Etan Thomas schools the Bush League
posted by Rick at 6:25 AM

Power forward Etan Thomas of the Washington Wizards delivered one of the most memorable speeches of the weekend at the Washington anti-war rally on Saturday. The speech, which offered a glimpse of Thomas' poetic side (the Syracuse University graduate is author of a book of poetry, More Than an Athlete), offered right-wingers some opportunities to get in touch with what their world looks like from the underside.

Below is a transcript - but to get the real impact, listen to the speech at the Democracy Now! website.

Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.

In fact, I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the ‘hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.

I’d show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.

I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.

Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They’ll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I'll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.

Then I'd feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I’d fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.

Then I’d introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I’d show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they’d soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain’t even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I’d introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull's eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we’ll see if they finally weren’t aware of the truth, if their eyes weren’t finally open like a box of Pandora.

I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, injustice comes in packs like wolves in sheep's clothing. T.K.O.d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope. When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.

They keep telling us all is equal. I’d tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful. Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it's no wonder why so many think that crime pays.

Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we'll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days.

I hope when his NBA career is over, Thomas will consider running for Congress. Oh, wait. He can't. He lives in a place where they have taxation without representation.

Atheists Talk to God! and other Good Clean Fun
posted by Vynce at 8:07 PM

The dead get no say in this, of course, but they're being blessed. I wonder if they hired any Pastafarian chaplains. I'm even more concerned about the living, though; a FEMA spokeswoman claims I talk to God. Oh, I guess I shouldn't worry about it --

A prayer is not necessarily religious. Everybody prays.

I wonder if the Bush administration would stand by some parallel claims.

Masturbation isn't necessarily sexual. Everybody masturbates.

Embezzling isn't necessarily stealing. Everybody embezzles.

Hiring incompetent friends isn't necessarily favoritism. Everybody hires incompetent friends.

Hating poor people isn't necessarily discrimination. Everybody hates poor people.

Well, here's one I can get into.

Tossing an effigy of the President around like a virtual rag doll isn't necessarily sick and twisted. Everybody should do it. It's good clean fun.

The right to protest
posted by Rick at 6:21 PM

In response to Saturday's Iraq war protest, which by all accounts drew more than 100,000 demonstrators from around the country, a pro-war counter-rally was held yesterday. Attendance? About 400, according to the Associated Press.

The AP report included this gem: "One woman noted that if Sheehan was in the one of countries where U.S. troops are fighting, she wouldn't have the right to do what she's doing here."

Gee, that's right. In a country that wasn't free, she could have been arrested for peacefully protesting. Or if not arrested, at least led away in restraints.

Bush to Tour Mansions Ravaged by Estate Tax
posted by Rick at 7:19 PM

From the Swift Report:

President George W. Bush is encouraging Congress to focus on perhaps the most dire issue facing the nation today: the estate tax and its devastating impact on the richest Americans. Mr. Bush said that repealing the tax could aid tens, even dozens of Americans. Former FEMA chief and Arabian horse expert Michael Brown has been tapped to reach out to the victims of the tax ...

President Bush plans to visit Bridgehampton, NY, Aspen, CO and Rancho Santa Fe, CA later this week, where he will tour the mansions of some of the Americans hardest hit by the tax. Aides to the President say that he will first survey the properties from the air in an effort to assess the impact of the estate tax on landscaping, pool maintenance and fleets of cars ... Air Force One will be accompanied by cargo planes loaded with emergency supplies for the mansion occupants. On its way: individual servings of fois gras, chilled veuve clicquot with champagne flutes and an allotment of truffles for residents who have gone without them for as many as two days.

On a more serious note, factcheck.org has a page debunking two more or less typical pieces of right-wing rhetoric aimed at reversing the public's 2-to-1 opposition to repeal of the Rich Kids' Tax - which had been part of American law since the Stamp Act of 1797 and was advocated in its modern form by millionaire Andrew Carnegie and Republican President Theodore Roosevelt.

Thanks to the Green Dog Democrat for sharing the Swift Report article, and for additional background.

My President, Al Gore
posted by Vynce at 2:39 PM

What happened to the uninspiring overly christian wealthy man who should have been our president? He turned into an inspiring overly christian wealthy man who actually helps people. Here's my quote of the day:

We're told this is not a time to hold our national government accountable because there are more important matters that confront us. This is not an either/or choice. They are linked together. . . When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic floodwaters five days after a hurricane strikes, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe but to hold the processes of our nation accountable, and the leaders of our nation accountable, for the failures that have taken place.

Ah, Mr. Gore. Thanks -- but can you say that louder?

It's important to establish accountability in order to make our democracy work.

