Bush Urges Victims To Gnaw On Bootstraps For Sustenance

WASHINGTON, DC— In an emergency White House address Sunday, President Bush urged all people dying from several days without food and water in New Orleans to "tap into the American entrepreneurial spirit" and gnaw on their own bootstraps for sustenance. "Government handouts are not the answer," Bush said. "I believe in smaller government, which is why I have drastically cut welfare and levee upkeep. I encourage you poor folks to fill yourself up on your own bootstraps. Buckle down, and tear at them like a starving animal." Responding to reports that many Katrina survivors have lost everything in the disaster, Bush said, "Only when you work hard and chew desperately on your own footwear can you live the American dream." - http://www.theonion.com/content/index

How the Free Market Killed New Orleans

by Michael Parenti, 9/4/05

The free market played a crucial role in the destruction of New Orleans and the death of thousands of its residents. Forewarned that a momentous (force 5) hurricane was going to hit that city and surrounding areas, what did officials do? They played the free market.

They announced that everyone should evacuate. Everyone was expected to devise their own way out of the disaster area by private means, just like people do when disaster hits free-market Third World countries.

It is a beautiful thing this free market in which every individual pursues his or her own personal interests and thereby effects an optimal outcome for the entire society. Thus does the invisible hand work its wonders in mysterious ways.

In New Orleans there would be none of the collectivistic regimented evacuation as occurred in Cuba. When an especially powerful hurricane hit that island in 2004, the Castro government, abetted by neighborhood citizen committees and local Communist party cadres, evacuated 1.5 million people, more than 10 percent of the country's population. The Cubans lost 20,000 homes to that hurricane--but not a single life was lost, a heartening feat that went largely unmentioned in the US press.

On Day One of the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, it was already clear that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans had perished in New Orleans. Many people had "refused" to evacuate, media reporters explained, because they were just plain "stubborn."

It was not until Day Three that the relatively affluent telecasters began to realize that tens of thousands of people had failed to flee because they had nowhere to go and no means of getting there. With hardly any cash at hand or no motor vehicle to call their own, they had to sit tight and hope for the best. In the end, the free market did not work so well for them.

Many of these people were low-income African Americans, along with fewer numbers of poor whites. It should be remembered that most of them had jobs before Katrina's lethal visit. That's what most poor people do in this country: they work, usually quite hard at dismally paying jobs, sometimes more than one job at a time. They are poor not because they're lazy but because they have a hard time surviving on poverty wages while burdened by high prices, high rents, and regressive taxes.

The free market played a role in other ways. Bush's agenda is to cut government services to the bone and make people rely on the private sector for the things they might need. So he sliced $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. Plans to fortify New Orleans levees and upgrade the system of pumping out water had to be shelved.

Army Corps of Engineer personnel had started work to build new levees several years ago but many of them were taken off such projects and sent to Iraq. In addition, the president cut $30 million in flood control appropriations.

Bush took to the airways ("Good Morning America" 1 September 2005) and said "I don't think anyone anticipated that breach of the levees." Just another untruth tumbling from his lips. The catastrophic flooding of New Orleans had been foreseen by storm experts, engineers, Louisiana journalists and state officials, and even some federal agencies. All sorts of people had been predicting disaster for years, pointing to the danger of rising water levels and the need to strengthen the levees and pumps, and fortify the entire coastland.

In their campaign to starve out the public sector, the Bushite reactionaries also allowed developers to drain vast areas of wetlands. Again, that old invisible hand of the free market would take care of things. The developers, pursuing their own private profit, would devise outcomes that would benefit us all.

But wetlands served as a natural absorbent and barrier between New Orleans and the storms riding in from across the sea. And for some years now, the wetlands have been disappearing at a frightening pace on the Gulf' coast. All this was of no concern to the reactionaries in the White House.

