New Orleans Chemical Depot Explodes

An explosion at a chemical depot jolted residents awake early Friday, illuminating the pre-dawn sky with red and orange flames over a city awash in corpses and under siege from looters. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Vibrations from the blast along the Mississippi River and a few miles east of the French Quarter were felt all the way downtown. A series of smaller blasts followed and then a pillar of acrid, black smoke.

Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director

The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Volunteers Needed NOW in Houston

Volunteers are needed at the Astrodome. They should go to the Main Street Yellow Lot.
Volunteers will work 10-hour shifts covering all hours after a one- to two-hour training session.
Donations are no longer needed. Please do not drop them off at the Dome until requested.
City officials also asked for volunteers at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, which is being readied for evacuees.
Those interested should go to the Polk Street parking lot. Volunteers will work four-hour shifts.
The following items are also needed: Toiletry Items Towels Blankets Sheets, Bedding Cots Air Mattresses.

Donations should be dropped off at Exhibit Hall E.
please read more at: http://www.click2houston.com/news/4931273/detail.html

[via DailyKos.com]

Great apes in danger of being wiped out

Man's closest cousins could become extinct within a generation due to poverty, disease, hunting and logging, according to the first-ever World Atlas of Great Apes.
An unprecedented survey by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) has resulted in a conservation map of the six remaining species and how their habitats are at risk.
As few as 350,000 great apes, which include chimpanzees, bonobos, eastern and western gorillas and Sumatran and Bornean orangutans, could now remain in the wild, the survey shows.

Condi's New York Adventure

All day Thursday, from the New York Post to several popular blogs, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice came under attack and ridicule for having fun in Manhattan while New Orleans sank and exploded in violence. By nightfall, she had cut short her vacation and returned to her post in Washington.
The Post started it with an early morning Page Six item about Rice playing tennis with Monica Seles at a court near New York's Grand Central. Then Drudge revealed that she had attended a Broadway play -- "Spamalot," no less -- the night before.
Wonkette and Gawker got in on the action, with the latter revealing that she had just been spotted shopping for expensive shoes at a chic New York City boutique -- where she had to endure another female customer shouting at her about enjoying herself in such a way while thousands were perishing down South. All of this sparked criticism at many other sites.

July 2005 article reveals New Orleans told poor: 'You're on your own'

A July 24, 2005 article in the New Orleans Times Picayune (not available online) reveals just how unprepared officials were for a hurricane, especially as it affected the city's poor, RAW STORY has learned. The first sentence alone reveals how little support the city expected to have for the poor in the event of a disaster, saying, "City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."
The article was first discovered in a detailed piece by the Philadelphia Daily News' Will Bunch.
The local Red Cross executive director was quoted as saying, "You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you. If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you. But we don't have the transportation."
Selected excerpts from July Picayune article by Bruce Nolan appear here.

Bulgaria to withdraw its troops from Iraq

Bulgaria's prime minister on Friday announced that his government is beginning preparations for the withdrawal of the country's 400 troops from Iraq.
Sergei Stanishev said that later this month consultations with the coalition partners will be launched on the details of Bulgaria's military pullout and its future participation in humanitarian activities, according to the AP.
"Our upcoming withdrawal does not mean that we are stepping back from our engagements in the broad anti-terror coalition," Stanishev said in parliament.
"We will remain a responsible and predictable partner of the multinational forces and of the Iraqi government," he added.

Why is the Department of Labor keeping U.S. citizens from having equal access to more than 50,000 IT jobs?

Why is the Department of Labor refusing to post on its Web site a database of more than 50,000 job openings — many for IT workers — for 2006? Are they precluded by law to do so, as a DOL spokesperson claims?
This issue is part of a controversy currently raging between the DOL and professional organizations such as the Programmers Guild about the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly the Department of Immigration and Naturalization) H-1B visa quota for 2006.
Here’s how USCIS defines an H-1B visa: “Established by the Immigration Act of 1990 (IMMACT), the H-1B nonimmigrant visa category allows U.S. employers to augment the existing labor force with highly skilled temporary workers. H-1B workers are admitted to the United States for an initial period of three years, which may be extended for an additional three years. The H-1B visa program is utilized … to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field. Typical H-1B occupations include architects, engineers, computer programmers, accountants, doctors and college professors.”
The DOL requires that U.S. employers who want to hire someone on an H-1B visa first submit what is called an LCA (Labor Condition Application). The LCA describes (briefly — sometimes just a title) the opening available. Thus far, the department has received 51,939 LCAs. Programmers Guild President Kim Berry and others are calling for the DOL to post these LCAs and make them searchable, so that anyone can apply for the open positions.

