SEPTEMBER 17, 2005
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE AT THIRTEEN YEAR LOW
Analysts are trying to partially dismiss a dramatic plummet in consumer confidence because of the "shock" of Hurricane Katrina. But maybe it's just reality setting in after five years of the rotten economic policies of the Bush administration. Wages are stagnant or falling, health care costs are on the rise, energy prices have moved sharply upward, and federal deficits are wildly out of control. Even in the face of Hurricane Katrina, Bush doesn't want to stop the deficit freight train. He still wants to give tax cuts to his rich friends and take the rest of the country right over the cliff. This article from Reuters is at www.nytimes.com:
U.S. consumer confidence plummeted to a 13-year low in early September, battered by record high gasoline prices and the full force of Hurricane Katrina, a report showed on Friday.
Separate data showed the U.S. current account deficit, the broadest measure of U.S. trade with the rest of the world, narrowed in the second quarter but remained at levels seen as unsustainable over the long term.
The University of Michigan's closely-watched consumer sentiment index fell to 76.9 in September from 89.1 in August, far below Wall Street forecasts and the 81.8 hit after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
The current conditions dropped to the lowest level since December 2003 while the expectations index plummeted to the lowest since February 1992.
GLOBAL WARMING IS MAKING FIERCER HURRICANES
There is yet another study showing a strong correlation between warmer ocean waters caused by global warming and the ferocity of hurricanes such as Hurricane Katrina. And yet right-wingers will continue to deny that global warming is a grim reality. Doing so means big corporations have to change and it affects their bottom lines. It also means moving away from a transportation system based on fossil fuels. This article by Juliet Eilperin is at www.washingtonpost.com:
A new study concludes that rising sea temperatures have been accompanied by a significant global increase in the most destructive hurricanes, adding fuel to an international debate over whether global warming contributed to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
The study, published today in the journal Science, is the second in six weeks to draw this conclusion, but other climatologists dispute the findings and argue that a recent spate of severe storms reflects nothing more than normal weather variability.
Katrina's destructiveness has given a sharp new edge to the ongoing debate over whether the United States should do more to curb greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. Domestic and European critics have pointed to Katrina as a reason to take action, while skeptics say climate activists are capitalizing on a national disaster to further their own agenda.
AMERICA AS CORPORATION
George W. Bush has liked to tout himself as the first president with an MBA. He was going to run the country like a corporation. What we've seen Bush do is turn the country over to corporations. Bush and company want to privatize everything, take off almost any restrictions from doing business, and let everyone fend for himself or herself in the predatory free market. In this article Michael Tomasky looks at the effects of conservative ideology. The article is at www.prospect.org:
Of the several central precepts of modern movement conservatism, three played crucial roles here: first, its sanctification of the individual and concomitant rejection of the community as the foundational unit of social organization (except for religious communities, which are to substitute for political action and social investment); second, its glorification of the corporation -- indeed its attempt to model the government on the corporation (although on a very inefficient, corrupted idea of the corporation); and third, its utter anti-empiricism -- its ability to deny any fact that is not either presented in a “study” paid for by the oil industry or insisted upon by those greatest of all deniers of fact, the Christian right.
Friday, September 16, 2005
SEPTEMBER 16, 2005
IS BUSH TRYING TO PASS THE BUCK AGAIN?
An internal government e-mail suggests the Bush administration is trying to blame environmental groups for the broken levees that resulted in flooding New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Never mind that the administration cut funding to renovate the levees. This administration's incredible greed and incompetence know no bounds, nor does their willingness to smear opponents. This article by Jerry Mitchell is at www.clarionledger.com:
Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) 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."
Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said Thursday she couldn't comment "because it's an internal e-mail."
WILL NEW ORLEANS BE AN IRAQ ENCORE?
We've heard that the Bush administration was going to rebuild Iraq better than ever before (except for all those dead and wounded, of course). But Iraq still lacks even basic services, although cronies of the Bush administration, such as Halliburton, have raked in big profits at taxpayer expense. It appears we might expect much the same in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Right-wingers want to try out their ridiculous theories there too, privatizing everything that moves. Paul Krugman writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
It's a given that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast. The Heritage Foundation, which has surely been helping Karl Rove develop the administration's recovery plan, has already published a manifesto on post-Katrina policy. It calls for waivers on environmental rules, the elimination of capital gains taxes and the private ownership of public school buildings in the disaster areas. And if any of the people killed by Katrina, most of them poor, had a net worth of more than $1.5 million, Heritage wants to exempt their heirs from the estate tax.
BUSH WANTS EVEN MORE POWER?
The one thing George W. Bush and company seem to be good at is exploiting a tragedy to their own ends. They have beat 9/11 to death over the past four years while they've gutted civil liberties and decimated the budget. Now Mr. Bush claims that he needs even more power to act in emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina. How, pray tell, was he limited in acting to help the people along the Gulf Coast, except by his own incompetence? Josh Marshall looks at Bush's latest power grab at www.talkingpointsmemo.com:
As I've been saying, repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness and inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies. That's almost always the pattern. The direction the president wants to go in is one in which, in emergencies, the federal government will have trouble moving water into or enabling transportation out of the disaster zone but will be well-equipped to declare martial law on a moment's notice.
Another pack of lies. Right in front of everyone.
TIME FOR ANOTHER NEW DEAL
I don't know where he or she will come from, but I hope there's another leader like FDR in our time. FDR came along at a time when the private market, greedy Republicans and their business cohorts had taken the country into the Great Depression. The free market types had no answers for getting things back on track because they are essentially soulless. Money is their reason for existence and compassion is an impediment to making money. William Greider talks about the interest in using the New Deal as a model in this latest example of Republican greed and corruption. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
Senator Edward Kennedy calls for a "Gulf Coast Regional Redevelopment Authority," modeled after FDR's Tennessee Valley Authority, to lead the rebuilding. Former Senator John Edwards proposes a vast new jobs program, patterned after the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), in which the displaced and the poor are hired at living wages to clean up and rebuild their devastated communities. In the week after Katrina, Representatives Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs Jones swiftly rounded up eighty-eight House co-sponsors, including some from Mississippi and Louisiana, for a similar initiative.
As the dimensions of this challenge become clearer, reformers will discover other New Deal models they can emulate and adapt to present circumstances. For instance, in the 1930s Roosevelt's Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a central player in rebuilding the industrial economy, because it acted like a public-spirited investment banker empowered to channel startup capital to collapsed companies, provide temporary protection from creditors and impose equitable terms on how the private firms relate to social priorities. This time cities and schools need similar help.
The government, meanwhile, must quickly become the employer of last resort across the region.
IS BUSH TRYING TO PASS THE BUCK AGAIN?
An internal government e-mail suggests the Bush administration is trying to blame environmental groups for the broken levees that resulted in flooding New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Never mind that the administration cut funding to renovate the levees. This administration's incredible greed and incompetence know no bounds, nor does their willingness to smear opponents. This article by Jerry Mitchell is at www.clarionledger.com:
Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) 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."
Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said Thursday she couldn't comment "because it's an internal e-mail."
WILL NEW ORLEANS BE AN IRAQ ENCORE?
We've heard that the Bush administration was going to rebuild Iraq better than ever before (except for all those dead and wounded, of course). But Iraq still lacks even basic services, although cronies of the Bush administration, such as Halliburton, have raked in big profits at taxpayer expense. It appears we might expect much the same in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Right-wingers want to try out their ridiculous theories there too, privatizing everything that moves. Paul Krugman writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
It's a given that the Bush administration, which tried to turn Iraq into a laboratory for conservative economic policies, will try the same thing on the Gulf Coast. The Heritage Foundation, which has surely been helping Karl Rove develop the administration's recovery plan, has already published a manifesto on post-Katrina policy. It calls for waivers on environmental rules, the elimination of capital gains taxes and the private ownership of public school buildings in the disaster areas. And if any of the people killed by Katrina, most of them poor, had a net worth of more than $1.5 million, Heritage wants to exempt their heirs from the estate tax.
BUSH WANTS EVEN MORE POWER?
The one thing George W. Bush and company seem to be good at is exploiting a tragedy to their own ends. They have beat 9/11 to death over the past four years while they've gutted civil liberties and decimated the budget. Now Mr. Bush claims that he needs even more power to act in emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina. How, pray tell, was he limited in acting to help the people along the Gulf Coast, except by his own incompetence? Josh Marshall looks at Bush's latest power grab at www.talkingpointsmemo.com:
As I've been saying, repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness and inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies. That's almost always the pattern. The direction the president wants to go in is one in which, in emergencies, the federal government will have trouble moving water into or enabling transportation out of the disaster zone but will be well-equipped to declare martial law on a moment's notice.
Another pack of lies. Right in front of everyone.
TIME FOR ANOTHER NEW DEAL
I don't know where he or she will come from, but I hope there's another leader like FDR in our time. FDR came along at a time when the private market, greedy Republicans and their business cohorts had taken the country into the Great Depression. The free market types had no answers for getting things back on track because they are essentially soulless. Money is their reason for existence and compassion is an impediment to making money. William Greider talks about the interest in using the New Deal as a model in this latest example of Republican greed and corruption. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
Senator Edward Kennedy calls for a "Gulf Coast Regional Redevelopment Authority," modeled after FDR's Tennessee Valley Authority, to lead the rebuilding. Former Senator John Edwards proposes a vast new jobs program, patterned after the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), in which the displaced and the poor are hired at living wages to clean up and rebuild their devastated communities. In the week after Katrina, Representatives Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs Jones swiftly rounded up eighty-eight House co-sponsors, including some from Mississippi and Louisiana, for a similar initiative.
As the dimensions of this challenge become clearer, reformers will discover other New Deal models they can emulate and adapt to present circumstances. For instance, in the 1930s Roosevelt's Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a central player in rebuilding the industrial economy, because it acted like a public-spirited investment banker empowered to channel startup capital to collapsed companies, provide temporary protection from creditors and impose equitable terms on how the private firms relate to social priorities. This time cities and schools need similar help.
The government, meanwhile, must quickly become the employer of last resort across the region.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
SEPTEMBER 15, 2005
"UNDER GOD" IN PLEDGE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A new court decision that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional has right-wingers in another tizzy. I've heard the argument about, "What does it hurt?" because kids who don't want to participate don't have to participate. It's not as simple as that. I don't know if some of these right-wingers have ever been in the distinct minority. The pressure to conform is enormous.
Show me in the Constitution where it says we're one nation under God. To the contrary, the Constitution says power comes from the people of the United States. The First Amendment makes it clear that the government is prohibited from establishing a state religion. What about the part about the "free exercise thereof" you ask? If I understand the Bible correctly, people can pray any time they want, even silently, and God will hear those prayers. So why is it necessary to recite a pledge by rote that most kids begin to take for granted?
The words "under God" were inserted into the Pledge back in the 1950s during the McCarthy witch hunt years. That alone, that association with Joseph McCarthy, should make people think twice. And just think if you changed the words "under God" to something else. What if you changed it to "under Satan"? People who didn't want to participate wouldn't have to participate, so what would be the harm? That's if you buy into the right wing argument. This discussion is from an article by Kelly St. John at www.commondreams.org:
A federal judge in Sacramento ruled Wednesday that requiring children to recite a Pledge of Allegiance that contains the phrase "under God" in public schools is unconstitutional, a move that sets the stage for another Supreme Court showdown over the daily classroom ritual.
Reaction to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton was swift and widespread. Religious conservatives condemned the decision, while senators at the confirmation hearings of chief justice nominee John Roberts referred to the ruling in an attempt to gauge Roberts' views on the constitutional separation of church and state.
Karlton granted legal standing in the case to two families represented by Sacramento attorney Michael Newdow -- an atheist who lost a previous pledge case before the Supreme Court last year -- and ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates schoolchildren's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."
LIKE WHITE-WASHED GRAVES
Since we're talking religion, I'm reminded of a passage where Jesus condemned the religious leaders of his day as hypocrites. He compared them to white-washed graves, nice and neat on the outside, but rotten to the core on the inside. That's what so-called conservatism is. They talk a good game about God, country, and family, but their real agenda is taking as much for the very wealthy as they can grab and stuff into their pockets. It doesn't matter how many lives are lost or destroyed, or how many tragedies we endure. It's all about the bottom line profit. Joe Conason writes about the white-washed graves in this article from www.workingforchange.com:
Politically as well as physically, the destructive force of nature can rip away surfaces and expose layers of decay. With the floodwaters of Katrina receding, we can see beneath the veneer of modern conservatism and gaze upon its rotten center.
For in the nation's capital, at least, that traditional philosophy of society and statecraft appears to have degenerated into a public-relations scam.
The obvious fact is that Republicans are the party of big spending, big deficits and big government, no matter how indignantly their leaders profess to despise all those terrible things. Yet the history of the Bush administration and the G.O.P. Congress makes it equally obvious that they're also incompetent at governing. So the question that Americans now confront is why these fakers should be allowed to waste hundreds of billions of dollars, adding to the hundreds of billions they have already squandered, when the results of their exertions are so unsatisfactory -- and so self-serving.
THE SHAMBLES LEFT BY CONSERVATIVES
Right-wingers really didn't like the 1960s. You know, there were those long-haired war protesters running around, advocating radical ideas like loving each other and not making war any more. The right didn't like programs that actually helped poor people. The Johnson administration, in the wake of JFK's assassination, got meaningful civil rights legislation passed and Medicare passed, and Lord have mercy the country was going to hell in a hand basket. After over two decades of mostly conservative rule, we can see what a mess we have. We have fewer civil liberties thanks to the PATRIOT act. Conservatives have been far more incompetent at protecting us if you judge from the attacks on 9/11 and the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Our air quality is worse, more people live in poverty, wages for the middle class are stagnant, millions of us don't have health insurance, and we're stuck in a conservative quagmire war in Iraq. In this article by Bruce Maples is at www.makethemaccountable.com:
There is a growing sense of discontent with the direction of the country, and not just from the left. Citizens across the political spectrum are beginning to feel that our government, and our country, are not working. We are supposedly the greatest nation on the planet, and yet we lag behind most other developed nations in education, health care, infrastructure and basic services. We have become the largest debtor nation on the planet, and the federal deficits have hamstrung our ability to think big and act decisively.
The right has chanted their mantra of "less government, lower taxes" for years, and once in power, they have been true to their word. Since 1980, with a brief respite during the Clinton years, we have seen unending cuts in government revenue and government expectations.
Today, citizens are looking around, and they don't like what they see. They don't like the two-class nation we have become. They don't like a government that functions poorly or not at all. And they don't like a system that abandons the poor, the powerless and the weak.
It is time to stop talking about "big" or "small" government and focus on "effective government."
"UNDER GOD" IN PLEDGE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A new court decision that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional has right-wingers in another tizzy. I've heard the argument about, "What does it hurt?" because kids who don't want to participate don't have to participate. It's not as simple as that. I don't know if some of these right-wingers have ever been in the distinct minority. The pressure to conform is enormous.
