quod erat demonstrandum: It Was Intentional

[understandinglife]

Please read this:

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report Tuesday afternoon asserting that Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco took the necessary and timely steps needed to secure disaster relief from the federal government, RAW STORY has learned.

The report, which comes after a request by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to review the law and legal accountability relating to Federal action in response to Hurricane Katrina, unequivocally concludes that she did.

"This report closes the book on the Bush Administration's attempts to evade accountability," Conyers said in a statement. "The Bush Administration was caught napping at a critical time."

Link:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Nonpartisan_congressional_research_report_finds_Louisiana_governor_took_nece_0913.html

And, then read this:

Watch Who's Cleaning Up

by Charlie Cray - director of The Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, D.C., and co-author of The People's Business: Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy (Berrett-Koehler, 2004)

September 13, 2005

Some of the same crony contractors who cleaned up in Iraq are beginning to sign big contracts with FEMA. Moreover, the same inexperience and bureaucratic ineptitude that handicapped the agency’s initial response threatens to convert the agency into “an oversized entitlement program,” as former FEMA head-turned Halliburton lobbyist Joe Allbaugh put it in his 2001 confirmation hearings.

The money allocated to rebuild has to be spent. But the current emergency has created a rush to skimp on competitive bidding processes designed to increase potential savings and enhance work quality. A handful of no-bid, “cost-plus” contracts similar to the ones handed out in Iraq have already been signed—with some of the same companies. This time the administration has begun to use the current emergency as an excuse to circumvent routine competitive-bidding processes, while virtually deflecting the hundreds of businesses that have been calling the Army Corps and FEMA to learn how they can get in on the action. We can expect new tales of wasted money and shoddy work.

Bechtel, the giant construction and engineering firm hired through a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq’s electricity and water infrastructure, is reportedly in negotiation with FEMA for a contract to provide temporary housing, as is Fluor, another politically connected company that also worked in Iraq.

<clip>

The survivors of the hurricane deserve a speedy and effective clean-up and reconstruction effort. America’s taxpayers who are underwriting that effort expect the bidding process to be fair and transparent. In their unbridled greed, the corporate “disaster lobby” is pushing a wave of earmarks and deficit expenditures that threaten to further bankrupt the nation’s treasury at the same time that it fails the people of the Gulf.

Link:
http://www.tompaine.com/print/watch_whos_cleaning_up.php

And then read this:

As we all sit in dismay watching the bodies float through the streets of New Orleans on TV, it may seem like the free market bears no real connection to this weather-driven event. And yet what we are watching is the ultimate product of our market-driven society: the eradication of the lower class – in this case poor African Americans -- by economic cleansing. While a hurricane may be the agent, Katrina is shining a spotlight on the reality of what America has become, a society that has traded in its moral principles for market principles.

The free market is not just an economic theory, it is an entire belief system based on the principle of competition, i.e. me vs. you. This system cannot survive, however, unless it is restrained by a framework of higher values based on the principle of unity, i.e. us. The tremendous success of America has always been the product of the delicate balance between these two belief systems, one emanating primarily from the world of business, and the other from the Judeo-Christian tradition. However, for diverse reasons—technological and cultural—market forces have become extraordinarily strong in recent decades, to the point where the market belief system now permeates all aspects of American life. The result is that we no longer care about “us” the way we once did, with devastating results.

<clip>

A Me Society will never build a great civilization and it is folly to promote any theory that maintains otherwise. We need to understand that the market belief system is only part of our society, and the lower part at that. Without those values that promote social unity, be they cultural, familial, religious, aesthetic, moral, or democratic, the water will continue to rise.

From Economic Cleansing in America by Paul Stiles on September 13, 2004

More at link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stiles/economic-cleansing-in-ame_b_7272.html

And, now look at exactly what Bush and the neoconsters have been doing at the UN since they inserted Bolton, against the will of the Senate:

Unbeknownst to the US public, however, at the very time impoverished Americans are being showered with support from the world community, the Bush administration’s newly appointed UN ambassador, John Bolton, has been waging an all-out attack on the global poor.

<clip>

But even before the first world leader landed in New York, John Bolton threw the process in turmoil. In a letter to the other 190 UN member states, Bolton wrote that the United States “does not accept global aid targets” — a clear break with the pledge agreed to by the Clinton administration. (While some countries, including Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have already reached the aid target of 0.7 percent, the United States lags far behind, spending a mere 0.16 percent of its GDP on development.)

<clip>

Finally, with global resources that could used to alleviate poverty instead going into the never-ending arms race, Bolton’s agenda moves us in the direction of an even more dangerous and violent world. He tried to eliminate the principle that the use of force should be considered as an instrument of last resort, slash references to the International Criminal Court and calls for the nuclear powers to make greater progress toward dismantling their nuclear weapons, and cut language that would discourage Security Council members from blocking actions to end genocide.

John Bolton’s slash-and-burn style has convinced many global leaders that the US agenda is not to reform the United Nations but to gut it. In fact, Bolton even called for deleting a clause saying the United Nations should be provided with “the resources needed to fully implement its mandates.”

From On Eve of World Summit, Hurricane Bolton Threatens to Wreak Havoc on the Global Poor

by Medea Benjamin

Much more detail at the link:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0913-36.htm

Senator Kerry commented on Bush's highly parsed 'responsibility' statement in the following way: ""The President has done the obvious, only after it was clear he couldn’t get away with the inexcusable." (TPM - http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_11.php#006523)

However, I think it should be clear that whatever Bush and the neoconsters may say, they have gotten away with the inexcusable and no one is stopping them from more of the same. No. One.

Specifically, see New Orleans for what it was meant to be -- a message to the entire world that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and all their buddies partied while American citizens drowned. That's the message.

The mullahs in Tehran undoubtedly 'get it'; folk at the Kremlin and in Beijing undoubtedly 'get it.'

Bush is blasting away on the boarder of Syria, knowingly goading the Iranians. He is threatening Syria, knowingly goading the Iranians.

Bechtel and Halliburton and others have spent billions hardening and expanding strike bases in Iraq. And, Bush today pushed aside the supposed President of Iraq by countering that timetables for withdrawal of American troops are not on the table.

