Tears

Dr. Laua's Worst Nightmare defends politicians' right to be emotional every now and then. I absolutely agree. Our leaders are as human as we are, and whatever their strengths or weaknesses may be, for heaven's sake let's not deny them this most basic gifr of humanity. I have said this before in connection with President Bush and I'll say it again here - and I'll add that this proves that (contrary to what I suggested before) insensitivity isn't confined to one part of the political spectrum. Judge leaders by their actions - not their feelings.

Baghdad Tragedy

Hameed, a personal friend and frequent commenter at Iraq the Model, has lost a family member in the recent bridge stampede in Baghdad: his 42-year-old nephew was killed. Hameed's sister is devastated. Hameed says he will be leaving London (where he lives) to visit with the rest of the family.

My prayers and sympathy are with the victims of this tragedy as well.

A Ray of Hope

At long last, humanitarian relief aid arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana in the wake of hurricane Katrina:

On the day President Bush visited this devastated city, thousands of tired and angry people stranded at the convention center welcomed National Guard troops and trucks carrying food, water and medicine with cheers and tears of joy.

"The crowd erupted," said Tishia Walters, a woman in the convention center crowd told CNN by telephone.

"Flags went flying, people shouting and waving. There's like 7,000 people out here in dying conditions," she added.

Walters said she was outside of the center when she saw the National Guard and police arrive.

"It's amazing. They've come in full force," she said.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was directing the deployment of National Guard troops -- expected to number 1,000 -- from a New Orleans street corner. ...

Greyhawk (via e-mail) has this roundup of important links:

Useful public service request - help spread the word.

http://www.dod.mil/home/features/2005/katrina/index.html - contact info for military families displaced by Katrina (also a great collection of news releases on the military efforts in hurricane relief)

http://www.guardfamily.org/ - info for Guard families impacted by the storm.

http://www.gxonline.com/gxintelnews?id=24147 - info for getting deployed Guard members in touch with their families who might be displaced by the storm - and vice versa.

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/003484.html I compiled them here, but it's more important to get folks to those other pages. Feel free to ignore this one.

A Small Victory wins a small victory:

I'm trying to catch up on my email, I have a zillion mails from people who want to help out with the school supplies - I have Trish organizing things in Houston, please email me contact info if you want to help out there. I am in serious need of help in Baton Rouge, I have only Dave there so far. And thanks to everyone who put money in the PayPal, and I'll mention it again for those who are emailing asking how to donate school supplies if they aren't in my area:

My Paypal button is on the left sidebar. If you donate, I will use the money to purchase school supplies to put on the truck. Simple as that. You have to trust a complete stranger with your money, yes - but I think a lot of readers will vouch for me, I've done things like this before. ...

Ready for some good news yet? I know I am. Michele has it here.

Have a good weekend. See you next week.

Katrina: The Unnatural Disaster

I'm not going to waste space on people who want to blame the Gulf Coast tragedy on the liberation of Iraq or on Bush's magical ability to cause hurricanes. There are too many important questions that need to be asked about the Government's response - or lack of it - to hurricane Katrina.

Aziz Poonawalla at Dean Esmay hits it when he says

Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of NOLA were the first, "natural" disaster to strike our nation this week. I have argued that the Administration and the President in particular cannot be blamed for this in my last post ...

The second disaster this week however has been "un-natural" - or rather, self-inflicted. It's the humanitarian disaster unfolding now, a situation which a full five days after the hurricane still shows no sign of amelioration. ...

The unnatural disaster is the proper subject of political scrutiny. Here are some posts from around the blogosphere:

LaShawn Barber tears the President a new one:

...We voted Bush in office because we thought he’d clean up the joint and restore the honor it once had. But every time we turn around we see Clinton with a tin cup asking “the American people” for money.
...
Second, why, someone please tell me, is our federal government so unprepared and inept? It’s been four days since the storm ended, and people are still without food and water. Dead bodies are sitting on the side of the road. Can you imagine, God forbid it, if Islamofascists decided to unleash whatever bombs they have? I’m not talking about terrorist thugs coming into the country; I’m talking about the ones already here, the Allah-loving America haters we foolishly let in.

It’s been almost 4 years since 9/11. We’ve spent BILLIONS of dollars on so-called homeland security. We watched in disgusted amazement when Bush created yet another federal agency, but we thought he knew what he was doing.
...
I’m seething with rage, and if I could have five minutes alone with George Bush, I’d start by telling him what I think of his boy Clinton, a man who disgraced the office of the presidency and embarrassed this country, and what I think of him for thrusting him upon the American people. Then I’d tell him how inept I think the “war on terrorism” is and ask him why he’s so afraid of the media....