Show me in the Constitution where it says we're one nation under God. To the contrary, the Constitution says power comes from the people of the United States. The First Amendment makes it clear that the government is prohibited from establishing a state religion. What about the part about the "free exercise thereof" you ask? If I understand the Bible correctly, people can pray any time they want, even silently, and God will hear those prayers. So why is it necessary to recite a pledge by rote that most kids begin to take for granted?
The words "under God" were inserted into the Pledge back in the 1950s during the McCarthy witch hunt years. That alone, that association with Joseph McCarthy, should make people think twice. And just think if you changed the words "under God" to something else. What if you changed it to "under Satan"? People who didn't want to participate wouldn't have to participate, so what would be the harm? That's if you buy into the right wing argument. This discussion is from an article by Kelly St. John at www.commondreams.org:
A federal judge in Sacramento ruled Wednesday that requiring children to recite a Pledge of Allegiance that contains the phrase "under God" in public schools is unconstitutional, a move that sets the stage for another Supreme Court showdown over the daily classroom ritual.
Reaction to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton was swift and widespread. Religious conservatives condemned the decision, while senators at the confirmation hearings of chief justice nominee John Roberts referred to the ruling in an attempt to gauge Roberts' views on the constitutional separation of church and state.
Karlton granted legal standing in the case to two families represented by Sacramento attorney Michael Newdow -- an atheist who lost a previous pledge case before the Supreme Court last year -- and ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates schoolchildren's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."
LIKE WHITE-WASHED GRAVES
Since we're talking religion, I'm reminded of a passage where Jesus condemned the religious leaders of his day as hypocrites. He compared them to white-washed graves, nice and neat on the outside, but rotten to the core on the inside. That's what so-called conservatism is. They talk a good game about God, country, and family, but their real agenda is taking as much for the very wealthy as they can grab and stuff into their pockets. It doesn't matter how many lives are lost or destroyed, or how many tragedies we endure. It's all about the bottom line profit. Joe Conason writes about the white-washed graves in this article from www.workingforchange.com:
Politically as well as physically, the destructive force of nature can rip away surfaces and expose layers of decay. With the floodwaters of Katrina receding, we can see beneath the veneer of modern conservatism and gaze upon its rotten center.
For in the nation's capital, at least, that traditional philosophy of society and statecraft appears to have degenerated into a public-relations scam.
The obvious fact is that Republicans are the party of big spending, big deficits and big government, no matter how indignantly their leaders profess to despise all those terrible things. Yet the history of the Bush administration and the G.O.P. Congress makes it equally obvious that they're also incompetent at governing. So the question that Americans now confront is why these fakers should be allowed to waste hundreds of billions of dollars, adding to the hundreds of billions they have already squandered, when the results of their exertions are so unsatisfactory -- and so self-serving.
THE SHAMBLES LEFT BY CONSERVATIVES
Right-wingers really didn't like the 1960s. You know, there were those long-haired war protesters running around, advocating radical ideas like loving each other and not making war any more. The right didn't like programs that actually helped poor people. The Johnson administration, in the wake of JFK's assassination, got meaningful civil rights legislation passed and Medicare passed, and Lord have mercy the country was going to hell in a hand basket. After over two decades of mostly conservative rule, we can see what a mess we have. We have fewer civil liberties thanks to the PATRIOT act. Conservatives have been far more incompetent at protecting us if you judge from the attacks on 9/11 and the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Our air quality is worse, more people live in poverty, wages for the middle class are stagnant, millions of us don't have health insurance, and we're stuck in a conservative quagmire war in Iraq. In this article by Bruce Maples is at www.makethemaccountable.com:
There is a growing sense of discontent with the direction of the country, and not just from the left. Citizens across the political spectrum are beginning to feel that our government, and our country, are not working. We are supposedly the greatest nation on the planet, and yet we lag behind most other developed nations in education, health care, infrastructure and basic services. We have become the largest debtor nation on the planet, and the federal deficits have hamstrung our ability to think big and act decisively.
The right has chanted their mantra of "less government, lower taxes" for years, and once in power, they have been true to their word. Since 1980, with a brief respite during the Clinton years, we have seen unending cuts in government revenue and government expectations.
Today, citizens are looking around, and they don't like what they see. They don't like the two-class nation we have become. They don't like a government that functions poorly or not at all. And they don't like a system that abandons the poor, the powerless and the weak.
It is time to stop talking about "big" or "small" government and focus on "effective government."
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
VOODOO STRIKES BUSH
George W. Bush seems so devoid of conscience that I sometimes wonder if he ever sees the spirits of the dead in his sleep. He's responsible now for thousands upon thousands of deaths. As Governor of Texas he was notorious for okaying executions after getting a condensed version of the case from his aides. He was an active participant in stealing the presidential election of 2000 and has since sicced his minions on people like Senator Max Cleland to steal seats for the Republican party. He shoved through massive tax cuts for the very affluent, while the middle class and the poor are sinking deeper into despair. He didn't pay attention and Osama bin Laden was able to launch a successful terrorist attack against the United States. He launched an immoral war against Iraq. He was too lazy and unfeeling to take action to save lives along the Gulf coast as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area. So I wonder if Bush is seeing the spirits of the dead. Maureen Dowd writes about Bush, the tinplated dictator and incompetent, in this column at www.nytimes.com:
President Bush continued to try to spin his own inaction yesterday, but he may finally have reached a patch of reality beyond spin. Now he's the one drowning, unable to rescue himself by patting small black children on the head during photo-ops and making scripted attempts to appear engaged. He can keep going back down there, as he will again on Thursday when he gives a televised speech to the nation, but he can never compensate for his tragic inattention during days when so many lives could have been saved.
He made the ultimate sacrifice and admitted his administration had messed up, something he'd refused to do through all of the other screw-ups, from phantom W.M.D. and the torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo to the miscalculations on the Iraq occupation and the insurgency, which will soon claim 2,000 young Americans.
How many places will be in shambles by the time the Bush crew leaves office?
E. J. DIONNE: BUSH ERA IS OVER
In his column in The Washington Post E. J. Dionne writes that the Bush era is over. Let's hope so. Unfortunately, the rotting corpse of this administration still hasn't been removed, although it stinks to high heaven. Mr. Dionne's column is at www.washingtonpost.com:
But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans.
RESCIND THE NEW BANKRUPTCY LAW AND MORE
The catastrophe in the Gulf coast has claimed lives, made countless people homeless and without jobs, and leaves any number of people facing a Draconian and despicable bankruptcy law scheduled to go into effect on October 17. As this blogger notes, the law is harsh for everyone, including the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I would add that the totally unfair laws that allow credit card companies to hike rates at the drop of a hat, to jack up minimum payments, to hit people with punitive late charges, and all the rest should be rescinded. I hope there is a backlash against the credit card industry because they're being recognized as the greedy vultures they are. This item is from americablog.blogspot.com:
This raises the question: if the new bankruptcy laws are so Draconian or unfair for victims of Katrina, why aren't they unfair when punishing the victim of the next hurricane? Why aren't they unfair when punishing the victim of a catastrophic illness? Why aren't they unfair when punishing someone who lost their job at Enron because the white collar criminals in charge drove their company into the ground? Everyone wants to fight fraud (the pretense for passing these cruel new rules), but if the new bankruptcy law is wrong when applied to victims of Katrina then it's wrong when applied to anyone, regardless of the catastrophe that has blindsided them.
If the Democrats had any backbone, they would push to overturn that law, using Katrina as a classic example of why it's bad. If the Republicans offer the compromise of delay, they should refuse on principle, insisting on full reversal. Let the Republicans explain why these people should suffer.
STUFF HAPPENS
If you're rich and powerful, it's all right to be predatory, particularly if you're a corporation. You need those tax cuts, baby, like an addict needs a fix. Let those teeming masses fend for themselves, even those teeming masses are largely responsible for your wealth. The wealthy in the United States have become some of the greatest parasites in the history of our planet. Harold Meyerson writes about the gap between the haves and the have-nots and other matters in this column at www.commondreams.org:
By which measures, precisely, do we lead the world? Caring for our countrymen? You jest. A first-class physical infrastructure? Tell that to New Orleans. Throwing so much money at the rich that we've got nothing left over to promote the general welfare? Now you're talking.
The problem goes beyond the fact that we can't count on our government to be there for us in catastrophes. It's that a can't-do spirit, a shouldn't-do spirit, guides the men who run the nation. Consider the congressional testimony of Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush's 2000 campaign manager, who assumed the top position at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2001. He characterized the organization as "an oversized entitlement program," and counseled states and cities to rely instead on "faith-based organizations... such as the Salvation Army and the Mennonite Disaster Service."
VOODOO STRIKES BUSH
George W. Bush seems so devoid of conscience that I sometimes wonder if he ever sees the spirits of the dead in his sleep. He's responsible now for thousands upon thousands of deaths. As Governor of Texas he was notorious for okaying executions after getting a condensed version of the case from his aides. He was an active participant in stealing the presidential election of 2000 and has since sicced his minions on people like Senator Max Cleland to steal seats for the Republican party. He shoved through massive tax cuts for the very affluent, while the middle class and the poor are sinking deeper into despair. He didn't pay attention and Osama bin Laden was able to launch a successful terrorist attack against the United States. He launched an immoral war against Iraq. He was too lazy and unfeeling to take action to save lives along the Gulf coast as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area. So I wonder if Bush is seeing the spirits of the dead. Maureen Dowd writes about Bush, the tinplated dictator and incompetent, in this column at www.nytimes.com:
President Bush continued to try to spin his own inaction yesterday, but he may finally have reached a patch of reality beyond spin. Now he's the one drowning, unable to rescue himself by patting small black children on the head during photo-ops and making scripted attempts to appear engaged. He can keep going back down there, as he will again on Thursday when he gives a televised speech to the nation, but he can never compensate for his tragic inattention during days when so many lives could have been saved.
He made the ultimate sacrifice and admitted his administration had messed up, something he'd refused to do through all of the other screw-ups, from phantom W.M.D. and the torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo to the miscalculations on the Iraq occupation and the insurgency, which will soon claim 2,000 young Americans.
How many places will be in shambles by the time the Bush crew leaves office?
E. J. DIONNE: BUSH ERA IS OVER
In his column in The Washington Post E. J. Dionne writes that the Bush era is over. Let's hope so. Unfortunately, the rotting corpse of this administration still hasn't been removed, although it stinks to high heaven. Mr. Dionne's column is at www.washingtonpost.com:
But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans.
RESCIND THE NEW BANKRUPTCY LAW AND MORE
The catastrophe in the Gulf coast has claimed lives, made countless people homeless and without jobs, and leaves any number of people facing a Draconian and despicable bankruptcy law scheduled to go into effect on October 17. As this blogger notes, the law is harsh for everyone, including the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I would add that the totally unfair laws that allow credit card companies to hike rates at the drop of a hat, to jack up minimum payments, to hit people with punitive late charges, and all the rest should be rescinded. I hope there is a backlash against the credit card industry because they're being recognized as the greedy vultures they are. This item is from americablog.blogspot.com:
This raises the question: if the new bankruptcy laws are so Draconian or unfair for victims of Katrina, why aren't they unfair when punishing the victim of the next hurricane? Why aren't they unfair when punishing the victim of a catastrophic illness? Why aren't they unfair when punishing someone who lost their job at Enron because the white collar criminals in charge drove their company into the ground? Everyone wants to fight fraud (the pretense for passing these cruel new rules), but if the new bankruptcy law is wrong when applied to victims of Katrina then it's wrong when applied to anyone, regardless of the catastrophe that has blindsided them.
If the Democrats had any backbone, they would push to overturn that law, using Katrina as a classic example of why it's bad. If the Republicans offer the compromise of delay, they should refuse on principle, insisting on full reversal. Let the Republicans explain why these people should suffer.
STUFF HAPPENS
If you're rich and powerful, it's all right to be predatory, particularly if you're a corporation. You need those tax cuts, baby, like an addict needs a fix. Let those teeming masses fend for themselves, even those teeming masses are largely responsible for your wealth. The wealthy in the United States have become some of the greatest parasites in the history of our planet. Harold Meyerson writes about the gap between the haves and the have-nots and other matters in this column at www.commondreams.org:
By which measures, precisely, do we lead the world? Caring for our countrymen? You jest. A first-class physical infrastructure? Tell that to New Orleans. Throwing so much money at the rich that we've got nothing left over to promote the general welfare? Now you're talking.
The problem goes beyond the fact that we can't count on our government to be there for us in catastrophes. It's that a can't-do spirit, a shouldn't-do spirit, guides the men who run the nation. Consider the congressional testimony of Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush's 2000 campaign manager, who assumed the top position at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2001. He characterized the organization as "an oversized entitlement program," and counseled states and cities to rely instead on "faith-based organizations... such as the Salvation Army and the Mennonite Disaster Service."
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
SEPTEMBER 13, 2005
WHAT RIGHT-WINGERS HAVE IS GALL
There was once a guy I call Bad Talk Show Host on the air in Fresno. BTSH claimed he was an attorney, and that he had written a novel (no doubt self-published). At first, I thought BTSH was fairer and more open-minded that your typical right wing talk show host, but it didn't take long for me to be disabused of that notion. BTSH went on a rant one day and said, "Get the damned government off my back!" He considered things like seat belts as oppressive, I guess, and unemployment insurance a disincentive to work. In a moment of poetic justice BTSH got fired when his station changed format. I wonder if BTSH would consider Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the PATRIOT Act oppressive. Probably not.
But BTSH is illustrative of the major difference between talk and reality Right-wingers have always harped about big government, giving you visions of a utopia if you just do away with government. Under right-wing control, though, we have more intrusions into our lives than ever before. There is a gulf between the promises of right-wingers and the harsh reality they leave behind. In this item American Progress Action looks at right-wing promises. The item is at www.americanprogressaction.org:
Taking care of the wealthy first does nothing to ensure shared sacrifice and mutual responsibility for America’s needs and security. For the first time in history, a wartime president and his allies in Congress have sacrificed the nation's well-being to their ideology by asking nothing from those who have prospered so much from the collective work of all Americans. After cutting taxes for the wealthy after 9/11 and before the war in Iraq, conservatives now have the audacity to claim that Katrina should actually speed up the move to repeal the estate tax for millionaires. The culmination of thirty years of conservative dreams and proposals has produced little more than a destabilized economy racked by corruption and misplaced priorities that favor the needs of the few over the national interest.
THE SPOILS SYSTEM IS BACK IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
One reason the civil service system was started was to alleviate the abuses of the spoils system. Before the civil service system existed the winning political party would fill all available jobs with loyal cronies. Competence was not the issue. In the Bush administration we see the spoils system revisited. People get placed into jobs for which they're totally unqualified. Their sole reason for getting a job is loyalty to Bush. We see the tragic consequences of the appointment of Michael Brown as head of FEMA. Paul Krugman writes about the twenty-first century version of the spoils system in his column at www.nytimes.com:
But what we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other government functions have been crippled by politicization, cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals? How many FEMA's are there?
Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from some version of the FEMA syndrome.
The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of experienced officials over the past few years. In particular, senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental law.