And, Bolton, for the past several weeks has been making it obvious to every Member State of the UN that Bush and his regime will act unilaterally and aggressively, whenever and wherever.

I submit that the economic cleansing, on the part of Bush and the neoconsters extends to every impoverished person on the planet.

I think Bush and the neoconsters have zero regard for life; they've done the math, they know the population on the planet today is not sustainable, they know that without water and power much of that population will be dead within a decade or less, and if we need any evidence of how willing they are to let it happen just look at Darfur, what AIDS is going to do to much of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, their reluctance to contribute on an appropriate scale to the UN Millennium Project, and New Orleans.

They do not care about life - except their own. They have told us precisely what their real goals are in all their PNAC pronouncements and most Americans do not know what PNAC is.

Not only do Bolton's actions Q.E.D. the reality that "New Orleans" was intentional and they have every intention of disrupting assistance to the world's impoverished; it Q.E.D. the reality that Bush and the neoconsters are now unaccountable in America, are set on dismantling the UN, and no one with either corporate or institutional power in the United States are stopping them.

No One.

quod erat demonstrandum: It Was Intentional -- and the whole world knows it.


Peace.

[mod mom]

1. Despicable! Any hint that Fitzgerald's indictments will be coming soon?

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Seriously.. It's my last ray of hope

------------------------------------------------------
URGENT yet easy! Hold the government accountable for Katrina's aftermath
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4736062

Save the gulf, then save the nation! http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[understandinglife]

11. Since Dec 9, 2000, we have had exceptional leadership from one group ...

... members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

If we have any reason for hope, Congressman Conyers and his colleagues continue to provide it.

Listen In as Congressional Republicans are Forced to Address Rove's Plame Leak

Starting tomorrow and stretching through next week, 4 House Committees are expected to vote on resolutions addressing the Valerie Plame leak. Specifically, these resolutions demand information from the Bush Administration on the outing of Valerie Plame in apparent retaliation for Ambassador Wilson's truth telling concerning weapons of mass destruction. The Bush Administration refuses to police itself in the midst of criminal and ethical misconduct and it is time for Congress to exercise its duty to oversee the Executive Branch. Many of these markups will be broadcast live on the Internet. The following are links to the Committee webcasts:

September 14, 10:00 AM, House Judiciary Committee
http://judiciary.house.gov/

September 14, 10:30 AM, House International Relations Committee
http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/

September 20, Time TBA, House Armed Services Committee
http://www.house.gov/hasc/schedules/

September 15, 1:00 PM, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Closed to the Public

<clip>

We have no illusions that the Republicans in Congress are suddenly going to reverse course and start demanding accountability on this, or any other matter, that involves Bush Administration misconduct that is damaging to the nation. However, starting tommorrow, they will have to go on record and explain their votes defending criminal activity on the part of high ranking officials. That is the beginning of congressional accountability.


More at the link:

http://www.conyersblog.us/default.htm

And, a relevant links at DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1777702

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4761078

Peace.

[mod mom]

13. We need to put pressure on C-Span to cover this. You gotta love Conyers!

[FreedomAngel82]

39. Yes!

I'm glad this is going on. Time for some accountability! Conyers is the hardest working man in DC!

[newswolf56]

16. Not surprised. My late father...

whose politics were far enough Left to severely limit his prospects in the United States of McCarthy, always believed black activism would provide the impetus that finally forced America to fulfill its promise. (I agree, though I would add feminism to the elixir of fulfillment.)

[understandinglife]

18. Press Advisory from Congresswoman Barbara Lee - Sept 14, 2005

Press Release from Congresswoman Barbara Lee

Ninth Congressional District of California
U.S. House of Representatives

PRESS ADVISORY

Congress to Debate "Fixed" Pre-War Intelligence
House Panel Will Vote on Lee Resolution on the "Downing Street Memo"

Who/What: The House International Relations Committee will debate and vote on H.Res. 375, a Resolution of Inquiry introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA). The Resolution, which has bipartisan support and 70 cosponsors, calls upon the Bush administration to give Congress all information relating to communication with officials of the United Kingdom relating to U.S. policy in Iraq between January 1, 2002 and October 16, 2002, the date Congressional authority to use force in Iraq became law. The measure is a privileged resolution, meaning if it is not taken up by the International Relations Committee in a defined period of time, Representative Lee would be entitled to request that it be brought to the House floor for a vote.

Where: 2172 Rayburn House Office Bldg.

When: Wednesday, September 14th, 10:30 AM EDT

Background: On May 1, 2005, The Sunday Times (UK) published the leaked minutes from a US-British meeting on July 23rd, 2002. The "Downing Street Memo," as the minutes came to be known, as well as other documents that came to light subsequently, have raised serious questions as to whether the Bush administration manipulated intelligence data in order to justify the invasion of Iraq; the UN weapons inspection process was manipulated to provide a legal pretext for the war; and that pre-war air strikes were deliberately ramped up in order to soften Iraqi infrastructure in preparation for war, prior to the October Congressional vote authorizing the use of force. The Bush administration has not disputed the authenticity of these documents.

Since the publication of the memo, 131 Members of Congress have written the President, asking for answers to the questions it raises. Rep. Lee and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) delivered more than 575,000 petition signatures to the White House, demanding answers. All of these inquiries have gone unanswered.

"The American people deserve to know the truth about the circumstances under which our troops were sent to war," said Lee.

The memo and subsequent documents raise questions not only about the administration's case for war, but also the constitutional separation of powers, specifically whether Congress' power to authorize the use of force was circumvented through the manipulation of intelligence.

"The U.S. is currently at war in Iraq under an authority conferred to President Bush by the U.S. Congress," said Lee. "It is not only Congress' prerogative, it is our responsibility to make sure that the authority to use force was not granted under circumstances that were deliberately misleading."

All of these inquiries have gone unanswered.

It's going to take 10s of millions of us backing up our few Congressional leaders if we are going to save America from Bush and the neoconsters.

We have 170+ "heads of state" arriving in NYC starting tomorrow.

Any chance someone like Senator Kerry, or Vice President Gore, or President Carter might call on all of them to HELP AMERICA NOW -- and for obvious reasons.

They all can look at what Bush and the neoconsters did to people of New Orleans and the people of Iraq and ask themselves a simple question - will they 'creatively destroy' us sometime soon.


