911 and Katrina victims don't deserve compassion?
Posted By: Just the big bad on 2009-02-04
In Reply to: He tells the truth. has guts. Shows compassion - when deserved. -you judge from a clip.nm
Wow....Oh that's right...he's on Fixed Noise. That means he must be the perfect pub. Get a grip. The man's a radical right winger just like the rest of the crew over there.
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911 and Katrina victims don't deserve compassion?
Wow....Oh that's right...he's on Fixed Noise. That means he must be the perfect pub. Get a grip. The man's a radical right winger just like the rest of the crew over there, which is the why, by the way, he got kicked off CNN. Hopefully Lou Dobbs will be next.
I actually think that Katrina victims have gotten...
more than enough compassion. Having just moved from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where the hurricane hit the hardest, by the way, not New Orleans, I have seen people milk this hurricane for all it's worth. It has been 3 years, for goodness sake. Don't whine because they are taking away your FEMA trailer--and some people steal them--get a freakin job already! Also, I would be so upset if my husband had to risk his life as a first responder to help people that should not have been there in the first place. They were told to leave and even given transportation, but many chose not to. I can understand those who are handicapped or very old, but able bodied, non-working, wefare begging young people make me angry and, no, I do not think that they deserve any more compassion. Every one of them can come up with enough money for several packs of cigarettes a week, but can't feed their kids or find a place to live on their own. It is a real problem.
All Katrina victims need is a tape of the Bible (since many of them can't read anyway) so they ca
From http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0905/relief.html
(My personal favorite part of this whole thing is the *trademark* sign next to *True Christians*)
Help Us Send Bibles to the Victims of Hurricane Katrina!
Faith-Based Response
Freehold, Iowa - Landover Baptist Church members have been glued to their television sets for the last few weeks, watching survivors of God's powerful hurricane (named Katrina by secular meteorologists) try to make sense of their ravaged lives. When you live in an area of the world God despises, and He gets ready to blow it off the map, you'd best duck low or high tail it out of town, says Pastor Deacon Fred. The Bible teaches us that when it comes to wiping out sinners, God has a history of having some pretty bad aim. This time I understand He knocked down a few church steeples and even took some good Christian folks back home with Him to Jesus.
What saddens members of the Landover Baptist community the most however, is that the unsaved world is hell-bent on doling out artificial optimism to the victims of God's latest attack. They are providing food, money, gasoline, and shelter, says Pastor Deacon Fred. These are temporary gifts that give these poor lost people a false hope! The only real hope comes from the Word of God! The Holy Bible! These folks need to get fed and sheltered on the Word of God. We daresn't open our doors to the homeless, because we know it never gets at the real source of their problem, and we always end up with dirty floors.
How are the lost of Katrina going to understand why God did this to them if they don't have a Bible to read? says Pastor Deacon Fred. How are they ever going to be able to prevent it from happening to them again, if they are not able to study the Word of God? Through the Bible, history teaches us that God has serious issues with large cities that condone prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, mixing of the races, sexual promiscuity, drunkenness, idol worship, practicing false religions (voodoo), and loud pulsing music. Some of them folks in New Orleans, were luckier than Lot's wife though - they stayed behind even though they received the message to get out, and God spared their lives.
It is understandable that the survivors of God's hurricane are confused, starving, homeless, and distraught - but as True Christians™ we know without a doubt in our hearts, that giving them food and shelter is not going to solve the biggest and only real problem in their lives. In fact, it will turn them into beggars and make their misery even worse. The issue that caused their condition is not an earthly condition at all. We know that it is an eternal condition, and there is only one sweet balm to soothe a lost soul who has no respect for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is getting a Holy Bible KJV 1611 into their hands. From what I've seen of these survivors, I doubt many of them know how to read, so we will be sending Bibles on tape for them as well, says Pastor Deacon Fred. They can play the Bible tapes on the boom boxes it looks like they made it a priority to salvage or loot.
Landover Baptist's effort to assist in providing Bibles to victims of Hurricane Katrina is known as a, faith-based response. It is our heartfelt hope that some worthwhile people might be saved from a destruction much more powerful than God's hurricanes - for they are but a precursor to what is really going to happen on that great and glorious day when He finally gets so ticked-off He just blows up the whole world.
