Will the FIRST First Responders in Louisiana Stand Up?

FEMA has been the focus of much anger and criticism since Hurricane Katrina severely damaged New Orleans. It's former director came under intense pressure, was relieved of his command in New Orleans and then resigned a few days later.

In Congressional testimony, former FEMA director Michael Brown called Louisiana's leadership before, during and after Katrina "dysfunctional." Congress and the press jumped all over him for saying that and accused him of attempting to shift blame away from FEMA.

Hold the phone.

Enter Hurricane Rita.

Texas, unlike Louisiana a month earlier, did precisely what it was supposed to. The mayors of Houston, Beaumont, Lake Charles and Port Arthur enforced mandatory evacuation orders DAYS ahead of time and used all available resources, including those offered by the governor and FEMA.

The governor of Texas took to the airwaves and clearly communicated to the public the threat that Hurricane Rita posed to communities along Rita's projected track. He declared states of emergency early and requested federal help. And he COMMUNICATED with the mayors AND with President Bush, unlike his Louisiana collegue.

In Louisiana a month earlier, the President declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm and freed up millions of federal dollars to assist Louisiana. Governor Bianco didn't move on it until after the hurricane hit and New Orleans was underwater.

FEMA is designed to support local and state officials in their efforts to bring relief to those whose lives are in danger. The model worked in Texas; it failed in Louisiana because the elected government in Louisiana and in New Orleans collapsed for three critical days.

People in New Orleans were asking "Where's FEMA? Where's FEMA?" They should have been asking "Where's Mayor Nagin? Where's the Governor?" Nagin left hundreds of buses sitting in their parking lots (which subsequently flooded) that could have been used to get more people OUT of the city and OUT of the path of the hurricane. Who the hell cares where the buses would have gone? That's not the point. That's a distraction from Mayor Nagin's shameful handling of the crisis.

And it should be pointed out that he sacked the only man (his police chief) in his administration who DID HIS JOB in keeping his shattered police command working.

The Governor of Louisiana was inept. She didn't want federal troops before the storm, didn't use the federal money to get more buses into New Orleans or other threatened cities, didn't communicate clearly and was at the top of the food chain down there.

The ACTUAL first responders failed: the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana. So before they go pointing fingers at FEMA further, they should get their own houses into order and DO THEIR JOBS!

FEMA failed because those two people failed first, and then FEMA's own major problems kicked into high gear.

The proof is in the pudding: FEMA failed in Louisiana, FEMA succeeded in Texas one month later. The experts are saying that's too soon for any changes to have taken effect. What was different?

Um....could it have something to do with a strong Texas governor and strong Mayors showing the very leadership that the Louisiana people failed to show? Could it have something to do with the Texas folks using FEMA as it was intended to be used? They did SOMETHING right.

The New Face of Treason: Former Marine Corps Press Officer Joins Al-Jazeera

A former U.S. Marine has joined Al-Jazeera's English language news program.

What is this man doing, joining the enemy? It would be like a former Marine joining the Soviet Union's official news agency during the height of the Cold War. Only traitors would do something like that.

If he wants to understand the Muslim world better, perhaps he should study abroad instead of helping them disparage his fellow Marines and Americans in the media. Or perhaps he should become a Muslim.

His resignation from the Marines because of his disagreements with Washington only lends support to the argument that he is using Al-Jazeera to pick a bone with Washington.

And Al-Jazeera is only to happy to oblige him, so long as he agrees to spread enemy propaganda during a time of war.

North Korean Leader May Name Successor Soon

The Russian media is reporting that North Korea's Kim Jong-Il may name his successor in the near future.

The sooner the better.

Millions of North Koreans have starved to death under his watch while he continues to live in luxury.

The North Korean communists have a lot to answer for and hopefully when their scumbag-President leaves, he takes his entire cabal and all of his generals with him.

Good riddance!

NASA Theory on Shuttle Foam Failure is Full of Holes

NASA's new administrator suggested that the foam that came off the space shuttle Discovery two months ago was accidentally cut or crushed by engineers.

He also said that the foam could be damaged merely by someone leaning up against it.

If that's true, then it is going to be impossible to stop wind sheer from tearing foam off the shuttle as it's blasting off.

The g-forces from the lift-off far exceed the weight of a 200 pound scientist leaning up against the shuttle's foam.

This doesn't add up. The only conclusion that can be made is that NASA still doesn't know why the foam is coming off the shuttle during liftoff.

Owners of Capsized Boat May Get $25 Fine

CNN is reporting that the operators of a boat carrying carrying 47 senior citizens (20 of whom drowned after the boat capsized) could get a $25 fine for not having enough crew members on board (the 74-year old captain was the only crewman present).

THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS!!

The fine should be huge! New York's laws are inadequate for a case like this.

Lawyer Nominated for Supreme Court--No Experience as a Judge?

People are holding their breath to see what will happen with President Bush's latest choice for the U.S. Supreme Court.

He has nominated his attorney, White House counsel Harriet Miers, to succeed Sandra Day O'Conner.

Is she qualified to be a justice of the Supreme Court without any experience as a judge?

Despite White House denials, this is very much a "stealth candidate" nomination. There's no paper trail for Congress to analyze, and much of her work for the President will be protected by Presidential privilige.

This candidacy is doomed.

He should have made a better choice; there are other potential nominees who have strong records of applying the law as written and don't pull the "living document" crap that activist judges are famous for when deciding Constitutional law.

It's doubtful that this candidacy will last very long.

New Abu Gharib Photographs are Enemy Propaganda

The entire world knows that certain American soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison in Baghdad.

Dozens of photos were released the first time around. We all got the sense of how bad the abuse was. And we know the effect it had on the Muslim world as well as over here.

So why is a judge ordering that more photos be released?

Aiding the enemy in a time of war is illegal, and the military releasing more photos would do nothing more than incite the jihaddis and insurgents and inflame the Muslim world further. We should not be distributing enemy propaganda while our troops are still over there fighting to defend Iraqi democracy.

Some people obviously enjoy seeing sick photos of people sexually abusing other people and want more to satisfy their perversions. These idiots should go jump in a lake! And they should take their judge with 'em!

Enough, already!

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.