Baghdad, Louisiana

Now we get a glimpse of Baghdad here at home. When we watched the wholesale looting of Iraq and the collapse of the country’s infrastructure maybe we thought we knew what the people were going through.

Now we can really understand.

Here at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday I’m listening to a live interview with Tony Zumbado, a cameraman for NBC News, and he’ trying to hold back his tears as he describes the hell-on-earth around the Louisiana Superdome:

“Dead people around the edges of the building, two babies dehydrated and died….No water, no ice, no c-rations for four days, it’s unbelievable… what I saw there I ’ve never seen in this country.”

Can someone explain this to me and to the rest of the country. Does the Federal Government have no helicopters? It can’t airdrop water and basic supplies and some security troops around the Superdome after 96 hours?

I don’t expect miracles from the government. Nor am I looking for cheap ways to somehow blame the Bush administration for the devastation of a natural disaster.

But, sorry, the unavoidable impression is that this administration has its head congenitally up its rear. So far it’s showing as little capacity to respond to the emergency on the ground in New Orleans and surrounding areas as it did in squelching the initial chaos in Baghdad.

I will make this note: the Mexican party PRI that held a monopoly on government for seventy years eventually lost power because of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. It took fifteen years for the process to culminate with the 2000 election. But the seeds of the PRI’s collapse were sown in its inability to fully respond to the deadly 1985 shaker.

Let the Bushies be warned. Time to get off the golf courses and get serious. People are hungry, thirsty, homeless, penniless and scared. Time to shock and awe us with a projection of raw American power. So far you only shock us.

Comments

[richard lo cicero]

Marc, no chance. This is the "MBA" President who failed at every business he was in. This is the administration that fought a war by cutting taxes. This is an adminstration that replace a respected head of FEMA with an Estate Planner with no experience but great political connections! And this is an administration that ignored recomendations from FEMA back in 2001 that the current disaster in NOLA was one of the three most likely to endanger the US. They dropped a Clinton plan to start reetoring the wetlands downstream and cut funds to upgrade the levees. And the NG troops that should be there are in Iraq instead.

I'd like to be hopeful. I can't. These people will not listen; they don't know how. They know only how to make excuse and charm and bully an out-to-lunch media into buying the idea that they know what they are doing. The act is getting old but we're stuck with them for another thirty months. God help us!

[Michael Turner]

"... the seeds of the PRI’s collapse were sown in its inability to fully respond to the deadly 1985 shaker."

It can happen in fully-developed nations as well. The Great Hanshin Earthquake here in Japan, and the incredibly feeble response from the central government, probably helped take down Prime Minister Murayama. Not that there was a whole lot propping him up in the first place.

[Michael Crosby]

I have tons of work to do and I can't get started. I am furious. I feel ashamed to be an American in a different way than I have felt it before. Are we not getting water and food into New Orleans because we CAN'T? Or that government and the Red Cross and corporations are AFRAID? Or do people just NOT WANT TO enough to take the risks and initiative to do what has to be done?

Why is our president saying things like: "Be patient..." and scolding people for "lawlessness" when the simple fact is that the weak among them are dying and the strong are watching the weak die, and are helpless to do anything to help. And thanks to the miracle of television, I have the same feeling.

There are dozens of factors to consider when considering how we got to this point, and I am anxious to engage in that dialogue. But there is a very good chance that someone has died down there in the time it has taken me to write this, died for lack of water, food or medicine.

And it certainly looks like what the federal government--FEMA, the military, and the part of the National Guard not painting houses in Iraq--is doing is preventing local people from acting on their own initiative to try to get help to people and to get people out.

Does anybody have any ideas about what we might do? This is like being in one of those dreams where we are conscious of something awful happening and we can just watch, helpless and frustrated. This is how we should feel about Darfur and Iraq and Gaza and hundreds of other places, but I guess I don't. I feel this way about the people of New Orleans. The alarming possibility, as raised in your previous posting, is that our government and many of our people just do not feel that way about poor black people. That is why even when they are suffering feelings of compassion, they are so easily diverted by stories of "lawlessness" and "gangs with AK-47s" prowling the streets.

What can we do?

