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Katrina Failures Documented
The AP does a nice job in this piece of documenting the numerous broken promises made by President Bush in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
How has the government performed in the most critical areas of the recovery and reconstruction effort?
EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE: A June report by the Government Accountability Office concluded that FEMA wasted between $600 million and $1.4 billion on "improper and potentially fraudulent individual assistance payments."
Government auditors found that debit cards distributed to Katrina victims were used to pay for things like Dom Perignon champagne, New Orleans Saints season tickets and adult-oriented entertainment. The audit also found that people used fictional addresses, fake Social Security numbers and the identities of dead people to fraudulently register for assistance. FEMA also double-deposited funds in the accounts of 5,000 out of the nearly 11,000 debit card holders.
CLEANUP: The job still isn't done. More than 100 million cubic yards of debris have been cleared from the region affected by Katrina. So far the government has spent $3.6 billion, a figure that might have been considerably smaller had the contracts for debris removal been subject to competitive bidding.
Working through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA gave each of four companies contracts worth up to $500 million to clear hurricane debris. This spring government inspectors reported that the companies — AshBritt Inc. of Pompano Beach, Fla., Phillips and Jordan Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn., Ceres Environmental Services Inc. of Brooklyn Park, Minn. and ECC Operating Services Inc. of Burlingame, Calif. — charged the government as much as four to six times what they paid their subcontractors who actually did the work.
I wonder if the companies that got the contract gave any campaign contributions to anyone?
Fair use prohibits me from printing more of the article, and believe me, there's more, including housing, rebuilding, levees, and poverty.
Suffice it to say, the list of broken promises gets longer every day.
Suffice it to say, the list of broken promises gets longer every day.
Posted by Casey Morris at August 21, 2006 09:26 AM
... and suffice it to say, that unless America stops being a battered wife and actually stands up to the lying sack-o-dung, the list will just continue to grow.
p.s. The Effer won't respect you in the morning, either.
Deep In My Voodoo
Eminence Front
by The Who
The sun shines
And people forget
The spray flies as the speedboat glides
And people forget
Forget they're hiding
The girls smile
And people forget
The snow packs as the skier tracks
And people forget
Forget they're hiding.
Behind an eminence front
Eminence front - It's a put on.
Come on join the party
Dress to kill
Won't you come and join the party
Dress to kill.
The drinks flow
People forget
That big wheel spins, the hair thins
People forget
Forget they're hiding
The news slows
People forget
The shares crash, hopes are dashed
People forget
Forget they're hiding.
Behind an eminence front
Eminence front - it's a put on
Come on join the party
Dress to
Come on join the party
Dress to
Come on join the party
Dress to
Come on join the party
Dress to kill
Dress yourself, dressed to kill.
Views of N.O., one year later...
THE LOST YEAR
Behind the failure to rebuild.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060821fa_fact2
N.O. better blues
Watching Spike Lee's four-hour epic on Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans Arena with my neighbors, I felt awed, exhausted and heartbroken -- and more convinced than ever that somebody should go to jail for what happened here.
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2006/08/20/levees/index_np.html
***
Speaking of N.O... monkey, what's the news from Indy???
Posted by: madame defarge at August 21, 2006 09:42 AM
Just talked to the good Reverend on Friday... he is working a major waterfront project while going toe-to-toe with local politicos to keep Nawlins Nawlins. Shocking, I know.
He sends greetings and salutations, or something about salivating... I dunno, the connection got bad, sue me. ;-)
Hey Indy- we send love and hope your way!
Can't Miss Television
Lots of folks were outraged by the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, but director Spike Lee was among the most vocal. So he set out to do what he does best, which is put the event to film. In a new documentary entitled, “When The Levees Broke,” Lee takes a look at what transpired before, during and after the hurricane hit. He and his crew made eight trips to New Orleans, interviewed almost 100 people and shot hours upon hours of footage. The resulting work is structured in four acts, each dealing with a different aspect of the tragedy. This is Lee’s third feature-length doc for HBO, but certainly the most ambitious given the scale of Katrina. (HBO, Monday, 9 p.m. for Acts I and II; Tuesday, 9 p.m. for Acts III and IV).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4029598/
Bush is having a press conference.
No wonder.
Jason Leopold and Marc Ash |
Indictment Still Sealed, Fitzgerald Still Busy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082106Z.shtml
An indictment first reported by Truthout said to be connected to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's Plame investigation remains sealed, and Fitzgerald continues to work on the leak case.
