America -- This Is US

[understandinglife]

Refugees at the Superdome cry out as they try to get on buses headed out of New Orleans.

American citizens are now described as "refugees" -- within AMERICA.

I think we can do a bit better for our fellow citizens than that -- don't you.

Here's my commitment -- I'll be interested in your comments, questions, challenges, and statements of what you as citizens are ready to do to become a member of the WE in "We The People...":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4566123&mesg_id=4567592


Peace.

[splat]

1. They ARE! Refugees don't have to be political n/t

[understandinglife]

2. NYTimes Editorial: The Man-Made Disaster

The Man-Made Disaster


Published: September 2, 2005

The situation in New Orleans, which had seemed as bad as it could get, became considerably worse yesterday with reports of what seemed like a total breakdown of organized society. Americans who had been humbled by failures in Iraq saw that the authorities could not quickly cope with a natural disaster at home. People died for lack of water, medical care or timely rescues - particularly the old and the young - and victims were almost invariably poor and black. The city's police chief spoke of rapes, beatings and marauding mobs. The pictures were equally heartbreaking and maddening. Disaster planners were well aware that New Orleans could be flooded by the combined effects of a hurricane and broken levees, yet somehow the government was unable to immediately rise to the occasion.

<clip>

One lasting lesson that has to be drawn from the Gulf Coast's misery is that from now on, the National Guard must be treated as America's most essential homeland security force, not as some kind of military piggy bank for the Pentagon to raid for long-term overseas missions. America clearly needs a larger active-duty Army. It just as clearly needs a homeland-based National Guard that's fully prepared and ready for any domestic emergency.

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02fri1.html?pagewanted=print

And, with leadership in the White House and the Congress that WILL NEVER AGAIN enable America to act as an imperialistic state, we will have the resources we need to detect, prepare and respond to 'natural disasters' and be much more effective at NOT INDUCING HATRED -- the hatred that breads those that intend and attempt to inflict harm to our fellow citizens.

The 'world was with us' by the afternoon of 9/11.

The 'world despises us' after our illegal invasion, occupation and torture-riven escapades in Iraq, and elsewhere.

We can be a creative, nurturing America or a loathsome, rogue state -- it's for each of us to decide and to select those who implement our decision. But, always remember, it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY what happens in the name of America, particularly when we allow people to represent us who have refuse and obstruct accountability.


Peace.

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. "America clearly needs a larger active-duty Army."

Is this going to be the excuse for the draft? We need a draft so the guardsmen can come home to keep order?

[understandinglife]

3. "Are People Dying Over Here Because We're Fighting Them Over There?"

You betcha, Ms Huffington.

Is the aftermath of Katrina part of the price we are paying for Iraq? To the growing list of collateral damage caused by the Iraq war and Bush's stunningly inept leadership, we can now add the city of New Orleans. It's no surprise that RNC chairman Ken Mehlman doesn't want "politics" injected into the national discussion about Katrina.

Or that Scottie McClellan would echo that "this is not a time for politics." Of course not, when President Bush's politics and policies have made this disastrous situation so much worse than it otherwise would have been.

In his absurd and insulting "flypaper theory" Bush likes to posit an intrinsic connection between what's going on in Iraq and what's going on here at home. His version of the theory is, of course, completely wrong, but he's right that there is a connection. And it's a tragic one. And 100% airtight: every national guardsman who is in Iraq (and there are 118,000 of them) is one less guardsman who can help out right now in Mississippi and Louisiana.

<clip>

So, yes, Ken and Scottie, I can see why you don't want this "politicized." And there will no doubt be a succession of news anchors and reporters who think it's somehow inappropriate to speak of politics at a moment like this. But it's a lot more inappropriate to refuse to acknowledge what we know. Decisions were made that unequivocally affected how disastrous this disaster has become. The Bush administration will surely call into question the patriotism of anyone who dares note the obvious. But it's holding back from pointing out the consequences of catastrophic decisions that is unpatriotic.

From Are People Dying Over Here Because We're Fighting Them Over There? by Arianna Huffington on August 2, 2005

Link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/are-people-dying-over-her_b_6604.html

Oh, yes, in_deed, people are dying everywhere, because that is what Georgie boy does best -- kill. He even enjoys it, especially we he can torment a prisoner before he ensures she is executed.

We The People ... do not have a President. We have a war criminal, a torturer and murderer of the highest order.

And, it will forever be our responsibility until we remove Bush, Cheney and all their neoconster buddies and do everything we can, legislatively and culturally to ensure that America never again allows such diseased individuals to inflict their pathology on humanity.


Peace.

[omega minimo]

4. Elevate the awareness that this WH will do this to all of us

http://www.dEMocraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4567885

[understandinglife]

6. I am doing everything I can to 'elevate the awareness' of the ruthless ...

... Bush and his neoconster machine of destruction and willful, contemptible actions toward the impoverished and oppressed WITHIN America.


Peace.

[omega minimo]

9. Well then he just handed you his sorry ass on a silver platter

:evilgrin:

[understandinglife]

5. "It was a "perfect storm" of a different kind that put that great city ...

... underwater: Bush-era neglect of our national infrastructure, combined with runaway global warming and a deep contempt for poor African-Americans.

The result: catastrophe. The flooding was not a result of heavy rains.

It is a result of a weak levee -- one that was in mid-repair when the storm hit. And that levee, which has held back floodwaters for time beyond memory, collapsed for one simple reason: Bush refused to fix it last summer, when local officials were begging him to do so. Instead, he diverted those funds to the war effort.

In other words, the dollars that could have saved New Orleans were used to wage war in Iraq, instead. What's worse: funds that might have spared the poor in New Orleans (had the dollars been properly invested in levees and modern pumping stations), were instead passed out to the rich, willy-nilly -- as tax breaks.

