I Can't Believe I Hate the Whole Thing

There was no Disinfotainment Today last week because:

a) Like Entertainment Weekly, I thought one double issue should count as two issues.

b) The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy conspired against me.

c) A desert wildfire came within a quarter mile of my house last Friday, taking out the phone and electric lines. Our water is delivered from a tank through an electric pump, so on Monday, when I should have been publishing, it was no phone, electricity, water, or transportation, 100 degrees, no air conditioning. We were a drier version of hurricane Katrina victims, isolated and alone, just waiting for someone to save us. Electricity came back soon but phone lines took a week. So it's not that I'm inconsistent, it's that life is inconsistent.

I hate it when that happens.

I also hate having to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, what popsicles look like when the refrigerator's been off for days, and all liars and thieves. The list goes on and on. If I wanted to, I could do nothing but hate all day. Wouldn't that be nice? Okay, I suppose stopping hate is a good thing and that the world would be a better place if we all loved one another and listened to the Beatles instead of Eminem, but I hate that idea. I don't think anyone can go through life without hating something once in a while. What's important is what you do with that hate, act it out aggressively with violence or sarcasm, or hold it in and give yourself an ulcer. Wouldn't it be nice if we could take all that hate and wrap it up into a nice ball of fluffy kittens? 

That's the goal of congress after September 9, when they were briefed on International Cooperation on Internet Hate. Apparently there was an OSCE Conference on Hate on the Internet in Paris in June 2004, so this month the Anti-Defamation League experts addressed a packed room on Capitol Hill to discuss how governments, industry and advocates could partner to curb online hate. The session was sponsored by the Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism and co-hosted by ADL and the French Embassy. 

Christopher Wolf, Chair of ADL's Internet Task Force said, "We all know and appreciate that the Internet has transformed the ways in which we communicate, educate, inform and entertain. But there is a dark side to the Internet. Terrorists, anti-Semites, racists, homophobes and other haters have logged on and are online... Unfortunately, the Internet has become the new frontier in spreading hate."

His recommendations:

• Better international cooperation and coordination of monitoring the use of the Internet for hateful and terroristic purposes. 
• Studies on the ways in which vulnerable people, especially children, become exposed to hate sites and content, and the ways in which such content affects that audience. 
• An examination of the link between hate speech and hate crimes. 
• Annual reports should be prepared on the "State of Hate on the Internet" setting forth trends and describing where there has been progress in fighting such hate. 

Somehow I don't think these people understand that one of the hardest jobs for any practicing journalist these days is to discriminate between a)actual anti-Jewish racists and b) anti-Zionists who simply disagree with current Israeli foreign and domestic policy. For instance a Jew like me would have to be a masochist to be part of the former group, whereas I can be part of the latter group without any contradiction whatsoever. Unfortunately both these groups share a common goal, to stop Israel from committing crimes against humanity, so they are often and quite deliberately confused with one another by pro-Israeli forces who get to have the baby thrown out with the bathwater when legitimate grievances are mistaken for racism.

That the Anti-Defamation League is pro-Israel is a given. Though they've often done good jobs stopping actual racism, their credibility withers every time they mistake anti-Zionism, which is a political viewpoint, with anti-Judaism, which is a racist viewpoint. Everyone who thinks that the Anti-Defamation League won't use internet anti-hate measures to help Israel politically under the guise of stopping racism, raise your hand.

I'd form an Anti-Anti-Defamation League but I hate that name. I hate the acronym SPMAZR, so I'm not forming a Society for the Prevention of Mistaking Anti-Zionism for Racism.

And I hate hatred on the internet too. Someone should do something about it. How about a war on hatred? That should last a long time.

If Edgar Allen Poe Had Been a Studio Executive

Once upon a midday dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
O'er the many quaint and curious screenplays piled upon my floor,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my office door.
"'Tis some screenwriter," I muttered, "tapping at my office door;
Only this, and nothing more."

Yet my business had been slacker since I hired Joel Schumacher
To direct our biggest summer movie of the year before;
And the studio bosses, after it had opened to disaster
Would surely hang me from the rafters if I could not square the score;
Would fire me from the studio if I could not square the score;
Find a hit, or work no more!

