by Starman » Sat Sep 03, 2005 7:14 pm
Good GoD!!!<br><br>This is a thread suggestion for contact numbers and addresses to contact 'officials' in Government and news-media, to field and pass-on our questions needing ANSWERS, demanding accountability for the immense mistakes and irresponsible, stupid decisions and incompetance we've been seeing, and seeing, and seeing -- I don't know HOW many times I've wanted someone to ask the many questions our 'officials' need to answer -- to tell the reporters many of whom, wondrously, even surprisingly with FOX -- Rivaldo's impassionaed desperate appeal early this morning was gut-wrenching, as if shame could provoke the military to FINALLY do something half-assed effective -- have been preforming an outstanding job in getting passionately involved and communicating the sense of urgency and outrage at what they've been witnessing -- Nancy Grace, Shepherd Smith, Scott Anderson, among many others -- Hats OFF!<br>re:<br>"<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/1/232847/7833">www.dailykos.com/story/20...32847/7833</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> WTF?????????????? <br>I'm watching Aaron Brown talkig to the Pentagon correspondent and he said Pentagon officials wonder why the reporters show so much sympathy for the victims and none for the Government. My head is about to explode."<br>*<br>Mike Brown deserves to burn in hell.<br>Two hours ago he was emphasizing that the looting and violence was being greatly exaggerated.<br>Now he states that rescue operations as dealing with a situation of "urban warfare."<br>Guess which headline the news is rolling with...<br>Oooh, did someone say Social Security... <br>by Tripleg <br>and:<br>PTSD <br>I just wrote to CNN expressing my support of their coverage, and also to express my concern that their reporters and crew are going to need a lot of therapy after this is over (and honestly, before this is over).<br>Props to Miles and Soledad, Aaron Brown, Jack Cafferty, the one woman who was on in the afternoon that I can never remember her name, and Anderson Cooper. And, of course, their camera and sound crews. They've done an outstanding job.<br>by Lufah <br>*<br>CNN's Jeanne Meserve <br>I don't know if that's the name you can't remember, but she was one of the first reporters with the story of the catastrophe at the Superdome and about all the stranded people in NOLA who couldn't/didn't leave their homes. Her work has been superb, don't leave her off the list.<br>by el dorado gal <br>*<br>Ditto... <br>She was one of the first to report, on Monday night, the horror that was beginning to descend upon the city of New Orleans. Her reporting of this damage in particular in the early hours is what made me start tuning into CNN after having swore it off for a long period. <br>Dunno if this is going to be a turning point for CNN, but the reporters out in the field I think have had a life-changing experience that could very well influence their reporting in the future. Hopefully the trauma of the experience will not lead to their leaving the business.<br>Even FOX's Shephard Smith seems to have had his world shattered more than a bit, from what people are reporting on here.<br>"We Need To Find Courage...Overcome...Inaction Is A Weapon Of Mass Destruction..."(Faithless "Mass Destruction")<br>by DanceboyO<br>* <br>Images and tapes on Keith Olbermann from the Convention Center right now, are they shown for the first time? <br>Listen to the Photojournalist Tony Zumbado right now... <br>Arrest O'Reilly. He spews hate about the lawless people in NO. He incites civil unrest. I cut off after the first two introductory sentences of him. He is an evil man.<br>MSNBC reporter Zumbado - the best (4.00 / 6 </comments/2005/9/1/193357/5527/97?mode=alone;showrate=1>)<br>This guy is talking on Olbermann right now - if you're not watching it, catch the repeat - he is just nonstop bundle of outrage and good reporting, saying the truth of what's happening at the convention center. I'm in tears again, which is happening a lot today - you've got to see and hear this guy - he's MSNBC's Anderson Cooper, but in NOLA and with the experience of living through Andrew personally (saying -people behaved worse during Andrew and they had more supportt than these people are getting.) Gut-wrenching is the only description I can give - a definite must-see.<br>by geordie <br>* <br>and:<br>NY Times & WaPo <br>The last few days I must admit that the coverage by CNN and MSNBC has been a huge improvement over their recent performances. I chalk this up to the fact that both networks seem to be letting their reporters tell the story -- and their reporters are angry. I've even heard some good things about the coverage from Fox -- though I stay away from Fox the way I stay away from cigarettes -- both will kill you eventually.<br>But what about the NY Times and the Washington Post? Since this is mainly a TV story, one can not expect the papers to deliver the same kind of coverage as the cable news outlets. But what about their websites?