Hurricane Katrina and the Aftermath


	March 23, 2006 Barbara Bush Katrina donation went to her son Neil's software company March 4, 2006 Feds Crack Down On Anti-FEMA T-Shirts In New Orleans March 1, 2006 Jeb Bush asked to explain role in pushing Katrina cruise ship deal Feb 12, 2006 *GOP Congress Releasing Scathing Katrina Report Wednesday* Feb 1, 2006 Government Report: Katrina Failures Show An Unprepared Nation Jan 11, 2006 Were US Gov't saboteurs involved in a fatal shootout with New Orleans police officers on Sept 4 at the Danziger Bridge? Jan 6, 2006 New Orleans Residents All Over The Country Should Be Put On Red Alert: The Neo Cons Are Trying To Illegally Bulldoze Away Your Homes and Steal Your Property Dec 12, 2005 Rumor of levee dynamite persists There is general agreement: The destruction of the Lower 9th Ward started with a series of earthshaking explosions... Andrew Baker, who lost his Tennessee Street home, is not only certain that the explosions were caused by dynamite set by someone deliberately blowing up the levees, he has a theory as to why: The east side of the Industrial Canal was breached to save the French Quarter, Uptown and the Lower Garden District. Dec 12, 2005 Drowned city cuts its poor adrift The waters have receded but the mainly black, low-income citizens of New Orleans are now the victims of rising rents, forced evictions and plans that favour the better off, reports Peter Beaumont. Dec 11, 2005 Elderly 85-year-old New Orleans Woman Could Lose Her House Over FEMA's Lack of Assistance Dec 10, 2005 New Orleans evacuees, activists testify at explosive House hearing on role of race, class in govt's response to Katrina "LEAH HODGES [New Orleans evacuee]: Jefferson Parish is where the Causeway concentration camp was housed, where we experienced the Gestapo-type oppression, as opposed to being rescued. We were three minutes away from the airport. They could have taken us to the airport. Those military vehicles could have taken us to any dry, safe city in America. Instead, they dumped us at a dumping ground, sealed us in there, and they backed up all their authority with military M-16s." Dec 08, 2005 FEMA chief was warned In 2004 that emergency response teams were unprepared FEMA's top official was told more than a year before Hurricane Katrina that the agency's emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and were operating under outdated plans, documents show. Nov 24, 2005 Doubts Now Surround Account of Snipers On New Orleans Bridge Three months after Hurricane Katrina, authorities said they were still trying to reconstruct what happened Sept. 4 on Danziger Bridge. And on the city's east side, where the shootings occurred, two families that suffered casualties are preparing to come forward with stories radically different from those told by police. A teenager critically wounded that day, speaking about the incident for the first time, said in an interview that police shot him for no reason, delivering a final bullet at point-blank range with what he thought was an assault rifle. Nov 22, 2005 Bush's Broken Katrina Promises Nov 22, 2005 6,644 People Still Missing After Katrina Nov 15, 2005 *New Orleans death toll rises to 1076 as returning residents find bodies* Oct 31, 2005 *Thousands Of Katrina Victims Face Eviction, No Aid... Wave Of Homelessness Around Country* Oct 31, 2005 Katrina, Eugenics and 'Peak Oil' Oct 21, 2005 FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings Federal Emergency Management Agency officials did not respond to repeated warnings about deteriorating conditions in New Orleans and the dire need for help as Hurricane Katrina struck, the first FEMA official to arrive conceded Thursday. Oct 21, 2005 Bait-and-switch charity: a scandalous history of the Red Cross "Congress incorporated the Red Cross to act under 'government supervision.' Eight of the 50 members of its board of governors are appointed by the president of the United States, who also serves as honorary chairperson. Currently, the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security are members of the board of governors. This unique, quasi-governmental status allows the Red Cross to purchase supplies from the military and use government facilities--military personnel can actually be assigned to duty with the Red Cross." Oct 19, 2005 *Chertoff: "I'm not a hurricane expert"* Heck no, he's a people controller, a KGB agent with the East German Stasi. The only national emergencies he is expert at is when the GOVERNMENT is in trouble. Oct 17, 2005 Report: Katrina spending lacked controls The government spent nearly $300 million for a private contractor [Landstar Express America Inc.] to hire buses, trucks and planes for hurricane relief efforts - apparently with little control or oversight, according to a Transportation Department memo released Monday. Oct 17, 2005 