<clip>

From Bush's Role in the Drowning of New Orleans by Van Jones on September 2, 2005

More at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/bushs-role-in-the-drowni_b_6634.html

I am one with Van Jone's following statement: "In the aftermath of this wholly avoidable catastrophe, let us do all we can to rescue those who have been abandoned. And then let us rescue the U.S. government from those who engineered that abandonment.

And let us recognize our sacred duty in completing BOTH acts."

I'll give the remainder of my life to the goals of -- rescuing those who Bush and the neoconsters cynically and willfully abandoned; and, rescuing the Republic from Bush and his fellow neoconsters' avarice, their war crimes, their arrogance, and their traitorous attempted destruction of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.


Peace.

[Kurt Remarque]

7. there's no excuse for this except for the incompetence,

and arrogance to which we have become accustomed in bush and his congress

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. Thanks, for a minute there I though it was a picture of a third world

country in peril, some country that doesn't have the resources to take care of it's people.

[DemReadingDU]

10. Nominated

as always, thank you for your insight finding and putting together these articles.

[Karenina]

11. To the Greatest page!

Nominated and :kick:

[suegeo]

12. While I applaud your commitment...

While I applaud your commitment, your plans could be too "establishment" in these interesting (cursed) times.

I say that because I've gotten a NASTY glimpse at just how deviant the elites (who you'd have to work with) have become.

Wouldn't you prefer to work outside the matrix? Here are some ideas I've thought about: learn HAM radio, brush up on my first aid skills. Learn to shoot. Study psychology to more fully own my own mind, especially in times of an emergency. Take Tai Qwuan Doe. And learn how to spell that last one.

That way, if I should survive the storm or the "terror" attack that my government unleashes on me in order to get the rally round the furher effect, I could be a part of a communication system.

'Cause this stinking "government" of corporate fat cats and pasty white guys eating cake has proven that they'll kick me when I'm down. Or worse yet, toss me to the ground. Not help out.

Plus, I'd be too embarassed to join the people in the matrix.

[Im with Rosey]

13. Once again UL, you have a perspective

Not only to point out the things that are critical to think about in times when it is easy to get swallowed up in the moment, but also to challenge all of us to get our rears in gear to take action. Everyone must do their part, even if it is simply calling/emailing everyone you can think of that is an elected official. Calling/emailing every news outlet to let them know we won't be fooled again. Whatever you can do, DO IT, NOW.

[understandinglife]

14. CNN: "What people want there is leadership, they don't want someone ...

... being briefed, they want leadership.

Daryn Kagen:

I gotta say that was rather an odd thing to be watching. The president finally making it to the gulf coast after five days, and then spending a big chunk of time, when he could be out seeing the devastation, getting a briefing that frankly he could have gotten back at the White House, if not then, then on board Air Force One. A lot of that seemed like a political opportunity for the cameras and for the Republican governors of Mississippi and Alabama.

Bill Schneider:

I'm not sure that's what most Americans and certainly most people in the area wanted to hear, as if the president were being filled in, told what was going on, there was a lot of thanking a lot of congratulations. Look these are frantic desperate people who have lost everything, who are in a very desperate situation, what they want is someone to come there and say the government is in control, we have control of this situation, there's a leader in charge here and we're gonna make it work....

What people want there is leadership, they don't want someone being briefed, they want leadership.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/cnn-says-bush-visit-to-hurricane-is.html

Georgie boy, why don't you ask these citizens to give you a briefing?



Lakeisha Catching weeps for her missing kids as she waits for help at the convention center.

THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING, my fellow Americans.


Peace.

[jeffrey_X]

15. What can the rest of the world possibly be thinking about us?

Seriously!

[understandinglife]

16. Seriously. I think they see a pack of selfish people being led by ...

... a ruthless bunch of avarice-driven killers.

They see the extraordinary neglect the President and the Congress paid to a predicted disaster and the even more ghastly inhuman treatment of thousands and thousands of our citizens.

And, now they understand Bolton and Gonzales and Darfur and Abu Ghraib and 'the green zone' and Gitmo and 9/11 and .... in ways that prior to Katrina many of them would not have wanted to admit as being emblematic of "America."

We The People .... need to stop being spectators and start being Our Government.

The whole world is watching and many of them are weeping at the tragic destruction of not just New Orleans but "America" -- a destruction intentionally commenced by Scalia on Dec 9, 2000 and by finalized by SCOTUS on Dec 12, 2000.

Let us never forget. Let us take the past five years as a lesson we will do every thing we can to ensure that no future generation of Americans or citizens of other Nations ever experience from Our Government.


Peace.

[info being]

56. They just see us like they see any other corrupt state

They see us like we used to see the Soviets.

[understandinglife]

17. Norman Solomon: "But his administration continues to kill with impunity."

The man in the Oval Office is fond of condemning "killers." But his administration continues to kill with impunity.

"They can go into Iraq and do this and do that," Martha Madden, former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said Thursday, "but they can't drop some food on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now? It's just mind-boggling."

The policies are matters of priorities. And the priorities of the Bush White House are clear. For killing in Iraq, they spare no expense. For protecting and sustaining life, the cupboards go bare.

The problem is not incompetence. It's inhumanity, cruelty and greed.

