The Seventh Sense

Katrina-propa-Gate

Perhaps responding to the criticism that Bush has been largely AWOL on Katrina, even though hundreds if not thousands of Americans have died, the White House has now put up its "hurricane relief" page, which you can see here.

Right now, the photo on the page shows Bush engaging in (according to the caption) a "video teleconference with federal and state emergency management organizations".  I guess it is meant to convey the Bush is "on the job", although there are only three people in the conference room: Bush, Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, and someone on a video monitor.  From the looks of it, the guy on the screen is merely the news talking head (I think there is a scroll at the bottom of the screen).  I wonder where all these other "organizations" are.  Of course, when you read the fine print, you see that the photo was taken in Crawford on Sunday, well before the hurricane hit.

So I'm not sure it conveys the impression that Bush is now on the case: a photo from Sunday of a near-empty conference room.

But the worst thing about the web page is the banner:

That's Bush, talking to some Average Joe who just happens to be holding an American flag.  Ah, the appeal to patriotism.  One gets the impression that Bush is speaking to a hurricane victim, something which, of course, he hasn't done.  It recalls images of Bush standing with that firemen on the rubble of the WTC.

But again, the banner, like the whole web page, is meant to convey the impression that Bush is being all Clinton about this -- i.e., that he is on top of the situation and feels are pain.  It's crass and manipulative, especially while Americans are dying.

Opportunity Cost For Iraq

Via Corrente:

Philly's own Will Bunch follows the money (via the man in the grey turtleneck here)

Yes, if you follow the money it turns out Bush took the money that should have been spent on New Orleans levees and pissed it away in Iraq. In fact, the very levee that burst, 17th Street, was a victim of Bush cutbacks:

It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

— Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.

***

With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.

***

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.

But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to
order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.

The 2004 hurricane season, as you probably recall, was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history.

One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach. The levee failure appears to be causing a human tragedy of epic proportions:
(via Attytood)

Remember how, over and over again, Bush fucks the Blue state cities, especially the port cities? Because they're not part of the base?

Remember the idea that the war in Iraq has an opportunity cost (back)?

The Katrina disaster—the dead, the billions in damages, the loss of a city—is the opportunity cost of Bush's war in Iraq.

Just follow the money.

Texas "Pro-Lifers" Show Pro-Death Stripes

From Feministe--the "pro-lifers" have managed to target a certain population for death in Texas.

AUSTIN - Texas doctors who perform abortions without parental approval or after the third trimester could face capital murder charges because of a new law that takes effect this week, a prosecutors group says. The Texas District and County Attorneys Association has outlined that scenario in its new book updating the Texas penal code and in public presentations around the state. The group says such charges could occur under the new law because of the 2003 fetal protection law.

Key legislators said Monday that wasn't their intent.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who pushed the parental consent measure, said in a prepared statement that her legislation was strictly limited to giving parents the right to consent when a minor is considering an abortion and to preventing late-term abortions.

"There were no discussions about the death penalty during our legislative discussions of this issue," Nelson said.

A capital murder conviction can result in the death penalty.

Sgt Thomas Strickland

Here's a passage from Sgt. Thomas Strickland, a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq, from his blog earlier this month:

What the fuck has my chain of command been doing? We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we're being pinned down in our own fucking homes? Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area at will? What kind of fucktarded plan have we been half-assedly executing? Obviously the kind that neglects sound contact with locals. Obviously the kind that gives further distance to unbridged gaps between soldiers and locals. Obviously the kind that has shown enough weakness when confronted by the insurgency that it has been encouraged to grow.

Back home (the USA kind) I have no home, no job, and my commander in chief is on vacation (he's about 20 days behind Ronald Reagan right now in the race to become the most vacationing president ever. Hey W! we all got our fingers crossed! Here's to you and two more years of presidency...er vacationing!). Luckily pretty much everything that is important to me can fit into the back of a truck. Luckily I just paid off one of those.

In their fear to build relationships and get out of their hiding holes the FOBbits above me have fucked my friends and I.

Two days later, Sgt. Strickland was killed when his truck overturned.

The Apocalypse

Well, let's see.

