Victims of Hurricane Katrina are attempting to recover from the massive storm. American Red Cross volunteers have been deployed to the hardest hit areas of Katrina’s destruction, supplying hundreds of thousands victims left homeless with critical necessities. By making a financial gift to Hurricane 2005 Relief, the Red Cross can provide shelter, food, counseling and other assistance to those in need.
Call The American Red Cross at 1-800-HELP-NOW or make a contribution of US$5 or more here:
https://give.redcross.org/
You can also donate via Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Click here to launch iTunes and donate.
MacDailyNews and iPodDailyNews staff weathered four hurricanes between 1996-1999 (Hurricane Bertha, Hurricane Fran, Hurricane Bonnie, Hurricane Floyd) while living in Wilmington, NC and Surf City, NC. Direct hits, all of them. We know from personal experience that tempers can flare as people await the chance to return home to find out what hurricanes have wrought. Try to have patience and help each other.
Related article:
Apple adds ‘Donate to American Red Cross’ section to iTunes Music Store for Hurricane Katrina relief – September 01, 2005
“So what should you do when your people are suffering horrifically?
Answer: send in troops with a shoot-to-kill policy!
Another classic day in the life of George Wanker Bush.”
Toby, come on. Put your ignorance on a shelf, huh? How about they were given permission to shoot to kill because of the roaming bands of gang members who got a hold of weapons and are taking advantage of this situation by doing things like, oh, I dunno, keeping several firemen and their families hostage in a building by trying to snipe them if they leave, or shooting at Paramedics who are trying to evacuate a nursing home? But I guess you’d say it’s not these idiots fault that they act this way. I don’t know how, but I’m sure you’ll come up with some excuse.
Two words: Personal Responsibility. The lack of this is ruining our country.
Surely this hurricane is W’s fault too
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My immediate thought was that why did those idiots stay when they had plenty of warning.
Then it came out that a lot of the people that stayed behind couldn’t afford to pay for travel and accommodation.
Who knows what the real truth is – maybe some stayed who were able to leave whilst others had no choice.
Question is did FEMA set up places for those in financial difficulties to evacuate to and provide transportation? Probably not. Whilst most could probably scrap together the cash to leave for a few days, it could put them in serious debt. Maybe some thought the risk was worth it, especially if the storm wasn’t too bad.
The violence that has occurred is not acceptable but then neither was the lame attempt to get people to safety before the storm hit.
I personally think that compulsory evacuation should be considered in these situations. Provide shelter, transportation for those who need it, but get them out of harms way before disaster strikes. The time and effort rescusing thousands of people could have been spent starting repairing the damage done by Katrina. Civil liberties does not count for much when you’re dead.
MW “states” seriously that was what is was!
Dale Sorel,
that’s the thing, most of this isn’t the hurricane’s fault,
<u>fires</u>: gas lines leeking, put there by humans
<u>raping</u>: the hurricane isn’t making people rape 13 year old girls
<u>looting</u>: ill bet you that a lot of people like it there right now, no law, millions of dollars of stuff just lying around, and you’ve got a gun. Keep in mind that these people were below the poverity line before this hapened, is that the hurricane’s fault?
All the white people* got out ok, was the hurricane racist?
All this horriable shit that is going on, just take a second to think, is this the hurricane’s fault, or our’s?
You have just read the point of view of a 13 year old high school student, go ahead, tell me how I should think.
MW: quite
*By white people, I am not referring entirely to the color of people’s skin (there are some black people that are really white, and some white people that are really black), I am refering to the class of people known as “whites”.
I just gave a donation to American Red Cross (via iTunes)! Oh, iTunes, what can’t you do?!
“Answer: send in troops with a shoot-to-kill policy!”
Last I checked, this order came from the governor of Louisiana, who happens to be a Democrat by the way…so at least get your facts straight before you say something stupid…
What I find amusing is that the bleeding heart liberals out there didn’t seem to give a damn about the victims of this hurricane until around Wednesday when they could use the excuse of a slow federal response (which was actually more the fault of LA’s governor than anyone else) to bash Bush.
And you sure didn’t see Apple promoting donations until 2-3 days after the hurricane had hit either. Why was their response to those suffering in LA and MS so slow? Was it because the hurricane hit “red” states in the south that Al Gore lost in 2000 so they didn’t really care?
They most certainly reacted much quicker to the tsunami tragedy than this one in our own country. Hell, Apple used their entire home page to promote contributing to tsunami relief for several days. But with Katrina, it took several days to simply get a small button that links you to iTunes to make a donation (which is in essence an underhanded self promotion tactic since the link doesn’t work if iTunes isn’t installed first, so you’re redirected to the iTunes download page instead).