Denmark Tells CIA to Stay Out of Danish Airspace

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made it quite clear to U.S. officials that Denmark does not want its airspace used for purposes that are in conflict with international conventions,” wrote Møller, in response to an inquiry from Frank Aaen, the Red-Green Alliance military affairs spokesman [a Danish political Party].
Reports surfaced in May that civilian aircraft secretly registered to the CIA had been sighted over Denmark. Human rights organizations claim that the planes are used to transport terror suspects to places where torture is conducted.

Gas Shortage: Rumor, Not Reality

The gas shortage is a rumor -- not reality, said AAA of Arizona.
Spokeswoman Yvette Lopez says Hurricane Katrina has not affected gas supplies in Arizona. Instead, a transportation problem delayed delivery to some independent gas stations. Also, some drivers were panic-buying, causing some sporadic shortages.
"Panic-buying is when consumers call their friends and family and they all go out and buy gasoline," Lopez said. "It puts a huge demand on the existing supply."
Lopez also said drivers should not hoard gasoline. Instead, they should just continue their normal usage, and even try to conserve.

Editorials, Including Those at Conservative Papers, Rip Bush's Hurricane Response

Editorials from around the country on Friday -- including at the Bush-friendly Dallas Morning News and The Washington Times -- have, by and large, offered harsh criticism of the official and military response to the disaster in the Gulf Coast. Here's a sampling.

Krugman: A Can't-Do Government

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.
At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying. [thanks, Tom P]

FEMA suspends some operations amid violence of Katrina aftermath

Katrina's destruction is giving way to violence and anger in New Orleans.
FEMA has had to suspend rescue operations in some areas after gunfire broke out. There was also a report of a shot being fired at a military helicopter near the Superdome, where fights and trash fires have broken out.
Another 10,000 National Guardsman have been called into New Orleans and various parts of the Gulf Coast to beef up security and other operations.
Evacuations from the Superdome to Houston have begun, but thousands more people are desperately trying to get out. Heavily armed state troopers had to block a surging crowd that moved toward buses near the Superdome.
Outside the nearby convention center, dead bodies are mixed with crying children and adults chanting desperately for help.
There's no telling just how many people Katrina has killed. The official toll in Mississippi is up to 121. Refrigerated mobile morgues are cruising around Mississippi coastal areas like garbage trucks, picking up bodies left on sidewalks and in front yards.
New Orleans' mayor said Wednesday that thousands are likely dead in his city alone.

Destroying FEMA

In the days to come, as the nation and the people along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response.
Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.
Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness? Given our country's long record of natural disasters, how much sense does this make?
What follows is an obituary for what was once considered the preeminent example of a federal agency doing good for the American public in times of trouble, such as the present.
...This year it was announced that FEMA is to "officially" lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission.
FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national picture. That's because the focus of the national effort remains terrorism, even if the Department of Homeland Security still talks about "all-hazards preparedness." Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership and no mentors. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the "homeland security" mission. Our "all-hazards" approaches have been decimated by the administration's preoccupation with terrorism.
To be sure, America may well be hit by another major terrorist attack, and we must be prepared for such an event. But I can guarantee you that hurricanes like the one that ripped into Louisiana and Mississippi yesterday, along with tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, mudslides, power outages, fires and perhaps a pandemic flu will have to be dealt with on a weekly and daily basis throughout this country. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are, to an unconscionable degree, weakening our ability to respond to them.
The writer is director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.

