I want answers. Don't you?

When the attempt to remove Ms. Schiavo from life support looked like it would work, the United States Congress reconvened, on a Sunday, to stop it.

A week ago Friday NOAA announced that Hurricane Katrina would be a category 4 or 5 hurricane by the time it reached land somewhere between Louisiana and Alabama on August 29. Even with this much advance warning, Congress doesn't bother itself to reconvene until September 1 - and not all of them showed up.

Questions such as: "The United States can drop relief supplies in the Tsunami ravaged areas of Southeast Asia in less the 48 hours, but can't get a bottle of water into New Orleans or Biloxi?" have been asked by citizens on the street and major media anchors for the last five days. There's no answer beyond Mr. Bush saying he wasn't satisfied by the response. We deserve to know why it took Mr. Bush's photo-op appearance in Mississippi and Louisiana to get the convoy's rolling into the hurricane ravaged areas.

Mr. Brown of FEMA, responding to Ms. O'Brien of CNN questions like she's an idiot, with galling lies, that he didn't know about the situation in the Convention center. Stating that the lawlessness wasn't as bad as reported, that everything was under control, considering the circumstances. The man should be flogged. He could have read The Interdictor and known exactly what was going on. I guess he was too busy lying to the press in the unending stream of pointless new conferences he was hosting.

Yesterday several governors starting coming forward stating that they had offered thousands of their own National Guard troops to help in the effort to rescue and clean up. They were refused by FEMA. Supplies of water, food and medicine are just waiting for transport in all of the states which border Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Just sitting there, waiting for someone to do something with them. This is inexcusable.

Five days after the storm passed, nothing has been done about housing the nearly 2 million people who have been left without homes. 2 million. Not the 100,000 plus being evacuated from New Orleans - 2 million homeless people. On Tuesday Mr. Brown said FEMA would be talking with cruise ship companies, resort owners, and many others about setting up housing for these people. What happened to that plan? The Houston Astrodome and the dozens of large and small shelters in Texas are being swamped. And those are only the people from New Orleans. What is going to happen to everyone else?

Isn't this what FEMA is supposed to do - house the homeless, feed the starving? And I'm not exaggerating; there are thousands of people in New Orleans who have not eaten since Monday morning. In other areas of the hurricane devastation there are people who haven't had one decent meal since Monday. They are living on chips, bread and small amounts of water. We hear from Mr. Brown that MRE's are being delivered - where? The Salvation Army cannot access the people in New Orleans; they can only feed the people who are evacuated to the Airport and other staging areas. You go without proper food and water for five days and then try to eat, you throw up. Even if you are not under the most horrifying of stresses. Your body cannot withstand the food entering your system that quickly. The Mayor of New Orleans, Mr. Nagin, is still estimating 50,000 plus people need to be evacuated from his city this morning. What, in the name of humanity, is taking so long? 50,000 and more people who are going yet another day without food and water. People are literally dying of dehydration and starvation in this country.

The response of the Federal government to this crisis is despicable. It is criminally negligent. The useless excuse for a Congress needs to investigate immediately - not whenever the hell they decide to wander back to the Capitol and deal with this crisis. Mr. Brown must be fired and arrested and tried on multiple counts of manslaughter. Mr. Bush and every member of the Cabinet must answer for this nightmare. This nation was unwilling to force Mr. Bush to answer for his illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. I pray we will force him to answer for this appalling negligence.

I've written to Dodd, Lieberman and Shays. I've told them I am appalled and disgusted by the response of this government to a crisis the likes of which we have never had to bear before. I don't expect an answer. I'm hoping for some action. Real action. Heads rolling. Trials. Imprisonment. Someone must be held accountable for the horrors we have been watching all week.

Housing

MoveOn.org has created Hurricane Housing. Over 40,000 beds have been volunteered so far.

Connecticut Relief

From WICC 660

WICC600, the Southeastern Fairfield County Chapter of the American Red Cross, and Americares are looking for you support for the Katrina Disaster relief efforts.

Send what you can to:

Americares Foundation
88 Hamilton Avenue
Stamford, CT 06902
or call 1-800-486-help.
www.americares.org

Call the American Red Cross at
1-800-HELP-NOW or send your donation directly to:
The American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund
158 Brooklawn Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
www.redcross.org

Six armories have been designated as collection centers:They will be staffed by members of the CT Army National Guard weekdays from 8am until 4pm beginning September 1.

The Hartford Armory at 360 Broad Street
The New Haven Armory at 209 Goffe Street
The New London Armory at 249 Bayonet Street
The Norwalk Armory at 290 New Canaan Ave.
The Putnam Armory at 25 Keech Street
The Waterbury Armory at 64 Field Street

Items needed:

-Bottled water
-Non-perishable food and snacks
-Batteries
-Blankets
-Tarps and tent

Give until it hurts Connecticut.

