Special Tribunals for New Orleans Police Officers Who Deserted Their Posts

This one's a tough one.

In addition to New Orleans losing their police chief, it was announced that 249 police officers who walked off the job in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will face special tribunals.

Many of their fellow officers consider them traitors. When the moment of truth came, the ones who were the cowards were nowhere to be found.

Some of the officers are dead; some are still missing; others have turned up alive and well; some couldn't handle it. According to Mayor Nagin and other officials, each case will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

On one hand, you can't help but feel for what was going on down there. On the other hand, their fellow officers and many New Orleans residents needed them badly, and they did not answer the call.

They betrayed their oaths as police officers. Those oaths were not simply words to be discarded when the going got tough, and hopefully the tribunal will remember that when dealing with the ones who were legitimate cowards.

1,300 officers chose their duty first, then their families. Or they managed to balance their family's needs with their duties as police officers. The deserters chose not to follow that same path, and for that, they SHOULD face punishment for abandoning their posts.

Lansing Responds: City Forms Task Force to Help Homeless in Mid-Michigan

Scenario: a newspaper reporter stumbles onto a story of a social injustice, reports it through his/her newspaper, and local government officals move to deal with the situation once they are made aware of the problem.

The above scenario doesn't always happen. But sometimes it does.

In one such (recent) situation, local government officials sat up, took notice, and moved to correct a major problem.

The Lansing State Journal reported in its Friday edition that local homeless people were worried that they would left out in the cold while the people and government of Michigan directed nearly all of their resources to help the displaced people from the Gulf Coast, while ignoring the plight of the locals who need just as much assistance.

Lansing officials sat bolt upright and kept reading. And then they took action.

Lansing (Michigan) officials formed a task force made up of twenty-four different agencies to address the homeless problem in the mid-Michigan area. The Mayor of Lansing announced the plan in a press conference earlier this week.

The city's efforts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Lansing State Journal, for bringing this to everyone's attention in a way that couldn't easily be ignored.

Hopefully the State of Michigan will follow the city's example.

Here's the update.

Flashback to September 5th: Mold Prediction Was Right On

How did I know that mold was going to invade New Orleans and other hurricane-damaged communities along the Gulf Coast?

That's been the question people have been e-mailing me in the last couple of days. I predicted that this was going to happen back on September 5th.

As a licensed insurance agent in the State of Michigan, I got to see first-hand what happens when basements flood and not enough corrective action is taken to prevent mold infestation after it gets dried out.

I've seen entire basements filled with the stuff. It moves in and takes over. It crawls all over every wall, gets into every crack and crevice, and stinks to high heaven. It doesn't stop at the waterline, either. It just keeps going once a bad case begins.

That's how I knew exactly what was going to happen.

No structure that had water in it in the last month will be spared the mold problem.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn't flatten New Orleans. The mold problem might.

Local Homeless Left Behind in Katrina Disaster

The Lansing State Journal had an article in last Friday's edition that raised some good points on Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita relief efforts and should be explored.

According to State of Michigan estimates, there are some 40,000 homeless people in Michigan.

When the Gulf Coast got clobbered by two monster hurricanes, Michigan's government and people responded by raising millions of dollars and opening hundreds of homes and apartments for hurricane evacuees as well as opening up armories and other government facilities to refugees.

It is very unfortunate that people and state government waited for a disaster of this magnitude to strike before taking action on a massive scale like this to help people.

Michigan has said it would accept up to 10,000 refugees.

What can we do to help the local homeless? We should not lose this opportunity to help the Michigan homeless as well as Gulf Coast evacuees.

Here's the story as reported by the Lansing State Journal.

As Predicted, Mold Invades New Orleans and It's Growing Faster than Expected

USA Today is reporting that mold has invaded New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast and is growing much quicker than expected.

There's no way to stop it now, except to replace parts of houses and buildings that are currently under assault. There's too much of it to simply squirt it down with bleach and mold remover.

The USA Today story has some disgusting photos of the mold eating a house in downtown New Orleans.

Able Danger: What is Going On Here?

Is there any truth to Able Danger?

What did the military really know about the 9/11 hijackers? Did they identify Mohammed Atta a year before 9/11 took place?

