I have lived down here for almost a year in this here Bible Belt. I’m a mystic though and I’m making my predictions and running for the rest of the day. Thousands are dead in LA. MSM kept those who were going to leave at the last minute from leaving when they stated that New Orleans was spared catastrophy. They called a presidential election for the loser,now they’ve killed thousands in New Orleans by playing National Enquirer games with the Republicans.
Yahoo already has a story up on global warming and the new hurricane severity. Insurance premiums are going to start going up here TOMORROW. Most of the South that considers itself well off is really middle class. The rising gas has been hard to take, now global warming is real and they are going to get the shit knocked out of them by God. The Bible believers are going to firmly believe they have displeased God down here, and now they need help and their current doctrine only survives so long as they can be in the POWER position.
Starting today the Republicans and the Christian Right have lost the South. It will take a couple of years to unfold completely but today did it. Also the 6,000 National Guard gone with most of the National Guard equipment and they are still trying to rescue people? Oh Yeah, we have a brand new bunch of people today that are interested in the LIES ABOUT IRAQ. These are Tracy’s prophecies.
Tracy, my blood is just boiling over the need for the National Guard to resuce people and help sandbag and pump water, and they aren’t there because they’re in IRAQ!!!!!
The NOLA tv station website has posted that they are need more National Guard and are calling for any to come. They’re also calling for anyone with a private boat to join the rescue missions.
And it took until 11:21 this AM for cowboy george to decide to cut short his vacation and go to DC.
I have trouble imagining a more complete and utter failure to provide leadership. It should have been obvious to anyone that playing golf wasn’t what was needed yesterday. What a sociopathic dumbass; I guess he doesn’t even have any advisers who are human enough to know how to do the right thing and tell him to do it. All a bunch of shitbags…
</rant>
You know his life has to go on.
But… shit has substance and in some cases a purpose… unlike this Regime
🙂
Woman, you get a big 4 for that one.
And the Army Corps of Engineers had to spend a whole day "brainstorming" yesterday after the breach of the levee. Why didn’t they have an action plan to put in place immediately? Because the budget for hurricane preparedness plans had been gutted by Bush in order to shuffle money to Iraq.
I was wondering this myself, about having plans in place. Listening to the news I kept hearing shit like this all day from various relief agencies..that they were ‘just now’ trying to figure out plans of how to help..what the fuck. I realize the enormous magnitude of this but all these people seemed at a loss at times of how to proceed…these are the people in charge for god’s sake.
They don’t have “A” plan because there are simply too many variables, not the least of which is getting the right equipment and materiel to the breach(s) as soon as possible. Also necessary to make damn sure the subsidence/undermining is localized. You plug one hole and you’ve now partially distributed that load to the adjacent areas.
Water weights 8.4 pounds per gallon. Do the math. You don’t just throw dirt in the hole. It’s not the Army Corps of Tonka.
has not really put forth any effort into solving the problem of how to evacuate 30,000 people from the super dome. That is awful and it will be horrible before it is over – no water, MRE’s, no air conditioning, no electricity – how soon before dysentary starts up and the rest of it?
Superdome in LA will be moved to the Houston Astrodome, and the Astrodome schedule has been cleared until New Years Day! That will give people some idea of the scope of the task that lay ahead. That is 4 months of expected occupation.
it amounts to crimes against humanity and nature.
GWB consistently reversed environmental policies to protect wet lands and flood plains. His administration promoted their draining and destruction.
But GWB is on his way to take some credit for giving the people back some of their money. Maybe he will hug a few chosen survivors.
Tracy…are you guys ok/safe? I can open my doors if you need to go somewhere. We can assume the military hasn’t made any arrangements for an evacuation for you if necessary…right?
The national Guard, we have been told since early this AM is on it’s way with 1,600 troops. So where are they? Oh I know they have to bring them back from Iraq. But that is ok because “Mission Accomplished” happened two years ago and there are no wmds, we caught Saddam, killed his two sons, they voted and have a really great new constitution. Send the guardsmen home now!
