(This post will remain at the top today.  Please scroll down below this one for newer posts)

PM UPDATE 7:48 PM ET:  If you’ve made a contribution today as a result of reading this blog, please make sure to log it here. Logging it is totally anonymous - in other words, you don’t have to give a name.  Just an amount, the charity you donated to, and the blog that encouraged you to do so. Here is a blog leader board of how much each blog has helped raise today.  Thanks in advance!  Looks like a lot of people are contributing, and that is fabulouso

Early Friday 12:37 AM ET update:  $195,883 has been logged at TTLB as having been raised (as of this writing), with the American Red Cross at the top of the pack.  A big thank you out there to both bloggers and blog readers/commenters, who have done an outstanding job today!  Let’s not forget, though, that there are many people who didn’t log their contributions there - so the total amount given by the blogosphere is no doubt much higher.  And if you haven’t made that donation yet, please consider giving now.

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All day today, bloggers from around the globe are uniting and blogging to ask their readers to contribute in order to  help raise money for the many Hurricane Katrina disaster relief funds out there.  I’ve selected, as well as donated to, the American Red Cross Hurricane 2005 Relief fund and I’m encouraging my readers to do so as well.

However, if the Red Cross is not your charity of choice, there are many others out there available who could use your help.   Here is a list of charities who need donations in the aftermath of the devastation brought on to the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina.  Glenn Reynolds has a list of bloggers and the charities they are requesting donations to here.

I should note that this idea was first put on the table by Hugh Hewitt, and was organized by Truth Laid Bear, with assistance by Glenn Reynolds.  A hat tip to them all for their work towards getting this idea off the ground.

This post will be updated and bumped up throughout the day, and there will be a permanent section on the left hand side of the page for you to use if you’d like to donate to the American Red Cross, or any of the other fine disaster relief agencies/charities who really need the help always, but especially at this time.

The Truth Laid Bear is also logging contributions here.  So if you’ve made a contribution, please click this link and fill in the blanks and note in the drop down menus the charity you’ve contributed to as well as the blogger who encouraged you to make your contribution.

We’ve all seen the images and read the stories of the massive devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina to the Gulf Coast.  Now is the time for each of us to unite and act in order to help the affected areas.  Our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters need us now.  So please donate - and pray - often.

Thanks so much in advance. 

Technorati Tags: Flood aid, Hurricane Katrina

(First posted at 11:02AM ET, bumped up at 12:29PM ET)

(2nd bump up at 4:03 PM ET)

(3rd bump up at 8:58 PM ET)

All I’m hearing about are stories coming out of New Orleans of chaos and looting but not much out of the devastated areas of Mississippi.  Is this an example of the media’s focusing too much on one area (that is historic in nature) or is there another angle that perhaps I’m missing?

Related: Michelle Malkin has updates on the status of cities other than New Orleans.  More and more devastation.  Sigh.

Read this.  And then imagine the city he is talking about is the one you live in.  Or grew up in.

More: Stephen Green reposts an email Will Collier posted earlier at Vodkpundit that came from a friend of Will’s who knows someone in the New Orleans area.  Here’s some of it:

Talked to a friend of mine who is down there in the middle of it.

Body count will be high.

So far the masses are doing well, but it is starting to come undone. Low deliveries of water, food, etc. Water quality will diminish rapidly as the particle count of human waste, chemicals, etc. mounts. There is no water flow. The city is a bathtub. You do the math.

Fed is dropping the ball on basic necessities such as water, portolets, you name it. Woefully unprepared and nobody seems to be in charge or have the gumption to get it done.

Louisiana politicians should be absolutely raising hell right now. Lots of people including yours truly have volunteered to bring (including food, generators, food, etc., to be self sufficient for a week or so) the most important thing which is a boat but have been told NO under no uncertain terms. "My" town is under water, people are in critical condition, and I have skill sets and assets - including a boat which will come out of the hole in 14 incles of water - and we are being denied the opportunity to help. And quite frankly, that REALLY PISSES ME OFF.

Please read the whole thing.

Via AP:

President Bush will tour the hurricane devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked former Presidents Clinton and Bush to lead a private fund-raising campaign to help victims recover, the White House said Thursday.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush will survey the hardest-hit areas by helicopter, then tour some locations on the ground.

I think he’s visiting at the right time - going immediately after the aftermath would have created even more confusion and chaos then what we’re seeing now.

I’m not surprised to see some of the usual suspects criticizing his response to the Gulf Cost devastation.

As Matt (at B4B) pointed out in an earlier post, the President just can’t seem to please the editorial board at the NYTimes, who I have no doubt are speaking on behalf of many of their liberal readers. I’ve seen posts at message boards as well as blogs playing the usual "blame W" game, and mentioning the recent cuts in the Army Corps of Engineers funding. What they don’t note (of course) in their zeal to blame this disaster on the President is that ACE has been been a target of budget cuts/underfunding since 1965 (reg. required):

Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the corps’ chief of engineers, said late Wednesday that the corps’ requests cited in Landrieu’s figures were the amount that would be needed to finish the work in a given year. But he said the corps, working with the administration, rarely requests the full amount in the budget.

"There are limited resources and there are huge demands on it," he said. "Very rarely do we fund at full capability."

Even if the projects had been funded at the highest amounts, Strock said it might not have changed the situation in downtown New Orleans. He said the levee near the 17th Street Canal, where one of the breaches occurred that emptied water into the city, was fully completed.

A corps plan to shore up the levees began in 1965 and was supposed to be finished in 10 years but remains incomplete. "They’ve never put enough money in to complete it," [former Republican Mississippi congressman Michael] Parker said. He said the corps’ budget has been regularly targeted by the White House because public works projects are perceived as pork and aren’t considered "sexy."

The Chicago Tribune article works hard to try and blame the levee breaks on the Bush Administration, but reading between the lines you’ll note as I did regarding how far back the inadequate funding for the ACE actually started. I wonder if those blaming Bush today are prepared to blame 6 past presidents as well, eh? I mean, afterall, cutting funding for the ACE under this administration is worth mentioning to them - why not mention the rest?

We know why.

(Cross posted at BlogsForBush)

More: Rob at Say Anything notes an article from the Editor and Publisher that discusses how funding for ACE was decreased in favor of spending more money on the war in Iraq and predicts that this information will no doubt be a rallying cry for the anti-Iraq war leftists.  He also notes:

Its clear that there should have been more done with these levees. The funding should have been there, the projects should have been completed. That being said, this cannot be used as an indictment of the Iraq war. The war was neccessary and it was the right decision. If funding the war put a squeeze on Congress maybe they should have cut back on the number of $1,500,000 bus stops they’ve funded.

Indeed.

(Note: Had to edit the time stamp on this one and made a guess as to what time I posted it - changed it by accident and meant to change the time stamp on my Hurricane Katrina relief blogging post instead.  Oops! –ST)

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Here’s a snippet from Mr. Stitch’s must-read post about another president who had to deal with press issues similar to what W faces today:

Accused of changing the rationale for ‘his’ war, and hounded for mismanaging it. Derided as an uninspiring public speaker. Belittled as an idiot. Blamed for dividing the nation. Charged with incompetence in his administration. Accused of trampling on the Constitution. Engaged in censorship and manipulation of the press. Mockingly compared with lower primates. Pressured for a key Cabinet Advisor’s resignation. Of course, we’re referring to Lincoln.

Please read the whole thing.