So help us by sending a spiritual relief offering of no less than $100 (we do not accept checks, so please send cash, or money order) to:
BIBLES FOR HURRICANE VICTIMS Landover Baptist Ministries 777 Soulwinner's Lane Freehold, Iowa
If you are paying by credit card, please address your payment to: Wexler Offshore Holdings - Care of Landover Baptist Ministries
What Will Be Done With My Faith Based Response Donation?
Each $100 gift will absorb the cost of printing and recording *Bibles, and packaging.
Care packages to New Orleans flood victims will include the following:
- 1 King James 1611 Bible or Bible on Tape
- 1 Chick Tract (Assorted)
- 1 Self Addressed Stamped Envelope
- A small insert containing instructions on where to send a financial love offering of thanks to the Landover Baptist Church once the recipient of the care package gets back on their feet and receives their first paycheck.
*Disclaimer: If Landover Baptist receives reports that hurricane victims are using the pages of our Bibles are for hygienic purposes, such as toilet paper, we reserve the right to end this faith-based response effort immediately.
no compassion
No, it is give to those who are LESS FORTUNATE than you are.
Not all who are rich have worked hard for it, some were just LUCKY or INHERITED it.
compassion
i am anti-abortion, but i look to those among us who have forgiven people who have murdered their loved ones as my example. i was taught that God is a God of justice AND mercy - so it is possible for us to require justice for wrongdoing, and, at the same time, mourn for and forgive that person even as they sit in jail rightfully punished and/or executed for 'shedding innocent blood'. i am reminded of the verses of Matthew 6:14/15, which comes right after the "the Lord's prayer" - For if ye forive men their trespases, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Heavy, difficult stuff, just like matthew 7:1/2 (and the several following verses that build upon this idea,right up until the marvelous 21st-23rd verses)-
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judement ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
yes, we, all - men and women, should keep our pants zipped up and not show anyone what we would not show our grandmothers before we get married, but we are human and frail. you are fortunate to have such support in your family and in your life that no danger has befallen you. i wish that blessing upon all.
You might not deserve him, but I do, and so...sm
do millions of other Americans, and we will vote for him, and he will win!
Blame the victims
So...lets just blame the victims, the ones who live in New Orleans..OMG..Put the blame where it belongs, on the federal govt for cutting funds to shore up the levees..and who was in control at that time.....BUSH..he needed the money for the rich peoples tax cuts and the insane war.
Sounds like you have compassion for everyone!
xx
compassion is standing up
for the wronged and the weak. Your constant assaults on the truth deserve no compassion. We are standing up for the truth which will lead us out of the current darkness that has descended upon our country. As soon as the scoundrels are ejected, hopefully the veil will be lifted. Until then, we will yank out the roots of deception before it can take root and grow and spread.
You obamamatrons will deserve what you get.
No, your lack of compassion upsets me. sm
You need to think about THAT.
You aren't aware of what compassion is.
It includes responding IMMEDIATELY to those in need. It includes a leader who makes RESPONSIBLE appointments to vital public posts (not lazy college drinking buddies who used to run horse associations). How carelessly you toss out accusations of taking political advantage while the leader you support carefully selects two black victims to hug on camera (the prettier the better)far from the stark reality of the war zone he helped create a few miles away. Or, stand in an airplane hangar trying desperately to smother his yawns while fauning public officials brief him on camera and tell him how well things are going, while badly needed helicopters are sitting uselessly behind him for impressive props. Political advantage? - Bush a la Rove has NEVER missed a single opportunity to take political advantage in every way possible, up to and including the death of every 9/11 victim, despite the fact that the victims' families are in no way satisfied with his bogus hand-picked impartial commission's findings. Please! You're just bitter because nobody likes your man anymore. The fact that he has royally screwed up not just this time but ALL ALONG is his fault, not ours. We're just pointing it out.
These are fallen soldiers not WTC victims
And the why is pretty clear. By the way, this was addressed to Liberals who definitely understand and appreciate the ***why***
Total lack of compassion
I wanted to like this woman, and I did for approximately the first 48 hours after she was named as Sen. McCain's running mate. Then I heard from a close friend whose sister teaches high school Spanish in the small Alaskan town SP was mayor of. SP's son, the one who is about to be deployed overseas, was her student a few years ago and allegedly not a high-achieving one. My friend's sister said he was disrespectful and acted like he thought he was better than everyone else, and when it came time for the parent-teacher conference SP blamed his failing grades on her.
Okay, so this is one person's biased description and I didn't pay a lot of attention to it, but THEN I discovered her history regarding wildlife, ecology and "hunting," and I have to tell you this is a deal breaker for me.
