Martial law in New Orleans

by **Ferry Fey** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:56 am

400 of 1641 NOPD officers unaccounted for <a href="http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/090505/new_nopd001.shtml">www.2theadvocate.com/stor...d001.shtml</a>

by **Dreams End** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:01 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Mississippi survivors watch aid pass by Victims hang on in reeking shelters, shattered homes By VICKI SMITH Associated Press BILOXI, Miss. — The people who have chosen to stay or are stuck in demolished communities along the Mississippi coast scavenge for basics each day as convoys of soldiers and supplies pass them by, headed for the nearly empty city of New Orleans. Some are staying with the hope of rebuilding their communities. Others say they would leave if only they could get a ride. All agree that, with no water or power, probably for months to come, they need more help from the government just to survive. "I have been all over the world. I've been in a lot of Third World countries where people were better off than the people here are right now," retired Air Force Capt. William Bissell said yesterday. "We've got 28 miles of coastline here that's absolutely destroyed, and the federal government, they're not here," he said. Most homes still standing along the Gulf Coast are empty, but every few blocks is someone who stayed. Some federal aid has arrived in the communities, and private donations have come in sporadically, but it's unorganized and residents know they can't depend on it. Still, some say the misery they know is better than the misery they don't. Virginia Fisher tried to stay in a shelter, but she left when people started getting sick with a stomach virus. "I know I'm better off here," she says of her home. It's uninhabitable and reeking, but she and her husband, Buford, are living in it anyway, holding fast to what little community they have left. Each morning, people in their neighborhood gather food and water from private donors and scattered aid stations and congregate in the Fishers' yard to divvy it up. "We got 22 people coming here for food and water," Fisher said. "As long as I'm here, they're going to come here." Authorities have been talking for days about building a tent city for refugees, but not much has come of the plan. Mike Beeman, FEMA coordinator for Harrison County, said he hadn't met a person who wants out. "They want the help," he said, "but they don't want to leave." But after a week of it, there are residents who have had enough. Lavone Lollar, 34, and her three children have been living with 75 others in an Ocean Springs shelter that smells like dirty diapers. She would leave "in a heartbeat" if she had a way. "The roads are so backed up and everybody's still fighting for gas," she said. Most people in the shelter don't have cars, "so we're having to wait for people to come to us instead of us going to them." She fears the psychological toll on those slowly realizing they've lost everything. "You talk to somebody one minute, they're OK," she said. "The next, the devil's starting to get into them." Mississippi Emergency Management Agency director Robert Latham said his agency would work with local authorities and the Red Cross to help people who want to relocate. Alabama has offered room for about 2,500 in shelters or hotels. For those who want to stay, Mississippi officials say they will eventually offer temporary housing in tents or in 20,000 small trailers that have been ordered. The idea of tents only adds to Renee Chambless' fears. "You can't trust anybody. If you sleep in those tents, you might wake up and see your daughter being carried off and raped," Chambless said. She and her 15-year-old daughter plan on staying with friends in their damaged home in Saucier instead. Many residents, old and new, said they would never leave the area, because they want to help bring it back. "I'm only leaving if they make me. This is my home," said Glen Ridgeway, 53, who moved here from Ohio to find work five years ago. "I'm not afraid of doing the dirty jobs along with the good jobs." Cyndi Mathews, 30, would like to leave her shelter in Ocean Springs, but she has nowhere to go. "Unfortunately, I am from Mississippi mud and I will stay here," she said. "No matter how many times we leave, we always come back." <hr></blockquote> <a href="http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050906/NEWS08/509060356">www.tennessean.com/apps/p.../509060356</a>

by **Martha** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:06 am

Would-be rescuers cool their heels Chaos in New Orleans delays California team eager to enter fray By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News -- They have been trimming one another's hair, lounging on hotel chairs, chatting on cellphones. They've been up at dawn, exercising in front of the hotel, trying to stay busy. -- The 83 members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Search and Rescue team from Orange County, Calif., have been told to stay downtown at the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion. -- The reason for the extended holdover? Team members were told that conditions were too chaotic in New Orleans, which has been plagued by violence and reports of gunfire aimed at rescuers, and the National Guard needed more time to restore order. In addition, problems getting supplies to the rescue crews already there, as well as victims, had not been worked out. -- But the highly trained team members – most of whom in their normal lives are firefighters – cannot help but think that their wasteful detour is another example of FEMA failing to adequately plan for Hurricane Katrina's devastating aftermath. <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/katrina/stories/090605dnmetkatfema.d400626.html">Here</a> Try www.bugmenot.com if they try to make you register.