BUSH WAS AWOL AGAIN
Throughout his life George W. Bush has had someone else there to pick up the pieces for him. Become a coke-sniffing cheerleader in college and you don't worry because daddy will bail you out. Go into business, break insider trading laws, but don't get charged because daddy or daddy's friends will bail you out. Support the Vietnam war, but don't go yourself. In fact, you even abscond from National Guard duty because your daddy will bail you out. Get into politics with the help of daddy's rich friends and even steal a presidential election because daddy's appointees are on the Supreme Court. Now George W. Bush is in a position where it's not so easy for daddy or daddy's friends to bail him out and lots of people are suffering. This editorial comes from Newsday and is linked at www.commondreams.org:
And Americans could see on their televisions that their government was AWOL. Terry Ebbert, the director of homeland security for New Orleans, said Thursday, "This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the City of New Orleans."
At about the same time, Brown, the clueless FEMA head, told CNN that he had only just learned that there were evacuees in the Convention Center. This was Thursday afternoon, by which time every television watcher in America knew there were thousands of people at the Convention Center and that they had no food or water and that people were dying for lack of medical care.
It wasn't until Friday that the vaunted American can-do spirit put an end to three days of governmental failure. Enough troops were mobilized, enough food was delivered to end the anarchy. Since then, we've begun to see the kind of behavior we expect from government: rescuing survivors, reuniting families, supplying needs, giving desperate people reason to hope again.
BUSH IS SNAPPISH, COLD, INCOMPETENT
The press has treated George W. Bush with kid gloves from the time of the 2000 presidential campaign, and especially after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The picture the press presented to the world was of a likable guy who gave out cut nicknames. He was "decisive" we were told. Now, after the debacle of Hurricane Katrina, the press is telling us about the real Bush, a guy who snaps at people who tell him what he doesn't want to hear, a guy who doesn't even comprehend some of the speeches he gives. This item by Dan Froomkin is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Judging from the blistering analyses in Time, Newsweek, and elsewhere these past few days, it turns out that Bush is in fact fidgety, cold and snappish in private. He yells at those who dare give him bad news and is therefore not surprisingly surrounded by an echo chamber of terrified sycophants. He is slow to comprehend concepts that don't emerge from his gut. He is uncomprehending of the speeches that he is given to read. And oh yes, one of his most significant legacies -- the immense post-Sept. 11 reorganization of the federal government which created the Homeland Security Department -- has failed a big test.
MINIMUM CREDIT CARD PAYMENT INCREASE
I have seen rumors about credit card companies increasing their minimum payments, in some cases more than doubling the monthly payments people have been making. The industry says they are required to raise payments in accordance with a directive issued by the Comptroller of the Currency.
I checked out what the Comptroller had to say. They put a shiny happy face on a directive that is going to clobber many of us. Their excuse is that they don't like "predatory" lending. They cite cases where people would never pay off their credit card debt, or would take 15 or 20 years. They say that making larger payments reduces the balance faster and saves thousands of dollars in interest. This assumes, of course, that people have the means to make larger payments. I would suggest that most people who have large balances would dearly love to pay them off sooner, but just lack the money to do so. So now the Comptroller wants to squeeze blood out of a turnip.
I also believe that most people who carry credit card debt are doing so temporarily. They have no intention of carrying large balances for 15 or 20 years. And what of people who have to make large payments each month, turn around and borrow to make ends meet, and make the same large payment the next month? It's just as much a revolving door, if not worse, than the current system.
The Comptroller also didn't express much concern about true predatory lending practices such as huge late payments for being a single day late, or "universal default" provisions that allow credit card companies to jack up rates if a person is late with a payment anywhere. How is a person supposed to get from under with rates exceeding 20%?
This is just an egregious case of a bureaucrat addressing a perceived problem in the cruelest way possible. Maybe they should take a look at the Hippocratic Oath which says, "First, do no harm."
WHAT RIGHT-WINGERS HAVE IS GALL
There was once a guy I call Bad Talk Show Host on the air in Fresno. BTSH claimed he was an attorney, and that he had written a novel (no doubt self-published). At first, I thought BTSH was fairer and more open-minded that your typical right wing talk show host, but it didn't take long for me to be disabused of that notion. BTSH went on a rant one day and said, "Get the damned government off my back!" He considered things like seat belts as oppressive, I guess, and unemployment insurance a disincentive to work. In a moment of poetic justice BTSH got fired when his station changed format. I wonder if BTSH would consider Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the PATRIOT Act oppressive. Probably not.
But BTSH is illustrative of the major difference between talk and reality Right-wingers have always harped about big government, giving you visions of a utopia if you just do away with government. Under right-wing control, though, we have more intrusions into our lives than ever before. There is a gulf between the promises of right-wingers and the harsh reality they leave behind. In this item American Progress Action looks at right-wing promises. The item is at www.americanprogressaction.org:
Taking care of the wealthy first does nothing to ensure shared sacrifice and mutual responsibility for America’s needs and security. For the first time in history, a wartime president and his allies in Congress have sacrificed the nation's well-being to their ideology by asking nothing from those who have prospered so much from the collective work of all Americans. After cutting taxes for the wealthy after 9/11 and before the war in Iraq, conservatives now have the audacity to claim that Katrina should actually speed up the move to repeal the estate tax for millionaires. The culmination of thirty years of conservative dreams and proposals has produced little more than a destabilized economy racked by corruption and misplaced priorities that favor the needs of the few over the national interest.
THE SPOILS SYSTEM IS BACK IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
One reason the civil service system was started was to alleviate the abuses of the spoils system. Before the civil service system existed the winning political party would fill all available jobs with loyal cronies. Competence was not the issue. In the Bush administration we see the spoils system revisited. People get placed into jobs for which they're totally unqualified. Their sole reason for getting a job is loyalty to Bush. We see the tragic consequences of the appointment of Michael Brown as head of FEMA. Paul Krugman writes about the twenty-first century version of the spoils system in his column at www.nytimes.com:
But what we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other government functions have been crippled by politicization, cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals? How many FEMA's are there?
Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from some version of the FEMA syndrome.
The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of experienced officials over the past few years. In particular, senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental law.
BUSH WAS AWOL AGAIN
Throughout his life George W. Bush has had someone else there to pick up the pieces for him. Become a coke-sniffing cheerleader in college and you don't worry because daddy will bail you out. Go into business, break insider trading laws, but don't get charged because daddy or daddy's friends will bail you out. Support the Vietnam war, but don't go yourself. In fact, you even abscond from National Guard duty because your daddy will bail you out. Get into politics with the help of daddy's rich friends and even steal a presidential election because daddy's appointees are on the Supreme Court. Now George W. Bush is in a position where it's not so easy for daddy or daddy's friends to bail him out and lots of people are suffering. This editorial comes from Newsday and is linked at www.commondreams.org:
And Americans could see on their televisions that their government was AWOL. Terry Ebbert, the director of homeland security for New Orleans, said Thursday, "This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims but we can't bail out the City of New Orleans."
At about the same time, Brown, the clueless FEMA head, told CNN that he had only just learned that there were evacuees in the Convention Center. This was Thursday afternoon, by which time every television watcher in America knew there were thousands of people at the Convention Center and that they had no food or water and that people were dying for lack of medical care.
It wasn't until Friday that the vaunted American can-do spirit put an end to three days of governmental failure. Enough troops were mobilized, enough food was delivered to end the anarchy. Since then, we've begun to see the kind of behavior we expect from government: rescuing survivors, reuniting families, supplying needs, giving desperate people reason to hope again.
BUSH IS SNAPPISH, COLD, INCOMPETENT
The press has treated George W. Bush with kid gloves from the time of the 2000 presidential campaign, and especially after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The picture the press presented to the world was of a likable guy who gave out cut nicknames. He was "decisive" we were told. Now, after the debacle of Hurricane Katrina, the press is telling us about the real Bush, a guy who snaps at people who tell him what he doesn't want to hear, a guy who doesn't even comprehend some of the speeches he gives. This item by Dan Froomkin is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Judging from the blistering analyses in Time, Newsweek, and elsewhere these past few days, it turns out that Bush is in fact fidgety, cold and snappish in private. He yells at those who dare give him bad news and is therefore not surprisingly surrounded by an echo chamber of terrified sycophants. He is slow to comprehend concepts that don't emerge from his gut. He is uncomprehending of the speeches that he is given to read. And oh yes, one of his most significant legacies -- the immense post-Sept. 11 reorganization of the federal government which created the Homeland Security Department -- has failed a big test.
MINIMUM CREDIT CARD PAYMENT INCREASE
I have seen rumors about credit card companies increasing their minimum payments, in some cases more than doubling the monthly payments people have been making. The industry says they are required to raise payments in accordance with a directive issued by the Comptroller of the Currency.
I checked out what the Comptroller had to say. They put a shiny happy face on a directive that is going to clobber many of us. Their excuse is that they don't like "predatory" lending. They cite cases where people would never pay off their credit card debt, or would take 15 or 20 years. They say that making larger payments reduces the balance faster and saves thousands of dollars in interest. This assumes, of course, that people have the means to make larger payments. I would suggest that most people who have large balances would dearly love to pay them off sooner, but just lack the money to do so. So now the Comptroller wants to squeeze blood out of a turnip.
I also believe that most people who carry credit card debt are doing so temporarily. They have no intention of carrying large balances for 15 or 20 years. And what of people who have to make large payments each month, turn around and borrow to make ends meet, and make the same large payment the next month? It's just as much a revolving door, if not worse, than the current system.
The Comptroller also didn't express much concern about true predatory lending practices such as huge late payments for being a single day late, or "universal default" provisions that allow credit card companies to jack up rates if a person is late with a payment anywhere. How is a person supposed to get from under with rates exceeding 20%?
This is just an egregious case of a bureaucrat addressing a perceived problem in the cruelest way possible. Maybe they should take a look at the Hippocratic Oath which says, "First, do no harm."
Sunday, September 11, 2005
SEPTEMBER 11, 2005
HANSON GIVES INTELLECTUAL GLOSS TO IMMORAL WAR
A few years ago I read Victor Davis Hanson's book Fields Without Dreams. It was about being a raisin farmer near Selma, California, here in the Central Valley. Back then Mr. Hanson seemed like a decent guy. I wonder what happened. In recent years he has become the intellectual guru and cheerleader of the most rancid of the Bush administration's foreign policy, the "war on terrorism" that has mostly killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Hanson is much beloved by right-wingers in the Valley because it allows the anti-intellectual to claim they really are intellectual. This article by Werther is at www.counterpunch.com:
Mr. Hanson, Cal State Fresno's contribution to human letters, is the favorite historian of the administration, the Naval War College, and other groves of disinterested research. His academic niche is to drag the Peloponnesian War into every contemporary foreign policy controversy and thereby justify whatever course of action our magistrates have taken. One suspects that if the neo-cons at the American Enterprise Institute were suddenly seized by the notion to invade Patagonia, Mr. Hanson would be quoting Pericles in support.
Once we strip away all the classical Greek fustian, it becomes clear that the name of his game is to take every erroneous conventional wisdom, cliche, faulty generalization, and common-man imbecility, and elevate them to a catechism. In this process, he showcases a technique beloved of pseudo-conservatives stuck at the Sean Hannity level of debate: he swallows whatever quasi-historical balderdash serves the interest of those in power, announces it with an air of surprised discovery, and then congratulates himself on his boldness in telling truth to power.
RIGHT-WING DRUG HABITS
Right-wingers busily pass laws to send users of marijuana, heroin, or crack to prison for years. But they have no problem, apparently, with drug abuse among their ranks. George W. Bush snorted coke and was an alcoholic, Dick Cheney got busted for drunk driving at least once, and Rush Limbaugh should be in jail for doctor shopping for hillbilly heroin. Now we learn that the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist had a habit too. Rehnquist got addicted to a painkiller called Placidyl. This article by Jack Shafer is at slate.msn.com:
As we usher the 16th chief justice of the United States to his celestial reward, let us remember him in full. He labored successfully to return power to the states, treated colleagues with warmth and respect, was said to be a gregarious boss, and, inspired by a judge's costume he saw in the performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, added four silly gold stripes to each sleeve of his judicial robe.
And for the nine years between 1972 and the end of 1981, William Rehnquist consumed great quantities of the potent sedative-hypnotic Placidyl. So great was Rehnquist's Placidyl habit, dependency, or addiction-depending on how you regard long-term drug use-that by the last quarter of 1981 he began slurring his speech in public, became tongue-tied while pronouncing long words, and sometimes had trouble finishing his thoughts.
ANALYSIS OF HURRICANE DISASTER
This article in The New York Times is a dissection of the many things that went wrong with the response to Hurricane Katrina. It was mostly an example of the "take charge" Bush administration being incompetent and indecisive. The article by Eric Lipton, Christopher Drew, Scott Shane and David Rohde is at www.nytimes.com:
The official autopsies of the flawed response to the catastrophic storm have already begun in Washington, and may offer lessons for dealing with a terrorist attack or even another hurricane this season. But an initial examination of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.
Instead, the crisis in New Orleans deepened because of a virtual standoff between hesitant federal officials and besieged authorities in Louisiana, interviews with dozens of officials show.
BUSH APOLOGISTS KEEP MARCHING ON
Today's Fresno Bee has yet another letter claiming that the local governments in New Orleans and Louisiana were to blame for Hurricane Katrina's victims not getting help, and goes on to call George Bush a "leader." If staying on vacation when a hurricane is about to wreck devastation, or heading west for social functions is being a great leader, then Mr. Bush qualifies. Several stories show the Bush White House was in total disarray about what to do. Evidence shows that the state and local governments in Louisiana did everything they could do with limited resources.
Does this disaster disprove the right-wing mantra about "states' rights" and local government? We've been told for a long time by right-wingers that the federal government should be weak and that power should reside in the states. Now we're being told that the local governments didn't do their jobs and that the federal government doesn't deserve any blame. Trying to stay in touch with right-wing philosophy is like trying to stand on the deck of a storm-tossed ship. If this had been an attack by a foreign power, would they make the same argument that the federal government shouldn't play the major role in protecting U.S. citizens?
HANSON GIVES INTELLECTUAL GLOSS TO IMMORAL WAR
A few years ago I read Victor Davis Hanson's book Fields Without Dreams. It was about being a raisin farmer near Selma, California, here in the Central Valley. Back then Mr. Hanson seemed like a decent guy. I wonder what happened. In recent years he has become the intellectual guru and cheerleader of the most rancid of the Bush administration's foreign policy, the "war on terrorism" that has mostly killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr. Hanson is much beloved by right-wingers in the Valley because it allows the anti-intellectual to claim they really are intellectual. This article by Werther is at www.counterpunch.com:
Mr. Hanson, Cal State Fresno's contribution to human letters, is the favorite historian of the administration, the Naval War College, and other groves of disinterested research. His academic niche is to drag the Peloponnesian War into every contemporary foreign policy controversy and thereby justify whatever course of action our magistrates have taken. One suspects that if the neo-cons at the American Enterprise Institute were suddenly seized by the notion to invade Patagonia, Mr. Hanson would be quoting Pericles in support.
