GM's Corner : Katrina Relief

September 01, 2005

Katrina Relief

I've been scrolling through the blogosphere to come up with a couple of links to provide for my readers that want to help with the relief effort. One that comes up consistently, but one highly recommended by people that I respect highly is Operation USA. This is an agency founded in 1979 specifically for disaster relief and they are good at what they do. Rosedog, who comments regularly at Marc Cooper's blog entry knows the founder personally and states that the reason they have an extremely low administration cost to relief efforts is:

The way Op USA works is that, rather than buying relief supplies, with few exceptions they get all their supplies donated then use their own donated cash to get the supplies to where they need to go. Most aid organizations, instead, buy their relief supplies on the open market at enormous cost and a big markup. International aid, in particular, is big business. It's slightly more complicated than what I'm explaining, but not only does Op USA use a comparatively tiny staff to accomplish a great deal, but all their collected funds are greatly maximized by the nature of their relief supply donation model.

I will be donating to them, as well as some to the American Red Cross and to the Salvation Army. If you, beloved readers, choose to donate to them, or to any one for that matter, note that the funds are specifically for Katrina Relief. If you donate to lesser known charities, or if you want to check out any charity go to the BBB's Wise Giving Site, Give.org.

If you have some job skills that you want to donate and that you think can be use in disaster relief, call the Red Cross, The Salvation Army or FEMA. You may need to work through a bureaucracy but if you are persistent, you might find another way to help.

You can also find some great links for disaster relief at Little Green Footballs, Glen Reynolds, the FEMA website.

Techorati tags: Flood Aid, Hurricane Katrina

Update: _H_ at the Terrorism News blog recommends a housing entry. It is from a lefty site, but if you have housing available, please click on Housing Available.

Posted by GM Roper at September 1, 2005 12:08 AM | TrackBack

Comments

I have not checked out the links you suggest , the little leftie inside me keeps me away from such sites , but here is one you may have missed

http://www.hurricanehousing.org/?id=5945-635488-TIWGcg_D7nSbz2kUSqqhjw

there must be tens of thousands now without homes and the call is going out for people upto around 500 miles away to open their doors if they have room

you never know , I am sure a lot of good fine americans would want to help but don't know what they can do ,

if anyone spots this little comment , and has room in their house , click on the link , offer a tempory home to one of these people so badly in need

anyway .. back to my ickle leftie home of my own

cya

ps , if anyone gets borted , just take my link and post is somewhere , you never know , somebody somewhere might make use of it

Posted by _H_ at September 1, 2005 08:48 PM

the links i imply i have not checked out are the "little green football" type ones ,, dont want some weirdo thinking that H said the red cross is right wing

the point is obvious i know , but i thought i would clarify

Posted by _H_ at September 1, 2005 08:58 PM

_H_, thanks for the comment, I'm not a regular reader of LGF, but this is about relief for the victims, not about politics. Put that link up on your blog as a compendium of resources, the more resources that bloggers like you on the left and me on the right put up, the more the information that people can use is available to people REGARDLESS of their political persuasion. One doesn't need to worry about politics.

The homeless link you put up is from Moveon.org, an organization I despise, but I'm going to put it up in an update because people need to know.

Posted by GM Roper at September 2, 2005 07:02 AM

of course GM , I was just being cheeky really , i did go and look , and although i have A LOT of concerns about the way help has been coordinated for these poor people , you are right , this is not the time to be political , this is the time help

Posted by _H_ at September 2, 2005 07:22 AM

Jim Rockford happened to mention RedState in one of his rants yesterday, so just for the heck of it I paid it a visit. Singularly unimpressive. The comment quality was dismal. That led me to my first ever visit to LGF. Boy, what a joke. The nimrods over there seemed focused on denigrating dailykos and GM's personal fav, DU. Never visited either one of those sites either, but I suspect their just a mirror image of the two previously mentioned. So, no thanks.

Which causes me once again to speculate what keeps drawin' me back to the corner. The best answer I can come up with is, damned if I know... :)

Posted by jim hitchcock at September 2, 2005 07:41 AM

Jim, what keeps you coming back to GM's Corner is the quality of the writing, the absolute perfection of the arguments from the right, the sure knowledge that the right is in ascendency and the occasional flashes of brilliance and humor displayed here.

That, and your own brilliance in clicking here in the first palce, becoming a regular reader and posting comments even, or more especially, when you disagree with any of the above.

Add to that, your innate intelligence in knowing that on this blog you will get truth writ large.

Lastly, what keeps you coming back is your commitment to honest dialogue, and a committment to freedom of expression which you, Woody and I all support.

:-)

With love and affection:
GM

Posted by GM Roper at September 2, 2005 08:17 AM

Hah! Well, I guess there is some truth mixed with the treacle above...

