Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 09.03.05

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     09.03.05

1. Uganda/democracy  9.03 9am
2. NWA solidarity    9.03 10am
3. New Orleans vigil 9.03 12noon

4. Dickinson campaign - "Rosie the Riveter"/minority contracting
5. Radio Havana Cuba  - Fidel Castro offers 1,100 doctors re Katrina
6. Glen Ford          - Will the "new" New Orleans be black?
7. Harvey Wasserman   - Bush to New Orleans: drop dead
8. CounterPunch Wire  - Directing Katrina money to Pat Robertson
9. Ron Jacobs         - Katrina, Iraq and blood profits
10. Mike Whitney      - How Bush deals with a disaster he helped create
11. Dave Lindorff     - Baghdad/New Orleans: fend for yourselves
12. David Stocker     - Frankly, Scarlet I don't think he gives a damn...
13. Laura Flanders    - Two Americas: sink or swim
14. ed                - bush out now (hard of hearing version)

--------1 of 14--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Uganda/democracy 9.03 9am

September 3 - Demonstration: Forum for Democratic Change - Uganda. 9am

Forum for Democratic Change is a Ugandan political party that seeks to
re-establish rule of law, constitutionalism and respect for human rights
in Uganda. Over the last few years freedoms and liberties in Uganda have
been increasingly eroded as the President-- Yoweri Museveni seeks to
continue his preseidency 20 years after he was sworn in.

In order to maintain his hold on power Museveni is becoming more vicious
and freedoms and rights of Ugandans are increasingly abused. Many
opposition leaders are either in exile or in prisons which are also
torture chambers.

For these crimes and other poor governance records of corruption, nepotism
and illegal plunder of neighboring countries for mineral wealth, Ugandans
in the USA will be demonstrating at The Minneapolis Marriott City Center
30 South 7th Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402 USA; where Ugandans are
gathering for their annual Uganda-North American Association meeting - see
http://www.unaaminnesota.com for further information.  HE Jimmy Kolker, US
Ambassador to Uganda will be the Guest Speaker on Saturday 3rd September.
Our protests (demonstration) will begin outside the Marriott Hotel on the
same day at 9:00 am. We think that the ordinary people of the US should
know that in exchange for supporting the war in Iraq and taking extreme
right positions against the use of condoms, the US government is rewarding
the President of Uganda with military equipment which is often used
against legitimate Ugandan opposition groups and not terrorists as is
often alleged.

For more information please visit http://www.fdcuganda.org

Location: The Minneapolis Marriott City Center 30 South 7th Street,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402 USA


--------2 of 14--------

Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 11:33:03 -0500
From: Solidarity Committee <nwasolidaritymsp [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: NWA solidarity 9.03 10am

Attention Solidarity Committee members,

A wealth of material and activist support continues to pour in for striking
Northwest Airlines workers.  We must keep up our activism to build momentum
around our cause.

PLEASE ATTEND THE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE MEETING SATURDAY 10am

Where: AMFA office:  8101 34th Avenue South in Bloomington.  Exit I-494 at
34th Avenue, and head South (AWAY from the airport).  Turn LEFT at the
second light.  Cross the light rail tracks and proceed 1 block.  Turn RIGHT
into a large parking lot.  Enter through glass doorway and follow signs to
the meeting.  Visit www.mapquest.com for more detailed directions.
Metrotransit riders, take the 55-line Light Rail to BLOOMINGTON CENTRAL.
Walk East out of the station until you get to 34th Avenue.  Make a left, and
the building will be immediately across the street on your right.

The meeting will feature an update from mechanic and flight attendant
leaders, as well as discussion of plans for Labor Day events, public
visibility, media actions, and picket support.

THURSDAY PICKET A SUCCESS:  Event coordinators opted to change the target
of the picket at the last minute, as they determined that confronting the
scabs at shift change would have maximum visibility and operational
impact.  Approximately 200 activists were divided up between the three
scab hotels - the Holiday Inn on the West Bank, the Radisson in Stadium
Village, and the hotel on 280 and Industrial Boulevard.  Once deployed at
the sites, activists surrounded the buses that transport scabs from their
hotel accommodations to the mechanics' workplace.  Departures of all buses
were significantly delayed, with the 4:10 scab bus departure from the
Holiday in not leaving until 6:30.  Pickets were loud and proud, and
worked with police to avoid arrests.  Press coverage was intense, with
dozens of reporters at all sites adding the pictures and words of striking
workers to news stories that have frequently omitted this viewpoint.

NEW LABOR SOLIDARITY: In addition to this local support, the solidarity with
Northwest workers movement has gained an important national ally.  The
international office of UNITE-HERE is actively working to support the
struggle.  Below is an official endorsement from this large and growing
international union.

TO: GEB, Local and Affiliate Leaders, Department Heads
FROM: Bruce Raynor and John Wilhelm
RE: Travel arrangements to Executive Board meeting

Over one week ago, about 4,400 mechanics, cleaners, and custodians
represented by the Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), walked
off the job at Northwest Airlines after they were unable to reach resolution
with the company. Northwest Airlines has proposed pay cuts and layoffs that
would have reduced their ranks by nearly half and the wages of those
remaining by about 25 percent.

UNITE HERE officially stands behind the AMFA members and their decision to
go on strike. As a result, we are asking that all UNITE HERE leaders and
staff planning to travel to the Executive Board meeting in St. Paul, MN, not
book flights through Northwest Airlines. We urge all staff to use
Continental Airlines for their travel, or another union carrier.
Metropolitan Travel Services has been advised of this decision and will help
you book your travel accordingly.