<br>Look at both sites, they are screaming about looting and violence. Death and misery seem to be minor events caused by the looters. Unable to get themselves away from their fawning of George Bush, they are even resorting to outright lies. Tonight, the Times claims that the Government Saw Flood Risk but Not Levee Failure. What? No one saw the possibility of levee failure? Where do they get this shit?<br>Yesterday, the Times laid into Bush on its Editorial page, but today they are back to blaming the victims and covering for the administration. <br>And the Washington Post? They dare on their editorial page to write the following: "So far, the federal government's immediate response to the destruction of one of the nation's most historic cities does seem commensurate with the scale of the disaster." What the fuck were they thinking? <br>In the end, both papers are telling us something: we are, indeed, on our own. Both papers have made their decision. With Bush in the White House both companies can continue to buy up other papers and broadcast outlets. They are not going to fuck with the goose that laid the golden egg. If that means protecting Bush from himself, so be it. To truth and the American people they say "you're on your own".<br>by numediaman <br><br>***<br>I'm utterly blown-away and astonished that I keep finding, seeing more and more evidence of incredible, criminal idiocy to keep being outraged and dismayed by --<br>From long lines of busses parked way away from where they're urgently needed, bus-drivers too scared from unsubstantiated, wholly-overblown rumours of 'rioting' and arnarchy (promoted esp. by O'Reily, may He be damned to fuggin' Hell), to the LA Gov.'s irresponsible misfeasance in provoking fear and anxiety, ramping up tensions by making explosive statements about battle-hardeded troops in locked-and-loaded mode, expected to shoot-to-kill (This is SO irresponsible she should be indicted for inciting a riot!), to the 50+ Cal. boaters whose help has been refused by FEMA because they aren't 'contracted', to the horrid inefficient, counter-productive misuse of strategic resources such as empthy National Guard trucks (OURS!!!) NOT being used to ferry desperate, still-suffering-six-days-later evacuees actoss high-water streets to where they could be loaded onto busses or even semi-trailers and EVACUATED!!! JEESuS!!<br><br>-- FINALLY, some 8 or so chem toilets were delivered to the Convention Center, about an hour before the last large exodus of able-bodied refugees three blocks to a possible bus loading-zone -- but reporters are saying ther's a critical bottleneck of stacked-up evacuees at the airport and so they MAY have to all return to the Convention Center to spend another freaky night --<br><br>To an apparant GROSS failure by anybody in authority to anticipate the critical need for alternative, innovative fire-fighting capability, as helicopter-dropped water-loads and air-tanker firefighters and chemical fire-retardants -- For Chrissakes, there's a Goddamned RIVER right next to the city to reload water-supplies, to fight the now-burning warehouses, and the spot-fires that destroyed warehouses and apartments and high-rise hotel -- which have burned in the last coupla days --<br>I mean, I thought about this 3 days ago, and I'm not even on-site! Why isn't there some high-water-capable heavy tanker-trucks onsite with portable-pumps for fire-fighting?<br><br>And I simply can't BELIEVE how, from news-videos, so many military and National Guard troops are doing nothing more streneuous to actually ASSIST these people, but driving around in vehicles or lugging their guns and talking among themselves in small groups and looking-around, while people are lugging babies and dragging their poor meagre possessions and just struggling to survive, to find some shelter from the sun ...<br><br>How come there STILL isn't a non-stop convoy of busses? How come there hasn't been ANY river-evacuation, or from Lake Ponchetrain? How come there wasn't a plan to keep a heavy-lift heli on standby to effect emergency levee-repair -- this whole damn horrid catastrophe didn't need to have happened at ALL!<br><br>And WHY are people being prevented, under force-of-arms, to simply walk-out and help-themselves? WHY are they being trated as dangerous crimionals instead of American Citizens and fellow-HUMANS is unbearable, desperate circumstances? <br><br>re: "Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away.<br><br>"They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would blow our damn brains out," he said. "We don't want their help. Give us some vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!"<br>and:<br>"The president urged a crackdown on the lawlessness.<br> "I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this -- whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together."<br><br>***<br><br>The bureaucracy is SO fouled-up, it's hard to imagine so much incompetance is an accident and due to mismanagement. It's hard not to conclude the administration is deliberately dragging its heels because they are simply unable to decide where to TAKE up to 100,000 homeless, suffering people -- and perhaps, waiting for cholera and typhus to break-out so they can enforce mass quarantine?