What is so incredible to me is that she appears extremely caring and passionate regarding issues related to motherhood, family, child welfare and the right to life, yet she is completely void of emotion or sensitivity towards "lesser" forms of life. I don't care that she's a lifetime member of the NRA or even that she's a hunter, but she has a frightening and callous history in terms of wielding her legal power to exploit, maim and destroy wildlife and their natural habitats.
I'm so disgusted and disillusioned by all the political BS and hype coming from every direction that I can honestly say I don't plan to vote in the coming election.
I am remembered the 911 victims today by
having the TV on and observing the moments of silence at the times of the attack. Also the new memorial at the Pentagon was dedicated. It looks beautiful. I hope the families can find some peace when they go there. I also put out 7 small American Flags to represent the 7 years. I also am going to try to see the lights from where the World Trade Towers stood. I live in Northern NJ. I have a hill by my home and you can actually see the city on a clear day. We will never forget.
Bravo. A voice of compassion and
wisdom. Not often seen herewithin.
Do you also blame victims of crime and
inciting the crimes perpetrated against them. Yours is truly an ignorant, ignorant statement.
You assume a lack of compassion....
but your snotty self-righteous attitude speaks for itself. Get over it.
That's why polls deserve little to no attention
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You don't deserve a dignified response. nm
x
The rich dont deserve a tax cut? They already pay a
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Right, Obama does not deserve to be a candidate
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Doesn't even deserve an answer
Blaming McCain and Palin for this is idiotic.
That's how I feel. How dare the victims be judged.sm
while we sit cumfy in front of our PCs and eat popcorn. That kind of stuff makes me SICK!
Yeah....liberal compassion. I see a LOT of that on this board....
laughable. But again, skirted entirely around the issue.
Just hope the victims are the gun-totin' kinds that
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You will all be back., drama queens, seeing yourself as victims...nm
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If you don't think our troops deserve BODY ARMOR
provided by the President who is all too eager to see them die but never had the guts to put is own life on the line for his country, then YOU are the one who doesn't care about our troops.
If I'm a joke, you're a disgrace and a fraud.
Yes, I think ALL kids deserve affordable healthcare.
I know a little 5-year-old boy with a cancerous brain tumor. His family owns a local construction company and makes decent money, maybe even the $80,000 you speak of. They still have had to have 2 fundraisers just to cover costs associated with saving this precious little boy's life, and they have "decent insurance."
So yes, I think ALL FAMILIES, regardless of income, should have access to more affordable insurance. What happens if one of the parents becomes unemployed? They lose their healthcare coverage. I do not like the fact that most insurance is covered through your employer. Many people have to work the whole time they are fighting cancer or other diseases for fear of losing their health insurance. Even people making $80,000 per year can drown in medical bills that total in the hundreds of thousands, so I don't think their children should be excluded from CHIP healthcare either. People making $80,000 would not get on the program for free, but at a much more reasonable cost than most insurance companies would charge.
When I say I think ALL children in the USA should have free or affordable healthcare, I mean ALL children, rich and poor.
While she does deserve our thoughts and prayers, I dare say...
some will say she deserves as much respect as the left showed to Mrs. Palin's handicapped child and pregnant daughter.
Cindy isn't interested in helping the victims down there. She's just mad they are stealing
her thunder. Hopefully, she will be relegated to the pathetic pawn that she is and real news of real importance will come back to the world. Every time she speaks, she puts our troops in danger. The troops even said so, but she is too far gone to listen to the troops. They are all brainwashed.
He tells the truth. has guts. Shows compassion
nm
Compassion is one thing......long-term handouts
In the case of New Orleans, the majority of those do not want a help up,they want what they had known prior to Katrina, a monthly hand out!
When the greatest majority of those folks are STILL without jobs, it is because they do not want a job. They didn't have jobs before and they certainly do not feel they should find one now.
Agree to disagree. I don't think we deserve Barack Obama...
and with his same stances on things, I wouldn't vote for him, I don't care what party he represented. It is not about party for me. It is about the stand of the man. And for me it is nobama, no way, no how...no matter what ticket he is running on.
He didn't deserve the Nobel Peace Prize
"What do you have against clean environment, alternative energy, jobs creation and a global warming plan?"
I don't have anything against a clean environment, alternative energy or job creation. I don't, however, buy into the global warming hype, especially when it's pushed as hard algore is trying to sell it because he is a politician and I don't trust him anymore than I trust the rest of them. There HAD to have been someone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than that clown. (I'll bet he traded some of his carbon credits for votes.)
