all right, now what the hell did you just say?

on hannity and colmes, bill bennett just said that mass abortion in various communities (namely those filled with black and hispanic people) being a means of lowering the crime rate is the subject of freakonomics, which it 100% is not. freakonomics, as other people have pointed out, suggested that legalized abortion has lowered crime rates because those aborted children would likely have been born into homes that would not have offered them enough affection and guidance to keep them on the straight-and-narrow. while the book does point out that the children probably would have been born to poor, unwed teenagers, it doesn't refer to any specific race. if bennett chose to infer that sort of racist slant, then that's what he chose, but it wasn't stated by the authors of the book he has repeatedly cited, and he really needs to knock that the fuck off.

wow, i've never watched this much of this show before. it's deranged, even being notably hannity-free this evening. the reverend jesse lee peterson just said that democrats are on a mission to destroy the unborn, and they're about to run a piece about another person who believes katrina was god giving the gulf coast what it deserved. this person happens to be a united states senator. rock on, alabama.

so, i'm going to crawl between my mattress and boxspring and weep softly for a few hours. i hope all you lovelies have a delightful friday night.

i'm sorry, but what the hell did you just say?

because i thought, texan girl on america's next top model, that you said that if things didn't go well for you on the show that you would go back to pageants, and i could swear that after that you said that your reasoning was that pageants really help you develop more as a woman, whereas modeling is just a career.

i thought that was what i heard you say--but i wanted to give you a chance to explain that i completely misheard you before i shook you to within an inch of your life.

one ms. jennifer hilde has written a thorough and informative piece on ways in which a young woman might develop through pageantry. let me offer you some of the more blindingly radiant trinkets of wisdom:

"My first platform was 'Empowering Youth through Faith- Based Values' to talk with students about knowing what they believe and living their faith on a daily basis. But I was misunderstood with that platform. People asked me, 'Jennifer, what about Muslims? Should they live their faith-based values?' After I’d thought and prayed about it, I changed my platform to character education."

"Because I didn’t win the Miss Minnesota title, that summer I went to Zambia, Africa, for a missions trip. While there, I sensed the Lord asking me, 'Jennifer, would you rather be spending your money preparing for Miss America or for AIDS orphans in Africa?' I don’t know why this wasn’t clear in the first place, but there’s no comparison to spending $5,000 on AIDS orphans versus preparing for Miss America. It’s incredible to me that when I was focused on the Lord, He changed my heart and my desires to His heart and His plan.

"With the nudge from my family and a desire to share my faith, I entered a third local pageant in February."

that is the exact wording in the second quote; no rearrangements, no omissions. glory to the lord, indeed, that he helped pageantry shape this girl in such a wonderful way. she now also has the willpower to avoid sweets and to force herself to read newspapers in order to be up on current events in case someone asks her about them in a pageant interview. now, maybe a career in modeling won't force you to check in with cnn or visit a mission in zambia, but it could probably convince you to turn your back on that mission in order to create more time for talking to yourself in front of a mirror. so prance for the pretty sashes if it turns you on, ladies, but don't bad-mouth the girls who are prancing for the tens of millions of dollars. they work every bit as hard as you do.

unbelievable.

from AMERICAblog, my hero as far as this story is concerned:

They just canceled the entire investigation of the scandal involving US soldiers allegedly trading death pics from Iraq for access to online porn. And the reasons the military is giving for canceling the investigation are simply outrageous. Get this.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command in Iraq conducted the preliminary inquiry within the past week but closed it after concluding no felony crime had been committed and failing to determine whether U.S. soldiers were responsible for the photos and whether they showed actual war dead, Army officials said. Col. Joe Curtin, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said there currently was no formal investigation into the matter.

as john points out farther on in the post, the soldiers shouldn't be tough to identify. they're posing in a lot of the pictures, and their faces, complete with hi-mom grins, are plain as day. my biggest question is, how does it make sense to close an investigation because preliminary inquiries failed to make any concrete determinations? i can't tell you how troubled i am by all of this.

us army declares, "geneva conventions, schmeneva conventions"

the associated press has brought more public attention to the story AMERICAblog was covering yesterday regarding american soldiers trading photographs of dead and mutilated iraqis and afghanis for internet porn access. those of us following the story thought this would be a great thing and hoped that it would put more pressure on the military leadership to take action against the soldiers taking, posing in and trading these pictures. that was a few hours ago, when the department of defense was saying it wasn't familiar with the story and was going to be looking into it.

but now that they've had ample time to get the facts straight (you saw that part in the last sentence, didn't you, where i said it had been a few hours?), the army has decided that criminal charges not only would not, but could not, be pursued. john in dc continues to righteously ride the hypocritical asses of military lawyers as we speak.

people are citing televised beheadings and footage of insurgents shooting american soldiers as justification for at least the desire on the part of our troops to spread around the images currently in question. i think a wrong is a wrong no matter who commits it, and you can't defend a specific behavior for some and not others. there are standards, even in war, and they exist for a reason; the last time i checked, "vengeance" wasn't a sound legal justification for anything. it's tough to blame the rest of the world for snubbing us when we attempt to defend the indefensible.

[speechless]

i couldn't not mention this, but i can't figure out how to talk about it, either. so i'm going to start off talking about this.



this design is of a tattoo that i have on my right wrist. it's arabic calligraphy, persian specifically, and the translation is, "it is not for him to pride himself who loves his own country, but rather for him who loves the whole world." it is in no way related to islam, and i don't see anything even vaguely unpatriotic in the sentiment. loving your country is great, it's outstanding, but hating all of the other countries for being The Other Countries is not. that's all. my mother is half syrian, but my dad is mostly irish, and i'm the whitest white girl you ever met. honestly, by the middle of winter i'm very nearly translucent. when that tattoo is exposed nobody wants to sit next to me on the bus. toadie says it's because no one wants to do the thing that makes me set off the bomb. she's almost joking.

i am horrified by acts of terrorism. all of them. i'm devastated when islamist extremists blow up trains and buildings, and i'm devastated when christian extremists blow up abortion clinics. the relativistic morality employed by such groups is mind-boggling enough to make one seasick. i think, though, or rather i fear, that in this country a massive number of people are beginning to apply that same sort of relativism to at least the entirety of the middle east, and probably more of the planet than that. to think that the "america good, them bad" mentality has progressed to the point where the image of a dead and dismembered stranger, quite possibly a civilian, is on par with pornography in terms of its entertainment value simply because that stranger is of middle eastern descent is so

evil. i say it's evil. you can't designate enemies based on geography, draw a circle on a map and say that everyone who was born inside of it deserves the worst you can give them. you can't let a war become an excuse to cultivate racism, and you can not encourage these american kids fighting in other countries to think of killing as sport or of dead bodies as trophies. the only theoretically valid argument for this war at this point is that america is trying to improve the quality of life for the citizens of iraq.

how can you ask those citizens to take that argument seriously, when our citizens, who are supposedly in their country to stand up for them, are mocking their dead? how can you ask it of anyone?

