Stars gather for hurricane relief

Ellen DeGeneres and Jack Black mingle backstage during the "Shelter from the Storm" appeal Friday.

i've not seen the concert yet. i do have it on tape. i know how much i love both randy newman AND dr john though. i wish they could have gotten together under better circumstances

Friday, September 9, 2005; Posted: 11:38 p.m. EDT (03:38 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- With the floodwaters of Katrina yet to recede, Randy Newman sang about a long-ago hurricane in "Louisiana 1927" to open a benefit program spread across dozens of television networks Friday. Dr. John ended a show suffused with the spirit of a musical city singing a song that's only a wish now: "Walkin' to New Orleans." The hourlong "Shelter from the Storm" appeal was an echo of a somber event held four years ago to benefit victims of the September 11 terrorist attack, with the same producer. This time the telethon had more determination than shock and featured native jazz, gospel and swamp-rock sounds. "Tonight let's show people on the Gulf Coast that they have friends all over the world, friends who care, who understand and are there to give them shelter from the storm," said comic Ellen DeGeneres, who was raised in New Orleans. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and the WB -- the six biggest broadcast networks -- aired it along with several cable networks. Viewers in nearly 100 countries were able to tune in. Contributions were being solicited for the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army..............

just because you're trying to stop us from seeing them

doesn't mean WE DON'T KNOW THEY ARE DEAD............ (thank you for this cnn)

U.S. drops banning media from body hunt
CNN filed suit for access to search for New Orleans' dead

Saturday, September 10, 2005; Posted: 11:05 a.m. EDT (15:05 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.
Joint Task Force Katrina "has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts," said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.
U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.
In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies.
The judge was to consider granting a permanent injunction Saturday when the government announced its decision not to fight CNN's lawsuit.
In an e-mail to CNN staff, CNN News Group President Jim Walton said the network filed the the lawsuit to "prohibit any agency from restricting its ability to fully and fairly cover" the hurricane victim recovery process.
"As seen most recently from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, from tsunami-ravaged South Asia and from Hurricane Katrina's landfall along the Gulf," Walton wrote, "CNN has shown that it is capable of balancing vigorous reporting with respect for private concerns."

we are NOT going to die!

3 days of death, despair and survival
'We're gonna die, why don't we just end it quicker?'
By Jennifer PangyanszkiCNN


Friday, September 9, 2005; Posted: 11:00 p.m. EDT (03:00 GMT)
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (CNN) -- Trapped inside the darkened, stifling hot attic of her flooded home in New Orleans with her two teenage daughters, Debbie Este watched her own mother die as they waited for help she thought would never come.

For three days they waited, sweating and stripped nearly naked because of the 110 degree heat, with no food and running out of water. The rising water reached the attic and threatened the survival of anyone inside the yellow-sided, single-story house. During half the time they were trapped, the body of Debbie's mom, Melissa Harold, 68, who didn't make it through the ordeal, lay lifeless on the attic floor. Debbie and her girls -- Tiffany, 16, and Amanda, 13 -- could hear the churn of helicopters overhead, evacuating neighbors near their house on Arts Street. The sound only reminded them that nobody had come to their rescue. Their own screams for help were unanswered. Fear got the better of Debbie. She felt so hopeless, she thought about using painkillers she had with her to end her and her daughters' plight. "I said nobody's going to come save us up here and I don't wanna die like this, three days laying in this stinky, dirty water," Debbie Este said this week. "I couldn't take it anymore. We're gonna die, why don't we just end it quicker?'" At that time, stories of life and death and desperation were taking place across New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina's fury swept through the Gulf Coast, raising the waters and breaching the levees that kept the city and its homes above water. For the Estes, one family member was left dead and Debbie and her two daughters made it out alive, joining the hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Before their eventual rescue and relocation to a shelter in Baton Rouge, however, the three trapped survivors had to rescue themselves from succumbing to Debbie Este's desperation. Debbie, who is 47 and uses a wheelchair, had carried her painkillers -- 60 Loratab 10s -- into the attic. And she asked the girls to swallow the pills with her to end the suffering. "She kept on saying, come on and take 'em," said Tiffany, who marked her 16th birthday in the Baton Rouge River Center shelter on Monday. "I just kept telling her we were going to be saved, but really, I didn't know." Amanda swayed her mother from suicide by talking about her future. "I said I want to finish school and have a job and have kids and have a husband," Amanda said. "She was miraculous. I couldn't believe it," Debbie said of her younger daughter. "I was so proud of her. She just screamed like that for hours and hours. Her and Tiffany kept saying we weren't going to die up here." Tiffany doesn't remember much else, having slept most of the time, even though her mom regularly woke her up, afraid she had died. "After my grandma died, I just went to sleep. She thought I'd died, but I was just sleeping.".......................

a very cool story

this story is a couple of days old, i just never got a chance to post it and it NEEDED to be posted. i also saw deamonte on the news. what a kid! he is someone i'd share a sandbox with ANY DAY.

Survivor Story: 6-Year-Old Leads Five Toddlers, Baby To Safety


WLEX-TV
In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard in New Orleans last Thursday, one group of survivors stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.
They were holding hands. Three of the children were about two years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A three-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.
Thousands of human stories have flown past relief workers in the last week, but few have touched them as much as the seven children who were found wandering together Thursday at an evacuation point in downtown New Orleans. In the Baton Rouge headquarters of the rescue operation, paramedics tried to coax their names out of them; nurses who examined them stayed up that night, brooding.
Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans.
"It goes back to the same thing," he said. "How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"
So far, parents displaced by flooding have reported 220 children missing, but that number is expected to rise, said Mike Kenner of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which will help reunite families. With crowds churning at evacuation points, many children were parted from their parents accidentally; one woman handed her baby up onto a bus, turned around to pick up her suitcase and turned back to find that the bus had left..........................

uh oh

The Next Storm, Brewing by Andrew Wahl

unbelievably GREAT animation from

mark fiore

whoopsi gras..........

yeah fewer poor people!

yeah, i wanna live in a neighborhood full o' the rich powerful good ol' white boy network! (NOT) (more on what i posted a few moments ago)

Rich Whites Plot to Prevent Blacks from Returning to NO Chilling. We cannot allow this plan to stand.
"The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline."How do they want the city rebuilt?"The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters."The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."I'm going to be writing a lot more about this. New Orleans, if it is rebuilt, must remain the beacon of culture and life it once was. Or at least, it must echo that life......

i'm too sexy for my shirt..........

and apparently for the catholic church as well.......