Peace.

[hiley]

30. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus

Shining Light to justice.

[BamaBecky]

27. it's my last hope too....waiting for the Fitzgerald indictments to break

holding my breath..........
Bama

[newswolf56]

3. Been arguing for days that what happened after Katrina...

was a deliberate and predictable manifestation of Bush policies that date back to 2001 -- and beyond that to the Reaganoid Era. A local microcosm of the national macrocosm: concentration of wealth, relentless disempowerment and deliberate impoverishment of everyone who is not part of the oligarchy. New Orleans today as all of America tomorrow. Not tinfoil-hattery but logic, Occam's Razor, objective analysis. Exactly as you say: quod erat demonstrandum (what is hereby proven).

[bleever]

15. The old principle that "poor and the wealthy are equally prohibited

from sleeping under bridges." That's what equal protection means to them.

And have you heard ANY member of this administration express sorrow or horror over the loss of life, the inhumane treatment of evacuees at the Superdome or Convention Center, or the corpses still lying uncollected in the streets?

As you say, a deliberate and predictable manifestation.

[FreedomAngel82]

40. Good observation

Not one of them has apologized or said "I'm sorry" about the deaths. It's always "blame game" nonsense. *sigh*

[understandinglife]

25. "Why the US Gov is so dead-set against doing more to help impoverished ...

The negotiations on the draft declaration for the World Summit - which opens on Tuesday - have been nothing short of bizarre. The United States government has fought a relentless battle to dissociate itself from specific obligations regarding international development, and has tried repeatedly to the quash obligations that it has taken on the past. All of this has been taking place at a time when the US itself has become an aid recipient, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

<clip>

The argument was not very impressive. All 18 of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals - to halve hunger, fight disease, reduce maternal mortality, ensure access to safe drinking water, and more - are explicitly part of the Millennium Declaration. With 190 countries standing in opposition to the US position, the US relented.

The longer battle has ensued around official development assistance and the target of 0.7 percent of GNP in official development aid. It seems at times that all US foreign policy regarding economic development revolves around the US insistence to pay almost nothing to help the poorest countries.

<clip>

The US fight against the fight against poverty would be bizarre at any moment (remember John Kennedy pledging “to those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required”) but it has been especially shocking in the face of Hurricane Katrina. The US is accepting aid from UN agencies, Mexico, Europe, and others, at the very moment it is working overtime to avoid or evade commitments to the poorest of the poor, who are dying by the millions each year due to insufficient assistance from the donor countries.

From The US Fight Against the Fight Against Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs on September 13, 2005

More at Link:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0913-21.htm

190 Nations to 1 -- The entire world against the USA.

Talk about being on the wrong side of history.

190 Nations trying to aid the world's poorest residents and the USA attempting to trash the effort.

Now, tell me, do any of you think Bush and the neoconsters would hesitate turning Tehran to glass in order to control Iranian oil.


Peace.

[Patiod]

55. You and Sen. Obama see eye to eye, Newswolf

Instead of positioning the neocon worldview in black-and-white terms of "racism", you both point out that it's actually a total lack of interest to the lives of anyone who isn't rich. Newsweek 9/19 quotes Obama as saying that "the response to Katrina represented 'a continuation of passive indifference' on the part of the government. It reflected 'an unthinking assumption that every American has the capacity to load up their family in an SUV, fill it up with $100 worth of gasoline, stick some bottled water in the trunk, and use a credit card to check into a hotel on safe ground' ".

[bleever]

4. Someone once jokingly explained that "Veritas", loosely translated,

means, "Crush the Weak".

It is not a joke that this is the definition of power embraced by those who have hijacked the institutions of democracy.

Democracy is not a good in and of itself; in fact it is a hindrance, or rather, a system to be infiltrated, controlled, and bent to the purposes of those in power.

This is social Darwinism, clothed in the rhetoric of "democracy" and the "free market".

Great post; nominated.

[mod mom]

5. What about the 24th in DC? Will * see this as an opportunity?

[understandinglife]

12. I think Bush and the neoconsters would only pay attention if millions ..

... of people occupied DC and refused to leave until Bush and Cheney resign. And, similar scale of shut-down of NYC, LA, and a few other major cities as to force the corporatists to force the neoconsters out.


Peace.

[DoYouEverWonder]

52. Now you know why they don't want to teach evolution theory

They don't want people to figure out what they are doing to them.

[tocqueville]

6. I posted a similar thread yesterday...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4743073&mesg_id=4743073

what Paul Stiles takes up has been widely discussed in Europe since the Reaganomics.

The French and Dutch no to the referendum on the European constitution is partly a rejection of the "liberal" (meaning neo-liberal = neocon) ideology applied to EU markets.

[understandinglife]

10. "Katrina has brutally exposed Americans to the costs of this folly."

Yes, it has.

It may now also be exposing to those Americans willing to see what the rest of the world sees -- that far beyond incompetence, what they witnessed in Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld, Chertoff, .... actions was not merely disregard for life.

Those folk partied and slept well while the helpless, including infants and the infirm, drowned or died from dehydration.

To not stop Bush and the neoconsters now will be no different than committing suicide; we'll just be letting them choose how to kill us and our civilization and more.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

7. dKos -- Whistleblower: Chertoff Impeding Rescue NOW!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/13/164257/615

No one is holding them accountable. And they just keep piling on.

Bush and pickles will have, once again, a good night's sleep, tonight.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

9. Investigation finds Red Cross agreed to withhold Orleans aid, operates

... in tandem with Homeland Security

Jennifer Van Bergen

Top Red Cross official Bush appointee, donor

New information surrounding relief efforts by the American Red Cross in New Orleans raises questions about whether the organization provided adequate relief and whether funds are actually being directed to Katrina victims, RAW STORY has found.

Previous investigations have shown that the Red Cross mishandled its 9/11 fund, attempting to divert more than half into a "war fund" before Congress intervened, and moved $10 million from a fund in 1989 for earthquake victims towards other uses. Allegations of similar holdbacks following the Oklahoma City bombing and several later disasters, coupled with the discovery that the Red Cross, mandated by its Code of Conduct to remain independent of government, is officially part of the Bush Administration's national security apparatus, led RAW STORY to dig deeply into the Red Cross and its recent disaster relief efforts.