As for the rescue operation, the free-marketeers like to say that relief to the more unfortunate among us should be left to private charity. It was a favorite preachment of President Ronald Reagan that "private charity can do the job." And for the first few days that indeed seemed to be the policy with the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The federal government was nowhere in sight but the Red Cross went into action. Its message: "Don't send food or blankets; send money." The Salvation Army also began to muster up its aging troops. Meanwhile Pat Robertson and the Christian Broadcasting Network--taking a moment off from God's work of pushing John Roberts nomination to the Supreme Court--called for donations and announced "Operation Blessing" which consisted of a highly publicized but totally inadequate shipment of canned goods and bibles.

By Day Three even the myopic media began to realize the immense failure of the rescue operation. People were dying because relief had not arrived. The authorities seemed more concerned with the looting than with rescuing people, more concerned with "crowd control," which consisted of corralling thousands into barren open lots devoid of decent shelter, and not allowing them to leave.

Questions arose that the free market seem incapable of answering: Who was in charge of the rescue operation? Why so few helicopters and just a scattering of Coast Guard rescuers? Why did it take helicopters five hours to lift six people out of one hospital? When would the rescue operation gather some steam? Where were the feds? The state troopers? The National Guard? Where were the buses and trucks? the shelters and portable toilets? The medical supplies and water?

And where was Homeland Security? What has Homeland Security done with the $33.8 billions allocated to it in fiscal 2005? By Day Four, almost all the major media were reporting that the federal government's response was "a national disgrace." Meanwhile George Bush finally made his photo-op appearance in a few well-chosen disaster areas--before romping off to play golf.

In a moment of delicious (and perhaps mischievous) irony, offers of foreign aid were tendered by France, Germany, Venezuela, and several other nations. Russia offered to send two plane loads of food and other materials for the victims. Cuba--which has a record of sending doctors to dozens of countries, including a thankful Sri Lanka during the tsunami disaster--offered 1,100 doctors. Predictably, all these proposals were sharply declined by the US State Department.

America the Beautiful and Powerful, America the Supreme Rescuer and World Leader, America the Purveyor of Global Prosperity could not accept foreign aid from others. That would be a most deflating and insulting role reversal. Were the French looking for another punch in the nose? Were the Cubans up to their old subversive tricks?

Besides, to have accepted foreign aid would have been to admit the truth--that the Bushite reactionaries had neither the desire nor the decency to provide for ordinary citizens, not even those in the most extreme straits.

I recently heard someone complain, "Bush is trying to save the world when he can't even take care of his own people here at home." Not quite true. He certainly does take very good care of his own people, that tiny fraction of one percent, the superrich. It's just that the working people of New Orleans do not number among them.

-------
Michael Parenti's recent books include Superpatriotism (City Lights) and The Assassination of Julius Caesar (New
Press), both available in paperback. His forthcoming The Culture Struggle (Seven Stories Press) will be published in the fall. For more information visit: www.michaelparenti.org.

CHRONOLOGY.... Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep:

*

(Joe Allbaugh: 07/25/1952 Oklahoma City OK; appointed to FEMA on 1/04/2001 and the chart is singing.) January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

*
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2004-09-22/cover.html
April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."

*
www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/convert%20to%20tables/Preliminary%20Public%20Health%20Issuestf.htm
2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

*
(12/16/20020
December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.

*
http://www.fema.gov/about/history.sht
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.

*
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fema1sep01,1,4695939.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

*
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2004-09-22/cover.html
Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration.... This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."

*
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/30/212451/290
June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "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."

*
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050606/ai_n14657367
June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

*

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.

A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

- from: Washington Monthly

Why New Orleans is in deep water

by Molly Ivins, 9/1/2005, Creators Syndicate

AUSTIN, Texas -- Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find myself taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner, glimpsing a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved friends and the city, and how they are now.

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or, "There's nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to hurricanes is the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once stood as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the water. The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a political party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to play, "The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference with the natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem, cutting off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's delta.