Bush's slow, piecemeal Katrina recovery plan criticized by Republicans Oct 12, 2005 FEMA to rebid four large contracts --Few deals went to minority or local businesses Under fire for awarding large noncompetitive hurricane recovery contracts that included few local or minority-owned businesses, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Tuesday it will rebid four large jobs. Oct 12, 2005 FEMA Restricts Evacuee Data The Federal Emergency Management Agency is restricting the release of information on Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Citing privacy concerns [LOL!], FEMA has rejected a request by Texas officials for access to its database of the more than 100,000 evacuees who have registered for state aid, according to the governor's office. FEMA has also declined requests from five states to cross-check a database of convicted sex offenders and parolees against a list of evacuees requesting federal assistance, law enforcement officials said. exchanges and their profits were specifically stated to be "in the millions of dollars."" Sep 28, 2005 FEMA's Brown was warned early of shortages Former FEMA director Michael Brown was warned weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit that his agency's backlogged computer systems could delay supplies and put personnel at risk during an emergency, according to an audit released Wednesday. Sep 28, 2005 After the storm, US media held to account for exaggerated tales of Katrina chaos The stories out of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina... armed gangs terrorising evacuees in the Superdome and convention centre, bodies piling up by the dozen amid the stench and human waste, bodies stuffed into a freezer, children raped, murdered and thrown into waste bins. One month after the storm, however, it appears that few, if any, of the most lurid reports breathlessly repeated on American television, echoed in official statements and duly reported in many of the world's newspapers, had any basis in fact. Sep 28, 2005 Million-dollar refugee ships lying half empty The ships have a capacity of 7116 beds, at a cost of $US1275 a person a week. The cost of a Caribbean cruise from Texas is $US559 a week. "When the Federal Government would actually save millions of dollars by . sending evacuees on a luxurious six-month cruise it is time to rethink how we are conducting oversight," said Senators Tom Coburn and Barack Obama. Sep 28, 2005 *Former FEMA Chief blames local officials for Katrina failures* Sep 28, 2005 Louisiana Governor fires back: says former FEMA chief's comments show he's "out of touch with the truth or reality" Sep 28, 2005 *Blanco goes to D.C. to answer brown charge* Sep 28, 2005 *FEMA awarded cruise line $236M contract even though company doubled room prices* Sep 28, 2005 *Senators: Hurricane Aid Is Being Blocked* Sep 28, 2005 *New Orleans Police Chief resigns, nearly 250 officers left Their posts during Katrina and aftermath* Sep 28, 2005 *Military Recruiters Showed Up Before FEMA, Red Cross* See how responsive the military can be? Sep 28, 2005 *Russert gets tough -- on victims* Sep 28, 2005 *Crime reports at Katrina sites were probably exaggerated* Now, a month after the chaos subsided, police are re-examining the reports and finding that many of them have little or no basis in fact, but what is it that everyone will have locked in their memory about Katrina? Looting and anarchy with the finger pointed at poor blacks. Sep 27, 2005 *CBS News: FEMA still paying Michael Brown full salary as a consultant to evaluate his Katrina response* Brown Blames Dysfunctional Louisiana Sep 27, 2005 *Rita exposes weak, non-existent disaster plans around US* Sep 26, 2005 *Federal Response To Rita Shows Bush Admin. Had Authority To Save Victims Of Katrina* Sep 25, 2005 *White House using Hurricane Rita to show Bush as effective leader during disaster* Sep 25, 2005 *Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina* Sep 25, 2005 *NY doctor beats FEMA to New Orleans and saves many lives* Sep 25, 2005 *TIME: "How many more Mike Browns are out there?"* Sep 20, 2005 *No crisis, but Maine getting plenty of ice* The federal government is diverting hundreds of truckloads of bagged ice cubes from the Gulf Coast hurricane-relief effort to cold storage in Portland and other cities... "The $9,000 they're paying me to move this load should have gone to some family down there," said Loren Reeves, who hauled his load of ice from New York state to Alabama before being sent to Maine. "There is definitely millions being wasted that could go to people who need it." Sep 20, 2005 As Its Coffers Swell, Red Cross Is Criticized on Gulf Coast Response Sep 19, 2005 The US Government Did Not Fail Its Mission In the Wake of Hurricane Katrina The primary job of the military, FEMA, and Homeland Security is not to protect the American people in