Kerfuffles

O.E.S. Project Web Log is posting about "Operation Enduring Service", a program that plans to retrofit mothballed combat stores ships and other obsolete but sea-worthy cargo ships to be able to provide complex emergency communications support that will be capable of replacing cell phone and radio towers lost in a hurricane. Crewed by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and supported by disaster-aid groups, these vessels could not only haul needed supplies to a coastal disaster area, but they could also transport first responders to a disaster zone while providing off shore housing to them.

Bob Owens (Confederate Yankee) is also posting about the plan here asking for support from the blogger world.

The unsympathetic reaction of Philipp Mausshardt of “Die Tageszeitung” was typical of most of his German countrymen when they learned of the terrible hurricane that hit New Orleans. He wrote “Joy and compassion strike at the same time in my chest. I am momentarily pleased for example about the fact that the recent storm disaster did not hit another poor country, but the richest nation on earth instead. Yes, I even see a kind of compensatory justice for what the inhabitants of that country did to others by its war in Iraq. It would please me even more if I knew that only houses of Bush voters and of military members have been destroyed..” (PHILIPP MAUSSHARDT über KLATSCH, Die eigentliche Katastroph)

Most people do not know that Hurricane Katrina hit the Federal Republic of Germany. Yes indeed, Katrina ended up being a “Godsend” to the godless social democrats, as she reminded the Germans once again, that no matter how bad off their country becomes under the rule of the socialists, it still is better than America! The Germans read about the “supposed” slow response to Katrina and the poverty in New Orleans and it triggered the typical European reaction - fanatical anti-American hatred.

In Britain, an opinion columnist in The Guardian encouraged his readers to withhold hurricane aid: “America needs [political] change not charity.” In Germany, it was worse. Columnist Philipp Mausshardt of “Die Tageszeitung” felt “joy” that Katrina “hit the richest country in the world” and “would be even happier to know that it destroyed the homes of Bush supporters and members of the military.” Andreas Renner, a German state minister (of the conservative party, typically more sympathetic to the Bush administration), claimed that “Bush should be shot” for his delayed response to Katrina victims. German Environmental Minister Jürgin Trittin suggested that Katrina was America’s due retribution for not signing Kyoto. (The Christian Science Monitor)

No, Katrina was not retribution for Kyoto; the hurricane was a “Godsend” for Gerhard Schröder’s reelection. Schröder was able to transform an American natural catastrophe into the equivalent of an American foreign policy debacle, just as in the past he was successful in morphing American investors and capitalism into a plague of locusts. Herr Schröder found Katrina to be “the perfect storm” to divert attention away from his dysfunctional German economy of only 0.6% growth and almost 12% unemployment. Instead of allowing the German voters to examine their own country, he warned them about the bogeyman that is America - a “weak state” with “old age poverty,” floating bodies and gun-slinging looters. The Germans, supposedly Europe’s most intelligent race, swallowed the Schröder bait - hook, line and sinker. The mantra became - Germany’s economy may be bad, but at least it is not American.

Schröder’s support soared as voters could not wait to vote “against supermarket America” and its “neoliberalism“. Although Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to strengthen ties to Washington, German politicians have learned from Herr Schröder how easy it is to exploit anti-Americanism to their benefit.

More proof that “old” Europe is not our friend. Still want to buy that Mercedes? Gerhardt still doesn’t seem to realize that he and his cherished welfare state lost the election to the conservative Merkel. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette writes “Hey Gerhardt - Don’t let the screen door hit ya …” and says, yes, he knows that Germans don’t have screen doors. Americans do and it’s an old country expression here - don’t let the door hit you in the “you know where” on your way out. Good-bye and Good-riddance!

That is the Question. In this case, the answer was — PUBLISH!

Evacuee Latesha Vinnett holds a debit card from the Red Cross in Houston, Texas.
(STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

Astrodome: Within two minutes of AFP photographer Stanley Honda electronically publishing a photo of Katrina victim Latesha Vinette holding up her Red Cross debit card, Ms. Vinette was paged by the management of Reliant stadium to receive a call from MasterCard … “I don’t know what I was thinking” said AFP photographer Honda, who failed to obscure any of the card’s digits, or expiration date in his photo. Ms. Vinette’s balance reportedly dropped from $2000 to .45 cents in less than three minutes.

The comment above appeared in “The Spoof” web site published as a satire or parody of a Katrina victim having her government issued credit card number stolen. The story “AFP Photo of Katrina Debit Card #: Priceless” was fictitious … but it really did happen.

Shortly after the Red Cross began issuing debit cards to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, MasterCard International vice president Suzanne Lynch told Reuters wire service recently, a newspaper photo of one beneficiary holding a card was published and disseminated on the Internet. Within 8 hours there were fraudulent charges on the card. “Somebody had seen the picture — and unfortunately they hadn’t blocked the number — and so somebody used the card fraudulently,” Lynch explained. (Katrina Debit Card)

Another photographer published a Katrina victim’s credit card, however “someone” had to good sense to block out the number by holding a finger over it.

