Some chatter coming out through my network of news reporters from around the world on Katrina:

Some chatter coming out through my network of news reporters from around the world on Katrina:

"Twice recently, I've mentioned the experience of Cuba in dealing with that hurricane (which was a Category 5 when it hit Cuba) -- 1.3 million people, more than 10% of the population, evacuated under the direction and with transportation provided by the government, not a single person dead, compared to 18 killed in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and 70 more in the Caribbean."

"'The Superdome is not a shelter. If we were to lose power, if we were to lose plumbing facilities, if a storm were to hit and create flooding in the area; the Superdome would not be a desirable place to be.'

"Something somebody said last week? Nope. Something said on September 23, 2004 by a spokesperson for the Superdome, shortly after Category 4 hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast.
"It is offensive for former Presidents Clinton and Bush to call on people to make donations to help the victims. Bush didn't say that paying for the war and occupation of Iraq would be contingent on voluntary donations; he just went ahead and stole the money from our public schools, healthcare and other social programs.

From the Geopolitical Intelligence Report written by STRATFOR founder Dr. George Friedman:
"The Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn't have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region b cause, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers - which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans.
"During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn't come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn't flow out. Alternative routes really weren't available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.

"Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina's geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson's days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover..."

On MSNBC, there's a phone call from an aide in a State Hospital who reports that while the Tulane hospital across the street has been evacuated, no one has come to help the chronically sick people in his hospital.They are the poor. They are forgotten.

Fox: An articulate young doctor warns the worse is yet to come with public healh officials fearing that water-borne diseases can lead to an epidemic. What is being done about that? So far this next crisis is largely unreported!

"A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent.

"Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

"The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation." www.salon.com

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana;New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

DiversityInc.com asks: "Are white people "finding" something to eat while black people are "looting" for lunch in New Orleans and other flooded areas?"

"There were two different images-one shot by an AFP/Getty Images photographer and another from The Associated Press (AP)-and each had a different caption when published on Yahoo.com. In the AP photograph, the photo shows a black person with some food. The caption below the picture says he's just finished "looting" a grocery store. The other photo captured two white people with the caption describing how they were "finding" bread and soda from a grocery store, BoingBoing.Net reports. In both pictures, the subjects are swimming, holding food, with no stores in sight.

""The difference in words may be indicative of racial bias in the mainstream media. In a related commentary, Christina Pazzanese wrote in a Poynter.org forum a media-studies organization, that in the national "crisis mode" coverage of the aftermath of Katrina, there have been a number of professional challenges for everyone in the media around racial and economic sensitivity. The hurricane coverage also is taking place in a predominantly poor, black part of the country. "I am curious how one photographer knew the food was looted by one but not the other Š Should editors in a rush to publish poignant or startling images, relax their standards or allow personal or regional biases creep into captions and stories?" Pazzanese asks. We all should be asking that question too."