Once we strip away all the classical Greek fustian, it becomes clear that the name of his game is to take every erroneous conventional wisdom, cliche, faulty generalization, and common-man imbecility, and elevate them to a catechism. In this process, he showcases a technique beloved of pseudo-conservatives stuck at the Sean Hannity level of debate: he swallows whatever quasi-historical balderdash serves the interest of those in power, announces it with an air of surprised discovery, and then congratulates himself on his boldness in telling truth to power.
RIGHT-WING DRUG HABITS
Right-wingers busily pass laws to send users of marijuana, heroin, or crack to prison for years. But they have no problem, apparently, with drug abuse among their ranks. George W. Bush snorted coke and was an alcoholic, Dick Cheney got busted for drunk driving at least once, and Rush Limbaugh should be in jail for doctor shopping for hillbilly heroin. Now we learn that the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist had a habit too. Rehnquist got addicted to a painkiller called Placidyl. This article by Jack Shafer is at slate.msn.com:
As we usher the 16th chief justice of the United States to his celestial reward, let us remember him in full. He labored successfully to return power to the states, treated colleagues with warmth and respect, was said to be a gregarious boss, and, inspired by a judge's costume he saw in the performance of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, added four silly gold stripes to each sleeve of his judicial robe.
And for the nine years between 1972 and the end of 1981, William Rehnquist consumed great quantities of the potent sedative-hypnotic Placidyl. So great was Rehnquist's Placidyl habit, dependency, or addiction-depending on how you regard long-term drug use-that by the last quarter of 1981 he began slurring his speech in public, became tongue-tied while pronouncing long words, and sometimes had trouble finishing his thoughts.
ANALYSIS OF HURRICANE DISASTER
This article in The New York Times is a dissection of the many things that went wrong with the response to Hurricane Katrina. It was mostly an example of the "take charge" Bush administration being incompetent and indecisive. The article by Eric Lipton, Christopher Drew, Scott Shane and David Rohde is at www.nytimes.com:
The official autopsies of the flawed response to the catastrophic storm have already begun in Washington, and may offer lessons for dealing with a terrorist attack or even another hurricane this season. But an initial examination of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.
Instead, the crisis in New Orleans deepened because of a virtual standoff between hesitant federal officials and besieged authorities in Louisiana, interviews with dozens of officials show.
BUSH APOLOGISTS KEEP MARCHING ON
Today's Fresno Bee has yet another letter claiming that the local governments in New Orleans and Louisiana were to blame for Hurricane Katrina's victims not getting help, and goes on to call George Bush a "leader." If staying on vacation when a hurricane is about to wreck devastation, or heading west for social functions is being a great leader, then Mr. Bush qualifies. Several stories show the Bush White House was in total disarray about what to do. Evidence shows that the state and local governments in Louisiana did everything they could do with limited resources.
Does this disaster disprove the right-wing mantra about "states' rights" and local government? We've been told for a long time by right-wingers that the federal government should be weak and that power should reside in the states. Now we're being told that the local governments didn't do their jobs and that the federal government doesn't deserve any blame. Trying to stay in touch with right-wing philosophy is like trying to stand on the deck of a storm-tossed ship. If this had been an attack by a foreign power, would they make the same argument that the federal government shouldn't play the major role in protecting U.S. citizens?
Saturday, September 10, 2005
SEPTEMBER 10, 2005
BUSH SLASHES WAGES IN GULF COAST
He took his time on vacation and FEMA had a snail-like response to Hurricane Katrina, but George W. Bush was quick on the draw when he had the opportunity to reduce wages for construction workers in the Gulf Coast area. Under the provisions of a 1931 law called the Davis-Bacon Act, Bush signed an executive order declaring a national emergency, which allows federal contractors to pay below prevailing wages. Again, I ask why any working class person supports these monsters. This item is at money.cnn.com:
President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges.
THE NRA PROTECTS GUN RIGHTS?
The NRA has made a big thing about gun rights for a long time. You know, we can't even have laws controlling assault weapons that can kill lots of people very quickly. They've consistently supported those tough, gun-loving Republicans. But now guns in New Orleans are being confiscated and the NRA is strangely silent. Why aren't we hearing about the Second Amendment now? This item by Alex Berenson and Timothy Williams is at www.nytimes.com:
Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.
No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.
But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.
BUSH'S CLAIMS ABOUT LEVEES A CROCK
George W. Bush told a bald-faced lie when he said in an interview that "no one could have anticipated a breech in the levees" in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina. Just last year there was a computer simulation by the government of a fictitious "Hurricane Pam" that predicted much of what we saw with Katrina. Is Bush that out of the loop, or just lying to protect himself? This item by RON FOURNIER and TED BRIDIS is at news.yahoo.com:
As Katrina roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or sick in a catastrophic flood that would leave swaths of southeast Louisiana uninhabitable for more than a year.
These planners were not involved in the frantic preparations for Katrina. By coincidence, they were working on a yearlong project to prepare federal and state officials for a Category 3 hurricane striking New Orleans.
Their fictitious storm eerily foreshadowed the havoc wrought by Category 4 Katrina a few days later, raising questions about whether government leaders did everything possible — as early as possible — to protect New Orleans residents from a well-documented threat.
"WAR ON TERROR" NOT SAVING LIVES
September 11, 2001, four years ago, was the first graphic evidence that George W. Bush was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a tragedy that was preventable and would have been prevented with competent leadership. Bush compounded things after 9/11 with his "war on terror." He invaded Afghanistan in a macho and bravado display, killing lots of innocent people, but failed to get the mastermind behind 9/11, Osama bin Laden. Then he compounded that error by launching a war against Iraq, which wasn't even connected to terrorism or 9/11. He pushed through huge tax cuts for his rich buddies even though we're spending billions on the unnecessary "war on terror." This article talks about how the "war on terror" isn't saving lives, but is diverting resources that could be used to save lives. The Hurricane Katrina disaster is an egregious example. This article by Maggie Fox is at www.commondreams.org:
The U.S. "war on terror" is saving fewer lives than just spending the money on disease prevention and research, and has probably caused deaths by taking money away from basic services, an expert said on Thursday.
The accusation is not new, but Dr. Erica Frank of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta said she has calculated the cost, in terms of lives, of the Bush administration's terror policies.
"The most recent effects of these diversions of funding have been seen in the unfolding tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the surrounding area," Frank wrote in a commentary published in the British Medical Journal.
BUSH SLASHES WAGES IN GULF COAST
He took his time on vacation and FEMA had a snail-like response to Hurricane Katrina, but George W. Bush was quick on the draw when he had the opportunity to reduce wages for construction workers in the Gulf Coast area. Under the provisions of a 1931 law called the Davis-Bacon Act, Bush signed an executive order declaring a national emergency, which allows federal contractors to pay below prevailing wages. Again, I ask why any working class person supports these monsters. This item is at money.cnn.com:
President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges.
THE NRA PROTECTS GUN RIGHTS?
The NRA has made a big thing about gun rights for a long time. You know, we can't even have laws controlling assault weapons that can kill lots of people very quickly. They've consistently supported those tough, gun-loving Republicans. But now guns in New Orleans are being confiscated and the NRA is strangely silent. Why aren't we hearing about the Second Amendment now? This item by Alex Berenson and Timothy Williams is at www.nytimes.com:
Waters were receding across this flood-beaten city today as police officers began confiscating weapons, including legally registered firearms, from civilians in preparation for a mass forced evacuation of the residents still living here.
No civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns or other firearms, said P. Edwin Compass III, the superintendent of police. "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," he said.
But that order apparently does not apply to hundreds of security guards hired by businesses and some wealthy individuals to protect property. The guards, employees of private security companies like Blackwater, openly carry M-16's and other assault rifles. Mr. Compass said that he was aware of the private guards, but that the police had no plans to make them give up their weapons.
BUSH'S CLAIMS ABOUT LEVEES A CROCK
George W. Bush told a bald-faced lie when he said in an interview that "no one could have anticipated a breech in the levees" in New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina. Just last year there was a computer simulation by the government of a fictitious "Hurricane Pam" that predicted much of what we saw with Katrina. Is Bush that out of the loop, or just lying to protect himself? This item by RON FOURNIER and TED BRIDIS is at news.yahoo.com:
As Katrina roared into the Gulf of Mexico, emergency planners pored over maps and charts of a hurricane simulation that projected 61,290 dead and 384,257 injured or sick in a catastrophic flood that would leave swaths of southeast Louisiana uninhabitable for more than a year.
These planners were not involved in the frantic preparations for Katrina. By coincidence, they were working on a yearlong project to prepare federal and state officials for a Category 3 hurricane striking New Orleans.
Their fictitious storm eerily foreshadowed the havoc wrought by Category 4 Katrina a few days later, raising questions about whether government leaders did everything possible — as early as possible — to protect New Orleans residents from a well-documented threat.
"WAR ON TERROR" NOT SAVING LIVES
September 11, 2001, four years ago, was the first graphic evidence that George W. Bush was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a tragedy that was preventable and would have been prevented with competent leadership. Bush compounded things after 9/11 with his "war on terror." He invaded Afghanistan in a macho and bravado display, killing lots of innocent people, but failed to get the mastermind behind 9/11, Osama bin Laden. Then he compounded that error by launching a war against Iraq, which wasn't even connected to terrorism or 9/11. He pushed through huge tax cuts for his rich buddies even though we're spending billions on the unnecessary "war on terror." This article talks about how the "war on terror" isn't saving lives, but is diverting resources that could be used to save lives. The Hurricane Katrina disaster is an egregious example. This article by Maggie Fox is at www.commondreams.org:
The U.S. "war on terror" is saving fewer lives than just spending the money on disease prevention and research, and has probably caused deaths by taking money away from basic services, an expert said on Thursday.
The accusation is not new, but Dr. Erica Frank of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta said she has calculated the cost, in terms of lives, of the Bush administration's terror policies.
"The most recent effects of these diversions of funding have been seen in the unfolding tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the surrounding area," Frank wrote in a commentary published in the British Medical Journal.
Friday, September 09, 2005
SEPTEMBER 9, 2005
BUSH HATES THE WORLD'S POOR
George W. Bush recently appointed the thuggish John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador and Bolton has been busily trying to undermine or destroy attempts by the U.N. to address world poverty. It's just an extension of the way the Bush administration treats the poor here at home. New Orleans is a classic example. If you're poor and don't have transportation out of the city to avoid the hurricane, it's your own fault. In this editorial Dan Simpson writes about Bolton, Bush, and poverty at toledoblade.com:
Some of the United Nations’ other member countries, and some Americans, may have been finding it difficult to understand why Mr. Bolton, with the clear backing of the administration, has been trying to take a meat ax to the U.N. program. The anti-poverty program to be presented to an estimated 170 U.N. heads of state this month in New York is clearly needed. It is supported fully by all of America’s allies, including the long-suffering British, led personally by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
It is horrible to say, but the Bush Administration’s slow, inadequate, insensitive response to the tragedy in New Orleans makes what Mr. Bolton is doing in New York very clear: These people don’t care about poor, non-white, sick, helpless people anywhere, not even in the United States.
So how could anyone ever imagine that they would care about poor, non-white, sick, helpless people in the rest of the world?
THE REACTIONARY GOD
I don't have much regard for religion because most religion seems to be based on some unjustified sense of moral superiority. A good deal of it is hypocritical. Supposed "Christians" pay no attention to admonitions to "love your neighbor as yourself" or "blessed are the poor" because they're too busy raking in money or making war. Religion is a nice prop to support whatever punitive action they want to take. This is an interesting column by Tim Wise is at www.blackcommentator.com:
I watched you as you held hands with your tablemates at the restaurant where we both ate this afternoon. I listened as you prayed, and thanked God for the food you were about to eat, and for your own safety, several hundred miles away from the unfolding catastrophe in New Orleans.
You blessed your chimichanga in the name of Jesus Christ, and then proceeded to spend the better part of your meal - and mine, since I was too near your table to avoid hearing every word - morally scolding the people of that devastated city, heaping scorn on them for not heeding the warnings to leave before disaster struck. Then you attacked them - all of them, without distinction it seemed - for the behavior of a relative handful: those who have looted items like guns, or big screen TVs.
THE IMAGE ON TV
John Fogerty once recorded a song about reality and the difference between reality and what you see on TV. Think of September 11 and the days following. The brave, in-charge Rudy Giuliani was the hero of the day. But according to Jimmy Breslin, who was there during those awful days, Giuliani did nothing but pop up on TV. Mr. Breslin talks about Bush, Giuliani, and New Orleans in this column linked at www.newsday.com:
This racism, which is at the bottom of everything in America, makes it only natural for Bush and his people to talk about turning to Rudolph Giuliani to save New Orleans as he supposedly saved New York after the World Trade Center attack.
In New York, Giuliani did nothing but go on television. That's all he did and all he ever can do. Beautiful! There are television cameras in New Orleans. And just as Bush, Giuliani doesn't want many blacks near him. If more than two blacks entered City Hall, he called for snipers. Giuliani doesn't even have a show black like Condoleezza Rice, who bought shoes in Ferragamo in Manhattan this week.
Bush got found out this week and he needs his own rescue. Assure Giuliani that he could run for president if he does the job. As New York found, he can do nothing good about anything. That doesn't matter. Without somebody in front, Bush stands there, uncovered, without an American flag draped around him, as the most incompetent president we've ever had.
THE CON WEB: NOTHING IS BUSH'S FAULT
In today's Fresno Bee there was yet another Bush apologist, following in proper lockstep and blaming the mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana for the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. This guy even managed to claim that environmentalists had opposed shoring up the levees around New Orleans (without any attribution, of course). As Kurt Vonnegut put it so well, "So it goes." The whole strategy of right-wingers is to blame someone, anyone, but Bush. Bill Clinton is still the favorite target. In this column Terry Krepel talks about the spin at NewsMax and other vile right-wing places. The column is at conwebwatch.tripod.com:
In the lead, to no one's surprise, is NewsMax, led by editor Christopher Ruddy himself. A Sept. 4 column by Ruddy singled out Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard for attack, smearing him with an inaccurate quote as a money-hungry incompetent. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Ruddy wrote, Broussard "ended his performance as he collapsed in tears with a demand: 'For God's sake, just shut up and send us the money!'"
BUSH HATES THE WORLD'S POOR
George W. Bush recently appointed the thuggish John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador and Bolton has been busily trying to undermine or destroy attempts by the U.N. to address world poverty. It's just an extension of the way the Bush administration treats the poor here at home. New Orleans is a classic example. If you're poor and don't have transportation out of the city to avoid the hurricane, it's your own fault. In this editorial Dan Simpson writes about Bolton, Bush, and poverty at toledoblade.com:
Some of the United Nations’ other member countries, and some Americans, may have been finding it difficult to understand why Mr. Bolton, with the clear backing of the administration, has been trying to take a meat ax to the U.N. program. The anti-poverty program to be presented to an estimated 170 U.N. heads of state this month in New York is clearly needed. It is supported fully by all of America’s allies, including the long-suffering British, led personally by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
It is horrible to say, but the Bush Administration’s slow, inadequate, insensitive response to the tragedy in New Orleans makes what Mr. Bolton is doing in New York very clear: These people don’t care about poor, non-white, sick, helpless people anywhere, not even in the United States.
