USATODAY.com - NCAA denies UND's appeal over Fighting Sioux nickname, logo: "North Dakota President Charles Kupchella had raised the threat of legal action in an August open letter to the NCAA. The school argued in its appeal that the nickname and logo 'are used with the utmost respect and class and are in no way inherently hostile or abusive,'"
"If it were your sole purpose to reduce crime, Bennett said, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.
"That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he added."
Many in this region say they resent the American assumption that, given the chance, everyone would live like Americans.
Ms. Hughes, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, is on her first trip to the Middle East. She seemed clearly taken aback as the women told her that just because they were not allowed to vote or drive that did not mean they were treated unfairly or imprisoned in their own homes.
Q Is one of the problems with this, and the entire energy field, American lifestyles? Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's a big no. The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.
"I don't want to drive a car," she said. "I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?"
A woman in the audience then charged that under President Bush the United States had become "a right-wing country" and that criticism by the press was "not allowed."
"I have to say I sometimes wish that were the case, but it's not," Ms. Hughes said with a laugh.
This nice man allowed me to take a picture of his shirt. Maybe it was the 100 degree weather, but I thought it was funny.Mr. Clinton argued that lower-income Americans had done better under the economic policies of his administration than they are doing now, saying the storm highlighted class divisions in the country that often played out along racial lines.
"It's like when they issued the evacuation order," he said. "That affects poor people differently. A lot of them in New Orleans didn't have cars. A lot of them who had cars had kinfolk they had to take care of. They didn't have cars, so they couldn't take them out."
"This is a matter of public policy," he said. "And whether it's race-based or not, if you give your tax cuts to the rich and hope everything works out all right, and poverty goes up and it disproportionately affects black and brown people, that's a consequence of the action made. That's what they did in the 80's; that's what they've done in this decade. In the middle, we had a different policy."
1) the first is the belief in the level playing field--or at least the belief that hard work and effort will ameliorate any inequalities that exist. I think this is the foundation for most of the beliefs that racism is not a problem. If you really believe racism is a problem, hard to believe the playing field is level.
2) and even more important, is the belief in the "bootstrap myth." This, best articulated by Horatio Alger, is the idea that every American, if they work hard and apply themselves, they can work their way out of poverty and into wealth.
3) (and all of these are related) Listening to Faux News the other night, and talk radio today, a common refrain is that liberals want to just give "hand outs" to the poor. The poor, goes the reasoning, would assert themselves more if they had to, and, as I heard on the radio today, the only way to self-fullfilment was to "get your hands dirty" and work. No other way.
4) and the corrollary of point 3 is that people who have money and wealth had to "work" for it. According to this view, their wealth is "theirs" and "theirs alone."
"So how do the Republicans plan to take advantage of the greatest natural disaster in our history and the terrible human tragedy that followed it? Well, besides suspending the prevailing wage laws - something the Republicans have been trying to get rid of for decades, Bush is also waiving some affirmative action requirements for reconstruction contractors. The Republicans in Congress are reportedly planning to pass legislation to limit victim's rights to sue, introduce vouchers for schools, eliminate environmental protection laws, and give tax breaks to companies working in the reconstruction areas."
"Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.
The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: 'Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.'"
"9:02 PM My that was a long walk.
9:04 PM 'A wasteful storm' as opposed to productive ones he's so fond of. Also, 'we' saw 'dead bodies lying in the street': Good thing they put together that DVD for him.
9:06 PM He's more wooden than ever. He only looks comfortable when talking about how powerful America is. He's like a national Viagra commercial. 'If your patriotism should last longer than four hours....'
[snip]
9:08 PM He's totally tripping over words. Also? Giving out the phone number? It's SO the detail thing a President shouldn't have to do. He sounds like Lionel Hutz. 'Free set of knives if you act now.'
[snip]
9:14 PM 'As all of us saw on television, there is deep and persistent poverty in the region as well.' Again: THANK GOD FOR THE DVD VERSION, or else our filter-averse CoC would have thought everyone in the Gulf was just waiting to sit on Trent Lott's porch.
[snip]
9:17 PM A correspondent writes: 'He acknowledged that there are poor black people, AND that that's a bad thing. And it can be solved by lowering their wages, naturally.'
9:19 PM 'Good people wanting to make a difference, deployed to the Gulf Coast'.... five days too late.
[snip]
9:22 PM Scout troops! That's who Brownie should have called! The missing link!! Just NO gays
9:22 PM So the reason it was so bad was that it was not a 'normal hurricane.' Discuss: What is a 'normal hurricane'? A 'normal' disaster response?
9:22 PM Getting DHS involved. He's so totally bombing the next hurricane.
9:25 PM Another correspondent writes: 'Sure, Let's fix this fuckup by having the fucked up agency investigate it.'
