$100,000 REWARD FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
A coalition of 120 liberal and progressive groups calling themselves
VelvetRevolution.us has launched what they call the "Government
Accountability Reward Fund," a $100,000 prize for information leading
to the arrest and conviction of "high government officials."
Specifically, they are asking for information about the outing of CIA
agent Valerie Plame, purported fraud in the 2004 Ohio presidential
election, and bribes allegedly given to Speaker of the House Dennis
Hastert, as reported in Vanity Fair.
A press release issued by VelvetRevolution.us is even more specific. An excerpt follows:
The information provided must be new and not previously provided to the
press or government entity or official. The information must be
verifiable and be a major contributing factor in the arrest and
conviction of the government official(s). In the case of the Valerie
Plame, the evidence must implicate and convict a senior White House
official or officials. In the case of Dennis Hastert, the evidence must
implicate and convict him. In the case of Ohio, the evidence must
implicate and convict persons who actually and knowingly rigged the
2004 Presidential election in such a way that it changed the true
outcome.
There have been credible news reports that senior White House officials
conspired to and did knowingly and intentionally disclose the identity
of Valerie Plame. Other news reports have indicated that Dennis Hastert
took bribes from foreign interests and hid those bribes through
political action committees. Moreover, many news reports have stated
that persons rigged the election in Ohio to favor the Republicans, and
now top Republican officials are under investigation and indictment in
Ohio for corrupt practices.
VR believes that, if these reports are true, there are upstanding American
citizens who have important information which could verify them. VR wants
these people to come forward, and this reward is an incentive to do so.
If a person desires confidentiality, please say so and we will honor that
request. However, we must be able to verify the information provided
and documentation is preferred. Send information to reward at
velvetrevolution.us
The release urges those with information to contact Velvet Revolution.
One of our bloggrrrls is getting an unwelcome visit from the beast known as the Bush economy. Melissa of the Koufax-nominated Shakespeare's Sister was laid off from her job today. The inimitable Shakespeare's Sister
a "friend to this Blog and a gen-u-wine BLOGGER For Good " needs your
help. She's looking for cash, and looking for a gig in the Chicago
area.
Last night, Mr. Shakes and I got a notice that our property tax had
been increased 100% on our matchbox of a house, and effectively
immediately, our monthly payments would be increased by 20%. Then this
morning, I got laid off. Wish we didn't have to, feel terrible, no money and all that.
So,
I'm pretty desperate at the moment, and although I hate to do this, I'm
asking for donations. If you like Shakespeare's Sister and if you can
afford to, I'd appreciate it if you could help out, because now this is
the only job I've got.
She has links to Amazon Pay and Paypal on her site in the left sidebar
if you're a fan and want to show some love for the incredible blogging
that she has done and will continue to do.
Go visit her here. Say nice things to her because she deserves them. Give if you can. Send her job leads if you can.
What is the Bird Flu threat currently building in southeast Asia — which this time the
threat has nothing to do with terrorism.
In the poultry farms of Vietnam and Thailand, in the slums of
Indonesia, along the migratory routes of wild fowl in China, a new
strain of bird flu is mutating and spreading. It's just a matter of
time, scientists say, before the strain — H5N1, the most virulent form
of influenza ever identified — will fully lodge itself within the human
population. When that happens, start looking for the Four Horsemen of
the Apocalyse — in particular, the one named Pestilence who's riding a
pale horse.
This is not your ordinary, off-the-shelf, garden variety flu strain.
It's a superbug. Currently, the virus is transmitted to humans only
through direct contact with birds. Up until now, there's been very
little to worry about unless you work with chickens in Thailand, or you
eat Vietnamese delicacies such as uncoagulated duck blood soup. But
scientists tell us that the virus is mutating, and it will soon become
a human-to-human contagion that's spread the old-fashioned way — by
nose, hand and mouth.
And here's what's really disturbing. The documented mortality rate
from the current oubreak in southeast Asia is around 55 percent. Even
if the bug is less virulent in its mutated form (which is likely), H5N1
could well be as contagious and deadly as smallpox.