The death toll from Katrina is rising.  Snakes, gators and corpses are floating around in New Orleans, making the second evacuation difficult.  Attempts to fix the breaks in the New Orleans levees have failed.  There are whitecaps on Canal Street.  Prisoners stranded in a New Orleans prison have rioted, taking a deputy, his wife and their four children as hostages.  The Mississippi coastline doesn't exist any more. 

658 Iraqi civilians were killed yesterday in a stampede (following rumors of a suicide bomber on a bridge).

Last evening, I went to the store as the outskirts of the remnants of Katrina came to North Carolina.  As I left, I looked in the sky and saw something I never saw before -- a double rainbow.  The higher rainbow was fragmented and didn't last long, but the lower one was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.  It was the complete arch, and I could see where both ends hits the horizon.  And it was solid, like a kid had painted it.

Things are getting surreal.

[Note: I don't intend to be doing blow-by-blow Katrina updates, as other sites are doing them much better.  I do, however, highly recommend the New Orleans Times-Picayune website for breaking news and updates.  They're no longer publishing on paper, and they have relocated to safer ground to get the news out via the Internet]

UPDATE:  This is what Bush did yesterday...

Black People "Loot"; White People "Find"

Daily Kos contributors explain.

More here.

A Million Ways

Partly because I'm over 40, and partly because I believe that music videos jumped the shark about 15 years ago, it's no surprise that I never heard of "OK Go" and their video for "A Million Ways".

But no more.

This is a great video (and a great song).  No fancy shots, no babes, not even a single video cut.   Just the band (4 guys) dancing in their backyard.  Obviously a lot of work went into the choreography, and these guys are not professional dancers by any means.  But that's what makes is so good.

Watch the video (Quicktime mov format -- may take a while to load)

Classic Definition Of A 'Quagmire'

Who said this:

"For the U.S. to get involved militarily in determining the outcome of, uh, the struggle over who's going to govern Iraq, strikes me as a classic definition of a 'quagmire'."

Answer: Dick Cheney

Crooks & Liars has the audio (from an NPR interview conducted in 1991), if you don't believe me.

Oy

According to Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon, there's an email making the rounds.  It carries the picture below and the following text:

The image of the hurricane above with its eye already ashore at 12:32 PM Monday, August 29 looks like a fetus (unborn human baby) facing to the left (west) in the womb, in the early weeks of gestation (approx. 6 weeks). Even the orange color of the image is reminiscent of a commonly used pro-life picture of early prenatal development (see sign with picture of 8-week pre-born human child below). In this picture, and in another picture in today's on-line edition of USA Today*, this hurricane looks like an unborn human child.

Louisiana has 10 child-murder-by-abortion centers - FIVE are in New Orleans
www.ldi.org ('Find an Abortion Clinic [sic]')

Baby-murder state # 1 - California (125 abortion centers) - land of earthquakes, forest fires, and mudslides
Baby-murder state # 2 - New York (78 abortion centers) - 9-11 Ground Zero
Baby-murder state # 3 - Florida (73 abortion centers) - Hurricanes Bonnie, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne in 2004; and now, Hurricane Katrina in 2005

God's message: REPENT AMERICA !

Where's Bush?

FEMA is calling Katrina the worst disaster to hit America . . . ever.  Parts of New Orleans are on fire, even though most of the city is underwater.  There are fears that the entire city could turn into a "toxic lake", as the flood waters continue to pour in.  Over sixty people are known dead (so far) in Mississippi.

Where's George? 

He's taking a break from his vacation to survey the damaged states coordinate with federal and local authorities to make sure relief is provided give speeches in Arizona and California about Iraq (comparing it to World War II) and Medicare.

AmericaBlog has more.

UPDATE:  A photo from the White House website (taken today) should be captioned "Let Them Eat Cake!"

Compare:

UPDATE AGAIN:  Bush must have finished eating the cake: "Bush Cancels Vacation to Focus on Relief".

FINAL THOUGHT:  The press is reporting that Bush will be returning to Washington to "personally oversee the federal effort".  Gee, only weeks ago, they were boasting about how Bush wasn't really on vacation since you can run the country from Crawford (with faxes, internet, phones, etc.).  So . . . um . . . which is it?