The Purple Pinup Guru Platform

When purple things are pulsating on your mind, I'm the one whose clock you want to clean. Aiding is Sparky, the Astral Plane Zen Pup Dog from his mountain stronghold on the Northernmost Island of the Happy Ninja Island chain, this blog will also act as a journal to my wacky antics at an entertainment company and the progress of my self published comic book, The Deposit Man which only appears when I damn well feel like it. Real Soon Now.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

SPARKY: THE GOOD NANCY REMINDS US ALL —
AND MORE NEWS ...

Dear Sparky,

I am calling for the firing of FEMA Director Michael Brown. If you have been following the news closely, you may already know why, and you can stand with me in demanding that President Bush give the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast a better chance by signing this petition now:

Tell the President: We Need New Leadership at FEMA.

Like me, you may have spent your Labor Day weekend watching with terror and grief the suffering of so many thousands of our fellow Americans in Louisiana. On NBC's Meet the Press I saw Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, weeping as he told of the horrors he had seen as a result of Hurricane Katrina. But he also told of a second disaster -- the response of our federal government.

He told a story of how FEMA, an Executive branch agency, turned away three truckloads of water, saying they weren't needed. He told a story of how the Coast Guard arrived with 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel -- desperately needed -- only for FEMA to tell them not to give the fuel to Broussard. President Bush must give FEMA qualified, competent leadership now.

Tell the President: We Need New Leadership at FEMA.

Michael Chertoff, President Bush's director of Homeland Security, had just given host Tim Russert his explanation of why there should be no accountability for the White House. Mr. Broussard responded that determining who was responsible was absolutely necessary:

"And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership."
The White House has insisted over and over again that accountability is simply a matter of political gamesmanship. This could not be further from the truth.

Accountability ensures that our government can function as the American people deserve -- and for the past week and a half, it clearly has not.

Tell the President: We Need New Leadership at FEMA.

  • The President now says he is going to head the investigation into what went wrong. President Bush need only to look in the mirror and ask himself why he appointed someone unqualified to lead the agency responsible for protecting Americans against disasters like this.

  • Michael Brown was given the job of FEMA Director, with virtually no prior experience, apparently because he was the college roommate of one of President Bush's chief 2000 campaign strategists, who became his first FEMA Director. Brown was previously a legal counsel for the International Arabian Horse Association, where he was reportedly fired for incompetence.

  • Brown joined Chertoff in claiming that nobody could have expected the damage, though we now know that both of them were briefed as much as 32 hours before the hurricane hit that the levees were likely to be breached.

  • With thousands having spent days in the Convention Center in New Orleans with no food, water, or transportation available, Brown admitted to not even knowing about the people there until late in the week.

  • And finally, to top it all off, he blamed the victims for not leaving -- even after it was revealed that many of them were simply too poor to find a means to evacuate.

When I called for Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation over Abu Ghraib and post-war planning, it was not partisan sniping -- it was because I knew we needed a better Secretary of Defense for the sake of the mission. A year later, White House investigations have "cleared" Secretary Rumsfeld, and yet Iraq has fallen into even greater danger. President Bush's previous investigations have failed to provide any accountability or solve the problems that provoked them -- we cannot afford this again.

Time is of the essence, lives are on the line.

It does not matter whether Mr. Brown's replacement is a Democrat, Republican, or Independent -- this is a matter of competence at a time when it is most needed, not partisanship. We need qualified leadership.

Tell the President: We Need New Leadership at FEMA.

A sincere thank you, and I promise that we are working as hard as we possibly can to help those in need. You will hear much more from us on how we can help them in Congress soon.


Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Leader

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Note: Guess who is enriched by this no-compete bid?

Forbes:"Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Katrina Deal"
September 04, 2005
A Halliburton Co. subsidiary that has come under fire for its reconstruction work in Iraq has begun tapping a $500 million Navy contract to do emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and Marine facilities that were battered by Hurricane Katrina.

The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., was awarded the competitive bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters.

Jan Davis, a spokeswoman for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, said Sunday that KBR will receive $12 million for work at Naval Air Station Pascagoula, Naval Station Gulfport and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. It will receive $4.6 million for work at two smaller Navy facilities in New Orleans and others in the South.

The company has provided similar work after major disasters in the United States and abroad for more than 15 years, including in Florida after Hurricane Andrew.

But KBR has been at the center of scrutiny for receiving a five-year, no-bid contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the war began in 2003.

Halliburton has reported being paid $10.7 billion for Iraq-related government work during 2003 and 2004. The company reported its pretax profits from that work as $163 million. Pentagon auditors have questioned tens of millions of dollars of Halliburton charges for its operations there.

Late last month three congressional Democrats asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to investigate the demotion of a senior civilian Army official who publicly criticized the awarding of that contract.

Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, who had been the Army Corps of Engineers' top procurement official since 1997, was removed from her position last month for what the Corps called a poor job performance. The lawmakers said the demotion "appears to be retaliation" for her June 27 testimony before Congress in which she detailed her objections to the award of contracts for Iraq projects.

Vice President Dick Cheney headed Halliburton from 1995 to 2000, and Democrats have questioned whether the company has gotten favorable treatment because of his connection.