Open here I flung the shutter, and I cleared my throat to utter
Greetings to whomever waited in the hall beyond the door.
But my words turned to a groan; for I saw that Sly Stallone
Stood upon my office threshold with his agent, Ms. Lenore;
And he charged right past me followed by his agent, Ms. Lenore;
Like bulls past a matador.

Turning back, I saw them seated; feeling injured and defeated
I approached and wanly greeted them: "Sylvester! Ms. Lenore!
I sincerely hope you're thriving - had I known you were arriving
I'd have sent out for reviving frappuccinos from the store;
Frappuccinos, Danish pastries, and spring water from the store - 
Next time, why not call before?"

The actor sat there, massive, with his craggy face impassive,
And it seemed that I'd established neither good will nor rapport.
The signs were not propitious; I thought it certainly suspicious
That he came in train with vicious, feared and cynical Lenore - 
Still I leaned across the table and began to speak - "Lenore-"
Quoth the agent: "Rambo IV!"

I staggered back, mind reeling, and with a sick and dizzy feeling
Pulled the bottle of Glentoran from its deep and secret drawer.
As I gulped the spirit gladly, I explained that business, sadly,
Was proceeding rather badly; I'd produce his films no more - 
For a hit from Sly Stallone was guaranteed no more - 
Quoth the agent: "Rambo IV!"

"Begone!" I cried, upstarting - "And let this word be our parting!
I saw Get Carter, Driven, Daylight - D-Tox!!! What a snore!
Your star has lost its lustre! You can't open a blockbuster!
Never will the public trust a Rambo movie - nevermore!"
And I hoped to see Stallone and his agent nevermore;
But quoth the agent: "Rambo IV!"

So the agent, never quitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
In my office with a countenance that chills me to the core;
And her eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming
Of the green light for her project, scheming now and ever more! 
And so although I know I'm dooming my career for ever more - 
I'm producing... Rambo IV!

- torgoblog -
 

Cheers, - Charles Watkins 
 

   "What follows are a few of the basic premises on which I base my thinking. You might or might not agree with them, but may I suggest that you make a list of your own basic premises. It will help you clarify your thinking.

1. Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter what task it is assigned, it will do it in the most expensive and inefficient way possible. 
2. The American government is corrupt from top to bottom. 
3. If you rely on the mass media to inform you about your community, state and nation, you will, with rare exceptions, be woefully ignorant of what is really going on. 
4. The universal franchise is a bad idea. The notion that the destiny of the nation should be put in the hands of ignoramuses, parasites, boobs, party hacks and idiots is absurd on its face. 
5. Public education in America is a failure and is so flawed it cannot be reformed. 
6. Not much has changed in the past 5,000 years of human history."

- Charley Reese: Basic Premises -

"It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason."
- Lord Acton -

    "People called 'weird' by their peers may have a leg up in life, at least in one respect.
    "Researchers have found that a quirky or socially awkward approach to life, often considered a hindrance, may be a key to becoming a great artist, composer or inventor.
    "The researchers studied people with schizotypal personalities who act oddly, but aren't mentally ill and found they're more creative than either normal or fully schizophrenic people. To access their creativity, these people rely heavily on the right sides of their brains."
- Melanie Moran: Weird behavior, creativity linked -
 

    "The tri-border area is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world's largest reserves of water. Near the Estigarribia airbase are Bolivia's natural gas reserves, the second largest in Latin America. Political analysts believe U.S. operations in Paraguay are part of a preventative war to control these natural resources and suppress social uprisings in Bolivia."
- Benjamin Dangl: U.S. Military in Paraguay Prepares To "Spread Democracy" -

"Life is nothing until it is lived, but it is yours to make sense of, and the value of it is nothing other than the sense you choose."
- Jean-Paul Sartre -

