Activists link Katrina crisis, Iraq war (Cindy Sheehan)

[sabra]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/philadelphia_county/philadelphia/12669847.htm

Activists link Katrina crisis, Iraq war

Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan yesterday laid some of the blame for the death and destruction associated with Hurricane Katrina on President Bush's Iraq war.

Sheehan, a Californian who became an international figure when she camped out next to Bush's vacation ranch in Crawford, Texas, last month, said Katrina was not only a natural disaster, but "a man-made tragedy and a criminal negligence disaster."

The hurricane's victims, she said, are "collateral damage of George Bush's insane and moronic policies in Iraq."

"Katrina has proven categorically that he has made our country more vulnerable by his insane policy," she told a crowd of about 250 at a rally on Independence Mall yesterday afternoon.

[KoKo]

1. I saw here in NC Thursday...Seeing her in person was incredible.

Also the Gold Star Mothers, and others who participated in the Gathering for Peace.

Folks were in tears...

[calimary]

2. I wish she could speech-write for some bigshot Democrat

because she's truly got it. She's got all the talking points, but for her they aren't some manipulated, consultant-crafted, focus-group-approved, calculated-to-offend-the-least pablum. They're direct from the heart, deeply felt, with intention and conviction. And they're genuine. Honest. Unimpeachable. And regardless whether some people agree with her, they have to concede that she speaks from the heart and she really, truly, means it.

She's authentic. Like a female Howard Beale from the 1976 movie "Network." She's her own version of "I'm Mad as Hell and I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore." SHE should be in office. SHE should be in a recognized, official, formalized leadership position instead of the eloquent uber-credible outsider/amateur status she has now.

Perhaps that's part of her authenticity. But the fact is, she's HERE NOW, ESTABLISHED NOW, ON THE MAP NOW. And she's saying the things our "representatives" SHOULD be saying. But they've all gotta be careful, don't they? She doesn't. That's why she's ignited such diehard loyal support in such increasing droves. That's why people are flocking to her. I'd certainly support anything she wants to do. Because she's saying the things I'd say, myself, if I had a platform like that.

She's a People's Leader. And I love her to pieces for it. It's just too bad it even had to come to this - where we need a lone voice crying in the wilderness, outside the city walls, giving a voice to how so many of us feel, because the insiders and the established people we're given to rely upon - don't speak out, and are afraid to make waves, and fail us repeatedly.

Cindy speaks for ME. And I support her completely and without hesitation. EVERYTHING she says is what I'd say. She's saying the things that need to be said, out loud, in public, and often.

Maybe that's why the bad guys hate her, and the bad-guy-in-chief is ignoring her for all he's worth, probably hoping that if he just ignores her long enough, she'll just go away and cease being a problem. You know, kinda like Katrina. Kinda like the warnings about what we later came to know as September THE eleventh. Kinda like the warnings about what we later came to know as the Iraq debacle. And so much more.

[saltara]

3. Cindy speaks from Camp Casey III in Covington, LA.

"A Bright Spot in Bush World"
September 16, 2005

"I got to Camp Casey III in Covington, La today, after getting up at 3am to head for the airport. Now it is 3am the next day and we are driving in a car to find a hotel to sleep anywhere around Jackson, Miss. I was prepared to be shocked by what I saw in Lousiana, but I guess one can never really fully prepare for such devastation and tragedy. After living in a country your entire life it is so difficult to see such callous indifference on an immense scale."

Read the whole article to find the "bright spot": the activists and die hards left in Algiers - a town of 70,000 which had no flooding but has dwindled down to 3,000. The Camp Casey people brought disaster relief to Algiers and found an organized group of activists there who have opened a clinic and food distribution center and are also attempting to bring food and medical attention to isolated communities.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/print.phl?id=503

Check the Michael Moore site for updates and ways you can help, as Veterans for Peace continue to reach out to communities like Covington and Algiers. Be patient as they work out logistics in what is still a crisis situation on the ground.

[saltara]

8. Correction for above link

Sorry, seemed to be working yesterday. Try this one:

http://michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=503

[Alpharetta]

4. Pentagon already admitted they should have had engineers ready

WASHINGTON - The commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Thursday that the service should have placed additional helicopters and mammoth sandbags in the New Orleans area to plug faltering levees before Hurricane Katrina hit.

"In retrospect I would say yes, we could have, we should have, in anticipation of this," Lt. Gen. Carl Strock said at a Pentagon news conference when asked whether the corps could have done more to mitigate the storm damage.

Prior to a hurricane strike on the city, Strock said, the corps typically pre-positions sandbags, generators and other gear but that not enough was available "to stop small problems before they become big problems, and that's essentially what happened here."

The corps also suffered from having too few engineers and technicians available once the city's mayor, Ray Nagin, ordered residents evacuated.

More at link
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12659635.htm

gee. I wonder where those engineers were?

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Nagin had sandbags ready

He knew that he was having problems with the 17th Street levee. He call HS/FEMA and asked them to send helicopters to drop the bags in order to try to save the levee. HS/FEMA said they would send him the helicopters but later on told him they had been diverted to another mission. Nagin knew then it would be too late to prevent the breach.

[truthisfreedom]

6. i like the new acronym on DU... MIWOP

make it worse on purpose.

[saltara]

7. Cindy Sheehan and Covington, Lousiana updates

Please spread the word that Michael Moore's site has an excellent "Covington Updates" section (Michael's staff and Veterans for Peace are there doing relief work) and that Cindy Sheehan is proving an excellent spokesperson and critic of the Bush administration's behavior in this continuing crisis (see her letter from Covington above). The link has been and is being made between the imperial war and the imperious methods by which evacuation and rescue operations were thwarted and disaster relief continues to be slow, maddeningly snarled in red tape, or non-existant.

In the face of this human tragedy and political calamity, volunteers and activists continue to work from places like "The Crawford Peace House" to get the word out on Katrina devastated communities and to help where help is needed: "Hot meals are being provided by a mobile kitchen set up by people affiliated with the Rainbow Gathering. 'Diamond Dave', a beat poet from Haight Ashbury in San Francisco is serving as our communications messenger to update on Waveland. He is traveling back and forth Waveland to Covington. Only way to communicate."

More about Waveland which is located on the western Mississippi coast (previous Covington updates here too):

http://michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php