(no subject)

[theweaselking]

New Orleans has been destroyed. After the initial mention of "bodies everywhere" and thousands dead - and after FEMA stopped saying that their projections predicted 30% casualties for the 30,000 people trapped in New Orleans - the dead have stopped being mentioned. They're *gone* from the coverage.

That's disturbing. Non-US news agencies are covering the death tolls, still, but they're using numbers pulled out of their asses because nobody on the ground will give any kind of an estimate.

Here's the scary part:
The Canadian government offered any help it could give, including the best disaster response team on the planet, kept ready to go on a moment's notice to anywhere in the world - and the US government won't answer the phone to let them across the border.

The Russians offered their own disaster relief team. The US turned it down, refusing to allow it to enter the USA.

The UN offered any help it could arrange. Unlike Canada, they got an answer: "Thank you for your offer" - but all further questions like "what do you need, and where" have been ignored.

Venezuela offered assistance. Turned down.

The Swiss? The French? The Germans? The English? The Austrians? Same deal.

Extra-scary: The massive right-wing spin machine, that fought in court for it's right to falsify the news, is focusing *all* reporting on looting, violence... and how the world is never there to help the USA.

Meanwhile, the area is in complete chaos, with nobody in charge, no disaster preparation done, completely inadequate organisation - and no help coming, because the US Government is refusing it.

Comments

[anivair.livejournal.com]

::sigh::

More proof that we have the worst goveronment on hte planet. I'm neither surprised notr moved anymore. Every time the goveronment proves that they're made up of people drug directly from the bung-hold of evil I care less and less. As far as I'm converned they no longer matter. If they want to let people die I can't stop them. If they want to turn down aid because it benefits the extreme right politically I can't stop them either. Whatever.

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

It's this kind of shit that makes me want to get out of this country and to somewhere with a remotely sane administration.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. I'm no fan of the current administration, but calling them the *worst* government on the planet is giving them too much credit, and, more importantly, setting the bar way too low for future outrages. 'Cause, like, North Korea, dude.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

I think many people in Sub-Saharan Africa would vehemently disagree with you about the US having the worst government on the planet.

(Yes, I know it was an exaggeration for effect... wasn't it?)

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Three words.

What. The. Fuck!??

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

(Yes, I do have vague ideas of "what" the fuck. It's just not as pointlessly cathartic to write them.)

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

Good job on the apologetics for the corrupt and incompetent administration!

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty disturbed by the foxites saying that nothing's coming, but there's a time line in coordination. If in another couple days there's no list of "okay, here's what you can do" forthcoming that's much more upsetting. Local Red Cross is still mid mobilization.

I've continued to see death toll estimates, but I must admit I'm getting most news from the web and radio, not the TV.


Based on what we've seen so far I'd expect the lack of "you can do X and Y and Z" is more that nobody's gotten organized enough yet to make that response. And that we've been lucky enough in the past to not have a sufficient need to do so.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Urf. I missed the president's speech last night, and missed the bit about "We have not asked for help from any country."

[vagabond27.livejournal.com]

"The United States said it is thankful to Russia for the readiness to provide assistance in eliminating the consequences of the Katrina hurricane, but believes it can handle the crisis on its own."

Sounds like a refusal of help to me.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

*blinks* I see. The chance to help clear Alabama roads is just a way to "fuck around with Canadian Mennonnite homebuilders"--heck, it's not New Orleans or Mississippi, so what the hell.

Gotcha.

The state governor's asking for more rescue workers so that the National Guard in the city can be freed up, but no help is needed. People who haven't had food or water in days are in sewage up to their necks waiting for the Superdome to empty out so someone will get around to evacuating them, but no help is needed. The Red Cross needs volunteers and is looking for people who can be quickly trained, but people who are already trained aren't needed.

I'm completely tapped out, and there's nothing more I can do. So it's good to know that there's nothing needed anyway, and I can just sit on my ass and watch this unfold, free of any obligation to do anything 'cause it's all taken care of.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

We have always been at war with Oceania.

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

New Orleans has been destroyed. After the initial mention of "bodies everywhere" and thousands dead [...] That's disturbing. Non-US news agencies are covering the death tolls, still, but they're using numbers pulled out of their asses

From a practical standpoint I can't say I blame them for giving fuzzy numbers at best for the dead / injured. Trying to sort the bodies in the water and get them counted and work out which are victims of the disaster and which are bodies rising from the disturbed ground is going to be a task I wish on no-one.

Looking at the situation from afar (the UK) I'm guessing we're into thousands of dead from the initial flooding and it's effects and then a significant number more resulting from the conditions which the flooding is creating and the collapse of society within the disaster area.

Good luck to everyone affected by Katrina.

[(Anonymous)]

Heartbreaking enough that there are "bodies everywhere", I personally approve that the focus is on getting those alive out of the area first. There are people who have not had potable water or food since the disaster, and time is not on their side. For that matter, I am angry at the news crews and think they should be using their gasoline to shuttle people out instead of filming them.

