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Stagecraft
[Editor's Note: This is another installment in our ongoing Saturday morning series examining and exploring the powerful relationship between Art and Politics.]
What happens when the tools of theater are applied to politics? Stagecraft meets Political Soliloquy.
Not surprisingly, the same transformational magic that is used to good effect in transporting the theater-goer to a different reality, is used to inveidious effect, to orchestrate a well-planned and executed strategy of public deception.
And I am not the only one who thinks so. Far from it.
It's nice to see our usually prostrate media now decrying that which they were admiring only a year ago. Remember how the members of the snooze media, en masse, fawningly declared the genius of Karl Rove for his staging of the Republican Convention? I recall the near unanimous shouts of, "Brilliant!" on every news channel, because Rove had managed to create an elaborate four-day political charade, culminating in his candidate appearing to speak from a pulpit, rather than a podium. And why not? Wouldn't everyone vote for God for President?
But things change, and so has this.
From this morning's Maureen Dowd
The president, as he fondly recalled the other day, used to get well lit in New Orleans. Not any more.
On Thursday night, Mr. Bush wanted to appear casually in charge as he waged his own Battle of New Orleans in Jackson Square. Instead, he looked as if he'd been dropped off by his folks in front of a eerie, blue-hued castle at Disney World. (Must be Sleeping Beauty's Castle, given the somnambulant pace of W.'s response to Katrina.)
All Andrew Jackson's horses, and all the Boy King's men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again. His gladiatorial walk across the darkened greensward, past a St. Louis Cathedral bathed in moon glow from White House klieg lights, just seemed to intensify the sense of an isolated, out-of-touch president clinging to hollow symbols as his disastrous disaster agency continues to flail.
In a ruined city - still largely without power, stinking with piles of garbage and still 40 percent submerged; where people are foraging in the miasma and muck for food, corpses and the sentimental detritus of their lives; and where unbearably sad stories continue to spill out about hordes of evacuees who lost their homes and patients who died in hospitals without either electricity or rescuers - isn't it rather tasteless, not to mention a waste of energy, to haul in White House generators just to give the president a burnished skin tone and a prettified background?
The slick White House TV production team was trying to salvage W.'s "High Noon" snap with some snazzy Hollywood-style lighting - the same Reaganesque stagecraft they had provided when W. made a prime-time television address from Ellis Island on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. On that occasion, Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer, and Bob DeServi, a former NBC cameraman and a lighting expert, rented three barges of giant Musco lights, the kind used for "Monday Night Football" and Rolling Stones concerts, floated them across New York Harbor and illuminated the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop for Mr. Bush.
Before the presidential address, Mr. DeServi was surveying his handiwork in Jackson Square, crowing to reporters about his cathedral: "Oh, it's heated up. It's going to print loud."
As Elisabeth Bumiller, the White House reporter for The Times, noted in a pool report, the image wizards had put up a large swath of military camouflage netting, held in place by bags of rocks and strung on poles, to hide the president from the deserted and desolate streets of the French Quarter ghost town.
From Brian Williams blog:
I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it... jump to certain conclusions.
It's nice to see that finally the first-rate members of the Fourth Estate have given up on being Fifth Columnists.
At least for now.
Time's reporter on am c-span said:"Bush plans to return to NO frequently to repair damage control....and not the damage in NO." Look for more of these photo ops. Can we ask for a "gag" order?
Can we ask for a "gag" order?
Posted by: Patti Ferschke at September 17, 2005 11:23 AM
I've been gagging for weeks, no order needed.
My cynical nature, I guess, when approaching the press, but Brian Williams has yet to prove he is doing anything other than trying to expand to a new audience, with the the network onboard.
The netroots audience can be easily played, and we do want the critical voice. Yet on air, where it counts more to reawaken to a larger audience, he is business as usual.
But good topic to always remember, when people want drama and style over substance. They want soap opera.
I seem to remember Karen and a friend having differing reactions to the Bush appearance at the RNC, complete with a cross design on the podium. When Karen saw amber gels, her friend saw God-like.
September 18, 2005
Under Din of Abortion Debate, an Experience Shared Quietly
By JOHN LELAND
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - At Little Rock Family Planning Services, the women filed in without making eye contact, a demographic that remains unrecognized.
