Savage Republican

Much has been made, in recent days, of the attitudes of the evacuees from New Orleans. I have talked to many people in the shelters. Most have stories of grateful people who are thankful to be alive and truly astonished at the goodness and kindness of strangers who would put their lives on hold to help them recover from a personal disaster. Then there are the ingrates who, rather than being thankful for the help they are getting, are complaining that they aren’t getting better. I’m sure we have all seen the email, that was purported “written” by a doctor who decries the greed and ingratitude of evacuees in the Houston area.

Well today, I have the most uplifting exchange with a couple of lovely ladies. The first was a young woman who was volunteering in a shelter in northern Louisiana. The second was a woman who was helping, as best as she could, from a distance. The young lady in Louisiana echoed the Houston account, which saddened her greatly as the people she was seeing this attitude out of were “her own”. She was so angry at this attitude of ingrattitude that she was considering not going back. The other young woman, put herself in the situation and reminded the first that while the bad attitude was not acceptable, it is understandable given what they had all gone through. What struck me though, what should strike us ALL in the heart was the end of the email. She said:

“…do not take this on as a race issue. Attitudes come in all colours, and don’t reflect you. I have met some pretty ungrateful and spoiled white people and don’t feel they reflect me. I know it’s hard because racism uses faulty logic to explain itself by clumping things together. One bad attitude from a black person and ALL black people are such and such. It’s faulty logic of people trying to prove what they themselves believe. It’s not logical. Attitudes come in equal share to all colours. It does not reflect race, it reflects the individual and the situation they are in.”

I stopped and let that sink in. So much truth in so few words. How much better would this world be if we all remember that simple phrase – attitudes come in all colors. If we could all stop and put ourselves in one anothers shoes and remember that attitude comes in all colors…..

Tomorrow is the 4th anniversary of an American tragedy – the 9/11 attacks. To honor the passengers of Flight 93, the Discovery Channel is showing a program that “recreates” that doomed flight – based on phone conversations, voicemail messages and 9-1-1 taped calls that the passengers made on that fateful day. That is the ONLY program that the “legacy” media is doing to recognize what the day is. Meanwhile over at CNN, their attorneys are suing the government because their reporters are not being allowed to video/photograph the bodies of the dead as they are being recovered in New Orleans. Now I can certainly understand the ban. If I were searching for a relative, say I have an Uncle Beaudreaux who is missing, I certainly would not want the first word of Uncle Beaudreaux’s fate to come from CNN!!!! Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit makes another point. The same press that is suing to show my dead Uncle Beaudreaux felt that showing us the dead and dying (and jumping off of the 20 floor of WTC Tower 2) was “too upsetting” to the American people.

Now what am I missing here? Showing us the dead of Hurricane Catrina, a natural disaster is ok, but showing us the dead who were killed by a cowardly attack on civilian targets is “too upsetting”????

More eloquent people than I have written about the DNC Chairman, the gift that keeps on givning. Hugh Hewitt, Mitch Berg, KvM just to name a few have waxed poetic on the utterances of Howard Dean. Today Chairman Dean was on “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer and after reading the transcript, it is impossible not to offer a word or two.

Wolf was asking Chairman Dean about the political fall-out of the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

“BLITZER: Do you believe the response from the federal government, the Bush administration specifically, the president of the United States, that there were racist or racial overtones in that response? DEAN: No, I don’t think so. What I do think, however, is the way our society has worked in the last 20 years — actually, a lot longer than that, but in the last 20 years when nobody has been talking about it, is that, in fact, those below the top 20 percent in America, white, black, and brown, have been significantly disadvantaged.The average income in this country went down $1,700 since George Bush has been president for everybody under the top 20 percent. So, 80 percent of Americans saw their income drop. There’s something the matter with a country that does not want to talk about what’s good for 80 percent of the people and focuses on what’s great for 20 percent of the people. “

Well Mr. Chairman, the Census Bureau disagrees with that. In 1999 (the last year of the Clinton Administration) the 3-year median income in the US was $40,800. In 2004, the 3 year median income was $44, 473. Now, I’m sure Chairman Dean’s supporters will say “He said that it was the bottom 80% that lost money”, but remember that the defination of median is that half of the people make more and half make less.