    "Hamalainen waited quietly as nurses wandered in and out of the examination room, taking her vital signs. Finally, she lost it. 'My pain is real,' she said frantically to one of the nurses. 'I need relief. Why does he keep refusing to talk to me about it? What do I have to do?'
    "The nurse turned to her conspiratorially and lowered her voice. 'I should not tell you this,' she said. 'But he doesn't want to treat your pain because the treatment that works is opioids, and he's afraid to prescribe them.'
   "With that conversation, Hamalainen joined legions of patients who are the victims of a troubling and all-too-common medical practice: the undertreatment of significant and debilitating pain. An estimated 75 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, according to the American Medical Association, and numerous studies have shown that patients often don't receive the medication that could provide relief. Undertreatment runs as high as 50 percent among advanced-stage cancer patients and 85 percent among older Americans living in long-term care facilities...
   "The problem is that the most effective medications cause skittishness among many physicians. Poor medical-school training has left them unaware of the tools at their disposal and even the importance of treating pain. Many harbor the false impression that opioids frequently lead to addiction or unmanageable side effects, even when used correctly for a legitimate medical need.
   "Worse, some physicians fear that if they deliver humane pain care, they'll face prosecution by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) or state medical boards. In recent years, a number of respected doctors have been investigated and even prosecuted after prescribing large amounts of opioids. The result, according to experts, is an environment that scares doctors away from practicing good medicine."
- Barry Yeoman: Prisoners of Pain. Why are millions of suffering Americans being denied the prescription drug relief they need? -

"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun - for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax - This won't hurt."
- Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note titled "Football Season Is Over." -

"I love to smoke. To me, everything about smoking is cool. When I hear Kinda Blue by Miles Davis, a cigarette magically appears in my hand, and I am THERE. Smoking is Miles Davis. Smoking is Tom Waits. Smoking is Bob Dylan. Smoking is Keith Richards. Billy Ray Cyrus does not smoke. Michael Bolton doesn't smoke. Paula Abdul doesn't smoke. Is this clear? I'm not saying people who don't smoke aren't cool although there does seem to be a pattern. I'm saying a lot of cool people smoke, and smoking is part of their coolness. I know I surprised a few people when I toured the UK last year. During the first tour, I was smoking and discussing my love of smoking onstage. By the time the second tour had begun, I had quit smoking, and all the people who liked what I did before seemed genuinely hurt and betrayed. People were yelling Judas! and Traitor! and throwing cigarettes at me onstage. It was like Dylan going electric. While it was all done in good fun, except the lit ones, I explained my new lifestyle quite ingeniously. (There's nothing quite like a hail of burning embers raining down upon you to make you quick on your feet.) I told everyone the point of my old smoking routine was that I should have the right to smoke even if you think I SHOULDN'T. Now, I should have the right NOT to smoke even if you think I SHOULD. The point is THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE. After explaining this to the audience, they calmed down somewhat. While cigarettes were still thrown, fewer and fewer lit ones were flicked at my head."
- Bill Hicks: My Philosophy -

"Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago, and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk. The mice were unaccounted-for at the Public Health Research Institute, which is on the campus of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and conducts bioterrorism research for the federal government. Federal official said the mice may never be accounted for. Among other things, the rodents may have been stolen, eaten by other lab animals or just misplaced in a paperwork error."
- Mice Infected With Bubonic Plague Missing -

"Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, was nominated by President Bush in 2003 and plans to start the job any day now... Prior to heading FEMA, Brown spent the '90s as a commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. I guess he stands out because most Bush appointees are beholden to Arabian people."
- Jon Stewart -