Yeah.

Sounds like Old Hat
posted by Vynce at 1:54 PM

A billion dollars goes missing in over-paid or under-delivered no-bid contracts. Sounds like old home week, right? There's one tiny difference... the Iraqis noticed.

If George doesn't stop the free flow of information, those American insurgents might catch wind and get ideas. But, since they're his citizens, he'll feel free to put them in their place.

W is for Worst
posted by Rick at 8:33 AM

From the TV News Finally Gets It Right department: check the caption on the image at left.

Image courtesy of votetoimpeach.org

Quote of the day
posted by Rick at 11:08 AM

"80 percent of Republicans are just Democrats who don't know what's going on."

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Quote of the Day
posted by Rick at 8:02 PM

"Everything you need to know about the GOP can be gleaned from the politics of three states. They cheat when they win (Texas); they cheat when they lose (California); they cheat when they're just not sure (Florida)."

Jon Perr

Administration playing the blame game
posted by Rick at 7:19 PM

If ever a single email revealed the character of the Bush administration, this is the one.

FROM: US Department of Justice

TO: Various U.S. Attorney's offices

SUBJECT: Have you had any cases involving the levees in New Orleans?

QUESTION: Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps' work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.

District: __________
Contact: _________
Telephone: ________

While anyone who points out the shameful failure to do anything to prevent this disaster and the criminal failure to get to work once it occurred is accused of "playing the blame game," the administration is casting about for someone to blame.

This bunch is above nothing.

Impeachment Parade
posted by Vynce at 3:56 PM

Now I know the readership here is a bit left-leaning, so I suspect you are all aware of many liberals calling for Bush's Impeachment. But Are you aware of Pat Buchanan and other Republicans also calling for impeachment? And yet, last I checked, major news sources were not mentioning it. Now, I'm not asking them to call for it -- I leave their editorializing up to them -- but just to report the fact that others are calling for it.

(and yeah, I know Buchanan's reasons are not the same as mine. still. it would be nice to get rid of the bloke.)

Exploiting Katrina
posted by Rick at 1:08 AM

In his White House Briefing column in the Washington Post, Dan Froomkin points out the obvious: as in all things from 9/11 to gay marriage, the Bush administration puts politics before governance.

All you really need to know about the White House's post-Katrina strategy -- and Bush's carefully choreographed address on national television tonight -- is this little tidbit from the ninth paragraph of Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson 's story in the New York Times this morning:

"Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort."

That explains why Bush felt a need to spend taxpayer dollars jetting down to the Crescent City so he could continue to interfere with the ongoing recovery effort for a photo op in front of St. Louis Cathedral.

Dying for oil... in America
posted by Rick at 6:37 PM

Americans don't have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to die for oil. All they have to do is be in the wrong hospital at the wrong time.

The Hattiesburg American reported Sunday that two hospitals and several community water systems had their power rerstoration delayed by 24 hours - because the White House ordered that top priority be given to a pipeline carrying oil to the Northeast.

"I considered it a presidential directive to get those pipelines operating," said Jim Compton, general manager of the South Mississippi Electric Power Association - which distributes power that rural electric cooperatives sell to consumers and businesses.

"I reluctantly agreed to pull half our transmission line crews off other projects and made getting the transmission lines to the Collins substations a priority," Compton said. "Our people were told to work until it was done.

"They did it in 16 hours, and I consider the effort unprecedented."

The orders actually came from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to the report.

Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney's office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.

Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Mike Callahan said the U.S. Department of Energy called him on Aug. 31. Callahan said department officials said opening the fuel line was a national priority.

Cheney's office referred calls about the pipeline to the Department of Homeland Security. Calls there were referred to Kirk Whitworth, who would not take a telephone message and required questions in the form of an e-mail.

Business as usual in the corporate White House. What's more important than American lives? In a word: oil.

Onion Article Accidentally Runs in Times
posted by Vynce at 3:03 PM

OK, maybe this really happened, but I find it amazing that he has the gall.

President Bush called on the UN to rid itself of corruption and operate according to the standards it sets for others in a strongly worded speech...

Great. Now, if only Kofi Annan would step up and say "I'm rubber, you're glue..."

No links, just a couple thoughts
posted by Vynce at 5:14 PM

Barbara Bush is taking a lot of flak over her comments regarding the evacuation "working well" for the underprivileged, but in my opinion, none of that flak is well-aimed. The problem isn't that she said it. The problem is that the underprivileged were underprivileged enough that it is at all possible that she's right. There are poor people living in America. So poor that they are better off in the Superdome than the places they usually sleep. Tumbledown tarpaper shacks, ramshackle tenements, or just plain street grates are all some people have until there's a national, attention-getting disaster. Two thousand dollars to recover will make September a better month, financially, than they might have otherwise expected.