The virus is poised to make its way around the world, killing
perhaps hundreds of millions in its wake. There are no human antibodies
for the virus, and there is no vaccine. The only drug known to be
effective in treating the symptoms is Tamiflu, which governments around
the world have been quietly and aggressively stockpiling for the past
two years. Governments, that is, except our own.
While France and Canada and Australia have been amassing doses of
Tamiflu, we've been fixated on preventing bioterrorism threats such as
anthrax. France has a population of 60 million, but will soon have 12
million doses of Tamiflu on hand. For our own population of nearly 300
million, we have a paltry 2.5 million doses. That's a 24 to 1 advantage
for the French.
Now that the problem that we can expect, millions of deaths and economic disruptions that could precipitate a
global depression, has been defined. Add on top of that disaster,
a rootin and tootin "turf battle" to deal with this world-class
epidemic. This was already an urgent concern with the Health
fields before the Homeland Security and FEMA disasters during the
Katrina and Rita hurricane fiascos.
The only Recovery successes seemed to be in "Preventing
Recovery", withholding assistance, and keeping needed supplies,
like ice, away from victims in the distressed areas.
"They don't have the infrastructure at Homeland Security, or the
technical expertise, to handle" a pandemic, said Dr. Georges Benjamin,
executive director of the American Public Health Association, who was
Maryland's health officer during the 2001 anthrax attacks.
But public health officials and health care experts reacted with dismay.
"This is news to me," said Dr. George Hardy Jr., executive director
of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the
professional organization for state health departments. "Clearly
pandemics are public health issues. But certainly in today's climate, I
would expect many parts of gvernment — at the federal, state and local
level —would be involved."
The possibility that Homeland Security would lead a pandemic
response drew quick negative reaction from emergency physicians, who
expect their already overloaded departments to bear the worst burden in
a mass outbreak.
Public health insiders said Tuesday that the apparent tug of war
between the two federal agencies was likely to increase anxiety among
health professionals that the United States is not prepared for an
epidemic like the Spanish influenza of 1918, which killed an estimated
50 million people.
That anxiety --- reported by health professionals in several cities ---
has been exacerbated by the departure of senior scientists from the
Atlanta-based CDC and by the creation of a chief medical officer post
at Homeland Security.
Severe Risk of Pandemic: If you can read this you are not dead yet. That makes two of us.
When you start to look at the financial implications of high oil and
gasoline prices on the individual consumer, it becomes obvious that
there are many subtle factors contributing to the problem. Because
they're so subtle, consumers may not realize for a while what a bind
they're in.
For example, peakguy notes on Peak Oil NYC today
that the reason that people—and the economy—seem to be putting up with
$3/gal gas is because they don't have another choice. As the Slate
article that peakguy refers to argues: "The rule of thumb in economics
is that people react to price increases only when they can turn to
substitutes...people can't change the type of fuel they put in their
cars, and they can't stop going to work."
If people can't stop using gas, what happens? Well, they charge it on their credit cards, of course. But this AP article
reports that as a result of this credit card activity, Americans have
fallen behind on their ability to pay off their credit cards. (In fact,
this topic seems popularin the news today.)
"The rise in gas prices is really stretching budgets to the
breaking point for some people," the [American Bankers] association's
chief economist, Jim Chessen, said in an interview. "Gas prices are
taking huge chunks out of wallets, leaving some individuals with little
left to meet their financial obligations."
Couple this with some other problems we've seen lately in the financial
realm, and we should be scared. Remember the talk about the
relationship between the new bankruptcy regulations and the Katrina
(and Rita) evacuees? Well, now Rep. Sensenbrenner, who's the chair of
the Judiciary Committee, has said that he will not hold hearings
to determine whether the new, strict regulations should be waived for
those affected by Katrina. This, despite the fact that these people are
already running into just the kinds of problems you might expect:
Katrina survivors are already starting to run up huge debts
on their credit cards as they struggle to find new jobs, new homes, and
new lives. Although many banks and credit card companies have offered
leniency on payments and loans in the short term, the long-term effects
of their displacement and loss of finances may put them hopelessly in
debt.