    "Cuba, a short distance away from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, was in a position to offer assistance to the American people. At that moment, the billions of dollars the United States could receive from countries all over the world would not have saved a single life in New Orleans and other critical areas where people were in mortal danger. Cuba would be completely powerless to help the crew of a spaceship or a nuclear submarine in distress, but it could offer the victims of hurricane Katrina, facing imminent death, substantial and crucial assistance. And this is what its been doing since Tuesday, August 30, at 12:45 pm, when the winds and downpours had barely ceased. We don't regret it in the least, even if Cuba was not mentioned in the long list of countries that offered their solidarity to the US people.
    "Knowing that I could rely on men and women like you, I took the liberty of reiterating our offer three days later, promising that in less than 12 hours the first 100 doctors, carrying the necessary medical resources in their backpacks, could be in Houston; that an additional 500 could be there 10 hours later and that, within the next 36 hours, 500 more, for a total of 1100, could join them to save at least one of the many lives at risk from such dramatic events.
   "Perhaps those unaware of our people's sense of honor and spirit of solidarity thought this was some kind of bluff or a ridiculous exaggeration. But our country never toys with matters as serious as this, and it has never dishonored itself with demagogy or deceit. That is why we proudly gather in this hall, at Havana's Convention Center where only three days ago we observed a minute of silence for the victims of the hurricane which battered the United States, and from where our heartfelt condolences were extended to that brotherly people...
   "There is an endless list of health problems reported by virtually all the press and the specialized health care institutions.
   "Our doctor's backpacks contain precisely those resources needed to address in the field problems relating to dehydration, high blood pressure, diabetes Mellitus and infections in all parts of the body - lungs, bones, skin, ears, urinary tract, reproductive system - as they arise. They also carry medicine to suppress vomiting; painkillers and drugs to lower fever; medication for the immediate treatment of heart conditions, for allergies of any kind; for treating bronchial asthma and other similar complications, about forty products of proven efficiency in emergencies such as this one...
   "Cuba has the moral authority to express its opinion on this matter and to make this offer. Today, it is the country with the highest number of doctors per capita in the world, and no other country cooperates with other nations in the field of healthcare as extensively as it does...
   "These doctors, I mean you, could already be there, offering their services. 48 hours have passed and we have not received any response to our reiterated offer. We shall patiently await a reply, for as many days as necessary. In the meantime, our doctors shall use the time to take intensive epidemiology courses and improving their English. If, ultimately, we do not receive any reply or our cooperation - your cooperation - is not needed, we shall not be demoralized, not you, not us, not any Cuban. On the contrary, we shall feel satisfied for having complied with our duty and extremely happy knowing that no other American, of the many that suffered the painful and perfidious scourge of hurricane Katrina, shall perish from lack of medical care, if that were the reason our doctors were not there."
- Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz, President of the Republic of Cuba, meeting with the medical doctors assembled to offer assistance to the American people in areas affected by hurricane Katrina. Havana Convention Center, September 4, 2005. -

"Our earth is degenerate in these later days. Bribery and corruption are common. Children no longer obey their parents. Every man wants to write a book. And the end of the world is evidently approaching." 
- 4,700 year old Assyrian tablet -

"Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments."
- Plato -

"A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind."
- Antoine De Saint-Exupery -

"Welcome to the world's largest garage sale! Bush bureaucrats are selling off our jobs, our pensions, our treasures, our heirlooms - and anything else stored in our basements and closets that they can get good money for. Like a fall yard sale where the sellers hope it doesn't rain before everything goes, they are stripping it down just as fast as they can. And bolting the furniture down won't even stop them. Elections are for sale. Congress is for sale. And now the Supreme Court Chief Justice seat is up for sale too. Do you think that an honest lawyer with the American people's interest at heart can afford to buy that chair? Think again!"
- Jane Stillwater -

   "The problem, the challenge before us, today, in the middle of what is a great depression, great suffering, great problems among us, and in the world at large: The chief challenge is, that the government, the Executive branch of our government, is in the control of a few people, typified merely by Cheney, who are for permanent regime change, permanent revolution. And the irony of the thing, is of course, they've recruited a lot of Trotskyists, who are called neo-cons, neo-conservatives or chicken-hawks, because they ducked service in Vietnam, and went on to wars in other places, where other people are fighting the wars - and permanent war.
    "Not war to win, in the sense of nation-state wars. But war as a method of government, to destroy the planet, so that a handful of people, relatively speaking, control the entire planet, as an empire. These people are financier interests, of the type that are looting our government - like Halliburton and Bechtel, for example, today."
- Lyndon LaRouche: The Revolutionary Transformation After Katrina -