So how could anyone ever imagine that they would care about poor, non-white, sick, helpless people in the rest of the world?
THE REACTIONARY GOD
I don't have much regard for religion because most religion seems to be based on some unjustified sense of moral superiority. A good deal of it is hypocritical. Supposed "Christians" pay no attention to admonitions to "love your neighbor as yourself" or "blessed are the poor" because they're too busy raking in money or making war. Religion is a nice prop to support whatever punitive action they want to take. This is an interesting column by Tim Wise is at www.blackcommentator.com:
I watched you as you held hands with your tablemates at the restaurant where we both ate this afternoon. I listened as you prayed, and thanked God for the food you were about to eat, and for your own safety, several hundred miles away from the unfolding catastrophe in New Orleans.
You blessed your chimichanga in the name of Jesus Christ, and then proceeded to spend the better part of your meal - and mine, since I was too near your table to avoid hearing every word - morally scolding the people of that devastated city, heaping scorn on them for not heeding the warnings to leave before disaster struck. Then you attacked them - all of them, without distinction it seemed - for the behavior of a relative handful: those who have looted items like guns, or big screen TVs.
THE IMAGE ON TV
John Fogerty once recorded a song about reality and the difference between reality and what you see on TV. Think of September 11 and the days following. The brave, in-charge Rudy Giuliani was the hero of the day. But according to Jimmy Breslin, who was there during those awful days, Giuliani did nothing but pop up on TV. Mr. Breslin talks about Bush, Giuliani, and New Orleans in this column linked at www.newsday.com:
This racism, which is at the bottom of everything in America, makes it only natural for Bush and his people to talk about turning to Rudolph Giuliani to save New Orleans as he supposedly saved New York after the World Trade Center attack.
In New York, Giuliani did nothing but go on television. That's all he did and all he ever can do. Beautiful! There are television cameras in New Orleans. And just as Bush, Giuliani doesn't want many blacks near him. If more than two blacks entered City Hall, he called for snipers. Giuliani doesn't even have a show black like Condoleezza Rice, who bought shoes in Ferragamo in Manhattan this week.
Bush got found out this week and he needs his own rescue. Assure Giuliani that he could run for president if he does the job. As New York found, he can do nothing good about anything. That doesn't matter. Without somebody in front, Bush stands there, uncovered, without an American flag draped around him, as the most incompetent president we've ever had.
THE CON WEB: NOTHING IS BUSH'S FAULT
In today's Fresno Bee there was yet another Bush apologist, following in proper lockstep and blaming the mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana for the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. This guy even managed to claim that environmentalists had opposed shoring up the levees around New Orleans (without any attribution, of course). As Kurt Vonnegut put it so well, "So it goes." The whole strategy of right-wingers is to blame someone, anyone, but Bush. Bill Clinton is still the favorite target. In this column Terry Krepel talks about the spin at NewsMax and other vile right-wing places. The column is at conwebwatch.tripod.com:
In the lead, to no one's surprise, is NewsMax, led by editor Christopher Ruddy himself. A Sept. 4 column by Ruddy singled out Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard for attack, smearing him with an inaccurate quote as a money-hungry incompetent. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Ruddy wrote, Broussard "ended his performance as he collapsed in tears with a demand: 'For God's sake, just shut up and send us the money!'"
Thursday, September 08, 2005
SEPTEMBER 8, 2005
BUSH FLEES
There is a part of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail that features minstrels taunting one of the knights, Sir Robin. Sir Robin isn't known for his bravery and the minstrels put his cowardice to song, "The brave Sir Robin turned tail and fled." That sounds a lot like George W. Bush. He's the swaggering, macho, tough-talking dude as long as he can hide behind someone else. But when it comes time to demonstrate real personal courage Mr. Bush is nowhere to be found. John Aravosis writes about the pattern of Mr. Bush being missing in action in this column at www.radarmagazine.com:
During times of national crisis the White House’s motto seems to be: When the going gets tough, the president hides. On September 11, 2001, the president was missing in action for most of the day after the planes struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon, prompting ABC News’s Peter Jennings to inquire where the hell he was: “I don’t mean to say this in melodramatic terms,” Jennings told his audience at 12:30 p.m. eastern time. “Where is the president of the United States? The president of the United States led— I know we don’t know where he is. But pretty soon the country needs to know where he is. And it seems to, I think, me, anyway—I apologize—the president needs to talk to us. He left Florida a couple of hours ago. Our people in Washington are clearly listening and checking this as best they can. But one of the important factors at the moment is that the political leadership in the country be present.”
KATRINA TIMELINE
The Bush administration has demonstrated, once again, that it's more interested in playing politics than in taking responsibility While White House spokesman Scott McClellan lies about the "blame game" the administration is busily trying to shift blame for the Hurricane Katrina disaster to local and state government. But, unfortunately for the administration, there is demonstrable timeline of what happened and when. The timeline of Hurricane Katrina and the actions taken by government are detailed at www.thinkprogress.org:
Friday, August 26
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: [Office of the Governor]
GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]
Saturday, August 27
5AM — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE [CNN]
GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” [Office of the Governor]
FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” [White House]
DON'T WANT THE TRUTH OUT? CENSOR THE MEDIA
The Bush administration has prevented the media from taking pictures of coffins returning from Iraq lest that put a pall on their unnecessary war. Now the administration is apparently using the same tactic to prevent photos of the dead in New Orleans. If the administration is so blameless in this disaster, what are they trying to hide? This item is at www.washingtonmonthly.com:
GUN SHY?....Can you spot the common thread in these reports?
*
Reuters: "The U.S. agency leading Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts said Tuesday that it does not want the news media to photograph the dead as they are recovered."
*
Bob Brigham: "We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they’re TV trucks around."
*
Salt Lake Tribune: "'[FEMA has] people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified,' said a Texas firefighter. 'We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet.' The firefighter, who has encouraged his superiors back home not to send any more volunteers for now, declined to give his name because FEMA has warned them not to talk to reporters."
*
Brian Williams, NBC News: "While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight."
BIG GOVERNMENT IS FINE FOR SOME
The right-wing mantra for years was about the horror of "big government." That was the government that provided a safety net if you lost your job or needed income to live on when you could no longer work. That's the government that has rules and regulations to protect you when you're on the job That's the government that has rules about over the counter drugs, or the purity of food and water, or that people who practice medicine and law should be licensed. In short, "big government" is anything that interferes with making a profit, no matter how it's made. But George W. Bush and company don't mind "big government" when it enriches them or them cronies. This item by Margaret Carlson is at www.commondreams.org:
One reason for the dismal federal performance is Bush's disdain for government. To him, it's bloated and for chumps who can't provide for themselves — with some exceptions. Bush signed spending bills filled with pork, finding $454 million for his Alaskan Republicans to build two bridges to nowhere in Alaska but not for the levees everyone but him knew were cracking. His administration intervenes but only when there are a lot of cameras and potential political gain, such as in the Terri Schiavo case, when Bush rushed back from his ranch in March to do so. And saying "it's your money, not the government's," he cut taxes for the wealthy, which means less money for boring projects like disaster relief.
If Bush cared about governing, he would have never appointed Michael Brown, the failed director of a trade association that ran horse shows, to run FEMA, which the president folded into the Homeland Security Department. That agency has little to show for itself other than an ineffective color chart and long lines at the airport as arthritic old ladies remove their shoes.
BUSH FLEES
There is a part of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail that features minstrels taunting one of the knights, Sir Robin. Sir Robin isn't known for his bravery and the minstrels put his cowardice to song, "The brave Sir Robin turned tail and fled." That sounds a lot like George W. Bush. He's the swaggering, macho, tough-talking dude as long as he can hide behind someone else. But when it comes time to demonstrate real personal courage Mr. Bush is nowhere to be found. John Aravosis writes about the pattern of Mr. Bush being missing in action in this column at www.radarmagazine.com:
During times of national crisis the White House’s motto seems to be: When the going gets tough, the president hides. On September 11, 2001, the president was missing in action for most of the day after the planes struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon, prompting ABC News’s Peter Jennings to inquire where the hell he was: “I don’t mean to say this in melodramatic terms,” Jennings told his audience at 12:30 p.m. eastern time. “Where is the president of the United States? The president of the United States led— I know we don’t know where he is. But pretty soon the country needs to know where he is. And it seems to, I think, me, anyway—I apologize—the president needs to talk to us. He left Florida a couple of hours ago. Our people in Washington are clearly listening and checking this as best they can. But one of the important factors at the moment is that the political leadership in the country be present.”
KATRINA TIMELINE
The Bush administration has demonstrated, once again, that it's more interested in playing politics than in taking responsibility While White House spokesman Scott McClellan lies about the "blame game" the administration is busily trying to shift blame for the Hurricane Katrina disaster to local and state government. But, unfortunately for the administration, there is demonstrable timeline of what happened and when. The timeline of Hurricane Katrina and the actions taken by government are detailed at www.thinkprogress.org:
Friday, August 26
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: [Office of the Governor]
GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a 9/1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander, Joint Task Force Katrina, said that the Gulf States began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, 8/26. [DOD]
Saturday, August 27
5AM — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE [CNN]
GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” [Office of the Governor]
FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” [White House]
DON'T WANT THE TRUTH OUT? CENSOR THE MEDIA
The Bush administration has prevented the media from taking pictures of coffins returning from Iraq lest that put a pall on their unnecessary war. Now the administration is apparently using the same tactic to prevent photos of the dead in New Orleans. If the administration is so blameless in this disaster, what are they trying to hide? This item is at www.washingtonmonthly.com:
GUN SHY?....Can you spot the common thread in these reports?
*
Reuters: "The U.S. agency leading Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts said Tuesday that it does not want the news media to photograph the dead as they are recovered."
*
Bob Brigham: "We are in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans. At the National Guard checkpoint, they are under orders to turn away all media. All of the reporters are turning they’re TV trucks around."
*
Salt Lake Tribune: "'[FEMA has] people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified,' said a Texas firefighter. 'We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet.' The firefighter, who has encouraged his superiors back home not to send any more volunteers for now, declined to give his name because FEMA has warned them not to talk to reporters."
*
Brian Williams, NBC News: "While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won't be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight."
BIG GOVERNMENT IS FINE FOR SOME
The right-wing mantra for years was about the horror of "big government." That was the government that provided a safety net if you lost your job or needed income to live on when you could no longer work. That's the government that has rules and regulations to protect you when you're on the job That's the government that has rules about over the counter drugs, or the purity of food and water, or that people who practice medicine and law should be licensed. In short, "big government" is anything that interferes with making a profit, no matter how it's made. But George W. Bush and company don't mind "big government" when it enriches them or them cronies. This item by Margaret Carlson is at www.commondreams.org:
One reason for the dismal federal performance is Bush's disdain for government. To him, it's bloated and for chumps who can't provide for themselves — with some exceptions. Bush signed spending bills filled with pork, finding $454 million for his Alaskan Republicans to build two bridges to nowhere in Alaska but not for the levees everyone but him knew were cracking. His administration intervenes but only when there are a lot of cameras and potential political gain, such as in the Terri Schiavo case, when Bush rushed back from his ranch in March to do so. And saying "it's your money, not the government's," he cut taxes for the wealthy, which means less money for boring projects like disaster relief.
If Bush cared about governing, he would have never appointed Michael Brown, the failed director of a trade association that ran horse shows, to run FEMA, which the president folded into the Homeland Security Department. That agency has little to show for itself other than an ineffective color chart and long lines at the airport as arthritic old ladies remove their shoes.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
SEPTEMBER 7, 2005
WHO'S TO BLAME?
Today the guy I call Party Hack revisited The Fresno Bee letters page to proclaim that we nasty liberals have a "seething hatred" of George W. Bush and we're casting aspersions on His Highness before all the facts are in. In the meantime, people in the Bush administration are trying to shift blame for the Hurricane Katrina disaster to state and local officials in Louisiana. I would suggest if we have a "seething hatred" for Bush it's with good reason. We've seen the guy start an unnecessary war, murder thousands of innocent people, run the economy into a ditch, shred civil liberties here at home, kowtow to the wackos on the Religious Right, and steal two elections. The right hated Bill Clinton for far less. Gene Lyons writes about the chronology that led up to the poor in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast being left behind. This column is at www.nwanews.com:
By Monday, Sept. 5, the usual anonymous "senior Bush official" in the White House confided to The Washington Post that the almost unimaginable failures of the Bush administration to act in the wake of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans were actually the fault of local Democrats.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the newspaper reported, had failed to declare a state of emergency empowering the federal government to take over. Newsweek obligingly added that Blanco "seemed uncertain and sluggish, hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help."
EVEN AEI SAYS BENEFITS NOT TRICKLING DOWN
The American Enterprise Institute is a right-wing think tank, one of those institutions that give Republicans their talking points and their agenda to destroy fairness and justice in this country. But even a spokesman for the American Enterprise Institute had to leave propaganda behind and admit that lots of people are being left behind in the Bush economy. This item comes from a column by E. J. Dionne at www.workingforchange.com:
"It looks like the gains from the recovery haven't really filtered down," Phillip L. Swagel of the American Enterprise Institute told The New York Times. "The gains have gone to owners of capital and not to workers."
I want to create the First Annual Diogenes Award for Honesty and give it to Swagel. He is no Marxist insisting that the interests of labor and capital are antithetical. He works at one of the country's most solidly free market and conservative policy shops. He is simply reporting reality as it is.
THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
When you think of New Orleans maybe it's fitting to think of vampires and witches and voodoo. It reminds me of The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the gang went to the home of the great and powerful Oz and were told to ignore the man behind the curtain, the real Oz. The rest of the world has seen our man behind the curtain, George W. Bush, as the lying and bumbling killer that he is for some time. Now the United States is getting a good look at the Emperor Bush. Maureen Dowd writes about Bush and New Orleans in this column at www.nytimes.com:
New Orleans's literary lore and tourist lure was its fascination with the dead and undead, its lavish annual Halloween party, its famous above-ground cemeteries, its love of vampires and voodoo and zombies. But now that the city is decimated, reeking with unnecessary death and destruction, the restless spirits of New Orleans will haunt the White House.
The administration's foreign policy is entirely constructed around American self-love - the idea that the U.S. is superior, that we are the model everyone looks up to, that everyone in the world wants what we have.
But when people around the world look at Iraq, they don't see freedom. They see chaos and sectarian hatred. And when they look at New Orleans, they see glaring incompetence and racial injustice, where the rich white people were saved and the poor black people were left to die hideous deaths. They see some conservatives blaming the poor for not saving themselves. So much for W.'s "culture of life."