“BLITZER: What about the Democratic governor of Louisiana, and the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, how much responsibility should they have for what happened to those poor people who suffered in the immediate aftermath of those levees collapsing? DEAN: As you know, Wolf, as you know, I was governor more almost 12 years. I think we had seven or eight nine emergencies during that time, states of emergency, under three presidents. And I can tell you that what you need when there’s an emergency is the National Guard. The National Guard was in Iraq. BLITZER: Well — a third of the National Guard troops of Louisiana were, approximately, were in Iraq. DEAN: And the equipment was in Iraq. “

He just can not let go of the idea that the war in Iraq is somehow responsible for the lack of response to Katrina. Even Wolf realizes the fallacy of this meme…However it was this exchange that really struck me (emphasis mine).

“BLITZER: But there were 1,000 — at least 1,000 school busses in New Orleans, and none of them were mobilized to get poor people, old people, people who didn’t have cars, out of that city as that hurricane, Category 5, was building up steam along the — in the Gulf of Mexico. Who should have ordered that those school busses, to get drivers and start driving people who don’t have cars out of the city? DEAN: That’s an easy criticism to make, because beforehand you can blame everybody. You can blame the last four or five presidents — BLITZER: Isn’t that the responsibility of the mayor or the governor? DEAN: Unless you tell people what the sequence is, I can’t answer that question. I have to tell me that the sequence was that the hurricane was known to be, going to hit New Orleans directly, which it didn’t. And that those busses weren’t under water, and that the people who were supposed to be driving them didn’t — BLITZER: On Saturday and Sunday there was no water in New Orleans. DEAN: Right. BLITZER: And that was the — the hurricane hit Monday morning. DEAN: You’re holding the mayor — BLITZER: On Friday they knew this could potentially hit New Orleans, and that it could be a Category 4 or 5. DEAN: You’re holding the mayor to a different standard. This is a Republican spin machine stuff. You’re holding the mayor to a different standard than you are holding FEMA. “

Let that sink in for a moment dear reader…Holding the Mayor of NO responsible for not following his own evacuation plan is Republican spin machine stuff….but wait! There’s more…

“BLITZER: Let’s talk about a comment you made. “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina we have a clear, moral responsibility to do a better job of ensuring social and economic justice for every American, and there is still far too much that we don’t know about John Roberts’ record and beliefs on these critical issues.”You’re making a connection between Katrina and the confirmation hearings of John Roberts, which begin on Monday. And I’m not exactly sure what the point is. DEAN: My point is that John Roberts has a record. John Roberts appears to be a wonderful, decent, family person, but, again, we get back to the question about whether you really care and whether you have compassion. It’s not enough to say you care. It’s what you’ve done. John Roberts’ legal career has been about taking away every protection for young girls and women who want to participate in sports, for African-Americans and Hispanics, who want the equal same right to vote as everybody else, for taking away for women who believe they should determine what kind of health care they have, instead of having politicians do it.His entire legal career appears to be about making sure those folks don’t have the same rights everybody else does. That’s probably not the right thing to do two weeks after a disaster, where certain members of society clearly did not have the same protections that everybody else did because of their circumstances. Americans are fair people and they want a sense of justice. I know Judge Roberts loves the law. I’m not sure he loves the American people. BLITZER: So should the Senate reject his confirmation? DEAN: Based on what I know now, absolutely, yes. “

Based on what I know Chairman Dean, you are destined to be the Chairman of a minority party. I hope that is what you want, because as long as you continue to give the Republican Party in this fashion, that is exactly what you are going to get.

Much has been said, in recent days, about the failures that caused the massive human suffering in New Orleans apre Katrina. As I stated here there is certainly more than enough blame to go around, and most of it should start with the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana, but that some blame could rightly be laid on a federal doorstep. The Manchester (NH) Union Leader had an interesting editorial that to addresses the issue of just who is at fault for the levee failure and the lack of funds to bring the levees up to a standard that could withstand the storm surge of a Cat 5 hurricane (I will give you a hint and say that they do not blame President Bush). Many, myself included, have opined that those who stayed in New Orleans after the evacuation order was issued should also share some blame for their state of suffering. Thanks to Captain Ed at Captains’ Quarters blog, I have to say that I was wrong, wrong, WRONG in making that statement. Captain Ed had a post this morning that talks about the NOLA comprehensive emergency evacuation plan that was developed in September of 2004! The evacuation plan can be found here and it lays out precisely who is responsible for rolling the busses in order for the poor and feeble to be able to evacuate should the need arise. According to the comprehensive plan, the Mayor of New Orleans is not only responsible for declaring the need to evacuate, he (or she) is supposed to have a SOP in place to cover the evacuation needs of those who are unable to evacuate on their own! In other words, Mayor Nagin is the one who needs to stand up and take responsibility for the state of his city! Mayor Nagin should have and could have prevented the suffering of the people of NOLA. Not the governor, not the President, not the National Guard, no one but Mayor Nagin himself. Considering that Mayor Nagin was elected in 2002, he certainly has no one to blame but himself for not being prepared for a storm that “everyone expected to come eventually”!