AMERICAblog has posted several follow-ups to the original article, and appears to be following the story as closely and accurately as possible. it hasn't gotten any less disturbing as the day's gone on. i think john's right when he suggests that these photographs don't differ, really, from the ones of lynndie england that led to her conviction of, among other things, the committing of an indecent act. morality is not a moveable feast, (yes, yes, i stole that line from spalding gray, and i'm going to steal the next one from him, too) and i get very confused, because i keep seeing it moving all the time.

believe it or not, love can spring eternal without a warranty.

a few weeks ago i went on a bit of a rant about what i thought was an especially hideous version of a "living monument," the VIDSTONE, a headstone that plays ten minutes or so of home movies starring the deceased. i stand by everything that i said, but i do understand the desire to erect some sort of lasting tribute to a lost loved one. oh so happily, phila, in his friday hope blogging at bouphonia, has brought some infinitely preferable options to light.

Environmentally friendly funerals featuring coffins made of cardboard from fast-growing trees and urns that decompose in the soil are becoming more popular . . . Saiju Temple in Kyoto made a "garden cemetery" in May, where they plant plants instead of setting up grave stones. Instead of urns, they use capsules made from tea leaves that decompose in the soil.

If you prefer a watery grave, you can have your ashes made into a coral reef.

Eternal Reefs can take your ashes and mix them with special concrete formula to mould "reef balls", which are then placed in the ocean to provide a marine habitat compensating for the many we are destroying. Your loved ones can do the mixing, if so desired, and they can observe your remains being deep sixed and be given a GPS reference, with the longitude and latitude of your living marine memorial.

i can't decide which method i like most just yet, but to the best of my knowledge there's no rush. i guess i'll wait and see where things are at when the time comes. i've always been pretty steadfast in my belief that, after everything you take from the ground over the course of your life, your body is the least you can give back. the mandatory impenetrable coffins made the gesture more than a little hollow, though. if i can get around the big dumb box i'll feel better about it, but the coral reef option is pretty enchanting. maybe i can go half and half.

earth to america: if i spare that city, what's in it for me?

it looks now like houston and galveston may avoid a direct hit, which is good, even though it'll take an awfully long time for any of the people who've been stuck in traffic for the past few days to see it that way. i think what those people need to understand is that the thing about planning is it's hypothetical. you never know where you stand until you've run a live drill, and you can not do that when you're talking about relocating entire cities. of course, if all you can offer is a plan then it should be the best possible plan, and we should still hold the leadership responsible for not coming anywhere close to that, but at least there's an up-side this time.

wait, what's--oh, snap! i spoke too soon.

Two communities that stood to bear the brunt of the storm were Port Arthur, a city of about 58,000 that is home to industries that include oil, shrimping and crawfishing; and Beaumont, a petrochemical, shipbuilding and port city of about 114,000.

Scores of petrochemical plants are situated along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast in the nation's biggest concentration of oil refineries, and damage and disruptions caused by Rita could cause already-rising oil and gasoline prices to go even higher. Also, environmentalists warned of the possibility of a toxic spill.

and new orleans is flooding again, after parts of it had literally just been pumped dry, and the only casualties i know of resulting from the texan exodus were twenty-four people on a bus evacuating elderly patients whose oxygen tanks exploded after mechanical problems started a fire on the bus. it's like some crazy apocalyptic video game--SIMS: Death to America!

i read one news report quoting an american scientist who said it would be silly to blame rising temperatures for the recent rash of high-octane storms, because there was a similar cycle of storms early on in the twentieth century, so this is just part of a naturally repeating pattern. and then i read a different report quoting a british scientist who said he hoped that if america gained one thing from all of this it would be an appreciation of the extreme dangers of global warming, and most of the research he cited had been conducted by american scientists.

here's what i know: if, one day, you noticed a new freckle on your arm in a place where there had never before been a freckle, you might say, huh, look at that, and then forget about it. and that would be okay. but if, a week later, that freckle was a mole that was two shades darker than the original freckle, i doubt anyone would call you a hypochondriac for wanting a second opinion on it. in fact, most people would think it odd if you didn't consult someone. but let's say you chose to ignore it because when you were six you had discovered a large birthmark on the backside of your thigh that had turned out to be nothing; if, a few weeks after that, that new mole on your arm was surrounded by other moles of varying shapes and sizes and colors, and you still ignored it...

well, if i ignored it, my mother would come to my house crying, asking why i hated her so much that i was willing to let myself die of cancer just to get away from her. and you can think of me as your shrill, crazy, choked-up mother. this is a situation where it's probably in our best interests to assume the worst and take excessive precautions. this is a good planet, and we should take outstanding care of it. do you really want to colonize mars? have you seen mars? i, for one, would rather dedicate myself to making sure this planet has a chance. i don't know if we can cure it, but we can offer it a shot at a lengthy remission.

look at me, talking to a wall. how much toxic evil is about to be dumped into the gulf? and all anyone's crying about is the price of gasoline. i think everyone who has or wants a child should be in competition for the title of Most Hardcore Environmental Activist. i think it should be required that parents be that far-sighted.

i also think wooden clementine crates are an attractive and highly functional addition to any room, so what the hell do i know. congratulations galveston, congratulations houston, but if i hear one more person complaining about the congestion on the highway i'm going to blow that hurricane back on track myself.

tee hee!

while name-calling is not my preferred method of dealing with people i hate, i do believe that it's not only fun but healthy to indulge the id once in a while. so here, i've brought your id a present. well, actually, it's being regifted--i got it from john in dc--but i don't think your id will mind.

disclaimer: there's some cussing at the other end of that link.

ready for round 2!

who will the bigots and homophobes point their hateful fingers at this time?

PAM EASTON, Associated Press: Galveston, low-lying parts of Corpus Christi and Houston, and mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders as Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys and began drawing energy with terrifying efficiency from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland. Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland - most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.

Military personnel in South Texas started moving north, too. Schools, businesses and universities were also shut down. Some sporting events were canceled.

go ahead, repent america, tell us all, and especially texas, how much god hates soldiers, students and athletes.

i have a feeling that what this and other despicable groups will actually say is that these cities are about to be smote for their willingness to harbor the sinners of new orleans, thus defying god, who so clearly wanted them out of the game. houston wound up sheltering the greatest number of katrina evacuees, and at least 1,500 have been bused out of the galveston community center already in anticipation of this next storm. it's twisted, but it isn't more twisted, and it certainly wouldn't be out of character. somebody will say it, you watch. and then you cry. and then you, i don't know what. i don't know what you do then.

at least some people have learned something, even if that something is only to avoid being spanked:

Government officials eager to show they had learned their lessons from the sluggish response to Katrina sent in hundreds of buses to evacuate the poor, moved out hospital and nursing home patients, dispatched truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals, and put rescue and medical teams on standby. An Army general in Texas was told to be ready to assume control of a military task force in Rita's wake.

why did we have to hit bottom before realizing that this was the way to go? well, as long as they can keep FEMA* the hell out of there, it sounds like there's more to be optimistic about this time around. i won't make any stronger declarations than that, for fear of bringing the jinx down on a lot of heads.


update, 9/22/05: god damn it! either i did jinx us, or the bastards secretly love the spankings.



