William Bennett Doesn't Care About Black People

If you haven't heard by now, check out the comments that William Bennett (former Secretary of Education under Reagan) made on his talk radio show.

But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.

You need to read the AP article to understand the context of why he even said this but better yet is that he apologizes for saying that "his point was that the idea of supporting abortion to reduce crime was 'morally reprehensible.'" Note that the AP article makes no mention of an apology for his overt racism.

[10/1/2005 Updated Links] Original Washington Post link now points to a new article on Bennett defending his statements as a mis-characterization. Originally intended story here from ABC.

And you want join the EU?

A Washington-based human rights group has accused Turkey of subjecting mental health patients to serious abuses, including electric shock treatment without anesthesia, and is urging the European Union to demand an end to the practices.

Mental Disability Rights International published the report days before Turkey is scheduled to start negotiations to join the European Union. Human rights will be included in the discussions beginning Monday.

People with mental or psychiatric disorders are "subjected to treatment practices that are tantamount to torture," the report said...

The group said electric shock therapy were "massively overused in Turkish psychiatric facilities in cases for which there is no clinically proven justification," and that they were used as a form of punishment.

"(Electric shock) without the use of anesthesia and muscle relaxants violates all internationally accepted medical standards," the report said...

The head of Bakirkoy Psychiatric Hospital, Turkey's largest mental health facility, said that 40-60 people undergo electric shock treatment at the hospital every day.

"We're carrying out (electric shock) under orders from the Health Ministry for patients who really need it," Musa Tosun told NTV television. "There are patients who cannot be given anesthesia."

Tosun said electric shock can also be used on children and even pregnant women. "(Electric shock) is harmless, it is even safer to give (it) to a pregnant woman with depression than medication," Tosun said.

The report said researchers also saw bedridden children who were unable to feed themselves and left without help.

"Investigators observed children emaciated from starvation," the report said. "Staff reported children dying from starvation and dehydration."

One of the main issues keeping Turkey out of the EU for the time being is its Human Rights record its non-recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

It's Gettin' Hot in Herrr

The evidence isn't conclusive cause this just might be due to normal climate fluctuations but this could be signs of fun times to come.

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 Revolution Against Evolution

So, after reading about this ongoing trial, both Fenton and I scratched our heads and said, WHA?? It's like we've stepped into a Medieval time warp in which a scientist like Galileo can face torture and execution for declaring that the Earth revolves around the Sun!
E pur si muove...

Science teachers at the high school in Dover [Pennsylvania] repeatedly resisted the school board's efforts to force them to teach creationism on equal footing with evolution in biology class, according to a former teacher who is among those challenging the board in a landmark trial.

The conflict in Dover grew so heated that in public meetings board members called opponents "atheists," threatened to fire the science teachers and invoked Jesus' crucifixion as a reason to change the curriculum, two witnesses testified on Tuesday.

"We would repeatedly tell them, 'We're not going to balance evolution with creationism. It's an inappropriate request,' " said Bryan Rehm, who once taught physics in Dover and is one of 11 plaintiffs in the suit. The trial here is the first in the nation to test whether public schools can teach intelligent design - the notion that living organisms are so complex they must have been designed by a higher intelligence - or whether the theory is simply a fig leaf for creationism...

We are not teaching intelligent design," Mr. Bonsell said. "I've said that a million times and the news media just doesn't get it. I challenge everybody to read the statement and show me what was religious in the statement."

But Aralene Callahan, a former board member, testified that Mr. Bonsell, the chairman of the curriculum committee, said at a school board retreat in 2003 that he did not believe in evolution and wanted "50-50" treatment in biology class forcreationism and evolution...

At a board meeting in June 2004, the plaintiffs say that Mr. Buckingham declared from the podium: "Two thousand years ago, someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?"...

The plaintiffs believe the reference to the crucifixion is so crucial to establishing the board's religious motivation that they have subpoenaed the two York newspaper reporters, who have refused to testify.

[Other articles below - comments by Fenton]
Here are 2 earlier articles from Laurie Goodstein who is apparently covering this trial for the NY Times:
- Background on the trial:

With the new political empowerment of religious conservatives, challenges to evolution are popping up with greater frequency in schools, courts and legislatures. But the Dover case, which begins Monday in Federal District Court in Harrisburg, is the first direct challenge to a school district that has tried to mandate the teaching of intelligent design.

What happens here could influence communities across the country that are considering whether to teach intelligent design in the public schools, and the case, regardless of the verdict, could end up before the Supreme Court.
...
"You can dress up intelligent design and make it look like science, but it just doesn't pass muster," said Mr. Stough, a Republican whose idea of a fun family vacation is visiting fossil beds and natural history museums. "In science class, you don't say to the students, 'Is there gravity, or do you think we have rubber bands on our feet?'"

- Start of the trial:

Intelligent design is not science, has no support from any major American scientific organization and does not belong in a public school science classroom, a prominent biologist testified on the opening day of the nation's first legal battle over whether it is permissible to teach the fledgling "design" theory as an alternative to evolution.

"To my knowledge, every single scientific society that has taken a position on this issue has taken a position against intelligent design and in favor of evolution," said the biologist, Kenneth R. Miller, a professor at Brown University and the co-author of the widely used high school textbook "Biology."

I think that last quote encapsulates the way I feel about this whole thing very nicely. If people want to introduce intelligent design into school curricula, fine. Yeah, I said "fine." But don't put it in a Science class cause it simply isn't science. Put it in religion class. And if they do that, they sure as shit better include some other beginning of the universe theories in there and not something that's purely Anglo-Christian centric. If a school board approves that type of class, I'm all for it. That's just giving the people what they want right? But to put it in a Science class is ridiculous.

War for Oil?

