Clipmarks | egoldstein's 'hurricane' clips

Doctor will not face charges in aftermath of Katrina deaths

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:06:45 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Her behavior seems to have been so heroic... from what i have read, this woman should be honored as a hero!!

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- A grand jury Tuesday declined to indict Dr. Anna Pou, the surgeon accused of killing four seriously ill patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Pou and two nurses were arrested last summer after Attorney General Charles Foti's investigation concluded they gave four patients a "lethal cocktail" at Memorial Medical Center amid the chaotic conditions that followed the August 2005 storm.

Cajun Town Bans Saggy Pants in Bid to Cover Up 'Private Parts'

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:34:19 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

DELCAMBRE, La. — Overly saggy britches are obscene, the Delcambre Town Council says. So does Mayor Carol Broussard, who said he will sign an anti-sag ordinance passed unanimously this week.

The new indecent exposure ordinance in this Cajun-country town of about 2,000 carries penalties of up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for being caught in pants that show undergarments or, in the mayor's phrase, "private parts."

"I don't know if it will do any good, but it won't hurt," said Delcambre Councilman Albert Roy, who introduced the ordinance. "It's obvious, and anybody with common sense can see your parts when you wear sagging pants."

The meeting Monday night packed the small trailer that has been Town Hall since Hurricane Rita swept in six feet of storm surge on Sept. 24, 2005.

Low-hanging, baggy pants have become a fashion fad, mostly for young men in the hip-hop culture. Several residents objected that the ordinance targeted blacks.

Tags: odd

Ever wonder how Much A Cloud Weighs?

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:57:11 GMT

clipped by: usmc6531

Clip Source: www.wsi.com

Let's start with a very simple white puffy cloud - a cumulus cloud. How much does the water in a cumulus cloud weigh?

Peggy LeMone, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, did the numbers. "The water in the little cloud weighs about 550 tons," she calculates. "Or if you want to convert it to something that might be a little more meaningful … think of elephants."

Floating Masses

Assume an elephant weighs about six tons, she says, that would mean that water inside a typical cumulous cloud would weigh about one hundred elephants.

The thought of a hundred elephants-worth of water suspended in the sky begs another question - what keeps it up there?

"First of all, the water isn't in elephant sized particles, it's in tiny tiny tiny particles," explains LeMone.

And those particles float on the warmer air that's rising below. But still, the concept of so much water floating in the sky was surprising even to a meteorologist like LeMone.

"I had no idea how much a cloud would weigh, actually, when I started the calculations," she says.

Outweighing Elephant Populations

So how many elephant units of water are inside a big storm cloud … 10 times bigger all the way around than the "puffy" cumulus cloud? Again, LeMone did the numbers: About 200,000 elephants.

Now, ratchet up the calculations for a hurricane about the size of Missouri and the figures get really massive.

"What we're doing is weighing the water in one cubic meter theoretically pulled from a cloud and then multiplying by the number of meters in a whole hurricane," she explains.

The result? Forty million elephants. That means the water in one hurricane weighs more than all the elephants on the planet. Perhaps even more than all the elephants that have ever lived on the planet. And that is a lot of water.

Tags: science, clouds

Bush's excuse for Katrina: who believes those damn weather reports?

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 21:45:57 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: I love it. They are actually going to defend Bush by claiming that weather reports are never dependable. This isn't the damn local news guy saying it's going to snow tomorrow. This is the head of the National Hurricane Center briefing the president of the united states!!!

I could just hear the conversation between George and Laura after the briefing:
Laura: "what did they say to you George? Did you understand it all?"

George: "sure honey...but you know those weathermen are always wrong. i'm going for a bike ride."

Clip Source: www.crooksandliars.com

Kate O'Berine:-Who believes those weather reports anyway

O'Bierne: I heard the fellow in front of the weather map saying we can't predict this could happen and then I heard Michael Brown telling us what his gut was telling him. Unfortunately, when I watched, I guess The National Weather Service fellow at his map, we all bring a lot of skepticism to weather reports, Chris. We're habituated to thinking weather reports are wrong....

Tags: bush, hurricane, hurricane katrina, katrina, politics

Video shows Bush knew about Katrina risks in advance of storm...

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:49:15 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: This whole "i didn't know anything" act of his may not only be pathetic, it may just prove to be b.s.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Tape: Bush, Chertoff Warned Before Katrina

WASHINGTON - In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage. Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

Tags: hurricane, bush, hurricane katrina, katrina, politics, chertoff

Hillary

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 04:19:31 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Thoughts anyone?

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton drew criticism Tuesday for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech in which she told a mostly black audience at a Harlem church that Republican leaders have run the House "like a plantation" and the Bush administration will go down as "one of the worst" in U.S. history.

In her speech Monday, Clinton, who has never served in the House, told the audience that "when you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about."

Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, was the second president in history to be impeached, also offered harsh criticism of President Bush.

"I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country," she said. Clinton also apologized to a group of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in the audience "on behalf of a government that left you behind."