* this does not apply to the FEMA dolphins. they can do no wrong.

re: i hate the new yorker

my sworn enemy has begun to refer to her opposition with the sort of condescending head-patting usually reserved for the condiment-coated children of distant relatives at the annual family barbecue. did i expect better? no, of course not; this is the tone that drove me to throw down my glove in the first place. but i would like to point out to her readers, before they pass final judgment, that i have this lovely theme song, and all she has is a lot of people telling her she's persnickety. sure, some of those people say it more politely than i do, and i guess a lot of people haven't said anything of the sort, but do those people have theme songs? honestly, now, whose side would you rather be on?

and now the news. and now the news with more syllables.

these are the top four headlines (out of five) in the u.s. news section of my earthlink start-up page:

• Hurricane Rita Lashes Florida Keys
• Rita strengthens into hurricane as it lashes Florida Keys with wind and heavy rain
• Galveston Calls for Voluntary Evacuations
• As Rita takes track across Florida and Gulf, Galveston calls for voluntary evacuations

i don't know why the lengthier headlines don't follow the same capitalization rules as the shorter ones; maybe those headlines are aware of how throughly unnecessary they are and are too ashamed to draw any extra attention to themselves. i did peek at all four articles just to make sure and, yes, they are redundant. no cake for you, earthlink! and if the blame lies more with the ap press feed, then it goes to bed without dessert as well.

i did learn from the last article that oil companies are evacuating employees from oil and gas platforms, including some that are already undergoing repairs for damage they sustained during katrina. while it makes my palms a titch sweaty to think about what we'll be spending on heating oil this winter, in a grander-scheme sort of way this beating the drilling rigs and refineries have been taking could be a good thing. more people will conserve fuel or take advantage of public transportation, and maybe someone will finally figure out a way to wean us off of that black tar for good. i'm not numb to the negatives, though; my household can afford a spike in heating costs, and a lot of households can't. here in massachusetts we have the citizens energy corporation, which helps supply heating oil to low-income and elderly residents, and i'm sure other states have similar programs. but with the cost being as high as it is, they aren't likely to be able to help as many people as they usually can, and i think a lot of people who might have donated won't be willing to because they'll be paying so much themselves. shoddy attitude, sure, but the one that tends to win out. this is the problem with nature taking the initiative in thinning the herd--the survivors are the ones who managed to be the most self-serving. positive attribute when you live in the jungle, but less positive when you live in what we keep telling ourselves is a civilized, humanistic society. i've said it before and i'll keep saying it, there are way too many of us, but even from a purely ecological standpoint i would have to be concerned about the character of the ones who pulled through, because they're going to shape things from that point on. i keep hoping for some kind of karma-sucking supervirus that will only kill assholes, but all i get is a whole lot of unjust nothing.

can you guess a person's age based on their idealism, the way you can count the rings of a tree? people twice my age tell me i'll outgrow my current inclinations, and i'm convinced that such statements are driven by sour grapes and schadenfreude, but i could be wrong. time will tell, i suppose.

see what happens when i read the news on rainy days? i babble like the world's mopiest brook. but there, i'm finished. yell at the ap for absentmindedly brow-beating us, help someone who needs help, and tell me to shut the hell up.

does mr. gladwell know about this?

you know you've made it when this happens. i think. maybe you don't know you've made it until two lovely gay men write to tell you that you're the drop-down box that brought them together. at any rate, it's a level of fame that i'll be happy never to achieve. malcolm, being a much more collected individual than myself, seems to be holding up just fine.

what is this rubbish about diane cardwell, by the way? (see end of fifth paragraph) sure, they rhyme, but whatever, i'm, like, so way cuter than her. i don't care, i could totally take her. strong like bull and stealthy like ninja, that's me. i got mad skills. sleep with one eye open, reporter lady.

no, no, i'm joking. ha ha.


ha.

o'er the land of the...

imo just sent me this picture, which a friend of his snapped in atlanta, ga. pretty tragic that most everyone i know can relate.

the following people are to be poked with pointy sticks:

associated press writers allen g. breed, marilynn marchione, erin mcclam, matt sedensky, and vicki smith. and here's why:

After Storm, Survivors Learn to Improvise
September 18, 2005 1:37 PM

In devastated Chalmette, La., at Lehrmann's bar and seafood restaurant just across the street from a refinery, pool tables were converted to beds for those who lost their homes but refused to leave flooded St. Bernard's parish.

In New Orleans, mattresses became life rafts and plastic storage bins were floating baby strollers.

...

"That's called the ingenuity of survivors," said Joanna Dubreuil, standing outside what used to be [a] Waffles Plus restaurant in Bay St. Louis, Miss., a gulf-front town that is basically gone.

there's some discussion of people fashioning makeshift showers out of found piping and mixing various cleansing agents to use as laundry detergent and denture cleaner, which are, technically, examples of ingenuity. but then there's this:

After Katrina, even death required improvising. In New Orleans, a woman's body lay outside for days. Eventually, bricks were stacked to form a makeshift grave. A bedsheet became a tombstone. "Here Lies Vera," it said. "God Help Us."

Xavier Bowie died while his common-law wife was out looking for help. No one would come get his body, so Evelyn Turner wrapped a sheet around him and floated him down to the main road on a raft of two-by-fours. A truck finally stopped and its driver was persuaded to carry Turner and her dead companion to Charity Hospital.

There, doctors had enlisted bystanders and relatives to squeeze portable air bags for patients - a demanding and tedious job - who had been on ventilators that gave out when the generators died. Boats became gurneys, transporting the sick out of the damaged hospital. "The patients were being treated with not even what you'd have in a field hospital," said Dr. L. Lee Hamm.

these are not laudable examples of ingenuity and the determination of the human spirit, they are the desperate acts of people with no resources, no assistance, and absolutely no idea of where to turn for either. and don't even get me started on the description of the act of keeping ventilator patients alive as being demanding and tedious. learn to improvise? this isn't fucking boy scout summer camp, these are the living conditions of citizens who have been hung out to dry by their government, and these writers lack either the sense or the balls, or maybe both, to report it in the serious and outraged tone it warrants.

update, 10/3/05, 7:06 p.m.: AP writer deborah hastings may be primarily responsible for the wording of this article, the facts of which were gathered and submitted by the writers named above. her name appeared nowhere in the article i read on september 18, but it is on most of the still-viewable internet copies of it, including the one i have updated this post's link to. since i don't know for sure i'm going to stay on the poke-everybody track, but i'm starting to think that she deserves the most heartfelt jabbing. at the very least, she should get the pointiest stick.

pleeeeeease?

come to america, david firth! i'll make my home a palace! you won't have to pay rent or fold your own laundry, i'll cook all your meals, so long as you give me lots and lots of these.

the skeksis are draining my essence! MY ESSENCE!!! NOOOOOOO!!!

so, karl rove has been drafted to head the post-katrina reconstruction effort, and lots of people are wondering, you know, what the hell that's all about. well, i won't lie to you, folks, i was a tad befuddled by it myself. isn't karl rove primarily a pr-bot? does he have any non-image-oriented leadership experience at all? as deputy chief of staff, he does coordinate the policies of the homeland security council, but, frankly, those policies haven't done anything for miss jackson lately. he's an organizer, to be sure, but one of catchphrases, partisan rallying, and smear campaigns, not honest labor-intensive efforts. will he rebuild the coastlines with his kidney stones? could we count on him to craft a straight-flying paper airplane? has he ever even held a garden trowel in his alabaster, baby-smooth hands?

