Want to volunteer this holiday season? These organizations allow you to punch in your zip code and find an opportunity close to home:
Source: Woman’s Day, December, 2006.
Tags: Volunteer, American Red Cross, America's Second Harvest, charity
With third quarter oil industry profit statements due out just before the upcoming elections, it’s pretty easy to assume that the Gouging Oil Party boys in the backroom figured that something had to be done, even if (for the oil companies) it meant taking a bit of a hit on the bottom line for a few months. Ergo, gasoline prices have dropped by nearly 30% in the space of a couple of weeks, even as BP’s shutdown of their Alaskan pipeline continues, and middle east tensions continue apace, and (strangely) the cost of a barrel of crude has dropped by maybe 10%. The good news is that, based on my own water cooler conversation, even the most hard core neocons in our midst understand the play.
So, the next time you fill up your tank and you don’t have to sign over a second mortgage on house to do it, remember that Democratic Party congressional candidate Larry Kissell from NC-8, is more responsible for the drop in prices than anyone else on the planet. Here’s an idea on how to thank Larry: take $10 of that gas savings, and drop it in Larry’s campaign bucket.
Tags: gas prices, oil industry, privacy, CIA, CIA Interrogation Program, George W. Bush, Article 3, Geneva Convention, Congress, John Warner, Colin Powell, Jack Vessey, Lindsay Graham, John McCain, POW, torture, detainees, terrorism, White House, politics, anthrax, 9/11, phobic nation, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI, Martin Luther King Jr., Iraq, International Red Cross, Maher Arar, Canada, Syria, JFK Airport
My mother was telling me the other day about a weird set of events that occurred one night while she was on-call for Red Cross. In the middle of the night, the Red Cross cell phone rang and she got up to answer it, but no one was there. She checked the number but it was all 9’s across the screen. She went back to bed and went to sleep.
Several hours later, the same thing occurred.
Well, the next morning, she got to thinking about it and she thought she remembered hearing about some scam where people can call your phone and when you answer they can dial all nines and use that to make long distance phone calls. So, dutifully, she called the cell phone company to aske them about the calls and report what had happened. The cell phone company said they’d never heard of such a scam nor did they show any record of the calls my mother had received that night.
So, I commented that maybe some terrorist had used her cell phone to call Iran to get his orders. I was joking of course. I don’t actually believe that.
My mother however accused, “You and your father and your conspiracy theories!”
My reply was, “What? You don’t think it’s possible?”
“No.”
“Why do you think your President is recording all of your calls, Mother?”
“Because he’s stupid.”
I had to laugh. “Mom, you should be careful. After the terrorist used your phone last night, he’s probably listening in right now. He won’t like being called ’stupid’.”
Tags: Terrorists, phone scams, Red Cross, Conspiracy Theories
Well, I don’t ever want anyone to complain that I never report good news. I’m always on the look-out for good news and changes for the better. I hate to hear about conditions worsening all over and despite many a right-winger’s misguided belief, liberals do not take joy in pain and suffering.
Anyway, here goes…
GENEVA (Reuters) - Detainees are enjoying better treatment at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, and the Red Cross is satisfied with its access to them, the humanitarian agency’s chief said on Tuesday.
Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said detention conditions at Guantanamo had “improved considerably” over the past four years.
“There have also been improvements in the treatment of prisoners, but that does not mean that there are no longer any problems at all,” he told the daily Tribune de Geneve in an interview. [“Guantanamo Bay conditions have improved: Red Cross” (Reuters.com)]
Tags: Guantanamo Bay, Red Cross, detainees
Remember back in August when I wrote how my friend made annoying comments implying that the Red Cross was somehow communist or whatever. Mind you this friend is one of those rhetoric spewing Republicans who are always talking about how people should take care of themselves and not live off of government money, etc.
It occurred to me last night that he said this about a week before Hurricane Katrina hit. Of all my friends, he probably lost the least but he was the first to get his grubby hands on the Red Cross money and aid and the first to get himself and his live-in girlfriend each $2K from FEMA.
His girlfriend sent me an email telling me to thank my mom for all her hard Red Cross work because they never realized how much Red Cross did for people.
Hmmmm.
Tags: hypocrisy, Red Cross, Hurricane Katrina
Tags: discombobulated, Serenity, Firefly, Tom DeLay, Red Cross, Hurricane Rita
I spoke with El last night. If you think Louisiana and the Gulf Coast looks chaotic from the comfort of your living room, you’re under-estimating the chaos. She has become extremely frustrated with both Red Cross and FEMA — though interestingly, she recognizes that Red Cross is made up of volunteers and FEMA is not and therefore holds more bitterness for FEMA.