Much more at the link to Norman Solomon's Ending the Impunity of the Bush White House on September 2, 2005:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/2555

Good. It is now being said they way it needs to be.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

18. Buzzflash: Incompetence, Lying and the Betrayal of a Nation: It's Deja Vu

Incompetence, Lying and the Betrayal of a Nation: It's Deja Vu All Over Again -- And More Death and Chaos from "The Master of Disaster," George W. Bush

September 3, 2005

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Our thoughts are with the victims of Hurricane Katrina -- and with those who suffered needlessly because of the incompetence of the Bush Administration. Not one FEMA or National Guard or Military shipment came to the rescue of thousands of people at the New Orleans Convention Center for four days, where some died of thirst and lack of medical attention. Not one helicopter, not one truckload of food, not one medic.

The head of FEMA also said that he didn't know there were people stranded at the Superdome until Thursday, even though this was broadcast widely and covered in the newspapers all week.

What does this say about Bush's wasteful use of billions of our tax dollars allegedly on "homeland security." This could have been a terrorist attack. The Busheviks weren't prepared at all, even after days of warning about the storm. With a terrorist attack, they wouldn't have even seen it coming, so their incompetence would have been even worse in not responding, which is hard to imagine.

This is inexcusable. If Bush is a man of God, God must have his head in his hands today, cursing his doltish, feckless self-anointed follower. People have been dying in American streets because the American government can't get water or food to them, even though reporters could get into the city.

More at the link:

http://www.buzzflash.com/index.php?story=Quote

It is for us - We The People - to make certain that never again we experience what Buzzflash concludes as the likely outcome if we do not begin to be Our Government: "Or we are all doomed to be like the helpless citizens of New Orleans, left adrift for days by a ship of fools governing the ship of state."


Peace.

[understandinglife]

19. Just a couple of months ago, Cuba successfully evacuated 1.7 million ...

... of its people in the wake of Hurricane Dennis. Lots of right wing commentators and posters have claimed that “you can’t stop a hurricane,” and “it’s an act of God.” Well, you can prepare – and I actually was dumb enough to think that some of our taxes that are going to Homeland Security were being spent on emergency preparation – or what we so quaintly used to call “civil defense.” Wrong again!

So how come one of the smallest island nations of the world – with a mere fraction of our resources – can accomplish what we can’t?

<clip>

Civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go. .... The country's leaders go on TV and take charge. (They’re not on vacation!) But they are not only ones speaking in public. The TV weatherpeople are knowledgeable, and the population is well educated, in advance, about hurricanes.

<clip>

"It’s all about “social capital” – having country-wide values that place all human life above all else – and way, way above the “bottom line.”

From Up From NYC: A Broad’s Side View of the Progressive Grassroots Scene by Linda Cronin-Gross on September 2, 2005

Much more at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-gross/up-from-nyc-a-broadas-_b_6665.html

Ms Cronin-Gross concludes her essay with a very important insight -- "If there was any doubt before about how much race and class divide this country, those doubts have been washed away with New Orleans."

However, I disagree with the last sentence: "What we’re all waiting for now is for some of the more brave elected officials (where are you?) to stand up and demand the impeachment of George W. Bush."

No, none of us are going to wait.

We are going to force Bush and Cheney to resign, this year.

And, we are going to start being citizens, not passive observers of political hacks and the tiny few who enable them to steal elections and kill our neighbors, our friends, our families, our fellow Americans.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

32. Americablog: Fire FEMA Head, Bush must go

Two things have become clear.

1. Fire FEMA Director Michael Brown. FEMA director Michael Brown is either incompetent or a liar, and his only job seems to be giving non-stop interviews on TV when he should be coordinating hurricane relief. It's time for President Bush to appoint someone else who can handle the job, and give the guy $60,000 bucks to hire a spokesman.

2. President Bush needs to step aside. It's time we talked about the elephant in the room. Bush isn't presidential, he never was, and we all knew it. He won reelection because John Kerry sucked, not because the majority wanted him in office. As a caretaker president, he might be fine, but when disaster hits we need a real leader, not some guy who simply isn't smart enough, and doesn't have the backbone or instinct to lead. We are witnessing first-hand what happens when a weak leader responds to a crisis. The crisis worsens, and people die.

I'd almost say that next time there's a terrorist attack we won't be so lucky, but in fact, we haven't been lucky at all. People are dying. An entire American city is gone from the face of the earth. And a good part of the blame goes to an "aloof" president (so says the Manchester Union Leader) who bullheadedly stayed on vacation two days after the storm hit (so says the Washington Times) and still hasn't been able to get his sea legs 5 days after the storm hit.

And now, the disaster response is a disaster itself. It's a chicken with its head cut off, and seemingly only getting worse and worse while people are starving and dehydrating, waiting for someone, anyone, to lead.

From George Bush needs to step aside by John in DC August 2, 2005

More at the link:

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/george-bush-needs-to-step-aside.html

We've had enough death, torture and destruction from George W Bush.

Force him and Cheney to resign.

Begin re-building not just New Orleans but our Republic.


Peace.

[alarimer]

21. I keep hearing the right wing spewing the talking point

That "they should have left". Some guy named John Fund on CSPAN said that 100,000 did not obey the evacuation order. Some freeper caller said the same thing. I was screaming at the TV: "They COULDN'T get out you dumb fuck!" No car, no money for gas, they were old or sick or disabled or something that kept them from going. Likely they had nowhere to go either. I am so sick of hearing this blame the victim crap.

[understandinglife]

22. "I am so sick of hearing this blame the victim crap." As am I. We ...

... will never allow them to get away with it. They can say it all they want and we will answer with the facts.

