New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is slamming Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco for her delays in requesting federal help (free registration required for link) for the survivors of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told CNN's "American Morning" Monday that he met with Mr. Bush and Mrs. Blanco on Air Force One on Friday and implored the two to "get in sync."

"If you don't get in sync, more people are going to die," Mr. Nagin said.

Mr. Bush met privately first with Mrs. Blanco, then called Mr. Nagin in for a meeting.

"He called me in that office," Mr. Nagin said. "And he said, 'Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.' I was ready to move. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

That decision was a request by Mr. Bush to allow the federal government to take over the evacuation of New Orleans, which had been marked by chaos for days. The Democratic governor, who has clashed behind the scenes with the Bush administration since the storm hit, refused.

This doesn't negate Mayor Nagin's malfeasance here either -- more than 400 buses are underwater today in the Crescent City, 400 buses that could have been used to evacuate those in the Superdome prior to the disaster. Nagin was also made aware more than three days before landfall, but did not push for an evacuation until a day and a half before landfall, and Nagin never did push for total evacuation of those who did not have the resources to leave on their own.

Please keep in mind that the federal authorities did not have the legal jurisdiction to force an evacuation. That power lay with the state and local authorities -- in other words, with Nagin and Blanco. The two of them clearly did not act in the best interest of their constituents, despite their statements to the contrary on television and in various media over the past week.

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Tropical Storm Warnings have been issued from Jupiter Inlet to Titusville in Florida. Loosely organized Tropical Depression #16 is (as of 2P ET today) about 180 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral, with max sustained winds of 30 miles per hour. The depression is stationary, but expected to begin a slow northwestward motion later today.

The National Hurricane Center expects it to become a tropical storm sometime tonight and to begin to bring rains to Florida's east coast sometime tomorrow.

Forecast tracks show TD#16 moving northwesterly along the Florida east coast, making landfall as a tropical storm sometime Saturday near St. Augustine, FL.

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C0y1n1IxTYJ:www.henrylim.org/Dictionary.jpg" align=left hspace=3>Jesse Jackson and others are jumping up and down about the use of the term "refugees" to describe those displaced from the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's fury last week. They claim the word to be racist.

This is not true when you look at the etymology and the definition of the word.

Personally, I think Jackson and the others would actually gravitate back toward the word if they stopped and looked at the true dictionary definition of the word.

One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.

The common term being used by many however, both politically correct and otherwise -- and correctly so, is evacuee.

A person evacuated from a dangerous area.

But I have found a better word for them: Survivors. They have survived by the grace of God. And mark my words, most of them have taken to bended knee to thank God for His grace.

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Hundreds of blogs across the blogosphere are taking time out this weekend to focus on the victims of Hurricane Katrina and to ask for your help.

The American Red Cross is coordinating efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and all across the nation to help those affected by the disaster. They are coordinating the use of the facilities at the Astrodome in Houston, where so many refugees are being taken; they are working with the military and other agencies to get those in need of medical help to hospitals across the Southeast. They need your help.

The Salvation Army is also providing support and you be certain that donations there will help also.

You can help by volunteering your time, your money, your blood or your prayers. All will be appreciated.

More details can be found from TTLB, Instapundit and literally hundreds of other blogs around the world.

Thank you and God bless you.

UPDATE: In addition to the resources I've linked to here, DarkStar has an excellent list of black resources and charities over at Vision Circle that are also providing services and relief to victims of Katrina's wrath.

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Jesse Jackson, along with US Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (Clueless-TX), held a press conference today where he made specific demands regarding disaster in New Orleans.

Jackson said he appreciated the willingness of states as far away as Utah and Minnesota to take in evacuees but suggested such plans take them too far from their families and the homes that must be rebuilt.

"It's a long ways from home," he said. "It's a long way from where they have lived, where they were acculturated."

Jackson said evacuees from the Gulf Coast are not refugees, a word he believes suggests subhumans or criminals.

"It is racist to call American citizens refugees,'' he said.

Will someone please tell me what is racist about the term?

Secondly, there is no room in Texas; we're not dealing with a situation where someone shows up at the airport and asks for a plane to Milwaukee, please.

The crews there are working to load planes and buses to get people out as soon as possible.

Why, pray tell, is Jesse Jackson there in the first place?

Oh. By the way; Jesse's afraid of people becoming "acculturated?" People's culture becoming modified by contact with others? That sounds awful xenophobic, if you ask me...