I guess I'm on a sad irony kick so I couldn't help but link to this NY Times article on how Dubya is urging the country to conserve oil by driving less. I never really bought into the whole argument that the Iraq War was started just for oil. I'd like to think that it just serves as a reference point for all the real reasons the war was started.

If oil really was a factor in it at all, it's kind of ironic that we are in the bind we find ourselves in what with the recent hurricanes taking out oil intake ports in LA and now oil refineries in TX.

Maybe that Intelligent Designer simply missed with Katrina and had to take a second shot with Rita. Oh the hilarity.

New Bankruptcy Laws and what it means for Katrina Victims

So, remember a few months ago when the Republicans passed a bill that would tighten the reigns on bankruptcy laws so that people can take personal responsibility for their own debt? No? Well you weren't paying attention and you should have. The stricter new personal bankruptcy law is to take effect on Oct. 17, intended to keep individuals from taking on debts they had no intention of paying off. It doesn't take into account genuine catastrophe like a medical emergency or a giant hurricane leveling your house, your job, your dog, your kids' school, and the rest of your personal belongings.

Right after Hurricane Katrina struck, several lawmakers - mostly Democrats but including some Senate Republicans - suggested that storm victims along the Gulf Coast should get relief from the new law's stricter provisions, which are intended to screen filers by income and make those with higher incomes repay their debts over several years. Under the old law, which remains in effect until mid-October, many more filers can have their debts canceled quickly in federal bankruptcy courts. But House Republicans, who fought off a proposed amendment that would have made bankruptcy filings easier for victims of natural disasters, said there was no reason to carve out a broad exemption just because of the storm...

In the meantime, many victims of Hurricane Katrina - and the much smaller group ruined by Hurricane Rita - will face a kind of Catch-22. Those who try to beat the Oct. 17 deadline in hopes of filing under the less-onerous current law may find it impossible to do so, because residence rules generally require that individuals seek protection against creditors in their hometowns. (Assuming people in New Orleans can find their lawyers and records, they can file for bankruptcy protection in their bankruptcy court, which has reopened and is sharing space with another court in Baton Rouge.)

Moreover, most people displaced by the storm will probably not know for months if they even need to file for bankruptcy. By that time, the tougher new law will be in force...

The new law also requires every individual to undergo credit counseling before filing for bankruptcy protection. "It's not right to make people who lost everything go through a course about how to manage their finances," Mr. Botes said...

"If you admit that the bill is bad for Katrina victims," [Professor LoPucki] said, "then there's really no reason it isn't bad for the others, too. They're all in some kind of problem. For most of them, it's largely their fault. But for a lot of them, it isn't their fault."

But what you of corporations? At least they will now have to pay up too, right? Wrong! Corporations can still declare bankruptcy and gain protection from creditors whether the underlying reason was a genuine catastrophe or sheer mismanagement.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go In the Water Again... Armed Dolphins Trained by the Navy!

Yeah, that photo looks totally fabricated but it came from a navy.mil website so I'm gonna say that it could be real.

In any case, things just don't get wackier than this. In one of those stories that is funny till someone ends up dead, there are some theories based on reasonable-sounding information that some Navy Trained attack/defense dolphins are likely loose in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

[Thanks to Engadget and/or Gizmodo for this one.]

Those in Power Taking Advantage of a Tragedy? Duh, Of course!

Disturbing and outrageous news left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina just doesn't seem to run out. I thought the stunned surprise we all had at the incompetence and indifference of those in charge of the Katrina relief and rescue efforts was finally starting to subside but here's some great news on how politicians are already taking advantage of the situation:

Congress appropriated $62.3 billion in emergency financing after Hurricane Katrina struck. So far, a total of $15.8 billion has been allocated from a FEMA-managed disaster relief fund, of which $11.6 billion has been committed through contracts, direct aid to individuals or work performed by government agencies.

An examination of the contracts granted to date and interviews with state and federal officials raised concerns about some of the awards.

Some industry and government officials questioned the costs of the debris-removal contracts, saying the Army Corps of Engineers had allowed a rate that was too high. And Congressional investigators are looking into the $568 million awarded to AshBritt, a Pompano Beach, Fla., company that was a client of the former lobbying firm of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

The investigators are asking how much money AshBritt will collect and, in turn, what it will pay subcontractors performing the work, said a House investigator who did not want her name used because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

While it seemed like a creative solution at the time, the leasing of cruise ship space for Katrina evacuees has turned out to be a ridiculous waste of money and resources. I don't buy the argument that these questionable contracts are merely a result of motivated people trying to get things done for one simple reason: These friends of the rich will likely end up with handsome profits while the average people from the storm devastated areas are being legislated into poverty and unfair wages.

If you can stand to be further sickened by the whole Katrina rescue fiasco, check out this really comprehensive summary of the Katrina aftermath in New Orleans. Yeah, it's a couple weeks old but I finally got around to linking to it ok?

Banned Books Week

You may not know it, but this week is Banned Books Week. When I first heard about this last year, I was kind of surprised that so many popular and well-respected classics have been banned in recent history. Sure, we've all heard that The Catcher in the Rye was banned back in the day, but now? Yup, it's still going on as is 21st century book burning in the United States of America. The American Library Association compiled a list of the most frequently challenged books from 1990 - 2000 and they include:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The full list can be found here.

From the New York Times:

"Censorship comes in a lot of ways and from all directions," said Marie Nesthus, chief librarian of the Donnell Media Center, which is part of the New York Public Library system.

The urge to censor is as old as recorded civilization, but it took modern democracy to make censorship a participatory sport, in which any individual could try to control what everyone else was allowed to see.