Also, in case you missed it the other day, Spooky left the following scary story in a comment:
Fractional banking now retains just .08 of each dollar in
their central vaults. I recently tried to get $5000 from my bank. I was
told I would have to "place an order" for that much cash.... credit and
lending is not just out of control, it is the only game in town, and
every single bank in the world is built of nothing but debt.
Peak Oil and all the storms and all the other crazy government
expenditures going on today are pushing us all closer and closer to the
brink. When the stock market finally begins to slide, the banking
system will not be far behind.
As if this doesn't seem scary enough, I'll leave you with one last thought. The Reserve Bank of Australia is warning of an impending global financial meltdown.
Their analysis is based primarily on the unrealistic housing market in
many countries, but also says that the financial situation is
exacerbated by increased oil prices and growing personal debt. While I
can't necessarily assess the validity of this article, it seems to me
that even the other subtle signs—when all of them are added up—should
be making us all pretty edgy right now.
A new slogan for FEMA, the goverment gang that can't shoot straight.
Judge
Griffith was angry over an incident in which a FEMA truck was supposed
to deliver fuel to a police facility but took the gasoline to a fire
station. When the crew learned its error, it left, the county judge
said, without providing the fuel to anyone. If police had been
available, Griffith said, they should have just taken the fuel.
Griffith also was outraged over FEMA portable generators that, he said,
were sitting in a park and not being distributed.
Frustration
and anger mounted in Southeast Texas on Monday over the response to
Hurricane Rita by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
With
homes smashed, trees and power lines downed and a looming shortage of
food and water, one official even threatened to take federal relief
supplies by force, if necessary.
"If you have enough policemen to take it from them, take it," Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith said Monday during a meeting of city and county officials. Link.
Yeah. That's a judge
advocating the seizure of federal property. Boy, doesn't that just
raise all sorts of Constitutional issues.
In any case, the
frustration comes as FEMA has promised trucks filled with food and
water, which apparently haven't arrived in the stricken areas. Odd,
that. Friday night, our local stations gleefully aired footage of the
FEMA trucks heading to the Astrodome staging area, ready to move out.
That was four or five days ago. The hurricane spun out four days ago.
It doesn't take that long to drive from Houston to Beaumont and points
North and East, especially when traffic snarls would all be heading the
opposite way. Furthermore, people need water . It's in the 100s down
here, and Chambers County is expected to be without electricity for
weeks. Let me tell you, were it not for the invention of air
conditioning, Southeast Texas would be uninhabitable.
As Judge Griffith said: "We can't
help it if politicians come here and just want to be seen by the
media." Or as Port Arthur's Mayor Oscar Ortiz said: "The (FEMA)
director is a very nice person, but that is not what we need now. We
need someone who is going to do what they say they are going to do."
City officials cited a lack of water pumps, generators, food and
water, and they complained about federal relief teams failing to show
and fuel deliveries not happening as promised.
Andre Wimer, city manager for Nederland, said he was tired of
getting the runaround from federal officials. "We spend the day faxing
and talking and we don't get any feedback. We need somebody helping us."
All is not well between local and state officials either.
According to the local officials at the meeting, state troopers were
not allowing city employees crucial to the relief effort back into the
county.
"I realize that there is a significant logistics issue and I
appreciate that," Wimer said. "But there is a significant amount of
equipment and manpower sitting at (local FEMA headquarters) and for
whatever reason, it has not been released and that is a bunch of
(nonsense)."
So much for the MSM's failed attempt to prop up a failed presidency by
repeatedly pointing out that the Texas local government were prepared
and that is why no one was killed in hurricane Katrina as a direct
result of the storm.
The
above is a link to footage from the protest in front of the Lily White
House, including a very reasonable request that George Bush vacant the
premises.
Let's make someone hear us everyday until the war ends.
England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four
counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent
act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.
The jury of five male Army officers took about two hours to reach
its verdict. Her case now moves to the sentencing phase, which will be
heard by the same jury beginning Tuesday.