In the Rose Garden - With the President and the MSM
The mainstream media, since Katrina, has exhibited shock — SHOCK — to find that the inner cities of America are populated by poor black people! Who put them there and why is it that reporters are just discovering this fact? One wonders where these well-traveled journalists have been. They must have swallowed that government mantra that throwing five TRILLION dollars of the taxpayer’s earnings at poverty makes it disappear. They did not know that the result of President Johnson’s “Great Society” was that the inner cities would be cordoned off with rows of government housing for the “poor” and the “black“? This question yesterday by April, a member of the MSM, sums up very nicely all that is wrong with the mainstream media.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, the Bible speaks of goodwill towards the least of these. With that, how are you going to bridge the divide of poverty and race in this country beyond economics and home ownership, that after Hurricane Katrina and also the Bill Bennett statements? And also, how can the Republican Party gain the black vote — more of the black vote in 2008, after these public relations fiascos?

“The Bible speaks of goodwill“? What does that matter? What says the U.S. Constitution to which the U.S. President has sworn an oath to uphold? And why is it that your sacred “separation of Church and State” only applies when Conservatives attempt to inject religion into government?

What “divide of poverty and race in this country“? How soon the MSM forgets that forty years of Democrat rule in Washington eliminated “poverty“. We had an entire War on Poverty for gosh sakes! If poverty and race were still a problem after all that effort, why was it never brought to the attention of Bill Clinton in the eight years he was presiding over the federal government? He, the first Black President, would have certainly fixed it!

“The Black Vote“? Is it not racist to describe people this way? Is it not racist to portray an entire ethnic group as marching in lock step with the Democrat party? President George Bush addressed April’s question about “the Black vote“.

I was disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African American community. I was. I’ve done my best to elevate people to positions of authority and responsibility — not just positions, but positions where they can actually make a difference in the lives of people. I put people in my Cabinet; I put people in my sub-Cabinet. I’ve elevated people from all walks of life, because I believe there’s a responsibility for the President to reach out. … And just got to keep working at it, April.

The truth of the matter is that George Bush believes that he has given opportunities for African Americans to serve in high office, but the Black community does not accept them. Because those he has chosen are for the most part conservatives, the leadership of the Black community will not accept Bush’s eminently qualified choices as Black Americans. Instead they are labeled as Uncle Toms, house slaves and Oreos. In these times, to qualify as “African American” one needs to possess the right DNA and to vote the right way - Democrat.

After all, African Americans cannot forget to remember all that the Democrats have done for them these past fifty years! They need to pass on the Democrat’s legacy to their children and their children’s children, lest things get even worse than they are now.

And Carnivorous Cannibals
Hurricannibalism! A great new word. Who would have ever thunk that the demonstrably “well-fed” citizens of New Orleans would have resorted to cannibalism during the third day of hurricane deprivation? Author Randall Robinson, the former head of TransAfrica, thunk it, as he said someone told him about it. “It is reported that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive .. This is what we have come to. This defining watershed moment in America’s racial history.” He later retracted the statement, but he never revealed who told him the lie. One has to wonder about the successful, well-to-do black Americans, such as Robinson and Jesse Jackson, who would even think that other black Americans who happened to be poor, would engage in such unmentionable behavior after just a few days of hunger.

Now, taking his cue from “The Washington Post,” Don Surber is calling Louisiana’s congressional delegation — looters! for demanding a quarter-trillion dollars on top of, as the Post points out, $60+ billion already in appropriations.

When the great Mississippi River rampaged the levees built to hold her back, she inundated thousands of farms, hundreds of towns and killed perhaps a thousand people, leaving homeless almost a million of those surviving along its banks all the way down to the delta and New Orleans.

In the days that followed, racial tensions rose between the mostly poor African American victims and the Southern whites of the Mississippi Delta. When relief supplies finally reached the area, they were distributed on the basis of race, leaving many of the suffering blacks with nothing. Black men were rounded up and forced to work rebuilding levees and when a white policeman killed an African American for refusing to work a double shift, a prominent politician told a meeting of blacks, “That foolish policeman is not the murderer. The murderer is …”

George W. Bush! The cause of the storm was the result of global warming. The federal government could not help because there were too many military troops overseas.

NO! He did NOT say that. The Fatal Flood of Spring 1927 was one of America’s greatest natural disasters, but it was not caused by George Bush who was not yet even born, nor global warming which had not yet been discovered. World War I was long over and there were few if any troops abroad, so that had no effect on relief efforts. So what was the cause of the disaster? Could it have been nature?

What has changed along along the Mississippi Delta since the great flood that changed the course of history for America? It is now seventy-eight years later and almost four generations of Americans have come into being. Did we learn much during those seven plus decades? Robert R. Moton, Chairman of President Herbert Hoover’s Colored Advisory Commission, wrote reports regarding conditions among the flood victims after the disaster.