And, we will note that 1.7 million Cubans, with resources vastly fewer than in America, were moved to safety BECAUSE THEY ARE LEAD BY PEOPLE WHO CARE FOR LIFE -- EVERYONE'S LIFE.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

29. "But it is more tragic when someone dies because they have nowhere to go"

Something Jack Shafer has had the guts to point out is that the people being affected by the hurricane are almost invariably black and poor. I've no doubt there are some closet racists out there telling themselves "look at all those black people looting" as they watch the mayhem on television; I doubt any of them are telling themselves "look at all those black people left for days without food, water, or power in 90 degree heat because they were too poor to evacuate". I myself was thinking "Why the hell didn't all these people leave when they were told?" The answer, Jack Shafer points out, is that it's not so easy when you're poor:

To be sure, some reporters sidled up to the race and class issue. I heard them ask the storm's New Orleans victims why they hadn't left town when the evacuation call came. Many said they were broke—"I live from paycheck to paycheck," explained one woman. Others said they didn't own a car with which to escape and that they hadn't understood the importance of evacuation.

But I don't recall any reporter exploring the class issue directly by getting a paycheck-to-paycheck victim to explain that he couldn't risk leaving because if he lost his furniture and appliances, his pots and pans, his bedding and clothes, to Katrina or looters, he'd have no way to replace them. No insurance, no stable, large extended family that could lend him cash to get back on his feet, no middle-class job to return to after the storm.

It is, of course, no more tragic when a poor person dies than a rich one; the ratio of one life, one death is the dreadful arithmetic we all face alike. But it is more tragic when someone dies because they have nowhere to go, than when only their own bullheaded stupidity is to blame.

From 'the desk of Jane Galt' on August 2, 2005:

http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/005433.html

Yes.

Peace.

[understandinglife]

33. Woman in UK: "Oh America, this is your shame ...."

As a European watching in horror the evolving and increasing chaos in the American South, I find it well nigh impossible to believe the lack of civic responsibility evidenced by this disaster. How can any local authority recommend via the media evacuation of an area... but at the same time make no effort to transport the poor, the needy and even those most dependent on that authority -- the prisoners in the local jail -- simply beggars belief. While racism is ostensibly banned and frowned upon amongst your nation, this is surely economic cleansing where ethnic cleansing would be generally reckoned to be unacceptable? I'm not surprised that anarchy and armed looting has started in the face of such desperate conditions as these people have been abandoned in. Oh America, this is your shame -- please learn from it that everyone deserves care and dignity.

xxxxx
London, UK

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/02/katrina.emails/index.html

"economic cleansing" -- clear enough, everyone?

BUSH.WANTS.THEM.TO.DIE. -- unless they are a fetus, a brain-dead white woman, or a missing blonde girl in Aruba.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

35. Krugman: "And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying."

I don't think this is a simple tale of incompetence. The reason the military wasn't rushed in to help along the Gulf Coast is, I believe, the same reason nothing was done to stop looting after the fall of Baghdad. Flood control was neglected for the same reason our troops in Iraq didn't get adequate armor.

At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.

Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.

So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying.

From A Can't Do Government by Paul Krugman on September 2, 2005

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/opinion/02krugman.html?pagewanted=print

"Can't do," because it does not wish to do anything other than aggrandizing power and resources to the few.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

37. "the catastrophe symbolizes a presidency profoundly out of touch ..."

But on top of that, there is mounting evidence, both circumstantial and real, that this disaster can be laid at the doorstep of the Bush White House. A feeling hangs heavy in the air – like the quiet before a hurricane – that the catastrophe symbolizes a presidency profoundly out of touch with reality. It’s not just the basic fact, visible on all TV screens, that the victims of this tragedy are poor and black – the precise demographic that has fared the worst under George W. Bush, ever since its votes were undercounted in Florida. Or that President Bush was on one of his long vacations when the storm hit. Or that he did nothing the first full day of the tragedy.

It is more than that. The information is still coming in haphazardly, but it is becoming clear that New Orleans was the victim of extraordinary mismanagement by an administration more concerned about war in Iraq than desolation in Louisiana. A powerful Salon piece by Sidney Blumenthal, filed yesterday at 5 pm, lays out the case in black and white. The city’s flood control funding had been reduced by 44% since 2001. Weakening wetlands protections to favor developers also made the city far more vulnerable. Congress left town before dealing with any of New Orleans’s problems, even though a hurricane in Louisiana had been declared one of the three most significant possible disasters in 2001. The now submerged New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that “serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation.”

The Salon piece doesn’t even go into a question that also seems to be on people’s minds – why has the federal government been so slow and ineffectual in its response? An obvious thought is that the National Guard and Army – exactly whom you would expect to save people and maintain order – are too busy in Iraq. The president’s close friend, Joseph M. Allbaugh (former head of FEMA) frantically denied that in this morning’s Times, and insisted that everything was fine – before his cell phone seemed to stop working. It was unclear whether it cut out or was wrested away by a machete-wielding looter. In fact, more than 60% of the Louisiana Guard are available, as Allbaugh argued. But that means that roughly 40% are unavailable.

<clip>

disorienting, but one stayed with me, posted on the Times’ website at 6:51 yesterday. It described President Bush’s eerie journey on Air Force One from Crawford to Washington, while swooping over the devastation at very low altitude, like a gigantic sea gull. The article began with a nervous non sequitur – as if anyone had even asked the question – stating that Bush’s long stay in Crawford had been a “working vacation.” An obvious quote followed from his press secretary, Scott McLellan: “It’s devastating. It’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.” Twice as devastating as what? The cabin of Air Force One? Then it continued with McClellan’s grandiloquent announcement that the federal government, after a day and a half of dithering, had determined this to be an “incident of national significance.” One wonders what the thousands of people stranded without homes and loved ones thought as they saw the enormous presidential aircraft flying in circles, just over their heads, before accelerating away from the unpleasant view. Their voices, as usual, were silent.