fear not, my little chickens! i have here a glowing list of captain turd blossom's previous positions, all of which speak to his incontrovertible worthiness:

• chief strategist for the bush-cheney 2000 presidential campaign
• president of a public affairs firm
• member of the board of international broadcasting
• member of the board of the mcdonald observatory
• teacher at the lbj school of public affairs
• teacher in the journalism department at the university of texas, austin

ha! oh, wait, that's not . . . hang on . . . (*shuffleshuffleshuffle* hey, does one of you guys have the list? the rove list? no, this isn't it, this is just a lot of pr and board-member crap. what? you're kidding me. well, so, what . . . ? oh, screw it.)

hmmm. i guess this really is the list that bush and his bushy bushmen were looking at when they made their decision. my brain says, rise up and riot! holler your righteous dissent! do not let this administration put one more unqualified invertebrate in a top position! but my body says, eh, what's the point. so futile... so weak... and so, as you can see, the thing about karl rove that makes him king of the mountain time and time again, in the face of any and all defensible, well-backed arguments, is his ability to do this:



go ahead, fight it. i dare you.

sweet.

keith olbermann just now on msnbc's countdown, regarding eight aquarium-raised dolphins that wound up in the bay off the gulfport coast of mississippi:

"handlers are ... hand-feeding them fish and antibiotics to build up their strength.... plans include teaching the dolphins to jump onto a float, and then towing the float to shore. keep teaching them, they might be able to learn to run FEMA."

yes! YES!!!!! the FEMA dolphins will save the nation! look, look how much more impressive their qualifications are than those of the current staff!

•How big is a dolphin's brain compared with a human's?
The brain of the bottlenose dolphin is considerably larger than the human brain. After all, the bottlenose dolphin can weigh several hundred pounds. Big animals have big brains. Killer whale brains weigh about 6 kilograms (over 13 pounds).

•Do dolphins send out a warning when there is danger close by?
Yes, some dolphins do appear to make warning sounds.

•Why does the dolphin's skin feel slimy and rubbery?
While the bottlenose dolphin's skin may feel rubbery, it certainly isn't slimy. Dolphins don't have skin glands. Dolphin skin grows rapidly and is very flexible. It helps with streamlining.

•Do dolphins have taste buds?
Yes, dolphins do have taste buds.

DO YOU SEE? they will use their superior brains to warn us of impending doom, and then they will swim victims to safety in a glandless, streamlined manner. there will be no mention of duct tape or dodged bullets when the dolphins are in charge, only soothing and information-laden clicks and whistles, and sometimes smelt. huzzah, olbermann! well played.

und dann: my very tiny cat is named ophelia and she has long since tired of the jokes being made at her expense, mostly by me. but she does appreciate this description:

"ophelia: not terrifyingly strong, but startlingly durable."

huzzah again, olbermann! my wee tempest is pleased; you shall live to be smarmy another day.

today the floating cloud of evil has touched ground in...

if "human" is the generic designation for members of the species, then we need to find a better word than "humane" to encompass all the ideals we reach to that word for, because it certainly doesn't apply to all of us.

Eleven Children Found Caged in Ohio Home

WAKEMAN, Ohio (AP) -- Sheriff's deputies found 11 children locked in cages less than 3 1/2 feet high inside a home, but a couple denied they had abused or neglected the children.

A judge on Monday put the children - who range in age from 1 to 14 and who have various disabilities, including autism - in foster homes.

The children were found in nine cages built into the walls of the house near this small city in northern Ohio, according to the Huron County Sheriff's Office. They had no blankets or pillows, and the cages were rigged with alarms that sounded if opened, Lt. Randy Sommers said.

The children told authorities they slept in the cages - 40 inches high and 40 inches deep - at night. Doors to some of the cages were blocked with heavy furniture.

Sharen and Mike Gravelle are adoptive or foster parents for all 11 children, officials said. Prosecutors were reviewing the case, but no charges had been filed as of Monday night.

america supports you! kind of! when it makes them look good!

it made me livid to know that my government thought the best way to honor those who died in the september 11 attacks was to have a parade touting the unfounded war said government used those tragic deaths as a jumping point for. the only factual link between the attacks and the iraq war is, of course, the government itself, and its dogged refusal to admit that the one only led to the other by way of the president's and the administration's callous self-promotion and nonsensical propaganda. anyone who didn't believe it was hogwash before should know by now not just that it absolutely is, but that the people who were pushing it never took it seriously themselves; four years of being beaten about the head with the idea that bush was the only man who could keep our nation safe, but when he was actually faced with a disaster, a chance to prove to the nay-sayers that he's meant any one word of it, we watched that "america is safer and stronger under my leadership" house of cards fall so fast it took us days of rewinding and slow-motion just to figure out what had actually happened (and it was more than could be summarized in a single hour-long broadcast; thank you, atrios, for the links). no one was working to make us safer here on our own ground, and the only reasons they wouldn't have bothered to construct anything better than this cardboard façade we've finally seen blown to bits are that they didn't believe they'd ever need anything more substantial, or they didn't care in the least about what would happen to american citizens if that need did someday arise.

well, i think the fact that the president and his cheerleaders don't care about their citizenry was pretty well proven when they chose to go forth with this "freedom (from the burden of conscience) march" instead of redirecting the funds to the victims of the hurricane, who suffered as much, if not more, from a lack of leadership and capable personnel as from the hurricane itself. no one has apologized, and no one is about to apologize, but they're happy to hand us plastic dogtags and t-shirts--as long as we'll promise not to try to call them on their shit. sure, we support you, america... but we will arrest you if you hop that fence. it's not a police state, it's tough love.

of course it is. and when mistakes like this are squashed under the loving foot of the war machine, it's only being done for our own good:

Army Kept Truth of GI's Death From Family
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Sunday, September 11, 2005

(09-11) 04:10 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The Army said Saturday it knew for more than a year after 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard's death in Iraq in May 2004 that he was not killed in action, as it initially reported. The family was not told the truth until Friday.

On Memorial Day in 2004, the day after Kenneth Ballard died, the Army informed his family that he had been killed by enemy fire while on a combat mission in the south-central Iraqi city of Najaf. In a casualty announcement from June 1, the Pentagon said Ballard died "during a firefight with insurgents."

The Army disclosed on Saturday that Ballard, 26, actually died of wounds from the accidental discharge of a M240 machine gun on his tank after his platoon had returned from battling insurgents in Najaf.

the delay in informing the family has been blamed on an "oversight," but how in the world was that sort of mistake made in the first place? couldn't be that "killed by insurgents" is the default cause of death on the form letter. the united states government and/or military would never use such a cheap, patriotic-heartstring-tugging tactic to pacify grieving, angry families. things like that couldn't happen in my country.

"of course they couldn't," the department of defense says. "we're a good country, we love you, we're protecting you. what, you don't believe us? that's not very fair; aren't we throwing you a parade?"


postscript, 8:24 pm, 9/12/05: americablog makes mention of some of the thank-you gestures extended by our good, loving country to the out-of-tune members of the marching band.

buy this book:

boycott this movie:

things i overheard in public places

sound bites gathered between 4/19/05 and 9/9/05:

1. "i can't go to college without tetanus..."

2. "were you just going 'uuuuhhhhhnnnnhhhhhhhhhhh?'"
"no."
"oh, it was me."

