One of the things that horrifies me about Katrina is that I believe the fact that most of the at risk were (I believe) poor, black and democratic weighed heavily in the thinking that left them exposed to disaster. I cannot prove this. But I cannot believe that a wealthy, white, Republican city would have been left so exposed.

It's hard not to notice that the Democratic voting demographic just took a huge hit in La.

But one does not need to entertain such horrible thoughts to think that this disaster is inherently political. It is a disaster that surely would have been less like to have ocurred or to have been as bad were it not for Iraq, for the financial costs of Iraq, the human costs of Iraq and the skewing of priorities created by Iraq.

But take it deeper. The roots of this disaster are to be found in Bush's maniacal tunnel vision. As I recall, the man was still making speeches about Iraq the day of the hurricane and added a reference to the hurricane as a sort of footnote. Stay The Course has become a catch phrase implying ever deeper catastrophe for Nations, above all, for our nation, because it's true meaning has been increasingly revealed as implying ever deeper tunnel vision.

I personally am deeply wounded by the thought that New Orleans is a sort of Karma for what was done to Falluja. The connection between Iraq and New Orleans is not hard to make, but it becomes deeper when one considers the role of Global Warming and economic change and the apparent American obsession with fossil fuels.

Today I was at the bank and the clerk asked me how I was doing. I commented that it was hard to function, because I felt so struck with grief and horror. She clucked sympathetically and then began to talk about the rise in gas prices, in an effort to relate to my comment.

I didn't say it, but I thought "how horrific." How insane that we measure our reality by the price at the pump. The destruction of an entire city barely makes a dent.

Was Tyranny political? Was Slavery political? Was the Depression political? You're damn right that confronting this inhumane and out of control government is political. It's a kind of political that I think sooner or sooner will seem obvious and appropriate to almost everyone.

We want a world where policies are sustainable, humane, tolerant, consensual, peaceful, we want policies that balance individual and community in ways that respect and maximise both, do we not? These are notions that are fundementally winners, no matter how supposedly blue or red a person is.

Bottom line: George Bush is driving this train into Hell and that affects everybody.

I had just finished watching one of the original Zatoichi films when I read this post (Katrina, yes you....."). I was by then used to seeing real justice, albeit 17th Century Japanese justice. Then I read this post. Every fibre of my being agreed with John's tenets. I had been cynically assuring my family the last 2 days that God (a just God) was indeed capable of smiting sinners and he was doing it with a vengence in the Gulf States and SE (no cheap pun intended). Every one of my relatives was horrified at my attitude. This is the sentimental level to which anger at the conservative component of this country has driven me. It's bad enough that these idiots vote against their own economic interests; it would be worse if they didn't bear the full weight of their bad decision.
The worst part of it for me is that we would have been rid of them if the GOP hadn't managed to game the last 2 presidential elections. And the complicity of the media has made it possible for them to get away with this, and , in the process, wreck the Nation.

These guys don't give a crap. Our Attorney general is having a party while people are dieing in the streets of our country. How sick. You would think they could wait a few weeks before having a good time. I wonder if bush was there?

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
UNTIL 2:00 P.M. (EDT)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005

ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO R. GONZALES HONORS EMPLOYEES AND OTHERS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S ANNUAL AWARDS CEREMONY

Link
http://www.atf.gov/press...05doj_attygen_awards.htm

Phil wrote:

"We want a world where policies are sustainable, humane, tolerant, consensual, peaceful, we want policies that balance individual and community in ways that respect and maximise both, do we not?"

Well ... um ... Some do ... and some don't.

And here's an interesting thing about those who don't: they just happen to have our electoral system in their back pocket.

I want people to UNDERSTAND THIS PICTURE:

THIS IS NEW ORLEANS - THESE are the PEOPLE of NEW ORLEANS, Holding a Jazz Funeral for Democracy when Bush got Inaugurated on January 20th. THEY gave a damn.

I have tears in my eyes as I write this. Stop with the Red and Blue States. We are the United States. Some of these people are probably dead now.

I can't even send money because I can barely make my own bills.

Starve Cable, Starve the corporations! Boycott them. I cancelled my Comcast. I won't give them one damn dime.

It's the damn rich people and the corporations that are rigging this and hurting all good folk.

I am not real religious, but what would Jesus do?