by **DrDebugDU** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:07 am

<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/131934/7503">www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/131934/7503</a> Intentional withholding of aid? : the evidence (w/ poll) [updated with lots of links] by Karen Wehrstein Sat Sep 3rd, 2005 at 10:19:34 PDT I keep hearing the suggestion on DKOs that Katrina victims in NO have been and are being denied aid deliberately, rather than due to incompetence. My natural inclination is to shake my head and think, "tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracists." After all, this is the developed world, right? Civilization. Part of what we do, naturally, instinctively, is make every effort to aid everyone we possibly can as best we possibly can in an emergency. You can simply assume that will happen, can't you? But over the course of yesterday, mostly, I've become increasingly convinced that there's something to the idea. On the flip is a rushed and no doubt incomplete listing of events, with a little analysis. Is there a clear enough pattern of actions to suggest a deliberate decision to withhold life-saving help from the hardest-hit hurricane victims, those who lives and health are still in danger -- and who are overwhelmingly poor and black? Read this -- and please add more if there is more, or ask that anything incorrect be subtracted -- and see what you think. So as to make the distinction between purposeful withholding and plain incompetence, I'm looking not only for decisions that clearly hamper aid efforts in which incompetence as a motive seems implausible, but also the following patterns, as they suggest purpose and intent: a) logically absurd or clearly false reasons given for decisions, as these can serve as cover for the true motive, and the very act of inventing them suggests purposefulness; b) attempts to keep those actions undetected, which suggest that decision-makers anticipate being justifiably blamed and are trying to cover their tracks; c) repeated stalling of victims and their representatives via promises, to the point of deception. Finally -- I'm looking for a central source of these decisions, as that would suggest that the decision to purposely withhold aid was made in that one place. So here we go: 1) The delay in federal aid in the form of food, water and meds for the displaced within NO, especially at the Superdome and Convention Center, in air drops or any other form, has been implausibly long, as the media, Ray Nagin, etc., have more or less screamed to anyone who'd listen. The military was well-prepared beforehand -- they started planning as the storm went over Florida, and had 9 million MREs ready to deliver. But protocol requires they await orders from FEMA or the president (via Terre on DKos(1) ). New Mexico offered its National Guard on Sunday, again, before the storm hit, and Louisiana accepted, but "paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday" ( Yahoo (2) via Atrios.) FEMA director Mike Brown claimed that FEMA didn't know about the Convention Centre situation until Thursday (CNN (3) ) -- here we have an example of a). This simply cannot be true; even for purely partisan operatives, duties include following the networks. All through, the victims were promised supplies and transportation to safety -- c). Likewise Ray Nagin was stalled by promises of help from FEMA/Homeland Security: "I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming, that is coming, and my answer to that today is: B.S." (his kickbutt interview on WWL, quoted everywhere) 2) Before the hurricane hit, Gov. Kathleen Blanco requested (4) Washington provide disaster relief aid, including military personnel and $5 million for evacuation. No military personnel showed up until Sept. 2; as far as I can tell, the $5 million was not received in time to aid with the evacuation. No reason given. The governor now knows to make sure the media sees her requests as well as the president, demands his "personal involvement" viz her presser (5) of yesterday. 3) Rescue operations were suspended by FEMA due to shots being taken at helicopter -- a) -- as many DKos commenters have pointed out, National Guard rescuers shouldn't be discouraged by this. There's some doubt it happened at all, as at the bottom of this ABC story (6). In the vast majority of cases this was likely not to be a danger at all. 4) Offers of help were refused: * Canadian rescue teams -- held up by Homeland Security (DKos diary (7) ) * air-boat volunteers required by FEMA to pay for their own gasoline, couldn't afford to (DKos diary (8) ), turned down even if they could (South Florida Sun- Sentinel (9) ) * Al Gore - airplanes -- refused by FEMA (CNN) because he was going to evacuate a private hospital, and FEMA mandate only allows aid to public hospitals * 500 boats and 1,000 men from elsewhere in Louisiana -- diaried by pelican (10) * Chicago mayor Richard Daley -- via espo111 on DKos, from Chicago Sun- Times (11) : "Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley offered 36 firefighters and technical rescue teams, 8 emergency medical techs, search-and-rescue equipment, 100 police officers, 2 boats, a mobile clinic and 140 streets and sanitation workers with 29 trucks. All self-sufficient. And the FEMA response? 