Too "sexy" to teach religion Italy academic told
Reuters, UKSep. 6, 2005 Philip Pullella today.reuters.co.uk

ROME (Reuters) - Was it her looks or lifestyle that led the Roman Catholic Church to cause a minor media frenzy by firing an Italian religion teacher this year?Caterina Bonci said Church authorities decided she was just too attractive and dressed too sexy to teach religion after 14 years on the job.The Church says it sacked the 38-year-old blonde from the central Adriatic city of Fano because she is divorced.No matter who is right, Bonci has been all over the Italian media demanding to go back to her job teaching religion to children in state schools on behalf of the local diocese.She said she has never hidden her 2000 divorce from Church authorities, dresses down when teaching and defended her right to dress how she likes in her private life."I don't see what it matters if a teacher is good looking or not as long she is qualified," she told Reuters by telephone."In school, I dressed normally. In my private life, I have every right to dress any way I want."Local media quoted lawyers for the diocese as saying she was fired because she was divorced and so should not be teaching religion for a Church that does not recognise divorce.Even Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, gave readers a break from pages of stories about scandal at the Bank of Italy and government bickering with the teasing headline:"Teacher in mini-skirt fired by diocese".Bonci said she separated from her husband in 1995 and divorced in 2000 and that both events had not affected her job or raised eyebrows from her employers at the time.She said reports that fathers accompanied their children to religion classes so they could look at her meant little to her as long as the children came to class."When a woman is considered too sexy and attractive in a small town it becomes a big thing," she said.Bonci has now become a minor celebrity on the Adriatic coast and national television talk shows are queuing up to interview her, but she says she want only one thing."I would like my job back. I think it is my right," she said. .......

damn straight it's YOUR RIGHT! (sisterhood is powerful)

it is HARDLY shocking, please you know it and i know it

UN hits back at US in report saying parts of America are as poor as Third World
By Paul Vallely
Published: 08 September 2005

Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality. Claims that the New Orleans floods have laid bare a growing racial and economic divide in the US have, until now, been rejected by the American political establishment as emotional rhetoric. But yesterday's UN report provides statistical proof that for many - well beyond those affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - the great American Dream is an ongoing nightmare. The document constitutes a stinging attack on US policies at home and abroad in a fightback against moves by Washington to undermine next week's UN 60th anniversary conference which will be the biggest gathering of world leaders in history. The annual Human Development Report normally concerns itself with the Third World, but the 2005 edition scrutinises inequalities in health provision inside the US as part of a survey of how inequality worldwide is retarding the eradication of poverty. It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years - and is now the same as Malaysia. America's black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday. The report is bound to incense the Bush administration as it provides ammunition for critics who have claimed that the fiasco following Hurricane Katrina shows that Washington does not care about poor black Americans. But the 370-page document is critical of American policies towards poverty abroad as well as at home. And, in unusually outspoken language, it accuses the US of having "an overdeveloped military strategy and an under-developed strategy for human security". "There is an urgent need to develop a collective security framework that goes beyond military responses to terrorism," it continues. " Poverty and social breakdown are core components of the global security threat." The document, which was written by Kevin Watkins, the former head of research at Oxfam, will be seen as round two in the battle between the UN and the US, which regards the world body as an unnecessary constraint on its strategic interests and actions. Last month John Bolton, the new US ambassador to the UN, submitted 750 amendments to the draft declaration for next week's summit to strengthen the UN and review progress towards its Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2015. The report launched yesterday is a clear challenge to Washington. The Bush administration wants to replace multilateral solutions to international problems with a world order in which the US does as it likes on a bilateral basis..............................

canada news

Sharia move in Canada draws anger

Women's rights activists are to march in 11 cities in Canada and Europe against plans to allow Sharia law tribunals in the province of Ontario.
Islamic law could be used to settle civil and marital disputes under a proposal made by former Ontario Attorney General Marion Boyd.
Roman Catholic and Jewish arbitration tribunals already operate Ontario.
Opponents of Sharia law say allowing Islamic tribunals could lead to discrimination against women.
A protest march is scheduled for Thursday in Toronto, which is the capital of Canada's most populous and multi-cultural province.
Other Canadian marches are due in Ottawa, Waterloo, Montreal and Victoria, while in Europe there will be rallies in Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, Goteborg, London and Paris.
'Unbelievable'
Michele Vianes, president of the Paris-based group Regards de Femmes, says political Islam does not recognise secular law.
"For all Europeans, women particularly, we think Canada is a country where women's rights are very strong," she said.
"For us, it is unbelievable that Sharia institutes are possible in Canada."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has been examining the Sharia recommendation since December and has only promised that the government will take a decision "in keeping with the values of Ontarians and Canadians".
Ms Boyd argues that if Sharia is not allowed, all religious arbitration bodies could be abolished.........

(well ms boyd, all religious arbitration bodies SHOULD be abolished!!!)

we don't want you here..............(i am NOT one of the we by the way)

from the wall street journal via raw story

WSJ: White rich elude Orleans chaos, don't want poor blacks back
John Byrne

The Wall Street Journal front-page headline reads, "Old-Line Families /
Escape Worst of Flood / And Plot the Future / Mr. O'Dwyer, at His Mansion, /
Enjoys Highball With Ice; / Meeting With the Mayor."
That is, however, just
the beginning. According to the (paid-restricted) Journal, New Orleans' wealthy
white neighborhoods emerged very much intact, while black neighborhoods are
swimming in toxic sludge. The Journal piece, by Christopher Cooper, reads as
something torn from the pages of Fitzgerald's iconic portrait of the roaring
twenties--The Great Gatsby.
"NEW ORLEANS -- On a sultry morning earlier this
week," Cooper writes, "Ashton O'Dwyer stepped out of his home on this city's
grandest street and made a beeline for his neighbor's pool. Wearing nothing but
a pair of blue swim trunks and carrying two milk jugs, he drew enough pool water
to flush the toilet in his home."

He continues: "The mostly African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans are
largely underwater, and the people who lived there have scattered across the
country. But in many of the predominantly white and more affluent areas, streets
are dry and passable. Gracious homes are mostly intact and powered by
generators. Yesterday, officials reiterated that all residents must leave New
Orleans, but it's still unclear how far they will go to enforce the
order."
"The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has
doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for
the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the
homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes
to cool off his highballs in the evening. By yesterday, the city water service
even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary.
A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four
cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15
gallons of generator gasoline."
How do they want the
city rebuilt?............

how indeed! you KNOW how 'they' want it rebuilt!

how much more before we revolt?

i have a home and i know where my family is and my friends are and we are all safe and housed and fed and clothed and our kids are going to school and those of us lucky enough to have pets still have them. again, i am making a mistake by watching the news. some german folks have some equipment that is "vital" (i came in to that story halfway through and i'm not sure what the equipment exactly is) however, they are NOT being directed to bring it anywhere. they are sitting around (in germany) awaiting commands. then i see a story where mississippi is awaiting hundreds of trailers for temporary housing. lott intervened and asked bushwhacked himself to get involved. those trailers are still sitting in rows and rows and rows UNUSED (they had film of them just sitting there). then i saw a story on pets left behind. to most, they ARE a member of the family. in between all of this i saw a story on people being directed to contact fema for information on loved ones or how to get help. the catch 22 IS THE PEOPLE HAVE TO HAVE A WORKING PHONE NUMBER AND A VALID MAILING ADDRESS. (shit, shit and shit). oh, they can contact fema on their website (who the f**k has a pc??????????). the newscaster gave it a go. it took THEM six times to even get to the fema home page. then it took them SEVEN MORE PAGES TO GET TO THE APPLICATION FOR HELP. what an effing crock of shite. now a story is on about children. there is NO WAY i am going to pay attention to that one. i'm done. i'm spent. and read the first sentence i wrote. i HAVE EVERYTHING. i cannot imagine what THEY are going through. (i just heard they found a seven year old grrrl in the superdome with her throat cut) shite shite shite