I mean, heck: $2000 a month -- that's above the official poverty line, I believe, even if it is a little bit shy of what it takes to buy a house, a car, and the wardrobe it takes to get and keep a job in this country.

.

Similarly, there is a fair amount of uproar over whether or not the president's reaction (or lack of reaction) was racially motivated. "It wasn't race!" cry many people who claim they are not racist but won't live in a "black" neighborhood. No? What was it? "It was much more about class. It was an economic divide."

Great.

It was an economic divide that was nearly indistinguishable from a racial bias. Does that even register when you say it? It raises the bigger question: why is it so close to the same thing? Have we gotten nowhere in the last 40 years? Oh, yeah, we have -- the rich are richer, the poor are poorer.

Actually, we have come a long way, baby. And I realize that. But we can't rest on our laurels now.

(Soemthing like 67 percent of white people interviewed said that Bush does care about black people -- and that's good enough? Can't we elect someone who 95% of people believe cares about 100% of the country?)

.

Finally, the Bush Approval Poll numbers. Think about how low they are. Think about how much his support fell out from under him. Now realize that the polls done since the disaster have probably mostly not even asked those in the most affected areas. One poll I read said as much; none that I've seen have directly said they did include the Gulf Coast. Why should they? They call until they get enough people -- the fact that every call to the affected region gets nowhere probably isn't accounted for by the computer programs. Statistical sampling -- it always works! Well, every professional pollster I've asked has claimed that it does, at least.

Of course, even if the phone lines weren't down, and people were at home -- a phone sampling is likely to have some failures, in that some people are too poor to afford a phone. But that's OK. They're probably too poor to bother voting, or get educated on the political system and why they should bother. But I digress.

Point being, I suspect that the president's actual approval is lower than the polls show. But unfortunately, as big a hit as Bush is taking on Katrina, he's getting off easy. Brown took most of the heat for FEMA's failure. Bush is deflecting a lot onto the locals (well, the Democratic ones, anyway -- whom he had stiffed in a number of ways before the hurricane struck). And the war in Iraq and travesties in Abu Gharib and Guantanamo are being ignored. We are still in a war, folks. A war that we shouldn't be in.

.

Lest we forget...

...but he's a professional idiot
posted by Rick at 9:18 AM

Oh great.

Brownie takes a long walk off a short pier, and Bush gives us the duct tape guy.

The new FEMA chief is the same David Paulison who infamously recommended Americans try to seal their houses with duct tape and plastic sheeting in the event of a biological or chemical attack. Of course there were only two minor problems with that suggestion: first, it's impossible to make the typical American home airtight by sealing the doors and windows; and second, if you somehow managed to do so, you'd eventually suffocate. Still, gullible Americans ran out and bought up all the duct tape they could get.

At least he has some background in emergency management, if only as a laughingstock.

Mercenary warriors in New Orleans
posted by Rick at 1:01 AM

Guess who's looking after the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans?

According to their web site:

Blackwater USA consists of six separate business units: Blackwater Training Center (the largest private firearms and tactical training center in the U. S.), Blackwater Target Systems, Blackwater Security Consulting, Blackwater Aviation Worldwide Services, Blackwater Canine, and Raven Development Group.

We are not simply a "private security company." We are a turnkey solution provider for 4th generation warfare.

Do we really need a bunch of mercenaries from a paramilitary organization notorious for its wet work in Iraq patrolling the devastated city?

Some accounts say the mercs are there at taxpayer expense; other accounts say they've been hired by businesses and wealthy individuals to protect antebellum estates, gated communities, and commercial properties. But either way, the news is bad. Either the government is hiring mercenary soldiers more at home in Fallujah to police the streets of the Big Easy, or employees of a private security company--excuse me, "a turnkey solution provider for 4th generation warfare"--are being allowed to remain in New Orleans, in violation of a supposedly mandatory evacuation order, armed to the teeth--while ordinary citizens of New Orleans are having their weapons confiscated.

"Won't be another New Orleans"
posted by Vynce at 7:11 PM

Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson says he won't let people turn his city into another New Orleans by, you know, crossing the bridge [2 pop-ups] they were told was their best way out of the sunken City. Apparently he thinks if you didn't get out earlier, you should stay in for the long haul or hold out for a nice ride from the navy boys. This article also touches on some other details of what happens when you try to help yourself in a FEMA-run emergency.

The thing that gets me is that if we could get on the phone and get 10 buses, why couldn't FEMA make that call?

And they had promised the bus company less than $2k a head. Fascinating.

