(no subject)

I've tried a haiku, a sonnet and a limerick in honour of aome and silverbookworm, who have retired from FA's staff, effective this week, as a way to sing their praises for the incredible jobs both have done in helping FA grow, thrive and serve the fandom, but in the face of their contribution to the site, and to this fandom, I'm just at a loss for words.

Love you both. Will miss working with you, to the depths of my heart.

(no subject)

I don't have any talents, so I can't offer to create art or fics or even icons for those who are generous enough to donate to help those devestated by Katrina.

But I do have administrative access to Harry Potter Wiki, which has recently gone live as a joint project of FictionAlley.org, HPANA and the Harry Potter FanZone sites, and because of that, I can keep tabs on how many entries get edited and/or created on any given day or week.

I'm pledging to donate to the Red Cross on September 11 ten cents for each entry edited, and twenty five cents for each new legitimate entry that is created between today and September 10. So go and update or create a new entry, and you'll see it result in a donation to the Red Cross; I'll post to this LJ with updates as to how many entries are being edited and created.

Also, The Hunger Site is now making a donation for each click - take a second; make a click.

The housing situation

Angua, Selkie and others who may have space available for displaced people - bkdelong has some links and a fabulous concept on his LJ...

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Now, I said yesterday that I wasn't going to be political.

This isn't political. It's about people; it's about lives.

Speaker of the House Hastert doesn't think it makes sense to rebuild New Orleans
Condi Rice is shoe shopping when countries like Canada and Jamaica want to lend support to the search & rescue mission in the Gulf Coast.
But, of course, what search & rescue mission? FEMA has suspended some of its operations in New Orleans but nobody seems to know which operations are actually continuing.
Carnival Cruise Lines has been looking into using some of its ships to house the displaced, but why wasn't a plan for such things put into place as an option of last resort months, if not years, ago? They have ships that travel in and out of Mobile; they could be so useful for thousands of people as temporary housing right now.
Why weren't naval vessels sent out of Virginia on Sunday, instead of yesterday? They could've been in the gulf by now; why aren't they?
Bush diverted money that had been designated to help shore up the levees to Iraq. Bush enabled the sending of *high water vehicles* to Iraq from the Gulf Coast - which area d'ya think *normally* needs them more?

And here's the worst. George Bush went on GMA this morning, and he said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Did he lie, or is he that stupid?

I think it is entirely possible that nobody *told* him that the levees might be breached. The man doesn't read the papers or watch the news under normal circumstances, so he relies a lot on what he's told. And it's possible that nobody showed him this article from Kansas ("The fear was that flooding could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, as well as waste from ruined septic systems.") or this one from New Mexico ("Had Katrina not shifted, hurricane waters could have spilled over levees and swamped the saucer-shaped city in a toxic soup of refinery chemicals, sewage and human bodies.")

If that's the case, then he should fire the idiots who didn't fully inform him.

What's the likelihood of that?

I'm going to wrap this one up with ( some words from General Wes Clark )