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Katrina: More (PDX) Heroes

Continuing the theme of what's right with America, since there's plenty enough being said (albeit correctly) about what's wrong:

--Out of the boredom kids are surely experiencing after two weeks without any kind of stability in their lives, comes "Katrina's Kids," a project whose mission only begins with giving kids stuck in the Astrodome something to do.  The artwork being created is also being stitched into quilts and other items by evacuees, in hopes of raising money to defray relief costs. And by letting kids express what's on their minds via art, some good therapy is taking place.

--from Blue Oregon comes a piece written by Commissioner Randy Leonard, detailing the efforts of Portland firegfighter Rene' Pizzo, someone I know and work with professionally. How Rene' got into New Orleans when so many of our firefighters are stuck handing out fliers, I don't know. But bless her for getting there. Randy is right on in his assessment of her character, IMO.

--Finally, I'll reprint in entirely the message on Friday from Mayor Potter. It turns out that most of Portland's efforts to receive evacuees won't be needed, but the preparatory response was overwhelming and heartwarming:

Office of Mayor Tom Potter
City of Portland
Sept. 9, 2005

Dear Portlanders,

I had just finished a tour of the airport hangar where volunteers were busily preparing to greet as many as 500 citizens displaced by Hurricane Katrina on Friday afternoon when word came that it was unlikely they would be coming at all.

Being inside the hangar made me so proud to be a Portlander.  Boxes of warm clothes were set out in anticipation, and a brightly-colored play area to entertain children was being readied. There were warm showers and a dining area, and over in one corner a small army of wheelchairs stood ready if needed – a stark reminder of how many special needs some of our guests would bring with them.

All of this reminded me once again of the remarkable generosity I have seen pour out of our community in the days since it was announced that Oregon had agreed to welcome Katrina’s survivors.

Over the past week, folks in our community have stepped forward to ask how they could welcome our guests. Others wanted to know what they could donate. Churches organized fundraisers. Portland’s business community gave free computers, phone service, clothing and school supplies. Others allowed employees to donate their time as volunteers. Trimet was ready to alter bus schedules and give out free passes. Some simply called with an offer to open up their homes to total strangers.

To each of you who gave your time, who made a donation, who offered to help in some way no matter how small, I want to say thank you.  Thank you on behalf of the survivors of this tragedy, who will still need the support of each of us to regain their footing.  Thank you on behalf of all Portlanders – your generosity is what makes our city so special.  And thank you from me and my family.

While our immediate help may not be needed now, there have been important lessons we have learned from all the preparation done this week that will make our city better prepared for any emergency we may someday face.

First, and most important, is the reminder that anything we do is made stronger by involving our whole community at the beginning of the process. No one knows our neighborhoods better than the people who live in them.  Their voices must always be heard.

Second, state, county and city officials have been reminded how much more we can accomplish when we collaborate and cooperate with each other.  Over a few harried days, we have had a chance to see the incredible resources and dedicated staff available to keep our region secure, as well as the shortcomings and work that still remains to be done.  In the weeks ahead, all of us involved in keeping our community safe will study what worked and what didn’t, and make new efforts to improve.

Last, I want us to see how we can take the energy and collaboration that orchestrated this remarkable effort, and turn it toward solving some of the pressing needs in our own community.  Imagine what we can accomplish toward ending homelessness, for instance, with the same drive and determination we have shown this week.

But that work lies ahead of us. Today, I just want to give thanks for living in a city filled with people with such warm hearts and generosity.

Again, thank you.

Tom Potter
Mayor

--TJ

Heroes of Katrina

Man. I had a fairly lengthy post detailing all of the heroic acts of perserverance, faith and kindness to fellow men in this story about a rescue of 240 medical patients and evacuees of Katrina, headed up and paid for by Al Gore. Clicking the link toolbar in Firefox instead of the tab for the TPM Cafe source detailing the rescue, I lost all of it.

