corrente

Hurry Rapture
Come to daddy
Come to save America
Praises be to our sky daddy
He’s the bomb that’s on the bus

Millions waiting
For the Rapture
Maxing out their credit cards
Getting ready for a slaughter
God’s a killer you can trust

Armageddon
Final conflict
Turn the living to the dead
Mark it on your calendar
Naked Christians flying up

(chorus)
Naked Christians go to heaven
You can see it in their smiles
Naked Christians into heaven
Clothing left behind in piles
Naked Christians flying up
Up above the world so high
If you’re modest, you’re in trouble
Grab your nethers when you fly

Come on Jesus
Please come quickly
We don’t want to play no more
Praise to Jesus, please come quickly
You know full well how people talk

It’s a comfort
Just our knowing
That you carry a mean sword
Heaven sent this blood starts flowing
Death to all outside the flock

Armageddon
Final conflict
Turn the living to the dead
Mark it on your calendar
Naked Christians flying up

(chorus)
Naked Christians go to heaven
You can see it in their smiles
Naked Christians into heaven
Clothing left behind in piles
Naked Christians flying up
Up above the world so high
If you’re modest, you’re in trouble
Grab your nethers when you fly

Hurry Rapture
Come to daddy
Come to save America
Praises be to our sky daddy
He’s the bomb that’s on the bus

Millions waiting
For the Rapture
Maxing out their credit cards
Getting ready for a slaughter
God’s a killer you can trust

Armageddon
Final conflict
Turn the living to the dead
Mark it on your calendar
Naked Christians flying up

(chorus)
Naked Christians go to heaven
You can see it in their smiles
Naked Christians into heaven
Clothing left behind in piles
Naked Christians flying up
Up above the world so high
If you’re modest, you’re in trouble
Grab your nethers when you fly




+++

Originally posted July 18th, 2005 at Mortaljive. Cross posted at Correntewire.

+++

I needed a break from anger and sorrow, and so I flew into tomorrow...

+++

I just came across this little tidbit over at the Crack Den, via the Most Eloquent One:

"The desire to bring conservative, free-market ideas to the Gulf Coast is white hot," says Rep. Mike Pence, the Indiana Republican who leads the Republican Study Group, an influential caucus of conservative House members. "We want to turn the Gulf Coast into a magnet for free enterprise. The last thing we want is a federal city where New Orleans once was."

Translation: The desire to get in on the federal mother of all pork troughs is filling every Ranger and Pioneer pantsuit with a gigantic hard-on. We’re so happy all the niggers got washed out and won’t be able to protest as we take over their land and homes for pennies on the dollar, and turn around and rent it back to them in the finest tradition of corporate towns and migrant worker shanties everywhere. The last thing we want is a city where constitutional protections, environmental regulations and racial and socioeconomic integration exist. Yeee-haaaaw!

I humbly submit this prediction: NOLA will be rebuilt as a pitiful, soulless reincarnation of it’s former self, replete with shantytown ghettos for the working poor, who will only be allowed to resettle in numbers sufficient to service the influx of second-home owners and corporate developers who will take over the choice real estate at the expense of the taxpayer. In time, another major city will emerge as the center of Southern Black culture, and no one but unlettered suburbanites and old school segregationists will want to visit the ersatz Creole “culture” that will stand on the grave of old New Orleans.

But what I really wanted to talk about is beyond NOLA. People started watching this disaster long before Boosh did, and there were many predictions after the extent of the damage became clear that this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and people would wake up to the nightmare that is the Assministration. But as the announcements come in relating to the rebuilding, it’s clear that no matter how people feel, the media and our masters don’t really care- the disaster is about financial opportunity for the already rich.

I was dorking around and watching Moscow on the Hudson recently, and while I’m not arguing it’s a totally serious important major film, I was struck by the innocence and happiness the characters, immigrants for the most part, showed for life in this country, even life as a minimum wage worker. I suppose it’s still true today, if you come from a war zone or place of permanent poverty and political oppression, America probably feels really good. But what about those of us raised here? How well will we take the reduction of our constitutional protections and standards of living in the name of making another millionaire a billionaire? Watching the response to the Federal ‘response’ to the NOLA crisis, I admit I’m pretty depressed.

I suppose that people have come to accept that they have to work 10-12hr days, conform politically at work, avoid critical thinking and generally ignore the actual workings of their government to stay happy suburbanites (or whatever). I suppose the material rewards are satisfying to many people who make those choices, or that they’re too tired/glazed over by TV/substance abusing to care. Despite what a lot of good people have done, and a general solid attitude of genuine caring around the blogosphere, as an African-American I have to say I’m underwhelmed by the response to the NOLA victims. I’m certainly pissed off by the coverage, as much as I’ve been able to force myself to sit through, which smacks of racism on the best days and something even worse other times. But the disconnect is what really gets me. A crisis can strike anywhere, and despite the love Boosh has for his donors, I guarantee he cares nothing for even the upper-middle class. Even when they fellate him at Republican rallies or Potemkin photo ops, the contempt he has for the ‘little’ people is glaring and obvious for anyone to behold.

Someone gave me a book called Rich Dad’s Prophecy by one of these get rich retire early advisor/authors. Not really my cup of tea, but he does point out a lot of things that those of us who live in the lefty blogosphere have been talking about for the last five years. While I personally think he’s essentially cashing in on the culture of fear that’s developed over the last five years in this country, I’m somewhat heartened to see that its jacket indicates it’s a bestseller. The rhetoric in it is strong, the writing punchy and dire, and while its historical perspective is laughable and its confidence in “American ingenuity” equally a farce, if nothing else it puts some ideas into the mainstream consciousness that really, really need to be there.

My bottom line is a gloomy one. I don’t believe America will be able to take back the government from the hands of the cronies and anti constitutionalists currently running the show. I think a combination of factors, not limited to but including apathy, ignorance, federal and consumer debt, Peak Oil, environmental change and crisis, declining international support, and religious fanaticism have doomed this nation for at least the next 20 years. And frankly, I think white Boomers will go down selfishly, protecting their own interests while taking away the last regular political options for change from the rest of us as they age and demand more and more from a decreasingly productive national economy. My only question relates to the form this Grand Decline will take: fast or slow, with more or less violence, punctuated by uprisings or accepted with resignation.

If there are any newcomers or moderate readers of this blog, let this post be my warning to you, and for everyone else let it be an electronic kick in the ass that spurs you out of your ‘box’ thinking. Traditional political solutions just won’t cut it anymore. We’ve passed that point, perhaps even well before I started paying attention, and the time for discussion and passive action has passed. Progressives need to rethink the question “what can be done,” just as moderates need to rethink the priorities and positions they’ve held for so long. I’m not saying this because I want everyone to become a radical like me, I’m saying it because I honestly believe what’s coming will force us all to make some hard choices. Quoting from that book I mentioned:

But in just a few years, this very rich country became a poor, debt-ridden bankrupt nation with a weak currency. Money has left and so have the rich. Taxes are high and the currency has collapsed. Corruption is everywhere. If the problems are not solved, real anarchy could erupt.

(p. 113)

He’s speaking about Argentina, but it is possible the same words could be written about the US in a short time. And when the rich are gone, so too goes the capital in ‘capitalism’ that makes traditional political solutions viable.

This is a new millennium, and for the first time, a truly global society. Thanks to Boosh, the rest of the world is currently laughing at us with derision, pointing to us with hatred and/or rubbing their hands with glee at the future lack of dominance we’ll have over emerging markets. There will be no Marshall Plan for us when we fall. There is no Sky Father coming to save us, and the traditional ideas of opposition parties in government have been forgotten by our not-opposing “opposition” leadership.

I’ll post later on my own radical ideas for change, and admit they are unfinished and flawed. But I want people to think about the poor fleeing NOLA, and the lack of aid they have and will continue to (not) receive. Just as Ford once told New York city to “fuck off” in a time of crisis, so too will Bush and whomever comes after him tell states and municipalities as the problems outlined above form a perfect storm of their own. Even if you’re employed, financially solvent, in good standing in your community and materially comfortable, that can change- and quickly. It doesn’t take Mother Nature for this to happen, just the awesome force of your own belief in comforting ideology and false stability. Think about the thin veneer of civilization for a moment, and ask yourself how you would respond to chaos.

