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| Katrina Followup |
| 09.29.05 (11:06 am) [edit] |
There were supposedly hundreds, perhaps THOUSANDS of deaths in the wake of Katrina. Murder, rape, incest, tax fraud. It was all going on. New Orleans had become Sodom, maybe Gomorrah, too. The Superdome was a veritable House of Horrors. The people were standing ankle deep in blood from all the murders taking place there. The Morial Convention Center the same. "I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," some doctor said. Mayor Ray Nagin told stories of armed gangs roaming the Superdome, killing and raping at will. 7-year olds with their throats cut stuffed in non-functioning freezers in the Convention Center.
Trouble is, it was all bullshit. The murders, killings, rapes, all of it. It was reported on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX News. And it was all complete bullshit. Rumors of Deaths Greatly Exaggerated. At this point, a total of 10 deaths have been confirmed...
Six in the Superdome, 4 from natural causes, one from an overdose, and the last from an apparent suicide. Four from the Convention Center. Of those, only one appears to be a result of foul play.
This problem wasn't just confined to these two evacuation centers. To date, only four murders have been confirmed in the ENTIRE CITY. New Orleans law enforcement officials expect to see this amount in any give week. Yet we were led to believe that New Orleans had become the new Iraq, with thousands of armed bandits roaming the city, and terrorizing others. These claims weren't coming from kooks, either, these were from city leaders.
Mayor Ray Nagin told us to get ready, because there was going to be 10,000 PLUS deaths. To date, the death toll in Louisiana hasn't even topped a thousand. Tragic, but nowhere near what Nagin warned us of. Nagin also told Oprah Winfrey that people
Former New Orleans Police Chief Eddie Compass (who resigned only days ago) told us that his officers had been in shootouts with armed thugs at both the Convention Center and the Superdome. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Compass talked of babies being raped. Nagin told Winfrey that his citizens had reverted to an animal like state.
Arkansas National Guardsmen reported 30-40 bodies stored in the Convention Center freezer. However, an investigation found that none of the Guardsmen had actually seen the bodies, and they have yet to materialize. One also reported the now-infamous 7-year old girl who had her throat slit. She has yet to be found.
This is not to say that there wasn't trouble. There was widespread looting. One soldier was attacked in the Convention Center and shot himself in the leg during the commotion. Forklifts from the Convention Center were hotwired, and liquor and food were looted from the building. But there wasn't widespead panic like Mayor Nagin, Chief Compass, and the media would have led us to believe. The issue here, however, isn't that they allowed rumors to persist. A good many people probably didn't help because they were scared to go. A lot of people left the Superdome and Convention Center, braved the floodwaters, and returned home because of this bad information. To date, I still haven't heard anyone accuse Mayor Nagin, or our fat-cow Governor for their role in all this.
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| Fantasy Football Woes pt. 2, BONUS: Hurricane Rita update |
| 09.26.05 (8:34 am) [edit] |
Hurricane Rita Update
Well, made it through another hurricane. This one seemed to be much worse than Katrina, despite the fact that we were closer to that one. The wind seemed much worse, and I KNOW we got more rain this time. We were on the western side of Katrina, this is the side the wind blows in from the north. For Rita, we were on the side that blows in from the gulf. The wind started about 3 or 4 Friday afternoon and REALLY picked up that evening. It was relentless, it did not stop until almost noon the next day. We lost power twice that night, but never for more than an hour, and not when the weather was at its worst. It was a very sleepless night, though, and if we didn't get a tornado or two in our immediate vicinity, I would be surprised. This one may not have been as devastating as Katrina, but it was much worse at my house.
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| Fantasy Football woes and FEMA takes the blame |
| 09.12.05 (2:37 pm) [edit] |
First up,
FEMA director Mike Brown stepped down today. Is this the answer? First, you have to understand that FEMA is not and never was intended to be a FIRST RESPONDER to disasters. FEMA was created to serve as support for local and state authorities. The responsibility for preparing for and responding to a disaster such as Katrina falls to state and local authorites, and then to FEMA. But we've made the Mike Brown the fall guy. How come Mayor Ray Nagin and Kathleen Babineaux (Hey, y'all, I'm cajun, vote for me!) Blanco have not been blamed for this? It was ultimately their responsibility to respond to Katrina. THEY sat around on their asses for three days. However, Nagin and Blanco get a pass because of the (D) after their names.
NOTE TO MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA
New Orleans pronounciation guide:
New is pronounced "noo," not "nyou."
Orleans is "OR-lins," not "or-LEENS" or "OR-lee-ans."
Together, it should sound like "Noo OR-lins" or "NOR-lins" (if you can pull the accent off correctly). It just hurts our ears if you say it any other way.