<br><br>Think cholera, typhoid <br>Forget west nile! Miles of open sewage with no way to get rid of it. <br>Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It has a short incubation period and produces an enterotoxin that causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given. Vomiting also occurs in most patients.<br>You can get typhoid fever if you eat food or drink beverages if sewage contaminated with S. Typhi bacteria gets into the water you use for drinking or washing food. Symptoms can be mild or severe and include sustained fever as high as 39°-40° C, malaise, anorexia, headache, constipation or diarrhoea, rose-coloured spots on the chest area and enlarged spleen and liver. Most people show symptoms 1-3 weeks after exposure. Paratyphoid fever has similar symptoms to typhoid fever but is generally a milder disease.<br>World Health Org.<br>***<br><br>And:<br>Intentional withholding of aid? : the evidence (w/ poll) <br>by Karen Wehrstein <<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://karen-wehrstein.dailykos.com>">karen-wehrstein.dailykos.com></a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br>Sat Sep 3rd, 2005 at 10:19:34 PDT<br>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.<br>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?<br>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.<br>Karen Wehrstein's diary <<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://Karen-Wehrstein.dailykos.com/>">Karen-Wehrstein.dailykos.com/></a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> :: Permalink </storyonly/2005/9/3/131934/7503> :: <br>There's more... </story/2005/9/3/131934/7503> (68 comments)<br>*<br>Jesus Christ <br>Tucker Carlson a moment ago:<br>"I think our viewers should know that, as ailing as New Orleans is, it's not the only place in the state this is - there are apparently entire parishes south of here that have received no aid at all. So for all the attention New Orleans is getting - and rightly so - there are places, including the place I'm standing right now - Slidell, Louisiana - that have really gotten no attention at all, and really hasn't received any aid. At all."<br>-- E pur si muove.<br>by asdfasdf <br><br>Oh man <br>Carlson again, a moment ago:<br>"We came across a member of the SWAT team from Atlanta who came up here on his own dime, on his vacation time, and bringing with him nine airboats - those Everglade-type boats with the big fan at the back - which are very much in demand here - of course New Orleans surrounded by water, they need boats, there's a boat shortage. So he shows up, says I've got these nine boats, I've brought my own gasoline, I've brought my own food, I've brought my own water, I want to help. Bottom line: No one can tell him how to help. Those boats, as far as I know, at this moment are still locked in a National Guard parking lot in Baton Rouge, unused."<br>-- E pur si muove.<br>by asdfasdf <br><br><br>***<br><br>I could go on and on -- but I'm sure everybody here have their own poignant examples of astonishing ineptitude and sheer fouled-up stupidity and horrors --<br>Just when I think things MAY be improving, I see another remarkable mindfuck insult.<br><br>"Who are the real 'looters' here? The infrastructure- the whole thing - has been mismanaged - LOOTED!! - by the "elected" officials in office, and the Democrats we "elected" are standing there and saying NOT A GODDAMNED THING."<br><br>And I think that's what gets to me. All this talk of "looting", ie, SURVIVAL, when the real looting's been going on for the last 5 years." -- LBK<br><br>***<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/2/12746/39689">www.dailykos.com/story/20...2746/39689</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>The disaster was Natural, the damage was Man-made <br>Whether it's now or later, we need to nail this hard:<br>Katrina was a natural disaster.<br>But the thousands of deaths of people left behind underfunded levees, neither evacuated nor rescued, was a man-made disaster.<br>Check (and bookmark) these tips to Write Letters to the Editors <<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://spaces.msn.com/members/whatcanwedo/Blog/cns!1pv3BxJLDNJM3zaEKMKu3ujA!158.entry>">spaces.msn.com/members/wh...158.entry></a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> (in the Activism Toolkit on the right; the tips include a link to the Media Database to find local papers to target), and fire away!<br>Don't just complain, Take Action <<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://spaces.msn.com/members/whatcanwedo/>.">spaces.msn.com/members/whatcanwedo/>.</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>"...psychopaths have little difficulty infiltrating the domains of...politics, law enforcement, (and) government." Dr. Robert Hare<br>***<br>And so it goes (tragically, unforgiveably ...)<br><br>I've had to force myself to eat at least one meal a day the past 6 days, and keep myself hydrated, to keep from getting sick -- as (likely many others here too) all week I've been so outraged and sad and horrified I've had no appetite at all, can't hardly concentrate on anything, even reluctant to sleep, being absorbed by this unfolding catastrophe.<br>Starman<br> <p></p><i></i>