Over the last few days we have heard certain “Christians” saying that the hurricane was proof that God had removed his hand of protection from a) the US and b) New Orleans for allowing sin to run rampant in our cities. Jihadists are saying that the hurricane was Allah’s punishment on us for our wickeness. Now there is no way that I am going to presume to speak for God, because I have seen what he has done in the past to people who presume to speak in His name and do not speak His truth. However, what I will do is, through the words He has given us in His book (the Bible), try to answer those who say that this is God’s punishment on a wicked America….

God has indeed shown us what he will do to wicked cities, as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah, however, when God did choose to punish these wicked cities He also allowed the righteous (Lot and his family) escape the punishment (Gen 19). However this hurricane hit good people just as hard as it hit those who are wicked. Jesus tells his followers (in John16:33) “in this world you will have trouble but take heart, for I have overcome the world!”, so how can we definatively say that this is God’s punishment when we know that trouble will come to all? After all, Jesus (in one of his many parables) says in Luke 11:11 “If a son asks for bread from his father, would he give the child a stone? or if he asks for a fish, will he be given a serpent? or if he asks for an egg be instead given a scorpion? If you then who are wicked know how to give good things to your children: how much more will your Heavenly Father (who is good) give to those who ask him?”

To those that would judge, I would like to respectfully remind them of what Jesus said in Matthew 7:1 – “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way that you judge others, you will be judged!” Instead of looking to God’s word for judgement, how about we turn to it for hope and instruction on how to move forward. Psalms 38:15 says “For in you, O Lord, do I hope; you will hear me, O God.” and Psalms 41:1 says “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak, for the Lord delivers him in time of trouble”.

OK – I told y’all (I’ve been hanging out with my southern friends lately) on Wednesday that I was declaring a personal moriatorium of 24 hours on politics. I gave it almost 48 and now it is time….

Over the last 2 days, while many Americans were pulling together to help our friends and neighbors who had been hurt by the furor that was Hurricane Katrina, the “armchair first-responders” (as Michelle Malkin called them last night) were heaping blame on the federal government for the situation in New Orleans. From the cries that “global warming caused the hurricane” (total poppycock according to the people at NOAA who know better) to “the government should have had boots on the ground in NO the minute the storm moved out”, to “we aren’t getting hot meals” (uttered by an ingrate who is stuck in a city that has no way to cook food) the din has been impossible to miss. Michelle Malkin has had a very good round up and response to a lot of these people, but I would like to add my 2 cents.

So you are upset that the only food you are getting are cold MRE’s….you feel that the troops that are keeping you safe from the predators patroling the streets should also be cooking for you? Well I want to know why you don’t get off of your behind and get yourself to a place where you can heat your MRE’s! You made the choice to ride out a Cat 5 hurricane in a town that is prone to flooding, what DID YOU EXPECT???? So you think that the federal government should have had National Guard troops in the city waiting for the storm to hit – with trucks to evacuate people…well if we had done that, the trucks would be under water and the troops would still not be able to get you out and you would still be stuck! What do you think would be different from today??? So you think the federal government should have spent more to “upgrade” the canal and levee system that surrounds New Orleans, what about the government of New Orleans? I mean the City of Minneapolis is responsible for their own infrastructure….shouldn’t the city of New Orleans be responsible for THEIR OWN infrastructure???? Never mind the fact that the levee that failed was one of the few that had been upgraded in recent years….and never mind the fact that the current governor of Louisiana won (in part) on a platform of not spending more tax dollars on levee improvement…

Now before you go and accuse me of being an “apologist” for the President, I will tell you that there ARE a lot things that he could have done better, but the bottom line is this… there is plenty of blame to go around. Those that refused to follow an evacuation order share some blame in this, the City of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana have some blame to share here, AND the federal government shares some blame….Don’t be suckered in by the illogical ideology that is driven by hatred of the President and all he stands for. The American people and the people of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi deserve better!

