Prairie Weather

Help for New Orleans

Made a long trip today through several Texas cities, winding up (before heading west and home) in San Antonio and a visit to the great new SPCA animal shelter to see what's needed.  They, along with the Houston SPCA, rushed to Louisiana just before the storm surge and pulled out all shelter animals in the affected areas.  The San Antonio dogs and cats are making out like bandits in the new shelter which is full to bursting but unusually cool and comfy and smells of... soap.   Dog and cat "galleries" smell of nice fresh soap possibly of the eco-friendly variety.  The dogs are housed in two's and three's in large, cool, clean pens.  The cats have small, snug motel rooms  with glass so you can see them -- or rather you can see them if they're not communing with the friends to whom they have access. The shelter's parking lot was jammed.  The lobby was full of people filling out adoption forms. Every volunteer seems to be on hand.  Not a sign of anguish or trouble anywhere.

I'm not a big fan of the American Red Cross.   That's why, when there's a disaster of the scale we're seeing in New Orleans, I look for other familiar organizations which have gotten involved.  This time Craig's List has  compiled a good list..  It's here.

Between the time I left early this morning and the time I got back late this afternoon, the *!@*%$*! gas prices had risen from 2.49 to 2.89.   Car radio tells me CEO's are now being paid 430 times as much as their average employees.  Let's say you make $3,000/month.  Every month you get your check (before deductions) you know your CEO is taking home (let's see, check my math, please) $1,290,000 (before deductions but also not accounting for bonuses and stock options).  Revolution anyone?

The ark floats to Texas filled with rescued animals

San Antonio Public Radio had the news that Texas organizations reached over to Louisiana yesterday and pulled into Texas animals from shelters in affected areas.  Houston's shelter got a bunch of cats and dogs and passed about 90 of them along to San Antonio.  Everyone is helping get them adopted out -- the SPCA is staying open late to facilitate adoptions.

Poor muggy bayou critters -- they're going to have to get used to a different landscape!  Maybe some of them will be tugging at the ends of leashes at the Cindy Sheehan gathering in Austin tomorrow.

Unless...

One of Calvin Trillin's more trenchant looks at Bush is about his justification for taking so much time away from Washington.  It's in the latest Nation.  It's called  "A Presidential Explanation of Patriotic Loafing"

If terror changes what you've always done,
Well, then, the terrorists have really won.
Right now, when vicious terrorism's rife,
It's vital to maintain a balanced life.
So live your whole life now, not just a fraction--
Unless, of course, you've just been killed in action.

US needs Chávez' help, it really does

The New York Times reports today that the poverty rate is significantly higher in the US.  And even that Census Bureau count of a rise to almost 13% may be low.  Even conservatives seem to be catching on to the problem:

"It looks like the gains from the recovery haven't really filtered down," said Phillip L. Swagel, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group in Washington. "The gains have gone to owners of capital and not to workers."   

Brilliant deduction, Holmes...

Louisiana may be taking us back to reality.

The "unexpected" breach of the levees.  The environmental implications.  The shock and anger of people waiting in the stadium.  The evacuations continuing.  The questions being asked.  The oil supplies interrupted, prices surging. 

Years of bad decisions are responsible for what's happening in New Orleans but one person may experience more anger than most:  Bush.

That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.

"Gfactor," in "Accountability for Lake New Orleans" -- a good summary of the steps that led to disaster -- wonders about the extent to which this disaster may be politicized.  I think it's inevitable.  And deserved.  "Politicizing" really means "hitting home" and getting people to do more than sigh and feel pity for the victims, getting people to pay attention and keep their attention on what the torn city of New Orleans means.

"Politicized" means, with any luck persistence on our part, accountability and change.

8 amazing photos of New Orleans under water

A slide show -- here.

Of course the irony is that these are beautiful pictures.