A Bush Cabinet officer predicted this week that New Orleans likely will never again be a majority black city, and several black officials are outraged.

Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." [more]

[Undersecretary of State Karen] Hughes's simple, sincere and unadorned language reveals the administration's inner mind. Her ideas on terrorism and its solution are straightforward. "Terrorists," she said, "their policies force young people, other people's daughters and sons, to strap on bombs and blow themselves up." That is: somehow, magically, these evil-doers coerce the young to commit suicide. If only they would understand us, the tensions would dissolve. "Many people around the world do not understand the important role that faith plays in Americans' lives," she said. When an Egyptian opposition leader inquired why Mr Bush mentions God in his speeches, Hughes asked him whether he was aware that "previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our constitution cites 'one nation under God'." "Well, never mind," he said.

With these well-meaning arguments, Hughes has provided the exact proofs for Bin Laden's claims about American motives. "It is stunning to the extent Hughes is helping bin Laden," says Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political scientist who has conducted extensive research into the motives of suicide terrorists and is the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. "If you set out to help bin Laden," he says, "you could not have done it better than Hughes." Pape's research debunks the view that suicide terrorism is the natural byproduct of Islamic fundamentalism or some "Islamo-fascist" ideological strain, independent of certain highly specific circumstances. "Of the key conditions that lead to suicide terrorism in particular, there first must be the presence of foreign combat forces on the territory that the terrorists prize. The second condition is a religious difference between the combat forces and the local community. The religious difference matters in that it enables terrorist leaders to paint foreign forces as being driven by religious goals.

"If you read Osama's speeches, they begin with descriptions of the US occupation of the Arabian peninsula driven by our religious goals and that it is our religious purpose that must be confronted. That argument is incredibly powerful, not only to religious Muslims but also secular Muslims. Everything Hughes says makes their case."

[I advocate the withering away of religion, including Islam and Christianity, through reason and scorn.]

Does anybody have a running tally, of corruption in one place?

Lets see, spys in the Pentagon, delay, frist, rove, Santorum , oh and Sen. Harry Reid The money that led to the indictment this week of two Las Vegas pastors and the wife of one of them came from federal grants arranged by Sen. Harry Reid in September 2001, a Reid spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Did I leave out any?

Also, does it strike a cord w/anyone else w/regards to Santorum's 'AccuWeather scandal' above in light of hurricanes Rita, and katrina?

During the last week, I've read a slew of posts and columns about our newly "de-swaggerfied" (shouldn't that be a word?) President. My latest blog post includes a poem which, I think, sums up Bush (and Rove's) post-Katrina angst:

Here's how it starts:

It's Another Bush Crisis
By Madeleine Begun Kane

"It's another Bush crisis,
And day after day,
Dub's stooges are spinning,
While Bush says, "let's pray."

He is not on vacation.
He's handling affairs.
We know that from photos
That show Dubya cares..."

The entire poem is here. And my podcast audio version is here.

House Rules Committee Chair Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) is to be one of the three temporary replacements for House Majority Leader Representative Tom Delay. A review of Rep. Dreier's career and voting record is therefore in order...

* Supported a ban on adoption by gay and lesbian couples in the District of Columbia.
* Supported the Defense of Marriage Act, banning same-sex marriage.
* Supported the ability of federally funded charities to discriminate against gays in employment, even where local laws prohibit such bias.
* Opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have banned discrimination against gay people in hiring.
* Opposed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

... and one more thing: he's gay.

NEW YORK - Pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison must be released despite government claims that they could damage America's image, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven they "do not need pretexts for their barbarism."

Fishback charges that while at three bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, he and his peers and subordinates witnessed abuse of detainees. He says the abuse included everything from "physical beatings of detainees, to death threats, to harsh exposure to the elements, vigorous physical exertion to the point of fainting."

Is he saying the abuse of detainees was not just a few bad apples at Abu Ghraib prison?

"Yes," says Fishback, "there was a systemic problem, and it was widespread."

In yet another horrid aspect of the 9-11 cover-up, according to The New York Sun, a laptop computer containing the personal and medical information of thousands of civil servants that assisted in the clean-up efforts in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks has been stolen, police said yesterday.

In order to "reopen Wall Street" the Bush administration censored crucial EPA and New York City Health Department warnings that the air after 9/11 was highly poisonous. As a result, Children in nearby schools have serious respiratory problems; Half of the site workers have serious respiratory problems; Half of the firefighters can no longer work, & 14 rescue dogs have died.

From the BBC:

The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk for a fourth consecutive year, according to new data released by US scientists.

They say that this month sees the lowest extent of ice cover for more than a century.

The Arctic climate varies naturally, but the researchers conclude that human-induced global warming is at least partially responsible.

They warn the shrinkage could lead to even faster melting in coming years.

...September is the month when the Arctic ice usually reaches a minimum.

The new data shows that on 19 September, the area covered by ice fell to 5.35 million sq km (2.01 million sq miles), the lowest recorded since 1978, when satellite records became available; it is now 20% less than the 1978-2000 average.

The current rate of shrinkage they calculate at 8% per decade; at this rate there may be no ice at all during the summer of 2060.

A keynote research paper showing that Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians are genetically almost identical has been pulled from a leading journal. Would ideology and belief have something to do w/ it?

ABC NEWS

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2005 — Grisly photos of war dead posted on an Internet pornography site have exposed yet another unanticipated consequence of the proliferation of personal computer technology on the battlefield.

Taking what's called "trophy photos" of war dead is a practice as old as portable cameras. But digital cameras and Internet connections have made it possible for troops to blast such images around the world with the click of a mouse.

One controversial Web site shows photos of bloody body parts and mangled corpses — photos, the site says, sent by U.S. troops in Iraq in exchange for free access to graphic pornography pictures.

The city of White House, Tennessee has a Municipal Park. That Municipal Park, as one might imagine from the name, is funded by taxes. No one in White House gets to say 'pass' when it comes to paying taxes; either the people of White House pay their taxes or they go to jail. It is also the case that no on in White House gets to say 'pass' when confronted by an ordinance they don't want to follow; either the people of White House follow the law or they go to jail.

According to wftv.com, recently White House Alderman Darrel Leftwich drove by Municipal Park on a Sunday morning on his way to services at Temple Baptist Church, when saw that it was full of people at a soccer tournament. Alderman Leftwich believes that an invisible monster that lives in the sky is very, very concerned that people should not play soccer on Sunday mornings. Fair enough, people should be free to believe what they want - if Alderman Leftwich wants to mumble magic spells in a magic house on Sunday mornings while other people play soccer then that is up to him.

But the freedom of choice Alderman Leftwich treasures for himself is not one that he can afford to share with others. Alderman Leftwich has introduced an ordinance to ban the use of White House Municipal Park until afternoon hours. Keep in mind that the people of White House must follow ordinances, and it that the White House Municipal Park is maintained by public funds. Alderman Leftwich has introduced an ordinance that makes his religion into law, funded by taxes, compulsory for all.

Unfortunately for Alderman Leftwich, he must work with Alderman Farris Bibb Junior. Alderman Bibb Jr. also mumbles magic spells in a magic house to an invisible monster that lives in the sky, but the invisible monster told him that Saturday, not Sunday, is the magic no-soccer morning. Clearly, the only way to honor the freedom of religion of both Aldermen is to close Municipal Park all weekend. Maybe the tax money now not spent on Municipal Park can be given to churches or someting nice like that.

Or maybe religion is not a sound foundation for law at all.

. . . the story of Galactic Pizza is worthy of its own post. Their restaurant is powered through an energy utility with wind turbines. The same renewable power charges their small fleet of electric delivery bike and cars. They have a pizza called the “CSA”, ‘coz they're a member of the local Community Supported Agriculture farmers network and this pizza includes whatever is in season and delivered that week. Another selection is “the Second Harvest Heartland pizza, where $1 is donated to this hunger relief organization every time the pizza is ordered.” [more]

Not quite sharks with friggin' lazer beams, but pretty darn close.

In my latest blog post and podcast, I comment on Judge John Roberts and point out why it's necessary to speak out against him, despite the seeming futility of doing so. And of course there's some political poetry too -- two new poems, including this one:

Why Bother?
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Judge John Roberts' confirmation
Is a certainty, it's true.
We're powerless to stop it.
Yes, no matter what we do.

But to those who say it's futile,
Making fun of things I rue,
I say it feels essential,
And that you should do it too.

Both poems and the commentary are here.
The podcast version is here.

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: "Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world. In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so."

Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions. He compared social indicators such as murder rates, abortion, suicide and teenage pregnancy.

The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from "uniquely high" adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.

After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. [...] For churches, synagogues and mosques that have taken in hurricane survivors, FEMA's decision presents a quandary. Some said they were eager to get the money and had begun tallying their costs, from electric bills to worn carpets.

[Will the government be reimbursing all volunteer efforts, or just religious efforts? Will the government reimburse religious efforts based on tallied costs just this one time, or will they do so on an ongoing basis? Rev. Robert E. Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, said it best: "Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer." I am in favor of treating religious groups like all other non-profit groups, and granting them tax exemption to the degree they can prove they serve the public good.]

It doesn't matter that the models were consenting adults. It doesn't matter that you have to pay and demonstrate you are a consenting adult to view the images. It doesn't matter that viewing images cannot harm you. At the 'request' of the FBI, Suicide Girls is starting to remove content.

Like something out of Jacob's Ladder .


"It's the morning-after pill for just about anything that produces regret, remorse, pain, or guilt," says Dr. Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, who emphasizes that he's speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the council.

Barry Romo, a national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is even more blunt. "That's the devil pill," he says. "That's the monster pill, the anti-morality pill. That's the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn't work, what's scary is that a young soldier could believe it will."



But we all know that Cheneyco are Men of Honor . Right?

{from Scrutiny Hooligans}

If you thought Fox corporation couldn't get any weirder, wait'll Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal starts grandstanding at the shareholders' meeting:

Arutz Sheva: "Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has purchased 5.46 percent of the Fox corporation, according to Gulf Daily News, raising concern that the conservative Fox News may soften its anti-terror stance due to the views of the new shareholder.

Al-Waleed, the nephew of the late Saudi King Fahd, was in the news when he visited the World Trade Center's remains just after the September 11th attacks and offered then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani a $10 million check for relief efforts. Al-Waleed then released a statement blaming US foreign policy and support for Israel for the attacks.

Giuliani returned the prince's check with a statement that, "There is no moral equivalent for this attack. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered . . . innocent people ... Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem."

Capitalism doesn't discriminate between terrorist apologists and American presidential apologists. Fox News viewers aren't particularly fond of terrorist apologists, but they loves them some free market economy. Heads ought to start exploding all over RedAmerica when the BushLovers come to know that their favorite source for barely factual news and opinion is owned in part by a royalist living in a monarchy that nurtured most of the men who attacked America on 9/11. The Prince, of course, is a big fan of Rupert Murdoch, (MediaGuardian) "The prince repeated his support for Mr Murdoch, whose grip on the company through his family's 30% shareholding has been threatened since rival media mogul John Malone built up an 18% stake earlier in the year."

Does this partnership strike anyone else as odd? NewsCorp (not to mention all of the corporate media companies) has steadfastly refrained from reporting negatively on Saudi Arabia, the center of terrorist funding and a consistent perpetrator of human rights abuses. Why? There are lots of possible explanations, including several that don't require tinfoil accoutrements. Just know that the corporate media is not going to tell you what you need to know. They're going to tell you what they want you to know, so their billionaire, terrorist-supporting / Bush supporting shareholders can continue to see their wheels greased.

CBS News' Bob Schieffer just announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has rehired ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown-- as a consultant to evaluate the agency's response to the disaster!