Well said, Jpentz. WP, I hear you on that.

I think you'll feel much different once events have played out Joe. You'll wish you never wrote this at all me thinks.

I've posted twice at length here and been discoonected by Katrina, in her weltering death throes here in Maine. i'LL POST MORE COHERENTLY WHEN ABLE.

Sorry - I've lost three posts here already. My first was to second Jospeh wholeheartedly in both his rebellion and his pity; and my second to remind people that people who cannot afford gasoline at the end of a welfare month CAN'T get out.

Why wasn't gas granted to people wanting to leave? Why didn't those 425 buses materialize BEFORE the floods to ferry out the stranded poor?

Why? Because they ARE poor, voiceless and by reduction, worthless. Let them eat mud.

I can't even believe this is what I'm reading. Have all your "liberals" lost what's left of your collective (alleged) minds???? I realize that most of you no longer give one hoot for poor people, but to openly suggest punishing poor folk because they live in a "red" state??? Where and when did you part company with your humanity?

I'm poor, also, and freaking the last several days because this could well have been me, and I know I couldn't have gone through this. I also know I sure as hell wouldn't have had any support from middle-class "liberals". That much is clear. I live in a "blue" city, which is in a "red" state, so go ahead and tell me to my face that I deserve to suffer and die because of where I live.

I'm printing out this blog, and the next time some idiot gives me crap about how poor people "don't get involved", and "don't participate in politics", I'm gonna shove this right in the heartless goons face.

I have never, ever talked like this before, but this is so enraging I must say, "Liberals, grow a damned heart!"

Torqued -

Methinks you misinterpret.. It's easy to do over the internet - because we can't read each others' eyes.

gave up.

Please, i can't take the pain you are capable of dishing out.

just drop it. you go your way, I go mine.

if you *HAD BEEN* "in my shoes" you wouldn't be so tough and uncaring.

goodbye

a BIG misunderstanding happening on this thread, it seems to me, and I hope it gets itself straightened out. I can't do it all but I can help it along a bit, and I hate to see good people arguing, especially when they probably agree. Internet communication sure is hard work! ... so please don't anyone give up on anybody yet!

I'm not a literary wizard by any means but I read Joseph's piece as a metaphor. The "struggle" between "the post he didn't write" and "the post he actually wrote" is emblematic of the struggle each of us must make to choose between propaganda and truth; the vicious government propaganda makes us want to see ourselves as divided into red and blue. It's easy to slip into that trap and start thinking that way ... that we're blue and they're red ... so screw them! ... unless you struggle and remail vigilant and think hard about lies you thought were truths ... and eventually you may find that your sense of humanity is more powerful than the pull of the nonstop propaganda machine ... which is what we are all hoping for anyway, I think ... that's the way I read it, anyway, and Joseph would be more than welcome to come along and correct me...

I notice that my friend Torqued disagrees with me on this, as does Superwoman; that's your right and I respect your opinions even though I happen to disagree.

And for Superwoman, please don't give up on all "liberals" just because of one post on one blog. At the very least please hang around and watch this thread and see how it all plays out! ok? thanks!

I don't believe that the war in Iraq was or is right (at least the corruption and greed after the invasion -didn't mind so much that they got rid of Saddam) but it is fallacious to make the argument that G-d has smited America for that particular sin. Any ratbag can make that argument to support any particular cause that they hold dear. Some have written that G-d is smiting America for supporting the pullout from the Gaza Strip, some are saying G-d is smiting you for ignoring the environment, some are saying it is because there was going to be a gay festival in two days. These sorts of hurricanes have always hit the south coast of the US and, yes, while they are probably getting worse for environmental reasons we should not be so quick to jump to the conclusion that G-d carried it out because who can claim to know the mind of G-d? And, quite possibly, a lot of the people who died in New Orleans were the ones who could not afford to get out and who, quite likely, could have voted Democratic ( and do you think the Democrats would not have continued the war?) It doesn't matter who people voted for, if you really care about G-d, you help out the poor and needy.

No worries WP. I should have explained my reasoning a bit better but frankly, I don't have all the words right now.

I have only suspicion supported by odd facts. Not for Joe, not for anyone here at all. But for the military action bearing down in Katrinas wake. Things aren't what they seem... all over.

Hear, hear Miriam! We all must help. We all must be morally accountable at all times.

