Magpie

Saturday, September 10, 2005

We're so glad that those problems with the Katrina disaster relief effort are done with.

Or not.

A German military plane carrying 15 tons of military rations for survivors of Hurricane Katrina was sent back by U.S. authorities, officials said Saturday.

The plane was turned away Thursday because it did not have the required authorization, a German government spokesman said.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 PM | Get permalink

California legislature bars pharmacies from refusing to dispense birth control.

In all the news about the Katrina disaster, we didn't notice that California legislators have intervened to limit the ability of pharmacists to refuse to dispense contraceptives or other drugs for reasons of conscience. The bill deals with a campaign on the part of some Christian right-wingers to have pharmacists refuse to fill prescrptions for emergency contraception (Plan B). Since a woman needs to take that medication within 72 hours, any delay in getting the drug might lead to pregnancy.

The bill, SB 644, by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, passed 22-14 in the Senate. The bill would allow a druggist to refuse dispensing a prescription -- but only when the pharmacist has previously told his employer that he would object on moral or religious grounds. But the employer would still be required to ensure the prescription was filled in a timely manner.

Ortiz said the measure "respects the moral, religious or ethical objections a pharmacist may have to dispensing specific medicines, while ensuring that those beliefs to do not interfere with a patient's right to have prescriptions filled in a timely manner."

The bill now goes to the Governator, who hasn't indicated whether he will sign it or veto it. Given his need to shore up right-wing support for his re-election bid next year, we're betting he'll veto it as a sop to fundamentalists (as he did earlier this week with a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriages in California).

Via San Jose Mercury News.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:45 AM | Get permalink

Dubya, Private Investigator.

In today's episode, Dubya finds out where the buck stops.

Dubya, PI

[Image: © 2005 Scott Bateman]
Yes, this is another short animation from cartoonist Scott Bateman (who gets a big magpie thumbs-up for the music he uses in this one).

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:31 AM | Get permalink

Respecting the dead? Or just plain old censorship?

The feds running the hurricane relief effort in New Orleans have barred the news media from photographing the retrieval of bodies, saying that they want to respect the dead. Press organizations, however, say that the recovery is part of the story of Katrina's aftermath, and that preventing them from taking photos and video of the recovery effort is an unconstitutional prior restraint on newsgathering.

A federal judge in Houston has come down on the side of the media, granting CNN a temporary injunction that bars federal officials from implementing a 'zero access' policy announced on Friday. A hearing is scheduled for Saturday morning [Texas time] to decide whether the temporary injunction should be made permanent.

More: As the judge was getting ready to decide whether to grant a permanent injunction, the feds caved in:

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.

.
Via CNN.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:25 AM | Get permalink

When I grow up, I want to frisk people.

Sell 'em on the national security state when they're young with this Playmobil Security Checkpoint.

What's in that bag?

Via Boing Boing.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Friday, September 9, 2005

Seamus Creagh.

Poking around the web, we found this profile of Seamus Creagh by Irish journalist Aingeal Ní Mhurchú. Creagh has been a well-known fiddler since the mid-1970s, especially for his collaborations with box players Jackie Daly and Aidan Coffey.

Irish fiddler Seamus Creagh

[Photo: Sean Laffey]

[During his years in Newfoundland, Creagh] made regular appearances at the St. John's Folk Club, and folk festivals. His solo album, ?Came The Dawn?, was recorded in St. John?s. Seamus recalled how the name for this album came about. He and musician Matt Cranitch were at the same festival in Newfoundland.

"It was in a lovely house, looking out over the bay. Somebody announced it was ?dawning?. Seamus knew of a tune called ?The Dawn?. So, he said the best thing they could do ?is play the dawn?.

While in St. John's, Seamus was also a member of the band, Tickle Harbour. He worked as a session musician on a number of other Newfoundland albums.

"Newfoundland music and Irish music are very close. They were so isolated, whatever music they bought over three hundred years ago never changed," he explained.

According to Seamus the only difference is that they had a French or Breton influence, because Bretons settled in the west coast of Newfoundland. Irish settlers from East Cork, Waterford and west Tipperary also settled in the country. Their music is similar to Irish music. Dancing mainly consisted of Breton dancing.

"Of course the Irish music wouldn?t fit, so they added bits in and took bits out according to the steps. The band I was in was nearly all Irish tunes? maybe two or three Newfoundland tunes, but mostly Irish jigs and hornpipes. One thing that hasn?t changed is the polka and they still do polka sets there," he pointed out.

"I did a bit of fishing, a bit of building, painting and whatever it was happened to be doing. You couldn?t make a living from just at the music there," Seamus added.

Via The Southern Star.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:23 PM | Get permalink

'Failure at this level requires sustained effort.'

The Harpers website currently has an excerpt of a forthcoming article by Rebecca Solnit about the relationship between disasters, authority, and our understanding of human nature. It was written well before the disaster on the US Gulf Coast, and Solnit's observations about other disasters (such as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the 9/11 attacks) have been validated by the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Solnit also wrote a postscript, available only online, in which she talks about the Katrina disaster and the failure of authority on the part of the government bodies that were entrusted to deal with such events. Here's some of it:

The most hellish image in New Orleans was not the battering waves of Lake Pontchartrain or even the homeless children wandering on raised highways. It was the forgotten thousands crammed into the fetid depths of the Superdome. And what most news outlets failed to report was that those infernos were not designed by the people within, nor did they represent the spontaneous eruption of nature red in tooth and claw. They were created by the authorities. The people within were not allowed to leave. The Convention Center and the Superdome became open prisons. "They won't let them walk out," reported Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, in a radical departure from the script. "They got locked in there. And anyone who walks up out of that city now is turned around. You are not allowed to go to Gretna, Louisiana, from New Orleans, Louisiana. Over there, there's hope. Over there, there's electricity. Over there, there is food and water. But you cannot go from here to there. The government will not allow you to do it. It's a fact." Jesse Jackson compared the Superdome to the hull of a slave ship. People were turned back at the Gretna bridge by armed authorities, men who fired warning shots over the growing crowd. Men in control. Lorrie Beth Slonsky and Larry Bradshaw, paramedics in New Orleans for a conference, wrote in an email report (now posted at CounterPunch) that they saw hundreds of stranded tourists thus turned back. "All day long, we saw other families, individuals and groups make the same trip up the incline in an attempt to cross the bridge, only to be turned away. Some chased away with gunfire, others simply told no, others to be verbally berated and humiliated. Thousands of New Orleaners were prevented and prohibited from self-evacuating the city on foot." That was not anarchy, nor was it civil society.

This is the disaster our society has been working to realize for a quarter century, ever since Ronald Reagan rode into town on promises of massive tax cuts. Many of the stories we hear about sudden natural disasters are about the brutally selfish human nature of the survivors, predicated on the notion that survival is, like the marketplace, a matter of competition, not cooperation. Cooperation flourishes anyway. (Slonsky and Bradshaw were part of a large group that had set up a civilized, independent camp.) And when we look back at Katrina, we may see that the greatest savagery was that of our public officials, who not only failed to provide the infrastructure, social services, and opportunities that would have significantly decreased the vulnerability of pre-hurricane New Orleans but who also, when disaster did occur, put their ideology before their people.

We are looking forward to reading the whole article when we can get our hands on the print version of the new Harpers.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:35 PM | Get permalink

Help is on the way. Sort of.

Ted Rall looks at all the ways Dubya's administration can help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Bushist disaster relief

[Cartoon: © 2005 Ted Rall]
You can see the rest of Rall's cartoon here. And Rall's website is full of more cartoon goodness.

Via Mikhaela.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:28 PM | Get permalink

Why didn't the people left in New Orleans just walk out?

Because they couldn't, reports UPI.

Police from surrounding jurisdictions shut down several access points to one of the only ways out of New Orleans last week, effectively trapping victims of Hurricane Katrina in the flooded and devastated city.