Liberals hate George Bush, and no matter what he does, they’ll use anything and anyone to get at him. I don’t hate the man. I voted for him. I want him to succeed, but more than that, I want to be safe, feel safe, and I don’t. The federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina has been an epic and humiliating embarrassment. ...

I know, I know…George Bush is only one man, but the Democrats are circling in the water. They’re going to have his head for this, for all the wrong reasons, of course, but I won’t be lifting a finger to defend him. ...

Grace Davis wants to know:

...HOW IN THE WORLD I CANNOT POINT MY SHAKING FINGER AT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION FOR THEIR DISGRACEFUL NON-RESPONSE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS IN NEED?

This blatant dismissal of human beings, American citizens, stashed like animals in the Superdome, this situation which has been covered 24 hours non stop on the major news sources since the beginning of the week, the federal government did not even know about this until yesterday?

Are you fucking kidding me?

So come on, tell me how not to blame and politicize. How I can't tell these asshats SHAME ON ALL OF YOU.

Ron Fournier thru Rich Lowry at The Corner:

Just last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans. The White House slashed the request to about $40 million. Congress finally approved $42.2 million, less than half of the agency's request.

Yet the lawmakers and Bush agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-laden highway bill that included more than 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers. Congress spent money on dust control for Arkansas roads, a warehouse on the Erie Canal and a $231 million bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

How could Washington spend $231 million on a bridge to nowhere - and not find $42 million for hurricane and flood projects in New Orleans? It's a matter of power and politics.

Alaska is represented by Republican Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a senior member of the all-important Senate Appropriations Committee. Louisiana's delegation holds far less sway.

Source: Ron Fournier at My Way.

Pseudo-Adrienne at Alas asks:

"why the fuck is it taking so long to get these people some serious help and aid?" And I sympathize with the mayor of New Orleans and his anger directed towards the Federal government and their apparent 'slowness' to respond.
...
Another unavoidable issue brought to light by the coverage of the devastation and those hardest-hit by Katrina, is the race plus socioeconomic status issue. Once again the media has whether intentionally or unintentionally cited how much race tied in with socioeconomic status plays a roll in our society and *still matters*, especially when it comes to such disasters as hurricanes that devastates certain segments of our society more so than others.

Read the whole post at the link, including the excerpts from David Corn's article at The Nation. And if you haven't done so, follow Pseudo-Adrienne's link to the Red Cross.

Cicero at Winds of Change has this to say about expectations:

I was a single-issue voter in the last election. I voted for President Bush because I felt he was right about Iraq, and more fundamentally, about our security. I overlooked just about everything else that I disliked about his presidency on that single issue.

Since 9/11, President Bush has made a compelling case that we need to rebuild our security mechanisms, at home and abroad. The Department of Homeland Security was formed here at home, and we were put on a war footing abroad. I believe that this is sensible given the levels of terror threats that we face. Unfortunately, I had to turn away from my own party to vote for someone who I believed took my nation's security more seriously.

I think there were a lot of Ciceros at the 2004 polls -- security-minded Democrats who voted for President Bush. As that kind of voter, I am having trouble with what I see going on in New Orleans.

After all the emphasis the Bush Administration has placed on this nation's security, exporting freedom abroad to Iraq, and the dire warnings about WMDs on our soil, my expectation in the era of terror -- the era of holding back chaos -- is that the Bush Administration can thwart chaos effectively. On the Federal level. That's what the game plan has been for the last five years: The Federal Government has stepped in with huge spending increases to prepare the United States for the chaos of terrorism. It has been a nationalized priority, costing billions.

New Orleans is devolving into anarchy, death, pillage and disease, nearly five days after Hurricane Katrina came ashore. Things appear to be improving only incrementally. Clearly, this is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude, with immense logistical challenges. It is reasonable to ask, however, if for the last five years the 'anti-chaos' mechanisms that have been put into place are as effective as advertised.

The Bush administration's credibility is on the line. ...

That's all I have for now on Katrina and the unnatural disaster. I'll post more next week.

One more thing about disasters and politics.