times of emergency but to protect the government in times of emergency and keep it functioning. Their primary assignment is, not to rescue people, but to control them. Their directive is to relocate families and businesses, confiscate property, commandeer goods, direct labor and services, and establish martial law. The reason FEMA and Homeland security failed to carry out an effective rescue operation is that this was not their primary mission, and the reason they blocked others from doing so is that any operations not controlled by the central authority are contrary to their directives." Sep 19, 2005 *Tons of British aid donated to help Hurricane Katrina victims to be BURNED by Americans* Sep 18, 2005 *Threatened with eviction at gunpoint, the Big Easy holdouts are now hailed as heroes* Sep 16, 2005 Something happened at the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans that officials and media are struggling to cover up. ep 16, 2005 Breach of a myth: After Katrina, the country no longer believes in Bush the protector. His presidency is ruined. Sep 16, 2005 *EPA Could Suspend Any Law Governing Air, Water, Land In Responding To Katrina* Sep 16, 2005 *Justice Department Email Shows Feds Trying To Blame Environmental Groups For New Orleans Flooding* Sep 16, 2005 *GOP Congress Creates GOP Katrina Panel To Investigate GOP Admin* Sep 16, 2005 *Frist And Santorum Call For Investigation Of Katrina Then Vote No* Sep 15, 2005 *No Photos of Dead "Cockroaches" Allowed in New Orleans* In true Orwellian fashion, the Army 82nd Airborne Division will threaten journalists as they claim to follow court order demanding full access to recovery operation. Sep 15, 2005 *American Allegory: It CAN happen here* Bob Dylan's prophetic "Masked and Anonymous".offers an insightful look at our times Sep 15, 2005 More than 100 tractor-trailers packed with water, ice and other critical hurricane-relief supplies have been sitting at an Air Force base in Montgomery, Ala., for nearly a week While the federal government pays $600 a day for each truck, the idle trucks, called up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deliver supplies, are just the latest example of the waste, bureaucratic errors and miscommunication that continue to foul Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Sep 15, 2005 *Frist, Senate GOP Block Independent Katrina Investigation* Sep 15, 2005 NY Times/CBS Poll Shows Bush Administration's Ratings In Freefall Sep 15, 2005 *Karl Rove in charge of $200 billion post-Katrina reconstruction effort* In a primetime speech tonight from the flood zone, pResident Bush will commit the federal government to what many predict will become the largest reconstruction effort ever on U.S. soil. Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Bush's chief political adviser, is in charge of the $200 billion reconstruction effort. Sep 15, 2005 *Mayor: New Orleans to reopen next week* The city of New Orleans will reopen four unflooded neighborhoods, including the bawdy, historic French Quarter, to businesses and residents beginning this weekend Sep 14, 2005 *Local neighborhood cops as militarized thugs* Sep 14, 2005 *Helpers stream into New Orleans while govt points its guns* Sep 14, 2005 *FEMA convoy gets ice to cities not in need* Sep 14, 2005 FEMA requested only 455 buses to rescue 20,000. then canceled order and took until Sat. after storm to send enough buses Sep 14, 2005 Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show. Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Sep 14, 2005 New Orleans Hospital nurse: "I couldn't understand why nobody was coming to help us" Sep 14, 2005 FEMA, La outsources Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals in Texas, crony of Bushies FEMA has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned. Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses." Sep 14, 2005 White House orders power restored to pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast delaying restoration of power to two rural hospitals by at least 24 hours Sep 14, 2005 Bush: No Identifiable Shortcomings In Relief Effort Sep 14, 2005 Time for a Presidential Intervention: "My Name is George, and I Won't Take Responsibility for Anything" Sep 14, 2005 Bush says he may need more power in disasters He wants Congress to look into whether presidential authority should be expanded in times of catastrophes like Katrina [Bush is the disaster!! Bush is the catastrophe! If you get rid of Bush, you get rid of the disasters and the catastrophes!! Sep 14, 2005 *Police forcibly tackling elderly, confiscating firearms and dragging them out of their homes* So-called conservative O'Reilly lauds it as cops force their way into a home and apprehend a dangerous insurgent....an old woman. Sep 14, 2005 Three FEMA contractors arrested for looting in Plaquemines Parish Three Texas truck drivers under contract with the federal government to bring in storm relief supplies for Plaquemines Parish have been arrested for allegedly looting toys, dolls, women's lingerie and other merchandise from a Belle Chasse Family Dollar store, authorities said. Investigation finds Red Cross agreed to withhold Orleans aid, operates in tandem with Homeland Security Top Red Cross official Bush appointee, donor "New information surrounding relief efforts by the American Red Cross in New Orleans raises questions about whether the organization provided adequate relief and whether funds are actually being directed to Katrina victims, RAW STORY has found." Sep 14, 2005 *Drowned in the Following Sea.