counseling my BIG FAT WHITE ASS

these pilots saved 110 lives. they actually DID SOMETHING. made a decision, rolled up their sleeves, took their vagina's outta their mama's handbags and effing SAVED PEOPLE

now they're in deep doo-doo

Fla. Pilots 'Counseled' for Rescues

Sep 7, 6:12 PM (ET)By BILL KACZOR

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - Two Navy helicopter pilots were reminded of the importance of supply missions after delivering their cargo and then rescuing 110 hurricane victims in New Orleans instead of immediately returning to base, the military said Wednesday.
One of the pilots was temporarily assigned to a kennel but that was not punishment, said Patrick Nichols, a civilian public affairs officer at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
"They were not reprimanded," Nichols said. "They were counseled."
Lt. Matt Udkow and Lt. David Shand returned to the base from their mission on Aug. 30, a day after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Nichols said. Udkow and Shand met with Cmdr. Michael Holdener, who praised their actions but reminded them their orders were to fly water and other supplies to three destinations in Mississippi - the Stennis Space Center, Pascagoula and Gulfport - and then return to Pensacola.
"The Hollywood role of this thing is search and rescue," Nichols said. "Logistics was just as important. They realize that."

one more (posting) for the road.......

(The sight of corpses has become almost common on the mostly abandoned streets of New Orleans, as rescue and evacuation operations have taken priority over removing the dead.)


Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street

By DAN BARRY
Published: September 8, 2005

..........................That a corpse lies on Union Street may not shock; in the wake of last week's hurricane, there are surely hundreds, probably thousands. What is remarkable is that on a downtown street in a major American city, a corpse can decompose for days, like carrion, and that is acceptable.
Welcome to New Orleans in the post-apocalypse, half baked and half deluged: pestilent, eerie, unnaturally quiet. ............................................

in their own words

i got this link via bifurcated rivets. a heartbreaking read (what the hell ISN'T a heartbreaking read these days?)

Hurricane Katrina - Our Experiences


note: Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics frorm California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans. Larry Bradsahw is the chief shop steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790; and Lorrie Beth Slonsky is steward, Paramedic Chapter, SEIU Local 790.[California]

Two days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Walgreen's store at the corner of Royal and Iberville streets remained locked. The dairy display case was clearly visible through the widows. It was now 48 hours without electricity, running water, plumbing. The milk, yogurt, and cheeses were beginning to spoil in the 90-degree heat. The owners and managers had locked up the food, water, pampers, and prescriptions and fled the City. Outside Walgreen's windows, residents and tourists grew increasingly thirsty and hungry.
The much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized and the windows at Walgreen's gave way to the looters. There was an alternative. The cops could have broken one small window and distributed the nuts, fruit juices, and bottle water in an organized and systematic manner. But they did not. Instead they spent hours playing cat and mouse, temporarily chasing away the looters.
We were finally airlifted out of New Orleans two days ago and arrived home yesterday (Saturday). We have yet to see any of the TV coverage or look at a newspaper. We are willing to guess that there were no video images or front-page pictures of European or affluent white tourists looting the Walgreen's in the French Quarter.
We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane. What you will not see, but what we witnessed,were the real heroes and sheroes of the hurricane relief effort: the working class of New
Orleans. The maintenance workers who used a fork lift to carry the sick and disabled. The engineers, who rigged, nurtured and kept the generators running. The electricians who improvised thick extension cords stretching over blocks to share the little electricity we had in order to free cars stuck on rooftop parking lots. Nurses who took over for mechanical ventilators and spent many hours on end manually forcing air into the lungs of unconscious patients to keep them alive. Doormen who rescued folks stuck in elevators. Refinery workers who broke into boat yards, "stealing" boats to rescue their neighbors clinging to their roofs in flood waters. Mechanics who helped hot-wire any car that could be found to ferry people out of the City. And the food service workers who scoured the commercial kitchens improvising communal meals for hundreds of those stranded.....................

