Protection Racket? josh marshall agrees with me.
Media Notes Extra: "The whole DeLay political machine has been built on the compliance, cooperation and cooptation of big corporations and trade groups who have little ideological truck with DeLayism. It's a business decision-- partly a protection racket. It's not only paying in big sums of money but also hiring DeLay soldiers on instruction"

More and better descriptions of the racketeering linking capitol hil to K streek .
Media Notes Extra: "'Throughout his Washington career, there is little wrong that DeLay hasn't done. He has transformed the House Republican majority into an arm of corporate special interests that benefit from an unprecedented 'pay to play' culture of rewards for political donations. As symbolized by his well-known chumminess with the oleaginous Jack Abramoff, he has unapologetically blurred the lines between officeholders and lobbyists, deeply integrating K Street into his party's political and legislative strategy and treating it like a House Republican patronage machine. And DeLay, more than anyone, has been responsible for running the House of Representatives like a one-party dictatorship, both shutting out the Democratic minority (even denying them simple meeting space) and militantly smothering intraparty dissent . . ."

Corrupton marches on. New majority leader Blunt member of same gang. neEthics cloud hangs over new House GOP leader / He employs adviser indicted with DeLay: "As he worked to unite the party and turn its attention back to the legislative agenda, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, DeLay's successor as majority leader, faced ethics questions himself.
Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show that since 2003, Blunt's political action committee has paid $94,000 in salary to the consulting firm of Jim Ellis, a longtime associate of DeLay. Ellis has been indicted in the same case as DeLay, for allegedly conspiring to illegally influence the outcome of Texas legislative elections by channeling corporate money to Republican candidates.
Congressional watchdog groups and Democrats pointed to Blunt's employment of Ellis' firm, J.W. Ellis Co., as evidence of what they said is an atmosphere of corruption on Capitol Hill.
Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., confirmed that he is under investigation by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for his sale earlier this year of stock in HCA Inc., the hospital chain founded by his father and brother. The company said Thursday that the SEC is also investigating HCA.
'It doesn't surprise me because an ethical cloud does hang over this Capitol,' said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco"

Fraud, conspiricay and corruption, and racketeering. I mean, how different is this from the old protection racket that soapy Smith inflicted on Skagway?
DeLay Helped Cement GOP Ties to Lobbyists - Los Angeles Times: "WASHINGTON � Whether or not Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) returns to power, few industry lobbyists in the nation's capital are likely to forget the lesson he once taught the electronic manufacturers: Support the Republican Party � or else.

That industry felt DeLay's wrath in the fall of 1998, when one of its leading trade associations hired a Democrat as its top lobbyist. DeLay and his staff temporarily blocked one of the industry's favorite measures from coming to a vote.

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His slap at the Electronic Industries Alliance led to a private reprimand from the House Ethics Committee, and even some Republicans called his approach heavy-handed. But DeLay was not deterred.

And the beleaguered former House majority leader has left a lasting mark on the capital: turning the Washington lobbying establishment into a critical cog of the Republican political machine.

Seven years after the dust-up with the electronics group, many on K Street � home to Washington's network of business associations and lobbying shops � believe they can no longer divide political contributions evenly between the parties. Instead, they see their success in Congress riding more on how hard they work to provide money and political muscle to the Republican Party and its quest for a long-lasting conservative majority.

Although DeLay's indictment this week on a Texas campaign finance charge renews questions about the ethics of mixing corporate interests and electoral politics, his well-cemented relationship with business is likely to benefit the GOP into the future."

Fraud and Corruption, so mcuh news I can't keep up with it.
2 Top Bayou Executives Plead Guilty to Fraud - New York Times: "The two principals of the Bayou Group, the Connecticut hedge fund that collapsed this summer, pleaded guilty to fraud charges today in Federal District Court in White Plains, N.Y."
Before their appearance in court today, Mr. Israel and Mr. Marino had not been seen publicly for more than a month as their investors sought frantically to find anyone at the firm after communications stopped and some checks did not clear. Prosecutors say the hedge fund raised $450 million from investors.

fraud, conspiracy and corruption gangland style, ad nauseum:
latest installment.....

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "Fort Lauderdale police said yesterday that they charged three men in the 2001 gangland-style slaying of a Florida businessman who was gunned down in his car months after selling a casino cruise line to a group that included Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

well, well, someone else is on the corruption track:
Corruption as Usual: "Two hurricanes have now hit Louisiana, wreaking terrible destruction. New Orleans continues to flood. Hundreds of thousands of people are scattered across the country, many in shelters. Given the scale of the calamity, surely it's time for Louisiana politicians to stop, assess the damage and work out the most rational way to help their state recover. Surely this is not the time for the government to write blank checks, for legislators to get greedy about unnecessary canals in their districts, or for federal agencies to launch projects that make future flooding more likely. Surely this is the time to spend money wisely. Right?
Wrong -- and if you thought otherwise, then you, like me, are still learning how deeply corrupt America's legislative branch has become. Most of the time, members of Congress don't accept cash bribes in unmarked envelopes. Most of the time, senators don't pay for their daughters' wedding receptions out of government slush funds. Most of the time, American politicians don't put their ill-gotten gains into numbered Swiss bank accounts or get the Mafia to launder their money. But corruption comes in many forms, and in this country it comes in the dull-sounding, unglamorous, switch-off-the-television form of infrastructure appropriations."

This is the top entry for my fraud, corruption and con jobs: the big Kahuna,
of course, tom delay says it was not his fault, so I don't know why he thinks they call him the hammer.
Delay Is Indicted in Texas Case and Forfeits G.O.P. House Post - New York Times: "WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader and a driving Republican power in Washington, was forced to step aside from his leadership post on Wednesday after a grand jury in Texas indicted him on a charge of conspiring to violate election laws in his home state.
The indictment, in Travis County, which includes Austin, the state capital, accused him of conspiring with two previously indicted aides to violate a century-old Texas ban on the use of corporate money by state political candidates, by funneling thousands of dollars in corporate contributions through the Republican National Committee. "

more fraud, with a bit of corruption thrown in...
Trial Shows Former Illinois Governor in Two Lights - New York Times: "CHICAGO, Sept. 28 - It was alternately described Wednesday as a criminal racketeering conspiracy and as a deep friendship lasting half a lifetime. One side called it 'abuse of official power for personal profit and greed,' while the other said, 'Providing benefits to supporters is part of politics - not a crime.'


Frank Polich/Reuters
Former Gov. George Ryan, left, and his lawyer, Dan K. Webb, entering the courthouse Wednesday in Chicago. Which version jurors believe will determine not only whether the defendants land in prison, but also the legacy of former Gov. George Ryan, who became widely known for clearing death row even as he left office amid scandal"

Just adding to the fraud and scams list: Bayou Chief Is Expected to Turn Himself In - New York Times: "Samuel Israel III, the founder and chief executive of the Bayou Group, the Connecticut hedge fund that seemingly disappeared overnight in what federal prosecutors have described as a $300 million fraud, is expected to surrender to federal authorities today, a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the case said last night."

random blogging is back,
Put this in the fraud, corruption and scams department.
Most of the allegations involve dealings with Michael A. Lorusso, the former deputy director of the D.C. Office of Property Management. Lorusso, 40, pleaded guilty to bribery conspiracy charges last year and agreed to aid authorities in a probe of city contracting practices. Less than three months after Lorusso's guilty plea, authorities raided Jemal's office in the city's Chinatown section.