Public schools and libraries are particularly vulnerable. For instance, a mother in Arkansas who did not want her children reading Harry Potter books because they "promote witchcraft" succeeded in restricting access to them for all children in her local libraries. A small but vocal group in Bushwick, Brooklyn, mistaking "Nappy Hair," by the black author Carolivia Herron, for a racist text, drove a white teacher out of her school for reading it to the class. Since 1991, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom has compiled an annual list of books that librarians, teachers or others report have been challenged; there were 547 challenges in 2004, up 25 percent from 2003...

"This wave started with the religious right around 1980,"[Judy Blume, 2004 National Book Award winner] said. "And it's contagious. It has spread, so that anybody, including the liberal left, can say, 'I don't want my kid to read that book, therefore I don't want that book around for any kid to read.' "

For more information please visit the American Library Association and Amnesty International.

What Us, Worry?

No matter what you think of the relationship between Saudi Arabian aristocracy and the Bush Administration, any less than positive comments coming from Saudi Arabia has to make you sit up and listen. This also serves as quite a reality check given all the propaganda we're being fed by the Bush Administration that we're making such great progress in Iraq.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he had been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war.

"There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," he said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy here. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart." He said he was so concerned that he was carrying this message "to everyone who will listen" in the Bush administration.

Prince Saud's statements, some of the most pessimistic public comments on Iraq by a Middle Eastern leader in recent months, were in stark contrast to the generally upbeat assessments that the White House and the Pentagon have been offering.

As expected, the White House is vehemently denying Saudi Arabia's assessment cause they couldn't possibly provide an accurate assessment right?

Barbie, Muslim-Style

The little doll who has the power to destroy little girls' self-esteem is at it again. Well not exactly a Barbie, this one's called Fulla and she's the hottest new toy in the Middle East.

Fulla is the dark-eyed doll with, as her creator puts it, "Muslim values." She roughly shares Barbie's size and proportions, but steps out of her shiny pink box wearing a black abaya and matching head scarf. She is named after a type of jasmine that grows in the Levant, and although she has an extensive and beautiful wardrobe (sold separately, of course), Fulla is usually displayed wearing her modest "outdoor fashion."...

Young girls here are obsessed with Fulla, and conservative parents who would not dream of buying Barbies for their daughters seem happy to pay for a modest doll who has her own tiny prayer rug, in pink felt. Children who want to dress like their dolls can buy a matching, girl-size prayer rug and cotton scarf set, all in pink....

In Damascus, a Fulla doll sells for about $16, in a country where average per capita income hovers around $100 per month. And yet, said Nawal al-Sayeedi, a clerk at the Space Toon toy store in the city's upscale Abou Roumaneh neighborhood, Fulla flies off the shelves...

Not everyone sees Fulla as such a positive influence. Maan Abdul Salam, a Syrian women's rights advocate, said Fulla was emblematic of a trend toward Islamic conservatism sweeping the Middle East. Though statistics are hard to come by, he said, the percentage of young Arab women who wear the hijab is far higher now than it was a decade ago, and though many girls are wearing it by choice, others are being pressured to do so.

"If this doll had come out 10 years ago, I don't think it would have been very popular," he said. "Fulla is part of this great cultural shift. Syria used to be a very secular country," he added, "but when people don't have anything to believe in anymore, they turn toward religion." ...

But Jyza Sybai , a lanky, tomboyish Saudi 10-year-old, visiting Syria with her family for a short vacation, disagreed. "All my friends have Fulla now, but I still like Barbie the best," Jyza said. "She has blond hair and cool clothes. Every single girl in Saudi looks like Fulla, with the dark hair and the black scarf. "What's so special about that?"

Poor, poor young Muslim girls. Then again we have the anorexic blond-bimbo Barbie to contend with. Thank you male dominated corporations for making girls all over the world have skewed body image and fucked up sense of self.

A Pentagon Cover-Up?

Conspiracy theorists unite! This one's a doozie.

Senators from both parties accused the Defense Department on Wednesday of obstructing an investigation into whether a highly classified intelligence program known as Able Danger did indeed identify Mohamed Atta and other future hijackers as potential threats well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The complaints came after the Pentagon blocked several witnesses from testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a public hearing on Wednesday. The only testimony provided by the Defense Department came from a senior official who would say only that he did not know whether the claims were true...

Erik Kleinsmith, a former Army major who was involved in early stages of Able Danger, told the committee that, by April 2000, the program had collected "an immense amount of data for analysis that allowed us to map Al Qaeda as a worldwide threat with a surprisingly significant presence within the United States." Mr. Kleinsmith said that his affiliation with the project ended about that time and that he had no recollection of information that identified Mr. Atta.

But Mr. Kleinsmith told the committee that he had been "forced to destroy all the data, charts and other analytical product" in compliance with Army regulations that prohibit keeping data related to American citizens and others, including permanent residents who have legal protections, unless the data falls under one of several restrictive categories.

What is the Pentagon hiding? Is it just that they don't want to look retarded or inept, or is it something more sinister...

Celebrity Crack Ho

Ok, that's unfair, Kate Moss is only a coke ho. She's been a notorious user and abuser for as long as we knew her but now she's come out and admitted it and H&M is dropping her as the centerpiece of a big ad campaign they were about to run. I'm not sure how to feel about this one but it is kinda sad to see someone fall on their face like this from such great heights. At the same time, I can't really empathize with super-rich, super-thin super-models.

That Old-Timey iPod Transistor Radio

For all you Macintosh following, iPod carrying, Steve Jobs worshiping hipsters (Fenton), here's a bit of news. Everything old is new again! Take the soon-to-be obsolete iPod Mini and compare it to the very spiffy 1954 Regency TR-1 transistor radio, the world's first commercially sold transistor pocket radio.

Small enough to hold in your hand, and powered by batteries, it came in a variety of delicious colors, including green, pearlescent blue, lavender, white and red.

