FlaSoxxJim

As a polotical speechwriter Stein's job was spin. And that list is certainly a lot of spin. Agreed that the ball has been dropped on several fronts, not the least of which are the local response efforts. But, from the cutting of the money for the levee reinforcement projects, to the curuious refusals of aid as listed above, to both Brown and Chertof (sp?) admitting they wre ecompletely unaware that as many as 25,000 refugees had been dropped off and essentially abandoned at the convention center, there are plenty of huge federal screw ups that people are rightly being taken to task for. As Presedint, Bush is going to be taken to task for such things regardless of how personally involved in any of the decisions. And I think he's made plenty bad decisions of his own in the last week that will not help his anemic poll numbers at all. Not immediately cutting his vacation to get back to DC before or immediately after landfall was certainly one. underplaying the degree of catastrophy involved and never missing a chance to pimp the GWoT even as hell is eruptimg around him was bad form. Taking more than a day longer to get back to DC to tend to relief oversight and signing off on emergency Congressional legislation for Katrina relief than he did when the issue was Terri Schiavo certainly doesn't look good either. Stein's also quite incorrect in his climate change comments, but I think that's tangential at the moment. Three landmark papers were just simultaneously published in Science last week that pretty much destroy the tenuous 'surface temps are changing but atmeospheric temps are not' mantra that the climate change naysayers have been repeating the last few years. Even Roy Spencer, the principal investigator whose MSU and AMSU troposphere temperature data set analyses have been the best scientific support for the naysayers has come out and stated that his conclusions were incorrect. Long story short, there was a drift in the recording times off of the NOAA polar sattelites that carry Spencer's sensors such that temperature readings that were supposed to be taken in teh early afternoon were actually being taken at night, but Spencer didn't know about the issue. And surprise surprise, in his original conclusions he didn't see any warming of the upper atmoshere, and may even have seen some cooling. In related news, my weather guy said it was going to be a hundred degrees out but hes full of s*** because I just went out and it's not even 80. Does it matter that it is 9 o'clock in teh evening? I'd say, yeah it does. Of course, "smart" people like Ben Stein are going to keep chanting the mantra, despite the facts.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Sep 5, 2005 -> 02:20 PM) I heard scratching your balls was cheating too. Which is why you changed your handle, eh, Chea..., I mean Gene? Protecting the guilty?

QUOTE(YahtzeeSox @ Sep 5, 2005 -> 05:05 PM) Funny, the iPod volume doesn't affect anything at all for my FM transmittor. I plug it into the bottom thing (where the USB dealie goes) and have to use the volume in my car. I could turn the iPod all the way down and it wouldn't make a difference. It sounds like you have the Belkin transmitter that goes into the dock connector like me, and that's how it's supposed to work. You're bypassing the ear bud volume control as well as, I believe, any EQ settings that are not attached to individual song files. Instead all volume and EQ functions are determined by your car's audio system.

I'll take a break from my secular self, and add "Just A Closer Walk With Thee," which is a gospel standard that New Orleans trad jazz musicians have made their own. It's one of those great numbers that old New Orleans city bands would slow down and play as a durge in the classic funeral marches, then kick up and do really joyously and uptempo on the way march back from the cemetary. It seems fitting here. I am weak, but Thou art strong; Jesus, keep me from all wrong; I'll be satisfied as long As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Wow. Yeah, I'm the other Big Star/Chilton fan. Very sad, like all of this.

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 11:49 AM) Ha, just wait for the political s***storm as people begin to wonder what we'd do in case of another major terrorist attack? You think these people have gone nuts? Wait til the next disater of any kind, think will people have faith in Gov. to help them out. Hopefully, from now on people leave, if they can, when asked to. Not only that, but just imagine the would-be terrorists that now know how easy it is to knock out NO. Breach a couple of sections of the miles and miles of levee with small bombs (or possibly even something like hijacked garbage trucks plowing ito it) during the rainy season when they're running high and it's this situation all over again. Except without the advance notice to evacuate. You can see the kind of dark place I'm at right now, eh?

QUOTE(Middle Buffalo @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 11:40 AM) He said that when they built the levees to withstand a level 3 hurricane, they did cost analysis and figured that that would be enough. Ach, I should have read ahead before posting redundant info.

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 11:28 AM) With the age of those levees, there was a strong chance of failure, they had to be prepared. Considering what is going on, they didn't even think about this potential disaster once. Above and beyond that, As wino noted some of the levees were only 80% completed. And the real kicker, which I just found out with today's Times-Picayune summary coverage: The levee system was only designed to withstand a direct hit from a Category 3 storm. Un-f***ing-real.

QUOTE(winodj @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 08:32 PM) KC's magic number is 69. Wow. I guess they really do suck.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 08:14 AM) Galveston last 6,000 souls in 1900 from a hurricane. http://www.1900storm.com/storm/index.lasso Damn, I've been reading up on 1900 (and the Keys in 1935), and all of a sudden they both slipped my mind. Is this what it's like being old, Tex? P.S. does the coffee taste better with the senior discount?