IT IS TIME FOR FINGER POINTING
The White House's newest talking point is that it's not the time for finger pointing. You know, we're problem solvers and we're too busy saving lives, yada, yada. Assigning responsibility for the Hurricane Katrina disaster and saving lives are not mutually exclusive, as Arianna Huffington points out in this post. What we don't need is another way-after-the-fact commission to "look into" what went wrong. This administration shouldn't get the time to doctor evidence and intimidate people who will tell us what really happened. This post by Arianna Huffington is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
Look, if we've learned anything from watching shows like CSI, Law & Order, and their endless progeny, it's that you can't let a crime scene grow cold. You've got to start collecting and analyzing the evidence while the DNA is still fresh and let David Caruso or Vincent D'Onofrio start sweating the perps while the passions are still running high.
And make no mistake, what we saw go down -- and not go down -- in New Orleans was definitely a crime... a crime that is in many ways still in progress. Sixty percent of the city remains underwater; up to 160,000 homes in the state of Louisiana have been submerged or destroyed; 60 to 90 million tons of solid waste need to be cleaned up; experts warn that it make take "years" to fully restore clean drinking water; and an outbreak of vibrio vulnificus -- a cholera-like bacterial disease -- has been reported among some Katrina evacuees.
This is clearly going to be a very long recovery process. And the sooner we've identified those responsible for the Katrina tragedy, the sooner we can make sure they're not around to screw up the recovery.
WHO'S TO BLAME?
Today the guy I call Party Hack revisited The Fresno Bee letters page to proclaim that we nasty liberals have a "seething hatred" of George W. Bush and we're casting aspersions on His Highness before all the facts are in. In the meantime, people in the Bush administration are trying to shift blame for the Hurricane Katrina disaster to state and local officials in Louisiana. I would suggest if we have a "seething hatred" for Bush it's with good reason. We've seen the guy start an unnecessary war, murder thousands of innocent people, run the economy into a ditch, shred civil liberties here at home, kowtow to the wackos on the Religious Right, and steal two elections. The right hated Bill Clinton for far less. Gene Lyons writes about the chronology that led up to the poor in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast being left behind. This column is at www.nwanews.com:
By Monday, Sept. 5, the usual anonymous "senior Bush official" in the White House confided to The Washington Post that the almost unimaginable failures of the Bush administration to act in the wake of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans were actually the fault of local Democrats.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the newspaper reported, had failed to declare a state of emergency empowering the federal government to take over. Newsweek obligingly added that Blanco "seemed uncertain and sluggish, hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help."
EVEN AEI SAYS BENEFITS NOT TRICKLING DOWN
The American Enterprise Institute is a right-wing think tank, one of those institutions that give Republicans their talking points and their agenda to destroy fairness and justice in this country. But even a spokesman for the American Enterprise Institute had to leave propaganda behind and admit that lots of people are being left behind in the Bush economy. This item comes from a column by E. J. Dionne at www.workingforchange.com:
"It looks like the gains from the recovery haven't really filtered down," Phillip L. Swagel of the American Enterprise Institute told The New York Times. "The gains have gone to owners of capital and not to workers."
I want to create the First Annual Diogenes Award for Honesty and give it to Swagel. He is no Marxist insisting that the interests of labor and capital are antithetical. He works at one of the country's most solidly free market and conservative policy shops. He is simply reporting reality as it is.
THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
When you think of New Orleans maybe it's fitting to think of vampires and witches and voodoo. It reminds me of The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and the gang went to the home of the great and powerful Oz and were told to ignore the man behind the curtain, the real Oz. The rest of the world has seen our man behind the curtain, George W. Bush, as the lying and bumbling killer that he is for some time. Now the United States is getting a good look at the Emperor Bush. Maureen Dowd writes about Bush and New Orleans in this column at www.nytimes.com:
New Orleans's literary lore and tourist lure was its fascination with the dead and undead, its lavish annual Halloween party, its famous above-ground cemeteries, its love of vampires and voodoo and zombies. But now that the city is decimated, reeking with unnecessary death and destruction, the restless spirits of New Orleans will haunt the White House.
The administration's foreign policy is entirely constructed around American self-love - the idea that the U.S. is superior, that we are the model everyone looks up to, that everyone in the world wants what we have.
But when people around the world look at Iraq, they don't see freedom. They see chaos and sectarian hatred. And when they look at New Orleans, they see glaring incompetence and racial injustice, where the rich white people were saved and the poor black people were left to die hideous deaths. They see some conservatives blaming the poor for not saving themselves. So much for W.'s "culture of life."
IT IS TIME FOR FINGER POINTING
The White House's newest talking point is that it's not the time for finger pointing. You know, we're problem solvers and we're too busy saving lives, yada, yada. Assigning responsibility for the Hurricane Katrina disaster and saving lives are not mutually exclusive, as Arianna Huffington points out in this post. What we don't need is another way-after-the-fact commission to "look into" what went wrong. This administration shouldn't get the time to doctor evidence and intimidate people who will tell us what really happened. This post by Arianna Huffington is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
Look, if we've learned anything from watching shows like CSI, Law & Order, and their endless progeny, it's that you can't let a crime scene grow cold. You've got to start collecting and analyzing the evidence while the DNA is still fresh and let David Caruso or Vincent D'Onofrio start sweating the perps while the passions are still running high.
And make no mistake, what we saw go down -- and not go down -- in New Orleans was definitely a crime... a crime that is in many ways still in progress. Sixty percent of the city remains underwater; up to 160,000 homes in the state of Louisiana have been submerged or destroyed; 60 to 90 million tons of solid waste need to be cleaned up; experts warn that it make take "years" to fully restore clean drinking water; and an outbreak of vibrio vulnificus -- a cholera-like bacterial disease -- has been reported among some Katrina evacuees.
This is clearly going to be a very long recovery process. And the sooner we've identified those responsible for the Katrina tragedy, the sooner we can make sure they're not around to screw up the recovery.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
SEPTEMBER 6, 2005
REHNQUIST WAS RACIST, SET BACK LIBERTIES
We'll hear the propaganda about what a great jurist the late William Rehnquist was, but the truth is he was a racist and a segregationist who believed in the authoritarian powers of government. In this column Alan Dershowitz looks at the real William Rehnquist. The post is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
So here’s the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won’t hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to power speaks volumes about the current state of American values.
MA BUSH SHOOTS OFF MOUTH AGAIN
A while back Barbara Bush made an infamous remark about the dead from the first Gulf War. She said she couldn't bother her "beautiful mind" about bodies and body bags. Now the exemplar of compassion has said something outrageous about the hurricane victims who are in Texas. I remember in Kitty Kelley's book about the Bush family someone compared Ma Bush to Ma Barker. You have to think that's an insult to Ma. Barker. This item comes from Kate Sheehy in an article linked at www.commondreams.org:
First Mom Barbara Bush yesterday walked past rows of poor and ailing refugees at the Houston Astrodome, then said, "So many of the people here . . . were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.
"What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," gushed the white-haired mother of President Bush.
"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're going to move to Houston!' "
The former first lady's comments were part of a broadcast on National Public Radio. The spokesman for her and her husband, Tom Frechette, said he did not have an immediate comment on the interview.
RIGHT-WING VIEW OF GOVERNMENT LEADS TO DISASTER
Right-wingers love to rant about the horrors of "big government" and how government just isn't as efficient as the free market. So it's really no surprise that when conservatives run government their rants become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If government actually functioned, then their whole philosophy collapses. It's a philosophy that creates misery and death, as is evidenced in the horrors of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. In this article Thom Hartmann talks about conservatism and dysfunctional government. The article is linked at www.commondreams.org:
But the Reagan/Bush ideologues don't "believe" in government, in anything other than a military and police capacity. Government should punish, they agree, but it should never nurture, protect, or defend individuals. Nurturing and protecting, they suggest, is the more appropriate role of religious institutions, private charities, families, and - perhaps most important - corporations.
Let the corporations handle your old-age pension. Let the corporations decide how much protection we and our environment need from their toxics. Let the corporations decide what we're paid. Let the corporations decide what doctor we can see, when, and for what purpose.
This is the exact opposite of the vision for which the Founders of this nation fought and died. When Thomas Jefferson changed John Locke's "Life, liberty, and private property" to "Live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," it was the first time in the history of the world that a newly founded nation had written the word "happiness" into its founding document. The phrase "promote the general welfare" - another revolutionary concept - first appeared in the preamble to our Constitution in 1787.
REHNQUIST WAS RACIST, SET BACK LIBERTIES
We'll hear the propaganda about what a great jurist the late William Rehnquist was, but the truth is he was a racist and a segregationist who believed in the authoritarian powers of government. In this column Alan Dershowitz looks at the real William Rehnquist. The post is at www.huffingtonpost.com:
So here’s the truth about Chief Justice Rehnquist you won’t hear on Fox News or from politicians. Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to power speaks volumes about the current state of American values.
MA BUSH SHOOTS OFF MOUTH AGAIN
A while back Barbara Bush made an infamous remark about the dead from the first Gulf War. She said she couldn't bother her "beautiful mind" about bodies and body bags. Now the exemplar of compassion has said something outrageous about the hurricane victims who are in Texas. I remember in Kitty Kelley's book about the Bush family someone compared Ma Bush to Ma Barker. You have to think that's an insult to Ma. Barker. This item comes from Kate Sheehy in an article linked at www.commondreams.org:
First Mom Barbara Bush yesterday walked past rows of poor and ailing refugees at the Houston Astrodome, then said, "So many of the people here . . . were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.
"What I'm hearing is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," gushed the white-haired mother of President Bush.
"Almost everyone I've talked to says, 'We're going to move to Houston!' "
The former first lady's comments were part of a broadcast on National Public Radio. The spokesman for her and her husband, Tom Frechette, said he did not have an immediate comment on the interview.
RIGHT-WING VIEW OF GOVERNMENT LEADS TO DISASTER
Right-wingers love to rant about the horrors of "big government" and how government just isn't as efficient as the free market. So it's really no surprise that when conservatives run government their rants become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If government actually functioned, then their whole philosophy collapses. It's a philosophy that creates misery and death, as is evidenced in the horrors of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. In this article Thom Hartmann talks about conservatism and dysfunctional government. The article is linked at www.commondreams.org:
But the Reagan/Bush ideologues don't "believe" in government, in anything other than a military and police capacity. Government should punish, they agree, but it should never nurture, protect, or defend individuals. Nurturing and protecting, they suggest, is the more appropriate role of religious institutions, private charities, families, and - perhaps most important - corporations.
Let the corporations handle your old-age pension. Let the corporations decide how much protection we and our environment need from their toxics. Let the corporations decide what we're paid. Let the corporations decide what doctor we can see, when, and for what purpose.
This is the exact opposite of the vision for which the Founders of this nation fought and died. When Thomas Jefferson changed John Locke's "Life, liberty, and private property" to "Live, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," it was the first time in the history of the world that a newly founded nation had written the word "happiness" into its founding document. The phrase "promote the general welfare" - another revolutionary concept - first appeared in the preamble to our Constitution in 1787.
Monday, September 05, 2005
SEPTEMBER 5, 2005
U.S. ECONOMICS 101
If you're poor in the United States, the cretins on the right say it's your own fault. Never mind that the whole system is structured to keep wages down. The federal minimum wage hasn't been raised from its paltry $5.15 an hour in eight years. The Bush tax cuts benefited mostly the very wealthy. I wonder why anyone who makes less than $50,000 a year pays any income tax in the United States. Unions have largely disappeared and more and more jobs gets outsourced to other countries so big corporations can reap big profits and pay their employees nothing. This article by Wil Haygood is at www.washingtonpost.com:
To those who wonder why so many stayed behind when push came to water's mighty shove here, those who were trapped have a simple explanation: Their nickels and dimes and dollar bills simply didn't add up to stage a quick evacuation mission.
"Me and my wife, we were living paycheck to paycheck, like most everybody else in New Orleans," Eric Dunbar, 54, said Saturday.
BUSH SIMPLY ISN'T COMPETENT
To get a job in the civil service system you have to prove your competency. To be president of the United States you just need to raise lots of money and run ads on TV. There's no real test for the job. You have to be 35 years old, according to the Constitution, and you have to be born a U.S. citizen. In the age of mass media and soundbites and a compliant media that focuses more on celebrity than on competency we have allowed a grossly incompetent man to become the most powerful person in the world. We can see the disastrous results: the attack on September 11, the gross mismanagement of the economy, the unnecessary and bloody war in Iraq, and now the criminal neglect of people along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Bob Herbert writes about the Incompetent In Chief in this column at www.nytimes.com:
Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration.
And it is this incompetence and indifference to suffering (yes, the carnage continues to mount in Iraq) that makes it so hard to be optimistic about the prospects for the United States over the next few years. At a time when effective, innovative leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of war and peace, terrorism and domestic security, the economic imperatives of globalization and the rising competition for oil, the United States is being led by a man who seems oblivious to the reality of his awesome responsibilities.
Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.
THE REALITY ABOUT SUCCESS IN THE U.S.
I've talked before about the Horatio Alger myth that prevails in the United States. Bill Clinton used to talk about people who worked hard and played by the rules. That's supposedly your way to success here. Right-wingers buy into the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches myth, either through cynicism or through ignorance. Those in the power elite know it's nonsense. The best way to success in the United States is to be born rich, pure and simple. Would George W. Bush be in any sense successful if he hadn't inherited wealth? Is Paris Hilton an example of a superior work ethic? This article talks about the Horatio Alger myth being breached just as surely as the levees in New Orleans by what we're witnessing now. This article by Gary Younge is at www.guardian.co.uk:
In that sense, Katrina has been a disaster for the poor for the same reason that President Bush's social security proposals and economic policies have been. It was the result of small government - an inadequate, privatised response to a massive public problem. And if there was ever any bewilderment about why African-Americans reject such an agenda so comprehensively at every election, then this was why.
"No one would have checked on a lot of the black people in these parishes while the sun shined," Mayor Milton Tutwiler of Winstonville, Mississippi, told the New York Times. "So am I surprised that no one has come to help us now? No."
The fact that the vast majority of those who remained in town were black was not an accident. Katrina did not go out of its way to affect black people. It destroyed almost everything in its path. But the poor were disproportionately affected because they were least able to escape its path and to endure its wrath. They are more likely to have bad housing and less likely to have cars. Many had to work until the last moment and few have the money to pay for a hotel out of town.
U.S. ECONOMICS 101
If you're poor in the United States, the cretins on the right say it's your own fault. Never mind that the whole system is structured to keep wages down. The federal minimum wage hasn't been raised from its paltry $5.15 an hour in eight years. The Bush tax cuts benefited mostly the very wealthy. I wonder why anyone who makes less than $50,000 a year pays any income tax in the United States. Unions have largely disappeared and more and more jobs gets outsourced to other countries so big corporations can reap big profits and pay their employees nothing. This article by Wil Haygood is at www.washingtonpost.com:
To those who wonder why so many stayed behind when push came to water's mighty shove here, those who were trapped have a simple explanation: Their nickels and dimes and dollar bills simply didn't add up to stage a quick evacuation mission.
"Me and my wife, we were living paycheck to paycheck, like most everybody else in New Orleans," Eric Dunbar, 54, said Saturday.