musician of the day

allan toussaint

a wonderful buzzflash editorial

You Can't Pray a Lie, Except if You are George W. Bush

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

The chronic, bald-faced lying of the Bush Administration has been a BuzzFlash focus since before George even assumed office, and regular readers of our news and commentary site are familiar with our documentation of just a small fraction of the daily mendacity of the Bush Cartel. Admittedly, no one would accuse politics of being a field that is noted for its veracity. But there are small lies, there are big lies, and there are lies that are beyond the pale of comprehension in terms of civilized interaction and responsibility to the nation. It is the third category of Bush lies that BuzzFlash has noted for five years. And it the third category that Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush and their minions disseminate with such frequency that we are left like swirling dervishes trying to keep up with their pathological betrayal of the truth. Yet, the news media, by and large, has covered the Bush brazen lies as though they were a test of Rove's skills to get away with them. The media, we thought, was supposed to try and expose lies, not laud the criminal talents of Machiavellian advisors to divert press attention away from easily disproved attempts to deceive the American people on matters of life and death. The fact is that despite the perhaps temporary media criticisms of the unforgivable Bush neglect of the disaster in New Orleans, the press is still analyzing whether or not Rove (who the press should have hounded out of office for being a traitor in TreasonGate months ago) can save Bush and his minions from their stupefying deliberate betrayal of the truth. In fact, the status quo media such as the New York Times and the Washington Post continue to be eager and willing transmitters of the Rovian spin and smear machine. For instance, the Post, through the anonymous sources that outed Valerie Plame, "revealed" to readers that the Governor of Louisiana never asked Bush to declare a state of emergency. This was part of the Rove effort, sanctioned and condoned by Bush, to blame local officials for the disastrous and inexplicable federal delay in responding to Hurricane Katrina. The only problem is that it wasn't true. A look on the FEMA website would have been all that was necessary to discover that LA Governor Blanco had dealt with the issue of declaring Louisiana in a state of emergency before Hurricane Katrina even hit land. But the Post's political reporters -- and the Times' -- like to do stories the easy way, as stenographers. The Post, due to outrage about the lie that caromed around the Internet, was forced to issue a retraction. But the real question is after five years of the same "lie, spin, smear and PR stunt" strategy of covering up a steady stream of Bush disasters, why are the Post and Times still breathlessly reporting lies from anonymous sources at the White House that can be easily disproved? Perhaps the Post and Times are afraid somebody might accuse them of practicing journalism instead of being megaphones for slander. Bush himself last week told Diane Sawyer that no one had ever anticipated the levees in New Orleans would break. It was a lie of such monstrous and blatant proportion (like so many that have preceded it), it should have been enough -- in and of itself -- to once and for all permanently discredit him. It was disproved by reams of documents, reports, and warnings concerning the levees, as well as administration financial cutbacks to shore up the levees to prevent just such an occurrence. Then we had Michael Brown, the ludicrously incompetent head of FEMA, announce that people dying of thirst and hunger at the New Orleans Convention Center were receiving two meals a day, which, TV reporters covering the crisis, said was not true (to be polite). Brown and FEMA said federal help was not sent to evacuate the people at the Convention Center because they could not reach it, even though journalists and others could -- and it was on dry ground, with plenty of open space around it for helicopters to land. The titular head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, said that he read the papers on Tuesday and Wednesday and that they didn't indicate New Orleans needed much help, which sent bloggers in search of any paper, just one, that might have played that angle. None existed. All talked about the dire distress of the city. And Brown told CNN and Ted Koppel that he had just learned about people in need at the Superdome on Thursday, even though it had been reported as the primary New Orleans disaster story on national television for two days prior to that. Brown himself is the model of the Bush lackey who lies for the boss, someone promoted for his incompetence in order to ensure his absolute loyalty to the Bush dynasty, not to America. Brown had an unusual disqualification for heading FEMA that must have been attractive to Bush, who knows that someone who is unqualified for a job is the best person to promote up, because this person then owes everything to Bush and nothing to the nation. Brown was fired ("asked to resign") from being head of an Arabian Horse Association, which may have explained why, one wag noted, no Arabian horses apparently died in the wake of Katrina. What we know now, however, is that he was picked for his ability to lie in any fashion possible to protect Bush. This is the key qualification of any Bush appointee. When Bush made a belated and hastily arranged PR stage-managed photo op trip to the ravaged South, he told the fired Arabian-Horse-Association-Executive-Director-Turned-Bush-FEMA-Head, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." Translated, this means, "Forget about all the colored folks who suffered and died, we'll reward you for your loyalty, Brownie. It's part of what you get with Omerta to the Bush Clan." As we pointed out in a recent editorial -- and in many ones before that -- Bush lies so frequently, it's the rare exception when he is telling the truth. He lied us into a war. He also lied about not being informed about the threat of Al Qaeda hijackings prior to 9/11. He and Condoleezza Rice were briefed about them in August of 2001, as we have noted numerous times, and neither of them did anything to prevent their occurrence. Bush lies about almost anything, including social security, Medicare, tax cuts, the economy, stem cell research -- just name it; he lies about it. By now the press shouldn't be covering the process of whether or not Karl Rove will once again pull Bush out of the gutter by kicking other people into it, people who have stood up for the truth. The press should be reporting about an administration that is built upon a foundation of lies. Lies are the coin of the realm in the White House, and the press keeps coming back for more. Bush's lack of credibility and his betrayal of the truth should be the center stage story, not the Svengali tactics used by Rove to manipulate the press to overlooking Bush's chronic mendacity. The Democrats are partly to blame here, because those in the Senate, with a few exceptions, have been afraid to call Bush out on his congenital dishonesty and betrayal of the American people. The media and the Democratic leadership in Congress seem to be cowed by Bush's "amiability" in staged PR stunts and his aura of being religious. But, as we noted in a BuzzFlash editorial some time back, Mark Twain gave us the most accurate assessment of the fundamental dishonest paradox of someone claiming to be a man of God while, at the same time, being a pathological liar. In "Huckleberry Finn," one of Twain's characters has an epiphany about what it means to be honest and decent to another human being when he realizes that "you can't pray a lie." Bush, the privileged wastrel son, has not experienced this realization. Bush's entire administration has been marked by misfits who are promoted up because of their incompetence and ability to be dishonest in the boldest and most brazen of fashions. They can only be a member of the Bush inner circle if they can prove that they can "pray a lie." And they also have to prove that their incompetence is a permanent character trait and not just a passing error in judgment. That's not just calculated negligence; it's a threat to the life, security and safety of every American. Because we aren't talking about goofing up a job at the Arabian Horse Association here. We're talking about leaving an entire nation vulnerable to disaster -- and these disasters have taken their enormous toll under Bush's watch, because he values personal loyalty, incompetence and lies over service to the nation.

how much uglier can this get?

why don't they vote to BLOCK SENDING MORE OF OUR TROOPS AND MONEY TO IRAQ? this is america. these are OUR people. this is a tragedy. it is an embarrassment. it is unacceptable. i can use all the adjectives i can think of and it still won't make any of this right.

i was watching oprah yesterday (normally i do NOT watch her as i am NOT a fan) just to see what was up with her and her very best friend gayle and of course all of her scientology buds. in mississippi oprah interviewed this young woman with a young baby on her hip and from what i gather another one on the way. she was standing in the middle of what was once her house, her neighborhood. oprah asked if fema had been around to distribute food, water, supplies, shelter. no, of course they hadn't been around. a church from another town in mississippi had been around and provided her (and the others in her town) with a few necessities. she also said a red cross truck had been through the area twice, dropping off things. WHERE IS FEMA? WHERE ARE THE FEDERAL AGENCIES? yeah, we have EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL ALL RIGHT
Republicans block efforts to amend relief bill, hold vote without providing copy of bill

John Byrne

In the wake of what the Wall Street Journal projected may be
the most expensive natural disaster in American history, the Republican
Leadership in the House of Representatives limited floor consideration of the
$52 billion Katrina relief bill proposed by President Bush and voted to reject
any Democratic efforts to amend the bill to include a wider array of relief
measures, RAW
STORY has learned.
Democrats said no one had
even seen a copy of the legislation.
Voting along party lines, Republicans
denied a measure that would have allowed for two hours of discussion and opened
up the measure to be amended.

The Republican leadership pushed through a Suspension Rule in the
House Rules Committee that blocked any members from offering amendments to the
bill. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the Committee,
led opposition to the rule.
The bill, which enjoys bipartisan support, is
expected to pass on the House floor tomorrow.
Democrats implored Republicans
to allow amendments, which would enable consideration of measures such as which
areas and to which agencies relief dollars were most needed and how to
restructure FEMA so that it would be more effective.
We've been on vacation for five weeks. Now, in our first week
back, the Republican Leadership would rather duck and run than discuss what's
happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina," Slaughter told RAW STORY in a statement. "Life in the Gulf Coast is no vacation. The
Federal Government failed the American people in its initial response to this
horrible disaster and by their actions; the Republican Leadership is once again
showing that their priorities are out of sync with the needs of so many hard
working families."....................

uncompassionate? can it be true?