[snip]
9:26 PM Oh no. No, please no. He didn't just reference the fact that black people are optimistic and have a sense of rhythm, did he? Oh, sorry, that's 'jazz musicians.'
9:27 PM Cue dixieland band.
9:28 PM Asshole."
Mother Mary, full of grace, awaken
All our homes are gone, our loved ones taken
Taken by the sea
Mother Mary, calm our fears, have mercy
Drowning in a sea of tears, have mercy
Hear our mournful plea
Our world has been shaken
We wander our homelands forsaken
In the dark night of the soul
Bring some comfort to us all
Oh mother Mary come and carry us in your embrace
That our sorrows may be faced
(From "Requiem" by Eliza Gilkyson)
The cowboy came from out of the west
With his snakeskin boots and his bulletproof vest
Gang of goons and his big war chest
Fortunate son he was doubly blessed
Corporate cronies and the chiefs of staff
Bowing to the image of the golden calf
Startin' up wars in the name of God's son
Gonna blow us all the way to kingdom come
Man of God, man of God
That ain't the teachings of a man of God
(From 'Man of God' by Eliza Gilkyson)
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.
"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
We’re talking about a powerful religious constituency that claims the right to tell us what’s on God’s mind and to decide the laws of the land according to their interpretation of biblical revelation and to enforce those laws on the nation as a whole. For the Bible is not just the foundational text of their faith; it has become the foundational text for a political movement.
1) "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." –President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina (Source)
2) "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005 (Source)
4) "We've got a lot of rebuilding to do ... The good news is — and it's hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter) —President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005 (Source)
5) "Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)
6) "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." –President Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, while touring Hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, Sept. 2, 2005 (Source)
7) "I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water." –Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on NPR's "All Things Considered," Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)
9) "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” –Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sept. 6, 2005 (Source)
10) "You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold." –CNN's Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans' hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)
12) "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" –House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston (Source)
15) "I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina to make sure their children are in school." –First Lady Laura Bush, twice referring to a "Hurricane Corina" while speaking to children and parents in South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005 (Source)
17) "I believe the town where I used to come – from Houston, Texas, to enjoy myself, occasionally too much – will be that very same town, that it will be a better place to come to." –President Bush, on the tarmac at the New Orleans airport, Sept. 2, 2005 (Source)
20) "We just learned of the convention center – we being the federal government – today." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, to ABC's Ted Koppel, Sept. 1, 2005, to which Koppel responded " Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting on it for more than just today." (Source)
23) "I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, arguing that the victims bear some responsibility, CNN interview, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)
24) "I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years, these things happen." --GOP strategist Jack Burkman, on MSNBC's "Connected," Sept. 7, 2005 (Source)
Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience: "But experts inside and out of government said a 'brain drain' of experienced disaster hands throughout the agency, hastened in part by the appointment of leaders without backgrounds in emergency management, has weakened the agency's ability to respond to natural disasters. "
Anglican: I like Ray Nagin--he is willing to stand up to Bush.
Anonymous: No, he is the problem. A true leader doesn't point fingers--he takes responsibility.
Anglican (and me): True, and probably right with Nagin, but also Bush, right?
Anonymous: No need to point fingers. Why talk about blame?
The Bootleg Blogger: Will Our Uncle Be There When We Need Him?: "I am probably one of many Americans who have always had an underlying assumption of a governmental safety net that would be there if something really catastrophic happened, i.e. the government (local, state, national) would be there to step in. I can't help but wonder if much of the frustration and anger being expressed by those affected by the storm, but especially those NOT affected by the storm watching from the comfort of our homes, might have as a component of it the realization that the safety net isn't really there. I'm not debating whether or not it should be there or not, just making the point that for thousands of people it was not there. Only time will tell what affects this my have on the national psyche. Will the way local governments plan be affected by this, knowing that the feds may not be there? Will this affect where we locate? How we vote? For many of the victims of the hurricane such a discussion is a real luxury. Where they live, work, and travel involves much less freedom of choice than some of the rest of us on the outside looking in. But for those who do have choices and aren't trapped by necessity, what will we do with the revelations of the past weeks? Will Uncle Sam be there when we need him?"
Unfortunately, he used that mandate not simply to confront the terrorists but to take a radically uncompassionate conservative agenda - on taxes, stem cells, the environment and foreign treaties - that was going nowhere before 9/11, and drive it into a post-9/11 world. In that sense, 9/11 distorted our politics and society.
Well, if 9/11 is one bookend of the Bush administration, Katrina may be the other. If 9/11 put the wind at President Bush's back, Katrina's put the wind in his face. If the Bush-Cheney team seemed to be the right guys to deal with Osama, they seem exactly the wrong guys to deal with Katrina - and all the rot and misplaced priorities it's exposed here at home.
