Ron Paul wants a party like its 1899

As Hurricane Irene barrels along the Atlantic Coast for maximum damage, Ron Paul says the nation would be much better off without FEMA and people in his district can get along just fine, like they did in 1900:

As Hurricane Irene barrels along the U.S. East Coast, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas said the nation would be much better off without the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"I live on the Gulf Coast. We put up with hurricanes all the time," the GOP presidential candidate told CNN after a New Hampshire campaign event Friday. "There's no magic about FEMA. More and more people are starting to recognize that."

Paul has long been a critic of the agency, which he calls a "great contributor to deficit financing."

With more than 7,600 employees, FEMA falls under the Department of Homeland Security and coordinates response efforts when disasters strike.

Citing the Galveston hurricane in 1900 that obliterated much of the Texas coast, the libertarian-leaning congressman said Americans were able to rebuild their cities and put up a seawall without the federal government's help.

"FEMA is not a good friend of most people in Texas," Paul said. "All they do is come in and tell you what to do and can't do. You can't get in your houses. And they hinder the local people, and they hinder volunteers from going in."

In 1900, six to eight thousand people were killed (how's that for "putting up" with a hurricane?) when a hurricane and tidal surge hit what would later be his district. One wonders how many would have died with the same type of hurricane if there'd been a national warning system and mandatory evacuations of dangerous low-lying areas and then efforts to keep people away from dangerous post-hurricane conditions.

The fascists from FEMA would probably have had the
gall to prevent children from walking around the
rubble following the hurricane that hit Galveston.

But I guess the mismanaged FEMA of the Bush43 era left an indelible mark in the minds of many people like Representative Ron Paul. It also underscores a general theme: Republicans are often very distrustful of government agencies because when they get control of them they muck it up. In all seriousness, there is a difference between effective government and incompetent government, and a good moderate (or Democrat) recognizes that and seeks to find the difference, while such Republicans as Ron Paul simply believe it's all bad and would just throw everyone to the proverbial wolves.

...

New Orleans lawlessness real or imagined?

The UK's Guardian has an article which points out that at least some of the stories of rape, murder, and other lawlessness are unsubstantiated and may be untrue.

Rumor may have been accepted as truth without verification, and the media went with such apocryphal stories as if they were verified, so the theory goes. In some cases, what was true in some places may have been assumed to be true in others.

To New Orleans residents who feel that, at best, their reputation has been sullied, and, at worst, help was slow in coming because an unsympathetic nation saw the chaos as something the Big Easy brought on itself, vindication would be of little comfort, even if the Guardian is right.

Even if the stories of massive violent crime are largely untrue, there is still the question of looting/finding food. When Los Angeles went up in smoke in 1992, many residents turned to looting out of anger and lamely justified excuses of getting even or "everyone else is doing it."

In New Orleans in 2005, many of the "looters" were about getting food, diapers, something to drink, dry clothes, or things that could be bartered for those necessities. How different would any of the rest of us be if we were put in that situation?

Katrina links

To my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

-- author Anne Rice

Anne Rice: What does it mean to lose New Orleans?

Los Angeles Times: Why FEMA was missing in action

Los Angeles Times: Bush's hurricane response a disaster

Paul Krugman in the New York Times: Killed by Contempt

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times: United States of Shame

Bob Herbert in the New York Times: A failure of leadership

Korean Red Cross fund for victims of Katrina

Ms. Eunhee Cho of the Korean Red Cross informs me that the Korean Red Cross has opened a special account for contributions to aid people affected by Hurricane Katrina. You can send donations directly to:
Woori Bank (우리은행) account #1005-300-981799.

They can be reached by phone at 02-3705-3663
or by fax at 02-3705-3667.

Upon request, they will send you a receipt of your donation.

