the only story ****updated

as i read more and more information about what’s going on in louisiana and mississippi i’ve realized (finally, i know i’m slow on the uptake) that it is really the only story worth paying attention to at the moment. so no more regular blogging today. i don’t have anything to ad to the coverage which can’t be found elsewhere but i’ll gather and update whatever relevant links i find in this post for anyone who wants to see them. (note: i’ve folded previous posts and comments on the subject into this post)

from tom:
new orleans mayor ray nagin is a stone bad ass and he’s pissed:
listen to the radio broadcast of his interview with a couple of AM radio journalists. the guy may not have a career in politics after this all plays out but as far as I am concerned he just secured his place in history.

from t buckner:
Inexcusable, unforgivable, the more I find out about the situation in New Orleans the more I want to punch republicans in the face.

bush spent the levee money in Iraq.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. connects the dots between Haley Barbour’s anti-Kyoto protocol memo and the wrath of god.
and imeldaleeza rice is buying shoes.

from cast:
try this one on for size.  a few months back, the bush administration and republican congress almost changed the constitution because it was inhumane to let a braindead woman starve and die of dehydration.  apparently, though, they’ll let thousands die of starvation and dehydration if they are poor, black, and able to function.  i think someone needs an executive order to insert a feeding tube into new orleans. while we at it, can we check to see if our president is braindead?

from jmorrison:
when i came home from work yesterday my girlfriend said, “there are snipers and looters and chaos going on right now, why aren’t there troops of some kind there to keep order?” she was incensed. the answer of course is that this would be a job for the national guard and there is no national guard. they are in iraq. this morning the word is that “by sunday” they hope to have 30,000 people there.

by sunday

.

explosions, rape, robbery, murder?

this is the reason the hawks ought not be allowed to keep our country in a perpetual state of war. it’s why they ought not be allowed to create wars where none existed before. why they ought not be allowed to create giant money drains which were not absolutely necessary. because emergencies will happen naturally, wars will break out without any prompting, attacks will happen when we least expect it from people or otherwise. there is no need to manufacture tragedy.

federal govt not ready?

this hurricane has been pretty awful, but imagine if the unexpected catastrophe facing us right now were something even worse. imagine if it were north korea or iran. imagine if it were a scale topping earthquake, a pandemic, or hell- an asteroid. we the all powerful juggernaut would be screwed. too deep into our manufactured conflict to adequately defend or help ourselves.

i say no need to create bloody, resource draining misery, it will find us naturally. meanwhile as of today the leader of the richest country in the world can’t manage to help the people he is supposedly in office to serve.

and p.s. what happened to all the ballyhooed homeland security initiatives for disaster preparedness? weren’t police forces, national guardsmen, and firefighters all drilled on how to handle emergencies? bio-attacks! anthrax! dirty bombs! “we have to be ready” well, are we?

planning and response?

from orangeguru:
So much for homeland security or disaster response. Most people here in Europa are just shaking our heads in disbelief. Plus Bush has so far rejected any help from the outside.

from @rt:
It’s good to know that our leaders have kept their priorities straight.

On the subject of current events, eye of the storm and insomnia: new orleans stories and the interdictor have maintained excellent blogs throughout this catastrophe.

various links:

ending the Impunity of the bush white house

troops told shoot to kill

remarks bush during briefing on trent lot losing his home.

bush tours region

death toll

congress likely to probe nat. guard delay

conservative mag blames blacks & political correctness for chaos

editorial rip bush response

the rebellion of the talking heads including fox men geraldo and smith

jack cafferty calls it like he sees it

journalists fear for own safety
“Times photographer witnessed a deadly shootout, got roughed up by police, hid in fear, and now plan to flee the city to save their lives.”

feds weren’t ready even though no one can say we didn’t see it coming

poor told: your on your own

budget cuts undermined levee fix

red cross banned from nola

bush rules out significant fed aid

world stunned at our struggles

rhetoric does not match reality

why no mention of race or class in mainstream reports?

it really represents a failure of the fed gov

serious venomous indignation

the perfect storm

quote “God is at work, and we are called by Him to Serve His Will. There was a purpose for Katrina, let us not fail to fulfill our duties.” those duties? sending 40,000 Personal Witnessing Testaments to the astrodome. fucking gideon morons.

dysentery outbreak feared

falluja floods the superdome

murder and mayhem

troops begin combat ops in new orleans “this place is going to look like Little Somalia”

behind the curtain

shock at federal snub of offers to help

doubts about terror plans fueled by katrina

the administrations mask of confidence demolished

goal #1: quell political crisis in time to deal with what really matters

politicos failed flood victims

brittish victims told your on your own

united states of shame

norquist the prophet?

accomplishment is looking busy when they turn the tv cameras on

the censoring of kanye’s remarks on the west coast: “the network violated the most moving and essential moment in an otherwise sterile, self-serving corporate broadcast.”

more from christian leaders “katrina purged new orleans of its wickedness” i’m sorry to all you sensible christians out there but these “leaders” of yours are giant assholes. you need to reign them in.

