New Orleans atrocities were exaggerated

Reports are coming out now that many of the reports of atrocities in the Superdome and the Convention Center following Hurricane Katrina were bull. There's a long article here. It looks like the number of murders and rapes were greatly exaggerated, which is certainly good news. Though it makes one wonder why all this stuff was being reported so much in the media.

In another hurricane followup story, you can read about a police officer's experience who was one of the very few near the Convention Center the whole time.

On to Iraq... last week I came across a couple interesting stories trying to analyze what's gone wrong there. The Harpers story is about a year old now, but still very good. Then there's this recent story from Time magazine. After reading them, to me it looks like we've been busy repeating the mistakes of Vietnam by letting politicians make decisions that were better off left with the military.

Now a couple of fun links:
There's a site trying to tell the entire story of the Bible with Legos. Yes, these people have way too much time on their hands. The Brick Testament is definitely worth a look though.

And remember whack-a-mole? This Flash game is like whack-a-mole on steroids.

How does this money thing work?

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, our President said that he would not raise taxes to pay for the recovery. That recovery is $62 billion so far in federal funds and is expected to reach as high as $200 billion. Now we have another massive hurricane, Rita, about to slam into Texas. Certainly that too will involve signficant federal dollars for recovery. But the President says he's not going to raise taxes, even on the wealthy, or more correctly end the tax cuts he handed out in his first term. So are we going to make large spending cuts instead? Maybe we'll leave Iraq? Not that I'm advocating doing that today, but that would probably pay for the hurricane recovery without increasing the deficit by much. How about the many billions extra to be spent on Medicare in the coming years because of the perscription drug plan? We could get rid of the plan. We have a Medicare system that was already projected to be broke well before Social Security goes bust, yet all Bush has done is add another gigantic expense to it. Any cuts to it would of course be fiercely opposed by the increasingly huge retired population. So don't count on that ever happening.

Right now, even though we're running record federal deficits, it seems the only way Bush plans to pay for hurricane recovery is through even more deficit spending. High deficits lead to a debt that increases faster than the GDP. In general that means that interest payments on the debt become a larger and larger share of federal spending. In the end, what Bush is really saying is that our children will get to pay for all this shit. At least ExxonMobil got another tax break though!

Goodbye candy cigarettes, hello Kidsbeer

Kidsbeer is an increasingly popular beverage in Japan that the company is looking to export to Europe. As the name suggests, it's a beverage that looks like beer and is marketed to kids. It's said to taste like cola. My favorite part is the product slogan, which is (I'm not kidding): "Even kids cannot stand life unless they have a drink." Ah yes, teach kids at a young age that life is unbearable without a drink. That's a good plan!

Our government at work

The scene is one of chaos, with scores of people on an airport tarmac in dire need of medical attention, people dying, and only one doctor, a volunteer, on the scene struggling to save patients as others die right in front of him. If you're an official overseeing part of the rescue effort, do you A) thank God the one doctor you've got was willing to come help and try to get more doctors on the scene ASAP, or B) tell the only doctor there to get lost because you're afraid the government will get sued?

Apparently if you work for our government on disaster relief, you choose B). Screw good samaritan laws! You don't want Uncle Sam to get sued! I wish I was kidding. Yep, it's another mind bogglingly stupid example of how the government has been handling the Katrina relief effort. So far FEMA has been totally unapologetic about the incident. In the article they're quoted as simply defending their policy of not using volunteer doctors.

Some parents are idiots

Bah, i can't find the link right now, but I read about a survey last week asking parents who they thought should determine what's taught in school science classes. It was multiple choice:

A) Teachers and scientists
B) School boards
C) Parents

A plurality, 48% of parents, said choice C). Parents should determine what is taught in the science classroom. Sigh. I rephrase this as "48% of parents are complete idiots". What the hell makes these people think they know better than teachers and scientists what should be taught in a freaking SCIENCE class? As Carlos Mencia says, "dee dee dee!" I'm sorry some parents are control freaks who think that no matter what the subject is, "we know what's best for our child!" No, in this case you don't. People who actually study and work in the fields of education and the relevent sciences are going to know far, far better than you what should be part of the curriculum. If you can't understand that, you're being willfully ignorant, or just plain stupid. Though I suspect many of that 48% are parents who want creationism taught in science class and don't like the theory of evolution. Sorry again, but it's science class, not religion class. If you want your kids to have a religion class, send them to sunday school or a private religiously affiliated school. Don't try to change science class.