The story of paranoia and casual racism on the part of communities adjoining New Orleans gets worse from there. And there are more details here.

Via Making Light.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:07 PM | Get permalink

As if we haven't been getting enough bad news lately.

We now find out that it's okay for the US government to lock someone up and throw away the key.

A federal appeals court has ruled that it's legal for the president to label a US citizen an 'enemy combatant' and have that person held in prison indefinitely without charges.

The ruling came in the case of Jose Padilla, who is accused of plotting a 'dirty bomb' attack on the US. Padilla was arrested in 2002 and has been held in a military prison since for more than three years. He has not, however, been charged with a crime, let alone brought to trial. This past March, a federal court judge in South Carolina ruled that the government must either charge Padilla with a crime or release him.

Today's unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns the earlier ruling, and affirms the power of the president to detain a US citizen believed to be associated with al-Qaeda:

"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the President of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda, an entity with which the United States is at war," Judge Michael Luttig wrote. "We conclude that the President does possess such authority."

Padilla's attorney says that the new decision will probably be appealed to the US Supreme Court. He also warns that the Circuit Court's ruling today may have grave implications for all US citizens:

"It's a matter of how paranoid you are," Andrew Patel said. "What it could mean is that the president conceivably could sign a piece of paper when he has hearsay information that somebody has done something he doesn't like and send them to jail ? without a hearing (or) a trial."

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:10 AM | Get permalink

Now we know ...

... why Dubya's press secretary Scott McClellan waffled so badly when asked whether the FEMA head Michael Brown had the prez's full confidence.

The AP says that Brown has been replaced as head of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and has been called back to Washington from Baton Rouge. Brown is being replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who has already been overseeing relief and rescue efforts in New Orleans.

Less than an hour before Brown's removal came to light, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Brown had not resigned and the president had not asked for his resignation.

McClellan did not directly answer a question about whether the president had full confidence in Brown.

"We appreciate all those who are working round the clock, and that's the way I would answer it," he said.

Anyone want to take bets on how long it will be until Brown 'resigns'? And on how long until Dubya's administration starts blaming Brown for the bulk of the problems with the administration's response to Katrina?

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:56 AM | Get permalink

You couldn't ask for a more appropriate caption.

A screen grab from Sky TV:

The worst disaster

And yes, it's for real.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:00 AM | Get permalink

Exactly how unqualified was Michael Brown to be head of FEMA?

Pretty damn unqualified, it appears.

Since the problems with FEMA's response to the Katrina disaster emerged, it's become widely known that Brown's main experience before his current post was as one of the commissioners of the International Arabian Horse Association — a position from which he was apparently asked to resign. That experience was, to put it mildly, somewhat unrelated to disaster work. But it's turning out that the rest of Brown's experience was not only pretty damn thin, it was apparently pumped up with a fair dose of resume padding, according to a Time Magazine investigation into his work history.

Before joining FEMA, his only previous stint in emergency management, according to his bio posted on FEMA's website, was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." The White House press release from 2001 stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him." Brown did do a good job at his humble position, however, according to his boss. "Yes. Mike Brown worked for me. He was my administrative assistant. He was a student at Central State University," recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt."

The Time article has plenty more on Brown's past. Check it out here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:09 AM | Get permalink

The hurricane relief effort needs your old laptop!

From John at AmericaBlog comes this:

Bob Brigham of Swing State Project and Macon Phillips of Blue State Digital are down in the hurricane region now, helping with relief efforts, and documenting the tragedy for the Web.

I just spoke to Bob, who is an old friend, and he and Macon, along with the local NAACP, have come up with a brilliant idea. They're using old donated laptops to set up centers around the area where people can check in to add their names to lists if they're looking for lost relatives, or were themselves lost, etc. Brilliant idea. But they need more laptops, at least 40 (but Bob said they can scale up to a couple hundred if they receive them).

So, if you have an old laptop computer that is Internet ready (meaning, it's a laptop that can accept a phone cord, has an ethernet card or a PC card for Internet purposes), please consider donating it asap. The donation IS tax-deductible, and if you include your name, address, and the value of the laptop, they can mail you a receipt for tax purposes.

Also note, they can also use desktop computers, and Macs are fine too - but please FEDEX the shipment so they can get moving fast.

Again, I know Bob, this is for real, he's running it - no scam here folks, I personally vouch that this is for real.

You can FedEx your old laptop to:
Louisiana NAACP
1755 Nicholson Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70802

And again, include your name and address and the value of the laptop if you'd like a receipt for tax purposes. Feel free to spread the message, this is very cool.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

Dubya went and did it.

We posted earlier about a request from GOP members of Congress that Dubya suspend enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act becuase of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. That law requires Washington to pay the prevailing wage for any federal project.

Well, Dubya suspended Davis-Bacon earlier this evening. Now the survivors of Hurricane Katrina can know the joy of working at relief and reconstruction jobs for a fraction of what they would have earned during 'normal' times. And the companies that get the federal contracts can look forward to bigger profits.

Via CNN.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Ooooooh, shiny!

Penny postcards of Louisiana!

Canal Street at night

Canal Street at Night, New Orleans, La. [c. 1940?]
Via Life in the Present.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, September 8, 2005

Today's White House press briefing.

It wasn't anywhere near as combative as the ones on Tuesday or Wednesday, but reporters are still asking tough questions that make press secretary Scott McClellan squirm. And McClellan is still refusing to give any answers that mean something outside of the self-referential world of spin inhabited by Dubya and his minions.

A lot of today's briefing was taken up with unsuccessful efforts by reporters to get McClellan to say whether Dubya would support an independent investigation of the government response to Hurricane Katrina. [Like anyone really doubts what the answer would be, if McClellan ever uttered an honest word.] But the exchange that caught our interest today was this one regarding the costs of disaster relief and reconstruction:

Q On a separate issue, how does the President propose the country will pay for all of this?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry, pay for all of --

Q The reconstruction relief effort, which is --

MR. McCLELLAN: We talked about the immediate needs that we're working to address right now. And when it comes to addressing those immediate needs, we've already passed one supplemental request, an emergency budget request, that provides $10.5 billion to meet some immediate needs. Yesterday we made a second request for $51.8 billion --

Q And to finance that, though, the country will go into debt to do that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it's going to -- keep in mind, these are one-time costs, but we're going to make sure the needs of the people are met. And it will have an impact on the budget, at least in the short-term. But these are one-time costs we're talking about. But we're going to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of those on the ground. We are going to spare no effort to get them the help that they need.

And the President has made it clear in meetings he has been having that we are going to show the true compassion of America in all that we do. And that includes in the delivery of government benefits, critical benefits that people depend on, on a daily basis. And that's what we'll be talking about more later today. We're going to do all we can to support the faith-based and community groups that are helping those in need. That's why the President met with a diverse group of faith-based and community organizations the other day to address some of their concerns.

Q I'm going to yield the floor, but I just have one more question. Why does the President believe it is morally justified, why is it the right thing to give some of the richest people on the planet a huge tax cut right now?

MR. McCLELLAN: It's not a fair --

Q Well, that's what the estate tax cut repeal, making it permanent, is, isn't it? There are some people who want to hand on billions -- hundreds of millions of dollars to their --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, no -- the tax cut you're talking about -- I don't know of any that are expiring this year. They expire in later years.

Q Right. But why at this point in our history is it justified, morally right to do that?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, I'd have to dispute your characterization, because all Americans receive tax cuts. We went through a very difficult time, economically, and our national economy is really a lifeline for that region that has been hit by this hurricane. We must continue to keep our national economy growing and creating jobs. The latest unemployment numbers are down to 4.9 percent last week, more than 4 million jobs created since May of 2003. We've made tremendous progress to keep our economy growing and get people -- and create jobs.

Q And there's no way to ask the richest people in America to sacrifice?

