Supplies for Katrina victims went to Mississippi agencies

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: CNN

BILOXI, Mississippi (CNN) -- Prisons in Mississippi got coffee makers, pillowcases and dinnerware -- all intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The state's Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks took more coffee makers, cleaning supplies and other items.

Plastic containers ended up with the Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration.

Colleges, volunteer fire departments and other agencies received even more.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/07/mississippi.katrina/index.html

[Lorien]

1. Just disgusting

this can't merely be incompetence. If it is, the entire government is in big trouble.

[Acadia Blue]

2. No suprise. Miss is republicon and racist just like most of the south.

I live in the south and these things are sop by the republicon party .

[pleah]

22. No surprise is right.

Corrupt politicians seem to be the norm down here.






A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
- Edward R. Murrow

[ashling]

3. Gulf CoastKatrina victims should remember the high esteem

in which they are held by their Rebooblican overlords
:hurts:

[RamboLiberal]

4. Heckuva job Haley

You want to read how Rove and Bush tried to screw over and blame Blanco for their screwups during Katrina while protecting their golden boy Haley check out the book Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove.

In a new book, "Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove," author Paul Alexander quotes Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and former Gov. Kathleen Blanco saying that Karl Rove, a top political adviser to President Bush, led a coordinated political attack of local Democrats in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit.

In the book, Landrieu and Blanco say that Rove manipulated New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and gave political talking points to GOP U.S. Sen. David Vitter in an effort to deflect blame for slow storm response away from Bush and the White House and onto Blanco.

"This book is obviously a political hatchet job. I guess I was using Rove's talking points when I publicly gave the federal response an F grade after Katrina hit," Vitter said in response to the comments in the book.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/book_quotes_landrieu_saying_ro.html

If Bush had not seen what was taking place by Tuesday, Karl Rove had. The first evidence of Rove's involvement in the Katrina disaster occurred on Tuesday afternoon. "Rove understood what a nightmare this was for the president," Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana says, "so he went into high gear on the spin thing they're so good at in the White House. Rove had David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana. I was at a press conference and David Vitter walked up to the mike and said, 'I just got off the phone with Karl Rove.' I looked at the governor and she looked at me, like, 'Why is David Vitter on the phone with Karl Rove?' I mean, he could have been talking to generals, the president himself, but Rove is just a political hatchet man."

Despite his expertise being politics, the administration had made Rove a central player in the handling of the disaster. "A light switch in the White House didn't get turned on without going through Rove," says Adam Sharp, an aide to Landrieu. "It was clear that Rove was the point person for the White House on this disaster."

That fact was proven precisely by what Vitter had done and said at the press conference. "As soon as Vitter said he had just gotten off the phone with Rove and other Republican officials," Landrieu says, "he started in on the first talking point to come out of the ordeal. I said to myself, 'Oh my God, I can't believe the White House has already given David Vitter talking points to talk about this.' We weren't going to blame anyone. We weren't going to blame the president. I mean, is there a Republican talking point for how to get people water? But that was Karl Rove."

Instead of supplying relief to the city, Rove had devised a scheme whereby he could blame the failure of government to take action on someone besides Bush. "They looked around," Landrieu says, "and they found a Democratic governor and an African American Democratic mayor who had never held office before in his life before he was mayor of New Orleans -- someone they knew they could manipulate. Ray Nagin had never held public office and here he was the mayor of New Orleans and it was going underwater."

http://www.salon.com/books/excerpt/2008/06/06/rove_katrina/

[ReadTomPaine]

21. If Mary Landrieu feels this way about Rove and Bush, then why does she kiss ass...

at every opportunity? These people tried to destroy her and Blanco, people died in the process, and Mary's response before, during and after is to vote with them on every major issue and cover for them every step of the way.

Sorry, I don't believe she cares one whit about her constituents or her party or for anyone but herself.. and she does a piss poor job at even that.

[pleah]

5. Hey, check out these pics.

http://www.photosfromkatrina.com/



http://www.mississippiheritage.com/HurricaneKatrina.html




Because we all know that Katrina did not hit Mississippi!
:eyes:

[uppityperson]

8. Yeah, all it did was flood New Orleans and did no damage anywhere else. k&r

:sarcasm: just in the really odd chance someone thought I was serious.

