THIS is a HERO. Karl Malone, a man who put his money, fame and power where

his mouth is, and went to HELP everyone he could in Mississippi.

Damn.

Karl "The Mailman" Malone is still delivering, no matter what the weather.

The former NBA all-star and a crew from his logging company in Arkansas spent two weeks in Pascagoula, Miss., hauling away debris left by Hurricane Katrina.

"Everything about this just felt right," Malone says. "My mom died two years ago, and in our last conversation, she told me that one day I would have to step up on a grand scale and help people. I knew this was it."


Malone, whose team cleared 114 lots, said he brought 18 vehicles to Pascagoula, including a backhoe, three bulldozers and several RVs for him and his crew.

Malone, 42, an experienced truck driver and logger who was born in Bernice, La., spent 12 hours a day behind the wheel of his heavy machinery.


"We started every day at seven in the morning and didn't quit until we got it done," he says. When Malone arrived, he says he ran into resistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Army Corps of Engineers officials who said he wasn't authorized to bring his machinery into the area to clear private property.


"There was a lot of red tape, and I ain't got time for that," he says. "I found out that if you're going to do something good, just go ahead and do it." Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, says FEMA and the corps by law could only allow approved contractors to clear debris and that only government agencies could work on "public rights of way."


Malone says landowners were told that debris had to be moved out to the street before it could be hauled away. "How is a landowner who just lost everything going to pay $15,000 or $20,000 to have a lot cleared? I mean, there were two or three houses on top of one another in some places."


This put Malone in the middle of territorial disputes with private contractors.


"We had one guy come up to us and tell us to go to another neighborhood and that these people could afford to pay," Malone says. "I told him, 'Why should they pay? They just lost everything.' "

Read the rest, and honor him.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050930/ts_usatoday/themailmanandhiscrewbulldozethroughbureaucracytohelpvictims

They tried to stop anyone willing to help or volunteer. WE need to investigate FEMA on a grand scale, people. This agency is corrupt and evil, and I say enough is enough.

were kept separate from whites?

I hear that doctors who traveled there to volunteer were lead into a room with both white and black patients. They were specifically told to treat the whites first.

They turned around and walked out.

They have blood on their hands because they wanted a few more $$$$ in their pockets.

Is this the America that Repukes long for? Where mass numbers of people are left to fend for themselves in a time of national disaster?? Where the agency called FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT can't manage to help anyone but instead hinders help? This is Biblical sin on a Ten Commandments level. Among all those Bible verses about slaughtering sheep and having ten wives, there is written some stuff about taking care of the poor and not practicing usury and being a friend to the stranger and loving your enemies. What the hell about that?

All these people trying to sell this Gawd crap better figure it out before they kill the rest of us.

Or maybe that's all they want. :shrug:

n/t

They set up their privatization and charitable agenda. Every government program that was supposed to help, didn't. But corporations and charities got in and worked. So what is the average American to think? Government failed where private contractors, charities and citizens worked. Just like the right wing wants them to think. Why are they pushing the Red Cross so hard? So that they can eliminate government and turn all of this people helping stuff over to one big charity. Then the people won't ever expect the government to help again and those that aren't helped will be blamed for not having insurance or not saving, or just flat not talked about at all.

The story of FEMA dealing with Katrina is an object lesson in Greed Over Principles.

I am from a town about 25 miles from Malone's mother's home (in fact I have been to the house). He used to come here every year and hold basketball clinics for the school. He gave autographed basketballs to everyone. Now he has built a "wet yard" here to provide employment.This has something to do with the timber industry, one of our few job sources. He has used his wealth and fame wisely and we are proud to call him ours.

But if you see him again, ask him why he gace money to scrub/croney and nothing to the war hero Kerry.

Welcome to Democratic Underground, LA lady

about this true hero. I don't care if he is registered Repub or Dem, he is an AMERICAN, he has a true heart, and he knows right from wrong and acts on it.
:patriot:

The FEMA aspect of this story is absolutely typical. It's all a shakedown for cash for GOP cronies and blockage and confiscation of aid or even lifesaving for everyone else. A massive, massive crime. Genocide, in fact, in my opinion.

to let the privateers work their market magic, like the clowns laying down $3500 tarp. You know, the temporary plastic blue stuff that you can get an outfit to tack over your house for $300...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0930-01.htm

he donated to the scrub/croney 04 reselection campaign and zero to kerry. So maybe he feels some guilt about making such a wrong headed decision.

Steve Glenn, a FEMA official in Mississippi, said rules regarding clearing debris on private property exist to protect individuals' rights: "We can't just go onto private property on a whim."


How about if the OWNER of the private property is standing there, saying "PLEASE come onto my property and help me"!?!

This administration has done Terrible things to FEMA

He used the same pair of socks throughout the Entire NBA season each year. He would darn the things when they would get tattered as he was taught to darn by his mother. This he did not only as a superstition but also as a legacy from his mother who taught him humility and frugality.

Karl Malone rocks.

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:applause: Karl Malone

How many times do you see Repukes applaud Democrats when they selflessly do something great? Never.

Here were are talking about Karl Malone...who as far as I can tell is a big Republican supporter.

Good is good, regardless of political affiliation. Republicans wouldn't know good if it bit them in the ass.