England tried to plead guilty in May to the same counts she faced
this month in exchange for an undisclosed sentencing cap, but a judge
threw out the plea deal. She now faces a maximum of nine years in
prison.
England, wearing her dark green dress uniform, stood at attention
Monday as the verdict was read by the jury foreman. She showed no
obvious emotion afterward.
Now tell me exactly what's any different about these photos? Other than the victims are dead.
The Hotline, a VERY influential inside-the-beltway publication in DC political circles, reports today that US soldiers appear to be posing for photos with dead Iraqis (and
their body parts) and then trading the photos for porn online. The
Hotline coverage is important because it helps establish this as a
"real" story for Washington types, including reporters and politicos.
Hopefully it will get some traction so we can get some answers here,
but also inform people, as I explain in my earlier post, what the cost
of war really is. It's not all Xbox-style smart bombs.
The Human Rights Watch Report
about the beatings and torture by the 82nd Airborn does not feature the
sexual humiliation and torture, but rather the good old fashioned kind.
The chickenhawks can claim that it is perfectly acceptable to support a
war that they have no intention of fighting. But they cannot claim that
it is just fine to support a war in which our troops have behaved in an
immoral and indecent fashion, which the military has covered up and
which was implicitly condoned by the highest reaches of our government.
If they supported this they should have to share in the trials of
conscience that afflict these poor bastards from the 82nd airborn who
came forward (and the ones who did not.) They should have to share in
the visions of blood and gore that we see on thay sick porn site and
they should have to live with what has been done in their name.
If you haven't read Billmon's incredible post on this subject, you need to.
Cindy Sheehan, the grieving California mother of a soldier
slain in Iraq, was arrested today while protesting the Iraq war outside
the White House.
Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son
Casey was killed last year, and several dozen other protesters staged a
sit-in on the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue after marching along the
pedestrian walkway, the Associated Press reported. Police warned them
three times that they had to move along before making arrests, the news
agency said.
"The whole world is watching," protesters chanted as Sheehan was led to a police vehicle.
Sheehan
and some 200 other protesters sat in circles on the sidewalk,
apparently courting arrest. Hundreds more people rallied in Lafayette
Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sheehan's arrest
came after a massive antiwar demonstration Saturday in Washington which
drew more than 100,000 people -- the largest such demonstration since
the Iraq war began in spring 2003. A demonstration supporting the war
drew roughly 500 people Sunday.
Sheehan, 48, first
attracted wide attention in August when she established the antiwar
Camp Casey outside of President Bush's Texas ranch. As part of the
26-day protest in Crawford, Sheehan asked for a meeting with Bush,
which he declined.
Sgt. Scott Fear, spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said about 370
protesters were arrested over four and a half hours. All but one were
charged with demonstrating without a permit, a misdemeanor. One person
faced a charge of crossing a police line.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush is "very much
aware" of the protesters and "recognizes that there are differences of
opinion" on Iraq.
"It's the right of the American people to peacefully express their
views. And that's what you're seeing here in Washington, D.C.,"
McClellan said. "They're well-intentioned, but the president strongly
believes that withdrawing ... would make us less safe and make the
world more dangerous."
We are still in the phase of finding out, after Rita's landfall, exactly what the level of damage will be. Today's MMS report
has 100% of the oil shut down with 81% of the platforms still evacuated
and 68% of the rigs. The 17-miles of road leading to the LOOP terminal
are still underwater. One can take the Valero comment that it will take between two weeks and a month for repairs to be completed at their refinery at face value.
Further it is not unreasonable to expect that there may be serious off-shore damage
Energy
Industry analyst Jon Kilduff of FIMAT told CNN there are reports of
some missing semi-submersible offshore rigs, but no details were
available.
Kilduff said that, even in the best case scenario, it will take "10 to
14 days" days to return refineries to full operations. He warned that
structural damage is not the only concern; refineries depend on
electrical power that may have been affected by the storm.
The news from the Houston Chronicle that tankers were being brought in to ensure that
existing gasoline supplies get distributed is encouraging.
