A Long Way From Home

Kerry on Katrina Anniversary: One Year Later, Miles to Go

“For the people of the Gulf Coast who survived Hurricane Katrina, this is more than a “one year anniversary.” It’s a hole they’re still trying to dig themselves out of with too little help from the federal government. The housing needs of evacuees are still unmet. New Orleans’ infrastructure is still in disarray and trash litters the streets. Businesses in the Gulf Coast are hanging on by a thread. We knew one year ago that government’s response to Katrina failed the Gulf Coast. We know today, that one year later, too little has changed.

“Talk about Washington’s slow response isn’t enough. We have been fighting for assistance to spur the Gulf Coast’s economy and get help to those in need. But too many in Washington have stood in the way. We’ve been fighting to make Hurricane Katrina an accountability moment that pulled back the curtain, and for the first time, showed many Americans the true face of poverty. But too many in Washington forgot that reality once the cameras went away and the focus drifted.

“We’ve got the money and the brains and the heart in our country to get the Gulf Coast back on its feet. We just haven’t had the leadership in our nation’s capitol. No more photo ops and empty promises. No more excuses for blocking real solutions. It’s long past time for action.”

Behind the facade: a City left to Rot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,,1860226,00.html

Very interesting piece by Julian Borger, who covers the U.S. for the Guardian, writing from New Orleans

Go here, read that:
http://recordingkatrina.blogspot.com/

In fact, read *all* of that -- especially the evocative series called "SUBMERGED: An Evacuee's Journal", which has been republished in a wide variety of alternative and traditional media sources to date.

This is an awesome blog, and it'll give you lots to think about -- and even more to get your knickers in a righteous twist over.

So be sure and carry those knickers with you to the polls this coming November.

P.S. -- did I happen to mention that Bush is a doink lately?

If not, please let me correct that lapse right now.

Because Bush really *is* a doink.

Especially lately. And especially right now.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

Here's a song for all the people affected by Katrina, as well as all those in our country & world affected by this administration's bad policies...

I Hope
by Dixie Chicks

Sunday morning, I heard the preacher say
Thou shall not kill
I don't wanna, hear nothin' else, about killin'
And that it's God's will
Cuz our children are watching us
They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
So let's learn from our history
And do it differently

CHORUS:
I hope
For more love, more joy and laughter
I hope
We'll have more than we'll ever need
I hope
We'll have more happy ever afters
I hope
We can all live more fearlessly
And we can lose all the pain and misery
I hope, I hope

Oh Rosie, her man he gets too rough
And all she can say, is he's a good man
He don't mean no harm
He was just brought up that way
But our children are watching us
They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
It's okay for us to disagree
We can work it out lovingly

For I hope
For more love, more joy and laughter
I hope
You'll have more than you'll ever need
I hope
You'll have more happy ever afters
I hope
And you can all live more fearlessly
And you can lose all your pain and misery
I hope, I hope

There must be a way to change what's going on
No, I don't have all the answers

I hope
For more love, more joy and laughter
I hope
you'll have more than you'll ever need
I hope
There'll be more happy ever afters
I hope
We can all live more fearlessly
And we can lose all the pain and misery
I hope, I hope

I hope
I hope

Don't know how familiar people are here with Donnie, who lived through Katrina, found Pamela's blog http://www.thedemocraticdaily.com/
by accident during a google search, and became a John Kerry Democratic in the process.

He has a blog: http://thekatrinacrat.blogspot.com/

ps and fyi: Donnie was a Marine and still uses plenty of salt in his language ;-), especially when describing his feelings over Bush's Katrina Folly. Donnie has been calling for a blogswarm today for Louisiana bloggers. The above post was my little bit to help him out. There are links to blogs by several other people affected by Katrina on his site..

Battening down the hatches here in SoFla for Ernesto the Pesto.

Sauced.

This is what a hero looks like...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/VIDEO_Whistleblower_uses_YouTube_to_tell_0829.html

Posted by: monkey at August 29, 2006 12:54 PM

May you and yours (and everyone else affected) get through the hurricane safe and sound....

We will all be thinking about you.