"When you see your own inner Self everywhere, then, wherever you go, everything flourishes."
- Gurumayi Chidvilasananda -

"In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
- Pauline Kael -

"Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact."
- FEMA News: First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities -

"Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there."
- E. H. Gombrich -

"The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life is only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness."
- Virginia Woolf -

    "Amid increasing tension between the United States and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, and growing concern about overstretched US ground forces, the George W Bush administration is moving steadily toward adopting the preemptive use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states as an integral part of its global military strategy.
    "According to a March document by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that was recently posted to the Pentagon's website, Washington will not necessarily wait for potential adversaries to use what it calls "weapons of mass destruction" before resorting to a nuclear strike against them. The document, entitled "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations", has yet to be approved by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, according to an account published in Sunday's Washington Post."
- Jim Lobe: The Pentagon's nuclear wish -

    "Dubai: Amnesty International is seeking an investigation as to why British police failed to execute an arrest warrant on an Israeli war crimes suspect. The human rights group is also demanding an inquiry into classified information being leaked to the suspect.
    "Retired Israeli general Doron Almog arrived on Sunday at Heathrow airport on board an El Al flight. British detectives were waiting for him at the airport after the Chief London Magistrate issued an arrest warrant.
   "Almog was unaware as the plane landed that the detectives were waiting.
   "The warrant was issued under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 on the basis of Almog's involvement in the destruction by the Israeli army of 59 Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 10, 2002.
   "As Almog, 53, prepared to leave the aircraft he was due to address meetings in Birmingham the cabin crew told him to wait and Israel's military attaché in London arrived on the plane to inform him that he faced arrest.
   "Almog stayed on the El Al plane until it flew back to Israel.
   "'There is no good legal reason as to why Almog was not arrested,' Amnesty International's Donatella Rovera told Gulf News from London yesterday. 'We want an immediate investigation as to why the warrant was not executed and who leaked the information to the Israelis that Almog faced arrest.'"
- Tom Clifford: UK police fail to arrest Israeli war crimes officer -

    "Ed Rosenthal, the self-described 'Guru of Ganja,' was convicted two years ago of growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants. He says he was authorized to do so by the city of Oakland under a 1996 California medical marijuana law.
    "After U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to allow a jury to hear that defense, Rosenthal was convicted of being a major drug supplier.
    "Breyer sentenced Rosenthal to one day in prison, saying he Rosenthal reasonably believed he was immune from prosecution because he was acting on behalf of Oakland city officials. The government and Rosenthal both appealed.
    "The government maintained Rosenthal, now 60, should have gotten at least 24 months in prison. Amber Rosen, an assistant United States attorney, told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Breyer abused his discretion by issuing a sentence that fell outside federal sentencing guidelines."
- 'Guru of Ganja' challenges convictions. Author says he was growing medicinal marijuana -

"The tax cut that Bill Gates alone got under the Bush administration would have paid for levies that could have saved New Orleans. Ross Perot's tax cut could replace all the bridges that were destroyed. When we hear about the government not having enough money we have to wonder why they are giving such big tax cuts to the rich. I think it's time we went back to taxing the rich and not making the middle class bear the brunt of paying for everything.
- Marc Perkel -

"Human beings are created from the dust of the earth; but do they resemble dust? Grapes come from vines; but do grapes look like vines? Does theft have the same shape as gallows? Does piety resemble eternal life? Nothing resembles its consequences. So the root of pain and torment is not evil."
- Rumi: Masnavi -

    "It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV 'storm teams' warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
    "But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.
    "The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level - more than eight feet below in places - so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
    "Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
    "When did this calamity happen? It hasn't - yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great."
- Joel K. Bourne, Jr.: Gone with the Water, from National Geographic, October, 2004 -

