NOTE TO MY READERS: I’m bumping this post up to the top!

I am pleased to be participating in what “The Truth Laid Bear” has headlined as HURRICANE RELIEF BLOG DAY, which will be held tomorrow, September 1st. It is described as:

A day of blogging focused on raising awareness of and funds for relief efforts to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Here is the registration page if you’d like to join and add your blog (and your time and effort) to the fund-raising campaign for Hurricane Katrina victims.

To his credit, this is the brainchild of Hugh Hewitt and with the solid support of the widely-read Glenn Reynolds; and, to be sure, “The Bear” deserves kudos for applying his technological know-how to this important enterprise.

My site — A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT — will be soliciting your kind willingness to make a donation to “CATHOLIC CHARITIES” on behalf of the thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Here’s the link that will facilitate your charitable donation.

Thank you for your consideration in helping the less fortunate!

Here’s an Associated Press (AP) story indicating that certain governments, private citizens, and organizations in the international community of nations may be stepping up to lend a hand to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. As I promised, I will post on this information as it is confirmed and the relief efforts and contributions implemented.

If you’re a visitor to this site and reside in a country other than the United States and intend to make a donation, I applaud you and extend to you my thanks on behalf of the thousands of displaced victims of Katrina.

FOLLOW-UP: Here’s the other side of the coin vis-a-vis Germany in particular and the reactions of Americans to it and Europe in general(courtesy of “Spiegel Online”).

Proof that I haven’t been a lone wolf crying (or “grousing,” as one of my fans characterized it) in the wind:

When a tsunami hit South Asia in December, the world mobilized to help and aid poured in. Now that parts of America are underwater, the US is handling the relief work virtually alone. What is going on? By Jody K. Biehl in Berlin more…

·	Former Clinton Advisor: “No One Can Say they Didn’t See it Coming”

·	Katrina’s Trans-Atlantic Waves: German Minister Stands Behind Criticism of Bush

·	SPIEGEL’S DAILY TAKE: Katrina’s Wake of Destruction

·	Post from the US: Mr. Trittin, You’ve Got Mail!

·	Photo Gallery: Aftermath of a Devastating Hurricane

·	SPIEGEL Surfs the Web: Hurricane Katrina: Is Looting a Question of Skin Color?

·	Hurricane Catastrophe: Where You Can Make a Donation

My favorite anchorman is Brit Hume of Fox News and I’d make that statement regardless of the network with which he was affiliated. But, Hume and Fox News editors in combo ought to be more politic than to do a short news segment on Cindy Sheehan’s opinion of Hurricane Katrina and its root cause, which she claims, of course, is President Bush’s “failed environmental policies.” They did this this evening and I’m annoyed.

If the death of her son in combat in Iraq gave her some platform and cachet to denounce President Bush and the war in Iraq, so be it. I, for one, think she’s a miserable spokesperson — vulgar, inarticulate, and convoluted. But, if George Soros and Michael Moore want to adopt her as one of their own, and she willingly goes along for the ride, well … then the Left will be heard and her credentials as a war protestor are as good as anyone else’s on that side of the political spectrum, I suppose.

But for a major news network to decide that she should be heard on national and international television opining on how the president caused Hurricane Katrina, well that’s just plain over the top. Everyone has a right to his or her opinion in this country; but no one has a right to have his or her voice carried around the globe by a compliant, fawning media. Unadulterated ignorance ought not to be marketed on television except in boring television sitcoms and on so-called reality T.V.

Put Cindy on Jerry Springer where, in the context of her growing blather on a range of subjects of which she is patently unstudied, she’d be right at home; but, Brit, dear Brit, not on the nightly news! Cindy is so far in over her head and the Soros/Moore/Sheen/Sharpton levee that surrounds her so irrevocably ruptured, that the whole bunch of them are drowning in their own poisoned hyperbole.

I went into The United Nations site searching for any information today on U.N.-sponored, international relief efforts, forming or already underway, to bring medical teams and search & rescue personnel, supplies (including foodstuffs and portable shelters), and hard assets to the massive relief efforts underway in the Gulf Coast region of the United States, owing to the widespread Hurricane Katrina devastation.

Incredulously, I found that: 1) yesterday’s U.N. daily news briefing made no mention of Hurricane Katrina, but did include what was termed a “flash appeal” for $88 million in aid for “acute food insecurity” in Malawi (I’m sure there’s none of that in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama right now); 2) that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs doesn’t appear to be dealing with the aftermath of Katrina at this juncture, but has expressed dismay that “Niger is dying while the world is watching” (New Orleans isn’t exactly thriving at the moment, nor is Biloxi for that matter); but, 3) good news/bad news, I did find this for the Hurricane Katrina disaster — i.e., “no data reported” and “no links at this time” for the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States of America.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sympathetic, however.