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Moving swiftly, as promised, President Bush is nominating John Roberts, previously nominated as an associate justice on the Supreme Court replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, to the now-open spot of Chief Justice.

The prior Chief Justice, William Rehnquist, passed away Saturday night after a year-long bout with thyroid cancer.

Bush wants to have Roberts in place by the beginning of the October term.

He is promising a second nominee to replace O'Connor "in a timely manner."

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The AP reported that local police had shot at eight thugs, killing five or six on the Danziger Bridge over the Industrial Canal in New Orleans.

The story quickly changed to the police shooting and killing five or six Army Corps of Engineers contractors.

Then the story changed again.

Stations: The latest New Orleans-datelined urgent series Hurricane Katrina-Shootings has been KILLED. The Army Corps of Engineers says the contractors were shot at, then police fatally shot the gunmen who'd fired on the contractors. The contractors were NOT killed.

A kill is mandatory. Make certain the story is not broadcast.

A sub will be filed shortly.

AP Broadcast News Center - Washington

OK. The final story -- I hope -- is as noted: that contractors for the Army Corps of Engineers were shot at by some thugs; NOLA police shot at the thugs, killing them and saving the contractors.

Whew!

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US Senator Mary Landrieu (Moonbat-LA) made what could be construed as a threat to physically assault President George W. Bush during an appearance on ABCNews' This Week this morning.

Sen. Mary Landrieu threatened the president of the United States with physical violence on Sunday, saying that if he or any other government official criticizes New Orleans police for failing to keep civil order in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - "I might likely have to punch him - literally."

"If one person criticizes [our sheriffs], or says one more thing, including the president of the United States, he will hear from me - one more word about it after this show airs and I - I might likely have to punch him - literally," Landrieu railed on "ABC's "This Week."

Landrieu used her on-air soapbox to lambaste the President for what she called a photo-op, specifically his Friday trip to the region to survey damage first hand. Bush is scheduled to return to areas hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, including New Orleans, tomorrow.

It is illegal to threaten a US President physically.

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DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to defend his department's initial response to the disaster in New Orleans by saying that a scenario like that presented by Hurricane Katrina didn't exist on government drawing boards.

"That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight," Chertoff said.

He called the disaster "breathtaking in its surprise."

Hell, I've known about a potential disaster in the making with New Orleans for years -- anyone who watches The Discovery Channel or National Geographic Channel or even The Weather Channel has known about that potential. All three networks, along with programs like PBS' Nova have shown the possibility of a catastrophe like this happening in New Orleans.

Not only that, but Chertoff's Department of Homeland Security has been charged with preparing for disaster; what if this had been a nuclear or chemical attack from Al Qaeda?

As far as I'm concerned, this was Chertoff's first test as Homeland Security chief. He failed. Miserably.

The bad guys could not have orchestrated this any better.

They now know that the United States is not prepared for another massive terrorist attack on this nation.

Chertoff really ought to start looking for another job.

UPDATE: Chertoff clearly is not the only person who dropped the ball. FEMA Director Michael Brown admitted that he was not more proactive as early as last Sunday, referring to Katrina as a garden-variety hurricane when the National Weather Service talked about "water shortages (that) will make human suffering incredible by modern standards." Michelle Malkin agrees and has further details.

And before you think that only the feds are at fault, let's look at New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

The National Hurricane Center's forecast track pointed toward New Orleans as early as 11P ET Friday the 26th. Nagin was informed, but did nothing. Local residents who escaped were shocked by the fact that Nagin and other Louisiana officials weren't on television or radio sooner.

The director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, telephoned Nagin at home Saturday night, imploring him to get people out of New Orleans. The New Orleans disaster plan points toward the use of school buses and other municipally owned vehicles to get people out of Orleans Parish. Those vehicles are underwater today, thanks to Nagin's incompetence.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco was asked by the Bush Administration to declare a state of emergency and to help evacuate people early on Sunday. Blanco likewise did not do so.

Yet Blanco and Nagin have joined the chorus of finger-pointing.

There is plenty of blame to go around. But one side cannot claim to be blameless, as officials on both sides are trying to do today.

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US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist died at his Arlington, Virginia home tonight after a long battle with thyroid cancer.

A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington.

"The Chief Justice battled thyroid cancer since being diagnosed last October and continued to perform his dues on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days," she said.

Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice in 1971 by President Nixon and took his seat on Jan. 7, 1982. He was elevated to chief justice by President Reagan in 1986.

