Are "po folk" considered less than animals in America?
Oh I'm sorry we're not his base.

Date Published: September 14, 2005
College administrator loses job after remark about evacuees


The Associated Press
A Greenville Technical College administrator who called Hurricane Katrina evacuees "yard apes" during a staff meeting is out of a job.Renee Holcombe, associate vice president of student services, said Wednesday she no longer worked for the school but would not say whether she was fired or she resigned."I'm just numb and in a state of shock," Holcombe told The Associated Press. When asked if she meant the comment as a racial slur, she said: "Heavens, no."A message left for school president Tom Barton was not immediately returned Wednesday. Barton said Tuesday that Holcombe had apologized in a separate meeting. He said the comments were reported to him by staff members who attended the meeting last Thursday."We're going to rectify the situation and make it very much known that we won't ever tolerate that kind of situation - ever," Barton said.Barton said Holcombe, associate vice president for student services, made the comment at a briefing to inform college employees of their roles as Greenville Tech bused hurricane refugees from the Palmetto Expo Center for registration."It's even hard for me to repeat because I can't imagine anybody that would make such an asinine statement," Barton said. "It was stated that 'We will take these yellow buses and go pick up these yard apes.' My God, how bad can bad get?"More than 100 people have lived at the exposition center since last week when they were flown from New Orleans to Greenville as part of a mandatory evacuation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.Holcombe works in admissions and registration, Barton said."It's not like she just came to work," he said. "She's been here and she knows our philosophy and she knows the institution. I just can't imagine why she did it."Holcombe said Wednesday she did not want to discuss the incident because she didn't want "to add fuel to the fire," but she said she looks forward to the day her side of the story can be told.



What’s wrong with this picture?





A truckload of evacuees arrives at the Metairie evacuation center outside New Orleans












Gretna police officer Ray Lassiegne stands guard over a busload of evacuees after they were picked up near the Greater New Orleans Bridge just south of New Orleans.












Over 150 dogs and other animals were evacuated from an animal hospital after their owners had left town without them




Good thing they weren't po folk or they would have had a long wait.

Louisiana residents gather together in a triage area on Interstate 10 in Slidell, La., after being rescued from the Eden Isles subdivision after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.(AP/Mari Darr-Welch)Aug. 31, 2005

Incompetence? or something more malevolent?

