I think the state legislatures should take this tragedy as an opportunity to pass a bill that retroactively eliminates free schooling and medical benefits for illegal aliens. It's time that America takes care of its own that are in this dire situation. Although I appreciate the help from other countries, it's still outright embarassing to me that Third World countries has to give donations. I'd rather pay $4 a gallon than accept any help from Chavez.

Posted by: Poison Reverse || 09/03/2005 21:35 Comments || Top||

#17  I guess we'll all be bad together, safety in numbers heh. (Maybe discuss it over some homebrew)
Poison Reverse, I agree with you. The damage and destruction that has taken place in the superdome along with the rapes and murders are disgusting to hear about. I'm sure the numbers are much higher than what's being reported too. Looking at the caliber of folks that stayed, and that they are the ones being transported, yes there should be some type of screening in place. I don't like the idea of "big brother" scanning everyone, but in these times I think it's come to a point for the safety of all that yes we do drug testing and background checks. Actually, not to stray too far off the subject here, I've felt all along that for folks that receive welfare checks that they get drug tested to get the benefits. To assure that they aren't using the money for drugs.
Makes you wonder how the dynamics of Houston will change with it's new inhabitants, as I don't feel they will have the money to move back to NO.
As far as stopping the illegal aliens from getting free school and medical benefits, hell yeah, but don't get me started. ;)
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 22:19 Comments || Top||

#18  Marshall Law is forbidden in the Louisana Const.

Proof? Inability to federal troops. Proof?
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 22:35 Comments || Top||

#19  Okay, I found that Marial Law is not recognized in LA. A state of emergency has been declared (on Tuesday). Sounds like action was taken under Homeland Security circa 1993.

My understanding is that Pres. Bush requested that the governor take such action last Sundy, under the impending hurricane threat, including the federalization of troops.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 22:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Rapper Shoots off Mouth during Fund Raising Effort for New Orleans
Why We Love Live Television, Reason No. 137:

NBC's levee broke and Kanye West flooded through with a tear about the federal response in New Orleans during the network's live concert fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina last night

The rapper was among the celebs and singers participating in the one-hour special, produced by NBC News and run on the NBC broadcast network, as well as MSNBC and CNBC, because, hey, the numbers couldn't be any worse than usual on a Friday night and hopefully they'd raise a chunk of change for a good cause, the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Among the performers, Faith Hill sang "There Will Come a Time," which included the lyrics, "The darkness will be gone, the weak shall be strong. Hold on to your faith." Aaron Neville performed Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" with its chorus: "They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away."

West was not scheduled to perform; he was one of the blah, blah, blahers, who would read from scripts prepared by the network about the impact of Katrina on southern Louisiana and Mississippi. West and Mike Myers had been paired up to appear about halfway through the show. Their assignment: Take turns reading a script describing the breach in the levees around New Orleans.


Myers: The landscape of the city has changed dramatically, tragically and perhaps irreversibly. There is now over 25 feet of water where there was once city streets and thriving neighborhoods.
(Myers throws to West, who looked extremely nervous in his super-preppy designer rugby shirt and white pants, which is not like the arrogant West and which, in retrospect, should have been a tip-off.)


West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!
Can we translate this into Eubonics for clarity?
(West throws back to Myers, who is looking like a guy who stopped on the tarmac to tie his shoe and got hit in the back with the 8:30 to La Guardia.)

Myers: And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastating, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild and remain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all.

(And, because Myers is apparently as dumb as his Alfalfa hair, he throws it back to West.)

West: George Bush doesn't care about black people!

(Back to Myers, now looking like the 8:30 to La Guardia turned around and caught him square between the eyes.)

Myers: Please call . . .

At which point someone at NBC News finally regained control of the joystick and cut over to Chris Tucker, who started right in with more scripted blah, blah, blah.

"Tonight's telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion," parent company NBC Universal said in a statement issued to the Reporters Who Cover Television after the broadcast.

"Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."
Duh! And what about all the people who did tune out, and never heard your disclaimer? If the MSM didn't already have a reputation for acquiessing to this kind of B S, your disclaimer would have been heard.
West's comments would be cut from the West Coast feed, an NBC spokeswoman told The TV Column. (The Associated Press later reported that only his comment about the president was edited out.) The show was live on the East Coast with a several-second delay; someone with his finger on a button was keeping an ear peeled in case someone uttered an obscenity but did not realize that West had gone off-script, the spokeswoman said.
Posted by: Slolush Glomoth5548 || 09/03/2005 07:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I didn't watch the program because anything positive NBC could do would be insincere.

Say a prayer for the afflicted citizens of LA, MS, and AL. And, also include the clueless and brainless on display at NBC, MSNBC, etc.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 11:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I wrote this over at my blog...