(((Hugs)))

Cited in John Dean's new book:

http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/resources_files/ConsevatismAsMotivatedSocialCognition.pdf

Jason Leopold | Robert Novak and the Perfect Stranger
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082906J.shtml
Jason Leopold reports, "Recent news reports have fingered former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage as the official who first leaked Plame's employment at the CIA to Novak on July 8, 2003. However, White House political adviser Karl Rove also spoke with Novak that day and told him that Plame was employed by the CIA, according to published reports. What's left unclear, however, by the latest media reports is who was the first administration official to tell Novak about Plame? Armitage or Rove? July 8, 2003, as it turns out, was quite a busy day for some senior White House officials."

{{{DimWit will get Lamestream Media attention with his PR tour, maybe Brownie will get a mention in tonight's snooze, but the more interesting story, IMHO, is the above one about Robert Novak. I suspect the evening snooze will be silent about it.... Probably in favor of more info on the non-story about Karr's false confession, the lack of DNA evidence to connect him to Benet's murder.... Sigh....}}}

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060829/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_brown_s_regrets

Ex-FEMA chief blames administration

WASHINGTON - Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who lost his job because of Hurricane Katrina, said Tuesday his biggest regret a year later is that he wasn't candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.

"There was no plan. ... Three years ago, we should have done catastrophic planning," Brown said, charging that the Bush administration and his department head, Michael Chertoff, "would not give me the money to do that kind of planning."

As levees broke down at Katrina's strike against New Orleans and people were forced from their homes, Brown said he sought futilely to get the 82nd Airborne Division into the city quickly.

{{{Er-r-r-r... and what, precisely, could anyone with the 82nd Airbone have done...? Bomb the place to smithereens? Also, Brownie, you can't just throw money at something and expect the thin air to DO something (that's how millions or billions in cash have disappeared in Iraq without anything actually getting done, fer pete's sake!). You've got to coordinate people and resources and have them in place so they can safely get there immediately after a disaster hits - you had at least three or four days to make phone calls to get rescue and aid people headed in that direction.... Lack of planning for a disaster you know is coming, by all reliable weather forecasting just makes you - and your ex-boss who was busy playing an air guitar and eating b'day cake - look like the doofusses you are, and we know it.... The blame game can just take you so far. Your ex-boss is to blame, sure, but so are you...!}}}

Iraqi Soldiers Refuse to Go to Baghdad, Defying Order
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082906L.shtml
A group of Iraqi soldiers recently refused to go to Baghdad, Iraq's capital, to help restore order there, a senior American military officer said Monday.

{{{I misunderstood the lead-in until I read the story... it's not US soldiers in Iraq defying orders, it's the Iraqi military....}}}

Democrats Favored to Take DeLay's House Seat
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082906P.shtml
Only four times in the past 75 years has a general election candidate for the House or the Senate been elected with write-in votes - and it has not happened since 1982.

Kerry Finally Slams Ken Blackwell
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082906N.shtml
An email sent by Senator John Kerry criticizes GOP Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for his dual role in 2004 as President Bush's honorary Ohio campaign co-chairman and the state's top election official. "He used the power of his state office to try to intimidate Ohioans and suppress the Democratic vote," said Kerry's email.

Review his 'real compassion'

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b26/bluebunting/No_compassion.jpg

Pictures don't lie.

I heard Andrei Codrescu on NPR, with current poetry r/t New Orleans, bitter poetry. Can't find a transcript but found this.

New Orleans or Baghdad? (written last year)

To Andrei Codrescu inside New Orleans, the militarism of the state’s response to disaster reinforces the city’s subversive otherness to American empire.

The Bush administration wrote off New Orleans because it's not part of America, it's merely part of the coming American empire. The president referred to us as “this part of the world.” Not “part of our country,” but part of a world that, like Iraq, has to be secured by armies, not saved through compassion.

After doing nothing in the critical days after Katrina, the government response was to send us troops. With the city empty of its inhabitants, the armies of the United States march around, guns at the ready, waiting around shops for insurgents who might dare to break in for baby-food and toilet paper.

I saw an entire platoon of soldiers in combat gear surrounding an already looted Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas Street – a Wal-Mart, incidentally, that many residents fought long and hard to keep out of the city. New Orleans prides itself for its lack of corporate uniformity, so we must be forgiven for not being particularly sanguine about uniforms, whatever their stated intentions.