MR. McCLELLAN: And the economy -- keeping our economy growing stronger is important to helping with the rebuilding and recovery efforts on the ground. The last thing we want to do is take more money from lower-income Americans that have been affected by this and that have received significant help from those -- from those tax cuts.

Q That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about taking money from higher-income Americans.

MR. McCLELLAN: And we're going to remain focused right now on our highest priority. Well, again, these tax cuts you're talking about, many of them expire in later years. I don't know of any that are expiring this year. But it's important to keep our economy growing and keep jobs being created.

You can read the full transcript of today's briefing here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 4:33 PM | Get permalink

One sure sign that racism is lurking ...

... is when people of color and white people have dramatically different views of the same events. Like with the the divergent views of the relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina shown by a just-released poll from the Pew Center:

Another racial divide

You can read a summary of the poll's findings on a range of issues here.

Via Pew Research Center for People and the Press.

| | Posted by Magpie at 4:16 PM | Get permalink

Yet another warning that Dubya's administration should have heeded.

This warning came from this magpies very own member of Congress, Rep. Earl Blumenauer from Oregon's third congressional district. Earlier this year, Blumenauer went to Southeast Asia as part of a congressional delegation, and he saw the damage caused by the December tsunami firsthand. On January 26th, he gave a speech about his trip on the floor of Congress, comparing the damage in Southeast Asia to that which could happen to New Orleans if it were struck by a strong hurricane:

Mr. Speaker, I recently had the opportunity to view the devastation in Southeast Asia as a result of the tsunami. As appalled as I was by what I saw, I must confess that occasionally my thoughts drifted back to the United States. What would have happened if last September, Hurricane Ivan had veered 40 miles to the west, devastating the city of New Orleans? One likely scenario would have had a tsunami-like 30-foot wall of water hitting the city, causing thousands of deaths and $100 billion in damage.

The city has always been at risk because of its low-lying location, but that risk has been increased because of rising sea levels, groundwater pumping and the erosion of coastal Louisiana. Twenty-four square miles of wetland disappear every year, since the 1930s an area one and a half times the size of Rhode Island washed away.

Considering the reaction of the American public to the loss of a dozen people in the recent mud slides in California, it is hard to imagine what would happen if a disaster of that magnitude hit the United States.

The experience of Southeast Asia should convince us all of the urgent need for congressional action to prevent wide-scale loss of life and economic destruction at home and abroad. Prevention and planning will pay off. Maybe the devastation will encourage us to act before disaster strikes. [Emphasis added]

You can view a video of this part of Blumenauer's speech here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:46 PM | Get permalink

That useless international body, the United Nations.

You know, the nonexistent one that now-US ambassador to the UN John Bolton said doesn't make any difference?

Well, it just stepped up its disaster aid to the US Gulf Coast.

Via UN News.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:34 PM | Get permalink

You know how 'fighting terrorism' has been used to justify all kinds of nastiness?

Get ready for the same kind of stuff to go on under the guise of 'helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina' or 'responding to the national emergency.'

Here's an example of what we mean: 32 GOP members of Congress have written Dubya a letter in which they ask the prez to suspend enforcement of the Davis-Bacon Act. This 1931 law (passed by a Republican Congress) requires that all workers on federal projects be paid the 'prevailing wage' in the area where the work is being done. In practice, Davis-Bacon means that worker must be paid union-level wages for their work — ensuring that workers get a living wage, rather than a subsistence or poverty wage.

If the Republicans are successful in their effort to get Davis-Bacon suspended, relief and reconstruction work related to Hurricane Katrina would be done mainly by non-union and/or unskilled workers, working at or near sweatshop-level wages. In other words, the people who have lost their jobs and homes because of Katrina could very likley find themselves working for a pittance as they help rebuild what they have lost.

You can read the whole letter here. [PDF file]

Via Working Life.

More: Here's another example already: The administration is using Katrina as a reason to enact Dubya's Social Security 'reforms.' [Via Mother Jones Blog.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:39 PM | Get permalink

The noose tightens on Tom DeLay.

A Texas grand jury has indicted a political action committee founded by US House majority leader Tom DeLay on charges of illegally using corporate cash to help the GOP gain control of the Texas legislature in 2002. DeLay himself, however, was not indicted.

The Texas Association of Business was also named in the indictment.

If convicted, the state's largest business group faces the threat of fines — up to $20,000 for each count. But the indictments also complicate the group's defense against civil lawsuits filed by losing Democratic candidates. Damages in those suits could be double the $1.7 million that the association spent on 4 million mailers to voters in 2002.

The four indictments against the business group — two of which were issued last month and then sealed — break down the counts by different actions the group took. They include:

14 counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporation (TAB) for paying Hammond and staffer Jack Campbell to do political work.

28 additional counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporation for launching ad campaigns, among other things.

83 additional counts of prohibited political contributions by a corporations for paying for political ads, among other things.

Three counts of prohibited political expenditures by a corporation for spending money in connection with 23 legislative campaigns.

All the counts are third-degree felonies.

Via Austin American-Statesman.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:57 AM | Get permalink

VP Cheney goes to the disaster zone.

And at least one of the locals wasn't happy to see him, as this video from CNN demonstrates.

You might recall that, a little over a year ago, the ever-polite Cheney directed the same words at Sen. Patrick Leahy on the floor of the US Senate.

Via Atrios.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:50 AM | Get permalink

'They are citizens, wounded by their own government.'

At the Black Commentator, Glen Ford demands a right of return for the people of New Orleans.

The people of New Orleans have a right to return. It is not too early to say so. In fact, it is imperative that we demand the Right of Return now, before the circumstances of the displacement of this population create facts on the ground that cannot be reversed. We have seen, elsewhere in the world, how those who have been displaced are effectively shut out from returning to their origins, and how quickly the public says, well, that's just water under the bridge — or over the levee. Others, newcomers, will benefit from the tragedy of the previous population's displacement. This cannot be allowed to occur in New Orleans....

Displacement based on race is a form of genocide, as recognized under the Geneva Conventions. Destruction of a people?s culture, by official action or depraved inaction, is an offense against humanity, under international law. New Orleans — the whole city, and its people — is an indispensable component of African American culture and history. It is clear that the displaced people of New Orleans are being outsourced — to everywhere, and nowhere. They are not nowhere people. They are citizens of the United States, which is obligated to right the wrongs of the Bush regime, and its unnatural disaster. Charity is fine. Rights are better. The people of New Orleans have the Right to Return — on Uncle Sam's tab.

Don't think this is a good idea? Maybe this will help change your mind.

Via Cursor.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:29 AM | Get permalink

Meaningful aid for Katrina survivors.

Yes, we suppose that the US$ 2000 debit cards that the feds are giving to Katrina survivors will be helpful, but those cards don't help protect a person who's lost their job and home from creditors who may not care that the cause of the financial problems was Hurricane Katrina.

To help provide this protection, US senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin plans to introduce a bill exempting Katrina survivors from the strict new bankrupty law that goes into effect next month. Instead, the current bankruptcy rules would apply to them until October 2006. According to Feingold, his bill will ensure that the new law 'does not compound the hardship for thousands of hardworking Americans who simply will not be able to make ends meet as a result of this disaster.'

The bill also would make the following changes for victims of all natural disasters, not just Katrina:
Exempt payments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or relief agencies from the definition of income for purpose of bankruptcy eligibility;

Exempt natural disaster victims from the provisions of the new law that make it easier for landlords to evict tenants who are in bankruptcy than the current law allows;

Exempt natural disaster victims from the new law?s stricter paperwork and documentation requirements.

Of course, it's not going to be easy for Feingold to get his bill through the Republican-controlled Congress. The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee has already said that he doesn't think any changes to the new bankruptcy law are needed in order to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Via Appleton-Fox Cities (WI) Post-Crescent.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:59 AM | Get permalink

You know that global warming that doesn't exist?

