High-tech goes into action in disaster zone - Science - MSNBC.com

High-tech goes into action in disaster zone - Science - MSNBC.com: "The problems with the response to Katrina's devastation show that the technologies related to disaster relief — ranging from communications to rapid-response transportation to search-and-rescue techniques — are sorely in need of an upgrade, said Lois Clark McCoy of the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue.

'It does no good to shoot this group of sitting ducks and put in a new batch of sitting ducks,' McCoy said, referring to the political finger-pointing already well under way. 'The problem is not the people, the problem is the system. We have to redesign the system for catastrophic events.'"

By SIMON WINCHESTER :Before the Flood -

~~ In 1906 --- during a time when the

telegraph & telephone where young ,

and still more rare than common---

--- the emergency response to the

San Fancisco earthquake

is a model for

what could have been

in New Orleans 2005.

Mr. Bush there are no excuses.

Our modern system of digital instant communication ,

proved useless,

in the fumbling hands of your Administration.

The big mystery now is whether you Mr. Bush

even understand your failure.

If you do ,

just 'fess up.

It is the only way to re-gain any respect at home and abroad.

I can forgive my President's mistake.

But now I live with the horror of my

President under delusions

that nothing more could have been done.

~~ ~ TP

===============

"Before the Flood"
By SIMON WINCHESTER
Sept . 8, 2005


THE last time a great American city was destroyed by a violent caprice of nature, the response was shockingly different from what we have seen in New Orleans. In tone and tempo, residents, government institutions and the nation as a whole responded to the earthquake that brought San Francisco to its knees a century ago in a manner that was well-nigh impeccable, something from which the country was long able to derive a considerable measure of pride.

This was all the more remarkable for taking place at a time when civilized existence was a far more grueling business, an age bereft of cellphones and Black Hawks and conditioned air, with no Federal Emergency Management Agency to give us a false sense of security and no Weather Channel to tell us what to expect.

Nobody in the 'cool gray city of love,' as the poet George Sterling called it, had the faintest inkling that anything might go wrong on the early morning of April 18, 1906. Enrico Caruso and John Barrymore - who both happened to be in town - and 400,000 others slumbered on, with only a slight lightening of eggshell-blue in the skies over Oakland and the clank of the first cable cars suggesting the beginning of another ordinary day."

InformationWeek > Microsoft Internet Explorer > FEMA Aid Site Blocks Access To Firefox, Macs, Linux Users > September 7, 2005

~~ F. E. M. A.
A Division of
the United States of Mircosoft, Inc.~
~
TP
---------------

"FEMA Aid Site Blocks Access To Firefox,
Macs, Linux Users"
Sept. 7, 2005

By Gregg Keizer
TechWeb News

"Users looking to file claims online for government help must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later with JavaScript enabled."

"That blocks everyone running Linux, Apple Macintosh computers, and Windows users running alternate browsers such as Firefox or Opera."

Missouri Sues Web Site Purporting to Raise Funds - New York Times

~~ Cyber-fruadsters sprout like

mushrooms after a hurricane.~` TP
------------

"Missouri Sues Web Site Purporting to Raise Funds"
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
September 7, 2005

"The Missouri attorney general, Jay Nixon, filed a lawsuit this afternoon against InternetDonations.org, the hub for a constellation of Web sites erected over the last several days purporting to collect donations for victims of Hurricane Katrina."

"Also named in the lawsuit, Mr. Nixon said, is the apparent operator of the donation sites, Frank Weltner, a St. Louis resident and radio talk show personality with ties to neo-Nazi organizations and the notorious Web site JewWatch.com."

"Killed by Contempt "- By PAUL KRUGMAN

~~Katrina will seal Bush's fate in history as fluke
President. A simple minded President's son and Senator's grandson , who was in above his head from the moment the Supreme Court elected him `

In the wake of G.W. Bush's tenure , there is a failing war that 100% his baby, and now maybe as many as 10,000 dead Americans who died for no cause under his -- lack of action -- command. ~~
~
~ TP

===============

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: September 5, 2005

"Killed by Contempt "

"Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized."

"Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients."

"Several recent news analyses on FEMAs sorry state have attributed the agency's decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters...."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/opinion/05krugman.html?ex=1126065600&en=f89efac00ecce23e&ei=5070

After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game - New York Times

~~ it seems clear that much has gone wrong.

And all signs point to a FEMA gutted by the Bush Team.

FEMA --[ like NASA ]-- used to be a " always can-do" agency.

Katrina has made the Bush Administration FEMA look impotent ~`

~ ~ ` TP

"After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game"

By SCOTT SHANE

This article was reported by Scott Shane, Eric Lipton and Christopher Drew and written by Mr. Shane.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 -
"'We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water,' said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. 'They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart.'

Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans expressed similar frustrations. 'We're still fighting over authority,' he told reporters on Saturday. 'A bunch of people are the boss. The state and federal government are doing a two-step dance.'"

www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05blame.html?hp&ex=1125979200&en=755e637e66f8b02f&ei=5094&partner=homepag

e.thePeople : Article : What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret?

~` Yes, Totalitarianism works well in War and emergencies.

["Mussolini made the trains run on time" is the classic pol-sci quote.]

We must remember that our freedoms come with a price.

Today that price is
a President who is grossly under
qualified to handle emergencies.

{ Anyway , I though that is why we had Cheney as Veep,
to handle the hard stuff !}

==============

"What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret?"
posted 09/04, by bocamp22 http://www.e-thepeople.org/article/41632/view

Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, 'the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go.'

'Cuba's leaders go on TV and take charge,' said Valdes. Contrast this with George W. Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina. The day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Bush was playing golf. He waited three days to make a TV appearance and five days before visiting the disaster site. In a scathing editorial on Thursday, the New York Times said, 'nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.' "

e.thePeople : Article : What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret?: "

----------

By MAUREEN DOWD: "United States of Shame"

~~~ The first

line of this piece is a Grand

Slam sentence ~` TP

=======================

September 3, 2005
United States of Shame
By MAUREEN DOWD

"Stuff happens.
And when you combine limited government with incompetent government,
lethal stuff happens."

CBS News | Not A Time For Partisan Sniping | September 1, 2005 09:00:05

~~ I agree with the below's headline.

This is a time for the noblest of human qualiites, not political cheap shots.

For a least a week I would like to only see the best

non-partisan face our politicians can muster.
~~

~` ~ technopolitical.com

========================

CBS News |

"Not A Time For Partisan Sniping"

| September 1, 2005 09:00:05:

"This event is frankly too big to have opinions about. All I can think to do is point to one of my all-time favorite college quotes: 'Think of destiny,' the Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius wrote in the second century, 'and how puny a part of it you are.'
"

BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Thousands dead' in New Orleans

BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Thousands dead' in New Orleans

New Orleans Facing Environmental Disaster

~Hurricane Katrina is a terrible blow. Over 50 confirmed deaths, with the toll expected rise.

May the recovery be speedy and may Heaven offer comfort to those who have lost loved ones ~ ~
~ technopolitical ~~

-------------------------------------------

New Orleans Facing Environmental Disaster
- By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
Monday, August 29, 2005

(08-29) 18:23 PDT , (AP) --

As Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on Monday, experts said it could turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/08/29/national/a055207D61.DTL
©2005 Associated Press

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “For They That Sow the Wind Shall Reap the Whirlwind”

~~ Mr. Kennedy ,it might be deemed insensitive by some to raise this point [below] now.

It looks like you are politicizing the tragedy , even though you are factually correct in your comments ~~ tp

------------------------------
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Mon Aug 29, 7:05 PM ET

"As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2."


www.StopGlobalWarming.org

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