It is hard for me to stomach what is going on in this country. A lionized punk who has become wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice in this country can't help but vomit all over it in support of murdering Morlocks at a venue designed to help victims of the Katrina tragedy.
Meanwhile, a stand-up MAN like Jabbar Gibson gets threatened with jail (!) for having the stones and common sense to use an abandoned NO schoolbus to save 100 lives. The parasitic filthpigs that have been murdering, raping and pillaging the city, bless their sociopathic little hearts, by contrast have gotten a pass for the last few days from the corrupt local politpunks.

God help any disarmed law-abiding citizens of the Big Easy who trusted the Looney Tunes administrations of Blanco and Nagin to constructively plan for anything. Hizzoner the Mayor is now screaming for "500 buses," seemingly oblivious to the FACT that he HAD 500 buses in NORTA and the school transportation system but let them get flooded out rather than have them moved to high ground and used to evacuate people.

But Jabbar Gibson is the problem...

Posted by: Ernest Brown || 09/03/2005 11:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Chargeing that young Hero would be a travisty. Any prosecutor who takes-up this case will have his balls handed to him.
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 15:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I follow most current music, including a few of the better rappers (my sons leave MTV on...) and I have no clue who this Piece Of Shit™ is...

see if anyone knows who is is/was next year...idiot
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 16:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Anybody care what rappers think?

I thought so. Me neither.

Posted by: mojo || 09/03/2005 19:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Sean Combs (P Diddy) and some other Rap/HipHopper just announced donations of $1,000,000 each to the relief effort. I don't know the details, but that is some serious talking. This (donation) is one time I guess we should care what a rapper thinks.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/03/2005 19:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Yeah, he's the cover of "Time" for Aug. 28, billed as "Hip-Hop's Class Act" and as "The smartest man in pop music."
Wow... I guess hip-hop, and pop music music are really, really screwed.
So is Time Magazine, too, but that's another issue altogether.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 09/03/2005 19:59 Comments || Top||

#8  The pictures of Looters are the true face of "ghetto" culture. It's most US citizens exposure to it. These examples of the cultural race for the bottom need to be seen for what they are. They are robbing many of their own race of the opportunity to make their lives ones worth living. Racists of the first water. Hell is too good for them.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 20:11 Comments || Top||

#9  The looters are the "gangtas" baby, P Diddy is a "gangta" with a good PR firm.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 20:40 Comments || Top||

#10  WOW SPOD - how "cracker"! I'm totally with you... call it as it is
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 20:46 Comments || Top||

#11  "Ghetto culture" is the key phrase. It isn't just a black thing: Refer to Dalrymple for descriptions of what ghetto culture is like in the UK, or to the history books (not those classroom monstrosities, though) for other examples.
Posted by: James || 09/03/2005 21:30 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Economy
Michael Barnett: Blogging through Katrina from New Orleans
I haven't seen this mentioned here at Rantburg and thought y'all would be interested. The page linked abouve is for last Sunday and at the bottom of the page is a link for "next" to take you to the next day. He has been blogging through the entire ordeal.
Posted by: Chuck || 09/03/2005 03:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Congress Approves $10.5B in Katrina Aid
Posted by: Steve White || 09/03/2005 00:33 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is just the start of the relief bill. It doesn't include the rebuilding effort which will have to be something along the line of the Marshall Plan considering the vast destruction of infrastructure along the coast. However, if Florida rebuilds are an indicator, it can generate economic boosts because of the construction which then filters through the region and local economies.
Posted by: Ulong Slereque6682 || 09/03/2005 8:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Cat stock is charging northwards because of all the earthmovers and other construction equipment that will have to be purchased on the federal taxpayer's dime, which presumably means 100% American-sourced equipment wherever possible.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/03/2005 15:55 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm a bit sad. AID is after the fact. I think maximum effort should of been put to this as soon as the bad signs started showing up, should had hi-res satillite photos handed out everyone to over >15,000 reserve military providing support and traffic, and transportation. I'd hate to imagine a nuke. I'm not impressed with N.O. police or FEMA. I wish there was a trained branch of the military just for long term domestic distaster mitigation, Disaster Corps, maybe joint military too. New rapid deployment technologies and preventing financial cost with leadership/authority to more saving lives, those that are dying now but aren't being reported or reached. Humans are just plain animals and thats to be expected and dealt with with orderly precision. Disasters should be a science that can be improved or perfected, but when its happening, everything goes in slow motion until the worst is realized, unless you have a good system or plan. N.O. with its below sea level city is a special case, but so are most major disasters. I'm just ranting!
Posted by: Sperese Ebbavith1908 || 09/03/2005 15:56 Comments || Top||

#4  I hear ya Sperese.... Silver Lining Alert....

