Tag: Hurricane Katrina

Wingnuts Using Hurricane to Smear Liberal Journo

Buck Banks

Pundits from the far wrong are resorting to schoolyard-level smears in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. Blowhard Rush “Feelin No Pain” Limbaugh has taken to referring to the storm as “Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel,” after the editor of The Nation, which is solidly left of center, to say the least.

In her Editor’s Cut column vanden Huevel responds with wry humor:

When Fox started calling the storm Killer Katrina, I prayed some right-wing idiot wouldn’t stoop so low as to link me to this human suffering. But wouldn’t you know, the biggest dittohead on the block, Rush Limbaugh, is calling the storm Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel. National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who has never seen a bad-joke bandwagon he could resist jumping on with both feet, blogged, “It would be pretty cool if Fox played to caricature and repeatedly referred to the hurricane as Katrina vanden Heuvel.” He went on to imagine the lines, “The destruction from Katrina vanden Heuvel is expected to be massive. The poor and disabled are particularly likely to suffer from the effects of Katrina vanden Heuvel.”

vanden Huevel’s point is well-made — such third-grade name calling merely belittles the people who are living through and dying in the United States’ worst natural disaster in history. She also nails both numbskulls:

At least Limbaugh has the excuse that drug abuse tends to stunt emotional development. What Goldberg’s problem is nobody has yet discovered. Natural disasters should be above infantile politics.

Bush to U.S.: ‘Don’t Buy Gas If You Don’t Need It’

Jon Ponder

We can’t believe that the President of the United States just addressed the nation and offered this advice: “Don’t buy gas, if you don’t need it.”

Who the hell buys gas they don’t need? I guess this is as close as he can get to making an utterance that would be perceived by his fatcat oil buddies as advocating conservation.

(We all recall that Vice President Cheney once sneered at the ide of conservation, calling it a “personal choice.”)

‘Where the Hell’s the Cavalry?’

Trish

A Bush administration FEMA expert who left the agency six months ago joined a chorus of People Who Know About These Things in criticizing the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

Knight-Ridder:

The federal government so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina, former top federal, state and local disaster chiefs said Wednesday.

…the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)…was enveloped by the new Department of Homeland Security with a new mission aimed at responding to the attacks of al-Qaida.

“What you’re seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels,” said Eric Tolbert, who until February was FEMA’s disaster response chief. “…They’ve been weakened by diversion into terrorism.”

Yes, the global struggle against violent extremism is sucking us dry.
[…]

Wolcott: The Time for Politics Is Now

Jon Ponder

We’ve been having this debate around the virtual water cooler here in the digital garret where Pensito Review is produced. Here’s a take from the inimitable James Wolcott:

Over at DailyKos, Armando is cautioning liberal lefties to holster the fickle fingers of blame.

“[T]his is not a time for politics — not only for moral and ethical reasons, but for political ones as well. That is, politics itself mandates that these days not be political.”

Stop right there. First of all, “politics” mandates nothing. It’s an abstract noun. It’s like beginning a sentence “Morality dictates that…” Morality dictates nothing. It’s how people interpret morality, and how they apply it in certain situations which evolve over time. Politics are people, and what they make of their political situation, and when the realities of their lives demand that the political and economic circumstances of their lives change. It isn’t something to put on a shelf and used only when the climate of opinion permits.

[…]

While Deep South Collapses, Condi Goes Shopping – Has Citizen Who Dared to Criticize Her Forcibly Removed

Jon Ponder

You know the old saying: When things get tough, the tough go shopping:

According to Drudge, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has recently enjoyed a little Broadway entertainment. And Page Six reports that she’s also working on her backhand with Monica Seles. So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we were surprised.

What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American.

Bush: ‘I Don’t Think Anyone Anticipated the Breach of the Levees’

Jon Ponder

Yes, this is the quote from our clueless leader on Good Morning America this morning. President Bush told Diane Sawyer:

“I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.”

Many books and newspaper articles have been written about New Orlean’s extreme vulnerability to a breech of the levees. Mr. Bush’s own Army Corps of Engineers has conducted studies over decades and had a plan for maintaining the levees in 2003 — a plan that was ( as we noted here last night) defunded by Mr. Bush in order to reallocate the money to tax cuts and the war in Iraq.

Mr. Bush is such a practiced liar that it is, as usual, impossible to tell whether he is genuninely clueless or simply prevaricating to cover his ass.

Of course, Ms. Sawyer let the president’s outrageous assertion pass, quickly moving on to ask him to predict an unknowable – how many people were contracting diseases in New Orleans or somesuch.

This exchange between GWB and the MSM on GMA is emblematic of the Bush era. Whether he’s clueless or he’s lying, President Bush will never be held accountable by the media or the public.

And the fact that history will undoubtedly judge him to be the worst president in U.S. history offers little comfort to the refugees in the Deep South.

Bush Diverted Levee-Building Funds to Iraq War, Tax Cuts

Jon Ponder

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain.