I agree. Trolls dont even deserve a response.
nm
I agree. I am helping the victims with all the financial support I can spare BUT
if we don't ask the question what happened to the levees, what can we do to make sure this doesn't happen again, where did the funding go? then we will find ourselves in the same position again. We can not afford to be policing other countries when the funding is bankrupt for our own needs. That's just the truth.
Phhtt! LOL - compassion for a guy who sniggers and mocks a woman he's about to execute?
That ought to be asking a little too much of a decent human being, don't you think? How many convicts on death row do you have compassion for, before you go demanding sympathy for your boy?
Katrina was
the classic Good Samaritan scenario in high def. The government failed but the true enlightened souls stepped up. Bless em all.
Katrina --
They should pull themselves up by their soaking wet boot straps and the federal government had no responsibility who do they think they are expecting help nobody ever gave me welfare I worked all my life but if anyone is to blame it is the local DEMOCRATS because what were they doing besides floating around on rafts the whole time anyway. Everybody knows this it is a plain as the dumb look on my face.
Exactly right, we all deserve human rights, ALL OF GOD'S CHILDREN, MUSLIM, WHITE, RACIST, REPUB,
nm
The Post Katrina Era
George Lakoff
It is impossible for me, as it is for most Americans, to watch the horror and suffering from Hurricane Katrina and not feel physically sore, pained, bereft, empty, heart-broken. And angry.
The Katrina Tragedy should become a watershed in American politics. This was when the usually invisible people suddenly appeared in all the anguish of their lives — the impoverished, the old, the infirm, the kids, and the low-wage workers with no cars, no tvs, no credit cards.
They showed up on America’s doorsteps, entered the living rooms, and stayed.
Katrina will not go away soon, and she has the power to change America.
The moral of Katrina is mostly being missed. It is not just a failure of execution (William Kristol), or that bad things just happen (Laura Bush). It was not just indifference by the President, or a lack of accountability, or a failure of federal-state communication, or corrupt appointments in FEMA, or the cutting of budgets for fixing levees, or the inexcusable absence of the National Guard off in Iraq. It was all of these and more, but they are the effects, not the cause.
The cause was political through and through — a matter of values and principles. The progressive-liberal values are America’s values, and we need to go back to them.
The heart of progressive-liberal values is simple: empathy (caring about and for people) and responsibility (acting responsibly on that empathy). These values translate into a simple principle: Use the common wealth for the common good to better all our lives. In short, promoting the common good is the central role of government.
The right-wing conservatives now in power have the opposite values and principles. Their main value is Rely on individual discipline and initiative. The central principle: Government has no useful role. The only common good is the sum of individual goods.
It’s the difference between We’re-all-in-this-together and You’re-on-your-own-buddy.
It’s the difference between Every citizen is entitled to protection and You’re only entitled to what you can afford.
It’s the difference between connection and separation.
It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina.
A lack of empathy and responsibility accounts for Bush’s indifference and the government’s delay in response, as well as the failure to plan for the security of the most vulnerable: the poor, the infirm, the aged, the children.
Eliminating as much as possible of the role of government accounts for the demotion of FEMA from cabinet rank, for Michael Brown’s view that FEMA was a federal entitlement program to be cut, for the budget cuts in levee repair, for placing more responsibility on state and local government than they could handle. for the failure to fully employ the military, and for the lax regulation of toxic waste dumps contributing to a “toxic stew.”
This was not just incompetence (though there was plenty of it), not just a natural disaster (though nature played its part), not just Bush (though he is accountable). This is a failure of moral and political philosophy — a deadly failure. That is the deep truth behind this human tragedy humanly caused.
It is a truth that needs to be told starting now – over and over. There can be no delay. The Bush administration is busy framing it in it’s own way: bad things just happen, it’s no one’s fault; the federal government did the best it could — the problem was at the state and local level; we’ll rebuild and everything will be okay; the people being shipped out will have better lives elsewhere, and jobs in WalMart! Unless the real truth is told starting now, the American people will accept it for lack of an alternative.
Katrina fiasco
Somebody's finally gotten it right and isn't afraid to say so.
Katrina and Gustav
Remember where Dubya was when New Orleans was drowning? Having his picture taken while eating cake with John McCain. Now we have Gustav. What interesting timing. Perhaps Palin was selected because she is a good baker .... ? ? ? ....