I don't understand how I can see to type this as my head has exploded. I'm prepared to yank this article if I'm mistaken, but here in Bizzaro World everything is Status Quo.

President Bush decided Wednesday to waive any financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism, for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers. In June, the State Department listed 14 countries as failing to adequately address trafficking problems, subjecting them all to possible sanctions if they did not crack down. [...] In addition to Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Kuwait - another U.S. ally in the Middle East - were given a complete pass on any sanctions, Jordan said. Despite periodic differences, oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United States have a tight alliance built on economic and military cooperation. That left Myanmar, Cuba and North Korea as the only nations in the list of 14 barred completely from receiving certain kinds of foreign aid. [...] The White House statement offered no explanation of why countries were regarded differently. [Darla] Jordan [State Department spokeswoman] also could not provide one. As many as 800,000 people are bought and sold across national borders annually or lured to other countries with false promises of work or other benefits, according to the State Department. Most are women and children.

[Do you think all the 'pro-family' voters and organizations that support Bush will lift a finger to criticize this decision?]

Though Operation USA has conducted disaster relief for more than twenty-five years on five continents, like scores of other secular relief groups currently helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, it was omitted from FEMA's list. In fact, only two non-"faith-based" organizations were included. (One of them, the American Red Cross, is being blocked from entering New Orleans by FEMA's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security.) FEMA, meanwhile, has reportedly turned away Wal-Mart trucks carrying food and water to the stricken city, teams of firemen from Maryland and Texas, volunteer morticians and a convoy of 1,000 boat owners offering to help rescue stranded flood victims. While relief efforts falter in the face of colossal bureaucratic incompetence, the Bush Administration's promotion of [Robertson's] Operation Blessing has ensured that the floodwaters swallowing New Orleans will be a rising tide lifting Robertson's boat. [...] Far from the media's gaze, Robertson has used the tax-exempt, nonprofit Operation Blessing as a front for his shadowy financial schemes, while exerting his influence within the GOP to cover his tracks. In 1994 he made an emotional plea on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire (now Congo). Reporter Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot later discovered that Operation Blessing's planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Zaire's then-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. After a lengthy investigation, Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications." Yet when the office called for legal action against Robertson in 1999, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican, intervened with his own report, agreeing that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution. Two years earlier, while Virginia's investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley's campaign--Earley's largest contribution. [...]

Robertson's scheming hasn't abated one bit. He is accused of violating his ministry's tax-exempt, nonprofit status by using it to market a diet shake he licensed this August to the health chain General Nutrition Corp. (Robertson continues to advertise the shake on his personal website.) He has withstood criticism from fellow evangelicals for investing $520,000 in a racehorse named Mr. Pat, violating biblical admonitions against gambling. He was even accused of "Jim Crow-style racial discrimination" by black employees who successfully sued his Christian Coalition in 2001 for forcing them enter its offices through a back door and eat in a segregated area (Robertson has since resigned). The Bush Administration has studiously overlooked Robertson's misdeeds. In October 2002, just months after he denounced the White House's faith-based initiative as "a real Pandora's box"--and one month before midterm elections--Robertson pocketed $500,000 in government grants to Operation Blessing. Since then, with the sole exception of his criticism of the US intervention in Liberia, Robertson has served as a willing surrogate for the Administration. His Regent University gave John Ashcroft a cushy professorship to cool his heels after his contentious tenure as US Attorney General. And Robertson's legal foundation, the American Center for Law and Justice, is spearheading the effort to rally right-wing Christian support for Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s confirmation as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

[How much disaster relief could $500,000 have provided to the citizens of New Orleans?]

The tribal council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is making plans to mount a copy of the Ten Commandments in the council house where government meetings are held, and possibly display them throughout other public buildings in Cherokee. The idea was introduced by Councilwoman Angela Kephart last month in the weeks leading up to tribal council elections. [...] "We aren't saying you have to abide by the Ten Commandments," Kephart said. "We are simply displaying God's Ten Commandments. That's what He expects from each and every individual. If you break that, it is between you and God. It is not between you and the tribal council; it is between you and God." [Does any of that make sense to you? And which 'Ten Commandments' are they going to display? - Trevor] The move comes following several controversial federal court cases involving governmental displays of the Ten Commandments. The general precedent set by those cases is that new displays of the Ten Commandments hung by a government body with the sole purpose of endorsing or promoting Christianity over other religions violates the U.S. Constitution. But the Constitution does not apply to Cherokee, nor to any other Native American tribe for that matter, according to Cherokee's Attorney General David Nash. "We are a sovereign nation and we can pretty much post anything we want in our council chambers," said Kephart. "For once the federal government is not going to tell us what to do. We can feel good about it because we are standing up for God. The more it becomes controversial, the more we need to stand firm."

[Should the US fund theocracies?]

A Mexican bishop has admitted that the local Catholic church receives donations from drug traffickers, but claimed these are "purified" through good works. Bishop Ramón Godínez said "bad money shouldn't be burned it should be transformed". [...] Government officials have said that receiving illicit money is illegal, but shied away from opening a money laundering investigation into the church.

[Attention, drug dealers: say an invisible monster that lives in the sky told you to launder drug money and you'll get away with it.]

The invasion of American Democratic institutions by fundamentalist, historically militant (as in crusades, witch hunts, inquisitions, and support of slavery) Christianity has significantly increased the stench coming from the already disturbing dark side of U.S. politics. It’s like a nightmarish replay of the Christian crusades—politics with a militant, convert-the-heathens dark side. Potent, cult-like group dynamics combine with unacknowledged and unseen shadow qualities to easily overwhelm the individual’s sense of right and wrong, often unleashing pure evil en masse.

This kid needs a bigger spotlight.

A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter. Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday. "Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother. Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship" [...] Clark and her partner have been together 22 years and have two other daughters, ages 9 and 19.

[I support freedom of religion and the separation of church and state: therefore, I support the privately-funded Ontario Christian School's ability to accept or expel any student they see fit. I think their decision is loathsome, but it is theirs to make. I am not, however, convinced that such a school should be accredited.]

A Human Rights Watch report contains allegations that members of the 82nd Airborne in Iraq routinely beat and abused prisoners "to help gather intelligence on the insurgency and to amuse themselves", the New York Times reports.

James Howard Kunstler on what lies after peak oil, in the not-too-distant future:

...we are in for an epochal period of contraction and strife around the world. Industrial economies are likely to wither in the aftermath of peak oil. Scams and rackets that are allowing us to get by now—the extraordinary credit binge of American consumers, the alchemical generation of sub-prime mortgages, and the casino-like operation of hedge funds—will cease to work their magic in a world faced with reality-based hardship and scarcity. The meta-trend in the post-peak-oil world will be the desperate re-localizing and downsizing of all our activities. All things organized at the greatest scale, including global corporations, giant universities, centralized governments, will be weakened, in many cases fatally. Wal-Mart, with its “warehouse on wheels,” will expire quickly.

We will be challenged to rebuild complex local networks of economic interdependency, and it will not be easy. The destruction of local communities already wreaked by the big chains has been so comprehensive that it may take decades even to pick up the pieces. There will be far fewer things to buy, and shopping will fade into the background of life. The airline industry as we know it will cease to exist and cars will be, at the least, a much-diminished presence in our lives. Those who believe that life will continue to be an international blue-light special of perpetual bargain shopping are going to be disappointed. The world is about to become a larger place again. [more]

Tomorrow, in Washington, DC and in cities around the country, tens of thousands will turn out to demand an end to Bush's war and occupation in Iraq. The Young Angry Liberal has a helpful list of "Do's and Dont's [sic]", among which I would particularly like to highlight these:

Don't have a hippy drum circle:

There are few things more annoying and irrelevant than a bunch of dreadlocked Boulderites banging on drums while dancing around with erect nipples under their hemp shirts.

Don't have a gothic pagan chorus on the stage talking about mermaids:

This actually happened at the last November 3^rd movement rally. It has nothing to do with the overall point of the protest. Rather it is just an opportunity for superficial hipsters to whine about "mother earth". They then leave to go get coffee and don't stay for the rally.

Do be serious:

Protesting is not a hobby. It's not about being a humanitarian and it's not about feeling good about your self. Be prepared to die for your cause. Ok, so that's a little extreme. But be prepared to take a stand. Arrests are not unlikely in any protest. If you bring kids or animals, stay on the sidewalk.

Do be creative:

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of doing the same thing over and over again with little to show for it but a frustrated mind. We have to protest in a way that's intriguing, news making. Block the street, do guerilla theater, dose your self in gasoline and go out for ice cream. Whatever. Just don't do the same thing when it doesn't work. Think.

Somehow I suspect that the protest here in San Francisco will feature a hippy drum circle, and worse. Still, I'll be there and I hope you will too.

(Thanks to Fink Tank 3000 for the pointer.)

Merry Christmas.

The leaders of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, including two former archbishops, actively concealed sexual abuse by priests for decades, but no criminal charges can be brought against the church or its priests because of the constraints of state law, according to grand jury findings released Wednesday. Following the nation’s longest-running grand jury probe into priest abuse, the scathing report documents assaults on minors by more than 60 priests since 1967, and alleges that former archbishops Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and Cardinal John Krol covered up the abuse. [...] State laws, including legal time limits, prevented prosecutors from filing charges, the report said. The grand jury also explored the possibility of charges against the archdiocese, but said the organization could not be prosecuted because it is an unincorporated association rather than a corporation. “Archdiocese leaders have endangered and harmed children in parishes and schools by keeping known abusers in ministry and transferring discovered abusers to assignments where parents and potential victims are unaware of the priests’ sexual predations,” the report said. [emphasis added]

[There you have it. If you want to rape children and get away with it, tell everybody you're a priest. You'll get away with it, just like these monsters did. Don't forget for a second that the reason these creeps were moved to new parishes was on orders of the Pope. It wasn't an isolated horror, and it wasn't a terror spontaneously happening in several places - it was coordinated by the Pope. Say that an invisible monster that lives in the sky told you to rape little boys and you are above the law.]

Wait! before the Knee-jerking begins read this:

Let me say this before people start in: the National Enquirer has beaten more libel suits than most major newspapers. Their stuff is vetted by libel lawyers before it hits the stands. In fact, their accuracy is no worse than their MSM peers. Up until the 1970's, they ran alien stories, but then switched to celebrity coverage.

Why do I trust the NE? They pay their sources. So someone close to the WH got a big fat check for this, over $10K. And if they deny this or lie, the NE has a file on them. When dealing with gossip, this is quite effective. Now they may wind up paying the wrong people, but this is what they were told. Come on, if you ran the NE, would you risk a libel suit with your reputation?

Also, first Capital Hill Blue, now the NE, slowly, but surely, this is going to reach the MSM. Gossip is sually tomorrow's news today.

"Hurricane Rita ties to Al Qaida alleged. Nukes considered"

[P! News Service; Sept. 22, 2004]

Top FEMA (Fucked-Up eMess Agency) and Homeland Insecurity officials today urged the Pentagon to deploy tactical nuclear weapons against Hurricane Rita, saying it was obvious that the monster storm, as well as its predecessor Katrina, were al Qaida-generated attacks against Gulf Coast oil resources. These unnamed officials also spoke of Katrina as a "Taliban/Shi'ite blow against the right of American women to expose their breasts and eat spicy pork and shrimp at the same meal."

read more . . .

"Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground."
The Tempest, 1. 1

Interestingly enough, as many know in the Hindu pantheon this is the age of the 'kali yuga', the dark age of Kali is the ever becoming, ever destroying force of Life. She is both unimaginable horror and abundant bliss.
Kali is the Holy Paradox, like wild fire that destroys and births the forests. Much like, Jared Diamond and René Guénon before him, seasons of time are said to be historically cyclical not linear.