I wonder when people will start bitching about Einstein's theory of relativity. "But it's only a theory!" Dee dee dee...

Branson on the airlines and oil prices

Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group and ridiculously wealthy adventurer, had some interesting things to say recently to CNN. Go to their homepage and check the videos section. What I found most interesting is that the guy is thinking about building an oil refinery. Does he really want into the oil business? Well, he says absolutely not. The problem is that the big oil companies have been making such extortionist profits by refusing to build new refineries for decades that Branson, ever the businessman, thinks it might be necessary to break big oil's hold on the market and that in the long run doing so will benefit his airline business.

So we have more confirmation of the obvious. The oil industry has been quite deliberately jacking up our prices by refusing to increase refinery capacity for decades now. In doing so, as noted previously, they have achieved the biggest profits in the history of corporations, and yet still they have not invested those huge profits in expanding the outdated and overworked refinery system. I would think our government could find some illegal business practices there if they bothered to look, but of course our politicians make far too much money from oil lobbyists.

And in the category of "Why the Fuck is this News?", USAToday has a story today about how college students are buying flip-flops with their school logos on them. What the hell? Who cares!? Who's the moron that approved this story? Does the woman who wrote it call herself a journalist? Next week, "Some Americans Find Lint in their Belly Buttons!", a special report in USAToday!

Crash

"Crash" is one of the best films of the year. If you want a popcorn movie, skip it. If you prefer escapism at the movies without having to actually feel anything, take a pass. It's anything but lighthearted. Nevertheless, it's very good. One part that stuck in my head is how we see people being assholes. We see them being racist, cruel, angry, and cold. Then we see what might have made them that way, what their struggles are. Then we see them change, mostly for the better. We see change for the worse, too, but most of all we see gray.

Interesting note on the screenwriter, Paul Haggis: he created the television show "Walker, Texas Ranger". heh... how embarrassing. The same guy who's written the screenplays for both "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby" is responsible for that horrible TV show.

News of the... WTF?

ExxonMobil is expected to make over $10 billion in pure profit this quarter, thanks to the soaring gas prices. It will be far more money than any other corporation in our history has EVER made in a quarter. Last quarter they made $7.6 billion, which if I remember right was also a record. So what did our President do? He gave them a tax break! *blink* Wha?! Yep, they're the biggest moneymaker in the history of business and Dubya just gave them another tax break.

Now of course we know that part of the reason gas prices have soared is because of a deliberate strategy by ExxonMobil and other big oil companies. They've avoided investing in new production facilities for many years now so that supply would stay restricted. The tax break is said to provide incentives for them to invest in this production. Can't we find some other way to pressure these corporations besides giving them tax breaks? It's ridiculous. Our federal government is drowning in debt, but they give new tax breaks to the most profitable businesses in the world. We obviously shouldn't be giving them tax breaks, but perhaps we should be launching criminal investigations of their price fixing efforts. Our big oil companies are at least loosely working together to restrict supply.

I'm all for capitalism, but crap like this makes me have a better understanding of why people in some countries actually want their government to be in control of the energy production.

How soon were supplies available?

In another mind boggling detail from the hurricane relief effort, the Red Cross was denied entrance to New Orleans last week. Now it wasn't as horrendous of a blunder as I originally thought because it turns out the Red Cross didn't make their request until Thursday, 3 full days after the hurricane passed, but it's still really stupid. Here's one of many places with the story. The Guard started moving supplies in on Wednesday, Aug. 31st, though as we know now those supplies were late and woefully inadequate, entirely missing many people including thousands at the convention center, who got no food, water, or security until late Thursday afternoon following riots, beatings, murders and rapes there. On Thursday the Red Cross requested to enter the city. Apparently they got no response and asked again on Friday. On Friday it was recommended they wait another 24 hours for logistics reasons. By Saturday it was a mute point as the large scale evacuation was in full swing and the National Guard had a lot more supplies in the city.