With Red Cross, it just seems like not everyone knows what’s going on. For one thing, she’s supposed to contact her local Red Cross center (not shelter) for help, but the center for her area is in New Orleans. When she called Baton Rouge’s center to ask where she could get a eye glass voucher (she was wearing disposable contacts when she evac’d for what she thought would be a few days) and they told her that they had a long-time understanding with Lenscrafters and she should call them. When she called Lenscrafters, they knew nothing about it but had heard that the Red Cross was giving out vouchers.
Anyway, she also can’t get through to that 800 number Red Cross launched last week to offer some financial aid. She and her family have all taken turns calling throughout the night even. So, next week, she and her mother are driving back to Memphis where they had received a lot of help from Red Cross immediately after the hurricane.
As for FEMA, well, she called them to ask about rent voucher since it’s unlikely she’ll be able to get back to her apartment any time soon as it had been underwater in New Orleans. She was told that she can’t have the rent vouchers until after her building is inspected. Her response to me was “That could take years at the rate things are going!” Quite frankly I think that FEMA needs to rethink their rules there. After all, they have more than a whole city to inspect and people have to live somewhere. $2000 per household (not per person) is not going to go far and people are being discouraged from staying in shelters.
She also told me an interesting bit of news from down South. Apparently, the sheriff’s department in Plaquemines Parish has been running since the hurricane without pay 24/7 and they’ve been begging FEMA for financial aid for the last week. They can’t even afford payroll. Sheriff Hingle threatened to pull his entire department off the job and send them home tonight if they didn’t receive funding to continue. (I love those southern Louisiana sheriffs!)
Apparently, Governor Blanco stepped up to the bat and handed Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes a combined $16.5 million from the state’s general fund — though she is still hoping to get reimbursement. [“State sends money to keep St. Bernard, Plaquemines Sheriffs Going (KATC3)”]
Now, St. Bernard and Plaquemines are located along the lower reaches of the Mississippi River and were at the point of landfall for Hurricane Katrina. They were among the areas with the heaviest damage. Why then are they having to beg for help still? Why are they being ignored by FEMA?
My father says if you listen to the “local” radio station(s), you hear more and more hatred for FEMA and it’s incompetence and it’s lack of co-ordination. He said, “FEMA is a four-letter word down there.”
It does make you wonder what exactly they’re doing…
Tags: FEMA, Gulf Coast, Red Cross, New Orleans, Kathleen Blanco
Well, I’ve said it a lot here recently. I want to be my mother when I grow up. After all, I’m very proud of the work she does for the American Red Cross. I’m proud that she’s a nurse and that she’s a take-charge kind of woman (when my dad isn’t around). The fact that she sacrifices herself so often to help others is something that fills me with awe. I want to be less selfish and more helpful.
Mind you, I’m not a nurse so I can’t actually follow in her footsteps, but today I began the process to work on local Disaster Action Teams for the Red Cross. I have the volunteer paperwork to fill out. I’m signed up for two classes over the next two months — would have been three but my day job actually got in the way of one. There are apparently five classes I have to take to start with.
So, we’ll see if I have what it takes. I’m definitely ready to do something other than sit idly by and watch disaster after disaster and just make donations of some sort. I want to help somehow.
Tags: Red Cross
Well, I went to see the shrink about my Katrina issues. Even with the ambien, my dreams are full of attempting to either get out of New Orleans or get back in.
She told me that I need to cut back on my intake of Katrina news. She thinks that with all the intake and no way to really direct the emotions it’s building, I’m just hurting myself. It’s such a close issue to me and it’s left me with survivor’s guilt — wondering what if I’d been there, feeling like I should have been there, feeling like I should be there now.
I’ve already been trying to cut back. Finding writers for the Hurricane Katrina Portal would help because it would ease my feeling that I need to look at all the news every day for new things to report.
She also suggested that I use this as an opportunity to do what my mom has been urging for years — volunteer for the local Red Cross. I’ve said I want to be my mom when I grow up, but I’m not a nurse, and right now I can’t do something like just volunteer for a month elsewhere and pay my bills — though thinkng back, my mom used to do just that. Anyway, I need to take this as a wake up call and go ahead and join and find a way I can help. Plus, the shrink thinks it’ll make me feel like I’m helping “back home” while tying me more to here and making this more like home.