There are more helicopters overhead than people in the city now. In December 2004, the Pentagon staged a military exercise using New Orleans as a model insurgent city. Jets flew overhead, warships came up the Mississippi and helicopter-gunships flew low over the French Quarter and the city's ninth ward with loudspeakers broadcasting the message: “Stay in your houses! We are friends of the Iraqi people!” Today, the ninth ward is still under water and I'm not sure America is our friend.

We have always jokingly referred to New Orleans as part of the “third world”, a foreign country in the US. We didn't know how right we were. America either loves us or hates us. Those who love us, love our music and food, a music and food that came from the depths of poverty and sorrow. The slaves sang spirituals to lift themselves up from pain and to get God's ear. New Orleans jazz was born in whorehouses, another means of alleviating pain. This music told the stories of the poor who had no way out of New Orleans except for Jesus or gin.

New Orleans had other arts brought here by Spanish and French colonists, by pirates and renegades, by writers from other geographies of pain, and by Caribbean pagans. New Orleans has the most diverse spirituality of all the quickly homogenising cities and states of the union.

Those who hate us, hate us for the same reason. New Orleans is Catholic, pagan, poor and bohemian. The music is Devil's music and we are a cesspool of sin. In white evangelical America, New Orleans is synonymous with Sodom and Gomorrah. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) website has been inviting people to donate money to Pat Robertson's “Operation Blessing”; it was the third recommended charity on the Fema list.

Only a few days ago the good reverend was calling for the assassination of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez. The administration put as much distance between it and the man-of-god who delivered most of the Christian evangelical vote to George W Bush as it could. I sure as hell (where we live now) hope that there is nothing political about this.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-climate_change_debate/other_2809.jsp

This is from my uncle

AntiWar Activist Sheehan to Badger Bush in Salt Lake
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4194181

Posted by: NonnyO at August 29, 2006 02:44 PM

The 82nd would have evacuated the city and restored law and order, when there was no infrastructure to support anybody coming in to do anything.

But there were jurisdictional issues which the NRP does nothing to clarify.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 29, 2006 09:55 PM

I heard that piece as well. He's a powerful writer/speaker of the word. He's been a regular commentator - in his very moving way - since Katrina.

This is from Indy who has been working tirelessly to rebuild and improve New Orleans. He has a unique perspective on the political processes that are slowing down the rebuilding process:

KATRINA ANNIVERSARY UPDATE:

One Year Later and Spike Lee is the only one paying attention...(Parts III and IV of "When the Levees Broke" on HBO tonight at 8 PM Central Time...check your local listings)

We are going through the excruciating planning process with the city...just as the national government is dysfunctional, so are our cast of corrupt and bigoted political characters here.

Yesterday we met with the Mayor's Director of Economic Development but Elvis himself...our Rockstar Mayor, C. Ray Nagin never showed up though he was scheduled to appear. C Ray has become a joke because the question has been often asked..."Hey...you see Ray lately?" Which no one has of course.

Today we go for our Planning Commission rezoning. From LI- Light Industrial to a C-2 Commercial District with a Residential Planned Commmunity Overlay. Simply put, it will allow us to have a mixed-use multi-family while still allowing the City Council, Planning Commission, and community groups the ability to set restrictions or provisos on our development.

Wednedsday Lord ONLY knows...anything can and is likely to happen.

Thursday, we go for our final Historic District Landmarks Commission Architectural Review Committee approval. The first three blocks reside in a historic district and though it has been historically light industrial and there are no historic buildings on the sites, we are subject to their review none the less. In a preliminiary review, however, John Klingman, Tulane Architecture Professor and Architectural Critic for New Orleans Magazine hailed it as "A great example of urban design and architectural sensativity."

Whatever.

As long as he votes "yes" on Thursday...we are so frustrated with the lack of leadership and indescision we just need to get shovels in the ground and let the world know we are rebuilding.

All of this and then we meet before the City Council on September 21, 2006 to either get shot down and rejected or accepted and we can finally move forward.

