NOT SO NEW BLOG

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore"

A great quote but a little over the top for the way that I feel concerning this blog. My frustartion has gotten the better of me though and I'm ready to move. I've established a new blog and here is the address.

http://crap713two.blogspot.com/

Come see me for the same old "CRAP" that you've come to know and love so well!!!

So I say goodbye to "CRAPI" and hello to "CRAPII"

I didn't realize that blogs had sunset clauses............LOL...........PEACE................Scott

Subj: On the front line

Subj: On the front line
>
> +++++++++
> "A friend of my cousins who's a Physician in NO, sent this to him and
> asked
> to pass it on to all who want to know what's really going on down there.
> Note
> there are many typos and misspellings. I know he's
> exhausted...........Audley"
>
> *******
> (this is now the physician writing.....)
>
> "Thanks to all of you who have sent your notes of concern and your
> prayers.
> I am writing this note on Tuesday at 2PM . I wanted to update all of you
> as
> to the situation here. I don't know how much information you are getting
> but I am certain it is more than we are getting. Be advised that almost
> everything I am telling you is from direct observation or rumor from
> reasonable
> sources. They are allowing limited internet access, so I hope to send
> this
> dispatch today.
>
> Personally, my family and I are fine. My family is safe in Jackson, MS,
> and I am now a temporary resident of the Ritz Carleton Hotel in New
> Orleans. I
> figured if it was my time to go, I wanted to go in a place with a good
> wine
> list. In addition, this hotel is in a very old building on Canal Street
> that
> could and did sustain little damage. Many of the other hotels sustained
> significant loss of windows, and we expect that many of the guests may
> be
> evacuated here.
>
> Things were obviously bad yesterday, but they are much worse today.
> Overnight the water arrived. Now Canal Street (true to its origins) is
> indeed a
> canal. The first floor of all downtown buildings is underwater. I have
> heard
> that Charity Hospital and Tulane are limited in their ability to care for
> patients because of water. Ochsner is the only hospital that remains
> fully
> functional. However, I spoke with them today and they too are on
> generator and
> losing food and water fast. The city now has no clean water, no sewerage
> system,
> no electricity, and no real communications. Bodies are still being
> recovered floating in the floods. We are worried about a cholera
> epidemic. Even the
> police are without effective communications. We have a group of armed
> police here with us at the hotel that are admirably trying to exert some
> local law enforcement. This is tough because looting is now rampant.
> Most of
> it is not malicious looting. These are poor and desperate people with no
> housing and no medical care and no food or water trying to take care of
> themselves and their families. Unfortunately, the people are armed and
> dangerous.
> We hear gunshots frequently. Most of Canal street is occupied by armed
> looters who have a low threshold for discharging their weapons. We hear
> gunshots frequently. The looters are using makeshift boats made of
> pieces of
> styrofoam to access. We are still waiting for a significant national
> guard
> presence.
>
> The health care situation here has dramatically worsened overnight.
> Many
> people in the hotel are elderly and small children. Many other guests
> have
> unusual diseases. They are unfortunately . 'We have better medical
> letter.
> There are ID physicians in at this hotel attending an HiV convention.
> We
> have commandeered the world famous French Quarter Bar to turn into a
> makeshift
> clinic. There is a team of about 7 doctors and PA and pharmacists. We
> anticipate that this will be the major medical facility in the central
> business
> district and French Quarter.
>
> Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under
> police
> escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped
> the
> entire drug sets into gargace bags and removed them. All uner police
> excort.
> The looters had to be held back at gun point. After a dose of
> prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine.
>
> In all we are faring well. We have set up a hospital in the the French
> Quarter bar in the hotel, and will start admitting patients today. Many
> with be
> from the hotel, but many will not. We are anticipating to dealing with
> multiple medical problems, medications and and acute injuries. Infection
> and
> perhaps even cholera are anticipated major problems. Food and water
> shortages
> are iminent.
>
> The biggest question to all of us is where is the national guard. We
> hear
> jet fignters and helicopters, but no real armed presence, and hence the
> rampant looting. There is no Red Cross and no salvation army.
>
> In a sort of cliché way, this is an edifying experience. One is rapidly
> focused away from the transient and material to the bare necessities of
> life.
> It has been challenging to me to learn how to be a primary care
> phyisican.
> We are under martial law so return to our homes is impossible. I don't
> know how long it will be and this is my greatest fear. Despite it all,
> this is
> a soul edify experience. The greatest pain is to think about the loss.
> And how long the rebuid will. And the horror of so many dead people .
>
> PLEASE SEND THIS DISPATCH TO ALL YOU THING MA Y BE INTERSTED IN A
> DISPATCH From the front. I will send more according to your interest.
> Hopefully
> their collective prayers will be answered. By the way suture packs,
> sterile
> gloves and stethoscopes will be needed as the Ritz turns into a MASH
>
> Greg Henderson, MD "
> ++++++++

