I thought as much...

[rabidsamfan]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1563532,00.html

oh, and...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/16455/30830
http://www.livejournal.com/users/pepperlandgirl4/575583.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/koimistress/42428.html


These'll raise your blood pressure, so don't click if you're looking to calm down.

E.T.A.: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090705Z.shtml

Five hours after the hurricane makes landfall, Brown finally got around to realizing he was going to need some more help... but not very urgently. Check out the pdf of the memo.

Comments

[siouxieq.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links (and your previous posts). All we have been getting in Australia is a lot of sensational journalism and how many Aussies are still missing. It's a huge tragedy but all the misinformation will make New Orleans recovery even more difficult and the hope of fixing the screw-ups almost impossible.-And we don't need anyone to live through this again.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I've seen a few links to British newspapers about families from the UK who got trapped in there (and who watched US families being taken to safety while they were left behind, WTF?) but I hadn't heard about the Aussies. If you have a link or two, I'll send them along to twistedchick who is the source of a lot of the info I've found.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Either it is a frightening incompetence (which would be the more harmless explanation) - or it is an unspiken - and perhaps even unacknowledged - racism that went completely nuts, using federal instrument to suppress correct information or to spread false tales. I have kept myself from asking this question for quite a while now, but I couldn't ignore the fact that 95 % of the refugees were black.

Now... is it racism or incompetence or sheer, dangerous stupidity? Or an explosive mixture of all three? And still I find people telling me that the doubtable blessings of the welfare state are completely to blame, keeping people from organizing and helping themselves... and causing a complete loss of civilization as soon as there is a disaster.

Dangerous ideas, i think. One thing is probably right - the system has it's flaws, and they are many. But misinformation and suppression of the eager will to help has nothing to do with the welfare system. Something is deeply foul here, and it scares me. And I have seen enough lies of the current US-government revealed to believe this. It fits like a glove.

Perhaps I should mention that I still dint have any intention to burn a flag. *weak grin*

[siouxieq.livejournal.com]

The big issue that we are hearing about down here is that no Australian consulate reps or reps from other countries were allowed anywhere near the affected areas. This in itself was not a huge issue as no-one was getting in. But the expectations of fast reactions and Australia being allowed to help their own has caused frustration. I think we are all just incredulous about the reaction time and the awful conditions that people found themselves in.
I can't find a good newspaper link but I think the Aussie surviver count is about 40 found - 10 still missing. Lots of superdome horror stories.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

The paranoid part of my brain says it's a plan to try to rehearse imposing Martial Law across the country by making conditions as bad as possible. Blaming the victims, blaming the welfare state, blaming anyone but the guys in charge is just reprehensible.

But the good thing is that there were so many people and are so many people who wanted to help. And I don't think next time that FEMA or anyone else is going to be able to say them nay. I am hoping, rather desperately, that this is the straw which breaks the camel's back for the moderate Republicans, and undecideds. God knows the Democrats aren't perfect, but they never let things get to this pass.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

What? The whole point of consulates and embassies is to extend help when it's needed!

And believe me, y'all aren't the only people who expected faster reactions! Tell your representative at the UN that they need to not buckle under to Bolton's demands. It's time the world took this administration down a peg.

[siouxieq.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard on TV, the Australian representatives were the first to be let in, and that was on Monday.

Our government wont do anything to rock the boat with the US - they have very similar policies. We've just swapped the apron strings of Britain to being second fiddle to the US.

Let's just hope that something good can come out of this mess.

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

*shaking head*

I'm convinced the people in charge at FEMA are effing incompetent morons.

[citrine2.livejournal.com]

You're right. I shouldn't have read that. Now I'm even more angry and disgusted. I just don't understand. *Tears of frustration* My area was pretty much obliterated by floods in 1993, and FEMA was right there on the spot, while everything was still underwater, at least trying to actually help people. And now 12 years later, this. What the hell happened?

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Compassionate Conservatism.

The people in charge of government don't believe in government. They want to "starve" it to death.

Which you can't do without starving people too, of course, but that doesn't make for good press conferences.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

But watch them get medals and praise from Bush.... just watch!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they will, and it angers me. I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast - my hometown is protected by levees, although we are actually above sea level.

I know what it's like to clean up after a major hurricane - because I remember when Alicia hit Galveston in 1983. That's close enough to my hometown that part of the eye passed overhead. We had trees downed in our backyard and a few large limbs on the roof that had to be sawed up and hauled off piece by piece. When we did get power back, we still had no AC - because a fire ant colony had moved into our AC unit. And we were lucky. And the cleanup was efficiently managed by local officials.

My older sister now lives in Gainesville - she was in Florida last year when they got pummelled by four hurricanes, two of them major. Cleanup was again efficiently managed by local officials. Yes, there's still rebuilding going on in the panhandle, and you can still see downed trees around the roads leading into Disney - but folks had power/water etc fairly quickly.

Katrina hit south Florida first. Our apartment complex in Ft. Lauderdale only lost power for a few hours. Phones were back up in most places within about 24 hours. I know it was only a 'minimal' storm at that point - but I could see where trees had been uprooted by the 'minimal' winds (i.e only 80 miles an hour or so).

New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. Most of the city below sea level, vast erosion of the barrier island system, minimal maintenance on the levee system since it was buit in the 1930s - and 30% of the population below the poverty line. And a huge local petrochemical industry.

*sigh*

Naturally, the war in Iraq was much more important to the current administration than ensuring the safety of one of its busiest ports.

I knew there was a reason I didn't vote for the current administration.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

I have spent much of today's breaks and lunch reading what has been coming out on KOS with growing disgust and outrage. This is WAY too unbelievable to imagine happening in a modern, western country, let alone the USA. The level of callousness, ineptitude and baldfaced gall the government (and the very conservative-biased media) is trying to feed us is an outrage. Thank YOU for spreading these words.

Did you also see the report about the 'alledged' sniper attacks that shut down rescue efforts at the convention center? The link is down right now, but check out this KOS post which references it...

Seems that none of those nasty rumors about sniper attacks or rapes or dead infants could be corroborated by physical evidence, victims or even witnesses. But the feds could use rumors of them as an excuse to shut down rescue operations.

My blood pressure has gone WAY beyond boiling by now...

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

I don't know what's true and what isn't. What I do know is that, as a non involved party, it seems rather odd to me that the President should be heading up an investigation into blunders made by his own administration.