The Defense Department's supression of several witnesses on "national security" grounds before they were able to testify before Congress today was deeply troubling. It shouldn't have happened like this; it makes the military look as guilty as sin.

The lack of honesty about Able Danger calls the 9/11 Commission findings into question and invalidates part of their account of what happened prior to 9/11.

The Commission members have dismissed Able Danger, but they can't simply dismiss it outright without hearing testimony first. And the government is doing what it can to stop the testimony from happening.

This has the makings of a major scandal. We don't need that right now.

Story as follows.

North Koreans Prove They Can't Be Trusted: No More Deals Until They Live Up to Current One

One day.

The agreement between the United States, Japan, South Korea, Russia, China and North Korea lasted a single day.

North Korea agreed to dismantle it's nuclear program and cease development of nuclear weapons. Now it isn't. It's possible that it never really intended to.

Here's what needs to happen: no more deals with North Korea until this one is carried out in it's entirety. Even China appears to be annoyed with Pyongyang's stupidity.

Here's the story.

Local Woman Receiving Hurricane Katrina Aid Arrested for Fraud

This story is a bad one.

A local woman who captured the hearts of her community and had received Hurricane Katrina aid from Catholic Charities and donations from mid-Michigan was led from her new home in handcuffs for fraud.

Why do people do stuff like this? It's no secret that scams pop up after a disaster, but it's still a shock when a story like this has a local face that goes to it.

Here's the original story. Here's today's page 1 headline.

Both stories are in the Lansing State Journal.

Hurricane Rita Approaching Gulf of Mexico: New Orleans Being Abandoned

With Hurricane Rita hitting the Florida Keys and heading toward Texas, the mayor of New Orleans stopped encouraging people to return and instead ordered the evacuation of the city.

If Rita changes course, New Orleans may get hit by another hurricane and get re-swamped.

What next?

Clarity Emerges in British Raid on Iraqi Jail

A clearer picture developed overnight as to exactly what happened yesterday when British armored forces staged a break-out of two undercover British soldiers from an Iraqi jail.

It appears that the soldiers were taken into custody by Iraqi police, and for some reason the soldiers were handed over to Shiite militiamen and held at the jail. The Iraqi Interior Minister ordered the soldiers released into British Army custody, but the order was ignored by the militiamen, whose alliegence and affiliation is unclear.

When that happened, the British stormed the jail and took the men from the militiamen.

So this wasn't a case of the British Army taking on the Iraqi police; it was the British Army putting illegal militias into their places.

Puts the story in an entirely different light.

British Army Raids Iraqi Jail: Why?

In a confusing turn of events, British Army tanks and armored personnel carriers appear to have attacked an Iraqi jail and freed two British prisoners. One hundred fifty Iraqi prisoners also made good their escape.

This situation is so confusing that it defies reality; yet photos are on the web of a British APC burning and a British soldier scrambling away from the flames while a soldier or policeman of unknown nationality with a riot shield watches.

Conflicting accounts of the scene from official sources are making it difficult to sort this out.

One thing appears certain: if the British Army attacked a Iraqi police jail, it will undermine the Iraqi police and justice system that the British Army itself has helped to rebuild. It just doesn't make sense.

Here's the story as reported by CNN, the New York Times and Fox News.

Mayor Acting Recklessly in Encouraging People to Return to New Orleans

New Orleans Mayor Nagin is acting with reckless abandon in encouraging people to return.

In recent days he was opening up parts of New Orleans for business and encouraging up to 180,000 people to return.

This, despite the fact that 80% of New Orleans remains heavily contaminated, the hospital care system remains utterly destroyed, fresh water is not available for that many people and the infrastructure is still heavily damaged.

His course of action is unwise.

He really needs to think about what he's doing. He shouldn't be re-opening New Orleans until AFTER the hurricane season is done and the contamination is dealt with. If people return and start getting sick from contamination, it's his responsibility.

BlogSpot Community in Crisis: Flag Button is Poor Solution to Controlling Objectional Blogs

A censorship drive has begun at BlogSpot, the host of this and millions of other blogs.

It's Blogger.com's attempt to get a handle on objectionable blogs which feature hate speech, illegal forms of communication and other “objectionable” (their word) types of blogs.

The means by which they are attempting to do this is causing great concern in this community.

