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FEAR UP
Danielle Drakes reading Riverbend's portrait of Baghdad Burning
The piece begins with a section from Riverbend's Bagdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq entitled "Normal Day". It goes like this:
Normal day today. We were up at early morning, did the usual ‘around the house’ things, you know—check if the water tank is full, try to determine when the electricity will be off, checked if there was enough cooking gas…You know what really bugs me about posting on the Internet, chat rooms or message boards? The first reaction (usually from Americans) is “You’re lying, you’re not Iraqi.” Why am I not Iraqi—-well, because a.) I have internet access (Iraqis have no internet) b.) I know how to use the internet (Iraqis don’t know what computers are) and c.) Iraqis don’t now how to speak English (I must be a liberal). All that shouldn’t bother me, but it does. I see the troops in the streets and think, “so that’s what they thought of us before they occupied us…that may be what they think of us now.”
The piece segues into the story of the Tipton Three--men from England who were traveling in Pakistan on September 11, 2001 and who wound up in Guantanamo.
Andy Shallal and Mahboud Ebrahimzadeh read the story of the Tipton men
In between Riverbend's poignant portraits of life in Iraq are comments from military personnel, family members of soldiers, interrogators at GITMO. By the end, the audience has heard tales of the last four years that are nothing if not cause for rich discussion.
Victoria writes:
Fear Up is important for a lot of reasons. First, because all the stories are true and they reflect a variety of perspectives. The stories are horrifying, sad, hopeful and just plain funny. They are real. Told by real people.
But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Fear Up connects us for a moment to the actions of our government. That is what democracy is, in theory – a government that exists by its connection to the governed.
And that's why we started the Democracy Cell Project. Too often, our daily lives go on without real connection to the actions being taken in our names, by our government, funded by our tax dollars. We don't feel we have control over these policies. Fear Up reminds us that we are obligated to know what our government is doing.
The Democracy Cell Project is dedicated to preserving and increasing the connection between ordinary Americans and our government. The connection that our forefathers cherished: Government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Would you like to host a sit-down read-through of the piece with your friends and neighbors OR a staged reading of the piece with actors? Here at the DCP, we would like to help you along--contact us at info@democracycellproject.net. We would like to see this piece of truth live in many communities, and to touch as many people as possible.
Many of Riverbend's stories are about life under Paul Bremer. One section, called "The Puppets", includes this comment:
"Bremer has a plan…rotating Presidents! Insiders say that all 9 members of the governing council hate each other. Meetings sometimes end in shouting, name-calling, and insults. The one thing they do agree on is that Bremer is God."
Today's Washington Post recreates Paul Bremer as Celebrity Chef:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091300404.html
It is SUCH a NICE post-holocaust life...
Bull Moose Blog has some great stuff on the political climate right now.
http://www.bullmooseblog.com/
Look Who Has Joined The Vets For Peace
Friends,
Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute was critical. People were dying, poor people, black people, left like so much trash in the street. I wanted to find a way to get aid in there immediately.
I hooked up with the Vietnam veterans and Iraqi war vets (Veterans for Peace) who were organizing a guerilla, grass-roots relief effort. They were the same group that had set up Cindy Sheehan's camp in Crawford and now they had moved Camp Casey to Louisiana.
I have good news and horrible news to report. First, your response to my appeal letter was overwhelming. Within a few days, a half-million dollars was sent in through my website to fund our relief effort. This money was immediately used to buy generators, food, water, a mobile medical van, tents, satellite phones, etc.
Others of you began shipping supplies to our encampment. People in communities all over the country started organizing truck caravans to us in Louisiana. Twenty-two trucks from southern California alone have already arrived. A semi-truck from Chicago delivered ten tons of food. A group of friends in New Jersey got two 24 foot trucks, got their community to load them up with goods, and arrived in Covington tonight. Fifteen iMacs are inbound from California. One man gave us his pick-up truck and another donated truck is en route from Houston.
Your response to my appeal has been nothing short of miraculous. And it has saved many, many lives.
A number of you decided to just get in your cars and drive to our camp to volunteer to help. We now have had 150 volunteers here doing the work that needs to be done. Last night they unloaded twenty tons of food from a tractor trailer in under two hours. Each day more volunteers arrive. Everyone is sleeping on the ground or in tents. It is a remarkable sight. Thank you, all of you, for responding. I will never forget this outpouring of generosity to those forgotten by our own government.
