The Man Who Should Be President Blasts Bush

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Point Those Fingers - Krugman

If the Bush administration isn't held accountable for its response to Hurricane Katrina, it will keep repeating its mistakes.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Wired: This Old Porn

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Red Cross Runs Out Of Debit Cards At Houston Convention Center

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

FEMA Overcompensated Florida Citizens in the Run-Up to the Presidential Election

Florida Election Management Association

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Just Say NO
Watch

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

TIME.com: Brown's Padded and Inaccurate Resume

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Two people came back from vacation, one proceeded to take charge

Jon Stewart's Return Video - George Did It

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

When you can't do anything else laugh at them
Compiled by Daniel Kurtzman: 'The president has vowed to personally lead the investigation into the government's failed response to Katrina? Isn't that a job perhaps someone else should be doing?' --Jon Stewart
'No, not at all, Jon. To truly find out what went wrong, it's important for an investigator to have a little distance from the situation. And it's hard to get any more distant from it than the president was last week.' --'Daily Show' correspondent Samantha Bee

'Just a quick observation, when people don't want to play the blame game, they're to blame.' --Jon Stewart, on the Bush administration cautioning against playing the 'blame game'

'Big announcement today from FEMA. They say they believe a big hurricane has hit New Orleans. They can't confirm it.' -Jay Leno

"Today President Bush asked if his visit to the hurricane zone would count toward the service time he still owes the National Guard." -Jay Leno

more...

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina

1) "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." –President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina



Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Toby Keith Video Review at NYTimes
This seems somewhat iincongruous

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Chevron - Will You Join Us - Discussion

Very interesting, Chevron solicitating opinions on replacing oil without admiting we are running out. Contributed by Texas State Rep. candidate Janette Sexton.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

FEMA Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience

Head of Federal Katrina Relief Effort Replaced, Not Fired
Death Toll May Not Be as High as Originally Feared

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Washington Post and Newsweek become GOP press organs

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

They Thought They Were Free

Amazon.com: Books: They Thought They Were Free : The Germans, 1933-45: Shortly after World War II, Milton Sanford Mayer traveled to Germany to find out the mind set of ordinary Germans who were "little men" in the Nazi Party. They did not know that he was an American Jew, although he did not lie to them. To a man, they declared that their days under Hitler were the best in their lives. I found the parallels with current day America to be much to close for comfort, if you substitute white rural culture for Jews in Germany. This book will open your eyes as to how totalitarianism is welcomed by the mass of people if the media support it, and the economy is good. - Reviewer: Christine Weingarten "isher2" (Dallas, Texas)

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Is America the New Rome?
Cup O' Joe!:

How we react to the disaster of New Orleans is going to determine the future of this country. Already the powers that be have been absolved of responsibility for their lack of preparedness (or complicity?) that allowed 9/11 to happen, the inability to apprehend those responsible, the hubris that involved us in an aggressive, imperialistic war with Iraq and the incompetent handling of it. If they escape responsibility for the fiasco that has practically destroyed New Orleans, they will continue to believe that they can get away with anything, and that will make them bolder still. And judging from what I have seen, it's quite possible that they are indeed getting away with it.

In giving up their power as citizens, the Romans asked only that the Emperors leave them alone; that the civil service would keep the roads in repair, that there was food enough to eat, that there was plenty of entertainment, and that they could be free to live their lives in peace as long as they posed no threat to the elite class. That's all most of us want, too: let the politicians play their games, we have better things to do with our lives.

But it doesn't work that way. Thucydides, in his journals on the Peloponnesian Wars years before [Imperial] Rome, wrote that those who have money and power are always hungry for more of either. Things haven't changed since then. George W. Bush has as much wealth and power as any man can possibly have, yet he and his allies still want more. The "why" of it isn't important, that's the fact. How we deal with that is up to us.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

White House lawyers were debating flow charts instead of sending aid

Political Issues Snarled Plans for Troop Aid

As criticism of the response to Hurricane Katrina has mounted, one of the most pointed questions has been why more troops were not available more quickly to restore order and offer aid. Interviews with officials in Washington and Louisiana show that as the situation grew worse, they were wrangling with questions of federal/state authority, weighing the realities of military logistics and perhaps talking past each other in the crisis.

To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Ms. Blanco would have resisted surrendering control, as Bush administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established.

Louisiana officials were furious that there was not more of a show of force, in terms of relief supplies and troops, from the federal government in the middle of last week. As the water was rising in New Orleans, the governor repeatedly questioned whether Washington had started its promised surge of federal resources.

Justice Department lawyers, who were receiving harrowing reports from the area, considered whether active-duty military units could be brought into relief operations even if state authorities gave their consent - or even if they refused.

The issue of federalizing the response was one of several legal issues considered in a flurry of meetings at the Justice Department, the White House and other agencies, administration officials said.

The Pentagon is reviewing events from the time Hurricane Katrina reached full strength and bore down on New Orleans and five days later when Mr. Bush ordered 7,200 active-duty soldiers and marines to the scene.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said deployment of National Guard soldiers to Iraq, including a brigade from Louisiana, did not affect the relief mission, but Ms. Blanco disagreed.

"Over the last year, we have had about 5,000 out, at one time," she said. "They are on active duty, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That certainly is a factor."

More from the Washington Post. There is some spin in these articles but they illustrate an administration unable to grasp the big picture - getting aid to survivors. They were also convinced that unlike in Iraq they would not be welcomed with flowers and focused all their attention on how to legally kill people to protect property.
Gary Permalink on 9/09/2005

Today is 105th Anniversary of 1900 Storm that destroyed Galveston

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Frightening, Evacuation will be much harder from Galveston than New Orleans.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Texas groups linked to DeLay face 130 charges in scandal

A Texas grand jury has indicted a political action committee formed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as well as a powerful business group on charges they violated the state's campaign finance laws.

The indictments accuse Texans for a Republican Majority, or TRMPAC, and the Texas Association of Business (TAB) of illegally funneling corporate donations into a 2002 campaign that won control of the Texas Legislature.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Houston Chronicle Stories

Long lines lead to $2000 debit cards for thousands of evacuees

Voices of Houston Volunteers

Damage estimate at NASA facilities: $1 billion

Not all are extending a Houston welcome

Galveston is second most vulnerable city to hurricanes. Galveston will be completely underwater with even a strong category 2 storm.

New Orleans mandatory evacuation at 10 AM Sunday was urged Saturday evening by Hurricane Center.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Katrina destroys history In hardest hit Mississippi

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Dowd - Haunted by Hesitation
This time we can actually see the bodies.

As the water recedes, more and more decaying bodies will testify to the callous and stumblebum administration response to Katrina's rout of 90,000 square miles of the South.

The Bush administration bungled the Iraq occupation, arrogantly throwing away State Department occupation plans and C.I.A. insurgency warnings. But the human toll of those mistakes has not been as viscerally evident because the White House pulled a curtain over the bodies: the president has avoided the funerals of soldiers, and the Pentagon has censored the coffins of the dead coming home and never acknowledges the number of Iraqi civilians killed.

But this time, the bodies of those who might have been saved between Monday and Friday, when the president failed to rush the necessary resources to a disaster that his own general describes as "biblical," or even send in the 82nd Airborne, are floating up in front of our eyes.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street - New York Times

Police and soldiers pass by corpses in post-apocalypse Big Easy.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Democrats Step Up Criticism of White House

Washington Democrats Show Backbone and Unity

From Democratic leaders on the floor of Congress, to a speech by the Democratic National Committee chairman at a meeting of the National Baptist Convention in Miami, to four morning television interviews by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrats offered what was shaping up as the most concerted attack that they had mounted on the White House in the five years of the Bush presidency.

"Oblivious. In denial. Dangerous," Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California and the House minority leader, said of President Bush as she stood in front of a battery of uniformed police officers and firefighters in a Capitol Hill ceremony that had originally been scheduled to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Americans should now harbor no illusions about the government's ability to respond effectively to disasters," she said. "Our vulnerabilities were laid bare."

The Democratic National Committee chairman, Howard Dean, said this could be a transitional moment for his party. "The Democratic Party needs a new direction," he said. "And I think it's become clear what the direction is: restore a moral purpose to America. Rebuild America's psyche."

"This is deeply disturbing to a lot of Americans, because it's more than thousands of people who get killed; it's about the destruction of the American community," Mr. Dean said. "The idea that somehow government didn't care until it had to for political reasons. It's appalling."

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Katrina underscores Bush's isolated style
KR Washington Bureau:

Bush did not visit with any angry evacuees in New Orleans. As Katrina approached, Bush and his top aides spent days apparently unaware that New Orleans might be flooded - despite many warnings, some from inside his own administration. Afterwards, he heaped praise on officials responsible for the slow and initially disorganized disaster-relief efforts. His aides dismiss demands that Bush hold someone accountable for failure, saying that's merely a distracting "blame game."

None of this should be a surprise. Bush has a long record of avoiding critics, rewarding loyalty even in the face of failure and shunning - even punishing - those who disagree with him. It's a management style that shapes how he governs - disdaining compromise with Democrats in Congress, for example - and one that brushes off whole sectors of the American electorate.

That could come back to haunt him, as is now evident in the two problems - Iraq and Katrina - that together have sent his approval ratings to the lowest levels of his presidency and threaten his second-term agenda.

His style of isolating himself from unwelcome voices pleases his core supporters, who don't want him to compromise, but it sacrifices the broader public appeal that helped Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton weather second-term setbacks. One new poll, from the independent Pew Research Center, suggests he is losing support even from Republicans and conservatives.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

FOX NEWS ADMITS HOMELAND SECURITY KEPT RED CROSS OUT, CLAIMS IT WAS LOCAL ORDERS

Right Wing Radio Blogger captures part of the story - Homeland Security kept Red Cross Out.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

From the WSJ - New Orleans Rich Leaders Plot the Future

The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.

The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Hurricane Katrina Resources For Evacuees and Volunteers

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Desperate to tell their stories Katrina Survivors gather in front of White House

Daily Kos: UPDATED-Katrina Survivors Live in front of White House

"There is a gathering here of hurricane victims testifying to the TV cameras about their difficulty in getting out of New Orleans.

Probably about 200 people.

There's a lot of mainstream press here and a lot of people with signs that say shame...

Now they are walking across the street and standing directly in front of the White House and screaming, "Shame on Bush"."

I could hear the screams over the phone. Sounds like lots of anguish there. She's heading back to computer right now to upload her pictures and report in more detail...

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

'They lied to us to get us to move' - Guardian UK

They pick up the story I had of the two EMS conventioners.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Another Harrowing Account - Three Days In Hell

Another account of fearing the police and military more than the looters from a tourist trapped in the Superdome.

Added more brief tourist accounts on the BBC.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Louisiana senator: Thank you Canada

Canadian forces arrive 5 days before US

"Fabulous, fabulous guys. They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people ... We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere."

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

I just got back from a FEMA Detainment Camp

Welcome to the New World Order - Refugees in Oklahoma locked in camps, can't use kitchens.

Bush has declared a national day of prayer. I will pray for deliverence from people who are in office on a platform of hateing government. Link from Boing Boing.

Also EPA worker confirms total clusterfuck in disaster area with FEMA mismanagement

FEMA forbids emergency radio station at Astrodome

This goes along with Homeland Security regulations for New Orleans key aim being to manage the news

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Bush One Of the Worst Disasters
My brother saw this and says he couldn't have said it better

What do I know, I didn't vote for his father either.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

White House pre-landfall Emergency declaration listed wrong areas

Bob Harris has noticed the Upside Down White House emergency

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Navy Pilots Who Rescued Victims Are Reprimanded - New York Times

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Karl Rove's Magic 'Blame the Locals' Offensive keeping Media Matters fact checkers busy

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Conservatives advancing dubious claim Bush urged New Orleans evacuation

Rove Magic at work.

An August 28 statement by Blanco made clear that President Bush called her just before the August 28 press conference at which the evacuation was announced, casting doubt on the claim that Bush's phone call was a decisive factor in the decision to evacuate. This timeline was later confirmed by White House press secretary Scott McClellan during the September 7 White House press briefing, when he reported that Bush had spoken to Blanco "around 9:00 a.m.," just minutes before the governor's 9:30 a.m. CT August 28 press conference began. The press conference opened with New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin -- not Blanco, as Chavez and Murdock stated -- declaring the mandatory evacuation.

Additionally, Chavez conflated the governor's decision to declare a state of emergency in Louisiana with the decision to call for a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. As a ThinkProgress.org timeline makes clear, these were completely separate events: Blanco declared a state of emergency on August 26, two days before Bush's August 28 phone call and Nagin's August 28 call for mandatory evacuations. Moreover, it was Blanco who asked Bush on August 27 to declare a federal state of emergency in Louisiana, not the other way around, as Chavez suggested. The president declared a federal state of emergency in Louisiana later that day.

