Just wanted to drop a couple of links. First, check out Billmon’s amazing post “When the Levee Breaks”. Then, if you are not depressed enough already, here is a link to a collection of satellite shots of the Mississippi coast.
I really have nothing else to say except that things would be moving faster if New Orleans was full of mainly white refugees.
while our president gets on with his life, new orleans is drowning in sorrow.
martial law has been declared in at least two parishes, three levees have broken, part of the pump system has failed, and the water continues to rise. lake ponchartrain is flooding the city. thousands of people are still trapped in their homes, and the dead may never be accounted for. there’s been reports of an oil tanker running aground and leaking, natural gas fires all over jefferson and plaquemines parishes, the twin spans in new orleans are destroyed… to say it is bad is an understatement.
if you have some spare change, please consider donating it to one of the following disaster relief charities:
Red Cross or 1800- HELP NOW
Mennonite Disaster Service (717) 859-2210
Salvation Army (800) SAL-ARMY (725-2769)
that’s all i’ve got for now. i’m feeling generally disinterested in just about everything today other than the events ongoing in new orleans. i probably won’t update again today, and just ask everyone to please do what you can to donate to the relief efforts.
you can find more updates courtesy of NO’s WWLTV. their blog is here. WDSU also has a blog up and running. and here is one more link to relief agencies. and finally, please also consider giving to noah’s wish. noah’s wish is a “not-for-profit, animal welfare organization, with a straightforward mission. We exist to keep animals alive during disasters. That’s it.”
please do what you can.
Anyone catch Oil Storm on FX? It’s a story about what might happen if a major hurricane hit right about where Katrina is going to hit. In a nut shell our oil stops flowing. I am sure you can figure out how America reacts. Imagine if peoples’ H2s ran out of gas. Oh my god.
Anyhow, I hope the people along the coast make it to higher ground. This looks like a killer storm. On the upside, maybe the 25 foot storm surge will get rid of that nasty smell on Bourbon Street. That is, if it doesn’t get rid of Bourbon Street first.
This series of articles gives a lot of back history into the key players in the Jihad movement. It’s a long read, but well worth it. I would love to give some clips, but I don’t even know where to start. They also talk about early Nazi connections with the political philosophy of Islamism. Too much to think about right now to comment more. Just go read it for yourselves.
I haven’t posted on Iraq in a while because, well, it’s just too damn depressing. The war rages on, the constitutional process is a mess, and civil war looms on the horizon. Seems about right considering who we have commanding our military. Just like Vietnam, we are stuck with very few options. Only this time we are helping start the civil war where as in Nam we jumped into the middle of one. And we all know how well that turned out.
Two articles to share. First, this piece from Asia Times:
Like Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, I was in Baghdad’s Sadr City on April 4, 2004. I was there as an unembedded journalist (not attached to a military unit). Unlike Casey Sheehan, I came out alive.
I had traveled to Sadr City to cover the Bush administration’s attack on the movement of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It didn’t matter that the cleric had millions of followers or that he was the scion of an important political family with a history of standing up to tyranny. (His father was killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime for fomenting revolution in 1999. His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was killed for leading an insurrection against Saddam’s Ba’ath rule in 1980.)
It didn’t matter that Sadr’s forces were providing food aid to the poor or organizing traffic patrol and garbage duty in an atmosphere with no basic services. The problem for Bush and his Iraq administrator, L Paul Bremer, was that Sadr was against the US occupation. So he had to be dealt with. First his newspaper was closed. (See The Shi’ite voice that will be heard, Asia Times Online, April 8, 2004)Then his top advisor was arrested. Then Bremer announced an unnamed judge was demanding that Sadr be arrested on charges of murder. “He’s effectively attempting to establish his authority in place of the legitimate Iraqi government,” Bremer told reporters. “We will not tolerate that.”
That was the last straw. Until April 4, 2004 Muqtada had urged his followers to protest peacefully against the occupation. But the US assault led him to urge his followers to “terrorize the enemy”. In the first 48 hours of fighting, Sadr’s followers seized police stations and government buildings across the country, including the governor’s office in Basra.
At least 75 Iraqis and 10 US servicemen were killed, among them Army Specialist Casey Sheehan. As an unembedded journalist, I saw only the Iraqi casualties (the US casualties being taken away to military hospitals). My translator Waseem and I weaved through roads closed by US tanks until we arrived at Sadr City’s al-Ubaidi Hospital.
There, I interviewed 15-year-old Ali Hussein. He lay in the hospital, a US bullet lodged in his gut. He was barely able to lift his head, but he wanted to say a few words to the Western reporter: “I was standing in my doorway and I was shot,” he said. “I don’t have anything to say to the Americans. It’s just between them and God.”