Email from a friend

A friend in Memphis, TN, has mass-emailed several friends the following:

We have an influx of about 10,000 refugees so far into our city. Our mayor is working to open a large facility (perhaps the Pyramid, or the FedEx Forum) to house them. In the meantime, they are being cared for in various centers throughout the city. More are coming in. As of this writing today, September 2, another 2,000 are expected in. Areas have been opened to feed them, and donations are pouring in from Memphis citizens offering clothes, canned food, diapers, and more. Many are opening up their homes and taking these people in. The gas problems have hit us here and just yesterday, the cost of gas has risen to $3.49 to $3.99 per gallon, and several stations are taped off as they have run out of gas. Folks are lined up, waiting their turn to fill up. Bought a locking gas cap, as I expect some of our city's finest entrepreneurs will start a black market on gas. But even with all of this, it is nothing compared to what our poor citizens are suffering below us in the tri-states.

You may a misconception about those who didn't leave New Orleans. There was only a very, very tiny percentage that stayed by choice. Living out of this area as you do, you are accustomed to, at the very least, blue collar workers, and cannot understand the poverty that permeates the south. Illiterate people, no education, living from hand to mouth or off of the welfare system. Many have no education nor the intelligence to figure out what to do. They can't read or write, or only know just enough to get by. It is a way of life. These folks had no where to go, and no money to get there if they had some place to go. They and their families have lived where they are for generations; there is no family outside of the area to take them in. Those that worked - and thousands did - lived from paycheck to paycheck because in a family of 10 or more, maybe only one or two actually brought in any money to support them. Once their means of income was gone, there was nothing left. They foundered. They did not ignore their possibilities; they never had any to begin with. But it would take living out here, seeing it first hand, and understanding the system under which these people live, to fully comprehend the problems, issues, and reasons for what has happened to them.

How can we help. For many of us, there is nothing physically we can do. But donations, either in the form of money to your favorite charity, or hard goods that are being collected in your local town can be done. It is the small things that add up to big things. No effort is ever too small.

This is a terrible tragedy. One that has spawned anger, frustration, hurt, anarchists and death. There has been a lack of immediate support and help by our government, a problem which they are now trying to overcome. For many, it will be too late. For others, let us hope it is just in time. But in spite of the problems, they are not insurmountable. We are a nation of people who have risen to the task at hand throughout our history. We have prevailed in the past, and we will prevail here, too.

With warmest regards from Memphis, Tennessee.

CRFoulkes

Red Cross

Habitat for Humanity

Donate - Blog For Relief Day II

The Blog for Relief effort will continue through the weekend. See Technorati, The Truth Laid Bear and Wiki Katrina Help for more information.

I'm supporting the American Red Cross. Please give whatever you can.

Donate - Blog For Relief Day

My charity of choice is the American Red Cross.

~ ~ ~

Direct Relief

America's Second Harvest

AmeriCares

Habitat for Humanity

Mercy Corps

Red Cross: 1-800-HELP-NOW or Red Cross

Episcopal Relief & Development: 1-800-334-7626 or Episcopal Relief & Development

United Methodist Committee on Relief: 1-800-554-8583 or UMCOR

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: 1-800-638-3522 or ELCA.org

Salvation Army: 1-800-SAL-ARMY or Salvation Army

Catholic Charities: 1-800-919-9338 or Catholic Charities

The Humane Society of the United States or The
Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: LA-SPCA

Noah's Wish: 1-530-622-9313 or Noah's Wish

United Way: 1-800-272-4630 or United Way

Emergency search and rescue phone lines for those in distress: 225-925-7708, 225-925-7709, 225-925-3511, 225-925-7412.
To inquire about those in the area who did not evacuate, contact the American Red Cross at 866-438-4636.

Also see the Wiki Portal: Katrina Help

Add your blog at the truth laid bear and see their full list of charities.

See also: Technorati flood aid

~ ~ ~

Forgot to add a link to The Interdictor, a blogger in New Orleans. Reading his blog over the past few days has left me feeling an amazing range of emotions. His is one of the few live feeds coming out of the Big Easy.

GI Rights Hotline

The telephone number is:

1-800-394-9544

I found out about this hotline by reading an article by Marjorie Cohn at Truthout entitled The Creeping Draft.

Enlistees are given a date to report within 365 days of the day they sign up. This is called the Delayed Entry Program (DEP). If, for any reason, they change their mind within that time, they don't have to go. A counselor with the San Diego Military Counseling Project told me that recruiters lie. They do underhanded things to circumvent the DEP. A recruiter might show up at the recruit's job and tell his boss he isn't patriotic and get the recruit fired. On the day before the recruit is due to report, the recruiter will tell him to come down to the office to complete some paperwork. The recruit will then be kept there overnight and sent directly to boot camp the next day. This is kidnapping.

Hell of an article to come across on the eve the Fourth of July weekend.

Then again, maybe it's most timely.

Surprise!

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has resigned.

I was thinking we might not have a mudfest to observe this summer. Not now.

I'm still reading SCOTUS. This paragraph:

If that happens, the dispute that would follow in the Senate may well make pale, by comparison, the fight in 1987 over replacing Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. -- who, like O'Connor -- held the balance of power on the Court. The controversy that arose over nominee Robert Bork, ultimately leading to his defeat as Powell's successor, was about nothing less than the future of the Court. That could be at stake all over again.

is what I've been mulling over for a couple of months.

