You might have heard that the Superdome has been completely evacuated but there are still people left at the convention center.
They have food, water, and the ability to make phone calls but the transportation logistics for those that are still left are unclear.
Why Isn’t New Orleans’ Mayor Supporting Marriage Equality?
Frank I’ll write Mitch a civil letter and ask him why he can’t be vocal publicly.
Frank I’d be proud of Jesuit, if they had a gsa. I’d be proud of MItch Landrieu if he spoke out about the...
richard Dude, I’m sorry that you’re bitter about your time at Jesuit years ago, but I’m telling you...
Frank MItch Landrieu has a 0% record on gay rights. He has never mentioned them in a campaign. I went to Jesuit and...
richard @Frank: To my knowledge, Mitch has always been very friendly with the LGBT community, and an openly gay...
Apparently there were about 100 people in the Superdome who were refusing to leave. Authorities were referring to them as the Die Hard Saints Fans. Not sure if they’ve been removed by force or not at this point.
According to this Minnesota blogger, only the stupid chose to stay in New Orleans:
Yeah, there’s a bunch of different takes: they’re stupid, they’re poor, they’re black, they’re poor and stupid, they’re black, poor and stupid, it goes on forever.
For a large portion of those who stayed, it wasn’t a choice. Choices exist for people at many junctures, the voting booth being one of my favorite targets. But when you don’t have a car, or credit cards, or anyplace to go, staying might be the only option, even if you yourself know that it’s a stupid one. Trapped by circumstances is NOT the same as choosing to be stupid.
The Red Cross and other relief agencies are being kept out, because authorities are afraid their presence and support will encourage people to stay. That strikes me as stupid. Starving people out seems rather inhumane. But then, luring them out with food only to forcibly ship them off seems rough, too. And it lends credibility to the race baiters and the conspiracy theorists.
The continuing lack of transportation is puzzling. Sure, gas is short, but if there’s one thing the modern military excels at, it is logistics. The ability to maintain a viable supply chain. Why they would still be having an issue is anyone’s guess. Are we no longer ready to respond to a military crisis if we don’t have 5 days to put everything in place?
My wish is that the National Guard were not shipped somewhere else I want them here in our country this century. We have yet to respond to native people from Louisana. My faith and trust in the ability (or the gumption)of this President Bush is gone. 9/11, Iraq, his careless application of “help”. Homeless or not those folks are Americans. We’ll take care of our own, we can depend on each other, not Washington, D.C.
I’m another local blogger if anyone wants to read my stuff…
Please get this information out to the displaced survivors of the new orleans flood!! There may be federal assistance programs that are not know about. There is someting call the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, and it seems to have to programs that can help these people one is the Federal Assistance to Individuals and Households Housing number 97.048 it is part of the Robert T Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Act amended by Public Law 106-390. It provides assistance to individuals and househood affected by disaster, and helps with housing concerns the website for this program is http://www.dhs.gov and there is another program which is number 97.050 which relates to help for transportation and medical cost. access it at http://www.dhs.gov
Hopefully this helps
The web address of dhs.gov does not work from the blog but if you do it directly type it directly into the address bar it does work.
I fixed the url so it works now. http://www.dhs.gov
The Government has found the compassion in its heart to provide a zip code to the Astrodome in Huston to receive donations. I would like someone who knows how to begin a movement to have the governemnt pick up the shipping cost to that zip code. Doesn’t seem like much to ask. Do you think it is possible?
none at present
Geraldo Rivera has been on the TV in NOLA geting very emotional . I saw him here in Santa Cruz after our quake in 1989. He would put his arm around a displaced person and got all whipped up.As soon as the camera was off he strolled off to find another photo op. But I guess he does get the attention of the people. So maybe I have to ignor the prima dona stuff.
same as above
I wonder if the city will be able to ticket the flooded cars for parking violations and people for loitering at the dome and convent. ctr to raise revenue? That would be the right thing to do right? The did park and stay there free of charge.
That many of the people who will not leave might be black is of no consequence to the fact that not leaving a chemical and sewage infested deathswamp is just plain dumb. Dumb people come in all colors, just like dumb comments. Had this been Salt Lake, mamy of the dumb would be Mormon. Not dumb because they ar Mormon, but just dumb and Mormon.
It is a coincidence of place.
Oh, speaking of dumb and on TV, I saw Geraldo covering a story himself on how he rescued someone. Amazing. Photojournalistic self-gratification. I surprised he didn’t comment on how large he was.
