Bill Bennett was right

Unless you've been under a rock the last few days, you've heard about the remarks made by former Sec. of Education Bill Bennett. On his radio show, he said:

But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

You know what? He's right. He'd also be right if he said the same about white babies, poor babies, male babies, etc. If you erase a significant portion of your population, crime would have to go down - simple math. But he was an asshole for saying it, because he knew his audience would take it the way the Left has taken it, that he's implying that all blacks commit crime, which we don't. So be upset with what he implied, not with what he said.

Sad and pitiful

A friend of mine tells me that all the stories about the military not having enough people is just the liberal press being against the war. Against the war? The press was beating the war drum as loudly as the administration, but that's another topic. What I want to show you all is this recruiting ad from the National Guard. Yep, join the National Guard and get 3 free downloads from I-tunes!! Like I said, sad and pitiful.

Too Funny

Somehow, my phone number has gotten onto the call lists for Jerry Kilgore, the Republican candidate for governor in Virginia. The 1st call I got, I informed the volunteer that he had the wrong household, we were hardcore Dems. Well, they don't seem to take no for an answer. I got 2 more calls last night, so I decided to have a little fun. I asked the caller what Kilgore thought about gay marriage. He responded that Kilgore believes marriage is between a man and a woman. I said good, because ever since they let the coloreds marry white people, the country's gone bad. A few seconds of silence, followed by "so we can count on your vote?".

DeLay Indicted

But before you say this was simply partisan politics by a Democratic prosecutor, read on:

While Earle is an elected Democrat, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, a June 17 editorial in the Houston Chronicle commended his work: "During his long tenure, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has prosecuted many more Democratic officials than Republicans. The record does not support allegations that Earle is prone to partisan witch hunts." This assertion supports Earle's own claim about his record; a March 6 article in the El Paso Times reported: "Earle says local prosecution is fundamental and points out that 11 of the 15 politicians he has prosecuted over the years were Democrats."

Besides, juries indict people, not District Attorneys.

Did I ever mention I love soccer? 

C'mon Folks - Show Them You're More Than Just Talk

Seriously, if you think this war is so noble and you're in good health, go sign up. Don't let others die for you.

What the Hell is going on at The University?

There's been a surge in racist incidents at my alma mater, UVa. What the hell? Read some more articles on the racial strife at UVa. Here, here and here.

How I Spent My Vacation

So, I went to San Diego over the weekend to visit my kid brother and his (pregnant) wife. I had a great time, though it's still weird for me to see my brother as a grown-up, married man. He's still a 11 year old kid in my mind - that's how old he was when I left home for college. And now, well he's going to be a dad next month! Before me! My little sister also became a parent before me, so I'm going to be getting advice from them for the 1st time in my life whenever the FW and I have a child. Not sure how I'm going to handle that!

Anyway, San Diego was fantastic. The weather was perfect, around 70 degrees each day, with brilliant sunshine. The 1st thing we did, of course, was go play hoops. When my brother was in high school and college, whenever we got together we would play hoops - it was our way of fighting (you know, like animals in the wild, establishing dominance). Up until this weekend, he'd only beaten me once, and he's still talking about it. Well, my dominance is over. He won 3 out of 5 games. I just can't hang with the young bucks anymore. I "retired" from my men's soccer team this season because I realized I just can't run as fast as want to and my recover time has increased to the point that I'm stiff for days (no Viagra jokes, please).

Went to see the Nats play the Padres Friday night - luckily it was the night Washington won before they began their tailspin. The weirdest thing about the trip was waking up Saturday morning, turning on the TV at 9:00 am, and seeing UVa vs. Syracuse. Something's wrong with football on that early!

So here's to my little brother, who's now a married man and a father to be. You've done good, boy (but I'll still whip that ass!).

Mmm, mmm, mmm!!

So, my Fab Wife bought me a bottle of "Ultimate Seasonings". It's "an exotic combination of fresh herbs and vegetables that bring the true taste of Africa to your table."

Trying to get me in touch with my roots, I guess. Whatever the reason, I'm using it now to make a chicken stew and rice. It'll be done in a few minutes, but man, it smells awesome!!!

