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Five Minutes Past Midnight
When we first came up with the category of "The Politics of Security", we never guessed how far-reaching and how deeply drawn this topic header would go.
But after viewing the results of the appalling lack of judgement and incompetence by the federal government to protect and serve its citizens in time of peril and distress, the raw evidence of criminal carelessness we see in the devastation of Katrina, one of the things we need to now look at as cities everywhere is: Where is our disaster preparedness now?
From National Geographic
By Joel K. Bourne, Jr.
The Louisiana bayou, hardest working marsh in America, is in big trouble with dire consequences for residents, the nearby city of New Orleans, and seafood lovers everywhere.
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however‹ the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.
The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level‹more than eight feet below in places‹so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
When did this calamity happen? It hasn't yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.
"The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before
landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours‹coming from the worst direction," says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast. Suhayda is sitting in a lakefront restaurant on an actual August afternoon sipping lemonade and talking about the chinks in the city's hurricane armor. "I don't think people realize how precarious we are,"Suhayda says, watching sailboats glide by. "Our technology is great when it works. But when it fails, it's going to make things much worse."
The chances of such a storm hitting New Orleans in any given year are
slight, but the danger is growing. Climatologists predict that powerful storms may occur more frequently this century, while rising sea level from global warming is putting low-lying coasts at greater risk. "It's not if it will happen," says University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's when."
Yet just as the risks of a killer storm are rising, the city's natural
defenses are quietly melting away. From the Mississippi border to the Texas state line, Louisiana is losing its protective fringe of marshes and barrier islands faster than any place in the U.S. Since the 1930s some 1,900 square miles (4,900 square kilometers) of coastal wetlands‹a swath nearly the size of Delaware or almost twice that of Luxembourg‹have vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the past decade to stem the tide, the state continues to lose about 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of land each year, roughly one acre every 33 minutes.
A cocktail of natural and human factors is putting the coast under. Delta soils naturally compact and sink over time, eventually giving way to open water unless fresh layers of sediment offset the subsidence. The Mississippi's spring floods once maintained that balance, but the annual deluges were often disastrous. After a devastating flood in 1927, levees were raised along the river and lined with concrete, effectively funneling the marsh-building sediments to the deep waters of the Gulf. Since the 1950s engineers have also cut more than 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of canals through the marsh for petroleum exploration and ship traffic. These new ditches sliced the wetlands into a giant jigsaw puzzle, increasing erosion and allowing lethal doses of salt water to infiltrate brackish and freshwater marshes.
While such loss hits every bayou-loving Louisianan right in the heart, it also hits nearly every U.S. citizen right in the wallet. Louisiana has the hardest working wetlands in America, a watery world of bayous, marshes, and barrier islands that either produces or transports more than a third of the nation's oil and a quarter of its natural gas, and ranks second only to Alaska in commercial fish landings. As wildlife habitat, it makes Florida's Everglades look like a petting zoo by comparison. Such high stakes compelled a host of unlikely bedfellows scientists, environmental groups, business leaders, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers‹to forge a radical plan to protect what's left. Drafted by the Corps a year ago, the Louisiana Coastal Area (LCA) project was initially estimated to cost up to 14 billion dollars over 30 years, almost twice as much as current efforts to save the Everglades. But the Bush Administration balked at the price tag, supporting instead a plan to spend up to two billion dollars over the next ten years to fund the most promising projects. Either way, Congress must authorize the money before work can begin.²
The tragedy is that it is plainly evident the storm was a result of global warming. And it should be evident environmental mismanagement is directly related to issues of national security in the most primary sense--with what will be tens of thousands dead and millions displaced, the Federal Government's basic failure to act as responsible stewards of our lands has cost lives, and has shaken the confidence of leadership in cities across the board for their safety in the event a natural disaster such as Katrina happens to them. But the final tragedy is and always will be that it could all have been avoided if the Federal Government paid attention. Will it ever?
This National Geographic article was published in October of 2004.
Mornin' all!
Check out the DOD's plans for their "march" on September 11!
It sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!
"Organizers of the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial Freedom Walk on Sunday are taking extraordinary measures to control participation in the march and concert, with the route fenced off and lined with police and the event closed to anyone who does not register online by 4:30 p.m. today.
The march, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will wend its way from the Pentagon to the Mall along a route that has not been specified but will be lined with four-foot-high snow fencing to keep it closed and "sterile," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense.
The America Supports You Freedom Walk will begin at 10 a.m. Sunday in the Pentagon South parking lot and will end with a musical tribute by country music star Clint Black at the JFK Hockey Field near the Washington Monument. The parade route will be lined with snow fencing, allowing only those who preregistered to participate.
The event, the America Supports You Freedom Walk, is billed as a memorial to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks and a show of support for those serving in the military, topped off with a concert by country singer Clint Black, known for his pro-troops anthem, "Iraq and Roll." Organizers said they expect 3,000 to 10,000 participants.
The U.S. Park Police will have its entire Washington force of several hundred on duty and along the route, on foot, horseback and motorcycles and monitoring from above by helicopter. Officers are prepared to arrest anyone who joins the march or concert without a credential and refuses to leave, said Park Police Chief Dwight E. Pettiford."
AND perhaps most interesting:
"One restricted group will be the media, whose members will not be allowed to walk along the march route. Reporters and cameras are restricted to three enclosed areas along the route but are not permitted to walk alongside participants walking from the Pentagon, across the Memorial Bridge to the Mall."
Meanwhile, check out http://www.bushville.org/
I think all editors ought to think about where the interesting story will be on Sunday--the "sterile" restricted whitewashed pre-choreographed and highly controlled Pentagon event OR the spontaneous, edgy act of civil disobedience from the Hurricane Katrina survivors.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
How Reliable Is Brown's Resume?
A TIME investigation reveals discrepancies in the FEMA chief's official biographies
When President Bush nominated Michael Brown to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 2003, Brown's boss at the time, Joe Allbaugh, declared, "the President couldn't have chosen a better man to help...prepare and protect the nation." But how well was he prepared for the job? Since Hurricane Katrina, the FEMA director has come under heavy criticism for his performance and scrutiny of his background. Now, an investigation by TIME has found discrepancies in his online legal profile and official bio, including a description of Brown released by the White House at the time of his nomination in 2001 to the job as deputy chief of FEMA. (Brown became Director of FEMA, succeeding Allbaugh, in 2003.)
Before joining FEMA, his only previous stint in emergency management, according to his http://www.fema.gov/about/bios/brown.shtm was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011203-6.html stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him." Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. "Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt."
In response, Nicol Andrews, deputy strategic director in FEMA's office of public affairs, insists that while Brown began as an intern, he became an "assistant city manager" with a distinguished record of service. "According to Mike Brown," she says, "a large portion [of the points raised by TIME] is very inaccurate."
Brown's lack of experience in emergency management isn't the only apparent bit of padding on his resume, which raises questions about how rigorously the White House vetted him before putting him in charge of FEMA. Under the "honors and awards" section of his http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2507976_1 — which is information on the legal website provided by lawyers or their offices—he lists "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University". However, Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," says Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University). "He may have been an adjunct instructor," says Johnson, but that title is very different from that of "professor." Carl Reherman, a former political science professor at the University through the '70s and '80s, says that Brown "was not on the faculty." As for the honor of "Outstanding Political Science Professor," Johnson says, "I spoke with the department chair yesterday and he's not aware of it." Johnson could not confirm that Brown made the Dean's list or was an "Outstanding Political Science Senior," as is stated on his online profile.
