in your case, maybe some holy water would help

• all yall better watch out - thinking those negative thoughts
  • You know what they say . . . misery loves company!! - penny
  • You are "happy for someone" who just got married! - His is our president, aka LEADER..gee.nm
    • in your case, maybe some holy water would help - thinking those negative thoughts
      • Are you 1 of those classless Americans in the O - crowd who just booed a man in a wheelchair?nm
        • What? Like those classless Americans who spouted KILL HIM towards O at GOP events pre election? nm - CDW
        • what comes around goes around - thinking those negative thoughts
      • I'm happy, just fearful of today and (NM) - the future. He will need lots of prayer.

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Cos I can't say the other word after holy on this board.  Watch the video clip.  Before I watched it I thought Ayers?  So what, he's just disgruntled.  Wright?  Who cares, but after watching this video clip I have never been so truly utterly disgusted and nauseated ever that I can remember.  I want to shout at the top of my voice if I could like Rev. James David Manning....what is wrong with people!  Why can't they see it.  Anyway..here is the video.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=cH7kT4xwddg&eurl=http://larrysinclair-0926.blogspot.com/

Al Queda says.  Sheesh.  Are you friggin kidding me?  Who isn't to say they are just saying this to scare people into ushering in Obama because they like him.  Besides, as for McCain following Bush's failed war.....we are winning....the surge was successful....get a clue. 

Do you honestly think that if AL Queda does something to us that Obama will just sit back and not do anything?  Obama has said he will not take military action off of the table.  So this whole.....Obama will stop the war crap.......you can't count on that because you don't know what those freaky psychotic terrorists have up their sleeves.  It all sounds good as another failed promise though huh....I will stop the war.  Just like he won't raise taxes on middle class even though raising taxes on businesses will trickle down to us and they will jack up prices of their products and we will pay for the tax hike that way....not to include the fact that all of Obama's plans cannot be covered by taxing the rich alone and he will have to raise taxes on the rest of us folks as well.....WAKE UP AMERICA!

 Good grief, how things morph. I will answer a couple of things I read down the long, very very long thread that evolved from this post. First, I put liberals only, not as an invitation to read as someone suggested but as a heads up that if you are not liberal you will not like this. The writer, I believe, spiced this piece up with humor...ergo, the feral eyes making her look like all 4 of the Horsemen..come on, that was funny, and my most favorite line in the whole thing was that our Christian nation upholds the death penalty (I am paraphrasing I know) without an ounce of cognitive dissonance. Now that was good. I personally have heard Coulter say she is Christian on a couple of occasions. As I have said, I don't watch her if I can help it, but the few times I have seen her, she has brought up the fact that she is a Christian. I agree with the writer; I think I may want to find a new moniker for what it is I believe because if Coulter is Christian then evidently I am something else because I thankfully and gratefully am not 1 scintilla predisposed as she is.

And Ward Churchill...he is a quite accomplished writer and educator  I have 2 books of his that deal with the American Indian and the boarding school debacle. They were very well written and researched. When I first heard what he had said I wasn't sure what he even meant. It sounded pretty off the wall to me and I still think so and I still think he owes an apology to the victims' families. I have an idea of where he was coming from, being a half breed myself, but nonetheless, he should not have said it or found a much different way of saying what he meant. Aho. Soft Winds.

As far as your imagined knowledge of where I get my information, I refer you back to your very own post above: 

You infer that you know how and where I get my information.  If you're so freaking clairvoyant then what are you doing here?  The elitism just oozes from you.

You made a fine point in your other post:  Those in glass houses best not throw stones.

Do you practice what you preach?

I don't know if you took the time to actually read the article I posted.  Nowhere in my post did I negatively pass judgment on you, as you have me.  Everywhere in my post, I discussed how and why I feel the way I do and I stuck to the issues. 

What made me suspicious that the White House was behind the Israeli-Lebanon war was simply the sense of deja vu all over again, as if I were viewing the summer rerun of the Iraqi war because it was all carried out Bush style: 

1.  The use of shock and awe.

2.  The feeling that the Israelis could easily win against Hezbollah when in fact Israeli troops also encountered fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas, who took a page from the Iraqi insurgents by using explosive booby traps and ambushes to inflict heavier than expected casualties on the Israelis. 