See also SCTNomination, which has a list of potential nominees.

College Republicans

"Universities are a base of the left. Universities are a base for terrorism." David Horowitz, said at the College Republicans' convention this past weekend.

From The Nation:

I chatted for a while with Collin Kelley, a senior at Washington State with a vague resemblance to the studly actor Orlando Bloom. Kelley told me he's "sick and tired of people saying our troops are dying in vain" and added, "This isn't an invasion of Iraq, it's a liberation--as David Horowitz said." When I asked him why he was staying on campus rather than fighting the good fight, he rubbed his shoulder and described a nagging football injury from high school. Plus, his parents didn't want him to go. "They're old hippies," Kelley said.

By the time I encountered Cory Bray, a towering senior from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, the beer was flowing freely. "The people opposed to the war aren't putting their asses on the line," Bray boomed from beside the bar. Then why isn't he putting his ass on the line? "I'm not putting my ass on the line because I had the opportunity to go to the number-one business school in the country," he declared, his voice rising in defensive anger, "and I wasn't going to pass that up."

Thank goodness for "old hippies". I hope more parents keep their kids from signing up in the all volunteer army. Have you been hearing about the armed services missing their recruitment quotas each month? How they're offering $15,000 and more to kids to sign up, in addition to other incentives traditionally offered? However, the longer this goes on, the greater the liklihood of a draft.

It's not too early to let your representatives know your feelings, pro or con, regarding the drafting of this nations kids into the armed services.

Dear MoveOn member,

Last night, President Bush tried to rescue his failed Iraq policy in a nationally televised address by connecting the Iraq war to the war on terror. He is trying to change the subject from Iraq to terrorism and September 11—implying that Iraq attacked us in 2001.

To keep Bush from changing the subject, we've started running a new TV ad about Iraq. But to keep the advertising on the air, we need to raise $250,000 today. Just $50 from 5,000 of us will make a big difference. Will you contribute to help stop Bush from changing the subject?

Stop Bush

Even a small contribution will keep the ads running if we all chip in. And, if we raise $500,000, we can expand the advertising into the hometowns of Republican members of Congress who will have tough elections in 2006.

That will help send a signal that Congress will pay a price at the ballot box because of the Iraq failures. The president's speech provided political cover to a lot of members of Congress—letting them get away with not supporting an exit strategy—but we can help neutralize that with the ad campaign. If you don't live in one of those congressional districts, this is your chance to make a huge difference by supporting this ad.

The ad, titled "Hagel," draws a sharp contrast between President Bush's claim that we're making progress in Iraq and the words of Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who said, "The White House is completely disconnected from reality... It's like they're just making it up as they go along."1 Then, the ad calls for an exit strategy, saying, "It's time to come home. We went in the wrong way, let's come home the right way." An exit strategy with a timeline is supported by nearly 84% of MoveOn members according to the recent vote.

Hagel Ad

Supporting this ad will also show that we won't run away when the Republicans attack. Over the last couple of days, the Bush White House has begun openly attacking MoveOn by name—even accusing us of siding with the terrorists and wanting to make America less safe. It started with lies in a speech by Bush spin-master Karl Rove last week but quickly followed with attacks on "The Today Show" by White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. Then, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took a swipe at MoveOn on Sunday talk shows.

We can't let them get away with this. It's the Iraq war that's making America less safe—not the 3.3 million of us in MoveOn.

Because we're out front on Iraq, we can expect more attacks. By standing up to them, we can demonstrate to Democrats that they need not cower when Republicans slander them. But we can't keep these ads on the air without your support. Please contribute at:

MoveOn

The advertising is just the first part of MoveOn's new Iraq campaign. Over the coming weeks and months, we'll be pushing for our leaders in elected office to insist that President Bush put together an exit strategy (a plan!) for Iraq. We'll ask you to get involved in lots of different ways, but right now we really need your help to keep the TV ad on the air.

Thank you for all you do,

–Tom, Matt, Eli, Rosalyn and the MoveOn PAC Team
Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

P.S. Can't contribute for an ad? Write a letter to the editor about Bush's speech at:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=764&zip=06611&id=5724-5841557-t00mP3PTQuQBYB1IiM8_Jw&t=6

Source:
1. "Hit by friendly fire," U.S. News & World Report, June 27, 2005
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/050627/27bush.htm

PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

It's no secret to me, but, given the lack of real news coverage in the United States, I thought that it might be news to others.

Zimbabwe's Secret Famine

Heifer International. Make a donation. Please.

If you don't like Heifer, check out Charity Navigator, to find a charity you'd rather give to. Also, see the director's blog, Trent Stamp's Take.

We're headed for dark days, when the United States Senate starts dictating which non-profits are worthy of governnmental support, not because of the efficacy or efficiency of the organization involved, but because of the ideology of the group.

Dear Mr. Stamp, we're already there.

testing, testing... move along, nothing to see...

Musings