Speaking for Brown, Andrews says that Brown has never claimed to be a political science professor, in spite of what his profile in FindLaw indicates. "He was named the outstanding political science senior at Central State, and was an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City School of Law."
Under the heading of "Professional Associations and Memberships" on FindLaw, Brown states that from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond. But an administrator with the Home, told TIME that Brown is "not a person that anyone here is familiar with." She says there was a board of directors until a couple of years ago, but she couldn't find anyone who recalled him being on it. According to FEMA's Andrews, Brown said "he's never claimed to be the director of the home. He was on the board of directors, or governors of the nursing home." However, a veteran employee at the center since 1981 says Brown "was never director here, was never on the board of directors, was never executive director. He was never here in any capacity. I never heard his name mentioned here."
The FindLaw profile for Brown was amended on Thursday to remove a reference to his tenure at the International Arabian Horse Association, which has become a contested point.
Brown's FindLaw profile lists a wide range of areas of legal practice, from estate planning to family law to sports. However, one former colleague does not remember Brown's work as sterling. Stephen Jones, a prominent Oklahoma lawyer who was lead defense attorney on the Timothy McVeigh case, was Brown's boss for two-and-a-half years in the early '80s. "He did mainly transactional work, not litigation," says Jones. "There was a feeling that he was not serious and somewhat shallow." Jones says when his law firm split, Brown was one of two staffers who was let go.
Five minutes or so..
Cindy Sheehan: Camp Casey III in Covington Needs Supplies
Camp Casey III in Covington, La, is really hopping. Members took 10,000 pounds of supplies to Covington which is a poor African-American town in La. The first stop is Chicago. During the tour, we are going to ask members of Congress the following questions: 1) What Noble Cause are our children fighting for, dying for, and killing for in Iraq? 2) What are our elected officials doing to end the occupation of Iraq? 3) How many more innocent Iraqis and Americans are we willing to sacrifice? (C. Sheehan, who has joined the tour)
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/2800
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.com
House Committee Votes:Resolution of Inquiry 9/14
The Resolution of Inquiry into Bush's war lies now has 65 co-sponsors. It will come to a vote in the House International Relations Commitee next Wednesday, September 14th, where it has the co-sponsorship of most of the Democrats and one Republican. To pass, it needs all the Democrats and three Republicans. The more Congress Members not on the committee who co-sponsor, the more likely wavering committee members are to vote yes. A substantial debate on the issue is expected. The committee meets in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, at 10:30 a.m. next Wednesday.
Email Your Congress Member
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/50
Phone and Fax Your Congress Member
http://www.usalone.com/get_instantcongress.htm
Or call switchboard tollfree at (888) 818-6641
Fill Out Feedback Form
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/1887
from San Francisco:
George W. Bush Still Rocks!
Stop criticizing! The rich man's CEO president is executing his job requirements perfectly
By Mark Morford
Everyone is slamming poor Dubya. Everyone is saying, oh my God, he's more inept than we ever imagined, he has no idea what's really going on, he's oblivious and in denial and he pretty much let all those poor black people die in filth and misery, and he basically ignored the massive Katrina disaster for days before finally being pressured into cutting his umpteenth vacation short and actually taking action.
This is what they're saying. Kanye West was right, Bush doesn't care about black people, or the poor, or anything that doesn't directly serve his handlers' agenda or flatter his monochromatic ego or anything that isn't spelled out for him in nice simplistic pie charts and reassuring matronly tones.
And lo, the darts are slinging in from around the world, according to SF Gate's own World Views column: "Maddening incompetence ... reminiscent of a drought-stricken African state," says Britain's Daily Mail. "Can't get it together," says a major paper in Italy. "A plethora of grim tales of disaster," says the Scotsman. "Superpower or Third World?" asks the Spanish daily Noticias de Álava. Why did BushCo fail its first great national-security test since Sept. 11, despite having two days' advance notice of Katrina's wrath? asks Le Monde. And on it goes, the world's powers looking on in one part shock and one part disgust and all parts repugnance for Bush's rampant ineptitude and America's apparent inability to take care of its own.
But it's so unfair, isn't it, to attack poor Dubya like this? Just a little misplaced? After all, Bush has always been the rich white man's president. He is the CEO president, the megacorporate businessman's friend, the thug of the religious right, a big reservoir-tipped condom for all energy magnates, protecting against the nasty STDs of humanitarianism and progress and social responsibility. ...
(click here to read the rest)
(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/09/09/notes090905.DTL&nl=fix)
This is how the media can seriously f*** up a story and feed into the the problem .... from CNN.com, read the headline and the first paragraph... THEN read the rest of the article for the facts.
Red Cross: State rebuffed relief efforts
Aid organization never got into New Orleans, officials say
Thursday, September 8, 2005; Posted: 11:20 p.m. EDT
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- Louisiana officials rebuffed American Red Cross requests to enter New Orleans with relief supplies last week because of concerns over logistical difficulties, Red Cross and state officials said Thursday.
The Red Cross never launched its relief effort in the city.
The national president of the American Red Cross, Marsha Evans, first made the request to undertake the operation during a visit to the state on September 1, three days after Hurricane Katrina struck, a local Red Cross chapter official said.
Vic Howell, chief executive officer of the agency's Louisiana Capital Area Chapter, said he renewed that request the next day to Col. Jay Mayeaux, the deputy director of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
"We had adequate supplies, the people and the vehicles," Howell said at a news conference in Baton Rouge. "It was the middle of a military rescue operation trying to save lives. We were asked not to go in, and we abided by that recommendation."
Mayeaux, appearing at the news conference with Howell, said he had asked the Red Cross to wait 24 hours for conditions to be "set" for the operation.
"To set up a feeding station to feed a large number of people, you need space. You need to escort the personnel into position. ... And we asked Mr. Howell, and he concurred, to wait 24 hours to go to set that in," Mayeaux said.
By Saturday, however, the point became moot because the large-scale evacuation of the city was under way, Howell and Mayeaux said.
"After that point in time ... their rescue operation was in full force, and they felt they had adequate supplies there to take care of it without (the Red Cross) being introduced into the situation," Howell said. "So we did not go directly into New Orleans."
The National Guard began moving large quantities of food, water and ice into New Orleans and other damaged areas of southeast Louisiana on Wednesday, two days after the hurricane struck and a day before the Red Cross made its request to go in, Mayeaux said.
The supplies were being delivered from Camp Beauregard, a National Guard base near Alexandria, 150 miles away, in the central part of the state.
So far, 16.4 million pounds of ice, 14.2 million quarts of water and 7.9 million ready-to-eat meals have been distributed, Mayeaux said.
In addition, food and water had also been stored before the storm at the Louisiana Superdome and other shelters, Mayeaux said. He added that guard troops also brought supplies.
Mayeaux said that state officials did "push" supplies into the distribution pipeline before requests were made and did not wait for local officials to request them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1566199,00.html
Power to the People of New Orleans .. with the poor gone, developers plan to gentrify the city
.. read how the process has worked with other disasters as money destined for all is absconded with by the ruthless rich
by Naomi Klein, first published in The Nation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1566199,00.html
Key rebuilding projects in Iraq are grinding to a halt because American money is running out and security has diverted funds intended for electricity, water and sanitation, according to US officials.
.. another parallel of the sort Naomi Klein describes.."diverted" mostly for security for companies like Halliburton & where has it gone? Weren't they supposed to be rebuilding, these last 3 years?!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5266193,00.html
Katrina divides rather than unites US.
Text suggests large majority of Americans & lawmakers blame the failure of the administrtion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5266339,00.html
Slight majority of those polled feel low-lying areas should be rebuilt to above sea level. That was actually done in Seattle after the Great Fire. It is possible to visit the "old downtown" which is underground.