(thanks for forwarding this andrea)
you've read the words of barbara bush (well they were poor any damn way!) and you've read her son's words (good job brownie!) and you've read the words of so many others LIKE them.........so this should come as NO surprise

John Roberts: Uncompassionate Conservative By Marjorie Cohn t r u t h o u t Perspective
Tuesday 06 September 2005

George W. Bush has nominated John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States. Bush lauded Roberts for his "goodwill and decency toward others." Yet Roberts' record reveals a callous disregard for the rights of people very much like the tens of thousands who have died and been rendered homeless by Katrina. The outpouring of compassion by people all over this country - and indeed, the world - in the wake of Hurricane Katrina stands in stark contrast to Bush's actions both before and after the tragedy. In spite of warnings about the weak levees in New Orleans, Bush cut the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for levee construction by 44 percent. By sending the National Guard to fight in his trumped-up war on Iraq, Bush deprived the people of New Orleans of critical assistance immediately after the hurricane struck. The day after what may be the worst disaster ever to hit the United States, Bush refused to interrupt his golf game to exercise badly needed leadership. Most of the tragic images flashing across our television screens are of African Americans. They are suffering indescribable hardship as a result of an administration that failed to protect them from the predicted hurricane, and then failed to timely render aid that would have saved thousands of lives. John Roberts' career has established his credentials as an uncompassionate conservative. He has worked consistently to deny access to the courts to individuals who have suffered harm like those in New Orleans. He has long been an enemy of civil rights - for the poor, for minorities, for women, for the disabled, for workers, and for a clean and safe environment. Roberts tried to cut back the federal law that allows people to sue the government when they have been deprived of their federal rights. When he worked at the Solicitor General's office in the George Bush I administration, Roberts wrote an amicus brief in which he argued that the state of Virginia should not reimburse hospitals for Medicaid claims at reasonable rates. Roberts said the Medicaid Act did not create any enforceable rights. Roberts would likely deny relief to people in New Orleans who seek to recover medical costs from a government that failed to protect them. Roberts viewed legislation to fortify the Fair Housing Act as "government intrusion." Roberts condemned a Supreme Court decision striking down a Texas law that allowed schools to deny admission to the children of undocumented workers.....................

bob roberts? NO NO NO WILLIAMS!

Who is Bob Williams, and why is he on TV talking about Hurricane Katrina? On September 6 and 7, numerous national media outlets featured G. Robert "Bob" Williams, president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, falsely criticizing Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin -- both Democrats -- for their handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. But none of these media outlets disclosed that the Evergreen Freedom Foundation is a conservative think tank that espouses "limited, accountable government" and receives funding from numerous conservative donors. Nor did they make clear how Williams, who was a Washington state legislator during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, is qualified to comment on hurricane disaster relief efforts.
Williams's media tour appears to have been launched by a September 6 Wall Street Journal op-ed. He also was featured on the September 6 editions of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, ABC's World News Tonight, and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, as well as the September 7 edition of MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast.
On his guest appearances on The O'Reilly Factor and Connected: Coast to Coast, Williams claimed that Blanco was largely to blame for the slow government response to Katrina's devastation, because "the feds can't come in" to provide disaster relief unless requested by the governor. This is false; in fact, the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Plan clearly states that the federal government may take a "proactive" response to a catastrophe and bypass state requests for aid. Normally, it is a governor's responsibility to request federal aid in the event of an emergency. But under a "proactive" response, "[s]tandard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited or, under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude." Moreover, Blanco requested federal aid three days before Katrina made landfall in Louisiana. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reprinted Blanco's August 27 request to Bush to declare a state of emergency in Louisiana and to provide "supplementary Federal assistance." Further, the White House had already authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist with the hurricane emergency. According to an August 26 White House statement, FEMA was authorized "to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." ......................

and now for some GOOD news

Same Sex Marriage Wins Vote in California

By DEAN E. MURPHY
Published: September 7, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 6 - California lawmakers on Tuesday became the first in the country to legalize same-sex marriage, with the State Assembly narrowly approving a bill that defines marriage as between "two persons" instead of between a man and a woman.
Unlike Massachusetts, where gay men and lesbians are permitted to marry because of court rulings, the legislators in California voted to amend the state's family code without the threat of legal action.
"Do what we know is in our hearts," Assemblyman Mark Leno, an openly gay Democrat from San Francisco who sponsored the bill, said Tuesday night in a debate on the bill. "Make sure all Californians, all California's children and families, will have equal protection under the law."
Opponents of the measure warned that lawmakers were venturing into uncharted and potentially dangerous territory.
"Engaging in social experimentation with our children is not the role of the legislature," said Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a Republican from Southern California. "We are throwing the dice and taking a huge gamble, and we are gambling with the lives and future of generations not yet born."
The measure now goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, who has supported domestic partnership legislation in the past but has not taken a public position on the marriage bill.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Schwarzenegger, Margita Thompson, said after the vote that the governor believed that the issue of same-sex marriage should be settled by the courts, not legislators, but she did not indicate whether that meant he would veto the legislation. The bill did not pass with enough votes to override a veto..........

1-800-IMPEACHTHEASSWIPE(s)

Firefighters endure a day of FEMA training, which included a course on sexual harassment. Some firefighters say their skills are being wasted. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune)

story after story after unbelievable story like this. i want to say, ENOUGH WITH THE JOKES, THIS ISN'T FUNNY. PEOPLE HAVE DIED BUT MANY MANY MANY STILL NEED SAVING (and CAN be saved if we GET ON IT RIGHT AWAY). it's NOT an ugly joke, it's REAL.

Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA

By Lisa RosettaThe Salt Lake Tribune

ATLANTA - Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?" As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers. Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA. On Monday, some firefighters stuck in the staging area at the Sheraton peeled off their FEMA-issued shirts and stuffed them in backpacks, saying they refuse to represent the federal agency. Federal officials are unapologetic..........
..................... "They've got 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. On Monday, two firefighters from South Jordan and two from Layton headed for San Antonio to help hurricane evacuees there. Four firefighters from Roy awaited their marching orders, crossing their fingers that they would get to do rescue and recovery work, rather than paperwork.................

you know what mr weiner, most of them DON'T

To Those Who Voted for Bush: Do You Get It Now?
by Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers

(great editorial)
http://www.opednews.com
Here's something I don't understand. The Golden Goose was about to lay another 9/11-type Golden Egg for Bush&Co. to pick up. And they didn't. Surely, Karl Rove, who had seen Bush's approval ratings drop to all-time lows, knew days ahead that a Category 5 Hurricane was bearing down on New Orleans and a calamitous disaster was likely to unfold there if and when the levees were unable to hold back the water. What better way to improve those ratings than for Bush to be photographed the day after the disaster struck, standing on top of debris, bullhorn in hand, vowing that the government would help Gulf Coast states rebuild from the Katrina catastrophe? But none of that happened. They bungled their own political resurrection! Nearly a full week went by, while thousands were dying and starving or were kennelled in unbelievable filth in New Orleans. Nobody seemed to be in charge. Bush remained "on vacation" in Crawford, and traveled around to fundraisers, played golf, etc.; Condi was theatergoing and buying thousand-dollar shoes on Fifth Avenue. What was going on? Did Karl Rove not understand the significance of what was happening? Was Bush...uh..."incapacitated"? What about Cheney, "on vacation" in Wyoming; was he "incapacitated," too? Are the Bush people really that politically obtuse? So here's the question I have for those of you who voted for Bush in 2004: Do you get it now? BUSH GOES AWOL, AGAIN For the past four years, progressives and moderate-conservatives have been pointing out how incompetent this Administration is. Many Bush Republicans accused us of making up such accusations for purely political reasons. Now you yourself can see what we have seen: These guys are way over their heads and haven't got a clue; they're constantly having to come back at a problem in hopes of getting it right the second or third time around. Of course, that means they're always playing catch-up, which means they're always too late. (Such as this Alice-in-Wonderland comment by Bush a week after he went AWOL -- again -- when his country needed him: "In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need.") Those at the royal Bush court lead such isolated, circumscribed lives that when a disaster strikes, they are so far removed from the circumstances in which regular people find themselves that they simply don't understand the magnitude of what's happening out there in the real-world. You may remember that Bush's first response to the Asian tsunami was silence, and then a grudging piddling amount of aid offerred; it took the international community shaming him for his unfeeling miserliness before his handlers began to change Bush's tune and he finally pledged genuine aid commensurate with the enormity of the catastrophe. Our earlier assessment of the Administration as bumblers was made mainly on the disaster that Bush&Co. made, and are still making, in the Persian Gulf. But now the whole world gets to see, up close and personal, the thorough botch they made, and are still making, in the other Gulf, in New Orleans and environs. THE IRAQ BOTCH In Iraq, they launched a war based on lies and deceptions, and had no plan for what should happen after the major military fighting ceased. They turned away Iraqis from participating in the reconstruction of their own society, preferring to award the multi-billion-dollar contracts to huge American firms like Halliburton and Bechtel. They disbanded the Iraqi army, leaving hundreds of thousands of young Iraqi men unemployed and angry. They insultingly refused aid and advice from the United Nations and their former allies, wanting nobody to interfere with their Occupation. They didn't have enough troops, and the correct troops, in place to police the "post-war" phase. They didn't guard the abandoned ammo dumps, and then were surprised when those munitions were used to blow up U.S. soldiers. They finally, a year or two late, realized that the U.S. was engaged in a guerrilla-style war against nationalist insurgents, along with some foreign jihadists, and started to change their military strategy. But it was too late, and insufficient, to make much of a dent. Now the U.S. is involved in a stalemated, Vietnam-like quagmire, and steady streams of flag-draped caskets make their way back to the U.S., and thousands and thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians continue dying as well. And still Bush cannot bring himself to answer Cindy Sheehan's simple question: "For what noble cause did my son have to die?"........................

what if it was YOUR ass

and the ass of your uncaring inhuman wife wading in the muck of what was once new orleans (or the gulf coasts of al and ms)?????????????????????????? i think you'd be spouting a far different tune you out of touch former president you (YOU wouldn't have done this bad a job and YOU effing KNOW IT)

George H.W. Bush: Media Unfairly Slamming My Son (Paging 'Mr. Sulzberger') By E&P Staff Published: September 06, 2005 12:35 AM ET

NEW YORK Appearing on the Larry King show on CNN Monday night, former President George H.W. Bush defended his son against criticism for his response to the hurricane disaster, suggesting it was mainly media-generated. Goaded on by King, he eventually backed off, saying if he kept talking he would be hearing from "Mr. Sulzberger," apparently referring to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., publisher of The New York Times. Asked about the criticism, the former president said, "I think any time there's a crisis people want to blame someone. I've never been much for the Monday morning quarterbacking and to be very candid, Larry, I think some of the criticism had been grossly unfair, particularly when they suggest the president doesn't care and all of that."You have to understand that people that are hurting are going to criticize. I thought President Clinton put it pretty well today when he said 'Let's get on with it and then there will be plenty of time to assign blame.'"But you know the media has a fascination, Larry, and you know this, I'm not saying you but the media has a fascination with the blame game and instead of looking for what can we do to help now there's a lot of why didn't we do something different?"KING: "But even the president said the reaction should have been faster that he wasn't satisfied."G. BUSH: "Sure. I don't think -- certainly I'm not satisfied but I'm just talking about the blame game and there was one particularly vicious comment that the president didn't care, was insensitive on ethnicity."......................

i think this is rather cool

i've never seen an albino squirrel but i have seen pitch black ones. we used to have a rather tame one that would arrive each day on our back porch and yell until my mother went out to feed him. he was a beautiful squirrel too - all shiny. i miss him

oh, by the way, ALL squirrels for some reason ( i don't know) are named gary. males and females, that is just how it is. gary squirrel(s)

You're not going nuts, it is a white squirrel... GARETH EDWARDS

FOR years it has been painted as a brutal war between natives and invaders. The red squirrel has long been fighting a losing battle against the influx of the more versatile grey squirrel, and is now a rare sight in the Lothians. But it seems a new element has entered the battle for squirrel supremacy - the albino squirrel. While not as rare as might be expected, white squirrels are an unusual sight, due to their coat being a rather unsuitable colour for trying to evade eagle-eyed predators. But what is a drawback in the country may actually be a blessing in the city, with some experts suggesting the white coat provides better camouflage against bright, modern buildings than either of its cousins. And numbers are on the rise, with three separate colonies in the Lothians reported to wildlife experts recently. Albino squirrels were spotted in Livingston, West Lothian earlier this year and now it has emerged that two other colonies are living in Edinburgh and Haddington, East Lothian. The albino squirrel is a grey squirrel that has slight mutation. Any increase in numbers is certainly not good news for the struggling native red, whose numbers are dwindling as the greys take more and more territory. ....................

if i believed in hell

she would surely burn....... (but i don't so it's moot). 'she chuckles slightly' indeed!!! the woman has absolutely NOT one ounce of humanity

from editor and publisher by way of my friend and pseudo-daughter cass

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans
By E&P Staff Published: September 05, 2005 7:25 PM ET updated 8:00 PM

NEW YORK Accompanying her husband, former President George H.W. Bush, on a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them." The former First Lady's remarks were aired this evening on American Public Media's "Marketplace"program. She was part of a group in Houston today at the Astrodome that included her husband and former President Bill Clinton, who were chosen by her son, the current president, to head fundraising efforts for the recovery. Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were also present. In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to Houston."Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality." And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them." honest miss barbara i don't know nuthin' bout birthin no babies..................

movie of the day

layer cake

a stylish funny rather noir british gangster film (no, it doesn't have bob hoskins in it)

you KNEW this wasn't far off in coming

by max blumenthal

Blaming Katrina on Gays, Israel, and Man-on-Horse Sex

I've been stunned at how long it took a prominent member of the Christian right to blame the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina on America's cultural decadence and immorality. Finally, Rick Scarborough of Vision America and the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration has stepped up to the plate, blaming Katrina on gay marriage, man-on-horse sex, and Israel for evacuating a portion of the Messiah's planned landing strip. He did so Volume 1, Number 24 (definitely not to be confused with a Bible verse) of his weekly email newsletter, the Scarborough Report, which you can subscribe to here. (Since you can't view Scarborough's latest newsletter online right now, I'm going to excerpt his statement at length.)
Scarborough declared:
After September 11, 2001, "God bless America" was on everyone's lips. But what, exactly, are we asking God to bless - a nation moving a breakneck speed toward homosexual marriage, a nation awash in pornography, a nation in which our children are indoctrinated in perversion in the public schools, a nation in which most public displays of The Ten Commandments are considered offensive to the Constitution, a nation in which the elite does all in its considerable power to efface our Biblical heritage?We are sowing the wind. Surely, we shall reap the whirlwind.One other factor which must be considered: Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy ("I will bless that nation that blesses you, and curse the nation that curses you")?Please read on. I want to give you two examples - from today's headlines - of how we are bringing disaster on ourselves. And then tell you what you can do - right now, today - to begin to reverse the process. ...................