Leah works in a clothing boutique. Alicia is in high school. Tammy pulls espresso. Regina is a sergeant in the Army, recently home from Iraq.
Far from Washington and the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge John G. Roberts Jr., here in Little Rock on an August weekend, 26 women from as far away as Oklahoma joined the more than one million American women who will probably have abortions this year.
Their experiences, at one of only two clinics in the state, offer a ground-level view of abortion in 2005, a landscape altered by shifts in technology, law, demographics and the political climate.
Brittany, 17, brought her mother for support. Linda, 39, brought her daughter.
Alexia, who wore a cross pendant, prayed all through the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Delta State University in Mississippi. At 23, she was having her third abortion. "My religion is against it," she said, adding that she is a Baptist. "In a way I feel I'm doing wrong, but you can be forgiven. I blame myself. I feel I shouldn't have sex at all."
Venetia Grunder, 21, viewed an ultrasound image of the fetus in her womb. She was 12 weeks pregnant, though she had taken birth control pills as directed. "I feel pretty messed up," she said after seeing the image. "It's different, just knowing. My husband told me not to look. This changes my feelings, but I'm sticking by it. Damn it, $650, I'm sticking by it."
More than 25 million Americans have had abortions since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton in 1973. Often kept secret, even from close friends or family members, the experience cuts across all income levels, religions, races, lifestyles, political parties and marital circumstances. Though abortion rates have been falling since 1990, to their lowest level since the mid-1970's, abortion remains one of the most common surgical procedures for women in America. More than one in five pregnancies end in abortion.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/national/18abortion.html
The fundamental flaw in Ws christian persona
Every time it comes time to answer for all the death on his watch...
He blames it all on God.
He blames it all on God.
Posted by: Christy at September 17, 2005 12:57 PM
Positively sinful... and damningly ironic, ain't it?
Damningly so INDEED my friend.
So much death, too few miracles.
from Katrina-ground-zero
Please forgive this long post, but I don't have the luxury of time to put many thoughts into words on a regular basis these days. But after watching Bu$h's speech on Thursday night, I had to take time to organize a few thoughts.
disclosure: I was born in New Orleans, grew up between N.O. and Baton Rouge and have lived the past 30 years in Baton Rouge. I am a yellow-dog Dem, no apologies for that.
I never thought I'd see the day, when this area would become the national story. But here we are.
Those of us at katrina ground zero are still spending most of our time and efforts to shelter, clothe and feed our New Orleans neighbors who have fled their homes in the catastrophe of Katrina.
3 weeks later, the mood here among the displaced New Orleanians has slowly moved beyond initial numbing shock to despair. Everyone is in limbo, waiting. Lost homes, lost jobs, everything disappeared overnight. Those lucky enough to have had property insurance are waiting for that before they can even begin to think about starting over. Some have been able to return to New Orleans long enough to collect personal possessions, some have not yet been allowed back in. The city they love is still a big stinking mess with no electicity or potable water, outside of the French Quarter area. My sister-in-law and her husband are in the Lakeview area today, hoping to enter their home for the first time since the storm submerged their home under 10+ feet of murky floodwater. We hope they can salvage a few precious mementoes from the home and the life they built there over 25 years ago.
In time, some will try to return to N.O. to try to rebuild, some will not. The mayor of New Orleans and our state officials sound optimistic. They want this city to come back to life. But everyone here knows this reality: whether New Orleans neighborhoods are rebuilt or not depends largely upon whether or not any insurance companies will re-insure newly rebuilt homes in a city below sea level. Time will tell.
Bu$h's speech in Jackson Square: Those of you who have visited New Orleans know the beauty of St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square.
Bu$h's mega movie-set lights made that background scene look eerie, surreal, it turned that beautiful old graceful cathedral into something that resembled a Disneyland facade. Just like Bu$h himself. An eerie facade. A caricature of the real thing.
In the national and in the state press, the Republicans have already "swiftboated" La's Dem Gov. Blanco, painting her as incompetent and hysterical. She is neither. But making a Dem governor seem incompetent and overwhelmed plays quite nicely into their overall plan of justifying using massive federal military force, more quickly in the future. We should all beware the big footprint of relying on overwhelming military force in the hands of a self-proclaimed "war president" in a time of crisis. Much of La.'s National Guard were in Iraq. Gov. Blanco wanted to retain state use of the remaining La. National Guard. Bu$hco wanted to federalize the Guard.