His death ends a remarkable 33-year Supreme Court career during which Rehnquist oversaw the court's conservative shift, presided over an impeachment trial and helped decide a presidential election.

Fasten your seatbelts; September on the Hill has just become even more interesting.

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Rev. Al Sharpton (R) holds a motherless child along with Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee (L) as they visit survivors of hurricane Katrina on the floor of the Astrodome in Houston, Texas September 3, 2005. President George W. Bush ordered more troops to help evacuate and secure New Orleans on Saturday as rescuers moved thousands of desperate evacuees out of the city and shut down two huge shelters that had become the scene of murder, rape and chaos. Under fire for his government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, which wrecked one of the world's most famous cities and may have killed thousands of people, Bush said he will send in 7,200 additional active duty troops in the next three days.

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Word came out of Houston yesterday that Halliburton had been hired by the US Navy to help with the cleanup of areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

Conspiracy theorists and liberals across the country and around the world already suspicious of Bush administration ties to the firm will have so much cannon fodder that it won't even be funny as a Letterman or Leno joke.

Not a wise move at all.

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Rapper Kanye West, a participant in tonight's Hurricane Relief benefit on five of the NBC Universal networks (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo & PAX), decided that it was the right time to make a political statement of his own -- while in the middle of soliciting funds for disaster relief.

"George W. Bush doesn't care about black people," West said.

West was on screen with Mike Myers, and was very nervous to begin with. It was obvious that he was straying from the script on the teleprompter as he nervously rambled on about the perceptions of white versus black looters (as we talked about here day-before-yesterday).

When West dropped his bombshell, Myers looked mortified and embarrassed.

I'm sure Air America and Michael Moore are looking to congratulate him for his idiotic stunt. I'm also sure that the Red Cross and NBC officials are less than happy with it.

Watch the video (35MB MPG; courtesy JuiceNewsDaily.com) and decide for yourself.

UPDATE: NBC released a statement regarding West's comments this evening.

"Tonight's telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion. Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion."

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Blaming President Bush and his administration for the inadequate response to the disaster of Biblical proportions facing New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was the sport of the day today.

Commentators on MSNBC, CNN and elsewhere in the mainstream media hammered home their collective point: "Isn't it important that these people are poor and black? Is that why the response has been inadequate?"

Jesse Jackson, at a press conference in Baton Rouge, continued the refrain.

Racism is partly to blame for the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, calling President Bush's response to the disaster "incompetent."

Jackson questioned why Bush has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: "How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering?"

"It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence."

U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, head of the military task force overseeing operations in the three states, is black. His task force is providing search and rescue, medical help and sending supplies to the three states in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Jackson's presser was followed by one by the Congressional Black Caucus, where they, too blamed Bush. CBC head Elijah Cummings (D-MD) led the charge by quoting from the Bible in order to chastise Bush.

He quoted a passage from the New Testament in which Jesus said, “Whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me.” Cummings concluded, “To the president of the United States, I simply say: God can not be pleased with our response.”

“If they president doesn’t have people competent to do the job, he needs to get rid of them, and put somebody else in who can do the job,” Cummings said.

"It looks dysfunctional to me right now," said Rep. Diane Watson, D-California.

She and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, along with members of the Black Leadership Forum, National Conference of State Legislators, National Urban League and the NAACP, held a news conference and charged that the response was slow because those most affected are poor.

The most important thing right now is saving lives and getting those people's needs taken care of.

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This is what is painted on the front of a storefront in New Orleans ravaged by Hurricane Katrina:

It reads, "Looters will be shot. Don't try. I am sleeping inside with a big dog, an ugly woman, two shotguns and a claw hammer..."

Deterrence?

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Information coming directly from the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina is something that people really are looking for. In addition to the news networks (CNN, FNC, MSNBC), local resources are not only available, but are streaming on the web.

WWL-TV New Orleans (via WFAA Dallas) - WWL-TV is operating from studios at Louisiana Public Broadcasting. CBS has a relay during the morning and afternoon. When available, use the CBS relay first as they have greater streaming capacity. Yahoo has also provided a relay.

WDSU-TV New Orleans - The news staff has started to return to temporary news studios near New Orleans. However, expect evening coverage from Hearst-Argyle sister stations WAPT Jackson and WESH Orlando when the New Orleans staff needs to take a break.

WGNO-TV New Orleans - New Orleans' ABC affiliate has returned to the air with WBRZ-TV and launched video streaming with continuous Katrina coverage.