The point is made that like real estate trading, its location, location, location! It's a valid point for sure. Perhaps we need a county-by-county, voter demographics map to sway odds of survival in the coming "disasters".

Nice to see the tinfoil trading is going up with all the paranoid schizoids showing up here.

How is it that Bush is at fault. I'm still trying to figure out how his short tenure could be blamed for the global warming that by all accounts has been building for more than a century. But suddenly, it's all Bush's fault. Not that any of the preceding presidents did anything to restrain it.

I love reading here. It really makes it obvious that the DU isn't the only bastion of crackpots out there.

> What would Jesus do?

Most prolly nail himself on a cross or any other form of ritual suicide.

Papers hail heroes but blast Bush.

"George W Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday," says the New York Times in an editorial.

"He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

"And nothing about the president's demeanour yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

"Oh, the [IN]Humanity!" of President George W Bush.

He understands more than he lets on. He understands that his remaining minutes are few in this country and he also knows his escape plan has been covertly breached.

Oh he knows plenty, or he should if hes on a-need-to-know-basis. His underbelly is exposed as are all the zionist yellow bellies on the bugout.

Ya got the loot but now what ya gonna do rocky? rocky? georgie? Got luck?

#22 I must be missing something - Bush's short tenure? Not even considering Bush won't support discussion of Global Warming.

-In his "short" tenure" our borders are going downhill, jobs are leaving, we are borrowing 1 Billion a week, health care is non existant or so costly you can't afford it at work, POVERTY HAS RISEN 1 MILLION MORE THAN LAST YEAR, our young are dying in an illegal war. No president has presided over such incompentency in history and kept his job.

Would you like to have an employee like this working for you? I sure as hell don't. We need to recall this incompentent administration. God help us if we have 3 more years of this leadership.

Disasters strike and this leader is eating birthday cake, and strumming a guitar. He doesn't even PRETEND to sit at the desk in the office paid for by you and I and make decisions.

How the most died hard conservative can defend this administration just amazes me.

#10 Superwoman - when you are in the place you are in right now, it seems you are alone. Many, many of us have truly been without, how about selling a tv for $40 so your daughter and you can eat for two weeks. Been there, done that.

There isn't a label to fit those who can't understand, just people that are mired in their own selfish world, nothing can change them.

But there are more of us, who are fighting to change things and 95% are posters on this blog.
Sure there are nut jobs here but they provide a laugh.

So stick with us, we want to hear from you, we can learn from you.

Short tenure = He wasn't going to finish his term. But now they have no where to run. They belong to us now.

With due respect to Joseph Cannon to all of the fine columns he's written on BB before, you should have put this one in the freezer for a few more days before you decided to post it, or if to post it at all. It is unnecessarily inflammatory writing.

You said you were tempted to write: "A large part of me still believes that many of these W-worshipping numbskulls deserve to suffer and to die. They brought it on themselves. Let them look to Jayzuss for aid: It's time they stopped leeching off the more productive blue staters." But THEN you decided not to write that in your column. BUT THEN, you put it out there anyway. Looks like you want to have it both ways. Shame on you!!!! The column was simplistic, and if anyone reads it that way, they got it right.

I live in one of those so-called "red states", and so do many others who comment on BB (as opposed to trolling, mind you). I do not and never did support Busho. in any way, shape or form. Bush has, among other things stirred up hatred and division in this country. People have said before in various comments on other threads things like "I hope all of those red states get destroyed." Well, that's pretty hateful and simple-minded thinking coming from folks who chance to live in a "blue state" and therefore feel they can claim moral superiority. Ah.. but you've bought into Bush's devisiveness... where's the superiority there? Not being very discriminating about passing out the blame, eh?

Yes, this is time for the politics of blame, but most certainly not that kind- more like, why was the budget gutted so that projects to shore up the levees didn't happen? A hurricane hit to NO has been 3rd on the list of most crippling disasters for quite some time, why have so many communities been left virtually defenseless against disasters of all kinds, lacking National Guard troops, etc. etc.

The blame should rest exactly where it belongs--- Bush & co.

No matter what, we have to be the face of relief.

We care about human suffering... we do not blame it on the cruel hand of fate, God's wrath, or the lazy stupidity of the victims. We should leave those smug rationalizations to the right wing nutjobs.