My staff and the vets spend their 18-hour days delivering food and water throughout the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. What they have seen is appalling. I have asked them to post their daily diaries on my website (www.michaelmoore.com) along with accompanying photos and video so you can learn what is really going on. What the media is showing you is NOT the whole story. It is much, much worse and there is still little being done to bring help to those who need it.
Our group has visited many outlying towns and villages in Mississippi and Louisiana, places the Red Cross and FEMA haven't visited in over a week. Often our volunteers are the first relief any of these people have seen. They have no food, water or electricity. People die every day. There are no TV cameras recording this. They have started to report the spin and PR put out by the White House, the happy news that often isn't true ("Everyone gets 2,000 dollars!").
The truth is that there are dead bodies everywhere and no one is picking them up. My crew reports that in most areas there is no FEMA presence, and very little Red Cross. It's been over two weeks since the hurricane and there is simply not much being done. At this point, would you call this situation incompetence or a purposeful refusal to get real help down there?
That's why we decided not to wait. And we are so grateful to all of you who have joined us. The Veterans for Peace and my staff aren't leaving (and that's why we are hoping those of you who can't get to Covington will make it to the Veterans for Peace co-sponsored anti-war demonstration in DC on September 24: www.unitedforpeace.org.)
If you want to help, here's what we need in Covington right now:
Cleaning Supplies (glass cleaner, bleach, disinfectant, etc.)
Aspirin and other basic over the counter drugs.
Bottled Water
Canned Goods
Hygiene Supplies
Baby Supplies - Baby Food Formula, diapers #4, #5, Wipes, Pedialyte
Sterile Gloves
Batteries - All kinds, from AA to watch and hearing aid batteries.
Volunteers with trucks and cars
Self contained kitchens with generators, utensils, workers
Consider sending supplies in reusable containers. List the contents on the outside of the package so the folks in the warehouse can easily sort the items.
Clothes are not needed. If you go, keep in mind that you MUST be self-sufficient. Bring a tent and a sleeping bag. People are driving to Covington from across the country and often have extra room in their cars for you or for an extra box of supplies. For more information, go to the Veterans for Peace message board: www.vfproadtrips.org/katrina/.
Send supplies via UPS to:
Veterans for Peace
Omni Storage
74145 Hwy. 25
Covington LA
Thanks again for funding and supporting our relief efforts. It has been a bright spot in this otherwise shameful month.
Yours,
Michael Moore
mike@michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com
Victoria,
Thanks for pointing out the Bull Moose essay. I read a little further and found this which perfectly supports our Leadership Vacuum thread from yesterday.
"This is an independent moment - not that there is going to be a third party that is going to emerge. Rather, this is a time that begs for assertive, innovative, unifying and non-ideological leadership."
read more here...
http://www.bullmooseblog.com/2005/09/moose-apology.html
Dwahzon --
It's so true. Who will step up to the plate with a real plan?
Who will bring 'performance over politics' back to government?
Who will have the guts to step into the void, and start providing real creative solutions?
I wish I knew.
Speaking of Fear Up...
'Bin Laden is trying to obtain medical attention'
Report: U.S. colonel says al-Qaida leader is in poor health
CAIRO - Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is in poor health and is seeking medical attention, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat said on Wednesday, quoting a U.S. officer in Afghanistan.
"Osama bin Laden is trying to obtain medical attention," Colonel Don McGraw, director of operations at the Combined Forces Command in Kabul, told a group of British reporters, including one from al-Hayat, it said.
"He (McGraw) refused to say what the al-Qaida leader is suffering from or whether it is the same kidney disease which Pakistani officials said in the past he was suffering from," the newspaper added.
Al-Hayat said it was not clear how the U.S. military had obtained its information or where it thought bin Laden might be.
The Saudi-born militant is believed to have taken refuge somewhere on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan after escaping from U.S. troops and their Afghan allies who toppled the Taliban government that had hosted him in 2001.
The United States holds al-Qaida responsible for many attacks, including the suicide hijack assaults on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
Randy Kelly (Dem who endorsed Bush in '04) got his ass handed to him on a plate by a real live Demcrat in the primary for Mayor of St. Paul. To the tune of about 25 points...
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5613639.html
Somewhere, a bird sings... oh, that's me.
Posted by: victoria ellen at September 14, 2005 10:25 AM
Where are those plate's registered at? I want to order a complete set.