WPMI-TV Mobile, AL - WPMI is webcasting from 5:30am - 10:30pm CDT. When off air, you can view pre-recorded reports on demand. This feed is often unreliable.

WKRG-TV Mobile, AL - This station is providing good coverage of the situation to the east in Mississippi and Alabama. However, the station is now signing off at around 10:30pm CDT like WWL and WPMI.

WJTV-TV Jackson, MS - The CBS affiliate in Jackson is providing live coverage for both the Jackson area and south Mississippi (knowing a lot of media in that area is off the air).

United Radio From New Orleans: WWL-AM, WNOE-FM, "KISS-FM," WRNO-FM, WYLD-FM, and WJBO-AM who have joined forces as United Radio From New Orleans, and they are streaming.

Gulf Coast Storm Network (Clear Channel Radio) - Clear Channel offers radio listeners across the gulf coast access to a simulcast emergency radio service. This service seems primarily focused on Alabama and Mississippi, but does cover Louisiana to some degree.

New Orleans Police Department & National Guard Operations: Several volunteers are pitching in to help relay these "scanner broadcasts." You can now listen for extended periods of time. The service now also includes broadcasts from the National Guard operating in southern Louisiana.

(capacity 300 listeners) http://205.252.89.181:8000/live.m3u
(capacity 250 listeners) http://216.22.26.45:8002/listen.pls
(capacity 160 listeners) http://66.255.148.51:8000/listen.pls
(capacity 100 listeners) http://ve3nsv.no-ip.org:8000/louisiana.m3u
(capacity 20 listeners) http://joem.scare.org:8025/
(unknown capacity) http://radio.scannerbuff.net:8008/hurricane.m3u
(unknown capacity) http://www.radioreference.com:8080/lspbtr.m3u

Gulf Coast ARES Emergency Network: These are amateur radio operators providing assistance and coordination via high frequency (shortwave) links. The audio feed for this will be subject to interference and sound anomalies due to the transmission mode and frequency.

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Liberals Play the Race Card, But Get Dealt a Lousy Hand

By Michael King

A New Visions Commentary paper published September 2005 by The National Center for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Court NE #200, Washington, D.C. 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202/543-5975, E-Mail Project21@nationalcenter.org, Web http://www.project21.org. Reprints permitted provided source is credited.

Once again, racial politics seems the order of the day for liberals.

Seeking a strategy to keep Judge John Roberts from the U.S. Supreme Court, liberals have apparently concluded race is Roberts' Achilles Heel. Since their assertions are thin, outlandish manure is being thrown against the wall in hopes at least some of it will stick.

For example, the Associated Press posted an article on August 17 portraying Judge Roberts in an unflattering light simply because he grew up in Long Beach, Indiana. The town, which was segregated during Roberts's youth, is now allegedly under "scrutiny" because it might have "influenced his views." One could infer Roberts's still harbors racial animosity born of those youthful days and that this racism may bloom after he's confirmed and lead to a rollback of civil rights.

Judge Roberts and I share some childhood similarities. We both grew up in "Da' Region" of northwest Indiana. We both spent our summers at the beaches of Lake Michigan and our winters going to high school basketball games.

Besides being ten years my senior, but the major difference is that I am black and grew up 20 miles to the west in the predominantly black city of Gary, Indiana.

It's no lie that Long Beach was overwhelmingly white in Roberts's youth and no secret that archaic segregation rules were still enforced - albeit in decline. Many Long Beach properties had "covenants" preventing their sale to blacks and Jews. But "Da' Region" also had a lot of segregation by choice, not unlike many communities today.

This continues today. While the remnants of enforced segregation have long since departed the shores of Lake Michigan, Long Beach remains predominantly white. But the demographics do not reflect a racist attitude, just as those in a primarily black community cannot be assumed to harbor ill will toward their fellow man.

The AP story create controversy where none existed. After describing the discriminatory laws, it is only reported later in the article that the Roberts home did not have a covenant. Race riots in 1970 linked to Long Beach and the Bethlehem Steel plant where Roberts worked in his youth did not actually occur in Long Beach and happened long before Roberts worked at the plant.

Taking AP to task, media critic Brent Bozell said: "The writers are not bold enough to say Roberts was influenced by his hometown's laws - but it's certainly implied. They point such a picture of exclusion and discrimination by his hometown that it marks Roberts as guilty by association."

The end, however, seems to justify the means to those bent on destroying John Roberts.

Roberts's critics also focus on race regarding his decades-old remarks and recommendations about pop star Michael Jackson.