A couple weekends ago I went down to my neighborhood non-corporate video sto' and picked up a copy of Sin City from the rack.

Me: "I just need something to take my mind off the hurricane stuff, I've been watching it on cable all weekend. It's driving me insane."

Video Sto' Guy: "This is good. It's violent, but it's a fantasy..."

Me: "Perfect."

Maybe I'm a cornball, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The film is done in black and white (+red). This is supposed to make it look like the graphic novel, but it reminded me of film noir from the 30's and 40's.

Back then reality was black and white. The difference between good and evil was obvious. Fascists and Nazis on one side, the allies and the Reds on the other.

Then, after WWII, everything went Technicolor and reality was confusing. The Corporate Public Relations professionals started taking control of the minds of Americans, who were lost In a haze of cigarettes and Better Living Through Pill-Popping, getting fat off casseroles and imperial profits.

Read the exciting conclusion at The New and Mightier Corrente Building or at the Shysteeblog.

UPDATE (Heh, it's like "stop the presses". I've always wanted to say that.):

PS: My favorite movie of all time is also in black and white. Set in New Orleans and starring Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni and John Lurie, Down By Law is a sad and beautiful film. The opening sequence (shot by Wim Wender's old DP, Robby Muller) is an endless drive-by of the Crescent City's victorian slums with Tom Waits' "Jockey Full of Bourbon" in the background. Check it out. If it doesn't break your heart to see images of what Nawlins used to be and if you're able to stay awake through Jim Jarmusch's trademark meaningful pauses in dialogue, you'll be glad you did.

The Peace Rally last night on the lawn next to the National Constitution Center near Independence Hall ran a little late, simply because there were so many speakers trying to squeeze into the 2-hour timeframe, but it felt like it went quickly.

They said we were the largest crowd they had yet encountered on the tour, and though I'm not good at estimating that kind of thing, it seemed like there could have been 500, all told.

What I missed, having had to hoof it across the city to get there after right after work, was Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown reading the Resolution Against The War passed the day before by the Philadelphia City Council. Although she was the sponsor who introduced the resolution, it was co-sponsored by 12 other council members, including two Republicans. Here's what the website had to say about it:

"On the urging of members and friends of the Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour, the Philadelphia City Council voted today 16 to 1 for a Resolution calling on the federal government to "rapidly withdraw US troops from Iraq expeditiously." Following a Thursday morning caucus session in which Gold Star Families for Peace co-founder Celeste Zappala and other Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour members were introduced to council members..."

In addition to Cindy Sheehan's Gold Star Families for Peace members, other groups represented at the rally included Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and Military Families Speak Out. There were a wonderfully representative group of speakers, and some singer-songwriters who played and sang beautifully. Although the crowd spanned the age range, it seemed a bit on the older side. That will certainly change when the draft comes down. And, as so often happens with political activities like this, it was way too white. If this message is to start taking root and have resonance, outreach efforts have to be made more strenuously to link to and include minorities and their advocacy groups, especially since they are the ones doing a disproportionate amount of the fighting on the ground. But enough of that. It was inspiring, and I was glad I could be there. It lacked the carnival atmosphere that attends many such gatherings, but that was okay. Members of various groups circulated through the crowd handing out flyers and stickers, and the Iraq vets were selling IVAW T-shirts (I wanted one but at $20 I just couldn't spend the cash. I'll pick one up at the DC rally.) Further up, close to the speaker's platform were places to buy buttons and tour shirts. People stretched out on the grass, dogs rolled, babies cooed, bicycles served as impromptu chairs. Many threads ran through the speeches, not the least of which were calls for impeachment and rallying for attendance at the DC anti-war mobilization next Saturday. It was a night of strong rhetoric, much stronger than I had expected.

The speakers included (list leaves out a couple speakers I couldn't catch and the musicians who performed):

• Celeste Zappala, Philadelphia, PA, a co-founder with Sheehan of Gold Star Familes for Peace, whose son Sgt. Sherwood Baker was the first PA National Guardsman to die in combat since World War II, killed in Baghdad on April 26, 2004. Celeste is an articulate, eloquent speaker with an electrifying style coming straight out of her deep pain and anger. I saw her speak before, at the union hall with Al Franken during a MoveOn-sponsored election tour in 2004, and she had us all in tears. She was easily the best and most moving speaker there last night. (I also learned that night that she and her family are neighbors of my daughter's boyfriend, and her son Dante is one of his friends. Small, small world.)
• AFSCME District Council 47 President Tom Cronin spoke of union solidarity for the peace movement and the upcoming DC demonstration.
• Former City Councilman Angel Ortiz, Philadelphia's most famous unlicensed driver, roused the crowd with Bush epithets and his repeated cries to "Impeach Bush!" (Not the last time that was heard that night.)
• Bill Perry, Levittown PA, a member of Veterans for Peace and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, who was a paratrooper during the Tet offensive in 1967 and 1968, spoke of the "karmic debt" he owes for what he did in Vietnam, and how the anti-war work he is doing now is part of that. He pointed the crowd to the afterdowningstreet.com site.
  
• Rabbi Art Waskow, Philadelphia, whose cries for "Shalom! Salaam! Peace!" rang out through the crowd. (Check out his piece on Frist, here.)
  
• Dante Zappala, son of Celeste and brother of Sherwood Baker, spoke about how his brother was killed (searching for WMDs), how divided the country is, and how embracing others' losses as our own is the key to finding common cause.
• Sherie Cohen, Philadelphia, sent a message from her dad, City Councilman David Cohen reiterating support for the resolution and calling on the crowd to pressure their representatives to end the war.
• Kellisa Stanley, Texas, whose husband at Fort Hood did a one-year tour of duty in Iraq and is scheduled for redeployment next year, said she had 2 exit strategies for the troops: "Boat. And plane." She spoke of the fear with which she lived while her husband was in Iraq, waiting with dread each day between 6 to 10 a.m., because those are the hours during which the military is allowed to deliver the news of a death to a soldier's family.
  
• Patrick Resta, Philadelphia, with Iraq Veterans Against the War, served as a combat medic from February to November, 2004. His aunt and uncle were killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. He wondered why a 28-yr. old friend in his platoon had to die when an explosion tore into his behicle because 1/2" sheets of plywood had been nailed into his Humvee instead of the armor that should have been there. He wondered, because as he said, there were plenty of armored Humvees---they were used to go to meetings and USO shows, but not for patrols. He talked of people dying because the paperwork needed to release them couldn't be done. He talked of his own fears and anger because he had to buy his own body armor; because he was issued a gas mask that was useless because it didn't fit; because just before going into combat he was issued a rifle he'd never held, never sighted or been able to prep.
  
• Vince George, West Virginia, of Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, talked about being an Arab-American with a brother in the National Guard who was previously in Kosovo before being orderd up to Iraq. His "fascist gangsters" remark referencing Bushco got an especially heartfelt hand from the crowd. He, too, called for impeachment, saying the next election needs 11 seats taken back from the Republicans to get it done.
  
• Pat Bonner(sp?), PA, has a son in the PA National Guard who was sent to Egypt to police their elections. She wanted to know what we would think of having them come here to do the same to us. She was a firebrand, leveling war crimes charges at Bushco, and calling for revolution.
  
• Lietta Ruger, Washington state, with Military Families Speak Out, has a son in law and nephew in Germany who have served extended 15-month tours of duty in Iraq and are presently under “stop loss” orders. They are scheduled to deploy to Iraq this fall. She said we must always challenge a president to define the mission before jumping into war.
  
• Jeff Key, Alabama, a Marine reservist who served in Iraq in 2003, was easily the most charming and charismatic of the speakers. A friendly, almost puppy-like, young gay man, he spoke in a sweet drawl of the early idealism that led him to join the Marines, and finished up by pointing at the Liberty Bell on the other side of the street behind him, saying the first time he saw the layers of bulletproof plastic in which it was encased, he wondered where the bell was. "Then I saw it. It's kinda like America now...it's obscured, but I know it's still there somewhere."
  