I went and picked up a show dog today at the airport in Montgomery. It is hard to believe that only three hours away it is martial law and looting and 1,000s of dead. It is surreal right now. We had very very heavy rain last night, so heavy that it kept waking me up..my internal sensors kept saying that it was raining too much. We were wet today but that was it.
Glad your family is doing ok.
I passed three Guard trucks on the highway home too heading in the Mobile direction. 4 Guardsmen, 2 fuel trucks, and a duece and a half……not exactly anything that looked too impressive coming from my direction. Not convoys of them or anything, probably because there aren’t any trucks to make a convoy with cuz they are all in Iraq.
Something I had just read last week or so is really sticking in my craw and that was how all the guard units are under equipped in Iraq and having to take their amphibious vehicles over there to ride around in…and this is driving me crazy. The amphibious vehicles are in fucken Iraq. I think I read that Louisiana alone had over 3,000 Guard members in Iraq..dammit it all to fucken hell.
And I can’t imagine what all the members of Guard units in Iraq are thinking and worrying about their families or what has happened to them and their homes…while their getting shot at in some desert.
Now I hear georgie boy has cut short(ha big deal)his vacation-he’s already had a goddamn month off, cut short my ass…oh yeah my point I guess is that I don’t trust that chickenshit. I’d say it’s more likely he doesn’t want to be down there anywhere near the unwashed masses so he’s hightailing it back to D.C. Who really believes it makes any damn difference where that prick is.
Cutting two days off a week vacation might amount to something. Pointing out that you’re cutting two days off a FIVE WEEK vacation- you sound like a whiner and a wus. STFU, and get to work you lazy piece of wrongly elected sh!#.
So happy to hear you are ok down there.
.
Numbers just released …
WASHINGTON – Even with a robust economy that was adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million — up 1.1 million from 2003 — according to Census Bureau figures released today.
The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people.
“I was surprised,” said Sheldon Danziger, co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan. “I thought things would have turned around by now.”
While disappointed, the Bush administration — which has not seen a decline in poverty numbers since the president took office — said it was not surprised by the new statistics. Commerce Department spokeswoman E.R. Anderson said they mirror a trend in the ’80s and ’90s in which unemployment peaks were followed by peaks in poverty and then by a decline in the poverty numbers the next year.
“America should be showing true leadership on the great moral issues of our time — like poverty — instead of allowing these situations to get worse,” said John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate. He has started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
~~~
I’m sure we will be able to add at least another 500,000 to that number once the dust settles from Katrina. Boy, that sure makes me feel proud to be an American. A lot of these people didn’t have much to begin with, now, well….
There are only three basic things that can kill a house: fire, critters, and water. Every single structure with water sitting for more than a couple days will lose floor coverings, sheetrock, insulation, and electrical and plumbing systems (waste lines).
If they are not dried out early enough, the entire house will begin to mold. Dry-out usually means fans and dehumidifiers, which will be problematic because of power outages. Likely that every generator in 500 miles is headed that way, but they still have to have fuel to run them. (Don’t know what happens to underground tanks in a flood. I suspect they are sealed from intrusion).
Those structures will be torn apart to remove all the damaged materials, creating uncounted tons of waste that will have to be trucked/railed to dry landfills somewhere. Any residence/building debris older than 20 years – drywall – will contain from 1 -20% asbestos. Friable only when dry, but a problem nonetheless. Multipliers for any damage in 4-foot vertical increments: the deeper the water, the more material that comes off. Areas where it reaches the second floor doubles the waste/debris.
Any materials used for repair will be sold out within a wide radius, and the national market will constrict. Andrew alone drove up prices and limited supply for drywall and plywood/OSB. This one is much larger.
When Northridge hit the SBA alone sent in 2500 adjusters; FEMA had about the same: and every insurance company holding a policy likewise sent in people to assess the damage – one structure at a time. An administrative nightmare. Rent or own those people will be visited by at least three adjusters over the next couple of weeks.
Understating the obvious, the next few days are critical. Glad GW had a good time tho’.