THE PROGRESS REPORT

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney, and Christy Harvey

September 2, 2005

VALUES
The Forsaken

ADMINISTRATION
Incompetent Response

UNDER THE RADAR
Go Beyond The Headlines

For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
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HOW TO HELP: Charity Navigator has assembled a list of highly rated charities working to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

VALUES
The Forsaken

Great natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina do indeed "wash away the surface of society, the settled way things have been done." In one sense, they remind us of our common vulnerabilities. As Sari Lankan tsunami victim Nimal Premasiri said of the American hurricane victims, "God has made us equals in birth, life and death." Yet such disasters also "expose the underlying power structures, the injustices, the patterns of corruption and unacknowledged inequalities." In the past week, the media has been slow to acknowledge the sharp inequalities revealed in Katrina's wake. Yesterday, CNN correspondent Jack Cafferty criticized his colleagues for ignoring the "elephant in the room" -- "the race and economic class of most of the victims the media hasn't discussed much at all." In truth, the images from the Superdome and from across the Gulf Coast of mostly poor and black Americans did much to reinforce the "growing sense that race and class are the unspoken markers of who got out and who got stuck." There, on camera, "the tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken." But images aren't enough. The story of Katrina's effect on the growing American underclass must still be told.

POVERTY AND NEW ORLEANS: Nearly a third of New Orleanians live below the poverty line. "Only a handful of large American cities have lower household incomes." Conditions are even worse for children. Fully half of the kids in Louisiana live in poverty -- the only state with a higher child poverty rate is Mississippi, another victim of Katrina. One quarter of New Orleans residents -- some 134,000 people -- don't own a car. The city is 67 percent African American, but the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, "which was inundated by the floodwaters," is more than 98 percent black. There, "only 6 percent of residents are college graduates," compared to the national average of 22 percent. "Average household income in that neighborhood is $27,499 a year, not even half the national average of $56,644. One-quarter of the Lower Ninth Ward's households earn less than $10,000 a year." The city was already vulnerable.

STRANDED -- AND STARING DOWN KATRINA: By Monday, harsh rain and 145 mph winds were bearing down on New Orleans. Tens of thousands "found themselves left behind by a failure to plan for their rescue," despite the fact that they were "living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed." One CNN reporter noted, "A lot of the people we spoke to [who were stranded], these are people who work for a living. They're making minimum wage, they're supporting families. They don't have a car. They wanted to evacuate before the storm came, but they couldn't evacuate because they tell us they didn't have transportation." Time and again, residents despaired that Katrina had struck when it did, just a few days shy of payday. David Schuster observed, "Those are the people who died because they couldn't afford a tank of gas." Katrina had already demonstrated "what experts have known all along -- disasters do not treat everyone alike," said NBC's Bob Faw. "Surviving is easier for whites who have than for blacks who don't."

HORROR AT THE SUPERDOME: Those escaping the city by foot headed to the Superdome. "They were told, 'Go over there. Don't worry. You're going to get food and water and you're going to get transportation out of town,'" MSNBC reported. Instead, the refugees found a disorganized scene that quickly devolved into chaos: "A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. 'We pee on the floor. We are like animals,' said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. In her right hand she carried a half-full bottle of formula provided by rescuers. Baby supplies are running low; one mother said she was given two diapers and told to scrape them off when they got dirty and use them again. At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming." At one point, a despondent crowd gathered outside the stadium and simply began to chant "We want help! We want help!" Later, a woman stood on the front steps of the New Orleans convention center and "led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, 'The Lord is my shepherd...'"

DESPERATION TURNS TO LOOTING: Meanwhile, residents stuck in the city -- many of whom had been without food or water for days -- began looting local stores. "Much of what's being taken are essentials: anything edible, disposable diapers, water and clothes," reports noted. Yet looped images of people ransacking stores for electronics and luxury items were a staple of network coverage. Ironically, these events revealed the character of several prominent conservatives as much as anyone. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan: "I hope the looters are shot." Glenn Reynolds, the most popular conservative blogger: "People [looting valuables] should be shot." Atlanta talk show host Neil Boortz: "Now I'm serious here ... not just saying this for effect. Shoot to kill."