There is the rundown, and believe me, I wish things were different here, but what we really need is the FBI and the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana to come here with a task force and stop the price gouging of the contractors and the greedy, sweaty palms of the politicians and their cronies from being extended. Every time I turn around my phone rings with yet another friend of such and such wanting us to secure their services...and this is a privately funded project!!! Can you only imagine what the publically funded projects are like here? Of course you can...think Chicago 1920's and 1930's.

I have been battling with a contractor here who has been doing pricing for us...if you can call it that. The closest I can relate his "pricing" to anything is this:

Imagine you have a water baloon in one hand. Now gently close your fist until it is completely closed. Have you reduced the volume of the balloon? Of course not. You have only moved the water from one place into another as parts of the balloon expands. This is what we have been up against.

If anyone wants to help they can write the Attorney General of Louisiana and the FBI and stop ignorant little scumbags like the contractor of whom I speak from charging 40-50% higher prices than Pre-Katrina to set the example that this will be a fair and open free market for the rebuilding of New Orleans, not the same old song and dance.

Okay, there it is in a nutshell...or a mixed bag of post traumatically stressed nuts.

A Description of our project is as follows:

The goal of the project is to provide a unified master plan development upon a 13.1 acre site bounded by Brooklyn Street and the Mississippi River, from Eliza Street to Socrates Street with a signature riverfront image. The project shall consist of mixed-use, multi-family housing including structured parking for residents and retail spaces, as well as public parks and other amenities for the surrounding neighborhoods.

Residential buildings rise toward the Mississippi River Bridges to negotiate with the low-scale historic neighborhoods of Algiers Point and Riverview. Commercial space is provided along Brooklyn Street beneath wide balconies creating a more pedestrian scale. At Newton Street, a gently sloping public park rises to the height of the levee to enhance the nodal point as defined by the Riverfront Vision 2005 Plan. In addition, view corridors are maintained at all existing streets to insure the ties of the Algiers Point and Riverview neighborhoods to their East Bank views.

Within the larger commercial development between De Armas Street and Socrates Street, a new Mardi Gras World will grace the first floor leading to a Grand Ballroom and hotel with views across the river and down Canal Street.

In attempting to create a responsible development, twenty-two feet of frontage will be allotted on the river side of Brooklyn Street in order to widen Brooklyn Street from Mardi Gras Boulevard to Opelousas Avenue. It has been envisioned that one traffic lane northbound would be divided from two southbound lanes by a neutral ground and parallel parking provided on both sides of the new avenue. Doing so would expedite traffic out of the neighborhood and, possibly, create a transit lane for future light rail connecting Gretna and Federal City to the Algiers/Canal Street Ferry and Brooklyn Avenue.

The development will encompass seven city blocks and negotiations are ongoing with a local hospital and pharmacy to provide a neighborhood clinic and “corner drug store”, as well as restaurants and small scale retail. Local grocers are being approached about leasing space within the development for a large scale grocery store for not only the development but the surrounding neighborhoods.

In moving forward with this project, we will be providing a tax base for improving the redesigned educational system and creating jobs and infrastructure. This will be the first of many mixed-use, multi-family planned communities that we hope will be a model for not only the rest of New Orleans, but the Nation.

I'll keep you posted, and who knows...if this actually goes through, it may even make national news. At this point, it would be HISTORIC if ANYTHING gets done around here.

Oh...and Monkey...you know the tune...

RE-volve...as in...

You say you want a revolution...or was that happiness is a warm gun *bang bang shoot shoot*

No banana popping...you'll go blind!

But seriously...

Those who are here fighting to save this great World city are some of the finest people I have ever met and worked with.

Rebuild, Restore, Renew...New Orleans.

Something, I don't know what it is - call me crazy - about this story really tickles my fancy.

It would be so much safer for ordinary Americans if this "doctor" were to lose his license.

Frist medical license renewal questioned

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist acknowledged Tuesday that he may not have met all the requirements needed to keep his medical license active - even though he gave paperwork to Tennessee officials indicating that he had.