Guénon writes in The Crisis of the Modern World and The Reign of Quantity that the modern world has brought about a crisis, conceived by many in terms of apocalypse and the "end times" (the coming dark age of the Kali Yuga in terms of Hindu cyclical cosmology), which can only be resolved by a return of the West to the traditional outlook.

"So long as western people imagine that there only exists a single type of humanity, that there is only one 'civilization', at different stages of development, no mutual understanding will be possible. The truth is that there are many civilizations, developing along very different lines, and that, among these, that of the modern West is strangely exceptional, as some of its characteristics show. Today not everyone would agree to the concept of the "bankruptcy of this civilization", but the symptoms are there and while trends of this kind go on over a long period, they tend to accelerate towards the end of a cycle. p.10


Interestingly enough, Hurricane katrina her sister 'Rita' may be the 'kali ma' in symbolism, the etymology of the word 'Rita' means "universal order" .


After all the impostor kings have been killed, the residents of the cities and towns will feel the breezes carrying the most sacred fragrance of the sandalwood paste and other decorations of Lord Vasudeva, and their minds will thereby become transcendentally pure.
-The Symptoms
of Kali-yuga

Namaste'

"'You've got refineries that will start shutting down in anticipation of the hurricane, and then if any of them have permanent damage, we're going to be dependent on imports. Following Katrina, this is really serious."

"'This is headed right into our other major refining center just after all the damage done to facilities in Louisiana. From an energy perspective, it doesn't get any worse than this.'

"Crude oil for November delivery rose $1.90, or 2.9 percent, to $68.10 a barrel at 10:01 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $68.27, the highest since Sept. 2. Oil has declined 3.6 percent since touching a record $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30. Prices are 45 percent higher than a year ago.

"Gasoline for October delivery surged 14.59 cents, or 7.4 percent, to $2.1225 a gallon. Gasoline futures reached $2.92 a gallon on Aug. 31, the highest since trading began in 1984. Futures are 65 percent higher than a year ago."

"'The Houston area is ground zero of the refining industry,' said Rick Mueller, an analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Tilburg, the Netherlands. 'If it suffers the scope of damage caused to refineries in Louisiana by Katrina, we could see rationing and queues at the gas pump.'

"'We didn't have a surplus of refining before Katrina,' said Larry Goldstein, president of PIRA Energy Group, a New York consultant. 'There is basically no slack left in the system, and you don't have to have a Katrina-type impact to have a devastating impact on the industry right now.'"

from the BLF website:

We didn’t do this, but we salute Citizens for the Betterment of Billboards’ Bored of War project who did and will always post any submissions to our site. The CBB criminals artists have bettered a billboard early this morning right above my favorite bar, Zeitgeist at Duboce and Valencia. Sign of the times indeed.

via Easy Bake Coven

Sometimes I wonder if I'm too bombastic with my posts about US theocracy. Then I read stories like this and am reminded I'm right on target. The State of New Jersey is attempting to seize the Golden Cicadia, a tavern. The Golden Cicadia is not run down, it is not disreputable, it does not serve as a front for illegal activities. It's only crime is that it sits on property that someone else wants, but they don't want it enough to buy outright. The someone else who wants the property wants the state to seize it and turn it over to them at a fraction of what it is worth. And who is the someone else who wants that property? The Roman Catholic Church, who wants to build an athletic field on the property for St. Peter's Preparatory School. The state is attempting to seize private property to turn it over to the Church.

He said U.S. soldiers recently went to Curacao, an island off Venezuela's northwest coast. He described as a "lie" the official U.S. explanation that they visited Curacao for rest and recreation.

"They were doing movements. They were doing maneuvers," Chavez said, speaking through a translator.

He added: "We are coming up with the counter-Balboa plan. That is to say if the government of the United States attempts to commit the foolhardy enterprise of attacking us, it would be embarked on a 100-year war. We are prepared." [more]

The Bush Crime Family calls their plan to take over Venezuela 'Operation Balboa'? Hm, invading a sovereign country (whose government you already tried to overthrow twice, unsuccessfully) in order to topple their democratically-elected President and steal their oil . . . yea, that has a lot to do with Rocky. Imagine "Eye of the Tiger" musically framing the battle as American and Venezuelan kids die so that the Bush Crime Family can get even richer . . . makes you want to work out, or join a boxing gym, huh?

A remarkable story of how the Roman Catholic Church influenced the Pill and how women have suffered for it ever since.

"A collection of quotes from literature published by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society [...] This research and information web site is devoted to collecting and preserving interesting and/or significant quotes from the publications of the Watch Tower Society, without additional commentary or editorial, for the purpose of scholarship and research."

Nothing at all is more damning to any religion than that its followers actually read the texts it claims are holy. The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society (aka Jehovah's Witnesses) have been publishing and freely distributing their magazines for over one hundred years. But although they claim to be publishing the truth and distributing it door to door to anyone they can, they didn't hestitate to initiate a lawsuit against a Web site that quotes them accurately, in context and with full citations. Because it seems that the WTBTS has said some things that they aren't too proud of now. See what they have to say about race, women, germ theory, space travel and blood. Oh my, do they have something to say about blood. Mainly that it is better to let children die than to give them a chance at living if it involves a blood transfusion. Go take a look at what these people advocate, right from the horse's mouth, before this Web page is taken down by the courts. Then tell me again why these people are considered enough of a public good to evade taxation.

image from the absolutely bizarre "Hedonistic Imperative"

The Issue:
"Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA) has stated that this week he will introduce a bill that would greatly rewrite the Endangered Species Act.
Representative Pombo has long carried the message of developers and is Congress' loudest opponent of endangered species protections.
He is also chair of the House Resources Committee.
A hearing on the bill is scheduled for Wednesday, September 21, and a
committee vote on Thursday, September 22."
Please act now!

The National Day of Prayer occurs on the first Thursday of each May. This is a day of prayer for all, as long as 'for all' means only those who subscribe to the Lausanne Convenant of the Judeo-Christian heritage (whatever that means). A day of prayer that does not cross the church/state line, as long as a proclamation from President George W. Bush and similar proclamations from the governors of all 50 states and the support of the House and Congress don't count as crossing the church/state line. A day of prayer that helps people, as long as by 'helping people' one means mumbling magic spells to an invisible monster that lives in the sky instead of delivering potable water, food, medicine and the like to people in need. The National Day of Prayer - your tax dollars at work?

The Catholic Diocese of Austin is investigating after a priest called about 15 children to come forward during evening Mass so he could prick them with an unsterilized pin to demonstrate the pain Jesus suffered during crucifixion. [...] No one reacted strongly during the incident at evening Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Corn Hill on Wednesday, said Helen Osman, communications director for the Austin diocese. Osman said that the priest pricked both adults and children. [...] Osman said workers at the Williamson County and Cities Health District will conduct confidential interviews with the Mass attendees to find out whether they have any communicable diseases and whether skin was broken. Officials will then determine whether the children might be at risk for exposure to diseases such as HIV or hepatitis and whether a blood test is needed. [...] "I didn't think it was that big a deal," Michalka said. "I can see the point now. I'll see to it that it doesn't happen again."

[Germ theory saves more lives every day than the lives saved by all religions in all of human history combined. The little germies can't be seen but if you break skin they can get inside your body and make you sick. And if you get one person's blood in contact with another person's blood then the germies can make you sick that way too. But that's all just intellectual mumbo-jumbo science-talk and not that big a deal - not when you've got an invisible monster that lives in the sky telling you what to do. What would happen if an old man stuck pins in children in the name of Star Trek, or the Parent Teacher Association, or for fun? You'd better believe that old man would be in a cage for the rest of his life. But stick pins in children, exposing them to who knows what, to better serve an invisible monster that lives in the sky and even the people watching you do it will not react strongly. Religion is a public mental health crisis and it's time we started treating it that way.]

On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery programme and tax cuts that benefitted just the richest one percent of the US population, himself included.

"What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," Clinton said.

"We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else."

Clinton added: "We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense."

"Cindy Sheehan is a clown."

"It" is his Hydrogen Generating Module, or H2N-Gen for short.

Smaller than a DVD player - small enough to sit comfortably under the hood of any truck or car - it could be big enough to solve the world's greenhouse gas emission problems, at least for the near future. In fact, it could make the Kyoto protocol obsolete. Basically, the H2N-Gen contains a small reservoir of distilled water and other chemicals such as potassium hydroxide. A current is run from the car battery through the liquid. This process of electrolysis creates hydrogen and oxygen gases which are then fed into the engine's intake manifold where they mix with the gasoline vapours.

It's a scientific fact that adding hydrogen to a combustion chamber will cause a cleaner burn. The challenge has always been to find a way to get the hydrogen gas into the combustion chamber in a safe, reliable and cost-effective way.

Williams claims he has achieved this with his H2N-Gen. His product, he said, produces a more complete burn, greatly increasing efficiency and reducing fuel consumption by 10 to 40 per cent - and pollutants by up to 100 per cent. [more]

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America: To Suspend Subchapter IV of Chapter 31 of Title 40, United States Code, Within a Limited Geographic Area in Response to the National Emergency Caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Let's not forget, FEMA, DHS, and the Neocon criminals in the White House committed a deliberate* act of war against the American people after Katrina hit.

First Responders Urged Not to Respond

from Inter-activist Info Exchange

Here's an interesting list that paints a very curious overall picture of government ineptitude, or worse...

[click for the nauseating list]

*I don't buy the bureaucracy or the incompetence excuses.

If this is for real, the President will look like an elementary school child. If this is a code, what is it a code for? A.) Sex. B.) Coke.

And, most amusingly, if this is a code for either type of blow break--being as how they can't admit that--they will be forced to admit that yes, the most powerful man in the world needs a hall pass to tinkle.

I've written two limericks about John Roberts' nomination to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's one of them:

Though Judge Roberts Is Getting A Hearing
By Madeleine Begun Kane

Though Judge Roberts is getting a hearing,
To measure his outlook and bearing,
He's determined to hide
Views that Dems can't abide.
His convictions he simply ain't sharing.

You can find both of my Roberts limericks here and you can hear my audio version of my Judge Roberts limericks here.

President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for failures in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

An op-ed by three prominent law professors in today's L.A. Times raises an important issue about which Senators ought to question John Roberts in his confirmation hearing:

JUST FOUR DAYS before the Bush administration named John G. Roberts Jr. to fill retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court, the District of Columbia federal appeals court decided a case called Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld. In a crucial victory for the administration, the court upheld President Bush's creation of special military tribunals for trials of alleged terrorists and denied them the protection of the Geneva Convention. Roberts was one of the judges who decided that case, but he should have recused himself.

While the case was pending in his court, Roberts was interviewing with high White House officials Â? including Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove Â? for a seat on the Supreme Court. In the words of the federal law on judicial disqualification, this placed the judge in a situation where "his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

The authors of this piece--NYU's Stephen Gillers, Northwestern's Steven Lubet and Georgetown's David Luban--previously raised this issue in August, after Roberts was nominated to replace retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Now that Roberts stands to become Chief Justice, in which capacity he will be in charge of the administration of the federal judicial system, the issue is of even greater significance. Let's see whether anyone on the Senate Judiciary Committee poses this important question, and whether, if asked, Roberts gives a straightforward and persuasive response.

It seems that not enough people know the truth about the Suicide Girls and still think it's some sort of hip, progressive, women owned and operated porn company.

Suicide Girls is owned by Sean Suhl. "Missy" is just a figurehead, and Playboy has or had some sort of partnership with Suicide Girls, but they do not own it. Suhl's listed as the only authorized representative for the company. If Missy ever owned a stake in it, she doesn't now.

