Lu-natic? Call your doctor..............nm

I begged him to let me continue, said Perlmutter, who left his home and practice as an orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania to come to Louisiana and volunteer to care for hurricane victims. People were dying, and I was the only doctor on the tarmac (at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) where scores of nonresponsive patients lay on stretchers. Two patients died in front of me.

I showed him (the U.S. Coast Guard official in charge) my medical credentials. I had tried to get through to FEMA for 12 hours the day before and finally gave up. I asked him to let me stay until I was replaced by another doctor, but he refused. He said he was afraid of being sued. I informed him about the Good Samaritan laws and asked him if he was willing to let people die so the government wouldn't be sued, but he would not back down. I had to leave.

FEMA issued a formal response to Perlmutter's story, acknowledging that the agency does not use voluntary physicians.

We have a cadre of physicians of our own, FEMA spokesman Kim Pease said Thursday. They are the National Disaster Medical Team. ... The voluntary doctor was not a credentialed FEMA physician and, thus, was subject to law enforcement rules in a disaster area.

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Perlmutter, Dr. Clark Gerhart and medical student Alison Torrens flew into Baton Rouge on a private jet loaned by a Pennsylvania businessman several days after Katrina hit. They brought medicine and supplies with them. They stayed the first night in Baton Rouge and persuaded an Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot to fly them into New Orleans the next day.

I was going to make it happen, the orthopedic surgeon said. I was at Ground Zero too, and I had to lie to get in there.

At the triage area in the New Orleans airport, Perlmutter was successful in getting FEMA to accept the insulin and morphine he had brought. The pharmacist told us they were completely out of insulin and our donation would save numerous lives. Still, I felt we were the most-valuable resource, and we were sent away.

Gerhart said the scene they confronted at the airport was one of hundreds of people lying on the ground, many soaked in their own urine and feces, some coding (dying) before our eyes. FEMA workers initially seemed glad for help and asked Gerhart to work inside the terminal and Perlmutter to work out on the tarmac. They were told only a single obstetrician had been on call at the site for the past 24 hours.

Then, the Coast Guard official informed the group that he could not credential them or guarantee tort coverage and that they should return to Baton Rouge. That shocked me, that those would be his concerns in a time of emergency, Gerhart said.

Transported back to Baton Rouge, Perlmutter's frustrated group went to state health officials who finally got them certified -- a simple process that took only a few seconds.

I found numerous other doctors in Baton Rouge waiting to be assigned and others who were sent away, and there was no shortage of need, he said.

Perlmutter spent some time at the Department of Health and Hospital's operational center at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries before moving to the makeshift Kmart Hospital doctors established at an abandoned store to care for patients. After organizing an orthopedics room and setting up ventilators there, Perlmutter went back to the Swaggart Center and then to the LSU Pete Maravich Assembly Center's field hospital to care for patients being flown in from the New Orleans area.

We saw elderly patients who had been off their medicine for days, diabetics without insulin going into shock, uncontrolled hypertension, patients with psychosis and other mental disorders, lots of diarrhea, dehydration and things you would expect. I slept on a patient cot there every night until I came home.

Gerhart said he felt the experience overall was successful and rewarding, although frustrating at times. You don't expect catastrophes to be well organized. A lot of people, both private citizens and government officials, were working very hard.

Perlmutter did not return home empty-handed. He brought a family of four evacuees back with him and is still working with Baton Rouge volunteer Hollis Barry to facilitate the relocation of additional hurricane victims to Pennsylvania.

He also returned with a sense of outrage. I have been trying to call Sen. Arlen Specter (of Pennsylvania) to let him know of our experience.

I have been going to Ecuador and Mexico (on medical missions) for 14 years. I was at ground zero. I've seen hundreds of people die. This was different because we knew the hurricane was coming. FEMA showed up late and then rejected help for the sake of organization. They put form before function, and people died.

Both FEMA and the Coast Guard operate under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has been widely criticized for its disjointed, slow response to the devastation caused by Katrina. Federal officials are urging medical personnel who want to volunteer to help with disaster relief to contact the Medical Reserve Corps or the American Red Cross for registration, training and organization.

yourself a saint, for all I care.  How do you get your arm back there to pat yourself on the back? You are more sensitive than others.  Thanks for letting us know.  If you hadn't told us we might have missed it.

the fact is that he is actually doing something (as opposed to the party of NO and hip hop) that will actually help the economy.  What's funny to me is that you guys seem to be terrified that he might actually manage to help someone who you would consider beneath you in the process.  Yet another example of republican greed.  Hey, maybe Steele can bust a few rhymes with that....

My name is Michael -- My game is to stifle -- We keep peons hungry -- And we keep all the money....Everybody in the house say Hey!...say Ho!

Con means to deceive or mislead.  That's how they communicate, from Bush right on down to his peon worshippers.  They deceive, lie, mislead, twist, manipulate.  They do everything except speak the truth.  This is a perfect example.  You asked them above to see the post.  You didn't get a response, did you?

Now they'll just continue to troll this board with more outrageous fictional tales conceived in their tiny little minds, all for the purpose of demeaning and attacking liberals.

It's really sad, irritating and definitely bothersome, but they are their own worst enemy because they are getting more and more out of control every day.  In a way, I guess I will really be worried if it stops.  If I no longer see those angry hateful posts here, I will fear that they finally snapped in real life and either hurt someone else or got hurt themselves.

Read this article closely:

Describing George W. Bush as the most stupid president in U.S. history, the Al Qaeda leader reached out to the Muslim world and said his group was winning faster than expected in Iraq.

The U.S. president's policy had enabled the militant group to achieve their goal of fighting more Americans, said the Al Qaeda leader.