'Just send one truck.' " That they accepted one truck rather than turning down all shows a clear intent to appear to be accepting the offer while in effect refusing it -- which is deceptive. FEMA's refusal to pay for airboat gas came solely through DKos -- suggesting that FEMA isn't saying these things where the media will hear -- b). More individual cases in this Help Offered-Rejected/Delayed diary (12) by SarahLee. 5) Offers of desperately-needed equipment/supplies were also turned down by FEMA in Slidell, supposedly due to bureaucratic regulations -- a). Slidell mayor Ben Morris (audio (13), transcript (14) ): "They have turned generators away from us. They´ve turned fuel away from us because they determine, or the driver determined, that it wasn´t the correct spot to put it. The generators ... oh, the site hadn´t been inspected yet. We´ ve gotta bring an inspector to see where the thing is going. ...We have heard that FEMA or some federal agencies are going around seizing equipment from our contractors..." 6) Private relief agencies (Red Cross, Salvation Army) are prevented from working in NO, by FEMA. Reason given -- a) -- this would keep people from leaving the city. The idea, apparently, was to make conditions so unbearable people would be forced to leave or face death. But at the same time, no transportation was being provided them. This came via Kossack SteveRose who writes (15) that he was cagily asked by his source if he was a member of the media -- b). Red Cross (16) website confirms they aren't allowed to go in. 7) The military is now disallowing people to leave the city on their own via the only way out, at the same time that no transportation is being provided (Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera -- Fox News). In these situations the military is directed by FEMA. The concept that rescuers are not safe due to looters and snipers has been blown way out of proportion, with even Bush himself emphasizing it. See this LA Times story (17)about a military unit who didn't find anything like what they'd been led to expect. The purpose here could be not only to discredit/blame the victims, but to serve as an excuse -- a) -- for calling off aid/rescue work, as above. Now, the central source: note how all of these actions can be traced back to FEMA/ Homeland Security, or the President himself (as CoC) in Washington. Possible motives? Note that any or all of them can apply, simultaneously; actions are often taken for more than one reason. * "cull the herd" -- remove population that Bush et al consider excess or useless because of their race and poverty * eliminate Dem voters so as to make Louisiana a safer stronghold for Repubs * discredit/punish a Dem mayor for changing from Repub, perhaps also for his reformist tendencies * discredit/punish a Dem governor A fringe benefit is to allow Bush to make a "grand entrance" with the military, generating photo ops with grateful people, etc. So... ...is this enough evidence to draw such a horrendous conclusion? I'm not sure myself... and I welcome additions, corrections, etc. Sources: (1) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/115611/4051">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/115611/4051</a> (2) <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard">news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050903/ap_on_re_us/katrina_national_guard</a> (3) <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/">www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/</a> (4) <a href="http://www.gov.state.la.us/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf">www.gov.state.la.us/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf</a> (5) <a href="http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=998">www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=998</a> (6) <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205">abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1087205</a> (7) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/31/235829/261">www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/31/235829/261</a> (8) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/1/211114/2959">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/1/211114/2959</a> (9) <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-caneboats0205sep02,0,4766048.story?coll=sfla-news-florida">www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-caneboats0205sep02,0,4766048.story?coll=sfla-news-florida</a> (10) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/171718/0826">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/171718/0826</a> (11) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/121138/8359">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/121138/8359</a> (12) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/15716/71418">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/15716/71418</a> (13) <a href="http://www.godlikeproductions.com/scans/MayorBenMorris.mp3">www.godlikeproductions.com/scans/MayorBenMorris.mp3</a> (14) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/44932/71357">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/3/44932/71357</a> (15) <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/2125/04978">www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/2125/04978</a> (16) <a href="http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html">www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html</a> (17) <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-troops3sep03,0,7512924.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines">www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-troops3sep03,0,7512924.story?page=1&coll=la-home-headlines</a>