As you can see at the top of this blog (and all other blogspot blogs), there is a flag button at the top which allows the viewer to flag the blog and report it to Blogger. There's nothing wrong with that part of it.

What's causing concern is that Blogger doesn't define what “objectionable” means. Objectionable to whom?

Does it mean blogs that express hatred for a group of people?

Does it mean blogs that criticize the government?

Does it mean blogs that criticize Democratic or Liberal stands on issues?

Does it mean blogs that criticize the Republicans or Conservative stands on
issues?

Does it mean blogs that criticize bad court decisions?

Does it mean blogs that profess the Gospels of Jesus Christ as the way to salvation?

Does it mean blogs that call for the violent overthrow of the United States Government and the establishment of a communist thug state with no Bill of Rights?

Or threats of violence against specific federal government officals which would lead to a visit from the Secret Service?

What, then?

Here's the explanation that Blogger is giving to everyone as to how it works and what the stand on hate speech is:

When a person visiting a blog clicks the "Flag?" button in the Blogger Navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. We track the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed. This feature allows the blogging community as a whole to identify content they deem objectionable. Have you read The Wisdom of Crowds? It's sort of like that.

Special Case for Hate Speech

When the community has voted and hate speech is identified on Blog*Spot, Google may exercise its right to place a Content Warning page in front of the blog and set it to "unlisted."

So, if I put a post up here objecting to something that my heart and head are telling me is dead wrong, or absolutely correct, if someone disagrees, they can flag it as “objectionable” and have their friends who are in agreement with them flag it as well, it could well be labeled as offensive, which could lead to the labeling above or outright deletion of the entire blog.

That's supression of my opinion. If it's supression of my opinion, I would like the name, address and telephone number of the attorney or judge who will be reviewing my writing to determine if it's “objectionable” and is deserving of punishment.

And I want in-person appointments with those individuals to discuss the merits of the First Amendment and equal protection. Further, I want them to pay for at least half of my travel expenses. And I want Blogger to pay for lost wages and any legal consultation fees.

It should also be pointed out that while two or ten or twelve might object to something that I say here and flag it, what about the two or ten or twelve that agree with my opinion on something but cannot push a button to say that they agree with me? How does Blogger monitor that?

While I deplore hate speech, hate crime and bigotry in general, I am also in favor of fair and equal treatment under the protections of the Constitution.

There are first-class fools out there endorsing the killing and enslavement of entire groups of people and there are fools out there who are impressionable enough to believe the propaganda and go out and do it, regardless of the consequences. These types of blogs should be monitored and stopped if necessary.

But legitimate free speech, political discourse and personal opinions (which others might disagree with) should be protected from being judged as "objectionable" by a part of the community who has a mere difference of opinion.

My suggestion to Blogger is to keep the flag button to report stuff, but do an internal investigation of a blog to determine if it violates the Terms of Service and take action accordingly.

I will not flag any blogger that is merely expressing an opinion (which I may or may not object to). That's what comments are for AND e-mails.

Venezuelan President at it Again: Says U.S. Planning on Invading His Country

The little communist from Venezuela is trying to get everybody's attention again.

Now President Chavez says he has proof that the U.S. is planning to invade his country and overthrow his regime. He told NBC Nightline during an interview that the "secret plan" to attack Venezuela was code-named "Operation Balboa" and was provided to him by clandestine sources.

It's more likely that it's a Cuban intelligence operation designed to inflame an already-tense U.S./Venezuelan relationship. After all, the thug is friends with Fidel Castro, and we already know what a piece of work Castro is.

Here's a theory to counter his theory: Cuban military sources cooked up the plan themselves, wrote it in English and provided it to Chavez's government. They assured Chavez that it was authentic, so he believed them.

Or, he's making it all up.

Either way, he should be up on charges for what he's doing to free speech and liberty in his country. But that's not up to us; it's up to the people he's suppressing.

Popular Anti-War Protester Demands U.S. End Occupation of....New Orleans??!

A popular anti-war demonstrator who demanded that President Bush meet with her to discuss why her son died and made headlines across the country turned a new corner yesterday, demanding that U.S. forces be removed from "occupied New Orleans and Iraq."

These are not the words of a well woman. She's not seeing the same world that everyone else is.

It's sad to watch her go through this.

