"This city has been destroyed."

There is absolutely no reason to stay here. There are no jobs. There are no homes to go to. No hotels to go to. There is absolutely nothing here. We advise people that this city has been destroyed. It has completely been destroyed.

-- New Orleans Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley

"George Bush doesn't care about black people."

I hate the way they betray us in the media. You see a black family, it says 'they're looting'. You see a white family, it says they're 'looking for food'. And you know that it's been five days because most of the people are black.

With the setup, the way America is set up to help, the poor, the black people, the less well off, as slow as possible. We already realize that a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way. And they've given them permission to go down and shoot us.

...

George Bush doesn't care about black people.

Kanye West speaks from the heart during an NBC telethon for victims of the hurricane. Mike Myers, and a nation, are caught completely off guard.

The video is available here in Windows Media Player and here in QuickTime. The QuickTime file is much better quality. Video courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

Perspective? "That is perspective! That is all the perspective you need!"

Look in the face of the baby. This is it. This is it. No sugar coating. No political spin. No Republicans or Democrats. People suffering. Let them go. Let them out of here! Let them go. Let them walk over this damn interstate and let them out of here!

What I saw on Fox News tonight almost brought me to tears. I was devastated to see the continued... the continued suffering of the people of New Orleans. Even more than that, though, I was... well it just touched my soul to see the honesty and raw humanity now emanating from all quarters of a once numb and apathetic people. My God. America has finally looked itself in the mirror and it hates what it sees.

Please, please watch the clip from Hannity & Colmes, from which the above quote was taken. Everyone needs to see this.

Click here to watch it in Windows Media Player and click here to watch it in QuickTime. The QuickTime file is much better quality. Video courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

Remembering Honesty

For so very long has the United States peddled lies as truth. Now, witness the backlash. Honesty and sincerity is pouring out of that country and touching people around the world.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in an interview on WWL Radio:

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.

...

But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

The entire transcript is available at CNN.com. The audio recording is available through a link in the transcript.

Black And Poor In America

Survivors despair outside the New Orleans Convention Centre.

* Picture courtesy of CathiefromCanada.

Somebody Has To Say It

I was watching CNN when Jack Cafferty of the Cafferty Report said what everyone was thinking.

Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in the Superdome. What is going on? This is Thursday! This storm happened 5 days ago. This is a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching. This is the government that the taxpayers are paying for, and it's fallen right flat on its face as far as I can see, in the way it's handled this thing.

He went on to point out,

... when they were removing Terry Schiavo's feeding tube, Congress got back in session on a Sunday night to pass some sort of a resolution. Here, they might get back on Friday -- the storm hit Monday. I guess it's all what's important to you..."

Thank you to Scott Tribe for the transcription.

Fucking Liars

President Bush wants us to believe that nobody could have anticipated the breach of levees protecting New Orleans from the waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush appeared on CNN today, both peddling the same line.

With all due respect to these three men: stop fucking lying to us, assholes.

Everyone, including these men, was well aware of the potential for disaster in New Orleans, long before Katrina struck. In 2001, FEMA reported that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the United States. The levees that ended up breaking were only capable of withstanding a category 3 hurricane and plans by the Army Corps of Engineers to reinforce the levee system were continusouly frustrated as President Bush moved money to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq. For God's sake, how hard could it be to see disaster coming when most of New Orleans is below sea level. It was a city waiting to drown.

United States Reeling In The Face Of Disaster. Country Faces Political Implossion.

I don't even know where to begin. A major American city is under water. Thousands dead. Tens of thousands stranded. Hundreds of thousands homeless. The United States is facing calamity on an unfathomable scale -- the worst natural disaster in the country's history. And the U.S. government is almost entirely out of play. At all levels, elected officials responsible for the safety and security of their citizens have failed to provide the basic necessities of life. Almost four days after Katrina made landfall, almost no emergency service personnel, National Guardsmen or military units have made it into the city. Chaos reigns across New Orleans. Chaos. Police and rescue workers that have managed to get into the city are being shot at. A large hospital trying to evacuate patients has had to suspend the evacuation after rescue workers came under sniper fire. Flames from looted buildings illuminate the city at night. Large groups of refugees have struggled to exist with no food, no clean drinking water, no communication and no contact with authority of any kind. Thousands have found their way to the city's convention centre, where bodies now lie on the ground, covered with sheets, both inside and outside the building. "There was an old woman, dead in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her, pushed up against a wall," reported CNN's Chris Lawrence. People are "being forced to live like animals. "Where are the buses? Where is the plan? Where is the help?"

God. I know. It's hard to believe this is actually happening. That it's not a script for some post-apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster. It’s a vast human tragedy and the victims need our help. When Asia was devastated by a tsunami last December, I led a drive for donations among students at my law school. So it might surprise some to learn that last night, when a friend asked whether I'd be making a similar effort for those suffering in New Orleans, I answered with an emphatic, "No." Please understand, it wasn't at all that I had no sympathy for the victims. I simply felt that the United States, being the wealthiest, most powerful nation on Earth, would be more than capable of taking care of its own. I went on to say that, if my friend was feeling charitable, then perhaps he should donate to cancer research. His money would do no good south of the border.

I was wrong. The United States, a country that has long rested on weak, unstable scaffolding, is beginning to collapse as the world watches on. Having tied up billions upon billions of dollars and an immeasurable amount of human resources in Iraq, the U.S. now finds itself unable to offer any real assistance to the people it ostensibly went to war to protect. This is money the United States does not and never did have. Not only is there nothing left to tackle the tragedy in New Orleans, but the tens of billions it will take to recover from this disaster will slam the country even further into debt and eventually ruin its credit rating. America is almost broke. Compounding the problem is the fact that, even before Katrina, oil refineries and production facilities in the United States were running at full capacity. The hurricane simply accelerated the onset of what was an inevitable energy crisis.

The result is an impending political and cultural meltdown. The response of President Bush to this disaster has been tepid and disgraceful. He delivered his address to the nation with all the passion of a neutered house cat. He chose to fly over the city in the comfort of Air Force One when he should have been on the ground in New Orleans, surrounded by debris, promising to throw the full weight of his office as President behind efforts to end the despair of almost half-a-million souls who have lost their city. Most damning, however, is that he ignored innumerable reports that warned New Orleans was a catastrophe waiting to happen – a threat to life of equal or greater magnitude than a large-scale terrorist attack on New York City. Admittedly, previous administrations made the same mistake, but Bush and his crew now seem destined to pay the consequences for getting the nation’s priorities so terribly wrong. This administration is coming down and, if there is any justice, the collapse should begin with the impeachment of President Bush. It should end only when every public official responsible for allowing America to sink into such a sad state of instability and unsustainability is replaced with someone with a realistic worldview and a firm and sincere commitment to helping average American citizens live happy, fruitful lives.

I was wrong. Please, make a donation today.