[Susan]

Michael Cosby - so well said, with almost all of my current sentiments today -- I simply cannot get the real pain out of my guts, nor can I stop trying to call friends there, nor can I stop watching today the pontificating govt news conferences all morning, while watching in another screen folks who are dying and rotting.

Let me also thank Reg/Randy and again Jim for their replies to me last night, and I take their empathetic remarks for ALL who live and know folks in New Orleans.

[Susan]

Michael forgive me...I spelled your last name incorrectly..again your thoughts were so very well expressed.

[Mark Schubb]

Watching this scandal unfold is enraging and heartbreaking.

Sometime back I posted what I considered to be a stinging indictment of the inability of US military might to respond immediately to basic needs on the ground in Sumatra. There were hundreds, if not thousands, dying for want of a bottle of water, just a modest helicopter jump from a warehouse full of disaster supplies.

To see this exact same scenario unfold in a major US city, no less than New Orleans -- our uniquely American cultural and historical landmark of world reknown -- with people dying practically live on television in the fucking Superdome for want of water and basic needs... outrage doesn't begin to cover this governmental betrayal of civilization.

And George Bush peers out the window on Airforce One on his way home from summer camp... The democrats suck. But these years of republican arrogance and stupidy amount to gross criminal negligence, at home and abroad.

[r]

I am increasingly speechless. With a string of deadlines on other issues---all of them worthy topics---it's difficult to concentrate on anything but this evolving horror.

Susan, forgive me for not commenting to you at the time. Your post was....spare, and real and terribly painful. I'm so, so sorry.

Marc,...thank you for a string of very good posts:

"Does the Federal Government have no helicopters? It can’t airdrop water and basic supplies and some security troops around the Superdome after 96 hours?..."

This is what we've all been asking. Separate and apart from the ongoing, chest crushing fury so many of us feel toward our president, whom Maureen Dowd rightly calls "bubble boy," it is beyond comprehension why there are no food and water drops of some kind? If CNN and ABC can get in, why are people dying of dehydration because there have been no water drops? Are the Feds THAT disorganized? Is this a function of too much attention put elsewhere? What the hell? It doesn't make any sense.

I fully intended to scream in detail at Rockford and some of the racist a**holes from the other thread but so far I simply cannot gather the requisite will to do so. Perhaps it’s a waste of energy better focused elsewhere.

WAIT A MINUTE: Right now on CNN’s “The Situation Room” I just heard the most amazing commentary from Jack Cafferty who was utterly excoriating of the administration:

“A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone, and announced the mobilization of every resource available…” He’d never seen a worse response, he said. “…the world is watching…” Then he added:

“…And we’re going to talk about the elephant in the middle of the room: the race and economic class of most of the victims…”

Amazing.

[rosedog]

Sorry, that was me. BTW, while Cafferty talked, Wolf Blitzer sat there looking as if a cherry bomb had just exploded right behind his eyes.

[Susan]

Rosedog, there is absolutely no apology needed from you to me. In my post yesterday I was quite simply expressing thoughts for all folks in New Orleans. I posted here, as I was aghast at the immediate starting of the politico thoughts from some, without their first thoughts of the folks.

The scandals are starting, the stories will fill libraries for years to come -- the lack of sanity and lack of help in real time will fill even larger volumes from this disaster.

I have found it utterly impossible to function these past few days -- because for me in the most personal sense -- New Orleans is my home in my heart, and my home is now gone.

Take care, write well on this situation in the days to come,in your own personal venue/outlets.

[Josh Legere]

Where the fuck is Congress? They came back for emergency session on a Sunday night for Terry Shrivo, it is Thursday, where the fuck are they?

30+ years of anti government rhetoric from the 60's radicals to the 80's Republicans. Now we have the realization of that kind of silly talk. Total anarcy and a collapsed infastructure.

[Mavis Beacon]

I've been thinking about getting money to support this project - both the short term rescue efforts and the long term projects of cleaning, rebuilding, and helping folks get back on their feet. Lots of the money will have to come from the federal government, but, as we have all noted, private fund raising can have a huge impact.

I think a great way to raise money would be to Donate-A-Day. If you can get everyone in your company to donate a single day's pay to a relief organization it could make an enormous difference. Givers often have trouble deciding what amount is reasonable and this would serve as a guide. It puts pressure on everyone to contribute while taking into account income inequality. So that's my plan: Donate-A-Day. If you like it, pass it on.