Wonder if a “dues invoice” is sitting on President Bush’s desk? Should he sign it?

POSTSCRIPT (8/31 @ 4:30PM CT): I just completed watching President Bush’s sober address to the nation from the White House Rose Garden, following an emergency cabinet-level meeting, on how the federal government and its various agencies are dealing with the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and what their priorities will be. Not word one was given that the president had received any personal calls or messages from heads of state or Kofi Annan of the United Nations with offers or pledges of assistance to the United States. The president, of course, has just returned to the White House, but such messages could have been received at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, or onboard Air Force One. This is not to say that none have been forthcoming or that none will come in time; but, it is to say that this blogger continues to be unable to find reports of any such gestures from the international community of nations.

I just watched on CNN Cable News Texas Governor Rick Perry issuing a statement regarding Texas’ willingness to provide shelter, food, water, medical assistance, fuel, prayers, and good, old-fashioned neighborliness to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He even indicated that the school-age children of displaced families will be enrolled in Texas public schools. It was an impressive, heartfelt statement.

He concluded his remarks with:

We’re going to get through this together as one American family.

Not to be outdone by the Associated Press (AP), the “New York Times” (registration required) in an editorial today couldn’t resist doing the very thing it said was uncalled for given the massive devastation of Hurricane Katrina in what may well be the worst natural disaster to have ever struck the United States of America since its founding.

In one breath the editorialist writes “this seems the wrong moment to dwell on fault-finding,” and in the next proceeds to do just that:

But this seems like the wrong moment to dwell on fault-finding or even to point out that it took what may become the worst natural disaster in American history to pry President Bush out of his vacation.

It’s uncalled for, of course, and unkind, but underscores the depths to which the Gray Lady has sunk in its inimitable elite MSM bias. True, “New Orleans is in peril,” but so, too, is whatever vestige of credibility may remain in NYT’s editorial board.

The Houston Astrodome — once dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” — will soon become a wonderful and welcomed contrast for approximately 25,000 displaced Hurricane Katrina victims, who have been enduring insufferably horrid conditions at the New Orleans’ Superdome. Soon they’ll at least have air-conditioning, working bathrooms, potable water, food, a secure roof over their heads, and medical care. They’ll also have, most assuredly, the open-arms friendship and goodwill of a city well-known for those caring qualities. Makes me proud to be a Houstonian.

SOURCES: “1st Headlines” and “USA Today”

Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press (AP) doesn’t waste any time in this article to betray the bias against President Bush and the Bush Administration typically found in AP news releases. And she isn’t even subtle about it.

To wit:

Bush cut his monthlong vacation by two days even though aides have long contended that his duties are uninterrupted when he spends time at his ranch in nearby Crawford that has White House-level communications capability.

Don’t you just love the aides have long contended line. Such objectivity. Apparently the Associated Press remains unconvinced that the president engaged in any work-related duties during his time in Crawford or the trips away from Crawford during his monthlong vacation. It would appear that neither Ms. Sidoti, nor her colleagues at the AP, have corroborated the aides’ contention that the president’s vacation was indeed a “working vacation.”

This vacation certainly has had the elite mainstream media in an uproar. The audacity of the President of the United States to seek a little “R&R” from the tremendous pressures of the job and the fishbowl existence of life in the White House and in Washington D.C.

Don’t you think Ms. Sidoti ought to demand a full accounting of what the president did hour by hour each and every day to satisfy her mind that he properly earned his vacation pay? Goodness, there must be a log!

Two other lines of hers jump off the page:

Returning to Washington ahead of schedule also could insulate the president from criticism that he was on vacation during the (Katrina) crisis …

A one-time oilman, Bush has rejected charges that the war in Iraq is a struggle to control the nation’s (Iraq’s) vast oil wealth.

The latter of the two is a real MSM classic and ought to be placed in the MSM Propaganda Hall of Fame. Bush — the one-time oilman.

Since the MSM couldn’t unearth the United Nations’ Oil-For-Food scandal, I guess it can only speculate on, rather than confirm or dismiss, whether or not the Bush Administration has diverted Iraqi oil, or proceeds from its sale, to U.S. storage tanks or treasury coffers.

Nice hatchet job, Ms. Sidoti.

Frank Laughter of “Common Sense Junction” (bless him) has agreed to keep a tally at his site in response to the questions I posed in this post of mine.

So far the TOTE BOARD isn’t exactly lit up. A call for some timpani won’t be heard anytime soon, I’m afraid. Not sure at this juncture that even Jerry Lewis and Ed McMahon could prevail upon Jacques Chirac or Kofi Annan to lend us a hand.

I’ve asked previously. Now I’ll ask again: where are the foreign countries and international charitable organizations with their volunteers, pledges of financial aid, foodtsuffs, and hard assets to help the United States and its Gulf Coast victims of our own catastrophic tsunami equivalent — Hurricane Katrina? Are cargo planes and steamships en route?