3.  Not enough troops deployed.

4.  Reservists complaining of not being supplied with enough body armor.

5.  Other soldiers found equipment to be either inferior or inappropriate for battlefield conditions.

6.  And once again, animals proved they are smarter than humans: One Israeli plan to use llamas to deliver supplies in the rugged terrain of south Lebanon turned into an embarrassment when the animals simply sat down.

The only element that was missing was the mythical claim that they would be greeted as liberators but who knows?  Maybe all those roses just couldn't be delivered because the roads in Lebanon had been destroyed.

I totally agree that there are radical Muslims who want to kill us.  What I totally disagree with is Bush's belief that everything can be solved with bombs.  The United States is quickly becoming the most hated country in the world because of Bush's total lack of diplomacy, and I'm afraid that he is only provoking more terror attacks as a result. 

The world doesn't like to be bullied by a country with a president that clearly wants to dominate the world.  Ask the Soviet Union.  Whoops.  Sorry.  The Soviet Union doesn't exist any more, do they?  At least for the time being.  I personally predict that even though Bush claims to know Putin's heart, we're soon going to discover that you can't take the KGB out of the Russian, and maybe, just maybe they're finding pure greedy capitalism isn't all it's hyped up to be.  I believe Putin is going to prove to be a very dangerous and painful thorn in America's side, only proving once again that Bush's judgment is very poor.

I'd be glad to debate you further, but if you're going to continue to make it personal, pretending to know who I am, what I feel and where I get my news, then I'm not interested in communicating with you any further and once again refer you to your very own quote to another poster:  You infer that you know how and where I get my information.  If you're so freaking clairvoyant then what are you doing here?  The elitism just oozes from you.

I can't even imagine knowing that I was alive only because the abortion my mom tried to have failed.  I know my mom was given the option of abortion with me because she was older and they were afraid it would put too big of a strain on her kidneys.  Thankfully, my mom refused.

What I have NEVER understood is how abortion is not considered murder and you can legally have an abortion.  However, if a pregnant woman is shot in the abdomen and her unborn child is killed, the gunman can be put on trial for murder or if the unborn child and mother both die it is considered a double murder.  Why is it murder in one instance and not another.  It is still taking the life of an unborn child.  Just because one is wanted by its parent and the other isn't....so I guess that makes abortion okay since the parents don't want it....just kill it.

I'm sorry....I know you guys are tired of abortion debates.  This is just my opinion.  You all are welcome to your own opinion in this matter.  So don't bash.  If you don't agree....fine. 

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face is on that coin now.

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face has replaced Hillary's face on that coin now.

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face has replaced Hillary's face on that coin now.

If I'm misinformed or otherwise wrong in anything I've written in this post regarding the links I included or statements, please tell me.  Seriously.  I don't want to argue or fight or name-call.  I just want to discuss because I'm beginning to feel almost as vulnerable and distrustful of Obama's presidency as I eventually became under Bush's.

I know discussions get heated on this board sometimes, but I'm not trying to be argumentative.  I'm much, much too tired for that. 

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

Over the last few years, I think I know what it feels like to be a frog that's dropped into a pot of cold water, with the temperature rise of the water being so slow that the next thing he knows, he's DEAD.

I know I'm "there," but this "evolution" has been so subtle that I don't know exactly when it began and probably won't realize when it ends (if it ends).

For starters, this bill was apparently introduced on June 26, 2007, while Bush was still President.

The way it was being hyped, it seemed to be something that was designed to encourage public service in young people in exchange for financial assistance with college tuition, etc.  I thought it sounded like a good idea, something that might help to build character in young people and encourage and foster the kind of behavior we saw after 9/11, when Americans helped each other and showed the world what we're made of when it comes to helping each other.  To offer a young person financial help for college in exchange for some volunteer hours, I thought, was great.  Equally great, I thought, was the notion that this was voluntary and NOT mandatory.

Now, it's apparently for everyone, including seniors, which is still okay, I guess, if this is something that some seniors want to do.

However, one little sentence (shown below) is sending up a BIG RED FLAG into my little pea brain, copied below and bolded:

From:  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h1388/show

OpenCongress Summary:
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act would dramatically increase funding for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, including those for seniors and veterans. It also establishes a goal of expanding from 75,000 government-supported volunteers to 250,000, and would increase education funding and establish a summer service program for students, paying $500 (which would be applied to college costs) to high-school and middle-school student who participate.

In its current form, the legislation does not include a mandate requiring service.