* As the rich grow increasingly more rich and insulated and the poor grow increasingly more poor and vulnerable, one might wonder if we aren't being set up to accept the loss of a large number of people sooner rather than later. Sep 11, 2005 Bush created Homeland Security from scratch, so blaming bureaucracy won't wash Sep 8, 2005 *Why is there a 21 hour discrepancy between the storm surge and the collapse of the levees?* Sep 8 2005 *The real costs of a culture of greed* Instead of the much-celebrated American can-do machine that promises to bring freedom and prosperity to less fortunate people abroad, we have seen a callous official incompetence that puts even Third World rulers to shame. The well-reported litany of mistakes by the Bush administration in failing to prevent and respond to Katrina's destruction grew longer with each hour's grim revelation from the streets of an apocalyptic New Orleans. Sep 7, 2005 *Series of dreams - big booms before the levees broke* "I'll tell you the worst thing I've heard and I heard it from my mother. She said she heard several blasts - big booms - right before the levees broke. Several blasts and then all the water came pouring in." GDN01 adds that "several people have told him this same thing. This is the story going round from the people who were there." "FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to ' fire hazards.' " "...some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it "...pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason....they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months." Sep 7, 2005 *New Orleans: A Bush Police State Incubator?* Sep 7, 2005 City and state officials and the Corps of Engineers had repeatedly requested funding to strengthen the levees: they were rebuffed by Bush As the New Orleans Times-Picayune has reported in a devastating series of articles over the last two years, city and state officials and the Corps of Engineers had repeatedly requested funding to strengthen the levees along Lake Pontchartrain that breeched in the wake of the flood. But the Bush administration rebuffed the requests repeatedly, reprogramming the funding from levee enhancement to Homeland Security and the war on Iraq Sep 7, 2005 Bush Launches Inquiry and Puts Himself in Charge of It Sep 7, 2005 *Feds Keeping Good Samaritans Out of N. Orleans* Sep 7, 2005 Military Turns New Orleans Into a War Zone The veils part. Not enough to be slow to no go in relief and rescue, now the Feds turn on the residents of New Orleans as the enemy. Sep 7, 2005 Government Sabotage Of Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts Sep 7, 2005 FEMA executive orders paved the way for emerging police state hell Sep 7, 2005 Soldiers Confront the Reluctant "Refugees" Sep 7, 2005 Some Refuse to Give Up and Leave Sep 7, 2005 'Rescuers' left Katrina survivors to rot who didn't expose their breasts A group of female hurricane survivors were told to show their breasts if they wanted to be rescued, a British holidaymaker has revealed.Ged Scott of Liverpool watched from the Ramada as American rescuers turned their boat around and sped off when the the women refused. Sep 7, 2005 *"Americans Are Being Brainwashed"* Roberts agreed that FEMA has deliberately withheld aid, and cut emergency communication lines, and automatically made the crisis look worse in order to empower the image of a police state emerging to "save the day". *Gallup: Americans to Bush - Withdraw Troops From Iraq* Sep 6, 2005 *'Wash Post' runs a key Katrina correction after propaganda point is made* In its Sunday edition, the Washington Post quoted a "senior Bush official" who said that "as of Saturday [Louisiana Governor] Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency." This, of course, was meant to make the governor look foolish and spread the blame around for the disastrous response to the disaster, though it was hard to imagine on what grounds the newspaper would quote an unnamed source in this case. Several hours of blogosphere howling ensued. Later in the day, the Post ran this correction, or rather, 180-degree turn: A Sept. 4 article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina incorrectly said that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) had not declared a state of emergency. She declared an emergency on Aug. 26 Often such "corrections" are made in a less noticeable page position after the propaganda point is made. So most people will only remember the propaganda and not the correction. Sep 7, 2005 Iraq Invasion Did Not Protect US, Say Americans Sep 6, 2005 For communications technicians in New Orleans and Gulf Coast region. How to beat the communications jammers Sep 6, 2005 Ethnic cleansing in the USA -1 and 2 There is simply too much active sabotage of relief efforts to blame it all on FEMA incompetence Sep 6, 2005 Funeral director deploys to hurricane region expecting 40,000 dead Sep 6, 2005 *'Times-Picayune' Editor Says President Bush Bears Ultimate Blame for Weak Response to Hurricane Disaster* Now Editor Amoss, in an interview with The Oregonian in Portland, has explained why the paper wrote it: "We needed to address the president directly .... We felt that this is ultimately his failure, and it is a colossal one that may have cost lives, and certainly much physical damage to our community." Sep 6, 2005 *UNDER WATER: Total failure of a Presidency* Sep 6, 2005 *Chertoff's Reading Habits* On Sunday, DHS chief Michael Chertoff told "Meet the Press's" Tim Russert that one reason for the delay in getting federal aid to Katrina victims was that "everyone" thought the crisis had passed when the storm left: "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'" We're wondering what papers the Chertoff household gets, because these are the headlines that greeted most people Tuesday morning Aug 30, 2005 At least 55 dead from Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi alone Nearly 9.000 gulf state National Guardsmen who could have aided in mandatory coastal evacuations from the deadly category 4 hurricane are in Iraq. Now there are dead U.S. civilians, including children, on George W. Bush's bloody hands. Sep 5, 2005 *Hurricane Center Director Tells Paper He Briefed Brown and Chertoff on Danger of Severe Flooding* Sep 5, 2005 *Ethnic cleansing in the USA* Sep 5, 2005 *New Orleans police to be pulled off streets* "We need to prepare the country for what's coming," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday. "We are going to uncover people who died hiding in the houses, maybe got caught in floods. It is going to be as ugly a scene as you can imagine." And the Bushies will be determined to keep the police from telling what they have seen. Sep 5, 2005 *Killed by Contempt* Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized. Sep 5, 2005 No Excuse For Feds Slow Response To Katrina; Critics Claim Government Heads Should Roll, Including Bush Sep 5, 2005 *LA Times :"Why FEMA Was Missing In Action...Agency's Budget And Focus Are Related To Terrorism, Not Disasters"* Sep 5, 2005 *Teams Collecting Dead.Mayor:"We Hope It's No More Than 10,000"* Sep 5, 2005 *Chertoff: "We Are In Control Of What's Going On In The City"* Note the emphasis on control rather than relief and rescue Sep 5, 2005 *Public Reaction to the disaster* President Bush, on "Good Morning America," said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." What a disgrace. A 2001 report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed hurricane flood damage in New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing the United States. Sep 5, 2005 *Gulf Coast poisoned?* ...a toxic landfill site on which housing was built in central New Orleans is now under floodwaters with the potential to pollute and contaminate portions of the Gulf Coast Sep 4, 2005 Several Thousand Still Stranded In New Orleans... "They Just Left Us Here To Die"... Sep 4, 2005 *Times-Picayune calls for firing of FEMA chief... cites his "bald-faced" lies* Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies. Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city. Sep 4, 2005 *For days, Bush's top advisers argued over legal niceties about who was in charge* Sep 4, 2005 Reports continue that communications in and around New Orleans are being purposely jammed (and severed) by the US government The jamming is having an adverse impact on emergency, disaster recovery, and news media communications Sep 4, 2005 *Rep. Jan Schakowsky: "New Orleans represents a failure of the Federal Government"... Sep 4, 2005 Republicans say Katrina threatens to undermine the Party's long-term ambitions* Sep 4, 2005 *Washington failed to fund levee projects, "gambled" on short-term political gain for admin. vs. long-term safety* Sep 4, 2005 *New Orleans begins counting its dead* Sep 4, 2005 *Criminal plot underway in the New Orleans swamp* Sep 4, 2005 *Hurricane Katrina, and A Partial List of Related Mistakes, Evasions, and Deceptions* Sep 4, 2005 *Provacateur forces in New Orleans? The case builds* Sep 4, 2005 *Met by Despair, Not Violence* But when they arrived, they did not find marauding mobs. They did not come under fire. They found people who had lost everything in the storm and, since then, their dignity. *Bush suspends Posse Comitatus, active military pour into New Orleans* Either Bush is using Katrina as a dodge or he's ignorant of the law. Posse Comitatus states that military cannot be used for domestic law enforcement, but a rescue operation isn't enforcing the law and there has never been a ban on US military assisting in rescues inside the US. - Michael Rivero Sep 4, 2005 What the @#$% is FEMA thinking? Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sep 4, 2005 *Bodies are strewn 'like roadkill' on gulf coast* ep 2, 2005 *Airboaters stalled by FEMA* Sep 2, 2005 *Busloads of Katrina refugees turned away from the Houston Astrodome because it had "reached its capacity" of 11,375* Seating capacity of the Astrodome for baseball is 52000, for football about 62000, and for some events, 66000 Sep 2, 2005 *George W. Bush abandons Americans* Sep 2, 2005 *Gallup refuses to run poll asking Americans if Bush should be impeached* Sep 2, 2005 *FEMA directing donations to Rev. Pat Robertson* Sep 2, 2005 *Salvation Army running out of food, supplies and fearing "donor fatigue"* Sep 2, 2005 *Oh, One More Thing, America...* Sep 2, 2005 *McClellan refuses to answer questions about levee funding* Sep 2, 2005 *Lake George* We're naming it Lake George, 'cause it's his frickin fault. Have you seen all that data about the levee projects' funding being cut over the past three years by the Prez, and the funding transferred to Iraq? The levee, as designed, might not have held back the surge from a direct Class 5 hit, but it certainly would not have crumbled on Monday night from saturation and scour erosion following a glancing blow from a Class 3. The failure was in a spot that had just been rebuilt, not yet compacted, not planted, and not armed (hardened with rock/concrete). The project should have been done two years ago, but the federal gov't diverted 80% of the funding to Iraq. Other areas had settled by a few feet from their design specs, and the money to repair them was diverted to Iraq. This was senseless, useless death caused not by nature but by budget decisions. Aug 30, 2005 Entire City Will Soon Be Underwater Mayor Nagin said the sandbagging was scheduled for midday, but the Blackhawk helicopters needed to help did not show up. He said the sandbags were ready and all the helicopter had to do was "show up." Aug 29, 2005 *Hurricane Dubya: Louisiana National Guard are in Iraq instead of protecting their families at home* Aug 30, 2005 At least 55 dead from Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi alone Nearly 9.000 gulf state National Guardsmen who could have aided in mandatory coastal evacuations from the deadly category 4 hurricane are in Iraq. Now there are dead U.S. civilians, including children, on George W. Bush's bloody hands Aug 31, 2005 Did New Orleans catastrophe have to happen? 'Times-Picayune' had repeatedly raised Federal spending issues The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. The levees that collapsed were the ones the canceled funds were intended to strengthen. Aug 31, 2005 *Bu$hCo's flood for oil - leaky levees and offshore looting* First Bush convinced the House to cut $20 million out of $37 million that was supposed to go to Louisiana's coastal restoration and flood control. Then, to add insult to injury, we read in The Times-Picayune that Bush is against giving coastal states up to $500 million a year out of royalties from oil and gas drilling off our coasts. Coastal states generate more than a quarter of the oil and gas consumed by the United States, but Bush opposes the Senate's plan to share that income. Aug 31, 2005 *Release of oil reserves has little effect* The US government on Wednesday agreed to lend refiners small quantities of oil from its strategic emergency stockpile to help ease the shortage of petrol caused by Hurricane Katrina. But the relief it caused in the overheated oil market was cut short when it became clear that the move would have little impact on the problem and was as much a political gesture as an economic one. Aug 31, 2005 *How Bush's policies doomed New Orleans. No mitigation monies in 2003...huge budget cuts forthcoming...NG troops having to be 'borrowed' to restore order...privatization of emergency management tasks... Aug 31, 2005 The GOP sowed the wind and the gulf states reaped the whirlwind: Bush dumped the CO2 cap and science has shown how that stirs violent storms Aug 31, 2005 Republicans accused of witch-hunt against climate change scientists* Aug 31, 2005 *Bush Admin. drafting legislation to ease pollution controls on power plants* Aug 31, 2005 *Iraq War has thinned National Guard and relief forces*