[Abbas-Ali Abadani]

Read the following Wash Post article for an idea of conditions inside the Superdome.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/31/AR2005083102801.html

Here's an excerpt:

"The bathrooms, clogged and overflowing since Monday, announced the second level of hell, the walkway ringing the entrance level. In the men's, the urinal troughs were overflowing. In the women's, the bowls were to the brim. A slime of excrement and urine made the walkway slick. 'You don't even go there anymore,' said Dee Ford, 37, who was pushed in a wading pool from her flooded house to the shelter. 'You just go somewhere in a corner where you can. In the dark, you are going to step in poo anyway.'

"Water and electricity both failed Monday, and three pumps to pressurize plumbing have been no match 'when the lake just keeps pushing it back at us,' said Maj. Ed Bush, the chief public affairs officer for the Louisiana National Guard.

"'With no hand-washing, and all the excrement,' said Sgt. Debra Williams, who was staffing the infirmary in the adjacent sports arena, 'you have about four days until dysentery sets in. And it's been four days today.'"

Live-blogging from New Orleans. I don't know how it's possible, but here it is.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

Some excerpts:

* * * * * *

The word is that in Jefferson Parish and Orleans, FEMA has "bugged out." They haven't brought supplies in.

[....]

All of our providers are dropping. We're down to one. We have enough fuel to keep us powered for a long time, but we could lose internet access soon if our last provider drops.

So I guess what I'm saying is that any moment could be my last moment online. If we do lose internet, Outpost Crystal might have to be abandoned by all but Sig and Myself. I've got to get Crystal out of here safely and relocated to someplace out of this state. I'm working on escape routes now.

[....]

2. Buses loading people up on Camp Street to take refugees to Dallas, or so the word on the street (literally) is.

3. Dead bodies everywhere: convention center, down camp street, all over.

4. National Guard shoving water off the backs of trucks. They're just pushing it off without stopping, people don't even know it's there at first -- they drop it on the side in debris, there's no sign or distribution point -- people are scared to go near it at first, because the drop points are guarded by troops or federal agents with assault rifles who don't let people come near them, which scares people off. It is a mess. When people actually get to the water, they are in such a rush to get it that one family left their small child behind and forget about him until Sig carried him back to the family.

[....]

It's raining now and I guess that's a relief from the heat. It's hot as hell down there in the sun. Crime is absolutely rampant: rapes, murders, rape-murder combinations.

[....]

In case anyone in national security is reading this, get the word to President Bush that we need the military in here NOW. The Active Duty Armed Forces. Mr. President, we are losing this city. I don't care what you're hearing on the news. The city is being lost. It is the law of the jungle down here. The command and control structure here is barely functioning. I'm not sure it's anyone's fault -- I'm not sure it could be any other way at this point. We need the kind of logistical support and infrastructure only the Active Duty military can provide. The hospitals are in dire straights. The police barely have any capabilities at this point. The National Guard is doing their best, but the situation is not being contained. I'm here to help in anyway I can, but my capabilities are limited and dropping. Please get the military here to maintain order before this city is lost.

[John Mc]

http://www.sploid.com/news/2005/09/01/fema-directing-donations-to-rev-pat-robertson-123509.php

wow, check it out, our federal government (FEMA) is directing donations to Pat Robertson's organization (via Sploid)

hmmm, OPUSA or Pat Robertson? tough choice

[jim hitchcock]

Some random thoughts:

In his speech yesterday, Bush said that New Orleans would be rebuilt, and "...America would be a stronger place for it".

WTF does THAT mean? Is that the best the speechwriters can do?
Would it be accurate to characterize the current White House as `Malfunction Junction'?
-------------------------------------
I really do not understand the pump failures due to lack of power. This was not anticipated? They've never heard of generators?
-------------------------------------
Looking long range, it's going to be interesting to see how the insurance industry deals with claims. This from a poster elsewhere who works in the industry (if it's inappropriate to bring this up at this time when we're all dealing with the immediate horror of the situation, I apologize):

"A critical factor in the extent of insurance company liability will be how many home owners and businesses in New Orleans had separate flood protection.