Think of this as a dress rehersal/maneuvers for a nuclear blast.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 16:07 Comments || Top||


New Orleans Mayor Calm After Talk With Bush
Medication must have kicked in.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The cursing had stopped. The tears were gone. Mayor Ray Nagin returned from his meeting with President Bush a picture of calm. He leaned back against a railing in a hotel lobby that for the first time in nearly five days was devoid of stranded, sweating, and generally miserable tourists.

``I feel much better. I feel like we've gotten everyone's attention and hopefully they'll continue to do what they're doing,'' Nagin said Friday night in the damaged downtown Hyatt hotel, where his temporary lodgings and command post have been set up since Hurricane Katrina made life in the Big Easy insufferable.

``I'm cautiously optimistic. I want to see it happen (Saturday). I want to see it happen next week. Then, when I see consistency of delivery, I'll feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel.''

His comments came a day after he was heard on a radio interview erupting in tears and telling the government to ``get off your asses and let's do something.'' By nightfall Friday, his tone had changed. ``Today was a turning point, I think,'' he said. ``My philosophy is never get too high, never get too low. ... I always try to keep my emotions in check and yesterday I kind of went off a little bit. I was worried about that, but it maybe worked out.'``'

Nagin said Bush gave him a hearty greeting and did not seem at all offended by Nagin's earlier outburst. Bush spent Friday on a daylong tour of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. ``I do think the pleas for help basically got the nation's attention, and the nation's attention got everybody to stop and re-evaluate what was going on, including the president. ... He basically said, 'Look, our response was not what it should have been and we're going to fix it right now.'''

The mayor asked Bush to focus on helping New Orleans with law enforcement, finishing the evacuation and draining the flooded city. He said New Orleans also needs a fleet of crop dusters to spray the city for mosquitos that could spread disease after hatching from the stagnant water that has swamped most of the city since Monday.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/03/2005 00:30 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This guy is on par with the incompetent governor (we're doomed, doomed) and the loser chief of police. Each has brains the size of a walnut.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  If this is the best and brightest of the black community of New Orleans they are screwed. My state has been blessed by it's Black mayors, police chiefs and elected officals. When I compare Nagin to the least of them this smuck comes up wanting in every way.

The "problems" started with his weak response and spun out of control from there. The Failure to establish strict order made this situation much worse than it need to be. The Buck stop with you Mister Mayor.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm going to be a bit more charitable, though I think the NO officials and the LA governor were not up to the challenge. I think they just got overwhelmed and locked up mentally. I've seen it happen elsewhere.

I have to say, if you're going to be a governor or big-city mayor in a southern state, you have to know how to handle the aftermath of a hurricane. You have to know the steps, what to do, what to say, how to react. If you don't you shouldn't be in office. It's like being a California official and understanding that someday you may be called on to deal with the aftermath of an earthquake.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/03/2005 0:57 Comments || Top||

#4  SPOD --

Nagin has been cannonized by the NY Slimes

Newcomer Is Struggling to Lead a City in Ruins
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 1:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Struggling and failing. Just like the NYT Captian.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 1:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Be Black.
Never incriminate your own incompetence.
Aim for the highest ranking Whitey (Bush).
Get off scott free with the liberal whiners, most of the time.

I've seen clips of news tours of the Astrodome; the blame for inability to cope with the size of the influx can be laid directly on the relief personnel. They're incompetent. Crowds of blueshirts stood around and talked, discussed, or philosophised, while surrounded by piles of garbage, cardboard boxes, and human refuse, and in plain sight of the camera were brooms, shovels, and the appropriate receptacles for all the trash.

These idiots couldn't find their asses with both hands.
Posted by: Omolusing Glurong4284 || 09/03/2005 1:26 Comments || Top||

#7  My first observation, in preparing for the aftermath of the hurricane, I would have made sure there was a supply of body bags available. If the bodies can't be picked up right away, then at least they're not rotting in plain sight. Personally I thought the death toll would have been much higher than it apparently is.

Secondly, everyone knew that the Superdome would basically become an island. They had to have planned for the evacuation of the people inside there and in other areas. Then you have to think of a place to put those people. These things alone should be the responsibility of the mayor and governor. The rest, like food, water, medecine, shelter, security, aid, reconstruction, can be left for other organizations.

It seems the mayor issued an evacuation order, and that's it. His plans stopped there. Nagin and the governor f'd up. Simple as that.
Posted by: Rafael || 09/03/2005 1:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Bush and Tom Ridge put together a plan for this type of thing. Local initial response was critical while Federal help would arrive in a few days.

Disaster Base Plan

Clearly, the locals in New Orleans decided not to read this nor participate. Sounds like if they heard of this plan, which is an excellent plan, that they decided not to have anything to do with it.
Posted by: RG || 09/03/2005 1:59 Comments || Top||

#9  Betcha Bush showed him the photos of those sumberged buses, police looting, pointed out that NO had designated the Dome as a shelter point but NEVER stocked it with food water or any sort of a plan...

and asked him if he ready for all this to go out full bore in a lot of places where the MSM wouldnt be abel to ignore it...