Aside from the suffering of those effected by the storm, the ugliest thing to come out of this tragedy has been the politicizing of the event by those looking to gain from it. Instead of focusing on the victims and recovery, it was nothing more than a blame game to them. But with libs in the US, this is pretty much standard policy, so it’s no real surprise anyway.
God, there sure are a lot of racist goons out there! I didn’t know you knuckleheads could use a computer!
What was the Governor of Lousiana doing? That clueless housewife has the State Police, the National Guard, all state agencies, parish sheriffs, etc all at her disposal, plus marshall law, comendeering rights, etc.
While federal help is needed, the first to be there and to get the situation under conrol are the STATE AUTHORITIES! That dumbass housewife was almost crying in camera … ‘ohhh its soooo heartbreaking’.
And that dumbass mayor of New Orleans … he’s no Guilana (spelling?)
That mayor is AWESOME!!!!!!!!
I want him for president.
MW: data
Reality Check:
There were a load of us bleeding-heart liberals who were saying during the election season last year that this administration had been terrible for the more deprived in society and you know what we got from flag-waving Republican cheerleaders? Comments such as [I]You’re all pinko tree-huggers[/i} or [I]GWB is the greatest president ever[/I].
Well, ignoring the fact that – on the basis of achievements so far – GWB is hardly an Abraham Lincoln or a Theodore Roosevelt, what the last ten days has shown is that this administration has taken the idea that the Executive branch should reserve its activities for the foreign policy arena just a step or two too far, especially given that the Legislature can’t seem to pass a piece of legislation or agree on anything without somehow adding on some pork-barrel parcel for their own constituency.
And let’s just remind everyone: the Executive is Republican, the House of Representatives has a Republican majority and the Senate has a Republican majority, and – just for good measure – the likelihood, following the death of the Chief Justice, is that the Supreme Court will also land up being led by a conservative Republican agenda. So before we start blaming Democrats for the state of the nation, try doing a quick reality check of your own.
GIVE?!!
I already did.. I PAY MY FICKIN’ TAXES!!
I am single an pay MORE tax to our school system than the people with children do.
I am poor, but pay taxes so CEO’s of companies so they can charge us $5.00 per MRE that costs $.50 (or less!) to make.
I am poor, but support a total stranger in my home, a soldier in this state’s National Guard because his family kicked him out. [Yes, he has BEGGED his chain-of-command to volunteer to go to the disaster, out of a sense of patriotism and as a means to make a few extra dollars, but the military said “No! Stay there. Be poor. We don’t need your help.”]
If the politicians want to stuff my taxes into their buddies’ pockets, FINE! But, don’t start asking for MORE money because they have none left. The Red Cross shouldn’t have to support suffering Americans, that’s why we PAY TAXES!!! IF the Red Cross must go to a 3rd world country, then I give extra to what I regularly give to them.
If you haven’t got it all figured out yet that your government is NOT going to give enough aid fast enough… unless your mansion in Beverly HIlls is about to burn… then perhaps you’re just too stupid or naive to survive in America.
If you give money to make up to the government’s greed, then there will be no discussion or debate about raising more money for the future. Cold? Callous? Yea, perhaps, but it is not unusual for a few to suffer or be sacrificed so the the vast majority will have a better life in the future.
The only good from all of this is PROOF that Bush is ONLY in office to feed more money to his buddies and has NO LEADERSHIP qualities whatsoever!!!! He is loving this!! Now, he has a new way for the government to give BILLIONS to his oil buddies under the guise of “building new refineries and pipelines”. That cost should fall to the companies for doing risky business in a hurricane zone. But no, rather than losing on that gamble, they will reap BILLIONS of dollars for “rebuilding”. No loss, in fact a huge profit from this disaster.
Many more large businesses are already counting their soon-to-come profits from this disaster.
If yer stupid enough to live behind a wall with a lake on one side and an ocean on the other, or build a home on a mound of mud in an earthquake zone, or one on a beach with known erosion, or just dumb enough to step in front of a train… then fick y’all. Evolution is suppose to get rid of the stupid ones from the DNA gene pool. But, we in our own stupidity spend our money to keep these idiots around. At this rate, humans will be a packed planet of total idiots. If you look at how and who we elect to lead us, perhaps we’re there already!!
The money runs out, and there’s no fuel for the fire, and people wake
up to these facts…they’ll be singing a different tune.
Name THAT TUNE!
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CT ======]————- I was working in the lab late one night…
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What people don’t understand here is that the US is the United States of America, each “State” has it’s own ruler, supreme court system, consitution and ways of doing things. They are seperate powers.
This problem with New Orleans was predicted and even practiced long in advance. It was predicted at least 200,000 people would be unable or unwilling to leave and that adequate transportation and force would be required to move these people out of harms way.
It was the state and local governments responsibility to have these resources at their disposal, instead they were reling upon neighboring states to assist instead of making themselves self-reliant.
