You can always volunteer via the Red Cross by calling 713-526-8300… however,

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED ASAP TO ASSIST IN PREPARING THE ASTRODOME FOR THE EXPECTED ARRIVAL OF 23,000 REFUGEES FROM THE SUPERDOME SOMETIME THIS EVENING.

CLICK HERE– WWW.HARRISCOUNTYCITIZENCORPS.COM – TO HELP

Harris County Judge Robert Eckles and Houston Mayor Bill White are holding a press conference at this moment– we will live blog it here.

• 12:22– Eckles: "20,000 plus" people on way from Superdome to Astrodome.
• 12:23– Eckles: Buses have not yet left, but first one is about to leave; 7 hour drive expected.
• 12:24– Eckles: Astrodome will be a temporary (several day) transition point where people can get food, working bathrooms, sleep, but then be processed by Red Cross into better conditions.
• 12:26– Red Cross: Official just cited the number "23,000 or 24,000 people".
• 12:28– Kudos to Channel 13 for sticking with the coverage; FOX, CNN & MSNBC have all bailed, 2 and 11 weren’t on it when I checked.
• 12:30– Red Cross: Currently there are about 10 or 12 shelters in the Houston area for "non-Superdome" refugees, but plans are being made to consolidate them into one or two locations.
• 12:31– Red Cross: Volunteers will be needed; call 713-526-8300 to register.
• 12:37– Red Cross: Volunteers should call and register, not just show up at Astrodome, as this will only cause problems, however well intentioned.
• 12:42– Chertoff press conference begins.
• 12:45– Chertoff: Federal medical teams deployed in surrounding states and moving in.
• 12:47– EPA: Waving fuel standards nationally to protect fuel supply.
• 12:51– Rules governing hours truckers can drive without pausing waived so that supplies can be delivered… thank God we have professional bureaucrats to figure that crap out!
• 1:04– Questions from reporters begin.
• 1:06– The following exchange is a paraphrase– (Snarky Reporter #1): Is security situation going to be uncontrollable because Bush and the Neocon’s sent too many of our children to die in Iraq? (Federal Official): No, idiot.
• 1:13– Chertoff: Although there are some estimates of casualties, I suspect that our current figures are so inadequate that I wouldn’t even want to hazard a guess.
• 1:17– Conference over.
• 1:20– FOX is reporting that New Orlean’s Mayor has just stated that the death toll in his city alone is easily in the hundreds, quite possibly in the thousands.

You know the Left is cracking up when natural disasters bring out the politics in them instead of concern for their fellow man. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has written a short tract in the Huffington Post blaming Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and President Bush for indirectly causing Hurricane Katrina’s rampage through the Gulf Coast.

The link?

…it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.

So thanks to Barbour and Bush we now have killer hurricanes roaming the world slaughtering innocent coast-dwellers. What about the great Galveston hurricane of 1900, which killed about 6,000 people out of the population of 37,000 and devastated the city? Were we emitting tons of carbon dioxide back then, Mr. Kennedy?

This is absurd. A Category 4 hurricane is not a new, “global warming era” invention. This is petty “Green” politicking while disaster relief is ongoing. Unfortunately, this sort of tasteless discourse is more typical than ever from modern Liberal Democrats.

Our neighbors and fellow Americans in Louisiana and Mississippi have been hit by a very strong hurricane and are trying to save lives and restore some order. Instead of finger pointing, moaning, and standing around with jaws gaping we must get to work.

There are displaced persons to be sheltered, fed, and clothed. Disaster relief organizations need funds and volunteers. Order must be restored in devastated areas. There is considerable work to be done through the storm’s path but this is America, and we will take care of our own and rebuild.

Focus on bringing out the best in people and save the blame game for later.

E-mail the author

Excerpts from the must-read thoughts of Right Wing Nut House’s Rick Moran on the unfolding collapse of civilization we are witnessing in New Orleans:

At it’s core, human civilization represents an agreement between people not to kill each other. The only way millions of strangers can live together in relative peace in big cities is by recognizing the unspoken agreement that when walking down the street and approaching someone you don’t know, one refrains from the natural human impulse of fighting for your life. Usually, both parties are in agreement on this singular principal and the hundreds of encounters with strangers we have every day pass unnoticed amid the hustle and bustle of city life.

This is the compact of civilization. I won’t kill you if you won’t kill me. It’s maintained by something even more tenuous; faith. Faith in the strictures an organized society places on people who break the compact as well as faith in the people and institutions who are charged with the task of enforcing those strictures. This shared community of faith works pretty well for all except the social misfits and anti-social galoots who prey upon the weak like predators in a jungle. For the rest of us, we form little islands of support in this larger community – neighbors, our church, our sports teams – which allows us the luxury of feeling less vulnerable to the predators, less alone amidst the millions of strangers.