I have dealt with this in a LYING GOP email that is going around and will write more about that later.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Who is Bob Williams, and why is he on TV blaming local governemnts?

Media Matters reports on GOP Conservative Williams media blitz blaming Democrats for Katrina relief problems. Williams now heads a conservative foundation that supports limited government.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Bush Approval at all time low - 41%

People disapprove of his handling everything except (52-47) his war on terrorism. I think people don't know the experts show his plan is increasing terrorism.

ADDED - A Pew poll shows approval down to 40% with the slippage strongest among conservatives and Republicans.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

GOP Congress Stacks Katrina Investigation and Prepares to Loot Katrina Aid

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Crooks and Liars

A series of excellent posts today - September 8.

I could have posted them all individually, all excellent from Cheney having his own words turned against him to Perry taking lessons from Tom DeLay in setting up a politico-charity, to Alabama and Mississippi also assuming everyone has a car in their evacuation plans but just go to the essential Crooks and Liars.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

55% disapproved of how Bush is handling Katrina - now improving to 52%

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Cathy's World Worthwhile

I posted a long comment at Roger L. Simon's on the Oil-For-Food Scandal because I find him fascinating in a somewhat disturbing way and occasionally like to attempt to educate him and his readers.

Unlike Orson Scott Card I don't feel Roger has gone as totally to the dark side and must still have specks of reality floating in his cogitation space. Still, this will likely have no more effect than my comments about the near treason committed by Novak and Rove in the Plame Game, (Link to latest blogosphere thoughts.)

He is one of the leaders of the group starting a right equivalent of the Huffington Post, Pajamas Media, and he recommended Cathy Seipp, a new member.

Based on this post I will add her to my bookmarks - category moderate to right. Very refreshing for someone to write "But just because not everything is Bush's fault doesn't mean that some things aren't." She is not an example of the polarized views on Bush, one of the main points of this excellent moderate essay on reaction to Katrina.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

GOP Politicians Will Help GOP Mississippi Get Relief Funds First

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Crisis Papers

"Hurricane Katrina was The Perfect Storm predicted and predictable, and yet the Federal response to the victims of this Category Five hurricane was chillingly and perhaps criminally lackadaisical, unfeeling, late and insufficient. Not surprising, actually, as this is George Bush's usual days-late-and-a-dollar-short response to tragedies. He is solipsism personified.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Guard in Louisiana were AWOL in New Orleans -- their troops and funds had been diverted to Iraq. Meanwhile, thousands of survivors of the Katrina hurricane and flood were drowning or, even if in massive shelters, were starving and dying of dehydration because there was no food or water around for them. Adequate supplies weren't pre-positioned or because apparently nobody was in charge to give the orders. Bush was at fundraisers or playing golf, before his handlers finally caught on that this was a major political disaster that was going to require some compassionate PR spin and actual help being delivered pronto. Condi was buying thousand-dollar shoes at Ferragamo's in New York and heading out to a night at the theater. Disgraceful! (When a patron berated Rice for her uncaring behavior while thousands were homeless or dying in the New Orleans flood, she had the manager throw the customer out. Par for the course in a Bush Cabinet.)"

More. I will note for my records or someone running across this in the future that this is not a permament link. Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

To Those Who Voted for Bush:
Do You Get It Now?

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Pacific Views: Oil For Food Coverup

Natasha has the damning details on the Oil For Food Coverup:

US companies were involved, US oversight was involved at every step of the way, and the UN bureaucracy didn't even have the ability to act on their own staff findings, emphasis mine:

... Indeed, an analysis by Michael Pan, a researcher at the Center for American Progress, notes that all the trades in the oil-for-food program had to be approved by a committee of the U.N. Security Council, known as the 661 Committee, on which U.S., British, French, Russian, and Chinese officials sat. They raised no objections, even when U.N. staff flagged 70 separate transactions as potentially suspicious.

"The United States and Britain, along with the other members of the UN Security Council, designed and oversaw the oil-for-food program," wrote Harvard's John G. Ruggie in the International Herald Tribune ("What About the Log in Your Eye, Congress?" December 8, 2004). "The United States alone had 60 professionals review each of the 36,000 contracts awarded—more than twice the size of the UN oil-for-food office's professional staff. America and Britain held up 5,000 contracts, sometimes for months, to ensure that no technology was getting through that Saddam could use for weapons purposes. But they held up none—not a single solitary one—on the grounds of pricing irregularities, even when alerted by UN staff." ...

There's a big scandal here alright, but I don't think it's Kojo Annan's fancy car.

In short: The Bush administration, who's lost billions of dollars to corruption during their supervision of Iraq and couldn't even rescue a major, culturally significant US city from a hurricane they knew was coming, is criticizing the UN for corruption they reported before it happened and suggesting that it's the UN who isn't equipped to manage in a dangerous world.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2005

Houston Muslim Relief is preparing 75,000 meals for Houston evacuees

houstonmuslimrelief.com

Muslim American Society announcement page.

Freepers are paranoid.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Pelosi: Republican "bipartisan" committee on Katrina anything but

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Have You No Shame?

As Republicans desperately cry out of one corner of their mouths to stop the blame game, they have been blaming everyone but themselves since this catastrophe. More...

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

No matter how badly he screws up Republicans support their man

First Gallup Poll on Hurricane Response Finds Americans Extremely at Odds

While 42% of respondents characterized Bush's response to the disaster as bad or terrible, 35% said it was good or great. Federal agencies got exactly the same marks. State and local officials fared only a little better--their response was described as bad or terrible by 35% and good or great by 37%.

Again, the views were strongly based on partisan leanings, with Republicans giving the president good grades on this issue by a 69% to 10% margin, while Democrats' views were precisely the opposite. But independents gave Bush a thumbs down by 47% to 29%.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Bush's Witt-less FEMA

Experts warned that Bush had FEMA headed down a dangerous path.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Pat Robertson's Katrina Cash

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

San Diego hospital closed to accommodate Bush visit; No chemo

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Pandagon: What Kind Of Ass**** Conservative Response Did You Have?

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Temper Tantrums in Google - Microsoft War

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Minority Leader Pelosi Tells Bush To Remove FEMA Director

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Tropical Storm Ophelia expected to hover off Florida until it becomes a hurricane

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

NOLA Mayor orders guard and police to remove all remaining people

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Another Stupid GOP Senator

Arizona Sen. Kyl Suggests Uninsured Hurricane Victims Shouldn’t Receive Federal Relief Funds. Speaking about Hurricane Katrina last week, Kyl said, “the question is if people know year after year after year a natural disaster occurs in a particular place and people continue to build there and want to live there, should they bear the responsibility of buying insurance or should everyone else bear the responsibility?” -- Do-oh, About 30% of NOLA residents were below the poverty line.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Tom DeLay cancels hearings on Katrina response

Gets on board Rove Blame Locals Game.

DeLay also says people don't want lower gas taxes.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

'Osama and Katrina' - Wow, Bush&Co. lose Thomas Friedman

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

What REALLY happened in New Orleans: Two Stories

"They all believed they were sent here to die." Overflowing convention center residents with no food or water ignored by police, kept from safety by armed guards protecting neighboring parish.

This second story by two EMS workers is very similar. They had to leave a French Quarter Hotel they were at for a convention and then described the Hell more from the rescuers then from the fellow victims.

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 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 6-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 were not getting out of New Orleans.

...If the relief organizations had saturated the City with food and water in the first 2 or 3 days, the desperation, the frustration and the ugliness would not have set in.

Of course, they are socialists so this must be just a pack of lies, right?

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Lots of criticism of ABC News and other media falling for the Rove Blame Game Plan in blogs
Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Karl Rove illegally registered to vote In Kerrville?

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

St. Bernard Parish hit hard and still waiting for more help

In addition to help from other Louisiana and Alabama departments, a Canadian task force of firefighters and police arrived four days after the storm to help, St. Bernard Fire Chief Thomas Stone said.

“If you can get a Canadian team here in four days, U.S. teams should be here faster than that,” Stone said.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

An Historic Pundit News Sunday

Daring to attack administration officials, Bush losing reliable allies, dramactic compelling stories

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

GOP Senator Stupid

Sen. Santorum: Penalize Those Who Don't Evacuate

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

National Guard - Compared to Katrina,Iraq not that bad

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Charmaine Neville: My soul is New Orleans

Telling graphic tells of rape and disaster singer escapes on commandeered bus.


Graphic emotional Video

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

When Hitchens tears into Bush all of Rove's Magic is needed

Former commie, present neo-con Chrisopher Hitchins:

...Then [Bush] did a fly-by from his holiday retreat, and then he got there too late and then he said something completely idiotic. So I really can't see there is any forgiveness for that. And remember also, that he did interrupt his holiday not very long ago to pay attention to something that was none of his business at all as President. Namely, the alleged living condition of an actually dead woman named Terri Schiavo.

TONY JONES: Pitch ahead for us, if you can. What lasting effect do you think this will have on the Bush presidency?

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Well, in terms of political psyche, shall we say, it's good for the Democrats in about five different ways. One, it reminds people of the existence of the underclass, which tends to be downplayed, shall we say, by the Republican Party. Second it reminds people of the importance of government spending and government services, again, I think the same intuitive or subliminal point applies. Third it makes it at a populous level anyway harder to make a solid case for Iraq, though it doesn't really alter the case about whether you think the war is a just or necessary one. And then fourthly, it reflects very badly on the personality of the President himself. So this is not, I think, a transient story. This is not something that is going to be confined to the Weather Channel, shall we say. I think it will be remembered as a hinge event in the second term.

TONY JONES: If it is a hinge event, is there any way he can use it to his advantage, as he ultimately did after a very shaky start immediately after September 11?

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Well, no, I think people forgave him for blundering around on that day, and not quite knowing what to do and making what must have been one of the worst speeches ever given by any politician. That could, as it were, be forgiven because everyone felt I'm sure, my God, how would I have held up on a day like that? This is worse because, a) it could be seen coming and b), I might just add, by the way, I mean, these States that have been devastated, Louisiana and Mississippi and Somerset and Alabama, they're all in the Republican column. The President is supposed to care about and nurturing the South, so is Karl Rove. What were they thinking? What were they thinking? I have no answer to that question that doesn't come up with a revelation of the most, really, catastrophic incompetence and insouciance.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

When FEMA said NOLA inaccessible 3 Duke students tour city with a Hyundai

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Off the Kuff: Melissa Noriega reports from the George R. Brown

A comprehensive look at what has been set up at the George R. Brown Convention Center. This is just one of the big evacuation centers set up in Houston. There are numerous small ones mainly in churches.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Alan Dershowitz: Telling the Truth About Chief Justice Rehnquist

He was a bigot who set back progress in civil rights decades. RIP.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Arianna Huffington: Memo to the Media: Stop Enabling the White House Blame Game - Yahoo! News


Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Give the evacuees their old phone numbers on Internet phones

TechBlog has posted a good idea. Have Bell offer the NOLA phone numbers to internet phone service.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Blogging in Exile - Houston needs more creative people like him

In Exile: Two lists, a few heroes and no sleep

It's true that I am delirious, but I'm pretty sure that George Bush made nature the enemy in one of his speeches. Not everything is either ally or enemy. Lying in bed this morning, not sleeping, I worried that George Bush might get wind of the butterfly effect -- the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in China can create a hurricane in the Gulf. His response would be to invade China to kill all the enemy butterflies.

Evacuees are grateful for help. We still reserve the right to critique our country. Plucking people from their homes is not to be applauded; it is to be expected. The people doing the plucking are heroes. The policemen and firemen are heroes. The government making these decisions is ours, and ours to criticize. George Bush and FEMA are our employees, and can be fired for criminal inaction.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Signing Up In the AstroDome

DomeBlog reports on all the signup lists in the Astrodome, between Social Security and van rides to other cities. My source in the Red Cross says that FEMA is still uncoordinated, the Red Cross has no master plan or client sign-up list for this disaster yet.

In odd minor news FEMA has removed Operation Blessing from its prominent 2nd place for people wanting to give donations. This is the Pat Robinson family charity previously charged with smuggling guns and diamonds in Africa instead of relief supplies.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Amid City's Welcome, a Tinge of Backlash

Some in Baton Rouge unhappy about refugees

"These people will not assimilate here," Mr. Searle said. "They put up with the crime in New Orleans, and now it's staring them in the face, but up here that's not going to be tolerated. People are going to handle it individually if they have to. This is the South. We will take care of it."

For a week Baton Rouge, the state capital, home of Louisiana State University and a place that sees itself as a less raucous cousin to what had been the kingdom of sin and merriment to its south, has been trying to come to terms with its sudden status as the state's most populous city.

"It's a new Baton Rouge we're living in, isn't it?" said Jeanine Smallwood of suburban Prairieville, in the middle of a 90-minute drive to work that should have taken 20.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Houston Finds Business Boon After Katrina - New York Times

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Someone noticed the GOP PR machine on vacation

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Tom DeLay cancels House hearings on Katrina response

That bastard.