The Gulf Coast has become the new Iraq.
Bu$hco will finance the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast with borrowed money, most from Communist China, thereby forcing more massive debt onto America's children and grandchildren. Bu$h wanted his legacy to be a re-engineered Iraq/MiddleEast. He botched that. He gets another chance at legacy with a re-engineered Gulf coast and New Orleans. Using borrowed billions, so the big business investment class will get richer, and the following generations of future taxpayers will inherit the debt.
Classic Bu$h. Are we surprised?
The first no-bid contracts have already gone out to Bu$hco crony companies Halliburton, Bechtel & Shaw, same as in Iraq. The big business entities ran into foreign opposition in Iraq, but there's nothing to stop them here.
Remember "eminent domain" and Bu$h's talk about "free enterprise zones"? Rewarding big business interests, not individual homeowners. Don't be too surprised if the "new" New Orleans turns into huge LNG, oil & gas facilities. The port is already here, the pipelines are already here, the access to the Gulf drilling is already here. The locals won't put up much fuss, after all, this area needs jobs.
The "quality of life" in New Orleans will never be priority #1 to the oil and gas industry.
The people who treasure New Orleans for its heart and soul and music and food and culture and history do not have friends in the Bu$hco administration. But Big Oil does. Guess which will win.
Louisiana has one, only one, Fortune 500 company. The Shaw Group. Its CEO is Jim Bernhard, who also happened to be a big bidness Democrat (DINO) who was La's Democratic National Party Chairman. He resigned as state DNC chairman yesterday, to focus on his Shaw government Katrina contracts.
Before Katrina, Louisiana was almost purple, with hopes of turning blue again. But with Bu$hco awarding massive government contracts to big business, construction jobs will follow, money will prevail and this state will be redder than Kansas by the '08 election.
That is my fear. I hope I am wrong.
Here's the local article:
Democratic state leader steps down
Shaw CEO Bernhard wants to focus on relief efforts
By MARSHA SHULER
Capitol news bureau
Louisiana Democratic Party chairman Jim Bernhard stepped down Friday, citing the major role his company is playing in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
In a resignation letter, Bernhard said The Shaw Group Inc. has been working "around the clock" to assist with the clean-up and rescue efforts in New Orleans and surrounding Gulf Coast area.
The Baton Rouge-based company recently was awarded about $200 million in hurricane-related contracts.
"I do not believe I can fairly divide my energies between the party and my relief and recovery efforts and totally fulfill the obligations of both important jobs to my satisfaction, or yours," wrote Bernard, Shaw's CEO.
Bernhard noted Shaw is the only Louisiana-based response and disaster recovery company working to rebuild the state. In the wake of Katrina, the Fortune 500 engineering and construction firm received two federal contracts, each worth $100 million.
continue~
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091705/new_shawceo001.shtml
I know there is a big political and emotional push to rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, but at some point you wonder why we are fighting nature with our tax dollars.
Posted by: Veritas at September 16, 2005 05:31 PM
New Orleans was at its current location before the United States was born.
It has always been human nature to defy mother nature...to push the limits of our ingenuity and daring.
I would personally like to see New Orleans not only rebuilt and restored, but revitalized in the very people...the culture of life that has made the city of New Orleans world famous.
The levees are to contain the Mississipi River from overflowing her banks...and are a necessary evil in maintaining strategic control of the mouth of the Mississippi.
New Orleans is not only a city of life and culture, but she is one of the largest ports in the world, nurturing not only her own people, but feeding the Heartland of America and the world and in providing for all goods shipped into and out of our fair Crescent City.
Be "Fiscally Responsible" if you must, but how can one be concerned with dollars when we are speaking of the indescribable and priceless gift to humanity that is New Orleans.
Military May Play Bigger Relief Role
Sep 17 2:59 PM US/Eastern
By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON
President Bush's push to give the military a bigger role in responding to major disasters like Hurricane Katrina could lead to a loosening of legal limits on the use of federal troops on U.S. soil.