Suhl's a neoconservative white male. The site's blog used to be filled with right wing rants. Mostly foreign policy stuff like pro-war and violent anti-Palestinian stuff. But perhaps they've realized they were alienating a lot of their readers and models and have now made the blog open for anyone to post, and it now appears to lean towards the left. There's no easy way to browse the archives that I can see, but here's a post by Suhl from April 2004.

Update: the above post has been deleted, it can still be found on archive.org here. Here are two other examples of Sean's political posts on SG: Shooting Children in the Back and A Loving Tribute to Some Truly Wonderful People.

The first place I came across him being described as a neoconservative was this Willamette Weekly story quite a while back. I can't find any specific examples of him calling himself neoconservative, but various blog and forum posters indicate that he has described himself as such.

And most importantly: the models get treated badly. Here's a Live Journal community dedicated to SG discussions and here's a thread there about alternatives.

Many of the above links are from the comments on this blog. And here's a good rant about them on Slashdot.

I know a lot of models probably get ripped off by porn sites, and a lot of porn owners probably have politics I don't agree with. I wonder if I'd even be able to continue my alternative porn blog if I knew everything that went on behind the scenes at every porn site I link to. But Suhl made the mistake of pissing off a lot of Internet savvy women, and using his business's site as a political soap box for views that probably don't mesh with his customers'.

"In 1966, the Supreme Court held that the poll tax was unconstitutional. Nearly 40 years later, Georgia is still charging people to vote, this time with a new voter ID law that requires many people without driver's licenses - a group that is disproportionately poor, black and elderly - to pay $20 or more for a state ID card. Georgia went ahead with this even though there is not a single place in the entire city of Atlanta where the cards are sold."

"Add Rep. Richard Baker to the list of congressional Republicans who have made unfortunate comments about hurricane victims - although he's the first we know of from Louisiana. The Wall Street Journal's 'Washington Wire' reports comments Baker made this week to lobbyists: 'We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did.' Baker explained later that he didn't intend flippancy, but has long wanted to 'improve' low-income housing."

On Saturday, Julia of Sisyphus Shrugged held another of her delightful lefty blogger gatherings in Queens, New York. And I'm pleased to report that this time, not only did I bring my digital audio recorder, but I actually remembered to use it. Okay, I did get some prodding and nudging from
Elayne of Pen-Elayne who, by the way, took pictures.

Throughout the evening. I dragged sundry bloggers (and the occasional blogger spouse) to the back of Julia's yard for -- hey, get your mind out of the gutter -- mini-interviews with them. This Mad Kane Notables
post includes 6 MP3 links to my chats with Elayne, Julia, Michael Berube, Barbara of the Mahablog, Jen of The News Blog, and Scott of Lawyers, Guns and Money. (Another batch of mp3 interviews will be posted in the next day or so.)

"I injected morphine into those patients who were dying and in agony. If the first dose was not enough, I gave a double dose. And at night I prayed to God to have mercy on my soul."

Doctors working in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans killed critically ill patients rather than leaving them to die in agony as they evacuated hospitals, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

With gangs of rapists and looters rampaging through wards in the flooded city, senior doctors took the harrowing decision to give massive overdoses of morphine to those they believed could not make it out alive.

In an extraordinary interview with The Mail on Sunday, one New Orleans doctor told how she 'prayed for God to have mercy on her soul' after she ignored every tenet of medical ethics and ended the lives of patients she had earlier fought to save. [More...]

Long denied access to the beaches their anscestors strolled on and fished from for centuries, Palestinians dove headfirst into the waters outside the former Jewish settlement of Shirat Hayam


There hasn't been cause for celebraton in this part of the world for a long time.

Cheney was in his bunker again, not on vacation, but deep down in a secret command center somewhere, replete with flowing lava visible through glass columns running throughout. Dear God man, can’t you see? Dick Cheney IS the Sith Lord. Rasping, laughing, and always doing eeeevil. A couple weeks ago then, hunkered down in his bunker, presiding over the destruction of New Orleans.

Bush at his ranch: “When’s Unka Dick gonna call me? I’m not sure what to do with myself . . . this lady outside has set me on edge. I want to take an M16 out there and show her to her son.”

Condi was stretching out on the floor, flexing her Gongorian muscles. “Did you take your pills, George?” Sweetly, now criss-crossing her legs in front of him, panties back by the door where she had taken them off.

“Uh, heh-heh,” says George, coming closer. “Tower Leeza, this is Hot Rod 422, coming in for a landing . . . “

Condi took a quick sip of her drink before setting the glass down on the coffee table next to her. She came away with a blood mustache. “Hot Rod 422, you are cleared for a landing.”

“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!” Georgie said, excitedly, moving toward her.

Back to the bunker: Cheney is in his hoverchair, flying around before his giant panel of screens.

“’New Orleans dodged a bullet’!” he exclaimed wildly, reading from the headlines. “How dare they!”

His assnt Dodge stood by with the loyal assist: “How dare they, indeed, sir.”

“Initiate Plan 2B: blow flood walls.”

Two frogmen get their orders and tumble down into the water. Snipers stand guard above to make sure nobody sees. Sure, enough, here comes the soft underwater explosion.

Cheney screams at his live cams showing several parts in the city where people can be seeing roaming about the streets: “BETTER PUT YOUR HIGHWATERS ON NIGRAHS! BECAUSE IT’S ABOUT TO GET FUCKING BIBLICAL IN THERE!”

Cheney turns away and mops his forehead with a pair of Trent Lott’s dirty skivvies. “Operation New Halliburton, Cajun-style has begun.”

Dodge bows. When he doesn’t know what to say and the King is facing him, he bows.

Meanwhile, thousands of people along the gulf coast hunker down in their homes and hope it won’t be so bad. They pray. They drink. They worry. They drown.

Some axe through the ceiling to the roof. They are rescued by Coast Guard and set down on a piece of broken highway, where men jump off to their death and old people and babies die. They wait.

Nobody comes.

For days.

In another part of the city, a man begins to wade into the worst of it. He's a Doctor, and he's looking for his dog.

Today, Sunday, September 11th at 7:06PM E.S.T., ABC News Radio Affiliates on the east coast will air a 1 hour pre-recorded special featuring author and theologian David Ray Griffin, 9/11 survivor and RICO suit plaintiff William Rodgriquez and 9/11 widow Lorie Van Auken, who recently presented at Congresswoman McKinney's Congressional Briefing on July 22. The program will for the first time on a major new news network give voice to the those who have challenged the 9/11 Commission's findings, who have suggested a pervasive cover-up or the involvement of government conspirators.

The program will re-air hourly at 8:06, 9:06, 10:06, etc. this evening. It has already been aired by two affiliates and is now available to over 3000 affiliates nationally.

Please tune in, record the show, and let ABC know that you are interested in similar programs digging deeper into the challenges posed to the official narrative for the events of September 11th.

Please take a moment now to email your friends and colleagues and let them know about this encouraging breakthrough.

From Slate: "I don't think Kanye West can support his view that George W. Bush just doesn't care about black people. But it's a demonstrable matter of fact that Bush doesn't care much about black votes. And that, in the end, may amount to the same thing."

N.B. - I realize Bill linked the "Top Ten" Article from the Tucson Weekly below but here are all 25 stories in easy clickable format.

From PROJECT CENSORED

#1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government

#2 Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Deathtoll

#3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage

#4 Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In

#5 U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia

#6 The Real Oil for Food Scam

#7 Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood

#8 Iraqi Farmers Threatened By Bremer’s Mandates

#9 Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency

#10 Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy

#11 Universal Mental Screening Program Usurps Parental Rights

#12 Military in Iraq Contracts Human Rights Violators

#13 Rich Countries Fail to Live up to Global Pledges

#14 Corporations Win Big on Tort Reform, Justice Suffers

#15 Conservative Plan to Override Academic Freedom in the Classroom

#16 U.S. Plans for Hemispheric Integration Include Canada

#17 U.S. Uses South American Military Bases to Expand Control of the Region

#18 Little Known Stock Fraud Could Weaken U.S. Economy

#19 Child Wards of the State Used in AIDS Experiments

#20 American Indians Sue for Resources; Compensation Provided to Others

#21 New Immigration Plan Favors Business Over People

#22 Nanotechnology Offers Exciting Possibilities But Health Effects Need Scrutiny

#23 Plight of Palestinian Child Detainees Highlights Global Problem

#24 Ethiopian Indigenous Victims of Corporate and Government Resource Aspirations

#25 Homeland Security Was Designed to Fail

Katrina caused by the Yakuza/KGB.

"George W. Bush -- who spent a good portion of his first forty years drinking, drilling dry wells as a failed oilman, and escaping his National Guard duties -- has no business being president. Is there any doubt that Bush overreacted on Iraq and under reacted on Katrina? Does anyone who has seen the devastation in New Orleans -- let alone Iraq -- still believe America is safer for having our National Guard troops patrolling Saddam’s slums rather than on call to protect America’s shattered cities?



Once again Bush’s claims in response to a national tragedy ring hollow. As Bush explained to Diane Sawyer, “I don’t think anyone anticipated the breech of the levees.”* Nobody, that is, except the scientists and engineers who’d been warning about just this kind of catastrophe for decades. Even so the Bush administration allocated a mere $40 million for hurricane and flood programs centered around New Orleans, cutting $65 million from the paltry $105 million requested by the Army Corp of Engineers last year.

“'I don’t think anyone could have foreseen terrorists flying into buildings.' 'Iraq will be a cakewalk.' 'I don’t think anyone anticipated the breech of the levees.' It’s the same pattern of obliviousness and evasion repeated ad infinitum by Bush and his sycophants. But this time, the public may be fed up with the administration’s lack of foresight as it appears money earmarked to improve New Orleans' levees was 'moved in the president’s budget,' according to The New Orleans Times-Picayune, 'to pay for homeland security and the war in Iraq...'



"In one fell swoop, Hurricane Katrina exposed the contradictions that lie at the heart of the Bush Administration: the illusion that society can afford disproportionate tax cuts for the wealthy while skimping on basic infrastructure and public safeguards; the conflation that fighting abroad in Iraq is tantamount to defending the homeland; and the delusion that Bush is a uniter not a divider.

"Katrina has revealed that the Emperor has no clothes and that the social fabric in America is badly frayed. The Bush Doctrine has collapsed, an acknowledgement that the anti-terrorism policy the administration has pursued for the last four years has been a catastrophic failure.

"Equally alarming -- in the wake of Katrina -- the administration’s negligence regarding global warming epitomizes their obtuseness; most climatologists have been warning for years that global warming will increase the frequency and intensity of tropical storms. The administration’s response to scientific evidence that challenges their ideological beliefs, of course, was to have the EPA delete any reference to global warming altogether...

"When the political gods -- or the Supreme Court, if you prefer -- decided to trump the will of the American people (including the majority of Floridians who had cast their votes for Al Gore), I assumed it was because the gods prefer tragedy and farce. With Bush they get both: think "Mission Accomplished," with Inspector Clousseau wearing a flight suit and celebrating his triumph over evil-doers, and you’ll find it’s hard not to laugh and cry at the same time."

* - "In fact, FEMA had run a mock disaster exercise a year ago in which the levees were breached by a fictitious 'Hurricane Pam.'"

main text via Youngfox

Planning on taking part in this Sunday's Freedom Walk? Better register today or you will face arrest on sunday. If you'd rather cheer on the march instead be prepared to peer over a four-foot high "snow fence."

Note: Highlighted in the WAPO article the severe restrictions placed on members of the press. From WaPo (linked above):

"One restricted group will be the media, whose members will not be allowed to walk along the march route. Reporters and cameras are restricted to three enclosed areas along the route but are not permitted to walk alongside participants walking from the Pentagon, across the Memorial Bridge to the Mall."