On their Korean-language site, they list a number of items that can be donated to aid the victims, starting with cash:

- 현금
- 휴대식량
- 얼음과 물
- 발전기(100과 220 둘 다 가능하지만, 60헤르츠가 필요. 많은 국가들이 50헤르츠를 사용함에 주의)
- 방수천과 플라스틱판
- 침구류(시트, 베개)
- 의료장비(구급약품, 붕대, 목발, 휠체어; 조제약는 받지 않음)
- 생리대
- 유아식과 기저귀
- 냉방기
- 대형 천막
- 물류인원
- 지게차, 지게차 받침대, 기타 수송및 물류 공급품
- 수의사 물품
- 청소도구

UPDATE: At my suggestion, they provided a direct link to donation information on the English-language version of the site. Prior to that, the account information was only available in Korean.

Ten thousand?

Katrina, New Orleans, The Superdome and the Convention Center have been evacuated and today the 200-foot gash in the levee has finally been plugged, which will allow for water to be pumped back into Lake Ponchartrain. The slow process of drying out New Orleans has finally begun.

And the body count has begun in earnest. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who had warned that the death toll would be "in the thousands," told NBC's "Today Show" that, "It wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000."

Unimaginable.

It's my hope that this will become like 9/11, where initial casualty calculations proved to be on the high end, and we saw that once-presumed-dead people were actually alive somewhere else.

In the meantime, the Times-Picayune, Louisiana's largest newspaper, published an open letter to Bush, calling for the firing of every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

UPDATE:
As the collection of corpses gets into full swing, some are calling into question the "10,000" figure, saying it might end up being much lower. It's not sure if the death toll will be in the thousands or "just" in the hundreds.

Criticism over Katrina

I often think to myself that it would be very good if folks in the Korean government, both "progressive" and conservative, would read what is written over at Marmot's Hole. But now is a time I sincerely hope they aren't.

The usual suspects over at Marmot's Hole are falling over themselves looking a gift horse in the mouth, busying themselves with with speculation and innuendo in order to formulate an argument over why this gift is not a gift at all. There are even hints that Korea's efforts to help are racist because the Foreign Ministry seems only concerned about ROK nationals and (according to speculation) Americans who are ethnic Koreans.

I guess to some, Korea is a country that can do no right.

Yes, the FM is putting together a task force to account for ROK nationals, and that is where some money is going, but the fifty-person rescue team is going to be saving lives and finding bodies. At at time when those same might be needed here in Korea and perhaps nearby Japan thanks to Typhoon Nabi.

Well, it turns out that Koreans are not the only ones concerned about their citizens in the Gulf region (and after all, isn't that concern something a foreign ministry is tasked with dealing with?). Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and others in the region are all concerned. The Australian press reports that Australian media ended up saving some of their fellow citizens.

Picking on Korea for being concerned about its citizens is just going overboard. Is this not what the U.S. government did during the Bali bombings, the tsunami, or the attack on London? I'm not saying that Bush should get prostrate in front of Roh over this, since any aid should be purely humanitarian to begin with, but what good is it if Korea is in a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation?

UPDATE (4/29/2007):
Although this article doesn't specifically mention Korea, it says that "most of the [$854 million of foreign aid] went uncollected" by the Bush Administration. The Washington Post also reports that the Bush Administration was "turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars."

What a waste at a time when so many people were suffering and dying. I sincerely hope that this news doesn't get a lot of play in the press of those countries, including Korea, from where the aid was supposed to come.

A friend in need

The disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has humbled the United States and the world is responding with sympathy, much as they did after the 9/11 attacks. Even North Korea has expressed sympathy: the North Korean Red Cross said it hoped "the living of the inhabitants in the afflicted areas return to normal as early as possible." [Someone thought it would be funny to make up a mock story of a shipment of ecstasy and post it on OhMyNews.]

While many in the blogosphere have tried to paint South Korea as a U.S.-hating erstwhile ally of America, despite it being the U.S.'s second-largest "coalition partner" in Iraq (after the U.K.), the ROK government has stepped up to the plate with a promise of $30 million in aid to the refugees of Katrina. Perhaps as significant, the government will dispatch fifty rescue workers to assist the evacuation of thousands of people in New Orleans and surrounding areas as part of a government task force led by Vice Foreign Minister Lee Taesik. The same task force will seek to assist ROK citizens in the affected area.

