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The line hit me as I submitted this diary - JOY is far from my mind this whole week!

Red Cross NEVER allowed into New Orleans ◊ by SteveRose @ dKos

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Shoot at the Red Crescent ambulances, the doctors and evacuate the hospitals.

Fu** - I stated this line in yesterday's diary - not believing it myself as interpretation of attitude on movements into NOLA.

Who were the gunmen: keeping the NO police inside their stations, turning away the rescue helicopters and aborted evacuating the patients from Charity Hospital?

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don't know what to say beyond this being pure evil.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence'--Gandhi

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I read on front page of dKos, how Kos is pleased there might be a bi-partisan investigation of this criminal negligence of a rescue effort.

I just see another white wash.  I bet the truth out of this, in a few months, may well be the reality we report on these blogs, and the legacy of the stories of the survivors.  And the rest will be lost to the dust bin of history.

I hope I'm wrong.  That this is the great change that finally wakes the other 99 % of the country that are not where most of us are/have been.  But, I've been waiting for the great change for a long time.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir. At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" -- Boston Attorney Joseph Welch, taking down Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Firefighting gear stockpile unused

Um, that's BS! Here's a Recommend dKos diary BREAKING: Louisiana sent letter begging Bush for help on 28th that says otherwise.

Don't believe it? Download and read the Louisiana Disaster Relief Request PDF yourself.

There are agreed upon disaster plans in effect. If the stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment are not specifically mentioned then they are incompetent. One letter is all you should need to send the set everything in motion that has been previously agreed upon. In a disaster it's not like you are going to sit around and think of every little detail and try to remember and ask for every specific thing.

Onward, through the fog!

Go to FEMA and read the detailed chain of command in any area declared a major disaster area. "President Bush Monday declared major disasters in Louisiana and Mississippi hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina's wind and rain."

  143. COORDINATING OFFICERS {Sec. 302}

   1. Appointment of Federal coordinating officer

      Immediately upon his declaration of a major disaster or emergency, the President shall appoint a Federal coordinating officer to operate in the affected area.

   2. Functions of Federal coordinating officer

      In order to effectuate the purposes of this Act, the Federal coordinating officer, within the affected area, shall--

         1. make an initial appraisal of the types of relief most urgently needed;
         2. establish such field offices as he deems necessary and as are authorized by the President;
         3. coordinate the administration of relief, including activities of the State and local governments, the American National Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Mennonite Disaster Service, and other relief or disaster assistance organizations, which agree to operate under his advice or direction, except that nothing contained in this Act shall limit or in any way affect the responsibilities of the American National Red Cross under the Act of January 5, 1905, as amended (33 Stat. 599) [36 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq.]; and;
         4. take such other action, consistent with authority delegated to him by the President, and consistent with the provisions of this Act, as he may deem necessary to assist local citizens and public officials in promptly obtaining assistance to which they are entitled.;
         5. State coordinating officer When the President determines assistance under this Act is necessary, he shall request that the Governor of the affected State designate a State coordinating officer for the purpose of coordinating State and local disaster assistance efforts with those of the Federal Government.

5144. EMERGENCY SUPPORT TEAMS {Sec. 303}

The President shall form emergency support teams of Federal personnel to be deployed in an area affected by a major disaster or emergency. Such emergency support teams shall assist the Federal coordinating officer in carrying out his responsibilities pursuant to this Act. Upon request of the President, the head of any Federal agency is directed to detail to temporary duty with the emergency support teams on either a reimbursable or nonreimbursable basis, as is determined necessary by the President, such personnel within the administrative jurisdiction of the head of the Federal agency as the President may need or believe to be useful for carrying out the functions of the emergency support teams, each such detail to be without loss of seniority, pay, or other employee status.

Laura Rozen posts a comment this morning from a Dutch TV viewer:

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

Emphasis added, words are insufficient to express my outrage.

A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it. -- Oscar Levant

Hmmm....  Between Oui's point that the FEMA is preventing the Red Cross from going in, and debraz's comment showing the statute that bars the govt from controlling the Red Cross...  hmmm...

