With gas prices going up because of Katrina, I thought I would share my favorite gas price search site it's GasBuddy.com, home of such places as Minnesotagasprices.com, denvergasprices.com, etc. You can usually search down to a small area/city of your state.

Bayistas: Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park has closed for good.

[link]

It's a Hurricane Relief Bake Sale!

Here's how it works:

The first twenty-five people to email me get their choice of chocolate chip cookies, espresso cookies, or chocolate peanut butter death bombs. No crossovers, please: one flavour of cookie per person. I pay for the ingredients, and the mailing supplies, and of course, I bake the goodies.

In return, you agree to pay $3.85 for priority shipping, and you pledge to make at least a $10 donation to the Red Cross or other verifiable hurricane relief organisation of your choice.

Because of book deadline constraints and this pesky debilitating disease thing, this is limited to the first twenty-five people only. If you want to participate, email me at sf _ deb at yahoo dot com.

NYistas:

So it's Friday night, we're freaked out on our couch watching CNN, maybe drooling a little and mumbling quietly to ourselves. What could possibly rouse one's spirits in such desperate times? What to do but drink one's self into desperation?

Right you are, folks, but you're not alone! The Legitimate Theater Company invites you to the Slipper Room this Friday, September 2nd at 8:00 pm (doors open 7:30 pm) to revel in what life has to offer today-- comedy, tragedy, whiskey.

This Friday, September 2nd, The Legitimate Theater Company will be donating 50% of it's door profits to the American Red Cross (www.redcross.org). Legitimate Theater Company is not a charitable organization or a registered 501(c)3, but we love New Orleans and we love people. So if you want to give more than $5, please give to a charity of your choice directly. But if you'd like to laugh, cry, sing, drink heavily, and quite possibly get laid, you should come to the Slipper Room at 167 Orchard Street (corner of Stanton) at 8:00 pm this Friday for WHAT IS LEGITIMATE THEATER.

THIS WEEKS SPECIAL GUESTS INCLUDE:
Miss Clams Casino
The Knuckleheads

The Legitimate Theater Company attempts to earn its own name while you watch, drink, and heckle. From week to week, the troupe and its guests will ransack everything from carnival sideshow to experimental melodrama in search of the ever-elusive truth. Then, after delving into the murky shadows of Shakespeare, circus, and rock n’ roll, it will emerge again, wiser, stronger, and, hopefully, having delivered an experience worthy of the name:

Legitimate Theater.

Sleazy, smart, and drunk by noon.

http://www.legitimatetheater.com/homepage.htm

If you're donating to the Red Cross relief effort and you think your employer might have pledged a matching donation but you're not sure, check this matching-donor search engine:

Matching Gift Clearinghouse

I know some people know about The Hunger Site (and its affiliate sites, The Hunger Site, The Breast Cancer Site, etc.), where all you have to do is click their button to fund hunger relief efforts. That's it. Just click.

They're currently supporting the hurricane victims. So, go, click.

You'll All Pay #40

Crime.

I know that nearby Buffistas are already helping, but MoveOn has started a network to help refugees find housing. If you know someone who could help, please pass this along.

----------------------------
Hurricane Katrina's toll on communities, homes and lives has devastated the nation. Now victims must face the daunting question of where to go next—and we can help.

Tens of thousands of newly homeless families are being bused to a stadium in Houston, where they may wait for weeks or months. At least 80,000 are competing for area shelters, and countless more are in motels, cars, or wherever they can stay out of the elements. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross are scrambling to find shelter for the displaced.

This morning, we've launched an emergency national housing drive to connect your empty beds with hurricane victims who desperately need a place to wait out the storm. You can post your offer of housing (a spare room, extra bed, even a decent couch) and search for available housing online at:

[link]

Housing is most urgently needed within reasonable driving distance (about 300 miles) of the affected areas in the Southeast, especially New Orleans.

Please forward this message to anyone you know in the region who might be able to help.

But no matter where you live, your housing could still make a world of difference to a person or family in need, so please offer what you can.
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Are you outraged out the official response to a disaster initially caused by weather for which we had plenty of advanced warning--weather which was not nearly as severe as predicted? Are you wondering how badly we would have responded to a surprise terrorist attack (which by definition doesn't come with days of warning)?

Me, too. Here's some contact information, to make your voice heard. Remember, they work for you.

1.) Contact the White House

Phone Numbers

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

TTY/TDD

Comments: 202-456-6213

E-mail Addresses

Comments: comments@whitehouse.gov

President George W. Bush: president@whitehouse.gov

V.P. Dick Cheney: vice.president@whitehouse.gov

... ... ...

2.) Contact your Senators.

If you do not have your Senators' names, numbers, and contact information, use this site to find them: [link]

3.) Contact your Congressional Representative.

If you do not already have your Representative's name and phone number, use this site to find it: [link] You need not only your zip code, but the 4 digit extension, as well.

If you do not know the 4 digit extension, you can look it up at the U.S. Postal Service's web site: [link]

4.) Contact a Member of the US House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.

The Chair is vacant right now, so I recommend looking at the list, here [link] and seeing if your state has representation on the committee.

You can then find his/her contact information at the link I provided above, for contacting your own Congressional Rep.

As an alternative, you can call the office of the Vice Chair, Curt Weldon, of Pennsylvania, at:

PHONE: (202) 225-2011

The Honorable Curt Weldon R - PA - 7th DIST (Aston)
2452 Rayburn HOB
Washington DC 20515

The Democratic members of the committee have their own web page, so if you can't stomach contacting whomever is on the list for you, go here [link] and call Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, of Mississippi. He's the ranking Democratic member, and he's from Mississippi (areas of which have also endured incredible devastation).

PHONE: (202) 225-5876

FAX: (202) 225-5898

Here's the contact information for the Democratic Office of the House Homeland Security Committee:

Committee on Homeland Security, Democratic Staff 101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
LA-228
Washington, D.C. 20540

PHONE: 202-226-2616

5.) Contact Homeland Security about the FEMA effort.

Direct your messages to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, whom the President has appointed to chair the interagency task force to handle the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and to Under Secretary of Homeland Security Michael D. Brown, in charge of Emergency Preparedness and Response.

PHONE: (202) 566-1600

FEMA 500 C Street
SW Washington, D.C. 20472

E-mail: FEMAOPA@dhs.gov

...

NOTE: If you're contacting a Congress person or Senator who does not represent your area, your e-mail is filtered out. They scan messages for an in-district/in-state address. They will not respond to you, and probably won't even read what you have to say, certainly not in a timely fashion.

I just found this out and decided to pass it on:

Coinstar allows you to donate your spare change directly to the Red Cross and other charities from their machines.

You can find the nearest machine that allows donations on their website: [link]