I meant what I said here, and what I said goes for the Right as well as the Left. I notice some pro-Bush bloggers are posting lists along the lines of "look at all the off-the-wall comments those lefty moonbats are making". That, too, is politicizing the tragedy. It's counterproductive. Getting bogged down in this kind of game is a waste of time and resources.

People who choose to give, and are able to do so, will give. I hope you are one of them. Those who choose not to will have their own rationalizations; forget them. Just do what you have to do and move on.

Red Cross
list of relief agencies at Instapundit


PS - Gay Orbit gives a salute to MoveOn.org for its Hurricane Housing program. As Gay Orbit says, "This is not a partisan disaster."

"Where are the Guardsmen?"

It's a reasonable question. James S. Robbins has some answers at NRO:

So is the war in Iraq causing troop shortfalls for hurricane relief in New Orleans?

In a word, no.

A look at the numbers should dispel that notion. Take the Army for example. There are 1,012,000 soldiers on active duty, in the Reserves, or in the National Guard. Of them, 261,000 are deployed overseas in 120 countries. Iraq accounts for 103,000 soldiers, or 10.2 percent of the Army.

That’s all? Yes, 10.2 percent. That datum is significant in itself, a good one to keep handy the next time someone talks about how our forces are stretched too thin, our troops are at the breaking point, and so forth. If you add in Afghanistan (15,000) and the support troops in Kuwait (10,000) you still only have 12.6 percent.

So where are the rest? 751,000 (74.2 percent) are in the U.S. About half are active duty, and half Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the real issue of course — the Left wants you to believe that the country has been denuded of its citizen soldiers, and that Louisiana has suffered inordinately because Guardsmen and women who would have been available to be mobilized by the state to stop looting and aid in reconstruction are instead risking their lives in Iraq.

Not hardly. According to Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, 75 percent of the Army and Air National Guard are available nationwide. In addition, the federal government has agreed since the conflict in Iraq started not to mobilize more than 50 percent of Guard assets in any given state, in order to leave sufficient resources for governors to respond to emergencies.

In Louisiana only about a third of Guard personnel are deployed, and they will be returning in about a week as part of their normal rotation. ...

Read it all at the link.

UPDATE: Let me add a couple of comments. I think Robbins' article in defense of the Guard deployments is good as far as it goes, but I don't want to just leave the issue here. Whether NG strength is diminished by a third, a quarter, or a tenth, it is nevertheless inescapable that every National Guardsman serving in Iraq is one National Guardsman not serving in the Continental United States. Every troop dedicated to the just and necessary war on terrorism and fascism is a troop deducted from the aggregate number of troops available for domestic emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina. In short, a glass half empty is still half empty.

James Robbins' numbers make me feel a little better, but we still need to address Americans' legitimate concerns about domestic security. I'll post more on this next week.

Michael Totten to Portlanders: Don't Get Too Comfy

Michael J. Totten offers this wake-up call in Donklephant

... The reason I say it could have been Portland’s day to die is because it really could have been Portland’s day to die. New Orleans is menaced by wind and water. Portland is threatened by earth and fire.

Mt. Tabor rises above residential neighborhoods near the geographic center of the city. That small mountain was forged in an eruption. Houses are built all the way up it, bang on top of the volcano. Spend a little time looking at underground maps of tectonic fault lines and you’ll feel like gigantic gun barrels are pointed up at the city from below, loaded and ready to fire as soon as the sinister order is given. Oregon is scheduled for something like a mind-boggling 9.0 earthquake between tomorrow and the next couple of hundred years. I probably won’t see it. But I might. I really might. My house was built in the late 1800s before we knew what awaited below.There’s no way it can withstand that kind of violence. ...

Read the whole thing at the link.

Winds of Change has an outstanding round-up of disaster preparation ideas.

Prayers from Baghdad ...

... for New Orleans:

It seems that we were pretty much occupied with the bridge tragedy in Baghdad that we didn't keep track of the news elsewhere till last night when I discovered the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in the hurricane affected areas in the US.
I wish there was a way I could offer some help but there's nothing but prayers I can give from where I am.
Knowing that people are dying and suffering in Louisiana hurts just as much as if that suffering and death were in Baghdad.
Those people are in our thoughts and prayers. May God help them and guide their rescuers.

Thanks, Omar. Your words mean a lot to me. We're all citizens of one world here.

On Tragedy

So, whose fault was Katrina? Some people want to blame homosexuals; others say it's the fault of President Bush. The deaths in the recent stampede in Baghdad could be put down to the terrorists or to Islamic fundamentalism, or if you prefer you could blame the Iraqi and US authorities.

