As bad as Tuesday was, Wednesday was worse. As bad as Wednesday was, today was worse. But of course you cannot turn away. Because this is important, because it’s infuriating and heartbreaking and, in tiny glimpses, heartening. And because if you turn away, your eye may fall on the Grosse Pointe News, and see this headline:
INFLUX OF RABBITS ANNOYS GROSSE POINTE GARDENERS
Honestly, after what I’d been watching, it was something of a relief. I read every word. Apparently there’s a product you can buy called Liquid Fence. It’s like that stuff you paint on kids’ thumbs to get them to stop sucking.
Gas here is at $3.17. I”m proud to say the only petroleum product I used today was to cut the grass — we went to the dentist on bicycles today. This is unnecessary halo-polishing; one of the things I like a older cities/inner-ring suburbs like this is the proximity of commerce, and we’re fortunate to be fairly close to our commercial strip. The dentist is maybe 3/4 of a mile away, and we could have walked, if it came to that. A woman in the waiting room was fretting on her cell phone that it might hit $4 by the weekend, “if they have any.” This, also, strikes me as unnecessary, even unseemly to complain too much about this, at least until the misery in the south is eased a bit.
If nothing else, the last few weeks of summer boating will be less crowded. As my friend John says, “One thing about sailing — the wind is free.”
Sort of.
Not much bloggage today — I’m emotionally exhausted. But there’s this, a brand-new blog started by a guy I wrote about once in Fort Wayne. Its premise is this: His wife is en route to Louisiana to find her mother, whom she’s been unable to reach since the storm went through. The punchline, such as it is, is that his wife’s name is…Katrina.
Hence the blog: Katrina vs. Katrina.
One other thing: Would one of you Rush listeners confirm whether he said today that “nobody made those people live in New Orleans”? I’d be interested in hearing the context, if anyone can provide it.
All I know is this: People who live in Palm Beach houses shouldn’t be throwing that particular stone.
sammy jo said on September 1, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Yet another reason you can be glad you left Fort Weenie… gas here is $3.29.
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brian stouder said on September 1, 2005 at 10:00 pm
Can’t help you with Rush; can’t stand that guy.
But I beg your pardon for my earlier defense of (or apologia for) the president.
The terrible scenes from the New Orleans Convention Center seem to capture the essence of this whole debacle, to me.
The federal, state, and local respnse to this catastrophe in New Orleans has been halting, disjointed, unfocused, and ineffective.
I have read what some say, about these people being systematically neglected – and indeed it looks more and more that way. If the media can rove around New Orleans – and communicate into the sky and with the whole nation, then why cannot the relief effort do better?
At 48 hours, the disjointed relief effort was somewhat understandable (to me); at 72 hours, less so; and tomorrow, as we pass 96 hours – this whole thing will look very like a particularly negligent (and therefore coldly cruel) crime against common humanity.
Another day of this, and I’ll join the lynch mob that wants to hang everybody who is supposedly “in charge” – specifically including ol’ dubya
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Connie said on September 1, 2005 at 10:35 pm
I am quite sure that I will not spending four days at the ALA conference in the NO convention center next June as planned. But I did learn today that anyone who dares to mention this on the ALA discussion list one will be trashed for caring more about one’s self than all those people in such dire straits. But I am still beaming mojo down that way. Even while pumping that $3.19 gas.
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Gene said on September 1, 2005 at 11:36 pm
Maybe Rush was reading from this editorial:
http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=26612
I especially like this snippet:
“Americans’ hearts go out to the people in Katrina’s path. But if the people of New Orleans and other low-lying areas insist upon living in harm’s way, they ought to accept responsibility for what happens to them and their property. And if the government insists on rebuilding ravaged homes and businesses along Gulf Coasts, it should stipulate that the next time a hurricane blows through, it will be up to the people living there to make themselves whole.
“However, before the government commits to reclaiming New Orleans and its marshy environs, it should think long and hard about whether the investment of time and money would be worth it.”
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alex said on September 2, 2005 at 1:06 am
I once went to gradeschool with a girl named Katrina Lude. Saw her dad got arrested in the last year for being lewd�with a child no less. Anyhoo, if this is the Katrina facing that Katrina, she no doubt has the cojones at this point to handle it with aplomb.
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vince said on September 2, 2005 at 1:53 am
Can’t help you with Rush.
But the esteemed Speaker of the House had these encouraging words:
Hastert: Rebuilding below sea level senseless
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. � It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that’s seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
Democratic lawmakers from Louisiana were quick to disagree Thursday and Hastert sought to clarify the comment during the day.
“It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed,” the Illinois Republican said in an interview about New Orleans Wednesday with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.
Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon called the comments irresponsible and Sen. Mary L. Landrieu urged Hastert to focus on the humanitarian crisis at hand.
Hastert, in a transcript supplied by the suburban Chicago newspaper, said there was no question that the people of New Orleans would rebuild their city, but noted that federal insurance and other federal aid was involved. “We ought to take a second look at it. But you know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild too. Stubbornness.”
This from the http://www.wwl-tv.com.
… a site which has resorted to a single word headline:
“Anarchy”
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vince said on September 2, 2005 at 2:08 am
One more to get your blood boiling:
From The Sun Herald of Biloxi. An editorial from WEDNESDAY:
“Yet where is the National Guard, why hasn’t every able-bodied member of the armed forces in South Mississippi been pressed into service?
On Wednesday reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics.
Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!
When asked why these young men were not being used to help in the recovery effort, our reporters were told that it would be pointless to send military personnel down to the beach to pick up debris.”
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ashley said on September 2, 2005 at 7:24 am
I hate to add napalm to the fire, but:
“Congress came out of vacation on a Sunday night to convene an emergency session to try to order Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube inserted but 5 days into a national emergency they still haven’t convened to take care of this.”
“24 hours to Baghdad, 96 hours to the CBD. Go figure.”
Here’s a great blog from a guy stuck in the quarter watching it all go down.
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jake said on September 2, 2005 at 10:42 am
I can’t speak for what Rush said, but I did hear the director of a Christian charity working in New Orleans blame the looting, rape and crime on “Taking God out of the schools.” Apparently, a copy of the Ten Commandments on classroom walls would have made sure everyone played nice during the utter collapse of society. I just hope his group is passing out energy bars and water and not New Testaments.
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Loulou said on September 2, 2005 at 11:09 am
I bet Osama’s laughing. You can’t even get a credit card these days without it being checked with Homeland Defence, and yet here are people in dire necessity…leaves me speechless.
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MaryC said on September 2, 2005 at 11:25 am
At least Rush doesn�t pretend he�s best friends with Jesus. You should make the rounds of the trad-rad Catholic blogs that Amy Wellborn links to, it would send a chill down your spine. The reason these people in the Superdome are suffering is because they�re lazy, didn�t plan ahead and expected the government to look after them all their lives, did you know that? Plus they�re stealing TVs! Plasma TVs!
These are the bloggers who were the most outraged over Terri Schiavo�s death by dehydration. The prospect of babies dying of dehydration in NO doesn�t move their hearts to pity, though. Because they’re stealing Plasma TVs, after all.
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Andrea said on September 2, 2005 at 11:30 am
Here’s an interesting perspective from a local (not me, just on another board I read…)
http://boards.webmd.com/webx?THDX@880.JeW1aE8AiAr.7@.59af7de4!thdchild=.59af7de4
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Andrea said on September 2, 2005 at 11:32 am
sorry for the dupe message, just changing my email addr and hoping it sticks.
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Barry said on September 2, 2005 at 1:26 pm
No kidding, Welborn and her rad-trad Catholic followers are SCARY. Admittedly, I’m from a non-denominational Protestant up-bringing, but I’d developed a sympathy for Roman Catholics over the years. I attended an RC college, and loved the priests, nuns, and Catholic students with whom I was surrounded. But Welborn and her rad-trad Catholic friends make me want to shout to the skies: “Thank God For Martin Luther!”
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Nance said on September 2, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Amy’s not a RadTrad. She’s a strict Catholic, but isn’t aligned with those loons.
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Angela said on September 2, 2005 at 3:04 pm
Finally saw a photo of W. playing the guitar the other day. Nero fiddling while Rome burned…?
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Angela said on September 2, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Whoops, the rest of my post got cut off.
As I was saying… Your Nero analogy seems even more appropriate as events have unfolded these past couple days, Nancy!
Not sure if this link has been mentioned on your blog yet, but Josh Levin wrote a really moving place on Slate.com about New Orleans:
http://www.slate.com/id/2125352/
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vince said on September 2, 2005 at 5:39 pm
Get this.
Marine calls to volunteer… told to wait til “after the holiday weekend.”
What the h@#! ???
From the wwl-tv blog: and the guy had the guts to sign his name;
USMC fails New Orleans
I am a Marine reservist from the Uptown area. I evacuated the area with my family as so many others did early Sunday am. Since Tuesday I have been contacting USMC Mobilization Command to see what we as the Marine reserves are going to do. I was told at that time that only a list of volunteers was being taken down. To my utter shock, rage, disgust and embarresment I was later told that something would be done but not until after the long Labor Day weekend, for after all �even though there is an emergency there is a holiday and you know the military will take it. This was the word as late as Thursday. The closer I get to NO the worse comm gets. I served in Desert Storm in 1991 and in Iraq in 2003. Am ready to serve in 2005- where is the Corps. I have no uniforms or gear – all in NO. Contacted uniform sales @ Camp Pendelton in California and charged a complete uniform on my already stretched credit card. Am having it mailed to St. Louis where a fellow Marine reservist evacuated to. We will attempt link-up in Baton Rouge. Am heading there today to go to the local reserve unit there and attempt to get something started. If not we will go in alone and link up with someone. Am praying that the Corps has started something by now and decided to work the holiday. Am exponetially disgusted that America�s �911? force will take its vacation while our fellow Americans are lying stranded within our own borders. Citizens that are being beaten, robbed, raped and murdered desperately need our help. Who ever is in charge of this �relief effort� should hang their head in shame. I will do my best. Semper Fidelis. Out. � Gunny Heller
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joodyb said on September 2, 2005 at 5:50 pm
here, if you can stand to wade through it:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/rush_24_7_archives.guest.html
the offending rush statement concluded with: “Why don’t these people have cars?”
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deb said on September 2, 2005 at 7:27 pm
my god. this man’s stupidity truly knows no bounds.
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MaryC said on September 3, 2005 at 9:15 pm
Amy’s not a RadTrad. She’s a strict Catholic, but isn’t aligned with those loons.
Yes, sorry, I didn’t mean to impugn Amy Wellborn herself — just some of the bloggers and their commenters that she links to. She (and most of the commenters on her blog) has a heart.
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