(DELETED)
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| Fantasy Football pt. 2. |
| 09.08.05 (7:34 am) [edit] |
Okay, just to follow up on my second fantasy football team. I really screwed up on my drafting with this one so, while I have a pretty good supporting cast, I didn't manage to get a good QB. Here's my Yahoo! team, White Fang, again with draft order and overall pick:
W. McGahee - RB, 9th (So in both of my drafts, I picked either 8th or 9th and got McGahee)
D. Davis - RB, 12th (2nd pick in 2nd round)
J. Horn - WR, 29th
N. Burleson - WR, 32nd
Roy Williams - WR, 49th (So I've pretty much sowed up my starting line up at the specialty positions with the first five rounds)
T. Heap - TE, 52nd
M. Vick - QB, 69th (Can't believe this guy slipped to the seventh round.)
J. Elam - K, 72nd
M. Anderson - RB, 92nd
S. McNair - QB, 109th (Former NFL co-MVP slips to the 11th round?)
S. Moss - WR, 112th
K. McCardell - WR, 129th
B. Greise - QB, acquired off waivers
NY Giants - DST, acquired off waivers
Cincinnatti - DST, acquired off waivers
So that's my team starting week 1. I don't like the way Yahoo! sets the draft order. They basically take the first round draft order, and invert it for the second round, invert it again for the third round, and so on. What this means is that for every round, I either picked 9th (out of 10 teams) or second. NFL.com's draft system does a little bit better job of mixing the picks up.
Can't believe I had to sign my starting QB (Griese) off waivers, I've never had such a bad draft at QB. Does McNair still have gas in the tank? Vick is way too damn inconsistent. One week he'll toss a score and rush for two, the next week he'll throw for 150 yards and two picks. Signed Cincinnatti because they'll be playing the hapless Browns.
Quick Note
The NFL season kicks off tonight! I've said it before, and I'll repeat it here. I HATE Thursday football! NFL football does not belong on a Thursday night. The ONLY time it should be acceptable to hold an NFL game on Thursday is on Thanksgiving day. (The four teams playing on that day should have their bye weeks on the Sunday before, also. It isn't fair to make a team play on Sunday and turn around and schedule them to play four days later.) The "acceptable" days for football are:
Sunday and Monday nights - NFL
Saturday - College football
Friday - High school football
Thursday - I don't know, JV football, maybe? I think that's when we used to play our JV games.
Sunday thru Saturday - backyard football!
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| Katrina Victims |
| 09.06.05 (1:26 pm) [edit] |
I saw this on the news this morning. I think it was the CBS Early Show, not positive. Some reporterette (or would it be "reportette?") was relating the plight of a family that had been holed up in the New Orleans Convention Center, and were finally able to return home to their apartment to assess the damage. Well, their apartment had water damage (I believe) and had been looted. Their car, (THEIR GOD DAMN CAR!) was also damaged by flooding. The kids and the dad were pretty amazed that people had broken into their home to steal stuff, and the dad said that he and his family were going to move somewhere that wasn't in New Orleans.
Then they got to the mom...Angelique. Angelique didn't look back:,"It's Sodom and Gomorrah. He said 'don't look back,' and I don't plan on looking back." Umm...okay. Your apartmen was razed by the hand of God because of something its occupants did? Anyway, Angelique continued, saying she couldn't forgive a state that would let conditions get to what they were like in the convention center: the overflowing restrooms, the trash-strewn sidewalks, the dead body in the street. "It's inhuman,to do these kinds of things to somebody. What gives you the right? What gives you the right to say that my life isn't valuable?"
What?! Angelique, the state of Louisiana didn't do this to you. Hurricane Katrina was the entity that turned New Orleans into a hell. YOU were the dumbass that didn't get out of the city, even though you had a GOD DAMN CAR! There was a mandatory evacutation ordered the day before the hurricane hit, why didn't you get your family out then? What gives you or your husband the right to say that your two boys lives aren't valuable? I'm sorry, I don't feel sorry for these people. THEY had the opportunity to get out.
The problem here, folks, is that the Gimmecrats that run New Orleans have raised generations of people who have their need provided for by the government. They expected that if they found themselves in a bad way after Katrina hit, that THE GOVERNMENT was going to be able to take care of them. They didn't consider that things were going to be BAD, and that access to the city of New Orleans would be non-existant. Yet, like the thousands of able-bodied citizens of New Orleans, they fled to the nearest government run shelter and sat on their asses, hoping someone would take care of them. They sure as hell can't care of themselves.