If the damage to homes and businesses is assessed as coming from flooding caused by the failure of levees after Katrina passed -- as opposed to direct hurricane-related storm damage -- then many policy-holders may not be covered.

Most household insurance provides cover only against storm damage. Cover for flooding must be paid for separately."

[Mavis Beacon]

As somebody said, we're going to get to see that bankruptcy legislation in action sooner rather than later.

[Michael Crosby]

Am away from TV but when I left this morning CNN or NBC (not sure which) had just cut off Harry Connick who was pleading and screaming thru tears that these were people, not lawbreakers, and that they were dying right there....Last night they cut away from a guy off the first "renegade bus," because he was just rambling about how bad he was feeling and that he was "due" for food, rest, shower....Then the Houston-based reporter said it was awful that these people felt that they had to make up stories about elderly people dying in their arms and things that just didn't make sense. Obviously it would have made more sense even to the Fox News guys, who did some real reporting, on the New Orleans streets.

I am mired in deadlines and my own personal business disaster here, but I cannot think for long about anything but the people of New Orleans and the place, too. Will Tipitina's survive? Rock'n'Bowl is on the second floor, up a long stairway...maybe it's ok....But if this continues, New Orleans may be a place no one will want to visit again, given the horrible memories and some very angry spirits.

Susan, thank you for your nice words. There are so many things involved that we cannot even begin to imagine. The number of people in places far from NOLA or Biloxi or... who think of a particular house as "home" who will never have "home" again is one such thing. Another is the sense of being so totally out of communication with the world, so that you know less about the situation in NOLA in your house than somebody watching over in Baghdad does.

The blog excerpt that A-AA posted was so frightening...can it be true that rape and murder have or could become commonplace? Is there some good news?

[richard lo cicero]

Maybe this is getting thru after all. I listened to McCafferty on the Situation Room this morning and marveled at his blunt - and absolutely true - words about this administration. And then the telling remark that no one in the media was discussing the "Elephant in the Room" - its obvious these people are mainly black and poor.

I also agree with James Wolcott who said today that now is the time for politics. He said everyone he knows is appalled be the govt reaction. Mccafferty said on CNN that even before he posted the topic of the hour he had received 500 e-mails critical of Bush. And the coverage on CNN! No sugar coating for a change! This is a scandal to go down with any in our history.

And it gets better and better - or is that worse. Congress will come back tomorrow but Speaker Hastart told locals in his district that he questions spending a lot of dough on rebuilding New Orleans. The official FEMA websight lists Pat Robertson's charity as an approved place. And the official RNC websight lists repeal of the estate tax as the top priority! Yeah, lets not let politics intrude!

So I'll enter my crass political plug for the day. Go over to TPM CAFE and read Gen Wes Clark's remarks on leadership. Would that more Dems spoke out!

[rosedog]

FEMA lists Pat Robertson's "Operation Blessing" SECOND after the RED CROSS??????

What is WRONG with these fucking people???? According to what is posted of their annual report--- there's no division whatsoever in fund allocation between their "ministry" and their "programs."

TRANSLATION: if one unwittingly gives money to Operation Blessing it can go to Katrina relief work OR it can go straight to "ministry" alone...meaning that your nice disaster funds might end up footing the bill for, say trying to convert those poor, Satan-ensnared Muslim kids… OR, with a bit of magic accounting, it might go to "Operation Supreme Court Freedom"....where one prays for a Supreme Court Justice to die so he or she can be replaced with nice right winger.

Just for kicks, here's the breakdown as presented in their Annual Report:

http://www.ob.org/press_room/annual_report/FY04.pdf

BTW, a quick web search pulls up multiple instances of Robertson playing fast and loose with Operation Blessing’s funds. Check for yourselves.

[rosedog]

Michael C..... speaking of Tipitina's, I've had Clifton Chenier on the CD player all afternoon as I work (occasionally alternating with things like "Dr. John plays Mac Rebennack" and a strange CD that features a zillion different versions of Jambalaya and Jolie Blon that I once compiled and burned a late night OCD frenzy).

It's been weirdly calming.