And this from Reuters via Dr.Cole:
BAGHDAD, Aug 26 (Reuters) – A hundred thousand Iraqis across the country marched on Friday in support of a maverick Shi’ite cleric opposed to a draft constitution that U.S.-backed government leaders say will deliver a brighter future.
The protest could reinforce the opposition of Sunni Arabs who dominate the insurgency and are bitterly against the draft.
……………………………………………………
Sadr returned to centre stage this week after his fighters fought a rival Shi’ite militia, the Badr organisation, raising fears of a new front in Iraq’s relentless cycle of violence.
He is stirring hopes among his vast following at a time when Iraq’s divided politicians have missed a series of deadlines for reaching a consensus on the constitution, which is expected to be put to a referendum in October.
Sadr has also come out in support of Sunni opposition to the federal state that his Shi’ite rivals in government, with their Kurdish allies, have outlined in the charter.
“Bush and America out,” yelled cleric Abdel-Zahra al-Suwaidid, reading a statement on Sadr’s behalf in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City which is named after his revered father, a cleric allegedly killed by Saddam Hussein’s agents.
Another widespread complaint was written simply on banners: “We want water, we want electricity.”
Casey Sheehan, and 9 other Americans, died because the US couldn’t control Sadr, and now we have Sadr leading massive protests. Sadr tried to fill the power vacuum and help his people and he is still doing just that. Cindy Sheehan has every right to be pissed that her son died for this.
I am surprised that Pat Robertson hasn’t called for Sadr’s assassination. I guess since he doesn’t actually control any oil fields yet he isn’t important enough.
So what will a civil war in Iraq look like?
…Unfortunately, there is vastly more at stake in Iraq, the most blessed Arab country in terms of natural resources and strategic geography. Iraq shares long borders with Turkey, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, all of whom it has had at least contentious relations with previously. In a civil war, the temptation for Iraq’s neighbors to forcefully assert their interests would be irresistible.
Given all this grist, how might the dark mill of civil war begin turning in Iraq? It might simply develop out of a continuing, steady rise in the vicious cycle of revenge killings. Alternatively, a sudden breakdown of the political process could lead each sect to quickly assert its interests by force: the Kurds attempting to seize Kirkuk, for example, or Arab Sunnis and Shi’ites fighting for control of the mixed Sunni-Shi’ite towns south of Baghdad – all of which would entail ethnic cleansing. Further ideological and interdenominational divisions would also arise. Inter-Shi’ite rivalries were recently on display in the southern town of Samawa, where supporters of SCIRI and influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr clashed. Muqtada espouses a brand of Iraqi and Islamic nationalism that could lead his Mehdi Army to side with those opposed to federalism if civil war did erupt.
And then there are the neighbors. As professor Juan Cole, an expert in Iraq and Shi’ism, recently wrote in the Nation: “If Iraq fell into civil war between Sunnis and Shi’ites, the Saudis and Jordanians would certainly take the side of the Sunnis, while Iran would support the Shi’ites.” In essence, a civil war would see the eight-year Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s replayed on Iraqi territory. To complicate matters, any Kurdish success would draw in Turkey. Beyond Iraq, a civil war could destabilize the Gulf, and thereby the world economy. Sunni-Shi’ite tensions could be kindled in states like Bahrain, Kuwait and most importantly, Saudi Arabia , where an occasionally restive Shi’ite population forms a majority in the eastern part of the country (where all the oil is).
Had anyone in this administration bothered to read a history book they would have know full well that the “country” of Iraq would fall apart without a strong central leader. I am beginning to wonder if part of Saddam’s brutality stemmed from the fact that brut force is the only way to hold all these groups at bay. And now the US has to become Saddam if we are to keep peace in Iraq. Good job George.
I think it’s time to define faith, since all religions – regardless of their dogma – rely solely on the absolution of faith.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines faith as:
Faith: NOUN:
Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. See Synonyms at belief, trust.
Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance: keeping faith with one’s supporters.
often Faith Christianity The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God’s will. The body of dogma of a religion: the Muslim faith.
A set of principles or beliefs.
From this definition it amazes me that so many people are willing to kill to protect a religion – a collection of people who have similar beliefs.
Faith is such an individual notion. Religion something that requires individual devotion. How then can one be faithful to his or her truest potential by supporting and protecting a common religion or something that requires membership?
I believe in God. I believe I have a personal relationship with God. I believe that because of my personal relationship and faith in God that I am who I am and that I am aided in reaching my potential – as God would want surely – to be the best me I can be.