>Developer Indictments Follow FBI Sting

So, here is book, actually published all the way back in 1999, that addresses the politics of disater, who knew?
and this site, blogcritics.org, very interesting.
Blogcritics.org: Blogcritics On Katrina: The Politics of Recrimination: "
Disasters and Democracy: The Politics of Extreme Natural Events
David Scherf
Book from Island Press
Release date: June, 1999"

Happy news!
this answers a need I felt yesterday when I got my morning paper. Why is is all so depressing I thought.
Well, it doesn't have to be that way. Look on the bright side. Might be a good idea.
Happynews.com, Where the Beat Is Always Up: "Unlike the media's bad news bearers, Happynews's glass is always at least half-full, and sometimes it bubbles right over. It is Prozac for the eyes: 'India proposes free school for one-girl families,' it declared brightly yesterday. A typical story from its international section might be 'Food Aid to Niger Increases,' while its sports section includes the likes of 'Long-distance swimmer conquers Great Lakes.'"

Just a note to append to all of the chaos that is now the apparant result of houston's "orderly evacuation plan."
Hurricane Rita: "Why you want a hybrid
Here's why you want to buy a hybrid electric/gas-powered automobile.
Mike Matthews, the Chronicle employee whose evacuation journey was blogged here and here, finally made to his destination of Palestine -- 30 hours after leaving Clear Lake.
Via instant message, he followed up:
FYI, Renee and I finally got to Palestine, TX at about 5:45 AM -- 30 hours after leaving our house in Clear Lake. The Prius still has about 1/4 tank of gas..."

So, how do you evacuate 2.5 million people from a major metropolitan area in cars, trucks, or even busses?
Do the math. No, don’t bother.
Leave it to the Texans to assume that they can just get in their personal vehicle and go.
When you take 1 million plus cars they stretch in an endless four lane parking lot for over 100 miles.
Some kind of evacuation plan, eh?
And suppose you did use busses?
Lets see, 50 people per bus, 100 busses =5,000 people
1000 busses = 50,000 people,
But there were at least 100,000 poor people stranded in New Orleans.
Houston is much bigger, so how many indigent people stranded in Houston?
Isn’t it great to see Nancy Grace and Greta van Sustren congratulating Houston officials on a great effort?

Miles of Traffic as Texans Heed Order to Leave - New York Times: "Heeding days of dire warnings about Hurricane Rita, as many as 2.5 million people jammed evacuation routes on Thursday, creating colossal 100-mile-long traffic jams that left many people stranded and out of gas as the huge storm bore down on the Texas coast.
Acknowledging that 'being on the highway is a deathtrap,' Mayor Bill White asked for military help in rushing scarce fuel to stranded drivers"

Pres. Bush’s nightmare, texas nightmare, Southeast nightmare
Rita is packing 150 mph wind, nearing cat. 5, moving along west at 13 mph.
Toward Galveston and corpus cristie,
So this storm is the size of Katrina. Plus or minus 40 or 50 miles of uncertainty it is headed directly towards the coast, with the leading eastern edge that we all know by now packs the highest winds and the most rain headed directly to wards Galveston and Houston.
It’s the perfect storm. They are shutting down the refineries in the area, as well as the oil rigs. Oil and gasoline prices are in the opposite of a free fall, what do you call that?
So, lets review.
Katrina Redux
Rita today looks exactly like Katrina a few weeks ago. On the TV weather report, CNN, Fox, Weather channel, ABC or whatever, it is a large orange and red blob that has just crossed the Florida keys, and heading west, seems to be about the fill the whole gulf of Mexico. Its is scary looking.

On the Friday before Katrina’s Monday morning landfall, I predicted that this would be the big one they have all been warning about. The one that would take a direct hit on New Orleans which everyone knew was a soup bowl below sea level, surrounded by high levees.
Not that I was some kind of prognosticator. By Saturday morning all of the cable news channels were saying the same thing. And they all had these beautiful graphics showing that if the storm surge entered Lake Ponchartrain pushed by that wicked wind from the storms southeast quadrant then it would fill the lake and as the storm moved through, the wind from the tailing edge of the hurricane would push that water back into the city, overtopping the levees. And those animated TV graphics dutifully showed the cutaway soup bowl filling up with blue.
So, the first question, wasn’t anybody at homeland security watching? If so, what were they thinking?
Then, Mayor Nagin called for evacuations. And we out in cable land saw the highways filling up with cars flowing north filling both sided of the highways..
Now, my second question, if you evacuate a large city, don’t you bring in the national guard right then to prevent looting the empty streets? Or put them on standby to bring in when the storm ebbs, or something?
Well, while Nagin called for evacuation, he was understandably reluctant to make it mandatory, to call for the emptying out of the whole city. He did not make that mandatory call until Saturday evening. Still 24 hours to go. Hindsight on this is 20/20 as usual.
But, perhaps the greatest mistake of his administration was to make no provisions for evacuating the poor, the disabled. the hospitals are another story. . Instead, The city provided buses to the superdome as a shelter of last resort. That means that it was not a Red Cross shelter with food, water and security, it was just a place to get out to the rain.
I guess they were thinking that when the rain stopped in 8 or ten hours, everyone would go home. I guess that was what Gov. Blanco and Homeland Security chief Chertoff, and that hapless Michael Brown were thinking too.
Not evacuating the poor, and then not providing and adequate shelter will probably come to be seen as the two first big mistakes. But they were to get plenty of company.
It seems today that the powers that be in Homeland security, the White House, the Texas governors office and the national guard have learned a few things these last few weeks. Today you can turn on CNN and see busses massing to evacuate Galveston, and lower lying areas of Houston. At least the images are positive.
If they had done so in new Orleans they would have faced massive destruction, but not the harrowing scenes of people crying out for help from rooftops.
Which brings us to the next set of massive miscalculations. Now it’s true that the poor were imperiled by the very structure of the city: their neighborhood, the lower ninth ward was bequeathed to the poor because it was a low-lying swamp that no one else wanted. And if you really analyze the levee system, it’s clear that it protects the poor and not the rich: many of the better off neighborhoods never did flood.
And of course as we have seen, they never did have anyway to evacuate, not having cars, and caring as they did for the communities disabled and elderly in wheelchairs, homebound, etc.. Why did they not listen to city and state officials?? Well, we’ll get to that too. Let’s just call it a scarce economy of trust.
So while some of them went to the superdome, others stayed home. So, the hurricane passes over, does damage, but on Monday afternoon everyone is thanking their lucky stars that they dodged the bullet. Then the levees failed.
This is where the failures of racism come in.
Not that the coast guard discriminated by who they rescued, Bush assured us they did no, ….but as they rescued people, they simply took them to the convention center, or to high ground, with no provision to remove people from the city.
So, my third big, big, question has to be, where were the buses after it became clear that New Orleans was filling up like a soup bowl? The confusion at this point was abysmally clear, Chertoff saying, “no one predicted,” a lie. Bush saying “no one could have anticipated,” false. The press and bloggers have had a field day with those quotes, but in some ways they are beside the point. By Tuesday the city was full of water, people were on rooftops, the Superdome was in crisis, where were the busses?
Where were the busses? This is where we see the extensive buck passing in a round robin from mayor to governor to FEMA to national guard to city police and around again.
FEMA says they had the busses but the city police said it was too dangerous to being them in.
I think this is where blame or responsibility if you will, shifts the New Orleans city police. Now I know that I am going out on a limb here. But you have to read between the lines, listen to the unspoken.
Those rescued from the Superdome and from the rooftops and from three days on the freeway overpasses and taken to Houston were amazed at the kindliness of strangers, the generosities of people that were not their neighbors or their community or their family. So why was that? Let’s just suppose it was that for years they have come to understand the depths of the hole they have been pushed into by the city administration and the police. All we really read in the papers about New Orleans is notoriously corrupt, etc. no details. What has been the nature of this corruption? Why is it the crime capital? Needs further research, obviously. But let me suggest that the reaction of the refugees from the superdome, 60% of who announced that they were not going back to the city, surprised by the kindness of strangers, suggests how these people were used to being treated. Their treatment in the Superdome fiasco just confirmed for them that they mattered not at all to the powers that controlled their city.
So, the Superdome fiasco. The first mistake as we have seen was in not providing a true shelter somewhere in the city. But the second mistake was in ignoring the cauldron of neglect for five days. If they had provided security, food and water, and evacuated in 48 hours, the fiasco would not have been as bad. If national guard had moved in on Tuesday morning, the looting would not have happened. If busses had arrived to evacuate. But it was the city officials, (read, I think, the police department) that advised the Red Cross that it was too dangerous to go into the city.
This is where the overt racism comes in. “city officials” read the situation as too dangerous because the victims, the mss of victims in the superdome were black and poor. A few reports have confirmed that SWAT teams went in to “rescue” tourists, and the wife of one official who was white.
It was the protestations of the city police who would rather have left women, children, the elderly without food or water for four days that “risk” bringing aid that doomed the crowd at the Superdome, and then by extension those in the convention center. Abdication of responsibility from top to bottom exacerbated the problem as no one stepped in to provide evacuation, or aid.
And whatever the rationalizations of the Gretna police and city council, the people of New Orleans are aware that their neighbors across the river would not step in to help them. Thus their surprise at the kindness of strangers.