But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term policies like letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God, there are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed those policies--ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that New Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a Category 3 or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 325.

Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

The commander of the corps' New Orleans district also immediately instituted a hiring freeze and canceled the annual corps picnic.

Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as "Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.

In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from basing policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans--it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the devastation left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen. Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more short-handed.

The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-water vehicles, Humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent abroad. (I hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)

This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go into Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.

The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and flooding the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq."

This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government policies, not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about our lives.

Bush's Waterloo

by Christopher Kevill, 9/2/05

With the growing chorus of criticism surrounding the relief efforts in New Orleans, it seems that Bush has blown a huge opportunity to make political gains. Usually, disasters are tailor-made situations that show the leader taking charge, helping people in need and doling out public money. For example, Jeb Bush won heaps of political capital in the wake of last years series of hurricanes and it probably helped him win Florida in 2004.

This time around though, the Bush govt has punted the ball badly. Not only were they slow to respond and appeared absent and uncaring while the disaster was unfolding (Condi Rice shopping for shoes at Ferragamo in NY and going to see Spamalot this week), but they've also been properly criticized for cutting the capital budget for infrastructure improvements to the levees that might have prevented this flooding from reaching this state.

It reminds me of how the Somoza regime in Nicaragua was thrown out by the Sandinista Revolution in 1977. Somoza's downfall is usually directly linked to the earthquake that struck the capital Managua in 1972. The corruption and incompetence of the Somoza dictatorship was laid bare in the recovery and reconstruction efforts. Aid that poured in from all over the world was siphoned into the pockets of govt officials.

The fallout over the earthquake sparked the flames for the revolutionary guerrilla movement. Five years later, Somoza was gone.

The Bush govt will be gone in any event in 2008 but one wonders if there will be legal proceedings launched that attempts to hasten that process.

Political Implications of Natural Disasters

by Mark Andrew Holmes, 9/2/2005

Bush had quite a bit of baggage already going into this thing. Three years from now, any Democratic candidate for president worth his or her salt will, I think, be trying to hang Bush around the Republican nominee's neck like an anvil, harping on the themes of Iraq, Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson, Halliburton's bid-exempt contracts, global warming, Social Security and all the stuff like reproductive health policy and drilling in the National Wildlife Refuge that Bush spent eight years ramming down our throats, and also this pitiful response of his to Hurricane Katrina. If the economy goes into another downturn, that, too. The federal budget Bush messed up will be touchy because balancing it will likely involve another tax increase (always unpopular) like the one Bill Clinton passed with no Republican support in Congress at all.

FEMA was established 07/20/1979 executive order by President Jimmy Carter

http://www.fema.gov/library/eo12148.shtm

The Hurricane Data Center gives Aug 23th around 05:00 PM 23N02 and 055W30 for the beggining of the storm.

Hurricane Katrina came ashore close to Fort Lauderdale, FL Aug 26th between 6:30 pm and 6:45 pm EDT

Hurricane Katrina came ashore just east of Grand Isle, Louisiana at 5:34 am CDT Aug 29th

The gigantic storm, which as it made landfall was roughly the size of the state of Florida, roared ashore near the coastal town of Buras, La. at 6:10 am CDT Aug 29th

(The 6:10 AM Chart is considered to be THE Katrina chart for New Orleans)

Louisiana Senator Mary Landreau (D) born Nov 23, 1955 in Arlington, VA

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco (D) Dec 15, 1952 in Coteau, LA (New Iberia)

New Orleans Mayor Clarence Ray Nagin (D) born June 11, 1956 in New Orleans, LA

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) born October 22, 1947 in Yazoo City, Mississippi

Alabama Governor Bob Riley (R) born October 3, 1944 Ashland, Alabama,

FEMA Executive Order 12148 July 20, 1979 signed at 2:18 pm EDT Washington by President Jimmy Carter

Superdome opened Aug 3, 1975 New Orleans, LA

The Superdome was established "as a shelter of last resort" for people who couldn't get out of town.