3. "that olive oil's amazing stuff, huh?"
"milk and olive oil, that's all you need to survive."

4. "but why can't i have it? think about it, mommy, i'd look so beautiful in bed."

5. "the thing about her is that when she gets really drunk, this is what i know about deirdre, she wets her pants."
"her mother reminds me of the mom from 'babe'."
"'pig in the city'?"
"yeah."

6. "hey. hello? helllooo-oo? hey, blue house! hello?" (spoken by man on sidewalk facing a [brace yourself] blue house)

7. "can you tell me where 146 poplar street is?"
"sure. this is poplar street here, see, this street that you're on. do you see that building there behind me? that says it's number 120. now, if you go that way, the numbers are lower. like that one, it says 113. but if you go that way, they get higher. i can't see any of the numbers that way, but i'm pretty sure that they'd be, you know, 130, 140, so i'd say you should go that way and just, you know, keep your eyes open, watch for it."
"thank you so much! have a great night."
"sure, you're welcome. good luck."

8. "could i have that with two pieces of canadian bacon?"
"it comes with two pieces."
"then i shall have three."

9. "that's that candy bar with that commercial, you know the... my favorite line was 'one more than four, take five,' and then they took it out."
"they should have left it in. there isn't enough truth in advertising these days."

10. "i'm not really interested in eastern philosophy, but it's the only class like that that fit into my schedule."
"couldn't you have taken sociology for that credit?"
"no, sociology is, like, human. diversity is anything, you know, different from what people really do."

i love you, tad brennan.

from tpm cafe:

What do you get when you combine a rejection of Clinton-era complacency with a rejection of the heroic fantasies of the National Greatness neo-cons?

Well, you get outward looking, internationalist technocrats. You get an America that takes seriously its responsibility to the world, and fulfills that responsibility via mechanisms like Kyoto, GATT, the UN, the Peace Corps, and so on. It opens its markets to foreign goods, and its universities to foreign students. It stops supporting thugs in foreign countries for the sake of cheap oil, and instead starts trying to reduce its energy consumption so as not to dominate the world market. It works to create more international mechanisms, and to foster a respect for international law.

All boring stuff--no shock and awe, no martial music. Just managerial, policy wonk stuff. But incredibly important. Important for the whole world. And part of what could still make America a light to the nations.

In other words, you get National Greatness without the heroic nonsense.

outstanding. really, bravo.

it's good to know everyone's on the ball. water's been diverted from the thirsty, rescue workers from those in need of rescue--we thought these were acts of new stupidity. but the folks at the top have been steadily herding resources as far away from their true targets as they could get them since, quite possibly, the beginning of time:

Sept. 11 recovery loans loosely managed

By DIRK LAMMERS and FRANK BASS
Associated Press Writers

The government's $5 billion effort to help small businesses recover from the Sept. 11 attacks was so loosely managed that it gave low-interest loans to companies that didn't need terrorism relief - or even know they were getting it, The Associated Press has found.

And while some at New York's Ground Zero couldn't get assistance they desperately sought, companies far removed from the devastation - a South Dakota country radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop, a Utah dog boutique and more than 100 Dunkin' Donuts and Subway sandwich shops - had no problem winning the government-guaranteed loans.

Dentists and chiropractors in numerous cities, as well as an Oregon winery that sold trendy pinot noir to New York City restaurants also got assistance.

"That's scary. Nine-11 had nothing to do with this," said James Munsey, a Virginia entrepreneur who described himself as "beyond shocked" to learn his nearly $1 million loan to buy a special events company in Richmond was drawn from the Sept. 11 program.

italics mine; what dunkin' donuts anywhere deserves government assistance? these things are spreading like a supervirus without anyone's help. i can't believe this crap.

well, yeah, i can. but i wish i couldn't.

update, 8:25 pm, 9/11/05: as a somewhat related aside, kenneth feinberg is on book-tv right now talking about his work with the september 11th victim compensation fund, which he's written a book about. he managed the fund pro bono for 33 months, in and of itself a tremendous act, but listening to him talk about some of the people he met and stories he heard, i'm really quite taken aback, and a bit desperate to wrap him in something fleecy and feed him tiny cupcakes. he seems genuinely confused about why there was no public outcry at the massive compensation offered to these victims when there was no such offering from the federal government for victims of other terrorist actions, such as the oklahoma bombings and the 1993 attack on the world trade center. he also spent a lot of time discussing how incredibly difficult it was to extrapolate the financial value of each lost life (he was not permitted to give everybody the same amount, and had to take the victims' salaries into account as a starting point for compensation), when, in his mind, all lives should be of equal value, and he suggested that in the future, if this sort of thing is ever attempted again, everyone involved should receive a flat sum. (i agree with him, but i do not think that that flat sum should be $2,000; this is most likely irrelevant, since i also agree with him that the odds of congress approving another program like this are slimmer than an olsen twin.) in an interview from july 10 of this year, he had this to say about the surprising amount of support the program received from the american people:

AMB: You did talk about Senator Schumer sidling up to you at one point and saying, can you get me some money from the ‘93 bombing of the World Trade Center? Now what kind of pressures like that did you have and how did you deal with them?

FEINBERG: Not much pressure. As I said earlier, I would have thought going in that the families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center in ‘93, Oklahoma City, the African embassy bombings, the USS Cole, anthrax, I would have thought all of those people would have been demanding similar generosity on the part of the fund. No.

There were a couple, I would say a handful from Oklahoma City. One from Kenya. One, Senator Schumer, for the ‘93 World Trade Center. I think 9/11 was different. It was certainly different from the perspective of the American people, of that I have no doubt.

But I think most families, for whatever the reason, didn‘t come running to me asking for similar treatment. The public certainly was behind the program.

LAMB: Why shouldn‘t all of those have gotten the same kind of consideration as the 9/11 people?

FEINBERG: From the perspective of the victims, I don‘t see any distinction. If you try and justify my program on the basis of the victims lost, I can‘t convincingly explain why 9/11 yes, ‘93 World Trade Center no.

I think the only way you justify this program as a special carve-out is from the perspective of the nation, a recognition that 9/11 was, along with the American Civil War, Pearl Harbor, maybe the assassination of President Kennedy -- and 9/11, its impact on the American people was such that this was really a response from America to demonstrate the solidarity and cohesiveness of the American people towards these victims. That‘s the only way to explain this program I think convincingly.

the solidarity and cohesiveness of the american people does not, apparently, extend to the financial managers of the small business relief funds, who would ho out their own mothers for six chocolate munchkins.

and the coveted massengill medallion goes to...

look at this guy. really, just look at him for a minute. do you want anything he's trying to sell you?

now let me tell you what he actually is trying to sell you, and i quote:

The VIDSTONE Serenity Panel is the first personal memorial monument product of its kind. Utilizing solar-power technology and a weatherproof LCD panel it provides families the option of viewing a personalized video tribute right at their loved one’s final resting place. The VIDSTONE Serenity panel features a 5-10 minute multimedia memorial detailing the most precious memories of your loved one’s life. While nothing ever replaces the gift of life, memories can now come one step closer to forever being remembered and not forgotten with a Vidstone Serenity Panel.