<clip>

McElveen-Hunter was appointed by Bush in June 2004. Her Red Cross bio says she is the "former U.S. Ambassador to Finland (2001-2003) and the CEO and owner of Pace Communications, Inc., the largest private custom publishing company in the United States. The company's clients include such Fortune 500 companies as United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, AT&T, Carlson Hotels, and Toyota." McElveen-Hunter donated more than $130,000 to the Republican Party since 2000, RAW STORY has found. Her largest donations were $25,000 to the Republican National Committee in April 2004 and $100,000 in July 2000. In May 2000, she gave $1000 to "Bush for President, Inc."

Marsha J. Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Red Cross, is a Rear Admiral in the Navy and the Director of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., a global investment bank serving the financial needs of corporations, institutions, governments and high-net-worth investors worldwide, according to the corporation's web site. Evans also sits on the boards of the May Department Stores Company and Weight Watchers International and was recently elected to the board of the Huntsman Corporation, a large chemical and plastics manufacturer. She is also a presidential appointee to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Military Academy.

Link to more:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Investigation_finds_Red_Cross_agreed_to_withhold_New_Orleans_aid_operates_in_tandem_with_Home_0913.html

Pile it. Pile it.

Do you think these people care about anything other than the haves and the have-mores?


Peace.

[understandinglife]

35. dKos -- LA Governor did everything she could. Report proves

http://dailykos.com/story/2005/9/13/164050/832

Keeping everyone linked to everyone ....


Peace.

[bloom]

8. Capitalism run amok

It is quite horrible.

I noticed the left party won in Norway, though. That's good for them...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/international/europe/13norway.html

OSLO, Sept. 12 - By a narrow margin, Norwegian voters appeared Monday to have transferred power from their center-right government to a left-wing coalition headed by the Labor Party leader, Jens Stoltenberg.

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik refrained from conceding defeat, but with more than 90 percent of the vote counted, most analysts agreed that Mr. Stoltenberg's "red-green alliance" of the Labor Party, Socialist Left Party and Center Party had won a slim parliamentary majority, ending four years of weak minority rule under Mr. Bondevik...

---

It's nice to know there are still sane people somewhere.

[Im with Rosey]

14. I salute you again UL

I become increasingly more frustrated and saddened that all we try to do is for naught. I continually write to everyone I can think of, I am spreading the word far and wide to anyone that will listen, I have attended events as often as possible. I am trying to spread the word that there will be a protest right here in conservative Orange County, Ca. on the 24th. What the hell else can we do to STOP all the insanity of this evil empire? It just keeps getting worse! I simply don't know what else *I* can do and it is so frustrating! We know, we have proof of everything that is happening, and yet nothing is changing, Halliburton is still raking in the ill-gotten gains, the monster in the people's house is still in control, and it seems the revolution is not happening. Believe me, I'm not expecting instant gratification, but someone needs to throw us a bone. Someone must step up! Surely all our mailings, all our support for Cindy, the well planned events of 9-24 would make some impact.

[understandinglife]

20. Our hope is in forcing the reality into view and keeping it there. That ..

... is what each individual can do.

Speak the truth; make no excuses; be incessant.

We have evidence in history that corrupt empires can be overcome.

What we should try to do this time are overcome our corrupt Bush regime peacefully and become way more vigilant to not allow a privileged few to impoverish and murder our fellow citizens, ever again.


Peace.

[Karenina]

53. Back to One!

:kick:

[jokerman93]

17. It's all there isn't it?

:kick:

We are chattle - the thinning of the herd.

[understandinglife]

19. Yes. It is all in plain sight. Nothing hidden. No excuses available.

Peace.

[understandinglife]

22. Miles of damaged levees occurred on 29/30 August; only revealed yesterday.

Much Wider Damage to Levees Is Disclosed

Miles of barriers designed to protect the city from storm surges have been washed away.

By Ralph Vartabedian, Times Staff Writer

September 13, 2005


NEW ORLEANS — The massive levee system protecting New Orleans has sustained heavy damage well beyond the five breaches that are widely known to have caused flooding after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers said Monday.

Miles of levees that protected the eastern flank of the region, which borders Lake Borgne, washed away in the storm surge from Katrina, which swept inland and caused deep flooding in St. Bernard Parish and the 9th Ward of New Orleans.

<clip>

The loss of the levees has left portions of New Orleans with little or no protection midway through the hurricane season, senior Army officials said. And rebuilding the levees will be a massive undertaking that could take years, meaning the city could be vulnerable for a long time.

"It is gone," said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the Army Corps' head engineer for the New Orleans district. "It is literally leveled in places. The power of the surge in this storm was greatly underestimated." Wagenaar estimated that 90% of the levee system protecting the region's eastern flank had been knocked out.

<clip>

Link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-corps13sep13,0,5962987.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Instead of destroying other nations and killing people and stealing their resources, it might be better to take care of our own.

Others would have much less of a reason to hate us and want to kill us if we spent our money on food and literacy and health care and infrastructure here in America, instead of on major military facilities in other countries.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

21. "They vacationed and played while our fellow citizens drowned."

Something easy to send to those needing a 'visual' to 'get it':

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4756894&mesg_id=4756894


Peace.

[DemReadingDU]

23. Thank you U.L.

for putting together these articles for us to read

[WiseButAngrySara]

24. I said it before....and hoped it would be proven wrong. NOLA is BFEE's

new Iraq. Nominated.

[understandinglife]

36. The Bush-friendly companies that ate Iraq are preparing to do the same ...

... in New Orleans.

"At times it is hard to ignore the comparisons between Baghdad (where I was less than a month ago and have spent more of the last two years) and New Orleans: The anarchy, the looting, some of it purely for survival, some of it purely opportunistic. We watched a flatbed truck drive by, a man on the back with an M-16 looking up on the roofs for snipers, as is common in Iraq. Private security contractors were stationed outside the Royal St. Charles Hotel; when asked if things were getting pretty wild around the area, one of them replied, ?Nope. It's pretty Green Zone here.'" (David Enders, Surviving New Orleans, Mother Jones on-line)

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."