NOLA.com has a page dedicated to finding lost friends and family.

http://www.nola.com/forums/searching/

and here is a blogger who is there and reporting what is going on in Louisiana

http://slidell.weblogswork.com/

WOW – after all of the bad news out of New Orleans, I had just about lost hope for mankind. But then yesterday the good people of this world came out in droves. Over 1400 bloggers in 23 countries got together and raised almost $450,000 in hurricane relief and this is only the reported donations! Many people donated, but chose not to “brag” about their donations! It is overwhelming how good people can be!

Due to the demand, the Blog for Relief Day has turned into a weekend. If you have not done so yet, please contribute to either The American Red Cross or the Salvation Army. If you are looking for an organization that is helping the animals that have been hurt and left behind, please consider the HSUS. Our 4 legged friends need a hand as well.

on the Hugh Hewitt show. By the time Hugh got done reading this, I had tears in my eyes. This is my last bleg of the day. PLEASE contribute to the charity of your choice. Our neighbors to the south need us badly….

From a thread on Free Republic

Neonatal Evacuation report from New Orleans 9/1/2005
Posted on 09/01/2005 3:19:11 PM PDT by truthandlife
Just to update everyone. We just returned from New Orleans to Birmingham with 4 neonatal patients at the same time on transport. We flew to New Orleans airport via jet and Lifesaver helicopter met us > there with the helicopter. Lifesaver took 3 crew members from the airport to Oschner since there was no ground access due to flooding. Oschner’s heliport was under water and we landed on the parking deck. With equipment in hand, we walked down 6 flights of stairs, (all of the elevators are out of service), through the hospital where there is caution tape and leaks all throughout the hallways. We then walked up two flights of stairs to the unit where they are now caring for the babies. Luckily it was now the 2nd floor instead of originally the 10th floor. All of the windows were blown out of the 10th floor by the storm. On the flight into the airport all you could see is destruction and water everywhere, I thought “Truly a saddening sight”, then with the flight on the helicopter it got worse. We were much closer at that point and could see more destruction, more water, looters, Police/ EMS, and uncontrolled fires all over.
Upon entering the make-shift nursery, the first two staff were onphones crying their eyes out talking to someone on the other end trying to cope. All of the staff in the unit were overjoyed to see that someone had come to help. They had requested help from all over but they told us we were the only ones to show up today. They thought we were coming for only one patient and when we told them we had the resources to transport 4, they were shocked to say the least. Then we said maybe we can help more tomorrow and to our surprise they all were even more excited that we would come back again to help. The nurse practioner in the unit pulled me aside and asked me “How bad is it out there looking from the air? I mean really, is it as bad as they say?” With tears running down her face and tears in my eyes I said “Yes Ma’am it is, maybe worse and my heart is broken for all of you down here”. With that she had to walk away.
All of the staff are working in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops due to the lack of ventilation. It was at least 110-120 degrees in the unit. They had all of the babies in open cribs or warmers that were off and all were down to their diapers, some with elevated temps still. All of the staff have been there since Saturday and said they don’t think they will be able to leave until the 5th of September. With that said, many have nothing to go home to.
Tonight all 4 babies came back to UAB RNICU but they have at least two more babies for us to transport tomorrow and Dr. Prince here in Birmingham said we could bring one back to TCH and one to UAB. Plans may change by tomorrow.
New Orleans is in a total state of destruction and chaos and my heart is broken so badly. I didn’t have good words to make them feel better but made sure they all knew they were in my thoughts and prayers.
I’m sorry to have been so chatty but I had to release somewhat.
Respectfully and mentally/emotionally drained,
Jason Peterson RN Coordinator, Critical Care Transport
Children’s Hospital of Alabama

I’ve just completed two donations to The Salvation Army, one personal and one from the company I own, for victims of Katrina. I’m going to wait a day or two and then vent on the complete collapse of the government aid, relief,and preparedness and those idiots that depend on government. But, right now, people are in dire need. And the Salvation Army is THE organization that time and time again ALWAYS comes through. And the reason I recommend the Salvation Army is the stories my Uncle Harold (who was a WWII and Battle of the Bulge combat vet) told me about the Salvation Army versus that other charity/relief organization. And Uncle Harold’s stories are confirmed by my other WWII veteran friends.
So, I urge you to contact the Salvation Army and donate.
They are the boots on the ground, long term people that get the job done.
www.salvationarmyusa.org/USNSAHome.htm