Posted by: Oldspook || 09/03/2005 2:23 Comments || Top||

#10  ``My philosophy is never get too high..."
nuff said in that regard. I feel bad partaking in all of this hindsight, however (but) I do think buses should have been used to evacuate the rest of the folks that didn't have cars or the ability to get out before the storm hit. I am a bit surprised that the superdome was the designated safe haven being itself below sea level. Especially based on the satellite photo they had to know that this was the big one.
Capt. America, don't you need 2 events to be cannonized? What's the second
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 2:46 Comments || Top||

#11  I can't blame the Mayor for his eruption. They didn't tell him that the people held back in the Superdome and the Convention Center has been "tagged" with a secretly administered health quarantine! They won't be taken out until physicians can 'screen' them, after Guard placements. The media is not being told this to avoid 'leakage' resulting in eventual rioting! This from my inside source.
Posted by: smn || 09/03/2005 6:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Mmm! I'm sceptical. What exactly are they being screened for and what is the health risk?
Posted by: phil_b || 09/03/2005 6:20 Comments || Top||

#13  Gov. William J. LePetomaine, Nagin's role model:

"We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen, we must do something about this immediately!"
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 09/03/2005 7:18 Comments || Top||

#14  Did Mayor Ray increase his medication?
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/03/2005 8:59 Comments || Top||

#15  *Snif**Snort*
Why yes, thank you for asking.
Posted by: Mayor Ray Nagin || 09/03/2005 9:32 Comments || Top||

#16  LOL SMN! Good 'un.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 10:02 Comments || Top||

#17  Rudy G he ain't
Posted by: DMFD || 09/03/2005 10:03 Comments || Top||

#18  How Bush could have prevented this:

Federalize the Louisiana National Guard, declare martial law in the hurricane's path; arrest Nagin, Blanco, and their moronic accomplices; move into NOLA to secure low-lying areas and set up shelters, and do all this on SATURDAY while there was still time.

Hindsight is 20/20.
The Dem-ogogues are demanding not only that we have it, but that we use it to foresee their malfeasance and depravity.

We'll do better next time.

Primary lesson: Only Republican administered cities should be left under local control if a disaster is anticipated. Dem-infested municipalities should be seized and occupied at the first sign of impending trouble.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#19  While Rome burned, Nero fiddled
While NOLA flooded, Nagin diddled.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 10:14 Comments || Top||

#20  "Dem-infested municipalities should be seized and occupied at the first sign of impending trouble."

Heh, AC. And then, well, then nothing. Never give 'em back. The mental picture of the typical Moonbats and Lefty Loons as "insurgents" is a scream, lol. Do this for any sort of warning or alert: wind, snow, thunderboomers, UV, smog, the lot. Then start deporting 'em to Kanada or somewhere. Hell, they said they were going last November. Make it so.
Posted by: .com || 09/03/2005 10:18 Comments || Top||

#21  Many thanks, .com. BTW, a hat-tip for the Nero-Nagin doggerel should go to Village Idiot's Apprentice at LGF
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 10:26 Comments || Top||

#22  It's a simply beautiful idea, lol. *wipes tear* Bush gets roundly blamed for all sorts of things, mebbe it's time to go ahead and do the ones that are good for the country, heh. ;-)
Posted by: .com || 09/03/2005 10:31 Comments || Top||

#23  Interesting debate on Fox right now - "Rebuild? Or Not?"... The issue of the Netherlands keeps resurfacing when intelligent and honest people talk about this disaster. It's pretty clear that, if the politics could be flushed, then indeed, perhaps there are ideas that could be adapted. Major rivers are very different critters than ocean shorelines, of course, but there might be a there there. Of course you'd have to get competent engineers who actually give a shit involved, for a change.
Posted by: .com || 09/03/2005 10:38 Comments || Top||

#24  Netherlands cannot face a hurricane, either - water's too cold
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 11:40 Comments || Top||

#25  declare martial law in the hurricane's path;

Let's see if there's a groundswell of support for the President declaring martial law without Congressional action first ... and in the absence of a military attack on us.

I'm not saying it wasn't needed. I'm saying that is a huge step and might well have caused some generals to refuse the order.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/03/2005 12:08 Comments || Top||

#26  Of course you'd have to get competent engineers who actually give a shit involved, for a change.