<clip>

Today, New Orleans' streets are under military occupation; its property is guarded by hired guns; and the corporations of the whirlwind are pouring into town. All that's missing is the insurgency.

From Corporations of the Whirlwind by Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse on September 14, 2005

Link:

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/09/whirlwind.html

and the corporations of the whirlwind are pouring into town -- get it.

Grab, grab, grab; kill, kill, kill .... repeat.

Does anyone have the courage to stand at the podium at the UN in the next three days -- chief executives of 170+ Nations present and say "NO MORE; NEVER AGAIN ON THIS PLANET." I would and I'd make it stick if I had to use my own blood as the glue.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

41. Grab, grab, grab; kill, kill, kill; more power, more power, .... repeat.

I'm not making this stuff up as I go ....

Posted on September 13, 2005

Bush says he may need more power in disasters

By STEWART M. POWELL

WASHINGTON — 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.

<clip>

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/12629945.htm

No remorse. Not one tiny little dollop of compassion.

Just a sickening photo-op or two and then onto grab, grab, grab ... watch'um die, float, and decay .... and give me more power, more power, more power ....


Peace.

[WiseButAngrySara]

45. So utterly revolting and frightening...their greed is unquenchable!...n/t

[WiseButAngrySara]

47. New Oraq! Sadly perfect. I didn't want to read the article, because I

knew it would make me feel pretty hopeless. And it did! Where are our Democratic leaders in all of this? The Roberts hearings today were pathetic. Its as if they too have morphed into one party...no one has the courage to speak the truth to these b-tards! I would be with you at that UN podium...if only!

[understandinglife]

26. My response to Senator Bayh's Huffington Post blog

Senator,

Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld, at the minimum, must resign immediately.

And, it's not as if everyone shouldn't know why.

If they are still clueless, just give them this:



and explain that while all of this information was available and all the people who could have been saved were drowning and dying and suffering, Bush ate cake and strummed a guitar, Condi went to the theater and bought shoes the next day, Rummy went to a ball game and didn't do anything to help, and Cheney continued to vacation and then looked for an estate.

We will never forget, never.

Let's see some actual leadership from you and other members of the Congress.

Go to the White House and tell Bush and Cheney to resign, immediately. They vacationed and played while our fellow citizens drowned.

Clear enough.

Thank you.

Posted by: understandinglife on September 13, 2005 at 12:41PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evan-bayh/katrina-a-breaking-of-th_b_7246.html

Peace.

[Time for change]

28. Thank you for putting all this together UL

You could make a great book out of your last couple months of posts.

[hiley]

29. quod erat demonstrandum: It Was Intentional !

exactly


FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals
09/13/2005 @ 6:04 pm
Filed by Miriam Raftery
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FEMA_outsources_Katrina_body_count_to_firm_implicated_in_bodydumping_scan_0913.html

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.
Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.
Louisiana governor Katherine Blanco subsequently inked a contract with the firm after talks between FEMA and the firm broke down.
snip---


Why FEMA chose to outsource mortuary services to a paid contractor is also mystery to Dan Buckner, co-owner of the Gowen-Smith Chapel in the Gulf area. Buckner had planned to serve with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Responses Team, which reportedly told Buckner's partner, Gary Hicks of Paducah, KY, to expect up to 40,000 deaths from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Upon learning of Kenyon’s contract, Buckner expressed puzzlement. He told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, "Volunteers would have gone at no charge."
Clarification: After FEMA began working with Kenyon, they were subsequently contracted by Louisiana Governor Blanco. It was Louisiana that signed a formal contract.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FEMA_outsources_Katrina_body_count_to_firm_implicated_in_bodydumping_scan_0913.html

[hiley]

31. kick

:patriot:

[Independent_Liberal]

32. Kick!

[understandinglife]

33. The president had to be truly zoned out not to jump at the word hurricane

How many places will be in shambles by the time the Bush crew leaves office?

Given that the Bush team has dealt with both gulf crises, Iraq and Katrina, with the same deadly mixture of arrogance and incompetence, and a refusal to face reality, it's frightening to think how it will handle the most demanding act of government domestic investment since the New Deal.

Even though we know W. likes to be in his bubble, where he can clutch his feather pillow, the stories this week are breathtaking about the lengths the White House staff had to go to capture Incurious George's attention.

<clip>

The aides were scared to tell the isolated president that he should cut short his vacation by a couple of days, Newsweek said, because he can be "cold and snappish in private." Mike Allen wrote in Time about one "youngish aide" who was so terrified about telling Mr. Bush he was wrong about something during the first term, he went to the bathroom afterward and "had dry heaves."

From A Fatal Incuriosity by Maureen Dowd on September 14, 2005

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/14/opinion/14dowd.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Look deeper Ms Dowd. Look well past the 'aides are terrified" current Rovian maneuver.

Look deep into the heart of the matter.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi, et al., partied and slept well on Aug 28, 29, 30, 31, Sept 1, 2, 3 ..... .

Look at what Bolton has done in 6 weeks at the UN. LOOK AT IT.

Look just at those FACTS.

Let us all not be snookered once again.

Bush and the neoconsters are cold-blooded killers and torturers. They knew exactly what was going to happen to the impoverished and a bunch of below-potential-market-value real estate and THEY LET IT HAPPEN.

The whole world is not merely watching, they all KNOW.

Look whose already raking in beau koo bucks in New Orleans.

SEE IT FOR WHAT IT IS.

p.s. I admire Ms Dowd, by the way, but she and everyone else operating in the realm of what we had all hoped was still "America" need to start operating in the realm of "Bush and the neoconster imperialist world domination gang" and see it for what it is.




Peace.

[understandinglife]

34. The anecdote to Bush and the neoconsters is == compassion, for real.

If you've read this thread and reached this point, then know that I have been searching, searching for a way to convey how we can join together and overcome the evil of Bush and his neoconsters.

And, thanks to Dan Pasternack, I have something to share with all of you that crystallizes the answer -- it is compassion, the real stuff.

"Compassion is a sense of shared suffering, most often combined with a desire to alleviate or reduce such suffering. Compassionate acts are generally considered those which take into account the suffering of others and attempt to alleviate that suffering as if it were one's own."