Further, note, In general, First Amendment rights can be restricted in "time, place, and manner" if needed to fulfill an "important government purpose," as long as those restraints aren't message-based (i.e., "content neutral"). Some communication channels must remain open, and the restraints must be "narrowly tailored" to the government purpose. Here's some more info.

Finally, I don't know all the case law, but perhaps the press could make the case here that the restraints are not narrowly tailored enough. But of course it's to late.

NEW YORK, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Science vs. Religion. Evolution vs. Creation.
It is an age-old battle whose time has come. "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" will gather
together all the experts (or at least those who will talk to them), travel to the places
that matter in the debate (basic cable budget permitting) and ultimately settle
the controversy once and for all.

"Evolution Schmevolution: A Daily Show Special Report" will premiere on
Monday, September 12 and air nightly at 11:00 p.m. through September 15.

For one full week, "The Daily Show" goes in-depth, around, through and
quite possibly under, one of the hottest hot-button issues facing our nation:
evolution. It's the accepted theory on the origin of life by an overwhelming
majority of the world's biologists, but maybe they're all wrong. What's so
great about the scientific method anyway? "Evolution Schmevolution" will
explore:

* What other theories are out there?

* Who's on the frontlines of this debate?

* Should your child's curriculum really be decided by experts in their
respective fields?

The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" was
launched in the summer of 1996. The nightly news satire takes a reality-based
look at news, trends, pop culture, current events, politics, sports,
entertainment and the media. In each show, Stewart and a team of
correspondents, including Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry, Ed Helms and Samantha
Bee, comment on the day's stories employing actual news footage, taped field
pieces, in-studio guests and on-the-spot coverage of important news events.

Jon Stewart and Ben Karlin are the executive producers of "The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart" with Stewart Bailey and Kahane Corn serving as the co-
executive producers. The series' head writer is David Javerbaum who is also a
supervising producer. Chuck O'Neill is the director.

COMEDY CENTRAL, the only all-comedy network, currently is seen in more
than 87 million homes nationwide. COMEDY CENTRAL is owned by Comedy Partners,
a wholly-owned division of MTV Networks. COMEDY CENTRAL is a registered
trademark of Comedy Partners. COMEDY CENTRAL's Internet address is
http://www.comedycentral.com.

P.S. -- You're next, gravity.

* All times ET/PT.

I've written 3 FEMA limericks. Here's the first one:

The FEMA head Michael D. Brown
Helped cause thousands to suffer and drown.
Now he's dodging the blame.
Who's at fault? Val'rie Plame?
Let's throw Dubya and Brown out of town.

All three of my FEMA limericks are here.

And my podcast version is here.

For Reference look to this quote from Democracy Now on Wednesday, Sept 7:

"....we began to travel through the shelters so that we could locate. We couldn't get cooperation from the government of where they were taking our people. But we just started going city to city up the highway, and every city, as we went out on 10 West, we traveled all the way to Houston. We started at Baton Rouge. Everything was filled. Churches, gymnasiums, civic centers, dormitories of college campuses where the students had brought the families into their dormitories........But when we would go to the public shelters, they were almost like prisons. You could hardly get in. There was all kind of criteria for how you could get in to see the people that was almost like visiting somebody in prison. The people didn't have access to the world around them for fear, again, because on TV they had been criminalized already. So, though the communities were willing to accept them, they were not willing for these people to walk the streets of their town. They were eating sweets and Cokes, still, to the day - I came to this studio this morning having driven from Houston. Every little town between Baton Rouge and Houston had shelters with our people. And they were all managed by FEMA and Homeland Security and soldiers and National Guards, and the ability to go visit these people was like tremendously hard work........" [more]

From the original report, which contains many pictures:

I just got back from a FEMA Detainment CampI'm extremely depressed to report that things seem to only be getting sadder concerning the people so devastatingly affected by Katrina last week. Two car loads of us headed over to Falls Creek, a youth camp for Southern Baptist churches in Oklahoma that agreed to have its facilities used to house Louisiana refugees. I'm afraid the camp is not going to be used as the kind people of the churches who own the cabins believe it was going to be used. Jesse Jackson was right when he said "refugees" was not the appropriate word for the poor souls dislocated due to Katrina. But he was wrong about why it is not appropriate. It's not appropriate because they are detainees, not refugees.

[ . . . ]

From the moment I heard about Falls Creek being scheduled to receive refugees I had two thoughts run through my mind: 1. What a beautiful place to be able to stay while trying to get your life back in order. 2. What a terrible location to be when you're trying to get your life back in order. The first thought is because Falls Creek is nestled in the Arbuckle Mountains of south central Oklahoma. One of the more beautiful regions of the state. It would be a peaceful and beautiful place to try to start mending emotionally, and begin to figure what you're going to do next. The second thought comes because Falls Creek is very secluded and absolutely no where near a population center. The closest route from Falls Creek to a connecting road is three miles on a winding narrow road called "High Road" (It gets that name for two reasons - it's goes over the mountain instead of around it like "Low Road" does, and it's where the teenagers of the area go to party). The road has not a single home on it for over 3 miles. After battling that 3 miles over mountains, you'll find yourself about 5 miles from the nearest town, Davis, Oklahoma, population ca. 2000. This is no place to start a new life. [more]

...on getting ready to "pull another Fallujah" in Iraq.

Evacuation sheltersHundreds of thousands of people who lived in the path of Hurricane Katrina have been displaced by the storm and the floods that followed. Many evacuees are staying in hotels or homes of friends and family, but thousands also have sought shelter in centers set up by the Red Cross, government agencies and other organizations. However, as the Denver Post reports:

FEMA accused of flying evacuees to wrong Charleston
Tuesday, September 6, 2005; Posted: 11:29 p.m. EDT (03:29 GMT)

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
What Is This? (CNN) -- Add geography to the growing list of FEMA fumbles.

A South Carolina health official said his colleagues scrambled Tuesday when FEMA gave only a half-hour notice to prepare for the arrival of a plane carrying as many as 180 evacuees to Charleston.

But the plane, instead, landed in Charleston, West Virginia, 400 miles away.

It was not known whether arrangements have been made to care for the evacuees or transport them to the correct destination.

A call seeking comment from FEMA was not immediately returned.

"We called in all the available resources," said Dr. John Simkovich, director of public health for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

"They responded within 30 minutes, which is phenomenal, to meet the needs of the citizens coming in from Louisiana," he said.

Simkovich said that the agency had described some of the evacuees as needing "some minor treatment ... possibly some major treatment."

"Unfortunately, the plane did not come in," Simkovich said. "There was a mistake in the system, coming out through FEMA, that we did not receive the aircraft this afternoon. It went to Charleston, West Virginia."

A line of buses and ambulances idled behind him at Charleston International Airport as he described what happened.

"This is a 'no event' for today," Simkovich said.

"It is not just a failure of execution (William Kristol), or that bad things just happen (Laura Bush). It was not just indifference by the President, or a lack of accountability, or a failure of federal-state communication, or corrupt appointments in FEMA, or the cutting of budgets for fixing levees, or the inexcusable absence of the National Guard off in Iraq. It was all of these and more, but they are the effects, not the cause.

"The cause was political through and through -- a matter of values and principles. The progressive-liberal values are America's values, and we need to go back to them. The heart of progressive-liberal values is simple: empathy (caring about and for people) and responsibility (acting responsibly on that empathy). These values translate into a simple principle: use the common wealth for the common good to better all our lives. In short, promoting the common good is the central role of government.

"The right-wing conservatives now in power have the opposite values and principles. Their main value is: rely on individual discipline and initiative. The central principle: government has no useful role. The only common good is the sum of individual goods. It's the difference between 'We're all in this together' and 'You're on your own, buddy.' It's the difference between 'Every citizen is entitled to protection' and 'You're only entitled to what you can afford.' It's the difference between connection and separation. It is this difference in moral and political philosophy that lies behind the tragedy of Katrina.

"A lack of empathy and responsibility accounts for Bush's indifference and the government's delay in response, as well as the failure to plan for the security of the most vulnerable: the poor, the infirm, the aged, the children.

"Eliminating as much as possible of the role of government accounts for the demotion of FEMA from cabinet rank, for Michael Brown's view that FEMA was a federal entitlement program to be cut, for the budget cuts in levee repair, for placing more responsibility on state and local government than they could handle, for the failure to fully employ the military, and for the lax regulation of toxic waste dumps contributing to a 'toxic stew.'

"This was not just incompetence (though there was plenty of it), not just a natural disaster (though nature played its part), not just Bush (though he is accountable). This is a failure of moral and political philosophy -- a deadly failure. That is the deep truth behind this human tragedy, humanly caused.

"It is a truth that needs to be told, starting now -- over and over. There can be no delay. The Bush administration is busy framing it in its own way: bad things just happen, it's no one's fault; the federal government did the best it could -- the problem was at the state and local level; we'll rebuild and everything will be okay; the people being shipped out will have better lives elsewhere, and jobs in Wal-Mart!

"Unless the real truth is told starting now, the American people will accept it for lack of an alternative. The Democratic response so far is playing right into Bush's framing. By delaying a response for fear it will be called 'partisan,' the Democratic leadership is allowing Bush to frame the tragedy. And once it is framed, it is hard to reframe! It is time to start now."

New Orleans is swamped, but I know of a stretch of Crawford, Texas that just had the brush cleared out.

Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky are paramedics frorm California who attended the EMS conference in New Orleans [that preceded Hurricane Katrina]. They wrote about their experiences in trying to leave New Orleans for EMS Network.

"As we entered the center of the city, we finally encountered the National Guard. The guardsmen told us we would not be allowed into the Superdome, as the city's primary shelter had descended into a humanitarian and health hellhole. The guards further told us that the city's only other shelter, the convention center, was also descending into chaos and squalor and that the police were not allowing anyone else in.

"Quite naturally, we asked, 'If we can't go to the only two shelters in the city, what was our alternative?' The guardsmen told us that that was our problem, and no, they did not have extra water to give to us...

"We walked to the police command center at Harrah's on Canal Street and were told the same thing, that we were on our own, and no, they did not have water to give us. We now numbered several hundred. We held a mass meeting to decide a course of action. We agreed to camp outside the police command post...

"The police told us that we could not stay. Regardless, we began to settle in and set up camp. In short order, the police commander came across the street to address our group. He told us he had a solution: we should walk to the Pontchartrain Expressway and cross the Greater New Orleans Bridge, where the police had buses lined up to take us out of the city...

"As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions.

"As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the New Orleans police commander, and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move.

"We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the six-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for 'if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you are not getting out of New Orleans...'

"All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the City on foot...

"Our small group retreated back down Highway 90 to seek shelter from the rain under an overpass. We debated our options and, in the end, decided to build an encampment in the middle of the Ponchartrain Expressway on the center divide, between the O'Keefe and Tchoupitoulas exits. We reasoned we would be visible to everyone, we would have some security being on an elevated freeway and we could wait and watch for the arrival of the yet to be seen buses...

"From a woman with a battery-powered radio, we learned that the media was talking about us. Up in full view on the freeway, every relief and news organizations saw us on their way into the city. Officials were being asked what they were going to do about all those families living up on the freeway. The officials responded they were going to take care of us. Some of us got a sinking feeling. 'Taking care of us' had an ominous tone to it.

"Unfortunately, our sinking feeling was correct. Just as dusk set in, a Gretna sheriff showed up, jumped out of his patrol vehicle, aimed his gun at our faces, screaming, "Get off the fucking freeway!" A helicopter arrived and used the wind from its blades to blow away our flimsy structures. As we retreated, the sheriff loaded up his truck with our food and water.

Once again, at gunpoint, we were forced off the freeway. All the law enforcement agencies appeared threatened when we congregated or congealed into groups of 20 or more. In every congregation of 'victims,' they saw 'mob' or 'riot.' We felt safety in numbers. Our 'we must stay together' plan was impossible because the agencies would force us into small, atomized groups...