a cant-do government

study finds oil company profiteering behind gasoline price spikes

senators to launch bipartisan inquiry into immense failure. ah business as usual. our govt has only one power it seems the power to launch “investigations” after screw-ups. only, as we all well know, these investigations lead to nothing, answer nothing, solve nothing, hold no one accountable and are in fact simply an official means of ending further inquiry. maybe a weatherman and mayoral intern will get thrown in jail as a result.

what are we seeing?!
-a turning point in the perception of America in the world
-a turning point in the perception of the urban poor in America
-a revelation of the impotence of government
-the first of many future episodes of social chaos in America

from jmorrison:
i have to say personally that as much as i have disliked the current administration, as much as i disagreed with 99% of the choices they have made, i always assumed that they were competent, that they could get things done, just that they did things i totally disagreed with. now for the first time i must admit i’m beginning to feel… well… worried. truly and honestly worried. a bit scared really. i’ve said in the past they were incompitant but i meant ideaologically. the results that we have seen from “the war on terror,” iraq, and now a natural disaster have really got me worried. is our government not only ideologically 180 degrees from what i’d like, but also functionally, in the basics, incompitant?

new orleans disaster sequel coming on oct. 17. “The president’s beloved Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act goes into effect on that day. while the bill was passing through the House Judiciary Committee early this year, Democrats attempted to amend the bill to include measures to protect victims of natural disasters such as hurricanes.
The amendment to the bill was voted down without debate. Along party lines.”

the lost city “For Days, Bush’s Top Advisers Argued Over Legal Niceties About Who Was In Charge.” and “Military Engineer: “We Just Got Back From Afghanistan. Organization’s A Lot Better There.”

times-picayune calls for firing of every official at fema.

my pet goat- the sequel “This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit. While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall failure of leadership in this weeks hurricane’s disaster, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty.”

nola begins grisly clean up

many evacuted but thousands still waiting

video: russert rips into chertoff and full transcript

video: bob sheiffer blasts the response

“no one could have forseen the levee breaking” bull. no funding despite warnings

massive blog reaction roundup

why fema was missing in action

slow response exposes holes in planning

on politicizing the hurricane, from the wfmu message board:

bill kelly: How about this. Instead of proselytizing and politicizing, we all write a check for an amount of money we can afford and send it to a legitiimate organization equipped to offer some relief for those in need?

fatherflot: Bill,
I love you buddy. I’d take a bullet for you, if it would give you a chance to play one more Chesterfield Kings or Shadows of the Knight 45. And I back you up 100% in your call for people to donate. I did it this morning and I hope every American does the same.

But don’t tell me not to “politicize” this. Everything is “political” when it affects the polity. If you have any opinion whatsoever about thousands—-maybe tens of thousands—-of your fellow citizens dying like pigs in the middle of a major American city while Nero, Jr. dithers and spins and poses for photo-ops and waxes eloquent about the redevelopment opportunities this temporarily difficult situation presents, that opinion is “political.”

Did you complain about Republicans “politicizing” Bill Clinton’s blowjobs?? Distracting the President from important business like fighting Al Qaeda with utter bullshit? I don’t seem to remember that post.

Since 2000, we have been living with the most blatantly, brazenly, ruthlessly “political” ruling elite this nation has ever seen. They have “politicized” everything, from supposedly non-partisan government documents (like the budget, which contains more ruling-elite propaganda than a North Korean newscast) to the fucking phone messages at the Social Security Administration, to the FCC, to 9-11 (the bullhorn photo op, the “hugging the child” photo op, the entire 2004 RNC), to lies about how Jessica Lynch was captured and released, to lies about how Pat Tillman died, to the despicable “mission accomplished” photo-op, to lies about Kerry’s war record, to the Terry Schiavo melodrama, to the “purple fingers in solidarity with the Iraqi people” photo op, etc. etc. fucking etc.

Face it: much of the policy of this one-party government has been directed by the “political” calculation of a vicious, soul-dead bastard named Karl Rove who would laugh in your face if you ever suggested there was any such thing as a “non-political” person, place, thing, or event.

No one who voted for or supports this filthy, incompetent batch of robber-baron scumbags can EVER, EVER cry “don’t play politics.” Nothing is sacred to them—-not God, not country, not the flag, not the Constitution, not life, death, war, freedom, liberty, Nothing. It’s all fair game for “political” calculation. And you goddamn well know it.

Karma’s a bitch: Live by the sword, DIE by the fucking sword.

try telling bush a disaster is not political-

the bush camp

finally

springs into action to help… help ease the political damage to bush that is.

Under the command of President Bush’s two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

in a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove’s tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats.

from jmorrison:
o.k. much as i felt post-election i am now fed up with all this and will not post any more about it for the time being. i need to rebuild my mental levees.

for continuing sources of spiking blood pressure and sadness see:

over spun

cursor

whiskey bar

crooks and liars

daily kos