It's getting worse.

After examining soil samples gathered in the UK since over the last 25 years, scientists in the UK say that higher temperatures are warming soils, and causing them to 'exhale' large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. As a result, the researchers say, about 13 million metric tons of carbon are being lost from British soils each year — and helping to accelerate the greenhouse effect that's raising the Earth's average temperature. [Note: 1 metric tonne = 1.1 US tons.]

The scientists say computer models used to forecast future climate trends will now have to be revised because the calculations on which they are based will be wide of the mark.

"Our findings suggest the soil part of the equation is scarier than we had thought," Professor Guy Kirk, of Cranfield University, told journalists at the British Association's Festival of Science in Dublin, Ireland.

"The consequence is that there is more urgency about doing something - global warming will accelerate."

Indeed, as an illustration of how big a problem this is, it is likely the carbon lost from British soils since 1990 will have completely wiped out any reductions the country might have made through technological gains over the same period.

Via BBC.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:23 AM | Get permalink

Summing it all up.

Avedon Carol says it out loud:

I don't know about you, but I'm having a rather overwhelmed reaction. Yes, I knew they were scum, but I still just can't seem to absorb the fact that they made the decision to let these thousands of Americans die, in front of God and everyone, and there are people actually defending it on television. The press is still pretending this is not what happened. It's just "mistakes", and a matter of figuring out how these "mistakes" were made. These people have made the same mistakes over and over — they aren't mistakes, dammit. When George Bush says [FEMA head Michael] Brown is doing a great job, he's not just spinning, he means it. This is just what Brown was supposed to do. [Emphasis added]

Via The Sideshow.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:14 AM | Get permalink

Another of those 'special rights' that lesbians and gay men have so many of.

This particular one is being enjoyed by Charlene Nguon, a high school student in Garden Grove, California. Her special right is getting kicked out of school because she's a lesbian.

According to a lawsuit filed on her behalf by the ACLU, Nguon was suspended from school for being publicly affectionate with her girlfriend (hugging and kissing) and was ultimately forced by an administrator to transfer to another school. Her high school, says the ACLU, does not bar hugging and kissing by heterosexual students.

Nguon, now a senior, began dating her girlfriend in fall 2004 at Santiago High School. The lawsuit alleges the pair was repeatedly disciplined for displaying public affection despite the fact that their behavior is not prohibited in the school's student handbook. Eventually, Principal Ben Wolf told Nguon's mother about the relationship, and, in March, said the two teens had to attend different schools, according to the lawsuit.

Shortly before the end of her junior year, Nguon transferred to Bolsa Grande High School, increasing her commute from a short walk to a 4 1/2 -mile bike ride, according to the lawsuit.

Nguon, who hopes to attend Stanford University and study international relations, had been a straight-A student in the top 5% of her class at Santiago High. But the commute to the new school, coupled with changing courses midyear, caused Nguon's grades to drop, according to the suit.

"Unfortunately, for Principal Ben Wolf and other staff at Santiago High, all of Charlene's accomplishments and exemplary qualities are overshadowed by one fact: that she is a lesbian," the lawsuit alleges. "... during this past school year, Charlene's junior year, Principal Wolf has repeatedly punished Charlene and derailed her academic success, all because she dared to be openly lesbian on campus."

The ACLU's press release on Nguon's case [which contains links to many documents submitted to the US District Court] is here.

Via LA Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:50 AM | Get permalink

A visit to a FEMA ~~prison camp~~ evacuee camp in Oklahoma.

This account pretty much speaks for itself, especially given who wrote it. It's long, but you should read it all.

Welcome to your new home

Two Oklahoma State Patrol vehicles and four Oklahoma Troopers guarded the gate.

We then started lugging in our food products. The foods I had purchased were mainly snacks, but my mother - God bless her soul - had gone all out with fresh vegetables, fruits, canned goods, breakfast cereals, rice, and pancake fixings. That's when we got the next message: They will not be able to use the kitchen.

Excuse me? I asked incredulously.

FEMA will not allow any of the kitchen facilities in any of the cabins to be used by the occupants due to fire hazards. FEMA will deliver meals to the cabins. The refugees will be given two meals per day by FEMA. They will not be able to cook. In fact, the "host" goes on to explain, some churches had already enquired about whether they could come in on weekends and fix meals for the people staying in their cabin. FEMA won't allow it because there could be a situation where one cabin gets steaks and another gets hot dogs - and...

it could cause a riot.

It gets worse.

He then precedes to tell us that some churches had already enquired into whether they could send a van or bus on Sundays to pick up any occupants of their cabins who might be interested in attending church. FEMA will not allow this. The occupants of the camp cannot leave the camp for any reason. If they leave the camp they may never return. They will be issued FEMA identification cards and "a sum of money" and they will remain within the camp for the next 5 months.

My son looks at me and mumbles "Welcome to Krakow."

My mother then asked if the churches would be allowed to come to their cabin and conduct services if the occupants wanted to attend. The response was "No ma'am. You don't understand. Your church no longer owns this building. This building is now owned by FEMA and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. They have it for the next 5 months." This scares my mother who asks "Do you mean they have leased it?" The man replies, "Yes, ma'am...lock, stock and barrel. They have taken over everything that pertains to this facility for the next 5 months."

We then lug all food products requiring cooking back to the car. We start unloading our snacks. Mom appeared to have cornered the market in five counties on pop-tarts and apparently that was an acceptable snack so the guy started shoving them under the counter. He said these would be good to tied people over in between their two meals a day. But he tells my mother she must take all the breakfast cereal back. My mother protests that cereal requires no cooking. "There will be no milk, ma'am." My mother points to the huge industrial double-wide refrigerator the church had just purchased in the past year. "Ma'am, you don't understand...

It could cause a riot."

He then points to the vegetables and fruit. "You'll have to take that back as well. It looks like you've got about 10 apples there. I'm about to bring in 40 men. What would we do then?"

My mother, in her sweet, soft voice says, "Quarter them?"

"No ma'am. FEMA said no...

It could cause a riot. You don't understand the type of people that are about to come here...."

Does anyone really believe that this kind of operation would be set up if the people fleeing New Orleans were white?

Via My Left Wing.

More: After you've read Slonsky and Bradshaw's account, go over to Making Light and read Teresa Nielsen Hayden's extensively annotated version.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:55 AM | Get permalink

An interesting perspective on the feds' attempts to control information coming out of the disaster zone.

This comment comes from Richard TPD, who has traveled extensively and worked in China, as well as in other parts of Asia:

We all know how China keeps the media away from regions beset by controversy, be it bird flu outbreaks or peasant riots. They don't want people to ever have the perception things might not be "stable" and "harmonious." That's a standard practice for a paranoid, frightened, prickly and insecure dictatorship.

To my true horror, it now appears our own president might be following the sordid CCP example, restricting reporters and photographers covering the New Orleans catastrophe. Who ever thought we would see this day?

Via Peking Duck.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:37 AM | Get permalink

What was it like to try to get out of New Orleans last week?

At EMS Network, two California paramedics tell their tale. When Katrina hit, Lorrie Beth Slonsky and Larry Bradshaw had been staying at a hotel in the French Quarter while they attended an EMS conference.

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.

Most of these workers had lost their homes, and had not heard from members of their families, yet they stayed and provided the only infrastructure for the 20% of New Orleans that was not under water.

Despite official assurances that 'scores of buses were pouring into the City' to take people to safety, they saw no buses. And they they were running out of food. They and about 500 other people remaining in the French quarter decided to take things into their own hands. The rest of their story is here.

What did Slonsky and Bradshaw conclude after their ordeal in New Orleans?

Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist.

There was more suffering than need be.

Lives were lost that did not need to be lost.

Via Bitch Ph.d.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:14 AM | Get permalink

No comment needed.

