Mike Brown Resigns

Mike Brown has resigned as head of FEMA.

Actually, he started preparing his resignation letter before Katrina made landfall, but it took a week for him to figure out how to deliver it.

Why Does The Red Cross Need Volunteers?

The American Red Cross has put out the call for 40,000 volunteers to man the shelters.

I know this is a silly question, but this entire catastrophe has been replete with such incompetence that you wonder if anyone is asking the questions that should have obvious answers (such as, if a levee breaks, do we have a way to plug it before we lose an entire City?)

So here is my question: We know that there are tens of thousands of people in the refugee centers. We know that there are tens more thousands who are temporarily out of work, living in their brother-in-law's rec room, their homes and businesses still under water.

Has the Red Cross reached out to these people? Are there large numbers of the ably displaced coming back to help their own? Has anyone asked them? Has anyone stepped forward to organize them?

I know many, if not most, of the people in the Centers are elderly, or children, or disabled. But what about those that aren't? Are they being pressed into work? Are they helping out?

This isn't an indictment-- it's simply a question. I can understand the people in the region needing money and equipment, and specialized services now-- but I would think human resources should be plentiful.

Friday Quickies

....So my younger daughter, ever the delight, insisted on wearing a T-shirt to school yesterday that said:

[Name of Harry Potter Character] Dies on Page 582

There. I Just Saved You 4 Hours and $30

The name was actually on the T-shirt. I protested that it was unfair-- her point was that anybody who really cared read the book this summer (I did). And that the information was already all over the place. And that she was in high school, and any high schooler who would be upset should get over it.

To prove her point she Googled "Harry Potter" and showed me the results.

Oh, my.

46,900,000 hits.

How does that compare?

Bill Clinton? 40,300,000

Pope Benedict? 4,590,000

Thankfully, George W. and George Washington have more hits.

Still.

Not to feel badly for J.K. Rowling, but the numer of sites that are speculating on the next book is daunting. Literally thousands, if not millions, of these sites are laying out, in elaborate fashion, potential plots for the last book.

It must be somewhat intimidating for an author to try to surprise her readers.

I don't care. I've enjoyed the books greatly, and I'll be sad to see Harry and the group go.

....I don't understand the appointment of John Roberts as Chief Justice. As a conservative, I was hoping W would appoint Justice Scalia as Chief, then one of the conservative women to Scalia's seat.

And if Chuck Schumer and Barbara Boxer didn't like it, too bad. Frist should have killed the filibuster when he had the chance (and if the Dems threaten it again for a qualified nominee, the Senate should suck it up and abolish it).

....I've always thought Labor Day was America's true New Year. School starts, vacations end. football starts, new cars, new TV shows.

So Happy New Year to all.

....My town is adopting a Red Cross Center in Huntsville, Texas. We'll focus our fundraising efforts for their specific needs; our schoolchildren will reach out to the 150 children at the Center. Our thought is that by identifying with a small set of people we will be able to continue our aid efforts long after the media moves on to the next tragedy or celebrity trial.

....I've said a bunch about my feelings on this catastrophe in New Orleans, as have many others, and every day brings more anger.

I think the thing we are all frustrated by, Red and Blue, no matter at whom we are pointing our fingers is this:

It wasn't that somebody tried something that didn't work.

It's that it feels like the people at the controls froze, and tried nothing.

America is still a nation of doers-- inaction is a sin. If people had charged in and bungled, we would be more understanding. It was, and is, the failure to act that is unpardonable.

....And finally a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt:

"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."

New Orleans Observations

Some observations I've been screaming at my television:

...I asked Friday why they didn't try to block up the broken levees before the lake entirely flooded the City--I suggested air-dropping concrete median dividers. Seeing how quickly they did stop up the levee, using sand bags, made me even more infuriated. You can't tell me that they couldn't have done this the day after the storm passed. Every hour that passed poured hundreds of thousands of gallons of water-- failing to plug those holes was the single biggest cause of these deaths and all of this destruction.

....We are four years after 9/11. How could the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana not have an emergency plan in the event a levee broke, for any reason? What if it hadn't been a storm? What if it was a wayward tanker? Or a car bomb?

You mean to tell me that the Governor and the Mayor simply would have let the City drown under those circumstances?

....Everybody's concentrating on the "refugees", especially those that were in the Superdome. But my concern is also for the guy who used to work at the local bank who is now living in his brother-in-law's basement with the wife, two kids and a dog. Yeah, they were the fortunate, or intelligent, ones who were willing & able to leave-- but now what? No home; no job. Ugh.

....There are 4 separate areas of failure here.

First was the Governor's and the Mayor's failure to evacuate the City. W gets a pass on this, in my opinion-- everything so far points to him having taken this seriously. Indeed, he declared the area a disaster before the storm hit, which is virtually unprecedented. It was up to the State and local officials to clear the place out--including using the hundreds of City and school buses which now sit unused and under water.

The second failure, and the key one, was the failure to plug the levees.

The third, and the most embarrassing, was the failure of FEMA to get help to the City fast enough. We got food and water to Sri Lanka within 24 hours after the tsunami--we let our own people flounder for 5 days. Inexcusable.

Finally, there is the failure of the State and the City to maintain civil order during and after the storm. Again, inexcusable.

The fact of the matter is that this wasn't a natural disaster without warning, and we had the resources, the technology and the ability to avert this catastrophe.

We didn't because of a lack of leadership.

Truth be told, and I'm talking as a New Yorker here, if Rudy Guiliani had been mayor of New Orleans, this would have turned out different. Indeed, if George Pataki had been governor (and I'm no Pataki fan), things would have been different.