• Beatriz Saldivar, Texas, a Gold Star Families for Peace member. Her nephew Daniel Torres was killed in action on February 4th, 2005 in Baygii, Iraq on his second tour of Iraq due to stop loss orders after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded and hit his unarmored Humvee. He left behind a pregnant fiancee whose baby is due this weekend.
  
• U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah, Philadelphia, spoke words of encouragement, and of how more and more folks are agreeing that we were miled into war with lies. He spoke of meeting Cassandra Bryan at Walter Reed hospital, where she was sent to recover after losing both legs in Iraq, and he spoke of the thousands of others severely injured.
• And finally, Cindy Sheehan herself. She told of her initial hesitancy in becoming an activist because "I thought one person can't make a difference. Then I said, 'If I can't make a difference, at least I'll know I tried. I can look at myself in the mirror, and tell my grandchildren that I tried.'" She spoke of "Bush's insane & moronic policies", and of the Bush chickenhawks, how they wouldn't risk dying for their country when they had a chance to, but now want to send others to again do their dying for them. She spoke about their "dangerous incompetence". She talked about the reasons put forth by Bushco for the war: Freedom & Democracy ("An Islamic constitution is not a democracy that takes rights away from women, that gives power to a puppet leadership"); and Keeping America Safer ("How did it make America safer to invade a country that was no threat to us? Why are their babies more important than our babies? Katerina proved that we're more vulnerable now because of this war").

Cindy finished as volunteers circulated through the crowd with candles for a candle-lighting ceremony at the end of the night, saying that "It's not about politics, or who's a Republican or Democrat. It's about flesh and blood. It's about life and death." She talked about the tour, and how they would end up in D.C. for the anti-war march, and invited the crowd to join them there. Jeff Key played taps as he had done in Crawford, while we stood in silence, remembering the dead and maimed.

When we disbanded, I felt good about my country. It's been a long time since that happened.

Editor's note: Special thanks to Monique Frugier for the photos.

(Crossposted at the new Correntewire.)

Modo seems to have had a religious conversion or something. Finally, she gets it... It be even more comforting to think that MoDo knows Bush is on the way down, and is starting to get in her licks now:

In a ruined city - still largely without power, stinking with piles of garbage and still 40 percent submerged; where people are foraging in the miasma and muck for food, corpses and the sentimental detritus of their lives; and where unbearably sad stories continue to spill out about hordes of evacuees who lost their homes and patients who died in hospitals without either electricity or rescuers - isn't it rather tasteless, not to mention a waste of energy, to haul in White House generators just to give the president a burnished skin tone and a prettified background?
(Times, A15)

Is that a question?

It would almost be worththe $49.95 to see MoDo stamping, with her stilletto heels, on ....

So, the Republican social engineering begins. They're going to house the Katrina exiles in fucking trailers, oh, I'm sorry, mobile homes, for the couple of years it will Halliburton to make its nut by turning New Orleans into a gated community for rich fucks. Gag. The only stench worse than mud-covered dead bodies is live Republican hypocrisy.

"President Bush acts to suspend Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, thereby slashing wages to poverty levels."

Look here and here and just Google this till you can't sit still and you write letters and you make noise. For those who didn't drown in the water Bush is fashioning a length of economic chains, the better to keep the lines straight. Damn him past the provinces of God.

+++

Hey there mister, got a job for you
Get yourself a hammer and some workin' shoes
Come down to the office, take a look around
You're gonna help to build us a brand new town

Hey there mister, there is work to be done
You'll sleep like a baby, you will rise with the sun
Carry that lumber, dig some holes
Don't get no mud on the boss's Rolls

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

Hey, I know that guy, back from Iraq
Lost his friend in a sniper attack
Ready to help in his community
He has fought to keep us free

In his eyes I see the desert sky
Bombs going off just like the 4th of July
Got himself a job here for the minimum wage
He ain't yet 26 but he's showin' his age

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

One day all the business' will open their doors
Filled with trinkets that sparkle in the happy stores
Ladies from Lafayette will wander by
Steppin' around that homeless guy

Make a movie of the moment, zoom on in
Take a look at the eyes of a veteran
There are many who washed up on the shore
Every day there are more and more

(chorus)
Turn the clock back, we're on the run
It's 1930 and there's work to be done
Do the work
Do the work
Let's build America
Let's do the work
Do the work
If your heart is breaking, shake it off
We're the living, let's do the work

+++

(Author's confession: I could not stop Randy Newman from influencing this song, no matter how hard I tried his "Good Old Boys" album, along with "Sail Away" would not let me be.)

Image of homeless migrant worker from here.

+++

he editors of our free press have decided that reporters can use anonymous sources, as long as the sources give a reason for being anonymous—giving rise to a literary micro-genre. I googled on “Spoke on condition of anonymity because” and got

1. Spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution (WaPo)

And many more at the renovated Corrente...

+++

I received the following e-mail from a friend who lived in New Orleans, who has maintained the tradition of Red Beans & Rice Mondays for a good, long time.

Hi
I will be cooking Red Beans and Rice at the Edendale Grill on Monday, the 19th, and perhaps every Monday for a while. The purpose is to raise money to send to the Musicians Relief fund, which takes care of New Orleans musicians, and their family's, needs.

http://www.denverpost.com/music/ci_3013501
http://www.wwoz.org/clinic/
http://www.jazzfoundation.org/new_orleans.php
http://jazz.about.com/od/grantsfoundations/a/nolahelp.htm

Come on down. It's a good cause. The money goes directly, without 'staff' expenses between your donation and the recipients. I had thought about doing this here at my house, but realized I could raise way more money there.

The Edendale opens at 5, but dinner will be served starting at 6, until around 10.
See you on Monday
Janet

The Edendale Grill is located in Silverlake, CA, just south of Hyperion and north of Glendale Blvd. It is in what had been a fire house for many decades. As this event will continue on consecutive Mondays, I think I have a new short-term tradition that will satisify my soul on many levels.

The vitals:

Edendale Grill
2838 Rowena Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90039

(323) 666-2000 tel.
(323) 666-2442 fax.

I hope to arrive around 6:30 or 7:00. Hope to see many, many faces there, and I hope to hear some good jazz too!

+++

Image from here.

+++

Speaking of activism, I'll be on hand at the Peace Rally this evening. From the time I was a little kid, I was never a joiner, and I hated clubs and organizations. But Bush has lit a fire under me like I've never felt, and I want to be heard, be seen, and be a force for change beyond this kvetching I do here and elsewhere. No, not everyone is cut out to march in the streets, and no, it isn't a condition for being a real activist and a good person. But it is something I feel in my soul to be what's right for me, and I will be becoming more and more of a street-fighting progressive in the months to come, because I'm so fucking mad I can't help it.

Stolen from PA For Democracy, for folks in the Philadelphia area:

The Bring Them Home Now Tour has launched three buses from Crawford, Texas, each carrying military and Gold Star families, veterans of the Iraq War and veterans of previous wars. These buses will travel different routes across the country, converging in Washington, DC on September 21, for the United for Peace and Justice Mobilization September 24th-26th.

11:30 AM--Gold Star Families award area AFL-CIO leaders for their work to end the war. AFL-CIO Headquarters, 22 South 22^nd Street. (More info: 215-945-3350 or 215-741-1980.)

5-7 PM--Rally for Peace at Independence Hall, 5th and market Sts., Philadelphia

Saturday, Sept. 17:

Noon to Evening--Camp Gold Star at Lemon Hill Park Meet with Gold Star Parents and Iraq Vets. (Latest info, call 610-832-7028)

For local info: 610-832-7028 - For tour info: http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/

Now that I have your attention, forget humor for a moment and come with me to the world of boring, serious reality.