P-I TV Critic reviews Spike Lee Katrina special
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/281818_tv21.html
Iraq challenges
Turning to Iraq, Bush said that if the government there fails, it could turn Iraq into a “safe haven for terrorists and extremists” and give them revenues from oil sales.
“I hear a lot of talk about civil war. I’m concerned about that, of course, and I’ve talked to a lot of people about it. And what I’ve found from my talks are that the Iraqis want a unified country. And that the Iraqi leadership is determined to thwart the efforts of the extremists and the radicals,” Bush said.
Bush also conceded that the situation in Iraq had become a lively issue in the midterm congressional elections.
“There are a lot of good decent people saying ‘get out now. Vote for me, I’ll do everything I can to cut off money...’ It’s a big mistake. It would be wrong, in my judgment, to leave before the mission is completed in Iraq.”
“Sometimes I’m frustrated. Rarely surprised. Wars are not a time of joy,” Bush added. “These are challenging times, and difficult times.”
He said the war was “straining the psyche of our country.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14450808/
Posted by: monkey at August 21, 2006 10:24 AM
He was asked about the Big Easy and said "The money has been appropriated and spread out now its up to the local government to fix it." Yadda yadda yadda. Please this man is an idiot.
Oh by the way its okay that Democrats disagree with him it doesnt make us un-american, evidently he needs to tell Rove and Cheney this cause they did not get the memo. Evidently the American people are pretty fed up with people being called un-American because they disgree with the Administration and this was playing badly so he needed to get out there and say 9 thousand times its okay that people disagree, but by the way its cause they do not understand the world in which we live. (loved that last bit)
Now I tuned out cause I get ill if I have to listen to his contortions to long.
Posted by: monkey at August 21, 2006 09:55 AM
He sounds tired in the e-mail he sent, but the drawings of what they are trying to do are beautiful.
He is fighting the good fight, but thats our Indy :)
And he hasn't even had that beer yet on Trent Lott's porch :)
Posted by: Ron Chusid at August 21, 2006 11:12 AM
I would love to be mouse in the corner if Indy gets to talk to that man no holds barred :) He better take a tape recorder lol.
Old Trent wouldnt let Indy within a 50 mile radious lol.
The Idiot in Cheif is finally done talking now they are trying to decide what he meant by what he said lol.
I didn't listen to Bush. I'm too busy trying to decide if Stones tickets are worth it. They charge at least a dollar for every year of how old they are, I think! At least they're doing something constructive, which is more than can be said for fat, balding white guys their age in government (US & UK).
Finished watching V is for Vendetta. Britain is a police state following a terror attack, and US is fighting a civil war. It seemed less far-fetched than it would have used to.
Posted by: DiAnne at August 21, 2006 11:26 AM
If you listen at the begining it says the US's war has spread around the globe and other countries want nothing to do with us, or our government.
I really liked that Movie.
John Kerry Responds to Bush Comment on ‘America’s strained psyche’
Below is a statement from Senator John Kerry responding to President Bush’s press conference today:
“President Bush is profoundly wrong about Iraq, and profoundly wrong about the American people. Today President Bush said America’s “psyche” has been “strained” by “challenging times.” Americans are a strong people. The American psyche isn’t the problem. The problem is this Administration’s disastrous Iraq policy.
Our military has been strained by the Rumsfeld policy of going to war with too few troops, sending troops into battle with inadequate body armor, and overextending the National Guard. Faith in this Administration has been strained by exaggerations and miscalculations from the promise of “mission accomplished” to Vice President Cheney’s declaration of an insurgency “in its last throes.” Patience is strained because almost five years later, Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose, and gone is the promise of ‘wanted dead or alive.’ The Administration’s credibility is strained because the President’s mantra that “U.S. troops will stand down as Iraqis stand up” is another misleading myth, and “stay the course” is a recipe for disaster when the course is broken. Budgets are strained by record deficits, while critical needs, from homeland security to Katrina rebuilding go unaddressed while each week we spend two billion dollars in Iraq.