Sources

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Colleges offering admission to displaced New Orleans students

September 6, 2005

Due to the damage by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding, a number of colleges and universities in the New Orleans metropolitan area will not be able to hold classes for the fall 2005 semester. It is estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 students have been displaced. [1]. In response, institutions across the United States and Canada are offering late registration for displaced students so that their academic progress is not unduly delayed. Some are offering free or reduced admission to displaced students. At some universities, especially state universities, this offer is limited to residents of the area.

Overview

ATTENTION: For those seeking information about admissions for children into Elementary, Junior High and High Schools in California, please refer to the link listed to the right. [2]

The list has been split into five separate articles: three for U.S. States, a fourth for international, a fifth for schools in all locations offering space for faculty, graduate and professional students.

Also, each state is linked below:

Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | District of Columbia | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming | Canada | Other International

Contributing
To those college officials posting special offers for displaced college student, please consider multiple posting on the following e-lists as there is not yet one master or all inclusive site. Faculty, Graduate, and Professional Students

The list of schools offering accomodation to faculty, graduate, and professional students has moved. It is now Colleges offering admission to displaced New Orleans graduate students.

External links
Please help collect the information from the below linked lists to this article if you can. See the discussion page for instructions.
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Celebrities contribute to Katrina relief

After Hurricane Katrina passed across the United States, various artists and media stars have leapt at a call to action.

Sean Penn actually went to Louisiana. After loading down a small boat with his entourage, it was discovered one of them had neglected to seal a hole in the bottom. Penn was wearing a white vest rather than a life vest while bailing. After the motor wouldn't start, the crew paddled down a flooded New Orleans street. Bystanders jeered at whether any victims could fit aboard the crowded craft. No report on rescue stunts. Local authorities had previously been criticized for not allowing volunteer boaters in to help.

Morgan Freeman, whose home fared well, is organizing an online auction of celebrity items at charityfolks.com, to benefit the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Curt Schilling opened his home to a family of nine driven out of their New Orleans home. The Schilling family will provide housing for the Fields for a year while their home in New Orleans is rebuilt and repaired.

Some celebrities "graced" disaster zones with their presence in the days following Katrina.

Singer Macy Gray and television personality Phil McGraw visited Houston's Astrodome.

Celebrities visiting New Orleans include singer Harry Connick, Jr., CNN's Anderson Cooper, actor Jamie Foxx, singer Faith Hill, actor Matthew McConaughey, singer Lisa Marie Presley, comedian Chris Rock, actor John Travolta, and The Oprah Winfrey Show contributor Lisa Ling and interior decorator Nate Berkus.

Oprah Winfrey visited New Orleans, Houston, and Mississippi.

Donations with press releases

Personality Contributions Beneficiary
Jerry Lewis Half of Monday telethon Salvation Army
Shelter From the Storm (US TV networks) Friday telethon
BET Relief Telethon Friday BET telethon National Urban League and the American Red Cross
MTV ReAct Now Saturday MTV telethon several
Dave Matthews Band Sept 12 concert
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Grand Ole Opry Country Reaches Out Sept 27 telethon
Serena Williams $100 for every ace she hits on the tennis court
Jay Leno celebrity motorcycle auction
Barry Manilow matching contributions
manilowfund.com		 Red Cross
David Banner Sept. 17 benefit concert in Atlanta
Nicolas Cage $1 million Red Cross
George Clooney $1 million United Way
Ellen DeGeneres $500,000 + donations
Celine Dion $1 million Red Cross
Hilary Duff $250,000 Red Cross & USA Harvest
Michael Jackson charity single
Jay-Z and Diddy $1 million Red Cross
Steven Spielberg $1.5 million American Red Cross and Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund
Lance Armstrong Foundation $500,000 To assist cancer survivors, including those in active treatment, who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Celebrities in the storm

Singer Fats Domino was missing during the New Orleans flood but has since reached safety.

New Orleans who were out of town during the Hurricane included rapper Juvenile, who left New Orleans before the storm, Dave Pirner, who was visiting his Minneapolis hometown, and Master P, whose family members are missing.

Family of Neville Brothers have relocated to Round Rock, Texas, a small city adjacent to Austin. Threadgill's World Headquarters is the new home for Cyril Neville and family, with the band playing there September 9th. Family members cooking up Louisiana specials in the kitchen as well.

Sources

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New Orleans DirectNIC Offices, 'Outpost Crystal' visited by 82nd Airborne
September 7, 2005

A United State military truck rolls through the streets of New
Orleans beneath the offices of DirectNIC -- home of "Outpost
Crystal". Donny says Fair Use

The offices of DirectNIC, a New Orleans based webhost and services provider, were visited by armed members of the 82nd Airborne Division during an interview with Wikinews reporters Tuesday evening. DirectNIC has been the home of "Outpost Crystal" -- an information dissemination effort involving hundreds of volunteers throughout the world -- since Hurricane Katrine wracked the United States Gulf Coast last Monday.

Armed police and military are currently patrolling the devasted city to protect residents and property. While New Orleans Mayor, C. Ray Nagin, has ordered a "forced" evacuation of the city, it is not apparent yet whether these orders are being executed by law enforcement agencies. DirectNIC personnel indicate that they will be allowed to stay as they constitute part of the recovery effort of the city.

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Angry yet?

posted by Coat @ 11:59 PM  

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