Tags: hillary, clinton, politics, bush, congress

It's not all about the "facts"

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:38:21 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: An interesting post from Jeff Jarvis about the obsession the media has with facts and how it can cause them to lose focus on the important issues

Clip Source: www.buzzmachine.com

You see, the reason jouranlists were getting praise for their coverage of Katrina and New Orleans was not because they got blown over by winds or soaked in sludge or spewed and fixed facts (many of which go unfixed). The reason people sat up and listened again was that they heard human beings stripped of their dispassionate institutionalism who tried to tell the real story again.

How soon we forget.

Tags: katrina, hurricane, jeff jarvis, buzz machine, russert, meet the press

This is so hard to believe

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:25:11 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

GALVESTON, Texas -- As many as 1 million people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast, and hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated Wednesday as Hurricane Rita turned into a Category-5, 165-mph monster that could slam Texas by the weekend and inflict more misery on New Orleans.

Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland. Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland _ most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.

By early afternoon, Rita was centered more than 700 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, drawing strength from the warm waters of the gulf. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore Saturday along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. But even a slight rightward turn could prove devastating to New Orleans.

Tags: hurricane, rita

Another hurricane heading towards Gulf of Mexico?

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 21:52:37 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Rita, as seen from a satellite on Monday at 10:15 a.m. ET, is heading toward Florida at 14 mph.

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said Monday that people in some areas still recovering from Hurricane Katrina should be watching Rita. (Watch the video of where Rita might be heading -- 2:23)

"This is definitely becoming a concern for the northwestern Gulf of Mexico," Mayfield said. He said the storm could threaten Texas and Louisiana within five days.

Tags: hurricane, katrina, rita

Bush's approval rating continue to sink

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 21:47:38 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's vow to rebuild the Gulf Coast did little to help his standing with the public, only 40 percent of whom now approve of his performance in office, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

Just 41 percent of the 818 adults polled between Friday and Monday said they approved of Bush's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while 57 percent disapproved.

And support for his management of the war in Iraq has dropped to 32 percent, with 67 percent telling pollsters they disapproved of how Bush is prosecuting the conflict.

Tags: bush, hurricane, katrina, new orleans, politics

Bush exposed by Katrina

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 15:09:38 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.

In the chaos unleashed by Katrina, these plot strands coalesced into a single tragic epic played out in real time on television. The narrative is just too powerful to be undone now by the administration's desperate recycling of its greatest hits: a return Sunshine Boys tour by the surrogate empathizers Clinton and Bush I, another round of prayers at the Washington National Cathedral, another ludicrously overhyped prime-time address flecked with speechwriters' "poetry" and framed by a picturesque backdrop. Reruns never eclipse a riveting new show.

Tags: frank rich, bush, hurricane, katrina, new orleans

Bush trying to bounce back

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 15:01:39 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Maybe it's just me, but nothing he says seems even close to genuine.

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Hurricane Katrina struck at the core of Bush's presidency by undermining the central assertion of his reelection campaign, that he was a strong and decisive leader who could keep the country safe in a crisis. Never again will he or his advisers be able to point to his often-praised performance after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, without being reminded of the fumbling and slow-off-the-mark response of his administration after the hurricane and the flooding in New Orleans.

Tags: bush, katrina, new orleans, hurricane

Funny

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:25:08 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: avc.blogs.com

You Got That Right

Tags: bush, hurricane, katrina, new orleans, fred wilson

The FEMA crew

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:45:36 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

It sounds more like a Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson flick than the story of a man who was to be responsible for the fate of the Republic during the biggest natural disaster in our history. Brownie was a failed former lawyer with a degree from a semiaccredited law school, as The New Republic put it, when he moved to Colorado in 1991 to judge horse judges for the Arabian Horse Association.

Time magazine reported that Brownie's official bio described his only stint in emergency management as "assistant city manager" in Edmond, Okla. But a city official told Time that the FEMA chief had been "an assistant to the city manager," which was "more like an intern."

"Getting truth on the ground in New Orleans was very difficult," a White House aide told The Times's Elisabeth Bumiller. Not if you had a TV.

As Mexican troops arrived in Texas to help with Katrina refugees, Brownie was recalled to Washington, where he said he wanted to get "a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita." Yeah, it was hard to get any good étouffée in New Orleans given the E. coli. The president should find that little bullhorn from ground zero, put it right on Brownie's ear and yell at him to get the heck out of there.

FEMA was a disaster waiting to happen, the minute a disaster struck. As The Washington Post reported Friday, five of the eight top FEMA officials were simply Bush loyalists and political operatives who "came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters."

Tags: bush, cheney, fema, hurricane, katrina, mike brown, new orleans

Sean Penn helping in New Orleans

Sat, 10 Sep 2005 22:34:46 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein

Clip Source: entertainment.tv.yahoo.com

Sean Penn is a big target. But to dozens stranded in flooded New Orleans, he was said to be an even bigger help.

"I witnessed him rescuing up to 40 people," presidential historian and author Douglas Brinkley told the New York Daily News. "He was up to his waist in toxic muck...I'm not going to comment on Sean's trips to Iraq or Iran, but in this case, he was an American hero."

Tags: sean penn, hurricane, katrina, new orleans