Fifty rescue workers, emergency relief supplies, loads of money, and the Vice FM, sent at a time when Korea itself may still get hit by Super Typhoon Nabi. They even said they would consider a request for military assistance if Washington makes one.

I want to echo Marmot's suggestion that people send an email to let the Korean government know that this message of support was heard loud and clear:

Anyway, if you are reading this, I encourage you to send a message of appreciation to the Korean embassy in the United States at consular_usa@mofat.go.kr, or, perhaps even better, to the Korean consulate-general in Houston (con-hu@mofat.go.kr), which is handling the relief effort in the devastated areas.

I like that suggestion, and I have contacted the Korean Red Cross to see if there's a way to donate money directly from Korea.

Marmot added that "this is definitely one time that Korea’s support should not go unacknowledged." He is right that it should, but I don't know that it will. The NewsMax whackos on the right (who call this "the American tsunami") have been whining about how little courtesy the United States has received [HT: nsp], and it would be unfair to lump South Korea with other countries that did little or nothing, as Bush once did with Seoul's Iraq War contribution.

Not that Korea should be doing this for any reason other than humanitarian. Nevertheless, I think it's also notable that Kuwait has decided to donate $500 million in oil supplies and other aid. Kuwait and Korea (and perhaps impoverished Bosnia) stand out as a couple countries who owe their free existence in part to American blood.

As I suspected, however, there would be some in the blogosphere that just couldn't let this one go without taking a swipe at Korea. Comment #2 of that post:

However I think “beyond generous” might be a bit too strong. Especially when you consider how much money the US pisses away in Korea each year. Itaewon landlords alone overcharge the US government at least 30mil annually.
The US government should accept the money and do it graciously. Give Korea a nice thank you from Bush and the appropriate level political ass kissing. Though don’t expect much media attention, 30mil is a drop in the bucket and a story for page 17.

What lovely sentiment. By dismissing this so easily, in a few days the Korea bashers can go back to calling South Korea an ally of China and Japan the loyal friend of the United States.

Japan that is donating $200,000 in aid*, the one with the #2 economy.

*I'm not saying this to bash Japan, which is about to bear the brunt of Super Tyhpoon Nabi and may itself need help from the U.S., Korea, and other neighbors; I'm only trying to illustrate that despite some differences with Washington over policy, Seoul does seem to have a sense of responsibility to its allies, regardless of what its detractors want to believe.

"As ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine."

The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, `Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, `And yeah, Momma, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday' — and she drowned Friday night. She drowned on Friday night.

-- a strained and weeping Aaron Broussard said, Jefferson Parish LA president, on NBC's "Meet the Press"

That's the beginning of a disjointed post. It's a quote that I thought sums up, as best anything can, just what the hell is going on. Or not going on.

What kind of country is this? What kind of government do we have that can't properly channel its resources to a major city within hours of a known disaster to care for and evacuate its residents? Warming oceans may or may not be responsible for an increase in violent super-hurricanes and typhoons, but it is humans alone that are responsible for what is done or not done in the aftermath.

America is doing some deep soul-searching as the Bush Administration does damage control about how the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association) dropped the ball over and over again. People are angry.

Is it fair to blame the President or his administration? They certainly didn't cause the category-5 Hurricane Katrina? Even if they had been poised to immediately step in to rescue those who couldn't or wouldn't leave, there still would have been dozens or even hundreds of deaths.

But we don't have dozens of deaths. Secretary of Health & Human Services Michael Leavitt told CNN, "I think it's evident [the death toll]'s in the thousands." The thousands.

The thousands.

AP reports that "bodies are everywhere: floating in canals, slumped in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways and medians, and hidden in attics."

And then there is the ugly question of race. There's the now-infamous photo descriptions of a White couple "finding" bread and soda and a Black man "looting," even though they were engaged in the the exact same activity.

Jodi at AsiaPages read an article by a Donga Ilbo reporter and was angered that the Korean reporter seemed to be gratuitously inserting race into an already volatile situation, but the fact is that America is abuzz with such talk. Not only in the blogosphere and the news media, but even on fundraising programs.