BUSH SIMPLY ISN'T COMPETENT
To get a job in the civil service system you have to prove your competency. To be president of the United States you just need to raise lots of money and run ads on TV. There's no real test for the job. You have to be 35 years old, according to the Constitution, and you have to be born a U.S. citizen. In the age of mass media and soundbites and a compliant media that focuses more on celebrity than on competency we have allowed a grossly incompetent man to become the most powerful person in the world. We can see the disastrous results: the attack on September 11, the gross mismanagement of the economy, the unnecessary and bloody war in Iraq, and now the criminal neglect of people along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Bob Herbert writes about the Incompetent In Chief in this column at www.nytimes.com:
Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration.
And it is this incompetence and indifference to suffering (yes, the carnage continues to mount in Iraq) that makes it so hard to be optimistic about the prospects for the United States over the next few years. At a time when effective, innovative leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of war and peace, terrorism and domestic security, the economic imperatives of globalization and the rising competition for oil, the United States is being led by a man who seems oblivious to the reality of his awesome responsibilities.
Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.
THE REALITY ABOUT SUCCESS IN THE U.S.
I've talked before about the Horatio Alger myth that prevails in the United States. Bill Clinton used to talk about people who worked hard and played by the rules. That's supposedly your way to success here. Right-wingers buy into the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches myth, either through cynicism or through ignorance. Those in the power elite know it's nonsense. The best way to success in the United States is to be born rich, pure and simple. Would George W. Bush be in any sense successful if he hadn't inherited wealth? Is Paris Hilton an example of a superior work ethic? This article talks about the Horatio Alger myth being breached just as surely as the levees in New Orleans by what we're witnessing now. This article by Gary Younge is at www.guardian.co.uk:
In that sense, Katrina has been a disaster for the poor for the same reason that President Bush's social security proposals and economic policies have been. It was the result of small government - an inadequate, privatised response to a massive public problem. And if there was ever any bewilderment about why African-Americans reject such an agenda so comprehensively at every election, then this was why.
"No one would have checked on a lot of the black people in these parishes while the sun shined," Mayor Milton Tutwiler of Winstonville, Mississippi, told the New York Times. "So am I surprised that no one has come to help us now? No."
The fact that the vast majority of those who remained in town were black was not an accident. Katrina did not go out of its way to affect black people. It destroyed almost everything in its path. But the poor were disproportionately affected because they were least able to escape its path and to endure its wrath. They are more likely to have bad housing and less likely to have cars. Many had to work until the last moment and few have the money to pay for a hotel out of town.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
SEPTEMBER 4, 2005
REHNQUIST'S LOUSY RECORD
In the next few days we'll probably get a number of flowery tributes to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. But the fact is the guy had a lousy record on protecting the rights of most of us. While I do not celebrate his death, I don't particularly mourn it either. This commentary from David Corn is at www.davidcorn.com:
I confess: I have a hard time saying William Rehnquist, rest in peace. Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist, who died on Saturday night, spent much of his adult life trying to restrict the rights of American citizens and to empower further the already-powerful. He rose to prominence as a right-wing attorney who decried the Earl Warren court for being a hotbed of judicial activism (left-wing judicial activism, as he saw it). He then became, as a Supreme Court justice, a judicial activist of the right-wing sort, overturning laws made by Congress (that protected women against domestic violence, banned guns near school property, and prohibited discrimination against disabled workers) and steering the justices into Florida's vote-counting mess in 2000 (an act that only coincidentally--right?--led to George W. Bush's presidency). In that case--Bush v. Gore--Rehnquist, for some reason or another, placed aside his much heralded belief in state sovereignty, which led him on other occasions to grouse about limits on the abilities of states to execute criminals. When it came to states frying prisoners, he advocated a hands-off approach. In vote-counting, he was all for intervention.
BUSH'S TOTAL DISCONNECT
I can't decide if George W. Bush is just a moron, oblivious to the suffering he has caused, or if he is a calculating monster who knows full well the consequences of his policies and doesn't care. In either case, the American people need to demand accountability, and to remove Republicans from all positions of power. As long as right-wingers are in power, more and more accrues to the very few, no matter the cost in human lives. This commentary by Dennis Roddy is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Bush has shown, first in a distant land, where the corpses are foreign, and from which dead Americans can be smuggled home with photographers banned, and now, inside his own borders, that he has no grasp of how policy and outcome are interconnected. Consider his words as New Orleans swamped and its poorest and least stable population sweltered, starved and then broke into the equivalent of a prison uprising:
"We view this storm as a temporary disruption that is being addressed by the government and by the private sector." On Thursday he denounced looting and insurance fraud. Think about it: Ordinary people were so locked in anarchy and helplessness they stole food as the more venal among them stole guns and shot at aid helicopters. The president denounced insurance fraud. He might as well have weighed in on poaching while he was at it.
Invited to criticize oil companies for price gouging, he instead suggested they donate to hurricane relief. Four years earlier, as the government rushed aid, medicine, rescuers and insurance to the high-rent district of New York, Bush had a license he chose not to use. It was the moment to tell his nation that it was time to set a crisis deadline to free the country of its need for the Mideast oil that gave root to 9/11, just as it now gives wing to the sudden shortage of gasoline created by a single hurricane.
THE TITANIC SYNDROME
If you watched the movie Titanic you had to be struck by the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. That disparity existed not only in the accommodations, but in life and death when the great liner was plummeting into the sea. The Titanic went down early in the 20th century, but Hurricane Katrina proved that things haven't changed that much. The wealthy in New Orleans were able to evacuate. The poor were left behind to die. Then this administration actually blames the victims for their fate. Frank Rich writes about the Titanic syndrome in this column at www.nytimes.com:
In that sense, the inequality of the suffering has not only exposed the sham of the relentless photo-ops with black schoolchildren whom the president trots out at campaign time to sell his "compassionate conservatism"; it has also positioned Katrina before a rapt late-summer audience as a replay of the sinking of the Titanic. New Orleans's first-class passengers made it safely into lifeboats; for those in steerage, it was a horrifying spectacle of every man, woman and child for himself.
ANNE RICE ON NEW ORLEANS
I'm not really fan of horror novels or vampire fiction, but Anne Rice brings a certain style to the genre that makes me respect her work. She lived in New Orleans for several years and has a deep familiarity with the people and the culture there. This is her perspective on New Orleans from an article at www.nytimes.com:
Thousands didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. They didn't have the money. They didn't have the vehicles. They didn't have any place to go. They are the poor, black and white, who dwell in any city in great numbers; and they did what they felt they could do - they huddled together in the strongest houses they could find. There was no way to up and leave and check into the nearest Ramada Inn.
What's more, thousands more who could have left stayed behind to help others. They went out in the helicopters and pulled the survivors off rooftops; they went through the flooded streets in their boats trying to gather those they could find. Meanwhile, city officials tried desperately to alleviate the worsening conditions in the Superdome, while makeshift shelters and hotels and hospitals struggled.
And where was everyone else during all this? Oh, help is coming, New Orleans was told. We are a rich country. Congress is acting. Someone will come to stop the looting and care for the refugees.
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE
Today's classic right-wing letter in The Fresno Bee shrieks about "liberal Democrats" not stepping in for hurricane relief and claims that the federal government has done all it could. The writer even claims that scientists say that global warming wasn't responsible for Hurricane Katrina's ferocity. I don't know what scientists are saying that.
There is little doubt that the warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to a Category I storm becoming the monster Katrina. As for as "liberal Democrats," liberal Democrats are not in power. It's the responsibility and moral duty of the federal government, currently headed by right-wingers, to aid the suffering people who live along the Gulf Coast. The evidence is clear that the federal government was derelict, both in preventing this disaster, and in responding to the aftermath of the hurricane. Where are those prominent right-wingers, such as Richard Mellon Scaife, in helping the victims? They're too busy funding lobbyists to get tax cuts for the rich and to push things like "intelligent design."
REHNQUIST'S LOUSY RECORD
In the next few days we'll probably get a number of flowery tributes to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. But the fact is the guy had a lousy record on protecting the rights of most of us. While I do not celebrate his death, I don't particularly mourn it either. This commentary from David Corn is at www.davidcorn.com:
I confess: I have a hard time saying William Rehnquist, rest in peace. Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist, who died on Saturday night, spent much of his adult life trying to restrict the rights of American citizens and to empower further the already-powerful. He rose to prominence as a right-wing attorney who decried the Earl Warren court for being a hotbed of judicial activism (left-wing judicial activism, as he saw it). He then became, as a Supreme Court justice, a judicial activist of the right-wing sort, overturning laws made by Congress (that protected women against domestic violence, banned guns near school property, and prohibited discrimination against disabled workers) and steering the justices into Florida's vote-counting mess in 2000 (an act that only coincidentally--right?--led to George W. Bush's presidency). In that case--Bush v. Gore--Rehnquist, for some reason or another, placed aside his much heralded belief in state sovereignty, which led him on other occasions to grouse about limits on the abilities of states to execute criminals. When it came to states frying prisoners, he advocated a hands-off approach. In vote-counting, he was all for intervention.
BUSH'S TOTAL DISCONNECT
I can't decide if George W. Bush is just a moron, oblivious to the suffering he has caused, or if he is a calculating monster who knows full well the consequences of his policies and doesn't care. In either case, the American people need to demand accountability, and to remove Republicans from all positions of power. As long as right-wingers are in power, more and more accrues to the very few, no matter the cost in human lives. This commentary by Dennis Roddy is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Bush has shown, first in a distant land, where the corpses are foreign, and from which dead Americans can be smuggled home with photographers banned, and now, inside his own borders, that he has no grasp of how policy and outcome are interconnected. Consider his words as New Orleans swamped and its poorest and least stable population sweltered, starved and then broke into the equivalent of a prison uprising:
"We view this storm as a temporary disruption that is being addressed by the government and by the private sector." On Thursday he denounced looting and insurance fraud. Think about it: Ordinary people were so locked in anarchy and helplessness they stole food as the more venal among them stole guns and shot at aid helicopters. The president denounced insurance fraud. He might as well have weighed in on poaching while he was at it.
Invited to criticize oil companies for price gouging, he instead suggested they donate to hurricane relief. Four years earlier, as the government rushed aid, medicine, rescuers and insurance to the high-rent district of New York, Bush had a license he chose not to use. It was the moment to tell his nation that it was time to set a crisis deadline to free the country of its need for the Mideast oil that gave root to 9/11, just as it now gives wing to the sudden shortage of gasoline created by a single hurricane.
THE TITANIC SYNDROME
If you watched the movie Titanic you had to be struck by the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. That disparity existed not only in the accommodations, but in life and death when the great liner was plummeting into the sea. The Titanic went down early in the 20th century, but Hurricane Katrina proved that things haven't changed that much. The wealthy in New Orleans were able to evacuate. The poor were left behind to die. Then this administration actually blames the victims for their fate. Frank Rich writes about the Titanic syndrome in this column at www.nytimes.com:
In that sense, the inequality of the suffering has not only exposed the sham of the relentless photo-ops with black schoolchildren whom the president trots out at campaign time to sell his "compassionate conservatism"; it has also positioned Katrina before a rapt late-summer audience as a replay of the sinking of the Titanic. New Orleans's first-class passengers made it safely into lifeboats; for those in steerage, it was a horrifying spectacle of every man, woman and child for himself.
ANNE RICE ON NEW ORLEANS
I'm not really fan of horror novels or vampire fiction, but Anne Rice brings a certain style to the genre that makes me respect her work. She lived in New Orleans for several years and has a deep familiarity with the people and the culture there. This is her perspective on New Orleans from an article at www.nytimes.com:
Thousands didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. They didn't have the money. They didn't have the vehicles. They didn't have any place to go. They are the poor, black and white, who dwell in any city in great numbers; and they did what they felt they could do - they huddled together in the strongest houses they could find. There was no way to up and leave and check into the nearest Ramada Inn.
What's more, thousands more who could have left stayed behind to help others. They went out in the helicopters and pulled the survivors off rooftops; they went through the flooded streets in their boats trying to gather those they could find. Meanwhile, city officials tried desperately to alleviate the worsening conditions in the Superdome, while makeshift shelters and hotels and hospitals struggled.
And where was everyone else during all this? Oh, help is coming, New Orleans was told. We are a rich country. Congress is acting. Someone will come to stop the looting and care for the refugees.
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE
Today's classic right-wing letter in The Fresno Bee shrieks about "liberal Democrats" not stepping in for hurricane relief and claims that the federal government has done all it could. The writer even claims that scientists say that global warming wasn't responsible for Hurricane Katrina's ferocity. I don't know what scientists are saying that.
There is little doubt that the warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to a Category I storm becoming the monster Katrina. As for as "liberal Democrats," liberal Democrats are not in power. It's the responsibility and moral duty of the federal government, currently headed by right-wingers, to aid the suffering people who live along the Gulf Coast. The evidence is clear that the federal government was derelict, both in preventing this disaster, and in responding to the aftermath of the hurricane. Where are those prominent right-wingers, such as Richard Mellon Scaife, in helping the victims? They're too busy funding lobbyists to get tax cuts for the rich and to push things like "intelligent design."
Saturday, September 03, 2005
SEPTEMBER 3, 2005
WE'RE SUPPOSED TO SEE NO EVIL
If right-wingers had their way, we'd plug our ears, cover our eyes, and tape our mouths. We're supposed to adopt a policy of see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil when the great George W. Bush is involved. I think that goes against the very grain of being an American. We have a history of saying exactly what we think. Joe Conason writes about the right-wing's latest attempt to stifle free speech in this article linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
For the third time since George W. Bush became president, Americans are paying a catastrophic price for bad government. As the costs are tallied once more in death and dollars, we are being told that the wise and patriotic thing to do is shut up -- as if good citizens are obliged to remain silent about unwise and incompetent leadership…
A repetitive pattern is emerging whenever a terrible event occurs that is due at least partly to governmental incompetence. The president and other high officials offer deceptive utterances to excuse themselves. And reinforcing their self-serving statements is a chorus of admonishments from the right against any dissent or criticism.
After 9/11, the White House falsely claimed that there had been no warnings and that the Bush administration had been preparing for an attack by al-Qaida since its earliest days in office. Anyone who said otherwise -- or who merely wanted to investigate the underlying weaknesses that had enabled the attackers -- was a "partisan" seeking to "undermine the war on terror."…
BUSH'S DOMINO THEORY
When the Vietnam war was ratcheting up and it was becoming obvious that we were stuck in a no-win situation we heard a lot about the Domino Theory. The idea was if Vietnam fell to the Communists that entire region would fall like dominoes into Communist hands. We had to stay there, you see, to prevent the evil Communists from gaining even more control.
We have a more obvious and provable Domino Theory now with the Bush administration. One bad policy is connected to another bad policy, which leads to suffering and disaster. George W. Bush came into office hellbent on destroying the fiscal responsibility of the federal government. He pushed through massive tax cuts for his rich buddies, which inevitably led to underfunding of other programs. He didn't pay attention to the terrorist threat posed by Osama bin Laden until 9/11. Then, instead of concentrating on bin Laden, he launched a war against Iraq. He sent an inadequate number of troops into Iraq and failed to provide enough equipment, so we have another quagmire, very similar to Vietnam. Because the military can't get enough recruits, many National Guard members are in Iraq and not here at home to deal with natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
In this column Maureen Dowd talks about the non-planning, excuse-making president. The column is at www.nytimes.com:
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.