Mission Accomplished

Um, no. Not really. As of today, over 1900 Americans have died in Iraq since the invasion. Is it worth it?

Great Start

Well, my trip to San Diego has gotten off to a great start. Not!!! The other night, I made reservations on SuperShuttle, to get me to Dulles (didn't want the FW to have to drive me all the way out here and then fight traffic to get back to work). The van was scheduled to pick me up between 4:50 and 5:05 am. Yep, A.M. !!! Around 5:15, no sign of the van, and no call from SuperShuttle. At 5:25, I called to see what was going on. No problem, they told me, the van is on the way - you're the last pick-up and he's just running a little late. He'll be there in 10-15 minutes. Well, at 5:50, still no van, so I called again. This time, I was asked "no one called you? You're going to have to call a cab or have your wife take you, we don't have any drivers today". WTF? They've already charged my card for the shuttle. They told me to get a receipt from the cab and fax it to them. So now, I'm out of close to $100 - $35 for the original reservation and $60 for the cab ride. I'm not a happy camper. But I made it to Dulles, where I am now sitting, drinking my coffee and chillin'. I'll holla from the left side later today.

Going West

Leaving in a few hours to visit my little brother and his wife in San Diego, so I'll be blogging from the other coast for a few days.

I believe!!

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

This is great - I urge everyone to read it and check out the website.

Open letter to the Kansas School Board:

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.

Some find that hard to believe, so it may be helpful to tell you a little more about our beliefs. We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it. We have several lengthy volumes explaining all details of His power. Also, you may be surprised to hear that there are over 10 million of us, and growing. We tend to be very secretive, as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated by observable evidence. What these people don’t understand is that He built the world to make us think the earth is older than it really is. For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease.

I’m sure you now realize how important it is that your students are taught this alternate theory. It is absolutely imperative that they realize that observable evidence is at the discretion of a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs without wearing His chosen outfit, which of course is full pirate regalia. I cannot stress the importance of this enough, and unfortunately cannot describe in detail why this must be done as I fear this letter is already becoming too long. The concise explanation is that He becomes angry if we don’t.

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

In conclusion, thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs. I hope I was able to convey the importance of teaching this theory to your students. We will of course be able to train the teachers in this alternate theory. I am eagerly awaiting your response, and hope dearly that no legal action will need to be taken. I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.

Sincerely Yours,

Bobby Henderson, concerned citizen.

Brownie quits

Only took him 2 weeks to do something right.

Brown heads back to DC

Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, NBC News and The Associated Press reported Friday.

Two federal officials who wouldn't be identified told the AP that Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, La. He was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster. NBC learned the same thing from a relief official.

1995

1994-95 was a damn good year for music. I've got MusicMatch on my computer, at home and at work. I can listen to just about any album ever, and today I'm listening to "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness". I haven't listend to the Smashing Pumpkins in awhile, and forgot just how damn good they were. Other albums I played a lot during 1995 were "Sixteen Stone" by Bush, "Tragic Kingdom" by No Doubt, "Seal" by Seal, and "Crazysexycool" by TLC. Remember these tunes - Gangsta's Paradise, Fantasy, This is How We Do It, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, and of course, Boombastic? Good times folks, good times. I was a no everything 26 year old sharing an awesome house in the Palisades section of DC, overlooking the Canal, with Derrick and Robbin - two of the best roommates I ever had. We seemed to have a party or cookout just about every weekend, regardless of the weather. Hot? Let's have a cookout. Raining? Let's have a party? Snowing? C'mon over! Yep, things were pretty good - Bill in the White House, economy rolling along, we thought the good times would last forever (wow, this sounds like some sappy show Fox would make - oh wait, it is. Reunion debuted last night).

Oh damn, gotta go - "1979" just came on!

Do you really think

this would have happened in Salt Lake City?

"The helicopters wouldn't stop."

Meanwhile

13 Americans have died in Iraq this month - and we're only a week into September. That's 1,895 American sons and daughters dead to keep us "safe".