The north Houston and Pasadena terminals that supply Shell stations
were open again today with enough gasoline to fill up at least 30
tankers with 270,000 gallons of fuel. The tanker drivers have
instructions to start with gas-needy I-45, I-10 and Highway 290.
Exxon Mobil was bringing in tanker trucks from as far away at New
Jersey and Illinois. Company officials said they delivered 531,000
gallons of gasoline to 14 retail stores in the Houston area on
Saturday, the equivalent of the normal daily demand for the entire
Houston market.
If the refineries are down for a month then the already weakened stock positions will get worse. And further, as the Guardian points out, the supplies are not reaching everyone:
The
principal problem was a petrol shortage in an area that is usually the
hub of the US oil industry. Long lines of cars formed outside Houston
petrol stations yesterday. The shortage also affected salvage work. In
Port Arthur, where the levees stood up to the storm surge but
torrential rain left extensive flooding, a policeman said the local
force was hamstrung by shortages.
"We've got no gas. We're just about ready to burglarise some of the
transport businesses to get some," said the officer, who did not want
his name used.
"We're attempting to find fuel wherever we can," a police spokeswoman,
Wendy Billiot, said, confirming that petrol could be commandeered. "If
it's necessary, we are considering that option."
We should now be seeing the refineries starting to produce the heating
oil for the winter. If a significant part of that possible production
has to be redirected to the production of gasoline then that heating
oil stock build-up will not take place.
And in this regard I think I would rather be called wrong by suggesting
that there may be a problem with heating oil this winter as a result,
than sit complacently saying that there won't be a problem, The United
States is, I believe, the only nation that stores most of its fuel in
crude form, rather than as refined product, and that means that if the
refineries can only produce at a certain rate, if the reserve stocks
aren't there then it is going to be a cold winter. I think it might be
better to know that now, that when calling the fuel oil salesman in
December, only to be told that there isn't any.
People will tell you you're naive for thinking one person can't make a
difference. Civil rights
activist Addie Wyatt once said, "Lord, I wish my eyes had never been
opened." Plenty of people open their eyes
and close them again, and tell themselves what they see is merely a
dream, and even if it is real, what can they do? Better to stay still,
and not get involved. Wouldn't make a difference anyway.
Never let anyone tell you one person can't make a difference. Never let
anyone tell you you shouldn't stand up. Always do whatever you can.
Give money if that's what you can do. Grab a sign and paint it and
stick it on the freeway if that's what you can do. Send a care package
to a soldier, an e-mail or a letter to a friend. Write. Call. Blog.
Talk. Use whatever voice you have.
DC actually has a buzz
today...and this city never has that feeling of energy. From what I
could see, it really is an eclectic crowd. Chimpy's out chasing
hurricanes, but the message is loud and clear from the anti-war protest:
Opponents
of the war in Iraq marched by the tens of thousands Saturday in a
clamorous day of protest, song and remembrance of the dead, some
showing surprisingly diverse political views even as they spoke with
one loud voice in wanting U.S. troops home.
The surging crowd,
shouting "Bush out now" and "Peace now," marched in front of the White
House and then toward the Washington Monument in an 11-hour marathon of
dissent.
Right at the beginning of the march was a table of right wingers with a
big "Trust Jesus" sign and bullhorn saying something like "Jesus would
bomb Iraqi children and so should we." It was glorious to have everyone
(thousands of people) surrounding them yell "GO ENLIST GO ENLIST GO
ENLIST GO ENLIST." Just absolutely drowning out their bullhorn. A true
"Operation Yellow Elephant" moment.
On
Washington's National Mall, they set up a faux military cemetery of
hundreds of small, white crosses in neat lines. In Los Angeles, 60 mock
coffins draped in American flags were laid out in rows on a downtown
street. "This is what we are losing every day," said Vickie
Castro, of Riverside, California, standing in front of the coffins with
a picture of her son, Cpl. Jonathan Castro, who was killed in action in
Mosul, Iraq, in 2004. Demonstrations in Washington and London took aim
at the Bush administration, calling its policies and actions
"criminal."
