No shame

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

A short, but powerful piece about history, unity and what could’ve been…

Disasters, says the cliche, usually bring out the best in people. But the cliche doesn’t take into account the current generation, our current understanding of how government works, our current understanding of our place in the world or even our current understanding of right and wrong.

Here are some headlines from Google news:

• Bush panics and sends in the marines – Scotland
• Bush gears up but too late for New Orleans – India
• Bush Admits Inadequate Aid Efforts – Turkey
• Congress Likely to Probe Guard Response – UK
• US South drowns in bitterness – India
• Katrina takes a toll on Bush – India
• Survivors’ fury at relief efforts – Australia

This is just the first page for the news search for Katrina. What’s sad here is that there are 30 entries on this first page. At least 23 were from sources outside the US.

Says alot about Google News.

Go to Google Maps and zoom in on the New Orleans area. Then click on the red "Katrina" tab for an AK (after-Katrina) view:

And here are the school buses that could have carried thousands to safety.

How low can some go in their hatred of GWB? How about cannibalism in New Orleans?

After only 4 days?!

Well, I’ll give the HP credit. They know how to shill for traffic.

Update: As I would have suspected, the cannibalism claim has been retracted, but not the ensuing spewage (that had nothing to do with the subject.)

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin:

What you are seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts that are wreaking havoc and we don’t have the manpower that we can deal with it

Uh, Mayor? Was that before or after Hurricane Katrina?

Sorry. That was a catch-22 question. Never mind.

I remember being infatuated with Katrina when I was in Jr High. Over the past few days, I seem to have gotten over that case of puppy love.

Just to show how monsterous this storm was, my power was out for more than a day and I was at least a hundred miles from ground zero. Actually over 100k were without power in Pensacola/Escambia County and the storm surge on the beach was 5-10 foot. After enduring Ivan and Dennis within the past year, you would think there couldn’t be any limbs left to fall. I’ve actually had more limbs to clean up this time around because Ivan and Dennis just left broken limbs on the trees. Katrina cleared them out.

The night after the storm was hotter than I ever endured with the previous storms. And then it started to rain. So what’s a guy to do but strip down to a pair of flip-flops and go stand on the back porch? There’s no power… who’s going to see?

Karma sure can be cruel. Just last week I was thinking that it had been a while since I had been to the Quarter. That won’t happen for a while now. Maybe never.