Sure, no one thought the levee would break

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Just last year, FEMA hired a private company, IEM Inc. of Baton Rouge, to help conduct an eight-day drill for a fictional Category 5 hurricane in New Orleans named Pam. It included staging a helicopter evacuation of the Superdome, a prediction of 15 feet of water in parts of the city and the evacuation of 1-million people.
But the second part of the company's work - to design a plan to fix unresolved problems, such as evacuating sick and injured people and housing thousands of stranded residents - never occurred because the funding was cut.

This is absolutely gut wrenching

They thought they were being sent there to die (again, thanks to Daily Kos):

Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 10:13 AM
Subject: a survivor's story: Katrina in New Orleans

I heard from my aunt last night that my cousin Denise made it out of New Orleans; she's at her brother's in Baton Rouge. from what she told me:

Her mother, a licensed practical nurse, was called in to work on Sunday night at Memorial Hospital (historically known as Baptist Hospital to those of us from N.O.). Denise decided to stay with her mother, her niece and grandniece (who is 2 years old); she figured they'd be safe at the hospital. they went to Baptist, and had to wait hours to be assigned a room to sleep in; after they were finally assigned a room, two white nurses suddenly arrived after the cut-off time (time to be assigned a room), and Denise and her family were booted out; their room was given up to the new nurses. Denise was furious, and rather than stay at Baptist, decided to walk home (several blocks away) to ride out the storm at her mother's apartment. her mother stayed at the hospital.

she described it as the scariest time in her life. 3 of the rooms in the apartment (there are only 4) caved in. ceilings caved in, walls caved in. she huddled under a mattress in the hall. she thought she would die from either the storm or a heart attack. after the storm passed, she went back to Baptist to seek shelter (this was Monday). it was also scary at Baptist; the electricity was out, they were running on generators, there was no air conditioning. Tuesday the levees broke, and water began rising. they moved patients upstairs, saw boats pass by on what used to be streets. they were told that they would be evacuated, that buses were coming. then they were told they would have to walk to the nearest intersection, Napoleon and S. Claiborne, to await the buses. they waded out in hip-deep water, only to stand at the intersection, on the neutral ground (what y'all call the median) for 3 1/2 hours. the buses came and took them to the Ernest Memorial Convention Center. (yes, the convention center you've all seen on TV.)

Denise said she thought she was in hell. they were
there for 2 days, with no water, no food. no shelter. Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years old), and 2-year-old grandniece. when they arrived, there were already thousands of people there. they were told that buses were coming. police drove by, windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. national guard trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers with guns cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all the bottles exploded on impact due to the height of
the helicopter.

the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her. the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her. Denise told me the people around her all thought they had been sent there to die. again, nobody stopped. the only buses that came were full; they dropped off more and more people, but nobody was being picked up and taken away. they found out that those being dropped off had been rescued from rooftops and attics; they got off the buses delirious from lack of water and food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals had mostly lost their minds. they had gone crazy.

inside the convention center, the place was one huge bathroom. in order to shit, you had to stand in other people's shit. the floors were black and slick with shit. most people stayed outside because the smell was so bad. but outside wasn't much better: between the heat, the humidity, the lack of water, the old and very young dying from dehydration... and there was no place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk. they slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass.

Denise said yes, there were young men with guns there. but they organized the crowd. they went to Canal Street and "looted," and brought back food and water for the old people and the babies, because nobody had eaten in days. when the police rolled down windows and yelled out "the buses are coming," the young men with guns organized the crowd in order: old people in front, women and children next, men in the back. just so that when the buses came, there would be priorities of who got out first.

Denise said the fights she saw between the young men with guns were fist fights. she saw them put their guns down and fight rather than shoot up the crowd. but she said that there were a handful of people shot in the convention center; their bodies were left inside, along with other dead babies and old people.