I urge you to read through this fascinating account of how the rescue was put together, and if you can get past the anger at the simply absurd number of times federal officials and military personnel tried to stop this from happening, concentrate on all the people who did selfless things with no hesitation. Notice all the people who contributed to literally saving scores of lives, without seeking remuneration or publicity.

Chief among them was Tennesseean and former VP Albert Gore, Jr., who continues to refuse interviews related to the rescue. He repaid the doctor who operated on his son after a serious car accident, and allowed the doctor to save many more lives in gratitude. He put his own skin in the game with sweat and money. And didn't want the credit.

I choke on the comparison to the current resident of the White House.

--TJ

The O on Katrina: Some Gets It, Some Don't Gets It

Although story after story of various officials' perfidy continues to seep out of the blogosphere, as far as laying blame and recounting the various horrors of last week goes, I'm done with it. Oh, it's certainly interesting to note that FEMA head Mike Brown fudged pretty much all of his resume' prior to getting the nomination (hat tip Goldy), and the bizarre but by now no longer shocking insults to injury pile on top of each other faster than they can be cleared away.

But I think it's wise to start thinking about the larger pictures. What did the disaster and its response say about us as a nation? What did it tell us about our prevailing views of government, and how did we react as people to the suffering and burgeoning outrage? How should we view other threats to our security and well being, in light of Katrina? What role did our media play, and was it an awakening of conscience or simply a nose for an obvious story? Some of the stories have been good, and obviously many others have not.

In the Oregonian this morning I realized that some folks are beginning to think along those lines, others have been thinking that way even before the hurricane--while still others have seemingly crawled even further into their confining boxes. Category A was represented by columnist Steve Duin, who I confess I tend to discount as one of those hometown feature writers whose very existence defines the word 'parochial.' Not today, although he relies heavily on inspiration provided by a member of Category B:

Because he was at least eight months ahead of the storm, rising on Capitol Hill in January to warn Congress that New Orleans was painfully unprepared for a catastrophic hurricane, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., gets first crack this morning at one of the more important questions floating in the debris:

Will Katrina finally force Americans to reassess our bearings, our expectations of our leaders and our belief in the role of government?

"I think this puts the spotlight on far more than just disaster relief," Blumenauer said Wednesday. "It's about our priorities, how we operate, the role of the federal government and our responsibility to one another. When you see pictures of Americans who you might think were in Bangladesh, I think it gets through to the American public."

It's about time...When you go back and reread the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, it's amazing how many of the words -- "union," "common," "general," "domestic tranquility" -- assume we're all in this together. And that's true. We are. If government is helpless, the rest of us can't be far behind.

Stuck on the back bench of a dispossessed minority team and perhaps caricaturized by his rather archaic dress and mannerisms, Portland's Blumenauer tends to be little noticed as an influential member of the City's political core. But how many other Congressional representatives would spend time worrying about the safety of citizens half a country away, who have no option to vote for him? Aside from highlighting Blumenauer's almost scary prescience, Duin is smart to frame the enduring value of Katrina in terms of how we see our political interrelationships. Good government is merely an institutionalized expression of one citizen's concern for another, and the currently espoused level of concern being expressed at the federal level is akin to the Internet joke about owning cows in a Republican system: You have two cows; your neighbor has none. So?

While I may have developed a newfound respect for Duin, it's same old, same old for David Reinhard. Apparently having received his copy of the GOP talking points by Fed Ex over the weekend, Reinhard masterfully lays out the meme that now is not the time for partisanship--but by the way, make sure you notice that it's the Democrats' fault, not Bush's:

Many of our compatriots, it seems, have jumped to their pre-Katrina battle stations in the storm's wake. You might think a natural disaster of this magnitude might prompt some fresh thinking or a sense of proportionality. You might think all the death and devastation would usher in a truce in our political wars, at least while others are out saving lives, clean up and burying the dead...