FOR GOD'S SAKES SHUT UP AND SEND US SOMEBODY

incredibly moving video (you do have to watch an ad first)
(meet the press)

oy oy oy crikey

(the REAL path........thanks jay!!!)

In Kansas, Darwinism Goes on Trial Once More

By JODI WILGOREN
Published: May 6, 2005

TOPEKA, Kan., May 5 - Six years after Kansas ignited a national debate over the teaching of evolution, the state is poised to push through new science standards this summer requiring that Darwin's theory be challenged in the classroom. In the first of three daylong hearings being referred to here as a direct descendant of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, a parade of Ph.D.'s testified Thursday about the flaws they saw in mainstream science's explanation of the origins of life. It was one part biology lesson, one part political theater, and the biggest stage yet for the emerging movement known as intelligent design, which posits that life's complexity cannot be explained without a supernatural creator. Darwin's defenders are refusing to testify at the hearings, which were called by the State Board of Education's conservative majority. But their lawyer forcefully cross-examined the other side's experts, pushing them to acknowledge that nothing in the current standards prevented discussion of challenges to evolution, and peppering them with queries both profound and personal. "Do the standards state anywhere that science, evolution, is in any way in conflict with belief in God?" the lawyer, Pedro Irigonegaray, asked William S. Harris, a chemist who helped write the proposed changes. When a later witness, Jonathan Wells, said he enjoyed being in the minority on such a controversial topic, Mr. Irigonegaray retorted, "More than being right?".............

he's got the little bitty baby in his hands...........

Vincent Laforet/The New York Times
Nearly all of the babies were newborns and most were premature. The hospital had not established contact with parents of about 10 of them.


Hospitals
A Hospital Takes in the Tiniest of Survivors

By SEWELL CHAN
Published: September 6, 2005
BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 5 - Jazmyn Anderson yawned and flexed her tiny, rail-thin arms. Weighing 1 pound 41/2 ounces, she is one of the tiniest and frailest of Hurricane Katrina's survivors, airlifted here to Woman's Hospital of Baton Rouge last week from a New Orleans hospital as part of a chaotic evacuation of newborns.

The hospital was the clearinghouse for 121 babies rescued from hospitals in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes last week. Nearly all of the babies were newborns and most, like Jazmyn, were premature.
Many have since been discharged or transferred elsewhere, but 37 remained at Woman's Hospital on Monday afternoon, most of them in a neonatal intensive care unit that hummed with the sound of ventilators and cardiac and respiratory monitors. The unit usually has about 60 premature babies at any one time; on Monday, doctors and nurses were caring for 95 babies.
As of Monday afternoon, the hospital had not established contact with parents of about 10 of the 37 infants, but officials said they were hopeful that all of the babies would eventually be reunited with their families......

despair, inc. :-(

and let us not forget our OTHER crisis

September 5, 2005 Americans Regret Iraq War, Say Casualties Unacceptable (Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in the United States continue to question their government’s rationale for launching military action in Iraq, according to a poll by TNS released by the Washington Post and ABC News. 53 per cent of respondents think the war was not worth fighting. The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein’s regime was launched in March 2003. At least 1,885 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 14,200 troops have been injured. 68 per cent of respondents believe the number of U.S. military casualties in Iraq is unacceptable. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi—regarded as al-Qaeda’s top commander in Iraq—has reportedly carried out several attacks and kidnappings. On Aug. 31, more than 900 people died in northeast Baghdad when a stampede erupted during a Shiite religious procession. Preliminary reports indicate that a rumour about the purported presence of a suicide bomber on a bridge led to the trampling and drowning deaths. On Aug. 24 in Idaho, U.S. president George W. Bush ruled out removing American soldiers from Iraq, declaring, "An immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq, or the broader Middle East, as some have called for, would only embolden the terrorists and create a staging ground to launch more attacks against America and free nations. So long as I’m the president, we will stay, we will fight, and we will win the war on terror." 50 per cent of respondents say the U.S. is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq. Yesterday, Shiite National Assembly member Jalal al-Deen al-Sagheer questioned Arab states for failing to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation in Iraq, saying, "Why is it that the Iraqi people are getting killed everyday but none of these countries says a word. Why would Spain and other countries send us their condolences while these so called Arab countries did not even say a word?"..........

wtf?

what do you MEAN this ship is unused? it can make 100,000 GALLONS OF FRESH WATER DAILY. why is this ship just SITTING THERE? GULF COAST CRISIS: OFF THE GULF COAST

Navy ship nearby underusedCraft with
food, water,
doctors needed ordersBy Stephen J. HedgesTribune national
correspondentPublished
September 4, 2005
ON THE USS BATAAN -- While
federal and state emergency
planners scramble to get more military relief to
Gulf Coast communities stricken
by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval
goodwill station has been cruising
offshore, underused and waiting for a
larger role in the effort.The USS Bataan,
a 844-foot ship designed to
dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has
helicopters, doctors, hospital
beds, food and water. It also can make its own
water, up to 100,000 gallons
a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of
Mexico when Katrina came
roaring ashore.The Bataan rode out the storm and then
followed it toward
shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from
its deck were
some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans
residents.But now
the Bataan's hospital facilities, including six operating
rooms and beds for
600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors
could also go
ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven't been
asked. The
Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military
unit, but
federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.Captain ready,
waiting"Could we do more?" said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan.
"Sure. I've got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage
or
distributing water and food and stuff. But I can't force myself on
people."We're
doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we're
ready. If someone
says you need to take on people, we're ready. If they say
hospitals on the beach
can't handle it ... if they need to send the overflow
out here, we're ready.
We've got lots of room."......................

another tale of horror

Lethal chaos: Professor describes scene at New Orleans hospital Jennifer Van Bergen

A first-hand account of the New Orleans devastation from leading human rights
attorney
Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley, best known for his
work with Haitian pro-democracy activist Father Jean-Juste, spent some time
speaking to Raw Story’s Jennifer Van Bergen about his experience inside New
Orleans’s ground zero. When the category-four Hurricane Katrina made landfall
early last week, Bill Quigley was volunteering at Memorial Hospital, at the
heart of what would be later described as the worst-hit area. His wife Debbie, a
medical doctor at Memorial, was on duty that night. Speaking to RAW STORY, a shaken Quigley attempted to
reconstruct what occurred after the power and communication lines went down. The
hospital, he says, became intolerably hot.
“The conditions were abysmal,”
Quigley said. “Worse than abysmal. The toilets were full. There was no running
water, no electricity, and we were running out of drinking water. There was no
food. And it was hotter than hell.” ..............
..............Instead, Quigley says the Army helicopter dropped some food
supplies that turned out to be just three or four boxes with tin cans of Vienna
sausages.
These were not enough to feed the patients, let alone the staff or
volunteers. Food and water supplies were dwindling.
After that the
helicopters never returned to Memorial Hospital.
“We couldn’t figure out why
they didn’t come back,” Bill said.
Tulane University Hospital had been
evacuated, Quigley heard, but those at Memorial “were left to die or get out as
best they could.”
At least ten patients died while awaiting rescue workers.
Many died because their life-sustaining medical treatment required
electricity.
“These were patients with oxygen tanks, on ventilators, and with
IVs,” he explained.
“The nurses were heroic, the doctors did terrific work,
and the administration, well, they didn’t know what to do,” Bill recounted,
because “they were relying on information that didn’t come