Doesn't seem like things are going much better in Houston.
No Way Out: Many Poor Stuck in Houston - New York Times: "With Hurricane Rita breathing down Houston's neck, those with cars were stuck in gridlock trying to get out. Those like Skinner -- poor, and with a broken-down car -- were simply stuck, and fuming at being abandoned, they say."

I am preparing a long white paper on Katrina response, blame responsibility, incompetance and racism.
stay tuned.

meanwhile, a few items I can't ignore.

Big Dems fight back, let loose some good ones.
Media Notes Extra:
John Kerry:
"'Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq, what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad, what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy, what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning, what Tom DeLay is to ethics and what George Bush is to 'Mission Accomplished' and 'Wanted Dead or Alive.' '
John Edwards on suspending Davis Bacon wages on Katrina projects:
'I might have missed something, but I don't think the president ever talked about putting a cap on the salaries of the CEOs of Halliburton and the other companies . . . who are getting all these contracts. This president, who never met an earmark he wouldn't approve or a millionaire's tax cut he wouldn't promote, decided to slash wages for the least of us and the most vulnerable.'"

Cronyism as Usual.....Did Bush learn nothing? anything?
its one big incestuous family.
this is a lift from Howard Kurtz, in the post.
Media Notes Extra: "'The push to appoint Julie Myers to head the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, comes in the midst of intense debate over the qualifications of department political appointees involved in the sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina.'
The key paragraph:
'Her uncle is Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She married Chertoff's current chief of staff, John F. Wood, on Saturday.'
Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, who often sides with the administration, unloads on this one:
'Oh, give me a circ*&%$# break and a half! This nomination is a monumental political and policy blunder in the wake of the Michael Brown/FEMA fiasco. And I can tell you that contrary to the Miss Mary Sunshine White House spokeswoman's comments, rank-and-file DHS employees and immigration enforcement officials are absolutely livid about Myers' nomination.
'Everything was supposed to change after 9/11. No more business as usual, blah blah blah. But when it comes to immigration enforcement and border security, Bush keeps installing clueless cronies.'"

B---F---ers Memorial Bridge Revisited
News-Miner - Past News: "WASHINGTON--Rep. Don Young has an offer for commentators who say he and the rest of Congress ought to divert Alaska money from the recent highway bill to assist regions washed out by Hurricane Katrina.
'They can kiss my ear,' Young said last week. 'That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.'
Sen. Ted Stevens had a similar reaction, though he offered no body parts for a smooch.
'That's a total non sequitur,' Stevens said of the criticism."

Playing politics with human suffereing, business as usual in the white house.
Master of the Poison PillSo it's not as if Rove lacks experience in manipulating national catastrophes for the narrowest of political ends. The administration is clearly going back to Congress to seek more than $100 billion in additional appropriations for the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and Rove is certainly up to the task of crafting some poison-pill provisions that would make it difficult for Democrats to vote yes.

the MacArthur Fellows, 2005, as eclectic a group as ever,
I know you wanted to know

The MacArthur Fellows Program: "2005 MacArthur Fellows Overview "

YO, the NYTimes buried this under a headline, "political group" but the club for growth is not just any Political Group, its a 527 wuith links to the heritage foundation, national review, and whose main agenda is "promoting tax cuts and drastically reducing the size of the federal government."
F.E.C. Sues Republican Group Over Political Contributions - New York Times: "The Federal Election Commission filed suit Monday against the Club for Growth, a well-funded Republican group, in an effort to force the organization to comply with limits on political contributions"

Its the headline, stated here perhaps three times by blogspots wierd software,
but listen to in again,
"incompetance not racism" ....
is this meant to be a defese of W? Or is it an accusation? Suppose both are true? Suppose New hurricane RITA heads for Houston, Karl Rove must be thiking about evacuating the white house.
Incompetence, Not Racism: "Incompetence, Not Racism
By Richard Cohen"

Can't resist a pithy metaphor:
"Bush was lurching forward, like a free-spending conventioneer maxing out his credit card as he roamed the Quarter.'"
"Howard Fineman writes in Newsweek"
White House Briefing  News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration:

B---- F----ers Memorial Bridge
Looks like Yon Dung is getting a lot of flak about the bridge to nowhere- I don't know why they arent going after Uncle Sugar too.
those of you who have a history with don young as I do might get this reference, or e-mail me off blog and I'll explain.
adn.com | alaska : Young scoffs at criticism of bridges: "In any case it won't die: the idea that Alaska, to help Hurricane Katrina victims, should forfeit the dough it got in the federal highway bill for the Knik and Gravina bridges.
The New York Times: 'Surely Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican who is chairman of the transportation committee, might put off that $223 million 'bridge to nowhere' in his state's outback. It's redundant now -- Louisiana suddenly has several bridges to nowhere.'
The Wall Street Journal: 'That same half a billion dollars (for the two Alaska bridges) could rebuild thousands of homes for suffering New Orleans evacuees.'
No doubt to make Alaskans look bad, city leaders in Bozeman, Mont., are investigating whether they can give Katrina victims the $4 million they got in the federal bill for a downtown parking garage.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., raised the charitable pork idea on the Senate floor last week, although he stopped short of endorsing it.
So, how about it, Mr. Chairman?
'They can kiss my ear!' Young boomed when Sam Bishop, Washington correspondent for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, asked him about the many pleas to redirect the bridge money.
'That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard,' Young went on, noting that Louisiana did quite well in his highway bill.
And, the congressman said, he helped the seafood industry donate more than $500,000 for hurricane victims. (That was at the 'Seafood Invitational,' a charity golf tournament Sept. 9 in Roslyn, Wash., Bishop reported Friday.)
'I raised enough money to give back to them voluntarily,' he said, 'and that's it!' "

Republicans Repudiate Mathematics.
WE all know conservatives disdain the pronouncements of scientists. Scientists work on academic campuses, campuses are bastions of liberalism, ergo, science is questionable.
In now appears that mathematics falls into the same category.

