Rabid Ideologues for Hurricane Relief
The Drudge Retort belongs to a large network of liberal weblogs that's trying to raise $1 million for urgent Hurricane Katrina relief. Donations go to the Red Cross for the specific purpose of helping thousands of people affected by a disaster of biblical proportions -- 90,000 square miles of four states were devastated by the storm, thousands may be dead, and more are dying by the hour. Site visitors have donated almost $100,000 in one day, which is good but still a long way from the goal.Liberal bloggers who want to support this effort can link to the donation page for Liberal Blogs for Hurricane Relief.
A perpetual argument on partisan political weblogs is whether liberals or conservatives are more generous. This seems like the ideal opportunity to provide some evidence in one direction or the other.
In order for this to happen, we need a network of conservative sites, such as one on Blogads led by Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt, to organize a charity effort to rival ours. They can even use the same infrastructure we did -- Henry Copeland of Blogads told me in e-mail he's ready to help, and they can secure donations through DropCash.
If anyone reading Workbench is a fan of Malkin, Hewitt, or the other members of that conservative network, urge them to take up this challenge, as I'm doing this morning in e-mail.
There aren't many instances where the venomous political climate in this country works to our advantage. This could be one of them.
Comments
There's also the Blog For Relief Day being sponsored by TTLB and Instapundit.
I'm participating in that one. So far only one person has registered a donation made via my site. Better than nothing I guess.
The "Blog for Relief Day" mentioned by Tyler above has been extended through the weekend. Over 1300 blogs (from across the political spectrum) are participating, and as of this writing, they have logged $326,487 in contributions.
Both Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin are taking part, as well as many other big-name bloggers like Glenn Reynolds.
Natural disasters don't discriminate between conservatives and liberals, rich and poor, or black and white. We are all vulnerable, and we should all sacrifice something to help those who are affected.
Here's what I'm doing:
Just what the hell is wrong with this administration? A C130 carries 140,000 pounds of payload. The air force has 1000 of them. Why aren't 500 landing in LA. Right now stuffed with supplies? They should be able to get 25,000 troops anywhere in the country in 12 hours. This incompetence is beyond belief. Bush has screwed this as bad as he screwed up Iraq.
Those efforts are commendable, Smash -- especially your matched contribution of $3,200. That's digging deep.
A minor quibble I have with Bear's effort is that it's unverifiable -- people tell him what they've donated. That system would be gamed instantly if there was any competitive charity going on.
The liberal network, which I think was set up by Chris Bowers at MyDD, is verified PayPal contributions.
Ace Rimmer, if you know of a spot that 500 C-130's could land, I am sure the relief effort is all ears. What a ridiculous comment.
Ace Rimmer:
Not to mention that a C-130 has a gross weight of 130,000 pounds (not cargo capacity), with a max cargo weight of 36,000 pounds. One tractor-trailer can haul about as much as two C-130s, and doesn't need a runway or several thousand pounds of fuel to deliver it. You also have to get the supplies away from the airports, which the plans can't do.
By the time they managed to get the runways of the closest airports clear enough to let planes land, we already had dozens of trucks showing up in downtown New Orleans.
For good or ill, 900,000 square miles is the size of Alaska. Almost four times the size of Texas. I think you've slipped a decimal place. ;)
Yikes! I'll fix that.
D-hoggs - ever hear of an airdrop? If they couldn't land those damn planes they should have been airdropping supplies from Tuesday on all through the week until the feds finally got their shit together...
Good Lord, the donations are "unverifiable". You want to argue over the validity of donations? Are you mental? It's not about your ideology, it's about people in New Orleans that are in need.
All the stupid comments about Bush etc. simply tell me you caer more about your politics and winning than you do about helping your fellow man.
Christ, I hate politics.
TIBS: You ever seen a pallet of anything dropped out of a C-130? Guess what it's like to be in the ground underneath a thousand pounds of food with a parachute with no stearing. You are about as dumb as a box of rocks, son.
And you sure as shit aren't Airborne.
What have you done to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Looking on with Sadness? Normally I don't pay much attention to people who are too ashamed of their own comments to sign them, but being insulted about this effort is wearing thin.
A group to which I belong launched a Katrina relief program. I'm trying to help reach that $1 million goal. If you have better ideas that will raise more money, enlighten me.
Between my wife and I (we have the same employer) we gave $500...which was matched by the company to = $1000. We sent that to Samaritans purse. But I'm not going to f*cking register it for political points one way or the other... this is nice as a "get involved" stunt, but you actually want it for bragging rights?! Glad you're finding a silver lining in at least one way...........
I didn't set up the liberal blog relief effort. I'm just trying to promote it.
I do think there's some logic in working together as we're doing -- the network receives more than 13 million hits a week. If we have a loyal audience of political partisans who would like to give money as a group, why not exploit that interest?
Because the only thing you're exploiting is the victims.
A perpetual argument on partisan political weblogs is whether liberals or conservatives are more generous. This seems like the ideal opportunity to provide some evidence in one direction or the other.
"Whoeee I'm a Liberal and I'm more generous than my Conservative neighbor." and vice versa.
Glad you're raising money, but it's just an unseemly way to do so... would you have a "slave auction" to raise money? Not exactly comparable...but just as unseemly.
Like I said.... I F*cking hate politics,
Your opprobrium will haunt me until the end of my days.
Rogers,
Your heart is in the right place on this one. I salute you for trying to stimulate more generosity in any way that you can.
Ignore the moronic trolls.
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