"To err is dysfunctional, to forgive co-dependent."
- Berton Averre -

    "Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries estimates that currently over 63,000 acres (25,000 hectares) of coastal wetlands have been demolished, or chomped, by the now ubiquitous nutria. The large, marsh-loving rodent, somewhere between a muskrat and a beaver, was brought to Louisiana from South America in the 1930s for the fur industry and has since claimed Louisiana's coastal wetlands as home. The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is hoping to control nutria populations by encouraging Louisianans to trap them. And eat them.
    "Nutria meat, also called ragondin, is likened to rabbit or dark turkey meat. It is higher in protein and lower in both fat and cholesterol than beef, chicken, and even turkey. Though nutria is difficult to find on menus, the department hopes it will one day become a popular dish and has even posted recipes on its website: www.nutria.com. So remember, 'Nutria: Good for You. Good for Louisiana.'" 
- Mary Jennings -

    "Could the levees in New Orleans have been INTENTIONALLY blown out in order to provide the justification for total FEMA federal takeover?
    "The locals certainly seem to think so, yet, as usual, the mainstream media is barely picking up on this wave of opinion, so it is left to us once again to bring the issue into the open.     "This website distances itself from claims that the levees were blown to target the lower class areas and save the richer areas. The fact is that the disaster affected everyone, and now that the lower classes have largely been evacuated, the middle class are being targeted by door to door raids. Jack booted thugs are arresting people if they don't leave and confiscating their firearms."
- Steve Watson: Locals, Officials Suggest Levees were Intentionally Blown - Evidence suggests there were "cracks" in levees that were intentionally ignored, questions over how they failed. -

"FOR 7,000 YEARS, THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER flooded Louisiana's coast with land-building sediment. The amount of new land this sediment created always exceeded the amount of land lost to the natural processes of subsidence, erosion and sea-level rise. Then in the 20th century, raising the levees erected along the banks of the river prevented its sediment from reaching the coastal marshes. This upset the balance between land lost and land gained, and began the catastrophic retreat of Louisiana's wetlands."
- Land Sinks, Waters Rise, Coastal Wetlands Disappear -

"No sage or savior has ever endorsed greed and gluttony as a path toward social justice or personal fulfillment. These sane and enlightened people come to us from all cultures and all eras, sometimes knowing of each other but more often not. Socrates and Jesus, Lao Tzu and Tolstoy, Gandhi and Martin Buber - no one can find in their lives and words a jot of support for a political and economic regime that encourages the acquisition of wealth far beyond what is needed for the necessaries - or even the restorative pleasures - of life while consigning the masses to live and work in squalor."
- Stephen J. Fortunato: Associate Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court -

"I am struck, watching the hearings, at the complete disconnect between the criticisms of many of those opposing Judge Roberts and a cogent view of the role of the courts. It seems that many of the criticisms are policy based - x or y rulings would lead to bad RESULTS - and make no reference whatsoever regarding whether such results are in fact the correct interpretation of the law (or the Constitution). Judge Roberts' repeated point was that he was committed to the law, and not to a political agenda, yet most of the criticism seems to be that he lacks a particular favored agenda on things like civil rights, the environment, etc. But certainly the critics cannot have it both ways, pissing and moaning that he might reject a substantive conclusion that they favor, yet demand that he not bring his personal views into the judging process. Unless they think that he will misinterpret the law in a way that follows his allegedly retrograde views and opposes their more 'enlightened' views, it seems that their criticism should be about the laws as written, or the constitution itself, and not about the jurist who interprets them faithfully." 
- Erik Jaffe: Disconnect on the Role of the Courts -

"Another lie that they have told us is that there are five senses. Feeling is not a sense. It is one/half of you. We are feeling and desire. As long as we believe that feeling is only a sense, we well never wake up."
- Harold W. Percival: Thinking and Destiny -