Theres more and it made me laugh to think of this jerk with stethoscope around his neck and a black bag in his hands while reading his journals.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060829/ap_on_el_se/frist_medical_license

Carol alerted me to the blog by Raed Jarrar in the last thread (http://www.raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com

I was so incensed I wrote the following to Jet Blue:

I am the person who helped Raed Jarrar find his flight to Oakland on August 12, 2006. I had invited him to speak to the audience for the opening of a play I co-wrote, entitled FEAR UP: Stories From Baghdad and Guantanamo. When he told me he had to fly to Oakland, I recommended Jet Blue and he agreed that he, too loved the company and flew frequently on your airline.

After the premiere, Raed spoke about the stories in the play, and shared a little bit about what it is like to be an Arab-American in the US these days.

In case, you do not know, FEAR UP is a torture technique used at Guantanamo. It is a way of getting detainees to "confess". It is a method of raising the fear in someone so that they will cooperate with you. It rarely works--it breeds hatred, not cooperation.

Raed was a victim of such torture techniques on August 12. And I, who had recommended Jet Blue to Raed and had helped him find just the right flight, am so deeply ashamed of this corporation and my own loyalty to it.

I understand that fear of Muslims or anything Arabist pervades our culture and that people who have been subject to propaganda will be afraid and may even complain or express their fears to officials. But I beseech you all to examine whether you would respond similarly with a black person or a native american, should people express fear of someone based solely on a t-shirt.

I ask whether or not you have a duty, as informed citizens, to allay people's fears rather than blaming the object of such projections.

Here is a suggestion I am sure you will not take, because our government has turned its back on any such diplomatic approaches. They are not modeling it at any rate. The next time someone complains about an airline customer's attire, try talking with the person wearing that attire. Ask him or her to explain why that attire is significant to them. After you are satisfied that you have a little understanding of the attire, try introducing people to each other. Let them talk, and listen to each other.

It is only through such processes that we can begin to repair the great damage done to each person in this country and abroad by such a fear-mongering administration.

I know Mr. Jarrar will feel compelled to bring this lesson home to you as well, through litigation. I hope that the entirety of your corporate profits are taken from you and given to a program for building understanding and creating peace. That would be justice.

Sincerely,
Karen Bradley
Jet Blue customer

Posted by: Karen at August 29, 2006 11:21 PM

Karen,

I read Raed's post. Incredible.

I encourage everybody to write a note via the link that Raed provides in his post.

http://www.raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com

Thanks oncall. On a happier note, here is a link to politicstvonline's video of today's Camp Democracy Press Conference:

http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?p=1061

worth watching in its entirety...

Posted by: Karen at August 29, 2006 11:21 PM

I don't expect much from an airline that was an eager volunteer for CAPPS II, a passenger profiling system that W enthusiastically pushed around.

Proof that just because George Soros and the Dems have control over one company doesn't automatically make it good.

I am definitely spreading the word on this. Jet Blue never had me as a customer, and now it'll stay that way.

And speaking of passenger profiling through CAPPS II...

I remember reading an article where a Northwest Airlines exec who helped develop the system said that frequent fliers of Northwest would never be profiled, while first-time customers will definitely be.

The moral of the story: you're best off sticking to airlines you fly often.

I posted a link to Raed's story on my own blog.

Posted by: oncall at August 29, 2006 11:09 PM

Frist isn't intelligent enough to qualify to work on a corpse, let alone a living being. Seriously... a "diagnosis" made on Schiavo after watching a video, never seeing her in person, testing her response to stimuli...? What good, reputable doctor who cares for her/his patients in a hands-on practice does that? In my experience, just for a simple physical doctors have always done reflex tests, checked throat, ears, etc., and to 'know' what's going on with a patient a doctor or nurse has to see and hear (in person) how a patient is doing - not watch a video tape. Frist is only smart enough to be a politician. If he had been a good doctor, he'd have stayed working in the medical profession.

Anyway, Frist has been too busy cozying up to K Street and neoCons and getting kickback money from medical and pharmaceutical corporations (and probably the military-industrial complex, too). When would he find time to keep abreast of current advances and new technology regarding the medical profession...? It would take time away from his political schmoozing and oozing....

America's wealth of poverty

New numbers from the Census Bureau show what a disaster the economic policies of the Bush administration have been for middle-class, working-class and poor Americans.