Bob Sheiffer continues Dan Rather's Legacy
This from Bob Sheiffer's Take. Titled "Government Failed the People," Bob's little essay first complains that the government failed in this emergency on "every level." He goes on and says:As the floodwaters rose, local officials in New Orleans ordered the city evacuated. They might as well have told their citizens to fly to the moon. How do you evacuate when you don't have a car? No hint of intelligent design in any of this. This was just survival of the richest. To address the first issue, the evacuation wasn't ordered "as the floodwaters rose." The evacuation was ordered 12 hours before the first raindrops fell. The second point is, the City of New Orleans hurricane evac plan, as pointed out yesterday, calls for the use of city buses and school buses to aid in the evacuation. Now, I'm sure that most of you have seen the photo of the school buses in New Orleans that are under water, unused in the evacuation, but the simple fact is that Mayor Ray Nagin stated during the ordered evacuation that people without a mode of transportation would have one made available to them. One of the reasons the city and school buses were not used is that NO ONE WAS LINING UP TO USE THEM! There were no lines of people who were clamoring to get out of the city but were unable to, at least not until AFTER the hurricane hit. As I noted above, some people probably WERE able to get out, but chose not to. How do you evacuate when you don't have a car? The city of New Orleans had allowed for that and supposedly was even prepared for it. Also, Shieffer equates having a car with being rich (No car = can't get out. Car = able to get out & survival of the richest). I have two cars, but I live paycheck to paycheck. I'm hardly what you would consider rich, let alone "the richest." Were there people in New Orleans who had no way out, I don't doubt it. Were there people who stayed simply because they thought they would ride it out. You're damn right there were. And I don't feel sorry for them at all.
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| The Blame Game |
| 09.05.05 (7:14 am) [edit] |
Alright,
I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to play the blame game for this hurricane. I didn't want to say that what has happened and IS happening in South Louisiana...what's going on just miles from my home...is anyone's fault. After all, no one caused the veritable hand of God to pass over Louisiana and virtually wipe New Orleans and its neighboring suburbs off the face of the earth. But MY elected officials have decided to blame someone.
Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin...all Democrats...have taken a turn blaming either the federal government or President Bush for the misery caused by this hurricane. I've yet to hear them accept one iota of the blame themselves. Landrieu has even . (I haven't heard ANYONE criticize the guys who are down there doing their jobs, just the inept people directing them from the safety and comfort of the local OEP building.) But let's take a look at the shoulders upon which the blame should rest, shall we?
Myth 1: President Bush should have ordered the evacuation sooner. Actually, Bush requested Governor Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin order a mandatory evacuation two or three days before the hurricane hit. Nagin did not order the mandatory evacuation until around 4 pm the next day, barely 12 hours before the hurricane was to make landfall. According to the City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, the authority to order evacuations of the city rests with the mayor, local authorities, and the Governor. Why haven't Nagin or Blanco been blamed for not getting his citizens out sooner? The city plan also calls for the use of school buses and mass transit buses to be used to evacuate citizens. However, we've all seen the AP picture of at least one school bus depot where the buses are underwater, never used to evacuate ANYONE.
Myth 2: Bush should have acted sooner to give the State of Louisiana the resources needed to deal with the emergency. President Bush declared the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Federal Disaster Areas TWO DAYS before the storm hit, giving Governor Blanco unlimited access to all the troops, funds, supplies, and transportation needed. Blanco waited until TWO DAYS after the storm hit to do ANYTHING.
Myth 3: Bush should order more National Guard troops into the area. The Louisiana Army and Air National Guard, like most state Guard units, are under the command of the Governor. Blanco did nothing to mobilize the National Guard until after the hurricane hit, despite her state being declared a Federal Disaster Area. Why didn't Blanco immediately activate all Louisiana National Guard units that are not deployed overseas? Why wasn't Blanco on the phone to the Governors of Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and states that would not be affected by the hurricane to have them send National Guard units to help. Why weren't ANY National Guard units in place and ready to roll before the storm hit?
Myth 4: The National Guard response is not as effective as it could be because of the war in Iraq This is just silly. First of all, we have who we have, and they were not in a "state of ready" before the hurricane hit. Let's play with the numbers though, shall we? There are around 11,000 Army and Air Guardsmen in Louisiana. About a third of these are deployed overseas. This leaves about 7,000 troops available for emergency response, which is a sizeable force when you consider that the New Orleans Police Department has about 1500 officers.
Of course, the only people blaming Blanco and Nagin will be Republicans, and this will be blamed on partisan politics. And when Blanco and Nagin are up for reelection, they'll tell us how hard they worked and how difficult it was to respond with the limited resources available to them from the President. And the ignorant voters who put them in office the first time will happily do it again.
UPDATE I was told by my boss over the weekend that a player in the National Football League has offered to pay for the hotel rooms of any evacuees who cannot afford to stay and don't have homes to return to. He will be doing this at three hotels in Baton Rouge. I don't want to give the player's name because he may not want the publicity. But if I hear it mentioned in a news story, I'll confirm his identity. FOLLOWUP: Sorry, the reason for posting this was that I wanted to commend this player for his generosity. Sometimes, I really do feel good about my fellow man.
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WARNING!!
May contain prejudiced, offensive, right-wing, sexist, homophobic, redneck, or other generally offensive language. Not suitable for children under the age of 3. If you are easily offended, like to point out grammatical or spelling errors, or are just generally disagreeable, go away.
LINKS
Addicted to Plastic - my toy collecting blog, also useless
Well, That's Just Prime! My weekly web comic, updated promptly on Friday-ish
Nealz Nuze
The MullBlog
Radio Gawds
Chuck Norris CAN divide by zero
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