Because of the short time left before the board meeting, and because of the
limited carrier capacity on Continental, please make sure to book your
flights as soon as possible.


--------3 of 14-------

From: Beth <sclickace1 [at] aol.com>
Subject: New Orleans vigil 9.03 12noon

"Peace of Mind" Vigil for the Victims of New Orleans

Let us gather for prayer, song and group visioning for the Victims of
Katrina.

For peace of mind, safety, calm, healing of barriers, $ and food, water,
and improved coordination of the rescue organizations and our government
officials.

Where: Peace Garden, Lake Harriet in Minneapolis (across from the Rose
Garden by the small parking lot)

Saturday September 3, at 12noon

Bring: yourself, drums, musical instruments, donations (we can get them to
the Red Cross)

Sponsored by: The Agape Sanctuary, Lisa Venable, lisa [at] lisavenable.com;
peace music by Susan Feehan

Please pass this on and join us if you can in person or in spirit.


--------4 of 14--------

From: ed
Subject: Dickinson campaign - "Rosie the Riveter"/minority contracting

DICKINSON INVOKES ROSIE THE RIVETER, ADDRESSES
MINORITY CONTRACTING CONCERNS

St. Paul - Backed by a poster-size version of the famous image of Rosie
the Riveter and her "We Can Do It" slogan, Elizabeth Dickinson today spoke
out on the issue of women - and minority contracting in St. Paul. At a
press conference on the issue this morning, held in front of the
Brownstone building on University Avenue - a structure symbolic of fair
contracting and minority community support - Dickinson also made the point
that the time has come for a woman to occupy the mayor's office.

Rosie's "We Can Do It" has meaning for her, Dickinson indicated, beyond
her personal quest to become St. Paul's first woman mayor. Committed to
the principle that the city has an obligation to provide equal access to
businesses owned by women and people of color when contracting for city
goods and services, she observed forcefully that discrimination clearly
still exists.

Dickinson was present Tuesday evening at the opening of a City Hall
hearing on minority contracting and hiring, and found the experience
deeply moving. "I witnessed a litany of pain and exclusion, of hopes
dashed and expectations unfulfilled," she said, all of which reinforced
her conviction that St. Paul should become "a model for the development of
inclusive and progressive business policies, leveling the playing field so
city contracts are awarded without regard to race, gender, religion,
sexual orientation, and disabilities."

Calling for the city to follow the recommendations of the Equal Access
Working Group, she noted a City Council Resolution passed on June 8 that
directed council research to develop a proposal "to conduct a
comprehensive review and audit of the Department of Planning and Economic
Development (PED) and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA)
policies and applicable laws related to the inclusive participation of
women, minorities and persons with disabilities in the city funded
construction projects, contract procurement, developer selection,
programs, services, and initiatives." The community will be engaged to
collect issues of concern to shape the audit and recommendations will be
made to add more accountability to the bidding process; Dickinson supports
this effort and said earlier that she would make it a priority in her
administration.

In the speech today she made an emphatic case that the city needs "better
outreach and notification of city opportunities to interested parties,"
adding that "[t]argets for development deals must include a significant
percentage of qualified people of color, women and disabled developers and
vendors," and that "successes and failures must be transparent to the
entire community." She also called for greater involvement of and respect
for neighborhoods in the development process, and specifically endorsed
exploring the concept of an historic district in the Rondo neighborhood.

Speaking on the eve of Labor Day weekend, Dickinson noted her
card-carrying commitment to union workers; she is herself a member of the
Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists, and Actors' Equity Association.

She closed by mentioning that her campaign has copied the "Rosie" image on
a postcard, which has been sent to 15,000 women voters - many of whom have
welcomed the candidate during her doorknocking rounds - encouraging them
to help her become the first woman mayor in St. Paul's 151-year history as
a city. She noted with feeling that the famous image evokes inspirational
memories of the suffragettes who fought for the right to vote; the
tight-knit "Rosie the Riveters" who built their way through World War II;
and "countless other women who have raised their voices, burst through
glass ceilings, and channeled their efforts toward equality, democracy,
and opportunity for all."

Dickinson recently received an endorsement from the political arm of
Minnesota NOW, the state's chapter of the National Organization for Women.
She was endorsed earlier in her campaign by the MN Women's Political
Caucus, and by the Green Party of St. Paul.

CONTACT:

Elizabeth Dickinson, (651) 235-1208 (cell)
Mary Petrie, Campaign Manager, (651) 226-3527 (cell)
Christopher Childs, Campaign Communications, (651) 312-1216

Elizabeth Dickinson for Mayor ~ 384 Hall Avenue ~ Saint Paul, MN ~ 55107
(651) 312-0616 www.elizabethdickinson.org


--------5 of 14--------

From: Joan Malerich <justnad [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Fidel Castro offers 1,100 doctors re Katrina

JM - Some, of course, will consider Fidel and the Cuban governments offer
of 1,100 doctors strictly political.  Of course, there may be some
politics involved; but, those Democratic and Republican and other
so-called "American" cynics ought to look at Cuba's record.  They have a
45 year history of offering doctors to the poor in poor countries,
especially Africa and Latin America.  This is in addition to the free
medical school they have provided for Africans for decades and for Latin
American especially the last six years.  And, of course, there are two
Minnesota students studying free in Cuba and over 70 from the US.  It is
important to note that Cuba is NOT a capitalist state.  They are a country
of another way of thinking that puts human capital before money capital.
I say: America - watch, listen and LEARN.