Bush down to 39 percent approval in new AP Poll!!!!
Apparently the AP can not come to grips with Shrubs falling poll numbers. Instead of reporting his latest lackluster numbers, they lead the story with the numbers on how America feels NO should or should not be rebuilt.
Here are the numbers.....
Almost two-thirds, 65 percent, say the country is headed in the wrong direction - up from 59 percent last month. President Bush's job approval was at 39 percent, the lowest point since AP-Ipsos began measuring public approval of Bush in December 2003.
Two-thirds of those surveyed say the federal government was not adequately prepared to respond to the disaster. About the same number said the state and local governments deserve much of the blame for the slow response.
Blacks were especially upset with Bush; 78 percent of blacks blamed the president for the poor response, compared to 49 percent of whites.
A third of the country felt the government would have responded faster if the victims weren't mostly poor and black.
The sentiment most expressed by people about the tragedy was anger - two-thirds said they were deeply angry that relief for the victims was so slow.
Despite their gloomy mood, people are donating to hurricane victims at record levels. More than 80 percent said they had already given money.
The poll of 1,002 adults was taken Sept. 6-8 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_AP_POLL_HK1?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Ok folks, ever wanted a Bush/neoCON translation dictionary? We finally got one!
Check it out:
http://www.mwcnews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1287&Itemid=26
Doug Brinkley was on c-span this am and did the most terrific job of connecting the dots to this tragedy.We need to get him more involved and be one of our best voices for our cause!! Hope you all get to listen to the re-run..hopefully it will be so. Even "some" reps agreed with him.
I just checked the schedule on c-span and Brinkley's episode will be repeated today @1:35 pm..est..do listen as it's really great.
Wife Says Criticism of Bush 'Disgusting'
WASHINGTON - Laura Bush described as "disgusting" comments by rapper Kanye West and Democratic chairman Howard Dean blaming her husband for the disproportionate number of black hurricane victims.
"I think all of those remarks are disgusting, to be perfectly frank, because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country," the first lady said Thursday in an interview with American Urban Radio Networks.
"And I know that. I mean, I'm the person who lives with him," she said. "I know what he's like and I know what he thinks and I know how he cares about people."
The president has faced sharp criticism over federal relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims, who are disproportionally black and poor.
On a nationally televised telethon Friday, broadcast live on NBC, West departed from the script to declare "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
Earlier this week, Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the National Baptist Convention of America, a black religious group, that race played a role in the hurricane casualty numbers.
Mrs. Bush said it was clear that poor people were more vulnerable when the hurricane hit.
"They lived in poorer neighborhoods. Their neighborhoods were the ones that were more likely to flood, as we saw in New Orleans. Their housing was more vulnerable," she said.
"And that's what we saw, and that's what we want to address in our country."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050909/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_laura_bush
...because of course President Bush cares about everyone in our country...
Posted by: monkey at September 9, 2005 10:34 AM
Well we know she's been drinking the kool-aid too.
And do ya think he makes her call him "President"? Or maybe just "Your Royal Highness"...
The Madness of (Boy) King George
"They lived in poorer neighborhoods. Their neighborhoods were the ones that were more likely to flood, as we saw in New Orleans. Their housing was more vulnerable," she said. "And that's what we saw, and that's what we want to address in our country."
OK Mrs. DUNCE! It wasn't the poor neighborhoods that were more likely to flood, THE ENTIRE CITY FLOODED, BUT SINCE YOU LIVE with W, maybe he told you that little lie too. Poor neighborhoods, business district, fine restaurants, the Superdome, etc etc etc. Dead people litter the streets.
And you say that's what "we" want to address in this country???? Who's "we", white woman? Are you kidding me? Address how? By wiping it out? By neglecting it? By waiting until after the fact to help with poverty by cutting taxes for your brain dead cronies?
Bush chicks... can't live with 'em, can't live with 'em.
P.S. Your mother-in-law gives you two thumbs up on your interview, "splendid job".
Has anyone here ever read the Alfred Noyes poem 'The Highwayman'...?
If so tell me how you like this...
http://christyscranium.blogspot.com/2005/09/ostlers-fate.html
Congressman: Hurricane 'finally cleaned out public housing in New Orleans'
RAW STORY
From the paid-restricted Wall Street Journal's Washington wire: "LOUISIANA LAWMAKERS aim to cope with political fallout."
Sen. Landrieu, in spotlight now, could find margins squeezed if thousands of Democratic-leaning African-Americans don't return by her 2008 re-election. Louisiana political analyst John Maginnis says state could even lose one of seven House seats in next redistricting.
Two shaky House incumbents, Democrat Melancon and Republican Boustany, hope response to hurricane rallies voters behind them. House Republican campaign chief Reynolds touts chance to market conservative social-policy solutions; Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge is overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
Baker explains later he didn't intend flippancy but has long wanted to improve low-income housing.
It's up to us to involve the uninvolved. Here's an article reminding us of this importance:
Supreme discontentment
by Mark Wexler
As the political haggling and maneuvering over Supreme Court appointments continues after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, it will be increasingly important to take a page from O'Connor's playbook. During her 24 years on the nation's highest court, her reasoning and findings evolved to shape the look of today's court. She accomplished this by finding the ever-so-unpopular middle ground and standing against extremes. Simply put, O'Connor shielded the court - and our country - from unyielding ideologies.
To this end, it is essential that the majority of people in the United States - those who tend to remain silent - stand and speak against the outliers, those who bellow loudly for the few. The reopening of O'Connor's seat means that those on the left and right are willing and ready to rattle the sabers of discontent. On the day Justice O'Connor announced her retirement, I received an e-mail message showing just how toxic the political and social climate is. Christian Response, a wing of RightMarch.com, sent the message with a subject line reading, "The Supreme Court Fight is ON!"
As confirmation hearings begin next week for John Roberts, and the search for a new nominee for O'Connor's seat continues, it is imperative that the voice of reason wins out during this contentious time. The furthest ends of the political spectrum are mobilized, and in light of the climate in which we find ourselves, I hope that the country can handle the strife that might follow. These may prove to be very hard times.
+ Read the full article
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_article&mode=C&NewsID=4934
N.O. will be rebuilt,however it will be the rich thugs that get first bidding . Trump is already going for a high-rise,but NO one wants to live there for employment as "too poor",terrible schools,ect.Once the investers move on they take the money and run. Brinkley addressed this today and told the truth about Bush and minions..esp Trent-lies-a lot and Barbour.
Laura Bush makes me irritated all day long.She's not a clue about "education" and if she did she would "understand",these poor under-funded school systems in the south(TX included),and now all over the USA, she would know these folks didn't even know what the word "EVACUATION" meant!!...disgusting to the point of beyond belief this is even happening.
Posted by: monkey at September 9, 2005 11:06 AM
Baker's comments don't surprise me.
On the flip side of this, wonder what the impact of the evacuees will be for those places where they decide to settle. That could be interesting in some districts, like Houston (aka DeLay Land), as Ira was saying the other day.
I had the same rhetoric posed to me about Bab's comments at the Astrodome by my boss and my response was this when asked for understanding and forgiveness:
Those remarks were rotten! Inhumane, uncaring, detatched and elitist.
In American we are all equal in status and stature upon the scales of law and within our natural rights.
These people lost their community and culture...something far more priceless than any posession.
No one can replace that.
NO ONE!
(PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FIRE AT WILL AT ANYONE DEFENDING ANY OF THE BUSH WOMEN OR THE BUSH "MEN" HIDING BEHIND THEIR SKIRTS)
Posted by: Indy at September 9, 2005 11:22 AM
All chickenhawks hide in the Bush's.
When Clinton was in ofice he EVACUATED millions from the hurricane (cat 5)coming to NC and when he did that he was critized as "IT" never reached beyond the cat 2 stage. This gov't is always a day late and dollars short in crisis and refuses to believe that an ounce of prevention is worth a # of cure. Lack of funding for the levees and refusing to believe they wouldn't breech has cost us a thousand X more,more unnecessary grief than we ever dreamed,let alone the destruction of N.O. port system.This is all of America's port that transports our goods across the great divide.We have lost 40% of the shrimping industry and BTW,from the environmental reports in,for this crowd that loves the fetus,pregnant women having any connection with the high levels of toxins,esp lead,are now highly at risk for fetal deaths and abnomalies.
During the debates last year and the subject of "ARE WE PREPARED" and JK pointed out how we are not safe,Bush led in with "paygo"..well aren't we pay-going now!!! What a mess!
Posted by: Karen at September 9, 2005 07:56 AM
Sounds eerily like a film preview clip for "Das Boot".
Wonder how this one is going to fly with the press?
And this just in from Karen Huge... (yer just gonna love this)
Bush aide: U.S. image tarnished by looting after the hurricane
Cox News Service
September 09. 2005 6:01AM
WASHINGTON - Karen Hughes, who officially takes her job today as head of the nation's image-building effort abroad, said Thursday that Hurricane Katrina has complicated her already formidable task.
But while much of the international criticism has centered on the Bush administration's response to the storm, Hughes said something else is a problem for America's image around the world: the crime that followed.
"The images of crime being committed in the face of an awful natural disaster is hard for anyone to understand, people around the world and Americans. It sickens me as an American," she said. "How could criminals prey on vulnerable elderly citizens and children during a time of such horror?"
Like President Bush, Hughes acknowledged that the overall government response effort has been flawed, but she did not include that as a reason why the image of the United States might further suffer as a result of the storm.
Hughes, a longtime Bush aide and confidante, takes the oath of office today as the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, where her job is to improve America's global image.
Much of the international reaction to the hurricane has keyed on the administration's response time. A Korea Herald editorial this week said it was "unbelievable that in America, a country the envy of most of the world's people, residents died by the thousands in a flood, corpses floated in the streets, were left on curbs and even astride the entrances to emergency relief centers."
"While media crews from around the world dispatched the gruesome pictures, rescue workers had not yet arrived," the newspaper said in the editorial.
In an interview at the State Department, Hughes touched lightly on potential world reaction to the relief and recovery effort.
"We saw pictures on Thursday of people who were waiting to be rescued and didn't feel that we had arrived quickly enough," she said, adding that Bush "has acknowledged that we have to do better and we want to do better."
"But what I will challenge in any stories I see is any idea that we didn't want to help people. We certainly wanted to help everyone," Hughes said, noting that a disproportionate number of the hardest-hit victims are black.
"It's offensive to me to suggest that somehow, as I've seen some headlines and some reports do, that people, that Americans weren't helped because they are poor or because of their race," Hughes said. "That is anti-American. That is not what our country is about."
Hughes said it was "unfortunate that this natural disaster disproportionately affected people of one race and one income level."
Cox News Service
September 09. 2005 6:01AM
more spewage .... http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050909/WIRE/209090310/1117/news
If Canada wnts to HELP,let's encourage cheap drugs..this would make Bush look like the real fool he is.
To Karen Hughes,the pictures speak louder than words!
I had the same rhetoric posed to me about Bab's comments at the Astrodome by my boss and my response was this when asked for understanding and forgiveness:
Those remarks were rotten! Inhumane, uncaring, detatched and elitist.
Posted by: Indy at September 9, 2005 11:22 AM
** ~~ ** ~~ ** ~~ **
FOR INDY:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6272/487/400/Babs.gif
Posted by: monkey at September 9, 2005 11:42 AM
Well Karen Hughes...
Why were there NO National Guard on the ground to stop the lawlessness and suffering and keep the peace?
Hmmmm...
I know it is a Haaaaaarrrrrdddd question to answer...take your time....
No pressure...
Don't worry that the world WAS and IS paying attention...
Can't spin your way out of this web of lies and deceit now can you?
Black Widow...
She lies AND she kills.
Better question yet for Karen Huge....
Why does the United States of America suddenly need an image czar?
Answer that for me, Large Marge.
And this just in from Karen Huge... (yer just gonna love this)
Bush aide: U.S. image tarnished by looting after the hurricane.
~ snip ~
Hughes said it was "unfortunate that this natural disaster disproportionately affected people of one race and one income level."
more spewage .... http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050909/WIRE/209090310/1117/news
Posted by: monkey at September 9, 2005 11:42 AM
I HAVE got a message for Karen Hughes et. al,
"Verily, get thyselves over to the 700 Club and proclaim that people starving to death and living in sewage are thieves for taking food and water out of a destroyed market to be able to try to make it one more week until a few more Black Hawk helicopters and National Guardsmen make it back from Iraq and Afghanistan to rescue them."
HERE'S WHAT REPUBLICAN JESUS WOULD SAY ABOUT THAT!
http://webpages.charter.net/micah/repjesus76.gif
HYPOCRITE. LIAR. PHARISEE.
Monkey,
Our image hasn't been this bad since the days of Reagon and Bush Snr when they were burning effigies of them in the Mid-east.
Gee..somehow the man neocons despised and who they just hated so much they had to "impeach" for a non-crime actually improved our image around the world and created bonds across the world.
Create bonds? Screw the world, who needs 'em, right?
That's what the Butch-Chainme campaign and their million pints of lite said during the campaign about the "global test" that they so ridiculed, but now I hear all those sheep are asking where's the help from other nations?
I wouldn't blame other countries for not reaching out, but they have, FOX just isn't telling you... but you should ask yourselves now, is it good to piss off the world when you may just need them someday?
THois administration tells the world they will take our "help" and like it... THAT'S FREEDOM!
CASTOR OIL!
TO ARMS!!! TO ARMS!!!
This is the end.
Welkkomen to the Bush Detention Camp...
better get settled...you are going to be here for a term of indeterminate duration.
Court Rules U.S. Can Indefinitely Detain Citizens
Ruling Comes in the Case of 'Enemy Combatant' Jose Padilla
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; 10:39 AM
A federal appeals court ruled today that the president can indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil in the absence of criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit came in the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who was arrested in Chicago in 2002 and designated an "enemy combatant" by President Bush. The government contends that Padilla trained at al Qaeda camps and was planning to blow up apartment buildings in the United States.
Article Continues vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090900772.html
PEACE, COMRADES.
My love, admiration, and pride go out to each one of you! You guys are AWESOME!
Off to the south of the state but will be back to read your comments tonight (Hooray!).
Keep the faith.
CHRISTY,
I worried so much about you, and I am so thankful you are okay. My heart goes out to you, and to Indy, too, and to all who called New Orleans their home.
The people who suffered and lost their lives are heroes........they were our Minute Men......
They paid the ultimate price, and I am so sorry.
This is not the end. Truth is on our side.
It always is.
I love you all......
I just got this from a colleage:
The 'Stuff Happens' Presidency
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, September 7, 2005; Page A25
We're not number one. We're not even close.
By which measures, precisely, do we lead the world? Caring for our countrymen? You jest. A first-class physical infrastructure? Tell that to New Orleans. Throwing so much money at the rich that we've got nothing left over to promote the general welfare? Now you're talking.