Today I want to talk about my I’m a depressed, prone to heavy drinking slouch with no spirit for activism. Actually, I have spirit for activism in spades, just not of the traditional kind so much. Here’s a section from an entry on my favorite topic, electronic voting, from the people formerly known as Disinfopedia, now Source Watch:

"Whoever certified that code as secure should be fired," said Avi Rubin , technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins and co-author of the report. He is one of about 900 computer scientists in the U.S., including the founder of the GNU e-democracy project (who has now abandoned it due to unresolved concerns about inherent problems of voting electronically), who has issued grave warnings about voting by computer. In India, the protest has been even more widespread, as the ruling party has proceeded with automating the electoral process uniformly nation-wide - in a democracy of over one billion people, and few resources to challenge results.

According to the Post, "Rubin analyzed portions of Diebold software source code that was mistakenly left on a public Internet site and concluded that a teenager could manufacture "smart cards" and vote several times. Further, he said, insiders could program the machine to alter election results without detection. All machines had the same password hard-wired into the code. And in some instances, it was set at 1111, a number laughably easy to hack. Because there is no paper or electronic auditing system in the machine, there would be no way to reconstruct an actual vote, Rubin said."

In October 2003, Andrew Gumbel reported in the Independent (UK) that " Next year's US presidential election may be compromised by new voting machines that computer scientists believe are unreliable, poorly programmed and prone to tampering."

"An investigation published in today's Independent reveals tens of thousands of touch screen voting machines may be less reliable than the old punchcards, which famously stalled the presidential election in Florida in 2000, leaving the whole election open to international ridicule.

If you go to the link, all the important words are hyperlinked, and there’s a nice CV of text based info on the subject as well.

This post was prompted by the good people over Raw Story and BradBlog, who drop this little bomb of an interview:

In exclusive stunning admissions to The BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a "Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems, software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of the Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet.

Pointing to a little-noticed "Cyber Security Alert" issued by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the source inside Diebold -- who "for the time being" is requesting anonymity due to a continuing sensitive relationship with the company -- is charging that Diebold's technicians, including at least one of its lead programmers, knew about the security flaw and that the company instructed them to keep quiet about it.

"Diebold threatened violators with immediate dismissal," the insider, who we'll call DIEB-THROAT, explained recently to The BRAD BLOG via email. "In 2005, after one newly hired member of Diebold's technical staff pointed out the security flaw, he was criticized and isolated."

In phone interviews, DIEB-THROAT confirmed that the matters were well known within the company, but that a "culture of fear" had been developed to assure that employees, including technicians, vendors and programmers kept those issues to themselves.

The "Cyber Security Alert" from US-CERT was issued in late August of 2004 and is still available online via the US-CERT website . The alert warns that "A vulnerability exists due to an undocumented backdoor account, which could [ sic: allow] a local or remote authenticated malicious user [ sic: to] modify votes."

Again, plenty of live links in the body of the text for your perusal.

Now, I’m prone to intense moments of CTism, and proudly don my chapeau de foil when I get going, usually after a couple of glasses of cheap Australian wine. But even when I’m serious, I can’t shake the feeling that something is very, very wrong with voting in this country. After all, even if most political discourse is a game, filled with rhetoric and nonsense designed to distract people from the real issues, you’d think politicians would at least care that the people they go to all that trouble to manipulate into voting for them will have those votes properly tabulated?

Well, the problem seems to me to be entirely one sided. I don’t want to reveal his name, as he was kind enough to promptly respond to my e-mail, but I had an exchange last year with one of Kerry’s “legal team” a professor at a top-ten university law school, about the OH results and other areas that were in question (at least in the minds of us following e-voting issues). He had written a nice op-ed in a leading national daily about OH, and while it was good to see this issue in print, the wording of the piece struck me as all together too timid, and basically not in anyway reflective of the seriousness of the problem or possibility it entailed for representative democracy. I said as much to him in the e-mail, and he responded that essentially, he and most members of Kerry’s team were “just learning about the problem” and didn’t really understand it very well.

There have been several bills introduced into the House relating to such ‘fixes’ as making electronic machines produce a paper trail, and other suggestions about how to increase the level of confidence people feel for computerized voting. Russ Holt has introduced at least two that I know of. Interestingly, there haven’t been any Republican co-sponors for these bills. Not that they’re into bipartisanship so much, but still, you’d think a couple of them would worry for a future day then Democrats were in power, and the system could be used against Republican interests. Yet that’s not a concern. Hmmmm.

Very simply, problems with electronic voting have become so widespread, and so well documented, that it’s an issue well beyond CT land and one that sits squarely in the mainstream. I can think of stories I’ve read, solid well researched pieces in major publications, detailing problems in CA, NC, TX, FL and of course OH. Click on the links provided so far and follow the rabbit hole, I promise you it goes very, very deep.

I have two points to make about what this means for 06. The first is that people concerned with this issue shouldn’t assume that the Republicans have a master computer hidden somewhere in Virginia that’s linked to every voting machine in the nation, and which they control with the push of a button. That may be true, but it’s probably not- a more subtle and more difficult to track method is being employed, I think. As many researchers on the issue have noted, vote tampering doesn’t have to happen everywhere, just a few strategically located precincts. One large precinct can turn the results for a whole region, and when there are a lot of votes to be tallied, it’s “more likely” that unusual results are statistical probabilities. It’s a very hard thing to do, even for computer experts and dedicated activists, to predict, observe and prove vote tampering in the areas in which it occurs- we just can’t know which the tamperers will choose.

Adjunct to this point is that the old-fashioned, time honored methods of vote tampering are also still a concern. One needn’t fuck with electronic vote tallies if one prevents people from voting in the first place. OH is the prime example here, where in 2004 thousands of people in urban areas and on college campuses were give insufficient numbers of voting machines, resulting in long lines and probably fewer (Democratic) votes. There are also ID scams, intimidation, voter ‘tests’ and all the other tricks that have been employed for decades, mainly to keep black people from voting but I’m sure still used today for anyone leaning left. So we have to remember not to underestimate those who’d prevent democratic representation from happening. They use lots of tricks, and fruadulent tallying of e-voting is only one way that can happen.

The second point I’d like to make is about the word “moot.” As in, everything else progressive and liberals do to get a Democratic majority in 06 is a complete waste of time until we have some kind of guarantee that votes will be counted. Now, I’m not naive enough to suggest we can have 100% of the votes counted and 100% of voters who want to vote voting. Shit, I’d settle for 87% at this point, and I know we’ve never had a truly free and fair election in the history of this country. But when one reviews the long, depressing list of races in 2000. 2002, and 2004 that had very questionable results, counting methods and/or verification procedures, it becomes obvious that if something isn’t done soon, we may as all start singing Deutschland Uber Alles and be done with it.

I am honestly puzzled, frightened and confused by the lack of Democratic leadership on this issue. Truly- even the most sold out corporate DINO hack has got to worry that his seat isn’t secure enough to prevent a more sold out more corporate Republican hack from taking his place. But they don’t. I don’t know if this is because the consultants are telling them the issue “doesn’t play in Peroria” or because it really is a giant conspiracy and the “opposition” is in on the game. But whatever the reason keeping them back, Democrats are beyond the level of Chamberlinesque stupidity and naiveté for not making this a central focus.

I was just reading about the leader of Jewish quarter in Lodz during WWII, Chiam Rumkowski. You may remember him, for his policies of “saving the body by cutting off a limb” in which he worked with the Nazis, and sent off some groups of Jews to the gas chambers in the hope that the rest could be spared. None were, and he himself was shipped off on the last train. I wonder if his Nazi masters laughed as he went.

No I don’t.

I’m not going to get into “what can be done” about the machines themselves, as there are too many issues I don’t fully understand. One I do: it’s probably already too late, assuming every Republican was personally visited by God today and had a change of heart and voted in favor of Holt’s bill, to replace the currently installed voting machines with ones that could be trusted, if there is such a thing. I vote in a small town in rural WI, and we used paper, pencils and a box guarded by two old ladies who play bridge with my mom. As far as I could tell, my vote was counted and it didn’t cost much to do so. In my opinion, this system could be employed everywhere, even in initiative heavy states, simply by reducing the number of people who vote in a single location. More places to vote, fewer people voting there, and paper and pencil that everyone can use. Don’t hand me that crap about the blind or otherwise disabled not being able to vote in this system- I worked in a group home for severely disabled people long enough to know that there are ways to protect their rights and people motivated to do so. Those people can help them vote, even as the rest of us accept that there’s nothing wrong with simplicity, especially in voting. IIRC, it’s how they do it in Canada, and results are in the same night.