This situation pretty much says that regardless of the law, or of common sense, or compassion, or the attention of the press -- the federal govt now has the complete power to dictate how we'll respond to any crisis.

Well, that was common belief all along.  But this is scary.  Because the Administration is condemning people to horror and death -- not as a matter of triage, not as a matter of limited time or resources, not as a devil's dilemma...

...but simply as a matter of political choice.  As a matter of power.  To decide who suffers and dies, not on what we as a govt can do, but as what we wish to have done.  As a matter of social engineering.  To manipulate the tragedy to achieve their desired outcome.

Are they using Katrina as a test of their power and control?


The Religious Right didn't take over the Republican party with a brilliant strategy of appeasement and selecting 'electable moderates'

"In Iraq we unleashed horror and destruction on a country suffering under despotism, and Americans turned a blind eye to the nasty wrong being done in our name. Just the other day, with nearly a thousand dead Iraqis, Americans barely gave it a thought as they sat glued to their televisions in total absorption of Hurricane Katrina. No time to hear what we have caused in Iraq, yet now we wonder why Americans act barbarically. Take a look in the mirror, Americans.

When a nation goes to war on lies and deceptions, when morality is pushed aside for political advantage, when honorable veterans are thrashed by Chickenhawks who never served, when poor Americans are told Iraqis are more important, when education is reduced because more bombs must be bought, when hope is too expensive except for the wealthy, don't be surprised that morality is scarce. It has come home to roost.

When injustice flies all around, anger is sure to follow. And when anger whirls in a nasty storm, violence erupts. The corporate media was busy stalking the Martha Stewarts of celebrity, the politicians were all at fundraising dinners, and the preachers were busy building ego mega-churches. But the poor were battered by America's raw, unforgiving capitalism, then soaked and blown around by Katrina, so they took advantage of a nasty situation. They stole goods and got their hands on some guns, and are firing off their anger. It has come home to roost.
lINK: http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=116 1

I don't know if you've seen this. I got to it via Buzzflash. The Feds turned down offers of help from Chicago. Obama's quoted here.

Mayor Daley outraged: LINK

My Website

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No humanity for the innocent - just collateral damage- the dead need not be counted. The poor and elderly of NOLA have no homes, who will miss them, who will collect their body when they pass away?

You believe Bush | Cheney will make an effort to make their true failure known to the nation? Due to Health hazard, damaged blocks of NOLA will be razed to the ground :: Nero loves to see Rome burn.

A U.S. Coast Guard vessel heads south on the Mississippi River past a fire on the east side of New Orleans, La. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, firefighters say they will let the fire burn itself out.   AP Photo/Eric Gay

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CATASTROPHIC

• BBC News - Hard task of draining New Orleans
  
• 300-lb (136-kg) sandbags are being dropped into the 17th Street Canal while a rock dyke is being erected to close off the breach
  
• work is also due to start on London Avenue
  
• the third breached floodwall, at the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Lock, is being left open for now to let water drain out
  
• a levee in St Bernard Parish is being deliberately dug out with earthmoving machines to allow water to escape before being dug over again.

<click on pic for article>

WASHING-AWAY June 2002

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Water spills over a levee along the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. US authorities ignored warnings that New Orleans was vulnerable to a hurricane nightmare.   AFP/POOL/File/Vincent Laforet

Virtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared. Computer models developed at Louisiana State University and other institutions made detailed projections of what would happen if water flowed over the levees protecting the city or if they failed.   Reuters

NOLA - THE BIG ONE
Georges Sept. 1998 -- A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It's just a matter of time.

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WH Proposal :: $71m Cut Hurricane & Flood

Bush's Post 9/11 Response Plan Big Failure

Disasters George Bush Wrought - Analysis and Update

"They don't have a clue what's going on down there,"
Mayor Ray Nagin told WWL-AM radio Thursday night.