The problem goes beyond the fact that we can't count on our government to be there for us in catastrophes. It's that a can't-do spirit, a shouldn't-do spirit, guides the men who run the nation. Consider the congressional testimony of Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush's 2000 campaign manager, who assumed the top position at FEMA in 2001. He characterized the organization as "an oversized entitlement program," and counseled states and cities to rely instead on "faith-based organizations . . . like the Salvation Army and the Mennonite Disaster Service."
Is it any surprise, then, that the administration's response to the devastation in New Orleans is of a piece with its response to the sacking of Baghdad once our troops arrived? "Stuff happens" was the way Don Rumsfeld described the destruction of Baghdad's hospitals, universities and museums while American soldiers stood around. Now stuff has happened in New Orleans, too, even as FEMA was turning away offers of assistance. This is the stuff-happens administration. And it's willing, apparently, to sacrifice any claim America may have to national greatness rather than inconvenience the rich by taxing them to build a more secure nation.
As a matter of social policy, the catastrophic lack of response in New Orleans is exceptional only in its scale and immediacy. When it comes to caring for our fellow countrymen, we all know that America has never ranked very high. We are, of course, the only democracy in the developed world that doesn't offer health care to its citizens as a matter of right. We rank 34th among nations in infant mortality rates, behind such rival superpowers as Cyprus, Andorra and Brunei.
But these are chronic conditions, and even many of us who argue for universal health coverage have grown inured to that distinctly American indifference to the common good, to our radical lack of solidarity with our fellow citizens. Besides, the poor generally have the decency to die discreetly, and discretely -- not conspicuously, not in droves. Come rain or come shine, we leave millions of beleaguered Americans to fend for themselves on a daily basis. It's just a lot more noticeable in a horrific rain, and when the ordinary lack of access to medical care is augmented by an extraordinary lack of access to emergency services.
Even if we'll never win the national-greatness sweepstakes for solidarity, though, we've long been the model of the world in matters infrastructural, in roads, bridges and dams and the like. But the America in which Eisenhower the Good decreed the construction of the interstate highway system now seems a far-off land in which even conservatives believed in public expenditures for the public good. The radical-capitalist conservatives of the past quarter-century not only haven't supported the public expenditures, they don't even believe there is such a thing as the public good. Let the Dutch build their dikes through some socialistic scheme of taxing and spending; that isn't the American way. Here, the business of government is to let the private sector create wealth -- even if that wealth doesn't circulate where it's most needed. So George W. Bush threw trillions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, and what did they do with it? Did the Walton family up in Bentonville raise the levees in New Orleans? Did the Bass family over in Texas write a tax-deductible check to the Mennonites for the billions of dollars they would need to rescue the elderly from inundated nursing homes?
Even now, with bedraggled rescuers pulling decomposed bodies from the muck of New Orleans, Bill Frist, the moral cretin who runs the U.S. Senate, wanted its first order of business this week to be the permanent repeal of the estate tax, until the public outcry persuaded him to change course. The Republicans profess belief in trickle-down, but what they've given us is the Flood.
The world looks on in stunned amazement, unable to understand how a once great nation has grown so indifferent not just to its poor and its blacks but even to the most rudimentary self-preservation. Some of it is institutional racism, but the primary culprit is the economic libertarianism that the president still espouses whenever he sells his Social Security snake oil. It's that libertarianism, more than anything else, that has transformed a great city into an immense morgue.
But, hey -- stuff happens.
meyersonh@washpost.com
__________________________________________________
Ty Truth
Louisiana will never be the same without such a beloved city.
It never should have happened. It did not HAVE TO happen.
And if karen hughes is reading this blog..
*** ** ****
Posted by: Christy at September 9, 2005 12:24 PM
Karen Hughes isn't reading this blog. It's too advanced for her--too smart and way too compassionate as well.
If we want BushCO and neoCONS to read it we have to dumb it down and LIE.
We have too much integrity here, honesty, and intellegence for them to comprehend what is said.
If only this Administration would admit to a mistake. Instead of expending all this energy trying to cover and deflect blame and hire more people to do PR, why couldn't they instead be actively thinking about HOW to make our cities safer?
They just don't think.
And the show of incompetence goes on.
"Aid suffers from poor direction"
"International aid meant for the victims of Hurricane Katrina is backing up at an Air force base in Arkansas because relief lorries are being directed to wrong places".
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23889-1772779,00.html
Is there a thing that is not directed wrong in Bushland?
What a dumbass.
There is not an inkling of compassion in this man's face. He is ENTIRELY out of touch with reality.....a child of priviledge who is so stupid he sees his chance to show compassion as a giant photo op.
Un freakin' believable.
http://x4.putfile.com/9/24610523310.jpg
If only this Administration would admit to a mistake. Instead of expending all this energy trying to cover and deflect blame and hire more people to do PR, why couldn't they instead be actively thinking about HOW to make our cities safer?
They just don't think.
Posted by: Fe at September 9, 2005 12:37 PM
Travelin' snake oil show.
The Wiz That Wuz.
It was all a facade. We all knew it. The rest of the world knew it. The only ones that didn't were drinking the Kool-Aid. Some of them are so brain dead from the Kool-Aid they might not ever see it, so let them stay in their little world of delusion. My standard response to remarks about FAUX news feed is going to be "Okay, in your world."
F.I.M.O.
Listened to Randi yesterday and she pointed out when hurricane Francis hit Fla,(prior to Ivan) it ended up being a cat 1-2 with only thunderstorm consequences. Bush and minions were all over Dade County and handing out checks for damage repair to the tally of 28 million bucks.
"Paygo" for Bush,you go get me the election and I pay your way.
NBC: FEMA chief relieved of Katrina duties
Report follows controversy over Brown’s qualifications, agency’s response
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 1:20 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2005
WASHINGTON - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, NBC News and The Associated Press reported Friday.
Two federal officials who wouldn't be identified told the AP that Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, La. He was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster. NBC learned the same thing from a relief official.
FEMA has been criticized for its response to the disaster, and Time magazine on Friday reported that Brown’s official biography overstated his emergency-management experience.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9266986/
Observation about Brown Out...
Notice that they say he is "being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts." He is not being fired as head of FEMA apparently.
Here we have (one of) the biggest natural disaster in US history and the head of the department that's supposed to oversee the relief isn't qualified, but isn't fired from his position.
And it has been determined that he padded his resume...padded = lied. And he's not fired.
Ah yes, Brownie's "doing a heck of a job."
Guess what the GOP is doing to help relief efforts?
I had a conversation with a friend who's mother is a staunch Bush Supporter. Her mother was so shocked at the call she received from the Republican National Convention that she called Crystal here in Austin...
They are actually having a nation wide fund raising effort RIGHT NOW to derail the Katrina relief effort, and no doubt to make certain they get their piece of whatever liquid assets are available before supporters send checks to all of us bleeding hearts to fund disaster relief.
The Wizard of Oz has nothing on the Neocons...
The lost little girl (Condi)
The Tin Man (Cheney)
The Straw Man (Rumsfeld)
The Cowardly Lion (W)
If I only had a home...
A heart...
A brain...
Da Nerve!
Another observation...
I wonder if Boy King George will use this opportunity to eliminate FEMA. And given how they've destroyed the good work Witt did as well as rolled it into Homeland Security, it doesn't deserve to live on. I think it was all a part of the plan and this way they won't have to fire anyone; just eliminate the organization and roll "Brownie" into another job he's not qualified for...
Indy,
More info please. Need details to follow up.
Once again a day late and a dollar short. Brown should have been removed from La.last week, and fired this week. Even if his sole responsibity was public relations he failed at that.
