Archive for the ‘Disasters’ Category

IF, I am going to donate any funds towards a disaster or human calamity I always donate through a charity I trust. Aside from not trusting the Red Cross I also would absolutely NEVER trust the Hollywood bimbos raising money through a live concert. Why? Because they are self righteous idiots who believe in the wrong charity groups (mainly non-religious charities or NGO’s).

Here’s a prime example from the TimesOnline (via Free Republic):

Live Aid donations ‘were diverted to arm Ethiopian rebels’

Aregawi Berhe, the former military commander of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), claimed that of the $100 million that went through the rebels’ hands, 95 per cent was diverted to buy weapons or recruit Ethiopians to their cause. He said the rebels put on a “drama” to get their hands on the relief money. “The aid workers were fooled,” he said.

Oh and btw, the United Nations is the last group of corruptocrats I would trust along with USAID. They accomplish nothing but fattening up their own pockets.

Ethiopia famine, Bob Geldof, Live Aid, NGOs

FUBAR – Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.

A story from the WSJ Online tells about the inability for NGO’s to get the food that is IN Haiti delivered to the people who are starving. As I had mentioned in a previous post, Obama put a USAID bureaucrat in the lead for disaster relief in Haiti. Here’s what has happened to distribution efforts when you have bureaucrats in charge instead of the military, especially in a 3rd world country.

Haiti Aid Efforts Go Awry in the ‘Convoy to Nowhere’

By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Scott Lewis hoped to deliver more than one million meals to Haitians on Wednesday via a 15-truck convoy brimming with beans and rice.

Instead, “It was the convoy to nowhere,” Mr. Lewis said. Well after dusk, the 52-year-old founder of a U.S. disaster-relief organization had barely delivered any food, other than some bags left at a missionary hospital, and a few more bags that got looted from the convoy as it crawled along crowded streets.

Trucks conked out. Communication with the U.S. military broke down. Traffic snarled the streets. Hungry crowds made handing out food unsafe.

It’s not typical for so much to go wrong on a major operation like this—in fact, on Thursday, the Army successfully delivered the cargo, in the largest single-day food distribution here. But a diary of Wednesday’s journey reads like an anthology of the obstacles stifling efforts to deliver aid since an earthquake turned the Haitian capital to rubble two weeks ago.

Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos for The Wall Street Journal:A relief worker stared into the night after the failed distribution effort.

Continue reading…..

Now you can to the list of FUBARs – Military Evacuation Flights Suspended

The New York Times reports today that U.S. military flights to evacuate Haitians who need urgent medical care have been stopped. Most of those flights were taking patients to hospitals in Florida for care which have quickly become saturated and overwhelmed. Governor Charlie Crist, in a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, has asked the federal government for financial help in providing that care.

Lucianne posted this story today (Jan. 31), one of the commenters confirmed my thoughts on this situation:

Reply 26 – Posted by: mrduc, 1/29/2010 12:55:58 PM (No. 6227404)

No, the problem is that there is no leadership, no direction regarding rescue and relief efforts coming from the White House. I have inside info from a neighbor who was in direct communication with the brass at the Pentagon regarding getting aid to Haiti, that there is nothing coming from obamao to the generals on how to tackle the problems there. 11000 troops were sent in, with no instructions on what to do first, next, where to set up, no relief plans, nothing. This general said the whole thing is a rudderless rescue sham and a farce. So our troops are plunked in the middle of this mess, each outfit pitching in as they can, where they see fit. A joke rescue effort led by a joke of a president. Hopefully things have improved since this neighbor spoke to the Pentagon a little over a week ago. Pray for our brave troops and the Haitians. Pray for obamao, Psalm 109v8. BTW, where’s the presstitutes screaming like they did after Katrina? Sobbing Shemp Smith, Wimpering Whorealdo, anyone???? Why no obamao bashing by the LSM or the Black Caucus or JJ or Al ‘Tawana Brawley’ Sharpton on this travesty?

It’s a rudderless relief effort because the bureaucrats are in charge!

Haiti, disaster relief, fubar, Obama, USAID, US Military

When the fuss started to come out on the whining by the French, American relatives(no link,heard and seen on Fox News) and Haitian’s I heard about this statement by Lt. Gen Honore and it all started to make sense. Typical Obama, put a bureaucrat in charge!

From USA Today:

The focus on security was criticized by retired lieutenant general Russell Honore, who led the military relief effort on the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Honore said the U.S. response has been too slow in part because the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has taken the lead, rather than the military. He said U.S. forces aren’t bound by as many rules and could have set up landing strips to deliver aid quickly.

“I say when you have people dying, getting food and water on the ground should end any talk of security,” he said.

Some helicopters did drop food in the capital, but it caused “a lot of chaos, fighting and scrambling for food,” said Maj. George Hood of the Salvation Army.