Okay, so I basically summarized that story, but honestly, does an incredibly experienced organization like the Red Cross really need to be put off for 2 days to wait for "logistics" to be arranged so they can go in safely? The Red Cross operates in war zones. I think they could handle starting to move some people in as soon as they had supplies there. Food, shelter, and medical attention is what they do and they're very good at it. Why the hell didn't the government let them do it when it might have mattered?

The greater failing though is that even the National Guard didn't even start moving supplies in until Wednesday and the Red Cross wasn't ready until Thursday. The government should have had FEMA personnel and Guardsmen ready to go in with supplies immediately, not 2 full days after the hurricane.

Also, I'd like to find a source to link, but I'm hearing that the Superdome could have been stocked with food and water before the hurricane struck, but wasn't because the mayor feared it would encourage people to stay in the city. It seems evacuation plans for the city were piss poor too. You'd think with a city that they knew for years couldn't withstand a direct hit from a powerful hurricane that there would be a very detailed and well thought of plan for evacuating.

Naturally there's a lot more to this story. It's looking like Mayor Nagin, the Louisiana governor, and FEMA director Brown among others seriously fucked up regarding hurricane preparation and their response.

The Worst is Over?

In some sense the worst seems to be over in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Over the weekend tens of thousands of National Guardsmen and active duty troops deployed in the disaster area. As a result the security situation seems to be much better. The Superdome and the Convention Center were cleared out and rescuers say that most houses in New Orleans have been checked for survivors, with many thousands rescued. Unfortunately some people are refusing to be rescued, a rather mind boggling refusal that to me brings into question the mental competence of most of these people. They've been through a terrible trauma and they may not be thinking right.

So perhaps the worst has passed and focus can start shifting to the long recovery process. In another sense though, the worst for many people is yet to come. Soon the retrieval of the bodies will be a priority. They expect to find thousands, maybe over ten thousand. We just don't know yet. The full horror of what went on at the Convention Center is also starting to come to light. This story includes an account from a national guardsmen who entered the Center on Monday. It's not for the faint of heart. People were beaten. People were raped. People were brutally murdered.

CNN's hurricane coverage today
They've also got a special section on how to help through donations and volunteering, how to get help, etc.

All the major media are reporting that the evacuation in New Orleans has finally picked up the pace. Though there are still many thousands of people who need help. Thankfully they finally served meals at the convention center yesterday, and also evacuated some people. Charity Hospital was finally evacuated yesterday.

On The Interdictor's webcam (the blog in NO I posted about previously), I just watched at least a couple dozen busses go by. I guess that's good.

Where's the leadership?

Let's not forget that New Orleans was not the only city effected. Here's a story on small towns that are struggling without aid.

Next, sorry to politicize this for a moment, though frankly I don't care what party the leaders are in. I care how they respond.

Our President: Bush was on vacation when the hurricane hit. Monday night he still wasn't doing much as things got worse on the Gulf. Tuesday he was fundraising and photo-oping out west while things really went to hell in New Orleans. Wednesday he finally got back to Washington. He still seems very detached as he recently stated that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." Umm..... countless people anticipated and warned of a likely breach if such a powerful storm hit New Orleans, Mr. President. Where have you been?

Our Vice-President: Cheney was still vacationing in Wyoming in the days following Katrina's landfall.

Our Secretary of State: Rice took a 3 day vacation to New York City AFTER the hurricane struck. She finally returned to Washington (I think yesterday).

How sad.

It fits with how Mayor Nagin of New Orleans described the overall federal response. It's as though they thought the disaster wasn't all that bad and they've been "thinking small". It's taken them five days to finally start realizing just how bad it is and set things in motion that should have happened long ago.

I hear Ted Koppel really ripped into the director of FEMA last night on Nightline, primarily concerning the Convention Center and how FEMA could possibly not know until Thursday afternoon that people needed help there. The major networks have been talking about the 10,000 plus people there for several days.