by **Dreams End** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:17 am

Blanco goes from criticizing Bush to thanking him profusely. I think there is a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on with some serious im plications and this article gets into it. Bush wants to federalize all the troops in NO and Blanco won't agree. This article also says that in Florida such a dual structure worked okay, but once the active duty military showed up with weapons. Since they don't have law enforcement capabilities, the weapons were ILLEGAL and had to be SENT BACK! This is form the nola/Times Picayune site. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Bush, Blanco spar over military, visit Blanco says Army brought attitude, not resources By Bill Walsh Robert Travis Scott and Jan Moller Staff writers BATON ROUGE - Even as teams of engineers worked to patch ruptured levees in New Orleans, a political breach opened between Gov. Kathleen Blanco and President Bush over who is in charge of the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. One flashpoint came over the weekend, when Blanco said she rebuffed an attempt by the White House to seize control of the mounting military presence in Louisiana, including thousands of state National Guard forces under her authority. Then Bush made an unusual return visit to the state Monday, just days after surveying the damage - a trip that members of Blanco's staff said caught them by surprise and caused a certain level of consternation. "We had no idea the president was coming," said Blanco's communications director, Robert Mann, adding that the governor was forced to cancel a trip to visit evacuees in Houston so she could meet with Bush. The high-level tug-of-war came as recriminations mounted over the pace of the response to the devastation, particularly in the New Orleans area, where survivors were still being rescued Monday from floodwaters a week after the storm hit land. In the face of fierce criticism, the White House launched a public relations counteroffensive over the weekend to deflect blame, some of which bounced to state and local officials. The effort, The New York Times reported, was being orchestrated by Bush's political director, Karl Rove, and communications director, Dan Bartlett. In an interview Monday, Bartlett said there was no coordinated strategy to shift blame to Louisiana officials. "Quite the contrary," he said. "There was a spirit of cooperation in the room today" when Bush and Blanco met. In the game of political maneuvering for control between Blanco, a Democrat, and Bush, a Republican, the biggest chess pieces are the 13,268 National Guard troops from 29 states under the governor's command - with another 7,845 on the way - and the 7,000 active-duty troops who began arriving Monday under command of the regular Army and the president. On Monday, two parallel command structures were in place. Major Gen. Bennett Landreneau, head of the Louisiana National Guard, had control of all of the guard forces massed in the state. U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was in charge of the active-duty forces, including soldiers from the 82nd Airborne division and the 1st Calvary. Blanco said that when the plain-spoken, cigar-chomping Honore showed up in New Orleans late last week, she thought that her worries about a lack of federal troops and resource were over. Honore quickly became a media darling and the take-charge face of the federal government in New Orleans, barking out orders to surprised National Guards members who aren't even under his control. Blanco said she liked Honore's style, but was surprised that he arrived with only a few aides in tow. "He didn't bring any resources," Blanco said. "I just kind of expected, based on my conversations with the White House, that we could be getting a surge of equipment, and we did not." Friday night, the White House moved to take charge of all the troops in Louisiana. At home, Blanco received a memorandum of understanding from the White House asking her to cede control of the National Guard. According to her staff, Blanco was asked to sign and return the document right away. Blanco consulted with her legal counsel, Terry Ryder, and then refused the request. "They wanted to take over my National Guard," Blanco said in an interview. "A governor has to have the final say on what's going to happen." Bartlett said the request was made for efficiency's sake to streamline the chain of command and improve the efficiency of the recovery. He dismissed suggestions that it was done because Blanco is a Democrat. "We were in the same discussions with (Republican Mississippi Gov.) Haley Barbour," Bartlett said. "This was not about politics." In what some saw as a not-so-subtle snub, Blanco over the weekend hired a former Clinton administration disaster response chief, James Lee Witt, as an adviser. The parallel command structure in Louisiana isn't without precedent. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, federal troops dispatched to Florida to help in the relief and recovery effort were kept under federal control. The governor, meanwhile, retained authority over the National Guard forces. The only major glitch, according to an official from the Florida National Guard, was when the 82nd Airborne Division from Ft. Bragg, N.C., showed up with weapons. Under federal law, only state forces have policing authority, so the weapons were sent back to the base and the soldiers were given humanitarian and relief duties. When it comes to domestic security, state forces generally take the lead. At a G-8 summit last year in Georgia, state authorities were given control over federal forces, according to John Goheen, a spokesman for the National Guard. "The reason is that Guard commanders generally have a better working relationship with local authorities," Goheen said. "Guard forces can also perform law enforcement functions. That mission was seen as a harbinger of the future." Despite the dust-up between Blanco and Bush over command of the boots on the ground, top military commanders at both the state and federal level said they were satisfied with the separate forces. Landreneau called the military command "very integrated" and said there was no advantage to putting all troops under his control. Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of active-duty forces in North America, agreed. "From our perspective," he said Monday, "it would not have provided an advantage over the current situation." Brig. Gen. Mike Fleming of the Florida National Guard, who oversaw rescue and recovery efforts through four hurricanes last year, has been called into Louisiana as an adviser. Fleming said the twin command is workable if adequately coordinated. He said some important personal ties bind the separate state and federal military commands: Honore, known as the Ragin' Cajun, is a Louisiana native and has known Landreneau for years. Honore's son serves in Iraq for the Louisiana National Guard, which is under Landreneau's command. While the military chiefs may have been in step, the political leaders clearly weren't. Early Monday morning, Blanco was in Baton Rouge preparing to fly to Houston to meet with thousands of Louisiana refugees when she received news that Bush was on his way. Blanco Chief of Staff Andy Kopplin called the White House and got word from Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card that the president was planning to return to Louisiana in a few hours to follow up on his Friday visit. The White House notified the media Sunday about the trip. But Blanco aide Bob Mann said Blanco was assured Sunday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that Bush was not coming. FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said agency Director Michael Brown knew about the Bush visit but that many lower-level officials didn't, and that was probably why the Blanco administration wasn't notified. Bartlett said "there was outreach" to the governor's office, "e-mails sent, messages left." "We apologize if there was any confusion," he said. A Bush visit to Louisiana at a time when Blanco was out of the state would have been a major embarrassment for the governor. It could also have sent the message that Bush, who has been criticized for not moving quickly enough to help Louisiana, was in charge on the ground. Blanco abruptly canceled the trip to Houston. Bush downplayed suggestions of a state-federal spat. During a visit to the Bethany World Church in Baton Rouge, which was doubling a shelter for evacuees, Bush said, "Laura and I have come back down to Louisiana ... to let the good people of this region know there's a lot of work to be done, and we're going to continue working with the local and state people to get it done."<hr></blockquote>