December 12, 1927: The Mississippi flood in its relationship to human life affected the Negro chiefly. A number of the counties along the Mississippi River and in the Delta district of Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas had more than 75% of Negro population. The problem faced was that of dealing with Negro life as we found it there. Not only was there congestion, but we found a class of people who were lacking in schools, who were living in homes scarcely worthy of the name, who existed in unhealthy conditions under an economic status unsound and unfair. It was impossible for such a people to develop a reserve sufficient to deal with an emergency so great as the flood because they were practically helpless, without initiative and with little self-control and self-reliance.

Katrina Posts by Kerfuffles

The Great Flood of 1927 introduced the rest of America to the music of the Delta region, known as Delta blues. More than thirty songs were written and recorded by the blues musicians about the Mighty Flood. This one is from John Lee Hooper, 1959.

Civil societies and democracies have such quaint and bloodless methods of executing massacres and beheadings. We all understood that heads were about to roll when the federales were criticized by the voters for their response to that real brutal killer, Katrina. The first, and only (?), rolling head belongs to … ta, da, … “Mr. Disaster“.

The real story here is the Shakespearean lesson that is always forgotten; Never send a lawyer to do a leader’s work!

‘MR DISASTER’ QUITS JOB (Sky News)
The man in charge of emergencies in the United States has quit following criticism over the response to Hurricane Katrina. Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had earlier been removed as head of the rescue effort.

News of his resignation came after President Bush visited central New Orleans for the first time since Katrina struck. Mr Brown said he was quitting “in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president“. “The president appreciates Mike Brown’s service,” a White House spokesman told reporters. “This was Mike Brown’s decision. This was a decision he made.” Mr Brown had been recalled to Washington at the weekend from Louisiana.

Only days earlier Mr Bush had said he was doing “a heck of a job“. Opinion polls show deep dissatisfaction with Mr Bush’s handling of the crisis.

A photographer named Alvaro has posted his outstanding photographic diary from five days in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana with Hurricane Katrina. There are, as of 9:30 am, one hundred comments, mostly thanking him for sharing this history. However the very first comment is from Henri, of Belgium, thankfully followed by one more gracious.

How a great nation can’t help hurricane victims ? Black people are good boys to be killed in Iraq for petrol but no to be helped.
Shame on you Bush !
That’s murder … I hate you.
Henri, Brussels, Belgium (Europe)
deles, 9/10/05

I’ve looked through your slideshow several times now. I’m amazed. You captured the events with such feeling and clarity. I’ve shared it with many people the same way it was shared with me and they are all amazed.
I wish you the best of luck in recovering from this disaster and in all things photographic and journalism. Stunning!
Heidi in North Dakota
Heidi, 9/10/05

Five Days With Katrina, (Alvaro’s Photo Diary)

CNN polls are showing that the American people do not blame their president for the horrible tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans due to a predicted natural disaster. It’s a Pundit writes that only 13% blame George Bush for the hurricane. New Orleans should have been the most prepared city in America to deal with a category five hurricane. It had a number of recent experiences that could have been as bad as Katrina and they had drills which revealed the necessary precautions to survive the onslaught of both natural disasters and terrorist hits. However, the leaders of the city of New Orleans and state of Louisiana did not take the warnings to heart.

As of January of this year, 2005, federal and local officials were studying the area to prepare for an almost certain hit, either environmental or terrorist: Katrina Was Predicted.

The were detailed plans written by the local governments and already in place to evacuate more than a million people, including the 300,000 projected to need transportation.

Local, state and federal officials held a hurricane drill in 2005, in which simulated flooding trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise studied the evacuation of more than one million residents, and gave a time frame of 72 hours to complete the evacuation.

Last hurricane season Ivan threatened New Orleans. An evacuation was ordered but those without transportation means, mostly the poor, were unable to get out. The hurricane changed course and New Orleans was saved. Both the governor and the mayor of New Orleans acknowledged the failure to evacuate, yet they took no corrective actions.

In 1998, when threatened by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the New Orleans Superdome and rampant theft and vandalism broke out due to inadequate security. Again, the government officials did not learn their lesson.

From The Wall Street Journal of today there is this on the editorial page: The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his emergency operations center.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people.

Check out Michelle Malkin’s blogging about FEMA Follies. Linked at WizBang’s Carnival of Trackbacks.

Just one day after Hurrican Katrina struck New Orleans the NOPD (New Orleans Police Department) was hard at word defending merchants from the looters looters from the merchants, (captured on film). When uniformed police officers so flagrantly flaunt the law, little respect can be expected of the citizenry. Although other cops truly tried to perform their duties in the most horrendous of cirumstances, those police who violated their powers, authority and responsibilties to maintain order, should be most severely punished.

Linked at basil’s blog Lunch and WizBang’s Carnival of Trackbacks.