I think this is all pretty stupid. There's a time and a place to look for answers. Do you want to talk about hurricanes and global warming? Well, I think there are sensible, well-informed people on both sides of the issue, but let us suppose that industry-related global warming does exist, and that there is a causal link between global warming and hurricanes, and that the Bush Administration has not done all it could to prevent global warming. If you want to argue this case, fine!!! But even if you can prove that all of these things are true, it does not entitle you to say that "Bush caused the hurricane." That's just insane. Weather patterns - like the movements of crowds - are complex and unpredictable. It makes no sense to point to one thing, after the fact, and say, "this is what caused that to happen."

The period immediately following a tragedy should be treated with a little bit of respect. Out of respect for the lives lost, and out of respect for the first task at hand, which is to save the lives and property that can be saved. (Oh, by the way, have you made your donation to the Red Cross yet?) We need to keep our priorities in order. It's human nature to want to find an explanation - or a scapegoat - for any great tragedy. And there is a place for looking for answers, and, if need be, for assigning blame. But this should wait.

New Orleans is still under water, for God's sake. Can't you at least wait until they've finished burying the dead before you start the political finger-pointing?

Last January, I posted an abstract of Rabbi Leonard Oppenheimer's remarks on the tsunami tragedy. Rabbi Oppenheimer's words are worth reading again now; please visit the post if you have a moment.

Oh, and for those who can't make up their mind whether to blame the evil Republicans or the evil homosexuals for the hurricane in New Orleans, I think I've found the answer:

Who to Blame for Katrina

Morning Report: September 1, 2005

Hurricane Katrina devastates Gulf Coast. As many as 60,000 people are fleeing New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 'Police and National Guard troops struggled to restore order Thursday in New Orleans, where looters and armed gangs were roaming the streets of the flooded city. As thousands of people slept on streets, interstate access ramps and bridges. Outside the New Orleans Convention Center, a huge crowd waited on the sidewalks for aid that could be a long time coming. Authorities worked to evacuate the 25,000 people who had taken shelter from Hurricane Katrina in the Superdome, but the number of people seeking to get out of the city grew. "It's no longer just evacuees from the Superdome, as citizens who were holed up in high-rise office buildings and hotels saw buses moving into the dome, they realized this is an evacuation point," Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said. He estimated between 50,000 and 60,000 people were seeking evacuation.' Looting and lawlessness have been problems in Mississippi and Louisiana: '“There’s so many people there. It’s a desperate situation with no air conditioning and no water,” Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider said of the Superdome. Fights broke out. A fire erupted in a trash chute inside the dome, but a National Guard commander said it did not affect the evacuation. However, the airborne evacuation was disrupted after at least one shot was reported fired at a military helicopter. An air ambulance service official said helicopter transfers of the sick and injured were suspended as a result. ... The Superdome helicopter operation was suspended “until they gain control of the Superdome,” said Richard Zuschlag, head of Acadian Ambulance, which was handling the evacuation of sick and injured people. He said the National Guard told him that it was sending 100 military police officers to gain control. “That’s not enough,” Zuschlag. “We need a thousand.” ... Looting has also been a problem in Mississippi. “The truth is, a terrible tragedy like this brings out the best in most people, brings out the worst in some people,” said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday. “We’re trying to deal with looters as ruthlessly as we can get our hands on them.” ' What can you do to help? Go to Instapundit to find out. (various)

Hundreds die in Baghdad pilgrim stampede. In another recent tragedy, hundreds of people were killed in a pilgrim stampede in Baghdad when 'huge crowds of pilgrims heading to the shrine of Imam Kadhom caused the fence of the A'imma bridge to collapse pushing people to fall into the Tigris river.' Neo-Neocon posts some thoughts on the dynamics of stampedes: 'On analysis, it turns out there are three main categories of venues that would appear to favor stampedes: the soccer stadium (or other large sporting event); the crowded nightclub in which a fire breaks out; and the religious pilgrimage. They all share the characteristics of having very large and moving groups of people packed into a restricted space. But panic, such as apparently occurred on the Iraqi bridge, is, surprisingly, not a required element to start such stampedes, although it inevitably happens as the stampede begins to take shape, and makes them that much worse. Stampedes can sometimes be sparked in the absence of any panic, when chance events block the flow of traffic in an overcrowded and spacially restricted situation. The situation, as far as I can determine, is a bit analogous to the elements that go into a tsunami, strangely enough. That is, a huge and extremely powerful force (in the case of crowds, the moving people; in the case of tsunamis, the moving water) is initially spread out horizontally. Then, some sort of blockage impedes that horizontal movement and converts it, at least partially, into a vertical one.' (ITM, Neo-Neocon)