Bob Harris made a little map.

Incompetent or what?

Via This Modern World.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Grassroots charities need your help!

At The Nation, Katha Pollitt has put together a list of grassroots charities and community organizations serving the Katrina disaster are. Any of these dererving groups would be an excellent place to send a donation.

We'd also suggest the People's Institute, based in New Orleans. You'll find their website here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Answer? I don't have to give you no stinkin' answer!

It was another bad day for Scott McClellan at Wednesday's White House press briefing. Once again, reporters refused to let him off the hook regarding the administrations continuing inability to deal effectively with the disaster on the Gulf Coast. And, for his part, McClellan was unable to give a simple Yes or No answer when asked whether the heads of FEMA and Homeland Security still have Dubya's support.

The exchange is rather amazing.

Q Scott, does the President retain confidence in his FEMA Director and Secretary of Homeland Security?

MR. McCLELLAN: And again, David, see, this is where some people want to look at the blame game issue, and finger-point. We're focused on solving problems, and we're doing everything we can --

Q What about the question?

MR. McCLELLAN: We're doing everything we can in support --

Q We know all that.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- of the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA.

Q Does he retain complete confidence --

MR. McCLELLAN: We're going to continue. We appreciate the great effort that all of those at FEMA, including the head of FEMA, are doing to help the people in the region. And I'm just not going to engage in the blame game or finger-pointing that you're trying to get me to engage.

Q Okay, but that's not at all what I was asking.

MR. McCLELLAN: Sure it is. It's exactly what you're trying to play.

Q You have your same point you want to make about the blame game, which you've said enough now. I'm asking you a direct question, which you're dodging.

MR. McCLELLAN: No --

Q Does the President retain complete confidence in his Director of FEMA and Secretary of Homeland Security, yes or no?

MR. McCLELLAN: I just answered the question.

Q Is the answer "yes" on both?

MR. McCLELLAN: And what you're doing is trying to engage in a game of finger-pointing.

Q There's a lot of criticism. I'm just wondering if he still has confidence.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and blame-gaming. What we're trying to do is solve problems, David. And that's where we're going to keep our focus.

Q So you're not -- you won't answer that question directly?

MR. McCLELLAN: I did. I just did.

Q No, you didn't. Yes or no? Does he have complete confidence or doesn't he?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, if you want to continue to engage in finger-pointing and blame-gaming, that's fine --

Q Scott, that's ridiculous. I'm not engaging in any of that.

MR. McCLELLAN: It's not ridiculous.

Q Don't try to accuse me of that. I'm asking you a direct question and you should answer it. Does he retain complete confidence in his FEMA Director and Secretary of Homeland Security, yes or no?

MR. McCLELLAN: Like I said -- that's exactly what you're engaging in.

Q I'm not engaging in anything. I'm asking you a question about what the President's views are --

MR. McCLELLAN: Absolutely -- absolutely --

Q -- under pretty substantial criticism of members of his administration. Okay? And you know that, and everybody watching knows that, as well.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, everybody watching this knows, David, that you're trying to engage in a blame game.

Q I'm trying to engage?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes.

Q I am trying to engage?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's correct.

Even though McClellan was engaging in tap-dancing of the highest order, he still came off looking like a total jerk.

We look forward to the next briefing.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

It's no surprise, really.

But we'd hoped for better.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says he'll veto the same-sex marriage bill just passed by the state legislature.

Via Reuters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:25 PM | Get permalink

Don't worry about whether the feds show up for your disaster.

Protect yourself with this Do-It-Yourself Emergency Management Guide.

Don't wait for FEMA to help!

Complete details are here at Fafblog.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:04 PM | Get permalink

Not so fast.

While the US press has done a good job showing the human cost of the feds' inadequate response to the Katrina disaster, says CJR Daily, that doesn't mean that Dubya's administration won't be able to keep its chickens from coming home to roost. The experience of Iraq should warn us that no one should underestimate the administration's ability 'to shroud from the public the most tangible -- and tragic -- outcome of governmental ineptitude.'

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:45 PM | Get permalink

Giving new meaning to the word 'incompetence.'

According to internal memos obtained by the AP, the head of FEMA didn't order any federal emergency response until after Katrina had hit.

This was despite a briefing from the National Hurricane Center that warned how much damage the storm was likely to cause.

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:57 AM | Get permalink

'I don?t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.'

That's what Dubya told ABC news after the flooding of New Orleans, as he began his attempt to evade responsbility for his administration's pathetically inadequate response to the disaster on the Gulf Coast.

It's been clear for awhile that the heads of FEMA and Homeland Security had been warned about Katrina's strength. But it turns out that Dubya had been warned, too:

On Saturday night, [National Hurricane Center Director Max] Mayfield was so worried about Hurricane Katrina that he called the governors of Louisiana and Mississippi and the mayor of New Orleans. On Sunday, he even talked about the force of Katrina during a video conference call to President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"I just wanted to be able to go to sleep that night knowing that I did all I could do," Mayfield said.

Like we said before, this isn't incompetence — it's criminal negligence.

Via St. Petersburg Times. [Thanks to Talking Points Memo for the tip.]

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:47 AM | Get permalink

Reading all the way to the bottom of the story.

We confess: Sometimes we don't do it. And because of that, we can miss really important stuff, like we did with this story about how FEMA was poorly using firefighters who'd volunteered for disaster work. [We posted about it here.]
Way down at the bottom of the story was the following:

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

We were going to use the image below to show the firefighters performing their FEMA 'work':

Are they real firefighters or FEMA firefighters?

Are they real firefighters or FEMA firefighters?
Photo: Reuters/Larry Downing]
However, it turns out that the photo was taken in Mississippi on Saturday, a couple of days before the FEMA dispatch of firefighters to serve as backdrop for Dubya's Tuesday visit to the disaster area. So the firefighters in the picture might be real firefighters just pulled off their work (although given the general cleanliness of their clothing, we doubt it). But, given all of this stuff, you really have to wonder. Don't you?

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:02 AM | Get permalink

Devastated by Hurricane Katrina? Using a Mac or Linux?

Don't bother trying to file for disaster assistance online. The FEMA website only allows Windows and IE.

Brilliant thinking on someone's part.

Via Boing Boing.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:44 AM | Get permalink

Taking away an unfair advantage.

Despite the way strikes are often portrayed in US media, there's a huge imbalance of power between most employers and their workers. Employers — especially multinational corporations — have larger financial resources than workers, and can easily afford to sit back and wait out a strike. This imbalance is often aggravated by state unemployment laws, many of which bar strikers from receiving jobless benefits altogether. And even in the states that do allow strikers to collect benefits, workers often face long waiting periods before they can get their first unemployment check.

The imbalance between employers and workers is tipped further against strikers when an employer hires so-called replacment workers. Using these strikebreakers, the employer can operate almost exactly as usual, knowing that either 1) financial problems will quickly force strikers back to the bargaining table or 2) the company can just forget about the strikers and turn the strikers into permanent workers.

The unfair advantage enjoyed by employers may be about to change some in New York. A bill has been introduced in the state Senate to make it easier for strikers to get unemployment once their employer hires strikebreakers. Currently, no striking workers can get jobless benefits until they serve out a seven-week waiting period. If the bill passes, that waiting period would be eliminated during any strike in which the employer hires so-called replacement workers.

We have our fingers crossed for passage.

Via Nathan Newman/Agenda for Justice.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:59 AM | Get permalink

Same-sex marriage bill passes California legislature.

By a 41-35 vote, the California Assembly has approved a bill to allow lesbians and gay men to marry. An identical bill had failed in the Assembly earlier in the session, but this time around three Democrats who had abstained from the earlier vote moved over to the 'Yes' side. The vote makes California the first state where a same-sex marriage bill passed a legislature without a court ruling forcing lawmakers to do so.