"We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. After being evacuated on a Coast Guard cargo plane, we arrived in San Antonio, Texas. There, the humiliation and dehumanization of the official relief effort continued.

"We were placed on buses and driven to a large field where we were forced to sit for hours and hours. Some of the buses did not have air-conditioners. In the dark, hundreds if us were forced to share two filthy, overflowing porta-potties. Those who managed to make it out with any possessions (often a few belongings in tattered plastic bags) were subjected to two different dog-sniffing searches.

"This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept and racist."

Airboaters stalled by FEMA

A floatilla of aid turned back from New Orleans

Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops

US won’t let Canada help Katrina victims

Navy hospital ship unused six Days after Katrina

Chicago mayor Daley ’shocked’ as feds reject aid

FEMA prevents water, fuel delivery; cuts communication lines

And this is not the whole list...

A nation's castaways
By Lynne Duke and Teresa Wiltz
The Washington Post
September 4, 2005; D01

"On TV, we watch them: His braids are flying above his head and he's got a wild look on his face. He's running, one arm clutching a load of looted clothes, the other reaching back to tug at his pants, which are in danger of sliding past his rump. She's crying and forlorn and too young to be carrying a baby in her arms, but carrying one she is, and both are dirty and sweaty and hungry, reduced to an animal-like state of waiting and starving and begging for help. We see them through our respective prisms of race, and call them 'refugees,' as if they are foreigners in their own land.



"They are the Other, these victims of Katrina. And in this country, the Other is black. Poor. Desperate.

"Mainstream America too often demonizes the Other because, well, we've been conditioned to do so. And because it's easier to put people in a box and then shove it in the corner, away from view. Then it becomes their problem, not ours. To talk about race, for those who are weary of it, is to invite glazed-over eyes and stifled yawns -- or even hostility.



"But Katrina blew open the box, putting the urban poor front and center, with images of once-invisible folks pleading from rooftops, wading through flooded streets, starving at the Superdome and requiring a massive federal outlay of resources. Or dead, wheelchairs pushed up against the wall, a blanket thrown over still bodies. The Other is there, staring us in the face, exposing our issues on an international stage. It is at once an embarrassment -- how did we go from can-do to can't-do-for-our-own? -- and a challenge, critics charge: How do we stop ignoring the folks in the box, the inner-city destitute, and realize that their fate is ours as well?"

photos via spitting image

"The Bush administration was warned by congressional investigators this summer that some first responders were concerned that their training and equipment was tilting too much toward combatting terrorism rather than natural disasters.

"It's too early to tell [Hmph. --Ed.] whether the shift affected the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina."

That from a weekend wrap-up on Hurricane Katrina from the BBC.

It's a comparison supported by precedent, by the way:

"Last September, a Category 5 hurricane battered the small island of Cuba with 160-mile-per-hour winds. More than 1.5 million Cubans were evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm. Although the hurricane destroyed 20,000 houses, no one died.

"What is Cuban President Fidel Castro's secret? According to Dr. Nelson Valdes, a sociology professor at the University of New Mexico, and specialist in Latin America, 'the whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go.'

"After Hurricane Ivan, the United Nations International Secretariat for Disaster Reduction cited Cuba as a model for hurricane preparation. ISDR director Salvano Briceno said, 'The Cuban way could easily be applied to other countries with similar economic conditions and even in countries with greater resources that do not manage to protect their population as well as Cuba does.'"

"Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to 'convey a positive image' about the government's response for victims.

"'FEMA response and recovery operations are a top priority of the department* and as we know, one of yours,' Brown wrote Chertoff. He proposed sending 1,000 Homeland Security Department employees within 48 hours and 2,000 within seven days.

"The same day Brown wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts. [Read next post to find out what some of that coordination looks like.]

"Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as 'this near-catastrophic event' but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, 'Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.'"

* From the "FEMA for Kidz (yes, "kidz") Rap:"

People helping people is what we do
And FEMA is there to help see you through
When disaster strikes, we are at our best
But we're ready all the time, 'cause disasters don't rest.

"The killer hurricane and flood that devastated the Gulf Coast last week exposed fatal weaknesses in a federal disaster response system retooled after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to handle just such a cataclysmic event...

"Born out of the confused and uncertain response to 9/11, the massive new Department of Homeland Security was charged with being ready the next time, whether the disaster was wrought by nature or terrorists... But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that his department had failed to find an adequate model for addressing the 'ultra-catastrophe' that resulted when Hurricane Katrina's floodwater breached New Orleans's levees and drowned the city.

"'This is what the department was supposed to be all about,' said Clark Kent Ervin, DHS's former inspector general. 'Instead, it obviously raises very serious, troubling questions about whether the government would be prepared if this were a terrorist attack. It's a devastating indictment of this department's performance four years after 9/11.'"

"It is not a position the US is used to being in either. President George W Bush seemed to initially dismiss suggestions of receiving foreign assistance.

"'I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we haven't asked for it,' Bush said. 'I do expect a lot of sympathy, and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country is going to rise up and take care of it.'

"Later, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said 'no offers of assistance will be refused.' [So they'll cash that $100M check from Qatar, I imagine.]

"Seemingly unable to draw on its wealth at short notice to immediately respond to the disaster [a cash-poor economy, ne?], charities in other countries, such as the British Red Cross, are now launching appeals to raise money.

"The British Red Cross says the appeal is about getting money quickly to speed up the aid effort, but admits it does raise questions about measures the US Government has in place to deal with large-scale domestic disasters.

"'We have been asked for help by our sister organisation in the US,' says a spokesman. 'This is the biggest humanitarian operation in its 125-year history, we are looking at an area the size of Great Britain that has been devastated.

"'But there are broader political questions about the response of the richest country in the world to such a disaster on its own soil. Hopefully they will be addressed in the fullness of time and lessons will be learned.'"

"Given the available information, we do not believe there can be any doubt that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market. Too much credible information exists to deny this. Yet virtually no one ever mentions government intervention publicly, preferring instead to pretend as if such activities have never taken place and never would.

Could they? Because we know they would.
"The more we do to you, the less you believe we are doing it"- Joseph Mengele

I think it's last call for Hitchen's case for war. Article here.

Rememer the cogent observation of the late Senator Dirkson: “A billion here, a billion there – pretty soon you’re talking about REAL Money.”

"..........we were on the roof of the house and we could see the helicopters pass by and they didn't drop any food any water anything. . . and it got to a point... where these young men began to think that if they can't see us . . I mean were doing everything. . SOS on the flashlights and everything. . and they wouldn't stop so they were shooting. . . not to shoot AT the helicopters. . . but just thinking maybe they would stop if they heard the noise. . . that they would know that we were there, but that didn't work nothing did......."

Charmaine Neville

".....the reason people were looting....the reason that people were taking tvs and radios - I mean look any reasonable person would know you can't use a TV when you home is flooded - they were using these things to barter with to try to get gas to get out of there....there were using these things to barter with to get out...."

Malik Rahim

30,000 people were in the Dome.

1,000,000 people are now displaced......

After five solid years of Reality TV eliminating all comedy and drama driven programming in every major network (Cable and otherwise) one is forced to ask why the confusion at the actions of people who were in a situation that was beyond comprehension.

Just a few questions - Have we all forgotten:

- the weather has been 97 degrees (with a weather index of 100 in the low country)?

- all areas had no water, ice, food or lights

- that it was a category five hurricane (Check NOAA)

- there were Cajun and Vietnamese fishing communities that lived in seclusion off the beaten path

- with no lights down south it ispitch black

- that the White Citzens Council is made up of people who are also effected by this hurricane terrified, however are conditioned to a certain type of thinking and are armed

- that there are Native American communities who live in these areas

- that all of these individuals who we are seeing lived through the actual Hurricane itself BEFORE going through the ensuing five days.

- that this is a country of cell phones, Cialis, Hummers, Flat Screen TVs, endless internet, and endless fast food restaurants and nothing is being done.

There are more facts that are simply visual:

- there are WHOLE LOT of elders in the African-American communities of the South
- there are many children being born and loved in the African-American communities of the South
- African-Americans love the hell out of their families, co-workers, friends and each other

This experience is being represented in the media in a very skewed and specific manner. Recent headlines of "Water Pumped Out" with 60% of the city still underwater and "New Orleans left to the dead and dying" with families and animals still on rooftops and in attics" should bring one pause.

Listen to all the news carefully and try to decide....

If you had lived to watch the passing of your loved ones and your entire neighborhood -

What would you do.....

.......after SIX DAYS........

Peace

Lose a home, gain a cot at the Astrodome--moving on up!

More of Andrew's work can be found here.

"Providence punishes national sins by national calamities [...] Greater divine judgment is coming upon America unless we repent of the national sin of abortion." - Steve Lefemine, antiabortion activist in Columbia, S.C.

"It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire." - Muhammad Yousef Mlaifi, Kuwaiti official.

"What America is about to experience is the lifting of God's hand of protection; the implementation of His judgment on the nation most responsible for endangering the land and people of Israel." - Stan Goodenough, journalist in Israel.

"We take no joy in the death of innocent people [...] but we believe that God is in control of the weather [...] The day Bourbon Street and the French Quarter was flooded was the day that 125,000 homosexuals were going to be celebrating sin in the streets. ... We're calling it an act of God." - Michael Marcavage, Repent America.

"It's a very risky business ascribing divine intent to natural disasters. Nobody but God really knows why these things occur." - Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute.

"When someone asks 'Why do innocent people suffer?' I will gently remind them that we are not really innocent [...] God did create a perfect world. But we humans introduced moral evil, sin, rebellion and disobedience. And after God judged human sin in Noah's flood, the weather patterns that we know today developed." - Rev. Alex McFarland, Focus on the Family.

[Reason and scorn are the best ways to deal with morons and bullies such as this. What a shame that a penny of public funds goes to their support when real public good could occur if that penny went to secular causes such as medicine and education.]

"Finally, a personal thought. We have come through what may have been one of the worst weeks in America's history, a week in which government at every level failed the people it was created to serve. There is no purpose for government except to improve the lives of its citizens. Yet as scenes of horror that seemed to be coming from some Third World country flashed before us, official Washington was like a dog watching television. It saw the lights and images, but did not seem to comprehend their meaning or see any link to reality. As the floodwaters rose, local officials in New Orleans ordered the city evacuated. They might as well have told their citizens to fly to the moon. How do you evacuate when you don't have a car? No hint of intelligent design in any of this. This was just survival of the richest."

Bob Shieffer from Face the Nation [listing] [video] by way of Crooks and Liars.

New York Times, September 3.

"If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don't think you would be too happy either," Mr. Compass [superintendent of police] said in an interview. "Our vehicles can't get any gas. The water in the street is contaminated. My officers are walking around in wet shoes." ...

Police and fire officials have been begging federal authorities for assistance and criticizing a lack of federal response for several days.

"When I have officers committing suicide," Mr. Compass said, "I think we've reached a point when I don't know what more it's going to take to get the attention of those in control of the response."

Did he wear a codpiece for that one, too?

Specialists working for the New Orleans Notorial Archives have been stymied in trying to return downtown to rescue some of the most historic documents in the city’s history, from original land grants to slave sale records and title records.

Federal troops have refused to let them through checkpoints into the city.

[ . . . ]

Bruno was quick to point out that homeowners shouldn’t worry about others making claim to their properties. Further, “there won’t be any (real estate) transactions until this problem is solved. Sure, a lot of people are going to want to sell and a lot of speculators are going to want to buy.” But without access to the records by abstractors, “It isn’t going to happen,’’ Bruno said. [more]

What if, in the interim, that information is destroyed?