Follow the money -- who signs the checks?
posted by Vynce at 1:53 PM

FEMA head man Brown has been "removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts" -- but don't fall for it. I mean, yes, he was totally unqualified, but he couldn't have done it all himself. Don't let a little bait-and-switch keep you from tackling the big game. Someone hired him. Let's figure out who that was, and fire that guy.

Quick. Before he hires another grossly incompetent twit.



Meanwhile, a little shout out to our boys in the Navy, who showed more initiative than their commander-in-chief. More compassion, too. But seriously, men, try to stay on task. Everybody has to stick to the plan.

Don't tell the people, they don't want to know
posted by Vynce at 10:26 PM

Once again the Bush League would like to shelter its poor, innocent voters from the harsh light of the big bad world -- presumably to keep them from realizing just how much has gone wrong. If they worry too much, they might wonder why it happened (and we all know Bush & crew don't want to play the blame game). So, just like before, they have "asked" journalists not to show the dead.

Now, the article mentions that FEMA refused to let the journalists tag along on FEMA boats, and frankly, I'm not surprised and not outraged at that. FEMA has a lot to do, a lot of pressure over perceived ineptitude, and I wouldn't want a journalist watching me freak out and screw up, either. But to not show pictures taken in the normal course of reporting a tragedy? Dig behind that and you'll find either sinister intent, or some muddled thinking.

Here's some:

Nobody wants to wake up in the morning and see their dead uncle on the front page. That's just common decency. -- Mark Tapscott

Well, Mr. Tapscott, that's true ... to a point. But assuming my uncle is dead, and supposing I have no other way of knowing, then yes, actually, I kinda do. Think I'm weird? Then why do so many people's pictures appear with their obituaries?

And especially if my uncle is dead, in part, due to the incompetence and negligence of a government spinning out of control in a fantasy of dynastic glory -- because if that's the case, I want the world to know why my uncle is dead, and I want the mistake makers to answer for their failures. Better that than a silent death swept under a carpet.

Incidentally, Uncles Dale, Gary, Hank, John, Nick, and Silas -- I hope you are all alive and well. I'd hate to see you on the front page.

Quotes of the Day
posted by Rick at 9:53 PM

I couldn't pick just one. We report, you decide.

Most of these quotes are one to four years old; the last one, though, is quite current.


"A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. . . . Boxes of body bags are stacked eight feet high. . . . A direct hit is inevitable. . . . the low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now, another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh -- an area the size of Manhattan -- will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes."

"Drowning New Orleans"
Scientific American
October, 2001



"More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as [the] 140-mph hurricane churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years."

USA Today
September 14, 2004



"The evacuation of New Orleans in the face of Hurricane Ivan looked sinisterly like Strom Thurmond's version of the Rapture. Affluent white people fled the Big Easy in their SUVs, while the old and car-less -- mainly Black -- were left behind in their below-sea-level shotgun shacks and aging tenements to face the watery wrath."

"Poor, Black, and Left Behind"
tomdispatch.com
September 23, 2004



"So many of the people in the arenas here, you know, were - were underprivileged anyway, this is - this is working [chuckle] very well for them."

Barbara Bush, discussing evacuees housed in the Astrodome
Marketplace
September 5, 2005
Audio clip at Crooks and Liars

“One of the Worst Abandonments of Americans on American Soil Ever”
posted by Rick at 7:06 PM

The President of Jefferson Parish has made some disturbing statements on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday about how FEMA is operating in New Orleans.

"Three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three 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. When we got there with our trucks, 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 and said no one is getting near these lines…"

Transcript here. Video here.

Let them eat PR
posted by Rick at 2:45 PM

Friday, while victims of Hurricane Katrina waited for relief, three tons of food sat baking on the sun on the Crescent City Connection Bridge because the helicopters waiting to deliver it were grounded. It seems all air traffic in the city was halted for President Bush's visit. In Bush World, one doesn't let a little thing like disaster relief get in the way of a photo op.

(source: nola.com/times-picayune via Liberty News)

Reflections on Katrina
posted by Rick at 2:01 PM

In the unfolding disaster that has turned one of America's most beloved cities into a third-world slum, a few things are becoming clear:

1. Much of this was preventable.

No, we don't know how to stop a hurricane; and no, nobody could have predicted a month ago that a strong Category 4 hurricane would strike New Orleans. But the city was unprepared for even a Category 3 storm, and there were plenty of warnings.

