Bartleby Brown?

Apparently Bush reads my blog. He fired the head of FEMA though, like most fired or dead federal employees, Brown won't actually be required to leave. As long as he doesn't actually leave or fall over, he still gets his check. Shades of Bartleby.

Can Chertov be next? Please?

The Lewis Plan

Have you read the Newsweek article by Congressman John Lewis of Georgia? He is calling for a Marshall Plan-like response in New Orleans. I agree with him. The only way to heal the Bush-inflicted damage is to pull out all the stops. Let's get Katrina behind us as soon as possible and in a glorious fashion.

If it takes 80+ days to dry the city out, that may not be able to be helped. Once dried, though, let's demonstrate to the Bush victims, the Katrina victims, to the people of the United States, and to the world, just how powerful we are and what America can do when it sets its mind to it.

Talk about a blow in the war on terror: demonstrate that we can recover from even Katrina in no time at all. That really makes the entire threat of terror moot. If we can recover from Katrina then there's nothing that a terrorists bomb can do from which we cannot recover as well.

Pay attention, Congress. Bush won't lead on this, so it is up to you. Let's pull out all the stops and stop the terror within our own borders.

Immediate Action, Now

President George W. Bush on day 5 of the Bush disaster: "This is a storm that requires immediate action, now."

I wonder if the first teacher, Laura, corrected him on that one. But more important, it is too bad he didn't utter this faux pas on Tuesday. There would have been a lot less suffering and death.

Air Force One-Haul

What if the President had left the press corps off of Air Force One when he went to the hurricane zones today and had, instead, filled the bowels of Air Force One with food and water, and filled the seats reserved for the press corps with soldiers to unload and distribute that food and water when he arrived in New Orleans?

Fat chance!

Leeches in the flood-waters of Louisiana

I'm referring to the two-legged leech, homo-reporticus.

Though I was complimentary earlier of MSNBC (a news network that I otherwise rarely watch) as they covered the disaster on the Gulf Coast, let me point out that the compliment only extends to their coverage being better than the rest. That doesn't mean it was necessarily good overall.

On several occasions, I have seen MSNBC correspondents boast that they are "living with the victims and going through what they are going through." Well, I don't have any pity for the news correspondents. Any discomfort they are "suffering" is of their own free will.

And they aren't going through what the victims are going through at all. They have shelter, food, and clothes, and they have homes to go to when it is all over. To presume that they can understand the devastation that the hurricane victims have felt, and the suffering that the Bush victims have felt, is an example of elitist arrogance like no other example I can think of.

But the real problem is that, instead of being news-neutral and reporting the events, the news correspondents are becoming part of the problem. Certainly, had the these correspondents not been on the scene, the help that is finally coming in now, at day 4-hour 8 since landfall, would not be there even yet. We would still be believing Michael Brown's lies. But that is no excuse for the story I am going to repeat next:

A reporter from MSNBC, on camera, told the story that he had been, for the last three days, sleeping in his car. That's not such a bad thing. At least he was dry, clothed, fed, and had water to drink.

After three days, his team heard about a hotel in the area that was taking reservations so, as anyone would, they made reservations. When they made the reservations, the power was still out at the hotel but when they checked in, there was even electricity on.

So far, so good, right? Well, for what happened next, MSNBC and the reporter should be ashamed forever.

The reporter told how that, after they checked in, the hotel ultimately filled up when a local woman whose home had been destroyed came in looking for a room and was very vocally upset when she couldn't get a room. Neither the reporter nor his crew offered their room(s) to the woman or other disaster victims.

Like the billionaire looter, this is another case of the leeches: those who are sucking up resources upon which the lives of others depend.

Failed Emergency Management Again (FEMA)

Michael Brown, Director of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or the Failed Emergency Management Again, of the United States Government: “Those people are getting the aid that they need.”

George W. Bush, President of The United States of America: “The results are unacceptable.”

Clearly, there is a difference of opinion about what is going on. The President, while ultimately responsible for the unacceptable results, is correct. Michael Brown’s indifferent attitude or lack of knowledge about the failures of those under him - whichever it is - is the reason that the results are unacceptable.

Therefore, Bush should fire Brown. He shouldn’t accept Brown’s resignation; he shouldn’t privately or publicly chastise him. He should fire him.

Billionaire Looters

Well, if he isn't a billionaire, he is at least extremely wealthy.

What looks like a large office building is his Slidell, Louisiana home. Constructed of solid concrete, it was designed to withstand any hurricane and it survived Katrina. So did his 53 foot motor yacht. And his party barge. Oh, and his generators are keeping the A/C in the boat working because his wife is asthmatic and can't take the damp air - as compared to all those thousands in the civic center and Superdome who, obviously, don't mind damp air.

And MSNBC reported his survival as a bright spot in the events. To me, it is an embarrassment. First off, most of the victims cannot afford hurricane proof homes of solid concrete. So the survival of the wealthy, who had every opportunity to have left anyway, is not a significant story.

The worst part, though, is that this family, who had the foresight and money to build this hurricane proof home, admitted to looting a store for water! Oh, but it is ok because they told the police they had done it, after the fact.

Do you, for one minute, believe that this ultra-wealthy general contractor, who planned ahead by building this ultimate hurricane-proof home, didn't have a thoroughly stocked pantry? Including bottled water?

So this wealthy family is drinking stolen water, consuming precious resources, while those in the city are dying of dehydration.

I wish I had gotten his name so I could publish it. Hopefully, as the city reviews the events, they'll latch on to this story and this guy will be run out of town on a rail. Or better yet, prosecuted as a looter. I'd love to see that news clip played in the Superdome. Then, maybe a few thousand of those people could find his boat and party barge and turn them into shelters.

I, like most of you, am stunned by the devastation in the Gulf of Mexico. The absolute failure of government in helping those who need relief is inexcusable. Shame on George Bush!

In this blog, I will vent my feelings, thoughts, and frustration with the government and press related to Katrina.