From Why Katrina Is Likely to Be a Disaster for President Bush, too by Ted Widmer on August 2, 2005

Link:

http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/15040.html

Our voices will not be silent.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

38. Palast: Bush Strafes New Orleans: Where is our Huey Long?

Bush Strafes New Orleans: Where is our Huey Long?

by Greg Palast

Friday, September 2, 2005

The National Public Radio news anchor was so excited I thought she'd piss on herself: the President of the United States had flown his plane down to 1700 feet to get a better look at the flood damage! And there was a photo of our Commander-in-Chief taken looking out the window. He looked very serious and concerned. That was yesterday. Today he played golf. No kidding.

<clip>

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1927, a Republican President had his photo taken as the Mississippi rolled over New Orleans. Calvin Coolidge, "a little fat man with a notebook in his hand," promised to rebuild the state. He didn't. Instead, he left to play golf with Ken Lay or the Ken Lay railroad baron equivalent of his day.

In 1927, the Democratic Party had died and was awaiting burial. As depression approached, the coma-Dems, like Franklin Roosevelt, called for balancing the budget. Then, as the waters rose, one politician finally said, roughly, "Screw this! They're lying! The President's lying! The rich fat cats that are drowning you will do it again and again and again. They lead you into imperialist wars for profit, they take away your schools and your hope and when you complain, they blame Blacks and Jews and immigrants. Then they push your kids under. I say, Kick'm in the ass and take your rightful share!"

Huey Long laid out a plan: a progressive income tax, real money for education, public works to rebuild Louisiana and America, an end to wars for empire, and an end to financial oligarchy. The waters receded, the anger did not, and Huey "Kingfish" Long was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1928.

Link:

http://www.gregpalast.com/printerfriendly.cfm?artid=453

We The People .... DO know what to DO. Let's get to it.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

39. Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

<clip>

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

Link:

http://michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2005-09-02

Georgie boy, you and Dickie need to spend some quality time with family and friends before your extended jail time at The Hague. I suggest you both resign tomorrow to be sure you have as much time with your bikey and golf balls, as you can.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

40. "They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away"

Louisiana 1927
(Randy Newman)

What has happened down here, is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
It rained real hard, and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day, the river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright
The river had busted through clear down to Placker Mine
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

President Coolidge come down, in a railroad train
With his little fat man with a note pad in his hand
President say "little fat man, oh isn't it a shame,
What the river has done to this poor farmer's land"

Oh Louisiana, Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, you're trying to wash us away
Oh Louisiana, oh Louisiana
They're trying to wash us away, oh Lord, they're trying to wash us away
They're trying to wash us away, they're trying to wash us away

http://www.lyricscafe.com/n/neville_aaron/058.htm

Louisiana, Louisana -- we are all on the way; in any and every way each of us can, to help you rebuild, restore, and heal.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

50. "President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington,[/b] not ..."

AS the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny.

As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.

<clip>

But a president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy. Eventually we're going to have to examine the administration's behavior before, during and after this storm as closely as its history before, during and after 9/11. We're going to have to ask if troops and matériel of all kinds could have arrived faster without the drain of national resources into a quagmire. it took almost two days of people being without food, shelter and water for Mr. Bush to get back to Washington.

<clip>

From Falluja Floods the Superdome by FRANK RICH on September 4, 2005

Link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rich.html?pagewanted=print

And, the most important question is the one each and every American citizen must ask of themself -- is this the America, is this the world, you want to leave to those yet to be born.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

51. "You are being lied to, and lives have been lost because of it."

All of this information has turned up in one spot or another on the web since yesterday, but I wanted to put it all together in one spot for a reason. Bit by bit, parts of Bush's trip were shown to be less truthful than we deserved. But when you look at the entire trip - and all of the deceit that went into each part of it - it's an inescapable fact that from beginning to end the trip was a menu of lies and self-serving actions that didn't do the region any good. In some instances, like the helicopter groundings halting rescue ops, the trip could conceivably actually killed more people.

And that's the bottom line with this administration. It always has been. Bush, Rove, and the rest of them will go to any measures to get their version of the truth out. and if a few of the little people happen to die in the process, it's no skin off their noses. All of America should know what the true bottom line is.

Link:

http://www.blah3.com/article.php?story=20050903214041794

Much more at the link and much thanks to DUer "americanstranger" for posting it (see reference on the DU Homepage - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1751350#1751510)


Peace.

[Swamp Rat]

23. .

:cry:

[understandinglife]

25. Thank you and ...

We are going to rebuild New Orleans.

We must.

Doing so will be one of the most important collective actions that enables us to become America, again.

Take care, my friend.


Peace.

[kestrel91316]

52. Don't cry, Swampy...............

:hug:

We're gonna make it all better. Or die trying.

I used to say I want to go back and spend a week in Paris someday, instead of the one day I got in 2001. But now I think I want to go back to NO for a week, instead of the one day I got there in 1980. I want to stand at an oyster bar again, and wander the French Quarter, listening to jazz and getting tooted. I want to stroll the Garden District and see all those lovely old homes. I want to drive all the way out to the tip of that road in Plaquemine Parish, way out into the gulf. And I want to spend my little bit of money on American soil, and help provide jobs for the waiters, and the hotel maids, and the janitors, and the musicians, and all the other people that great city couldn't function without.

It will be there. It has to be. We cannot let her go, and we cannot let these fiends get away with the deliberate destruction of our great country.

You will get to go home. It won't be exactly the same. But, heck, I have been in Lost Angeles 22 years and it isn't the same as it was back then. We can only ever go forward in time.

We all just have to keep fighting the good fight, with every breath and every bone and every ounce of will.

[understandinglife]

24. You want photo-op evidence of just how evil Bush is -- check this.

Think Progress gets it, immediately.

Why are these helicopters being used as a backdrop for President Bush, instead of assisting the victims of Hurricane Katrina?