[Randy Paul]

Rosedog,

NPR's site also lists Operation Blessing (sigh)

[Jay Byrd]

> "In his speech yesterday, Bush said that New Orleans would be rebuilt, and "...America would be a stronger place for it".
>
> WTF does THAT mean? Is that the best the speechwriters can do?"

When I heard that speech, I kept thinking that they took a previous speech and substituted "New Orleans" for "Iraq".

On C-SPAN, several people on the "Bush supporter" line said that looters should be shot on sight. Another said that everyone who had evacuated should have been arrested and sent to a Federal pen for 30 days. These people are as dumb as they are mean. The ones who did express some compassion almost all tempered it with blame of the victims for being in their situation. It pretty much fits the Lakoff "strict father" model.

I feel somewhat vindicated concerning my recent debate with MT and my statements about what a disaster this administration is, but I'm sick to my gut about it. But then, that's what drove my opposition to Bush in the first place -- being sick to my gut about what they have wrought. I hope never again to hear anything about a "litmus test of domestic issues".

[Jay Byrd]

And speaking of disasters here / disasters there, we're not hearing much about 1000 (!) dead Iraqis:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0902/p07s01-woiq.html

[The Nomad Jake]

And now I believe we Americans might understand something about the experience of our forebears between October of 1929 and 1932, a certain mix of shock and horror at the gross combination of ineptitude and inadequacy displayed by our government in the face of catastrophe. It is truly contemptible.

[Bob P.]

Thanks for saying it, Marc.

I also can't believe nobody's talking about how the government failed these poor people. The government knows exactly who lives in New Orleans.

Officials have all the economical stastics at their fingertips. When the evacuation order was given, they knew how many people had the means to leave, and those who didn't. And yet, they did nothing. Where were the army trucks, where were the buses? Wasn't there suppose to be a plan in place?

Was it just a slip of the mind, like leaving your sunglasses behind? Did someone in FEMA suddenly remember all those poor people might not be able to get out just as the storm came a shore

Nothing was done except issuing the plea to leave, which is worthless when you can't.

And they knew the storm was coming 48 hours before it hit, maybe even longer. They didn't even get the National Guard ready, just in case.

FEMA has completely shit the bed. Somebody needs to remind them -- as well as the president -- that "emergency" is part of their name.

Also, why hasn't Bush gone on primtime television and ask people for donations? Is he so afraid to make it seem like the government doesn't have the means to do it themselves, or is he just the nearsighted buffoon I suspect he is.

What a joke. It makes my heart ache hearing the stories and I get tears in my eyes when I remember who's in charge.

[Jim Rockford]

Look, we need one thing now.

ACTION.

What is the ACTION?

GET PEOPLE OUT NOW. Period.

That's what we need, and some damn political leadership. If you go over at Redstate, you'll find the same anger at Bush for failing to help people.

Salvation Army and Baptist Churches are the only ones who are getting people OUT. That "rogue bus" was from a Baptist Church group that rounded up a bus and got people OUT.

Kathleen Blanco needs to step down and have someone else take charge.

1. Declare Martial Law and order all armed people to shoot on sight anyone interfering with Emergency Personnel and medevac. Children's Hospital was under siege from thugs looking to rob drugs. Acadian Ambulance Service STOPPED evac of hospitals (including Charity, and Tulane Hospital) because goddam thugs are shooting at medevac folks.

2. Drop this PC garbage NOW. Have whoever takes over from Blanco to deputize volunteers, and ask them to go to New Orleans to provide armed escorts and shoot on sight anyone interfering with medevac. PERIOD.

3. Most important, ask EVERYONE in Louisiana who has a truck that can get to New Orleans to go down there and pick people UP. Take them home or at least to Baton Rouge and/or Shreveport, Lake Charles. Commandeer every hotel, motel, etc. and put people up there.

4. Ask for everyone in Louisiana with a boat to pull up to the Riverwalk and evac the people from the Convention Center. Bring food, water, clothes, etc.

This is action. We need it now. Forget the Feds and FEMA, the've just fallen apart. We are letting PC garbage (afraid to shoot African American looters and so let people in hospitals, Superdome, and Convention Center DIE). Shoot the thugs, save the innocents.

No one is in charge, OK. Bush, Blanco have failed. Time for the people of the states to rescue their fellow citizens. There IS no one else. We need a Dunkirk effort. EVERYONE.