USAID chief Rajiv Shah said 130,000 “meals ready to eat” were handed out Saturday but the need was much larger. “We’re really trying to address it,” he said.

The waiting for aid to filter through Haiti was causing anger among some.

Do we really want our US troops working unarmed in Haiti?

Where are the Islamic/Arab countries in the Haiti relief effort?

2nd Quake strikes Haiti this morning.

Haiti, earthquake, Obama response, Lt Gen Honore

I think this is a really awesome or scarey (which ever way you want to look at it) from Bumpus Harley Davidson of Murfreesboro, TN last Friday.

The truly scary part of mother nature!

Murfreesboro TN, tornado, Bumpus Harley Davidson

This disaster occurred when I was out of state so all I had to go on was what flashed across the screen on CNN, MSNBC and FNC as my Father was controlling the remote. I kept trying to figure out which ‘coal’ company was responsible. I had to go online to KnoxNews to learn the truth. It was not a coal company it was the Federal utility TVA responsible for this disaster.

Have you noticed that the media just isn’t interested. There’s no 24/7 coverage as the media hyena’s usually do with a private industry type disaster. The Governor of Tennessee took 9 Days to visit the site! There was no condemnation of Tennessee Governor Bredesen for this lapse. I was incredulous the media had nothing to say about why it took Governor Lurch so long to get to East Tennessee.

It all ties in though to the media failure in reporting on this disaster. I still don’t understand but Business Media has an interesting take on the why.

Tennessee Sludge Spill: Government Disaster 30 Times Worse than Exxon-Valdez
Media ignore fact that New Deal utility is run by the government.

By Julia A. Seymour
Business Media Institute
1/14/2009 2:32:44 PM

A new, New Deal may very well be on its way, but one of FDR’s own New Deal creations, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), is in big trouble.

Federally-owned TVA, the nation’s largest utility, recently made headlines for spilling more than a billion gallons of “thick black� coal sludge that literally “swallowed� up homes as it spread out over hundreds of acres in eastern Tennessee. It destroyed three homes and damaged dozens, forcing evacuations just days before Christmas 2008.

snip……But news coverage on the three broadcast networks and three major newspapers barely mentioned that the TVA is under federal ownership – making this environmental tragedy the government’s fault and the taxpayers’ liability. Since Dec. 24, only 2 out of 18 (11 percent) newspaper reports in The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times admitted that fact. The ratio was slightly higher for the networks with 2 admissions out of 15 broadcast stories on ABC, CBS and NBC(13 percent).

Tennessee residents affected by two separate sludge spills, the huge one on Dec. 22 and a smaller one on Jan. 10, blasted the TVA.

snip…….Despite the government’s culpability, most of the news reports portrayed the disaster as a failure of the coal industry. They included left-wing environmentalists’ attacks on coal and calls for more regulation of the utility industry, instead of blaming the government for failing to police itself.

Coal, Not Government, Gets a Black Eye

The only rightful target for blame was the TVA itself which allowed the spill to happen, and the bureaucracy that failed to govern the government utility.

According to Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, five years ago there was a blowout of the wall of a “massive, above-ground coal ash landfill� at TVA’s Kingston plant. The TVA had to find a way to stabilize it’s sludge and according to state records and TVA documents, “top officials rejected solutions that were deemed ‘global fixes’� for that problem.

TVA’s CEO Tom Kilgore admitted to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that “the most expensive solution wasn’t chosen … Obviously, that doesn’t look good for us.� That solution would have cost the TVA $25 million – only $5 million more than the current estimate for cleaning up the mess and nowhere near as much as lawsuits might cost.

snip…..But a Tennessee policy group pointed out the underlying problem. Shaka Mitchell of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research addressed the TVA spill in a Jan. 7 op-ed. Mitchell wrote, “If there is one thing we can all learn from the disastrous toxic ash spill in Kingston, it’s that when government-run companies fail, no one is held accountable, but everyone pays.â€?

“Where’s the outrage? Where are the special hearings and calls for resignations?� Mitchell asked.

There certainly wasn’t outrage against government on the networks. Much like the 2008 coverage of another FDR creation, Fannie Mae, broadcast journalists criticized industry and called for more government intrusion rather than pointing out the failure of government.

In fact, one-third of the broadcast stories presented environmentalists’ attacks on the entire coal industry – as if a private industry had anything to do with the Tennessee disaster!

NBC “Nightly News� quoted a Union of Concerned Scientists spokesman condemning the “oxymoron� of clean coal on Dec. 24. CBS’s Mark Strassman said “the industry touts its cleaner product,� but turned to the same UCS critic for a rebuttal.