Pentagon officials are reviewing that possibility, and some in Congress agree it needs to be considered.
Bush did not define the wider role he envisions for the military. But in his speech to the nation from New Orleans on Thursday, he alluded to the unmatched ability of federal troops to provide supplies, equipment, communications, transportation and other assets the military lumps under the label of "logistics."
The president called the military "the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice."
At question, however, is how far to push the military role, which by law may not include actions that can be defined as law enforcement _ stopping traffic, searching people, seizing property or making arrests. That prohibition is spelled out in the Posse Comitatus Act of enacted after the Civil War mainly to prevent federal troops from supervising elections in former Confederate states.
Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said, "I believe the time has come that we reflect on the Posse Comitatus Act." He advocated giving the president and the secretary of defense "correct standby authorities" to manage disasters.
Presidents have long been reluctant to deploy U.S. troops domestically, leery of the image of federal troops patrolling in their own country or of embarrassing state and local officials.
The active-duty elements that Bush did send to Louisiana and Mississippi included some Army and Marine Corps helicopters and their crews, plus Navy ships. The main federal ground forces, led by troops of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., arrived late Saturday, five days after Katrina struck.
They helped with evacuations and performed search-and-rescue missions in flooded portions of New Orleans but did not join in law enforcement operations.
The federal troops were led by Lt. Gen. Russel Honore. The governors commanded their National Guard soldiers, sent from dozens of states.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is reviewing a wide range of possible changes in the way the military could be used in domestic emergencies, spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Friday. He said these included possible changes in the relationship between federal and state military authorities.
Under the existing relationship, a state's governor is chiefly responsible for disaster preparedness and response.
Governors can request assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If federal armed forces are brought in to help, they do so in support of FEMA, through the U.S. Northern Command, which was established in 2002 as part of a military reorganization after the 9/11 attacks.
Di Rita said Rumsfeld has not made recommendations to Bush, but among the issues he is examining is the viability of the Posse Comitatus Act. Di Rita called it one of the "very archaic laws" from a different era in U.S. history that limits the Pentagon's flexibility in responding to 21st century domestic crises.
Another such law, Di Rita said, is the Civil War-era Insurrection Act, which Bush could have invoked to waive the law enforcement restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act. That would have enabled him to use either National Guard soldiers or active-duty troops _ or both _ to quell the looting and other lawlessness that broke out in New Orleans.
The Insurrection Act lets the president call troops into federal action inside the United States whenever "unlawful obstructions, combinations or assemblages _ or rebellion against the authority of the United States _ make it impracticable to enforce the laws" in any state.
The political problem in Katrina was that Bush would have had to impose federal command over the wishes of two governors _ Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi _ who made it clear they wanted to retain state control.
The last time the Insurrection Act was invoked was in 1992 when it was requested by California Gov. Pete Wilson after the outbreak of race riots in Los Angeles. President George H.W. Bush dispatched about 4,000 soldiers and Marines.
Di Rita cautioned against expecting quick answers to tough questions like whether Congress should define when to trigger the president's authority to send federal troops to take charge of an emergency, regardless of whether a governor agreed.
"Is there a way to define a threshold, or an anticipated threshold, above which a different set of relationships would kick in?" Di Rita asked. "That's a good question. It's only been two weeks, so don't expect us to have the answers. But those are the kinds of questions we need to be asking."
http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/D8CM6FB00.html
Last one to Venezeuala is a rotten egg
I have been wearing my beautiful Venezuela t-shirt for the last few weeks...
It's a beautiful day here in west Fla today--I look across the Gulf towards otv4d Houston, and Covington and all who are working so hard to heal the scar on the opposite shores--and I send thanks for the rising spirits there.
We must ALL work together to make next weekend an effective and peaceful but massively huge statement. Can we use this site to think about what people can be asked to do over the next few days that would help?
Info is on the front page of the site.
We need the attention of the nation to turn in the direction of the source of the crimes against the people--and that is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. How can you help to make that happen?
Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at September 17, 2005 02:52 PM
OTV4D,
Thanks for sharing your insights. I always learn so much from you and your posts. It is wonderful to hear your voice again here.