Sri Lanka was also extremely appreciative of Cuba sending doctors there
when the tsunami hit.  While US residents can think only of having
fundraisers and gathering money from the dwindling middle-class here, Cuba
acts with their human capital.  Hint to all of those who think only of
money, money, money - take your efforts, mobilize and force the US
government to use the taxpayers' money - and millions and millions if not
billions - to care for the poor who have been devastated in New Orleans.
--Joan M.

Radio Havana Cuba - Sep 2, 2005
Cuban President Fidel Castro Offers 1,100 Doctors to Aid Victims of
Devastating Hurricane Katrina

Havana, September 2 (RHC)-Cuban President Fidel Castro has announced that
100 doctors are ready to leave early Saturday morning to Houston, Texas to
assist the victims of devastating Hurricane Katrina.

A second group of 500 Cuban doctors are also ready to depart to the US on
Saturday afternoon and a third of 500 specialists Sunday morning with 24
kilograms each of medication and the necessary resources to assist emergency
situations.

The 1100 medical specialists have international experience and knowledge of
Basic English to assist the patients that have been seriously affected by
the powerful hurricane, said the Cuban Head of State.

The Cuban President is informing the population on the current situation in
the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama according to information
reported by different main stream media.

President Fidel Castro announced that the Government sent a letter of
condolences to the family of the victims of Hurricane Katrina on August 30th
through diplomatic channels. The Cuban Parliament also sent their
condolences on Wednesday to the relatives of the victims of the powerful
hurricane that has devastated Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

Hurricane Katrina hit Florida on August 25th, went to the Gulf of Mexico
gathered strength and later entered Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama with
Category 4.

There are currently over 50 thousand people that have lost their homes and
belongings. There is still no official figure of people dead or material
damage.

Also present on Friday's Round Table is Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque and other government officials.

--
sent by Walter Lippmann
Cuba-L - Sep 2, 2005

Fidel Castro Offer Turned Down by U.S. State Department

[Cuba-L has learned, unofficially, that the US State Department has
rejected the Cuban offer to send up to 1,100 Cuban doctors within the next
48 hours to the area where hurricane Katrina struck.]


--------6 of 14--------

The Politics of Displacement
Will the "New" New Orleans be Black?
By GLEN FORD
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

One of the premiere Black cities in the nation faces catastrophe. There is
no doubt in my mind that New Orleans will one day rise again from its
below sea level foundations. The question is, will the new New Orleans
remain the two-thirds Black city it was before the levees crumbled?

Some would say it is unseemly to speak of politics and race in the
presence of a massive calamity that has destroyed the lives and prospects
of so many people from all backgrounds. But I beg to differ. As we have
witnessed, over and over again, the rich and powerful are very quick to
reward themselves as soon as disaster presents the opportunity.

Remember that within days of 9/11, the Bush regime executed a
multi-billion dollar bailout for the airline industry. By the time you
hear this commentary, they may have already used the New Orleans disaster
to bail out the insurance industry  one of the richest businesses on the
planet. But what of the people of New Orleans, 67 percent of whom are
Black?

New Orleans is a poor city. Twenty-eight percent of the population lives
below the poverty line. Well over half are renters, and the median value
of homes occupied by owners is only $87,000.

>From the early days of the flood, it was clear that much of the city's
housing stock would be irredeemably damaged. The insurance industry may
get a windfall of federal relief, but the minority of New Orleans home
owners will get very little  even if they are insured. The renting
majority may get nothing.

If the catastrophe in New Orleans reaches the apocalyptic dimensions
towards which it appears to be headed, there will be massive displacement
of the Black and poor. Poor people cannot afford to hang around on the
fringes of a city until the powers-that-be come up with a plan to
accommodate them back to the jurisdiction.

And we all know that the prevailing model for urban development is to get
rid of poor people. The disaster provides an opportunity to deploy this
model in New Orleans on a citywide scale, under the guise of rebuilding
the city and its infrastructure.

In place of the jobs that have been washed away, there could be
alternative employment through a huge, federally funded rebuilding effort.
But this is George Bush's federal government. Does anyone believe that the
Bush men would mandate that priority employment go to the pre-flood,
mostly Black population of the city. And the Black mayor of New Orleans is
a Democrat in name only, a rich businessman, no friend of the poor.

What we may see in the coming months is a massive displacement of Black
New Orleans, to the four corners of the nation. The question that we must
pose, repeatedly and in the strongest terms, is: Through whose vision, and
in whose interest, will New Orleans rise again.

Glen Ford is Co-Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Black Commentator,
where this editorial originally appeared.


--------7 of 14--------

Flood of Fools
Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead
By HARVEY WASSERMAN
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

George W. Bush is in New Orleans today to deliver a clear and unmistakable
message: Drop Dead.

Little in our history can match his administration's astounding
non-response to this excruciating human catastrophe.

Before Katrina, even Bush's harshest critics might have found non-credible
his leaving tens of thousands of American citizens to suffer and die in
utterly gratuitous squalor, disease, hunger and thirst.

Taxpaying American citizens are dying in the heart of a great city because
their government can't be bothered to get them clean water. Or a bed. Or
to a hospital.

