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Catastrophes

  • Message: I Care About the Black Folks
    19 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By FRANK RICH
    ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum’s mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush.
    The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of (…)

  • CLEANING UP THE BUSH MESS
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    3 comments

    by Peter Fredson
    Katrina has come and gone and has left both the Gulf Coast and George Bush’s reputation soiled, in tatters, dirtied and in need of a lot of urgent repair. Bush’s credibility is close to zero in many reporters’ estimation; any statement he makes is self-serving and must be scanned carefully for deceit, misinformation and outright lies. His “dry-drunk” attitude, irritability and religious fervor is detrimental to his image of himself.
    His entire administration has (…)

  • FEMA 2001: Top 3 likely disasters- NYC terror attack, New Orleans Hurricane, SF Earthquake
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Dec. 1, 2001, in the Houston Chronicle. Because of its relevance to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, it is being republished. New Orleans is sinking.
    And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.
    So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage (…)

  • How Reliable Is Brown’s Resume?
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    A TIME investigation reveals discrepancies in the FEMA chief’s official biographies
    By DAREN FONDA AND RITA HEALY
    When President Bush nominated Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003, Brown’s boss at the time, Joe Allbaugh, declared, "the President couldn’t have chosen a better man to help...prepare and protect the nation." But how well was he prepared for the job? Since Hurricane Katrina, the FEMA director has come under heavy criticism for his (…)

  • Truth Is Casualty of Katrina’s Aftermath
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By JOHN SOLOMON
    WASHINGTON (AP) - One of the bigger casualties of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath has been the truth itself. From federal emergency managers to Democrats, much fingerpointing - and even the promises not to engage in it - have fallen short of the facts.
    For instance, the levees that broke weren’t ones waiting for Army Corps of Engineer repairs as Democrats have implied. They were ones that had already been fortified, and still failed.
    And, yes, some in government did (…)

  • Bush’s changing tune
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Derrick Z. Jackson
    PRESIDENT BUSH said these things about Hurricane Katrina in his speech to the nation Thursday:
    ’’Millions of lives were changed in a day by a cruel and wasteful storm."
    ’’Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone."
    ’’As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut (…)

  • Wake of the Hurricane : Etan Thomas Rises to the Occasion
    18 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    by DAVE ZIRIN
    Sports stars are generally known more for their narcissism than their compassion, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, athletes have expressed a tremendous amount of altruism and anguish over the amount of human suffering the storm has caused. That’s not surprising, when you consider that more than 100 professional athletes come from the Gulf Coast, an area whose deep poverty, institutionalized racism and year-round sunshine combine to offer the requisite conditions for (…)

  • It’s not so much that the government is not responding in NOLA, they are obsructing the response
    17 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    by Naomi Archer
    It’s not so much that the government is not responding [with storm relief], they are obstructing the response. They are telling us we can’t bring people the basic necessities of life because that would give them hope. It is a question of oppression vs. mutual aid. That is the revolution. - Jesse, an organizer with MayDay DC volunteering in the Common Ground Wellness Center, Algiers, NOLA
    A MODEL FOR GETTING IT TOGETHER
    The locally-led, mutually based community relief (…)

  • Michael Moore helps provide real relief for the people of New Orleans
    17 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
    10 comments

    by Michael Moore
    Friends,
    Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute was critical. People were dying, poor (…)

  • Criminally Negligent: Homeland Security & Chertoff
    17 September 2005 par (Open-Publishing)

    Criminally Negligent: Homeland Security & Chertoff (continued) by CHRISTOPHER BOLLYN (AMERICAN FREE PRESS)
    The son of an Israeli Mossad agent, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, not Michael Brown, was in charge of managing the national response to Hurricane Katrina. Did Chertoff say, Hey, it’s just schwartzes. Whaddaya want from me?)
    Because Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff delayed federal assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. he is (…)