The latest NO updates
Sep. 2nd, 2005 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebonlockFind them here, directly from the DirectNIC data center in a high-rise in NO.
There are live feeds, photos, lots of updates and interviews with survivors.
After you've read that, may I direct you to Billmon's excellent list of charities in desperate need of donations to help the Hurricane victims.
And please read a transcript of Mayor Nagin's plea for aid for his citizens, his frustration and desperation are heart breaking:
Garland: Well you and I must be in the minority because apparently there�s a section of our citizenry out there that thinks, uh, because of the law that says that the federal government can�t come in unless requested by the proper people that everything that has been going on up until this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.
Nagin: Really?
Garland: I know you don�t feel that way
Nagin: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did they go through a formal process to request? Uh, you know, did Iraq, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important? This is, you know, I'll tell you man, I, I'm probably gonna get in a whole bunch of trouble. I�m probably going to get into so much trouble it aint even funny. They probably won�t even want to deal with me after this interview is over �
Garland: You and I will be in the funny place together.
Nagin: - but we authorized 8 billions dollars to go to Iraq lickity quick. After 9-11 we gave the president unprecedented powers lickity quick to take care of New York and other places. Now you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique - when you mention New Orleans everywhere around the world everybody�s eyes light up - you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying everyday that we can�t figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man. You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly. And I don�t know whose problem it is. I don t know whether it�s the governor�s problem. I don�t know whether it�s the president�s problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out. Right now.
Garland: What can we do here?
Nagin: Keep talking about it.
Garland: Ok, we�ll do that. What else can we do?
Nagin: Organize people to write letters, make calls to -
Garland: Emails
Nagin: - to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous. And I don�t want to see anybody do anymore goddamned press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don�t do another press conference until the resources are in this city and then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can�t even count. Don�t tell me 40,000 people are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something! Let�s fix the biggest goddamned crisis in the history of this country.
There are live feeds, photos, lots of updates and interviews with survivors.
After you've read that, may I direct you to Billmon's excellent list of charities in desperate need of donations to help the Hurricane victims.
And please read a transcript of Mayor Nagin's plea for aid for his citizens, his frustration and desperation are heart breaking:
Garland: Well you and I must be in the minority because apparently there�s a section of our citizenry out there that thinks, uh, because of the law that says that the federal government can�t come in unless requested by the proper people that everything that has been going on up until this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.
Nagin: Really?
Garland: I know you don�t feel that way
Nagin: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did they go through a formal process to request? Uh, you know, did Iraq, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important? This is, you know, I'll tell you man, I, I'm probably gonna get in a whole bunch of trouble. I�m probably going to get into so much trouble it aint even funny. They probably won�t even want to deal with me after this interview is over �
Garland: You and I will be in the funny place together.
Nagin: - but we authorized 8 billions dollars to go to Iraq lickity quick. After 9-11 we gave the president unprecedented powers lickity quick to take care of New York and other places. Now you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique - when you mention New Orleans everywhere around the world everybody�s eyes light up - you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying everyday that we can�t figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man. You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly. And I don�t know whose problem it is. I don t know whether it�s the governor�s problem. I don�t know whether it�s the president�s problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out. Right now.
Garland: What can we do here?
Nagin: Keep talking about it.
Garland: Ok, we�ll do that. What else can we do?
Nagin: Organize people to write letters, make calls to -
Garland: Emails
Nagin: - to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous. And I don�t want to see anybody do anymore goddamned press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don�t do another press conference until the resources are in this city and then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can�t even count. Don�t tell me 40,000 people are coming here! They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's do something! Let�s fix the biggest goddamned crisis in the history of this country.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 10:37 pm (UTC)I'm on that myself, with donations to appropriate charities on payday, Tuesday :)
Interdictor
Date: 2005-09-03 04:16 am (UTC)He's also the person who runs Something Awful.
PS -
I'm really pissed at FEMA for their inaction. I'm lobbying we change their name to Fucking Evil Mismanagement Assholes. This is what we get for our $6.5B per year?
Many climatologists and scientists have published papers noting New Orleans vulnerabilities and have made predictions of devastation. Testimony has also been made in Congress. All within the past decade. It wasn't a matter of if, but when. And FEMA pretends as if they knew nothing.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-03 07:53 am (UTC)Not to trivialize Katrina, but it occurs to me that things like the Civil War and World War II maybe pegged the Crisis-O-Meter a bit higher.
There's urgency, and then there's hyperbole. The former is helpful. The latter makes me tune the speaker out.
Re: Interdictor
Date: 2005-09-05 03:49 am (UTC)Heh, I would definitely second that, imagine how many people that $6.5B a year would've fed over the past week...
Re: Interdictor
Date: 2005-09-05 04:58 am (UTC)Check out this link from UPI
Particularly midway down the page:
"The Bush administration has naturally bristled at charges from black leaders that it had been slow to react to the tragedy of New Orleans, which has left a death toll in thousands, because the victims were poor blacks. But European diplomats in Washington noted on the margins of the tragedy the unfortunate fact that throughout the week the White House had not ordered flags lowered to half mast -- a sign of respect for the dead -- but did so Sunday following the death of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. At the same time, the White House is planning several days of official mourning for the late Chief Justice, but has said nothing about a mourning period for the victims of Hurricane Katrina."