Well, the military has been sent in to New Orleans with orders to shoot to kill, since the city currently is controlled by lycanthropes firing on rescue helicopters and murdering and looting in the streets, while rape gangs roam the less flooded areas searching for teenage girls and children. Amid explosions and fires, dead bodies are floating in the toxic sewage that has filled the streets, and, according to the security policy analyst at FEMA, “There is not enough money in the gross national product of the United States to dispose of the amount of hazardous material in the area.”
Rebuilding of the city, if it happens, will take years, which is sad because this was entirely preventable and the decision was willfully made to cancel funding of levee upgrades and remove equipment in favor of the Iraq war. Those of you who voted for Bush have a lot more blood on your hands, and this time it's American blood. And while the US federal government has made no offer of real aid yet (and at first even refused offers of international aid from Canada, Venezuela, Jamaica, and others), they are paying Israeli settlers well over $200,000 per family to move out of the Gaza strip. Oh, and they're paying crazy Pat Robertson to pray for Katrina victims. I'm so sure Christianity is the answer.
So… Israel, Iraq, and Evangelical Megachurches are more important to the US taxpayer and US government than people inside the nation in real need? Ah, priorities…
I've gotten a fair amount of mail and messages asking how people can help the IAM members (more on Needled) who ignored repeated warnings to evacuate the city, as well as those who did and still lost everything. Right now it's too early to give a solid answer but when I have one I'll post it here. Until then my advice would be to simply donate to the Red Cross, but honestly, I'd wait. Once there is a clearer view of the problem I'm sure that help with housing, jobs, basic supplies of life, anything, would be greatly appreciated and we can set up a network to help with that here.
If you were affected by this, please do drop me a line if you have advice for me as to what you feel you need from this community.
It's pretty scary, because on the scale of things this was a tiny disaster in terms of what's possible… It really makes you worry about what America would come to if a really serious disaster struck that affected a larger region and more people. That things could devolve this quickly into anarchy and pure thuggish animalism is highly disturbing and degrading. Can't people just help each other?
All earth was but one thought - and that was death,
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails - men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devoured,
Even dogs assailed their masters
Oh, and with a hundred thousand people in the city, many of them corralled with no water or food, one has to remember that humans need at least two quarts of water per day to survive, and you can only go a couple days without water before you die. If the National Guard (and their gear) wasn't in Iraq right now, the evacuations could have been completed already, but without the staff to do them, the toll of the disaster could climb exponentially with every day that passes.
UPDATE: To people writing me saying “stop looking for someone to blame”, well, that's essential. The way this has been handled and the fact that there was no preparation (or that defenses were even lowered) is a crime, and since these colossal fuckups keep happening over and over and over, people need to be held accountable simply so it stops happening. Is all this death really worth cutting taxes for the rich and funnelling money into megacorps? And with an administration that doesn't care unless the media really comes after them, blame is essential simply to get help out there. After all, Bush and Condi didn't even cancel their vacation for this until the press came after them.
UPDATE: To people writing me saying “cutting the funding so the Iraq war could go on makes no difference because the Class-5 levees would not have been complete by now anyway”, while there is some truth to that, they would have been in better shape, and shelters would have been stocked and plans would have been in place. Since the National Guard and the gear are off in Iraq, that's not an option. So the funding issue is very relevant, even if the problems could not have been totally averted.
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