QUOTE(Wong & Owens @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 07:59 AM) And then there's these Mensa candidates: http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskop...arthsociety.htm Ah, gotta love 21st century Flat Earthers. At least it gives the Creationists and Intelligent Design crowd someone to make fun of.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 07:34 AM) Yeah it kinda upsets me too. Its one thing to be emptying a supermarket because you have nothing to eat, and I don't think anyone would begrudge that type of behavior. But you are talking about rapes, shootings, and just general anarchy conditions. I was curious about historical context when I asked earlier, when was the last time that something like this happened. When was the last time that a major US city was basically destroyed by a natural disaster? The last two I could come up with were San Francisco in 1906 and Chicago in 1871. Those would be the other historic benchmarks, I'd say. And only San Francisco really compares as far as the size of the impacted aream (not to diminish the loss of 17,000 buildings, or 90,000 or so in any way), loss of life, and the loss of infrastructure. Tragic as it was, the Fire only killed around 250-300 people. They fact that once a fire is out it's out also helped a rapid return to a semblance of normalcy. Desoite the Tribune building being destroyed, they only missed one publication date in the wake of the fire, and had the famous "Chicago Will Rise Again" edition out the next day, printed from a hastily settled new office. And supposedly by the next day, provisions were being handed out to people and someone was selling fruit from a stand he erected in the burned out city center. Interestingly, there was initial looting and lawlessness here as well, but citizen vigilante groups quuickly put that down. It has also been pointed out by recent city hhistorians that Chicago was rebuilt so quickly because it was in the right geographical place at the right historical moment. Chicago was in it's golden age, had sprung up out of nowhere withing a couple generations, had passed St, Louis as the 4th largest citty in the country, and pretty much was the epiphany to the rest of the country that urbanization was coming and coming to stay. I don't really know anything about the SF earthquake, other than the fatality estimates are vildly varying. As low as 500 people to as high as 4,000! I don't know why the number is not more precisely known. Maybe the number of poorly documented Chinese working on the railroad, I don't know.

They are doing some food air drops, now. This picture is in front of the convention center. The subject of FEMA's ignorance of the thousands of people at the convvention center well into yesterday afternoon is still really odd. During the 8 am news hour on NPR yesterday there was a piece that explicitly noted the small city that had sprung up at the coonvention center, how looters vere basically using it as a staging area and bartering their hauls there at an ad hoc market of sorts. Eight hours later, and FEMA doesn't know there was anybody there?!?

Very moving. I've listened to Arlo's version of the original a couple times this week. Along with Louie's "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans."

A couple of years ago I would not have believed that statistic. Then I saw Leno's "Jaywalk All Stars." Who the hell is still letting these people breed?!?

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 07:09 AM) I don't know about the logistical side of things, especially when groups like FEMA probably never even imagined this many people to take care of, but there has been one massive miscalculation when it came to a disaster like this, and that was the assumption of law and order after a disaster. Depresing, isn't it? I don't recall the ravaged population of SE Asia f***ing each other over for short term personal gain after the tsunami. Yea us. ( )

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ Sep 2, 2005 -> 06:29 AM) I really think the government at state AND federal levels have massively dropped the ball here. It would seem so. Foe FEMA's part, I think Florida last year should have been the dress rehersal, but instead I think it made them complacent. Sure, they responded to a statewide emergency that resulted from four strikes. But we were, frankly, a bunch of whiny little b****es down here, worried about who was going to fix our roofs and screened porches and never worried about just surviving like people are now. FEMA should have two weeks worth of food and water rations for 1 million people, stockpiled and ready to be mobilized (one day's worth at a time if necessary), anywhere in the country within 24 hours. That certainly seems within the realm of possibility to me.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 11:25 PM) Again, foreplay people, foreplay. And get my fingers nipped?!?

Glad to hear it. Every little good news story is most welcomed.

QUOTE(winodj @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 05:29 PM) I'm not blaming anything on anyone. All I'm saying is that we didn't get ready to keep this from happening - and we could have. I said it before, the biggest problem was that New Orleans has been knowingly relying on dumb luck for more than a century. It was never a question of IF they would get hit by the big storm, only WHEN.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 03:47 PM) What I don't get is that it was the oil refineries affected. It takes around 3 years to turn oil into gas, yet the gas rise is happening now. We don't have a gas shortage right now, yet every company increased its prices anyway. I guess we should be happy we don't live in Georgia, where it's over 6 dollars. Can you provide a reference for the 3 years from crude to gasoline figure? I don't know for sure, but that seems outlandishly long. Simple heat fractionation can produce a straight run gasoline fraction basically as quickly as the equipment can heat the crude and cool and collect the fractions. And I understand there is a ton of post-separation processing (cracking, reforming, alkylation, sweetening, etc.) to increase the yield of gasoline from the other crude fractions. But three years seems like a long horizon. Not saying that isn't the case, but if it is I had no idea it took anywhere near that long.

QUOTE(Steff @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 04:20 PM) Without any sort of order in place on the ground I think that would cause more harm than good. I dunno, if we thought war torn Afghanistan and Iraq were amenable to air dropped food, then I think storm ravaged NO would be as well. With some food and water, the refugees might not be as desperate or hostile.

QUOTE(The Ginger Kid @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 04:10 PM) doesn't look good. They say a lot of people who survived fled to the attic when the water came rushing into the house, then when the attic started to fill with water they broke through the ceiling. Obviously, not all were able to do that and were trapped. That has been my silent fear for the last 3 days. More and more tragic.

Eh, maybe not, although the lines about playing with stars and uniting seem like they could be obscure Valentine Michael Smith/SISL references.

QUOTE(Steff @ Sep 1, 2005 -> 03:09 PM) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9159941/ Fats Domino missing in New Orleans floods Musician and family didn’t evacuate when hurricane came Wow. Along with Dr. John, Fats is prettty much the living embodiment of New Orleans musical spirit.