And taxpayers willing to pay for it.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/03/2005 12:10 Comments || Top||

#27  There may be another difference between the Netherlands case and New Orleans case: I am not positive, but I believe the levees (dikes) in the Netherlands are built on fairly compacted soil, with actual rock not too far below, so they don't 'sink.' In New Orleans, as you build the levees higher they begin to sink into the mucky soil under their own weight.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/03/2005 12:24 Comments || Top||

#28  #25 Omerens, I am aware that this is basically an impossible scenario.
It is a response to the deafening chorus of those who assume that Bush acting alone should have been able to prevent this disaster. In particular, this is the only way he could have prevented the delays caused by inaction and poor preparation at the local level.
This is what would have been required to meet the critics' retro-active demands, but I won't hold my breath waiting for any left-liar to acknowledge it.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 12:28 Comments || Top||

#29  A first-rate, though not exceptional, city administration would have kept the Super-Dome stocked with food, water, emergency generators and fuel, and they would have had a plan in place to provide security.
At the very least, there would have been a plan in place to get all this stuff at short notice and move it in, and technical provisions for plugging it in.
They had 4 days warning of the hurricane, but this kind of preparation should have been routine for years. They have always known that they were below sea-level and that levees break.
The lack of foresight is just amazing.
I was mayor of a little community (1800 residents) that was not susceptible to hurricanes. Yet we had shelters picked out and a plan for stocking and supervising them in the event of a disaster. There were provisions for keeping the water and electricity going in the if the utilities were lost and the cost of all this was trivial.
For instance, you don't have to buy a generator beforehand and have it sitting around idle if you always know where you can rent, borrow, or commandeer one in an emergency. You also have to know how to plug it in. Ideally, the wiring would include a built-in provision for this. You can at least keep toilets working if you know how to connect a hose to the pipes and have a pump and a water source, clean or dirty, outside. Part of maintaining the plan was keeping up with this stuff and knowing how to use it. It's Admin 101.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/03/2005 12:47 Comments || Top||

#30  You just have to wonder, how frustrated Bush must really be. Some of us remember, he was a governor of a Gulf Coast hurricane alley state. He knows disaster planning.

Plus, he has some pretty close contact with the state of Florida, that is still digging out of the results of 4 hurricanes.

As he watched Jeb bring in trucks of water, ice and food before Katrina hit his state, well, I think my frustration level with these LA folks would probably erupt big time!

There are reports, published, about his calling the governor and good mayor on Sat, in a restaurant, pleading to evacuate.

And, I remember the major on Sunday saying, "He got my cell phone number and gave me numbers to reach him if we need anything," That's on news footage.

So now, Bush has declared the state of Texas a disaster area, so the fed dollars and support can flow in to us.

Yes, I think he could probably calm that major down. Just let him know, "Hey guy, I've been the governor of hurricane state, and I know the drill. Don't pull any punches with me."
Posted by: Sherry || 09/03/2005 13:10 Comments || Top||

#31  Yep AC, once the toilets failed civilization ceased.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 16:52 Comments || Top||

#32  "How Bush could have prevented this: Federalize the Louisiana National Guard, declare martial law in the hurricane's path;"

Sorry cannot do. Posse Comitatus, and the Stafford Act both constrain the president from doing ANYTHING until a governor asks, as long as that governor is in existence (i.e if the capital is hit the feds can step in).

Thanks to an email from a firend, I heard (online streams are great for finding stuff liek this!) a wonderful interview with the Colorado Governor ("The Fox" radio, Guys named Lewis and Floorwax?). He basicly called "bullshit" on the bitching aboutthe Fed response - and spelled out step by step how the La gov is an idiot and pointed out the many mistakes made, and the large amounts of powers to act any Gov has under federal law.

I betcha those morons now are sorry they didnt vote Jindal in. The ones that didnt die, that is. The very constituency that put the Gov Blanco in office is the one that died in the largest numbers. Unthinking bloc-voters on the Dem side of the divide.

Nature punishes stupidity without mercy. And its so sad that these folks are hung by the vey rope they put around their own necks by electing incompetents, and by staying put instead of leaving.
Posted by: Oldspook || 09/03/2005 17:53 Comments || Top||

#33  Yup. But what a high level of collateral damage along the way.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/03/2005 20:46 Comments || Top||

#34  If Bush called the mayor and governor of NOLA, asking them to declare an evacuation, then he should hand all records of the phone call -- including a transcript, if he has one -- over to a competent and honest prosecutor in Louisiana. That prosecutor should file negligent homicide charges against the mayor and governor.

If there are any applicable federal charges, then a federal prosecutor should get into it, too.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 09/03/2005 21:50 Comments || Top||

#35  Having spend two terms as Texas governor, President Bush knows full well how the state officals screwed up, costing many lives. But he needs them now to do the right thing for the people of LA rather than go defensive in a "everyone for themselves" mode.

The truth will eventually seep out, but it won't be Bush that spells it out. It probably will be VP Cheney, given that Landeau is trying to dictate terms to the president.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 23:28 Comments || Top||


Tulane U Cancels Fall Semester Due to Storm
Tulane University canceled its fall semester Friday because of Hurricane Katrina and encouraged its students to take classes at others schools while New Orleans tries to clean up from the flooding.