And down here everything mildews this time of year anyhow. If you have the money you have a brick home, but you have to spray the thing down in August with bleach water because it is green…..my house is a little green right this minute. Those wet houses will mildew even if the water was all pumped out today. And I know you are all going to be shocked by this, but homeowners insurance doesn’t pay fullboat on hurricane. I’m not positive but almost, that some of the people that I talked to last year around here who had to make repairs said that hurricane only pays 85%. It is either 85 or 90% but isn’t full payment and that’s after deductibles.
What you see on the outside of the brick in a flood is nothing to what’s growing behind it – and under the house if you’re on a raised (conventional) foundation. You’re spot on – some of those homes will get taken back to the foundation.
[Even though mold only affects people who are allergic, or in a high-risk group: babies, old folk, and people with respiratory problems.]
A good adjuster can get people back to almost full use on an 85-90% policy. (In another life I was an estimator/adjuster for a repair company. Used to call it “remodel without plans and specs”).
Bejebus it’s going to get nasty down there.
If I get clobbered by one of these things will you consult on my claim man?
As long as you trust them, you’re ok. But if your shit detector goes off, sure. 🙂
mold affects the healthy also
i never had asthma till i spent a week in my mothers mold filled post hurricane florida mobile home…the one she cant get insurance for anymore and will lose in the next hurricane.
Ok. Left out the important part: breathing protection is required for anybody going in to heavily molded structures. It doesn’t grow in moving air, but who cares if you don’t have power to run fans.
That’s how my brother got asthma. Like you, he stayed exposed for a relatively long period.
I heard the governor of LA say today that they believe it will be at least a month before people can return to *survey* their houses–never mind when people could move back.
Gas on Eastern Long Island, New York as of today,
$3.39 a gallon for the good stuff. I don’t know what else to say really.
It’s just more BTSD….coined by Damnit.
And lets’ not forget that this bastard regime PROFITS from such misery. I am too damn scared to go see what the gas is like here. Last week it was still $2.79 for regular. I haven’t seen it under $1.49 in 8 years.
The people in the south won’t be reading blogs, they will be too busy trying to survive. I doubt they’ll even know that Bush was golfing today. But… they’ll come to realize that Bush Inc doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them when they need water, food, clothing, shelert… that’s hurrrd wurrrk. I’m sure he’ll hear about their positions and have others tell him of their positions and he’ll think about their positions… and then he’ll go on vacation.
He isn’t due back to the White House till Wednesday. So… where the fuck is he and what is he doing???
Damn, you’ve got a way with words Janet. <grin>
He was really fucken golfing today? I read that somewhere else and thought it was a joke…I’m slapping my own face for even thinking the prick could pretend to act like a caring human being.
That golfing picture calls for a quote and the only thing I can think of and it isn’t even funny cause that is probably is what he’s saying…’well, what the fuck do you expect me to do, I haven’t even found the WMD’s yet, heh heh heh.’
Is that golfing picture really from yesterday? Disgust doesn’t even begin to express it.
Not sure if that photo was from that day though but Bush ate cake with McCain, played golf (more photos of that below) and then he played cowboy singer star. Hurrrrd Wurrrk.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/08/30/as-katrina-struck-bush-vacationed
The above phots of him golfing alongside photos of the Katrina aftermath… are beyond upsetting.
The Republicans are going to “lose” the South? In 2006? In 2008? Not as things stand now.
You “misunderestimate” the power of belief.
Let us first recall Shadowthief’s Maxim of Bush’s Minimum, which states:
Bush could beat a sweet little old lady to death with a bag full of cute puppies and still get 40% support.
This maxim applies to the Republicans in general.
The people “believe” in the Republicans. Beliefs are, by definition, irrational. Rationally, no working class person in any region of the US should vote Republican (and many of them don’t…they abstain from voting rather than vote for the Democrats, who have become increasingly “Republican lite”).
Now, 40% support is not a majority. However, a majority is not required–what is required is that the majority of the people don’t vote, so that the Republicans can win merely by sending more of their deluded supporters to the polls than the Democrats.
