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Audacity of Truth
Big Government- Hot Air
- Michelle Malkin
- Wheeling & dealing: Snowe pow-wows with Obama; Landrieu, Schumer, Daschle behind the scenes
- Saturday in the Senate: Cash for Cloture; Reid gets 60; Update: 8:15pm Eastern cloture vote – 60-39; Voinovich absent; Dems invoke Teddy Kennedy; Reid: “Ted would be happy.”
- Another day, another Berkeley tantrum
- Jake Tapper
- Lynn Sweet
Josh Levin: Mourning My New Orleans
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.
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41 Responses to “Josh Levin: Mourning My New Orleans”
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I keep asking my self. Where are the troops. We can secure areas overseas and assualt anything, but none are there. Where are they? Where are the air drops? I just do not understand???
If you give people food and water. They will stay there Gary. That would be the worst situation. They need to leave the flooded areas as asked NOW.
“Woefully unprepared.” I don’t know. If there was enough time and forewarning to “prepare,” then there was enough time and forewarning for people to get the hell out of Dodge. I don’t blame people for staying in New Orleans before this weekend (although the scenes I’ve seen of partying on Bourbon Street Saturday night is a little discomfiting) because nobody…NOBODY expected this. How can you make any more preparations than have been?
As for troops…what do you want to secure? You’re trying to get people OUT…which is what the police and National Guard are doing. We’ve sent people from Arizona to help…I’m not sure what else you want. And I really don’t understand what you mean by air drops. It’s a search and rescue situation.
Tomorrow our school is going to do a fund raiser. We’re in the lower income levels, but we’re hoping for at least one dollar from every student. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
It’s just not that easy for poor people who support their families paycheck to paycheck. Literally hand to mouth. Alot of inner city folks don’t have vehicles. And even some that did could not get access to or afford the fuel to evacuate.
Thank your lucky stars or whatever you worship. My wife and I were looking for a way to help the victims. Anyone can give money. We decided to open our home to a family who is stranded from the hurricane. We have not yet got a response to our offer. But I was shocked that the only charity offering to house refugees long term was MoveOn.org. So I put down my politics and signed up to host 4-6 refugees for four months. My grandfather died today and even in my own grief I felt compelled to act. The grief and dispair of this tragedy is overwhelming.
I know that our gesture of kindness will probably help some people that were fortunate to get out in time but are stranded. Unfortunately only monetary donations and federal assistance will help those folks stranded in the city of New Orleans. Godspeed New Orleans.
I’m sorry to hear about the loss of your grandfather, GBA.
BTW, Moveon.org isn’t the only place offering/suggesting housing for refugees. There are others. And that’s just the short list.
Right On Sister Toldjah,
It’s nice to know that folks are starting to mobilize.
MoveOn is already organized and mobilized. They have an online registration for hosts and an online search engine for displaced families to find shelter as well as placement volunteers manning the phones. Alot of folks are opening their homes for six months or more but most offers are for 60-90 days.I hate to admit it..but these people have there act together.
Most of the the folks you presented are in our relative area. And I recognize alot of those organizations and know some folks from some of the church organizations offering to help.
It’s weird to think that when I return to my home after my grandfathers funeral that I could quite possibly have a family I have never met already living at my house. It puts a smile on my face.
The Red Cross and other organizations have their act together as well as far as housing refugees goes. That is happening in a lot of places, offers are being made, etc.
Where the problem is coming in is getting aid to people still trapped there.
They need federal assistance.
Where has the federal government been the last three days?
Or a better question is when will the federal government be effective in providing relief?
This is day 5 and we had 3 days of warning from when Katrina left the Keys. That’s 8 days to get it in gear.
I am going to do my part. I guess that’s all I can do.
You’re kidding me, right? I’m not in a position to assess how well the relief effort is going but to act like the feds have done nothing up until this point is ridiculous.
Where are they dropping this aid/
I just watched video on five networks of refugees begging for water, food and medicine. This is video from tonight, Scarborough, Tucker, Rita, Greta, Brown all are reporting stories about the serious lack of relief.
Remember this is thousands of people. And as I am typing this MSNBC anounced that the Navy and the Coast Guard will be starting ” the largest relief effort in history” tomorrow.
Are they lying, and they have actually started yesterday?
Don’t trust me? Look it up at Yahoo News or on Google. Here, I’ll help:
LINK
You’re acting like Moveon is the only organization doing things here. They aren’t. Let’s please not argue about this and just agree that so much more help needs to get to these people then what they are getting. I think it’s great you and so many others are doing what you can to help right now.
ST,
I could care less about MoveOn. They simply had any easy way to help refugees. That’s it and nothing more.
O’Reilly is on now with some coverage you should not miss.
“O’Reilly is on now with some coverage you should not miss. ”
No thanks. If I wanted to listen to a loud-mouthed know-it-all I’d just invite my ex over.
G’nite.
Point well taken
Check your email
Yeah, that’s the point I was making earlier. We did what we could with the information that we had…when things got uglier than anticipated we stepped it up as best we could (from what I can see). And now things are being hindered by the looters, which is something we didn’t expect too…not at that level.