The University of New Orleans campus appeared to be about two-thirds above water and the university said it planned to have Internet classes ready by October and satellite campuses open as soon as it could. Dillard University said it wasn't ready to give up on the semester either but officials were still considering how to proceed.

Several schools already have offered to take in displaced Gulf Coast college students.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/03/2005 00:27 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Damn, I was looking forward to the new class...

Marketing 101: How to Market Contaminated Water
Posted by: Captain America || 09/03/2005 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  SMU is taking couple hundred of the Tulane freshman class.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 10:03 Comments || Top||


Bush orders general sale of emergency crude oil
WASHINGTON v - The Bush administration on Friday ordered the sale of 30 million barrels of crude oil from the government’s emergency stockpile to halt runaway gasoline prices triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

President George W. Bush warned motorists to expect “a problem” with gasoline over the Labor Day holiday weekend when high prices and sporadic outages may interfere with Americans’ final summer outings. “Listen, we’re going to have a problem this weekend when it comes to gasoline but we’re addressing it,” Bush told reporters while touring damage from the hurricane in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Issuing the formal order for the sale from the stockpile, Bush said in a statement that he had determined there was ”severe energy supply interruption.” The US market has lost daily gasoline production of about 42 million gallons or about 1 million barrels, equal to 10 percent of the nation’s normal consumption, according to government estimates.

Eight refineries were shut and several others crippled from Katrina’s 140 mile per hour winds and ensuing floods and power outages. The refinery disruption cut a total of about 2 million bpd of US refining capacity to make gasoline, heating oil, jet fuel and other products. One barrel holds 42 gallons.

In Washington, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman detailed the administration’s plan to sell 30 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and to prepare for the arrival of more than 1 million barrels per day of gasoline shipments from the International Energy Agency. “I would expect there to be some decline in price but that is a function of the marketplace,” Bodman said.

News of additional supply sent prices tumbling. October gasoline futures HUV5 settled down 22.53 cents at $2.1837 per gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and October crude oil futures CLV5 settled down $1.90 at $67.57 a barrel.

Germany, Spain and France said they were prepared to ship fuel to the US market as part of the IEA plan. “The amount of refined product versus crude that they will offer has not been determined... their intentions are to provide the maximum amount of refined product within their requirements,” he said.

The government is also loaning 9.1 million barrels of crude from the reserve to several refiners whose supplies were disrupted by the storm. The loans must be repaid in kind at a later date. The government does not have a similar stockpile of gasoline for emergencies, which is why it turned to the IEA for help.

Industry experts said they were relieved to see the government act. “The one thing the market doesn’t have is time and the administration reacted expeditiously this time. This was good,” said Larry Goldstein, president of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/03/2005 00:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ..Okay, I'm a bit confused - what - if any - effect will this really have?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/03/2005 14:08 Comments || Top||

#2  keeps Schumer and other unpatriotic Democratic critcs/limelight grabbers at bay, principally, secondarily lets Americans know "something is being done"
Posted by: Frank G || 09/03/2005 15:53 Comments || Top||


Georgia to suspend gas tax
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said he will sign an executive order Friday that will exempt consumers from state motor fuel taxes through the end of September to "relieve some of the financial burden" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The order will remove the 7.5-cents-a-gallon tax and a 4 percent sales tax on gas, the governor said, and was set to begin at midnight.
This makes far more sense that any kind of price controls (aka "anti-gouging" laws). It will be interesting to see how many leftists are horrified by this. There is no crisis so severe to justify reducing or eliminating any tax.

On Monday, I filled up with 89 octane for $2.619. This afternoon, it was $2.989.

Posted by: Jackal || 09/03/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The UK is paying 5 or 6 bucks a gallon (via conversion). We've been pretty lucky here with subsidies so far, I wonder how high it will get.
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 3:56 Comments || Top||

#2  And how much do you want to bet that within 48hrs or the tax suspension the price of gas jumps 6 cents?
Awhile back Az had a major gasaline pipeline break(Phoenix).As a consquence the price of gas jumped about .65/gal.Everybody from the Govenor to the gas companys kept saying as soon as the line is repaired and back in operation the price/gallon would fall.
Well they certainlly did not lie,the price dropped .20/gall.
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 8:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Can I increase my consulting rates when there is a hurricane or sunami or crop freeze somewhere in the world? This may have some merit. Must put it on my to-do list. Reminder to myself, "Increase rates next time anything happens in the world." Justify it as flea market forces at work. Are the gas price gougers much different than the looters in New Orleans?
Posted by: John Q. Citizen || 09/03/2005 8:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Gouging is one thing, but remember that gas taxes double the price of gas. If President Bush, for example, just suspended that federal gas tax for the affected US South, the only issue would be availability. People there would probably be paying $1.50/gal. The oil companies would be making exactly the same amount of money, or maybe even a little more, than from the rest of the country, so they would be inclined to send *more* gasoline to the tax-free area.