Why are members of the Coast Guard being used as a backdrop for Bush’s press conference? Don’t they have more important things to do?

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/02/photo-op-2

Rove, you've lost your touch, dude. In another few months we'll have all our fellow citizens clued to your vile actions.


Peace.

[PATRICK]

26. "that part of the world"

was how Bush ended up describing the area today. Revelatory, consistent.

[Igel]

27. I don't see the problem with calling them refugees.

That's what they'd have been called last year and last century. They're refugees. They're seeking refuge.

I'd prefer there not be refugees that are American. But that doesn't depend on the label, or how people are shifting the meaning of the label. (As though "displaced persons" is a big improvement over a perfectly good word.)

Then again, don't we have better things to do or talk about?

[understandinglife]

28. "I'd prefer there not be refugees that are American." --- That is ...

.. the message I intended in the OP.

Sorry for any confusion.

They are, indeed, having to seek refuge and they are made ever more desperate by the fact that their government failed them in every conceivable way.

I think they should be called refugees, because they are. I think Bush should be called a murderer, because he is.

And, I think Rove is one of the vilest humans ever to have inhabited the planet, and his (too) perfectly timed photo-op arrival of troops and trucks and hugs with the blue-shirted, sleeves rolled up war criminal Bush, proves it, once again.

Thank you for your comments.


Peace.

[malaise]

30. Bushco can't fool anyone any longer

:nopity: :nopity: He's the Fiddler on the roof.

[understandinglife]

31. NAGIN: I told him we had an incredible crisis here & that his flying over

in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect. (Listen to the mayor express his frustration in this video -- 12:09)

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks.

And they don't have a clue what's going on down here. They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of goddamn -- excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.

WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States, "I need the military in here"?

NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."

Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is Gen. Honore.

And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done.

They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can save some people.

WWL: What do you need right now to get control of this situation?

NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

It's awful down here, man.

WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or not she has made that request?

NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.

We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak.

You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."

WWL: Who'd you say that to?

NAGIN: Everybody: the governor, Homeland Security, FEMA. You name it, we said it.

And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives.

And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people.

In addition to that, we had water flowing through the pipes in the city. That's a power station over there.

So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.

WWL: Why couldn't they drop the 3,000-pound sandbags or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just couldn't be done?

NAGIN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to manufacture. But, you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done.

Then they told me that they went overnight, and they built 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys on them and they were going to drop them.

I flew over that thing yesterday, and it's in the same shape that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.

WWL: If some of the public called and they're right, that there's a law that the president, that the federal government can't do anything without local or state requests, would you request martial law?

NAGIN: I've already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.

WWL: Did the governor do that, too?

NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.

But we called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control. And we redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from saving people, but they worked all night because we thought this thing was going to blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources, and we hold it under check.

I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the current resources.

And I am telling you right now: They're showing all these reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that, but people are desperate and they're trying to find food and water, the majority of them.

Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of this lawless -- this situation where, you know, we can't really control it, and they're doing some awful, awful things. But that's a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.

And one of the things people -- nobody's talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me, and that's why we were having the escalation in murders. People don't want to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it.

You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix, and that's the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will.

And right now, they don't have anything to take the edge off. And they've probably found guns. So what you're seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don't have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not overrun.

WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.

NAGIN: Really?

WWL: I know you don't feel that way.

NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?

You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.

WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

WWL: What can we do here?

NAGIN: Keep talking about it.

WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?

NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.

I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

WWL: I'll say it right now, you're the only politician that's called and called for arms like this. And if -- whatever it takes, the governor, president -- whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes, I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.

NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just -- I'm at the point now where it don't matter. People are dying. They don't have homes. They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same in this time.

WWL: We're both pretty speechless here.

NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I got to go.

WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.



http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html

I don't think CNN will mind if I make this readily available, given how totally screwed these fellow Americans are and the need for us to make every single one of our fellow citizens aware of just how criminal Bush and his gang are.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

34. CNN: The big disconnect on New Orleans

The big disconnect on New Orleans

The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version

Friday, September 2, 2005; Posted: 4:10 p.m. EDT (20:10 GMT)



NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday. The sanitized view came from federal officials at news conferences and television appearances. But the official line was contradicted by grittier, more desperate views from the shelters and the streets.

These conflicting views came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others.

More at the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html

I've archived this one; suggest a few others do, as well (sorta like the screen shots from November 2, and early morning November 3, 2004).


Peace.

[understandinglife]

36. John Edwards: "This is an ugly and horrifying wake-up call to America"

August 2, 2005

Dear Friend,

During the campaign of 2004, I spoke often of the two Americas: the America of the privileged and the wealthy, and the America of those who lived from paycheck to paycheck. I spoke of the difference in the schools, the difference in the loan rates, the difference in opportunity. All of that pales today. Today - and for many days and weeks and months to follow - we see a harsher example of two Americas. We see the poor and working class of New Orleans who don't own a car and couldn't evacuate to hotels or families far from the target of Katrina. We see the suffering of families who lived from paycheck to paycheck and who followed the advice of officials and went to shelters at the Civic Center or the Superdome or stayed home to protect their possessions.

Now every single resident of New Orleans, regardless of their wealth or status, will have terrible losses and life-altering experiences. Every single resident will know and care about someone who was lost to this hurricane. But some, ranging from the very poorest to the working class unable to accumulate a cushion of assets to rely upon on a very, very rainy day, will suffer the most because they simply didn't have the means to evacuate. They suffered the most from Katrina because they always suffer the most.