It takes time to bring in extra police officers, buses and resources to execute a forceful evacuation, by the time they got there the hurricane would have struck. Not to mention that neighboring states also have to protect and serve their own people.
So the State Government and the Mayor of New Orleans is directly responsible for failing to adequatly prepare for this.
As I look at the overhead pictures I see entire fleets, FLEETS of trucks that could have been used, thousands of cars, but are now underwater.
So coming down to brass tacks, it’s not poverty, it was the
1: lack of planning on the state and city government.
2: people refusing to leave when ordered and not preparing
3: acting like animals instead of trying to be human beings.
in actuality, I think this was the plan all along, the state decided if a flood occured they would need to evacutate the whole city.
instead of being the bad guy and forcing people to leave, they would just let them suffer and that would motivate them to leave. After all the state would say if they refuse our evacuation orders then they took their own life in their own hands.
Maybe the state was hoping they could reduce their welfare rolls a bit.
izod,
So izod, you didn’t go get your mother before this happened and just let her suffer through this ordeal, then you come here and complain.
I hope the governement sends you a bill for the $5000 airlift.
BTW, I have been through the great depression and vietnam.
So quit your whining.
MacAnimal:
I’m perfectly aware of the whole subsidiarity thing that goes on between Federal and State governments.
However, what cannot be denied is that THREE separate states got the bejaysus kicked out of them by Katrina: Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, is getting the bad press because of the civil unrest, but the scene of devastation from Mississippi is no better and neither has the response of Federal government.
Surely FEMA, under the direction of the DHS, should have had resources ready to go, rather than waiting for the Chief Executive to declare that the response is inadequate.
But this administration seems so occupied in the vision of spreading democracy under the guise of fighting terrorism that it is unable to deal with the more mundane (if one could call the vision of hell we’ve seen on television mundane) issues of running the country, and the Federal Legislature is incapable of holding the Executive to account because it’s so busy tilting at windmills or putting its nose in the trough.
I normally make it a point not to agree with Newt Gingrich, but the man has a point when he asks whether – if this is the best the Federal Government can do when it knows something is coming for a week -how the hell would it perform if something unexpected happened.
MCCR,
You seem to be under the illusion as well that the Federal Government is this all powerful bootmless resource identity that one can tap at will.
Right now our Federal Government is quite taxed making sure those terrorist bastards that killed thousands of people in NYC are not a threat to us. Billions of dollars and a lot of resources are tied up in Homeland Security.
The situation in New Orleans is just like Iraq, it got uncivilized and out of control and became a danger to the world society.
Or perhaps you forgot about Nazi Germany or WWWII Japan?
I don’t think the US Government really cares if a country is Democratic or not, as long as it’s under control and not a threat to world peace and therefore our peace.
FYI, FEMA was integrated into the Department of Homeland Security, it’s not it’s own identity anymore.
Homeland Security, you know terrorists running around with backback nukes, are more of a priority than a few states hit by a hurricane, which are just fine if people would have left the strike zone. Especially New Orleans.
New Orleans disaster was waiting to happen and the State is responsible for not having the resources ready, the people are responsible for not leaving when ordered.
If people don’t have the common sense to leave a impending disaster, they should get everything they deserve.
I’ll let you into some info, the Federal Government underwrites a lot of insurance companies to do buisness in hurricane prone areas, once they pay out, they don’t anyone rebuild in certain areas again.
The DofHS/FEMA engaged in a power struggle with the Governor of LA, they wanted LA to fork over control of New Orleans, since they don’t have the resources to rescue etc.
This is so the Federal Government can finally fix New Orleans, either fill it in higher than sea level, or simply abandon the city.
LA of course didn’t like Fed control, but without the resources to rescue and repair New Orleans they are pretty much f*sked. And it’s a hole they put themselves in by not having enough transportation and manpower to forcefully evacuate the remaining residents.
So I guess finally LA gave up control and now the Feds will fix New Orleans, but first everyone will have to leave and many months spend reparing and demolishing.
Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the roads are blocked off and all the good people weeded out leaving all the trouble makers last to be dealt with.
HAHAHAHA!!! I hope the army kills all of them, white or black, just like the guy who jumped up on a military vehicle and got his ass wasted.
I’m proud to say that I am not giving one dime to the hurricane relief.
I might sound cruel, but this is the situation.
People need to have a backup plan and resources in case disaster strikes. At least the predictable ones for crying out loud!!!!
The only people they can really count on is themselves.
People are quick to charge up their credit cards to the max, not save money and live paycheck to paycheck. So they have forsaken having a backup fund.
If I give, this just encourages people to accept handouts, that “help” will always just a cry away.
Well screw that! I work hard to have money for my emergency relief, spare food, clothing and gas.
And some dumb shmuck who refuses to leave a impending diaster or a idiodic state government who refuses to plan for the disaster is going to get help from me?