(412 Billion) current Federal Deficit
( 100 billion) Iraq etc. (just guessing)
( 100 billion) Katrina recovery (my estimate)
( 100 billion) Gulf states economic development (really, who knows?)
( 100 billion) or so new Medicaid Drug coverage
(294 Billion ) over ten years, estate tax elimination,
(see below)
(2.2 TRILLION!!!!!!!) for making tax cuts permanent
_________________
= (206 Billion) Bush cuts Deficit in half!!!!!


White House Briefing  News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration: "'This in no way will adversely impact his commitment to cut the deficit in half by 2009,' he said.'"

The President's Proposal to Make Tax Cuts Permanent, Revised 1/23/04: "The cost has risen to a very high level � approximately $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years, including the costs of the higher interest payments that would have to be paid on the national debt.[1]"

How to pay for katrina aid?
blackenterprise.com: "A Republican proposal to reduce Medicaid spending for the poor by $10 billion is in jeopardy, GOP staff members said."

"Repeal of the Estate Tax Carries a High Cost"
Estate Tax Repeal: A Costly Windfall for the Wealthiest Americans - Rev. 2/6/01: "Repealing the estate tax would be very costly. The estate tax repeal proposed by President Bush would cost $294 billion over the 10 years, 2002 through 2011.(1) But this proposal phases in slowly. The estate tax is only fully repealed in calendar year 2009, and the full revenue effects would not be felt for at least another two years because of the time it takes to settle an estate and pay any taxes. Once the repeal is fully in effect, it would cost over $60 billion a year. Thus the cost of the proposal in the second 10 years � from 2012 to 2021 � would likely be about three-quarters of a trillion dollars, more than twice as expensive as in the first 10 years."

Heres one idea:
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE / Give the money back: "AS AMERICANS worry about how to pay for the reconstruction of New Orleans and other communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, ( 100 billion) Heres one idea:
All those millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires, who have received an estimated $135 billion in tax cuts over the past five years, should return the money to help with the reconstruction effort.
By 'millionaire,' I'm not using the quaint old definition of those with assets of more than $1 million. I'm referring to folks who earn more than $1 million each year, who now make up 0.2 percent of all households in America.
Maybe they could start by just returning the tax cuts they'll receive in 2005 -- on average, a hefty $103,000.
In contrast, the bottom 20 percent of Americans (those with an average income of $16,600) received an average tax cut of $230. Those in the middle 20 percent (with an average income of $57,400) have received a tax cut of $980. "

Understand the budget deficit:
Deficit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: " the estimated U.S. deficit for fiscal year 2004 was $412.6 billion."

Is there a price to pay for fraud? at least in this case there is.
(This is under my fraud and courruption category. )
Ex-Tyco Execs Receive Prison Sentences - Yahoo! News: "NEW YORK - L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco International Ltd., and former Tyco finance chief Mark Swartz were sentenced Monday to up to 25 years in prison for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company in a case that outraged the public with its tales of executive greed and excess.

The men, who were immediately ordered into custody,(AP) � will be eligible for parole after serving eight years and four months"

Why is Chertoff not held responsible,
it was the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, not Mr. Brown, who had the greater authority to order federal agencies into service without any request from state or local officials. Mr. Chertoff waited a crucial, unexplained 36 hours
Message: I Care About the Black Folks - New York Times: "The Knight Ridder newspapers found last week that it was the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, not Mr. Brown, who had the greater authority to order federal agencies into service without any request from state or local officials. Mr. Chertoff waited a crucial, unexplained 36 hours before declaring Katrina an 'incident of national significance,' the trigger needed for federal action. Like Mr. Brown, he was oblivious to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the convention center, confessing his ignorance of conditions there to NPR on the same day that the FEMA chief famously did so to Ted Koppel. Yet Mr. Bush's 'culture of responsibility' does not hold Mr. Chertoff accountable."

Ya gotta love the way Frank turns a phrase.
Message: I Care About the Black Folks - New York Times: "ONCE Toto parts the curtain, the Wizard of Oz can never be the wizard again. He is forever Professor Marvel, blowhard and snake-oil salesman. Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to endure in the American psyche as long as L. Frank Baum's mythic tornado, has similarly unmasked George W. Bush."

The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action.

In the chaos unleashed by Katrina, these plot strands coalesced into a single tragic epic played out in real time on television. The narrative is just too powerful to be undone now by the administration's desperate recycling of its greatest hits: a return Sunshine Boys tour by the surrogate empathizers Clinton and Bush I, another round of prayers at the Washington National Cathedral, another ludicrously overhyped prime-time address flecked with speechwriters' "poetry" and framed by a picturesque backdrop. Reruns never eclipse a riveting new show.

Wiped Off the Map, and Belatedly Back on It: "And the problems of generations of low-income broken families who seem unable to escape the cycle of poverty can be depressing fare."

more repetition of this broken record trops that these are all "broken families" I did not see broken families, being rescued, I saw very large extended families helping each other, and helping the disabled and elderly as well. I saw fathers with children, and mothers with children, and aunts ,uncles, nieces, nephews, second cousins, and grand children, and all of these taking care of the elderly and the disabled and the sick. Some of these people had stayed behind because they could not leave granma, or a great aunt. And most of the people were not the hopeless underclasses, they were working people.

Did the media ignore the poor?
"TV dislikes poor people," says Newsweek, because they're a "downer" and bad for ratings."

actually this whole review by howard Kurtz is good, but for the lazy, more excerpts below:

A Sept. 12 Washington Post story was headlined "Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush." An equally apt headline would have been, "Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at a Media Establishment That Has Largely Ignored Them."">Wiped Off the Map, and Belatedly Back on It: "The fact that most of those left behind in the New Orleans flood were poor and black is being treated by the press as a stunning revelation -- 'A National Shame,' as Newsweek's cover put it.
But not exactly a national secret.

'Apparently none of these ace reporters has ever set foot in Washington's Anacostia district, or South Central Los Angeles, or the trailer parks of rural Arkansas,' writes Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks.
A Sept. 12 Washington Post story was headlined 'Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush.' An equally apt headline would have been, 'Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at a Media Establishment That Has Largely Ignored Them.'"

Global warming linked to increase of hurricanes

NATURALLY THIS IS NOT IN A US PAPER

HURRICANES of the intensity of Katrina have become almost twice as common over the past 35 years, according to research suggesting that global warming could be worsening severe storms.