The weather has been clear since Katrina passed. Bush commands the world's
most advanced armada of land, sea and airborne vehicles. The resources to
save our brothers and sisters are readily available.

But we see our elders, black and white, sitting confused and in pain,
dying of heat and thirst and utter neglect in clear, sunny weather while
the President of the United States babbles aimlessly and the Secretary of
State shops for shoes.

We see babies by the dozen dying of dehydration and hunger where there is
no war and no storm, only incompetence and contempt.

Global warming caused this storm. And there are no secrets about the
corruption and stupidity that weakened New Orleans's earthen defenses and
opened the floodgates.

The Bush junta slashed funds for levees, let the wetlands be drained, let
the developers rape and pillage. It assaulted those who warned the city
would be laid bare to the storms everyone knew would come.

But even from this unelected gang of thugs and thieves, the horrifying
abandonment of New Orleans has taken things to a new level.

Amidst a dire crisis, American citizens put their trust in the government.
They walked into the Superdome. And they were utterly, cynically
abandoned. No food. No water. No emergency electricity. No organized
evacuation. No cleaning of the bathrooms. No disinfectants for the hot,
damp, stinking stadium. No provisions for fresh clothing. No medical care
for the elderly. No formula for the babies. No sanitary facilities for
pregnant women. No insulin for diabetics. No injections for the sick. No
policing. No leadership. No airlift of doctors, nurses, EMTs,
psychologists, medicines.nothing!

Only a big, empty vacuum, the ultimate symbol of an administration with
absolutely nothing in its head or heart.

That the federal government has utterly failed in these lethal days is
universally obvious.

Is it because so many of these people are black and poor? Is it because
Bush has successfully stolen a second term and just doesn't care? Is it
because this gouged and battered organization that was once our government
has been so thoroughly exhausted by war and corruption that it cannot or
will not manage so basic a task as bringing the necessities of life to its
needlessly dying citizens?

Fox News and macho fools like Haley Barbour, the corrupt and inept
Republican governor of Mississippi, will rant endlessly about a few
looters and the shot that may or may not have been fired at rescue
helicopters. We will see endless footage of the African- American family
arrested for "stealing" a car so they could escape and live.

But to hear of dead bodies being stacked outside a professional football
stadium to avoid further stench where ten thousand Americans can't get
water, food or sanitary facilities. To see dazed elders who've just lost
their homes or hospital rooms being laid on sidewalks to die. To watch
crying children stretched out on the ground, separated from their parents,
dehydrated, overheated, starving....this is too much to bear.

How utterly can our nation have failed? How totally bankrupt can we be?

As we mourn our most colorful city, the home of our truest American music,
and of so much gorgeous history and culture - we are heartsick and
disgraced.

These global-warmed hurricanes will be coming again and again.

And with this ghastly Bush crew, soul-killing scenes like these will
define our nation.

Harvey Wasserman is co-author, with Bob Fitrakis, of How the GOP Stole
America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008, and author of Harvey
Wasserman's History of the U.S.


---------8 of 14---------

Directing Katrina Money to Pat Robertson
Faith-Based FEMA?
By CounterPunch Wire
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

The national Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to immediately remove "Operation
Blessing" from its list of endorsed charities to donate cash to for
victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Houston, Texas September 1, 2005 -- Thousands of hurricane Katrina
survivors from New Orleans are bussed to refuge at a Red Cross shelter in
the Houston Astrodome.

Operation Blessing, an evangelical Christian charity, was founded by Rev.
Pat ("take him out") Robertson. Robertson still serves on its national
board.

Operation Blessing is given a place of prominence at the FEMA website.
Operation Blessing appears third on a list of charities overwhelmingly
dominated by religious groups.

The governmental endorsement of Operation Blessing has been a media boon
for the Christian group, with wire services, newspapers, television and
other media widely publicizing FEMA's promotion of it.

Operation Blessing describes its mission as seeking "to exemplify
Christian compassion and benevolence while conforming to the highest
standards of integrity."

Surely, before FEMA refers citizens to Operation Blessing, it should
expect that a board "conforming to the highest standards of integrity"
would have long ago expelled Pat Robertson.

Rev. Robertson has deeply shamed the country by his notorious suggestion
that the United States ought to assassinate Venezuelan president Hugo
Chavez. This unforgivable remark is just the latest in a long string of
embarrassing and outlandish pronouncements, such as his 2003 suggestion
that "maybe we need a very small nuke thrown" at State Department offices.

While the secular American Red Cross is deservedly first on the list of
FEMA-endorsed charities, followed by the secular America's Second Harvest,
there appear to be only two other groups of the list of 21 charities which
are secular.

The American Red Cross has a Congressional charter to provide assistance
to victims of catastrophes. It does not care if recipients are Baptists,
Hindus or atheists. Its mission is solely "to provide relief to victims of
disasters and help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to
emergencies" and it does not proselytize victims.

By contrast, Operation Blessing, which was founded by evangelist Robertson
in 1978, boasts a fundamentalist Christian Statement of Faith. Any
assistance which it may provide has the agenda of promoting the bible,
belief in the trinity, the imminent return of Jesus Christ, and worldwide
evangelization.

While FEMA might certainly include a sentence encouraging U.S. citizens to
give to the charities of their choice, FEMA swims into dangerous waters
when it starts selecting some denominational charities, while leaving out
others. FEMA appears to be using its governmental power and prestige to
endorse some religions and ignore others.