Well that cemented it for me. I suddenly understood something with blinding clarity. I knew why there was such outrage in the face of a tremendous natural disaster. It wasn’t just plain ineptitude. It was something more unnerving. It was the inability to identify with so many of those that were hardest hit. As the images of the victims began running non-stop on our televisions, I was shocked to hear people all around me questioning why “those people” didn’t leave. Why they sat idle and just let the storm come crashing down on their homes. Why it didn’t occur to them to get out… to have a better plan… to have some place else to go. And that prevailing perspective is, as far as I can tell, what lies at the heart of what went wrong. It kept anyone on the local, state or federal level from really being able to anticipate or respond to those who have always been the invisible members of society. People who didn’t have the means or the ability to get out of town. Maybe they get their government checks at the beginning of the month and had the rotten luck to have to face a hurricane that showed up at the end of the month. Whatever the reason, we were suddenly confronted with people we don’t like to acknowledge. And, if we didn’t see them on all the 24 hour news channels, starving and scared, we might not have had to deal with their existence even then. Adding insult to injury, our President’s mother gave us an insight into her true feelings when she said of the evacuees in the Astrodome "…So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." Somehow on September 11th, 2001, it was about all of us. We were all attacked. We were all in it as one. We were all Americans. But that wasn’t the case this time and it was clear. The missing component? Compassion.

Answers and inspiration sometime come from the unlikeliest places. Over the weekend, I was watching a TiVo-ed episode of the ABC late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live. Via remote, Jimmy had as his guests, the Moutra family from Stafford, Texas, who have taken in more than two dozen Katrina evacuees from New Orleans into their modest family home. The image of that living room crowded full of people who had a place to stay and food to eat due to this one compassionate family had Kimmel choking back tears. I wasn’t nearly as stoic as I watched and wept. As Jimmy is a personal friend of mine, I emailed him and got contact information for Billye Moutra, who told me that her community and the school at which she works is providing for about 300 Katrina victims from New Orleans area. True to the most famous line ever uttered in a play set in the city of New Orleans, this was “the kindness of strangers” at its finest. I have offered my help to this grass roots cause and I truly hope they call on me as their efforts are an inspiration at a time when I didn’t know where to look for it.

From Compassion by Dan Pasternack on September 14, 2005

More at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-pasternack/compassion_b_7308.html

And, so I type while I am weeping almost to the point that I cannot type.

If only we can pull together as people of compassion and honesty and rid our Nation and the world of the Bush neoconster plague what a great good deed we all will have done for humanity and civilization.

We can only do it together and if we reject violence and force all aspects of national and international law to be the framework in which we bring these mass-murdering criminals to justice.


Peace.

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Sometimes when I read information such as this

I feel so sick to my stomach. I just can't stand these people and they make me physically ill. There was definitley a purpose to leave the bodies in New Orleans. And Halliburton got the contract to "clean up" New Orleans just a few days after it happened. That is what really showed what this is all about. And yes, the Bush administration wants to destroy the UN so they can do their wars without answering to anybody It's all apart of the PNAC plan. To them they want the United States to be the one who makes the rules and every other country has to answer to them and not as it's supposed to be. This is why they wanted Bolton in before they went to war with Iran. So they could sneak in. All they had to do was to get into Iraq and destroy the boarder security and bingo.

[understandinglife]

43. I empathize with your feelings. I just don't know what else to do ...

... but to persist in compiling the facts and hoping that because all folk have to do is send one URL to others that we might gather sufficient numbers of ethical, caring individuals to stop these monsters.

Thank you for your comments. I regret being a source of distress.


Peace.

[gauguin57]

38. Quote in Time Mag, re: contracts: ...

"They are throwing money out -- they are shoveling it out the door." == James Albertine, Washington lobbyist and past president of the American League of Lobbyists, on the ease of obtaining no-bid federal contracts for relief and reconstruction projects in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Folks, could it GET any more sickening???!!!

[understandinglife]

42. "Folks, could it GET any more sickening???!!!" --- Yes, if we allow it ...

... to happen.

We will never be well until we staunch this disease; eradicate it, completely.

It's us or them; it's civilization and some hope for future generations or it is vast death and inextinguishable greed.

It could not get more binary -- us or them.


Peace.

[Karenina]

71. Another visual

[FreedomAngel82]

44. Something else I find interesting

is how for the longest time Cheney was basically invisible. Then he comes out of nowhere to "inspect" the damage at New Orleans? We all know what he was doing down there. Wasn't there also a report where a republican said they've been waiting for something like this to happen to New Orleans but God was the one who did it instead?

[me b zola]

46. It gets scarier

Posted by DUer IChing in LBN:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1778930

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/12629945.htm

WASHINGTON — 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.

“It’s really important that as we take a step back and learn lessons — that we are in a position to adequately answer the question: ‘Are we prepared for major catastrophes?”’ Bush said during a tour of hurricane damage in New Orleans.

He said if there was a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction, such as germ-warfare agents, “we’ve got to make sure we understand the lessons learned to be able to deal with catastrophe.”>>>>snip

***********

Read it and literally weep. I am.

[WiseButAngrySara]

49. I'm literally weeping too! USL posted this too (#41) ...n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

48. It's a damned crime that the US public is lied to and kept from knowing

what these unspeakable criminals are doing in their name.

Recommended.

Re the Bush Administration's response to Katrina, I think this painting by Steve Bell is just about perfect:

[WiseButAngrySara]

50. Kick!...Every DUer should read this !! This is one of the most

informative and painful threads that I've read on this Katrina horror, and it pieces together information that I held instinctively at a distance, not reallly wanting to put all of the pieces together into the brutal facts of negligent homicide. Its almost too much to comprehend. That these vultures not only delayed humane response to a situation that made even the most cynical weep unabashedly, they immediately profited on the sufferings of others. I love the truth, and as a scientist, truth has always been a delight. With this current administration, truth has become as painful as Pandoras Box.

[understandinglife]

60. "the brutal facts of negligent homicide" -- precisely.

Thank you for your comments.


Peace

[WiseButAngrySara]

62. And I thank you for your very informative thread!....n/t

[BamaBecky]

51. kick

[mod mom]

54. Another great compilation UL! I hope all DUers read this. I can't wait

for the book.