The device went on sale just in time for hip young gadget freaks to hear Elvis Presley singing That's All Right - recognized by many as the moment at which rock'n'roll was born.

The TR-1 was marketed under the slogan "See it! Hear it! Get it!"

The similarities are pretty amusing. Even more amusing is that Apple has declined to comment. Whatchu hiding Steve Jobs!

Separate but Equal?

Over the past two weeks, Texas education officials have enrolled more than 40,000 displaced students, almost all of them from the New Orleans region. New teachers have been hired, new textbooks ordered and entire school buildings taken out of mothballs. Like other states, Texas has integrated the Katrina victims into its schools, following strict federal guidelines that bar local school districts from educating homeless students separately from the general population or stigmatizing them with special identification cards or wristbands.

But on Capitol Hill, the Jones High School [cafeteria] fight has been used to justify an effort by the Department of Education and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, to waive those federal rules. The sheer number of evacuated students needing new schools, say advocates of the change, has turned the federal homeless statute into little more than burdensome red tape. On Monday, Hutchison introduced a bill with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to allow school districts across the country to open separate schools for hurricane victims. The bill would take away the ability of evacuating parents to protest their children's placement in particular schools. It would also allow schools to issue "identification cards or other identifying insignia" for students affected by Hurricane Katrina. "Our top priority is keeping the kids from Louisiana in an environment that is safe, secure and familiar," said Chris Paulitz, a spokesman for Hutchison, who argues that in some cases evacuees might be better served by going to schools with other evacuees. "This is only a temporary waiver for the remainder of the school year."

But advocates for the homeless fear the waiver would relegate evacuated students to second-class status. "It basically allows schools to discriminate pretty broadly against kids who are homeless as a result of the storm," says Barbara Duffield, an advocate for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. The waiver would suspend parents' right to protest their children's placement, while making it easier for students to be moved during the school year or denied transportation, Duffield said. She calls the prospects of Katrina-specific school identifications "absolutely horrifying." "It's like a scarlet letter K or something," she says...

In Washington DC many of these students want only to blend into their new schools and shed the stigma of labels. They don't want to be known as homeless, displaced or evacuees. With little to identify them as out-of-towners save their regional accents, they are seeking to melt into classrooms and noisy hallways in the first weeks of the academic year...

Brothers Eddie and Joshua Bloodwirt, 16 and 15 respectively, and their cousin James Sansone, 17, fled New Orleans and landed at a great uncle's house in Mitchellville after tortuous journeys, including a plane flight. James escaped before the storm, Eddie and Joshua days later, having slept on an elevated interstate highway and waded through miles of grimy floodwater. The lanky trio hope to try out for the Flowers basketball team. They said they've been treated somewhat like celebrities. Students will stop them, remark on their accents and ask whether they're from New Orleans. One girl cried upon hearing their story and offered unsolicited hugs.

It's great to be an American

Air America reported on this little fun fact that I thought I would share with you all.

Illegal settlers removed from the Gaza Strip recently were set to receive $200,000 and more per family in compensation from US taxpayers.

It is unclear exactly how much the disengagement plan is costing the Israeli government. But last month it was reported Israel is seeking an additional $2 billion dollars or more in aid from the United States to help pay for the plan - which would in effect double the amount of aid Israel already receives from the U.S.

A majority of the settlers have accepted a compensation package from the government in return for leaving Gaza. An average family can expect to receive the equivalent of $150,000 to $400,000 in compensation, depending on house size, the number of children and length of residence in the occupied territories. On top of that, there are removal expenses, two years free rent and redundancy compensation. Many of the settlers are already beneficiaries of government subsidies for settling the land.

On the other hand, evacuees from hurricane Katrina were being given debit cards with a $2,000 line of credit to spend on clothing and other immediate needs. But yesterday CNN reported that on Saturday when evacuees who fled Hurricane Katrina showed up expecting to get debit cards from the government, they were told the cards were not available and it looks now like FEMA scrapped the plan altogether. (The Red Cross has been distributing its debit cards worth between $350 and $2,000 for about a week now).

During last night's televised address, President Bush pledged a whole $5,000 for evacuees that they could use for job training and education. Don't spend it all on one place kids!

Civil War Begins in Iraq

No one has officially called this a civil war yet, but let's be honest, that's what's taking shape. Now that Iraq's government is forming its constitution, there is the little matter of getting the Sunnis and Shiites to form an agreement on some major religious and ethnic divisive issues.

In the last few days, suicide bombers have tuned away from foreign armies (i.e. the U.S.) and are now targeting other Iraqis. The Associated Press reported today that a suicide car bomber struck as worshippers were leaving a Shiite mosque in a northern Iraqi town Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, killing at least 12 people. Militants killed 12 other people across the country as the Sunni-dominated insurgency pressed its "all-out war" to destabilize the country.

The 24 deaths came during a third day of mayhem in which nearly 200 people were killed in bombings, mostly in Baghdad. More than 600 have been wounded in the stunning rampage by insurgents, including al-Qaida in Iraq.

On Thursday, suicide bombers killed at least 31 people in three attacks targeting Iraqi police. A day earlier, at least 167 people were killed and 570 wounded in more than a dozen bombings in Baghdad. The largest single toll resulted from a suicide bombing against day laborers in the largely Shiite Kazimiyah neighborhood in north aghdad...

Two days earlier, al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi vowed to wage an "all-out war" on the country's Shiite majority, calling its members collaborators of the "Jews and Crusaders."...

At Al-Kindi Teaching Hospital, where the laborers were taken after Friday's drive-by shooting, the wounded lined the corridors, while others lay on gurneys as doctors worked frantically to stanch bleeding and bandage wounds.

