Thursday, September 01, 2005

Tim Naftali in Slate: "Chertoff's Department of Homeland Security demonstrated today that it could organize an impressive press conference in Washington...But on the ground in Louisiana, where it counts, DHS is turning out to be the sum of its inefficient parts. The department looks like what its biggest critics predicted: a new level of bureaucracy grafted onto a collection of largely ineffectual under-agencies." 9:38:38 PM   permalink   comment []

Anderson Cooper, speaking truth to power. 9:28:54 PM   permalink   comment []

Scott Pryor gets a nice write-up in GoTriad. He'll be playing at tonight's T&R benefit. 4:20:42 PM   permalink   comment []

Karl Martino: "Katrina hit on the 29th. We would not have had cash to leave town. We would not have had cash for public transportation. We would not have had cash for food. We would not have had cash for water..our choice would be stark: to give up and die - or be among those foraging for food." But...Guilford GOP chairman Marcus Kindley says it's Bill Clinton's fault. 4:14:03 PM   permalink   comment []

For the second day in a row, I'm wondering about the N&R front page. The spike in gas prices is important and newsworthy. But Katrina is to hurricane stories as 9/11 was to plane crash stories. I understand the paper's local news/fresh news strategy, but I question their adherence to it in the face of a disturbance-in-the-Force level tragedy. AP: Outside the Convention Center, the sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement. Thousands of storm refugees had been assembling outside for days, waiting for buses that did not come. At least seven bodies were scattered outside, and hungry, desperate people who were tired of waiting broke through the steel doors to a food service entrance and began pushing out pallets of water and juice and whatever else they could find. An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet. I'm waiting for the "Local Man Suffers Inconvenience Due to Storm" story, I can feel it coming... 1:49:37 PM   permalink   comment []

The ocean comes on shore and continues to act like the ocean. These are not gently rising flood waters, it's a storm at sea inside the Holiday Inn. Great footage from NBC. 12:42:05 PM   permalink   comment []

Dave Winer: "How would you feel if you were a refugee? A woman on the I-10 says angrily that she's a taxpayer, but no one is trying to save her life. These are Americans!" 11:14:01 AM   permalink   comment []

Tonight: a musical fundraiser for the T&R commission, 7 o'clock at New Garden Friends Meeting, near Guilford College. Three Chords and the Truth features performances by Si Kahn, Laurelyn Dossett of Polecat Creek, Riley Baugus, Scott Pryor and poet Amaris Howard of the Collective. Details here. 8:14:47 AM   permalink   comment []

Katrina aid: The Red Cross is a good place for donations, and not just because the group is headed by Greensboro's own Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. Instapundit continues his yeoman work in organizing blog donations. I've posted an ad at right that funnels money to the Red Cross -- thanks to Kari Chisholm and the Liberal Blog Advertising Network for their work. UPDATE: That was easy -- I had about $300 from BlogAds in my PayPal account, so I clicked on the ad and sent it to the Red Cross with just a few more clicks. Credit cards accepted, too. 8:12:35 AM   permalink   comment []

Mayor Holliday and City officials urge gas conservation for Greensboro. From the press release: "City officials are taking proactive measures to conserve fuel and reduce gas consumption for the 2000+ vehicles and gas-powered equipment in the City's fleet. Local residents and businesses are encouraged to join in this effort and conserve fuel where possible." 8:02:51 AM   permalink   comment []

Easley urges North Carolinians to conserve gasoline, looks for help from DC: "We are hoping that the Department of Energy will take some action as soon as possible. I have tried to get direction from DOE, but they have not yet responded." More from the Governor's statement: "The two major pipelines that furnish gasoline to many states, including North Carolina, have been affected by Hurricane Katrina and are currently without electricity...90 percent of our gas comes from these pipelines and right now they are not operational." 7:56:49 AM   permalink   comment []