In the 2006 congressional elections, about 40% of all eligible Americans are expected to vote.
Automatically, 605 of eligible voters are taken out of contention.
Of the remaining 40%, the Republicans need only gain 51% of that remnant in any election and they will be victorious.
That means Republicans only need to win 21% of the eligible voters in order to prevail.
Cobble together a coalition of the far-right wing fundamentalist Christians, the upper-income folk, etc, and you will get that 21% and then some. Sure, they only make up a plurality of eligible voters, but a (bare) majority of actual voters.
In order to prevail, the Democrats must give the voters more than “we’re not Republicans”–a compelling vision not only of the way things ought not to be, but of the way things should be.
Iraq? The Democrats are deeply divided, and with good reason–many of the congressional leaders are joined at the hip with the military-industrial complex. Not to mention the fact that a lot of them voted for this damnable war in the first place, and are loathe to admit their mistake (if they even recognise it as a mistake).
The economy? Many Democrats (including Senate Minority Leader Reid) voted for that odious “bankruptcy bill”, which rewards credit card companies and punishes the working class folk who fall on hard times through no fault of their own.
What have the Democrats done for the working class? Not much. Not enough.
It’s not enough merely for the Republicans to be blundering fools. The people have got to have a reason to think that the Democrats can, and will, do better if empowered with a congressional majority.
The Republican voters have faith in their party. In order to persuade folks to turn out for the Democrats, and win a resounding victory, the Democrats cannot rely on faith, nor on the ineptitude of their foes. Rather, they must give people reasons to vote for them.
Yep – it’s not enough unless Dems embrace economic populism and take some strong stands on behalf of labor, the poor, and the middle class.
Sparked by visiting Abilene KS recently and driving by the Eisenhower Museum – I’m working on a “Like Ike? You should be voting for Democrats” diary idea that I hope will turn into a rally point for KS Dems – but to be candid – most of my reasons are anti-Republican…. not pro-Dem. I’m going to work hard on it – and both in KS and nationally PART of the reason that aren’t Dem victories and stands to point to is our long term minority status – no control means no bills… BUT still… there’s distressingly little to point to…
We will just have to wait for 2006. What I have experienced down here though with the Bible and Republicanism is that the economy for everybody improved down here under Clinton. These people feel that everything they do is related to God and God’s wrath. When times were good it was because God agreed with them and they anchored that in and ran with it. Very soon things aren’t going to be GOOD and have you met some of the Democrats in Alabama, especially backwoods Alabama where I live? Sorry Shadow but they make analyzing bloggers like us look like anal izing chip eating computer junkies. They live it man. We tend to talk about it but they live it and they have been waiting! We lost some long time friends when we first got here. They were born and raised here and did time in the Army. We had one fight too many before, during, and after the election. Well, they phoned the other day to see what we were doing. We made a play date for our boys. They drove into the driveway with a bumper sticker on their car that says GOT ARMOR! THINGS ARE GONNA BE CHANGING DOWN HERE!
I’ve been worried that it was all my fault, because God sent Katrina in the shape of a fetus.
What a relief. Thanks so much for setting my mind at rest.
I’ve been worried that it was all my fault, because God sent Katrina in the shape of a fetus.
Of course we’re talking about people who also see the Virgin Mary in oil slicks and Jesus in grilled cheese sandwiches, people for whom ordinary perception is one giant Rorschach test.
It’s a wonder that none of them spoke out about the truely eerie series of accidents haunting the Boy Scouts this summer.
That said, lots of folks deal with disasters of Biblical proportions in this manner. During Seattle’s last earthquake I was in Arizona on a family emergency and a couple of sensitive, compassionate Christians told me it was God’s warning to the citizenry for their libertine ways.
because the Boy Scouts are on their side. If the Scouting Grand Poobah (whatever he’s called) had steered the organization to stop discriminating against queers, then anyone who’s ever taken any of the Jesi-sightings in grilled-cheese sammiches seriously would’ve been screaming from the rafters about how the deaths at those events were a jealous God’s divine retribution against the Boy Scouts for leaving their fag-bashing badges asunder.