McCain and Katrina
McCain Katrina
In New Orleans on 4/24/08, McCain said: “I would’ve landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally.” But as Newsweek notes, on Aug. 29, 2005, when Katrina had just hit New Orleans, McCain was posing with President Bush for his 69th birthday.
McCain aggressively sought the endorsement of conservative evaneglical leader John Hagee, who said repeatedly that Hurricane Katrina was punishment to New Orleans.
McCain told reporters he was not sure if he would rebuild the lower 9th ward as president. "That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do -rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is," he said.
Transplanted Texan writes,
I guess it's no surprise. McCain has opposed the creation of an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate the failure of the levees, voted against a 2006 bill that included $28 billion in hurricane relief, and opposed Medicaid and unemployment benefits for Katrina victims.
Why Jindal used Katrina as example
Jindal used Katrina as an example,a word picture, as an example of government not working. He was not talking about corruption in Washington D.C. but in Louisiana (which was pretty bad)So what if the pubs have not ever proposed healthcare reform - we are doing it now! Sorry, you are wrong! The spirit of the people in Louisiana because of Bobby Jindal is awsome! He is such a relief after years of corruption - trust me! I live in Louisiana!
Hurricane Katrina: A sign from God.
God is telling us that Bush is an idiot who destroys everything in (and out of) his path, and it's time for Americans to wake up.
Katrina and Disgusting Exploitation.
Katrina and Disgusting Exploitation |
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By James K. Glassman |
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08/31/2005 |
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A profound tragedy is unfolding in New Orleans, the most beautiful city in America, with the richest cultural history and the most wonderful style of living. I lived in New Orleans for seven years. I was married there. My children were born there. I have many friends there.
My daughter, her husband and their little baby managed to get out of the city ahead of the flood on Sunday, driving 14 hours into Texas with the few belongings they could stuff into their car. They have no idea what has become of their house and their possessions, not to mention their friends, their pets, their jobs, their way of life.
Tragedies happen, and my daughter and her family are happy just to be alive. Their losses and those of hundreds of thousands of other innocents deserve mourning, prayer and respect.
That is why the response of environmental extremists fills me with what only can be called disgust. They have decided to exploit the death and devastation to win support for the failed Kyoto Protocol, which requires massive cutbacks in energy use to reduce, by a few tenths of a degree, surface warming projected 100 years from now.
Katrina has nothing to do with global warming. Nothing. It has everything to do with the immense forces of nature that have been unleashed many, many times before and the inability of humans, even the most brilliant engineers, to tame these forces.
Giant hurricanes are rare, but they are not new. And they are not increasing. To the contrary. Just go to the website of the National Hurricane Center and check out a table that lists hurricanes by category and decade. The peak for major hurricanes (categories 3,4,5) came in the decades of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, when such storms averaged 9 per decade. In the 1960s, there were 6 such storms; in the 1970s, 4; in the 1980s, 5; in the 1990s, 5; and for 2001-04, there were 3. Category 4 and 5 storms were also more prevalent in the past than they are now. As for Category 5 storms, there have been only three since the 1850s: in the decades of the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s.
But that doesn't stop an enviro-predator like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from writing on the Huffingtonpost website: Now we are all learning what it's like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and - now -- Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.
Or consider Jurgen Tritten, Germany's environmental minister, in an op-ed in the Frankfurter Rundschau. He wrote (according to a translation prepared for me): By neglecting environmental protection, America's president shuts his eyes to the economic and human damage that natural catastrophes like Katrina inflect on his country and the world's economy.
The bright side of Katrina, concludes Tritten, is that it will force President Bush to face facts. When reason finally pays a visit to climate-polluter headquarters, the international community has to be prepared to hand America a worked-out proposal for the future of international climate protection.
He goes on, There is only one possible route of action. Greenhouse gases have to be radically reduced, and it has to happen worldwide. In other words, thanks to Katrina, we'll finally get Kyoto enforced. (He might start at home, by the way. Europe is not anywhere close to reducing CO2 to Kyoto standards. In fact, the U.S. is doing much better than many Kyoto ratifiers.)
Ross Gelbspan, in a particularly egregious, almost giddy piece in the Boston Globe that was reprinted in the International Herald Tribune, wrote that the hurricane was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service Katrina, [but] its real name was global warming. He also finds global warming responsible for droughts in the Midwest, strong winds in Scandinavia and heavy rain in Dubai. The reason for all this devastation, of course, is that the Bush Administration is controlled by coal and oil interests.