Denise said the people thought there were being sent there to die. lots of people being dropped off, nobody being picked up. cops passing by, speeding off. national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them. and yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a certain point all the people thought the cops were coming to hurt them, to kill them all. she saw a young man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in pursuit; he crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops shot him in the back. in front of the whole crowd. she saw many groups of people decide that they were going to walk across the bridge to the west bank, and those same groups would return, saying that they were met at the top of the bridge by armed police ordering them to turn around, that they weren't allowed to leave.

so they all believed they were sent there to die. Denise's niece found a pay phone, and kept trying to call her mother's boyfriend in Baton Rouge, and finally got through and told him where they were. the boyfriend, and Denise's brother, drove down from Baton Rouge and came and got them. they had to bribe a few cops, and talk a few into letting them into the city ("come on, man, my 2-year-old niece is at the Convention Center!"), then they took back roads to get to them.

after arriving at my other cousin's apartment in Baton Rouge, they saw the images on TV, and couldn't believe how the media was portraying the people of New Orleans. she kept repeating to me on the phone last night: make sure you tell everybody that they left us there to die. nobody came. those young men with guns were protecting us. if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had the little water and food they had found.

that's Denise Moore's story.

Lisa C. Moore
Update [2005-9-6 22:51:57 by ch2]:: The accounts rang true to me, and I'm a professional skeptic (a scientist), but I respect anyone who wants to approach these stories carefully. I'm initiating an email trackdown of Lisa Moore. If I get a confirmation, I will urge the original author (Lisa Moore), or better yet the survivor herself (Denise Moore), to post at Daily Kos. peace, ch2.
Update [2005-9-6 23:25 by ch2]: Claude B in the comments found the same story in "Libération", a French newspaper. They have additional information about the Moore family. Here's my translation:

The Moore family is large and long established creole Catholic family in New Orleans, the Moores are musicians - Deacon John (Moore) is the most famous one of them - professors, nurses... Their houses are now submerged by flooding, and most of them have lost everything following Katrina's passage. Lisa Moore, editor (Redbone press), has collected the testimony of her 43 year-old cousin, Denise Moore, once an education counselor, now a refugee in Baton Rouge. Here is her tale of a dive into Hell

This always makes me feel better

The past week has been horrible. As I wrote earlier, I was in a rage over what happened last week in in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. I'm still pretty mad about it. But whenever I get really angry, I listen to this, my favorite sound in the world, and feel a whole lot better about the world.

Take a look

Via Daily Kos:

"It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level....It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
--House Speaker Dennis Hastert (8/31/05)

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
--President Bush (9/1/05)

"The federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today."
--FEMA director Michael Brown (9/1/05)

HALLIBURTON GETS KATRINA CONTRACT
--Headline (9/1/05)

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
--President Bush (9/2/05)

"Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy?"
--Rick Scarborough (9/4/05)

"I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'"
--Chertoff (9/4/05)

"...but the media has a fascination with the blame game and instead of looking for what can we do to help now there's a lot of why didn't we do something different?"
--George H.W. Bush (9/5/05)

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this...this is working very well for them."
--Barbara Bush (9/5/05)

"I dropped a twenty in the bucket."
--Millionaire Jeb Bush, speaking from the broadcast booth on a collection for hurricane relief at the Miami-Florida State game. (9/5/05)

"I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years, these things happen."
--GOP strategist Jack Burkman defending Bush (9/6/05)

If you ignore it, it doesn't exist

FEMA won't allow reporters to photograph the dead.

The whole family is f***ed up

Via Atrios:

NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W.Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

...

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I’ve talked to wants to move to Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed with the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them."

It's just unbelievable what the bastard will do

It's a fuckin' Potemkin village going on:

From Senator Landrieu's office -

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast - black and white, rich and poor, young annd old - deserve far better from their national governmeent.

And from warandpeace.com:

September 03, 2005
If he could go to Baghdad, why didn't Bush go to the New Orleans Superdome or the Convention Center? It was bizarre for all of the country and much of the world to be watching those scenes for days on our TVs and news reports, and for Bush's photo ops to be in areas that were far less critical. I know there are security considerations but his visit seemed extraordinarily hollow even by this administration's standard of ultra-stage managed events.

Dutch viewer Frank Tiggelaar writes:

There was a striking dicrepancy between the CNN International report on the Bush visit to the New Orleans disaster zone, yesterday, and reports of the same event by German TV.

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF.