NBC even asserted Dec. 27 that the TVA spill was giving “the coal industry’s clean coal campaign a black eye.� But the spill should have given a black eye to the concept of government-run businesses.

snip…..TVA: Fact and Fiction

As William Chandler wrote in his book, The Myth of TVA, despite the folklore surrounding the New Deal experiment, incomes grew as fast or faster in neighboring non-TVA areas, and manufacturing, electrification and running water installation all progressed more slowly under the TVA than in those places. Chandler’s conclusions were cited in a report from the Northeast Midwest Institute (NEMW).

According to reports by NEMW, the government corporation has been in desperate need of reform for years.

In 2003, NEMW warned that TVA had accumulated billions of dollars in debt, was the “the nation’s worst violator of the Clean Air Act, and was virtually unaccountable. “Their decisions are not reviewed by state regulators or federal agencies,� wrote Dick Munson, then Director of NEMW. The TVA’s monopoly power also prevents them from being held accountable to market forces.

Two years earlier, in 2001, Munson wrote that “TVA is literally above the law. It is exempt from at least 137 federal statutes, ranging from workplace safety to hydroelectric licensing.�

TVA’s 1999 annual report explained who regulates its actions: “a Board of presidential appointees who are charged first and foremost with serving the public interest.�

Yet here we are in 2009 with another FDR wannabe entering office who is a purveyor of socialist policy. And just like in the 1930’s politicians (both Democrat and Republican) and media have lined up in lockstep behind this slide into Socialism.

After reading “The Forgotten Man” I realize this country is repeating the idiotic belief that government and not capitalism and the free market is the cure for this economy. Government intervention created this economy and more massive government intervention will only sink the US economy (and the world) further.

I’m not looking forward to WWIII to pull the United States out of a depression!

Obama, New new deal, The Forgotten Man, Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA, Great Depression, SCHIP, Reinvestment Act, TARP, TARP II, Gov Bredesen, Media Malfeasance

As I was driving back to TN on Dec. 31st I heard on the radio that Gov. Bredesen was finally visiting the TVA sludge spill in Roane County which occurred on Dec. 22nd. Let’s see that would make it 9 days for the Gov. Lurch to make it to East TN? Wow, now that is a conscientious Governor. Now the piranhas and ambulence chasers are gathering to get their chunk of the class action pie which will no doubt leave the families in need with their third of a gazillion dollar lawsuit of which should substantially raise electric rates for the rest of us since TVA will probably end up bleeding red for years to come. And Erin Brockovich is here for her slice of the pie and photo op! She’s just another parasite who feeds off of others misfortune.

Erin Brockovich plans visit to Roane spill site

Brockovich expects a class-action lawsuit to result from the TVA spill as well, but said she’s coming to provide information, not to recruit plaintiffs.

She said she’ll arrive in Roane County by next Wednesday to hold a public meeting with residents. Attorneys from the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg will accompany her. An exact date, time and place haven’t been set.

And the Libtards are already oohing and aahing that this ambulence chaser is coming to ‘help’ the people of TN. I got news for you, she’s coming for her own self aggrandizement and personal fortune. The only ones who come out of class action lawsuits satisfied are the lawyers and consultants. These homeowners will become victims and suckers all over again.

TN sludge spill, Roane County Tn, TVA Sludge spill, Erin Brockovich, Gov Phil Bredesen, Gov Lurch, class action lawsuits

The Williamson County Rec Center in Franklin, Tn volunteered to host ‘evacuees’ from New Orleans, LA when Hurricane Gustov roared into Louisiana. And how was this generosity repaid? It was repaid by trashing the Franklin Rec Center. Think about this, they closed the Rec Center for over a week, members either had to travel to another center or do without. The center is in the process of cleaning up the mess which might include more than cleaning the carpeting, some may need to be replaced. Doesn’t sound like much in the scheme of things, however, how willing do you think Williamson County will be in extending it’s generosity again to New Orleans or anyone else?

Most of the fitness instructors in the Williamson County Rec Center in Spring Hill are also fitness instructors at Franklin. They started talking about the problems on early last week. Today I heard more about the trashing of the center. The first night these ‘guests’ arrived the Mapco station around the corner sold out of beer. There were fights and numerous visits by the police to the center. I don’t know the true extent of the damage since I’ve not read of any reports by the local media since I suppose this would be politically incorrect.

My sympathy lies with those non-trashy families stuck in with the degenerates and the employees who had to put up with the abuse of the trash that blew in from New Orleans. I’m wondering how MTSU survived their ‘guests’ from New Orleans. I also heard the police were called in there due to drug dealing from MTSU’s guests!

Williamson County Tn, Rec Center, Franklin Tn, New Orleans Refugees, New Orleans Evacuees, Trash

Michael Yon has a story about an American (not Michael) who traveled by boat through Myanmar/Burma. The story tells the horror and shows the horror with photos. These photos can be graphic! As you would expect from a dictatorial regime, nothing has been done to assist the people of Burma yet these survivors are resilient.