She's so far off-track that she's a distraction to her own political movement. She's lost her perspective; read her comments here.

Congress Worried About Spending Money on Katrina: If They Cut Their Own PORK Projects Then They Wouldn't Have to Worry

Lawmakers are concerned about spending lavishly to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

Well, they shouldn't be.

Their recent budget bills contain so much pork that one can hear the squeals coming from Washington in every corner of the nation! Congressional hypocrites!

If they are worried about spending too much on Katrina, then they should go back and slash their own pork from the budget bills. That will help with Katrina relief efforts to the tune of $1.72 billion. If they go back to their monster highway bill that they just passed, they could eliminate $24 billion in pork.

All Congress cares about is their pork projects; they're willing to sacrifice federal funding of the rebuilding of New Orleans to keep their favorite pet projects.

Here's the 2005 PIG BOOK!! Oink!! Oink!!

The President really needs that line-item veto for Congressional budget bills. The situation is out of control. See the pig book for further details.

NASA Set to Roll Out Space Shuttle Replacement Craft: Goal is to Return to Moon by 2018

At last!

NASA announced that it was going to unveil the (concept) replacement spacecraft for the aging Space Shuttle fleet next week as well as the plan to return humanity to the moon and beyond by the year 2018.

The plan calls for NASA to spend $100 billion over the next twelve years to develop a kind of wedge spacecraft that would seat four astronaughts and would ride atop a huge booster rocket complete with five main engines, solid rocket boosters and.....massive external fuel tanks. (Groan).

Oh, here we go again. Bigger tanks, more foam.

Perhaps they should spend the next twelve years fixing the external fuel tank foam, since it helped to destroy one shuttle and damaged another.

Someone needs to talk to those engineers about coming up with a better solution than external fuel tanks.

Here's the original story.

Terrorist Iranian President Says He'll Pass Along Nuclear Technology to Other Arab Nations

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told Turkey's prime minister that Iran is ready to "transfer nuclear know-how to other Islamic countries." He made the comments at the U.N. summit in New York.

This is why Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Europeans have taken the lead in talks with Iran to get the Iranians to forego any nuclear weapons development. Despite cracks in EU unity, they are continuing their efforts.

U.S. attempts to get the matter referred to the U.N. Security Council have stalled as many nations are leaning toward giving the Iranians several weeks to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions which call for Iran to stop developing nuclear weapons.

Given the fact that the Iranians are said to be at least five years away from developing crude atomic arms, a delay of a few weeks to get the Iranians to come to their senses and get rid of their own weapons program seems reasonable.

The U.S. should be patient and allow diplomacy to work. We don't need any more cowboy adventures; our military is stretched WAY too thin, despite what the brass says. The EU approach is the correct one in this matter.

All talk of U.S. unilateral military action should also be stopped.

Consider: a military conflict between the U.S. and Iran would probably not be confined to Iranian borders; it would spill over into Iraq and Afghanistan as both countries border Iran, and U.S. troops are still there in vast numbers.

The Iranians hate the U.S. as much as (if not more than) al-Qaeda and would invade one or both countries to kill U.S. soldiers in large numbers for revenge. In the meantime, Iraq and Afghanistan's recovery efforts would collapse and the situation in those nations would worsen beyond belief.

With a known terrorist as Iran's political leader (and with the backing of the mullahs), it's very likely that Iran will not comply with the IAEA orders and things will move from there.

A united international front against Iran is needed, not a "go-it-alone" attitude from the U.S.

It's time for the U.S. to join the group and do it right. Divisiveness will only lead to delay and the nuclear clock is definitely running with Iran.

President Bush Bathroom Break Memo Photographed at UN: Biggest Non-News Story of the Week

It appears President Bush was caught passing a note to Condi Rice at the U.N. summit taking place in New York requesting a bathroom break.

Oh, this is certainly worthy of our attention.

With evacuee families scattered all across the nation, shouldn't the newspapers be publishing photos of missing family members and doing more to reunite children with their families?

The media should get their heads out of the sand and start doing someone some good instead of wasting space on something like this!

Get with the program, media people, and HELP!

For those media outlets that are helping with relief efforts, thank you for your efforts. YOU are appreciated.

Governor of Louisiana Takes Responsibility for State Shortcomings in New Orleans Disaster: Mayor? Congress?