Most egregiously, FEMA's list overwhelmingly endorses religious over
secular charities.

Believers are free to give to the churches and religious agencies of their
choice, but it is not appropriate for our federal government to be telling
them to do so. Should we not be donating as Americans to help other
Americans, regardless of faith or lack of faith?

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which has donated to American Red
Cross 2005 Hurricane Season Relief, reiterates its advice that
freethinkers and the public donate to the secular Red Cross, which is in
the stricken areas, does not ask recipients their religion or pray at them
while giving them help, and has the massive operation necessary to provide
practical assistance.

Read the Freedom From Religion Foundation's letter to FEMA.

Complain! Contact FEMA:

Michael D. Brown
Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness & Response
FEMA
500 C St, SW
Washington DC 20172
1-800-621-FEMA
1-202-464-3900

The Department of Homeland Security (which FEMA is part of) has an
indirect way to email comments:

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/contactus


--------9 of 14--------

Katrina, Iraq and Blood Profits
Six Feet High and Risin'
By RON JACOBS
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

Beside the fact that the closing guitar riff from Led Zeppelin's song
"When the Levee Breaks" keeps running through my head, there is the very
real possibility (as mentioned by the editors of Counterpunch in its
August 31, 2005 edition) that the unfolding tragedy in New Orleans and
Mississippi may wake up the people of the United States to the fact that
the only people in the world who seem to be doing exceptionally well are
those who run the energy industry. No matter what happens in Iraq, they
make more and more money. No matter what happens in Louisiana, they make
more and more money. No matter what the people think and say as they fill
up their vehicles at the gas pumps, they make more and more money.

How much more money are they Making? Well, let's see: On July 31, 2005
ExxonMobil reported a second quarter profits that were a forty percent
increase over its second quarter profits of the year before; Shell saw a
similar percentage increase (43%0, and Chevron saw an 11% increase. All of
these profits were in spite of no increased production of oil. Indeed,
both Shell and Chevron saw a fall in production from the second quarter of
2004. Meanwhile, the recently passed energy bill gave away millions upon
millions of tax cuts and incentives to these very same corporations.

The topic of conversation on the Asheville city bus today was two-fold.
Iraq and Katrina. Young and old, black-skinned and white-skinned, male and
female, it didn't matter. Being closer to the areas hit by Katrina than
those in the US's media centers, there is a very real sense of tragedy
here. Indeed, many of these folks got hit by last year's round robin of
hurricanes and many of them have people in Mississippi and Louisiana. One
older African-American woman was telling a friend of hers (who looked like
Johnny Cash in his later years) that her daughter was heading back to Iraq
on September 2nd and that her son-in-law was already in Afghanistan. So,
she continued, they were going to cook up both fish and chicken and he was
invited to come on by. He said he would bring some beer for the adults and
soda for her grandkids and those who didn't drink the good stuff. Then,
out of nowhere he said he wished that jerk in the White House would just
get all of them troops out of Iraq and send them to Louisiana and
Mississippi where they could do some good.. That comment did not meet with
a single argument from anyone on the bus. Grandma, who will be watching
her grandkids while their parents serve in Bush's wars, pointed out that
if there weren't so many National Guard and reservists in Iraq and
elsewhere, they would have been able to use them servicemen and women to
get all of the poor people out of Louisiana before the levee broke.

"You notice," piped in a twenty-something woman coming back from her job
at Burger King, "that most of them rich people all got out. " It weren't,"
she continued, "the casino owners in Biloxi who got killed. It was the
people who clean them damn things."

This was when the guy who looked like Johnny Cash broke back into the
conversation: "That SOB Bush was never in no war. He don't care about the
soldiers, mostly 'cause they poor. I don't wish his children would have to
go over there 'cause I'm a Christian, but he needs to get all of them boys
and girls back here now."

The bus stopped to pick up a passenger at a stop by a gas station. I
pointed out that the man who worked there was putting up a new price.
Someone else joked that he might as well just keep his ladder out there by
his sign because the prices were gonna' keep on going up.

"After all," continued the speaker, a young guy wearing a Braves baseball
cap, "they were twenty cents cheaper the day before yesterday. My
girlfriend and I just parked our damn car and decided we was gonna' ride
the bus for now."

Of course, sooner or later the bus prices will go up because the
semi-private company that runs the system won't be able to afford its
costs and we all know that in this great country the government doesn't
like to subsidize public transportation Only war and the corporations it
serves.

I'd seen the guy who got on the bus at the gas station before. He is an
old hippie guy who bent my ear one afternoon while I sat on a bench in
downtown Asheville. A veteran of Vietnam, he noticed my US OUT OF IRAQ NOW
pin on my daypack and told me that he agreed one hundred percent. Then he
told me that the only reason the war was going the way it was was so that
the people who make money off of war and oil could make as much money as
possible. If they wanted to get rid of Saddam or whatever their excuse
was, they could have done that in a week. Sooner or later, he continued,
the American people would get tired of it and they would have to stop this
pissant war. But until then, they were going to reap in the profits, no
matter how many poor people got themselves killed.

"That," he said, "is what happens when you got rich people who never been
nothing but rich people running your country."

What could I do but agree. And wonder when the levee that's been
protecting those people running the country is gonna' break.