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Right city, wrong state - FEMA flys medical evacuees to wrong Charleston

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Karl Rove to the Rescue (Again)

Political Wire points to TIME and WP for the bad press vacation and the new strategy

TIME: President Bush "seemed so regularly out of it last week, it made you wonder if he was stuck in the same White House bubble of isolation that confined his dad. Too often, W. looked annoyed. Or he smiled when he should have been serious. Or he swaggered when simple action would have been the right move."

The reason? "Members of the A team were on vacation: chief of staff Andy Card was in Maine; Dick Cheney was in Wyoming; even Condoleezza Rice was out of town, shoe-shopping in Manhattan. Many of Bush's best p.r. minds, including media adviser Mark McKinnon, were in Greece at the wedding of White House communications director Nicolle Devenish."

Washington Post: "Facing what is clearly a full-scale political disaster, Rove and a handful of other masterful political operatives have gone into overdrive. They are back in campaign mode."

"This campaign is to salvage Bush's reputation."

"It utilizes the classic Rovian tactic of attacking critics rather than defending against their criticism -- and of throwing up chaff to muddle the issue and throw the press off the scent. It calls for public expressions of outrage over the politicization of the issue and of those who would play the 'blame game.' While at the same time, it is utterly political in nature and heavily reliant on shifting the blame elsewhere."

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

California Legislature approves gay marriage bill

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

ABC News Reporter Completely Falls For GOP Spin Shifting Blame

Daily Kos: Letter to ABC News (Disproving their GOP Spin)

Their most emailed story uses two sources, a conservative think tank member and an unnamed FEMA official, to misleadingly shift blame to local authorities.

ABC Bad Reporting

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Does conservatism in government automaticly produce incompetence?

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

When the most GOP paper in the country turns on FEMA...

Salt Lake Tribune - Frustrated: Top Fire crews trained to hand out fliers for FEMA

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

NOAA Effort - Air Photo Test, Is your home still there?

Gary Permalink on 9/07/2005

Third tour

My nephew returned to his third tour in Iraq. His daughter Emily was born during his last tour.

He is back in Iraq tour because the top brash of his unit volunteered them. Active duty leads to more promotion chances.

On his last tour he lost one of his best friends.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Tim Russert - The Bush family's favorite debate moderator

On Meet the Press Tim tried to shift the blame to local and state officials. Transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

Thanks to natasha at Pacific Views for pointing out the end of that story, the beginning of his statement was everywhere in the media, in Breaking Our Hearts.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

U.N. chief: Iraq new center for international terrorism

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

The Hidden Washington History Books

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

REPEAT - Why FEMA Was Missing in Action - Los Angeles Times

The agency's core budget, which includes disaster preparedness and mitigation, has been cut each year since it was absorbed by the Homeland Security Department in 2003....FEMA has had to cut one of its three emergency management teams, which are charged with overseeing relief efforts in a disaster. Where it once had "red," "white" and "blue" teams, it now has only red and white...."They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers," complained Morrie Goodman, who was FEMA's chief spokesman during the Clinton administration. "These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing."

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Brad DeLong in the Financial Times

Barons would have eased out King Bush by now

In any other form of government besides that of the US – where the president has the formal legal powers of the 18th-century British monarch, and where each party’s presidential candidate emerges from an undignified struggle among party activists – Mr?Bush would have been eased out by now. The barons of his party would have told him that he had to step aside.

It would be better for the country--and for the Republican party--if some way were found to ensure its future presidential candidates have some skill in public administration.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Charles Gibson on World News Tonight intentionally minimized anti-war movement

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Former TX Rep. Martin Frost - Katrina Should Raise Tough Questions From Congress About Administration

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Top FEMA Deputies Also Not Qualified

Think Progress » Other partisan hack appointments run FEMA.

Andrew Sullivan, my recent favorite conservative, is leading a drive to have Brown fired. He wants all bloggers who agree to send him links.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Oppose Roberts because he is wrong even if he is not out of the mainstream

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

"Judging the Judges"

Liberals are looking into a constitutional philosophy of minimalism. Is this a retreat? Even if it is would that be a good thing? As an aside it mentions a new Washington law group the American Constitution Society, an organization of left-of-center lawyers that serves as a counterweight to the well-established right-of-center Federalist Society.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Google Maps - New Orleans New Satellite View

I found Jackson barracks - still flooded.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Class Act - Al Gore chartered a plane for victims of Katrina, refused interviews

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Fire head of FEMA and Homeland Security now

You can read my posts for all the reasons but I'll add something that I've just mentioned in one comment.

When Democrats delayed the Homeland Security Authorization Act after 9/11 for months Republicans, conservatives, and the main stream media had it as Democrats just protecting unions. No, Democrats objected to the GOP added provisions for political appointments and dismissals. Many voted against their own bill because the GOP insisted on replacing civil service rules for appointments with rules for appointments by political patronage. Political hack appointments were something the federal government had been going away from for over 100 years. Under the new bill every time the White House changed hands a new set of political friends would be brought into important positions. Remember, the White House was originally opposed to the Homeland Security Department and only bought into it for a PR boost and after they tinkered with it to get some plums they liked.

Now with almost half of FEMA's experienced emergency managers let go in the last three years and the replacements chosen on the basis of political favors, including both FEMA and Homeland Security top officers, no wonder disaster management has been the biggest disaster. Originally there were three FEMA emergency response groups, Red White and Blue. They are down to Red and White now and those are sprinkled with no experience political appointees.

Neither Brown at FEMA or Chertoff at Homeland Security, the heads of the agencies, have any emergency management training or experience. Both were political appointments from GOP friends they had made in the anti-Clinton political wars. (Edited for readability)

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Barbara Bush live and unedited

Barbara Bush referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them."

"Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to
Houston."

"What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Katrina resettling Gulf Coast | csmonitor.com

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Front Page WP - By Boat Through a Water World

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Third World Scenes in New Orleans

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Europe responds strongly to US calls for Katrina aid - Yahoo! News

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Europeans Offers Ready to Aid Katrina Victims - Yahoo! News

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Foreign newspapers surprised at superpower 'humbled' by Hurricane Katrina

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Katrina proof that nothing changed in US after Sept. 11

In fact, the neo-conservative arguments about 'failed-states' might be made about America now.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Future TV movie hero of Hurricane Katrina
Jabbar Gibson, 20, said police in New Orleans told him and others to take the school bus and try to get out of the flooded city.

Not mentioned in Houston Chronicle story is that Houston officials spent some time debating arresting him for stealing a bus.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

The Homeless Guy Blogger now has a job

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Murder and rape - fact or fiction?

Many remain unsubstantiated and may yet prove to be apocryphal.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Bush fails to stem anger

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Missing from Katrina news stories but not conversations - the issues of class and race

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Military press releases infilitrate into Katrina news articles

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Local Coverage Houston Area

The Pasadena Citizen -- Bush, Clinton join forces to help

Celebrities tour Astrodome

Volunteers Needed

RED CROSS PEOPLE SEARCH

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Most popular New Orleans blogs

DirectNIC

NOLA Breaking News Blog



Almost forgot the WLLTV blog.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

NYTimes is really covering the Washington news on Katrina

Rove organizes plan to reduce political damage

Bob Herbert - 'Bush to New Orleans - Drop Dead'


Frank Rich - We have to fight with the president we have

The war in Iraq is World War II. George W. Bush is F.D.R. And anyone who refuses to stay his course is soft on terrorism and guilty of a pre-9/11 "mind-set of isolation and retreat." Yet even as Mr. Bush promised "victory" (a word used nine times in this speech on Tuesday), he was standing at the totemic scene of his failure. It was along this same San Diego coastline that he declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln more than two years ago. For this return engagement, The Washington Post reported, the president's stage managers made sure he was positioned so that another hulking aircraft carrier nearby would stay off-camera, lest anyone be reminded of that premature end of "major combat operations."

The answers to what went wrong in Washington and on the Gulf Coast will come later, and, if the history of 9/11 is any guide, all too slowly, after the administration and its apologists erect every possible barrier to keep us from learning the truth. But as Americans dig out from Katrina and slouch toward another anniversary of Al Qaeda's strike, we have to acknowledge the full extent and urgency of our crisis. The world is more perilous than ever, and for now, to paraphrase Mr. Rumsfeld, we have no choice but to fight the war with the president we have.

David Brooks demonstrating that he can sometimes be a smart conservative - "All we can be sure of is that the political culture is about to undergo some big change... We're not really at a tipping point as much as a bursting point. People are mad as hell, unwilling to take it anymore." He even leads the column with a blog link.

Anne Rice - Do you know what it means to lose New Orleans?

Even more at the New York Times in the most emailed.

Added Kristof is back and talking about the Shame of Katrina - the hurricane of poverty.

and three important stories on the front page.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Killed by Contempt - Krugman

Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients.

Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a "strange paralysis" set in among Bush administration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousands died.

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game - New York Times

Furious state and local officials insisted that the real problem was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Mr. Chertoff's department oversees, failed to deliver urgently needed help and, through incomprehensible red tape, even thwarted others' efforts to help.

"We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."

Gary Permalink on 9/06/2005

Another break

Also another day of getting wrapped up in news searching. Should have been elsewhere two hours ago. In non-Katrina news California Senate passed bill legalizing gay marriage.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Getting away from Katrina - a story and photos of whale watching

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Right Wing Extremism Racism Seeping Into The Public Talk About Katrina

Blame the victims.

And the easiest way to do that, of course, is to suggest that their race (we'll hear a lot of talk about "black culture") is the real cause of the violence and the looting -- instead of the desperation and chaos brought about by the Bush administration's incompetence.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Oliver Willis » The Progressive Century

Too many people have died and continue to die at the hands of conservative leadership for us to allow this dark era in America to envelop us. Only the light of progress is going to be able to restore our glory and move us forward.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Six Year Old Boy Leads Five Children To Safety

He Held Their Lives in His Tiny Hands - Los Angeles Times

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Why FEMA Was Missing in Action - Los Angeles Times

The agency's core budget, which includes disaster preparedness and mitigation, has been cut each year since it was absorbed by the Homeland Security Department in 2003. Depending on what the final numbers end up being for next fiscal year, the cuts will have been between about 2% and 18%.

The agency's staff has been reduced by 500 positions to 4,735. Among the results, FEMA has had to cut one of its three emergency management teams, which are charged with overseeing relief efforts in a disaster. Where it once had "red," "white" and "blue" teams, it now has only red and white.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

NOLA TV Blog

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard: I'm not surprised at what the feds say, they're covering their butts.: They're keeping the body counts down because they don't want to horrify the nation. It's worse than Iraq, worse than 9-11. They just don't want to know how many were murdered by bureaucracy.

I know what the body count is so far, but I won't horrify the nation."

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Administration launches public-relations blitz on Katrina - Yahoo! News

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Hundreds of Storm Evacuees Coming to D.C. Today by Plane

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

'Times-Pic' Editor Says BUSH Bears Ultimate Blame for Weak Response

The newspaper is hardly known for Bush bashing. It made no endorsement for president in 2004, unhappy with both candidates. Amoss has been editor since 1990.


Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Hurricane Center Director Briefed FEMA and Homeland Security before landfall

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

CIA Leaker Now Leading Campaign to Blame Local Officials for Katrina Aftermath

and more from Progress Report

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

'Face The Nation' ended by blasting Washington response to Katrina

Crooks and Liars has quickly become essential.

CBS News Bob Shieffer:

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.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Crooks and Liars has a list

Foreign and other blog roundups on Katrina

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

First hand account of FEMA turning away help

I thought my outrage meter was already off the dial, but I discovered it had new levels when I heard the first-hand account from a friend who had left work for a week to bring specific expertise to the disaster, and who was among the thousands of such people blocked by FEMA and their incompetent bureaucracy from doing anything at all.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

When it is important to them the White House can quickly respond - Mardi Gras Town wasn't important

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Whiskey Bar: The Potemkin President

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Spinning and the stupid media who believe it

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

A Can't-Do Government - Krugman

Krugman ruminates about putting a party who doesn't believe in government in charge.

Last year James Lee Witt, who won bipartisan praise for his leadership of the agency during the Clinton years, said at a Congressional hearing: "I am extremely concerned that the ability of our nation to prepare for and respond to disasters has been sharply eroded. I hear from emergency managers, local and state leaders, and first responders nearly every day that the FEMA they knew and worked well with has now disappeared."

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

NO QUARTER: CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE AND KATRINA?

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

240,000 Evacuees Strain Texas Capacity - Yahoo! News

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Spirit of Texas Relief
Victims of Hurricane Katrina have flocked to Texas, over 230,000, looking for shelter, food, jobs.

Texas, our neighbors are in need and Texans are responding with open arms. Hundreds of thousands have been left without a roof over their heads and are currently living in temporary shelters or camping out.

