Sorta Like a Surgeon General's Warning
Do people who could have evacuated New Orleans ahead of Katrina but didn't deserve less sympathy and help than those who wanted or tried to, but were unable?
They both wound up on the same rooftops and in the same attics. Maybe.
We're too shortsighted a species. Or, to put it another way, we're just another dumb animal, pawing obliviously around the Earth.
If Nothing Else
If nothing else, Katrina makes the argument for biometric identification for all American citizens to be a compelling national interest. A lot of fraud is going on right now with these refugees, but far more is yet to come. The government ought to make fingerprints and photo ID cards a standard issue for all people seeking help in rebuilding in New Orleans and all across the Gulf Coast.
And, needless to say, with so many dead and possibly unidentifiable, a national standard for identifying our citizens is a must.
Pin the Tail on the Donkey
I was somewhat surprised at the reaction last night from some refugees being interviewed by ABC News reporter Dean Reynolds in the parking lot of the Astrodome in Houston. They had just watched the President's speech from New Orleans and Reynolds, at the bidding of Ted Koppel, was asking them what they thought.
Basically, they didn't have a problem with Bush, but with Mayor Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco.
Which makes sense. After all, it wasn't Bush who blocked the Red Cross and the Salvation Army from supplying water and food to people trapped at the Superdome, but the Democratic governor of Louisiana.
One of the women blamed Nagin for letting all of those buses just sit there getting waterlogged.
I'm pleased to hear that the people who were most affected by this disaster are equal opportunity assessers of blame. Because, if it were left solely to the Big Media Bush-bashing Machine, the American people might even forget who the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana are.
Inanities
As for the President's speech from New Orleans, what's with this inane, movie review-quality bullshit they're indulging themselves in on MSNBC and elsewhere? They're griping about the "irony" of Bush speaking from Jackson Square ---an area that was largely undamaged by Katrina? So what?! Would they think it more authentic if the man were doing his spiel in the middle of Dupre Street, wearing waders and pushing away garbage floating towards him with a stick? Grow up, you goddamned ninnies!
Oh, but they do like this "new language of contrition" and pain-feeling, once again proving the point that Oprah Winfrey is the most influential person in America.
If I am not for myself, Who will be for me? If I am only for myself, What am I? And If not now, When?
I'm pretty exhausted tonight, but wanted to tell you a little bit about what's going on here in Austin with regard to the refugees from New Orleans.
For the past several days, I have trained and served as a volunteer caseworker with a very old and well-respected NGO. I leave work every day at about noon and go down to the Austin Convention Center where I help people obtain the financial and medical help they need to get back on their feet.
I have helped good and grateful people who were raised properly and I have helped weak and ungrateful people who can't look me in the eye as they lie about their situations for the sake of scoring some easy money. I have helped people of many different colors and accents and states of mind. I am interested in their stories and I show them the respect that their dignity requires. It has been a good deed.
I'm telling you all of this because I am usually a very selfish and abstract-minded man who doesn't make the effort he should to help others ---and without passing judgement in the instant where it matters. And I'm saying that Katrina is an unimaginable enormity that has brought out the very best and the very worst in people from all walks of life. This is an historic event that demands that everyone contribute in some way.
I don't know of any other society on Earth that acts for the benefit of common people like ours does. Our Federal government is a mammoth caretaker ---and we take that for granted. But there is another principle at work here, too, and it's called the civil society. That's what exists beyond the reach of government and what inhabits the moral lives of those who choose to demonstrate the Golden Rule and Enlightened Self-Interest. Americans possess a moral certainty that is independent of religious dogma and ideology, even if it is often derived from them. The whole world may be grateful for that.
I have chosen to contribute to the efforts to help the survivors of Katrina because I would want the same help given to me in my own hour of need. I am also working for the civil society because I extol its virtues and want to associate myself with it, ultimately.
The karmic wheel rolls on ---and even over those who do not occupy themselves in contemplating it.
The Long Shadow of Huey Long's Paternalism Now Playing: "Every Man a King" by the Kingfish
Have a look at this review in The Daily Howler of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's ridiculous performance in her interview with FOX News' Chris Wallace yesterday. The problem, it appears, is that Landrieu is toeing the party line:
I am not going to level criticism at local and state officials. Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out of the city in front of a hurricane. And it's because this administration and administrations before them do not understand the difficulties that mayors, whether they are in Orlando, Miami, or New Orleans, face.
One of the most important ---if undiscussed--- developments in this whole story is the reversal of polarity between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of Federalism, now in the 21st Century. Today's Democrats can't seem to decide when states' rights are in effect and when they are not. If Bush had gone into Louisiana and Federalized that state's Guard over the governor's objections, all we would have now are stories of Bush the Dictator. But Bush simply pleaded with the governor to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans because that is a reasonable step in a system like ours where the local and state governments are expected to exercise authority. There were the usual systems in place to act to help, but bureaucratic blunders that began at the local level stopped those processes dead in their tracks. And that includes not moving hundreds of city buses into immediate service as detailed in the plans that the City of New Orleans has had on hand for years! If you can't admit that, well, then, you must be Mary Landrieu (emphases mine):
WALLACE: But Senator, there were hundreds of buses sitting in that parking lot. Can I just ask the question?