We call the lame duck (Bush) not to hurry up in escaping the same way the defense minister did, he said, referring to the removal of Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary following the Democrats' victory in Midterm elections.

They are getting ready to leave, because they are no longer capable of staying, the Al Qaeda leader said.

Remain steadfast in the battlefield you coward, he called on the U.S president.

If this does not chill your blood, with all due respect, there is something terribly wrong.  These people are focused on the destruction of the United States.  They get their information from the New York Times and CNN,  and they are heartened that the majority of this country who voted espouse the cut and run theory on Iraq.  They seek to divide us from within and for the country to turn on the President (and they have done that successfully it would seem).  They think (and it would appear that they are right in many cases) that the US as a whole has no stomach for the fight.  In their eyes, we are weak and not willing to fight for what we believe in like they are, and in their eyes that makes us cowards.  We are in a WAR, yes a WAR, like no other.  And if you do not think us pulling out of Iraq prematurely will not fire the jihad you are very sadly mistaken.  They will view it as a major victory and I shudder to think what will follow it.  The very reason we have not had more major attacks on our soil, in my opinion, is that these people, with all their bluster, are afraid of George Bush and what he might do.  They are afraid that if they pull something like that again Iraq might be a walk in the park and would mean even more American boots on the ground in places they don't want them.  They just can't be sure of what the US might do under his leadership, and that is why they are biding their time.  If we get a dovish adminstration, it could, and most likely would, get ugly real fast.  All it will take is the first (and probably homegrown) jihadist to blow himself up in a mall somewhere and take several innocent American lives with him....and then it will be too late.  It could happen, do not think for a moment it could not.  They want dead Americans.  They would prefer dead American citizens on our own ground.  They prefer the cowardly fight.  They do not prefer having to face our military.  But they will, because they are dedicated to their belief, no matter how perverse it is, while all the time trying to get back on the playing field they prefer...cowardly suicide attacks.  We will learn what Israel has had to live with for years, the hard way.  Do you see where I am going with this?  We NEED for them to remain afraid of what we might do if they start something like that.  We need for them to respect our willingness to stand toe-to-toe for what we believe in.  We need to demonstrate that we are willing to do so and not waver.  We need to demonstrate a belief in our country and our way of life as strong as theirs is.  We are already wavering as a country, and we need to suck it up and stand up straight again.  It is time to wake up.  We are not acting as the World police in Iraq.  We are in a fight for our survival, the survival of a free country where we are not afraid to go into a mall or get in a car or go anywhere we wish without fear of suicide bombers, car bombs, being grabbed off the street and found without a head a week later.  We do not need to join the  hunker down and be quiet and maybe they will leave us alone club.  That does not work.  They are not going to leave us alone.  No one is safe, for these people there is only one way....their way.  They are not going to stop and go quietly away.  That should be patently obvious.  This is the most important issue that faces us.  None of the rest of it will matter if we lose in Iraq.  Take a moment to look at history, all the precursors of 9-11.   Had we not gone into Iraq, and swept yet another incident under the rug (with Khobar Towers, the Cole, the Achille Lauro, Tanzania, Somalia, and on and on and on) there is no telling where we would be right now or what other awful things might have occurred.  For those of you who cannot grasp that, who think that if we pull out of Iraq and pander to these people that everything will be all right....God help you.  God help us all.

Great article and on target!  It also should chill the blood of the get out of Iraq now crowd, because what this article describes is precisely what would happen.  But, they have blinders on.  Iran in control of Iraq's oil .... think on that for a minute.  With their nuclear ambitions .... think on that for a minute, people.  It is still hard for me to believe that we actually have leaders, members of our own Congress, who are ready and willing to turn our belly up to be ripped out by these fanatics.  Sorry if that is graphic, but that is exactly what they want to do.  How can anyone in their right mind support a party who would rather go after the man who had guts enough to fight for this country, than to go after the terrorists?  If they would focus the hatred of George Bush and the energy trying to bring him down on terrorism instead we might be a lot closer to defeating them.  How did their thinking get that screwed up?  How did it become acceptable to screw over your fellow Americans, your own country, to have power?  And how were they able to sell that garbage to a portion of the American people?  I ask the question and I know the answer.  Because a great portion of the American people have strayed from core values, moral stands, and the black and white of right and wrong to the gray area of appeasement and whatever makes ME feel good, to heck with what is best for the country.  The REALLY sad part of it is that they are going to drag us all down with them.  As I said in another post....as THEY sow, so shall WE all reap.  It is heartbreaking.  We cannot give up, however.  We still have a mighty sword and that is prayer.  And not to sit down nor shut up.  God Bless!

a political survey. I went Obama all the way.  I love to respond to telephone surveys, but wish I knew who was gathering the data. They asked me if I was borned again.

Instead of mutt or just plain old American, it wouldn't be so bad for me, just Irish-German-Cherokee Indian, American but think of my kids, who would be Irish-German-Cherokee Indian-English, Scotish-Polish-French Americans.  Good golly ms. Molly.

There was not one candidate, let alone the presumed nominee in either party, that I can support.  Obama scares the bejezers out of me and Hillary gave me the willies.  The republicans are not an iota better either.  I keep praying that as Lou Dobbs predicted last year, I think it was, that an independent would enter the race and win.  I would vote for him.  Whether he would hold up as a politician or not, I don't know.  Maybe he would corruptify in the D.C. tradition but at least he would probably attempt to stand up for "we the people" at least for awhile.  What are we AMERICANS thinking anyway to let our government tromp on us???  I write to our congressman/woman on a regular basis.  What do I get?  A form letter of course telling me why they are right and I am wrong.  Never mind that the majority wants.