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online

September 16, 2005

Global warming linked to increase of hurricanes
By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent

HURRICANES of the intensity of Katrina have become almost twice as common over the past 35 years, according to research suggesting that global warming could be worsening severe storms">World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online

I'd like to offer a pitch for gumbopages.com, which leads with andrei codrescu, which I happily grab here.
Looka! 09.2005 | They're trying to wash us away.: "THE ICONOGRAPHY OF HELL AND OUR GUILT
by Andrei Codrescu
Each day has its own pictures:
bumper to bumper traffic two states long
a frenzied mob in a domed prison
rising water
the hungry pushing carts out of looted stores
rooftops in a lake as vast as the eye can see
dead city silent city
the survivors the tribes stadiums filled with refugees
helicopters over a dead unlit city
a ragged parade of decadents spitting defiance
television cameras as numerous as marchers
a can of tuna and a strand of beads
take that you former shithead king
dead pets rotting away behind locked doors
the smell of putrefaction visible
muck darkness heat an eviscerated pigeon
two dogs shot by a hired executioner
a sea of horrible stories rising like swamp fever
from the foul mouths of dear ones from exile
11TH DAY OF HELL!
by Andrei Codrescu
We are all working in this pit of sorrow to unfreeze time.
I think what people in other cities find hard to understand is just how much New Orleanians love their city. I'm not saying that folks in Houston or Cleveland don't love their cities. I know it for a fact that my friend Marty loves living in Shaker Heights, which is in Cleveland. New Orleans is different, I think, if only because the locals have had a long time to elaborate a style of living and a modus vivendi that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.
Everybody in New Orleans loves the food, the music, and our sense of time (slow time) that's peculiar to us and to us only. There is a velvety sensuality here at the mouth of the Mississippi that you won.t find anywhere else. Tell me what the air feels like at 3 a.m. on a Thursday night in late August in Shaker Heights and I bet that you won.t be able to say becau"

"many conservatives view the inept response to Katrina as a vindication of their lack of faith in government, rather than as a reason to reconsider their faith in Mr. Bush. So even his policy failures don't bother his strongest supporters.
Lets repeat that,
many conservatives view the inept response to Katrina as a vindication of their lack of faith in government.
So the more screwed up FEMA is the more they point figers not at their own inept cronies, but at the idea of government.....
I just don't know what to say.
Not the New Deal - New York Times: ."

As predicted, Sec. of Education vows to reimburse schools.
HoustonChronicle.com - Spellings vows 90% payback for Texas schools: "Texas schools will recoup the millions of dollars they have spent to educate more than 41,000 students evacuated from New Orleans, according to a relief proposal announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Education.
The $2.6 billion package, which still needs approval from Congress, includes up to $7,500 for each Hurricane Katrina evacuee. The proposal pledges to reimburse schools for 90 percent of their instructional costs, which averages $6,750 per Texas student. The hope is that other relief funds, such as FEMA, will pick up the remaining 10 percent"

Jennifer Lovin writing for the associated press puts a blunt focus on race and poverty. this is the first time I have seen a mainstream article put the poll results in terms of the third of americans who feel deeply humiliated by the governments response, rather than the 65% who don't.
but so far, the poor have continued to be portrayed as victims of persistant poverty, rather than working families, which is what I think we actually saw as people were rescued. Many of the survivior stories feature extended families with 5 or 6 members who all work low end jobs and still live in ghettoized surroundings pay check to pay check, and will be undone by the next health emergency, or are already struggling to support or care for a family member who is disabled or chronically ill.
lets talk about alleviating poverrty by raising the minimum wage, and making sure health care is available to all.

KATRINA AFTERMATH: Poverty center of rebuilding talk: "The images of storm victims, particularly in New Orleans, spending days waiting for food, water and rescue in miserable shelter conditions exposed the region's persistent, racially rooted poverty and disturbed many around the country.
A recent AP-Ipsos poll showed more than a third of Americans felt deeply that the government would have responded more quickly if most of the victims had not been poor and black. Among black people, the percentage feeling that way shot up to 75%.
Bishop T.D. Jakes, the best-selling black author and head of the 30,000-member Potter's House church in Dallas, called upon Americans on Friday not to rest until poor people are raised to an acceptable living standard and to be willing to 'love them enough to pay the bill.'
'We can no longer be a nation that overlooks the poor and the suffering,' Jakes said, delivering the sermon at the National Cathedral prayer service before Bush spoke. 'Katrina, perhaps, she has done something to this nation that needed to be done.'"

Entrenched Bureaucracies????? just what does that mean?

FEMA, Slow to the Rescue, Now Stumbles in Aid Effort - New York Times: "Admiral Allen, who was put in charge of the federal government's emergency operations along the Gulf Coast a week ago Friday, said entrenched bureaucracies hampered attempts to accelerate his top priorities: aid to residents, providing housing and clearing the vast swaths of wreckage from homes and trees damaged by the storm. "

GRandmother held for two weeks, gretna strikes again.
thi is the same story I posted a while ago, first appeared in the Guardian in London.
www.azstarnet.com: "GRETNA, La. (AP) -- A 73-year-old woman who was jailed for more than two weeks after authorities accused her of looting was released Friday evening.
Merlene Maten said the first thing she wanted to do was visit her 80-year-old husband.
'I thank God this ordeal is over,' she said after being released from the parish jail. 'I did nothing wrong.'
Police arrested Maten the day after Hurricane Katrina on charges she took $63.50 in goods from a looted deli. Her bail had been set at $50,000."

well the gretna sherriffs on the bridge story has finally made the AP wire, and of course, it was not racism, just fear of out of control looters. , like the grandmother they arrested.

www.azstarnet.com: "NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The police chief in a New Orleans suburb is defending himself against accusations of racism for ordering the blockade of a bridge and turning back desperate hurricane refugees.
Gretna, a town of 17,500 across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, was criticized after Police Chief Arthur Lawson Jr. ordered officers to block a bridge leading into the community, which is almost two-thirds white. New Orleans is two-thirds black.
Three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Gretna officials learned that people trapped in downtown New Orleans were being told to make their way over the bridge called the Crescent City Connection."

OOO, there is that gretna byline, on a story of how it really went down with those gretna police.
Then, hours after her plight was featured in an Associated Press story, a local judge on Thursday ordered Maten freed on her own recognizance, setting up a sweet reunion with her family.

oh yeah, no red neck racists in grena, nu uh.

in the family footsteps
Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Son of Florida Gov. Bush Arrested: "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 poor are always with us?
The Other Side of Charity's Coin: "An estimated 15,000 homeless people live in the Washington region, a number that has been growing by about 6 percent a year, said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. Major increases in housing and rental costs have come when funding for anti-poverty programs is tighter than ever, he said. 'We are not that dissimilar from a New Orleans in terms of having that entrenched poverty,' he said."
"We're all a paycheck away from disaster, and I feel for those Katrina people," said Andrew Davis, 41, a homeless man who was sitting in a folding chair at the site. "But the homeless people in this city are treated like second-class citizens. What does that say about our nation's capital? Something's wrong with this picture."

Some of the same people reaching into their pockets to donate Katrina relief no doubt also contribute to poverty-fighting programs year in and year out. It is the degree to which people are reacting to the disaster that sets this giving apart. Thousands have signed up on Web sites to offer a spare bed, an empty basement to Katrina families; millions of dollars are pouring into relief funds.

"It's even kind of a fad -- so many people are giving, you want to feel you are giving as well," Marullo said. "It's interesting: Wehave a generalized fear of strangers, and this whole phenomenon of the gated community, and here they are saying, 'Hey, strangers, come on in and share my space with me.'"