Which countries and foreign-based relief organizations have stepped up to lend a hand now that the United States of America and its citizens — the most charitable people on the planet — are in need?

Remember this or this or this?

President Bush appointed former presidents George Bush (’41) and Bill Clinton to lead a huge fund-raising drive here in America to assist the international fund-raising efforts on behalf of the Asian Tsunami victims — a drive that was hugely successful.

Will foreign dignitaries step up to lead a similar massive relief effort on our behalf?

I haven’t seen a press release yet from the United Nations’ Information Center on the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

But, I do recall this from a U.N. official. Where’s Kofi Annan?

How about our neighbors, Canada and Mexico? What can we expect from them besides illegal border-crossers? Will we see Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the Gulf Coast?

I’m not being entirely rhetorical, although I admit some of my questions contain implicit sarcasm. But if readers of this blog can point me to hard information of such noble efforts that my repeated Google searches have yet to turn up, then kindly inform me and I’ll willingly post the information here.

POSTSCRIPT: I’m watching/listening to CNN Cable News and hearing a number of accounts and favorable comments on FEMA’s coordination of massive disaster relief efforts. And I just read this informative post of Frank Laughter’s that enumerates the federal government’s response thus far. But with New Orleans filling with water from broken levees and horrific scenes of Katrina’s devastation, I must say the following, and at the risk of redundancy: The United States of America — its federal, state, and local governments, its military, its emergency responders, its volunteer organizations, its churches and charities, even its businesses — will go anywhere at anytime for anyone at nearly any cost when catastrophic natural disasters strike and peoples of the world need our help. Where are they now for us — our allies, our neighbors in the hemisphere, international relief organizations, the countries of Europe and Asia we’ve helped rebuild, the United Nations …? If in the days, and weeks, and months ahead they are no-shows, we must never forget. Ever!

Ah, don’t you love politics and the propensity of politicians to look you straight in the eye and try to disarm you with patent baloney?

I love our president (I truly admire him in many ways) and voted for him twice, but this is one center-right (sometimes right-of-center) Republican blogger who isn’t buying George W. Bush’s sudden epiphany (trust me: don’t hold your breath) or disingenuous claim that he fully understands that “we have an obligation to enforce the borders.” He’s done anything but.

He’s late to the game, not because he subscribes to that statement professing a commitment to border security, but because two late-to-the-game politicians in their own right — Governors Richardson and Napolitano of New Mexico and Arizona, respectively — have suddenly beat him to the punch in declaring states of emergency and there’s nothing worse than being embarrassed politically by two prominent democrats who were as much apologists for open borders, as has been the president. Indeed, don’t discount their hypocrisy.

But the noise level has increased markedly of late on border security issues and the ol’ melting pot is about to boil over if President Bush and the Congress don’t do something (and I’m not talking about amnesty for illegals). Bush is battling a three-front war right now — Iraq, Illegal Immigration, and Gasoline Prices — and these thorny issues in aggregate are beginning to overwhelm his presidency.

Interesting that he’s now talking in terms of more U.S. Border Patrol agents when he’s had the appropriations to do so, but has purposefully dragged his feet in gearing that manpower up adequately. The result of that bullheadedness: an unprecedented number of assaults on those agents. And American property owners along the border haven’t fared much better.

The president has been derelect in his duty to do what it is he says he understands: his obligation as this country’s Chief Law Enforcement Officer “to enforce the borders.” The evidence is clear of that dereliction of duty: 11+ million illegals already in the country and 10,000/day breeching our borders!

SOURCE: The “Houston Chronicle” (registration required)

In the wake of the catastrophic impact (far from being entirely assessed at this point) of Hurricane Katrina — the death, destruction, and large-scale displacement of people — President Bush has cut short his already disrupted vacation in Crawford, Texas, to return to Washington D.C. to “coordinate the federal response.”

Appropriately, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, not the vulgarity-laced tizzy-fit of Windbag Sheehan, is getting the president’s attention.

SOURCE: The Associated Press (AP)

Lost in the shuffle of our natural concern for our fellow Americans in the Gulf Coast whose lives have been so thoroughly upended by the fury and cataclysm of Hurricane Katrina is the sobering fact that many pets could not be saved or taken along by displaced families to the emergency shelters.

Here, however, is a story that cheers, provided of course that these animals are soon adopted here in the Houston area.

Here’s some useful information (and here as well) for the next time a natural disaster strikes if you’re a pet owner and live in an area of the country prone to such catastrophic events. You might want to print this information off for safe-keeping.

HAT-TIP: Anne Linehan of “blogHouston.net”

Here’s a handful of posts that will rev you up more than a 12-cup pot of fresh-ground Starbucks. Fasten your seat belts!