But something has happened in New Orleans that is unprecedented. We’ve seen it happen on a smaller scale during other natural disasters. The looting, the anger, the despair was evident in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in Florida. However, while the area damaged by Andrew may have been just as large as the swath of total destruction left by Katrina, Andrew never quite destroyed the spirit of community and shared faith which allowed Floridians to maintain a patina of civilization that kept them from lunging at each other’s throats and descending to the level of animals whose only thought was of obeying the primal instinct present in all of us for self preservation.

Make no mistake. Unless something truly dramatic happens in the next 48 hours, the situation in New Orleans will degenerate into something heretofore seen only in refugee camps and places like Somalia. People will start forming themselves into mobs for protection. And those mobs will start fighting both the authorities and each other for scarce resources as people get hungrier and thirstier by the hour.

[Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin]

Question– Where is the "Rudy Giuliani" of this disaster?

At present, I don’t care if someone screwed up and didn’t prepare for this as well as they should have; what matters is the growing sense that nobody stepping up to the plate and taking control of this situation now that is has happened.

LST joins blogHouston in endorsing Banjo Jones’ call to open up the Astrodome for Hurricane Katrina relief:

Houston, we don’t have a problem, but our neighbor does. Let’s do something. Let’s put "the eighth wonder of the world" back on the map. It’s sitting there, empty. Open her up and crank up the A.C.

UPDATED 9:20 AM– Courtesy the Houston Chronicle:

As Army engineers struggled without success to plug New Orleans’ breached levees with sandbags and water continued to rise, Texas officials have worked out a plan to bring up to 23,000 refugees from the Superdome to Houston’s Astrodome.

The Houston Chronicle has learned hurricane refugees trapped in the Superdome and elsewhere will be bused to the Astrodome in over 400 buses under plans being put together by state and local officials.

Rusty Cornelius, administrative coordinator for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the refugees being bused to Houston would not necessarily be on the road at the same time.

I’m sure organizers are doing the best they can, but it seems awfully inefficient to transport all of those people on buses.

LST recommends instead that METRO temporarily suspend light-rail service downtown and have our world-class trolley system work round-the-clock to shuttle people from New Orleans to Houston.

Record numbers of people would be moved at unprecedented speeds in an environmentally friendly manner, and countless redevelopment projects would instantaneously spring up to help revitalize the devastated parts of Louisiana.

The train can drive through water, right?

I am almost wary of posting this (for fear of courting bad karma or looking like a fool if we get hit tomorrow), but Rocky Mountain News columnist Paul Campos is asking some thought-provoking and worthwhile questions:

As the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, an obvious question should be asked: Why has al-Qaida… not launched even one follow-up attack within the United States? Even more surprising is the fact that no Islamic terrorist organization of any kind has carried out such an attack on American soil since then. [snip] This is especially true when one considers the sort of media-driven atmosphere of hysteria that would be created by a series of small attacks. Imagine if once every few months a terrorist group set off a car bomb on a busy city street, or opened fire with automatic weapons at a shopping mall, or even managed to poison a few fast-food cheeseburgers.

Given what sociologist Barry Glassner has called America’s culture of fear, even a few such incidents would have an enormous psychological impact in the age of 24-hour news channels and color-coded alert systems. After all, in a nation where basically freakish events like the Columbine shootings or the murder of a 6-year-old beauty queen can lead to endless discussions about whether "our children are safe," media-savvy terrorists could cause widespread panic by killing just a handful of people.

So why haven’t they?

Read Campos’ column in full, and then share your thoughts in our comments section– why haven’t they?

Matt Forge Toon Archives

E-mail Matt

This one is only going to get better and better as we learn more:

A driver for the Rev. Al Sharpton led Ellis County Sheriff’s deputies on a nine-mile chase at speeds up to 110 mph before state troopers stopped the car, authorities said.

The driver was rushing Sharpton to the airport after his visit with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Sunday at her camp outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford. The car carrying Sharpton and two other passengers was clocked doing 110 mph in a 65 mph zone on Interstate 35 in Ellis County in North Texas, said Lt. Danny Williams. The car ignored deputies’ attempts to stop it and continued speeding and weaving in and out of traffic before it was stopped, Williams said.