"Pakistan has decided to engage Israel." Via Roger Simon, encouraging news about potential Israel-Pakistan relations: 'Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said that ''Pakistan attaches great importance to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza. Pakistan has therefore decided to engage Israel.''" The announcement comes at a meeting of foreign ministers in Istanbul; Turkey is one of four Muslim countries (with Jordan, Egypt, and Mauritania) enjoying diplomatic relations with Israel. (IHT via Roger L. Simon)

"There is no button on a typewriter which will lose your document."

Typewriters. Even if they won't do a superscript "th" for you, there's lots to love about them. Thanks to Barney's Bendblog for passing this on. Go visit Blue Moon Camera and Machine and leave your digital angst behind.

Morning Report: August 28, 2005

Gunman shoots, wounds judge in Iran. A gunman shot and wounded Iranian judge Mohammad Reza Aghazadeh, according to a Reuters article posted at Regime Change Iran: ' A gunman has shot an Iranian judge in the eye and hand outside his Tehran home, seriously wounding him, the justice minister said on Sunday. The official IRNA news agency said Mohammad Reza Aghazadeh had been handling cases involving large land transactions near Karaj, an industrial satellite city to the west of Tehran. "He is now in surgery," Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad told reporters. "I hope God helps us keep him alive". Aghazadeh is the second judge to be shot this month. Hassan Moghaddas, a judge who sentenced several reformist dissidents to jail, was shot dead in his car on August 2.' (Reuters via RCI)

Drone crashes in Iran. Also via Regime Change Iran, a drone aircraft has crashed in Iran: 'An unmanned single-engined plane has crashed in a mountainous area of western Iran and the wreckage has been recovered by the Iranian armed forces. It was not clear if the plane was Iranian or foreign, although the influential Kayhan newspaper pointed out that "usually these sort of planes are used for spying on other countries". The reports quoted Ali Asgar Ahmadi, deputy head of security in the interior ministry, as saying the plane went down on Thursday in the Alashtar mountains near the city of Khorramabad, the capital of Lorestan province, 350 kilometres (220 miles) southwest of Tehran. The hardline Kayhan newspaper said that as soon as the plane crashed, police sealed off the area -- just 150 kilometres from the border with Iraq -- and "a group of experts from Kermanshahr airbase went to examine the fuselage". (AFP via RCI)

Iraq constitution update. CNN reports that the Iraqi Constitutional Committee has signed Iraq's draft constitution: 'The Iraqi constitutional committee signed off on a draft of a constitution Sunday after making some minor amendments, a committee spokesman said. The draft was signed by the committee and submitted to the Transitional National Assembly on Sunday. It was not put to a vote in the assembly in which the Shiite-Kurdish bloc has an overwhelming majority.' Iraq the model has a running commentary on Iraq's constitution: 'Montasir Al-Imara (Assembly member) confirmed that voting on the draft will take place in the coming few hours but also said "There are 153 clauses in the draft and naturally these clauses won't satisfy all Sunnis as Sunnis or all Kurds as Kurds but it's a project for a nation that looks at everyone's interests. The draft concentrated on equality among all Iraqis and there will be no 2nd degree citizens". ... Hussein Falluji (Sunni CDC member) told Al-Arabiya TV that the committee of the "marginalized" (in reference to the Sunni politicians) is holding a separate meeting right now for the purpose of preparing an announcemnet to clarify the "challenges and pressures" they were subjected to:

We did not have sectarian or partisan demands; all we care about is the unity of Iraq...we're arranging for a large campaign now to tell the people the truth about what happened. After all, it's all up to the people to decide since the people are the source of authority and sovereignty. All we asked for was to be given more time because we were expected to deal with all of Iraq's chronic problems in a matter of only two months!

We've got nothing to do now but to look forward to the next step; that is the referendum.
Humam Hammodi made a short introductory speech where he pointed out that this constittution is "not a holy text" and that amendmendts can follow in the future.

A representatives of each political, ethnic, religious faction will be reading a part of the draft in front of the National Assembly. ...' (ITM)