by **human** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:24 am

you dont just fail to plan.... you plan to fail... problem -> reaction -> solution. problem: the government rescue failed reaction: what the hell went wrong????? solution: strengthen homeland security. make domestic military operations easier to initiate. and the one that im sorry to say is going to be pushed with increased vigor and acceptence….. national ID & the implanted microchip. you dont just fail to plan….. you plan to fail theres the real conspiracy. one human?

by **rain** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:44 am

were these guys 'chillin' at the Hyatt' notified in early August? if so, forward planning panned out to 'failing to adequately plan'? for some of us watching the development of FEMA, had anyone considered that they would be used by effectively not being used?

by **Dreams End** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:48 am

FEMA was used and to great effect. As has been mentioned, they kept a lot of aid from getting into the city. That took some effort and planning.

by **DrDebugDU** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:56 am

FEMA was a great success. The first 72 hours after a disaster is of vital importance. They managed to keep all the aid out of the city and surrounding area for the first 3 days and make sure that nobody repaired the breaches which meant that the situation would only get worse. In short they were very busy making sure that it turned into a huge disaster. I already see the Icke quote, because that's probably the next part of the agenda... The people will now scream for change and the Department of Homeland Insecurity can start limiting freedoms... and any other part of the agenda which will soon be laid out... Mission Accomplished: CNN: "We advise people that this city has been destroyed. It has been completely destroyed." <img src="http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/09/05/katrina.new.orleans/story.chief.jpg"/> Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley says there's no reason for people to stay in New Orleans. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/katrina.new.orleans/index.html">www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/05/katrina.new.orleans/index.html</a> Thanks to understandinglife Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=drdebugdu>DrDebugDU</A> at: 9/6/05 9:02 am