Some protesters carried signs calling Bush and Cheney "Liars." One sign
said, "Bush is a Cat 5 Disaster," in a reference to the recent
hurricanes that have hammered the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Some of my favorite posters/slogans:
"I can't believe we still have to protest this crap"
"If you don't support peace, I'll kill you"
A picture of bush looking like a chimp with the question Intellligent Design?
Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands of
demonstrators to her 26-day vigil outside Bush's Texas ranch last
month, won a roar of approval when she took the stage before the march.
Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.
"Shame on you," Sheehan admonished, directing that portion of her
remarks to members of Congress who backed Bush on the war. "How many
more of other people's children are you willing to sacrifice?
She led the crowd in chanting, "Not one more."
A
very cool group of people with what looked like mud people on pogo
sticks. I have no idea what it was supposed to be or represent, but the
mud people bopping up and down to the beat of drums it was very cool -
I am guessing it was Art Students for Peace or something.
They were young people with green hair, nuns whose
anti-war activism dates to Vietnam, parents mourning their children in
uniform lost in Iraq, and uncountable families motivated for the first
time to protest.
The protest in the capital showcased a series of demonstrations in
foreign and other U.S. cities. A crowd in London, estimated by police
at 10,000, marched in support of withdrawing British troops from Iraq.
Highlighting the need to get out, protesters said, were violent clashes
between insurgents and British troops in the southern Iraq city of
Basra.
There is a rather odd side to human nature. Take a problem, present
it to the audience in its maximum horror and suggest it is about to
happen, then ameliorate it a little, and tell everyone how the world is
not nearly as bad as it is painted. And everyone agrees that things
are looking up. But you are still facing a very bad situation - only
the way the news has been presented makes it seem that there is no
longer a problem.
Consider that, just yesterday, Texas was facing the third worst storm
in known history and things looked very dire. The storm has now got
just a bit less intense and folk are already talking about Houston
having "missed the bullet." All of a sudden a Category 4 hurricane
becomes news enough to ease oil prices.
We have seen this over the past year with oil prices themselves. Prices
rise from $30 to $40 to $50 and then they fall back $3 and we discuss
the "collapse of the price of oil." It rises to $60 and then $70 and
then slips $4 and suddenly "the crisis is over."
The worst case scenario for U.S. oil and gas infrastructure after
Hurricane Rita reaches land could have gasoline supplies strained
further than they already are and prices reaching record levels, some
analysts said on Thursday. Other analysts say prices have the
"Rita effect" built in and that once the storm clears land, refineries
will come back, imports will start to arrive and prices will decline.
But
until Hurricane Rita reaches land, the impact it has on U.S. Gulf Coast
energy infrastructure and on the price of gasoline and heating oil
remains a wildcard. Hurricane Rita, now downgraded to a Category
4 storm, has veered toward the east and now is expected to make
landfall early Saturday just north of Houston, Texas, shifting the
focus away from refineries in Corpus Christi and toward the Louisiana
border.
[.....]
Katrina
blew a big hole in the product market. If Rita doubles that, we are in
for some serious problems," said Jamal Qureshi, an oil analyst at
Washington-based PFC Energy. Already tight U.S. refining capacity
was strained further after four refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi
closed after flood damage from Katrina, sending the average price of a
gallon to a record $3.06 a gallon.
"This could be almost worse
than Katrina because there are 4 million barrels of refining in Texas
areas, much more than there was in New Orleans," said Tim Evans,
analyst at IFR Energy Services in New York. "(Texas) is the other major
refining heart," he said, adding that Rita will be a stress test for
Gulf Coast refineries.
Lack of power has kept the Louisiana
refineries closed for more than three weeks, so any sustained closure
of Texas area refineries will hit supplies of gasoline and heating oil
needed for winter fuel. But some analysts think that Rita won't have that much of a sustained effect. "The
market has already bid up the price of gasoline. It's been buy the
rumor and sell the fact," said Sarah Emerson, director of petroleum at
Boston-based ESAI Inc.
[...]