* * *
The television news coverage has become angrier in the past twenty four
hours. Instead of their usual impassiveness or overwrought emotionalism,
the talking heads and reporters on the three older networks (CBS, NBC,
ABC) seem to be moving into the role of advocate for the victims of
Katrina. The content and tone of their questions to FEMA and other federal
government officials borders on genuine anger. Echoing those souls living
on the edge of survival in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast,
the news people are demanding answers about the government's callous
inability to perform many basic rescue operations.

Indeed, they have even begun to ask if this callousness is related to the
economic class and skin color of the majority of those doing most of the
suffering. After raising this question in an evening news special Thursday
evening, one of the networks relayed the history of race and class in New
Orleans, telling viewers that back in the flood of 1927, black citizens
were forced to work shoring up the levees, causing several deaths.

"You actually used black people as sandbags back then," Congressman
Jefferson recalled from boyhood memories his father had once shared. "They
took every dangerous job there was to try and beat the water back." (ABC
News Special, 9/1/2005)

Not only has this question been asked in relation to the terminology used
to describe those taking goods from stores-ABC showed two photos of people
doing exactly this, one was of a white skinned couple and another of some
black-skinned folks: the caption under the former explained that the
couple was hungry and had found some food in a store, the second described
the black-skinned folks with groceries as looters-it has also been
presented in relation as to how these people were not given means to leave
the area before the storm.

While there was probably no specific intention to leave these people at
the mercy of nature and predators, the very fact that no means was
provided for them to get out of the storm's path exhibits something
deeper. It exhibits a class divide. Much like many other governmental
mandates, these people were told to do something but were left without the
means to do it. Only those residents with enough money to drive out or pay
for some other means of transportation were actually able to leave the
scene. Of course, the government fails to accept responsibility for this
negligence, choosing instead to issue cheap promises backed up with
nervous men with guns. Indeed, they probably don't even understand that
their failure to provide these people with a means to leave is a crime, so
far removed are they from the world of those US residents who live one
paycheck away from the homeless shelter.

The words of my fellow bus rider bear repeating.

"That," he said, "is what happens when you got rich people who never been
nothing but rich people running your country."

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather
Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill
Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music, art and
sex, Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached at: ron05401 [at] yahoo.com


--------10 of 14--------

Blame It on the Looters
How Bush Deals with a Disaster He Helped Create
By MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

The full force of the Bush catastrophe is finally beginning to be felt.
Currently, New Orleans is flooded with tons of chemical contaminants and
hydrocarbons "that will continue to poison the Gulf of Mexico for more
than a decade". (Democracy Now) An official from the Environmental
Protection Agency told the Washington Post, "This is the worst case....
There's not enough money in the Gross National Product of the United
States to dispose of the amount of hazardous material in this area."

Could the tragedy have been avoided?

What might have happened if the Bush Administration hadn't ordered the
"steepest reduction in hurricane-and-flood control funding for New Orleans
in history?" (Will Bunch "Why the Levee Broke")

Despite the constant warnings from SELA (Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood
Control Project) Bush elected to under-fund the Lake Pontchartrain levee
project by nearly 80%. Of the $20 million the project required, the Bush
administration only provided a paltry $4 million. Now New Orleans is
buried under a 10 foot deep chemical-stew and corpses are reported to be
bobbing atop the storm waters in the poorer neighborhoods.

Welcome to Bush's America; where the uber-rich can expect lavish tax cuts
and the huddled masses get a 3 day lock-up at the Superdome; where the
government redirects desperately-needed resources to the oil wars in
Mesopotamia and entire regions disappear beneath flood-waters at home.

The New Orleans tragedy is America's tragedy; the inevitable victory of
ideology over science; the triumph of greed over reason.

The Bush tax cuts and the skyrocketing costs of the war in Iraq have
brought Falluja to Louisiana; the only difference is that snipers are not
perched atop the buildings shooting the wounded on their way to the
hospital.

As Will Bunch said, "Washington knew exactly what needed to be done to
protect the citizens of New Orleans from disasters like Katrina. Yet
federal funding for Louisiana flood control projects was diverted to pay
for the war in Iraq." The Army Corps of Engineers couldn't complete their
vital work because Bush turned off the spigot while the levees continued
to sink.

The hurricane was unavoidable, but the broken dikes were the work of the
Bush administration.

Bush also played a major role in savaging the wetlands that protect the
surrounding area from the storm surges that result from hurricanes like
Katrina. As Sidney Blumenthal points out, "Every two miles of wetland
between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot." In
2003 Bush allowed developers to destroy the sensitive wetland areas that
buffer the coast; overturning laws that had been in place since his father
was president. It was the equivalent of taking the seat-belts, air bags,
and bumpers off a car and then driving the opposite way on the freeway.
The disaster was just the predictable outcome of dreadfully flawed
policies.

Now, the administration will have to deal with the devastation in New
Orleans like they deal with every other tragedy; by diverting attention
from themselves and by mounting a public relations offensive spearheaded
by the impostor-in chief.

Expect to see Bush in a National Guard jumpsuit; preening before the
adoring media while he condemns the wretched minorities who are picking
through the debris of downtown New Orleans.

The looting is just another Karl Rove red-herring intended to draw
attention from the criminal negligence of the Bush cabal. The 10 ft wave
that marched through New Orleans; devastating everything in its path and
creating a small army of American refugees, originated in Washington.