In 1984, Roberts - then a White House lawyer - opposed an award given to Jackson for helping combat drunk driving and a similar request for a personal letter to Jackson from President Ronald Reagan. In a memo to his boss, Roberts wrote: "Quite apart from the problem of appearing to endorse Jackson's androgynous life style, a Presidential award would be perceived as a shallow effort by the President to share in the constant publicity surrounding Jackson... The whole episode would, in my view, be demeaning to the President."

It should be noted, yet often is not, that John Roberts opposed presidential events with white entertainers such as John Wayne and Bing Crosby. Roberts felt such "commercial tributes" demeaned the presidency. Roberts objected to Jackson for many reasons, but race was not among them.

In retrospect, shouldn't Judge Roberts be congratulated for his foresight? While Jackson no longer wears the pomade or the single sequined glove cited by Roberts, the "androgynous life style" later led to criminal allegations and damaging court testimony. While Jackson was acquitted, he's as radioactive as fellow "innocent" celebrities O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake.

Liberals are working overtime to present Judge John Roberts in an unflattering light. Playing the race card is a time-honored tactic, so the charges should not be surprising. The fact that the allegations are so thin, however, should be acknowledged by his defenders as evidence that the President has made a sound choice.

# # #

Michael King is a member of the National Advisory Council of the African-American leadership network Project 21 and a freelance writer and Internet consultant in Atlanta, Georgia. Comments may be sent to mhking@bellsouth.net.

Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21.

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With all the disaster and mayhem wrought by Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath, a lot of folks are not ready to think of football, even players for the New Orleans Saints, who face the Raiders in Oakland tonight.

The Saints players, personnel and their families bugged out prior to Katrina's landfall, and have been practicing in San Jose, CA this week in preparation for tonight's final pre-season game for both teams.

After tonight, the Saints will be headed for San Antonio. Saints owner Tom Benson has ties to the San Antonio community. The Saints used San Antonio as a base last year when Hurricane Ivan threatened the Crescent City.

The City of San Antonio has offered the use of the Alamodome as a base for the Saints this season, but the 500-plus mile distance may be more than NFL officials would prefer, even given the circumstances. The Saints' home, the Louisiana Superdome was pressed into service as a shelter for New Orleans residents who could not leave during Hurricane Katrina's passage. The Dome has been heavily damaged, both by the storm, and by the floodwaters now holding New Orleans under siege.

The Houston Texans have offered the use of Reliant Stadium, adjacent to the Astrodome - which has been pressed into use as a facility to house refugees. That idea is not without it's own problems, like the fact that both the Texans and Saints have home-openers scheduled for the same day, September 18.

LSU's Tiger Stadium has been mentioned, but the notion of playing back-to-back LSU and Saints games is problematic at best, not to mention the question of police protection, given that the University's resources have been taxed tremendously by the New Orleans disaster.

No one, least of all the Saints, wants to see them take their entire schedule on the road. Other stadiums that could become a temporary home for the Saints include Memphis' Liberty Bowl, Legion Field in Birmingham and the little-used Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

The AAA-affiliate of baseball's Washington Nationals, the New Orleans Zephyrs are fairly comfortable with finishing out their Pacific Coast League schedule on the road. Their home park, Zephyr Field, has been used as a staging area for rescue teams.

With the damage to the city as extensive as it is, there is a high liklihood that the New Orleans Hornets will play their NBA season elsewhere. No one has discussed the wheres or hows of that yet.

One other big thing that sports fans are thinking about is the Nokia Sugar Bowl, scheduled January 2, 2006 at the Superdome. At this point, the game technically is still scheduled, but no one in their right mind thinks the game - part of the Bowl Championship Series - will be played in New Orleans.

The only real conversation I've heard about it is the possibility of playing at Shreveport's Independence Bowl, but that stadium is much smaller than the Superdome.

If the game is played, I'd guess that it would move to one of a myriad of larger venues, including Atlanta's Georgia Dome, Houston's Reliant Stadium or even Dallas' Texas Stadium.

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The networks of NBC Universal will be hosting A Concert for Hurricane Relief this Friday evening at 8P ET/PT on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC and in Spanish on Telemundo.

The concert will be hosted Matt Lauer, and feature artists with ties to the area including Tim McGraw, Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr. and others.

Viewers will be urged to donate to the American Red Cross via telephone (1-800-HELP-NOW) or online (http://www.redcross.org/).

The broadcast will originate from NBC's Rockefeller Center studios in New York City.

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