by **DrDebugDU** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:12 am

QuettaKid Journalists in NO beaten by cops. <a href="http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4659291">www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4659291</a> Photojournalists Covering Katrina Fall Victim To Growing Violence, Chaos <img src="http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/09/images/katrina_D2_looter_arrested_000.jpg"/> By Donald R. Winslow, News Photographer magazine (Updated September 2 at 2:35 p.m. CST) AUSTIN, TX (September 1, 2005) – As photojournalists continue to document the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s violent assault on the Gulf Coast, today they also found themselves documenting new violence and death among the survivors, the refugees, and the looters and police and rescuers in New Orleans, while some photojournalists even fell victim to the violence themselves. And a reporter for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans is still missing and has not been heard from since last weekend when he was sent to Mississippi cover the storm. Two veteran photojournalists - NPPA member Rick Wilking of Reuters and Getty's Mark Wilson - were robbed of cameras and computer equipment today while on assignment in a neighborhood in New Orleans, and a photojournalist and a reporter were confronted at gunpoint and slammed against a wall by police following a shoot-out between looters and cops that left at least one person dead. Another photojournalist - Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star - was knocked to the ground by police, his gear taken from him initially, when he photographed them shooting at looters and then beating one. In response to the growing violence and an increasing sense of despair among the stranded survivors, some television networks have hired armed private security firms to protect their journalists as they work to cover the story. Peter Kovacs, managing editor of The Times- Picayune, says reporter Leslie Williams, who was assigned to cover the hurricane on the Mississippi coast, is still missing. No one at the newspaper has heard from Williams since last weekend. Kovacs posted a note to Poynter’s Jim Romenesko saying, “He's an extraordinarly cautious guy and he's covered a lot of hurricanes. So I'm thinking positive thoughts even though I haven't heard anything. I keep thinking he's okay." By Friday, the newspaper learned that the reporter's mother is also missing. Kovacs said they have assigned a reporter in Mississippi to search for Williams. The environment journalists are working in has shifted from one of a post-storm rescue and recovery to one that’s more akin to urban warfare. Tonight’s news reports a desperate situation in New Orleans that is spiraling out of control, with fighting breaking out among the hurricane survivors, more looting and gunfire, reports of anarchy in many areas, and more bodies floating in the waterways and in the debris. Today there were reports of rapes taking place in and around the Superdome while outside the Convention Center bodies litter the sidewalks. More dead have been dragged to the corners of the building, the Associated Press reports, as there are no resources to deal with picking up the dead. Amidst this chaos and growing tension, photojournalists find themselves working in a growingly hostile environment where they are less welcome today than yesterday. Toronto Star staff photojournalist Lucas Oleniuk was taken to the ground by police in the Spanish Quarter after he photographed a firefight between looters and police, and police were then reportedly “beating on” a looter. A coworker at the Toronto Star told News Photographer magazine tonight, “The cops saw him and put him down, and took his gear. At first they were going to take all of his cameras, but he talked them into only taking the memory cards and letting him keep the cameras.” Oleniuk’s coworker says the photojournalist, who was not injured in the incident, went to New Orleans the day after the hurricane hit. New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Gordon Russell wrote on Thursday afternoon that “the city is not safe for anyone.” Russell and an unidentified photojournalist from The New York Times were in the Lower Garden District in an SUV, Russell says, where he “feared for my life and felt our safety was threatened at nearly every turn.” Russell says throngs of hungry and desperate people overwhelmed the few military and law enforcement people on the scene at the Superdome and Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and “there was no crowd control. People were swarming. It was a near riot situation.” <img src="http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/09/images/katrina_D2_guard.jpg"/> <a href="http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/09/hurricane2.html">www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2005/09/hurricane2.html</a>

by **AnnaLivia** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:22 am

Just a thought of my own I think we’re about to pass up the very opportunity we’ve been looking for. I really really think the absolutely silent protest with duct-taped mouths would mobilize a lot more citizens to show up with their feet on the street. There are plenty of republicans outraged with bush now, but they ain’t gonna show up at some lefty-fest, plain and simple. They’ll stay home and gripe. And until our feet are on the street in numbers, the “theys” can relax. Like I said, it was the fact that Gandhi shoved it in their faces that he could undeniably mobilize millions with a few words, that got the action he wanted from the British gov. they never feared their consciences. it was the numbers they feared. And can’t you just picture the powerful statement utter silence would make? “WE’RE THROUGH TRYING TO TALK SENSE TO YOU FUCKWADS AND THIS IS YOUR NOTIFICATION OF THAT FACT.” And we’d totally discombombulate the media whores. Think about it. they’d be forced to cover a massive demonstration, but they would not be able to spin one damn word. Honest to god, I think we’re missing a very simple way to shake things up like never before. It would drive the freepers out of their ever-loving minds. This huge protest…and no “liberal” speeches to criticize, not a word. No signs, no songs, no ammunition for them. I say even leave the t-shirts at home and wear only solid colors. Think about it. I tell you, I can TASTE how delicious this would be……