As
the storm neared, Texas refiners intensified efforts to prepare for the
hurricane by shutting down operations, taking down about 29 percent of
U.S. total refining capacity. According to Qureshi, the best case
scenario would be 2 million bpd of refining capacity out for four or
five days. The worst case, he said, is if a big chunk of refining
capacity is out for weeks or months, much like Katrina knocked out four
refineries in Louisiana, which are still not back in operation after
more than three weeks.
"The market is certainly tightened by this
event," said IFR's Evans, who said he wouldn't be surprised to see
gasoline stocks fall substantially but with demand limited by a
slowdown of gasoline demand which has fallen to 6.5 pct below August
levels over the past two weeks.
But some industry observers think
that there will be a big difference between Rita and Katrina, which
wreaked havoc on Louisiana and Mississippi. "After Katrina, there
were a bunch of refineries which didn't sustain structural damage but
couldn't turn the power back on," ESAI's Emerson said. While Houston
isn't below sea level like New Orleans, it still can see some damage
from flooding. "Houston
isn't as vulnerable, but there could still be dangerous storm surges,"
said Aaron Brady, analyst at Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
It has been fairly easy for FEMA to meet the needs they have to hand
out water, and to hire (purportedly at $24/hr with 16 hours days
allowed and a credit card for all expenses) a sufficient work force for
that purpose. Unfortunately for the real work in getting the oil and
natural gas supplies on hand for the winter they will likely be less
lucky. Unfortunately for the real work in getting the oil and natural gas
supplies on hand for the winter they will likely be less lucky. The
nation and the universities which carry the responsibility to train the
technical support that must underpin our economy, has fallen into the
management trap of purely meeting the immediate need. Petroleum
Engineering Departments are high cost, and have not been strongly
supported by an industry that has been more remiss than many in funding
the research and development that it now has need of. Thus Departments
have closed, and support infrastructure has declined.
And no one expects folks in Boston to go without heat this winter.
However, we might expect fewer to heat their offices or homes to the
borderline-sweltering temperatures that are not uncommon. And maybe the
the usually-sweltering winter temperatures on busses and trains could
be cranked down to something reflecting the way people actually dress
in wintertime. And maybe a few people might close off some rooms in
their palatial houses (compared to any other part of the world). And no one needs to travel a
hundred miles to a fifth-grade hockey game, maybe others would
make many
other adjustments. None of this would all be bad, though, of course,
many
adjustments are not indefinitely scalable. Still we have the
impacts of global warming and country debt load to
add to the mix of energy shortages. Both will probably make the
rebuilding of the coast
and energy infrastructure problematic.
Katrina
survivor William Harris was reunited with "Miss Kitty" at Forrest
General Hospital in Hattiesburg, MI. Harris spent three days trapped in
his home by floodwaters standing on a chair holding "Miss Kitty."
Harris was rescued but needed to leave the cat behind.
A Noah's Wish
volunteer and Slidell Animal Control offier found the cat and brought
her to the hospital for a tearful reunion with Harris.
The NOLA hospital workers were the real heros of Katrina, who stayed
with patients as the floodwater swamped their medical facilities. In
comparison, FEMA, the residents and police force of Gretna, and the
Universal Health Services hospital administrators are the real Assholes
of Katrina. FEMA and Gretna officials have already been
condemned on this blog and elsewhere. The hospital workers were ordered to stay behind with the remaining patients, now they're losing their jobs. Story Link Charlene Gonzalez wanted to get out of town before Hurricane Katrina
hit, but because she was a nurse at the only hospital in this low-lying
waterside community, she would lose her job if she did not stay at her
post.
Then, after Gonzalez, her husband and more than 100
other employees and their families spent days trapped by rising
floodwater, the Pennsylvania-based corporation that owns Chalmette
Medical Center, Universal Health Services, told its employees that they
could count on only two more weeks of pay.
"They left me to die," Gonzalez said. "And now nobody's even called to
say, 'Thank you,' nobody's even called to say, 'I'm sorry.' "
In the days following Katrina, southeastern Louisiana's hospitals
became isolated deathtraps as power failed, water rose and severely ill
patients could no longer survive. Officials have not accounted for all
the patients at the two-story Chalmette hospital, but staff members say
at least four died, three of whom were critically ill and had orders
that they not be resuscitated.