The bill now needs only the approval of the Governator to become law, but it's not clear whether Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign the measure. And even if he does, right-wing opponents of the measure have promised to ask the courts to toss it out.

It passed again!

Mary McKay of Equality California listens to Assembly members debate the bill removing gender from the state's marriage code as Scott Coatsworth (center) embraces his partner, Mark Guzman.
[Photo: AP/Rich Pedroncelli]

San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno, the Democrat who wrote the bill, said reaching the benchmark of 41 votes was difficult. When the final vote was called, there was a moment of stunned silence before supporters broke out in cheers. Leno grabbed Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, in a bear hug and lifted him off the floor with glee.

"He was resolute in his leadership," Leno said of the speaker. "He always said civil rights is civil rights."

Leno said momentum has been building in favor of same-sex marriage, and several events in the past few months helped to turn the tide in the Assembly. Those include endorsements from the United Farm Workers Union and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa along with the nation of Spain approving marriage for same-sex couples.

[One of the swing votes, Democrat Tom] Umberg said that of all the constituents who contacted him on the bill, he had ultimately looked to his three children.

"I wanted them to look back and see where I was when we could make a difference, if I stood with those who took a leadership role in terms of tolerance, equity and fairness," he said. "And I'll be proud to say I did."

Assemblywoman Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino (Santa Barbara County), was another swing vote. She said she was convinced listening to the words of the Declaration of Independence that demanded "justice for all." Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D-Salinas, was the third member who had previously abstained to vote "aye" and push the bill to victory.

Via San Francisco Chronicle.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:35 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

We all know why Washington has barred photos of the Iraq war dead.

But whyever would they prohibit the media from taking photos as the dead are recovered in New Orleans? It certainly couldn't be because those dead are testimony to Dubya's mishandling of the hurricane disaster, could it? No, only a cynic with a political axe to grind would believe that ...

From Reuters, via The Daou Report.

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:30 PM | Get permalink

We don't know what they're putting in the water that the Washington press corps has been drinking.

But we sure hope they keep sticking it in.

At today's White House briefing, reporters were staying on press secretary Scott McClellan's case like junkyard dogs chewing on an intruder. Here's part of what happened:

Q In view of the national crisis, will the President withdraw his proposal for this tax cut for the richest people in the country? And, also, my second question is, why did we turn down foreign help?

MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, I'm glad you brought that up. We have not. We have made very clear -- I made clear last week, the State Department made clear last week that we are going to take people up on their offers of assistance from foreign countries. There are some 94 nations and international organizations that have made offers of assistance -- whether that is cash support or I think water pumps from places like Germany or other areas. We said that if this can help alleviate things on the ground, we're going to take them up on their offers of assistance and we appreciate the compassion from the international community and their offers of assistance.

Q And how about my first question?

MR. McCLELLAN: Your first question?

Q Biggest tax cut, permanent tax cut for the richest people in the country -- in view of the national crisis, in view of the deficit --

MR. McCLELLAN: The highest priority for this administration right now is the ongoing response and recovery efforts --

Q No, no, I'm asking you a question.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I'm responding to your question. The highest priority right now for this government is the ongoing Katrina response and recovery efforts and helping the people who need the help. There are other priorities, too, and we'll be working to address those, as well.

Q Has he made up his mind about that, the tax code, changing the tax code?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think he's made clear what his views are on other priorities.

Go ahead, Terry.

Q I just want to follow up on David's questions on accountability. First, just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President.

Q All right. So he will be held accountable as the head of the government for the federal response that he's already acknowledged was inadequate and unacceptable?

MR. McCLELLAN: The President's most important responsibility is the safety and security of the American people. He talks about that often. That is his most important responsibility. Again, there's going to be plenty of time to look at the facts and determine what went wrong and what went right and how the coordination was between the state and federal and local authorities. Right now we've got to continue doing everything we can in support of the ongoing operational activities on the ground in the region to help people.

Q Well, the President has said that this government can do many things at once: It can fight the war on terror, it can do operations in Iraq, and aid and comfort people in Louisiana. Can it not also find time to begin to hold people accountable? It sounds, Scott, as if the line that you're giving us -- which is, you don't want to answer questions about accountability because there's too much busy work going on --

MR. McCLELLAN: Wrong. No, wrong.

Q -- is a way of ducking accountability.

MR. McCLELLAN: You don't want to take away from the efforts that are going on right now. And if you start getting into that now, you're pulling people out that are helping with the ongoing response, Terry. Not at all. The President made it very clear, I'm going to lead this effort and we're going to make sure we find out what the facts were and what went wrong and what went right. But you don't want to divert resources away from an ongoing response to a major catastrophe. And this is a major catastrophe that we -- and we must remain focused on saving lives and sustaining lives and planning for the long-term. And that's what we're doing.

Q And there are people in Louisiana and Mississippi who are doing that job very well. Your job is to answer the questions.

MR. McCLELLAN: And I have.

Q By saying you won't answer.

We hope this aggressiveness on the part of White House reporters isn't just a blip.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:08 PM | Get permalink

What happens when we trade away our rights for the illusion of safety from terrorism.

Writer Diana Abu-Jaber provides us with yet another chapter in the continuing story.

The officer behind the counter called me up and said, "Miss, your name looks like the name of someone who's on our wanted list. We're going to have to check you out with Washington."

"How long will it take?"

"Hard to say . . . a few minutes," he said. "We'll call you when we're ready for you."

After an hour, Washington still hadn't decided anything about me. "Isn't this computerized?" I asked at the counter. "Can't you just look me up?"

Just a few more minutes, they assured me.

After an hour and a half, I pulled my cell phone out to call the friends I was supposed to meet that evening. An officer rushed over. "No phones!" he said. "For all we know you could be calling a terrorist cell and giving them information."

"I'm just a university professor," I said. My voice came out in a squeak.

"Of course you are. And we take people like you out of here in leg irons every day."

I put my phone away.

Via Washington Post.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:28 PM | Get permalink

Why did it take FEMA six days to get to Hattiesburg, Mississippi?

That's what the editors of the Hattiesburg American want to know. And they're also curious as to why the first question FEMA representatives had after they'd gathered local officials together was 'Do you need help?'

Oh, we almost forgot: FEMA representatives did say the agency plans to post fliers informing storm victims to call 1-800-621-FEMA or to go online at www.fema.gov to obtain disaster relief information.

A telephone number?

A Web address?

Who are these people kidding?

What good is this information in an area where a large percentage of the population continues to operate without telephone service and Internet access?

Sky writing a message behind a crop duster would be more effective.

FEMA needs to get its act together - quickly.

By the way, we checked to see where Hattiesburg is, and it's not one of those tiny out-of-the-way places. It's a city of 50,000 [the fourth largest city in Mississippi] on Interstate 59, at its junction with three different US highways. And the city isn't in the zone of total devastation on the coast.

So we'd say that the newspaper's questions to FEMA are damn good ones.
Via FEMA Failures.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:17 PM | Get permalink

Just for a moment ...

... imagine that you're a honcho in FEMA.

You've just pulled together a group of 1,000 trained firefighters from across the US. What do you do with them? Use them to relieve the exhausted firefighters in New Orleans, like Mayor Nagin is begging?

Nah, you put through eight hours of FEMA training in Atlanta and then send them out to the Gulf Coast as community relations officers.

Via Salt Lake Tribune.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:09 PM | Get permalink

Getting Dubya off the hook for the Katrina fiasco ...

... by blaming the locals.

It looks like the talking points for doing just that have been issued. Expect to hear right-wingers using these arguments ad nauseum, everywhere from the White House on down to local radio talk shows.

Via Daily Kos.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:07 AM | Get permalink

Adding insult to injury.

The start of an article from today's Washington Post:

The billowing white tent cities sprouting up overnight in and around the city represent a hopeful turn in the housing shortage in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Portable air-conditioning units create a cooling breeze. Canvas cots are decent, if not luxurious, beds. And caterers offer menus that include rib-eye steak and fresh apples.

