The Damage...and the Stupidity, is Staggering

I'm sitting here watching the coverage of the damage on the Gulf Coast, and it's almost beyond description. Major parts of the affected areas will be uninhabitable for months. This is what people in Jefferson Parish are facing:

If you live there you can go home next Monday, but only with photo identification, and only for a short time to collect clothes and other essentials. After that, you've got to leave again.

For a month.

There's no way to spin this. That's just horrible, horrible news. It's so bad there, Parish officials have asked the public to donate boats to help with the rescue and clean-up efforts.

If you're looking for a way to contribute, I'd like to recommend another charity: Heart to Heart International. I have a relative who works for Heart to Heart and they have a big effort underway to assist the hurricane victims.

The stories of the survivors and rescuers are truly amazing, but things are going to get worse before they get better. There's going to be a long recovery process and some very serious immediate needs.

There's also no shortage of stupidity going on with this storm. The looters ought to be shot, period. I hate to see law enforcement assets wasted rounding them up. Just shoot 'em and move on. Let's just take them out of the gene pool once and for all.

Fox News reported a local McDonald's restaurant also was looted with residents stealing burger patties and buns.

Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, looters waded through hip-deep water as they ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores.

One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store.

"No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store."

He wasn't the only one to justify the looting.

Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the daylight crimes go down. "To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he told AP.

The left is also winding up their anti-GOP rhetoric, such as this gem from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., well known environwacko (h/t Little Green Footballs):

Well, the science is clear. (Sorry Bob, but it's not-HC) This month, a study published in the journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced global warming.

Now we are all learning what it's like to reap the whirlwind of fossil fuel dependence which Barbour and his cronies have encouraged. Our destructive addiction has given us a catastrophic war in the Middle East and now Katrina is giving our nation a glimpse of the climate chaos we are bequeathing our children.

In 1998, Republican icon Pat Robertson warned that hurricanes were likely to hit communities that offended God. Perhaps it was Barbour's memo that caused Katrina, at the last moment, to spare New Orleans and save its worst flailings for the Mississippi coast.

Moron.

Now Americans are doing what we do best; helping those in need. I don't think you'll see the Indonesian, Sri Lankan, or Iranian Navy pulling into Mississippi to aid in the recovery efforts, despite the fact that we've bailed them out during their times of trial. Why won't they be there? Number one, we don't need them. We're the only country in the world capable of conducting an operation on this scale. Number two, they'd just get in the way even if they offered to help, which I'm sure they haven't.

It's going to be a long haul for the people of the Gulf Coast. Be sure to contribute to the aid organizations in whatever way you can.