[northamericancitizen]

56. Keep on kicking and talking about it. nt

[bleever]

57. Kick for the a.m.

[north houston dem]

58. kick for truth

bastards

:grr:

[enough]

59. Powerful.

Kick

[understandinglife]

61. M Moore: "The truth is that there are dead bodies everywhere and no one ..

... is picking them up.

My crew reports that in most areas there is no FEMA presence, and very little Red Cross. It's been over two weeks since the hurricane and there is simply not much being done. At this point, would you call this situation incompetence or a purposeful refusal to get real help down there?

That's why we decided not to wait. And we are so grateful to all of you who have joined us. The Veterans for Peace and my staff aren't leaving (and that's why we are hoping those of you who can't get to Covington will make it to the Veterans for Peace co-sponsored anti-war demonstration in DC on September 24: www.unitedforpeace.org.)

If you want to help, here's what we need in Covington right now:

Cleaning Supplies (glass cleaner, bleach, disinfectant, etc.)
Aspirin and other basic over the counter drugs.
Bottled Water
Canned Goods
Hygiene Supplies
Baby Supplies - Baby Food Formula, diapers #4, #5, Wipes, Pedialyte
Sterile Gloves
Batteries - All kinds, from AA to watch and hearing aid batteries.
Volunteers with trucks and cars
Self contained kitchens with generators, utensils, workers

Consider sending supplies in reusable containers. List the contents on the outside of the package so the folks in the warehouse can easily sort the items.

Clothes are not needed. If you go, keep in mind that you MUST be self-sufficient. Bring a tent and a sleeping bag. People are driving to Covington from across the country and often have extra room in their cars for you or for an extra box of supplies. For more information, go to the Veterans for Peace message board.

Send supplies via UPS to:
Veterans for Peace
Omni Storage
74145 Hwy. 25
Covington LA


Thanks again for funding and supporting our relief efforts. It has been a bright spot in this otherwise shameful month.

Yours,
Michael Moore

I'd call it ethnic and economic cleansing.


Peace.

[WiseButAngrySara]

63. Already recommended yesterday, and I'd do it again if I could vote twice!

So, an afternoon kick!

:kick:

[understandinglife]

64. Chertoff's inaction.

I realize we have a separate thread at DU on this topic. I'm just adding a bit of info here because of its relevance to this thread.

The original Knight Rider report by By Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young and Shannon McCaffrey was published on September 13, 2005:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/12637172.htm

And, TPM has followed the story (as have others) and I'm providing links to a couple of those threads:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_11.php#006534

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_11.php#006536


Peace.

[understandinglife]

69. Steve Clemons: The Katrina Crimes

September 14, 2005
The Katrina Crimes: Chertoff Confused on Role, Delayed Emergency Designation

Via Talking Points Memo, this interesting article published by Knight-Ridder finds that Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff may have been confused about his role in specifying the priority of national emergencies.

<clip>

This is a hefty indictment of Chertoff.

Many people in New Orleans died because the Department of Homeland Security was not ready to operate without training wheels.

-- Steve Clemons

Posted by steve at September 14, 2005 08:52 AM

Link: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000950.html

Steve Clemons calls it what it is, correctly.

In fact, many people continue dying and we have no clue how many are dying of dehydration just this very moment thanks to the persistent efforts of Bush and his goons to just let the poor folk die.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

65. Bush wants to be certain we all know how much he despises those ...

... who work for wages to survive. Just in case we need reminding how much he despises the poor or if we missed the fact that he is more than willing to party and sleep while they drown.

Bring Home The Davis-Bacon

by Beth Shulman

September 14, 2005

Dear President Bush:

Have you no shame? By suspending the Davis-Bacon laws in the areas devastated by the hurricane you are taking advantage of those already suffering. Davis-Bacon laws require federal contractors to pay laborers and mechanics at least the prevailing-wage rates (and fringe benefits) that other similar workers in the area receive. Once again, wealthy contractors, who are being awarded contracts without competitive bidding that guarantee them a certain profit regardless of how much they spend, will reap millions from this disaster. At the same time, the Americans doing the hard work of restoring these ravaged cities are forced to live without even a basic living wage.

Mr. President, America watched in shock as victims cried for help and bodies floated alongside the survivors. In the gut-wrenching wake of Hurricane Katrina we saw a stark portrait of those left behind. We live in the world's richest country, yet in New Orleans, thousands lost their lives due to a lack of money, transportation, a safe destination or the know-how to get out.

New Orleans is just the most horrific example of what our society has become: a neglectful place, indifferent to Americans with the least income. In the name of freedom, your administration has starved our government of funds for programs that support average Americans and opened the door for death by a thousand little cuts. In New Orleans, cuts eliminated money for shoring up the levees that could have saved the city and thousands of its residents. Nationwide, cuts have strip-mined child care, pre-school and public schools, which undermines our country's future by guaranteeing that another generation will be poor.

<clip>

More at the link:

http://www.tompaine.com/print/bring_home_the_davisbacon.php

The man is 100% evil. And, what the entire world now knows is exactly that.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

66. Yet more evidence of the fact that Bush & the neoconsters Do Not Care.

September 14, 2005 | Peter Czuleger, an emergency room doctor from Mission Viejo, CA, tends to a patient who had been found by California National Guardsmen during house-to-house searches in New Orleans. Czuleger said the man suffered from dehydration and had about 24 hours to live if he hadn't been discovered. (Photo: Bruce Chambers / Orange County Register)

Each of these human beings deserved the fullest attention of Bush. He could fly to DC to make a mockery of a husband attempting to allow his brain-destroyed wife to die in peace, but he only could fly over all those who were drowning and slowly dying -- all of whom knew they were dying because their brains were intact.

Cold. Blooded. Mass. Murderer. == George W Bush.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

67. "It is time those of us paid to keep the record straight tore it down ...

... completely.

More urgently, it is the reason why the historic implications of Bush's and Blair's assaults on our most basic freedoms, such as habeas corpus, are rarely reported. On 9 September, the American federal appeals court handed down a judgment against Jose Padilla, an alleged witness to an alleged "plot" inmate of Guantánamo Bay, allowing the US military to hold him without charge, indefinitely. Even though there is no case against him, the Supreme Court is unlikely to overturn this travesty, which means the end of the Bill of Rights and of the "very core of liberty... freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive", as an American jurist once famously wrote.