But the facilities aren't for those evacuated from their flooded homes. They are for relief workers.

Their appearance in recent days has highlighted what has become a major dilemma for the aid effort across the Gulf Coast: Each worker the Federal Emergency Management Agency brings in creates more competition for housing and other basic necessities for victims of the hurricane.

And it has touched off uncomfortable questions about who should have priority in emergencies.

"I just don't understand it. How can they have air-conditioned tents and trailers so quickly for themselves and nothing for us?" said Linda Harold, a 49-year-old preschool teacher, whose home in New Orleans is underwater and who has been traveling from shelter to shelter with eight of her relatives.

In Biloxi, Miss., where finding a working bathroom has become a daily ordeal, the displaced have grumbled that relief workers have set up a tented complex at the convention hall with rows and rows of portable toilets but that they were not allowed to use them. In Jackson Parish, La., people complain that while utility crews have managed to put the power back on in the New Orleans central business district, where military and search-and-rescue crews are based, many homes remain without electricity.

Via Wampum.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:45 AM | Get permalink

Huge disaster at chicken coop. Fox to head investigation.

Dubya says he will lead a probe into what went wrong during the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Via BBC.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:33 AM | Get permalink

Can you spot what's missing?

That's the question Pandagon is asking about the Mississippi Homeland Security website.

Hint: You may have heard that Missisippi suffered from a major natural disaster recently.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:27 AM | Get permalink

Making the hard choices.

Over at the Left Coaster, Mary explains how Dubya's administration goes about making those choices.

The incompetence she points to is stunning, even by the standards of Dubya's administration.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

If you want to understand the difference...

... between those who were able to flee from Katrina and those who were too poor to own a car or to pay for a bus or plane ticket, a paragraph from this news story should make it clear:

Some resilient, middle-class evacuees are already putting down new roots elsewhere. In Baton Rouge and Jackson, Miss., so many of them are buying houses that Sen. David Vitter, R-La., calls it "the great land rush." The average home price in Baton Rouge has jumped about $25,000, to $200,000, since Katrina, real estate agent Beth Alford says. One New Orleans law firm bought 50 houses in Baton Rouge, sight unseen, says Ann Prewitt, a Madison, Miss., agent.

Via USA Today.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Ooooooh, shiny!

Anti-Scientist stamps.

No science allowed!

While standing in line at the post office, I saw this new series of stamps devoted to American scientists...which is kind of ironic considering how our sciences are now under attack from all corners: from evangelicals to pharmaceutical marketing, educational declines, and funding cuts. It's like singing "Happy Birthday" to a man as he's being taken away on a gurney....

And with that we bring you an updated version of American Scientists. (We know God isn't precisely "American," but try telling that to the evangelicals...)

[For those of you who rarely or never see US postage stamps, you can see the official scientist stamps here.]

You can download a whole sheet of anti-scientist stamps and print them out for your very own if you go here.

Via Stay Free! Daily.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Monday, September 5, 2005

More aid rebuffed by the US.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the Cuban government offered to send 1100 doctors and 26 tons of medical supplies to the area. (That offer has since been increased to over 1500 doctors.) CNN reports that Dubya's administration hasn't bothered to respond to Cuba's offer.

"You could all be there right now lending your services, but 48 hours have passed since we made this offer, and we have received absolutely no response," Castro said [while speaking to the doctors] at Havana's Palace of the Revolution.

"We continue to wait patiently for a response. In the meantime, all of you will be taking intensive courses in immunology and also something that I should be doing -- an intensive brush-up course in English."

In case you're afraid that Castro just wants to send all those red physicians to the Gulf Coast so that they can recruit the downtrodden US proletariat to the cause of world communism, CNN notes that these doctors are experienced in disaster work, and spent much of the first part of this year treating survivors of the tsunami in South Asia.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:29 PM | Get permalink

Dubya's administration couldn't get organized in time to help the Gulf Coast.

But it has absolutely gearing up to control the political damage caused by its pathetic response to Katrina.

Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides.

People are still dying in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and all the f'n White House really cares about is its political problems. There aren't words to express how angry and disgusted we are.

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:19 PM | Get permalink

No comment needed.

From CNN's Katrina blog:

Rescue 'ticket'

Posted: 6:24 p.m. ET
CNN's Drew Griffin in New Orleans, Louisiana

I am stunned by an interview I conducted with New Orleans Detective Lawrence Dupree. He told me they were trying to rescue people with a helicopter and the people were so poor they were afraid it would cost too much to get a ride and they had no money for a "ticket." Dupree was shaken telling us the story. He just couldn't believe these people were afraid they'd be charged for a rescue.

Via Atrios.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:14 PM | Get permalink

'We have not been allowed access.'

Yesterday, we linked to an article about how US officials are refusing to let Australian consular officials into New Orleans to help their nationals who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. That problem is affected officials from other countries as well, including consular officials from Honduras, Mexico, and other Latin American nations who have hundreds of thousands of citizens in the disaster area.

"It is very difficult for us to find and identify the Latin American victims, and to reach them with assistance. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department has so far placed restrictions on the efforts that we could make," Honduras' ambassador to the United States, Norman García, told IPS.

According to García, some 140,000 people from Honduras and their descendants were living in the greater New Orleans area alone, one of the hardest-hit areas. Nearly all of them were left homeless and without a job, including the staff of the Honduran consulate in that city....

Consular authorities from Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and El Salvador have gone to the outskirts of the affected areas, and to storm shelters, while setting up special hot-lines to offer help to those in need.

"But the consulates cannot operate as they would wish in the area, because the State Department is not allowing us to," said Ambassador García. His government sent presidential commissioner René Becerra to work directly with the victims in the United States.

"So far, we have information on 300 Hondurans who have been left homeless, but who are safe. But we don't know anything more than that, nor do we have reports on how many Hondurans might have died, because we have not been allowed access to the lists that the U.S. government is drawing up," the ambassador added.

Via Inter Press Service.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:01 PM | Get permalink

Put on your tinfoil hat.

While trawling Google News, we ran into a report on a French leftist website that traced back to this original [scroll down to Sept 4] on a US site.

Before you read further, remember that what we're presenting is totally unconfirmed. The only reason we're posting is because there have been a few times in the past when this magpie has run into reports that we thought couldn't possibly be accurate [especially when they came from questionable sources, like this one] that later turned out to be true.

So with those warnings, here's the story:

US Embassy in Baghdad inquires into reports that American troops in Iraq have mutinied against their officers. WMR has learned that the US embassy in Baghdad is checking into reports that U.S. troops in Iraq, including National Guardsmen, Army and Marine Corps Reserves, and regular military troops from Louisiana and Mississippi, have mutinied against their officers and are demanding to be immediately sent back home to help their families. It is not known whether the reported mutinies involve physical violence. The reports of rebellions among U.S. troops are filtering out of the Green Zone and at Baghdad International Airport from Iraqis who are working alongside their American counterparts at both locations.

Does anyone have more information on this, either to debunk or confirm the report?

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:00 PM | Get permalink

Katrina from abroad.

The BBC has compiled a sampling of world press reaction to the Katrina disaster. While the sources vary considerably in their politic, they all agree that the the hurricane will have a huge effect on how the US is seen by the rest of the world.

Stephan Hebel in Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine

Bush's people will say that the moment of need and willingness to help should not be poisoned by political manoeuvres. Maybe this will serve them well enough in a media world where images of victims and heroes are valued more highly than complex background. But then the lie would have won - against the desire to understand things so as to avoid them.

Jean-Pierre Aussant in France's Figaro

This tragic incident reminds us that the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto accords. Let's hope the US can from now on stop ignoring the rest of the world. If you want to run things, you must first lead by example. Arrogance is never a good adviser!