Several hours after the hurricane struck early Monday, Sewell lay down
in his first-floor office for a nap. He felt water on his back. Water
was pouring into the hospital, drowning the first-floor generators. The
waters that were beginning to rise in New Orleans were inundating St.
Bernard Parish. Within two hours, about 16 feet of water covered the
first floor, and rescue workers launched airboats off the second floor
terrace to retrieve neighbors stranded on their roofs.
For the
next three days, up to 400 evacuees took shelter on the hospital's
second floor. Food and water were tightly rationed — meals consisted of
a scoop of cottage cheese, a few slices of fruit and two pieces of ham.
Staff desperately tried to keep conditions sanitary without a sewage
system and tried to break shatter-proof windows to let fresh air into
the scorching building.
By Wednesday, parish officials had
found a scrap of dry land to function as a triage center. Sheriff's
deputies, firefighters and civilians began to shuttle patients to the
parish jail, which sat on high ground. The next morning, the last of
the staff was evacuated by a National Guard helicopter. Sewell was on
the last flight off the hospital roof.
But it is Universal Health
Services' behavior after the flooding that has infuriated the residents
of St. Bernard Parish, a devastated suburb of 65,000 residents, where
every neighborhood was inundated. The area remains uninhabitable,
buried by mud. The hospital is severely damaged.
Officials at
Universal say the anger is understandable after such a catastrophe, but
they contend they did everything they could for their patients and
employees. They say they tried to evacuate their hospital — albeit at
least a day after emergency officials say they urged it — but that it
was too late to get all the patients out. The company, which had $3.9
billion in revenue last year and says it is the nation's third-largest
hospital management corporation, says it is trying to place employees
with some of its 84 other facilities and has started a foundation to
aid those who lost their homes.
But Universal says on its
website that it is committed to paying through Saturday the 2,800
employees at its three New Orleans-area hospitals, including the 900 at
Chalmette. It says they will receive insurance coverage through at
least the end of October.
Both the director of emergency medicine and parish emergency
officials pleaded with hospital administrators to evacuate before the
storm. Patients and employees were trapped because of administrators'
"depraved indifference" (in the words of the parish's medical director
of emergency preparedness.) And as of Saturday, the people who risked
their lives unnecessarily won't even have a paycheck. At the end of
October, they will no longer have insurance.
Obviously
Universal is taking lessons from the Republicans and the Bill Frist
insider stock sell-off, property, profit and the bottom line trump the needs
of people. It's about seeing people down and in trouble, and deciding to KICK them
instead of helping them.
As Jeanne at Body and Soul saysGreed is not going to rebuild the Gulf Coast for the benefit of anyone but the most greedy.
One of our bloggrrrls is getting an unwelcome visit from the beast known as the Bush economy. Melissa of the Koufax-nominated 
Public health insiders said Tuesday that the apparent tug of war
between the two federal agencies was likely to increase anxiety among
health professionals that the United States is not prepared for an
epidemic like the Spanish influenza of 1918, which killed an estimated
50 million people.
When you start to look at the financial implications of high oil and
gasoline prices on the individual consumer, it becomes obvious that
there are many subtle factors contributing to the problem. Because
they're so subtle, consumers may not realize for a while what a bind
they're in.
On
Washington's National Mall, they set up a faux military cemetery of
hundreds of small, white crosses in neat lines. In Los Angeles, 60 mock
coffins draped in American flags were laid out in rows on a downtown
street. "This is what we are losing every day," said Vickie
Castro, of Riverside, California, standing in front of the coffins with
a picture of her son, Cpl. Jonathan Castro, who was killed in action in
Mosul, Iraq, in 2004. Demonstrations in Washington and London took aim
at the Bush administration, calling its policies and actions
"criminal."
Some protesters carried signs calling Bush and Cheney "Liars." One sign
said, "Bush is a Cat 5 Disaster," in a reference to the recent
hurricanes that have hammered the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands of
demonstrators to her 26-day vigil outside Bush's Texas ranch last
month, won a roar of approval when she took the stage before the march.
Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.