We must be the first responders. We must be the ones who break our backs and put ourselves out for peace and the alleviation of human suffering. We must build communities.

This is the only way to build a more human society. This is the only way to speak truth to power.

I agree with Joseph Cannon!

The god damn Bush & congress could have prevented the disaster themselves, by not gutting funding to FEMA and the real army protection guard in the coast!!!

http://archives.thedaily...30101/N9.BIHquakebu.html

They had their chance to PREVENT this, and these people begged them to pay for repairing the levees all over alabama, louisiana and the south.

And they flat out FAILED!!!!

It is the FAILED policies of the rich GOP morons in these states, who voted against their interests that have brought this upon everyone!!!!!! THE WAR, THROWING EVERYTHING DOWN THE DRAIN FOR THE WAR!!!!!

They deserve what they get for being so short-sighted. As for the rest of the people in the south who had nothing to do with them, may god help them all, because GLOBAL WARMING is a reality and it is here thanks to pure beligerance.

Our wasting away over material goods and foriegn oil has succeeded in warming the Gulf Waters, has began melting the icecaps, and Global Warming will NOT get better!!!!!

So just understand that right now, Global Warming is never going away!!!!! THE IDIOTS IN CHARGE AND THEIR FOLLOWERS HAVE BROUGHT THIS REALITY!!!!!

If you do not change and not only vote, but stand behind fully funding alternative energy sources and preventing climate change by getting away from oil this will be the result.

Its time ALCORA, for you and the rest of your incredibly blind followers to wake up or that selfishness and evil you are so obsessed with will COST you everything.....And will COST everyone around you.

Doug E

Waiting for a Leader

snippet----

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

------------------------more at editorial---

Global warming?
.....from N Y Times and other Editorials.
"It demanded to know why Congress had been in the process of cutting the area's flood protection budget.

"Complacency will no longer suffice, especially if experts are right in warning that global warming may increase the intensity of future hurricanes. But since this administration won't acknowledge that global warming exists, the chances of leadership seem minimal," it said.

Even a conservative paper, New Hampshire's Manchester Union-Leader, took the president to task.

"The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following 11 September 2001, has vanished," it says.

"In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty."

The bastards even FIRED everyone who criticized the funding cuts for disaster repairs!!!!

http://archives.thedaily...30101/N9.BIHquakebu.html

REPAIRING THE LEVEES!!!!! THE MORONS SAT BY, AND LET THE GULF BECOME A GLOBAL WARMING!!!

This could happen anywhere, but so far has only wiped out almost half of the red states!!!! And who there, why many rich and blind GOP ignoramouses who care for nothing but oil!!!!! AND ALONG WITH THEIR HOUSES DESTROYED, SO IS THE POOR!!!!!

Doug

Ok, Re: my #7 comment above, I have words. Or other peoples words, whatever. Please give this a few extra brain cells for critical analysis, particularly the PDF document below: ENDGAME.

Draft FEMA Bid Notice

SUBJECT: STANDBY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR DISASTER RELATED OPERATIONS

POC: Ms. Linda A. Sudhoff, Contracting Officer, (202) 646-4672, Linda.sudhoff@fema.gov; Ms. Virna L. Evans, Contract Specialist, (202) 646-7591, Virna.evans@fema.gov

DESC: NAICS 541990 (Professional, Scientific and Technical Services) applies to this acquisition, with a size standard of $6.0 million. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) intends to award three (3), Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity, Task Order contracts starting in fiscal year 2003, subject to the availability of funds. Each basic ID/IQ contract will have an ordering period of five years. The basic ID/IQ contract will be structured to allow for the issuance of Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF), Time and Materials (T&M), and Firm Fixed Price (FFP) task orders. The method used to allocate task orders will include: consideration of experience, workload, and the firm's performance on other task orders. The estimated cost for services is approximately $300 million per five-year contract. --- more

FEMA Preparing for Mass Destruction Attacks on Cities

FEMA is readying for nuclear, biological and chemical attacks against U.S. cities, including the possibility of multiple attacks with mass destruction weapons.

The agency has already notified vendors, contractors and consultants that it needs to be prepared to handle the logistics of aiding millions of displaced Americans who will flee from urban areas that may be attacked.

The agency plans to create emergency, makeshift cities that could house hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans who may have to flee their urban homes if their cities are attacked.