WE'RE SUPPOSED TO SEE NO EVIL
If right-wingers had their way, we'd plug our ears, cover our eyes, and tape our mouths. We're supposed to adopt a policy of see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil when the great George W. Bush is involved. I think that goes against the very grain of being an American. We have a history of saying exactly what we think. Joe Conason writes about the right-wing's latest attempt to stifle free speech in this article linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
For the third time since George W. Bush became president, Americans are paying a catastrophic price for bad government. As the costs are tallied once more in death and dollars, we are being told that the wise and patriotic thing to do is shut up -- as if good citizens are obliged to remain silent about unwise and incompetent leadership…
A repetitive pattern is emerging whenever a terrible event occurs that is due at least partly to governmental incompetence. The president and other high officials offer deceptive utterances to excuse themselves. And reinforcing their self-serving statements is a chorus of admonishments from the right against any dissent or criticism.
After 9/11, the White House falsely claimed that there had been no warnings and that the Bush administration had been preparing for an attack by al-Qaida since its earliest days in office. Anyone who said otherwise -- or who merely wanted to investigate the underlying weaknesses that had enabled the attackers -- was a "partisan" seeking to "undermine the war on terror."…
BUSH'S DOMINO THEORY
When the Vietnam war was ratcheting up and it was becoming obvious that we were stuck in a no-win situation we heard a lot about the Domino Theory. The idea was if Vietnam fell to the Communists that entire region would fall like dominoes into Communist hands. We had to stay there, you see, to prevent the evil Communists from gaining even more control.
We have a more obvious and provable Domino Theory now with the Bush administration. One bad policy is connected to another bad policy, which leads to suffering and disaster. George W. Bush came into office hellbent on destroying the fiscal responsibility of the federal government. He pushed through massive tax cuts for his rich buddies, which inevitably led to underfunding of other programs. He didn't pay attention to the terrorist threat posed by Osama bin Laden until 9/11. Then, instead of concentrating on bin Laden, he launched a war against Iraq. He sent an inadequate number of troops into Iraq and failed to provide enough equipment, so we have another quagmire, very similar to Vietnam. Because the military can't get enough recruits, many National Guard members are in Iraq and not here at home to deal with natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.
In this column Maureen Dowd talks about the non-planning, excuse-making president. The column is at www.nytimes.com:
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.
Friday, September 02, 2005
SEPTEMBER 2, 2005
FOR BUSH IT'S A ONE WAY STREET
Every policy enacted by the Bush administration is for the rich and the powerful. There are a few crumbs thrown the way of the Religious Right so they'll toe the line, but almost everything Bush does benefits the people at the top of the food chain, and that's true even when it means suffering and death for people at the bottom. While he talked a good game about "freedom on the march" in Iraq, thousands have died unnecessarily. He has cut veterans benefits. He has failed to provide enough equipment. He has weakened this country by creating massive budget deficits and making us dependent on foreign investors to stay afloat.
That brings us to the disaster in New Orleans. While Bush was pursuing his mad war against Iraq and pushing through tax cuts for his rich friends, he cut funding for the levees that might have prevented what we're now seeing after Hurricane Katrina. He hasn't taken action on global warming, and Hurricane Katrina is a devastating reminder of the consequences of global warming. He continued his vacation even as Katrina bore down on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The government's response to this tragedy has been abysmal, and it's clear there is a demarcation, once again, between the rich and poor. If you had resources, you got out of New Orleans. Otherwise, you were left there to ride out the storm and suffer in the aftermath. It's a metaphor for how conservatives do everything; give everything to the affluent and leave everyone else to suffer.
This story by Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker is at www.washingtonpost.com:
In recent years, Bush repeatedly sought to slice the Army Corps of Engineers' funding requests to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, which Katrina smashed through, flooding New Orleans. In 2005, Bush asked for $3.9 million, a small fraction of the request the corps made in internal administration deliberations. Under pressure from Congress, Bush ultimately agreed to spend $5.7 million. Since coming to office, Bush has essentially frozen spending on the Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for protecting the coastlines, waterways and other areas susceptible to natural disaster, at around $4.7 billion.
RIGHT-WING ECONOMICS AND DROPPING INCOMES
A few days ago a report revealed that the poverty rate in the United States increased for the fourth consecutive year. Now we learn that incomes have dropped for everyone, even the very rich, since the Bush boy sneaked into the White House. The very rich aren't suffering, of course, but it's interesting that even they aren't doing as well under Republican economics. This story by Floyd Norris is at www.iht.com:
The American middle class is making less than it used to. But then again, so is almost everyone else. Even the highest-income U.S. households made less money in 2004 than they did five years earlier.
That is one conclusion available from data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau in its annual report on income and poverty in the United States.
SOCIAL DARWINISM IN NEW ORLEANS
When I hear about the breakdown of everything in New Orleans I think of William Golding's novel The Lord of the Flies. Put a group of more or less civilized people into a situation where there is no order, and where a belief in Social Darwinism prevails, and this is what you get. Even though our government is run by people who call themselves Christian, you see the very opposite of Christianity in operation by our government and in the chaos in New Orleans. This commentary by Doug Saunders is at www.commondreams.org:
At one point yesterday, as a helicopter-mounted camera showed a teeming swell of furious, gun-toting Louisiana residents mobbing a busload of supplies, a stunned British TV anchor spoke his mind on the air: "I'm having trouble believing that we're watching the continental United States of America. I mean, it looks like Rwanda."
A complete societal breakdown: Nobody expected that from hurricane Katrina, but that is what seems to have engulfed the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The threads that hold society together have unraveled, leaving destruction, looting, violence and desperation.
Americans, who rely on faith and fortune for so many of their most successful endeavors, are beginning to ask how those qualities have failed them so badly. Why is it that in some places struck by catastrophes of similar magnitude, entire societies pull together in enriching acts of mutual assistance, while other societies collapse into self-annihilation?
FOR BUSH IT'S A ONE WAY STREET
Every policy enacted by the Bush administration is for the rich and the powerful. There are a few crumbs thrown the way of the Religious Right so they'll toe the line, but almost everything Bush does benefits the people at the top of the food chain, and that's true even when it means suffering and death for people at the bottom. While he talked a good game about "freedom on the march" in Iraq, thousands have died unnecessarily. He has cut veterans benefits. He has failed to provide enough equipment. He has weakened this country by creating massive budget deficits and making us dependent on foreign investors to stay afloat.
That brings us to the disaster in New Orleans. While Bush was pursuing his mad war against Iraq and pushing through tax cuts for his rich friends, he cut funding for the levees that might have prevented what we're now seeing after Hurricane Katrina. He hasn't taken action on global warming, and Hurricane Katrina is a devastating reminder of the consequences of global warming. He continued his vacation even as Katrina bore down on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. The government's response to this tragedy has been abysmal, and it's clear there is a demarcation, once again, between the rich and poor. If you had resources, you got out of New Orleans. Otherwise, you were left there to ride out the storm and suffer in the aftermath. It's a metaphor for how conservatives do everything; give everything to the affluent and leave everyone else to suffer.
This story by Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker is at www.washingtonpost.com:
In recent years, Bush repeatedly sought to slice the Army Corps of Engineers' funding requests to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, which Katrina smashed through, flooding New Orleans. In 2005, Bush asked for $3.9 million, a small fraction of the request the corps made in internal administration deliberations. Under pressure from Congress, Bush ultimately agreed to spend $5.7 million. Since coming to office, Bush has essentially frozen spending on the Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for protecting the coastlines, waterways and other areas susceptible to natural disaster, at around $4.7 billion.
RIGHT-WING ECONOMICS AND DROPPING INCOMES
A few days ago a report revealed that the poverty rate in the United States increased for the fourth consecutive year. Now we learn that incomes have dropped for everyone, even the very rich, since the Bush boy sneaked into the White House. The very rich aren't suffering, of course, but it's interesting that even they aren't doing as well under Republican economics. This story by Floyd Norris is at www.iht.com:
The American middle class is making less than it used to. But then again, so is almost everyone else. Even the highest-income U.S. households made less money in 2004 than they did five years earlier.
That is one conclusion available from data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau in its annual report on income and poverty in the United States.
SOCIAL DARWINISM IN NEW ORLEANS
When I hear about the breakdown of everything in New Orleans I think of William Golding's novel The Lord of the Flies. Put a group of more or less civilized people into a situation where there is no order, and where a belief in Social Darwinism prevails, and this is what you get. Even though our government is run by people who call themselves Christian, you see the very opposite of Christianity in operation by our government and in the chaos in New Orleans. This commentary by Doug Saunders is at www.commondreams.org:
At one point yesterday, as a helicopter-mounted camera showed a teeming swell of furious, gun-toting Louisiana residents mobbing a busload of supplies, a stunned British TV anchor spoke his mind on the air: "I'm having trouble believing that we're watching the continental United States of America. I mean, it looks like Rwanda."
A complete societal breakdown: Nobody expected that from hurricane Katrina, but that is what seems to have engulfed the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The threads that hold society together have unraveled, leaving destruction, looting, violence and desperation.
Americans, who rely on faith and fortune for so many of their most successful endeavors, are beginning to ask how those qualities have failed them so badly. Why is it that in some places struck by catastrophes of similar magnitude, entire societies pull together in enriching acts of mutual assistance, while other societies collapse into self-annihilation?
Thursday, September 01, 2005
SEPTEMBER 1, 2005
NEW ORLEANS IS STARK EXAMPLE OF RICH-POOR DIVIDE
There is all kinds of evidence that the disaster in New Orleans was exacerbated by the Bush administration's greed and incompetence. The Bush administration cut funding that might have helped prevent the massive flooding we see in New Orleans. Mr. Bush continued his vacation even as Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast. The response in the aftermath of Katrina has been inadequate at best. What is striking is how many people could not evacuate from New Orleans because they didn't have the means to leave. There is something very wrong with a society when poverty becomes a life and death issue. This commentary by Chris Floyd is at www.chris-floyd.com:
It is obvious that the vast majority of those who failed to evacuate are poor: they had nowhere else to go, no way to get there, no means to sustain themselves and their families on strange ground. While there were certainly people who stayed behind by choice, most stayed behind because they had no choice. They were trapped by their poverty - and many have paid the price with their lives.
Yet across the media spectrum, the faint hint of disapproval drips from the affluent observers, the clear implication that the victims were just too lazy and shiftless to get out of harm's way. There is simply no understanding - not even an attempt at understanding - the destitution, the isolation, the immobility of the poor and the sick and the broken among us.
LACK OF PLANNING AGAIN
There have been warnings for some time that a major hurricane could devastate New Orleans, but George W. Bush chose to ignore those warnings just as he chose to ignore the evidence against invading Iraq or the evidence for global warming. It's a combination of arrogance and incompetence. This column by Sidney Blumenthal is at www.commondreams.org:
A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."
PRESIDENT CARTER WAS RIGHT
Right-wingers like to mock former President Carter. He talked about human rights. He wore a cardigan sweater and turned down the thermostat to conserve energy. He warned us back in the late 1970s about the need to cut back our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Ronald Reagan came along and told us everything was okay and we could consume as much as we wanted. Now we see the fruit of that belief. This article by Jerry Lanson is at www.commondreams.org:
It was a quarter century ago, on July 15, 1979, that then President Jimmy Carter referred to America's need to confront and solve its energy problems as "the moral equivalent of war."
"Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?" he asked, calling for a crash program to develop alternative fuel and to conserve. If it had been enacted, Carter's vision might have curtailed America's growing addiction to Mideast oil -- such as that in the fields of Iraq. And it also would have cut the waste gases building up in the environment, speeding global warming. Maybe, just maybe, a less destructive hurricane would have roared up the Gulf.
But history records that Jimmy Carter lost the presidential election resoundingly in 1980 and Americans, embracing Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America," lost any will to sacrifice and conserve.
Cars today guzzle just as much gas per mile as they did then. (The abysmal miles per gallon rate of SUV's isn't even counted in these figures; they're considered trucks.) And this year, after years of stalemate and with significant bipartisan support, Congress passed an energy bill that gives little more than lip service to conservation or renewable energy.
NEW ORLEANS IS STARK EXAMPLE OF RICH-POOR DIVIDE
There is all kinds of evidence that the disaster in New Orleans was exacerbated by the Bush administration's greed and incompetence. The Bush administration cut funding that might have helped prevent the massive flooding we see in New Orleans. Mr. Bush continued his vacation even as Hurricane Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast. The response in the aftermath of Katrina has been inadequate at best. What is striking is how many people could not evacuate from New Orleans because they didn't have the means to leave. There is something very wrong with a society when poverty becomes a life and death issue. This commentary by Chris Floyd is at www.chris-floyd.com:
It is obvious that the vast majority of those who failed to evacuate are poor: they had nowhere else to go, no way to get there, no means to sustain themselves and their families on strange ground. While there were certainly people who stayed behind by choice, most stayed behind because they had no choice. They were trapped by their poverty - and many have paid the price with their lives.
Yet across the media spectrum, the faint hint of disapproval drips from the affluent observers, the clear implication that the victims were just too lazy and shiftless to get out of harm's way. There is simply no understanding - not even an attempt at understanding - the destitution, the isolation, the immobility of the poor and the sick and the broken among us.
LACK OF PLANNING AGAIN
There have been warnings for some time that a major hurricane could devastate New Orleans, but George W. Bush chose to ignore those warnings just as he chose to ignore the evidence against invading Iraq or the evidence for global warming. It's a combination of arrogance and incompetence. This column by Sidney Blumenthal is at www.commondreams.org:
A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."
PRESIDENT CARTER WAS RIGHT
Right-wingers like to mock former President Carter. He talked about human rights. He wore a cardigan sweater and turned down the thermostat to conserve energy. He warned us back in the late 1970s about the need to cut back our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Ronald Reagan came along and told us everything was okay and we could consume as much as we wanted. Now we see the fruit of that belief. This article by Jerry Lanson is at www.commondreams.org:
It was a quarter century ago, on July 15, 1979, that then President Jimmy Carter referred to America's need to confront and solve its energy problems as "the moral equivalent of war."
"Why have we not been able to get together as a nation to resolve our serious energy problem?" he asked, calling for a crash program to develop alternative fuel and to conserve. If it had been enacted, Carter's vision might have curtailed America's growing addiction to Mideast oil -- such as that in the fields of Iraq. And it also would have cut the waste gases building up in the environment, speeding global warming. Maybe, just maybe, a less destructive hurricane would have roared up the Gulf.
But history records that Jimmy Carter lost the presidential election resoundingly in 1980 and Americans, embracing Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America," lost any will to sacrifice and conserve.
Cars today guzzle just as much gas per mile as they did then. (The abysmal miles per gallon rate of SUV's isn't even counted in these figures; they're considered trucks.) And this year, after years of stalemate and with significant bipartisan support, Congress passed an energy bill that gives little more than lip service to conservation or renewable energy.
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