She’s also suggested a new support group that’s starting up for people like me who suffer from anxiety and depression. It’s supposed to be a 10-week session and it’s free-ish (they might ask for donations to pay for the room). Basically it would be a way for me to interact with people like myself and maybe we can learn from each other on ways to cope by telling each other how we overcome things on a day to day basis. Plus, she thinks it’ll help me form more ties in the community. (See a pattern? )
Anyway, I’m putting together care packages for El and PW of just little things. My friend KH who’s house burned down and understands the agony of the loss of everything went shopping with me fore some things. I don’t know what more I can do really other than what I’m doing and volunteering for the Red Cross.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, depression, therapy, Red Cross
I spoke with my mother tonight. She is apparently dealing with infection control there in Houston. She somehow fell into a management position that only she can do though she says she’s not truly qualified — I don’t believe her on that. Anyway, I thought I’d share some of her tidbits.
By the way, in case I haven’t mentioned it, my mother really is my hero. I told her so tonight too. I found an article online from her local paper that was all about her and her good works. I’m sure she’s pleased they published her age.
Also, my mother stressed that it’s time to stop finger-pointing and stop worrying about investigations about what went wrong and start doing something about it. This is a tremendous tragedy that is going to affect the entire country for years to come. Not only is New Orleans a major port, not only will gas and oil prices be high, but a lot of these people will never go back to New Orleans. Most of these displaced New Orleaneans will find jobs and start new lives wherever they are. They may trickle back eventually but for now, there has been an influx in Texas of at least 60,000 people and that will effect the economy of that state in many ways. But my mother is definitely upset about the fact that Red Cross has been warning of this impending disaster for years and no one wanted to listen — heck, she was one of the voices there telling them to have a plan. She is probably most upset that they didn’t appear to have ever planned on what to do in the aftermath.
Despite everything she’s seen and heard, she seemed to be in good spirits.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina, Red Cross, relief, FEMA
O.K. So, My mother works for the American Red Cross. I’m very proud of her because she’s nationally known and respected and they just offered her a real paying job. Well, she used to work on one of the city boards and now she’s running one of the city offices and she lectures at conventions and now they’ve offered to pay her to teach.
And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg for my mom’s accomplishments.
Tags: Red Cross, communism, paranoia, dysfunctional drama, stupidity
I’ve read or heard several articles about the U.S. negotiating with 34 countries to send 80% of the Gitmo detainees back to where they came from. I’m sure you’ll understand that I’m apprehensive and a little distrustful of the whole thing.
According to CNN.com the conditions that the other countries have to agree to are:
- treat detainees “humanely and in a manner consistent with applicable international obligations”
- refrain from torture
- allow the United States or a third party such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to the detainees to “verify the assurances”
- “investigate, detain and prosecute” the detainee to the fullest extent possible; and
- provide the United States with “advance notice” and place the detainee on “watch lists” should a country decide to release a detainee.
I admit to suspicions that despite the “refrain from torture” clause, we are sending them to countries were torture is more acceptable or their definition of torture is more lenient or their media is less likely to report any infractions.
Most of these people have never been charged with anything by the U.S. but we’re going to send them back where they came from (reminiscent of the Sedition Act) and expect their own people to investigate and try them for supposed crimes against the U.S. America is one of the few countries where you are innocent until proven guilty, which is why there’s been such an outcry about holding these people without charging them without allowing them contact with their families or lawyers, so since we can’t keep holding them here without losing face, we’ll send them somewhere else and let them handle it.
For those of you who are true believers in George Bush and his administration and believe that they like the Knights of the Round Table can do no wrong, please excuse my little feeling of unease and suspicions that this is more of a shell game than anything else. Now you see the detainee; now you don’t!
Oh, just one more thing…
Detainees whom the United States considers “really bad guys” will remain in Guantanamo, the officials said, but in coming months the facility population could drop to about 100.
Now I had to giggle at this quote and wonder who exactly CNN was quoting. Really, I can guess, but doesn’t that sound so intelligent and prestigious. Right up there with “evildoers”.
Tags: Guantanamo Bay, detainees, Red Cross, torture, Conspiracy Theories, politics, Terrorists
The Naked Truth
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Discombobulated Thoughts
of a displaced Southerner in New England -- from just daily annoyances to conspiracy theories to political views.
The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe
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