Check out the links on this site, they will help guide you quickly to find an area where you can contribute.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Empty, ruined and desperate

Police shot dead at least five people who apparently opened fire on contractors on a city bridge, in a clear demonstration of the resolve to deal with the lawlessness that has beset New Orleans.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

The city may not be back in six weeks. Or six months. Or six years.

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Bush picks Roberts to succeed Rehnquist - Yahoo! News

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

AmericaBlog Disgusted

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO GET YOU PEOPLE TO DO YOUR F*ING JOBS?!?!

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

American Family Association - God Hates Fags, NOLA Deserved It

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Sterile Relief Show Didn't Benefit by NBC- ( GE) Censors

By censoring Grammy-winning rapper Kanye West's remarks critical of President Bush during its West Coast feed of the program Friday night, the network violated the most moving and essential moment in an otherwise sterile, self-serving corporate broadcast.

The line NBC stopped us from hearing on the West Coast: "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Storm disaster fuels doubts over U.S. terror plans

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Daily Briefing -- Katrina: A 'Besieged White House'

• Rove and Bartlett devised plan to shift blame to Louisiana and to ignore Democrats' attacks; many Bush advisors spent weekend at Nicole Devenish's wedding in Greece. Chertoff's talking point: "We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are." [NYT]
• Officials point fingers over failures in Gulf Coast. Nagin: "We're still fighting over authority." Hillary calls for independent commission to analyze response. [NYT, WT]
• "Besieged White House" forced to balance problems on the Gulf Coast, complexity of Supreme Court drama, and ongoing challenges in Iraq. [WP, WT]
• High death toll anticipated. Michael Leavitt: "I think it's evident it's in the thousands." Chertoff: "We need to prepare the country for what's coming." [WP, NYT, LAT]

• Years of [GOP] budget cuts and bureaucratic shuffling have left FEMA unprepared. Former official: "They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers. These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing." [LAT]

More from Wonkette

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

A REPEAT - Chicago Tribune | Ex-officials say weakened FEMA botched response

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Navy ship nearby underused by FEMA

Gary Permalink on 9/05/2005

Another 24 or more hour break
Read down now or check out the archives. Lots of links as usual and links pointing to links.

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

One Year Ago - If category 3 or greater strikes they will need an operation bigger than Dunkirk to rescue people

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

The Cavalry Came Too Late While FEMA Denied Water to NOLA

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Why buses weren't used to get people out

Buses were used to ferry people to the Superdome. That was essentially the plan.

The articles point out many changes since the Ivan near miss, but the most fascinating is that New Orleans whole plan was to get people to shelters of last resort, ride out the storm and wait for the calvary.

New Orleans is in an unusual situation, compared with neighboring parishes, because more than a quarter of its residents have no personal transportation. According to the most recent census data, about 134,000 out of the city's 480,000 people are without cars.

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Hiring administrators based on party and personal loyalty has got to stop

OpEdNews.Com : Fire The Bush Time Bombs

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Lists of lists of the missing

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Living Paycheck to Paycheck Made Leaving Impossible

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Republican failure, Republican blame

Pharyngula thinks "The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole."

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Shelter in Biloxi closed after 20 fall ill - dysentry?

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Who's Winning the War in Iraq?

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Halliburton Gets Katrina Contract - Hires former FEMA director

They can probably hire the current one in a few weeks,

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Chicago Tribune: Bush weakened FEMA botched response

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Governor Goodhair on rounding them up and moving them on
Astrodome filled with refugees.

As evacuees strain Texas' shelters, Perry orders airlift to other states.

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

New Format for some bloggers

Sisyphus Shrugged has gone to 'Lake George' link dump

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Refugees Arrive in Austin

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

The answer is blowing in the wind
Where does the buck stop? Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Satellite/aerial photos of Katrina

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Share Your Home

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Self-Reliance and Survivalism are virtues only when practiced by people who look like right-wingers

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

American Red Cross - Credit Card Contributions

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

'My Pet Goat' -- The Sequel

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

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

White House Shifts Blame

The Washington Monthly caught that brief headline at the Washington Post on an article about the White House blaming all the failures on local authorities. But poof - the headline changes and the GOP storms the comments section.

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Chief Justice Rehnquest Dies, gives Bush another chance to move court right

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

New Orleans Regaining Stability

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

An Angry 'Times-Picayune' Calls for Firing of FEMA Chief and Others in Open Letter to President On Sunday

NOLA Times-Picayune:

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he [FEMA Director Brown]said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Bysh's PR FAKE Visit to New Orleans

In an effort to counter the bad publicity Bush staged a series of images, not reality.

From the 'briefing' that went on in a hangar full of helicopters to his walking down a street in Biloxi and having three regular citizens walk up to him for comforting to the last press availiability of the day when he announced that the Convention Center was secure and the levees were being repaired, it was clear that the game plan from the White House was for Bush to go to the region, look decisive, comfort a few citizens, and announce at the end of the day that all was well.

It was a full-on effort to change the subject of discussion from the utter failure of the Bush administration to handle the crisis with even a hint of competency, and in true Bush fashion, he wrapped it up at 5:00 PM and announced that he was 'Flyin' out of (t)here.'

But from beginning to end, the entire exercise was a series of lies - a Potemkin photo op designed to fool those Americans who were not bothering to look closely at what was going on. Let's look at key aspects of Bush's trip that were covered by television... more.

Gary Permalink on 9/04/2005

Read down the page and check the archives

I was supposed to be somewhere 6 hours ago and just kept linking.

I'm taking a break for 24 hours. There is enough to keep you busy here for awhile.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Is support growing to 'Impeach Bush'?

No, it continues bubbling at this fairly low level.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Liberals Pissed

The Writings of Greg Palast: "The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United States had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander-in-Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned.

That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding."

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Assistant Army Secretary forced out for protesting Corps of Engineers Cuts - March 6, 2002

Link from Buzzflash.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

All Helicopter Food Drops Were Suspended While Bush was in New Orleans

A CRIMINAL INCOMPETENT IS OUR PRESIDENT -- I had blogged about helicopters being grounded for his photo op earlier but here is a newspaper story confirming this.

Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush's visit to New Orleans, officials said.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Relief Goods Needed in Houston at Official Sites

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

7,000 more troops within next three days. Mayor hopes remaining 50,000 can be evacuated in five days.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

National Guard Met by Despair, Not Violence - Los Angeles Times

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

The other disaster - 1,000 Iraq dead in bridge stampede

Iraqis blame U.S. security measures

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

FOX Reporters Cut Through Network GOP Spin Job

Digby has more Crooks and Liars has the video.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Red Cross Banned From Bringing Food and Supplies

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Chicago Offered Aid Sunday, As of Friday Feds requested 1 truck

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

US Deployment Iraq

This is the 3rd Rotation taking place now where my nephew has just left.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Dem. La. Rep.: U.S. must ask tough questions about their safety and their government

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

The Last Great Hurricane Disaster 105 Years Ago

Ignore the rest of Tech Central posts on Hurricane Katrina. They are a paid corporate PR firm, paid to influence attitudes and policies.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

David Brooks - Katrina Could Lead To New Progressive Turn In America

Online NewsHour: David Brooks, Tom Oliphant and Clarence Page Discuss the Week Following Hurricane Katrina -- September 2, 2005

DAVID BROOKS: Well, what you get is you get these meteorological storms and then these political storms because in the moments of extremists people see who's up and who's down, who's at fault and who is suffering. So, for example in 1897 there was the famous Johnstown Flood, a pond owned by millionaires including Andrew Carnegie flooded the town of Johnstown. The public anger over that helped spawn the Progressive Movement.

Then in 1927 you had the great Mississippi Flood, which flooded New Orleans. And there you have first of all, you had great demand for the government to get involved in disaster relief which had not happened much before then. And that helped lead the way to the New Deal. You also had the situation where the town fathers flooded some of the poorer and middle class areas to relieve some of the pleasure on the rest of the city and then reneged on their promises for compensation for the people who had their homes destroyed. The anger over that, helped lead to the rise of Huey Long, the populist governor.

So what you get is this moments of extremists, people see the power inequalities, the poor suffering, the rich benefiting and then they react. And so you get these political reactions.

JIM LEHRER: And okay, now, move it to Hurricane Katrina and what we are seeing down there now.

DAVID BROOKS: I think it is a huge reaction we are about to see. I mean, first of all, they violated the social fabric, which is in the moments of crisis you take care of the poor first. That didn't happen; it's like leaving wounded on the battlefield.

So there is just -- in 9/11 you had a great surge of public confidence. Now I think we are going to see a great decline in public confidence in our institutions. And so I just think this is sort of the anti-9/11 as one of the bloggers wrote.

JIM LEHRER: What would you add to that, Tom?

TOM OLIPHANT: I would say the fault lines are much deeper than that. I mean, on the one hand there is no question that we can see now with our own eyes the two Americas of which John Edwards began speaking a year and a half ago.

But deeper than that, I think, is the anger that is going to come from the realization that virtually all public policy -- state, local, federal, where this area is concerned, has been against the public interests for decades. And the realization that government is one of the reasons we have government has been violated by virtually everything government has done for decades.

DAVID BROOKS: This is -- first of all it is a national humiliation to see bodies floating in a river for five days in a major American city. But second, you have to remember, this was really a de-legitimization of institutions.

Our institutions completely failed us and it is not as if it is the first in the past three years -- this follows Abu Ghraib, the failure of planning in Iraq, the intelligence failures, the corporate scandals, the media scandals.

We have had over the past four or five years a whole series of scandals that soured the public mood. You've seen a rise in feeling the country is headed in the wrong direction.

And I think this is the biggest one and the bursting one, and I must say personally it is the one that really says hey, it feels like the 70s now where you really have a loss of faith in institutions. Let's get out of this mess. And I really think this is so important as a cultural moment, like the blackouts of 1977, just people are sick of it.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Moving to MSM - FEMA Head's Job History

BostonHerald.com - Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be asked to resign

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." - Bush

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Rescue efforts were ready Monday but waiting on calls that didn't come

A lot of stories are coming together on this. Much of this is pulled together from comments on Daily Kos.

The Red Cross, FEMA and the military knew they would be needed and went on alert as the weekend before Katrina made landfall. So where were they? The Red Cross was told to stay out until a coordinated effort was made. The military is prevented by law from operating in the US until they are given proper orders. FEMA iwas waiting on orders. Everyone was waiting on orders that didn't go out.

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Red tape keeping much of military on sidelines

Northern Command Unit READY - BUT WAITED on Bush Orders

"Others have talked about the Red Cross being told to stay away, and I know that Northwest Medical Teams was also told by FEMA to stay away until Friday. NWMT is very frustrated because they were ready to be on the ground MONDAY, the day Katrina hit."

The LA governor sent a request for assistance on Sunday 08/28, several of my posts down, but some on TV are trying to say he sent the wrong form. "I request direct Federal assistance for work and services to save lives and protect property. I request that you declare an expedited major disaster for the State of Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina, a Category V Hurricane approaches our coast south of New Orleans: beginning on August 28, 2005 and continuing."

This is like the head of Homeland Security saying the mayor of New Orleans never properly communicated there was another convention center with over 10,000 people needing help.

FEMA relief driver yesterday - had his truck loaded with water in Houston on Monday, but wasn't given the order to head to NOLA until Thursday/Friday.

Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina, CNN has learned.

More than 44 foreign governments and international organisations have offered aid to help with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Sri Lanka and Indonesia, who were recipients of US assistance after the tsunami, were among the list of potential donors.
Cuba and Venezuela put aside their differences with the Bush administration to offer assistance. The US state department said all the offers were being examined. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela - a major oil exporting country - said he had offered to send cheap fuel. The state department has not decided whether to accept it.

What does the Mayor of New Orleans have to say about this:

"You mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on man," he said.

"I need reinforcements," he pleaded. "I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. This is a national disaster.

"I've talked directly with the president," he said. "I've talked to the head of the homeland security. I've talked to everybody under the sun."

"I've been out there man. I flew in these helicopters, been in the crowds talking to people crying, don't know where their relatives are. I've done it all man, and I'll tell you man, I keep hearing that it's coming. This is coming, that is coming. And my answer to that today is BS, where is the beef? Because there is no beef in this city. "

Nagin said, "Get every Greyhound bus in the country and get them moving."

Nagin called for a moratorium on press conferences "until the resources are in this city."

"They're feeding the people a line of bull, and they are spinning and people are dying," he said.

"I don't know whether it's the governor's problem, or it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get ... on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now," Nagin said.

"They thinking small, man, and this is a major, major deal," he said.

"Get off your asses and let's do something."