Ominously, FEMA has been given a deadline of having the cities ready to go by January 2003 – in about six months. --- more

FEMA’s Plan for Mass Destruction Attacks: Of Course It’s True

"The news report about FEMA building the temporary cities to house disaster refugees is totally bogus."

NewsMax, of course, told its readers it stood by the story.

In late July, I called FEMA and spoke with public affairs officer Chad Kolton.

I explained to Mr. Kolton that it was improper for the agency to claim that NewsMax had fabricated this story.

Mr. Kolton denied that there was any claim by FEMA that the NewsMax story was baseless, only that it was "factually inaccurate."

He made that claim without having read the NewsMax story, which he asked me to e-mail to him.

As I pointed out to Mr. Kolton, FEMA has put out a bid notice for the program to build the temporary cities (they call it "temporary disaster housing"). The bid is not only a matter of public record, it also is available on the federal government’s Web site. --- more

Now before you all go off on me about the questionable source of this story or whatever... Please read and (gulp) absorb the following PDF document prepared by the "Department of Homeland Security". This document is the partial result of the FEMA bid referenced above and which the above stories reference the bid as: STANDBY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR DISASTER RELATED OPERATIONS.

Exhale. Inhale. Click: ENDGAME: Office of Detention and Removal Strategic Plan, 2003 - 2012
Detention and Removal Strategy
for a Secure Homeland

Office of Detention and Removal? You betcha!
Breathe. Save. Print. Distribute. Repeat. Please.

Hey Guys-

I have been on the brad blog since before the 2004 election and have also been a New Orleans resident since 2002. New Orleans is NOT Bush country!!! So i was a little insulted to hear the remarks of this poster (glad it wasn't you brad), until I saw him rectify his position. I live in Metairie LA, which is 3 miles west of downtown new orleans. I am fairly confident that at least the first floor was flooded of the duplex I was renting, if the house did not collapse from the wind. So I only lost hopefully half of my stuff. I will be out of work for 2 months, and am now typing on this blog over a 56K modem....sucks.

So I think I earned the right to tell you why Bush has earned the title of Supreme Jackass to me over this catastrophe. About 8 months ago when congress was passing the energy bill to fatten the pockets of their rich friends, two Senators from Louisiana, Sen. Landriu and Sen. Vitter were fighting for an amendment to the Bill. This amendment was to give the state of Louisiana 2-3% of the oil royalties for oil coming through Louisiana infrastructure. ( Note: States that have oil produced on their land have royalties of 50% or higher). So it seems rather reasonable right?? This money was going to restore the coastal erosion of Louisiana. Why is that important you ask? The coastline is what protects New Orleans and the oil industry from Hurricanes like Katrina. It bears the brunt of the storm if you will. Louisiana loses 25 square miles per year to erosion. Well after me watching these two senators fight for days to get the ammendment passed on CSPAN... they get the votes. Now granted this wouldn't have stopped Katrina it would have been at least a recognition of the US Congress that Louisiana infrastructure needed to be protected in order to secure the oil industry and PEOPLE from these storms.

Well after the house and senate ok the ammendment, in comes the Supreme Jackass of all Jackasses, George Bush. He threatens to veto the whole bill if the ammendment is not rectified.

So they are forced to cut the royalties by over half. Thanks asshole. Nice foresight.

New Orleans is the only reason that Louisiana has any Democrats, If you dont support us then you forfiet a state. I strongly urge you to help in any way you can, I have never waivered in my ambitions to stop this pompus asshole of a president from his stupid rightwing agenda. But we are NOT to blame for his presidency...Let me tell you who is....

THE FUCKIN VOTING COMPANIES THAT RIGGED THE ELECTION. BUSH HAS NEVER WON AN ELECTION HE HAS STOLEN THEM. Need more proof look at all the evidence, and start with John Conyers book on Ohio.

Sorry for the long post, I may come out to California to stay with my brother for a month. I will try to get back here to post, but please even $20 to the red cross will help.

I will do everything to let New Orleans know what our dumbass president could have done to help pre-and post facto.

In addition i have been out of the loop for a week now, and if there is anything huge that has happened please take 1 minute to email me the story, I cants stand waiting 10 minutes for one page to open.