for $1,500 ($1,700 if you want the extended warranty), sergio aguirre can make sure you will remember (and not forget) 5-10 minutes of that special someone's life for at least 15 years; after that, you'll have to recall them without the aid of technology, like in medieval times. VIDSTONE knows that you and your loved ones are no heathens, and nothing says "honor thy memory" like weatherproof LCD.

if you have the footage to create the video for this crass and exploitative device, why would you not watch it at home and let that final resting place be, well, restful?

at this point i would like to reiterate my wish to die quietly and alone in some place where no one would ever think to look for my body.


postscript, 9/9/05:

i told toadie about the "serenity panel" last night while we were on our way home from seeing sufjan stevens, who was, as ever, phenomenal. he and his adorable horde of gifted, polyinstrumentalist elves dropped my jaw with their marching-band-on-mdma symphonies, and they also taught me some new cheers. boys just don't get any easier on the eyes than sufjan stevens. that's a fact.

but it's a tangential fact. what i wanted to tell you is, toadie and i spent the train ride back furiously brainstorming ideas for future VIDSTONE projects, and i think some of them have the potential to forever change the way we think about reflecting upon the dearly departed. here are some of the blue-ribbon entries:

• a life-sized hologram of the deceased activated by the placing of a single flower (type to be chosen by the family at the time of purchase) into a bud vase mounted on the headstone. the hologram could be programmed with up to 10 different anecdotes and twenty favorite phrases, such as, "well, call me a duck and smack me 'til wednesday! i was wondering when you'd stop by! remember that time at the cookout when sally got drunk and sat too close to the citronella torch, and her hair caught fire, so i had to throw her in the pool? she cried all night about how i'd ruined her skirt! ha ha! those were good times. it's been great talking to you! live strong!" if the deceased had a favorite parting gesture, such as a military salute or respek knuckles, this could be incorporated as well.

• a multi-chamber mausoleum containing animatronic depictions of significant moments in the lost one's life. from the first unassisted steps to the last, see it all unfold in incredibly realistic settings incorporating objects from the actual events. watch anima-five-year-old-you wipe your nose on your anima-mom's real pant leg as she tearfully drops you off at your first day of kindergarten--just like you might have forgotten to remember it! hey, there's the rare, autographed copy of franny and zooey that your grandfather gave you when you graduated from high school! wow, look how proud of you he is! you pawned that book for beer money two years later and might never have thought of it again, if not for VIDSTONE!

• this next monument is not only an inspirational means of maintaining a relationship with your loved one after his or her passing; it also provides much-needed financial resources that you can devote to the maintenance and groundskeeping of the resting place. plenty of people visit burial grounds to talk to and confide in the departed, but not many of them have gotten responses--until now, thanks to the VIDSTONE Guardian Angel! by combining cutting-edge techniques in forensic reconstruction and robotics with a convenient loophole in asimov's zeroth law, we can build a "living" head that will fool and elate even the most bereaved of mourners! visitors can insert coins into the front of the Guardian Angel's durable, weather-resistant plexiglass dome and receive advice and fortunes guaranteed to comfort heavy hearts*. missing your favorite confidants? they may not be able to offer you a shoulder to cry on, but they'll certainly lend you their ears!


* VIDSTONE is entitled to 60% of all of its products' earnings

inappropriate advertisement time!

inappropriate in that it is one of the least important things i could have chosen to focus on today, but my heart is weak, and i turn to familiar comforts in times of trouble. that, and if i didn't take a break from keening over my government's nauseating ineptitude once in a while i'd have ripped out my eyes about a week ago.

my secret boyfriend has returned from his nearly eight-month-long hiatus with a big-ass bang, with an article in each of the past three week's issues of the new yorker. the september 12th article is on rick warren, the author of the christian-living manual the purpose-driven life, and how he managed to acquire his now massive evangelical following starting with a base of, well, practically nothing. the theory is that by maintaining a network of small groups of congregants with similar yet distinct ideologies, instead of trying to force a single hard line of thought on a massive group, his church has been able to network more successfully than most and has benefited from that in huge ways. it looks like they really have done a lot of outstanding work, and warren himself comes across as a decidedly decent guy, but my stomach always rolls at the notion of spiritual teacher as ringleader. you should read it for yourself, though, and make up your own well-informed mind. here's some more gushing, er, info, on the other things mr. gladwell's been up to. he's sassy. buy him a beer. a good one, none of that light domestic swill.

juniper pearl, shamelessly promoting her loved ones since 1979, when she first developed language skills and demanded that a stranger in a restaurant say that her mommy was pretty.


postscript: seriously, buy the new yorker this week. the "talk of the town" contributors have said everything we've all been thinking for the past week or so, and they've done it concisely, solemnly and beautifully. i've cried wolf a number of times at this point, so i won't say it again, but when i did say, before, that i intended to leave the commentary to the pros, this is what i was talking about.

finally, someone with a plan.

fafnir for FEMA director!

postscript, 9/9/05: i was momentarily very proud of myself for posting this a full 29 hours before atrios, but then i remembered that that's because he's been so busy following the real news.

screw it. i beat atrios! ha ha ha!

i suck.

you killed EVERYBODY!!! you BASTARDS!!!

print this out and staple it to the forehead of anyone who tells you the government handled this crisis well--or at all.

working their way down the set list:

image taken from tonight's episode of the daily show, i love jon stewart, blah blah blah. you say i'm repetitive, i say i'm admirably loyal. thanks to erik for his link in the comments at eschaton.

postscript: i had a hell of a time finding a list of the members of the daily show's writing team, whom i would leap so many tall buildings for, and in the end i had to break out my copy of america. having done that, i'd like to mention them, so maybe someone else who wants to wish positive karma on the folks behind the scenes can send it to them by name.

-david javerbaum (head writer)
-rich blomquist
-steve bodow
-tim carvell
-eric drysdale
-j.r. havlan
-scott jacobson
-tom johnson
-rob kutner
-chris regan
-jason reich
-jason ross

send them cookies and fancy socks. schnell!

just when i think i'm out, some lying weenie pulls me back in.

john bambenek has blamed the lack of a sufficient levee system on law suits filed by environmentalists, saying after they had their way an upgrade would have taken 25 years, so recent funding cuts have nothing to do with anything.

but in the army corps of engineers publication he references in his own post as the source for that statement, eric lincoln writes that the lawsuits were filed and settled in 1977, and the existing (or previously existing) structures were never under dispute. the suit was over other proposed protection structures at the rigolets and chef menteur pass, and that construction was stopped, but the levees were agreed upon by both sides, and there were no restrictions placed upon their construction. the levees that failed after katrina weren't inadequate because of environmentalists, they were inadequate because the people who designed and erected them did so inadequately. this particular issue of the publication in question, riverside, came out in september of 2004 and says that engineering and project management were just beginning to look into options to upgrade the system to protect against a category 5 hurricane.

i don't know how an upgrade would have taken 25 years, when it's only been 28 years since the original plan to begin construction was thought up. maybe he meant an upgrade would have taken 25 years for anyone to get around to.

breaking news

the bush-led investigation into where and why fatal mistakes were made by national emergency response teams has revealed some startling news. while the federal emergency management agency is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters, michael brown is actually the director of the federal emergency manufacturing agency, the primary responsibilites of which being to turn a blind and blissfully ignorant eye to news of monumental disasters, and to keep qualified organizations from helping those in need once the situation has progressed to a point where ignoring it is no longer a possiblity.