One of the interesting notes from the American writing this is what the Burmese survivors want – GUNS!!!!! Yes, they want guns (even though some don’t know how to use a gun) to protect themselves from this military junta. Another interesting thing is the expectation that the United States would be there to help them. That’s what is asked at each stop, will the US be able to come in and help.

Funny how that works isn’t it. This is a tragic story about an oppressed country.

Journey Into Darkness

New Orleans’ recovery is the picture of what happens when you have a culture entrenched in corruption with a welfare entitlement mentality.  There is no one to blame other than themselves and I’m tired of hearing them whine.  When you have people who continually re-elect corrupt officials they get what they deserve. 

Here’s a commentary where the writer admits to the corruption and failures but still wants to blame others expecting “someone” to fix decades of this entrenchment.  If I was the head of an insurance company I wouldn’t cover the area either.  Local  and state officials want to rebuild (with my tax dollars of course) in an area doomed to be flooded again.  Corruption will once again fail to properly build levees and damns yet these officials have the audacity to blame President Bush.  When Louisiana does have a competent politician (Rep. Bobby Jindahl) what do they do?  They smear and spread lies through commercials about him.  Hopefully the entrenched Democrats won’t succeed in their smear tactics and the people in Louisiana outside of New Orleans will prevail to elect a politician who is competent and untainted.

Editor: Pay Heed to New Orleans’ Plight

snip….Nearly two years later, New Orleans is neither better nor stronger, and a bureaucratic stranglehold is choking off its recovery.

From a tinted window 25 stories above the New Orleans business district, I can see the city rotting from the inside out.

Across the street, Dominion Tower, once bustling with office workers and sprinkled with upscale retailers, is abandoned.

The adjacent Hyatt Hotel, where Super Bowl, Sugar Bowl and NCAA Final Four fans relaxed, also is empty.

Rows of camouflaged Humvees wait in a nearby parking lot for the military police who patrol lawless neighborhoods.

Just out of sight are wastelands where people live in cramped trailers or try to rebuild as best they can.

The only attention the city gets these days is as a campaign prop for some of the presidential contenders.

Among citizens, there is anger. There should be. For those who see New Orleans as someone else’s agony, a caution: This kind of governmental and political nonchalance could greet you at your most dire moment.

The main program to help homeowners rebuild from Katrina – the $8 billion federally funded, state-administered and inaptly named Road Home – is going broke and may be short as much as $4 billion. Public schools, firehouses, police stations and transit routes are closed. Hospitals have not returned to normal capacity, and those that are open say they are losing millions of dollars providing medical care for the poor. There is little political will to build a levee system that would prevent the kind of flooding Katrina caused.

snip…If Katrina was the perfect storm, New Orleans was the perfect victim. Political corruption and incompetence in city government and an anemic economy made the city as vulnerable to turmoil as the levees that failed.

Sadly, the situation has worsened, and many of the leaders New Orleans must count on are fading from the scene or mired in scandal.

snip….Perhaps taking cues from the leaderless, chaotic recovery, a crisis of confidence has tainted the local corporate contingent. Companies have heaped charitable contributions on the city, but some are pulling jobs out. There are murmurs that more may do so. Companies have a hard time getting executives to transfer here. Meanwhile, a University of New Orleans poll showed public sentiment is so bad that 29 percent of the current resident population may leave.

America should not allow New Orleans to die a slow death.

“No one in government has a true sense of the reality of what is happening here,” Powell observed.

A great American city is withering. The people with power must be made to care.

There are thousands of volunteers who have gone and continue to go to NOLA they aren’t leaving it to the government to fix everything. Maybe New Orleans needs to die in order to rise up and shake off the culture of corruption and welfare entitlement.

Technorati Tags: Katrina, NOLA, Corruption, welfare, incompetence, Bobby Jindahl, disasters

After I got past the initial news of the 35W bridge in Minneapolis my thoughts were this is what happens when you have a state that spends it’s highway funds on anything but roads and bridges.  Minnesota has a billion dollar light rail which runs at a deficit every year.  And like Congress they love to spend road funds on interpretive centers, biker paths, museums, convention centers, sports centers – anything but what the road funds are intended. 

Social engineering has long been the intent of the Socialist/Dhimmicrat party in Minnesota to starve drivers of their roads by not updating or building new roads.  The bridge collapse is just another example of what happens when you have Dhimmicrats running a state or city for decades – social programs are always more important than infrastructure.  Their only answer is to blame someone else and push to increase taxes on an already high tax state.

Technorati Tags: 35W Bridge, Minneapolis, bridges, infrastructure, politics, earmarks, pork spending, Dhimmicrats