A few items down . . . via MeFi

Tuesday, August 30, 2005
ABC: "Inmates at New Orleans prison riot, taking children hostage"

Friday, September 02, 2005
NOLA:

"We have three main concerns: Orleans Parish Prison, the Superdome and the Convention Center," said Police Capt. Kevin Anderson, commander of the Eighth District, which includes the French Quarter, the city's oldest neighborhood and most valued tourism draw.

[ . . . ]

Texas officials said they were concerned by unconfirmed reports that a group of prisoners under guard had somehow been mixed in with refugees in the bus convoy to Houston's Astrodome. [more]

We've heard a lot about the Superdome and the Convention Center, but what happened to the story at the prison, which is one mile northwest of the Superdome? Last I heard, Ted Koppel was asking the governor about it on Nightline Tuesday night. She said they were looking into it. I read somewhere that they later issued a report that the riot had been bogus--was it? Or was somebody just covering their ass?

I thought of this suddenly after listening to Charmaine Neville's tragic tale, when she says, "I don't know where these people came from." She describes crimes of a very savage nature, too savage for ordinary people dealing with extraordinary circumstances. Is every prisoner accounted for? Is it possible that at least some of these heinous crimes were committed by escaped prisoners they don't want to admit had escaped? If it turns out that some or most or all of these heinous crimes were committed by escaped prisoners, wouldn't this throw a wrench into the Rove line now that goes: "Look at these crimes! These people are savages! [Therefore, don't deserve our attention or help.]"

Thanks, Tabia.

Link here.

When you lying sack of shit?

Don't give me this, "It was the Mayor's fault! It was the Governor's fault!" If I want to see that line of mad cow feces, I can just open up the latest GOP talking points memo. But the FACT is, the responsiblity for this country falling down in it's responsiblity to help it's own people in a time of natural disaster lies at the feet of the Department of Homeland Security and the President. Says who? Says the Department of Homeland Security:

In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America's families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS. [source]

And really, where does the buck finally stop? At the feet of the President. As the most powerful man in the world, he could have done something about what happened along the gulf and especially in New Orleans sooner. He could have started with cutting his vacation short.

What happened this past week has shamed all good Americans, regardless of political affiliations. And I don't care if the President was from the frickin' Green Party--if he had acted like Bush last week I'd also be screaming for his [metaphorical] head on a pike. Even righties like David Brooks--to his credit--have uttered the obvious:

Brooks: ...but to reiterate the point I made earlier, which is this is the anti-9/11.

Just in terms of public confidence. When 9/11 happened, Giuliani, was right there. And just as a public presence, he was forceful. No public presence like that now.

So you had a surge of strength; people felt good about the country even though we'd been hit on 9/11. Now we've been hit again in a different way (and) people feel lousy. People feel ashamed. And in part that it because of the public presentation. In part that is because of the failure of Bush to understand immediately the shame people felt.

Sitting up there on the airplane and looking out the window? That was terrible!

And the three days of doing nothing, really, on Bush was terrible.

Even today, I found myself -- and as you know, I support his policies quite often ? (but I) look at him today, and earlier in the program...this is how Mark Shields must feel looking at them. I'm angry at the guy, and maybe it'll pass for me, but a lot of people, and a lot of Republicans, uh, are furious right now. [more]

Who is left to defend the President as he did nothing for days while hundreds died?

Hardcore Bush Loyalists. Fascists. Skinheads. Racist motherfuckers. Fuck you all. You do not deserve a place in modern America. You do not deserve a place in the modern world.

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city. [...] “New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again." [...] Shanks heeded warnings to evacuate New Orleans, and is currently staying with friends in the Jackson, Mississippi, area.

[It would be a better world if no one thought as Reverend Bill Shanks thinks. How can we make such a world?]

"We’re getting reports of how some religion-based 'aid' groups are trying to fly evangelists into the stricken areas and how U.S. Army Chaplains are carrying Bibles – not food or water – to 'comfort' people at the New Orleans Superdome," said Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists. "People need material aid, medical care and economic support – not prayers and preaching."

For those who believe that we have eternal souls that demand saving, it makes perfect sense to use the limited space and funds available for any rescue mission not for food and medicine but for Bibles, Qurans, and other spell books. It sure is cheaper to let somebody die and say their 'soul' is saved than to actually save them. For those who don't baby talk to invisible monsters that live in the sky there are efforts such as the Secular Humanist Aid and Relief Effort (SHARE). All donations to SHARE from this campaign will go to AmeriCares for the benefit of victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Army Times reports: "Combat operations are underway on the streets 'to take this city back' in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 'This place is going to look like Little Somalia,' Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. 'We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.' [...] 'We're here to do whatever they need us to do,' Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. 'We packed to stay as long as it takes.' While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes. [emphasis added]

[Army Times, "trusted resource for Army news and information," has referred to the citizens of New Orleans as insurgents. Has civil war returned to the United States?]

While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat” episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death.

This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name.

Bush's dereliction of duty has doomed hundreds--probably more--to death. I am now promoting my own version of 'zero tolerance'--zero tolerance for Bush apologists. This includes zero tolerance for skinheads who are happy to see so many black people die.

It's also time to investigate the alleged relationship between the Bush family and eugenics.

Here's President George W. Bush on Hurricane Katrina, September 2, 2005 10:35 A.M. CDT:

"We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles [sic] of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter.)

This quote from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050902-2.html - that is, this is a press release from the Whitehouse itself.

Tens of thousands feared dead, major American city destroyed, utter lack of competency in Federal government response. (Laughter).

[Note: some of the best coverage on New Orleans I've seen is coming from boing boing. This and many of my recent posts are from there.]

. . . said the National Guardsman to a Reuters photographer at the Convention Center in NO.

Something weird is happening in Baghdad-West. The US government - using all of its tentacles - is refusing or blocking those who are trying to help the hurricane victims. Why? Incompetence and ignorance? Or something more sinister? I'm going to use this post as a link dump for all these types of stories in order to try and make sense of it all. Feel free to post in the comments any you come across I will add them here.

Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.

Cops refuse donations at Astrodome.

FEMA refuses Chicago Mayor's offer for help.

US won't let Canada help Katrina victims.

Who ordered the levee breach repair helicopters to stop their repairs?

Guardsmen Halt Evacuation at Superdome.

Residents of concentration camp Superdome kept prisoner by army, unable to leave, left to starve in their own wastes.

Slow response bewilders former FEMA officials.

Civilian rescue teams ordered to stop rescue missions.

UPDATES: FEMA turns away water from Wal-Mart, cuts emergency communication lines.

Orthodox Anarchist: Katrina: Bush Admin Knew, Couldn't Give A Fuck (more links).

Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food.

National Guard not allowing aid into the city.

Guardsmen 'played cards' amid New Orleans chaos: police official.

Why did FEMA reject offers of aid from other countries? (Russia, Venezuela etc.)

International relief efforts for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina are being stalled by inaction from the White House and State Department (scroll to Sept. 3 post).

Stony-faced Sean Hannity shows no compassion to their impassioned reports. He must be thinking, "How will this affect Der Fuhrer?"

Links to video in the link.

A Declaration of The People of the United States of America Concerning the Present Crisis in the City of New Orleans.

In the name of the People of the United States of America, we declare:

That for the last four and a half years the President and his administration have served the interests of a few wealthy citizens and not the interests of the American People.

That he has acted with contempt for the People and for the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

That an edict of the Supreme Court made him President in 2000 and fraud made him President again in 2004.

That the President has pursued an unprecedented expansion of Executive powers that are a grave threat to the rights and liberties of the American People.

That he has made war on sovereign nations that are no threat to the American People.

That his "War on Terror" has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives without bringing those responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to justice.

That the failure of his leadership in the present crisis in the City of New Orleans has resulted in the deaths of thousands more.

That he is derelict in every duty of his office.

Therefore, we resolve:

That President George W. Bush and his administration are illegitimate.

That he should resign from office and new elections should be held immediately.

That if he does not resign, the Congress of the United States should act to remove him from office.

That if the Congress should fail to act, the People will exercise their right to abolish this state and will establish a new government that will better secure their rights and liberties.

[more]

I'll add my name to this. That's it for me. I'd have enough. Let's put all options on the table. This must not stand.

Jerusalem Newswire suggests, well insists, that the destruction being wrought by hurricane Katrina in America is God's punishment for America foisting the disengagement plan on poor little Israel

What America is about to experience is the lifting of God’s hand of protection; the implementation of His judgment on the nation most responsible for endangering the land and people of Israel.

The Bible talks about Him shaking His fist over bodies of water, and striking them....

...Many in America couldn’t have cared less about Jews being forced out of their homes and losing everything they have built. Here in Israel, many Jews will be feeling for the Americans who are now facing similar tragedies, tragedies brought about by the forces of heaven rather than through the political power of men.

Can’t you see the link, America? Won’t you see the link?

Here, read the whole thing.

"The U.S. government released a list of charitable groups collecting contributions to help Hurricane Katrina victims that is dominated by religious organizations and excludes many secular and international relief groups. [...] Besides the American Red Cross, the only other secular group listed on FEMA's Web site is Chicago-based America's Second Harvest, which is one of the nation's biggest hunger-relief organizations. The list includes relief groups representing most major denominations and religions, including Lutherans, Presbyterians, Jews, Baptists and Catholics, as well as the Salvation Army."

Secular disaster relief agencies mentioned in the article but not by FEMA:
Operation USA http://www.opusa.org/
Mercy Corps http://www.mercycorps.org/
AmeriCares http://www.americares.org/

I support disaster relief, be it from secular or theist sources. I do not support FEMA favoring religious disaster relief over secular disaster relief, as appears to be happening. This atheist has $200 left in the bank because he gave $20 to the Red Cross yesterday - now it is your turn.

As you're watching all this footage of people in Louisiana and Mississippi sleeping in overcrowded gymnasiums, their homes destroyed, loved ones missing, jobs lost… just remember that YOUR money is going to pay Gaza "settlers" $200,000 to $300,000 per family to relocate from their cushy housing projects along the Mediterranean. Think any of your fellow citizens will get a deal anywhere near that sweet?

Local Seattle DJ and activist Kerri Harrop has this to say tonite:

I have been watching the live feed of the Concert For Hurricane Relief, broadcast on MSNBC. My curiosity was piqued when I saw that the line-up of presenters included the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears, two people I do not normally turn to in times of crisis.

The concert is, of course, painful to watch but obviously for a good cause. You can’t dis any effort that is being made to provide aid to those that desperately need it. I had it on in the background while I finished my work for the day, not really paying much attention. Until the moment came, about 40 minutes into the broadcast, when Mike Meyers and Kanye West were sharing the stage.

Mike started things off, with a plea for help. It was then Kanye’s turn to speak. As he began, it became very clear that he was not reading from the prepared script. While Mike Meyers nervously looked from Kanye to the screen and then back, Kanye unleashed the following:

“I hate the way they portray us in the media, if you see a black family it says they’re looting, if you see a white family it says they’re looking for food. And, you know, it’s been five days. Because most of the people are black. And, even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite. Because, I’ve tried to turn away from the tv because it’s too hard too watch. I’ve even been shopping before even giving a donation. So, now I’m calling my business manager right now to see what’s, what is the biggest amount I can give.

And, and just to imagine if I was, if I was down there and those are, those are my people down there so anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help.

With the set up, the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well off, as slow as possible. I mean, this is, Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way and they, they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us.”

During this entire speech, he was visibly nervous and stammering. Mike Meyers then stepped in with a few obviously scripted words, while Kanye stood, looking angry and upset. Mike finished talking and Kanye then made a statement that made me really sit up and notice. He looked straight at the camera and said, quite simply, yet with authority:

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Mike Meyers looked panic stricken and the camera was abruptly cut from them.