A car bomb also detonated near an Iraqi police patrol in Haswa, near Baghdad, killing three officers and wounding four, police Capt. Muthana Khalid said. And in the Iskandariya district, 30 miles south of Baghdad, gunmen broke into the local mayor's house and shot him to death after first killing his four bodyguards, police Capt. uthans Khalid said.

Iraqi and U.S. officials say the fighters sneak across the porous border and accuse the Damascus government of doing little to stop the influx. While Syria has repeatedly denied the charges, Iraqi officials have adopted an increasingly stronger one, and the country's defense minister has pledged that operations targeting the militants would be extended to other Euphrates River valley towns seen as militant afe havens.

"We will not retreat or be silent. There will be no room for you (insurgents) in all of Iraq. We will chase you wherever you go," Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi, a Sunni, told reporters.While the overwhelming violence in recent days appeared designed to further split the country along ethnic and religious lines, clerics from both Sunni and Shiite sects rejected the tactic in their Friday sermons.

Sheik Mahmud al-Sumadaei, an influential member of Sunni Scholars Association, said at western Baghdad's Um al-Qura Sunni mosque that Iraq denounced foreign fighters who "come across the border and kill us under the name of defending us."

I have to go potty

I thought this picture was fake, but yo, it's from Reuters! tee hee...

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Slave Wages for Katrina Workers

Following reports of the government's No-Bid Contract scheme comes news that Bush issued an executive order last week allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges.

Bush's executive order suspends the requirements of the Davis-Bacon law for designated areas hit by the storm.

"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Rep. George Miller of California said. "President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet."

One step closer to winning back the south and regaining our right to own slaves. Who's gonna make ma mint juleps?

HOLY CRAP, BUSH TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOMETHING!

It's really sad that I found this article to be so surprising that I almost fell out of my chair. Amid falling approval ratings that have reached an all time low, Bush has finally stated that he is at fault for the poor response to the Katrina aftermath. Do you remember another instance of Dubya doing this? Seriously, if we weren't constantly suffocated by lies and spin-doctoring this would almost be refreshing. Now, it just serves as an example of an exception to the rule.

President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for any failures in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina that struck two weeks ago and acknowledged the storm exposed deficiencies at all levels of government four years after the September 11 attacks.
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Asked if Americans should be concerned their government remains unprepared to respond to another major disaster or a terrorist attack, Bush said: "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 its job right, I take responsibility."

NY Times article on the same story can be found here (the Reuters link is sure to expire).

"The Passion of the Penguins"

Conservatives are nuts. Wait, let me explain! They have embraced the documentary "March of the Penguins" for the oddest reasons. Read on:

The conservative web site WorldNetDaily.com, an opponent of abortion wrote that the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it."

At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy. A widely circulated Christian magazine said it made "a strong case for intelligent design."

"March of the Penguins," the conservative film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing." Speaking of audiences who feel that movies ignore or belittle such themes, he added: "This is the first movie they've enjoyed since 'The Passion of the Christ.' This is 'The 'Passion of the Penguins.' "

To Andrew Coffin, writing in the widely circulated Christian publication World Magazine, that is a winning argument for the theory that life is too complex to have arisen through random selection. "That any one of these eggs survives is a remarkable feat - and, some might suppose, a strong case for intelligent design," he wrote. "It's sad that acknowledgment of a creator is absent in the examination of such strange and wonderful animals. But it's also a gap easily filled by family discussion after the film."

Other religious conservatives have seized on the movie as a parable of steadfast faith. In Sidney, Ohio, Ben Hunt, a minister at the 153 House Churches Network, has coordinated trips to the local theater to see the film. (He describes the organization as a Christian denomination with nine churches spread over Ohio and Minnesota.) "Some of the circumstances they experienced seemed to parallel those of Christians," he said of the penguins." The penguin is falling behind, is like some Christians falling
behind. The path changes every year, yet they find their way, is like the Holy Spirit."

In part, the movie's appeal to conservatives may lie in its soft-pedaling of topics like evolution and global warming. The filmmakers say they did not consciously avoid those topics - indeed, they say they are strong believers in evolutionary theory - but they add that they wanted to create a film that would reach as many people as possible. "It's obvious that global warming has an impact on the reproduction of the penguins," Luc Jaquet, the director, told National Geographic Online. "But much of public opinion appears insensitive to the dangers of global warming. We have to find other ways to communicate to people about it, not just lecture them."

Now after you've finished anthropomorphizing the penguins, fill up the tank on the ol' SUV or Hummer and keep denying the fact that the earth is melting.

Fatty Fatty Fascists

In my search for ever more ridiculous pictures, I stumbled across this random gem of a site with a really scary summary of how we're descending the hellish spiral towards a more fascist state.

WTF is cronyism?

I'm sure I learned it in 4th grade social studies but I've since forgotten what "cronyism" means. Here's a great Op-Ed piece from the NY Times on how Bush's placement of friends and supporters in important positions is leading to a less competent government.

... What we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other government functions have been crippled by politicization, cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals? How many FEMA's are there?

Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from some version of the FEMA syndrome.

The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of experienced officials over the past few years. In particular, senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental law.

Yesterday The Independent, the British newspaper, published an interview about the environmental aftermath of Katrina with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst in the agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, whom one suspects is planning to join the exodus. "The budget has been cut," he said, "and inept political hacks have been put in key positions." That sounds familiar, and given what we've learned over the last two weeks there's no reason to doubt that characterization - or to disregard his warning of an environmental cover-up in progress.

[Thanks to our Anonyomous tipster!!]

More No-Bid Contracts going to Bush's Friends

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I tuned in to CNN and heard this little story about how the White House is giving No-Bid Contracts to rebuild New Orleans to all of Bush's old cronies, including a company associated with disgraced (yet still employed) FEMA director Michael Brown. I had to use all my googling skills to find another source for this story, but here it is:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation...