This Administration’s Iraq policy has been an unmitigated disaster and has set us back in the War on Terror. Iran is profiting because the United States is bogged down in Iraq. Our troops are stuck in a civil war. The violence is worse than ever. 100 Iraqi civilians are being killed every day in a brutal civil war that Administration still denies, and it’s getting worse every month. Over 9,000 Iraqis have died in the last three months alone. Since the bombing in Samarra, 182,000 Iraqis have fled their homes due to sectarian violence and intimidation. IED attacks against American troops have nearly doubled since January.
We must change course in Iraq. We need to set a date to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq, force the Administration to finally do the diplomacy necessary to find the political solution our generals say is needed, move American troops to an over the horizon position, and refocus the United States on waging and winning an effective War on Terror.”
---I think Bush has a "strange psyche" (my comment)
mornin',
good to hear about indy. Today I am working on Camp Democracy, Y'all better come on up! September 9-11, lots of music and workshops and a Gandhi day on the 11th. This is a chance to see and be seen, get some training, network with a huge array of peace and social justice groups, express your feelings (!), and speak up and out!
It's all about democracy, so join up!
Posted by: DiAnne at August 21, 2006 11:41 AM
Great statement from Kerry thanks Dianne :)
April
I like this:
The American psyche isn’t the problem.
Posted by: DiAnne at August 21, 2006 11:48 AM
Amen!
The Physcos running this country are the real problem, Americans are waking up and they do not know how to deal with it.
Iran Denies Inspectors Access to Site
By GEORGE JAHN
The Associated Press
Monday, August 21, 2006; 10:49 AM
VIENNA, Austria -- Iran has turned away U.N. inspectors wanting to examine its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty, diplomats and U.N. officials said Monday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/21/AR2006082100143.html
Oh yeah the war in Iraq has made us sooooo much safer ughhh.
If only The Stones would give an AARP discount!!
SWEET NEO CON
(M. Jagger/K. Richards)
You call yourself a Christian
I think that you're a hypocrite
You say you are a patriot
I think that you're a crock of shit
And listen now, the gasoline
I drink it every day
But it's getting very pricey
And who is going to pay
How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con.... Yeah
It's liberty for all
'Cause democracy's our style
Unless you are against us
Then it's prison without trial
But one thing that is certain
Life is good at Haliburton
If you're really so astute
You should invest at Brown & Root.... Yeah
How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con
If you turn out right
I'll eat my hat tonight
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah....
It's getting very scary
Yes, I'm frightened out of my wits
There's bombers in my bedroom
Yeah and it's giving me the shits
We must have lots more bases
To protect us from our foes
Who needs these foolish friendships
We're going it alone
How come you're so wrong
My sweet neo con
Where's the money gone
In the Pentagon
Yeah ha ha ha
Yeah, well, well
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...
Neo con
Good morning everyone. (Ok...well it's 11:46 so that still counts as morning.) Nice to hear what Indy is doing; I know he's making a huge difference in NOLA and the people there are lucky to have him. (April, nice to see you posting again.)
Since the topic is NOLA, I wanted to remind people of this article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/21/national/main1527868.shtml
There was also the article that spoke of the Religious church leaders quiting in disgust.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/13/katrina.church.leaders.ap/index.html
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7936.html
Posted by: April at August 21, 2006 11:50 AM
And leaking a spy's name and her 'business' when they were working on Iran Nuclear Proliferation information was a grand plan too.
Posted by: DiAnne at August 21, 2006 11:53 AM
Wow talk about hitting the nail on the head!
I finally got a good copy of a pic of Aline. Good but still old. Look what I did to it for 16 hours.
HEHE.
http://fayealineself.blogspot.com/2006/08/alines-pic-after-16-hours-in-paint.html
Posted by: Christy at August 21, 2006 12:12 PM
Beautiful Pic and Girl
Thank You April.
And if you would ever like one for your daughter, just send it through in jpeg and I will be happy too.
I am thinking of having this one put on canvas or woven into a tapestry. It is not that expensive. Virtually no one has any pictures left of her.
The good ones were all in the original police file. They are still missing.
Christy
Yes, we have almost decided to get a group together and see the old guys, in our old age. Ticketmaster sales open in 29 minutes.
Posted by: Christy at August 21, 2006 12:30 PM
Thats terrible about the pictures but your beautiful one will keep her spirit alive. One of the greatest gifts we recieved after losing Angie were the pics that came from all over of her from her friends and our family. My biggest fear is somthing will happen to them.
Thank you for the lovely offer to paint her.