BUSH cuts the wage for people rebuilding N.O.!!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1765780
defarge firing Brown is the first step; having lied on a life preservation position's resume should be grounds for potential criminal prosecution.
monkey you posted out of WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan joint congressional committee will review the response at all levels of government to Hurricane Katrina, the leaders of the House and Senate said Wednesday.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee, said in a written statement the joint committee would report its findings to Congress no later than February 15 next year.
NO WAY! There is no way in hell that Denny, Frist or Delay should have anything to do with this Commission and just calling it BiPartisan means zero. It must A Non Partisan 911 type commission; John Breaux should be in charge of the commission and no one else.
Have seen nothing about efforts in our communities to help Sheila Jackson Lee et al with the Bankruptcy Amendment. The Houston Chronicle relented last night and their lead story in the business section by Loren Steffy wrote a positive article called "Law to Deal second low to victims of hurricanes" We need to get this in every Republican Congressman's hands with the message Shame On You if you oppose the Conyers/Nadler/Lee Bankruptcy Amendment.
I need your voice. This vote is coming up next Monday and is getting very little attention.
Posted by: Ira at September 9, 2005 02:17 PM
Tried to find that article on Houston Chronicle's site and had no luck. Do you have a link?
Also, tell us what you want us to do...call our reps & senators to tell them to oppose the the bi-partisan investigation and demand an independent investigation, right?
defarge I can fax you the article if you want. hell I don't know the best way defarge to push the story other than to try and shame these sobs. contact your news media show them the story and see if they can pick up on it. call Hastert or others out there and tell them that you are outraged by their lack of coverage. congress can grandstand and spend $51 billion but an act of kindness that costs this govt zip and will really help thousands of evacuees can't get any news coverage. we are the media, haven't I heard that before?
I own a small simple pin, it's nothing more than a red ribbon a white ribbon, and a blue ribbon tied in a simple knot, held on by a little pearl tie tac. No rubies or diamonds or sapphires, just narrow satin ribbons. It is my symbol of my pride in America. I got it, or at least the ribbons for it on the Friday after 9/11. Remember? That was the day of the memorial service in Washington, the day most of us tried to show our support for the country we loved. It is the most precious piece of jewelry I own. It gets worn on the Fourth of July, and I wore it every time I walked my precinct last year.
Now what do I do with it? For the first time in 56 years I am no longer proud to be an American. The fact that 1/3 of this country is so blinded that they still think Bush did an "excellent job" responding to the crisis horrifies me. That some in the media will report bald faced lies on the word of a "Senior Administration official" terrorizes me, for a free press has always been our first line of defense against poor government. That thousands died, for a simple want of a ride grieves me deeply. That families have been torn apart because no one was smart enough to realize that families needed to be on the same bus maddens me beyond belief.
I've thought of adding a black ribbon to my pin, or just putting in the jewelry box for a better day. We must work for that better day. Do you 5 minutes, write the letters, march the marches whatever it takes to get our country back. Some day I hope I get to wear my pin again.
defarge and others you might want to contact your local newspaper and speak with their d.c. news dept or their business editor and tell them that Loren Steffy at the Houston Chronicle just scooped them on this important story. Write a letter to your editor or call into a conservative talk show. You might also contact Lee/Connyers or Nadlers legislative asst. and ask what they want us to do. but please contact Denny's office and insist on speaking with his legislative asst and see if they have even bothered to read this amendment yet. if not Lee or Nadler's office will be happy to fax/email it to them. Then let your local tv station or news dept know of Denny's ignorance and lack of attention to this impt piece of legislation having just spent $51 billion yesterday. just a suggestion.
defarge: the Steffy Article is under the Business Section of the Chronicle. Could I ask you to post the link here for me please. (need more computer skills)
They are home.
Thank God they are home.
Louisiana National Guard has returned to us.
ok 100 of them but its a start
Having called Brown back to Washington means that Bushco has a convenient whipping boy for the public outcry against the mismanagement. We have to hold Bush accountable for the "Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job." statement. Of course, that statement can be interpreted many different ways.
Ira,
I will be calling Hastert's office later today, but certainly before they go home for the weekend.
After Katrina Fiasco, Time for Bush to Go
By Gordon Adams
The Baltimore Sun
Thursday 08 September 2005
The disastrous federal response to Katrina exposes a record of incompetence, misjudgment and ideological blinders that should lead to serious doubts that the Bush administration should be allowed to continue in office.
When taxpayers have raised, borrowed and spent $40 billion to $50 billion a year for the past four years for homeland security but the officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot find their own hands in broad daylight for four days while New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast swelter, drown and die, it is time for them to go.
When funding for water works and levees in the gulf region is repeatedly cut by an administration that seems determined to undermine the public responsibility for infrastructure in America, despite clear warnings that the infrastructure could not survive a major storm, it seems clear someone is playing politics with the public trust.
When rescue and medical squads are sitting in Manassas and elsewhere in northern Virginia and foreign assistance waits at airports because the government can't figure out how to insure the workers, how to use the assistance or which jurisdiction should be in charge, it is time for the administration to leave town.
When President Bush stays on vacation and attends social functions for two days in the face of disaster before finally understanding that people are starving, crying out and dying, it is time for him to go.
When FEMA officials cannot figure out that there are thousands stranded at the New Orleans convention center - where people died and were starving - and fussed ineffectively about the same problems in the Superdome, they should be fired, not praised, as the president praised FEMA Director Michael Brown in New Orleans last week.
When Mr. Bush states publicly that "nobody could anticipate a breach of the levee" while New Orleans journalists, Scientific American, National Geographic, academic researchers and Louisiana politicians had been doing precisely that for decades, right up through last year and even as Hurricane Katrina passed over, he should be laughed out of town as an impostor.
When repeated studies of New Orleans make it clear that tens of thousands of people would be unable to evacuate the city in case of a flood, lacking both money and transportation, but FEMA makes no effort before the storm to commandeer buses and move them to safety, it is time for someone to be given his walking papers.
When the president makes Sen. Trent Lott's house in Pascagoula, Miss., the poster child for rebuilding while hundreds of thousands are bereft of housing, jobs, electricity and security, he betrays a careless insensitivity that should banish him from office.
When the president of the United States points the finger away from the lame response of his administration to Katrina and tries to finger local officials in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., as the culprits, he betrays the unwillingness of this administration to speak truth and hold itself accountable. As in the case of the miserable execution of policy in Iraq, Mr. Bush and Karl Rove always have some excuse for failure other than their own misjudgments.
We have a president who is apparently ill-informed, lackadaisical and narrow-minded, surrounded by oil baron cronies, religious fundamentalist crazies and right-wing extremists and ideologues. He has appointed officials who give incompetence new meaning, who replace the positive role of government with expensive baloney.
They rode into office in a highly contested election, spouting a message of bipartisanship but determined to undermine the federal government in every way but defense (and, after 9/11, one presumed, homeland security). One with Grover Norquist, they were determined to shrink Washington until it was "small enough to drown in a bathtub." Katrina has stripped the veil from this mean-spirited strategy, exposing the greed, mindlessness and sheer profiteering behind it.
It is time to hold them accountable - this ugly, troglodyte crowd of Capital Beltway insiders, rich lawyers, ideologues, incompetents and their strap-hangers should be tarred, feathered and ridden gracefully and mindfully out of Washington and returned to their caves, clubs in hand.
Gordon Adams, director of security policy studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, was senior White House budget official for national security in the Clinton administration.
There will be more than one whipping boy. Anything to throw up the smokescreen and divert attention.