These are people so much better at inflicting pain than feeling it, so much better at taking things apart than putting them together, so much better at defending 'intelligent design' as a theology than practicing it as a policy."
This is an open letter to the man sitting behind me at La Paz today, in Nashville, at lunchtime, with the Brooks Brothers shirt:
You don't know me. But I know you.
I watched you as you held hands with your tablemates at the restaurant where we both ate this afternoon. I listened as you prayed, and thanked God for the food you were about to eat, and for your own safety, several hundred miles away from the unfolding catastrophe in New Orleans.
You blessed your chimichanga in the name of Jesus Christ, and then proceeded to spend the better part of your meal--and mine, since I was too near your table to avoid hearing every word--morally scolding the people of that devastated city, heaping scorn on them for not heeding the warnings to leave before disaster struck. Then you attacked them--all of them, without distinction it seemed--for the behavior of a relative handful: those who have looted items like guns, or big screen TVs.
I heard you ask, amid the din of your colleagues 'Amens,' why it was that instead of pitching in to help their fellow Americans, the people of New Orleans instead--again, all of them in your mind--chose to steal and shoot at relief helicopters.
I watched you wipe salsa from the corners of your mouth, as you nodded agreement to the statement of one of your friends, sitting to your right, her hair neatly coiffed, her makeup flawless, her jewelry sparkling. When you asked, rhetorically, why it was that people were so much more decent amid the tragedy of 9-11, as compared to the aftermath of Katrina, she had offered her response, but only after apologizing for what she admitted was going to sound harsh.
'Well,' Buffy explained. 'It's probably because in New Orleans, it seems to be mostly poor people, and you know, they just don't have the same regard.'
She then added that police should shoot the looters, and should have done so from the beginning, so as to send a message to the rest that theft would not be tolerated. You, who had just thanked Jesus for your chips and guacamole, said you agreed. They should be shot. Praise the Lord.
Your God is one with whom I am not familiar.
: "'And so many of the people in the arena here, youknow, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.' "
And this is part of the story of the Bush presidency: at each point they have created situations in which to believe the worst about the president requires a difficult and unsettling surrender of your own assumptions and sense of security. It's easy and comfortable to believe that the president gets blowjobs from interns, and even to get comfortably outraged about it. But it's much more difficult to accept that he would lead us into war on false pretenses, or countenance the betrayal of a covert agent for political gain, or treat the federal disaster management agency as a "turkey farm" for cronies of cronies who washed out at their previous trivial jobs, or ignore warnings of a terrorist threat, or...
That's also part of the disconnect or polarization in American politics. Those of us who at some point crossed over the river -- we've come to grips with the fact that our lives and our assumptions are in some degree of peril because of the president, in a way that we never felt about Nixon, Reagan or Bush I -- will believe anything, and have trouble understanding those who haven't crossed over, who still want to believe where it's possible to believe.
It's why it's extremely important not to fall into the trap of "let's not be political at a time of crisis." This is a moment where the unthinkable finally becomes real for a lot of people. Because it is real.
Aaron Broussard, president of decimated Jefferson Parish in Louisiana, broke down in tears on NBC's "Meet the Press" as he chided officials. "Nobody's coming to get us," Broussard said, his head sagging. "The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God's sake, shut up and send us somebody."
In public statements and even more bluntly behind the scenes, Bush administration officials have questioned local efforts to rescue thousands of people who were stranded for days without food, water and shelter, resulting in death of an unknown number of Americans. The Bush administration says the death tolls will reach into the thousands by the time New Orleans is drained, and three top officials were dispatched to survey the region.
snip____
Bush is trying to undo what many Republicans described as considerable damage to the White House inflicted by Bush's crisis management. "Almost every Republican I have spoken with is disappointed" in Bush's performance, said William Kristol, a conservative columnist with close White House ties. "He is a strong president . . . but he has never really focused on the importance of good execution. I think that is true in many parts of his presidency."
As president, Bush typically has been loath to admit mistakes, and this situation is no different.
BayouBuzz.com - Louisiana Politics and News: "But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government."
Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.
"In light of that, said disaster expert Bill Waugh of Georgia State University, 'It's inexplicable how unprepared for the flooding they were.' He said a slow decline over several years in funding for emergency management was partly to blame.
In comments on Thursday, President Bush said, 'I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.'
But LSU engineer Joseph Suhayda and others have warned for years that defenses could fail. In 2002, the New Orleans Times Picayune published a five-part series on 'The Big One,' examining what might happen if they did.
It predicted that 200,000 people or more would be unwilling or unable to heed evacuation orders and thousands would die, that people would be housed in the Superdome, that aid workers would find it difficult to gain access to the city as roads became impassable, as well as many other of the consequences that actually unfolded after Katrina hit this week."