RECOVERY WILL BE HAMPERED BY POVERTY: Already we know that recovery efforts following Katrina will be massive. President Bush has acknowledged that "New Orleans is more devastated than New York was" after the September 11 terrorist attacks. "We need an effort of 9-11 proportions," former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial said yesterday. "A great American city is fighting for its life." Yet the widespread poverty in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast means reconstruction will face an additional setback. "If this [level of disaster] were to happen in California, okay, fine. There's a number of incentives to sort of rebuild that area." NBC's Kevin Corke pointed out yesterday. "Imagine trying to do that in rural Mississippi. It's going to be difficult, and I think that there's a sense ... that this is going to take us into several administrations, I imagine, as they continue to try to bring back this area."


ADMINISTRATION
Incompetent Response

Disaster experts and Louisiana government officials charged the administration "failed to plan for a serious levee breech and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina was slow." The San Francisco Chronicle writes, "Disturbing images of thousands of Americans dehydrated, hungry and unable to escape an uninhabitable city are prompting angry questions about whether the richest nation in the world is doing everything it can to respond to New Orleans' disaster." CNN commentator Jack Cafferty emotionally disparaged the federal response: "No one -- no one -- says the federal government is doing a good job in handling one of the most atrocious and embarrassing and far-reaching and calamitous things that has come along in this country in my lifetime." The lack of straight answers regarding the administration's preparedness in the past, present, and future has only given rise to increasing public concern that that the federal government is not and has not been doing enough to help Katrina victims.

LOCAL OFFICIALS SEE NO COMMAND OR CONTROL: Local government officials in the disaster region are telling the story of an inadequate federal response to the hurricane recovery effort. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said federal officials "don't have a clue what's going on down here." Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said federal assistance has been problematic. "We would have wanted massive numbers of helicopters on Day One," Blanco said, while also calling for more troops. "This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control," said Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans's emergency operations. "We're just a bunch of rats. That's how they've been treating us." Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) noted he was calling the White House, pleading for more resources. "The state resources were being overwhelmed, and we needed direct federal assistance, command and control, and security -- all three of which are lacking." Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) said there was a failure think about a "holistic approach to the evacuation effort." "Help, help, help," came the plea from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. "This is a desperate S.O.S."

ADMINISTRATION IN DISARRAY: The response from the Bush administration has been an array of dizzying signals about its priorities and concern. FEMA Director Michael Brown, responding to the "horrible, horrible conditions" in the New Orleans Convention Center, said, "the federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today." Secretary Chertoff, when asked about the victims in the convention center, said, "I have not heard a report of people in the convention center who don't have food and water." In an interview with CNN, Chertoff offered little compassion for people who died or were trapped in cities due to the flooding. "Some people chose not to obey that [mandatory evacuation] order. That was a mistake on their part." In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush and other state officials criticized FEMA's decision to deny federal assistance to hurricane victims in that state.

CONCERNS OVER LEVEE FUNDING: The Washington Post reported that federal budget cuts last year "stopped major work on New Orleans east bank hurricane levees for the first time in 37 years." The problem resulted because the Bush administration "requested less money for programs to guard against catastrophic storms in New Orleans." President Bush has declared that no one "anticipated the breech of the levees," but a former FEMA official said earlier this year, "New Orleans was the No.1 disaster we were talking about." Disaster experts and frustrated officials "said a crucial shortcoming may have been the failure to predict that the levees keeping Lake Pontchartrain out of the city would be breached, not just overflow." Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, defended the administration by suggesting full funding would not have prevented the levee breech, but he admitted that had the flood control project been finished, "we could more efficiently move the water out of the system because it's a big drainage project." Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said, "There was a failure by [Bush] to meet the responsibility here.... Somebody needs to say it."



Under the Radar

VALUES -- HASTERT SUGGESTED NOT REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said yesterday that it made no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild New Orleans. "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," said Hastert. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco responded, "To kick us when we're down and destroy hope, when hope is the only thing we have left, is absolutely unthinkable for a leader in his position." Hastert later attempted to clarify his remarks, saying he was not advocating the city "be abandoned or relocated" and that his "sincere concern" was with how the city would be rebuilt. Hastert's clarification did not include an apology.