Quite frankly, I have jumped (like a frog) from link to link to link trying to research this, so I'm not sure what its "current form" is today.  It apparently was passed by the House and now by the Senate just a few days ago (see http://loungedaddy.us/?p=725).

Yesterday, at first, when I heard of Rick Wagoner, GM's "sacrificial lamb," basically being fired by Obama, I felt very uncomfortable with that.  After I thought about it more, though, I do agree that ANY company that accepts financial aid from Americans should be scrutinized, including, if necessary in this manner (even if Wagoner's firing, in my opinion, was merely symbolic and not substantive).  What sticks in my crawl is the fact that Wall Street crooks have been treated like kings while auto industry workers are being kicked more and more every day while they're down.

I was never comfortable with any of the bailouts, and that was the one thing that Obama voted for that earned him a spot on the "negative" column of my pros and cons list.

I freely admit that my thought processes have been severely hampered recently (especially after two hospitalizations in less than a month).  It's much more difficult for me to concentrate and to word-find at times.  I had hoped that Obama would be the "people's" President (as opposed to Bush being the "corporation's" President.

I used to think (and frequently wrote) that the Clintons and the Bushes were merely opposite sides of the same coin.  I still believe that; however, I'm starting to think that Obama's face has replaced Hillary's face on that coin now.

If I'm misinformed or otherwise wrong in anything I've written in this post regarding the links I included or statements, please tell me.  Seriously.  I don't want to argue or fight or name-call.  I just want to discuss because I'm beginning to feel almost as vulnerable and distrustful of Obama's presidency as I eventually became under Bush's.  I know discussions get heated on this board sometimes, but I'm not trying to be argumentative.  I'm much, much too tired for that. 

To sum it up, on this day and at this time, all I can truly say with certainty is:

RIBBIT!!!!

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/04/17/news-bethcolapril17-04-17.html

April 17, 2006

Recipe for Holy War: Add two nut jobs and stir
All right. I'm now officially scared.

Having just read Seymour Hersh's article about Bush's Iran plan, it appears that we no longer have a case of the good guys versus the bad guys.

What we have here is the bad guy versus the bad guy - two madmen playing an international game of chicken, ratcheting up the rhetoric to appeal to their fundamentalist followers.

There's no doubt that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is mad in the head. In fact, it might help you remember his name if you pronounce it Ah'm mad in ee head.

He's got a uranium enrichment program going on so he can build nuclear power plants. But since he's crazy, there's a lot of worldwide concern that he's going to build a nuclear bomb while he's at it.

The U.N. atomic watchdog agency, which paid him a little visit last week, says there's no evidence that he's working on weapons. Even so, the world is feeling a little squirmy about letting Ah'm Mad In Ee Head carry on with his nuclear program. Everyone keeps asking him to quit it, but he's dug in his heels.

So that's one madman on the loose.

The other one - our very own nut job in the White House - is licking his chops over what he perceives as a stubborn challenge from Iran's president.

In last week's New Yorker magazine, Hersh provided a detailed look at Bush's response to Ah'm Mad In Ee Head. According to Hersh's sources, Bush wants Ah'm Mad In Ee Head to defy U.N. demands to quit playing with uranium.

You know why? Because our own madman wants to trot out one of our own nukes and bomb Iran's madman out of business - along with a few hundred thousand other Iranians, of course.

As one congressman told Hersh, The most worrisome thing is that Bush has a messianic vision. Bush is waging a holy war. He's on a crusade. And so is Ah'm Mad In Ee Head.

One nut-job fundamentalist Christian plus one nut-job fundamentalist Muslim equals one nut-job Holy War.

The administration's talking heads deny this, of course. They say Hersh is in fantasyland. That's funny. It's exactly what they said about Hersh when he broke the story about U.S. soldiers torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib.

And so the rest of the world's people are as scared of George Bush as they are of Ah'm Mad In Ee Head. This unelected president of ours has systematically been dehumanizing Arabs. He's imprisoned them without charges. He's tortured them. He's killed them. And now he wants to nuke them.

He's like a child with a serious case of ADHD. He's lost interest in Iraq and is looking for a new toy to break. Iraq, after all, has turned out badly, so he's doing what he always does when he makes a mess of something - he's turning his attention elsewhere and starting a whole new mess.

The rest of the world prefers diplomacy, and for a good reason.

If Bush attacks Iran, he will unleash Hezbollah - Iran's strong, well organized terrorist organization. And who do you think Hezbollah's first target will be? The sitting ducks right next door in Iraq - American troops. Then Europe and Israel will go up in flames.