[crimsonblue]

11. man

I bet all those rich white people were just devastated that their cottages and southern plantations got wiped out... It's a good thing most of them had flood insurance, unlike most (or nearly all) of the people in the lower 9th ward....

[pleah]

13. You need to educate yourself.

These were not mansions. These were regular homes. The devastation went the entire length of MS coast. Yes most of the big old houses along the beach area were destroyed, but most were regular houses. I am not saying that New Orleans wasn't a tragedy, but ignoring that there was devastation is Mississippi is just stupid.


edit to add http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/v/biloxi_mississippi/

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Wrong!

I volunteered at a Lutheran-Episcopal relief center on the Mississippi Coast about five months after Katrina.

There were a few mansions along the coast, and they had already been repaired, for the most part. However, most of the beachfront property was hotels and restaurants, all of which were destroyed, as were the homes of the low-wage workers who kept those places running.

Five months after the storm, there were still people living in their cars or in tents.

At least I know that the food, clothing, school supplies, and medical care (doctors and nurses volunteered in a tent that reminded me of scenes from MASH) that we gave out went directly to local residents.

I have seen tornado damage in the Midwest. This was like 80 miles of tornado damage, 2 miles wide. I've never seen anything like it.

[uppityperson]

17. Very much like 80 miles of tornado damage, and flooding.

Yes, there were some expensive homes destroyed, but that happened in both MS and LA. Most of the homes were just people, many low income. It was like tornado damage, that went on and on and on and on and on, along with the storm surge flooding.

[Boo Boo]

24. I don't get your point here

The OP said that the supplies ended up in the hands of government institutions rather than in the hands of victims. Obviously, if the supplies weren't intended for victims in Mississippi they would not have been sent to Mississippi. The point of the OP is that people in these agencies were skimming relief supplies and keeping it for themselves.

I think everybody knows Katrina came ashore in Mississippi---at least I would hope that's the case.

[Ian David]

6. See also: Barack Obama isn't the only one who can fill a stadium.

Barack Obama isn't the only one who can fill a stadium. Republicans can fill a stadium, too!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6466448&mesg_id=6466448

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. I can't even imagine that.

I couldn't when it happened, and I still can't now. Yes, I can look at those photos, but to imagine the heat and the overcrowding and the rapidly declining sanitary conditions and all of the rest...to imagine that was going on, in the U.S.A., while Bush sucked cake off of his fingers and strummed his gee-tar, it's just too much for my brain to put together.



:patriot:

[Solly Mack]

7. Shameful

Criminal

[intheflow]

10. Two of my friends were interviewed in that article.

Sharon and Roberta. Roberta in particular must be outraged. Her agency runs a free supply distribution warehouse--if anyone knows the needs of people trying to rebuild their lives on the Mississippi Coast, it's Roberta. Fucking Barbour ought to be impeached right along with Bush and Cheney! :grr:

[KamaAina]

12. It's official! Haley Barbour is the most corrupt human being on the face of the planet

using a loose definition of "human being", that is. :grr: :banghead:

[hisownpetard]

14. Stomach churning. Will the people who showed such a wanton disregard for others' suffering

ever be punished?

Totally disgusting.

[pleah]

16. Ever wonder why the levee failed in

that particular area after the storm was over. This is something that has been bugging me about this whole 9th ward area. Maybe I need a tin foil hat.

I will NEVER forget the picture of the woman in the wheelchair that died and was covered with a blanket, or the woman with her child in her arms crying "he won't wake up". This was 3 days after the storm and they still had no water.

[uppityperson]

18. Those were when bush was on tv saying "all is fine", and then those pictures came on.

He lost a lot of supporters over that juxtaposition. "what people at what convention center" my ass.

That was when I called Bill Gates and asked him to buy a helicopter and go down and deliver water to people. I don't think he listened very well.

[YvonneCa]

19. CNN's TV coverage of this leaves a lot to be...

...desired. This morning it was all about blaming FEMA. I agree with many here that it's a bigger problem than that (Haley Barbour and Bush). I emailed CNN and posted about this earlier today:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3575356&mesg_id=3575356

[Bluebear]

20. Charming, a Haley Barbour grab-bag. nt

[hatrack]

23. Well, in the immortal words of Wolf Blitzer . . .

Those New Orleans refugees were "so poor, and so black", they probably wouldn't know what to do with all those coffee makers, plastic boxes and cleaning supplies.

Right, Wolf?