It IS true that I enjoy the challenge of trying to shine a little light through ideological biases, with the positive awareness that it is a two way street. I go unafraid into the night... :)

_________________________
Jim my friend, you crack me up! God love ya brother!

Posted by jim hitchcock at September 2, 2005 08:36 AM

Jim might be coming back in hopes that he can win one of our valuable prizes that we offer from time-to-time, especially a Richard Simmons' tape. I wonder, if we sent one to him, would he feel that life is complete and stop visiting. Hey, Jim. I have tickets to both tonight's and tomorrow night's Braves-Reds game, behind home plate, and I can't go to either game. If you can get here, they're yours! Otherwise, _H_ can have them and we'll tell him that baseball is just like cricket but with steroids.

Posted by Woody at September 2, 2005 09:10 AM

I can see it now. I get there, Delta airlines goes bankrupt due to rising fuel prices, and I have to hitchhike back...

Posted by jim hitchcock at September 2, 2005 09:52 AM

It doesn't take much fuel to fly to L.A. You just get up in the air and get into the air flow created by the Braves trying to blow it on this end and the Dodgers sucking on the other.

Posted by Woody at September 2, 2005 10:29 AM

woody said "_H_ can have them and we'll tell him that baseball is just like cricket but with steroids. "

hehehe , erm does that mean American football is just rugby with padding ?

Posted by _H_ at September 2, 2005 11:14 AM

I was surprised, but the MoveOn site that _H_ recommended offering private homes to the evacuees is pretty good. However, those needing a place to stay will have to accept that they're probably going to have to listen to left wing talk and blaming Bush. I would almost rather sleep outside. Actually, I hope that this crisis brings opposing sides closer rather than it becoming a blame game.

On a related note, Bush should send Ted Kennedy down there, as Kennedy has experience escaping from water.

Posted by Woody at September 2, 2005 01:02 PM

_H_, American football is just rugby with padding, too many lines on the field, too many substitutions, too much coaching from the sidelines, too many rules, too many referees, too many whistles, a ball that's virtually impossible to drop kick, that horrible perversion called the forward pass, no hookers, and lastly, inferior team songs!

I'm glad to see you coming around to GM's corner, my favorite site.

Posted by civil truth at September 2, 2005 01:42 PM

Civil Truth left out too many cheerleaders..... whoops, that is a plus. Sorry about that. ;-)

AND, CT, THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT, WE APPRECIATE YOU COMING AROUND TOO.

Posted by GM Roper at September 2, 2005 01:46 PM

it is a pleasure to be here , and aslong as we don't talk politics (cough) then we will all get on just fine

the guys seem to have a quality site here , with people who can debate as apposed to the insult competitions I am so used to

the best way to take me at this site is as your resident nutter , my views are different then all of yours on almost every major subject , but i respect the way you debate them

every site has a resident nutter and i apply for the position on this site

I have a real problem with bush
I don't aprove of the war in iraq
I DO support the american people
I DO support the american troops
I dont support the american policies

and most importantly i DONT come here to try and convince you all of my views (impossible task) but to make sure that i am being balanced and fair and keeping up with what the right is saying , rather then as many of my left wing (cabbage smelling) brothers do , and just blast out with both barrels without actually reading what you say (the right do this too)

watching debates accross the blogosphere i have yet to see a "righty" convince a "lefty" and i have yet to see a "lefty" convince a "righty"

so it is so much easier (and recommended by me) to just think of me as insain ,

"you know that H , the weird guy who posts all that "oh so undeducated stuff"

i respect the people here , and i respect the views of everyone

so it seems a good place to pop in once in a while and post "the flip side" and if/when i do , please remember , it is often better to just think of me as an amusing fool ,

trust me , i dont offend easy

but my respect to you all , and my genuine interest in what you all have to say

Posted by _H_ at September 2, 2005 06:46 PM

I gave to Salvation Army, as someone on powerline said they seem to have the biggest presence on the ground.

I also say emphatically: help the government and yourself by building your own survival kit right now, wherever your are! (I am perched precariously over a couple of So Cal fault lines.)

Posted by Patricia at September 2, 2005 09:33 PM

Can't really tell much from the website Patricia recommended (but the take on `Over There' is spot on...in the end, the only one responsible for self is yourself.

See, Woody! I'm a freakin' democrat! Talk about bustin' preconceptions!

Posted by jim hitchcock at September 2, 2005 11:14 PM

Good for you, Jim! I received a call from a yankee friend of mine today, the only purpose of which was to gripe about Bush. I told him that I'm sympathetic to those stranded in N.O., but that they have something to do with their own plight. They should have gotten out of town; and, if they couldn't get out of town because of money, then they should have made better life choices so as to not be in that position. Did they drop out of high school, get on drugs or alcohol, were lazy, didn't care, who know?! The only point to my friend is that we are where we are, based on large part, by choices that we make in life. With some exceptions, most of this situation because of choice that they made--not choices that Bush made for them. But, don't let the blame for anyone detract from the job that must be done.

Posted by Woody at September 3, 2005 12:14 PM