These are Americans some of whom who left everything they possessed behind in order to save those they loved. These are Americans huddled with their children or pushing a wheelchair between rows of those too beaten or weak to stand. In this moment, we have to remember they are part of us, Americans who love their country and are part of our national community. In this moment, it is hard because our hair is clean and our clothes are washed and our eyes are not glazed with hopelessness. But these are our brothers and sisters, and we have to remember this not just for them, but for us. We must finally recognize that when any of us suffer, we are all weaker; it affects us all.

Commentators on television have expressed surprise, saying they think that most people didn't know there was such poverty in America. Thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty, most of them are the working poor, but it is clear that they have been invisible. But if these commentators are right, this tragedy can have a great influence, if we listen to its message.

The people most devastated have always lived on a razor blade, afraid of any setback, any illness, any job loss that could disrupt the fragile balance they achieved paycheck to paycheck. They didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. Some didn't leave their homes because they wanted to protect the hard-won possessions that made their lives a little easier.

The government released new poverty statistics this week. The number of Americans living in poverty rose again last year. Thirteen million children -- nearly one in every five -- lives in poverty. Close to 25 percent of all African Americans live in poverty. Twenty-three percent of the population in New Orleans lives in poverty. Those are chilling numbers. Because of Katrina, we have now seen many of the faces behind those numbers.

Poverty exists everywhere in America. It is in Detroit and El Paso. It is in Omaha, Nebraska and Stockton, California. It is in rural towns like Chillicothe, Ohio and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Nearly half of the children in Detroit, Atlanta and Long Beach, California live in poverty. It doesn't have to be this way. We can begin embracing policies that offer opportunity, reward responsibility, and assume the dignity of each American.

There are immediate needs in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and the first priority is meeting those, but after that, we need to think about the American community, about the one America we think we are, the one we talk about. We need people to feel more than sympathy with the victims, we need them to feel empathy with our national community that includes the poor. We have missed opportunities to make certain that all Americans would be more than huddled masses. We have been too slow to act in the face in the misery of our brothers and sisters. This is an ugly and horrifying wake-up call to America. Let us pray we answer this call. Now is the time to act.

- John

received via email

Senator Edwards, I agree, "Now is the time to act." In fact, now is when we all realize that we are going to be rebuilding the Republic, restoring meaning to our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, with every brick and every piece of steel we use to rebuild New Orleans.


Peace.

[omega minimo]

41. Where is this effort consolidated and organized on DU?

We need one Forum to rachet up efforts focused on the response (by the likes of us) or lack of it (by those who want to stay in the national coma) and Where We Go From Here. Including a sub-folder for direct activist actions to pressure House members to sign the Articles of Impeachment.

We need a letter-writing campaign focused on this and good ideas for reaching out across organizational lines within our communities to express the motivated and angry response to the bald-faced revelation that this administration will abandon any of us, any community, PARTICULARLY the least fortunate among us.

I am going to check out the Activist Corps. Stopped by here first. Thank you for your inspiring thread.

:hi:

[understandinglife]

42. I agree with you. Organization is required. Action can then be focused ...

...and robust.

Let me know what you find and what you need support convincing Skinner et al., to do.


:hi: and Peace.

[omega minimo]

43. "Good idea-- YOU do it!" Yeah, I've heard THAT before....

:rofl:

You mean it doesn't already exist? I posted the question in the Activist Corps. We'll see...

UL, this is The Moment, the Wake-Up Call.

The people in the path of Katrina, under the reprehensible mistreatment of this administration, will not have suffered in vain.

Last night my concern was that many Americans would underestimate the EXTERNALIZED implications of this, because the faces were brown and poor and some might not identify fully enough with them as Americans, as US ... today America is WAKING UP. The horror is reaching EVERYONE but the most hard core haters.

:hi:

[understandinglife]

44. "The horror is reaching EVERYONE but the most hard core haters."

Yes, it is.

And, they will find the fact that the Bush and his gang of merry neoconster murderers and torturers have created a situation in New Orleans where starving poor folk are eating dead humans to survive.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4599616#4599732

Yeap, they have destroyed not only America but civilization, itself.

[omega minimo]

46. The lizards have finally split out of the human suits

Not the end, the beginning.

I swear to god every one of these brave and dignified tragic figures are spilling their blood for us and for the future of this nation. It will NOT be in vain.

The reptiles have destroyed NOTHING. The human spirit of America will revive from the spectacle of these despicable "leaders."

[understandinglife]

47. "The human spirit of America will revive from the spectacle of these ....

... despicable "leaders."

Yes, in_deed, it will and President Gore showed everyone, today, that the process has begun.


Peace.

[omega minimo]

48. How shall this be organized, Candidate UL?

The question I posted in Activist Corps referred me to ImpeachBush.org.

Can DU be a vehicle for organized efforts to convey the message to the Congress and the survivors that we DEMAND that there be accountability for the abandonment of American people unecessarily to unspeakable horrors, damage and death-- at the hand of a corrupt and irresponsible national administration?

This cuts deep. It is US, as you say. I refust to sit by while this government pretends that it is acceptable to treat U.S. citizens this way because they are poor and brown. Did Bushco. think that other Americans would witness this and not be outraged and disgusted, as well as MOTIVATED?

[understandinglife]

49. This is what I am going to continue doing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4612956

I would be interested in your input. I think our biggest challenge is what I'll call 'citizen literacy' -- meaning knowing how vastly destructive to every aspect of our social fabric the racism is, as opposed to repeating the words of the pledge of allegiance.

I think DU has already provided a forum for folk to inform, discuss, organize and catalyze actions. It appears poised to do much more.

And, thank you for the dialogue and please check your PM.


Peace.

[Catherine Vincent]

45. Thanks for kicking this, UL.

:hi:

[FreedomAngel82]

53. It's disgusting

They're Americans. They're my fellow citizen's. We share the same homeland. :mad: This is just so disgusting. They are freakin Americans!!!!!!!

