Texans rebuilding their lives while Obama and Hollywood partied

Since they can't politicize the human misery left by Hurricane Ike as they did in Katrina, election-bound politicians and their Hollywood fellow traveling dogs, ignore it. Their silence about the large scale human suffering in coastal Texas is one interrupted only by popping champagne corks and laughter. Difficult to believe that during the idle chatter of the idle elite at the $28,500-a-plate fundraiser for Barack Obama last night, legions of Texans still didn't know when they would have a hot meal or even a bath. Obama's Hollywood fawning cabal is the same blame-America clique who seems to delight in the criticism sent America's way. Hatred of America by an outside world is their shameful legacy. As a Canada Free Press letter writer pointed out last night, "When a disaster occurs ANYWHERE in the world, the United States is ALWAYS the first to offer assistance. Name ONE country that offered any help to the Americans struck by this disaster!"

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The gala dinner at Greystone Mansion, followed by entertainment at the nearby Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel was taking place even as volunteers were scrambling to find more food and water for Hurricane Ike victims in shelters.    Electricity for most in Houston wasn't expected back on for at least another week.   People waited in line for hours Tuesday at nearly two dozen supply distribution centers set up to hand out food, water and ice.  Authorities worked to fend off a health-care crisis.     This is not even to mention the thousands of other Americans who lost their homes in the ongoing mortgage crisis, or those losing jobs in an unstable economy.   Back at Greystone Mansion, Obama spent more than an hour before dinner preening for the camera with guests.  He told reporters that people had encouraged him to be tougher and had questioned whey he was so calm in a close race against Republican John McCain.   "I'm skinny but I'm tough," he said.  "I'm from Chicago and we don't play.  Just keep steady."   Incredibly, on this of all nights he could joke with the elite, and even more incredibly they laughed.  Saying that the economic turmoil of recent days had been sobering for America, he said: "It's reminded people that this is not a game.  This is not a reality show, no offense to any of you" and to laughter, "This is not a sitcom."   In the face of all the human suffering, Obama, with the help of Oscar-winning singer and actress Barbra Streisand raised what myway.com calls "an eye-popping $9 million for his presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.   None of the $9 million raised will go to some of those who lost everything to Ike or the floundering economy.   Last night was a 21st century tableau of Nero’s fiddling while Rome burned.   The silence of the politicians in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike is being met with a more dignified silence, that of the victims who have proven since the day Ike hit, the indomitable spirit of the American people.  They have no time to complain because each and every one of them is far too busy comforting others and rebuilding their lives.     If the American mainstream media did not do a good job of chronicling the human misery now playing out on in Coastal Texas, [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk]http://www.dailymail.co.uk[/url] did.   The British media outlet ran it under the somewhat prophetic title, Last House Standing.  

Last house standing: Hurricane Ike's £7bn trail of destruction

Not even the dead were safe from Hurricane Ike's wrath. On the Texas coast, this cemetery was flooded and coffins were forced above ground by the sheer volume of floodwater . Distraught relatives wandered among the empty graves and the saturated coffins that were strewn throughout the cemetery. Two days after Ike's landfall, water gurgled and bubbled ominously from submerged graves, and an invisible cloud of formaldehyde stung the eyes and throat. The only water left was now filling empty graves and vaults. Meanwhile a lone alligator prowls across the deserted motorway as the storm waters from Hurricane Ike gradually subside. Today, as the death toll from the hurricane had risen to 25 across nine states, one of the biggest search and rescue operations in U.S. history got under way. Nearly 2,000 people were plucked to safety from their flooded homes with hundreds more awaiting rescue. The confirmed death toll from Hurricane Ike stood at 13. But search teams stocked with body bags were scouring communities including Galveston, where 20,000 ignored a mandatory evacuation order. ‘We hope for the best but I want to prepare people for the fact that we may have some fatalities,’ said Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. Some told remarkable stories of survival. Denis Covington, 63, of Port Bolivar, southeast of Houston, had his home smashed in two by a falling pylon. Both halves crashed into 14ft of floodwater. ‘I had to spend the second half of the hurricane in a tree just clinging on. The rain was like nails sticking in to me,’ he said. Ike came ashore at Galveston in the early hours of Saturday, bringing a 20ft storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico and causing an estimated £7billion damage. Nearly five million people are without electricity along the Gulf coast, and many have no running water. Ellie Cox, 22, was airlifted from Galveston with her husband Lester and their three children, including disabled six-month-old baby Juilianna after spending the storm cowering in their third floor apartment. A tree fell on their roof and water rose up around them. ‘I’m not going back, there’s nothing left for us now,’ she said. Karen and Paul Thompson, both 57, were winched from their home on stilts in Crystal Beach after huddling together in a bedroom as the hurricane ripped the house around them and 14 feet of water crashed in from the Gulf. At one point a large boat was flung past their window. ‘We called the Coastguard for help but they said they couldn’t get out to us, it was too dangerous,’ said Mrs Thompson after being winched off her porch along with her husband and five dogs. ‘I was scared to death. Glass was being blown out of the windows, things were hitting the house, the roof was being torn off.’ Mr Thompson said: ‘There were rows and rows of houses at Crystal Beach but there ain’t no more.’ Ike tore into Texas, coming ashore at Galveston in the early hours of yesterday. It brought a 20 feet storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico and pounded the region, including the city of Houston, with eight hours of hurricane force winds. President George Bush declared 29 Texas counties and parts of Louisiana a major disaster area. Thousands of National Guard, military troops, police, fire and ambulance teams from around the country were assisting the recovery effort. Nearly five million people along the Gulf coast were without power, and some were warned it could be up to a month before their electricity is restored. Many were also left without running water. And Pump prices jumped above $5 per gallon in some parts of America yesterday's Hurricane Ike left refineries and pipelines idled and destroyed at least 10 offshore petroleum platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed or seriously damaged in the fury of the storm and insurance industry officials estimated the damage would exceed £7billion. Humanitarian teams planned to hand out one million ready-meals and 1.5 million gallons of water a day. More than 40,000 Texans remained in emergency shelters, officials said, and many areas remained under curfew to discourage looters. President Bush, who was due to visit Texas today, said: ‘This was a tough storm and it’s one that’s going to require time for people to recover.’