by **DrDebugDU** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 12:57 pm

<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/D8CERF180.html">www.breitbart.com/news/na/D8CERF180.html</a> Bush Says He'll Find Out What Went Wrong Sep 06 11:36 AM US/Eastern By WILL LESTER Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON Buffeted by criticism over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said Tuesday he will oversee an investigation into what went wrong and why _ in part to be sure the country could withstand more storms or attack. Bush also announced he is sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help determine whether the government is doing all that it can. "Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," the president said after a meeting at the White House with his Cabinet on storm recovery efforts. "What I intend to do is lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong," Bush said. "We still live in an unsettled world. We want to make sure we can respond properly if there is a WMD (weapons of mass destruction) attack or another major storm." But Bush said now is not the time to point fingers and he did not respond to calls for a commission to investigate the response. "One of the things people want us to do here is play the blame game," he said. "We got to solve problems. There will be ample time to figure out what went right and what went wrong." Bush was devoting most of his day to the recovery effort. After the Cabinet meeting, he was gathering with the congressional leaders, representatives of charitable organizations and with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings to talk about assistance for displaced students and closed schools. McClellan said the president also was increasing what he described as a sizable personal contribution to the Red Cross and also was sending money to the Salvation Army. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had told reporters Monday that the Homeland Security Committee would convene hearings as Congress returns this week to examine the "weaknesses and strengths" of the federal response and to "apply the lessons learned." There has been heavy criticism of the government's response to the hurricane, and city and state officials, Republicans and Democrats have assailed the Federal Emergency Management Agency led by Michael Brown. Bush, during an inspection tour of the devastated region last Friday, praised Brown, telling him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." Bush did not respond directly when asked if anyone on his disaster response team should be replaced. The president said that he and his Cabinet members were focused on planning in several areas of immediate need _ restoring basic services to affected areas, draining the water from New Orleans, removing debris, assessing public health and safety threats and housing for those displaced by the storm. "Most importantly," Bush said, officials are trying to figure out how to get Social Security checks to people now scattered across the country in private homes, churches and other shelters. "This administration is not going to rest until every life is saved, until every family is reconnected, until the recovery is complete," he said. <img src="http://news.globalfreepress.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_Drowning-Small.jpg"/>

by **hanshan** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 1:03 pm

.... According to The Hotline (10/16/03), Wallace got his start in politics as Jeb Bush's driver in 1994. (Updated September 2 at 2:35 p.m. CST) From: By Donald R. Winslow, News Photographer magazine This is so funny am on the floor. To <a href="http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20040105&s=williams" target="top">Republicans</a>, "privatization" no longer means cost-cutting efficiency. These days, the federal government has been diminished as a public entity, re-emerging instead as a wholly owned subsidiary of various private concerns. Public accountability in every area has eroded, as though information about government were a kind of trade secret. Whether you're from a Democratic district or from France, if you don't "contribute" or "play the game" you will suffer what is sarcastically called "payback," i.e., no recognition of civic partnership, no goodies for you. Loyalty to the directors of this federal-system-as-private-company earns one legislative pork, which is passed out as recklessly by this Administration as bonuses to CEOs at Enron. Government programs reward major political donors as though they were stockholding investors rather than citizens in a representative democracy with no greater or lesser stake than any other citizen.  rain: for some of us watching the development of FEMA, had anyone considered that they would be used by effectively not being used? good point Progressives have spent the last four years in a state of shock, unable to believe what's going on in this country, and holding out hope that things will get better by themselves. We watch as poverty rises and job growth declines; corporate profits skyrocket while employee healthcare and retirement benefits get eliminated; CEO pay rises as workers' wages fall. Worse, the core economic issues that should be at the center of America's political debate have been depoliticized, while the issues of personal and religious conviction that should be removed from politics have been most politicized, leaving us with a political debate almost entirely divorced from Americans' day-to-day challenges. But these conservatives were not ignorant of partisan concerns, which gets to the final point: They understood that if they built a movement around a conservative ideology, the political benefits would naturally flow almost exclusively to the innately more conservative Republican Party. Get people to believe in a movement that supports destroying the government, destroying the tax base and permitting corporations to do whatever they want regardless of social cost, and you get people to be far more loyal and willing to devote time to the GOP than you would if you spent resources on purely partisan activities. <a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050829/sirota" target="top">www.thenation.com/doc/20050829/sirota</a> (Updated September 2 at 2:35 p.m. CST) From: By Donald R. Winslow, News Photographer magazine ‘In response to the growing violence and an increasing sense of despair among the stranded survivors, some television networks have hired armed private security firms to protect their journalists as they work to cover the story.’ "The rate of growth in the security industry is phenomenal," said Deborah Avant, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "If you had asked a year ago whether there would be 15,000 private security in Iraq, everyone would have said you're nuts. It has moved very quickly over the past decade, but Iraq has escalated it dramatically." The boom in Iraq is just the tip of the iceberg for the $100 billion-a- year industry, which experts say has been the fastest-growing sector of the global economy during the past decade. From oil companies in the African hinterland to heads of state in Haiti and Afghanistan to international aid agencies in hotspots around the world, the difference between life and death is decided by private guns for hire. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/28/MNGHC5SKQS1.DTL" target="top">www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/28/MNGHC5SKQS1.DTL</a> ....