Joe Johnson, an Alexandria resident who owns an air-conditioning business, said he was moved by the desperation he saw on TV. "I see all these families, and I just think, what are they going to do?" he said. He has offered to rent a three-bedroom apartment for a displaced family at the complex where he lives, at a cost of $1,400 a month.

"I thought I was going to be inundated with people who needed places to stay," he said, "But once I got signed up to a few of these housing Web sites, I came to realize tons of people were doing the same thing."

Jan Kennemer, an Arlington real estate agent, said an e-mail she recently received from a real estate agents association urging donations "was a turning point" for her in terms of involvement. The e-mail said that every real estate agent in New Orleans is out of business. "It wasn't just that they've lost their homes, it's that all the businesses are gone, too, and there's no means of support," she said.

Through housing Web sites, Kennemer has offered the finished basement of her home to a displaced family. She has received one response, from a family of four. Just giving money "seemed so impersonal," she said. "Something like opening up your home, although scary in some respects, was something personal I could do."

'Local homeless people are saying, 'Nobody cares about us -- we were here all the time,' ' said Imagene Stewart, who has 17 homeless families from the area at her House of Imagene in Northwest Washington. 'For Katrina people, they find money. We've been out here begging for years.'"
The Other Side of Charity's Coin: "'What crises do is bring out this human instinct for compassion and the desire to help -- what can you do? . . . Why don't we care about ongoing poverty? It seems to me it is much more abstract. 'The poor are always with us, it's such a big problem.' You feel like you can do something when there is a crisis,' said Elizabeth Boris, director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute.
The element of worthiness -- or lack of it -- is also at work.
'Certainly a piece of this is the attribution of blame, that Katrina victims are unlucky, they were living in the wrong place at the wrong time,' said Sam Marullo, chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Georgetown University. 'The institutional poor we have here in D.C. and every other city around the country, there is a sense that they are at fault . . . they didn't do something right, they didn't get an education, they didn't follow the rules.'
Advocates say the homeless have noticed -- and many resent -- the difference in perception and treatment. 'Local homeless people are saying, 'Nobody cares about us -- we were here all the time,' ' said Imagene Stewart, who has 17 homeless families from the area at her House of Imagene in Northwest Washington. 'For Katrina people, they find money. We've been out here begging for years.'"

Jewish Autonomous Region, who knew? well somewhere in the nether reaches of my memory...
Post writer on road trip writing a series of very interesting articles.
Russian Chronicles: "Birobidzhan has one of the more unusual histories of any Russian city I've been in. Founded in 1927 as a 'homeland' for Soviet Jews, it was declared the capital of the new Jewish Autonomous Region in 1934. Unfortunately for the Jewish migrants who were enticed to move here, it was located thousands of miles away from European Russia, with harsh winters and swarms of ravenous mosquitoes in the summer.
Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, 41,000 Soviet Jews relocated here. Some were fleeing persecution and famine in western Russia and Ukraine, while others were drawn by government promises of free rail travel and 600 rubles per 'settler.' But many of them left almost as soon as they got here -- by 1938, 28,000 had fled the region�s harsh conditions. Still, the Jewish schools and synagogues functioned up until the late 1940s, when a resurgence of religious repression shut them down, seemingly for good. After that, all Jewish cultural and religious activities essentially went underground, until perestroika finally led to a revival in the late 1980s."

Gretna on defensive for turning away neighbors in hour of need.

"We allowed people to cross ... because they were dying in the convention center," Nagin said. "We made a decision to protect people. ... They made a decision to protect property."

STAY TUNED TO THIS ONE

Mark Morford,
wish I had his gutsy writing style. Ah, to dream....
The Storm That Ate The GOP / Who will pity the soulless Republican Party now that Katrina is mauling their regime?: "Why, it's the GOP, and they're screaming, 'No, no it can't be, oh my God, please no, this damnable Katrina thing is just an unstoppable PR disaster for us!'
After all (they wail), who woulda thought dissing all those poor black people and letting so many of them die in filth and misery in the Superdome while our pampered CEO president enjoyed yet another vacation would cause such an ugly backlash, such harsh criticism of the glorious, rich-�ber-alles GOP creed?
Who knew it would lay bare our deeply inbred agenda of social injustice and civil neglect, and our systematic abuse of the country? This storm thing is so not the thing we need right now because, oh my God look, just look! We've been so golden! We've had the run of the candy store! We have been gods among swine! "

those who thought complete destruction would collapse the real estate market (me) need to think again. in fact, its a new boom. go figure.
but I remain concerned about just how they will reconstruct. It is imperitive that they use a model of inclusion and include the low income people from the community in the planning stage.

Speculators Rushing In as the Water Recedes - Los Angeles Times: "In some ways, Hurricane Katrina seems to have taken a vibrant real estate market and made it hotter. Large sections of the city are underwater, but that's only increasing the demand for dry houses. And in flooded areas, speculators are trying to buy properties on the cheap, hoping that the redevelopment of New Orleans will start a boom.

This land rush has long-term implications in a city where many of the poorest residents were flooded out. It raises the question of what sort of housing � if any � will be available to those without a six-figure salary. If New Orleans ends up a high-priced enclave, without a mix of cultures, races and incomes, something vital may be lost.

'There's a public interest question here,' said Ann Oliveri, a senior vice president with the Urban Land Institute, a Washington think tank. 'You don't have to abdicate the city to whoever shows up.'

For now, though, it's a seller's market, at least for habitable homes.

Two months ago, Steve Young bought a two-bedroom condo in New Orleans' Garden District as an investment for $145,000. Last month, he was transferred by Shell Oil to Houston. Last week, he put the condo on the market.

In a posting on Craigslist, an Internet classified advertising site, Young asked $220,000. He got a dozen serious expressions of interest � enough so he's no longer actively pursuing a buyer."

It seems both Katrina and Iraq have provided an excuse to forget about the health care problem. but here is an article actually in the business section of the LA Times, actually questioning whether the employer provided health care insurance model can survive. The whole premise of employer provided insurance has been cracking as companies like Wal-mart simply refused to play, or pay, and shed their low income workers to the states. the States are getting wise to this, and afew have passed laws requiring health insurance coverage, not without great opposition from small business. But wal mart competitors, big businesses in many cases are now lining up in favor of such regulation. and with the feds threatening to cut funding for health care, states have no where to turn. something will have to give, soon.
Rising Premiums Threaten Job-Based Health Coverage - Los Angeles Times: "THE NATION
Rising Premiums Threaten Job-Based Health Coverage
By Debora Vrana, Times Staff Writer


The average cost of health insurance for a family of four has soared past $10,800 � exceeding the annual income of a minimum-wage earner, according to a survey released Wednesday.

For some, this year's survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research Educational Trust was the latest sign that a relentless rise in premiums threatens to collapse the central pillar of America's health insurance system: job-based health coverage. Since 2000, premiums have gone up 73%, while wages have grown 15%, Kaiser researchers concluded.

Rising costs are forcing many businesses, especially smaller companies, to stop offering coverage and are causing some employees who can no longer afford insurance at work to buy it on their own � or go without.

'What we are seeing is an unraveling of the way we finance healthcare in the United States,' said William Custer, director for the Center for Health Services Research at Georgia State University in Atlanta. 'It is coming apart at the edges, and those edges are small business and low-wage workers. The levees are breaking.'"