Respectfully,

Charles R Dubord JR
charles.dubord@ritz.edu

Recent Earthquakes in California and Nevada
Earthquakes recorded for the last week (168 hours). Times are local (PST or PDT).

N a t u r a l ?

Charlie in NO

Been worrying about you and other posters from the area. Glad to hear that you are "okay", well, sort of. Alive! My thoughts and... er.. "spiritual thoughts" go out to you- hope you get what I mean on that one. I am circa Nov 2004 BB reader.

VG

It saddens me to see people think that New Orleans is worthwhile only because it is a blue city in a red state.

My donation to Salvation Army is just as much earmarked for super-red Gulfport/Biloxi as it is for New Orleans.

Politicize the lack of preparedness. I agree W could and should have not gutted the funding and sent the LA National Guard to Iraq (along with equipment and even more funding). I agree W did nothing to stop global warming, which likely exacerbated this hurricane.

But, for heaven's sake, we progressives should care for everyone, even in red Mississippi as well as blue New Orleans.

The only way to get rid of the Bushes, the neo-cons and the Republicans who support their criminal activities and gross negligence is to march to Washington DC and make citizens' arrests. Put them in jails like Guantanamo, shut down Haliburton and those like them, deny them access to solicitors for two years or so, freeze their assets, take back monies stolen from the American and Iraqi people, then try them for crimes against America and humanity. After you arrest them (approximately 300 of them), go about restoring your country.

I lurk here very often and have never posted before but I am compelled to right now.

People are people. It doesn't matter who they are, where they live, who they voted for, what they ate for breakfast or even if they had anything to eat at all.

I find it sad that people cannot feel sorrow or remorse for other people who are suffering. This is the reason why this world is a shit hole.

I don't care that you call yourself progressive, democrat, republican, conservative or neo-con or whatever. When you have hate or fear or loathing in your heart, only darkness can come from that. This once, forgive those who are blinded by their own pain and suffering and do angry or hurtful things to you and instead stop the chain of hate.

I know that those here are much more enlightened then other sites I have read and I am discouraged that there are still those who would use tragedy and the pain and suffering of others for some political advantage.

Change can only happen when you change yourself.

Hate, anger or fear cannot bring positive change no matter how much you try.

The nations biggest natural disaster and you libs first reaction is to blame Bush for the weather.
So far away from reality there no coming back now eh?

The sick part is there are actually people that post here that are happy its a red state. So Sick. So full of hate.

Thanks to VG for the good link in #33 and here's another good one from the Op/Ed section of the NY Times

David Brooks: The Storm After the Storm

Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines....
Actually, from the sounds of the discussion above, everyone's engines have been started, and the move is on. From one standpoint, we can see that GW and Co. are embracing this "opportunity" to take the next steps in their raping and pillaging of America. Suddenly they have a natural opportunity to jack those prices of gas right through the roof, peeling any extra cash they can from every single American..., no need to obviously raise taxes...., not when the gas prices are really lining their pockets.

Along with the gas gouging, they get to start testing martial law and military action on American soil. Talk about a fearsome situation.

So, the Neocons are on the move...., figuring out how best to take advantage of this Katrina to do more of what they started with 911.

So, now, we have the BB'ers and everyone else..., connecting the dots of how BushCo put this disaster together. If GW doesn't handle this well, he and his like just might find themselves on the receiving end of an unrest of mega-proportions, turning "red" states into "blue" ones one after the other.

So, start your engines.... pull together, support the poor that just got mega-screwed, and start making every one very clear and aware that GW and GOP Congress are the perpetrators of this massive national disaster on such a scale that there should be immediate inquiries over how this could have happened, how they let everyone down, how they conspired to destroy America outright....

Let's jamb it you wild and crazy 6 or 7! Now it the time to pull together and make this break them (GW and Company, GOP Congress) right down the middle! We got no time for this back and forth about whether it 's reds or blues or to give or not to give.... Time to connect the dots, call Gongress to hammer this out and take them down!!

ONward!!
gh

I have now learned something new --- when dictators and tyrants illegally seize power by falsifying election counts, even in a country such as the United States of America, the people will rise up, and civil war will occur --- as much as everyone on this blog would not, and does not, wish this to happen, I now believe it will. The neo-cons are unintelligent and mad with power. Civil war is inevitable.