Aug 28th It opened at 8 a.m. Sunday to house residents evacuated from nursing homes and other medical facilities but by noon, it opened the doors to anyone seeking shelter.

Late in the day, people were still standing in line to get into the Dome. Police said they were searching everyone coming into the building and seized several guns and other weapons, as well as alcoholic beverages, which are prohibited at shelters.

Aug 31st New Orleans Mayor sends out a tearful SOS at 1:25 pm CDT (CNN live) "Hundreds maybe thousands are dead" as he pleads in desperation for help.

Aug 31st at 6pm CDT Bus caravan is scheduled to leave New Orleans for Houston Astrodome.

Sept 1st at 11 am CDT CNN reports FEMA is quitting boat rescues because of safety of volunteers. People being rescued are getting to violent to handle.

Sept 1st at 7:11 pm CDT the National Guard reaches Biloxi, Mississippi

Astrodome opened April 12, 1965 Houston Texas

Sept 1st One caravan of 11 buses arrived late yesterday full of people who had been on the road for two days, having been turned away by several filled-to-capacity shelters in Louisiana. First Bus Arrived at 9:41 pm CDT and was considered a "renegade bus" and not part of the convoy. In Houston, they are being greeted by a county that has mobilized virtually all of its resources to find places to house them, feed them and treat them for everything from tetanus to hepatitis.

The Houston Fire Marshal declares the facilty has reached full capacity.

Late last night, about 11,000 people - some of whom had come from the New Orleans Superdome - were being processed at Houston's Astrodome or already sleeping on cots on the field level.

At 12:30 a.m. local time, dozens of buses were still streaming into the stadium parking lot.

Reports circulated late last night that the Astrodome had reached capacity and refugees were being turned away. Pat Trahan, a spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White, later clarified that although people were still being admitted, at some point no more refugees would be allowed in and instead would be sent to shelters in Dallas.

About 1 AM today, a doctor at the Astrodome said the medical staff was overwhelmed by the crush of people and their range of ailments. "We have a crisis," Dr. Steven Glorsky said.

We have already discussed the generosity and grace of Texas during Katrina's aftermath. Looks like Arkansas knows a thing or two about disaster relief too. "What is wrong with America can be fixed with what is right with America." - Bill Clinton

Huckabee's Ark
Arkansas welcomes refugees from Katrina, and soon Rita.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-- They started arriving before Katrina and they are still coming today. Hurricane refugees first headed to places like the Red Cross shelter downwind from the livestock barn at the Arkansas state fairgrounds. They wouldn't stay long--just a few days till the hurricane blew over, past, or around New Orleans, as all hurricanes seemed to do.

Then Katrina hit. The levees gave way. All hell broke loose on the Gulf Coast, and evacuees sought a little piece of heaven in Arkansas. Or at least a little peace of mind.

But the surest sign of trouble was when FEMA called. Two days after the water started rising on the bayou, with Arkansas playing host to tens of thousands of refugees, an official with the Federal Emergency Management Agency phoned Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's office. Mr. FEMA asked a member of the governor's staff if, oh, by chance, his state had taken in any folks from the storm.

Huh? Hel-lo? Ever thought of picking up a paper or turning on the TV? Or reading your email?

"I called the folks at the White House and said, 'This is insane,'" Gov. Huckabee said. "'You guys sent tens of thousands of people here, airlifted them out of New Orleans to Arkansas.' . . . I knew then we were pretty much on our own."

Luckily, Arkansas wasn't counting on anybody but Arkansas. Within a day of Katrina's landfall, Gov. Huckabee organized state agencies into one all-purpose disaster-assistance team, set up a command center next to his office, and enlisted the state's countless churches to do what churches do--take care of the least fortunate among us. The governor learned that most of the churches were already on the case well ahead of the state.