I switch subjects again to give us all a break, and check in with Jay Matthews' education column in the Post. He is on to college admissions and a new book by Lloyd Thacker, working to de-corporatize, de-commodify college. good luck.
A Crusade to Save College Admissions: "'Curiosity, self-discipline, effort, imagination, intellectual verve, sense of wonder, willingness to try new things, empathy, open-mindedness, civility, and tolerance for ambiguity are some of the qualities that define and give value to being a student. They are the same qualities that colleges say they seek in admitting prospective students. Yet they are also qualities that have been betrayed and repressed by the business models that now guide much of college admissions.'"

Vatican Begins Gay Purge.
While we were all concentrating on the breakdown of social order which allowed 40,000 people, mostly black, to rot while locked intide a sports stadium and a convention center for five dayes without food or water, you may have forgotten about the priests molesting children scandals. Well while the catholic church has been trying to downplay the issue, they have not forgotten, and now are beginning a purge which harks back to the dark days of Mccartyism, if not the Inquisition.
Vatican to Check U.S. Seminaries on Gay Presence - New York Times: "Investigators appointed by the Vatican have been instructed to review each of the 229 Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States for 'evidence of homosexuality' and for faculty members who dissent from church teaching, according to a document prepared to guide the process. "

Steven Pearlstein
has this to say in the washington post. Boats Rose in New Orleans, but Not for the Poor:

Ok. But if you want to get a real check on the way it is playing in the hearts of the WP readership, check out the on-line chat he had this morning:

Southern Maryland: How much money have you sent to the welfare recipients in New Orleans over the years, the ones who were raping, pillaging and plundering? A lot of the people I saw in the news reports appeared to be on welfare and will likely remain on welfare all their lives. My heart goes out to the sick and elderly, those nursing home patients who died in their beds, the old man who died in his wheelchair on the sidewalk.

However, the young and healthy can be doing more for themselves than producing offspring, sucking up welfare benefits, and using a disaster as an opportunity to loot stores.

I left home at 19 with a public school education, $100 in my pocket for a month's rent and living expenses until my first payday, and nothing else. I worked for the Government, now own my own home, and worked my way through night school for an AA degree. I have a good job and a healthy 401K. I have never been on welfare, drugs, or alcohol, and I have never produced illegitimate children. If I can make it, anybody can. There is no excuse for sermons about poverty and inequality. BTW -- I had to pay for my college education by working two jobs and going to school a night. Not a dime from parents or Uncle Sam. Some folks got theirs for free through affirmative action and they still can't speak in complete sentences.



Sykesville, MD: We are a big, rich (overall) country. And in all honesty the widening gap between rich and poor is frightening to me. When disparities become too great, huge, violent social upheaval is NOT unknown.

We tell welfare mothers to get back to work, but tell non-welfare (and predominantly white women) to stay home and raise their children--our way. And only our way (the Republican way) is the way that works and that's the only way it's ever been. Mom stays home with kids. Bull. Look at the raw data.

Well, I'm here to point out that it's not the only way. I'm a fourth-generation Polish American. ALL the mothers worked outside the home, you had older family who helped raise the kids, you didn't socially isolate families and tell them they have to do it all for themselves (teach, doctor, socialize, etc.). It's an impossible standard and it's making people crazy.

Another quick point, if I may, why do NUNS receive Social Security, but stay-at-home parents (mothers, mostly) do NOT? THAT is absurd. Homemaking is worth 40K/year to a family and should be recognized.

Supreme Blather: "Richard Haass a State Department official in Bush's first term, says in Slate that the impact is truly global:
'The initial federal and local reactions to Hurricane Katrina, however, have sent the opposite message. The images seen around the world communicated a lack of competence and considerable chaos and suffering. The dominant overseas reaction has been sympathy mixed with shock and horror at what was seen by many as evidence of racism and a reminder of the extreme poverty in which many Americans live.
'America's enemies indulged in schadenfreude. Hugo Ch�vez could not resist the chance to taunt President Bush; North Korea radio linked the U.S. 'defeat' in Iraq with its 'defeat' by Katrina; jihadists celebrated what had happened and the possibility the price of oil would soar even higher. The world's only remaining superpower appeared to be anything but. In an era of 24-hour satellite television and the Internet, public diplomacy is about who Americans are and what they do, not just what they say. Unlike Las Vegas, what happens here does not stay here.
'The global impact goes beyond impressions. A priority of this administration's foreign policy is to promote democracy around the world. But the attractiveness of the American model, and the ability of the United States to be an effective advocate for more democratic, capitalist societies, which had already been weakened by the disarray in Iraq, is now weaker still as a result of the disarray at home. It will be more difficult to make the case for free markets and more open societies if the results of such reforms come to be associated with the disorder seen in New Orleans.'

lest we lose track of the major issue of corruption while focused on the petty corruption in New Orleans....
Indictments Added in GOP Fundraising Case: "A Texas grand jury added new indictments yesterday to criminal charges against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's top political fundraiser and the executive director of a Texas political action committee that DeLay organized to orchestrate a Republican takeover of the Texas House in 2002.
The grand jury alleged that James W. Ellis, who has raised money for DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC) as well as for an offshoot known as Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), illegally contributed $190,000 in corporate funds to the Republican National Committee within 60 days of the 2002 state election"

NW FEMA chief: political appointee with MBA from CA Diploma Mill.
Oh yeah, he gets $138,000 of our tax dollars.
News-Miner - Associated Press: "Regional FEMA director
SEATTLE (AP) -- The chief of the Northwest's federal disaster-response division is defending his background and job qualifications after FEMA's national director was removed from onsite command of hurricane relief efforts and questioned about his job experience.
John Pennington, who is responsible for the northwest states and Alaska, was a four-term state House Republican from Cowlitz County and running a local coffee shop when he was appointed regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He got the job with help from former U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash.
His qualifications for the job could come under question as FEMA managers are condemned and criticism builds over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. On Friday, FEMA Director Michael Brown was removed from his post overseeing relief efforts in Louisiana and ordered back to Washington, D.C.
King County Emergency Services Director Eric Holdeman is among those who have ridiculed FEMA for the lack of experience of some of its key administrators."

So, do they really support education, or is it just window dressing?
another blunder, and I expect it to change in about 24 hours.
HoustonChronicle.com - Feds won't cover costs for teachers: "Feds won't cover costs for teachers
FEMA funds are available for buildings, buses, computers but not for textbooks
By JANET ELLIOTT
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
HURRICANE KATRINA

NOAA
Hurricane Katrina swirls toward the Gulf Coast.