This was hardly news in Britain, just as Lord Hoffmann's remarks passed most of us by. A Law Lord, he said that Blair's plans to gut our own basic rights were a greater threat than terrorism. Indefinite imprisonment for those innocent before the law and the intimidation of a minority community and of dissenters - these are the goals of Blair's "necessary measures", borrowed from Bush. Who challenges him? His Downing Street press conference is an august sheep pen, the baa-ing barely audible. In India, the other day, reported the London Guardian's political editor, "Mr. Blair stood his ground when challenged over the Iraq war" - by Indian reporters, that is. The Guardian described neither their challenges nor Blair's replies.

Behind The Facade, the destruction of democracy has been a long-term project. The millions of poor, like most of the people of New Orleans, have no place in the American system, which is why they don't vote. The same is happening under Blair, who has achieved the lowest voter turnouts since the franchise. As with Bush, this is not his concern, for his horizons stretch far. Selling weapons and privatization deals to India one day, preparing the ground for attacking Iran the next. Under Blair, the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, ran Operation Mass Appeal, a campaign to plant stories in the media about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Under Blair, young Pakistanis living in Britain were trained as jihadi fighters and recruited for the first of his wars - the dismemberment of Yugoslavia in 1999. According to the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, they joined this terrorist network "with the full knowledge and complicity of the British and American intelligence agencies."

In his classic work, The Grand Chessboard, ]b]Zbigniew Brzezinski, the godfather of American policies and actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, writes that for America to dominate the world, it cannot sustain a genuine, popular democracy because "the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion... Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization". He describes how he secretly persuaded President Carter in 1976 to bankroll and arm the jihadis in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a means of ensuring America's Cold War dominance. When I asked him in Washington, two years ago, if he regretted that the consequences were al-Qaeda and the attacks of 11 September, he became very angry and did not reply; and a crack in The Facade closed. It is time those of us paid to keep the record straight tore it down completely.

From News from Behind The Facade By John Pilger on September 14, 2005

More at link:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091405B.shtml

"the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion... Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization". -- IN_DEED.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

68. Andrew Stephen: "Why America can't cope"

We know, now, that there was not even a Prescott in charge in Washington. President Bush was exorcising heaven-knows-what demons by furiously riding his mountain bike in Texas - nobody, not even the Secret Service or a visiting Lance Armstrong, is allowed to pass him - while Vice-President Cheney was fly-fishing in Wyoming. Condoleezza Rice, next in charge, was shopping for shoes at Ferragamo's and watching Spamalot on Broadway and catching the US Open in New York; while Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, who is supposed to keep it all together, was taking in the sea breeze with much of the rest of the Bush crowd in Maine.

Rats gnawing at corpses floating down the streets three days after Katrina struck, bodies left to decompose in the stairwells of New Orleans's main hospital because its basement mortuary was flooded, tens of thousands still trapped, hungry and thirsty: only then did the inquests into what the Los Angeles Times called the "surreal foreignness" of it all start. But then the questioning was imbued with a peculiarly American self-righteousness and aggressive need to pin blame on the guilty: on the inattentiveness of the Bush administration, its lack of foresight, the racial and class divisions within the US, and so on.

In so far as they went, the inquests are justified. There is much guilt and blame to be shared around. It took the fury of Katrina to bring home to many the sheer hopelessness of Bush and his administration, both in their immediate response and in their prior lack of competent planning. The spectacle of countries such as Sri Lanka sending donations and Fidel Castro offering to send medical supplies with 1,100 doctors only underlined the desperate nationalistic need to find scapegoats to appease the shame.

But nobody, as far as I can see, has dared to suggest that there are deeper explanations for so disconcerting a shambles, explanations that transcend political parties or individuals. The self-image of America, now largely adopted in Britain, too, is that of a nation of uniquely hardy and resilient people predestined by God to be omnipotent in the world, be it against the forces of nature or of bogeyman dictators.

Because, in reality, the reverse is so often true - present-day Americans, after all, are the most pampered human beings in history - the myths, fostered by popular culture and especially Hollywood, have given rise to a complacency that is increasingly dangerous not only for the rest of the world but for Americans, too. Hardship is only momentary and can always be overcome, hard work will always be rewarded, and other such uniquely American traits, will result in a society that is matchlessly efficient and soars to ever greater triumphs: it ticks over so smoothly that even after the 11 September 2001 atrocities, Bush is still free to go off to bike, Cheney to fish, Rice to shop.

<clip>

From Why American Can't Cope by Andrew Stephen on September 14, 2005

Much more at the link:

http://www.newstatesman.com/200509120004

Just in case someone thinks the whole world is not watching -- and they get it, as well, as see it.

To conclude "A predictable natural calamity which inconveniently failed to fit in with the preordained scripts of this most cynical of US administrations has brutally exposed America's shortcomings." IN_DEED.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

70. Herbert: "you get a sense of the size of the societal failure that we ...

Everybody's suffering would have been eased if the emergency relief effort mounted by the hospital's owner, Universal Health Services in King of Prussia, Pa., had not been interfered with by FEMA. Company officials sent desperately needed water, food, diesel fuel to power the hospital's generators and helicopters to ferry in the supplies and evacuate the most vulnerable individuals.

Bruce Gilbert, Universal's general counsel, told me yesterday, "Those supplies were in fact taken from us by FEMA, and we were unable to get them to the hospital. We then determined that it would be better to send our supplies, food and water to Lafayette <130 miles from New Orleans> and have our helicopters fly them from Lafayette to the hospital."

<clip>

When you consider that the Methodist Hospital experience was just one small part of the New Orleans catastrophe, you get a sense of the size of the societal failure that we allowed to happen.

Welcome to the United States in 2005.

From Sick and Abandoned By BOB HERBERT on September 15, 2005

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/opinion/15herbert.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

GET THAT -- "Those supplies were in fact taken from us by FEMA"

Bush. Wanted. Them. To. Die. -- Q.E.D.


Peace.

[mod mom]

72. :( crimes against humanity!