My new slogan (not original by any means):
(Also said during my 25 minute preaching session yesterday.)
"The Buck Stops at the President".
HE (and members of his administration and Rove) is the one ENTRUSTED with the responsibility of the well being of every single American. Every single one.
Posted by: Ladytechie at September 9, 2005 02:52 PM
How eloquent. I hope you can wear your pin with pride one day again soon.
Want the weather on the Web whenever you want without ads in your way?
Read that three times fast.
And watch out -- the world of weather forecasting could get stormy over a proposed bill in the U.S. Senate, northern Colorado weather professionals say.
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, is sponsoring a bill that could, among other things, prevent the National Weather Service from providing weather information that is available in the private sector.
If the bill passes, weather geeks wouldn't be able to peruse government Web sites to
get the forecast. They'd have to go to private-sector Web sites, such as Accuweather.com or Weather.com, which obtain raw data from the weather service, and reorganize it and analyze that data.
Those sites show advertisements and might have different methods for predicting the weather. Fee-based services are also a possibility; the bill also would prevent federal weather workers from passing along information that might affect the market value of private weather products or services.
The only information the government could still provide would be severe weather forecasts and warnings.
Weather workers say they don't like what's on the radar screen.
Jim Wirshborn, a meteorologist with Day Weather Inc. in Fort Collins, said the bill would be bad for the public.
"It's fine for the National Weather Service to make everything available to the public, and it should be at no charge, because we already paid for it with tax dollars," Wirshborn said.
more... http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20050811/NEWS/108110066
Posted on behalf of Ira:
Sept. 8, 2005, 8:30PM
Law to deal second blow to victims of hurricane
By LOREN STEFFY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
A bad law just keeps getting worse.
The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is exposing more shortcomings in the federal bankruptcy law that's scheduled to take effect Oct. 17.
The so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act is the love letter that Congress wrote to the credit card industry this spring. It's been widely decried by corporate and personal bankruptcy attorneys alike for making the process more convoluted, expensive and difficult for consumers, companies and even creditors.
Now it may bog down the Katrina recovery effort as well.
"The victims of Hurricane Katrina may face a cruel second blow when they take steps to try to put their lives back together," says Brad Botes, a bankruptcy attorney with the firm Bond & Botes, which has offices in the southeastern U.S., including some of the regions affected by the storm.
With jobs lost, lives uprooted and homes and businesses destroyed, bankruptcies are certain to rise in the coming months.
"The things that force people to file bankruptcy are usually some sort of catastrophic event," says Susan Matthews, a bankruptcy attorney with the Houston office of Adams and Reese. "Having their home wiped out and losing their job would force people to seek bankruptcy protection."
Mostly it's crises
Katrina reminds us that crises, not irresponsibility, are the primary cause of personal bankruptcies.
The new law, though, assumes that most debtors are simply dishonest, that they're looking for a way to shirk their obligations. So beginning next month, in order to file a standard Chapter 7 bankruptcy, debtors will have to show not only that they are broke, but that they've been broke for at least six months. Losing everything in a hurricane apparently won't be enough.
The law also requires additional paperwork such as copies of tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements and other financial records that, thanks to Katrina, may simply no longer exist.
Congress also enacted a provision requiring debtors to undergo credit counseling. In most cases, though, people forced into bankruptcy by a natural disaster don't need counseling, they need relief.
Debtors may be able to get some of these requirements waived, but they would have to petition the court, on an individual basis, which
takes additional time and money.
Waiving provisions
The Consumer Federation of America and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys on Wednesday called on Congress to delay or waive the more onerous provisions of the new law for victims of natural disasters.
Four U.S. House members, including Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee, said Thursday they plan to introduce legislation that would do just that when Congress reconvenes next week.
"What we need to do here is avoid kicking hurricane victims when they're already down," says Botes, who is an NACBA director.
Even without the changes in the law, evacuees such as those in the Astrodome and other shelters around Texas may have difficulty filing bankruptcy. Residents of Louisiana, for example, can't file a case in Texas. Federal law stipulates that debtors must file in the judicial district where they reside.
(The State Bar of Texas is setting up mobile clinics for evacuees in need of legal advice.)
A second chance
It's an unfortunate consequence of disasters that people succumb to financial hardships they often couldn't imagine. Even if lenders cooperate in delaying payment demands temporarily, some borrowers, having lost both home and employment, may find themselves unable to catch up.
In America, we believe in the second chance. We believe in the idea of picking ourselves up from failure and trying again. It's the basis for our bankruptcy laws, which are unique in the world.
Nowhere is that concept more essential than in those areas digging out from Katrina's devastation.
"It's the only safety net these people have right now, and it needs to be there," Botes says. Along the Gulf Coast, the next few months will be a time of rebuilding, of starting over. It's a time for second chances, not just for the storm victims, but for members of Congress, too.
They have a chance to fix some of the mistakes they legislated in the spring.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3345871
I have called Hastert's and Hyde's (my district rep) offices. Both clerks said that they were aware and will bring my concerns to the attention of the Representatives. Unlikely to do any good. I also contracted The Daily Herald, a newspaper covering both districts and much of suburban Chicago. I talked with the business editorial desk about the amendment. He was unaware that it had been proposed. His comment was if it gets traction we will usually run it too, or if one of the Reprentatives is involved we cover it. I suggested that as Hastert is Speaker of the House, then it should be covered as Hastert's district is in their news coverage area. I also suggested contacting either Hyde or Hastert for a comment......All we can do is try.......
Here's the article Ira was talking about in yesterday's Houston Chronicle. I've included the link as well as the whole article. Please read it and take action. Contact your representatives & senators today...ask them to support Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee who will introduce legislation when Congress reconvenes next week to delay or waive the more onerous provisions of the new law for victims of natural disasters...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3345871
ept. 8, 2005, 8:30PM
Law to deal second blow to victims of hurricane
By LOREN STEFFY
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
A bad law just keeps getting worse.
The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is exposing more shortcomings in the federal bankruptcy law that's scheduled to take effect Oct. 17.
The so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act is the love letter that Congress wrote to the credit card industry this spring. It's been widely decried by corporate and personal bankruptcy attorneys alike for making the process more convoluted, expensive and difficult for consumers, companies and even creditors.
Now it may bog down the Katrina recovery effort as well.
"The victims of Hurricane Katrina may face a cruel second blow when they take steps to try to put their lives back together," says Brad Botes, a bankruptcy attorney with the firm Bond & Botes, which has offices in the southeastern U.S., including some of the regions affected by the storm.
With jobs lost, lives uprooted and homes and businesses destroyed, bankruptcies are certain to rise in the coming months.
"The things that force people to file bankruptcy are usually some sort of catastrophic event," says Susan Matthews, a bankruptcy attorney with the Houston office of Adams and Reese. "Having their home wiped out and losing their job would force people to seek bankruptcy protection."
Mostly it's crises
Katrina reminds us that crises, not irresponsibility, are the primary cause of personal bankruptcies.
The new law, though, assumes that most debtors are simply dishonest, that they're looking for a way to shirk their obligations. So beginning next month, in order to file a standard Chapter 7 bankruptcy, debtors will have to show not only that they are broke, but that they've been broke for at least six months. Losing everything in a hurricane apparently won't be enough.
The law also requires additional paperwork such as copies of tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements and other financial records that, thanks to Katrina, may simply no longer exist.
Congress also enacted a provision requiring debtors to undergo credit counseling. In most cases, though, people forced into bankruptcy by a natural disaster don't need counseling, they need relief.
