Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Friday, Sept. 02, 2005 - 12:49 a.m.

I will have more to say on Hurricane Katrina and the federal government's shockingly lame response to it when I dig my way out of transcription hell. I still have not yet heard from my friend Sue (name removed now that she's found) in New Orleans, so if you know her, tell her to call "Jet", please. Sue has a young son who is autistic, and frankly, with all the people who had problems getting out because of complications such as that, I'm starting to freak out. It's not like her not to drop a dime and say she's cool, and none of our mutual friends have heard from her since this mess went down. :(

Please visit the blog over at CraftJoint and read Mallory's entry to read about Mallory's experience and get a more personal account of how badly hit the people in that area of the country are. The entry also contains the url's for charitable organizations, some of which are actually on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi, and could probably use the the help.

Mallory is a co-blogger at CraftJoint who also runs Dismantled Designs, and CraftJoint's founder, Shareta, has started a fund to help Mallory and her friends and family, many of whom lost their homes and/or businesses. You can donate to it via the CraftJoint community blog. I already emptied the sad balance of my Paypal account into it, but the $49.46 that's in the fund as of this writing isn't going to go far, I think.

As well, Craft Revolution is sponsoring a sort of "crafts drive", proceeds of which are going to the American Red Cross.

What I really want to know is where the fuck is the federal government; where is FEMA? I see tons of private persons and organizations trying to help but very little going out in the way of actual mobilization or federal action, and why the hell, *4 days later*, is the National Guard just now getting up to send a serious number of troops? THIS kind of thing is why we have a National Guard. But according to military spokesmen, the troops they are finally getting around to sending won't even reach the disaster area for approximately three more days. (What the--oh wait, that's right. They're all in frigging Iraq.) Meanwhile, the gangs and criminals are running the streets. Even FEMA Director Michael Brown has pronounced the government's lackluster response to this disaster unacceptable, and he should know - according to New Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert, FEMA is not running evacuation or relief efforts, and the man is in a position to know.

This whole mess is appalling - tsunami victims in the third fucking world got help faster. I'm not saying they did not have a serious need for the fastest help available; I'm saying it's pretty damned pathetic that in this nation, with as much money and resources as we have sitting right next to the disaster zone, the best god-damned thing Bush was able to pony up was a fly-by on his way "home" from fucking vacation. Not to mention Dennis fucking Hastert saying today that the entire city of New Orleans should just be bulldozed and forgotten about. I can't even tell you how fucking angry the insensitivity and complete and utter lack of compassion present in that remark makes me. Somebody needs to fucking punch that dick. Someone also needs to start talking about the money Bush cut from the Army Corps of Engineers and rerouted into Iraq. Money slated to repair one of the very levees that failed, $75 million, to be exact, enough money to fund something like 8 days of Iraqi occupation. And that's not counting the money he slashed from the budget for fiscal year 2006 and other monies siphoned off in 2003, 2004, and 2005, all to fund the fucking "war" in Iraq. This after a government study informed him one of the biggest threats to the economic stability of this nation was a major hurricane flooding the city of New Orleans. Last year alone, Bush slashed $65M from the budget to maintain and repair New Orleans levies. Congress ultimately okayed $42.2M to the project; $2.2M more than Bush allowed but still less than half (actually, slightly less than 40%) of the amount needed to help prepare the city of New Orleans in case of a major hurricane. They had no more money to give, Congress said. Know what they spent the other $63M and another $168M besides ($231M) on?

A bridge to an uninhabited island off the coast of Alaska.

I don't even know how to begin.

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Yesterday's News - Next Stop

In which Katie shares sad news - Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2015
In which Katie returns after a very long absence - Monday, Jun. 25, 2012
In which Katie pokes her head in and brushes some of the cobwebs away - Thursday, May. 06, 2010
In which Katie asks you to write your congressman again. - Monday, Jun. 02, 2008
In which Katie asks you to please click the link and send the message to protect the rights of artists - Wednesday, May. 21, 2008