pretty persuasion
"It never is perfect after a natural disaster."
- Trent Lott
By the second day, the people that were there, that we were feeding and everything, we had no more food and no water. We had nothing, and other people were coming in our neighborhood. We were watching the helicopters going across the bridge and airlift other people out, but they would hover over us and tell us "Hi!" and that would be all. They wouldn't drop us any food or any water, or nothing. Alligators were eating people. They had all kinds of stuff in the water. They had babies floating in the water. We had to walk over hundreds of bodies of dead people.
- Charmaine Neville
"I think things are going remarkably well, thanks to people at the state, national and local level."
- John Cornyn
In a deserted subdivision, past mobile homes blown inside out and power poles snapped in two, there is an unassuming home with a two-car garage, porcelain ducks on the dining table and a swing set in the backyard.
The 26 men and women inside sleep next to their guns, scrounge for food, rely on handouts for things like toilet paper, and steal cars.
Then they get up in the morning and try to save the city.
This is what it's come to for the New Orleans Police Department, where authorities estimated Tuesday that 70% of the city's 1,700 officers are homeless.
- "A Home for the Brave," The Los Angeles Times
"I think we need to take a pause. There will be plenty of time for us to pick over the bones...We've got no choice but to pull together as Americans."
- Mel Martinez
When Congress passed a controversial bankruptcy bill back in April, it did not approve a proposed amendment that would have made it easier for victims of natural disaster to gain protection from creditors. Now, in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, some lawmakers will ask their colleagues to reconsider.
"We are concerned that just as survivors of Hurricane Katrina are beginning to rebuild their lives, the new bankruptcy law will result in a further and unintended financial whammy," wrote four US representatives in a press statement announcing their intent to reintroduce a proposal the proposal.
[snip]
...Jeff Lungren, a spokesperson for House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), told Reuters the bankruptcy law does not need to be changed. "The goal of this law was to insure that all bill-paying Americans, including victims of Hurricane Katrina, don't have to pay the debts of others that can afford to pay," he said.
- "Bankruptcy Bill Threatens Katrina Survivors; Relief Faces Opposition," The New Standard News
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