Doctors Turn to the Associated Press for Help

Doctors at two desperately crippled hospitals in New Orleans called The Associated Press this morning pleading for rescue, saying they were nearly out of food and power and had been forced to move patients to higher floors to escape looters.
"We have been trying to call the mayor's office, we have been trying to call the governor's office ... we have tried to use any inside pressure we can. We are turning to you. Please help us," said Dr. Norman McSwain, chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital, the largest of two public hospitals.
Charity is across the street from Tulane University Medical Center, a private facility that has almost completed evacuating more than 1,000 patients and family members, he said.
No such public resources are available for Charity, which has about 250 patients, or University Hospital several blocks away, which has about 110 patients.
"We need coordinated help from the government," McSwain said.
..."We're afraid that somehow these two hospitals have been left off ... that somehow somebody has either forgotten it or ignored it or something, because there is no evidence anything is being done."
Hamm said there was relief Wednesday as word traveled throughout University Hospital that the National Guard was coming to evacuate them, but the rescue never materialized.
"You can imagine how demoralizing that was," he said.
Throughout the entire city, the death, destruction and depravity deepened even as the hurricane waters leveled off.
"Hospitals are trying to evacuate," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesan, spokesman at the city emergency operations center. "At every one of them, there are reports that as the helicopters come in people are shooting at them. There are people just taking pot shots at police and at helicopters, telling them, 'You better come get my family.'"

'Times-Picayune' Blog/Forum Reveals True Horror of Disaster Today

While the world, and the media, focus on major developments involving thousands of victims in New Orleans, individual horror stories -- and cries for help -- just get lost. The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, from the onset of the catastrophe, has managed to provide blogs, forums, and bulletin boards for readers to seek help or information. But this morning, the pleadings at one forum turned absolutely chilling. Here are a few samples from past few hours on Thursday (updated here from the top).

Karl Rove Makes Surprise Visit to Camp Casey

Driving his own pickup, with two trucks blockading both sides of the street, Bush Administration Senior Political Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove made a surprise sunset visit/photo-op Tuesday night to the half dozen or so Bush supporters camped across the street from "Camp Casey" in Crawford, Texas where Cindy Sheehan -- whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq -- originally made her stand requesting a meeting and an explanation from George W. Bush. [Includes photos]

U.S. confirms its troops killed Reuters journalist in Iraq

The U.S. military confirmed on Thursday that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was "appropriate."
Describing Sunday's incident, when television soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots, Major General Rick Lynch said: "That car approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious. There were individuals hanging outside with what looked to be a weapon.
"It stopped and immediately put itself in reverse. Again suspicious activity. Our soldiers on the scene used established rules of engagement and all the training received ... decided that it was appropriate to engage that particular car.
"And as a result of that the driver was indeed killed and the passenger was hurt by shards of glass."
Reuters cameraman Haider Kadhem, 24, like Waleed an Iraqi, was slightly wounded by flying fragments but survived in the passenger seat of the car, only to be detained for the next three days by U.S. troops. Kadhem was using a small video camera.

Release of oil reserves has little effect

The US government on Wednesday agreed to lend refiners small quantities of oil from its strategic emergency stockpile to help ease the shortage of petrol caused by Hurricane Katrina.
But the relief it caused in the overheated oil market was cut short when it became clear that the move would have little impact on the problem and was as much a political gesture as an economic one.
In fact, helping the US deal with the loss of 20 per cent of its oil production and 10 per cent of its refining capacity has become a global tug of war between three powerful players.
The first is US President George W. Bush, who is facing some of his lowest approval ratings of his career courtesy of Iraq and oil. But he still has his most potent weapon to use: a broad release of oil from the same stockpiles that are now lending refiners small packets of oil.
This time the reason for tapping the reserves appears almost exactly what Mr Bush says the 700m barrels are meant for – a genuine shortage in the market.
But what the US now needs is petrol rather than crude oil.
The US has no emergency reserves of petrol while commercial reserves are near a two-year low and dwindling by the day as refiners are unable to replenish their storage tanks.

Hurricane Housing

Hurricane Katrina has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. But thousands of people throughout the region are stepping into the breach to offer free shelter to those in need.

Offer Housing Click here to offer free housing

You can FIND free housing by clicking HERE.