However, I do not support any one religion. Absolute power breeds absolute corruption. To give someone your faith is to give them power over you and certainly God would want you to retain your power to be a better representative for the divine pressence as an individual than to sacrifice your power as an individual for the corrupt and greedy goals of any one religious movement.
To have faith requires a wholely individual belief. The entirety of one’s own spirit to focus on that belief. Moving outside one’s self to benefit a religious movement would take one away from focusing on the true value of faith in general – a PERSONAL relationship with God. Be it muhammed, be it buddha, be it whoever or whatever one believes in.
It is ridiculous to me to let someone else dictate, how it is that you should believe. What passion you should set forth to believe. How much money you should give them so they can tell you how to believe. I don’t think that God wants you to give to a corrupt cause. I don’t think he wants you to kill one another. I don’t think he wants you to treat one another with dis-respect or women as subservient or to take over non-believers by force. What audacity the religions of this earth have in suggesting otherwise.
Excellent freakin’ poem Monkey…
I’m hoping that this one stirs some conversation…
I just finished reading up on Hillary’s stand on many issues. Abortion, Gay Rights, Gun Control (big topic for a redneck as you may well imagine) and I gotta say, I really like where she stands. More over, I think that men have been dominating – and fucking up – the government since the advent of the constitution and representative democracy. I think it’s high time we put a woman in office. I think Hillary is the one to pull it off.
I base this on more than just her platform. For the men that read this – I think many of you may see where I am coming from. I am lucky enough to have a woman in my life who is not only capable of managing our budget to benefit our wants and needs, but someone who is brilliant at creating money from nothing. I think that Hillary – as our economy did pretty much rock during the Clinton administration – is most likely very effective at this already. Her peers even describe her as someone who can make money faster than most people can count it.
She has certain sticktuitiveness that I would really like to see in the White House. When her marriage was in trouble, she didn’t run from it. She faced it, she tackled it, and she managed to come out of the ashes of the Bill Clinton Presidency with a strong senatorial career. I admire her for this. I see a lot of humans – many not of incredible social importance – that turn and run everytime the going gets tough. She has already proven that she is a stay and fight kind of lady. Something that is very important on tough issues especially when it comes to dealing with a republican majority. I think we need someone of this capacity to lead us past the rape of the american people that we have experienced under the rule of Gov. Dubya.
On education, she has set forth and supports policies that helped Arkansas move from 50th place in the field of education. She has realistic goals in this area. She has goals that will help teachers actually teach students and she doesn’t support passing students who haven’t met the requirements. If we are going to better our citizens, if we are going to make the sheople smarter, if we are going to provide our kids with an education that will help them compete in a world market – this is VERY important.
She supports gay rights. Now, I used to be a biggoted asshole when it came to gay folks. I didn’t understand it, I feared it. I have come to my senses. I know a lot of really incredible homosexual people. People who are doing incredible things. People who have incredible passion. People who not only care about their peers, but their interests so fervently that they can convince the most bullheaded to see things in another light. I think it’s beyond time that we give people who have made a choice in a life partner the benefit of making that choice. Gay’s are not inherently evil. God made us all. He made them too. Would God want you to hate someone – for any reason? I think not. He would want you to support them, to encourage them, and help them reach their full potential. Quite honestly, it’s none of your business what I do in my bedroom nor with whom. It’s none of my business what you do in your bedroom, nor with whom. If you have a life partner, you should be allowed the same marital benefits as the next person. Regardless whether your choice is man or woman. Same sex or not. I think we need to get the greedy bastards in office now out of our bedrooms. Hillary supports giving gay couples the same benefits as straight couples. This is a beautiful and CARING decision that needs to be made.
She supports photo ID cards for hand gun purchases and hand gun owners. I don’t see this as a bad thing. I do think that criminals are the ones who use them improperly. I think criminals are the ones that make the rest of us look bad. I think there needs to be a way to limit criminals owning weapons. So long as she isn’t trying to take away my guns or those of my – legal owning – friends. This is probably a step in the right direction. I would like to see more of her stance on guns.
Drugs. Well, I couldn’t find anything about her stance on drugs.
Pro-choice on abortion. Since when is it dubya’s choice whether or not a woman is allowed to have an abortion. If we listen to the GOP women will begin dying again from poorly performed back alley procedures. Hillary has a more positive approach on this topic. I like her stance. And, well, I have a dick so I won’t ever be having an abortion. However, I wouldn’t want the government telling what to do with my pecker and I don’t think we should allow them to tell a woman what to do with or about her kitty either. Go Hillary. Monkey has already covered the abortion topic at length and I will not do him a dis-service by even bringing it up. The only human decision is pro-choice for the benefit of the entire universe. We don’t need rape babies. We don’t need babies raising babies. Quite honestly if a few more idiots had been aborted to begin with maybe the universe wouldn’t suck. Again, go Hillary.