the investigating committee has determined that, in light of this information, michael brown is and has been, as the president stated, "doing a heck of a job." they also say that the majority of the blame for this terrible national tragedy lies with the democratic leadership and the liberal media, for not catching the typo sooner.

i like the ground. the ground is good.

i have never been on an airplane. i've never even been in an airport. i used to regard this almost as a shortcoming, and then i learned to embrace it as one of several unique traits that make me slightly less... civilized? adult? real, in a way, judging by the flummoxed looks people shoot at me when i tell them that i let my driver's license lapse three years ago and never renewed it, that i don't know how to ride a bicycle, that i walk home from work because it takes so much longer. they make me myself, anyhow, and that's super by me. i enjoy walking. other people don't. we all have justifications for our choices. i walk partly for the exercise and partly for the exposure to sunlight, but mainly because a lot of the time i simply can not get close enough to the dirt.

my dearth of stratospheric adventures hasn't, historically, had anything to do with a fear of flying, like many people's, including my mother's (a woman who has never and will never set foot on an aircraft. if i were to die unexpectedly overseas and no one else could identify my remains, she would let my body congeal in a foreign morgue for as long as it took her to make the journey by boat. she has told me this right to my face, that and that it would serve me right for flying off and leaving her here when i know how she feels about that sort of thing. she's a bit mad, bless her addled little heart). now it's a lack of funds and wanderlust, but in the past it was a fervent and ecstatic love of being alone in a car for endless periods of time. i routinely made weekend trips to places five or six hours away just for the sake of the journey, and i still wouldn't fly to any place i could drive to instead. it was just a personal preference, though, the expression of my opinion that earthbound solitude deserved two thumbs way up. the fact of airplanes, their existence and underlying mechanics, the number of them in the air at any given moment, was odd enough to make me uneasy if i though about it for too long, but so is everything--the word "food" becomes surreal and grotesque if i think about it for more than fifteen seconds--and we take our lives into our hands every time we cross the street. i had no strongly negative thoughts about the odd and unnatural airplanes.

until recently.

an indonesian jet crashed today in medan, killing all but nine of its 117 passengers, and probably dozens of people on the ground. i read the headline and instantly thought, oh, god--another one? it seems like i've been hearing about a major plane crash every couple of days, and i can't remember hearing about them with any sort of frequency in the recent past. is it that i haven't been paying attention?

nope. five commercial airline crashes this past august resulted in a total of at least 334 deaths worldwide, the most airline-related fatalities in a single month since may of 2002 (485 casualties), and only 61 fewer than the total for the seven months preceding it. there were eleven crashes between june and july, but only one resulted in a large number of fatalities (see the aviation safety network database for complete details). as far as i can tell there isn't a single link between any of the crashes; three of those that occurred in the past month involved boeing 737s, including today's in mandala, but only one looks to be the direct result of an equipment failure.

still... i'm beginning to develop a daedalus complex. do so many of us really need to be spending so much time up there? machinery is only as infallible as the human beings who create and control it, and recent events have proven to anyone who might have needed the evidence that you can't count on being safe anywhere, not even in your own home. at this moment i can't tell you how happy i am that everyone i love is down here next to the dirt with me.

that's all, folks.

i am officially leaving the political coverage to the pros. some organisms, when exposed to toxins, find ways to adapt and eventually thrive in their new septic environment, and some organisms seize and disintegrate after their weak-willed bodies launch into systemic apoptosis.

the x-men up in the right-hand corner there will take excellent care of you, brave and successful mutants that they are. if you stop in to see them, blow them kisses for me. for now, i'm sinking back down to the bottom of the pool.

i still love ants.

and not only am i in good company, but i may have been more right than crazy in my last discussion of them. i'm reassured about my decision to bring them out of the house, as well; if my ant was searching for a community cemetary, he'd have died of exhaustion looking for it if he never traveled past the foot of my bed.

if we were ants, all of this would be fixed by now. they're much more effective in cooperative efforts, everyone knows what he or she should be doing all the time. i think my new battle cry is "any leaf cutter for president!" our society may be terrifyingly chaotic, but all i need to do to regain my composure is lie face-down in the yard for thirty minutes, and then i can be certain that the functional delegation of responsibility within a society is at least a physical possibility, even if it's never a meaningful part of my cultural reality.

did i...? i think... i think i just told you that i wish i were a bug.

there's a good chance i'm cracking up.

superpower, my ass.

not only is there an elephant in america's living room, but the emperor on its back is naked, holding his dick in his hand and demanding more comic books and jujy fruits.

maybe a few people aren't willing to admit that they knew the levees would fail and we'd be left with what we've been left with, but i do not believe that anyone (except maybe the presidiot, whose inner circle seems to keep him pretty cheerfully uninformed) actually did not know. is that unwillingness the entire problem here, the thing to blame for all of this destruction? maybe some people have taken their all-american can-do attitudes to a fatal extreme. in an article published today:

The prospect of more vulnerable populations on a more turbulent Earth has U.N. officials and other advocates pressuring governments to plan and prepare. They cite examples of poorer nations that in ways do a better job than the rich:

-No one was reported killed when Ivan struck Cuba in 2004, its worst hurricane in 50 years and a storm that, after weakening, killed 43 people in the United States. Cuba's warning-evacuation system is minutely planned, even down to neighborhood workers keeping updated charts on which residents need help during evacuations.

-Along Bangladesh's cyclone coast, 33,000 well-organized volunteers stand ready to shepherd neighbors to raised concrete shelters at the approach of one of the Bay of Bengal's vicious storms.

-In 2002, Jamaica conducted a full-scale evacuation rehearsal in a low-lying suburb of coastal Kingston, and fine-tuned plans afterward. When Ivan's 20-foot surge destroyed hundreds of homes two years later, only eight people died. Ordinary Jamaicans also are taught search-and-rescue methods and towns at risk have trained flood-alert teams.

Like many around the world, Barbara Carby, Jamaica's disaster coordinator, watched in disbelief as catastrophe unfolded on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"We always have resource constraints," she said. "That's not a problem the U.S. has. But because they have the resources, they may not pay enough attention to preparedness and awareness, and to educating the public how to help themselves."




in order to educate the public on how to help themselves in an emergency situation, you must first make them understand that there will be emergency situations that no one, not even the united states government, will be able to prevent. i have heard too many people say that the footage they've seen of the flood survivors and the aftermath they're trying to live in doesn't "look like america," as though we, as privileged citizens, were somehow immune to acts of nature--people flying first class don't have to suffer leg cramps, and americans don't have to worry about dangerous weather patterns. but what else would people think when no one has put a sufficient amount of effort into impressing upon them that that can not, under any circumstances, be the case? when the officials responsible for keeping the public informed will not admit that that isn't the case? even when flood drills were run in new orleans, they were run according to the events that would unfold during and after a category 3 hurricane, which is what the levees were believed to be able to withstand. they acted out a scenario that they were almost completely confident they could handle, and then when it was over they said, "see? we told you we had your backs." but that scenario was not the worst-case one, and that's the one FEMA existed to prepare for. we're shocked, now, that nobody had a plan, but it was a mistake on everyone's part to assume unquestioningly that there was one.

we can't get so accustomed to being able to expect better that we don't remember to check in once in a while and make sure that "better" is what's actually being delivered. the american people were told that measures had been taken to ensure their safety, and, because no tragedies struck in the interim, no one got on anyone's ass and demanded that they prove it. but how were the people heading up these measures convincing themselves that they had done the job? were they using the same standard--nothing bad had happened, so they must have got it right? i think we had a group of self-satisfied people standing in a circle and patting one another's backs, and now their combination of hubris and indifference has led to exactly the sort of catastrophe they were in place to prevent. so what are they doing now? they've split up into smaller groups, where they alternately pat the backs of the people around them and point angry fingers at the people in the group next to them. so far no one's made any admissions as to where, exactly, the failure originated, or suggestions about how we might get it right next time.

we could always send some of our public officials down to cuba for while, and see if they pick up any pointers.

and those who do not learn from it...