Wedgewood
Posted by: monkey at September 14, 2005 10:07 AM
So was this the only thing the Bush Administration could do...
Not Smoke 'em out!
Not Git' 'em!
Wait until the sick bastard eventually keels over and dies...
Some Plan.
Corpus Delecti ah la Modus Operendi.
In other words...
Bush hasn't a clue.
Great Article about the situation on the Gulf Coast.
New Orleans: Raze or Rebuild?
Christian Parenti
The water in the lower Ninth Ward is thickening into a glassy, fetid slick as the gasoline, oil, solvents and sewage from thousands of submerged vehicles and homes leaches out. Some rescue crews can stay out on their boats for only an hour before getting light-headed. The water's blue-black sheen casts back an almost mocking mirror image of the horrible devastation and incongruously beautiful blue sky above.
A tour from Houston to Gulfport and into New Orleans for several days revealed not only this type of weird physical destruction but also a landscape of raw and tangled emotions, ranging from open fantasies of an impending race war to inspiring, ad hoc experiments in interracial mutual aid and grassroots organizing. This mix of the best and worst in American culture suggests the widely divergent political possibilities left in Katrina's wake. The storm could become an excuse to banish the African-American poor in the interests of the private redevelopment of New Orleans, or the city could become the geographic center of a progressive program of urban revitalization.
In the lower Ninth Ward, controlled breaks by the Army Corps of Engineers have dropped the water by several feet, opening an archipelago of scum-encrusted islands that can be navigated by way of partially open streets. Late in the second week of the disaster a colleague and I made our way through this eerie and desolate maze.
Article Continues: VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050926/parentiweb
Anyone who's gone over the Thinkprogress Katrina time line or read the material posted here about the National Response Plan probably already knows this. But it is good to see it laid out in MSM...
From the Miami Herald...
Homeland boss had power to deliver help but didn't
Michael Chertoff was in charge of the response to Katrina before and after it hit, even though FEMA director Michael Brown took the fall.
By JONATHAN S. LANDAY, ALISON YOUNG AND SHANNON McCAAFFREY
WASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his relief duties and resigned, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.
Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies to act without requests from state or local officials. Former FEMA director Michael Brown had only limited authority to do so until about 36 hours after the storm hit, when Chertoff named him the ''principal federal official'' in charge.
As thousands of hurricane victims went without food, water and shelter in the days after Katrina's early morning Aug. 29 landfall, critics assailed Brown for being responsible for delays that might have cost hundreds of lives.
Tuesday, President Bush accepted responsibility for the federal government's much-criticized response to the storm.
But Chertoff -- not Brown -- was in charge of managing the national response to a catastrophic disaster, according to the National Response Plan, the federal government's blueprint for how agencies will handle major natural disasters or terrorist incidents. An order issued by Bush in 2003 also assigned that responsibility to the homeland security director.
THE MEMO
But according to a memo obtained by Knight Ridder, Chertoff didn't shift that power to Brown until late afternoon or evening on Aug. 30, about 36 hours after Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. That same memo suggests that Chertoff may have been confused about his lead role in disaster response and that of his department.
'As you know, the President has established the `White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina,'' Chertoff said in the memo to the secretaries of defense, health and human services, and other key federal agencies.
On the day that Chertoff wrote the memo, Bush was in San Diego, presiding over a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Chertoff's Aug. 30 memo for the first time declared Katrina an ''Incident of National Significance,'' a key designation that triggers swift federal coordination. The following afternoon, Bush met with his Cabinet, then appeared before TV cameras in the White House Rose Garden to announce the government's planned action.
That same day, Aug. 31, the Department of Defense, whose troops and equipment are crucial in such large disasters, activated its Task Force Katrina. But active-duty troops didn't begin to arrive in large numbers along the Gulf Coast until Saturday.
NO EXPLANATION
White House and homeland security officials would not explain why Chertoff waited about 36 hours to declare Katrina an Incident of National Significance and why he didn't immediately begin to direct the federal response from the moment on Aug. 27 when the National Hurricane Center predicted that Katrina would strike the Gulf Coast with catastrophic force in 48 hours.
Chertoff's hesitation and Bush's creation of a task force both appear to contradict the National Response Plan and previous presidential directives that specify what the secretary of homeland security is assigned to do without further presidential orders. The goal of the National Response Plan is to provide a streamlined framework for swiftly delivering federal assistance when a disaster -- caused by terrorists or Mother Nature -- is too big for local officials to handle.
