I gave to the Red Cross the day after Katrina hit. Today my contract boss sent around an email asking if folks wanted to give through the company. Actually, he'll be sending me and a couple of other web folks to help our institute set up an environmental contamination medical information site. There are loads of chemical plants in the Gulf states, as well as the petro-chemical plants and contamination from cars and boats that were smashed and heaven knkows what else. So we'll be helping with some somewhat practical stuff, I hope.
None of which will be useful until the folks get pulled out of the soup and taken to doctors with facilities that can help them. But still. I guess it's something.
What's happened in New Orleans will resonate as a direct indictment of Bush's leadership. And that's pretty much all he's got going for him.
I absolutely hope so. Nobody wants that fuckwit out of office more than I do.
But I just don't expect it. He could eat a baby on live TV, and the coverage would be along the lines of "President Loves the Children!"
What's happened in New Orleans will resonate as a direct indictment of Bush's leadership. And that's pretty much all he's got going for him.
But it WON'T. He NEVER shows up until a few days into the thing. 9/11, the tsunami... I swear to God they're dosing the fuck out of him before they stick him in front of the cameras. That son of a bitch would have to eat a baby on live television for the public to turn on him.
For Schaivo he turned up though...
BWAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
most. fucked. up. x. post. ev. ah.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
most. fucked. up. x. post. ev. ah.
::snerk:: Baby-eaters, they'll start calling us....
(For the record, I *don't* eat babies. Just their toes.)
Uhm.
No therapy for me until Tuesday. This weekend is going to be rough for me.
Would it be possible for people to call me this weekend and check up on me?
It's becoming obvious that I have some serious telephone issues. If I call someone and I can't talk to a human being I tend to freak out. Which is bad, since I'm already in a bad state.
Would it be possible for people to call me this weekend and check up on me?
Oh, you've asked for it NOW, buddy! Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaa!
Would it be possible for people to call me this weekend and check up on me?
Sure. Will you e me your #? I'm at e dot juliana at gmail dot com.
I'm around this weekend Tom. Catch me on IM and we'll make a time.
A good round-up from CNN of the disconnect between the Federal level bullshit and the real nitty gritty:
**************
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday. The sanitized view came from federal officials at news conferences and television appearances. But the official line was contradicted by grittier, more desperate views from the shelters and the streets.
These conflicting views came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others. Here's what they had to say:
Conditions in the Convention Center
FEMA chief Brown: We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need. (See video of CNN asking why FEMA is clueless about conditions -- 2:11)
Mayor Nagin: The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people. (Hear Nagin's angry demand for soldiers. 1:04)
CNN Producer Kim Segal: It was chaos. There was nobody there, nobody in charge. And there was nobody giving even water. The children, you should see them, they're all just in tears. There are sick people. We saw... people who are dying in front of you.
Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you've got about 3,000 people here in this -- in the Convention Center right now. They're hungry. Don't have any food. We were told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdome or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, was no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure.
Uncollected corpses
Brown: That's not been reported to me, so I'm not going to comment. Until I actually get a report from my teams that say, "We have bodies located here or there," I'm just not going to speculate.
Segal: We saw one body. A person is in a wheelchair and someone had pushed (her) off to the side and draped just like a blanket over this person in the wheelchair. And then there is another body next to that. There were others they were willing to show us. ( See CNN report, 'People are dying in front of us' -- 4:36 )
Evacuee Cooper: They had a couple of policemen out here, sir, about six or seven policemen told me directly, when I went to tell them, hey, man, you got bodies in there. You got two old ladies that just passed, just had died, people dragging the bodies into little corners. One guy -- that's how I found out. The guy had actually, hey, man, anybody sleeping over here? I'm like, no. He dragged two bodies in there. Now you just -- I just found out there was a lady and an old man, the lady went to nudge him. He's dead.
Hospital evacuations
Brown: I've just learned today that we ... are in the process of completing the evacuations of the hospitals, that those are going very well.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's gruesome. I guess that is the best word for it. If you think about a hospital, for example, the morgue is in the basement, and the basement is completely flooded. So you can just imagine the scene down there. But when patients die in the hospital, there is no place to put them, so they're in the stairwells. It is one of the most unbelievable situations I've seen as a doctor, certainly as a journalist as well. There is no electricity. There is no water. There's over 200 patients still here remaining. ...We found our way in through a chopper and had to land at a landing strip and then take a boat. And it is exactly ... where the boat was traveling where the snipers opened fire yesterday, halting all the evacuations. ( Watch the video report of corpses stacked in stairwells -- 4:45 (continued...)