Repair and maintenance of the fortress-like system of levees around New Orleans has been a fact of life there for decades. The levees themselves are constantly sinking – in one report they sank four feet in about a year. But in 2003 – at the time President Bush cut the taxes of the wealthy (his “base”) while simultaneously launching the invasion of Iraq for no other reason than his personal whim, funding to rebuild the levees was reallocated:

[After] 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA [Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project] dropped to a trickle. The [Army Corps of Engineeers] never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security — coming at the same time as federal tax cuts — was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

As the situation in Iraq devolved into the slow-motion bloodbath we are experiencing today, the Bush Administration needed more money to feed the beast it had unleashed. As a result, even more funding was drained away from repairing the levees around New Orleans:

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

Last summer, local officials recognized that the president’s decision had placed the city in jeopardy:

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: “It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”

Rightwingers Blame Americans for Hurricane Destruction

Jon Ponder

Why do rightwingers blame America first for natural disasters?

A group called Columbia Christians for Life sent out the following email:

The image of the hurricane above with its eye already ashore at 12:32 PM Monday, August 29 looks like a fetus (unborn human baby) facing to the left (west) in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation (approx. 6 weeks). Even the orange color of the image is reminiscent of a commonly used pro-life picture of early prenatal development… [This] hurricane looks like an unborn human child.

Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers – FIVE are in New Orleans
www.ldi.org (‘Find an Abortion Clinic [sic]’)

  • Baby-murder state # 1 – California (125 abortion centers) – land of earthquakes, forest fires, and mudslides
  • Baby-murder state # 2 – New York (78 abortion centers) – 9-11 Ground Zero
  • Baby-murder state # 3 – Florida (73 abortion centers) – Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne in 2004; and now, Hurricane Katrina in 2005

God’s message: REPENT AMERICA !

Elsewhere, a group called Repent America blames the destruction of New Orleans “Girls Gone Wild,” a video series in which young women expose their breasts, and “Southern Decadance,” an annual gay event hosted in the the city.

Seriously, we hate to besmirch the gentle souls of the truly mentally challenged by calling these wingnuts “retarded” but no other term is accurate.

And God help us, these are the folks who control all three branches of our government today.

East Coast Stations Run Out of Gas

Jon Ponder

For the first time since the 1970’s, gas stations in North Carolina are out of gas, and shortages have pushed the cost up to $3.00 per gallon – just in time for the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Gov. Mike Easley urged citizens to conserve on gas because supplies are dwindling. He said that two major pipelines that furnish gasoline to North Carolina and eight-to-10 other states are unable to pump gasoline to the region because of damage from Hurricane Katrina.

From Georgia to Michigan, fuel supplies are dwindling and prices are rising:

Gas stations in upstate South Carolina reported they were running out of gas. “The state is telling us the pipeline that services the northeast has been disrupted at the supply point in Louisiana, and that it will take a week and half for it to reach us,” he said. “A lot of gas stations are out and closed in this area.”

In central Maryland, many gas stations were shut down by Wednesday night. “I don’t know when I’ll get gas again,” said one station owner in Laurel, Md…

In Michigan, gas prices were as high as $3.92 for unleaded regular in Garden City, just one of many stations with high prices in the Detroit metro area. Forty percent of Michigan’s gas comes from the Gulf Coast.

In Atlanta, gas prices were rising and shortages were imminent, residents reported.

Flashlight, Batteries, Bottled Water, Hurricane Condom

Trish

We could all use some humor right about now, and this appears to be legit. The father of a Florida Atlantic University student is upset because his son received a condom in the hurricane supplies issued by the school in preparation for Katrina.

Palm Beach Post:

As Hurricane Katrina swirled toward Boca Raton, freshman John Lehman, 18, was surprised to be handed protection from more than the storm.

The boy’s father, Charles Lehman of Tequesta, checked with his son to see whether he was safe from the hurricane in his Heritage Park Towers dorm.

“And he said, ‘The RA passed out the hurricane supplies — a condom,’ ” the father said. “That was it. I was so taken aback. Did they give him a flashlight? No, they gave him a condom.”

Hey, stuff happens Dad. You gotta be ready at all times. Besides, maybe they meant for it to be used as a flotation device, or as extra rain gear. Get your mind out of the gutter already.

The school claims that one resident assistant, who was supposed to distribute the outer wear to dorm dwellers as part of a safe sex program, decided to kill two birds with one stone.

“The administration was not aware of it,” [school spokeswoman Kristine] McGrath said. “And we think it’s inappropriate to think that a natural disaster is a reason to have sex.”

The condoms, she said, had been sent in boxes to resident assistants in dorms, but they weren’t supposed to be passed out in this way. The school, she said, has a comprehensive safe-sex program, which includes a lecture and some printed material…

“A safe-sex program should be more than just handing out a condom,” McGrath said, “and I don’t know that this was a time or place to do something like that. However, there were a lot of social events happening in the multipurpose rooms.”

You really can’t make this stuff up.