Of course, if he did so, it would probably destroy the concept of a gasoline tax forever. People would really see how much of a scam and rip-off it is, and neither political party wants that to happen.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/03/2005 9:05 Comments || Top||

#5  The gas shortage is real. Prices will increase until demand falls to match supply. If taxes are cut, either supplies will run out or prices will rise elsewhere. Same thing as for price caps. All they'll do is distribute the limited supply to those more willing or able to wait in lines from those more willing to spend more money. Pick your poison. The advantage of the capitalist option is that it encourages the development of other sources of supply.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/03/2005 9:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Also remember that the EPA relaxed the boutique brand requirements only for the southeastern states. If Phoenix has a shortage and LA has a surplus, it's still a crime to use the gas formulated for one city in the other.
Posted by: Jackal || 09/03/2005 10:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Can I increase my consulting rates when there is a hurricane or sunami or crop freeze somewhere in the world?

If there is a panicky demand for your services I would suggest you increase your rates.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 10:06 Comments || Top||


Draining New Orleans Could Take a Month
New Orleans could be facing a month or more before all the flood waters from Hurricane Katrina and ruptured levees can be pumped out.

Lowering the water level a foot per day was called an optimistic estimate on Friday, depending on how much of the pumping capacity can be restored and whether any more storms complicate the work. This is the peak of hurricane season and more storms could easily develop. There are six pumping stations in the city and the Army Corps of Engineers could bring in auxiliary pumps.

Contamination by oil, chemicals and sewage also complicates the effort. Removing the water would be slowed if it has to be treated before it can be discharged, though it might be possible to get some type of dispensation so it can be pumped quickly into the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.

In addition to pumps, the engineers are working on a plan to make new breaches in the levees _ from hundreds of feet wide to 3,000 feet _ in areas where gravity can help move water out of the city. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the water level in the city has stabilized, and repairs to breaches in two levees are progressing. He also said workers are clearing, surveying and putting in navigational buoys and lights along the coastal channels in an effort to get the ports reopened.

Responding to criticism that the federal response has been slow and inadequate, Strock said the destruction of communications lines and transportation routes made it very difficult to determine exactly where help was needed and to get workers and supplies there. "Our biggest problem is communications," he said, noting that cellular phone towers were all knocked out, making it nearly impossible for citizens in need to call for help. "We have to know where to drop (supplies) and what to drop."

He also said the corps is working on plans to create a city somewhere in the area to accommodate about 50,000 people _ similar to what was done in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in Florida.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/03/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Or 80 days as one "high ranking expert" has noted...
Posted by: Capsu 78 || 09/03/2005 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Draining New Orleans Could Take a Month

How long to drain it of the current scum infestation?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/03/2005 3:02 Comments || Top||

#3  The pumps usually don't have to deal with debris of all kinds, oil/fluid spills, and tons of human waste in the water prior to Katrina. I think the estimates are way too generous, considering the pumps will have to be stopped, cleaned, fixed, restarted a number of times.
Posted by: Ulong Slereque6682 || 09/03/2005 8:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Maybe I'm speaking from hindsight,but why weren't choppers flying search and relief ops.What I mean is flying around,spot a group of people drop off needed supplies(food,h2o,etc.).Mark the location with GPS,and when the bird is empty pick-up/tarnsport who they could.With GPS corord.the ones left behind could have been easly found.
Posted by: raptor || 09/03/2005 8:50 Comments || Top||

#5  I am evacuated to Baton Rouge. I am watching dozens of helicopters per hour flying into here (LSU) with medical cases to a triage center. There are dozens more per hour running into the BR airport with supplies and personel. Others are now able to base out of Armstrong airport in New Orleans, also engaged in medevac and supply. For several days a number of the big boys were trying to re-build a levee - imagine trying to fill a football stadium with a teaspoon, carried a mile each way.
The levee is now patched, sort of, though it will be some time before pumps can be repaired and powered to start getting the water out. The environmental concern about pumping the horribly contaminated water out is legitimate; we have just managed to get the Lake pollution of decades of abuse cleaned up. But some rules will have to be waived unless the city is to remain a hazardous waste dump forever. The trash and debris draining to the pumps is normal, though the amounts of course are not; there are strainers at the intakes that will have to be cleaned more often. It may be feasible to install some kind of oil skimmers to pull the worst of that off for proper disposal, though I am not sure it could function at the fluid volumes necessary to do any good in draining the city. The other chemical and biological contaminants are impossible (in my opinion).
Regarding breaching the levees to enhance drainage - natural breaches in the industrial canal levee have been allowing drainage from the downriver side of the canal for several days. Not a whole lot of natural drainage will occur though, since the best that can be done is to get the level back down to sea level, which leaves 10 feet of water in much of the city. Controlled gates (maybe at the pumping stations) rather than breaches, would allow using the tidal swings to let water flow out at low tide, then close as the tide rises. This could lower the level another foot or two in a week or two.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/03/2005 10:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Posted by: Jackal || 09/03/2005 14:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Thanks for the first hand Glenmore
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 16:55 Comments || Top||