Frank Laughter of “Common Sense Junction” applauds one of his (and mine as well) favorites — the brilliant columnist Mark Steyn — and, in doing so, dissects the “9/11″ Commission and rightly declares its report as full of crap. Frank never minces words and that’s his charm. He doesn’t diddle, but cuts right to the chase.

La Shawn Barber mirrors my disdain for the white elephant bureaucracy President Bush ushered in post/”9/11″ to save us from terrorists — the Department of Homeland Security (an agency which undoubtedly, given this nation’s porous borders and the Feds’ patent indifference to 11+ million illegal aliens afoot in our land and 10,000 more breeching our borders every day, has to be the biggest misnomer ever foisted upon the American people). La Shawn’s writing is the antithesis of political-correctness and therein lies her infinite appeal. By the way, and as with me, she’s not holding her breath that the DHS’s belated epiphany is going to result in anything substantive, as Bush wants amnesty for the lawbreakers, pure and simple.

Carl at “No Oil For Pacifists” delivers this knock-out punch to the ill-advised Bush strategy of placating and nurturing the Palestinians, with their rich tradition of terrorism, while invidiously violating our ally Israel and its Jewish citizens living in Gaza (past tense now) and portions of the West Bank. Bush is doing for what should be the persona non grata of the Middle East (i.e., Yasser Arafat’s colony of thugs) what he’s been doing for millions of lawbreakers pouring into this country from Mexico — acceding to their geopolitical wishes and conferring amnesty. Nice job, Carl.

“Stop The ACLU” (a hard-hitting blog now listed in my site’s blogroll) reveals the sinister alliance forming between the ACLU and CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) and asks: When will America wake up from this politically correct nightmare? Terming the linkage between the two organizations a “deadly combo,” Jay points to “the Trojan horses … marching disguised in patriotic camo …” and describes the ACLU and CAIR as “two of the most dangerous organizations in America.” You need to get up-to-speed on this nefarious commingling of left-of-Left agendas.

ACE echoes Frank Laughter in his disgust of the shallow work and purposefully distorted conclusions of the “9/11″ Commission and pulls no punches (would he be ACE if he ever did otherwise?) in stating that the “9/11″ Commission “suppressed evidence of links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.” To aver otherwise, says ACE, is to lie.

Good reading!

With “APOCYPHAL NOW,” starring Cindy Sheehan and Martin Sheen, already out on DVD after a huge bust in attendance in theatres over the weekend, its producer, George Soros, moved quickly today to get a “REDUX” version into distribution with cast additions and an even more duplicitous story line. The question, of course, is whether he’s just chasing good money after bad.

Al Sharpton joins the cast as a misguided, self-serving, man-of-the-cloth who tries fitfully to bring respectability to an otherwise ignoble cause, but in the end succumbs to his own penchant for bias and cheesy respectability. His hard-to-view, candle-lit love scene with Cindy Sheehan comes near the end of the movie and purportedly cost the sequel an “R” rating (”R” for regretable) and many theatre-goers their cookies.

Michael Moore makes his first film appearance since “Fahrenheit 9/11″ as the smartass swiftboat captain, who commandeers the boat from Jimmy Carter’s slip(s), and takes Sheehan, Sheen, and Sharpton up the Potomac River on their ill-advised mission, eventually taking a spear to the chest from a rabid, right-wing evangelist, when he draws his craft too near the eastern shoreline. In a cameo appearance, Jessie Jackson is seen chasing after the assassin, sporting a “Keep Hope Alive” T-shirt and a Venezuelan flag lapel pin.

Perhaps the best action sequence in the entire remake comes early on after the fuming foursome leave dusty Crawford and the endormophic Moore leads his unsavory team of Sheehan, Sheen, and Sharpton up the fog-laced Houston Ship Channel in a stealth commando raid on Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s offices. Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” blares over the swiftboat’s speakers and adds considerable drama to the scene.

NOTE: Hammer & Sickle give “REDUX” a two-thumbs-up!

SOURCE OF PHOTO: Lorie Byrd via Michelle Malkin

SOURCE FOR SOUND CLIP: Link

Greg Wallace provides the photo of what I would dub the cast of “APOCRYPHAL NOW”– a Hollywood-style production of an epic journey of deceit.

Can’t you just hear Martin Sheen in the background:

Crawford … shit; I’m still only in Crawford … Every time I think I’m gonna wake up and it’s going to be a pleasant 72 degrees, with low humidity and a balmy ocean breeze, I’m in Crawford. When I’m here, I wanna be there; when I was there, all I could think about was getting back to Cindy, and this dusty, roadside culvert tent-city, and these ragamuffin, bead-wearing, war protestors who idiolize me.

SOUND CLIP SOURCE: Link