NO Mayor Rips into the Feds Slow Response

Mayor Nagin did a 12 minute radio interview available on CNN. I'm not sure how to link it directly, so go to their homepage and watch the video. Here's an article about it. The mayor slams the slow response from federal relief efforts and makes an impassioned plea for help. This man knows of what he speaks. The slow speed of FEMA's response has been disgraceful all the way around. FEMA and other federal efforts are particularly disgraceful in regards to the Convention Center as I talked about yesterday. Thousands of refugees were sent there and then it was virtually abandon for until yesterday afternoon when the rioting, beatings, and rapes broke out.

You know all this talk of tens of thousands of National Guard troops being sent? As of late Thursday hardly any of them were even there yet! To quote Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, from the Washington Times, "as of yesterday there were 2,800 troops in New Orleans". What? 2,800?! They need 40,000 or so and on day 4 they had 2,800! What happened to the supposedly prepositioned relief effort since we had some warning of this storm's severity?

Also in the Times article, FEMA director Mike Brown said, "there is no truth to reports food is scarce in New Orleans. 'The state has requested five trailer loads of MREs and water to be delivered today. Those are en route. There was plenty of food to feed last night in the Superdome. There was plenty of food to feed this morning. And there will be plenty of food to feed this evening,' Mr. Brown said. 'So, any reports to the contrary are just incorrect.'"

WHAT? Is this man a complete idiot?! The biggest single problem with a lack of food and water is at the Convention Center, you moron! Over 10,000 people took shelter there as their government told them to do, then they were abandon!

This is so mind boggling. Brown also said yesterday that the relief effort was "going relatively well". Relative to what?! What is he smoking/snorting/injecting? We don't have time for this right now as so many people still need to be saved, but in the aftermath of this relief effort, I think some heads are going to roll.

Earth to FEMA!

This from the Associated Press: FEMA director Michael Brown said the agency just learned about the situation at the convention center Thursday and quickly scrambled to provide food, water and medical care and remove the corpses.

What the hell? I'll save you the stream of profanities I'm saying. The fact that the Convention Center was a major shelter site for New Orleans has been well known for DAYS you stupid f*cks! It's where they sent everyone who showed up at the Superdome when they decided the dome was full. The Center has/had 10,000 to 15,000 people in it. They've had no security there to speak of and virtually no food and water coming in. And FEMA says they didn't know about the situation until THURSDAY!?! WHAT THE FUCK??! Goddamn, millions of people all across the country knew before today that it was a crowded shelter that would need help. Who's coordinating things down there? Anyone? Anyone at all? Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

The Convention Center is where thousands were told to go. They did. For almost four days they behaved themselves for the most part while they waited for the aid that didn't come. As backed up by this story from this afternoon, the expected aid didn't come and the security didn't come. People started dying of dehydration and still no help... then as we know from other stories the riots started there.

How in God's name could FEMA, the Guard, etc. drop the ball so horribly on this one? Watch the video from the MSNBC link above. They've gotten no help. Up until at least this afternoon there were no authority figures there. Harry Connick Jr. went in a spoke to the crowd briefly and he was the only authority figure they'd seen lately... a musician.

More hurricane news and links

I've heard that a CNN reporter in New Orleans right in front of the convention center was carjacked live on the air. Any confirmation? The convention center is holding many thousands of people as it's where they sent everyone when the Superdome was too crowded. As of this morning, a CNN reporter at the convention center was saying he didn't see any police or national guard around. No one was in charge and they had little to no supplies. I don't know if it got better later in the day. It boggles my mind that national guard and police weren't stationed at the convention center in force as one of the top priorities.

edit: oh my God... this is apparently pasted from an Associated Press story:

4:15 P.M. - (AP): Police say storm victims are being raped and beaten inside the New Orleans Convention Center.

About 15,200 people who had taken shelter at the convention center to await buses grew increasingly hostile.

Police Chief Eddie Compass says he sent in 88 officers to quell the situation at the building, but they were quickly beaten back by an angry mob.

Compass says, "We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten."

He says tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon.

WHERE THE HELL WAS THE NATIONAL GUARD?!

A good New Orleans newspaper has been reporting online in sort of a blog style during this disaster. It's definitely worth a visit.