#8  I am speaking from ignorance here so maybe a civil engineer can educate me. The news reports I have seen describe two concrete levee breaches in a canal used to pump water from New Orleans into Lake Pontchartrain. My question is why isn't there a gate at the canal-lake junction that could have been closed to prevent the lake from draining into lower elevation New Orleans. That seems like a sensible and cheap precaution to minimize the effects of any canal levee failure. The water in the canal would have only cause minor and localized flooding.
Posted by: ed || 09/03/2005 17:11 Comments || Top||

#9  The drainage system predates the canal's current position. It was originally a gravity drainage system. Then levees were built and additional land drained to a pumping station at the head of the canal. Then the levees were raised and additional pumping stations added to dump into the canal. Curiously, a very recent upgrade of the canal levees made it supposedly the most secure part of the lake system. And it was a concrete storm wall on top rather than soil like most. I don't know why it failed, but I should think an investigation is in order concerning the quality of the concrete work and possible corruption.
The idea of a storm gate at the mouth of the canal is sound. There is such a system at the mouth of the harbor/'river' in Providence, RI. We have storm gates through the levees in New Orleans at various places where rail lines pass through. Hindsight.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/03/2005 19:14 Comments || Top||

#10  Corruption. Just like the big dig. The problem with one party states.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 09/03/2005 21:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Where rail lines pass thru is called a sandbag gap, if it's just a couple of feet high, that can be filled by sandbags. I designed a levee gap 11 feet high, in K.C., called a stoplog gap, that required closing the (3) rail line(s), placing aluminum "stoplogs" across the tracks and pumping out the leakage. But if the pumps fail.....

But when the levee is overtopped, by waves or a storm surge, it's all over but the shoutin'. Levees can also be breached by water pressure under the levee, called sand boils, where the pressure causes (sort of) quicksand on the dry side. If not treated promptly, you also get levee failure. Erosion is a bitch.

But engineering is SO much more boring than news!
Posted by: Bobby || 09/03/2005 22:31 Comments || Top||


Europe to send emergency oil to U.S
Europe will dip into its emergency stocks of gasoline to help the United States through an energy crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina smashing into Gulf Coast refiners, EU governments said on Friday.

France, Germany, Spain and Italy declared they were ready to send fuel across the Atlantic in an operation coordinated by the West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA). The Paris-based IEA announced its members would release two million barrels per day (bpd) of oil over an initial period of 30 days. About half that will be gasoline from European refiners that will roughly match output lost from the Gulf Coast's battered refineries. The remainder will be crude from U.S. reserves. The IEA last dipped into its emergency reserves in 1991 when a U.S.-led coalition ejected Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The agency, created after the 1973-74 oil crisis to protect consumers, must hold stocks of 90 days of net imports.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/03/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IEA members are obligated to do this by treaty if the IEA decides it is required. The IEA is not an European organization, its membership corresponds with the OECD. So making this out to be an act of European generosity is pure MSM spin.
Posted by: phil_b || 09/03/2005 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Well I think the Euros don't want to see their economies go down the plug hole. If our Economy should falter they might as well pack it in as they are in wosre shap then we are in many ways. The what to seem to be doing something even if they are not. We are going to try and make a temporary 50% in energy consumption at out house. It's hard to justify high prices when demand falls off.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 09/03/2005 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks for the info Phil.
That picture looks like it was taken around 1966 or 67. A pretty site at 22.9 per gallon heh.
Posted by: Jan || 09/03/2005 3:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I figure 1954, has that early Kodachrome look to it.
Posted by: Mona Gorilla || 09/03/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't think it's right to question the motives of people offering their help when you need it. Just had to say it.

I appreciate the europeans response and next time I see a tourist from a country that is offering their aid I'm buying them a drink.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 09/03/2005 10:11 Comments || Top||

#6  The article is a good example of how to weave a series of facts into an overall fiction. Bloomberg, generally the best the source of spin free reporting, reports the same thing without mentioning Europe. The whole point of the IEA is coordinated release of stocks by members in the event of a supply disruption.
Posted by: phil_b || 09/03/2005 16:10 Comments || Top||

#7  It may be under the IEA, but it is European countries that are releasing stocks. Are countries with excess capacity, like Mexico and Venezuela, also releasing gasoline stocks?
Posted by: ed || 09/03/2005 16:19 Comments || Top||



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Sat 2005-09-03
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Fri 2005-09-02
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Wed 2005-08-31
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Mon 2005-08-29
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Sun 2005-08-28
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