Crap, this post got long, so I’ll wrap it up with this: every time you open your mouth to speak of politics, to your lover, family, coworkers and friends, and most especially when you talk to a politician or their representative, BRING UP THIS ISSUE. If you don’t, all the marches and letters and e-mails in the world aren’t going to make a rat’s ass worth of difference. There is literally no other issue more important than this in 06. I welcome suggestions and comments about how best to address this problem.

One thing is clear: the Democratic leadership isn’t doing shit about it. That leaves it in our hands. Don’t give yourself a future in which you look out from behind bars waiting your turn for the torture chamber, wishing desperately that you’d gotten off your fat ass back in 2005, when the last threads of democracy were still strong enough to have prevented its death.

What did it take to get this man's attention? Thousands of deaths, that's what. Four years, and one election cycle, after 9/11! Unbelievable? All too believable

Disaster planning must be a "national security priority," he said, while ordering the Homeland Security Department to undertake an immediate review of emergency plans in every major American city.

"Our cities must have clear and up-to-date plans for responding to natural disasters and disease outbreaks or a terrorist attack, for evacuating large numbers of people in an emergency and for providing the food and water and security they would need," Bush said.
(via AP)

And notice, not a word about doing a little prevention—like protecting America's port cities from loose nukes.

Hey, what are the odds the Republicans are actually going to fund this mandate? New York is still waiting for the rest of its 9/11 money!

According to the Grey Lady,

President Bush said three things last night that desperately needed to be said. He forthrightly acknowledged his responsibility for the egregious mishandling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He spoke clearly and candidly about race and poverty. And finally, he was clear about what would be needed to bring back the Gulf Coast and said the federal government would have to lead and pay for that effort.

Really? Let's go to the tape:

"Forthrightly acknowleg[ing] his responsibility":

I consider detailed emergency planning to be a national security priority. And therefore, I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to undertake an immediate review, in cooperation with local counterparts, of emergency plans in every major city in America. I also want to know all the facts about the government response to Hurricane Katrina. The storm involved a massive flood, a major supply and security operation, and an evacuation order affecting more than a million people.

Translation: I didn't do it.

"Speaking clearly and candidly about race":

That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America.

Translation: It was broke when I got here.

What needs to be done:

And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely.

Translation: Taxpayers as-yet unborn will pay for all this. Now who wants some free pie?

Once again, as he did after 9/11, Mr. Bush has responded to disaster with disconcerting uncertainty, then risen to the occasion later. Once again, he has delivered a speech that will reassure many Americans that he understands the enormity of the event and the demands of leadership to come.

Yes, those Americans who think we found WMD in Iraq will be reassured. Also people who think they really won the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

But there are plenty of reasons for concern. After 9/11, Mr. Bush responded not only with a stirring speech at the ruins of the World Trade Center and a principled response to the Taliban in Afghanistan. He also decided to invade Iraq, and he tried to do it on the cheap - with disastrous results, for which the country continues to pay every day.

Yes, that was the only problem: we didn't spend enough money to unnecessarily and mendaciously invade a country that had not attacked us.

This time, Mr. Bush must come up with a more coherent and well-organized follow-through.

Because, you know, a more incoherent, disorganized--not to mention dishonest and callous--follow-through would be something we really don't want to think about.

An unindicted co-conspirator sent me this. If you're planning to head for DC for the antiwar rally on the 24th, maybe leave a little early?

Drilling would devastate one of America's last great wild places. And, contrary to claims from the pro-drilling lobby, it would do nothing to alleviate high gas prices. Oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wouldn't hit the market for 10 years and even then would provide less than a one-year supply! Lawmakers plan to vote in just weeks on the Budget Reconciliation Act, which is widely expected to legalize harmful oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Activists from all over the country will rally in Washington on September 20 in support of the refuge. Sign up for the rally now or send a message to your Senators and Representative in Congress. This may be our last chance to save this special place. Will you help?

The caribou will thank you.

+++

The storm it was a coming up the whole damn coast
It caught us with our pants down, and turned us into toast
It broke down a few levees, a thing quite unforeseen
And the waters flooded into town, they flooded New Orleans

The government was set to go, was chomping at the bit
It made itself a pot of joe and lit a cigarette
It went outside in darkness and loaded up the truck
Then stood awhile and stretched a bit, before it passed the buck

The government came riding, true heros with a plan
They made the calls that mattered, they took a manly stand
They organized the rescue teams, and put them next to cops
They proved they were so talented at staging photo ops

The President he showed up, weary from his rest
All those days in Crawford had not left him at his best
He strode into the daylight, the hero of the town
He could not hear the clapping of the floaters all face down

The President admired the work of FEMA's number one
He joked about Trent Lott's house, his moment in the sun
It's just another party for the leader of the land
New Orleans lay in ruins while George Bush struck up the band

When history is written, when all is said and done
Remember all the good things, and all the good clean fun
The city will be built again, and jazz will fill the air
And Mardi Gras will walk on by with ghosts from everywhere

+++

(the voice I heard singing these lyrics belonged to Johnny Cash, a man eternal)

Image from here.

Crossposted at Correntewire and at Mortaljive.

+++

Snarfle. Sigh. Heaves bottle under bed.

It looks like even Bush's speech writers are deserting the ship. Or somebody read the speech to him wrong over His earpiece:

I am speaking to you from the city of New Orleans, nearly empty, still partly underwater, and waiting for life and hope to return.
(via AP)

Because if you read the actual words, "nearly empty," "partly underwater," and "waiting for life and hope to return" all apply to the subject of the sentence—Bush himself!

So, let's fill in a little context, striking out the subordinate clause:

I am speaking to you from the city of New Orleans, [my mind, heart, and soul] nearly empty, [the polls] still partly underwater, and waiting for life and hope to return [in the form of billions of dollars for Halliburton to loot].

Say, this project is going to go on for a long time, right? Who'll take bets on the idea that Bush is going to get a big-pay, no-show job reconstructing the New New Orleans? Say, at Halliburton?

UPDATE Egad, I just plowed through the thing. Did it seem as long as it reads?

Frederick Douglass said it (albeit in a different context):

Men in earnest don't fight with one hand, when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be saved even by a colored hand.

Bush finally sinks below 40% approval rating in 2 polls:

1. Ipsos-AP 39% overall approval, 59% disapproval; and
2. Newsweek 38% overall approval, 55% disapproval.

Ruy Texiera at Donkey Rising has more good news:

"Other polls report approval ratings that are exactly at 40 percent or only slightly above: Pew Research Center (40 percent in two different polls, September 6-7 and September 8-12); Zogby (41 percent); CBS News, Time/SRBI and Washington Post/ABC News (all at 42 percent). (Note that in the ABC poll, the 57 percent who disapprove of Bush’s job performance includes 45 percent who strongly disapprove, an amazing finding.)"

He concludes with a bit from E.J.Dionne that is simply heart-warming, but his own conclusion isn't bad either:

"So: the public now has a negative view of Bush’s job performance overall and in every area, including handling the war on terror, and has lost faith in Bush’s special qualities as a leader. What’s left? Not much. The bond between Bush and the American people has clearly been broken, perhaps irrevocably. An administration that was once defined in the public eye with competence and patriotism is now associated with cronyism and incompetence of the worst sort."

Too bad it took untold torment and needless deaths yet uncounted to get it through our thick skulls.

Because he enables torture, naturally!

I saw this by Nat Hentoff in (of all places) the Bucks County Courier Times print edition, but, for some reason, in, oh, the Times or anything:

[A] key decision on the president's view of his powers as commander in chief, Judge Roberts joined with two of his colleagues in the recent Hamdan v. Rumsfeld; the ruling gave this and succeeding presidents the unreviewable power to bypass civilian courts -- and previous due-process protections of our military courts -- in the treatment of prisoners suspected of involvement in terrorism.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan has been a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for three years. He is now being put before a military commission (a process invented by the Bush administration), which prevents Hamdan from being in the room during crucial parts of the hearing. In addition, his attorney cannot see secret evidence against Hamdan. Moreover, the presiding officer can admit previous evidence extracted by torture. Most crucially, the final appeal is only to President Bush or his designee.