Only Bu$hco could be responsible for such poor management on the home front, then profit from the destruction their neglect and selfishness brought about, while taking credit for being the "good guy" who throws the bucks around to "make everything better".
They say a picture is worth a million words. Is it worth several billion dollars?
We will see.....
My cynical nature, I guess, when approaching the press, but Brian Williams has yet to prove he is doing anything other than trying to expand to a new audience, with the the network onboard.
Posted by: Marjorie G at September 17, 2005 12:07 PM
My thoughts exactly.
Posted by: Karen at September 17, 2005 04:13 PM
I'll be there. Driving down Friday night, with a friend (and my kid, who's taking the train up to NJ Thursday night for a 2nd interview at a law firm on Friday, then hitching a ride back down with us).
Hope to see a bunch of you there and of course, looking forward to seeing Marjorie G again :-)
I found the following book in a funky little store on my trip last week.
Titled "Addicted to War - Why the U.S. Can't Kick Militarism", by Joel Andreas, it is an illustrated expose that explains, in a very easy to read composition complete with illustrations that slightly resemble comic book layout, the United States' cult of militarism.
When I saw the book I remembered a few here had recommended it, and others have no doubt read it.
But, for those who have not, for newcomers, and lurkers, let me share with you a few of the comments others have made about the book:
"Political comics at it's best. Bitterly amusing, lively, and richly informative. For people of all ages who want to understand the link between U.S. militarism, foreign policy, and corporate greed at home and abroad."
- Michael Parenti, author of "History as Mystery" and "To Kill a Nation".
"For those who have created a wall in their mind to resist questioning what the powers-that-be have taught them, this book may be the right battering ram."
- William Blum, author of "Killing Hope" and "Rogue State".
"The enormous criminal impact of U.S. militarism on the people of the world and the U.S. is hard to grasp. This book makes it easier to understand. Now we must ACT."
- Ramsey Clark, Former U.S. Attorney General
"Many years ago in Korea, I believed I was serving a righteous cause. When reality jarred my assumptions, I first reacted angrily. My honor was offended. Then I met other ex-military who helped me understand that while my motives were good, the policies I was asked to support were not. We banded together to use our experience to help head off future wars through education. One of our most effective tools is "Addicted to War."
- Wilson (Woody) Powell, Executive Director of Veterans for Peace
"I've come to the conclusion that if we don't change from a value system based on love of money and power to one based on love or compassion and generosity we will be extinct this century. We need a brief earthquake to wake up humanity. "Addicted to War is such an earthquake."
- Patch Adams, M.D., founder of Gesundheit Institute, Vietnam War-era conscientious objector.
"Addicted to War should be assigned reading in American schools because it tells the true history of this nation's culture of war. Because of this book, many young students will think twice before considering enlistment in the military. How different things might have been had my son had a chance to read it. However, it is not too late for many thousands of young Americans."
- Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose son, Jesus, died fighting in Iraq, March 2003.
"Addicted to War is a witty and devastating portrait of U.S. military policy, a fine example of art serving society."
- Howard Zinn, Author of "A People's History of the United States".
"Addicted to War" will be in everyone's Christmas stocking this year.
Third edition copyright 2004 of "Addicted to War" by Joel Andreas has been updated to include the war in Iraq.
Bulk rates are available. For more information:
www.addictedtowar.com and www.akpress.org
Is George going to nominate Gonzales? The following reeks of a Rovian scent, and was found today in a mass emailing to a fundamentalist Christian friend of mine.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Thursday that the Justice Department will fight to overturn a federal court ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance can't be recited in public schools because it contains a reference to God.
According to the Newsmax report, Gonzales said the pledge is one of several expressions of national identity and patriotism that mention of God but don't violate the Constitution's ban on state-sponsored religion.
The high court "has affirmed time and again that such official acknowledgments of our nation's religious heritage, foundation and character are constitutional," Gonzales said in a statement a day after the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, noted the report, the Senate voted late Thursday to condemn the district judge's ruling. The nonbinding resolution, approved by unanimous consent, states that the phrase "one nation under God" in the pledge reflects the religious faith central to the founding of the nation and that its recitation is "a fully constitutional expression of patriotism."
More...