When President Bush took office, 33 million Americans, or 11.7% of the population, were counted as living below the poverty line. By last year, the ranks of the poor had swollen to 37 million and the national poverty rate was stuck at 12.6%. Here in New York City, almost one in five struggles to get by on $20,000 - or less - for a family of four.

When Bush took office, 41 million Americans were without health coverage. Today, the count of the uninsured stands at 47 million. When Bush took office, the median income for men working full time, year-round was $42,209. As of 2005, that typical salary, when adjusted for inflation, had shrunk to $41,386. Although the real median household income crept up 1.1% - the first such uptick since 1999 - the wages of full-time, year-round workers continued their southward slide, down 1.8% for men and 1.3% for women.

- more -

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/447987p-376930c.html

Update: Ernesto moves into Florida
(No, it's not another immigration story)

So far so good from Palm Beach, relatively speaking, blustery, with lots of heavy pre-sip still comin' down...

Reigny Daze & Neocons Always Get Me Down

Posted by: monkey at August 30, 2006 07:42 AM

I've decided you must be the biggest walking-talking musical and pun encyclopedia around!

Posted by: Ally McLesbian at August 30, 2006 12:34 AM

No Ally.

Sticking to one airline makes no difference. Each airport is different. The staff at security is different. (and so on and so on...)

Basically, they have forgotten that the boogieman comes in all shapes and colors. And personally, I believe it was less about what Raed was wearing and more about the fact that he looked a certain way.

Karen,

I couldn't watch the press conference. It showed nothing!

Posted by: Suz at August 30, 2006 07:49 AM

No he's just to smart for his own good :)

Hey Monkey glad to see you only gonna get mild winds (meaning under 75 miles an hour)and lotsa rain.

Hurry up and come north young man :) we dont get them there hurricanes here :) we just get a touch of the aftermath.

Well to honest once every great 15 or 20 years a nutsy storm like Hugo hits us but thats every 15 or 20 not every year.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"I take full responsibility for the federal government's response, and a year ago I made a pledge that we will learn the lessons of Katrina and that we will do what it takes to help you recover."
President Bush, New Orleans, Aug. 29, 2006

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —President George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

I got a report from Florida (Orlando area):

It's crazy here. People are being evacuated, stores are being cleaned out, emergency stuff is being activated all over, some roads are jammed, lines at gas stations...and there is NO hurricane! I didn't even bother taking down the huge covers I have up over the boats which are relatively fragile. They showed one reporter that just wasn't playing ball..he was in the Keys this afternoon and trained his camera on the Atlantic Ocean and commented that if it weren't for the rain, it would be a great day to go skiing since there we no waves at all! (G)

--Guess Jeb didn't want to get caught with his pants down like George did.

Karen
That is a great letter to Jet Blue!

Frist should never have been licensed,
Bush should never have been in public office.

Ohio officials will soon begin destroying the paper ballots from the 2004 presidential election despite objections from voter rights groups.

"Soon after the 2004 presidential election, questions emerged about how votes were tallied in Ohio, a battleground state that delivered the presidency to George W. Bush," Ian Urbina writes in a story slated for the New York Times.

"Now, following a routine procedure, state officials are preparing to destroy the paper ballots from the election," writes Urbina.

"Critics say the ballots should be preserved for more study," the article continues.

In related news, an email written by 2004 Democratic ..
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/NYT_Ohio_officials_prepare_to_destroy_0829.html

Bush & others following Rovian talking points have been throwing around the term "fascism," to attribute it to others in order to shine the light away from themselves. Got this article today and had to search for the source but here it is.

Reclaiming the Issues: Republican or Islamic Fascism
by Thom Hartmann
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0828-23.htm

The neoCons & Bu$hCo's Criminal Cabal consistently accuse others of what they're consistently guilty of.

Which means they know they're instituting fascism here in this country and trying to do so around the world. They KNOW what they are doing, the propaganda they are spewing, and if Goebbels is right, they'll succeed....

Big Brother is watching you....