LANDRIEU: You can, but let me finish, if I could, please.
WALLACE: Well, look in the picture here. There were hundreds of buses in parking lots. The city and the state—
LANDRIEU: That is underwater. Those—
WALLACE: It wasn't underwater before the—
LANDRIEU: Those buses were underwater. Those buses—
WALLACE: They weren't underwater on Saturday. They weren't underwater on Sunday.
LANDRIEU: We had two catastrophes. We had a hurricane and then we had a levee break. When the levee broke, not only did New Orleans go underwater, but St. Bernard when underwater and St. Tammany Parish went underwater.
WALLACE: But they weren't underwater on Sunday.
LANDRIEU: And Plaquemines went underwater. And because the mayor evacuated the city, we had the best evacuation between Haley Barbour and Kathleen Blanco of any evacuation I've seen. I'm 50 years old; I've never seen one any better.
WALLACE: But there were a hundred thousand people left in the city.
LANDRIEU: They did a hundred thousand people left in the city because this federal government won't support cities to evacuate people, whether it's from earthquakes, tornadoes, or hurricanes. And that's the truth. And that will come out in the hearing.
What? That's not just grammatical gibberish, either. The Federal government has to tell the mayor of New Orleans to gas up his own fleet of fucking buses and put them on the streets to transport as many people as possible out of the flood-prone areas of the city? That's silly. Ray Nagin should have done that on his own.
I don't know what happened, but Landrieu is full of crap. And I don't even care that she's very cute. She's just wrong about this.
My Favorite News Story Today Mood: a-ok
You have to like this:
SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar has agreed to erect a new symbol of unity -- a statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, worshipped by Muslims, Serbs and Croats.
A group of enthusiasts came up with the idea of honouring the childhood hero of the city's ethnic groups in 2003, on the 30th anniversary of his death. They launched the project, found donors and waited a year for the city's approval.
"We plan to erect the statue in November in the centre of the city," Veselin Gatalo, a member of the Urban Movement organisation, told Reuters by telephone on Monday.
"This will be a monument to universal justice that Mostar needs more than any other city I know."
Offensive Shit
When I first heard about the proposed memorial to the heroes of Flight 93 at Shanksville, Pennsylvania yesterday, I thought it was a joke. But it isn't. Somehow, the stupid bastards organizing this thing want to make the memorial a sick homage to the crescent symbol of Islam.
"Crescent of Embrace" will feature a Tower of Voices, containing 40 wind chimes -- one for each passenger and crew member who died -- and two stands of red maple trees that will line a walkway caressing the natural bowl shape of the land. Forty separate groves of red and sugar maples will be planted behind the crescent, and a black slate wall will mark the edge of the crash site, where the remains of those who died now rest.
This reminds me of Bill Hicks' observation that, if John F. Kennedy returned to Earth in the manner of Jesus of Nazareth returning to a world of Christians wearing and worshipping crucifixes, how little he would wish to see people wearing miniature Mannlicher-Carcano rifles around their necks.
I certainly hope there is enough outrage expressed to scuttle this disgusting and ill-conceived memorial to people who were victims of the barbarity of Islam.
Think I'm overstating things? Read what one of the artiste-architects has to say about it:
"A crescent is part of architectural vocabulary. It's a generic form used in design," said Paul Murdoch, one of the winning architects. "We don't see any one group having ownership of it."
"Crescent of Embrace" features an arc of maple trees that will turn red each fall.
Murdoch believes it's unfortunate that the design is being interpreted that way.
"You can call it all kinds of things. We can call it an arc. We can call it a circle. We can call it the edge of the bowl. The label doesn't matter to us in terms of intent.
"We have no objection to calling it something else."
Murdoch did say they have no intentions of changing the design.
The design is offensive. Fuck it. It isn't going to happen.
Concentrated Nonsense
Have a look at this over at Captain Ed's place: Fox News Channel's Major Garrett tells Hugh Hewitt that Louisiana's state department of homeland security would not allow the Red Cross or the Salvation Army into New Orleans to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
I was very specific with the American Red Cross, president and CEO Marty Evans, and said wait. Tell me clearly. Were you prepared to go in before the levees broke? Before water became an issue of any kind? She said absolutely. Were you denied access before the levees broke? She said we were denied access from minute one.
Okay, so we know that help was there and ready to move in, but that the people running the show in New Orleans didn't want to make the Superdome into a place where services would be provided, but as an evacuation hub. Well, what the fuck? If Nagin and the other morons weren't going to respond to the facts on the ground and recognize that people were not coming prepared to the Superdome, then what's the idea of blocking these world-renowned American NGOs from coming in to help? It's ridiculous.