.”

i agree a federal investigation MUST happen...

in due time. right now our FIRST and ONLY priority is aid and help Clinton: Government 'failed' people


Monday, September 5, 2005; Posted: 9:49 p.m. EDT (01:49 GMT)

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton
on Monday said the government "failed" the thousands of people who lived in
coastal communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and said a federal
investigation was warranted in due time.
"Our government failed those people
in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it," Clinton told
CNN. "One hundred percent of the people recognize that -- that it was a
failure." (See interview -- 2:32 )
He and former
President George H. W. Bush have launched the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to help
raise money for those left homeless by the storm. (Full story)
Clinton is just the latest
in a long line of critics who have blasted the federal government for not moving
fast enough to help people in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, which slammed
into the Gulf Coast one week ago as a Category 4 hurricane...........

i think a bit differently about her now

from crooks and liars (perhaps now i will be able to listen to a WHOLE song of hers) .....................Celine Dion's Crying Plea
On Larry King's special Saturday "How You Can Help," Celine broke down in tears over the tragedy that Hurricane Katrina has wrought.
Video-WMP
She attacked the U.S.'s war in Iraq and the government's response to Katrina. She was visibly upset over the plight of the victims of the Hurricane, but Larry in the middle of it asks her if she'll sing a song. I know she was probably supposed to be there to sing, but come on Larry. She sang a prayer............... (remember when larry kept asking pam if her breasteseseseseseseesss were real?)

Connecticut Humane Society Hurricane Relief Effort Updates

Connecticut Humane Society Goes to Louisiana
9/5 6:00 p.m. - The Connecticut Humane Society's Mobile Adoption Center has departed this is evening en route to Baton Rouge, LA to help pets affected by Hurricane Katrina. read update>
Donate To Relief Efforts

book of the day

the secret life of bees by sue monk kidd

i just finished this yesterday. i wanted to savor it. what lovely imagines flow throughout this book (and some NOT so lovely as well). of course it's NOT really about bees at all......... i could feel lily's pain and joy, i could feel the racism. i could feel the water and taste the honey. i can see the bright pink house (with the matching washer and dryer). i could touch the cool stones on may's wall. i would LOVE to have tea with lily and rosaleen and the calendar sisters and the daughter's of mary.

oh, my mother had a small beautiful picture of the black madonna on her (and my dad's) bedroom wall. it's still there even though my mother is gone.

Living on a peach farm in South Carolina
with her harsh, unyielding father, Lily Owens has shaped her entire life around
one devastating, blurred memory--the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily
was four. Since then, her only real companion has been the fierce-hearted, and
sometimes just fierce, black woman Rosaleen, who acts as her “stand-in mother.”
When Rosaleen insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily knows it's time
to spring them both free. They take off in the only direction Lily can think of,
toward a town called Tiburon, South Carolina--a name she found on the back of a
picture amid the few possessions left by her mother. There they are taken in by
an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters named May, June, and August. Lily
thinks of them as the calendar sisters and enters their mesmerizing secret world
of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of
strong, wise women. Maternal loss and betrayal, guilt and forgiveness entwine in
a story that leads Lily to the single thing her heart longs for most. The Secret
Life of Bees has a rare wisdom about life--about mothers and daughters and the
women in our lives who become our true mothers. A remarkable story about the
divine power of women and the transforming power of love, this is a stunning
debut whose rich, assured, irresistible voice gathers us up and doesn't let go,
not for a moment. It is the kind of novel that women share with each other and
that mothers will hand down to their daughters for years to come.

une autre musician of the day

donna angelle

zydeco sweetheart - musician of the day

rosie ledet



(yeah, she's KICK-ASS)

Louisiana senator hits Bush 'photo opportunity'
RAW STORY

In a bold move and seeming turnaround from a relatively placid appearance on CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) took President Bush to task Saturday for what she believes the use of a tragedy for a "presidential photo opportunity," RAW STORY has learned.
Landrieu leveled the following criticism regarding her call for President Bush to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee Katrina relief and recovery efforts.
#
"Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. 24 hours later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.

at this point why don't you just stay put

let people who KNOW what they're doing run the show..............
(my state is sending down some doctors today. a retired grocery worker is paying for a private plane. our state's six armories are drop off points for donations to the relief effort. in addition to food and water, hygene items and underwear are now being added to the lists of items needed. only the hartford armory is open today, but all will be open tomorrow. they ALL need volunteers to help sort and pack the items. since i get out of work so early, i'll stop tomorrow and the rest of the week as needed. some of our colleges are also offering help.)

Bush heading back to Gulf Coast
President to view storm-hit region as criticism grows over federal response

WASHINGTON - Since two days after Hurricane Katrina lashed much of the Gulf Coast into oblivion, President Bush hasn’t gone a day without a public event devoted to the storm.
Monday was no different, as he planned a return to the storm-ravaged region for a third look at Katrina’s effect with visits to Baton Rouge, La., and Poplarville, Miss.
But none of it — including a stream of Cabinet secretaries and other high-level federal officials to the area and on the airwaves Sunday — has quieted the complaints that Washington moved too slowly in the storm’s aftermath...................

humanity

Bartender Joe Bellomy talks with customers in Johnny White's bar in the French Quarter, famous for staying open even through Hurricane Katrina.

‘Tribes’ find way to survive in French Quarter
‘We became more civilized,’ one man says
from the AP
Updated: 10:05 p.m. ET Sept. 4, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming “tribes” and dividing up the labor. As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim. While mold and contagion grew in the muck that engulfed most of the city, something else sprouted in this most decadent of American neighborhoods — humanity. “Some people became animals,” Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny White’s Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. “We became more civilized.” While hundreds of thousands fled the below-sea-level city before the storm, many refused to leave the Vieux Carre, or old quarter. Built on some of the highest ground around and equipped with underground power lines, residents considered it about the safest place to be.................

impeach

For Bush, next moves are key to rest of term
Katrina, court vacancy new challenges to president already on defensive

ANALYSIS
By Dan Balz
Updated: 4:34 a.m. ET Sept. 5, 2005

WASHINGTON - The first week of September 2005 likely will be remembered as one of the most troubled weeks of George W. Bush's presidency, a time in which natural disaster combined with bureaucratic bungling in ways that threatened to inundate an administration already on the defensive. Even before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast last Monday, Bush was buffeted by public dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq and consumer outrage over rising gasoline prices. But the federal government's widely criticized response to the hurricane's devastation in New Orleans and elsewhere turned a challenging environment into one that is potentially overwhelming............