Debtors may be able to get some of these requirements waived, but they would have to petition the court, on an individual basis, which
takes additional time and money.
Waiving provisions
The Consumer Federation of America and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys on Wednesday called on Congress to delay or waive the more onerous provisions of the new law for victims of natural disasters.
Four U.S. House members, including Houston's Sheila Jackson Lee, said Thursday they plan to introduce legislation that would do just that when Congress reconvenes next week.
"What we need to do here is avoid kicking hurricane victims when they're already down," says Botes, who is an NACBA director.
Even without the changes in the law, evacuees such as those in the Astrodome and other shelters around Texas may have difficulty filing bankruptcy. Residents of Louisiana, for example, can't file a case in Texas. Federal law stipulates that debtors must file in the judicial district where they reside.
(The State Bar of Texas is setting up mobile clinics for evacuees in need of legal advice.)
A second chance
It's an unfortunate consequence of disasters that people succumb to financial hardships they often couldn't imagine. Even if lenders cooperate in delaying payment demands temporarily, some borrowers, having lost both home and employment, may find themselves unable to catch up.
In America, we believe in the second chance. We believe in the idea of picking ourselves up from failure and trying again. It's the basis for our bankruptcy laws, which are unique in the world.
Nowhere is that concept more essential than in those areas digging out from Katrina's devastation.
"It's the only safety net these people have right now, and it needs to be there," Botes says. Along the Gulf Coast, the next few months will be a time of rebuilding, of starting over. It's a time for second chances, not just for the storm victims, but for members of Congress, too.
They have a chance to fix some of the mistakes they legislated in the spring.
Correction
Speaking of fixing mistakes, on Wednesday I misspelled the name of the Oklahoma town where my wife's grandparents lived. It's Henryetta.
Loren Steffy is the Chronicle's business columnist. His commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Contact him at loren.steffy@chron.com. His blog, Full Disclosure, is at blogs.chron.com/fulldisclosure.
Republicans confiscating guns in N.O. What a hoot.Didn't we hear that JK would be doing that to folks in West Va. or was that bibles we were supposedly confiscating.
Oops, quick draw dwahzon trumped me! LOL.
great minds... and all that
MMM
Just when you think it can't get any sadder:
Our boys return home (some homecoming).
I cried as I watched them deplane a few minutes ago. They all had sagging shoulders and hung heads.
Some of them must be thinking: I fought and watched more than thirty of my buddies die for THIS?
My God.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/09/09/national_guardsmen_return_home_from_iraq__to_ravaged_louisiana/?page=2
CNN'S ANDERSON COOPER AND AARON BROWN TO CO-HOST NEW PROGRAM called "State of Emergency".
Hope this isn't to tone Anderson down.
Don't forget - Anderson was down at Camp Casey near the Funny Farm Ranch with Cindy last month.
Miracles work in small ways.
I faxed the article to the Business desk at The Daily Herald. We'll see what happens.
I nominate Michael Brown as Bush's new Chief-of-Staff. His skillset so clearly mirrors the President's. It would be a perfect fit.
Never forget that Dubya told Brown a week ago that he was doing "a heck of a job".
He's gone a week later.
Flip-flop
thanks oncall and defarge. what else can we do to help Lee et al with their Bankruptcy Bill Amendment?
Ira,
Ok, I've called my Rep and also left a message with Frist, Hastert's, and Delay's office. They're all neoCONS--and my rep claims to be a moderate but has no spine--so he just as well be a neoCON.
Anyway, I spoke of each of those issues. I got the standard, "We have no comment yet, I'll get back with you." AND the standard "We have not decided yet..."
Yeh, right!
NPR right now... 1/2 hour program on what happened when
Posted by: oncall at September 9, 2005 04:00 PM
Posted by: Ira at September 9, 2005 04:07 P
Called my lame representative's office as well as Hasturd's office. Also talked directly to the business editor of Chicago Tribune and had him read the article while I was on the phone. Told him he should ask Hasturd what he's going to do...
Before I got to him, I was talking with another person at the paper telling her about the article and she was all over it, saying "YES! This is important!" In fact, she gave me her phone number and asked me to call her back to let her know what the business editor said. This may have legs.
Madame,
Let us know how it goes. I will be pleasantly surprised if my efforts pay off.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090900772.html
Court Rules U.S. Can Indefinitely Detain Citizens
Ruling Comes in the Case of 'Enemy Combatant' Jose Padilla
A congressional resolution after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks "provided the President all powers necessary and appropriate to protect American citizens from terrorist attacks by those who attacked the United States on Sept. 11,'' the decision said. "Those powers include the power to detain identified and committed enemies such as Padilla, who associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban regime, who took up arms against this Nation in its war against these enemies, and who entered the United States for the avowed purpose of further prosecuting that war by attacking American citizens.''
The decision by a three-judge panel was written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, who is one of a number of people under consideration by President Bush for nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
{{{ Excuse my naiveté... The "war on terror" is an ideological war, not a technical war declared by Congress; under the Constitution only Congress (NOT the president - the Selected pResident since 2000, or even any legally elected president!) can declare a legal and justified war. If Congress did give pResNitwit the powers to declare war against another country after 9/11, they need to correct that error!!! (Was it even legal for Congress to vote in favor of giving Bu$h extra powers not granted to him in the Constitution???) Also, if there is no technical "war" then how can Jose Padilla be considered an "enemy combatant"??? Now... since Luttig has played right into Bu$h's wishes, is he the next one to be nominated for an associate justice SCOTUS, just as Roberts was nominated four days after a favorable "ruling" that gave pResNitwit Bu$h exemptions from any laws, treaties, etc.??? What a travesty of "justice"!!!}}}
NPR just said that Luttig was on the short list of judges suggested to replace O'Connor.
From the HoustonChronicle blog:
September 09, 2005
DeLay to evacuees: 'Is this kind of fun?'
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's visit to Reliant Park this morning offered him a glimpse of what it's like to be living in shelter.
While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots.
The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"
They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.
With a group of reporters and press officers in tow, DeLay then moved on, chatting with others, including a local IRS representative. He then visited with job recruiters set up in Reliant Park.
Earlier DeLay spoke with volunteers and thanked them for their service.
"You are becoming famous all over this country and even the world," he said, adding that he's often approached by lawmakers commending Houston's response to the disaster.
--Purva Patel
http://blogs.chron.com/domeblog/archives/2005/09/delay_to_evacue.html
thanks guys we are the media. I suggest we speak with the legislative aids and if they don't have the Amendment to get Nadler/Lee/Connyers' office to send it to their legislative asst. If they say fine no comment say that's fine I have recorded your comments and will be playing it back to the local news rooms tv radio, newspaper and letting them know of your indifference. Unfortunately we have to play hardball even though this Amendment has moral/humanitarian implications. Let your Congressperson know that unlike the $51 billion they spent yesterday that this vote is a free ride , good pr and costs the govt zero (maybe only their bank contributors and lobbyist).
Luttig, Edith Jones and Larry Thompson, all very right wing jurists.
Looks like we really will have to multi-task.
Howard Dean just had a fairly long interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN State of Emergency.
Dean got alot of facts in, and said alot of really good things about immoral people working for Bush.
Wolf of course was agressively attacking his statements by over riding them and saying it was the Democratic Governor and Dem Mayors fault (they didn't use the school buses, etc.).
My aunts tried to use that one on me yesterday and I asked them if they got that off Faux News or if Pat Robertson said it on the 700 Club?
They said no one told them. (? Whatever.)
I asked them how would school buses get millions of people out of New Orleans? And where would the money come for for gas?
Wolf asked