And the Independent, a widely read British newspaper, reported today that Sir David King, the British Government's chief scientific adviser, has warned that global warming may be responsible for the devastation reaped by Hurricane Katrina. King contended that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming.
The Kyoto advocates point to warmer ocean temperatures, but they ought to read their own favorite newspaper, The New York Times, which reported yesterday:
Because hurricanes form over warm ocean water, it is easy to assume that the recent rise in their number and ferocity is because of global warming. But that is not the case, scientists say. Instead, the severity of hurricane seasons changes with cycles of temperatures of several decades in the Atlantic Ocean. The recent onslaught 'is very much natural,' said William M. Gray, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who issues forecasts for the hurricane season.'
An article on TCS quoted Gray last year as saying that, while some groups and individuals say that hurricane activity lately may be in some way related to the effects of increased man-made greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide,…there is no reasonable scientific way that such an interpretation…can be made.
Indeed, there is no evidence that hurricanes are intensifying anyway. For the North Atlantic as a whole, according to the United Nations Environment Programme of the World Meteorological Organization: Reliable data…since the 1940s indicate that the peak strength of the strongest hurricanes has not changed, and the mean maximum intensity of all hurricanes has decreased.
Yes, decreased.
Not only has the intensity of hurricanes fallen, but, as George H. Taylor, the state climatologist of Oregon has pointed out, so has the frequency of hailstorms in the U.S. (see Changnon and Changnon) and cyclones throughout the world (Gulev, et al.).
But environmental extremists do not want to be bothered with the facts. Nor do they wish to mourn the destruction and death wreaked on a glorious city. To their everlasting shame, they would rather distort and exploit.
Katrina Pushes Bush Down Further
A new Survey USA tracking poll suggests a can't win dynamic is unfolding for President Bush as he struggles to deal with the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The number of Americans who now approve of the President's response to Hurricane Katrina is down: 40% today compared to 42% before he announced the Gulf Opportunity Zone in a speech last week. The number of Americans who disapprove of the President's response to Katrina is up: 56% today compared to 52% before the speech.
Key point: The more cash President Bush throws on the fire, as compensation for what some see as an inadequate initial response, the more it antagonizes his core supporters.
Yes, we are so horrible we are fundraising for Katrina right now.
HORRIBLE PEOPLE WE ARE!
Last Katrina child goes home
Last Katrina child goes homeBy Tim Reid
A mother and her missing daughter are reunited seven months after a hurricane devastated New Orleans |
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THE last of more than 5,000 children missing after Hurricane Katrina has finally been reunited with her mother, ending the largest child-recovery effort in US history.
After seven months of searching by her mother, amid fears that her daughter had died in the flooding in New Orleans that followed the hurricane in August, four-year-old Cortez Stewart was reunited with her family in Texas.
Cortez was the last of the 5,192 Gulf Coast children listed as missing or displaced after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the region. Of those, all but 12 have been found alive and all of those are now back with their parents.
For Lisa Stewart the happy ending came when she was contacted by the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children that said it had found her daughter. “I was overwhelmed, happy, joyous,” she said.
During their separation her daughter’s fourth birthday had passed last November with no sign that she was dead or alive. “It was devastating,” Mrs Stewart said.
When the storm struck, Cortez was with her godmother, Felicia Williams. After seeking refuge in a hotel, Cortez and Ms Williams were winched to safety by helicopter and flown to Atlanta, Georgia.
Mrs Stewart and her five other children were rescued from their home in New Orleans as the floodwater rose.
They were taken to the nearest piece of dry land, an interstate overpass, where they stayed for four days, before being evacuated and placed in a flat in Houston, Texas. For months Ms Williams and Mrs Stewart tried to make contact, not knowing if the other was alive, but without success. Their efforts were hampered by incorrect name spellings and other misleading information given to government officials.
“Many agencies didn’t have a good account of who they were helping,” Bob O’Brien, director of the centre’s missing children division, said. “More than 411,000 were evacuated to more than 40 states, and it became very hard to track the movement.”
The centre traced information about Ms Williams through her former employer and then located relations in Georgia. When Cortez was reunited with her mother and five siblings last week in Houston, Mrs Stewart almost fell upon her, screaming: “The baby! It’s the baby!”
More than 12,000 adults were reported missing after Katrina. About 1,900 are still missing. More than 1,300 others have been confirmed dead. |
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