ADMINISTRATION -- FEMA REFUSES TO ALLOW FLORIDA AIRBOATS TO HELP WITH RESCUE AND RECOVERY EFFORTS: FEMA Director Michael Brown has acknowledged the agency's inadequate response to the hurricane recovery efforts. Floridians want to help by volunteering 500 airboat pilots to help rescue hurricane victims and transport relief workers. But FEMA won't let them in. Robert Dummett, state coordinator of the Florida Airboat Association, said, "We cannot get deployed to save our behinds" because FEMA will not authorize them to enter New Orleans. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) thinks providing airboats to the region is "a perfect solution to the chaos and difficulty getting people out of their flooded homes." James Brown, a manager of 14 airboats, said, "We're willing to go, we're able to go, but it's all up to FEMA."

LABOR -- THE GOOD LIST: Monday is Labor Day, a celebration of the American worker. Many companies "profess that they must implement massive layoffs, slash benefits, employ temporary and cheap labor, and hire unionbusters to prevent workers from forming unions in order to remain profitable in today’s marketplace." Other businesses know better. American Rights at Work has released a list "to recognize successful partnerships between employers and their employees’ labor unions that are working well in the global economy." Check it out.

CIVIL RIGHTS -- CALIFORNIA SENATE VOTES TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE: In a step forward for gay rights, the California State Senate "approved legislation Thursday that would legalize same-sex marriages." The bill now moves to the state assembly "which narrowly rejected a gay marriage bill in June." Right-wing legislators in California have gone on the attack. State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth "suggested that 'higher power' opposed the legislation." A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "would not comment about how the governor would act if the bill is sent to his desk."

Western States Sue Bush Administration over Decision to Open Pristine Forests

By Terence Chea
The Associated Press

Wednesday 31 August 2005

San Francisco - California, New Mexico and Oregon sued the Bush administration Tuesday over the government's decision to allow road building, logging and other commercial ventures on more than 90,000 square miles of untouched forests.

In the lawsuit, attorneys general for the three states challenged the US Forest Service's repeal of the Clinton administration's "roadless rule" that banned development on 58.5 million acres of national forest, mostly in western states.

The administration's move puts at risk "some of the last, most pristine portions of America's national forests," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. "Road building simply paves the way for logging, mining and other kinds of resource extraction."

In January 2001, just eight days before he left office, President Clinton put almost one-third of the nation's 192 million acres of national forest off-limits to road construction, winning praise from conservation groups and criticism from the timber industry.

But in May, the Bush administration replaced the regulation with a new policy requiring states to work with the Forest Service to decide how to manage individual forests. Governors were given 18 months either to petition the agency to keep their states' forests protected or to open the undeveloped areas to roads and development.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that the Bush administration's repeal of the roadless rule violated federal law because the government did not conduct a complete analysis of the new regulation's environmental impact.

The attorneys general who filed the suit are all Democrats.

Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for natural resources and environment, called the lawsuit "unfortunate and unnecessary."

"The quickest way to provide permanent protection is through the development of state-specific rules, not by resuscitating the 2001 rule," Rey said.

He pointed out that the Clinton-era rule has been struck down in federal court. In 2003, a federal judge in Wyoming ruled that the executive branch had overstepped its authority by effectively creating wilderness areas on US Forest Service land. In July, the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed environmentalists' appeal of that ruling, saying the new Bush rule made the issue moot.

Why New Orleans Is in Deep Water

Why New Orleans Is in Deep Water
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate

Thursday 01 September 2005

Austin, Texas - Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city, and how they are now.

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's delta.

But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies - ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Category 3 or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 325.

Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

The commander of the corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring freeze and canceled the annual corps picnic.

Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.

In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans - it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.

The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, Humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)

This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.

The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."

This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.

Personal Update

I have been having a lot of trouble recently posting to this blog. I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. I've asked blogger for assistance and all I get is the automated response. If I can't get the problem solved this weekend I'm going to abandon this blog and establish CRAPII.

I want to thank all of you who have recently e-mailed me and said how much you're enjoying this blog and to keep up the good work. You don't know how much that is appreciated. Sometimes I'll be "blogging" along for weeks on end with no feedback and wonder if I'm just wasting my time. Then I get a response from someone who says that they have found something useful or inspirational here and that just brightens my day.

I'm still trying to figure out all the technology so that this blog can be more interactive but being a novice "techie", and someone who works away from the house for 12 hours or more a day, it makes it a little difficult to try and figure out the intricacies of the software. I really am more of a big picture and idea guy than I am a tech but I'll keep trying to figure it all out. Again, thanks for your support and if I have to start a new blog I'll try to post the new address here.

PEACE.....................Scott