...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 the 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 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.
You know I'm not one of those drug addicts, I am thinking very clearly. And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem, I don't know whether it's the president's problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on a plane, and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now."
The transcript is here--(from Friday, September 2.)
You can listen to the interview here, or if you have trouble with that link, the CNN link is here.
It is obvious at this point that our federal government is fucking useless, worthless, incompetent, and callous-to-the-point of criminality.
The Rude Pundit has this to say about the situation: "But the Bush adminstration has broken the basic social contract in New Orleans, the one that goes all the way back to Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, the one that says we adhere to laws because you agree to protect us, and thus the city and its citizens have returned to the state of nature, which is to survive, motherfuckers, just survive."
He's absolutely, succinctly correct.
That observation isn't going to help a single human being, though. Moreover, it's no surprise.The help that has arrived in the Gulf Coast region is too fucking little, too fucking late, and god bless the men and women on the ground, there, doing the best they can with little support and apparently no effective command structure.
That means Americans are going to have to help each other as best we can, and deal with the massive, tragic, and internationally embarrassing failings of the Bush Administration later.
Right now, our own desperately need help.
The American Red Cross donation site
The American Red Cross volunteer match site
http://www.volunteermatch.org/
Network for Good: resources for non-profit organizations
USA Freedom Corps--volunteer network
WorldVision.org
Northwest Medical Teams, international
Very likely, local organizations in your own community are also mounting relief efforts. Please get involved. If you can't give money, or space in your house, give an hour or two of your time.
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Another "I'm okay" registry some of these sites really need to combine their efforts. There are just too many to keep track of, of perform effectively.
Katrina Information map--this is an interactive and ongoing project.
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