Bush blames state and local officials

And takes no blame for the Feds. Despite the fact that last Saturday, FEMA was authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. From the White House's own website:

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe

So true

via Wonkette:

the GOP could ensure Republican dominance to the end of the century if instead of heading to the airport, George Bush took Marine One to the Convention Center and just started handing out water. Democrat black vote? What Democratic black vote.

Rage

I'm in a slow-burning rage right now. Part of me can't believe that the government (federal, state and local) weren't prepared for this, can't believe that Guard units still haven't secured the city of New Orleans, can't believe that Americans are dying from dehydration and lack of medicine, can't believe any of this. But another part of me believes it, and isn't too surprised. After all, these are poor, black folks suffering. Looks like Africa, right? I know, deep in my soul, that if the Great Salt Lake flooded and Salt Lake City was in the shape of New Orleans, help would have arrived by now. You may say I'm playing the "race card", and you know what, I am. Because black folks have been fucked over by this country since day one. Slavery may just be something you read about in history books, but not to us. My Dad's father was born in 1871, 6 years after the Civil War ended. My great-grandparents were slaves. My parents had to march to get the right to vote, to be allowed to eat where they wanted to. I was born in 1968 - my wife and I couldn't have married each other the year I was born. Race and poverty are the pink elephants in the room, and no one wants to talk about it. We all think the entire country is white and middle class. No, it isn't. And the scenes from New Orleans are showing that to the nation.

And I don't give a damn that Bush is Republican. If he was a Democrat, I'd be raging against him. This is FUCKED UP!! The hurricane was Monday, damnit, and he's just now getting ready to go and view the damage? C'mon, man. Forget the politics, screw your advisors. Be a fuckin' human being. Help these people. Don't give bullshit press conferences. Open up some military bases, house these people in barracks. GET OFF YOUR ASS AND GET TO WORK!! Your the President of the United States, not President of the people who voted for you. Don't tell us bullshit about no one knew this would happen. We new for days a huge storm was gonna hit the Gulf Coast. Just fucking tell the truth. We weren't prepared, we fucked up, and we're going to do whatever it takes to fix this shit.

I don't cry. I just don't. Yet watching the news coming out of New Orleans, and Biloxi, tears are just streaming down my face.

This isn't supposed to happen here.

And today's "No Shit Sherlock Award"

Goes to our Commander-in-Chief:

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- President Bush told reporters on Friday that millions of tons of food and water are on the way to the people stranded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina -- but he said the results of the relief effort "are not acceptable."

Not acceptable? How about the results are a major fuck-up of epic proportions? I remember a few years ago when DC was hit by a blizzard and Mayor Barry was in San Diego at the Super Bowl. He got shit about that for years. And now W stays on vacation for 2 days after Katrina hit. What the hell?

Meanwhile,

While Rome burned:

George H.W. Bush, appearing with Bill Clinton on CNN today, said that he thinks that members of his son's administration are "taking all the right steps" on Hurricane Katrina. They'll certainly look good doing it. As conditions continue to deteriorate in New Orleans, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was spotted today in New York, where she reportedly spent several thousand dollars on new shoes.

From salon.com

A note from Louisiana

My wife sent me this, from a co-worker of hers:

Ask everyone you know to donate to the Red Cross. They are staged in Baton Rouge with FEMA. Things are rapidly getting out of control here. Looting, home invasions, car jackings. People are desperate. If you have any pull with the president, get the federal troops here NOW. Low on gas, food and other creature comforts. But our families and properties are safe. It is all such a mix of emotions. People needing help and people causing trouble.

So ask anyone you know to make a donation and to give til it feels like they gave something. Our city's in ruins.

Craig

Folks, this is a tragedy like we've never seen in this country. Please, click on the link to the right and donate now to the Red Cross. Open up your home to those who need shelter. These are Americans. This isn't right.

You can help

If you have space in your home, please, please help out the victims of Katrina. Adopt a family if you can. Click here to find out how.

And now some good news

We've all been barraged with bad news. Well, here's some good news. Rev Run (Run from Run DMC) has an album coming out in October, and here's his 1st single. Takes me back to Gar-Field High School in the '80s!!

I can't imagine

what these people are going through. Absolutely horrible.