She’s democrat and more pro-environment than any numb-ass GOP candidate. Go Hillary.
I love what I have seen from her as a Senator. I love what I have seen from her as a wife. I love what I have seen as a parent. I like that she leads by example. I like that she stood her ground in China and urged them towards free speech and treating women with equality. If we are going to make a difference as a country, as a people, we need a leader who can show us and help us get there. As a man, I am lucky to have a good woman who looks out for my interests and encourages me to rise to the next level of my potential. As a country, I think we are WAY over due. I will be happily voting for Hillary Clinton in 2008. I think she is a strong choice and someone capable of helping pave the way for more tremendous women to step forward and not only lead their household to a higher potential, but lead their constituents and the citizens of their respective communities in a manner that will help all Americans reach a higher potential. I think she will do this with passion. I think she will do this with emotion. I think she will set an example for all of us to follow.
I think we need to start planting the seed now. I think we need to be proactive.
Anybody got her email address? GO HILLARY 2008!
Well damn, it’s Friday again already. And today is the end of the first week of my last semester in college. Now, if any of you need to hire a mechanical engineer sometime around Yule, send me an email.
Me and Anna are finally going to Camp Casey tomorrow morning. It kinda sucks that it is the last weekend Cindy will be there, but all things come to an end eventually. Still, I think Cindy has done a lot of good bringing the costs of this illegal war into the national dialogue. I hope we get to meet her and give her a hug.
Anyhow, Anna will be back in full form next week so ya’ll won’t have to suffer through me and percy’s inane ramblings much longer. And am I the only one who thinks percy and the pretzel need to get a room?
I have been thinking way too much about the religious nuts in this country and their insistance on creating a theocracy. The right is becoming the very enemy they supposedly hate. They really are the American Taliban. It’s not unlike how the neocons, who spent so much time fighting commies, have accepted the methods of the enemy they hated. I remember a conversation once with an older gentleman who told me how he was bothered by the idea of the schools telling children to spy on their parents to see if they are doing drugs and to report them to the police. He said that is what the schools used to warn kids about in the 50’s, to keep an eye out for people nosing around in others business because that is what commies do. And besides, who needs the Bill of Rights when the Patriot Act sounds, well, more patriotic.
But accepting your enemies tactics makes sense. Its not that the Christians hate the way the Taliban in Ahganistan treat people or rule with an iron fist, because that is what the Christian right wants to do. Its that the Muslim extremists are doing it all for the wrong God, the wrong master. I bet the right would have praised the Taliban if they had been christians. Killing none believers in the public square is a very christian thing to do after all.
Our country is in a world of hurt right now, and I wish I could believe that the Democrats offered some real solutions. But I don’t. The Democratic party is simply the everyone else party, the I hate Bush party. Not exactly enough to rebuild a nation with. It’s not about idealogies. We are all aware of the really scary shit happening out there in the world every day, from human trafficing to child prostitution. How do we actually cure the sicknesses of our society? I wish I new. Unfortunately we as a party can’t even agree to disagree on anything, so I am left seriously doubting whether we should be in control of the levers of power.
I feel a poem coming our way:
God of lost souls, thou who art lost amongst the gods, hear me:
Gentle Destiny that watchest over us, mad, wandering spirits, hear me:
I dwell in the midst of a perfect race, I the most imperfect.
I, a human chaos, a nebula of confused elements, I move amongst finished worlds — peoples of complete laws and pure order, whose thoughts are assorted, whose dreams are arranged, and whose visions are enrolled and registered.
Their virtues, O God, are measured, their sins are weighed, and even the countless things that pass in the dim twilight of neither sin nor virtue are recorded and catalogued.
Here days and nights are divided into seasons of conduct and governed by rules of blameless accuracy.
To eat, to drink, to sleep, to cover one’s nudity, and then to be weary in due time.
To work, to play, to sing, to dance, and then to lie still when the clock strikes the hour.
To think thus, to feel thus much, and then to cease thinking and feeling when a certain star rises above yonder horizon.
To rob a neighbour with a smile, to bestow gifts with a graceful wave of the hand, to praise prudently, to blame cautiously, to destroy a soul with a word, to burn a body with a breath, and then to wash the hands when the day’s work is done.
To love according to an established order, to entertain one’s best self in a pre-conceived manner, to worship the gods becomingly, to intrigue the devils artfully — and then to forget all as though memory were dead.