Yes, it's important to figure out what Bush's federal government might have done better, but the "Bush-administration-is-to-blame" crew ignores the actions of New Orleans and Louisiana officials with front-line responsibilities. Why did Bush have to urge New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to order an evacuation early on? Why wasn't busing providing for people who made it to the Superdome, since they learned a year earlier in Hurricane Ivan that this was needed? Why did the city's buses remain parked? Why wasn't the Superdome stocked with supplies in the absence of busing? Why did the locals fail to implement their own emergency plans? Why didn't state officials allow the feds and first responders in sooner?

The failure to even focus on these questions suggests some critics are uninterested in a balanced exploration of the issues. They're only blame-gaming.

It took a few paragraphs, but out came the phrase highlighted in green and circled twice on his FedEx-ed copy: "blame game." I wish I had either the stomach or the energy to thoroughly fisk this lazy bit of editorialism; I'll supply only one example: Bush never talked to Nagin about a mandatory evacuation, and his supposed begging of Blanco occurred just minutes before the already-scheduled press conference announcing the evacuation was to begin.

But it's not the horrible fact checking or the narrowly twisted arguments that bug me (for now), it's the immoral equivalency argument: because mistakes may likely have been made at ALL levels of government, the top layer and ultimately the person whereupon the buck stops are somehow exonerated from real criticism. When somebody starts a grill by dousing it in gasoline and lighting it, minimizing responsibility by blaming the person who left the propane on is extraordinarily weak. There's no shortage of blaming in Duin's column, it's true. But notice that he is not trying to distract from highlighting other parties who may share the blame; he's recognizing that in the end, this is less about a poor response to a major disaster, and more about the entire culture of government and how it prioritizes its responsibilities.

As a final aside while you think about what kind of general welfare you'd like to see promoted, semi-famous baseball writer/statistician Rob Neyer had a letter published today, having nothing whatever to do with baseball:

Rebuilding what's been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina will cost upward of $100 billion; perhaps much, much upward. How will we pay for it? Will we forgo more tax cuts for the incredibly wealthy, and more legislative pork for the states and districts of powerful congressmen? Will our elected leaders encourage energy conservation? Or will we instead avoid even the appearance of shared sacrifice, and send the bill for reconstruction to our children and grandchildren in the form of an even larger budget deficit? Based on what we've seen in the last five years, I'm not optimistic.

ROB NEYER
Southeast Portland

Amen, Rob.

--TJ

 

GOP on $ for Katrina: Waive Union Hiring Rules

Ah, finally we're seeing words about common sacrifice and committment to our national defense, coming from the US Congress:

Rep. Randy Cunningham (news, bio, voting record), a California Republican who also serves on the House Appropriations Committee, told Reuters after the meeting that conservatives fretted about the huge relief costs with "more storms (gathering off the southern coast), the Iraq war and health care" costs that are rapidly escalating for the federal government.

Cunningham said that none of those Republicans suggested scaling back costly tax-cut proposals they have advanced for the past few years. Instead, he said they urged the Bush administration to look at ways to save on Gulf Coast reconstruction by waiving rules requiring union laborers for upcoming federal contracts.

Of course, you may recognize the name if you're an astute newsreader, or you're a fan of TalkingPointsMemo.com--this is the infamous "Duke Cunningham,"  currently awash in an influence-peddling scandal.

So tax-cuts--that we can afford. But following through on promises to pay reconstruction workers a fair wage...I guess that's not important.

Also in this story is news that an amendment by Rep Obey (D-WI), put forth in the bill to reassign FEMA as an independent agency of Cabinet rank:

Rep. David Obey (news, bio, voting record) of Wisconsin, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, had a broader goal of restructuring the embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency that is overseeing the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Obey said he would offer an amendment to the emergency spending bill to restore FEMA's status as an independent, Cabinet-level agency and require that its director have substantial experience in disaster relief. In a post-September 11 shake-up, FEMA became part of the new Department of Homeland Security.

"The problem is the agency we are appropriating money to has demonstrated with great clarity that it is spectacularly dysfunctional," Obey said on the House floor.