Pakistan blames West for terrorism
-snip-
Writing this weekend in the News, Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, recalls that Zia, who toppled her father's regime in a coup in the 1970s, played a key role in assisting the US and the Mujahadeen to defeat the Soviet-backed Afghan government.
'This alliance not only brought modern weapons and technology to the Mujahadeen but converted my homeland from a peaceful nation into a violent society of Kalashnikov weapons, heroin addiction and a radicalised interpretation of Islam,' she stated. Thus, she suggests, were the seeds of the current harvest sown. Her views have found many echoes in Pakistan this week, both in the marketplaces and in the offices of think-tanks, politicians and commentators.
'You have created a monster and now you don't know what to do with it,' said Senator Asfundyar Wali, the Awami National Party senator who was jailed at the age of 14 for his political beliefs and has been arrested many times since. 'The war against the Soviet Union turned refugees into jihadis.'
Throughout that war, the CIA channelled an estimated $3bn (£1.6bn) into the hands of the Afghan resistance groups and their foreign fellow-fighters, many of whom still inhabit the region around the border with Afghanistan in the north-west of Pakistan - an estimated 25,000 of whom, the 'Afghan Arabs', arrived from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and more than a dozen other nations. If the creation of a radicalised and militarised reservoir of fundamentalists is blamed on the buckling of Pakistan to US pressure in the 1980s, there is also a growing scepticism about the current alleged plot and its timing here.
'These plots are essential for Bush to keep up the fear of terrorism, so that the American public is constantly fearful,' said Dr Shireen Mazari, director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. On the issue of al-Qaeda's alleged involvement, Dr Mazari said: 'I think it's becoming a brand name that attracts disparate groups.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1854229,00.html
DiAnne, people keep reassuring me that I am not old yet..But, it really isn't the years, its' the milage that does you in.
April, as with this pic, I can enhance even an old photo. I can also remove objects and people, change colors and take out or put in background. I can repair damage too in this digital form.
Just something for you to think about love. If so let me know.
Monkey
Benazar Bhutto is right!
Christy
Got 4 tickets for the Stones.
This is from Bert in Mpls (I think he took some liberties for the first one):
Time to break out Edwin Starr:
I said Iraq war
Good God, y'all
What did you do it for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again
and Pearl Jam:
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
Thank you Oncall, Suz, Defarge and others here for your generous efforts last Sept.to help local Katrina victims. It shows what Progressives are made of and what our values truly are.
"Most Americans (54 percent) don't consider him Bush honest, most (54 percent) don't think he shares their values and most (58 percent) say he does not inspire confidence.."
NonnyO
I know he sealed stuff right away when he got into office. Then he has extended it. This material is from Wikipedia & Answers.com. Am refreshing my memory.
In 1974, the Congress of the United States passed legislation placing the presidential records of Richard Nixon in federal custody to prevent their destruction. The law's intent was to discourage, if not prevent, the abuse of power by the veil of secrecy. The legislative action was also intended as a means to promote a reduction of secrecy, while allowing historians to perform their responsibilities. Just two years earlier, in 1972, decades of official and unofficial Federal Bureau of Investigation records had been destroyed, upon the death of J. Edgar Hoover, by his longtime secretary. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 expanded such protection of historical records, by mandating that the records of former presidents would automatically become the property of the federal government upon his leaving the Oval Office, and then transferred to the Archivist of the United States, thereafter to be made available to the public after no more than twelve years.
Critical response
The Society of American Archivists was among many groups, including librarians, who took umbrage at George W. Bush's exercise of executive power by issuing EO 13233, stating the action "violates both the spirit and letter of existing U.S. law on access to presidential papers as clearly laid down in 44 U.S.C. 2201-2207," noting that the order "potentially threatens to undermine one of the very foundations of our nation."
How bout this one?
Executive Order 13303 was issued on May 22, 2003 by United States President George W. Bush to protect the Development Fund for Iraq for the rebuilding of Iraq from any legal attachments or liens. Further, it protects Iraqi oil products and interests and ownership by US persons (defined to include US corporations) from attachment as well. Executive Order 13303 also terminates sanctions specified in EO 12722, EO 12724, EO 13290, as it applies to the development fund. In effect, EO 13303 provides an extraordinarily broad legal shield for any and all contractors and mercenaries working in Iraq on behalf of US corporations in any oil related enterprise.