Shen Dingli in China's Dongfang Zaobao

Katrina is testing the US. Katrina is also creating an opportunity for world unity. Cuba and North Korea's offer of sympathy and aid to the US could also result in some profound thinking in the US, and the author hopes that it will not miss this opportunity.

Editorial in Malaysia's Berita Harian

What's more saddening is that there have been riots and looting in New Orleans. It turns out that in a developed country with the most powerful economy in the world, some of its citizens are not much different from the poor in Third World countries.

Via BBC Monitoring.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:00 PM | Get permalink

'Blame game'?

One of the things that the Katrina disaster has shown is the split in the press between the reporters on the scene at Gulf Coast and the editors and anchors back in Atlanta, New York, or Washington. While the reporters clearly understand the magnitude of the disaster and the failure of (largely) federal authorities to respond quickly, editors and anchors continue to try to spin the information from the field in a way that makes Dubya's administration look less incompetent than it actually has been.

A case in point is a story in today's NY Times that's headlined 'After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game.' From that headline, one would expect that there's plenty of blame to be shared, and that bureaucrats on the local, state, and national level are trying to shift blame like it's a hot potato. And, in fact, the first part of the article is just like that, presenting the views of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and officials from Louisana and New Orleans in a 'he said-she said' fashion.

But then the article changes, becoming almost exclusively a litany of specific charges from officials in the disaster area that clearly show that that FEMA and other federal agencies not only were slow to organize relief and rescue efforts, but actually impeded the work of local governments and agencies:

But furious state and local officials insisted that the real problem was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Mr. Chertoff's department oversees, failed to deliver urgently needed help and, through incomprehensible red tape, even thwarted others' efforts to help.

"We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."

Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans expressed similar frustrations. "We're still fighting over authority," he told reporters on Saturday. "A bunch of people are the boss. The state and federal government are doing a two-step dance...."

One sign of the continuing battle over who was in charge was Governor Blanco's refusal to sign an agreement proposed by the White House to share control of National Guard forces with the federal authorities.

Under the White House plan, Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré would oversee both the National Guard and the active duty federal troops, reporting jointly to the president and Ms. Blanco.

"She would lose control when she had been in control from the very beginning," said Ms. Bottcher, the governor's press secretary.

Ms. Bottcher was one of several officials yesterday who said she believed FEMA had interfered with the delivery of aid, including offers from the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, and the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson.

Adam Sharp, a spokesman for Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said the problem was not who was in command. FEMA repeatedly held up assistance that could have been critical, he said.

"FEMA has just been very slow to make these decisions," Mr. Sharp said.

In a clear slap at Mr. Chertoff and the FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, Governor Blanco announced Saturday that she had hired James Lee Witt, the director of FEMA during the Clinton administration, to advise her on the recovery....

Nearly every emergency worker told agonizing stories of communications failures, some of them most likely fatal to victims. Police officers called Senator Landrieu's Washington office because they could not reach commanders on the ground in New Orleans, Mr. Sharp said.

Dr. Ross Judice, chief medical officer for a large ambulance company, recounted how on Tuesday, unable to find out when helicopters would land to pick up critically ill patients at the Superdome, he walked outside and discovered that two helicopters, donated by an oil services company, had been waiting in the parking lot.

So what the article presents, essentially, is a large number of substantiated facts from people on the ground in Louisiana, along with a few excuses from Chertoff as to why the problems existed. And those excuses, not so incidentally, all make it look like the problems were due to the locals, not from Washington's ineptitude.

Why, then, did the article frame the story as though only bureaucratic finger-pointing was involved? Well, you'd have to ask the editors of the Times that question. But we'd that a look at the byline is revealing:

Scott Shane and Eric Lipton reported from Washington, and Christopher Drew from New Orleans. Jeremy Alford contributed reporting from Baton Rouge, La., and Gardiner Harris from Lafayette, La.... This article was reported by Scott Shane, Eric Lipton and Christopher Drew and written by Mr. Shane.

We bet the article would have been way different if the author had been, say, Christopher Drew in New Orleans.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:14 PM | Get permalink

While the feds scurry to hide their mishandling of the hurricane disaster ...

... Tom Tomorrow offers them a sure-fire plan for solving the administration's political problems.

The War on Weather

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:15 AM | Get permalink

The Dubya administration's obsession with national security.

It's dragging down the ability of the US to compete in the world economy.

According to a new study from the Migration Policy Institute, problems with the visa program and a lack of coordination between the State Department (which issues visas) and the Homeland Security Department (which secures the borders) are fueling the impression abroad that the US "has become more hostile to visitors." That impression has had a particularly strong effect on the number of foreign students who choose to study in US colleges and universities.

"Losses to tourism and industry have been significant in recent years, with non-immigrant visa applications dropping by 35 percent between 2001 and 2003, international enrollment in U.S. schools for 2003/2004 down for the first time in three decades, and the number of tourists visiting the United States plummeting by over 10 million people between 2000 and 2003," the report says.

"There are also reports of billions of dollars lost in foreign direct investment in the United States and contracts for U.S. exports."

The impact of visa problems on higher education is a major concern.

Ursula Oaks of the Department of Public Policy at the Association of International Educators told IPS, "What we face today is not just a visa problem, it's an 'access' problem -- the myriad still-existing barriers to international students' ability to study here that, taken together, pose a serious challenge for our country."

At a recent symposium to discuss the MPI report, similar concerns were also voiced by Dr. Debra W. Stewart, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. She called recent statistics on international student flows "a sobering reminder of the importance of U.S. visa policy".

Stewart said that last year, international graduate applications declined 28 percent and another five percent so far this year. For the past three years, she said, first-time international graduate student enrollment has declined....

Other countries, she suggested, are capitalising on "the negative image of the U.S. abroad by advertising their programmes outside U.S. embassies. Perhaps more significant are the major investments in graduate education being made worldwide," particularly by the European Union, China and India.

Via Inter Press Service.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:00 AM | Get permalink

'Death by contempt.'

Paul Krugman explains why the Dubya administration's inept handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster shouldn't be a surprise:

Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweek reports that a "strange paralysis" set in among Bush administration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousands died.

What caused that paralysis? President Bush certainly failed his test. After 9/11, all the country really needed from him was a speech. This time it needed action - and he didn't deliver.

But the federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming?

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:37 AM | Get permalink

Sunday, September 4, 2005

Given every other way the rescue and relief operation has been bungled ...

.. this story shouldn't be any surprise:

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.

It gets worse. Go read the whole story here.

Via Chicago Tribune.

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:04 PM | Get permalink

What did the feds know about Katrina's power before before the storm hit?

Since the dimensions of the disaster in New Orleans has become apparent, federal official keep trying to evade responsibility for their slow response to the situation by saying that no one could have anticipated the hurricane would have caused levees to break in New Orleans. However, the director of the National Hurricane Center says that both FEMA head Mike Brown and Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff listened in on electronic briefings that warned of deadly effects Katrina would have if it hit the Crescent City.

[Hurricane Center director Dr. Max] Mayfield said the strength of the storm and the potential disaster it could bring were made clear during both the briefings and in formal advisories, which warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping levees in New Orleans and winds strong enough to blow out windows of high-rise buildings. He said the briefings included information on expected wind speed, storm surge, rainfall and the potential for tornados to accompany the storm as it came ashore.

"We were briefing them way before landfall," Mayfield said. "It?s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped.

"I keep looking back to see if there was anything else we could have done, and I just don?t know what it would be," he said.

Via New Orleans Times-Picayune.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:47 PM | Get permalink

No comment.

From an article on US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to New Orleans:

Upon his arrival at the airport, Mr. Rumsfeld spoke to and shook hands with military and rescue officials, but he walked right by a dozen refugees lying on stretchers just feet away from him, most of them extremely sick or handicapped, Reuters reported.

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 4:14 PM | Get permalink