Things. Take. Time. I heard on the radio today that there’s another National Guard unit from AZ heading out Sunday morning. Why are they waiting until Sunday? I don’t know…that’s how it works, and I don’t know how it works that way, but that’s how it works. But I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s Bush’s fault because the AZ National Guard wasn’t sent out on Tuesday. I do believe that sending tens of thousands of people into New Orleans with no plan would be a mistake, so I trust that they’re doing things methodically. Would I like to see it done faster? Well, would I ask a doctor who’s performing surgery on me to speed things because I have things to do? I’d much rather have things done RIGHT.
God Bless America,
Words mean things. If there is relief getting to 900 of 1,000 cities but the news media shows the areas where relief people are being attacked and people haven’t left but they have been told to leave there does that mean the only place to blame is the “government”?
When the Coast Guard is saying that they’ve had to pull back from search and rescues because they are being shot at I’d say that your posts look a little naive or “dominant news media fed”.
I was dominant news media fed until 1991. I realized that they will purposefully not show the complete/true story in order to shape events back then.
AT: That about sums up my feelings on the matter … meant to tell you good luck with your school’s fundraiser. Let us know how it goes.
Bak: Good points – I do think the media is concentrating too much on NO and not on the rest of the affected areas, of which there are plenty. Good to see you back to posting .. hadn’t seen ya for a while. Hope all is well.
ST, Just overworking lately. Not something I usually do..
Ah! I understand – hope you’ll have a nice relaxing three day weekend
I don’t care whos fault it was. The facts on the ground are not changed by unrelenting support for the political position of the president in the face of reason. It’s nice that you feel the way you do.
But are these or are these not military and law enforcement personell? You would think that if we can go all over the world and conduct search and rescue operations for our people under fire. How is this different? What was not broadcast was people actually shooting.
It’s not like there is a militia in New Orleans that wants to overthrow the government. It’s just desperate people living in chaos because there was up until today little or no security on the ground.
These people want food, water, clothes and medical assistance.
The government could have airdropped a hundred thousand tons of supplies already. But they did not. Pallets and parachutes, and they would not have to land at all.
Face it….government was nearly absent for whatever reason( fear, inexperience, vacation, ignorance, impotence).
Up until yesterday they had only 35 helicopters working the greater New Orleans area. Not 350, not 3500, but 35. That represents less than 300 airmen if they work 12 hour shifts. Or less if they work longer shifts.
I don’t care about your politics. But do the math first. Not everybody had the means to get out. Don’t you read the news. The population living in poverty in this country has nearly doubled in the last four years. The numbers don’t lie.
Forget your politics and just do the math. Take a rational and educated long look at what’s going on. Turn on your telivision and turn off the volume and just look. Make your opinions based on what you can see. If you are not satisfied with the coverage. Then get in your car and drive down there and look for yourself.
The devastation is near unimaginable.
As a country we got caught asleep at the wheel. Who’s fault is it for not being prepared……who cares? Does it matter?
But the facts are that nobody was effectively mobilized before the hurricane. And people are going to die for this mistake….people are already dying and many people are already dead.
This is a natural disaster and I have heard much BS about global warming, energy policy, bad environmental policy and crazy politically motivated windbags.
Forget about the rhetoric. Do the math and look for yourself. Use your eyes and your brain. Forget about news commentators. Look!
GBA, you brought politics into it too when you talked about how slow the feds were to respond.
I think we need to cool off a bit and step back, roll up our sleeves, and help out in whatever way we can. Send money, donate clothing, canned goods, offer housing, whatever it takes.
GBA wrote, “The government could have airdropped a hundred thousand tons of supplies already.”
To a large extent people are being fed and given water and shelter. Your statement acts as that isn’t happening and #2 – Why would you drop food and water in a place you don’t want people. It would keep people there. I’m not saying everything is perfect. By far. But your statements are irresponsible and dominant media fed.
GBA wrote, “The devastation is near unimaginable.” Yes. it is. And no amount of words by you will actually feed or shelter the people there. There are good people doing great work. It’s the same with our men and women in Iraq. The people like you don’t seem to get that your words demoralize the good people doing hard sweaty difficult work. There are problems and there are people working through them.
The size and scope of this disaster is very great GBA. There is no magic pill. There are 100’s of departments and agencies and organizations helping. The fact that there isn’t a PERFECT set of communications and the media is able to beat the drum that people aren’t getting food or water in an area isn’t surprising. Grow up.
GBA wrote, “Look!”
And what exact conclusion do you want me to come to in your rant? This is an awful situation all around. Everybody recognizes that.
Uncalled for, GBA. Please step back and take a breather and you’ll realize that EVERYONE cares about what’s happening with the people down there. —ST
Q. How do you pass a test?
A. You prepare.
Q. Who is responsible for passing the test?
A. Everyone.
Point #2:
It isn’t very productive in the middle of a very large disaster to tell everyone they are failing the test.
Come up with solutions and tell the people you think need to be told.
Is this your test that you are failing?