Feds willfully obstructed rescue and aid efforts, rebuffed offers of assistance, sabotaged supplies and communications
The president of Jefferson Parish, La., Aaron Broussard, stated in an emotional interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sun. Sept. 4th that
We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday – yesterday – FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines . . .
Cutting communication lines during a natural disaster is evidence all by itself of gross criminal activity.
Doctors Hamstrung in Relief Efforts—Marilynn Marchione, MyWay News, Sept 4 2005
Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors while health problems escalate. . . .
U.S. Northern Command was in position, waited 4 days for Presidential orders—BBC, Sept 3 2005The link is to a video interview with Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly remarking that everything was at a standstill until He Who Shall Remain Nameless had returned from his vacation (playing guitar, eating cake, and grandstanding his latest Medicare scam to dementia patients) on Thursday evening, Sept. 1st, four days after Katrina made landfall, five days after he himself had declared the Gulf Coast a Disaster Area.
More about the National Guard deployment: Congress Likely to Probe Guard Response—Sharon Theimer, AP, Sept 3 2005
. . . New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state’s National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday.
California troops just began arriving in Louisiana on Friday, three days after flood waters devastated New Orleans and chaos broke out. . . .
Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops—Jeff Schogol, Stars & Stripes, Sept 3 2005
Note how the excuse of “unruliness,” “anarchy,” “riots” is repeatedly given as a reason for nonaction. These clowns claim to be able to go into war zones and “create stability,” “restore order,” yet they can’t even manage an airdrop of food and water to natural disaster victims in our own borders.
No airdrops from the military—and no relief from the Red Cross, the resource I thought any disaster victim could count on: Homeland Security won’t let Red Cross deliver food—Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sept 3 2005
. . . “The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans,” said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
“Right now access is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities. We have been at the table every single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New Orleans against their orders.” . . .
A contingent of doctors from the Washington D.C. area were given the bureaucratic runaround and could not get “authorization” to enter the area: Bad Communication Hinders Area's Aid Efforts—Michael Laris & Karin Brulliard, Washington Post, Sept 3 2005. The article also notes that a search and rescue team from Fairfax County was sent to an area of Mississippi that was not hard hit by the storm and wasted most of a week looking fruitlessly for victims.
[Chicago Mayor Richard] Daley ‘shocked’ as feds reject aid— Stephanie Zimmermann & Scott Fornek, Chicago Sun-Times, Sept 3 2005
. . . offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck. . . .
An affidavit posted at Democratic Underground notes that
I was managing director of a Russian-American telephone company providing rapid communications in the former Soviet Union and have helped with disaster communications projects around the world. . . . When the storm approached the Gulf coast I called offering simple suggestions to government types (since this was obviously from all reports going to be a terrible storm) of how to bring communications systems up as soon as the storm passed. I recommended bringing in Blimps with portable cell transceivers and VHF, UHF and other types of broadcast equipment and also equipment to aid in the search and rescue effort. No one was interested.
When the storm hit and everyone knew the worst had happened, I contacted the Red Cross, (someone there hung up on me) and then FEMA where someone told me it was all up to the DOD -- and I wondered why the Pentagon was in charge of FEMA? I was also told that FEMA was being privatized and a number of the experienced staff trained in hurricane relief had been told they had to resign from FEMA and then be rehired by the private company.
. . . Then Putin offered helicopters, search and rescue personnel, water purification equipment, and doctors and so much more. Had the State Department allowed the Russian humanitarian mission to proceed, Russian help would have been on the ground a good 24–48 hours before FEMA was in many of the poorer and worst-affected areas.
Everyone here now knows that all international help was turned down . . .
note: I will not accept criticism for printing “unverified sources.” Any semblance of a free press died back in November 2000 and We The People have been forced to comb the internet and foreign press for any real news. Because BushCo insists on manipulating what we see and hear, the true facts about Katrina response and effects will have to come from first-person survivor and responder accounts. Though the press does seem to be having a bit of an epiphany during this disaster.
Airboaters stalled by FEMA—Nancy Imperiale, Orlando Sun Sentinel, Sept 2 2005
As a flooded New Orleans sinks further into despair, up to 500 Florida airboat pilots have volunteered to rescue Hurricane Katrina victims, transport relief workers and ferry supplies.
But they aren’t being allowed in. And they're growing frustrated.
“We cannot get deployed to save our behinds,” said Robert Dummett, state coordinator of the Florida Airboat Association. He said the pilots, who range from commercial airboat operators to weekend pleasure boaters, “are physically sick, watching the New Orleans coverage and knowing that the resources to help these poor people is sitting right in our driveways.”
On standby since Monday, the pilots — many from Central Florida — have spent thousands of their own dollars stocking their boats and swamp buggies with food, water, medical supplies and fuel.
But the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not authorize the airboaters to enter New Orleans. . . .
FEMA “turned away police and doctors at the state line”— Sept 2 2005
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) - A group of Loudoun County sheriff's deputies heading to Louisiana to help maintain order among hurricane refugees had to turn around at the Virginia border when they couldn't get confirmation from emergency management officials, the Loudoun County sheriff said.
After attempting for 12 hours to reach officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Louisiana Emergency Operations Center, the deputies were told to head home . . .
The deputies were to be sworn in locally as law enforcement officers in Jefferson Parish, La. near New Orleans. Their assistance had been requested by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department through the National Sheriff’s Association in an Aug. 31 letter . . .
Thus was exposed the lie that “security” was a top concern.
National Guard not allowing aid into the city—from the blog at Get Your Act On
. . . There are supplies sitting in Baton Rouge for the folks in New Orleans, but the National Guard has the city surrounded and is not letting anyone in or out. They are turning away people with supplies, claiming it is too dangerous. If we have planes that can drop bombs on people in Iraq, certainly we can air drop supplies into the city. Our goverment is KILLING the people of New Orleans.
See the full story by a group that organized a supply truck, at the link.
Russian offer of rescue teams refused—CBS News, Sept 1 2005
MOSCOW (AP) The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency has rejected a Russian offer to send rescue teams and other aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a Russian emergency official said Thursday.
Russia offered to send two transport planes with rescue teams, helicopters and other equipment to help deal with Katrina's aftermath.
[Homeland Security Chief Michael] Chertoff blames refugees and the dead for their fate in an interview on NBC Today—Democratic Party Blog, Sept 1, 2005
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco requested federal assistance on August 28th Link is to a 4-page PDF file of her official communication with "President Bush” by way of the regional director of FEMA in Denton, Texas.
Another unfathomable fake-turkey photo op
. . . the president’s visit was a completely staged event. Reports on German TV showed open-air food tables immediately dismantled and taken away after his little photo shoot in Mississippi. Hurricane victims were left to fend for themselves. See the letter to War and Piece, Sept. 3 2005.
Bush faked levee repair for photo op yesterday—La. Senator Mary Landrieu, press release, Sept. 3 2005
. . . I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims – far more efficiently than buses—FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast—black and white, rich and poor, young and old—deserve far better from their national government.
Bush visit halts food delivery—Times-Picayune, Sept 3, 05
Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said.
The provisions, secured by U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, baked in the afternoon sun as Bush surveyed damage across southeast Louisiana . . .
Let’s not forget the photo-ops for Laura Bush, either. Peasants Evacuees had to wait until her arrival to get some food: Baton Rouge evacuees at Cajundome wait for first lady, and for lunch—Lafayette Daily Advertiser, Sept 2 2005
(I can't resist adding a link to a story and graphic about presideath Bushit stage-managing a phony photo exactly one year ago in Florida, following hurricane Ivan)