But the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush. Congress has already appropriated more than $60 billion in emergency funding as a down payment on recovery efforts projected to cost well over $100 billion.

"The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.

Allbaugh formally registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root in February.

In lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Senate, Allbaugh said his goal was to "educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues affecting Kellogg Brown and Root."

Melissa Norcross, a Halliburton spokeswoman, said Allbaugh has not, since he was hired, "consulted on any specific contracts that the company is considering pursuing, nor has he been tasked by the company with any lobbying responsibilities."

Allbaugh is also a friend of Michael Brown, director of FEMA who was removed as head of Katrina disaster relief and sent back to Washington amid allegations he had padded his resume.

A few months after Allbaugh was hired by Halliburton, the company retained another high-level Bush appointee, Kirk Van Tine.

Van Tine registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton six months after resigning as deputy transportation secretary, a position he held from December 2003 to December 2004.

On Friday, Kellogg Brown & Root received $29.8 million in Pentagon contracts to begin rebuilding Navy bases in Louisiana and Mississippi. Norcross said the work was covered under a contract that the company negotiated before Allbaugh was hired.

Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Cheney, who served as its chief executive officer from 1995 until 2000 when he joined the Republican ticket for the White House. According to tax filings released in April, Cheney's income included $194,852 in deferred pay from the company, which has also won billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq...

Allbaugh's other major client, Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, has updated its Web site to say: "Hurricane Recovery Projects -- Apply Here!"

Shaw said on Thursday it has received a $100 million emergency FEMA contract for housing management and construction. Shaw also clinched a $100 million order on Friday from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Shaw Group spokesman Chris Sammons said Allbaugh was providing the company with "general consulting on business matters," and would not say whether he played a direct role in any of the Katrina deals. "We don't comment on specific consulting
activities," he said.

How is this not seen as the very essence of a corrupt government, when the very people who are in charge of this disaster are making money from it? And why isn't anyone doing anything about it? I saw a tiny three-minute story on CNN and had to scour the internet to find this little Reuters article. This should be blasted on the front page of every newspaper.

A Culture of Greed

This LA Times Op-Ed piece is absolutely brilliant. It's a little long but well worth it.

WHAT THE WORLD has witnessed this past week is an image of poverty and social disarray that tears away the affluent mask of the United States.

Instead of the much-celebrated American can-do machine that promises to bring freedom and prosperity to less fortunate people abroad, we have seen a callous official incompetence that puts even Third World rulers to shame. The well-reported litany of mistakes by the Bush administration in failing to prevent and respond to Katrina's destruction grew longer with each hour's grim revelation from the streets of an apocalyptic New Orleans.

Yet the problem is much deeper. For half a century, free-market purists have to great effect denigrated the essential role that modern government performs as some terrible liberal plot. Thus, the symbolism of New Orleans' flooding is tragically apt: Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Louisiana Gov. Huey Long's ambitious populist reforms in the 1930s eased Louisiana out of feudalism and toward modernity; the Reagan Revolution and the callousness of both Bush administrations have sent them back toward the abyss.

Now we have a president who wastes tax revenues in Iraq instead of protecting us at home. Levee improvements were deferred in recent years even after congressional approval, reportedly prompting EPA staffers to dub flooded New Orleans "Lake George."

None of this is an oversight, or simple incompetence. It is the result of a campaign by most Republicans and too many Democrats to systematically vilify the role of government in American life. Manipulative politicians have convinced lower- and middle-class whites that their own economic pains were caused by "quasi-socialist" government policies that aid only poor brown and black people — even as corporate profits and CEO salaries soared.

For decades we have seen social services that benefit everyone — education, community policing, public health, environmental protections and infrastructure repair, emergency services — in steady, steep decline in the face of tax cuts and rising military spending. But it is a false savings; it will certainly cost exponentially more to save New Orleans than it would have to protect it in the first place.

And, although the wealthy can soften the blow of this national decline by sending their kids to private school, building walls around their communities and checking into distant hotels in the face of approaching calamities, others, like the 150,000 people living below the poverty line in the Katrina damage area — one-third of whom are elderly — are left exposed.

Watching on television the stark vulnerability of a permanent underclass of African Americans living in New Orleans ghettos is terrifying. It should be remembered, however, that even when hurricanes are not threatening their lives and sanity, they live in rotting housing complexes, attend embarrassingly ill-equipped public schools and, lacking adequate police protection, are frequently terrorized by unemployed, uneducated young men. In fact, rather than an anomaly, the public suffering of these desperate Americans is a symbol for a nation that is becoming progressively poorer under the leadership of the party of Big Business.

As Katrina was making its devastating landfall, the U.S. Census Bureau released new figures that show that since 1999, the income of the poorest fifth of Americans has dropped 8.7% in inflation-adjusted dollars. Last year alone, 1.1 million were added to the 36 million already on the poverty rolls. [Just an added note, I read that the average household icome for many towns in Mississippi and Luisiana is $9,000 a year!]

For those who have trouble with statistics, here's the shorthand: The rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting, in the ripe populist language of Louisiana's legendary Long, the shaft.

These are people who have long since been abandoned to their fate. Despite the deep religiosity of the Gulf States and the United States in general, it is the gods of greed that seem to rule. Case in point: The crucial New Orleans marshland that absorbs excess water during storms has been greatly denuded by rampant commercial development allowed by a deregulation-crazy culture that favors a quick buck over long-term community benefits.