    "Last night, President Bush proposed the creation of a 'Gulf Opportunity Zone' to encompass 'the region of the disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.' You won't find specifics in Bush's speech, but you can find them on the Heritage Foundation's website, since it proposed the idea in its 'manifesto on post-Katrina policy' last week. According to Heritage's plan, the 'opportunity' in the zones is actually for the wealthy few and for special interests seeking to strip away government protections and regulations. Heritage calls for a panel of government and private sector officials to target 'regulations at all levels' to be 'eliminated or simplified,' for capital gains taxes and the estate tax for the ultra-wealthy to be repealed, and for waivers on environmental rules.
   "President Bush described his 'vision of the future, in this city and beyond: we will not just rebuild, we will build higher and better.' But the policies he is proposing for the hurricane-battered areas will not achieve this goal. Already, watchdog groups, 'including two in New York that have monitored the post-9/11 reconstruction of Lower Manhattan,' are warning Gulf Coast leaders to 'closely monitor the design of Hurricane Katrina aid packages so that low- and moderate-income people, unemployed workers, and small businesses are treated fairly.' They pointed out that after 9/11, 'rules that normally restrict federal economic funding to primarily benefit low- and moderate-income communities were stripped out,' as is being suggested now. As a result, the groups says, 'much of the $20 billion allocated for economic development has benefited real estate developers and wealthy neighborhoods.'" 
- The Progress Report: CAUTION - "OPPORTUNITY" ZONE AHEAD -

    "Evidence is beginning to accumulate which suggests that the failures of levees in New Orleans may have had more to do with explosives than water. In addition to many eye-witness accounts of explosions at the levee, engineers from LSU are puzzled by how they might have failed. They all share the opinion that the forces exerted by storm water were insufficient to breach them, and I'm willing to bet that the evidence has already been destroyed, because I've seen this game played after 9-11.
    "After our governments inaction and possible sabotage drowned the city, their murderous lack of response to the disaster is blamed on 'bureaucracy.' Naturally, the result will be increased federal control over all 'disasters,' which control Bush happens to be demanding from congress right now. Before the Neo-cons unleash their next disaster, congress will have granted our federal government the ability to immediately take control of the situation, disarm the population, and forcibly relocate people to detention centers, much like the ones now being inhabited by the less wealthy survivors of Katrina."
- Jolly Roger -

     "In the decade before September 11th, 2001, 'globalization,' a word now largely missing-in-action, was on everyone's lips and we constantly heard about what a small, small world this really was. In the aftermath of Katrina, that global smallness has grown positively claustrophobic and particularly predatory. Iraq and New Orleans now seem to be morphing into a single entity, New Oraq, to be devoured by the same limited set of corporations, let loose and overseen by the same small set of Bush administration officials. In George Bush's new world of globalization, first comes the destruction and only then does one sit down at the planetary table to sup.
    "In recent weeks, news has been seeping out of Iraq that the 'reconstruction' of that country is petering out, because the money is largely gone. According to American officials, reported T. Christian Miller of the Los Angeles Times last week, 'The U.S. will halt construction work on some water and power plants in Iraq because it is running out of money for projects.' A variety of such reconstruction projects crucial to the everyday lives of Iraqis, the British Guardian informs us, are now 'grinding to a halt' as 'plans to overhaul the country's infrastructure have been downsized, postponed or abandoned because the $24bn budget approved by Congress has been dwarfed by the scale of the task.'"
- Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse: Corporations of the Whirlwind - The Reconstruction of New Oraq -

    "Pretty much everything Mr. Bush has said since this crisis began has been unspeakably insensitive. But tonight he topped himself. While reading his ghost-written speech in front of the temporarily illuminated 1855 statue of slaveowner Andrew Jackson, he used the most tasteless metaphor of all. Speaking from the deserted city of New Orleans, he appropriated the image of the jazz funeral.
    "Mr. Bush - I can't bring myself to call him the President - had the gall to evoke this sacred African American tradition while black people's corpses were still decomposing within walking distance from where he was speaking. While, as an e-mail from someone who had just returned from the Ninth Ward advised me, the stench of death in the street was overpowering. While the destitute were unable to afford the plainest of jazzless funerals for their loved ones. While anguished mothers were still separated from their children two and a half weeks after the hurricane.
    "I hope Mr. Bush can play the tuba himself, because I doubt there will be much enthusiasm for his parade from the now dispersed communities that know how to do jazz funerals right. I wish I could forget that image of him with the guitar while the Ninth Ward was drowning."
- Ned Sublette: Your Departure is Long Overdue - Mr. Bush's Tuba -

"President Bush on Monday urged Congress to examine whether the White House needs stronger powers to deal with catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina. Bush's backing for the congressional inquiry raised the possibility that lawmakers might expand presidential authority to: 

• Order mandatory civilian evacuations 
• Dispatch U.S.-based armed forces for emergency search-and-rescue operations 
• Grant wider leeway for active-duty U.S. military personnel to carry out law enforcement operations."