NBC is set to re-broadcast this tonight and I will bet you whatever you like that they will not include this segment. For those wondering, I transcribed Kanye’s script directly from the broadcast. Although it is a bit disjointed, the dude really tried to make his point.

I finally have respect for TIVO.

Things continue to get increasingly surreal.

xx kerri

Update: Already this is 'viral video'.

Government lawyers asked a federal judge in Fort Myers to rule that it shouldn't have to turn over Federal Emergency Management Agency records sought by three Florida newspapers. [...] FEMA lawyers argued in a motion for summary judgment that was filed late Wednesday that there is little public interest in how the agency spent its disaster aid money. The feds also argued that the information is not public, that it's protected by privacy laws and exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. The newspapers contend that the information is public and citizens have the right to learn how the government is spending its money.

"FEMA acknowledges spending $5.5 billion taxpayer dollars after the hurricanes yet doesn't seem to understand why the public is entitled to know where and how that money was spent," said Jim Lake of the Holland & Knight law firm in Tampa, the newspapers' attorney. "The public interest in this information is enormous, and we hope the court will order its release."

[The above is from 12 August 2005. Will FEMA be more forthcoming now that they have a bigger disaster on their hands? Maybe we shouldn't ask questions, since the government always puts our tax dollars to such good use.]

"I hope people don't play politics at this time of a natural disaster the likes of which this country has never seen."

Oh, I'm touched. Utterly touched. After 9/11, the entire Republican Party went en masse to get Twin Towers ass tattoos. The Republican convention was a wholesale tribute to crass exploitation, the sets themselves designed to evoke the aftermath of the attack. Every domestic and international policy this administration -- no, this entire Republican government -- has produced has been heaved up before the public while waving the spectre of 9/11 as the catch-all vindication of every administration whim. Every tax cut, every civil rights issue, every budget cut, every budget expansion, no matter how tortured the logic must be, has some Republican senator standing on the Senate floor and proudly raping the corpses of that day as justification for their particular agenda item.

--Hunter, Daily Kos

Recently our good friend Mr. Reynolds--proud founding member of the League of Evil Bloggers and a man who won't proudly claim his GOP heritage yet repeats the party's talking point mantras over and over and over again--has told us to not to politicize this hurricane thing. Right. This from a man who can't help commenting on our Dear Leader's Glorious War of Liberation, or links approvingly to a guy who wants to turn dissent into treason, or smears every pop star who points out the incompetency, idiocy and outright evil of the Bush administration. He's so above the fray and all.

With this history in mind, let me state: Fuck you Glenn Reynolds. Fuck you. And your treasonous ilk. And visit the new same named blog here.

Here are a list of links that point to the Bush administration's incompetence. And, unfortunately, bad policy kills. We need to remember that Glenn and Michele and Pejman and the Powerline folks supported this evil incompetency. We must never forget. Never.

Bush bungles it again: Federal government wasn't ready for Katrina, disaster experts say
Category 4 Hurricane Determined to Strike U.S. -- Cont
Spin and Lies
"[No One] Anticipated the Breach of the Levees"
Even the corporate media gets it
Molly Ivins: 'Why New Orleans is in deep water'
Sidney Blumenthal: 'No one can say they didn't see it coming'
The Difference Between Democrats and Republicans (Bankruptcy relief)
Atrios on that unbelievable shoot the looters WH Press Conference
New Orleans as a casualty of the war in Iraq

One more thing: the kind of talk that we saw before the hurricane hit is the kind of talk we get about global warming, about mad cow disease, about the possibility that terrorist groups would have nothing to lose by unleashing wmds, about the futility of the Iraq war and etcetera onward to infinity. Worst president, ever.

Back a month ago, the media noted that our administration has chosen to support a dangerous and vindictive "religion," L. Ron Hubbard’s "Scientology" farce. Margarita Lopez, a Manhattan, New York, council member successfully lobbied for $630,000 in funding of a controversial Scientology “medical treatment” for rescue workers who worked on the 9/11 disaster, and then received nearly $100,000 in her political campaign account from Hubbard followers.

The "New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project," which based its "therapy" on Hubbard’s book, "Clear Body, Clear Mind," called for the rescue workers to abandon traditional medical treatment in favor of large amounts of niacin, long sauna baths and exercise. Hubbard was against all pharmaceuticals and preached "natural" modes of treatment. Of further interest to us is the fact that the "Project" was co-founded by Scientologist Tom Cruise. Questioned about the wisdom of Hubbard’s system, Lopez asked, "This is a program that should be funded. Who are the stupid people who are criticizing it?" Well, Ms. Lopez, just about everyone who doesn’t believe that intergalactic alien octopi were here billions of years ago imprisoning criminal souls in volcanoes...

Not to our astonishment, the "Project" also has supporters in Congress. Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Charles Rangel have both come out in favor of it and Representatives Vito Fossella and Carolyn McCarthy have requested $1.5 million in federal funds for the New York programs. But, after all, Scientology is a religion, and offers "faith-based" reasons for acceptance, so it must be okay with the White House, right?

So the Gulf Coast has gone all Mad Max, women are being raped in the Superdome, and Rice is enjoying a brief vacation in New York. We wish we were surprised.

What does surprise us: Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman.

Angry Lady, whoever you are, we love you. You are a true American, and we’ll go shoe shopping with you anytime. [more]

Shock has turned to fury. How can it be possible a major American city has been destroyed? And why did it have to be New Orleans, of all cities? Compared to New Orleans, ninety percent of the rest of the country is milquetoast. Now the great birthplace of jazz and mardi gras is submerged and it's populace--those still alive--are hungry, hurting, thirsty and dying, and what the fuck is the so-called leadership in this country doing about it? Do you think for one minute that if New Orleans and Missippippi and the rest of the gulf coast down there were populated entirely by pretty young white girls that George Bush wouldn't be "moving heaven and earth" to save them?

This is George Bush, right here. Why cut short your vacation for an ugly piece of weather? Do I really give a rat's ass about the poor black folk of Louisiana and Mississippi? Pundits on Fox have already voiced this opinion out loud: "Why should we pay for people who live under the sea level? Why should we pay for people who live on the San Andreas fault or along the Mississippi? They knew what they were doing. There are responsible, and we, after all, are the party of personal responsibility."

At least one man has already committed suicide, leapt off a piece of highway to his death. Nobody noticed his body for a while until someone finally covered it with a sheet. Many more on the highway bake under the hot, southern sun without food, water, access to toilets, etc. They have nothing. No, wait. Some have something. Some have the dead body of their decades-long spouse slowly decomposing under a blanket next to them.

Where is the National fucking Guard? If this isn't what the National Guard is for, what the hell are they for? For helping Halliburton steal oil in Iraq? What the hell is a government for if not to help your own fucking people in a natural disaster? A natural disaster whose final effects could have been avoided! Bush says: "We stand with you."

WE ARE YOU! THIS IS THE SAME FUCKING COUNTRY YOU FUCKING MORON!

GET THESE PEOPLE HELP AND GET THEM HELP NOW!

...Free Republic and the their right-wing youth group of “ironic” Protest Warriors were repeatedly thanked for their support and participation in the rally. The Protest Warriors are young people who usually appear at anti-war related activities with slogans based on “right-wing irony,” such as “War Has Never Solved Anything (except for everything).” However, in a odd turn of events, and despite repeated pleadings that “we are on your side, we are on the right,” the rally turned on these kids. Shouting “Cindy Go Home!” a small mob gathered around the three or four Protest Warriors, attacked their oversized signs, and began stomping on the signs.

Visibly shaken, the Protest Warriors beat a retreat from the rally to the chants of “Get Out of Here Liars!” Over and over again, “We are on your side” were meet by “Liars!” One man clarified that even if they were trying to support the war, they were confusing people, and that “it is the devil who wanted to sew confusion.” It is safe to say that irony, or any opinions that hinted at “shades of gray” were not welcome in Bush Country.

The Louisiana coastline may have been so badly damaged by the hurricane because manmade engineering of the delta has led to erosion of natural defences, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The engineering of the last 100 years that has reworked the Mississippi delta with thousands of miles of levees and flood barriers to protect communities and aid navigation, has also disturbed natural barriers which traditionally prevented storm surges and protected against hurricanes, says the society. [...] The damage done this time may be also linked to White House cuts in funding for hurricane defence to pay for homeland security terrorist defences. Lloyd Dumas, professor of political economy and economics at the University of Texas at Dallas, criticised the government's failure to oversee a more efficient evacuation. "It's remarkable that with the massive restructuring of the federal government that took place with the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, they don't have more well thought-out plans to evacuate a city like New Orleans," he said.

As teachers, both of us have found that asking our students to analyse controversies is of enormous value to their education. What is wrong, then, with teaching both sides of the alleged controversy between evolution and creationism or "intelligent design" (ID)? And, by the way, don't be fooled by the disingenuous euphemism. There is nothing new about ID. It is simply creationism camouflaged with a new name to slip (with some success, thanks to loads of tax-free money and slick public-relations professionals) under the radar of the US Constitution's mandate for separation between church and state.

Why, then, would two lifelong educators and passionate advocates of the "both sides" style of teaching join with essentially all biologists in making an exception of the alleged controversy between creation and evolution? What is wrong with the apparently sweet reasonableness of "it is only fair to teach both sides"? The answer is simple. This is not a scientific controversy at all. And it is a time-wasting distraction because evolutionary science, perhaps more than any other major science, is bountifully endowed with genuine controversy.

Among the controversies that students of evolution commonly face, these are genuinely challenging and of great educational value: neutralism versus selectionism in molecular evolution; adaptationism; group selection; punctuated equilibrium; cladism; "evo-devo"; the "Cambrian Explosion"; mass extinctions; interspecies competition; sympatric speciation; sexual selection; the evolution of sex itself; evolutionary psychology; Darwinian medicine and so on. The point is that all these controversies, and many more, provide fodder for fascinating and lively argument, not just in essays but for student discussions late at night.

Intelligent design is not an argument of the same character as these controversies. It is not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one. It might be worth discussing in a class on the history of ideas, in a philosophy class on popular logical fallacies, or in a comparative religion class on origin myths from around the world. But it no more belongs in a biology class than alchemy belongs in a chemistry class, phlogiston in a physics class or the stork theory in a sex education class. In those cases, the demand for equal time for "both theories" would be ludicrous. Similarly, in a class on 20th-century European history, who would demand equal time for the theory that the Holocaust never happened?

Cornelia Dean: Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much. "One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century." [As Jesus confirmed in Judges 5:31]

Yahoo News: Pope Tells Catholics to Multiply. "Pope Benedict XVI told Catholics to have more babies 'for the good of society,' saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates. 'Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society,' he told about 15,000 people at his weekly audience in the Vatican, to which he arrived by helicopter from his summer residence southeast of Rome." [As Jesus commanded in Genesis 1:28]

Beth Rucker: God Punishing GIs Over Gays. "Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq." [As Jesus condoned in Leviticus 20:13]

Repent America: Hurricane Katriana Destroys New Orleans Days Before 'Southern Decadence.' "Just days before 'Southern Decadence,' an annual homosexual celebration attracting tens of thousands of people to the French Quarters section of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina destroys the city." [As Jesus applauded in Jude 1:7]

Associated Press: Florida Mom, 5 Kids Roam Street Naked With Bibles. "A mother is behind bars after St. Petersburg police say she and her five children were seen on the street naked and carrying Bibles." [As Jesus ordered in Isaiah 20:2]

["Hey, Jesus didn't say any of that stuff!" Except He did - repeatedly. Spend part of each day using reason and scorn to contribute to the withering away the of religion of your choice.]

"If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. "They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."

[Only the USA is allowed to seize Iraq's oil fields, got me?]