[understandinglife]

54. And, Larry Johnson adds his shout-out to "We The People" ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4633807&mesg_id=4633807

"... We have no clothes" and the entire world knows it.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

55. Sept 5 2005: "The American dream that is being held up as the cause worth

... dying for in the Middle East is as rotten to the core as its demonic administration.

When Bush is temporarily propped up on two legs by his people, out of his natural position on all fours with knuckles resting gently on the White House carpet, to tell the world that his country’s values and people are worth fighting for, he omits to mention that he doesn’t mean poor people or black people. Not only is this huge slice of the American public kept largely invisible, in case it ruins the image of the culture which Bush’s administration demands countries in “the axis of terrorr” adopt, but even when such poverty is exposed to the world the US elite has little shame in publicly holding these stricken citizens in contempt.

Take the comments made to the press by Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. ...... So when those with cars left the city, leaving behind those with no transport, did that mean that every available coach, truck and helicopter was made available to get them out? Apparently not. Some of those who didn’t “heed the warnings” because they had no means of exit, included charity care homes for the elderly, hospitals, whole housing schemes of poor black residents, a children’s care home, and countless thousands of dispersed penniless people living on state benefits who were trapped and killed, not because they were wilful irresponsible risk takers, but because they were poor, powerless and vulnerable.

In a breathtaking display of racism, some white British students who were trapped in the hell of the city’s Superdome stadium, being used for refugees, were removed to a safer place in a basketball arena by a white policeman who one student described as having “broken all the rules” to help them. The students were young, healthy and in no immediate distress except for experiencing mildly aggressive taunts about their colour, and yet the stadium was full of dangerously ill people, highly distressed old people, young children at great risk of dehydration, but for whom nobody “broke all the rules” on account of the fact that they were black. Meanwhile the gangs of black youths stalking the city on orgies of raping, violence and looting are not the bogeymen Islamic “enemies of freedom” but products of their own “democratic” country’s polices of exclusion and division.

The lessons we’re learning from this horror are not about disaster management or speed of response, but about exposing the terrifying falsehoods at the heart of America’s relentless and belligerent quest for world domination. With Bush turning his gimlet eye to Iran, and linking his arm through that of our own dear Tony Blair as he does so, it’s never been more timely to be reminded so dramatically that the US is a deeply dysfunctional, decadent, declining society, imploding with its own prejudices, corruptions and hypocrisies.

From Why the American dream is one of the biggest lies by Muriel Gray on September 5, 2005

Link:

http://www.sundayherald.com/51627

The whole world is, indeed, watching and recording the vast inhumanity that "America" now represents to the world -- it will not change until we change it.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

57. And, on the day after the levees broke Bush answered Cindy Sheehan

The media coverage was scant and fleeting - but we should not allow the nation's Orwellian memory hole to swallow up a revealing statement in Bush's speech at a naval air station near San Diego.

In the August 30 speech, moments after condemning "a brutal campaign of terror in Iraq," the president said: "If Zarqawi and bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks. They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions." In other words, the US war effort in Iraq must continue because control of Iraqi oil is at stake.

Would US troops be in Iraq if that country didn't have a drop of oil under its sand? Most politicians dodge that kind of question. And for years, the US news media - with few exceptions - have elided the oily obvious. Such denials go back a long way.

<clip>

For years, war supporters have pooh-poohed slogans like "No Blood for Oil." But let the record show: In a scripted speech, the president of the United States has cited Iraqi oil as a key reason for the US military to keep killing in Iraq.

From Bush's Implicit Answer to Cindy Sheehan's Question by Norman Solomon on August 5, 2005

Link:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/printer_090505B.shtml

I disagree with only two words in Norman Solomon's essay -- "implicit," and "partial."

Mr Bush was explicit and complete in his answer to Cindy Sheehan's "What Noble Cause? - oil and control of access to it.

His apparent lack of response to the needs of the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is just that, apparent. His actions are consistent with the reality that he will now allow private contractors and developers to exploit the devastation to streamline intake and refining of oil and intake of natural gas and probably build some expensive condos and golf courses and mega-churches for those wealthy enough to hop in their SUVs or limos or airplanes and exit when the next storm threatens.

Mr Bush, you are a cold-blooded murderer of your own people and anyone else who gets in the way of your avarice and fascist fanaticism and the entire world knows it.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

58. And, here is "America" the way we many of us want it to be ...

3 Duke students tell of 'disgraceful' scene

By Ray Gronberg, The Herald-Sun

September 4, 2005 9:36 pm

DURHAM -- A trio of Duke University sophomores say they drove to New Orleans late last week, posed as journalists to slip inside the hurricane-soaked city twice, and evacuated seven people who weren't receiving help from authorities.

The group, led by South Carolina native Sonny Byrd, say they also managed to drive all the way to the New Orleans Convention Center, where they encountered scenes early Saturday evening that they say were disgraceful.

"We found it absolutely incredible that the authorities had no way to get there for four or five days, that they didn't go in and help these people, and we made it in a two-wheel-drive Hyundai," said Hans Buder, who made the trip with his roommate Byrd and another student, David Hankla.

Buder's account -- told by cell phone Sunday evening as the trio neared Montgomery, Ala., on their way home -- chronicled a three-day odyssey that began when the students, angered by the news reports they were seeing on CNN, loaded up their car with bottled water and headed for the Gulf coast to see if they could lend a hand.

More at the link:

http://www.heraldsun.com/tools/printfriendly.cfm?StoryID=643298

We The People .... who actually care ... know what we must now do to rescue America from Bush and his neoconster gang of criminals.


Peace.