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Catastrophes

  • Bush party faces sleaze charges "THE TIMES, LONDON "
    28 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    Washington, Sept. 27: President Bush returned to Washington yesterday with his Republican Party facing mounting allegations of sleaze, the latest problem for a White House scrambling to regain public trust after its poor response to Hurricane Katrina.
    With Tom DeLay, the party’s leader in the House of Representatives, already accused of ethics violations, the taint of scandal has now spread to Bill Frist, the Republicans’ Senate leader.
    Frist, a heart surgeon with presidential ambitions, (…)

  • Former FEMA chief Michael Brown lied under oath at hearing on Katrina disaster
    28 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    Get the word out. Today Michael Brown lied through his teeth when he told the Katrina hearing that Blanco NEGLECTED to include NOLA and adjacent parishes in the disaster relief request. And then, Rep Stephen Buyer R-IN, repeated it. Boldface Lie ! Here is the proof.....UNCOVERED BY BRILLIANT DU’ers!!! BRAVO....
    WHAT BLANCO ASKED FOR: SHE INCLUDED ALL PARISHES
    WHAT BUSH ISSUED...HE LEFT OUT NOLA AND ADJACENTS Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana
    The President today (…)

  • US FEMA chief blames everyone but himself
    28 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    MICHAEL Brown, the former US government emergency director aggresively defended his role in responding to Hurricane Katrina yesterday, blaming Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for failing to communicate.
    Mr Brown, who resigned as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after being removed of responsibility for New Orleans, told a congressional panel set up by Republican leaders to investigate the response to Katrina: "My biggest mistake was (…)

  • What a Difference Welfare Mongers Make in a Hurricane now, and years ago
    27 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    6 comments

    The Difference In People... what a crying shame...
    This is very interesting. How much the people’s attitude can change in 78 years? In 1927, a major, unnamed hurricane struck the city of New Orleans. It was actually more powerful than Katrina. The scope of damage was much more severe because this particular hurricane actually hit the city. Katrina missed it by 25 miles.
    The interesting difference is the response the government gave in 1927 to those hurricane refugees, compared to the (…)

  • In a Nutshell
    26 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Norla Antinoro
    It’s a gas shortage! Here we go again. I remember the last one and it was no fun. This one looks to be every bit as bogus and as bad for the ordinary citizens as the last one. The signs were there. Hurricane Katrina sent prices of fuel up. Then Hurricane Rita shut down all the refineries in the southern USA from North Carolina to Texas. There were rumblings that this would have repercussions. Gas prices were going to go up because the refineries had to shut down.
    Gas (…)

  • New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters
    26 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells
    As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff’s department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city’s jail, Human Rights Watch said today.
    Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were (…)

  • When nature and man conspire to expose the lies of the powerful, the truth will out
    26 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    4 comments

    What we were actually doing in Basra was to turn a blind eye on abuse, murder and anarchy
    By Robert Fisk
    "Water is your friend" was the advice regularly given to a truly good friend of mine here in the Middle East. The speaker was a member of the One-Thousand- Litres- a-Day-Keeps-Dehydration-at-Bay Brigade, although I have to say that the Arabs take a different view. After generations of sword-like desert heat, they take tea in the morning, endure an oven-like day without sustenance, and (…)

  • Prisoners in New Orleans city jail were ’abandoned’
    26 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Andrew Gumbel
    A leading US human rights group accused prison officials in New Orleans yesterday of abandoning hundreds of men in the city jail in the run-up to Hurricane Katrina, leaving them locked up without food, water, electricity, fresh air or functioning toilets for four days as the floodwaters rose to their chests, necks and higher.
    Human Rights Watch described the prisoners’ ordeal at the Templeman III facility in New Orleans as a "nightmare" and said, based on interviews with (…)

  • Imagine one hundred thousand people marching on New Orleans
    26 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    One hundred thousand people. I read the news from Washington DC that one hundred thousand protestors are marching on the capital, sharing a flood of outrage on our faltering King George, who frankly, doesn’t care if one hundred million demonstrated. I look at the pictures from the day and I see marches with multitudes of people, smiles and laughter, and creative props, costumes and actions. I’m sure the people who are participating feel empowered and alive.
    Hundreds of thousands of people (…)

  • Conference Calls Detail Katrina Concerns, Failings
    26 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    Morning Edition, September 23, 2005 · In the days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, officials in local, state and federal governments held a series of telephone conference calls aimed at coordinating their responses to the storm. The sessions were recorded by Walter Maestri, emergency manager for Jefferson Parish, who shared them with NPR.
    In tapes of the disaster planning meetings, emergency managers and civic officials evinced a growing concern with the strengthening (…)