Read more here...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/12638168.htm
Tom Delay continues to obstruct efforts by Dems to create an independent commission to investigate the FEMA disaster relief efforts which I suggested we call the Breaux Commission.
What can we do here collectively to shame DeLay into backing down. I will be contacting Nick Lampson's campaign office to urge that he be out front with that argument with our local media. Others have any ideas?
Apparently major league a**** James Sinsinbrinner(sp?) has decided to unilaterally block the Conyers/Nadler/Lee Bankruptcy Amendment.We need to have picketers in front of his office with signs that say Shame on You Congressman. Any ideas?
Others have any ideas?
Posted by: Ira at September 14, 2005 12:20 PM
I have often wondered if I could take the Downing Memo and walk into my local police station and file charges against bush and blair.
Seriously. If a crime has been committed, and the crime is against the ENTIRE US, then I do not see how they can tell me it is out of thier jurisdiction and if you bring EVIDENCE it would be hard for them to say WHY they can not investigate it as a crime.
christy your request would have to go to the world court.Aint going to happen.
But why is a N.O. Grand Jury or 5th Circuit Grand Jury not looking into potential ciminal negligence against FEMA director Brown? They just arrested the owners of the N.O. Nursing Home why not Brown et al?
Kilgore subject of ridicule by Tim Russert during last night's debate:
Va. governor candidate dodges abortion
By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 9:03 am PDT Wednesday, September 14, 2005
McLEAN, Va. (AP) - Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore declined to provide an answer during a debate grilling about whether he would outlaw abortion if the Supreme Court paved the way for such a law.
Republican Kilgore, a former attorney general, and Democrat Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine clashed in a debate Tuesday. Kilgore, a steadfast abortion foe, was the object of laughter during a painful cross-examination by NBC's Tim Russert, the debate moderator.
Incumbent Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat, is prevented by the state constitution from seeking a second consecutive term. Kilgore and Kaine are locked in a tight race to succeed him.
The host of NBC's "Meet the Press" had explained that a U.S. Supreme Court with new conservatives appointed by President Bush might reverse its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. If that happens and the General Assembly passes a bill outlawing abortion except for cases of rape or incest or to save the mother's life, Russert asked Kilgore, would he sign it into law?
"My response is that's a hypothetical. You don't know what any Supreme Court in the future is going to do," Kilgore replied.
Russert then asked Kilgore if he would veto or sign a tax increase bill if the Virginia legislature passed one.
"I would veto it," Kilgore answered.
"That's a hypothetical question," Russert interjected, as about 500 business leaders and politicians - most of them sympathetic to Kaine -laughed at Kilgore's expense.
Kilgore is such a baffoon. Let's not let him turn back the clock on everything that Mark Warner has accomplished in the last 4 years for Va.
christy your request would have to go to the world court.Aint going to happen.
But see thats what I do not understand..WHY the World Court... The crime was committed here against Americans BY Americans..
If I went to the cops and said a buissness owner was say shaking me down, committing fraud, making false public records..then they are REQUIRED BY LAW to investigate.
WHY when it comes to an OBVIOUSLY crime ridden president can AMERICANS not investigate and arrest him...?
Charges against blair still would not have to go through the world court for the simple fact he is an accessory..
I just dont get why it is beyond us to arrest our own president.
Gee, suddenly W cares about poverty too... wonder what caused that?
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- President Bush on Wednesday urged compassion for the needy and pressed the global community to "put the terrorists on notice" by cracking down on any activities that could incite deadly attacks,
Bush, addressing more than 160 presidents, prime ministers and kings gathered for three days of U.N. General Assembly meetings, was seeking to sell his blueprints for spreading democracy in Iraq and elsewhere, overhauling the United Nations and expanding trade.
"The terrorists must know that wherever they go they cannot escape justice," Bush said to world leaders.
Bush pressed for Security Council approval of a resolution calling upon all nations to take steps to end the incitement of terrorist acts and asked nations to agree to prosecute and to extradite anyone seeking radioactive materials or nuclear devices.
"We must send a clear message to the rulers of outlaw regimes that sponsor terror and pursue weapons of mass murder: You will not be allowed to threaten the peace and stability of the world," Bush said. "Confronting our enemies is essential, and so civilized nations will continue to take the fight to the terrorists."
Bush urged the elimination of agricultural tariffs and other barriers that he said distort trade and stunt development. The goal, he said, is to open markets for farmers around the world.