� Complete Chronicle coverage
Katrina news via RSS


HOUSTON RELIEF:
� Updated info, resources
� Volunteer Houston's updates
� Joint Command
� Houston Red Cross
� FEMA news releases


BLOGS:
� Voices of Katrina: Stories from the aftermath
� DomeBlog from the Reliant Astrodome
� In Exile: An evacuee blogs for New Orleans
� Eric Berger's SciGuy


WEBCAST:
� Live coverage from WDSU-TV in New Orleans


VIDEO:
� Ex-FEMA chief speaks 9/12
� FEMA chief resigns 9/12
� Bush defends response 9/12
� Hospitals up and running 9/12
� Monday hurricane update 9/12
� Bush visits New Orleans 9/11
� Sunday hurricane update 9/11
� Evacuees angry over change in debit cards 9/10
� Lost pets seek homes 9/10

More videos �


PHOTO GALLERIES:
Associated Press:
� Latest images

Houston Chronicle:
� The French Quarter: Life goes on 9/12
� New Orleans recovery continues 9/12
� Houston effort, events 9/11
� Mom looking for her 18-month-old son 9/10

More galleries �


INTERACTIVE:
� Victims of Katrina
� New Orleans devastation
� Zoomable satellite image of New Orleans / 8/31
� Hurricane Katrina: Devastation follows storm's path

"

its very interesting that the NYT has this headline, but as far as I can see, does not report on Bush's acual mea culpa. what gives??

the actual words are reported elswhere.
Bush Takes Responsibility for Failures in Storm Response - New York Times: "Bush Takes Responsibility for Failures in Storm Response"
the washington post is till reporting that bush is defending the federal response
45 Bodies Found In La. Hospital
Bush Visits New Orleans and Defends Federal Response; FEMA Chief Quits

Meanshile, this is on Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush took responsibility on Tuesday for failures in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."
The Boston Globe actually lets Bush say he takes responsibility:
President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government," Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.

even the Houston chronicle lets bush assume responsibility:
Bush: 'I take responsibility'
President says disaster has exposed serious problems with ability of government to respond

Apparently wall st. journal had a picture of one of the NOLA power Elite lounding on his high and dry driveway, next to his hired security guard. Meanwhile president bush says that the hurricane was equal opportunity, didn’t discriminate. He also seems to think that his response is fair since black people waiting on their roofs for five days in the flooded lower ninth ward had an equal opportunity to be picked up by helicopters. Unless Katrina forces us to see the structural discrimination, the passive discrimination as Sen. Obama says, then we will not make real progress toward an equal opportunity future.


Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush: "'What we've been trying to do is what we believe will help us close the gap we see in America in terms of education, health care, home ownership and wealth,' said Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee. 'We have policies that will actually achieve those goals.'"

in thinking about moving on the the rebuilding, it is important to get to the roots of the social stratification that resulted in an entire black population "left behind." After hearing endless referencesto the 9th ward and various neighborhoods, I found this site which gives a history of the city and its various neighborhoods. Here’s a bit about the 7th ward, the home of the free black, and then prosperous Creole population, and how it was destroyed by the building of I-10.
Seventh Ward Neighborhood Snapshot: "In the late 1960s, the 7th Ward�s prosperous business district along Claiborne Avenue was deemed dispensable by the city, so it was destroyed to make way for the new I-10 interstate loop. The rows of quadruple live oak trees were cleared from the neutral ground and the interstate cut the neighborhood in half. This, of course, severely diminished the desirability of the properties on either side of the interstate.
Suddenly an area that had been prosperous became quite undesirable. Homeowners moved, and finding their homes neither saleable nor rentable, eventually abandoned them. The irony of destroying this thriving business district in order to facilitate access to the suburbs is not lost on residents."


The Lower Ninth
“The Lower Ninth Ward consists of two distinct neighborhoods, Holy Cross and this neighborhood, the Lower Ninth Ward, called by some, The Lower 9. The neighborhood is rich with small businesses, barber and beauty shops, corner stores, eateries, day care centers, as well as public schools and some say, far too many churches. It has a resilient history of survival and activism.”

Originally a cypress swamp, the area was the lower portion of plantations that stretched from the river to the lake. Poor African Americans and immigrant laborers from Ireland, Germany and Italy desperate for homes but unable to afford housing in other areas of the city risked flooding and disease to move here. In the 1870s, several African American benevolent associations and mutual-aid societies organized to assist scores of struggling freedmen (formerly-enslaved Africans) in the area.

Although legislation was passed in 1899 for drainage and pumping systems, it was not until between 1910 and 1920 that the city installed adequate drainage systems, including the Jourdan, Tupelo and Florida Avenue Canals, in preparation for construction of the Industrial Canal. The Industrial Canal, built to connect the Mississippi River to Lake Ponchartrain, was completed in 1923, and further isolated the neighborhood from the city proper.

The lack of sewerage, continual drainage and water distribution problems did not deter desperate immigrant and African American workers from moving to the Lower Ninth Ward in search of a place to live and employment in nearby industries. The area continued to maintain a rural feel and the Lower Ninth Ward's reputation for neighborliness actually attracted some New Orleanians from other crowded city neighborhoods

Giuliana. a REPUBLICAN, calls for INDEPENDENT inquiry. And why did I have to read this in a British newspaper? anybody heard about this in the US papers of record?
Telegraph | News | Bush seeks to stem tide of feeling against him: "Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, who backed Senator Hillary Clinton in calling for an independent inquiry.
Mr Giuliani, still remembered as the hero of the terrorist attack on his city, said: 'The September 11 commission � gave us a very, very interesting and helpful critique. That is what we should do here.'"

Some thoughts about the journalists, thier response, and their responsibility.
Katrina in Black and White: "Jay Rosen does an energetic job of rounding up recent pieces, including my column , contending that journalists have turned more aggressive on the Katrina story and that, in my view at least, this is a welcome development. In fact, I say that journalism has dredged up its reason for being in the storm's wake. Here's Rosen's analysis from NYU:"

Spine is always good, outrage is sometimes needed, and empathy can often reveal the story. But there is no substitute for being able to think , and act journalistically on your conclusions. What is the difference between a "blame game" and real accountability? If you have no idea because you've never really thought it about it, then your outrage can easily misfire. . . .

"What is it realistic to expect in a chaotic situation like New Orleans faced in the week after the hurricane? It's not an easy question. An intelligent and nuanced answer to that is worth a lot more to journalists than righteous indignation, because if your rage overcomes your realism you will eventually sound ridiculous even to those who share the feeling. . . .

"If you can think with the situation it doesn't matter (for your journalism) if you break down and emote. If you can't think, and can't draw conclusions that influence your reporting, then bringing passion to the table isn't going to change a damn thing. And I don't believe Katrina has 'saved' the news media from itself, either, although I agree that nola.com , by turning itself into an online forum, has been an inspiration.

NOLA.com: Times-Picayune Breaking News Weblog#078859: "

From the Houston Chronicle, no comment needed.  

What struck me most about the mass of evacuees was the mass of families. I saw family groups from two to forty-five, or even fifty-four members of extended families who wanted to stay together. This is a huge contrast to the conservative commentators who insist that the poor are victims of 1960s liberal welfare schemes who just want to have babies out of wedlock.

Focus: White do-gooders did for black America - Sunday Times - Times Online: "Black poverty is the result of 30 years of misguided welfare rather than racism, says John McWhorter"

It is very difficult to reconcile the duality of response to Katrina. On the one hand, the thousands of volunteers, including those lined up to welcome refugees to emergency shelters in many states: welcome to Houston, how can I help you? Welcome to Tucson, phoenix, Chicago, and more. The Tucson authorities had to request people to stop volunteering, they were overwhelmed.
On the other hand, the Gretna police force lined up at the infamous bridge out of New Orleans with guns, shooting over the heads of desperate people, and the horrific lack of response to the mass of people caught in the city.
Americans want to help people, unless their politicians and their media tell them the people are looters, or welfare cheats, or lazy or don’t deserve their help.