[Snip] Deputies arrested Jarrett Barton Maupin, 43, of Phoenix. Maupin told the officers he was hurrying to get Sharpton to the airport. Deputies impounded the rented 2005 Lincoln. Williams said his officers offered Sharpton and the other, unidentified passengers a ride to a hotel across the highway, but they declined and walked there instead. Maupin posted a total of $1,000 in bonds on charges of evading arrest with a vehicle and reckless driving.

[Hat-tip: Associated Press, courtesy Houston Chronicle]

Here is a little background information to more fully complete the picture:

• The arrested driver (Jarrett Barton Maupin, age 43) appears to be the father of Jarrett Barton Maupin II, a self-styled Sharpton protege and the subject of a glowing profile in the Phoenix New Times ("Like the Houston Press, but with only the heat, not the humidity").
• Jarrett B. Maupin II is a current Phoenix city council candidate.
• Maupin II won himself few fans at Phoenix’s exclusive Brophy College Prepatory ("Like Phillips Exeter, but without the snow and Old Money"), which he (of course) accused of racism. You can read the thoughts of his less than impressed former schoolmates here and here.
• I particularly enjoy the thoughts of Mike Slaven, who is outraged that mere years ago Maupin II was representing himself as a Republican– sorry Mike, he’s on your team now!

Jarrett Maupin II, oppressively wedged between two white classmates, sporting a quasi-GOP-friendly "empowerment via bootstrap lifting"-style Afro

Jarret Maupin II, Phoenix city council candidate, sporting a Democrat-friendly "pay to make my protest go away"-style Al Sharpton bouffant

Like I said– only going to get better and better.

Ann Linehan of BlogHouston makes a noteworthy observation regarding Mayor White’s "welcome mat" to evacuees from New Orleans:

Last night during KHOU-11’s Hurricane Katrina coverage, it was mentioned that many Houston hotels have put up their no-vacancy signs, with a notable exception: the city-owned Hilton Americas still had 600 rooms available (out of 1,200) and the going rate was $250 per night.

Of course, the first thing that popped into my mind was that Louisiana residents fleeing to Houston should go to PriceLine.com to get the $50 room rate at the Hilton Americas.

Then I wondered why the hotel wouldn’t knock down the room rate for what is clearly an emergency. KHOU also had a brief soundbite from Mayor White saying that Houston would be very welcoming to fleeing Louisianans; the city-owned hotel sure didn’t put out the welcome mat, as of last night, with $250 room rates.

Either Mayor White doesn’t know about this, or he doesn’t care. It’s simply appalling that a city-owned Houston hotel is pricing out people who may, at this moment, be losing their homes.

UPDATE: A reader claims that the Hilton America’s rates are, in fact, lower for evacuees:

My family arrived from New Orleans late Sunday and was able to secure accommodations at the Hilton Americas. In fact, the hotel offered a $109 rate for evacuees from Sunday - Thursday.

Melissa Harmon

Still, considering that rates are supposedly as low as $50 a night on PriceLine.com, I’d still say there’s something fishy here.

Far be it from me to EVER compliment anything regarding the Houston Chronicle, but their “SciGuy” blog by Eric Berger has been providing magnificent Hurricane Katrina coverage. You can start at the top and scroll down — there’s great analysis, pictures, and links.

If you all have been watching the news, you might have heard about the roof failure at the Superdome. Things like that really make me shudder. If the Superdome roof can’t hold, what hope does anyone else’s roof have? I’ve also heard of some buildings simply giving way. This may not be “doomsday,” but it’s bad.

The protective plastic-wrap that typically surrounds modern broadcast news is beginning to tear in the face of Hurricane Katrina.

Warning: The following links contain explicit weather geekiness and/or the use of a "freaking" cuss word.

• Interrupted CNN weatherman screams at fellow anchor. [Hat-tip: Bob Martin, video courtesy TVNewser]
• Citizen drops the "f-bomb" on FOX’s Shepard Smith. [Hat-tip: The Political Teen]

Stay tuned to LoneStarTimes.com throughout the day for all of the latest, critical developments surrounding Hurricane Katrina.

It looks like New Orleans may have dodged a bullet. This is not to say that Hurricane Katrina won’t inflict serious damage on the city and flood many areas, but the “doomsday scenarios” of the entire city being under water, and all homes flattened, were plainly false.

Before landfall Katrina reduced in strength to a Category 4 and picked up speed (it will probably be a Category 3 shortly). It also veered east, sparing New Orleans the worst side of the storm. Accordingly, New Orleans is likely receieving no worse than it did with Hurricane Betsy in 1965. That’s bad, but not completely catastrophic.