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Bush really was eating cake


Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

BREAKING: Louisiana sent letter begging Bush for help on 28th

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Refugee Capitol News
and the Astrodome blog and Refugee Blog.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

HoustonChronicle.com - Volunteers pouring in to help at Dome, convention center

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Flames Rage On the Waterfront In New Orleans

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Read between the lines

Buried in this report - the US lost over 10% of its oil production and much more of its natural gas and gasoline production. After several weeks we might get half of it back.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Meanwhile on the GOP Network
"There are a lot of good stories you aren't hearig from our liberal media out there"

From Salon.com, must watch commercial for free access.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

YOU BET YOUR LIFE

From The Wilderness might be exagerating but not by much:

By my calculations and those of oil energy expert Jan Lundberg, the United States has just lost between 20% and 25% of its energy supply. My projection is that it's not coming back -- at least not most of it.

As a result of Katrina, Saudi Arabia has finally admitted that it cannot increase production. Many of us knew they've been lying for at least two years. The Energy Information Administration has just admitted that global demand has been outstripping supply for several months before Katrina. Nice time to start telling the truth.

"How will the oil companies even find their workers or tell them where to report for work?" Where will the workers live? Where will they buy groceries? How will they get to and from work if the gasoline they're supposed to produce isn't there? The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is also much more seriously damaged than press accounts disclose. It's here that supertankers from overseas (used to) offload. They have no place else to do it. They're too big. I have seen video of LOOP damage which doesn't look anything like the minimal damage that's been reported. OK, so when the port is fixed what about the damaged pipelines running to shore? How many boat anchors have been dragged over them? In how many places are they ruptured, crushed or broken?

As many as twenty offshore rigs have now been confirmed as adrift, capsized, listing or sunk. Each rig may have as many as eight wells. Where's the money coming from to replace them? How long will that take?

Bottom line: my assessment is that New Orleans is never going to be rebuilt and that US domestic oil production will never again reach pre-Katrina levels.

The most chilling thing I have heard is that hurricane Katrina fell on the thirteenth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew which devastated Florida in 1992. Hurricanes are named alphabetically. Andrew was the first tropical storm of 1992. Katrina was the eleventh of 2005 and the hurricane season is just beginning. There are more storms forming now. Some of them will most likely become very large hurricanes because water temperatures are so high in our dying oceans.

Go ahead. Tell me we've all been wrong about Peak Oil, about climate collapse, and the metastatic corruption of our government and economic system. Now it's an easy bet and one that we will not have to wait long to settle. I'll take your wager.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

I Guess Bush Doesn't Watch Weather Reports Either

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth:

Four days before Bush canceled his galavanting vacation, this hit the Weather Service wires Sunday at 5pm Eastern:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

...EXTREMELY DANGEROUS HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA...
...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY DAMAGED OR DESTROYED....

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE KILLED.

This was 5pm Sunday, folks. And Bush decided to stay on vacation another 4 days.
Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

United States of Shame - Maureen Dowd

Stuff happens.

And when you combine limited government with incompetent government, lethal stuff happens.

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

Why does this self-styled "can do" president always lapse into such lame "who could have known?" excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.'s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans's sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy's uneasy fishbowl.

When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.

When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.

Who are we if we can't take care of our own?

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Katrina's Assault on Washington - New York Times

The National Tax-Cut Party Is Over

Senator Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat, is now fighting for every available dollar to restore her state. Republicans had been wooing Ms. Landrieu as a possible supporter of the estate tax repeal. Now, we presume, she has higher priorities.

Washington's inspiration must now be the individual rescuers in New Orleans, who have labored so bravely and selflessly, as well as the charitable deeds of local and state governments. Houston's offer of shelter at the Astrodome has put self-regarding national politicians to shame.

Congress and the president had better get the message: an extraordinary time is upon the nation. The annihilation in New Orleans is an irrefutable sign that the national tax-cut party is over. So is the idea that American voters cannot be required to accept sacrifice or inconvenience, no matter how great the crisis. This country is better than that.

Gary Permalink on 9/03/2005

Major oil spill seen on Mississippi River-officials - Yahoo! News

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

What Is On Ipod One?

What he should have.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Roiling Stones stick it to Bush

"How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con?"

"You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite," "You call yourself a patriot. Well, I think you are full of s---!

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

AP finally tells Kamel's story and the false hunt for WMDs

CIA learned in 1995 Iraq destroyed all WMDs and it's entire WMD program in 1991. Neocons and Tenet didn't believe it.

Most of this story can be found in my archives before the Iraq War.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

What has a conservative done for you lately?

MoveOn.org Civic Action has made available at least 42,000 beds for survivors of Hurricane Katrina through its http://hurricanehousing.org website

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Conservative magazine blames blacks, political correctness for chaos

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Can't Get There?

After the Army Corps of Engineers spent three days lamenting "the difficulty of gaining access," reports the Washington Post, a local contractor "drove to the mouth" of the 17th Street Canal and "began driving steel slabs into the breach."

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Trapped in the Superhellhole

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

CNN.com - The Official Story - The Reality

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Convoys Roll Into New Orleans With Relief Supplies

Lawmakers Approve $10.5B in Emergency Funding

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Houston Chronicle: Slow Response - Many wonder if race is a factor

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

100,000 Refugees in Houston

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Hurricane Deja Vu

Restarting -

Margret Miller of D'Iberville, Miss. lost every brick and board to Hurricane Camille in 73. The only item she ever found was her silver platter she found lying in a field. She rebuilt. Hurricane Katrina has now taken every brick and board of her home again. Nothing left at all...except the same silver platter which she again found lying in a field. She plans to rebuild again. -- Eliot Kamenitz Times-Picayune

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Cutting Hurricane Preparedness Funds

Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly denied full funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

"Ground Those Helicopters, I Need a Photo-Op"

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

The AP Turns on Bush

RON FOURNIER:

The Iraqi insurgency is in its last throes. The economy is booming. Anybody who leaks a CIA agent's identity will be fired. Add another piece of White House rhetoric that doesn't match the public's view of reality: Help is on the way, Gulf Coast.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Pentagon Political Appointees: There's been too much sympathy for the victims, not enough for us bureaucrats

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Republicans criticical of the relief effort

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich said the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina "puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?"

Link from Sharon of 'Nothing Matters, and What if it Did?'

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Why Thousands May Die

In a disaster of these proportions, there's always the tendency to look for someone to blame. This time we're all to blame, for allowing our collective system of protection, our government, to be hijacked by corporate interests and their politician lackeys. Katrina will take the lives of many. Some of those deaths "big government" could have saved.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Brooks has a decent column - preparing the GOP for retribution

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Waiting for a Leader - New York Times

"George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. "

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

FEMA Directing Donations To Rev. Pat Robertson
Family run charity business Operation Blessing previously accused of fraud and supporting Robertson business interests instead of humanitarian work. Pat Roberton's Right-Wing Gold Mine.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

TV Anchor Loses It - Rips Into Politicians Thanking Each Other As He Watched Bodies Eaten by Rats

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

"Lake George"

Someone at the EPA as reported by Wonkette

We're naming it Lake George, 'cause it's his frickin fault. Have you seen all that data about the levee projects' funding being cut over the past three years by the Prez, and the funding transferred to Iraq? The levee, as designed, might not have held back the surge from a direct Class 5 hit, but it certainly would not have crumbled on Monday night from saturation and scour erosion following a glancing blow from a Class 3. The failure was in a spot that had just been rebuilt, not yet compacted, not planted, and not armed (hardened with rock/concrete). The project should have been done two years ago, but the federal gov't diverted 80% of the funding to Iraq. Other areas had settled by a few feet from their design specs, and the money to repair them was diverted to Iraq.

The NO paper raised hell about this time and again, to no avail. And who will take the blame for it? The Army Corps, because they're good soldiers and will never contradict the C in C. But Corps has had massive budget cuts across all departments (including wetland regulatory) since Bush took office, and now we've reaped what was sown.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Mr. Bill knew more than Bush -

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Krugman - A Can't-Do Government - New York Times

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

New Orleans Local

NOLA.com:Times-Picayune

Locals post info.

Breaking News Blog

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Slate - Department of Homeland Screw-Up - What is the Bush administration doing?

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

FEMA Dir. Mike Brown fired from prior job

HorsesAss's:I think I've told you that I'm into Arab horses. Well, for 3 years Michael Brown was hired and then fired by our IAHA, the International Arabian Horse Assoc. He was an unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago.

He ruined IAHA financially so badly that we had to change the name and combine it with the Purebred registry.

I am telling you this after watching the fucking shipwreck in the Gulf. His incompetence is KILLING people.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Left Behind

Daily Kos:

We have witnessed two disasters this week. The first was an act of nature. The second was not. The second disaster, still ongoing, is unforgivable.

That's the only word that comes to mind, a word I keep repeating to myself. These deaths, these men, these women, these infants dying now in these hours didn't have to happen. They did not have to die waiting for convoys to gather outside their city or for reservists to stand alongside their shattered police forces. They did not have to wait in darkness and fear for help to arrive, only to struggle for days without that help ever coming.

This is not politics. This is not partisanship.

This is unforgivable.

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Why New Orleans is in Deep Water

Molly Ivins is also on target:

"To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is not 'just politics' or blaming for political advantage. This is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do about their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for those policies.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who ever said, 'I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics,' or, 'There's nothing I can do about it,' or, 'Eh, they're all crooks anyway.'

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I can do about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National Rifle Association would argue, 'Government policies don't kill people, hurricanes kill people.' Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people."

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

I agree with Hullabaloo on this one

Hullabaloo:

"This event is emblematic of Republican governance. It encompasses every fuck-up they've perpetrated since they took over the entire national governament --- failure to plan, embracing only the best case scenario, lagging response, ignoring the experts, slashing funds and endless, endless happy talk that we can SEE WITH OUR OWN EYES is bullshit. (They are already saying that nobody is reporting all the 'good news.')

The fact that most of these refugees (a word that I can hardly believe I'm typing) are black and poor residents who were unable to leave and were therefore, left to die, is emblematic also.

No, this is all about politics. It is about a GOP era of massive tax breaks for very rich Americans, billion dollar a week elective wars that we are losing while more and more people fall into poverty and the infrastructure of this country crumbles around our ears.

This failed experiment in free-market magical thinking can be summed up entirely by pictures of dead elderly Americans on the streets of New Orleans. "

Gary Permalink on 9/02/2005

Local Houston News Is All Katrina and Gas Related

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Salon.com | "No one can say they didn't see it coming"

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war. -- Sidney Blumenthal

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

$4+ Gasoline - Release of oil reserves has little effect

...the relief it caused in the overheated oil market was cut short when it became clear that the move would have little impact on the problem and was as much a political gesture as an economic one.

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Bush admits - Iraq War WAS about the oil

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

$4 Gas - Soon
Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Two Ohio election officials indicted over 2004 recount

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Bush's Hurricane Protection Budget Cuts Exact a Big Price

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

The Neoconservative Homer Simpsons

Never back down, never apologize, always hit on the head by reality in the face of their schemes and incompetence. Duh. -Karen Kwiatkowski

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

HOW TO HELP


Charities and the federal government are launching what aid agencies predict could be "the longest and costliest relief effort in U.S. history." Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is urging those who want to help to make cash donations. Cash donations "allow volunteer agencies to issue cash vouchers to victims so they can meet their needs. Cash donations also allow agencies to avoid the labor-intensive need to store, sort, pack and distribute donated goods. Donated money prevents, too, the prohibitive cost of air or sea transportation that donated goods require." Here is the list of agencies that FEMA is directing people to contact (if you decide to give to a different charity, beware of scams). -- American Progress Report

FYI - Bush Administration Cut Back Flood Control Spending


National Red Cross Donation and Volunteer Center.

Or Call 1-800-HELP-NOW
(1-800-435-7669)
English speaking

Call
1-800-257-7575
Spanish Speaking

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Journalists Under Fire in Iraq

Democracy Now! -- Reuters Chief Debates Pentagon Over Slain and Detained Media Workers Photographer witness to be held for months without charges.

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Superdome refugees coming to Houston's Astrodome

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Our New Attorney General's Top Priority - Stopping Wanking Off

"Compared to terrorism, public corruption and narcotics, [pornography] is no worse than dropping gum on the sidewalk," said Stephen Bronis, a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder in Miami and chair of the white-collar crime division of the American Bar Association. "With so many other problems in this area, this is absolutely ridiculous."

But not everyone agrees. With the rapid growth of Internet pornography, stamping out obscene material has become a major concern for the Bush administration's powerful Christian conservative supporters. The Mississippi-based American Family Association and other Christian conservative groups have pressured the Justice Department to take action against pornography. The family association has sent weekly letters to U.S. attorneys around the country to pressure them to pursue the makers and distributors of pornography.

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

This is what the future looks like if we don't stop global warming
Today is the beginning of a new age - how many other cities will look like this?

Gary Permalink on 8/31/2005

Brazil nearly built nuclear bomb in 1990s

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

James J. Hughes "Unitarian Universalism and Transhumanism" 2005

Having a variety of interests here. In this case the future meeting of electronics, biology, people, and religion.