This House paper shows FY 2003 budget cuts for the Corps of Engineers, 30% constuction, says they cannot keep up with the deteriorating infrastructure
http://www.house.gov/tra...3-07-02memo.html#PURPOSE

There! That's what I'm talking about. Floridiot's FY2003 budget should now be in the hands of the MSM.... some unsuspecting outfit like the NYT's should be carrying a story like that front page as headlines....

At long last, they, the MSM will be thrashing about to find scapegoats and reasons that this travesty could happen.... Time for the BB'ers and Huff's to be pouring them a fresh cup of reality of how the BushCo's just deliberately dropped the ball....., and as Peggy points out... the rage will well up and hammer those SOB's right to the wall!!

Onward!!! Connect the dots!!
(Oh, and for someone that might wonder that we would blame Bush for the weather.... Oh, did you miss the memo on the Kyoto treaty and his complete denial that there is a global warming problem.....?)
Gh

#18 winterpatriot
Thanks for the reply, and thanks for not using judgemental terms with me.

What I want to respond to is that I'm NOT "judging all liberals by one post", or whatever the exact wording was. I have been politically active since Vietnam, when I SAW first-hand the concern for poor folk within the party, and the acceptance of those without $$$. That acceptance and support has steadily dwindled since then, and and become harsher and more critical of the poor themselves, parroting the RW.

In the last two years, as I worked on Democratic campaigns, I was more and more shocked at the lack of even simple human concern. If I were to catalog some of the hurtful, hateful things said to me BY "LIBERALS", you would be shocked-- or, at least, I certainly *hope* it would be shocking to you. There is only so much one can endure, and try to counter with education, before one gives up and says, "You win. Go ahead and dismiss poor people. It's your own funeral." And, it will be, because whether you liberals want to admit it or not, you NEED us.

No, it wasn't the original post (although, if the poster actually KNEW any poor folks, surely he would have thought better of such incindiary terms!), or a followup post which was even more disgusting. It's just two more (plus the obnoxious reply to me) in a long string of insults.

You may be under the delusion that we are disposable, and that you don't need us. I suggest it's time to rethink that assumption.

An amendment to my above post to Winter Patriot.. I misunderstood NOTHING. I did not initially write because I didn't *read* the whole post, or misunderstood his words, or anything of the sort.

That anyone can even entertain the thought of letting people DIE because they live in a red state is unconscionable, and yes, I WILL CALL IT WHAT IT IS. Damned hateful.

Just so there is no mistake.... even the *thought* of punishing dying people because you're angry at who their state voted for is EVIL.

Clear?

Good.

Superwoman -

Joseph did NOT mean what your simplistic interpretation took him to mean. He meant that , beyond politics, people were suffering and he harkened to their call of need. Where are your powers of discrimination? Why haven't you learned the subtleties of the English language? This man was conceding to pity and compassion in the face of massive pitilessness on the part of our "government."

We should NOT have to confront this disaster un-backed-up by a stalwart federal defense. But that defense is NOT THERE, totally abdicated, and our citizens are exposed as worthless throw-aways.

Phil, #1, I meant to reply to your post, but had to leave because it was all just to emotionally upsetting.

I thank you for posting the supposition that this is happening to the people of New Orleans because of poverty and race. I concur, and there would have to be very strong proof for me to change my opinion on that.

As a matter of fact, I've been making a lot of calls to congressional offices, and have said just that. I really let Frist's office have it...... I said if he could call the Senate back from recess for a white woman who had been dead for many years, he could do the same for poor, black, LIVE people who were dying now. I said, he *is* "pro-life", isn't he? These people *are* life, and even the babies are dying and need his action NOW.

I ended with.... "It really is about race, isn't it?!"

I didn't accomplish anything for those poor people, but it felt good to put him on notice.

I really encourage all of you to call *your* congresscritters, but also all that you can think of and have time for. I also told Reid's office that I'm tired of empty rhetoric and this helplessness.

The toll-free number for the Capitol Hill Switchboard is 1-888-355-3588. Please join me in expressing the urgency.

I understand they are now calling an emergency session for tonight. To discuss "appropriations". #9+!@0$%&(@*@!!!! They could drop billions of dollars down on those people right now, and it wouldn't save one life. They need WATER!

Thanks again. Make those phones ring. ^_^

I agree that the neocons would use Katrina politically at every opportunity. I'm sure they are hard at work this very minute doing just that. It's what they do.