Did the criminal negligence that occurred happen because of a disregard for the mostly poor, Black residents of the affected areas? As Kanye West put it, does George Bush not care about Black people?

My own personal opinion is one shared by New Orleans Mayor Nagin, that this is a class issue, not a race issue. It just happens to be that the vast majority of poor in New Orleans are Black, especially given that two-thirds of the entire population (poor and not poor) is Black.

The evacuation plans drawn up by the Feds and other powers that be assumed people had personal transportion to get out. The poor of New Orleans--Black, White, and otherwise--didn't have that luxury and they were left to fend for themselves.

I don't know if a lack of decisive action after that had anything to do with the fact that the stranded victims were poor and/or Black. Were some people thinking, "Why should I care? Those people should have evacuated when they were told to!"

Ultimately, the lack of preparation may be less a symptom of class issues or race issues and just due to plain old government negligence. In early 2001, FEMA wrote up a category-5 hit on New Orleans as one of its top-three disaster scenarios, along with a terror attack on New York City and a major quake in San Francisco. The Army Corps of Engineers had been saying the levees needed major work. New Orleans and Louisiana had asked for the money. The Bush Administration apparently cut the funding however, to make money for tax cuts and the War in Iraq, according to some critics.

Then Bush with his smug little grin gets up and says, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

You don't think, Mr. President.

America as a third-world country

I am a native-born United States citizen and I am proud of what my country has accomplished. But I am not a jingoistic flag-waver, and I must admit that there are times when I am aghast at what is done in America or in the name of America.

The now-infamous events surrounding the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is one such thing. Who could imagine that such lawlessness, break-down of social order, and utter disregard for the lives of others could occur in such a rich nation with such a long history of democracy?

Both sympathizers and critics alike are looking at the United States as if it's a third world country. Newspapers in the U.S. are saying the affected region is in a state of anarchy. A Kuwaiti government minister supposedly said that Katrina was punishment by Allah.

The worst of the stories claim that there is rape and murder going on amidst the chaos. Thousands of people have been left stranded and without food or drinkable water.

It could be three months before the entire city is pumped dry.

Lots of people--Dems and GOPers alike--are blaming the President, who finally toured the region and brought aid with him. To his credit, he admitted that relief efforts indeed sucked ("not acceptable" were his words).

At least one Bush supporter, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, disingenuously tried to deflect criticism of the Feds (and thus Bush) by suggesting the hurricane was a surprise that caught everyone off-guard. In response to a question asking if the federal government had dropped the ball, Barbour replied:

I really don't. And I think it's very unfair for the federal government, for you to say we knew this was a great powerful storm. This was a category-1 hurricane when it hit Florida. Now that's the truth.

Well, that's part of the truth. This was, in fact true at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, August 25. But it is entirely misleading of Barbour to bring that up without explaining that the next day, Friday, August 26, the National Hurricane Center predicted Katrina would become a major hurricane as it moves away from the Florida Keys and into the Gulf of Mexico where it would almost certainly pick up steam.

By the end of Friday, Katrina was a category-2 hurricane, and by 5 a.m. Saturday, it was a category-3 hurricane. By 2 a.m. on Sunday it was a whopping category-4 hurricane, and by 7:30 it was a category-5. At this point it was 400 kilometers from the Gulf Coast around Louisiana and Mississippi. Three hours later, at 10:30 a.m., the mayor of New Orleans ordered mandatory evacuation of residents.

The next morning the hurricane makes landfall again, not far from New Orleans. This is three days after the former category-1 hurricane Barbour talked about was predicted to be a major storm and two days after it actually became a category-3.

This all is a tragedy. Even if evacuation had gone as planned, there would still be many deaths and billions of dollars in damage. While I don't think it deserves the "American tsunami" label some have used (even if thousands died due to Katrina, that is just 1 or 2 percent of the tsunami's death toll), it is something that will have put a major scar on our country's economic and social fabric.

I send a prayer out for all those who have suffered or lost their lives, and their loved ones who remain.