Given all this, it is no surprise that leaders, from the White House on down, haven't done right by the people of New Orleans and the rest of the region, before and after what insurance companies insultingly call an "act of God." Fact is, most of them, and especially our president, just don't care about the people who can't afford to attend political fundraisers or pay for high-priced lobbyists. No, these folks are supposed to be cruising on the rising tide of a booming, unregulated economy that "floats all boats."

They were left floating all right.

And in the meantime you have Queen Mother Bush saying things like those housed in the Houston Astrodome are faring better than they were at home before the storm hit. Why not just let them eat cake?

Kanye and His New Jamz

You may have already heard that Kanye West got a little crazy on live TV while he and Mike Myers were doing a segment during a fund raiser on NBC. He wasn't particularly articulate but it is clear that he was pretty upset and he was noticeably trying to keep his emotions in check.

After hearing stories like that of New Orleans resident and Jazz musician Charmaine Neville, it's not hard to get upset.

I can't believe how quickly they put this together but "The Legendary K.O" remixed Kanye West's song "Gold Digger" with Words by Big Mon and Damien a/k/a Dem Knock-Out Boyz. Song is posted here.

[Thanks to BoingBoing.net, CrooksAndLiars.com, Screenhead.com, and iFilm.com]

FEMA Managed by Circus Monkeys

Ok, so Kat has been keeping things going while I pretend to get some work done at my real job but it's about time for a Friday post and who doesn't like monkeys?

Yes, the blame game is a little played out by now but this article is pointing out a simple act of stupidity.

And yes, if someone made me boss of something I'd surely hire all my friends but I sure as shit wouldn't hire a blind, armless simpleton to be my limo driver. That's a piss poor analogy cause FEMA has much more critical resonsibilities to a lot of people so the fact that the people running the joint are useless is just unacceptable.

Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.

Meanwhile, veterans such as U.S. hurricane specialist Eric Tolbert and World Trade Center disaster managers Laurence W. Zensinger and Bruce P. Baughman -- who led FEMA's offices of response, recovery and preparedness, respectively -- have left since 2003, taking jobs as consultants or state emergency managers, according to current and former officials.

[Update 9/9/05 1:25 PM]

Oh man, this is only gonna get better. Michael Brown just got relieved of his duties surrounding the hurricane relief effort according to the AP. This after questions of his resume came up in a Time Mag investigation. For fans of NBC's adaptation of "The Office" check out this quote (with my italics and capitalization):

In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant TO the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees.

Dear Red States,

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: you get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that New California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,

Author Unknown in New California

[Thanks to Beltane at The Labyrinthine Mind]

Tax-Cuts Still A Go

Republicans in Congress on Wednesday rejected calls by Democrats to suspend work on tax cuts, that would mainly benefit the rich, and spending reductions on social programs because of the huge costs of hurricane relief.

"Now is not the time to cut services for our most vulnerable, cut taxes for our most fortunate and add $35 billion to the deficit," the Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives said in a letter to their Republican counterparts.

Congressional committees face a September 16 deadline to come up with $35 billion in spending reductions over five years to programs including the Medicaid health-care program for the poor, student loans, food stamps and pension insurance.

The committees are also scheduled to approve $70 billion in tax cuts this month. The cuts could be extensions of reductions on capital gains and dividends, which affect mainly the incomes of the wealthy.

The Democrats said that budget plan "would likely cut programs that many victims of Hurricane Katrina will be relying on" and asked that it be suspended "indefinitely."

It's hard not to rage when you read this kind of stuff. I ask Republicans again – What has this administration ever done for YOU that you support him so fiercely? Most of you are not rich, you never will be rich so stop acting like one day the Republicans will be there to save your 2 pennies worth of taxes.

Faux-FEMA where are you?

A little Daily Show reference there, Faux-FEMA being the agency that's supposed to help FEMA when it's all fucked up.

So aside from the lack of timely response to those in New Orleans, FEMA is now to blame for delaying foreign aid to the region; aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships.

Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts for the flood-stricken region, but nearly all endeavors remained mired yesterday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In Germany, a massive telecommunication system and two technicians await the green light to fly to Louisiana, after its donors spent four days searching for someone willing to accept the gift.

"FEMA? That was a lost case," said Mirit Hemy, an executive with the Netherlands-based New Skies Satellite who made the phone calls. "We got zero help, and we lost one week trying to get hold of them."

In Sweden, a transport plane loaded with a water purification system and a cellular network has been ready to take off for four days, while Swedish officials wait for flight clearance. Nearly a week after they were offered, four Canadian rescue vessels and two helicopters have been accepted but probably won't arrive from Halifax, Nova Scotia, until Saturday. The Canadians' offer of search-and-rescue divers has so far gone begging.

Matching offers of aid -- from Panamanian bananas to British engineers -- with needs in the devastated region is a laborious process in a disaster whose scope is unheard of in recent U.S. history, especially for a country more accustomed to giving than receiving aid...

German telecommunications company KB Impuls contacted another company, Unisat, based in Rhode Island, with the idea of contributing an integrated satellite and cellular telephone system. In a region with its communications systems in tatters, the $3 million system could handle 5,000 calls at once, routing them, if necessary, through Germany...

New Skies even arranged transport, securing a C-130 cargo plane from the Israeli air force, to pick up the equipment and technicians from Germany and bring them to Louisiana. "With one call, I got an airplane," Hemy said. And then, over four days, she and the owner of Unisat, Uri Bar-Zemer, called contacts at FEMA, the American Red Cross, the State Department, even members of Congress, trying to find someone to accept the gift.

Finally the State Department told them that to receive flight clearance, the gift must have a specific recipient. "I was ringing, ringing, ringing -- and nothing," Hemy said. Finally, yesterday, she got a call from the U.S. Air Force's Joint Task Force Katrina Communication Operations division, thanking the companies for the gift and inquiring about the system's technical specifications.