But his amendment was expected to be blocked by the Republican leadership, which wants to pass the bill quickly, especially with Vice President Richard Cheney touring Mississippi on Thursday.

Anything to help Dick Cheney get back in the game and look effective, I suppose.

So what's the meme?

• GOP Congresspeople are balking at what Katrina relief will cost
• The 800-lb gorilla in the room--the idiocy of sustaining Iraq's costs indefinitely--appears invisible to them
• In order to save the country money, the working class will need to tighten their belts

Nice.

-TJ

WaPo: Blame Bush for the "State of Emergency" Error

Briefly:
As noted by Josh over at TalkingPointsMemo, the Washington Post blithely and assumingly reported last week that a "senior Bush official" told them LA goobernor Blanco had failed to issue a state of emergency for Katrina, and that's why things at the federal level got so delayed. They did issue a correction the same day that report was filed, but without any acknowledgement of whether they misunderstood the official, or whether they were simply being spun.

Today's "Washington Sketch" by Dana Milbank takes a half-step towards the latter explanation:

The normally adept White House has had trouble settling on a message over the past week. Officials have condemned the "blame game" even as they point fingers at state and local authorities. They have made public assertions -- that nobody anticipated a levee breach and that Louisiana did not declare a state of emergency -- that turned out to be flat wrong. [emph mine]

This characterization doesn't really assign motive to the assertion--whether it was a lie or just the ignorant provision of faulty info--but the fact that Milbank lumps it together with the absurdly untrue idea that they had no way of knowing that levees might breach, suggests that in his opinion both statements were an attempt to skew reportage based on false concepts. What it does rule out, however, is the Post simply not understanding their source correctly.

As Josh has suggested, the fact that this "senior official" gave them bum info, and appears to have done it intentionally, should free The Post from their pledge of confidentiality. If you're holding your breath waiting for that, I suggest you exhale as a matter of self-preservation.

Update 1230pm--
Over at Media Matters they were pissed enough about the use of anonymously wrong sources to send a letter to the Post's ombudsman yesterday. If you click the link you'll see an email link for him--Mr. Michael Getler. Perhaps you'd like to ask him the same question yourself...

--TJ

Katrina Response: Dems Out in Front

It's often said--sometimes with truth, sometimes not--that the national Democratic Party appears either too cowed or too enfeebled to offer anything but carping at the administration, and a hope that eventually all Bush supporters will simply see the error of their ways and start pulling levers marked 'D.' Where is the firm opposition, and where are the countering ideas? What is the vision the party has for the future? I don't see a transcript available, but HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher featured an all-liberal panel last Friday, and after slamming the administration nonstop for Katrina, Sheehan and anything else, they spent a fair amount of time reaming out the Democratic Party for their own failures.

In that vein, it's important to publicize what finally looks like a constructive, well-timed and politically sustainable vision of what should be done in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As noted in the comments at Kos (hat tip), all it needs now is a catchy phrase like Contract with America.  "Rebuilding Hope," perhaps? How about "George is Still Asleep; May We Help You?" "Remember This When They  Start Lying About Us in 2006?"

Here is the meat of the proposals; contact your Senator and urge them to make these items their highest priority--NOT the estate tax repeal, NOT the elevation of John Roberts:

The following are just some examples of proposals that Senate Democrats believe deserve immediate Senate action this week:

Ensuring health care for all displaced victims

            * Immediate access to Medicaid for displaced victims.
            * No need to prove residency or assets
            * No copayments
            * No penalties for failing to sign up for Medicare Part B in time.

To ensure access to medical care, we should ensure immediate access to Medicaid for displaced victims.  Paperwork requirements should be streamlined and asset requirements waived to ensure that victims, many of whom have no legal documents in their possession, can enroll in the program with little red tape. Residency requirements for participation should not apply to these victims to allow them to obtain health care services around the country. In addition, copayments should be waived for these people as they struggle to meet other needs as well.  The Federal government should bear the full cost of these changes, and ensure that no affected state suffers a reduction in Federal Medicaid funding (their "match rate") for other populations. This proposal is based on a similar successful initiative after the September 11 disaster.