Hell, I'll even say this: if Hillary had been Governor, things would have been different.

They all would have ordered those levees dammed immediately, and would have brooked no nonsense about getting help into the stranded. Nor would they have allowed the looting etc. to occur. The proof of the pudding is in the eating-- New York has had 9/11, blackouts, World Trade conventions, political conventions,etc. Our trained police force and planned management, has avoided this kind of nonsense.

I know W and FEMA are going to take some hits on this. But the bulk of the blame rests squarely on the local officials, and most certainly on the Governor, a woman who has, throughout this ordeal, looked overwhelmed. I don't think I've ever seen anyone in my adult life less capable of performing a job than this woman, with the possible exception of Buddy Harrelson as manager of the Mets.

Sandbags. All it took was sandbags. It took two days for New Orleans to flood. And it could have been avoided, or severely lessened by some sandbags.

What a horror.

Friday Quickies

.....I just paid $3.39 per gallon for gas that cost .60 less three days ago. Why? Yesterday I said that looters should be shot on sight.

Price gougers should suffer the same consequence.

....Saw a bit of the Pam Anderson Roast on Comedy Central.

Oh, my. Two things came to mind (other than those two things):

She's a pretty good sport.

And this must have been what Rome looked like towards the end.

....Football season coming up. Last year I did a rotisserie league on line-- lots of fun, and much less work than a baseball league.

And, unless I win the whole thing, that will be the last time I mention my football rotisserie team. Promise.

.....I went to Columbus, Ohio last weekend. The flight back came over New Jersey, made a left, and flew very low up the Hudson. I had an incredible view of Manhattan, right outside my window. It felt like we were at building top height.

And we passed Ground Zero.

Still empty almost four years after 9/11.

A disgrace. And one that falls at the feet of Governor Pataki and Assembly leader Sheldon Silver.

I look at New Orleans and I have a few thoughts:

1-- NY was very lucky to have Rudy Giuliani as Mayor, and Louisiana is very unlucky to have its leaders. The attacks on the towers were sudden, yet NY rallied and reacted quickly.

New Orleans has known of its vulnerability for decades; they had a week's warning of Katrina.

Yet they appear to have been wholly unprepared.

Unprepared to perform emergency repairs of broken levees.

Unprepared for evacuation.

Unprepared for keeping civil order.

Unprepared to provide emergency services.

2- If NY, with leaders who at least had an emergency plan in place, can't rebuild two buildings in four years, how can the nation expect New Orleans to ever be rebuilt?

3-- If our economy is so dependent on the Gulf Coast area for oil, shipping, etc., as we now appear to be, then who was asleep at the switch when it came to protecting the area? Why weren't the levees reinforced, or made higher? Why wasn't a plan for emergency repairs in place?

I mean, I didn't expect a Tommy Lee Jones in Volcano kind of solution. You know, blow up the building so the debris stops the flow. But, please, how about something? How about taking a bunch of those pre-formed concrete barriers they use as dividers on highways and dropping them from helicopters, one atop the other until they block the holes, beaver style? Anything.

I mean, was it so inconceivable that a levee would burst? If not from a storm, from terrorism?

The original damage from the hurricane was bad, but not devastating. It was the flood waters, coming way after the storm was over, that has made this City uninhabitable.

The storm was inevitable. The devastation was avoidable; and,

4- Why has W, charging up the ranks of incompetent Presidents, put the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of relief efforts?

I want that guy, and his staff, doing one thing and one thing only: protecting our borders.

That's it. I don't want him watching a baseball game with a hot dog and a beer unless he knows where every single angry young Muslim male is sleeping.

Why not put the Federal Trade Commission in charge? After all, it's not like they're spending any time fighting price gouging.

....And finally, a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt (if nothing else, a decisive leader):

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

Looters Should Be Shot

The pictures on the TV are heartbreaking. All of these Americans, all of the devastation. My wife and I think of the people we met this Spring-- the waiter with the new baby boy at the Pelican Club; the hotel staff, so helpful and friendly; the people we met at Jazzfest; the waiter who taught me how to eat crawfish by taking one from my plate with a hearty laugh. These were working people; our thoughts are with them.

As for the looters, the old rule was looters were to be shot on sight.

That rule should still exist. I'm not talking about the clearing out of the supermarkets-- hey, that just makes sense.

I'm talking about the electronic store looters. The strip the dead of their jewelry looters. The animals.

Of course, why should we care? It's only money and we don't execute anyone for stealing money, right?

Well, it's not just money. It's lives. Not in New Orleans, not this week. It's wherever the next evacuation is ordered, and the ones after that.

Because if people don't think they can leave their houses and businesses, secure in the knowledge that their belongings will be there when they come back, then they simply won't leave.

The images of the animals looting will linger long after the water is pumped out of the streets. And there will be people who won't evacuate because of that fear.

And some will die.

The Governor of Louisiana has proven herself to be a 100% solid-core moron. She has been a dithering idiot when a strong leader has been needed. She hasn't been a comfort; she hasn't been a source of hope or strength. I've never seen a "leader" so devoid of leadership qualities. And her statement yesterday that looting was not only not a priority, it wasn't even a consideration, has contributed to gun shops having been emptied, a wild sense of lawlessness, and heightened danger to the innocents and the rescue workers.

This wasn't a crisis without warning. That she was so unprepared is a tragedy that is affecting millions of people. There's still time-- perhaps she can rally.

But first, above all else, New Orleans needs some law and order.