"Today I broaden the challenge by making this pledge: the United States is ready to eliminate tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to free flow of goods and services as other nations do the same," Bush said. "It's the key to overcoming poverty in the world's poorest nations. It's essential we promote prosperity and opportunity for all nations. By expanding trade we spread hope and opportunity to the corners of the world and we strike a blow against the terrorists who feed on anger and resentment."
more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/14/bush.un.ap/index.html
You know people keep saying impeach impeach
I say ARREST HIM ARREST HIM
If i were caught smoking a joint or lifting a 5$ wallet I would be arrested AND charged with a crime. Even if I do not give false statements about my crime I will STILL be treated as a criminal.
If we can not apply our laws at the highest levels then it is true, America is IN FACT dead.
Delay intent on blocking 'Independent' FEMA Commission:
Dear MoveOn member,
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it's clear that we're less safe than we thought. Four years after September 11th, the federal government failed to respond to an emergency every bit as dire as a terrorist attack—and it is likely thousands died.
We need an independent Katrina Commission, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to find out what went wrong. But the White House, working off a "Don't Look Back" strategy, refuses to consider one.1 Instead, President Bush has suggested that he and his Republican allies in Congress will lead the investigation—a recipe for a cover up.2
Will you sign our petition for an independent Katrina Commission?
http://political.moveon.org/katrinacommission/?id=5988-2962219-oSe1cRVg2P73MJb1MqmrbA&t=4
Any ideas?
Posted by: Ira at September 14, 2005 01:00 PM
Contact Anderson Cooper from CNN he seems to be the most sympathetic "journalist" covering this story. Keith Olbermann would also be a person I think would carry the message of a double screw job to the victims.
WASHINGTON - Retail sales plunged in August by the largest amount in nearly four years, evidence that the economy was weakening even before Hurricane Katrina struck.
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that total sales fell by 2.1 percent last month, double the decline that analysts had been expecting. The weakness came from a big 12 percent drop in sales of autos. Excluding autos, retail sales rose 1 percent, but much of that strength reflected a rise in gasoline prices.
Economists believe that Katrina, the worst natural disaster to hit the United States, could trim economic growth by a full percentage point in the second half of the year as soaring gasoline prices force consumers to cut back spending in other areas.
more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9338227/
Posted by: oncall at September 14, 2005 01:32 PM
I hear bush people are going to try to take cooper down. mehlman and rove themselves are supposedly on it.
The fact he is a Vanderbuilt is apparently a prob for them because they can not use economics to shut him the hell up
Christy -
Where did you hear this about Anderson Cooper, Rove and Mehlmann?
Have a link? Anything?
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the committee, said the response to Katrina “has shaken the public’s confidence in the ability of government at all levels to protect them in a crisis.”
Just so y'all know... The Voice of the Whitehouse guy has been debunked or is at least suspect...
check it out here...
WARNING: Beware the "Voice from the White House"
~snip~
I think I should first start with TBR News itself. From their website, in the About Us section, the editor calls himself Walter Storch and says that TBR News originally came from the Barnes Review magazine. I have since come to discover, through two sources (one from the CIA and the other from a historical revisionist named Germar Rudolf, that Walter Storch is one of many pseudonyms used by Peter Stahl, a.k.a. Gregory Douglas. So, who is Gregory Douglas?
Well, let's just say I've waded through so many filthy revisionist websites today that I feel almost sick. In essence, it's all about anti-semitism and the holocost was a hoax shit. Regardless, I plugged my nose, took some gravol, and plowed my way through to find some very interesting information.
It appears Gregory Douglas (or Peter Stahl, or Walter Storch, or ....) is a very elusive character. The following are a few of the things written on him
~snip~
This, along with other things, leads me to believe that Stahl/Douglas/Storch is actually writing these things himself. There is no "source" in the White House sending e-mails to TBR News. This whacko is making it up as he goes along. Why? God only knows....
~snip~
Read more here...
http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2005/5/4/15748/99064/displaystory//
i did not say anything about TBR it just so happens the truth seeker archives are the best kept on the voice articles..
Many other publications also pick up the Voice colums and run them so im not entirely sure it is exclusive to TBR
I do not use them as a source personally but as i said they have the easiest accessible archives
i dont use the Voice as a source or TBR to clarify..
I like the Voice columns because to me it is a modern form of gossip mongering. I dont like gossip but whoever is writing these articles has some pretty interesting arguments to add.