To fancy with a motive, to contemplate with consideration, to be happy sweetly, to suffer nobly — and then to empty the cup so that tomorrow may fill it again.
All these things, O God, are conceived with forethought, born with determination, nursed with exactness, governed by rules, directed by reason, and then slain and buried after a prescribed method. And even their silent graves that lie within the human soul are marked and numbered.
It is a perfect world, a world of consummate excellence, a world of supreme wonders, the ripest fruit in God’s garden, the master-thought of the universe.
But why should I be here, O God, I a green seed of unfulfilled passion, a mad tempest that seeketh neither east nor west, a bewildered fragment from a burnt planet?
Why am I here, O God of lost souls, thou who art lost amongst the gods?
Happy Friday!
I hope Homeland Security is on this:
More than 5 million people in Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties were warned to prepare for hurricane conditions as Katrina slowed over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and gained strength.
Gov. Jeb Bush urged Florida residents to take Katrina seriously, even if it does not develop into a major hurricane.
“I assure you, this is a dangerous storm,” Bush said in Tallahassee. “This storm will bring a lot of rainfall over an extended period of time.”
He added that Katrina could pose its biggest danger as torrential rain continues after the center passes.
Quick, raise the threat level to orange! We know there is going to be an attack on US soil. We have heard chatter. Seems like actionable intelligence to me. And we must hurry and act, this terror-storm is threatening our oil supply.
With oil prices surging, Katrina’s gathering strength is causing concern among energy traders, who fear the storm will slow oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for up to a quarter of U.S. oil output.
And our freedoms:
Officials in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, warned residents to expect street flooding, downed trees and power lines, and inoperative traffic lights.
Boat owners were urged to move their vessels inland. Drawbridges in Broward and Palm Beach counties were locked in the down position at noon.
In Miami-Dade County, Mayor Carlos Alvarez recommended that people living in low-lying areas and mobile homes evacuate and use a public shelter at a local middle school. Shelters opened this afternoon as many South Florida residents evacuated the barrier islands.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport will close at 7 p.m., officials announced.
There were no immediate plans to close the airports in Miami or West Palm Beach. But a spokeswoman at Miami International Airport said airlines had canceled about 80 flights.
Schools were closed in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and students in Palm Beach county were sent home early.
Aaaahhhhh! Run for the hills! The terror, the terror of it all.
Hmm, wouldn’t it have been nice to have seen the same coordinated preparation and oh, I don’t know, a warning when a certain someone got a memo labeled “Bin Laden determined to attack inside the US”. I mean all this ruckus for the terror-storm, but nay a word about terrorists. Maybe the weather channel could do a better job at national security.
First reference this.
Now get really angry that you are paying more for gas now than you ever have before even though OPEC is producing more oil than they EVER HAVE.
First, take a look at OPEC. OPEC, the Organization of Pertroleum Exporting Countries is comprised of Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Ecuador and Gabon were members of OPEC but withdrew in the early 90’s.
The current members account for 40% of the world’s oil production and about 2/3 of the world’s proven oil stores – this taken directly from OPEC’s site.
How many of these countries have we bombed, nuked, or dismantled the leadership of?
Now, what I want to draw your attention to is this…
“Iraqis pay the equivalent of 4 cents to 15 cents a gallon for gasoline, which means that American taxpayers are footing the bill for bringing oil into Iraq.”
From this article posted here
Pissed off yet?
Now you know what is actually going on. Looks like $83 BILLION no-bid contracts aren’t enough for Haliburton. This has been going on since 2003 – which is exactly the same fucking time that our fuel prices began to sky rocket in the United States.
FUCK GEORGE BUSH, FUCK HALIBURTON.
I say we all pitch in and call up some Scottish fishermen who have been put out of work by limitations on cod fishing. Surely these boys know how to drive a boat. We all kick in about a $1 a piece and buy our own damn oil tankers. Then we buy a refinery. Then we get filthy stinking rich undercutting importers of desert oil and get our gas prices back where they should be.
There is no way we should stand by and let the freakin’ Iraqis off with 15 cents per gallon while we are paying upwards of nearly $3.
This fucking insanity has to stop. You want a reason to stand out in front of the Crawford Ranch. How about some 50 million Americans forcing Bush to quit handing Haliburton GIANT sized paychecks while raping the American people?
3 1400 ton Oil Tankers = $4,170,000. (that should be enough to get 1 tanker a day at 10,616.62 barrels per tanker)
11,000 Barrel per day Oil Refinery = $5,495,000
Smiling all the way to the bank while tearing the paycheck from George and Dick’s greedy little hands = priceless.
Now where did I put that American Express?