I have watched the news and I have seen news story after another about New Orleans now its coming down to race is the reason they’ve taken so long to get help for the people there but what about mississippi they’ve had no help either and there is a lot of white people there so what is the reason they didn’t get help? everybody wants to make a race issue out of this so lets look at both sides of the coin.
My heart goes out to the people of NOLA. I feel baricaded and pressed down by anxiety, so much I want to do something to help. During the tsunami incident in the Indian ocean, nation after nation made pledges of monetary support to help in the long term recovery of the countries affected by the tsunami. In all of the press conferences, political spinning, and ducking and dodging by politicians, I have not heard one state governor make a single pledge of monetary help to Luisiana (one of the poorest states in the union) for its long term recovery. As a nation we pledged over $55 Billion to a foreign country but state governors have not pledged even $1 to help one of our own states. BRAVO to the private sector, but shame on you state govenors! Shame on you! If anyone knows how we can bring this issue to the press and the the state govenors, please respond so people can start holding the feet of the politicians to the fire.
I support our troops, at least that’s what my $.96 WalMart Chinese made magnet says I do.
Geraldo is a savior, he helped find people in NO and get them the help they needed.
re: DEBRA
Race being a factor in the response
and it all “coming DOWN to race” are two very different things
LEts not exaggerate it
lets not be so eager to dismiss it either
often race becomes very much a factor in ways that we don’t Consciously try to deliberately perpetuate
Nevertheless Basic MODERN racial-abuse primarily consists of first PERCIEVing ourSELVES as people who are beyond even considering how and to what degree we already contribute to fostering the culture of indignity-toward-race in so many unintended (but not always entirely avoidable ways)
racism —racial-abuse that is is about
doing BETTER not PERFECT
I blame Whitey for all of this. Had the Man done his job when he took our money at the register we wouldn’t be where we are now. Down with Whitey!
down with whitey you are a moron. As for squirrelnutzipper you are also an idiot because this wasn’t an issue of race, but an issue of class.
The middle and upper class blacks left New Orleans before the storm just like the middle and upper class whites.
The fact of the matter is the people who have been screwed after this storm have one thing in common and that is that they are in the lower social class both black and white.
You can make an argument about them being ignored because of class (because that is the truth), but to try and turn it into a race issue ignores the fact that plenty of poor white people in Biloxi and along the Gulfcoast were screwed too.
To charles
I agree with you
AND i’d preferr not to be called an idiot (for a while here anyway)
It’s about class FAR more than race
And it’s about hurricanes and levees and FEMA tripping over its own shoelaces considerabley more than class
Race IS a factor
People ARE angry and saying some really stupid things (which is going to be understandable)
But I suppose I’m trying to help in the long cleaning project ahead by also cleaning up some of the exaggerations a little bit here and there.
I’ts the people who keep exaggerating after they’ve calmed down who start to seem like the REAL idiots to mee.
Anyone who keeps sugessting that it ALL comes d-o-w-n to race has got their brain battery hooked up backward or they’re just still too angry to think straight.
That’s the only point I was really trying to make.
like “Don’t give credit to such delusional exaggeration, even when you’re denouncing it”
And oh,,,,____by the way
Let’s not -completely- dismiss it either.
Unless you got ta fit in with a crowd somewhere amongst yokels w fancy sticks up their a*s of one sort or another.
In that case I apologise and let me get out the way.
Maybe this blog is just getting a little too crowded in with “whitey”, and I should go watch a comedy show or something now.
squirrelnutzipper I apologize for calling you an idiot. I was carrying on my frustration with down with whitey when I addressed my opinion of your comments and it wasn’t called for.
That’s okay
Sometimes I AM occationally known to have acted
like an idiot
not often though (if I may conjure such in self-assesment)—and I hope you had considered that down-with-whitey is just jerking your chain, because if that is not the case, I have no clue what to make of it.
But like I said I’m not about to decend anywhere near the level of dignifying any kind of “it ALL comes d-o-w-n to racism” sentiment with any kind of reciprocal response anyway.
It’s just a depth of nonsense that’s not worth defending against.
I know racially abusive people both BLACK and white. (not so many asia/or/mesos though) I AM one of those racially abusive people.
I just try to be LESS so, day to day. Some days I get it better than others.
And when you see so many black poor people hanging out in the giant puddle, it’s not rocket science to appreciate that RACIAL abuse IS a factor. Just not to a degree that deserves most of the brunt of the (understandable) anger. Not by a long shot. And yet, I still see no need at all to go entirely to the other extreem.
Were not talking about a big outdoor February-is-African-American-month convention and -oops- it started to sprinkle a little for 40 minutes, so they moved the festivities indoors for awhile.
Where not talking about causalities global-warming pseudo-science here.