Sis, I think this guy is not stepping back – he’s going full throttle!
Interesting reading. I’ll quote GBA here:
“Up until yesterday they had only 35 helicopters working the greater New Orleans area. Not 350, not 3500, but 35. That represents less than 300 airmen if they work 12 hour shifts. Or less if they work longer shifts”
As a Navy Helo pilot of over 20 years, I can tell you that flying crews more than 12 hours per day is a bad idea. Fatigue sets in at about 8 hours and rises exponentially thereafter. Also, at least in the beginning, the onset is fairly insidious, and the loss of judgement, spacial awareness, etc. can be very hard to detect until it is too late. Even though every one of those pilots and crewmen would gladly violate our hard earned lessons on crew rest in order to save lives, we know from experience that the benfits of doing so rarely outweigh the vastly increased risks.
I can also tell you that helicopter crews from the Navy and Coast Guard all over the country (as far away as San Diego, CA, Norfolk, VA, and Jacksonville, Fl)are converging on the area even as I write this. But just as important as numbers is the command and control required to safely get those helos and crews in and out of the area. As I used to tell my guys, numerous helos in a small area (trust me 35 helos means that the entire New Orleans metro area can be considered small) is a lot like watching little kids play soccer. They all converge on the ball and bang into each other. What is cute with 5 year olds is bad for helicopters.
With the arrival of JTF Katerina and the USS HARRY S TRUMAN, USS BATAAN, and their supporting ships, the necessary command and control is now in place. There literally is no other force in the world capable of responding as quickly as ours is doing now, nor with such flexibility or resolve to save lives and help get the Gulf Coast states back on their feet.
Lastly, many people are hurt or missing down on the coast. That includes quite a few Sailors and their families. Please add an extra prayer for these folks too.
Thanks-
Sluf
BTW, For all who is concerned, listening to Michael Medved is a way of hearing sanity while I’ve been here at work.
He’s outlining ALL of the untrue statements of the left and providing the true perspective of the horrific circumstances – using sources such as the Army Corp of Engineer (for the levee situation which broke TUESDAY and the New York Times and Washington Post (not right wing news sources).
Kevin: Thanks for your insight into this. Being on the outside looking in, it’s hard for me to assess what should be done and shouldn’t be done and I’m not even about to pretend like I know everything that should be done. Big time prayers to all affected down there, including sailors and their families. I know the US military is stepping in to save the day, just like they always have. I sleep well at night knowing we have the finest military force of any country in the world.
Bak: I don’t get Michael Medved here but I’m glad to hear he’s helping to set the record straight.
Bush: Katrina Response ‘Not Acceptable’
LINK
LINK
LINK
GBA: These few links will be just fine! Thanks. –ST
If you don’t like the way I run my blog you are free to find what you feel would be greener pastures. No one is forcing you to stay here. –ST
You’re questioning my patriotism simply because I respectfully requested via implication that you not post so many links? Nice. Our debates have been nice – up til this point. Now all of a sudden I’m a “censor”? Whatever floats your boat, GBA.
You did not request that I not post a limited number of links. Or limit the number of links in my posts. If you had requested it I would have complied.
You omitted most of the links I posted.
Some very patriotic images in my opinion.
And in the past when you have made decisions concerning my post I have respected your authority and greater wisdom.
Fine. I will repost your links with the stipulation that in the future you don’t post more than four links in a post. I’ll also update my comments policy with that info so everyone will be clear. I also suggest not questioning my patriotism or calling me a censor again. I do my best to run this blog in the fairest manner possible and you know it. Here are your links:
LINK 1
LINK 2
LINK 3
LINK 4
LINK 5
LINK 6
LINK 7
LINK 8
My apologies fair lady.
I do beg your pardon for my offensive and inaccurate supposition.
I was wrong.
Stipulation is agreed on and is very fair.
Thanks – I apologize for not making my policy on links more clear. I’ve just updated my comments post to reflect that info.
ST,
on’t trust me? Look it up at Yahoo News or on Google. Here, I’ll help:
RE
I read that article five times and I was not able to find the excerpt that you quoted. Is that in another article? Perhaps somewhere esle? Could you be mistaken?
“I read that article five times and I was not able to find the excerpt that you quoted. Is that in another article? Perhaps somewhere esle?”
Either the article content has changed or I posted the wrong link. Here is another:
“Could you be mistaken?”
Mistaken about what? Do you think I just made the quote up out of thin air?
ST,
Of Course not. I just could not find that excerpt.
I never thought you were mistaken of the facts. I only thought you may have accidentally linked the wrong article. You do link many articles each day and you’re not a robot. Thanks you for the new article. I will read it now.
Full of obsessive hate?
Here’s a question. Do you think Bush doesn’t care?
Do you know GBA what’s in W’s mind (as so many liberals seem to think they know)?
Again. Who is responsible for passing the test?
I say everyone. Not just one person.
Again. It’s not productive to tell everyone they are failing the test.
Baklava,
Is it more productive to lie and say
” hey you’re doing a great job”
as the dead bodies float past?
I’ll stick with the truth if you don’t mind.