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Latter link, reads as follows --

"With the chartering of the cruise ship Holiday to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts ... "

Mmmm ... housing for evacuees?

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• Refineries world-wide already to full capacity - see diary by Jerôme.
  
• Urgent need for US to build new refineries.
  
• Due to Katrina :: EPA rules suspended!
  
• Rebuilding Gulf Coast to meet desires.
  
• Only need to rid NOLA of ... undesirable elements.

Heavily armed Drug Enforcement Agents prepare to
patrol down Canal Street in the besieged city of
New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.  
AP Photo/Dave Martin

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The disasters cannot be compared as the situation is quite different. The damage to the Dutch dikes, 115 miles destroyed and an area of 380,000 acres were inundated . Mostly agricultural land with a number of towns, villages and cities with harbors of fishing based communities. The Dutch have lived with storms and dikes for centuries, the storm watch was in place but the storm was no match for the limited dikes.

Similar to the damage done by Katrina hurricane, the authorities were warned for poor funding to have the dikes restored and meet the expected fury of a storm once in fifty years, that would flood the land.

<click on map for animation storm surge North Sea coastline in 1953> 

Disaster night

How did it happen

Dike breaches - A Map

Walcheren en de ramp

Storm Surge Barrier

Dutch Water Engineering - A Caisson

The consequences of the storm were desastreus: 1835 persons drowned, and some 20,000 cows, 1,750 horses and 12,000 pigs perished in the waves. Houses, schools, churches and other buildings: 47,300 damaged of which 10,000 irreparable. A length of 115 miles of dikes were destroyed or severely damaged by the power of the storm and waves resulting in flooding of 153,000 hectares (380,000 acres).

A total of 72,000 persons were evacuated, therefore 1 : 40 were killed in the storm, approx. 2,5% of the population.

Sea, tides and sand dunes

A resistance, determination to exist and fight the elements of nature.

     "God created the Earth,
      but the Dutch created the Netherlands."

American tourists do feel a bit uncomfortable in their approach to Amsterdam Airport: "Welcome ladies and gentlemen. We'll shortly be landing at Schiphol Airport, 15 feet below sea level."

The Dutch do fear the onslaught of rising sea level as predicted by global warming and the melting glaciers. But after the 1953 spring tide storm disaster in their southern province of Zeeland, the Dutch rebuild all their dikes to a higher level and the immense structures to withstand all storms for a thousand years, statistically.

The design of dikes has been unchanged for centuries, and only recently has seen a first failure of a sliding dike, due to ... drought! The Dutch design of dikes can also be witnessed in France, Normandy, from centuries ago.

Emblem of Zeeland Province

Coastal Guide to the Netherlands
World Atlas

To battle the rising tide - a political lesson from the Dutch: resistance, determination and invest in a plan.  

Oui - Liberté - Egalité - Fraternité

▼ ▼ ▼ HAVE YOU READ MY DIARY YET? ▼ ▼ ▼

Do you think that civil disobedience is warranted, given the pattern of massive mismanagement by the Bush administration?

Conservatism is Dead!

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Once again, look at a small, highly populated country like the Netherlands, with striking similarities to the problems New Orleans is confronted with in the Mississippi delta :: a balance between living - economy - nature.

The Dutch build an open Storm Surge Barrier and reclaim land from large lakes and the North Sea. The Dutch have also created one of Europe's largest wild bird refuge regions. This in addition to existing natural beauty of the coastline, dunes and landscape.

To perform well in Europe's economy, Rotterdam harbor and the oil refineries outperform any other region within the Netherlands and are a natural asset for the motor of the economy. The link by Rhine river to Germany's large Industrial Region of the Rhur is essential. The new infrastructure is in place and often after great political battles inside the country.

<click on pic for more ...>

Oostvaardersplassen

Nevertheless, the Dutch can be proud of their heritage, although they are never seen to be satisfied. The gas reserves of Slochteren are of course a huge importance to the Dutch budget and export balance.

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Research Institute Delft University

Storm Surge Holland 1953 - A Disaster

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