I expect UUs to be critical transhumanists, pushing technoutopians to remember the current needs of the world’s poor, for clean water, adequate shelter and decent wages.

I also expect UUs to engage with and be critical of the embarrassingly religious dimensions of the transhumanist idea – at least embarrassing for the largely secular transhumanists – with its promises of immortality, magical abilities, a coming TechnoRapture.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Drudge Retort: Scientists Warn of More Katrinas

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

German Papers: Katrina Should be A Lesson To US on Global Warming

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Rising water in New Orleans forcing citywide evacuation
Local TV news reports of helicopters bringing rescued to Houston

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Many areas not heard from mostly destroyed

Dr. Master's Weather Underground Wunder Blog:

Remember in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew, how there was a lot of relief about how much worse it could have been, and how well Miami fared? This cheerfulness faded once the search teams penetrated to Homestead and found the near-total devastation there.

The fact we have not heard at all from the areas hardest hit by Katrina--Slidell, Bay Saint Louis, Pass Christian--means that these areas have probably been mostly destroyed, with substantial loss of life of those who failed to evacuate. While the winds of Katrina were only of Category 3 strength when the storm moved through these areas, Katrina's 20 - 22 foot storm surge was still characteristic of a Category 5 storm. Remember, the all-time record for a storm surge in the U.S. is 26 feet--from Hurricane Camille--and Katrina's storm surge was close to that level, but covered an area three times larger.

And with a two block long breach in the Lake Pontchartrain levee allowing the entire city of New Orleans to flood today, we are witnessing a natural disaster of the scope unseen in America since the great 1938 Hurricane devastated New England, killing 600. Damage from Katrina will probably top $50 billion, and the death toll will be in the hundreds.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

'Catastrophic'

Times-Picayune electronic edition headline - CATASTROPHIC

SCLM Washington Post and New York Times have not yet fully realized the 'worst case scenario' change as New Orleans floods.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Still Smoking After All These Years

Garfunkel given another ticket for Mary Jane

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

New Census Data - Bush policies bad for workers

Economic Recovery Failed To Benefit Much of The Population In 2004, 8/30/05

• Real median earnings of full-time year-round male workers fell by nearly $1,000 (from $41,761 to $40,798), a decline of 2.3 percent.
• Real median earnings of full-time year-round female workers fell by over $300, or 1 percent (from $31,550 to $31,223), marking the second consecutive year of decline. This is the first time since 1995 that the median earnings of full-time year-round female workers have dropped for two years in a row.
• Real median income among the working-age population — households headed by adults under 65 — fell by $600 (from $51,559 to $50,923), a decline of 1.2 percent. (Overall median income for all households was unchanged.)
• The number of people who work but live in poverty increased by 563,000. The poverty rate increased among this group from 5.8 percent to 6.1 percent.
• Among people age 18 to 64 who work, the number who were uninsured climbed by 772,000, and the percentage without insurance rose from 18.6 percent to 19.0 percent.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

'Worst Case Scenario' for New Orleans

With the breaking of the levees is there any way to evacuate all of 100,000 people?

Martial Law has been declared

Industry sources said that one big underwriter had already stopped providing business-interruption insurance in the Gulf and others warned that rising storm losses would lead to premiums so high that insuring platforms could become uneconomic.

Damage assessments on Tuesday suggested that it could take a week to restart refineries hit by the hurricane at a time when supplies already are tight.

Mass media remains well behind on this story although I've been told that journalists have been ordered out of New Orleans according to Fox News.

NPRs new on-air personality jokes about a Superdome suicide with his buddies at the National Review Online.

ATTN: SUPERDOME RESIDENTS [Jonah Goldberg]
I think it's time to face facts. That place is going to be a Mad Max/thunderdome Waterworld/Lord of the Flies horror show within the next few hours. My advice is to prepare yourself now. Hoard weapons, grow gills and learn to communicate with serpents. While you're working on that, find the biggest guy you can and when he's not expecting it beat him senseless. Gather young fighters around you and tell the womenfolk you will feed and protect any female who agrees to participate without question in your plans to repopulate the earth with a race of gilled-supermen. It's never too soon to be prepared.
Posted at 10:05 AM

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Media catching Up - Hundreds feared dead in Hurricane Katrina

"The devastation is greater than our worst fears," Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told a news conference. "It's totally overwhelming."

Hundreds being rescued by helicopter from rising waters in New Orleans.

In the Mississippi coastal city of Biloxi, hundreds may have been killed after being trapped in their homes when a 30-foot (9 meter) storm surge came ashore, a city spokesman said.

"It's going to be in the hundreds," spokesman Vincent Creel told Reuters. "Camille was 200, and we're looking at a lot more than that," he said, referring to Hurricane Camille, which hit the area in 1969 and destroyed swaths of Mississippi and Louisiana, killing a total of 256 people.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Southeast wholesale price of gasoline rises 50%
Wholesale gasoline prices on the Gulf Coast broke $3 a gallon on Tuesday- ar higher than prices at most U.S. pumps -- as major refineries remained shut after Hurricane Katrina, trading sources said.

This could spell a huge spike in retail prices for drivers throughout the United States in the coming days and in particular those in the Southeast, where prices are typically the lowest in the country.

The spike in wholesale prices from below $2 last Friday came after Hurricane Katrina plowed through the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall near New Orleans, forcing shut at least eight refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi and slowing production from two others.

The shut refineries and plants with reduced production account for about 15 percent of U.S. refinery production.

On Tuesday, a gallon of gasoline traded in the Houston-based Gulf Coast physical marketing hub cost about $3.15 a gallon -- sharply higher than the national average retail price of about $2.60 a gallon.

Traders were reluctant to guess how high the wholesale spike will make prices at the pump but some say it's safe to bet that the price of a gallon of regular self-service gasoline in the United States will top $3 per gallon by next week.

"Retail prices are going to vary among regions but for all practical purposes $3 is a floor," said private oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch.

The spike could spread across other regions of the United States due to the shutdown of two fuel pipelines from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, including the massive Colonial Pipeline.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Surprising Fox News Opinion

Drunk With Power, Spending Out of Control -- just avoided putting GOP in headline.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Poll: Patriot Act support shrinks as more learn intent

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

At least 615 largest oil and gas rigs shut down in Gulf

While gas prices should go to $3 natural gas prices will increase more.

Nine refineries shut down

3 oil platforms adrift

After last major storm production in Gulf affected for months.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

US Soldiers coming back with damaged sperm

Radioactive Wounds of War

Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate, Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had tested positive.

Matthew, 31, decided that since he’d spent much of his time in Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he’d better get tested too. It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.

Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only two digits.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

$1.5 Trillion for the U.S. to establish an Islamic Republic?

"Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation. No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam."
- New Iraqi Constitution

"Fortunately, after years of effort and expectations in Iraq, an Islamic state has come to power and the constitution has been established on the basis of Islamic precepts. We must congratulate the Iraqi people and authorities for this victory."
- Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of Iran's powerful ultra-conservative Guardian Council

"This is the future of the new Iraqi government - it will be in the hands of the clerics. I wanted Iraqi women to be free, to be able to talk freely and to able to move around. I am not going to stay here."
- Dr. Raja Kuzai, an obstetrician and secular Shiite member used by President Bush for photo-ops in Washington showing why we are in Iraq.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

DoD, Free Republic and Conservative Sponsers Launch Smear Campaign Against Anti-War Vigils

The Politics of Slander

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

'Underwater' - NOLA turns to blogging

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Breaking News Weblog Excerpts

The overview: 'Look, look man: It’s gone'

Margaret O’Brien-Molina, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross’ southwest service area office in Houston, said national Red Cross executives earlier today described Katrina as “the largest recovery operation the Red Cross has ever attempted.”

The huge storm also flooded cities along the Mississippi and Alabama coasts. Katrina pushed Mobile Bay into the city’s downtown district. A 22-foot storm surge devastated parts of Gulfport and Pascagoula, officials said.

As night gathered over a city without lights, it appeared that at least 150 people – perhaps many more – were marooned on rooftops, sometimes with their children.

State Wildlife Secretary Dwight Landreneau said that by dawn he would have more than 200 boats in the water, about 120 more than he had on Monday. He said he also has a commitment from Texas for another 50 boats.

Police Chief Eddie Compass said officials were desperately trying to make conditions a little more comfortable for the more than 25,000 refugees housed in the sweltering Superdome. Saying that the Dome was filthy and smelled bad, Compass said he was going to allow people to go outside.

-- Jackson Barracks near Arabi was beneath 12 feet of water. Pat and I visited there after camping to the South in St. Bernard - now with the same amount of water.

Remarkably, the French Quarter seemed largely untouched.

The neighborhood was among the last to lose power as the storm strengthened shortly after dawn. After its passage, pedestrians bought beer through walk-up windows and guests loitered on second-floor balconies.

Sporadic looting broke out in some locations in New Orleans.

Katrina cut power service to an estimated 770,000 people, including 700,000 who form Entergy’s entire customer base, said utility spokeswoman Amy Stallings. Stallings warned 700,000 electrical customers to be prepared to go without power for a month or more.

A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north. The breach sent a churning sea of water coursing across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.

As night fell on a devastated region, the water was still rising in the city, and nobody was willing to predict when it would stop.

American Red Cross spokesman Victor Howell said 750 to 1,000 Red Cross personnel are now at work on hurricane recovery in Louisiana, and 2,000 more volunteers will be here in the next few days.

The Red Cross will bring in three large mobile kitchens to prepare 500,000 meals per day. There are 40 shelters statewide, housing about 32,000 people, "and you're going to have more," Howell said.

"Unfortunately, the message we have for residents is that while the storm is passed, life as we know it in Jefferson Parish is gone for several months. In fact, I don't think that life as we know it will ever return."

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Religious Zealots Causing Disharmony In US MIlitary

Military Wrestles With Disharmony Among Chaplains

Pressures from evangelicals splitting military - Why can't we say other faiths are going to Hell and end prayers in Jesus' Name?

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Border to Louisiana Closed

Local Red Cross report - Texas motorists prevented from entering Louisiana.

Most expensive U.S. Disaster as damage continues.

Added - Hundreds of rescues from rooftops, attics and water.

Nasty Free Republican Response - We built New Orleans public housing too strong!

To: mamabadger
Honey, the Tragedy is ongoing, I was hoping that the Government housing was completly destroyed, but we built it too strong, now we have to replace their Bigscreens, Cadillacs and deep pile carpet so they can procreate in a manner that they have been accustomed to.

397 posted on 08/29/2005 9:39:14 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)

How they speak to each other.

Oil rigs adrift in Gulf.

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

My Nephew Returns to Iraq For 3rd Time As Iraq Constitution Fails
Personal Failure For Bush

After four missed deadlines and two months of talks, negotiations over a draft Iraqi constitution broke down as Shiite and Kurdish negotiators decided they would move ahead and propose the draft to the full Iraqi parliament without Sunni approval. Reaction from the Sunnis, whose support was seen "as crucial to taking the steam out of the violent Sunni-led insurgency," was anticipated after American negotiators, led by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, announced Saturday that "they had given up trying to broker an agreement."

For the American public, the fallout from this weekend's developments in Iraq may raise more questions about what the Bush administration is trying to achieve. As the Washington Post editorialized, "depending on the future balance of power in the Iraqi parliament, the constitution as it stood late last week could allow the emergence of a Shiite mini-state in Iraq's south closely allied to Iran, with de facto rule by clerics and a continuation of the oppression of women and non-Shiites already widely reported in the region. American military defense of such an entity would be hard to justify."

SUNNI DISSENSION A PERSONAL SETBACK FOR BUSH: The Bush administration has invested much in the Iraqi constitutional process, calling it one track in its two-front efforts to achieve progress in Iraq and ultimately draw down troops. For President Bush, the Sunni dissent was a personal setback, coming on the heels of his personal intervention in the negotiations. Last Thursday, Bush telephoned Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a prominent Shiite cleric and leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, to "press him to be more accommodating to Sunni interests. That effort failed." In January, Bush laid down the marker for a successful constitutional negotiation. "[E]verybody ought to be able to participate in the writing of the constitution … there needs to be respect for minority rights,” he said. Secretary of State Condi Rice traveled to Iraq to stress to negotiators "the extreme importance of Sunni participation in all of these processes, particularly in the writing of the constitution." And Khalilzad said last week that "it's very important that the Sunnis participate in the political process. Without them participating, the insurgency will have a substantial base of support."

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

50,000 topless virgins vie to be 13th wife of Swaziland King

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Katrina - Hundreds May Be Dead

Recent TV report that levees have been breached in New Orleans and hospitals being evacuated this AM.

Downtown Mobile Underwater

Huge Red Cross Effort Underway

Many National Guard in Iraq Instead of Helping at Home

One Million may be homeless.

Early estimate $26 Billion in insurance losses.