The governor of Louisiana took responsibility for her state's shortcomings in preparing for Hurricane Katrina and for the poor coordination during and immediately after the storm.

Her comments came a day after President Bush took responsibility for the poor federal response to Katrina.

The governor's comments are encouraging. It's another step toward figuring out what went wrong.

MAYOR NAGIN? CONGRESS??!

All Levels of Government Must Come Clean on New Orleans Disaster: Lack of Action Before, During and After Katrina Left City Defenseless

By now it's evident that everyone screwed up in New Orleans, from the Mayor of the city to the governor of Louisiana to the director of FEMA to the director of Homeland Security to the President of the United States.

So far two administration officials have taken responsibility for their part in the federal government not doing what it was supposed to: former director of FEMA Mike Brown, and President Bush himself.

Congress (which assisted in several major screw-ups itself in this crisis), the Mayor and the Governor have yet to speak up; they're still in the blame-game stage of denial.

The sooner they admit that they screwed up too, the sooner the system can be analyzed and fixed. It's clearly flawed and must be fixed IMMEDIATELY.

Enough of the obstructionist political manuvering. WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR IT!!

Race and the New Orleans Disaster: Pundits are Twisting the Images on TV to Their Own Advangage

Did race play any part whatsoever in the number of African American evacuees in New Orleans as compared to white evacuees?

It sure did.

Why?

Because according to the U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans make up 67.3% of the population of Orleans parish, which was hard-hit by the hurricane and subsequent flooding and evacuations. Look at the stats yourself.

What would happen if Detroit, Michigan, were evacuated? 81.5% of Detroit residents are African-American. So if Detroit had to be evacuated, we'd expect to see more blacks than whites as evacuees.

Contrast Helena, Montana, where 94.8% of the population is white, while 0.2% of Helena's population is African-American. We'd be seeing more white faces than black ones on CNN if Helena had to be evacuated.

It's all about numbers and how pundits are using them to their own advantage.

The size and racial makeup of the New Orleans community itself directly led to more blacks than whites being seen on TV as Katrina victims.

It's a vicious cycle and a vicious game that politicians and the media are playing and it needs to end. It's not helping the situation.

Cyclic Hurricane Season is More Responsible for Katrina Than Global Warming Is

Pundits for global warming are at it again, distorting facts and using as-yet unproven science to back up their claims.

They are now claiming that Hurricane Katrina was caused exclusively by global warming, despite the fact that there's nearly two hundred years of hurricane tracking data that shows there's an "off-again/on-again" cycle to hurricane seasons (to which global warming MAY be having an effect.)

These cycles come and go every three or so decades according to the validated research. It should be noted that the increase in Atlantic hurricanes has led to a decrease in Pacific hurricanes overall. That was also in-line with what has happened in the past.

The "on" cycle (which we have been in since 1995 according to researchers) usually lasts ten to fifteen years.

Here are the links:
BBC News Report
USInfo Report
Technology News Report

Here's the record of hurricanes since the 1800s.

Instead of using the hurricane to exploit their political ends, perhaps they should pitch in and help with the recovery efforts. It's coming across as some people who are helping, and some who are exploiting the disaster for their own ends to score brownie points on the Administration.

Everyone needs to put aside these other issues; get off the fence and HELP any way that they can. Leave the politics for another time. This definitely ISN'T it.

Court Orders Stop Base Closure Commission from Recommendations: Courts Should Stay Away from These Kinds of Decisions

Legal challenges are taking place to stop base closures from happening.

Courts in four states are ordering the base closure commission to not send their recommendations to the President "as is" as the plaintiffs want their installations removed from the list.

What are the courts doing, getting involved in this?

People have a right to try and convince the base closure commission that their bases shouldn't be closed. That is the proper way of stopping a base closure according to established guidelines.

This panel should be immune from lawsuits.

Other economically depressed areas have lost their bases in the past; they recovered and moved on. Why can't Connecticut and Tennessee do the same? In those two states, the courts ruled that the respective governors of those states would suffer hardships. Yeah, so what?

It looks like the courts just mentioned are propping up those governors and that isn't right either. That's probably not what's happening, but the appearance isn't good.

When it reaches the Supreme Court, this will be decided, and it might be time to change some procedures on how the Pentagon closes bases down to prevent a future occurance of judicial interference.