I’m still hoping that my apartment in New Orleans will be spared any major damage. I live in a 19th century shotgun duplex, with my landlord on the other side. She’s lived in the home for 60 years, and so she went through Betsy and even the 1947 hurricane before that. According to her, Besty failed to break a single window in the home, although it did tear off a part of the roof (she has since put on a double roof). There wasn’t any flooding.

Still, if debris breaks windows and the roof gives way, I’m still looking at some serious losses. What’s really frightening about that, however, is the fact that I’m one of the lucky ones. I don’t own a home, and I’m not in a flood-prone area. If the levies along Lake Ponchatrain fail, for example, the northern suburb of Metarie will be completely flooded. Slidell will almost certainly flood. Algiers too.

Let’s hope for the best, folks.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words…

Cindy Sheehand and Al Sharpton

This one is absolutely priceless:

Cindy Sheehan, Al Sharpton and the Media Pack that feeds them.

[Hat-tip: LGF]

Yesterday, my family and I attended the pro-Troops, pro-Bush rally in Crawford.  We did so because we wanted to show our support for the Troops, for President Bush and their mission.

I also, as an experiment, wanted to compare our observations vs. what is reported in the news. I find it odd that the minute the Pro-Bush, anti-Cindy sentiment could be highly visible, the coverage goes away. Granted, bigger stories have surfaced (Hurricane in New Orleans), but still, given all the time and space and money the Mainstream Media devoted to Cindy Shehan, I would think some obligatory follow up would be in order.

If you are interested in the follow up to this story, here is my account of the rally:

First stop, the Walmart parking lot in Waco. According to the material I found on the Web, Move America  Forward and the Protest Warriors were meeting there so they could caravan to Crawford together to the rally.  We pulled in just in time to see the participants lining up and getting ready.

What I saw: old and young and everything in between.

Common theme for all: “Friendly” Smiles and positive attitudes abounded.

The Walmart parking lot began to empty as the caravan began its way to Crawford.  I estimate that anywhere from 35-40% of the parking lot were these caravaners.

Next stop: Crawford for the Pro-Troops, Pro-Bush rally.

First indicator something was going on: traffic.

As we crept down the road, we came toward the famous “Crawford Peace House”, the lefty gathering spot for many years.  Today however, they had a little competition.  The house across the street from it had Bush supporters out front with signs.  The participants of both houses had lots of signs: in the yard, on the grounds and in their hands.

Further up the road, you could see tons of people walking around.  Some were riding horses, but most were carrying signs and flags. We could see the next block over.  Those people were traveling the opposite direction. My son characterized it as a “parade”.

We passed the Yellow Rose which had a lot of support the troops and Bush signs.  It also had a giant liberty bell out front.  Of all the sounds I heard, I will remember with most affection the sound of the bell ringing every once and awhile.

We couldn’t believe our luck in that we were able to find a parking place with shade on a side street.  By the way, the temp thingy in our dashboard read 99 degrees.  That’s in the shade folks.

We then had to walk to the Crawford Community Center, which was a blast!  A ton of vehicles were parked on the side of the street with sentiments galore written in.  Examples:

Cindy: Sorry for you loss! Visit the Alamo Shrine before you leave Texas

Thank you for your Sacrifice Lance Tim Creager

Vietnam Veterans salute our troops

You don’t speak for me Cindy

Thank you for your service Casey Shehan

We support our Troop and their mission

WE support our Troops

Bush Right, Cindy Wrong

Vive Bush!

Vets for GW!

Read more

As I’m certain all of you well know, a Category 5 hurricane, Katrina, is n0w headed for New Orleans. Fortunately, I’ve already evacuated to Houston, and it looks like the entire city is following behind me (or to other popular evacuation destinations).

There are a great many doomsday scenarios floating around out there, and I have no idea whether or not they’ll be true (i.e. the entire city under water). I certainly hope they aren’t, because virtually everything that I own is back in my first story apartment in the Garden District. If the entire city floods, it’ll be a huge loss. New Orleans is already a dying city to begin with, and can’t recover economically the way that Florida can.

In any case, the Times-Picayune has a projected flood map, which shows most of the city itself being spared from the major flooding. I hope this map is at least somewhat accurate, because it places me outside of the risk areas. Still, my greatest hope is that everyone heeds the evactuation call, and if not, they are safe in a shelter. I understand that the Superdome is being used again as a shelter, but I’ve also heard that study has been done on its vulnerability to hurricanes. That might be another disaster in the making.

In any case, I just thought I’d let our readers know that I’m safe. Keep New Orleans in your prayers.

Next Page »