Screw them.
If something happens that was unpredictable, they get my support.
But ignoring a predictable event?
SCREW THEM
Let them suffer, dumb b&stards;
Love you pete,
“Give a man a fish and he’ll be begging you forever, teach him how to fish and he’ll feed himself.”
All the people who were in the hospitals should sue the State government for not evacuating them.
Also all the State known handicapped people should sue them too.
Heck everyone who didn’t have a ride out before the hurricane and asked the State for instance should sue as well.
Seems Gov. Blanco and the mayor of New Orleans is to blame
The reason for the delay in Federal assistance was the refusal of Gov. Blanco to work with the Federal Government.
One sign of the continuing battle over who was in charge was Governor Blanco’s refusal to sign an agreement proposed by the White House to share control of National Guard forces with the federal authorities.
Under the White House plan, Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré would oversee both the National Guard and the active duty federal troops, reporting jointly to the president and Ms. Blanco.
How fair can that be? Did she think she could command the active duty forces of the US military?
Then the Mayor of New Orleans has this to say
But Mayor Nagin said the root of the breakdown was the failure of the federal government to deliver relief supplies and personnel quickly.
Like duh, if the Gov. Blanco won’t jointly work with the federal folks in charge of the US military, releif efforts cannot be coordinated. Food could go to the wrong place and peopel wouldn’t know where it is.
The fact of the matter is Gov Blanco REFUSED to work with Federal relief efforts to coordinate a effective response to this tradgedy.
“She would lose control when she had been in control from the very beginning,” said Ms. Bottcher, the governor’s press secretary.
In a clear slap at Mr. Chertoff and the FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, Governor Blanco announced Saturday that she had hired James Lee Witt, the director of FEMA during the Clinton administration, to advise her on the recovery.
LA GOV. BLANCO POLITICS KILLED THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS
Search “After Failures, Officials Play Blame Game” in the NY Times online
I donated.
“I donated.”
So did I. Some here are obviously so perfect they can wash their hands of others’ suffering, but I’m a bit more forgiving when people make mistakes.
Listen to this dope of a governor, she’s dumber than Bush!
“Bring back our troops from Iraq so they can help here”
Really? like it would take at least 4 days to fly the troops LA contributed to the war on terrorism, not to mention all their combat gear etc. How many people would die until then?
“We need 40,000 troops, anything in uniform right away”
40,000 TROOPS? That’s almost half of whats in Iraq to squash a whole country, that’s about how many police officers there are in NYC, with a population of over 16 million people. How many people left in New Orleans? 50,000?
Where does this dumb broad get her figures from? Out of her butt?
I can see by just listening to her that she doesn’t even know what she’s talking about.
She finally signed a order to use the State’s school busses to evacuate the remaining citizens of New Orleans. AFTER THE HURRICANE!!!
I can see why FEMA needed to take control, this broad is DUMB, she is afraid of losing control because she knows she is dumb.
Friends of LA and New Orleans, your Governor is a ditz and your Mayor is a idiot.
She even admits they had no communication structure after the storm, no mobile phones, no sat phones, nothing, not even a cb radio. Nothing set up in advance in case the “big one” hits.
NOW HOW IS SHE GOING TO COMMAND 40,000 TROOPS WITH NO COMMUNICATION STRUCTURE?
I thought Bush was dumb, but at least he’s controlled by the smart one’s around him.
Gov. Blanco is a frigging moron!!!
http://www.gov.state.la.us/video_archives/HK Sept 2.mp3
http://www.gov.state.la.us/
Tom and Dave,
You just contributed to the problem. Don’t you know those people acted up just to get something?
Don’t you know people will suck you dry if you let them?
Rule #1 Don’t reward behavior that you don’t want reinforced.
Rule #2 Don’t respond to negative beahvior.
Rule #3 Reward only positive behavior.
Let the stupid people suffer, they are responsible for walking in front of a moving bus, we are not responsible for the cost of patching them up afterwards.
I would like to see all those people billed for cost of their rescue.
They just took food out of the mouth of my own for their STUPID behavior.
THEY KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT
http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,68738,00.html?tw=rss.TEK
“It’s inexplicable how unprepared for the flooding they were.” He said a slow decline over several years in funding for emergency management was partly to blame.
What happened was this, the states were relying upon FEMA to bail them out, but when FEMA was absorbed into Homeland Security, a much greater threat, apparantly LA failed to step in and make sure a plan was in place for disaster response.
What’s even worse is that they drilled on this, to work out the problems, but they appeared anyway.
I’m glad the Feds gave LA the cold shoulder, gets the States off the Fed teet and more seelf reliant.
The Fed is busy with Homeland Security and terroism, a much greater threat.
People need to change their thinking from a government that takes care of them, to people taking care of themselves.
No one has a right to a free lunch.