I am grateful other countries have offered help. Thank you, to all the countries that have offered help. May we accept the help when we are able to use it.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Another minor point, btw, on the 'bodies everywhere' thing. In a place where you're 20 ft. below sea level, like New Orleans, you don't actually bury bodies. You stick them in mausoleums. So, gruesome as it is to contemplate, some/many/most of the 'bodies everywhere' may not, in fact, be recent casualties.

Just Passing Through

[luxorien.livejournal.com]

I dunno. The government's actions are only egregious if accepting foreign aid would provide some help that America cannot provide on its own. But from everything I have been reading, the response from American disaster relief organizations is pretty much doing everything humanly possible. They need money right now more than anything else.

If my local fire department were putting out my house and my neighbors kindly arrived with buckets of water, I might say "thanks, but I think it's covered right now".

But perhaps there is some news report I am missing. Although, I have seen a lot of wild estimates about the death toll. Nobody seems to have any idea how many people are actually dead. I suppose we won't know for quite some time.

Re: Just Passing Through

[jerril]

Comparing the DART team to some neighbors with buckets of water is a tad harsh. One of the things most needed in that region is clean water, and DART has an incredible, mobile, immediately deployable water filtration system that got its "baptism by fire" in the Tsunami.

Re: Just Passing Through

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

But from everything I have been reading, the response from American disaster relief organizations is pretty much doing everything humanly possible.

Tell that to the cops withdrawn from rescue duties in order to restore law and order. Or, better yet, tell that to the stranded people they're not rescuing as a result. If nothing else, you guys need manpower that's normally provided by your National Guard, and that's tied up in overseas commitments. Manpower for rescue operations and for setting up refugee facilities that won't turn into septic tanks in a couple of days.

The crisis is not "covered right now"... you've got a massive public health crisis looming for NOLA refugees from unburied bodies, loose sewage, upwelling from fuel and chemical stores, and salt-water contamination. You need fresh water supplies ASAP, and DART has some of the best equipment for that in the world. And it's sitting idle for, as far as the Canadian public can tell, US domestic political reasons.

The word for what we non-Americans are feeling is "frustrated". Let us help, dammit!

-- Steve's donated to the Red Cross relief efforts, and hopes that that won't get turned down too.

[ahruman.livejournal.com]

I saw on the Swedish TV news an hour ago that the US has requested foreign aid and Swedish rescue services are liasing with US representatives. Hopefully this applies to Canada too…

[ahruman.livejournal.com]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168203,00.html

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

They're now warning about severe risks for cholera and typhoid.

More and more Louisiana is starting to resemble Myanmar after the monsoon floods.

With a bit more flailing and pretending everything that could be done was.

[tharain.livejournal.com]

May I link to this?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I don't mind at all.

Correction

[garygarth.livejournal.com]

It doesn't look like you have read any of the articles you have linked to in your post. I looked through them and found that you have spun just about every one of them. There are some countries that are listed as offering help that are hostile to the US. (I would expect my country to have enough pride and sense not to take offers with unacceptable strings attached, or from those that are simply criminal.) Oh, and Fox News, one of the few media outlets that presents balanced political views, is detailing what help is there, is coming, and who has offered:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168311,00.html

Also on fox, Bill blasts both librals and the current administration (wow, a right wing spin machine that blasts the Bush administration?):

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168280,00.html

Re: Correction

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

#1: Show me something I've said that is inaccurate. I'll happily address any specifics you'd like to bring up.

Fox News, one of the few media outlets that presents balanced political views

#2: Fox has nothing to do with and absolutely no interest in "balanced political views". They're consistently hard-right-wing without a corresponding "balance", they consistently misrepresent the facts to support an editorial point of view, they *fought in court* to have it ruled that their falsifying news was not illegal, and they regularly take "fair and balanced" to mean "reporting opinions as equally credible regardless of facts" while actively concealing facts.

[Fox] is detailing what help is there, is coming, and who has offered:

Note the date and time - 2/9 16:54.
Note the date and time of my post - 1/9 10:28

Bill blasts both librals and the current administration

"Blasts"? O'Reilly starts by defending Bush, then moves to saying it's not his fault he was unprepared and doing nothing because he's got the war on "terror" to fight, and THEN says that Bush hasn't done enough about oil conservation. That's not "blasting". Being O'Reilly, he then starts pontificating on a *stupid* idea that won't help the issue in the slightest - his plan to "buy no gas on the day of rest".

(wow, a right wing spin machine that blasts the Bush administration?)

More like "a news corporation out for ratings by pandering to the lowest common denominator" - and today, what's selling is "Bush fucked the dog". You can't spin if you don't follow what the crowd wants to start - and you've given a perfect example in what O'Reilly said.