I notice Gonzales is meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister to educate him about "the rule of law"

Jim Hightower blurb I heard: "Wondering what John Ashcroft has been up to lately? I'll tell you"

Laura Bush is in Bellevue (rich Republican suburb of Seattle) for breakfast this morning. Stuart Ellway (local pollster) says it's a "soft touch" - for moderates and independents - to draw them to McGavick (former Safeco CEO and Bush rubber stamper).

& I guess Cheney insulted "Dean Democrats"

Frontpage of CNN.com....

The new GOP buzzword: Fascism
POSTED: 9:29 a.m. EDT, August 30, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush in recent days has recast the global war on terror into a "war against Islamic fascism." Fascism, in fact, seems to be the new buzz word for Republicans in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in Iraq.

Bush used the term earlier this month in talking about the arrest of suspected terrorists in Britain, and spoke of "Islamic fascists" in a later speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Spokesman Tony Snow has used variations on the phrase at White House press briefings.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, in a tough re-election fight, drew parallels on Monday between World War II and the current war against "Islamic fascism," saying they both require fighting a common foe in multiple countries. It's a phrase Santorum has been using for months.

And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday took it a step further in a speech to an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City, accusing critics of the administration's Iraq and anti-terrorism policies of trying to appease "a new type of fascism." (Full story)

White House aides and outside Republican strategists said the new description is an attempt to more clearly identify the ideology that motivates many organized terrorist groups, representing a shift in emphasis from the general to the specific.

"I think it's an appropriate definition of the war that we're in," said GOP pollster Ed Goeas. "I think it's effective in that it definitively defines the enemy in a way that we can't because they're not in uniforms."

The right term?
But Muslim groups have cried foul. Bush's use of the phrase "contributes to a rising level of hostility to Islam and the American-Muslim community," complained Parvez Ahmed, chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Conservative commentators have long talked about "Islamo-fascism," and Bush's phrase was a slightly toned-down variation on that theme.

Dennis Ross, a Mideast adviser to both the first Bush and Clinton administrations and now the director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he would have chosen different words.

"The `war on terror' has always been a misnomer, because terrorism is an instrument, it's not an ideology. So I would always have preferred it to be called the `war with radical Islam,' not with Islam but with `radical Islam,"' Ross said.

Why even mention the religion? "Because that's who they are," Ross said. "Fascism had a certain definition. Whether they meet this or not, one thing is clear: They're radical. They represent a completely radical and intolerant interpretation of Islam."

While "fascism" once referred to the rigid nationalistic one-party dictatorship first instituted in Italy, it has "been used very loosely in all kinds of ways for a long time," said Wayne Fields, a specialist in presidential rhetoric at Washington University in St. Louis.

"Typically, the Bush administration finds its vocabulary someplace in the middle ground of popular culture. It seems to me that they're trying to find something that resonates, without any effort to really define what they mean," Fields said.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/30/gop.fascism.ap/index.html

Fascism? give me a break...

If the W cabal thinks they are the arbiters of democracy, they can't be more mistaken.

Again, remember - "there ought to be limits to freedom."

Raed's story is on BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297822.stm

JetBlue can only say "We're not clear exactly what happened." How convenient.

I think there abq john had a huge point the other day. He said that the Republicans are using waves of hate to get their message out. So ultimately nobody is safe from whatever policy they enact.

Blacks

Jews

Commies

peace protestors from Vietnam and those d*mn libs

Feminists

Gays

Mexicans

So who is next in their wave of hate?

Also...let's gear up and meet up in the irc chat. What about around 7pm EST? Anyone up for it?

Monkey
Fascism - various definitions

Fascism - A totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life.

(This one doesn't fit us in that this
government is too cheap to pay for alot
of social systems & infrastructure and
leave that to local & state government)

Fascism - a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism.

(This one is more philosophical and
unfortunately, a pretty good fit)

Fascism - A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

(this one is starting to fit more. We
should be protected somewhat by "term
limits" but control of all 3 branches
of government, coupled with media
control & voting machine vulnerability
make this less likely)

Fascism - dictatorship by government of a country, often involving hostile nationalistic attitudes, racism, and private economic ownership under rigid government control. A fascist regime is often militarily belligerent.