CNN.com

MSNBC

Google News -Hurricane Katrina

Gary Permalink on 8/30/2005

Blogging from the EyeWall

Gary Permalink on 8/29/2005

Police chief and CIA agent - Lockerbie evidence was faked by CIA to implicate Libya

Gary Permalink on 8/29/2005

New Orleans Spared Category 5 Damage

7 AM CSDT UPDATE Shift to East and slight weakening preventing worst nightmare for Big Easy

Gulfport may face worst part of storm as Katrina approaching.

New reports of only 10,000 in Superdome?

Storm still moving ashore and weakening as it's eye appears targeted to east of New Orleans and West of Gulfport.

My brother-in-law headed for Galveston from Houston for the surfing now.

Texas has six Red Cross shelters for refugees.

A Category 4 as Katrina is now is capable of causing extreme damage while a Category 5 can cause catastrophic damage.

New Orleans still bracing for flooding as power and pumps fail. Extreme storm surge not expected.

Gary Permalink on 8/29/2005

11 PM CDST UPDATE

Houston Oil Analyst on 13 News - Expect to pay over $3 for regular unleaded this week. Bullseye for hitting US energy prices.

• Worst case scenario happens for New Orleans.
• Approaching 100,000 in Superdome
• National Red Cross Needs 300 Call Center Volunteers
• Hotels and campgrounds in Houston fill up.
• Hurricane could leave a million homeless.
• Thousands of Red Cross volunteers are on call right now, waiting to be dispatched across the southeast when Hurricane Katrina batters the Gulf Coast

Red Cross News

Houston Red Cross Donate - Volunteer


With “Pet First Aid,” the American Red Cross helps pet owners prepare for and respond to emergencies.

National Red Cross Donate Now.

Repeat - RED CROSS DONATE ONLINE, BY PHONE, STOCK, IN-KIND PRODUCTS, SPARE CHANGE, AIRLINE MILES

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

We interupt this disaster for another disaster
Tony Auth

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

That So-Called Liberal New York Times

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

5 pm EST UPDATE

Still Category 5, will still be category 4 inland. Pressure dropping (bad) some wind decrease to 165 MPH winds (good - but insignificant.)

Pictures up on CNN of people streaming into the Superdome which is 9 feet below normal sea level! They will stay in the upper seats but the ground and bottom levels should be well underwater. Other concerns that the major pumps around New Orleans will be underwater and not able to work.

Google News Latest.

Gasoline prices already at new high.

Katrina 'Perfect Storm' for higher energy prices. (New Orleans area news servers and cell phones being swamped by users.)

My opinion and observation- with size of storm the steering currents are having less effect and all the updates keep nudging the path a bit West of previous forecasts.

Bush made an OK speech urging people to evacuate but spend more time talking about the 'progress' in Iraq. This as all the Sunni leaders denounced the constitution as illegal.

ADDED - Slidell, just north of New Orleans says storm signs beginning, we expect a bad evening. National Guard has line of people 2.5 miles long for ice.

Interesting variety of non-hurricane news and opinion.

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

Storm aims for heart of U.S. oil industry

Gas prices may jump sharply

"This storm is going to pass through the meat of the oil and gas fields. The whole country will feel it, because it's going to cripple us and the country's whole economy," said Capt. Buddy Cantrelle with Kevin Gros Offshore, which supplies rigs via a fleet of large crew vessels.

The equipment located in the storm's likely path includes the bulk of the nation's oil and gas production platforms, thousands of miles of pipelines and -- perhaps most importantly for national gasoline prices -- much of the country's refinery capacity. In addition, the south Louisiana coastline serves as the entry point for around a third of the nation's imported oil.

Link from freelixir at Daily Kos.

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

Catastrophic Damage, Disease, Death Expected in New Orleans

Canada TV - Catastrophic Damage, Disease, Death Expected in New Orleans

OPEC Chief 'Increasingly Concerned' About Oil Prices

The Conservative Voice:

As some experts predict that New Orleans may be completely destroyed, thousands of New Orleans residents refuse to evacuate. New Orleans, 12 feet below sea level, is expected to experience a minimum 28' Gulf water surge as Katrina moves on shore.

If Katrina comes on shore in the strength expected, the death toll could be of monumental proportions.

HOW TO HELP

My ex-wife is with a Houston Red Cross volunteer and is expecting to head out tomorrow or Tuesday.

Contact the American Red Cross at 800-HELPNOW (800-435-7669) or online at www.redcross.org.

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

Why So Many Storms, So Powerful?

High water and air temperatures feed storms and give them energy. (Note that I disagree with the conclusion at the end of this report.)

This is a consequence of Global Warming which this administration denies.

The Bush administration's mantra on climate change is this: The science is not yet in to prove a link between man's gas-and-coal guzzling habits and rising global temperatures that are causing glaciers to shrink, polar ice caps to melt and seas to rise.

Yet, as USA TODAY's Dan Vergano reported Monday, not only is the science in, it is also overwhelming. Last week, the National Academy of Sciences and 10 other leading world bodies said there is "significant global warming" that requires urgent action.

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

Get Out Now and inland 250 miles



The size of this storm mean it will hit the Central Gulf Coast like a F3 tornado 200 miles wide.

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

New Orleans braces for 'the big one'
Potential Catastrophic Hurricane Katrina at Nation's Largest Oil Port

Expected storm surge would easily top city levees. Mandatory evacuations, residents warned not to seek city shelters which may be without power and flood. Residents urge to take days supplies of food and water.

Hurricane Katrina when a much smaller and less powerful storm caused extensive damage in Florida where areas are still without power.

Huge Huricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina Google News

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. oil import terminal, stopped unloading cargo from tankers yesterday, spokesman Mark Bugg said. The port is about 20 miles off the Louisiana coast and handles about 1 million barrels of crude oil a day, or 11 percent of U.S. imports.

ADDED 2:11 PM CDT CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE APPROACHING NEW ORLEANS REGION. SUSTAINED SURFACE WINDS 175MPH - GUSTS TO 200MPH. EYEWALL DIAMETER IS STEADY AT 22NM; CREW REPORTS PERFECT "Stadium Effect". Hurricane Katrina is now as strong as Hurricane Camille in 1969 - but this storm is larger, and will cause more extensive damage, and if it strikes New Orleans at 'just the right angle' - will no doubt MAY lead to the greatest loss of life from a land falling hurricane in nearly 100 years.

Gulf Oil Platforms Evacuated.

Oil Companies Report 'Katrina's impact on energy production unclear'

Gary Permalink on 8/28/2005

Think Progress

Progressive Rapid Response Washington Thinking

Gary Permalink on 8/27/2005

LA Times: Smear politics behind the outing of a covert agent

Gary Permalink on 8/27/2005

The Parable of Jesus and the Rubber Chicken

What if Christ spoke at a Republican Party fund-raiser

"In My youth, I made certain ill-advised statements that I now regret. If I offended anyone, I apologize. I want to clarify that it is easy for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. (CHEERS, WILD APPLAUSE)

"I'd like to apologize specifically to the money-changers. It is My sincere hope that you will come back into the Temple free of charge as My guests." (WILD APPLAUSE, CHANT OF "U.S.A! U.S.A!")

Finally - and this is Me speaking for Myself now - I want to say to the meek: Once we finally get rid of the death tax, you're not inheriting anything. Not while you're meek, so buck up. (CHEERS) And that goes double for you peacemakers. (LAUGHTER) Good night and Dad bless America. (CHEERS, WILD APPLAUSE)

Gary Permalink on 8/27/2005

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Demands Inclusion

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD

...Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him...

Gary Permalink on 8/27/2005

DeLay dances across district in desperate effort to woo voters



HoustonChronicle.com reports DeLay is mounting an aggressive effort to get local support.

Seeking to get the Elvis impersonator vote DeLay warns Democrats not to step on his pointy blue suede shoes.


Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

Many military concede stalemate in Iraq

Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

Red, White & Blue - Houston Face-Off

PBS local show will pit conservative GOP Rep. Poe and local right conservative Gary Polland against liberal Democrat David Jones.

Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

Democratic Loyalty Quiz

Political Quiz - Democratic Loyalty Quiz

This result made more sense to me - Your score is 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. You are a pure, unabashed, die-hard Democratic loyalist. You are appalled by the way Republicans are turning America into a theocratic, corpo-fascist police state, and you'd gladly walk through a furnace in a gasoline suit to elect a Democratic president. In your view, there is no higher form of patriotism than defending America against the Republican Party and every intolerant, puritanical, imperialistic, greed-mongering, Constitution-shredding ideal for which it stands.

To be fair I'll include this one: The Republican Loyalty Quiz

BTW, have good pop-up blockers to go to About.

Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

A Political Test by Cartoons

Political Cartoon Rorschach Test
What's Your Political Profile? Rate Cartoons and Find Out

Surprisingly my rating is You are a solid Democrat. You are not as fiercely ideological or uncompromising as others in the party, but nonetheless remain a reliable supporter. If you could have your way, you'd like to see Democrats leaders take a slightly more accommodating approach on certain issues – and dial down some of their nakedly partisan and bitterly divisive rhetoric.

Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

Operation Crossroads was a disaster the Navy tried to hide for over forty years

Sailors caught in the warm radioactive mist of Baker Shot
Downwind, some said the mist felt good during the hot day.

Operation Crossroads was designed to show the world the power of the new US atomic weapons. It was also designed to measure the effects and learn how to decontaminate navy ships. The second underwater test was less visually impressive but created much more radioactive particles. There was not the proper equipment to monitor the plutonium and alpha particles. Navy men anxious to get their ships back grew angry and frustrated at scientists who said that ships repeated cleaned were still dangerous. Anxious not to permanently lose ships crews were repeated sent to clean ships again and again. Finally after the salvage commander was shown an X-ray of a fish from the lagoon made by just placing the fish on the negative they ended Operation Crossroads without setting off the third bomb. Afterwards the naval commander of the operation urged the world to ban the new weapons as the worst type of poison.

John Smitherman's story

First they cut off his left leg, then his right leg; in April the surgeon carved a chunk of flesh from his back. They have offered to take his left hand, swollen to the size of a cantaloupe, whenever he is ready to part with it.

John Smitherman says his government did this to him. His government says it did not.

Five times since 1977, when his failing body rendered him unfit work, Smitherman has asked the VA to award him disability pay. Five times the VA has rejected his claim, and a decision on his sixth appeal is expected any day.

"I think they're gonna turn me down again," he said last week.

"It was just a huge ball of fire -- just looked like a whole section of the ocean was actually on fire -- big rolling balls of fire started going up in the air."

The sea welled up and surged forth from ground zero, tossing about the destroyer Allen M. Summer beneath Smitherman's feet. Hours later, he recalls, the Summer -- one of more than 100 ships taking part in an exercise called Operation Crossroads in 1946 -- steamed into the lagoon where unmanned target ships had been anchored to test how they would weather the blast and to determine if they could later be rid of nuclear contamination.

They called me to go help fight a fire on the aircraft carrier Independence, which was one of the target ships. We went up there three times."

Fighting the fire was hot work.

"Right after that, we all went swimming in the lagoon there," Smitherman said. "There were dead fish around there, lots of them, but they said,"Nothing to worry about, no harmful effects,' and there were not restrictions to us whatsoever."

Later he witnessed a second, and more powerful, blast, from the fantail from the Sumner.

"We got peppered with those little debris,"he said. "We were sittin' there -- I didn't have a T-shirt on, just shorts and tennis shoes."

For many of those veterans, it was years before medical problems they blame on that exposure began to surface. For Smitherman, the inklings came early.

"We were still out there when I began to get some burns on my feet and legs, about the size of silver dollars," he recalled.

Doctors on board the Sumner dabbed a little salve on them, but that was not enough. Seven months later he was hospitalized in Hawaii, and seven months after that he received a medical discharge from the Navy. They told Smitherman that kidney problems were causing his legs to swell.

For years -- according to Smitherman, his family and acquaintances -- the periodic swelling continued. Now the doctors say his lymph system has turned against him.

He traveled to Japan, where doctors in a Hiroshima hospital that specializes in treatment of radiation victims said there was no doubt that the exposure triggered his ills.

But the VA has continued to reject his disability claim. He figures if they granted his disability claim, dating back to 1977, it would mean a single lump-sum payment of about $30,000 and monthly checks slightly in excess of $1,000. More important, it would mean a small pension for his wife of 22 years once he is gone.

From The Oregonian Tuesday May 24, 1983

Excerpts from the book Operation Crossroads

The amount of radioactive material that collapsed back into Bikini's lagoon moments after the Baker shot was simply staggering. Unlike the Able blast, the fission products at Baker did not dissipate in the atmosphere. The water surrounding the bomb trapped most of the radioactive material and rained it down over the target vessels. As much as half the bomb's fission products remained in the lagoon's water or in the mist remaining in the air after the surge of spray fell back into the lagoon.