Captain Ed sums it up:
The suffering and deprivations that caused the revulsion of the nation did not result from a lack of response from FEMA. While FEMA may have struck a few discordant notes, especially its tone-deaf chief Michael Brown, the truth is that they prestaged most of the necessary materials for the relief of New Orleans, counting on the city to follow its own emergency operations plans. When that failed, the key NGOs FEMA uses tried on several occasions to get the aid to the victims, only to have all their efforts blocked by Louisiana. The city failed to provide transportation to those who lacked it for the mandatory evacuation, and the state refused to allow the aid workers to go to the centers where the state and city urged the victims to congregate.
People want to bitch about governmental incompetence? Let them start with the dumbasses in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Getting Away with It...For Now Now Playing: "Get Back" by the Beatles
In tomorrow'sWashington Post:
A federal judge yesterday ordered former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger to pay a $50,000 fine and give up his security clearance for three years as the penalty for smuggling classified terrorism documents out of the National Archives in 2003.
The sentence was much more severe than the $10,000 fine that Justice Department prosecutors and Berger's attorneys had jointly proposed after Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. But Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson said the punishment, which also included two years of probation and 100 hours of community service, would more "sufficiently reflect the seriousness of the offense."
Berger wasn't "severely" punished with this little wrist-slap.
No, his punishment is yet to come.
It is the judgement of History, which he tried to rewrite, that will punish him to the fullest extent.
Then Firebomb It
The Zarqawiites have taken over in Qaim, an Iraqi shithole near the Syrian border.
BAGHDAD, Sept. 5 -- Fighters loyal to militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi asserted control over the key Iraqi border town of Qaim on Monday, killing U.S. collaborators and enforcing strict Islamic law, according to tribal members, officials, residents and others in the town and nearby villages.
Residents said the foreign-led fighters controlled by Zarqawi, a Jordanian, apparently had been exerting authority in the town, within two miles of the Syrian border, since at least the start of the weekend. A sign posted at an entrance to the town declared, "Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Qaim."
You know, with that many psychopaths concentrated in one place like that, it would make a beautiful target for our boys.
Witnesses in Qaim said Zarqawi's fighters were killing officials and civilians who they consider to be allied with the Iraqi and U.S. governments or anti-Islamic. On Sunday, the bullet-riddled body of a young woman dressed in her nightclothes lay in a street of Qaim. A sign left on her corpse declared, "A prostitute who was punished."
Yeah. They need to evacuate the friendlies and then vaporize that fucking toilet.
Tribalism
Via Professor Reynolds, have a look at Bill Whittle's extremely interesting post about which "tribes" the American people belong to in this age of societal stress and structural fatigue. Whittle writes:
Only a few minutes ago, I had the delightful opportunity to read the comment of a fellow who said he wished that white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself could have been herded into the Superdome Concentration Camp to see how much we like it. Absent, of course, was the fundamental truth of what he plainly does not have the eyes or the imagination to see, namely, that if the Superdome had been filled with white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself, it would not have been a refinery of horror, but rather a citadel of hope and order and restraint and compassion.
It's a great post. Check it out. But only if you aren't a dumbass.
Losing the Two-Front War
I'm disappointed that Antonin Scalia isn't going to get his chance to be Chief Justice of the United States. I can't imagine that he isn't very angry right about now.
But this tells you one thing about how weak the Bush Administration sees its current leverage on Capitol Hill: they don't think they've got enough mojo to fight on two fronts for the Supreme Court.
Getting John Roberts confirmed is in the bag. That's no fight at all. But getting Scalia into the Chief Justiceship at about the same time that they're trying to get an unambiguous conservative onto the bench is more than the Bush people are willing to do.
They're wounded right now and this is how you know they know it, too.
You'll Need to Remember This, Too, Okay?
This has been making the rounds, so I thought I would mention it, too.
Late Sunday morning, 28 August 2005, the Associated Press reported on a press conference given by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco in which Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation of the city.
The day before, Interstate 10 had been converted into a one-way northbound escape route for the entire city, but it was already a parking lot when the mayor and governor went before the cameras. My emphases:
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
"There doesn't seem to be any relief in sight," Blanco said.
Judging from that, I don't think President Bush shirked his duties in the precuationary stages. But he surely deserves to be criticized for his later inaction. I'm convinced of that already.
"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," Nagin said.
The storm surge most likely could topple the city's levee system, which protect it from surrounding waters of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and marshes, the mayor said. The bowl-shaped city must pump water out during normal times, and the hurricane threatened pump power.
Previous hurricanes evacuations in New Orleans were always voluntary, because so many people don't have the means of getting out. Some are too poor and there is always a French Quarter full of tourists who get caught.
"This is a once in a lifetime event," the mayor said. "The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly," the mayor said.
He told those who had to move to the Superdome to come with enough food for several days and with blankets. He said it will be a very uncomfortable place and encouraged everybody who could to get out.
Sounds like Nagin was right on about a number of things, but still didn't seem to make much of an effort to move people from the southeastern areas of the city northward on the buses available. Even if all they could do was dump people off in higher elevations, they should have at least made some effort.
And now I hear that there may be thousands of dead in the outlying areas of New Orleans. Is that even possible? Jesus.
a-ok
celebratory
sad