I'd like to think that there are no evil people, only people making good or bad (or evil) decisions. And so I don't like the division message no matter who is bringing it.

And it is too early to decide just how natural the Katrina disaster is. I think the disaster will leave us all very changed and so I'll stand by my comments until the water is gone. Respectfully of course...

peg, you have never missed an opportunity to respond to a post that comes from my heart and pain with a judgment. Until you've walked in my shoes, you don't get that priviledge.

Tell ya what....... since you don't like much about me, let's make a deal. You ignore me, and I'll return the compliment.

You are one cold heart.

And, Superwoman -

There ain't no middle class left. We're all either "privileged" or "deprived," and there ain't no middle territory. And that's the way Corporatocracy wants it. Because they want an infinite supply of slave labor powerless to challenge its indentured status.

And if it takes a hurricane or two to drive it home, so be it.

texaslady #28, Thank you so much for your kind words. You don't know how badly I am in need of them. And, yes, that feeling of being alone and isolated is so frightening!

Most of all, thank you for telling me that my voice is needed. I appreciate that. I don't know if those not in my shoes can have any sense at all just how difficult it is to voice these things, unless there is really a willingness to hear.

That was the true gift of Cindy Sheehan. She founded a community where, for three weeks, people spoke from their hearts and shared their true grief and fears and rage, and it was HEARD, and accepted, and cared about. All the pretenses were dropped and people were accepted as just who they are. Nobody tried to "fix" them.

That is exactly why the place was so magical that it practically levitated.

The rest of us can do that, too.... really, we can.... if we can just begin to care enough that we can really hear what's in the hearts of all of us. All the pain, all the grief, all the anger and all the NEED.

Superwoman -

I'm sorry. I don't recall problems in the past. Believe me, I've walked in your shoes in the past, in despair and abandonment. Believe it or not, that is when I found strength anf enlightenment. Don't give up on me. I might be a good friend, lady.

Superwoman #50

My reading of the Cannon post was similar to yours- maybe not evident in my post # 30, though. I read it several times, carefully also. Cannon talks about what he wasn't going to write, says he isn't going to write THAT, and then does so anyway. I can't see anywhere that he disavows his opinion which starts "A large part of me still believes etc. " Others seem to have read/ interpreted his comments differently.

Maybe Mr. Cannon would like to come back and tell us what he *really* meant.

To me, being a liberal does not = being a Democrat, or supporting every one of their policies. I got bitch-kicked on another thread when I had some nasty words to say about Kerry --- not by regular BBers, but by a Kerry supporter who calls herself (elsewhere) kerrygoddess, who dropped in for a drive-by shooting. I checked out some of her postings on her very own blog, and I see that those of us who may have once supported Kerry (and presumably other dimocrats) are considered "far left" and not with the program. I didn't need this to stop considering myself a Democrat, that I already had, but it did open my eyes to how nasty some of these dims can be. You're not alone on this one.

VG

You are just a completely worthless piece of shit. Good bye.

re #50 Superwoman wrote:

That anyone can even entertain the thought of letting people DIE because they live in a red state is unconscionable, and yes, I WILL CALL IT WHAT IT IS. Damned hateful.

Just so there is no mistake.... even the *thought* of punishing dying people because you're angry at who their state voted for is EVIL.

Clear?

Yes! I agree with you entirely ... and that's why I couldn't bring myself to take it literally ... It was like when Hunter Thompson used to call Richard Nixon a "lizard" ... you knew that Hunter didn't really think Nixon was a lizard so you had to stop and say "what is he really saying?" ... I never for a moment imagined that Joseph Cannon would be saying "it's ok to abandon them because their state's electoral votes went into Bush's column" ... especially here --- on this blog --- since we know that the electoral process is in shambles all over the country and many of us doubt that the official vote count for our state bears any resemblance to the will of the people ...

but having said that, I respect your difference of opinion and I also appreciate your follow-up post #51 where you offer concrete ways in which people can help. Thanks very much for that and I hope you will continue to contribute to the discussions here.

You really need to take that enema your boyfriend keeps recommending - perhaps that will flush your brain out - however, nothing will flush the shit from your soul.
But that's right, I forgot. Liberals are wraiths - a tribe of lesser beings and one thing ya'll surely lack is a soul...