As Emily Bazelon -- a legal issues writer for Slate and contributing editor to Yale's Legal Affairs magazine -- emphasizes: "Roberts signed on to a blank-check grant of power to the Bush administration to try suspected terrorists without basic due-process protections."

Yet in Rasul et al v. Bush, the Supreme Court, in a 6-to-3 vote (with Sandra Day O'Connor in the majority) ruled on June 28, 2004, that noncitizens detained in Guantanamo Bay are entitled to due process before a neutral official body. However, in addition to the Bush military commissions denying the basic elements of due process, Hamdan's appeal brief to the Supreme Court by Georgetown University law professor Neil Katyal makes this telling point:

New York Times reporter Neil Lewis disclosed on Aug. 1, 2005, that some of the military prosecutors involved in Hamdan's proceedings were so concerned at its lack of fairness that they charged "the chief prosecutor had told his subordinates that the members of the military commission that would try the first four defendants (including Hamdan) would be 'handpicked' to ensure that all would be convicted."

In deciding this case, Judge Roberts also accepted "without reservation" the government's argument that strips U.S. detainees of the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners, which this country had ratified.

Jonathan Freiman, an expert appellate attorney involved in this case and a senior fellow at Yale Law School, points out that in this part of the ruling, Roberts disregarded "the plain text of the Constitution's Supremacy clause, which unambiguously states 'all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land.'" Keep in mind, adds Freiman, the Geneva Conventions are a treaty that "binds this nation to the rest of the civilized world."

It's not surprising, therefore, that Yale Law School professor Oona Hathaway, a former clerk to Justice O'Connor, whom Roberts would replace, told The New York Times on July 24, 2005, that the elevation of Roberts "could recenter the court" in the direction of unchecked presidential powers.

The Hamdan decision goes far beyond the specific case itself. It also encompasses the abuses of prisoners, such as torture, beyond Guantanamo Bay -- ongoing crimes that Congress so far has refused to fully investigate up the chain of command.
(via Decatur Daily Democrat)

So much for all that crap about deference and humility and precedent and all that.

Roberts is a made man. I don't care how cute his kids are.

Say, wasn't Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that case that Roberts had not yet decided in Bush's favor, at the same time Bush was interviewing him for a job? Of course it was. Why then didn't Roberts recuse himself? The question answers itself, doesn't it?

So, Bush is going to have billions at Halliburton "folks" in Louisiana.

Reminds me of the kind of drunk Dad who rolls in, trashes the house, gropes the sitter, starts screaming abuse, and then crashes in front of a blasting TV while Mom and the kids hide out upstairs.

And in the morning he goes out and buys a whole lot of expensive gifts you don't really like to make up for it.

And acts like nothing's happened.

From Counterpunch comes a story authored by Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky, who were in New Orelans attending an EMS conference at the time of Hurricane Katrina's arrival. Trapped in town for days, they at one point organized and made for the New Orleans Bridge, having been assured by local police that buses awaited them on the other side...

As we approached the bridge, armed sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions.

Let the games begin.

+++

Atrios points us to a discussion by Matt Yglesias over at Tapped, that like a lot of “mainstream” stuff I read, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

But in the back and forth about Hillary, and the war as an issue the dems should or shouldn’t ‘run on,’ I found myself having this thought. Bear with me as I get a little less cynical and think strategically.

First off, Hackett proved that with the right candidates, Dems can win (or come damn close to it) even in the Reddest zones of the country. And seeing as how this is OH we’re talking about, who even knows that he lost....but I’ll shelve that thinking for a moment. The point is that loud, angry, tough and pro-soldier/anti-war is a solid combination, one that will likely work in 06.

Now we have Katrina in the mix, and while that’s a crisis that ‘only’ affects poor black people, it’s still the case that people aren’t so happy to see an entire American city lost like Atlantis. That anger isn’t going to go away, however muted or buried under fresh seasons of American Idol it may become. The anger won’t go away because the bill for it will arrive right around the time that the teevee has caused most Americans’ eyes to glaze over with aspic-sugary layers of HDTV happiness. And while Joe Six Pack may not know what that bill is, he will know the bill that comes in the form of reduced unemployment benefits, higher real taxation, no medical coverage, floundering schools for his kids, and every other state or federal service that is cut to feed the twin horrors of Bush’s war to enrich Halliburton and the Disaster that funded Brown & Root. There’s that $4/gal gas thing too,. Which impacts those really unimportant things like food, AC/heating costs, getting to work, etc.

Anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is that for once, the political landscape will be so heavily in our favor as to be almost impossible for Bush’s opposition to lose. Note I say “opposition” and not “democrats.” The Democratic Party has yet to show that it’s an opposition party, beyond a few lonely voices in the CBC and the excellent Dr. Dean. But there’s still time for that to change. Whatever language Yglesias is accustomed to probably isn’t going to be helpful, that is, the language of Hillary and Lieberman and other insider types who love sucking 9-time loser consultant cock. Plain language, language filled with anger, passion, heck, even old fashioned patriotism, that cuts through the nonstop lies upon which at this point even the Dittoheads are choking.

I always said the man they feared most was Dean. And I always wondered why they tried to stick the angry label on him, what’s wrong with a little anger? I’ve since realized that it’s the one thing they can’t counter effectively, the thing they’re most afraid of, the thing that even the sheeple-murkin can relate to and enjoy. The thing that cuts through their happy-shiny-feel-good cowboy schtick, and keeps a base active and motivated.

If the dems where smart, and yes, I know most of the aren’t, they’d do a couple of things nonstop from now until 06.

-Get angry.
-Stay angry.
-Talk in plain, blunt terms about why they are angry.
-Use words like “lie,” and “cheat” and “steal” and “kill.” preferably in the same sentence as “rove” and “bush.” over and over and over.
-Drop the congressional ball and stand at the side of the field. Let the rethugs pass whatever they want, set up whichever crony they can find, hold all the dog-and-pony show hearings they’d like. Stay on message. “This nomination is a farce, because the nominee is a crony and a liar.” “This bill is nothing more than more money for Halliburton, which has already cheated American taxpayers out of $2.5Billion in a war based on lies.” Hold up a piece of proof while doing so.

And most importantly, don’t shy away from the camera. Call the Timmehs and Needras of the world “liars” to their faces- let them disprove it, mock them as they try. Put on a good show! And look like you’re having fun while doing it.

The Republicans have brought back fascism. To many, it looks mean and manly and fun and sexy all at the same time. But most people are also starting to feel a personal cost to this kind of game in government. It’s time to make our stand, the moon and stars are aligned, and what I’m proposing won’t require Americans to change from their conditioning from the last six years very much. As a product, it’ll feel new and fresh. As a strategy, it will entice new supporters to come out for the Democrats and old ones to get happy, active and confident again. Wins all around.

No, I don’t think any Dem of note will read this, follow it as advice, or care that I wrote it. But I felt like saying it.

+++

I pledge forbearance
To the clothtacular stars & stripes
Of the Omnivorous States of Plutocracy Heights
And to the lock-step Republicans
With cash in hands
Insatiable
Der obere Vater gewährt Wünsche*
With Liberty and Justice for people who can afford such perks
Ahem

+++

Now, class, let's turn to page 61 and find out why Adam liked the Velociraptors best...

+++

Crossposted at Mortaljive.

Image of Über Pater from here.

+++

*"The Upper Father Grants Wishes"

+++

Apologies to* XTC

Book Alert: Chris Mooney, much like the Ross Ice Shelf, has embarked on a world tour. Well, at least a book tour.

Leah wrote about Chris recently here, and covered his new book, The Republican War on Science, she wrote here, and got Corrente a mention on his website, no less.

He interviewed on the BBC 2 weeks ago, and impressed me so much I did some research on him and remarked on it here. Now he will be on Terry Gross' Fresh Air today, on those NPR/Public Radio stations that carry her show.

This is what Chris has to say about the impending interview:

"My interview with Terry Gross is slated to air tomorrow (Sept 15th). It appears that it will be paired with at least some commentary from GOP science policy spokesman Robert Walker. That should be interesting; I doubt Walker will be writing a love letter to the book."

Interesting at the very least.

As usual, the audio of the interview will be made available later today on the website linked here. As good a reason as any to keep supporting NPR and your local public radio.


Photo from Mooney website, taken by Saheli.

You know there are times when you really have to hand it to the Bush White House. They'll do and say absolutely anything to save their political bacon. Anything. They'll betray their own values, conservatism, fiscal responsibility, everything that they supposedly hold dear -- all to save their own asses.

Anyway, let's go ahead and recap the situation: Your administration has just badly bungled the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster to the tune of (probably) more than a thousand dead. Predictably, poll numbers are dropping fast, nearing Nixonian low points. This president is likely to go down as the least popular on average since Herbert Hoover. Heck, I suspect Jimmy Carter was more popular probably on average than this guy has been.

So, here's your administration's "solution" to this political problem: Propose an enormous aid package to rebuild the Gulf Coast -- estimates I'm hearing now are on the order of $200B in addition to the $60B you've already appropriated. Look at that number again, folks. That's $260B more borrowed to pay for these projects. And you've hemmed your opponents in politically by doing this. Any criticism can be portrayed as unpatriotic and even (get this) "racist" (and I assure you it will be).

What will be the consequences of this "solution?": A deficit that will soon be consuming so much of our annual outlays that there will be no room for funding anything. This will lead to a deficit problem like we've never seen before I suspect. And then W will hand off this fiscal disaster to his successor and head off into the sunset.

Now, folks, don't get me wrong. I think this sort of program sounds like a good idea. I would just suggest that we actually figure out a way to actually pay for it. How about you? Why don't we roll back W's tax cuts and actually raise taxes on the rich folks a bit? If we did that, then we could afford this.

And who will benefit from this enormous aid package? Eventually, of course, the people of the Gulf Coast but the real winners will be the president's corporate cronies. Halliburton will be rolling in dough.

It'll cost two or three times as much as it would if we'd actually follow federal bidding guidelines but, hey, who wants to do that? Why, when you can enrich your corporate contributors, would you ever do that?

The sheer mendacity and amoral political opportunism behind this thing is absolutely amazing.

I really don't know what else to say. I'm at a loss.

Here’s some reading that will piss you off, if you care about things like money and fairness in government contracts and the rights of a sovereign people:

Similarly, a United Nations sanctioned audit concluded that about half of the $5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds could not be accounted for because of poor financial controls, according to the "Development Fund of Iraq-Report of Factual Findings in connection with Disbursements from January 1, 2004 to 28 June 2004, by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, in September 2004

Until the summer of 2004, the CPA refused to release the names of companies that were awarded contracts paid for with Iraqi funds. Although information was available about US funded contracts, there was no public information available about companies paid with Iraqi money. In August 2004, information was finally made available for contracts valued at more than $5 million. But to this day, no details have been released about contracts worth less than $5 million.

An analysis of the data released in August 2004, showed that the CPA had awarded 85% of the contracts to US and UK firms. By contrast, Iraqi companies received a mere 2% of the contracts paid for with Iraqi funds.

and of course, the money quote:

But the fact remains that Halliburton received 60% of all contracts paid for with Iraqi money, even after it was proven time and time again that its projects involved fraud on every front, from paying over $6 million in kickbacks to a Kuwaiti contractor; to charging for three times as many meals as the company actually served to soldiers; to spending millions on laundry and monogrammed towels; to running up costs by driving empty trucks back and forth across Iraq; to leasing overpriced vehicles from Kuwaiti purchasing offices.

So the fact that the same people who brought you a ‘reconstructed’ iraq are going to bring you New New Orleans is very comforting, I’m sure. Especially to this young man.

Freedom isn't free. 21 just yesterday. Was once religious, no longer believe. God wouldn't allow such pain. The war is against religion, must stop it to defend the country. Almost in tears. Knee blown out. Chest. Scar. Fighting for brothers. Fighting with brothers. No one understands. honor. repeat. honor. Fighting for country. Captured. Razor. No air support when needed. Politics. Will fight for country. Children. Killed. Honor. Freedom. Fighting for country. No one understands. 14 months. Honor. Brothers. Dude, have a beer. Tag some pussy. Children. Backpacks. Ammunition. Fought for country, for freedom. Will end up in hell.

Some days, there just doesn’t seem to be anything to say to this hell we’re all living in. And I feel guilty even whining, I’m not the 21 year old in the bar going crazy or the starving Iraqi family watching billions meant for them get spent on the fat asses in the green zone.

But eventually, the party has to come to an end, right? Right?

Knowing that, the Fed is engaging in self-delusion when it relies on a measured-paced interest-rate policy to deal with a runaway debt bubble sourced globally. For the Fed, the debt bubble is already too big to burst. The only option is to keep feeding it, albeit at a slower pace. The measured-pace interest-rate policy is merely an attempt to slow the bubble's rate of expansion, not to stop it, much less to burst it. But a measured-paced interest-rate policy will not slow the economy enough for a soft landing. It will only prolong the bubble for a bigger bang at the end.

I'm going outside, where I will listen to the sound of the trees growing and the birds singing. It's something, and I need to clear the angry buzzing in my head.

Oliphant on L'Enfant's latest lesson learned.

I can't wait for Bush's speech tomorrow; I like gymnastics, and I'm hoping to Bush execute the Rovian Death Spiral.

NOTE Minor color and format tweaks here at the renovated Mighty Corrente Building based on your feedback, including one especially for alert reader pansypoo.

And so to bed.

Froomkin, once more... Is "lays the smackdown" the right expression? Again, how is it that Froomkin is still at large, walking the streets? Why hasn't he had an "accident," or been the target of a Republican slime operation? Could it be the worms are finally turning?

puzzling exchange between Bush and reporters in Bush's afternoon photo op.

"Asked about Mr. Brown's resignation after he toured a school in Mississippi on Monday afternoon, Mr. Bush declined to comment. He told reporters, 'Maybe you know something we don't know.'

"He pointedly brushed off questions about how Mr. Brown and the administration had handled the storm, saying 'don't ask me again' about the subject."

But, Stevenson writes: "Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, later told reporters aboard Air Force One on the trip back to Washington that Mr. Bush was informed on Monday morning of Mr. Brown's resignation but was not sure when asked about it whether the decision had been made public."

Several reporters and bloggers jumped on Bush's statement as an admission of ignorance -- and therefore as a symptom of his detachment. But in fact, it was more a symptom of his duplicity.
(via WaPo)

I guess Froomkin isn't looking for many dinner invitations from the Kewl Kidz ...

The Amazin' Froomkin (how is it even possible that the man is still at large) has some rather pointed questions for Dear Leader:

Bush hasn't taken more than a few questions at a time from the press corps in almost three and a half months -- since May 31.

But even in his short press availabilities, it would be worth trying to get meaningful answers about his state of mind. Because how he personally feels about the crisis and whether or not he shares the concerns of so many Americans is turning into a key issue. And ducking those sorts of questions is harder.

So here are some questions that might be more fruitful than others:

• Sir, what were your personal feelings when you first grasped the enormity of what had happened along the Gulf Coast? And about when was that?
• Sir, apparently many African Americans believe that the federal government was slow in rescuing people stranded in New Orleans because many of those people were black and poor. I know you've denied that was the case, but do you understand why they might feel that way?

And:

• Sir, you've said countless times that you don't govern based on the polls. But can you explain the polls? You are not a popular president anymore. How do you think that happened?
• Sir, it is increasingly said that you operate in a bubble, sealing yourself away from dissenting voices, and on those rare occasions that people tell you bad news, you yell at them. Doesn't that make it harder for you to make intelligent decisions?

(via WaPo)

Hard to add to that... Then again, readers?

We already saw Bush flawlessly execute The Incredible Triple Weasel:

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
(via back)

And at the time, alert reader acorn asked us to give a "reasonable" example of what Bush could have said. The Democratic governor of Louisiana shows acorn how it's done:

"We all know that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local. At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility," Blanco told lawmakers in a special meeting of the Louisiana Legislature.
(via AP)

No verbal gymastics, no weaselingl

Four little words: "The buck stops here."

Why is it so hard for Bush to say that?

And yet I live...

When rules come up against reality, reality often finds humans to go up against the rules. We are reality. Make it happen. Save a life. Give. Open one more door than you might have. Give one more dollar. Turn your head away one less time. No, we don't get a break much these days. Breaks are over for awhile.

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Via Atrios.

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Crossposted at Mortaljive.

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Best line E.J. Dionne has ever written (emphasis mine):

Bush was, indeed, skilled in identifying enemies and rallying a nation already disposed to action. He failed to realize after Sept. 11 that it was not we who were lucky to have him as a leader, but he who was lucky to be president of a great country that understood the importance of standing together in the face of a grave foreign threat.

Indeed we did. But instead of being grateful to all of us for the ninety-plus percent of support we offered him, despite the deeply questionable way in which he attained the Presidency, this President and this presidency treated the citizenry of this democratic republic as a passive audience who should be grateful for the fine show, almost pageant-like, of supposed toughness and leadership they thought was all they owed to us, while we owed to them, in addition to eternal gratitude, total acceptance of anything and everything they wished to do, no questions to be asked, tolerated, and surely never answered. Not even how it was that 9/11 had happened.

If you haven't yet read Dionne's whole column, it's here.

For a fascinating gloss on our relentless quest to bring accountability to the shameless incompetence and corruption of this administration, don't miss Mark Schmitt's discussion at TMPCafe:

I think of Rove as looking at past presidencies and seeing them as weakened because they worried too much about consequences that didn't really matter, such as the judgment of history or short-term popularity. Bush 41 thought that he had to do something about the deficit, or there would be consequences. So he got drawn into the Andrews Air Force Base budget summit, which earned him a fight within his own party. But Rove recognizes that there's a lot you can get away with if you just act like you can get away with it, especially if you raise the stakes, and as a result he moves with much greater freedom. It seems to me that part of their genius is they've gotten rid of much of the "you just can't do that" mentality of politics, and stripped everything down to the bare essence of what they can get away with."

The whole post is a must-read, especially if we on the liberal/left are to succeed in taking advantage of this presidency's initial stumble in handling "Katrina," and hold them to account for the way they handle it's aftermath, not in some abstract manner, not by polls, but by convincing vast swathes of voters across the country that there is a better way to conduct democratic governance.

Julia and Sisyphus Shrugged are so excellent, so dead-on, with a style so crisp, edgy and pithy, it's sometimes difficult to link as often as I want to. Post-Katrina, her moral passion reaches the sublime. Go there and just start scrolling, and be sure not to miss this post or this one.

In a similar vein as that last post of Jullia's, don't miss Lance Mannion on what's behind the media's oddly variant takes on George W. Bush vs. Bill Clinton.

The Poor Man is playing with those Power Tools again, need I say more? Just click here.

As I warned you here, we're devoting ourselves in a series of posts to hyping Chris Mooney's just published, "THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON SCIENCE," except it's so good you can't really hype it. In subsequent posts we'll discuss why we think this book is so critical to organizing a cohesive movement to change control of congress in 2006, and why you'll want to read it, why you must read it, and why we all need to work to make the book a best-seller.

For now, I can report that Mooney has received a rave in Salon, and as fervent a pan at the NY Post, both require registration but both are worth a read.

Henry I. Miller, a physician and a Fellow at the Hoover Institute who established and headed the Office of Bio-Technology in the FDA from 1997 to 1994, is the attack-dog for the radical right, and his Post review is every bit as tiresome, sophomoric, and polemical as he unjustly claims Chris Mooney is being in his book.

In fact, the review fits the mold of argumentation that Mooney shows is common to much right-wing Republican rhetoric. Mooney's fundamental integrity is questioned, the evidence for which turns out to be the central thesis of his book, to wit, that though the left is not without sin in attempting to use and thereby abusing science, what has happened on the right, in the body of the Republican Party is something wholly other.

But Mooney's denials that there have been equivalent misdemeanors by the political left are wholly unconvincing. Like many critics of the Bush administration, he seems to have experienced an overnight epiphany about the importance of defensible science policy, and this raises doubt about his sincerity.

First, what Chris Mooney elucidates in his book are hardly misdemeanors, and second, after admitting exactly such minor criticisms of the Bush administration, Dr. Miller asserts that both President Clinton and Vice-President Gore were manic manipulators of the field of science in pursuit of their political goals:

Never has American government been burdened with such politically motivated, anti-science, anti-technology, anti-business, anti-social eco-babble as during the Clinton-Gore years.

In defense of that fulsome indictment, Miller offers no names, no examples, no specific incidents. Granted, this is a short review, but where, pray tell, if America suffered through eight years of such felonious folly, is the book about the "Democrat War On Science?"

Oh, and just in case you're overly impressed by that M.D and "Fellow" after Mr. Miller's name, here's an interesting discussion from The National Review online, circa June, 2004, about Al Gore's sanity, which I found genuinely revelatory:

It is now clear that Al Gore is insane," John Podhoretz wrote in his New York Post column last week, after Gore's recent anti-Bush administration tirades. "I don't mean that his policy ideas are insane, though many of them are. I mean that based on his behavior, conduct, mien and tone over the past two days, there is every reason to believe that Albert Gore Jr., desperately needs help. I think he needs medication, and I think that if he is already on medication, his doctors need to adjust it or change it entirely."

John is not a physician, but he's half right. Al Gore appears to suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is not treatable with medications.

Consider the diagnostic criteria for this malady:

"A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts," as indicated by the following:

"a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)." Gore demonstrated his grandiosity repeatedly. Who can forget his notorious claim that he had been responsible for creating the Internet?

Ah, the precision of science and medicine; actually that screed fails as art, as writing, and most of it fails as fact.

We're not the only bloggers excited about this book; here's Amanda at Pandagon, Kevin Drum Henry at Crooked Timber.

Worth looking at, the webpage for the book, and here it is at Amazon.

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I saw God and Jesus
Walking into town
Both of them were packing
Both of them did frown

They were on a mission
To kill the sodomites
They stood outside The Puckered Hole
And then began to shout:

"What you boys are doing
With your penises just ain't right
A suckin' and a fuckin'
Morning, noon and night

It's time we put a stop to this
And for that we have a scheme:
Let's kill the elderly and poor
In evil New Orleans"

(chorus)
Drown them! Break them!
Shake them up and bake them!
Leave them in the water
So the meat falls off the bone
Glory unto Jesus
He sure casts a nasty stone
Hallelujah
He sure casts a nasty stone

It's really just a test of faith
When a Christian baby dies
Or when daddy gets his head blown off
Fighting those Arabian bad guys

But when a liberal or queer
Or mad abortionist
Is taken from this life of ours
You know that God is pissed

Nature is a bastard
And God's a bachelor plus
And if you're poor, too bad for you
Wave to Mary on the bus

(chorus)
Drown them! Break them!
Shake them up and bake them!
Leave them in the water
So the meat falls off the bone
Glory unto Jesus
He sure casts a nasty stone
Hallelujah
He sure casts a nasty stone

I saw God and Jesus
Walking into town
Both of them were packing
Both of them did frown

They were on a mission
To kill the sodomites
They stood outside The Puckered Hole
And then began to shout:

"What you boys are doing
With your penises just ain't right
A suckin' and a fuckin'
Morning, noon and night

It's time we put a stop to this
And for that we have a scheme:
Let's kill the elderly and poor
In evil New Orleans"

(chorus)
Drown them! Break them!
Shake them up and bake them!
Leave them in the water
So the meat falls off the bone
Glory unto Jesus
He sure casts a nasty stone
Hallelujah
He sure casts a nasty stone

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Image of enlightened Pat Robertson from here.

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Crossposted at Mortaljive.

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