- Stewart M. Powell: Bush says he may need more power in disasters. He wants Congress to look into whether presidential authority should be expanded in times of catastrophes like Katrina -

    "Back in 1991, when I retired, with the rate of inflation and interest rates, I had enough money to last for my life time. Now Bush Administration economics have caused my plans to go awry and I must make other plans. I'm too old and ill to work and I decided to place some rather expensive items on sale to be delivered after my demise.
    "I am a veteran of World War II and I don't believe I will survive very long with the medical support now available to veterans and the elderly. Medicare costs me more and more each year and my savings have been decimated.
    "My first offering will be my Pacemaker and the accompanying leads. It is a Clarity DR pacemaker, model CL860uus, Serial # 0176282499. Two pace maker leads: Model ICF09B58, serial # VMR052075V Model ICFo9B52, serial # VMR054088V. I have added a clause to my burial contract whereby upon my demise my undertaker will carefully remove the item and ship it by overnight mail to the winning recipient. A copy of that contract will also be mailed to the winning bidder."
- Ebay -

"The youngest son of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was arrested early Friday and charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest, law enforcement officials said. John Ellis Bush, 21, was arrested by agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission at 2:30 a.m. on a corner of Austin's Sixth Street bar district, said commission spokesman Roger Wade. The nephew of President Bush was released on $2,500 bond for the resisting arrest charge, and on a personal recognizance bond for the public intoxication charge, officials said."
- Jeb Bush's Son Arrested for Public Intoxication Also Charged With Resisting Arrest (I smell a future president) -

    "An increase in the ferocity of hurricanes around the globe over the last 35 years may be attributable to global warming, a new report states.
    "The study, which appears in the Sept. 16 issue of the journal Science, is perhaps one of the strongest scientific statements yet on a connection between hurricane activity and global warming.
    "'I'm heading towards being a little less cautious,' study lead author Peter J. Webster, professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said at a news conference Wednesday. 'I think [rising] sea surface temperature is a global-warming effect and I think the change in [hurricane] intensity, which is a universal thing, is following sea surface temperature.'
    "Webster was referring to a demonstrated increase in the sea surface temperature (SST) of about half a degree centigrade since 1970. Scientists have hypothesized that higher sea surface temperatures result in greater hurricane intensity."
- Amanda Gardner: Study Links Hurricanes to Global Warming -

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
- Napoleon Bonaparte -

"Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."
- Samuel Johnson -

"Greatness is always humble. But pettiness is self-adorned with words of praise. Greatness abides in the absence of arrogance. Smallness proudly parades its haughtiness. Greatness conceals through silence the weaknesses of others. But pettiness proclaims such things to all."
- Tirukkural 98:978-980 -

"Only a mediocre person is always at his best."
- W. Somerset Maugham -

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years."
- Bertrand Russell -

"The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all of your time."
- Willem de Kooning -

"We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by what he originates."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
 

"Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought."
- Blaise Pascal -

"I can live for two months on a good compliment."
- Mark Twain -

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds."
- Malaclypse the Younger -

Everything Else

FEMA not only wasn't helping victims of Katrina, they were actively blocking relief efforts. Check out this amazing list.

Everyone who thinks that NASA should go ahead with its plan to spend $100 billion in the next 12 years to build the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018, raise your hand.

If you were in charge of the war in Iraq and the media was completely distracting the public with news about hurricane Katrina, would you use the opportunity to commit some atrocities you'd been planning but didn't want the public to know about? Well, maybe YOU wouldn't, but the United States sure would. So don't act surprised that there's a massacre in Talafar that no one's writing about.