< We also should provide compensation to health care providers who provide a disproportionate share of the care for these victims.

            Displaced victims should not be penalized for late enrollment in Medicare Part B because they have become newly-eligible or have lost coverage from another plan during this time. Similarly, everyone from the affected states should have an additional year to enroll in the new Medicare drug benefit and its low income subsidies. The automatic transition of dual eligible beneficiaries from Medicaid to Medicare drug coverage should be delayed in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with the Federal government bearing the full cost of those people continuing Medicaid drug coverage.

Getting victims housing

            * Emergency housing vouchers for displaced victims
            * Expedited application procedures with no red tape.
            * No tenant contributions until they find work.
            * Tax incentives for private families to take in victims.
            * Identify federal facilities that can house victims.
            * Relief for homeowners facing threat of foreclosure

FEMA has said that up to 1 million people may need housing assistance. The Senate therefore should immediately authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create and distribute temporary emergency housing vouchers to victims, without many of the restrictions that apply under the existing Section 8 low-income voucher program. For example, victims should not have to document their income levels, and tenant contributions should be waived until they find work. HUD also should be authorized to increase existing limits on allowable rents given the likelihood that rents in Gulf Coast areas will increase substantially for the foreseeable future.  HUD needs to take over primary responsibility for distributing vouchers since many of the region's local housing authorities are not functioning at full capacity, if at all. 

            Given the scarcity of rental housing, we will need to rely on private individuals and families to provide free room and board to victims. To encourage this, we should immediately approve a tax subsidy for those who provide such assistance to Katrina's victims. 

            To help identify locations to house victims, the Administration should be required, within 10 days, to release an inventory of federal civilian and defense facilities that can be used to provide emergency housing, or as locations for the construction or deployment of temporary housing units. 

            We should increase aid to owners of damaged homes by waiving current law caps on home repair assistance (now $5200) and home replacement assistance (now $10,200).  In addition, we should waive a requirement that individuals leave their home to qualify for home repair assistance, a rule that threatens to exacerbate an already massive demand for shelter in the region. 

We should reestablish the Temporary Mortgage and Rental Program, which has been used in the past, including after the September 11 disaster, to provide assistance to homeowners and renters facing financial hardship.  This could be important for many victims who otherwise could lose their homes through foreclosure. 

Getting victims to family members and friends

            Many of Katrina's victims have little or no access to transportation.  Although FEMA has legal authority to address this, the agency seems overwhelmed and has proven unable on its own to meet the compelling needs of countless numbers of stranded victims.  We therefore need to make this a White House priority and direct the President to lead a broad effort to quickly ensure that displaced victims can get to family, friends and others who can provide them with room and board.         

Getting students into school

            Many of Katrina's victims are children who need to enroll in a new school.  To encourage schools to accept these victims, and alleviate some of the resulting burdens, we should provide funding to school districts that accept displaced children. This funding could be used to hire additional teachers, teachers' aides, or counselors, or to provide temporary expansions of classrooms.  A similar program should be provided for institutions of higher education that admit displaced students. 

Bringing victims' families together and placing them with other families

            The government should establish a toll free "800" number and web site through which victims could access a national victim database and information about available assistance.  Displaced individuals could register and provide contact information, so that separated family members and friends could find each other.  The database also would allow volunteers to sign up if they are willing to provide free shelter to victims. 

Getting victims cash to meet other basic needs

To ensure that victims can get cash for their basic needs, we should strengthen and expand the Disaster Unemployment Insurance Program and automatically extend any expiring UI benefits that victims are receiving. We also should give the President authority to increase the $26,200 statutory cap on cash assistance through the Individuals and Households Program, and should waive the 25 percent matching requirement for States in the Gulf region.    In addition, victims should be allowed to withdraw funds from individual retirement accounts (IRA's) penalty-free, with extra contributions permitted later. 