It took almost no time for President Bush to put his stamp on the national response to the tragedy that has befallen New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, a reminder that modern communications have reshaped the constitutional division of powers in our government in ways that the Founding Fathers never could have imagined.
Because the commander in chief is also the communicator in chief, when a crisis emerges the nation's eyes turn to him as to no other official. We cannot yet calculate the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina and its devastating human and economic consequences, but one thing seems certain: It makes the previous signs of political weakness for Bush, measured in record-low job approval ratings, instantly irrelevant and opens new opportunities for him to regain his standing with the public.
We have seen this before. Bill Clinton was foundering in his third year in office when the destruction of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City shocked the nation and set the stage for his flawless performance of the symbolic rites of healing and comfort for the victims.
And of course we saw how Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon revived a presidency that looked to have lost its direction and purpose after eight months in office in 2001.
The challenges posed by this natural disaster are in some ways even more difficult than those of the terrorist attack, with anger and frustration now being expressed about the response of governments at all levels. But for a president who believes that actions speak louder than words, this is an advantageous setting.
By coincidence, the same day that the president flew back from vacation to take command of the hurricane response. . .
Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."
"But it is a chilling lack of empathy combined with a stunning lack of efficiency that could make this administration implode.
When the president and vice president rashly shook off our allies and our respect for international law to pursue a war built on lies, when they sanctioned torture, they shook the faith of the world in American ideals.
When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.
Who are we if we can't take care of our own?"
Katrina's Assault on Washington - New York Times: "There are dozens of questions Americans will demand to have answered once this emergency has passed. If the Homeland Security Department was so ill prepared for a natural disaster that everyone knew was coming, how is it equipped to handle other kinds of crises? Has the war in Iraq drained the nation of resources that it needs for things like flood prevention? Is the National Guard ready to handle a disaster that might be even worse, like a biological or nuclear attack?
One thing is certain: if President Bush and his Republican Congressional leaders want to deal responsibly with a historic disaster of this scale, they must finally try the path of honestly shared national sacrifice. If they respond by passing a few emergency measures and then falling back on their plans to enact more tax cuts, America will have to confront the fact that it is stuck with leaders who neither know, nor care, how to lead.
The pre-Katrina plan for this Congressional season was to enact more upper-bracket tax cuts for the least needy, while cutting into the safety-net programs for sick and impoverished Americans. These are the very entitlement programs most needed by the sudden underclass of hundreds of thousands of hurricane refugees cast adrift like Dustbowl Okies. Will Congress dare to go forward with these retrogressive plans in the face of the suffering from Katrina? Its woeful track record suggests that, shockingly, the answer may be yes."
"As reports continued of famished and dehydrated people isolated across the Gulf Coast, angry questions were pressed about why the military has not been dropping food packets for them -- as was done in Afghanistan, Bosnia and in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami.
Bill Wattenburg, a consultant for the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the designers of the earlier food drop programs, said that he has lobbied the administration and the military to immediately begin something similar. He said he was told that the military was prepared to begin, but that it was awaiting a request from FEMA."
"Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck -- a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday."
"Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican who chairs the Senate Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security Subcommittee, declared Friday he would hold hearings on 'the inadequate federal and state governments' level of preparedness.'
President Bush, however, gave Brown a vote of confidence Friday, telling him he was 'doing a heck of a job.' [maybe he should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom or an appointment to the Supreme Court?]
--snip--
. . . Brown hasn't spent much of his career in the public eye or on TV. He isn't a politician, one friend said, but a 'nitty gritty manager, a guy who wants to see all the flow charts and how things fit together.' 'Mike is more of a manager who drives the process,' he said. 'He's not a big-picture thinker.'
--snip--
In 2001, however, his old friend Joseph Allbaugh - who managed President Bush's 2000 campaign for president - took over FEMA and hired Brown as his general counsel. And when Allbaugh left FEMA in 2003, Brown succeeded him.
'It was not a patronage job in any way,' said Marc Lampkin, who was Allbaugh's deputy in the Bush campaign of 2000."
"In Syracuse, N.Y., former president Bill Clinton was discussing New Orleans's dilemma when someone described the speaker's comments. Had they been in the same place when the remarks were made, Clinton said, 'I'm afraid I would have assaulted him.'"
www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish: "QUOTE OF THE DAY II: ''The good news is - and it's hard for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.' (Laughter).' - president George W. Bush, today. Just think of that quote for a minute; and the laughter that followed. The poor and the black are dying, dead, drowned and desperate in New Orleans and elsewhere. But the president manages to talk about the future 'fantastic' porch of a rich, powerful white man who only recently resigned his position because he regretted the failure of Strom Thurmond to hold back the tide of racial desegregation."