And there was much the government could have - indeed, should have - done to reduce the threat. Hurricanes derive their energy from warm water; development of a major storm depends on a surface temperature of at least 81°F. Not surprisingly, most if not all global warming models predict increased hurricane severity. A recent MIT study confirms that over the past 50 years, the strength (as measured by maximum wind speeds) and duration of tropical cyclones has increased by 50% - and that the strength variations from year to year parallel ocean temperature changes, implying a causal relationship. While the rest of the world, and even some US states, implement programs to reduce the threat of global warming, the Bush administration refuses to cooperate.

It's established fact that coastal wetlands provide a buffer zone, absorbing the storm surge before it comes ashore. The Clinton administration instituted tough new wetlands protection policies, which were overturned - over the protests of environmentalists and local governments - by the Bush administration.

Bush also cut FEMA budgets and hurricane preparedness funding (including levee improvement studies in New Orleans), again over the protests of local government.


2. The situation is being badly mismanaged, and the effects are falling disproportionately on the poor.

The governor of Louisiana bemoans the fact that so many people"chose" not to evacuate before the storm. But the overwhelming majority of those who stayed had no choice in the matter. New Orleans has a larger percentage than any other American city, including New York, of residents who do not own cars. The poor (New Orleans is also a national leader in per capita poverty) and the homeless had no way out of harm's way, and now those who survived the hurricane and the initial flooding are dying in the streets while they wait for relief.

It's apparent that planning for hurricane recovery also did not include caring for the survivors. Within 48 hours of the tsunami that hit Asia last December, food and water were being air-dropped to the survivors. It has taken twice that long for supplies to begin to trickle into New Orleans. Meanwhile, President Bush has announced a policy of "zero tolerance for looters." Press Secretary Scott McClellan, asked if the zero-tolerance policy applies to desperate people taking only what they need to survive, confirmed that it does. There are other ways to get what they need, he said. Let them eat cake.

The same policy is espoused by the Democratic governor of Louisiana, the one who gave the mandatory evacuation order but did not provide a means for the destitute to comply, and now has given the National Guard shoot-to-kill orders.


3. This tragedy is not an isolated incident, and it will not be the last.

The failure to confront global warming, the siphoning of funds from hurricane preparedness to help cover wartime tax cuts for the wealthy, and the abandonment of wetlands protections were not deliberately or specifically targeted at exacerbating the misery in New Orleans. They are all parts of larger patterns, patterns that include other components and have other effects.

The Bush administration has made it standard policy to downplay, ignore, or suppress science if it conflicts with the administration's ideology, or with the profitability of its corporate sponsors. In the wake of 9/11, the EPA was pressured to remove or soften warnings about the air quality in downtown Manhattan. Scientists who warn of global warming are harassed by Big Oil-aligned Congressional Republicans. Pandering to the religious right, Bush advocates the teaching of "creation science" and "intelligent design" as viable alternatives to evolution. Good science, like good intelligence, consistently takes a back seat to politics and ideology. Decisions are made based on preconceived notions of what the administration and its cronies want to do; science and intelligence are then "sexed up," distorted, or discarded altogether if they show that the decisions are flawed.

But these decisions have consequences. Setting religious fundamentalism up as equal or superior to science leaves a generation of Americans misled by those who should be educating them; as a result, the US will continue to decline among the best educated workforces in the world, and more and more high-tech jobs will go to the countries that are better educated. Insisting on abstinence-only sex education leaves teens more vulnerable to pregnancy and STDs, including AIDS. Failure to steward the environment has far-reaching effects that we can only begin to guess at, from global warming to mass extinctions to public health nightmares. The continuing, accelerating transfer of wealth to the wealthy pushes more and more Americans into poverty. The concentration of media ownership into a few hands, coupled with the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine, turns American media into a giant propaganda machine and allows the government to lead us into disastrous wars that earn us international contempt and make us less secure. The erosion of civil rights, especially when combined with the lifetime appointments of right-wingers to the judiciary, threatens to turn our society into a police state.


4. Americans care.

Americans are opening their hearts and their homes and their wallets to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Across the nation, donations are pouring into disaster relief efforts. As we were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, we are united in sympathy and support for those affected by this disaster.

If the storm clouds that rained death and destruction on Louisiana and Mississippi have a silver lining, it is that they have awakened Americans to the fact that the path down which the corporate-sponsored right has taken our country is a path fraught with peril. If we're lucky - if we're very lucky - it might not be too late to turn things around.

Bush to offers of aid: Thanks but no thanks
posted by Rick at 12:19 AM

Some of the nations hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami last December, recipients of American aid at the time, have offered to return the favor in New Orleans' hour of need. Our president's response? That's very kind of you, but we don't need your help. We can take care of our own.

Good to know the president has the situation in New Orleans under control. Kind of like the one in Baghdad.