Providing financial relief to victims and National Guard

           Katrina's victims, and National Guard involved in disaster operations, should not be obligated to make payments to the Federal government in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.  There should be a short term moratorium on obligations such as:

      Student loans
      Individual and corporate income taxes
      Small business loans

In addition, disaster victims filing for bankruptcy should be treated differently under the bankruptcy code in recognition of their particular hardship.

Ensuring victims have access to food

           We should ensure that the many victims of Katrina who are struggling to obtain food have access to food stamps through a streamlined application process. States should be provided relief from the additional costs associated with administering the food stamp program for victims.

Restoring order

We should provide law enforcement funding where needed to help protect innocent citizens from crime and to ensure that there are places in which to imprison dangerous criminals.  In addition, we should authorize federal courts to convene outside of their ordinary location in the event of an emergency, such as the massive flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Helping victims get jobs

Private employers should be given an incentive to hire displaced victims by temporarily qualifying them for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which can reduce an employer's tax liability by up to $2400 per qualified new worker.  In addition, the Federal government should establish a temporary preference for hiring displaced victims who are qualified for jobs. 

Moreover, many displaced workers now lack the documents they need to secure employment under Federal law, such as passports and birth certificates.  This law should be relaxed temporarily so that victims can legally obtain work without such documents, so long as they can provide a valid Social Security number. 

Supporting the National Guard

We should ensure that Guard units serving in the Gulf Coast effort be considered to have been mobilized under Title 32 (they are currently mobilized through the states).  This would qualify them for federal benefits and ensure that their service counts as active duty for the purposes of retirement, health care, and other benefits.  It also would make them eligible for the Family Separation Allowance if separated from their families for more than 30 days, and could provide relief from creditors and foreclosures. 

Requiring accountability

We should require the President to submit regular reports to the Congress on the status of recovery efforts, the number of victims who remain without decent housing, jobs, etc., and any additional resources or action needed to address the crisis.

--TJ

 

The Bush Admin, Not Playing Politics

Since it would be wrong, according to the Bush administration, to politicize or consider actions through the lens of manipulating public opinion regarding the Katrina disaster, I'm glad none of these things were said BY members of the Bush administration:

Hurricanes were not totally absent from the calculations about the new department, according to several former Bush administration officials. Bush tapped his chief of staff, Andrew Card, to supervise DHS’s creation; a decade earlier, Card had been personally deputized by Bush’s father to go to Florida and take charge of the much-criticized response to Hurricane Andrew.

“We definitely did worry about it,” recalled Richard Falkenrath, who served as a White House homeland security adviser at the time DHS was being formed. “We knew we should do no harm to the disaster management side. The leadership of the White House knows the political significance of disasters.” [LAT-WaPo News Service]

and

Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said. [text of LA state emergency declaration and request for federal assistance, dated August 26th, and subsequent correction to original item.]

"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."
..

Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable." [WaPo]

and

Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides.
...
In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove's tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats...These officials said that Mr. Bush and his political aides rapidly changed course in what they acknowledged was a belated realization of the situation's political ramifications. [NYT]

and

"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government. [Gov. Landrieu press release, via Mark Kleiman]

[updated to note:]

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time. [Dutch viewer of ZDF, via Laura Rozen via Kevin Drum.

Just so long as everyone's clear there's to be NO POLITICIZING OF THIS TERRIBLE TRAGEDY.

--TJ

Katrina: Relief From the Liberal Blogosphere

So much has been written, and so much more will be, that I don't see much value in adding significantly to the chorus on Katrina. I certainly have many things on my mind, but I'll probably rely on others to say them for me. I hope to post some of those things here in the immediate future.

First however, the most important thing is not to chat about it, but to help, whichever way you can. As part of the effort, Also Also is pleased to ignore our ad-free precedent and link you to a place where you may contribute what you feel you're able, and if you're like me maybe assuage some of the feeling of helplessness and powerlessnes to actively, directly change some lives for the better.

Peace to you, TJ

Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief



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