So now I'm officially scared. On their own, Bush and Ah'm Mad In Ee Head are frightening enough. Working together, these two could create the Perfect Storm.

Let's have a drink

There are 1,009 days 'til Inauguration 2009 - if we live that long. That means we'll break 1,000 next week. Let's drink a toast to Day 999 on Friday. At 7 p.m. on April 28 I'll be in the downstairs bar at Catherine's Restaurant, 153 West Main St., Goshen. If you plan to stop in, let me know so I can tell Steve at the restaurant what kind of crowd to expect.

Beth's column appears on Monday. Talk to her at 346-3147 or at bquinn@th-record.com.

I mean, they are actually saying that is what it means, so maybe you better go and educate them!  Oh those silly Muslim terrorist guys don't even know what jihad means!

I just wanted to point that out.  I just don't think in these times that they mean it any other way, no matter what the other definitions are.

a trend.  I'm lovin' it.  Harrumph, pop, gasp.

I typed out several paragraphs and one swear word and the cussing police is on me like stink on sh1t.  Waaaaaaah!  Boo hoo!

Seriously say something of substance to prove me wrong as I honestly don't believe I signed up for this swearing lecture. Have a great day!

NOBAMA!

we discover that KBR (a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton) knowingly exposed United States soldiers to toxic materials in Iraq. 

Please watch this video.  It's only three minutes long, and it's heartbreaking.  Don't our troops deserve better from a commander-in-chief that claims to care about them?

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CBS_KBR_knew_dangers_of_toxic_1223.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2jhw_5ye8Qo

the onliest wun I C trashin' another board is U.  How bout them taters?

