It's still in the headlines here

My mother-in-law has come to stay with us. Wow. It's a whole other perspective coming from someone who was at once too close to get the whole picture, but who was there and has been there and has a first hand account of what's been going on. Add on to that a whole set of prejudices and it's like listening to a radio broadcast of the Times-Picayune with Powerline breaking in on the frequency repeatedly.

e.g. 'we were all stranded on the overpass for hours - I now hate black people and poor people, especially the ones with guns.'

Operation Screw You

Some more interesting information about the whole Pat Robertson/Operation Blessing thing. The synopsis is that the FEMA (a government agency) website listed three places you could send cash to to help with the relief effort; two secular (Red Cross and Second Harvest) and one religious. But they didn't pick one of the more mainstream relief charities like Catholic Charities or Salvation Army or United Jewish Appeal or Lutheran Social Services, etc. etc. They picked Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing.

A couple of interesting facts.
According to the Fed 990, Operation Blessing's single largest donation last year was $885,000 to Robertson's own Christian Broadcast Network

During the Rawandan crisis, Pat went on the 700 club and asked for donations to Operation Blessing to send supplies to the Rwandan refugees in Zaire. "An investigation later by the Virginia Attorney General's office revealed that the planes that were bought by the charity were actually ferrying mining equipment for a diamond mining operation, the African Development Corporation, and low-and-behold, who is the principal shareholder of this private corporation? None other than Pat Robertson himself." Robertson was forced to repay the charity.

'Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs initiated an investigation and determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications." ' The Attorney General of Virginia overruled the Consumer Affairs recommendation to bring charges against Rev. Pat. Who was the largest single donor to the Attorney General's campaign? Rev. Pat Robertson.


All info and some direct quotes from Democracy Now

The Nation

I want an apology

C'mon, say you're sorry.

NOLA Cont.

So I talked to my mom, who I think receives a copy of Karl Rove's talking points everyday and she launched into "this is the fault of the state and the city!!" I shot back that yes, it is. It's also the fault of the Feds. 'oh no it's not - they couldn't get in to help' when I shot that down it was 'they had no idea this could happen' I directed her to FEMA's own documents that said the #3 worst disaster to anticipate was a flooded NOLA after a Cat 4 or above hurricane. "oh."

"There is nothing to be gained in pointing fingers" I love Republicans and their wonderfully playfull attitude towards reality and facts and their wholesale dismissal of their own mistakes or mistatements. My mom said to me the other day while trying to comfort me when we knew the family was still in the city and couldn't communicate

"All you can do is pray. You can't do anything about it now - yes they should have left, but they didn't and that can't be changed now. It's like the people who complain about Iraq [?!], what's done is done!"

Right. Sure. You all called us cowards and traitors when we said don't go. You renamed them "Freedom Fries" You poured wine down the trash. Where are the goddamn apologies? Now it's 'oh well, water under the bridge' la la la.

NOLA

NOTE: My husband is born and raised New Orleans. The bulk of his family (mom, brother, three sisters, two nephews, in-laws, assorted cousins, etc.) still live there. Or lived there, I guess... Anyway, most of his immediate family decided to stay and "ride it out" They all finally got out of the city yesterday. I am still too angry to write about that. I just pray that my son will not have inherited that stupid, stupid, stupid streak.


Kudos to Mary Landrieau (senator from LA) who at least seems to be on top of a lot of what's going on and was doing a good job of communicating.

As things go from bad to worse, I gotta wonder what the hell is wrong with Nagin - mayor of New Orleans. There was no real plan to get people of the city, there were no plans for what to do with people in the Superdome. Just 'go there' - no water, no food, no plan. This wasn't a surprise. As Fred pointed out, they knew it could happen and since at least Friday or Saturday, they were pretty damn sure it was going to happen.

This in no way is meant to convey any sympathy or excuse for the fucks who are shooting at relief workers, raping their fellow evacuees and holding up medical personnel at gunpoint. These people are going to have a chilling effect on donations to rebuild. I know you're scared, but come on there just is no reason for it.

I heard someone say, 'well, these people have been oppressed for so long...' I say unto them, shut your pie-hole. This kind of crap turns my bleeding heart to stone.

What does make me incredibly angry and sad on tons of different levels is what this is going to do to already sour, sour race relations in that part of the country - hell the whole country. There are white folks acting like violent fools, but you have to look harder to find them, Hispanics and Asians. You mostly see African-Americans. Regardless of how heavily black the city is (close to 90%, I think) I think this will play right into the hands of racists. I know it's not fair that when I act like a complete fuck, nobody says 'oh, see! White women are WORTHLESS!" And it's not fair to say that these guys behavior will reflect on their whole race, but that's how the racists that I know think. I hope I'm wrong.

And there, my friends, are my wholly unsolicited opinions. You're welcome.