(This one appears to fit like a glove,
because it emphasizes PRIVATE economic
ownership but under government control -
they left a loophole)

These definitions would not fit terrorists as they do not have strong central control or a nation or a military. They certainly could have militaristic and belligerent aims and be intolerant and hateful, but it would be technically incorrect to call them "Islamo-fascist."

Certain regimes in coutries that are predominantly Islam for religion could fit to one extreme or other, or along certain parameters. We would have to analyze them all, from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan.

It is shocking to hear this rhetoric from Republicans. I think they really do want us to forget about the concept of fascism with respect to any and all governments, & relegate it to some mysterious and fearful "other."

How 'bout "NEOFEUDALISM?"!! (Wikipedia)
Serfs, vassals, immigrants being stiffed out of wages earned rebuilding after hurricanes etc.
Also think Walmart. Also remember, when reading, that "neoliberalism" is another word for the "neocons."

Feudalism was a form of socioeconomic organization prevalent in medieval Europe and pre-industrial Asia, whereby political and economic control was maintained by a small group of feudal lords within a decentralized state.

The vast majority of the population living in feudal Europe was legally bound to provide farming, husbandry and other agricultural services on land held by the nobility either directly or as appanage. In return, the lord OFFERED PROTECTION and some measure of localized stability.

One specific and alternative application of the term neofeudalism alleges that corporate and government policies make workers DEPENDENT ON THE CORPORATIONS, as well as making the economic power of the corporations greater than the power of national governments.

This, detractors say, leads to a situation where workers are dependent on private interests that are more powerful than government, resembling the situation that prevailed during historic feudalism. Although it should be noted that in feudal law localized prerogatives were considered government. Some critics link these processes to neoliberalism.

The argument over neofeudalism is part of the controversy over income redistribution born out of massive societal shifts during the industrial revolution. At the time the issue was wealth disparity between classes, landholders, entrepreneurs, peasants, workers, and other economic and social groups.

Neofeudalism encompasses the current debate over globalization to include entire societies, countries, regions ("North" versus "South," "Western" versus "non-Western"), and supra-national non-state actors. Unlike other geopolitical issues such as environmentalism and security, the charge of "neofeudalism" largely focuses on economics.

One of its applications to current politicians, especially by conservatives who wish to distance themselves from the policies of President George W Bush, is that it explains the support of some Republicans for both high levels of nearly uncontrolled immigration and of reduced taxation on the rich.

Such politicans are also frequently opposed to minimum wage laws, claiming they would reduce job opportunities for the poor and the young, even though their support for open borders is based on the claim that the economy is already producing too many jobs.

These policies, traditionalists say, would continue to devalue the labor of the working class while creating a wealthy elite that is permanently entrenched. They also use Bush's family history (being the son of a president and grandson of a US Senator) as proof of an aristcratic bent in President Bush.

Posted by: suz at August 30, 2006 02:51 PM

7PM ET... a bit early for me, but I'll try to make it anyway. See you then!

Posted by: DiAnne at August 30, 2006 03:11 PM

Neofeudalism - good one!

Neoliberalism isn't all that new - we Americans euphemize it as "libertarianism."

Such politicans are also frequently opposed to minimum wage laws, claiming they would reduce job opportunities for the poor and the young, even though their support for open borders is based on the claim that the economy is already producing too many jobs.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 30, 2006 03:11 PM

Bringing in immigrants, legal and illegal, to reduce job opportunities and wages for the working class - that's a classic tactic of the haves. The result, of course, is American-born working class and immigrant working class being pitted against each other.

Then the haves anoint a few of their favorite immigrant nationalities (i.e. Cubans, Koreans, maybe Chinese) as "model minority" and give them all the perks. The jealousy level goes up even further.

The immigration issue gets uglier and uglier every day. My father argues that increased immigration is good, because immigrants are hungrier and more desperate, and will work harder than "lazy" unionized American workers for less, driving up productivity. My response is that this is precisely how the haves destroy the American living standard, and pit immigrants and the working class against each other.

Immigration must be a tool to share and improve the American dream, not destroy it. The use of immigration as a tool of the haves to punish the have-nots, must end.

CNN Aired Girl Talk Over Bush's Speech
(transcript here)
http://newsbusters.org/stories/kyra_phillips_girltalk.html?q=node/7247