That and the hospitals... at 3:18pm EST, a reporter at Charity hospital said there were no police or national guard there and doctors feared for their lives as they desperately tried to care for patients.
CNN's on the scene blog page for today is here.

I just read that a FEMA director was claiming on TV that the security situation was pretty good at about the same time a police spokesman was saying that they'd lost control of the city. Eyewitness reports back up the police on this one. I don't get what the FEMA guy thought he was doing.

I've also read that a CNN anchor basically went off on the air about the slow relief response, calling President Bush's response negligent beyond belief and blasting the continuing severe shortage of food and water several days into the crisis. Quote: ". "Where the hell is the water for these people?! Why can we not drop samwiches for these people at the superdome? Christ, its THURSDAY!" I'm getting this information secondhand as I haven't been watching TV. Most is from scanning this Fark thread and others. I'd really like to get confirmation on this one from anyone who saw the broadcast.

I thought the violence couldn't get any more ridiculous, but I was wrong.

From CNN: "Hospitals are trying to evacuate," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan, spokesman at the city emergency operations center. "At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them. There are people just taking pot shots at police and at helicopters, telling them, 'You better come get my family."' I'll get the link later. I closed the browser window and need to get back to work in a sec.

The New Orleans blogger I posted about previously has some more updates. I haven't tracked this news down anywhere official yet, but he says the word is that active duty Marines are now in the city along with the National Guard. Many areas are still total chaos and anarchy though.

Farker's family shelters 16 hurricane refugees

After my posts about the violent, looting assholes in New Orleans, it's nice to find some news that restores faith in humanity. Two Farkers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (screen names Swolt and Gabbybaby, links go to their profiles) are helping Swolt's parents take care of 16 hurricane refugees, mostly women and children, and their pets who all showed up at his parent's door. His parents live on four acres of land there. He and his dad built a rough shelter that they're working on improving and even a makeshift kennel for the pets. Swolt's mother is a teacher and has even offered to tutor the kids. Before you ask, they already contacted the Red Cross about sheltering these people and were told they'd just be put in already very crowded shelters with hundreds of other people. So the family has decided to continue sheltering these now homeless people.

I won't link the Fark threads about it as you have to be a member to see them since they're in the Totalfark section, but I know enough people who are vouching for Swolt to know that this is the real thing. Members have been sending care packages and donating via Paypal using Swolt's gmail address from his profile.

This family's generosity just blows me away.

Send in the Marines

Continuing anarchy in New Orleans is hampering relief efforts as even ambulance workers have been targeted. It's reported that rescuers have themselves been victimized by the looters, and they even had an ambulance overturned. What the hell is wrong with these people? People are dying and these thugs think only of themselves.

Time to send in the National Guard and the Marines to force people to clear out. If they meet any sort of armed resistance, shoot to kill.

Anarchy in New Orleans

This blog from the 10th story of a flooded building in New Orleans is pretty incredible. Seriously, read this blog. They are trapped there for now with a diesel generator supplying them with power. They have a live web-cam feed that they were apparently pointing outside when they had some daylight, and the blog is updated frequently. They've been watching the city descend into anarchy. As you may have read elsewhere, looters have been breaking into gun stores. There are now bands of armed thugs roaming the streets, looting and robbing. They have a police officer sheltering with them part of the time now. He says the command structure for the police department is almost nonexistent with virtually no communication being passed around. People are shooting at the police officers and other rescuers.

The blogger is ex-military and has been using his training to assign people to teams, patrolling the building for security reasons and taking care of other necessities. Where is the National Guard? Hell, where are the Marines? In a previous entry the blogger said it's starting to turn into "Lord of the Flies" out there.

edit: they aren't exactly trapped in a sense that with a concerted effort it sounds like they could get out of the city. They are choosing not to. Not sure why... trying to help?

As soon as the fear of punishment is gone, some disgusting human beings turn into animals. In other news stories I've read that staff and patients in a hospital are trying to keep looters from breaking in. A nurse stepped outside briefly and was immediately robbed. Looters even targetted a nursing home that still has staff and residents hoping to be rescued. I hardly know what to see to that. One starts to think some people are so despicable they don't deserve to live.