Quite simply: denial among too many folks make this impossible. They will find a rationale for everything. No matter if he was golfing while they were fighting for their lives. No matter that their National Guard was off hunting for non-existent WMDs in Iraq instead of at home doing the jobs they’re supposed to be doing.
Bush isn’t touched by this because the people he knows personally find it easy to avoid this kind of problem. I doubt that he has ever been touched by hardship of others outside his circle of family and friends – as his treatment of the families of the war dead clearly indicate.
NO is a true disaster, especially for the poor. I worry most about the children in NO, whose parents could not leave, or who are stuck in the Superdome, or who have missing parents. Will they be rescued? Will they get dysentery? Cholera? Hepatitis (I did, from Mississippi flood waters as a toddler, it is more common that many people realize). . There are lots of folks still in the city who are diabetic, on dialysis, needing meds they haven’t taken as the hours tick by.
And where on earth will they live, both in the short term and the long term? My basement flooded quite unexpectedly a month ago, and I can tell you after huge amounts of work it is far from habitable. With an entire house, even if left standing, the devastation will be so bad. And some people may never be able to live in their homes again
My dad, a “storm trooper” who specialized in dealing with post-hurricane damage, brought back pictures of Pass Christiane after Hurricane Camille when I was a kid. Today I was seeing those same pics – bare foundations, a few walls standing, trees up-rooted, and people walking around, looking devastated. I think the looting is overplayed and overly focused on minority persons. If I hadn’t eaten or had anything safe to drink I’d be stealing food, and that is certainly some of the looting. More important is restoring water, electricity, a general sense of predictability to life, and a belief that hope still exists for some kind of normal life after this.
And our President can’t even get there quickly and in person to show some visible concern. Many have made fun of Bill Clinton’s feeling people’s pain, but when you are devastated, having the leader of your country tear up with you and give you a hug goes a long way. And with Clinton, you believed him. Not so for Bush. I’d as soon be hugged by an inflatable doll.
Great Post!
From your lips to the Voting Booth!
to budget Homeland Security. Feel safer now?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/29/AR2005082901445.html
….and can you just imagine the thoughts in the ppl from said states that are over in Iraq now and wondering about their family members of said states. It is just blowing my mind.
All Americans should be angry by BushieBoy’s lack of action.
New Orleans is a major city of our country with thousands of US Citizens. We all should hold him and his administration accountable for this.
Why wasn’t the city declared a “national disaster” earlier to allow federal money to help? Where are the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard and their equipment?
Why weren’t the people at the Superdome bused somewhere else? Why federal projects under were funded to repair and maintain the levees?
Why is the Federal Govt. cutting important domestic projects, but funding a war?
Why don’t we listen to the Army Corp of Engineers when they offer insight to potential damages to the levees?
How about after the “clean up”, how are individual affected by the “new” bankruptcy laws?
How many homeless were created by this Katrina Hurricane?
Home many seriously injured or died? How are the families going to rebuild their lives?
Parts of Florida are still damaged by last year’s storms. How long will it take to help New Orleans? Will there be a time table or plan? Or will it be like our exit strategy for Iraq?
We all know a lot of the answers to these questions. We as Americans, need to be strong loud obnoxious in asking Congress and the Executive Branch these questions, when they return next week from their vacations.
We all should pay attention to these events. Cause it could happen to your city too.
Unfortunate that it has to come under such horrific circumstances, but I think we may actually be witnessing a defining moment in this country (had to use a thesaurus so I didn’t use the word “watershed”). When things have settled and people can get an actually clear picture about what happened and what didn’t happen, this administration is gonna be in a world of hurt along the lines of their worst nightmare of what the 9/11 commission could have become.
I don’t know that it will helps the Dems per se though… and I’m not actually sure I want it to if we’re just trading one corrupt corporate party for another as the outcome. I hope we can get this to bring about a meaningful dialogue on and an opening of the American mind when it comes to global climate change.
football dome will now be a refugee camp. We’ve seen how quickly they go away.