Scientists knew from studies of radium-dial workers that only a few millionths of a gram of radium lodged within human bones could prove fatal. Plutonium, the main component of the Baker bomb, has the same effect and is even more toxic. Test Baker, though, did not involve millionths of grams of radium, or even hundredths of grams. It created the equivalent of thousands of tons of radium. Within one hour of the blast, radiation levels in Bikini's lagoon reached the approximate equivalent of 5,000 tons of radium, which is 1 billion times the radioactivity from just one gram of radium Initial dose rates on the decks of target vessels closest to the blast exceeded 8,000 roentgens per day, 80,000 times the daily tolerance standard and 20 times more than a fatal dose.

During the first hour, wrote Ralph Sawyer, Crossroads's technical director, "the radiation was roughly equivalent to that from several thousand tons of radium." Even an hour after the shot the target ships a mile from Zeropoint showed a dose rate of 1,200 roentgens per day, more than three times the lethal dose, meaning that the daily tolerance dose would be reached in seven seconds.

Despite all the warnings that the highly radioactive column of water would come crashing down on the ships, absolutely no one-not even the radsafe section-had planned for the very disaster that had been predicted with amazing accuracy. As the navy admitted a few months later, "Since the nature and extent of contamination of the targets was completely unexpected, no plans had been prepared for organized decontamination measures."

For all its thousands of pages of detailed plans, the U.S. Navy managed to expose tens of thousands of men and more than 200 ships to radioactive contamination more than 2,000 miles from decent port facilities without ever having attempted experimentally to irradiate a ship or parts of one to determine how-or whether-a ship could be decontaminated.

The examination of the target ships-the very reason for Operation Crossroads-could not proceed if the vessels were too radioactive for reboarding and examination.

By Jonathan M. Weisgall

Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

Bikini Atoll: Art from the Atomic Bomb Test
Art Link from my brother, note these are considered tactical weapons now and not the bigger and more powerful strategic.

Gary Permalink on 8/26/2005

The 'Fair Tax' Grossly Unfair

Kill the IRS and go to all sales tax? Stupid!

There is already an analysis that indicates the sales tax rate would have to be 44% instead of the 23% supporters talk about to be revenue neutral. This would also be incredibly regressive - poor pay much, much more, rich pay much, much less.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Stealth Plan to Privatize Social Security

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Bush is al-Qaeda's 'Useful Idiot'

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Bush Cocoon of Unreality Started with November 2000

The hidden lead - "If all legally cast votes in Florida were counted in Election 2000, Democrat Al Gore would have carried the state and thus won the White House, according to an unofficial tally of disputed ballots.”

But that wasn’t how the major newspapers and TV networks presented their findings. Instead, they bent over backwards to concoct hypothetical situations in which George W. Bush might still have won the presidency – if the recount had been limited to only a few counties or if legal “overvotes,” where a voter both checks and writes in the name of the candidate, were cast aside.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

One day before crucial vote, fighting breaks out in Najaf

'Peaceful' city of Najaf explodes as Shiites battle

My nephew in the Rangers has just been informed he is heading back to Iraq for the third time leaving his wife and very young daughter. Bush is breaking the all-volunteer army.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Bush Sells Iraqi Women Down The River After Using Them For Propaganda

Whiskey Bar: Is Anybody Listening?

The White House propaganda maestros used an Iraqi women's rights activist as a living prop at Shrub's state of the union address earlier this year, whipping wing nut war hawks and media dingdongs alike into a frenzy of teary-eyed patriotism. They also arranged for her to stand immediately in front of the mother of a Marine killed in action in Iraq -- setting the scene for a "spontaneous" hug that reduced a national television audience to quivering lumps of sentimental jello and left Joe Klein spitting phlegm-coated bile at the Democratic Party.

Now, that very same activist is telling the world the Americans just sold her, and her Iraqi sisters, down the river to a bunch of medieval mullahs with Made-in-Tehran labels on the insides of their turbins.

Will her betrayal simply be pushed down the media memory hole with yesterday's garbage? Are we really that far gone?

Selling Down The River

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women. But look what has happened -- we have lost all the gains we made over the last 30 years. It's a big disappointment."

Safia Taleb al-Souhail

Mission F**king Accomplished For Mullahs and Bush

The secular leaders said the draft, which was presented to the parliament Monday, contains language that not only establishes the primacy of Islam as the country's official religion, but appears to grant judges wide latitude to strike down legislation that may contravene the faith. To interpret such legislation, the constitution calls for the appointment of experts in Sharia, or Islamic law, to preside on the Supreme Federal Court.

The draft constitution, these secular Iraqis say, clears the way for religious authorities to adjudicate personal disputes like divorce and inheritance matters by allowing the establishment of religious courts, raising fears that a popularly elected Islamist-minded government could enact legislation and appoint judges who would turn the country into a theocracy.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Iraq - Democrats have a lot of agreement

The GOP has more splits over Iraq than Dems. Here is what Democrats agree on:

Bush lied about Iraq having WMD's and being a threat to U.S. national security.

Bush, Rumsfeld & Co have bungled the occupation of Iraq through poor preparation, mismanagement and bad decisions and gotten us into a horrific quagmire.

Halliburton and other firms favoring the GOP have gotten filthy rich on the bloodshed in Iraq.

At the present casualty rate, more Americans will have been killed in Iraq by next summer than were killed in the attacks on 9-11.

We have already spent $250 billion taxpayer dollars in Iraq, and there are credible forecasts indicating that the final tab could reach $1 trillion.

Although there have been no more attacks within U.S. borders since 9-11, our "homeland security" is highly porus, with many needed measures, such as stronger port security, left sorely underfunded.

There are probably more terrorists willing to do harm to the U.S. today as a direct result of U.S. oocupation of Iraq than there were before we invaded Iraq.

We have a manpower shortage in our armed services, and new enlistments have slowed to a trickle.

Gas Prices are higher than ever, and expected to go up even further.

Flip-flopping on what to do about Iraq is clearly a loser. Dem candidates all across the dove-hawk spectrum must state a clear policy on Iraq, while leaving enough room to adjust to changing realities.

Bin laden is alive and taunting the U.S, and he ain't in Iraq.

With Buchanan and Hagel and other conservatives calling for immediate withdrawl which party is divided? Lobe disagrees and says mpst Dem leadership are now hawks.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

It's all about-face for the Democrats - Los Angeles Times

Kevin Drum calls for a unified Democratic Party to urge Iraq withdrawal within two years. This is a position a large majority of the American people support.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Public Opinion Watch

An interesting article by Ruy Teixeira on Bush's decline in support among Republicans as well as others leading to his sub-40 approval, the rising not lowering self-identification of Latinos with the Democratic Party, and how Gallup screws up its polls by not weighing by party ID.

"Between February 4-6 and February 7-10, an 11 point Republican advantage became a 6 point Democratic advantage. Similarly, between March 18-20 and March 21-23, a 5 point Republican advantage became an 8 point Democratic advantage."

So in a couple of days over 10% of the people have switched parties? No one except Gallup believes this and they have doubts. Article in PDF form. The article also points out the growing concensus on how to fix this party ID problem and get more accurate polls.

Not every polling organization is interested in this. There is a big advantage to polls which have big swings in opinions, they get more publicity because they make news. It seems clear that Gallup likes to be quoted and be talked about more than they like to be correct. I have the impression they also seem to take special care on their last poll before an election which is what people use to check accuracy.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

North Pole Becoming Ice Free

Arctic could see ice-free summers in 100 years, other sources say a decade or two.

Looking at data on the rate of ice melt in the Arctic, researchers from the University of Arizona and other universities concluded that the rate is accelerating and that no foreseeable natural forces will counteract that acceleration. As a result, ice-free summers loom.

The situation will have worldwide ecological impact, the researchers said. The progressive melt will cause sea levels worldwide to rise, flooding coastal areas, where a substantial portion of the world's population lives. Huge sections of Bangladesh, for example, consist of river delta at sea level. The melt could also thaw permafrost, which could lead to an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The increasing rate of ice melt is already having some impact on people and animals in the Arctic. Other researchers have speculated that the progressing ice melt around Siberia may lead to a summer Northeast passage connecting Japan to Europe in a decade or so.

This was the reason for Canada sending gunboats to protect the sea passages and oil fields in my previous post. With shipping easier this is a more valuable and vulnerable area.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

'God Bless You Cindy Sheehan'

A song called 'God Bless You Cindy Sheehan' is #1 on an online country music chart.

The artist - Les Visible and some of his other songs - just a liberal Hawaiian cowboy.

Gary Permalink on 8/25/2005

Where to get Burning Man photos

Flickr: Photos tagged with burningman

Gary Permalink on 8/24/2005

Bad Policy Fuels High Gas Prices

Progress Report - Bad Policy Fuels High Prices

As millions of Americans hop in their cars for vacation, the average price for a gallon of gas has spiked to $2.60 -- and many people are paying more than $3.00 per gallon to fill their tank. While most everyone is feeling the pinch, "for many lower-income people -- often those who work in service jobs or are looking for work -- each new bump up in price means altering daily routines, spending less on clothes and food, and keeping the kids at home instead of driving them to the pool or friends' houses." A big part of the problem is that, despite huge advances in technology, "America's cars and trucks are significantly less efficient, on average, than they were in the late 1980's," driving up demand, and the price, for fuel. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has staunchly resisted efforts to help solve the problem by improving fuel efficiency standards. Now, all Americans are paying the price.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONCEALS FUEL ECONOMY REPORT: In late July, "the Environmental Protection Agency made an 11th-hour decision...to delay the planned release of an annual report on fuel economy." The decision to block the release of the report was made "because it would have come on the eve of a final vote in Congress on energy legislation." The study showed that "the average 2004 model car or truck got 20.8 miles per gallon, about 6 percent less than the 22.1 m.p.g. of the average new vehicle sold in the late 1980's." Specifically, "the average 2004 model sold by Nissan, Hyundai and Volkswagen was at least a half-mile a gallon less fuel-efficient than in the previous model year, a sharp drop." (A report by Environmental Defense provides details for all major manufacturers.) That wasn't news the Bush administration wanted public to hear because the bill "largely ignore[d] auto mileage regulations." Several Senators offered amendments "to strengthen fuel economy standards for S.U.V.'s, minivans and pickups" but they were all rejected. Bush signed the energy bill, which gave away billions to the energy industry, on August 8. Even the administration acknowledges the bill will do nothing to reduce gas prices.

FAST, FURIOUS AND GAS-GUZZLING: The failure to mandate the production of more fuel efficient vehicles is a giant missed opportunity. There have been "leaps in engine technology over the last couple of decades" that could make cars much more efficient. But in the absence of stricter efficiency standards, these gains "have been mostly used to make cars faster." Also, since the early 1980s, "average new vehicle weight has risen to about 4,000 pounds today, from about 3,200." During that time "the horsepower of an average engine has roughly doubled over two decades, trimming four seconds from the time it takes for the average vehicle to accelerate from zero to 60."

KEEP ON TRUCKING: The key to avoiding fuel efficiency standards is to classify every new and trendy "crossover" vehicle as a truck. Light trucks "are held to a lower [average fuel efficiency] standard—20.7 mpg as of model year 2003, compared to 27.5 mpg for cars." Manufacturers are also moving vehicles that were once classified as cars to the truck class "to sell more of the large trucks on which profit margins have been so high." Today "S.U.V.'s and other light-duty vehicles account for 40 percent of the nation's oil use." With only the smallest cars remaining in the "car class" there is no pressure to improve the efficiency of those vehicles either. President Bush and the Congress had the opportunity to close these loopholes and improve overall efficiency in the energy bill, but didn't do it. New regulations set to be released later this month will create up to five classes of vehicles based on height and width. Dan Becker of the Sierra Club says the upcoming proposal is "an invitation to game the system."

BUSH PROTECTS MASSIVE LOOPHOLE FOR HUMMERS: In 2003, President Bush proposed extending "fuel economy regulations to include Hummer H2's and other huge sport utility vehicles," which are now completely exempt. As gas prices soar to record levels, the administration has abandoned the proposal. The exemption applies to vehicles weighing over 8,500 pounds. When it was created, "vehicles of that weight were generally used for commercial purposes, but now hundreds of thousands sold each year are intended for family use." The exemption, along with potential tax breaks for consumers who purchase them, create "powerful incentives to produce such vehicles."

Links to all the facts in this article at Progress Report.

Gary Permalink on 8/24/2005

What's Your Political Philosophy?

QuizFarm.com :: What's Your Political Philosophy?

I scored as New Democrat. New Democrats emphasize fiscal conservatism, and have a strong preference for the free market. They believe in small-scale programs that provide targetted help to those in need, while working with the business community. New Democrat 95% Old School Democrat 90% Green 70% Foreign Policy Hawk 55% Libertarian 40% Pro Business Republican 25% Socially Conservative Republican 20% What's Your Political Philosophy? created with QuizFarm.com

Gary Permalink on 8/24/2005

My favorite right-wing conservative apologizes for not being dead yet

Gary Permalink on 8/24/2005