by **monster** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 1:18 pm

to suggest the hurricane was steered by humans; but since weather control is a publicly stated objective of the military, does anyone think the huge "dead zones" around the gulf coast just prior to the hurricane, as reported by Rense, may have anything to do with it?

by **AnnaLivia** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 1:22 pm

been writing this for awhile...and doing laundry. do you know that it is now impossible in america to run a washing machine without thinking about NO and thanking your lucky stars? anyway, prolly been more posts i missed in the meantime, but here's this: let's turn it all on it's head, my friends. lets bind bush up good and secure in his own duct tape. genuine protesters would walk slowly and move slowly, as much as humanly possible. make this whole thing a consciously slow-motion kinda thing, as much as it can be. the slower the events of the day (walking and standing being the scheduled events) appear to move, the slower the thing unfolds, the faster and deeper the message is absorbed. nobody will be trying to sort out what went on yesterday, on the day after. slow and silent...the citizenry inching toward the halls of corrupt power...creating the appearance of being just as submissive as all get out...hands at their sides, or clasped in front. so many people...who do not speak one word, but only look with their eyes...and they don't stop...coming or staring....all those eyes staring, focusing, concentrated on bet me, some people who would be completely shocked for the first time in their lives. disturbances and WHO started them would be easier than ever before to document in a crowd like this. (i'd hope that would minimize them, too.) they would stand out like sore thumbs if every genuine protester pledged themselves to do nothing but step back and be purposeful witnesss to any and all violence that might start. no hands in the air. remain silent. guy throws a punch, step away but don't look away. i mean no resistance whatsoever. give them no excuses later. picture the storm troopers plowing through a crowd parting way gladly for them, and them having only two guys to haul away max. give them zero ammunition against the protestors, while the world watches. i mean zero. make people aware beforehand that you better damn well have a good explanation afterwards for ANY disturbance you're involved in, and you WILL make yourself suspect by failure to remain silent. remember that scene in the movie Gandhi where the men walk forward in lines and offer no resistance to the blows, and the women in turn carry them away and more numbers step up. and it went on and on. and the power in it grew the longer it did. the power was in the appearance of "total weakness" that was not really weakness at all. if that scene from Gandhi doesn't jolt your humanity, i think there's a good chance that something's wrong with you. how much harder for the goons to break heads in this situation? rather than be willing to die for our country, couldn't we just be willing to stand still and silent for it instead? i vote for the easy route, thanks. (i have this aversion to making more work for myself than necessary, because i already have plenty to do.) we can mostly survive a few blows to the body and even the head, and i think we could safely predict there would be a few people struck. we know bushco. but honestly, can you think of a better way to minimize any violence...keep it from escalating? ...and simultaneously expose who is doing the dirty deeds? than to just pledge to give it a wide berth? am i on to some good strategy here?

Martial law in New Orleans

one quarter of New Orleans police force unaccounted for

Oh yeah...the REST of the victims

Re: FEMA Search and Rescue chillin' at the Hyatt in Dallas

Re: Intentional withholding of aid? : the evidence

Blanco, which side r u on?

fail to plan.... plan to fail

just a couple of thoughts

Re: just a couple of thoughts

Re: just a couple of thoughts

Re: just a couple of thoughts

Re: just a couple of thoughts

Bush to Oversee Katrina Investigation

re: Talking Points Memo / politicizing pain / death for hire

I know it's a little "out there"

the meek will inherit the earth? ? !

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