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/15/231259.shtml
I was perusing last month's Harper's Index http://www.harpers.org/HarpersIndex2005-08.html --notice this was Pre-Katrina:
"Number of New Orleans bars visited this spring by an undercover team investigating racial discrimination : 40[Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)]
"Percentage of the bars that charged black customers more than white customers : 40[Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (New Orleans)]"
Interesting, no?
I would like to tell you what I just discovered...
The Mariott of New Orleans.. Sits right across the street from the Convention Center.Two blocks from the Super Dome
From what I understood the National Guard in the immediate aftermath guarded the Mariott with guns even as women and babies were being raped murdered mutilated starved and dehydrated to death RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET.
So I started looking and found this...
Snip
Rosa Clemente: Well, first we went to New Orleans, and actually, we went to the Convention Center and, you know, just saw real estate speculators there and Blackwater mercenaries protecting property and didn't realize that the Marriott and the Wyndham hotel were across the Convention Center and began to ask the question: Why weren't those hotels taken over as eminent domain? That's the question I have. If someone can take my private property for - to build a highway or a medical facility, why were these hotels not opened to let these people not languish in what can only be described as a living hell. And to see the militarization. We then went to Algiers and spent the day with Malik Rahim. We could not leave because of the curfew, and that was a first experience for me. It was an experience to have an M-16 pointed at my car and from -
Rosa Clemente: Yeah. I mean, I think the one thing that struck me was the smell, when I realized that it's the smell of death in the air of New Orleans, and that was just shocking because I have only kind of seen that on TV, right, and when people make that face, but - and we saw things that looked like body parts, but of course, I just couldn't look - but it didn't look - it looked like human body parts that had been mutilated in the garbage cans behind the Convention Center. As of Monday, when we looked in the Convention Center, you could see the remnants of everything, and just - it's just horrific just to see that. So, Malik had told us about that that dead body that I think was finally picked up.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091705B.shtml
Cheney Ordered Power Back On To Pipelines Not Hospitals
Power crews diverted
Restoring pipeline came first
By Nikki Davis Maute
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.
At the time, gasoline was in short supply across the country because of Katrina. Prices increased dramatically and lines formed at pumps across the South.
"I considered it a presidential directive to get those pipelines operating," said Jim Compton, general manager of the South Mississippi Electric Power Association - which distributes power that rural electric cooperatives sell to consumers and businesses.
"I reluctantly agreed to pull half our transmission line crews off other projects and made getting the transmission lines to the Collins substations a priority," Compton said. "Our people were told to work until it was done.
"They did it in 16 hours, and I consider the effort unprecedented."
Article Continues vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050911/NEWS05/509110304
Christy you've got mail.
Condi is loosing her freaking mind..
It would be funny if she wasnt such a murderous evil skank
When asked, "Tell us about Osama bin Laden and how important you think his personal capture would be. How thrilled are you going to be if you all leave office in '09 and he's still in a cave and the President's in Crawford?" the Secretary of State declared:
"Well, look, I would like nothing better to get the phone call that says we captured Osama bin Laden. I mean, in a sense, I think it’s, you know, it's a kind of issue of closure about-I was at the September 11 commemoration on Sunday and the one thing that did occur to me as I was talking to families as they came through is that, you know, I wish that there were more closure for what happened to us because what happened was that that launched a long war against terrorism, it launched a war to root out something that had been growing for a long time, and we're more at the beginning of that than at the end of it. And so I think in that sense it’s very important. And perhaps in terms of a kind of spiritual presence, philosophical presence in their movement, maybe it has—it probably has—but in terms of the operation itself, I've always argued, and I argued from the very beginning, and in fact, the fact that the President argues, reflected in his September 20 speech, we decided in that speech he'd only mention bin Laden once because nobody wanted to give the impression that this was about a single person."
The Newsweek reporter countered, "Sorry, but isn't the argument actually that Iraq gave a larger theater for and cause for that theology to play itself out?" Rice said the argument wasn't about Iraq.
"Yeah, that's the argument except that's not their argument. Their argument is that it's about Iraq, it's about Afghanistan, it’s about the U.S. presence in the Middle East, it's about the infidels, you know, being near the holy sites of Mecca. This is not about Iraq. That's a spurious argument. And I’ve always felt that way."