If you want to attend to the plight of poor white people, it is of utterly NO utility to try to pretend poor black people are not BLACK. Nor to ignore the obvious proportionality. Let me assure you, AND EVERYone else reading. It’s really quite close to SIMPLE.
When we better understand how and why black people are disproportionately poor, we better understand how and why NO ONE really neeeeds to be left to abject levels of poverty in our society.
I really don’t know how to put it any more clearly than that right now. But I will thank all and any for reading.
Bon Nuit.
What I would like to know, since there all so many hotels for conventions, and emergency personnel are staying there, though there is no food or water, why can’t evacuees stay there until they get rescued? At least they would have a decent bed to sleep in. AND, there is plenty of bottled water, since hotels offer that to all guests in their rooms. It was told to evacuees that emergency personnel had to stay in hotels and that is why they were being emptied and being rescued first…what a story. BUT, those hotels are many stories high. Let people stay in them until they are rescued. What do others think? John
With all the blame-gaming, I thought it would be worthwhile to point out that the rescue teams in helicopters are truly heroes in this disaster. If it werent for them, this tragedy would have been even worse. If it would have been up to GWB the people would all still be standing on rooftops or drowned.
I was at the first parade in Mardi Gras in January — 2nd time to NOrleans in five years. Love the place, frightfully dangerous though. It was easy to see the ordinary desperation in peoples’ eyes — black, white, whatever. It was as easy to see the separation of the “haves” and “have-nots” and for one not used to it, it feels like pain.
I also saw the PBS (Nova) program on what was to happen if New Orleans got hit with a force 4 or 5 hurricane and it was clear what was going to happen. It’s not the same thing as a flood but Canada often gets hit with severe winter storms of similar impact (though houses are rarely blown to bits). Generally speaking (and I’ve been through about a dozen of them) severe storms leave people looking around asking “Who can I help?”. It’s a rare thing to see folk asking “who to blame?”.
Forgive me for saying it — since I have no right except that I have thousands of relatives living all the way from Maine to Louisanna — your country has too many guns. It makes people afriad at the best of times and fear becomes dangerous in emergencies. When war-mongers rule (Bush) and have far more concern about “American interests” than being a good world citizen, I can understand the reluctance to put down the guns. Unfortunately the parallels to the Roman Empire (second half) are striking. Your nation, which brough true democracy to the world (Romans had many successes too), must become at peace with itself, with the world, and with nature (especially nature) before this kind of tragedy will be responded to in a civilized and effective manner.
From any vantage point outside the continental US it’s clear that the American nation (empire) is in severe decline; and so sad for a nation which was truly what it said it was a mere hundred years ago — today words like “peace loving” and “justice” ring hollow across the globe and, with tragedies like Katrina, are beginning to ring a similar plaint in the hearts and minds of a growing number of US citizens — your brother’s and sister’s around the globe cry with you.
One more thing, for the life of me I can’t understand why that strategic genius wouldn’t have had a fully mobilized first-response team (of at least ten thousand) standing by TWO DAYS BEFORE Katrina struck land. If I knew what was likely to happen there is no excuse for Bush (and all the King’s men) to have completely missed the opportunity to act, while not loosing any opportunity to swagger like a fool in front of the cameras three days later as people died in the streets.
Our military as offered help (logistics, communications, direct aid, hospital services, etc…) there’s been no answer from Washington after a week.
To Squirrel Nut, Charles, & Down with whitey,
As one from another of the nation’s poorest states, SC, I can empathize with the frustration and rage that is out there. We thought Hugo was bad-that was a walk in the park compared to this. However as to the blame game, the racism, the name calling, wouldn’t it for now be better to put this to the side, and use this energy to save these people? We all agree it has been mishandled beyond description. Can’t we take all this energy and channel it into helping these victims? Later when we have saved all the people we can and salvaged what we can of the Gulf Coast, then call for investigation into what happened where? Obviously the people of this nation need to step up to the plate and help, but arguing about who’s to blame won’t get it done. We are an imperfect group, human beings, but we are educable. Hopefully we can learn from this and become better people so when something happens again, there will be a more prepared, better equipped, and better timed reponse and hopefully much more compassionate.
I’m not sure who to address this to: but I give Houston my “you’re my hero” in this american tradgedy. Following Katrina and the need for quick solutions we got an idea of what america could do for it’s own. My question is, with the huge amount of “refugees” at this point, or people who have been taking care of peoplein emergency need, why haven’t we heard anything from places like Disney World that could certainly house 100,000′s of needy people? I certainly think differantly of this american icon…where do we draw the line between business bottom line and doing the right thing?
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