Rescuers Race to Save Katrina Victims

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 NEW ORLEANS — Rescuers along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the living Tuesday in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana's governor ordered storm refugees out of this drowning city. As looters stripped stores of items, sometimes in front of police, violence broke out in the Big Easy. At around 11 p.m. EDT, two gunmen with AK-47s fired shots into a police station. No one was hurt, and the men fled into the city's French quarter section. Meanwhile, two levees broke and sent water coursing into the streets of New Orleans a full day after the city appeared to have escaped widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 80 percent of the below-sea-level city was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped. The situation is untenable, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said. It's just heartbreaking. One Mississippi county alone said its death toll was at least 100, and officials are very, very worried that this is going to go a lot higher, said Joe Spraggins, civil defense director for Harrison County, home to Biloxi and Gulfport. Several victims in the county were from a beachfront apartment building that collapsed under a 25-foot wall of water as Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast with 145-mph winds. And Louisiana officials said many were feared dead there, too, making Katrina one of the most punishing storms to hit the United States in decades. After touring the destruction by air, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said it is not of case of homes being severely damaged, they're simply not there. ... I can only imagine that this is what Hiroshima looked like 60 years ago. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may still be stuck on roofs and in attics, and so rescue boats were bypassing the dead. We're not even dealing with dead bodies, Nagin said. They're just pushing them on the side. The flooding in New Orleans grew worse by the minute, prompting the evacuation of hotels and hospitals and an audacious plan to drop huge sandbags from helicopters to close up one of the breached levees. At the same time, looting broke out in some neighborhoods, the sweltering city of 480,000 had no drinkable water, and the electricity could be out for weeks. With water rising perilously inside the Superdome, Blanco said the tens of thousands of refugees now huddled there and other shelters in New Orleans would have to be evacuated. She asked residents to spend Wednesday in prayer. That would be the best thing to calm our spirits and thank our Lord that we are survivors, she said. Slowly, gradually, we will recover; we will survive; we will rebuild. A helicopter view of the devastation over the New Orleans area revealed people standing on black rooftops baking in the sunshine while waiting for rescue boats. A row of desperately needed ambulances were lined up on the interstate, water blocking their path. Roller coasters jutted out from the water at a Six Flags amusement park. Hundreds of inmates were seen standing on a highway because the prison had been flooded. Sen. Mary Landrieu (news, bio, voting record) quietly traced the sign of the cross across her head and chest as she looked out at St. Bernard Parish, where only roofs peaked out from the water. The whole parish is gone, Landrieu said. All day long, rescuers in boats and helicopters pulled out shellshocked and bedraggled flood refugees from rooftops and attics. Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said that 3,000 people have been rescued by boat and air, some placed shivering and wet into helicopter baskets. They were brought by the truckload into shelters, some in wheelchairs and some carrying babies, with stories of survival and of those who didn't make it. Oh my God, it was hell, said Kioka Williams, who had to hack through the ceiling of the beauty shop where she worked as floodwaters rose in New Orleans' low-lying Ninth Ward. We were screaming, hollering, flashing lights. It was complete chaos. Frank Mills was in a boarding house in the same neighborhood when water started swirling up toward the ceiling and he fled to the roof. Two elderly residents never made it out, and a third was washed away trying to climb onto the roof. He was kind of on the edge of the roof, catching his breath, Mills said. Next thing I knew, he came floating past me. Across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, more than 1 million residents remained without electricity, some without clean drinking water. An untold number who heeded evacuation orders were displaced and 40,000 were in Red Cross shelters, with officials saying it could be weeks, if not months, before most will be able to return. Emergency medical teams from across the country were sent into the region and President Bush cut short his Texas vacation Tuesday to return to Washington to focus on the storm damage. Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown warned that structural damage to homes, diseases from animal carcasses and chemicals in floodwaters made it unsafe for residents to come home anytime soon. And a mass return also was discouraged to keep from interfering with rescue and recovery efforts. That was made tough enough by the vast expanse of floodwaters in coastal areas that took an eight-hour pounding from Katrina's howling winds and up to 15 inches of rainfall. From the air, neighborhood after neighborhood looked like nothing but islands of rooftops surrounded by swirling, tea-colored water. In New Orleans, the flooding actually got worse Tuesday. Failed pumps and levees apparently spilled water from Lake Pontchartrain into streets. The rising water forced hotels to evacuate, led a hospital to boatlift patients to emergency shelters, and drove the staff of New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper out of its offices. Officials planned to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags and dozens of giant concrete barriers into the breach, and expressed confidence the problem could be solved. But if the water rose a couple feet higher, it could wipe out water system for whole city, said New Orleans' homeland security chief Terry Ebbert. A clearer picture of the destruction in Alabama became to emerge Tuesday: cement slabs where homes once stood, a 100-foot shrimp boat smoldering on its side, people searching for swept-away keepsakes. The damage in some areas appears to be worse than last year's Hurricane Ivan. In devastated Biloxi, Miss., areas that were not underwater were littered with tree trunks, downed power lines and chunks of broken concrete. Some buildings were flattened. The string of floating barge casinos crucial to the coastal economy were a shambles. At least three of them were picked up by the storm surge and carried inland, their barnacle-covered hulls sitting up to 200 yards inland. One of the deadliest spots appeared to be Biloxi's Quiet Water Beach apartments, where authorities estimated 30 people were washed away, although the exact toll was unknown. All that was left of the red-brick building was a concrete slab. We grabbed a lady and pulled her out the window and then we swam with the current, 55-year-old Joy Schovest said through tears. It was terrifying. You should have seen the cars floating around us. We had to push them away when we were trying to swim. Said Biloxi Mayor A. J. Holloway: This is our tsunami. Looting became a problem in both Biloxi and in New Orleans, in some cases in full view of police and National Guardsmen. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter in New Orleans, but was expected to recover, Sgt. Paul Accardo, a police spokesman. On New Orleans' Canal Street, which actually resembled a canal, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores, some packing plastic garbage cans with loot to float down the street. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store. No, the man shouted, that's EVERYBODY'S store! Looters at a Wal-Mart brazenly loaded up shopping carts with items including micorwaves, coolers and knife sets. Others walked out of a sporting goods store on Canal Street with armfuls of shoes and football jerseys. Outside the broken shells of Biloxi's casinos, people picked through slot machines to see if they still contained coins and ransacked other businesses. People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they're Santa Claus, said Marty Desei, owner of a Super 8 motel. Insurance experts estimated the storm will result in up to $25 billion in insured losses. That means Katrina could prove more costly than record-setting Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which caused an inflation-adjusted $21 billion in losses. Oil prices jumped by more than $3 a barrel on Tuesday, climbing above $70 a barrel, amid uncertainty about the extent of the damage to the Gulf region's refineries and drilling platforms. By midday Tuesday, Katrina was downgraded to a tropical depression, with winds around 35 mph. It was moving northeast through Tennessee at around 21 mph, with the potential to dump 8 inches of rain and spin off deadly tornadoes. Katrina left 11 people dead in its soggy jog across South Florida last week, as a much weaker storm.