Don't forget it.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He can be reached at:
fergiewhitney [at] msn.com


--------11 of 14---------

Fend For Yourselves
Baghdad on the Big Muddy
By DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

There is a pattern starting to develop here in the way the Bush
administration deals with urban crises.

Look at New Orleans and at Baghdad.

In both cases, you had a city that was facing imminent destruction - from
a record-breaking hurricane in one case, and a well-planned mass bombing
attack and invasion in the other.

In both cases, it was clear, and experts were warning, that there would be
total destruction of the infrastructure and a need for a well-organized
recovery program or the cities would descend into chaos and anarchy, with
massive loss of life.

In both cases, the administration did nothing.

And in both cases, the cities did in fact descend into an orgy of anarchy,
looting and needless and avoidable death.

We know the record in Baghdad. The Bush administration had American troops
stand idly by as Iraqis - both forces from the defeated regime of the
deposed Saddam Hussein and ordinary citizens - looted museums, stores,
government buildings and schools, only taking steps to restore a semblance
of order after even the outlets had been removed from classroom walls.

Now look at the record in New Orleans.

With meteorologists and climatologists warning for several years that a
warming ocean was making hurricanes stronger, and that it was only a
matter of time before a dike-busting category 5 hurricane would clobber
New Orleans, the Bush administration first overruled development
regulations that were designed to protect the wetlands south of the city
that for centuries worked to blunt the storm surge of these typhoons. Then
it proceeded to cut the federal funding for dike repair and improvement on
the levies that hold the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain out of the
city, most of which is 10-20 feet below sea level. To make matters worse,
the White House didn't only divert dike funding to its Iraq War; it also
diverted a third of Louisiana's National Guard troops, as well as almost
all their amphibious vehicles, which would have proved invaluable at
getting into the flooded area to rescue victims quickly, to the Iraqi
desert. Finally, just as Bush ignored the 9/11 attack warnings and then
dithered about reacting to those attacks, just he and his administration
dithered around and did nothing during the chaos in post-bombing Baghdad,
he waited crucial days before responding to the New Orleans crisis,
actually flying off from his vacation in Crawford, TX to a political rally
in California before heading back to Washington and making a symbolic
fly-by of the stricken city.

Not to justify the orgy of looting that has swept the ruined city of New
Orleans, but just what did federal officials expect to happen? Fully 20
percent of the city's poorest population, mostly black, was left to fend
for itself by emergency management officials. These were people with no
cars and no money for a bus out of town. Had the government reacted to the
approach of Katrina with a massive caravan of military trucks, all these
people, and the patients in the city's charity hospitals, too, could have
been safely evacuated. Food could have been stockpiled out of the city at
military bases and other assembly points to care for the evacuees.

Instead, they were all left to their own devices.

With no food and no water, and no rescue in site, the survivors in New
Orleans did what anyone would do under those circumstances: the went to
the local markets, which were flooded and closed, their food about to rot
or rust away anyhow, and helped themselves.

Is that looting, or is that taking the initiative and surviving? (At the
AP, apparently, it depends upon what race you are. One AP photo, of a
black man wading through waste-deep water with a garbage bag full of food,
described him as having "looted a grocery store." Another AP photo, of two
whites wading through waste-deep water carrying similar bags, referred to
them as "gathering food from a flooded grocery store.")

There are conspiracy theorists who speculate that the Bush administration
and the Pentagon deliberately allowed Baghdad to descend into chaos, in
hopes that this would thoroughly demoralize the Iraqis and make their
subjugation under a government of occupation that much easier.

Perhaps this latest case of federal detachment and delayed response was
also intentional - a way of having a Democratic bastion in the South
self-destruct.

If so, it would be as gross a miscalculation as was the abandonment of
Baghdad. But unlike Baghdad, and the War in Iraq, which have had little
direct, obvious impact on the lives of ordinary Americans (unless they
were are that minority who have relatives in the armed services), the
crisis in New Orleans will affect us all quite dramatically. With
Americans now paying well over $3/gallon for gas and heating oil, posing
the threat of a new economic recession because of those higher energy
prices, and with one of America's grandest cities destroyed and
uninhabitable well into 2006, Hurricane Katrina could prove to be
President Bush's Waterloo. [Oh please may it be so! -ed]

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the
Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of CounterPunch columns
titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press.
Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at
www.thiscantbehappening.net.

He can be reached at: dlindorff [at] yahoo.com


--------12 of 14--------

Frankly, Scarlet I Don't Think He Gives a Damn...
How Good is Your Levee?
By DAVID STOCKER
CounterPunch
September 2, 2005

The most disturbing thing about the disaster in New Orleans after the
reality, is its translatability. Suddenly we are all one with the
dispossessed of Fallujah, the drowning in Baghdad, and the homeless in
Afghanistan. While we can fragment our own national distress, isolate the
looters of darkness from the enlightened who are helping themselves
survive in that watery hell that was New Orleans, we cannot help but feel
that we are all living two feet below sea level with underfunded levees.

Of course, the outcome of the reality should be the downfall of the worst
government in the history of America, maybe in the entire history of
democratic republics. Of course, Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld and Rice should be
tried as war criminals, penalized of all present and future wealth and
sentenced to clean lavatories in a Chinese workcamp. Add to that culpable
crowd, the Big Money oil gas gougers, corporate xenomorphs and insurance
tightwads. All these systems were in place long ago to ensure the upward
flow of money to a few and downward flow of ignorance and desperation to
the rest. That all made it worse when Katrina came in off the Gulf.