...shall inflict its repetition upon innocents, and probably continue to refuse to learn anything. slate published this article friday, in which eric klinenberg compares the lack of preparedness for and ultimately pathetic response to katrina to the 1995 chicago heat wave that resulted in the deaths of 739 people:

Affluent and middle-class Chicagoans had little trouble getting out of harm's way. They either turned on their air conditioners or fled for cooler destinations. Thousands of poor, old, isolated, and sick people, especially those concentrated in the city's segregated African-American ghettos, on the other hand, were effectively trapped in lethal conditions. Neither federal nor local agencies did much to assist them. Instead, city patrols cracked down on young people who opened fire hydrants.

at least we're consistent. consistently inept, it's true, but if we force the federal government to alter its routine, then the natural disasters have won.

nothing like putting it succinctly:

"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday...


that's today, that saturday. that's six days after the fact. the article's here. most of it is information you shouldn't be surprised by at this point, but if you're like me it'll knock the wind out of you anyhow, no matter how many different ways it's been presented to you already.

who the hell's driving this thing?

daily kos gets the blue ribbon today for providing the best information on my most recent source of mute, blinding rage: the united states' refusal to accept aid from outside or independent sources, the most dumbfounding of all, to me, being the stubborn and inane unwillingness of government organizations within the united states to let the red cross, which exists for the sole purpose of providing disaster relief, into disaster-stricken areas in order to provide relief. in particular, check out steve rose's diary comments. they're, um... enlightening.

you'd think one of bush's lackeys would have realized by now what a killer photo op it would be to have him distributing aquafina and wonder bread in a red cross jacket. if they could find a way to convincingly stage a reconstruction effort, i'm sure they could round up a circle of disheveled, grateful-looking kids for him to paste band-aids on and hand out cookies to.

jerks.

what?

lt. gen. carl strock was just asked in an interview being televised on c-span why the levees were only built to withstand a category 2-3 storm when it was known that there was a tremendous likelihood of a more intense storm hitting new orleans, and his response was, "why do people live in san francisco? why do people live in seattle, when we know that a devastating earthquake is going to hit those cities? and the answer is, because that's where they choose to live."

how in the world is there a correlation between those two things? if you're going to take defensive measures against natural disasters, why would you deliberately choose to take ineffective measures when you had the option not to? why bother doing anything at all? that's the question being asked, and he responded with a flippant dismissal. i'm happy to see that the other people in the room aren't letting him get away with it, but it's pretty despicable that he'd have tried to in the first place.

99.5% of the time, the gulf coast is not being struck by a category 4 or 5 hurricane, and 99.5% of the time san francisco is not being shaken to the ground by an earthquake. but when we have the means to provide for 100% of the things that might ruin thousands of lives, which i believe we did in this situation, there's no excuse for cutting corners. some truly ugly errors were made every step of the way here, and no one seems to have any explanations for them.

i *heart* christian hypocrisy

read more on this article at americablog, but here's a yummy niblet:

Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, also sees God's mercy in the aftermath of Katrina -- but in a different way. Shanks says the hurricane has wiped out much of the rampant sin common to the city and says Christians need to confront sin. "It's time for us to stand up against wickedness so that God won't have to deal with that wickedness," he says.

Believers, he says, are God's "authorized representatives on the face of the Earth" and should say they "don't want unrighteous men in office," for example. In addition, he says Christians should not hesitate to voice their opinions about such things as abortion, prayer, and homosexual marriage. "We don't want a Supreme Court that is going to say it's all right to kill little boys and girls, ... it's all right to take prayer out of schools, and it's all right to legalize sodomy, opening the door for same-sex marriage and all of that.”


no, we don't want a supreme court that says it's o.k. to kill little boys and girls. but who wouldn't want a fanatical religious right who says it's fantastic to kill little boys and girls, right alongside their parents and grandparents? not the american family association; they think it's a great idea. "bring on the tropical storms!" they shriek gleefully, "we'll purify this planet yet!" if republican-backed corporations can wreak enough environmental havoc, there should be enough huge-scale tropical storms to destroy coastal meccas of sin all over the planet. and he's absolutely right, god shouldn't have to deal with our wickedness, especially since these days banging his head forlornly against the wall must be taking up so gosh-darned much of his time.

well, maybe not such a long while...

from an AP article published a few hours ago:

Four days after Hurricane Katrina roared in with a devastating blow that inflicted potentially thousands of deaths, the frustration, fear and anger mounted, despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the looting, plans for a $10 billion recovery bill in Congress and a government relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history.

New Orleans' top emergency management official called that effort a "national disgrace" and questioned when reinforcements would actually reach the increasingly lawless city.

About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans convention center grew increasingly hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults.

"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell - it's every man for himself.'"




it's unbelievable that, for whatever reason, we've been completely unable to help the people who are trapped in this hellscape. it's sickening that FEMA director michael brown, who insists he didn't know these people needed any help until today, is not alone in insinuating that they somehow brought their current situation on themselves. it's unforgivable that homophobes are taking advantage of a monumental tragedy to push their own ignorant agenda.

but what's truly killing me is that these people who are down there in it with nothing but each other to stay afloat on are attacking and raping one another. how can you turn to the person next to you, whose circumstances are every bit as dire as yours, and punch him in the face before you reach for his wallet? is this really human nature? is this as good as it gets? i understand that we panic in a crisis and do things we wouldn't ordinarily do, i get that when your life is in danger morality is probably the last thing on your mind. but it's been days, and instead of actually helping anyone or trying to maintain even a warped likeness of order, the POLICE AND RESCUE CREWS are throwing up their hands and demanding that the last rational citizens in the fray give in to the lord-of-the-flies nightmare they've been doing all they could to fend off. and we've got, who, george w. bush, michael chertoff and scott mcclellan huddled in a corner with the fucking conch, taking turns listening to the ocean.

where do you even begin? i'd be there if i thought i could do anything at all, but i can't imagine what that thing might be. neither can my government, apparently, so for the first and hopefully last time ever the administration and i are sitting on our useless thumbs together.

i can't think of a thing to say.

katrina

i don't have the stomach to write about it, plain and simple. i can think about it for so long, and then i hit a wall, and i can't make sense of the words anymore. but atrios is in it up to his neck, jeebus bless him, so if your heart isn't quite broken enough you can head over there and finish it off. that's probably all i'll have to say about it for a while. that, and i am so, so sorry.