As of late yesterday, the companies were waiting for a written order from the Northern Command to begin the mission. "I don't have a problem confirming that," Bar-seamier said of the story. But he expressed concerns that disclosing the difficulties in donating could jeopardize the company's chances of actually delivering the aid.

I'm thinking the same thing you are, WTF?!

The Queen of Goth Speaks

Anne Rice, mother to The Vampire Lestat, gave a great Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about what it means to loose New Orleans. It's not just any old town; it's a place with such distinct character and flavor that so much of our culture has been influenced by it. As a New Yorker born and raised, I never had a desire to see the South, but New Orleans was one place I dreamed of for a long time and I'm glad I got to visit it only a few months ago. It was magical and unique. You will never find the architecture, landscape, nature, music, people, art, tolerance, food, literature, religious diversity, history of this place anywhere else.

What do people really know about New Orleans?

Do they take away with them an awareness that it has always been not only a great white metropolis but also a great black city, a city where African-Americans have come together again and again to form the strongest African-American culture in the land?

The first literary magazine ever published in Louisiana was the work of black men, French-speaking poets and writers who brought together their work in three issues of a little book called L'Album Littéraire. That was in the 1840's, and by that time the city had a prosperous class of free black artisans, sculptors, businessmen, property owners, skilled laborers in all fields. Thousands of slaves lived on their own in the city, too, making a living at various jobs, and sending home a few dollars to their owners in the country at the end of the month.

This is not to diminish the horror of the slave market in the middle of the famous St. Louis Hotel, or the injustice of the slave labor on plantations from one end of the state to the other. It is merely to say that it was never all "have or have not" in this strange and beautiful city.

Later in the 19th century, as the Irish immigrants poured in by the thousands, filling the holds of ships that had emptied their cargoes of cotton in Liverpool, and as the German and Italian immigrants soon followed, a vital and complex culture emerged. Huge churches went up to serve the great faith of the city's European-born Catholics; convents and schools and orphanages were built for the newly arrived and the struggling; the city expanded in all directions with new neighborhoods of large, graceful houses, or areas of more humble cottages, even the smallest of which, with their floor-length shutters and deep-pitched roofs, possessed an undeniable Caribbean charm...

The influence of blacks on the music of the city and the nation is too immense and too well known to be described. It was black musicians coming down to New Orleans for work who nicknamed the city "the Big Easy" because it was a place where they could always find a job. But it's not fair to the nature of New Orleans to think of jazz and the blues as the poor man's music, or the music of the oppressed.

Something else was going on in New Orleans. The living was good there. The clock ticked more slowly; people laughed more easily; people kissed; people loved; there was joy.

Which is why so many New Orleanians, black and white, never went north. They didn't want to leave a place where they felt at home in neighborhoods that dated back centuries; they didn't want to leave families whose rounds of weddings, births and funerals had become the fabric of their lives. They didn't want to leave a city where tolerance had always been able to outweigh prejudice, where patience had always been able to outweigh rage. They didn't want to leave a place that was theirs...

Now nature has done what the Civil War couldn't do. Nature has done what the labor riots of the 1920's couldn't do. Nature had done what "modern life" with its relentless pursuit of efficiency couldn't do. It has done what racism couldn't do, and what segregation couldn't do either. Nature has laid the city waste - with a scope that brings to mind the end of Pompeii...

Thousands didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. They didn't have the money. They didn't have the vehicles. They didn't have any place to go. They are the poor, black and white, who dwell in any city in great numbers; and they did what they felt they could do - they huddled together in the strongest houses they could find. There was no way to up and leave and check into the nearest Ramada Inn.

What's more, thousands more who could have left stayed behind to help others. They went out in the helicopters and pulled the survivors off rooftops; they went through the flooded streets in their boats trying to gather those they could find. Meanwhile, city officials tried desperately to alleviate the worsening conditions in the Superdome, while makeshift shelters and hotels and hospitals struggled.

And where was everyone else during all this? Oh, help is coming, New Orleans was told. We are a rich country. Congress is acting. Someone will come to stop the looting and care for the refugees.

And it's true: eventually, help did come. But how many times did Gov. Kathleen Blanco have to say that the situation was desperate? How many times did Mayor Ray Nagin have to call for aid? Why did America ask a city cherished by millions and excoriated by some, but ignored by no one, to fight for its own life for so long? That's my question.

I know that New Orleans will win its fight in the end. I was born in the city and lived there for many years. It shaped who and what I am. Never have I experienced a place where people knew more about love, about family, about loyalty and about getting along than the people of New Orleans. It is perhaps their very gentleness that gives them their endurance.

They will rebuild as they have after storms of the past; and they will stay in New Orleans because it is where they have always lived, where their mothers and their fathers lived, where their churches were built by their ancestors, where their family graves carry names that go back 200 years. They will stay in New Orleans where they can enjoy a sweetness of family life that other communities lost long ago.

But to my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music. Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs.

Well, we are a lot more than all that. And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you.

[Read the entire article here]

This is my country?

Although we disagree with Bush's handling of Iraq and his international policies, isn't it reassuring to know that our government will be there in times of extreme crisis?





Oh well, it's only the poor black South anyway.
Images courtesy of the Associated Press

Donate

I'm gonna make it easy for you to choose a reputable charity to donate money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. The American Red Cross has always been my best bet because they are an internationally recognized organization in existence since the American Civil War, mobilizing aid directly to those in need (not through some second party). Give what you can; $10 won't kill you and it will make you feel good the rest of the day.

Click here for donation options. Easiest thing is to donate right online. Please note that their website is a little slow because everyone is trying to donate online. Give it time and try again later if you don't make it the first time.

[Update 9/1/05] As with the tsunami last December, Amazon is also facilitating donations to the Red Cross so here's another link for you.