Doesn't it make you a little mad to know just how much damage could be
done to an entire American city by just diverting a few million from a
levee project into the war effort, and how many people are dying for want
of the use of a few dozen helicopters presently busy strafing women and
children in Iraq. Our National Guard in the Middle East get to watch CNN
footage of their own families wading through flood waters and see photos
of their own homes destroyed. This didn't have to happen this way.

Do we now see our media for what it is? Helping us get tough to make it
through the opportunistic gas price hikes, focusing on the loss of casinos
before the plight of those too poor to drive their SUVs out of the flood.
Flag waving us off to Iraq, while our own nation lost its soul because red
white and blue sells better than black.

Do we now see who our president truly is? A narcissistic, petulant, greedy
and dangerous fool who hid from national service, drenched himself in
drugs and alcohol, failed time and again in business, found his personal
savior and then found the backing to rise to the role of chief marionette
with an agenda of gutting the last remaining superpower on earth.

Are we so proud? Our Lady Liberty now says, "Watch out or we'll make you
wretched, poor and yearning to breathe free." From a place that stood for
democracy and freedom comes the tiny and unsubstantiated whimper that
"help is on the way to the good folks of" The sound of Bush's voice makes
me feel sick. How might we react differently to 9/11 if humility and real
democracy were anywhere in sight? This government has placed hundreds of
millions of people at unfathomable risk: Americans and Iraqis alike,
Afghans and Israelis, residents of New Orleans, Najaf, Nairobi and
Naperville. Meanwhile from the same events, elected individuals within
this government have secured personal fortunes of an astronomical scale.

In economics there is the concept of opportunity cost. That could be
likened to what Robert Frost called the "road not taken" The story of New
Orleans just might have gone differently if officials there had managed to
be heard and if even another $20 million had been put into the levees. For
a window on the Bush legacy, multiply the story of New Orleans as many
times as you can up to the $150 billion cost of this war. How many
peoples' lives could have been changed for good if this money had been
spent loving life. Can we stop it now?

Shame on President Bush, shame on a Congress duped into war, bought and
paid for by special interests, shame on industry whose global warming
(just a theory, like evolution. Right?)..aims to make this planet
uninhabitable.

What would it take for you? Maybe a catastrophic or even a minor health
issue, maybe just a few weeks of lay-off, maybe a car accident or even a
dead battery. Maybe a stock failure, a marriage failure, maybe a gas price
hike, maybe a school closing, a base closing, a factory closing. Maybe the
loss of a sector, a city or a soul.

We are all two feet below sea level, levee broke and water rising.
So how good is your levee? Mine sucks.

David Stocker is a freelance writer, State of Illinois Artist in Residence
and co creator of ONE DRUM, a medicine band. He can be reached at:
DIJERIDOO [at] aol.com


--------13 of 14---------

Published on Friday, September 2, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Two Americas: Sink or Swim
by Laura Flanders

Closing thoughts from today's Your Call on KALW-FM, 91.7 in San Francisco:

Hurricane Katrina is probably the worst disaster to hit our country in
over a century. Its waters have covered streets and sidewalks and schools
and homes and stores. Perhaps five million people are homeless, without
access to healthcare, clean food and water, relief. Katrina's covered not
just one city - New Orleans - but several, and it's taken no doubt
thousands of lives.

As much as the storm waters have covered, they have uncovered something
too. The reality that there are two Americas, or at least two: those who
can escape disaster and those who can't. The people left behind in
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, those stranded on their rooves, the
waters have been rising around those of us who are poor, and weak,
disproportionately black and treated as dispensable - the waters have been
rising around those of us for a while.

While those who could, long ago left for higher ground, the levees around
the rest of us have been sinking in plain sight for years. Access to
healthcare, housing, relief, clean air and water, Katrina's made what we
have made - a sink or swim society - very literal, very clear.

The Census Bureau's statistics tell it for the umpteenth time. For the
fifth straight year, only the top 5 percent of Americans have been
thriving; incomes and resources for the other 95 percent have been flat or
on the decline. There are shameless looters in New Orleans but the most
shameless are the ones with the most power. The policy makers who have
looted our treasury to help a few at the expense of the rest, and the
polluters who are willing to loot mother nature to make a buck. Local
National Guard are serving in a President's war of choice. People in
trouble need them here.

What's next. Not a return to normal. I hope. We need better. The promise
of equal protection demands not just shipped in relief, but a shift in
priorities - and that will take all the Americas to work as one.

Laura Flanders is the host of "The Laura Flanders Show" heard weekends,
7-10 pm on the new Air America Radio network. Weekdays, you can hear on
"Your Call" on public radio, KALW, 91.7 fm in San Francisco and on the
internet.


--------14 of 14--------

 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW
 BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH
 OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT
 NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW BUSH OUT NOW

 (This is the version for the hard of hearing)

 (The previous version has been unfairly quoted out of context. "bush out
now" is all they quoted, whereas any perceptive person (such as yourself)
can plainly see that the context - "bush out now" preceding, and "bush out
now" following, not just once but in principle infinitely - supplies the
fundamental mantra-aura that tips the will to action.)

Ideally, you will make a Mobius strip covered with our three words, over
and over, end to end, and travel it with your eyes, endlessly, until you
join, zombie-like, millions of others converging on the White House,
sweeping our inglorious misleader on and out on the crest of an
irresisitible human wave.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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