Rice, a scholar of Soviet politics, also raised Marx in the context of al Qaeda.
"No, but I do listen to what they say is fueling their movement. Just like I used to read Karl Marx, I listen to what fuels their movement. And what fuels their movement is a clash, from their point of view, of civilization as we see it with the civilization that they wanted to build. What they do see, interestingly, is that Iraq is a central battle in that clash, which tells me that we’re exactly right that Iraq has to be won in that sense."
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Rice_compares_Al_Qaeda_to_Mar_0917.html
kooo-koo kooo-kooo
All Andrew Jackson's horses, and all the Boy King's men could not put Humpty Dumpty together again. His gladiatorial walk across the darkened greensward, past a St. Louis Cathedral bathed in moon glow from White House klieg lights, just seemed to intensify the sense of an isolated, out-of-touch president clinging to hollow symbols as his disastrous disaster agency continues to flail.
Posted by Casey Morris at September 17, 2005 10:45 AM
I suppose the President did actually appear before the cathedral - it looked like a painting or blown up photo wall, to me. The blue lighting on the cathedral was very artificial, and I too think it was in extremely bad taste.
I thought of Wag the Dog.
The only thing that looked real was the wind rustling the plants in the background.
I took one peek to see what the flavor might be. The artificial blue lighting, Bush's posture and body language, and his phoney smile told me all I wanted to know. I didn't listen to a word and turned it off right away.
Same ol same ol.
That was a great post, Casey. Thank you.
Ok i sent it Truth
TY for the info
God David Brooks really pisses me off.
I sent him another email-why do I? I don't know but I just can't stand when folks who appear to have a brain refuse to use it. His consistent focus on words and blindness to deeds just irks the heck out of me.
sigh.
Like his father before him, Mr. Bush has squandered the huge store of political capital he won in a war. His Thursday-night invocation of "armies of compassion" will prove as worthless as the "thousand points of light" that the first President Bush bestowed upon the poor from on high in New Orleans (at the Superdome, during the 1988 G.O.P. convention). It will be up to other Republicans in Washington to cut through the empty words and image-mongering to demand effective action from Mr. Bush on the Gulf Coast and in Iraq, if only because their own political lives are at stake. It's up to Democrats, though they show scant signs of realizing it, to step into the vacuum and propose an alternative to a fiscally disastrous conservatism that prizes pork over compassion. If the era of Great Society big government is over, the era of big government for special interests is proving a fiasco. Especially when it's presided over by a self-styled C.E.O. with a consistent three-decade record of running private and public enterprises alike into a ditch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/opinion/18rich.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at September 17, 2005 08:50 PM
When I saw the staged picture, it reminded me of Cinderella's castle at Disney World or something--very inappropriate!
But, I did not watch the event live, instead, I read the transcripts and listened on the web. What disturbed me is the way he threw out numbers...this is what we've got:
500 here
x amount of dollars there
call 1-888-ima-fool if you need help
in the meantime the pictures from the week will NEVER leave my mind and I certainly hope they never leave anyones mind.
This type of irresponsiblity to the poor, the blacks, and minorities is absolutely inexcusable and fantasyland backdrops and numbers make no difference.
And what is particularly damning is the cronyism after the hurricane! Wathcing Bush line his already questionable businesses pockets with more money--while lowering the wages of the poor!
Posted by: oncall at September 18, 2005 08:44 AM
Oncall,
I remember reading an article, probably in 2000's election, about how Bush was going to run the government more effectively using his approach as a CEO style president.
I'd say that approach has failed.
Although, if someone else with more skills, more integrity, and more compassion could use a CEO approach and make it work effectively, I do not know.
But as you said (and the NYT's said), this man had 3 decades worth of running businesses to the ground and getting money and help based on his daddy's name and income...
Looks like the neocons found the perfect boy king to make billions upon the backs of the poor.
What is PROFOUNDLY SCAREY to me, is, this man doesn't appear to be shaken or broken after seeing the death and destruction his policy makers have inflicted upon the people of the land.
Wouldn't ya think that just SOME of these really religious folks and even upper crust neocons who are not hard core neocons would notice the callous ne'r to care attitude and want change in leadership?