New Orleans Storm Funds Shifted to Iraq; Canada Not Allowed to Help

The blogosphere runneth over with tidings of news about Hurricane Katrina, and I don't mean weather reports, evacuation schedules and Red Cross appeals.

First and foremost, a pro-Israel extremeist named Avnar Bosky believes that the destructive Hurricane Katrina is revenge by God for forcing Israelis settlers to leave Gaza. Seriously. His article is entitled Katrina and Gaza: is God speaking in New Orleans? Don't miss this priceless piece of doomsday paranoia. (I wonder if Pat Robertson has vouched for it yet?) Now onto serious political news.....
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From Kos of DailyKos comes a report that Canada loaded up a plane with top-notch search and rescue teams and desperately needed supplies to aid the hardest-hit hurricane areas....but the White House refused to allow the plane to cross US air space. From Kos....

Report: " 'A specialized urban search and rescue team from Vancouver will be joining the rescue efforts in Louisiana in the wake of hurricane Katrina....CTV Vancouver has learned that the team will board a plane Wednesday night heading to Lafayette, Louisiana, where local authorities will direct them to devastated areas.'

Sounds great! Except for one problem -- this team wasn't allowed to fly into the US, blocked by Homeland Security from entering. A Canadian reader sends this report:

'On tonight's news, CTV said that support was offered from Canada. Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called "DART" which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help.

Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina. So, everything here is grounded. Prime Minister Paul Martin is reportedly trying to speak to President Bush tonight or tomorrow to ask him why the U.S. federal government will not allow aid from Canada into Louisiana and Mississippi....

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of mass confusion at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.' "
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Editor & Publisher surveys editorials, and finds a chorus of newspaper voices, from the New York Times and the Washington Post to other across the country strongly criticizing the Bush Administration's chaotic, tardy effort to deter, mitigate and now save and reclaim New Orleans, its citizens and other devastated areas.

Writes Editor & Publisher, "As the truth sinks in--this is the worst natural disaster in the nation's history--editorials in a wide range of newspapers have now raised critical issues about the lack of preparation, the effects of so many National Guard sent to Iraq, and the response of President Bush to the tragedy this week.

One of the most stalwart conservative newspapers in the nation, the Union Leader of New Hampshire, today blasted Bush's response to the great Gulf Coast hurricane.

'A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease,' the editorial declared....." Read the rest here.
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And innumerable articles and blogs,including senior Bill Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal at Salon, Hunter at DailyKos, and Will Bunch at Editor & Publisher point out that the Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans published a series of articles in 2004, lamenting the cutback of sorely needed funds to buildup New Orleans storm protection systems, and "citing the War in Iraq as the reason for lack of hurricane and flood-control funds," per Hunter.

One June 8, 2004 article, "Shifting Federal Budget Erodes Protection from Levees; Because of Cuts, Hurricane Risk Grows," can be found at many blog sites this evening. Starts the story, "For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade."

For your convenience, you can find the majority of this prophetic June 8, 2004 article here.
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No one knows what will happen. but one thing is certain....the US badly needs wise, discerning, firm leadership now. Right now. Leadership that George Bush is simply not providing.

Editorializes the New York Times today, "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday....In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed....He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end."

And thank God the Times ended on the thought buried in all our fears, "Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal."