shocking and awful

I came to see that news is what people want to keep hidden, and everything else is publicity. - Bill Moyers, 5/15/05

Here, then, are some links to the news:

Paul Craig Roberts: Failure on Every Front: Impeach Bush Now, Before More Die
The Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration writes: "Bush has squandered the lives and health of thousands of people. He has run through hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars. He has lost America's reputation and its allies. With barbaric torture and destruction of our civil liberty, he has stripped America of its inherent goodness and morality. And now Bush has lost America's largest port and 25 percent of its oil supply...What will it take for Americans to reestablish accountability in their government? Bush has got away with lies and an illegal war of aggression, with outing CIA agents, with war crimes against Iraqi civilians, with the horrors of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo torture centers, and now with the destruction of New Orleans. What disaster will next spring from Bush's incompetence?"

Bushville-DC
"On 9/11 survivors of Katrina will commit a nonviolent act of Civil Disobedience - building an encampment on the Washington DC Mall. 10,000 Katrina survivors will eventually camp on Bush’s doorstep. They will camp in the seat of power and media demand truth and action. They will stay there as long as it takes...On 9/11 Bush will use the flag to try to blind us. Founding Bushville-DC on 9/11 will keep America’s attention on the criminal negligence of Bush."

I've been hoping for something like this. Bushville could make Bush long for the days of Camp Casey. Spread the word.

Raw Story: Cheney told to 'go fuck yourself' in Gulfport, Mississippi (9/8/05)
Took the words right out of my mouth.

Indymedia: Military Recruiting of Victims (9/7/05)
Houston Indymedia reports that the U.S. military organized a large "job fair" at the Houston Astrodome today.

TPM Cafe: Three Days in Hell (9/7/05)
This is a shocking first-hand account from a French Canadian survivor, who spent three days at the Superdome and witnessed not only the horrific living conditions that we've all heard about, but also sadistic abuse of survivors by the National Guard and other authorities.

TPM: Bush Administration locks out the press (9/7/05)
"At first the evidence was scattered and anecdotal. But now it's pretty clear that a key aim of the Bush administration's takeover of the NOLA situation is to cut off press access to report the story....Take a moment to note what's happening here: these are the marks of repressive government, which mixes inefficiency with authoritarianism. The crew that couldn't get key aid on the scene last week is coming in in force now and taking as one of its key missions cutting public information about what's happening in the city."

TalkLeft points out that not only is the media being prohibited from broadcasting photos of the dead in New Orleans, but now the Bush Administration is trying to keep them out of the city entirely. In other words, we'll just have to get our news of what has happened and is happening there from Bush and the Department of Homeland Security. In a related development, efforts to bring radio to the Houston Astrodome, already approved by the FCC, have suddenly been quashed.

Crooks and Liars: Pelosi:  Bush: ''Oblivious, in denial, dangerous" (9/7/05)
Video of Rep. Nancy Pelosi recounting a conversation she had with Dear Leader, where she urged him to fire FEMA chief Michael Brown. When Bush asked "Why would I do that?''' Pelosi reponded "because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week." To which Bush replied: "What didn't go right?"

As with 9/11 and Iraq, at times one gets the horrifying sense that perhaps this madman actually believes some of his own spin.

TPM: National Hurricane Center briefed Bush of impending disaster on August 28 (9/6/05)
Josh Marshall reports that not only did Chief Mayfield brief Brown and Chertoff before landfall, but Bush, as well. He's even located a photo of the videoconference briefing on the White House website.

Billmon: The Potemkin President, Part II (9/7/05)
"Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid. But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas." Take a look at the photo, if you can stand it.

Think Progress: Katrina Timeline
A useful resource.

AmericaBlog: Is General Myers a liar or an idiot? (9/6/05)
AmericaBlog provides a graphic and compelling rebuttal to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard Myers' excuse for not mobilizing relief efforts quickly enough. At a press conference with Rumsfeld today, General Meyers made reference to "the headline, of course, in most of the papers on Tuesday — "New Orleans Dodged a Bullet," or words to that effect..." If the General's imaginary headline sounds familiar, it's because--amazingly enough--Dept. of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff reads the same imaginary newspaper. As reported by Wonkette, Chertoff said on Sunday: "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'" Isn't that just the darndest coincidence?

DKos: Another NO Story from the inside (9/6/05)
A must read. This is a detailed first-hand account of a large group of survivors repeatedly prevented, at gunpoint and by the authorities, from leaving the city.

AP: Bush Says He'll Find Out What Went Wrong (9/6/05)
Unbelievable. Bush tries to outdo Jon Stewart and The Onion. "Buffeted by criticism over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said Tuesday he will oversee an investigation into what went wrong and why—-in part to be sure the country could withstand more storms or attack. Bush also announced he is sending Vice President Dick Cheney to the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help determine whether the government is doing all that it can." "Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," said Bush. "We still live in an unsettled world. We want to make sure we can respond properly if there is a WMD attack or another major storm."
Read the rest and weep, laugh, vomit, etc.

Borowitz: Experts Call Bush Presidency Worst Disaster in Nation's History
This story is intended as a joke (sort of). The one above it, apparently, is not.

This Modern World: The war on weather (9/6/05)
Tom Tomorrow discovers that Iran is developing the facilities to build giant fans which could stir up more hurricanes!

The Clarion Ledger: Bush: 'Mississippi is on my mind' (9/6/05)
"Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, dismissed criticisms of the federal relief and rescue efforts. 'That's all cooked up by the news media and a few enemies of George Bush,' Barbour said."

DKos: National Response Plan: The Buck Stops Here (9/5/05)
This is an important examination of the National Response Plan, THE "comprehensive national all-hazards approach to domestic incident management across the spectrum of action including prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery" for all Federal Agencies. It is clearly evident that "if there is one overarching theme of the NRP, it is that the federal response must be swift, efficient, and coordinated." The information in this post demolishes the spin coming out of the White House which seeks to lay the blame for this catastrophe at the feet of state and local officials by insinuating that they failed to declare a State of Emergency or call for the National Guard to be deployed quickly enough. Highly recommended.

Keith Olbermann: The "city" of Louisiana (9/5/05)
"The seeming definition of our time and our leaders had been their insistence on slashing federal budgets for projects that might’ve saved New Orleans. The seeming characterization of our government that it was on vacation when the city was lost, and could barely tear itself away from commemorating V.J. Day and watching Monty Python's Flying Circus, to at least pretend to get back to work. The seeming identification of these hapless bureaucrats: their pathetic use of the future tense in terms of relief they could’ve brought last Monday and Tuesday — like the President, whose statements have looked like they’re being transmitted to us by some kind of four-day tape-delay..."

"And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water..."

Americablog: Questions for Condi (9/6/05)
I've been wondering the same things.

TPM on Iraq and New Orleans (9/5/05)
It's a small world, and some of the same names come up over and over again. Back when I was at CESR, I wrote something about New Bridge Strategies, a consultancy packed with Bush cronies that was set up to profit from juicy Iraq contracts. Some of the operators involved with that outfit were Haley Barbour (now governor of Mississippi) and Joe Allbaugh (who basically "passed along" the FEMA job to Mike Brown). Josh Marshall does an outstanding job in this post of making the connections between the Iraq "reconstruction" and the graft and cronyism we can expect to see in New Orleans. "The White House is already laying the groundwork for centralizing all authority over contracting within the executive branch, which for all intents and purposes means the White House. No oversight. No transparency. Halliburton ready at the trough." This post is a must read.

Reuters: UN in crisis talks as world summit date looms (9/5/05)
Yet another story (and there will be many more to come) to be filed under the rubric of Lesser Scandals that the Bush Administration Can Slip under the Radar at This Convenient Moment. One of the first was Bush's recess appointment on Wednesday of Alice Fisher as Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division. Her nomination had been stalled over concerns related to her knowledge of interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo Bay, as well as her lack of relevant experience. As Sen. Leahy pointed out, she has been "nominated for one of the most visible prosecutorial positions in the country without ever having prosecuted a case." Fisher is also, oddly enough, "a long-time protégé of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff."

But the point that I wanted to make about the article here concerns another controversial recess appointment--that of John Bolton to be US Ambassador to the UN--and what Bolton is doing over at the UN. Just before Katrina hit, a new scandal was brewing, which stemmed from Bolton's "edits" to the draft document for the UN Millenium Summit to be held a few days from now. Bolton's changes, intended to be the blueprint for "the biggest overhaul of the UN since it was founded more than 50 years ago," eviscerated the Millenium Development Goals (ostensibly intended to reduce poverty among "developing" nations, removed every iota of accountability mechanisms from the document, drastically weakened steps to address global climate change, and put a halt to steps towards disarmament. UN ambassadors from around the world, who had been working on the document for months (if not years), were stunned by Bolton's last minute changes--more than 750 in all--which has thrown the entire process into disarray and created the "crisis" referenced above. Josh Marshall managed to get a leaked copy of the document, which is posted here, where you can see all the changes that Bolton made. It's worth taking a look, to see what this administration is doing while everybody's attention is focused on the disaster in New Orleans.

Reuters: Under fire, Bush seeks to reassure Katrina survivors (9/5/05)
Showing that he understands nothing at all, Bush says, "I understand. I understand the damage. I understand the devastation, I understand the destruction, I understand how long it's going to take. And we're with you. That's what I want you to know."

Tomgram: Iraq in America (9/5/05)
An excellent analysis by Tom Engelhardt not only of the striking parallels between the disasters in Iraq and New Orleans, but also what the failures of the past week reveal about the misdirection of this country more broadly. "Over the last years, just about everything of a helping nature that is governmental, other than the military, has begun to be starved or stripped by the looters of this administration -- set loose in Washington rather than Baghdad or New Orleans."

Mike Davis: Poor, Black, and Left Behind (9/23/04)
The first paragraph of this prophetic article written nearly a year ago reads "The evacuation of New Orleans in the face of Hurricane Ivan looked sinisterly like Strom Thurmond's version of the Rapture. Affluent white people fled the Big Easy in their SUVs, while the old and car-less -- mainly Black -- were left behind in their below-sea-level shotgun shacks and aging tenements to face the watery wrath." Meet the Left Behind administration.

Editor & Publisher: Barbara Bush: Things Working Out "Very Well" for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans (9/5/05)
In a tour of hurricane relief centers in Houston, Barbara Bush said today, referring to the poor who had lost everything back home and evacuated, "This is working very well for them." She added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them." [Update: audio here]

Reuters: Rice says race had nothing to do with Katrina aid (9/4/05)
Condi "Imelda" Rice assures us that "nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race." For the dead and dying in New Orleans she has these words of comfort: "The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come on time. If we just wait."

Wonkette: Chertoff's Reading Habits (9/5/05)
On Sunday, DHS chief Michael Chertoff told "Meet the Press's" Tim Russert that one reason for the delay in getting federal aid to Katrina victims was that "everyone" thought the crisis had passed when the storm left: "I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'" Apart from any reservations we might have about the head of Homeland Security supposedly getting his intel from the newspapers (print versions, no less), Wonkette shows us what the headlines actually said.

WP: Officials Deal With Political Fallout by Pointing Fingers (9/5/05)
An unnamed "senior White House aid" feeds the press spin such as "there was no reason for Bush to return to Washington to deal with the disaster before Wednesday, though he was told of the gravity of the situation in briefings late into the night on Monday, [because] Bush wanted to allow his Cabinet and staff time to get back to Washington and in place to brief him." Even more unbelievable is the claim that "Bush lost patience with local officials when he learned that thousands of people were sent to the New Orleans convention center for relief only to learn their was no assistance for victims there, the aide said, calling this the 'tipping point.'" Rest assured, though: "The White House is moving on several fronts to repair Bush's image" and Bush "working as late as 9 p.m., at least two hours past his normal quitting time."

DKos: Why FEMA turned away help (9/5/05)
This is a first-hand account by a logistics expert who traveled to New Orleans with a team of volunteer firefighters from Houston with specific expertise in post-hurricane relief. They arrived on Tuesday morning (well before reports of widespread "looting" or violence) but were detained at the edge of the city by FEMA, who said they could not enter until the National Guard "secured" the city. After waiting for more than four days they finally returned to Houston.

NYT: After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game (9/5/05)
The Times finally picks up the story that FEMA has been deliberately blocking aid to New Orleans, but trivializes it with a headline suggesting that accountability is little more than a political "game".

LAT: Superdome Nearly Empty; Thousands Still Stranded (9/4/05)
Mike Brown says "this is a war zone we're working in now," while Lt. Gen. Honore claims that the military responded in "record time" and that if conditions were really so intolerable at the Superdome the survivors would have left on their own.

AmericaBlog: Bush orders flags to half staff for Rehnquist. Did he do the same for Katrina victims? (9/4/05)
Apparently they were later included in the same directive, as an afterthought.

TPM: Did Newsweek get spun too? (9/4/05)
Josh Marshall catches both Newsweek and the Washington Post reporting "on the say-so of an unidentified 'senior Bush official', that as late as [Saturday, Sep. 3] Louisiana Gov. Blanco still hadn't gotten around to declaring a state of emergency. This, allegedly, had prevented a more rapid federal response." He then provides the text of the state of emergency that Blacon did, in fact, declare "dated August 26th, 2005, available on the state of Louisiana website." One would hope that major news publications would take a moment to check the basic facts before reporting Roveian spin clearly designed to shift blame from the Bush administration to state and local officials. One would hope in vain.

DKos: Feds still refusing assistance
Dozens of countries (as well as U.S. cities, states, and NGOs) have offered help for days and either had it turned down or received no response. Condi "Imelda" Rice who, as the nation's "top diplomat", should be the point person coordinating such offers, has had other priorities to attend to, such as catching Spamalot and shopping for new shoes.

Krugman: Killed by Contempt (9/5/05)
The "federal government's lethal ineptitude wasn't just a consequence of Mr. Bush's personal inadequacy; it was a consequence of ideological hostility to the very idea of using government to serve the public good. For 25 years the right has been denigrating the public sector, telling us that government is always the problem, not the solution. Why should we be surprised that when we needed a government solution, it wasn't forthcoming?"

DKos: Damning Congressional Record: Cries for Help Ignored By The Federal Government (9/4/05)
This extremely valuable examination of the Congressional Record shows with damning clarity that state and local officials made it clear to the Bush administration over the past several years that an enormous disaster was inevitable unless very concrete measures were taken to prevent it--measures which were either ignored or eviscerated by the Bush administration.

Zaman: Afghanistan offers aid to the U.S. (9/4/05)
Think of it as a tax refund.

Editor & Publisher: Hurricane Center Director Tells Paper He Briefed Brown and Chertoff on Danger of Severe Flooding
Countering claims by Bush, Chertoff, and Brown that "nobody could have known" that New Orleans might be flooded by Katrina, the Director of the National Hurricane Center says that they knew exactly what was coming. "We were briefing them way before landfall," Director Mayfield said. "It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped."

Chertoff claims that there's no way DHS could have predicted flooding in addition to a hurricane

Good backgrounder on link between Iraq war and lack of resources for hurricane relief

The Potemkin President (a particularly eloquent analysis)
As illness erupts, hundreds of volunteer doctors still not being used

Kucinich: "Indifference is a weapon of mass destruction. Our troops are stationed in the wrong Gulf.

Criminal Negligence: How the Bush administration ignored its own National Response Plan

Excellent analysis from Josh Marshall of the spin and disinfo now coming out of Washington

Resource: Pick apart the growing storm of disinformatoin

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It has been in New Orleans since Monday. It remains unused.

Video of Parish President Broussard: "We have been abandoned by our own country."

Times Picayune calls for firing of "every official" at FEMA, particularly chief Mike Brown

A Pictorial Timeline (evolving)

A Text Timeline (evolving)

Sidney Blumenthal: President Bush is to blame for the scale of the disaster as a result of his administration's policies and actions

Chertoff takes time out to shift blame to city and state, but says there's no time for finger pointing. Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard details shocking denials of aid by FEMA.

Urgent Request: Many Still Stranded

WaPo: How Bush gutted FEMA

New Orleans evacuees being denied refuge throughout Louisiana

Bush is down with the homies, fo' shizzle

48% of Americans (and 66% of Republicans) judge the government's response as "good" or "excellent"

Senator Landrieu: Phony levee repeair abandoned following Bush photo op

Phony food distribution center torn down following Bush photo op

FAA reveals that NO aircraft (e.g. helicopters) in New Orleans reported being fired at

My Pet Goat, Part II: Dereliction of Duty

MUST READ: Intentional Withholding of Aid?

RESOURCE: Ongoing compilation of aid offers turned down

First-hand account of 1,000 rescuers with boats being turned away by FEMA

Virginia deputies turned away by FEMA

Food for evacuees withheld to coincide with Laura Bush photo op

Josh Marshall delivers the goods on Mike Brown

Troops begin "combat" operations against "insurgents" in New Orleans

A meteorologist explains why Bush's claims that "nobody expected the levees would be breached" are complete bullshit

Excellent post: George Bush kills his own people

Cheney is back from vacation now, and feeling well rested

AP: "Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday."

This is Homeland Security?

Financial Times: Bush policies have crippled disaster response

Geraldo Rivera and Shep Smith freak out on Fox News, saying that refugees at the Convention Center are being prevented from leaving. Shep Smith : "The way out can be seen and reached on foot, but an impenetrable checkpoint has been erected."

Gov. Blanco requests return of Louisiana National Guard from Iraq

National Guardsman: "This right here, I'd have to say is very similar to Iraq, the way the people are -- hungry, very angry."

For the entire time Bush was in the state for his photo op a ban on helicopter flights further stalled the delivery of food and supplies, according to US Rep Charlie Melancon (LA) who tried to meet with Bush to request urgent help for neglected outlying parishes...but couldn't get security clearance

"In two days at the Superdome, I saw four white people among the estimated 23,000 there."

Dowd: United States of Shame

Ever wonder why New Yorkers hate Bush?

NYT: "Congress and the president had better get the message: the national tax-cut party is over

Bush: "Thanks to the troops, the convention center is secure"

Courageous cameraman Tony Zumbado explains why convention center never needed "securing"--just food and water and help

Kanye West at NBC benefit concert for New Orleans: "Geoge Bush doesn't care about black people."

Homeland Security not allowing Red Cross into New Orleans

Bush: We're gonna rebuild Trent Lott's house (or, rather, one of his several houses) "out of the rubbles (sic)" and it's "going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter.)

Black kid "could be in a world of trouble" for "an extreme act of looting"--helping people escape from New Orleans (without the white folks' permission)

Republicans mobilize...to cut taxes for the wealthy

Senator David Vitter (Republican): "This situation was utterly predictable...[T]his precise scenario has been predicted for 20 years...Every one of those complications has been part of every scenario. Of course the levee broke."

CNN's Cafferty says "war in Iraq is part of the problem in New Orleans," plus relief arrival is being timed to coincide with Bush's arrival

Halliburton hired to repair New Orleans. Because they've done such a splendid job in Iraq.

Comprehensive List of Bush Cuts to Disaster Preparedness Funding

Condi finally back on the job after being chased out of New York City

Karl Rove spotted at photo op with Camp Casey counterprotesters

Picture of Condi "kicking up her heels" at Spamalot

Superdome evacuation interrupted so that Hyatt guests can be moved to the head of the line

Newt Gingrich: Abysmal handling of New Orleans disaster "puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?"

Environmental ramifications of Katrina

CNN lays it out: FEMA chief Brown totally fucking clueless

Four days late, relief starts to trickle into New Orleans

"This was NOT our tsunami...Here, in the world’s biggest self-promoting democracy, we had options, and, like so many of our policies and politicians on a daily basis, we opted not to give a damn about our poor. And so they died.

"Totally black" in New Orleans

What they wouldn't show on TV

Major oil spill on the Mississippi

Pentagon: Too much sympathy for the victims

Koppell rips Mike Brown

The flag is a nice touch

White House: to question the performance of Dear Leader now is "not politically smart." I imagine that Karl Rove is keeping a list.

Mayor Nagin interview: "It's politics man, and they are playing games, and they are spinning, they are out there spinning for the cameras...They don't even want to deal with me after [this] interview is over.

"Modern Day Genocide"

Katrina refugees being evicted from Tallahassee motels to make room for football fans

While the rest of the world was distracted by the disaster in New Orleans, Bush used a recess appointment "to bypass the Senate and fill a top Justice Department slot with an official whose nomination stalled over tactics at Guantanamo Bay"

The Empty Vessel as President

MoveOn.org organizes housing for refugees

Bush weasels out of actually visiting New Orleans, but will flyover again to "boost people's spirits"

Mayor Nagin to Feds: "Get off your asses!"

FEMA Dir. Mike fired from last job for being "an unmitigated, total fucking disaster"

Doctors call media to plead for somebody--anybody--to help them

Katrina and Peak Oil

Left Behind

Katrina: First Reflections

Some looters distributing food to needy

"Bush administration funding cuts forced federal engineers to delay improvements on the levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed to protect New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, agency documents showed on Thursday."

Ted Koppel rips FEMA

Dick Cheney still on vacation

Troops sent to New Orleans told by Governor to "shoot to kill"

Anderson Cooper slams the politicians

Krugman demands accountability

NY Times asks why the fuck is the National Guard in Iraq?

The lie of "homeland security" exposed

Rescue workers referring to flooded city as "Lake George"

Jack Cafferty: "I have never, ever, seen anything as bungled and as poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans. ..This is a disgrace."

Trapped in an Arena of Suffering

New Orleans, Iraq, Global Warming

FEMA directs donations to deranged fundamentalist cleric Pat Robertson

Meanwhile, Condi has just been spotted shopping for new shoes

Public hospitals beg for help that isn't coming

One reason people couldn't afford to leave

More on the economics of disaster

"There is absolutely nobody in control"

As Toxic Waters Rise, Desperation and Fear Grow

German Environmental Minister Slams Bush

Rescuers: Boat operation suspended

New Orleans Pays the Death Tax

US won't let Canada help Katrina victims

"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees" says Bush

No one can say they didn't see it coming

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?

Biloxi Newspaper Rips Relief Effort, Begs for Help

A failure of leadership

Bush's "zero tolerance" for taking items like food and water

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