« American Journalism in Crisis
Wake Up, You Clueless Fucks »

The Bridge to Nowhere

Before you read this post, give. If you’ve given already, give again. Remember, the Red Cross accepts donations for as little as $5.00. You can forgo that skim mocha latte today, or that sixth pint of beer tonight, right?

Once you’ve given, feel free to continue reading this post through the link below.

Thanks for helping those in need.

Now, on to business:

This post takes its title from an unlikely source: NRO’s The Corner, where Rich Lowry notes:

The bridge to nowhere doesn’t look so good at the moment:

Just last year, the Army Corps of Engineers sought $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans. The White House slashed the request to about $40 million. Congress finally approved $42.2 million, less than half of the agency’s request.

Yet the lawmakers and Bush agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-laden highway bill that included more than 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers. Congress spent money on dust control for Arkansas roads, a warehouse on the Erie Canal and a $231 million bridge to a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

How could Washington spend $231 million on a bridge to nowhere - and not find $42 million for hurricane and flood projects in New Orleans? It’s a matter of power and politics.

Alaska is represented by Republican Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a senior member of the all-important Senate Appropriations Committee. Louisiana’s delegation holds far less sway.

The bridge to nowhere. I couldn’t think of a more fitting metaphor for the situation that New Orleanians face today. Not only do many of the city’s bridges literally lead nowhere after being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, but the few avenues of escape from the city lead to a vast and unfamiliar land where hotel rooms are booked up, gas is sold out, and home is very, very far away.

Here are some of the links I’ve come across over the past few hours. Please add your own in comments.

Daily News journalist and Attytood blogger Will Bunch provides a searching look at the way poor citizens in New Orleans were failed by the government in How the poor got trapped in hellish New Orleans

Jeff Jarvis writes that the situation at the Convention Center in New Orleans is More than a tragedy — a scandal:

This terrible tragedy has now become a scandal.

Aaron Brown just asked a correspondent whether he thought he’d ever stand on the soil of the United States of America and report what he is reporting from New Orleans.

Through a lack of quick action and resources and any semblance of planning, the people left in New Orleans have been condemned to thirst, hunger, filth, disease, fear, crime, danger, and in too many cases death.

The convention center in New Orleans is a symbol of shame. How can we not figure out how to get water there? Babies are starving. People are dying. There is no authority; police have pulled back to defend their own stations or, according to CNN, deserted their posts.

Authorities — from Bush down to cabinet officials down to legislators down to state officials down to the soon-to-be-former-mayor down to those police — have failed these people. No one would argue that this was going to be smooth or easy. But the basics — water, food, safety, goals — are abandoned.

Political careers at every level will end because of this failure.

That is to say nothing of the storm’s terrible toll or the economic crisis that is building. This is about the failure of authority and thus civilization in the heart of New Orleans. This is a scandal.

Shakespeare’s Sister has an open thread on Katrina-related news that is well-worth checking out. She also has this excellent post; I’ll have more to say about that later tonight or tomorrow.

According to WWLTV at 11:41 pm, the Houston Astrodome is full, and is now turning away refugees

Salon’s Michael Scherer has an article detailing FEMA’s failings called Anatomy of an unnatural disaster (ad-view required)

Atrios points out that FEMA is directing funds to Pat Robertson’s organization (presumably to help assassinate looters)

Paul Krugman rips the Bush administration’s response to the crisis in A Can’t-Do Government

Jack Cafferty tells it like it is

Chris of Rowhouse Logic rightly excoriates Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff over this NPR interview

Fats Domino has been found, but there is no word yet on his family or on Allen Toussaint.

Anderson Cooper goes ballistic on Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. Watch the video on Crooks and Liars, and read more at All-Spin Zone and Suburban Guerrilla. Susie excerpts the nut:

“I’m tired of hearing all this backslapping from politicians. I saw a rat eating a body because it’s been on the street for two days. Do you get the anger that is out here?”

– Anderson Cooper to Sen. Mary Landrieu after listening to her thank Bush, Clinton, Frist, Reid, etc.

Philly Future founder, heavy-metal rocker, and all-around good-guy Karl Martino writes a personal post reflecting on what it means for poor families when disaster strikes at the end of a month.

To those who feel that now is not the time to “politicize” this disaster, James Wolcott has youa few words for you.

Norbizness compiles a Friday non-random ten in honor of New Orleans musicians

This Daily Kos post makes a good point:

The Right, as embodied by Limbaugh, Frist, Bush, Hastert, DeLay. They would move heaven and earth to save the life of one White Woman in Florida to combat the very idea of euthanasia (which technically it was not). A woman that a decade earlier had lost her ability to so much as ask for help, much less have coherent thoughts about the quality of her own life.

And they would sit on their ass and watch as tens of thousands of poor men, women, children, babies, and elderly bake in the New Orleans heat surrounded by water, sewage, gasoline and an abandoned city, now devoid of anyone with the means to have escaped ahead of the storm.

(via Feministe)

I know you’ve seen this, but just for the record. . .

I have to admit that I’m beginning to worry about The Editors. What happened?

This post does not suck.

Visit The Heretik not for a single post, but rather because the guy builds community among bloggers on a daily basis. And we need community right now.

Steve Gilliard tears into the bullshit in the way that only he can.

Booman demands accountability and says that unlike 9/11, “we have no Guiliani now.”

That’s it for now. What did I miss?

4 Comments on "The Bridge to Nowhere"

dave:

Anyone else hear NO mayor Ray Nagin’s radio interview on WWL a talk show? I can’t find a transcript… He really let loose in a big way. The situation is grim, and in his view, no one is doing anything.

09.02.05 6:35 am

Kate:

Nagin is right. This whole thing is a national disgrace.

Matt, the only thing I’d say is what you say about the bridge leading to filled up hotels — now it leads to a filled up Astrodome. Many of these refugees can’t afford hotels and don’t have credit cards. We have abandoned our most vulnerable citizens and thousands are at the risk of death because of it.

Five whole days later, Bush is going to visit and he’s going to “get the situation under control.” What a fucking joke.

09.02.05 9:39 am