The Supreme Court decided not to get involved yet as these lawsuits are going through the court system so it will be a while before anything is set in stone.

Word Verification Service Turned On--Spammers Not Welcome Here

Those wishing to comment on my topics will have to do a word verification from here on out as a way of establishing that the poster is, in fact, a human being, and not a computer running an advertisement in my space.

You'll find out what that means when you try to comment.

By the way, spammers (and their computer surrogates) are a bunch of useless gits too. I have no use for them.

If the previous two comments are legit, my apologies, but I don't think that they are.

The Fix is IN: Gas Barons Are a Bunch of Swindlers and Mercenaries

Did anyone happen to notice the spike in gas prices last week? It was hard not to.

In Michigan, the gas price went from $2.79 a gallon all the way up to $3.19 the next day, and then up to $3.39 a gallon the day after that.

The very next day, the price dropped to $2.99 a gallon. There it sits today.

Now, some will attribute it to Hurricane Katrina shutting down the oil pipelines in and around the Gulf Coast. That's what they want you to believe. The fact of the matter is that there is a backup of crude oil awaiting processing at the nation's refineries.

Oil speculators should be arrested and charged with crimes for what they're doing to our economy and to those people who have already had to make drastic life changes. It should have taken four to six weeks for the fuel that was at $70 a barrel to hit the market and affect prices. Didn't happen. Nope.

Here's what really happened: the robber barons raised their prices and soaked the consumer. Then they realized that there was going to be a gas price revolt at $3.39 a gallon and dropped the price 40 cents overnight.

And it's not just the oil barons who are "fixing" things. Some gas stations are definitely gouging. They deny it, but my boss was filling up the day the prices hit $3.39; he watched as an employee of the gas station walked outside the station with a pair of binoculars and looked at what the competition was getting for a gallon of gas ($3.39). He changed his sign to match theirs. He was at $3.29 a gallon, according to my boss. His receipt confirmed that part of his story; when I went by the station myself, the price was $3.39.

There is a difference in prices between wholesale gasoline and retail gas prices. The gas stations have some leeway in how much they purchase and sell their gas for. This is how business is done in the entire retail sector. Except with the oil companies and gas stations, it's one huge cabal to make more money.

So you'll have to excuse me if I don't go with the BS explanations that the oil companies and gas stations are putting forth on why a gallon of gas is so expensive. It's just more BS to get buried under.

Hollywood Laments Poor Summer 2005 Showing at the Box Office

Hollywood is crying over box office revenues being down 9% from a year ago.

That's what happens when: 1) the movies themselves aren't that good and 2) movie theatre owners insist on selling expensive tickets to see dud movies.

Consumers want as much bang as possible for their buck. Blowing $9 on a movie that is just plain b-a-d is bad for the business.

There are so many junk movies out there that people are picking and choosing their films very carefully. In a sense, Hollywood has let their fans down very badly and now they are paying the price for it. They should be happy that the damage was limited to a 9% decrease and that it wasn't much worse.

So quit bellyaching, Hollywood, and get back to business.

Good News and Bad News Comes Out of New Orleans: Levees Fixed, Pumps Working, Waters Going Down: The Next Terrible Chapter Awaits

At last, some good news. It's too bad that the good news is linked to bad news as well.

The broken levees have been fixed and the pumps have been turned back on in New Orleans. This will make it easier on the rescue teams who are struggling to reach all parts of the underwater city.

But are the rescue teams (and the entire nation) prepared for what lies underneath the water that will be exposed in the next several weeks as the pumps work around-the-clock to get the water out?

The next chapter in this horror story is about to begin. Brace yourselves, it isn't going to be good. At least 10,000 decomposing bodies, toxic sludge, rubble and all kinds of nasty things that we can't fathom await exposure to the surface.

Is the American public prepared to see dozens of decomposing bodies exposed to open air on national TV? It's sure to be carried on the networks; if you have a weak stomach, it might not be a bad idea to avoid watching live news feeds out of New Orleans for a while.

Hopefully the press is sensitive to refugee families and doesn't show enough for refugee families to identify the decomposing remains of their loved ones who were left behind. They don't have to see that.

I also hope the government is providing for the mental health of everyone involved in relief operations along the Gulf Coast; these men and women are seeing stuff that most of us cannot possibly fathom; they're going to need help in dealing with the unbelievable amount of stress and anguish that they've already encountered and what they are about to encounter.

May God help them all.

Officials Declare New Orleans "Completely Destroyed"

The terrible news out of New Orleans continued unabated, even as the nation continued to rally to support the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Police officials declared New Orleans to be completely destroyed. This was on top of the news that officials believed 10,000 Americans had died in New Orleans alone.

Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley said that New Orleans was a hazard and it was time for everyone to leave. Yet some are refusing to go.

The unthinkable has happened; an American city has been laid to waste by a natural disaster. And it wasn't L.A. or San Francisco being leveled by a monster earthquake; it was one hurricane slamming into the Gulf Coast.

Think about it...

Even after the water is drained from New Orleans in the next three to four months, the next enemy will arrive in force long before that: mold.

Houses will begin to rot from the inside out.

There's no stopping it; everything has to be decontaminated before they can move on to stopping the mold. With so many houses flooded, even if every water restoration company in the country worked around the clock to stop the damage in New Orleans, the vast majority of houses and buildings would be severely damaged or destroyed by mold and mildew before the restoration people got to them.

The mold carries danger of it's own. It's toxic to humans and can cause them to get very sick.

When will this nightmare end?

Generosity of People of Michigan is Greatly Appreciated

Over to first person. Political stuff can wait.

Twenty-four hours ago, I and several of my fellow Community Emergency Response Team members manned a telephone bank at the Michigan Department of Community Health and took phone calls from residents of Michigan who wanted to donate time, goods, skills and services and other non-monetary items to survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

The generosity of the people who called in was overwhelming.

One guy who called offered to bus five families to Michigan, pay for their accommodations, buy clothes and food for the families, and then pay the fare for them to go home once the outcome to this catastrophe became clearer.

Another man called from Cadillac and had a 53 foot-long trailer full of food and medical supplies to drive to Mississippi the next day.

A woman offered to do a jump-rope marathon in Battle Creek and give the proceeds to the American Red Cross.

Returning Iraq War veterans called and offered their services as combat medics, security people, drivers, engineers and a whole host of other duties that they had carried out in a war zone. That they would volunteer to go from one hell-hole into another was heart-warming.

And people wanted to donate money. They were referred to the Red Cross.

Medical professionals also registered with us and offered their services to help people in the disaster areas. I spoke to registered nurses, nurses assistants, EMTs, laid off firefighters, and others.

There were HUNDREDS of calls like the ones above.

Thank you, people of Michigan, for your kindness and generosity. And thank you, America, for doing the same.

U.S. Should Accept International Aid for Hurricane Relief

In a dramatic turnabout, a dozen nations have offered the U.S. assistance in coping with the catastrophic hurricane situation on the Gulf Coast.

America should accept the aid gratefully.

Some of the aid offers are coming from nations that were ravaged by last year's South Asian tsunami, who have had earthquakes and so forth.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said it best when he said "There should not be an assumption that because America is the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, this isn't a major challenge and a major crisis."

The U.S. has received foreign aid in the past, and these nations want to help us to repay a moral debt since we helped them. Our government should not turn any nation's assistance away. The need is dire and the situation out of control.

Deal With Gulf Coast Humanitarian Crisis Before All Other Concerns

The Republican Speaker of the House in Washington says taxpayer money should not be spent to rebuild New Orleans as it was. He's absolutely right. The bowl should be filled in and the city rebuilt at-or-above sea-level. No more of this below-sealevel crap.

Rebuilding New Orleans as it was would be like like rebuilding the World Trade Center exactly as it was: using an already-failed design. Bad move. Remember, the towers collapsed, killing many more people than the inital impacts of the hijacked airliners did.

Democrats in Congress were quick to point out that the humanitarian crisis in Louisiana and other Gulf states takes priority over all other concerns. The Democrats are right too (more so, in fact). There are still many thousands of people to pull out of the stricken area. Order must be restored by the authorities before the survivors' decent into madness and deprivation goes any further. The Democratic response to Hastert's comments were entirely correct.

Only after these humanitarian crisis issues are addressed should attention be paid to any other post-disaster ideas that are being played out in the media by politicians and others.