That first week after Hurricane Katrina, somewhere between 60,000 and 75,000 evacuees arrived here, most on their own, staying with family, friends or in hotels. More than 9,000 evacuees landed at Fort Chaffee in west Arkansas. But not for long. The governor worried about turning individuals into a faceless tribe sharing discomforts and nursing anger in a cavernous fort, convention center or stadium. That way lay trouble. (See Superdome.)

Enter the churches and Scout camps. Camping season had just ended at church camps across the state. "They had showers, cots, recreation facilities--everything we needed," the governor said. "The people get more personal attention. When people have been through a dehumanizing experience like they had, they need to be called by name, given an identity, a personhood. . . . We almost had a 1-to-1 volunteer-to-evacuee ratio. In essence, we created mini-communities all around the state."

Dozens of camps in small towns like Cass, Damascus and Butterfield absorbed newcomers. The country town of Imboden, Ark., took in 300 evacuees, roughly half its population. Almost overnight, Arkansas's population increased by 2.5%. How have our guests been treated? Arkansas has done herself proud. And so has Gov. Huckabee, who had begun to seem like an absentee governor in the late-'80s style of Bill Clinton, crisscrossing the country to test the presidential waters.

Even the Arkansas Times, a liberal weekly and no friend of the governor, had an I-heart-Huckabee moment: "He didn't wait, thank goodness, for guidance from FEMA." The paper praised the governor for helping first, and worrying about funding second. "May we say, for once, in unambiguous terms, that Mike Huckabee is absolutely, 100% and admirably right."

What prepared the Huckabee administration to handle this crisis in such an efficient, humane, un-FEMA-like way? Three things: (1) Gov. Huckabee's been in office for nine years now, so he knows the lay of the government land. (2) A Southern Baptist preacher, in times of crisis the minister in the Guv emerges first. (3) our state is all too accustomed to dealing with disasters, from tornadoes to sudden ice storms.

To be sure, Arkansas's governor didn't face a catastrophic natural disaster--just a sudden population boom. Mike Huckabee can be a notorious publicity hound, and the cynic might wonder if all his high-profile leadership and camera-time after Katrina has anything to do with his presidential ambitions. But the important thing is that the hurricane victims are getting what they need in Arkansas. And promptly.

Back in 1997, a particularly ghastly tornado mauled Arkansas, killing 25 people. The tornado destroyed 60 city blocks in the little city of Arkadelphia. Gov. Huckabee formed Trace--Tornado Recovery and Community Enhancement--as a kind of one-stop shop for tornado victims.

This time, the governor's office established KARE--Katrina Assistance Relief Effort. (This governor likes his acronyms.) Among other things, the KARE program connects evacuees looking for work with local employers.

As many as half the evacuees from Katrina and Rita are expected to stay in Arkansas. They're welcome here. Arkansans have a thing about being good neighbors. This is a place where the Golden Rule is considered more than a suggestion. As for the money to pay for all this help, well, there's a state budget surplus the governor and others have hinted at tapping, and there's the hope that the feds will pitch in. But money is not the issue.

It's a good thing Arkansas hasn't dismantled its KARE force because the influx isn't over. As Rita bears down on the Texas coast, evacuees from Katrina who relocated to Houston are heading here. All told, the state expects another 4,000 evacuees from Texas and Louisiana. They started arriving at Fort Smith airport Tuesday, and the flights continued hourly yesterday until after dark. There's room at the church and scout camps--many were closing as Katrina evacuees have already found permanent places to live.

A week ago Sunday, the governor and his wife visited the Arkansas Baptist Assembly Camp in Siloam Springs, where dozens of refugees were stranded. During the church service, a collection plate was on the altar. What Mike Huckabee witnessed next left our garrulous governor almost speechless. Row after row of evacuees went up to the plate and emptied their pockets. "They wanted to help," he said. "They felt like they'd been blessed."

by Kane Webb, 22 September 2005 - Mr. Webb is deputy editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

New York Times Books@barnesandnoble.com